"mingle our mirth, impart our secrets, communi"cate our counsels, and make mutual compacts " and agreements to supply and assist each other." Considering speech as contributing to so many good purposes, words that conyey clear and distinct ideas, must be one of its capital beauties. This cause of beauty is too extensive to be handled as a branch of any other subject; for to ascer tain with accuracy even the proper meaning of words, not to talk of their figurative power, would require a large volume; an useful work indeed, but not to be attempted without a large stock of time, study, and reflection. This branch therefore of the subject I humbly decline. Nor do I propose to exhaust all the other beauties of language that relate to signification: the reader, in a work like the present, cannot fairly expect more than a slight sketch of those that make the greatest figure. This task is the more to my taste, as being connected with certain natural principles; and the rules I shall have occasion to lay down, will, if I judge rightly, be agreeable illustrations of these principles. Every subject must be of importance that tends to unfold the human heart; for what other science is of greater use to human beings? The present subject is too extensive to be discussed without dividing it into parts; and what follows suggests a division into two parts. In every period, two things are to be regarded: first, the words of which it is composed; next, the arrangement of these words; the former resembling thẹ stones that compose a building, and the latter re sembling the order in which they are placed. Hence the beauties of language with respect to signification, may not improperly be distinguished into two kinds: first, the beauties that arise from a right choice of words or materials for constructing the period; and next, the beauties that arise from a due arrangement of these words or materials. I begin with rules that direct us to a right choice of words, and then proceed to rules that concern their arrangement. And with respect to the former, communication of thought being the chief end of language, it is a rule, That perspicuity ought not to be sacrificed to any other beauty whatever: if it should be doubted whether perspicuity be a positive beauty, it cannot be doubted that the want of it is the greatest defect. Nothing therefore in language ought more to be studied, than to prevent all obscurity in the expression; for to have no meaning, is but one degree worse, than to have a meaning that is not understood. Want of perspicuity from a wrong arrangement, belongs to the next branch. I shall here give a few examples where the obscurity arises from a wrong choice of words; and as this defect is too common in the ordinary herd of writers to make examples from them necessary, I confine myself to the most celebrated authors. Livy, speaking of a rout after a battle, Multique in ruina majore quàm fuga oppressi obtruncatique. L. 4. § 46. This author is frequently obscure, by expressing but part of his thought, leaving it to be completed by his reader. His description of the sea-fight, 1.28. cap. 30. is extremely perplexed. Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcæ Rupere. Horace, epod. xiii. 22. Horace, epod. xiv. 11. Qui persæpe cava testudine flevit amorem, I am in greater pain about the foregoing passages, than about any I have ventured to criticise, being aware that a vague or obscure expression, is apt to gain favour with those who neglect to examine it with a critical eye. To some it carries the sense that they relish the most; and by suggesting various meanings at once, it is admired by others as concise and comprehensive: which by the way fairly accounts for the opinion generally entertained with respect to most languages in their infant state, of expressing much in few words. This observation may be illustrated by a passage from Quintilian, quoted in the first volume for a different purpose. At quæ Polycleto defuerunt, Phidiæ atque Alcameni dantur. Phidias tamen diis quam hominibus efficiendis melior artifex traditur: in ebore vero, longe citra æmulum, vel si nihil nisi Minervam Athenis, aut Olympium in Elide Jovem fecisset, cujus pulchritudo adjecisse aliquid etiam receptæ religioni videtur; adeo majestas operis Deum æquavit. The sentence in the Italic characters appeared to me abundantly perspicuous, before I gave it peculiar attention. And yet to examine it independent of the context, its proper meaning is not what is intended the words naturally import, that the beauty of the statues mentioned, appears to add some new tenet or rite to the established religion, or appears to add new dignity to it; and we must consult the context before we can gather the true meaning; which is, that the Greeks were confirmed in the belief of their established religion by these majestic statues, so like real divinities. There may be a defect in perspicuity proceeding even from the slightest ambiguity in construction ; as where the period commences with a member conceived to be in the nominative case, which afterward is found to be in the accusative. Example "Some emotions more peculiarly con "nected with the fine arts, I propose to handle "in separate chapters."* Better thus: "Some "emotions more peculiarly connected with the "fine arts, are proposed to be handled in separate ،، chapters.” 66 I add another error against perspicuity; which I mention the rather because with some writers it passes for a beauty. It is the giving different names to the same object, mentioned oftener than once in the same period. Example: Speaking of the English adventurers who first attempted the conquest of Ireland, "And instead of reclaiming "the natives from their uncultivated manners, 66 they were gradually assimilated to the ancient "inhabitants, and degenerated from the customs "of their own nation." From this mode of expression, one would think the author meant to distinguish the ancient inhabitants from the natives and we cannot discover otherwise than from the sense, that these are only different names given to the same object for the sake of variety. But perspicuity ought never to be sacrificed to any other beauty, which leads me to think that the passage may be improved as follows: “ And dege"nerating from the customs of their own nation, they were gradually assimilated to the natives, " instead of reclaiming them from their unculti"vated manners." 66 The next rule in order, because next in importance is, That the language ought to correspond * Elements of Criticism, vol. i. p. 43. edit, 1. |