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    The Philosophy of Style
    The Philosophy of Style
    The Philosophy of Style
    Ebook51 pages30 minutes

    The Philosophy of Style

    By Herbert Spencer

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    Classic essay, first published in 1852.According to Wikipedia: "Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, prominent classical liberal political theorist, and sociological theorist of the Victorian era. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. In 1902 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Indeed, in Great Britain and the United States at "one time Spencer's disciples had not blushed to compare him with Aristotle!" He is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest," which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he made use of Lamarckism rather than natural selection."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2018
    ISBN9781455351893

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      Book preview

      The Philosophy of Style - Herbert Spencer

      THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE BY HERBERT SPENCER

      Published by Seltzer Books

      established in 1974, now offering over 14,000 books

      feedback welcome: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com  

      Essays about the art of writing, the art of ficiton, the art of literature, and style, available from Seltzer Books:

      The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson

      The Art of Fiction by Henry James

      On the Art of Writing by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

      On the Art of Reading by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

      The Poetics by Aristotle

      The Art of Literature by Schopenhauer

      Style by Walter Raleigh

      The Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer

      PART I.  CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL ENERGIES.

      i. The Principle of Economy.

      ii. Economy in the Use of Words.

      iii The Principle of Economy applied to Sentences.

      iv. The Principle of Economy applied to Figures.

      v. Suggestion as a Means of Economy.

      vi. The Effect of Poetry explained.

      PART II. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL SENSIBILITIES.

      i. The Law of Mental Exhaustion and Repair.

      ii Explanation of Climax, Antithesis, and Anticlimax.

      iii. Need of Variety.

      iv. The Ideal Writer.

      PART I.  CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL ENERGIES.

      i. The Principle of Economy.

       section 1.   Commenting on the seeming incongruity between his father's argumentative powers and his ignorance of formal logic, Tristram Shandy says:--It was a matter of just wonder with my worthy tutor, and two or three fellows of that learned society, that a man who knew not so much as the names of his tools, should be able to work after that fashion with them. Sterne's intended implication that a knowledge of the principles of reasoning neither makes, nor is essential to, a good reasoner, is doubtless true. Thus, too, is it with grammar. As Dr. Latham, condemning the usual school-drill in Lindley Murray, rightly remarks: Gross vulgarity is a fault to be prevented; but the proper prevention is to be got from habit--not rules. Similarly, there can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless. He who daily hears and reads well-framed sentences, will naturally more or less tend to use similar ones. And where there exists any mental idiosyncrasy--where there is a deficient verbal memory, or an inadequate sense of logical dependence, or but little perception of order, or a lack of constructive ingenuity; no amount of instruction will remedy the defect.  Nevertheless, some practical result may be expected from a familiarity with the principles of style. The endeavour to conform to laws may tell, though slowly. And if in no other way, yet, as facilitating revision, a knowledge of the thing to be achieved--a clear idea of what constitutes a beauty, and what a blemish--cannot fail to be of service.

       section 2.   No general theory of expression seems yet to have been enunciated. The maxims contained in works on composition and rhetoric, are presented in an unorganized form. Standing as isolated dogmas--as empirical generalizations, they are neither so clearly apprehended, nor so much respected, as they would be were they deduced from some simple first principle. We are told that brevity is the soul of wit. We hear styles condemned as verbose or involved. Blair says that every needless part of a sentence interrupts the description and clogs the image; and again, that long sentences fatigue the reader's attention. It is remarked by Lord Kaimes, that "to give the utmost force to a

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