struction. The fourth member, which concludes the sentence, is also compound, and admits a subdivision into three clauses. At the word represented, which finishes the second clause, the sentence might have terminated. The two words which could have admitted a full stop after them, are distinguished by italics. Care hath also been taken to discriminate the members and the clauseз.

It may, however, justly be affirmed, that when the additional clause or clauses are, as in the preceding example, intimately connected with the foregoing words, the sentence, may still be considered as a period, since it hath much the same effect. Perhaps some of the examples of periods to be produced in the sequel, if examined very critically, would fall under this denomination. But that is of little or no consequence.

On comparing the two kinds of complex sentences together, to wit, the period and the loose sentence, we find that each hath its advantages and disadvantages. The former savours more of artifice and design, the latter seems more the result of pure Nature. The period is nevertheless more susceptible of vivacity and force; the loose sentence is apt, as it were to languish, and grow tiresome. The first is more adapted to the style of the writer, the second to that of the speaker. But as that style is best, whether written or spoken, which hath a proper mixture of both; so there are some things in every species of discourse, which require a looser, and some which require a preciser manner. In general, the use of periods best suits the dignity of the historian, the political writer, and the philosopher. The other manner more befits the facility which ought to predominate in essays, dialogues, familiar letters, and moral tales. These approach nearer the style of conversation, into which periods can very rarely find admittance. In some kinds of discourses intended to be pronounced, but not delivered to the Public in. writing, they may properly find a place in the exordium and narration, for thus far some allowance is made for preparation; but are not so seasonable, unless very short, in the argumentative part, and the pathetic.

PART II. Observations on periods, and on the use of antithesis in the composition of sentences.

I now proceed to offer some observations on the period. It hath been affirmed to have more energy than a sentence loosely composed. The reason is this: The strength which is diffused through the latter, is in the former collected, as it were, into a single point. You defer the blow a little, but it is solely that you may bring it down with greater weight. But in order to avoid obscurity, as well as the display of art, rhetoricians have generally prescribed that a period should not consist of more than four members. For my own part, as members of sentences differ exceedingly both in length and in structure from one another, I do not see how any general rule can be established, to ascertain their number. A period consisting of but two members, may easily be found, that is at once longer, more artificial and more obscure, than another consisting of five. The only rule which will never fail, is to beware both of prolixity and of intricacy, and the only competent judges in the case are, good sense and a good ear.

A great deal hath been said both by ancient critics and by modern, on the formation and turn of periods. But their remarks are chiefly calculated with a view to harmony. In order to prevent the necessity of repeating afterwards, I shall take no notice of these remarks at present, though the rules founded on them do also in a certain degree contribute both to perspicuity and to strength.

That kind of period which hath most vivacity, is commonly that wherein you find an antithesis in the members, the several parts of one having a similarity to those of the other, adapted to some resemblance in the sense. The effect produced by the corresponding members in such a sentence, is like that produced in a picture where the figures of the group are not all on a side, with their faces turned the same way, but are made to contrast each other by their several positions. Besides, this kind

of periods is generally the most perspicuous. There is in them not only that original light, which results from the expression when suitable, but there is also that which is reflected reciprocally from the opposed members. The relation between these is so strongly marked, that it is next to impossible to lose sight of it. The same quality makes them also easier for the memory.

Yet to counterbalance these advantages, this sort of period often appears more artful and studied than any other. I say often, because nothing can be more evident, than that this is not always the case. Some antitheses seem to arise so naturally out of the subject, that it is scarcely possible in another manner to express the sentiment. Accordingly we discover them even in the scriptures, the style of which is perhaps the most artless, the most natural, the most unaffected, that is to be found in any composition now extant.

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But I shall satisfy myself with producing a few specimens of this figure, mostly taken from the noble author lately quoted, who is commonly very successful in applying it. "If Cato," says he, "may be censured, severely indeed but justly, || for abandoning the cause of "liberty, which he would not however survive; . . what shall we say of those, || who embrace it faintly, || pursue it "irresolutely, . grow tired of it, when they have "much to hope, and give it up, when they have "nothing to fear* ?" In this period there is a double antitheses, the two clauses which follow the pronoun those are contrasted, so are also the two members (each consisting of two clauses) which conclude the sentence. Another specimen of a double antithesis differently disposed, in which he hath not been so fortunate, I shall produce from the same work. "Eloquence that leads "mankind by the ears, | gives a nobler superiority | than "power that every dunce may use, or fraud that every knave may employ, | to lead them by the nose." Here the two intermediate clauses are contrasted, so are also the first and the last. But there is this difference. In

On the spirit of Patriotism.

the intermediate members, there is a justness in the thought as well as in the expression, an essential requisite in this figure. In the other two members the antithesis is merely verbal; and is therefore at best but a trifling play upon the words. We see the connection which eloquence has with the ears, but it would puzzle Oedipus himself to discover the connection which either power or fraud has with the nose. The author, to make out the contrast, is in this instance obliged to betake himself to low and senseless cant.

Sometimes, though rarely, the antithesis affects three several clauses. In this case the clauses ought to be very short, that the artifice may not be too apparent. Sometimes too, the antithesis is not in the different members of the same sentence, but in different sentences. Both the last observations are exemplified in the following quotation from the same performance: "He can bribe, "but he cannot seduce. He can buy,||'but he cannot gain. "He can lie, but he cannot deceive." There is likewise in each sentence a little of antithesis between the very short clauses themselves.

Neither is this figure entirely confined to periods. Sentences of looser composition admit it; but the difference here is the less observable, that an antithesis well conducted, produces the effect of a period, by preventing the languor which invariably attends a loose sentence, if it happen to be long. The following is an instance of antithesis in such a sentence: "No man is able to "make a juster application of what hath been here ad. vanced, to the most important interests of your coun'try, to the true interest of your royal master, and to your private interest too; if that will add, as I presume it will, some weight to the scale; and if that requires, as I presume it does, a regard to futurity as "to the present moment *. That this is a loose sentence a little attention will satisfy every reader. I have marked the words in italics, at which, without violating the rules of grammar, it might have terminated. I

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• Dedication to the Dissertation on Parties.

acknowledge, however, that the marks of art are rather too visible in the composition.

Sometimes an antithesis is happily carried through two or three sentences, where the sentences are not contrasted with one another, as in the example already given, but where the same words are contrasted in the different members of each sentence, somewhat differently. Such an antithesis on the words men, angels, and gods, you have in the two following couplets :

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Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes;

MEN would be ANGELS, || ANGELS would be GODS.
Aspiring to be GODS, || if ANGELS fell ;-
Aspiring to be ANGELS, || MEN rebel*.

The like varied opposition in the words principles, means, and ends, may be observed in the two following sentences: "They are designed to assert and vindicate the "honour of the Revolution; of the principles established, of the means employed, and of the ends obtained by it. They are designed to explode our former dis"tinctions, and to unite men of all denominations, in "the support of these principles, in the defence of these "means, and in the pursuit of these ends +." You have in the subsequent quotation an antithesis on the words true and just, which runs through three successive sentences. "The anecdotes here related were true, and "the reflections made upon them were just many years ago. The former would not have been related, if he "who related them, had not known them to be true; "nor the latter have been made, if he who made them "had not thought them just: And if they were true and just then, they must be true and just now, and always t.'

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Sometimes the words contrasted in the second clause are mostly the same that are used in the first, only the construction and the arrangement are inverted, as in this passage, "The old may inform the young; || and "the young may animate the old §." In Greek and

• Essay on Man.

+ Dedication of the Dissertation on Parties, Advertisement to the Letters on Patriotism. § Dedication of the Dissertation on Parties.