constructed, but they may not be so clear to others who are unacquainted with his style; and since he writes for others, his sentences must be so clear that they convey to every one the same meaning.

Quintilian's Rule.-" Care should be taken," says Quintilian, "not that the reader may understand, but that he must understand, whether he will or not."

The clearer the sentence, the more readily will the thought be conveyed; for if one's attention be directed to discovering the meaning of an author, it must necessarily be withdrawn somewhat from the thought communicated.

Spencer in his Philosophy of Style says: "A reader or listener has, at each moment, but a limited amount of mental power available. To recognize and interpret the symbols presented to him requires part of this power, to arrange and combine the images presented requires a further part; and only that part which remains can be used for realizing the thought conveyed. Hence, the more time and attention it takes to receive and understand each sentence, the less time and attention can be given to the contained idea, and the less vividly will that idea be conceived."

Dr. Campbell says: "If the medium through which we look at any object is perfectly transparent, our whole attention is fixed on the object; we are scarcely sensible that there is a medium which intervenes, and we can hardly be said to perceive it. But if there is any flaw in the medium, if we see through it but dimly, if the object is imperfectly represented, or if we know it to be misrepresented, our attention is immediately taken off the object to the medium. We are then anxious to discover the cause either of the dim and confused representation, or of the misrepresentation, of things which it exhibits, that so the defect in vision may be supplied by judgment. The case of language is precisely similar. A discourse, then, excels in perspicuity when the subject engrosses the atten

tion of the hearer, and the language is so little minded by him that he can scarcely be said to be conscious it is through this medium he sees into the speaker's thoughts."

The safe rule for a writer to follow is so to construct a sentence that it can have but one meaning.

Violations of Clearness.-The chief faults opposed to clearness are ambiguity, equivocation, and obscurity.

Ambiguity consists in such an arrangement of words as leaves the reader in doubt between two different meanings. It may arise in several ways, as follows:

1. Improper Position of Adverbs.-Ambiguity frequently arises from the improper position of the adverb with reference to the word which it modifies. Care should be taken to place the adverb as near as possible to the word which it modifies, and in such a position that it may not be taken to modify any other word. Thus the following are incorrect:

α. "I only came to ask you a question."

Here the adverb only is made to modify the verb "came," when in reality the writer meant to have it modify the verb "to ask." To clear the sentence of ambiguity the adverb should be placed before the verb "to ask;" thus: "I came only to ask you a question."

b. "I would like to come very much."

In this sentence the adverb much, with its modifier very, modifies, as it stands, the verb "come." The meaning of the sentence is made clear by placing the two adverbs before the verb "like," which they modify; thus: "I would very much like to come."

Reconstruct the following:

EXERCISE.

he concludel to abandon

1. Several young men came in who nearly looked alike. 2. Having almost lost all his money, the enterprise.

3. I only bring forward some things.

4. In all abstract cases, where we mainly speak of numbers, the verb is better singular.

5. His grave was only marked by a simple slab.

6. You seem clearly to understand the question.

7. The grains mostly cultivated here are corn and wheat.

8. I never probably shall meet him again.

9. The present tense simply expresses present time. 10. We only have four pages for our lesson.

11. Every man must abide his time patiently.

12. Some people only succeed in getting themselves into trouble.

13. His few virtues only served to make his faults more prominent.

14. His sharpness of intellect was only equaled by his agree ableness of manner.

15. We had only caught a few trout before the bell rang for dinner.

16. These institutions of learning have only been established by the expenditure of an immense amount of money.

17. The young man is considered generally incompetent. 18. It was the advantage held by the leaders precisely which ruined them.

19. I never expect to return to that place.

20. The enemy nearly lost a thousand men in the skirmish. 21. By hasty composition we shall acquire certainly a very bad style.

22. The force of habit is even carried into the sacred region of our thoughts.

23. Many of us have often opportunities to do a favor.

24. I occupy the same position nearly that I occupied ten years ago.

25. It was by people of Northern Europe that the New World was chiefly settled.

26. This mistake seems to have been made actually.

2. Improper Position of Adjective and Adverbial Clauses and Adjuncts.-Modifying clauses are chiefly either ad

jective or adverbial; modifying adjuncts, which consist of prepositional phrases, are always either adjective or adverbial. These clauses and adjuncts should be so placed in sentences as to show clearly what they modify.

Thus, in the sentence, "He is to speak to-night on the Civil War at the opera-house," the phrase "at the operahouse" is so placed as to modify the noun "war;" in reality, it is meant to modify the verb "speak." The sentence should be reconstructed so as to read, "He is to speak at the operahouse to-night, on the Civil War."

EXERCISE.

Reconstruct the following sentences so as to express clearly the meaning intended:

1. Operators are wanted on coats.

2. I see that the monument will soon be completed by the evening paper.

3. A prominent lecturer spoke on three great American earthquakes at the university.

4. He then followed with an interesting address to the professors on natural gas.

5. The hawk caught the pigeon while it was flying.

6. Among our visitors was a man with a Roman nose named Peter Smith.

7. He died of excessive use of liquor producing alcoholism in the minds of the jury.

8. The historian described the victory of the army in elegant prose.

9. We stopped the coach for a few minutes to see some men digging for gold from Kansas.

10. The poem was written by a young man who died several years ago for his own amusement.

11. The meeting will now adjourn by singing the long-metre doxology till nine o'clock to-morrow morning.

12. In every community it must be admitted there are some unworthy people.

13. The transition is made with ease from script to printed forms.

14. Carthage was demolished to the ground, so that we are unable to say where it stood at this day.

15. A public dinner was given to the visitors of roast beef and plum pudding.

16. It could readily be seen that the kettle had been lately scoured with half an eye.

17. As we came into the room we saw a boy lying on the lounge with a blackened eye.

18. Here and there we could see men driving cows on horseback.

19. The beaux of that day used the abominable art of painting their faces as well as the women.

20. These shrieks, as they have been called [exclamation points], have been scattered up and down the page by compositors without mercy.

21. Habits must be acquired of industry and frugality.

22. Claudius was canonized among the gods, who scarcely deserved the name of man.

23. Here we saw several men laying a pavement with rubber boots.

24. The musician simply asked to play a new polka on the violin of his own composing.

25. Lost, a dog, by Mr. Adam Jones with long silky white

ears.

26. All passengers are required to purchase their tickets before entering the train at the office.

27. The enemy came upon us stealthily before the day began to break about three o'clock in the morning.

28. The professor is advertised to deliver a lecture on the importance of religious training at the court-house this evening.

3. Improper Position of the Relative Clause.—The relative clause is in its nature an adjective modifier, but