merly quoted for another purpose · "Up goes my grave Impudence to the maid.” In the particle up, that circumstance is denoted which particularly marks the impudence of the action. By the help of it, too, the verb is made to precede the nominative, which otherwise it could not do. In negations it holds very generally, that the negative particle should be joined to the verb. Yet in some cases the expression is greatly enlivened, and, consequently, the denial appears more determinate, by beginning the sentence with the adverb. "Not every one," says our Saviour, "that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." Vary but the position of the negative in the first member, and say, "Every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," and you will flatten the expression exceedingly. On so slight a circumstance in the arrangement does the energy of a sentence sometimes depend. We have some admirable examples of the power of this circumstance in Shakspeare. In the conference of Malcolm with Macduff, after the former had asserted that he himself was so wicked that even Macbeth, compared with him, would appear innocent as a lamb, Macduff replies with some warmth,

The arrangement in this sentence is admirably adapted to the speaker's purpose; whereas, if you dispose the words in the usual manner, and say, "A more damned devil in the legions of horrid hell cannot come to top Macbeth in ills,” we shall scarcely be persuaded that the thought is the same. If it were needful to multiply examples, I might easily show that other adverbs, particularly those of time and of place, when such circumstances require special notice, may, with great advantage to the energy, appear foremost in the sen

tence.

I proceed to observe, that when a sentence begins with a conjunction, whether it be expressed in one word or more, with naming or titling the persons addressed, with a call to attention, or even with a term that is little more than expletive, the place immediately following such phrase, title, or connective, will often give the same advantage to the ex

* Matt., vii., 21. Gr., Ου πας ὁ λεγων μοι, Κυριε Κυριε, ειστελεύσεται εις την βασιλειαν των ουρανων. All the Latin translators, however differently they express the sense, agree in beginning with the negative particle. So also doth Diodati in the Italian: "Non chiunque mi dice, Signore, Signore, entrera nel regno de' cieli." Not so the French. Le Clerc and Beausobre thus: "Tous ceux qui me disent, Seigneur, Seigneur, n'entreront pas dans le royaume du ciel." Saci thus: "Ceux qui me disent, Seigneur, Seigneur, n'entreront pas tous dans le rovaume des cieux." Macbeth.

pression that fills it, as in other cases the first place will do. The first term or phrrse is considered only as the link which connects the sentence with that which went before; or, if it have no relation to the preceding, as an intimation that something is to be said. Of this a few examples will suffice. The place immediately after a conjunction which begins the sentence is sometimes emphatical, as in that of Milton: "At last his sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight ;"*

where the description is the more picturesque that the verb is preceded by its regimen. The possessive pronoun and the epithet, unless when a particular emphasis rests upon one of them, are regarded only as constituting parts of one complex sign with the noun. Secondly, the place after the address, as in that of the same author,

"Powers and dominions, deities of heaven!

Me, though just right, and the fix'd laws of heaven,

Did first create your leader."+

Nothing could better suit, or more vividly express, the pride and arrogance of the arch-apostate, than the manner here used of introducing himself to their notice. Thirdly, the place after a call to attention, as that of the apostle, “Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation." Lastly, the place after an expletive : "There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon."§ Perhaps the word there, in this passage, cannot properly be termed an expletive; for though it be in itself insignificant, the idiom of the language renders it necessary in this disposition of the sentence; for such is the power of this particle, that by its means even the simple tenses of the verb can be made to precede the nominative, without the appearance of interrogation. For when we interrogate we must say, "Came there-" or "Did there come- 99 A little attention will satisfy us that the verb in the passage produced ought to occupy the emphatical place, as the comparison is purely of what was brought into the country then, and what was at any time imported afterward. Even though the particle there be preceded by the copulative, it will make no odds on the value of the place immediately following. And there appeared to them Elias, with Moses."|| The apparition is here the striking circumstance. And the first place that is occupied by a significant term is still the emphatical place. In all the three preceding quotations from Scripture, the arrangement is the same in the original, and in most of the ancient trans*Paradise Lost, b. ii. + Ibid. + 2 Cor., vi., 2. 1 Kings, x., 10. || Mark, ix., 4. Gr., Και ώφθη αυτοις Ηλιας συν Μωσει.

