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BUFFON
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and display their emotions with force;
purely mechanical they
and by an impression
transmit their own enthusiasm and
feelings to others. It is body speaking to body;
all movements
and all gestures combine equally for service. What,
indeed, is requisite
in order to arouse and draw on the crowd ?
What do we need if we would agitate and persuade even the
more intelligent
? A vehement and affecting tone, expressive
and frequent gestures, rapid and ringing words. But
for the limited number of those whose heads are steady,
whose taste is delicate, whose sense is refined, and who,
like you, Gentlemen, set little value on cadence, gestures, and
the empty sound of words, one must have substance, thoughts,
them and
arguments; and one must know how to present
sjiade them and arrange them. It is not enough to strike
the ear and hold the eye; one must work on the soul, and
touch the sensibilities
Style is
thoughts.
by addressing the mind.
simply the order and movement one gives to one's
If these are connected closely, and rigorously
d, the >tyle will be firm, nervous, and concise. If
they are allowed to follow one another loosely and merely at
ad of the diction, however choice this be, the style
will be diffuse, nervele>s, and languid.
However, before seeking the particular order in which
actually to present his thoughts, the writer must first form
another more general and more absolute order, where only
primary
.
a and fundamental id
It is
.'m their places in this prior plan that he sees his subject
growing rirrumscribrd, and comes to realize its true extent;
and it is
by keeping these first outlines continually before
him that he is able to determine the proper intervals bet
the main ideas and develops the accessory and intermediary
ideas that shall serve to fill in.
By sh< of genius he
will ^ni-p the sum of these general and particular
ideas in