Even so slight a change as to vary the construction in the same period, is unpleasant: Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmissa, transgressus flumen, ut quosque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat; Gallos Hispanosque equites prope ripam lævo in cornu adversus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum. Tit. Liv. xxii sect. 46. Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own army: Eo magis ruere in suos belluæ, tantoque majorem stragem edere quam inter hostes ediderant, quanto acrius pavor consternatam agit, quam insidentis magistri imperio regitur. Liv. 1. xxvii. sect. 14, This passage is also faulty in a different respect, that there is no resemblance between the members of the sentence, though they express a simile. The present head which relates to the choice of materials, shall be closed with a rule concerning the use of copulatives. Longinus observes, that it animates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the following example from Xenophon, Closing their shields together, they were push'd, they fought, they slew, they were slain. Treatise of the Sublime, cap. xvi. The reason I take to be what follows. A continued sound, if not loud, tends to lay us asleep: an interrupted sound rouses and animates by its repeated impulses. Thus feet composed of syllables, being pronounced with a sensible interval between each, make more lively impressions than can be made by a continued sound. A period of which the members are connected by copulatives, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued sound; and therefore the suppressing copulatives must animate a description. It produces a different effect akin to that mentioned: the members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide smoothly and gently along; and are a proof of sedateness and leisure in the speaker: on the other hand, one in the hurry of passion, neglecting copulatives and other particles, expresses the principal image only; and for that reason, hurry or quick action is best expressed without copulatives : Veni, vidi vici. -Ite: Ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos. Quis globus, O civis, caligine volvitur atra? Eneid, iv. 593. Eneid, ix. 37. In this view Longinus* justly compares copulatives in a period to strait tying, which in a race obstructs · the freedom of motion. It follows, that a plurality of copulatives in the same period ought to be avoided: for if the laying aside copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid. I appeal to the following instance, though there are but two copulatives. Upon looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands; and at the same time protesting their own innocence, and desiring my advice upon this occasion. Spectator, No. 170. I except the case where the words are intended to express the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty. Dining one day at an alderman's in the city, Peter observed him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of a sirloin of beef. "Beef," said the sage magistrate, "is the "king of meat: Beef comprehends in it the quintessence of partridge, and quail, and venison, and pheasant, and plumb-pudding, and custard " Tale of a Tub, sect. 4. * Treatise of the Sublime, cap. xvi. And the author shows great delicacy of taste by varying the expression in the mouth of Peter, who is represented more animated: "Bread," says he, "dear brothers, is the staff of life, in which "bread is contained, inclusive, the quintessence of beef, mutton, "veal, venison, partridges, plum-pudding, and custard." Another case must also be excepted: copulatives have a good effect where the intention is to give an impression of a great multitude consisting of many divisions; for example, "The army was composed "of Grecians and Carians, and Lycians, and Pamphylians, and Phrygians." The reason is, that a leisurely survey, which is expressed by the copulatives, makes the parts appear more numerous than they would do by a hasty survey: in the latter case the army appears in one group; in the former, we take as it were an accurate survey of each nation and of each division.* We proceed to the second kind of beauty; which consists in a due arrangement of the words or materials. This branch of the subject is no less nice than extensive; and I despair of setting it in a clear light, except to those who are well acquainted with the general principles that govern the structure or composition of language. In a thought, generally speaking, there is at least one capital object considered as acting or as suffering. This object is expressed by a substantive noun; its action is expressed by an active verb; and the thing affected by the action is expressed by another substantive noun: its suffering or passive state is expressed by a passive verb; and the thing that acts upon it, by a substantive noun. Beside these, which are the capital parts of a sen *See Demetrius Phalereus of Elocution, seot. 63. tence or period, there are generally underparts; each of the substantives as well as the verb, may be qualified time, place, purpose, motive, means, instrument, and a thousand other circumstances, may be necessary to complete the thought. And in what manner these several parts are connected in the expression, will appear from what follows. In a complete thought or mental proposition, all the members and parts are mutually related, some slightly, some intimately. To put such a thought in words, it is not sufficient that the component ideas be clearly expressed; it is also necessary, that all the relations contained in the thought be expressed according to their different degrees of intimacy. To annex a certain meaning to a certain sound or word, requires no art: the great nicety in all languages is, to express the various relations that connect the parts of the thought. Could we suppose this branch of language to be still a secret, it would puzzle, I am apt to think, the acutest grammarian, to invent an expeditious method: and yet, by the guidance merely of nature, the rude and illiterate have been led to a method so perfect, as to appear not susceptible of any improvement; and the next step in our progress shall be to explain that method. Words that import a relation, must be distinguished from such as do not. Substantives commonly imply no relation; such as animal, man, tree, river. Adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, imź ply a relation; the adjective good must relate to some being possessed of that quality; the verb write is applied to some person who writes; and the adverbs moderately, diligently, have plainly a reference to some action which they modify. When a relative word is introduced, it must be signified by the expression to what word it relates, without which the sense is not complete. For answering VOL. II. 51 that purpose, I observe in Greek and Latin two different methods. Adjectives are declined as well as substantives; and declensions serve to ascertain their connexion: If the word that expresses the subject be, for example, in the nominative case, so also must the word be that expresses its quality ; example, vir bonus: again, verbs are related, on the one hand, to the agent, and, on the other, to the subject upon which the action is exerted: and a contrivance similar to that now mentioned, serves to express the double relation: the nominative case is appropriated to the agent, the accusative to the passive subject; and the verb is put in the first, second, or third person, to intimate the connexion with the word that signifies the agent: examples, Ego amo Tullium; tu amas Sempronium; Brutus timat Portiam. The other method is by juxtaposition, which is necessary with respect to such words only as are not declined, adverbs, for example, articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. In the English language there are few declensions ; and therefore juxtaposition is our chief resource : adjectives accompany their substantives ;* an adverb accompanies the word it qualifies; and the verb occupies the middle place between the active and passive subjects to which it relates. It must be obvious, that those terms which have nothing relative in their signification, cannot be connected in so easy a manner. When two substantives happen to be connected, as cause and effect, as principal and accessory, or in any other * Taking advantage of a declension to separate an adjective from its substantive, as is commonly practised in Latin, though it detract not from perspicuity, is certainly less neat than the English methodof juxtaposition. Contiguity is more expressive of an intimate relation, than resemblance merely of the final syllables. Latin indeed has evidently the advantage when the adjective and substantive happen to be connected by contiguity, as well as by resemblance of the final syllables. |