16. The natural unemphatic place of an adverbial word is just before its verb, or between the parts of a compound verb. The placing of an adverb after its verb gives it emphasis.

EXAMPLES. — 1. In the following sentence the adverb, while important, is not emphatic: "Each man gains a power of realizing and firmly conceiving those things he habitually deals with, and not other things." Here the real emphasis is on the verb.

2. Compare now the effect of placing the adverb after the verb: "He writes passionately, because he feels keenly; forcibly, because he feels vividly; he sees too clearly to be vague; he is too serious to be otiose,” etc. Here the adverb is so strong an element that in one instance ("forcibly ") it even stands alone.

17. Of single-word adverbs, the one that requires most care in placing, and that is oftenest misplaced, is only. The difficulty arises from the fact that only may have equal significance before substantives, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs; and so if it is separated from the word it modifies, some word that could usurp its relation is almost sure to intervene. The endeavor should be made, therefore, to place it, if possible, immediately before the word to which it belongs.

EXAMPLES.

"For fifty miles, the river could only be distinguished from the ocean by its calmness and discolored water." Strictly speaking, this means, "could be no more than distinguished"; but what is meant, and what should be said, is, "could be distinguished only by," etc. It is undoubtedly a fact, due to the so frequent misplacing of only, that people make the adjustment of sense unconsciously; but this should not be taken as an excuse for the incorrect usage..

Sometimes only is awkwardly used with an intended backward reference, an office that the word alone would better fulfil. For example: "The first two named only ascended to the summit"; which means strictly "did no more than ascend to the summit," implying that others ascended higher than the summit. "The first two named alone," or, "Of the party, two alone went to the summit." In spoken discourse one may sometimes trust to intonation and pause to make only restrict a word before, as in "I only am to blame "; but in written composition it is better to adhere to the strict rule, that only should immediately precede the word to which it belongs.

Placing of Phrases. In the collocation of phrases the prevailing problem is, how to secure clearness in the reference of the phrase.

18. A genitive, or of-phrase, being the closest of prepositional relations, should be placed if possible immediately after the word it modifies; and especially with no word between, either noun or verb, that can usurp the relation.

EXAMPLES. "And worst of all, the heavy pall hangs over all the land of Birmingham smoke, which, with a northerly wind, blots all the color out of the country, turns the blue sky to a dull brown, makes dusky shadows under the elm tops, and hides the distance in a thin veil of London fog." The part between the noun and its genitive, italicized above, contains a word ("land") that produces confusion; it might be read, "land of Birmingham smoke."

"The springs and sources were unsealed of modern ideas, modern systems, and of ideas and systems that are still to be developed." Here the verb comes between the noun and its genitive, and the construction, at best inelegant, is excusable only on the ground that it is not likely to be understood "were unsealed of modern ideas."

19. Phrases adverbial in office are, perhaps of all sentencemembers, most liable to ambiguous placing, and by consequence not infrequently ludicrous in effect. For the avoidance of such ambiguity only the general rule can be given "that what is to be thought of first should be mentioned first, and that things to be thought of together should be placed in close conjunction.' 1 The question to be settled by careful study in each individual case is the question of near or remote relation; and collocation is to be managed accordingly.

EXAMPLES. From a leading newspaper: "Base-ball managers must look at this pleasant weather and think of the opportunity they have let slip to fill their coffers to overflowing with anything but pleasure." Here so much intervenes between the phrase and what it modifies that a new word capable of the same modification has inadvertently slipped in.

A few other examples, in which the same disregard of near and remote relations may be discerned, are here quoted from Hodgson: "He blew out his brains after bidding his wife good-by with a gun." "Erected to the memory

1 Hodgson, "Errors in the Use of English," p. 183.

of John Phillips accidentally shot as a mark of affection by his brother." "The Board of Education has resolved to erect a building large enough to accommodate 500 students three stories high." The foregoing seem extreme cases merely because the effect is ludicrous; but the fault is just the same in the following. "Sir Morton Peto spoke of the notion that the national debt might be repudiated with absolute contempt." People have been crying out that Germany never could be an aggressive power a great deal too soon." "It is curious to see how very little is said on the subject treated in the present essay, by the great writers on jurisprudence."

