On the other hand, the following, though a period in construction, is made up of parts that do not yield an apodosis answerable to the protasis, and cannot do so without great change in the order of circumstances by which the period comes to its close.

"The march of the Greeks was through an uncultivated country, whose savage inhabitants fared hardly, having no other riches than a breed of lean sheep, whose flesh was rank and unsavory, by reason of their continual feeding upon sea-fish."

Instead of endeavoring to re-marshal the apodosis of this exain ple, the readiest correction will be to reduce the whole to two periods; thus,

"The march of the Greeks was through an uncultivated country, possessed by savage inhabitants, whose only riches was a breed of lean sheep. Nothing indeed could be harder than the fare of these people, the sheep being not only lean, but their flesh unsavory, by reason of their continual feeding on sea-fish."

EXERCISES.

Improve the style of the following paragraphs; either by giving the compactness of a period to parts that will advantageously receive it, or by reducing to looser grammatical union parts that are improperly blended.

Having come to himself, they put him on board of a ship, which conveyed him first to Corinth, and thence to the island of Egina.

Desires of pleasure usher in temptation, and the growth of disorderly passions is forwarded.

By eagerness of temper, and precipitancy of indulgence, men forfeit all the advantages which patience would have procured; and, by this means, the opposite evils are incurred to their full extent.

This prostitution of praise affects not only the gross of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned; but also the better part must, by this means, lose some part of their desire of fame, when they find it promiscuously bestowed on the meritorious and on the undeserving.

The motive of a deed is that which Heaven regards; it does not regard its outward character.

It is not by being present in scenes of dissipation, by giving up the senses to what the world calls pleasure, that people are rendered happy, but they are rendered so by moderate desires, and a virtuous life.

Sir Walter Raleigh, after a life devoted to the service of his country; a life distinguished by valor, learning, and enterprise, was beheaded on Tower-hill, and was the first man in this country that smoked tobacco.

In this uneasy state, both of his public and private life, Cicero was op pressed by a new and deep affliction, the death of his beloved daughter Tullia; which happened soon after his divorce from Dolabella; whose manners were entirely disagreeable to her.

LESSON LXIV.

GRAMMATICAL PURITY OF DICTION.

Style is the mode of expression which we adopt in giving utterance to our thoughts. It varies with the subject, with the writer, and the occasion; with those for whom we write, and the object or design of writing. As the basis of a good style, grammatical proprieties are ever to be observed.

Style is affected by the extent and variety of our knowledge; by the soundness of our judgment, the delicacy and correctness of our taste, the degree of our mental culture and discrimination. A careful study of the English language, and an extensive knowledge of the meaning and uses of its words, are essential to the acquiring of a good English style.

Style relates to Diction, and to Structure.—The qualities of Diction may be considered under four heads:

1. Purity of Diction; by which is meant the employment of such words and phrases, and construction, exclusively, as belong to the English language.

2. Simplicity of Diction, consisting in the use of such words and phrases as are most frequently and commonly employed by good writers; such as are easily comprehended by persons of ordinary intelligence and education.

3. Propriety of Diction, is the use of words with the precise signification which "the best usage" has attached to each of them, observing the more delicate shades of meaning belonging to their. in particular collocations.

4. Precision of Diction clothes each thought not only with thosu

words which most perfectly represent it, but with no more words than are necessary for this purpose; also employing the same words in the same sense, in the same connection.

1. PURITY OF DICTION.

This implies (1) That the words used be English words. (2) That their construction into sentences be such as suits the peculiarities of the English language.

We must in general use only English words. The opposite fault is denominated a barbarism.

Hence (1), we must in general avoid the choice of words that have gone entirely out of use—obsolete words. They are, indeed, occasionally allowable in poetry, as a facility in versification; also in treating some portions of the history of former ages; in burlesque writing, also, old and almost obsolete words subserve one's purpose; and further, in some grave compositions, such words help to give an ancient and venerable air to the style. But, in general, such words are not to be used; and when used, used very sparingly.

Such words are the following: behooved, beseeched, bewray, enow, erst, quoth, opinionate, unctuation, pecunious, corrugose, acception, greatening, belikely, anon, behest, whilom, self-same, cruciate, parvitude, &c.

