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276 THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
images with less loss of time and energy
than their later
learnt synonyms.
The further superiority possessed by Saxon English in its
comparative brevity, obviously comes under the same generalization.
If it be an advantage to express an idea in the
smallest number of words, then will it be an advantage to
express it in the smallest number of syllables. If circuitous
phrases and needless expletives distract the attention and
diminish the strength of the impression produced, then do
surplus articulations do so. A certain effort, though commonly
an inappreciable one, must be required to
recognize
every vowel and consonant. If, as all know, it is tiresome to
listen to an indistinct speaker, or read a badly written manuscript;
and if, as we cannot doubt, the fatigue is a cumulative
result of the attention needed to catch successive syllables;
it follows that attention is in such cases absorbed by each
syllable. And if this be true when the syllables are difficult
of recognition,
it will also be true, though in a less degree,
when the recognition of them is easy. Hence, the shortness
of Saxon words becomes a reason for their greater force.
One
qualification, however, must not be overlooked. A word
which in itself embodies the most important part of the idea
to be conveyed, especially when that idea is an emotional one,
may often with advantage be a polysyllabic word. Thus it
seems more forcible to say, "It is
magnificent" than "It is
grand" The word vast is not so powerful a one as stupendous.
Calling a thing nasty is not so effective as calling it disgusting.
There seem to be several causes for this exceptional superiority
of certain long words. We may ascribe it partly to
the fact that a voluminous, mouth-filling epithet is, by its
very size, suggestive of largeness or strength; witness the
immense pomposity of sesquipedalian verbiage: and when
great power or intensity has to be suggested, this association