quotation)
The next question is ‘Whence this income is derived’. (Indirect
quotation with quotation marks, or half-and-half quotation, like the
Borrow sentence)
In concluding the chapter on Punctuation we may make the general remark
that the effect of our recommendations, whether advocating as in the
last section more strictness, or as in other parts more liberty, would
be, certainly, a considerable reduction in the number of diacritical
marks cutting up and disfiguring the text; and, as we think, a practice
in most respects more logical and comprehensible.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] See chapter _Syntax_, section _Relatives_.
[13] Of course, however, the rhetorical question is often not, as here,
the result of a confusion, nor to be described as ‘very artificial’. E.
g., _What would I not give to be there?_ _To what subterfuge has he not
resorted?_
PART II
Some less important chapters had been designed on Euphony, Ambiguity,
Negligence, and other points. But as the book would with them have run
to too great length, some of the examples have been simply grouped here
in independent sections, with what seemed the minimum of comment.
1. JINGLES
To read his tales is a bapt_ism_ of optim_ism_.--_Times._
Sensation is the dir_ect_ eff_ect_ of the _mo_de of _mo_tion of the
sensorium.--HUXLEY.
There have been no periodi_cal_ gener_al_ physi_cal_
catastrophes.--HUXLEY.
It is con_tended_, indeed, that these preparations are in_tended_
only....--_Times._
It is in_tend_ed to ex_tend_ the system to this country.--_Times._
M. Sphakianakis con_ducted_ pro_tracted_ negotiations.--_Times._
Those inalienable rights of life, liber_ty_ and proper_ty_ upon which
the safe_ty_ of socie_ty_ depends.--CHOATE.
He served his apprenticeship to statesmanship.--BRYCE.
Ap_par_ently pre_par_ed to hold its ground.--_Times._
I awaited a belated train.--R. G. WHITE.
Hand them on silver salvers to the server.--E. F. BENSON.
... adjourned the discus_sion_ of the ques_tion_ of dela_tion_ until
to-day.--_Times._
In this house of pover_ty_ and digni_ty_, of past grandeur and present
simplici_ty_, the brothers lived together in uni_ty_.--H. CAINE.
Their invalidi_ty_ was caused by a technicali_ty_.--_Times._
... had for consola_tion_ the expan_sion_ of its
domin_ion_.--_Spectator._
The essential founda_tion_ of all the organiza_tion_ needed for the
promo_tion_ of educa_tion_.--HUXLEY.
The projects of M. Witte _re_lative to the _re_gul_ation_ of the
_re_l_ations_ between capital and labour.--_Times._
The remaining instances are of consecutive adverbs in _-ly_. Parallel
adverbs, qualifying the same word simultaneously, do not result in
a jingle; but in all our instances the two adverbs either qualify
different words, or qualify the same word at different times. Thus,
in the Huxley sentence, _unquestionably_ either qualifies _is_, or
qualifies _true_ only after _largely_ has qualified it: it is not the
(universal) truth, but the partial truth, of the proposition that is
unquestionable.
When the traffic in our streets becomes entirely mechanically
propelled.--_Times._
He lived practically exclusively on milk.--E. F. BENSON.
Critics would probably decidedly disagree.--HUTTON.
The children are functionally mentally defective.--_Times._
What is practically wholly and entirely the British commerce and
trade.--_Times._
... who answered, usually monosyllabically, ....--E. F. BENSON.
The policy of England towards Afghanistan is, as formerly, entirely
friendly.--_Times._
Money spent possibly unwisely, probably illegally, and certainly
hastily.--_Times._
The deer are necessarily closely confined to definite areas.--_Times._
We find Hobbes’s view ... tolerably effectively combated.--MORLEY.
Great mental endowments do not, unhappily, necessarily involve a
passion for obscurity.--H. G. WELLS.
The proposition of Descartes is unquestionably largely true.--HUXLEY.
2. ALLITERATION
Alliteration is not much affected by modern prose writers of any
experience; it is a novice’s toy. The antithetic variety has probably
seen its best days, and the other instances quoted are doubtless to be
attributed to negligence.
I must needs trudge at every old _beldam’s bidding_ and every young
_minx’s maggot_.--SCOTT.
Onward _gl_ided Dame Ursula, now in _gl_immer and now in
_gl_oom.--SCOTT.
I have seen her in the same day as changeful as a _m_armozet, and as
stubborn as a _m_ule.--SCOTT.
Thus, in _con_sequence of the _con_tinuance of that grievance,
the means of education at the disposal of the _Pr_otestants and
_Pr_esbyterians were _st_unted and _st_erilized.--BALFOUR.
A gaunt well with a shattered pent-house _dw_arfed the _dw_elling.--H.
G. WELLS.
It shall be lawful to _p_icket _p_remises for the _p_urpose of
_p_eacefully _p_ersuading any _p_erson to....--_Times._
3. REPEATED PREPOSITIONS
The founders _of_ the study _of_ the origin _of_ human
culture.--MORLEY.
After the manner _of_ the author _of_ the immortal speeches _of_
Pericles.--MORLEY.
Togo’s announcement _of_ the destruction _of_ the fighting power _of_
Russia’s Pacific squadron.--_Times._
The necessity _of_ the modification _of_ the system _of_
administration.--_Times._
An exaggeration _of_ the excesses _of_ the epoch _of_
sentimentalism.--MORLEY.
Hostile to the justice _of_ the principle _of_ the taxing _of_ those
values which....--LORD ROSEBERY.
The observation _of_ the facts _of_ the geological succession _of_ the
forms _of_ life.--HUXLEY.
Devoid _of_ any accurate knowledge _of_ the mode _of_ development _of_
many groups _of_ plants and animals.--HUXLEY.
One uniform note _of_ cordial recognition _of_ the complete success
_of_ the experiment.--_Times._
The first fasciculus _of_ the second volume _of_ the Bishop _of_
Salisbury’s critical edition _of_ St. Jerome’s Revision _of_ the Latin
New Testament.--_Times._
The appreciation _of_ the House _of_ the benefits derived _by_
the encouragement afforded _by_ the Government to the operations
_of_....--_Times._
The study _of_ the perfectly human theme _of_ the affection _of_ a man
_of_ middle age.--_Times._
His conviction _of_ the impossibility _of_ the proposal either _of_
the creation _of_ elective financial boards....--_Daily Express._
Representative _of_ the mind _of_ the age _of_ literature.--RUSKIN.
Indignation _against_ the worst offenders _against_....--_Times._
A belief _in_ language _in_ harmony with....--_Daily Telegraph._
The opposition ... _to_ the submission _to_ the claims.--_Times._
Taken up _with_ warfare _with_ an enemy....--FREEMAN.
Palmerston wasted the strength derived _by_ England _by_ the great war
_by_ his brag.--GRANVILLE.
Unpropitious _for_ any project _for_ the reduction....--_Times._
Called _upon_ to decide _upon_ the reduction....--_Times._
4. SEQUENCE OF RELATIVES
A garret, in _which_ were two small beds, in one of _which_ she gave
me to understand another gentleman slept.--BORROW.
Still no word of enlightenment had come _which_ should pierce the
thick clouds of doubt _which_ hid the face of the future.--E. F.
BENSON.
The ideal of a general alphabet ... is one _which_ gives a basis
_which_ is generally acceptable.--H. SWEET.
He enjoyed a lucrative practice, _which_ enabled him to maintain and
educate a family with all the advantages _which_ money can give in
this country.--TROLLOPE.
The clown _who_ views the pandemonium of red brick _which_ he has
built on the estate _which_ he has purchased.--BORROW.
The main thread of the book, _which_ is a daring assault upon that
serious kind of pedantry _which_ utters itself in....--L. STEPHEN.
Practical reasons _which_ combine to commend this architectural
solution of a problem _which_ so many of us dread....--_Times._
The teachers, _who_ took care that the weaker, _who_ might otherwise
be driven to the wall, had ... their fair share.--_Times._
Let the heads and rulers of free peoples tell this truth to
a Tsar _who_ seeks to dominate a people _who_ will not and
cannot....--_Times._
He made a speech ... _which_ contained a passage on the conditions of
modern diplomacy _which_ attracted some attention.--_Times._
There is of course no objection to the recurrence when the relatives
are parallel.
5. SEQUENCE OF ‘THAT’ OR OTHER CONJUNCTIONS
Here, as with relatives, the recurrence is objectionable only when one
of the clauses is subordinate to the other.
I do not forget _that_ some writers have held _that_ a system is to be
inferred.--BALFOUR.
I say _that_ there is a real danger _that_ we may run to the other
extreme.--HUXLEY.
It is clear ... _that_ the opinion was _that_ it is not
incompatible.--NANSEN.
I find _that_ the view _that_ Japan has now a splendid opportunity ...
is heartily endorsed.--_Times._
I must point out _that_ it is a blot on our national education _that_
we have serving....--_Times._
The Chairman replied to the allegation made by the Radical press to
the effect _that_ the statement _that_ the British workman will not
work as an unskilled labourer in the mines is inaccurate.--_Times._
An official telegram states _that_ General Nogi reports
_that_....--_Times._
The conviction _that_ the Tsar must realize _that_ the prestige of
Russia is at stake.--_Times._
He was so carried away by his discovery _that_ he ventured on the
assertion _that_ the similarity between the two languages was so great
_that_ an educated German could understand whole strophes of Persian
poetry.--H. SWEET.
I may fairly claim to have no personal interest in defending
the council, _although_ I believe, _though_ I am not certain,
that....--_Times._
6. METRICAL PROSE
The novice who is conscious of a weakness for the high-flown and the
inflated should watch narrowly for metrical snatches in his prose; they
are a sure sign that the fit is on him.
Oh, moralists, who treat of happiness / and self-respect, innate in
every sphere / of life, and shedding light on every grain / of dust
in God’s highway, so smooth below / your carriage-wheels, so rough
beneath the tread / of naked feet, bethink yourselves / in looking
on the swift descent / of men who _have_ lived in their own esteem,
/ that there are scores of thousands breathing now, / and breathing
thick with painful toil, who in / that high respect have never lived
at all, / nor had a chance of life! Go ye, who rest / so placidly upon
the sacred Bard / who had been young, and when he strung his harp /
was old, ... / go, Teachers of content and honest pride, / into the
mine, the mill, the forge, / the squalid depths of deepest ignorance,
/ and uttermost abyss of man’s neglect, / and say can any hopeful
plant spring up / in air so foul that it extinguishes / the soul’s
bright torch as fast as it is kindled! /--DICKENS.
But now,--now I have resolved to stand alone,--/ fighting my battle
as a man should fight, / seeking for neither help nor sympathy, / and
trusting not in self....--CORELLI.
And the gathering orange stain / upon the edge of yonder western peak,
/ reflects the sunsets of a thousand years.--RUSKIN.
His veins were opened; but he talked on still / while life was slowly
ebbing, and was calm / through all the agony of lingering death.--W.
W. CAPES.
Can I then trust the evidence of sense? / And art thou really to my
wish restored? / Never, oh never, did thy beauty shine / with such
bewitching grace, as that which now / confounds and captivates my
view! / ... Where hast thou lived? where borrowed this perfection? /
... Oh! I am all amazement, joy and fear! / Thou wilt not leave me!
No! we must not part / again. By this warm kiss! a thousand times
/ more sweet than all the fragrance of the East! / we never more
will part. O! this is rapture! / ecstasy! and what no language will
explain--SMOLLETT.
7. SENTENCE ACCENT
It is only necessary to read aloud any one of the sentences quoted
below, to perceive at once that there is something wrong with its
accentuation. To lay down rules on this point would be superfluous,
even if it were practicable; for in all doubtful cases the ear can
and should decide. A writer who cannot trust himself to balance his
sentences properly should read aloud all that he writes. It is useless
for him to argue that readers will not read his work aloud, and that
therefore the fault of which we are speaking will escape notice. For,
although the fault may appear to be exclusively one of sound, it
is always in fact a fault of sense: unnatural accentuation is only
the outward sign of an unnatural combination of thought. Thus, nine
readers out of ten would detect in a moment, without reading aloud,
the ill-judged structure in our first example: the writer has tried
to do two incompatible things at the same time, to describe in some
detail the appearance of his characters, and to begin a conversation;
the result is that any one reading the sentence aloud is compelled to
maintain, through several lines of new and essential information, the
tone that is appropriate only to what is treated as a matter of course.
The interrogative tone protests more loudly than any other against this
kind of mismanagement; but our examples will show that other tones are
liable to the same abuse.
The accentuation of each clause or principal member of a sentence
is primarily fixed by its relation to the other members: when the
internal claims of its own component parts clash with this fixed
accentuation--when, for instance, what should be read with a uniformly
declining accentuation requires for its own internal purposes a marked
rise and fall of accent--reconstruction is necessary to avoid a badly
balanced sentence. The passage from Peacock will illustrate this: after
_pupils_, and still more after _counterpoint_, the accentuation should
steadily decline to the end of the passage; but, conflicting with this
requirement, we have the exorbitant claims of a complete anecdote,
containing within itself an elaborately accented speech. To represent
the anecdote as an insignificant appendage to _pupils_ was a fault of
sense; it is revealed to the few who would not have perceived it by the
impossibility of reading the passage naturally.
‘Are Japanese Aprils always as lovely as this?’ asked the man in the
light tweed suit of two others in immaculate flannels with crimson
sashes round their waists and puggarees folded in cunning plaits round
their broad Terai hats.--D. SLADEN.
‘Here we are’, he said presently, after they had turned off the main
road for a while and rattled along a lane between high banks topped
with English shrubs, and looking for all the world like an outskirt of
Tunbridge Wells.--D. SLADEN.
