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CHAPTER XV

FORCE

EMPHASIS.

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151. FORCE.-152. DEVICES FOR SECURING FORCE: 153.- DEVICES FOR SECURING FORCE: FIGURES OF SPEECH. EXERCISE 64.

151. Force. If clearness, the intellectual quality of style, presupposes above all, on the part of the writer, clear and sound thinking, force, the emotional quality, demands sympathy and earnestness. To move the reader to laughter or tears, to affect his acts or his conduct, to inspire or repress any of his emotions, or constantly to hold his attention, is an art too delicate for us to analyze or describe here. What we can be certain of, however, is that, in the writing each one of us is inevitably called upon to do day by day, our work will be strongest when (1) we are most in sympathy with those we are addressing, and (2) when we have the most hearty interest in what we write. If we would not have our words fall without effect, we must take pains to carry the reader with us emotionally as well as intellectually. To accomplish this, interest and sympathy are the main qualities necessary. What interests us deeply will surely not be without a similar effect on others; when we

can put ourselves into sympathy with our readers it will not often be difficult to bring them into sympathy with us. To attain a forcible style, however, we must not forget that there is still another requisite, -constant practice. Mere strength of thought or of feeling does not make a good writer any more than mere brute strength, without the ready suppleness that comes from thorough training, makes a good athlete. If we are wise we shall never let a day of our lives pass without writing something, long or short, and writing it as well as we can. Practice tells; and a letter, a leaf in a note-book or a diary, even a telegram, may be so well composed that it sensibly or insensibly leads us a step further in one of the most important of our duties,—that of so mastering the art of thinking out into language that good methods of expression become habitual.

152. Devices for Securing Force: Emphasis. — We must glance at two devices for securing force. The first, that of emphasis, is already familiar to us (cf. §§ 99, 129, and 140), and we need scarcely spend further time on it than to remark the obviousness of the fact that arranging the parts of a composition in the order of relative strength and importance adds greatly to the force of what one writes. Climax and antithesis (from Greek words meaning, respectively, "ladder" and "putting over against," i.e. contrast), are special forms of emphasis.

In climax, statements are made in an ascending scale, according to the interest or importance of

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each, the strongest, or most impressive, last. A good instance is the first paragraph of the extract from Parkman on page 124. Here a general statement of the fording of the Monongahela is followed by a particular statement as to the troops present; this by a statement that there were individuals present in whom we are deeply interested; and this by the mention of Gage, Gates, and finally Washington.

In antithesis, opposite statements are placed side by side, and gain force by contrast, as in the following example:

"But perhaps to people who live crowded together in closely-built cities the life of a Mount Desert family seems solitary and dreary. They cannot hear the newsboys' and hucksters' cries, the rattle of vehicles and clatter of hoofs on stone pavements, the buzz and rumble of electric cars, and the screaming of factory whistles. They cannot see the thronged street and the gay shop windows, the electric lights, the grand houses, and the public monuments. They cannot ride on street-cars, parade on Main Street or Fifth Avenue, and visit at pleasure the dime museum, the dog, cat, horse, or baby show, or the negro minstrels. These, indeed, are some of the sights, sounds, and social privileges which are denied to a rural and seaboard population. Still they have compensations. They hear the loud monotone of the surf on the outer islands, the splash of the waves on the inner beaches, the rushing of the brook, the cawing of crows, the songs of robins and thrushes, and the rustling of the leaves in the breeze. They see the sky, the sea, the woods, the ponds, and the hills in all the varying lights and shadows of summer and winter, morning and evening, sunshine and storm."

- PRESIDENT ELIOT: The Forgotten Millions.

153. Devices for Securing Force: Figures. The second device for securing force is the use of figures of speech. We have already seen (§ 149) how the simile and the metaphor may be used for the sake of clearness. They are much more frequently used for the sake of force, and it will be observed that nothing is more natural than the instinctive employment of figures for this purpose. Notice, for instance, the following examples:

(a) The German princes, anxious to narrow the prerogative of their head, the emperor, were the natural allies of the pope, whose spiritual thunders, more terrible than their own lances, could enable them to depose an aspiring monarch.

(b) Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention and selfdenial in unnecessary things, will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellowmortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

(c) Good manners are essentially a disposition which moulds conduct. They can be feigned, indeed, as gilt counterfeits gold, and plate silver. But the clearest glass is not diamond. A man may smile and smile and be a villain.

(d) "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,

When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez - when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise

Silent upon a peak in Darien."

KEATS: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.

The real function of figures of speech is to stimulate the mind by awakening fresh associations. When we say, "Her eyes were bright and her hair dark," we arouse in the mind of the reader only a familiar train of thought connecting "eyes" with "bright things " and "hair" with "dark things." When, however, Wordsworth says,

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"Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;

Like twilight's too her dusky hair,"

he stimulates our fancy by awakening unusual and yet fitting trains of ideas.

Figures should, as far as possible, arise in the mind of the writer spontaneously. The inexperienced writer will, however, need to keep in mind the following advice:

(1) Figures should arouse appropriate associations. When, for instance, Wordsworth describes a maiden as

"A violet by a mossy stone

Half-hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky,"

he uses figures which impress us with her modesty and beauty. Quite the opposite, however, is the case in the following lines by an old New England writer in the praise of a pious clergyman:

"A living, breathing Bible; tables where

Both covenants at large engraven were;

Gospel and law in his heart had each its column;

His head an index to the sacred volume;

His very name a title-page; and next

His life a commentary on the text.

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