1. Men who deserved and won renown, and women who were peerless, have lived upon what we should now call the coarsest fare, and paced the rushes which were strewn in their rooms with as high, or as contented thoughts, as their descendants, persons who are fed better and clothed better than they, can boast of.
2. If children are able to make us wiser, it is sure that they can also make us better. There is no one who is more to be envied than a good-natured man when he is watching how children’s minds perform their workings, or when he is overlooking the play they engage in.
Deficiency of Words.—It was said in a former paragraph that in young writers surplusage is perhaps less of a fault than is the lack of needed words. Verbosity robs a theme of force; deficiency robs it of force and clearness. It is human nature to try to say a thing more briefly than is possible. Forgetting that pitch, stress, and gesture do much to make spoken words intelligible, the easy-going writer does not tax himself to attain full and lucid expression. He forgets that a piece of writing may be so condensed as to be dense.
Ambiguity often springs from the omission of merely a word or two. Reading such a phrase as “the secretary and treasurer,” we are vexed with doubt whether one person is meant, or two; the omission of the article seems to imply that the two offices are vested in a single officer. The lack of a few words may turn force into weakness. A German newspaper thus burlesques the compression to which editors sometimes feel impelled: “Ottokar took a small brandy, then his hat, his departure, besides no notice of his pursuers, meantime a revolver out of his pocket, and lastly his own life.”
The following common words should not be omitted:—
1. The main part of an infinitive at the end of a sentence. Wrong: “He did what he wished to.” Right: “He did what he wished to do.”
2. The adverb much before certain adjectives. Wrong: “He was very pleased to comply.” Right: “He was very much pleased to comply.”
3. (a) The preposition at with home. Wrong: “I stayed home and slept home.” Right: “I stayed at home and slept at home.” (b) The preposition on with days of the month. Wrong: “The seventh of July he rebelled.” Right: “On the seventh of July he rebelled.” Compare page 231. 3.
4. A demonstrative used for clearness. Wrong: “He chose between the lot of the rich and of the poor.” Right: “He chose between the lot of the rich and that of the poor.”