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their absence; as, for instance, when any sentence might be supposed to iterate or explain a preceding one.

As in a sentence, when several words or members in succession are cumulative, the conjunction is generally inserted only before the last, so in the case of the paragraph the same usage prevails.

Several of the cumulative conjunctions involve the additional meaning of comparison; as, Thus, so, likewise, accordingly. This renders them less easily dispensed with; still we find them occasionally omitted. "Beware of the ides of March, said the Roman augur to Julius Cæsar. Beware of the month of May, says the British Spectator to his fair country woman." The mere fact of juxtaposition shows that the two sentences are to be thought of together, and, as the mind can readily perceive the relation, it is left unexpressed.

169. In the statement of a consequence, the connective is sometimes expressively omitted.

When something is stated as a cause, we are prepared for the statement of the effect; and, if the feelings are roused, the abrupt transition is more forcible. "The result of this week must convince you of the hopelessness of farther resistance. I ask the surrender of your army."

"I have been bullied," said the Countess of Dorset to Charles the Second's Secretary of State, who suggested a member for her pocket burgh; "I have been bullied by an usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man sha'n't stand.”

170. It is remarked by Campbell that the omission of connectives succeeds best, when the connection of the thoughts is either very distant or very close.

"When the connection in thought is very distant, the copulative appears absurd, and, when very close, superfluous. For the first of these reasons, it is seldom that we meet with it, except in the Bible; and for the second, it is frequently dropt in familiar narrative, where the connection is so obvious as to render it useless."

171. There are Demonstrative phrases for making a

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special reference to a preceding sentence :-In this case, In that case, Under these circumstances, In the manner now described, By such proceedings as have been detailed, Under the foregoing arrangement, After what has now been said, Not that all men are so affected.

A relative pronoun refers one clause to another in the same sentence, but rarely connects two successive sentences. The old English usage of commencing a sentence with who for and he is now obsolete; the reason being that the relative expresses a close connection between the members joined.

The demonstrative phrase of reference does not always commence the sentence. It may be the object of a verb; as, “Even although he had foreseen this consequence." Or it may stand in other positions. "The general, in this emergency, trusted to his cavalry." The article and a general word is enough for a reference :-The event deceived him; The case was not so bad.

172. The reference may be made by repeating, either literally or in substance, the matter referred to.

The repetition is prefaced by such expressions as, We have now seen, We have already stated, It was formerly laid down, It was remarked above. This mode becomes more necessary when we refer some way back.

173. The reference may also be indicated by the arrangement of the sentence. Inversions often have this end in view.

Entering the gulf, he endeavored to find the river Darien. This river he could not discover, but he disembarked on the eastern side of the gulf."

The following passage could be improved on the same principle:-"Early in the morning, the nobles and gentlemen, who attended on the king, assembled in the great hall of the castle, and here they began to talk of what a dreadful storm it had been the night before. But Macbeth could scarcely understand what they said, for he was thinking of something worse! "What they said, Macbeth could scarcely understand."

174. The writings of De Quincey deserve especial mention on the point of explicit reference.

The following sentence will furnish a short example. The words that make reference to what precedes, are in italics; it will be observed that they form a considerable part of the sentence. Such profuseness is characteristic of the author.

"If we do submit to this narrow valuation of style, founded on the interest of the subject to which it is ministerial [repetition in substance of what is referred to], still, even on that basis, we English commit a capital blunder, which the French earnestly and sincerely escape; for, assuming that the thoughts involve the primary interest, still it must make all the difference in the world to the success of those thoughts, whether they are treated in the way best fitted to expel the doubts or darkness that may have settled on them; and, secondly, in cases where the business is, not to establish new convictions, but to carry old convictions into operative life and power, whether they are treated in the way best fitted to rekindle in the mind a practical sense of their value."

175. II. When several consecutive sentences iterate or illustrate the same idea, they should, as far as possible, be formed alike. This may be called the rule of Parallel Construction.

The principal subject and the principal predicate should retain their positions throughout. The variety required, on other considerations, should interfere, as little as may be, with this uniformity. We ought not to seek variety by throwing the principal into a subordinate place.

The disposition of corresponding expressions in corresponding places, already recognized for the Sentence (§ 138), is no less important, as a means of intelligibility, in the arrangement of the Paragraph.

Macaulay's Milton contains this paragraph; where the principal subject, variously worded, is retained in the place of prominence throughout.

"The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton, is the extreme remoteness of the associations by means of which it acts on the reader." This also, in accordance with § 176, is the theme of the paragraph. "Its effect is produced, not so

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much by what it expresses, as by what it suggests; not so much by the ideas which it directly conveys, as by other ideas which are connected with them." A sentence of iteration in varied phrase. "He electrifies the mind through conductors." Under the Expository art, this would be called an Illustration. "The most unimaginative man must understand the Iliad; Homer gives him no choice, but takes the whole on himself, and sets his images in so clear a light that it is impossible to be blind to them." A contrasting sentence, not quite so well managed; the Iliad or Homer should have had the place of prominence, instead of "the unimaginative man." Out of the present connection, this member would have an emphasis by closing with the Iliad; but here it is preferable to say, "The Iliad must be understood by the least imaginative of men; " with which the second member corresponds. "Milton does not paint a finished picture, or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the outline; he strikes the key-note, and expects his hearer to make out the melody."

Take another example :—“ Heracleitus of Ephesus, who may be placed in the line of the Ionic Philosophers, is stated to have flourished about 504 B. C. The active part of his life probably belonged to the last part of the sixth and the first part of the fifth century. He may be considered as nearly contemporary with Eschylus. The obscurity of the written style in which he expressed his philosophical opinions became proverbial." The parallelism is preserved in all these sentences but the last. Say rather, "He became proverbial for having written his philosophical opinions in an obscure style." Besides restoring the subject to its place, this arrangement improves the predicate; the emphatic expression being put last.

It does not violate the parallel construction to place the main subject, for the sake of emphasis, at the end of the first sentence. Such sentences as that already quoted, "There is not a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church," are to be held as merely propounding the theme for consideration; they do not as yet affirm any of its important predicates. After the subject is thus pro

pounded, it must take its proper position, and be maintained in that position throughout. "The history of that church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth, &c." The second and third sentences are contrasting or obverse sentences, and their subjects take the place corresponding to the main subject; by which means the parallelism is maintained.

Further examples occur in Extracts I., III., V., &c.

176. III. The opening sentence, unless so constructed as to be obviously preparatory, is expected to indicate with prominence the subject of the paragraph.

A paragraph describing the constituents of the British Government may begin thus :-" The Government of Britain, called a mixed government, and sometimes a limited monarchy, is formed by a combination of the three regular species of gov

ernment."

The two following sentences are the opening of Graham's celebrated paper on Dialysis. "The property of volatility possessed in various degrees by so many substances, affords invaluable means of separation, as is seen in the ever-recurring processes of evaporation and distillation. So similar in character to volatility is the Diffusive power possessed by all liquid substances, that we may fairly reckon upon a class of analogous analytical resources arising from it." Now the first sentence is preparatory to the introduction of the main subject (Diffusion) in the second; but, as it stands, it seems to propound volatility as the subject of the paragraph. The author might have said :"It has been found with regard to the property of volatility, possessed, &c." This would have given to the sentence its true

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