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tends to make the language of his country still more changeable, and consequently to render the style of his own writings sooner obsolete.

2. The other consideration is, that if he should not be followed in the use of those foreign words which he hath endeavoured to usher into the language, if they meet not with a favorable reception from the public, they will ever appear as spots in his compositions. Whether, therefore, he be or be not imitated, he will himself prove a loser in the end. Moreover, as borrowing naturally exposeth to the suspicion of poverty, this poverty will much more readily, and more justly too, be imputed to the writer than to the language.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold ;
Alike fantastic if too new or old;

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.*

110. By the use of good words new modelled. The third species of barbarism, is that produced by new formations and compositions from primitives in present use.

Illus. 1. Greater liberty ought to be given on this article than on the former, provided the English analogy be observed in the composition, and the new modelled word be wanted in the language. (Art. 104. and its Illus.)

2. Never, on the plea of necessity, patronise frivolous innovations; nor the collision of words which are naturally the most unfit for coalescing, and where the analogy of the formation exhibits only an obscure meaning till it be analysed. Rest assured this jargon will not creep into vogue in the charter language of the present age. (Art. 77. and 86.)

3. Another modern refinement is, the alteration that has been made, by some late writers, on proper names, and some other words of foreign extraction, and on their derivatives, on pretence of bringing them nearer, both in pronunciation and in spelling, to the original names, as they appear in the language from which those words were taken.But this hath been the custom of all nations. When the Grecians and Romans introduced a foreign name into their languages, they made such alterations in it, as might facilitate the pronunciation to their own people, and render it more analogous to the other words of their tongue.

4. Another set of barbarisms, which also comes under this class, arises from the abbreviations of polysyllables, by lopping off all the syllables except the first, or the first and second.

Examples. Hyp for "hypochonadriac," ult for "ultimate," extra for" extraordinary."

Scholium. The two classes of barbarisms last mentioned, comprehending new words and new formations, from words still current, offend against use, considered both as reputable and as national.— (Art. 77. and 85.) A writer who employs antiquated or novel phraseology must do it with design: he cannot err from inadvertence, as he may do with respect to provincial or vulgar expressions. He cannot be habituated to antiquated or novel words and phrases. It is habit that renders it so difficult to avoid those which are provincial or vulgar. How much soever folly or vanity may actuate the herd of

* Pope's Essay on Criticism.

scribblers, whose greatest struggle is to insinuate a favourable opinion of their erudition, the writer of true genius and taste will not expect to obtain reputation by such artifices. He will neither discolour his style by the faint tinge of antiquity or novelty, nor by the coarse daubing of provinciality and vulgarity.

111. THE SOLECISM. The transgression of any of the syntactic rules is a solecism; and there are various ways in which almost every rule may be transgressed.

Illus. 1. Leaving it to grammarians to exemplify and class the flagrant solecisms which betray ignorance in the rudiments of the language; we proceed to take notice of a few less observable, which writers of great reputation, and even of critical skill in the language, have slidden into through inattention.

2. Solecisms are more excusable than barbarisms; the former are usually reckoned the effect of negligence, the latter of affectation.Negligence, often the consequence of a noble ardour in regard to sentiments, is, at the worst, a venial trespass, and sometimes it is not even without energy; affectation is always a deadly sin against the laws of rhetoric. (Obs. Art. 85.)

3. Much greater indulgence, in the article of solecisms, is given to the speaker than to the writer; and to the writer who proposeth to persuade or move, greater allowances are made, than to him who proposeth barely to instruct or please. The more vehemence is required by the nature of the subject, the less correctness is exacted in the manner of treating it. Nay, a slight deficiency in this respect is not nearly so prejudicial to the scope of an oration, as a scrupulous accuracy, which bears in it the symptoms of study and art.

Corol. Grammatical inaccuracies ought to be avoided by a writer, for two reasons: First, because a reader will much sooner discover them than a hearer, how attentive soever he may be. Secondly, as writing implies more leisure and greater coolness than speaking, defects of this kind, when discovered in the former, will be less excused than they would be in the latter.

