EXAMPLES.

It is a necessity of every manufacturing and commercial people that their customers should be very wealthy and intelligent." Here the clause, "that their customers," etc., which is the real subject, acquires a distinction proper to its importance by being placed after its predicate, "is a necessity"; and this is effected by making "it" stand provisionally for the subject.

Observe how much more emphatic the following subject, “a single day,” is made by the opportunity afforded by "there" of placing it after its verb and thus delaying it toward the end: "There has not for the whole of that time been a single day of my life when it would have been safe for me to go south of Mason and Dixon's line in my own country."

In the following sentence, there prospective would be useful in changing order so that the relative clause might be brought nearer its antecedent: "It was clear, however, that the strife could never end until some defining line between the powers of the King and the powers of the Parliament should be drawn, over which neither party should step." Better-"until there should be drawn some defining line . . . over which,” etc.

31. As the word it may refer backward as well as forward, care is needed not to employ it where the reference is uncertain, and not to mix its retrospective and prospective offices unadvisedly in the same passage.

EXAMPLES. — Even where no real ambiguity is caused, the double use of it in the same passage "always suggests the possibility of being led astray "; for example: "It would be absurd to make another attempt; it would be a mere throwing away of money." Here the second it, retrospective, sounds at best awkward after its prospective use. So in the following sentence, from Ruskin: "It is pretty and appropriate; and, if it boasted of any other perfection, it would be at the expense of its propriety."

The following, copied from a newspaper, is an extreme example of carelessness in the mixture of functions. It is a description of a temperance speech made by a rope-walker while hanging in the air. "It was a speech not easily forgotten, delivered as it was from a peculiar platform, and on a subject not often touched under the circumstances. It made me think of some other things, on the line of the same thought. The mind, the soul, has a grip. It may hold on. Sometimes it is imperative. It is death not to do so. It is responsible in the matter. It is chargeable with its own destruction if it does not hold on."

Other Means of Prospective Reference. From the foregoing examples it is evident that a word or idea may acquire distinction

by being expected and prepared for, it being noticed so much the more when it comes. The broader application of this fact will be given under Suspension; here it is to be noted that any means by which a coming idea is definitely referred to must obey the requirements and cautions of prospective reference.

32. The strong demonstratives, such as this and these, when used prospectively, serve to point out a subject with great definiteness and strength. The personal pronouns are not so naturally thus employed, and when employed should not keep their subject waiting long.

EXAMPLES. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Here the saying itself, which is driven forward by the prospective this, is not only emphasized by position, but defined beforehand as to its importance, by the intermediate phrase.

The somewhat strange sound of a prospective personal pronoun is illustrated by the following: "But such a use of language, although necessary to a good style, has no more direct relation to it than her daily dinner has to the blush of a blooming beauty."

33. Numerals and particles of reference are often used, and especially in spoken discourse, to make the articulation of the thought clear, and to help the hearer grasp its divisions. The copiousness of such words of reference is to be determined by the difficulty of the thought. The common tendency is to give the hearer or reader too little help in making forward reference explicit.

EXAMPLE OF EXPLICIT REFERENCE. "The capital leading questions on which you must this day decide are these two: First, whether you ought to concede; and, secondly, what your concession ought to be. On the first of these questions we have gained some ground." Consider how clearness is gained by these carefully supplied words of reference, both prospective and retrospective.

V. CORRELATION.

Many words or forms of expression appear in pairs, the one member of the pair suggesting and requiring the other. Some points connected with this mutual relation need here to be noted.

Comparison by Means of than, as, and Similar Words. The prevalent error in the use of these correlating terms is ambiguity and vagueness between the things or acts compared.

34. In order to avoid ambiguity, it is often necessary to repeat verbs or prepositions after than, as, and such words of comparison, so that the exact grammatical relation of the succeeding may be clear.

EXAMPLES.

"Cardinal Richelieu hated Buckingham as sincerely as the Spaniard Olivares." This sentence leaves it uncertain whether the last name is a subject or an object; we may read it either, "as did the Spaniard Olivares," or, as he hated the Spaniard Olivares." The verb that is to be taken needs to be supplied.

"Pleasure and excitement had more attraction for him than his friend." Here, according to the intended meaning, a verb or a preposition needs to be supplied: "than for his friend," or, "than had his friend."

35. In comparing complex objects, care is needed that the points to be compared be correctly and exactly taken. Sometimes, through heedlessness, the comparison is given as between ideas that really have no correlation.

