13. A monarchy, limited like ours, may be placed, for aught I know, as it has been often represented, just in the middle point, from whence a deviation leads, on the one hand, to tyranny, and on the other, to anarchy.-Bolingbroke.

14. Though the work was prepared for pupils of an advanced grade, and has been written in a style adapted to their comprehension, yet it was deemed of primary importance to set forth every point perspicuously and intelligibly.—Quackenbos.

15. Beauty does not afford the imagination so high a degree of pleasure as sublimity; but, characterizing a greater variety of objects than the latter quality, it is a more fruitful source of gratification to that faculty.—Ibid.

16. That people, after they had once begun, pursued the business vigorously, and with all imaginable contempt of the government; and though in the hubbub of the first day there appeared nobody of name and reckoning, but the actors were really of the dregs of the people, yet they discovered by the countenance of that day that few men of rank were forward to engage themselves on behalf of the bishops, whereupon more considerable persons every day appeared against them as heretofore in the case of St. Paul - Acts xiii, 50: 'The Jews stirred up devout and honorable women,’— the women and ladies of the best quality declared themselves of the party, and, with all the reproaches imaginable, made war upon the bishops as introducers of popery and superstition, against which they avowed themselves to be irreconcilable enemies, and their husbands did not long defer the owning of the same spirit, insomuch that within a few days the bishops durst not appear in the streets, nor in any courts or houses, but were in danger of their lives; and such of the lords as durst be in their company, or seemed to desire to rescue them from violence, had their persons assaulted, insomuch that they were glad to send for some of those great men who did, indeed, govern the rabble, though they appeared not in it, who readily came, and redeemed them out of their hands, so that by the time new orders came from England there was scarce a bishop left in Edinburgh, and not a minister who durst read the Liturgy in any church.-Lord Clarendon.

CHAPTER VI.

METHODS OF EXPRESSION-ELEGANCE.

The flowers of rhetoric are only acceptable when backed by the evergreens of truth and sense.-MACAULAY.

Rhythm in prose should be cultivated not only for the sake of embellishment, but also for the sake of perspicuity. - BULWER.

Words have a separate effect on the mind abstracted from their signification and from their imitative power: they are more or less agreeable to the ear, by the fulness, sweetness, faintness, or roughness of their tones.-KAMES.

E

LEGANCE is in discourse what refinement is in manners, or carriage and dress in the figure of a woman of fashion. It is opposed to the vulgar and the trivial, the clumsy and the awkward. It is that quality which gives pleasure, as distinguished from that which gives instruction or impressiveness or force. Though less important than either perspicuity or energy, it is not to be disregarded. Minds are influenced by what is agreeable, as well as by what is reasonable; and in proportion as those addressed have richness and delicacy of feeling, matter and manner must combine to make the product beautiful. Elegance of expression implies refinement in the choice and arrangement of words. It depends upon:

1. Euphony, the use of pleasant-sounding words words, generally speaking, in which there is either a preponderance of vowels and liquids or a due intermixture of vowels and consonants; hence words that are easily pronounced. Compare lowlily, inexplicableness, soothedst, stretched, barefacedness—with merrily, demeanor, celerity, bridal, alternative, degree, repent,

wonderful, impetuosity. The following are examples of euphonic beauty:

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.-Poe.

Airs, vernal airs,

Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the graces and the hours in dance,
Led on the eternal spring.-Milton.

The voice within us is more distinctly audible in the stillness of the place; and the gentler affections of our nature spring up more freshly in its tranquillity and sunshine nurtured by the healthy principle which we inhale with the pure air, and invigorated by the genial influences which descend into the heart from the quiet of the sylvan solitude around, and the soft serenity of the sky above.— Longfellow.

2. Rhythm, the recurrence of accents and pauses at such intervals as shall produce an agreeable rise and fall of tone. It is a principle of proportion introduced into language, according to which words are so chosen and arranged as not only to express the meaning, but also to appeal to the musical sensibility. The 'rests,' in particular, should be so distributed as neither to exhaust the breath by their distance from each other, nor to require constant cessations of voice by their frequency. What is easy to the organs of speech will, as a rule, be delightful to the ear. It is desirable, moreover, that the sound should grow to the last, the longest members and the most sonorous terms being, in general, retained for the close. Herein the requirements of energy and melody agree. Observe, in the following passages, how the sense is reinforced by the rhythmical flow. In parts, as will be indicated, the movement becomes metrical:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed-or the golden bowl be broken- or the pitcher broken at the fountain- or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.—Bible.

The boat reappeared, but brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted; living through again, in one supreme moment, the days when they had clasped their little hands in love; and roamed the daisied fields together.-George Eliot.

3. Harmony, from the Greek, signifying to fit together; the just adaptation of one thing to another. Thus defined, it comprehends the general appropriateness of diction to the subject and end of discourse; the similar construction of corresponding parts, as in balanced and antithetical sentences; the right relation of parts to each other and to the whole. Low comedy must not take the place of sober discussion; nor pompous assertion, of simple statement. A letter should not be written in the stately manner of an oration. The grave, the gay, the solemn, the merry, the sublime, the pleasant,- should each be brought forth in its own specific features and coloring. Where, also, members are coördinate and have a common dependence; where either resemblance or opposition is intended to be expressed, there should be a resemblance in construction, in language, or in both. The skilful handling of every part, again, so that there may be neither excess nor deficiency of treatment, is essential to success; but the management of the theme as a whole—the steady working out of the main idea — is even a more requisite excellence, while it is a more costly one. Finally, it is occasionally possible-in prose less often than in poetry-to assist the meaning and to heighten the pleasure by making the sound an echo to the sense. Observe how Milton imitates the grating noise of the opening of hell-gates:

On a sudden, open fly

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,

The infernal doors; and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder.

Contrast with this the opening of heaven's doors:

Heaven opened wide

Her ever-during gates, harınonious sound,
On golden hinges turning.

Melancholy and gloomy subjects naturally express themselves in long words and slow measures:

In those deep solitudes and awful cells,

Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells.-Pope.

A combination difficult to pronounce is suited to the description of labored movement, while an opposite arrangement corresponds to rapidity of motion. Thus Homer and his English translators suggest, by a succession of aspirates, the labor of Sisyphus:

With many a weary step, and many a groan,

Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone.

Then the descent:

The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. Heaviness and stupidity are similarly indicated:

The

Just writes to make his barrenness appear,

And strains from hard-bound brains six lines a year.-Pope.
uproar of battle is thus described:

Arms on armor clashing bray'd
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise

Of conflict; overhead the dismal hiss

Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew.-Milton.

Poe's Song of the Bells is full of onomatopoetic words, all illustrative of harmony. One almost sees and hears the