Satires are discourses or poems in which wickedness and folly are exposed with severity, or held up to ridicule. They differ from Lampoons and Pasquinades, in being general, rather than personal, and from sarcasm, in not expressing contempt or scorn.

Satires are usually included under the head of didactic poems, but every class of poems may include the satirical. In satires it is the class, the crime, or the folly, which is the proper object of attack, and not the individual.

A Lampoon, or Pasquinade, is a personal satire, written with the intention of reproaching, irritating, or vexing the individual, rather than to reform him. It is satisfied with low abuse and vituperation, rather than with proof or argument.

An Apophthegm, Apothegm, or Apothem, is a short, sententious, instructive remark, usually in prose, but rarely in verse, uttered on a particular occasion, or by a distinguished character; as that of Cato:

"Men, by doing nothing, soon learn to do mischief.”

LXXX.

STYLE.

"For different styles with different subjects sort,
As different garbs with country town and court."

n the Introduction to this volume, it was stated that the most obvious divisions of Composition, with respect to the nature of its subjects, are the Narrative, the Descriptive, the Didactic, the Persuasive, the Pathetic, and the Argumenta tive. The Narrative division embraces the relation of facts and events, real or fictitious. The Descriptive division includes descriptions of all kinds. The Didactic division comprehends, as its name implies, all kinds of pieces which are designed to convey instruction. The Pathetic division embraces such writings as are calculated to affect the feelings, or excite the passions; and the Argumentative division includes those only which are addressed to the understanding, with the

intention of affecting the judgment. These different divisions of composition are not always preserved distinct, but are sometimes united or mixed. With regard to forms of expression, a writer may express his ideas in various ways, thus laying the foundation of a distinction called STYLE.

Style, is defined by Dr. Blair, to be "the peculiar manner in which a writer expresses his thoughts by words."

Various terms are applied to style to express its character, as a harsh style, a dry style, a tumid or bombastic style, a loose style a terse style, a laconic or a verbose style, a flowing style, a lofty style, an elegant style, an epistolary style, a formal style, a familiar style, &c.

The divisions of style, as given by Dr. Blair, are as follows: The diffuse and the concise, the nervous and the feeble, the dry, the plain, the neat, the elegant and the florid, the simple, the affected, and the vehement. These terms are altogether arbitrary, and are not uniformly ad opted in every treatise on rhetoric. Some writers use the terms barren and luxuriant, forcible and vehement, elevated and dignified, idiomatic, easy and animated, &c., in connexion with the terms, or some of the terms, employed by Dr. Blair.

The character of style, and the term by which it is designated, depends partly on the clearness and fulness with which the idea is expressed, partly on the degree of ornament or of figurative language employed, and partly on the nature of the ideas themselves.

The terms concise, diffuse, nervous, and feeble, refer to the clearness, the fulness, and the force with which the idea is expressed. Dry, plain, neat, and florid, are terms used to express the degree of ornament employed; while the character of the thoughts or ideas themselves is expressed by the names of simple or natural, affected and vehement.

A concise writer compresses his ideas into the fewest words, and these the most expressive.

A diffuse writer unfolds his idea fully, by placing it in a variety of lights. A nervous writer gives us a strong idea of his meaning-his words are always expressive-every phrase and every figure renders the picture which he would set before us more striking and complete.

A feeble writer has an indistinct view of his subject; unmeaning words and loose epithets escape him; his expressions are vague and general, his arrangements indistinct, and our conception of his meaning will be faint and confused.

* Under the head of Conciseness in style may be noticed what is called the Laconic Style, from the inhabitants of Laconia, who were remarkable for using few words. As an instance of that kind of style, may be mentioned the celebrated reply of Leonidas king of Sparta to Xerxes, who, with his army of over a million of men, was opposed by Leonidas, with only three hundred. When Xerxes sent to him with the haughty direction to lay down his arms, the Spartan king replied, with characteristic brevity, Come and take them."

Another instance of the same is afforded in the celebrated letter of Dr. Franklin to Mr. Strahan, which is in these words:

"Mr. Strahan,

"Philadelphia, July 5th, 1775.

"You are a member of that Parliament, and have formed part of that majority, which has condemned my native country to destruction.

"You have begun to burn our towns, and to destroy their inhabitants.

"Look at your hands, they are stained with the blood of your relations and your acquaintances.

You and I were long friends; you are at present my enemy, and I am yours.
"Benjamin Franklin."

A dry writer uses no ornament of any kind, and, content with being understood, aims not to please the fancy or the ear.

A plain writer employs very little ornament; he observes perspicuity, propriety, purity, and precision in his language, but attempts none of the graces of composition. A dry writer is incapable of ornament, — a plain writer goes not in pursuit of it.

A neat writer is careful in the choice of his words, and the graceful collocation of them. His sentences are free from the encumbrances of superfluous words, and his figures are short and accurate, rather than bold and glowing.

An elegant writer possesses all the graces of ornament, — polished periods, figurative language, harmonious expressions, and a great degree of purity n the choice of his words, all characterized by perspicuity and propriety. He is one, in short, who delights the fancy and the ear, while he informs the understanding.

A florid or flowery writer is characterized by excess of ornament; and seems to be more intent on beauty of language than solidity of thought.

A simple or natural writer is distinguished by simplicity of plan; he makes his thoughts appear to rise naturally from his subject; he has no marks of art in his expressions, and although he may be characterized by great richness both of language and imagination, he appears to write in that way not because he had studied it, but because it is the mode of expression most natural to him.

An affected writer is the very reverse of a simple one. He uses words in uncommon meanings - employs pompous expressions- and his whole manner is characterized by singularity rather than by beauty.

