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inct_ statement has its important thoughts _bound_ into small compass, as by a girdle. A _compendious_ statement _weighs together_ the various thoughts and aspects of a subject; it shows by means of a few effective words just what these amount to, gives a summary of them. A _compact_ statement has its units of thought _fastened together_ into firmness of structure; its brevity is well-knit. A _sententious_ statement gives _feelings_ or opinions_ in a strikingly pointed or axiomatic way, so that they can be easily grasped and remembered; if _sententious_ is unfavorably used, the statement may be filled with paraded platitudes. A _pithy_ statement gives the very _pith_, the heart of a matter; it is sometimes slightly quaint, always effective and arresting. A _laconic_ statement is made in the manner of _the Spartans_, who hated talk and used as few words as possible. A _curt_ statement is _made short_; its abruptness is oftentimes more or less rude. _Sentences_: "A tale should be judicious, clear, ____. The language plain, and incidents well link'd." "Charles Lamb made the most ____ criticism of Spenser when he called him the poet's poet." With a ____ disdainful answer she turned away. The sermon was filled with ____ sayings. By omitting all irrelevant details, he made his statement of the case ____. It requires great skill to give a ____ statement of what such a treatise contains. A proverb is a ____ statement of a truth. <Death, decease, demise.> Men are as mindful of rank and pretension in their terms for the cessation of life as in their choice of tombstones for the departed. _Death_ is the great, democratic, unspoilable word. It is not too good for a clown or too poor for an emperor. _Decease_ is a more formal word. Its employment is often legal--the death proves to be of sufficient importance for the law (and the lawyers) to take notice. _Demise_, however, is outwardly the most resplendent term of all. It implies that the victim cut a wide swath even in death. It is used of an illustrious person, as a king, who transmits his title to an heir. Ordinary people cannot afford a _demise_. If the term is applied to their shuffling off of this mortal coil, the use is euphemistic and likely to be stilted. _Sentences_: "The crown at the moment of ____ must descend to the next heir." "____ is a fearful thing." "In their ____ they were not divided." At the ____ of his father he inherited the estate. "Each shall take
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