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30. Though conformable with custom, the practice is wrong. 31. This remark is founded in truth.

32. Every office of command should be intrusted to persons on whom parliament can confide.

33. The Saxons reduced the greater part of Britain to their own power.

34. He was accused with having acted unfairly.

35. Their conduct was agreeable with their profession.

36. She has an abhorrence to all deceitful conduct.

37. The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel.*

II. Correct the errors in the use of foreign, obsolete, or new-coined words and phrases, in the following sen

tences :

1. The king soon found reason to repent him of provoking such dangerous enemies.

2. The popular lords did not fail to enlarge themselves on the subject.

3. The queen, whom it highly imported that the two monarchs should be at peace, acted the part of mediator.

4. Removing the term from Westminster, sitting the parliament, was illegal.

5. All these things required abundance of finesse and delicatesse to manage with advantage, as well as a strict observance after times and seasons.

6. The hauteur of Florio was very disgracious, and disgusted both his friends and strangers.

7. When I made some propos remarks upon his conduct, he began to quiz me; but he had as lief let it alone.

8. The gardens were void of simplicity and elegance, and exhibited much that was glaring and bizarre.

9. They thought it an important subject, and the question was strenuously debated pro and con.

10. It irks me to see so perverse a disposition.

11. They have manifested great candidness in the whole transaction.

If his Pupils have not been thoroughly instructed in Grammar, the Teacher may revert to the Rules of Syntax, on which he will find abundance of exercises in all the ordinary text-books.

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12. It is difficult to discover the spirit and intendment of some laws.

13. It grieveth me to look over so many blank leaves in the book of my life.

14. Methinks I am not mistaken in an opinion, which I have so well considered.

15. Let us not give too hasty credit to stories which may injure our neighbour: peradventure they are the offspring of calumny or misapprehension.

16. It is grievous to think with what volupty two or three eminent personages have opiniatred the inchoation of such barbarisms.

SECTION II.

PROPRIETY OF STYLE.

Propriety of style consists the selection of such words and phrases, as the usage of the best authors has appropriated to the ideas which we intend to express.

To attain propriety of style, avoid-I. Vulgar expressions, and the injudicious use of technical terms;— II. The omission of any words which are necessary to complete the sense ;-III. The use of the same word in different senses;-IV. Equivocal or ambiguous words;-V. All words and phrases, which are unintelligible, inapplicable, or less significant, than others, of the ideas which you mean to convey.

EXERCISES.

I. Correct the vulgar or technical expressions in the following sentences:

1. He is not a whit better than those whom he so liberally condemns.

2. The meaning of the phrase, as I take it, is very different from the common acceptation.

3. The favourable moment should be embraced, for he does not hold long of one mind.

4. I exposed myself so much among the people, that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads.

5. He is very dexterous in smelling out the views and designs of others.

6. You may perceive, with half an eye, the difficulties to which such conduct will expose you.

7. This performance is much at one with the other.

8. Every year a new flower, in his judgment, beats all the old ones, though it is much inferior to them both in colour and shape. 9. His name must go down to posterity with distinguished honour in the public records of the nation.

10. If all men were exemplary in their conduct, things would soon take a new face, and religion receive a mighty encouragement. 11. Learning and arts were but then getting up.

12. It fell out unfortunately, that two of the principal persons fell out, and had a fatal quarrel.

13. Most of the hands were asleep in their berths, when the vessel shipped a sea that carried away our pinnace and binnacle. Our dead-lights were in, or we should have filled. The mainmast was so sprung, that we were obliged to fish it, and bear away for the nearest port.

II. Supply the words which are necessary to make the sense complete, in the following sentences :

1. Let us consider the works of nature and art with proper attention.

2. He is engaged in a treatise on the interests of the soul and body.

3. Some productions of nature rise in value, according as they more or less resemble those of art.

4. The Latin tongue, in its purity, was never in this island. 5. For some centuries, there was a constant intercourse between France and England, by the dominions we possessed there, and the conquests we made.

6. He is impressed with a true sense of that function, when chosen from a regard to the interests of piety and virtue.

7. The wise and foolish, the virtuous and vile, the learned and ignorant, the temperate and profligate, must often, like the wheat and tares, be blended together.

III. Correct the improper use of the same word in different senses, in the following sentences :

1. An eloquent speaker may give more, but cannot give more convincing arguments, than this plain man offered.

2. They were persons of very moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their passions.

3. True wit is nature dressed to advantage; and yet some works have more wit than does them good.

4. The sharks, who prey on the inadvertency of young heirs, are more pardonable than those, who trespass upon the good opinion of those, who treat them with great confidence and respect.

5. Honour teaches us properly to respect ourselves, and to violate no right or privilege of our neighbour: it leads us to support the feeble, to relieve the distressed, and to scorn to be governed by degrading and injurious passions: and yet we see honour is the motive which urges the destroyer to take the life of his friend.

IV. Correct the equivocal or ambiguous expressions in the following sentences:

1. When our friendship is considered, how is it possible that I should not grieve for his loss?

2. The eagle killed the hen, and eat her in her own nest.

3. It may be justly said, that no laws are better than the English.

4. The pretenders to polish and refine the language have chiefly multiplied abuses and absurdities.

5. The adventurers, instead of reclaiming the natives from their uncultivated manners, were gradually assimilated to the ancient inhabitants, and degenerated from the customs of their own nation.

6. Solomon, the son of David, who built the temple of Jerusalem, was the richest monarch that reigned over the Jewish people. 7. The Divine Being heapeth favours on his servants, ever liberal and faithful.

V. Correct or omit such words and phrases, in the following sentences, as are unintelligible, inapplicable, or less significant than others, of the ideas which they are intended to express :

1. I seldom see a noble building, or any great piece of magnificence and pomp, but I think, how little is all this to satisfy the ambition, or to fill the idea, of an immortal soul.

2. Yet when that flood in its own depth was drown'd,

It left behind it false and slipp'ry ground.

3. That man is not qualified for a bust, who has not a good deal of wit and vivacity, even in the ridiculous side of his character.

4. And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep

Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide.

5. No less than two hundred scholars have been educated in that school.

6. The attempt, however laudable, was found to be impracticable.

7. He is our mutual benefactor, and deserves our respect and obedience.

8. Vivacity is often promoted by presenting a sensible object to the mind, instead of an intelligible one.

9. The house is a cold one, for it has a north exposition.

10. The proposition for each of us to relinquish something was complied with, and produced a cordial reconcilement.

11. It is difficult for him to speak three sentences together. 12. The negligence of timely precaution was the cause of this great loss.

13. Disputing should be always so managed, as to remember the only end of it is truth.

14. We have enlarged our family and expenses, and increased our garden and fruit orchard.

15. By proper reflection, we may be taught to mend what is erroneous and defective.

16. The good man is not overcome by disappointment, when that which is mortal passes away, when that which is mutable dies, and when that which he knew to be transient begins to change.

SECTION III.

PRECISION OF STYLE.

Precision of style consists in using such words only, as are necessary to express distinctly the ideas which we mean to convey.

To attain precision of style, avoid-I. Superfluous expressions ;-II. Tautology, or the unnecessary repetition of a word or an idea in the same sentence;

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