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NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION, '\ % ADAPTED TO CANADIAN SCHOOLS By T. C. L. ARMSTRONG, B. A., LL. B. TORONTO: CANADA PUBLISHING CO. (umiied). '^^m^mmmmiflf A 9 ^ ure, and broken up into stanzas, each complete in mean- ing, yet occupying a proper place in the development of INTRODUCTION. ix the whole. There are many varieties of the song— c. g., "The Love Song," *• The Drinking Song," etc. 2. The Ode, which is the loftiest utterance of in- tense feeling, and is remarkable for its elaborate versi- fication. 3. The Elegy, now connected chiefly with the im- passioned expression of regret for the departed — e. g., Gray's " Elegy" and Milton's " Lycidas." 4. The Sonnet, which is sometimes descriptive, but is generally a concentrated expression of a single phas^ of feeling — e. g., Wordsworth's " Sonnet on Westm*^ .ter Bridge." 5. The Dramatic Lyric, in which a person is r ,>• resented as expressing his thoughts and feelings in such a way as to develop his own characteristics and occa- sionally even the characteristics of some one else, and to indicate with dramatic effect his own or another's actions and surroundings. 6. The Simple Lyric, which comprehends all other kinds of subjective poetry. (3.) Dramatic Poetry is a picture of life adapted to representation on the stage, and consists of an impersonal representation by the author of an animated conversation of various individuals, from whose speech the movement of the story is to be gathered. Its two chief varieties are Tragedy and Comedy. I. Tragedy is defined by Aristotle as " the repre- sentation of a completed action, commanding or illus- trious in its character ; the language being poetically pleasing ; and with the moral effect of purifying tlie passions, generally by means of the two special passions — pity and fear " — e. g., Heavysege's " Saul." But this definition applies only to the highest form of tragedy. X INTRODUCTION The more moderate form, while retaining tragic ele- ments, permits happy conclusions. 2. 'Comedy is the adaptation of the dramatic form to yield the pleasures of the ludicrous (C, II, 3) in con- junction with as many other pleasing effects as will har- monize with this quality. Cotnedy endeavors to pro- duce amusement mainly — e. g., Shakespeare's " Mer- chant of Venice." (4.) Didactic Poetry seeks to teach some moral, phi- losophical, or literary truth. It aims to instruct rather thaa to please — e. g., Goldsmith's ** Deserted Village." (5.) Satiric Poetry holds up to ridicule, or rebukes with severity, the weaknesses, follies, or wickedness of men. VERSIFICATION. I. Verse is that species of composition in which the words are arranged in lines, each of which contains a defi- nite number and succession of accented and unaccented syllables. In its restricted sense verse signifies a single line of poetry. II. A Foot is a syllable, or a succession of two or more syllables, one of which must be accented, assumed as the basis of a line of poetry. Monosyllabic feet, though rare, sometimes occur in English — e. g., in Tennyson's " Break, Break, Break." The feet commonly used in our verse are discyllabic or trisyllabic. The following are the principal varieties in use, x in ihe verse formula indicating the unac- cented, and a the accented, syllable : Dissyllabic, 1. Iambus. Accent on the second syllable — e. g., Begone, xa. 2. Trochee. Accent on the first syllable — e. g., Dungeon, ax. INTRODUCTION. XI 3. Spondee. Accent on both syllables — Sun- beam, aa. Trisyllabic. 4. Anapaest. Accent on the third syllable — e.g., Colonnade, xxa. 5. Dactyl. Accent on the first syllable — e. g., Merrily, axx. 6. Amphibrach. Accent on the second syllable — e. g., Receiving, xax. III. A Line is a succession or combination of feet, gen- erally containing a fixed number of syllables, and having, as a rule, a regular recurrence of accents. A Hemistich is half a line. IV. Meter, or Measure, is applied to the structure of the lines which form a poem or part of a poem, and their relation to one another as regards rhyme, length, and ar- rangement. English meters are very numerous. The fol- lowing classification includes the chief varieties : I. FROM KIND OF FOOT. {(i) Iambic ; (^) Trochaic ; (r) Spondaic ; {d) An- apaestic; (^) Dactylic; (/) Amphibrachic. * 2. FROM NUMBER OF FEET. {a) Monometer, one foot ; {h) Dimeter, two feet ; (t) Trimeter, three ; {d) Tetrameter, four ; {e) Penta- meter, five ; (/) Hexameter, six ; {g) Heptameter, seven ; {H) Octometer, eight. In describing meter, these systems of nomenclature oie combined : " Shall burning /Etna, if a sage requires. Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? " This is described as" Rhyming Iambic Pentameter," or xu INTRODUCTION. briefly as an " Iambic Pentameter Couplet." The formula for each line is, therefore, ^xa, V. Verse is of two kinds — blank and rhymed. {a) Blank Verse consists of unrhymed lines and is generally Iambic Pentameter. It is the most elevated of all meters, and is the form peculiar to Epic Poetry. (^,) Rhyme is a similarity of sound at the end of words. The rhyming syllables should be accented. The three essentials of a perfect rhyme are : (i) That the vowels be alike in sound ; (2) the consonants before the vowels, unlike in sound ; and (3) the consonants after the vowels, alike in sound. When, however, tht vowel sounds merely resemble one another, the rhyme IS Admissible, if the other conditions of a perfect rhyme are satisfied. If the vowel sounds only in such case are alike, we have Assonance. Rhyme may be single, double, or triple, and it may occur in the middle or at the end of the line. If it oc- curs at the end of two successive lines, they are called a couplet ; if at the end of three, a tfiplet ; and if at the end of four, a quatrain. But rhyme may recur at the end of alternate lines or at various intervals, thus giving rise to stanzas. VI. A Stanza is a number of lines containing a com- pleted series of rhymes. Some of the most noted stanzas are the elegiac, the memoriam, the Spenserian, the rhyme royal, and the terza rim a. VII. Rhythm is the recurrence, at irregular but har- monious intervals, of the stress thrown on the pronuncia- tion of a syllable. This stress is called Accent. The Greeks and Romans used Quantity, or the length or shortness of a vowel, as the basis of their verse. All mod- ern European nations have based theirs on accent. Quan< INTRODUCTION. xiu tity is used in English verse chiefly to produce Imitative Harmony. VIII. Alliteration is similarity of sound at or near the beginning of consecutive or closely connected words — e". g., *• Up the //igh //ill Ae heaved a ^uge round stone." It adds to the pleasurable effect of poetry, but should be used with skill and in moderation. In prose it is admissible, if the language and thought are of a poetical character ; other- wise its occurrence is a blemish, and should be carefully avoided. Alliteration is often subtly concealed, owing to the separation of the words in which it occurs, or to the use, not of the same letters, but of the same order of letters. It may also occur, not in the initial, but in the middle, syllables of words. This is known as Concealed Alliteration. The follov/ing examples illustrate these methods : (i.) The yUll j//ieams/eed ony/ower of rushes, ^ipe grasses /mmmel a /raveling ybot ; The yhint /resh y?ame of the /oung ^ear yfushes From /eaf toyfower, andy?ower to/ruit. (2.) Frovci the /u//-yfowered Ze/untian/asturage To what of yVuit/u/ ^eld the son of Zeus Won from the roaring river and /adoring sea., IX. Poetic Pauses. In addition to the pauses re- quired by the sense (Rhetorical), or marked by points (Punctuation), two suspensions of the voice belong to verse — the Final and the Coesural. 1. The Final pause is flight suspension of the voice at the end of each line, even when the sense does not re- quire it. 2. The Caesural pause is a slight suspension of the voice within, and generally about the middle of, the line. Long lines may have two or more pauses ; some long lines may have none, but this is generally compensated for by XIV INTRODUCTIOI^, an additional or a longer pause in the line or lines fol- lowing. Short lines may have none. The Ccesural pause must also be a Sense pause — e. g. : Can storied urn || or animated bust Back to its mansion | call the fleeting breath ? Can Honor's voice || provoke the silent dust, Or flattery || soothe the dull, cold ear of Death ? STTLX! AND ITS ANALYSIS. Style is the peculiar mode in which a writer expresses himself ; it is the art of choosing words, setting them in sentences, and arranging sentences in paragraphs. A.— CLASSIFICATION OF STYLES. Although every writer has his peculiarities, there are some general distinctive features on which can be based a classification of styles. I. On the Prevalence of Figurative Language. The Dry style excludes literary ornament of every kind. The Plain style, while it avoids embellishment, does not reject such ornaments as are natural and conducive to perspicuity. The Neat style employs ornaments, but not those of an elevated or brilliant character. The Elegant style employs judiciously every ornament that conduces to beauty. The Florid, Ornate, or Flowery style is one which indulges in luxuriance of ornament. II. On the Structure of Sentences. The Simple style bears no marks of art, but seems to be the language every one would naturally use. The Labored style is the reverse of the Simple. It INTRODUCTION. XV shows eflfort on the part of the writer, and is characterized by aflFectation, a constrained tone, and long, involved sen- tences. III. On the Number of Words. The Concise or Terse style rejects as unnecessary everything not material to the sense, and aims at the brief- est possible mode of expression. The Diffuse or Verbose style employs amplification, endeavors by repetition to secure perspicuity, and attempts to make up by copiousness for lack of strength. IV. On Strength. The Nervous style is that which produces a strong im- pression on the reader. For other names for this species, see (C, II, i). The Feeble style is the reverse of the preceding, and produces but a slight impression upon the reader. V. On the Prevailing Figures of Speech. A composition which abounds in any one figure is often described by that figure ; thus we speak of a style as beinu Sarcastic, Antithetical, Ironical, etc. For classification based on character of sentence, see (B, II. I.) B.— THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE. The Elements of style are Vocabulaiy, Sentence, Para- graphs, and Figures of Speech. Associated with these is the consideration of the number and order of the words. I. VOCABULARY.— The first requisite of an author is a good command of language. In criticizing style under this head, the following are the important considerations : a. Extent. — Authors differ greatly in copiousness. Few can write freely and eloquently on all subjects msmmmm XVI INTRODUCTION, Most have one vein in which they excel. Frequent repetition of the same words or phrases is an unmis- takable indication of poverty of language. Variety be- ing a source of pleasure, a good writer varies his lan- guage as far as is consistent with elegance, simplicity, and clearness. b. Aptness. — Many writers and speakers, though possessing a copious vocabulary, do not always use the proper word to express their meaning. Fitness of lan- guage is one of the best proofs of an author's culture. c. Purity. — See (C, I, i). II. SENTENCIj. — A knowledge of the proper mode of constructing sentences is one of the most important of a writer's qualifications. A great many forms of sentences are possible ; but there are certain chief types. I. Special Artifices of Construction. a. A Periodic sentence is one in which the meaning remains in suspense till the sentence is finished. If we stop anywhere before the end, the preceding part docs not form a sentence, and consequently does not convey a completely intelligible meaning. The effect of the Periodic sentence is to keep the mind in a state of uni- fonn or increasing tension until the end is reached—- e. g. : " On the rich and on the eloquent, on nobles ai d priests, the Puritans looked down with contempt." In a Loose sentence the predicate follows the sub- ject, and qualifying adjuncts follow what they quali y. Its parts may be separated without destroying the sense. This is the natural structure of the sentence in Eng- lish — e. g. : " The Puritans looked down with contempt on the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests." Very frequently a sentence combines the loose and the periodic structure. INTRODUCTJOIsr, XVII ind B. Sentences studiously longf or short.— The ad- justment of the length of the sentence is an important element in a correct style ; but no definite limit can be assigned. An extended series of either long or short sentences should be avoided : a good writer uses as much variety as possible. See (C, II, i, 9). The distinction between the Periodic style and the Abrupt style depends to a great extent on the length of the sentences employed. The Periodic style employs long periods elaborately constructed, holding the meaning in suspense through- out a connected series of clauses, and moving on with stateliness and dignity — e. g. : " The study of the ancient writers, the rapid development of the powers of the mod- ern languages, the unprecedented activity which was displayed in every department of literature, the political state of Europe, the vires of the Roman Court, the ex- actions of the Roman Chancery, the jealousy with which the wealth and privileges of the clergy were naturally regarded by laymen, the jealousy with which Italian ascendancy was naturally regarded by men born on our side of the Alps — all these things gave to the teachers of the new theology an advantage which they perfectly understood how to use." The Abrupt style employs short sentences, and is often used when abruptness, or quickness of motion, is to be indicated. Some writers, as Macaulay, systematic cally break up long, loose sentences into their constitu- ent parts, and punctuate them as separate sentences. This artifice gives animation to their style — e. g. : " Now it does not appear to us to be the first object that peo- ple should always believe in the established religion, or b« attached to the established government. A religion % XVlll INTRODUCTION. may be false. A government may be oppressive. And whatever support governments give to false religions, or religion gives to oppressive governments, we consider as a clear evil." — Macaulay. c. The Balanced sentence. — When the different clauses of a compound sentence are made similar in form, they are said to be Balanced — e.g.: "Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity ; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty." The Pointed style. — The proper use of the Balanced sentence, in conjunction with Antithesis, Epigram, and Climax, constitutes the Pointed style — e. g. : "A man of a polite imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable com- panion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows than another man does in the possession." — Addison. "O Friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity ; to thee the wretched seek for succor ; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies ; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes for relief, and may ever be sure of— disappointment ! " — Goldsmith. An author's style may be characterized according to the preponderance of any of these types of sentence ; but the Periodic, Abrupt, and Pointed structures are often used in the same paragraph. d. The Condensed sentence is one shortened by a forced and unusual construction — e. g. : " Brutus insti- tuted liberty and the consulship." This was a favorite type of sentence with Gibbon, but it is now generally ' INTRODUCTION, xiX ^ used to produce a comic effect— e. g. : " Her conduct drew tears from his eyes, and a handkerchief from his pocket." 2. General considerations — a. Emphatic places in a Sentence. — When a writer desires to give special prominence to a word, he places it at the beginning or the end of his sentence. The former position excites the attention, and on the latter it rests. b. Unity of a Sentence. — The effect of a main statement in a sentence should not be lessened by the introduction of particulars not immediately relevant. All parts of the sentence should be kept in connection with, and logically subordinate to, the principal thought. Hence the necessity to change the subject as little as po^siblf^, to avoid crowding a sentence with too much matter, and to eschew the use of parenthetic clauses. III. The PARAORAFH is a connected series of sentences relating to the same subject and forming a con- stituent part of a composition. Between paragraphs there are greater breaks than between sentences. The following are the principles which govern the construction of para- graphs : 1. Explicit reference.^ — The bearing of each sen- tence on what precedes should be explicit and unmis- takable. 2. Parallel constructions. — When several consec- utive sentences repeat or illustrate the same idea or make a contrast in reference to the same subject, they should, as far as possible, be formed alike. 3. The opening sentence, unless so constructed as to be obviously preparatory, should indicate with promi- nence the subject of the paragraph. XX IN TROD UCTION. 4. Continuity. — The sentences in a paragraph should be so arranged as to carry the line of thought naturally and suggestively from one to another. 5. Unity. — A paragraph should possess unity, which implies that the sentences composing it should relate to one definite division of the subject which they illustrate or explain. Unity forbids digressions or the introduc- tion of irrelevant matter. 6. Proportion. — It is a maxim in Style that every thought or idea should have prominence and expansion according to its importance : hence in a paragraph a due proportion should be maintained between the main sub- ject and the subordinate parts. 7. Transition. — One of the most important arts in composition is the art of transition, that is, passing from one paragraph to another. The modes used by different writers are various. The thouglus in one paragraph should grow naturally out of those in the preceding one. The association of ideas should be as perfect as possi- ble. IV. FIGURES OP SPEECH.— These are inten- tional deviations from the ordinary spelling, form, construc- tion, or application of words. The last class, which are known as Figures of Rhetoric, are the most important. They dignify style, enrich it by increasing its facilities of expression, give pleasure by employing the mind in detect- ing and tracing resemblances, and frequently convey the meaning more clearly and forcibly than plain language. rt FIGURES OF SPEECH MAY BE CLASSIFIED AS FOLLOWS: I. Figures that intensify the feelings in strong passion — all subjective. IN'TKODUCTION, XXI Anacnenosis, Aposiopesis, Apostrophe, Ecphonesis, Ero- tesis, and the five figures of repetition : Epizeuxis, Ana- phora, Anadiplosis, Epanalepsis, and Epiphora. Anaccenosis. — By this the speaker appeals to the judgment of his audience on the point in d'>.bate, as if their feelings were the same as his. " Suppose, Piso, any one had driven yru from your house by violence, what would you have done ? " Aposiopesis. — The leaving of a sentence unfinished, in consequence of some sudden emotion of the mind. " What ! do you — do you charge me with this, a man who has never in his life pursued anything but virtue? What you have pursued — But I am silent, lest I should seem to have brought a charge against a friend." Apostrophe. — A turning away from the regular course of the composition to address something absent, as if it were present. *' Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? " Ecphonesis. — An animated or passionate exclama- tion. It is generally indicated by the interjections O ! Oh ! Ah ! Alas ! •' O my soul's joy. If after every tempest come such calms. May the winds blow till they have wakened death.'' Erotesis. — An animated or passionate interroga- tion. '* W^hat, Tubero, did that naked sword of yours mean in the battle of Pharsalia? At whose breast was it aimed ? " Epizeuxis. — The immediate repetition of some word or words for the sake of emphasis. ^^ Arm I Arm / it is — it is — the cannon's opening roar." !^ xxii INTRODUCTION. Anaphora. — The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several sentences, or of several clauses of a sentence. •' By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed, By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed, By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned, By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned." Anadiplosis. — The use of the same word or words at the end of one sentence, or of one clause of a sen- tence, and at the beginning of the next. " Has he taste for blood? Blood shall fill his cup." Epanalepsis. — The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of the same sentence. ** Fare thee well — and if forever, Still forever, fare thee well." Epiphora. — The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of each of several sentences, or clauses of a sentence. "Are you delighted with literaturey who hate the foundation of all literature ? " 2. Figures that modify the expression by which it is made to mean more or less than the words indicate — nearly all objective. Epanorthosis, Epigram, Euphemism, Hyperbole, Irony Innuendo, Paraleipsis, Sarcasm, Oxymoron. Epanorthosis. — An exclamatory phrase question- ing a previous statement. " And what was learned, if aught was learned ? " Epigram. — A short, pointed, or witty saying, the true sense of which is different from that which ap- pears on the surface. " Solitude sometimes is the best society." INTRODUCTION. xxiii Euphemism. — A circumlocution used to soften a harsh or a direct way of expressing a thought. ** Your conduct is hardly in accordance with the prin- ciples of morality." Hyperbole expresses more than the literal truth. It consists in magnifying objects beyond their natural bounds, so as to make them more impressive or more intelligible. *' Beneath the lowest deep, a lower deep. Still threaten! t .» devour me, opens wide." Irony expresses a meaning contrary to that conveyed by the speaker's words. " No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom will die with you." Innuendo. — A form of allusion, in which a thought, instead of being plainly stated, is merely suggested or implied. *' He did his party all the harm in his power — he spoke for it and voted against it." Paraleipsis. — A pretended omission of certain par- ticulars for the sake of effect. " I shall say nothing of his drunkenness." Sarcasm. — A keen, reproachful, but at the same time witty, expression. " Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it : He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it I " Oxymoron. — An antithesis arising from the opposi- tion of two contradictory terms. " Thus tdfy busy rolls their life away." 3. Figures founded on similarity or comparison : Alle- gory, antanaclasis, allusion, catachresis, metaphor, personi- fication, personal metaphor, paronomasia, simile, vision. Allegory. — A sentence or discourse in which the fr - -■■ -■m.^it&h.-- . mmmmmm XXIV INTRODUCTION. principal subject is described by means of another sub- ject resembling it. It is made up of continued allu- sions. Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," or Bunyan's • Pilgrim's Progress," is an example of this figure. Paronomasia and Antanaclasis. — A play upon words. The same word is used in different senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other. Paronomasia is by some restricted to proper nouns, and antanaclasis to common nouns. *' And brought into this world a world of woe." Allusion occurs when a word or phrase in a sen- tence, by means of some similitude, calls to mind some- thing which is not mentioned. " It may be said of him that he came, he saw, he con- quered'* Catachresis. — Aii abuse of a figure, by wh' ' a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true mean- ing. *' Her voice was but the shadow of a sound." Metaphor. — A comparison implied in the language dsed. It is a transference of the relation between one set of objects to another, for the purpose of brief ex- planation. " He bridles his anger." A metaphor may be expanded into a simile ; thus, in the case of the example given : " He restrains his anger, as a rider bridles his horse." Personal Metaphor. — An inferior sort of personi- fication which consists in attributing human actions or sentiments to inanimate objects without the idea of per- s("n being present. •* Th« trees wept." INTRODUCTION, XXV :/ Personification represents inanimate objects and abstract ideas cs living, " The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap kandsy Simile formally likens one thing to another. *' Hidn, like the luorking bee in blossom diist^ BlaWhed with his mill they found." Vision. — A description in strong and lively colors, so that the past, the distant, and the future are repre- sented as present. " Even now, mcthinks, as pondering hero I stand, I see the rural virt".es leave the land." 4. Figures founded on associated ideas : Metonymy, synecdoche, transferred epithet. Metonymy puts one word for another ; as the cause for the effect, or the effect for the cause ; the container for the thing contained ; the sign for the thing signified ; or the abstract for the concrete. Gray hairs for old age ; bottle for intoxicating drink ; scepter for royalty ; beauty and chivalry for beautiful woDien and braze men. Synecdoche. — A figure by which a part is put for the whole, etc. " Ten sail." Transferred Epithet. — The removing of an epi- thet from its proper subject to some allied subject or circumstance. " Hence to his idle bedy 5. Figures depending on the number of words: Apa- rithmesis. Condensed Sentence, Ellipsis, Prolepsis, Pleo- nasm, Syllepsis, Polysyndeton, Asyndeton. Aparithmesis. — An enumeration of particulars for the sake of emphasis. XXVI INTRODUCTION, ** Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death." Ellipsis. — The omission in a sentence of some word or words necessary to a full and regular construction. Homer was the greater genius ; Virgil, the better artist : in the one we most admire the man ; in the other, the work, j Prolepsis. — The anticipatory use of a word or phrase. *' They beat with their oars the hoary sea," instead of " They beat the sea with their oars and made it hoary." Pleonasm. — The employment of more words than are necessary to express the sense. An enumeration of particulars which might be included in one general term, although not necessary to the sense, is not objec- tionable, provided emphasis is desired. " He went home full o{ a great many serious rcflec tions." ^ Polysyndeton. — The repetition, for effect, of con- junctions, otherwise unnecessary. See (C, H, i, 13). " All that is little and low and mean among us." Asyndeton. — The omission, for effect, of conjunc- tions, otherwise necessary. See (C, H, i, 13). '• The wind passeth over it — it is gone." 6. Figures founded on the order in which the words are arranged : Antistrophe, Antithesis, Climax, Anti-Climax, Hyperbaton, Hysteron Proteron. Antistrophe. — An alternate conversion of the same words in different sentences. *• Your servant, sir." " Sir, your servant.'* Antithesis. — The statement of a contrast, or the opposition of thoughts and ideas. INTRODUCTION. XXVll or ** In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As mild behavior and humility ; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Let us be tigers in our fierce deportment." Climax. — An ascending series of ideas or thoughts increasing in strength or importance until the last. " It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen ; to scourge him is an atrocious crime ; to put him to death is almost a parricide ; but to crucify him — what shall I call it?" The opposite of this figure is Anti-Climax, or the arrangement of the terms or particulars of a sentence or other portion of a discourse, so that the ideas suddenly become less dignified at the close. "A good Christian, a good citizen, and a good shot with a rifle." Hyperbaton. — The transposition of words out of their natural and grammatical order. *' \yhat shall we say, since silent now is he ?" Hysteron Proteron. — An inversion of the natural order of events. "Bred and bom." 7. Figures founded on the form of words : Aphaeresii ('mid), Syncope (ne'er), Apocope (drear), Prosthesis (adownX Epenthesis (damosel), Paragoge (deary), Tmesis (to us ward). V. NUMBER OP WORDS— I. Brevity, or Conciseness, consists in using the small- est number of words for the complete expression of a thought. As a general rule, the more briefly a thought is expressed, the more clearly and forcibly is it conveyed. Hence, no word, phrase, or clause should be used, if its omission would impair neither the clearness nor the force ■m xxviii INTRODUCTION. of the sentence. Too great conciseness, however, produces obscurity and abruptness. a. Sources of Brevity — 1. Apt Words. — A writer should in all cases use the word which expresses the exact shade of his mean- ing. If he do not, he will fail to make his meaning clear, or he will be forced to repeat his idea in different forms. 2. Suitable Grammatical Constructions. — The following are those most conducive to Brevity : Partici- ples for clauses with finite verls ; appositives instead of clauses with connectives ; abstract nouns ; adjectives for adjective clauses ; nouns for adjectives ; prepositional phrases with or without adjectives ; and contracted and condensed sentences. 3. Effective Figures of Speech. — Those most suitable for the purposes of Brevity are Simile, Meta- phor, Transferred Epithet, Antithesis, Epigram, and Ellipsis. b. Violations of Brevity — I. Tautology, or the repetition of the same idea in different words— e. g., '* Every one praised his magna- nimity and greatness of mind." " Magnanimity " and " greatness of mind " have the same meaning : one of them is, therefore, unnecessary. Correct writers avoid the use of Superfluous Particles, especially Prepositions and Conjunctions — e. g., " They may be divided up into three component parts " ; of Adverbs, Adjectives, or Qualifying phrases, the meanings of which are already involved in the sentence — e. g., " The most entire ap- proval " ; of two or more nouns having nearly the same meaning — e. g., " The investigation and inquiry." But the association of words having nearly the same INTRODUCTION XXIX meaning is admissible under the following circum- stances : (a.) When one word would not express the full sense intended, or when a word would admit of two meanings if used alone. Some pairs of words, also, are linked together by established usage — e. g., " Use and wont,'' '• To all intents and purposes." {b.) When under the influence of strong emotion, the mind is disposed to dwell upon the exciting cause — e. g., " I am astonished^ I am shocked, to hear such principles confessed ; to hear them avowed in this house and in this country." (<•.) When an idea requires emphatic expression — e. g., " The end and design^'' " The head and front,'* " means and substance.'* 2, Pleonasm, or Redundancy, consists of additions not necessary to express the sense — e. g., " It was the privilege and birthright of every citizen and poet to rail aloud and in public." Pleonasm is permissible for rhetorical emphasis, for the clearer expression of meaning, and in the language of poetry and passion — e. g., '* We have seen with our eyes ; we have heard with our ears." The heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth" 3. Verbosity, or Circumlocution, consists in a dif- fuse mode of expression — e. g., " On receiving this in- formation, he arose, went out, saddled his horse, and went to town." There is no Tautology or Redundancy here ; but, unless for some special purpose, the details are uninteresting and unimportant. Condensed, the sentence would read, " On receiving this information, he rode to town." Circumlocution is, however, allowable for poetic or XXX INTRODUCTION. I •\ \ rhetorical effect, or to avoid the disagreeable repetition of a word or phrase. But unnecessary substitutions savor of affectation and confuse the sense. The writer's first consideration should be the perspicuity of his sentence, and to insure this, the repetition of a word or phrase may be necessary. 2. DifTuseness. — Sometimes a writer produces by dif- fuseness the desired effect of style. To the examples of allowable diffuseness given under (B, V, i, ^, i, 2, and 3) the following may be added : a. An example 01 illustration used by a writer must be suited in length to the state of mind of the person addressed. If what the writer says is well known, a brief reference is all that is necessary ; but if it is un- known, or if he desires to work up the feelings of his readers, he must emphasize by expansion. b. To produce harmony of sound and sense, a long word or clause ma> be necessary to suit the dignity of the thought or the intensity of the emotion — e. g., To express great amazement, " stupendous " is better than "vast" or "great." In poetic embellishment, "The glorious orb of day" is more suitable than ** The sun." VI. ORDER OP WORDS— I. As the Grammatical order of words is not always the best for effect, this order is departed from frequently in poetry and sometimes in prose. As a fTC-neral rule we should endeavor to arrange the par*^ ni '>o-ition in the order in which the ideas they CX: • *j,'if\.'», ly present themselves to the mind. The ar- ran^L'ir .ni r 't? words in a sentence should resemble the arrangement iA uie figures in a picture — the most important should occupy the chief places. In English, the natural order of the parts of a sentence -m m( tO{ INTRODUCTION. XXXI ,ar- ihe is — Subject, predicate, object. But this order may be varied : a. When the subject i.; less important than the predi- cate or the object, either may precede it. Any special emphasis may justify inversion — e. g., " Great is Diana of the Epheeians " — emphasizes the predicate ; *' Look upon it, I dare not " — emphasizes the object. b. The emphatic places in a sentence are the begin- ning and the end. Hence emphasis will be secured by placing a word in either of these places, if this be not its natural position — e. g., "Silver and gold have I none'* See also (B, II, 2, a). It foil ws then as a general rule that — c. A sentence should not end with a weak or an in^ significant word, as a pronoun, adverb, or preposition. The exceptions to this statement are — (l.) When the otherwise weak word is made strong by emphasis — e. g., " In their prosperity my friends shall never hear of me ; in tl\eir adversity, always'* (2.) When a particle is attached to the verb so as practically to form a compound with it — e. g., " It is this I wish to clear ttp" (3.) When we wish to avoid a broken construction, or what is called •' splitting particles," as when we write : *' Though virtue borrows no assistance from the advantages of fortune, yet it may often be accom- panied by them," instead of the broken constmction in " Though virtue borrows no assistance from, yet it may often be accompanied by, the advantages of fortune." 2. In complex statements, the qualifying words should precede the object qualified ; but words and expressions most nearly related in thought should be placed closest together. That arrangement should be preferred which XXXll INTRODUCTION. !•> :: 1 enUi;s the fewest and shortest suspensions of the mean- ing. C— QUALITIES OF STYLE. The Qualities of Style are Intellectual Qualities, Emo- tional Qualities, and Elegancies — I. INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES.— The quali- ties of style, considered as an object of the understanding, are Accuracy and Clearness. To insure Accuracy and Clearness, that is, the faith- ful presentation of thought, style requires Purity and Per- spicuity. I. Purity prescribes — a. Correct Forms and Concords.— Every sen- tence of a composition must be constructed in accord- ance with the laws of grammar. The common errors consist in the use of wrong single words or forms, and of false concords — that is, wrong cases, genders, num- bers, and tenses. These errors are called solecisms. b. Good English Words. — To be good, a word must be reputable (used by good writers or speakers), recent (used at present), and national (used by a whole people). Violations of these principles constitute Bar' barismsy the chief causes of which are : (i.) The unnecessary use of obsolete words. (2.) The use of provincial or slang expressions. (3.) The general and unnecessary use of technical terms. (4.) An affected use of foreign words. (5.) Coining words unnecessarily. c. Proper Words — that is, words fit for the occa- sion. In a composition, every word or phrase shoidd bear the meaning which established usage has assigned to it. The violation of this principle constitutes an /m- INTRODUCTION. XXXlll propriety. The chief causes of impropriety in the use of English words are : (i.) Neglect to observe the proper sequence of par- ticles — e. g., '* He had no other intention but to deceive me," in which *' but " improperly follows " other." (2.) Neglect to distinguish between synonyms. (3.) Carelessness as to the real meaning of words — e. g., *' Monarchy stood prostrate at the foot of the church." 2. Perspicuity, or Clearness — "Care should be taken, not that the reader may understand if he will, but that he must understand whether he will or not." Perspicuity prescribes — a. Simplicity. — This ternr. covers not merely the choice of words, but the arrangement of clauses, sen- tences, and paragraphs. The violations of this prin- ciple are badly-arranged sentences, and pedantic, round- about, and inflated words and phrases. b. Brevity. — See (B, V, \, a and b). c. Precision, or Definiteness of Meaning. — The violation of this produces Ambiguity or Obscurity^ which may occur in words and in sentences. (i.) In words. The Ambiguity may be one of mean-, ing or of reference. The greatest source of ambiguity of reference is the careless use of pronouns, especially of the relative. (2.) In sentences. This arises from a disregard of the rules for the arrangement of the parts of a sentence. See (B, VI, i and 2). II. EMOTIONAL QUALITIES.