The Philosophy of Style - Paperback

by Herbert Spencer (Author)

Herbert Spencer sets here to describe the rules that capture how best to use language - namely how to convey ideas in such a way so that they leave their impression while at the same time the mental energies and mental sensitivities of the reader/listener are economised. (Thus for example the principle of the 'economy of mental energies' is itself one of the principles of composition.) Some of the rules Spencer describes are fairly straightforward, other of the rules are more original