3. We are anxious not to exaggerate; for it is exposition rather than admiration that our readers require of us here; and yet to avoid some tendency to that side is no easy matter.—-CARLYLE.

Accordingly, his Whig friends have been reduced to the sad necessity of lying and stealing on his behalf, by claiming (and even publishing), as Porson's, a copy of verses ("The Devil's Sunday Thoughts"), of which they must very well know that he did not write, nor had he the power to write. one solitary line.— DE QUINCEY.

47. Variety. Notwithstanding what has been said about the bad effect of certain arrangements of clauses, it must be remembered that the possible arrangements within the limits of correctness and clearness and effectiveness are still almost infinite in number. These various combinations must be sought and practised in order to give life and flexibility to style. Nothing can be more stupefying than a long succession of sentences all constructed upon the same plan, subject first, and verb following. (See 26.) We shall find many reasons for inversions and even distortions, but the simple need of variety is often a sufficient reason in itself. The application of this principle extends of course not only to sentence-construction, but to almost every process and quality that enter into literary style.

48. Emphasis. One of the tests of a good style is the ease with which a reader, reading the work aloud without previous acquaintance, will properly stress and intone the different sentence-elements. Italics are often employed by writers as a help to this end, and the use of them is legitimate wherever they are necessary to clearness or where they give some desired effect that cannot be otherwise secured (Appendix C XVIII). But the presence of italics on every page is an irritation to the eye and sometimes an insult to the intelligence. A striking example of this may be found in the novels of "The Duchess." And even some writers of the highest rank, such as De Quincey and

Poe, have abused the device. The habit of using italics seems to grow upon one, and to blind one to the fact that they are often wholly uncalled for. Some study of Poe's pages will show that in most cases where italics are used the reader would give the proper emphasis just as readily without them. In other cases it becomes the writer's duty to recast, if possible, his sentence. An excess of italics

points to laziness or lack of skill. Many writers get along altogether without them. The newspaper of the present day refuses to print them, and the news-writer must secure his emphasis otherwise, or not at all. How to secure it otherwise, is the subject of this section.

1. Transposition.-There is a certain order of elements. in the English sentence recognized as normal. The subject stands before the verb. A word-modifier of the subject precedes the subject; phrase- and clause-modifiers follow it. Modifiers of the verb follow the verb. Any change in this order will attract attention and result in emphasis. Consider the respective values of the following arrangements:

Run I dared not. I dared not run.

Dishonesty we saw everywhere. We saw dishonesty every

where.

The house beautiful. The beautiful house.

Piteously they begged for mercy. They begged piteously for mercy.

2. Climax. The positions of emphasis in a sentence, as in a paragraph or a composition, are the beginning and the end. Any word, therefore, that is removed from its normal position to occupy one of these stations is made doubly emphatic. The subject at the beginning gets only the emphasis usually due to a subject; but a verb or an adverb in that position becomes at once conspicuous. The majority of such transpositions as have just been illus

trated take advantage of this fact. Advantage is also taken of it when words or clauses are arranged in accordance with their weight and importance, the most important being reserved for the last. This arrangement is technically known as climax, because of the regular ascending effect. Rhetorical climax, however, as illustrated by the formal perorations of public speakers, is hardly to be made a matter of study, being only occasional and being rather too obviously planned for effect. The essential thing is, that we recognize how much a sentence gains by closing firmly. As a rule, therefore, all modifications and restrictions of the main statement should be introduced before the end. Compare the following:

He was very confident that some were left yet.
He was very confident that some yet remained.
He was looked upon as a hero at once by every one.
He was at once looked upon by every one as a hero.
At once and by every one he was looked upon as a hero.

Or rearrange a few of the sentences of Macaulay, who certainly cannot be charged with seeking climax, and mark the bad effect of putting weak elements at the end:

The effect of the book is greatly to raise the character of Lord Clive on the whole, even when we make the largest allowance for the partiality of those who have furnished and of those who have digested the materials.

Clive committed great faults, like most men who are born with strong passions and tried by strong temptations.

The English governors exercised an extensive authority within the fort and its precinct, by permission of the native rulers.

3. Suspense. Closely akin to climax, and frequently involving transposition, is the method of keeping the meaning of a sentence or clause suspended by reserving for the end some important word or some word necessary to complete the construction. When the sense is thus left

incomplete till the very end of the sentence, the sentence is said to be periodic, in distinction from the loose arrangement which permits of pauses before the end. The sentence just written, for example, is loose as a whole, though there is suspense in the first half of it. Compare the following:

We landed) safely) here) after some manoeuvring) on my uncle's part) to keep the boat out of the trough of the sea.

Among the earliest forerunners of perfume-laden summer comes the trailing arbutus) to the New Englander) weary of snow) and biting winds.

Not under the snow where poetic fancy places them, but beneath the dry, dead leaves of the year before, do we seek the waxy blossoms.

The periodic arrangement has been somewhat overpraised. Suspense is frequently of value--perhaps few except the simplest sentences are entirely without it. But the wholly periodic structure is likely to be too artificial to be pleasant. Besides, too much seeking of emphasis defeats its own end: where many things are given emphasis, nothing stands out conspicuously. De Quincey is fond of the periodic arrangement. Macaulay is also called a periodic writer, but hardly with justice. His sentences mostly observe a normal order, though by careful attention to paragraph and composition emphasis he secures a periodic effect. Carlyle is a notoriously loose writer, and yet many fine periods can be found in his work.

EXERCISES.

Criticise the means used to secure emphasis, or the neg

lect to secure emphasis, in the following sentences:

1. I disliked teaching from the depths of my soul.

Comes Paul.

Follow three things.

Comes his army on ?--J. Cæsar.

A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed.

-MILTON.

Gathers here, after dinner, a crowd of listeners eager for the story-teller's budget.

All is not gold that glitters.

All that glitters is not gold.
Not all that glitters is gold.

Yet gold all is not that doth golden seem.-SPENSER.

A glance at any printed page will show that the points in paragraphs which most readily catch the eye are—even more notably than in sentences--the beginning and the end.-BARRETT WENDELL. (Discussed in his "English Composition," p. 105.)

Mr. Carlyle, the most eminent man of letters in England in our generation, has taught us that silence is golden, in thirty volumes. -JOHN MORLEY.

2. The music suggested heavenly choirs as it floated through the air.

It is needless to add that this young hero occupied for some time thereafter the highest pinnacle of fame, in our opinion at least.

Every advanced educator admits the necessity of permitting boys as great freedom as is possible in this respect.

I think it is safe to say that more faces were turned toward the sun during those days of dread than were ever turned toward Mecca in the same length of time.

3. Old prophecies there had been that a maid from the borders of Lorraine should save the fair realm of France.-DE QUINCEY. One of them once offered me a near shot from my study-window one drizzly day for several hours.-LOWELL.

And Willie shook the tears from his eyes as he ran through the darkness, far, far from the rhythmic music and swirling dance, and gazed up at the solemn stars in agony.

Of all beings it might seem as if she, held apart from him, far apart at last in the dim Eternity, were the only one he had ever with his whole strength of affection loved.-CARLYLE.

With the possibility of some such hazard as this, in thought or even in practice-that it might be, though refining, or tonic even, in the case of those strong and in health, yet, as Pascal says of the