provoking such dangerous enemies.' 'The popular lords did not fail to enlarge themselves on the subject.' 'Removing the term from Westminster, sitting the parliament, was illegal.' 'Solomon was of this mind; and I make no doubt but he made as wise and true proverbs as anybody has done since,-Him only excepted, who was a much greater and wiser man than Solomon.' 'Lewis the Fourteenth had reason when he said, "The Pyrenees are removed."

This affectation of adopting French idioms is cleverly ridiculed in Hannah More's Satirical Letter from a Lady to her Friend, in the Reign of George the Fifth':

'Dear Madam,

Alamode Castle.

'I no sooner found myself here, than I visited my new apartments, which are composed of five pieces. The small room, which gives upon the garden, is practised through the great one, and there is no other issue. As I was exceeded with fatigue, I no sooner made my toilette, than I let myself fall upon a bed of repose, where sleep came to surprise me. My lord and I are in the intention to make good cheer, and a great expense, and this country is in possession to furnish wherewithal to amuse oneself. All that England has of illustrious, all that youth has of amiable, or beauty of ravishing, sees itself in this quarter. Render yourself here, then, my friend, and you shall find assembled all that is best, whether for letters, whether for mirth,' &c., &c.

Many mistakes in idiom are made by the application of wrong prepositions.

'The

'The only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.' To which, as Bishop Burnet tells us, the Prince of Orange was willing to comply.' He had been perplexed with a long compliance to foreign manners.' 'Your character, which I, or any other writer, may now value ourselves (?) by drawing, will probably be dropped,' &c. The discovery he made and communicated with his friends.' 'Not from any personal hatred to them, but in justification to the best of queens.' The wisest princes. need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel.' 'A supercilious attention to minute personalities is a certain indication to the want of innate dignity.' 'He found the greatest difficulty of writing.' 'The esteem which Philip had conceived of the ambassador.' greatest difficulty was found of fixing just sentiments.' "The Christians were driven out of all their possessions, in acquiring of which incredible numbers of men had perished.' 'You know the esteem I have of his philosophy.' He is so resolved of going to the Persian court.' "Neither he nor the other shall make me swerve out of the path which I have traced to myself.' 'I do likewise dissent with the "Examiner." 'Dr. Johnson, with whom I am sorry to differ in opinion, has treated it as a work of merit.' 'Ovid, whom ye accuse for luxuriancy of verse.' 'This effect, we may safely say, no one beforehand could have promised upon.' 'A greater quantity may be taken from the heap, without making any sensible alteration upon it.' 'Every office of command should be entrusted to persons on whom the parliament shall confide.' 'All

of which required abundance of finesse and delicatesse to manage with advantage, as well as a strict observance after times and fashions.' The Italian universities were forced to send for their professors from Spain and France.' 'Napoleon sought to ally himself in marriage with the royal families in Europe, to engraft himself to an old imperial tree.' Such were the difficulties with which the question was involved.' 'The accounts they gave of the favourable reception of their writings with the public.' 'Of various natural and acquired excellence, it is hard to say whether the British or French soldiers were the most (?) admirable.'

เ

PROPRIETY.

That our composition is free from foreign and obsolete words, and correct in its grammatical forms, is so much gained; but there are yet other points to be considered. Our grammar may be unexceptionable, and all the words we employ, English, and yet we may be in error as to their application; that is, we may use them in a sense which custom has not assigned to them. It is clear that the wrong application of words must produce obscurity of expression; and the following remarks are therefore made to assist the learner to avoid impropriety in the use of single words.

IMPROPRIETY IN WORDS.

1. A close resemblance in sound between two words will sometimes cause us to use one for the other. Two English words are frequently derived from the same

root, and yet differ in signification. Such are: 'observance' and 'observation; ''endurance' and 'duration; ingenious' and 'ingenuous;' 'product' and 'produce;' 'import' and 'importance; conscience' and 'consciousness;' 'lay' and 'lie;' 'timid' and 'timorous;' 'transient' and 'transitory,' &c.

Some writers have used the verb 'to demean oneself' in the sense of 'to behave meanly;' whereas this verb, though now but seldom used, signifies no more than to behave generally.

'E'er,' a contraction for 'ever,' is sometimes mistaken for the conjunction 'ere' (before); 'genii' is used for geniuses,' &c.

6

2. Mistakes in the use of words also arise from a close resemblance in sense. The principles of difference are here very various; in some cases, one word has an active and the other a passive meaning, as in the following:-' veracity' and 'truth; force' and 'strength; forgetfulness' and 'oblivion;' 'hatred' and 'odium;' ability' and 'capacity;' trust' and 'credit;' ''consent' and 'assent,' &c.

9 เ

6

3. In another class it will be found that the one word differs from the other in intensity of meaning, as in 'compunction' and 'remorse;' diligence' and 'industry; ''intention' and 'purpose; 'moment' and 'instant;' 'pertinacity' and 'obstinacy;' 'plenty' and ‘abundance;' temperance' and 'abstinence,' &c.

4. Again, words may differ from each other as being the one positive and the other negative in meaning; one expressing the presence, and the other the absence, of a quality; as in 'desperate' and 'hopeless;' 'disbelief' and 'unbelief;' 'injury' and 'disadvantage; 'suspicion' and 'distrust,' &c.

5. Lastly, a fertile source of difference of meaning may be found in the principle by which one word has a generic, and the other a specific, signification. This difference will be found between such words as 'leave' and 'quit;' 'bonds' and 'fetters;' 'list' and 'catalogue;' 'praise' and 'applause;' 'way' and 'road,' &c.1

A knowledge of these and many other differences in the signification of words will be of incalculable advantage to the learner. It will not only prevent inaccuracy of expression, but will materially increase his power of writing; especially in narrative and description, where a graphic delineation is more particularly required.

A very common error in writing is to use English words in a foreign sense. Some employ the word 'assist' in the French sense of 'to be present.' To assist at a ceremony means in English to take part in it; whereas, in French, it signifies to be present on the occasion.

To arrive' is another word that has been used incorrectly. A writer says: 'I am a man and cannot help feeling any sorrow that can arrive at man.' (It should be, happen to man.')

'To progress' in the sense of 'to advance' is an Americanism we should do well to avoid.

Sir Archibald Alison, in his 'History of Europe,' uses the strange word 'implemented; thus: All the

1 For more detailed information on this part of the study of English composition, the reader is referred to the Author's 'English Synonymes Classified and Explained.' Longman and Co.