— The Emotional Qualities of style, or those that affect the emotions or feel- ings, are — I. Strength, which consists in such a use and arrange- 3 XXXIV INTRODUCTION. ment of words as convey the author's meaning most im. pressively. Under the general name of Strength are included such varieties as sublimity, loftiness, magnificence, grandeur, dignity, stateliness, and splendor ; fervor, energy, force, vigor, and nerve ; brilliancy, rapidity, liveliness, vivacity, and animation. In this list, those qualities that resemble one another are grouped together. In literary criticism, the terms are often used loosely, but several of them have specific meanings. There is, for instance, a wide difference between the extremes ; sublimity being secured by the de- scription of great and noble objects, which produce a sort of elevation and expansion of our feelings ; animation be- ing the presentation of ideas in rapid succession. The following are the principal modes of securing Strength : (i.) Important words should occupy the most promi- nent places. See (B, VI, i) and (B, II, 2, a). (2.) The Periodic structure, by exciting and con- centrating attention, often adds to the force of a sen- tence. See (B, II, I, b). (3.) When the members of a sentence differ in length, the shorter should precede the longer ; and, when they are of unequal force, the weaker should pre- cede the stronger. In all cases, however, the order of time should be observed. (4.) When in different members of a sentence two objects are contrasted, a resemblance in language and construction increases the effect. See (B, IV, 8) and (B, II, I. c). . (5.) A sentence should not close with an adverb, a preposition, or any small unaccented word. See (B, VI, I, c). INTRODUCTION/, XXXV V m land, pre- ;r of two and and :rb, a (6.) Broken constructions, or Splitting particles, should be avoided. See (B, VI, i, r, 3). (7.) An accumulation of small words should be avoided. (8.) The language and the subject should harmonize with and support each other. Different themes demand different treatment. (9.) Variety, or due alternation of effects, should be maintained in all parts of composition, viz. : variety in sound (C, III, i), words, subjects, and in the length and structure of sentences. The occurrence of any un- pleasing similarity of sound, the improper repetition of a word, or a long series of sentences of the same type, enfeeble style, and should be avoided. See (B, II, I, ^)and(B, 111,6). (lo.) All superfluous words should be rejected. See (B, V, I). (11.) As far as is consistent with perspicuity and good grammar, whatever may be readily supplied should be omitted. See (B, IV, 6). (12.) The use of adjectives or adverbs in close suc- cession enfeebles style. When judiciously applied, these parts of speech have a powerful influence in animating and heightening the effect of an expression ; but, when used immoderately, they burden a sentence without add- ing to its effect. (13.) The too frequent use of the conjunction ** and" should be avoided. When the author's object is to pre- sent a quick succession of spirited images, the conjunc- tion is often omitted with fine effect (B, IV, 11). When, however, an enumeration is made in which it is impor- tant that the transition from one object to another should not be too rapid, but that each should attract attention XXXVl INTRODUCTION. for a moment, the conjunction may be repeated (B, IV» lO). (14.) Indirect or prefaced modes of expression should be avoided, unless to introduce important ideas — e. g., •' It was I that did it," and " there was no one present." Better, '* I did it," and " No one was present." (15.) Reduce, as far as possible, the number of aux- iliaries, except when they are emphatic. See, also (C, II, I, 7). This principle is more applicable to poetry than to prose, and occurs chiefly in the subjunctive mood. (16.) The Specific and the Concrete are more eft'ect- ive than ihe General and the Abstract. A statement is stronger when made about an individual object than about a class. (17.) Strength is often promoted by the use of Fig- ures of Speech ; but, for this purpose, they should be used only when they convey the idea in a shorter space and with greater vividness than ordinary language. (18.) Originality and boldness in combinations should be aimed at, especially in the use of Figures of Speech. Frequent repetition palls, even when what we repeat is itself of the highest merit. Novelty and agreeable sur- prises conduce to strength. (19.) Every means should be taken to iusufe Perspi- cuity. See (C, I, 2). We should write naturally, use definite, plain words, with a preference for those of Anglo-Saxon origin, and avoid affectation, roundabout expressions (B, V, i, b, 3), remote allusions, frequent quotations — especially those that are hackneyed — exag- gerated language, harsh-sounding words, and whatever interrupts the easy flow of our sentences. (20.) The Periodic, the Abrupt, and the Balanced J INTRODUCTION, xxxvii luse of iout lent Lag- ;ver iced and Pointed style (B. TI, i, b and c) increase greatly the strength of a composition. If the principle of Varie- ty is duly recognized (C, II, i, 9). The first keeps up the attention, and favors the Unity of the sentences (C, II, I, 2); the second increases the rapidity of the movement ; and the last gives agreeable surprises, and assists the memory. 2. Pathos, or Tender Feeling, which touches the tender chord in our nature. It is a sympathetic pain combined with pleasure. The following are the chief means of stimulating the emotion : (i.) Allusions to the strong affections of our nature — to love of family, friends, or country. (2.) Accounts of acts of compassion, kindness, or humanity. (3.) The expression of kind and humane thoughts and feelings. (4.) Descriptions of any of the misfortunes to which human beings are subject, as death, sorrow, pain, mis- ery. (5.) Many gentle pleasures, and even some intense ones, stimulate the emotion of tenderness. 3. The Ludicrous, which excites laughter, and is caused by the degradation of any subject without the pro- duction of any other strong emotion, such as anger or fear. Of this quality there are several varieties : In Satire the Ludicrous is associated with malice, with- out arousing sympathy for the object — e. g., Pope's " Epis- tle to Arbuthnot." Akin to this quality is Ridicule, the object of which is to influence opinion. Humor is the laughable degradation of an object, with- out malice, in a genial, kmdly, good-natured way — e. g., XXXVlll INTRODUCTION. many of Addison's papers in the " Spectator." The sub- ject of Humor is character — not its graver faults, but its foibles, vanities, and weaknesses generally. Humor and Pathos often relieve each other (C, H, i, 9). This com- bination constitutes one of the greatest charms of Dickens's works. Wit is an ingenious and unexpected play upon words. See (B, IV, 26). When we call a writer witty, we have reference merely to the cleverness of his mode of expres- sion ; he may be also satiric or sarcastic, like Swift ; or humorous, like Addison or Lamb. ni. ELEGANCIES.— The Elegancies of Style are : I. Melody, which is agreeable sound or modulation. Under melody we should consider : first, whether the au- thor conforms to the general requisites ; and, secondly, what is his prevailing rhythm. The following are the gen- eral requisites of Melody : (i.) The avoiding of harsh effects. The abrupt con- sonants, as /, /, ky fy thy Jiy ctc, arc the hardest to pro- nounce ; the vowels are the easiest. "Barber," for instance, is easier to pronounce than ** Pragmatic." (2.) The alternation of long and short, emphatic and unemphatic syllables. (3.) The alternations of consonants among them- selves, and of ^ wels among themselves. (4.) The avoiding of unpleasant alliterations. (5.) The due observance, throughout a composition, of the principle of variety. (6.) The cadence at the close. The closing syllable of a sentence should allow the voice to fall. Avoid closing a sentence with a short, unemphatic, abrupt syllable or word. See (C, H, i, 5). When we aim at dignity or elevation, the sound should swell to the last, i / \ )le )id fpt at INTRODUCTION. XXXIX Many good writers have a characteristic and inde- scribable swing to their language — a peculiar rhythmical movement by which the trained eai may soon detect the authorship of a piece of composition. 2. Harmony is melody, so ordered as to be expressive of the sense. This is desirable in prose, but occurs most markedly in poetry. See (B, IV, 4). Sound, movement, and vast bulk may be easily represented. 3. Taste has two meanings : • (i.) The power of receiving pleasure from the beau« ties of Nature and Art. In this sense it is almost synonymous with Elegance, Polish, and Refinement. Persons devoid of this power are said to have no taste. (2.) That kind of artistic excellence that gives the greatest amount of pleasure to cultured minds. In this sense it is generally used in literary criticism. The rules of Taste are those which govern correct literary composition ; but variable elements also exist, for there are marked diflferences in the literary tastes of men, countries, and periods. n, Eschew fine words as you would rouge. — Hare. Cant is properly a double-distilled lie ; the second power of a lie. — Carlyle. If a gentleman be to study any language, it ought to be that of his own country. — LocKE. In language the unknown is generally taken for the magnificent. — Richard Grant White. He who has a superlative for everything, wants a meas- ure for the great or small. — Lavater. Inaccurate writing is generally the expression of inac- curate thinking. — Richard Grant White. To acquire a few tongues is the labor of a few years ; but to be eloquent in one is the labor of a life. — Anonymous. Words and thoughts are so inseparably connected that an artist in words is necessarily an artist in thoughts. — Wilson Flagg. It is an invariable maxim that words which add nothing to the sense or to the clearness must diminish the force of the expression. — Campbell. Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are com- monly found together. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas. — Macaulay. He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can proceed from nothing but confusedness in the thoughts which give rise to them. — Cobbett, :om- I rally U in the THE VERBALIST. A — An. The second form of the indefinite article is used for the sake of euphony only. Herein everybody agrees, but what everybody does not agree in is, that it is euphonious to use an before a word beginning with an as- pirated A, when the accented syllable of the word is the second. For myself, so long as I continue to aspirate the A's in such words as heroicy harangue, and historical, I shall continue to use a before them ; and when I adopt the Cock- ney mode of pronouncing such words, then I shall use an before them. To my ear it is just as euphonious to say, ** I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent," as it is to say an harangue, an heroic, or an historical. An is well enough before the doubtful British aspiration, but before the distinct American aspiration it is wholly out of place. The reply will perhaps be, " But these h's are si- lent ; the change of accent from the first syllable to the second neutralizes their aspiration." However true this may be in England, it is not at all true in America ; hence we Americans should use a and not an before such h's un- til we decide to ape the Cockney mode of pronouncing them. Errors are not unfrequently made by omitting to repeat the article in a sentence. It should always be repeated 8 THE VERBALIST, when a noun or an adjective referring to a distinct thing is introduced ; take, for example, the sentence, " He has a black and white horse." If two horses are meant, it is clear that it should be, " He has a black and a white horse." See The. Ability — Capacity. The distinctions between these two words are not always observed by those who use them. " Capacity is the power of receiving and retaining knowl- edge with facility ; ability is the power of applying knowl- edge to practical purposes. Both these faculties are requi- site to form a great character : capacity to conceive, and ability to execute designs. Capacity is shown in quickness of apprehension. Ability supposes something done ; some- thing by which the mental power is exercised in executing, or performing, what has been perceived by the capacity." — Graham's '* English Synonymes." Abortive. An outlandish use of this word may be oc- casionally met with, especially in the newspapers. ** A lad was yesterday caught in the act of abortively appro- priating a pair of shoes." That is abortive that is untime- ly, that has not been borne its full time, that is immature. We often hear abortion used in the sense of failure, but never by those that study to express themselves in chaste English. Above. There is little authority for using this word as an adjective. Instead of, " the above statement," say, " the foregoing statement." Above is also used very inelegantly for more than ; as, " above a mile," '* above a thousand " ; also, for beyond ; as, ** above his strength." Accident. See Casualty. Accord. " He [the Secretary of the Treasury] wa? shown through the building, and the information he de- sired was accorded him." — Reporters' English, THE VERBALIST, as jhe tly le- ** The heroes prayed, and Pallas from the skies Accords their vow." — Pope. The goddess of wisdom, when she granted the prayers of her worshipers, may be said to have accorded ; not so, however, when the clerks of our Sub-Treasury answer the inquiries of their chief. Accuse. See Blame it on. Acquaintance. See Friend. Ad. This abbreviation for the word advertisement is very justly considered a gross vulgarism. It is doubtful whether it is permissible under any circumstances. Adapt — Dramatize. In speaking and in writing of stage matters, these words are often misused. To adapt a play is to modify its construction with the view of improv- ing its form for representation. Plays translated from one language into another are usually more or less adapted ; i. e., altered to suit the taste of the public before which the translation is to be represented. To dramatize is to change the form of a story from the narrative to the dramatic ; i. e., to make a drama out of a story. In the first instance, the product of the playwright's labor is called an adaptation ; in the second, a dramatization. Adjectives. " Very often adjectives stand where ad- verbs might be expected ; as, ' drink deep,' ' this looks stranife,' * standing erect.' " We have also examples of one adjective qualifying an- other adjective ; as, ' 7aide open,' ' red hot,' ' the pate blue sky.* Sometimes the corresponding adverb is used, but with a different meaning ; as, ' I found the way easy — easily* ; ' it appears clear — clearly.' Although there is a propriety in the employment of the adjective in certain instances, yet such forms as * indifferent well,' * extreme bad,' are gram- matical errors. ' He was interrogated relative to that cir- lO THE VERBALIST. cumstance/ should be relatively^ or in relation to. It is not unusual to say, * I would have done it independent of that circumstance,' but independently is the proper construction. *' The employment of adjectives for adverbs is accounted for by the following considerations : "(i.) In the classical languages the neuter adjective may be used as an adverb, and the analogy would appear to have been extended to English. "(2.) In the oldest English the adverb was regularly formed from the adjective bj Ming 'e,' as ' soft, soft<',' and the dropping of the'e'iefl ne adverb in the adjective form ; thus, ' clcene' adve-b, became * clean,' and appears in the phrase ^ clean gone ' ; '/tt^;. , fa.it.' *to stick /irj^/.' By a false analogy, many adjectives that never formed adverbs in -e were freely used as adverbs in the age of Elizabeth : ' Thou didst it excellent^ ' equal {iox equally) good,' ' excellent well.' This gives precedent for such errors as those men- tioned above. " (3. ) There are cases where the subject is qualified rather than the verb, as with verbs of incomplete predication, ' be- ing,' ' seeming,' ' arriving,' etc. In ' the matter seems clear* * clear ' is part of the predicate of ' matter.' ' They arrived sa/e' : * safe ' does not qualify ' arrived,' but goes with it to complete the predicate. So, * he sat silent,* ' he stood /irm.' 'It comes beautiful* and ' it comes beautifully* have dif- ferent meanings. This explanation applies especially to the use of participles as adverbs, as in Southey's lines on Lodore ; the participial epithets applied there, although appearing to modify * came,' are really additional predica- tions about * the water,' in elegantly shortened form. * The church stood gleaming through the trees ' : ' gleaming ' is a shortened predicate of ' church ' ; and the full form would be, 'the church stood and gleamed.* The participle retains THE VERBALIST. tt tains its force as such, while acting the part of a coordinating adjective, complement to * stood ' ; ' stood gleaming ' is lit- tle more than 'gleamed.' The feeling of adverbial force in * gleaming ' arises from the subordinate participial form joined with a verb, ' stood,' that seems capable of predicat- ing by itself. * Passing strange ' is elliptical : ' passing (sur- passing) what is strange.* " — Bain. " The comparative adjectives wiser^ better^ ^^f'g^f^t etc., and the contrasting adjectives different^ other^ etc., are often so placed as to render the construction of the sentence awk- ward ; as, * That is a much better statement of the case than yours,' instead of, ' That statement of the case is much bet- ter than yours ' ; * Yours is a larger plot of ground than John's,* instead of, ' Your plot of ground is larger than John's ' ; * This is a different course of proceeding from what I expected,' instead of, ' This course of proceeding is different from what I expected ' ; * I could take no other method of silencing him thati the one I took,' instead of, * I could take no method of silencing him other than the one I took.'"— Gould's " Good English," p. 69. Administer. "Carson died from blows administered by policeman Johnson." — " New York Times." If police- man Johnson was as barbarous as is this use of the verb to administer^ it is to be hoped that he was hanged. Govern- ments, oaths, medicine, affairs — such as the affairs of the state — are administered^ but not blows : they are dealt. Adopt. This word is often used instead of to decide upony and of to take ; thus, " The measures adopted [by Parliament], as the result of this inquiry, will be productive of good." Better, "The measures decided upon " etc. In- stead of, " What course shall you adopt to get your pay ? " say, "What course shall you take" etc. Adopt is properly used in a sentence like this : " The course (or measures) It THE VERBALIST. proposed by Mr. Blank was adopted by the committee." That is, what was Blank's was adopted by the committee — a correct use of the word, as to adopts means, to assume as one's own. Adopt is sometimes so misused that its meaning is in- verted. "Wanted to adopt," in the heading of advertise- ments, not unfrequently is intended to mean that the adver-r, tiser wishes to be relieved oi the care of a child, not that he wishes to assume the care of one. Aggravate. This word is often used when the speaker means to provoke, irritate, or anger. Thus, " It aggravates [provokes] me to be continually found fault with " ; " He i^ easily aggravated [irritated]." To aggravate means to make worse, to heighten. We therefore very properly speak of aggravating circumstances. To say of a j rson that he is aggravated is as incorrect as to say that he is palliated. Agriculturist. This woid is to be preferred to agri- culturalist. See Conversationist. Alike. This word is often most bunglingly couple^ with both. Thus, '* These bonnets are both alike," or, worse still, if possible, " both just alike." This reminds one of the story of Sam and Jem, who were very like each other, especially Sam. All. See Universal. All over. '* The disease spread all over the country." It is more logical and more emphatic to say, "The disease spread over all the country." Allegory. An elaborated metaphor is called an alle- gory ; both are figurative representations, the words used signifying something beyond their literal meaning. Thus, in the eightieth Psalm, the Jews are represented under the symbol of a vine : *' Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast - j:;ui*-"d&k-i.Ai:-...',— ■\.-. j.xjiMi.-^ THE VERBALIST. 13 ry. jase ille- jsed ms, the last cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." An allegory is sometimes so extended that it makes a volume ; as in the case of Swift's " Tale of a Tub," Ar- buthnot's "John Bull," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," etc. Fables and parables are short allegories. Allow. This word is frequently misused in the West and South, where it is made to do service for assert or to be of opinion. Thus, " He alloivs that he has the finest horse in the country." Allude. The treatment this word has received is to be specially regrotted, as its misuse has wellnigh robbed it of its true meaning, wliich is, to intimate delicately, to refer to without mentioning directly. Allude is now very rarely used in any other sense than that of to speak of, to men- tion, to name, which is a long way from being its legiti- mate signification. This degradation is doubtless a direct outcome of untutored desire to be fine and to use big words. Alone. This word is often improperly used for only. That is alone which is unaccompanied ; that is only of which there is no other. " Virtue alone makes us happy," means that virtue unaided suffices to make us happy ; •* Virtue only makes us happy," means that nothing else can do it — that that, and that only (not alone), can do it. *' This means of communication is employed by man alone'* H THE VERBALIST, Dr Quackenbos should have written, '• By man only'* See also Only. Amateur — Novice. There is much confusion in the use of these two words, although they are entirely distinct from each other in meaning. An amateur is one versed in, or a lover and practicer of, any particular pursuit, art, or science, but 7iot engaged in it professionally. A novice is one who is new or inexperienced in any art or business — a beginner, a tyro. A professional actor, then, who is new and unskilled in his art, is a novice and not an amateur. An amateur may be an artist of great experience and ex- traordinary skill. Ameliorate. «* The health of the Empress of Germany is greatly ameliorated'' Why not say improved? Among. See Between. Amount of Perfection. The observant reader of pe- riodical literature often notes forms of expression which are perhaps best characterized by the word bizarre. Of these queer locutions, amount of perfection is a very good exam- ple. Mr. G. F. Watts, in the " Nineteenth Century," says, "An amount of perfection has been reached which I was by no means prepared for." What Mr. Watts meant to say was, doubtless, that a degree of excellence had been reached. There are not a few who, in their prepossession for everything transatlantic, seem to be of opinion that the English language is generally better written in England than it is in America. Those who think so are counseled to examine the diction of some of the most noted English critics and essayists, beginning, if they will, with Matthew Arnold. And. Few vulgarisms are more common than the use of and {or to. Examples : *' Come and see me before you go " ; " Try and do what you can for him " ; " Go and see THE VERBALIST, :en ion he nd led lish ise lou >5 your brother, if you can." In such sentences as these, the proper particle to use is clearly to and not and. And is sometimes improperly used instead of or ; thus, " It is obvious that a language like the Greek and Latin" (language ?), etc., should be, " a language like the Clreek or the Latin " (language), etc. There is no such thing as a Greek and Latin language. Answer — Reply. These two words should not be used indiscriminately. An answer is given to a question ; a reply^ to an assertion. When we are addressed, we an- szuer; when we are accused, we reply. We answer letters, and reply to any arguments, statements, or accusations they may contain. Crabb is in error in saying that replies *' are used in personal discourse only." Replies^ as well as an- swers, are written. We very properly write, " I have now, I believe, ansiuered all your questions and replied to all your arguments." A rejoinder is made to a reply. '* Who goes there ? " he cried ; and, receiving no ansiver, he fired. "The advocate replied to the charges made against his client." Anticipate. Lovers of big words have a fondness for making this verb do duty for expect. Anticipate is derived from two Latin words meaning before and to take, and, when properly used, means, to take beforehand ; to go before so as to preclude another ; to get the start or ahead of ; to enjoy, possess, or suffer, in expectation ; to foretaste. It is, therefore, misused in such sentences as, " Her death is hourly anticipated" ; " By this means it is anticipated that the time from Europe will be lessened two days." Antithesis. A phrase that opposes contraries is called an antithesis. " I see a chief who leads my chosen sons. All armed with points, antitheses^ and puns." i6 THE VERBALIST, The .'ollowing are examples : ••Though gentle, yet not dull ; Strong, without rage ; without o'erflowing, full." •'Contrasted faults through all their manners reign ; Though poor, luxurious ; though submissive, vain ; Though grave, yet trifling ; zealous, yet untrue ; And e'en in penance planning sins anew." The following is an excellent example o{ personijication and antithesis combined : •' Talent convinces ; Genius but excites : That tasks the reason ; this the soul delights. Talent from sober judgment takes its birth, And reconciles the pinion to the earth ; Genius unsettles with desires the mind, Contented not till eartii be left behind." in the following extract from Johnson's " Life of Pope," individual peculiarities are contrasted by means of antith- eses : '• Of genius — that power which constitutes a poet ; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert ; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates — the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dr}'den had more : for every other writer, since Milton, must give place to Pope ; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity ; he composed without consideration and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call or gather in one excursion was all that he sought and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to con- • ,' THE VERBALIST. 17 ; that ce is and )n, be this n had Dlace if he Aden's some ; he thout ather at he con- dense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accu- mulate all that study might produce or chance might ply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, i'opc continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diver- sified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation ; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller." There are fi)rms of antithesis in which the contrast is • 'y of a secondary kind. \ny. This word is sometimes made to do service for at all. We say properly, " She is not any better " ; but we can not properly say, *' She does not see any" meaning that she is blind. Anybody else. " Public School Teachers are in- formed that anybody else's i^ correct." — " New York Times," Sunday, July 31, 1881. An English writer says : '* In such phrases as anybody else, and the like, else is often put in the possessive case ; as, ' anybody else's servant ' ; and some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, arguing that somebody else is a compound noun." It is bet- ter grammar and more euphonious to consider else as being an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and s to the word that else qualifies ; thus, anyo body's else, nobody's else, somebody's else. Anyhow. '* An exceedingly vulgar phrase," says Pro- fessor Mathews, in his " Words : Their Use and Abuse." " Its use, in any manner^ by one who professes to write and speak the English tongue with purity, is unpardonable." Hi 18 THE VERBALIST. Professor Mathews seems to have a special dislike for this colloquialism. It is recognized by the lexicographers, and I think is generally accounted, even by the careful, per- missible in conversation, though incompatible with digni- fied diction. Anxiety of Mind. See Equanimity of Mind. Apostrophe. Turning from the person or persons to whom a discourse is addressed and appealing to some person or thing absent, constitutes what, in rhetoric, is called the apostrophe. The following are some exam- ples: •* O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee. That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness ? " '• Sail on, thou lone imperial bird Of quenchless eye and tireless wing ! " '* Help, angels, make assay ! Bow, stubborn knees ! and heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe : All may yet be well ! " Appear. See Seem. Appreciate. If any word in the language has cause to complain of ill-treatment, this one has. Appreciate means, to estimate justly — to set the true value on men or things, their worth, beauty, or adv ages of any sort whatsoever. Thus, an overestimate .s no more appre- ciation than is an underestimate ; hence it follows that such expressions as, " I appreciate it, or her, oi him, highly" can not be correct. We value^ or prize^ things highly, not appreciate them highly. This word is also very improperly made to do service for fise, or increase, in value ; thus, " Land appreciates rapidly in the West." Dr. L. T. Townsend THE VERBALIST. 19 ken )rt Xre- Icli lot rly [nd nd \ blunders in the use of appreciate in his " Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 142, thus: "The laws of harmony . . . may al- low copiousness ... in parts of a discourse ... in order that the condensation of other parts may be the more high- ly appreciated y Apprehend — Comprehend. The English often use the first of these two words where we use the second. Both express an effort of the thinking faculty ; but to apprehend is simply to take an idea into the mind — it is the mind's first effort — while to comprehend is fully to understand. We are dull or quick of apprehension. Children apprehend much that they do not comprehend. Trench says: "We apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend." '■'Apprehend^" says Crabb, "expresses the weakest kind of belief, the having [of] the least idea of the presence of a thing." Apt. Often misused for likely^ and sometimes for liable. " What is he apt to be doing ? " " Where shall I be apt to find him ? " "If properly directed, it will be apt to reach me." In such sentences as these, likely is the proper word to use. " If you go there, you will be apt to get into trouble." Here either likely o*- liable is the proper word, according to the thought the speaker would convey. Arctics. See Rubbers. Artist. Of late years this word has been appropriated by the members of so many crafts, that it has wcUnigh been despoiled of its meaning. Your cook, your barber, your tailor, your boot-maker, and so on to satiety, are all artists. Painters, sculptors, architects, actors, and singers, nowadays, generally prefer being thus called, rather than to be spoken of as artists. As. " Not as I know " : read, " noi that I know." ** This is not as good as the last " : read, " not so good." 20 THE VERBALIST. " It may be complete so far as the specification is con- cerned " : correctly, '^ as far as." As^ preceded by such or by same^ has the force of a rela- tive applying to persons or to things. ** He offered me the same conditions as he offered you." ** The same conditions that " would be equally proper. See, also. Like. Ascribe. See Impute. At. Things are sold /^j, not at, auction. " The scene is more beautiful at night than by day " : say, " d)f night." At alL " It is not strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark." Had Shakespeare written, " It is not at all strange," it is clear that his diction would have been much less forcible. " I do not wish for any at all" ; ** I saw no one at alV ; "If he had any desire at all to see me, he would come where I am." The at all in sentences like these is superfluous. Yet there are instances in which the phrase is certainly a very convenient one, and seems to be unobjectionable. It is much used, and by good writers. At best. Instead of at best and at worsts we should say at the best and at the worst. At last. See At length. At least. This adverbial phrase is often misplaced. " ' The Romans understood liberty at least as well as we.' This must be inteqoreted to mean, * The Romans under- stood liberty as well as we understand liberty.' The in- tended meaning is, ' that whatever things the Romans failed to understand, they understood liberty' To express this meaning we might put it thus ; ' The Romans understood at least liberty as well as we do' ; ' liberty, at leasts the Romans understood as well as we do.' ' A tear, at least, is due to the unhappy ' ; 'at least a tear is due to the un- happy ' ; ' a tear is due at least to the unhappy ' ; * a tear is due to the unhappy a/" least* — all express different mean- THE VERBALIST, 21 ings. ' This can not, often at least, be done * ; ' this can not be done often^ at least' (i. ' It often happens that this can not be done.' 2. * It does not often happen that this can be done.') So, ' man is always capable of laughing ' ; * man is capable of laughing ahuays' " — Bain. At length. This phrase is often used instead of at last. '* At length \JQ. managed to get away": read, "a/ last'* '• At length we heard from him." To hear from any one at length is to hear fully ; i. e., in detail. Authoress. With regard to the use of this and certain other words of like formation, Mr. Gould, in his " Good English," says : " Poet means simply a person who writes poetry ; and author, in the sense under consideration, a person who writes poetry or prose — not a man who writes, but 2i person who writes. Nothing in either word indicates sex ; and everybody knows that the functions of both poets and authors are common to both sexes. Hence, authoress ^xiA poetess are superfluous. And they are superfluous, also, in another respect — that they are very rarely used, indeed they hardly can be used, independently of the name of the writer, as Mrs., or Miss, or a female Christian name. They are, besides, philological absurdities, because they are fabri- cated on the false assumption that their primaries indicate men. They are, moreover, liable to the charge of affecta- tion and prettiness, to say nothing of pedantic pretension to accuracy. •* If the ess is to be permitted, there is no reason for ex- cluding it from any noun that indicates a person ; and the next editions of our dictionaries may be made complete by the addition of writress, officeress, manageress, superintend' entess, secretaryess^ treasureress, walkeressy talkeress, and so on to the end of the vocabulary." Avocation. See Vocation. 22 THE VERBALIST. Bad cold. Inasmuch as colds are never good, why say a bad cold ? We may talk about slight colds and severe colds, but not about bad colds. Baggage. See Luggage. Balance. This word is very frequently and very erro- neously used in the sense of rest, refjiainder. It properly means the excess of one thing over another, and in this sense and in no other should it be used. Hence it is improper to talk about the balance of the edition, of the evening, of the money, of the toasts, of the men, etc. In such cases we should say the rest or the remainder. Barbarism. Defined as an offense against good usage, by the use of an improper word, i. e., a word that is anti- quated or improperly formed. Preventative, enthuse, agri- culturalist, donate, etc., are barbarisms. vSee also Solecism. Been to. We not unfrequently hear a superfluous to tacked to a sentence ; thus, *' Where have you been to ?" Beg. We often see letters begin with the words, '* I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor," etc. We should write, " I beg leave to acknowledge," etc. No one would say, " J beg to tell you," instead of, " I beg leave to tell you." Begin — Commence. These words have the same meaning ; careful speakers, however, generally prefer to use the former. Indeed, there is larely any good reason for giving the preference to the latter. See also Com- mence. Being bnilt. See Is being built. Belongings. An old idiomatic expression now coming into use again. Beside — Besides. In the later unabridged editions of Webster's dictionary we find the following remarks con- cerning the use of these two words : '* Beside and besides. -■>^i-t::^J>fltU' ' " li fiilitiiiaiifr'- '■ '^-Ki^ : THE VERBALIST. 23 whether used as prepositions or adverbs, have been con- sidered synonymous from an early period of our literature, and have been freely interchanged by our best writers. There is, however, a tendency in present usage to make the following distinction between them : i. That besidehQ used only and always as a preposition, with the original meaning by the side of ; as, to sit beside a fountain ; or v/ith the closely allied meaning aside from, or out of ; as, this is beside our present purpose : ' Paul, thou art beside thyself.' The adverbial sense to be wholly transferred to the cognate word. 2. That besides^ as a preposition, take the remaining sense, in addition to; as, besides all this; besides the consideration here offered : ' There was a famine in the land besides the first famine.* And that it also take the adverbial sense of moreover^ beyond, etc., which had been divided between the words ; as, besides^ there are other considerations which belong to this case." Best. See At best. Between. This word is often misused for among ; thus, " The word fellow, however much in use it may be between men, sounds very objectionable from the lips of women." — " London Queen." Should l)c, ^\amo>ig men." Betxaeen is used in reference to tv.o things, parties, or persons ; among, in reference to a greater number. "Castor and Pollux with one soul between them." " You have among you many a purchased slave." Blame it on. Here is a gross vulgarism which we sometimes hear from persons of considerable culture. They use it in the sense of accuse or suspect ; thus, " lie blames «'/{?