clog them. Thus, when there are any circumstances of time, place, or other limitations, which the principal object of our Sentence requires to have connected with it, we must take especial care to dispose of them, so as not to cloud that principal object, nor to bury it under a load of circumstances. This will be made clearer by an example. Observe the arrangement of the following Sentence, in Lord Shaftsbury's Advice to an Author. He is speaking of modern poets, as compared with the ancient: "If, whilst they profess only to please, they secretly “advise, and give instruction, they may now, perhaps, as well "as formerly, be esteemed, with justice, the best and most hon"ourable among authors. This is a well constructed Sentence. It contains a great many circumstances and adverbs, necessary to qualify the meaning; only, secretly, as well, perhaps, now, with justice, formerly; yet these are placed with so much art, as neither to embarrass, nor weaken the Sentence; while that which is the capital object in it, viz. "Poets being justly esteemed the best and most honourable among authors," comes out in the conclusion clear and detached, and possesses its proper place. See, now, what would have been the effect of a different arrangement. Suppose him to have placed the members of the Sentence thus: "If, whilst they profess to please only, they "advise and give instruction secretly, they may be esteemed the “best and most honourable among authors, with justice, per "haps, now, as well as formerly." Here we have precisely the same words, and the same sense: but, by means of the circumstences being so intermingled as to clog the capital words, the whole becomes perplexed, without grace, and without strength.

A fourth rule, for constructing Sentences with proper Strength is, to make the members of them go on rising and growing in their importance above one another. This sort of arrangement is called a climax, and is always considered as a beauty in composition. From what cause it pleases, is abundantly evident. In all things, we naturally love to ascend to what is more and more beautiful, rather than to follow the retrogade order. Having had once some considerable object set before us, it is with pain, we are pulled back to attend to an inferior circumstance. "Cavendum est," says Quintilian, whose au

thority I always willingly quote, " ne decrescat oratio, et forti“ori subjungatur aliquid infirmius; sicut, sacrilego, fur; aut "latroni petulans. Augeri enim debent sententiæ et insurgere."* Of this beauty, in the construction of Sentences, the orations of Cicero furnish many examples. His pompous manner naturally led him to study it; and, generally, in order to render the climax perfect, he makes both the sense and the sound rise together, with a very magnificent swell. So in his oration for Milo, speaking of a design of Clodius's for assassinating Pompey :" Atqui si res, si vir, si tempus ullum dignum fuit, "certè hæc in illâ causâ summa omnia fuerunt. Insidiator erat "in Foro collocatus, atque in Vestibulo ipso Senatûs ; ei viro au"tem mors parabatur, cujus in vitâ nitebatur salus civitatis ; eo "porrò reipublicæ tempore, quo si unus ille occidisset, non "hæc solùm civitas, sed gentes omnes concidissent.” The following instance, from Lord Bolingbroke, is also beautiful : "This decency, this grace, this propriety of manners to char"acter, is so essential to princes in particular, that, whenever "it is neglected, their virtues lose a great degree of lustre, and "their defects acquire much aggravation, Nay, more; by ne"glecting this decency and this grace, and for want of a suf"ficient regard to appearances, even their virtues may betray "them into failings, their failings into vices, and their vices "into habits unworthy of princes, and unworthy of men." (Idea of a Patriot King.)

I must observe, however, that this sort of full and oratorical climax, can neither be always obtained, nor ought to be al ways sought after. Only some kinds of writing admit such Sentences; and, to study them too frequently, especially if the subject require not so much pomp, is affected and disagreeable. But there is something approaching to a climax, which it is at general rule to study, "ne decrescat oratio," as Quintilian speaks," et ne fortiori subjungatur aliquid infirmius." A weaker assertion or proposition should never come after a stronger one; and when our Sentence consists of two members, the longest should, generally, be the concluding one. There is a

"Care must be taken, that our composition shall not fall off, and that a "weaker expression shall not follow one of more strength; as if, after sacrilege "we should bring in theft ; or, having mentioned a robbery, we should subjoinj "petulance. Sentences ought always to rise and grow."

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twofold reason for this last direction.

Periods, thus divided, are pronounced more easily; and the shortest member being placed first, we carry it more readily in our memory as we proceed to the second, and see the connexion of the two more clearly. Thus to say," when our passions have forsaken us, 66 we flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken "them," is both more graceful and more clear, than to begin with the longest part of the proposition : "We flatter ourselves "with the belief that we have forsaken our passions, when they "have forsaken us." In general, it is always agreeable to find a Sentence rising upon us, and growing in its importance to the very last word, when this construction can be managed without affectation, or unseasonable pomp. "If we rise yet higher," says Mr. Addison, very beautifully," and consider the fixed "stars as so many oceans of flame, that are each of them at"tended with a different set of planets; and still discover new “firmaments and new lights, that are sunk farther in those un"fathomable depths of æther: we are lost in such a labyrinth "of suns and worlds, and confounded with the magnificence "and immensity of Nature." (Spect. No. 420.) Hence follows clearly,

