Inelegant.

allot a due share of his time to retirement and reflection.

Such equivocal and ambiguous expressions, mark a formed intention to deceive and abuse us. His cheerful, happy. temper, remote from discontent, keeps up a kind of day-light in his mind, excludes every gloomy pro spect, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Better thus.

to retirement and reflec tion.

Such equivocal ex pressions, mark an inten-, tion to deceive.

His cheerful happy temper keeps up a kind of day-light in his mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

OF THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

Every sentence must contain at least an agent and an action, or a nominative and a verb; but ge. nerally it contains a nominative, a verb, and a subject or accusative. If it contain two classes of nominatives, verbs, and subjects, depending on one another, it is said to consist of two members; if three, of three members; if four, of four members; and then generally it takes the name of Period.

Circumstances.

Circumstances are sometimes Subjoined to members by adjectives and participles. A sentence consisting of one nominative, verb, and subject, or of one member, is called simple. One, consisting of more members, is termed complex. Quintilian is of opinion, that a period should seldom contain more members than four.

The unity of a sentence consists in denoting one proposition. The most complex sentences properly construed, cannot admit more than one leading idea, and the circumstances which depend on, or explain it. Hence the principle which should regulate the length of sentences:-They should be longer or shorter, as the leading ideas they express, have more or fewer circumstances connected with them.

Errors to be avoided in the construction of periods, are-1. 'The violation of their unity, which takes place when more than one leading thought is included. 2. The extending them to too great length. 3. The making of them too short and abrupt.

A short period is lively and familiar; a long period, requiring more attention, makes an impres-sion grave and solemn. By means of too many short sentences, the sense is divided and broken, the connexion of thought weakened, and the memory burdened, by being presented with a long succession

of

of minute objects. And on the other hand, by the too frequent use of long periods, an author overloads the reader's ear, and fatigues his attention. In general, a writer ought to study a due mixture of long and short periods, which prevents an irksome uniformity, and entertains the mind with a variety of impressions.

Long sentences cannot be properly introduced till the reader's attention is thoroughly engaged. They ought never to be placed at the beginning of discourses of any description.

The French critics make a proper distribution of style into the two general classes of periodique and coupé. In the style periodique, the sentences are composed of several members linked together, and depending upon each other, so that the sense is not completely unfolded till the close.

EXAMPLE.- "When we attend to the infinite divisibility of matter, when we pursue animal life into these excessive small, and yet organized beings, that escape the nicest inquisition of the sense, when we push our discoveries yet downward, and consider those creatures so many degrees yet smaller, and the still diminishing scale of existence, in tracing which the imagination is lost as well as the sense, we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of mi nuteness,

<nuteness, nor can we distinguish in its effect this extreme of littleness from the vast itself."

BURKE, on the Sublime and Beautiful. This is the most pompous, musical, and oratorical mode of composition.

In the style coupé, the sense is expressed in short independent propositions, each complete within it self.

EXAMPLE." Man he surveyed with the most accurate observation. His understanding, acute and vigorous, was well fitted for diving into the human mind. His humour, lively and versatile, could paint justly and agreeably what he saw.

He

possessed a rapid and clear conception, with an animated and graceful style."

ANDERSON'S Life of Smollet.

ORDER OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF SPEECH.

The agent appears first, the action or verb next, and the subject last. The adjective appears before the substantive, unless it introduces some circumstance depending on, or explaining the substantive. The adverb is placed as near the verb as possible. The pronoun occupies the place of the noun it represents. The preposition is placed before the noun,

the

the relation of which it denotes. Conjunctions stand between the things they conjoin.

When two adverbs are connected with a verb, one takes place generally before it, and the other immediately after it, to the exclusion even of the subject, when some circumstance depends on the subject. An adverb explaining or limiting an adjective is placed before it..

Prepositions denote relations. The relation of concomitancy seems to be most intimate, and therefore takes precedency of all others. The relation expressed by from, precedes that signified by to.

When there is one auxiliary, the adverb is situated between it and the verb. Ex. "We may fre quently observe." When there are two auxiliaries, the adverb is stationed between them. Ex. "I have frequently been told." In passive sentences, however, it is sometimes placed after both. Ex. "He shall be perfectly informed." When there are three auxiliaries, the adverb is often placed after the last. Ex. "I might have been fully satisfied." When two adverbs relate to the same verb, they are intermixed with its auxiliaries, if it has two. Ex. "He should never have perversely disguised the truth."

These rules, though supported by the analogies

of