Thirdly, On the disposition of coördinate or correlative words or members.

§ 326. UNITY in a sentence is preserved by the presentation of but one leading subject, § 317, and by the binding together of all the parts in one compact whole. The first element of unity here mentioned singleness of leading subject has been sufficiently considered under the head of clearness.

The second

compactness

appears in style in the periodic structure, § 269, in which the leading member of the sentence, being placed last, binds the whole together into one compact whole.

The following are examples of the periodic structure:

While all the Pagan nations consider Religion as one part of Virtue, the Jews, on the contrary, regard Virtue as a part of Religion.

"For as guilt never rose from a true use of our rational faculties, so it is very frequently subversive of them. God forbid that prudence, the first of all the virtues, as well as the supreme director of them all, should ever be employed in the service of any of the vices." - Burke.

"There is something in the present business, with all that is horrible to create aversion, so vilely loathsome as to excite disgust. It is, my lords, surely superfluous to dwell on the sacredness of the ties, which those aliens to feeling, those apostates to humanity thus divided. In such an assembly as the one before which I speak, there is not an eye but must look reproof to their conduct; - not a heart but must anticipate its condemnation.". Sheridan.

§ 327. The most conspicuous parts of the sentence being the commencement and the close, these parts should, when energy of expression is aimed at, be given to the capital or leading words and members.

This principle forbids commencing or closing a sentence with circumstantial words or clauses, unless it is desired to give them an emphatic distinction. In merely didactic discourse, such clauses are admissible because they often conduce to clearness and readiness of apprehension. In earnest oratory they can never be justified except, as has been just

observed, when they are made emphatic. In this case, placing them at the beginning or the close at once gives them a high degree of force and impressiveness.

We find in the Latin language a happy exemplification of this principle of energy. When Mucius Scævola in Livy wishes to turn the attention of Porsenna on the fact that he was a Roman, he says, Romanus sum civis. On the other hand, when Gavius in Cicero's Oration against Verres was urging his rights as a citizen, not merely as a Roman, he says, Civis Romanus sum. Although the words are the same, the leading thought being different in the two cases, Livy places one word at the beginning of the sentence, and Cicero another; and both clearly from mere reference to energetic effect.

The following sentences are faulty in this respect : —

The other species of motion are incidentally blended also.

Every nature you perceive is either too excellent to want it, or too base to be capable of it.

Seeing the delay of repentance doth mainly rely upon the hopes and encouragement of a future repentance, let us consider a little how unreasonable these hopes are, and how absurd the encouragement is which men take from them.

"But it is absurd to think of judging either Ariosto or Spenser by precepts which they did not attend to." Watson.

"There need no more than to make such a registry only voluntary, to avoid all the difficulties that can be raised, and which are not too captious or too trivial to take notice of.".

Temple.

"In like manner, if a person in broad daylight 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 favorable 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." - Burke.

The following extracts, on the other hand, furnish instances of this kind of energy:

In their prosperity my friends shall never hear of me; in their adversity, always.

True liberty, in my opinion, can only exist when justice is equally adminstered to all, to the king and to the beggar.

Never, so clearly as in the present instance, have I observed that safeguard of justice which Providence has placed in the nature of man.

No: I am no emissary - my ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country- - not in power, not in profit, but in the glory of the achievement! Sell my country's independence to France! and for what? A change of masters? No: but for ambition!

Under this species of energy may be ranked what has been denominated the Climax; or that structure of the sentence in which the different members succeed each other in order of strength or importance, the most impressive being placed last.

The following are examples :

In the middle of the day, at the moment of divine worship, when the miserable husband was on his knees, directing the prayers and the thanksgiving of his congregation to their God — that moment did the remorseless etc.

Impose upon me whatever hardships you please; give me nothing but the bread of sorrow to eat; take from me the friend in whom I had placed my confidence; lay me in the cold hut of poverty and on the thorny bed of disease; set before me death in all its terrors; do all this, only let me trust in my Saviour, and I will fear no evil - I will rise superior to affliction — I will rejoice in my tribulation.

