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The bad effect of placing a circumstance laft or late in a period, will appear from the following examples.

Let us endeavour to cftablish to ourselves an interest in him who holds the reins of the whole creation in his hand.

Spectator, N° 12.

Better thus:

Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an intereft in him, who, in his hand, holds the reins of the whole creation.

Virgil, who has caft the whole fyftem of Platonic philofophy, fo far as it relates to the foul of man, into beautiful allegories, in the fixth book of his Æneid, gives us the punishment, &c.

Spectator, N° 90.

Better this:

Virgil, who, in the fixth book of his Æneid, has caft, &c.

And Philip the Fourth was obliged at laft to conclude a peace, on terms repugnant to his inclination, to that of his people, to the intereft of Spain, and to that of all Europe, in the Pyrenean treaty.

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

Better thus:

And.

And at laft, in the Pyrenean treaty, Philip the Fourth was obliged to conclude a peace, &c.

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In arranging a period, it is of importance to determine in what part of it a word makes the greatest figure, whether at the beginning, during the course, or at the clofe. The breaking filence rouses the attention, and prepares for a deep impreffion at the beginning: the beginning, however, muft yield to the clofe; which being fucceeded by a paufe, affords time for a word to make its deepest impreffion *. Hence the following rule, That to give the utmost force to a period, it ought if poffible to be closed with that word which makes the greatest figure. The opportunity of a paufe fhould not be thrown away upon accessories, but reserved for the principal object, in order that it may make a full impreffion; which is an additional reason against clofing a period with a circumstance. There are however periods that admit not this structure; and in that cafe, the capital word ought, if poffible, to be placed in the front, which next to the close is the most advantageous for making an impreffion. Hence, in directing our difcourfe to

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To give force or elevation to a period, it ought to begin and end with a long fyllable. For a long fyllable makes naturally the ftrongest impreffion; and of all the fyllables in a period, we are chiefly moved with the first and last.

Demetrius Phalereus of Elocution, fect. 39..

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any man, we ought to begin with his name; and one will be fenfible of a degradation, when this rule is neglected, as it frequently is for the fake of verfe. I give the following examples.

Integer vitæ, fcelerifque purus,

Non eget Mauri jaculis, neque arcu,
Nec venenatis gravidâ fagittis,

Fufce, pharetra.

Horat. Carm. l. 1. ode 22.

Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte.

In thefe examples, the name of the perfon addreffed to, makes a mean figure, being like a circumftance flipt into a corner. That this criticifm is well founded, we need no other proof than Addison's tranflation of the last example:

Abner! I fear my God, and I fear none but him. Guardian, N° 117.

O father, what intends thy hand, fhe cry'd,
Against thy only fon? What fury, Ofon,
Poffeffes thee to bend that mortal dart

Againft thy father's head?

Paradife Loft, book 2.1.727.

Every one must be fenfible of a dignity in the invocation at the beginning, which that in the middle is far from reaching. I mean not however to cenfure this paffage: on the contrary, it appears beautiful, by diftinguifhing the refpect

that

that is due to a father from that which is due to a fon.

The fubftance of what is faid in this and the foregoing fection, upon the method of arranging words in a period, fo as to make the deepest impreffion with respect to found as well as fignification, is comprehended in the following obfervation. That order of words in a period will always be the most agreeable, where, without obfcuring the fenfe, the most important images, the most fonorous words, and the longest members, bring up the rear.

Hitherto of arranging fingle words, fingle members, and single circumstances. But the enumeration of many particulars in the fame period is often neceffary; and the question is, In what order they fhould be placed. It does not feem easy, at firft view, to bring a fubject apparently fo loose under any general rules: but luckily, reflecting upon what is faid in the first chapter about order, we find rules laid down to our hand, fo as to leave us no harder tafk than their application to the prefent question. And, first, with respect to the enumerating a number of particulars of equal rank, it is laid down in the place cited, that as there is no caufe for preferring any one before the reft, it is indifferent to the mind in what order they be viewed. And it is only neceffary to be added here, that

for

for the fame reafon, it is indifferent in what order they be named. 2dly, If a number of objects of the fame kind, differing only in fize, are to be ranged along a straight line, the most agreeable order to the eye is that of an increasing feries in furveying a number of fuch objects, beginning at the leaft, and proceeding to greater and greater, the mind fwells gradually with the fucceffive objects, and in its progress has a very fenfible pleasure. Precifely for the fame reason, the words expreffive of fuch objects ought to be placed in the fame order. The beauty of this figure, which may be termed a climax in fenfe, has escaped Lord Bolingbroke in the first member of the following period:

Let but one great, brave, difinterested, active man arife, and he will be received, followed, and almost adored.

The following arrangement has fenfibly a better effect:

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Let but one brave, great, active, difinterested man arife, &c.

Whether the fame rule ought to be followed in enumerating men of different ranks, feems doubtful on the one hand, a number of perfons prefented to the eye in form of an increasing feries, is undoubtedly the most agreeable order on the other hand, in every lift of names, it is cuftoma

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