less mental effort.

Sec. 32. Before dismissing this branch of our subject, it should be further
remarked, that even when addressing the most vigorous intellects, the
direct style is unfit for communicating ideas of a complex or abstract
character. So long as the mind has not much to do, it may be well able
to grasp all the preparatory clauses of a sentence, and to use
them effectively; but if some subtlety in the argument absorb the
attention--if every faculty be strained in endeavouring to catch the
speaker's or writer's drift, it may happen that the mind, unable to
carry on both processes at once, will break down, and allow the elements
of the thought to lapse into confusion.

iv. The Principle of Economy applied to Figures.

Sec. 33. Turning now to consider figures of speech, we may equally discern
the same general law of effect. Underlying all the rules given for
the choice and right use of them, we shall find the same fundamental
requirement--economy of attention. It is indeed chiefly because they so
well subserve this requirement, that figures of speech are employed. To
bring the mind more easily to the desired conception, is in many cases
solely, and in all cases mainly, their object.

Sec. 34. Let us begin with the figure called Synecdoche. The advantage
sometimes gained by putting a part for the whole, is due to the more
convenient, or more accurate, presentation of the idea. If, instead
of saying "a fleet of ten ships," we say "a fleet of ten _sail_," the
picture of a group of vessels at sea is more readily suggested; and is
so because the sails constitute the most conspicuous parts of vessels so
circumstanced: whereas the word _ships_ would very likely remind us of
vessels in dock. Again, to say, "_All hands_ to the pumps," is better
than to say, "All _men_ to the pumps," as it suggests the men in the
special attitude intended, and so saves effort. Bringing "gray _hairs_
with sorrow to the grave," is another expression, the effect of which
has the same cause.

Sec. 35. The occasional increase of force produced by Metonymy may be
similarly accounted for. "The low morality of _the bar,_" _is_ a phrase
both more brief and significant than the literal one it stands for. A
belief in the ultimate supremacy of intelligence over brute force, is
conveyed in a more concrete, and therefore more realizable form, if we
substitute _the pen_ and _the sword_ for the two abstract terms. To say,
"Beware of drinking