Such adverbs as at least, at all events, probably, perhaps, indeed, are often placed ambiguously between two emphatic elements of the sentence, where their influence may be reckoned either backward or forward. Such a position is therefore to be shunned.

EXAMPLES. "I think you will find my Latin exercise, at all events, as good as my cousin's." Does this mean, "My Latin exercise at all events," or "as good as my cousin's at all events"? Either of these orders would be unambiguous. "Disturbance was not indeed infrequently caused by the summary arrest of fugitive slaves in various parts of the North." Better: "Not infrequently, indeed, disturbance was caused," etc.

Placing of Clauses. The chief error in the placing of clauses arises from the ambiguous mixture of dependent and principal elements of the sentence.

20. Dependent clauses introduced by if, unless, though, that, and the like, should be kept clearly distinct from principal clauses in the same sentence. The fact that the influence of such a conjunction may extend beyond its own clause into the next makes the proper coördination of the second clause a matter of some difficulty; either by changed order or by the use of directive particles, therefore, sentence-members of like rank should be grouped together.

EXAMPLES.

"The lesson intended to be taught by these manoeuvres will be lost, if the plan of operations is laid down too definitely beforehand, and the affair degenerates into a mere review." Is the coördination here—"the lesson... and the affair," or "if the plan... and [if] the affair"? Corrected by change of order: "If the plan of operations is laid down too defi

nitely beforehand, the lesson intended . . . will be lost, and the affair degen erates," etc. Or: "If the plan of operations is laid down too definitely beforehand, and the affair degenerates . . . the lesson intended," etc. Corrected (according to one sense) by particle: "The lesson intended to be taught will be lost, if the plan is laid down too definitely beforehand, and thus the affair degenerates (will degenerate) into a mere review."

"He replied that he wished to help them, and intended to make preparations accordingly." Corrected by repetition: "He replied that he wished to help them, and that he intended to make preparations accordingly." Corrected (according to the other sense) by particle: "He replied that he wished to help them, and indeed he intended to make preparations accordingly." The indeed coördinates the last clause with "he replied."

Especial care is to be taken of a that-clause within a that-clause; for example: "Some faint elements of reason being discernible in the brute it is not enough to prove that a process is not a process of reason, that something approaching to it is seen in the brute." Here a recast is needed, beginning, "The fact that something approaching . . . is not enough to prove," etc.

III. RETROSPECTIVE REFERENCE.

This term is here adopted to designate the office of any word that requires for its interpretation some word or construction preceding. Under the term are included demonstrative pronouns and adverbs, relative pronouns and adverbs, and phrases of reference, — in general, whatever is to be referred for its meaning to an antecedent.

In the whole range of composition there is no process oftener mismanaged than retrospective reference. The mismanagement results not from ignorance, but from haste and carelessness; the writer, in his ardor to continue his thought, does not stay to look back, but trusts to chance for accuracy. It is of especial value in this process to form the habit, in the case of any backward referring word, of looking back at once and making all necessary adjustments before proceeding. Such a habit once thoroughly confirmed need not check or retard the current of thought, and will save much trouble of recasting afterwards.

NOTE.

-The range and character of retrospective reference will be indi. cated in the subjoined tabular view.

From the above table it will be seen that reference may be made to a person or thing, to a place, or to a time; and that any of these antecedents may be either definitely pointed out (by a demonstrative), or taken for granted (by a relative). Further, it will be noticed that when the antecedent is pointed out it may be recognized as either near or remote, and hence for each of the demonstratives (with the exception of the personal pronoun) there are two forms, to indicate these two varieties of relation. When the antecedent is taken for granted, such discrimination is not so necessary.

Discrimination of the Antecedent. Owing to the lack of inflection in English, the means for discriminating between two or more possible antecedents are somewhat meagre. The unaided pronoun of the singular number, he, she, it, has the power of discriminating only between the sexes, and between persons and things; while the plural, they, can discriminate only between one object and sev