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1. I have considered the subject with a good deal of attention, upon which I was desired to communicate my thoughts.

2. Whether a choice altogether unexceptionable, has in any country been made, seems doubtful.

3. The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested with Homer, but his invention remains yet unrivalled.

4. Although persons of a virtuous and learned education may be, and often are, drawn by the temptations of youth, and the opportunities of a large fortune, into some irregularities, when they come forward into the great world, it is ever with reluctance and compunction of mind, because their bias to virtue still continues.

5. If, whilst they profess to please only, they advise and give instruction secretly, they may be esteemed the best and most honourable among authors, with justice perhaps now, as well as formerly.

6. Ambition creates seditions, wars, discord, and hatred.

7. Sloth pours upon us a deluge of crimes and evils, and saps the foundation of every virtue.

8. The ancient laws of Rome were so far from suffering a Roman citizen to be put to death, that they would not allow him to be bound, or even to be whipped.

9. Every one who puts on the appearance of goodness, is not good.

10. Let us employ our criticism on ourselves, instead of being critics on others.

11. This fallacious art debars us from enjoying life, instead of lengthening it.

12. How will that nobleman be able to conduct himself, when reduced to poverty, who was educated only to magnificence and pleasure?

13. When they fall into sudden difficulties, they are less perplexed than others in the like circumstances; and when they encounter dangers, they are less alarmed.

IV. Correct such errors, in the following sentences, as arise from placing weaker assertions or propositions after stronger ones :—

1. Charity breathes long suffering to enemies, courtesy to strangers, and habitual kindness to friends.

2. Gentleness ought to diffuse itself over our whole behaviour, to form our address, and to regulate our speech.

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3. The propensity to look forward into life, is too often grossly abused, and immoderately indulged.

4. The regular tenor of a virtuous and pious life will prove the best preparation for immortality, old age, and death.

5. Sinful pleasures blast the opening prospects of human felicity, and degrade human honour.

6. In this state of mind, every employment of life becomes an oppressive burden, and every object appears gloomy.

7. They will acquire different views, by applying to the honourable discharge of the functions of their station, and entering on a virtuous course of action.

8. By the perpetual course of dissipation in which sensualists are engaged; by the riotous revel, and the midnight, or rather morning hours, to which they prolong their festivity; by the excesses which they indulge; they debilitate their bodies, cut themselves off from the comforts and duties of life, and wear out their spirits.

V. Correct such errors, in the following passages, as arise from concluding the sentences with inconsiderable words:

1. May the happy message be applied to us, in all the virtue, strength, and comfort of it!

2. This agreement of mankind is not confined to taste solely. 3. Such a system may be established, but it will not be supported long.

4. The doctrine of the Trinity, is a mystery which we firmly believe the truth of, and humbly adore the depth of.

5. The country loses the expense of many of the richest per sons or families at home, and large sums of money are carried abroad, which the great stock of rich native commodities can make the only amends for.

6. It is absurd to think of judging these poets by precepts which they did not attend to.

7. Shall the narrow-minded children of earth, absorbed in low pursuits, dare to treat as visionary, objects which they have never made themselves acquainted with?

8. In like manner, if a person in broad day-light were falling asleep, to introduce a sudden darkness would prevent his sleep for that time, though silence and darkness in themselves, and not suddenly introduced, are very favourable to it. This I knew only

by conjecture on the analogy of the senses, when I first digested these observations; but I have since experienced it.

9. The general idea of good or bad fortune creates some concern for the person who has met with it; but the general idea of provocation excites no sympathy with the anger of the man who has received it. Nature, it seems, teaches us to be more averse to enter into this passion, and, till informed of its cause, to be disposed rather to take part against it.

VI. Correct such errors, in the following sentences, as arise from not preserving some resemblance in the language and construction in the members, where two objects are either compared or contrasted :—

1. I have observed of late the style of some great ministers very much to exceed that of any other productions.

2. The old may inform the young; and the young may animate those who are advanced in life.

3. Force was resisted by force, valour opposed by valour, and art encountered or eluded by similar address.

4. The laughers will be for those who have most wit; the serious part of mankind for those who have most reason on their side.

