XII. TAKE CARE OF YOUR ANTECEDENTS.

That is, see that the real antecedent is also the grammatical one, and contrariwise. For example, Hallam says: "With great defects of style, which should be the source of perpetual delight, no long poem will be read." Here the grammatical antecedent to which is defects; but this quite alters the sense.

XIII. Do NOT OVERDO A COMPARISON.

Coleridge, when lecturing at Bristol, thus referred to some marks of disapprobation: "I am not at all surprised that, when the red-hot prejudices of aristocrats are plunged into the cool element of reason, they should go off with a hiss." This was neat but a little too elaborate. The following is still more objectionable: "He does not really care about knowledge; his only care is to stop the swift bowling of the examiner with the bat of cram and to defend the narrow wicket of his hastily gained acquirements." Here the comparison is ridden too hard.

XIV. AVOID HACKNEYED PHRASES.

That is, cultivate simplicity and plainness. Do not say "the Merry Monarch" for Charles II., or "the Bard of Avon" for Shakspeare. "The devouring element," "the fearful conflagration," "the individual alluded to," and such like, are phrases that ought to be left to the lower class of reporters upon inferior newspapers.

XV. AVOID THE HEAPING UP OF TOO MANY CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE SAME SENTENCE.

The following is an instance: "For, notwithstanding

his having gone, in winter, to Moscow, where he found the cold excessive, and which confined him, without intermission, six weeks to his room, we could not induce him to return home." This sentence is loose and flabby in the extreme. It is also overpointed. It ought to be broken up into two sentences: He went last winter to` Moscow, where he was confined to his room without intermission for six weeks, by the excessive cold. But, notwithstanding all this, we could not induce him to return home." Take another: "I asked him to show me his pictures, which he did, and pointed out one in particular, a portrait of a young man, painted by Wilson."

This rule might also be given in a positive form: Make your sentences as compact and highly organized as you

can.

An animal is in the lowest scale of being which consists merely of a number of joints of exactly the same character

like a worm. The differentiation into stomach, brain, lungs, liver, and so on, has not yet taken place. So it is with a sentence. A sentence like the following is utterly weak in construction, and is not organized at all. "One may have an air which proceeds from a just sufficiency and knowledge of the matter before him, which may naturally produce some motions of his head and body, which might become the bench better than the bar." It is built up on the simple model of "The house that Jack built." The symbol of it would appear thus:

One- air

which - him

which-body

which bench

than-bar.

But the symbol of a sentence ought to be a circle, every

part of which is equally strong, and not one part of which can be taken away without destruction to the whole.

In the following sentence from Swift, one of the most important statements in it takes the form of a mere tag at the end.

"Neither is any condition of life more honourable' in the sight of God than another, otherwise He would be a respecter of persons, which He assures us He is not."

The following is an excellent example quoted by Mr. Breen :*

"To the memory of Lord George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck, second surviving son of William Henry Cavendish Scott, fourth Duke of Portland, etc., whose ardent patriotism and uncompromising honesty were only equalled by the persevering zeal and extraordinary talents, which called forth the grateful homage of those who, in erecting this memorial, pay a heartfelt tribute to exertions which prematurely brought to the grave one who might long have lived the pride of his native country."

Here every who or which introduces a new subject; and, on the same "principle" of style, anything may be brought into a sentence. Somehow or other the writer gets back to Lord George Bentinck, but his adventures by the way are numerous, and the road he has taken is like the maze at Hampton Court-the farther you keep away from the centre, the nearer you are sure to come to it.

The following long sentences from Hume are, however, excellent examples of all a sentence ought to be-highly organized, strong, compact, and rhythmical :

"There are few personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulations of friends than Queen Elizabeth; and yet there is scarcely any whose reputation has been most certainly determined by the unanimous consent of posterity. The unusual length of her administration and the strong features of her character were able to

*Breen's Modern English Literature, p. 141.

overcome all prejudices; and obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers somewhat of their panegyrics, have at last, in spite of political factions, and what is more, of religious animosities, produced a uniform judgment with regard to her conduct."

XVI. AVOID STRONG WORDS, LIKE unprecedented, incalculable, extremely, awfully, stupendous.

Unless you find, after careful observation, that you really mean them.

XVII. USE who WHEN IT IS EQUAL TO and he OR and she, AND which WHEN IT IS EQUAL TO and it OR and they; BUT that AS A LIMITATIVE RELATIVE.

Examples: I met my uncle yesterday, who told me he was going to Paris.

I met the gardener that lives in the lane.

XVIII. NO DECENT WRITER EVER USES THE PHRASE and

which.

XIX. WHERE THE LIST OF NOMINATIVES IS LONG, AND WHERE IT IS DESIRED TO CALL ATTENTION TO THEM AS STRIKING, A REPRESENTATIVE these MAY BE EMPLOYED.

"Commerce and manufactures, railways and telegraphs, banks and exchanges, the locomotive and the spinning jenny,—these are not essential elements in the life of a great nation. But the desire to do justice, the love of knowledge, the respect for man as man, the regard for our neighbour's rights and feelings, the love of law-these form the backbone of a people, these constitute its true greatness."

XX. AVOID CIRCUMLOCUTIONS THAT ARE MERELY CIRCUMLO

CUTIONS.

That is, express yourself in as short a way as you can without being curt. It will generally be found that short expressions are more idiomatic and lively than long or

Latinized phrases. This rule applies (a) to words, and (b) to phrases. Thus, instead of writing individual, we should write man; instead of summit, top.

In words, Latin words are generally longer than English, most of which are monosyllables.]

But the tendency of the present day to a Latinized, wordy, and circumlocutory phraseology is so strong, that it may be worth while to give a list of phrases which the young writer ought never to use.

1. The book was bought that you might The book was bought for you to

read it.

2. A house to be let.

read.

A house to let.

3. He was sent to England that he might To be educated.

8. At the expiration of four years he retired. In four years, or at the end of

four years.

9. He imparted knowledge with much sim- He had a simple way of teaching.

A distinction here must be drawn between the language fixed (i.e., in a dictionary), and the language in motion (i.e., as spoken and written). The English language in motion consists to a very large extent of monosyllables; and whole verses from the best poets and from the Bible consist entirely of monosyllables.