in both, namely, the frailty and mortality of man, is one of those obvious truths which it is impossible for any person in his senses to call in question. To introduce the mention of it, in order to engage my assent to what nobody ever denied or doubted, would be of no consequence at all; but it is of * consequence to rouse my attention to a truth which so nearly concerns every man, and which is, nevertheless, so little attended to by any. In such cases the end of speaking is not to make us believe, but to make us feel. It is the heart, and not the head, which ought to be addressed. And nothing can be better adapted to this purpose than first, as it were independently, to raise clear ideas in the imagination, and then, by the abruptness of an unexpected question, to send us to seek for the archetypes.

From all the examples above quoted, those especially taken from Holy Writ, the learned reader, after comparing them carefully both with the original and with the translations cited in the margin, will be enabled to deduce, with as much certainty as the nature of the question admits, that that arrangement which I call rhetorical, as contributing to vivacity and animation, is, in the strictest sense of the word, agreeably to what hath been already suggested, a natural arrangement; that the principle which leads to it operates similarly on every people and in every language, though it is much more checked by the idiom of some tongues than by that of others; that, on the contrary, the more common, and what, for distinction's sake, I call the grammatical order, is, in a great measure, an arrangement of convention, and differs considerably in different languages.* He will discover, also, that to render the artificial or conventional arrangement, as it were, sacred and inviolable, by representing every deviation (whatever be the subject, whatever be the design of the work) as a trespass against the laws of composition in the language, is one of the most effectual ways of stinting the powers of elocution, and even of damping the vigour both of

* All the French critics are not so immoderately national as Bonhours. Since composing the foregoing observations, I have been shown a book entitled Traité de la Formation Mechanique des Langues. The sentiments of the author on this subject are entirely coincident with mine. He refers to some other treatises, particularly to one on Inversion, by M. de Batteux, which I have not seen. Concerning it he says, " Ceux qui l'auront lu, verront que c'est le défaut de terminaisons propres à distinguer le nominatif de l'accusatif qui nous a forcé prendre cet ordre moins naturel qu'on ne le croit: que l'inversion est dans nôtre langue, non dans la langue Latine, comme on se le figure: que les mots étant plus faits pour l'homme que pour les choses, l'ordre essentiel à suivre dans le discours représentatif de l'idée des objets n'es pas tant la marche commune des choses dans la nature, que la succession véritable des pensées, la rapidité des sentimens, ou de l'intérêt du cœur, la fidélité de l'image dans la tableau de l'action: que le Latin en préférant ces points capitaux procede plus naturellement que le François." &c., No. 22.

imagination and of passion. I observe this the rather, that, in my apprehension, the criticism that prevails among us at present leans too much this way. No man is more sensible of the excellence of purity and perspicuity, properly so called; but I would not hastily give up some not inconsiderable advantages of the English tongue, in respect both of eloquence and of poetry, merely in exchange for the French

netteté.

I should next proceed to make some remarks on the dis position and the form of the clauses in complex sentences; for though some of the examples already produced are properly complex, in these I have only considered the arrangement of the words in the principal member, and not the disposition of the members. But before I enter on this other discussion, it will be proper to observe, and by some suitable examples to illustrate the observation, that the complex are not so favourable to a vivacious diction as the simple sentences, or such as consist of two clauses at the most.

Of all the parts of speech, the conjunctions are the most unfriendly to vivacity; and next to them, the relative pronouns, as partaking of the nature of conjunction. It is by these parts, less significant in themselves, that the more significant parts, particularly the members of complex sentences, are knit together. The frequent recurrence, therefore, of such feeble supplements, cannot fail to prove tiresome, especially in pieces wherein an enlivened and animated diction might naturally be expected. But nowhere hath simplicity in the expression a better effect in invigorating the sentiments than in poetical description on interesting subjects. Consider the song composed by Moses on occasion of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and you will find that part of the effect produced by that noble hymn is justly imputable to the simple, the abrupt, the rapid manner adopted in the composition. I shall produce only two verses for a specimen. "The enemy said, I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; my revenge shall be satiated upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them: thou blewest with thy breath; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters."* This is the

* Exod., xv., 9, 10. The word by our interpreters rendered wind also denotes spirit and breath. A similar homonymy in the corresponding term may be observed not only in the Oriental, but in almost all ancient languages. When this noun has the affix pronoun by which it is appropriated to a person, the signification wind is evidently excluded, and the meaning is limited to either spirit or breath. When it is, besides, construed with the verb blow, the signification spirit is also excluded, and the meaning confined to breath. It is likewise the intention of the inspired penman to represent the wonderful facility with which Jehovah blasted all the towering hopes of the Egyptians. Add to this, that such a manner is entirely in the He brew taste, which considers every great natural object as hearing some re

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figure which the Greek rhetoricians call asyndeton, and to which they ascribe a wonderful efficacy. It ought to be observed, that the natural connexion of the particulars mentioned is both close and manifest; and it is this consideration which entirely supersedes the artificial signs of that connexion, such as conjunctions and relatives. Our translators (who, it must be acknowledged, are not often chargeable with this fault) have injured one passage in endeavouring to mend it. Literally rendered, it stands thus: "Thou sentest forth thy wrath; it consumed them as stubble."* These two simple sentences have appeared to them too much detached. For this reason, they have injudiciously combined them into one complex sentence, by inserting the relative which, and thereby weakened the expression. "Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble." They have also thought fit sometimes to add the conjunction and when it was not necessary, and might well have been spared.

