h_(e')?"

*42. Epigram.*--It has been seen that the neglect of climax results in
lameness. Sometimes the suddenness of the descent produces amusement:
and when the descent is intentional and very sudden, the effect is
striking as well as amusing. Thus:--

(1) "You are not only not vicious, you are virtuous," is a _climax_.

(2) "You are not vicious, you are vice," is not _climax_, nor is it
_bathos_: it is _epigram_.[15]

Epigram may be defined as a "short sentence expressing truth under an
amusing appearance of incongruity." It is often antithetical.

"The Russian grandees came to { and diamonds," _climax_.
court dropping pearls { and vermin," _epigram_.

"These two nations were divided { and the bitter remembrance
by mutual fear { of recent losses," _climax_.
{ and mountains," _epigram_.

There is a sort of implied antithesis in:--

"He is full of information--(but flat also) like yesterday's _Times_."

"Verbosity is cured (not by a small, but) by a large vocabulary."

The name of epigram may sometimes be given to a mere antithesis;
_e.g._ "An educated man should know something of everything, and
everything of something."

*43. Let each sentence have one, and only one, principal subject of
thought.*

"This great and good man died on the 17th of September, 1683, leaving
behind him the memory of many noble actions, and a numerous family, of
whom three were sons; one of them, George, the eldest, heir to his
father's virtues, as well as to his principal estates in Cumberland,
where most of his father's property was situate, and shortly
afterwards elected member for the county, which had for several
generations returned this family to serve in Parliament." Here we have
(1) the "great and good man," (2) "George," (3) "the county,"
disputing which is to be considered the principal subject. Two, if not
three sentences should have been made, instead of one. Carefully avoid
a long sentence like this, treating of many different subjects on one
level. It is called _heterogeneous_.

*44. The connection between different sentences must be kept up by
Adverbs used as Conjunctions, or by means of some other connecting
words at the beginning of each sentence.*--Leave out the conjunctions
and other connecting words, and it will be seen that the following
sentences lose much of their meaning:--

"Pitt was in the army for a few months in time of pea