SECOND GENERAL DIVISION.

STYLE.

GENERAL VIEW.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE NATURE OF STYLE.

§ 241. STYLE is that part of Rhetoric which treats of the expression of thought in language.

No process of art is complete until its product appears in a sensible form; and language is the form in which the art of discourse embodies itself, as sound furnishes the body in the art of music and color in that of painting. Style is, therefore, a necessary part of the art of rhetoric. "Inventio sine elocutione non est oratio." It is not, however, all of the art, just as the laws of sound do not cover the entire province of music, or the principles of coloring exhaust the art of the painter.

Style in its broader import includes all forms of expression, the form of the thought, the form of feeling, the form of purpose or endeavor. But these forms are themselves in discourse finally embodied in language. And it is this last form the form of thought and feeling as shaped in language to which it is more strictly applied.

While it presupposes Invention as a distinct branch of the art, style is yet involved even in that; as the exercises

of invention cannot proceed but in the forms of language. The two branches of the art of Rhetoric, accordingly, while they may easily be conceived of as distinct, and in practice predominant attention may be given to either at will, are nevertheless bound together by an essential bond of life.

This second division of Rhetoric has been variously denominated; and the terms employed to designate it have been used, sometimes in a wider, sometimes in a more restricted sense. The term "elocution" was formerly more commonly used by English writers. It was suggested by the use of the Roman rhetoricians, and was sanctioned and supported by its etymology. It has, however, in later times become more commonly appropriated to denote oral delivery. The term "style," although not strictly a technical word, was used by Latin writers as synonymous with "elocution," and has been, both among English and continental writers, more generally of late applied to this use. It has been employed, however, with more or less latitude of meaning. But the prevailing use of the best writers authorizes the appropriation of the term to denote the entire art of verbal expression.

Cicero and others of the ancient rhetoricians made here, also, two divisions; the one of elocution or style proper, or the choice of words in the expression of thought; the other of the arrangement of words, or composition. As in invention, however, so perhaps still more obviously in style, there appears to be no good reason for making this division.

§ 242. The analysis of style, for the purpose of systematic study, must respect the various classes of properties which by necessity or possibility belong to it.

We cannot consider style, as we have considered invention, in reference to the different processes concerned in its

production. For some of the properties of style, or modes of expression, are common and necessary in all kinds of discourse and every expression of thought, while others are determined by the nature of the thought itself. If we except the application of some of the rules of mere grammar, the best method of pursuing the culture of style, will be by the successive study of the varieties of forms which thought may assume when expressed in language, in order that whatever may secure beauty and force to the expression may be intelligently communicated to it, and whatever may mar or weaken the expression may be avoided.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE GENERAL PROPERTIES OF STYLE.

§ 243. THE first generic distinction of the properties of style is into THE ABSOLUTE and THE RELA

TIVE.

§ 244. THE ABSOLUTE properties of style are founded in the nature and laws of language itself.

THE RELATIVE properties are those which are determined by the state of the speaker's mind or by that of the mind addressed.

There are these three things which come in to determine the character of the expression, the thought to be ex

pressed; the object for which it medium of expression.

is expressed; and the

The last of these, language, has laws and properties of its own which are fixed and invariable, and, as such, independent of the individual speaker who uses it. The properties thus determined to style may be denominated the absolute properties of style. They correspond for the most part to what Dr. Campbell calls "the essential properties of elocution."

Again, language, as the body of thought, is affected by the state of the speaker's mind. It is not merely the expression of thought, but of his thought. It partakes of his individuality, and is, as it were, an expression of his life. We recognize, thus, at once, as a beauty in style, naturalness in expression. The class of properties thus determined to

style, may be denominated the relative-subjective, or, more briefly, the subjective properties.

Further, the speaker, in pure discourse, speaks to effect an object in the mind of another. He must necessarily, therefore, have respect to that mind, and modify his style accordingly. The mere embodying in language of his own thoughts will not of course accomplish his object in the mind addressed. It may be necessary to labor.more at perspicuity in the expression than would be requisite for the mere utterance of thought. He may be under the necessity of consulting force or energy in the expression, or of adorning it. Hence we have another distinct class of properties. They may be denominated the relative-objective, or, more briefly, the objective properties. The last class corresponds nearly with Dr. Campbell's "discriminating properties of elocution." It is the only class which Dr. Whately takes into view in his treatise on style.