At the commencement of this fentence, the fun is introduced breaking the icy fetters of the main: the fun is fucceeded by fea monfters piercing through floating islands with their arms; and after thefe have played their part, man is brought into view, to receive a long and ferious admonition.

To this fucceeded that licentioufnefs which entered with the Restoration; and from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt our language: which laft was not like to be much improved by thofe, who, at that time, made up the court of king Charles the Second; either fuch who had followed him in his bauifhment, or who had been altogetherconverfant in the dialect of thofe fanatic times; or young men, who had been educated in the fame company; fo that the court, which used to be the standard of propriety and correctnefs of fpeech, was then, and I think hath everfince continued, the worst fchool in England for that accomplishment; and fo will remain till better care be taken in the education of our young nobility; that they may fet out in the world with fome foundation of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politeness. Swift on the English Tongue. How many different facts, reafonings, and obfervations, are here prefented to the mind!

Authors who are fond of long periods, very frequently fall into errors of this kind. As a proof of this affertion we need only infpect the hiftorical works of Burnet and Clarendon. Even in later and more correct writers, we fometimes find a period extended to fuch a length, and comprehending fo many particulars, as more juftly to deferve the appellation of a difcourfe, than of a fentence. But heterogeneous particulars may occafionally be crowded into periods of no uncommon length. The following quotations will illuftrate this obfervation :

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: alfo our bed is green. Song of Solomon. His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great expence. Burnet's Hist. of his own Times.

I fingle him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish prefumption to cenfure Tacitus, and to write history

himself; and your Lordship will forgive this fhort excurfion in honour of a favorite author.

Bolingbroke on the Study of History.

In ferious compofition, words conveying ideas that are unconnected with each other, ought never to be forced into an artificial union :

Germania omnis a Gallis Rhætifque et Pannoniis, Rheno et Dunubio fluminibus, a Sarmatis Dacifque, mutuo metu aut montibus feparatur. Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum.

But when an author wishes to place fome object in a ludicrous point of view, a combination of this kind may have a good effect:

On l'a donc délivrée fur le champ, et de la foffe et de toutes fes appréhenfions. Hamilton, Quatre Facardins. After much patience, and many a wiftful look, Pennant ftarted up, feized the wig, and threw it into the fire. It was in flames in a moment, and fo was the officer, who ran to his fword. Walpoliana.

He is furely much happier in this noble condefcenfion, and muft acquire a more perfect knowledge of mankind, than if he kept himfelf aloof from his fubjects, continually wrapt up in his own importance and imperial fur.

Moore's View of Society in France, &c. She even believed that the journey would prove a remedy for her asthmatic complaints; her defire of a matrimonial eftablishment was full as efficacious as the vinegar of Hannibal, and the Alps melted before it.

Hayley's Essay on Old Maids.

Mr. Dennel and Mrs. Albery, who neither of them, at any time, took the fmalleft notice of what fhe faid, paffed on, and left the whole weight both of her perfon and her complaints to Camilla. D'Arblay's Camilla.

ation.

II. Parenthefes ought never to be introduced in the middle of fentences; and indeed the unity and the beauty of a period can never be complete where they are introduced in any fituAt prefent they are not fo frequently uled as they were formerly and it is to be hoped, that the time will arrive when they fhall be entirely excluded. They are, at beft, nothing more than a perplexed and awkward method of dif

pofing of fome thought which the writer wants art to intro duce in its proper place.

It feems to me, that in order to maintain the moral fyftem of the world at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for we are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of attaining) but, however, fufficient upon the whole to constitute a ftate eafy and happy, or at the worst tolerable; I fay, it feems to me, that the Author of nature has thought, fit to mingle from time to time, among the focieties of meu, a few, and but a few, of thofe on whom he is graciously pleafed to beftow a larger proportion of the ethereal fpirit than is given in the ordinary courfe of his previdence to the fons of men. Bolingbroke's Spirit of Patriotism.

Into this fentence, by means of a parenthefis, and other interjected circumftances, the author has contrived to thrust fo many particulars, that he is obliged to have recourse to the forry phrafe I say, the occurrence of which may always be regarded as an infallible mark of a clumfy and unskilful conftruction. Such a phrase may be excufeable in conver fation; but in polished writings, it is altogether unpardonable.

