those limits, and renders the sentence unintelligible. Examples

South, as great a wit as a preacher, has separated the superior and the domestic."-D'ISRAELI. Miscellanies.

The writer intended to say that South was as great a wit, as he was a preacher; but, owing to the words "he was " being omitted, the sentence means that "South had all the wit of a preacher." "The following facts may, or have been, adduced as reasons on the other side."-LATHAM. The English Language.

Here the word "be" has been incorrectly omitted after "may;" for if we leave out the words “or have been," which are merely incidental, the remainder will read thus:

"The following facts may adduced as reasons on the other side."

"General Stewart with difficulty made good his retreat, fighting all the way, to Alexandria, where he arrived with a thousand fewer men than he had set out."-ALISON. History of Europe.

In this sentence, owing to the improper omission of the word "with" at the end, we are left to believe that General Stewart performed the operation (whatever that may be) of setting out his men.

"The experienced commander will not deem such aids to patriotic ardour of little importance, and willingly fan the harmless vanity of the young aspirant.”—Ibid.

In this phrase the word "will" should have been repeated before "willingly." This would have been unnecessary, if the writer had not

used the negative in the preceding part of the sentence.

"When the emperor Alexander elevated the standard of the cross, he invoked the only power that ever has, or ever will, arrest the march of temporal revolution."-Ibid.

"It is not worthy of the powers of its author, who can, and has, at other times, risen into much loftier ground."GILFILLAN. Literary Portraits.

If this form of phrase were adopted, it would be correct to say "has arrest

-“can risen.”

"This union shared the fate of nearly all in every rank which are formed by parental authority, before the disposition has declared itself, the constitution strengthened, or the tastes formed."-ALISON. History of Europe from Fall of Napoleon.

Here there is not the word "been " after "has;" neither can that word be understood, without making nonsense of the phrase. Its subaudition, therefore, before the participles "strengthened" and "formed," is inaccurate.

"If it has been shown that the foundations of our systems of logic are falsely laid, an essential service has been rendered to the future logician, and smoothed his way to what Locke calls a very different sort of logic and critic' from any with which he has hitherto been made acquainted."-RICHARDSON. The Study of Language.

This sentence goes the length of coupling the nominative and objective cases. To make sense of it, it would be necessary to convert the words, "an essential service has been rendered," into "I have rendered an essential service;" or, "and smoothed his way" should be-"and his way has been smoothed."

UNGRAMMATICAL MODES OF SPEECH.

THE next blemish that I have to notice arises from the use of ungrammatical modes of speech. The most glaring of these may be stated under the following heads :—

Nominative without a Verb.

There is no writer so addicted to this blunder as Isaac D'Israeli. Here are some instances from his principal work.

"The Germans of the present day, although greatly superior to their ancestors, there are who opine that they are still distant from that acme of taste which characterizes the finished compositions of the French and the English authors.”. Curiosities of Literature.

"In all their rejoicings the ancients used fires; but they were intended merely to burn their sacrifices, and which, as the generality of them were performed at night, the illuminations served to give light to the ceremonies."—Ibid.

"The wealth of the great Audley may be considered as the cloudy medium through which a bright genius shone, and which, had it been thrown into a nobler sphere of action, the greatness would have been less ambiguous."-Ibid.

"How fortunate then was James Naylor, who, desirous of entering Bristol on an ass, Hume informs us that all Bristol could not afford him one."—Ibid.

In the first of these examples the writer should have commenced with the word "concerning." In the second and third the "which" should

have been omitted as redundant. In the fourth the word "was" should have followed "who,' and the word "but" preceded "Hume:" or the sentence might have been formed thus:

"How fortunate then was James Naylor, who, desirous of entering Bristol on an ass, was unable, Hume informs us, to procure one in the whole town."

And yet this is the writer who, while penning these blunders, talks with such insufferable flippancy of the "acme of taste," and of "finished compositions."

"When on the eve of departure he desired his wife, who was at the time pregnant, that if she brought him a son, to place a tower on the church."-THORPE. Northern

Mythology.

In this example the word that is superfluous, the sentence being complete without it.

Under this head may be classed the following samples from Sir A. Alison :

"The conduct of the king and cabinet evinced that vacillation which, as it is the invariable mark of weakness in presence of danger, so it is the usual precursor of the greatest public calamities.”—History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon.

"It is owing to his advice that the general plan of the campaign, afterwards so admirably carried into execution by Barclay, is to be ascribed."- History of Europe.

In the latter example the word " owing" is redundant. To make sense of it, the sentence should conclude with "was adopted," instead of "is to be ascribed."

"It has been already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and the disastrous issue of that expedition."-Ibid.

It is by no means clear whether the writer intended the word "issue," in this phrase, as a nominative or an objective. As the sentence stands, the beginning and the end of it are grammatically irreconcilable. If the first part

be retained, it should conclude thus:

"It has been already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and how that expedition had a disastrous issue."

If the latter part be retained, the phrase should commence as follows:

"I have already mentioned how Sir Home Popham proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Ayres, and the disastrous issue of that expedition."

Verb without a Nominative.

I have met with an instance of this fault in Taylor's "Notes from Books :"

"Wherein then is to consist the freedom of his heart? We answer, in self-government upon a large scale-in so dealing with his years and months as shall impart a certain orderly liberty to his days and hours."

In this phrase the preposition "to" should have been put in the place of "shall," or "such a manner" been employed for "so."