« his brother," meaning that he accuses or suspects his brother of having done it, or of being at fault for it. Bogus. A colloquial term incompatible with dignified diction. imi 24 THE VERBALIST. Both. We sometimes hear such absurd sentences as, "They^^M resemble each other very much"; "They are both alike " ; *' They both met in the street." Both is like- wise redundant in the following sentence : '* It performs at the same time the offices both of the nominative and objec- tive cases." Bound. The use of this word in the sense of deter- mined is not only inelegant but indefensible. " I am bound to have it," should be, "I am determined to have it." Bravery — Courage. The careless often use these two words as though they were interchangeable. Bt'avery is inborn, is instinctive ; courage is the product of reason, cal- culation. There is much merit in being courageous, little merit in being brave. Men who are simply brave are care- less, while the courageous man is always cautious. Bravery often degenerates into temerity. Moral courage is that firmness of principle which enables a man to do what he deems to be his duty, although his action may subject him to adverse criticism. True moral courage is one of the rarest and most admirable of virtues. Alfred the Great, in resisting the attacks of the Danes, displayed braver)' ; in entering their camp as a spy, he dis- played courage. Bring — Fetch — Carry. The indiscriminate use of these three words is very common. To bring is to convey to or toward — a simple act ; \.o fetch means io go and bring — a compound act ; to carry often implies motion from the speaker, and is followed by away or off^ and thus is opposed to bring and fetch. Yet one hears such expressions as, "Go to Mrs. D.'s and bringher this bundle ; and here, you may fetch her this book also." We use the words correctly thus : " Eetch, or go bring, me an apple from the cellar " ; THE VERBALIST. 25 "When you come home hing some lemons " ; *' Carry this book home with you." British against American English. " The most im- » portant peculiarity of American English is a laxity, irregu- larity, and confusion in the use of particles. The same thing is, indeed, observable in England, but not to the same extent, though some gross departures from idiomati propriety, such as different to for different from, are com- mon in England, which none but very ignorant persons would be guilty of in America. ... In the tenses of the verbs, I am inclined to think that well-educated Americans conform more closely to grammatical propriety than the corresponding class in England. ... In general, I think we may say that, in point of naked syntactical accuracy, the English of America is not at all inferior to that of Eng- land ; but we do not discriminate so precisely in the mean- ing of words, nor do we habitually, in either conversation or in writing, express ourselves so gracefully, or employ so classic a diction, as the English. Our taste in language is less fastidious, and our licenses and inaccuracies are more frequently of a character indicative of want of refinement and elegant culture than those we hear in educated society in England." — George P. Marsh. British against American Orthoepy. " The causes of the differences in pronunciation [between the English and the Americans] are partly physical, and therefore diffi- cult, if not impossible, to resist ; and partly owing to a dif- ference of circumstances. Of this latter class of influences, the universality of reading in America is the most obvious and important. The most marked difference is, perhaps, in the length or prosodical quantity of the vowels ; and both of the causes I have mentioned concur to produce this effect. We are said to drawl our words by protracting the 26 THE VERBALIST, vowels and giving them a more diphthongal sound than the English. Now, an Englishman who reads will habitually utter his vowels more fully and distinctly than his country- man who does not ; and, upon the same principle, a nation of readers, like the Americans, will pronounce more delib- erately and clearly than a people so large a proportion of whom are unable to read, as in England. From our uni- versal habit of reading, there results not only a greater dis- tinctness of articulation, but a strong tendency to assimilate the spoken to the written language. Thus, Americans in- cline to give to every syllable of a written word a distinct enunciation ; and the popular habit is to say dic-tlon-ar-y, tnil-it-ar-y, with a secondary accent on the penultimate, in- stead of sinking the third syllable, as is so common in Eng- land. There is, no doubt, something disagreeably stiff in an anxious and affected conformity to the very letter of or- thography ; and to those accustomed to a more hurried ut- terance we may seem to drawl, when we are only giving a full expression to letters which, though etymologically im- portant, the English habitually slur over, sputtering out, as a Swedish satirist says, one half of the word, and swallow- ing the other. The tendency to make the long vowels diphthongal is noticed by foreigners as a peculiarity of the orthoepy of our language ; and this tendency will, of course, be strengthened by any cause which produces greater slow- ness and fullness of articulation. Besides the influence of the habit of reading, there is some reason to think that cli- mate is affecting our articulation. In spite of the coldness of our winters, our flora shows that the climate of even our Northern States belongs, upon the whole, to a more south- ern type than that of England. In southern latitudes, at least within the temperate zone, articulation is generally much more distinct than in the northern regions. Witness THE VERBALIST, 17 Iss the pronunciation of Spanish, Italian, Turkish, as compared with English, Danish, and German. Participating, then, in the physical influences of a southern climate, we have con- tracted something of the more distinct articulation that be- longs to a dry atmosphere and a clear sky. And this view of the case is confirmed by the fact that the inhabitants of tiie Southern States incline, like the people of southern Europe, to throw the accent toward the end of the word, and thus, like all nations that use that accentuation, bring out all the syllauic^. This we observe very commonly in the comparative Northern and Southern pronunciation of proper names. I might exemplify by citing familiar in- stances ; but, lest that should seem invidious, it may suffice to say that, not to mention more important changes, many a Northern member of Congress goes to Washington a dactyl ox a trochee, and comes home an amphibrach or an iambus. Why or how external physical causes, _as climate and modes of life, should affect pronunciation, we can not say ; but it is evident that material influences of some sort are producing a change in our bodily constitution, and we are fast acquiring a distinct national Anglo-American type. That the delicate organs of articulation should participate in such tendencies is altogether natural ; and the operation of the causes which give rise to them is palpable even in our handwriting, which, if not uniform with itself, is gen- erally, nevertheless, so unlike common English script as to be readily distinguished from it. '* To the joint operation, then, of these two causes — universal reading and climatic influences — we must ascribe our habit of dwelling upon vowel and diphthongal sounds, or of drawling, if that term is insisted upon. . . . But it is often noticed by foreigners as both making us more readily understood by them when speaking our own tongue, and as 28 THE VERB.' \I ST. connected with a flexibility of organ, which enables us to acquire a better pronunciation of other languages than is usual with Englishmen. In any case, as, in spite of the old adage, speech is given us that we may make ourselves understood, our drawling, however prolonged, is preferable to the nauseous, foggy, mumbling thickness of articulation which characterizes the cockney, and is not unfrequently affected by Englishmen of a better class." — George P. Marsh. Bryant's Prohibited Words. See Index Expurga- TORIUS. But. This word is misused in various ways. " I do not doubt but he will be here": read, doubt that. "I should not wonder but'' : read, if. " I have no doubt but that he will go" : suppress but. "I do not doubt but that it is true " : suppress but. " There can be no doubt but that the burglary is the work of professional cracksmen." — " New York Herald." Doubt that, and not but that. " A careful canvass leaves no doubt but that the nomination," etc. : suppress but. " There is no reasonable doubt but that it is all it professes to be " : suppress but. " The mind no . ooner entertains any proposition but it presently hastens," etc. : read, than. ** No other resource but this was allowed him " : read, than. By. See At. Calculate. This word means to ascertain by computa- tion, to reckon, to estimate ; and, say some of the purists, it never means anything else when properly used. If this is true, we can not say a thing is calculated to do harm, but must, if we are ambitious to have our English irreproach- able, choose some other form of expression, or at least some other word, likely or apt, for example. Cobbett, however, says, " That, to Her, whose great example is so well cal- I 1 THE VERBALIST, 29 La- it is )Ut ch- le rer, \al' cufated to inspire," etc. ; and, *' The first two of the three sentences are well enough calculated for ushering," etc. Calculate is sometimes vulgarly used for intend^ purpose^ expect ; as, •* He calculates to get off to-morrow." Caliber. This word is sometimes used very absurdly ; as, " Brown's Essays are of a much higher caliber than Smith's." It is plain that the proper word to use here is order. Oant. Cant is a kind of affectation ; affectation is an effort to sail under false colors ; an effort to sail under false colors is a kind of falsehood ; and falsehood is a term of Latin origin which we often use instead of the stronger Saxon term lying ! " Who is not familiar," writes Dr. William Matthews, " with scores of pet phrases and cant terms which are re- peated at this day apparently without a thought of their meaning? Who ever attended a missionary meeting without hearing ' the Macedonian cry,' and an account of some 'little interest' and 'fields white for the harvest'? Who is not weary of the ding-dong of 'our Zion,' and the solecism of * in our midst ' ; and who does not long for a verbal millennium when Christians shall no longer * feel to take ' and 'grant to give ' ? " •• How much I regret," says Coleridge, " that so many religious persons of the present day think it necessary to adopt a certain cant of manner and phraseology [and of tone of voice] as a token to each other [one another] ! They improve this and that text, and they must do so and so in a prayerful way ; and so on." Capacity. See Ability. Caption. This word is often used for headings but, thus used, it is condemned by careful writers. The true mean- ing of caption is a seizure, an arrest. It does not come from 30 THE VERBALIST, a Latin word meaning a head^ but from a Latin word mean- ing to seize. Caret. Cobbett writes of the caret to his son : " The last thing I shall mention under this head is the caret [ '^ ], which is used to point upward to a part ^^ hich has been omitted, and which is inserted between the line where the caret is placed and the line above it. Things should be called by their right names, and this should be called the blunder- mark. I would have you, my dear James, scorn the use of the thing. Think before you write ; let it be your custom to loyite correctly and in ?i plain hand. Be careful that neat- ness, grammar, and sense prevail when you write to a blacksmith about shoeing a horse as when you write on the most important subjects. Habit is powerful in all cases ; but its power in this case is truly wonderful. When you write, bear constantly in mind that some one is to read and to understand what you write. This will make your hand- writing and also your meaning plain. Far, I hope, from my dear James will be the ridiculous, the contemptible affectation of writing in a slovenly or illegible hand, or that of signing his name otherwise than in plain letters." Carry. See Bring. Case. Many persons of considerable culture continu- ally make mistakes in conversation in the use of the cases, and we sometimes meet with gross errors of this kind in the writings of authors of repute. Witness the following : " And everybody is to know him except /." — George Meri- deth in "The Tragic Comedies," Eng. ed., vol. i, p. 33. " Let's you and / go " : say, me. W^e can not say, Let / go. Properly, Let's go, i. e., let us go, or, let you and me go. " He is as good as me" : say, as /. " She is as tall as him " : say, as he. " You are older than me " : say, than /. ** Nobody said so but he " : say, but him, " Every one can THR VERBALIST, 3* u- ;S, in i • ri- as Ian Piaster a grief but he that hath it " : correctly, but hi::>. "John went out with James and /" : say, and me. *' Yo.i are stronger than /////; " : «c.y, than he. ** Between you and /": say, and me. "Between you and they" \ say, and them. " lie gave it to John and /": say, and me, "You told John and /": say, and me. "He sat be- tween him and /" : say, and me. "He expects to sec you and /" : say, and me. " You were a dunce to do It. Who? me?" say, /. Supply the ellipsis, and we should have. Who ? me a dunce to do it ? " Where are you going? Who? me?" say, /. We can't say, vie going, " Who do you mean? " say, whom. '* Was it them?" say, they. "If I was him^ I would do it " : say, were he. "If I was her, I would not go " : say, were she. " Was it him ? " say, he, " Was it her? " say, she. " For the benefit of those whom he thought were his friends " : say, who. This error is not easy to detect on account of the parenthetical words that follow it. If we drop them, the mistake is very ap- parent ; thus, "For the benefit of those luhom were his friends." "On the supposition," says Bain, "that the interroga- tive 7vho has whom for its objective, the following are er- rors: *w//^do you take me to be?' ^ who should I meet the o^her day ? ' * who is it by ? ' ' who did you give it to ? ' ' wlio to ? ' * who for ? ' But, considering that these expres- sions occ 'r with the best writers and speakers, that they are more energetic than the other form, and that they lead to fio ambiguity, it may be doubted whether grammarians have not exceeded heir province in condemning them." Cobbett, in wniing of the pronouns, says : " When the relatives are placed in the sentence at a distance from their antecedents or verb> or prepositions, the ear gives us no assistance. ' Whi of all the men in the world, do you 5 ^ THE VERBALIST, think I saw to-day ? ' ' Who, for the sake of numerous ser- vices, the office was given to.' In both these cases it should be whom. Bring the verb in the first and the prep- osition in the second case closer to the relative, as, who 1 saWf to who the office was given, and you see the error at once. But take care ! ' Whom, of all the men in the world, do you think, was chosen to be sent as an ambassador?' • Whom, for the sake of his numerous services, had an office of honor bestowed upon him.' These are nominative cases, and ought to have who; that is to say, who was chosen, who had an office.'* "Most grammarians," says Dr. Bain, in his "Higher English Grammar," "have laid down this rule : * The verb to be has the same case after as before it.' Macaulay censures the following as a solecism : ' It was him that Horace Wal- pole called a man who never made a bad figure but as an author.' Thackeray similarly adverts to the same deviation from the rule : * " Is that him ? " said the lady in question- able grammar^ But, notwithstanding this," continues Dr. Bain, *' we certainly hear in the actual speech of all classes of society such expressions as * it was me^ * it was //m,' * it was her,' more frequently than the prescribed form.* * This shy creature, my brother says, is mc ' ; * were it me, I'd show him the difference.' — Clarissa Ilarlowe. * It is not me\ you are in love with.' — Addison. ' If there is one character more base than another, it is him who,' etc. — Sydney, Smith. *If I were ////;/' ; 'if I had been hcr^ etc. The authority of good writers is strong on the side of objective forms. ♦ If this is true in England, it is not true in America. Nowhere in the United States is such " questionable grammar" as this frequently heard in cultivated circles. + " It may be confidently affirmed that with good speakers, in the case of negation, not me is the usual practice." — Bain. This, I confi- dently affirm, is not true in America. — A . A. I THE VERBAUsT. 33 re in ?ntly the lonfi- y There is also the analogy of the French language ; for while * I am here ' is je suis ici., the answer to* who is there? * is moi (me) ; and c'est inoi (it is me) is the legitimate phrase — never c'estje (it is I)." But moi, according to all French grammarians, is very often in the nominative case. Jlloi is in the nominative case when used in reply to " Who is there ? " and also in the phrase ** C'est moi," which makes " It is /" the correct translation of the phrase, and not " It is me." The French equivalent of " I ! I am here," is ** Moi ! je suis ici." The Frenchman uses moi in the nominative case when je would be inharmonious. Euphony with him is a matter of more importance than grammatical correctness. Bescherelle gives many examples of fnoi in the nominative. Here are two of them : *' Mon avocat et moi sommes de cet avis. Qui veut allcr avec lui? Moi." If we use such phraseology as "It is ;;/(?," we must do as the French do — consider mc as being in the nominative case, and offer euphony as our reason for thus using it. When shall we put nouns (or pronouns) preceding verbal, or participial, nouns, as they are calU-d by some grammari- ans — infinitives in ingt as they arc called by others — in the possessive case ? " ' I am surprised at John's (or his, your, etc.) refusing to go.' * I am surprised at John (or him, you, etc.) refus- ing to go.* [In tlie latter sentence refusing is a participle.] The latter construction is not so common with pronouns as with nouns, especially with such nouns as do not readily take the possessive form. * They presented him going for- ward ' : better, ' They prevented his going forward.' ' He was dismissed without imy reason being assigned.' ' The boy died through his clothes being burned.' ' We hear little of any connection being kept up between the two nations.' 1 34 THE VERBALIST. * The men rowed vigorously for fear of the tide tttmitt^ against us.* But most examples of the construction 7vithout the possessive form are obviously DUE TO mere sloven- liness. . . . * In case of your being absent ' : here being is an infinitive [verbal, or participial, noun] qualified by the possessive your. ' In case of you being present ' : here being would have to be construed as a participle. The pos- sessive construction is, in this casCy the primitive and regu- lar construction ; THE OTHER IS A MERE LAPSE. The difficulty of adhering to the possessive form occurs when the subject is not a person : ' It does not seem safe to rely on the rule of demand creating supply ' : in strictness, * De- mand's creating supply.' *A petition was presented against the license being granted.' But for the awkward- ness of extending the possessive to impersonal subjects, it would be right to say, * against the license's being grant- ed.' ' He had conducted the ball without any complaint being urged against him.' The possessive would be suit- able, but undesirable and unnecessary." — Professor Alex- ander Bain. " Though the ordinary syntax of the possessive case is sufficiently plain and easy, there is, perhaps, among all the puzzling and disputable points of grammar, nothing more difficult of decision than are some questions that occur re- specting the right management of this case. The observa- tions that have been made show that possessives before participles are seldom to be approved. The following ex- ample is manifestly inconsistent with itself ; and, in my opinion, the three possessives are all zorong : ' The kitch- en, too, now begins to give dreadful note of preparation ; not from armorers accomplishing the knights, but from the shopmaid's chopping force-meat, the apprentice's cleaning knives, and t\iQ journeyman' s receiving a practical lesson in THE VERBALIST. 35 in the art of waiting at tabic* ' The daily instances of mcti^s dying around us.' Say rather, ' Of men- dying around us.' The leading word in sense ought not to be made the ad- junct in construction." — Goold Brown. Casualty. This word is often heard with the incorrect addition of a syllable, casuality, which is not recognized by the lexicographers. Some writers object to the word casualty, and always use its synonym accident. Celebrity. " A number of celebrities witnessed the first representation." This word is frequently used, es- pecially in the newspapers, as a concrete term ; but it would be better to use it in its abstract sense only, and in sentences like the one above to say distinguished persons. Character — Reputation. These two words are not synonyms, though often used as such. Character means the sum of distinguishing qualities. '* Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters." — Lavater. Reputation means the estimation in which one is held. One's reputation, then, is what is thought of one's character; consequently, one may have a good reputation and a bad cha>'acte!> -r a good character and a bad reputation. Calumny may injure reputation^ but not character. Sir Peter does not leave his character be- hind him, but his reputation — h.\^ good name. Cheap. The dictionaries define this adjective as mean- ing, bearing a low price, or to be had at a low price ; but nowadays good usage makes it mean that a thing may be had, or has been sold, at a bargain. Hence, in order to make sure of being understood, it is better to say loia-priccd, when one means low-priced, than to use the word cheap- What is low-priced, as everybody knows, is often dear, and what is high-priced is often cheap. A diamond necklace 36 THE VERBALIST. might be cheap at ten thousand dollars, and a pinchbeck necklace dear at ten dollars. Cherubim. The Hebrew plural of cherub. "We are authorized," says Dr. Campbell, " both by use and analogy, to say either chenibs and seraphs^ according to the English idiom, or cherubim and seraphim, according to the Oriental. The former suits better the familiar, the latter the solemn, style. As the words cherubim and seraphim are plural, the terms -herubims and seraphims, as expressing the plural, are quite improper." — *' Philosophy of Rhetoric." Citizen. This word properly means one who has cer- tain political rights ; when, therefore, it is used, as it often is, to designate persons who may be aliens, it, to say the least, betrays a want of care in the selection of words. " Several citizens were injured by the explosion." Here some other word — persotis^ for example — should be used. Clever. In this country the word clever is most im- properly used in the sense of good-natured, well-disposed, good-lit: rted. It is properly used in the sense in which we are wont most inelegantly to use the word smart, though it is a less colloquial term, and is of wider application. In England the phrase " a clever man " is the equivalent of the French phrase, ** un homme d' esprit y The word is prop- erly used in the following sentences : " Every work of Arch- bishop W'hately must be an object of interest to the ad- mirers of clever reasoning"; " Cobbett's letter . . . very clever, but very mischievous " ; " Bonaparte was certainly as clever a m.an as ever lived." Climax. A clause, a sentence, a paragraph, or any lit- erary composition whatsoever, is said to end with a climax v/hen, by an artistic arrangement, the more effective is made to follow the less effective in regular gradation. Any great departure from the order of ascending strength THE VERBALIST. 37 is called an anti-climax. Here are some examples of cli- max : ** Give all diligence ; add to your faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity." " What is every year of a wise man's life but a criticism on the past ! Those whose life is the shortest live long enough to laugh at one half of it ; the boy despises the in- fant, the man the boy, the sage both, and the Christian all." " What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving, how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehen- sion, how like a god ! " Co. The prefix co should be used only when the word to which it is joined begins with a vowel, as in co-evaly co- incident^ co-opcratc\ etc. Con is used when the word begins with a consonant, as in con-tempom>-y\ con-junction^ etc. Co-partner is an exception to the rule. Commence. The Britons use or misuse this word in a manner peculiar to themselves. They say, for example, " commenced merchant," " commenced actor," " commenced politician," and so on. Dr. Hall tells us that commence has been employed in the sense of " begin to be," " become," "set up as," by first-class writers, fc- more than two cen- turies. Careful speakers make small use of commence in any sense ; they prefer to use its Saxon equivalent, begin. See, also, Begin. Comparison. When only two objects are compared, the comparative and not the superlative degree should be used ; thus. " Mary is the older of the two " ; " John is the 38 THE VERBALIST. stronger of the two " ; " Brown is the richer of the two, and the tichest man in the city"; "Which is the w^;r desir- able, health or wealth ? " •* Which is the most desirable, health, wealth, or genius?" " Of two such lessons, why forget' The nobler and the manlier one ? " Completed. This word is often incorrectly used for finished. That is complete which lacks nothing ; that is finished which has had all done to it that was intended. The builder of a house may finish it and yet leave it very incomplete. Condign. It is safe to say that most of those who use this word do not know its meaning, which is, suitable, deserved, merited, proper. '* His endeavors shall not lack condign praise " ; i. e., his endeavors shall not lack p^'oper or their merited praise. " A villain condignly punished " is a villain punished according to his deserts. To use con^ dign in the sense of severe is just as incorrect as it would be to use deserved or merited in the sense of severe. Confirmed Invalid. This phrase is a convenient mode of expressing the idea it conveys, but it is difficult to de- fend, inasmuch as confu'jued means strengthened, estab- lished. Consequence. This word is sometimes used instead of importance or moment ; as, "They were all persons of more or less consequence " : read, " of more or less impor- tance.'' " It is a matter of no consequence'' : read, "of no momenta" Consider. " This word," says Mr. Richard Grant White, in his "Words and Their Uses," "is per\'erted from its true meaning by most of those who use it." Coft- sider means, to meditate, to deliberate, to reflect, to re- volve in the mind ; and yet it is mad': to do service for k THE VERBALIST. 39 thinks suppose^ and regard. Thus : " I consider his course very unjustifiable " ; "I have always considered it my duty," etc.; "I consider him as being the cleverest man of my acquaintance." Contemptible. This word is sometimes used for con- temptuous. An old story says that a man once said to Dr. Parr, " Sir, I have a contemptible opinion of you." " That does not surprise me," returned the Doctor; "all your opinions are contemptible^ What is worthless or weak is contemptible. Despicable is a word that expresses a still more intense degree of the contemptible. A traitor i§ a despicable character, while a poltroon is only contetnptible. Continually. See Perpetually. Continue on. The on in this phrase is generally super- fluous. " We continued on our way " is idiomatic English, and is more euphonious than the sentence would be with- out the particle. The meaning is, '* We continued to travel on our way." In such sentences, however, as " Continue on" "He continued to read on" "The fever continued on for some hours," and the like, the on generally serves no purpose. Conversationist. This word is to be preferred to conversationalist. Mr. Richard Grant White says that con' versationalist and agricttlturalist are inadmissible. On the other hand, Dr. Fitzcdward Hall says: "As for convcrsa- tionist and conversationaUst, a^ricultufist and ag>icultural- ist, as all arfe alike legitimate formations, it is for conven- tion to decide which we are to prefer. Convoke — Convene. At one time and another there has been some discussion with regard to the correct use of these two words. According to Crabb, " There is nothing imperative on the part of those that assemble, or convene^ and nothing binding on those assembled^ or convened : one ^o THE VERBALIST, assembles^ or convenes^ by invitation or request ; one attends to the notice or not, at pleasure. Convoke, on the other hand, is an act of authority ; it is the call of one who has the authority to give the call ; it is heeded by those who feel themselves bound to attend." Properly, then, Presi- dent Arthur convokes, not convenes, the Senate. Corporeal — Corporal. These adjectives, though re- garded as synonyms, are not used indiscriminately. Cor^ poral is used in reference to the body, or animal frame, in its proper sense ; corporeal, to the animal substance in an extended sense — opposed to spiritual. Corporal punish- ment ; corporeal ox matenal iovm or substance. *• That to corporeal substances could add Speed most spiritual." — Milton. " What seemed corporal Melted as breath into the wind." — Shakespeare. Couple. In its primitive signification, this word does not mean simply two, but two that are united by some bond ; such as, for example, the tie that unites the sexes. It has, however, been so long used to mean two of a kind considered together, that in this sense it may be deemed permissible, though the substitution of the word two for it would often materially improve the diction. Courage. See Bravery. Crime — Vice — Sin. The confusion that exists in the use of these words is due largely to an imperfect under- standing of their respective meanings, dime is the viola- tion of the law of a state ; hence, as the laws of states differ, what is crime in one state may not be crime in another. Vice is a course of wrong-doing, and is not modified either by country, religion, or condition. As for sitt, it is very difficult to define what it is, as what is sinful in the eyes of one man may not be sinful in the eyes of another ; what la > T//£ VERBALIST. 41 ;s sinful in the eyes of a Jew may not be sinful in the eyes of a Christian ; and what is sinful in fhe eyes of a Christian of one country may not be sinful in the eyes of a Christian of another country. In the days of slavery, to harbor a run- away slave was a cnme, but it was, in the eyes of most peo- ple, neither a vice nor a sin. Crushed out. " The rebellion was finally crushed out." Out of what ? We may crush the life out of a man, or crush a man to death, and crush, not crush out, a rebel- lion. Cultured. This word is said to be a product of Bos- ton — an excellent place for anybody or anything to come from. Many persons object to its use on the ground that there can be no such participial adjective, becnusc there is no verb in use from which to form it. We have in use the substantive culture, but, though the dictionaries recog- nize the verb to culture, we do not use it. Be this objec- tion valid or be it not, cultured having but two sylla- bles, while its synonym cultivated has four, it is likely to find favor with those who employ short words when they convey their meaning as well as long ones. Other adjectives of this kind are, moneyed, whiskered, slippered, lettered, talented, cottaged, lilied, anguished, gifted, and so forth. Curious. This word is often used instead of strange or remarkable. " A curious fact " : better, *' a remarkable fact." '* A. curious proceeding": better, " a strange pro- ceeding." Dangerous. " He is pretty sick, but not dangerous.** Dangerous people are generally most dangerous when they are most vigorous. Say, rather, " He is sick, but not in danger.'* Dearest. "A gentleman once began a letter to his ! 42 THE VERBALIST. bride thus : * My dearest Maria.' The lady replied : ' My dear John, I beg that you will mend either your morals or your grammar. You call me your " dearest Maria " ; am I to understand that you have other Marias ' ? " — Moon's " Bad English." Deceiving. " You are deceiving me." Not un frequent- ly deceiving is used when the speaker means trying to de- ceive. It is when we do not suspect deception that we are deceived. Decimate. This word, meaning as it properly docs to tithe, to take the tenth part, is hardly permissible in the sense in which it is used in such sentences as, " The regi- ment held its position, though terribly decimated by the enemy's artillery." "Though terribly tithed" would be equally correct. Demean. This word is sometimes erroneously used in the sense of to debase, to disgrace, to humble. It is a re- flexive verb, and its true meaning is to behave, to carry, to conduct; as, "He demeans himself m a gentlemanly man- ner," i. e., He behaves, or carries, or conducts, himself in a gentlemanly manner. Denude. "The vulture," says Braiide, "has some part of the head and sometimes of the neck denuded of feathers." Most birds might be denuded o{ the feathers on their heads ; not so, however, the vulture, for his head is always feathcrless. A thing can not be denuded oi what it does not have. Denuding a vulture's head and neck of the feathers is like denuding an eel of its scales. Deprecate. Strangely enough, this word is often used in the sense of disapprove, censure, condemn ; as, " He deprecates the whole proceeding " ; '* Your course, from first to last, is universally deprecated." But, according to the authorities, the word really means, to endeavor to THE VERBALIST. 43 on is Ihat of Ften as, Irsc, to Avert by prayer ; to pray exemption or deliverance from; to beg off; to entreat ; to urge against. " Daniel kneeled upon his knees to deprecate the cap- tivity of his people." — Hewyt. Despite. This word is often incorrectly preceded by in and followed by of ; thus, " In despite of 2\\ our efforts to detain him, he set out " ; which should be, " Despite all our efforts," etc., or *' In spite of all our efforts," etc. etermined. See BoUxND. Diction. This is a general term, and is applicable to a single sentence or to a connected composition. Bad die- Hon may be due to errors in grammar, to a confused dispo- sition of words, or to an improper use of words. Dietiou, to be good, requires to be only correct and clear. Of ex- cellent examples of bad diction there are very many in a little work by Dr. L. T. Townsend, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Boston University, the first volume of which has lately come under my notice. The first ten lines of Dr. Townsend's preface are : " The leading genius ' of the People's College at Chau- tauqua Lake, with a [the ?] view of providing for his course'' a text-book, asked for the publication of the following laws and principles of speech.' •' The author, not seeing sufficient reason ■* for withhold- ing what had been of much practical benefit ^ to himself, consented.^ " The subject-matter herein contained is an outgrowth from ■' occasional instructions ^ given ** while occupying the chair ''^ of Sacred Rhetoric." I. The phrase leading genius is badly chosen. Founder, projector, head, organizer, principal, or president — some one of these terms would probably have been appropriate. 2. What course? Race-course, course of ethics, aesthetics, 44 THE VERBALIST. rhetoric, or what ?* 3. "The following laws and principles of speech." And how came these laws and principles in existence? Who made them? We are to infer, it would seem, that Professor Townsend made them, and that the world would have had to go without the laws that govern language and the principles on which language is formed had it pleased I'rofessor Townsend to withhold them. 4, " Sufficient reason " ! Then there were reasons why Pro- fessor Townsend ought to have kept these good things all to himself ; only, they were not sufficient. 5. "Practical benefit " i Is there any such thing as impractical bene- fit? Are not all benefits practical ? and, if they are, what purpose does the epithet practical serve ? 6. Consented to what? It is easy to sec that the Doctor means ac- ceded to the requesty but he is a long way from saying so. The object writers usually have in view is to convey thought, not to set their readers to guessing. 7. The outi^rowih of would be English. 8. ** Occasional instruc- tions " ! Very vague, and well calculated to set the reader to guessing again. 9. (iivcn to whom ? 10. " The chair." The definite article made it necessary for the writer to specify v/hat particular chair of Sacred Rhetoric he meant. These ten lines are a fair specimen of the diction of the entire volume. Page 131. "To render a given ambiguous or unintel- ligible sentence transparent, the following suggestions are recommended." The words in italics are unnecessary, since what is ambiguous is unintelligible. Then who has ever heard of recotnmcnding suggestions ? Dr. Townsend speaks oi mastoing a subject before pub- lishing it. Publishing a subject ? * Should be, a text-book for his course^ and i\oi^ for his course a text-book. THE VERBAUST. 