I doubt if Haydn would have passed as a composer before a committee of
lords like one of his own pupils, who insisted on demonstrating to him
that he was continually sinning against the rules of counterpoint; on
which Haydn said to him, ‘I thought I was to teach you, but it seems
you are to teach me, and I do not want a preceptor’, and thereon he
wished his lordship a good morning.--PEACOCK.
She wondered at having drifted into the neighbourhood of a person
resembling in her repellent formal chill virtuousness a windy belfry
tower, down among those districts of suburban London or appalling
provincial towns passed now and then with a shudder, where the
funereal square bricks-up the church, that Arctic hen-mother sits
on the square, and the moving dead are summoned to their round of
penitential exercise by a monosyllabic tribulation-bell.--MEREDITH.
The verb _wonder_ presupposes the reader’s familiarity with the
circumstance wondered at; it will not do the double work of announcing
both the wonder and the thing wondered at. ‘I wondered at Smith’s being
there’ implies that my hearer knew that Smith was there; if he did
not, I should say ‘I was surprised to find...’. Accordingly, in this
very artificial sentence, the writer presupposes the inconceivable
question: ‘What were her feelings on finding that she had drifted
... tribulation-bell?’. To read a sentence of minute and striking
description with the declining accentuation that necessarily follows
the verb _wondered_ is of course impossible.
How doth the earth terrifie and oppress us with terrible earthquakes,
which are most frequent in China, Japan, and those eastern climes,
swallowing up sometimes six cities at once!--BURTON.
Of the many possible violations of sentence accent, one--common in
inferior writers--is illustrated in the next section.
8. CAUSAL ‘AS’ CLAUSES
There are two admissible kinds of causal ‘as’ clauses--the pure and the
mixed. The pure clause assigns as a cause some fact that is already
known to the reader and is sure to occur to him in the connexion: the
mixed assigns as a cause what is not necessarily known to the reader
or present in his mind; it has the double function of conveying a
new fact, and indicating its relation to the main sentence. Context
will usually decide whether an _as_ clause is pure or mixed; in the
following examples, it is clear from the nature of the two clauses that
the first is pure, the second mixed:
I have an edition with German notes; but that is of no use, as you do
not read German.
I caught the train, but afterwards wished I had not, as I presently
discovered that my luggage was left behind.
The second of these, it will be noticed, is unreadable, unless we slur
the _as_ to such an extent as practically to acknowledge that it ought
not to be there. The reason is that, although a pure clause may stand
at any point in the sentence, a mixed one must always precede the
main statement. The pure clause, having only the subordinate function
normally indicated by _as_, is subordinate in sense as well as in
grammar; and the declining accentuation with which it is accordingly
pronounced will not be interfered with wherever we may place it.
But the mixed clause has another function, that of conveying a new
fact, for which _as_ does not prepare us, and which entitles it to an
accentuation as full and as varied as that of the main statement. To
neutralize the subordinating effect of _as_, and secure the proper
accentuation, we must place the clause at the beginning; where this
is not practicable, _as_ should be removed, and a colon or semi-colon
used instead of a comma. Persistent usage tends of course to remove
this objection by weakening the subordinating power of conjunctions:
_because_, _while_, _whereas_, _since_, can be used where _as_ still
betrays a careless or illiterate writer. There is the same false ring
in all the following sentences:
I myself saw in the estate office of a large landed proprietor a
procession of peasant women begging for assistance, as owing to
the departure of the bread-winners the families were literally
starving.--_Times._
Remove _as_, and use a heavier stop.
Very true, Jasper; but you really ought to learn to read, as, by so
doing, you might learn your duty towards yourselves.--BORROW.
To read; by so doing, ....
There was a barber and hairdresser, who had been at Paris, and talked
French with a cockney accent, the French sounding all the better, as
no accent is so melodious as the Cockney.--BORROW.
Use a semicolon and ‘for’; the assertion requires all the support that
vigorous accentuation can lend.
One of the very few institutions for which the Popish Church
entertains any fear, and consequently respect, as it respects nothing
which it does not fear.--BORROW.
_For_ instead of _as_ will best suit this illogical and falsely
coordinated sentence.
Everybody likes to know that his advantages cannot be attributed to
air, soil, sea, or to local wealth, as mines and quarries, ... but to
superior brain, as it makes the praise more personal to him.--EMERSON.
Again the clause is a mixed one. The point of view it suggests is,
indeed, sufficiently obvious; but (unlike our typical pure clause
above--‘you do not know German’) it depends for its existence upon the
circumstances of the main sentence, which may or may not have occurred
to the reader before. The full accentuation with which the clause must
inevitably be read condemns it at once; use a colon, and remove _as_.
Pure clauses, being from their nature more or less otiose, belong
rather to the spoken than to the written language. It follows that a
good writer will seldom have a causal _as_ clause of any kind at the
end of a sentence. Two further limitations remain to be noticed:
i. When the cause, not the effect, is obviously the whole point of the
sentence, _because_, not _as_, should be used; the following is quite
impossible English:
I make these remarks as quick shooting at short ranges has lately been
so strongly recommended.--_Times._
ii. _As_ should be used only to give the cause of the thing asserted,
not the cause of the assertion, nor an illustration of its truth, as in
the following instances:
You refer me to the Encyclopaedia: you are mistaken, as I find the
Encyclopaedia exactly confirms my view.
The Oxford Coxswain did not steer a very good course here, as he kept
too close in to the Middlesex shore to obtain full advantage of the
tide; it made little difference, however, as his crew continued to
gain.--_Times._
My finding the Encyclopaedia’s confirmation was not the cause of
mistake, nor the keeping too close the cause of bad steering.
9. WENS AND HYPERTROPHIED MEMBERS
No sentence is to be condemned for mere length; a really skilful writer
can fill a page with one and not tire his reader, though a succession
of long sentences without the relief of short ones interspersed is
almost sure to be forbidding. But the tiro, and even the good writer
who is not prepared to take the trouble of reading aloud what he has
written, should confine himself to the easily manageable. The tendency
is to allow some part of a sentence to develop unnatural proportions,
or a half parenthetic insertion to separate too widely the essential
parts. The cure, indispensable for every one who aims at a passable
style, and infallible for any one who has a good ear, is reading aloud
after writing.
1. Disproportionate insertions.
Some simple eloquence distinctly heard, though only uttered in her
eyes, unconscious that he read them, as, ‘By the death-beds I have
tended, by the childhood I have suffered, by our meeting in this
dreary house at midnight, by the cry wrung from me in the anguish of
my heart, O father, turn to me and seek a refuge in my love before it
is too late!’ may have arrested them.--DICKENS.
Captain Cuttle, though no sluggard, did not turn so early on the
morning after he had seen Sol Gills, through the shopwindow, writing
in the parlour, with the Midshipman upon the counter, and Rob the
Grinder making up his bed below it, but that the clocks struck six
as he raised himself on his elbow, and took a survey of his little
chamber.--DICKENS.
A perpetual consequent warfare of her spirit and the nature subject
to the thousand sensational hypocrisies invoked for concealment of
its reviled brutish baseness, held the woman suspended from her
emotions.--MEREDITH.
Yesterday, before Dudley Sowerby’s visit, Nataly would have been
stirred where the tears which we shed for happiness or repress
at a flattery dwell when seeing her friend Mrs. John Cormyn
enter....--MEREDITH.
‘It takes’, it is said that Sir Robert Peel observed, ‘three
generations to make a gentleman’.--BAGEHOT.
Behind, round the windows of the lower story, clusters of clematis,
like large purple sponges, blossomed, miraculously fed through their
thin, dry stalks.--E. F. BENSON.
It is a striking exhibition of the power which the groups, hostile
in different degrees to a democratic republic, have of Parliamentary
combination.--_Spectator._
Sir,--With reference to the custom among some auctioneers and
surveyors of receiving secret commissions, which was recently brought
to light in a case before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Kennedy
and Ridley (King’s Bench Division), when the L. C. J. in giving
judgment for the defendants said:--Unfortunately in commercial
circles, in which prominent men played a part, extraordinary mistakes
occurred. But a principal who employed an agent to do work for him
employed him upon terms that the agent was not liable to get secret
commissions. The sooner secret commissions were not approved by an
honourable profession, the better it would be for commerce in all its
branches. I desire to take this opportunity....--_Times._
In the course of a conversation with a representative of the
_Gaulois_, Captain Klado, after repeating his views on the necessity
for Russia to secure the command of the sea which have already
appeared in the _Times_, replied as follows to a question as to
whether, after the new squadron in the course of formation at
Libau has reinforced Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s fleet, the Russian
and Japanese naval forces will be evenly balanced: [here follows
reply]--_Times._
2. Sentences of which the end is allowed to trail on to unexpected
length.
But though she could trust his word, the heart of the word went out
of it when she heard herself thanked by Lady Blachington (who could
so well excuse her at such a time for not returning her call, that
she called in a friendly way a second time, warmly to thank her)
for throwing open the Concert Room at Lakelands in August, to an
entertainment in assistance of the funds for the purpose of erecting
an East London Clubhouse, where the children of the poor by day could
play, and their parents pass a disengaged evening.--MEREDITH.
How to commence the ceremony might have been a difficulty, but for the
zeal of the American Minister, who, regardless of the fact that he
was the representative of a sister Power, did not see any question of
delicacy arise in his taking a prominent part in proceedings regarded
as entirely irregular by the representatives of the Power to which the
parties concerned belonged.--D. SLADEN.
The style holds the attention, but perhaps the most subtle charm of
the work lies in the inextricable manner in which fact is interwoven
with something else that is not exactly fiction, but rather fancy bred
of the artist’s talent in projecting upon his canvas his own view
of things seen and felt and lived through by those whose thoughts,
motives, and actions, he depicts.--_Times._
The cock-bustard that, having preened himself, paces before the hen
birds on the plains that he can scour when his wings, which are slow
in the air, join with his strong legs to make nothing of grassy
leagues on leagues.--_Times._
I don’t so much wonder at his going away, because, leaving out of
consideration that spice of the marvellous which was always in his
character, and his great affection for me, before which every other
consideration of his life became nothing, as no one ought to know
so well as I who had the best of fathers in him--leaving that out
of consideration, I say, I have often read and heard of people who,
having some near and dear relative, who was supposed to be shipwrecked
at sea, have gone down to live on that part of the seashore where any
tidings of the missing ship might be expected to arrive, though only
an hour or two sooner than elsewhere, or have even gone upon her track
to the place whither she was bound, as if their going would create
intelligence.--DICKENS.
What he had to communicate was the contents of despatches from Tokio
containing information received by the Japanese Government respecting
infringements of neutrality by the Baltic Fleet in Indo-Chinese waters
outside what are, strictly speaking, the territorial limits, and
principally by obtaining provisions from the shore.--_Times._
3. Decapitable sentences.
Perhaps the most exasperating form is that of the sentence that keeps
on prolonging itself by additional phrases, each joint of which gives
the reader hopes of a full stop.
It was only after the weight of evidence against the economic
success of the endeavour became overwhelming that our firm withdrew
its support /, and in conjunction with almost the entire British
population of the country concentrated its efforts on endeavouring to
obtain permission to increase the coloured unskilled labour supply
of the mines / so as to be in a position to extend mining operations
/, and thus assist towards re-establishing the prosperity of the
country /, while at the same time attracting a number of skilled
British artisans / who would receive not merely the bare living wage
of the white unskilled labourer, but a wage sufficient to enable these
artisans to bring their families to the country / and to make their
permanent home there.--_Westminster Gazette._
Here may still be seen by the watchful eye the Louisiana heron and
smaller egret, all that rapacious plume-hunters have left of their
race, tripping like timid fairies in and out the leafy screen / that
hides the rank jungle of sawgrass and the grisly swamp where dwells
the alligator /, which lies basking, its nostrils just level with the
dirty water of its bath, or burrows swiftly in the soft earth to evade
the pursuit of those who seek to dislodge it with rope and axe / that
they may sell its hide to make souvenirs for the tourists / who, at
the approach of summer, hie them north or east with grateful memories
of that fruitful land.--F. G. AFLALO.
Running after milkmaids is by no means an ungenteel rural diversion;
but let any one ask some respectable casuist (the Bishop of London,
for instance), whether Lavengro was not far better employed, when in
the country, at tinkering and smithery than he would have been in
running after all the milkmaids in Cheshire /, though tinkering is in
general considered a very ungenteel employment /, and smithery little
better /, notwithstanding that an Orcadian poet, who wrote in Norse
about 800 years ago, reckons the latter among nine noble arts which he
possessed /, naming it along with playing at chess, on the harp, and
ravelling runes /, or as the original has it, ‘treading runes’ /--that
is, compressing them into small compass by mingling one letter with
another /, even as the Turkish caligraphists ravel the Arabic letters
/, more especially those who write talismans.--BORROW.
10. CARELESS REPETITION
Conscious repetition of a word or phrase has been discussed in Part
I (Airs and Graces): in the following examples the repetition is
unconscious, and proves only that the writer did not read over what he
had written.
... a man ... who directly _impresses_ one with the
_impression_....--_Times._
For most _of them_ get rid _of them_ more or less completely.--H.
SWEET.
The most important distinction between dialogue on the one hand and
_purely_ descriptive and narrative pieces on the other hand is a
_purely_ grammatical one.--H. SWEET.
And it _may_ be that from a growing familiarity with Canadian winter
amusements _may_ in time spring an even warmer regard....--_Times._
It _may_ well induce the uncomfortable reflection that these
historical words _may_ prove....--_Times._
The inclusion of _adherents_ would be _adhered_ to.--_Times._
The _remainder remaining_ loyal, fierce fighting
commenced.--_Spectator._
Every subordinate shortcoming, every incidental defect, will be
_pardoned_. ‘Save us’ is the cry of the moment; and, in the confident
hope of safety, any deficiency will be overlooked, and any frailty
_pardoned_.--BAGEHOT.
