ology, is a distinguishing beauty, and is to be justified on the principle that such is the natural utterance of a glowing and devout mind.

Of the same sort is the sentiment, "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;" while each clause means, indeed, the same thing, taken together the clauses furnish a more complete and natural expression of the pious sentin:ent conveyed.

Pleonastic or redundant forms of speech may be advantageously and properly employed, when we wish to make peculiarly earnest affirmations on subjects of special importance; thus,

"I have spoken with my mouth;"-"I have seen with mine eye;”—“I have heard with mine ears;" "I have handled with my hands ;"-" The hearing ear, the seeing eye."

The following pleonastic expressions require pruning:

First aggressor ;-first of all ;-last of all ;-not at all;-subject-matter; -latter end ;-personal interview;-old veteran ;-false traitor ;-another one;-standard pattern;-verdant green;-sylvan forest;-umbrageous shade;-nobody else;-widow-woman ;-from hence ;-from whence ;since the time;-unloose ;-fainted away ;--formed out of;-mention over again;--substitute in the place of;-read twice over;-equally the same;— shrink smaller;-a twelvemonth to come;-filled full;-some ten years ago;-these six months past;-they both met;-they met together;-no other person besides ;-leisure on one's hands;-throughout the whole of; the universal esteem of all men ;-a universal panacea;-best calculated of all others;-to marry a wife;-a very just and upright man ;-the pleasures of imagination are more preferable than those of sense or intellect;-the very slightest singularity.

EXERCISES.

1. Change to a precise written form, the faulty expressions introduced into this Lesson.

2. Clear the following sentences of redundant words:

1. Smoke ascends up into the sky. 2. He had the only copy then extant. 3. He gave me the horse for nothing. 4. I wish you would send the paper free gratis. 5. She writes very well for a new beginner. 6. 1 saw him down in the basement room. 7. You did not tell me where to stop at. 8. At the sound of the last final trump the dead shall rise. 9. Have you got a hammer? 10. Hence, consequently, he must be in 11. He made the case very plain and obvious.

error.

12. He was universa..y lamented by all. 13. Learn from hence to be

more careful. 14. The child fell into a kettle of boiling hot water. 15. Mingle together vinegar and molasses. 16. I doubt not but that he will come. 17. I thought to myself that I must die. 18. As soon as the clock struck six I rose up. 19. He came for to see me. 20. He would not accept of the office.

LESSON LXXIII.

PRECISION OF EXPRESSION.-SYNONYMS.

A want of precision in the use of the preposition (which may be omitted), is exemplified in the following phrases:

To enter into ;-to ascend up ;-to descend down ;-to lift up ;-to raise up-to return back ;--to restore back ;--to return again;-to retreat back-to plunge down ;-to follow after;--to cover up ;--to cover over;to gather together;-to combine together;--to converse together ;--to scrutinize into;-to kill off;--I am a-going;-I am a-coming;-She is asinging;-We are a-writing;--He is a-fishing;--they are a-talking;-worth a sixpence ;-dignity of a baronet.

Add to these tautological examples, the following:

But however;--and further;--yet nevertheless;--the old original house; -the best extra superfine;-a real capital good one;-mutually friendly disposition to each other;-can possibly set apart;-&c.

Thus, it appears, that in a literary as well as moral sense, the saying of the wise man is true: "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin."

RULE IV.-Avoid the use of words as synonymous, that approach to one another in meaning, as expressing the same principal idea; but which, from their derivation, have a different meaning in their more exact and particular signification.

Such words are the following:

Abhor and detest;—abandon, forsake, relinquish, give up ;—desert, quit, and leave ;-adjacent and contiguous;-alleviate and lessen ;--aver, assert, and declare;-avow, acknowledge, and confess;-austerity, severity, and rigor;-authentic and genuine ;--capacity and ability ;-custom and habit; desist, renounce, quit, and leave off;-difficulty and obstacle ;-distinguish

and separate ;-enough and sufficient ;-entire and complete ;-equivocal and ambiguous;-haughtiness and disdain;-invent and discover;-only and alone;-pride and vanity;-reformation and reform;-remark and observe;-surprised, astonished, amazed, and confounded;-tranquillity, peace, and calm ;-wisdom and prudence;-sole and only;-over and besides, &c.

Such words as the above are employed by careless writers, either as if they were of precisely the same signification, or for the sake of filling up a sentence, or to display copiousness of diction. Certain cases arise in which two or more of these synonyms may be combined with propriety and advantage. Like different shades of the same color, they may be employed, occasionally, to heighten and finish the picture we are producing. This is allowable, chiefly, when writing under the inspiration of passion.

Thus, in the severe invective of Bolingbroke on his own times, "But all is little, and low, and mean among us," the amplification, from the use of these nearly synonymous words, produces a stronger expression of indignation than would have been conveyed by any one of the three epithets employed.