Correct and elegant writing does not admit of certain abbreviations; such as extra for extraordinary; incog., for incognito; hyp., for hypochondriac; pro and con, for both sides; i. e., for "that is;" e. g., "for the sake of example ;" and viz., for "namely."

(2.) For the same reason, entirely new, strange, and unauthorized words and phrases are not to be used, or but very seldom, and not without special reason; such words, while they tend to render a language copious, tend also to unsettle it, to banish good terms in established use, and to impair the literature of the past.

The best reason for coining and introducing new words, is the introduction of new ideas, new arts, or sciences, for expressing or describing which the language at present furnishes no suitable terms. When new words are formed according to the genius and structure of the language, are agreeable to the when pro

nounced, and tend to enrich the language, they are not to be condemned or rejected.

66

High-sounding and learned-like words and epithets should, for the most part, be avoided. "There is," says Harrison, an in. flated or stilted style of composition, embodying terms altogether disproportionate to the subject, and which is often so unfortunate as to combine in one sentence, or one paragraph, the pompous, the offensive, and the ridiculous."

"The night, now far advanced, was brilliantly bright with the radiancy of lunar and astral effulgence-a most lovely night; a death-like stillness prevailed over nature, sound asleep, and the fair moon, taking her nocturnal promenade along the cloudless azure and stellar canopy of heaven, walked in all the resplendency of her highest and brightest glory; very night, according to fiction's tales and romance, of imagination's fantastic records, as (that) would have suited a melancholic pensiveness, a sentimental solitude, a chivalrous spirit, bent on some Quixotic deed of bold adventure."-G. Clayton.

he

The inflated and pedantic style of phraseology condemned in this lesson is not always out of place. When there is an intentional disproportion between the subject and the diction, as in "The Battle of the Frogs and Mice," or in the case of a puff, the hyperbolical may be made productive of considerable humor.

In late years there has been displayed by some flashy writers a propensity to use incongruous terms, and to coin compound words of unwonted length, and of many joints or limbs.

Thus the authoress of "Evelina," in her "Memoirs of Dr. Bur ney," writes:

"Six heartless, nearly desolate years of lonely conjugal chasm had succeeded to double their number of unparalleled conjugal enjoyment; and the void was still fallow and hopeless when the yet very-handsome-thoughno-longer-in-her-bloom Mrs. Stephen Allen of Lynn, now become a widow, decided for the promoting (of) the education of her eldest daughter, to make London her winter residence."

Again:

"Scarcely had this harrowing filial separation taken place, ere au as sault was made upon his conjugal feelings, by the sudden-at-the-moment though-from-lingering-illness-often-previously-expected death of Mr. Burney's

second wife."

Among the strange and unauthorized words that some authors have used, the following are noted down:

Extroitive, introitive, retroitive, un-let-up-able, wide-awake-ity, go-ity, go-away-ness, pocketually, betweenity, fashiondom, connexity, absquatulate, slang-whanger, plumptitude, adorement, judgmatical, miscellanarian, gaseity. influencive, productivity, effectuate, boss.

EXERCISES.

Improve the style of the following sentences, by substituting, where it is necessary, other words and phrases in better taste. The sentences should be written.

It irks me to see so perverse a disposition.

I wot not who hath done this thing.

He was long indisposed, and at length died of the hyp.

It repenteth me that I have walked so long in the paths of folly.
Sobermindedness suits the present state of man.

Methinks I am not mistaken in an opinion I have so well considered.
The question was strenuously debated pro and con.

I had as lief do it myself as persuade another to do it.

He is not a whit better than those whom he so liberally condemns.
Of the justice of his measures, he convinced others by the dint of argu-

ment.

He stands upon security, and will not liberate him till it be obtained. The meaning of the phrase, as I take it, is very different from the common acceptation.

The favorable moment should be embraced, for he does not hold long of one mind.

The assistance was welcome and timelily afforded.

The scene was new, and he was seized with wonderment at all he saw. For want of employment he stroamed idly about the fields.

I came through a crowd of people, and have been almost scrouged to death.

LESSON LXV.

PURITY OF DICTION.

In continuation of the observations made in the last lesson, it may be remarked:

An Eng

1. There are certain expressions which are vulgar, and should not be used in the writings of well-educated persons. lish author, among others, quotes the following: