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Speaking of the fuperftitious practice of locking up the room where a person of dif→ tinction dies:

The knight, seeing his habitation reduced to fo fmall a compafs, and himself in a manner shut out. of his own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung open, and exorcifed by his chaplain. Spectator, No 110.

Better thus:

The knight, seeing his habitation reduced to fo fmall a compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his own house, ordered, upon the death of his mother, all the apartments to be flung open."

Speaking of fome indecencies in conver

fation:

As it is impoffible for such an irrational way of conversation to last long among a people that make any profession of religion, or show of modefty, if the country-gentlemen get into it, they will certainly be left in the lurch. Spectator, No. 119.

The ambiguity vanishes in the following arrangement.

the country-gentlemen, if they get into it,

will certainly be left in the lurch.

Speaking

* Speaking of a discovery in natural philofophy, that colour is not a quality of mat

ter:

As this is a truth which has been proved inconteftably by many modern philofophers, and is indeed one of the finest speculations in that science, if the English reader would fee the notion explained at large, he may find it in the eighth chapter of the fecond book of Mr Locke's effay on human understanding. Spectator, N° 413.

Better thus:

As this is a truth, &c. the English reader, if he would fee the notion explained at large, may find it, &c.

A woman feldom afks advice before fhe has bought her wedding-cloaths. When she has made her own choice, for form's fake the fends a conge d'elire to her friends. Ibid. N° 475.

Better thus:

fhe fends for form's fake a conge d'elire

to her friends.

And fince it is neceffary that there should be a perpetual intercourfe of buying and felling, and VOL II.

dealing

dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted or connived at, or bath no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. Gulliver's Travels, part 1. chap. 6.

Better thus:

And fince it is neceffary that there fhould be a perpetual intercourfe of buying and felling, and dealing upon credit, the honest dealer, where fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no law to punish it, is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

From these examples, the following observation will readily occur, that a circumftance ought never to be placed betwixt two capital members of a period; for by fuch fituation it must always be doubtful, fo far as we gather from the arrangement, to which of the two members it belongs. Where it is interjected, as it ought to be, betwixt parts of the member to which it belongs, the ambiguity is removed, and the capital members are kept distinct, which is a great beauty in compofition. In general, to preserve members diftinct which fignify things diftinguished in the thought,

the

the fure method is, to place first in the confequent member fome word that cannot connect with what precedes it.

If by any one it fhall be thought, that the objections here are too fcrupulous, and that the defect of perfpicuity is easily fupplied by accurate punctuation; the answer is, That punctuation may remove an ambiguity, but will never produce that peculiar beauty which is felt when the sense comes out clearly and diftinctly by means of a happy arrangement. Such influence has this beauty, that by a natural transition of feeling, it is communicated to the very found of the words, fo as in appearance to improve the mufic of the period. But as this curious fubject comes in more properly afterward, it is fufficient at prefent to appeal to experience, that a period fo arranged as to bring out the fenfe clear, feems always more musical than where the fenfe is left in any degree doubtful.

A rule deservedly occupying the fecond place, is, That words expreffing things connected in the thought, ought to be placed as near together as poffible. This rule is Q92

derived

derived immediately from human nature, in which there is discovered a remarkable propenfity to place together things that are in any manner connected *. Where things are arranged according to their connections, we have a sense of order: otherwife we have a fenfe of disorder, as of things placed by chance. And we naturally place words in the fame order in which we would place the things they fignify. The bad effect of a violent feparation of words or members. thus intimately connected, will appear from the following examples.

For the English are naturally fanciful, and very often difpofed, by that gloominefs and melancholy of temper which is fo frequent in our nation, to many wild notions and vifions, to which others are not fo liable.

Spedator, No 419.

Here the verb or affertion is, by a pretty long circumstance, violently separated from the subject to which it refers. This makes a harsh arrangement; the less excusable that

• See chap. I.

the

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