They were _followed_ by jinrikshas _containing_ young girls with very
carefully-dressed hair, _carrying_ large bunches of real flowers on
their laps, _followed_ in turn by two more coolies _carrying_ square
white wooden jars, _containing_ huge silver tinsel flowers.--D. SLADEN.
It can do so, in all reasonable probability, _provided_ its militia
character is maintained. But in any case it will _provide_ us at home
with the second line army of our needs.--_Times._
_Dressed_ in a subtly ill-_dressed_, expensive mode.--E. F. BENSON.
Toodle being the _family_ name of the apple-faced _family_.--DICKENS.
Artillery firing _extends_ along the whole front, _extending_ for
eighty miles.--_Times._
I regard the action and conduct of the Ministry _as_ a whole _as_ of
far greater importance.--_Times._
The fleet passed the port _on its way_ through the Straits _on the
way_ to the China Sea.--_Times._
Much of his popularity he owed, we believe, to _that_ very timidity
_which_ his friends lamented. _That_ timidity often prevented him
from exhibiting his talents to the best advantage. But it propitiated
Nemesis. It averted _that_ envy _which_ would otherwise have been
excited....--MACAULAY.
I will lay down _a pen_ I am so little able to govern.--And I will try
to subdue _an impatience which_ ... may otherwise lead me into still
more punishable errors.--I will return to _a subject which_ I cannot
fly from for ten minutes together.--RICHARDSON.
At the same time it was largely _owing to_ his careful training that
so many great Etonian cricketers _owed_ their success.--_Times._
11. COMMON MISQUOTATIONS
These are excusable in talk, but not in print. A few pieces are given
correctly, with the usual wrong words in brackets.
An _ill-favoured_ thing, sir, but mine own. (poor)
_Fine_ by degrees and beautifully less. (small)
_That_ last infirmity of noble _mind_. (the: minds)
Make assurance _double_ sure. (doubly)
To-morrow to fresh _woods_ and pastures new. (fields)
The devil can _cite_ Scripture for his purpose. (quote)
Chewing the _food_ of sweet and bitter fancy. (cud)
When _Greeks joined Greeks_, then _was_ the tug of war. (Greek meets
Greek: comes)
A goodly apple rotten at the _heart_. (core)
12. UNCOMMON MISQUOTATIONS OF WELL-KNOWN PASSAGES OR PHRASES
It is still worse to misquote what is usually given right, however
informal the quotation. The true reading is here added in brackets.
Now for the trappings and the _weeds_ of woe.--_S. Ferrier._ (suits)
She had an instinctive knowledge that she knew her, and she felt her
genius _repressed_ by her, as _Julius Caesar’s_ was by _Cassius_.--S.
FERRIER. (My genius is _rebuked_ as, it is said, _Mark Antony’s_ was
by _Caesar_)
The new drama represented the very age and body of the time, his form
and _feature_.--_J. R. Green._ (pressure)
He lifts the veil from the sanguinary affair at Kinchau, and we are
allowed glimpses of blockade-running, train-wrecking and cavalry
reconnaissance, and of many other moving _incidents_ by flood and
field.--_Times._ (accidents)
To him this _rough_ world was but too literally a rack.--LOWELL. (who
would, upon the rack of this _tough_ world, stretch him out longer)
Having once begun, they found returning more tedious than _giving_
o’er.--LOWELL. (returning were as tedious as _go_ o’er)
_Posthaec_ [_sic_] meminisse juvabit.--HAZLITT. (et haec olim)
_Quid_ vult valde vult. What they do, they do with a will.--EMERSON.
(quod) Quid is not translatable.
Then that wonderful esprit _du_ corps, by which we adopt into our
self-love everything we touch.--EMERSON. (de)
Let not him that _putteth_ on his _armour boast_ as _him_ that
_taketh_ it off.--_Westminster Gazette._ (girdeth, harness, boast
himself, he, putteth)
Elizabeth herself, says Spenser, ‘to mine _open_ pipe inclined her
ear’.--J. R. GREEN. (oaten)
He could join the crew of Mirth, and look pleasantly on at a village
fair, ‘where the _jolly_ rebecks sound to many a youth and many a
maid, dancing in the chequered shade’.--J. R. GREEN. (jocund)
Heathen Kaffirs, et hoc genero, &c.: ....--_Daily Mail._ (genus omne)
If she takes her husband _au pied de lettre_.--_Westm. Gaz._ (de la
lettre)
13. Misquotation of Less Familiar Passages
But the greatest wrong is done to readers when a passage that may not
improbably be unknown to them is altered.
It was at Dublin or in his castle of Kilcolman, two miles from
Doneraile, ‘under the _fall_ of Mole, that mountain hoar’, that he
spent the memorable years in which....--J. R. GREEN. (foot)
_Petty_ spites of the village _squire_.--_Spectator._ (pigmy: spire)
14. Misapplied and Misunderstood Quotations and Phrases
Before _leading question or the exception proves the rule_ is written,
a lawyer should be consulted; before _cui bono_, Cicero; before _more
honoured in the breach than the observance_, Hamlet. A leading question
is one that unfairly helps a witness to the desired answer; cui bono
has been explained on p. 35; _the exception_, &c., is not an absurdity
when understood, but it is as generally used; _more honoured_, &c.,
means not that the rule is generally broken, but that it is better
broken. A familiar line of Shakespeare, on the other hand, gains by
being misunderstood: ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’
merely means ‘In one respect, all men are alike’.
But _cui bono_ all this detail of our debt? Has the author given
a single light towards any material reduction of it? Not a
glimmering.--BURKE.
A rule dated March 3, 1801, which has never been abrogated, lays it
down that, to obtain formal leave of absence, a member must show some
sufficient cause, such as ... but this rule is more honoured in the
breach than in the observance.--_Times._
Every one knows that the Governor-General in Council is invested
by statute with the supreme command of the Army and that it would
be disastrous to subvert that power. But ‘why drag in Velasquez’?
If any one wishes us to infer that Lord Kitchener has, directly or
indirectly, proposed to subvert this unquestioned and unquestionable
authority, they are very much mistaken.--_Times._ (Why indeed? no
worse literary treason than to spoil other people’s wit by dragging it
in where it is entirely pointless. Velasquez here outrages those who
know the story, and perplexes those who do not)
The Nationalist, M. Archdeacon, and M. Meslier put to the Prime
Minister several _leading questions_, such as, ‘Why were you so
willing promptly to part with M. Delcassé, and why, by going to the
conference, did you agree to revive the debate as to the unmistakable
rights...?’ To these pertinent inquiries M. Rouvier did not
reply.--_Times._ (Leading questions are necessarily not hostile, as
these clearly were)
The happy phrase that an Ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to
lie for his country.--_Westminster Gazette._ (Happier when correctly
quoted: sent to lie abroad for the good of)
15. ALLUSION
A writer who abounds in literary allusions necessarily appeals to a
small audience, to those acquainted with about the same set of books
as himself; they like his allusions, others dislike them. Writers
should decide whether it is not wise to make their allusions explain
themselves. In the first two instances quoted, though the reader who
knows the original context has a slight additional pleasure, any one
can see what the point is. In the last two, those who have not the
honour of the wetnurse’s and Rosamund’s acquaintance feel that the
author and the other readers with whom he is talking aside are guilty
of bad manners.
The select academy, into whose sacred precincts the audacious Becky
Sharp flung back her leaving present of the ‘Dixonary’, survives here
and there, but with a different curriculum and a much higher standard
of efficiency.--_Times._
Why can’t they stay quietly at home till they marry, instead of
trying to earn their living by unfeminine occupations? So croaks Mrs.
Partington, twirling her mop; but the tide comes on.--_Times._
Sir,--Were it not for M. Kokovtsoff’s tetchiness in the matter of
metaphors, I should feel inclined to see in his protest against my
estimates of the decline in the Russian gold reserve and of the
increase of the note issue a variant of the classic excuse of Mrs.
Easy’s wetnurse for the unlawfulness of her baby.--LUCIEN WOLF.
Three superb glass jars--red, green, and blue--of the sort that led
Rosamund to parting with her shoes--blazed in the broad plate-glass
windows.--KIPLING.
16. INCORRECT ALLUSION
Every one who detects a writer pretending to more knowledge than he
has jumps to the conclusion that the detected must know less than the
detective, and cannot be worth his reading. Incorrect allusion of this
kind is therefore fatal.
Homer would have seemed arrogantly superior to his audience if he
had not called Hebe ‘white-armed’ or ‘ox-eyed’.--_Times._ (He seldom
mentions her, and calls her neither)
My access to fortune had not, so far, brought me either much joy or
distinction,--but it was not too late for me yet to pluck the golden
apples of Hesperides.--CORELLI. (It is hardly possible for any one who
knows what the Hesperides were to omit _the_)
My publisher, John Morgeson ... was not like Shakespeare’s Cassio
strictly ‘an honourable man’.--CORELLI. (Cassio was an honourable man,
but was never called so. Even Cassius has only his share in _So are
they all, all honourable men._ Brutus, perhaps?)
A sturdy Benedict to propose a tax on bachelors.--_Westminster
Gazette._ (Benedick. In spite of the _Oxford Dictionary_, the
differentiation between the saint, Benedict, and the converted
bachelor, Benedick, is surely not now to be given up)
But impound the car for a longer or shorter period according to the
offence, and that, as the French say, ‘will give them reason to
think’.--_Times._ (The French do not say _give reason to think_; and
if they did the phrase would hardly be worth treating as not English;
they say _give to think_, which is often quoted because it is unlike
English)
17. DOVETAILED AND ADAPTED QUOTATIONS AND PHRASES
The fitting into a sentence of refractory quotations, the making of
facetious additions to them, and the constructing of Latin cases with
English governing words, have often intolerably ponderous effects.
Though his denial of any steps in that direction may be true in his
official capacity, _there is probably some smoke in the fire of
comment_ to which his personal relations with German statesmen have
given rise.--_Times._ (The reversal of smoke and fire may be a slip of
the pen or a joke; but the correction of it mends matters little)
It remains to be seen whether ... the pied à terre which Germany
hopes she has won by her preliminary action in the Morocco question
will form the starting-point for further achievements or will merely
represent, like so many other German enterprises, _the end of the
beginning_.--_Times._ (The reversal this time is clearly facetious)
But they had gone on adding misdeed to misdeed, they had _blundered
after blunder_.--L. COURTNEY.
Germany has, it would appear, yet another card in her hand, a card _of
the kind which is useful to players when in doubt_.--_Times._
But the problem of inducing _a refractory camel_ to squeeze
himself through the eye of _an inconvenient needle_ is and remains
insoluble.--_Times._
But these unsoldierlike recriminations among the Russian officers as
well as their luxurious lives and their complete insouciance in the
presence of their country’s misfortunes, seems to have _set back the
hand on the dial of Japanese rapprochement_.--_Times._
Is there no spiritual purge to make the eye of the camel easier for a
South-African millionaire?--_Times._
And so it has come to pass that, not only _where invalids do
congregate_, but in places hitherto reserved for the summer recreation
of the tourist or the mountaineer there is a growing influx of winter
pleasure-seekers.--_Times._
Salmasius alone was not _unworthy sublimi flagello_.--LANDOR.
Even if a change were desirable _with Kitchener duce et
auspice_.--_Times._
Charged with carrying out the Military Member’s orders, but having,
_pace Sir Edwin Collen_, no authority of his own.--_Times._
It is not in the interests of the Japanese to close the book of the
war, until they have placed themselves in the position of beati
possidentes.--_Times._ (_Beati possidentes_ is a sentence, meaning
_Blessed are those who are in possession_; to fit it into another
sentence is most awkward)
Resignation became a virtue of necessity for Sweden in hopes that
a better understanding might in time grow out of the new order of
things.--_Times._ (In the original phrase, _of necessity_ does not
depend on _virtue_, but on _make_; and it is intolerable without the
word that gives it its meaning)
Many of the celebrities who in that most frivolous of watering-places
do congregate.--BARONESS VON HUTTEN.
If misbehaviour be not checked in an effectual manner before long,
there is every prospect that the whips of the existing Motor Act
will be transformed into the scorpions of the Motor Act of the
future.--_Times._
A special protest should be made against the practice of introducing a
quotation in two or three instalments of a word or two, each with its
separate suit of quotation marks. The only quotations that should be
cut up are those that are familiar enough to need no quotation marks,
so that the effect is not so jerky.
The ‘pigmy body’ seemed ‘fretted to decay’ by the ‘fiery soul’ within
it.--J. R. GREEN. (The original is:--
A fiery soul which, working out its way,
Fretted the pygmy-body to decay.--DRYDEN.)
18. Trite Quotation
Quotation may be material or formal. With the first, the writer quotes
to support himself by the authority (or to impugn the authority) of the
person quoted; this does not concern us. With the second, he quotes
to add some charm of striking expression or of association to his own
writing. To the reader, those quotations are agreeable that neither
strike him as hackneyed, nor rebuke his ignorance by their complete
novelty, but rouse dormant memories. Quotation, then, should be adapted
to the probable reader’s cultivation. To deal in trite quotations and
phrases therefore amounts to a confession that the writer either is
uncultivated himself, or is addressing the uncultivated. All who would
not make this confession are recommended to avoid (unless in some
really new or perverted application--notum si callida verbum reddiderit
junctura novum) such things as:
Chartered libertine; balm in Gilead; my prophetic soul; harmless
necessary; e pur si muove; there’s the rub; the curate’s egg; hinc
illae lacrimae; fit audience though few; a consummation devoutly to
be wished; more in sorrow than in anger; metal more attractive; heir
of all the ages; curses not loud but deep; more sinned against than
sinning; the irony of fate; the psychological moment; the man in the
street; the sleep of the just; a work of supererogation; the pity of
it; the scenes he loved so well; in her great sorrow; all that was
mortal of--; few equals and no superior; leave severely alone; suffer
a sea-change.
