ftyle that is properly termed natural witness the following examples. In the fincerity of my heart, I profefs, &c. By our own ill management, we are brought to fo low an ebb of wealth and credit, that, &c. On Thursday morning there was little or nothing tranfacted in Change-alley. At St Bride's church in Fleetstreet, Mr Woolston, (who writ againft the miracles of our Saviour), in the, utmoft terrors of confcience, made a public recantation. The interjecting a circumstance between a relative word and that to which it relates, is more properly termed inverfion; because, by a difjunction of words intimately connected, it recedes farther from a natural ftyle. But this licence has alfo degrees; for the disjunction is more violent in fome cafes than in others. This I must also explain: and to give a just notion of the difference, I must crave liberty of my reader to enter a little more into an abstract fubject, than would otherwife be my choice. In nature, though a fubject cannot exist without its qualities, nor a quality without a fubject; yet in our conception of thefe, a material difference may be remarked. I cannot conceive a quality but as belonging to fome fubject: it makes indeed a part of the idea which is formed of the fubject. fubject. But the oppofite holds not; for though I cannot form a conception of a fubject devoid of all qualities, a partial conception may however be forined of it, laying aside or abstracting from any particular quality: I can, for example, form the idea of a fine Arabian horse without regard to his colour, or of a white horfe without regard to his fize. Such partial conception of a fubject, is still more eafy with respect to action or motion; which is an occafional attribute only, and has not the fame permanency with colour or figure: I cannot form an idea of motion independent of a body; but there is nothing more eafy than to form an idea of a body at reft. Hence it appears, that the degree of inverfion depends greatly on the order in which the related words are placed when a fubftantive occupies the firft place, the idea fuggefted by this word muft fubfist in the mind at least for a moment, independent of the relative words afterward introduced; and that moment may without difficulty be prolonged by interjecting a circumftance between the fubftantive and its connections. Examples therefore of this kind, will fcarce alone be fufficient to denominate a ftyle inverted. The cafe is very different, where the word that occupies the first place, denotes a quality or an action; for as thefe cannot be conceived without a fubject, they cannot without greater violence be feparated from the fubject that follows: and for that reafon, every fuch feparation D 2 paration by means of an interjected circumftance belongs to an inverted style. To illuftrate this doctrine examples are neceffary, and I fhall begin with thofe where the word first introduc.d does not imply a relation : Nor Eve to iterate Her former trefpafs fear'd. Hunger and thirst at once, Powerful perfuaders, quicken'd at the scent Moon that now meet'ft the orient fun, now fli'ft In the following examples, where the word first introduced imports a relation, the disjunction will be found more violent. Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Reftore us, and regain the blissful feat, Upon the firm opacous globe Of this round world, whofe first convex divides The luminous inferior orbs, inclos'd From chaos and th' inroad of darkness old, On On a fudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring found, Wherein remain'd, For what could elfe? to our almighty foe Forth rufh'd, with whirlwind found, The chariot of paternal Deity. Language would have no great power, were it confined to the natural order of ideas: I fhall foon have an opportunity to make it evident, that by inverfion, a thousand beauties may be compaffed, which must be relinquished in a natural arrangement. In the mean time, it ought not to escape observation, that the mind of man is happily fo conftituted as to relish inversion, though in one refpect unnatural; and to relifh it fo much, as in many cases to admit even fuch words to be feparated as are the most intimately connected. It can fcarce be faid that inverfion has any limits; though I may venture to pronounce, that the disjunction of articles, conjunctions, or prepofitions, from the words to which they belong, has very feldom a good effect the following example with relation to a prepofition, is perhaps as tolerable as any of the kind. He would neither feparate from, nor act against them. I give notice to the reader, that I am now ready to enter upon the rules of arrangement; beginning with a natural ftyle, and proceeding gradually to what is the moft inverted. And in the arrangement of a period, as well as in a right choice of words, the first and great object being perfpicuity, the rule above laid down, That pérfpicuity ought not to be facrificed to any other beauty, holds equally in both. Ambiguities occafioned by a wrong arrangement are of two forts; one where the arrangement leads to a wrong fenfe, and one where the fenfe is left doubtful. The firft, being the more culpable, fhall take the lead, beginning with examples of words put in a wrong place. How much the imagination of fuch a prefence muft exalt a genius, we may obferve merely from the influence which an ordinary prefence has over men. Characteristics, vol. 1. p. 7. This arrangement leads to a wrong fenfe: the adverb merely seems by its position to affect the preceding word; whereas it is intended to affect the following words, an ordinary presence; and therefore the arrangement ought to be thus: How much the imagination of fuch a prefence must exalt a genius, we may obferve from the influence which an ordinary presence merely has over men. [Or better], which even an ordinary prefence has over men, The |