Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
As to writing, in this age of magniloquence I would advise every one to be very careful to use no more words than are necessary to express thought. Aim at the Aristotelic. Some men seem desirous of adumbrating their thoughts by their words. They inoculate their thought, and often with a virus. Some writers — word-fanciers — seem first to have secured a good stock of terms, if with the “curiosa felicitas,” so much the better; and then they consider how they may best fit them into a sentence!
But the result is like that of a word-fancier’s essay I once read, and a friend asked, “Is it not deep?” I answered, “Not deep, but drumlie.” Now the drumlie often looks very deep. … I always recommend Aristotle for his clearness. There is no writer like him for using no more words than he had thoughts. He is the very model of the precise and the full together. The Schoolmen lost this. Aquinas is far behind his “Philosophus” in this. But he is much subtiler. Subtility is the main feature of scholasticism.
For the reference, see John Duncan on Aristotle and literary style.
But the result is like that of a word-fancier’s essay I once read, and a friend asked, “Is it not deep?” I answered, “Not deep, but drumlie.” Now the drumlie often looks very deep. … I always recommend Aristotle for his clearness. There is no writer like him for using no more words than he had thoughts. He is the very model of the precise and the full together. The Schoolmen lost this. Aquinas is far behind his “Philosophus” in this. But he is much subtiler. Subtility is the main feature of scholasticism.
For the reference, see John Duncan on Aristotle and literary style.
