BREVITY, in a general sense, that which denominates a thing brief or short.
BREVITY is more particularly used in speaking of the style or composition of discourse. Brevity of discourse is by some called brachylogia and breviloquentia; sometimes laconismus. Tacitus and Persius are remarkable for the brevity of their style. There are two kinds of brevity, one arising from dexterity, poverty, and narrowness of genius; the other from judgment and reflection; which latter alone is laudable. Brevity is so essential to a tale, a song, and an epigram, that without it they necessarily languish and become dull. Rhetoricians make brevity one of the principal marks
Brevium
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Brewer.
or conditions of eloquence: but the rules they prescribe for attaining it, are difficult to apply, so as still to keep the due medium between too much and too little. A just brevity is attained by using all the words which are necessary, and none but those which are necessary. Sometimes it may also be had, by choosing a word which has the force of several. It is this last kind which Quintilian admires so much in Sallust; and the imitation of which, by other writers, has caused so much obscurity.