We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflic tions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates; and the defence is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him! We censure him with having violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! (MACAULAY).

The merits of this sort of structure are that the regularity of form gives pleasure to the taste, while the position of the balanced and parallel parts adds clearness and coherence and effectiveness to the thought which they express. The method, however, lacks variety, and a too frequent use of it is likely to grow into a mannerism that is difficult to overcome. Hence, in the works of Johnson and Macaulay, where a great deal of balanced and parallel structure is found, the effect is sometimes monotonous and wearisome. Moreover, writers who become enamored with balanced and parallel forms occasionally distort their thought in order to make correct the balance or parallel of a sentence.

Here may be mentioned two structures closely akin to balanced and parallel structures, antithesis and climax. The first of these, antithesis, is "the setting over against each other of contrasted ideas or thoughts, generally in balanced structure. When Macaulay, for instance, says that "the Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators," he sets one clause, "not because it gave pain to the bear," over against another, "but because it gave pleasure to the spectators," and thus, by means of antithesis, brings out clearly and effectively the difference between two contrasted thoughts. Black always seems blacker,

and white always seems whiter, when black and white stand side by side. The second structure to be mentioned here, climax (the Greek word means "ladder”), is the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses with a view to a successive increase of force until the last. Indeed, sentences, and even paragraphs and whole compositions, may be made into climaxes. One of the most famous climaxes, now worn threadbare by quotation, is Cæsar's "thrasonical brag" of Veni, vidi, vici, which Shakspere made fun of, and four times rendered "I came, saw, and overcame." Turn such a structure about, and you have an anticlimax, a thing to be avoided, unless it be used in the service of wit or humor. Both climax and antithesis, however, are, if used with moderation, helps to clearness and effectiveness.

Exercise 48

1. Point out the balanced and parallel structures in the following paragraphs:

WHAT A POET SHOULD Know

Being now resolved to be a poet, I saw everything with a new purpose. My sphere of attention was suddenly magnified; no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley. I observed with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and sometimes watched the changes of the summer clouds. To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful must be familiar to his imagination; he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, the meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement of moral or religious truth, and he who knows

most will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction. JOHNSON, Rasselas, chap. x.

NAPOLEON AND METTERNICH

That interview is surely one of the most memorable set down in human annals. On the one hand, Napoleon, a lion at bay, representing, in some fashion, a world-system destined to revolutionize Europe; on the other hand, Metternich, a fox, representing a world-system which but recently seemed hopelessly stricken, and now seems on the point of resurrection, - these are the speakers in the dialogue. The Lion storms, threatens, coaxes; the Fox listens calmly, almost disdainfully, calculating the strength of the trap into which his foe must fall. It is an eight-hours' parley between the Present, still confident of its superiority, and the Past, unexpectedly come back to life, and covetous of its former power. The Lion roars, but the Fox does not tremble; time was when the King of Beasts did not roar but strike, and now sound and fury signify nothing. Napoleon leads Metternich into an inner room, and shows him the map of Europe: Austria, he declares, shall have this compensation and that, if she but hold true to France; for France and Austria together may laugh at coalitions. Metternich is evasive, he promises nothing; he is already thinking how long it will take his army in Bohemia to march over to the allied camp. Napoleon appeals to the pride of the Hapsburgs: was it for nothing that he wedded the Austrian archduchess? Metternich replies that family considerations cannot interfere with his master's duty to his State. Napoleon in wrath flings his hat on the floor; Metternich, leaning imperturbably against a cabinet, does not condescend to pick it up; the Old Régime no longer fears the Revolution. — THAYER, The Dawn of Italian Independence, 127–128.

2. Pick out the antitheses in Franklin's Father Abraham's Speech, which you will find in some of your readers. Thus:

1. Sloth makes all things difficult, but Industry all things easy. 2. Industry pays debts, while Despair increaseth them.

3. Etc., etc.

3. Pick out the climaxes in some act of Julius Cæsar, King Lear, Hamlet, or Macbeth.

4. Find ten sentences in your written work which you think would be improved by the balanced or parallel structure. Rewrite them, handing in the original sentences with the revised sentences.

5. On one of the following subjects write a paragraph, paying no attention during actual composition to the kind of sentence structure you are using. When you have finished the first draft, put as much balanced and parallel structure into the paragraph as is consistent with the subject-matter and your treatment of it:

1. Two common insects; a contrast.

2. Boys now and boys forty years ago. (Get your father to talk about his boyhood days, and then draw the contrast.)

3. Girls now and girls forty years ago.

4. The blue jay and the common crow; a contrast.

5. Two birds' nests. (Eagles and hawks build platforms, bank swallows dig mines, robins and barn swallows are masons, woodpeckers are carpenters, orioles are weavers, etc., etc.)

6. Lincoln and Grant.

NOTE. See the list of subjects in Exercise 33.

SECTION 38

Length of Sentences

The length of your sentences, as of your paragraphs, depends partly on your habits of thought, partly on your subject, and partly on the effect you wish to produce. If you were an absolute master of language, you would of course write naturally, and would thereby unconsciously suit the length of your sentences to your habits of thought, to your subject, and to the effect you would wish to pro

M

duce. But unfortunately it is the most difficult thing in the world to write quite naturally, it is difficult even to seem to write naturally, and hence the power to adapt sentence length, as well as certain other things in writing, to thought, to subject, and to effect comes to most people only from study and practice. In sentence length, as well as in the kinds of sentences, variety is essential, and if you find yourself drifting towards the exclusive use of either very long or very short sentences, you should at once set about getting this needed variety. What a short sentence is, or what a long sentence is, it is difficult to say precisely, but perhaps it would not be far wrong to say that the average length of the sentences used by those who set the standard of good usage, is at the present time somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty words, and that a sentence much shorter than this may be called a short sentence, just as a sentence much longer than this may be called a long sentence. You should bear in mind the fact, also, that during the last four centuries the English sentence has been gradually decreasing in length, and that now there is a preference for the short sentence, or, at least, a preference for the sentence of average length.1

The short sentence, because it is instantly and easily understood, and because, when used in connection with the long sentence, it becomes so prominent by reason of its shortness as to attract attention and thus fix itself in the memory of the reader, is best adapted for giving force

1 See L. A. Sherman's Analytics of Literature, chap. xix, for some statistics that show the extent of this decrease in sentence length. In this connection, read also what Mr. Sherman has to say of the decrease of predication in sentences.