Note 72 — SENTENCES.
Reading edition
“Abuse on all he lov’d, or lov’d him, spread.” Pope, Epist. to Arbuthnot.
That is, “all whom he lov’d, or who lov’d him:” or to make it more easy by supplying a Relative that has no variation of Cases, “all that he lov’d, or that lov’d him.” The Construction is hazardous, and hardly justifiable, even in Poetry. “In the temper of mind he was then.” Addison, Spect. Nᵒ 549. “In the posture I lay.” Swift, Gulliver, Part 1. Chap. 1. In these and the like Phrases, which are very common, there is an Ellipsis both of the Relative and the Preposition; which were much better supplied: “In the temper of mind in which he was then:” “In the posture in which I lay.” In general, the omission of the Relative seems to be too much indulged in the familiar style; it is ungraceful in the serious; and of whatever kind the style be, it is apt to be attended with obscurity and ambiguity.