through the malice or ill design of others; but merely in consequence of some of those cross incidents of life which could not be foreseen), and sometimes to the wisest and best concerted plans.

2. Without some degree of patience exercised under injuries (as offences and retaliations would succeed to one another in endless train), human life would be rendered a state of perpetual hostility.

3. Never delay till to-morrow (for to-morrow is not yours; and though you should live to enjoy it, you must not overload it with a burden not its own), what reason and conscience tell you ought to be performed to-day.

4. We must not imagine that there is in true religion anything which overcasts the mind with sullen gloom and melancholy austerity (for false ideas may be entertained of religion, as false aud imperfect conceptions of virtue have often prevailed in the world), or which derogates from that esteem which men are generally disposed to yield to exemplary virtues.

5. It was an ancient tradition, that when the capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented according to the fashion of that age by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself.

Exercise 64.

Correct such errors, in the following passages, as arise from extending the sentences beyond what seems their natural close:

1. Religious instruction could never be appointed to give such empty, insignificant delight as this: nor doth it in the least attain its proper end, unless it influences men to forget the preacher, and think of themselves; unless it raises in them, not a superficial complacency, or an idle admiration, but an awful solicitude about their eternal welfare, and that a durable one.

2. The first could not end his learned treatise without a panegyric on modern learning and knowledge, in comparison of the ancient; and the other falls so grossly into the censure of the old poetry, and preference of the new, that I could not read either of these strains without indignation, which no quality among men is so apt to raise in me as sufficiency, the worst composition out of the pride and ignorance of mankind.

3. All the world acknowledges the Eneid to be most perfect in its kind; and, considering the disadvantage of the language, and the severity of the Roman Muse, the poem is still more wonderful; since, without the liberty of the Grecian poets, the diction is so great and noble, so clear, so forcible, and expressive, so chaste and pure, that even all the strength and compass of the Greek tongue, joined to Homer's fire, cannot give us stronger and clearer ideas than the great Virgil has set before our eyes; some few instances excepted, in which Homer, through the force of genius, has excelled.

4. Whether we may run such length, as to assert that every creature has some concern in every dispensation that happens, there is no occasion to examine; but our idea of infinite goodness warrants us to suppose, that the course of nature or fortune could not be altered in any particular, without a loss of happiness somewhere or other; and this supposition will necessarily infer an intercourse of interests between the known world and the unknown.

5. Here it was often found of absolute necessity to inflame or cool the passions of the audience; especially at Rome, where Tully spoke, and with whose writings young divines (I mean those among them who read old authors) are more conversant than with those of Demosthenes; who, by many degrees, excelled the other; at least as an orator.

7. STRENGTH.

Strength in the structure of a sentence consists in such a disposition of the words and members,

as may give each of them separately its due weight, and the whole of them together the greatest force.

To attain strength in the structure of sentences-I. Divest them of all redundant words and members;II. Attend particularly to the use of connectives, relatives, and all the particles employed in transition ;-III. Place the most important words in the situation in which they will make the strongest impression ;-IV. Avoid, as much possible, placing a weaker assertion or proposition after a stronger one;-V. Never conclude a sentence with an inconsiderable word;-VI. In the members of a sentence in which two objects are either compared or contrasted, preserve some resemblance in the language and construction.

Exercise 65.

Divest the following sentences of all redundant words and members :

1. Suspend your censure so long, till your judgment on the subject can be wisely formed.

2. I look upon it as my duty, so far as I am enabled, and so long as I keep within the bounds of truth, of duty, and of decency.

3. How many are there by whom these tidings of good news were never heard!

4. He says nothing of it himself, and I am not disposed to travel into the regions of conjecture, but to relate a narrative of facts.

5. Never did Atticus succeed better in gaining the universal love and esteem of all men.

6. This is so clear a proposition, that I might rest the whole argument entirely upon it.

7. I intend to make use of these words in the thread of my following speculations, that the reader may conceive rightly what is the subject upon which I proceed.

8. These points have been illustrated in so plain and evident a manner, that the perusal of the book has given me pleasure and satisfaction.

9. I was much moved on this occasion, and went home full of a great many serious reflections.

10. This measure may afford some profit, and furnish

some amusement.

11. Less capacity is required for this business, but more time is necessary.

12. The combatants encountered each other with such rage, that, being eager only to assail, and thoughtless of making any defence, they both fell dead upon the field together.

13. Thought and language act and react upon each other mutually.

14. It is impossible for us to behold the divine works with coldness or indifference, or to survey so many beauties, without a secret satisfaction and complacency.

15. Neither is there any condition of life more honourable in the sight of the Divine Being than another, otherwise He would be a respecter of persons, which He assures us He is not.

Exercise 66.

Correct such errors, in the following passages, as arise from the improper use of connectives, relatives, and particles employed in transition :—

1. The enemy said, I will pursue, and I will overtake, and I will divide the spoil,

2. There is nothing which promotes knowledge more than steady application, and a habit of observation.

3. As the strength of our cause does not depend upon, so neither is it to be decided by, any critical points of history, chronology, or language.

4. The faith he professed, and which he became an apostle of, was not his invention.

5. Their idleness, and their luxury and pleasures, their

criminal deeds, and their immoderate passions, and their timidity and baseness of mind, have dejected them to such a degree, as to make them weary of life.

6. For the wisest purposes, Providence has designed our state to be checkered with pleasure and pain. In this manner let us receive it, and make the best of what is appointed to be our lot.

7. In the time of prosperity, he had stored his mind with useful knowledge, with good principles, and virtuous dispositions. And therefore they remain entire, when the days of trouble come.

8. The academy set up by the cardinal to amuse the wits of that age and country, and divert them from raking into his politics and ministry, brought this into vogue; and the French wits have for this last age been in a manner wholly turned to the refinement of their language, and indeed with such success, that it can hardly be excelled, and runs equally through their verse and their prose.

9. And then those who are of an inferior condition, that they labour and be diligent in the work of an honest calling, for this is privately good and profitable unto men, and to their families; and those who are above this necessity, and are in a better capacity to maintain good works properly so called-works of piety, and charity, and justice—that they be careful to promote and advance them, according to their power and opportunity, because these things are publicly good and beneficial to mankind.

Exercise 67.

Correct such errors, in the following sentences, as arise from the improper position of the most important words::

1. I have considered the subject with a good deal of attention, upon which I was desired to communicate my thoughts.

2. Whether a choice altogether unexceptionable has in any country been made, seems doubtful.