The plan partook of the nature of that of those ingenious islanders
who lived entirely by taking in each other’s washing.--E. F. BENSON.
For he was but moderately given to ‘the cups that cheer but not
inebriate’, and had already finished his tea.--ELIOT.
Austria forbids children to smoke in public places; and in German
schools and military colleges there are laws upon the subject;
France, Spain, Greece, and Portugal _leave_ the matter _severely
alone_.--_Westminster Gazette._ (_Severely_ is much worse than
pointless here)
They carried compulsory subdivision and restriction of all kinds
of skilled labour down to a degree _that would have been laughable
enough, if it had only been less destructive_.--MORLEY.
If Diderot had visited ... Rome, even the mighty painter of the Last
Judgment ... would have found an interpreter worthy of him. _But it
was not to be._--MORLEY.
Mr. de Sélincourt has, of course, _the defects of his
qualities_.--_Times._
The beloved _lustige Wien_ [Vienna, that is] of his youth had
_suffered a sea-change_. The green glacis down which Sobieski drove
the defeated besieging army of Kara Mustafa was blocked by ranges of
grand new buildings.--_Westminster Gazette._
19. LATIN ABBREVIATIONS, &c.
No one should use these who is not sure that he will not expose his
ignorance by making mistakes with them. Confusion is very common, for
instance, between _i. e._ and _e g._ Again, _sic_ should never be used
except when a reader might really suppose that there was a misprint or
garbling; to insert it simply by way of drawing attention and conveying
a sneer is a very heavy assumption of superiority. _Vide_ is only in
place when a book or dictionary article is being referred to.
Shaliapine, first bass at the same opera, has handed in his
resignation in consequence of this affair, and also because of affairs
in general, vide imprisonment of his great friend Gorki.--_Times._
The industrialist organ is inclined to regret that the league did not
fix some definite date such as the year 1910 (sic) or the year 1912,
for the completion of this programme.--_Times._ (This is the true use
of _sic_; as the years mentioned are not consecutive, a reader might
suppose that something was wrong; sic tells him that it is not so)
The _Boersen Courier_ ... maintains that ‘nothing remains for M.
Delcassé but to cry Pater peccavi to Germany and to retrieve as
quickly as possible his diplomatic mistake (_sic_)’.--_Times._
Let your principal stops be the full stop and comma, with a
judicious use of the semicolon and of the other stops where they are
absolutely necessary (_i. e._ you could not dispense with the note
of interrogation in asking questions).--BYGOTT & JONES. (_e. g._ is
wanted, not _i. e._)
20. UNEQUAL YOKEFELLOWS AND DEFECTIVE DOUBLE HARNESS
When a word admits of two constructions, to use both may not be
positively incorrect, but is generally as ugly as to drive a horse and
a mule in double harness.
They did not _linger in_ the long scarlet colonnades of the temple
itself, nor gazing at the dancing for which it is famous.--SLADEN.
This undoubtedly caused prices to rise; but did it not also _cause_
all _Lancashire to work_ short time, many _mills to close_, and a
great _restriction_ in the purchases of all our customers for cotton
goods?--_Times._
... _set herself_ quietly down _to the care_ of her own household, and
_to assist_ Benjamin in the concerns of his trade.--SCOTT.
This correspondent says that not only did the French Government
_know that Germany recognized_ the privileges resulting for France
from her position in Algeria, but also her general _views_ on the
work of reform which it would be the task of the conference to
examine.--_Times._
_Teach_ them the ‘_character_ of God’ through the ‘Son’s Life of
Love’, _that conscience_ must not be outraged, not because they would
be punished if they did, or because they would be handsomely rewarded
if they didn’t, but simply because they know a thing is right or
wrong....--_Daily Telegraph._
And any one who permits himself this incongruity is likely to be
betrayed into actual blunders.
The popularity of the parlements was surely due to the detestation
felt for the absolute Monarchy, and because they seemed to
half-informed men to be the champions of....--_Times._ (Here _because
they seemed_ does not really fit _the popularity ... was_, but
_parlements were popular_)
A difference, this, which was not much considered where and when the
end of the war was thought to be two or three years off, and that the
last blow would be Russia’s.--F. GREENWOOD. (The last clause does not
fit _the end of the war was thought_, but _it was thought_)
Attila and his armies, he said, came and disappeared in a very
mysterious manner, and _that_ nothing could be said with positiveness
about them.--BORROW.
Save him accordingly she did: but no sooner _is he dismissed_, and
_Faust has made_ a remark on the multitude of arrows which she is
darting forth on all sides, than Lynceus returns.--CARLYLE.
The short drives at the beginning of the course of instruction were
intended gradually _to accustom_ the novice to the speed, and _of
giving_ him in the pauses an opportunity to fix well in his mind the
principles of the automobile.--_Times._
The predecessors of Sir Antony MacDonnell ... were, to use the words
of the Prime Minister, ‘the aiders, advisers, and suggesters of their
official chiefs’.--_Times._ (Though a chief can have a suggester as
well as an adviser, _adviser_ is naturally followed by an objective
genitive, but _suggester_ can only be followed by a possessive
genitive--except of the suggestion made)
My assiduities expose me rather to her scorn ... than to the treatment
due to a man.--RICHARDSON.
One worthy gentleman, who is, perhaps, _better known than popular_ in
City restaurants, is never known to have lavished even the humblest
copper coin on a waiter.--_Titbits._
Its hands require strengthening and its resources increased.--_Times._
Analogous, but always incorrect, though excusable in various degrees,
is the equipping of pairs that should obviously be in double harness
with conjunctions or prepositions that do not match--following
_neither_ by _or_, _both_ by _as well as_, and the like.
Diderot presented a bouquet which was _neither_ well _or_ ill
received.--MORLEY.
Like the Persian noble of old, I ask, ‘that I may _neither_ command
_or_ obey’.--EMERSON.
She would hear _nothing_ of a declaration of war, _or_ give any
judgment on....--J. R. GREEN.
It appears, then, that _neither_ the mixed and incomplete empiricism
considered in the third chapter, _still less_ the pure empiricism
considered in the second chapter, affords us....--BALFOUR.
_Scarcely_ was the nice new drain finished _than_ several of the
children sickened with diphtheria.--_Spectator._
Which differs from that and who in being used _both_ as an adjective
_as well as_ a noun.--H. SWEET.
M. Shipoff _in one and the same breath_ denounces innovations, _yet_
bases the whole electoral system on the greatest innovation in Russian
history.--_Times._
It would be _equally_ absurd to attend to all the other parts of
an engine and to neglect the principal source of its energy--the
firebox--_as_ it is ridiculous to pay particular attention
to the cleanliness of the body and to neglect the mouth and
teeth.--_Advertisement._
The conception of God in their minds was not _that of_ a Father, but
_as_ a dealer out of rewards and punishments.--_Daily Telegraph._
Dr. Dillon, than whom no Englishman has a profounder and more accurate
acquaintance _with_ the seamy side--as, indeed, _of_ all aspects of
Russian life--assumes....--_Times._
Sir,--_In view of_ the controversy which has arisen concerning the 12
in. Mark VIII guns in the Navy, and especially _to_ the suggestion
which might give rise to some doubt as to the efficiency of the wire
system of construction....--_Times._
We add three sentences, in the first of which double harness should not
have been used because it is too cumbrous, in the second of which it
is not correctly possible, and in the third of which the failure to use
it is very slovenly.
The odd part of it is that this childish confusion does not only not
take from our pleasure, but does not even take from our sense of the
author’s talent.--H. JAMES. (far from diminishing our pleasure, does
not....)
As to the duration of the Austro-Russian mandate, there seems _little
disposition_ here to treat the question in a hard-and-fast spirit,
_but rather_ to regard it as....--_Times._ (... spirit; it is rather
regarded as....)
To the student of the history of religious opinions in England
_few contrasts are more striking when he compares_ the assurance
and complacency with which men made profession of their beliefs
at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the diffidence and
hesitation with which the same are recited at the beginning of the
twentieth.--_Daily Telegraph._ (more striking than that between the
assurance....)
21. COMMON PARTS
When two sentences coupled by a conjunction (whether coordinating or
subordinating) have one or more parts in common, there are two ways
of avoiding the full repetition of the common parts. (_a_) ‘I see
through your villany and I detest your villany’ can become ‘I see
through and detest your villany’; ‘I have at least tried to bring
about a reconciliation, though I may have failed to bring about a
reconciliation’ can become ‘I have at least tried, though I may have
failed, to bring about, &c.’ (_b_) By substitution or ellipse, the
sentences become ‘I see through your villany, and detest it’ and ‘I
have at least tried to bring about a reconciliation, though I may have
failed (to do so)’. Of these, the (_a_) form requires careful handling:
a word that is not common to both sentences must not be treated as
common; and one that is common, and whose position declares that it
is meant to do double duty, must not be repeated. Violations of these
rules are always more or less unsightly, and are excusable only when
the precise (_a_) form is intolerably stiff and the (_b_) form not
available. In our examples below, the words placed in brackets are
the two variants, each of which, when the other is omitted, should,
with the common or unbracketed parts, form a complete sentence; the
conjunctions being of course ignored for this purpose.
What other power (could) or (ever has) produced such changes?--_Daily
Telegraph._
Things temporal (had) and (would) alter.--_Daily Telegraph._
(It had), as (all houses should), been in tune with the pleasant,
mediocre charm of the island.--E. F. BENSON.
This type will almost always admit of the emphatic repetition of the
verb: ‘could produce or ever has produced’.
Those of us who still believe in Greek as (one of the finest), if not
(the finest) instruments....--_Times._
(One of the noblest), if not (the noblest), feelings an Englishman
could possess.--_Daily Telegraph._
Use (_b_): ‘One of the finest instruments, if not the finest’.
The games were looked upon as being (quite as important) or (perhaps
more important) than drill.--_Times._
The railway has done (all) and (more) than was expected of
it.--_Spectator._
Use (_b_): ‘as important as drill, if not more so’; ‘all that was
expected of it, and more’.
All words that precede the first of two correlatives, such as ‘not ...
but’, ‘both ... and’, ‘neither ... nor’, are declared by their position
to be common; we bracket accordingly in the next examples:
The pamphlet forms (not only a valuable addition to our works on
scientific subjects), but (is also of deep interest to German
readers).--_Times._ (not only forms ..., but is ...)
Forty-five per cent of the old Rossallians ... received (either
decorations) (or were mentioned in despatches).--_Daily Telegraph._
(Either received ... or were)
The Senate, however, has (either passed) (or will pass) amendments to
every clause.--_Spectator._ (either has passed or will pass)
Cloth of gold (neither seems to elate) (nor cloth of frieze to
depress) him.--LAMB.
A curious extension, not to be mended in the active; for _neither_
cannot well precede the first of two subjects when they have different
verbs.
On the other hand, words placed between the two correlatives are
declared by their position not to be common:
Which neither (suits one purpose) (nor the other).--_Times._ (suits
neither ... nor)
Not only (against my judgment), (but my inclination).--RICHARDSON.
Not only (in the matter of malaria), (but also beriberi).--_Times._
(In the matter not of malaria only, but of ...)
22. THE WRONG TURNING
It is not very uncommon, on regaining the high road after a divergent
clause or phrase, to get confused between the two, and continue quite
wrongly the subordinate construction instead of that actually required.
I feel, however, that there never was a time when the people of this
country were more ready to believe than they are today, and would
openly believe if Christianity, with ‘doctrine’ subordinated, were
presented to them in the most convincing of all forms, viz....--_Daily
Telegraph._ (_Would believe_ is made parallel to _they are today_; it
is really parallel to _there never was a time_; and we should read
_and that they would openly believe_)
In the face of this statement either proofs should be adduced to show
that Coroner Troutbeck has stated facts ‘soberly judged’, and that
they contain ‘warrant for the accusation of wholesale’ ignorance on
the part of a trusted and eminently useful class of the community,
or failing this, that the offensive and unjust charge should be
withdrawn.--_Times._ (_The charge should be withdrawn_ is made
parallel to _Coroner Troutbeck has stated_ and _they contain_; it is
really parallel to _proofs should be adduced_; and we should omit
_that_, and read _or failing this, the offensive_....)
We cannot part from Prof. Bury’s work without expressing our unfeigned
admiration for his complete control of the original authorities on
which his narrative is based, and of the sound critical judgment he
exhibits....--_Spectator._ (The judgment is admired, not controlled)
Sometimes the confusion is not merely of the pen, but is in the
writer’s thought; and it is then almost incurable.
... the privilege by which the mind, like the lamps of a mailcoach,
moving rapidly through the midnight woods, illuminate, for one
instant, the foliage or sleeping umbrage of the thickets, and, in the
next instant, have quitted them, to carry their radiance forward upon
endless successions of objects.--DE QUINCEY.
23. ELLIPSE IN SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
The missing subject and (with one exception) the missing verb of a
subordinate clause can be supplied only from the sentence to which
it is subordinate. The exception is the verb ‘to be’. We can say
‘The balls, when wet, do not bounce’, ‘When in doubt, play trumps’,
because the verb to be supplied is _are_, and the subject is that of
the principal sentence. Other violations of the rule occur, but are
scarcely tolerable even in the spoken language. The following are
undesirable instances:
For, though summer, I knew ... Mr. Rochester would like to see a
cheerful hearth.--C. BRONTË.