45 itcl- aie ^ary, has )ub- y-se a Page 133. " Violations of simplicity, whatever the type, show cither that the miftd 0/ iha writer is tainted with affectation, or c/sr that an effort is making to conceal con- scious poverty of sentiment under loftiness of expression." Here is an example of a kind of sentence that can be mended in only one way — by rewriting, which might be done thus: Violations of simplicity, whatever the type, show either that the writer is tainted with affectation, or that he is making an effort to conceal poverty of thought under loftiness of expression. Page 143. " This quality is fully stated and recom- mended," etc. Who has ever heard oi staiim^ a quality? On page 145 Dr. Townsend says: "A person can not read a single book of poor style without having his own style vitiated." A book of poor style is an awkward ex- pression, to say the least. A single badly-written book would have been unobjectionable. Page 160. " The presented picture produces instant- ly a definite effect." Why this unusual disposition of words? Why not say, in accordance with the idiom of the language, " The picture presented instantly produces," etc.? Page 161. '• The boy studies . . . geography and hates everything connected with the sea and land." Why the boy? As there are few things besides seals and turtles that are connected with the sea and land, the boy in (|ucstion has few things to hate. On page 175, Dr. Townsend heads a chapter thus ; ** Art of acquiring Skill in the use of Poetic Speech." This reminds one of the man who tried to lift himself over a fence by taking hold of the seat of his breeches. " How to acquire skill " is probably what is meant. On page 232, ** Jeremy Taylor is among the best i THE VERBALIST. models of long sentences which are both clear and logical," Jeremy Taylor is a clear and logical long sentence? ! True, our learned rhetorician says so, but he doesn't mean it. IJe means, " In Jeremy Taylor we find some of the best examples of long sentences which arc at once clear and logical." Since the foregoing was written, the second volume of Professor Townsend's " Art of Speech " has been published. In the brief preface to this volume we find this character- istic sentence : " The author has felt that clcfi^ymen more than those of other professions will study this treatise." The antecedent of the relative those being cLrgyjuen, the sentence, it will be perceived, says : " The author has felt that clcyg}'))ic7i more than clergymen of other professions will study this treatise." Comment on such "art " as Professor Townsend's is not necessary. I find several noteworthy examples of bad diction in an article in a recent number of an Australian magazine. The following are some of them : *' Large capital always man- ages to make itself master of the situation ; it is the small capitalist and the small landholder that would suffer," etc. Should be, " The large capitalist . . . hi/nself" etc. Again : ** The small farmer would ... be despoiled . . . of the meager profit which strenuous labor had conquered from the reluctant soil." Not only are the epithets in italics superfluous, and consequently weakening in their effect, but idiom does not permit strenuous to be used to qualify labor: hard labor and strenuous eflbrt. Again: " Capital has always the choice of a large field." Should be, "the choice offered by a large field." Again : "Should capital be withdrawn, tenements would soon prove insuf- ficient." Should be, " the number of tenements would," etc. Again : " Men of wealth, therefore, would find their Fifth THE VERBALIST, 47 Avenue mansions and their summer villas a little more burdened with taxes, but with this increase happily bal- anced by the exemption of their bonds and mortgages, their plate and furniture." The thought here is so simple that we easily divine it ; but, if we look at the sentenct at all carefully, we find that, though we supply the ellipses in the most charitable manner possible, the sentence really says : *• Men would find their mansions more burdened, but would find them with this increased burden happily balanced by the exemption," etc. The sentence should have been framed somewhat in this wise : " Men . . . would find their . . , mansions . . . more burdened with taxes, but this increase in the taxes on their real estate would be happily balanced by the exemption from taxation of their bonds, mortgages, plate, and furniture." Again : '* Men generally . . . would be inclined to laugh at the idea of intrusting the modern politician with such gigantic opportunities for enriching his favorites." We do not intrust one another with opportttni'- tics. To enrich would better the diction. Again : " The value of land that has accrued from labor is not . . . a just o])ject for confiscation." Correctly : ** The value of land that has resulted from labor is not justly ... an object of confiscation." Accrue \^\ixo\>Gx\.y used more in the sense of spontaneous groTuth. Again : " If the state attempts to con- fiscate this increase by means of taxes, either rentals will increase correspondingly, or such a check will be put upon ///(;• growth of each place z<.w<\ all the enterprises connected with it that greater injury would be done than if things had been left untouched." We have here, it will be observed, a con- fusioii of moods ; the sentence begins in the indicative and ends in the conditional. The words in italics are worse than superfluous. Rewritten: "If the sta ? j-Z/t^/z/c/ attempt to confiscate this increase by means of taxe^, either rentals 48 THE VERBALIST, \ \ would increase correspondingly, or such a check would be put upon growth and enterprise that greater injury would," etc. Again : " The theo>y that land ... is a boon of Na- ture, to which every person has an inalienable r'ght equal to every other person, is not new." The words theory and boon are here misused. A i/ieo/y is a system of suppositions. The things man receives from Nature are giftSy not boons : the gift of reason, the gift of speech, etc. The sentence should be : " T\\q declaration {ox assertion) that land ... is ti gift oi Nature, to which every person has an inalienable right equal to that of any other person, is not new." (3r, more simply and quite as forcibly : "... to which one per- son has an inalienable right equal to that of another, is not new." Or, more simply still, and more forcibly : "... to which one luan has as good a right as another, is not new." By substituting the word man for person^ we have a word of one syllable that expresses, in this connection, all that the longer word expresses. The fewer the syllables, if the thought be fully expressed, the more vigorous the diction. Inalienability being foreign to the discussion, the long word inalienable only encumbers the sentence. " We have thus' passed in review ^ the changes and im~ provements^ which the revision contains* in the First Epis- tle to the Corinthians. It has^ not, indeed,'' been possi])lc to refer to'' them all ; but so many illustrations^ have been given in ® the several classes described that the reader will have'*' a satisfactory " survey of the whole subject. What- ever may be said of other portions '* of the New Testa- ment, we think it will be generally admitted that in this Epistle the changes have improved the old '^ translation. They are such as '^ make the English version '^ conform more completely '^ to the Greek original. If this be '^ true, the revisers have done a good work for the Church.'* If it be tni work reader blessir truth, Ta the pel Profesj to give probab it is ; a of ver' perhap. write st 4. for cc sion; 5, deed ; 7 tions to of the t II, chan parts ; nQVf one as; 15, completet tute the with the stead of the after Mendelsj have, insi or rather here simf —nothing THE VERBALIST. 49 be tnie '^ with regard to all the New Testament books, the work which they have done will remain '^*^ a blessing to the readers of those books for^' generations to come. But the blessing will be only in the clearer presentation of the Divine truth, md, therefore, it will be only to the glory of God." This astonishingly slipshod bit of composition is from th pen of the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight. If the learned Professor of Divinity in Yale College deemed it worth while to give a 1 tu thought to manner as well as to matters it is probable that his diction would be very different from what it is ; and, if he were to give a few minutes to the making of ver'ial corrections in the foregoing paragraph, he would, perhap.^, !(; something like this : i, Q\\'\w i THE VERBALIST, 51 th ic ■ir he Ic \.. way. They say, for example, " Directly he reached the city, he went to his brother's." " Directly he [the saint J was dead, the Arabs sent his woolen shirt to the sovereign." — " London News." Dr. Hall says of its use in the sense of as soon as : " But, after all, it may simply anticipate on the English of the future." DirvC This word means filth or anything that renders foul and unclean, and means nothing else. It is often im- properly used for earth or loam, and sometimes even for sand or gravel. We not unfrequently hear of a dirt road when an unpaved road is meant. Discommode. This word is rarely used ; iiicovimodc is accounted tlie better form. Diaremember. This is a word vulgarly used in the sense oi forget. It is said to be more frequently heard in the South than in tlie North. Distinguish. This verb is sometimes improperly used for discriminate. We distinguish ]jy means of the senses as well as of the understanding ; we discriminate by means of the understanding only. " It is difficult, in some cases, to distinguish betTveen^' etc. : should be, " It is difficult, in some cases, to discriminate beticeeny" etc. We distinguish one thing from another, and discriminate bet'veen two or more things. Dock — Wharf. The first of these words is often im- properly used for the second. Of docks there are several kinds : a naval dock is a i)lace for the keeping of naval stores, timber, and materials for ship-building; a dry dock is a place where vessels are drawn out of the water for repairs ; a wet dock is a place where vessels are kept afloat at a cer- tain level while they are loaded and unloaded : a sectional dock is a contrivance for raising vessels out of the water on a series of air-tight bo.xes. A dock^ then, is a place into I \ 52 THE VERBALIST, which things are received ; hence, a man might fall into a dock, but could no more fall off Zi. dock than he could fall off a hole. A zvharf is a sort of quay built by the side of the water. A similar structure built at a right angle with the shore is generally called zipicr. Vessels lie at wharves and piers ^ not at docks. Donate. This word, which is defined as meaning to give, to contribute, is looked upon by most champions of good English as being an abomination. Domition is also little used by careful writers. " Z>^;m /<:'," says Mr. Gould, " may be dismissed with this remark : so long as its place is occupied by give^ besto7v^ grants prese7it^ etc., it is not need ed ; and it should be unceremoniously bowed out, or ihrus, out, of the seat into which it has, temporarily, intruded. 'f Done. This past participle is often very ineleganthi if not improperly, used thus: "He did not cry out as some have done against it," which sliould read, " He did not cry out as some have against it " ; i c., " as some hare cried out against it." " Done is frequently a very great offender against gram- mar," says Cobbett. ^^ To do is i\\Q act of doing. We see people write, * I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished to have done.' Now, what is meant by the writer? He means to say that he did not speak so well as he then wished, or was wishing, to speak. Therefore, the sentence should be, * I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished to do.' That is to say, ' so well as I wished to do it ' ; that is to say, to do or to perform the act of speaking. " Take great care not to be too free in your use of the verb to do in any of its times or modes. It is a nice little handy word, and, like our oppressed /'/, it is made use of very often when the writer is at a loss for what to put down. To do is to act, and therefore it never can, in any of its THE VERB A LIST. ?3 ' a oft he he nd to of Iso Id, ; is 2d- usC r me cry Jilt m- see icd icn ice icd is he lie of in. its parts, supply the place of a neuter verb. ' How do you do ? ' Here do refers to the state, and is essentially pas- sive or neuter. Yet, to employ it for this purpose is very common. Dr. Blair, in his 23d Lecture, says : ' It is some- what unfortunate that this Number of the "Spectator" did not etid, as it mij^ht have done, with the former beau- tiful period.' That is to say, done it. And then we ask, Done what ? Not the act of ending, because in this case there is no action at all. The verb means to come to an end, to cease, not to go any further. This same verb to end is sometimes an active verb : ' I end my sentence ' ; then the verb to do may supply its place ; as, ' I have not ended my sentence so well as I might have done 'y that is, done it ; that is, done, or performed, the act of ending. But the Number of the * Spectator' was no actor; it was expected to perform nothing ; it was, by the Doctor, wished to have ceased to proceed. ' Did not end :{s it very well might have ended. . .' This would have been correct ; but the Doctor wished to avoid the repetition, and thus he fell into bad grammar. ' Mr. Speaker, I do wot feel so well satisfied as I should have done if the Right Plonorable Gentleman had explained the matter more fully.* To feel satisfied is — when the satisfaction is to arise from conviction produced by fact or reasoning — a senseless expression ; and to supply its place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb, by to do, is as senseless. Dona what? Tion^ the act of feeling I 'I do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done, or exe^ cuted, or performed the act of feeling' I What incompre- hensible words I " Don't. Everybody knows that don't is a contraction of do not, and that doesn't is a contraction oi does not ; and yet nearly everybody is guilty of using don't when he should use cbesnf " So you don't go ; John doesn't either, I hear." 54 THE VERBALIST. Double Genitive. An anecdote of Mr. Lincoln — an anecdote of Mr. Lincoln's. We see at a glance that these two phrases are very different in meaning. So, also, a por- trait of Brown — a portrait of Brown's. No precise rule has ever been given to guide us in our choice between these two forms of the possessive case. Sometimes it is not ma- terial which form is employed ; where, however, it is ma- terial — and it generally is — we must consider the thought we wish to express, and rely on our discrimination. Dramatize. See Adapt, Drawing-room. See Parlor. Dress — Gown. Within the memory of many persons the outer garment worn by women was properly called a gown by everybody, instead of being improperly called a dress^ as it now is by nearly everybody. Drive. See Ride. Due — Owing. These two words, though close syno- nyms, should not be used indiscriminately. The mistake usually made is in using due instead of oivivg. That is due which ought to be paid as a debt ; that is oioing which is to be referred to as a source. "It was oiving to his exertions 'hat the scheme succeeded." " It was oiving to your negli- gence that the accident happened." " A certain respect is due to men's prejudices." " This was ozinng to an indiffer- ence to the pleasures of life." " It is due to the public that I should tell all I know of the matter," Each other. " Their great authors address themselves, t*ot to their country, but to each otkcr^ — Buckle. Each other is properly applied to two only ; one another must be used when the number considered exceeds two. Buckle should have written oiw another and not each other, unless he meant to intimate that the Germans had only two great authors, which is not probable- I R THE VERBALIST, 55 1 Eat. Grammarians difTer very widely with regard to the conjugaticm of this verb ; there is no doubt, however, that from every point of view the preferable forms for the preterite and past participle are respectively ate and eaten. To refined ears the other forms smack of vulgarity, although supported by good authority. " I ate an ai)ple." '* I have eaten dinner." " John ate supper with me." " As soon as you have eaten breakfast we will set out." Editorial. The use of this adjective as a substantive is said to be an Americanism. Education. This is one of the most misused of words. A man may be well acquainted with the contents of text- books, and yet be a person of little education j on the other hand, a man may be a person of good education, and yet know little of the contents of text-books. Abraham Lin- coln antl Edwin Forrest knew comparatively little of what is generally learned in schools ; still they were men of cul- ture, men of education. A man may have ever so much book-knowledge and still be a boor ; but a man can not be a person of good education and not be — so far as manner is concerned — a gentleman. Education, then, is a whole of which Instruction and Breeding are the parts. The man or the woman — even in this democratic country of ours — who deserves the title of gentleman or lady is always a per- son of education ; i. e., he or she has a sufficient acquaint- ance with books and with the usages of social intercourse to acquit himself or herself creditably m the society of cul- tivated people. Not moral worth, nor learning, nor wealth, nor all three combined, can unaided make a gentleman, for with all three a man might be uneducated — i. e., coarse, un- bred, unschooled in those things \\hich alone make men welcome in the society of tlie refined. Effectuate. This word, together with ratiocinate and ^. .._.,. j^iiliaTkJSW-.i. 56 THE VERBALIST. eventuate, is said to he a great favorite with the rural mem« hers of the Arkansas legislature. Effluvium. Tlie plural of this word is effluvia. It is a common error with those who have no knowledge of Latin to speak of "a disagreeable eflluvia," which is as incorrect as it would be to talk about '• a disagreeable vapors." Effort without Effect. " Some writers deal in exple- tives to a degree that tires the ear and offends the under- standing. With them everything is excessively, or immense- ly , or extremely, or vastly, or surpt isitigly, or wonderfully, or abundantly, ox the like. The notion of such writers is that these words give strength to what they are saying. This is a great error. Strength must be found in the thought, or it will never be found in the words. Big-sounding words, without thoughts corresponding, are eftort without effect." — William Cobbott. See FoRClBLE-l'EEBLE. Egoist. " One of a class of philosophers who professed to be sure of nothing but their own existence." — Reid. Egotist. " One who talks much of himself." ** A tribe o{ egotists for whom I have always had a mor- tal aversion." — '* Spectator." Either. This word means, strictly, the one or the other of two. Unlike doth, which means two taken collectively, either, like each, may mean ttco considered separately ; but in this sense each is the better word to use. " Give me either of them " means, Give me the one or the other of two. " lie has a farm on either side of the river " would mean that he has two farms, one on each (or either) side of the river. *' He has a farm on both sides of the river" would mean that his farm lies partly on the one side of the river and partly on the other. The use of either in the sense of each, though biblical and defensible, may be accounted little if any better than an affectation. N^either is the negative THE VERBALIST. 57 of either. Either is responded to by or, neither by nor ; as, ''either this or that," *' neither this nor that." Either and neither should not — strictly — be used in relation to more than two objects. But, thoui;h both either -^w^ neither are strictly applicable to two only, they have been for a very long time used in relation to more than two by many good writers ; and, as it is often convenient so to use them, it seems probable that the custom will prevail. When more than tv/o things are referred to, any and none should be used instead of either ^\\(\ neit'^er ; as, ''any of the three," not, "either of the three " ; "none of the four," not, " neither of the four." Either Alternative. The word alternative means a choice offered between two thinp;s. An alternative ivtit, for example, offers the alternative of choosing between the doing of a specified act or of showing cause why it is not done. Such propositions, therefore, as, " You are at lib- erty to choose either alternative," " Two alternatives are presented to me," " Several alternatives presented them- selves," and the like, are not correct English. The word is correctly used thus : " I am confronted with a hard alterna- tive : I must either denounce a friend or betray my trust." We rarely hear the word alternate or any of its derivatives correctly pronounced. Elder. See Older. Elegant. Professor Proctor says : " If you say to an American, 'This is a fine morning,' he is likely to reply, ' It is an elegant morning,' or perhaps oftener by using sim- ply the word elegant. This is not a pleasing use of the word." This is not American English, Professor, but pop- injay English. Ellipsis. The omission of a word or of words neces- sary to complete the grammatical construction, but not J 'M IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I •riM ilM ■ m |||||Z2 :r ti& III 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" - ► V] <^ /}. r': 'cm v> 4 /,. o 7 /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTEK.N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 s h 58 THE VERBALIST, necessary to make the meaning clear, is called an ellipsis. We almost always, whether in speaking or in writing, leave out some of the words necessary to the full expression of our meaning. For example, in dating a letter to-day, we should write, •• New York, August 25, 1881," which would be, if fully written out, " I am now writing in the city of New York ; this is the twenty-fifth day of August, and this month is in the one thousand eight hundred and eighty-first year of the Christian era." "I am going to Wallack's " means, ** I am going to Wallack's theatre ^ " I shall spend the summci at my aunt's " ; i. e., at my aunt's house. By supplying the ellipses we can often discover the errors in a sentence, if there are any. Zf^joy bad Health. As no one has ever been known to enjoy bad health, it is better to employ some other form of exnression than this. Say, for example, he is in feeble^ or delicate^ health. Zjuthuse. This is a word that is occasionally heard in conversation, and is sometimes met with in print ; but it has not as yet made its appearance in the dictionaries. What its ultimate fate will be, of course, no one can tell ; for the present. !iowever, it is studiously shunned by those who are at uii careful in the selection of their language. It is said to be most used in the South. The writer has never seen it anywhere in the North but in the columns of the " Boston Congregationalist." Epigram. ** The word epigram signified originally an inscription on a monument. It next came to mean a short poem containing some single thought pointedly expressed, the subjects being veiy various — amatory, convivial, moral, eulogistic, satirical, humorous, etc. Of the various devices for brevity and point employed in such compositions, es- pecially in modem times, the most frequent is a play upon tr-vma THE VERBALIST, 59 the words. ... In the epigram the mind is roused by a conflict or contradiction between the form of the language and the meaning really conveyed." — Bain. Some examples are : " When you have nothing to say, say it." " We can not see the wood for the trees " ; that is, we can not get a general view because we are so engrossed with the details. •• Verbosity is cured by a large vocabulary " ; that is, he who commands a large vocabulary is able to select words that will give his meaning tersely. " By indignities men come to dignities." " Some people are too foolish to commit follies." " He went to his imagination for his facts, and to his memory for his tropes." Spithet. Many persons use this word who are in error with regard to its meaning ; they think that to " apply epi- thets " to a person is to vilify and insult him. Not at all. An epithet is a word that expresses a quality, good or bad ; a term that expresses an attribute. ** All adjectives are epi- thets^ but all epithets are not adjectives" says Crabb ; " thus, in Virgil's Pater vEneas, the pater is an epithet^ but not an adjective^ Epithet is the technical term of the rhetorician ; adjective^ that of the grammarian. Equally as well. A redundant form of expression, as any one will see who for a moment considers it. As well^ or equally well, expresses quite as much as equally as well. Equanimity of mind. This phrase is tautological, and expresses no more than does equanimity (literally, •* equalmindedness ") alone ; hence, of mind is superfluous, and consequently inelegant. Anxiety of mind is a scarcely less redundant form of expression. A capricious mind is in the same category. miiP 60 THE VERBALIST. Brratum. Plural, errata. Biquire. An esquire was originally the shield-bearer of a knight. It is much, and, in the opinion of some, rather absurdly, used in this country. Mr. Richard Grant White says on the subject of its use : " I have yet to discover what a man means when he addresses a letter to John Dash, Esqr," He means no more nor less than when he writes Mr. (master). The use of Esq. is quite as prevalent in England as in America, and has little more meaning there than here. It simply belongs to our stock of cour- teous epithets. Zjuphemism. A description which describes in in- ofifensive language that which is of itself offensive, or a figure which uses agreeable phraseology when the literal would be offensive, is called a euphemism. Eventuate. See Effectuate. Everlastingly. This adverb is misused in the South in a manner that is very apt to excite the risibility of one to whom the peculiar misuse is new. The writer recently visited the upper part of New York with a distinguished Southern poet and journalist. It was the gentleman's first ride over an elevated road. When we were fairly under way, in admiration of the rate of speed at which the cars were moving, he exclaimed, " Well, they do just everlast' ingly shoot along, don't they ! " Every. This word, which means simply each or all taken separately, is of late years frequently made, by slip- shod speakers, to do duty for perfect, entire, great, or all possible. Thus we have such expressions as every pains, every confidence, every praise, every charity, and so on. We also have such diction as, " Every one has this in com- mon " ; meaning, " All of us have this in common." Every-day Latin. A fortiori : with stronger reason. m THE VERBALIST. 61 A postttiori : from the effect to the cause. A ptiori : from the cause to the effect. Bona fide : in good faith ; in real- ity. Ci'r//«n- tence. The criminal is hanged. Zhcpect. This verb always has reference to what is to come, never to what is past. We can not expect back- ward. Instead, therefore, of saying, " I expect, you thought I would come to see you yesterday," we should say, " I suppose,'' etc. Bzperieace. " We experience great difficulty in get- ting him to take his medicine." The word have ought to be big enough, in a sentence like this, for anybody. *' We experienced ^XQ^ hardships." Better, '' We suffered" Extend. This verb, the primary meaning of which is to stretch out, is used, especially by lovers of big words, in connections where to give, to show, or to offer would be preferable. For example, it is certainly better to say, " They shoived me every courtesy," than " They extended every courtesy to me." See Every. False Grammar. Some examples of false grammar will show what every one is the better for knowing : that in literature nothing should be taken on tmst ; that errors of grammar even are found where we should least expect them. " I do not know whether the imputation were just or not." — Emerson. " I proceeded to iuquire if the * ex- tract' . . . «v>r a veritable quotation." — Emerson. Should 64 THE VERBALIST, be was in both cases. ** How sweet the moonlight sleeps!" — Townsend, "Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 114. Should be sweetly. "There is no question but these arts . . . will greatly aid him," etc. — Ibid., p. 130. Should be that. " Near- ly all who have been distinguished in literature or oratory have made . . . the generous confession that their attain- ments have been reached through patient and laborious in- dustry. They have declared that speaking and writing, though once difficult for them, have become well-nigh recrea- tions." — Ibid., p. 143. The have been should be were^ and the have become should be became. '* Many pronominal ad- verbs are correlatives of each other.'' — Harkness's " New Latin Grammar," p. 147. Should be one another. " Hot and cold springs, boiling springs, and quiet springs lie with- in a few feet of ecuh other^ but none of them are properly geysers'* — Appletons' "Condensed Cyclopaedia," vol. ii, p. 414. Should be one another^ and not one of them is properly a geyser. " How much better for you as seller and the nation as buyer . . . than to sink ... in cutting one another's throats." Should ho^ each other's. "A minister, noted for prolixity of style, was once preaching before the inmates of a lunatic asylum. In one of his illustrations he painted a scene of a man condemned to be hung, but reprieved under the gallows." These two sentences are so faulty that the only way to mend them is to rewrite them. They are from a work that professes to teach the "art of speech." Mend- ed: "A minister, noted for his prolixity, once preached be- fore the inmates of a lunatic asylum. By way of illus- tration he painted a scene in which a man, who had been condemned to be hanged, was reprieved under the gallows." Female. The terms male and female are not unfre- quently used where good taste would suggest some other word. For example, we see over the doors of school- THE VERBALIST. 6S rs. ■■ houses, "Entrance for males," "Entrance for females." Now bucks and bulls are males as well as boys and men, and cows and sows arc females as well us girls and women. Fetch. See Bring. Fewer. See Less. Final Oompletion. If there were such a thing as a plurality or a series of completions, there would, of course, be such a thing as the final completion ; but, as every completion is final, to talk about a final completion is as absurd as it would be to talk about 21. final finality. First rate. There are people who object to this phrase, and yet it is well enough when properly placed, as it is, for example, in such a sentence as this : " He's a ' first class * fellow, and I like him first rate ; if I didn't, • you bet ' I'd just give him ' hail Columbia ' for ' blowing ' the thing all round town like the big fool that he is." Firstly. George Washington Moon says in defense of firstly : '* I do not object to the occasional use of first as an adverb ; but, in sentences where it would be followed by secondly, thirdly, etc., I think that the adverbial form is preferable." To this, one of Mr. Moon's critics replies : •* However desirable it may be to employ the \\OTf\ firstly on certain occasions, the fact remains that the employment of it on any occasion is not the best usage." Webster in- serts firstly, but remarks, " Improperly used for first." Flee — Fly. These verbs, though near of kin, are not interchangeable. For example, we can not say, " He fiezif the city," ** Hefiew from his enemies," '* Hefiew at the ap- proach of danger," fiew being the imperfect tense of to fiy, which is properly used to express the action of birds on the wing, of kites, arrows, etc. The imperfect tense of to flee \sf.ed; hence, '* Hefied the city," etc. Foroible^eeble. This is a "novicy" kind of diction 66 THE VERBALIST. in which the would-be forcible writer defeats his object by the overuse of expletives. Examples : " And yet the gnat centralization of wealth is one of the [great] evils of the day. All that Mr. utters [says] upon this point is forcible and just. This centralization is due to the enor'- mous reproductive power of capital, to the immense advan- tage that costly and complicated machinery gives to great [large] establishments, and to the marked difference of per- sonal force among men." The first p'eat is misplaced ; the word utters is misused ; the second great is ill-chosen. The other words in italics only enfeeble the sentence. Again : " In countries where immense [large] estates exist, a breaking up of these vast demesnes into many minor freeholds would no doubt be a [of] voy great advantage." Substitute large fur immense^ and take out vast^ many^ and very, and the language becomes much more forcible. Again : " The vety first effect of the taxation plan would be destructive to the interests of this great multitude [class] ; it would im- poverish our innumerable farmers, it 7i'ould confiscate the earnings of [our] industrious tradesmen and artisans, it 7uould [and] paralyze the hopes of struggling millions." What a waste of portly expletives is here ! With them the sentence is high-flown and weak ; take them out, and in- troduce the words inclosed in brackets, and it becomes simple and forcible. Friend — Acquaintance. Some philosopher has said that he who has half a dozen friends in the course of his life may esteem himself fortunate ; and yet, to judge from many people's talk, one would suppose they had friends by the score. No man knows whether he has any friends cr not until he has " their adoption tried " ; hence, he who is desirous to call things by their right names will, as a rule, use the word acquaintance instead oi friend. * ' Your friend " .- f ■ W'?iaMlil|ili|illWBji iTblhiiiia^lMi THE VERBALIST. 67 f is a favorite and very objectionable way many people, es- pecially young people, have of writing themselves at the bottom of their letters. In this way the obscure stripling protests himself the friend of the first man in the land, and that, too, when he is, perhaps, a comparative stranger and asking a favor. Qalsome. Here is a good, sonorous Anglo-Saxon word — meaning malignant, venomous, churlish — that has fallen into disuse. Gentleman. Few things are in worse taste than to use the term gentleman^ whether in the singular or plural, to designate the sex. " If I was a gentleman" says Miss Snooks. ^* Gentlemen have just as much curiosity as ladies^** says Mrs. Jenkins. '* Gentlemen have so much more liberty than we ladies have," says Mrs. Parvenue. Now, if these ladies were ladies, they would in each of these cases use the word man instead o{ gentleman^ and woman instead of lady ; further, Miss Snooks would say, " If I were." Well-bred men, men of culture and refinement — gentlemen, in short — use the- terms lady and gentleman comparatively little, and they are especially careful not to call themselves gentlemen when they can avoid it. A gentleman, for example, does not say, " I, with some other gentlemen, went," etc. ; he is careful to leave out the word otker. The men who use these terms most, and especially those who lose no oppor- tunity to proclaim themselves gentlemen^ belong to that class of men who cock their hats on one side of their heads, and often wear them when and where gentlemen would remove them ; who pride themselves on their familiarity with the latest slang ; who proclaim their independence by showing the least possible consideration for others ; who laugh long and loud at their own wit ; who wear a profusion of cheap . finery, such as outlandish watch-chains hooked in the low- 68 THE VERBALIST, est button-hole of their vests, Brazilian diamonds in theii shirt-bosoms, and big seal-rings on their little fingers ; who use bad grammar and interlard their conversation with big oaths. In business correspondence Smith is addressed as 6», while Smith & Brown are often addressed as GentlC' men — or, vulgarly, as Gents. Better, much, is it to address them as Sirs. Since writing the foregoing, I have met with the follow- ing paragraph in the London publication, "All the Year Round " : " Socially, the term ' gentleman ' has become al- most vulgar. It is certainly less emi)loycd by gentlemen than by inferior persons. The one speaks of 'a man I know,' the o*her of 'a gentleman I know.' In the one case the gentleman is taken for granted, in the other it seems to need specification. Again, as regards the term * lady.* It is quite \\\ accordance with the usages of society to speak of your acquaintance the duchess as ' a very nice person.' People who would say ' very nice lady ' are not generally of a social class which has much to do with duchesses ; and if you speak of one of these as a ' person/ you will soon be made to feel your mistake." Gents. Of all vulgarisms, this is, perhaps, the most offensive. If we say ^tV/Zj, -why not say lades ? Gerund. " * I have work to do,' * there is no more to say,' are phrases where the verb is not in the common in- finitive, but in the form of the gerund. ' He is the man to do it, or for doing it.' 'A house to let' ' the course to steer by,' 'a place to lie in,* 'a thing to be done,' 'a city to take refuge in,' ' the means to do ill deeds,' are adjective gerunds ; they may be expanded into clauses : ' a house that the owner lets or will let * ; * the course that we should steer by ' ; 'a thing that should be done ' ; * a city wherein one may take refuge ' ; * the means whereby ill deeds may be y ■ -y-i '-' fltfiiiliT -I -I. ^ . W:X-"- ! r//£ VEHBALIST. 69 done.' When the to ceased in the twelfth century to be a distinctive mark of the dative infinitive or gerund, for was introduced to make the writer's intention clear. Hence the familiar form in • what went ye out for to see?' ' they came for to show him the temple.' " — Bain. Get. In sentences expressing simple possession — as, " I have got a book," " What has he got there ? " " Have you got any news?" "They have got a new house," etc. — got is entirely superfluous, if not, as somt; writers contend, ab- solutely incorrect. Possession i. completelv expressed by have. " Foxes have holes ; the bi ds of the air have ii'jsts" ; not, " Foxes have got hoi -s , the birds of ihe air have got nests," Formerly the imperfect tense of this verb was gat^ which is now obsolete, and the perfect participle was gotten^ which, some grammarians say, is growing ob«^o- lete. If this be true, there is no good reason for it. If we say eaten^ written^ sttiven, forgotten, why not say gotten^ where this form of the participle is more euphonious — as it often is — than got ? Qoods. This term, like other terms used in trade, should be restricted to the vocabulary of commerce. Messrs. Arnold & Constable, in common with the Washington Market huckster, very properly speak of their wares as \>\€\x good^ ; but Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Constable should, and I doubt not do, speak of their gowns as being made of fine or coarse silk, cashmere, muslin, or whatever the material may be. Oould against Alford. Mr. Edward S. Gould, in his review of Dean Alford's " Queen's English," remarks, on page 131 of his " Good English " : " And nuv/. as to the style* of the Dean's book, taken as a whole. He must be held responsible for every error in it ; because, as has been * Mr. Gould criticises the Dean's dictioHy not his style. JO THE VERBALIST. Si "* shown, he has had full leisure for its ro\Ision.