but I am going to.' (!!) In such cases the whole form of the infinitive should be always expressed.

Sometimes either an affectation of conciseness, or the rapidity of thought natural to some writers, will occasionally produce more serious defects of expression. For example, 'I have a deep sense of your kind action.' 'Sense' here means an inward feeling; and we cannot feel an action. It should be, 'I have a deep sense of the kindness of your action.' Again: 'You ought to contemn all the wit in the world against you.' It should be, all the wit in the world that is directed against you.' 'A savage is a happier state of life than a slave at the oar.' Things are here brought together which are incongruous. We may compare a savage to a slave; but neither the one nor the other can be compared to a state of life. The sentence may be thus corrected: 'The state of life of a savage is far happier than that of a slave at the oar.' 'This courage among the adversaries of the court was inspired into them by various incidents, for every one of which, I think, the ministers, or, if that was the case, the minister alone, is to answer.' If what was the case? There is nothing here to which we can refer the pronoun 6 that; and we are left to guess that the writer meant if there was but one minister.

OBSCURITY FROM WRONG ARRANGEMENT.

A wrong arrangement is another source of obscurity. Here we imagine, on a first perusal, that the sentence has one meaning; and we find, on a second, that it has another. For example:

"It contained a warrant for conducting me and my

retinue to Traldragdubb, or Trildrogdrib, for it is pronounced both ways, as near as I can remember, by a party of ten horse.'

The words in italics should come immediately after the noun 'retinue.'

'I had several patients died in that hospital of fever.'

Here it should be observed that the pronoun 'who' must be placed before the verb, and of fever' must immediately follow the verb 'died;' thus: 'I had several patients who died of fever in that hospital.'

'I perceived that it had been scoured with half an eye.'

Here, first, with half an eye' is a vulgarism; secondly, could anything be scoured with half an eye? or, did he perceive it with half an eye?

'I have hopes that when Will confronts him, and all the ladies on whose behalf he engages him cast kind looks and wishes at their champion, he will have some chance.' Here,' all the ladies,' &c., seems at first to be governed by the verb 'confronts,' but we afterwards find that this expression is the subject of the verb 'cast.' Insert the adverb 'when' before all the ladies,' and the ambiguity vanishes.

The following sentence is open to a similar exception : 'He advanced against the fierce ancient, imitating his address, his pace, and career, as well as the vigour of his horse and his own skill would allow.'

This obscurity may be cleared up by substituting 'as far as' for as well as,' &c.

'Diocletian passed the nine last years of his life

in a private condition.' (It should be, 'the last nine there could not have been more than one

years;

last year.)

'Of the twelve Cæsars, three alone died natural deaths.'

OBSCURITY FROM USING THE SAME WORD TOO FREQUENTLY, OR IN DIFFERENT SENSES.

In the same sentence we should not repeat a word too frequently, as in the following: 'It is of great consequence that we pay the greatest attention to such matters; for they contribute to our welfare in a much greater measure that we generally imagine.' In this sentence we have the three degrees of the adjective, great, greater, greatest. The writer might have said, 'It is of the utmost importance that we pay the strictest attention,' &c.

This repetition occurs most frequently with pronouns, where it is a fertile source of obscurity; for example :

'He promised his friend to send him his book.' Whose book ?—his own or his friend's? Again :

'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.'

A word should never be repeated in the same sentence in different meanings; as,

'Gregory favoured the undertaking for no other reason than this, that the manager favoured his friend.' (Say, resembled his friend.)

They held the doctrine that it is not wrong to hold possession of ill-gotten goods, but that the fault lies. in allowing ourselves to be detected.' (Say, retain possession, &c.)

'Any reasons of doubt which he might have in this case, would have been reasons of doubt in the case of other men, who may give more, but cannot give more evident signs of thought to their fellowcreatures.' Here, 'more' is first an adjective, and then the sign of the comparative. The sentence should stand, who may give more numerous, but cannot give more evident, signs,' &c.

'The sharks who prey upon the inadvertency of young heirs, are more pardonable than those who trespass upon the good fortune of those who treat them upon the footing of choice and respect.' (The repetition of who in these three different senses is the source of much confusion and obscurity.)

The pronoun they,' when repeated, often causes much ambiguity; as, 'They were persons of such moderate intellects, even before they were impaired. by passion. A similar obscurity is produced by the frequent repetition of the pronoun' it.'

OBSCURITY FROM UNCERTAIN REFERENCE.

Another cause of obscurity lies in the use of pronouns when it does not at first appear to what they refer; for example :

'The laws of nature are truly what my Lord Bacon styles his aphorismis,-laws of laws. Civil laws are always imperfect, and often false deductions from them, or applications of them; nay, they stand, in many

instances, in direct opposition to them.' Probably every one would not see, on a first reading, that the pronoun them here always refers to the laws of nature, and they to civil laws.

'I like so much to see the corn-fields; it was cut when we were there, so we saw it carried away.'

'On Wednesday, the rat ventured into the kitchen, and Mr. B., having loaded a pistol, drove it into the garden.'

'It has happened the third time in as many months.' 'Cicero returned to Rome, about the middle of November, to assist at Milo's wedding, who married Fausta, a rich and noble lady, the daughter of Sylla the Dictator.'

OBSCURITY ARISING FROM TOO ARTIFICIAL A STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

The structure of sentences, of which more is said in another part of this work, is a subject for the student's careful consideration. Long sentences should be, in general, avoided; and when employed, care should be taken that their members be similarly constructed, so that, if taken to pieces, each member might constitute a distinct sentence. Some writers on composition are of opinion that parentheses should be altogether discarded, on the grounds that a parenthesis is only an awkward way of inserting a circumstance that would be much better expressed in a separate sentence. This, however, is too severe a rule. Parentheses, when short, are perfectly admissible; but they should neither be very long, nor occur too frequently. The following passage, from Cole