We can supply _was_, but not _it_; the natural subject is _I_.
I have now seen him, and though not for long, he is a man who speaks
with Bismarckian frankness.--_Times._
‘Though I did not see him for long’, we are meant to understand. But
the _though_ clause is not subordinate to the sentence containing that
subject and verb: _and_ always joins coordinates and announces the
transition from one coordinate to another. Consequently, the _though_
clause must be a part (a subordinate part) of the second coordinate,
and must draw from that its subject and verb: ‘though he is not a man
of Bismarckian frankness for long, ...’. Even if we could supply _I
saw_ with the clause in its present place, we should still have the
absurd implication that the man’s habitual frankness (not the writer’s
perception of it) depended on the duration of the interview. We offer
three conjectural emendations: ‘I have now seen him, though not for
long; and he is a man who ...’; ‘I have now seen him, and though I did
not see him for long, I perceived that he was a man who ...’; ‘I have
now seen him, and though I did not see him for long, I found out what
he thought; for he is a man who...’.
24. SOME ILLEGITIMATE INFINITIVES
_Claim_ is not followed by an infinitive except when the subject of
_claim_ is also that of the infinitive. Thus, _I claim to be honest_,
but not _I claim this to be honest_. The _Oxford Dictionary_ (1893)
does not mention the latter use even to condemn it, but it is now
becoming very common, and calls for strong protest. The corresponding
passive use is equally wrong. The same applies to _pretend_.
‘This entirely new experiment’ which you claim to have ‘solved the
problem of combining....’--_Times._
Usage, therefore, is not, as it is often claimed to be, the absolute
law of language.--R. G. WHITE.
The gun which made its first public appearance on Saturday is
claimed to be the most serviceable weapon of its kind in use in any
army.--_Times._
The constant failure to live up to what we claim to be our most
serious convictions proves that we do not hold them at all.--_Daily
Telegraph._
The anonymous and masked delators whose creation the Opposition
pretends to be an abuse of power on the part of M. Combes.--_Times._
_Possible_ and _probable_ are not to be completed by an infinitive. For
_are possible to_ read _can_; and for _probable_ read _likely_.
But no such questions are possible, as it seems to me, to arise
between your nation and ours.--CHOATE.
Should Germany meditate anything of the kind it would look uncommonly
like a deliberate provocation of France, and for that reason it seems
scarcely probable to be borne out by events.--_Times._
_Prefer_ has two constructions: I prefer this (living) _to_ that
(dying), and I prefer to do this _rather than_ that. The infinitive
construction must not be used without _rather_ (unless, of course, the
second alternative is suppressed altogether).
Other things being equal, I should prefer to marry a rich man than a
poor one.--E. F. BENSON.
The following infinitives are perhaps by false analogy from those that
might follow _forbade_, _seen_, _ask_. It may be noticed generally that
slovenly and hurried writers find the infinitive a great resource.
Marshal Oyama strictly _prohibited_ his troops _to take_ quarter
within the walls.--_Times._
The Chinese held a chou-chou, during which the devil was exorcised and
duly _witnessed_ by several believers _to take_ his flight in divers
guises.--_Times._
Third, they might _demand_ from Germany, all flushed as she was with
military pride, _to tell_ us plainly whether....--MORLEY.
25. ‘SPLIT’ INFINITIVES
The ‘split’ infinitive has taken such hold upon the consciences of
journalists that, instead of warning the novice against splitting his
infinitives, we must warn him against the curious superstition that the
splitting or not splitting makes the difference between a good and a
bad writer. The split infinitive is an ugly thing, as will be seen from
our examples below; but it is one among several hundred ugly things,
and the novice should not allow it to occupy his mind exclusively. Even
that mysterious quality, ‘distinction’ of style, may in modest measure
be attained by a splitter of infinitives: ‘The book is written with a
distinction (save in the matter of split infinitives) unusual in such
works.’--_Times._
The time has come to once again voice the general discontent.--_Times._
It should be authorized to immediately put in hand such work.--_Times._
Important negotiations are even now proceeding to further cement trade
relations.--_Times._
We were not as yet strong enough in numbers to seriously influence the
poll.--_Times._
Keep competition with you unless you wish to once more see
a similar state of things to those prevalent prior to the
inauguration....--_Guernsey Evening Press._
And that she should force me, by the magic of her pen to mentally
acknowledge, albeit with wrath and shame, my own inferiority.--CORELLI.
The oil lamp my landlady was good enough to still allow me the use
of.--CORELLI.
The ‘persistent agitation’ ... is to so arouse public opinion on the
subject as to....--_Times._
In order to slightly extend that duration in the case of a
few.--_Times._
To thus prevent a constant accretion to the Jewish population of
Russia from this country would be nobler work....--_Times._
26. COMPOUND PASSIVES
Corresponding to the active construction ‘... have attempted to justify
this step’, we get two passive constructions: (1) ‘This step has been
attempted to be justified’, (2) ‘It has been attempted to justify this
step’. Of these (1), although licensed by usage, is an incorrect and
slovenly makeshift: ‘this step’ is not the object of ‘have attempted’,
and cannot be the subject of the corresponding passive. The true object
of ‘have attempted’ is the whole phrase ‘to justify this step’, which
in (2) rightly appears as the subject, in apposition to an introductory
‘it’.--In point of clumsiness, there is perhaps not much to choose
between the two passive constructions, neither of which should be used
when it can be avoided. When the subject of the active verb ‘have
attempted’ is definite, and can conveniently be stated, the active
form should always be retained; to write ‘it had been attempted by the
founders of the study to supply’ instead of ‘the founders had attempted
to supply’ is mere perversity. When, as in some of our examples below,
the subject of the active verb ‘have attempted’ is indefinite, the
passive turn is sometimes difficult to avoid; but unless the object
of ‘justify’ is a relative, and therefore necessarily placed at the
beginning, ‘an attempt has been made’ can often be substituted for ‘it
has been attempted’, and is less stiff and ugly.
The cutting down of ‘saying lessons’, by which it had been attempted
by the founders of the study to supply the place of speech in the
learning of Greek.--_Times._
But when it was attempted to give practical effect to the popular
exasperation, serious obstacles arose.--_Times._ (When an attempt was
made to....)
He and his friends would make the government of Ireland a sheer
impossibility, and it would be the duty of the Irish party to make it
so if it was attempted to be run on the lines of....--_Times._ (if an
attempt was made to run it on the....)
It is not however attempted to be denied.--HAZLITT. (No one attempts
to deny)
As to the audience, we imagine that a large part of it,
certainly all that part of it whose sympathies it was desired to
enlist,...--_Times._ (whose sympathies were to be enlisted)
He will see the alterations that were proposed to be made, but
rejected.--_Times._ (proposed, but rejected)
The argument by which this difficulty is sought to be evaded.--BALFOUR.
This and the following instances are not easily mended, unless we may
supply the subject of ‘seek’, &c. (‘some writers’).
The arguments by which the abolition was attempted to be supported
were founded on the rights of man.--_Times._
Some mystery in regard to her birth, which, she was well informed,
was assiduously, though vainly, endeavoured to be discovered.--FANNY
BURNEY.
The close darkness of the shut-up house (forgotten to be
opened, though it was long since day) yielded to the unexpected
glare.--DICKENS.
Those whose hours of employment are proposed to be limited.--_Times._
The insignificant duties proposed to be placed on food.--_Times._
The anti-liberal principles which it was long ago attempted to embody
in the Holy Alliance.--_Times._
Considerable support was managed to be raised for Waldemar.--CARLYLE.
We may notice here a curious blunder that is sometimes made with the
reflexive verb ‘I avail myself of’. The passive of this is never used,
because there is no occasion for it: ‘I was availed of this by myself’
would mean exactly the same as the active, and would be intolerably
clumsy. The impossible passives quoted below imply that _it_ and
_staff_ would be the direct objects of the active verb.
Watt and Fulton bethought themselves that, where was power was not
devil, but was God; that it must be availed of and not by any means
let off and wasted.--EMERSON.
_Used_ or _employed_, and so in the next:
No salvage appliances or staff could have been availed of in time to
save the lives of the men.--_Times._
27. CONFUSION WITH NEGATIVES
This is extraordinarily common. The instances are arranged in order of
obviousness.
Yezd is not only the refuge of the most ancient of Persian religions,
but it is one of the headquarters of the modern Babi propaganda,
the far-reaching effects of which it is probably difficult to
underestimate.--_Spectator._
Not a whit undeterred by the disaster which overtook them at
Cavendish-square last week ... the suffragettes again made themselves
prominent.--_Daily Mail._
So far as medicine is concerned, I am not sure that physiology,
such as it was down to the time of Harvey, might as well not have
existed.--HUXLEY.
The generality of his countrymen are far more careful not to
transgress the customs of what they call gentility, than to violate
the laws of honour or morality.--BORROW.
France and Russia are allies, as are England and Japan. Is it
impossible to imagine that, in consequence of the growing friendship
between the two great peoples on both sides of the Channel,
an agreement might not one day be realized between the four
Powers?--_Times._
I do not of course deny that in this, as in all moral principles,
there may not be found, here and there, exceptional cases which may
amuse a casuist.--L. STEPHEN.
In view of the doubts among professed theologians regarding the
genuineness and authenticity of the Gospels in whole or in part, he is
unable to say how much of the portraiture of Christ may not be due to
the idealization of His life and character.--_Daily Telegraph._
Is it quite inconceivable that if the smitten had always turned the
other cheek the smiters would not long since have become so ashamed
that their practice would have ceased?--_Daily Telegraph._
I do not think it is possible that the traditions and doctrines of
these two institutions should not fail to create rival, and perhaps
warring, schools.--_Times._
Any man--runs this terrible statute--denying the doctrine of the
Trinity or of the Divinity of Christ, or that the books of Scripture
are not the ‘Word of God’, or ..., ‘shall suffer the pain of
death’.--J. R. GREEN.
But it would not be at all surprising if, by attempting too much,
and, it must be added, by indulging too much in a style the strained
preciosity of which occasionally verges on rant and even hysteria, Mr.
Sichel has not to some extent defeated his own object.--_Spectator._
No one scarcely really believes.--_Daily Telegraph._
Let them agree to differ; for who knows but what agreeing to
differ may not be a form of agreement rather than a form of
difference?--STEVENSON.
Lastly, how can Mr. Balfour tell but that two years hence he may not
be too tired of official life to begin any new conflict?--F. GREENWOOD.
What sort of impression would it be likely to make upon the Boers?
They could hardly fail to regard it as anything but an expression of
want of confidence in our whole South-African policy.--_Times._
My friend Mr. Bounderby could never see any difference between leaving
the Coketown ‘hands’ exactly as they were and requiring them to be fed
with turtle soup and venison out of gold spoons.--DICKENS.
But it is one thing to establish these conditions [the Chinese
Ordinance], and another to remove them suddenly.--_Westminster
Gazette._
What economy of life and money would not have been spared the empire
of the Tsars had it not rendered war certain.--_Times._ (_It_ is the
empire. The instance is not quoted for _not_, though that too is
wrong, but for the confusion between loss and economy)
The question of ‘raids’ is one which necessarily comes home to every
human being living within at least thirty miles of our enormously long
coast line.--LONSDALE HALE. (An odd puzzle. _Within thirty_ means less
than thirty; _at least thirty_ means not less than thirty. The meaning
is clear enough, however, and perhaps the expression is defensible;
but it would have been better to say: within a strip at least thirty
miles broad along our enormous coast line)
The fact that a negative idea can often be either included in a word
or kept separate from it leads to a special form of confusion, the
construction proper to the resolved form being used with the compound
and _vice versa_.
My feelings, Sir, are moderately unspeakable, and that is a
fact.--American. (not moderately speakable: _moderately_ belongs only
to half of _unspeakable_)
... who did not aim, like the Presbyterians, at a change in Church
government, but rejected the notion of a national Church at all.--J.
R. GREEN. (_Reject_ is equivalent to _will not have_. I reject
altogether: I will not have at all)
And your correspondent does not seem to know, or not to realize, the
conditions of the problem.--_Times._ (_Seems_, not _does not seem_,
has to be supplied in the second clause)
I confess myself altogether unable to formulate such a principle, much
less to prove it.--_Balfour._ (_Less_ does not suit _unable_, but
_able_; but the usage of _much less_ and _much more_ is hopelessly
chaotic)
War between these two great nations would be an inexplicable
impossibility.--CHOATE. (_Inexplicable_ does not qualify the whole of
_impossibility_; to make sense we must divide _impossibility_ into
_impossible event_, and take _inexplicable_ only with _event_)
And the cry has this justification,--that no age can see itself in a
proper perspective, and is therefore incapable of giving its virtues
and vices their relative places.--_Spectator._ (_No age_ is equivalent
to _not any age_, and out of this we have to take _any age_ as subject
to the last sentence; this is a common, but untidy and blameworthy
device)
28. OMISSION OF ‘AS’
This is very common, but quite contrary to good modern usage, after the
verb _regard_, and others like it. In the first three instances the
motive of the omission is obvious, but does not justify it; all that
was necessary was to choose another verb, as _consider_, that does not
require _as_. In the later instances the omission is gratuitous.
I regard it as important as anything.
Lord Bombie had run away with Lady Bombie ‘in her sark’. This I
could not help regarding both a most improper as well as a most
uncomfortable proceeding.--CROCKETT.
So vital is this suggestion regarded.
Rare early editions of Shakespeare’s plays and poems--editions which
had long been regarded among the national heirlooms.--S. LEE.
