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the country-gentlemen, if they get into it,

will certainly be left in the lurch,

Speaking of a discovery in natural philosophy, that colour is not a quality of matter :

As this is a truth which has been proved incontestably by many modern philofophers, and is indeed one of the fineft fpeculations in that science, if the English reader would fee the notion explained at large, he may find it in the eighth chapter of the fecond book of Mr Locke's ef fay on human understanding. Spectator, No 413,

Better thus:

As this is a truth, &c. the English reader, if he would fee the notion explained at large, may find it, &c.

A woman feldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding-cloaths. When fhe has made her own choice, for form's fake the fends a conge d'elire to her friends. Ibid. No 475

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Better thus:

friends.

fhe fends, for form's fake, a conge d'elire to her

And fince it is neceffary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and felling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no law to punish it, the honeft dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

Gulliver's Travels, part 1. chap. 6.

Better

Better thus:

And fince it is neceffary that there fhould be a perpetual intercourse of buying and felling, and dealing upon credit, the honest dealer, where fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no law to punish it, is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

From these examples, the following obfervation will readily occur, that a circumstance ought never to be placed between two capital members of a period; for by fuch fituation it must always be doubtful, fo far as we gather from the arrangement, to which of the two members it belongs: where it is interjected, as it ought to be, between parts of the member to which it belongs, the ambiguity is removed, and the capital members are kept distinct, which is a great beauty in compofition. In general, to preserve members diftinct that fignify things diftinguished in the thought, the best method is, to place first in the confequent member, fome word that cannot connect with what precedes it.

If by any one it shall be thought, that the objections here are too fcrupulous, and that the defect of perfpicuity is eafily fupplied by accurate punctuation; the answer is, That punctuation anay remove an ambiguity, but will never produce that peculiar beauty which is perceived when the fenfe comes out clearly and diftinctly by means of a happy arrangement. Such influence has this beauty, that by a natural transition

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of perception, it is communicated to the very found of the words, fo as in appearance to improve the mufic of the period. But as this curious fubject comes in more properly afterward, it is fufficient at present to appeal to experience, that a period fo arranged as to bring out the fenfe clear, feems always more musical than where the fense is left in any degree doubtful..

A rule defervedly occupying the second place, is, That words expreffing things connected in the thought, ought to be placed as near together as poffible. This rule is derived immediately from human nature, in which there is difcovered a remarkable propenfity to place together things that are in any manner connected *: where things are arranged according to their connections, we have a fense of order; otherwife we have a fenfe of diforder, as of things placed by chance: and we naturally place words in the fame order in which we would place the things they fignify. The bad effect of a violent feparation of words or members thus intimately connected, will appear from the following examples.

For the English are naturally fanciful, and very often difpofed, by that gloominefs and melancholy of temper which is fo frequent in our nation, to many wild notions and visions, to which others are not fo liable.

Spectator, No 419.

*See chap. I.

Here

Here the verb or affertion is, by a pretty long circumstance, violently feparated from the fubject to which it refers: this makes a harsh arrangement; the lefs excufable that the fault is eafily prevented by placing the circumstance before the verb or affertion, after the following man

ner:

For the English are naturally fanciful, and, by that gloominefs and melancholy of temper which is fo frequent in our nation, are often difpofed to many wild notions, &c.

For as no mortal author, in the ordinary fate and vi ciffitude of things, knows to what use his works may, fome time or other, be apply'd, &c.

Spectator, N° 85.

Better thus:

For as, in the ordinary fate and viciffitude of things, no mortal author knows to what ufe, fome time or other, his works may be apply'd,

From whence we may date likewife the rivalship of the houfe of France, for we may reckon that of the Valois and that of Bourbon as one upon this occafion, and the houfe of Auftria, that continues at this day, and has oft coft fo much blood and fo much treasure in the course of it.

Letters on hiftory, vol. 1. letter 6. Bolingbroke.

It cannot be impertinent or ridiculous therefore in fuch a country, whatever it might be in the Abbot of St Real's,

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which was Savoy I think; or in Peru, under the Incas, where Garcilaffo de la Vega fays it was lawful for none but the nobility to study - for men of all degrees to inftruct themselves, in thofe affairs wherein they may be actors, or judges of those that act, or controllers of thofe that judge.

Letters on hiftory, vol. 1. let. 5. Bolingbroke.

If Scipio, who was naturally given to women, for which anecdote we have, if I mistake not, the authority of Polybius, as well as fome verfes of Nevius preserved by Aulus Gellius, had been educated by Olympias at the court of Philip, it is improbable that he would have reftored the beautiful Spaniard.

Ibid. letter 3.

If any one have a curiofity for more specimens of this kind, they will be found without number in the works of the fame author.

A pronoun, which faves the naming a perfon or thing a fecond time, ought to be placed as near as poffible to the name of that perfon or thing. This is a branch of the foregoing rule; and with the reason there given, another concurs, viz. That if other ideas intervene, it is difficult to recal the perfon or thing by reference:

If I had leave to print the Latin letters tranfmitted to me from foreign parts, they would fill a volume, and be a full defence against all that Mr Patridge, or his accomplices of the Portugal inquifition, will be ever able to object; who, by the way, are the only enemies my predictions have ever met with at home or abroad.

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