INVERSION OF ACTIVE VERB AND OBJECT.

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is more emphatic than either drank' or 'he,' and is properly placed at the end.

The present inversion is in practice restricted, from fear of ambiguity. The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,' is not more than clear as it stands; by making it display'd her eyes,' we should raise a doubt as to whether there was an inversion or not.

'How solemn the thoughts that the future explore,' is saved from ambiguity by the plural verb.

The inversion we are now dealing with, like those preceding, may be illustrated from the usage of the English Bible. Take the following

instances:

Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint.'

"This Jesus hath God raised up.'

‘Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.'

'Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers.'
My mercy will I keep for him for evermore ;

his seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.' Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plum

met.'

'My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.'

The above specimens have something of the poetic colouring, so that the inversion adds to their effect. There are also cases of the usage in pure prose, such as these: 'All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables'.

The emphasis of the following inversion has always been felt:- Silver and gold have I none'. The emphatic circumstances are in their best places. The silver and gold' is the important idea of the sentence; but the highest stress is reserved for the negative 'none'. Any one can see how much less energetic would be the direct order—‘I have no silver or gold'. In pronunciation, the feebleness of the order might be remedied by putting special emphasis on 'no'. With the inverted arrangement, the emphasis comes as a matter of course.

We might arrange the above so as to put the negative first, and the 'silver and gold' last; yet the effect would not be the same:-'Not mine is either silver or gold'.

Farther examples of the same form :

Other refuge have I none,

Hangs my helpless soul on thee.

In the following from Pope, we have a pronominal object thrown into great and significant prominence by inversion:

Me let the tender office long engage

To rock the cradle of reposing age.

‘The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny.' (Pitt.) Here not only does the object gain in emphasis, but we have the farther advantage that the atrocious crime' is fully described before we are told how it is to be dealt with-neither palliated nor denied. The mock seriousness of the statement would be much lessened, if the direct order were taken: we should miss the humour of the declaration, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny,' if we did not already know what is the crime he thus solemnly pleads guilty of having committed.

'Dissolvents of the old European systems of dominant ideas and facts we must all be, all of us that have any power of working: what we have to study is that we may not be acrid dissolvents of it.' (M. Arnold.)

'The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal-every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open-this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.' (Washington Irving.)

14. IV.—Relative Emphasis of beginning and end. We have already given general reasons for the superior emphasis of the close of the sentence. These reasons will now be supported by examples.

If we compare the expressions, 'liberal conservative' and conservative liberal,' we find the interpretation to be, that the first is a conservative with liberal leanings, but more conservative than liberal; while the second is more liberal than conservative. The inference is, that the last word, from its position, acquires superior impressiveness.

It is stated in the Companion to the Higher Grammar (p. 305) that the phrases first three,' three first' are, grammatically, contractions for 'first, second, and third'. When the question arises which of the forms is the more proper, the answer depends upon where the emphasis is supposed to lie. The first three' would put stress on the three,' as if we were dealing with groups of three. The 'three first' would indicate that we wanted three in all, but that the three must be specially taken from the commencement of the row.

The postal letters E.C., W.C., mean that a certain district is laid out, called the Central District. This is subdivided into two portions, East and West, and the letter prefixed to the C. shows which is intended. The combinations C.E. and C.W. would have a different rendering.

In the points of the compass intermediate between N., S., E., W., there is always one order of the letters, N.E., S.E., S.W., N.W. There is here a peculiar hypothesis as to the winds, namely, that the primary currents are East

END OF SENTENCE SPECIALLY EMPHATIC.

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and West, and that all the others are deviations from these.

These last examples take us back to the grammatical order of the Adjective and the Noun in plain prose; the Adjective, as the specifying word, preceding the noun, which expresses the genus: 'red rose,' 'tall man," mighty nation'. In compounds of two words, both being nouns, the rule is the same, on the supposition that the first noun qualifies the second in the manner of an adjective: 'rose-water,' steam-engine,' 'fly-leaf,' 'ring-finger'. When the first noun expresses something as a whole, and the second singles out a part for special consideration, the order is different, as 'rose-bud,' 'mountain-top'.

We have already quoted an example (p. 5) to show that, in a succession of particulars, each new one receives the place of emphasis― Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance,' &c.

The closing words of the Sermon on the Mount are a study in point. The winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it.' Here, in the first place, the last words, of it,' are felt to be too unimportant for the emphasis they receive, and they detract from the stress laid on 'the fall'. Moreover, the inversion would have been more suitable if the clause had been isolated. As it is, the fall,' having been already mentioned, should retire to a comparatively inferior position, and the new circumstance 'great' take the place of highest emphasis. This is, in fact, the order and emphasis in the Greek; yet it has been neglected by the translators, though they have preserved it in the parallel passage in Luke: Immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great'. Nor has the Revised Version, though improving the rhythm by the substitution of thereof' for 'of it,' restored the true emphasis. Both as an English sentence and as an exact version, the words should run: 'It fell; and the fall thereof was great '.

