VII. NEGATION. The typical means of expressing simple negation is the adverb not. Special claims of emphasis, variety, or exactness often lead, however, to certain modifications of this adverb, which are here noted. Degrees of Negation. For some purposes it is desirable to intensify the negation, for others to soften it. 48. Of the comparatively mild negative not, such adverbs as not at all, in no wise, by no means, mark various degrees and shades of intensification. The most energetic, because most universal, negative to be found in the language, is the adjective no, taking the place of the adverb. EXAMPLE. Note the difference in strength between these two forms of negation: "Since the fall, mere men are unable in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God." Compare: "No mere man, since the fall, is able," etc. The greater energy of no is partly due to the fact that it may easily be placed first in its clause, and partly to the fact that the negation of a subject means more than the negation of an act. Two or three examples from Carlyle, whose tendency to negation was almost a mannerism, will illustrate various degrees of negation. 'Shall we say, then, Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison? Not so his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far nobler, clearer; — perhaps not less, but more important."—"This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot consider him so."—"He is by no means the truest of Prophets; but I do esteem him a true one.” "No most gifted eye can exhaust the significance of any object."—"No Dilettantism in this Mahomet; it is a business of Reprobation and Salvation with him; of Time and Eternity: he is in deadly earnest about it!" 49. When a direct negation would be too obtrusive, or when in a series of negations variety of expression is desired, the negative may be softened. The usual way of doing this is by beginning the sentence or clause with nor, uncorrelative. - EXAMPLES. - "But those were simple, fortunate times for the young minstrel, who took his success modestly and gladly, nor forgot his work withal; and he now enjoyed a season as poetic as ever afterward came to him." "Yet in my secret mind one way I know, But much must still be tried, which shall but fail." The negation may sometimes be softened by being placed in an inconspicuous position; for example: "In fiction, no more than elsewhere, may a writer pretend to be what he is not, or to know what he knows not." Double Negative. — In English two negatives connected with the same verb annul each other; that is, they are equivalent to an affirmative. They cannot, therefore, be used for the sake of stronger negation; but for modified affirmation the double negative is extensively employed. 50. The value of the double negative as an affirmative lies in the fact that it expresses a milder and more guarded degree than does direct affirmation; it is employed, accordingly, in the interests of precision. EXAMPLE.—“It is not improbable that from this acknowledged power of public censure grew in time the practice of auricular confession." Here the writer will not commit himself to the unqualified assertion that such a thing is probable; so he chooses rather to negative the opposite. That the double negative is employed for precision, and softens instead of strengthens, is evident in the following: "She was not twenty, probably handsome, and not improbably giddy: being quite without evidence, we cannot judge what was rumor and what was truth." This construction may easily be overworked; note for example the following: "Yet it is not unremarkable that an experienced and erudite Frenchman, not unalive to artistic effect, has just now selected this very species of charac ter for the main figure in a large portion of an elaborate work." 51. Essentially the same principle is often employed for the sake of emphasis, in what is called Litotes. This is a virtual double negative; for, in a place where a strong affirmation would naturally be expected, it puts the negation of its opposite, with the effect of strengthening the assertion. EXAMPLES. From Macaulay: "He (the Puritan) had been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice." Here, where we would quite naturally expect such expressions as " omnipotent deliverer," ‚” “supernatural agony,” “transcendent sacrifice,” we find the assertion much more strongly made by the negation of "common," "vulgar," earthly." 66 The force of this construction lies in its suggesting more than it says; hence it is much used in innuendo. When Carlyle says, "The Editor is clearly no witch at a riddle," it is a playful way of saying that he is remarkably obtuse. VIII. SUSPENSION. It was remarked under the head of Prospective Reference that an idea may acquire distinction by being prepared for and expected. This principle is the basis of the suspended, otherwise called periodic, structure; which consists in delaying the significant part of the assertion by introducing before it preliminaries, conditions, and the like, constructions that, being in their nature incomplete, refuse emphasis to themselves, and serve to accumulate emphasis for what succeeds. Field of its Use. —Suspension is usually understood as referring to the structure of clauses and sentences; and it is to this application of it that the name period is distinctively given. A periodic sentence is one in which the idea and the grammatical structure are alike incomplete until the end is reached; which depends therefore for distinction on some essential feature that is of purpose delayed. The same principle is extensively employed, also, in larger relations, being applicable to any passage where a word or idea is skillfully kept back while at the same time the reader's attention is stimulated to look for it. It is thus somewhat analogous to the dénouement in a narrative. EXAMPLES. 