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DIG. Style — bad.
Causes of — 1st. The Notion
that precision
is as the
Number of the
words. 1st. Among
Lawyers.
Where two circumstances are frequently concomitant there
is nothing to which men are more prone than to regard one
as the cause of the other, especially if by accident that one be
actually so sometimes.
There are no set of men who have greater occasion to pay so
much attention to the precision & force of words, as Lawyers.
There are no set of men who give so many words as Lawyers
Hence it becomes a notion, tho' the precision of the legal words
is owing to their multitubde.
It is true that where the import of a word is vague the addition
of another word shall make it precise: but it is as
true that where the import of a word is precise, the adition
of another shall make it vague — and this latter effect is
as apt to take place as is the former.
Where the sole business as here is to express Ideas clearly
(for I speak not of subjects that admitts of ornament) let it
be only one done by the number that is sufficient to perform
that office: every word that comes afterwards is a nuisance.
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Physicians.
This is not peculiar to Law. Physicians alike obliged to make a parade,
and conceal the simplicity of their remedies - +
+ expedients; operations
Naaman and Elijah — If it were some
great thing thou wouldst have done it.
Source of this, ignorance. The who knows — but I?
The effect of a thing unknown, not understood
is not to be gainsaid. The stock of incognita
is an inexhaustible fund of hope and expectation.
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2d. Among Laymen.
This misfortune prejudice has passed from those
who gain to those by it, to those who have
the burthen of it. Many a plain man is
infatuated with the of The power of
words is conceived to be in proportion to
their number. Many an honest man,
daps to a hasty conclusion which [+]
[+] the general language
and practise of
lawyers, or perhaps
some ill-
considered examples have occasioned made him to
form, has contracted as strong an attachment
to this notion, as his Lawyer, were
he ever so mercenary, could wish him him to
entertain. He bespeaks more words under
the notion of more security: for his possessions:
and imagines his chance for keeping possession
of the estate he is about purchasing, to
rise with the number of studies in his
conveyance?
He weighs his money against the parchment:
He measures the value of the work he is to
pay for, by the difficulty of doing it: and the
difficulty of doing it, by the difficulty he
finds in understanding it when it is done.
He pays his money chearfully for a heap of
jargon which he fancies learned because it
is perplexed and unintelligible to him, and effectual because
it's is tedious: he would think himself cheated
were it short and plain.
The more perspicuous a composition is, that
is the more it approaches to what any body
might write may understand, the more it appears
to be what any body might compose. write. be author of.
By going directly to the mark and that: asked of
it shews the way, and that so plainly that
a man is apt to imagine him it appears as if any man might have found
it of himself.
Like Monsieur Jourdain, who great listen'd with
open admirer mouth to what was said of prose so long
as he knew not what it meant: but was had like to
have been put out of conceit of it, when told that it was
what he had been speaking all his life
CONITOS. Stat. as a discourse. Verbosity. Imaginary Necessity of. [BR.] [ ]
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Identifier: | JB/070/073/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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073 |
compos. stat. as a discourse. verbosity. imaginary necessity of |
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[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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