tion, or the relation of cause and effect, time and place, or the sequence in which one action grows out of another.

On the contrary, the sole legitimate use of and is to mark addition or co-ordination.

Observe, in Hawthorne, § 38, "They now went down stairs, where Phoebe... took the most active part," etc., how aptly the relation of place (and time) is indicated by where. An ordinary slip-shod writer, using and instead of where, would have missed the point.

The following is a specimen of newspaper tameness:

In other years Senator Anthony's crisp and pungent paragraphs in the journal were very notable and influential, and his paper was one of the half-dozen leading journals in New England.*

Why could not the writer have expressed cause and effect? Thus:

In other years Senator Anthony, by his crisp and pungent paragraphs, made the journal one of the, etc.

School and college writing overflows with and. Often the word is useless, or worse than useless. Failing to state what the writer really has in mind, it makes the whole expression limp. The best working rule for both scholar and teacher would be to reject every and that fails to demonstrate its right of being. The scholar should be asked if he is trying to express some relation of cause, time, place, or the like. If he is, he should be required (See § 93.)

to rewrite the sentence.

91. But. Since this word expresses some opposition or contrast, it is not properly used to express a mere change in the direction of thought. Yet even good writers thus misuse it.

The following is correct and normal:

Practice and training may bring me more into rule; but at present I am as useless for regular service as . . . a Don Cossack.

* Quoted in Genung's Practical Rhetoric, p. 184.

Here but contrasts at present with in future (implied although not expressed in the first sentence).

The following is improper:

But above all let us not be influenced by any angry feelings, etc.

Here but expresses no contrast whatever; it merely introduces the last in a series of thoughts or considerations, all of the same kind. And would be correcter. The most forcible expression, however, would be the simple, unintroduced, Above all.

It must be admitted that writers of high rank begin sentences, and occasionally paragraphs, with but; e. g., Irving, § 13 (third extract). The practice is not to be commended to the young, who will do better to acquire the.habit of keeping the word out of so prominent a place.

Macaulay is a dangerous example in this respect. His use of but, although it can scarcely be called incorrect, is certainly excessive. E. g.:

The immoral English writers of the seventeenth century are indeed less excusable than those of Greece and Rome. But the worst English writings of the seventeenth century are decent, compared with much that has been bequeathed to us by Greece and Rome. Plato, we have little doubt, was a much better man than Sir George Etherege. But Plato has written things at which Sir George Etherege would have shuddered.

Here the reader is jerked backward and forward from contrast to contrast. The impression made upon him is that of fitfulness, rather than of sustained power. Macaulay would have stated his views more clearly, and at the same time more convincingly, had he written after this fashion:

The immoral English writers of the seventeenth century, though less excusable indeed than those of Greece and Rome, are nevertheless more decent. Thus Plato, who was, we have little doubt, a much better man than Sir George Etherege, has written things at which Sir George would have shuddered.

N*

2. THE SENTENCE.

92. Position; Balance. The significant places in a sentence are the beginning and the end, especially the end. If the writer puts his leading thought in one or the other of these places, he will make his sentence forcible. An example much quoted in illustration of this is the following:

On whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his wonderful invention.

Observe also De Quincey, § 17:

In glided . . . not my fair sister, but my bronzed Bengal uncle.

The concluding sentence in Macaulay, § 21, is forcible; also the conclusion in Gibbon, § 25. Most remarkable of all is the conclusion of the long sentence in De Quincey, § 31:

From the silence... roar of his voice.

On the other hand, in the first part of the same extract from De Quincey, note the emphasis due to position at the beginning of a sentence: "Here was the map," "The horse," "He, of all the party," "The little carriage," "The young man,' ," "But his was the steadiness." In the extract from the Outlook, § 3, note the emphasis of the clauses, “By the power," "He it is." In Irving, §9, "Even the critics." In Green, § 38, "Of womanly reserve." In Carlyle, § 44, "Beautiful," "of the greenest."

Balance. This consists in making the clauses equal, or nearly equal, in length and weight, and in making the parts of speech in one clause correspond to the same parts. in another clause; e. g., Johnson's reply to Lord Chesterfield:

The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it.

Note how the several clauses balance each other. Also the correspondence of early and kind; of indifferent, solitary, and known; of enjoy, impart, and want.

In Macaulay, § 3, note the correspondence of great powers and low prejudices; of best parts and worst parts; of gigantic elevation and dwarfish littleness.

A sentence in which the emphatic word or phrase comes at the beginning is frequently an inverted sentence; e. g., "By the power," Outlook, § 3; "Of womanly reserve,' Green, § 38.

One in which the emphatic word or phrase comes at the end is called a periodic, or suspended, sentence. E. g.:

On whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his wonderful invention.

Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge.-BURKE: Conciliation, p. 163.

Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people is in no way worn out or impaired.-BURKE: Conciliation, p. 180.

Other hope, in studying such books, we have none.-CARLYLE: Biography.

A writer who uses periodic sentences habitually or frequently is said to have a periodic style.

It is not advisable to use inverted, balanced, or periodic sentences too frequently. They become mannerisms and weary the reader. Hence Johnson's style is commonly regarded as wearisome. Even Macaulay's, by reason of its excessive use of antithetic balance, is losing somewhat of its hold upon the reading public. Too many sentences. like this:

The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectator.

make one also suspect that the words may have been chosen, not because they convey the truth exactly, but because they strike the ear. (See § 116.)

Loose Sentences. If it is undesirable that expression should be too periodic, it is equally undesirable that it should be too loose. A loose sentence is one which ends in a modifying or in a conditioning clause; e. g.:

We came to our journey's end at last.

How much is this worth for exportation, if gold is at a premium of fifty per cent.?

There can be no objection to such writing in moderation; it gives a relief from the tension of periodic sentences. Yet, in any case, to end a sentence with a number of modifiers makes it limp badly; e. g.:

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

This can be improved in various ways; e. g.:

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

Here all the modifiers are retained, merely arranged in a different order. But why retain so many? Every writer must trust somewhat to his reader's imagination. There is no need of saying more than this:

Worn out with deep roads and bad weather, we came at last to our journey's end.

93. Unity and Stability of Structure.-By this is here meant that the grammatical relation of subject, verb, and object is not unnecessarily changed. Note, in Burke, § 5 (second extract), how the structure is maintained throughout the long sentence: "The objects are to secure," etc.

The sense of strength produced by such a sentence is due to the ease and precision with which the reader is able to follow the writer. The thought unfolds itself without haste and without break. Contrast the following:

Carlyle is particularly happy in the choice of illustrative figures of speech, and they give clearness and vigor to his style.

Here the reader's mind is forced to jump from one subject and verb (Carlyle is) to another (they give); see re