ject like this, which has for many years engaged the researches
of many minds, I shall not be expected to bring forward discoveries;
indeed, novelty would not unjustly be suspected of fallacy. The only
claim my exposition can have on the reader's attention is that of being
an attempt to systematise what has been hitherto either empirical
observation, or the establishment of critical rules on a false basis. I
know but of one exception to this sweeping censure, and that is the
essay on the Philosophy of Style, by Mr. Herbert Spencer, [Spencer's
ESSAYS: SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL, AND SPECULATIVE. First Series. 1858].
where for the first time, I believe, the right method was pursued of
seeking in psychological conditions for the true laws of expression.

The aims of Literature being instruction and delight, Style must in
varying degrees appeal to our intellect and our sensibilities,
sometimes reaching the intellect through the presentation of simple
ideas, and at others through the agitating influence of emotions;
sometimes awakening the sensibilities through the reflexes of ideas,
and sometimes through a direct appeal. A truth may be nakedly expressed
so as to stir the intellect alone; or it may be expressed in terms
which, without disturbing its clearness, may appeal to our sensibility
by their harmony or energy. It is not possible to distinguish the
combined influences of clearness, movement, and harmony, so as to
assign to each its relative effect; and if in the ensuing pages one law
is isolated from another, this must be understood as an artifice
inevitable in such investigations.

There are five laws under which all the conditions of Style may be
grouped.--1. The Law of Economy. 2. The Law of Simplicity. 3. The Law
of Sequence. 4, The Law of Climax. 5. The Law of Variety.

It would be easy to reduce these five to three, and range all
considerations under Economy, Climax, and Variety; or we might amplify
the divisions; but there are reasons of convenience as well as symmetry
which give a preference to the five. I had arranged them thus for
convenience some years ago, and I now find they express the equivalence
of the two great factors of Style---Intelligence and Sensibility. Two
out of the five, Economy and Simplicity, more specially derive their
significance from intellectual needs; another two, Climax and Variety,
from emotional needs; and between these is the Law of Sequence, which
is intermediate in its nature, and m