5. There may remain a suspicion that we over-rate the greatness of his genius, in the same manner as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being disproportioned and mis-shapen. 6. A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy inflames his crimes.

7. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.

8. He embraced the cause of liberty faintly, and pursued it without resolution: he grew tired of it, when he had much to hope; and gave it up, when there was no ground for apprehension.

SECTION VIII.

HARMONY IN THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

HARMONY in the structure of a sentence consists in the smooth and easy flow of its words and members.

To attain harmony in the structure of sentences, pay particular attention both to the selection and to the arrangement of the words, preferring such as are free from harshness of sound, combining them in the way most agreeable to the ear, and taking care that the cadence or close be not abrupt or unmusical.

EXERCISES.

Correct such errors, in the following sentences, as arise from want of harmony in their structure:

1. Sober-mindedness suits the present state of man.

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2. As conventiclers, these people were seized and punished. 3. It belongs not to our humble and confined station to censure, but to adorn, submit, and trust.

4. Under all its labours, hope is the mind's solace; and the situations which exclude it entirely are few.

5. The humbling of those that are mighty, and the precipitation of persons who are ambitious, from the towering height that they had gained, concern but little the bulk of men.

6. Tranquillity, regularity, and magnanimity, reside with the religious and resigned man.

7. Sloth, ease, success, naturally tend to beget vices and follies. 8. By a cheerful, even, and open temper, he conciliated general favour.

9. We reached the mansion before noon : it was a strong, grand, Gothic house.

10. By means of society, our wants come to be supplied, and our lives are rendered comfortable, as well as our capacities enlarged, and our virtuous affections called forth into their proper exercise.

11. Life cannot but prove vain to such persons as affect a disrelish of every pleasure, which is not both new and exquisite, measuring their enjoyments by fashion's standard, and not by what they feel themselves, and thinking that if others do not admire their state, they are miserable.

12. By experiencing distress, an arrogant insensibility of temper is most effectually corrected, from the remembrance of our own sufferings naturally prompting us to feel for others in their sufferings and if Providence has favoured us so as not to make us subject in our own lot to much of this kind of discipline, we

should extract improvement from the lot of others that is harder; and step aside sometimes from the flowing and smooth paths which it is permitted us to walk in, in order to view the toilsome march of our fellow-creatures through the thorny desert.

SECTION IX.

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF SENTENCES (continued.) Write a critical examination of the following passages, commenting particularly on the clearness, unity, strength, and harmony, in the structure of the sen

tences:

EXAMPLES.

1. "If we consider the works of nature and of art, as they are qualified to entertain the imagination, we shall find the latter very defective in comparison of the former; for, though they may sometimes appear as beautiful and strange, they can have nothing in them of that vastness and immensity, which afford so great an entertainment to the mind of a beholder."

In this sentence, the subject of discourse is the "works of nature and of art." These the author first considers together, and then draws a conclusion, that the latter are very inferior to the former. Having completed one distinct proposition, he should here have ended his first sentence. But, instead of doing so, he proceeds to the proofs of his conclusion; and thus introduces another proposition, which, to preserve unity of thought, should have been stated in a sentence by itself. If the author had expressed himself in two sentences, rather than in one, we should have had a much clearer idea of the subject. Besides, by such a division, an improvement would have been made in the perspicuity of the language as it is not very obvious at first whether the pronoun 66 they" refers to the works of nature or of art.

2. "I can more readily admire the liberal spirit and integrity, than the sound judgment, of any man who prefers a republican form of government, in this or any other empire of equal extent, to a monarchy so qualified and limited as ours. I am convinced, that neither is it in theory the wisest system of government, nor at all practicable in this country. Yet, though I hope the English constitution will for ever preserve its monarchical form, I would have

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