PART II (continued 2)

41. Superfluous ‘but’ and ‘though’

Where there is a natural opposition between two sentences, adversative conjunctions may yet be made impossible by something in one of the sentences that does the work unaided. Thus if in vain, only, and reserves and sole, had not been used in the following sentences, but and though would have been right; as it is, they are wrong.

(The author dreams that he is a horse being ridden) In vain did I rear and kick, attempting to get rid of my foe; but the surgeon remained as saddle-fast as ever.—Borrow.

But the substance of the story is probably true, though Voltaire has only made a slip in a name.—Morley.

Germany, it appears, reserves for herself the sole privilege of creating triple alliances and ‘purely defensive’ combinations of that character, but when the interests of other Powers bring them together their action is reprobated as aggressive and menacing.—Times.

Such mistakes probably result from altering the plan of a sentence in writing; and the cure is simply to read over every sentence after it is written.

42. ‘If and when’

This formula has enjoyed more popularity than it deserves; either ‘when’ or ‘if’ by itself would almost always give the meaning. Even where ‘if’ seems required to qualify ‘when’ (which by itself might be taken to exclude the possibility of the event’s never happening at all), ‘if’ and ‘when’ are clearly not coordinate, though both are subordinate to the main sentence: ‘if and when he comes, I will write’ means ‘if he comes, I will write when he comes’, or ‘when he comes (if he comes at all), I will write’, and the ‘if’ clause, whether parenthetic or not, is subordinate to the whole sentence ‘I will write when he comes’. Our Gladstone instance below differs from the rest: ‘when’ with a past tense, unqualified by ‘if’, would make an admission that the writer does not choose to make; on the other hand, the time reference given by ‘when’ is essential; ‘on the occasion on which it was done (if it really was done) it was done judicially’. The faulty coordination may be overlooked where there is real occasion for its use; but many writers seem to have persuaded themselves that neither ‘if’ nor ‘when’ is any longer capable of facing its responsibilities without the other word to keep it in countenance.

No doubt it will accept the experimental proof here alleged, if and when it is repeated under conditions....—Times.

The latter will include twelve army corps, six rifle brigades, and nine divisions or brigades of mounted troops, units which, if and when complete, will more than provide....—Times.

Unless and until we pound hardest we shall never beat the Boers.—Spectator.

It is only if, and when, our respective possessions become conterminous with those of great military states on land that we each....—Times.

If and when it was done, it was done so to speak judicially.—Gladstone.

No prudent seaman would undertake an invasion unless or until he had first disposed of the force preparing ... to impeach him.—Times.

Its leaders decline to take office unless and until the 90 or 100 German words of command used ... are replaced....—Times.

If and when employment is abundant....—Westminster Gazette.

It means nothing less, if Mr. Chamberlain has his way, than the final committal of one of the two great parties to a return to Protection, if and when it has the opportunity.—Westminster Gazette.

It is clear, however, that the work will gain much if and when she plays faster.—Westminster Gazette.

43. Maltreated Idioms

1. Two existing idioms are fused into a non-existent one.

It did not take him much trouble.—Sladen. (I take: it costs me)

An opportunity should be afforded the enemy of retiring northwards, more or less of their own account.—Times. (of my own accord: on my own account)

Dr. Kuyper admitted that his opinion had been consulted.—Times. (I consult you: take your opinion)

But it was in vain with the majority to attempt it.—Bagehot. (I attempt in vain: it is vain to attempt)

The captain got out the shutter of the door, shut it up, made it all fast, and locked the door itself.—Dickens. (make it fast: make all fast)

The provisioning of the Russian Army would practically have to be drawn exclusively from the mother country.—Times. (draw provisions: do provisioning)

It gives me the greatest pleasure in adding my testimony.—Daily Telegraph. (I have pleasure in adding: it gives me pleasure to add)

And if we rejected a similar proposition made to us, was it not too much to expect that Canada might not turn in another direction?—Chamberlain (reported). (Might not Canada turn?... to expect that Canada would not turn)

I can speak from experience that ... ‘conversion’ ... was a very real and powerful thing.—Daily Telegraph. (speak to conversion’s being: say that conversion was)

He certainly possessed, though in no great degree, the means of affording them more relief than he practised.—Scott. (preached more than he practised: had means of affording more than he did afford)

My position is one of a clerk, thirty-eight years of age, and married.—Daily Telegraph. (one that no one would envy: that of a clerk)

Abbot, indeed, had put the finishing stroke on all attempts at a higher ceremonial. Neither he nor his household would bow at the name of Christ.—J. R. Green. (put the finishing touches on: given the finishing stroke to)

In this chapter some of these words will be considered, and also some others against which purism has raised objections which do not seem to be well taken.—R. G. White. (exceptions well taken: objections rightly made. To take an objection well can only mean to keep your temper when it is raised)

A woman would instinctively draw her cloak or dress closer to her, and a man leave by far an unnecessary amount of room for fear of coming into contact with those to whom....—Daily Telegraph. (by far too great: quite an unnecessary)

The fines inflicted for excess of the legal speed.—Times. (excess of speed: exceeding the legal speed)

Notwithstanding the no inconsiderable distance by sea.—Guernsey Advertiser. (it is no inconsiderable distance: the—or a—not inconsiderable distance)

His whim had been gratified at a trifling cost of ten thousand pounds.—Crawford. (a trifling cost—unspecified: a trifle of ten thousand or so: the trifling cost of ten thousand. So in the next)

Dying at a ripe old age of eighty-three.—Westminster Gazette.

