SECTION I.—OF PURITY.
Purity of style consists in the use of such words and phrases only, as belong to the language which we write or speak. Its opposites are the faults aimed at in the following precepts.
PRECEPT I.—Avoid the unnecessary use of foreign words or idioms: such as the French words fraicheur, hauteur, delicatesse, politesse, noblesse;—the expression, "He repented himself;"—or, "It serves to an excellent purpose."
PRECEPT II.—Avoid obsolete or antiquated words, except there be some special reason for their use: that is, such words as acception, addressful, administrate, affamish, affrontiveness, belikely, blusterous, clergical, cruciate, rutilate, timidous.
PRECEPT III.—Avoid strange or unauthorized words: such as, flutteration, inspectator, judgematical, incumberment, connexity, electerized, martyrized, reunition, marvelize, limpitude, affectated, adorement, absquatulate. Of this sort is O. B. Peirce's "assimilarity," used on page 19th of his English Grammar; and still worse is Jocelyn's "irradicable," for uneradicable, used on page 5th of his Prize Essay on Education.
PRECEPT IV.—Avoid bombast, or affectation of fine writing. It is ridiculous, however serious the subject. The following is an example: "Personifications, however rich the depictions, and unconstrained their latitude; analogies, however imposing the objects of parallel, and the media of comparison; can never expose the consequences of sin to the extent of fact, or the range of demonstration."—Anonymous.