charge of murder, expresses himself thus: "Can you believe that the person whom he scrupled to slay, when he might have done so with full justice, in a convenient place, at a proper time, with secure impunity; he made no scruple to murder against justice, in an unfavourable place, at an unseasonable time, and at the risk of capital condemnation?" The following examples further illustrate this figure. "If you wish to enrich a person, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires." "If you regulate your desires according to the standard of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the standard of opinion, you will never be rich." A maxim, or moral saying, very properly receives the form of the two last examples; both because it is supposed to be the fruit of meditation, and because it is designed to be engraven on the memory, which recalls it more easily by the help of such contrasted expressions. But where such sentences frequently succeed each other; where this becomes an author's favourite and prevailing manner of expressing himself, his style appears too much studied and laboured; it gives us the impression of an author attending more to his manner of saying things, than to the things themselves. Interrogation. The unfigured, literal use of interrogation, is to ask a question: but when men are strongly moved, whatever they would affirm or deny, with great earnestness, they naturally put in the form of a question, expressing thereby the strongest confidence of the truth of their own sentiment, and appealing to their hearers for the impossibility of the contrary. Thus Balaam expressed himself to Balak. "The Lord is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said it? and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken it? and shall he not make it good? Exclamations are the effect of strong emotions of the mind; such as, surprise, admiration, joy, grief, and the like. "Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar !" Psalms. "O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men !" Jeremiah. The last figure of speech that we shall mention, is what writers call Amplification or Climax. It consists in heightening all the circumstances of an object or action, which we desire to place in a strong light. We shall give an instance from the charge of a judge to the jury, in the case of a woman accused of murdering her own child. "Gentle men, if one man had any how slain another; if an adversary had killed his opposer, or a woman occasioned the death of her enemy; even these criminals would have been capitally punished by the Cornelian law; but if this guiltless infant, that could make no enemy, had been murdered by its own nurse, what punishment would not then the mother have demanded? With what cries and exclamations would she have stunned your ears! What shall we say then, when a woman, guilty of homicide, a mother, of the murder of her innocent child, hath comprised all those misdeeds in one single crime; a crime, in its own nature, detestable ; in a woman, prodigious ; in a mother, incredible; and perpetrated against one whose age called for compassion, whose near relation claimed affection, and whose innocence deserved the highest favour." We have now finished what was proposed, concerning Perspicuity in single words and phrases, and the accurate construction of sentences. The former has been considered, under the heads of Purity, Propriety, and Precision; and the latter, under those of Clearness, Unity, Strength, and the proper use of Figurative Language. Though many of those attentions which have been recommended, may ap Ee pear minute, yet their effect upon writing and style, is much greater than might, at first be imagined. A sentiment which is expressed in accurate language, and in a period, clearly, neatly, and well arranged, makes always a stronger impression on the mind, than one that is expressed inaccurately, or in a feeble or embarrassed manner. Every one feels this upon a comparison: and if the effect be sensible in one sentence, how much more in a whole discourse, or composition that is made up of such sentences? The fundamental rule for writing with accuracy, and into which all others might be resolved, undoubtedly is, to communicate, in correct language, and in the clearest and most natural order, the ideas which we mean to transfuse into the minds of others. Such a selection and arrangement of words, as do most justice to the sense, and express it to most advantage, make an agreeable and strong impression. To these points have tended all the rules which have been given. Did we always think clearly, and were we, at the same time, fully masters of the language in which we write, there would be occasion for few rules. Our sentences would then, of course, acquire all those properties of clearness, unity, strength, and accuracy, which have been recommended. For we may rest assured, that whenever we express ourselves ill, besides the mismanagement of language, there is, for the most part, some mistake in our manner of conceiving the subject. Embarrassed, obscure, and feeble sentences, are generally, if not always, the result of embarrassed, obscure, and feeble thought. Thought and expression act and re-act upon each other. The understanding and language have a strict connexion; and they who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order, are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order; a consideration which alone will recompense the student, for his attention to this branch of literature. THE Compiler of these elements of the English language, hopes it will not be deemed inconsistent with the nature and design of his work, to make a short address to the young persons engaged in the study of it, respecting their future walks in the paths of literature, and the chief purpose to which they should apply their acquisitions. In forming this grammar, and the volume of Exercises connected with it, the author was influenced by a desire to facilitate your progress in learning, and, at the same time, to impress on your minds principles of piety and virtue. He wished also to assist, in some degree, the labours of those who are cultivating your understandings; and providing for you a fund of rational and useful employment, in place of those frivolous pursuits, and that love of case and sensual pleasure, which enfeeble and corrupt the minds of many inconsiderate youth, and render them useless to society. Without your own best exertions, the concern of others for your welfare, will be of little avail: with them, you may fairly promise yourselves success. The writer of this address, therefore, recommends to you, an earnest cooperation with the endeavours of your friends to promote your improvement and happiness. He hopes that, whatever may be your attainments, you will not rest satisfied with mere literary acquisitions, nor with a selfish or contracted application of them. When they advance only the interests of this stage of being, and look not beyond the present transient scene, their influence is circumscribed within a very narrow sphere. The great business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better, by cultivating a pure and humble state of mind, and cherishing habits of piety towards God, and benevolence to men. Every thing that promotes or retards this important work, is of great moment to you, and claims your first and most serious attention. If, then, the cultivation of letters, and an advancement in knowledge, are found to strengthen and enlarge your minds, to purify and exalt your pleasures, and to dispose you to pious and virtuous sentiments and conduct, they produce excellent effects, which with your best endeavours to improve them, and the Divine blessing superadded, will not fail to render you, not only wise and good yourselves, but also the happy instruments of diffusing wisdom, religion, and goodness around you. Thus improved, your acquisitions become handmaids to virtue; and they may eventually serve to increase the rewards, which the supreme Being has promised to faithful and well-directed exertions, for the promotion of truth and goodness amongst men. But if you counteract the hopes of your friends, and the tendency of these attainments; if you grow vain of your real or imaginary distinctions, and regard with contempt, the virtuous, unlettered mind; if you suffer yourselves to be absorbed in over-curious or trifling speculations; if your heart and principles be debased and poisoned, by the influence of corrupting and pernicious books, for which no elegance of composition can make amends; if you spend so much of your time in literary engagements, as to make them interfere with higher occupations, and lead you to forget, that pious and benevolent action is the great end of your being if such be the unhappy misapplication of your acquisitions and advantages, instead of becoming a blessing to you, they will prove the occasion of greater condemnation; and, in the hour of serious thought, they may excite the painful reflections-that it would have been better for you, to have remained illiterate and unaspiring; to have been confined to the humblest walks of life; and to have been even hewers of wood and drawers of water all your days. : THE END. |