Felicity has much in common with precision, but goes beyond it. What precision is to perspicuity, felicity is to vivacity. It means the choice of the best possible word; but more than this, it requires that the word should have great suggestiveness, so as to impress the mind suddenly, sharply, and permanently. This quality may be found in most of those striking sayings and weighty maxims which are culled from the works of great writers, and quoted from mouth to mouth, till they become common property:

"History is philosophy teaching by examples."-Bolingbroke. “These are the times that try men's souls.”—THOmas Paine.

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"It has all the contortions of the Sibyl, without the inspiration.”—BURKE. 'Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle."-BURKE,

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'The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a state of masterly inactivity."-SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

"It is more than a crime; it is a political blunder."-FOUCHÉ.

"Washington-first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."-HENRY LEE.

"O liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name !"-MADAME ROLAND.

"I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."-CANNING.

"The gratitude of place-expectants is a lively sense of future favors."— SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

"His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.”—Wordsworth.

"But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home."-WORDSWORTH.

§ 246. FAULTS AS OPPOSED TO VIVACITY.

The style may be beneath the level of the subject, or it may be beyond it.

1. When the style is beneath the level of the subject.

Vivacity means life, animation, perpetual variety in the expression, abundant use of all the multifarious changes of manner afforded by the figures of speech, and by other things that have been named.

Sometimes the fault is in the expression.

Monotony is the opposite of vivacity. It arises when the mode of expression is not sufficiently varied. When the writer, for sentence after sentence and page after page, presents his

thoughts in the same fashion, it produces tediousness. If any composition is framed in all its sentences after one unvarying model, the result will be monotony. If all the sentences are direct statements, and are never varied by such figures as interrogation, exclamation, or antithesis, never enlivened by comparison, metaphor, or climax, vivacity is out of the question.

Again, if a writer resorts too much to one particular figure, such as antithesis, or moulds his sentences too much after the same fashion, monotony will follow.

In general, monotony arises when the composition, though clear and correct, and even harmonious, shows no variety; but being pitched upon one commonplace key, remains there. Variety being necessary to stimulate attention, the monotonous writer, however correct, can never be readable.

Another fault consists in the use of expressions that are hackneyed or stale. These terms are applied to figures of speech, particularly tropes, epithets, and comparisons which have been used so often that they have ceased to be effective. To these the term "trite" or "worn out” has also been applied. These have already been sufficiently illustrated under other heads.

Sometimes the fault is in the statement. In this case it assumes various forms, which have been distinguished by different names.

The following are especially worthy of notice:

Frigidity is a cold, unsympathetic manner, in which the writer exhibits no animation whatever. It is usually marked by stiff and formal expressions.

Baldness and dulness are terms used to designate a style which is utterly free from any attempt to enliven.

A heavy style is that in which the sentiments are commonplace, the vocabulary limited yet pretentious, and the whole uninteresting and unreadable.

Jejune means vacant, empty, or void of matter that can engage the attention. It is applied to writings where very ordinary thoughts are expressed in a tedious and lifeless manner.

Meagre is a word that indicates poverty of conception, together with a limited vocabulary. It cannot for a moment be confounded with conciseness, for the latter exhibits few words because their number is purposely limited; but the former is poor in words because the writer has few at his command.

2. The style may be carried beyond the level of the subject. An excess of vivacity leads to another set of faults which, if not worse, are perhaps more marked.

The tendency to inflated expression is injurious to vivacity, because the extravagance is apparent, and fails in its effect. A certain amount of exaggeration is sometimes allowable, as in the figure hyperbole ; but this to be effective should always be sparingly used.

There is a certain inflation of style associated with florid expressions, extravagance of sentiment, familiar confidences, and idle display of feeling in the form of frequent ejaculations. To this the term "gushing" is sometimes given.

A still greater excess of vivacity results in other faults, known as bombast, fustian, bathos, etc.

Bombast was originally applied to a stuff of soft, loose texture, once used to swell the garment. Fustian was also a kind of cloth of stiff expansive character. These terms are applied to a high, swelling style of writing, full of extravagant sentiments and expressions. Bathos is a word which has the same application, meaning generally the mock heroic-that "depth" into which one falls who overleaps the sublime; the step which one makes in order to pass from the sublime to the ridiculous.

