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'lower." The fair is held at Lower Novgorod, and if the name must be shortened the first word should be omitted, not the second.

A great deal of this erroneous use of the adjective for the noun is clearly an affectation. It is thought to give a knowing air to the speech—and perhaps it does, in a small way. Some changes in the language have been wrought by it. For instance, before the building of railways public coaches made long journeys by stages-that is, traveled a specified portion of the distance and then stopped for rest or change of horses. Hence the vehicle was called a stage-coach. But the noun has been dropped and the adjective made to do duty in place of it, so that now, besides the dramatic stage and the carpenter's stage, and the stage of a disease, we have a stage on four wheels-which use of the word is as ugly as it is unnecessary. There is a tendency, also, where we have an adjective, in proper form, made from a noun, to use the noun instead. Thus, everybody except the poets says gold instead of golden, and even the poets have forgotten the good adjective silvern, so that it has become obsolete or archaic. We are still compelled to make a distinction, in some cases, between wood and wooden.

Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) in his Reveries of a Bachelor, writes “a heavy oak floor," when

oaken would be not only correct but more euphonious.

Care should be taken to place the adjective so that there can be no doubt what noun it is intended to qualify. Negligence in regard to this gives the paragrapher an opportunity for a little cheap fun over such expressions as "trimmed ladies' hats " and "embroidered gentlemen's slippers."

Some adjectives have become so worn by constant and indiscriminate use that they have ceased to have any force, and should be retired. Others are overworked by particular classes. Schoolgirls and college boys, especially, have their favorites.

Adverbs. Nothing contributes more to the exactness and elegance of a sentence than the proper placing of the adverb. The choice of place often depends upon the question whether the adverb is the emphatic and significant word in the sentence. "Prescriptions carefully compounded" is a legend usually seen in pharmacies. But every customer knows that prescriptions are compounded there; what the pharmacist wishes to assert is, that he has a habit of carefulness in dealing with drugs. Hence, the legend should be, "Prescriptions compounded carefully," making “carefully" emphatic by its position. On the other hand, when a story-teller has aroused our curiosity to know whether Geraldine will accept or reject the hero, and has used his skill

in making it difficult for us to guess, his climax should be-not "Geraldine rejected him promptly," but "Geraldine promptly rejected him," because the fact of rejection is the important and emphatic thing, rather than the manner in which it was done. Macaulay, in his History of England, Chapter XII, writes: "The most wicked of all laws received his sanction; and it is but a very small extenuation of his guilt that his sanction was somewhat reluctantly given." As the reluctance is the point of the argument, the closing words should be " was given somewhat reluctantly." Certain books bear on the title-page the legend “Privately printed.” All books are printed, and the purpose of this legend is to inform the reader that this book has been printed otherwise than for publication; hence the legend should be "Printed privately."

Adverbs and adverbial clauses appear to have a strong tendency to thrust themselves between the sign of the infinitive and the verb, making what has been called "the split infinitive," and between the auxiliary and the principal verb. See VERBS.

There is a common habit of overusing certain adverbs, especially very and most. It is safe to assert that in half the instances where these words are used to intensify adjectives, the sentence would be more accurate as well as more elegant if the adverb were omitted. No schoolgirl ever says, "She is my

intimate friend," but always "She is my most intimate friend," and few persons can attribute to a friend or neighbor any quality in its simple aspect. They all say "He is very witty," or "He is very penurious."

Afraid. The phrase "I am afraid," from being used humorously has come into common use in cases where no humor is intended and there is no cause for fear. It would better be avoided. Yet there is an exceedingly delicate rhetorical use of it, in which the speaker, about to mention something that should cause fear or sorrow to the person he addresses, attributes the fear to himself, as when a father says, "My son, I fear you have neglected your lessons." Holmes, in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, writes: "Iris has told me that the Scottish gift of second sight runs in her family, and that she is afraid she has it." The meaning here may be literally as expressed; but it is more probable that the young lady was not in any way frightened by the supposition.

After. This word, which is primarily a preposition—as in "after many years," "after us the deluge," "the dog went after the bird "-and secondarily an adjective—as in "the after glow," "the after effects"-is often used erroneously as an adverb (instead of afterward), especially with "soon," as "He went to California, and died soon

after." The cyclopædias are peppered on nearly every page with this erroneous expression. The sentence should be either, " He went to California, and died soon afterward," or "Soon after going to California, he died," according as the one or the other of the two pieces of information is the more important to the context or the occasion. Prescott, in his Conquest of Mexico, writes: "He passed Potouchan, and soon after reached the mouth of the Rio de Tabasco."

There is a superfluous use of after in connection with the perfect participle, as, "After having read the book, he wrote a review of it." The sentence should be either, " Having read the book, he wrote a review of it" or "After reading the book, he wrote a review of it." See PARTICIPLES.

All. When this word is used in connection with a negative, its significance is often reversed or destroyed by misplacement. Thus, we read in one of Lamb's essays, "All valentines are not foolish "which means, grammatically, that no valentines are foolish. What Lamb means is, Not all valentines are foolish." Ruskin, in Modern Painters, Part III, Chapter VI, writes, "All curves are not equally beautiful." He means, Not all curves are equally beautiful." In a scientific essay we read: "A wine is sweet when all the sugar is not transformed into alcohol." The author should have

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