great alarm'. 'Fill' is to be qualified, not 'watch' or 'obey'.

This was as well evidenced as a great many nearly as marvellous stories'; as a great many stories nearly as mar

vellous'.

'How well amidst all the cares of office Pitt retained through life his classic knowledge is shown among several other testimonies by one which Lord John Russell has recorded'. 'How well Pitt, amidst all the cares of office, through life retained his classical knowledge is shown by various testimonies, and among these by one that Lord John Russell has recorded'.

This is the title of a form used in municipal elections: 'Intimation by returning officer to candidate of his nomination'. There is some difficulty in avoiding this jumble caused by separating words from their grammatical connections, and by uniting those that are not connected. We might say—' Returning officer's intimation to candidates of their being nominated'. Or, 'Intimation to candidates, by the returning officer, of their being nominated'. Each of the three qualifications wants to be close to 'intimation'; one must be disappointed.

'Accustomed to a land at home where every height might prove a cathedral tower'. Accustomed at home to a land

where every height— ’.

Unnatural separations often arise in following out the regular order of a sentence. When the object is loaded with qualifying adjuncts, a short adverbial expression is not easily delayed till these are all given. We last night received a piece of ill news at our club, which very sensibly affected every one of us'. Transpose the adverbial phrase— 'We last night received at our club a piece of ill news'. Or carrying the amendment still further-'Last night, at the club, we received a piece of ill news which sensibly affected us all '.

'He has visited several countries as a public minister where he formerly wandered as a gipsy'. 'He has visited as a public minister several countries where'. As a public

minister he has visited several countries--'. Several countries, where he wandered as a gipsy, he has visited as a minister'.

'I had often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country'. The phrase 'from my friend' is in one view rightly placed after 'invitation', and in another view it comes between the verbal noun and its adjunct to pass away'. Better, therefore, 'I had often received from my friend, &c., an invitation to pass away a month with him in the country'. 'My friend Sir Roger had often invited me to pass away

In the following examples a short adverbial phrase is well placed between the verb and the object. 'He (William III.) had consulted by letter all the most eminent physicians of Europe'. We could not put by letter' at the end.

They found by my eating that a small quantity would not suffice me'. (Gulliver.)

'Zeus has around him his council of the greater Gods'. (Freeman.) 'Zeus has his council of the greater Gods around him' would suggest a wrong meaning.

'He imparts without reserve secrets of the highest moment'. 'He explains with perfect simplicity vast designs affecting all the governments of Europe'.

Shall not the street-preacher, if so minded, take for the text of his sermon the stones in the gutter?' (Thackeray).

'I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience'.

The adverbial phrase is insignificant, and might be omitted without sensible loss; while the object draws to itself undivided attention.

An important and leading adverbial adjunct that, in the usual grammatical order, would come at the end of a clause or sentence, can with great propriety and force be brought to the beginning. This is one of the best known and most widely employed rhetorical inversions. The intention being

to qualify the entire clause, we but follow the greatest law of qualifying order, which is to make the qualification precede what is qualified.

'With a great sum obtained I this freedom'. Usual order -'I obtained this freedom with a great sum'. Once, and once only, after his acquittal, he interfered (did he interfere) in politics'. (Macaulay-Hastings.)

'Week in, week out, from morn to night

You can hear his bellows blow'. (Longfellow.) 'For the sake of your fame, for the sake of the civilization you have attained, stifle not defenceless wretches in caverns'. (Jerrold.)

Now by your children's cradles, now by your father's graves, Be men to-day, Quirites, or be for ever slaves'.

(Macaulay.)

The negative adverbs 'not', 'never', are especially favoured with this position of emphatic qualification. Not a muscle of his face moved. Not a sigh broke from him'. 'Not a drum was heard '. 'Not all the priests of Hymen, not all the incantations of the gods, can make it whole '.