The latter may now be expected to regard himself absolved from such
obligation as he previously felt.--_Times._
A memoir which was justly regarded of so much merit and importance
that....--HUXLEY.
... what might be classed a ‘horizontal’ European triplice.--_Times._
You would look upon yourself amply revenged if you knew what they have
cost me.--RICHARDSON.
He also alluded to the bayonet, and observed that its main use
was no longer a defence against cavalry, but it was for the final
charge.--_Times._
... I was rewarded with such a conception of the God-like majesty and
infinite divinity which everywhere loomed up behind and shone through
the humanity of the Son of Man that no false teaching or any power on
earth or in hell itself will ever shake my firm faith in the combined
divinity and humanity in the person of the Son of God, and _as sure
am I_ that I eat and drink and live to-day, so certain am I that this
mysterious Divine Redeemer is in living....--_Daily Telegraph._
The last example is of a different kind. Read _as sure as I am_ for _as
sure am I_ as the least possible correction. Unpractised writers should
beware of correlative clauses except in their very simplest forms.
29. OTHER LIBERTIES TAKEN WITH ‘AS’
_As_ must not be expected to do by itself the work of _such as_.
There were not two dragon sentries keeping ward before the gate of
this abode, _as_ in magic legend are usually found on duty over the
wronged innocence imprisoned.--DICKENS.
The specialist is naturally best for his particular job; but if the
particular specialist required is not on the spot, as must often
be the case, the best substitute for him is not another specialist
but the man trained to act for himself in all circumstances, _as_
it has been the glory of our nation to produce both in the Army and
elsewhere.--_Times._
We question if throughout the French Revolution there was a single
case of six or seven thousand insurgents blasted away by cannon
shot, _as_ is believed to have happened in Odessa.--_Spectator._
(This is much more defensible than the previous two; but when a
definite noun--as here _case_--can be naturally supplied for the verb
introduced by _as_, _such as_ is better).
The decision of the French Government to send a special mission to
represent France at the marriage of the German Crown Prince is not
intended as anything more than a mere act of international courtesy,
_as_ is customary on such occasions.--_Times._
Neither _as_ nor _such as_ should be made to do the work of the
relative pronoun where there would be no awkwardness in using the
pronoun itself.
With a speed of eight knots, _as_ [which] has been found practicable
in the case of the Suez Canal, the passage would occupy five
days.--_Times._
The West Indian atmosphere is not of the limpid brightness and
transparent purity _such as_ [that] are found in the sketch entitled
‘A Street in Kingston’.--_Times._
The ideal statues and groups in this room and the next are scarcely so
interesting as we have sometimes seen.--_Times._ (_As_ is clearly here
a relative adverb, answering to _so_; nevertheless the construction
can be theoretically justified, the full form being _as we have
sometimes seen groups interesting_. But it is very ugly; why not say
instead _as some that we have seen_?)
The idiom _as who should say_ must not be used unless the sentence
to which it is appended has for subject a person to whom the person
implied in _who_ is compared. This seems reasonable, and is borne out,
for instance, by all the Shakespeare passages--a dozen--that we have
looked at. The type is: The cloudy messenger turns me his back, and
hums, as who should say:--&c.
To think of the campaign without the scene is as who should read a
play by candle-light among the ghosts of an empty theatre.--MORLEY.
30. BRACHYLOGY
1. Omission of a dependent noun in the second of two parallel series:
‘The brim of my hat is wider than yours’. For this there is some
justification: an ugly string of words is avoided, and the missing word
is easily supplied from the first series; it has usually the effect,
however, of attaching a preposition to the wrong noun:
I should be proud to lay an obligation upon my charmer to the amount
of half, nay, to the whole of my estate.--RICHARDSON.
There is as much of the pure gospel in their teachings as in any other
community of Christians in our land.
There cannot be the same reason for a prohibition of correspondence
with me, as there was of mine with Mr. Lovelace.--RICHARDSON.
Here the right preposition is retained.
A man holding such a responsible position as Minister of the United
States.--D. SLADEN.
2. A preposition is sometimes left out, quite unwarrantably, from a
mistaken idea of euphony:
Without troubling myself as to what such self-absorption might lead in
the future.--CORELLI. (lead to)
He chose to fancy that she was not suspicious of what all his
acquaintance were perfectly aware--namely, that....--THACKERAY. (aware
of)
3. Impossible compromises between two possible alternatives.
To be a Christian means to us one who has been regenerated.--_Daily
Telegraph._ (‘A Christian means one who has’: ‘to be a Christian means
to have been’)
To do what as far as human possibility has proved out of his
power.--_Daily Telegraph._ (‘As a matter of human possibility’: ‘as
far as human possibility goes’)
One compromise of this kind has come to be generally recognized:
So far from being annoyed, he agreed at once. (‘So far was he from
being annoyed that ...’: ‘far from being annoyed, he agreed’)
31. BETWEEN TWO STOOLS
The commonest form of indecision is that between statement and
question. But the examples of this are followed by a few miscellaneous
ones.
May I ask _that_ if care should be taken of remains of buildings a
thousand years old, _ought not_ care to be taken of ancient British
earth-works several thousand years old?--_Times._
Can I not make you understand that you are ruining yourself and me,
and _that_ if you don’t get reconciled to your father _what is_ to
become of you?--S. FERRIER.
We will only say _that_ if it was undesirable for a private member to
induce the Commons to pass a vote against Colonial Preference, _why
was it_ not undesirable for a private member....--_Spectator._
_Surely_, then, if I am not claiming too much for our efforts at that
time to maintain the Union, _am I_ exaggerating our present ability
to render him effectual aid in the contest that will be fought at the
next election if I say that prudence alone should dictate to him the
necessity for doing everything in his power to revive the spirit which
the policy of Sir Antony MacDonnell, Lord Dudley, and Mr. Wyndham has
done so much to weaken?--_Times._
I then further observed _that_ China having observed the laws of
neutrality, _how could he_ believe in the possibility of an alliance
with Russia?--_Times._
The next two use both the relative and the participle construction,
instead of choosing between them.
Thus it befell that our high and low labour vote, _which_ (if one
might say so in the hearing of M. Jaurès and Herr Bebel) _being_
vertical rather than horizontal, and quite unhindered in the United
States, of course by an overwhelming majority elected President
Roosevelt.--_Times._
He replied to Mr. Chamberlain’s Limehouse speech, the only part of
_which_ that he could endorse _being_, he said, the suggestion that
the electorate should go to the root of the question at the next
general election.--_Times._
Who, in Europe, at least, would _forego_ the delights of
kissing,--(which the Japanese by-the-by consider a disgusting
habit),--_without_ embraces,--and all those other endearments which
are supposed to dignify the progress of true love!--CORELLI.
Poor, bamboozled, patient public!--no wonder it is beginning to think
_that_ a halfpenny spent on a newspaper which is purchased to be
thrown away, _enough_ and more than enough.--CORELLI.
But hurriedly dismissing _whatever_ shadow of earnestness, or
faint confession of a purpose, laudable or wicked, _that_ her
face, or voice, or manner, had, for the moment betrayed, she
lounged....--DICKENS.
_At_ the Épée Team Competition for Dr. Savage’s Challenge Cup, held on
the 25th and 27th February last, _was won_ by the Inns of Court team,
consisting of....--_14th Middlesex Battalion Orders._
32. THE IMPERSONAL ‘ONE’
This should never be mixed up with other pronouns. Its possessive is
_one’s_, not _his_, and _one_ should be repeated, if necessary, not
be replaced by _him_, &c. Those who doubt their ability to handle
it skilfully under these restrictions should only use it where no
repetition or substitute is needed. The older experimental usage,
which has now been practically decided against, is shown in the Lowell
examples.
That inequality and incongruousness in his writing which makes _one_
revise _his_ judgment at every tenth page.--LOWELL.
As one grows older, _one_ loses many idols, perhaps comes at last
to have none at all, although _he_ may honestly enough uncover in
deference to the worshippers at any shrine.--LOWELL.
There are many passages which _one_ is rather inclined to like than
sure _he_ would be right in liking.--LOWELL.
He is a man who speaks with Bismarckian frankness, and who directly
impresses _one_ with the impression that _you_ are speaking to a man
and not to an incarnate bluebook.--_Times._
The merit of the book, and it is not a small one, is that it discusses
every problem with fairness, with no perilous hankering after
originality, and with a disposition to avail _oneself_ of what has
been done by _his_ predecessors.--_Times._
If _one_ has an opinion on any subject, it is of little use to read
books or papers which tell _you_ what you know already.--_Times._
... are all creations which make _one_ laugh inwardly as _we_
read.--HUTTON.
_One’s_, on the other hand, is not the right possessive for the generic
_man_; _man’s_ or _his_ is required according to circumstances; _his_
in the following example:
There is a natural desire in the mind of _man_ to sit for _one’s_
picture.--HAZLITT.
33. BETWEEN ... OR
This is a confusion between two ways of giving alternatives--_between
... and_, and _either ... or_. It is always wrong.
The choice Russia has is between payment for damages in money _or_ in
kind.--_Times._
Forced to choose between the sacrifice of important interests on the
one hand _or_ the expansion of the Estimates on the other.--_Times._
We have in that substance the link between organic _or_ inorganic
matter which abolishes the distinction between living _and_ dead
matter.--_Westminster Gazette._ (Observe the ‘elegant variation’)
The question lies between a God and a creed, _or_ a God in such an
abstract sense that does not signify.--_Daily Telegraph._
The author of the last has been perplexed by the _and_ in one of his
alternatives. _He_ should have used _on the one hand_, &c.
34. ‘A’ PLACED BETWEEN THE ADJECTIVE AND ITS NOUN
This is ugly when not necessary. Types of phrase in which it is
necessary are: Many a youth; What a lie! How dreadful _a_ fate! So lame
an excuse. But there is no difficulty in placing a before ordinary
qualifications of the adjective like _quite_, _more_, _much less_. In
the following, read _quite a sufficient_, _a more valuable_, _a more
glorious_, _a more serviceable_, _no different position_, _a_ greater
_or less degree_.
... adding that there was no suggestion of another raid against the
Japanese flank, which was _quite sufficient an indication_ of coming
events for those capable of reading between the lines.--_Times._
Can any one choose _more glorious an exit_ than to die fighting for
one’s own country?--_Times._
Of sympathy, of ... Mr. Baring has a full measure, which, in his
case, is _more valuable an asset_ than familiarity with military
textbooks.--_Times._
No great additional expenditure is required in order to make Oxford
_more serviceable a part_ of our educational system.--_Westminster
Gazette._
And young undergraduates are in this respect in no different a
position from that of any other Civil Servant.--_Westminster Gazette._
The thousand and one adjuncts to devotion finding place _in more or
less a degree_ in all churches, are all....--_Daily Telegraph._
The odd arrangement in the following will not do; we should have _a_
either before _so_ or before _degree_.
But what I do venture to protest against is the sacrificing of the
interests of the country districts in _so ridiculously an unfair
degree_ to those of a small borough.--_Times._
35. _DO_ AS SUBSTITUTE VERB
_Do_ cannot represent (1) _be_, (2) an active verb supplied from a
passive, (3) an active verb in a compound tense, gerund, or infinitive;
You made the very mistake that I _did_, but _have made_, _was afraid of
making_, _expected to make_, _shall_ (_make_).
It ... ought to have been satisfying to the young man. And so, in a
manner of speaking, it did.--CROCKETT.
It may justly be said, as Mr. Paul does, that....--_Westminster
Gazette._
To inflict upon themselves a disability which one day they will find
the mistake and folly of doing.--_Westminster Gazette._
We can of course say He lost his train, which I had warned him not to
_do_; because _lose_ is then represented not by _do_, but by _which_
(thing).
36. FRESH STARTS
The trick of taking breath in the middle of a sentence by means of a
resumptive _that_ or the like should be avoided; especially when it
is a confession rather of the writer’s short-windedness than of the
unwieldy length of his sentence.
It does not follow (as I pointed out by implication above) that if,
according to the account of their origin given by the system, those
fundamental beliefs are true, that therefore they are true.--BALFOUR.
Sir--Might I suggest that while this interesting question is being
discussed that the hymn ‘Rock of Ages’ be sung in every church and
chapel...?--_Daily Telegraph._
A very short-winded correspondent.
It seems to be a fair deduction that when the Japanese gained their
flank position immediately West of Mukden, and when, further, they
took no immediate advantage of the fact, but, on the contrary, began
to hold the villages in the plain as defensive positions, that a much
more ambitious plan was in operation.--_Times._
If the writer means what he says, and the grounds of the deduction are
not included in the sentence, reconstruction is not obvious, and _that_
is perhaps wanted to pick up the thread; but if, as may be suspected,
the _when_ clauses contain the grounds of the deduction, we may
reconstruct as follows: ‘When the Japanese ..., and when ..., it was
natural to infer that ...’.
37. VULGARISMS AND COLLOQUIALISMS
_Like_ for _as_:
Sins that were degrading me, like they have many others.--_Daily
Telegraph._
They should not make a mad, reckless, frontal attack like General
Buller made at the battle of Colenso.--_Daily Telegraph._
Coming to God the loving Father for pardon, like the poor prodigal
did.--_Daily Telegraph._
There is no moral force in existence ... which enlarges our outlook
like suffering does.--_Daily Telegraph._
_What ever ...?_ is a colloquialism; _whatever ...?_ a vulgarism:
Whatever reason have we to suppose, as the vast majority of professing
Christians appear to do, that the public worship of Almighty God
...?--_Daily Telegraph._
Whatever is the good in wrangling about bones when one is hungry and
has nutritious food at hand?--_Daily Telegraph._
‘Those sort’:
I know many of those sort of girls whom you call conjurors.--TROLLOPE.