1. In sentence-structure. "On whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us is his wonderful invention." Here the word "invention," which is the most significant word of the sentence, is studiously delayed to the very end. · "Sitting last winter among my books, and walled round with all the comfort and protection which they and my fireside could afford me, to wit, a table of high-piled books at my back, my writingdesk on one side of me, some shelves on the other, and the feeling of the warm fire at my feet, I began to consider how I loved the authors of these books." Here the real assertion is not begun until the words, "I began to consider "; what precedes being merely preparatory for it. 2. Suspense of interest in larger relations. "Was there then any man, by land or sea, who might serve as the poet's type of the ideal hero? To an Englishman, at least, this question carries its own reply. For by a singular destiny England, with a thousand years of noble history behind her, has chosen for her best-beloved, for her national hero, not an Arminius from the age of legend, not a Henri Quatre from the age of chivalry, but a man whom men still living have seen and known. For, indeed, England and all the world as to this man were of one accord; and when in victory, on his ship Victory, Nelson passed away, the thrill which shook mankind was of a nature such as perhaps was never felt at any other death-so unanimous was the feeling of friends and foes that earth had lost her crowning example of impassioned self-devotedness and of heroic honor." Here the word “Nelson” is so evidently the goal of the reader's waiting attention that it can be safely put in a subordinate relation, while the emphatic elements of its sentence are left free for other ideas. Means of effecting Suspense. -The principal means are here mentioned and exemplified, each by itself; though several different methods of suspending the sense may be employed in the same period. 52. For suspense the protasis or antecedent clause, introduced by a subordinating conjunction, as if or when, is placed first. Examples. — The suspensive effect of a single if-clause may of course be added to by a succession of conditions. Observe the effect in the following, from Cardinal Newman: "If then the power of speech is a gift as great as any that can be named, if the origin of language is by many philosophers even considered to be nothing short of divine, -if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, counsel imparted, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated, — if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the East and the West are brought into communication with each other, — if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and prophets of the human family, -it will not answer to make light of Literature or to neglect its study; rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others, be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life, who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence." Observe that after such a long suspensive preparation as the above, the answering assertion must have bulk and importance enough to correspond. The effect would have been rather abrupt and disappointing, for example, if the sentence had been stopped at the words "or to neglect its study"; we naturally expect more, to answer to the elaborate preface. In the following, from Thomas Moore, this feeling of expectation is raised just in order that it may be answered by a sudden and unexpected turn in the thought: "Good reader, if you e'er have seen, When Phoebus hastens to his pillow, Floats wild along the winding shore, If you have seen all this, and more, 53. An adverbial phrase, and in correspondingly increasing degree a succession of adverbial phrases, may in like manner be used to accumulate emphasis for the concluding member of the period. EXAMPLE. From Motley: "From the pompous and theatrical scaffolds of Egmont and Horn, to the nineteen halters prepared by Master Karl, to hang up the chief bakers and brewers of Brussels on their own thresholds from the beheading of the twenty nobles on the Horse-market, in the opening of the Governor's career, to the roasting alive of Uitenhoove at its close from the block on which fell the honored head of Antony Straalen, to the obscure chair in which the ancient gentlewoman of Amsterdam suffered death for an act of vicarious mercy - from one year's end to another's- from the most signal to the most squalid scenes of sacrifice, the eye and hand of the great master directed, without weariness, the task imposed by the sovereign." 54. A participle or adjective modifying the subject is a valuable means of effecting suspense; the means, however, most liable to See "Participles," p. 115, above. excess. |