next question would then be "How is Hiram?" To answer that, he had simply to telegraph one word. In a letter afterwards, he gave the particulars.
The following rules should be observed in writing:
First. Never use a word that does not add some new thought, or modify some idea already expressed.
Second. Beware of introducing so many subjects into one sentence as to confuse the sense.
Third. Long and short sentences should be properly intermixed, in order to give a pleasing sound in reading. There is generally a rounded harmony in the long sentence, not found in the short, though as a rule, in order to express meaning plainly, it is better to use short sentences.
Fourth. Make choice of such words and phrases as people will readily understand.
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Rhetorical Figures.
THE beauty, force, clearness, and brevity of language are frequently greatly enhanced by the judicious use of rhetorical figures, which are named and explained as follows:
A Simile is an expressed comparison.
Exampre—"Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines."
The Metaphor is an implied comparison, indicating the resemblance of two objects by applying the name, quality or conduct of one directly to the other.
Examples—"Thy word is a lamp to my feet." "Life is an isthmus Between two eternities." "The morning of life." "The storms of life."
An Allegory is the recital of a story under which is a meaning different from what is expressed in words, the analogy and comparison being so plainly made that the designed conclusions are correctly drawn.
Example—Thou hast brought a vine (the Jewish nation) out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.—Bible.
In Hyperbole, through the effect of imagination or passion, we greatly exaggerate what is founded in truth, by magnifying the good qualities of objects we love, and diminish and degrade the objects that we dislike or envy.
Examples—"That fellow is so tall that he does not know when his feet are cold." "Brougham is a thunderbolt."
Personification consists in attributing life to things inanimate.
Example—"Hatred stirreth up strife; but love covereth all sins."
A Metonymy (Me-ton-y-my) substitutes the name of one object for that of another that sustains some relation to it, either by some degree of mutual dependence or otherwise so connected! as to be capable of suggesting it; thus cause is used for effect or the effect for the cause, the attribute for the subject or the subject for the attribute.
Exammples—1. Cause and effect; as "Extravagance is the ruin of many,"— that is, the cause of ruin.
2. Attribute and that to which it belongs; as "Pride shall be brought low"—that is, the proud.
A Synecdoche (sin-ek-do-ke) is a form of speech wherein something more or something less is substituted for the precise object meant, as when the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole; the singular for the plural or the plural for the singular.
Examples—"His head is grey,"—that is, his hair. "The world considers him a man of talent,"—that is, the people.
Antithesis is the contrasting of opposites.
Exampies—"Sink or swim, live or die,survive or perish, I give my hand and heart to this yote." "Though deep yet clear."
Irony is a form of speech in which the writer or speaker sneeringly means the reverse of what is literally said, the words being usually mockery uttered for the sake of ridicule or sarcasm. Irony is a very effective weapon of attack, the form of language being such as scarcely to admit of a reply.
Example—"Have not the Indians been kindly and justly treated? Have not the temporal things, the vain baubles and filthy lucre of this world, which are too apt to engage their worldly and selfish thoughts, been benevolently taken from them; and have they not instead thereof, been taught to set their affections on things above?"
Paralipsis pretends to conceal what is really expressed.
Example—"I will not call him villain, because it would be unparliamentary. I will not call him fool, because he happens to be chancellor of the exchequer."
Climax is the gradual ascending in the expression of thought, from things lower to a higher and better. Reversed, it is called anticlimax.
