The principle that underlies all rhetorical rules is (as has been hinted more than once in the foregoing pages) the principle of all art, the principle of unity in design conjoined with manifold variety in expression. Unity with variety. "A great author," says Cardinal Newman, "is not one who merely has a copia verborum, whether in prose or verse, and can, as it were, turn on at his will any number of splendid phrases and swelling sentences; but he is one who has something to say and knows how to say it. "He writes passionately, because he feels keenly; forcibly, because he conceives vividly; he sees too clearly to be vague; he is too serious to be otiose; he can analyze his subject, and therefore he is rich; he embraces it as a whole and in its parts, and therefore he is consistent; he has a firm hold of it, and therefore he is luminous.1 When his imagination wells up, it overflows in ornament; when his heart is touched, it thrills along his verse. He always has the right word for the right idea, and never a word too much. If he is brief, it is because few words suffice; when he is lavish of them, still each word has its mark, and aids, not embarrasses, the vigorous march of his elocution.” 2 Not that a writer should expect to be the "perfectlyendowed man" of whom Mr. Herbert Spencer dreams. "To have a specific style," says Mr. Spencer, "is to be poor in speech;" but to have in no sense and in no degree “a specific style" is to be "faultily faultless," to be devoid of that individuality which is at once the spring and the charm of genius. Emerson teaches a sounder doctrine in giving the "essential caution to young writers, that they shall not in their discourse leave out the one thing which See page 1 Another instance of several short sentences united in one. 212. 2 Cardinal Newman: The Idea of a University; University Subjects, Literature. 3 The Philosophy of Style. the discourse was written to say," but shall each " obey his "native bias." "To each his own method, style, wit, eloquence.' "1 "in each rank of fruits, as in each rank of masters, one is endowed with one virtue, and another with another; their glory is their dissimilarity, and they who propose to themselves in the training of an artist that he should unite the colouring of Tintoret, the finish of Albert Dürer, and the tenderness of Correggio, are no wiser than a horticulturist would be, who made it the object of his labour to produce a fruit which should unite in itself the lusciousness of the grape, the crispness of the nut, and the fragrance of the pine." 2 If Thackeray had published his "Roundabout Papers' a little later, he might be supposed to have had Mr. Spencer's "perfectly-endowed man" in mind while writing the following paragraph: "And this, I must tell you, was to have been a rare Roundabout performance one of the very best that has ever appeared in this series. It was to have contained all the deep pathos of Addison; the logical precision of Rabelais; the childlike playfulness of Swift; the manly stoicism of Sterne; the metaphysical depth of Goldsmith; the blushing modesty of Fielding; the epigrammatic terseness of Walter Scott; the uproarious humour of Sam Richardson; and the gay simplicity of Sam Johnson; it was to have combined all these qualities, with some excellences of modern writers whom I could name: but circumstances have occurred which have rendered this Roundabout Essay also impossible." 8 If Shakspere approaches Mr. Spencer's ideal, it is because he speaks through many voices; but even Shakspere, when he ceases to be Iago or Juliet, shows traces of "a specific style." 1 Emerson: Letters and Social Aims; Greatness. 2 Ruskin: Modern Painters, vol. iii. part iv. chap. iii. 8 Thackeray Roundabout Papers; On Two Roundabout Papers which I intended to Write. The unity which every young writer should seek is not the unity of perfection, but the unity which comes from the conception of a discourse as a whole, and from the harmonious arrangement of the parts in conformity with that conception. Every composition that he writes should be "a body, not a mere collection of members,"1- a living body. Its life must come partly from the writer's natural qualities, and partly from his acquired resources whether of matter or of language. Familiarity with good authors will stimulate his powers of expression, and constant practice under judicious criticism will train them. A writer should interest his readers. Whatever a writer's materials, whatever his gifts, he must, if he hopes to be read, awaken interest at the beginning and hold it to the end. Unless he succeeds in doing this, his work, whatever its merits in other respects, fails, as a picture fails which nobody cares to look at, or a sonata which nobody cares to hear. A student of composition can receive no higher praise from his teacher than this: "I enjoyed reading your essay." 1 Non solum composita oratio, sed etiam continua. - Quintilian Inst Orator. vii. x. xvii. PART II. KINDS OF COMPOSITION. FOUR KINDS DISCRIMINATED. THUS far we have discussed the general principle that apply in varying degrees to all kinds of composition: we have now to consider the special principles that apply to each kind. The four kinds of composition that seem to require separate treatment are: DESCRIPTION, which deals with persons or things; NARRATION, which deals with acts or events; EXPOSITION, which deals with whatever admits of analysis or requires explanation; ARGUMENT, which deals with any material that may be used to convince the understanding or to affect the will. The purpose of description is to bring before the mind of the reader persons or things as they appear to the writer. The purpose of narration is to tell a story. The purpose of exposition is to make the matter in hand more definite. The purpose of argument is to influence opinion or action, or both. In theory these kinds of composition are distinct, but in practice two or more of them are usually combined. Description readily runs into narration, and narration |