* The errors are, nevertheless, numerous ; and the shortest way to ex- hibit them is f in tabular form." In several instances Mr. Gould would not have taken the Dean to task had he known English better. The following are a few of Mr. Gould's corrections in which he is clearly in the right : Paragraph 4. " Into another land than " ; should be, '* into a land other than." 16. " We do not follow rule in spelling other words, but custom " ; should be, " we do not follow ru/e, but cus- tom^ in spelling," etc. 18. " The distinction is observed in French, but never appears to have been made," etc. ; read, " appears never to have been made." 61. '^'^ Rather to aspirate more than less"; should be, " to aspirate more rather than less." 9. "It is said also only to occur three times," etc. ; read, *' occur only three times." 44. *' This doubling only takes place in a syllable," etc. ; read, " takes place only!' 142. " Which can only be decided when those circum- stances are known " ; read, '^ can be decided only when," etc. 166. " I will only say that it produces," etc. ; read, " I will say only" etc. 170. " It is- said that this can only be fdled in thus " ; read, '* can h^ filled in only thus." 368. " I can only deal with the complaint in a generJ way " ; read, " deal unth the complaint only" etc. 36, " In so far as they are idiomatic," etc. What is the use of in ? 171. " Try the experiment"; '^ tried the experiment." Read, make and made. 345. " It is W(?j-/ generally used of that very sect," etc. Why most ? * Better, " to revise it." t " Is to/ut them \\\ tabulrr form." 1 1 I 1 THE VERBALIST. 7» •'I "Nfej- 'I i i 362. '* The joining together two clauses with a third," etc. ; read, •' of two clauses," etc. Qown. See Dress. Graduated. Students do -noi graduate ; they ar^ grad- uated. Hence most writers nowadays say, ** I was, he was, or they were graduated " ; and ask, " When were you, or was he, graduated ? " Qrammatical Errors. " The correctness of the ex- pression grammatical errors has been disputed. * How,' it has been asked, * can an error be grammatical ? ' How, it may be replied, can wc with propriety say, grammatically incorrect? Yet we can do so. *' No one will question the propriety of saying grcm- matically correct. Yet the expression is the acknowledg- ment of things grammatically incorrect. Likewise the phrase grammatical correctness implies the existence oi grammatical Incorrectness. If, then, a sentence \^ grammatically incorrect, or, what is the same thing, has grammatical incorrectness, it includes a grammatical error. Grammatically incorrect signifies incorrect with relation to the rules of GRAMMAR. Grammatical errors signifies ERRORS WITH re- lation TO the rules of grammar. "They who ridicule the i^\ix:!i%Q grammatical errors, and substitute the phrase errors in grammar, make an egregious mistake. Can there, it may be asked with some show of reason, be an error in grammar ? Why, grammar is a science founded in our nature, referable to our ideas of time, relation, method ; imperfect, doubtless; as to the sys- tem by which it is represented ; but surely we can speak of error in that which .., error's criterion ! All this is hypercritical, but hypercriticism must be met with its own weapons. " Of the two expressions — a grammatical error^ and an ^W^" mmmm ^^ THE VERBALIST, error in grammar — the former is preferable. If one's judg- ment can accept neither, one must relinquish the belief in the possibility of tersely expressing the idea cf an offense against grammatical rules. Indeed, it would be difficult to express the idea even by circumlocution. Should some one "say, * This sentence is, according to the rules of gram- mar, incorrect.' * What ! ' the hypercritic may exclaim, ' in^ correct ! and according to the rules of grammar ! ' ' This sentence, then,' the corrected person would reply, ' contains an error in grammar.' * Nonsense ! ' the hypercritic may shout, ' grammar is a science ; you may be wrong in its interpretation, but principles are immutable ! ' " After this, it need scarcely be added that, grammati- cally, no one can make a mistake, that there can be no grammatical mistake, that there can be no bad grammar, and, consequently, no bad English ; a very pleasant con- clusion, which would save us a great amount of trouble if it did not lack the insignificant quality of being true." — ** Vul- garisms and Other Errors of Speech." Gratuitous. There are those who object to the use of this word in the sense of unfounded, unwarranted, unreason- able, untrue. Its use in this sense, however, has the sanc- tion of abundant authority. " Weak and gratuitous con- jectures." — Porson. " A gratuitous assumption." — Godwin. " The gratuitous theory." — Southey. ** A gratuitous inven- tion." — De Quincey. '* But it is needless to dwell on the improbability of a hypothesis which has been shown to be altogether gratuitous.'' — Dr. Newman. Qrow. This verb originally meant to increase in size, but has normally come to be also used to express a change from one state or condition to another ; as, to gro7v dark, to grow weak or strong, to grow faint, etc. But it is doubt- ful whether what is large can properly be said to grow ' -9S»J»->«s^,,». THE VERBALIST. n small. In this sen^e, become would seem to be the better word. /^"Xy^ f^ Oums. See Rubbers. ^ ^ ^ Had h^ve. Nothing could be more incorrect than the bringing together of these two auxiliary verbs in this man- ner ; and yet we occasionally find it in writers of repute. Instead of " Had I known it," " Had you seen it," " Had we been there," we hear, " Had I have known it," " Had you have seen it," " Had we have been there." Had ought. This is a vulgarism of the worst descrip- tion, yet we hear people, who would be highly indignant if any one should intimate that they were not ladies and gentlemen, say, ** He had ought to go." A fitting reply would be, " Yes, I think he better had." Ought says all that had ought says. Had rather. This expression and had better are mucli used, but, in the opinion of many, are indefensible. We hear them in such sentences as, ** I had rather not do it," *' You had better go home." " Now, what tense," it is asked, **is had do and had go?'' If we transpose the words thus, '* You had do better (to) go home," it becomes at once appar- ent, it is asserted, that the proper word to use in connection with rather diwdi better \^ not had^ but would ; thus, " I would rather not do it," *' Yov would better go home." Examples of this use of had z:sxi be found in the v ritings of our best authors. For what Professor Bain has to say on this sub- ject in his Composition Grammar," see Subjunctive Mood. Half. " It might have been expressed in one half the space.* We see at a glance that one here is superfluous. Hanged — Hung. The irregular form, hungy of the past participle of the verb to hang is most used ; but, when the word denotes suspension by the neck for the purpose of 74 THE VERBALIST, destroying life, the regular form, hanged^ is always used bj careful writers and speakers. Haste. See Hurry. Heading. See Caption. Healthy — Wholesome. The first of these two words is often improperly used for the second ; as, " Onions are a healthy vegetable." A man, if he is in good health, is heaU thy ; the food he eats, if it is not deleterious, is loholesome. A healthy ox makes wholesome food. We speak of healthy surroundings, a healthy climate, situation, employment, and of wholesome food, advice, examples. Healthful is gener- ally used in the sense of conducive to health, virtue, moral- ity ; as, healthful exercise, the healthful spirit of the com- munity — meaning that the spirit thai, prevails in the com- munity is conducive to virtue and good morals. Helpmate. The dictionaries suggest that this word is a corruption of help and meet^ as we find these words used in Gen. ii, i8, ** I will make him a help meet for him," and that the proper word is helpmeet. If, as is possible, the words in Genesis mean, " I will make him a help, meet [suitable] for him," then neither helpmate nor helpmeet has any raison d'itre. Highfalutin. This is a style of writing often called the freshman style. It is much indulged in by very young men, and by a class of older men who instinctively try to make up in clatter for what they lack in matter. Examples of this kind of writing are abundant in Professor L. T. Townsend's ** Art of Speech," which, as examples, are all the better for not being of that exaggerated description sometimes met with in the newspapers. Vol. i, p. 131 : *' Very often ad- verbs, prepositions, and relatives drift so far from their moor- ings as to lose themselves, or make attachments where they do not belong." Again, p. 135 : •' Every law of speech ex. THE VERBALIST. 7S forces the statement that there is no excuse for such inflated and defective style. [Such style !] To speak thus is treason in the realms and under the laws of language." Again, p. 175 : " Cultivate figure-making habitudes. This is done by asking the spiritual import of every physical object seen ; also by forming the habit of constantly metaphoriz- ing. Knock at the door of anything met which interests, and ask, ' Who lives here ? ' The process is to look, then close the eyes, then look within." The blundering inan- ity of this kind of writing is equaled only by its bump- tious grandiloquence. On p. 137 Dr. Townsend quotes this wholesome admonition from Coleridge : " If men would only say what they have to say in plain terms, how much more eloquent they would be ! " As an example of reportorial highfalutin, I submit the following : " The spirit of departed day had joined communion with the myriad ghosts of centuries, and four full hours fled into eternity before the citizens of many parts of the town found out there was a freshet here at all." Hints. " Never write about any matter that you do not well understand. If you clearly understand all about your matter, you will never want thoughts, and thoughts instantly become words. "One of the greatest of all faults in writing and in speaking is this : the using of many words to say little. In order to guard yourself against this fault, inquire what is the substance^ or amount, of what you have said. Take a long speech of some talking Lord and put down upon paper what the amount of it is. You will most likely find that the amount is very small ; but at any rate, when you get it, you will then be able to examine it and to tell what it is worth. A very few examinations of the sort will so frighten you that you will be for ever after upon 76 THE VERBALIST, your guard against talking a great deal and saying little y-~- Cobbett. *' Be simple, be unaffected, be honest in your speaking and writing. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Call a spade a spade^ not a well-known oblong instrument of manual husbandry ; let home be home^ not a residence ; a place a place ^ not a locality ; and so of the rest. Where a short word will do, you always lose by using a long one. You lose in clearness ; you lose in honest expression of your meaning ; and, in the estimation of all men who are qualified to judge, you lose in reputation for ability. The only true way to shine, even in this false world, is to be modest and unassuming. Falsehood may be a ver thick crust, but, in the course of time, truth will find a place to break through. Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us ; but simplicity and straightforwardness are. Write much as you would speak ; speak as you think. If with your inferiors, speak no coarser than usual ; if with your superiors, no finer. Be -vhat you say ; and, within the rules of prudence, say what you are." — Dean Alford. "Go critically over what you have written, and strike out every word, phrase, and clause which it is found will leave the sentence neither less clear nor less forcible than it is without them." — Swinton. " With all watchfulness, it is astonishing what slips are made, even by good writers, in the employment of an inap- propriate word. In Gibbon's ' Rise and Fall,* the foll< v- ing instance occurs : * Of nineteen tyrants who started up after the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace or a natural death.' Alison, in his ' His- tory of Europe,' writes : ' Two great sins — one oi omission and one of commission — have been committed by the states of Europe in modern times.* And not long since a worthy THE VERBALIST. 77 Scotch minister, at the close of the services, intimated his intention of visiting some of his people as follows : * I intend, during this week, to visit in Mr. M 's district, and will on this occasion take the opportunity of embracing all the servants in the district.' When worthies such as these offend, who shall call the bellman in question as he cries, * Lost, a silver-handled silk lady's parasol ' ? *' The proper arrangement of words into sentences and paragraphs gives clearness and strength. To attain a clear and pithy style, it may be necessary to cut down, to re- arrange, and to rewrite whole passages of an essay. Gib- bon wrote his ' Memoirs ' six times, and the first chapter of his ' History ' three times. Beginners are always slow to prune or cast away any thought or expression which may have cost labor. They forget that brevity is no sign of thoughtlessness. Much consideration is needed to com- press the details of any subject into small compass. Es- sences are more difficult to prepare, and therefore more valuable, than weak solutions. Pliny wrote to one of his friends, ' I have not time to write you a short letter, there- fore I have written you a long one.' Apparent elaborate- ness is always distasteful and weak. Vividness and strength are the product of an easy command of those small trench- ant Saxon monosyllables which abound in the English lan- guage." — "Leisure Hour." "As a rule, the student will do well to banish for the present all thought of ornament or elegance, and to aim only at expressing himself plainly and clearly. The best ornament is always that which comes unsought. Let him not beat about the bush, but go straight to the point. Let him remember that what is written is meant to be read ; that time is short ; and that — other things being equal — the fewer words the better. . . . Repetition is a far ^m 78 r//£ VERBALIST. less serious fault than obscurity. Young writers are often unduly afraid of repeating the same word, and require to be reminded that it is always better to use the right word over again than to replace it by a wrong one — and a word which is liable to be misunderstood is a wrong one. A frank repetition of a word has even sometimes a kind of charm — ^as bearing the stamp of truths the foundation of all excellence of style." — Hall. " A young writer is afraid to be simple ; he has no faith in beauty unadorned, hence he crowds his sentences with superlatives. In his estimation, turgidity passes for eloquence, and simplicity is but another name for that which is weak and unmeaning." — George Washington Moon. Honorable. See Reverend. How. *' I have heard how in Italy one is beset on all sides by beggars": read, "heard that'' "I have heard how some critics have been pacified with claret and a sup- per, and others laid asleep with soft notes of flattery."— Dr. Johnson. The hoxo in this sentence also should be that. Hoiv means the manner in which. We may, therefore, say, " I have heard ho7u he went about it to circumvent you." •'And it is good judgment alone can dictate how far to proceed in it and when to stop." Cobbett comments on this sentence in this wise : "Dr. Watts is speaking hete of writing. In such a case, an adverb, like how far, ex- pressive of longitudinal space, introduces a rhetoncal figure ; for the plain meaning is, that judgment will dictate how much to write on it and not how far to proceed in it. The figure, however, is very proper and much better than the literal words. But when a figure is begun it should be car- ried on throughout, which is not the case here ; for the m. THE VERBALIST. 79 Doctor begins with a figure of longitudinal space and ends with a figure of time. It should have been, where to stop. , I Or, how /ong to proceed in it and wAen to stop. To tell a man Aow far he is to go into the Western countries of America, and when he is to stop, is a very different thing from telling him how far he is to go and where he is to stop. I have dwelt thus on this distinction for the purpose of putting you on the watch and guarding you against con- founding figures. The less you use them the better, till you understand more about them." Humanitarianism. This word, in its original, theo« logical sense, means the doctrine that denies the godhead of Jesus Christ, and avers that he was possessed of a hu* . man nature only ; a humanitarian^ therefore, in the theo- u logical sense, is one who believes this doctrine. The word and its derivatives are, however, nowadays, both, in this country and in England, most used in a humane, philan- thropic sense ; thus, " The audience enthusiastically en- dorsed the humanitarianism of his eloquent discourse." — • Hatton. Hung. See Hanged. Hurry. Though widely different in meaning, both the verb and the noun hurry are continually used for haste and hasten. Hurry implies not only haste^ but haste with con- fusion, flurry ; while haste implies only rapidity of 'action, an eager desire to make progress, and, unlike hurry, is not incompatible with deliberation and dignity. It is often wise to hasten in the affairs of life ; but, as it is never wise to proceed without forethought and method, it is never wise to hurry. Sensible people, then, may be often in haste, but are never in a hurry ; and we tell others to make haste, and not to hurry up. Hyperbolt. The magnifying of things beyond thei* 8 8o THE VERBALIST. natural limits is called hyperbole. Language that signifies, literally, more than the exact truth, more than is really in- tended to be represented, by which a thing is represented greater or less, better or worse than it really is, is said to be hyperbolical. Hyperbole is exaggeration. " Our common forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles'* — Blair. Some examples are the following : *' Rivers of blood and hills of slain." " They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions." " The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed." " So frowned the mighty combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown." " I saw their chief tall as a rock of ice ; his spear the blasted fir ; his shield the rising moon ; he sat on the shore like a cloud of mist on a hill." Ice-cream — ^Ice-water. As for ice-cream, there is no such thing, as ice-cream would be the product of frozen cream, i. e., cream made from ice by melting. "What is called ice-cream is cream iced ; hence, properly, iced cream and not ^V^r-cream. The product of melted ice is iV^-water, whether it be cold or warm ; but water made cold with ice is iced water, and not iV 1^^ 86 THE VERBALIST, Interrogation. The rhetorical figure that asks a ques- tion in order to emphasize the reverse of what is asked is called interrogation; as, "Do we mean to submit to this measure ? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we our- selves, our country and its rights, shall be trampled on ? " " Doth God pervert judgment ? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?" Introduce. See Present. Irony. That mode of speech in which what is meant is contrary to the literal meaning of the words — in which praise is bestowed when censure is intended — is called irony. Irony is a kind of delicate sarcasm or satir^; — raillery, mockery. *' In writings of humor, figures are sometimes used of so delicate a nature that it shall often happen that some people will see things in a direct contrary sense to what the author and the majority of the readers understand them : to such the most innocent irony may appear irreligion." — Cam- bridge. Irritate. See Aggravate. ' Is being built. A tolerable idea of the state of the dis- cussion regarding the propriety of using the locution is being built, and all like expressions, will, it is hoped, be obtained from the following extracts. The Rev. Peter Bullions, in his " Grammar of the English Language," says : " There is properly no passive form, in English, corre. spontiing to the progressive form in the active voice, except where it is made by the participle ing, in a passive sense ; thus. ' The house is building ' ; * The garments are making'; * Wheat is selling,' etc. An attempt has been made by some grammarians, of late, to banish such expressions from the language, though they have been used in all time past by the best writers, and to justify and defend a clumsy solo THE VERBALIST. 87 ise ; pg'; by rom )ast lole- cism, which has been recently introduced chiefly through the newspaper press, but which has gained such currency, and is becoming so familiar to the ear, that it seems likely to prevail, with all its uncouthness and deformity. I refer to such expressions as ' The house is being built ' ; ' The letter is being written'; 'The mine is being worked'; ' The news is being telegraphed,' etc., etc. ** This mode of expression had no existence ia the lan- guage till idthin the last fifty years. ^ This, indeed, would not make the expression wrong, were it otherwise unexcep- tionable ; but its recent origin shows that it is not, as is pretended, a necessary form. " This form of expression, when analyzed, is found not to express what it is intended to express, and would be used only bv such as are either ignorant of its import or are careless and loose in their use of language. To make this manifest, let it be considered, first, that there is no progres- sive form of the verb to be, and no need of it ; hence, there is no such expression in English as is being. Of course the expression * is being built,' for example, is not a compound of is being and built, but of is and being built ; that is, of the verb to be and the present participle passive. Now, let it be observed that the only verbs in which the present participle passive expresses a continued action are those mentioned above as the first class, in which the recjular passive form expresses a continuance of the action ; as, is loved, is desired, etc., and in which, of course, the form in question {is being built) is not required. Nobody would think of saying, 'He is being loved'; 'This result is being desired.' " The use of this form is justified only by condemning an cstablisJied usage of the language ; namely, the passive * Bullions' " Grammar " was published in 1867. 8g THE VERBALIST, sense in some verbs of the participle in ing. In reference to this it is flippantly asked, ' What does the house build?' 'What does the letter write?' etc. — taking for granted, without attempting to prove, that the participle in ing can not have a passive sense in any verb. The follow- ing are a few examples from writers of the best reputation, which this novelty would condemn : ' While the ceremony was performing.' — Tom. Brown. ' The court was then holding.' — Sir G. McKenzie. ' And still be doing, never done.' — Butler. ' The books are selling.' — Allen's ' Gram- mar.' ' To know nothing of what is transacting in the regions above us.' — Dr. Blair. ' The spot where this new and strange tragedy was acting.' — E. Everett. * The for- tress was building.' — Irving. ' An attempt is making in the English parliament.' — D. Webster. ' The church now erecting in the city of New York.' — * N. A. Review,' ' These things were transacting in England.' — Bancroft. "This new doctrine is in opposition to the almost unani' inoiis judgment of the most distinguished grammarians and critics, who have considered the subject, and expressed their views concerning it. The following are a specimen : * Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics; but the usage is unquestionably of far belter authority, and (according to my apprehension) in far better taste, than the more complex phraseology which some late writers adopt in its stead ; as, " The books are now being sold." * — Goold Brown. ' As to the notion of introducing a new and more complex passive form of conjugation, as, " The bridge is being builty' " The bridge iva<> being builty" and so forth, it is one of the most absurd and monstrous innovations ever thought of. *' The work is now being published,'* is cer- tainly no better English than, " The work was being pub- lished, has been being published, had been being published^ THE VERBALIST. 89 ssed kien : tics ; and the dopt oold nore ;e is ,itis ever cer- ub' hed. shall or will be being published, shall or 7vill har'c been being published,'' and so on through all the moods and tenses. What a language shall we have when our verbs are thus conjugated ! ' — Brown's ' Gr. of Eng. Gr.,' p. 361. De War observes : * The participle in ing is also passive in many instances; as, "The house is building," "I heard of a plan forming,"' etc. — Quoted in ' Frazee's Grammar,' p. 49. * It would be an absurdity, indeed, to give up the only way we have of denoting the incomplete state of action by a passive form (viz., by the participle in ing in the passive sense).' — Arnold's 'English Grammar,' p. 46. 'The pres- ent participle is often used passively ; as, " The ship is building." The form of expression, is being built, is being committed, etc., is almost universally condemned by gram- marians, but it is sometimes met with in respectable writers ; it occurs most frequently in newspaper paragraphs and in hasty compositions. See Worcester's" Universal and Criti- cal Dictionary."' — Weld's 'Grammar,' pp. 118 and 180. 'When we say, "The house is building," the advocates of the new theory ask, " Building what? ' We might ask, in turn, when you say, " The field ploughs well," — " Ploughs what?" "Wheatsells well,"— "Sells what?" If usage al- lows us to say, " Wheat sells at a dollar," in a sense that is not active, why may we not say, " Wheat is selling at a dol- lar," in a sense that is not active?' — Hart's 'Grammar,' p. 76. ' The prevailing practice of the best authors is in favor of the simple form ; as, " The house is building." ' — Wells' ' School Grammar,* p. 148. ' Several other ex- pressions of this sort now and then occur, such as the new- fangled and most uncouth solecism '^ is being done,'' for the good old English idiom " is doing " — an absurd periphrasis driving out a pointed and pithy turn of the English lan- guage.' — 'N. A. Review,' quoted by Mr. Wells, p. 148. J I 90 THE VERBALIST. ■f'.:>i- 4^ fef * The phrase, " is being built," and others of a similar kind, have been for a few years insinuating themselves into our language ; still they are not English.' — Harrison's ' Rise, Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language.' ' This mode of expression [the house is being built] is be- coming quite common. It is liable, however, to several important objections. It appears formal and pedantic. It has not, as far as I know, the support of any respectable grammarian. The easy and natural expression is, " Tlie house is building." '—Prof. J. W. Gibbs." Mr. Richard Grant White, in his "Words and Their Uses," expresses his opinion of the locution is being in this wise : " In bad eminence, at the head of those intruders in language which to many persons seem to be of established respectability, but the right of which to be at all is not fully admitted, stands out the form of speech is being done, or rather, is being, which, about seventy or eighty years ago, began to affront the eye, torment the ear, and assault the common sense of the speaker of plain and idiomatic Eng- lish." Mr. Wh'te devotes thirty pages of his book to the discussion of the subject, and adduces evidence that is more than sufficient to convince those who are content with an ^.r /rt-r/t' examination that "it can hardly be that such an incongruous and ridiculous form of speech as is being done was contrived by a man who, by any stretch of the name, should be included among grammarians." Mr. George P. Marsh, in his " Lectures on the English Language," says that the deviser of the locution in question was "some grammatical pretender," and that it is "an awkward neologism, which neither convenience, intelli- gibility, nor syntactical congruity demands." To these gentlemen, and to those who are of their way of thinking with regard to is being, Dr. Fitzedward Hall • tK thl th( THE VERBALIST, 91 the iglisli jstion "an itelU- replies at some length, in an article published in '* Scribner's Monthly " for April, 1872. Dr. Hall writes : '•'All really well educated in the English tongue la- ment the many innovations introduced into our language from America ; and I doubt if more than one of these novehies deserve acceptation. That one is, substituting a compound participle for an active verb used in a neuter signification : for instance, " The house is being built,'' in- stead of, " The house is building^ ' Such is the assertion and such is the opinion of some anonymous luminary,* who, for his liberality in welcoming a supposed American- ism, is somewhat in advance of the herd of his countrymen. Almost any popular expression which is considered as a novelty, a Briton is pretty certain to assume, off-hand, to have originated on our side of the Atlantic. Of the asser- tion I have quoted, no proof is offered ; and there is little probability that its author had any to offer. ' Are being,' in the phrase ' are being thrown up,' f is spoken of in ' The North American Review ' if as ' an outrage upon English idiom, 'to be devested, abhorred, execrated, and given over to six thousand " penny-paper editors ' ; and the fact is, that phrases of the form here pointed at have hitherto enjoyed very much less favor with us than with the Eng- lish. " As lately as i860, Dr. Worcester, referring to is being built, etc., while acknowledging iha*^ ' this new form has * " L. W. K., CLK., LL. D., EX. SCH., T. C, D. Of this reverend gentleman's personality I know nothing. He does not say exactly what he means ; but what he means is, yet, unmistakable. The ex- tract given above is from ' Public Opinion,' January 20, 1866." t " The analysis, taken for granted in this quotation, of 'are being thrown up ' into ' are being ' and ' thrown up ' will be dealt with in the sequel, and shown to be untenable." % " Vol. xlv, p. 504 (1837)." 92 THE VERBALIST, i been used by some respectable writers,' speaks of it as having * been introduced ' * within a few years.' Mr, Richard Grant White, by a most peculiar process of ra- tiocination, endeavors to prove that what Dr. Worcester calls * this new form ' came into existence just fifty-six years ago. He premises that in Jarvis's translation of * Don Quixote,' published in 1742, there occurs ' were car- rying,' and that this, in the edition of 1818, is sophisticated into * were being carried.' ' This change,* continues our logician, ' and the appearance of is being with a perfect participle in a very few books published between a. d. 1815 and 1820, indicate the former period as that of the origin of this phraseology, which, although more than half a cen- tury old, is still pronounced a novelty as well as a nui- sance.' *' Who, in the next place, devised our modern imper- fects passive ? The question is not, originally, of my asking ; but, as the learned are at open feud on the sub- ject, it should not be passed by in silence. Its deviser is, more than likely, as undiscoverable as the name of the valiant antediluvian who first tasted an oyster. But the deductive character of the miscreant is another thing ; and hereon there is a war between the philosophers. Mr. G. P. Marsh, as if he had actually spotted the wretched creat- ure, passionately and categorically denounces him as ' some grammatical pretender.' ' But,' replies Mr. White, ' that it is the work of any grammarian is more than doubtful. Grammarians, with all their faults, do not deform language with fantastic solecisms, or even seek to enrich it with new and startling verbal combinations. They rather resist novelty, and devote themselves to formulating that which use has already established.' In the same page with this, Mr. White compliments the great unknown as ' some pre- J THE VERBALIST. 93 cise and feeble-minded soul,' and elsewhere calls him 'some pedantic writer of the last generation.' To ndtl even one word toward a solution of the knotty point here indicated transcends, I confess, my utmost competence. It is pain- ful to picture to one's self the agonizing emotions with which certain philologists would contemplate an authentic effigy of the Attila of speech who, by his is being built or is being done, first offered violence to the whole circle of the proprieties. So far as I have observed, the first gram-, mar that exhibits them is that of Mr. R. S. Skillern, M. A., the first edition of which was published at Gloucester in l8c2. Robert Southey had not, on the gth of October, 1795, been out of his minority quite two months when, evidently delivering himself in a way that had already be- come familiar enough, he wrote of 'a fellow whose utter- most upper grinder is being torn out by the roots by a mutton-fisted barber.' * This is in a letter. But repeated instances of the same kind of expression are seen inSouthey's graver writings. Thus, in his ' Colloquies,' etc.f we read of ' such [nunneries] as at this time are being reestablished* " ' While my hand was being drest by Mr. Young, I spoke for the first time,' wrote Coleridge, in March, 1797. " Charles Lamb speaks of realities which ' are being acted before us,' and of ' a man who is being strangled' ** Walter Savage Landor in an imaginary conversation, represents Pitt as saying : * The man who possesses them may read Swedenborg and Kant while he is being tossed in ft blanket.' Again : ' I have seen nobles, men and women. =■' ** ' The Life and Correspondence of the late Robert Southey,' vol. i, p. 249." t " Vol. i, p. 338. ' A student who is bein^e; crammed' ; ' that verb is eternally being declined.'— ^Th^ Doctor,' pp. 38 and 40 (mono- tome ed.)." -U- l i- B 94 THE VERB A LIST. kneeling in the street before these bishops, when no cere- mony of the Catholic Church %vas being performed! Also, in a translation from Catullus : ' Some criminal is being tried for murder.' ** Nor does Mr. De Quincey scruple at such English as * made and being made, ' the bride that was being married to him,' and 'the shafts of Heaven were even now being forged' On one occasion he writes, * Not done, not even (according to modern purism) being done ' ; as if * purism ' meant exactness, rather than the avoidance of neoterism. *' I need, surely, name no more, among the dead, who found is being built^ or the like, acceptable. * Simple- minded common people and those of culture were alike protected against it by their attachment to the idiom of their mother tongue, with which they felt it to be directly at variance.' So Mr. White informs us. But the writers whom I have quoted are formidable exceptions. Even Mr. "White will scarcely^deny to them the title of * people of culture.' ' " So much for offenders past repentance ; and we all know that the sort of phraseology under consideration is daily becoming more and more common. The best written of the English reviews, magazines, and journals are perpet- ually marked by it; and some of the choicest of living English writers employ it freely. Among these, it is enough if I specify Bishop Wilberforce and Mr. Charles Reade.* " Extracts from Bishop Jewel downward being also given, Lord Macaulay, Mr. Dickens, 'The Atlantic Monthly,' and 'The Brooklyn Eagle ' are alleged by Mr. White in proof * " In ' Put Yourself in his Place,' chapter x, he writes : * She basked in the present delight, and looked as if she was being taken to heaven by an angel.' " ^' THE VERBALIST. 95 riven, ,' and proof that people still use such phrases as ' Chelsea Hospital was building' and ' the train ivas preparing.' ' Hence we sec,' he adds,* ' that the form is bang done, is being made, is bein.g built, lacks the support of authoritative usage from the period of the earliest classical English to the present day.' I fully concur with Mr. White in regarding 'neither "The Brooklyn Eagle " nor Mr. Dickens as a very high authority in the use of language ' ; yet, when he has re- nounced the aid of these contemned straws, what has he to rest his inference on, as to the present day, but the practice of Lord Macaulay and ' The Atlantic Monthly ' ? Those who think fit will bow to the dictatorship here prescribed to them ; but there may be those with whom the classic sanction of Southey, Coleridge, and Landor will not be wholly void of weight. All scholars are aware that, to convey the sense of the imperfects passive, our ancestors, centuries ago, prefixed, with is, etc., in, afterward corrupted into a, to a verbal substantive. '.The house is in building' could be taken to mean nothing but cedes a:difieantur ; and, when the in gave place to a,\ it was still manifest enough, from the context, that building was governed by a preposition. The second stage of change, however, namely, when the a was omitted, entailed, in many cases, great danger of confusion. In the early part of the last century, when English was undergoing what was then thought to be purification, the polite world substantially resigned is a-building to the vulgar. Toward the close of the same century, when, under the influence of free thought, it began to be felt that even ideas had a right to faithful and une- * " ' Words,' etc., p. 340." t " Thomas Fuller writes : ' At his arrival, the last stake of the Christians was on losing.' — ' The Historic of the Holy Warre,' p. 218 (ed. 1647)." y ^■ 96 THE V ERR A LIST. quivocal representation, a just resentment of ambiguity was evidenced in the creation of is being built. The himcnt is too late that the instinct of reformation did not restore the old form. It has gone forever ; and we are now to make the best of its successors. ' " The brass is forging,'' ' in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, is ' a vicious expression, probably corrupted from a phrase more j)ure, but now somewliat ol)solete, ..." the brass is a-/orging." ' Vet, with a true Tory's timidity and aversion to change, it is not surprising that he went on preferring what he found established, vicious as it confessedly was, to the end. But was the expression ' vicious ' solely because it was a corruption ? In 1787 William Beckford wrote as follows of the fortune- tellers of Lisbon : * / sa7a one dragging into light , as I passed by the ruins of a palace thrown down by the earth- quake. Whether a familiar of the Inquisition was griping her in his clutches, or 7vhcthcr she was taking to account by some disappointed 7'otarj', I will not pretend to answer.' Are the expressions here italicized either perspicuous or graceful ? Whatever we are to have in their place, we should be thankful to get quit of them. " Inasmuch a.., concurren J\ with building for the active participle, and being bmli Ujx the corresponding passive participle, we possessed the former, with is prefixed, as the active present imperfect, it is in rigid accordance with the symmetry of our verb that, to construct the passive present- imperfect, we prefix is to the latter, producing the form is being built. Such, in its greatest simplicity, is the pro- cedure which, as will be seen, has provoked a veiy levanter of ire and vilification. But anything that is new will be excepted to by minds of a certain order. Their tremulous and impatient dread of removing ancient landmarks even disqualifies them for thoroughly investigating its character L J.'a i lii i l l» l.l,Ji-.ii.u. ii . i mi * - . «!! - ta:;:t» i i " — ■ ■ 'W - »' ».iii tongue,' so that we may know the origi- nal when we meet with it, he will confer a public favor. And now I submit for consideration whether the sole strength of those who decry is bcijig built and its congeners does not consist in their talent for calling hard names. If they have not an uneasy subconsciousness that their cause is weak, they would, at least, do well in eschewing the vio- lence to which, for want of something better, the advocates of weak causes proverbially resort. " I once had a friend who, for some microscopic penum- bra of heresy, was charged, in the words of his accuser, with ' as near an approach to the sin against the Holy Ghost as is practicable to human infirmity.' Similarly, on one view, the feeble potencies of philological turpitude seem to have exhibited their most consummate realization in engendering is bcini^ built. The supposed enormity per- petrated in its production, provided it had fallen within the sphere of ethics, would, at the least, have ranked, with its denunciators, as a brand-new exemplification of total de- pravity. But, after all, what incontestable defect in it has anyone succeeded in demonstrating? Mi, White, in op- ] THE VERBALIST. 