The Equilibrium of these Forces.

The most frequently recurring and perplexing prob¬lem of style is, to adjust the equilibrium between these two forces, the contracting and the expanding. Con¬densing the sentence too much, we violate truth by omitting details and ignoring limitations. Expanding too much, we render the interpretation of the sentence impossible by forcing upon the mind more labor than it can perform. A reader may, indeed, recur to the beginning, if he be conscious of failing to grasp the thought fully, while a hearer has not this privilege. On this account, the expansion of sentences is more allowable when they are written than when they are spoken ; but readers generally are not willing to read a sentence more than once. Hence the habit of "read¬ing short," i. e., of pitching upon terms instead of fol¬lowing out propositions. Many persons read as Mr. Dickens makes Alfred Jingle talk,—selecting the nouns and adjectives, and neglecting everything else. Even when a reader notes every word, he is often un¬conscious of how much he misses.
The opposition of these two forces creates a diffi¬culty in style which cannot be wholly removed, but which may be diminished. The problem is, then, not how to annihilate the difficulty, but how to reduce it to its minimum. This must be done by a judicious balance of the claims of the time and the truth re.