That question is the present solvency or insolvency of the Russian State. The answer to it depends not upon the fact whether Russia has or has not....—Times. (the fact that: the question whether. But depends not upon whether would be best here)

To all those who had thus so self-sacrificingly and energetically promoted the organization of this fund he desired to accord in the name of the diocese their deep obligation.—Guernsey Advertiser. (accord thanks: acknowledge obligation)

The allies frittered away in sieges the force which was ready for an advance into the heart of France until the revolt of the West and South was alike drowned in blood.—Times. (the revolts were alike drowned: the revolt was drowned)

2. Of two distinct idioms the wrong is chosen.

When, too, it was my pleasure to address a public meeting of more than 2,000 at the Royal Theatre the organized opposition numbered less than seven score.—Times.

It is our pleasure to present to you the enclosed notification of the proportion of profits which has been placed to the credit of your account.—Company circular. (I had, we have, the pleasure of—. The form chosen is proper to royal personages expressing their gracious will)

In the face of it the rule appears a most advisable one.—Guernsey Advertiser. (On the face of it means prima facie: the other means in spite of)

3. The form of an idiom is distorted, without confusion with another.

However, towards evening the wind and the waves subsided and the night became quiet and starlight.—Times. (Starlight is a noun, which can be used as an adjective immediately before another noun only; a starlight night)

Russia is now bitterly expiating her share in the infamy then visited upon Japan.—Times. (We visit upon a person his sins, or something for which he is responsible, and not we; or again, we may visit our indignation upon him)

He anticipated much towards Mary’s recovery in her return to Japan.—Sladen. (anticipate ... from)

But both Governments have now requested Washington to be chosen as the place of meeting.—Times. (requested that Washington should)

For as its author in later years told the writer of this article, he had studied war for nine years before he put the pen to the paper.—Times. (Put pen to paper. This looks like imitation French; it is certainly not English)

4. The meaning of an idiom is mistaken without confusion with another.

For days and days, in such moods, he would stay within his cottage, never darkening the door or seeing other face than his own inmates.—Trollope. (To darken the door is always to enter as a visitor, never to go out)

5. Some miscellaneous and unclassified violations are added, mostly without further comment than italics, to remind sanguine learners that there are small pitfalls in every direction.

If I did not have the most thorough dependence on your good sense and high principles, I should not speak to you in this way.—Trollope.

Japan, while desiring the massacre of her own and Russia’s subjects to be brought to an end, has nevertheless every interest that the war should go on.—Times.

The unpublished state, of which only an extremely few examples are in existence.—Times.

Once I jested her about it.—Crockett.

It is significant to add that when Mrs. Chesnut died in 1886 her servants were with her.—Times.

Herring boats, the drapery of whose black suspended nets contrasted with picturesque effect the white sails of the larger vessels.—S. Ferrier.

It is at least incumbent to be scrupulously accurate.—Times. (The metaphor in incumbent is so much alive that upon—is never dispensed with)

A measure according Roman Catholic clergymen who have passed through the local seminaries but have not yet passed the prescribed Russian language test to hold clerical appointments.—Times.

There will be established in this free England a commercial tyranny the like of which will not be inferior to the tyrannical Inquisition of the Dark Ages.—Spectator.

44. Truisms and Contradictions in Terms

A contradiction in terms is often little more than a truism turned inside out; we shall therefore group the two together, and with them certain other illogical expressions, due to a similar confusion of thought.

Praise which perhaps was scarcely meant to be taken too literally.—Bagehot.

Where no standard of literalness is mentioned, too literally is ‘more literally than was meant’. We may safely affirm, without the cautious reservations perhaps and scarcely, that the praise was not meant to be taken more literally than it was meant to be taken. Omit too.

He found what was almost quite as interesting.—Times.

If it was almost as interesting, we do not want quite: if quite, we do not want almost.

Splendid and elegant, but somewhat bordering on the antique fashion.—Scott.

Bordering on means not ‘like’ but ‘very like’; ‘somewhat very like’.

A very unique child, thought I.—C. Brontë.

A somewhat unique gathering of our great profession.—Halsbury.

There are no degrees in uniqueness.

Steady, respectable labouring men—one and all, with rare exceptions, married.—Times. (all without exception, with rare exceptions)

To name only a few, take Lord Rosebery, Lord Rendel, Lord ..., ..., ..., and many others.—Times.

Take in this context means ‘consider as instances’; we cannot consider them as instances unless we have their names; take must therefore mean ‘let me name for your consideration’. Thus we get: ‘To name only a few, let me name ... and many others (whom I do not name)’.

More led away by a jingling antithesis of words than an accurate perception of ideas.—H. D. Macleod.

‘Guided by an accurate perception’ is what is meant. To be ‘led away by accurate perception’ is a misfortune that could happen only in a special sense, the sense in which it has happened, possibly, to the writer, whom sheer force of accurate perception may have hurried into inaccurate expression; but more probably he too is the victim of ‘jingling antithesis’.

Long before the appointed hour for the commencement of the recital, standing room only fell to the lot of those who arrived just previous to Mr. K.’s appearance on the platform.—Guernsey Advertiser.

The necessary inference—that Mr. K., the reciter, appeared on the platform long before the appointed hour—is probably not in accordance with the facts.

The weather this week has for the most part been of that quality which the month of March so strikingly characterizes in the ordinary course of events.—Guernsey Advertiser.

What happens in the ordinary course of events can scarcely continue to be striking. Whether the month characterizes the weather, or the weather the month, we need not consider here.

He forgot that it was possible, that from a brief period of tumultuous disorder, there might issue a military despotism more compact, more disciplined, and more overpowering than any which had preceded it, or any which has followed it.—Bagehot.

He could not forget, because he could not know, anything about the despotisms which have in fact followed. He might know and forget something about all the despotisms that had preceded or should follow (in direct speech, ‘that have preceded or shall follow’): ‘this may result in the most compact despotism in all history, past and future’. But probably Bagehot does not even mean this: the last clause seems to contain a reflection of his own, falsely presented as a part of what he ought to have reflected.

Some people would say that my present manner of travelling is much the most preferable, riding as I do now, instead of leading my horse.—Borrow.

