44.

TRUISMS AND CONTRADICTIONS IN TERMS

A contradiction in terms is often little more than a truism turned inside out; we shall therefore group the two together, and with them certain other illogical expressions, due to a similar confusion of thought.

Praise which perhaps was scarcely meant to be taken too literally.— BAGEHOT.

Where no standard of literalness is mentioned, too literally is 'more literally than was meant'. We may safely affirm, without the cautious reservations perhaps and scarcely, that the praise was not meant to be taken more literally than it was meant to be taken. Omit too.

He found what was almost quite as interesting.-Times.

If it was almost as interesting, we do not want quite : if quite, we do not want almost.

Splendid and elegant, but somewhat bordering on the antique fashion. -SCOTT.

Bordering on means not 'like' but 'very like'; 'somewhat very like '.

A very unique child, thought I.-C. BRONTË.

A somewhat unique gathering of our great profession.-HALSBURY. There are no degrees in uniqueness.

Steady, respectable labouring men-one and all, with rare exceptions, married.—Times. (all without exception, with rare exceptions)

To name only a few, take Lord Rosebery, Lord Rendel, Lord

Take in this context means 'consider as instances'; we cannot consider them as instances unless we have their names; take must therefore mean 'let me name for your consideration'. Thus we get: 'To name only a few, let me name... and many others (whom I do not name)'.

More led away by a jingling antithesis of words than an accurate perception of ideas.-H. D. MACLEOD.

'Guided by an accurate perception' is what is meant. To be

'led away by accurate perception' is a misfortune that could happen only in a special sense, the sense in which it has happened, possibly, to the writer, whom sheer force of accurate perception may have hurried into inaccurate expression; but more probably he too is the victim of 'jingling antithesis'.

Long before the appointed hour for the commencement of the recital, standing room only fell to the lot of those who arrived just previous to Mr. K.'s appearance on the platform.-Guernsey Advertiser.

The necessary inference that Mr. K., the reciter, appeared on the platform long before the appointed hour-is probably not in accordance with the facts.

The weather this week has for the most part been of that quality which the month of March so strikingly characterizes in the ordinary course of events.- Guernsey Advertiser.

What happens in the ordinary course of events can scarcely continue to be striking. Whether the month characterizes the weather, or the weather the month, we need not consider here.

He forgot that it was possible, that from a brief period of tumultuous disorder, there might issue a military despotism more compact, more disciplined, and more overpowering than any which had preceded it, or any which has followed it.—BAGEHOT.

He could not forget, because he could not know, anything about the despotisms which have in fact followed. He might know and forget something about all the despotisms that had preceded or should follow (in direct speech, 'that have preceded or shall follow '): 'this may result in the most compact despotism in all history, past and future'. But probably Bagehot does not even mean this: the last clause seems to contain a reflection of his own, falsely presented as a part of what he ought to have reflected.

Some people would say that my present manner of travelling is much the most preferable, riding as I do now, instead of leading my horse.BORROW.

Only two modes of travelling are compared: the most prefer

able implies four, three of them preferable in different degrees to the fourth. A not uncommon vulgarism.

45. DOUBLE EMPHASIS

Attempts at packing double emphasis into a single sentence are apt to result in real weakening, if the reader troubles to think the matter out.

For never did water slake more deliciously a more oppressive thirst than I have this day experienced.-SCOTT. (If we are only told that more oppressive thirsts have not been more deliciously slaked, many less and equally oppressive ones may have been)

But he would not be nearly so well qualified to carry what is now the clearly defined foreign policy of France to such a successful issue as M. Delcassé.-Times. (He may be quite as well qualified, then, to secure a more successful issue)

Nothing has brought out more strongly than motor-driving the overbearing, selfish nature of too many motor-drivers and their utter want of consideration for their fellow men.-LORD WEMYSS. (The attempt to kill drivers and driving with one stone leaves both very slightly wounded. For what should show up the drivers more than the driving? and whom should the driving show up more than the drivers ?)

