modern languages, but, without opposing their opinion, I may observe, that our most eminent authors use it, and that must pass for sufficient sanction.

But you must particularly avoid beginning a sentence with the terminating word of that immediately preceding. This is a very great imperfection. Nothing can be worse than finishings and commencements like these:—

but he said that he knew it.

and he only gave us words.

It did not, however, appear that
Words will not do for this

he said that he was an honester man than I. I told him that such an assertion

and so he gave it to John. John then came to me
but this was like all the rest. Rest assured notwithstanding

Thirdly. Avoid the frequent &c. as your great enemy to improvement in writing. If you depend on this crutch, your composition will be always lame. This is the most prominent mark of a poor, vulgar, and ignorant writer. Such wretched scrawlers cannot go through twenty lines without it, and they think that it is a great help to correctness, and even to elegance. But in this they are wofully mistaken. Let them look into the works of Robertson, Johnson, Melmoth, Junius, Burke, and see whether they used this miserable substitute for plain expression. It can only be tolerated to save tiresome repetition, or unnecessary recapitulation.

The frequent use of the &c. arises from the same ridiculous anxiety for precision, that produces the parenthesis, and the folly of which, I should hope, that I have successfully exposed. In a description, by one of those wordy writers, of a visit to a country seat, this is one passage in his relation :—

He entertained us very hospitably with cakes, wines, fruits, &c., and afterwards showed us his library, museum, garden, spacious stables, &c. On going away, he himself, together with his lady, their beautiful daughter, &c. &c., accompanied us to the gate, preceded by two servants in dress liveries, withi silver-headed canes, &c.

As he wished this to appear in print, he showed it to me with looks of great self-approval, and I altered it thus:

He entertained us very hospitably with cakes, wine, fruit-and afterwards showed us, amongst other things well deserving inspection, his library, museum, garden, and spacious stables. On going away, he himself, with his lady, his beautiful eldest daughter, and others of his family and friends, accompanied us to the gate, preceded by two servants in dress liveries, with silver-headed canes, and otherwise completely appointed.

I would not have made it so long, but that I knew my man. He said that the alteration might do, except about the entertainment, because there were ham, cold turkey, jellies, and other things that he did not like to particularise, but which, certainly, in common honesty, required an &c.—and besides there were two kinds of wine, and three of fruit, and as I put them both in the singular, the s must be replaced. I need not say, that I got rid of him as expeditiously as civility would permit.

The &c. is now objected to except in advertisements, or in a detail of numerous articles, or where we refer to some long extract already quoted, and upon the different passages of which we have to make remarks. In this case, it would be tiresome to give the whole sentence again, and we may say, But where he asserts that "he went to France for the express purpose, &c.," I think that the date alone will show his error. You will see, however, that this &c. might be replaced by the long dash, when you come to the remarks on that subject.

The following is a correction of the miserable composition in our third paragraph. I have placed it here, without any previous reference, in the hope that you would, first, exercise yourself on the improvement, as I directed :

Yours of the 25th ult. did not come to hand till the 6th instant. The delay was owing to the bearer, Mr. Jackson, being detained by the late heavy snow. Business has been, thank God, very good latterly, and I now take the first opportunity that is presented, to answer your letter. I fear, however, that my contracted leisure will not permit me to do that, as particularly as I could wish. But, although I cannot now notice all your different commands respectively, I think that you may expect them to be entirely completed in about three weeks. You will then have a tolerable provision for the remainder of the winter, which, as you justly observe, promises to be unusually

severe.

sentence.

The following is an instance of a long and well-constructed It is taken from Robertson's "State of Europe," prefixed to his "History of Charles the Fifth," and, though it contains eighty-four words, there is such a felicitous arrangement that we can wish no alteration. The connecting chain, though of great strength, is of such an elastic nature that the members, without a vestige of liberty, seem to have perfect freedom. Yet a succession of such beautiful flights would soon tire us.

Their length would call for repose, and you

therefore see, that were you even adequate to the power of long sentences, you must frequently come to truce with the wearied reader :

Notwithstanding the singular revolution which the invasion of the Moors occasioned in Spain, and the peculiarity of its fate, in being so long subject to the Mahometan yoke, the customs introduced by the Goths and Vandals had taken such deep root, and were so thoroughly incorporated with the frame of its government, that in every province which the Christians recovered from the Moors, we find the condition of individuals, as well as the political constitution, nearly the same as in other nations of Europe.

One great test of the perfection of a sentence, I think, is, when we cannot, with propriety, introduce any stop except the comma. In the foregoing example, though extended to such a length, I would defy the most fastidious punctuator to put in a semicolon, and as for the colon, parenthesis, or dash, they are out of the question. This shows that there is, all through, an original and positive strength. When a semicolon can be fitly brought in, the bond of connection is weakened, proportionably to the separation. The entireness of the sentence is certainly, in some degree, broken, and this, as in architecture, must be a defect. The semicolon exposes the imperfections of composition, and we may oppose, at least, its negative claims.