The most aftonishing inftance of this refpect, fo frequently paid to Nothing, is when it is paid (if I may fo exprefs myfelf) to fomething lefs than Nothing; when the perfon who receives it is not only void of the qualities for which he is refpected, but is in reality notoriously guilty of vices directly oppofite to the virtues, whofe applause he receives. This is, indeed, the highest degree of Nothing, or, (if I may be allowed the word) the Nothingeft of all Nothings.

Fielding's Essay on Nothing. Here the effect of the author's wit would be rendered more powerful, by the omiffion of thefe qualifying perentheses. Inftead of pointing the fentiment, they have a quite oppofite tendency. In compofitions of this kind, no apology needed to have been offered for fuch expreffions as Fielding has here employed.

The fubfequent quotations will farther illuftrate the difagreeable effect of parenthefes :

The defcription Ovid gives of his fituation, in that first period of his existence, feems (fome poetical embellishments

excepted) fuch as, were we to reafon a priori, we should conclude he was placed in. Lancaster's Essay on Delicacy.

When this parliament fate down, (for it deferves our particular obfervation that both houfes were full of zeal for the préfent government, and of refentment against the late ufurpations) there was but one party in parliament; and no other party could raise its head in the nation.

Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.

It will, therefore, be very reasonable to allow on their account as much as, added to the loffes of the conqueror, may amount to a million of deaths, and then we shall fee this conqueror, the oldeft we have on the records of history (though, as we have obferved before, the chronology of thefe remote times is extremely uncertain) opening the fcene by a destruction of at least one million of his fpecies, unprovoked but by his ambition, without any motives but pride, cruelty, and madness, and without any benefit to himfelf(for Juftin exprefsly tells us, he did not maintain his conquefts), but folely to make fo many people, or fo diftant countries, feel experimentally, how fevere a fcourge Providence intends for the human race, when he gives one man the power over many, and arms his naturally impotent and feeble rage, with the hands of millions, who know no common principle of action, but a blind obedience to the paffions of their ruler.

Burke's Vindication of Natural Society.

III. Sentences ought never to be extended beyond what feems their natural clofe.. Every thing that is one, fhould have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It need not here be obferved, that, according to the laws of rhetoric, an unfinished fentence is no fentence at all. But we frequently meet with fentences which may be faid to be more than finifhed. When we have arrived at what we expected was to be their conclufion, fome circumftance which ought to have been omitted, or to have been otherwife difpofed of, fuddenly prefents itself. Such Appendages tend very much to destroy the beauty and to diminish the ftrength of a period...

And here it was often found of abfolute neceffity to enflame or cool the paffions of the audience; efpecially at Rome, where Tully fpoke, and with whofe writings young divines. (I mean thofe among them who read old anthors) are more

converfant than with thofe of Demofthenes; who, by many degrees, excelled the other; at least as an orator.

Swift's Letter to a Young Gentleman. This is as weak a fentence as could poffibly be written. But without endeavouring to point out the whole of its deformity, I fhall only advert to the circumftance for which it is here introduced. The natural close of the period is at the last femicolon and when we have proceeded thus far, we expect no additional information. But the halting clause, "at least as an orator," is unexpectedly intruded upon us.

Speaking of Burnet and Fontenelle;

The first could not end his learned treatife without a panegyric of modern learning and knowledge in comparison of the ancient; and the other falls fo grofsly into the cenfure of the old poetry, and preference of the new, that I could not read either of thefe ftrains without indignation; which no quality among men is fo apt to raife in me as felf-fufficiency, the worst compofition out of the pride and ignorance of mankind. Temple on Ancient and Modern Learning. Of this fentence the word indignation forms the natural conclufion; what follows, is altogether foreign to the propofition with which the author fet out.

All the world acknowledgeth the Eneid to be moft perfect in its kind: and, confidering the difadvantage of the language, and the feverity of the Roman Mufe, the poem is ftill more wonderful; fince, without the liberty of the Grecian poets, the diction is fo great and noble, fo clear, fo forcible and expreffive, fo chafte and pure, that even all the ftrength and compafs of the Greek tongue, joined to Homer's fire, cannot give us ftronger and clearer ideas, than the great Virgil hath fet before our eyes; fome few inftances excepted, in which Homer through the force of genius hath excelled. Felton's Dissertation on the Classics.

The circumftance fo ungracefully appended to this fentence might be difpofed of in the following manner: "All the world acknowledgeth, &c. that, with the exception of fome few inftances in which Homer through the forces of genius hath excelled, even all the strength and compass of the Greek