Yet, when all circumstances are taken into consideration, we do not
hesitate to pronounce them a brave, a wise, an honest, and a useful body.
Notes.
The most casual examination of Macaulay's style shows us that the words,
the sentences, and the paragraphs are all arranged in rows, one on this
side, one on that, a column here, another just like it over there,
a whole row of columns above this window, and a whole row of columns
above that window, just as bricks are built up in geometrical design.
Almost every word contains an antithesis. The whole constitutes what is
called the _balanced structure_.
We see also that Macaulay frequently repeats the same word again and
again, and the repetition gives strength. Indeed, repetition is necessary
to make this balanced structure: there must always be so much likeness and
so much unlikeness---and the likeness and unlikeness must just balance.
We have shown the utility of variation: Macaulay shows the force there
is in monotony, in repetition. In one sentence after another through
an entire paragraph he repeats the same thing over and over and over.
There is no rising by step after step to something higher in Macaulay:
everything is on the dead level; but it is a powerful, heroic level.
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