Observe, that, instead of saying die antequam venit, on the day before he came; or die postquam venit, on the day after he came; we elegantly say, pridie quàm venit, and postridie quàm venit.

Usque eo for adeò.

Dionysius the tyrant, being banished from Syracuse, kept a school at Corinth; so impossible was it for him to live without empire.

Usque adeò and usque for adeò.

Some men are so possessed with ambition, that they are not content to have lived magnificently, unless they also are buried so.

Ut for nam, et, when preceded by tam, ita, tantus, &c. : this is done in order to draw sentences closer together, when the one clause is the effect or the consequence of the other, as we have seen before.

1. I am in the greatest perplexity and terror, and I know neither what to do, nor which way to turn myself.

2. How could I be so inhuman, and refuse you your request.

Instead of quidem followed by sed or tamen, the Latins more frequently use etsi, quanquam, licèt, &c.; as,

We cannot indeed do every thing, but we must use every exertion: Etsi omnia non efficere possimus, tamen omnes nervos intendere debemus.

I myself, indeed, who am desirous of administering comfort to you, stand in the greatest need of consolation, because nothing of late has affected me more than your misfortune: however, I not only most earnestly exhort you, but entreat and conjure you by the ties of our mutual friendship, that you would be collected, show yourself a inan, and consider on what conditions life was given us, and in wha' times we were born.

OF THE STRUCTURE OF A PERIOD.

Cicero says, Quinam igitur dicendi est modus melior, quàm ut Latinè, ut planè, ut ornatè, ut ad id, quodcunque agetur, aptè congruenterque dicamus. These rules, which he gives for the direction of the author, may, with equal propriety, be applied to the Latin writer. The first requisite for elegant composition is good Latinity, or a choice of such words and expressions as were in general use among the best Latin writers. The next thing necessary to be considered is, such an arrangement and position of words as may render the sense intelligible, and produce perspicuity, the true parent of elegance, without which the most studied selection of phrases will only create a confused chaos of unintelligible words. In order to effect this, the arrangement must assume the form of a period, with its proper members and proportions; not, however, that the sentence is to be extended or overcharged with unnecessary matter, merely for the sake of completing the exact parts and dimensions of a just period. What is observed by the aptè and congruenter is such an agreement of the words and ideas to the subject, that a proper connexion and correspondence may be maintained between the parts and the body, so as to form a perfect whole. Since a period is effected by a dissection of a primary sentence or proposition, by means of clauses that tend to explain, to define, to denote the cause, time or place of the subject, it is necessary that they should be inserted aptè, that is, after that word to which they properly belong : as we would say, ego librum, quia pulcher est, non vendam ; and not ego, quia pulcher est, non vendam librum; which proves, also, what we have already observed, that those clauses, beginning by quia, licèt, quum, quamvis, ubi, qui, &c., when introduced for the sake of a period, are not to begin the sentence, otherwise they could not be said to form a circuit, or period; but they must come after the nominative or some other word. And, when some practice and exercise have been bestowed upon the composition of a period, with

the observance of its most prominent and distinguishing rules, it will spontaneously acquire a coherence of the parts, and will, as it were, perform its stated revolutions, with perfect regularity, at the same time, without that strict and laboured minuteness, which would only render the style stiff and puerile.

The first feature or character of a period is a circuit, since, without these secondary or intervening parts, it would remain a simple primary idea or proposition. For instance: When Sallust says, Concordia parvæ res crescunt; Discordiá maximæ dilabuntur; that is not a period, because each member is separately understood. But if we were to say, Quemadmodum concordiá parvæ res crescunt, ita discordia etiam maximæ dilabuntur, it would then nearly form a period, since the sense would not be discovered before the completion of the sentence. Still, however, this example, strictly speaking, does not give a precise illustration of a period, as there is no intervening member; but it serves merely to show the suspension of the sense till the sentence is complete. In order to constitute a complete period, or circuit, the sentence must, as it were, be intersected by the insertion of one or more intervening clauses or members; as in this example :

But T. Veturius and Sp. Postumius, in their second consulship, because, after their ill success at Caudium, our legions having passed under the yoke, they had agreed to make peace with the Samnites, were surrendered up to them: At verò T. Veturius et Sp. Postumius, cùm iterum consules essent, quia, cùm malè pugnatum apud Caudium esset, legionibus nostris sub jugum missis, pacem cum Samnitibus fecerant, dediti sunt his.

In this sentence, the primary idea is, T. Veturius et Sp. Postumius dediti sunt his, which is divided by the clause or circuit expressing the cause, quia pacem cum Samnitibus fecerant; and this again is intersected by two other clauses, indicating the time, cùm malè pugnatum apud Caudium esset, and, legionibus nostris sub jugum missis.

The least attention will easily discover the beauty of such a peod, and how essentially necessary the insertion of these circuitous or intermediate clauses is to elegance of style.

A few examples are here subjoined, to show how, from a simple, a compound sentence may be formed, consisting of two, three or four members, each member corresponding and contributing to the whole.

Let the simple proposition be,

That Alexander, by living temperately, would have acquired the veneration of posterity.

If you wish to extend this sentence, by making it to consist of two members, say,

Alexander, if he had lived temperately,

Would have acquired the veneration of posterity.
Three Members:

If Alexander, as much as he excelled other commanders in warlike bravery,

Had also surpassed them in the virtue of temperance, He would have acquired the highest veneration of posterity.

Four Members:

If, as much as Alexander excelled other commanders in warlike bravery,

He had surpassed them also in the virtue of temperance, He would not less have commanded the veneration of posterity,

Than he did the love, the admiration, and the absolute subjection of his own people.

Four Members:

If, unfortunately, impudence had the same influence in the senate and at the bar,

As open and daring violence prevails in the fields and solitary places,

My client would not less be obliged to submit to the effrontery of his adversary in defending his cause,

Than, in the commission of that injury, he showed himself inferior to him in bold and daring courage.

The distribution of a period into its parts will become very easy to the scholar, where the subject itself supplies him with the particles necessary to form the connexion, as those that denote a cause, condition, relation, opposition and comparison, or that tend to explain or define it; as, quum, quia si, quod si, quamvis, ut, qui, and its compounds, aut, vel, ubi, &c.

The simple proposition is,

I have sent you the promised book.

By adding the Cause, the period becomes bimembris. Because you have postponed your coming,-I send you the book I promised.

Comparison:

For as storms and hurricanes recommend and enhance the calm and temperature of the seas and of the skies,

So we may be allowed to suppose, that your former tumults and troubles arose merely to give a greater zest and favour to your present tranquillity.

Condition:

If we had not on our private account many and just motives for the friendship subsisting between us,

I would retrace the first origin of our intimacy from the happy intercourse existing between our parents.

This last might easily be extended to three members:

If we had not on our private account many and just motives for the friendship subsisting between us,

Which a mutual exchange of good offices from our earliest years has so happily confirmed,

I would retrace the first origin of our intimacy from the friendly intercourse existing between our parents.

Concession:

Though I could not but receive the highest satisfaction from the glory of my dear friend Dolabella,

And it filled me with the most lively joy and pleasure on his account,

Yet I cannot but confess that I feel my heart most sensibly affected,

That, in the opinion of the people, I am associated with you in the participation of your praises.

Interrogation:

And now, among the different sentiments of the philosophers concerning the consequence of our final dissolution, May I not venture to declare what are my own?

The relative qui, qua, quod, with its compounds, followed by is, talis, tantus, &c.

It is not fit that any credit should be given to those men,