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332 THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
of Simplicity. 3.
The Law of Sequence. 4. The Law of
Climax.
5. The Law of Variety.
It would be easy to reduce these five to three, and range
all
considerations under Economy, Climax, and Variety; or we
might amplify the divisions; but there are reasons of convenience
as well as symmetry which give a preference to the
five. I had arranged them thus for convenience some years
ago, and I now find they express the equivalence of the two
great factors of Style Intelligence and Sensibility. Two
out of the five, Economy and Simplicity, more specially derive
their significance from intellectual needs ;
another two,
Climax and Variety, from emotional needs ;
and between
these is the Law of Sequence,
which is intermediate in its
nature, and may be claimed with equal justice by both.
The
laws of force and the laws of pleasure can only be provisionally
isolated in our inquiry; in style they are blended. The following
brief estimate of each considers it as an isolated principle
undetermined by any other.
I. The Law of Economy
Our inquiry is scientific, not empirical;
it therefore seeks
the psychological basis for every law, endeavoring to ascertain
what condition of a reader's receptivity determines the
law. Fortunately for us, in the case of the first and most
important law the psychological basis is extremely simple,
and may be easily appreciated by a reference to its analogue
in Mechanics. 8
What is the first object
vis viva.
of a machine? Effective work
Every means by which friction can be reduced, and
the force thus economized be rendered available, necessarily
solicits the constructor's care. He seeks as far as possible
to liberate the motion which is absorbed in the working of