when we consider its coherence. But paragraph coherence affects even the form of the sentences, by what has been called "inversion for adjustment." A striking example of this is the following oratorical paragraph :

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, œconomists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt at stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.-Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France.

It should be added, first, that such inversions, besides contributing to paragraph coherence, contribute also, like the exclamatory

Form of Sentences

27

and interrogative forms, to emphasis and variety; secondly, that inversion, exclamation, interrogation, all three must be regarded as exceptional. The frequent use of these devices makes style laboured and pompous.

The length of a sentence, then, and its form are to be decided, not absolutely for the sentence itself, but relatively to the paragraph.

III. THE SENTENCE.

23. In English every statement is punctuated as a sentence unless it be definitely subordinated to some other statement as a dependent clause, or coördinated as an equal member. It is a common error to write

The tide was rising, so we ran.

Those seven words make two sentences—

The tide was rising. So we ran.

For the two statements are left independent, side by side. Not punctuation, but only a definite subordination will make them one sentence

We ran because the tide was rising;

or, better,

Since the tide was rising, we ran.

It is a grosser error to punctuate a clause as if it were a sentence. Until these two con

verse errors are eradicated, nothing further can be done. No one can revise for sentence unity until he recognizes the unit.

24. Except in that it is easier to unify a short sentence than a long one, the length of a sentence has nothing to do with its unity. Above are seven words not in unity, and at lines 27-35 in the paragraph at § 12 are seventy words entirely in unity. Besides, the length of a sentence depends, partly upon the exigencies of the individual thought, partly upon the emphasis of the whole paragraph (§ 20). Length, then, is not the test, but relevance, the bearing of the modifiers on the main part. In the following sentence the modifiers move steadily away from the main part :

In this uneasy state Cicero was oppressed by a new and cruel affliction, the death of his daughter Tullia, which happened soon after her divorce from Dolabella, whose manners and humours were entirely disagreeable to her.

Cast out the

The remedy here is simple. irrelevant modifiers. If they are not worthy the dignity of separate sentences, suppress

them altogether. In general, beware of theHouse-that-Jack-built sentence.

25. But the trouble is deeper. Wherein lies the absurdity of the following sentence?

I turned to reply, when the platform on which I was standing gave way with a crash.

Here the writer unintentionally represents himself as unmoved in the midst of disaster:

When the platform on which I was standing gave way with a crash, I turned to reply.

The sentence is logically upside down, the main thought being expressed as subordinate, the subordinate thought as main. This corrected, the sentence is at once logical.

When I turned to reply, the platform on which I was standing gave way with a crash.

The following sentence has the same fault, but the remedy is to cut the sentence in two:

Vasco de Gama first doubled Cape Colony, and later, in 1652, the Dutch came and made settlements there, when England, always anxious for new territory, seized all South Africa, with the