the reader, or the fpeaker from the hearer, than is abfolutely neceffary? It ought to be remem bered, that whatever application we must give to the words, is, in fact, fo much deducted from what we owe to the fentiments. Befides, the effort that is exerted in a very close attention to the language, always weakens the effect which the thoughts were intended to produce in the mind. By perfpicuity," as Quintilian juftly obferves, "care is taken, not that the hearer

66

may understand, if he will; but that he must "understand, whether he will or not*." Perfpicuity originally and properly implies tranfparency, fuch as may be ascribed to air, glass, water, or any other medium, through which material objects are viewed. From this original and proper fense it hath been metaphorically applied to language, this being, as it were, the medium, through which we perceive the notions and fentiments of a fpeaker. Now, in corporeal things, if the medium through which we look at any object be perfectly tranfparent, our whole attention is fixed on the object; we are fcarce fenfible that there is a medium which intervenes, and can hardly be faid to perceive it. But if

Non ut intelligere poffit, fed ne omnino poffit non intelligere curandum. Inftit. Lib. viii. Cap. z.

there

there be any flaw in the medium, if we see through it but dimly, if the object be imperfectly represented, or if we know it to be misreprefented, our attention is immediately taken off the object, to the medium. We are then defi-. rous to discover the cause, either of the dim and confufed representation, or of the mifreprefentation of things which it exhibits, that so the defect in vifion may be fupplied by judgment. The cafe of language is precifely fimilar. A difcourse, then, excells in perfpicuity, when the fubject engroffes the attention of the hearer, and the diction is fo little minded by him, that he can scarce be faid to be conscious, that it is through this medium he fees into the speaker's thoughts. On the contrary, the least obscurity, ambiguity, or confufion in the style, inftantly removes the attention from the fentiment to the expreffion, and the hearer endeavours, by the aid of reflection, to correct the imperfections of the speaker's language.

So much for obviating the objections which are frequently raised against fuch remarks as I have already made, and fhall probably hereafter make, on the fubject of language. The elements which enter into the compofition of the hugeft -VOL. II. bodies

C

bodies are fubtile and inconfiderable. The rudiments of every art and science exhibit at first, to a learner, the appearance of littleness and infignificancy. And it is by attending to fuch reflections, as to a fuperficial obferver would ap-pear minute and hypercritical, that language must be improved, and eloquence perfected *.

I RETURN to the causes of obfcurity, and shall only further observe, concerning the effect of bad arrangement, that it generally obfcures the fenfe, even when it doth not, as in the preceding inftances, fuggeft a wrong conftruction. Of this the following will fuffice for an example: "The

86

young man did not want natural talents; but "the father of him was a coxcomb, who affected "being a fine gentleman fo unmercifully, that "he could not endure in his fight, or the frequent "mention of one, who was his fon, growing into

46

manhood, and thrufting him out of the gay "world." It is not eafy to disentangle the conftruction of this fentence. One is at a lofs at firft to find any accufative to the active verb endure, on further examination it is discovered to have two, the word mention, and the word one,

The maxim Natura fe potiffimum prodit in minimis, is not confined to phyfiology. † Spect, No. 496. T.

which

which is here clofely combined with the prepofition of, and makes the regimen of the noun mention. I might obferve alfo the vile application of the word unmercifully. This, together with the irregularity of the reference, and the intricacy of the whole, renders the paffage under confideration, one of those which may, with equal juftice, be ranked under folecism, impropriety, obfcurity, or inelegance.

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PART III. From using the fame word in different fenfes.

ANOTHER fource of obfcurity, is when the fame word is in the fame fentence ufed in different fenfes. This error is exemplified in the following quotation: "That he should be in carneft "it is hard to conceive; fince any reafons of doubt, which he might have in this cafe, would "have been reafons of doubt in the cafe of other who may give more, but cannot give more evident, figns of thought than their fel"low-creatures *." "This errs alike against perfpicuity and elegance; the word more is first an adjective, the comparative of many; in an inftant it is an adverb, and the fign of the comparative degree. As the reader is not apprized of this,

men,

Bolingb. Ph. Ef. i. Sect. 9.

C 2

1

the

the fentence must appear to him, on the first glance, a flat contradiction. Perfpicuously either thus, "who may give more numerous, but cannot "give more evident figns," or thus, "who may give more, but cannot give clearer figns.'

It is but feldom that the fame pronoun can be used twice or oftener in the fame fentence, in reference to different things, without darkening the expreffion. It is neceffary to obferve here, that the fignification of the perfonal, as well as of the relative pronouns, and even of the adverbs of place and time, must be determined by the things to which they relate. To use them, therefore, with reference to different things, is in effect to employ the fame word in different fenfes which, when it occurs in the fame fentence, or in fentences closely connected, is rarely found entirely compatible with perfpicuity. Of this I fhall give fome examples. "One may have an "air which proceeds from a juft fufficiency and

6.6

knowledge of the matter before him, which

may naturally produce fome motions of his "head and body, which might become the

bench better than the bar *." The pronoun which is here thrice ufed in three feveral fenfes ; and it must require reflection to discover, that Guardian, No. 13.

the