mode of expression through mere carelessness. The proper management of the loose sentence, where it is used, requires much care and skill. Young and inexperienced writers should aim almost uniformly to make their sentences periodic.

Difference of Writers in this Respect.-Writers differ much in the formation of their sentences in this respect. In modern writings, the short, rounded period is much more common than it was some centuries ago. Much of the solemn pomp and majestic stateliness of Milton's style, whether in prose or verse, is due to the fact that his sentences are rarely periodic. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose, on this account, that they are careless or unstudied. On the contrary, they are thoroughly artistic, and they show as much studious care as the most highly finished periods of Macaulay.

The following is an example from Milton:

Then amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, some one may perhaps be heard offering, at high strains in new and lofty measures, to sing and celebrate thy divine mercies, and marvellous judgments in this land throughout all ages; whereby this great and warlike nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and continual practice of truth and righteousness, and casting far from her the rags of her old vices, may press on hard to that high and happy emulation to be found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian people at that day, when Thou, the eternal and shortly expected King, shalt open the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world, and distributing national honors and rewards to religious and just commonwealths, shalt put an end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming thy universal and mild monarchy through heaven and earth; where they, undoubtedly, that by their labors, counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the common good of their religion and their country, shall receive above the inferior orders of the blessed the regal addition of principalities, legions, and thrones into their glorious titles, and, in supereminence of beatific vision, progressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss, in overmeasure forever.

Compare this with the following from Macaulay:

An acre in Middlesex is worth a principality in Utopia. The smallest actual good is better than the most magnificent promises of impossibilities. The wise man of the Stoics would, no doubt, be a grander object than a steam-engine. But there are steam-engines, and the wise man of the Stoics is yet to be born. A philosophy which should enable a man to feel perfectly happy while in agonies of pain, may be better than a philosophy which assuages pain. But we know that there are remedies which will assuage pain; and we know that the ancient sages liked the tooth-ache just as little as their neighbors.

The following paragraph from Channing will illustrate the same point:

Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the branches of the trees and the green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those men who are alive to it, cannot lift up their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side.

Recommendation to Beginners.—In a majority of cases, particularly with careless writers, if a sentence is not periodic, it is faulty. It is well therefore for beginners to make a special study of sentences in reference to this point, and to exercise themselves in reconstructing loose sentences so as to give them a periodic character. Example. Take the following:

We came to our journey's end, I at last, | with no small difficulty, | after much fatigue, through deep roads, | and bad weather.

This is a very loose sentence, there being no less than five different places, at any one of which the sentence might be terminated, so as to be grammatically complete. The sentence may be reconstructed and made periodic, as follows:

At last, after much fatigue, through deep roads, and bad weather, we came, with no small difficulty, to our journey's end.

Archbishop Trench, justly celebrated for his contributions to our knowledge of the English tongue, is sometimes exceedingly careless in the construction of his sentences. The following is taken from the preface to his "Studies in the Gospels: "

Gathering up lately a portion of what I had written, for publication, I have given it as careful a revision as my leisure would allow, have indeed in many parts rewritten it, seeking to profit by the results of the latest criticism, as far as I have been able to acquaint myself with them.

No one versed in composition can read this sentence without feeling that it is put together very loosely. First, the words "for publication" are out of place. Standing where they do, they make the author say that he "had written for publication," which is just the opposite of what he means. His meaning is that he had written a good many things, and he now gathers them up for publication. By transposing these words to their proper place, and by dividing the passage into two distinct sentences, the whole becomes more clear to the apprehension of the reader.

Gathering up lately for publication a portion of what I had written, I have given it as careful a revision as my leisure would allow. I have indeed in many parts rewritten it, seeking to profit by the results of the latest criticism, as far as I have been able to acquaint myself with them.

Another Example from Trench. -The sentence following the one already quoted is even more faulty in construction. It is as follows:

For my labors I shall be abundantly repaid, if now, when so many controversies are drawing away the Christian student from the rich and quiet pastures of Scripture to other fields, not perhaps barren, but which can yield no such nourishment as these do, I shall have contributed aught to detain any among them.

In attempting to give a periodic form to a loose sentence of this kind, it is sometimes necessary to reconstruct the sentence entirely. The best perhaps that can be done, in the present instance, is to make it read thus:

For my labors I shall be abundantly repaid, if I shall have contributed aught to detain the Christian student among the rich and quiet pastures of Scripture, now when so many controversies are drawing him away to other fields, not perhaps barren, but which can yield no such nourishment as these do.

Examples for Practice.

