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That fort of inftruction which is acquired by inculcating an important moral truth, &c.

This expreffion includes two perfons, one acquiring, and one inculcating; and the scene is changed without neceflity. To avoid this blemish, the thought may be expreffed thus: '

That fort of inftruction which is afforded by inculcating, &c.

The bad effect of this change of perfon is remarkable in the following paffage.

The Britons, daily haraffed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence, who confequently reduced the greateft part of the ifland to their own power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the rest of the country, in customs, religion, and language, became wholly Saxons.

Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift.

The following example is a change from fubject to perfon.

This proftitution of praife is not only a deceit upon the grofs of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned; but also the better fort must by this means lofe fome part at least of that defire of fame which is the incentive to generous actions, when they find it promifcuously bestowed on the meritorious and undeferving. Guardian, N° 4.

Even fo flight a change as to vary the conftruction in the fame period, is unpleasant :

Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmiffa, tranfgreffus flumen, ut quofque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat; Gallos Hifpanofque equites prope ripam lævo in cornu adverfus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum.

Tit. Liv. l. 22, § 46.

Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own army :

Eo magis ruere in fuos belluæ, tantoque majorem ftragem edere quam inter hoftes ediderant, quanto acrius' pavor confternatam agit, quam infidentis magiftri imperio regitur.

Liv. l. 27. § 14.

This paffage is also faulty in a different respect, that there is no refemblance between the members of the expreffion, though they import a fimile.

The present head, which relates to the choice of materials, fhall be closed with a rule concerning the ufe of copulatives. Longinus obferves, that it animates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the following example from Xenophon.

Clofing their fhields together, they were push'd, they fought, they flew, they were flain.

Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16.

The

The reason I take to be what follows. A continued found, if not loud, tends to lay us afleep : an interrupted found roufes and animates by its repeated impulfes: thus feet compofed of fyllables, being pronounced with a fenfible interval between each, make more lively impreffions than can be made by a continued found. A period of which the members are connected by copulatives, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued found; and therefore to fupprefs the copulatives must animate a defcription. To fupprefs the copulatives hath another good effect: the members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide fmoothly and gently along; and are a proof of sedateness and leisure in the speaker: on the other hand, one in the hurry of paffion, neglecting copulatives and other particles, expresses the principal image only; and for that reason, hurry or quick action is best expreffed without copulatives:

Veni, vidi, vici.

Ite:

Ferte cite flammas, date vela, impellite remos.

Eneid. iv. 593.

Quis globus, O Cives, caligine volvitur atra?
Ferte cite ferrum, date tela, fcandite muros.
Hoftis adeft, eja.

Eneid. ix. 36.

In this view Longinus* juftly compares copula

* Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16.

tives in a period to ftrait tying, which in a race obftructs the freedom of motion.

It follows, that to multiply copulatives in the fame period ought to be avoided: for if the laying afide copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid. I appeal to the following instance, though there are not more than two copulatives.

Upon looking over the letters of my female correfpondents, I find feveral from women complaining of jealous husbands; and at the same time protesting their own innocence, and defiring my advice upon this occafion. Spectator, N° 170.

I except the cafe where the words are intended to express the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty:

Dining one day at an alderman's in the city, Peter obferved him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of his firloin of beef. "Beef," faid the fage magistrate, " is the king of meat: Beef compre"hends in it the quinteffence of partridge, and quail, "and venifon, and pheafant, and plum pudding, and "custard." Tale of a Tub, § 4.

And the author fhows great taste in varying the expreffion in the mouth of Peter, who is reprefented more animated :

"Bread," fays he, "dear brothers, is the staff of "life, in which bread is contained, inclufivè, the quin"tefcence

"tescence of beef, mutton, veal, venifon, partridge, 661 plum-pudding, and custard.”

Another cafe muft alfo be excepted: copulatives have a good effect where the intention is to give an impreffion of a great multitude confifting of many divifions; for example: "The army (( was compofed of Grecians, and Carians, and "Lycians, and Pamphylians, and Phrygians." The reafon is, that a leifurely furvey, which is expreffed by the copulatives, makes the parts appear more numerous than they would do by running them over with celerity: in the latter cafe the army appears like one whole, and as in one group : in the former, we take as it were an accurate furvey of each nation, and of each divifion *.

We proceed to the fecond kind of beauty; which confifts in a due arrangement of the words or materials. This branch of the fubject is not lefs nice than extenfive; and I despair to put it in a clear light, except to thofe who are well acquainted with the general principles that govern the structure or compofition of language.

In a thought, generally speaking, there is at least one capital object confidered as acting or as fuffering. This object is expreffed by a fubftantive noun: its action is expreffed by an active verb; and the thing affected by the action is expreffed by another substantive noun: its fuffering

See Demetrius Phalereus of Elocution, fect. 63.

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