Essays: Moral, Political and ÆstheticD. Appleton., 1873 - 418 páginas |
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absolute morality action Acts of Parliament arrangement asserted Bank Bank of England bankers become belief bills body capital carried cause cent citizens classes companies conclusion consciousness consequence consider constitution contract conviction Corn-Laws demand directors effect efficient Empiricism engineers entail equitable established evils existence experience extension fact fulfil further gained give greater habitually Hence House of Commons idea implies increased interests issue labour law of effect legislation less lines manufacturers means members of Parliament ment mental mercantile mind mode nation nature needful Obermair obtained officers organization Parliament political present principle prisoners produced profits proposition proved question railway reason regulation representative government respect restraint riences scarcely secure sentence shareholders shares Sir William Hamilton social society supposed thing thought tion trade true truth undertakings warrant words zygomatic arches
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Página 11 - On seeking for some clue to the law underlying these current maxims, we may see shadowed forth in many of them the importance of economizing the reader's or hearer's attention. To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is the desideratum towards which most of the rules above quoted point.
Página 29 - Inverting these couplets will be found to diminish the effect considerably. There are cases, however, even where the simile is a simple one, in which it may with advantage be placed last; as in these lines from Alexander Smith's " Life Drama :" — " I see the future stretch All dark and barren as a rainy sea.
Página 15 - This superiority of specific expressions is clearly due to a saving of the effort required to translate words into thoughts. As we do not think in generals but in particulars — as, whenever any class of things is referred to, we represent it to ourselves by calling to mind individual members of it; it follows that when an abstract word is used, the hearer or reader has to choose from his stock of images, one or more, by which he may figure to himself the genus...
Página 10 - And where there exists any mental idiosyncrasy — where there is a deficient verbal memory, or an inadequate sense of logical dependence, or but little perception of order, or a lack of constructive ingenuity ; no amount of instruction will remedy the defect. Nevertheless, some practical result may be expected from a familiarity with the principles of style. The endeavour to conform to laws may tell, though slowly.
Página 21 - Saturn, quiet as a stone, Still as the silence round about his lair; Forest on forest hung about his head Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there, Not so much life as on a summer's day Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass, But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest.
Página 26 - We came to our journey's end, at last, with no small difficulty, after much fatigue, through deep roads, and bad weather.
Página 31 - Unbound," of Shelley, displays the power of the metaphor to great advantage: " Methought among the lawns together We wandered, underneath the young gray dawn, And multitudes of dense white fleecy clouds Were wandering in thick flocks along the mountains Shepherded by the slow unwilling wind.
Página 46 - To have a specific style is to be poor in speech. If we remember that in the far past, men had only nouns and verbs to convey their ideas with, and that from then to now the growth has been towards a greater number of implements of thought, and consequently towards a greater complexity and variety in their combinations ; we may infer that we are now, in our use of sentences, much what the primitive man was in his use of words ; and that a continuance of the process that has hitherto gone on, must...
Página 11 - ... point. When we condemn writing that is wordy, or confused, or intricate ; when we praise this style as easy, and blame that as fatiguing, we consciously or unconsciously assume this desideratum as our standard of judgment...
Página 219 - Arthur would not have had to testify that, in Van Diemen's Land, convicts committed murder for the purpose " of being sent up to Hobart Town for trial, though aware that in the ordinary course they must be executed within a fortnight after arrival...