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Many objectionable words and phrases have recently been imported from America, as skedaddle, Britisher, etc. The American fashion of forming verbs from nouns; as, to interview, to cable, to wire, etc., should not be adopted.

Low and vulgar expressions should of course be rejected. There are even many familiar words and phrases allowable in ordinary conversation which are by no means adapted for serious writing. Such expressions as topsy-turvy, currying favour with any one, creeping up the sleeve of any one, see with half an eye, to bolt, etc., are not to be admitted. The following sentence is faulty in this respect: "Meantime the Britons, left to shift for themselves, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence."

Some authors offend against purity of language by coining words in an injudicious manner. Only writers who have attained to the highest eminence possess the right of coining words at all; and even by these it should be done with great judgment and discretion. Some authors affect a German style, and form compound words by joining several smaller ones together in a manner which is utterly foreign to the genius of the English language. Such expressions as, The-never-to-be-forgotten day, birth-land, time-element, are not English at all.

(6) Propriety. It is not sufficient that a writer should employ only words and phrases which really belong to the language. Those which are used should be judiciously selected, with due regard to the exact meaning the author wishes to convey. A style may be pure and yet deficient in propriety, since the words and phrases may be ill chosen, not adapted to the subject, or fully expressive of the author's ideas. The following remarks apply to the subject of propriety.

Such words and phrases should be employed as are suitable to the subject. If it be of a common and familiar kind, simple words, more particularly those of Saxon origin, should be used; while in compositions of a more elevated kind, and addressed to a more learned class of readers, less familiar words, those especially which are derived from Latin and Greek sources,

are

more suitable, and often indeed absolutely indispensable. The difference referred to may be illustrated by comparing the simple language of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress with the lofty and classical style of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Technical terms, those which are peculiar to various arts and sciences, should be very sparingly used in ordinary compositions. Scientific terms, nautical phrases (as tack to the larboard, sweep the anchor, etc.), are out of place when addressed to general readers, though necessary in works treating of the subjects to which they belong.

The same word should not be repeated too often in the same sentence or paragraph. The sense should not however be sacrificed in order to avoid a repetition of this kind. Lord Macaulay is rather fond of repeating the same word, for the sake of emphasis. "We admire his genius; we love the kind nature which appears in all his writings; and we cherish his memory as much as if we had known him personally. But we must plainly say," etc. The young student should be careful in imitating sentences of this kind. Only a practised writer can venture on such repetitions with safety, and if they are not accompanied with good taste, the effect is very disagreeable. In giving mere lists of places or facts, repetitions of words are not generally objectionable, and sometimes are scarcely to be avoided.

(c) Precision. The words employed should express exactly what the author means. There should be no doubt or difficulty whatever in the mind of the reader as to the precise sense which the words are intended to convey.

Equivocal or ambiguous words should be avoided. An author writes: "As for such animals as are mortal or noxious, we have a right to destroy them." Here the term mortal (intended to convey the idea of "deadly”) also means "subject to death," and the sense is confused. In the sentence, I long since learned to like nothing but what you do," the phrase what you do may mean either "what you like" or "what you per

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form." Again, "He aimed at nothing less than the crown" may signify either, "Nothing was less aimed at by him than the crown," or, "He even aimed at the possession of the crown."

The use of exaggerated language should be avoided. Some persons are very fond of using such words as tremendous, awful, prodigious, where much milder terms would be sufficient to convey the degree of intensity they wish to impart to the ideas they have in their minds. If expressions of such extreme force be used to denote only moderate degrees of the qualities referred to, there are none left for the purpose of describing facts and feelings of a really excessive or extraordinary nature.

Great care should be exercised in the proper use of terms regarded as synonymous, or having the same signification. There are probably no two words exactly synonymous, and the utmost attention must be paid to the precise shades of meaning conveyed by words which resemble each other closely in signification. The following examples will render this more clear :— Custom, habit. Custom relates to the action; habit to the actor. By custom we mean the frequent repetition of the same act; by habit the effect which that repetition produces on the mind or body. "By the custom of walking often in the streets one acquires a habit of idleness."

