long one you lose in clearness; you lose in honest expression of your meaning; and, in the estimation of all men who are qualified to judge, you lose in reputation for ability. The only true way to shine, even in this false world, is to be modest and unassuming. Falsehood may be a very thick crust, but in the course of time truth will find a place to break through. Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us, but simplicity and straightforwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferiors, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer. Be what you say; and, within the rules of prudence, say what you are.”Dean Alford. "Go critically over what you have written, and strike out every word, phrase, and clause which [that] it is found will leave the sentence neither less clear nor less forcible than it is with them."-Swinton. "With all watchfulness, it is astonishing what slips are made, even by good writers, in the employment of an inappropriate word. In Gibbon's Rise and Fall the following instance occurs: 'Of nineteen tyrants who started up after the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace or a natural death.' And not long since a worthy Scotch minister, at the close of the services, intimated his intention of visiting some of his people as follows: 'I intend during this week to visit in Mr. M's district, and will on this occasion take the opportunity of embracing all the servants in the district.' When worthies such as these offend, who shall call the bellman in question as he cries, Lost, a silver-handled silk lady's parasol'? "The proper arrangement of words into sentences and paragraphs gives clearness and strength. To attain a clear and pithy style, it may be necessary to cut down, to re arrange, and to rewrite whole passages of an essay. Gibbon wrote his Memoirs six times, and the first chapter of his History three times. Beginners are always slow to prune or cast away any thought or expression which may have cost labor. They forget that brevity is no sign of thoughtlessness. Much consideration is needed to compress the details of any subject into small compass. Essences are more difficult to prepare, and therefore more valuable, than weak solutions. Pliny wrote to one of his friends, 'I have not time to write you a short letter, therefore I have written you a long one.' Apparent elaborateness is always distasteful and weak. Vividness and strength are the product of an easy command of those small trenchant Saxon monosyllables which abound in the English language."-Leisure Hour. 66 'As a rule, the student will do well to banish for the present all thought of ornament or elegance, and to aim only at expressing himself plainly and clearly. The best ornament is always that which comes unsought. Let him not beat about the bush, but go straight to the point. Let him remember that what is written is meant to be read; that time is short; and that, other things being equal, the fewer words the better. . Repetition is a far less serious fault than obscurity. Young writers are often unduly afraid of repeating the same word, and require to be reminded that it is always better to use the right word over again than to replace it by [with] a wrong one-and a word which is liable to be misunderstood is a wrong one. A frank repetition of a word sometimes has even a kind of charm-as bearing the stamp of truth, the foundation of all excellence of style."-Hall. "A young writer is afraid to be simple; he has no faith in beauty unadorned, hence he crowds his sentences with superlatives. In his estimation turgidity passes for eloquence, and simplicity is but another name for that which is weak and unmeaning."-George Washington Moon. Hit. The using of this word in the sense of success is incompatible with dignified diction; it is, at the best, but one remove from slang. "He Instead of "He made a great hit," say rather, was very successful," if this is the thought intended. In the sentence, "The speaker made some capital hits," the sense is quite different. Honorable. See REVERend. How. "I have heard how, in Italy, one is beset on all sides by beggars"; read, "heard that." "I have heard how some critics have been pacified with claret and a supper, and others laid asleep with soft notes of flattery.”—Dr. Johnson. The how in this sentence also should be that. How means the manner in which. We may therefore say, "I have heard how he went about it to circumvent you." "And it is good judgment alone can dictate how far to proceed in it and when to stop." Cobbett comments on this sentence in this wise: "Dr. Watts is speaking here of writing. In such a case an adverb, like how far, expressive of longitudinal space, introduces a rhetorical figure; for the plain meaning is, that judgment will dictate how much to write on it, and not how far to proceed in it. The figure, however, is very proper, and much better than the literal words. But when a figure is begun it should be carried on throughout, which is not the case here; for the doctor begins with a figure of longitudinal space and ends with a figure of time. It should have been, where to stop; or, how long to proceed in it and when to stop. To tell a man how far he is to go into the western countries of America and when he is to stop, is a very different thing from telling him how far he is to go and where he is to stop. I have dwelt thus on this distinction for the purpose of putting you on the watch and guarding you against confounding figures. The less you use them the better, till you understand more about them." NOTE.-The alone in the first line of the paragraph above is misused. The meaning is: The only thing that can dictate in the matter is good judgment. We could not say, 'the alone thing.' If alone were correct, then the meaning would be: Judgment unaided—i. e., alone can dictate in the matter. The relative, being in the nominative, must not be omitted. Dr. Watts, then, should have written: "And it is good judgment only that can dictate," etc. However. However learned one may be, there is a limit to one's knowledge." Here the word is properly used, but it is not properly used in a sentence such as this: "However could you tell such a story!" Properly, "How could you ever," etc. Humanitarianism. This word, in its original, theological sense, means the doctrine that denies the Godhead of Jesus Christ, and avers that he was possessed of a human nature only; a humanitarian, therefore, in the theological sense, is one that believes this doctrine. The word and its derivatives, however, nowadays, both in this country and in England, are most used in a humane, philanthropic sense; thus, “The audience enthusiastically indorsed [applauded?] the humanitarianism of his eloquent discourse."-Hatton. Hung. See HANGED. Hurry. Though widely different in meaning, both the verb and the noun hurry are continually used for haste and hasten. Hurry implies not only haste, but haste with confusion, flurry; while haste implies only rapidity of action, an eager desire to make progress, and, unlike hurry, is not incompatible with deliberation and dignity. It is often wise to hasten in the affairs of life; but, as it is never wise to proceed without forethought and method, it is never wise to hurry. Sensible people, then, may be often in haste but are never in a hurry; and we tell others to make haste, and not to hurry up. If you do not hurry [hasten] you will not arrive in time." Though I am in a great hurry [great haste], I can not let the opportunity slip to let you know," etc. 66 The aldermen are in no hurry [haste] to revive street music."-N. Y. Sun. Hyperbole. The magnifying of things beyond their natural limits is called hyperbole. Language that signifies, literally, more than the exact truth, more than is really intended to be represented, by which a thing is represented greater or less, better or worse, than it really is, is said to be hyperbolical. Hyperbole is exaggeration. "Our common forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles."-Blair. Some examples are the following. "Rivers of blood and hills of slain." "They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions." “The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, "I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice; his spear, the blasted fir; his shield, the rising moon: he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on a hill." Ice cream-Ice water. As for ice cream, there is no such thing, as ice cream would be the product of frozen |