Those sort of writers would merely take it as a first-class
advertisement.--CORELLI.
38. TAUTOLOGY
Lord Rosebery has not budged from his position--splendid, no doubt--of
(lonely) isolation.--_Times._
Counsel admitted that that was a grave suggestion to make,
but he submitted that it was borne out by the (surrounding)
circumstances.--_Times._
One can feel first the characteristics which men have in common
and only afterward those which distinguish them (apart) from one
another.--_Times._
A final friendly agreement with Japan, which would be very welcome
to Russia, is only possible if Japan (again) regains her liberty of
action.--_Times._
Miss Tox was (often) in the habit of assuring Mrs. Chick that
...--DICKENS.
He had come up one morning, as was now (frequently) his
wont.--TROLLOPE.
The counsellors of the Sultan (continue to) remain
sceptical.--_Times._
The Peresviet lost both her fighting-tops and (in appearance) looked
the most damaged of all the ships.--_Times._
They would, however, strengthen their position if they returned
the (temporary) loan of Sir A. MacDonnell to his owners with
thanks.--_Times._
The score was taken to 136 when Mr. MacLaren, who had (evidently)
seemed bent on hitting Mr. Armstrong off, was bowled.--_Times._
... cannot prevent the diplomacy of the two countries from lending
each other (mutual) support.--_Times._
However, I judged that they would soon (mutually) find each other
out.--CROCKETT.
Notwithstanding which, (however,) poor Polly embraced them all
round.--DICKENS.
If any real remedy is to be found, we must first diagnose the true
nature of the disease; (but) that, however, is not hard.--_Times._
M. Delcassé contemplated an identical answer for France, Great
Britain, and Spain, refusing, of course, the proposed conference, but
his colleagues of the Cabinet were (, however,) opposed to identical
replies.--_Times._
The strong currents frequently shifted the mines, to the equal danger
(both) of friend and foe.--_Times._
And persecution on the part of the Bishops and the Presbyterians, to
(both of) whom their opinions were equally hateful, drove flocks of
refugees over sea.--J. R. GREEN.
But to the ordinary English Protestant (both) Latitudinarian and High
Churchmen were equally hateful.--J. R. GREEN.
Seriously, (and apart from jesting,) this is no light matter.--BAGEHOT.
To go back to your own country ... with (the consciousness that you go
back with) the sense of duty done.--LORD HALSBURY.
No doubt my efforts were clumsy enough, but Togo had a capacity for
taking pains, by which (said) quality genius is apt to triumph over
early obstacles.--_Times._
... as having created a (joint) partnership between the two Powers in
the Morocco question.--_Times._
Sir--As a working man it appears to me that to the question ‘Do we
believe?’ the only sensible position (there seems to be) is to frankly
acknowledge our ignorance of what lies beyond.--_Daily Telegraph._
39. REDUNDANCIES
Dr. Redmond told his constituents that _by_ reducing the National
vote in the House of Commons they would not _thereby_ get rid of
obstruction.--_Times._
It is not a thousand years _ago since_ municipalities in Scotland were
by no means free from the suspicion of corruption.--LORD ROSEBERY.
Some substance equally _as_ yielding.--_Daily Mail._
Had another expedition reached the Solomon Islands, who knows _but_
that the Spaniards might _not_ have gone on to colonize Australia and
so turned the current of history?--_Spectator._
As one _being_ able to give full consent ... I am yours
faithfully....--_Daily Telegraph._
But _to_ where shall I look for some small ray of light that will
illumine the darkness surrounding the mystery of my being?--_Daily
Telegraph._
It is quite _possible_ that if they do that it _may_ be _possible_ to
amend it in certain particulars.--_Westminster Gazette._
Men and women who _professed to call_ themselves Christians.--_Daily
Telegraph._ (An echo, no doubt, of ‘profess and call themselves
Christians’)
The correspondence that you have published _abundantly_ throws out
into _bold_ relief the false position assumed....--_Daily Telegraph._
In the course of the _day_, _yesterday_, M. Rouvier was able to assure
M. Delcassé....--_Times._
_Moreover_, _too_, do we not all feel...?--J. C. COLLINS.
The doing nothing for a length of days after the first shock he
sustained was _the reason of how it came that_ Nesta knitted closer
her acquaintance....--MEREDITH.
When the public adopt new inventions wholesale, ... _some obligation
is due_ to lessen, so far as is possible, the hardships in
which....--_Westminster Gazette._
40. ‘AS TO WHETHER’
This is a form that is seldom necessary, and should be reserved for
sentences in which it is really difficult to find a substitute.
Abstract nouns that cannot be followed immediately by _whether_ should
if possible be replaced by the corresponding verbs. Many writers seem
to delight in this hideous combination, and employ it not only with
abstracts that can be followed by _whether_, but even with verbs.
The Court declined to express any opinion _as to_ whether the Russian
Ambassador was justified in giving the assurances in question and _as
to_ whether the offences with which the accused were charged were
punishable by German law.--_Times._ (Perhaps ‘declined to say whether
in their opinion’; but this is less easily mended than most)
The difficulties of this task were so great that I was in doubt _as
to_ whether it was possible.--_Times._
His whole interest is concentrated on the question _as to_ how his
mission will affect his own fortunes.--_Times._
A final decision has not yet been arrived at _as to_ whether or not
the proceedings shall be public.--_Times._ (It has not yet been
finally decided whether)
You raise the question _as to_ whether Admiral Rozhdestvensky will not
return.--_Times._
I have much pleasure in informing Rear Admiral Mather Byles _as to_
where he could inspect a rifle of the type referred to.
The interesting question which such experiments tend to suggest is as
to how far science may....--_Outlook._
When we come to consider the question _as to_ whether, upon the
dissolution of the body, the spirit flies to some far-distant
celestial realm....--_Daily Telegraph._
He never told us to judge by the lives of professing Christians _as
to_ whether Christianity is true.--_Daily Telegraph._
M. Delcassé did not allude to the debated question _as to_ whether
any official communication ... was made by the French Government to
Germany. It is also pointed out that he did not let fall the slightest
intimation _as to_ whether the French Government expected....--_Times._
41. SUPERFLUOUS ‘BUT’ AND ‘THOUGH’
Where there is a natural opposition between two sentences, adversative
conjunctions may yet be made impossible by something in one of the
sentences that does the work unaided. Thus if _in vain_, _only_, and
_reserves_ and _sole_, had not been used in the following sentences,
_but_ and _though_ would have been right; as it is, they are wrong.
(The author dreams that he is a horse being ridden) _In vain_ did I
rear and kick, attempting to get rid of my foe; _but_ the surgeon
remained as saddle-fast as ever.--BORROW.
But the substance of the story is probably true, _though_ Voltaire has
_only_ made a slip in a name.--MORLEY.
Germany, it appears, _reserves_ for herself the _sole_ privilege
of creating triple alliances and ‘purely defensive’ combinations
of that character, _but_ when the interests of other Powers
bring them together their action is reprobated as aggressive and
menacing.--_Times._
Such mistakes probably result from altering the plan of a sentence in
writing; and the cure is simply to read over every sentence after it is
written.
42. ‘IF AND WHEN’
This formula has enjoyed more popularity than it deserves; either
‘when’ or ‘if’ by itself would almost always give the meaning. Even
where ‘if’ seems required to qualify ‘when’ (which by itself might
be taken to exclude the possibility of the event’s never happening
at all), ‘if’ and ‘when’ are clearly not coordinate, though both are
subordinate to the main sentence: ‘if and when he comes, I will write’
means ‘if he comes, I will write when he comes’, or ‘when he comes
(if he comes at all), I will write’, and the ‘if’ clause, whether
parenthetic or not, is subordinate to the whole sentence ‘I will write
when he comes’. Our Gladstone instance below differs from the rest:
‘when’ with a past tense, unqualified by ‘if’, would make an admission
that the writer does not choose to make; on the other hand, the time
reference given by ‘when’ is essential; ‘on the occasion on which it
was done (if it really was done) it was done judicially’. The faulty
coordination may be overlooked where there is real occasion for its
use; but many writers seem to have persuaded themselves that neither
‘if’ nor ‘when’ is any longer capable of facing its responsibilities
without the other word to keep it in countenance.
No doubt it will accept the experimental proof here alleged, if and
when it is repeated under conditions....--_Times._
The latter will include twelve army corps, six rifle brigades, and
nine divisions or brigades of mounted troops, units which, if and when
complete, will more than provide....--_Times._
Unless and until we pound hardest we shall never beat the
Boers.--_Spectator._
It is only if, and when, our respective possessions become
conterminous with those of great military states on land that we
each....--_Times._
If and when it was done, it was done so to speak
judicially.--GLADSTONE.
No prudent seaman would undertake an invasion unless or until he had
first disposed of the force preparing ... to impeach him.--_Times._
Its leaders decline to take office unless and until the 90 or 100
German words of command used ... are replaced....--_Times._
If and when employment is abundant....--_Westminster Gazette._
It means nothing less, if Mr. Chamberlain has his way, than the final
committal of one of the two great parties to a return to Protection,
if and when it has the opportunity.--_Westminster Gazette._
It is clear, however, that the work will gain much if and when she
plays faster.--_Westminster Gazette._
43. MALTREATED IDIOMS
1. Two existing idioms are fused into a non-existent one.
It did not take him much trouble.--SLADEN. (I take: it costs me)
An opportunity should be afforded the enemy of retiring northwards,
more or less _of_ their own _account_.--_Times._ (of my own accord: on
my own account)
Dr. Kuyper admitted that his opinion had been consulted.--_Times._ (I
consult you: take your opinion)
But it was in vain with the majority to attempt it.--BAGEHOT. (I
attempt in vain: it is vain to attempt)
The captain got out the shutter of the door, shut it up, made it all
fast, and locked the door itself.--DICKENS. (make it fast: make all
fast)
The provisioning of the Russian Army would practically have to be
drawn exclusively from the mother country.--_Times._ (draw provisions:
do provisioning)
It gives me the greatest pleasure in adding my testimony.--_Daily
Telegraph._ (I have pleasure in adding: it gives me pleasure to add)
And if we rejected a similar proposition made to us, was it
not too much to expect that Canada might not turn in another
direction?--CHAMBERLAIN (reported). (Might not Canada turn?... to
expect that Canada would not turn)
I can speak from experience that ... ‘conversion’ ... was a very real
and powerful thing.--_Daily Telegraph._ (speak to conversion’s being:
say that conversion was)
He certainly possessed, though in no great degree, the means of
affording them more relief than he practised.--SCOTT. (preached more
than he practised: had means of affording more than he did afford)
My position is one of a clerk, thirty-eight years of age, and
married.--_Daily Telegraph._ (one that no one would envy: that of a
clerk)
Abbot, indeed, had put the finishing stroke on all attempts at a
higher ceremonial. Neither he nor his household would bow at the name
of Christ.--J. R. GREEN. (put the finishing touches on: given the
finishing stroke to)
In this chapter some of these words will be considered, and also some
others against which purism has raised objections which do not seem
to be well taken.--R. G. WHITE. (exceptions well taken: objections
rightly made. _To take an objection well_ can only mean to keep your
temper when it is raised)
A woman would instinctively draw her cloak or dress closer to her, and
a man leave by far an unnecessary amount of room for fear of coming
into contact with those to whom....--_Daily Telegraph._ (by far too
great: quite an unnecessary)
The fines inflicted for excess of the legal speed.--_Times._ (excess
of speed: exceeding the legal speed)
Notwithstanding the no inconsiderable distance by sea.--_Guernsey
Advertiser._ (it is no inconsiderable distance: the--or a--not
inconsiderable distance)
His whim had been gratified at a trifling cost of ten thousand
pounds.--CRAWFORD. (a trifling cost--unspecified: a trifle of ten
thousand _or so_: the trifling cost of ten thousand. So in the next)
Dying at a ripe old age of eighty-three.--_Westminster Gazette._
That question is the present solvency or insolvency of the Russian
State. The answer to it depends not upon the fact whether Russia has
or has not....--_Times._ (the fact that: the question whether. But
_depends not upon whether_ would be best here)
To all those who had thus so self-sacrificingly and energetically
promoted the organization of this fund he desired to accord in the
name of the diocese their deep obligation.--_Guernsey Advertiser._
(accord thanks: acknowledge obligation)
The allies frittered away in sieges the force which was ready for an
advance into the heart of France until the revolt of the West and
South was alike drowned in blood.--_Times._ (the revolts were alike
drowned: the revolt was drowned)
2. Of two distinct idioms the wrong is chosen.
When, too, it was my pleasure to address a public meeting of more than
2,000 at the Royal Theatre the organized opposition numbered less than
seven score.--_Times._
It is our pleasure to present to you the enclosed notification of the
proportion of profits which has been placed to the credit of your
account.--Company circular. (I had, we have, the pleasure of--. The
form chosen is proper to royal personages expressing their gracious
will)
In the face of it the rule appears a most advisable one.--_Guernsey
Advertiser._ (_On the face of it_ means prima facie: the other means
in spite of)
3. The form of an idiom is distorted, without confusion with another.
However, towards evening the wind and the waves subsided and the night
became quiet and starlight.--_Times._ (_Starlight_ is a noun, which
can be used as an adjective immediately before another noun only; a
starlight night)
Russia is now bitterly expiating her share in the infamy then visited
upon Japan.--_Times._ (We visit upon a person his sins, or something
for which he is responsible, and not we; or again, we may visit our
indignation upon him)
He anticipated much towards Mary’s recovery in her return to
Japan.--SLADEN. (anticipate ... from)
But both Governments have now requested Washington to be chosen as the
place of meeting.--_Times._ (requested that Washington should)
For as its author in later years told the writer of this article,
he had studied war for nine years before he put the pen to the
paper.--_Times._ (Put pen to paper. This looks like imitation French;
it is certainly not English)
4. The meaning of an idiom is mistaken without confusion with another.
For days and days, in such moods, he would stay within his cottage,
never darkening the door or seeing other face than his own
inmates.--TROLLOPE. (To darken the door is always to enter as a
visitor, never to go out)
5. Some miscellaneous and unclassified violations are added, mostly
without further comment than italics, to remind sanguine learners that
there are small pitfalls in every direction.
