Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1071

 embraces all those forms of error, which, for the purpose of illustration, exercise, and special criticism, have been so methodically and so copiously posted up under the various heads, rules, and notes, of this extensive Grammar. A few suggestions, however, are here to be set down in the form of precepts.

PRECEPT I.--Avoid low and provincial expressions: such as, "Now, says I, boys;"--"Thinks I to myself;"--"To get into a scrape;"--"Stay here while I come back;"--"By jinkers;"--"By the living jingoes."

PRECEPT II.--In writing prose, avoid words and phrases that are merely poetical: such as, morn, eve, plaint, corse, weal, drear, amid, oft, steepy;--"what time the winds arise."

PRECEPT III.--Avoid technical terms: except where they are necessary in treating of a particular art or science. In technology, they are proper.

PRECEPT IV.--Avoid the recurrence of a word in different senses, or such a repetition of words as denotes paucity of language: as, "His own reason might have suggested better reasons."--"Gregory favoured the undertaking, for no other reason than this; that the manager, in countenance, favoured his friend."--"I want to go and see what he wants."

PRECEPT V.--Supply words that are wanting: thus, instead of saying, "This action increased his former services," say, "This action increased the merit of his former services."--"How many [kinds of] substantives are there? Two; proper and common."--See E. Devis's Gram., p. 14. "These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by caprice, but [should be determined] by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography."--See Fowlers E. Gram., 1850, p. 170.

PRECEPT VI.--Avoid equivocal or ambiguous expressions: as, "His memory shall be lost on the earth."--"I long since learned to like nothing but what you do."

PRECEPT VII.--Avoid unintelligible, inconsistent, or inappropriate expressions: such as, "I have observed that the superiority among these coffee-house politicians proceeds from an opinion of gallantry and fashion."--"These words do not convey even an opaque idea of the author's meaning."

PRECEPT VIII.--Observe the natural order of things or events, and do not put the cart before the horse: as, "The scribes taught and studied the Law of Moses."--"They can neither return to nor leave their houses."--"He tumbled, head over heels, into the water."--"'Pat, how did you carry that quarter of beef?' 'Why, I thrust it through a stick, and threw my shoulder over it.'"

SECTION III.--OF PRECISION.

Precision consists in avoiding all superfluous words, and adapting the expression exactly to the thought, so as to say, with no deficiency or surplus of terms, whatever is intended by the author. Its opposites are noticed in the following precepts.

PRECEPT I.--Avoid a useless tautology, either of expression or of sentiment; as, "When will you return again?"--"We returned back home again."--"On entering into the room, I saw and discovered he had fallen down on the floor and could not rise up."--"They have a mutual dislike to each other."--"Whenever I go, he always meets me there."--"Where is he at? In there."--"His faithfulness and fidelity should be rewarded."

PRECEPT II.--Repeat words as often as an exact exhibition of your meaning requires them; for repetition may be elegant, if it be not useless. The following example does not appear faulty: "Moral precepts are precepts the reasons of which we see; positive precepts are precepts the reasons of which we do not see."--Butler's Analogy, p. 165.

PRECEPT III.--Observe the exact meaning of words accounted synonymous, and employ those which are the most suitable; as, "A diligent scholar may acquire knowledge, gain celebrity, obtain rewards, win prizes, and get high honour, though he earn no money." These six verbs have nearly the same meaning, and yet no two of them can here be correctly interchanged.

PRECEPT IV.--Observe the proper form of each word, and do not confound such as resemble each other. "Professor J. W. Gibbs, of Yale College," in treating of the "Peculiarities of the Cockney Dialect," says, "The Londoner sometimes confounds two different forms; as contagious for contiguous; eminent for imminent; humorous for humorsome; ingeniously for ingenuously; luxurious for luxuriant; scrupulosity for scruple; successfully for successively."--See Fowler's E. Gram., p. 87; and Pref., p. vi.

PRECEPT V.--Think clearly, and avoid absurd or incompatible expressions. Example of error: "To pursue those remarks, would, probably, be of no further service to the learner than that of burdening his memory with a catalogue of dry and uninteresting peculiarities; which may gratify curiosity, without affording information adequate to the trouble of the perusal."--Wright's Gram., p. 122.

PRECEPT VI.--Avoid words that are useless; and, especially, a multiplication of them into sentences, members, or clauses, that may well be spared. Example: "If one could really be a spectator of what is passing in the world around us without taking part in the events, or sharing in the passions and actual performance on the stage; if we could set ourselves down, as it were, in a private box of the world's great theatre, and quietly look on at the piece that is playing, no more moved than is absolutely implied by sympathy with our fellow-creatures, what a curious, what an amusing, what an interesting spectacle would life present."--G. P. R. JAMES: "The Forger," commencement of Chap. xxxi. This sentence contains eighty-seven words, "of which sixty-one are entirely unnecessary to the expression of the author's idea, if idea it can be called."--Holden's Review.