no list of corrections?

Since Professor Nichol

printed his book at Glasgow, under his own eye, there can, apparently, be little excuse for its not being given to the world as he wrote it.

In each of the following passages there is, also, something distinctly objectionable :

"Remember to take care that you divide words according to the component parts of their derivation." P. 13. A "derivation," however it may be with a derivative, cannot consist of syllables.

"Custom holds a real, and, within limits, a legitimate sway over such questions as the naturalization of foreign, or [and]1 the acceptance of new, words." P. 16.

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Note, that an adjective does not necessarily become an adverb by accompanying a verb." P. 21. In addition to awkwardness of construction, we here have a wrong preposition.

"It is still regarded as a violation of gram

1 A repetition of the error here pointed out occurs at p. 30, and at p. 56. See also a passage quoted at p. 28, post..

2 And the dictum-besides that it is not explicit enough to serve for guidance, has a worse fault than this. Does an adjective ever become, by position, an adverb?

The author, in illustration of his remark given in the text, quotes the verse:

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Then follows: Uneasy' is here an adjective, qualifying 'head.'" This strikes us as highly unscientific parsing. In "it

mar to confound, as is often done, 'broke' and 'broken'," &c. P. 21. Here is a most slovenly confusion of active and passive.1

"The infinitive of the verb is now only used, substantively, as a nominative." P. 22. Vague, with a misplacement of “ only."

"The greater number of such periods is ungraceful and obscure.' The is here should

sounds hollow," "he stands straight," do the adjectives qualify the pronouns ?

At p. 28, we cite the rule: "Abstain, in prose, from using adjectives for adverbs," &c.

Something more than Professor Nichol propounds is necessary, however, to enable the learner to pass judgment on the ensuing extracts from Lord Macaulay's History.

"They mustered strong in the capital." Chap. xi.

'He is in imminent danger of falling two thousand feet perpendicular." Chap. xiii.

"His judgment was clearest and surest, when responsibility pressed heaviest on him, and when difficulties gathered thickest around him." Chap. xix.

"On the whole, however, things as yet looked not unfavourably for James." Chap. ix.

'It tasked all the art of Kneller to make her look tolerably on canvas." Chap. xx.

And, from the same author: "The knife of the deadly machine rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter." Miscellaneous Writings (ed. 1860), Vol. ii., p. 151.

Not of all these passages, we suspect, would many living stylists think fit to imitate the grammar. Would Lord Macaulay have approved: "The rose smells sweetly"?

For another instance of such confusion, see p. 45.

Mr. Ruskin writes, no less heedlessly: "You will find stated, th as much clearness as I am able, in the first and fifth Lectures," &c. Val d'Arno (1874), p. 105.

rather beare." " P. 25. To justify this, it must be shown that the verb "be" has, as one of its meanings, "be changed to." 1

"He fell on his knees to the Earl of Arundel that arrested him' is wrong, unless it means (which here it cannot) that there were several Earls of Arundel, and that one arrested him." P. 33. The ellipsis here, in order to avoid "that that one," namely, "that the one in question," is very harsh. Or is "that" a conjunction, with the "one" after it used for "one of them"? In the latter case, there is gross ambiguity.

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Coining words contrary to analogy, or without sufficient reason, is a vicious kind of forgery.” P. 37. Yet the author is merciless against surplusage.

"The almost exclusive use of native does not, like the extreme use of Latin words, savour of absurdity; but it, too, is a fault of style." P. 47. The "it" is Scotch and ungainly; and the "extreme" for "excessive",-and "absurdity"

1 66

3

Be," for "be changed to," is found at pp. 18, 19 (ter), 30,

83, also.

2 And we read, at p. 73, of "the native portion of our vocabulary." The expression intimates historical knowledge of a very novel character.

3 This hyperborean "it" offers itself at pp. 12, 19 (lis), 94, and 119, also.

For the author's "they," in lieu of "these," see p. 23, post.

are inexact. Further, the separation of "native" from "words" is in bad taste, to say the least. Sentences similarly constructed are found at pp. 8 and 105. At p. 101, we read: "He arrived at, and was ultimately confirmed in, this decision.' Rather write: He arrived at this decision, and was ultimately confirmed in it." To our thinking, the sentence here condemned is very tolerable, as compared with the one on which we have just remarked.

"To drop the distinction would be, by au affectation of simplicity, to fall into obscurity on the other side." P. 47. The words in italics are pleonastic, and also are a false idiom, let alone their "vaulting ambition."

"The outrages

Turks' is better than if the parenthesis were placed either before or after." P. 69.1 Who can approve of this?

"Do not introduce too many qualifying clauses into one sentence, nor stretch it beyond its natural close." P. 69. This, as to its "nor," is hardly the English we meet with in prose.

"It has been observed, that very simple ideas are often conveyed mosť2 forcibly by signs; i.e.,

1 A like construction recurs at p. 80.

2 At p. 93,"most" is again misused for "the most."

"When two emphatic syllables follow one another, more stress is laid on the one than on the other; and that on which [the]

'leave the room', by pointing to the door."

72.

P.

Read "the most forcibly"; the relative superlative, not the absolute, being here intended. And "i.e." is misused for "e.g."

"Such signs, or rude pantomimes, will, it is true, not carry us far." P. 73. What authority is there for giving "pantomimes" the sense of "pantomimic gestures"?

Avoid, equally, all loud or exaggerated language." P. 75. The author is recommended to avoid, equally, all slang. And how can he justify himself for writing, as he does, at p. 118, "the most scandalous rhyme is where," &c.?

"We must not degrade dignified material by mean comparisons," &c. P. 80. An affected use of "material."

"In more serious matters, we are often tempted to overstate the truth, for the sake of the antithesis." P. 88. "Antithesis," being abstract here, should take no "the."

"Certain forms of humour, notably that most familiar [prevalent] in' America," &c. P. 89.

"The writings of Swift, of Junius, and of Heine abound in [with] these," &c. P. 90.

greater stress is laid is generally regarded as the sole accented syllable." P. 111. Here, "the" is to be expunged in one place, and supplied in another

1 This is again found at p. 126.