105 ] posing to the expression objections based on an erroneous analysis, simply lays a phantom of his own evoking ; and, so far as I am informed, other impugners of is being built have, absolutely, no argument whatever against it over and beyond their repugnance to novelty. Subjected to a little untroubled contemplation, it would, I am confident, have ceased long ago to be matter of controversy ; but the dust of prejudice and passion, which so distempers the intellect- ual vision of theologians and politicians, is seen to make, with ruthless impartiality, no exception of the perspicacity of philologists. " Prior to the evolution of is being built and 7vas being built, we possessed no discriminate equivalents to cedificattir and cedificabatur ; is built and was built, by which tliey were rendered, corresponding exactly to irdificatus est and (pdificatus erat. Cum (sdificarctur was to us the same as cedificabatur. On the wealth of the (ireek in expressions of imperfect passive I need not dwell. With rare excep- tions, the Romans were satisfied with the present-imperfect and the past-imperfect ; and we, on the comparatively few occasions which present themselves for expressing other im- perfects, shall be sure to have recourse to the old forms rather than to the new, or else to use periphrases.* The purists may, accordingly, dismiss their apprehensions, es- pecially as the neoterists have, clearly, a keener horror of phraseological ungainliness than themselves. One may op- * " ' But those things which, beins: not nowdoini;, or having not yet been done, have a natural aptitude to exist hereafter, may be properly said to appertain to the future.'— Harris's ' Hermes,' book I, chap, viii (p. 155, foot-note, ed. 1771). For Harris's being not now doing, which is to translate yJr) yivofxtva, the modern school, if they pursued uniformity with more of fidelity than of taste, would have to put being not no7v being done. There is not mucli to choose between the two." io6 THE VERBALIST, have no hesitation about saying ' the house is being buUt^ and may yet recoil from saying that ' it should have been being built last Christmas ' ; and the same person — ^just as, provided he did not feel a harshness, inadequacy, and am- biguity in the passive * the house is building^ he would use the expression — will, more likely than not, elect is in prepa- ration preferentially to is being prepared. If there are any who, in their zealotry for the congruous, choose to adhere to the new form in its entire range of exchangeability for the old, let it be hoped that they will find, in Mr. Marsh's speculative approbation of consistency, full amends for the discomfort of encountering smiles or frowns. At the same time, let them be mindful of the career of Mr. White, with his black flag and no quarter. The dead Polonius was, in Hamlet's phrase, at su; Der, ' not where he eats, but where he is eaten' Shakespeare, to Mr. White's thinking, in this wise expressed himself at the best, and deserves not only admiration therefor, but to be imitated. ' While the ark 7vas built^ 'while the ark was prepared,' writes Mr. White himself.* Shakespeare is commended for his ambiguous is eaten, though in eating or an eating would have l)een not only correct in his day, but, where they would have come in his sentence, univocal. With equal reason a man would be entitled to commendation for tearing his mutton-chops with his fingers, when he might cut them up with a knife and fork. ' Is eaten, says Mr. White, ' does not mean has been eaten.' Very true ; but a continuous unfinished pas- sion — Polonius's still undergoing manducation, to speak Johnsonese — was in Shakespeare's mind ; and his words describe a passion no longer in generation. The King of Denmark's lord chamberlain had no precedent in Herod, when ' he was eaten of worms ' ; the original, '^ivhyiivoi ♦ '' ' Words and their Uses,' p. 343." THE VERBALIST. 107 '. rKu\rjK6$p(i)ros, yielding, but for its participle, ' he became worm-eaten.' " Having now done with Mr. White, I am anxious, be- fore taking leave of him, to record, with all emphasis, that it would be the grossest injustice to write of his elegant ' Life and Genius of Shakespeare,* a book which does credit to American literature, in the tone which I have found unavoidable in dealing with his ' Words and their Uses.'" The student of English who has honestly weighed the arguments on both sides of the question, must, I believe, be of opinion that our language is the richer for having two forms for expressing the Progressive Passive. Further, he must, I believe, be of opinion that in very many cases he conforms to the most approved usage of our time by employing the old form ; that, however, if he were to em- ploy the old form in all cases, his meaning would some- times be uncertain. It. Cobbett discourses of this little neuter pronoun in this wise : " The word if is the greatest troubler that I know of in language. It is so small and so convenient that few are careful enough in using it. Writers seldom spare this word. Whenever they are at a loss for either a nomi- native or an objective to their sentence, they, without any kind of ceremony, clap in an //. A very remarkable in- stance of this pressing of poor ?V into actual service, con- trary to the laws of grammar and of sense, occurs in a piece of composition, where we might, with justice, insist on correctness. This piece is on the subject of grammar ; it is a piece written by a Doctor of Divinity and read by him to students in grammar and language in an academy ; and the very sentence that I am now about to quote is selected by the author of a grammar as testimony of high mmmm 108 T//E VERBALIST, authority in favor of the excellence of his work. Surely, if correctness be ever to be expected, it must be in a case like this. I allude to two sentences in the ' Charge of the Reverend Doctor Abercrombie to the Senior Class of the Philadelphia Academy,' published in 1806 ; which sen- tences have been selected and published by Mr. Lindley Murray as a testimonial of the merits of his grammar ; and which sentences are by Mr. Murray given to us in the fol- lowing words : ' The unwearied exertions of this gentle- man have done more toward elucidating the obscurities and embellishing the structure of our language than any other writer ovi the subject. Such a work has long been wanted, and from the success with which it is executed, can not be too highly appreciated.' " As in the learned Doctor's opinion obscurities can be elucidated, and as in the same opinion Mr, Murray is an able hand at this kind of work, it would not be amiss were the grammarian to try his skill upon this article from the hand of his dignified eulogist ; for here is, if one may use the expression, a constellation of obscurities. Our poor oppressed it, which we find forced into the Doctor's service in the second sentence, relates to ' such a work^' though this work is nothing that has an existence, notwithstanding it is said to be * exectitci! In the first sentence, the * exer- tions ' become, all oi a sudden, a ' writer ' : the exertions have done more than ' any other writer ' ; for, mind you, it is not the gentleman that has done anything ; it is * the exertions ' that have done what is said to be done. The word gentleman is in the possessive case, and has nothing to do with the action of the sentence. Let us give the sen- tence a turn, and the Doctor and the grammarian will hear how it will sound. ' This gentleman's exertions have done more than any ot/i^r writer.' This is on a level with * Thit THE VERB A LIST, 109 gentleman's do.^ has killed more hares than any other sports- man* No doubt Doctor Abcrcrombic w \ on each other " is the exact equivalent of '• mutually de- pendent" ; hence, saying that John and James are mutually dependent on each other is as redundant in form as it would be to say that the editors of *' The Great Vilificr " are the biggest, greatest mud-slingers in America. Myself. This form of the personal pronoun is properly used in the nominative case only where increased emphasis is aimed at. *' I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I my self'' *' I will do it myself" " I saw it myself y It is, therefore, incorrect to say, " Mrs. Brown and myself were both very much pleased." Name. This word is sometimes improperly used for mention ; thus, "I never named tlie matter to any one " : should be, " I never mentioned the matter to any one." Neighborhood. See Vicinity. Neither. See Eitiikr. Neither — Nor. " He would neither give wine, nor oil, nor money." — Thackeray. The conjunction should be placed before the excluded object ; " neither ^/z'^ " implies neither some other verb, a meaning not intended. Re- arrange thus, taking all the common parts of the contracted sentences together: "lie would give neither wmQ, nor o'\\, nor money." So, " She can neither help her beauty, nor her courage, Ptor her cruelly " (Thackeray), should be, ' She can help neither," etc. " He had neither time to intercept nor to stop her" (Scott), should be, *' He had time neither to intercept," etc. '* Some neither c:\.n for wits nor critics pass" (Pope), should be, "Some can neither for wits nor critics pass." Never. Grammarians differ with regard to the correct- ness of using never in such sentences as, " He is in error, 11 128 THE VERBALIST. though wt'w;' so wise," "Charm he never so wisely." In sentences like these, to say the least, it is better, in com- mon with the great majority of writers, to use ever. New. This adjective is often misplaced. " He has a «^w/ suit of clothes and a ;/^7t:' pair of gloves." It is not the S2iit and the pair that arc new, but the clothes and the gloves. Nice. Archdeacon Hare remarks of the use, or rather misuse, of this word : " That stupid vulgarism by which we use the word nice to denote almost every mode of approba- tion, for almost every variety of quality, and, from sheer poverty of thought, or fear of saying anything definite, wrap up everything indiscriminately in this characterless domino, speaking at the same breath of a nice cheese-cake, a nice tragedy, a nice sermon, a nice day, a nice country, as if a universal deluge of niaiscrie — for nice seems origin- ally to have been only niais — had whelmed the whole isl- and." Nice is as good a word as any other in its place, but its place is not everywhere. We talk very properly about a nice distinction, a nice discrimination, a nice calcu- lation, a nice point, and about a person's being nice, and ovex-nice, and the Hkc ; but we certainly ought not to talk about "Othello's" being a nice tragedy, about Salvini's be- ing a nice actor, or New York bay's being a ?tice harbor.* Nicely. The very quintessence of popinjay vulgarity is reached when nicely is made to do service for 7uell, in this wise : " How do you do? " " Nicely^ " How are you ? " '* Nicely." No. This word of negation is responded to by nor in ♦ The possessive construction here is, in my judgment, not impera- tively demanded. There is certainly no h.cV of authority for putti:;g the three substantives in the accusative. The possessive construction seems to me, however, to be preferable. )is^msi THE VERBALIST. 129 kin je ra- iding :tiou sentences like this : " Let your meaning be obscure, and no grace of diction nor any music of well-turned sentences will make amends." " Whether he is there or no!* Supply the ellipsis, and we have, "Whether he is there or no there." Clearly, the word to use in sentences like this is not no^ but not. And yet our best writers sometimes inadvertently use no with whether. Example : " But perhaps some people are quite indifferent whether or 1:0 it is said," etc. — Richard Grant White, in "Words and Th^ir Uses," p. 84. Sup- ply the ellipsis, and we have, " said or no said." In a little book entitled " Live and Learn," I find, " No less than fifty persons were there ; No feiver," etc. In correcting one mistake, the writer himself makes one. It should be, ^^ Not fewer," etc. If we ask, "There were fifty persons there, were there or were there not?" the reply clearly would be, " There were not fewer than fifty." " There was no one of them who would not have been proud," etc., should be, " There was not one of them." Not. The correlative of not, when it stands in the first member of a sentence, is nor or neither. ** JVot for thy ivory nor thy gcjid v II unbind thy chain." "I will not do it, neither shall you." The wrong placing of not often gives rise to an imper- fect negation ; thus, " John and James were i2ot there," means that John and James were not there in company. It does not exclude the presence of one of them. The nega- tive should precede in this case : " Neither John «^r James was there." "Our company was not present" (as a com- pany, but some of us might have been), should be, " No member of our company was present." Not — but only. " Errors frequently arise in the use of not — but only^ to understand which we must attend to 130 THE VERBALIST. the force of the whole expression. * He did not pretend to extirpate French music, hut only to cultivate and civilize it.' Here the not is obviously misplaced. ' He pretended, or professed, not to extirpate.' " — Bain. Notorious. Though this word can not be properly used in any but a bad sense, we sometimes see it used instead of notedy which may be used in either a good or a bad sense. Notoiioiis characters are always persons to be shunned, whereas noted characters may or may not be per- sons to be shunned. " This is the tax a man must pay for his virtues — they hold up a torch to his vices and render those frailties notorU oHs in him which would pass without observation in an- other." — Lacon. Novice. See Amateur. Number. It is not an uncommon thing for a pronoun in the plural number to be used in connection with an antecedent in the singular. At present, the following notice may be seen in some of our Broadway omnibuses : ** Fifty dollars reward for the conviction of any person caught col- lecting or keeping fares given to them to deposit in the box." Should be, to ///;;/. "A person may be very near- sighted if they can not recognize an acquaintance ten feet off." Should be, if he. The verb to be is often used in the singular instead of in the plural ; thus, " There is several reasons why it would be better": ?>2t.y, are. "How many is there?" say, ar^. " There is four " : say, are. ** Was there many ? " say, 7uere. * No matter how many there 7i>as " : say, ^uere. A verb should agree in number with its subject, and not with its predicate. We say, for example, " Death is the wages of sin," and " The wages of sin a?-e death." " When singular nouns connected by and are preceded i id not js the r//£ VERBALIST, 131 by each, every, or no, the verb must be singular." We say, for example, *'Each boy and each girl studies." ''Every leaf, and every twig, and evoy drop of water teems with life." ''No book and ;/t> paper luas arranged." Each being singular, a pronoun or verb to agree with it must also be singular ; thus, " Let them depend each on his own exertions " ; " Each city has its peculiar privileges " ; " Everybody has a right to look after his own interest." Errors are often the result of not repeating the verb ; thus, " Its significance is as varied as the passions " : cor- rectly, '• as are the passions." " The words are as incapa- ble of analysis as the thing signified": correctly, "as is the thing signified." Observe. The dictionaries authorize the use of this word as a synonym of say ■cax^ remark; as, for example, "What did you observe?'' for "What did you say, ox re- mark ? " In this sense, however, it is better to leave ob- serve to the exclusive use of those who delight in being fine. O'clock. *' It is a quarter to ten o'clock." What does this statement mean, literally? We tinderstand by it that it lacks a quarter of ten, i. e., of being ten ; but it does not really mean that. Inasmuch as to means toward, it 7-cally means a quarter after nine. We should say, then, a quarter of, which means, literally, a quarter rint such a sentence would not hesitate to cable a thunderbolt at an offender on the slightest provocation. Judge, if my fears are groundless: " But some few people contract the ugly habit of making use of these expressions unconsciously and continuously, perpetually interlarding their conversation with them." Person. See Party ; also. Individual. Personalty. This word does not, as some persons think, mean the articles worn on one's person. It is prop- erly a law term, and means personal property. "There is but one case on record of a peer of England leaving over $7,500,000 personalty." Personification. That rhetorical figure which attrib- utes sex, life, or action to inanimate objects, or ascribes to objects and brutes the acts and qualities of rational beings, is caWcd personijication ox prosopopaia. '* The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap their hands." " The worm, aware of his intent, harangued him thus." " See, Winter comes to rule the varied year, Sullen and sad \\\\.h. all his rising train." — Thomson. ** So saying, her rash hand, in evil hour. Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate ! Earth felt the ivoitnd ; and A^ature from her seat^ THE VERBALIST. 141 - .. Sigliiui,^ throuL^h all her works ^ gave signs of 7voc% l^hat all 7iias lost y — Milton. • - *' War and Love are strange compeers. War sheds blood, and Love sheds tears ; War has swords, and Love has darts ; War breaks heads, and Love breaks hearts." " Levity is often less foolisli and gravity less wise than each of them appears." " The English language, by reserving the distinction of gender for living beings that have sex, gives especial scope for personification. Tiie highest form of personifica- tion should be used seldom, and only when justified by the presence of strong feeling." — I>ain. " Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much ; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." — Cowper. Phenomenon. VXmx^sX^ phenomena . Plead. The imperfect tense and the perfect participle of the verb to plead are both pleaded and not plead. " He pleaded wot guilty." " Vou should have pleaded your cause with more fervor." Plenty. In Worcester's Dictionary we find the follow- ing note : '* Plenty is much used colloquially as an adjec- tive, in the sense o{ plentiful, both in this country and in England ; and this use is supj^orted by respectable author- ities, though it is condemned by various critics. Johnson says : * It is used barbarously, 1 think, for plentiful' ; and Dr. Campbell, in hi-. ' Philosoj)hy of Rhetoric,' says : ' Plenty for plentiful appears to me so gross a vulgarism that I should not have thought it worthy of a place here if I had mh 142 THE VERBALIST, I not sometimes found it in Morks of considerable merit. *' We should say, then, that money x)^ plentiful, and not that it I'?, plenty. Pleonasm. Redundancy or pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to express the thought clearly. " They returned back again to the savie city from whence they came forth " : the five words in italics are redundant or pleonastic. "The different departments of science and of art mutually reflect light on each other" : either of the expressions in italics embodies the whole idea. " The uni- versal opinion of all men " is a pleonastic expression often heard. " I wrote you a letter yesterday " : here a letter is redundant. Redundancy is sometimes permissible for the surer con- veyance of meaning, for emphasis, and in the language of poetic embellishment. Polite. This word is much used by persons of doubt- ful culture, where those of the better sort use the word kind. We accept kind, not polite invitations ; and, when any one has been obliging, we tell him that he has been kind ; and, when an interviewing reporter tells us of his having met with 7i polite reception, we may be sure that the person by whom he has been received deserves well for his considerate kindness. " I thank you and Mrs. Pope for my kind reception." — Atterbury. Portion. This word is often incorrectly used {(^x part. K portion is properly a part assigned, allotted, set aside for u special purpose ; a share, a division. The verb to par. tion means to divide, to parcel, to endow. We ask, there- fore, *' In what part [not, in what portion^ of the country, state, county, town, or street do you live?" — or, if we pre- fer grandiloquence to correctness, reside. In the sentence, " A large /t^r/Zt^;* of the land is untilled," the right word THE VERBALIST. H3 would be either part or proportion, according to the inten- tion of the writer. Posted. A word very much and very inelegantly used for informed. Such expressions as, *' I will post you," ** I must post myself up," " If I had been better posted^' and the like, are, at the best, but one remove from slang. Predicate. This word is often very incorrectly used in the sense of to base ; as, "He predicates his opinion on insufficient data." Then we sometimes hear people talk about predicating an action upon certain information or upon somebody's statement. To predicate means pi imarily to speak before, and has come to be properly used in the sense of assumed or believed to be the consequence of. Examples : " Contentment \i> predicated of virtue " ; " Good health may h^ predicated oi a good constitution." He who is not very sure that he uses the word correctly would do better not to use it at all. Prejudice — Prepossess. IJoth these words mean, to incline in one direction or the other for some reason not founded in justice ; but by common consent prejudice has come to be used in an unfavorable sense, and prepos- sess in a favorable one. Thus, we say, " He is prejudiced against him," and " He is prepossessed in his favor." We sometimes hear the expression, *' He is prejudiced in his favor," but this can not be accounted a good use of the word. Prepositions. The errors made in the use of the prep- ositions are very numerous. ** The indolent child is one who [that ?] has a strong aversion from action of any sort." — Graham's " English Synonymes," p. 236. The prevailing and best modern usage is in favor of to instead of from after averse and aversion, and before the object. " Clear- ness . . . enables the reader to soe thoughts without notic- 12 mmimmm mm IBPII 'I 1 ■ w 1 A' [ ; 1 It ! 144 THE VERBALIST. ing the language "mth which they are clothed/' — Town- send's " Art of Speech." We clothe thoughts in language. " Shakespeare , . . and the Bible are . . . models for the English-speaking tongue." — Ibid. If this means models of English, then it should be of ; but if it means models for English organs of speech to practice on, then it should be for ; or if it means models to model English tongues after, then also it should be for. " If the resemblance is too faint, the mind is fatigued while attempting to trace the analogies." " Aristotle is in error while thus describing governments." — Ibid. Here we have two examples, not of the misuse of the preposition, but of the erroneous use of the adverb tvhile instead of the preposition in. " For my part I can not think that Shelley's poetry, except by snatches and fragments, has the value of the good work of Wordsworth or Byron." — Matthew Arnold. Should be, " except in snatches." *' Taxes with us are collected nearly [almost] solely from real and personal estate." — " Apple- tons' Journal." Taxes are levied on estates and collected from the owners. " If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned for their brevity." Cobbett comments on this sentence as follows: "We may com- mend him/. from Ohio ox from Indiana" ; or, " He comes either from Ohio or Indiana." Prepcssess. See Prejudice. Present — Introduce. Few errors are more common, especially among those who are always straining to be fine, than that of using present^ in the social world, instead of introduce. Present means to place in the presence of a superior ; introduce, to bring to lie acquainted. A person is presented at court, and on an official occasion to our Presi- dent ; but persons who are unknown to each other are introduced by a common acquaintance. And in these in- troductions, it is the younger who is introduced to the older ; the lower to the higher in place or social position ; the gentleman to the lady. A lady should say, as a lule, that Mr. Blank was introduced to her, not that she was Introduced to Mr. Blank* .SK, €^ 1^6 THE VERBALIST, / Presumptive. This word is sometimes misused by the / careless {ox presumptuous. C* Preventive. A useless and unwarranted syllable is \ sometimes added to this word — preventative. Previous. This adjective is much used in an adverbial sense ; thus, ''■Previous to my return," etc. Until /n'r.'/^«j is recognized as an adverb, if we would speak grammatical- ly, we must say, '^ Fre7-iously to my return." *' Previously to my leaving England, I called on his lordship." Procure. Tliis is a word much used by people who strive to be fine. "Where did you get it?" with them is, "Where did yo\x proetire it ?" Profanity. The extent to which some men habitually interlard their talk with oaths is disgusting even to many who, on occasion, do not themselves hesitate to give ex- 'pression to their feelings in oaths portly and unctuous. If these fellows could be made to know how offensive to decency they make themselves, they would, perhaps, be less profane. Promise. This word is sometimes very improperly used {or assure ; thus, "I promise you I was very much astonished." Pronouns of the First Person. " The ordinary uses of ' I ' and 'we,' as the singular and plural pronouns of the first person, would appear to be above all aml)iguity, un- certainty, or dispute. Yet when we consider the force of the plural ' we,' we are met with a contradiction ; for, as a rule, only one person can speak at the same time to the same audience. It is only hy some exceptional arrange- ment, or some latitude or license of expression, that >everal persons can be conjoint speakers. For example, a plurality may sing together in chorus, and may join in the responses at church, or in the simultaneous repetition of the Lord's r THE VERBALIST. 147 :e uses the un- of as the nge- k^eral ality nses ord's Prayer or the Creed. Again, one person may be the au- thorized spokesman in delivering a judgment or opinion held by a number of persons in common. Finally, in writ- ten compositions, the ' we ' is not unsuitable, because a plurality of persons may append their names to a document. "A speaker using 'we' may speak for himself and one or more others ; commonly he stands forward as the repre- sentative of a class, more or less comprehensive. ' As soon as my companion and I had entered the field, wc saw a man coming toward us' ; * loe like our new curate ' ; 'you do us poets the greatest injustice ' ; ' we must see to the efficiency of our forces." The widest use of the pronoun will be mentioned presently. " ' We ' is used for ' I ' in the decrees of persons in au- thority ; as when King Lear says : ' Know that 7LQ\xig the effect of evidence. " What evidence have you to offer in proof oi the truth of your statement ? " See also Evidence. Propose — Purpose. Writers and speakers often fail to discriminate properly between the respective meanings of these two verbs. Propose, correctly used, means, to put THE VERBALIST, »5l ised |eing :r in ICE. Ill to fS of put forward or to ofter for the cousidcration of others ; hence, a proposal is a sclieme or design offered for acceptance or con- sideration, a proposition. Purpose means, to intend, to design, to resolve ; hence, a purpose is an intention, an aim, that which one sets before one's self. Examples : " What do yow purpose doing in the matter?" "What do you propose that we shall do in the matter ? " "I will do " means '* \ purpose doing, or to do." " I purpose to write a history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living." — .\»-'caulay. It will he ol)servcd that Macaulay says, " I purpose to 7ori/e," and not, " I purpose ivfithii;^" using the verb in the infinitive rather than in the participial form. "On which he purposed to mount one of his little guns." See Ini-initive. Propcsition. This word is often used wlien proposal would be better, for the reason that proposal has but one meaning, and is shorter by one syllable. ** He demon- strated the proposition of Euclid, and rejected the proposal of his friend." Prosaist. Dr. Hall is of opinion that this is a word we shall do well to encourage. It is used by good writers. Proven. This form for the past participle of the verb to prove is said to be a Scotticism. It is not used by careful writers and speakers. The correct form is proved. Providing. The present participle of the verb to pro- vide is sometimes vulgarly used for the conjunction provided^ as in this sentence from the " London Queen " : " Society may be congratulated, . . . providing that," etc. Provoke. See Agcravati^ Punctuation. The importam^e of punctuation can not be overestimated ; it not only helps to make plain the mean- ing of what one writes, but it may prevent one's being mis- ^%^ "^T,?^ T^."^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 :fi I.I 1.25 M IIIIIZ5 B 2.0 1.8 1-4 IIIIII.6 V] <^- ^'^ ^ • u" mmmmmmmi^ mm mmmm 152 r//£ VERBALIST, construed. Though no two writers could be found who punctuate just alike, still in the main those who pay atten- tion to the art put in their stops in essentially the same manner. The difference that punctuation may make in the meaning of language is well illustrated by the following anecdote : At Kamessa there lived a benevolent and hospitable prior, who caused these lines to be painted over his door : •' Be open evermore, O thou my door ! To none be ihut — to honest or to poor ! " In time the good prior was succeeded by a man as selfish as his predecessor was generous. The lines over the door of the priory were allowed to remain ; one stop, however, was altered, which made them read thus : " Be open evermore, O thou my door ! To none — be shut to honest or to poor ! " He punctuates best who makes his punctuation con* tribute most to the clear expression of his thought ; and that construction is best that has least need of being punc- tuated. The Comma. — T''- chief diflference in the punctuation of different writers is usually in their use of the comma, in regard to which there is a good deal of latitude ; much is left to individual taste. Nowadays the best practice uses it sparingly. An idea of the extent to which opinions differ with regard to the use of the comma may be fonned from the following excerpt from a paper prepared for private use : " In the following examples, gathered from various sources— chiefly from standard books~the superfluous comp mas are inclosed in parentheses : Mn.' THE VERBALIST, «53 "i. 'It remains(,) perhaps(,) to be said(,) that, if any lesson at all(,) as to these delicate inatters(,) is needed(,) in this period, it is not so much a lesson,' etc. 2. ' The obe- dience is not due to the power of a right authority, but to the spirit of fear, and(,) therefore(,) is(,) in reality(,) no obedience at all.' 3. * The patriot disturbances in Canada . . . awakened deep interest among the people of the United States(,) who lived adjacent to the frontier.' 4. ' Observers(,) who have recently investigated this point(,) do not all agree,* etc. 5. ' The wind did(,) in an instant(,) what man and steam together had failed to do in hours.' 6. ' All the cabin passengers(,) situated beyond the center of the boat(,) were saved.' 7. * No other writer has depicted(,) with so much art or so much accuracy(,) the habits, the manners,' etc. 8. ' If it shall give satisfaction to those who have(,) in any way(,) befriended it, the author will feel,' etc. 9. ' Formed(,) or consisting of(,) clay.' 10. ' The subject [witchcraft] grew interesting ; and(,) to examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor, the deputy-governor(,) and five other magistrates(,) went to Salem.' il. ' The Lusitanians(,) who had not left their home(,) rose as a man,' etc. 12. * Vague reports . . . had preceded him to Washington, and his Mississippi friends(,) who chanced to be at the capital(,) were not backward to make their boast of him.' 13. ' Our faith has acquired a new vigor(,) and a clearer vision.' 14. * In i8ig(,) he re- moved to Cambridge.' 15. ' Dor6 was born at Strasburg(,) in 1832, and labors,' etc. 16. * We should never apply dry compresses, charpie, or wadding(,) to the wound.' 17. * — to stand idle, to look, act, or think(,) in a leisurely way.' 18. * — ^portraits taken from the farmers, schoolmasters, and peasantry(,) of the neighborhood.' 19. ' — gladly wel- comed painters of Flanders, Holland, and Spain(,) to their shores.* ^mm '54 T//£ VERBALIST. " In all these cases, the clauses between or following the inclosed commas are so closely connected grammatically with the immediately preceding words or phrases, that they should be read without a perceptible pause, or with only a slight one for breath, without change of voice. Some of the commas would grossly pervert the meaning if strictly construed. Thus, from No. 3 it would appear that the people of the United States in general lived adjacent to the frontier ; from No. 4, that all observers have recently in- vestigated the point in question ; from No. 6, that all the cabin passengers were so situated that they were saved, whereas it is meant that only a certain small proportion of them were saved ; from No. 10 (Bancroft), that somebody whose name is accidentally omitted went to Salem * to ex- amine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor, the deputy- governor, and five other magistrates'; from No. 11, that none of the Lusitanians had left their home, whereas it was the slaughter by the Romans of a great number of tliem who had left their home that caused the rising. *• Commas are frequently omitted, and in certain posi- tions very generally, where the sense and correct reading require a pause. In the following examples, such commas, omitted in the works from which they were taken, are in- closed in brackets : " I. * The modes of thought[,] and the types of charac- ter which those modes produce[,] are essentially and uni- versally transformed.' 2. ' Taken by itself[,] this doctrine could have no effect whatever ; indeed[,] it would amount to nothing but a verbal proposition.' 3. ' Far below[,] the little stream of the Oder foamed over the rocks.' 4. ' When the day retumed[,] the professor, the artist[,] and I rowed to within a hundred yards of the shore.' 5. * Proceeding into the interior of India[,] they passed through Belgaum.