The

Home they brought her warrior dead,' is a study of emphasis. two strong particulars are 'home' and 'dead'. The stronger of the two is the second; for which reason, and also to reserve the shock as long as possible, it is put to the end. If there be a question whether 'home' should receive more emphasis than warrior,' try it thus- Her warrior brought they to her dead'. Otherwise- Home her warrior brought they dead'. In this form, 'warrior' is still prominent, and the thorough inversion contributes to the energy.

Although it is a rule in our language, grounded in principle, that the adjective should precede the substantive, yet when any great stress is put on the adjective, while the substantive is a familiar class, it is proper to invert the order. We say the body politic,' because the importance attaches to politic. So, the participle restrictive,'obliga

tions general and particular. A political majority, in the sense of a majority determined by party, might be 'a majority political'. 'A mental difference' is a difference in

respect of mind, and is better, a difference mentally'.

So, 'There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial'. 'Terrestrial' is the emphatic word, standing in contrast to 'celestial'. The full parallelism would have required bodies celestial' likewise, as, indeed, it is in the Greek; but this would be awkward, and it would be better to keep the usual order with both adjectives, and to substitute the Saxon words 'earthly' and 'heavenly' for the Latin terms.

The following sentence from Bunyan, put into the mouth of Talkative in the Pilgrim's Progress,' is an excellent example of this usage:-'I will talk of things heavenly, or things earthly: things moral, or things evangelical; things sacred, or things profane; things past, or things to come; things foreign or things at home; things more essential, or things circumstantial; provided that all be done to our profit'. Here the noun things is not only the same throughout, but is, in its own nature, of much less importance than the adjectives; and, accordingly, by this arrangement, all the stress is thrown upon these.

The following case might, perhaps, be improved by this construction: 'If I have told you earthly things (say, things earthly) and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things (things heavenly)?'

The combination life eternal,' frequently used in the Bible, by throwing the emphasis of the second word on the adjective, more strongly suggests a contrast with another life that is not eternal. The contrast thus implied is fully expressed in the following example: 'He that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal '.

Examples like States-General,' 'heir-presumptive,' 'heir-apparent,' no doubt point to the influence of the French order, though the retaining of them in English may be explained by the principle now under discussion. Church militant' implies a contrast to the Church triumphant,' and is used only when that contrast is in view.

In such a case as 'the old man eloquent,' there seems to be nothing gained but a smoother rhythm; and this would often apply to the use of this inversion by the poets.

In the next example we have the inverted adjective employed, without even this advantage: A personal acquaintance with American life may have offered to the author of Culture and Anarchy a confirmation strong of his worst preconceptions'. The effect is only to call attention to the unusual form, there being no gain in true emphasis.

'Greater love hath no man than this,' is a model of distribution of emphasis. Not only are the first and last words suited to the emphasis they receive, but the last is so placed as to bring it into close connection with the clause expounding it: that a man lay down his life for his friend'.

Reading makes a full man.' The emphasis is here on the adjective: it might be-'makes a man full'.

See the conquering hero comes': otherwise, 'See, comes the hero conquering'. Or, See, comes the hero conqueror'.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE POETS.

MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES.

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Gray deals largely in inversions; yet so frequently adopts the direct form, on the most emphatic occasions, that we are left in doubt as to his estimate of the force of inversion on its own account. Thus:

To brisk notes in cadence beating
Glance their many-twinkling feet,

is inversion to the full. Again :

Dauntless on his native sands
The dragon-son of Mona stands ;
In glittering arms and glory drest,
High he rears his ruby crest.
There the thundering strokes begin,
There the press, and there the din:

shows several partial inversions. The second line could have been fully inverted. The fourth might be 'High his ruby crest he rears'; the fifth-There begin the thundering strokes'. Of course, there would have to be changes of phrase to restore the metre.

Campbell's use of inversion is far more decisive. With him, we can plainly see that the inverted forms have an intrinsic value, and are not to be exchanged for the others merely to avoid monotony. There is no grander proof than this :—

Then shook the hills, with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steeds to battle driven;
And louder than the bolts of heaven
Far flashed the red artillery.

Here the inversion is boldly maintained throughout
Of Nelson and the North

Sing the glorious day's renown,
When to battle fierce went forth

All the might of Denmark's crown.

The inversion here also is as decided as the case admits of. The second line is in the direct, or grammatical order; but, with an imperative, inversion is not so readily admissible; nor does it necessarily add to the force. The other inversions manifestly contribute to the effect of the stanza.

Ye mariners of England

That guard our native seas,

Whose flag has braved a thousand years
The battle and the breeze.

The second line might well enough be-'Our native seas that guard'. The third and fourth show a nearly prosaic order; 'Whose flag has braved the battle and the breeze a thousand years'-would have been pure prose. A greater inversion might be tried; either "Whose flag a thousand years has braved,' or, 'Whose flag the battle and the breeze a thousand years has braved'. The use of the