"Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his [the Puritan's] account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the Evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ran somed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God! '' 1

"A character has been drawn of a very eminent citizen of Massachusetts, of the last age, which, though I think it does not entirely belong to him, yet very well describes a certain class of public men. It was said of this distinguished son of Massachusetts, that in matters of politics and government he cherished the most kind and benevolent feelings towards the whole earth. He earnestly desired to see all nations well governed; and to bring about this happy result, he wished that the United States might govern the rest of the world; that Massachusetts might govern the United States; that Boston might govern Massachusetts; and as for himself, his own humble ambition would be satisfied by governing the little town of Boston." 2

The value of the climax is further shown by the Anti-climax. absurd effect of the anti-climax :

An obituary notice, after enumerating the virtues of the deceased, ended with praise of his handwriting.

"What pen can describe the tears, the lamentations, the agonies, the animated remonstrances of the unfortunate prisoners!"

"Language can inform them [words] with the spiritual philosophy of the Pauline epistles, the living thunder of a Demosthenes, or the material picturesqueness of a Russell.” 8

"When I was at Milan I saw a book newly published, that was dedicated to the present head of the Borromean family, and enti

1 Macaulay Essays; Milton. This is an instance of skilful repetition: see pages 150-152.

2 Daniel Webster: Speech at Niblo's Saloon, New York, March 15, 1837.

Marsh: Lectures on the English Language, lect. xiii.

tled A Discourse on the Humility of Jesus Christ, and of St. Charles Borromée.'" 1

"[The Church] could not be in danger as long as we enjoyed the light of the Gospel and our excellent constitution." "2

"Both lived at a time when England was beginning to feel the force of the principles of civil liberty, when the throne was assuming prerogatives which the people were unwilling to bear, and when resistance at home to these encroachments was felt to be a duty to God and to one's self." 3

The famous utterance of President Garfield, "God reigns, and the government at Washington still lives," seems like an anticlimax; but it may be defended on the ground that the specific fact that the nation still lived was at the moment more interesting than the general truth that God reigns, or on the ground that the meaning is, "God reigns, and therefore the nation has not been destroyed."

The anti-climax may be effective in the service of wit or humor:

"I have left at your house heart and my tooth-brush." my "We cannot expect to be loved by a relative whom we have knocked into an illuminated pond, and whose coat-tails, pantaloons, nether limbs, and best feelings we have lacerated with illtreatment and broken glass."

"5

"When George the Fourth was still reigning over the privacies of Windsor, when the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister, and Mr. Vincy was mayor of the old corporation in Middlemarch, Mrs. Casaubon, born Dorothea Brooke, had taken her wedding journey to Rome." 6

"He [Dr. Ezra Ripley] had to encounter great difficulties, but, through a kind providence and the patronage of Dr. Forbes, he entered Harvard University, July, 1772."7

1 Addison: Remarks on Italy; Pavia, Milan, &c.

2 Bishop of Peterborough: Quoted in McCarthy's "History of the Four Georges," vol. i. chap. x.

8 American newspaper.

4 Letter from a young man to his hostess.

5 Thackeray: The Adventures of Philip, chap. xxxvi.

6 George Eliot: Middlemarch, book ii. chap. xix.

'Emerson: Lectures and Biographical Sketches; Ezra Ripley, D. D.

Position of similes.

The question whether a simile should precede or follow the literal assertion which it explains or enforces has been discussed at length by Mr. Herbert Spencer in his "Philosophy of Style." Mr. Spencer maintains that the simile should, as a rule, come before the literal assertion; but an examination of the practice of authors whose writings abound in similes will show that his conclusion is without warrant. The best order in every case is that which combines clearness with force. Where there is no question of clearness, the order should be the order of force the order of climax. Hence the propriety of the arrangement in the following lines:

"I see the future stretch

All dark and barren as a rainy sea." 1

Here it is evident that the general word "stretch" is made specific by the words which follow it.

"Thence up he flew, and on the tree of Life

Sat like a cormorant." 2

"But to her heart, her heart was voluble,

Paining with eloquence her balmy side;

As though a tongueless nightingale should swell

Her throat in vain, and die, heart-stifled, in her dell."

In each of these examples, the forcible order is that which places

the simile after the literal assertion.

"As wreath of snow, on mountain-breast,
Slides from the rock that gave it rest,

Poor Ellen glided from her stay,
And at the Monarch's feet she lay."5

1 Quoted by Mr. Spencer from Alexander Smith's "Life Drama.”

2 Milton: Paradise Lost, book iv. line 194.

Keats: The Eve of St. Agnes.

4 Shelley: To a Skylark.

Scott: The Lady of the Lake, canto vi. stanza xxvii.

If the first two lines of this stanza were placed after the third line, they would obstruct the narrative; for, the moment the reader knows that Ellen has "glided from her stay," his interest is not in the manner of her doing so but in what is to follow.

"Like a star of heaven,

In the broad daylight

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.” 1

"As vapours breathed from dungeons cold

Strike pleasure dead,

So sadness comes from out the mould

Where Burns is laid." 2

In each of these examples, the forcible order is that which places the literal assertion after the simile.

The following sentence is an example of ineffective order: — "It was like some vision of a guiding, succouring spirit, as she moved on, slowly gliding in her white draperies." 3

In this sentence, “as she moved on, slowly gliḍing in her white draperies" should come before the simile, both because it prepares the mind for the simile and because it is less important.

Frequently a figure of speech serves partly to explain and partly to enforce the meaning. In such cases, a skilful writer places it at that point in the sentence. where it serves both purposes. For example:

"This has caused such powerful invasions of bank paper, like sudden and succeeding flights of birds of prey and passage, and the rapid disappearance of specie at its approach." 4

"An author's pen, like children's legs, improves by exercise." 5

""T is thine, O Glenullin! whose bride shall await,

Like a love-lighted watch-fire, all night at the gate."

1 Shelley: To a Skylark.

2 Wordsworth: At the Grave of Burns.

Charlotte M. Yonge: The Heir of Redclyffe, vol. ii. chap. xiv. Tauchnitz edition.

• Daniel Webster: Speech at Madison, Indiana, June 1, 1837. Coleridge: The Friend, vol. i. essay iii.

• Thomas Campbell: Lochiel's Warning.

In each of these passages, the simile is so placed as to bring out the meaning more forcibly, as well as more clearly, than if placed either at the beginning or at the end.

SECTION III.

EASE.

In the arrangement, as well as in the choice and the number, of words in a sentence, attention should be paid not only to clearness and force, but also to Ease. With a view to ease, a skilful writer so places words, phrases, and clauses that there is no jar or interruption, and no false emphasis. In this matter it is impossible to prescribe rules that will be of much service to the student of composition; but he may get a little help from a few general suggestions accompanied by examples that point out some of the obstacles to the attainment of ease and some of the ways in which they may be overcome.

False emphasis.

Ease prohibits an arrangement that throws the emphasis on, and thus causes a suspension of the sense at, a particle or other unimportant word (as in this sentence). Such an arrangement is hostile to clearness, for it obliges the mind to halt at the very points which it would naturally hurry over; it is also hostile to force, for it emphasizes words that do not "deserve distinction "1 at the expense of those that do. Examples

of this fault are:

"I have often spoken to you upon matters kindred to, or, at any rate, not distantly connected with, my subject for this Easter." ?

1 This happy phrase is Professor Barrett Wendell's. See "English Composition," pages 102, 103.

2 Helps: Social Pressure, chap. iii.