'Never, not even under the tyranny of Laud, had the condition of the Puritans been so deplorable as at that time. Never had spies been so actively employed in detecting congregations. Never had magistrates, grand jurors, rectors, and churchwardens been so much on the alert'. (Macaulay.) 'Never did men live under such a crushing sense of degradation, never did they look back with more bitter regret, never were the vices that spring out of despair so rife, never was sensuality cultivated more methodically, never did poetry curdle so readily into satire, never was genius so much soured by cynicism, and never was calumny so abundant or so gross or so easily believed'. (Ecce Homo.)

The mere fact that the adverbial qualifications of a sentence are numerous, is a sufficient reason for placing at the commencement the one that most sweepingly qualifies the whole sentence. This is exemplified in the preceding instance, as well as in those given under the Inversion of Sub

ject and Verb, (p. 295), and throughout the whole discussion of Order of Words.

The same arrangement also favours closeness of connection with a previous statement: The Queen was carried to Stirling; there she was (was she) safe'. 'I shouted, and the young man heard me not. A second time I shouted, and now he heard me, for now he raised his head'.

' For this did Servius give us laws? For this did Lucrece bleed?'.

'For this was the great vengeance wrought on Tarquin's evil seed ?'.

'Amidst the cares of state, the King retained his passion for music, for reading, for writing, for literary society. To these amusements he devoted much time'. (MacaulayFrederick.)

'Logan defended the accused governor with great ability in prose. For lovers of verse, the speeches of the managers were burlesqued in Simpkin's letters'. No doubt one reason for the position of the phrase in italics is to contrast with the phrase in prose' in the preceding sentence.

It is a principle of Order, as regards qualifying circumstances, that, generally speaking, time comes first, place next, and manner last.

In giving Births, Marriages, Deaths, place is usually given first. This is the opening of Carlyle's paper on the Death of Goethe: 'In the Obituary of these days stands one article of quite peculiar import; the time, the place, and particulars of which will have to be often repeated and rewritten and continue in remembrance many centuries: this, namely, that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died at Weimar, on the 22nd March, 1832'.

:

In obedience to the principle, we should write as follows :(Birth). On the 7th inst., at 10 Lansdowne Crescent, Mrs. Williamson of a son'.

(Marriage). On the 19th, at St. George's, Bloomsbury, by the Rev. Joseph Pickering, Captain Wilson, 19th Regi

ment, to Maria Ann, second daughter of William Horsman, Esq., of Ashley Grove, Surrey'.

(Death). 'On the 31st prox., at 17 George Street (of apoplexy), James Roger, contractor, aged 69'.

PLACING OF PREPOSITIONS.

The general rule in Prepositions is that they precede their object. One important exception has been adverted to under the Relative Pronouns. When the object is a Relative Pronoun, the preposition is often thrown to the end: 'all that he gave me charge of'; 'whom we have to do with' (with whom we have to do).

There is another case for inversion, namely, in the Interrogative construction. The emphasis of interrogation requires us to begin a question with 'Who', 'Whom', 'Which', 'What', instead of allowing a preposition to precede: 'What are we coming to?' not-' To what are we coming?' 'Who or whom did you give it to ?' not-' To whom did you give it?' To preface a question by a preposition, partly does away with the difference between the relative construction and the interrogative.

Speaking of progress, Mr. Disraeli put this interrogation -Progress, from what to what?'; we might say also, 'progress, what from and what to ?', or 'progress, what from and to?'. In the original form, 'and' would possibly be an improvement: 'Progress, from what and to what? With 'where' as an interrogative word, the preposition always follows: 'where to?' wherefore?' This accustoms us to the more emphatic and less ambiguous form. From whence' is not so good for interrogation as 'where from ?' or' whence?'

PLACING OF CONJUNCTIONS.

The combinations 'not-but', 'not only-but also ', are, properly speaking, Conjunctions. Misplacement is very frequent with them. I give examples. 'I am (not) come 'not' to send peace on the earth but a sword'. This is a