* PI ppi ■l! write well, or to judge the literary work of others. " True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance." Ride — ^Drive. Fashion, both in England and in this country, says that we must always use the second of these words when we speak of going out in a carriage, although ride means, according to all the lexicographers, '* to be car- ried on a horse or other aniru.;!, or in any kind of vehicle or carriage." Right. Singularly enough, this word is made, by some people, to do service for ought^ in duty bounds under obligation to ; thus, " Yon had a right to tell me," meaning, "You should have told me." "The Colonists contended that they had no right to pay taxes," meaning, " They were under no obligation to pay taxes," i. e., that it was unjust to tax them. Right here. The expressions " right here " and " right there " are Americanisms. Correctly, ' ' just here " and " just there." Boiling. The use of this participial adjective in the i THE VERBALIST, i7t some under janin^ tended •' right id "just in th9 sense of undulating is said to be an Americanism. Whether an Americanism or not, it would seem to be quite unobjectionable. Rubbers. This word, in common with gums and arctics^ is often, in defiance of good taste, used for over- shoes. Sabbath. This term was first used in English for Sun- day, or Lord's day, by the Puritans. Nowadays it is little used in this sense. The word to use is Sunday, Sarcasm. Bain says that sarcasm is vituperation soft- ened in the outward expression by the arts and figures of disguise — epigram, innuendo, irony — and embellished with the figures of illustration. Crabb says that sarcasm is the indulgence only of personal resentment, and is never justi- fiable. Satire. The holding up to ridicule of the follies and weaknesses of mankind, by way of rebuke, is called satire. Satire is general rather than individual, its object be- ing the reformation of abuses. A lampoon^ which has been defined as a personal satire^ attacks the individual rather than his fault, and is intended to injure rather than to reform. Said Sheridan : *• Satires and lampoons on particular people circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the friends of the parties than by printing them." Saw. The imperfect tense of the verb to see is care- lessly used by good writers and speakers when they should use the perfect ; thus, " I never saiv anything like it be- fore," when the meaning intended is, " I have never [in all my life] seen anything like it before [until now]." We say properly, '* I never saw anything like it when I luas in Paris " ; but, when the period of time referred to extends to the time when the statement is made, it must be have seen* 17^1 THE VERBALIST. Lilce mistakes are made in the use of other verbs, but they are hardly as common ; yet we often hear such expressions as, " I was never in Philadelphia," " I never went to the theatre in my life," instead of have been in Philadelphia, and have gone to the theatre. Beotion. The use of this word for region, neighbor- hood, vicinity, part (of the town or country), is said to be a Westernism. A section is a division of the public lands containing six hundred and forty acres. Seem — ^Appear. Graham, in his " English Synonymes," says of these two words : '* What seems is in the mind ; what appears is external. Things appear as they present themselves to the eye ; they seem as they are represented to the mind. Things appear good or bad, as far as we can judge by our senses. Things seem right or wrong as we determine by rctlection. Perception and sensation have to do with appearing ; reflection and comparison, with seem- ing. "When things are not what they appear^ our senses are deceived ; when things are not what they seem^ our judg- ment is at fault." " No man had ever a greater power over himself, or was less the man he seemed to be, which shortly after ap- peared to everybody, when he cared less to keep on the mask." — Clarendon. Seldom or ever. This phrase should be ** seldom if ever," or " seldom or never!* Seraphim. This is the plural of seraph, *' One of the seraphim^ " To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry." See Cherubim. Set — Sit. The former of these two verbs is often incor- rectly used for the latter. To set ; imperfect tense, set-, participles, j^//j«^, j^/. To sit y imperfect tense, ja// parti- ciples, sitting, sat. To set means to put, to place, to pU&t; THE VERBALIST. i73 udg. to put in any place, condition, state, or posture. We say, to set about, to set against, to set out, to set going, to set apart, to set aside, to set down (to put in writing). To sit means to rest on the lower part of the body, to repose on a seat, to perch, as a bird, etc. We say, "5// up," i. e., rise from lying to sitting ; ** We will sit up," i. e., will not go to bed ; "5/V down," i. e., place yourself on a seat. We sit a horse and we sit for a portrait. Garments «V well or other- wise. Congress sits, so does a court. " I have sat up long enough." " I have j^/ it on the table." We j^"/ down figures, but we sit down on the ground. We set a hen, and a hen sits on eggs. We should say, therefore, "as cross as a sit- ting [not, as a setting] hen." Settle. This word is often inelegantly, if not incor- rectly, used for pay. We pay our way, pay our fare, pay our hotel-bills, and the like. See, also, Locate. Shall and Will. The nice distinctions that should be made between these two auxiliaries are, in some parts of the English-speaking world, often disregarded, and that, too, by persons of high culture. The proper use of shall and will can much better be learned from example than from precept. Many persons who use them, and also should and would, with well-nigh unerring correctness, do so un- consciously ; it is simply habit with them, and they, though their culture may be limited, will receive a sort of verbal shock from Biddy's inquiry, " Will I put the kettle on, ma'am?" when your Irish or Scotch countess would not be in the least disturbed by it. Shall, in an affirmative sentence, in the first person^ and WILL in the second and third persons^ merely announce future action. Thus, " I shall go to town to-morrow." " I shall not ; I shall yioXi for better weather." " We shall be g^d to see you.*' '* I shall soon be twenty." " We shaU «74 THE VERBALIST, s«t out early, and shall try to arrive by noon.** " You will be pleased." " You will soon be twenty." " You will find him honest." " He will go with us." Shall, in an affirmative sentence, in the second and third persons, announces the speaker* s intention to control. Thus, *' You shall hear me out." " You shall go, sick or well." " He shall be my heir." " They shall go, whether they want to go or not." "^WA., in the first person, expresses a promise, announces the speaker's intention to control, proclaims a determination^ Thus, " I will [I promise to] assist you." " I will [I am determined to] have my right." " We will [we promise to] come to you in the morning." Shall, in an interrogative sentence, in the first and third persons, consults the will or judgment of another ; in the second person, it inquires concerning the intention or future action of another. Thus, " Shall I go with you ? " " When shall we see you again ? " " When shall I receive it ? " « When shall I get well ? " " When shall we get there ? " " Shall he come with us?" *'• Shall you demand indem- nity?" *' Shall you go to town to-morrow?" "What shall you do about it ? " Will, in an interrogative sentence, in the second person^ asks concerning the wish, and, in the third person, concerning the purpose or future action of others. Thus, " Will you have an apple ? " " Will you go with me to my uncle's? " *• Will he be of the party ? " " Will they be willing to re- ceive us ? " " When will he be here ? " Will can not be used interrogatively in the first person singular or plural. We can not say, *' Will I go ? " '* Will I help you ? " " Will I be late ? " " Will we get there in time ? " " Will we see you again soon ? " Official courtesy, in order to avoid the semblance 6l v\ 1^ THE VERBALIST, ^n a compulsion, conveys its commands in the yoU'7uill form in- stead of the strictly grammatical you-^hall form. It says, for example, *' You wiii proceed to Key West, where you will find further instructions awaiting you." A clever writer on the use of ^hall and 7oill says that whatever concerns one's beliefs, ho^es, fears, likes, or dis- likes, can not be expressed in conjunction with I will. Arc there no exceptions to this rule ? if I say, " I think I shall go to Philadelphia to-morrow," I convey the impression that my going depends upon circumstances beyond my control ; but if I say, ** I think I will go to Philadelphia to-morrow," I convey the impression that my going depends upon circum- stances within my control — that my going or not depends on mere inclination. We certainly must say, *' I fear that I shall lose it " ; " I hope that I shall be well " ; " I believe that I shall have the ague " ; " I hope that I shall not be left alone " ; "I fear that we shall have bad weather " ; "I shall dislike the country " ; " I shall like the performance." The writer referred to asks, " How can one say, ' I will have the headache ' ? " I answer. Very easily, as every young woman knows. Let us see : " Mary, you know you promised John to drive out with him to-morrow ; how shall you get out of it ? " " Oh, 1 loill have the headache ! " We request that people will do thus or so, and not that they shall. Thus, " It is requested that no one will leave the room." Shall is rarely, if ever, used for will ; it is will that is used for shall. Expressions like the following are common : *' Where will you be next week ? " "I will be at home." " We will have dinner at six o'clock." " How ivill you go about it ? " " When will you begin ? " " When will you set out ? " " What will you do with it ? " In all such ex- pressions, when it is a question of mere future action on U 176 Tiri'] vr.RnAr.rsT. the part of the person speaking or spoken to, the auxiliary must be shalh and not ivill. Should ZiXid 7uould ioWow the regimen of sAa// and tinll. Wonid is often used for should ; should rarely for nmtld. Correct speakers say, " I should go to town to-morrow if I had a horse." " I should not ; I should wait for better weather." '* We should be glad to see you." " We should have started earlier, if the weather had been clear." " I should like to go to town, and 7uould go if I could." '* I •would assist you if I could." '• I should have been ill if I had gone." "I would I were home again!" "I should go fishing to-day if I were home." " I should so like to go to Europe ! " "I should prefer to see it first." '* I should be delighted." " I should be glad to have you sup with me." " I knew that I should be ill." " I feared that I should lose it." " I hoped that I should see him." '* I thought I should have the ague." " I hoped that I should not be left alone." " I was afraid that we should have bad weather." ** I knew I should dislike the country." *' I should not like to do it, and icill not [determination] unless compelled to." Shimmy. " We derive from the French language our word chemise — pronounced shemmeeze. In French, the word denotes a man's shirt, as well as the under garment worn by women. In this country, it is often pronounced by people who should know better — shimmy. Rather than call it shimmy^ resume the use of the old English words shift and smock. Good usage unqualifiedly condemns gents, pants, kids, gums, and shimmy.** — " Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech." Should. See Ought. Sick — M. These words are often used indiscriminately. Sick, however, is the stronger word, and generally the better 1 I. 1 ,. THE VERBA 1. 1 ST. 177 1 word to use. /// is used in England more than with us ; there sick is generally limited to the expressing of nausea ; as, " sick at the stomach." Signature, over or under ? A man writes under, not over, a signature. Charles Dickens wrote under the sijj'na- ture of *' Boz " ; Mr. Samuel L. Clemens writes under the signature of '• Mark Twain." The reason given in Web- ster's Dictionary for preferring the use of under is absurd ; viz., that the paper is under the hand in writing. The expression is e"iotical, and has no reference to the position either of the siv^aature or of the paper. " Given under my hand and seal " means " under ihe guarantee of my signa- ture and my seal." " Under his own signature " or *• name " means " under his own character, without disguise." " Un- der the signature of Boz " means " under the disguise of the assumed name Boz." We always write under a certain date, though the date be placed, as it often is, at the bottom of the page. Signs. In one of the principal business streets of New York there is a sign which reads, '* German Lace Store." Now, whether this is a store that makes a specialty of Ger- man laces, or whether it is a store where all kinds of lace are sold, kept by a German or after the German fashion, is something that the sign doubtless means to tell us, but, owing to the absence of a hyphen (" German-Lace Store," or " German Lace-Store "), does not tell us. Nothing is more common than erroneous punctuation in signs, and gross mistakes by the unlettered in the wording of the simplest printed matter. The bad taste, incorrect punctuation, false grammar, and ridiculous nonsense met with on signs and placards, and in advertisements, are really surprising. An advertise- ment tells us that *' a pillow which assists in procuring 178 rni'l VERBALIST, sleep is a benediction " ; a placard, that they have " Char- lotte de Russe " for sale within, which means, if it means anything, that they have for sale somebody or something called Charlotte of Russian ; and, then, on how many signs do we see the possessive case when the plural number is intended ! Simile. In rhetoric, a direct and formal comparison is called a simile. It is generally denoted by likcy as, or so J- as, " I hav? ventured, Like little wanton boys that sv/im on bladders, These many summers in a sea of glory." " Thy smile is as the dawn of vernal day." — Shakespeare. " j4s, down in the sunless retreats of the ocean. Sweet flow'rcts are springing no mortal can see ; So, deep in my bosom, the prayer of dcvot^'^n, Unheard by the world, rises silent to thee." — Moore. " 'Tis with our judgments as with our watches ; none Go just alike, yet each believes his own." — Pope. " Grace abused brings forth the fouler.t deeds. As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds." — Cowper. " As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners arc so intolerant as those who have just turned saints." — " Lacon." Sin. See Crime. Since — Ago. Dr. Johnson says of these two adverbs ; " Reckoning time toward the present, we use since ; as, • It is a year since it happened ' : reckoning from the pres- ent, we use ago ; as, * It is a year ago! This is not, per- haps, always observed." Dr. Johnson's rule will hardly suffice as a sure guide. Since is often used for ago, but ago never for since. Ago is derived from the participle agone, while since comes from a ve "Char- f it means something uany signs number is nparison is Hke^ as, or kespcare. see ; -Moore, none DC. wper. just been who have adverbs ; tince ; as, the prcs- not, per- rc guide. '. Ago is es from a TITE VERBALIST. 179 t preposition. We say properly, " not long " or '* some time ago [agone]." Since requires a verbal clause after it ; as, ** Since I saw you " ; " Since he was here." Sing. Of the two forms — sang and sung — for the im- perfect tense of the verb to sing, the former — sang — is to be preferred. Sit. See Set. Slang. The slang that is heard among respectable people is made up of genuine words, to which an arbitrary meaning is given. It is always low, generally coarse, and not unfrequentiy foolish. With the exception of cant, there is nothing that is more to be shunned. We sometimes meet with persons of considerable culture who interlard their talk with slang expressions, but it is safe to assert that they are always persons of coarse natures. Smart. See Clever. Smell of. See Taste of. So. See As ; Such ; That. So much so. " The shipments by the coast steamers are very large, so much so [large?] as to tax the capacity of the different lines." — " Telegram," September 19, 188 1. The sentence should be, '* The shipments by the coast steamers are very large, so large as to tax," etc. Solecism. In rhetoric, a solecism is defined as an of- fense against the rules of grammar by the use of words in a wrong construction ; false syntax. " Modern grammarians designate by solecism any word or expression which does not agree with the established usage of writing or speaking. But, as customs change, that which at one time is considered a solecism may at another be regarded as correct language. A solecism, therefore, differs from a barbarism, inasmuch as the latter consists in the use of a word or expression which is altogether con- ido THE VERBALIST, trary to the spirit of the language, and can, properly speaking, never become established as correct language." — " Penny Cyclopaedia." See, also. Barbarism Some. This word is not unfrequently misused for some' what ; thus, " She is some better to-day." It is likewise often misused for about ; thus, " I think it is some ten miles from here " : read, ^^ about ten miles from here." Specialty. This form has within a recent period been generally substituted for speciality. There is no apparent reason, however, why the i should be dropped, since it is required by the etymology of the word, and is retained in nearly all other words of the same formation. Specioufi Fallacy. A fallacy is a sophism, a logical artifice, a deceitful or false appearance ; while specious means having the appearance of truth, plausible. Hence wc see that the very essence of a fallacy is its speciousness. We may very properly say that a fallacy is more or less specious, but we can not properly say that a fallacy is spe- cious, since without speciousness we can have no fallacies. Splendid. This poor word is used by the gentler sex to qualify well-nigh everything that has their approval, from a sugar-plum to the national capitol. In fact, splendid and aivful seem to be about the only adjectives some of our superlative young women have in their vocabularies. Standpoint. This is a word to which many students of English seriously object, and among them are the editors of some of our daily papers, who do not allow it to appear in their columns. The phrase to which no one objects is, point of vieiv. State. This word, which properly means to make known specifically, to explain particularly, is often misused for say. When say says all one wants to say, why use a more pretentious word ? THE VERBALIST. 181 Stop, "Where are yo\x stopping ?"' "At the Mttro- politan." The proper word to use here is staying. To stop means to cease to go forward, to leave ofiF; and to stay means to abide, to tarry, to dwell, to sojourn. We stay^ not stop^ at home, at a hotel, or with a friend, as the case may be. Storm. Many persons indulge in a careless use of this word, using it when they mean to say simply that it rains or snows. To a storm a violent commotion of the atmos- phere is indispensable. A very high wind constitutes a storm, though it be dry. Straightway. Here is a good Anglo-Saxon word of two syllables whose place, without any good reason, is being usurped by the Latin word immediately^ of five syl- lables. Street. We live in, not on — meet our acquaintances ««, not on — things occur in, not on — houses are built in, not on, the street, and so forth. Style. This is a term that is used to characterize the peculiarities that distinguish a writer or a composition. Correctness and clearness properly belong to the domain of diction ; simplicity, conciseness, gravity, elegance, diffuse- ness, floridity, force, feebleness, coarseness, etc., belong to the domain of style. Subjunctive Mood. This mood is unpopular with not a few now-a day grammarians. One says that it is rapidly falling into disuse ; that, in fact, there is good reason to suppose it will soon become obsolete. Another says that it would, perhaps, be better to abolish it entirely, as its use is a continual source of dispute among grammarians and of perplexity to schools. Another says that it is a universal stumbling-block ; that nobody seems to understand it, al- though almost everybody attempts to use it. l82 THE VERBALIST. That the subjunctive mood is much less used now than it was a hundred years ago is certain, but that it is obso- lescent is very far from certain. It would not be easy, I think, to find a single contemporary writer who does not use it. That it is not always easy to determine what form of ii we should employ is very true ; but if we are justified in Abolishing it altogether, as Mr. Chandler suggests, because ^*s correct use is not always easy, then we are also justified in abolishing the use of shall and xvilly and of the preposi- tions, for surely their right use is likewise at times most puzzling. Meanwhile, most persons will think it well to learn to use the subjunctive mood properly. With that object in view one can not, perhaps, do better than to at- tend to what Dr. Alexander Bain, Professor of Logic in the University of Aberdeen, says upon the subject. In Professor Bain's '* Higher English Grammar " we find : ** In subordinate clauses. — In a clause expressing a con- dition, and introduced by a conjunction of condition, the verb is sometimes, but not always, in the subjunctive mood : ' If \ be able,' * if I ivere strong enough,' 'if thou should come. ' '* The subjunctive inflexions have been wholly lost. The sense that something is wanting appears to have led many writers to use indicative forms where the subjunctive might be expected. The tendency appears strongest in the case of ' wert,' which is now used as indicative (for ' wast*) only in poetical or elevated language. " The following is the rule given for the use of the sub- junctive mood : " When in a conditional clause it is intended to express doubt or denial, use the subjunctive mood.* * If I were sure of what you tell me, I would go.' , * " Dr. Angus on the ' English Tongue,' art. 527. V THE VEKBALIST. '83 *' When the conditional clau.^e is affirmative and certain, the verb is indicative : * If that is the case ' (as you now tell me, and as I believe), * I can understand you.' This is equivalent to a clause of assumption, or supposition : ' That being the case/ ' inasmuch as that is the case,' etc. *• As futurity is by its nature uncertain, the subjunctive is extensively used for future conditionality : ' If it rain, we shall not be able to go ' ; ' if I ^^ well ' ; ' if he come short- ly ' ; * if thou return at all in peace ' ; * though he slay mc, yet will I trust in him.' These events are all in the un- certain future, and are put in the subjunctive.* "A future result or consequence is expressed by the subjunctive in such instances as these : ' I will wait till he return' ; ' no fear lest dinner cool* ; ' thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die ' ; ' take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting.' " Uncertainty as to a past event may arise from our own ignorance, in which case the subjunctive is properly employed, and serves the useful purpose of distinguishing t') * " In the following passages, the indicative mood would be more suit- able than the subjunctive: 'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread ' ; ' if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.' For, although the address was not sincere on the part of the speakers, they really meant to make the supposition or to grant that he was the Son of God ; ' seeing that thou art the Son cf God.' Likewise in the following: 'Now if Christ be preached, that He rose from, the dead, how say some among you that there is no res- urrection from the dead ? ' The meaning is, ' Seeing now that Christ is preached,' In the continuation, the conditional clauses are of a dif- ferent character, and ' be ' is .ippropriate : 'But if there be vo resur- rection from the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.' Again, ' If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember^/,' etc. Con- sistency and correctness require ' remember,' "—Harrison on the " Eng« lish Language," p. 287. 1^4 THE VERBALIST. our ignorance from our knowledge. ' If any of my readers has looked with so little attention upon the world around him ' ; this would mean — ' as I know that they have.' The meaning intended is probably — * as I do not know whether they have or not,' and therefore the subjunctive ' have ' is preferable. * If ignorance is bliss,' which I (ironically) admit. Had Gray been speaking seriously, he would have said, ' if ignorance be bliss/ he himself dissenting from the proposition. " A wish contrary to the fact takes the subjunctive : ' I wish he were here ' (which he is not). " An intention not yet carried out is also subjunctive : ' The sentence is that you be im^jrisoned.' " The only correct form of the future subjunctive is — * if I should.' We may say, * I do not know whether or not I shall come ' ; but * if I shall come,* expressing a condition, is not an English construction. ' If he will ' has a real meaning, as bemg the present subjunctive of the verb ' will ' : ' if lie be willing,' ' if he have the will.' It is in accordance with good usage to express a future subjunctive meaning by a present tense ; but in that case the form must be strictly subjunctive, and not indicative. * If any mem- ber absents himself, he shall forfeit a penny for the use of the club ' ; this ought to be either ' absent,' or * should absent.* ' If thou neglectest or doest unwillingly what I com- mand thee, I will rack thee with old cramps' ; better, *if thou neglect or do unwillingly,' or ' if thou should neglect.* « . •icriive would be justified by the speaker's belief \ c .i;»Dosition is sure to turn out to be the fact, asi subjunctive may imply denial; as, * if the book tvcc ill the library (as it is not), it should be at your service.' ** * If the book be in the library,' means, * I do not know THE VERBALIST. ««5 . » ;f . whether it be or nol.' Wo have thus the power of discrimi- nating three different suppositions. ' If the book is in the library ' (as I know it is) ; * if it ^^ ' (I am uncertain) ; ' if it were* (as I know it is not). So, * if it rains,' * if it rain,' * if it rained.' ' Nay, and the villains march wide between the legs, as if they had gyves on,' implying that they had not. " The same power of the past tense is exemplified in * if I could^ I would,' which means, ' I can not * ; whereas, * if I can, I will,' means • I do not know.' " The past subjunctive may be expressed by an inver- sion : • Had I the power,' ' wer I as I have been.' " In Principal Clauses. — The principal clause in a con- ditional statement also takes the subjunctive form when it refers to what is future and contingent, and when it refers to what is past and uncertain, or denied. ' If he should try, he would succeed ' ; ' if I had seen him, I should have asked him.* ** The usual forms of the subjunctive in the principal clause are * would,* * should,' ' would have,' ' should have ' ; and it is to be noted that in this application the second per- sons take the inflexional ending of the indicative : ' shouldst,' * wouldst' •* • If 'twere done when 'tis done, then \were (would be) well It were (should be) done quickly.' " The English idiom appears sometimes to permit the use of an indicative where we should expect a subjunctive form. ' Many acts, that had been otherwise blamable, were employed ' ; * I Aa^/ fainted, unless I had believed,' etc. " ' Which else lie furled and shrouded in the soul.' " In * else ' there is implied a conditional clause that would suit * lie ' ; or the present may be regarded as a more vivid form of expression. • Had ' may be indicative ; fust as we sometimes find pluperfect indicative for pluper* i86 THE VERBALIST. feet subjunctive in the same circumstances in Latin. We may refer it to the general tendency, as already seen in the uses of 'could,' 'would,' 'should,' etc., to express con- ditionality by a past tense ; or the indicative may be used as a more direct and vivid mode. ' Had ' may be subjunc- tive ; ' 1 had fainted ' is, in construction, analogous to * I should have fainted ' ; the word for futurity, ' shall,' not being necessary to the sense, is withdrawn, and its past inflexion transferred to 'have.' Compare Germ, wiirde haben and hdttey In addition to the foregoing, we find in Professor Bain's "Composition Grammar" the following: " The case most suited to the subjunctive is contingent futurity y or the expression of an event unknown absolutely, as being still in the future : * If to-morrow be fine, I will walk with you.' " ' Unless I were prepared,* insinuates pretty strongly that I am or am not prepared, according to the manner of the principal clause. " ♦ What's a tall man unless \^ fight? ' " ' The sword hath ended him : so shall it thee, Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.* " ' Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he ? ' *" I am to second Ion if he fair ; the failing is left quite doubtful. ' I should very imperfectly execute the task which I have undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges.' Macaulay thus implies that the scope of his work is to be wider than mere battles and sieges. " ' The subjunctive appears in some other constructions. ' I hope to see the exhibition before it close ' ; ' wait till he return * ; ' thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he f THE VERBALIST. 87 come" ; * take heed lest passion sway thy judgment ' ; * speak to me, though it be in wrath ' ; ' if he smite him with an in- strument of iron so that he die^ he is a murderer' ; ' beware this night that thou cross not my footsteps * (Sheliey). *' Again. ' Whatever this be' \ ' whoever he be' \ * how- e'er it be ' (Tennyson) ; and such like. '* ' And as long, O God, as she Have a grain of love for me. So long, no doubt, no doubt. Shall I nurse in my dark heart, However weary, a spark of will Not to be trampled out.* " The Future Subjunctive is given in our scheme of the verb as * should ' in all persons : ' If I should, if thou should, if he should/ In old English, we have *thou shotildst ' : 'if thou. Lord, shouldst mark iniquities.' " An inverted conditional form has taken deep root in our language, and may be regarded as an elegant and for- cible variety. While dispensing wiih the conjunction, it does not cause ambiguity ; nevertheless, conditionality is well marked. '• * // you shoulJ abandon your Penelope and your home for CalypoO, ' : ' should you abandon .' "" ' Go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain.' •' ' Here had we now our country's honor roofd Were the graced person of our Banquo present.* " ' Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd. Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee.* 188 THE VERB ATI ST. " * Come one, come all, this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.' — Scott. " The following examples are given by Mfitzner " * Varney's communications, he they what they might, were operating in his favor.' — Scott. " * Governing persons, were they never so insignificant intrinsically, have for most part plenty of Memoir- writers.' — Carlyle. " * Even were I disposed, I could not gratify the read- er. ' — Warren. " * Bring them back to me, cost what it may.' — Cole- ridge, * Wallenstein.' " • And luill you, nill you, I will marry you.' — ' Tam- ing of the Shrew.' " Were is used in the principal clause for * should be ' or * would be.' * *' • I were (= should be) a fool, not less than if a panther Were panic-stricken by the antelope's eye. If she escape me.' — Shelley. ^ *' ' Were you but riding forth to air yourself, Such parting were too petty.' "'He were (= would be) no lion, were not Romans hinds.' " ' Should he be roused out of his sleep to-night, . . . It were not well ; indeed it were not well.' — Shelley. ** Had is sometimes used in the principal clause for • should have ' or * would have.' f • ** So, in German, wMrt for wUrde sein. ' Hiitt * ich Schwingen, hStt * ich FItigel, nach den Hiigeln zifg^ ich hin,' for * wUrde ich witkenr' t ** So, in German, hdtte occurs for wUrde haben. * Ware er da gewesen, so hdtten wir ihn gesehen,' for ' so wiirden wir ihn gesehen fimbtn,* H&tttn is still conditional, not indicative. In Latin, the I \ I Trrr. vkrhaust. 189 " • Had I known this before we set out, 1 think I had (= would have) remained at home.' — Scott. " ' Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume. Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine.' •♦'If ho Had killed me, he had Aor\Q a kinder deed.' " * For once he had been ta'en or slain, An it had not been his ministry.* — Scott. " * If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin.' * " ' I/ad better, rather, best, as lief, as well, etc.,' is a form that is explained under this heading. ' Had ' stands for 'would have.' The exploded notion that 'had* is a corrupted ' would ' must be guarded against. " ' I had as lief not be.' That is — ' I would as lief have not {to) be ' = ' I would as willingly (or as soon) have non- existence.* " * Had you rather Ccesar were living ? ' ' Would you rather have {uould yow prefer that) Caesar were living ? ' *• ' He Adtdf better reconsider the matter' is 'he luould better have {to) reconsider the matter.* " ' I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers ; I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned.* " Let us compare this form with another that appears side by side with it in early writers. (Cp. Lat. ' habeo ' and ' mihi est.') " The construction of ' had * is thus illustrated in Chau- cer, as in — Nonne Prestes Tale, 300 : pluperfect indicative is occasionally used ; which is explained as a more vivid form." * *^ In principal clauses the inflection of the second person is always retained : ' thou hadr/,* * thou wouldx/, shouldjr/,' etc. In the ex- ample, the subordinate clause, although subjunctive, shows, * hadti* Aad thi» usage is exoeedin^y commocu" 190 THE VERBALIST. " * By God, I hadde levere than my schertt, That ye hadde rad his legend, as I have/ •■ Compare now : •* • Ah me were levere with lawe loose my lyf Then so to fote hem falle.'—V^righi, * Polit. S.* " Here ' were ' is unquestionably for * would be ' ; and the whole expression might be given by 'had,' thus : 'Ah, / /lac/c/e levere ,' * (to) loose ' and * (to) /alle,' changing from subjects of * were ' to objects of * hadde.' •• So, in the Chaucer example above, if we substitute * be ' for ' have,' we shall get the same meaning, thus : * By God, fne were levere .' The interchange helps us to see more clearly that ' hadde ' is to be explained as sub- junctive for 'would have.'" See Indicative and Sub- JUNOTIVE. _ iM^hrh " I have never before seen such a large ox." By k little transposing of the words of this sentence, we have, " 1 have never before seen an ox such large," which makes it quite clear that we should say so large an ox and not such a larg'i ox As proof that this error in the use of such is common we find in Mr. George Washington Moon's " Dean's English and Bad English," the sentence, '* With all due deference to such -x high autboiity on such a very important matter." With a little transposing, this sentence is made to read, "With all due deference to an authority such high on a matter such very important.' It is clear that the sentence should read, *' With all due deference to so high an authority on so very important a matter." The phrases, such a handsome, such a lovely, such a long, stuh narrow, etc., are incorrect and should be so handsome, so lovely, so long, and so on. Summon. This verb comes in for its full share of maul- ing. We often hear such expressions as *' I will summons ^#R, > THE VERBALIST. 191 i« 1> him/* instead of summon him ; and " He was summonsed^** instead of suinmomd. Superfluous Words. " Whenever I try to write well, I always find I can do it." " I shall have finished by the latter end of the week." " Iron sinks down in water." " He com- bined together all the facts." " My brother called on mt, and we both took a walk." " I can do it equally as well as he." " We could not forbear from doing it." " Before I go, I must first be paid." " We were compelled to return backr " We forced them to retreat back fully a mile." " His conduct was approved of by everybody." " They conversed together for a long time." ** The balloon rose up very rapidly." " Give me another oney " Come home as soon as ever you can." " Who finds him in money ? " '* He came in last of all" " He has got all he can carry." " What have you gotV* ** No matter what I have got'* " I have got the headache." " Have you got any brothers ? " " No, but I have got a sister." All the words in italics are super- fluous. Superior. This word is not unfrequently used for able, excellent, gifted ; as, " She is a supefior woman," meaning an excellent woman ; " He is a superior man," meaning an able man. The expression an infetior man is not less ob- jectionable. Supposititious. This word improperly used in the sense of put by a trick into the place or character belonging to another, spurious, counterfeit, not genuine ; and improp- erly in the sense of conjectural, hypothetical, imaginary, presumptive ; as, " This is a supposititious case," meaning an imaginary ox presumptive, C2i%e. " The English critic de- rived his materials from a stray copy of some supposititious indexes devised by one of the * Post ' reporters." — " Natioil*'' Here is a correct use of the word. 18 L92 THE VERBALIST, •+- Swosh. There is a kind of ill-balanced brain in whic^ the reflective and the imaginative very much outweight the perceptive. Men to whom this kind of an organization has been given generally have active minds, but their minds never present anything clearly. To their mental vision all is ill-defined, chaotic. They see everything in a haze. Whether such men talk or write, they are verbose, illogical, intangible, will-d'-the-wispish. Their thoughts are phan- tomlike ; like shadows, they continually escape their grasp. In their talk they will, after long dissertations, tell you that they have not said just what they would like to say ; there is always a subtle, luiking something still unexpressed, which something is the real essence of the matter, and which your penetration is expected to divine. In their writings they are eccentric, vague, labyrinthine, pretentious, transcenden- tal,* and frequently ungrammatical. These men, if write they must, should confine themselves to the descriptive ; for when they enter the essayist's domain, which they are very prone to do, they write what I will venture to call swosh. We find examples in plenty of this kind of writing in the essays of Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Indeed, the im- partial critic who will take the trouble to examine any of Mr. Eme."