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OTHER MEANS OF EXPLICIT REFERENCE.

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opposite statement with some emphasis; but now chiefly used to extend or intensify something just mentioned.

For returning after a digression, we employ the phrasesTo return, To proceed, To resume.

In summing up, we have-In short, In a word, In one sentence, On the whole, To conclude, In conclusion, To sum up, To recapitulate

Transition to a new line of remark is introduced by— Hitherto, Up to this point, Formerly, So far, Thus far.

9. The SUBORDINATING Conjunctions (Because, If, That, In order that, Provided, When, &c.) most usually join a subordinate clause to a principal in the same sentence. Occasionally, however, a subordinate statement rises to such importance as to be placed in a sentence apart.

This happens with 'For,' when introducing a reason. It also happens with the phrase 'Provided that,' especially in Acts of Parliament. The conjunctions of negative condition, Unless,' &c., are sometimes employed.

Scarcely any others of the class are found connecting sentences. We may be satisfied of this by observing the employment of-Because, If, Though, In order that, Since, So as, When, While. These often begin a sentence, but usually to indicate subordination to a clause following.

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Campbell remarks on the arbitrariness of usage in making For' a paragraph conjunction, and refusing the same latitude to Because'.

10. There are Demonstrative phrases for making a special reference to a preceding sentence:-In this case, In that case, That being so, In these circumstances, In the manner now described, By such proceedings as have been detailed, Under the foregoing arrangement, After what has now been said, Not that all men are so affected.

A Relative pronoun refers one clause to another in the same sentence; but rarely connects two successive sentences. The old English usage of commencing a sentence with who' for and he,' is now obsolete; the reason being

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that the relative expresses a close connection between the members joined.

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The demonstrative phrase of reference does not always commence the sentence. It may be the object of a verb, as Even although he had foreseen this consequence'. Or it may stand in other positions: The general, in this emergency, trusted to his cavalry'. The article and a general word is enough for a reference. The event deceived him'; 'the case was not so bad'.

11.-II. In many instances, no connecting words are used between consecutive sentences, their absence having a distinct meaning.

Connectives generally-pronouns and conjunctions— having a tendency to load and encumber the composition, they are dispensed with as far as possible. But their omission has its own signification, and is suited to certain definite cases.

12. When a sentence either iterates or explains what goes before, a conjunction is unnecessary.

These are perhaps the cases where the connection is oftenest a blank. The same omission characterizes the sentence; a member that iterates, or one that explains, is without a conjunction. In these instances, the nature of the reference is supposed to be shown by the meaning. When there is any doubt, specific phrases may be employed. Thus, for iteration we say-In other words, It comes to the same thing, This is equal to saying, To vary the statement. For explanation:-In point of fact, The explanation is, We may account for the fact, &c.

The omission extends to obverse iteration likewise :They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat.'

13. In cumulative statements, the omission of conjunctions prevails extensively.

When a number of particulars are given in successionwhether descriptive, narrative, or expository-they are presumed, in the absence of any contrary indication, to have a common bearing.

OMISSION OF CONNECTIVES.

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As the omission of connectives is not restricted to this case, the cumulative conjunctions must be inserted, should there be any danger of some other interpretation being put upon their absence; as, for instance, when any sentence might be supposed to iterate, or to explain a preceding.

What is done in a sentence, when several words or members in succession are cumulative--namely, to insert the conjunction only before the last-is likewise done in the paragraph.

Several of the cumulative conjunctions involve the additional meaning of comparison, as Thus, So, Likewise, Accordingly. This renders them less easily dispensed with; 'Beware of the still we find them occasionally omitted. ides of March, said the Roman augur to Julius Cæsar: Beware of the month of May, says the British Spectator to his fair country women.' The mere fact of juxtaposition shows that the two sentences are to be thought of together, and if the mind can readily perceive the relation, it is left unsignified.

14. In the statement of a consequence, the connective is sometimes omitted, when special energy is to be expressed.

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When something is stated as a cause, we are prepared for the statement of the effect; and if the feelings are roused, the abrupt transition is more suitable. The result of this week must convince you of the hopelessness of farther resistance. I ask the surrender of your army.'

'I have been bullied,' said the Countess of Dorset to Charles the Second's Secretary of State, who suggested a member for her pocket burgh; I have been bullied by an usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man sha'n't stund.'