Haughtiness, disdain. Haughtiness is founded on the high opinion we entertain of ourselves; disdain on the mean opinion we have of others.

Entire, complete. A thing is entire by wanting none of its parts; complete by wanting none of the appendages which belong to it. "The man has an entire house to himself, but there is not one complete apartment in it."

Surprised, astonished, amazed, confounded. We are surprised with what is new or unexpected, astonished at what is vast or great, amazed at what is incomprehensible, confounded by what is shocking or terrible.

Let the young student try the effect, in a beautiful passage from some good author, of taking out some word and substituting for it some other which appears to have just the same

meaning. "Act" and "do" seem to mean the same thing, but if in the lines

and

"Let us then be up and doing"

"But to act that each to-morrow

Finds us further than to-day "

we substitute one for the other, we have destroyed both the beauty and the sense, and we have

"Let us then be up and acting,"

"But to do that each to-morrow

Finds us further than to-day."

2. SENTENCES. In order to attain perspicuity it is necessary not only to attend to a right choice of words, but also to their proper arrangement in sentences. In relation to this subject, a

sentence should have the following qualities :

(a) Clearness and Precision. (6) Unity. (c) Strength.

(a) Clearness and Precision. Obscurity arises not only from a wrong choice of words, but from an incorrect arrangement of them. Thus in the sentence, "The rising tomb a lofty column bore," it is doubtful whether the tomb bore the column or the column bore the tomb. Again: "And thus the son the fervent sire addrest" is obscure, because we do not know whether the son addrest the sire or the sire the son. Here the want of perspicuity arises from the sentences not being arranged according to the proper order of subject, predicate, and object. If inversions are employed, care should be taken to avoid any ambiguity of meaning.

All the rules of grammar should be carefully observed. Verbs should agree with their nominatives, pronouns with the nouns to which they refer, etc. Young writers should be careful to avoid using a verb in the plural when it comes after two or more nouns which appear at the first glance to be the subject when they are not. "The nature of virtue and vice are not to be understood without careful examination." The verb "are"

is wrong, because its nominative is not "virtue and vice," but (6 nature." The sentence should be altered to "is not to be understood," etc.

Relative pronouns should stand as near to their antecedents as possible. The following sentence is faulty in this respect : "This kind of wit was very much in vogue among our countrymen about an age or two ago, who did not practise it for any oblique reason, but purely for the sake of being witty." It should be arranged thus: "About an age or two ago, this kind of wit was very much in vogue among our countrymen, who did not," etc. The following passage is still worse: "It is folly to pretend to arm ourselves against the accidents of life, by heaping up treasures, which nothing can protect us against but the good providence of our Creator." We leave this to be corrected by our young readers.

Personal pronouns should be used with care that it shall be perfectly evident to what noun they refer. The same pronoun should seldom be used in one sentence in reference to two or more distinct nouns. Pronouns are often used very carelessly in the authorized translation of the Bible. Thus, in 2 Kings xix. 35, we have the curious statement that "when they arose in the morning, they were all dead corpses." Again, in Mark vi. 29 we read that "when his disciples heard of it they came and took up his corpse." In each of these passages the sense is confused by the second pronoun being made to refer to a different noun from that referred to by the first. The following sentence from Tillotson contains pronouns used in a careless and indistinct manner: "Men look with an evil eye upon the good that is in others, and think that their reputation obscures them, and their commendable qualities stand in their light; and therefore they do what they can to cast a cloud over them, that the bright shining of their virtues may not obscure them.”

It is also necessary to arrange the sentence so that each word and member of it shall be in its proper position. Each qualifying word or phrase and each distinct clause should be so placed that its relation to the other parts of the sentence and to

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