close attention to which will give elegance and force to your mode of expression.

DO NOT USE TECHNICAL TERMS WHEN COMMON ONES WILL EXPRESS YOUR MEANING AS WELL; AND ABJURE CANT WORDS, FAMILIAR SAYINGS, AND VULGARISMS, WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

NEVER SEEK FOR A METAPHOR. IF ONE PRESENT ITSELF NATURALLY, EXAMINE IT CAREFULLY, AND SEE THAT ALL ITS PARTS BE CONSISTENT *.

The following, for instance, is imperfect : "Cunning is the master key, which penetrates the secrets of all hearts."

Observe, that a key cannot penetrate; it may unlock all hearts; or we may penetrate all hearts by its agency.

Such figures of speech should be used sparingly, and never drawn out to the utmost; for the further you stretch a metaphor, the more likely it is to be found faulty in some of its parts.

"On ne doit point se servir des métaphores, que lorsqu' elles se présentent naturellement à l'esprit, qu'elles sont tirées du sujet, que les idées accessoires les font naître, ou les bienséances les inspirent; elles plaisent alors, mais on ne doit point les chercher dans la vue de plaire."

BOISTE.

SEPARATE THE RELATIVE PRONOUN AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE FROM ITS ANTECEDENT.

If you say, “ I saw a book, laid on a table, which cost ten guineas," one may inquire, which cost ten guineas, the table or the book? Had you said, "I saw on a table a book which cost ten guineas," it could not have been misunderstood.

NEVER OMIT THE RELATIVE PRONOUN, EXCEPT WHERE THE OMISSION IS INDISPENSABLY NECESSARY TO AVOID REPETITION.

This practice, though allowed in conversation, is extremely inelegant in writing; thus: "The pain I endured;" "the man I met;" ought to be, "The pain which I endured;" "the man whom I met."

DO NOT MAKE FREQUENT USE OF THE PARENTHESIS.

It ought particularly to be mistrusted, when it appears essential to the meaning of the paragraph. If you find yourself entangled in a long phrase, which you suspect of being obscure, read it aloud, and, if it require any particular emphasis in the reading, to make its meaning obvious, so that you feel inclined to alter a word into italics, or to introduce a sentence in parenthesis, to assist the reader, be assured that your paragraph is ill con

structed; do not tamper with it, but dash your pen through it; your best resource lies in a full stop, and a new sentence.

DO NOT GIVE AN EXPLANATION OF THINGS COMMONLY UNDERSTOOD, OR ADDUCE PROOF OF THAT WHICH IS SELF-EVIDENT, OR VERY GENERALLY ADMITTED.

And, lastly, you will do well to

MEET OR ANTICIPATE PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS, BUT NEVER START SUCH AS ARE FUTILE, AND NOT LIKELY TO OCCUR TO ANY BUT YOURSELF, MERELY FOR THE SAKE of overTHROWING THEM.

I have unconsciously extended these precepts, few as they are, beyond what I at first intended, and I have no doubt that your own observation, after very little reading, would render the whole of them unnecessary. Every thing that you discover for yourself is far more valuable than it would have been if imparted to you by another: on this account, I shall not suggest any more maxims for your guidance, excepting that you

ALWAYS READ WITH GREAT ATTENTION, REGARD то THE

AND WITH A CRITICAL

FAULTS, AS WELL AS TO THE BEAUTIES, YOU

MEET WITH.

The habit of detecting any inaccuracy which you meet with in reading, will render you also vigilant and careful in writing; yet avoid passing hasty censure upon that which you read, until time and cultivation have improved your judgment. Remember, that "ten censure wrong, for one who writes amiss;" bring your own composition, as closely as you can, to the test of rules: but in judging that of others, examine carefully, whether there be any particular beauty of thought or of expression, to make amends for, perhaps even to justify, an occasional departure from them :

"First follow nature, and your judgment frame
By her just standard, which is still the same.

Those RULES of old discovered, not devised,
Are nature still, but nature methodized."

LETTER III.

MY DEAR SON,

A FEW words will suffice to explain to you what I conceive to be your best manner of proceeding immediately to the business of your English Themes.

Make several of your first, by adhering to the division under seven heads, exemplified in my first Letter, or at least under the first, second, third, and seventh; the others being given more for ornament and amplification, than as being essential parts of an Essay.

When you revise these, take notice whether you have offended against any of the precepts I have given you in the second Letter; and if so, correct the fault as well as you are able.

After practising thus, for a few days, I advise you occasionally to read one of the following very simple Essays, with the strict attention which I have before recommended; and, soon afterwards, to make your theme on the same subject; neither confining yourself to any ideas or language you may recollect having read; nor yet rejecting them merely because you know they are borrowed; for so all, or most, of our notions and expressions must be; with this distinction, that as we are not always aware of the source from which they have been drawn, they may appear to ourselves to be original, only because we are unconscious whence we derived them. If originality exist at all, it must be in the mind of one who has studied, me