557. There might be much profitable study of Living Authors, whose works are not quoted from in this place. The teacher may, with little trouble, select from writers of the present day passages that profess to be carefully written with a view to native simplicity of language. He may even be able to present an earlier form side by side with a later simplified form. In such cases, it will be an instructive exercise to estimate the advantages and the disadvantages of the studied simplicity of the composition, and to consider whether the writer might not have carried his method even further. Again, a mixed or even highly latinized vocabulary may be quoted in specimen, and subjected to simplification. 558. There must ever be well kept in mind the very wide distinction between the possibility and the propriety of alteration. Change to a simpler form may very often be at once quite possible and exceedingly improper. Many of George Eliot's paragraphs, for example, are capable of very great simplification; yet in the process we should lose something that would certainly not be compensated for by spotless purity of native expression. There is a time for using classical terms as well as a time for simplifying; a rigid policy of protection will be surely followed by impoverishment. While advocating simplicity to the utmost extent reasonable, we must not forget that there are occasions when higher respect is due to other qualities. 1 EXTRACT 1. I feel as if it were not for me to record, even though this manuscript is intended for no eyes but mine, how hard I worked at that tremendous shorthand, and all improvement 2 appertaining to it. I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all, that 3 there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its 4 heels, which I then formed. Heaven knows I write this in I 5 no spirit of self-laudation. The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here, from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings 6 constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not 7 abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always 8 been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-work9 ing qualities, and hope to gain its end. There is no such 10 thing as such fulfilment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and 11 sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules.-DICKENS, David Copperfield. 1 EXTRACT 2. As I was musing on this description, and comparing it with the object before me, the knight told me that this very old woman had the reputation of a witch all over the country; that her lips were observed to be always in motion; and that there was not a switch about her house which her neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of miles. 2 If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws 3 that lay in the figure of a cross before her. If she made any mistake at church, and cried amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that she was saying her prayers 4 backwards. There was not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though she should offer a bag of money 5 with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which are 6 palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her but ter come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the 7 bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll 8 White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unex pected escape from the hounds, the huntsman curses Moll 9 White. 'Ñay," says Sir Roger, "I have known the master of the pack, upon such an occasion, send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning." 10 This account raised my curiosity so far, that I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which Il stood in a solitary corner under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering Sir Roger winked to me, and pointed to something that stood behind the door, which, upon looking 12 that way, I found to be an old broom-staff. At the same 13 time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so much wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time could not forbear smiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a justice of peace to avoid all communication with the devil, and never to hurt 14 any of her neighbour's cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very acceptable.--ADDISON, Spectator. 1-2 EXTRACT 3. The whole nation was alarmed and incensed. John Hampden an opulent and well-born gentleman of Buckinghamshire, highly considered in his own neighbourhood, but as yet little known to the kingdom generally, had the courage to step forward, to confront the whole power of the government, and take on himself the cost and the risk of 3 disputing the prerogative to which the king laid claim. The case was argued before the judges in the Exchequer Chamber. 4 So strong were the arguments against the pretensions of the crown that, dependent and servile as the judges were, the majority against Hampden was the smallest possible. 5-6 Still there was a majority. The interpreters of the law had pronounced that one great and productive tax might be im7 posed by the royal authority. Wentworth justly observed that it was impossible to vindicate their judgment except by reasons directly leading to a conclusion which they had not 8 ventured to draw. If money might legally be raised without the consent of Parliament for the support of a fleet, it was not easy to deny that money might, without consent of Parliament, be legally raised for the support of an army. 9 The decision of the judges increased the irritation of the 10 the people. A century earlier, irritation less serious would 11 have produced a general rising. But discontent did not now so readily as in an earlier age take the form of rebellion. 12 The nation had been long steadily advancing in wealth and 13 in civilisation. Since the great northern Earls took up arms 14 15 against Elizabeth seventy years had elapsed; and during those seventy years there had been no civil war. Never during the whole existence of the English nation had so long a period passed without intestine hostilities. Men had become accustomed to the pursuits of peaceful industry, and, exasperated as they were, hesitated long before they drew the sword.-MACAULAY, History of England. EXTRACT 4. 1 Whether perfect happiness would be procured by perfect goodness, said Nekayah, this world will never afford an 2 opportunity of deciding. But this, at least, may be maintained, that we do not always find visible happiness in pro3 portion to visible virtue. All natural, and almost all political evils, are incident alike to the bad and good: they are confounded in the misery of a famine, and not much distinguished in the fury of a faction; they sink together in a tempest, and are driven together from their country by 4 invaders. All that virtue can afford is quietness of conscience, a steady prospect of a happier state; this may enable us to endure calamity with patience; but remember that patience must suppose pain.-JOHNSON, Rasselas. 1 2 EXTRACT 5. It has been remarked, perhaps, by every writer who has left behind him observations upon life, that no man is pleased with his present state; which proves equally unsatisfactory, says Horace, whether fallen upon by chance, or chosen with deliberation; we are always disgusted with some circumstance or other of our situation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in blessings, or less exposed to calamities. This universal discontent has been generally mentioned with great severity of censure, as unreasonable in itself, since of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger share of happiness, and as tending to darken life with unnecessary gloom, by withdrawing our minds from the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to depress ourselves, and increase our misery by injurious comparisons. 3 When this opinion of the felicity of others predominates in the heart, so as to excite resolutions of obtaining, at whatever price, the condition to which such transcendent privileges are supposed to be annexed; when it bursts into action, and produces fraud, violence, and injustice, it is to 4 be pursued with all the rigour of legal punishments. But while operating only upon the thoughts it disturbs none but him who has happened to admit it, and, however it may interrupt content, makes no attack on piety or virtue, I cannot think it so far criminal or ridiculous, but that it may deserve some pity, and admit some excuse. 5 That all are equally happy, or miserable, I suppose none is sufficiently enthusiastical to maintain; because though we cannot judge of the condition of others, yet every man has found frequent vicissitudes in his own state, and must therefore be convinced that life is susceptible of more or less 6 felicity. What then shall forbid us to endeavour the alteration of that which is capable of being improved, and to grasp at augmentations of good, when we know it possible to be increased, and believe that any particular change of situation will increase it?-JOHNSON, Rambler. 1 EXTRACT 6. England suffered great miseries during the reign of Stephen but his personal character, allowing for the temerity and injustice of his usurpation, appears not liable to any great exception: and he seems to have been well qualified, had he succeeded by a just title, to have promoted the hap2 piness and prosperity of his subjects. He was possessed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; though not endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in abilities; he had the talent of gaining men's affections; and, notwithstanding his precarious situation, he never indulged himself in the exercise of any cruelty or revenge. 3 His advancement to the throne procured him neither tranquillity nor happiness; and though the situation of England prevented the neighbouring states from taking any durable advantage of her confusions, her intestine disorders were 4 to the last degree ruinous and destructive. The court of Rome was also permitted, during those civil wars, to make farther advances in her usurpations; and appeals to the pope, which had always been strictly prohibited by the English laws, became now common in every ecclesiastical controversy.-HUME, History of England. 1 EXTRACT 7. We should deviate from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or 2 quarters of the city. It may be sufficient to observe that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, 3 was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a century after its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings |