eral. As a consequence, in the general problem how to remove ambiguity or vagueness of reference, questions of order, prominence, proximity, repetition, and the like, assume cardinal importance.

NOTE. Before proceeding to the discussion of means, it may be desirable to give some examples illustrating the most frequent cases of carelessness, and the most frequent devices for overcoming difficulties of reference.

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1. The following examples will illustrate prevailing carelessness in retrospective reference: "This is one of the most lifelike and telling portraits of Hawthorne that has ever appeared." Here the writer seems to mean one —that has appeared," while his real meaning must be "portraits that have appeared." The antecedent is not accurately discriminated. "An old friend of Mr. Watts, R.A. (himself an artist), whose pictures are now on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has favored us with the following interesting sketch of that remarkable painter." Query, whose pictures are on exhibition?"A large capitalist or syndicate will sometimes buy all the wheat or cotton in the market, and hold it until its scarcity and the growing need for it enables him to charge what he will for it." Here the masculine pronoun is made to do the double duty of a masculine and a neuter.

2. The following sentence, from Smollett, with its correction by Professor Bain, will illustrate some of the writer's shifts for clearness of reference.

"The pedant assured his patron that although he could not divest the boy of the knowledge he had already imbibed, unless he would empower him to disable his fingers, he should endeavor, with God's help, to prevent his future improvement."

"The pedant assured his patron that although he could not divest the boy of the knowledge (a) already imbibed, unless (b) he were empow ered to disable (c) the little trickster's fingers, he should endeavor, with God's help, to prevent (d) his pupil's future improvement."

Here it will be seen that the corrector takes as his object first of all to reconstruct the sentence so that all the pronouns may be referable to a single antecedent; and the means used to accomplish this result are —

(a) Omission of pronoun, and participial construction;

(b) Change of construction, active to passive;

(c) Antecedent repeated by a defining term;

(d) Antecedent repeated again, by another name.

21. The most natural means of pointing out a near or remote antecedent, or of setting different antecedents over against each other, is the employment of demonstratives; see Table of Retro

spective Reference. In using these, however, the writer needs to calculate wisely how far he may trust to the reader's or hearer's ability to think back, as these words direct. Such demonstratives should be allowed but sparingly in spoken style; in written style more liberty may be taken, yet here also the writer's safest attitude is caution, lest he place the demonstrative too far from its antecedent.

EXAMPLES. -1. The following will illustrate the serviceableness of demonstratives. To point out the nearer of two antecedents (from E. C. Stedman): "If they (British poets) have a finer understanding and a defter handling of their craft, these may be partly a consequence of the fact that not Montgomery and Wilson, but Keats, and Wordsworth, and Tennyson, and their greater masters, have supplied the models of a recent school." From Carlyle: "Let Liberalism and a New Era, if such is the wish, be introduced; only no curtailment of the royal moneys! Which latter condition, also, is precisely the impossible one." Here the demonstrative is used to help out the relative. — To point out the remoter of two (from Ruskin): "And don't fancy that you will lower yourselves by sympathy with the lower creatures; you cannot sympathize rightly with the higher, unless you do with those: but you have to sympathize with the higher, too with queens, and kings, and martyrs, and

angels."

2. The following examples will illustrate how demonstratives may be used to set antecedents over against each other. From Pitt: "I will not barter English commerce for Irish slavery; that is not the price I would pay, nor is this the thing I would purchase." From E. C. Stedman: "The mind and soul of Transcendentalism seemed to find their predestined service in the land of the Puritans. The poetry which sprang from it had a more subtle aroma than that whose didacticism infected the English Lake school. The latter made prosaic the verse of famous poets; out of the former the quickest inspiration of our down-East thinkers seemed to grow." In both of these examples the reader or hearer is compelled to think back with considerable acumen, in order to re-arrange the thought as the demonstratives bid him; this is what makes such usage precarious.

22. There are two laws of thought which according to occasion may aid the reader in referring the pronoun to its antecedent. One is the law of Prominence, by which the pronoun is interpreted as referring to the principal subject of the antecedent clause. The other is the law of Proximity, by which the pronoun is referred to

the nearest subject. The caution is, not to rely on either of these too implicitly; their virtue in aiding clearness of reference may easily be overrated.

EXAMPLES. -I. Prominence. "At this moment the colonel came up and took the place of the wounded general. He gave orders to halt." Here the remoter noun is so much more prominent, both in sense and construction, that no real ambiguity exists.

2. Proximity. From C. D. Warner: "Some prisons have a bad reputation with the criminal fraternity, and fancy they rather shun the States where these exist." Here the word "they" is so naturally counted with the nearest antecedent ("criminal fraternity ") that the later demonstrative is clear enough, without closer discrimination, as belonging to the other.

