'A Great Excellence in Style'

“[H]is own style being exceedingly dry and hard, he disapproved of the richness of Johnson's language, and of his frequent use of metaphorical expressions.” 

If Johnson’s prose is criticized, it’s usually for its Latinate solemnity and dignified gravitas – hardly a tone adapted to today’s readers. The dry style in question is the oddly named Lord Monboddo’s (1714-99), the Scottish judge and Darwin precursor who once speculated that orangutans were human. He was a Deist, which probably helped indict him in Dr. Johnson’s judgment. Boswell is writing on this date, September 19, in 1777. Lord Monboddo had written a letter to Boswell in which he criticized Johnson’s A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). Johnson replies:

 

“’Why, Sir, this criticism would be just, if, in my style, superfluous words, or words too big for the thoughts, could be pointed out; but this I do not believe can be done.”

 

Johnson distills the message I give younger, less experienced writers I work with at the university. Eliminate superfluous words. Be ruthless. Read what you’ve just written and remove the dross. I stress that any prose can be improved, most often by deleting unnecessary words. The way we speak is not identical to the way we write. Writing is editing. Likewise with “words too big for the thoughts.” Customarily, this means jargon, clichés and pretentious language. Popular at the moment is “leverage” as a verb, meaning to use or exploit. And all research is “novel,” of course. Deep-six “leverage” and “novel.” And “stakeholders.” Remember that word entered the language by way of gambling. Boswell continues quoting Johnson:

 

“For instance: in the passage which Lord Monboddo admires, ‘We were now treading that illustrious region,’ the word illustrious, contributes nothing to the mere narration; for the fact might be told without it: but it is not, therefore, superfluous; for it wakes the mind to peculiar attention, where something of more than usual importance is to be presented. ‘Illustrious!’—for what? and then the sentence proceeds to expand the circumstances connected with Iona. And, Sir, as to metaphorical expression, that is a great excellence in style, when it is used with propriety, for it gives you two ideas for one;—conveys the meaning more luminously, and generally with a perception of delight.”

 

When I think of “metaphorical” prose, two writers come to mind: Sir Thomas Browne and Herman Melville. Of the former in his “Life of Browne,” Johnson writes what sounds suspiciously like a self-judgment: “It is vigorous, but rugged; it is learned, but pedantick; it is deep, but obscure; it strikes, but does not please; it commands, but does not allure: his tropes are harsh, and his combinations uncouth.” And this is a positive assessment.