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Living in as warm a climate as they do, very little clothing is required.

It being hot and dusty, our climb to the summit was very slow. Mrs. Booth's address was so interesting and so well delivered that she held the attention of all.

Almost every girl, when she has attained a certain age, is told that the time has come when she must commence taking piano lessons.

About noon the sun was suddenly hidden by dark clouds, and the wind began to blow and moan in a manner which indicated a storm.

At the western extremity of this sheet of water was a fine large meadow which demanded particular attention owing to the contrast which its deep green color made with the surrounding whiteness of the granite.

The day set for the trip arrived and the girls had but just finished eating their breakfast when the stage appeared for its three passengers. A ride of fifteen minutes brought them to Alum Rock Avenue, a smooth and level road which is about two miles long and is well shaded by rows of tall pine-trees.

5. Simplify by any kind of condensation the following sentences:

The roads were in very bad condition and the wind was directly against us, so we had hard riding.

The hall was exceedingly noisy on account of having so much machinery in motion at once.

The immense plains, covered with sage-brush and a species of palm, made a dreary appearance, as the parched condition of the soil seemed to retard their growth, making them appear scraggy and ill-nurtured.

The crow has a deacon-like demeanor and garb, but it is doubtful whether his character is moral, for all smaller birds are hostile to him. [Reduce to a single assertion. See Lowell's " 'My Garden Acquaintance," Prose Works, Riverside edition, III, 209.] People who have always lived in countries where much wine is manufactured are not given to excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks, but people who live in climates where wine is not found to so great an extent frequently, when the opportunity is

offered, fall into the vice of intemperance. [The thought may be adequately expressed in two sentences of eight words each.]

Before we enter into the treatise of their customs, it is first needful to consider from whence they first sprung; for from the sundry manners of the nations, from whence that people which now are called Irish were derived, some of the customs that now remain amongst them have been first fetched, and since they have been continued amongst them; for not of one nation was that people, but of many and of different conditions and manners. But the chiefest which have first possessed and inhabited it, I suppose to be Scythians, which, at such time as the northern nations overflowed all Christendom, came down to the seacoast, where inquiring for other countries abroad, and getting intelligence of this country of Ireland, finding shipping convenient, passed over thither, and arrived in the north part thereof, which is now called Ulster, which first inhabiting, and afterward stretching themselves further into the land as their numbers increased, named it all of themselves Scuttenland, which more briefly is called Scutland, or Scotland.--SPENSER, View of Ireland (1598).

6. As an exercise of the opposite kind, expand the following into less hurried and less crowded sentences:

This cannot be said of Robert Burns, who, born, as was said, a year or two after Blake, made his first literary venture three years after him, in 1786. Most people know that the publication, now famous and costly, called "the Kilmarnock Edition," was originally issued in the main hope of paying the poet's passage to Jamaica after an unfortunate youth of struggle, and latterly of dissipation. Nay, even after the appearance of the Poems and their welcome, he still proposed to go abroad. He was summoned back to Edinburgh to reprint them, to make a considerable profit by them, and to be lionized without stint by the society of the Scottish capital. He then settled down, marrying Jean Armour, at Ellisland, in Dumfriesshire, on a small farm and a post in the Excise, which, when his farming failed and he moved to Dumfries itself, became his only regular means of support. He might have increased this considerably by literature; but as it was he actually gave away, or disposed of for trifling equivalents, most of the

exquisite songs which he wrote in his later years.-GEORGE SAINTSBURY.

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45. Sentence-length. The length of sentences cannot be governed by law. The number of words that may enter into a single sentence without necessarily destroying its unity is unlimited; it may be one, it may be a thousand. But length will affect character, or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, character determines length. Subtlety, gravity, sublimity, demand long sentences. Simplicity, passion, assurance, find expression in laconic form. The choice, therefore, between the long and the short sentence must be determined by many considerations. He who would become a master of style must try to make himself a master of both.

