ENERGY OF STYLE.



smaller the spot is which receives them, compared with tbh
surface of the (lass, the greater is the splendor; .... so,
Mn exhibiting ouir s iltiment3 `)v speech, the narrower the
compass of woids is wherein the thouglht is expressed, the
more energetic is tfie expression ..... The very same ser-
timent, expressed diffusely, will be admIinitted barely to be
just; expressed concisely, it weill Ibe admired as spirited." 
  There is no more remarkable examiple of energetic con-
eisenless than the famrous saying of Cresar, Venal, vhidi, vici
I came, saw, conquered.' Tile stldied brevity of La-
cedIrmonian speech has given us the word laconic. The
orttors among the American Indians have often been re-
ma.rkable for brieC, pithy, pointed savings. All men, cul-
tivated and unculltivated, appreciate brevity.
  I pposed to conciseness are tautology, pleonasm, and
vrei"bosity. Sheer tautology is perhaps not a very common
fault. Pleonasm, the use of words or phrases which add
nothing to the sense, is quite common, and often greatly
detracts from energy. And verbosity, the introduction of
expressions whice add something, but nothing of any real
importance, is surpassingly frequent and hurtful.t
  A certain high-sounding verbosity is apt to be greatli
admired by very ignorant or half-educated people. But
this admiration does not argue any real benefit to them,
nor any real power in the speaker. " It is not uncommon
to hear a writer or speaker of this class mentioned as hav-
ing 'a very fine command of language,' wheu perhaps it
might be said with more correctness that 'his language has
a command of him;' that is, that he follows a train of
wn"rds rather than of thought, and strings together all the
stLiking expressions that occur to him on the subject, in.
stead of first forming a clear notion of the sense he wishes
to convey, and then seeking for the most appropriate
   Cazmpbell, Phil. of Rhet., p. 353.
  t These faults are very fully treated by Campbell, p. 3.5872.



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