'The conquest of Royalists was not his (Cromwell's) only service, or his only claim to supreme power.' 'Neither his only service, nor his only claim to supreme power, consisted in the conquest of Royalists.' 'What else could induce the sensualist to squander his all in dissipa tion and debauchery; to rush on ruin certain and foreseen?' The inversion of the usual adjective order is here appropriate, since it is in these adjectives that the force of the question is really expressed. 'When once enthusiasm has been turned into ridicule, everything is undone, except money and power.' This is the best order, if we go on to speak more fully of the exception thus made; but, if the exception be only a passing remark, we should say, 'everything but money and power is undone'. "There is no talent so useful towards rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than discretion, a species of lower prudence' (Swift). Here the sentence is excellently arranged for throwing all the stress on 'discretion' as the subject at the end; and then the effect is spoiled by a loose phrase of explanation tagged on. Say: 'than the species of lower prudence that we call discretion". "That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannot express' (Bacon). Amend: 'which cannot be expressed by a picture,' the emphasis being on 'picture' as opposed to reality. 'Page 12 contains an exercise which should here be done.' The true emphasis lies on 'here,' as indicating the special time for doing it: 'which should be done here'. 'In all ages, and all countries, man, through the disposition he inherits from our first parents, is more desirous of a quiet and approving, than of a vigilant and tender conscience.' The emphasis is on 'quiet and approving,' as is clumsily indicated by the italics. Try a better arrangement is not so desirous of having a conscience vigilant and tender, as that it should be quiet and approving'. When two things are put into comparison, the more important deserves the place of emphasis:-'Mechanical arrangement appears to have even more influence upon diathermancy than chemical composition': 'chemical composition has less influence than mechanical arrangement'. 'Disapprobation or ridicule, from our sensitiveness on this head, causes shyness and blushing much more readily than approbation': 'Approbation does not cause shyness so readily as disapprobation or ridicule. 'Science opposes to God Nature' (Seeley). The two emphatic words are God' and Nature,' science being the general subject of discourse. Say therefore, to God science opposes Nature'. 'Without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.' The second 'sneer' should not be in the place of emphasis. In a prose rendering, we could exemplify the proper emphasis thus:-'Without sneering himself, he could teach sneering to the rest'. In such simple sentences as 'There you are,' 'What can the matter be,' it depends on the sense whether the verb or the complement should be last. When it is a question of existence or non-existence, the verb is the emphatic word-Who would not laugh, if such a man there be?' When the stress lies on the complement, it is different-' Who would not weep if Atticus were he'. There is a similar difference between 'there you are,' and 'there are you': the one signifies the fact of existence, the other puts stress upon EMPHATIC PLACING IN LATIN. 83 the party named by 'you': it is you that are there and not any one else. The same with so you are' and 'so are you'. 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' is a perfect and proper balance. But if the first clause stood alone, the emphasis would properly fall upon 'dust'. Beneath the starry threshold of Jove's court The sense probably would require the order-' is my mansion'. 'Let there be light, and there was light'. The emphasis here is on the creative energy, expressed by the verb of existence--be'. Amended by Sir W. Hamilton-Be there light, and light there was'. The change does not go far enough- Light let there be, light there was'. Shorter still-And God said- Light BE'; Light IS. The first clause is given in quotation as the Deity's command; the second is a narrative of the result, using the historic present, for the sake of emphasis, instead of the past 6 was'. Examples from Latin.-The classical languages have an almost unlimited power of arranging the words in a sentence. This power is frequently used for the periodic construction; not so often for emphatic placing of important words. The suspension of the verb till the last, which is the usual way of making the period, clashes with the other effect. A few examples may be quoted in illustration. Cæsar's opening sentence has already been remarked upon under Brevity; we now adduce it in connection with emphasis:- Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres'. The sentence properly begins with Gallia as the subject. The emphasis of the predicate is on the words 'partes tres,' and more especially on 'tres'; and this also is secured by the arrangement adopted. Compare Lear, We have divided into three our kingdom': still better-' Our kingdom have we divided into three'. The opening sentences in the Annals of Tacitus are- Urbem Romam a principio reges habuere. Libertatem et consulatum L. Brutus instituit.' The order for emphasis would be-'Urbem Romam, a principio, habuere reges. Libertatem et consulatum instituit L. Brutus.' The classical writers are not without examples of effective placing, as in this from Tacitus on the death of Vitellius :-'nec quisquam adeo rerum humanarum immemor, quem non commoveret illa facies'. Virgil abounds in effective collocations. The allusion to Leander in the third book of the Georgics is introduced thus: Quid juvenis, magnum cui versat in ossibus ignem Duras amor? The emphatic words take the place of emphasis, and the very subsidiary verb 'versat' is kept in the middle. Again, we have, in Statius, a famous line, giving a theory of the origin of religion : Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor. The emphatic word is timor, and the placing of Deos first, would still farther improve the distribution of emphasis. In Mr. Arthur Sidgwick's edition of the first book of the Æneid, it is remarked that the first sentence gives with emphasis the leading points of the poem. The first line, however, is too over-crowded for emphasis :Arma virumque cano, Troiæ qui primus ab oris. The distinct subjects 'Arma' and 'virum' are too close for their importance; a break would enhance the force of 'virum '. There would be something gained by arranging thus, if otherwise allowable, Arma cano atque virum. Both the Iliad and Paradise Lost have the advantage of starting an undivided theme. Pope's version is faithful to the lines of the Iliad :Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess sing. Beturning to Virgil, the line Sunt lacrimæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt, is exquisitely constructed, but had the metre permitted, the ending might have been 'tangunt mortalia'.