6

'Both' and 'All.'

539. Both' and 'All' might be regarded, in certain cases, as pleonastic; only the formal redundancy is redeemed by emphasis.

EXAMPLES.-1. Reverence and respect both mingle with our love. 2. Wealth and poverty are both temptations. 3. Friends, glory, France, all reft from me! 4. The pleasure of his Majesty, his known directions, his public acts, his acts of council, the decrees of courts--all must be made inferior to this man's will.

Reflective Pronouns.

540. Reflective Pronouns are very often used with nouns, and with other pronouns, as supports.

They strengthen or emphasise the words they are joined to, with the further implication of contrast. Examples are hardly needed: 'The king himself commanded the army'; ‘I myself have done it'; 'Fast will we raze the city walls ourselves.'

II. VERB redundancy.

Pleonasm connected with Infinitive and Gerund. 541. The 'to' of the Infinitive does not originally belong to it.

In the days when the Infinitive underwent inflection, 'to' preceded the dative case, with the present sense attached to the Gerund. From that position it slipped into connection also with the nominative and the accusative. Now we regard it as an almost essential part of the Infinitive; when the Infinitive is quoted, we usually say, not 'write,' but to write.' In obedience to established usage, the absence of 'to' has been set down as a case of Ellipsis (§§ 458, 461-3); yet, in the historical view, the 'to' is pleonastic.

Both the Infinitive and the Gerund were often expressed by 'for.' Hence the notorious for to':

'Tis good and meet for to be wise' (Infinitive); 'you make me for to laugh' (Infinitive). 'And all countries came into Egypt for to buy corn' (Gerund); 'what went ye out for to see?' (Gerund).

This mode of expression is now rigorously excluded from composition. The nearest approach admissible is seen in examples that take in the subject of the Infinitive; such as these: 'How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' 'For Miss Richland to undertake setting him free, I own, was quite unexpected.'

Preposition now present, now absent, after Verb. 542. Some verbs may either be followed directly by the object, or have a preposition between them and the word that would otherwise be object.

Where two such admissible constructions exist for expressing the same sense, the preposition tends to be regarded as redundant. 'I do not doubt of it,' or 'I do not doubt () it.' To this firm ruler succeeded a weak prince.' But, without inversion, 'A weak prince succeeded ()this firm ruler.'

EXERCISE 451.

1. He seized upon the government. 2. Accept of my best thanks. 3. Your business will not admit of delay. 4. I own to having forgotten my duty many a time. 5. One could not conceive of anything more unfortunate. 6. They asked for an explanation. 7. He ruled over a prosperous and contented people. 8. The passage does not allow of such an interpretation. 9. Her Majesty had appointed a Committee of the Privy Council to consider of the best means of preventing similar misfortunes. 10. Your Lordship has considered again of this matter. —(LOCKE).

III. ADVERB redundancy.

Denial by Two Negatives.

543. Double negation is no longer admissible in prose for the expression of denial. It was sometimes used with powerful effect by our older writers. 'I never was nor never will be false.' K. Rich. III. 4. 'This England never did, nor never shall,

Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.' K. John, v. 7. Now it is held that the one negative neutralizes the other, a double negation thus making a positive statement. important consideration' is an important consideration.'

'A not un

Beginners had better avoid a plurality of negatives, whether their purpose be to affirm or to deny.

Other pleonasms connected with the Adverb.

544. Make speed from hence.' The preposition 'from' is superfluous.

Instead of hence,' 'thence,' 'whence,' there frequently occur the forms 'from hence,' 'from thence,' 'from whence.

Y

In these the preposition is redundant. The meaning of 'from' is present in the single adverbs in sense, while it is also expressed, to the eye of the philologist, in the termination. The obvious bodily presence of the preposition seems to have been sometimes felt desirable, if not necessary. Occasionally the prepositional force may be eliminated from the adverb: from whence' may become from which.'

'I have been young and now am old.'

The 'now' is added, not so much as being absolutely necessary to the meaning, as for the sake of contrast with the previous position.

'As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.'

In practice 'so' has come to be redundant; being justifiable, however, on the ground of its recalling by a pointed reference the adverbial expression preceding.

EXERCISE 452.

1. We are late to-day. 2. Where the bee sucks, there suck I. 3. Such a new city and country is called a colony of the old land from whence its people first came. 4. According to all that God commanded Noah, so did he. 5. Because I believed, therefore have I spoken. 6. Who art thou, courteous stranger, and from whence? 7. If ye continue in my love, then are ye my disciples indeed. 8. I see thee yet. 9. I now proceed to the next point. 10. Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull. 11. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. (Compare Exercise 448, 7).

12. When riseth Lacedemon's hardihood,
When Thebes Epaminondas rears again,

When Athens' children are with hearts endued,
When Grecian mothers shall give birth to men,
Then may'st thou be restored, but not till then.

IV. PREPOSITION redundancy.

545. Redundant uses of Prepositions, more or less defensible, have just been noted in connection with the Verb and the Adverb.

In addition to these, we may set down as pleonastic the APPOSITION use of the preposition OF. In some cases it might very easily be dispensed with, in others it has established itself so firmly as to be entitled to the rank of an idiomatic usage.

EXERCISE 453.

1. The church was free from the modern blemish of galleries. 2. The Thegns were bound to the King by the tie of personal service. 3. Gothic Kings gloried in the title of Roman Generals. 4. He was pursued with the cry of Popish dog. 5. Will Wimble was perfectly well turned for the occupation of trade and com6. The offence of fire-raising; the crime of murder.

merce.

7. I think you hardly know the tender rhyme

Of "trust me not at all or all in all."

V. CONJUNCTION iterated.

546. In giving a series of names or facts, the Conjunction is not usually repeated between every two; we simply place it before the last. Hence, when the conjunction appears before each, there is the effect of pleonasm.

The repetition lays special emphasis upon each of the connected members. Thus, in Antony's studied depreciation of himself:

'For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood.'

Again: There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.'

When the separate members are too feeble to support the stress of such emphatic mention, the repetition is thrown away; there is sheer waste of power. Examples might be quoted in abundance from modern poetry.

THIRD PART.

SIMPLE AND ABSTRUSE.

CHAPTER XIX.

GENERAL REMARKS.

547. The terms SIMPLE and ABSTRUSE are directly opposed to each other.

'Simple' means often used and widely understood: 'abstruse' language is such as occurs seldom, or is known to few. The designations apply not merely to single words or vocables, but also to all combinations of these.

548. In regard to the vocables, this distinction is found to coincide roughly with the historical distinction of the chief sources of these as TEUTONIC and CLASSICAL.

The Teutonic vocables, (called also 'Saxon,' 'Anglo-Saxon,' 'native,' &c.), are such words as have come down from the language as it stood before and independently of the earliest infusion of classical terms. These Teutonic, home-made words are reckoned simple: they name objects, qualities, actions, &c., that are common and familiar, that are also generally impressive, touching deep feelings; they name whatever is readily understood or felt by the great body of the people.

The Classical vocables constitute the very powerful contingent of words furnished from Latin and Greek. One large division of these came in at an early period indirectly, through French; others have at various more recent times been adopted directly. The Classical words are reckoned, in different degrees,