had nothing to do, and he did it." "The better is the enemy of the good." 'One secret in education," says Herbert Spencer, "is to know how wisely to lose time." "Make haste slowly." "They did nothing very well."

in particular; and did it

(iii) But no one should strain after such a style of writing. Such an attempt would only produce smartness, which is a fatal vice.

DISTINCTNESS OF STYLE.

1. One great secret of a good and striking style is the art of Specification.

Professor Bain gives us an excellent example of a vague and general, as opposed to a distinct and specific style ::

(a) Vague.—" In proportion as the manners, customs, and amuse ments of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulation of their penal codes will be severe.

(b) Specific." According as men delight in battles, bull-fights, and combats of gladiators, so will they punish by hanging, burning, and crucifying."

2. Specification or distinctness of style may be attained in two ways: (i) by the use of concrete terms; and (ii) by the use of detail.

3. A concrete or particular term strikes both the feelings and imagination with greater force than an abstract or general term can do.

(ii) Campbell says: "The more general the terms are, the picture is the fainter; the more special, the brighter." "They sank like lead in the mighty waters" is more forcible than "they sank like metal."

4. Details enable the reader to form in his mind a vivid picture of the event narrated or the person described; and, before beginning to write, we ought always to draw up a list of such details as are both striking and appropriate such details as tend to throw into stronger relief the chief person or event.

The following is a good example from the eloquent writer and profound thinker Edmund Burke. He is speaking of the philanthropist Howard :

"He has visited all Europe to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infections of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries."

GENERAL CAUTIONS.

1. Avoid the use of threadbare and hackneyed expressions. Leave them to people who are in a hurry, or to penny-a-liners.

INSTEAD OF

At the expiration of four years.

Paternal sentiments.

Exceedingly opulent.

Incur the danger.

Accepted signification.

Extreme felicity.

A sanguinary engagement.

In the affirmative.

WRITE

At the end, etc.

The feelings of a father.
Very rich.

Run the risk.

Usual meaning.

Great happiness.

A bloody battle.
Yes.

2. Be very careful in the management of pronouns.

(i) Cobbett says: "Never put an it upon paper without thinking well what you are about. When I see many it's in a page, I always tremble for the writer." See also 2 Kings, xix. 35: "And when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses."

(ii) Bolingbroke has the sentence: "They were persons of very moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their passions." The last they ought to be these.

(iii) The sentence, "He said to his patient that if he did not feel better in half an hour, he thought he had better return," is a clumsy sentence, but clear enough; because we can easily see that it is the patient that is to take the advice.

3. Be careful not to use mixed metaphors.

(i) The following is a fearful example: "This is the arrow of conviction, which, like a nail driven in a sure place, strikes its roots downwards into the earth, and bears fruit upwards."

(ii) Sir Boyle Roche, an Irish member, began a speech thus: "Mr Speaker, I smell a rat, I see him floating in the air; but, mark me, I shall yet nip him in the bud." A similar statement is: "Lord Kimberley said that in taking a very large bite of the Turkish cherry the way had been paved for its partition at no distant day.”

4. Be simple, quiet, manly, frank, and straightforward in your style, as in your conduct. That is: Be yourself!

SPECIAL CAUTIONS.

1. Avoid tautology.

Alison says: "It was founded mainly on the entire monopoly of the whole trade with the colonies." Here entire and whole are tautological; for monopoly means entire possession, or possession of the whole. "He appears to enjoy the universal esteem of all men." Here universal

is superfluous.

2. Place the adverb as near the word it modifies as you

can.

"He not only found her employed, but also pleased and tranquil." The not only belongs to employed, and should therefore go with it.

3. Avoid circumlocution

This

"Her Majesty, on reaching Perth, partook of. breakfast.” should be simply breakfasted. But the whole sentence should be recast into : "On reaching Perth, the Queen breakfasted in the station."

4. Take care that your participles are attached to nouns, and that they do not run loose.

"Alarmed at the news, the boat was launched at once." Here alarmed can, grammatically, agree with boat only. The sentence should be: "The men, alarmed at the news, launched their boat at once."

5. Use a present participle as seldom as possible.

(i) “I have documents proving this " is not so strong as this."

to prove

(ii) "He dwelt a long time on the advantages of swift steamers, thus accounting for the increase," etc. The phrase "thus accounting" is very loose. Every sentence ought to be neat, firm, and compact.

6. Remember that who is very often equivalent to and he or for he; while that introduces a merely adjectival clause.

"I heard it from the doctor, who told the gardener that-works-forthe-college." Here who and he; and that introduces the adjectival sentence.

=

7. Do not change the Subject of your Sentence.

(i) Another way of putting this is: "Preserve the unity of the sentence ! !”

(ii) "Archbishop Tillotson died in this year. He was exceedingly beloved both by King William and Queen Mary, who nominated Dr Tenison to succeed him." The last statement about nominating another bishop has no natural connection with what goes before.

(iii) "After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness. This sentence ought to be broken into two. The first should end with on shore; and the second begin "Here I was met and, etc." 8. See that who or which refers to its proper antecedent.

"Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman, to whom he left his second-best bed." Here the grammatical antecedent is yeoman; but the historical and sense-antecedent is certainly daughter.

9. Do not use and which for which.

(i) "I bought him a very nice book as a present, and which cost me ten shillings.' The and is here worse than useless.

(ii) If another which has preceded, of course and which is right.

10. Avoid exaggerated or too strong language.

Unprecedented, most extraordinary, incalculable, boundless, extremely, awfully, scandalous, stupendous, should not be used unless we know that they are both true and appropriate.

11. Be careful not to mix up dependent with principal

sentences.

"He replied that he wished to help them, and intended to give orders to his servants." Here it is doubtful whether intended is coordinate with replied or with wished. If the former is the case, then we ought to say he intended.

12. Be very careful about the right position of each phrase or clause in your sentence.

The following are curious examples of dislocations or misplacements: "A piano for sale by a lady about to cross the Channel in an oak case with carved legs." "I believe that, when he died, Cardinal Mezzofanti spoke at least fifty languages." "He blew out his brains

after bidding his wife good-bye with a gun." "Erected to the memory of John Phillips, accidentally shot, as a mark of affection by his brother." "The Board has resolved to erect a building large enough to accommodate 500 students three storeys high." 'Mr Carlyle has taught us that silence is golden in thirty-seven volumes."

PUNCTUATION.

1. Certain signs, called points, are used in sentences to mark off their different parts, and to show the relation of each part to the organic whole.

(i) Putting in the right points is called punctuation, from the Latin punctum, a point. From the same word come punctual and punctuality.

2. These points are the full stop, the colon, the semicolon, the dash, the comma, and the points of interrogation and admiration.

3. The full stop (.) or period marks the close of a sentence. 4. The colon (:) introduces (i) a new statement that may be regarded as an after-thought; or (ii) it introduces a catalogue of things; or (iii) it introduces a formal speech.

(The word colon is Greek, and means limb or member.)

(i) "Study to acquire a habit of accurate expression: no study is more important."

(ii) "Then follow excellent parables about fame: as that she gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds; that in the day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night."-BACON.

(iii) “Mr Wilson rose and said: 'Sir, I am sorry,' etc."

5. The semicolon is employed when, for reasons of sound or of sense, two or more simple sentences are thrown into one.

(Semicolon is Latin-Greek, and means half a colon.)

(i) "In the youth of a state, arms do flourish in the middle age of