CHAPTER II. NUMBER OF WORDS. A SENTENCE should contain every word that helps to communicate thought or feeling with clearness, force, and ease, but not one word more. The proper NUMBER OF WORDS in a sentence is determined by a great variety of considerations. Trite thoughts on familiar topics admit of briefer expression Conciseness than original ideas. Intelligent persons require relative. less explanation than ignorant ones, not only because of their superior knowledge, but also because of their superior faculty of attention. "Some hearers and readers will be found slow of apprehension indeed, but capable of taking in what is very copiously and gradually explained to them; while others, on the contrary, who are much quicker at catching the sense of what is expressed in a short compass, are incapable of long attention, and are not only wearied, but absolutely bewildered, by a diffuse Style." 2 "We've had a very good sermon this morning,' was the frequent remark, after hearing one of the old yellow series, heard with all the more satisfaction because it had been heard for the twentieth time; for to minds on the Shepperton level it is repeti . 1 See page 89. 2 Whately: Elements of Rhetoric, part iii. chap. i. sect. ii. See also De Quincey: Essay on Style. tion, not novelty, that produces the strongest effect; and phrases, like tunes, are a long time making themselves at home in the brain." 1 Extremes to be avoided. Whatever the subject discussed, whatever the character of the persons addressed, a writer should avoid both diffuseness and excessive conciseness: diffuseness, because the instant a reader perceives the presence of unnecessary words, that instant his attention flags; excessive conciseness, because the mind requires a certain period of time to understand a thought and a still longer period to feel its force. SECTION I CLEARNESS. A sentence which contains too few words for adequate expression may be ungrammatical:2 or it may Too few words. be correct in form but obscure or ambiguous in substance, that is, deficient in CLEARNESS.3 66 The sense may be changed or darkened by the omission of an article. The treasurer and secretary" means one person who holds two offices; "the treasurer and the secretary" means two persons. "A black and white dog" means one parti-colored dog; "a black and a white dog" means two dogs, one black and one white. "The honest and intelligent" are those who are both honest and intelligent; "the honest and the intelligent” are two classes. The following sentences are, therefore, defective: 1 George Eliot: Mr. Gilfil's Love-story, chap. i. 2 See pages 70-72. 8 Supervacua cum taedio dicuntur, necessaria cum periculo subtrahun tur. Quintilian: Inst. Orator. iv. ii. xliv. "The council and synod 1 maintained... that the unity of the person implied not any unity in the consciousness." 2 "His mother had watched over the child, in whom she found alike the charm and consolation of her life." 8 Λ “The reader is requested to note a seeming contradiction in the two views which have been given of Graham Bretton - the public and private - the out-door and the in-door view." 4 л The meaning of a sentence may also be changed or obscured by the omission of a noun, a verb, a preposition, or some other word or words. For example: Λ "It was put as banter, but certainly conveyed that Lady Ermyntrude was neglecting her family."5 her "Marcella smiled, and, laying her hand on Betty's, shyly drew "Yet, to do her justice, laxity of expression did not act upon her conduct and warp that, as it does most mystical speakers." "6 Λ "In this he [Lord Plunket] closely resembled the greatest of advocates in modern times, and second to none of the ancient masters."7 In this sentence, the reader is in doubt whether Lord Brougham means to say that Lord Plunket resembled one who was both the greatest of modern advocates and the equal of the ancient masters, or that he resembled the greatest of modern advocates and was himself the equal of the ancient masters. "If the heroine is depicted as an unlovable character, there is little to be said of Guy's that is at all attractive." 8 Λ If the omitted word were supplied, this sentence would still be faulty because of the use of "character" in two senses. It would be better to say, "If the heroine is depicted as unlovable, there is little to be said of Guy's character," etc. 1 The context shows that the council was one body, the synod another. 2 Hume History of England, vol. i. chap. i. 8 Disraeli: Tancred, book i. chap. ii. 4 Charlotte Brontë: Villette, chap. xix. 5 Mrs. Humphry Ward: Marcella, book iii. chap. xi. 6 Charles Reade: Hard Cash, chap. xxvi. 7 Brougham: Statesmen of the Time of George III.; Lord Plunket. 8 The [London] Spectator (1876). "His political education was due to Jeremy Bentham, whom he edited and admired." 1 The writer of this sentence has made "Jeremy Bentham" stand for both the man and his works. A similar example is : "Piano-forte taught and tuned.” 2 Another false economy is that of omitting the connectives which bind clause to clause, sentence to sentence, and paragraph to paragraph. Judiciously used, these connectives 3 transform a heterogeneous collection of assertions into a composition, a consistent whole, and thus enable the reader to follow a chain of ideas link by link, to perceive what is cause and what consequence, what is principal and what accessory. Strike from a page of any master of reasoning every though, while, hence, accordingly, yet, notwithstanding, for, therefore, on the one hand, on the other hand, now, indeed, and you will be surprised to see how much is taken away. The argument remains, of course, but it is much more difficult to follow. You have shortened the page by a line or two, but you have lengthened the time requisite for its comprehension. The omission of words necessary to the sense or to the construction is more excusable in verse than in prose; Omissions in for in verse rapidity of movement carries the reader over many a hiatus. In prose such omissions as occur in the following passages would not be allowable: verse. "O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal л I served my King, he would not in mine age 1 American newspaper. 2 Placard in a shop-window. 4 Shakspere: Henry VIII., act iii. scene ii. 8 See page 86. Such omissions as poets allow themselves are more excusable in imaginative prose than in didactic; for when prose approaches poetry it may to a limited extent avail itself of this privilege of poetry. To a limited extent only, however; for the compactness and the rapidity of verse cannot be secured in prose. Prose has a compactness and a rapidity of its own, which are not inconsistent with perfect clearness. Obscurity caused by unnecessary words. The presence of unnecessary words, as well as the absence of necessary words, bewilders or fatigues the reader, and makes him lose the meaning in part, if not altogether, in part, if he confines his attention to one of the threads of thought which cross and recross one another; altogether, if he cannot find his way through the tangle. As, however, the fault of multiplying words to no purpose or to worse than no purpose is not only a source of obscurity, but is also and with more serious results a frequent source of weakness, it will be discussed at length in the next section. 1 Browning: The Last Ride Together. 2 Emerson: Ode to Beauty. 8 Ibid. Ode sung in the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857. |