the first denotes an air, the fecond fufficiency and knowledge, and the third motions of the head and body. Such is the use of the pronouns those and who in the following fentence of the fame writer: "The fharks, who prey upon the inadvertency "of young heirs, are more pardonable than 66 thofe, who trefpafs upon the good opinion of "thofe, who treat with them upon the foot of "choice and refpect *." The fame fault here renders a very short fentence at once obfcure, inelegant, and unmufical. The like ufe of the pronoun they in the following sentence, almoft occafions an ambiguity: "They were perfons of "fuch moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their paffion."-The ufe made of the pronoun it in the example fubjoined, is liable to the fame exception : "If it were spoken "with never fo great skill in the actor, the manner of uttering that fentence could have no 66 thing in it, which could ftrike any but people "of the greatest humanity, nay, people elegant and skilful in obfervations upon it." To the preceding examples I fhall add one, wherein the adverb when, by being used in the fame manner, occafions fome obfcurity: "He is inspired with a true fenfe of that function, when chosen Guardian, N. 73. + Spect. No. 30. Ib. No. 502. C 3 66 from "from a regard to the interefts of piety and vir"tue, and a fcorn of whatever men call great in "a tranfitory being, when it comes in competi"tion with what is unchangeable and eternal *.” PART IV. From an uncertain reference in pronouns and relatives. A CAUSE of obfcurity alfo arifing from the ufe of pronouns and relatives, is when it doth not appear at first to what they refer. Of this fault I fhall give the three following inftances: "There are other examples," fays Bolingbroke, "of the fame kind, which cannot be brought 46 without the utmost horrour, because in them "it is fuppofed impiously, against principles as "felf-evident as any of thofe neceffary truths, "which are fuch of all knowledge, that the fu preme Being commands by one law, what he "forbids by another." It is not fo clear as it ought to be, what is the antecedent to fuch. Another from the fame author, "The laws of "Nature are truly what my Lord Bacon ftyles "his aphorifins, laws of laws. Civil laws are 86 always imperfect, and often falfe deductions "from them, or applications of them; nay, they * Guardian, No. 13. + Bolingb. Phil. Fr. 20. "fland in many inftances in direct oppofition " to them*." It is not quite obvious, on the firft reading, that the pronoun them in this paffage doth always refer to the laws of Nature, and they to civil laws. "When a man confiders the "ftate of his own mind, about which every "member of the Chriftian world is fuppofed at "this time to be employed, he will find that "the best defence against vice, is preserving the "worthieft part of his own fpirit pure from any great offence against it." It must be owned that the darknefs of this fentence is not to be imputed folely to the pronoun. PART V. From too artificial a ftructure of the fentence. ANOTHER Cause of obfcurity is when the ftructure of the fentence is too much complicated, or too artificial; or when the fenfe is too long fufpended by parentheses. Some critics have been fo ftrongly perfuaded of the bad effect of parentheses on perfpicuity, as to think they onght to be difcarded altogether. But this, I imagine, is alfo an extreme. If the parenthefis be short, and if it be introduced in a proper place, it will not in the leaft hurt the clearnefs, † Guardian, No. 19. C 4 *Phil. Fr. 9. and and may add both to the vivacity and to the energy of the fentence. Others, again, have carried their diflike to the parentheses only fo far as to lay afide the hooks by which it is commonly diftinguifhed, and to use commas in their place. But this is not avoiding the fault, if it be a fault, it is only endeavouring to commit it fo as to escape discovery, and may therefore be more juftly denominated a corruption in writing than an improvenient. Punctuation, it will readily be acknowledged, is of confiderable affiftance to the reading and pronunciation. No part of a fentence requires to be diftinguished by the manner of pronouncing it, more than a parenthesis; and confequently, no part of a fentence ought to be more distinctly marked in the pointing. PART VI. From technical terms. ANOTHER fource of darkness in compofing, is the injudicious introduction of technical words and phrafes, as in the following paffage : Tack to the larboard, and stand off to fea, Veer ftarboard fea and land. What an abfurd profufion, in an epic poem too, of terms which fcarce any but feamen underftand! In Arict propriety, technical words fhould Dryden's Æneid. not be confidered as belonging to the language; because not in current ufe, nor understood by the generality even of readers. They are but the peculiar dialect of a particular class. When thofe of that clafs only are addreffed, as in treatifes on the principles of their art, it is admitted, that the use of fuch terms may be not only convenient, but even neceffary. It is allowable alfo in ridicule, if used fparingly, as in comedy and romance. PART VII. From long fentences. THE laft cause of obfcurity I shall take notice of, is very long fentences. This rarely fails to be conjoined with some of the other faults before mentioned. The two fubfèquent quotations from two eminent writers, will ferve fufficiently to exemplify more than one of them. The firft is from Bolingbroke's Philosophy: "If we are so, "contrary to all appearances (for they denote "plainly one fingle fyftem, all the parts of which "are fo intimately connected, and dependent "one on another, that the whole begins, pro ceeds, and ends together), this union of a body " and a foul must be magical indeed, as Doctor "Cudworth calls it, fo magical, that the hypo thefis ferves to no purpose in philosophy, what 66 ever |