parts; it is complete when it wants none of the ordinary appendages belonging to it. A whole orange has had nothing taken from it; a complete orange has grown to its full size; an entire orange is not yet cut. It is possible, therefore, for a thing to be whole, and yet not entire; and to be both, and yet not complete. An orange cut into parts is whole while all the parts remain together, but it is not entire. We speak, thus, of a whole house, an entire set, a complete book.

Enough, sufficient. Enough relates to the quantity which one wishes to have of anything; sufficient relates to the use that is to be made of it. Hence enough generally imports a greater quantity than sufficient. The covetous man never has enough; although he has what is sufficient for nature.

Alone, only. Alone (all one, single, by one's self) means not accompanied by another object; only (contracted from onely) implies that there is no other object of the same kind. An only child is one that has no brother or sister; a child alone is one left by itself.

Equivocal, ambiguous. Equivocal means that which may be equally well understood in two or more senses; ambiguous is applied to an expression which has apparently two or more meanings, and it is doubtful which of these is intended. A designedly equivocal expression has one sense open, and meant to be understood in that sense, yet another sense concealed, and understood only by the person using it. An equivocal expression, if deliberately chosen, is used with an intention to deceive; an ambiguous one, when thus adopted, with an intention not to give full information. The ambiguity arises from a too general form of expression, which leaves the sense of the author indeterminate. The equivocation misleads us by the use of a term in the sense which we do not suspect.

To avow, to acknowledge, to confess. Each of these

words denotes the making known to others what relates to one's self. To avow supposes the person to glory in it; to acknowledge is to declare one's assent to a thing or recognition of it; to confess is applied chiefly to criminal. or highly culpable matters. Scorn or love is avowed; a favor, a mistake, or a fault is acknowledged; a crime is confessed.

Observance, observation. The former is the act of observing, in the sense of keeping or holding sacred; the latter, in the sense of examination. The circulation of the blood was discovered by a minute observation of the human body; a person acquires the title of uprightness by a strict observance of truth and justice.

2. One word may be used for another, not of similar but of totally different signification.

Lie, lay. These, as well as their preterites, are often confounded. The one is intransitive-to be in a horizontal position; the other is transitive. The book lies, not lays, on the table. He lay, not laid, down.

Sit, set. These words are grossly misused — liable to be confounded in precisely the same manner as the preceding. An old lady, in describing her disease to an eccentric Boston physician, said, 'The trouble, Doctor, is that I can neither lay nor set.' 'Then, Madam,' was the reply, 'I would respectfully suggest the propriety of roosting.'

Vocation, avocation. The first means calling or profession; the second, calling away from, something that interrupts regular business. Every man should have a fixed pursuit, as the business of his life - his vocation. His avocations will be the occasional calls that summon him to leave his ordinary employment. The former should occupy him principally, the latter incidentally only. Mademoiselle Bernhardt's vocation is acting; her avocations are painting and sculpture.

Apt, liable. Apt respects a fitness to be or to do something from the habit or temper of the mind; liable is applied to those circumstances by which we are affected independently of our choice. Both express conditions — but one, of fitness and readiness; the other, of exposure. Commit to memory a wise sentence or an apt phrase. All persons are liable to make mistases. Under certain circumstances, most people are apt to marry; all people are liable to fall in love.

3. Impropriety may arise from the relation of a word or phrase to other parts of the sentence. The expression, when analyzed, is found to contain an inconsistency, or some misapplication of the parts of speech: as in Swift's 'such occasions as fell into [under] their cognizance,' or Goldsmith's rushed and expired in the midst of the flames' [rushed into the flames and expired in their midst, or Johnson's 'The solace arising from this consideration seems indeed the weakest of all others' [weakest of all, or weaker than any other]. Such errors, it will be seen, partake of the nature of solecisms, or violations of grammatical purity.

4. Another offence against propriety is exaggeration, or the use of language disproportionate to the importance of the ideas to be expressed, as when every fortune is said to be 'colossal'; every crowd 'a sea of faces'; every sermon 'grand'; everything handsome or pleasing, 'elegant,'' splendid,' 'delicious,' 'nice,' or 'charming'; everything we dislike, 'hateful,' 'dreadful,' 'horrible,' 'shocking'; while pies are 'loved,' and pickles are 'just doted on.' It is forgotten that there are three degrees of comparison. Epithets are heightened into superlatives; superlatives stretch themselves into hyperboles; and hyperboles themselves get out of breath, and die asthmatically of exhaustion.'

1 William Mathews.

5. Finally, propriety is violated by the use of pronouns which darkly refer to their antecedent, and of word, which either, with sameness of form, have different senses in the same sentence, or are equivocal, thus admitting of being understood in a sense different from that in which the writer applies them. Thus, 'oldest inmate' may mean either the oldest person among the inmates or the person longest in the establishment. 'Love of God' meant equally well His love for man or man's love for Him.

In the following example from the Westminster Review, the first 'variety' means diversity; the second, kind: “The wild flowers [in California] are more remarkable for their abundance than for their variety.' Let a sentence from Steele illustrate the fault of obscure pronominal reference: " They were persons of such moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their passions, that their irregularities could not furnish sufficient. variety of folly.'

Some of the improprieties here pointed out are exemplified in the subjoined citations:

I do likewise dissent with the Examiner.- Addison.

The esteem which Phillip had conceived of the ambassador.— Hume.

These ceremonious rites became familiar.-Robertson.

Mara's opinion in their mutual studies began to assume a value in his eyes.-Mrs. H. B. Stowe.

I am now grown old in the avocations of the gown.-Bishop Warburton.

The king of solitude is also the king of society. The reverse, however, is not so true.-W. R. Alger.

Others speak from the throat in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and with an elaboration of syllables and emphasis so mixed together that no ear can eliminate the individual words.-E. S. Gould.

I need not here repeat that which I stated verbally on the occasion of our interview.-Lord Stanley.

I think it must have been to some such primitive explanation of the whooping-cough that there has grown up in Austria the unique custom of treating the disease by administering the rod.-Moncure D. Conway.

But as it happened, scarcely had Phoebe's eyes rested again on the judge's countenance than all its ugly sternness vanished.-Hawthorne.

I have but one comfort in thinking of the poor, and that is, that we get somehow adjusted to the condition in which we grow up, and we do not miss the absence of what we have never enjoyed.-Froude.

It remains to be observed that these remarks are subject to limitation. Some improprieties, though grammatically censurable, are rhetorically justifiable, as in satire, burlesque, and wherever the aim is to give a truthful representation of character.

Simplicity. By this is meant the quality of being easily understood. It may apply either to the terms or to the structure. Words may be simple because they relate to things common and familiar, instead of to things rare and remote. So far as discourse is intended for the popular mind, one of the best principles of selection is to prefer words of Saxon origin, to which belongs the vocabulary of common life—of the street, the market, the farm, and the fireside. This is the greatly preponderant element in the books which are most widely circulated-English Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels. The most influential preachers of the ageSpurgeon and Beecher express themselves in familiar language, and take their images from familiar sources. Many foreign words, it should be observed, which have come into use among people generally, are equally perspicuous. Thus, religion, portion, politics, science, musician, brief, press, voice, journey, have been thoroughly naturalized. The diction of a correct writer will vary, course, with the subject and purpose. Ordinary topics will be most intelligibly treated in the vernacular. If a

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