following inftance: "I do not reckon that we "want a genius more than the rest of our neigh"bours." The impropriety here is corrected by omitting the words in Italics.

ANOTHER Overfight of much the fame kind, and by the fame author, we have in the following paffage: "I had like to have gotten one or "two broken heads for my impertinence *." This unavoidably fuggefts the queftion, How many heads was he poffeffed of? Properly, "I "was once or twice like to have gotten my head "broken."

ANOTHER from the fame work, being a paffage formerly quoted for another purpose, is this, "The first project was to shorten discourse by

cutting polyfyllables into one." One thing may be cut into two or more, but it is inconceivable that, by cutting, two or more things thould be made one.

ANOTHER, ftill from the fame hand, "I folemnly declare, that I have not wilfully com"mitted the least mistake ." The words used

+ Swift's Propofal for ascertaining the English Tongue.
• Voyage to Brobdignag.
Voyage to Laputa.

Remarks on the Barrier Treaty.
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here

here are incompatible. A wrong wilfully committed is no mistake.

ADDISON hath fallen into an inaccuracy of the fame kind, in the following lines:

So the pure limpid ftream, when foul with ftains
Of rushing torrents and defcending rains.

A ftream may doubtless be at one time limpid, and at another foul, which is all that the author meant; but we cannot properly call it a pure limpid ftream, when it is foul with ftains. So much for those improprieties which involve in them some abfurdity.

I SHALL next illuftrate thofe by which an author is made to fay one thing when he means another. Of this kind I fhall produce only one example at prefent, as I fhall have occafion afterwards of confidering the fame fault under the article of perfpicuity. "I will inftance in "one opinion, which I look upon every man "obliged in confcience to quit, or in prudence "to conceal; I mean, that whoever argues in "defence of abfolute power in a fingle perfon, "though he offers the old plaufible plea, that it

Cato.

"is his opinion, which he cannot help, unless he "be convinced, ought in all free ftates to be "treated as the common enemy of mankind †." From the scope of the difcourfe it is evident, he means, that whoever hath it for his opinion, that a fingle perfon is entitled to abfolute authority, ought to quit or conceal that opinion; because, otherwise, he will in a free ftate deferve to be treated as a common enemy. Whereas, if he fays any thing, he says, that whoever thinks that the advocates for abfolute power ought to be treated as common enemies, is obliged to quit or conceal that opinion; a fentiment very different from the former.

THE only species of impropriety that remains to be exemplified, is that wherein there appears fome flight incongruity in the combination of the words, as in the quotations following: "When you fall into a man's converfation, the "first thing you should confider, is— "Properly fall into converfation with a man.'

" I "wish, Sir, you would animadvert frequently "on the falfe taste the town is in, with relation "to plays as well as operas +." Properly," the "falfe tafte of the town."

+ Sentiments of a Church of England man.

Spec. No. 49.

↑ Ib. N°. 22.

"THE prefence of the deity, and the care "fuch an auguft caufe is to be fuppofed to take " about any action." The impropriety here is best corrected by fubftituting the word being in the place of cause; for though there be nothing improper, in calling the deity an auguft Caufe, the author hath very improperly connected with this appellative fome words totally unfuitable; for who ever heard of a caufe taking care about an action.

I SHALL produce but one other inftance"Neither implies that there are virtuous habits "and accomplishments already attained by the

poffeffor, but they certainly fhow an unpreju"diced capacity towards them." In the first clause of this sentence, there is a grofs inconfiftency; we are informed of habits and accomplishments that are possessed, but not attained; in the fecond clause there is a double impropriety, the participle adjective is not fuited to the fubftantive with which it is conftrued; nor is the fubfequent prepofition expreffive of the fenfe. Suppofing, then, that the word poffeffor hath been ufed inadvertently for perfon, or fome other general term, the sense may be exhibited thus:

Pope's View of the Epic Poem. + Guardian, N°. 34•

Neither

Neither implies that there are virtuous habits and accomplishments already attained by this 'perfon; but they certainly thow that his mind. ' is not prejudiced against them, and that it hath a capacity of attaining them.'

UNDER this head I might confider that impropriety which refults from the ufe of metaphors, or other tropes, wherein the fimilitude to the fubject, or connection with it, is too remote ; alfo, that which refults from the conftruction of words with any trope, which are not applicable in the literal fenfe. The former errs chiefly against vivacity, the latter against elegance. Of the one, therefore, I fhall have occafion to fpeak, when I confider the catachrefis, of the other when I treat of mixed metaphor.

I HAVE NOW finished what was intended on the fubject of grammatical purity; the first, and in fome respect the moft effential of all the virtues of elocution. I have illuftrated the three different ways in which it may be violated; the barbarifm, when the words employed are not English; the folecism, when the construction is not English; the impropriety, when the meaning in which any English word or phrase is used, by a writer

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