deserving a triumph, he refused the honour of it." Addison, speaking of Beauty, says: "The very first discovery of it strikes the mind with inward joy, and spreads delight through all its faculties." Here little or nothing is added by the second member of the sentence to that which was already contained in the first. An author writes: "I am honestly, seriously, and unalterably of opinion that nothing can possibly be more incurably and emphatically destructive or more decisively fatal to a kingdom than the introduction of thoughtless dissipation and the pomp of lazy luxury." Would not the whole import of this sentence be better expressed thus: "I am of opinion that nothing is more ruinous to a kingdom than luxury and dissipation"?

II. Attend particularly to the use of copulatives and other particles employed for transition and connection. Much of the strength and grace of a sentence often depends on the proper employment of such little but important words, which form the joints or hinges on which the sentence turns. For example, the separation of a preposition from the noun which it governs is to be avoided, as in the following example: "Though virtue borrows no assistance from, yet it may often be accompanied by, the advantages of fortune." Here there is an awkward separation of two things which, by their nature, should be united.

Some writers needlessly multiply demonstrative and relative particles. Thus we read: "There is nothing which disgusts us sooner than the empty pomp of language." This kind of style may sometimes be proper in an introductory sentence, but, generally speaking, it would be better to write simply: "Nothing disgusts us sooner than the empty pomp of language."

Others omit the relative pronoun when it would be better to express it. In writings of a serious or dignified kind it is generally better not to employ elliptical expressions of this kind: "The man I love," "The dominions we possessed and the conquests we made," instead of: "The man whom I love," and "The dominions which we possessed and the conquests which we made."

The unnecessary use of the particle and enfeebles style.

Take the following sentence from Sir Richard Temple, for example: "The Academy set up by Cardinal Richelieu, to amuse the wits of that age and country, and to divert them from raking into his politics and ministry, brought this into vogue; and the French wits have, for this last age, been wholly turned to the refinement of their Style and Language; and, indeed, with such success that it can hardly be equalled, and runs equally through their verse and their prose." Here there are no fewer than eight ands in one sentence, which drags along heavily through this careless multiplication of copulatives.

It is worthy of remark, that though the use of the conjunction and is naturally to join objects together, and so apparently to make their connection more close, yet in fact we can sometimes mark a more intimate union and a quicker succession of ideas by dropping it altogether. "I came, I saw, I conquered," expresses with more spirit the rapidity and quick succession of conquest than if connecting particles had been used.

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Hence it follows that when we seek to prevent a too quick transition from one object to another, when we are making some enumeration in which we wish that the objects should appear as distinct from each other as possible and that the mind should rest for a moment on each object by itself, in this case copulatives may be multiplied with peculiar advantage and grace, as when Bolingbroke says: Such a man might fall a victim to power; but truth, and reason, and liberty would fall with him." St. Paul's writings furnish a beautiful illustration of this remark, Rom. viii. 38, 39: "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ."

III. Dispose the principal word or words in that place of the sentence where they will make the fullest impression. Sometimes they may be placed with most advantage at the beginning, sometimes at the end, sometimes even in the middle. Generally, in English, the beginning of the sentence is the most

appropriate place. Every one has observed the powerful effect produced in the sentence, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," by commencing with the adjective. "Thus," says Pope, "on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his wonderful invention." Here the principal word is placed at the end.

IV. Attend to the climax of a sentence when the subject naturally admits of it. The members of the period should go on rising and growing in importance above one another. In the following beautiful passage from Addison we find the sentence thus arranged without affectation or unseasonable pomp : “If we rise yet higher, and consider the fixed stars as so many oceans of flame that are each of them attended with a different set of planets, and still discover new firmaments and new lights, that are sunk farther in those unfathomable depths of ether, we are lost in such a labyrinth of suns and worlds, and confounded with the magnificence and immensity of nature.”

V. Avoid concluding a sentence with..an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word. For instance, it is much better to say: "Avarice is a crime of which wise men are often guilty," than, "Avarice is a crime which vise men are often guilty of." In the following sentence from the: Spectator, which otherwise is abundantly noble, the bad effect of the close is sensible: "There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consideration in religion than this, of the perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it."

When however the stress of the voice and the significancy of the sentence rest on words of this kind, they are then not to be considered as mere circumstances, but as the capital figures, and ought, in propriety, to have the principal place allotted ⚫ them. Thus the following sentence from Bolingbroke is correct: "In their prosperity my friends shall never hear of me; in their adversity, always."

VI. When either a resemblance or an opposition is intended to be expressed, some resemblance in the language and con

struction should be preserved. When the things themselves correspond to each other, we naturally expect to find a similar correspondence in the words. Thus, when it is said: "The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him," the opposition would have been more complete if it had been expressed thus: "The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains that of others." Again: "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues ; an enemy inflames his crimes," would stand better thus: "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues his crimes." an enemy, ; The following passage from Pope's Preface to his Homer, fully exemplifies the observance of this rule: "Homer was the greater genius; Virgil, the better artist: in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream." This regular and artificial mode of constructing sentences must not however be carried too far. If it be employed too often, it leads to a disagreeable uniformity, produces a regularly returning clink in the period, which tires the ear, and plainly discovers affectation.

II. ORNAMENT.

Literary compositions should be framed with a due regard not only to perspicuity, but also to elegance and harmony. A composition which is graced with beautiful language, constructed in harmonious periods, and set off by ornaments chosen with good taste and really illustrating the subject, finds its way to the mind of the reader much more readily than one which, however correct in itself, is clothed in dry and harsh language, and repels rather than attracts those to whom it is addressed.

Many of the rules we have already given in relation to perspicuity apply also to this part of the subject. As we have already observed, clearness is a positive beauty in itself. Purity, propriety, and precision in words, and clearness, unity, and strength in sentences, not only render a composition perspicuous; they tend very greatly to make it elegant and pleasing.

The rules which relate more immediately to ornament in style range themselves naturally under two heads: those which refer to :

(1) The Use of the Figures of Speech.

(2) Harmony of Sentences.

We shall treat the first of these divisions of the subject in a separate chapter. The remarks which we make here relate to the second division.

HARMONY OF SENTENCES. Sound is a quality much inferior to sense, yet such as must not be disregarded. As long as sounds are the vehicle of our ideas, there will be a considerable connection between the idea which is conveyed and the nature of the sound which conveys it. Pleasing ideas and forcible reasoning can hardly be transmitted to the mind by means of harsh and disagreeable sounds.

In the Harmony of Periods the following points must be considered :

(a) The choice of words. The ear alone is the correct guide. As a rule, words which are difficult to pronounce are, in the same proportion, harsh and painful to the ear. Vowels give softness, consonants strength, to the sound of words. melody of language requires a due proportion of each. Long words are usually more agreeable than short ones.

The

Such words as the following are to be avoided :—(1) Such as are composed of words already compounded, as: unsuccessfulness, wrongheadedness, tenderheartedness. In these the

several parts do not easily or closely unite. (2) Such as have the syllables which immediately follow the accented syllable crowded with consonants that do not easily coalesce, as : questionless, chroniclers. (3) Such as have too many syllables