To have a specific style is to be
poor in speech. If we remember that, in the far past, men had only
nouns and verbs to convey their ideas with, and that from then to
now the growth has been towards a greater number of implements of
thought, and consequently towards a greater complexity and variety
in their combinations; we may infer that we are now, in our use
of sentences, much what the primitive man was in his use of words;
and that a continuance of the process that has hitherto gone on,
must produce increasing heterogeneity in our modes of expression. As
now, in a fine nature, the play of the features, the tones of the
voice and its cadences, vary in harmony with every thought uttered;
so, in one possessed of a fully developed power of speech, the
mould in which each combination of words is cast will similarly
vary with, and be appropriate to the sentiment.
68. That a perfectly endowed man must unconsciously write in
all styles, we may infer from considering how styles originate.
Why is Johnson pompous, Goldsmith simple? Why is one author abrupt,
another rhythmical, another concise? Evidently in each case the
habitual mode of utterance must depend upon the habitual balance
of the nature.
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