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fewer and feebler a man's thoughts are, the more excessive will be his tendency to the use of superlatives. The man who knows that his credibility deserves to be suspected, always attempts to confirm the statement of a fact by some asseveration. According to the same law of mind, he whose conceptions are faint and indistinct, expects to render the expression of them forcible, by the aid of intensives. It is not aside from my purpose to say, that the extravagant system of titles and eulogies which has prevailed in the world, is accounted for on this principle. When Moses addresses or describes the Father of the Universe, we are struck into awe by the simple majesty of the appellations, Jehovah, I am. But a poor worm that occupies a momentary throne, seeks to conceal his littleness under the pomp of multiplied titles, of which it is often hard to say which is the most conspicuous, the insignificance or the impiety.

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The Saviour of the world, whose character was perfect; and the twelve Apostles, who exhibited an assemblage of excellence, such as the world has not since witnessed, are described, as you know, in the gospels, without a single epithet of praise. Next to the dignity and strength of the sacred writings in this respect, the finest examples are presented in the writings of the ancient Greeks. Xenophon in his Cyropaedia, does not once say that Cyrus was an admirable man: but throughout the work, he makes us admire him." But let a weak writer attempt to describe a good character, and he overwhelms you with epithets. All is lofty and magnificent. Because common words are too tame to suit his style of elevated encomium, he resorts to superlatives and intensives. And if you get a glimpse of the character described, through the superabundant drapery of the description, you perceive only that it is not the character of a man.*

To this redundancy of epithets, in whatever kind of composition it is found, the sarcastic couplet of Pope was intended to apply:

*See a good passage on turgid style; Foster's Essays, Andover Ed. pp. 203-4.

"Words are like leaves, and where they most abound

Much fruit of sense beneath, is rarely found.”

In this connexion may be mentioned a quality which too often characterizes and debilitates our pulpit style; viz. the connecting of certain words so that when one is uttered, you expect the rest of course. As examples of this careless and customary association, I might mention-" life and conversation," -"Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor,"" death, judgment, and eternity."*

Another fault to which preachers are peculiarly liable, should not be forgotten: I mean that quality of writing which may be called artificial animation. The whole tribe of cold interjections belong to this description: and so does that languid sort of exclamation, which goes through a page, beginning every sentence; "how wonderful is this! how astonishing !" It is admitted that here is something which resembles warmth; but it resembles not so much the vigor and vital glow of health, as the heat and debility of a fever.

3. In the narrative style especially, there is another fault which I choose to call prolixity.

A feeble writer in this case, renders his description languid by a superfluous and trifling detail. It is the province of good taste to select only those circumstances which are best adapted to the effect, we wish to produce. The great masters of the descriptive and narrative style, such as Homer, Tacitus, and Milton, commonly présent a rapid sketch, rather than a tedious multiplication of particulars. The chief design of this kind of writing however, sometiines requires minuteness in the relation. When Cicero would prove that Milo's encounter with Clodius was unexpected to himself, the exquisite skill of the advocate

* To show how little precision of meaning, the writer commonly has in such cases, I cite an example which amounts to the ludicrous. The writer says, "At the late celebration of independence at FCol. F one of those who fought, bled, and DIED, at Bunker Hill, walked alone in the procession, and wore the same dress which he wore at that memorable occasion." Rhetoric which raises the dead is a rarity, even on the 4th of July.

appears in showing that his client had none of the hurry and perturbation of one who meant to commit murder. "As for Milo, my lords, having been in the Senate house that day, as long as the house continued sitting, he came home, he changed his shoes and robes, he waited for sometime, till his wife, as is usual, got herself ready." When the fancy is addressed, the merit of the execution often depends much on the distinct recapitulation of small circumstances. This is well exemplified by Cowper in his winter morning, where he shows you the cottager with his dog and pipe; by Goldsmith in his deserted village, where you see the aged soldier

"Should'ring his crutch to show how fields were won ;"

and the country schoolmaster, with his little charge around him, of whom the poet says,

"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace

The day's disasters in his morning face."

But in this species of writing, Shakspeare is preeminent. A cold historian, in describing the popular excitement produced by the report of Prince Arthur's death, would have said, “This event occasioned a general agitation, and became the topic of conversation among all classes of people through the country." But put this narrative into the hands of Shakspeare, and he makes the scene live before you. You see the whole community smitten with a common impulse; and little groups of men and women, talking of Arthur's death.

"And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,

And whisper one another in the ear;

And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist.

I saw a smith stand with his hammer thus,

(The whilst his iron did on his anvil cool,)
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news,
Who with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers, (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,)
Told of many thousand warlike French,
That were embattl'd and rank'd in Kent."

I have adduced these examples to show, that the minuteness which often gives vivacity and interest to a narrative, is altogether different from that tedious detail of circumstances, which constitutes the prolixity of a weak writer. And this distinction is not less important to be observed in the style of the Christian preacher, than in that of the poet.

LECTURE VI.

STYLE. BREVITY CONTINUED.

STRENGTH AS DEPENDING ON

GOOD ARRANGEMENT.

We have already inquired how strength of style is promoted by unity and brevity; and under the latter head have considered tautology, the intensive style, and prolixity in narrative. Before we dismiss the consideration of brevity, we must notice a

4th cause of debility, namely, the excess of expletives and connective particles.

By expletives, I mean small words attached to others, which take up room without increasing the sense. The auxiliary do before plural verbs, is always of this character. Pope at once exemplifies and ridicules this fault in the Essay on Criticism;

"While expletives their feeble aid do join,

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line."

It should be remarked, however, that emphasis sometimes makes one of these little words the key of a sentence, and raises it from insignificance to energy; thus,

"Guiltiness

Will speak, though tongues were out of use."

But the strength of style is much more affected by those small words which are employed in connexion and transition. Though these connectives are indispensable in language, they should never be employed when their aid can be dispensed with; or at least when their aid is only an incumbrance. Such a succession

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