Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the branches of the trees and the green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those men who are alive to it, cannot lift up their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side.

Recommendation to Beginners. In a majority of cases, particularly with careless writers, if a sentence is not periodic, it is faulty. It is well therefore for beginners to make a special study of sentences in reference to this point, and to exercise themselves in reconstructing loose sentences so as to give them a periodic character.

Example. Take the following:

We came to our journey's end, | at last, | with no small difficulty, after much fatigue, through deep roads, and bad weather.

This is a very loose sentence, there being no less than five different places, at any one of which the sentence might be terminated, so as to be grammatically complete. The sentence may be reconstructed and made periodic, as follows:

At last, after much fatigue, through deep roads, and bad weather, we came, with no small difficulty, to our journey's end.

Archbishop Trench, justly celebrated for his contributions to our knowledge of the English tongue, is sometimes exceedingly careless in the construction of his sentences. The following is taken from the preface to his "Studies in the Gospels":

Gathering up lately a portion of what I had written, for publication, I have given it as careful a revision as my leisure would allow, have indeed in many parts rewritten it, seeking to profit by the results of the latest criticism, as far as I have been able to acquaint myself with them.

No one versed in composition can read this sentence without feeling that it is put together very loosely. First, the words "for publication are out of place. Standing where they do. they make the author say that he had written for publication," which is just the opposite of what he means. His meaning is that he had written a good many things, and he now gathers them up for publication. By transposing these words to their proper place, and by dividing the passage into two distinct sentences, the whole becomes more clear to the apprehension of the reader.

Gathering up lately for publication a portion of what I had written, I have given it as careful a revision as my leisure would allow. I have indeed in many parts rewritten it, seeking to profit by the results of the latest criticism, as far as I have been able to acquaint myself with them.

Another Example from Trench. The sentence following the one already quoted is even more faulty in construction. It is as follows:

For my labors I shall be abundantly repaid, if now, when so many controversies are drawing away the Christian student from the rich and quiet pastures of Scripture to other fields, not perhaps barren, but which can yield no such nourishment as these do, I shall have contributed aught to detain any among them.

In attempting to give a periodic form to a loose sentence of this kind, it is sometimes necessary to reconstruct the sentence entirely. The best perhaps that can be done, in the present instance, is to make it read thus:

For my labors I shall be abundantly repaid, if I shall have contributed anght to detain the Christian student among the rich and quiet pastures of Scripture, now when so many controversies are drawing him away to other fields, not perhaps barren, but which can yield no such nourishment as these do.

Examples for Practice.

[The following Loose Sentences are to be reconstructed, so as to become Periodic.] 1. Shaftesbury's strength lay in reasoning and sentiment, more than in description; however much his descriptions have been admired.

2. They aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness of the Deity, instead of catching occasional glimpses of him through an obscuring veil.

3. They despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world, confident of the favor of God.

4. Milton always selected for himself the boldest literary services, that he might shake the foundations of debasing sentiments more effectually.

5. Milton's nature selected and drew to itself whatever was great and good from the parliament and from the court, from the conventicle and from the cloister, from the gloomy and sepulchral circles of the Roundheads and from the Christmas revel of the hospitable Cavalier.

6. She had probably already filled her pitcher, when the stranger at the well, whom she may have seen only to avoid, for she recognized in him those unmistakable features of Jewish physiognomy with which the Samaritans had nothing in common, to her surprise addressed her.

7. It is certain that his contrivances seldom failed to serve the purpose for which they were designed, whatever may be thought of the humanity of some of them.

8. Burke's mind, at once philosophical and poetical, found something to instruct and to delight, in every part of those huge bales of Indian information, which repelled almost all other readers.

9. When Hastings was first impeached, if he had at once pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds, he would have been better off, in every thing except character.

10. He would still have had a moderate competence, after all his losses, if he had practised a strict economy.

11. It is to the citizens, our object, to assure to our country a tranquil future, — not as ordering, but as offering patriotic counsel, we address ourselves; to the end that, as in the humblest dwelling, the son may succeed the father in peace and quiet on the throne.

12. Some wished to come to the assistance of the defeated general; others laughed and encouraged her; and still others, men in blue blouses and heavy hob-nailed shoes, who were regular customers at the Green Hat with their wagons and horses, and bore no good-will to the rope-dancers, because they interfered with their accustomed comfort, spoke low of "rabble," and "turn them out," a sentiment which in its turn displeased a few enthusiastic admirers of high art.

