"Such a feeling is not unnatural,' said the Doctor; 'but you will find it vanish if you just resolve cheerfully to go on doing the duty next you — even if this be to only order dinner.” ” 1

"You are further requested to not return to your usual avocations." 2

"Nor was it wholly satisfactory to, day after day, month after month, act and react the parts she had acquired with as much conscientiousness as if chairs were people."8

XV. Double negatives, though no longer in good use, are still occasionally found in reputable authors.

Double nega

tives.

"One whose desires and impulses are not his own has no character, no more than a steam-engine has a character." 4

"What is it? Greenbacks? No, not those, neither."5

Omissions.

XVI. Words necessary to the construction are sometimes omitted.

"His features, which Nature had cast in a harsh and imperious mould, were relieved by a constant sparkle and animation such as I have never seen in any other man, but in him became ever more conspicuous in gloomy and perilous times."6

"there too the inclination of the teaching, in the matter of the ways and means of dealing with crime and misery, is always towards what is commonly called 'the sentimental,' but some would call the Christian."""

Λ

"He then addressed to his troops a few words of encouragement, as Λ customary with him on the eve of an engagement.” 8 "There was, however, no cause for alarm; it was not a stumble, nor a false step; and, if it had, the fair Amazon had too much self-possession to have been deranged by it." 10

9

1 Mallock: The New Republic, book i. chap. iii.

2 Knights of Labor manifesto. For avocations, see page 39.

8 American periodical.

4 J. S. Mill: On Liberty.

5 Ruskin The Crown of Wild Olive; Traffic.

6 S. J. Weyman: A Gentleman of France, chap. ii.

7 David Masson: De Quincey, chap. xi. English Men of Letters Series

8 W. H. Prescott: The Conquest of Mexico, book v. chap. iv.

• See page 65.

10 Scott: Rob Roy, vol. i. chap. v.

"This dedication may serve for almost any book that has or shall be published."1

"He seemed rather to aim at gaining the doubtful, than fying or crushing the hostile."2

is,

Λ

morti

"If you want something done, write your Senator." Λ "The use of this envelope will help prevent letters being Dead Letter Office, if properly filled out."4

sent to

Λ

Λ

"It was universally agreed that Mr. Ferrars had never recov ered the death of his wife." "

A

Λ

"His letters recommenced, as frequent and rather more serious and business-like than of old." 6

The insertion of "as" after "as frequent," without other change, would make this sentence clumsy. It would be better to write, "as frequent as of old, and rather more serious and business-like." The next three sentences should be recast in a similar way:

"The English are quite as ancient a people as the Germans, and their language is as old if not older than German."7

Λ

"A country as wild perhaps, but certainly differing greatly in point of interest, from that which we now travelled."

"8

"And this can be done now as well- better rather — than at any former time.”

Λ

"Meanwhile a warm discussion took place, who should undertake the perilous task." 10

"The King took the money of France, to assist him in the enterprise which he meditated against the liberty of his subjects, with as little scruple as Frederick of Prussia or Alexander of Russia accepted our subsidies in a time of war.” "' 11

Λ

1 Cited in Campbell's Rhetoric.

2 Lord Dalling and Bulwer: Life of Sir Robert Peel, part iv.

8 American newspaper.

U. S. Post Office Notice. Query as to the position of the last clause.

Disraeli: Endymion, chap. xxix.

Trevelyan: Life and Letters of Macaulay, vol. i. chap. v.

Richard Morris: Primer of English Grammar, chap. i.

8 Scott: Rob Roy, vol. ii. chap. vi.

9 Mallock: The New Republic, book i. chap. iii.

10 Scott: A Legend of Montrose, chap. viii.

11 Macaulay Essays; Hallam's Constitutional History.

"It is asked in what sense I use these words. I answer: in the same sense as the terms are employed when we refer to Euclid for the elements of the science of geometry," &c.1

"2

Λ

"the good which mankind always have sought and always

“I have made no alteration or addition to it, nor shall I

"I shall do all I can to persuade all others to take the same measures for their cure which I have A.

Such omissions as those in the last three examples are of a somewhat different character from those that precede them. The omission is easily supplied from the context; and it occurs at the end of a sentence, where it is least offensive and where an additional word might offend the ear or retard the flow of thought. In such cases good authors now and then allow themselves to omit words that are necessary to the construction; but inexperienced writers cannot safely take such liberties with the language. Those only who have mastered the rules of grammar have the right to set them aside on occasion.

Difficulty in applying the principles of good use.

The reader of the foregoing pages will have observed that the principles which determine what is and what is not pure English are few and simple, and that the practical difficulty for an inexperienced writer consists in the application of those principles to the case in hand. This difficulty, it is obvious, is enhanced by the fact that English is not a dead language, but a language which is thoroughly alive, and which, like other living things, grows in ways that cannot be foreseen and changes as it grows. Difficult as it sometimes is to determine what is good English to-day, it is still more difficult to conjecture what will be good English in the next generation.

1 Samuel T. Coleridge: Church and State. Quoted in Fitzedward Hall's "Modern English."

2 The Quarterly Review.

8 J. S. Mill: Autobiography, chap. vii.

4 Sir Richard Steele: The Guardian, No. 1.

Since, then, any one man's observation of the language as it exists is far from complete, and since his inferences from what he observes may be questioned, a writer on this subject cannot be too careful not to express himself as if his knowledge were complete or his judgment unerring, as if he were a lawgiver instead of a humble recorder of decisions made by his betters. In so far as he confines himself to his business, he is of service to others; in so far as he sets himself up as an authority, he misleads in one way those who accept him as such, in another way those who do not. Those who accept his judgments are in danger of writing, not good English, but his English; those who do not accept them may be so disgusted by his pretensions as to contemn all efforts to teach them what really is GOOD USE.

BOOK II.

RHETORICAL EXCELLENCE.

CHAPTER I.

CHOICE OF WORDS.

THE efficiency of all communication by language must depend on three things: (1) the choice of those words. that are best adapted to convey to the persons addressed the meaning intended; (2) the use of as many words as are needed to convey the meaning, but of no more; (3) the arrangement of words, sentences, and paragraphs in the order most likely to communicate the meaning.

Value of an

ample vocab

A writer should have not only ideas to express, but words with which to express them. The larger his vocabulary, the more likely he is to find in it ulary. just the form of expression he needs for the purpose in hand. It is from poverty of language quite as much as from poverty of thought that school and college compositions often suffer. Material which counts for little in the hands of a tyro, because of his inability to present it in appropriate language, would tell for much in the hands of a writer who has so many words at his command that he can find a fresh expression for every fresh thought or fancy.

To have words at one's command, it is not enough to know what they mean. Many that we understand in