to the

sono referunt.” Reasons that are known to every one, ought to be taken for granted : to express them is childish, and interrupts the narration.

The practice of collecting trite maxims and commonplace sentiments is finely ridiculed in an essay of Swift's; from which I shall select one passage : “ All rivers go

sea,
but none return from it. Xerxes

Xerxes wept when he beheld his army ; to consider that in less than an hundred years they would be all dead. Anacreon was choked with a grape-stone ; and violent joy kills as well as violent grief. There is nothing constant in this world but inconstancy; yet Plato thought, that if Virtue would appear in the world in her own native dress, all men would be enamoured with her. But now, since interest governs the world, and men neglect the golden mean, Jupiter himself, if he came on earth, would be despised, unless it were as he did to Danaë, in a golden shower. For men, now-a-days, worship the rising sun, and not the setting."*

It is futility in the thought, and not perspicuity in the language, which constitutes the fault of such performances as those to which I have alluded. There is as little hazard that a composition shall be faulty in the latter respect, as that a mirror shall be too faithful in reflecting the images of objects, or that the glasses of a telescope shall be too transparent. At the same time, it is not to be dissembled that, with inattentive readers, darkness frequently passes for depth. On the contrary, to be perspicuous, and to be superficial, are

regarded by them as synonymous. But it is not surely to their absurd notions that our language ought to be adapted.

Before I dismiss this subject, it may however be proper to observe that every species of composition does not admit of an equal degree of perspicuity. In the sublime ode, for example, it is impossible, or at least very difficult, to reconcile the utmost perspicuity with that force and vivacity which are indispensably requisite in such performances. But even in this case, though the genius of the higher species of lyric poetry may render obscurity to a certain degree excusable, nothing can ever constitute it a positive excellence.

CHAP. VIII.

OF UNITY IN THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

In compositions of every description, a certain degree of unity is absolutely requisite. There must always be some leading principle to form a chain of connexion between the component parts. In single sentences, which are members of a composition, the same principle must also be predominant.

I. Objects that have no intimate connexion should never be crowded into one sentence. A sentence or period ought to express one entire thought or mental proposition ; and different thoughts ought to be separated

E

in the expression, by being placed in different periods. It is improper to connect in language things which are separated in reality. Of errors against this rule I shall produce a few examples.

Cato died in the full vigour of life, under fifty; he was naturally warm and affectionate in his temper; comprehensive, impartial, and strongly possessed with the love of mankind. -Ferguson's Hist. of the Roman Republic. If the author was determined to connect the statement of Cato’s death with an account of his character, he might have preserved the unity of the sentence by such an arrangement as the following : “Cato, who died in

: the full vigour of life, under the age of fifty, was naturally warm and affectionate in his temper.”

In this uneasy state, both of his public and private life, Cicero was oppressed by a new and cruel affliction, the death of his beloved Tullia ; which happened soon after her divorce from Dolabella, whose manners and humours were entirely disagreeable to her.Middleton's Life of Cicero. The principal object in this sentence, is the death of Tullia, which was the cause of her father's affliction. The time when the event took place is, without any impropriety, pointed out in the course of the sentence ; but the subjunction of Dolabella's character is foreign to the main object. It breaks the unity and compactness of the period, by presenting a new picture to the reader.

He is supposed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner, near Charing Cross, who sent him for some time to Dr. Busby, at Westminster ; but, not intending to give him any education beyond that of the school, took him, when he was well advanced in literature, to his own house, where the earl of Dorset, celebrated for patronage of gerius, found him by chance, as Burpet relates, reading Horace, and was so well pleased with his proficiency, that he undertook the care and cost of his academical education.—Johnson's Life of Prior. This single sentence contains no inconsiderable number of the particulars which are known with regard to the personal history of Prior. He is conducted from the house of his father to that of his uncle ; sent to Westminster school, where he makes considerable progress in literature; is taken from school, and remains at his uncle's ; obtains the patronage of the earl of Dorset, who, if Burnet may be credited, found him reading Horace; and, last of all, is about to be sent to the university, under the protection of that nobleman.

The usual acceptation takes profit and pleasure for two different things, and not only calls the followers or votaries of them by several names of busy and idle men, but distinguishes the faculties of the mind that are conversant about them, calling the operations of the first wisdom, and of the other wit, which is a Saxon word, that is used to express what the Spaniards and Italians call ingenio, and the French esprit, both from the Latin ; but I think wit more peculiarly signifies that of poetry, as may occur upon remarks on the Runic language.- Temple on Poetry. Before the writer arrives at the close of this sentence, he seems to have forgotten what he set out with inculcating

A right honourable author, having had occasion to mention the influence of the sun, expatiates in the following manner :

It breaks the icy fetters of the main, where vast sea-monsters pierce through floating islands, with arms that can withstand the crystal rock; whilst others, who of themselves seem great as islands, are by their bulk alone armed against all but man, whose superiority over creatures of such size and force should make him mindful of bis privilege of reason, and force him humbly to adore the great composer of these wondrous frames, and the author of his own superior wisdom.- Shaftesbury's Moralists.

At the commencement of this sentence, the sun is introduced breaking the icy fetters of the main: the sun is succeeded by sea

monsters piercing through floating islands with their arms ; and after these have played their part, man is brought into view, to receive a long and serious admonition.

:

To this succeeded that licentiousness which entered with the Restoration, and from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt our language : wbich last was not like to be much improved by those wbo at that time made up the court of King Charles the Second ; either such who had followed bim in bis banishment, or who had been altogether conversant in the dialect of those fanatic times; or young men, who had been educated in the same company; so that the court, which used to be the standard of propriety and correctness of speech, was then, and I think bath ever since continued, the worst school in England for that accomplishment ; and so will remain till better care be taken in the education of our young nobility ; that they may set out into the world with some foundation of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politeness. -Swift on the English Tongue. How many different facts, reasonings, and observations, are here presented to the mind !

Authors who are fond of long periods, very frequently commit similar errors; and in order to verify this assertion, we need only inspect the historical works of Lord Clarendon and Bishop Burnet. Even in later and more correct writers, we sometimes find a period extending to such a length, and comprehending so many particulars, as more justly to deserve the appellation of a discourse than of a sentence. But heterogeneous particulars may occasionally be crowded into