The Philosophy of Style | Page 7

of the
clauses and the sequence of the phenomena described, which, by the
way, is a further prerequisite to easy comprehension, and therefore to
effect.
"As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for
prey, Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eye, In hurdled
cotes amid the field secure, Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold;
Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash Of some rich burgher, whose
substantial doors, Cross-barr’d, and bolted fast, fear no assault, In at the
window climbs, or o’er the tiles; So clomb this first grand thief into
God’s fold; So since into his church lewd hirelings climb."
§ 26. The habitual use of sentences in which all or most of the
descriptive and limiting elements precede those described and limited,
gives rise to what is called the inverted style: a title which is, however,
by no means confined to this structure, but is often used where the
order of the words is simply unusual. A more appropriate title would be
the _direct style,_ as contrasted with the other, or _indirect style_: the
peculiarity of the one being, that it conveys each thought into the mind
step by step with little liability to error; and of the other, that it gets the
right thought conceived by a series of approximations.

§ 27. The superiority of the direct over the indirect form of sentence,
implied by the several conclusions that have been drawn, must not,
however, be affirmed without reservation. Though, up to a certain point,
it is well for the qualifying clauses of a period to precede those
qualified; yet, as carrying forward each qualifying clause costs some
mental effort, it follows that when the number of them and the time
they are carried become great, we reach a limit beyond which more is
lost than is gained. Other things equal, the arrangement should be such
that no concrete image shall be suggested until the materials out of
which it is to be made have been presented. And yet, as lately pointed
out, other things equal, the fewer the materials to be held at once, and
the shorter the distance they have to be borne, the better. Hence in some
cases it becomes a question whether most mental effort will be entailed
by the many and long suspensions, or by the correction of successive
misconceptions.
§ 28. This question may sometimes be decided by considering the
capacity of the persons addressed. A greater grasp of mind is required
for the ready comprehension of thoughts expressed in the direct manner,
where the sentences are anywise intricate. To recollect a number of
preliminaries stated in elucidation of a coming idea, and to apply them
all to the formation of it when suggested, demands a good memory and
considerable power of concentration. To one possessing these, the
direct method will mostly seem the best; while to one deficient in them
it will seem the worst. Just as it may cost a strong man less effort to
carry a hundred-weight from place to place at once, than by a stone at a
time; so, to an active mind it may be easier to bear along all the
qualifications of an idea and at once rightly form it when named, than
to first imperfectly conceive such idea and then carry back to it, one by
one, the details and limitations afterwards mentioned. While conversely,
as for a boy, the only possible mode of transferring a hundred-weight,
is that of taking it in portions; so, for a weak mind, the only possible
mode of forming a compound conception may be that of building it up
by carrying separately its several parts.
§ 29. That the indirect method--the method of conveying the meaning
by a series of approximations--is best fitted for the uncultivated, may
indeed be inferred from their habitual use of it. The form of expression
adopted by the savage, as in "Water, give me," is the simplest type of

the approximate arrangement. In pleonasms, which are comparatively
prevalent among the uneducated, the same essential structure is seen; as,
for instance, in--"The men, they were there." Again, the old possessive
case --"The king, his crown," conforms to the like order of thought.
Moreover, the fact that the indirect mode is called the natural one,
implies that it is the one spontaneously employed by the common
people: that is--the one easiest for undisciplined minds.
§ 30. There are many cases, however, in which neither the direct nor
the indirect structure is the best; but where an intermediate structure is
preferable to both. When the number of circumstances and
qualifications to be included in the sentence is great, the most judicious
course is neither to enumerate them all before introducing the idea to
which they belong,