Still it must be allowed that our language admits, in a considerable degree, that energy and beauty which arise from rhetorical arrangement. I may say, it even admits that emphatic idiom of the oriental tongues, which constitutes a rhetorical exception to a rule of syntax. In such phrases as these; "Your fathers, where are they !" "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear;" we have a nominative suspended, without a verb. It may be said the verb is implied by an ellipsis. But the case is clearly one, in which a figure claims its rights of exemption from laws which bind cold and common phraseology. Let us take another example. When the Israelites became impatient at the long stay of Moses in the mount, they came to Aaron and said, "Up, make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him." Here the translators, distrusting the powers of their own language, provide for the grammatical regimen, by inserting two particles; "As for this Moses." Omit these timid adjuncts, and you have the impatience, contempt, and audacity of the rebels, expressed in a bold exclamation, perfectly consistent with the idiom of our language; "This Moses !-we wot not what has become of him."

I may add that our nouns answering to the vocative case, and verbs in the imperative mood, are not subject to the common disadvantages of English arrangement. Here the chief word may be made prominent at the head of the sentence. Shakspeare might have written, " Vanity, rise up,-royal state, fall down." But with how much more spirit did he write ?—" Up vanity! down, royal state!" In the commencement of Paul's celebrated speech, there is no lumber of particles to obscure the emphatic words. Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken." So in the Paradise lost, no one can be insensible to the terrific energy of Satan's address to his associates ;

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Warriors,

“Princes, potentates,

Awake, arise, or be forever fall'n.”

These strictures on arrangement, may be concluded with the following brief remarks.

1. Rhetorical inversion being the effect of passion, seldom succeeds well in a cool address to the understanding.

2. Strong emotion often carries the emphatic word to the beginning of a sentence; Yet,

3. When the speaker's design is to sustain attention, and suspend the effect, the important word is properly placed at the close. It follows,

4. That style is commonly enfeebled by closing sentences with particles, and words of little significance.

5. For the same reason a circumstance forms a feeble close to a sentence. Example: "I shall examine the sources, whence these pleasures are derived, in my next paper." Both perspicuity and strength require that a circumstance should be introduced as early as possible in the sentence. Yet it should never be placed between two principal members, so as to leave it doubtful to which it belongs; nor should many circumstances which might be interspersed among the members, be thrown together in succession.

6. When different things relate to each other as to order of time, cause, effect etc., that relation should govern the order of words. Though this principle is so obvious, it is constantly violated in practice. Example: "Had such a letter been written, I could not have been kept in ignorance of its contents, nor of its existence." This careless order of words implies that the contents of a letter may be known, without a knowledge of its existence.

If this illustration seem needlessly minute to any one, I refer him to scores of printed sermons, in which he will find such phrases as these: "The death and sufferings of Christ :”— "The necessity and importance of his death."

So much I have thought it necessary to say on strength of style. Several of the topics now to be dismissed, I am aware have been imperfectly considered; but more enlargement is inconsistent with the plan of these Lectures.

LECTURE VII.

STYLE.-BEAUTY, AS COMPREHENDING HARMONY AND

*

ELEGANCE.

Probably I need not say here, that it is no part of my design, to recommend those gaudy and trivial decorations of style, which are as inconsistent with cultivated taste, as with Christian simplicity and sobriety. On this point, my views have already been expressed with sufficient distinctness, and they will appear more fully, in considering the appropriate style of sermons. But certainly there is a decent regard to ornament, not beneath the dignity of the pulpit. Style may be both clear and forcible, while it is harsh and repulsive. The Christian soldier, in fighting the battles of his Master, deserves no applause for the rust that covers his armour; especially since the sword of truth suffers no abatement of its keenness or its strength by being polished.

Why do we speak to others? Not merely to instruct and convince them; but also to persuade :-to conquer their prejudices; to rouse them from indolence to feeling and action. We must remember then, that we are not to address the understanding only. Every plain man has passions, and more or less of imagination. The leafless forests of December excite no such pleasing emotions in him, as he feels from the charms of spring and the rich foliage of summer. For the same reason, a dry and naked style interests him less, than one which possesses the

* See Lectures on Homiletics etc. p. 172.

spirit and vivacity of a just embellishment. We may appeal in this case to a higher authority than that of Greece and Rome; to the authority of our Saviour himself. Consistently with his exalted character as a divine teacher, he did not scruple to give an attractive dress to his public discourses. Nothing can surpass the simple beauty of his parables, in their adaptedness to fix attention and impress the heart.

Under the head of BEAUTY in writing, may, with sufficient accuracy for my present purpose, be comprehended harmony and elegance. I. Harmony.

To analyze the principles of what the ancients called numerous composition, and their nice rules of measure, quantity, and cadence, might be amusing to the mere scholar, though it can scarcely deserve the serious attention of one who is to minister in holy things. But to avoid that harshness which offends, and that monotony which tires the ear, is an object of no inconsiderable importance to any one, who would convey his thoughts to others in the most interesting manner. This requires attention both to the selection of single words, and to their combination.

As to the choice of words, Longinus says,—“ it has a wonderful effect in winning upon an audience. It clothes a composition in the most beautiful dress; it animates our thoughts and inspires them with a sort of vocal life."

On this point one general principle is to be regarded; that whatever is uttered with difficulty, is painful to the hearer. The least attention to the analysis of letters, will show that some are long, others short; some full and open, others narrow; some soft and smooth, others hard and rough. It will follow, especially in the combination of letters, that some will occasion very little, and others very great effort to the organs of speech. The flowing smoothness of certain celebrated passages in the Greek and Roman poets, is accounted for on this principle.

On the same principle, we should avoid as far as possible another fault, to which our theological writers have a strong pro

pensity; I mean such tedious and unseemly compounds as unsuccessfulness, wrong-headedness, worldly-mindedness.

We may consider harmony as it is affected by the combination of words, both in the composition of members, and in that arrangement of members, which forms a flowing period.

The order of words in a member should be such as not to compel the vocal organs to pause betwixt sounds, where no pause is required by the sense. For the same reason that a collision of open vowels retards utterance, certain uncombinable consonants are spoken with great difficulty. Without considerable effort in articulation, the ear will not distinguish betwixt "his cry moved me" and "his crime moved me."

A succession of monosyllables, as they occasion uniformity and great deliberation in utterance, renders style heavy. The effect is somewhat like that of placing an accent on each syllable of long words. So far as harmony depends on variety, a succession of very long words must also be unfavorable. From the multiplicity of monosyllables in our language, the former fault is much more likely to occur than the latter. As an example of smooth construction arising from a proper combination of long and short words, this passage from an address of our Saviour may be mentioned; "Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these."

Another violation of harmony, arises from the recurrence of similar letters and sounds. This critics have called alliteration. Very little refinement of ear is necessary to perceive the defect in this sentence: "A division by various pauses, into proportionate clauses, causes the distinction of verse from prose." And this; "A declamation on the state of the nation, contained this observation,"

There is another kind of sentence, extremely common in careless composition, where the recurrence of similar sounds is combined with the heaviness of monosyllabic structure. There are two cases in which I have most frequently observed this of