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 an expletive, the place immediately following such phrase, title, or connective, will often give the same advantage to the expression that fill it, as in other cases the first place will do. The first term or phrase 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;t

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. condly, the place after the address, as in that of the same author,

Se

Nothing could better suit, or more vividly express, the pride and arrogance of the archapostate, 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 piece after an expletive :

* Macbeth. Ibid,

† Paradise Lost, B. II.
§ 2 Cor. vi. 2

"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 -"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 afterwards. 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 translations, as it is with us. The modern versions vary more, especially in regard to the passage last quoted. I

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 Solomon, 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

* 1 Kings x. 10.

† Mark ix. 4. Gr. Και ώφθη αυτοις Ηλιας συν Μωσει.

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 casily 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 original:

The order is exactly the same in the Greek גם אוהן החטאר הנשימ הככריות:

næ."

of the Septuagint: Και τουτόν εξεκλίναν αἱ γυναῖκες αἱ αλλοτρίαι: and nearly the same in the Latin Vulgat: "Et ipsum ergo duxerunt ad peccatum mulieres alienigenæ." Junius is rather more literal. "Etiam ipsum ad peccandum induxerunt feminæ alienigena." Castalio, with at least equal energy, places the pronoun before the conjunction. "Eum tamen ad peccandum mulieres perduxerunt extraIn 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.

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, every body 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 for ever?"* A colder writer would have satisfied himself with saying, "Where are your fathers? and do the prophets live for ever?" 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 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 iny 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,

* Zech. i. 5.

All the French critics are not so immoderately national as Bouhours.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 notre 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

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 imagination and of passion. I observe this the rather, that, in my apprehension, the criticism that prevails amongst 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.”*

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.

*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 ob served 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

This is the figure which the Greek rhetoricians call asyndeton, and to which they ascribe a wonderful efficacy. It ought to be observed, that the natural connexion of the particulars mentioned is both close and manifest; and it is this consideration which entirely supersedes the artificial signs of that connexion, such as conjunctions and relatives. Our translators (who, it must be acknowledged, are not often chargeable with this fault,) have injured one passage in endeavouring to mend it. Literally rendered it stands thus: "Thou sentest forth thy wrath; it consumed them as stubble."* These two simple sentences have appeared to them too much detached. For this reason, they have injudiciously combined them into one complex sentence, by inserting the relative which, and thereby weakened the expression. "Thou senteth forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble." They have also thought fit sometimes to add the conjunction and, when it was not necessary, and might well have been spared.

If any one perceives not the difference, and, consequently, is not satisfied of the truth of this doctrine, let him make the following experiment on the song now under review. Let him transcribe it by himself, carefully inserting conjunctions and relatives in every place which will admit them in a consistency with the sense, and then let him try the effect of the whole. If, after all, he is not convinced, I know no argument in nature that can weigh with him. For this is one of those cases in which the decision of every man's own taste must be final with regard to himself.

But those who feel the difference in the effects will permit such as are so disposed to speculate a little about the cause. All that come under the cognizance of our senses, in the operations either of Nature or of Art, is the causes which precede, and the effects which follow. Hence is suggested to the mind the notion of power, agency, or causation. The notion or idea (call it which you please) is from the very frame of our nature suggested, necessarily suggested, and often instantaneously suggested; but still it is suggested, and not perceived. I would not choose to dispute with any man about a word, and, therefore, lest this expression should appear exceptionable, I declare my meaning to be only this, that it is conceived by the understanding, and not perceived by the senses, as the causes and the effects themselves often are. Would you then copy Nature in a historical or descriptive poem, present to our imagination the causes and the effects in their natural order; the suggestion of the power or agency which connects them will as necessarily result from the lively image you produce in the fancy, as it results from the perception of the things themselves, when they fall under the cognizance of the senses.

But if you should take the other method, and connect with accuracy where there is relation; and with the help of conjunctions and relatives deduce with care effects from their causes, and allow nothing of the kind to pass unnoticed in the description, in lieu of a

a manner is entirely in the Hebrew taste, which considers every great natural object as bearing some relation to the Creator and Sovereign of the universe. The thunder is God's voice; the wind, his breath; the heavens, his throne; the earth, his footstool; the whirlwind and the tempest are the blasts of his nostrils. * Exod. xv. 7.