Of the various solecisms which may be committed, we have
I. A mistake of the plural number for the singular.

II. Inaccuracies in the construction and application of the degrees of comparison suggest the following rules:

Illus. 1. The comparative degree implies commonly a comparison of one thing with one other thing; the superlative, on the contrary, always implies a comparison of one thing with many others. The former consequently requires to be followed by the singular, the latter by the plural; yet in the sentence "He is wiser than we," the comparative is rightly followed by a plural.

2. In a comparison of equality, though the positive degree only is used, the construction must be similar to that of the comparative, both being followed by conjunctions which govern no case.

3. The particles, as after the positive, and than after the comparative, are conjunctions, and not prepositions. For example, "I esteem you more than they," is correct; and so is the sentence, "I esteem you more than them," but in a sense quite different from the former, since in the one case it expresses their esteem for you, and in the other my esteem for them.

Corol. The second canon (Art. 91.), which teaches us to prefer what is most agreeable to analogy, leads us to decide that than is a conjunction. 4. The superlative, followed by the singular number, is an error which may be corrected by substituting the comparative in room of the superlative.

III. Possessive pronouns must always agree in number and person with their antecedents.

IV. Mistakes in the tenses of the verbs suggest many rules.

Rule 1. When in two connected clauses the first verb is in the present or the future, the second, which is dependent on it, cannot be in the past.

2. On the contrary, when the first verb is in the preterite, the second ought to be so too.

3. When the first verb is in the preterperfect, the second may be in the preterimperfect.

4. In expressing abstract or universal truths, according to the idiom of our language, the present tense of the verb ought always to be used; because the verb, in such cases, has no relation to time, but serves merely as a copula to the two terms of the proposition.*

5. When speaking of a past event which occasions the mention of some general truth, never use the same tense in enunciating the general truth, with that which had been employed in the preceding part of the sentence.

6. The construction of two verbs, both under the regimen of the same conjunction if, requires both the verbs to be in the subjunctive mood.

7. Never omit, in a subsequent part of a sentence, the participle which makes part of the complex tense, from an idea that the occurrence of a verb in a former clause of the sentence will supply the defect.

8. Never couple words together, and assign to them a common regimen, when use will not admit that they be construed in the same

manner.

Illus. "Will it be urged that the four gospels are as old, or even older than tradition ?" The words as old and older cannot have a common regimen. The one requires to be followed by the conjunction as, the other by than.

V. The connexion between the preposition and the noun or pronoun governed by it, is so intimate, that there cannot be a reference to the one without the other. The words to which are rightly construed with the passive participle, but the construction is which with the active verb. VI. The repetition of the relative, in all sentences, makes the insertion of the personal pronoun necessary.

Illus. Both these rules are transgressed in the sentence," few talents to which most men are not born, or at least may not acquire," which ought to run thus," or which at least they may not acquire.”

Corol. A part of a complex tense means nothing without the rest of the tense; therefore the rest of the tense ought always to be found in the sentence.

VII. In the syntax of nouns, expressions which can only be rightly construed with a preposition, should never be without their proper regimen.

*In logic the copula is the word which unites the subject and predicate of a proposition. † Bolinb. Phil. Ess. IV. c. 19.

VIII. As regularity in the management of prepositions implies a proper choice of these particles, their omission is a great blemish when their presence is required.

The wrong choice of prepositions suggests the necessity of not using as synonymous such as rarely admit the same construction.

IX. Inaccuracies in the applications of the conjunctions and adverbs, arise from want of attention to those little things which ought not to be altogether disregarded by any writer.

Corol. The words of the language constitute the materials with which the orator must work; the rules of the language teach him by what management those materials are rendered useful. But purity is using rightly the words of the language by a careful observance of the rules. It is, therefore, justly considered as essential to all the other graces of expression. Hence, not only perspicuity and vivacity, but even elegance and animation, derive a lustre.

112, THE IMPROPRIETY is the third and last class of faults against purity. The barbarism is an offence against etymology, the solecism against syntax, the impropriety against lexicography.

