This is the more pompous, musical, and oratorical mode of composition.

In the style coupé, the sense is expressed in short independent propositions, each complete in itself.

ness. care.

The women, in their turn, learned to be more vain, more gay, and more alluring. They grew studious to please and to conquer. They lost somewhat of the intrepidity and fierceness which before were characteristic of them. They were to affect a delicacy and a weakTheir education was to be an object of greater attention and A finer sense of beauty was to arise. They were to abandon all the employments which hurt the shape and deform the body. They were to exert a fancy in dress and ornament. They were to be more secluded from observation. A greater play was to be given to sentiment and anticipation. Greater reserve was to accompany the commerce of the sexes. Modesty was to take the alarm sooner. Gallantry, in all its fashions, and in all its charms, was to unfold itself. Stuart's View of Society.

This mode of writing generally suits gay and easy subjects. It is more lively and striking than the style périodique. One of the best modern examples of the style coupé is Macaulay's Essays. According to the nature of the composition, and the general character which it ought to bear, the one or other of these may be predomi nant; but in every species of composition they ought to be blended with each other. By a proper mixture of short and long periods, the ear is gratified, and a certain sprightliness is joined with majesty; but when a regular compass of phrases is employed, the reader soon becomes fatigued with the monotony. A train of sentences, constructed in the same manner, and with the same number of members, whether long or short, should be carefully avoided. Nothing is so tiresome as perpetual uniformity.

Having offered these observations with regard to sentences in general, I shall now enter upon a particular consideration of the most essential properties of a perfect sentence. These seem to be clearness and precision, unity, strength, and harmony.

CLEARNESS AND PRECISION IN THE STRUCTURE OF

SENTENCES.

In the arrangement of a period, as well as in the choice of words, the chief object which ought to be kept in view is perspicuity. This should never be sacrificed to any other beauty. The least degree of ambiguity ought to be avoided with the greatest care: it is a fault almost sufficient to counterbalance every beauty which an author may happen to possess. Ambiguity arises from two causes; from an improper choice of words, or an improper collocation of them. The first of these causes has already been fully considered.

In the collocation of words, the first object of our attention is a rigid conformity to the rules of grammar, so far as these can guide us. But an ambiguous arrangement of words may frequently be observed where we cannot discover a transgression of any grammatical rule. The relation which the words or members of a period bear to one another, cannot be pointed out in English, as in Greek and Latin, by means of their terminations; it must be ascertained by the position in which they stand. Hence an important rule in the structure of a sentence is, that the words or members most intimately connected, should be placed as near to each other as is consistent with elegance and harmony, so that their mutual relation may be plainly perceived.

I. Ambiguities are frequently occasioned by the improper use of the adverb. This part of speech, as its name implies, is generally placed close or near to the

word which it modifies or affects; and its propriety and force depend on its position. By neglecting to advert to this circumstance, writers frequently convey a different meaning from what they intend.

One wretched actor only deserted the sovereign.—Gifford.

One species of bread, of coarse quality, was only allowed to be baked.-Alison's Europe.

The light must not be suffered to conceal from us the real standard, by which only his greatness can be determined.-Disraeli's Quarrels of Authors.

Thales was not only famous for his knowledge of nature, but for his moral wisdom.-Enfield's Philosophy.

No one had exhibited the structure of the human kidneys; Vesalius having only examined them in dogs.-Hallam.

In the last quotation we have an instance of another kind of blunder, viz: the employment of a pronoun with an ambiguous antecedent. The word them seems to refer not to kidneys but to human kidneys.

Are we to understand that the moment a man is sincere he is narrow-minded; that persecution is the child of belief; and that a desire to leave all men in the quiet and unpunished exercise of their own creed can only exist in the mind of an infidel.-Sydney Smith's Plymley Letters.

It was evidently in

Here only seems to limit exist. tended to limit infidel. The ambiguity would be removed by placing only after "of an infidel."

Sixtus the Fourth was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books at least.-Bolingbroke on the Study of History.

At least, should not be connected with books, but with collector.

The Romans understood liberty, at least, as well as we.-Swift on the Adv. of Religion.

These words are susceptible of two different interpretations, according as the emphasis, in reading them, is laid upon liberty or at least. In the former case they will signify, that whatever other things we may understand better than the Romans, liberty at least was one thing which they understood as well as we. In the latter they will import, that liberty was understood, at

least as well by them as by us. If this last was the author's meaning, the ambiguity would have been avoided, and the sense rendered independent of the manner of emphasizing, by arranging the words thus: "The Romans understood liberty, as well at least as we."

By greatness, I do not only mean the bulk of any single object, but the largeness of a whole view.-Addison, Spectator.

Here the position of the adverb only, renders it a limitation of the word mean; as if the author intended to say that he did something besides meaning. The ambiguity may be removed by the following arrangement: "By greatness, I do not mean the bulk of any single object only, but the largeness of a whole view."

In common conversation, the tone and emphasis which we use in pronouncing such words as only, wholly, at least, generally serve to show their reference, and to render the meaning clear and obvious; and hence we acquire a habit of introducing them loosely in the course of a period. But in written discourses, which address the eye, and not the ear, greater accuracy is requisite: these adverbs should be so connected with the words which they are intended to qualify, as to prevent all appearance of ambiguity.

II. Words expressing things connected in the thought, should be placed as near to each other as possible. This rule is derived immediately from the principles of human nature. When objects are arranged according to their connexion, we have a sense of order; when they are placed fortuitously, we have a sense of disorder.

The connective parts of sentences are the most important of all, and require the greatest care and attention; for it is by these chiefly that the train of thought, the course of reasoning, and the whole progress of the mind, in continued discourse of all kinds, are displayed; and on the right use of these depends perspicuity, the greatest beauty of style.

The bad effect of a violent separation of words or of members which are intimately connected, will appear from the following examples.

The English are naturally fanciful, and very often disposed, by that gloominess and melancholy of temper which is so frequent in our nation, to many wild notions and visions, to which others are not so liable.-Addison, Spectator.

Here the verb disposed is, by a long clause, violently separated from the subject to which it refers. This harsh construction is the less excusable, as the fault is easily prevented by the following arrangement: "The English are naturally fanciful, and by that gloominess and melancholy of temper which is so frequent in our nation, are often disposed to many wild notions and visions to which others are not so liable.”

Farnese was, notwithstanding these circumstances, determined to employ his troops in reducing it, by loud complaints which were made to him of the continual depredations of the garrison.Watson's Hist. of Philip II.

The general was determined by loud complaints: but the sentence is so unskilfully constructed that this meaning is not obvious.

No mortal author, in the ordinary fate and vicissitude of things, knows to what use his works may, some time or other, be applied. -Spectator.

It cannot be impertinent or ridiculous therefore, in such a country, whatever it might be in the Abbot of St. Real's, which was Savoy I think; or in Peru, under the Incas, where Garcilasso de la Vega says it was lawful for none but the nobility to study, for men of all degrees to instruct themselves in those affairs wherein they may be actors, or judges of those that act, or controllers of those that judge.-Bolingbroke on the Study of History.

If Scipio, who was naturally given to women, for which anecdote we have, if I mistake not, the authority of Polybius, as well as some verses of Nævius, preserved by Aulus Gellius, had been educated by Olympias at the court of Philip, it is improbable that he would have restored the beautiful Spaniard.-Ibid.

The works of Lord Bolingbroke abound with clumsy arrangements of this kind.

They perceiving the nuncio to be more solicitous about the