* As, in an army on the march, the fighting columns are placed front and rear, and the baggage in the centre, so the emphatic parts of a sentence should be found either in the beginning or in the end, subordinate and matter-of-course expressions in the middle. It may sometimes be the nature of the clause to refuse emphasis to itself; so that, though placed at the end, it does not interfere with the importance of a preceding clause. In the sentence, 'Dissipation wastes health, as well as time,' the loose addition, 'as well as time,' cannot deprive ‘health' of the stress that would naturally be put upon it. LENGTH OF THE SENTENCE. 24. The Length of the Sentence, though largely involved in the other properties, has certain independent effects. Short sentences are simple and direct; they also lend themselves readily to wit and epigram. Long sentences permit the expansion of a thought, and give room for indispensable qualifying circumstances. They also serve to group related facts, and thus establish a medium between the paragraph, and the individual statement; this will be brought out in the subsequent discussion of Unity. Farther, while shortness in a succession of sentences renders them abrupt and jerky; greater length gives scope for the majesty of rhythm and cadence. A style that alternates * In general, it may be observed that the Latin and Greek writers seem to have felt more the emphasis gained at the beginning of the sentence than what is produced at the end. INSUFFICIENCY OF BLAIR'S RULES. 85 the two kinds is, on the whole, most agreeable, and probably also the best as regards the distribution of the matter. Examples of every variety in this particular are so ready to hand, that they need not be quoted. UNITY. 25. By Unity is understood, that every part of a Sentence should be subservient to one principal affirmation. This short sentence is a perfect example of unity:Approaching Paria-the earthly Paradise of Columbus--however careful a look-out was kept, no idol and no temple would be seen'. Blair's rules on this point, together with his examples, have been copied by succeeding writers. They are these: (1.) In the course of the same sentence not to shift the scene. 'After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness.' Here the putting on shore completes one act, and what follows changes the scene, and should have made a new sentence. (2.) To avoid crowding the sentence with heterogeneous subjects, is the same rule differently stated. "Tillotson died in this year. He was exceedingly beloved both by King William and by Queen Mary, who nominated Dr. Tennison, Bishop of Lincoln, to succeed him!' The last clause, being a transition to a new subject, ought not to have been included in the same sentence. 'The usual acceptation takes profit and pleasure for two different things; and not only calls the followers or votaries of them by the several names of busy and idle men; but distinguishes the faculties of mind that are conversant about them, calling the operations of the first, wisdom, and of the other, wit: which is a Saxon word used to express what the Spaniards and Italians call ingenio, and the French esprit, both from the Latin; though I think wit more particularly signifies that of poetry, as may occur in remarks on the Runic language.' There is here crowded into one sentence abundant matter for three. (3.) To avoid excess of parenthetical clauses. (4.) Not to add members after a full and perfect close. Temple says of Fontenelle, He falls so grossly into the censure of the old poetry, and preference of the new, that I could not read his strains without indignation; which no quality among men is so apt to raise as self-sufficiency'. This last clause is an extraneous addition to the sentence, which is naturally closed at 'indignation'. These disjointed rules are totally insufficient for bringing out the points connected with the Unity of the Sentence. We have often a choice of difficulties. Certain things have to be stated somewhere; and it may be the smaller evil to append them to a sentence with only a very slight bond of connection. Take the following example :- 'Dr. Crombie, an alumnus of Aberdeen, well known as the author of the "Gymnasium," and, among other works, of an excellent treatise on the "Etymology and Syntax of the English Language," was the man who, by the publication of the Gymnasium in 1812, and his distinguished success as a teacher at Greenwich, gave the great impulse, which was then so much needed, to the more careful cultivation of Latin Prose Composition in England, where it had been comparatively neglected for the writing of sense and nonsense verses, as if the ready knowledge of long and short syllables were the chief object, and therefore afforded the best proof of superior classical culture.' This sentence becomes loose after England'; were it to end there, it would be an unexceptionable sentence. Whether the remaining part should be added on, depends (1) upon whether or not the explanatory circumstance needs to be stated, and (2) upon whether or not a better position can be found for it, in some preceding or following sentence, or else in a re-arrangement of the present sentence. In fact, the question of Unity often carries us into the consideration of several contiguous sentences and brings the quality into relation with the laws of the Paragraph. The same remarks would apply to the following sentence:-'Nor is he altogether unlike Mirabeau in the style of his eloquence, our better appreciation of which, as well as our better knowledge of Pym and of this the heroic age of our history in general, we owe to the patriotic and truly noble diligence of Mr. John Forster, from whose researches no small portion of my materials for this lecture is derived.' 26. Clauses of Consequence, of Explanation or Reason, of Iteration, of Exemplification, of Qualification, and Obverse Clauses, are often separated by a semicolon or colon from the main statement, without necessarily marring the Unity of the Sentence. Now surely this ought not to be asserted, unless it can be proved; we should speak with cautious reverence upon such a subject. Here the second clause is a reason or justification of the main statement, and is properly included in the sentence. Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; the |