previous thought. The sentence would be improved by the following change: "With these writings young divines are more conversant than with those of Demosthenes, who, by many degrees, as an orator at least, excelled the other."

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A loose sentence is one in which the end seems to be reached before the sentence is completed. A periodic sentence is one in which the thought is suspended until the close. Suspense is caused (1) by placing the "if-clause" first, and not last, in a conditional sentence; as, If thou didst ever thy dear father love, revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"; (2) by placing participles before the words which they qualify; as, "Deserted by his friends, he was forced to have recourse to those who had been his enemies"; (3) by using suspensive conjunctions; as, "Either you must take this extremely perilous course, in which success is uncertain, and failure disgraceful, as well as ruinous, or else the liberty of your country is endangered." If either be omitted, the meaning is liable to be misunderstood until the reader has gone half through the sentence. Periodic sentences ought not to be very long. If they are, the beginning is lost before the end is reached. A balanced sentence is composed of two sentences similar in form but often contrasted in meaning; as, "Worth makes the man; the want of it, the fellow."

(5) Avoid forcing abstract and concrete ideas into the same grammatical government; as, "On every side they rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons and with irresistible fury."

When the design is to raise a laugh by the ridiculous combination of dissimilar things, abstract and concrete ideas may be thus blended; as, "He took his hat and leave." He was delivered from dread and his wife's voice." "A buckwheat-cake was in her mouth,

a tear was in her eye."

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(6) Avoid unnecessary parentheses. A parenthesis is an inserted expression which has no grammatical connection with the remainder of the sentence. Hence it is liable to

withdraw the attention from the main thought; as, "When this Parliament sat down (for it deserves our particular observation that both Houses were full of zeal for the present Government, and of resentment against the late usurpations), there was but one party in Parliament, and no other party could raise its head in the nation."

Parentheses were formerly much more frequently employed than they are at present. Their excessive use indicates a deficiency of art in writing. It is generally possible, by recasting and arranging our thoughts, to avoid parentheses altogether. They are, however, occasionally unavoidable. Long parentheses mar the beauty and destroy the unity of a sentence.

IV. ENERGY.

1. Meaning of Energy.

A sentence may be constructed in accordance with the rules for concord, clearness, and unity, and still produce but little effect. Something is wanting to fix the attention and sustain the interest. This important quality is variously called energy, vivacity, strength, force, or animation. Energy (the Greek èvépreta, enérgeia, from έv, en, in, and prov, ergon, work) is the most exact expression for the quality, because the word suggests a force in the verbal form apart from the character of the thought. Style is greatly affected by the strength or feebleness of the thought, but even commonplace thoughts may be expressed in energetic language. The quality of the thought belongs to invention. The term "energy of expression" has reference solely to the fitness of the words to convey the ideas with force.

2. Rules for Energy.

Many of the previous rules indirectly contribute to energy, since clearness and unity are essential to this. quality of style. The following rules are more directly adapted to secure energy:

Whatever adds

(1) Avoid all unnecessary words. nothing to the meaning simply clogs the expression. Unnecessary words appear in three ways: (1) when they repeat the thought, they are called Tautological; (2) when they are added without being necessary to the sense, they are called Redundant; (3) when they are combined in a diffuse way which may be simplified, they form a Circumlocution.

(1) The effort to be clear often leads one into Tautology, as in the following example: "This is so clear a proposition, that I rest the whole argument entirely upon it." In such cases one or the other of the words used tautologically should be stricken out.

(2) Redundancy is most likely to show itself in the use of adjectives. These words are usually descriptive, and hence serve to enrich the style, but when used in excess, they overburden the sentence and show a pedantic taste or a strain after effect. Superlatives are especially liable to disfigure the sentences of unpractised writers. It is a good rule to strike out such words as "very," "inexpressible," "unprecedented," "stupendous," etc., whenever they are not strictly required. The following are instances of Redundancy: "The universal opinion of all men." "They returned back again to the same place from whence they came forth." "His very excellent discourse was most intolerable and extremely inconsiderate in the eyes of enemies." "The boundless plains in the heart of the empire furnished inexhaustible supplies of corn, that would have almost sufficed for twice the population." Note the inconsistency of inexhaustible with what follows.

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(3) Circumlocution requires the re-casting of the whole expression. For example:

"Pope professed to have learned his poetry from Dryden, whom, whenever an opportunity was presented, he praised through the whole period of his existence with unvaried liberality; and perhaps his character may receive some illustration, if a comparison be instituted between him and the man whose pupil he was.'

This sentence is thus condensed by Bain:

"Pope professed himself the pupil of Dryden, whom he lost no opportunity of praising; and his character may be illustrated by a comparison with his master."

(2) Use connective words with care. This rule is necessarily indefinite, as no specific cautions can be framed to guard against every possible fault. An attentive study of the appended illustrations will show how important is the judicious management of connectives.

When we are making a deliberate enumeration of particulars. which are designed to occupy the mind and impress it forcibly, the conjunction may be repeated; as, "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." This repetition is called Polysyndeton.

When, on the other hand, we wish to convey the idea of rapid movement and to stimulate the mind by a vivid description or narration, the conjunction may be omitted; as,

"One effort, one, to break the circling host;

They form, unite, charge, waver,-all is lost."

This omission is called Asyndeton.

When a word is governed by two different prepositions, the effect is awkward and feeble; as, “Socrates was invited to, and Euripides entertained at, his court." This is called the Splitting of Particles.

And is sometimes used redundantly before the relative which; as, "I gave him a beautiful picture, and which I admired in the bookstore." And may properly precede which when it connects two relative clauses; as, "It was a day which all enjoyed, and which all will remember with pleasure."

(3) Give important words in the sentence an emphatic position. The principal thought in the sentence should

be made prominent. This is done (1) by making the subject of the sentence clear; (2) by changing the usual order of words; as, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Compare with the first rule for Clearness.

Compare this sentence with the next: "It is characteristic of a wise and virtuous man, that, at all times, his own private interest should be sacrificed to the public interest of his own particular society." "The wise and virtuous man is at all times willing that his own private interest should be sacrificed to the public interest of his own particular society." In both these sentences something is affirmed of a "wise and virtuous man." In the former this natural subject of the sentence is made a mere adjunct of the word "characteristic." In the latter it is placed prominently before the mind as the subject of thought, and the statement about it is made with directness.

(4) Do not close a sentence with an insignificant word. Adverbs and prepositions should not be placed at the close of a period, for they are merely qualifiers and connectives, and should not take the place of more significant words; as, "It is absurd to judge either Spenser or Ariosto by precepts which they did not attend to." This would be improved thus: "It is absurd to judge either Spenser or Ariosto by precepts to which they did not attend."

It is not a violation of this rule, however, to use adverbs at the end of a sentence, when by their emphatic position they express an antithesis of thought; as, "In their distress my friends shall hear of me always; in their prosperity never."

In arranging the clauses of a sentence, when possible the longest should come last.

(5) Use figurative language. Wherein figures of speech add energy to language, will be explained in another place. It is important to note the fact that appropriate figures