Tillotson :-'In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution; to be undetermined, where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent; to be always intending to live a new life, but never to set about it: this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed'. A modern writer would put a full stop here in the place of the first semicolon; and then the first sentence would be periodic, while the second would not be excessively loose.

THE BALANCED STRUCTURE.

6. When the different parts of a complex sentence are made similar in form, they are said to be Balanced. The style of Johnson abounds in this arrangement :— Contempt is the proper punishment of affectation, and detestation the just consequence of hypocrisy.' 'He remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles less.'

Junius affords numerous instances. But, my lord, you may quit the field of business, though not the field of danger; and though you cannot be safe, you may cease to be ridiculous.' They are still base enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth.' Even now they tell you, that as you lived without virtue you should die without repentance.'

It will be seen that the sameness in these balanced clauses lies partly in the grammatical structure, and partly in the sound or alternation of emphasis. The meaning is different, and the words are more or less varied.

The following are additional examples: The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it'.

The first edition of the "Seasons" differs materially from the second, and the second still more from the third.'

'She must weep, or she will die.'

If a man receives a wrong that no law can remedy, yet let him see that his resentment be such as no law can punish.'

'Where there is life, there is hope'; where life is, hope is.'

'Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided.' Perfect the balance thus: Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and were not divided in their death'.

"The Government prosecuted Watson for High Treason and were defeated; had they indicted him for aggravated assault, they would have obtained a conviction (would have succeeded).'

7. When a succession of clauses is formed upon one plan, the memory is assisted.

BALANCE AIDING CLEARNESS AND SIMPLICITY.

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The more nearly a second clause resembles the first, there is less of new matter to remember. Compare He remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude," with an unbalanced arrangement in the second clause while, in point of magnitude, he is the same as before '.

Of the western provinces which obeyed the Cæsars, Britain was the last that was conquered, and the first that was flung away': this pointed expression of two contrasted ideas under one form will be remembered better than if the second clause had taken such a form as this: while the emperors also allowed it to drop off from their dominions before any other province'.

The effect of the Balance, as an aid to memory, is illustrated by its frequent use in proverbs and in memorable sayings of great authors.*

8. The balanced form is conducive to the Intellectual qualities of Clearness and Simplicity.

This is by facilitating the comparison of things that are to be compared. If we wish to compare two visible objects, as the two hands, we place them together, palm to palm and fingers to fingers. In like manner, with the verbal descriptions of things that have both agreement and difference, we put the corresponding terms in corresponding places.

In short, Sir, as I could at first see no reason for sending our troops to Flanders, unless it was to furnish ministers with a pretext to load us with the maintenance of 16,000 Hanoverians, so I now see no reason for our retaining them there, unless it be to afford a pretext for continuing that load.'

'It may be said that the southern, western, and north-western portions of Europe are mountainous; the central portions hilly and undulating; and the eastern and south-eastern parts level.' Here the three statements are exactly balanced; and we can readily judge how much less intelligible the sentence would be if the balance were departed from, whether by inversion of order, or by dissimilarity in the wording.

'When brandy is exposed to intense cold, many degrees below what is necessary to freeze water, the spirituous portion retains its liquid form, and separates from the aqueous part, which solidifies as ice.' Clearness would be gained by introducing a balance into the latter part ::-'the spirit remains liquid, the water becomes solid (freezes); and the two are thus separated'.

*The fine balance in the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews-'God, who at sundry times'-is broken up in the Revised Version. The new form will be found much more difficult to remember.

'The person best fitted by nature for acquiring the prudential virtues is not necessarily unfitted for acquiring the sympathetic virtues.' Nothing could be better for intelligibility.

The usurpation which, in order to subvert ancient institutions, has destroyed ancient principles, will hold power by arts similar to those by which it has acquired it.' The first half contains a terse balance; the second half might be improved :-'will use the same arts for holding power, as for acquiring it'.

"Monkeys are liable to the same diseases as we are: thus Reugger, who carefully observed for a long time the Cebus Azuræ, found it liable,' &c. Here the observer occupies the position where we should look for the exemplary monkey :-'thus, the Cebus Azara, which was carefully observed by Rengger, was found -'.

In America several hundreds of thousands of the people within three years fell in mutual slaughter; and forty thousand within three days in the end of last year fell in Bohemia.' This is so arranged as to require a distinct effort to follow each of the members; if their forms had been made similar by means of Balance, the second would have been much more easily grasped. Thus : In America there fell several hundred thousand within three years; in Bohemia there fell forty thousand within three days'. The specification of the three days as being in the end of last year,' is better omitted, as interfering with the distinctness of the contrast. also the phrase, in mutual slaughter'.