The commonest form of this is due to conscientious but mistaken zeal for correctness, which prefers, for instance, without oppressing or without plundering to without oppressing or plundering. The first form excludes only one of the offences, and is therefore, though probably meant to be twice as emphatic, actually much weaker than the second, which excludes both. Of course, with and instead of or, it is another

matter.

Actual experience has shown that a gun constructed on the wire system can still be utilized effectively without the destruction of the weapon or without dangerous effects, even with its inner tube split.—Times.

The Union must be maintained without pandering to such prejudices on the one hand, or without giving way on the other to the... schemes of the Nationalists.-Spectator.

He inhibited him, on pain of excommunication, from seeking a divorce in his own English Courts, or from contracting a new marriage.— J. R. GREEN. (Half excused by the negative sense of inhibit)

Some writers, holding that there is the same objection to split compound verbs as to split infinitives, prefer to place any adverb or qualifying phrase not between the auxiliary and the other component, but before both. Provided that the adverb is then separated from the auxiliary, no harm is done: 'Evidently he was mistaken' is often as good as ' He was evidently mistaken, and suits all requirements of accentuation. But the placing of the adverb immediately before or after the auxiliary depends, according to established usage, upon the relative importance of the two components. When the main accent is to fall upon the second component, the normal place of the adverb is between the two; it is only when the same verb is repeated with a change in the tense or mood of the auxiliary, that the adverb should come first. 'He evidently was deceived' implies, or should imply, that the verb deceived has been used before, and that the point of the sentence depends upon the emphatic auxiliary; accordingly we should write The possibility of his being deceived had never occurred to me; but he evidently was deceived', but I relied implicitly on his knowledge of the facts; but he was evidently deceived'. In our first two examples below the adverb is rightly placed first to secure the emphasis on the auxiliary: in all the others the above principle of accentuation is violated. The same order of words is required by the copula with whatever kind of complement.

6

I recognize this truth, and always have recognized it.

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so, as long as the world endures.-BURKE.

They never are suffered to succeed in their opposition.-BURKE.

She had received the homage of . . . and occasionally had deigned to breathe forth...-BEACONSFIELD.

He ordered breakfast as calmly as if he never had left his home.BEACONSFIELD.

Miss Becky, whose sympathetic powers never had been called into action before.-FERRIER.

They now were bent on taking the work into their own hands.-MORLEY. There may have been a time when a king was a god, but he now is pretty much on a level with his subjects.—JOWETT.

They both are contradicted by all positive evidence.-W. H. MAL

LOCK.

Religious art at once complete and sincere never yet has existed.— RUSKIN.

Not mere empty ideas, but what were once realities, and that I long have thought decayed.-C. BRONTË.

So that he might assist at a Bible class, from which he never had been absent.-BEACONSFIELD.

If we would write an essay, we necessarily must have something to say. -BYGOTT & JONES.

The protectionists lately have been affirming that the autumn session will be devoted to railway questions.— Times.

Visitors no longer can drive in open carriages along the littoral.Times.

It still is the fact that his mind . . . was essentially the mind of a poet. --Times.

To whom in any case its style would have not appealed.—Times. To go wrong with not is an achievement possible only with triple compounds, where the principal division is of course between the finite (would) and the infinitive with participle (have appealed). Would not have appealed' must be written, though at an enormous sacrifice of 'distinction'.

This enhanced value of old English silver may be due partly to the increase in the number of collectors; but it also has been largely influenced by the publication . . .—Times.

Mr. Fry showed to a very great extent his power of defence... To-day, if runs are to be of importance, he very likely will show his powers of hitting.-Times.

47. OVERLOADING

A single sentence is sometimes made to carry a double burden:

So unique a man as Sir George Lewis has, in truth, rarely been lost to this country.-BAGEHOT.

The meaning is not 'Men like Sir G. Lewis have seldom been lost', but Men like the late Sir G. Lewis have seldom been found'. But instead of the late a word was required that