13. Whether she is still wandering about in the desert, like Lady Stanhope, with a man who had ceased, when Sydney met them, to exhibit the devotion of a lover, in trained skirts, with the latest pattern gloves and bonnet, with Marie Stuart points, or whether she sickened of the Orient and came back to Europe, is not known.

14. His habitation is some poor thatched roof, distinguished from his barn by the loop-holes that let out smoke, which the rain had long since washed through, but for the double ceiling of bacon on the inside, which has hung there from his grandsire's time, and is yet to make rashers for posterity.

15. The new philosophy has introduced so great a correspondence between men of learning and men of business; which has also been increased by other accidents amongst the masters of other learned professions; and that pedantry which formerly was almost universal is now in a great measure disused, especially amongst the young men, who are taught in the universities to laugh at that frequent citation of scraps of Latin in common discourse, or upon arguments that do not require it; and that nauseous ostentation of reading and scholarship in public companies, which formerly was so much in fashion.

16. However, this proved a troublesome work, and after all, ineffectual for the security of men's private morals, which the example

of the licentious story, according to the latter, would not fail to influence, how well soever the allegoric interpretation was calculated to cover the public honor of religion; so that the more ethical of the philosophers grew peevish with what gave them so much trouble, and answered so little to the interior of religious practice.

17. An unseen hand sweeps over the keys of the mighty instrument, which, after centuries of study, men are just beginning to understand, and the listening ear catches the swell of the deep notes of triumph, while glad notes of rejoicing and bitter sounds of woe make no discord, called forth by the master-hand.

18. The sides of the crater went sheer down to a great depth, enclosing a black abyss which, in the first excitement of the scene, the startled fancy might well imagine extending to the bowels of the earth, from which there came rolling up vast clouds, dense, black, sulphurous, which at times completely encircled them, shutting out everything from view, filling eyes, nose, and mouth with fumes of brimstone, forcing them to hold the tails of their coats or the skirts (it's all the same thing) over their faces, so as not to be altogether suffocated, while again after a while a fierce blast of wind driving downward would hurl the smoke away, and dashing it against the other side of the crater, gather it up in dense volumes of blackest smoke in thick clouds which rolled up the flinty cliffs, and reaching the summit bounded fiercely out into the sky, to pass on and be seen from afar as that dread pennant of Vesuvius, which is the sign and symbol of its mastery over the earth around it and the inhabitants thereof, ever changing and in all its changes watched with awe by fearful men who read in those changes their own fate, now taking heart as they see it more tenuous in its consistency, anon shuddering as they see it gathering in denser folds, and finally awe-stricken and all overcome as they see the thick black cloud rise proudly up to heaven in a long straight column at whose upper termination the colossal pillar spreads itself out and shows to the startled gaze the dread symbol of the cypress-tree the herald of earthquakes, eruptions, and. The Dodge Club.

3. Balanced Sentences.

A Balanced Sentence is one containing two clauses which are similar in form and to some extent contrasted in meaning. A Balanced Sentence is seldom loose, though not necessarily periodic.

Dr. Johnson abounds in sentences of this kind. The following are examples:

The style of Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind, Pope constrains his mind to his own rule of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid, Pope is always smooth, uniform, and level. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller.

Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.

The man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force on the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.

Junius affords numerous examples:

But, my lord, you may quit the field of business, though not the field of danger; and, though you cannot be safe, you may cease to be ridiculous.

They are still base enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth.

Even now they tell you, that as you lived without virtue you should die without repentance.

Pope. Perhaps no English writer has given more finished specimens of this kind of sentence than Pope, and that both in his poetry and in his prose.

Worth makes the man, the want of it the fellow.

Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist; in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence, Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream. And when we look upon their machines, Homer seems like his own Jupiter, in his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens; Virgil, like the same power, in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and ordering his whole creation.

Various Sources.-The following examples are from various sources:

In peace, children bury their parents; in war, parents bury their children. If you wish to enrich a person, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires.

Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.

A juggler is a wit in things, and a wit a juggler in words.

When we meet an apparent error in a good author, we are to presume ourselves ignorant of his understanding, until we are certain that we understand his ignorance. Charity creates much of the misery it relieves, but does not relieve all the misery it creates.

Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more.