ued found. A period of which the members are connected by copulatiyes, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued found; and therefore the fuppreffing copulatives muft animate a defcription. It produces a different effect akin to that mentioned: the members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide fmoothly and gently along; and are a proof of fedatenefs and leifure in the fpeaker on the other hand, one in the hurry of paffion neglecting copulatives and other particles, expreffes the principal image only; and for that reafon, hurry or quick action is beft expreffed without copulatives: Veni, vidi, vici. -Ite: Ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos. Quis globus, O civis, caligine volvitur atra? Æneid. ix. 37. In this view Longinus* juftly compares copulatives in a period to ftrait tying, which in a race obftructs the freedom of motion. It follows, that a plurality of copulatives in the fame period ought to be avoided for if the laying afide copulatives give force and livelinefs, a redundancy of them mult render the period languid. F appeal to the following inftance, though there are but two copulatives. Upon looking over the letters of my female correfpondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous hufbands *Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16. husbands; and at the fame time protefting their own innocence, and defiring my advice upon this occafion. Spectator, No. 170. I except the cafe where the words are intended to exprefs the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty : Dining one day at an alderman's in the city, Peter obferved him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in" the praises of his firloin of beef. "Beef," faid the fage magiftrate," is the king of meat: Beef comprehends in it the quinteffence of partridge, and quail, and venifon, and pheafant, and plum-pudding, and cultard." Tale of a Tub, § 4. And the author fhows great delicacy of tafte by varying the expreffion in the mouth of Peter, who is represented more animated : "Bread," fays he, " dear brothers, is the ftaff of life; in which bread is contained, inclufive, the quinte ence of beef, muiton, veal, venifon, partridges, plum-pudding, and cuitard." Another cafe muft alfo be excepted: copulatives have a good effect where the intention is to give an impreffion of a great, multitude confifting of many divifions; for example: "The army was compofed of Grecians, and Carians, and Lycians, and Pamphylians, and Phrygians." The reafon is, that a leifurely furvey, which is expreffed by the copulatives, makes the parts appear more numerous than they would do by a hasty furvey in the latter cafe the army appears in one group; in the former, we take take as it were an accurate furvey of each nation and of each divifion.* We proceed to the fecond kind of beauty; which confifts in a due arrangement of the words or materials. This branch of the fubject is no lefs nice than extenfive; and I defpair of fetting it in a clear light, except to thofe who are well acquainted with the general principles that govern the structure or compofition of language. In a thought, generally fpeaking, there is at leaft one capital object confidered as acting or as fuffering. This object is expreffed by a fubftantive noun; its action is expreffed by an active verb; and the thing affected by the action is expreffed by another fubftantive noun: its fuffering or paffive ftate is expreffed by a paffive verb; and the thing that acts upon it, by a fubftantive noun. Befide thefe, which are the capital parts of a fentence or period, there are generally under-parts; cach of the fubftantives as well as the verb, may be qualified: time, place, purpose, motive, means, inftrument, and a thoufand other circumstances, may be neceffary to complete the thought. And in what manner thefe feveral parts are connected in the expreffion, will appear from what follows. In a complete thought or mental propofition, all the members and parts are mutually related, fome fightly, fome intimately. To put fuch a thought in words, it is not fufficient that the component ideas be clearly expreffed; it is alfo neceffary, that all the relations contained in the thought' be expreffed according to their different degrees of intimacy. To. annex a certain meaning to a certain found or word, requires See Demetrius Phalereus of Elocution, fett. 63, requires no art: the great nicety in all languages is, to exprefs the various relations that connect the parts of the thought. Could we fuppofe this branch of language to be ftill a fecret, it would puzzle, I am apt to think, the acuteft grammarian, to invent an expeditious method: and yet, by the guidance merely of nature, the rude and illiterate have been led to a method fo perfect, as to appear not fufceptible of any improvement; and the next step in our progrefs fhall be to explain that method. Words that import a relation, must be distinguished from fuch as do not. Subftantives commonly imply no relation; fuch as animal, man, tree, river. Adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, imply a relation: the adjective good muft relate to fome being poffeffed of that quality the verb write is applied to fome perfon who writes; and the adverbs moderately, diligently, have plainly a reference to fome action which they modify. When a relative word is introduced, it must be fignified by the expreffion to what word it relates, without which the fenfe is not complete. For answering that purpose, I obferve in Greek and Latin two different methods. Adjectives are declined as well as fubftantives; and declenfion ferves to afcertain their connection: If the word that expreffes the fubject be, for example, in the nominative cafe, fo alfo muft the word be that expreffes its quality; example, vir bonus: again, verbs are related, on the one hand, to the agent, and, on the other, to the fubject upon which the action is exerted and a contrivance fimilar to that now mentioned, ferves to exprefs the double relation; the nominative cafe is appropriated to the agent, the accufative to the paffive fubject; and the verb is put in the firft, fecond, or third perfon, to intimate its connection with the word € 3 C word that fignifies the agent: examples, Ego amo Tulliam; tu amas Semproniam ; Brutus amat Portiam. The other method is by juxtapofition, which is neceflary with refpect to fuch words only as are not declined, adverbs, for example, articles, prepofitions, and conjunctions. In the English languague there are few declenfions; and therefore juxtapofition is our chief refource adjectives accompany their fubftantives;' an .dverb accompanies the word i qualifies; and the verb occupies the middle place between the active and paffive fubjects to which it relates. It must be obvious, that thofe terms which have nothing relative in their fignification, cannot be connected in fo eafy a manner. When two fubftantives happen to be connected, as caufe and effect, as principal and acceffory, or in any other manner, fuch connection cannot be expreffed by contiguity folely; for words must often in a period be placed together which are not thus related: the relation between fubftantives, therefore, cannot otherwife be expreffed but by particles denoting the relation. Latin indeed and Greek, by their declenfions, go a certain length to exprefs fuch relations, without the aid of particles. The relation of property for example, between Cæfar and his horfe, is expreffed by putting the latter in the nominative cafe, the former in the genitive: equus Cafaris the fame is alfo expreffed in English without the aid of a particle, Cafar's horfe. But in other inftances, declenfions not being ufed in the English language, Taking advantage of declenfiap to feparate an adjective from its fubfantive, as is commonly practifed in Latin, though it detraft not from perfuichiny, is certainly lefs neat than the English method of juxtapofition. Contiquity is more expreffive of an intimate relation, than refemblance merely of the final fallabies.- Latin indeed has evidently the advantage when the adjective and fubilant ve happen to be connected by contiguity, as well as by icfemblance of the final fyllables. |