lations, as it is with us. The modern versions vary ure, especially in regard to the passage last quoted.*

I shall add one example more from the Scripture, wherein the oblique case of the personal pronoun, though preceded by two conjunctions, emphatically ushers the verb and its nominative. Among many nations there was no king like Sclomon, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to sin. My remark concerns only the last clause of the sentence. It is manifest that the emphasis here ought to rest on the him, who, from what immediately precedes, might have been thought proof against all the arts even of female seduction. This clause, everybody must perceive, would have been much more weakly expressed had it been arranged thus: Nevertheless, outlandish women did cause even him to sin.

Sometimes, indeed, it is necessary, in order to set an eminent object in the most conspicuous light, to depart a little from the ordinary mode of composition as well as of arrangement. The following is an example in this way: "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?" A colder writer would have satisfied himself with saying, "Where are your fathers? and do the prophets live forever?" But who that has the least spark of imagination sees not how languid the latter expression is when compared with the former? The sentiment intended to be conveyed

* In Italian, Diodati renders it, "Et Elia apparue loro, insieme con Moise." In French, Le Clerc, "Ensuite Elie et Moïse leur apparurent." Beausobre, "Ils virent aussi paroître Moïse et Elie." Saci, "Et ils virent paroître Elie et Moïse." It would seem that neither of these tongues can easily admit the simple tense to precede both its nominative and its regimen. By the aid of the particle there, this is done in English without ambiguity, and without violence to the idiom of the language.

† Neh., xiii., 26. The clause affected by this criticism stands thus in the

The order is exactly נס ארהן ההטאר הנשים הככדירת : :original

the same in the Greek of the Septuagint: Και τούτον εξεκλίναν αἱ γυναίκες ai adλorpiai; and nearly the same in the Latin Vulgate: "Et ipsum ergo duxerunt ad peccatum mulieres alienigena." Junius is rather more literal: "Etiam ipsum ad peccandum induxerunt feminæ alienigena." Castalio, Iwith at least equal energy, places the pronoun before the conjunction: "Eum tamen ad peccandum mulieres perduxerunt extrane." In all these, as in the English translation, what is principally emphatical in the arrangement is preserved, the pronoun being the first among the significant terms. It is not so in Diodati's Italian version: "E pure le donne straniere lo fuero peccare;" nor in Saci's French: "Et aprés cela neanmoins des femmes etrangeres le firent tomber dans le peche." It is remarkable, that though the ordinary grammatic rules, both of French and of Italian, place the pronoun governed before the governing verb, the reverse of which obtains in English, the latter language is more capable of accommodating itself to such an expressive disposition of the words, as has been now exemplified, than either of the former. The reason is, though these tongues make the oblique case of the pronoun generally precede the verb, they do not admit the nominative to intervene, but, for the most part, except in asking a question, place it before both, + Zech., i., 5.

in both, namely, the frailty and mortality of man, is one of those obvious truths which it is impossible for any person in his senses to call in question. To introduce the mention of it, in order to engage my assent to what nobody ever denied or doubted, would be of no consequence at all; but it is of consequence to rouse my attention to a truth which so nearly concerns every man, and which is, nevertheless, so little attended to by any. In such cases the end of speaking is not to make us believe, but to make us feel. It is the heart, and not the head, which ought to be addressed. And nothing can be better adapted to this purpose than first, as it were independently, to raise clear ideas in the imagination, and then, by the abruptness of an unexpected question, to send us to seek for the archetypes.

