same general truth, are led to use the same tense in enumerating the general truth, with that which had been employed in the preceding part of the sentence. Of this we have the following example from Swift, which shall serve for the second instance of inaccuracy in the verbs. "It is confidently reported that two young gentlemen of real hopes, bright wit, and profound judgment, who, upon a thorough examination of causes and effects, and by the mere force of natural abilities, without the least tincture of learning, have made a discovery that there was no God, and generously communicating their thoughts for the good of the public, were some time ago, by an unparalleled severity, and upon I know not what obsolete law, broke for blasphemy."* Properly, "Have made a discovery that there is no God." The third example shall be of a wrong mood. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee." The construction of the two verbs bring and rememberest ought to be the same, as they are both under the regimen of the same conjunction if. Yet the one is in the subjunctive mood, and the other in the indicative. The fourth instance shall be the omission of an essential part of one of the complex tenses, the writer apparently referring to a part of the verb occurring in a former clause of the sentence, although the part referred to will not supply the defect, but some other part not produced. Of this the following is an example: "I shall do all I can to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure which I have."‡ Here we have a reference in the end to the preceding verb take. Yet it is not the word take which will supply the sense, but taken. This participle, therefore, ought to have been added. The fifth specimen in the verbs shall be of a faulty reference to a part to be mentioned. "This dedication may serve for almost any book that has, is, or shall be published." Has in this place being merely a part of a complex tense, means nothing without the rest of the tense; yet the rest of the tense is not to be found in the sentence. We cannot say "any book that has published," no more can we say "that has be published." Corrected it would run thus, "that has been or shall be published." The word is ought to be expunged, as adding nothing to the sense. I shall next produce a few instances of inaccuracy which result from coupling words together, and assigning to them a common regimen, when use will not admit that they be construed in the same manner. The following is an example in the construction of adjectives: "Will it be urged that the * An Argument against abolishing Christianity. † Matt., v., 23. Guardian, No. 1. 66 four Gospels are as old, or even older, than tradition ?" The words as old and older cannot have a common regimen; the one requires to be followed by the conjunction as, the other by than. If he had said as old as tradition, and even older,” there would have been no error. The comparative, in this case, is not construed with the preceding words, but with words which, being ascertained by the preceding, are properly enough understood. I shall exemplify the same inaccuracy in the construction of verbs. "It requireth few talents to which most men are not born, or, at least, may not acquire." Admitting that the words to which are rightly construed with the passive participle born, they cannot be construed with the active verb acquire; for it ought to be noted, that the connexion between the preposition and the noun or pronoun governed by it is so intimate that there cannot be a reference to the one without the other. The last clause, therefore, ought to run thus, "or which, at least, they may not acquire." The repetition of the relative makes the insertion of the personal pronoun necessary. There is an error of the same kind in the sentence follow ing: "The Court of Chancery frequently mitigates, and breaks the teeth of the common law." What is the regimen of the active verb mitigates? Regularly it ought to be, the teeth of the common law, as these words make the regimen of the other active verb breaks, with which the former is coupled. But as this manner of construing the sentence would render the expression highly improper, if not nonsensical, it is evidently the author's view that the verb mitigates should be construed with these words the common law, which, being in construction with the preposition of (or, as some would call it, in the genitive), cannot serve grammatically as the regimen of an active verb. "Give the Whigs," says the candid Dean of St. Patrick's, "but power enough to insult their sovereign, engross his favours to themselves, and to oppress and plunder their fellowsubjects, they presently grow into good humour and good language towards the crown." I do not like much grow into good humour for growing good-humoured, but grow into good language is insufferable. I shall add to these an instance in the syntax of nouns. "There is never wanting a set of evil instruments, who, either out of mad zeal, private hatred, or filthy lucre, are always ready." We say properly, "A man acts out of mad zeal or out of private hatred;" but we cannot say, if we would speak English," he acts out of filthy lucre." He ought, there *Bolingb. Phil., Es. iv., s. xix. Spectator, No. 564. Swift's Sermon on False Witness. + Swift on Conversation. fore, to have substituted in the place of the last two words the term avarice, or love of filthy lucre, either of which expressions would have been rightly construed with the preposition. Of the same kind nearly is the following specimen in the government of a substantive : "There is one that will think herself obliged to double her kindness and caresses of me. The word kindness requires to be followed by either to or for, and cannot be construed with the preposition of. We often find something irregular in the management of the prepositions; for instance, in the omission of one altogether: "He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in using silk-worms." Another in is necessary to complete the construction, whether we suppose the in mentioned to belong to the preceding words or to the succeeding. But as it would have sounded harshly to subjoin another in immediately after the former, it would have been better to give the sentence another turn; as, "He lamented the fatal mistake in which the world had been so long, in using silkworms." We have a similar omission, though not of a preposition in the expression following: "That the discoursing on politics shall be looked upon as dull as talking on the weather."