[The following Loose Sentences are to be reconstructed, so as to become Periodic.]

1. Shaftesbury's strength lay in reasoning and sentiment, more than in description; however much his descriptions have been admired.

2. They aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness of the Deity, instead of catching occasional glimpses of him through an obscuring veil.

3. They despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world, confident of the favor of God.

4. Milton always selected for himself the boldest literary services, that he might shake the foundations of debasing sentiments more effectually.

5. Milton's nature selected and drew to itself whatever was great and good from the parliament and from the court, from the conventicle and from the cloister, from the gloomy and sepulchral circles of the Roundheads and from the Christmas revel of the hospitable Cavalier.

6. She had probably already filled her pitcher, when the stranger at the well, whom she may have seen only to avoid, for she recog

nized in him those unmistakable features of Jewish physiognomy with which the Samaritans had nothing in common, to her surprise addressed her.

7. It is certain that his contrivances seldom failed to serve the purpose for which they were designed, whatever may be thought of the humanity of some of them.

8. Burke's mind, at once philosophical and poetical, found something to instruct and to delight, in every part of those huge bales of Indian information, which repelled almost all other readers.

9. When Hastings was first impeached, if he had at once pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds, he would have been better off, in every thing except character.

10. He would still have had a moderate competence, after all his losses, if he had practised a strict economy.

11. It is to the citizens, - — our object, to assure to our country a tranquil future, — not as ordering, but as offering patriotic counsel, we address ourselves: to the end that, as in the humblest dwelling, the son may succeed the father in peace and quiet on the throne.

12. Some wished to come to the assistance of the defeated general; others laughed and encouraged her; and still others, men in blue blouses and heavy hob-nailed shoes, who were regular customers at the Green Hat with their wagons and horses, and bore no good-will to the rope-dancers, because they interfered with their accustomed comfort, spoke low of "rabble," and "turn them out," a sentiment which in its turn displeased a few enthusiastic admirers of high

art.

13. Whether she is still wandering about in the desert, like Lady Stanhope, with a man who had ceased, when Sydney met them, to exhibit the devotion of a lover, in trained skirts, with the latest pattern gloves and bonnet, with Marie Stuart points, or whether she sickened of the Orient and came back to Europe, is not known.

14. His habitation is some poor thatched roof, distinguished from his barn by the loop-holes that let out smoke, which the rain had long since washed through, but for the double ceiling of bacon on the inside, which has hung there from his grandsire's time, and is yet to make rashers for posterity.

15. The new philosophy has introduced so great a correspondence between men of learning and men of business; which has also been increased by other accidents amongst the masters of other learned professions; and that pedantry which formerly was almost universal

is now in a great measure disused, especially amongst the young men, who are taught in the universities to laugh at that frequent citation of scraps of Latin in common discourse, or upon arguments that do not require it; and that nauseous ostentation of reading and scholarship in public companies, which formerly was so much in fashion.

16. An unseen hand sweeps over the keys of the mighty instrument, which, after centuries of study, men are just beginning to understand, and the listening ear catches the swell of the deep notes of triumph, while glad notes of rejoicing and bitter sounds of woe make no discord, called forth by the master-hand.

17. The sides of the crater went sheer down to a great depth, enclosing a black abyss which, in the first excitement of the scene, the startled fancy might well imagine extending to the bowels of the earth, from which there came rolling up vast clouds, dense, black, sulphurous, which at times completely encircled them, shutting out everything from view, filling eyes, nose, and mouth with fumes of brimstone, forcing them to hold the tails of their coats or the skirts (it's all the same thing) over their faces, so as not to be altogether suffocated, while again after a while a fierce blast of wind driving downward would hurl the smoke away, and dashing it against the other side of the crater, gather it up in dense volumes of blackest smoke in thick clouds which rolled up the flinty cliffs, and reaching the summit bounded fiercely out into the sky, to pass on and be seen from afar as that dread pennant of Vesuvius, which is the sign and symbol of its mastery over the earth around it and the inhabitants thereof, ever changing and in all its changes watched with awe by fearful men who read in those changes their own fate, now taking heart as they see it more tenuous in its consistency, anon shuddering as they see it gathering in denser folds, and finally awe-stricken and all overcome as they see the thick black cloud rise proudly up to heaven in a long straight column at whose upper termination the colossal pillar spreads itself out and shows to the startled gaze the dread symbol of the cypress-tree the herald of earthquakes, eruptions, and . -The Dodge Club.

3. Balanced Sentences.

A Balanced Sentence is one containing two clauses which are similar in form and to some extent contrasted in mean