From all the examples above quoted, those especially taken from Holy Writ, the learned reader, after comparing them carefully both with the original and with the translations cited in the margin, will be enabled to deduce, with as much certainty as the nature of the question admits, that that arrangement which I call rhetorical, as contributing to vivacity and animation, is, in the strictest sense of the word, agreeably to what hath been already suggested, a natural arrangement; that the principle which leads to it operates similarly on every people and in every language, though it is much more checked by the idiom of some tongues than by that of others; that, on the contrary, the more common, and what, for distinction's sake, I call the grammatical order, is, in a great measure, an arrangement of convention, and differs considerably in different languages.* He will discover, also, that to render the artificial or conventional arrangement, as it were, sacred and inviolable, by representing every deviation (whatever be the subject, whatever be the design of the work) as a trespass against the laws of composition in the language, is one of the most effectual ways of stinting the powers of elocution, and even of damping the vigour both of

* All the French critics are not so immoderately national as Bonhours. Since composing the foregoing observations, I have been shown a book entitled Traité de la Formation Mechanique des Langues. The sentiments of the author on this subject are entirely coincident with mine. He refers to some other treatises, particularly to one on Inversion, by M. de Batteux, which I have not seen. Concerning it he says, " Ceux qui l'auront lu, verront que c'est le défaut de terminaisons propres à distinguer le nominatif de l'accusatif qui nous a forcé prendre cet ordre moins naturel qu'on ne le croit: que l'inversion est dans nôtre langue, non dans la langue Latine, comme on se le figure: que les mots étant plus faits pour l'homme que pour les choses, l'ordre essentiel à suivre dans le discours représentatif de l'idée des objets n'es pas tant la marche commune des choses dans la nature, que la succession véritable des pensées, la rapidité des sentimens, ou de l'intérêt du cœur, la fidélité de l'image dans la tableau de l'action: que le Latin en préférant ces points capitaux procede plus naturellement que le François." &c., No. 22.

imagination and of passion. I observe this the rather, that, in my apprehension, the criticism that prevails among us at present leans too much this way. No man is more sensible of the excellence of purity and perspicuity, properly so called; but I would not hastily give up some not inconsiderable advantages of the English tongue, in respect both of eloquence and of poetry, merely in exchange for the French netteté.

I should next proceed to make some remarks on the disposition and the form of the clauses in complex sentences; for though some of the examples already produced are properly complex, in these I have only considered the arrangement of the words in the principal member, and not the disposition of the members. But before I enter on this other discussion, it will be proper to observe, and by some suitable examples to illustrate the observation, that the complex are not so favourable to a vivacious diction as the simple sentences, or such as consist of two clauses at the most.

Of all the parts of speech, the conjunctions are the most unfriendly to vivacity; and next to them, the relative pronouns, as partaking of the nature of conjunction. It is by these parts, less significant in themselves, that the more significant parts, particularly the members of complex sentences, are knit together. The frequent recurrence, therefore, of such feeble supplements, cannot fail to prove tiresome, especially in pieces wherein an enlivened and animated diction might naturally be expected. But nowhere hath simplicity in the expression a better effect in invigorating the sentiments than in poetical description on interesting subjects. Consider the song composed by Moses on occasion of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and you will find that part of the effect produced by that noble hymn is justly imputable to the simple, the abrupt, the rapid manner adopted in the composition. I shall produce only two verses for a specimen. "The enemy said, I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; my revenge shall be satiated upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them: thou blewest with thy breath; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.”* This is the

* Exod., xv., 9, 10. The word by our interpreters rendered wind also denotes spirit and breath. A similar homonymy in the corresponding term may be observed not only in the Oriental, but in almost all ancient languages. When this noun has the affix pronoun by which it is appropriated to a person, the signification wind is evidently excluded, and the meaning is limited to either spirit or breath. When it is, besides, construed with the verb blow, the signification spirit is also excluded, and the meaning confined to breath. It is likewise the intention of the inspired penman to represent the wonderful facility with which Jehovah blasted all the towering hopes of the Egyptians. Add to this, that such a manner is entirely in the He. brew taste, which considers every great natural object as bearing some re

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