§ Syntax absolutely requires that the sentence in this form should have another as immediately before the first. At the same time, it must be owned that this would render the expression very inelegant. This dilemma might have been avoided by giving another turn to the concluding part, as thus"-shall be looked upon as equally dull with talking on the weather." 66 Of an error in a wrong choice of a preposition, these words of the same author will furnish an example: "The greatest masters of critical learning differ among one another."|| Had he said "differ among themselves," the expression would have been faultless. But the terms themselves and one another, though frequently synonymous, rarely admit the same construction. We cannot say 66 one differs among another;" but we may say one differs from another," or "with another;" the former to express a difference in opinion, the latter a quarrel or breach. It ought, therefore, to have been, in the above-cited passage, differ from one another." I shall only add an instance or two of inaccuracy in the conjunctions and the adverbs; first, in the conjunctions: "A petty constable will neither act cheerfully or wisely." erly, "act neither cheerfully nor wisely." Neither cannot grammatically be followed by o". 66 Prop Voyage to Laputa. An example of incorrectness in the adverbs you have in the passage following: "Lest I should be charged for being worse than my word, I shall endeavour to satisfy my reader by pursuing my method proposed; if peradventure he can call to mind what that method was.' The adverb peradventure, expressing a degree of evidence or credibility, cannot regularly be construed with the hypothetical conjunction if. It is only to affirmations and negations, and not to bare suppositions, that all the adverbs denoting certainty, probability, or possibility properly belong. The following passage in the common version of the Bible is liable to the same censure: "Micaiah said, If thou certainly return in peace, then hath not the Lord spoken by me."t The translators in this, as in some other places, have been misled by a well-meant attempt to express the force of a Hebraism, which in many cases cannot be expressed in our language. I shall conclude this article with a quotation from an excellent author, of which, indeed, it would not be easy to say in what part the solecism may be discovered, the whole passage being so perfectly solecistical. "As he that would keep his house in repair must attend every little breach or flaw, and supply it immediately, else time alone will bring all to ruin, how much more the common accidents of storms and rain? He must live in perpetual danger of his house falling about his ears; and will find it cheaper to throw it quite down, and build it again from the ground, perhaps upon a new foundation, or at least in a new form, which may neither be so safe nor so convenient as the old." It is impossible to analyze this sentence grammatically, or to say whether it be one sentence or more. It seems, by the conjunction as, to begin with a comparison, but we have not a single hint of the subject illustrated. Besides, the introducing of the interrogation, How much more? after else, which could be regularly followed only by an affirmation or negation, and the incoherency of the next clause, He must live, render it, indeed, all of a piece. So much for the solecism, of which examples might be multiplied almost without end. Let those produced suffice for a specimen. It is acknowledged that such negligences are not to be considered as blemishes of any moment in a work of genius, since those, and even worse, may be discovered, on a careful examination, in the most celebrated writings. It is, for this reason, acknowledged also, that it is * Shaftesbury, vol. iii., Misc. ii., ch. iii. + 2 Chron., xviii., 27. Saci, in his French translation. hath expressed the sense of the original with more simplicity and propriety."Michée repartit, Si vous revenez en paix, le Seigneur n'a point parle para bouche. Project for the Advancement of Religion, last sentence. 1 neither candid nor judicious to form an opinion of a book from a few such specks, selected, perhaps, from the distant parts of a large performance, and brought into our view at once; yet, on the other hand, it is certain that an attention to these little things ought not to be altogether disregarded by any writer. Purity of expression hath but a small share of merit; it hath, however, some share. But it ought especially to be remembered, that, on the account of purity, a considerable part of the merit discovered in the other virtues of elocution, to which it contributes, ought undoubtedly to be changed. The words of the language constitute the materials with which the orator must work; the rules of the language teach him by what management those materials are rendered useful. And what is purity but the right using of the words of the language by a careful observance of the rules? It is, therefore, justly considered as essential to all the other graces of expression. Hence not only perspicuity and vivacity, but even elegance and animation, derive a lustre SECTION III. THE IMPROPRIETY. I COME now to consider the third and last class of faults against purity, to which I give the name of impropriety. The barbarism is an offence against etymology, the solecism against syntax, the impropriety against lexicography. The business of the lexicographer is to assign to every word of the language the precise meaning or meanings which use hath assigned to it. To do this is as really a part of the grammarian's province, though commonly executed by a different hand, as etymology and syntax. The end of every grammar is to convey the knowledge of that language of which it is the grammar. But the knowledge of all the rules, both of derivation, under which inflection is included, and of construction, nay, and of all the words in the language, is not the knowledge of the language. The words must be known, not barely as sounds, but as signs. We must know to what things respectively they are appropriated. Thus, in our own tongue we may err egregiously against propriety, and, conseqently, against purity, though all the words we employ be English, and though they be construed in the English idiom. The reason is evident: they may be misapplied; they may be employed as signs of things to which use hath not affixed them. This fault may be committed either in single words or in phrases. PART I. Impropriety in Single Words. I begin with single words. As none but those who are grossly ignorant of our tongue can misapply the words that |