Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

THE ATTEMPT
101
It is the fault of our plan, of a want of sufficient consideration of our subject,
when our mind finds itself at a loss, not knowing where to begin. "We perceive a
flood of ideas, and if we have not properly compared them, there is nothing to determine
us which to prefer, and thus we remain in perplexity. But when a plan is made, when
once we have assembled and put in order the thoughts essential to our subject, we
instantly see to which to turn, we understand the final point in the mind’s production,
we long to reach and disclose it,—it is a pleasure to write, idea precedes idea easily, the
style becomes natural and flowing, warmth springs from our pleasure spreading over
all, giving life to each expression, growing more and more animated as we advance, the
tone is elevated, objects take colour from it, light kindles, increasing and lured on from
what is written to what is yet to come, and the style grows insensibly clear and
interesting.
Nothing is more at variance with warmth and animation than a desire to introduce
striking effects. Nothing is more opposed to that clear light which ought to shine
equally over our whole writing, than those flashing sparks produced by the clash of
words against each other; they dazzle you a moment, to leave you in darkness deeper
from the momentary flash. These are the thoughts which shine only by opposition;
they present only one side of the object, throwing all the rest into shadow, and generally
this side is an angle, round which the wit can the more easily play, that it is farthest
removed from all those points from which good sense is in the habit of considering
things. And nothing is more against true eloquence than the employment of ingenious
conceits and tricks of expression, and a search after ideas light and delicate, but
without consistence, which, like the beaten gold leaf, gain brilliancy only through loss
of solidity. The more we find of these frothy sparkling fancies, the less we shall have
of nerve, fervour, and life in style, unless the foundation of the subject is pleasantry,
when indeed the art of saying little things is admirable, and perhaps more difficult
than the art of saying great ones.
Nothing is so incompatible with natural ease and fluency as taking great trouble
to explain common things. Such unfortunates as do so, begin in a stilled and pompous
manner; nothing so degrades a writer! Far from admiring it, we pity them for
having spent so much time in making new combinations of syllables, only to say what
all the world says. This is the fault not of cultivated, but barren minds. They have
words in abundance, but no ideas; they work with words, and imagine they have
combined ideas, because they have arranged phrases; they fancy they have purified
the language, when they have only perverted its acceptations. Such writers have no
style, or, if they will, only the shadow of it. Style should be the engraving of thoughts ;