Part 262 (1/2)

SECTION V--OF UNITY

Unity consists in avoiding needless pauses, and keeping one object predoraph Every sentence, whether its parts be few or many, requires strict unity The chief faults, opposite to this quality of style, are suggested in the following precepts PRECEPT I--Avoid brokenness, hitching, or the unnecessary separation of parts that naturally coether Examples: ”I was, soon after my arrival, taken out of my Indian habit”--_Addison, Tattler_, No 249 Better: ”Soon after my arrival, _I_ was taken out of my Indian habit”--_Churchill's Gram_, p

326 ”Who can, either in opposition, or in the ministry, act alone?”--_Ib_ Better: ”Who can act alone, either in opposition, or in the ministry?”--_Ib_ ”I, like others, have, in e now prematurely assails me”--_Ib_, p 327 Better: ”Like others, I have trifled with e now prematurely assails me”

PRECEPT II--Treat different topics in separate paragraphs, and distinct sentiments in separate sentences Error: ”The two volumes are, indeed, intilish Grammar”--_Murray's Preface_, p iv Better thus: ”The two volumes are, indeed, intimately connected _They_ constitute one uniforraress of a sentence, do not desert the principal subjects in favour of adjuncts, or change the scene unnecessarily Example: ”After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I elcoreatest kindness, which was not then expected” Better: ”The vessel having come to anchor, I was put on shore; where I was unexpectedly welcoreatest kindness”--See _Blair's Rhet_, p 107

PRECEPT IV--Do not introduce parentheses, except when a lively re from the principal subject Example: ”But (saith he) since I take upon e, it should be so natural for this man to write untruths, since I direct my _Theses_ only to the Christian world; but if it may render me odious, such _Peccadillo's_ pass with him, it seems, but for _Piae Fraudes_:) I intended never to write of those things, concerning which we do not differ from others”--_R Barclay's Works_, Vol iii p 279 The parts of this sentence are so put together, that, as a whole, it is scarcely intelligible

SECTION VI--OF STRENGTH

Strength consists in giving to the several words andout the sense to the best advantage, and present every idea in its due importance Perhaps it is essential to this quality of style, that there be aniht_, in all that is uttered A few hints concerning the Strength of sentences, will here be given in the form of precepts

PRECEPT I--Avoid verbosity; a concise style is the th Examples: ”No human happiness is so pure as not to contain _any_ alloy”--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p 270 Better: ”No human happiness is _unalloyed_” ”He was so much skilled in the exercise of the oar, that few could equal him”--_Ib_, p 271 Better: ”He was so _skillful at_ the oar, that few could _match_ him” Or thus: ”At the oar, he was _rarely equalled_” ”The reason why they [the pronouns] are considered separately is, because there is so particular in their inflections”-- _Priestley's Gram_, p 81 Better: ”The pronouns are considered separately, because there is so peculiar in their inflections”

PRECEPT II--Place the most important words in the situation in which they will est ith and vivacity of an expression: as, ”All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worshi+p hteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgeht of the Lord is the death of his saints”--_Ps_, cxvi, 15

PRECEPT III--Have regard also to the relative position of clauses, or er; and, when the sentence consists of twoone

Example: ”We flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken our passions, when they have forsaken us” Better: ”When our passions have forsaken us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken them”--See _Blair's Rhet_, p 117; _Murray's Gras are to be compared or contrasted, their rese, if a pretty near resee and construction of the two members, be preserved Exaains his own approbation; the fool, when he recommends himself to the applause of those about hiains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the applause of others”--See _Murray's Graeneral, ungraceful to end a sentence with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word or phrase, which may either be oreat deal better to say, 'Avarice is a criuilty,' than to say, 'Avarice is a criuilty of'”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 117; _Murray's Gram_, p 323

END OF THE THIRD APPENDIX

APPENDIX IV

TO PART FOURTH, OR PROSODY

OF POETIC DICTION

Poetry, as defined by Dr Blair, ”is the language of passion, or of enlivened iular numbers”--_Rhet_, p 377 The style of poetry differs, in many respects, from that which is coures of speech, and unusual collocations of words A great part of the figures, which have been treated of in one of the chapters of Prosody, are purely poetical The primary aim of a poet, is, to please and to ination, and the passions, that he speaks

He may also, and he should, have it in his view, to instruct and to refor, that such a writer accomplishes this end The exterior and most obvious distinction of poetry, is versification: yet there are some foruishable from prose; and there is also a species of prose, so measured in its cadences, and so much raised in its tone, as to approach very nearly to poetic numbers

This double approximation of some poetry to prose, and of soed difficulty to distinguish, by satisfactory definitions, the two species of composition, but, in many instances, embarrasses with like difficulty the attees or licenses, found in English works, are proper to be regarded as peculiarities of poetic diction It is purposed here, to enumerate sundry deviations from the common style of prose; and perhaps all of the only to poetry

POETICAL PECULIARITIES

The following are ae, and are indulged:--

I They not unfrequently omit the ARTICLES, for the sake of brevity or metre; as,

”What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime, Like _shi+pwreck'd mariner_ on _desert_ coast!”

--_Beattie's Minstrel_, p 12