In The King's English[?] (1908), he gives as one of his several examples this passage from The Times of London:
Fowler objected to this passage because The Emperor, His Majesty, and the Monarch all refer to the same person: "the effect", he pointed out in Modern English Usage, "is to set readers wondering what the significance of the change is, only to conclude that there is none." Elegant variation is still common in modern journalism, where, for example, a "fire" very often becomes a "blaze" or a "conflagration" with no very clear justification, and it is considered an especial fault in legal, scientific, and technical writing, where it is important to avoid ambiguity.
See also:
Elegant Variation (http://www.bartleby.com/116/302.html) -- Fowler's discussion of elegant variation in The King's English[?] (1908)
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