Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-06-30
ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

ENGLISH COMPOSITION
The Adv,sability os Condens'ng Sentences
Into Clauses, and Clauses 1nto Words.
At it's best, language is inadequate
to express thought Thought is Of the
spirit, and language is Of the body;
thought is infinite. language. finite.
A far-reaching truth is rendered in the
beautiful lines Of the Laureate:
Break, break. break
On thy cold gray stones, O seat
And would that ,Sy tongue could utter
The thoughts that arisc In me.
On account of this incapacity Of Ian.
guage our thoughts must be definite.
before we can express them in words.
Language can only be a Delphic oracle
for vagueness. In an ideal sentence,
there is an exact balance between the
thought and the expression. SO that
there are Just enough words to express
the thought. Writers whose vocabu.
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 rus c
relatively makes a greater draft upon
his 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
and well chosen; every utterance shows
that they would rather mediate than
speak. Hence their sayings are often
oracular, and IL they err it is on the
SIDE Of speaking too little rather than
too much.
The sentence Of Goethe, Thought
widens, but lanes; activity narrows,
but quickens," will bear pages Of ex-
pansion. When the cask is full, the
mud runs in jets from the spigot; when
it is nearly empty. the liquid comes
freely. Yet to use too few words is q
greater error than to use too many.
Supcrfuous words may be removed,
but missing words can not always be
supplied.
Rut as few are wise enough to be too
concise. and rs thousands err in being
too diffuse, we must notice the error OF
yerbosity. or that of using too many
words. In the discourse of eolorcd
preacher occurred the foil owing sen.
tence: after much consideration and
serious reflection have arrivet. Mt the
deliberate conclusion, that in those
cities where the population is large
here is greater number of men,
women and children. than in those
,ities where the population is less
Here fact so apparent that it need
10 statement is amplified SO that OF
h, minds Of the hearers its nothing
ness would not be impressed. This
leedless amplification is too often tn.
fault of the clergy; and many a bubble
into drop by a breath Of common
sense.
A serviceable rule for such writer
would be-: Scan every sentence; thei
sondense yoursentences into clauses
your clauses into phrases; your phrase
nto words; and If you do not really
need the words blot them out. A yer
: bose writer. above all others, needs tn
nnsparing hand of kindly criticism.
:. Circumlocution or indirectncss is no
.lways fault. Sometimes it is bette
' to suggest an idea than it is to expires
q II. Chaucer did not wish to tell hi
: readers that the sea captain drownc'
his captives. so he said he sent then
\ home by water. In act first. seen
fourth of king Lear Goneril take
o fourteen lines to utter what the Foo
a touches in two lines. When the grave
liggcr said to the miser. who hesitate'
about paying for the burial OF his de
ceased wife. Down with your dust, o
up she comesr' he afforded marked
O instance of the desirability of circunl
locution.
n In cases where it is not needed, 1t
@ grave fault of style. In Dickens
h sketch, '.rbe Steam Excursion"
Il ,hus describes one Of the characters
= "Mr. Hardy was observed. some hour
,fterward, in an attitude which in
,luced his friends to suppose that h
was busily engaged in contemplating
d the beauties of the deep; they only r.
g .retted that his taste for the pic
70 uresque should lead him to remain s
y .ong in a position, very injurious at a
IL lines. but especially 80 to an ind
e vidual laboring uller II tendency {
q blood to the head" The fact wa
'r Mr.. Harry was sea-sick; but when til
uithor takes sixty-sevea words to te
a what can be told in three 1t is a que
"a zion whether he is not carrying ii
n Joke too far Prof r. W. Bancrot
y IN Ctaatauquan.