copulatives may be multiplied with peculiar advantage. Thus Lord Bolingbroke says, with elegance and propriety, "Such a man might fall a victim to power; but truth, and reason, "and liberty, would fall with him.”

A third rule for promoting the strength of a sentence is, to dispose of the principal word, or words, in that place of the sentence where they will make the most striking impression. Perspicuity ought first to be studied; and the nature of our language allows no extensive liberty in the choice of collocation. In general, the important words are placed in the beginning of the sentence. Thus Mr. Addison: "The pleasures "of the imagination, taken in their full extent,

are not so gross as those of sense, nor so re"fined as those of the understanding." This order seems to be the most plain and natural. Sometimes, however, when we propose giving weight to a sentence, it is proper to suspend the meaning for a while, and then to bring it out full at the close: "Thus," says Mr. Pope,

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on whatever side we contemplate Homer, "what principally strikes us is his wonderful "invention."

A fourth rule for the strength of sentences is, to make the members of them go on rising in their importance above one another. This kind of arrangement is called a climax, and is ever regarded as a beauty in composition. Why it pleases is sufficiently evident. In all things, we naturally love to advance to what is more and more beautiful, rather than to follow the retrograde order. Having viewed some considerable object, we cannot, without pain, be pulled back

to attend to an inferior circumstance. "Caven"dum est," says Quintilian, "ne decrescat ora“tio, et fortiori subjungatur aliquid infirmius.' "We must take care that our composition shall "not fall off, and that a weaker expression shall "not follow one of greater strength." When a sentence consists of two members, the longest should, in general, be the concluding one. Hence the pronunciation is rendered more easy; and the shortest member of the period being placed first, we carry it more readily in our memory as we proceed to the second, and see the connection of the two more clearly. Thus, to say, "When our passions have forsaken us, we "flatter ourselves with the belief that we have "forsaken them," is both more graceful and more perspicuous than to begin with the longest part of the proposition: "We flatter ourselves "with the belief, that we have forsaken our passions, when they have forsaken us."

A fifth rule for constructing sentences with proper strength, is to avoid concluding them with an adverb, a preposition, or any insignificant word. By such conclusions style is always weakened and degraded. Sometimes, indeed, where the stress and significancy rest chiefly upon words of this kind, they may, with propriety, have the principal place allotted them. No fault, for example, can be found with this sentence of Bolingbroke: "In their prosperity, my friends shall never hear of me; in their adversity, always;" where never and always, being emphatical words, are so placed, as to make a strong impression. But, when those inferior parts of speech are introduced as circum

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stances, or as qualifications of more important words, they should invariably be disposed of in the least conspicuous parts of the period.

We should always avoid with care the concluding with any of those particles which distinguish the cases of nouns-of, to, from, with, by. Thus it is much better to say, "Avarice is a "crime of which wise men are often guilty,' than to say, "Avarice is a crime which wise "men are often guilty of." This kind of phraseology all correct writers endeavour sedulously to avoid.

Verbs used in a compound sense, with some of these prepositions, are likewise ungraceful conclusions of a period; such as, bring about, lay hold of, come over to, clear up, and many others of the same kind; instead of which, if a simple verb can be employed, the sentence is always terminated with more strength. Even the pronoun it, especially when joined with some of the prepositions, as, with it, in it, to it, cannot, without a violation of grace, be the conclusion of a sentence. Any phrase which expresses a circumstance only, cannot conclude a sentence without great imperfection and inelegance. Circumstances are, indeed, like unshapely stones in a building, which try the skill of an artist, where to place them with the least offence: We should carefully avoid crowding too many of them together, but rather intersperse them in different parts of the sentence, joined with the principal words on which they depend. Thus, for instance, when Dean Swift says, "What I "had the honour of mentioning to your lord"ship, sometime ago, in conversation, was not " a new thought."(Letter to the Earl of "a

Oxford). These two circumstances, sometime ago, and in conversation, which are here joined, would have been better separated thus: "What "I had the honour, sometime ago, of mentioning to your lordship in conversation.”

The last rule, which we shall mention concerning the strength of a sentence is, that in the members of it, where two things are compared or contrasted to one another, where either a resemblance or an opposition is designed to be expressed, some resemblance in the language and construction ought to be observed. The following passage, from Pope's preface to his Homer, beautifully exemplifies the rule we are now giving. "Homer was the greater genius; Virgil "the better artist: in the one, we admire the "man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries "us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil "leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer "scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil "bestows with a careless magnificence. Homer, "like the Nile, pours out his riches with a "sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its "banks, with a constant stream. And when we "look upon their machines, Homer seems like "his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens. Virgil, like the same power, in his benevolence, counselling with "the Gods, laying plans for empires, and or

dering his whole creation." Periods of this kind, when introduced with propriety, and not too frequently repeated, have a sensible and attractive beauty: but if such a construction be aimed at in all our sentences, it betrays into a disagreeable uniformity, and produces a regular

jingle in the period, which tires the ear, and plainly discovers affectation.

Structure of Sentences.

Harmony.

HAVING treated of sentences, with regard to their meaning, under the heads of Perspicuity, Unity, and Strength, we will now consider them with respect to their sound, their harmony, or agreeableness to the ear.

In the harmony of periods, two things are to be considered: First, agreeable sound, or modulation in general, without any particular expression: Next, the sound so ordered, as to become expressive of the sense. The first is the more common; the second the superior beauty. The beauty of musical construction, it is evident, will depend upon the choice of words, and the arrangement of them. Those words are most pleasing to the ear which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, where there is a proper intermixture of vowels and consonants, without too many harsh consonants rubbing against each other, or too many open vowels in succession, to produce a hiatus, or unpleasing aperture of the mouth. Long words are generally more pleasing to the ear than monosyllables; and those are the most musical which are not wholly composed of long or short syllables, but of an intermixture of them; such as, delight, amuse, velocity, celerity, beautiful, impetuosity. If the words, however, which compose a sentence, be ever so well chosen and harmonious, yet, if they be unskilfully arranged, its music is entirely

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