Rheno et Danubio fluminibus; a Sarmatis Dacifque, mutuo metu aut montibus feparatur. De moribus Ger manorum. Upon the fame account, I esteem the following paffage equally exceptionable. -The fiend look'd up, and knew His mounted fcale aloft; nor more, but fled Murm'ring, and with him fled the fhades of night. Paradife loft, b. 4. at the end. ; There is no natural connection between a perfon's flying or retiring, and the fucceffion of day-light to darknefs and therefore to connect artificially the terms that fignify these things cannot have a fweet effect. Two members of a thought connected by their relation to the fame action, will naturally be expreffed by two members governed by the fame verb; in which case these members, in order to improve their connection, ought to be constructed in the fame manner. This beauty is fo common among good writers as to have been little attended to; but the neglect of it is remark: ably difagreeable: For example, He did not mention "Leonora, nor that her father was dead." Better thus: "He did not mention Leonora, nor her father's "death." Where two ideas are fo connected as to require but a copulative, it is pleafant to find a connection in the words that exprefs thefe ideas, were it even fo flight as where both begin with the fame letter: The peacock, in all his pride, does not difplay half the colour that appears in the garments of a British lady, when he is either dreffed for a ball or a birth-day. Spectator, N° 265, Had not my dog of a fteward run away as he did, without making up his accounts, I had ftill been immerfed in fin and fea-coal. [Ibid. N° 530. My life's companion, and my bofom friend, There There is obviously a fenfible defect in neatnefs when uniformity in this cafe is totally neglected; witness the following example, where the conftruction of two members connected by a copulative is unneceffarily varied. For it is confidently reported, that two young gentlemen of real hopes, bright wit, and profound judgment, who upon a thorough examination of caufes and effects, and by the mere force of natural abilities, without the leaft tincture of learning, have made a discovery that there was no God, and generously communicating their thoughts for the good of the public, were fome time ago, by an unparallelled feverity, and upon I know not what obfolete law, broke for blafphemy t. [Better thus]:-having made a difcovery that there was no God, and having generously communicated their thoughts for the good of the public, were fome time ago, &c. He had been guilty of a fault, for which his mafter would have put him to death, had he not found an opportunity to escape out of his hands, and fed into the deferts of Numidia. [Guardian, N° 139. If all the ends of the revolution are already obtained, it is not only impertinent to argue for obtaining any of them, but falious defigns might be imputed, and the name of incendiary be applied with fome colour, perhaps, to any one who should perfift in preffing this point. Differtation upon parties, Dedication. Next as to examples of disjunction and oppofition in. the parts of the thought, imitated in the expreffion; an imitation that is diftinguished by the name of antithefis. Speaking of Coriolanus folliciting the people to be made conful: With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds. Coriolanus. Had you rather Cæfar were living, and die all flaves, than *See Girard's French Grammar, difcourfe 12. An argument againft abolishing Chriftianity. Swift. than that Cæfar were dead, to live all free men? Julius Cæfar. He hath cool'd my friends and heated mine enemies. Shakespear. An artificial connection among the words, is undoubtedly a beauty when it reprefents any peculiar connection among the conflituent parts of the thought; but where there is no fuch connection, it is a positive deformity, as above observed, because it makes a difcordance between the thought and expreffion. For the fame reafon, we ought alfo to avoid every artificial oppofition of words where there is none in the thought. This last, termed verbal antithefts, is ftudied by low writers, because of a certain degree of livelinefs in it. They do not confider how incongruous it is, in a grave compofition, to cheat the reader, and to make him expect a contraft in the thought, which upon examination is not found there. A light wife doth make a beary husband. Merchant of Venice. Here is a ftudied oppofition in the words, not only without any oppofition in the fenfe, but even where there is a very intimate connection, that of caufe and effect; for it is the levity of the wife that torments the hufband. Will maintain fc. 2. Upon his bad life to make all this good. A fault directly oppofite to that laft mentioned, is to conjoin artificially words that exprefs ideas opposed to each other in the thought. This is a fault too grofs to be in common practice; and yet writers are guilty of it in fome degree, when they conjoin by a copulative things. tranfacted at different periods of time. Hence a want of neatnefs in the following expreflion. The The nobility too,, whom the King had no means of retaining by fuitable offices and preferments, had been feized with the general difcontent, and unwarily threw themselves into the scale which began already too much to preponderate. [Hift. of G. Britain, vol. 1. p 250. In periods of this kind, it appears more neat to express the paft time by the participle paffive, thus: The nobility having been feized with the general difcontent, unwarily threw themfelves, &c. (or), The nobility, who had been seized, &c. unwarily threw themfelves, &c. It is unpleasant to find even a negative and affirmative propofition connected by a copulative: Nec excitatur claffico miles truci, Forumque vitat, et fuperbo civium Potentiorum limina. [Horace, Epod 2. 1. 5. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Shakespear. In mirth and drollery it may have good effect to connect verbally things that are oppofite to each other in the thought. Example: Henry the Fourth of France introducing the Marefchal Biron to fome of his friends, "Here, Gentlemen," fays he, " is the Marefchal Biron, whom I freely prefent both to my friends and "enemies." This rule of ftudying uniformity between the thought and expreffion, may be extended to govern the conftruction of fentences or periods. A fentence or period ought to exprefs one entire thought or mental propofition; and different thoughts ought to be feparated in the expreffion by placing them in different fentences or e periods. It is therefore offending againft neatnefs, to crowd into one period entire thoughts requiring more than one; which is joining in language things that are feparated in reality. Of errors against this rule take the following examples. Behold Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant: alfo our bed is green. Cæfar, defcribing the Suevi: Arque in eam fe confuetudinem adduxerunt, ut locis frigidiffimis, neque veftitus, præter pelles, habeant quidquam, quarum propter exiguitatem, magna eft corporis pars aperta, et laventur in fluminibus. Commentaria, l. 4. prin. Burnet, in the history of his own times, giving Lord Sunderland's character, fays, His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great expence. I have feen a woman's face break out in heats, as she has been talking against a great Lord, whom she had ne· ver feen in her life; and indeed never knew a partywoman that kept her beauty for a twelvemonth. Spectator, No 57Lord Bolingbroke, fpeaking of Strada: I fingle him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish prefumption to cenfure Tacitus, and to write history himself; and your Lordship will forgive this fhort excurfion in honour of a favourite writer. Letters on hiftory, vol. 1. let. 3. It seems to me, that in order to maintain the moral fyftem of the world at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for we are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of attaining), but however fufficient upon the whole to conftitute a ftate eafy and happy, or at the worst tolerable: I fay, it seems to me, that the author of nature has thought fit to mingle from time to time, among the focieties of men, a few, and but a few, of those on whom he is graciously pleafed to bestow a larger proportion of the ethereal fpirit than is given in the ordinary courfe of his providence to the fons of men. Bolingbroke, on the spirit of patriotism, let.4. To crowd into a fingle member of a period different fubjects, is ftill worse than to crowd them into one period. Trojam, |