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the degree of comparison. Its verbs, instead of the varieties of ancient conjugation, admit only four or five changes in termination. A few prepositions and auxiliary verbs effect all the purposes of significancy; while the principal words for the most part preserve their form unaltered. Hence our language acquires a simplicity and facility, which are the cause of its being frequently written and spoken with inaccuracy. We imagine that a competent skill in it may be acquired without any study; and that in a syntax so narrow and limited as ours, there is nothing which requires attention. But the fundamental rules of syntax are cómmon to the English and to the ancient tongues; and regard to them is absolutely requisite for writing or speaking with propriety.

Whatever be the advantages or defects of our language, it certainly deserves, in the highest degree, our study and attention. The Greeks and Romans, in the meridian of their glory, bestowed the highest cultivation on their respective languages. The French and Italians have employed much study upon theirs; and their example is worthy of imitation. For, whatever knowledge may be gained by the study of other languages, it can never be communicated with advantage, unless by those who can write and speak their own language with propriety. Let the matter of an author be ever so good and useful, his compositions will always suffer in the public esteem, if his expression be deficient in purity or propriety. At the same time, the attainment of a correct and elegant style is an object which demands application and labour. If any one suppose he can catch it merely by the ear, or acquire it by a hasty perusal of some good authors, he will be much disappointed. The many grammatical errors, the many impure expressions, which are found in authors who are far from being contemptible, demonstrate, that a careful study of our language is previously requisite for writing it with propriety, purity, and elegance.

What parts of speech are most useful?
For what were tenses contrived?
What are the common divisions of time?
How does language divide time?

What is said of the present?

How many past tenses has the English?
Describe them.

How many future tenses?
Describe them.

How many voices have verbs?
How many modes?

Describe them.

What constitutes the conjugation of a verb?
Where is conjugation most perfect?

What is said of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin?

How are the conjugations formed in the European languages?

What are adverbs?

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Were they invented at an early period?

What office have prepositions and conjunctions?

What are conjunctions?

What are prepositions?

In what does the beauty of language depend?
What is the origin of the English language?
What follows from this?

What are the advantages of a compound language?
For what subjects is the English language well suited?
How does it compare with the French language?
What is meant by the flexibility of a language?
What language excels in flexibility?

What is said of the Latin?

What of modern tongues?

What is said of our language in point of flexibility?
What is said of the harmony of the English language?
What is the distinguishing property of the English lan
guage?

What other advantages has it?

STYLE, PERSPICUITY, AND PRECISION.

STYLE is the peculiar manner in which a man expresses his thoughts by words. It is a picture of the ideas in his mind, and of the order in which they there exist.

The qualities of a good style may be ranged under two heads, perspicuity and ornament. It will readily be admitted, that perspicuity is the fundamental quality of a good style. Without this the brightest ornaments

only glimmer through the dark, and perplex instead of pleasing the reader. If we be forced to follow a writer with much care; to pause, and to read over his sentences a second time, in order to understand them fully, he will not please us long. Men are too indolent to relish so much labour. Though they may pretend to admire an author's depth, after they have discovered his meaning, they will seldom be inclined to look a second time into his book.

Perspicuity requires attention, first to single words and phrases, and then to the construction of sentences. When considered with respect to words and phrases, it requires these three qualities, purity, propriety, and precision.

Purity and propriety of language are often used indiscriminately for each other; and indeed they are very nearly allied. A distinction, however, obtains between them. Purity is the use of such words and constructions as belong to the idiom of a particular language, in opposition to words and phrases, which are imported from other languages, or which are obsolete, or newly coined, or employed without proper authority. Propriety is the choice of such words, as the best and most established usage has appropriated to those ideas, which we intend to express by them. It implies a correct and happy application of them, in opposition to vulgar, or low expressions, and to words and phrases less significant of the ideas we intend to convey. Style may be pure, that is, it may be strictly English without Scotticisms or Gallicisms, or ungrammatical expressions of any kind, and yet be deficient in propriety. The words may be illy selected; not adapted to the subject, nor fully expressive of the author's meaning. He took them indeed from the general mass of English words; but his choice was made without skill. But style cannot be proper without being pure; it is the union of purity and propriety, which renders it graceful and perspicuous.

The exact meaning of precision may be learnt from the etymology of the word. It is derived from "præcidere," to cut off; and signifies retrenching all superfluities, and pruning the expression in such a manner, as to exhibit neither more nor less than the ideas intended to be conveyed.

Words, employed to express ideas, may be faulty in three respects. They may either not express the ideas which the author means, but some others which are only related; or they may express those ideas, but not completely; or they may express them together with something more than he intends. Precision is opposed to these three faults; but particularly to the last, into which feeble writers are very apt to fall. They employ a multitude of words, to make themselves understood, as they think, more distinctly; but they only confound the reader. The image as they place it before you, is always seen double. When an author tells us of his hero's courage, in the day of battle; the expression is precise, and we understand it fully. But if, from a desire of multiplying words, he praise his courage, and fortitude; at the moment he joins these words together, our idea begins to waver. He intends to express one quality more strongly; but he is in fact expressing two. Courage resists danger, fortitude supports pain. The occasion of exerting these qualities are different; and being led to think of both together, when only one of them should engage attention, our view is rendered unsteady, and our conception of the object indistinct.

The great source of a loose style, the opposite of precision, is the injudicious use of words, called synonymous. Scarcely in any language are there two words that convey precisely the same idea; and a person perfectly acquainted with the propriety of the language, will always be able to observe something, by which they are distinguished. In our language many instances may be given of difference in meaning among words, reputed synonymous; and, as the subject is important, we shall point out a few of them.

Surprised, astonished, amazed, confounded. We are surprised at what is new or unexpected; we are astonished at what is vast or great; we are amazed at what is incomprehensible; we are confounded by what is shocking or terrible.

Pride, vanity. Pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity makes us desire the esteem of others.

Haughtiness, disdain. Haughtiness is founded on a high opinion of ourselves; disdain on a low opinion of others.

To weary, to fatigue. Continuance of the same thing wearies us; labour fatigues us. A man is wearied by standing; he is fatigued by walking.

To abhor, to detest. To abhor imports simply strong dislike; to detest imports likewise strong disapprobation. We abhor being in debt; we detest treachery.

To invent, to discover. We invent things which are new; we discover what was hidden. Galilæo invented the telescope; Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood.

Entire, complete. A thing is entire, when it wants none of its parts; complete, when it wants none of the appendages which belong to it. A man may occupy an entire house, though he have not one complete apartment.

Enough, sufficient. Enough relates to the quantity which we wish to have of a thing. Sufficient relates to the use that is to be made of it. Hence enough commonly signifies a greater quantity than sufficient does. The covetous man never has enough, though he has what is sufficient for nature.

These are a few among many instances of words in our language, which by careless writers are apt to be mistaken for synonymous. The more the distinction in the meaning of such words is regarded, the more accurately and forcibly shall we speak and write.

What is style?

Under what two heads are the qualities of a good style arranged?

Why is perspicuity important?

What does it require?

What is purity of style?

What is propriety?

Can style be pure, and yet be improper?
Can it be proper without being pure?

What is the meaning of the word precision?
In how many ways may words be faulty?
Mention an instance of the last.

What is the great source of a loose style?

Are there any two words in English strictly synonymous ? How do surprised, astonished, amazed, and confounded differ?

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