§ 328. In the arrangement of the sentence, further, coördinate and correlative words and members should be placed in corresponding parts, so as to answer to each other and reflect on each other, so to speak, their own force.

The Latin and Greek languages, through the variety of their inflections, admitted this species of energy to a much greater degree than most modern tongues. Cicero says that the following expression drew forth wonderful applause from the audience :

"Patris dictum sapiens, temeritas filii comprobavit."

* Orator, 63. Hoc dichoreo tantus clamor concionis excitatus est, ut admirabile est. If the double trochee at the close had its effect, it is yet questionable whether the energy of the expression is not owing still more to the admirable arrangement of the words, which are made most perfectly

The following are from his orations; the first from that for Ligarius, the second from the oration for Roscius Ameri

nus:

"Nihil habet nec fortuna tua majus quam ut possis, nec natura tua melius quam ut velis, conservare plurimos."

"Accusant ii, quibus occidi patrem Sexti Roscii bono fuit; causam dicit is, cui non modo luctum mors patris attulit, verum etiam egestatem. Accusant ii, qui hunc ipsum jugulare summe cupierunt; causam dicit is, qui etiam ad hoc ibidem ante oculos vestros trucidetur."

In our own language, the following sentences may be given as illustrations :

Never before were so many opposing interests, passions, and principles committed to such a decision. On one side an attachment to the ancient order of things, on the other a passionate desire of change; a wish in some to perpetuate, in others to destroy every thing; every abuse sacred in the eyes of the former, every foundation attempted to be demolished by the latter; a jealousy of power shrinking from the slightest innovation, pretensions to freedom pushed to madness and anarchy; superstition in all its dotage, impiety in all its fury.

Sullen and severe without religion, profligate without gayety, you live like Charles the Second, without being an amiable companion; and, for aught I know, may die, as his father did, without the reputation of a martyr.

§ 329. As frequently it may be desired to weaken and soften rather than to strengthen the expression, this object may be effected, for the most part, by means just the reverse of those which have been prescribed for imparting energy.

The English language, from the very heterogeneousness of its origin, allows, more than most other languages, this

to answer to each other. "Patris" and "filii" are at the extremes; sapiens" and "temeritas" in the middle in juxtaposition, and the one at the close, the other at the commencement of the respective members to which they belong; and the unrelated word "dictum" thrown as far as possible out of view. The whole sentence is bound together by the verb, which, as the most important word, occupies the last place in the sentence. We have, besides, the inversion of the object before the subject. To all this is to be added the harmony of the whole. There is here a combination of many excellences of style.

variation in the degrees of energy. The same object may be represented by a skillful orator in the strongest vividness and force or in the most indifferent tameness, simply by means of a different selection from those words which are grammatically proper to the object. Here belong those expressions usually denominated Euphemisms, which are employed to soften or weaken the impression made by the more appropriate representation. Here, also, belongs the anti-climax. The following are exemplifications:

1. In the kind of words:

The toast concludes with a patriotic wish for all his persuasion, by the consummation of which there can be no doubt the hempen manufactures of this country would experience a very considerable consumption.

For when the restless Greeks sat down

So many years, before Troy town,
And were renowned, as Homer writes,

For well-soled boots, no less than fights.

Often a very small matter takes away the mark of that beast whose name shall not be mentioned here.

2. In the number of words:

"They did that which every master would have wished his servants to do in such an exigency:" instead of, "They killed Clodius."

3. In the arrangement of words:

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

§ 330. Figurative energy is founded either,
1. On the kind and number of words employed;
2. On the representative imagery; or,

3. On the structure of the sentence.

The most strictly philosophical treatment of figurative energy, as well as of clearness, would represent it in the light of the absolute and subjective properties of style, and follow the method furnished by the analysis of those properties. But both to prevent repetition and for convenience and simplicity, it may, perhaps, better be exhibited under the three heads named above.