If I _did not have_ the most thorough dependence on your good sense
and high principles, I should not speak to you in this way.--TROLLOPE.
Japan, while desiring the massacre of her own and Russia’s subjects to
be brought to an end, _has_ nevertheless _every interest that_ the war
should go on.--_Times._
The unpublished state, of which only _an extremely few_ examples are
in existence.--_Times._
Once I _jested her_ about it.--CROCKETT.
It is _significant to add_ that when Mrs. Chesnut died in 1886 her
servants were with her.--_Times._
Herring boats, the drapery of whose black suspended nets _contrasted_
with picturesque effect _the white sails_ of the larger vessels.--S.
FERRIER.
It is at least incumbent to be scrupulously accurate.--_Times._
(The metaphor in _incumbent_ is so much alive that _upon_--is never
dispensed with)
A measure _according Roman Catholic clergymen_ who have passed through
the local seminaries but have not yet passed the prescribed Russian
language test _to hold_ clerical appointments.--_Times._
There will be established in this free England a commercial tyranny
_the like of which_ will not be inferior to the tyrannical Inquisition
of the Dark Ages.--_Spectator._
44. TRUISMS AND CONTRADICTIONS IN TERMS
A contradiction in terms is often little more than a truism turned
inside out; we shall therefore group the two together, and with them
certain other illogical expressions, due to a similar confusion of
thought.
Praise which perhaps was scarcely meant to be taken _too_
literally.--BAGEHOT.
Where no standard of literalness is mentioned, _too literally_ is ‘more
literally than was meant’. We may safely affirm, without the cautious
reservations _perhaps_ and _scarcely_, that the praise was not meant to
be taken more literally than it was meant to be taken. Omit _too_.
He found what was _almost quite_ as interesting.--_Times._
If it was almost as interesting, we do not want _quite_: if quite, we
do not want _almost_.
Splendid and elegant, but _somewhat bordering on_ the antique
fashion.--SCOTT.
_Bordering on_ means not ‘like’ but ‘very like’; ‘somewhat very like’.
A _very unique_ child, thought I.--C. BRONTË.
A _somewhat unique_ gathering of our great profession.--HALSBURY.
There are no degrees in uniqueness.
Steady, respectable labouring men--_one and all, with rare
exceptions_, married.--_Times._ (all without exception, with rare
exceptions)
To _name_ only a _few_, _take_ Lord Rosebery, Lord Rendel, Lord ...,
..., ..., and _many_ others.--_Times._
_Take_ in this context means ‘consider as instances’; we cannot
consider them as instances unless we have their names; _take_ must
therefore mean ‘let me name for your consideration’. Thus we get: ‘To
_name_ only a _few_, let me _name_ ... and _many_ others (whom I do
_not_ name)’.
More _led away_ by a jingling antithesis of words than _an accurate
perception_ of ideas.--H. D. MACLEOD.
‘Guided by an accurate perception’ is what is meant. To be ‘led
away by accurate perception’ is a misfortune that could happen only
in a special sense, the sense in which it has happened, possibly, to
the writer, whom sheer force of accurate perception may have hurried
into inaccurate expression; but more probably he too is the victim of
‘jingling antithesis’.
_Long before_ the appointed hour for the commencement of the
recital, standing room only fell to the lot of those who arrived
_just previous_ to Mr. K.’s appearance on the platform.--_Guernsey
Advertiser._
The necessary inference--that Mr. K., the reciter, appeared on the
platform long before the appointed hour--is probably not in accordance
with the facts.
The weather this week has for the most part been of that quality which
the month of March so _strikingly_ characterizes in the _ordinary_
course of events.--_Guernsey Advertiser._
What happens in the ordinary course of events can scarcely continue
to be striking. Whether the month characterizes the weather, or the
weather the month, we need not consider here.
He _forgot_ that it was possible, that from a brief period of
tumultuous disorder, there might issue a military despotism more
compact, more disciplined, and more overpowering than any which had
preceded it, or any which _has_ followed it.--BAGEHOT.
_He_ could not forget, because he could not know, anything about the
despotisms which _have_ in fact followed. He might know and forget
something about all the despotisms that had preceded or _should_ follow
(in direct speech, ‘that have preceded or shall follow’): ‘this may
result in the most compact despotism in all history, past and future’.
But probably Bagehot does not even mean this: the last clause seems to
contain a reflection of his own, falsely presented as a part of what
_he_ ought to have reflected.
Some people would say that my present manner of travelling is much
the _most preferable_, riding as I do now, instead of leading my
horse.--BORROW.
Only two modes of travelling are compared: _the most preferable_
implies four, three of them preferable in different degrees to the
fourth. A not uncommon vulgarism.
45. DOUBLE EMPHASIS
Attempts at packing double emphasis into a single sentence are apt to
result in real weakening.
No government ever plunged _more_ rapidly into a _deeper_
quagmire.--_Outlook._ (From the writer’s evident wish to state the
matter strongly, we infer that several Governments have plunged more
rapidly into as deep quagmires, and as rapidly into deeper ones)
Mr. Justice Neville ... will now have the very rare experience of
joining on the Bench a colleague whom he defeated on the polls _just
fourteen years ago_.--_Westminster Gazette._ (The _experience_,
with exact time-interval, is probably unique, like any individual
thumb-print; that does not make the _coincidence_ more remarkable; and
it is the coincidence that we are to admire)
Nothing has brought out more strongly than motor-driving the
over-bearing, selfish nature of too many motor-drivers and their utter
want of consideration for their fellow men.--LORD WEMYSS. (The attempt
to kill drivers and driving with one stone leaves both very slightly
wounded. For what should show up the drivers more than the driving?
and whom should the driving show up more than the drivers?)
The commonest form of this is due to conscientious but mistaken zeal
for correctness, which prefers, for instance, _without oppressing or
without plundering_ to _without oppressing or plundering_. The first
form excludes only one of the offences, and is therefore, though
probably meant to be twice as emphatic, actually much weaker than the
second, which excludes both. With _and_ instead of _or_, it is another
matter.
Actual experience has shown that a gun constructed on the wire
system can still be utilized effectively without the destruction of
the weapon or without dangerous effects, even with its inner tube
split.--_Times._
The Union must be maintained without pandering to such prejudices on
the one hand, _or without_ giving way on the other to the ... schemes
of the Nationalists.--_Spectator._
He inhibited him, on pain of excommunication, from seeking a divorce
in his own English Courts, _or from_ contracting a new marriage.--J.
R. GREEN. (Half excused by the negative sense of _inhibit_)
46. ‘SPLIT’ AUXILIARIES.
Some writers, holding that there is the same objection to split
compound verbs as to split infinitives, prefer to place any adverb or
qualifying phrase not between the auxiliary and the other component,
but before both. Provided that the adverb is then separated from the
auxiliary, no harm is done: ‘Evidently he was mistaken’ is often as
good as ‘He was evidently mistaken’, and suits all requirements of
accentuation. But the placing of the adverb immediately before or
after the auxiliary depends, according to established usage, upon
the relative importance of the two components. When the main accent
is to fall upon the second component, the normal place of the adverb
is between the two; it is only when the same verb is repeated with a
change in the tense or mood of the auxiliary, that the adverb should
come first. ‘He evidently was deceived’ implies, or should imply, that
the verb _deceived_ has been used before, and that the point of the
sentence depends upon the emphatic auxiliary; accordingly we should
write ‘The possibility of his being deceived had never occurred to
me; but he evidently was deceived’, but ‘I relied implicitly on his
knowledge of the facts; but he was evidently deceived’. In our first
two examples below the adverb is rightly placed first to secure the
emphasis on the auxiliary: in all the others the above principle of
accentuation is violated. The same order of words is required by the
copula with whatever kind of complement.
I recognize this truth, and always have recognized it.
Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be
so, as long as the world endures.--BURKE.
They never are suffered to succeed in their opposition.--BURKE.
She had received the homage of ... and occasionally had deigned to
breathe forth....--BEACONSFIELD.
He ordered breakfast as calmly as if he never had left his
home.--BEACONSFIELD.
Miss Becky, whose sympathetic powers never had been called into action
before.--FERRIER.
They now were bent on taking the work into their own hands.--MORLEY.
There may have been a time when a king was a god, but he now is pretty
much on a level with his subjects.--JOWETT.
They both are contradicted by all positive evidence.--W. H. MALLOCK.
Religious art at once complete and sincere never yet has
existed.--RUSKIN.
Not mere empty ideas, but what were once realities, and that I long
have thought decayed.--C. BRONTË.
So that he might assist at a Bible class, from which he never had been
absent.--BEACONSFIELD.
If we would write an essay, we necessarily must have something to
say.--BYGOTT & JONES.
The protectionists lately have been affirming that the autumn session
will be devoted to railway questions.--_Times._
Visitors no longer can drive in open carriages along the
littoral.--_Times._
It still is the fact that his mind ... was essentially the mind of a
poet.--_Times._
To whom in any case its style would have not appealed.--_Times._
To go wrong with _not_ is an achievement possible only with triple
compounds, where the principal division is of course between the finite
(_would_) and the infinitive with participle (_have appealed_). ‘Would
not have appealed’ must be written, though at an enormous sacrifice of
‘distinction’.
This enhanced value of old English silver may be due partly to the
increase in the number of collectors; but it also has been largely
influenced by the publication....--_Times._
Mr. Fry showed to a very great extent his power of defence.... To-day,
if runs are to be of importance, he very likely will show his powers
of hitting.--_Times._
47. OVERLOADING
A single sentence is sometimes made to carry a double burden:
So unique a man as Sir George Lewis has, in truth, rarely been lost to
this country.--BAGEHOT.
The meaning is not ‘Men like Sir G. Lewis have seldom been lost’, but
‘Men like the late Sir G. Lewis have seldom been found’. But instead
of _the late_ a word was required that should express proper concern;
_lost_ is a short cut to ‘men so unique as he whose loss we now
deplore’.
There are but few men whose lives abound in such wild and romantic
adventure, and, for the most part, crowned with success.--PRESCOTT.
The writer does not mean ‘adventures so wild, so romantic, and so
successful in the main’; that is shown by the qualifying parenthesis,
which is obviously one of comment on the individual case. What he does
mean ought to have been given in two sentences: ‘There are but few ...
adventure;--’s, moreover, was for the most part crowned with success’.
The Sultan regrets that the distance and the short notice alone
prevent him from coming in person.--_Times._
This is as much as to say that the Sultan wishes there were more
obstacles. Read: ‘The Sultan regrets that he cannot come in person;
nothing but the distance and the short notice could prevent him’.
48. DEMONSTRATIVE, NOUN, AND PARTICIPLE OR ADJECTIVE
Of the forms, _persons interested_, _the persons interested_, _those
interested_, _those who are interested_, one or another may better suit
a particular phrase or context. _Those interested_ is the least to be
recommended, especially with an active participle or adjective. The
form _those persons interested_ is a hybrid, and is very seldom used by
any good writer; but it is becoming so common in inferior work that it
is thought necessary to give many examples. The first two, of the form
_those interested_, will pass, though _those who were concerned_, _all
who drive_, would be better. In the others _that_ and _those_ should be
either replaced by _the_ or (sometimes) simply omitted.
The idea of a shortage had hardly entered the heads even of _those_
most immediately _concerned_.--_Times._
They are the terror of all _those driving_ or riding spirited
horses.--_Times._
At every time and in every place throughout _that_ very limited
_portion_ of time and space _open_ to human observation.--BALFOUR.
_That part_ of the regular army _quartered_ at home should be grouped
by divisions.--_Times._
Here they beheld acres of _that_ stupendous _growth seen_ only in the
equinoctial regions.--PRESCOTT.
It is not likely that General Kuropatkine has amassed _those
reserves_ of military stores and supplies plainly _required_ by the
circumstances of his situation.--_Times._
The insurrection had been general throughout the country, at least
_that portion_ of it _occupied_ by the Spaniards.--PRESCOTT.
My amendment would be that _that part_ of the report _dealing_ with
the dividend on the ‘A’ shares ... be not adopted.--Company report.
We shall fail to secure _that unanimity_ of thought and doctrine so
_indispensable_ both for....--_Times._
... in order to minimize the effect produced by _that portion_ of the
Admirals’ report _favourable_ to England.--_Times._
A struggle ... which our nation must be prepared to face in the last
resort, or else give way to _those countries_ not _afraid_ to accept
the responsibilities and sacrifices inseparable from Empire.--_Times._
Civil servants will not, nay, cannot, work with _that freedom_ of
action so _essential_ to good work in the case of such persons, so
long as....--_Times._
To _those Colonies unable_ to concur with these suggestions a warning
should be addressed.--_Times._
49. FALSE SCENT
It is most annoying to a reader to be misled about the construction,
and therefore most foolish in a writer to mislead him. In the sentences
that follow, _facilities_ and _excesses_ are naturally taken as in the
same construction, and similarly _influences_ and _nature_, until the
ends of the sentences show us that we have gone wrong. These are very
bad cases; but minor offences of the kind are very common, and should
be carefully guarded against.