^on's essays at all carefully, is quite sure to come to the con<;.usion that Mr. Emerson has seen everything h« has ever made the subject of his essays very much as Lon- don is seen from the top of Saint Paul's in a fog. * To those who are not quite clear as to what transcendentalism is, the following Uicid definition will be welcome : " It is the spiritual cog- noscence of psychological irrefragahility connected with concutient ademption of incolumnient spirituality and etherealized contention of subsultory concretion." Translated by a New York lawyer, it standi thus : *^ Transcendentalism is two holes in a sand-bank : a storm washes away the saud-baiik without disturbing the holes." » t '• THE VERBALIST, 193 igm im- ly of :ome h« ^on- km IS, |1 cog- iticnt [on of [tandi tona Mr. Emerson's definition of Nature runs thus ; " Philo* sophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is sepa- rate from us, all which philosophy distinguishes from the Not Me — that is, both Nature and Art, and all other men, and my own body — must be ranked under this name * Na- ture.' In enumerating the values of Nature and casting up their sum, I shall use the word in both senses — in its common and in its philosophical import. In inquiries so general as our present one, the inaccuracy is not material ; no confusion of thought will occur. Nature^ in the com- mon sense, lefers to essences unchanged by man : space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a picture, a statue. But his operations, taken together, are so insignificant — a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing — that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind they do not vary the result." In " Letters and Social Aims " Mr. Emerson writes : " Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. He who would convince the worthy Mr. Dunderhead of any truth which Dunderhead does not see, must be a master of his art. Declamation is common ; but such possession of thought as is here required, such practical chemistry as the conversion of a truth written in God's language into a tmth in Dunderhead's language, is one of the most beautiful and cogent weapons that is forged in the shop of the Divine Artificer." The first paragraph of Mr. Emerson's " Essay on Art " reads : " All departments of life at the present day — Trade, Politics, Letters, Science, or Religion — seem to fcjl, and to labor to express, the identity of their law. They are 194 THE VERBALIST. rays of one sun ; they translate each into a new language the sense of the other. They are sublime when seen as emanations of a Necessity contradistinguished from the vulgar Fate by being instant and alive, and dissolving man, as well as his works, in its flowing beneficence. This in- fluence is conspicuously visible in the principles and his- tory of Art." Another paragraph from Mr. Emerson's "Essay on Eloquence " : " The orator, as we have seen, must be a substantial personality. Then, first, he must have power of statement — must have the fact, and know how to tell it. In a knot of men conversing on any subject, the per- son who knows most about it will have the ear of the company, if he wishes it, and lead the conversation, no matter what genius or distinction other men there present may have ; and, in any public assembly, him who has the facts, and can and will state them, people will listen to, though he is otherwise ignorant, though he is hoarse and ungrateful, though he stutters and screams." Mr. Emerson, in his *' Essay on Prudence," writes : " There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the world. It is sufficient to our present purpose to indicate three. One class live to the utility of the symbol, es- teeming health and wealth a final good. Another class live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol, as the poet and artist, and the naturalist and man of science. A third class live above the beauty of the symbol to the beauty of the thing signified ; these are wise men. The first class have common sense ; the second, taste , and the third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time a man traverse^ the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the sym- bol solidly ; then, also, has a clear eye fcr its beauty ; and, lastly, whilst he pitches his tent on this sacred volcanic isle THE VERBALIST. >9S to, and ites : the icate es- class the . A the The i the man sym- and, isle of nature, does not offer to build houses and barns thereon, reverencing the splendor of God which he sees bursting through each chink and cranny." Those who are wont to accept others at their self- assessment and to see things through other people's eyes — and there are many such — arc in danger of thinking this kind of writing very fine, when in fact it is not only the veriest swosh, but that kind of swosh that excites at least an occasional doubt with regard to the writer's sanity. We can make no greater mistake than to suppose that the reason we do not understand these rhetorical contortionists is because they are so subtle and profound. We under- stand them quite as well as they understand themselves. At their very best, they are but incoherent diluters of other men's ideas. They have but one thing to recommend them — honesty. They believe in themselves. " Whatever is dark is deep. Stir a puddle, and it is deeper than a well." — Swift. Synecdoche. The using of the name of a part for that of the whole, the name of the whole for that of a part, or the using of a definite number for an indefinite, is called, in rhetoric, synecdoche. " The bay was covered with sails " ; i. e., with ships. " The man was old, careworn, and gray " ; i. e , literally, ^r J hair^ not the man, was gray. ** Nine tenths of every man's happiness depends on the reception he meets with in the world." " He had seen seventy 7vin- ters.'* " Thus spoke the tempter " : here the part of the character is named that suits the occasion. ** His roof was at the service of the outcast ; the un- fortunate ever found a welcome at his threshold." Take. I copy from the " London Queen " : " The verb to take is open to being considered a vulgar verb when used in reference to dinner, tea, or to refreshments of an^ I9<5 THE VERBALIST, kind. * Will you take ' is not considered comme il fattt; the verb in favor for the offering of civilities being to have** According to " The Queen," then, we must say, " Will you have some dinner, tea, coffee, wine, fish, beef, salad," etc. Taste of. The redundant of, often used, in this coun- try, in connection with the transitive verbs to taste and to smelly is a Yankeeism. We taste or smell a thing, not taste of nor smell of a thing. The neuter verbs to taste and to smell are often followed by of. "If butter tastes ^/ brass." " For age but tastes of pleasures." " You shall stifle in your own report, And smell of calumny." — Shakespeare. Tautology. Among the things to be avoided in writ- ing is tautology^ which is the repeating of the same thought^ whether in the same or in different words. Tautophony. '• A regard for harmony requires us, in the progress of a sentence, to avoid repeating a sound by employing the same word more than once, or using, in contiguous words, similar combinations of letters. This fault is known as tautology y — Dr. G. P. Quackenbos, " Ad- vanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric," p. 300. Dr. Quackenbos is in error. The repetition of the same sense is tautology, and the repetition of the same sound, or, as Dr. Quackenbos has it, " the repeating of a sound by em- ploying the same word more than once, or by using in contiguous words similar combinations of letters," is taU' tophony. Teach. To impart knowledge, to inform, to instruct ; as, " Tccu:h me how to do it " ; •* Teach me to swim " ; " He taught me to write." The uncultured often misuse learn for teach. See Learn. Tense. The errors made in the use of the tenses are manifold. The one most frequently made by persons ol THE VERBALIST. 197 It in are of culture — the one that everybody makes would, perhaps, be nearer the fact — is that of using the imperfect instead of the perfect tense ; thus, " I never sa7v it played but once": say, have seen. " lie wns the largest man 1 ever mw' : say, have seen. ** I never in my life had such trouble": say, have had. Another frequent error, the making of which is not confined to the unschooled, is that of using two verbs in a past tense when only one should be in that time ; thus, *' I intended to have gone" : say, to go. '* It was my intention to have come": say, /c? come. "I expected to have found yo\x here " : say, to find. •' I was very desirous to have gone " : say, to go. '* He was better than I expected to have found him " : say, to find. Among other common errors are the following : " I seen him when he done it " : say, ** I saw him when he did it." " I should have went home " : say , gone. " If he had toent " : say, gone. " I wish you had rvent" : say, gone. " Me has went out " : say, gone. '• I come to town this morning " : say, came. " He come to me for advice " : say, came. " It degun very late " : say, began. " It had already began " : say, begun. " The following toasts were drank " : say, drunk. *' His text was that God 7vas love " : say, is love. Another error is made in such sentences as these: *' If I had have known": say, had known. "If he had have come as he promised" : say, had come. "If you had have told me " : say, had told. Testimony. See Evidence. Than. Than and as implying comparison have the same case after as before them. ** He owes more than me" : read, than / — i. e., more than / owe. "John is not so old as her": read, as she — i. e., as she is. We should say, then, " He is stronger than she" " She is older than he,* " You are richer than //' etc. But it does not always 198 THE VERBALIST. happen that the nominative case comes after than or as, ** I love you more than //m," " 1 give you more than hinty* " I love you as well as him " ; that is to say, " I love you more than / /ovc hi^fi," ** I give you more than / give him" " I love you as well as / love him." Take away him and put he in all these cases, and the grammar is just as good, but the meaning is quite different. *' I love you as well as him," means that I love you as well as I love him ; but, " I love you t> . wc .s he" means that I love you as well as he loves you. Than whom. Cobbett ir« his "Grammar of the Eng- lish Language," says: ' ihcre is an erroneous way of em- ploying whom, which I must point out to your particular attention, because it is so often seen in very good writers, and because it is very deceiving. 'The Duke of Argyll, than whom no man was more hearty in the cause.' * Crom- well, than ivhom no man was better skilled in artifice.* A hundred such phrases might be collected from Hume, Blackstone, and even from Drs. Blair and Johnson. Yet they are bad grammar. In all such cases, who should be made use of : for it is nominative and not objective. ' No man was more hearty in the cause than he was * ; * No man was better skilled in artifice than he was.** It is a very common Parliament -house phrase, and therefore presumably corrupt ; but it is a Dr. Johnson phrase, too : * Pope, than whom few men had more vanity.' The Doctor did not say, ' Myself, than whom few men have been found more base, having, in my dictionary, described a pensioner as a slave of state, and having afterward myself become a pen- sioner.' ** I differ in this matter from Bishop Lowth, who says * " Cromwell — than he no man was more skilled in artifice ; oi^ Cromwell — ^no man was more skilled in artifice than he (was)/* I i f THE VERBALIST. 199 says that * The relative 7vho, having reference to no verb or preposition understood, but only to its antecedent, when it follows than, is always in the objective case ; even though the pronoun, if substituted in its place, would be in the nominative.' And then he gives an instance from Milton. * Beelzebub, than whom, Satan except, none higher sat.' It is curious enough that this sentence of the Bishop is, itself, ungrammatical ! Our poor unfortunate it is so placed as to make it a matter of doubt whether the Bishop meant it to relate to who or to its antecedent. However, we know its meaning ; but, though he says that who, when it follows than, is always in the objective case, he gives us no reason for this departure from a clear general pnncir>ie,; unless we are to regard as a reason the example of Milton, who has committed many hundreds, if not thousands, of gram- matical errors, many of which the Bishop himself has pointed out. There is a sort of side-wind attempt at reason in the words, ' having reference to no verb or prep- osition understood.' I do not sec the reason, even if this could be ; but it appears to me impossible that a noun or pronoun can exist in a grammatical state without having reference to some verb or preposition, either expressed or understood. What is meant by Milton? 'Than Beelze- bub, none sat higher, except Satan ' And when, in order to avoid the repetition of the word Beelzebub, the relative becomes necessary, the full construction must be, ' no devil «?»t higher than who sat, except Satan ' ; and not, ' no devil sat higher than whom sat.' * The supposition that there can be a noun or pronoun which has reference to no verb and no preposition, is certainly a mistake." Of this, Dr. Fitzedward Hall remarks, in his '* Recent Exemplifications of False Philology " : *' That any one * ** No devU sat higher than he sat, except Satan/* 200 THE VERBALIST. but Cobbett would abide thb as English is highly im- probable ; and how the expression — a quite classical one— - which he discards can be justified grammatically, except by calling its than a preposition, others may resolve at their leisure and pleasure." Thanks. There are many persons who think it in questionable taste to use thanks for thank you. That. The best writers often appear to grope after a separate employment for the several relatives. •' ' That ' is the proper restrictive^ explicative, limitingf or defining relative, *• * That,' the neuter of the definite article, was early in use as a neuter relative. All the other oldest relatives gradually dropt away, and ' that ' came to be applied also to plural antecedents, and to masculines and feminines. When ' as,' * which,' and * who * came forward to share the work of ' that,' there seems to have arisen not a little uncer- tainty about the relatives, and we find curious double forms : •whom that,' 'which that,' 'which as,' etc. Gower has, * Venus whose priest that I am * ; Chaucer writes — * This Abbot which that was an holy man,' * his love the which that he oweth.' By the Elizabethan period, these double forms have disappecred, and all the relatives are used singly with- out hesitation. From then till now, ' that ' has been strug- gling with * who ' and * which * to regain superior favor, with varying success. ' Who ' is used for persons, * which ' for things, in both numbers ; so is * that * ; and the only opportunity of a special application of * that * lies in the important distinction between coordination and restriction. Now, as * who ' and ' which ' are most commonly preferred for co5rdination, it would be a clear gain to confine them to this sense, and to reserve ' that ' for the restrictive appli- cation alQfkC. ThU arrangement, then^ would fall in with, THE VERBALIST, 201 • . • avor, iiich* only n the :tion. erred them ppli. the most general use of ' that* especially beyond the limits of formal composition. " The use of ' that ' solely as restrictive, with * who ' and * which * solely as coordinating, also avoids ambii^uities that often attend the indiscriminate use of • who' and ' which' for coordinate and for restrictive clauses. Thus, when we say, * his conduct surprised his English friends, who had not known him long,' we may mean either that his English friends generally were surprised (the relative being, in that case, coordinating), or that only a portion of them — namely, the particular portion that had not known him long — were surprised. In this last case the relative is meant to define or explain the antecedent, and the doubt would be removed by writing thus : ' his English friends that had not known him long.' So in the following sentence there is a similar ambiguity in the use of ' which ' : ' the next winter which you will spend in town will give you opportunities of mak- ing a more pnident choice.' This may mean, either ' you will spend next winter in town ' (* which ' being coordinat* ing), or * the next of the winters when you are to live in town,* let that come when it may. In the former case, ' which ' is the proper relative ; in the latter case, the mean- ing is restrictive or defining, and would be best brought out by * that ' : * the next winter that you will spend in town.' " A further consideration in favor of employing ' that ' for explicative clauses is the unpleasant effect arising from the too frequent repetition of * who ' and * which* Gramma- rians often recommend * that ' as a means of varying the style ; but this end ought to be sought in subservience to the still greater end of perspicuity. " The following examples will serve further to illustrate the distinction between ihat^ on the one hand, and who an4 whicK OQ the other : 202 THE VERBALIST, " ' In general, Mr. Burchell was fondest of the company of children, whom he used to call harmless little men.* * Whom * is here idiomatically used, being the equivalent of * and them he used to call,' etc. " * Bacon at last, a mighty man, arose, Whom a wise king and nation chose Lord Chancellor of both their laws.' Here, also, * whom ' is equal to ' and him.' " In the following instance the relative is restrictive or defining, and ' that ' would be preferable : ' the conclusion of the " Iliad " is like the exit of a great man out of com- pany whom he has entertained magnificently.' Compare another of Addison's sentences : * a man of polite imagina- tion is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving.' " Both relatives are introduced discriminatingly in this passage : — ' She had learned that from Mrs. Wood, who had heard it from her husband, who had heard it at the public- house from the landlord, who had been let into the secret by the boy that carried the beer to some of the prisoners.* " The following sentences are ambiguous under the modern system of using ' who ' for both purposes : — * I met the boatman who took me ac^^oss the ferry.* If ' who ' is the proper relative here, the m»^aning is, ' I met the boatman, and he took me across,* it being supposed that the boatman is known and definite. But if there be several boatmen, and I wish to indicate one in particular by the circumstance that he had taken me across the ferry, I should use * that.' * The youngest boy who has learned to dance is James.* This means either ' the youngest boy is James, and he has learned to dance,* or, ' of the boys, the youngest that has learned to dance is James.* This last sense is restrictive, fad * that ' should be used. THE VERBALIST, 203 *' Turning now to ' which,' we may have a scries of parallel examples. ' The court, which gives currency to manners, should be exemplary ' : here the meaning is • the court should be exemplary, for the court gives currency to manners.' ' Which ' is the idiomatic relative in this case. ' The cat, which you despise so .nuch, is a very useful ani- mal.' The relative here also is coordinating, and not re- strictive. If it were intended to point out one individual cat specially despised by the person addressed, * that ' would convey the sense. ' A theory which does not tend to the improvement of practice is utterly unworthy of regard.' The meaning is restrictive ; ' a theory that does not tend.* The following sentence is one of many from Goldsmith that give ' that ' instead of ' which ' : — 'Age, that lessens the en- joyment of life, increases our desire of living.' Thackeray also was fond of this usage. But it is not very common. " * Their faith tended to make them improvident ; but a wise instinct taught them that if there was one thing which ought not to be left to fate, or to the precepts of a deceased prophet, it was the artillery ' ; a case where ' that * is the proper relative. " • All words, which are signs of complex ideas, furnish matter of mistake.' This gives an erroneous impression, and should be ' all words that are signs of complex idea-,.' " ' In all cases of prescription, the universal practice 01 judges is to direct juries by analogy to the Statute of Limi« tations, to decide against incorporeal rights which have for many years been relinquished ' : say, instead, * incorporeal rights that have for many years,' and the sense is clear. " It is necessary for the proper understanding of ' which * to advert to its peculiar function of referring to a whole clause as the antecedent : ' William ran along the top of the wall, which alarmed his mother very much.' The antece* ^iSMt 204 THE VERBALIST. dent is obviously not the noun * wall,' but the fact expressed by the entire clause — * William ran/ etc. ' He by no means wants sense, which only serves to aggravate his former folly ' ; namely, (not ' sense,' but) the circumstance ' that he does not want sense.' ' He is neither over-exalted by prosperity, nor too much depressed by misfortune ; which you must allow marks a great mind.' * We have done many things which we ought not to have done,' might mean * we ought not to have done many things ' ; that is, * we ought to have done few things.* ' That ' would give the exact sense in- tended : • we have done many things that we ought not to have done.' ' He began to look after his afifairs himselfi which was the way to make them prosper.* '• We must next allude to the cases where the relative is governed by a preposition. We can use a preposition be- fore ' who ' and ' which,' bi . when the relative is ' that,' the preposition must be thrown to the end of the clause. Owing to an imperfect appreciation of the genius of our language, offense was taken at this usage by some of our leading writers at the beginning of last century, and to this circum- stance we must refer the disuse of ' that ' as the relative of restriction.* ♦ " Speaking of Dryden, Hallam says, ' His " Essay on Dramatic Poesy," published in 1668, was reprinted sixteen years afterward, and it is curious to observe the changes which Dryden made in the expres- sion. Malone has carefully noted all these ; they show both the care the author took with his own style, and the change which was gradually working in the English language. The Anglicism of terminating the sentence with a preposition is rejected. Thus, *^ I can not think so contemptibly of the age I live in," is exchanged for '^ the age in which I live.*' '* A deeper expression of belief than all the actor can persuade us to," is altered, ^* can insinuate into us." And, though the old form continued in use long after the time of Dryden, it has of late years been fcckoned inelegant, and proscribed in all cases, perhaps with an unne- cenauy fastidiousness, to which I have not unifonnly deferred, since rnE VEkBAUST. 20; •* • tt is curious that the only circumstance connected with Scott, and related by Lockhart, of which 1 was a wit- ness, is incorrectly stated in the " Life of Sir W<er." * — Leslie's ' Memoirs.' The relative should be restrictive : ' that I was a witness 212 THE VEkBAUST, entire ; but he who uses it indiscriminately as a synonym of these words will frequently utter utter nonsense — i. e., he will utter that which is without the pale of sense. For example, we can not say utter concord, but we can say utter discord — i. e., without the pale of concord. Valuable. The following sentence, which recently ap- peared in one of the more fastidious of our morning papers, is offered as an example of extreme slipshodness in the use of language : *' Sea captains are among the most valualh contributors to the Park aviary." What the writer proba- bly meant to say is, " Sea captains are among those whose contributions to the Park aviary are the most valuable." Vast. This word is often met with in forcible-feeble diction, where it is used instead of great or large to qualify such words as number, majority, multitude, and the like. Big words and expletives should be used only where they are really needed ; where they are not really needed, they go wide of the object aimed at. The sportsman that hunts small game with buck-shot comes home empty-handed. Veracity. The loss would be a small one if we were to lose this word and its derivatives. Truth and its deriva- tives would supply all our needs. In the phrase so often heard, "A man of tiiith and veracity," veracity is entirely superfluous, it having precisely the same meaning a^ truth. The phrase, " A big, large man," is equally good diction. Verbiage. An unnecessary profusion of words is called verbiage : verbosity, wordiness. " I thought what I read of it verbiage y — Johnson. Sometimes a better name than verbiage for wordiness would be emptiness. Witness : " Clearness may be devel- oped and cultivated in three ways, {a) By constantly prac- ticing in heart and life the thoughts and ways of honesty and frankness.'' The first sentence evidently means, "Clear- feiiU.Ci;H 'M'J^'^. THE VERBALIST, 113 nonym i. e., he ;. For ly utter itly ap- papers, the use lalualh proba- ; whose )le." 2-feeble qualify le like, ire they d, they t hunts ed. ve were deriva- 50 often entirely truth, clion. s called 3n. )rdines8 devel- y prac- >sty and Clear- ness may be attained in three ways " ; but what the second sentence means — if it means anything — is more than I can tell. Professor L. T. Townsend, " Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 130, adds : *' This may be regarded as the surest path to greater transparency of style." The transparency of Dr. Townsend's style is peculiar. Also, p. 144, we find : *' The laws and rules * thus far laid down ' furnish ampi\ founda- tion for ' the general statement that an easy and natural * expression, an exact verbal incarnation of ones thmkmg,' together with the power of using appropriate figures, and of making nice discriminations between approximate syno- nyms,* each being an important factor in correct style, are attained in two ways.' (i) Through moral ^ and mental discipline. (2) Through continuous and intimate • ac- quaintance with such authors as best exemplify those at- tainments." '® I. Would not laws cover the whole ground? 2. En passant I would remark that Dr. Townsend did not make these laws, though he so intimates. 3. I suggest the word justify in place of these four. 4. What is natural is easy ; easy, therefore, is superfluous. 5. If this means anything, it does not mean more than the adjective clear would ex- press, if properly used in the sentence. 6. Approximate synonyms ! ! Who ever heard of any antagonistic or even of dissimilar synonyms? 7. The transparency of this sen- tence is not unlike the transparency of corrugated glass. 8. What has morality to do with correctness ? 9. An in- timate acquaintance would suffice for most people. 10. Those attainments! What are they? Dr. Townsend's corrugated style makes it hard to tell. This paragraph is so badly conceived throughout that it is well-nigh impossible to make head, middle, or tail ol It ; still, if I am at all successful in guessing what Professoi ig|^>ji#^i-4#.fe m M ' ^ rrn^ti tf rn^ V f 114 TIfE VERBALIST, ^ Townsend wanted to say in it, then — when shorn of its redundancy and high-flown emptiness — it will read some- what like this : " The laws thus far presented justify the general statement that a clear and natural mode of ex- pression — together with that art of using appropriate figures and that ability properly to discriminate between syno- nyms which are necessary to correctness — is attained in two ways, (i) By mental discipline. (2) By the study of our best authors." The following sentence is from a leading magazine : " If we begin a system of interference, regulating men's gains^ bolstering here, in order to strengthen this interest^ [and] re- pressing elsewhere [there], in order to equalize wealth, we shall do an [a] immense deal of mischief, and without bring- ing about a more agreeable condition of things than now [we] shall simply discourage enterprise, repress industry, and check material growth in all directions."" Read with- out the eighteen words in italics and with the four inclosed. " Nothing disgusts sooner than the empty pomp of lan- guage." Vice. See Crime. Vicinity. This word is sometimes incorrectly used without the possessive pronoun ; thus, " Washington and vicinity," instead of "Washington and its vicinity." The primary meaning of vicinity is nearness, proximity. In many of the cases in which vicinity is used, neighborhood would be the better word, though vicinity is perhaps prefer- able where it is a question of mere locality. Vocation — Avocation. These words are frequently confounded. A man's vocation is his profession, his call- ing, his business ; and his avocations are the things that occupy him incidentally. Mademoiselle Bernhardt's voca- Hon is acting ; her avocations are painting and sculpture. THE VERBALIST, 215 osed. Ian- used n and The In whood refer- " The tracing of resemblances among the objects and events of the world is a constant avocation of the human mind." Vulgar. By the many, this word is probably more frequently used improperly than properly. As a noun, it means the common people, the lower orders, the multi- tude, the many ; as an adjective, it means coarse, low, unrefined, as "the vulgar people." The sense in which it is misused is that of immodest, indecent. The wearint;, for example, of a gown too short at the top may be inde- cent, but is not vulgar. Was. " He said he had come to the conclusion that there was no God." " The greatest of Byron's works was his whole work taken together." — Matthew Arnold. What is true at all times should be expressed by using the verb in the present tense. The sentences above should read ij, not was. * Wharf. See Dock. What. " He would not believe but what I did it " : read, but that, " I do not doubt but what I shall go to Boston to-morrow " : read, doubt that. We say properly, *' I have nothing but what you see " ; " You have brought everything but what I wanted." Whence. As this adverb means — unaided— /n7z« what place, source, or cause, it is, as Dr. Johnson styled it, " a vicious mode of speech " to say from whence, Milton to the contrary notwithstanding. Nor is there any more pro- priety in the phrase from thence^ as thence means — unaided — from that place. " Whence do you come ? " not " From whence do you come ? " Likewise, " He went hence" not ^^from hence." Whether. This conjunction is often improperly re- peated in a sentence ; thus, '* I have not decided whether I shall go to Boston or whether I shall go to Philadelphia." ii6 THE VERBALIST, n Vm m Which. This pronoun as an interrogative applies to persons as well as to things ; as a relative^ it is now made to refer to things only. *' Which is employed in coordinate sentences, where iV, or thcy^ and a conjunction might answer the purpose ; thus, • At school I studied geometry, which (and it) I found useful afterward.' Here the new clause is something inde- pendent added to the previous clause, and not limiting that clause in any way. So in the adjectival clause ; as, * He struck the poor dog, which (and it, or although it) had never done him harm.' Such instances represent the most accurate meaning of which. Who and which might be termed the coordinating relatives. " Which is likewise used in restrictive clauses that limit or explain the antecedent ; as, * The l^ouse which he built still remains.' Here the clause introduced by which speci- fies, or points out, the house that is the subject of the statement, namely, by the circumstance that a ce/tain per- son built it. As remarked with regard to who^ our most idiomatic writers prefer that in this particular application, and would say, ' The house that he built still remayis.' " " Which sometimes has a special reference attaching to it, as the neuter relative : ' Caesar crossed the Rubicon, which was in effect a declaration of war.' The antecedent in this instance is not Rubicon^ but the entire clause. " There is a peculiar usage where which may seem to be still regularly used in reference to persons, as in * John is a soldier, which I should like to be,* that is, 'And I should like to be a soldier' " See That. Who. There are few persons, even among the most cultivated, who do not make frequent mistakes in the use of this pronoun. They say, *' Who did you see ? " " Who did you meet ?" ''WJio did he marry?" "Who did you THE VERBALTSiT. 217 most he use ''Who id you hear?" " Who did he know?" ''Who are you writing to ? " " Who arc you looking at ? " In all these sentences the interrogative pronoun is in the objective case, and should be used in the objective form, which is 7uhom, and not who. To show that these sentences arc not correct, and are not defensible by supposing any ellipsis whatso- ever, we have only to put the questions in another form. Take the first one, and, instead of "Who did you see?" say, ** Who saw you ?" which, if correct, justifies us in saying, " Who knew he," which is the equivalent of "Who did he know ? " But " Who saw you ?" in this instance, is clearly not correct, since it says directly the opposite of what is intended. Who was little used as a relative till about the six- teenth century. Bain says : " In modern use, more espe- cially in books, who is frequently employed to introduce a clause intended to restrict, define, limit, or explain a noun (or its equivalent) ; as, * That is the man 7vho spoke to us yesterday.' " " Here the clause introduced by 7vho is necessary to define or explain the antecedent the man ; without it, we do not know who the man is. Such relative clauses are typical adjective clauses — i. e., they have the same effect ns adjectives in limiting nouns. This may be called the RESTRICTIVE use of the relative. " Now it will be found that the practice of our most idiomatic writers and speakers is to prefer that to 7vho in this application. *' Who is properly used in such coordinate sentences as, ' I met the watchman, 7vho told me there had been a fire.' Here the two clauses are distinct and independent ; in such a case, and he might be substituted for who, ^* Another form of the same use is when the second 2l8 THE VERBALIST, n clause is of the kind termed adverbial, where we may re« solve who into a personal or demonstrative pronoun and conjunction. ' Why should we consult Charles, who {/of he, seeing that he) knows nothing of the matter ? ' '* Who may be regarded as a modern objective form, side by side with whom. For many good writers and speakers say ' who are you talking of?' * who does the gar- den belong to ?' • 7uho is this for ? ' ' who from ? ' " etc. If this be true — if who may be regarded as a modem objective form, side by side with whom — then, of course such expressions as " Who did you see ? " " Who did you meet ? " " Who did he marry ? " " Who were you with ? ' " Who will you give it to ?" and the like, are correct. That they are used colloquially by well-nigh everybody, no one will dispute ; but that they are cot-rcct^ few grammarians will concede. Sec That. Whole. This word is sometimes most improperly i;sed for all ; thus, " The whole Germans seem to be saturated with the belief that they are really the greatest people on earth, and that they would be universally recognized as being the greatest, if they M'ere not so exceeding modest." " The whole Russians are inspired with the belief that their mission is to conquer the world." — Alison. Wholesome. See Healthy. Whose. Mr. George Washington Moon discc nances the use of whose as the possessive of which, j fe says, '* The best writers, when speaking of inanimate ob- jects, use of which instead of whose.** The correctness of this statement is doubtful. The truth is, I think, that good writers use that form for the possessive case of which that in their judgment is, in each particular case, the more euphonious, giving the preference, perhaps, to of which. On this subject Dr. Campbell says ; '* The possessive of THE VERBALIST, 219 iTe |e ob- iss of good that I more )hich, le ot who is properly whose. The pronoun which^ originally in- declinable, had no possessive. This was supplied, in the common periphrastic manner, by the help of the preposi- tion and the article. But, as this could not fail to enfeeble the expression, when so much time was given to mere con- junctives, all our best authors, both in prose and verse, have now come regularly to adopt, in such cases, the pos- sessive of who, and thus have substituted one syllable in the room of three, as in the example following : * Philosophy, whose end is to instruct us in the knowledge of nature,' for * Philosophy, the end of tvhich is to instruct us.' Some grammarians remonstrate ; but it ought to be remembered that use, well established, must give law to grammar, and not grammar to use." Professor Bain says : " PVhose, although the possessive of 7t/ho, and practically of which^ is yet frequently em- ployed for the purpose of restriction : ' We are the more likely to guard watchfully against those faults whose de- formity we have seen fully displayed in others.' This is better than * the deformity of which we have seen.' ' Prop- ositions of whose truth we have no certain knowledge.*— Locke." Dr. Fitzedward Hall says that the use of whose for of 7uhich, where the antecedent is not only irrational but inanimate, has had the support of high authority for several hundred years. Widow Woman. Since widows arc always women, why say a widow woman ? It would be perfectly correct to sav a xvidoxved woman. Widowhood. There is good authority for using this word in speaking of men as well as of women. Without. This word is often improperly used instead of a. iless ; as, " You will never live to my age 7vithout you keep yourself in breath and exercise " ; "I shall not go 1 220 THE VERBA LIST, ! vithout my father consents " : properly, unless my fathei consents, or, without my father's consent. Worst. We should say at the worsts not at worst. Wove. The past participle of the verb to weave is woven. ** Where was this cloth woven /* " not ivove. You are mistaken. See Mistaken. You was. Good usage does, and it is to be hoped always will, consider you was a gross vulgarism, certain grammarians to the contrary notwithstanding. You is the form of the pronoun in the second person plural, and must, if we would speak correctly, be used with the correspond- ing form of the verb. The argument that we use you in the singular number is so nonsensical that it does not merit a moment's consideration. It is a custom we have — and have in common with other peoples — to speak to one an- other in the second person plural, and that is all there is of it. The Germans speak to one another in the thiref per- son plural. The exact equivalent in German of our /fo7v are you? is, How are tJiey ? Those who would sny you was should be consistent, and in like manner say you has and you does. Yours, Ac. The ignorant and obtuse not unfrequently profess themselves at the bottom of their letters "Yours, &c." And so forth ! forth what? Few vulgarisms are equally offensive, and none could be more so. In printing corre- spondence, the newspapers often content themselves with this short-hand way of intimating that the writer's name was preceded by some one of the familiar forms of ending letters ; this an occasional dunderhead seems io think is sufficient authority for writing himself, Yours.pe^T}^ TH£ END y fathef rst. weave is e hoped , certain m is the nd must, respond- nt in the t merit a Lve — and ) one an- there is hird per- our Ho7v ^ you was i has and •equently *' Yours, e equally ig corre- ives with ;r's name (f ending thiok is