Examples for Practice. [Sentences containing violations of some of the rules laid down for promoting Strength. The student is expected to point out the inaccuracy, and to reconstruct the sentences, avoiding that particular fault.] 1. Of his ascent up Mount Vesuvius, he gives a very interesting account. 2. When such a man is found, his name is in every one's mouth, his praises are sounded by all. 3. He goes to Europe in order to recover his health from a severe attack of bronchitis. 4. Few have ever described Niagara with so much vividness as this author. 5. We delight in such a work, whether it pleases the eye, enriches the understanding, or supplies our humbler needs. 6. The Greeks and Romans drew prognostics from prodigies, that is to say, from rare natural appearances; among which comets, meteors, and eclipses held an important place. 7. The whole of it is pervaded by a spirit of judicial calmness. 8. When will the curtain rise up? 9. He reduced the pounds down to shillings and pence. 10. From whence did he come? 11. As I previously remarked before now, I say again. 12. The sentence is full of the greatest number of mistakes. 13. I have got, at the very lowest calculation, at least one hundred votes. 14. I was sorry to hear that you were an invalid, that is to say, that you don't enjoy good health. 15. I am quite certain that he was the very identical boy to whom you allude. 16. He took it from, and would not return it to, the child. 17. He walked past, but did not enter into, the garden. 18. There was no evidence of habitation about the place, and neither leaf nor bud was to be seen, and the quail piped, and the crow croaked dismally and unceasingly, and all things were dreary and unattractive. 19. He was sure to give the correct word exactly. 20. I will do it, perhaps. 21. It is a house I should never be willing to live in. 22. That is a vice you cannot accuse me of. 23. The wrongs of Ireland will crumble under one well-directed blow, and D'Israeli is the one man in Parliament who knows how to attend to it. 24. The men were wearied with the exertions of the preceding days, yet he urged them on. 25. I do not know what the house is built of. 26. I cannot tell what street he lives in. 27. He behaved much more dishonorably than was anticipated. 28. The house was closely crowded with an immense number of people. 29. They ascended up the hill. 30. They descended down into the valley. 31. I will recompense him back again. RULE V. HARMONY. A Sentence should be so constructed as to have a Pleasing Effect upon the ear. The Rules thus far have had reference to the following points: 1. Clearness, 2. Emphasis, 3. Unity, 4. Strength. Sentences are now to be considered in reference to HARMONY, or mere agreeableness to the ear. 1. The Prevalence of Pleasant Sounds. The Harmony of a sentence is promoted by the prevalence in it of pleasant sounds. Sound not to be Disregarded.—Sound, though a quality much inferior to sense, is yet not to be disregarded. Men are influenced, not merely by what is reasonable, but by what is agreeable, and no thought can be entirely agreeable which is communicated to the mind by means of harsh and unpleasant sounds. The manner in which a sentence sounds depends, first upon the choice of words, secondly upon their arrangement. Choice of Words.- Some words are in themselves more agreeable to the ear than others. No definite rules can be given for determining what words have a musical sound. The following points, however, may be assumed: 1. Whatever words are difficult of pronunciation are, in the same proportion, harsh and painful to the ear. 2. A preponderance of vowels and liquids gives softness to the sound and ease in pronunciation. 3. The same effect is produced by a proper alternation of vowels and consonants. Several vowels com Several ing together require the mouth to be opened disagreeably. consonants coming together, particularly if they are mutes, close the organs to an extext that makes the utterance difficult. Take the word antiquity. Dropping the consonants, we have a iuiy; dropping the vowels, we have ntqt. The former combination is difficult of utterance on account of the hiatus after each of the vowels; the latter, on account of the entire absence of hiatus. We pass more easily from one vowel to another for having a consonant between them, and more easily from one consonant to another for having a vowel between them. A word in which the vowels and consonants are duly mixed up is on that account more easily pronounced and more agreeable to. the ear. Any one can test this by uttering such euphonious combinations as merrily, happiness, remedy, obloquy, demeanor, sonorous, bridal, tidal, hymnal, etc., or such difficult combinations as quench'd, writst, placedst, bak'dst. A Beautiful Example.— Nothing can be imagined softer or more euphonious than the following lines, in which every vowel regularly alternates with a consonant, and nearly every consonant is a liquid: Lay him low, lay him low, In the clover or the snow: What cares he? he cannot know: Lay him low. - Boker. A word, though otherwise euphonious, is disagreeable to the ear. (1.) When two syllables of the same, or nearly the same sound, succeed each other, as in loulily, holily, gaylily, sillily; (2.) When there is a long succession of unaccented syllables, as in cursorily, arbitrarily, peremptoriness, meteorological, anthropological, etc. Arrangement of Words. Words which by themselves are sufficiently euphonious sometimes displease the ear on account of their proximity to certain other words in the sentence. This is the case whenever in contiguous words there are similar combinations of sounds; as, His history; I can candidly say; I confess with humility the debility of my judgment; sterile illiteracy; bring gingham; they stood up upon their feet; he will wilfully persist; the man manfully endured. The following curious lines illustrate the point: O'er the sea see the flamingo flaming go, Alternation of Soft and Harsh Sounds. The ear is pleased with such an arrangement of words that soft and liquid sounds alternate in due proportion with sounds that are rugged and comparatively harsh. A long succession of words in which there are but few con sonants, and those chiefly liquids, gives for a time the idea of lightness and grace; but if the peculiarity is pushed too far, it produces at length the impression of weakness and effeminacy. Observe the multiplication of liquid sounds in the following lines from Poe: And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Contrast these with the second of the following lines: His sinuous path, by blazes, wound Among trunks grouped in myriads round. Here the "u" in "trunks" stands imbedded in nine consonants, four of them moreover being mutes; thus, n gtrunks gr. Perhaps there is not in the language a finer example of the alternation of liquid and rugged sounds, than the following lines from Whittier: I love the old melodious lays The songs of Spenser's golden days, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew. What sweeter English was ever written than this description of the fall of Mulciber? (Paradise Lost, I, 738-746.) Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun 2. The Accents at Convenient Intervals. The Harmony of a sentence is promoted by arranging the words in such a manner that the accents come at convenient and somewhat measured intervals. It is this peculiarity mainly which makes some prose writings so much easier to read than others. This measured style is very observable in Dr. Johnson. In the following sentences, the accents come at measured intervals with almost the uniformity of verse. I shall not think my employment useless or ignoble, if, by my assistance, foreign nations and distant ages gain access to the propagators of knowledge, and understand the teachers of truth; if my labors afford light to the repositories of science, and add celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton, and to Boyle. Great Care Needed. If this style of composition is continued through a number of periods in succession, it becomes monotonous and wearisome. Nothing, indeed, in the mere form of expression, requires greater skill and judgment than the proper alternation of these nicely balanced periods with sentences of a different character. Milton's prose writings furnish some of the finest examples that our literature affords of the harmonious and rhythmical arrangement of words. Take the following oft-quoted sentence: I shall detain ye now no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. If the sentence just quoted has the softness and gentleness of an Æolian harp, others have the majestic swell and sonorousness of some mighty organ. They are equally musical, though the music is of a different kind. Witness the following: Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means! Contrast these passages with the following from Tillotson: This discourse concerning the easiness of God's commands, does, all along, suppose and acknowledge the difficulties of the first entrance upon a religious course; except only in those persons who have had the happiness to be trained up to religion by the easy and insensible degrees of a pious and virtuous education. 3. Cadence at the Close. The Harmony of a sentence is promoted by a due attention to the cadence at the close. |