Obs. The impropriety, then, may be in application of single words, or of phrases; but as none but those who are grossly ignorant of our tongue, can misapply the words that have no affinity to those whose place they are made to occupy, we shall only take notice of those improprieties, into which a writer is apt unwarily to be seduced by some resemblance or proximity in sound or sense, or both.

I. By proximity of sound some are misled to use the word observation for "observance." When to observe signifies "to remark," the verbal noun is observation, when it signifies to obey," or " to keep," the verbal is observance.

II. Endurance for " duration." The former properly signifies "patience" as applied to suffering; the latter means "lasting" as applied to time.

III. Ceremonious and "ceremonial" are distinguished thus: they come from the same noun ceremony, which signifies both a form of civility, and a religious rite. The epithet expressive of the first signification is ceremonious, of the second ceremonial.

IV. When genius denotes mental abilities, its plural "geniuses," and not genii, a term which denotes spirits or demons, good or bad. 113. Of improprieties arising from a similitude in sense, we have,

I. Veracity, used for "reality." In strict propriety the word is only applicable to persons, and signifies not physical, but moral truth. II. Invention, for " discovery." One discovers truth; another invents falsehoods. A machinist invents, an observer discovers.

III. Verdict, for "testimony." A witness gives his testimony; the jury give their verdict.

IV. Risible, for "ridiculous." The former hath an active, the latter a passive signification. Thus, we say, "man is a risible animal." "A fop is a ridiculous character."

V. The word together often supplies the place of successively. The resemblance which continuity in time bears to continuity in place, is the source of this impropriety. When the Spectator says, "I do not

remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life." propriety teaches his reader to substitute successively for " together. VI. Everlasting for "eternity." The only proper sense of the former word is time without end; the latter denotes time without beginning.

VII. Apparent, for "certain," "manifest," is often equivocal. By analogy, seeming is opposed to real; visible to concealed. And hence, also, to make appear," for to prove, to evince, to show, is improper. A sophist may make a thing appear to be what it is not; but this is very different from showing what it is.

114. THE IDIOTISM, or the employing of an English word in a sense which it bears in some provincial dialect, in low and partial use, or which, perhaps, the corresponding word bears in some foreign tongue, but, unsupported by general use in our own language, belongs to the class of improprieties now under consideration. (Art. 102.)

I. Impracticable for "impassable," when applied to roads, is an application which suits the French, but not the English idiom.

II. Decompound for "analyse." To decompound is "to compound of materials already compounded:" to analyse is to resolve a compound into its first principles.

III. To arrive for " happen." We arrive at a place, but misfortunes happen to man.

IV. To hold should never be employed for "to use;" nor to give into for "to adopt."

Obs. Gallicisms, Latinisms, and vulgarisms, result from affectation, pedantry, and ignorance. (Obs. Art. 85.)

V. The PLEON ASM, coupled with ambiguity, is the highest degree of idiomatical expression; as, "the general report is, that he should have said," for, "that he said." What a man said, is often very different from what he should have said; hence the pleonasm of the auxiliaries," should have," conveys also an ambiguity.

Obs. These remarks on the idiotism, do not extend to satire and burlesque, (Obs. Art. 105.) in which a vulgar, or even what is called a cant expression, will sometimes be more emphatical than any proper term whatever; as in these lines of Pope :

Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,

If folly grows romantic, I must paint it.

VI. The derivatives falseness, falsity, falsehood, from the root false, are often by mistake employed for one another, though in the best use they are evidently distinguished.

Illus. 1. Falseness is properly used, in a moral sense, for want of veracity, and applied only to persons: the other two are applied only to things.

2. Falsity denotes that quality in the abstract, which may be defined contrariety to truth, as an error arising in a demonstration from false premises in the proposition.

3. Falsehood is an untrue assertion.

VII. Negligence is improperly used for " neglect." The former implies habit, the latter denotes act.

VIII. Conscience for "consciousness." The former denotes the faculty, the latter a particular exertion.

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