The Philosophy of Style

By Spencer, Herbert

Book Id: WPLBN0000629524
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.5 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	The Philosophy of Style
Author:	Spencer, Herbert
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Blackmask Online Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Blackmask Online


Citation APA MLA Chicago Spencer, B. H. (n.d.). The Philosophy of Style. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.cc/

Description
Excerpt: Part 1. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL ENERGIES. i. The Principle of Economy. 1. Commenting on the seeming incongruity between his father?s argumentative powers and his ignorance of formal logic, Tristram Shandy says:??It was a matter of just wonder with my worthy tutor, and two or three fellows of that learned society, that a man who knew not so much as the names of his tools, should be able to work after that fashion with them.? Sterne?s intended implication that a knowledge of the principles of reasoning neither makes, nor is essential to, a good reasoner, is doubtless true. Thus, too, is it with grammar. As Dr. Latham, condemning the usual school?drill in Lindley Murray, rightly remarks: ?Gross vulgarity is a fault to be prevented; but the proper prevention is to be got from habit?not rules.? Similarly, there can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless. He who daily hears and reads well?framed sentences, will naturally more or less tend to use similar ones. And where there exists any mental idiosyncrasy?where there is a deficient verbal memory, or an inadequate sense of logical dependence, or but little perception of order, or a lack of constructive ingenuity; no amount of instruction will remedy the defect. Nevertheless, some practical result may be expected from a familiarity with the principles of style. The endeavour to conform to laws may tell, though slowly. And if in no other way, yet, as facilitating revision, a knowledge of the thing to be achieved?a clear idea of what constitutes a beauty, and what a blemish?cannot fail to be of service.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: The Philosophy of Style, 1 -- Herbert Spencer, 1 -- PART I. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL ENERGIES. -- i. The Principle of Economy, 1 -- ii. Economy in the Use of Words, 2 -- iii. The Principle of Economy applied to Sentences, 4 -- iv. The Principle of Economy applied to Figures, 9 -- v. Suggestion as a Means of Economy, 12 -- vi. The Effect of Poetry explained, 13 -- PART II. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTA5L SENSIBILITIES. -- i. The Law of Mental Exhaustion and Repair, 15 -- ii. Explanation of Climax, Antithesis, and Anticlimax, 16 -- iii. Need of Variety, 16 -- iv. The Ideal Writer, 17