Comparison:

For as storms and hurricanes recommend and enhance the calm and temperature of the seas and of the skies,

So we may be allowed to suppose, that your former tumults and troubles arose merely to give a greater zest and favor to your present tranquility.

Condition:

If we had not on our private account many and just motives for the friendship subsisting be

tween us,

I would retrace the first origin of our intimacy from the happy intercourse existing between our parents.

This last might easily be extended to three members:

If we had not on our private account many and just motives for the friendship subsisting be

tween us,

Which a mutual exchange of good offices from our earliest years has so happily confirmed;

I would retrace the first origin of our intimacy from the friendly intercourse existing between our parents.

Concession:

Though I could not but receive the highest satisfaction from the glory of my dear friend Dolabella,

And it filled me with the most lively joy and pleasure on his account.

Yet I cannot but confess that I feel my heart most sensibly affected,

That in the opinion of the people I am associated with you in the participation of your praises.

Interrogation:

And now, among the different sentiments of the philosophers concerning the consequence of our final dissolution,

May I not venture to declare what are my own?

The relative qui, quæ, quod, with its compounds, followed by is, talis, tantus, &c.

It is not fit that any credit should be given to those men,

Who appear to speak with too much vehemence for their own emolument.

But it must be most attentively considered by those, who have the care of education,

What is the particular bent and disposition of those, whom they instruct.-(Three members may easily be effected here by beginning with the relative who.)

Who then can censure, or in justice be angry with me,

If those hours, which others employ in business, in pleasures, in celebrating public solemnities, in refreshing the body and unbending the mind;

If the time, which is spent by some in midnight banquetings, in diversions and in gaming, I myself employ in reviewing and retracing

those studies?

Ut, quemadmodum, sicut, &c. followed by sie: quanquam, followed by tamen, &c.

Beware, citizens, beware lest, as it was glorious for them to transmit so extensive an empire to posterity,

Your inability to preserve and defend it prove not infamous for you.

Though this past behavior of thine was beyond all patience,

Yet have I borne with it as I could.

The structure of a period will be easily understood from these examples; but as some difficulty will arise, where the simple idea does not immediately supply materials for the formation of the period; and as nothing contributes more to the true elegance of style, I shall give a few general rules, which, as far as it can be done, will enable the scholar to find out the necessary clauses or members proper to be inserted. In considering a simple proposition, which you wish to extend, and distribute into the parts of a period, it will be easy to discover whether it includes the idea of cause, condition, concession, time, place, &c. and may with propriety admit the insertion of the particles mentioned above, proper to express that idea. Suppose the subject is, the Destruction of Corinth. The first idea that arises is the simple fact that L. Mummius overthrew Corinth. A scholar, therefore, in order to give it the first requisite mentioned by Cicero, the Latinè, would say, L. Mummius Corinthum funditùs delevit. But if he wished to give it the form of a more finished period, the question might be started, Why he did it: what reasons

could influence the Roman commander to destroy that city, at that time the celebrated seat of arts. This question being resolved, will immediately give the sentence the form and structure of a period.

L. Mummius, because he himself was very ignorant of the liberal arts,

Overthrew Corinth with unparalleled barbarity. And by dwelling a little more on the circumstance of the overthrow, the consideration that this famous city was the seat of the arts, may give another member, and indeed more ornament to the period.

L. Mummius, being himself very ignorant and illiterate,.

Destroyed, with the most unparalleled barbarity, the famous city, Corinth,

Which was, as it were, the eye, and the

of Greece.

parent

Thus an additional clause explanatory of the subject, or denoting concession, &c. may very easily be found out: as,

Industry without genius is of very little use; It will soon occur to the mind, that industry is very commendable, and that will form a period. Industry, though in itself very com.nendable, Is of little use without the help of genius. Or, industry, if it is, or which is, without genius, &c.

There are other methods of giving to a simple sentence the form of a period, which are more simple, and which use will soon render familiar and easy; as by changing one word into anoth

er. Thus an adjective or a participle might be changed into qui, &c. A fortunate unhoped-for hour will arrive; say, which shall not be hoped for. Propter, ob, may be changed into quia, cum, &c. All men respect your brother for his great learning, say, because he is endowed with learning. This might indeed be effected by using a periphrasis, or any kind of circumlocution:

In the structure, however, of a period, let it be repeated, that great care must be taken that the aptè and congruenter mentioned by Cicero, be diligently observed, that the adoption of additional clauses be appropriate and illustrative of the subject, and that they do not extend beyond four members: Pulcherrima enim est illa Periodus, quæ membris quatuor absolvitur, ut quæ animum suspendat, et aures impleat; for though many ancient writers have transgressed this rule, that transgression only renders the sentences too fatigueing or obscure. Long sentences of that kind have been denominated лvɛvuarα, which might, and TaoTeis, those that could not, be pronounced in one breath.

OF PROSE-MEASURE OR HARMONY.

TO what has been said concerning the structure of the period, it will not be unnecessary to add a few observations concerning the harmony of prose, or that measured equality of numbers and exact proportion of parts, which forms so great a part of a finished period, or rather which seems naturally to arise from its forma