So

9. The Balanced Structure may also contribute to the Energy of the Sentence.

'They think too little and they talk too much.' This is not clearer than would be the form, They think too little, while they are a great deal given to talking'; in so simple a case, the two forms of statement are equally clear. the first is more forcible.

But

This superior impressiveness of the Balanced form can be accounted for. When a second statement runs in the same form as one immediately preceding, the mind is partly relieved from the effort needed to follow the new statement, and thus is better prepared to feel the power of the thought itself.

In the following examples, the object aimed at by the Balance is greater energy, though in some of them other effects are also secured :— She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed ;

She is a woman, therefore to be won.

God made the country, and man made the town.

The king must be brave in the field, wise in the council, and eloquent in the agora.'

'A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world.'

Tennyson has the following instance of a double balance, which adds force to the thought :

Oh what to her shall be the end?
And what to me remains of good?
To her, perpetual maidenhood,
And unto me, no second friend.

BALANCE GIVING AGREEABLE SURPRISE.

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'In the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good, you find ten of a contrary character.' This is clear enough: but there is distinct gain of energy, when we put it in the balanced form, 'you find ten that are foolish and bad'.

'Wit should be used as a shield for defence, rather than as a sword to wound others.' Perfect the balance thus: as a shield for defending ourselves, rather than as a sword to wound others'.

"Every man calleth that which pleaseth, and is delightful to himself, good, and that evil which displeaseth him.' A weak, scattered sentence, obviously suggesting balance, and gaining from the change: Every man calleth that good which is pleasing to himself, and that evil which is displeasing to him'.

"The blessings of fortune are the lowest, the next are the bodily advantages of strength and health; but the superlative blessings, in fine, are those of the mind.' Meant for a climax; and the increase of force in the successive clauses is better felt, when the balanced form is adopted: "The lowest blessings are those of fortune; the next are bodily health and strength; but the superlative blessings are those of the mind'.

10. The Balanced Structure is employed to give a shock of agreeable surprise.

When in spite of difference of matter, we find sameness in form, there is an agreeable surprise, with admiration of the ingenuity displayed. The subject being changed, we count upon a change in the expression; and to find it nearly the same is to be roused to a certain degree of astonishment; while deriving the other advantages of balance.

For short examples, we may cite: Might is right'; 'meddle and muddle'; the Pope's blessing—' urbem et orbem'. The sameness here is in the sound of the words; the ideas being wholly different.

11. There is a species of this effect caused by employing the same words to an altered meaning.

Pope's line-'And not a vanity is given in vain'-successfully plays upon the word 'vain,' so as to make it answer for two meanings. So :-'repentance not to be repented of'; 'numbers without number'; more sinned against

than sinning'; the art of arts, and science of sciences'; a fair day's wage for a fair day's work'; 'unity in trinity, and trinity in unity'; 'here a little, and there a little'. 'Like likes like, and unlike likes unlike.'

Such a condemnation will, indeed, extinguish these men's voices for ever; but it cannot extinguish the voice of truth.'

What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba ? '

'When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we

leave them. There is pungent satire, in giving this turn to the thought.

Kings exist for the good of the people, not the people for the good of kings.'

'He says what he means, and means what he says.' 'All that was not Persia was Greece: all that was not Greece was Persia.' This balance has a logical bearing.

A good example, containing a profound principle, is furnished by Coleridge - When we meet an apparent error in a good author, we are to presume ourselves ignorant of his understanding, until we are certain that we understand his ignorance'.

Senior says: Charity creates much of the misery it relieves, but does not relieve all the misery it creates'.

Napoleon described the tactics of war as 'the art of being strongest on a given point at a given time'.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.'

And Rome may bear the pride of him

Of whom herself is proud.

Bentham's celebrated expression of the end of politics and of morality -'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'—is balanced in sound, in grammar, and in the recurrence of the word 'greatest '.

"The right man in the right place.'

The poet is Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love.' (Tennyson.)

'Man desires not only to be loved, but to be lovely.'

Man proposes, God disposes,' is a balance in the termination of the balanced words. A so, Cleanliness is next to godliness'.

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'Chronic diseases must have chronic cures.

When you cannot do what you like, the next best thing is to like what you do.'

His (Burke's) declamations against declaimers, his sophistical attacks upon sophisters, the contempt which he, the economical reformer, affects for economists and calculators, would move a smile if we did not know how terrible their effects had been.'

'Morality is religion in practice, as religion is morality in principle.' (Wardlaw.)

12. When one statement is the repetition of another in the obverse, the balanced form has all the advantages already described.

In an obverse declaration, the equivalent fact is stated from the opposite side: heat relaxes the system; cold braces it'. Light cheers; darkness depresses.' The following from Bacon combines this mode of antithesis with the balance: Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue'. So, 'To buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dearest'.

The style of the Proverbs of Solomon makes use of