Before proceeding to explain and illustrate the synonyms referred to above, or others, attention is here called to some excellent remarks of Dr. Trench, of London, upon the advantages to be derived from the habit of distinguishing synonyms:

How great a part of true wisdom it is to distinguish between things that differ,-things seemingly, but not really alike! This is remarkably attested by our words "discernment" and "discretion," which are now used as equivalent, the first to " insight," the second to "prudence;" while yet in their earlier usage, and according to their etymology, being both from "discerno," they signify the power of so seeing things, that in the seeing we distinguish and separate them one from another. Such were originally "discernment" and "discretion," and such, in a great measure, they are still.

What a help moreover will it prove to the writing of a good English style, if instead of having many words before us, and choosing almost at random from among them, we at once know which, and which only, we ought in the case before us to employ, which will be the exact vesture of our thoughts! It is the first characteristic of a well-dressed man that his clothes fit him; and it is precisely such a prime characteristic of a good style that the words fit close to the thoughts. You do not feel in one place that the writer means more than he has succeeded in saying; in another, that he has said more than he means; or in a third, something besides what his

intention was; and all this from a lack of dexterity in employing the instru ment of language, of precision in knowing what words would be the exactest correspondents and fittest exponents of his thought.

This power of saying exactly what we mean, and neither more nor less than we mean, is not merely an elegant mental accomplishment, it has a moral meaning as well. It is nearly allied to morality, inasmuch as it is rearly connected with truthfulness. Every man who has himself in any degree cared for the truth, and occupied himself in seeking it, is more or less aware how much of the falsehood in the world passes current under the concealment of words, how many strifes and controversies find all or nearly all their fuel in words carelessly or dishonestly employed. Ask, then, words what they mean, that you may deliver yourselves and others from the tyranny of words and from the strife of "word-warriors." Learn to distinguish between them, for you have the authority of Hooker, that "the mixture of those things by speech, which by nature are divided, is the mother of all error."

EXERCISES.

1. Collect, from memory, all the synonyms of a given word that may be assigned; then hunt in a dictionary for all the additional synonyms that properly belong to the given word.

2. As suggested by Prof. W. Russell, exemplify the proper use of the synonyms thus collected, "by introdu cing each in a phrase or sentence in which the context is of such a character that no other member of the same family of synonyms can be substituted for it, without injury to the form of expression, in the whole clause in which it occurs."

LESSON LXXIV.

PRECISION OF EXPRESSION.-SYNONYMS EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED.

(1.) To hate, to abhor, to detest, to dislike, to be averse to, to have a repugnance to.

To be averse to, denotes to have the mind turned away from a thing as disagreeable; antipathy, means a feeling entertained against some object; to

dislike, nieans not to like or to be attached to; repugnance, means the resistance of the feelings to an object; to hate, is to have one's temper excited against a person; to detest, is to witness against, to condemn with indignation; to abhor, is to start from with an emotion of horror.

One hates, but does not detest, the person who has done an injury to one's self; and one detests rather than hates the person who has done injury to others. To abhor, implies strong dislike; to detest, expresses strong disapprobation. We abhor being in debt; we detest treachery. We abhor what is inhuman and cruel; we detest crimes and injustice.

(2.) Abandon, leave, forsake, relinquish, surrender or give up, desert, quit.

We leave what may be resumed, as any particular employment; we abandon those who are entirely dependent for protection and support; so we abandon what is finally given up, as a sinking ship, a burning house, or any form of vice; we desert those with whom we have entered into coalition, or we desert what ought to be adhered to; we forsake those with whom we have been intimate. We relinquish an object of value, or pursuit—a claim—the hope of reward. A parent abandons his child; a man forsakes his friend, or place of usual resort; a soldier deserts his comrades; a partisan, his party; a man relinquishes pretensions to an office in favor of another, surrenders or gives up a place of trust, leaves his parents in affliction, and quits his country.

(3.) Adjacent, adjoining, contiguous.

Adjacent means lying near, without touching; adjoining and contiguous, not only near, but joined to, touching in some part. We may speak of adjacent villages or lands, adjoining fields, contiguous buildings. Adjacent places, may have something intervening.

(4.) Amazed, astonished, surprised, perplexed, confounded, confused.

We are amazed at what is marvellous, frightful, or incomprehensible; astonished at what is grand and striking; perplexed, confounded, or confused at what is embarrassing and intricate; surprised at what is unexpected.

(5.) Assent, consent, allow, concede, acknowledge.

We assent to the truth of a proposition or statement; we consent to a proposal or scheme; we acknowledge the beauty of an object; we acknowledge a fault, a mistake, a favor; we concede what is claimed or demanded; we allow what is asked.

(6.) Avow, confess.

We avow (declare openly) our principles, our attachment, or opposition;