this opinion by whispers and insinuations.-Macaulay: Francis Bacon. Strangers, meanwhile, were less unjust to the young barrister than his nearest kinsman had been.-ibid. It should be remembered, however, that the beginning of any sentence, more than any other part of it, is subject to the paragraph. 40. The term balance, as applied to sentences, is self-defining (compare § 18). Balance to a certain extent is required of all sentences (§ 27). In all ordinary collocations symmetry has been made a part of correctness. Lapses in this jar upon the ear. And such sentences as the following, though they cannot be called incorrect, have the same effect of discord: The Roman Catholic goes to mass and devotes the rest of the day to pleasure, while the Protestant goes to church and rests the remainder of the day. One feels that the two contrasted statements should be alike in form, that in form as in substance they should be halves of one whole. Developed more highly, this desire for balance has led to many memorable sen tences: When his imagination wells up, it overflows in ornament; when his heart is touched, it thrills along his verse.-Newman: Literature. The power of French literature is in its prose writers; the power of English literature is in its poets.-Matthew Arnold: The Literary Influence of Academies. 41. Here the sentence is cast in halves. This, technically speaking, is the balanced sentence, as distinguished from such sentences as contain balance incidentally. Where the effect of correspondence is heightened by repetition, the balance approaches epigram : The party whose principles afforded him no guarantee would be attached to him by interest : the party whose interests he attacked would be restrained from insurrection by principle.-Macaulay: History of England. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.-Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus to seem to distrust it was still more dangerous.-Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 42. The last example has the inverted balance called by the Greeks chiasmus. It is hardly necessary to point out that the English sentence is not flexible to such forms. Even simple balance easily conveys in English an impression of artificiality hardly felt in the more flexible Greek and Latin. For this reason, and on account of the obvious monotony of a series of balanced sentences, the form has in English a limited use. But, though limited, its use is very distinct and very great. Pithy summaries, especially such as approach epigram, are much heightened by the balance; and, in general, it is an admirable mould for emphatic compound sentences. INDEX TO THE SECTIONS Anacoluthon, 27. asyndeton, 14, 15. Balance, in the paragraph, 18. in the sentence, 26, 40-42. Chiasmus, 42. climax, 5, 16, 18, 34-37. coherence, in general, 4. in the paragraph, 12-15, 22. correlation, 27, 32 b, 40. Development of a theme, 9. in the paragraph, 16-18, 20. explicit reference, 12, 13, 21. Genung, Professor, quoted, 11, 27. Indentation to mark a paragraph, 8. inversion, 22, 38. Long sentences or short, 19-21, 24. Modifiers, placing of, 29, 30. Paragraph defined, 8, 19. indentation, 8. first sentence of, 8, 10. unity, 10, II. last sentence of, 10, 16, 17. subject of, 10. coherence, 12–15, 22. parallel construction, 18. emphasis, 16-18, 20. number of sentences, 19-21. period, or periodic sentence, 32, 33, 37. proportion, 7, 17, 40 (see emphasis). Sentences, long or short, 19-21, 24. unity, 23-26, 33, 34. coordination and subordination, 23, 25, 26, 28. coherence, 27-30, 33- solecisms, 27. clearness, 29, 30. emphasis, 31-42. periodic, 32, 33, 37. loose, 34-37. climax, 35-37. balanced, 40-42. chiasmus, 42. solecisms, 27. Spencer, Herbert, cited, 33. Theme, statement of the, 3, 6. |