3. One principle made to aid the other. "In this war both Marius and Sulla served; Sulla increased his (Sulla's) reputation, Marius tarnished his. Some plead for him (Marius, the last named) age and illness." Here, as both names are of equal grammatical prominence, the interpreting principle of the last pronoun is proximity. In an important reference, however, such as this, the proximity should be aided, if possible, by prominence. This might be effected by putting Sulla, in the second member, in a subordinate clause, thus: "In this war both Marius and Sulla served. While Sulla increased his reputation, Marius tarnished his. Some plead for him age and illness." Note how the reference is aided.

23. In many cases where reference is difficult the antecedent needs to be repeated in some form, instead of being represented by a pronoun; or the repetition may be made along with the proWhen the repeating term is wisely chosen, it may also enrich the thought, by adding some new and suggestive aspect.

noun.

EXAMPLES. - From Mrs. Stowe: "It had also a bright mahogany teatable, over which was a looking-glass in a gilt frame, with a row of little architectural balls on it; which looking-glass was always kept shrouded in white muslin at all seasons of the year, on account of a tradition that flies might be expected to attack it for one or two weeks in summer.” — From Arthur Helps: "I am convinced that it is likeness, and not contrast, which produces this liking-likeness, mark you, in some essential particular, in some sub-stratum, as I said before, in the mind, which liking is not overcome by considerable dissimilarity upon the upper surface."— For instance of amplifying repetition see corrected example, page 124, where "the little trickster" both repeats and characterizes its antecedent.

24. In the report of conversation, where in designating the interlocutors the clash of pronouns is peculiarly liable to occur, ambiguity may be removed, and at the same time vivacity increased, by quoting each speaker's words in his own proper person. When the details of such conversation are in any place likely to be uninteresting or not fully relevant, the writer may condense by reporting in the third person.

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EXAMPLES. "He told his friend that if he did not feel better in half an hour he thought he had better return." Here the ambiguity is quite insurmountable. Say however, "He told his friend, ‘If I (or you) do not feel better,'" etc., and all is clear enough.

The following, from Motley, will illustrate how, according to the character of the thought and the need of rapidity or vividness, the manner of reporting may alternate between direct and indirect quotation.

"On the third day, Don Francis went to take his leave. The Duke begged him to inform his Majesty of the impatience with which he was expecting the arrival of his successor. He then informed his guest that they had already begun to collect the tenth penny in Brabant, the most obstinate of all the provinces. 'What do you say to that, Don Francis?' he cried, with exultation. Alava replied that he thought, none the less, that the tax would encounter many obstacles, and begged him earnestly to reflect. He assured him, moreover, that he should, without reserve, express his opinions fully to the King. The Duke used the same language which Don Frederic had held, concerning the motives of those who opposed the tax. 'It may be so,' said Don Francis, 'but at any rate, all have agreed to sing to the same tune.' A little startled, the Duke rejoined, 'Do you doubt that the cities will keep their promises? Depend upon it, I shall find the means to compel them.' 'God grant it may be so,' said Alava, ‘but in my poor judgment you will have need of all your prudence and of all your authority.'

Coördination and Restriction of the Antecedent.

- In the use of the relative pronoun we recognize two distinct offices as regards the antecedent: coördinative, represented by who and which; and restrictive, represented by that.

When the coördinate relative is used, the antecedent is regarded as complete in sense, and the clause introduced by the relative contains an additional assertion. The relative — who or which— is accordingly equivalent to a demonstrative with a conjunction; “and he," " and this," "and these."

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When the restrictive relative is used, the antecedent has not reached its complete sense, but something, which the relative clause supplies, is still necessary by way of restriction or definition. An equivalent clause, therefore, is not so easy to give; but sometimes the relative — that may be omitted, and its place taken by

an adjective or phrase.

EXAMPLES. -I. Coördinate.

"But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Here the relative clause makes an additional assertion, coördinate in rank with the principal.

2. Restrictive. "And there came a traveller unto the rich man; and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him." Here the antecedent is, not complete in sense without the restriction that the relative clause gives: it is not man in general, but the particular man "that was come unto him."

3. The two in one sentence. "The peace that was now made, which is known as the Peace of Westphalia, made some important changes in Europe." Here the that-clause completes the sense of the antecedent; while the whichclause relates a new fact concerning it. Notice the different implications of the relatives in the following: "Fetch me the books that lie on the table, and the pamphlets, which you will find on the floor."

25. The distinction between coördinative and restrictive relatives is too little regarded by writers, and the feeling of it on the part of readers is correspondingly undeveloped. It is a real and important distinction, however, and capable, by careful usage, of being brought to more general recognition. The writer should habitually estimate the essential office of every relative he employs, and not depart from the strict use except on real and definable occasion.

NOTE.-The unjudged use of who or which in a restrictive sense is not infrequently productive of positive ambiguity. Thus, in the sentence, “It is requested that all members of Council, who are also members of the Lands Committee, will assemble in the Council-room," — is it meant that all the members of the one are also members of the other, or is this a call for all members of the first that happen also to be members of the second? - Notice the ambiguity of, "The Fellows who, in conformity with their oaths, had refused to submit to this usurper, had been driven forth from their quiet cloisters and gardens." One sense is made by placing a comma after "Fellows," and quite another by substituting that for "who."