"I was giving surgical evidence in a criminal case and in doing so indulged somewhat freely in medical technicalities while describing the nature of the injuries the plaintiff had received. The judge addressed me as follows: 'Sir, you will be good enough to speak in a language which the jury may be able to understand, and leave technicalities for your surgery or dissecting room.' It is needless for me to describe my feelings on the occasion; suffice it to say I have given evidence in criminal cases scores of times since, but never forgot this circumstance." Doubtless, it is not always possible to avoid technicalities; indeed, they are valuable where they conduce to brevity and where they are understood, but their use should be confined to the initiated. In language addressed to general readers technical words should be avoided. 3. Avoid the use of foreign words. -Young writers think the use of foreign words indicative of the possession of extensive learning. Even Dr. Freeman, the historian, held the same opinion when he first began to write, but in the preface to some recently-published essays he says: I am in no "In almost every page I have found it easy to put some plain English words, about whose meaning there can be no doubt, instead of those needless French and Latin words which are thought to add dignity to style, but which, in truth, only add vagueness. way ashamed to find that I can write purer and clearer English now than I did fourteen or fifteen years back, and I think it well to mention the fact for the encouragement of younger writers. The common temptation of beginners is to work in what they think a more elevated fashion. It needs some years of practice before a man fully takes in the truth that for real clearness there is nothing like the old English speech of our forefathers." The use of foreign words is admissible only when English equivalents cannot be found. To a young writer who had offered him an article, the late Mr. William Cullen Bryant. the American editor and poet, wrote: "I observe that you have used several French expressions in your letter. I think if you will study the English language, that you will find it capable of expressing all the ideas that you may have. I have always found it so, and in all that I have written, I do not recall an instance where I was tempted to use a foreign word, but that, in searching, I have found a better one in my own language." 4. Do not coin words.-The Americans are often accused of coining words; but Oliver Wendell Holmes contends that they never make a new word until they have made a new thing or a new thought. Many of the words considered new by us are really old English words, which the Americans have preserved for us, while we have been coining new ones, which have displaced the old. Writers have been warned against using collide, interviewed, valedicted, which have been called barbarisms. Dr. Murray tells us that the word collide has been in regular English use since 1621, when it was first used by Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy." It has also been used by Dryden, Charlotte Brontë, Carlyle, and Grote. Apart from its long and honourable history, it is surely briefer to say that a train “collided,” instead of came into collision." Valedicted is occasionally used in English religious journals, and interviewed expresses a new idea in journalism. In the past, as in the present, a protest was frequently made against the use of new words. The word survey was objected to by a writer of the eighteenth century. He would, Dr. Murray thinks, have been extremely disgusted had he foreseen the time when people would sing "When I survey the wondrous cross." which would seem as stilted then as "when Gabriel interviewed Mary" would be now. As a general rule, however, words contrary to analogy, or without absolute necessity, should not be coined; but the invention of new words is sometimes a necessity, and a correspondent of the New York Herald has recently attempted to supply an undoubted want. says: "The frequent necessity for the use of the expres He sions, 'telephonic communication,' or 'message by telephone,' which are both long and cumbersome, and the want of any one word in the English language to express this meaning, suggests the propriety of coining a new word to signify telephonic message or communication. A word formed in accordance with the rules of etymology and fully conveying the required meaning would be telelogue'-a speaking from a distance." The Times has already adopted the word. The young writer should use words already in existence before making new ones which may not be so good. He should be neither the first to catch up the new, nor the last to let go the old. 5. Avoid inconsistent words. 6 "I had liked to have gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence."-Swift. The question arises, how many heads had he? The sentence should have been : "I was once or twice in danger of having my head broken." Alexander Smith wrote: "The village stands far inland; and the streams that trot through the soft green valleys all about have as little knowledge of the sea, as the three-years' child of the storms and passions of manhood." Whoever saw a stream trot? Trot should be meander. 6. Avoid quaintness of expression. As an example of affectation, we quote an extract from A.K.H. B. :— "Show us this life to come-where-away lies it? What-like life is it! What-like life do they live there?" Goldsmith, though so chaste in his writings, is said to have been sirgularly careless and inaccurate in conversation. He used to say, "This is as good a guinea as was ever born," instead of coined. XI.-ON ENERGY IN STYLE. Energy in style is opposed to feebleness, and implies the power of so placing words as to produce, not only clearness, but impressiveness. It may be aided (a) By Inversion. The statement— "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," is stronger than when expressed by the customary order of construction Again :— "Diana of the Ephesians is great." is stronger than "Silver and gold have I none," "I have no silver and no gold." So, also, in the following example :— "The pavements we walk upon, the coals in our grates-how many milleniums old are they? The pebble you kick aside with your foothow many generations will it outlast?"—Dr. Maclaren. The language is more impressive than it would be if written in the ordinary way. Sometimes an emphatic word is put first, as "Sunk are thy towers in shapeless ruin all."-Goldsmith. which produces greater animation than if written in the common way "All thy towers are sunk in shapeless ruin." "The power of eloquence is great." Mr. Davenport Adams quotes the following extract from Kinglake : "Stopped at once by this ready manœuvre, and the fire that it brought on their flank, the horsemen wheeled again and retreated." This form, he considers, is much more energetic than the strict grammatical sequence "The horsemen, stopped at once by this ready manœuvre and the fire that it brought on their flank, wheeled again to their left and retreated." Sometimes an emphatic phrase is put first. Thus: "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" is more effective than "Where are your fathers? and do the prophets live for ever?” Inversion should, however, be sparingly used, for, as a rule, the common order of expression is best. Nothing is gained by inversion in the following sentence : "Abundant evidence have we that Carlyle regards Romanism, the Papacy, as the great nuisance and pest of Europe in these later ages."Paxton Hood. (b) By Antithesis.-By contrasting one thing with something opposite, a pleasing effect is produced, and an idea comes out more clearly. The Bible affords many illus trations: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." "The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot." "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion." Goldsmith supplies us with an excellent example : "Contrasted faults through all their manners reign; Dr. Johnson was great at antithesis; of Jonas Hanway, who was fond of showing himself, he said :— |