Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-11-12
SIMPLICITY.

Complication, as general thing tends to
weakness. 1t may be said that in the works
of nature there is great complexity. This is
true and it is not true. All the works of ma
ture, in themselves, are exceedingly simple
but on account of the obtuseness Of the behold
er many of them appear complex. There is
beauty and eloquence in simplicity which
cannot be in complication. Those books
which have done the most to mould the minds
ofmen, are those which are simple in theil
language and simple in their style. Before
an individual can write upon subject in d
simple and easily. y.to-be.understood manner
he must first understand it thoroughly. The
same remark applies to conversation. The
man who can talk about subject in plain,
simple language, gives evidence that he knows
what he is talking about.
On the contrary, those men who resort to
unusual words and make use of an affected
style in conversation, do so because they are
talking about something which they do not
understand. One of the characteristics of
American writer's and speakers, is that they
are bombastic in the use of words, and their
style is fustian. A large number of our peo'
pie come to the conclusion that the man is
not learned who can sit down and write an
article or get up and deliver speech that can
be understood by boys and girls This is
grand mistake. Any man who can write or
speak at all, can write an article or make a
speech that neither children nor men can un-
derstand. To do this, brass and not brains is
required. The reputation of not few men is
due, with large number of men, to the OBJ
scurity in which they cover up every thing
they say or write. Multitudes are enraptured
with public speakers because they made long
speeches and said nothing that they could un'
stand; whilst many poor fellow has been
Kissed because he followed the advice of Ro'
bert Burns and
Aye free finland his story told
When wi bosom crony.
Simplicity applies not only to what we say
and write, but also to what we do. In the
manners and customs of what are called civ
ilized people, there is a something, stiffness
which is really painful. 1t is difficult to un'
derstand how some practices ever become in
corporated into the customs Of sensible peo'
pie. They, so far from contributing to the
comfort of those who practice them, are a
source of great and untold pain and incon
venience. We are, by kind of sympathy
panied when we read of the extreme smallness
of China.woman's feet, and of the process
by which it is effected. Incited by the die.
tates of common sense, we pronounce the
whole thing barbarous monstrosity.
Are not the high heeled shoes and pain
fully delicate waists of American ladies just
as injurious to health and simplicity, to say
nothing about the burlesque on the handiwork
of nature, which such spectacle presents
Do not those high heels look as if the fair
young Miss was attempting to make her way
through the world on stills? And does not
the fincal smallness to which some ladies re.
duce their waists, seem as if they were at
tempting to convert themselves into dirt,
dauber? This is delicate subject, and some
body may get mad; but suicide is painful
thing, whether it be committed by tying one
end of large rope around the neck, and the
other end to the limb of tree and swinging of
into mid,air, or by crushing the ribs with
small cord. The force Of fashion is only
equaled by its ridiculous absurdity. This is
demonstrated fully by the practice of the
most civilized and enlightened people on
earth. An English gentleman adheres to the
same fashion in dress at the tropics, that pre-
vail in his own damp, foggy native land Be-
meath vertical sun, he does not consider him
self dressed unless clad in jet black woolen
material. Sweating and suHocation is far less
disagreeable than slight deviation from fash
ion. All this is foolish and highly injurious
No wonder men and women are becoming
year after year, weak and pale. Fashion, like
a hereditary disease, is destroying their vital
ty. The bones and muscles Of their bodies are
crushed and distorted and premature death j:
courted by deviating from the simplicity o.
nature. Ifmen and women would be men anc
women in the proper sense of the word, they
must be simple.