For his capacity, you are to be quicker and fuller of those reaches and
glances of wit or learning, as he is able to entertain them.
glances of wit or learning, as he is able to entertain them.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
" or the like; that go a-begging for
some meaning, and labour to be delivered of the great burden of nothing.
When you have invented, and that your business be matter, and not bare
form, or mere ceremony, but some earnest, then are you to proceed to the
ordering of it, and digesting the parts, which is had out of two
circumstances. One is the understanding of the persons to whom you are
to write; the other is the coherence of your sentence; for men's capacity
to weigh what will be apprehended with greatest attention or leisure;
what next regarded and longed for especially, and what last will leave
satisfaction, and (as it were) the sweetest memorial and belief of all
that is passed in his understanding whom you write to. For the
consequence of sentences, you must be sure that every clause do give the
cue one to the other, and be bespoken ere it come. So much for invention
and order.
_Modus_. --1. _Brevitas_. --Now for fashion: it consists in four things,
which are qualities of your style. The first is brevity; for they must
not be treatises or discourses (your letters) except it be to learned
men. And even among them there is a kind of thrift and saving of words.
Therefore you are to examine the clearest passages of your understanding,
and through them to convey the sweetest and most significant words you
can devise, that you may the easier teach them the readiest way to
another man's apprehension, and open their meaning fully, roundly, and
distinctly, so as the reader may not think a second view cast away upon
your letter. And though respect be a part following this, yet now here,
and still I must remember it, if you write to a man, whose estate and
sense, as senses, you are familiar with, you may the bolder (to set a
task to his brain) venture on a knot. But if to your superior, you are
bound to measure him in three farther points: first, with interest in
him; secondly, his capacity in your letters; thirdly, his leisure to
peruse them. For your interest or favour with him, you are to be the
shorter or longer, more familiar or submiss, as he will afford you time.
For his capacity, you are to be quicker and fuller of those reaches and
glances of wit or learning, as he is able to entertain them. For his
leisure, you are commanded to the greater briefness, as his place is of
greater discharges and cares. But with your betters, you are not to put
riddles of wit, by being too scarce of words; not to cause the trouble of
making breviates by writing too riotous and wastingly. Brevity is
attained in matter by avoiding idle compliments, prefaces, protestations,
parentheses, superfluous circuit of figures and digressions: in the
composition, by omitting conjunctions [_not only_, _but also_; _both the
one and the other_, _whereby it cometh to pass_] and such like idle
particles, that have no great business in a serious letter but breaking
of sentences, as oftentimes a short journey is made long by unnessary
baits.
_Quintilian_. --But, as Quintilian saith, there is a briefness of the parts
sometimes that makes the whole long: "As I came to the stairs, I took a
pair of oars, they launched out, rowed apace, I landed at the court gate,
I paid my fare, went up to the presence, asked for my lord, I was
admitted. " All this is but, "I went to the court and spake with my
lord. " This is the fault of some Latin writers within these last hundred
years of my reading, and perhaps Seneca may be appeached of it; I accuse
him not.
2. _Perspicuitas_. --The next property of epistolary style is perspicuity,
and is oftentimes by affectation of some wit ill angled for, or
ostentation of some hidden terms of art. Few words they darken speech,
and so do too many; as well too much light hurteth the eyes, as too
little; and a long bill of chancery confounds the understanding as much
as the shortest note; therefore, let not your letters be penned like
English statutes, and this is obtained. These vices are eschewed by
pondering your business well and distinctly concerning yourself, which is
much furthered by uttering your thoughts, and letting them as well come
forth to the light and judgment of your own outward senses as to the
censure of other men's ears; for that is the reason why many good
scholars speak but fumblingly; like a rich man, that for want of
particular note and difference can bring you no certain ware readily out
of his shop. Hence it is that talkative shallow men do often content the
hearers more than the wise. But this may find a speedier redress in
writing, where all comes under the last examination of the eyes. First,
mind it well, then pen it, then examine it, then amend it, and you may be
in the better hope of doing reasonably well.
some meaning, and labour to be delivered of the great burden of nothing.