English sentence-length has a history. The average number of words in the sentence as used by writers of different periods has been learned by actual count to be as follows :*

Fabyan's Chronicle, 1516,

63

Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, about 1600, 41
Macaulay, 1800-1859,

Emerson, 1803-1882,

23 +

20 +

The shortening of the sentence with the development of style is remarkable. There are good writers of our own century whose sentences would still show a high average of words-De Quincey for example-but the general tendency is clear. The minimum limit consistent with good taste would seem to have been reached by Macaulay, possibly even passed. The sentence which is tolerated from the oracular Emerson, would be only ludicrous from the pen of a less aphoristic writer. Look at several good examples of both kinds :

But now that we may lift up our eyes (as it were) from the *L. A. Sherman; "Analytics of Literature," p. 256.

footstool to the throne of God, and leaving these natural, consider a little the state of heavenly and divine creatures: touching angels, which are spirits immaterial and intellectual, the glorious inhabitants of those sacred palaces, where nothing but light and blessed immortality, no shadow of matter for tears, discontentments, griefs, and uncomfortable passions to work upon, but all joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and ever doth dwell: as in number and order they are huge, mighty, and royal armies, so likewise in perfection of obedience unto that law which the Highest, whom they adore, love, and imitate, hath imposed upon them, such observants they are thereof, that our Saviour himself being to set down the perfect idea of that which we are to pray and wish for on earth, did not teach to pray or wish for more than only that here it might be with us, as with them it is in heaven.-HOOKER : Eccl. Pol. I, iv, 1.

As much virtue as there is, so much appears; as much goodness as there is, so much reverence it commands. All the devils respect virtue. The high, the generous, the self devoted sect will always instruct and command mankind. Never was a sincere word utterly lost. Never a magnanimity fell to the ground, but there is some heart to greet and accept it unexpectedly. A man passes for that he is worth. What he is engraves itself on his face, on his form, on his fortunes, in letters of light. Concealment avails him nothing, boasting nothing. There is confession in the glances of our eyes, in our smiles, in salutations, and the grasp of hands. -EMERSON: Spiritual Laws.

Fight for Christ, for religion, and for the holy sacraments of our faith. The prayers of all Christian people, the blood of the martyred bishops, friars, priests, and laymen, shed in that your land, cry to God for your victory. The saints in heaven are interceding for you. The priests on earth stretch forth their consecrated hands night and day for you. Our Saviour himself is among you in the blessed sacrament. Fear not. The enemy is falling by his own weakness. The English nation will turn from the setting sun, and follow no more the broken fortunes of a mean and filthy woman. The heretics are but few, and of all men are most effeminate, most dastardly, least capable of war. The angel of the Lord will scatter them. Take heart. Quit yourselves like men. I shall myself soon be with you. Each day ap

pears a year to me till I enjoy your presence in the Lord.-Abstract of Letter by Cardinal Allen in Froude's History of England, XXXVI.

The abuse of the short sentence may be illustrated by the following passages. They are the beginning and the end of a religious tale called "She of the Holy Light," sincere enough but greatly overwrought.

Hell was moved! The cattle stood still beneath a burning sun. Herds were crowded together panting and breathless. The earth throbbed with an electric thrill. A tremor crept through

the herds. Lightning flashed. . . .

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When Lord Carleton heard all, he at once exclaimed: 'Garangula has done this work! I believed it when I first saw them at the Exhibition—I have always known he was great; I must see him once more.

Lord Carleton sought long. Rome waited.

Sentence-length is largely a matter of sentence division. Where Hooker or Spenser would write a long complex or compound sentence, with many clauses, Macaulay would write a number of simple sentences, dispensing perhaps with many of the connectives (see 26). Compression and ellipsis will also help to shorten the sentence. Sometimes it is only a matter of punctuation. Where another man would write, "Other causes might be mentioned, but it is chiefly to the great reformation of religion that we owe the great reformation of philosophy," Macaulay puts a period after mentioned." Where another would punctuate, "The country was under water; the winter approached; the weather became stormy," Macaulay prefers: "The country was under water. The winter approached. The weather became stormy." It might seem at first that mere punctuation cannot affect style; and yet it does. In that last sentence, as Macaulay writes it, every fact is given additional weight and import by being set apart from every other fact. It must be remembered, however, that

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