Only two modes of travelling are compared: the most preferable implies four, three of them preferable in different degrees to the fourth. A not uncommon vulgarism.

45. Double Emphasis

Attempts at packing double emphasis into a single sentence are apt to result in real weakening.

No government ever plunged more rapidly into a deeper quagmire.—Outlook. (From the writer’s evident wish to state the matter strongly, we infer that several Governments have plunged more rapidly into as deep quagmires, and as rapidly into deeper ones)

Mr. Justice Neville ... will now have the very rare experience of joining on the Bench a colleague whom he defeated on the polls just fourteen years ago.—Westminster Gazette. (The experience, with exact time-interval, is probably unique, like any individual thumb-print; that does not make the coincidence more remarkable; and it is the coincidence that we are to admire)

Nothing has brought out more strongly than motor-driving the over-bearing, selfish nature of too many motor-drivers and their utter want of consideration for their fellow men.—Lord Wemyss. (The attempt to kill drivers and driving with one stone leaves both very slightly wounded. For what should show up the drivers more than the driving? and whom should the driving show up more than the drivers?)

The commonest form of this is due to conscientious but mistaken zeal for correctness, which prefers, for instance, without oppressing or without plundering to without oppressing or plundering. The first form excludes only one of the offences, and is therefore, though probably meant to be twice as emphatic, actually much weaker than the second, which excludes both. With and instead of or, it is another matter.

Actual experience has shown that a gun constructed on the wire system can still be utilized effectively without the destruction of the weapon or without dangerous effects, even with its inner tube split.—Times.

The Union must be maintained without pandering to such prejudices on the one hand, or without giving way on the other to the ... schemes of the Nationalists.—Spectator.

He inhibited him, on pain of excommunication, from seeking a divorce in his own English Courts, or from contracting a new marriage.—J. R. Green. (Half excused by the negative sense of inhibit)

46. ‘Split’ Auxiliaries.

Some writers, holding that there is the same objection to split compound verbs as to split infinitives, prefer to place any adverb or qualifying phrase not between the auxiliary and the other component, but before both. Provided that the adverb is then separated from the auxiliary, no harm is done: ‘Evidently he was mistaken’ is often as good as ‘He was evidently mistaken’, and suits all requirements of accentuation. But the placing of the adverb immediately before or after the auxiliary depends, according to established usage, upon the relative importance of the two components. When the main accent is to fall upon the second component, the normal place of the adverb is between the two; it is only when the same verb is repeated with a change in the tense or mood of the auxiliary, that the adverb should come first. ‘He evidently was deceived’ implies, or should imply, that the verb deceived has been used before, and that the point of the sentence depends upon the emphatic auxiliary; accordingly we should write ‘The possibility of his being deceived had never occurred to me; but he evidently was deceived’, but ‘I relied implicitly on his knowledge of the facts; but he was evidently deceived’. In our first two examples below the adverb is rightly placed first to secure the emphasis on the auxiliary: in all the others the above principle of accentuation is violated. The same order of words is required by the copula with whatever kind of complement.

I recognize this truth, and always have recognized it.

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so, as long as the world endures.—Burke.

They never are suffered to succeed in their opposition.—Burke.

She had received the homage of ... and occasionally had deigned to breathe forth....—Beaconsfield.

He ordered breakfast as calmly as if he never had left his home.—Beaconsfield.

Miss Becky, whose sympathetic powers never had been called into action before.—Ferrier.

They now were bent on taking the work into their own hands.—Morley.

There may have been a time when a king was a god, but he now is pretty much on a level with his subjects.—Jowett.

They both are contradicted by all positive evidence.—W. H. Mallock.

Religious art at once complete and sincere never yet has existed.—Ruskin.

Not mere empty ideas, but what were once realities, and that I long have thought decayed.—C. Brontë.

So that he might assist at a Bible class, from which he never had been absent.—Beaconsfield.

If we would write an essay, we necessarily must have something to say.—Bygott & Jones.

The protectionists lately have been affirming that the autumn session will be devoted to railway questions.—Times.

Visitors no longer can drive in open carriages along the littoral.—Times.

It still is the fact that his mind ... was essentially the mind of a poet.—Times.

To whom in any case its style would have not appealed.—Times.

To go wrong with not is an achievement possible only with triple compounds, where the principal division is of course between the finite (would) and the infinitive with participle (have appealed). ‘Would not have appealed’ must be written, though at an enormous sacrifice of ‘distinction’.

This enhanced value of old English silver may be due partly to the increase in the number of collectors; but it also has been largely influenced by the publication....—Times.

Mr. Fry showed to a very great extent his power of defence.... To-day, if runs are to be of importance, he very likely will show his powers of hitting.—Times.

47. Overloading

A single sentence is sometimes made to carry a double burden:

So unique a man as Sir George Lewis has, in truth, rarely been lost to this country.—Bagehot.

The meaning is not ‘Men like Sir G. Lewis have seldom been lost’, but ‘Men like the late Sir G. Lewis have seldom been found’. But instead of the late a word was required that should express proper concern; lost is a short cut to ‘men so unique as he whose loss we now deplore’.

There are but few men whose lives abound in such wild and romantic adventure, and, for the most part, crowned with success.—Prescott.

The writer does not mean ‘adventures so wild, so romantic, and so successful in the main’; that is shown by the qualifying parenthesis, which is obviously one of comment on the individual case. What he does mean ought to have been given in two sentences: ‘There are but few ... adventure;—’s, moreover, was for the most part crowned with success’.

The Sultan regrets that the distance and the short notice alone prevent him from coming in person.—Times.

This is as much as to say that the Sultan wishes there were more obstacles. Read: ‘The Sultan regrets that he cannot come in person; nothing but the distance and the short notice could prevent him’.

