า

10. For such words in the following as seem to you lacking in force substitute others, and say just what has been gained by the change.

Yet who were we to frown angrily at him? To the present time I shudder at the thought of him. It was not in so great degree his tallness and the mass of his body, though he was so big that the clipped pointed fashion of his beard - a fashion then new at court- - seemed on him out of keeping and lacking in manliness; nor so much the evilly threatening glance of his gray eyes he had a slight cast in them; nor the grim suavity of his manner, and the harsh threatening voice that permitted of no disguise. It was the sum of these things, the large unrefined presence of the man that was overpowering — that made the great hesitate and the poor bend themselves. And then the understanding that men had of him! Though we knew little of the world's wrong, all we did know had come to us linked with his name.

II. On one subject out of each of the two lists following write a composition of two hundred words, taking care to employ only words that are in keeping. Compare the diction of the two compositions, and say what is the distinction between the kinds of words employed.

12. Study the following selections, and comment on them, with reference to elegance, showing what elements in them contribute to this quality.

I. We do not make our own thoughts; they grow in us like grain in wood; the growth is of the skies, which are of nature nature is of God.

2. A ruined character is as picturesque as a ruined castle. There are dark abysses and yawning gulfs in the human heart, which can be rendered passable only by bridging them over with iron nerves.

3. It was a fine autumnal day, the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple and scarlet. Streaming files of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble-fields.

4. I will tell you what the giving of knowledge is like. Suppose, now, that there were no sun or stars in the heavens, or anything that shone in the black brow of night; and suppose that a lighted lamp were put in your hand, which should burn, wasteless and clear, amid all the tempests that should brood upon this lower world. Suppose, next, that there were a thousand millions of human beings on earth with you, each holding in his hand an unlighted lamp, filled with the same oil as yours, and capable of giving as much light. Suppose these millions should come, one by one, to you, and light each his lamp by yours; would they rob you of any light? Would less of it shine on your path? Would your lamp burn more dimly for lighting a thousand millions?

What do you

13. How may elegance be violated? understand by "fine writing?" What principle should we keep in mind to avoid fine writing?

Look over the following passages.

Point out where

they violate the quality of elegance. Re-write, or improve them with reference to elegance.

1. These impecunious characters and adventurers for weeks and weeks haunted the parliamentary buildings.

2. The master is placed there specially to influence -- intellectually only, many think, but as trully morally.

3. The house that was lately in the process of erection has been destroyed in its entirety by the devouring element.

4. A great many things seemingly relatively perfectly plain, are very difficult to unravel.

5. A petrified body of rotary motion has no affinity for gramineous matter.

6. The friends speedily called into requisition the services of the family physician, but the disease had taken so firm a hold of his system that after a few hours of agony his spirit winged its flights into realms unknown.

7. He came out wagging his tail and making circles with his body, not unlike a cat in pursuit of her appendage.

8. The blushing bride, leaning on the arm of her fond parent, passed up the aisle, the admired of all admirers.

9. It is due to neighbor Diaz (President Diaz of Mexico) to say that he is not taking advantage of this unpleasantness (the Spanish-American War) to throw any garbage over the line fence.

10. The patrons of husbandry, having thoroughly examined all the inventions of genius to be found within the machinery hall, retired to an adjoining department to partake of some liquid refreshments.

11. One boy was in a corner grinding for the examination, while another tried to boost him along whenever he got stuck.

12. Mrs. Bryan allows that she is going to contribute to the Commoner, but she is cock-sure there will be no ladies' department in that sheet. It will be interesting to see how she disguises her feminine fist.

CHAPTER XIII.

DICTION.

CHOICE AND ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS FOR RHYTHM, TONECOLOR, AND EMPHASIS.

91. Rhythm as an Element of Style. It is safe to say that to most people a single clear note of any musical instrument is fundamentally pleasing. A musical tone, as distinguished from mere sound, is one in which the separate vibrations recur at regular intervals; that is, it is one in which the vibrations are rhythmical. Ordinarily we think of poetry only as the rhythmical form of speech or writing, but all good prose makes more or less appeal to our simple delight in rhythm. Further, writing in which the accents occur at somewhat regular intervals is more easily read than that in which accented syllables are grouped together, followed by groups of unaccented syllables. It will generally be found that impassioned prose is especially rhythmical. The fervor that prompts the utterance prompts also to the more musical, more rhythmical form, a form that seems to be required for the rush of feeling that must not be stopped by a number of successive accented syllables. In the following

observe how regularly the accented syllables occur and how easily it is read in consequence. Syllables that have a lighter or secondary accent are indicated by the double accent mark.

| There is a ráre serénitő in the thought of death | when it is known to be the gate of life. | This conviction Brówning had, | and ső his grief was rather that of one whose joy has wéstered earlier. | The sweetest músic of his life had withdrawn: but there was still músic for óne to whőm life in itself was a happiness. He had his són and was not vóid of other sólace: | but éven had it been ótherwise | he was of the strénuous nátures who never succúmb, | nor wish to die, whatever äccident of mortality |ővercome the will and the power.

WILLIAM SHARP: Robert Browning.

Further, the important words, printed in italics, those over which the voice cannot pass lightly, come at somewhat regular intervals; and when two or three such words come together, as in the third and fifth groups inclosed between the lines, these groups which are each made up of those words that are said connectedly with one impulse of the breath are comparatively short, and therefore more time may easily be given to the separate words. The rhythm of prose must not be so pronounced as that of verse, of course; and in this the number of unaccented syllables between the accented syllables varies irregularly. A comparison of the following paragraph, a newspaper clipping making no pretense to literary quality, with the extract from Sharp's life of Browning above, will show the difference between prose which is rhythmical and that which is not.