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.

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