48. Demonstrative, Noun, and Participle or Adjective

Of the forms, persons interested, the persons interested, those interested, those who are interested, one or another may better suit a particular phrase or context. Those interested is the least to be recommended, especially with an active participle or adjective. The form those persons interested is a hybrid, and is very seldom used by any good writer; but it is becoming so common in inferior work that it is thought necessary to give many examples. The first two, of the form those interested, will pass, though those who were concerned, all who drive, would be better. In the others that and those should be either replaced by the or (sometimes) simply omitted.

The idea of a shortage had hardly entered the heads even of those most immediately concerned.—Times.

They are the terror of all those driving or riding spirited horses.—Times.

At every time and in every place throughout that very limited portion of time and space open to human observation.—Balfour.

That part of the regular army quartered at home should be grouped by divisions.—Times.

Here they beheld acres of that stupendous growth seen only in the equinoctial regions.—Prescott.

It is not likely that General Kuropatkine has amassed those reserves of military stores and supplies plainly required by the circumstances of his situation.—Times.

The insurrection had been general throughout the country, at least that portion of it occupied by the Spaniards.—Prescott.

My amendment would be that that part of the report dealing with the dividend on the ‘A’ shares ... be not adopted.—Company report.

We shall fail to secure that unanimity of thought and doctrine so indispensable both for....—Times.

... in order to minimize the effect produced by that portion of the Admirals’ report favourable to England.—Times.

A struggle ... which our nation must be prepared to face in the last resort, or else give way to those countries not afraid to accept the responsibilities and sacrifices inseparable from Empire.—Times.

Civil servants will not, nay, cannot, work with that freedom of action so essential to good work in the case of such persons, so long as....—Times.

To those Colonies unable to concur with these suggestions a warning should be addressed.—Times.

49. False Scent

It is most annoying to a reader to be misled about the construction, and therefore most foolish in a writer to mislead him. In the sentences that follow, facilities and excesses are naturally taken as in the same construction, and similarly influences and nature, until the ends of the sentences show us that we have gone wrong. These are very bad cases; but minor offences of the kind are very common, and should be carefully guarded against.

He gloats over the facilities the excesses and the blunders of the authorities have given his comrades for revolutionary action among the masses.—Times.

The influences of that age, his open, kind, susceptible nature, to say nothing of his highly untoward situation, made it more than usually difficult for him to cast aside or rightly subordinate.—Carlyle.

That there is no comma between facilities and the excesses is no defence, seeing how often commas go wrong; indeed the comma after age in the second piece, which is strictly wrong, is a proof how little reliance is to be placed on such signs.

50. Misplacement of Words

Generous interpretation will generally get at a writer’s meaning; but for him to rely on that is to appeal ad misericordiam. Appended to the sentences, when necessary, is the result of supposing them to mean what they say.

It is with grief and pain, that, as admirers of the British aristocracy, we find ourselves obliged to admit the existence of so many ill qualities in a person whose name is in Debrett.—Thackeray. (implies that admirers must admit this more than other people)

It is from this fate that the son of a commanding prime minister is at any rate preserved.—Bagehot. (implies that preserved is a weak word used instead of a stronger)

And even if we could suppose it to be our duty, it is not one which, as was shown in the last chapter, we are practically competent to perform.—Balfour.

The chairman said there was no sadder sight in the world than to see women drunk, because they seemed to lose complete control of themselves. (implies that losing complete control leaves you with less than if you lost incomplete control)

The soldiers are deeply chagrined at having had to give up positions, in obedience to orders, which the Japanese could not take.—Times.

Great and heroic men have existed, who had almost no other information than by the printed page. I only would say, that it needs a strong head to bear that diet.—Emerson. (implies that no one else would say it)

Yes, the laziest of human beings, through the providence of God, a being, too, of rather inferior capacity, acquires the written part of a language so difficult that....—Borrow.

Right or wrong as his hypothesis may be, no one that knows him will suspect that he himself had not seen it, and seen over it.... Neither, as we often hear, is there any superhuman faculty required to follow him.—Carlyle. (implies that we often hear there is not)

This, we say to ourselves, may be all very true (for have we, too, not browsed in the Dictionary of National Biography?); but why does Tanner say it all, just at that moment, to....—Times. (implies that others have refrained from browsing)

But in 1798 the Irish rising was crushed in a defeat of the insurgents at Vinegar Hill; and Tippoo’s death in the storm of his own capital, Seringapatam, only saved him from witnessing the English conquest of Mysore.—J. R. Green. (implies that that was all it saved him from)

51. Ambiguous Position

In this matter judgement is required. A captious critic might find examples on almost every page of almost any writer; but most of them, though they may strictly be called ambiguous, would be quite justifiable. On the other hand a careless writer can nearly always plead, even for a bad offence, that an attentive reader would take the thing the right way. That is no defence; a rather inattentive and sleepy reader is the true test; if the run of the sentence is such that he at first sight refers whatever phrase is in question to the wrong government, then the ambiguity is to be condemned.

Louis XVIII, dying in 1824, was succeeded, as Charles X, by his brother the Count d’Artois.—E. Sanderson. (The sleepy reader, assisted by memories of James the First and Sixth, concludes, though not without surprise, which perhaps finally puts him on the right track, that Louis XVIII of France was also Charles X of some other country)

In 1830 Paris overthrew monarchy by divine right.—Morley. (By divine right looks so much more like an adverbial than an adjectival phrase that the sleepy reader takes it with overthrew)

(From review of a book on ambidexterity) Two kinds of emphatic type are used, and both are liberally sprinkled about the pages on some principle which is not at all obvious. The practice may have its merits, like ambidexterity, but it is generally eschewed by good writers who know their business, although they are not ambidextrous.—Times. (The balance of the sentence is extremely bad if the although clause is subordinated to who; and the sleepy reader accordingly does not take it so, but with is eschewed, and so makes nonsense)

It was a temper not only legal, but pedantic in its legality, intolerant from its very sense of a moral order and law of the lawlessness and disorder of a personal tyranny.—J. R. Green.

