LESSON LXXI.
The skilful adaptation of expression to thought is called style. The essential qualities of style in composition are clearness, force, and beauty.
Some of the means by which clearness is secured are:—(1) by discrimination in the choice of words; (2) by explicit reference; (3) by contrast; (4) by the orderly arrangement of phrases and sentences.
The quality of force is gained by means of—(1) brevity; (2) suggestive words; (3) illustrations and comparisons; (4) the use of interrogation and exclamation; (5) the employment of contrast; (6) the repetition of words; (7) the order of words; (8) the use of the particular instead of the general term.
The quality of beauty is secured by means of—(1) good taste in the use of words; (2) alliteration; (3) happy phrases; (4) balanced structure; (5) rhythm. The composition must possess elevation of thought withal.
Other qualities of style sometimes present in good writing are:—simplicity, pathos, picturesqueness, humour, satire, and harmony.
MODEL.
TRAILING ARBUTUS.
. . . The ground was white in spots with half-melted snow. A few whirls of snow had come down in the night, and the air was too cold to change to rain. Some green leaves, in sheltered nooks, had accepted the advances of the sun and were preparing for the summer. But that which I came to search after was trailing arbutus, one of the most exquisite of all Nature’s fondlings.
I did not seek in vain. The hills were covered with it. Its gay whorls of buds peeped forth from ruffles of snow in the most charming beauty. Many blossoms, too, quite expanded, did I find; some pure white, and a few more deliciously suffused with pink. For nearly an hour I wandered up and down, in pleasant fancies, searching, plucking, and arranging these most beautiful of all early blossoms.
Who would suspect by the leaf what rare delicacy was to be in the blossom? Like some people of plain and hard exterior, but of sweet disposition, it was all the more pleasant from the surprise of contrast. All winter long the little thing must have slumbered with dreams, at least, of spring. It has waited for no pioneer or guide, but started of its own self and led the way for all the flowers on the hillside.
Its little viny stem creeps close to the ground, humble, faithful, and showing how the purest white may lay its cheek in the very dirt without soil or taint.
The odor of the arbutus is exquisite, and as delicate as the plant is modest. Some flowers seem determined to make an impression on you. They stare at you. They dazzle your eyes. If you smell them, they overfill your sense with their fragrance. They leave nothing for your gentleness and generosity, but do everything themselves.
But this sweet nestler of the spring hills is so secluded, half-covered with russet leaves, that you would not suspect its graces, did you not stoop to uncover the vine, to lift it up, and then you espy its secluded beauty.
If you smell it, at first it seems hardly to have an odor. But there steals out of it at length the finest, rarest scent, that rather cites desire than satisfies your sense. It is coy, without designing to be so, and its reserve plays upon the imagination far more than could a more positive way.
Without doubt there are intrinsic beauties in plants and flowers, and yet very much of pleasure depends upon their relations to the seasons, to the places where they grow, and to our own moods. No midsummer flower can produce the thrill that the earliest blossoms bring, which tell us that winter is gone, that growing days have come!—Henry Ward Beecher.
EXERCISE.
1. Are all the essential or cardinal qualities of style illustrated in the foregoing extract? By what means does the author secure each of the qualities found in this composition?
2. What other qualities of style do you find in this selection? Give examples of each.