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who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the imperial standard, with the free born warriors who started to arms at the voice of the king of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians, glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and slavery.-Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire.

It is well known that constitutions framed for the preservation of liberty, must consist of many parts; and that senates, popular assemblies, courts of justice, magistrates of different orders, must combine to balance each other, while they exercise, sustain, or check, the executive power. If any part is struck out, the fabric must totter or fall; if any member is remiss, the others must encroach. In assemblies constituted by men of different talents, habits, and apprehensions, it were something more than human that could make them agree in every point of importance; having different opinions and views, it were want of integrity to abstain from disputes; our very praise of unanimity, therefore, is to be considered as a danger to liberty. We wish for it at the hazard of taking in its place the remissness of men grown indifferent to the public; the venality of those who have sold the rights of their country or the servility of others, who give implicit obedience to a leader by whom their minds are subdued. The love of the public, and respect to its laws, are the points on which mankind are bound to agree; but if, in matters of controversy, the sense of any indivi dual or party is invariably pursued, the cause of freedom is al. ready betrayed.-Ferguson's History of Civil Society.

This is the more pompous, musical, and oratorical mode of composition.

In the style coupé, the sense is expressed in short independent propositions, each complete within itself.

The women, in their turn, learned to be more vain, more gay, and more alluring. They grew studious to please and to conquer. They lost somewhat of the intrepidity and fierceness which before were characteristic of them. They were to affect a delicacy, and a weakness. Their education was to be an object of greater attention and care. A finer sense of beauty was to arise. They

were

were to abandon all employments which hurt the shape and deform the body. They were to exert a fancy in dress and ornament. They were to be more secluded from observation. A greater play was to be given to sentiment and anticipation. Greater reserve was to accompany the commerce of the sexes. Modesty was to take the alarm sooner.

Gallantry, in all its fashions, and in all its itself.—Stuart's View of Society.

charms, was to unfold But how can these considerations consist with pride and insolence, which are repugnant to every social and virtuous sentiment? Do you, proud man! look back with complacency on the illustrious merits of your ancestors! Shew yourself worthy of them by imi tating their virtues, and disgrace not the name you bear by a con duct unbecoming a man. Were your progenitors such as you are fond to represent them, be assured that, if they rose from the grave, they would be ashamed of you. If they resembled yourself, you have no reason to boast of them, and wisdom will dictate to you to cultivate those manners which alone can dignify your family. Nothing can be conceived more inconsistent than to exult in illus. trious ancestry, and to do what must disgrace it, than to mention with ostentation the distinguished merits of progenitors, and to exhibit a melancholy contrast to them in character. Will you maintain that, because your forefathers were good and brave men, you are authorized to abandon the pursuit of all that is decent and respectable? For, to this sentiment, the pride of family, whenever it forms a characteristical feature, never fails to lead the mind. In a word, considered in its specific nature, and carried to its utmost extent, it lays down this maxim, "That ancestry gives a right to dishonour and degrade itself."

After all, what is high birth? Does it bestow a nature different from that of the rest of mankind? Has not the man of ancient line human blood in his veins? Does he not experience hunger and thirst? Is he not subject to disease, to accidents, and to death; and must not his body moulder in the grave, as well as that of the beggar? Can he or any of his race, "redeem his brother by any means, or give God a ransom for him ?" Go back only a few generations, of which the number is much smaller than you imagine it to be, and you arrive at Adam, the progenitor of us all.—Brown's Sermons.

This mode of writing generally suits gay and easy

subjects.

subjects. It is more lively and striking than the style périodique. According to the nature of the composition, and the general character which it ought to bear, the one or the other of these may be predominant. But in every species of composition, they ought to be blended with each other. By a proper mixture of short and long periods, the ear is gratified, and a certain sprightliness is joined with majesty but when a sort of regular compass of phrases is employed, the reader soon becomes fatigued with the monotony. A train of sentences, constructed in the same manner, and with the same number of members, whether long or short, should never be allowed to follow each other in close uninterrupted succession. Nothing is so tiresome as perpetual uniformity.

In the construction and distribution of his sentences, Lord Shaftesbury has shewn great art. It has already been hinted that he is often guilty of sacrificing precision of style to pomp of expression; and that his whole manner is strongly marked with a stiffness and affectation which render him very unfit to be considered as a general model. But, as his ear was fine, and as he was extremely attentive to every species of elegance, he was more studious and successful than any other English author in producing a proper intermixture of long and short sentences, with variety and harmony in their structure.

Having offered these observations with regard to sentences in general, I shall now enter upon a particular consideration of the most essential properties of a perfect sentence. These seem to be clearness and precision, unity, strength, and harmony.

CHAP.

CIIAP. VII.

OF CLEARNESS AND PRECISION IN THE
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

IN the arrangement of a period, as well as in the choice of words, the chief object which ought to be kept in view is perspicuity. This should never be sacrificed to any other beauty. The least degree of ambiguity ought to be avoided with the greatest care; it is a fault almost sufficient to counterbalance every beauty which an author may happen to possess. Ambiguity arises from two causes; from an improper choice of words, or an improper collocation of them.* The first of these causes has already been fully considered.

In the collocation of words, the first thing to be studied is a rigid conformity to the rules of grammar, as far as these can guide us. But as the system of English grammar is not altogether complete, an ambiguous arrangement of words may frequently be observed where we cannot discover a transgression of any grammatical rule. The relation which the words or members of a period bear to each other, cannot be pointed out in English, as in Greek and Latin, by means of their terminations: it must be ascertained by the position in which they stand. Hence an important

* The reader will find this subject treated by Condillac, Traité de l'Art d'Ecrire, liv. i. chap. xi,

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rule

rule in the structure of a sentence is, that the words or members most intimately connected, should be placed as near to each other as is consistent with elegance and harmony, so that their mutual relation may be plainly perceived.

I. Ambiguities are frequently occasioned by the improper use of the adverb. This part of speech, as its name implies, is generally placed close or near to the word which it modifies or affects; and its propriety and force depend on its position. By neglecting to advert to this circumstance, writers frequently convey a different meaning from what they intend.

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Sixtus the Fourth was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books at least-Bolingbroke on the Study of History.

At least, should not be connected with books, but with collector.

The Romans understood liberty, ut least, as well as we.Swift on the Adv. of Religion.

These words are susceptible of two different interpretations, according as the emphasis, in reading them, is laid upon liberty or at least. In the former case they will signify, that whatever other things we may understand better than the Romans, liberty, at least, was one thing which they understood as well as we. In the latter they will import, that liberty was understood, at least, as well by them as by us. If this last was the author's meaning, the ambiguity would have been avoided, and the sense rendered independent of the manner of pronouncing, by arranging the words thus: "The Romans understood liberty, as well, at least,

as we."

.

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