Elements of Rhetoric and Literary Criticism

or words which are considered of the same significa tion.

Q. Are there any words perfectly synonymous?

A. On this point there is grea, difference of opinion, but many are reputed synonymous which are not so in reality.

Q. Can you give an example of this?

A. Courage and fortitude are generally deemed of the same import; but the difference between them is considerable. Courage braves danger, fortitude supports pain.

Q. Is precision alike recessary in al. sorts of composition?

A. In all it is important; it is the very essence of poetry; but in novels and romances it is much less necessary, than in works which inculcate truth, or teach some art or science.

Q. Can you correct the following sentences in which precision aas been disregarded? James desisted from, and renounced his designs. He abhorred and detested being in debt. This lady was a pattern of piety, virtue, and religion.

A. James desisted from his designs. He detested being in debt. This lady was a pattern of piety and virtue.

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6. Our expectations are frequently disappointed, because we expect greater happiness from the future than experience authorizes us to expect 7. No learning that we have learned is generally so dearly bought, or so valuable when it is bought, as that which we have learned in the schoo. of experience.

III. Correct the following errors in the use of words commonly employed as synonymous:

1. The secretary left the place of trust he held under government, gave up his party, quitted his parents in affliction, and deserted the kingdom forever.

2. A patriot acknowledges his opposition to a corrupt ministry, and is applauded; a gentleman confesses his mistake, and is forgiven; a prisoner avows the crime of which he stands accused, and is punished.

3. A hermit is severe in his life; a casuist rigorous in his application of religion or law; a judge austere in his sentences.

4. The earl, being a man of extensive abilities, stored his mind with a variety of ideas; which circumstance contributed to the successful exertion of his vigorous capacity.

5. By the habit of walking often in the streets, one acquires a custom of idleness.

6. Philip found an obstacle to managing the Athenians, on account of their natural dispositions; but the eloquence of Demosthenes was the great difficulty in his designs.

7. He is master of a complete house, which has not one entire apartment. 8. An honest man will refrain from employing an ambiguous expression; 2 confused man may often utter equivocal terms without design.

9. This man, on all occasions, treated his inferiors with great haughtiness and disdain.

10. Galileo discovered the telescope; Harvey invented the circulation of the tlood.

11. He is a child alone, having neither brother nor sister.

12. A man may be too vain to be proud.

13. The traveler observed the most striking objects he saw; the general emarked all the motions of the enemy.

14. I am amazed at what is new or unexpected; confounded at what is vast or great; surprised at what is incomprehensible; astonished by what is shocking or terrible. 15. He died with violence; for he was killed by a sword.

TENCES. entences? o long nor are either ssion. ces too long? e reader or

rom distinct

ly understanding, and feeling an interest in, what he hears or reads.

Q. What is the consequence of making them too short?

A. It gives an appearance of abruptness and want of connection to the composition, and represents a subject too much in loose and detached portions. Q. How are both extremes best avoided?

A. By a due intermixture of long and short sentences, whether in speaking or writing.

Q. What will be the effect of this?

A. It will be productive of that variety which sel dom fails to please; and to be pleased is one of the first steps toward being instructed.

Q. Under what heads do the more particular rules of this sub ject come?

A. Under Clearness, Unity, Strength, Harmony and a judicious use of the Figures of Speech.

Q. Do not some of these more properly rank under beauty or ornament?

A. They all do so to a certain degree, but ornament depends more particularly upon harmony and a proper use of the figures of speech.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF CLEARNESS.

Q. What do you understand by Clearness?

A. Such an arrangement of the several words and members of a sentence as distinctly indicates an author's meaning.

Q. When is this most apt to be overlooked?

A. In the placing or arranging of such words or clauses as are of a qualifying or restrictive nature. Q. What class of words come chiefly under this head?

A. Those denominated adverbs, which may, by an improper position, be made to qualify a wrong word, and thus bring out a meaning totally different from that intended.

Q. Can you exemplify what you have mentioned?

A. "William has set out upon-his travels, and he not only means to visit Paris, but also Rome " Q Where does the error lie here?

A In the position of not only, whith, as they stand, are made to qualify means; whereas the word they should qualify is Paris; as, "He means to visit, not only Paris, but Rome also."

Q. When several restrictive or qualifying clauses occur in the same sentence, how should they be disposed?

A. The best way is, not to place them too near each other, but so to disperse and arrange them, as to leave the principal words of the sentence prominent and distinct.

Q. What is faulty in the following sentence: "A great stone that I happened to find, after a long search, by the sea-shore, served me for an anchor ?"

A. The qualifying clause," after a long search," is improperly placed.

Q. What may the meaning of the sentence be according to the present arrangement?

A. Why, that the search was confined to the sea shore, whereas it is intended to be stated that the stone was found on the sea-shore.

Q. Can you give the sentence in a corrected form?

A. "A great stone that I happened, after a long search, to find by the sea-shore, served me for an anchor."

Q. What is the most general rule upon the subject of arrangement?

A. Place words so as best to preserve and exhibit the proper connection of the thoughts for which they stand, and which they are intended to convey.

2. Is there any more specific rule?

A. Let all relative and connective words be so placed as best to indicate at once what they connect, and to what they refer.

Q. What will be the consequence of an improper position of words in a sentence?

A. It will obscure the sense, and produce confusion in the mind of the reader or hearer.

Q. Will you endeavor to correct the following sentences? It is folly to pretend to arm ourselves against the accidents of life, by heaping up treasures, from which nothing can protect us but the good providence of God. We shall now endeavor, with clearness and precision, to describe the provinces once united under their sway. The minister who grows less by his elevation, like a little statue on a mighty pedestal, will always have his jealousy strong about him.