The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome, contains one thousand printed books.—R. Curzon. (A large and handsome library, or porch, or church?)

Both these last are very unkind to the poor sleepy reader; it is true that in one of them he is inexcusable if he goes wrong, but we should for our own sakes give him as few chances of going wrong as possible.

Luck and dexterity always give more pleasure than intellect and knowledge; because they fill up what they fall on to the brim at once, and people run to them with acclamation at the splash.—Landor. (On and to so regularly belong together now, though they did not in Landor’s time, that it is disconcerting to be asked to pause between them)

52. Ambiguous Enumeration

In comma’d enumerations, care should be taken not to insert appositions that may be taken, even if only at first sight, for separate members.

Some high officials of the Headquarter Staff, including the officer who is primus inter pares, the Director of Military Operations, and the Director of Staff duties....—Times. (Two, or three, persons? Probably two; but those who can be sure of this do not need the descriptive clause, and those who need it cannot be sure)

Lord Curzon, Sir Edmond Elles, the present Military Member, and the Civilian Members of Council traverse the most material of Lord Kitchener’s statements of fact.—Times. (Is Sir E. Elles the Military Member? No need to tell any one who knows; and any one who does not know is not told)

I here wish to remark that Lord Dufferin first formed the Mobilization Committee, of which the Commander-in-Chief is President, and the Military Member, Secretary, Military Department, and the heads of departments both at Army Headquarters and under the Government of India, are members with the express intention of....—Times. (Is the Military Member Secretary of the Mobilization Committee? Well, he may be, but a certain amount of patience shows us that the sentence we are reading does not tell us so)

53. Antics

A small selection must suffice. Straining after the dignified, the unusual, the poignant, the high-flown, the picturesque, the striking, often turns out badly. It is not worth while to attain any of these aims at the cost of being unnatural.

1. Use of stiff, full-dress, literary, or out-of-the-way words.

And in no direction was the slightest concern evinced.—Times.

The majority display scant anxiety for news.—Times.

... treating his characters on broader lines, occupying himself with more elemental emotions and types, and forsaking altogether his almost meticulous analysis of motive and temperament.—Westminster Gazette. (We recommend to this reviewer a more meticulous use of the dictionary)

And most probably he is voted a fool for not doing as many men in similar positions are doing—viz., making up for a lack of principle by an abundance of bawbees easily extracted from a large class of contractors who are only too willing....—Times.

It is Victor Hugo’s people, the motives on which they act, the means they take to carry out their objects, their relations to one another, that strike us as so monumentally droll.—Times.

Nothing definite has been decided upon as to the exact date of the visits, the venue of the visits, the....—Times.

2. Pretentious circumlocution.

That life was brought to a close in November 1567, at an age, probably, not far from the one fixed by the sacred writer as the term of human existence.—Prescott.

She skated extremely badly, but with an enjoyment that was almost pathetic, in consideration of the persistence of ‘frequent fall’.—E. F. Benson.

The question of an extension of the Zemstvos to the southwest provinces is believed to be under consideration. It is understood that the visit of General Kleigels to St. Petersburg is not unconnected therewith.—Times.

3. Poetic phraseology, especially the Carlylese superlative. Almost any page of Milton’s prose will show whence Carlyle had this; but it is most offensive in ordinary modern writing.

A period when, as she puts it, men and women of fashion ‘tried not to be themselves, yet never so successfully displayed the naked hearts of them’.—Times.

The last week in February was harnessing her seven bright steeds in shining tandem in the silent courtyard of the time to be.—The Lamp.

Our enveloping movements since some days prove successful, and fiercest battle is now proceeding.—Times.

The unhappy man persuades himself that he has in truth become a new creature, of the wonderfullest symmetry.—Carlyle.

4. Patronizing superiority expressed by describing simple things in long words.

The skating-rink, where happy folk all day slide with set purpose on the elusive material, and with great content perform mystic evolutions of the most complicated order.—E. F. Benson.

5. The determined picturesque.

Across the street blank shutters flung back the gaslight in cold smears.—Kipling.

The outflung white water at the foot of a homeward-bound Chinaman not a hundred yards away, and her shadow-slashed rope-purfled sails bulging sideways like insolent cheeks.—Kipling.

An under-carry of grey woolly spindrift of a slaty colour flung itself noiselessly in the opposite direction, a little above the tree tops.—Crockett.

Then for a space the ground was more clayey, and a carpet of green water-weeds were combed and waved by the woven ropes of water.—E. F. Benson.

At some distance off, in Winchester probably, which pricked the blue haze of heat with dim spires, a church bell came muffled and languid.—E. F. Benson.

A carriage drive lay in long curves like a flicked whip lash, surmounting terrace after terrace set with nugatory nudities.—E. F. Benson.

6. Recherché epithets.

Perhaps both Milton and Beethoven would live in our memories as writers of idylls, had not a brusque infirmity dreadfully shut them off from their fellow men.—Times.

The high canorous note of the north-easter.—Stevenson.

By specious and clamant exceptions.—Stevenson.

7. Formal antithesis or parallel. This particular form of artificiality is perhaps too much out of fashion to be dangerous at present. The great storehouse of it is in Macaulay.

He had neither the qualities which make dulness respectable, nor the qualities which make libertinism attractive.—Macaulay.

The first two kings of the House of Hanover had neither those hereditary rights which have often supplied the place of merit, nor those personal qualities which have often supplied the defect of title.—Macaulay.

But he was indolent and dissolute, and had early impaired a fine estate with the dice-box, and a fine constitution with the bottle.—Macaulay.

The disclosure of the stores of Greek literature had wrought the revolution of the Renascence. The disclosure of the older mass of Hebrew literature wrought the revolution of the Reformation.—J. R. Green.

