cères. C'est ainsi qu'il a vu les choses.

Mais cela ne dure

pas. Simple épisode. Tout rentre dans l'ordre.

And so on, and so on, for a column of such spasms: yet this is from the pen of one who at other times has proved himself to be among the first of living French authors.

In essay writing, then, facts and conditions may well be arrayed at first briefly and severally; but as they are marshalled into full argument the periods should be more extended; though even then a succession of long sentences would be monotonous. We shall not forget that in sentences as well as in paragraphs, variety is pleasing.

Order of words. From the ordering of clauses we pass easily to the order of the words in a clause; the order of words in a clause may be as important as the order of clauses in a sentence. Now the faults of disorder of this kind are easy to note and to correct, if the writer, as he revises his manuscript, will but trouble himself to balance the words: to order a long sentence or a paragraph is, as we have seen, a higher accomplishment; but to make a few words run nicely is no hard task. Το refuse this minor care is an ill compliment to the reader, and an ill service to the author himself, if his matter be worth the writing; yet, even by good writers, this part of syntax is habitually neglected.

Let us gather a few examples of verbal disorder: 'The Englishman killed the Frenchman' has not the same meaning as 'The Frenchman killed the Englishman'; yet the difference is one of order only.

'People ceased to wonder by degrees' is a lame form for By degrees people ceased to wonder.' 'Jones also said' has not the same meaning as 'Jones said also.' 'Tradition is even silent' is an error for 'Even tradition,' etc. A wrong order may have comical effects, as in these stock examples: They followed the party step by step through telescopes.' 'A crammer cannot be prevented from continuing to cram by any power on earth.' 'Ford's theatre is for sale where Mr. Lincoln was assassinated for religious purposes.' 'A clever magistrate would see whether he was deliberately lying a great deal better than a stupid jury.' His memory ought to be honoured by interment in Westminster Abbey.' 'Erected to the memory of John Phillips accidentally shot as a mark of affection by his brother.' The clergyman declares aloud that he believes it a dozen times

every year of his life.' 'I understand that when he died Cardinal Mezzofanti spoke at least fifty languages.' Composition as disorderly as this, if not so grotesque as in the cases quoted above, appears continually in our theses, perverting the sense and bewildering the reader. E.g. a candidate read to me, 'I could, when killed, discover nothing abnormal'—another that 'It is hard to find a resident medical officer except in very large workhouses' (he did not mean that the larger the workhouse the easier it is to find the physician). 'The changes seem to occur in both practically simultaneously' (here 'both' seems to apply to 'practically' and 'simultaneously'; 'in both'

should have opened the sentence. Pugin's son told me that his father said of glass painters: "They say stained glass cannot be made now as fine as it was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, do they? I tell you, as fine glass can be made as ever. What they can't do is to put it together."

Adverbs are often placed badly: e.g. Although the thing is quite artistically negligible'; here the writer meant not to speak of neglect as a mode of art, but to say that the neglect was not inconsistent with artistic treatment; so 'artistically' ought to have followed' although.' By 'This hat does not apparently belong to me' do we mean that it does really?—or ought apparently' to have come first? The report was not unfortunately sent in' means it was timely; whereas the writer intended to say the contrary. Again, we read: 'Luckily the monks had given away a couple of dogs, which were returned to them, or the breed would have been lost.' (Of course 'luckily' should have followed 'which.') 'Only one rat was successfully inoculated' should be was inoculated successfully' (presumably the inoculation itself was successful in all cases; it was the results which were unsuccessful). So in the sentence 'It is well known that arsenic is slowly excreted' the writer did not mean to assert that arsenic is excreted, however slowly; but that the excretion of it is slow. He should have written Arsenic is excreted slowly.' Again, in each of the sentences The dose is to be gradually increased' and 'in such a way as to gently draw the lever up' the adverb should have been placed at the end, as in

G

each case the context indicated that the adverb and not the verb was emphatic (vide Split Infinitive,' p. 74, and Emphasis,' p. 126). The first two arrivals' is an incorrect order unless the arrivals are in pairs otherwise it should run 'The two first,' etc. These little niceties are potent to maintain the reader's attention: e.g. 'he does not unhappily care,' conveys to him a meaning very different from 'unhappily he does not care.' 'Both' and ' either' are often misplaced: e.g. He found both traces of sugar and albumin,' where both' is intended to apply not to various traces but to 'sugar and albumin.' Likewise 'neither' is often misplaced: He was neither fitted by abilities nor temperament' (here 'neither' should follow 'fitted'). In 'he was neither disposed to sanction bloodshed nor deceit' the same correction is needed. 'All

not' very often appears in our theses for 'not all'; e.g. All men cannot jump a five-barred gate would be an absurd order for 'Not all men can'; yet I am told that All secretions are not arrested by opium,' and that 'All mosquitoes are not vehicles of infection'-a different proposition from Not all mosquitoes,' etc. 'Well otherwise' is not equivalent to otherwise well,' nor 'not shown to be' to 'shown not to be.' Few writers think of the proper place of that flighty little word 'only'; e.g. He only touched the fringe of a large subject' signifies that the fringe was barely handled; whereas the writer meant 'He touched only the fringe,' etc. 'Only seems to occur' has a widely different meaning from 'seems to occur

only.' In the sentence Evidence of excretion only being found in four out of thirteen cases' the context did not tell me whether only excretion was intended, or it was no more than found, or was found in four only. 'Absorption only commences in the

'This is

More

In the

lower intestine '-then where can it be continued? 'It can only health and joy afford' (for 'It only,' etc.) and 'It can only be eliminated by spare and careful diet' suggest that in each of these sentences there was something more to be desired. 'Only too frequently he attains his purpose' and only what was to be expected' are correct. over, 'only' is often inserted detrimentally. following sentence, 'Such successes only emphasised his previous failures,' the adverb is rightly placed, but it spoils the sense: his successes did far more than this; and so again in 'It is only reasonable to suppose,' etc. The use of 'only' for 'not until' is not elegant, and tends to ambiguity; e.g. 'then and only then' means 'at that time and at no other.' His hair only turned grey when he was sixty-five' (and at sixty-six was black again?) The breathing 'James only

only became easy after two days.' became King of Aragon when his elder brother died,' says a good historian-what more did James hope then to become? 'He would only see his destination about 8.30 in the evening'-which would be a brief glimpse, poor man. 'The letter was written in 1803, the essay was only published twentythree years later' is surely a very misleading sentence for an eminent writer.

The rule for placing an adverb is not quite the