A vehement writer uses strong expressions-is characterized by considerable warmth of manner-and presents his ideas clearly and fully before us. *

The following directions are given by Dr. Blair for attaining a good style: The first direction is, study clear ideas of the subject on which you are to write or speak. What we conceive clearly and feel strongly, we natur ally express with clearness and strength.

Secondly, to the acquisition of a good style, frequency of composing is indispensably necessary. But it is not every kind of composition that will improve style. By a careless and hasty habit of writing, a bad style will be acquired. In the beginning, therefore, we ought to write slowly and with much care. Facility and speed are the fruit of experience.

Thirdly, acquaintance with the style of the best authors is peculiarly requisite. Hence a just taste will be formed, and a copious fund of words supplied on every subject. No exercise, perhaps, will be found more useful for acquiring a proper style, than translating some passage from an eminent author in our own words, and then comparing what we have written with the style of the author. Such an exercise will show us our defects. will teach us to correct them, and, from the variety of expression which it will exhibit, will conduct us to that which is most beautiful.

Fourthly, caution must be used against servile imitation of any author whatever. Desire of imitating hampers genius, and generally produces stiffness of expression. They who copy an author closely, commonly copy his faults as well as his beauties. It is much better to have something of our own, though of moderate beauty, than to shine in borrowed ornaments which will at last betray the poverty of our genius.

The student who would see the subject of style treated with great clearness and beauty, will find t treated with much elegance and ability in Newman's Rhetorick." His remarke on vivacity of style are particularly recommended to the careful study of the eares,

Fifthly, always adapt your style to the subject, and likewise to the capacity of your hearers or readers. When we are to write or to speak, we should previously fix in our minds a clear idea of the end aimed at; keep this steadily in view, and adapt our style to it. †

Lastly, let not attention to style engross us so much, as to prevent a nigher degree of attention to the thoughts. He is a contemptible writer, who looks not beyond the dress of language; who lays not the chief stress upon his matter, and employs not such ornaments of style as are manly not foppish.

LXXXI.

DIRECTIONS TO STUDENTS IN REVISING AND COR. RECTING THEIR COMPOSITIONS, BEFORE THEY ARE PRESENTED TO THE TEACHER.

Read over your exercise to ascertain, 1. whether the words are correctly spelled; 2. the pauses and capital letters are properly used; 3. that the possessive case is correctly written with the apostrophe and the letter s; 4. the hyphen placed between the parts of a compound word, and also used at the end of the line when part of the word is in one line and another part in the succeeding line (recollecting, in this case, that the letters of the same syllable must all be written in the same line); 5. that the marks of quotation are inserted when you have borrowed a sentence or an expression from any one else; 6. whether the pronouns are all of the same number with their antecedents, and the verbs of the same number with their nominatives; 7. whether you can get rid of some of the "ands" in your exercise, by means of the rules laid down in Lesson XX., and whether some other words may not be omitted without weakening the expression, and also

The change of persons in these rules, if not absolutely faulty, is certainly inelegant. The language is literally taken from the abridgment of Dr. Blair's Rhetorick. Two of the greatest faults that can be committed in writing consist in degrading a subject naturally elevated, by low expressions; - and the expressing a mean or trivial idea by high sounding epithets. The former is called Bathos; - and the latter Bombast.

The student who wishes for specimens of the various kinds of style men tioned above, will find quite a collection of them arranged under their appropriate neads, for examples in rhetoric, in a volume recently prepared by Mrs. L. C. Tuthill and printed and published by S. Babcock, of New Haven, called "The Young Ladies Reader." It was the author's design to insert such specimens in this volume, but he finds it necessary to reserve the space which they would occupy for other matter which he deems more important to the completion of his plan. For the same reason he has omitted the specimens which he intended to present in the respective depart ments of Narrative, Descriptive, Didactic, Pathetic, and Argumentative writing.

whether you have introduced all the words necessary for the full expression of your ideas; 8. whether you have repeated the same word in the same sentence, or in any sentence near it, and have thus been betrayed into a tautology (See Lesson XXII.); 9. whether you cannot divide some of your long sentences into shorter ones, and thereby better preserve the unity of the sentence (See Lesson XXXI.); and lastly, whether part or parts of your exercise may not be divided into separate paragraphs.

The following rules must also be observed.

1. No abbreviations are allowable in prose, and numbers (except in dates) must be expressed in words, not in figures.

2. In all cases, excepting where despatch is absolutely necessary, the character &, and others of a similar nature, must not be used, but the whole word must be written out.

3. The letters of the same syllable must always be written in the same line. When there is not room in a line for all the letters of a syllable, they must all be carried into the next line; and when a word is divided by placing one or more of the syllables in one line, and the remainder in the following line, the hyphen must always be placed at the end of the

former line.

4. The title of the piece must always be in a line by itself, and should be written in larger letters than the exercise itself.

5. The exercise should be commenced not at the extreme left hand of the line, but a little towards the right. Every separate paragraph should also commence in the same way.

6. The crotchets or brackets which enclose a parenthesis should be used as sparingly as possible. Their place may often be supplied by

commas.

Suggestions to Teachers with regard to the written exercises of Students.

1. Examine the exercise in reference to all those points laid down in the directions for students in reviewing and correcting their compositions. (See page 303.)

2. Merits for composition should be predicated on their neatness, correctness, (in the particulars stated in the direc tions to pupils, page 303), length, style, &c.; but the highest merits should be given for the strongest evidence of intellect in the production of ideas, and original sentiments and forms of expression.

3. Words that are misspelt, should be spelled by the whole class, and those words which are frequently misspelt should