8. Author’s self-consciousness.

‘You mean it is,’ she said—‘about Bertie’. Charlie made the noise usually written ‘Pshaw’.—E. F. Benson.

9. Intrusive smartness—another form of self-consciousness.

Round her lay piles of press notices, which stripped the American variety of the English language bare of epithets.—E. F. Benson.

Income-tax payers are always treated to the fine words which butter no parsnips, and are always assured that it is really a danger to the State to go on skinning them in time of peace to such an extent as to leave little integument to remove in time of war.—Times.

Yet in the relentless city, where no one may pause for a moment unless he wishes to be left behind in the great universal race for gold which begins as soon as a child can walk, and ceases not until he is long past walking, the climbing of the thermometer into the nineties is an acrobatic feat which concerns the thermometer only, and at the junction of Sixth Avenue and Broadway there was no slackening in the tides of the affairs of men.—E. F. Benson.

54. Miscellaneous Types of Journalese

Mr. Lionel Phillips maintained that it was impossible to introduce white unskilled labour on a large scale as a payable proposition without lowering the position of the white man.—Times.

How labour can be a proposition, and how a proposition can be payable it is not easy to say. The sentence seems to mean: ‘to introduce ... labour on a large scale and make it pay’. This is what comes of a fondness for abstracts.

They have not hitherto discovered the formula for the intelligent use of our unrivalled resources for the satisfaction of our security.—Times.

This perhaps means: ‘They have not yet discovered how our unrivalled resources may be made to ensure our safety’.

An attempt to efface the ill-effects of the Czar’s refusal to see the workmen has been made by the grant of an interview by the Czar at Tsarkoe Selo to a body of workmen officially selected to represent the masses.—Spectator.

The powerful and convincing article on the question of War Office administration as it affects the Volunteers to be found in this month’s National.—Spectator.

The Russian Government is at last face to face with the greatest crisis of the war, in the shape of the fact that the Siberian railway....—Spectator.

No year passes now without evidence of the truth of the statement that the work of government is becoming increasingly difficult.—Spectator.

It has taken a leading part in protesting against the Congo State’s treatment of natives controlled by it, and in procuring the pressure which the House of Commons has put upon our Government with a view to international insistence on fulfilment of the obligations entered upon by the Congo Government as regards native rights.—Times.

The outcome of a desire to convince the Government of the expediency of granting the return recently ordered by the House with regard to the names, ....—Times.

In default of information of the result of the deliberations which it has been stated the Imperial Defence Committee have been engaged in....—Times.

The volunteer does not volunteer to be compelled to suffer long, filthy, and neglected illnesses and too often death, yet such was South Africa on a vast scale, and is inevitable in war under the present official indifference.—Times.

55. Somewhat, &c.

Indulgence in qualifying adverbs, as perhaps, possibly, probably, rather, a little, somewhat, amounts with English journalists to a disease; the intemperate orgy of moderation is renewed every morning. As somewhat is rapidly swallowing up the rest, we shall almost confine our attention to it; and it is useless to deprecate the use without copious illustration. Examples will be classified under headings, though these are not quite mutually exclusive.

1. Somewhat clearly illogical.

A number of questions to the Prime Minister have been put upon the paper with the object of eliciting information as to the personnel of the proposed Royal Commission and the scope of their inquiry. These are now somewhat belated in view of the official announcement made this morning.—Times. (The announcement contained both the list of members and the full reference)

Thrills which gave him rather a unique pleasure.—Hutton.

Russian despatches are somewhat inconsistent, one of them stating that there is no change in the position of the armies, while another says that the Japanese advance continues.—Times.

Being faint with hunger I was somewhat in a listless condition bordering on stupor.—Corelli.

In the light of these, it would be hard to say what full belatedness, inconsistency, and listlessness may be.

2. Somewhat with essentially emphatic words.

We may call a thing dirty, or filthy; if we choose the latter, we mean to be emphatic; it is absurd to use the emphatic word and take away its emphasis with somewhat, when we might use the gentler word by itself.

A member of the Legislative Council is allowed now to speak in Dutch if he cannot express himself clearly in English; under the proposed arrangement he will be able to decide for himself in which medium he can express himself the more clearly. Surely a somewhat infinitesimal point.—Times.

Thirdly, it is rather agonizing at times to the philologist.—Times.

The distances at which the movements are being conducted receive a somewhat startling illustration from the statement that....—Times.

Under these circumstances it is somewhat extraordinary to endeavour to save the Government from blame.—Times.

In various evidently ‘well-informed’ journals the somewhat amazing proposition is set up that....—Times.

But unfortunately the word ‘duties’ got accidentally substituted for ‘bounties’ in two places, and made the utterance somewhat unintelligible to the general reader.—Times.

The songs are sung by students to the accompaniment of a somewhat agonizing band.—Times.

There is a mysterious man-killing orchid, a great Eastern jewel of State, and many other properties, some of them a little well worn, suitable for the staging of a tale of mystery.—Spectator.

Some of the instances in these two classes would be defended as humorous under-statement. But if this hackneyed trick is an example of the national humour, we had better cease making reflections on German want of humour.

3. Somewhat shyly announcing an epigrammatic or well-chosen phrase.

There is a very pretty problem awaiting the decision of Prince Bülow, and one which is entirely worthy of his somewhat acrobatic diplomacy.—Times.

Gaston engaged in a controversy on the origin of evil, which terminated by his somewhat abruptly quitting his Alma Mater.—Beaconsfield.

Why even Tennyson became an amateur milkman to somewhat conceal and excuse the shame and degradation of writing verse.—Corelli.

The virtuous but somewhat unpleasing type of the Roman nation.—Times.

The sight of these soldiers and sailors sitting round camp-fires in the midst of the snow in fashionable thoroughfares, transforming the city into an armed camp, is somewhat weird.—Times.

