Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-07-03
ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

~'~"soss ana Clauses Into Ward.
AT It's best language is Inadequate
10 express thought Thought is Of the
spirit, and language Is OF the bodv,
thought is infinite, language. 6nits
A far-reaching truth is rendered in the
beautiful lines Of the Laureate;
Break, break, break
On thy cold gray stones, o seal
ana would that ~ tongue could ut.er
Inc thoughts that arise in mo.
On account of this incapacity of Ian.
guase our thoughts must be definite
before we can express them in words
Language can only be Delphic oracle
ior vagueness. In an ideal sentence
there is an exact balance betwsen tho
thought and the expression. so that
there are just enough words to express
he thought. Writers whose yocabu.
larry Is ample and whose ideas are
comprehensive. strive to keep this bal
ance OF thought and language. Those
whose ideas are vague are apt to be
lavish OF words. The English rustic
relatively makes greater draft upon
us little stock Of words to express his
dim notions than did either Shakes
peare Or Milton to utter their grand
IDEAS. The word Of the wise are few
ana well chosen; every utterance shows
that they would rather mediate than
speak. Hence their sayings are often
oracular, and if they err it is on the
SIZE of speaking too little rather than
too much.
Tho sentence Of Goethe, Thought
widens, but lanes; activity narrows,
but quickens." will bear pages of ex-
pansion. When the cask is full, the
huid runs in jets from the spigot; when
1t is nearly empty, the liquid comes
freely. Yet to use too few words is a
greater error than to use too many.
Superfluous words may be removed,
but missing words can not always be
supplied.
But as few are wise enough to be too
concise and as thousands err in being
TOO diffuse, we must notice the error of
verbosity, or that of using too many
words. In the discourse of eolored
preacher occurred the following sem
tence: "After much consideration and
serious reflection have arrived at the
deliberate conclusion. that In those
cities where the population is large.
here is a greatr number of men.
women and children. than in those
cities where the population is less. ="
Here a fact so apparent that it needs
20 statement is amplified so that on
he minds OF the hearers its nothing
less would not be impressed. This
eedlesi application is too often the
ttult of the clergy; and many bubble
f conceited utterance might be blown
ato drop by breath Of common
ense.
A serviceable rule for such writers
would be: Scan every sentence; ther
:ondense your sentences into clauses
our clauses into phrases; your phrases
nto words; and if you do not really
reed the words blot them out. A YER
',ose writer above all others, needs thu
lnsparing hand of kindly criticism.
Circumlocution or indirectness is mo-
,lways fault Sometimes it is better
10 suggest an idea than it is to express
c. Chaucer did not wish to tell his
leaders that the sea captain drowned
lis captiyes. so he said he sent then
home by water. In act first, scene
ourth of King Lear" Goneril takes
,ourteen lines to utter what the Foo
touches in two lines. When the grave
lipger said to the miser, who hesitatec
,pout paying for the burial of his de-
ceased wife, Down with your dust o.
ID she comes!" he afforded a marked
Instance of the desirability of circum
ocution.
In cases where it is not needed, it /
grave fault of style. In Dickens
.ketch, The Steam Excursion. h
hus describes one of the characters
Mr.. Hardy was observed. some hour
,fterwari, in an attitude which IN
luced his friends to suppose that h
vas busily engaged in contemplatin!
| the beauties of the deep; they only re
, -retted that his taste for the pic'
) rescue should lead him to remain
r 'ong in a position, very injurious at a
t ines, but especially SO to an ina
e .idual laboring under tendency
/ blood to the head" The fact wa
r Lr. Hardy WAS sea-sick; but when tf
a ,,thor takes sixty-seven words to tie
a what can be told In three, it is que
ion whether he is not carrying u
h Ike too far.-Prof Z. W. Bdncroj
J. IA ChdutauglGdn.