A fifth rule for the Strength of Sentences, which is, to avoid concluding them with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word. Such conclusions are always enfeebling and degrading. There are Sentences, indeed, where the stress and significancy rest chiefly upon some words of this kind. In this case, they are not to be considered as circumstances, but as the capital figures; and ought, in propriety, to have the principal place allotted them. No fault, for instance, can be found with this Sentence of Bolingbroke's : " In their prosperity, my friends "shall never hear of me; in their adversity, always." Where never and always, being emphatical words, were to be so placed, as to make a strong impression. But I speak now of those inferior parts of speech, when introduced as circumstances, or as qualifications of more important words. In such case, they should always be disposed of in the least conspicuous parts of the period; and so classed with other words of greater dignity, as to be kept in their proper secondary station.

Agreeably to this rule, we should always avoid concluding with any of those particles, which mark the cases of nouns, of, to,

to say,

from, with, by. For instance, it is a great deal better to say "Avarice is a crime of which wise men are often guilty," than “Avarice is a crime which wise men are often guilty of. This is a phraseology which all correct writers shun, and with reason. For besides the want of dignity which arises from those monosyllables at the end, the imagination cannot avoid resting, for a little, on the import of the word which closes the sentence and, as those prepositions have no import of their own, but only serve to point out the relations of other words, it is disagreeable for the mind to be left pausing on a word, which does not, by itself, produce any idea, nor form any picture in the fancy.

For the same reason, verbs which are used in a compound sense, with some of these preposition, are, though not so bad, yet still not so beautiful conclusions of a period; such as, bring about, lay hold of, come over to, clear up, and many other of this kind instead of which, if we can employ a simple verb, it always terminates the Sentence with more strength. Even the pronoun it, though it has the import of a substantive noun, and indeed often forces itself upon us unavoidably, yet, when we want to give dignity to a Sentence, should, if possible, be avoided in the conclusion; more especially, when it is joined with some of the prepositions, as, with it, in it, to it. In the following Sentence of the Spectator, which otherwise is abundantly noble, the bad effect of this close is sensible; "There is "not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consid"eration in religion, than this, of the perpetual progress which "the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without "ever arriving at a period in it." (No. 111.) How much. more graceful the Sentence, if it had been so constructed as to close with the word, period..

Besides particles and pronouns, any phrase which expresses a circumstance only, always brings up the rear of a Sentence with a bad grace. We may judge of this, by the following Sentence from Lord Bolingbroke: (Letter on the State of Parties at the Accession of King George I.). "Let me, therefore, " conclude by repeating, that division has caused all the mischief 66 we lament; that union alone can retrieve it; and that a great advance towards this union, was the coalition of parties, so happily begun, so successfully carried on, and of late

!

"so unaccountably neglected; to say no worse." This last phrase, to say no worse, occasions a sad falling off at the end; so much the more unhappy, as the rest of the period is conducted after the manner of a climax, which we expect to find growing to the last.

The proper disposition of such circumstances in a Sentence, is often attended with considerable trouble, in order to adjust them so, as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and the grace of the period. Though necessary parts, they are, however, like unshapely stones in a building, which try the skill of an artist, where to place them with the least offence. "Jun-"gantur," says Quintilian, " quo congruunt maximé ; sicut in "structurâ saxorum rudium, etiâm ipsa, enormitas invenit cui applicari, et in quo possit insistere."*

The close is always an unsuitable piace for them. When the sense admits it, the sooner they are dispatched, generally speaking, the better; that the more important and significant words may possess the last place, quite disencumbered. It is a rule, too, never to crowd too many circumstances together, but rather to intersperse them in different parts of the Sentence, joined with the capital words on which they depend; provided that care be taken, as I before directed, not to clog those capital words with them. For instance, when Dean Swift says, "What "I had the honour of mentioning to your Lordship, some time <( ago, in conversation, was not a new thought." (Letter to the Earl of Oxford.) These two circumstances, some time ago, and in conversation, which are here put together, would have had a better effect disjoined thus: "What I had the honour, some time ago, of mentioning to your Lordship in conversa❝tion." And in the following Sentence of Lord Bolingbroke's: (Remarks on the History of England) " A monarchy, limited "like ours, may be placed, for aught I know, as it has been "often represented, just in the middle point, from whence a "deviation leads, on the one hand, to tyranny, and on the other, "to anarchy." The arrangement would have been happier thus: "A monarchy, limited like ours, may, for aught I know, "be placed, as it has often been represented, just in the middle "point, &c."

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"Let them be inserted wherever the happiest place for them can be found; "as, in a structure composed of rough stones, there are always places where the "most irregular and unshapely may find some adjacent one to which it can be "joined, and some basis on which it may rest.”