it. Indeed, the imagined effect of his writings as pronounced by himself will ever control the writer in preparing thought for communication to others. He will not write sentences that he cannot pronounce, on the one hand; and, on the other, he will be secretly prompted to write in such a manner as best to display his skill in delivery.

While naturalness requires that discourse be a free representation of the speaker's own mind and character, it forbids all direct reference to himself. This fault, denominated egotism, is always exceedingly offensive.

$304. The official character and standing of the speaker should ever so control style as that while it is not suffered to predominate in his attention at all over his subject or the design of his discourse, it yet shall prevent every thing incompatible with such official standing.

The regard which the speaker must pay to his official standing and relations must be a controlling one; and yet only in subordination to that which he is to pay to other things. Official propriety is only one, and a subordinate one, of those species of propriety which must appear in dis

course.

$305. The subject and the occasion of the discourse, as they must affect strongly the mind of the speaker, will also leave their impressions on his style, in rendering it more earnest and elevated, more stately and dignified; or more light and familiar.

The distinction of the high, the low, and the middle styles of oratory recognized by the ancients was founded mainly on the subject and the occasion of the discourse. Other things, it is frue, were regarded in the distinction,

as personal peculiarities. Homer thus distributes the differ ent styles among three of his leading characters.* Still, when the attempt was made by rhetoricians to determine the province of these separate styles they generally fell back on the subject. Thus Cicero, Is erit igitur eloquens, qui poterit parva summisse, modica temperate, magna graviter dicere.--Orat. 29.

The following will serve to illustrate what different character the occasion or the subject will impress on style even when the same thought is to be conveyed. Home thus describes the morning:

The saffron morn, with early blushes spread,
Now rose refulgent from Tithonus' bed,
With new-born day to gladden mortal sight,

And gild the course of heaven with sacred light.

Butler, in his Hudibras, thus describes the same scere:

The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap;

And, like a lobster boiled, the morn

From black to red began to turn.

Burke, in his speech on Conciliation with America, was led to speak in the following terms of the rapid increase of population in the colonies:

I can by no calculation justify myself in placing the number below two millions of inhabitants of our own European blood and color; besides at least five hundred . thousand others, who form no inconsiderable part of the whole. This, sir, is, I believe, about the true number. There is no occasion to exaggerate, when plain truth is of

*Ea ipsa genera dicendi jam antiquitus tradita ab Homero sunt tria in tribus; magnificum in Ulyxe et ubertum, subtile in Menelao et cohibitum, mixtum moderatumque in Nestore.-Gell. VII. 14 See also Quint. Inst. Orat. II, 17, 8; XII, 10, 63. 64. Cic. Orat. 23-29

so much weight and importance. But whether I put the present numbers too high or too low is a matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we will, whilst the dispute continues the exaggeration ends. Whilst we are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall find we have millions more to manage. Your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood, than they spread from families to communities and from villages to nations.

Dr. Johnson, in his pamphlet entitled "Taxation no Tyranny," aiming at an entirely opposite object, to disparage the colonies, uses the following language in respect to the same point:

But we are soon told that the continent of North America contains three millions, not of men merely, but of whigs; of whigs fierce for liberty, and disdainful of dominion; that they multiply with the fecundity of their own rattlesnakes; so that every quarter of a century doubles their numbers.

PART III.-OBJECTIVE PROPERTIES.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW.

§ 306. THE OBJECTIVE PROPERTIES of style are those which are determined to discourse by a regard to the effect on the mind addressed. § 244.

The objective properties presuppose the other two classes of properties, and are founded, in part at least, upon them. They differ, sometimes, only in degree; as clearness, which is an objective property, may often be only significance in a higher degree, which is a suggestive property. Energy, also, another objective property, presupposes harmony, an absolute property, as well as others of that class. But it may be necessary, however, for the sake of effect, often to regard those other classes of properties more than would otherwise be required by any consideration of the nature of style.

But this objective use of language, for effect on other minds, requires some characteristics of style that are distinguished from the absolute and subjective properties, not in degree merely, but also in kind. Many of the figures of speech, so called, for instance, are of this character.

The circumstance that the subjective properties presuppose those of the other classes and are founded, in part upon

them will account for the fact that, in some cases, the consideration of the same property may belong in common to different parts of rhetoric.* There is, notwithstanding, an obvious and radical distinction between the three different classes.

§ 307. The objective properties are, all, in their nature relative, and must vary with the various character of the mind addressed.

It is hardly necessary to advance any formal illustrations of the truth of this proposition. What is clear to one mind may be obscure to another. What is impressive and beautiful to one, may be dull and dry to another.

It is still to be observed that all minds have common properties; and there are laws applicable to all alike, which control the exercises of the intellect, the feelings, and the taste. There are, consequently, principles of style which are founded on the general and invariable character of the human mind. Those characteristics which render a discourse clear to one mind will, to a certain extent, be requisite to make it so to every other mind.

§ 308. The objective properties of style are CLEARness, Energy, and ELEGANCE.

It is obvious that in order to affect another mind to the highest degree by discourse, it must not only contain thought, be significant, but, also, be susceptible of ready interpretation. It must be clear.

In order, farther, to a vivid effect upon the intellect and feelings, discourse must bear on its face the character of life

It may be proper to remark here, that in order to avoid unnecescary repetition, some observations are made under one class of properties which might properly fall under another.