Mr. Lindley Murray has appended to his Grammar, an excellent set of rules for the construction of sentences. Yet, in this self-same book, I find the following, which is a very objectionable style of composition, and contrary to the laws that he has, himself, collected. I know that it is not fair to take, for any particular purpose, one sentence out of a large work, because the most vigilant cannot be always on guard, but, really, this appears to be manufactured with no ordinary care. The parade of colons seems to imply, that the author thought it a good specimen of a long sentence. We may judge how far this is true, by comparing it with that from Robertson. One can see, from the semicolon, that Mr. Murray began to find it "an unwieldy apparatus," yet, hanging the members on strong punctuation pegs, he believed that he had rendered the whole very manageable :—

The observations which we have made under this head, and on the subject of moods in another place, will not apply to the declension and cases of nouns, so as to require us to adopt names and divisions similar to those of the Greek

and Latin languages: for we should then have more cases than there are prepositions in connection with the article and noun: and after all, it would be a useless, as well as an unwieldy apparatus; since every English preposition points to and governs but one case, namely, the objective; which is also true with respect to our governing verbs and participles.

Though I am unwilling to swell this treatise with quotations that may not be directly of use to my readers, I think, after what I have said of Murray, that I am justified in giving the following, from that gentleman's observations on the construction of sentences:—

Long, involved, and intricate sentences are great blemishes in composition. In writers of considerable correctness, we find a period sometimes running out so far, and comprehending so many particulars, as to be more properly a discourse than a sentence. An author, speaking of the progress of our language after the time of Cromwell, runs on in this manner: To this succeeded that licentiousness which entered with the Restoration, and, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt our language; which last was not likely to be much improved by those who at that time made up the court of King Charles the Second; either such as had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether conversant in the dialect of these times, or young men who had been educated in the same country: so that the court, which used to be the standard of correctness and propriety of speech, was then, and I think has ever since continued, the worst school in England for that accomplishment; and so will remain, till better care be taken in the education of our nobility, that they may set out into the world with some foundations of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politeness."

The author in place of a sentence, has here given a loose dissertation upon several subjects. How many different facts, reasonings, and observations, are here presented to the mind at once! and yet so linked together by the author, that they all make parts of a sentence, which admits of no greater division in pointing, than a colon between any of its members.

"A loose dissertation upon several subjects!" Why the wordy author, who, strange to say, is Swift, confines himself to his subject, the vitiation of English, full as closely as Mr. Murray does in his three-coloned sentence. You may derive some benefit from this consideration. All must admit that Mr. Murray generally evinces superior judgment and ability in the construction of sentences. You have seen a proof in his judicious remarks on the previous quotation, and yet when he himself, though apparently with great care, attempts a long sentence, he exhibits those faults which he can so ably expose.

Mr.

Since I have occupied so much space with this long quotation, it occurs to me that I may make it of some use. Murray should have pointed out its defects more particularly, and shown the pupil how he may correct them, and,

as he has not done this, I shall take the liberty to attempt its improvement :

To this succeeded that licentiousness which entered with the Restoration, and, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt our language. This last was not likely to be much improved by those who, at that time, made up the court of King Charles the Second-either such as had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether conversant in the dialect of those times, or young men who had been educated in the same country. The court, thus, which used to be the standard of correctness and propriety of speech, was then, has I think ever since continued, and will remain, the worst school in England for that accomplishment, till better care be taken in the education of our nobility, that they may set out into the world with some foundations of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politeness.

Compare this diligently with the original, and note the important change that has been effected by such trifling alterations as could hardly displease Swift himself. It now reads smooth, easy and pleasing, and is no longer "a loose dissertation upon several subjects." Let such exercises as this be your constant study. Whenever you meet a long-winded sentence, take a pen and try to improve it on this plan, and you will be surprised at the rapid melioration in your own style. Again, and again I say, that nothing can help you so certainly to respectable composition, and you can find abundant examples for correction.

Having now conducted you safely through the dangers of circumlocution and tediousness, I may venture to tell you what I was unwilling even to hint at before-that all very protracted sentences, where there is no detail, are not necessarily long-winded. They cannot be so, if you read on with ease and pleasure, and find no demand upon your memory or attention, for keeping distant or questionable connections in view. Where the subject is suited to your comprehension, if you understand readily as you proceed, there cannot be long-windedness, though your author may not choose to make divisions or periods. Of this, the most illustrious example that I have found is Buffon, who has, sometimes, longer sentences than I have encountered in our ancient English writers, who seem to be fascinated with a prolixity of development, and for which the French were never so remarkable. In his "Rules for the Art of Writing," I find one