The present head, which relates to the choice of materials, fhall be closed with a rule concerning the use of copulatives. Longinus obferves, that it animates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the following example from Xenophon. Clofing their fhields together, they were pufh'd, they fought, they flew, they were flain. Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16. The reafon I take to be what follows. A continued found, if not loud, tends to lay us afleep: an interrupted found rouses and animates by its repeated impulfes : thus feet compofed of fyllables, being pronounced with a fenfible interval between each, make more lively impreffions than can be made by a continued found. A period of which the members are connected by copulatives, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued found; and therefore the fuppreffing of copulatives muft animate a defcription. It hath another good effect: the members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide fmoothly and gently along; and are a proof of fedatenefs and leifure in the fpeaker: on the other hand, one in the hurry of paffion, neglecting copulatives and other particles, expreffes the principal images only; and for that reafon, hurry or quick action is beft expreffed without copulatives: Veni, vidi, vici. Ite: Ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos. Æneid. iv. 593. Quis globus, O cives, caligine volvitur atra? [Æneid. ix. 37 In this view Longinus * juftly compares copulatives in a period to ftrait tying, which in a race obftructs the freedom of motion. It follows, that to multiply copulatives in the fame period ought to be avoided: for if the laying afide copulatives give force and livelinefs, a redundancy of Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16. them them must render the period languid. I appeal to the following inftance, though there are not more than two copulatives. Upon looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find feveral from women complaining of jealous hufbands; and at the fame time protefting their own innocence, and defiring my advice upon this occafion. [Spectator, No 170. I except the cafe where the words are intended to exprefs the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty: Dining one day at an alderman's in the city, Peter obferved him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of his firloin of beef. "Beef," faid the fage magiftrate," is the king of meat: Beef comprehends in it the quinteffence of partridge, and "quail, and venifon, and pheafant, and plum-pudding, " and cuftard." [Tale of a Tub, § 4. And the author fhews great delicacy of tafte in varying the expression in the mouth of Peter, who is represented more animated: "Bread," fays he, " dear brothers, is the ftaff of "life, in which bread is contained, inclufive, the quin"teffence of beef, mutton, veal, venifon, partridge, "plum-pudding, and cuftard." Another cafe muft alfo be excepted: copulatives have a good effect where the intention is to give an impreflion of a great multitude confifting of many divifions; for example: "The army was compofed of Gre"cians, and Carians, and Lycians, and Pamphylians, "and Phrygians." The reafon is, that a leifurely fur"vey, which is expreffed by the copulatives, makes the parts appear more numerous than they would do by a hafty survey: in the latter cafe the army appears in one groupe in the former, we take as it were an accurate survey of each nation, and of each division *. We proceed to the fecond kind of beauty; which confifts in a due arrangement of the words or materials. B 2 This * See Demetrius Phalereus of Elocution, fect. 63. Ch. XVIII. This branch of the fubject is not le's nice than extenfive; and I defpair to put it in a clear light, except to those who are well acquainted with the general principles that govern the structure or compofition of language. In a thought, generally fpeaking, there is at least one capital object confidered as acting or as fuffering. This object is expreffed by a fubftantive noun: its action is expreffed by an active verb; and the thing affected by the action is expreffed by another fubftantive noun: its fuffering or paffive ftate is expreffed by a paffive verb; and the thing that acts upon it, by a substantive noun. Befides thefe, which are the capital parts of a fen'ence or period, there are generally under parts: each of the fubftantives as well as the verb, may be qualified: time, place, purpose, motive, means, inftrument, and a thoufand other circumftances, may be neceffary to complete the thought. And in what manner these feveral parts are connected in the expreffion, will appear from what follows. In a complete thought or mental propofition, all the members and parts are mutually related, fome flightly, fome more intimately. To put fuch a thought in words, it is not fufficient that the component ideas be clearly expreffed it is alfo neceffary, that all the relations contained in the thought be expreffed according to their different degrees of intimacy. To annex a certain meaning to a certain found or word, requires no art: the great nicety in all languages is, to exprefs the various relations that connect