much to exceed that of any other productions.-Swift on the English Tongue.

Instead of productions, which bear no resemblance to ministers great or small, the author ought to have employed the word writers.

I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently with other judgments, must at some time or other have stuck a little with your lordship.-Shaftesbury on Enthusiasm.

This sentence ought to have stood thus: "I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently with others, must at some time or other have stuck with your lordship."

Force was resisted by force, valour opposed by valour, and art encountered or eluded by similar address.-Gillies's Hist. of Greece.

This period is evidently marred by an injudicious attempt to vary the phraseology. "Force was resisted. by force, valour opposed by valour, and art encountered or eluded by art."

It is a still greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only variety in the words, but also in the construction. There is a fault of this kind in the following sentence, in which the author is speaking of Shakspeare.

There may remain a suspicion that we over-rate the greatness of his genius, in the same manner as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being disproportioned and mis-shapen.-Hume's Hist. of England.

The sentence might have been constructed in this manner: "There may remain a suspicion that we overrate the greatness of his genius, in the same manner as we over-rate the greatness of bodies that are disproportioned and mis-shapen."

Attention should also be paid to the length of the parallel members of a period. To produce a resemblance between such members, they ought not only to be constructed in the same manner, but also to be as nearly as possible of the same length. By neglecting

this circumstance, the subsequent example is rendered liable to exception.

As the performance of all other religious duties will not avail in the sight of God, without charity; so neither will the discharge of all other ministerial duties avail in the sight of men, without a faithful discharge of this principal duty.—Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.

In the following passage, all the errors are accumulated which a period expressing a resemblance can well admit.

Ministers are answerable for everything done to the prejudice of the constitution, in the same proportion as the preservation of the constitution, in its purity and vigour, or the perverting and weakening it, are of greater consequence to the nation, than any other instances of good or bad government.-Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.

As resemblance ought to be studied in the words which express two resembling objects, so opposition ought to be studied in the words which express two contrasted objects. The following examples contain deviations from this rule :—

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. Addison, Spectator.

Here the opposition in the thought is neglected in the words, which at first view seem to import that the friend and the enemy are employed in different matters, without any relation to each other, whether of resemblance or of opposition. The contrast will be better marked by expressing the idea as follows: "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes."

The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.-Spectator.

This sentence might have stood thus: "The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he gains that of others."

The laughers will be for those who have most wit; the serious part of mankind for those who have most reason on their side.-Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.

The opposition would have been more completely expressed in this manner: "The laughers will be for those who have most wit; the serious, for those who have most reason on their side."

In the following passage, we find two great poets very skilfully contrasted with each other.

Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist; in the one, we most admire the man, in the other the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream.-Pope's Preface to Homer.

This picture, however, would have been more finished, if to the Nile some particular river had been opposed

HARMONY IN THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

ALTHOUGH Sound is a quality of much less importance than sense, yet it must not be altogether disregarded; for as sounds are the vehicle of our ideas, there must always be an intimate connexion between the idea which is conveyed, and the sound employed in its con veyance. Pleasing ideas can hardly be transmitted to the mind by means of harsh and disagreeable sounds. At these the mind immediately revolts. Nothing can enter into the affections which stumbles at the threshold

by offending the ear. Music has naturally a great power over all men to prompt and facilitate certain emotions; insomuch that there are scarcely any dispositions which we wish to raise in others, but certain sounds may be found concordant to those dispositions, and tending to excite and promote them. Language is

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to a certain degree possessed of the same power: not content with simply interpreting our ideas to the hearer, it can enforce them by corresponding sounds; and to the pleasure of imparted knowledge, can add the new and separate pleasure of melody.

In the harmony of sentences, two circumstances may be considered; agreeable sound, or modulation, in general, without any particular expression, and sound so regulated as to become expressive of the sense.

Let us first consider sound in general, as the property of a well-constructed sentence. The musical cadence of a sentence will depend upon two circumstances; the choice of words, and the arrangement of them.

With regard to the choice of words, little can be said, unless we descend into tedious details concerning the powers of the several letters, or simple sounds, of which speech is composed. It is evident that those words are most agreeable to the ear which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, where there is a proper intermixture of vowels and consonants, without too many harsh consonants clashing with each other, or too many open vowels in succession causing a hiatus. It may always be assumed as a principle, that whatever words are difficult in pronunciation, are, in the same proportion, harsh and painful to the ear. Vowels add softness, consonants strength to the sound of words. The melody of language requires a due proportion of both, and will be destroyed by an excess of either. Long words are commonly more agreeable to the ear than monosyllables: they please it by the succession of sounds which they present; and accordingly the most musical languages possess them in the greatest abundance. Among words of any length, those are the most musical which do not wholly consist of either long or short syllables, but contain a due intermixture of both.

The English language abounds with monosyllables, more particularly that portion of the language which is derived from the Anglo-Saxon; and the difficulty of forming an harmonious combination of so many short

words, is a frequent reason for preferring those derived from Latin and Greek. The following sentence contains no fewer than twenty-nine monosyllables in uninterrupted succession: “And he answering, said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."*

The harmony which results from a proper arrangement of the words and members of a period, is a more complex subject. However well-chosen and well-sounding the words themselves may be, yet if they be awkwardly disposed, the music of the sentence is utterly lost. In the harmonious arrangement of his periods, no writer, ancient or modern, can be brought into competition with Cicero: this subject he has studied with the utmost care; and he was fond, perhaps to excess, of what he calls the "plena ac numerosa oratio." We need only open his writings, to find instances that will render the effect of musical cadence sensible to every ear. And in our own language, the following pass ige may be quoted as an instance of harmonious construction.

We shall conduct you to a hillside, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects, and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.-Milton's Tractate of Education.

Every thing in this sentence conspires to promote the harmony. The words are happily chosen, being full of soft and liquid sounds; laborious, smooth, green, goodly, melodious, charming; and those words are so skilfully arranged, that, were we to alter the collocation of any of them, the melody would sustain a sensible injury. The members of the period swell beautifully, one above another, till the ear, prepared by this gradual rise, is conducted to that full close on which it always rests with pleasure.

* St. Luke, 1. 27.-Wycliffe's version is not materially different: "He answerde and seide, thou schalt loue thi Lord God of alle thin herte, and of alle thi soule, and of all thi strengthis, and of alle thi mynde; and the neighbore as thi silf."