it forms the style as it forms the syntax. Each
small edifice occupies a distinct position, and but
one, in the great total edifice. As the discourse
advances, each section must in turn file in, never
before, never after, no parasitic member being allowed
to intrude, and no regular member being allowed to
encroach on its neighbor, while all these members
bound together by their very positions must move onward,
combining all their forces on one single point.
Finally, we have for the first time in a writing,
natural and distinct groups, complete and compact
harmonies, none of which infringe on the others or
allow others to infringe on them. It is no longer
allowable to write haphazard, according to the caprice
of one’s inspiration, to discharge one’s
ideas in bulk, to let oneself be interrupted by parentheses,
to string along interminable rows of citations and
enumerations. An end is proposed; some truth
is to be demonstrated, some definition to be ascertained,
some conviction to be brought about; to do this we
must march, and ever directly onward. Order,
sequence, progress, proper transitions, constant development
constitute the characteristics of this style.
To such an extent is this pushed, that from the very
first, personal correspondence, romances, humorous
pieces, and all ironical and gallant effusions, consist
of morsels of systematic eloquence.[22] At the Hôtel
Rambouillet, the explanatory period is displayed with
as much fullness and as rigorously as with Descartes
himself. One of the words most frequently occurring
with Mme. de Scudéry is the conjunction for (in
French car). Passion is worked out through close-knit
arguments. Drawing room compliments stretch along
in sentences as finished as those of an academical
dissertation. Scarcely completed, the instrument
already discloses its aptitudes. We are aware
of its being made to explain, to demonstrate, to persuade
and to popularize. Condillac, a century later,
is justified in saying that it is in itself a systematic
means of decomposition and of recomposition, a scientific
method analogous to arithmetic and algebra. At
the very least it possesses the incontestable advantage
of starting with a few ordinary terms, and of leading
the reader along with facility and promptness, by
a series of simple combinations, up to the loftiest.[23]
By virtue of this, in 1789, the French tongue ranks
above every other. The Berlin Academy promises
a prize to for anyone who best can explain its pre-eminence.
It is spoken throughout Europe. No other language
is used in diplomacy. As formerly with Latin,
it is international, and appears that, from now on,
it is to be the preferred tool whenever men are to
reason.