Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

STYLE—.SIMPLICITY.
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e?ery ornament, whkh is unfuitabk or redundant.
That tinfel fplendor of language, which fome writers
perpetually affedl, is truly contemptible. With fuch.
it is a luxuriancy of words, not of fancy. They forget,
that, unlefs founded on good fenfe and folid thought,
the moll florid ftyle is but a childifh impofition on the
public.
STYLE. SIMPLE, AFFECTED, VEHEMENT.
DIRECTIONS for forming a PROPER
^ STYLE.
SlMPLICITY, applied to writing, is a term very
Commonly ufed ; but, like many other critical terms,
often ufed without precifion. Tha different meanings
of the word firhplicity are the chief caufe of this inac¬
curacy. It is therefore neceffary to fhow, in what fenfe
limplicity is a proper attribute of ftyle. There are
four different acceptations, in which this term is taken.
The firft is fimplicity of compofition, as oppofed to '
too great a variety of parts. This is the fimplicity of
plan in tragedy.j as diftinguifhed from double plots
and crowded incidents ; the fimplicity of the Iliad in
oppofition to the digreflions of Lucan ; the fimplicity
of Grecian architefture in oppofition to the irregular va¬
riety of the Gothic. ^ Simplicity in this fenfe is the fame
with unity.'.