She said in a tone

was choked with tears, etc.

was intended to be emphatic but

Crown him-that, and then I grant we put a sting in him, which, at his will, he may do danger with.-J. Cæsar, II, 1.

Study also the use of relatives in some of the selections in Appendix C-e.g., XXII, 15.

41. Negation.-Sentences are often made obscure by a careless use of the negative. In the first place, too many negative words tend to confuse the reader. In the second place, it is not always clear just how much or what part of the statement the negative is intended to cover. The "if not" construction is peculiarly hazardous. Examples:

You cannot deny that you did not give me warning until there was no longer opportunity to be of service.

They are brought face to face with the fact that law rules the world and governs success and not chance.

I regard the injury as serious, if not fatal. [Is the injury possibly fatal, or probably not?]

NOTE.-In English two negatives make an affirmative. Nor is not required between alternatives of a sentence that stands in the negative form, though it is sometimes preferable to or because it is more emphatic. Nor must follow neither; nor may also stand between two coördinate negative statements, where it is equivalent to and not and provides the only negative necessary in the second statement.

EXERCISE.

Criticise the use of negatives:

A few glimpses which I have had into her past have revealed traces of sorrow and heartache which I could scarcely believe had not been entirely foreign to her experiences.

It was not till seventeen years after the treaty that the Acadians could be brought to take the oath without qualifications which made it almost useless.

There were not many rime combinations unknown to the Elizabethans, and the sequence a b b a forms no exception.

There was no slugging or fighting, as had been predicted.

Humane treatment and wholesome influences as well as strict discipline could not be supplied in the penitentiary system.

You cannot carry a full course of study as well as keep up the necessary exercise and make a living.

He also shows that man and woman are not the same, one being merely undeveloped.

His body was not huge and unwieldy because of a certain limit he imposed upon his appetite.

Mr. Davenport, a local writer of talent, if not genius, contributes a poem.

Never omit I from a sentence in a letter merely as a matter of taste.

Nothing suggestive of the slums nor the prison is ever mentioned nor presented to their gaze.

They were never seen nor heard of again.

There is no puny carping nor cavilling in the process.

42. Ellipsis.-Brevity is nearly always desirable, and the art of throwing away superfluous words is, as we shall see later, one to be cultivated. But certain ellipses are inelegant or best confined to colloquial speech-the omission of the relative pronoun, for example, as in "You are just the man I am looking for." Other ellipses result in obscurity and are therefore to be avoided altogether. They are of great variety, ranging from the omission of an article or a preposition (cp. 39) to the omission of an entire clause. Examples will be of more service than analysis:

You can procure them of the grocer and druggist.

Being just now much in need of money, a friend of mine suggests that I write to you.

Their ammunition, too, was giving out as well as the English. Between the chief building and western wing arose a very tall and rather slender square chimney of hard Dutch bricks, alternately black and red. [Supply made after chimney and the attachment of black and red becomes at once apparent.]

Early Roman beliefs differed somewhat from the Greeks. [Write "from those of the Greeks," or (6 from early Grecian beliefs."]

He was not half so eager to see her as her brother. [Supply after as either was or to see, according to meaning.]

Miss M. E. Stratton, a teacher in the Franklin High School, disqualified for the university by Professor Brooks, writes in explanation. [It is the high school which the writer meant to say was "disqualified.”]

Passing down the pier later in the day we noticed all the shops were filled with women. [At first reading shops will be taken as object of noticed.]

I am so glad he came.

The fault exemplified in the last sentence is peculiarly distressing. It is sometimes said to be peculiarly feminine. This so is practically meaningless without something to measure it by, and the reader naturally expects a complement. This is also true of certain demonstrative words, such as the and that. Take the sentence, "If the questioning faculty of a child be not wisely directed he soon becomes disagreeable and easily grows into that deplorable condition of the overinquisitive person who is shunned by all." Use simply the instead of that before deplorable. The that would appear to be an appeal to the reader's own knowledge a sort of "you know what." A disturbing element is introduced and much of the direct force of the statement is lost. Besides, that leads one to expect a defining clause following, and thus the reader is deceived. Mark a similar abuse of the word the in the third example cited on page 164.

There is a species of ellipsis often affected in letter-writing, viz., the omission of the pronoun I. It is more a violation of good taste than of clearness. It certainly does not help to relieve a letter of any egotistic tone, for self-consciousness is more conspicuous where the I is omitted than where it is naturally used. And as for brevity, the rule even among business men is "courtesy before brevity." The following is an example of the error:

Have received your invitation to spend a week with you in the country, and will accept with pleasure.

EXERCISE.

Make the sentences clear by supplying omitted words: That is the way I learned.

The plantlets are dug up and planted in a new bed.

He learned from the hotel register that his uncle and daughter were in the city.

He holds that the education of woman is necessary, but in accordance with natural laws.

When in Japan last year it was my good fortune to make the acquaintance of Fukuchi Gen-ichiro, who is frequently described in the Japanese newspapers as "the peerless dramatist."

Having been born and raised in Georgia, I am more familiar with her geographical conditions than with any other State or country.

On either side grow thrifty, bright-colored carnations, whose spicy fragrance, though mingled with magnolias and roses, yet remains distinct.

The officer was better disposed to England than France.

At first this piece pleased the people less than the critics.— MACAULAY.

The writers first named are known to have been scrupulous in their use of good English, and no other.

Miss Bates looked about her so happily.-JANE AUSTEN: Emma. And then it is so easy to see that she has such a happy, contented disposition.

Prof. E. Pitti, who teaches music, says William Dodge, the capitalist, kicked him down a flight of stairs.

The actual wrong, Pompilia seemed to do,

Was virtual wrong done by the parents here.—BROWNING. And this dead Youth, Asclepios bends above,

Was dearest to me.-Id.

43. Reference. Few things betray the loose thinker or the inexperienced writer so readily as his management of reference-words. By reference-words" are meant all

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words used to refer to words or ideas already expressed or soon to be expressed-all words that take for granted. and point to some definite idea in both writer's and reader's mind. Pronouns and pronominal adjectives and adverbs constitute the majority of such words. The difficulty lies in making the reference both clear and precise. We note three common faults:

1. There may be ambiguity of reference.

No sooner was the heavier bag removed from the chest than he motioned to Atkins to lend a hand, and together they carried it into the adjoining chamber.

Thus is plainly shown what our policy has been in this matter, and any reasonable person who has made a study of the question will admit that it is one of great importance to our country.

There are several devices for avoiding this sort of ambiguity. Rearrangement is often helpful, and sometimes such words as this, that, the former, will make the reference clear. But the best device, which is really the absence of device, is simple repetition. "Avoid absolutely," writes the Duke of Argyll, "such phrases as the former' and 'the latter,' always preferring repetition to the use of such tiresome references." *

2. The reference may be unnatural or unexpected because the thing referred to is not the most prominent subject of thought. It should be borne in mind here that the subject of a sentence is usually considered the subject of the discourse for the time being. Accordingly, when there is a change of subject, it is not often safe or easy to make the change through a pronoun. Nor, when there is a change of reference, is it safe to repeat a reference-word already used.

The brownie did not originate in Palmer Cox's brain, but was taken up and developed by him. He was born in Granby, near * George Bainton: "Art of Authorship," p. 263.