Brevity is not inherently virtuous, but neither is verbosity a
pedagogical deficiency. Simplicity is just more accurate, and
understatement is inevitably more artistic than prolixity. Clear
thoughts are harder to compose than an eclectic construction of
excessive words. Just as a drawing should have no unnecessary
lines, and a machine should have no extra parts, so a paragraph
should have no unnecessary sentences. The writing craft can spare
no essential elements in a vital expression; but style is as
subordinate to the subject as the medium is incidental to the
message.