When you have invented, and that your business be matter, and not bare
form, or mere ceremony, but some earnest, then are you to proceed to the
ordering of it, and digesting the parts, which is had out of two
circumstances. One is the understanding of the persons to whom you are
to write; the other is the coherence of your sentence; for men's capacity
to weigh what will be apprehended with greatest attention or leisure;
what next regarded and longed for especially, and what last will leave
satisfaction, and (as it were) the sweetest memorial and belief of all
that is passed in his understanding whom you write to. For the
consequence of sentences, you must be sure that every clause do give the
cue one to the other, and be bespoken ere it come. So much for invention
and order.
_Modus_. --1. _Brevitas_. --Now for fashion: it consists in four things,
which are qualities of your style. The first is brevity; for they must
not be treatises or discourses (your letters) except it be to learned
men. And even among them there is a kind of thrift and saving of words.
Therefore you are to examine the clearest passages of your understanding,
and through them to convey the sweetest and most significant words you
can devise, that you may the easier teach them the readiest way to
another man's apprehension, and open their meaning fully, roundly, and
distinctly, so as the reader may not think a second view cast away upon
your letter. And though respect be a part following this, yet now here,
and still I must remember it, if you write to a man, whose estate and
sense, as senses, you are familiar with, you may the bolder (to set a
task to his brain) venture on a knot. But if to your superior, you are
bound to measure him in three farther points: first, with interest in
him; secondly, his capacity in your letters; thirdly, his leisure to
peruse them. For your interest or favour with him, you are to be the
shorter or longer, more familiar or submiss, as he will afford you time.
For his capacity, you are to be quicker and fuller of those reaches and
glances of wit or learning, as he is able to entertain them. For his
leisure, you are commanded to the greater briefness, as his place is of
greater discharges and cares. But with your betters, you are not to put
riddles of wit, by being too scarce of words; not to cause the trouble of
making breviates by writing too riotous and wastingly. Brevity is
attained in matter by avoiding idle compliments, prefaces, protestations,
parentheses, superfluous circuit of figures and digressions: in the
composition, by omitting conjunctions [_not only_, _but also_; _both the
one and the other_, _whereby it cometh to pass_] and such like idle
particles, that have no great business in a serious letter but breaking
of sentences, as oftentimes a short journey is made long by unnessary
baits.
_Quintilian_. --But, as Quintilian saith, there is a briefness of the parts
sometimes that makes the whole long: "As I came to the stairs, I took a
pair of oars, they launched out, rowed apace, I landed at the court gate,
I paid my fare, went up to the presence, asked for my lord, I was
admitted. " All this is but, "I went to the court and spake with my
lord. " This is the fault of some Latin writers within these last hundred
years of my reading, and perhaps Seneca may be appeached of it; I accuse
him not.
2. _Perspicuitas_. --The next property of epistolary style is perspicuity,
and is oftentimes by affectation of some wit ill angled for, or
ostentation of some hidden terms of art. Few words they darken speech,
and so do too many; as well too much light hurteth the eyes, as too
little; and a long bill of chancery confounds the understanding as much
as the shortest note; therefore, let not your letters be penned like
English statutes, and this is obtained. These vices are eschewed by
pondering your business well and distinctly concerning yourself, which is
much furthered by uttering your thoughts, and letting them as well come
forth to the light and judgment of your own outward senses as to the
censure of other men's ears; for that is the reason why many good
scholars speak but fumblingly; like a rich man, that for want of
particular note and difference can bring you no certain ware readily out
of his shop. Hence it is that talkative shallow men do often content the
hearers more than the wise. But this may find a speedier redress in
writing, where all comes under the last examination of the eyes. First,
mind it well, then pen it, then examine it, then amend it, and you may be
in the better hope of doing reasonably well.
