ture, has culled several hundred passages in which these and other mannerisms occur. 10. Affectations and vulgarisms; want of variety; misplaced and overwrought imagery, as well as a bald or desert-like plainness of speech. It can hardly be necessary to add that many of the principles for attaining perspicuity and energy apply equally to the attainment of elegance. Primary regard should be had to the substance, and when the two qualities are at variance, the energetic should be preferred to the elegant. 'Universally,' says Dr. Whately, ‘a writer or speaker should endeavor to maintain the appearance of expressing himself, not, as if he wanted to say something; i.e., not as if he had a subject set him, and was anxious to compose the best essay or declamation on it that he could; but as if he had some ideas to which he was anxious to give utterance;- not as if he wanted to compose (for instance) a sermon, and was desirous of performing that task satisfactorily, but as if there was something in his mind which he was desirous of communicating to his hearers.' EXERCISES. Criticise and amend, pointing out the violations (if any) of perspicuity and energy, as well as those of elegance: 1. Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.-Dr. Johnson. 2. The effect of the concluding verb, placed where it is, is most striking. Dr. Whately. 3. It is the steady, easy hand with which its grammar is managed which carries perspicuity through a sentence.-Dr. Bascom. 4. Surprise and ideas are the important words in the first; surprise and things in the second definition. - Ibid. 5. The first cannot be exposed by argument, being already opposed to it. They can only be met by pointing out the ridiculous figure they make when viewed in the light of reason.-Ibid. 6. The matter employed in amplification is never, nor in any degree, to be treated as independent.-A. D. Hepburn. 7. That is the best disposition which (provided the virtue of adaptation is not neglected) exhibits the theme from different points of view, and contains those main thoughts the development of which affords the greatest variety of new and important truths.—Ibid. 8. God has put something noble and good into every heart which his hand has created.-Mark Twain. 9. Goethe says that Shakespeare's characters are like watches with dial-plates of transparent crystal-they show you the hour like others, and the inward mechanism also is visible.-Carlyle. 10. I can feel very little ambition to follow you through your ordinary routine of pettifogging objections and barefaced assertions, the only difficulty of making which is to throw aside all regard to truth and decency, and the only difficulty in answering them is to overcome one's contempt for the writer.-Hazlitt. 11. Now, too, there was his temporary alliance with Kossuth, the arrival of whom in England, and the extraordinary eloquence and subtlety of his speeches in English, were a public topic for many months.-David Masson. 12. Every strong and every weak point of those who might probably be his rivals were laid down on his charts.-O. W. Holmes. 13. Ministers had information of their designs from the information of Edwards.-Alison. 14. The secret spring of all his actions was a deep and manly feeling of piety which pervaded all his actions.-Ibid. 15. It would seem as if in the very disposition of the seats, it had been intended to point to the intended union of the Orders.-Ibid. 16. He was left with her injunctions, and the spirit of the oracle, though the divinity was no longer visible, pervaded his life and mind.-Disraeli. 17. That he should be in earnest it is hard to conceive; since any reasons of doubt which he might have in this case would have been reasons of doubt in the case of other men, who may give more, but cannot give more evident, signs of thought than their fellowcreatures.-Bolingbroke. 18. One may have an air which proceeds from a just sufficiency and knowledge of the matter before him, which may naturally produce some motions of his head and body, which might become the bench better than the bar.-Guardian. 19. The sharks, who prey upon the inadvertency of young heirs, are more pardonable than those who trespass upon the good opinion of those who treat with them upon the foot of choice and respect.— Ibid. 20. His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great expense.-Burnet. 21. Joseph desired to alight, and that he might have a bed prepared for him.-Fielding. 22. I pray you, tarry all night, lodge here, that thy heart may be merry.-Bible. 23. This being admitted, it appears to me highly probable that they were primarily construed as such, joined either with the nominative or the objective case, as the verbs had either a transitive or intransitive meaning; and that they were followed by either single words or clauses.-Crombie. 24. I saw simple Sloth and Presumption lie asleep, a little out of the way, as I came, with irons upon their heels; but do you think I could awake them? I also saw Formality and Hypocrisy come tumbling over the wall, to go (as they pretended) to Zion; but they were quickly lost, even as I myself did tell them; but they would not believe; but above all, I found it hard work to get up this hill, and as hard to come by the lions' mouths; and truly if it had not been for the good man, the Porter that stands at the gate, I do not know but that, after all, I might have gone back again; but now, I thank God, I am here, and I thank you for receiving me.—Bunyan. CHAPTER VII. METHODS OF EXPRESSION - SUPPLEMENTAL AIDS. The genius of an author consists in designing well and pointing well.-LA BRUYÈRE. The elements which enter into the composition of the highest bodies are subtle and inconsiderable. The rudiments of every art and science exhibit, at first, to a learner, the appearance of littleness and insignificancy; and it is by attending to such reflections as to a superficial observer would appear minute and hypercritical, that language must be improved and eloquence perfected.LORD CAMPBELL. WIT ITH the best arrangement of recorded words there is need of additional facilities for the effective communication of thought. Particularly is this true in English, where the relations of constituent parts are not determined by inflection, but almost wholly by position. Observe the otherwise inevitable obscurity of sentences. Asadandhideoussightitwasyetonetoocommoneventheninthose rem oterdistrictswherethehumaneedictsweredisregarded whichthe prayers of thedominicanfriarstotheireverlastinghonorbeitspokenhadwrungfr omthespanishsovereignsandwhichthelegislationofthatmost wisevirtuo usandheroicinquisitorparadoxicalasthewordsmayseem pedrodelagasca hadcarriedintoeffectinperukingsley. To make the sense more intelligible, spaces are introduced, the size of the letters is varied, and certain marks are inserted, indicating the syntax, and corresponding more or less closely to the pauses made in speaking. Thus: A sad and hideous sight it was; yet one too common even then in those remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded, which the prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor be it spoken) had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns; and which the legislation of that most wise, virtuous and heroic inquisitor (para doxical as the words may seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried into effect in Peru.-Kingsley. It is hence obvious that capitals, commas, semicolons, etc., are valuable auxiliaries, enabling the writer to distinguish or emphasize terms especially prominent or significant, and to include in a period its incidents and adjuncts, which else would form a multitude of short and distinct propositions, rendering the style very disjointed. The all-important principle to be grasped is, that these mechanical devices, whether they consist in capitalizing a word or indenting a paragraph, are primarily guides to the construction and meaning. Thus to denote their special office (that is, for the sake of perspicuity), the interjection, O, and the pronoun, I, are written as capital letters. 'Lectures' and 'art' are common nouns, and 'lectures on art' may be a common phrase; but if the combination be used to designate an individual object, it becomes a proper noun, and this preeminent use of it calls for a peculiar form; as, Taine's Lectures on Art, Taine's Lectures on Art, or Taine's 'Lectures on Art.' Similarly, while in the body of a letter we write friend, father, brother, sister, in the complimentary address both conspicuity and importance require Friend, Father, Brother, Sister. There is a distinction between middle age and the Middle Age; between a revolution in politics and the Revolution of 1776; between the reformation of Gough and the Reformation of Luther; between He is bold, and Charles the Bold. Referring to created things, pronouns are begun with small letters except in initial positions; but, referring to the Creator, with capitals, yet only when necessary to make the reference clear: And I will trust that he who heeds The life that hides in mead and wold, |