Belinda smiled: (and all) the world was gay.

If the king gets this veto, what is the use of the National Assembly? We are slaves; all is done.'

See, as an example of total omission of connectives, the Song of Moses :- The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.'

15. It is remarked by Campbell that the omission of connectives succeeds best, when the connection of the thoughts is either very distant or very close.

'When the connection in thought is very distant, the copulative appears absurd, and, when very close, superfluous. For the first of these reasons, it is seldom that we meet with it, except in the Bible; and for the second, it is frequently dropt in familiar narrative, where the connection is so obvious as to render it useless.'

16.-III. The reference may be made by repeating either literally or in substance, the matter referred to.

The repetition is prefaced by such expressions as, We have now seen, We have already stated, As has just been said, It was formerly laid down, It was remarked above.

This mode becomes more necessary, when we refer some way back.

17.-IV. The reference may also be indicated by the mode of arrangement of the sentence. Inversions often have this end in view.

Entering the gulf, he endeavoured to find the River Darien. This river he could not discover, but he disembarked on the eastern side of the gulf.'

The following passage could be improved on the same principle.

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Early in the morning, the nobles and gentlemen who attended on the king, assembled in the great hall of the castle, and here they began to talk of what a dreadful storm it had been the night before. But Macbeth could scarcely understand what they said, for he was thinking of something worse!' 'What they said, Macbeth could scarcely understand.'

To a mind thus disposed, no part of creation is indifferent.'

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Compare These are the cases that make difficulty,' with The cases that make difficulty are these'.

'As to the murderer, he was walking rapidly backwards and forwards in the parlour, audible but not visible at first, being engaged with something or other in that part of the room which the door still concealed. What the something might be, the sound soon explained.'

EXPLICIT REFERENCE IN DE QUINCEY.

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On the point of explicit reference, the writings of De Quincey deserve especial mention.

The following sentence will furnish a short example. Words serving the function of reference to what precedes, are marked in italics.

'If we do submit to this narrow valuation of style, founded on the interest of the subject to which it is ministerial [repetition in substance of what is referred to], still, even on that basis, we English commit a capital blunder, which the French earnestly and sincerely escape; for, assuming that the thoughts involve the primary interest, still it must make all the difference in the world to the success of those thoughts, whether they are treated in the way best fitted to expel the doubts or darkness that may have settled on them; and, secondly, in cases where the business is, not to establish new convictions, but to carry old convictions into operative life and power, whether they are treated in the way best fitted to rekindle in the mind a practical sense of their value.' It will be noticed that the phraseology of reference makes a considerable part of the sentence. Such profuseness is characteristic of the author.

The explicit reference of each sentence to what precedes is important, not only because in itself it contributes to Clearness, but also on account of its bearing on the Unity and the Consecutiveness of the Paragraph. It has a similar effect in the Paragraph to what the periodic structure has in the Sentence. When the mutual relation of the Sentences is thus made apparent, a writer is less likely to be led into irrelevant digressions interfering with the Unity of the whole, or to permit his sentences to succeed each other in an unnatural order.

The passage now to be adduced will refer both to Sentence Distribution and to Explicit Reference. It is from De Quincey's Incident on the English Mail. In order to study the grouping of sentences, we shall occasionally have to quote several together :

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"(1) Suddenly, from thoughts like these, I was awakened to a "sullen sound, as of some motion on the distant road. (2) It stole upon the air for a moment: I listened in awe; but then it died away. (3) Once roused, however, I could not but observe with "alarm the quickened motion of our horses. (4) Ten years' experience had made my eye learned in the valuing of motion; and I saw that we were now running thirteen miles an hour."

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As to Grouping, if we study the breaks in these four sentences, we find them unequal. More especially do the first and second come closer in meaning than either the second and third, or the third and fourth. We might include in the same sentence all that relates to the sound. Instead of a full stop after 'distant road,' a colon break might be substituted, and the two sentences made into one. change of subject in (3), requires a new sentence-Once roused'. Also, the fourth is sufficiently different from the third to justify a new sentence. The ideas are no doubt closely related-viz., observing with alarm the motion of the horses, and intimating the author's experience in the valuing of motion; still, the transition

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