here the similitude is not only pleasant, but the pattern is perfect.

2. By doing the same thing it often becomes habitual. 3. Not to exasperate him, I only spoke a few words.

4. Sixtus the Fourth was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books at least.

5. We do those things frequently which we repent of afterwards.

6. Raised to greatness without merit, he employed his power for the gratification solely of his passions.

7. I was engaged formerly in that business, but I never shall be again concerned in it.

8. By greatness, I do not only mean the bulk of any single object, but the largeness of a whole view.

9. If Louis XIV. was not the greatest king, he was the best actor of majesty, at least, that ever filled a throne.

Exercise 59.

Correct the errors in the position of clauses and circumstances, in the following sentences:—

1. I have settled the meaning of those pleasures of the imagination, which are the subject of my present undertaking, by way of introduction, in this paper; and endeavoured to recommend the pursuit of those pleasures to my readers, by several considerations: I shall examine the several sources whence these pleasures are derived, in the next paper.

2. Fields of corn form a pleasant prospect; and if the walks were a little taken care of that lie between them, they would display neatness, regularity, and elegance.

3. I have confined myself to those methods for the advancement of piety, which are in the power of a prince, limited like ours, by a strict execution of the laws.

4. This morning, when one of the gay females was looking over some hoods and ribands, brought by her tirewoman, with great care and diligence, I employed no less in examining the box which contained them.

5. Since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual

intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted or connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is often undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

6. As the guilt of an officer will be greater than that of a common servant, if he prove negligent, so the reward of his fidelity will be proportionably greater.

7. Let the virtue of a definition be what it will, in the order of things, it seems rather to follow than to precede our inquiry, of which it ought to be considered as the result.

8. The knight, seeing his habitation reduced to so small a compass, 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 exorcised by the chaplain.

9. This work, in its full extent, being now afflicted with an asthma, and finding the power of life gradually declining, he had no longer courage to undertake.

10. The witness had been ordered to withdraw from the bar, in consequence of being intoxicated, by the motion of an honourable member.

Exercise 60.

Correct the errors in the position or the too frequent repctition of pronouns, in the following sentences : —

1. These are the master's rules, who must be obeyed. 2. They attacked the Duke of Northumberland's house, whom they put to death.

3. It is true what he says, but it is not applicable to the point.

4. He was taking a view, from a window, of the cathedral of Lichfield, in which a party of the royalists had fortified themselves.

5. It is folly to pretend to arm ourselves against the accidents of life, by heaping up treasures, which nothing can protect us against, but the good providence of our Heavenly Father.

6. Thus I have fairly given you my opinion, as well as

that of a great majority of both houses here, relating to this weighty affair, upon which I am confident you may securely reckon.

7. We nowhere meet with a more splendid or pleasing show in nature, than what appears in the heavens at the rising and setting of the sun, which is wholly made up of those different stains of light, that show themselves in clouds of a different situation.

8. From a habit of saving time and paper, which they acquired at the university, many write in so diminutive a manner, with such frequent blots and interlineations, that they are hardly able to go on without perpetual hesitation or extemporary expletives.

9. Lysias promised to his father never to abandon his friends.

10. They were summoned occasionally by their kings, when compelled by their wants and by their fears to have recourse to their aid.

11. Men look with an evil eye upon the good that is in others, and think that their reputation obscures them, and that their commendable qualities do stand in their light; and therefore they do what they can to cast a cloud over them, that the bright shining of their virtues may not obscure them.

6. UNITY.

Unity in the structure of a sentence consists in making one leading thought connect its different parts.

To attain unity in the structure of sentences, avoid— I. Changing the scene or actor during the course of a sentence;-II. Crowding into one sentence things which have so little connexion, that they may be divided into two or more sentences;-III. All unnecessary parentheses;-IV. Extending a sentence beyond what seems its natural close.

Exercise 61.

Correct the errors arising from the change of the scene or actor in the following sentences:

1. A short time after this injury, he came to himself; and the next day they put him on board a ship, which conveyed him first to Corinth, and thence to the Island of Egina.

2. The Britons, daily harassed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence; who consequently reduced the greater part of the island to their own power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts; and the rest of the country, in customs, religion, and languages, became wholly Saxon.

3. By eagerness of temper, and precipitancy of indulgence, men forfeit all the advantages which patience would have procured; and, by these means, the opposite evils are incurred to their full extent.

4. All the precautions of prudence, moderation, and condescension, which Eumenes employed, were incapable of mollifying the hearts of these barbarians, and of extinguishing their jealousy; and he must have renounced the virtue and merit which occasioned it, to have been capable of appeasing them.

5. He who performs every employment in its due place and season, suffers no part of time to escape without profit; and thus his days become multiplied, and much of life is enjoyed in little space.

6. Desire of pleasure ushers in temptation, and the growth of disorderly passions is forwarded.

Exercise 62.

Correct such errors, in the following passages, as arise from crowding into one sentence things which have no intimate connexion::

1. The notions of Lord Sunderland were always good; but he was a man of great expense.

2. Cato died in the full vigour of life, under fifty; he was naturally warm and affectionate in his temper; comprehensive, impartial, and strongly possessed with the love of mankind.

3. In this uneasy state, both of his public and private life, Cicero was oppressed by a new and deep affliction, the death of his beloved daughter Tullia; which happened soon after her divorce from Dolabella, whose manners and humours were entirely disagreeable to her.

4. The sun approaching melts the snow, and breaks the icy fetters of the main, when vast sea-monsters pierce through floating islands, with arms that can withstand the crystal rock; whilst others, that of themselves seem great as islands, are by their bulk alone armed against all but man, whose superiority over creatures of such size and force should make him mindful of his privilege of reason, and force him humbly to adore the great composer of these wondrous frames, and the author of his own superior wisdom.

5. I single him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish presumption to censure Tacitus, and to write history himself; and your lordship will forgive this short excursion in honour of a favourite author.

6. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; thou knowest not what a day may bring forth: and, for the same reason, despair not of to-morrow; for it may bring forth good as well as evil; which is a ground for not vexing thyself with imaginary fears; for the impending black cloud, which is regarded with so much dread, may pass by harmless: or though it should discharge the storm, yet before it breaks, thou mayest be lodged in that lowly mansion which no storms ever touch.

Exercise 63.

Correct the errors in the use of parentheses, in the following

sentences:

1. Disappointments will often happen to the best and wisest men (not through any imprudence of theirs, nor even