While Mary was trying to decipher these somewhat mystic lines.—S. Ferrier.

4. Somewhat conveying a sneer.

It is somewhat strange that any one connected with this institution should be so unfamiliar with its regulations.—Times.

... that the conclusion arrived at by the shortest route is to be accepted—a somewhat extravagant doctrine, according to which....—Balfour.

But very few points of general interest have been elicited in any quarter by these somewhat academic reflections.—Times.

This somewhat glowing advertisement of the new loan.—Times.

5. The genuine somewhat, merely tame, timid, undecided, conciliatory, or polite.

It is somewhat pitiful to see the efforts of a foreign State directed, not to the pursuit of its own aims by legitimate means, but to the gratification of personal hostility to a great public servant of France.—Times.

I am certain that the clergy themselves only too gladly acquiesce in this somewhat illogical division of labour.—Times.

This, no doubt, is what Professor Ray Lankester is driving at in his somewhat intemperate onslaught.—Times.

The rather mysterious visit of S. Tittoni, the Italian Foreign Minister, to Germany.—Times.

These are of rather remarkable promise; the head shows an unusual power of realizing character under a purely ideal conception.—Times.

The rather finely conceived statuette called ‘The Human Task’ by Mr. Oliver Wheatley.—Times.

It is somewhat the fashion to say that in these days....—Times.

A letter from one whose learning and experience entitle him to be heard, conceived, as I think, in a spirit of somewhat exaggerated pessimism.—Times.

The statement made by the writer is somewhat open to doubt.—Times.

I have read with much interest the letters on the subject of hush-money, especially as they account to me somewhat for the difficulties I have experienced.—Times.

It would be valuable if he would somewhat expand his ideas regarding local defence by Volunteers.—Times.

Sir,—I have been somewhat interested in the recent correspondence in your columns.—Times.

So many persons of undoubted integrity believe in ‘dowsing’ that he is a somewhat rash man who summarily dismisses the matter.—Times.

Sir Francis Bertie, whose dislike of unnecessary publicity is somewhat pronounced.—Times.

It is not too much to say that any one who hopes to write well had better begin by abjuring somewhat altogether.

We cannot tell whether this long list will have a dissuasive effect, or will be referred to foolish individual prejudice against an unoffending word. But on the first assumption we should like to add that a not less dissuasive collection might easily be made of the intensifier distinctly than of the qualifier somewhat. The use meant is that seen in:

The effect as the procession careers through the streets of Berlin is described as distinctly interesting.

Distinctly gives the patronizing interest, as somewhat gives the contemptuous indifference, with which a superior person is to be conceived surveying life; and context too often reveals that the superiority is imaginary.

56. Clumsy Patching

When a writer detects a fault in what he has written or thought of writing, his best course is to recast the whole sentence. The next best is to leave it alone. The worst is to patch it in such a way that the reader has his attention drawn, works out the original version, and condemns his author for carelessness aggravated by too low an estimate of his own intelligence.

Numerous allegations, too, were made of prejudiced treatment measured out against motorists by rural magistrates.—Times. (avoidance of the jingle in meted out to motorists)

No crew proved to be of the very highest class; but this, perhaps, led the racing to be on the whole close and exciting.—Times. (avoidance of the jingle in led to the racing being)

The Lord Mayor last night entertained the Judges to a banquet at the Mansion House.—Times. (avoidance of double at)

The occupants talked, inspected the cars of one another, interchanged tales of....—Times. (avoidance, in grammatical pusillanimity, of one another’s cars)

... who have only themselves in view by breaking through it.—Richardson. (avoidance of double in)

He nodded, as one who would say, ‘I have already thought of that’.—Crockett. (avoidance of the archaism, which however is the only natural form, as who should say)

It is now practically certain that the crews of Nebogatoff’s squadron were in a state of mutiny, and that this is the explanation for the surrender of these vessels.—Times. (avoidance of double of)

And for the first time after twenty years the Whigs saw themselves again in power.—J. R. Green. (Avoidance of double for; if after had been originally intended, we should have had at last instead of for the first time)

And oppressive laws forced even these few with scant exceptions to profess Protestantism.—J. R. Green. (To avoid the repetition of few the affected word scant has been admitted)

Given competition, any line would vie with the others in mirrors and gilded furniture; but if there is none, why spend a penny? Not a passenger the less will travel because the mode of transit is bestial.—E. F. Benson. (To avoid the overdone word beastly—which however happens to be the right one here; bestial describes character or conduct)

There is, indeed, a kind of timorous atheism in the man who dares not trust God to render all efforts to interpret his Word—and what is criticism but interpretation?—work together for good.—Spectator. (Render is substituted for make because make efforts might be taken as complete without the work together that is due. Unfortunately, to render efforts work together is not even English at all)

57. Omission of the Conjunction ‘that’

This is quite legitimate, but often unpleasant. It is partly a matter of idiom, as, I presume you know, but I assume that you know; partly of avoiding false scent, as in the sixth example below, where scheme might be object to discover. In particular it is undesirable to omit that when a long clause or phrase intervenes between it and the subject and verb it introduces, as in the first four examples.

And it is to be hoped, as the tree-planting season has arrived, Stepney will now put its scheme in hand.—Times.

Sir,—We notice in a leading article in your issue to-day on the subject of the carriage of Australian mails you imply that the increased price demanded by the Orient Pacific Line was due to....—Times.

Lord Balfour ... moved that it is necessary, before the constituencies are asked to determine upon the desirability of such conference, they should be informed first....—Times.

Lord Spencer held that it was impossible with regard to a question which had broken up the Government and disturbed the country they could go into a conference which....—Times.

If the Australian is to be convinced that is an unreasonable wish, it will not be by arguments about taxation.—Times.

I think he would discover the scheme unfolded and explained in them is a perfectly intelligible and comprehensive one.—Times.