together the parts of the thought. Could we fuppofe this branch of language to be ftill a fecret, it would puzzle, I am apt to think, the acuteft grammarian, to invent an expeditious method: and yet, by the guidance merely of nature, the rude and illiterate have been led to a method fo perfect, as to appear not fufceptible of any improvement; and the next flep in our progrefs fhall be to explain that method. Words that import a relation, must be distinguished from thofe that do not. Subtantives commonly imply no relation, fuch as animal, man, tree, river. Adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, imply a relation: the adjective good muft relate to fome being poffeffed of that quality: the verb write muft be applied to fome person who writes ; writes; and the adverbs moderately, diligently, have plainly a reference to fome action which they modity. When a relative word is introduced, it must be fignified by the expreflion to what word it relates, without which the fenfe cannot be complete. For anfwering that purpose, I obferve in Greek and Latin two different methods: adjectives are declined as well as fubftantives; and declenfion ferves to afcertain the connection that is between them if the word that expreffes the fubject be, for example, in the nominative cafe, fo alfo malt the word be that expreffes its quality; example, vir bonus: again, verbs are related, on the one hand, to the agent, and, on the other, to the fubject upon which the action is exerted; and a contrivance fimilar to that now mentioned, ferves to exprefs that double relation; the nominative cafe is appropriated to the agent, the accufative to the paffive fubject; and the verb is put in the first, fecond, or third perfon, to intimate its connection with the word that fignifies the agent: examples, Ego amo Tulliam; tu amas Semproniam; Brutus amat Portiam. The other method is by juxtapofition, which is neceffary with refpect to fuch words only as are not declined, adverbs, for example, articles, prepofitions, and conjunctions. In the English language there are few declenfions; and therefore juxtapofition is our chief refource: adjectives accompany their fubftantives*; an adverb accompanies the word it qualifies; and the verb occupies the middle place between the active and palsive subjects to which it relates. It must be obvious, that those terms which have nothing relative in their fignification, cannot be connected in fo eafy a manner. When two fubitantives happen to B 3 be *Taking advantage of a declenfion to feparate an adjective from its fubftantive, as is commonly practifed in Latin, though it detract not from perfpicuity, is certainly lefs neat than the English method of juxtapofition. Contiguity is more expreflive of an intimate relation, than resemblance merely of the final fyllables. Latin indeed has evidently the advantage when the adjective and fubftantive happen to be connected by contiguity, as well as by refemblance of the final fyllables. be connected, as caufe and effect, as principal and acceffory, or in any other manner, fuch connection cannot be expreffed by contiguity folely; for words must often in a period be placed together which are not thus related: the relation between fubftantives, therefore, cannot otherwise be expreffed but by particles denoting the relation. Latin indeed and Greek, by their declenfions, go a certain length to exprefs fuch relations, without the aid of particles: the relation of property, for example, between Cæfar and his horfe, is expreffed by putting the latter in the nominative cafe, the former in the genitive; equus Cæfaris: the fame is also expressed in English without the aid of a particle, Cæfar's horse. But in other inftances, declenfions not being used in the English language, relations of this kind are commonly expreffed by prepofitions. Examples: That wine came from Cyprus. He is going to Paris. The fun is below the horizon. This form of connecting by prepofitions, is not confined to fubftantives. Qualities, attributes, manner of exifting or acting, and all other circumitances, may in the fame manner be connected with the fubftantives to which they relate. This is done artificially by converting the circumftance into a fubftantive, in which condition it is qualified to be connected with the principal fubject by a prepofition, in the manner above defcrib'd: for example, the adjective wife being converted into the fubftantive wisdom, gives opportunity for the expreffion a man of wisdom," instead of the more fimple expreffion, a wife man: this variety in the expreffion, enriches language. I obferve, befide, that the ufing a prepofition in this cafe, is not always a matter of choice it is indifpenfable with refpect to every circumftance that cannot be expreffed by a fingle adjec tive or adverb. 66 To pave the way for the rules of arrangement, one other preliminary is neceffary; which is, to explain the difference between a natural style, and that where tranfpofition or inverfion prevails. There are, it is true, no precife boundaries between them, for they run into each other like the fhades of different colours: no perfon however is at a lofs to diftinguifh them in their extremes: and |