CONTENTS.

CHAP. I.

Page

Introduction

CHAP. II.

Of Purity of Style

I. Grammatical Errors

1. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Pronouns

2. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Verbs

3. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Participles

4. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Adjectives

5. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Negative and

Disjunctive Particles

II. Foreign Idioms

III. New and Obsolete Words

Page

CHAP. XXV.

Of the Simple and the Affected Style

235

CHAP. XXVI.

Critical Examination of a Passage in the Writings of Addison 247

CHAP. XXVII

Critical Examination of a Passage in the Writings of Swift

260

CHAP. XXVIII.

Critical Examination of a Passage in the Writings of Harris

268

CHAP. XXIX.

Critical Examination of a Passage in the Writings of Robertson 275

CHAP. XXX.

Of the Method of Attaining a Good Style

284

Examples illustrative of the Progress of English Style

293

THE

ELEMENTS

OF

ENGLISH COMPOSITION.

CHAP. I..

INTRODUCTION.

Some philosophers, supposing that mankind did not receive the gift of language from the divine author of their being, have been pleased to explain the process by which they must have fabricated a language for themselves ; but if mankind had been sent into the world without the principal organ of speech, I could almost as easily have believed them capable of inventing tongues. In the opinion of other writers, eminent for their learning, the true system of etymology consists in tracing the words of every language to one primitive speech. The researches of modern philologers have ascertained the radical affinities of many languages, which were formerly believed to have no connexion with each other; and there is every reason to anticipate that