powerfully;" or, "I feel [i. e. am conscious of being ] powerful." When the neuter verb indicates a degree, the adverb is properly used; as, "I suffer greatly."

2. Rules for Compound and Complex Sentences

The following rules are intended to guard against the most common errors in the construction of compound and complex sentences.

(1) The parts of compound sentences should correspond. This rule is violated (1) by blending archaic and modern forms; (2) by using different parts of speech in similar situations; (3) by using incongruous pronominal forms; and (4) by using auxiliaries which do not belong to all the tense-forms of a verb to which they have a common reference.

These errors may be illustrated as follows:

(1) Archaic forms of the verb ending in -eth and -est are frequently, but erroneously, used in the same sentence with modern forms; as, "The Moon sendeth [sends] to the Earth the light which the Sun gives to her."

a sentence should be exThe following illustration reason to believe that the

(2) The corresponding parts of pressed by the same parts of speech. is given by Abbott: He had good delay was not an accident [accidental] but premeditated, and for supposing [to suppose, or else, for believing, above] that the fort, though strong both by art and naturally [nature], would be forced by the treachery of the governor and the indolent [indolence of the] general to capitulate within a week."

(3) The same or corresponding pronouns should be used throughout a sentence. The following is wrong: Thou art not the trustworthy person I hoped you were." Use either the old or the modern form throughout."

(4) In the following sentence the auxiliaries had and would cannot both be used with the common verb send: "He said

that he had or would send the money, but I forget which." The form sent must be supplied with had; as, "He said he had sent or would send," etc.

(2) Attend to the sequence of tenses. This requires (1) that references to time should be in harmony with each other and with the sense, and (2) that general or timeless statements should always be expressed in the present tense.

(1) Reference must be made to works on Grammar for specific rules on this point. The following are examples of a wrong use of tenses: "If these persons had [omit the auxiliary] intended to deceive, they would have taken care to have avoided [to avoid] what would expose them to the objection of their opponents." "Then they said unto him, what shall we do that we might [may] work the works of God." 'I have [omit] studied Latin last year."

(2) The following are wrong: "Let us suppose a man convinced, notwithstanding the disorders of the world, that it was [is] under the direction of an infinitely perfect being." "He maintained that only the virtuous were [are] happy."

(3) Sentences should be properly connected. This is done (1) by using suitable adverbs and conjunctions; (2) by repeating a verb, a conjunction, or the subject of a sentence.

(1) The effect of leaving out the connecting words is exhib. ited in the following paragraph, taken from Abbott:

"Pitt was in the army for a few months in time of peace. His biographer [accordingly] insists on our confessing, that, if the young cornet had remained in the service, he would have been one of the ablest commanders that ever lived. [But] this is not all. Pitt, [it seems,] was not merely a great poet in esse and a great general in posse, but a finished example of moral excellence. [The truth is that] there scarcely ever lived a person who had so little claim to this sort of praise as Pitt. He was [undoubtedly] a great man. [But] his was not a complete and well proportioned greatness. The public life of Hampden or of Somers resembles a regular

drama which can be criticised as a whole, and every scene of which is to be viewed in connection with the main action. The public life of Pitt, [on the other hand,] is," etc.

(2) It is often of great advantage to the reader or hearer if a verb, a conjunction, or the subject of a sentence is repeated, as in the following examples:

"Cardinal Richelieu hated Buckingham as sincerely as did the "Spaniard Olivares."

If "did" were omitted, the sentence would be ambiguous.

"We might say that the Cæsars did not persecute the Christians; that they only punished men who were charged, rightly or wrongly, with burning Rome, and committing the foulest abominations in secret assemblies; and that the refusal to throw frankincense on the altar of Jupiter was not the crime, but only evidence of the crime."

"At school and at college, the great vision of Rome broods over the mind with a power which is never suspended or disputed: her great men, her beautiful legends, her history, the height to which she rose, and the depth to which she fell,—these make up one-half of a student's ideal world."

II. CLEARNESS.

1. The Importance of Clearness.

The purpose of language is to convey thought from one mind to another. Language is the medium of communication. While the thought and the expression are often apparently one whole so compounded that the one could not exist without the other, it is still true that language is best adapted to its purpose when it is a transparent medium. It should reveal the whole. thought as the writer or speaker would have it understood by the person addressed. As Quintilian says, the expression should be so clear that the hearer not only may but must understand.

The importance of clearness is forcibly illustrated by Dr. Campbell. He says: 'If the medium through which we look at any object is perfectly transparent, our whole attention is

fixed on the object; we are scarcely sensible that there is a medium which intervenes, and we can hardly be said to perceive it. But if there is any flaw in the medium, if we see through it but dimly, if the object is imperfectly represented, or if we know it to be misrepresented, our attention is immediately taken off the object to the medium. We are then anxious to discover the cause, either of the dim and confused representation, or of the misrepresentation, of things which it exhibits, that so the defect in vision may be supplied by judgment. The case of language is precisely similar. A discourse, then, excels in perspicuity when the subject engrosses the attention of the hearer, and the language is so little minded by him, that he can scarcely be said to be conscious it is through this medium he sees into the speaker's thoughts."

2. Rules for Clearness.

The following are the principal rules for so arranging words in sentences as to secure clearness.

(1) Observe the natural order in the English sentence. The natural order is, in the simple sentence, (1) the Subject and its modifiers, (2) the Copula, (3) the Predicate and its modifiers. This order is often

violated for poetical effect and for emphasis.

Arrangement is more important in English than in the synthetic or inflected languages, such as the Latin and the Greek. The subject and the object of an English sentence can generally be distinguished only by the position which they occupy. Thus, William loves Charles," means that William is the one who loves and Charles the one who is loved. If the order be

reversed; as, "Charles loves William;" the meaning is changed. In Latin this is not so. "Gulielmus amat Carolum,"

means, "William loves Charles," no matter what the order of the words. The sentence, " And thus the son the fervent sir? addressed," is not clear. The order is sometimes changed for emphasis, but such inversions are emphatic chiefly because they are unusual; as, "A noble son was Charles."

(2) Place the adverb as near as possible to the word it qualifies, and so that it cannot be supposed to qualify any other word. This rule is violated in the following sentences: "Thales was not only famous for his knowledge of nature, but for his moral wisdom." "I told him to go slowly, but he ▲ left the room quickly, dropping the purse on the floor."

In the last example the ambiguity of reference may be re moved for the reader by punctuation, and for the hearer by the voice. A careful writer, however, would not be willing to leave his meaning to the mercy of a careless compositor or reader. Punctuation and rhetorical pauses ought never to be relied upon to bring out the sense.

The word only is peculiarly liable to abuse. Abbott has shown how many different meanings may be taken from four words variously arranged. He says:

"In strictness perhaps the three following sentences:

(1) He only beat three,

(2) He beat only three,

(3) He beat three only,

onght to be explained thus:

(1) He did no more than beat, did not kill, three.

(2) He beat no more than three.

(3) He beat three and that was all he did. Here only modifies the whole sentence and depreciates the action."

The position of the adverb, when emphatic, is after the verb; as, 46 'He walked slowly down the hill." When unemphatic, the adverb is placed before the verb; as, "He slowly walked down the hill." Never put an adverb between "to" and its verb; as, "He preferred to not sing."

(3) Place adverbial clauses and adjuncts as near as possible to the words they qualify. This rule is viclated in this sentence: "The following lines were written by one, who, for more than ten years, had been confined in the penitentiary, for his own diversion.”