HAVING discussed the subject of perspicuity, by which the
discourse is fitted to inform the understanding, I come now
to those qualities of style by which it is adapted to please the
imagination, and, consequently, to awaken and fix the atten-
tion. These I have already denominated vivacity and ele-
gance, which correspond to the two sources whence, as was
observed in the beginning of this inquiry, ^* the merit of an ad-
dress to the fancy immediately results. By vivacity of ex-
pression, resemblance is attained, as far as language can con-
tribute to the attainment; by elegance, dignity of manner.

I begin with vivacity, whose nature (though perhaps the
word is rarely used in a signification so extensive) will be best
understood by considering the several principles from which
it arises. There are three things in a style on which its vi-
vacity depends, the choice of words, their number, and their
arrangement.

The first thing, then, that comes to be examined is the
words chosen. Words are either proper terms or rhetorical
tropes; and whether the one or the other, they may be re-
garded not only as signs, but as sounds; and, consequently,
as capable, in certain cases, of bearing in some degree a nat-
ural resemblance or affinity to the things signified. These
three articles, therefore, proper terms, rhetorical tropes, and
the relation which the sound may be made to bear to the
sense, I shall, on the first topic, the choice of words, consider
severally, as far as concerns the subject of vivacity.

I BEGIN with proper terms, and observe that the quality of
chief importance in these for producing the end proposed is
their speciality. Nothing can contribute more to enliven the
expression than that all the words employed be as particular
and determinate in their signification as will suit with the na-
ture and the scope of the discourse. The more general the

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