6. A parenthesis may sometimes be used with advantage to brevity; for example, "We are all (and who would not be?) offended at the treatment we have received." It gives the question too much prominence, as well as more lengthiness, to append it in a separate sentence. Parentheses are, however, to be used with extreme care.1

71. Another means of condensation is the ellipsis of such words as can be spared without impairing the clearness of the statement. Here, however, the writer needs to be sure of his reason for sparing a word.

EXAMPLES. -1. Ellipsis of the relative for condensation is common. It occurs most naturally when the relative clause is inside of a prepositional phrase or some other sentence-member already subordinate; for example: "We know the instructors were masters of the art they taught.” but more beautiful yet when the rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no more in the resolution we have taken, but in the hand we hold." For other examples of omission of relative, see preceding, pages 51, 131.

2. The common subject of several verbs, and the common object of several verbs or prepositions, may often be given but once for all; for example, "He resided here many years, and, after he had won the esteem of all the citizens, died." "He came to, and was induced to reside in, this city," is shorter than, "He came to this city, and was induced to reside in it." This construction, called technically the "splitting of particles," is to be used only with great caution, and with no long delay after the particle. Some writers condemn it altogether, on the ground, as one writer expresses by an example of the very fault condemned, that "Elegance prohibits an arrangement that throws the emphasis on, and thus causes a suspension of the sense at, a particle or other unimportant word.”

The following sentence, from Thackeray, illustrates both the above mentioned means of condensation by ellipsis. "On Wednesday he (George IV.) was very affectionate with that wretched Brummel, and on Thursday forgot him; cheated him even out of a snuff-box which he owed the poor dandy; ^ saw him years afterwards in his downfall and poverty, when the bankrupt Beau sent him another snuff-box with some of the snuff he used to love, as a piteous token of remembrance and submission, and the king took the snuff, and ordered his horses and drove on, and had not the grace to notice his old companion, favorite, rival, enemy, superior." Observe how each ellipsis imparts rapidity.

1 The above examples are mostly taken from Abbott's "How to Write Clearly."

XI. REPETITION.

In some form or other repetition is one of the most constant necessities in writing. The objects sought thereby are various, according to the matter repeated.

Repetition of Words for Clearness and Volume. Under this head we are to notice some of those less prominent elements of expression which are easily neglected but indispensable to clearness.

72. A word that is essential to the construction of different members of the sentence should be repeated with each member, whenever its omission would cause ambiguity or obscurity.

NOTE. -The following are the principal cases of this kind to be noted:1. The subject of several verbs should be repeated whenever any word comes between that could usurp the relation; for example: "He professes to be helping the nation, which in reality is suffering from his flattery, and (he? or which?) will not permit anyone else to give it advice."

2. Repeat a preposition after a new conjunction, if any word has intervened that could govern its object; for example: "He forgets the gratitude that he owes to those that helped all his companions when he was poor and uninfluential, and (to) his uncle in particular.”

3. A conjunction introducing different clauses should be repeated when the clauses are long; for example: "When we look back upon the havoc that two hundred years have made in the ranks of our national authors — and, above all, (when) we refer their rapid disappearance to the quick succession of new competitors we cannot help being dismayed at the prospect that lies before the writers of the present day." The omission of when here would make the second clause parenthetical, whereas it should be coördinate with the first when-clause.1

73. When the first member of a sentence is long and complex, as for instance a subject of many details, or a series of conditional clauses, some summarizing word or clause has often to be used after it, as a brief repetition preparatory to the succeeding member.

EXAMPLES. -1. Repetition of subject. From Macaulay: "To write history respectably — that is, to abbreviate despatches, and make extracts from

1 The above examples are taken from Abbott's "How to Write Clearly," pp. 31, 32.

speeches, to intersperse in due proportion epithets of praise and abhorrence, to draw up antithetical characters of great men, setting forth how many contradictory virtues and vices they united, and abounding in 'withs' and 'withouts' - all this is very easy."

2. Summary of several conditional clauses. From Burke: "If I have had my share in any measure giving quiet to private property and private conscience; if by my vote I have aided in securing to families the best possession, peace; if I have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects, and subjects to their prince; if I have assisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the citizen, and taught him to look for his protection to the laws of his country, and for his comfort to the good-will of his countrymen;- if I have thus taken my part with the best of men in the best of their actions, I can shut the book: I might wish to read a page or two more, but this is enough for my measure. I have not lived in vain."

In both these examples the italicized parts are summaries for brief repetition.

74. In oratorical style repetition of some word is often employed merely to give requisite sound and volume to the expression, or to emphasize some important idea by iteration.