If any one perceives not the difference, and, consequently, is not satisfied of the truth of this doctrine, let him make the following experiment on the song now under review. Let him transcribe it by himself, carefully inserting conjunctions and relatives in every place which will admit them in a consistency with the sense, and then let him try the effect of the whole. If, after all, he is not convinced, I know no argument in nature that can weigh with him. For this is one of those cases in which the decision of every man's own taste must be final with regard to himself.

But those who feel the difference in the effects will permit such as are so disposed to speculate a little about the cause. All that come under the cognizance of our senses, in the operations either of Nature or of Art, are the causes which precede, and the effects which follow. Hence is suggested to the mind the notion of power, agency, or causation. The notion or idea (call it which you please) is from the very frame of our nature suggested, necessarily suggested, and often instantaneously suggested; but still it is suggested, and not perceived. I would not choose to dispute with any man about a word, and, therefore, lest this expression should appear exceptionable, I declare my meaning to be only this, that it is conceived by the understanding, and not perceived by the senses, as the causes and the effects themselves often are. Would you then copy Nature in a historical or descriptive poem, present to our imagination the causes and the effects in their natural order; the suggestion of the power or agency which connects them will as necessarily result from the lively lation to the Creator and sovereign of the universe. The thunder is God's voice; the wind, his breath; the heavens, his throne; the earth, his foot stool; the whirlwind and the tempest are the blasts of his nostrils.

Exod., xv., 7.

'mage you produce in the fancy, as it results from the perception of the things themselves when they fall under the cognizance of the senses.

But if you should take the other method, and connect with accuracy where there is relation, and with the help of conjunctions and relatives deduce with care effects from their causes, and allow nothing of the kind to pass unnoticed in the description, in lieu of a picture you will present us with a piece of reasoning or declamation. Would you, on the contrary, give to reasoning itself the force and vivacity of painting, follow the method first prescribed, and that even when you represent the energy of spiritual causes, which were never subjected to the scrutiny of sense. You will thus convert a piece of abstruse reflection, which, however just, makes but a slender impression upon the mind, into the most affecting and instructive imagery.

It is in this manner the Psalmist treats that most sublime, and, at the same time, most abstract of all subjects, the providence of God. With what success he treats it, every person of taste and sensibility will judge. After a few strictures on the life of man and of the inferior animals, to whatever element, air, or earth, or water, they belong, he thus breaks forth: "These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. Thou givest them. They gather. Thou openest thy hand. They are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face. They are troubled. Thou takest away their breath. They die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit. They are created. Thou renewest the face of the earth." ""* It must be acknowledged, that it is not every subject, no, nor every kind of composition, that requires, or even admits the use of such glowing colours. The psalm is of the nature of the ode, being, properly defined, a sacred ode; and it is allowed that this species of poesy demands more fire than any other.

It may, indeed, be thought that the vivacity resulting from this manner of composing is sufficiently accounted for, from the brevity which it occasions, and of which I treated in the preceding chapter. It is an undoubted truth, that the brevity here contributes to the force of the expression, but it is not solely to this principle that the effect is to be ascribed. A good taste will discern a difference in a passage already quoted from the song of Moses, as it stands in our version, and as it is literally rendered from the Hebrew ;† though in both, the number of words, and even of syllables, is the same. Observe, also, the expression of the Psalmist, who, having compared man, in respect of duration, to a flower, says concerning the latter, "The wind passeth over it, and + Exod., xv., 7.

*Psalm civ., 27-30.

it is gone."* Had he said, "the wind passing over it, destroys it," he had expressed the same sentiment in fewer words, but more weakly.

But it may be objected, If such is the power of the figure asyndeton, and if the conjunctive particles are naturally the weakest parts in a sentence, whence comes it that the figure polysyndeton, the reverse of the former, should be productive of that energy which rhetoricians ascribe to it? I answer, the cases must be very different which require such opposite methods. Celerity of operation, and fervour in narration, are best expressed by the first. A deliberate atten

tion to every circumstance, as being of importance, and to this in particular, the multiplicity of the circumstances, is best awakened by the second. The conjunctions and relatives excluded by the asyndeton are such as connect clauses and members; those repeated by the polysyndeton are such as connect single words only. All connectives alike are set aside by the former; the latter is confined to copulatives and disjunctives. A few examples of this will illustrate the difference. "While the earth remaineth," said God, immediately after the deluge, "seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." Everything to which a permanency of so great importance is secured, requires the most deliberate attention. And in the following declaration of the apostle, much additional weight and distinctness are given to each particular by the repetition of the conjunction: "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God."

SECTION III.

COMPLEX SENTENCES

PART I. Subdivision of these into Periods and loose Sentences.

I COME now to_the_consideration of complex sentences. These are of two kinds. They are either periods, or,sentences of a looser composition, for which the language doth not furnish us with a particular name. A period is a complex sentence, wherein the meaning remains suspended till the whole is finished. The connexion, consequently, is so close between the beginning and the end, as to give rise to the name period, which signifies circuit. The following is such a sentence: Corruption could not spread with so much success, though reduced into system, and though some ministers, with equal impudence and folly avowed it by them† Gen., viii., 22 Rom., viii., 38, 39,

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Psalm ciii., 16.