"Arrest Simoom, amid thy waste of sand,

The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;
Fierce in blue streams he rides the tainted air,
Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair,

While as he turns, the undulating soil

Rolls in red waves and billowy deserts boil."-DR. DARWIN.

"Should the tempest of war overshadow our land,

Its bolts ne'er could rend Freedom's temple asunder

For unmoved at its portal would Washington stand,

And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder."

Another word has been derived from the tailor, and that is "padding," which means stuffing a coat, but tropically is made to describe the useless filling in of composition. This, however, need not be connected at all with bombast; it may be perfectly simple, literal, and painfully true in its tediousness, yet it is perhaps more frequently associated with bombast than not. It is least faulty when used to create interest; as when a speaker

interlards his argument with themes suited to the popular taste. Digressions are always allowable when not carried too far, but mere padding is a term always used in a contemptuous sense, and is meant to designate a fault.

Analogous to bombast, etc., are such terms as "buncombe," "hifalutin," which have come into use in America. The origin of one of these is given in Wheeler's History of North Carolina:

"Several years ago, in Congress, the member from this district (Buncombe) arose to address the house, without any extraordinary powers in manner or matter to interest the audience. Many members left the hall. Very naively he told those that remained that they might go, too; he should speak for some time, but 'that he was only talking for Buncombe.'"

The following are illustrations:

"We understand it now. The President is impatient to wreak his vengeance on South Carolina. Be it so. Pass your measure, sir! Unchain your tiger! Let loose your war-dogs as soon as you please! I know the people you desire to war on. They await you with unflinching, unshrinking, unblanching firmness."

"You may scoop out the Valley of the Mississippi and bury truth there; you may heap over her grave the Alleghanies, and pile above these the Rocky Mountains-but in vain. After all truth will have her resurrection."

CHAPTER XII.

THE ILLUSTRATIVE STYLE.

§ 247. THE ILLUSTRATIVE STYLE.

IN connection with the subject of vivacity there are certain distinctive styles of writing which are worthy of special attention. The first of these to be considered is the illustrative style.

This name is given to a certain manner of composition where the subject is made clear and attractive by means of illustration. Such a style is usually in the highest degree perspicuous, for the aim of the writer is to make himself understood; and it is also full of persuasiveness, for it is equally his aim to commend his work to the reader. Therefore he spares no pains to make his style agreeable, so that it shall win attention and attract sympathy.

In examining this subject it will be found that there are certain aids of which the writer avails himself, and which accordingly form the chief characteristics of the illustrative style. These are:

1. The statement of general propositions accompanied with particular examples.

1. The illustrative style is sometimes characterized by general statements, with particular examples:

"The clergy were regarded as, on the whole, a plebeian class; and, indeed, for one who made the figure of a gentleman, ten were mere menial servants.. A young Levite-such was the phrase then in use-might be had for his board, a small garret, and ten pounds a year; and might not only perform his own professional functions; might not only be the most patient of butts and listeners; might not only be always ready in fine weather for bowls and in rainy weather for shovel-board; but might also save the expense of a gardener or of a groom. Sometimes the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and sometimes he curried the coach horses. He cast up the farrier's bills. He walked ten miles with a message or a parcel. If he was permitted to dine with the family, he was expected to content himself with the plainest fare. He might fill himself with the corned beef and the carrots; but as soon as the tarts and cheese-cakes made their appearance he quitted his seat, and stood aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast, from a great part of which he had been excluded."-MACAULAY.

The principle of which this is an illustration has already been discussed and explained in connection with the figure exemplum. It only remains to point out in this place the bearing which this passage has on the present subject. The general statement here is that the greater part of the clergy were mere menial servants; and this is explained and maintained by a number of details which in themselves would be deemed trivial, but which, when assembled together and presented as examples, are full of convincing force.

§ 249. ALLUSION.

2. In the following passage the theme is illustrated by means of allusion:

"All human beauty is but skin-deep, and scarcely that.

A little rough