It is not till He cometh the ideal will be seen.—Times.

And it is only by faith the evils you mention as productive of war can be cast out of our hearts.—Times.

I do not wish it to be understood that I consider all those who applied for work during the past two winters and who are now seeking employment are impostors.—Times.

I assume Turkey would require such a cash payment of at least £500,000.—Times.

Tawno leaped into the saddle, where he really looked like Gunnar of Hlitharend, save and except the complexion of Gunnar was florid, whereas that of Tawno was of nearly Mulatto darkness.—Borrow.

In some of these the motive is obvious, to avoid one that-clause depending on another; the end was good, but the means bad; a more thorough recasting was called for.

58. Meaningless ‘while’

While, originally temporal, has a legitimate use also in contrasts. The further colourless use of it, whether with verb or with participle, as a mere elegant variation for and is very characteristic of journalese, and much to be deprecated.

Of its value there can be no question. The editor’s article on ‘Constitutions’, for example, and that of Mr. W. Wyse on ‘Law’ both well repay most careful study; while when Sir R. Jebb writes on ‘Literature’, Dr. Henry Jackson on ‘Philosophy’, or Professor Waldstein on ‘Sculpture’, their contributions must be regarded as authoritative.—Spectator.

The fireman was killed on the spot, and the driver as well as the guard of the passenger train was slightly injured; while the up-line was blocked for some time with débris from broken trucks of the goods train.—Times.

The deer on the island took some interest in the proceeding, while the peacocks on the lawn screamed at the right time.—Birmingham Daily Post.

It cannot be contended that it is more profitable to convey a passenger the twenty-four miles to Yarmouth for payment than to accept the same payment without performing the service; while, if the company wish to discourage the use of cheap week-end tickets, why issue them at all?—Times.

59. Commercialisms

Certain uses of such, the same, and other words, redolent of commerce and the law, should be reserved for commercial and legal contexts. Anent, which has been noticed in Part I, is a legalism of this kind. In the Brontë instances quoted, a twang of flippancy will be observed; the other writers are probably unconscious.

This gentleman’s state of mind was very harrowing, and I was glad when he wound up his exposition of the same.—C. Brontë.

The present was no occasion for showy array; my dun mist crape would suffice, and I sought the same in the great oak wardrobe in the dormitory.—C. Brontë.

There are certain books that almost defy classification, and this volume ... is one of such.—Daily Telegraph.

I am pleased to read the correspondence in your paper, and hope that good will be the result of the same.—Daily Telegraph.

The man who has approached nearest to the teaching of the Master, and carried the same to its logical and practical conclusion is General Booth.—Daily Telegraph.

Do I believe that by not having had the hands of a bishop laid upon my head I cannot engage in the outward and visible commemoration of the Lord’s Supper as not being fit to receive the same?—Daily Telegraph.

But do the great majority of people let their belief in the hereafter affect their conduct with regard to the same. I think not.—Daily Telegraph.

Let us hope, Sir, that it may be possible in your own interests to continue the same till the subject has had a good innings.—Daily Telegraph.

I believe, and have believed since, a tiny child, made miserable by the loss of a shilling, I prayed my Heavenly Father to help me to recover the same.—Daily Telegraph.

It is of course possible, in this connexion, that the Prayer Book is responsible for ‘the same’.

If I am refused the Sacrament I do not believe that I shall have less chance of entering the Kingdom of God than if I received such Sacrament.—Daily Telegraph.

But when it comes to us following his life and example, in all its intricate details, all will, I think, agree that such is impossible.—Daily Telegraph.

An appeal to philanthropy is hardly necessary, the grounds for such being so self-evident.—Times.

... such a desire it should be the purpose of a Unionist Government to foster; but such will not be attained under the present regime in Dublin.—Times.

... regaling themselves on half-pints at the said village hostelries.—Borrow.

Having read with much interest the letters re ‘believe only’ now appearing in the Daily Telegraph....—Daily Telegraph.

He ruined himself and family by his continued experiments for the benefit of the British nation.—Times.

60. Pet Phrases

Vivid writers must be careful not to repeat any conspicuous phrase so soon that a reader of ordinary memory has not had time to forget it before it invites his attention again. Whatever its merits, to use it twice (unless deliberately and with point) is much worse than never to have thought of it. The pages below are those of Green’s Short History (1875).

The temper of the first [King George] was that of a gentleman usher. p. 704.

Bute was a mere court favourite, with the abilities of a gentleman usher. p. 742.

‘For weeks’, laughs Horace Walpole, ‘it rained gold boxes’. p. 729.

‘We are forced to ask every morning what victory there is’, laughed Horace Walpole. p. 737.

The two following passages occur on pp. 6 and 81 of The Bride of Lammermoor (Standard Edition).

In short, Dick Tinto’s friends feared that he had acted like the animal called the sloth, which, having eaten up the last green leaf upon the tree where it has established itself, ends by tumbling down from the top, and dying of inanition.

‘... but as for us, Caleb’s excuses become longer as his diet turns more spare, and I fear we shall realise the stories they tell of the sloth: we have almost eaten up the last green leaf on the plant, and have nothing left for it but to drop from the tree and break our necks.’

61. ‘Also’ as Conjunction; and ‘&c.’

Also is an adverb; the use of it as a conjunction is slovenly, if not illiterate.

We are giving these explanations gently as friends, also patiently as becomes neighbours.—Times.

‘Special’ is a much overworked word, it being used to mean great in degree, also peculiar in kind.—R. G. White.

Mr. Sonnenschein’s volume will show by parallel passages Shakespeare’s obligations to the ancients, also the obligations of modern writers to Shakespeare.—Times.

The use of &c., except in business communications and such contexts, has often the same sort of illiterate effect. This is very common, but one example must suffice.

There are others with faults of temper, &c., evident enough, beside whom we live content, as if the air about them did us good.—C. Brontë.