EXAMPLES.

"Few pages of English history record a more marked contrast in the character and policy of the English Goverment than those which record the reigns of Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, and James, the first of the Stuarts." Here the comparison is drawn as if it were between a "contrast" and "pages of history." Better: "a more marked contrast . . . than existed between the reigns of," etc.

...

"No author could more faithfully represent a character than this portrayal of Count Cenci by Shelley; and though the subject is unworthy, we cannot but admire the power with which it is treated." Here the inexactness in the objects compared might be very easily corrected-" than Shelley has portrayed the character of Count Cenci."

Resolved, that a college

How is the following question to be debated? graduate is better fitted for American citizenship than any other."

Correlation by Conjunctions and Conjunctive Adverbs.When two alternative or obverse thoughts are to be expressed, it is generally necessary to clearness, and especially if the clauses are lengthy, to prepare for the second by introducing at the outset

some correlative particle requiring the alternate for its complement. This necessity gives rise to such expressions as either... or, neither .. nor, on the one hand... on the other hand, not only . . . but also, expressions whose value is best appreciated by those writers who think most of clearness in style.

EXAMPLE.-Consider how necessary it is in the following sentence to prepare the reader from the first for an alternative: "You must take this extremely perilous course, in which success is uncertain, and failure disgraceful, as well as ruinous, or else the liberty of your country is endangered." The correlatives, "Either you must take... or else," etc., save much liability to misinterpretation, and obviate the necessity of correcting an impression formed and held for half a sentence.

36. The words or, nor, either, neither, although originally dual words, are freely extended to three or more alternatives. It is often desirable, for the sake of emphasis and climax, to add some intensifying word after the first alternative.

EXAMPLES.- A triple alternative: "Logic neither observes, nor invents, nor discovers, but proves."

Intensified: "The Rector was neither laborious, nor obviously self-denying, nor yet very copious in almsgiving.". - The following may be regarded as an elegant way of managing a triple alternative:

'For surer sign had followed, either hand

Or voice, or else a motion of the mere."1

37. The words not only and but, or but also, when correlative, should be followed by the same part of speech.

EXAMPLES. "He not only gave me advice but also help" is wrong. Write, "He gave me not only advice but also help." What part of speech follows these words is immaterial; but it is essential that the words should be followed alike by nouns, or verbs, or prepositional phrases. "He spoke not only forcibly but also tastefully (adverbs), and this too, not only before a small audience but also in (prepositions) a large public meeting, and his speeches were not only successful, but also worthy of success (adjectives)."

1 The above rule, with examples, is mostly taken from Bain's "Composition Grammar."

Sometimes the also may be separated from the but by considerations of force or euphony, for example: "But by seeking the other things first, as we naturally do, we miss not only the Kingdom of God, but those other things also which are truly attained only by aiming beyond them."1

38. The adverbs indeed, in fact, in truth, to be sure, and the like, are much used, by way of concession, to prepare for a coming adversative, but, still, or yet. This mode of correlation contributes much to the strong and clear articulation of thought. Sometimes the influence of the concessive adverb extends through a whole paragraph, before the corresponding adversative is reached.

EXAMPLES. - This kind of correlation will be exemplified from Macaulay, who used it almost to the extent of mannerism.

"No writer, indeed, has delineated character more skillfully than Tacitus; but this is not his peculiar glory."—"It is true that his veneration for antiquity produced on him some of the effects which it produced on those who arrived at it by a very different road. [Sentence of amplification.] Yet even here we perceive a difference."—"The fashionable logic of the Greeks was, indeed, far from strict. [Paragraph of amplification.] Still, where thousands of keen and ready intellects were constantly employed in speculating on the qualities of actions and on the principles of government, it was impossible that history should retain its old character."

Often this correlation is effected in the first member, without the aid of a particle, by introducing a thought so obviously preparatory that the but is naturally suggested.

EXAMPLES. "He has written something better, perhaps, than the best history; but he has not written a good history; he is, from the first to the last chapter, an inventor.". "Of the concise and elegant accounts of the campaigns of Cæsar little can be said. They are incomparable models for military despatches; but histories they are not, and do not pretend to be."

VI. CONJUNCTIONAL RELATION.

More perhaps than on anything else, the progress, the flexibility, and the delicacy of the writer's expression, are dependent on the accurate use of conjunctions. They mark every turn, every change

1 Rule and examples taken mostly from Abbott's "How to Write Clearly."