EXAMPLES.- -1. For volume. The preceding quotation furnishes an example: "If I have had my share in any measure giving quiet to private property and private conscience." "A greater triumph of wisdom and faith and courage than even the English constitution or the English liturgy." The repetition of the italicized words in these examples is not for clearness, but because the repetition gives distinction and balance.

2. For emphasis. From Macaulay: "But what then? Can you remove that distrust? That it exists cannot be denied. That it is an evil cannot be denied. That it is an increasing evil cannot be denied."- From the same: "Now, therefore, while everything at home and abroad forbodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age; now, while the crash of the proudest throne of the continent is still resounding in our ears; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the exiled heir of forty kings; now, while we see on every side ancient institutions subverted, and great societies dissolved; now, while the heart of England is still sound; now, while old feelings and old associations retain a power and a charm which may too soon pass away; now, in this your accepted time, now, in this your day of salvation, take counsel, not of prejudice, not of party spirit, not of the ignominious pride of a fatal consistency, but of history, of reason, of the ages which are past, of the signs of this most portentous time."

Repetition of Thoughts and Details. In every discourse there are numerous passages where the same thoughts have to reappear, it may be several times; or where a series of details have to be repeated in order. The necessity of such repetition gives frequent occasion for the question, how to vary terms or order so that the repetition may not be too crude or too obtrusive.

75. But first it is to be noted that leading ideas, ideas whose expression has been reached with study, as the exactest possible, may best be repeated in identical terms, not varied. This needs

to be said, because young writers are often too afraid of repetition, and leave many of their thoughts too vague in consequence.

EXAMPLES. This mode of repetition may be exemplified from Matthew Arnold, whose perfect fearlessness in using the same terms again and again, as often as occasion rises, is one of the most characteristic features of his style.

"Marcus Aurelius is not a great writer, a great philosophy-maker; he is the friend and aider of those who would live in the spirit. Emerson is the same. He is the friend and aider of those who would live in the spirit."—"I remember hearing him (Wordsworth) say that 'Goethe's poetry was not inevitable enough.' The remark is striking and true; no line in Goethe, as Goethe said himself, but its maker knew well how it came there. Wordsworth is right, Goethe's poetry is not inevitable; not inevitable enough. But Wordsworth's poetry, when he is at his best, is inevitable, as inevitable as Nature herself.”

76. Oftener, however, the writer seeks some varied term, which may be understood for the same thing, and yet makes the fact of repetition less obtrusive.

NOTE. — This kind of repetition may assume various aspects.

1. What in the preceding is given with a particular term may be repeated by a general; or an individual may be referred to by the name of the class. For example: "There came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm."—"In civilized society law is the chimney through which all that smoke discharges itself that used to circulate through the whole house and put every one's eyes out. No wonder, therefore, that the vent itself should sometimes get a little sooty."

2. Repetition of narrative details may be made by mere variation of expression; notice, for instance, how in the following the same thing is said in three different ways: "A day passed away and his mother was not there; another flew by, and she came not near him; a third evening arrived, and yet he had not seen her; and in four-and-twenty hours he was to be separated from her perhaps for ever."

For other examples of variation in repetition, see preceding, pages 31, 32.

77. In the repetition of a series of details, the inverse order is sometimes taken, to disguise the iteration.

EXAMPLES.-"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” — “Yes, the time is come when the three faculties will be disunited, and their separation destroy the social, religious and political body. What will happen? Sensation will produce its false prophets, and they will laud sensation. Sentiment will produce false prophets, and they will praise sentiment. Knowledge will produce false prophets, and they will extol mind. The latter will be proud men, who resemble Satan; the second will be fanatics, ready to walk toward virtue, without judgment or rule; the others will be what Homer says the companions of Ulysses became, when under the influence of Circe's ring. Follow neither of their three roads, which, taken separately, conduct, the first to the abyss of materialism, the second to mysticism, and the third to atheism."

78. It is very desirable that the thought should in some way grow in the repetition, or at least change its aspect; and to this end a term that is emphasized in the first mention should take a subordinate place in the repetition, and vice versa, so that each part may in its turn receive proper distinction.

EXAMPLES. "I had, indeed, begun the task, and had failed; I had begun it a second time, and failing again, had abandoned my attempt with a sensation of utter distaste." —Notice how in the following stress is laid first on the adverb, and then on the verb: "In the literary movement of the beginning of the nineteenth century the signal attempt to apply freely the modern spirit was made in England by two members of the aristocratic class, Byron and Shelley.... But Byron and Shelley did not succeed in their attempt freely to apply the modern spirit in English literature; they could not succeed in it."