Upon what does to be depend? What kind of a phrase is all at once? How is sun parsed?

11. "To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield.

"MY LORD,

"I have been lately informed by the proprietor of the World that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honor which, being very little accustomed to favors from the great, I know not well how to receive or in what terms to acknowledge.

"When upon some slight encouragement I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending. But I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

"Seven years, my lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward room, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through dif ficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication without one word of encouragement or one smile of favor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

"The shepherd in Virgil grew acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

"Is not a patron, my lord, one who can look with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and then encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and can not enjoy it; till I am solitary, and can not impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical

21

asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.

"Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favorer of learning, I shall not be disappointed, though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation.

"My lord, your lordship's most humble and most obedient
servant,
SAMUEL JOHNSON."

12. "Triumphal arch! that fill'st the sky,
When storms begin to part,

I ask not proud philosophy

To tell me what thou art."-CAMPBELL.

13. "St. Agnes's Eve! A bitter chill it was!

The owl, for all his Feathers, was a-cold."-KEATS.

14. "Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse when he is leaping."-Guesses at Truth.

15. "Who builds a church to God, and not to fame,

Will never mark the marble with his name."-POPE.

16. "Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the gen eration they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it."Guesses at Truth.

17. "The most mischievous liars are those who keep on the verge of truth."—Ibidem.

18. "Excessive indulgence to others, especially to children, is, in fact, only self-indulgence under an alias."Ibidem.

19. "Purity is the feminine, truth the masculine of hon or." Ibidem.

20. "Go search it there, where to be born and die,
Of rich and poor makes all the history."

21. "There needs no other proof that happiness is the most wholesome moral atmosphere, and that in which the immor tality of man is destined ultimately to thrive, than the elevation of soul, the religious aspiration which attends the first assurance, the first sober assurance of true love."-Deerbrook.

22. "It was opened by a young girl of thirteen or fourteen."-DICKENS.

23. "To Brighton the Pavilion lends a lath and plaster grace."

24. What do you understand by meum and tuum? Meum is all I can get. Tuum is all others can prevent me from

getting.-PUNCH.

25. When I say that the "rose smells sweet," and "I smell the rose," the word smell has two meanings. In the latter sentence, I speak of a certain sensation in my own mind; in the former, of a certain quality in the flower which produces the sensation. Here the word smell is applied with

equal propriety to both.

26. "Away went Gilpin, and away

Went Gilpin's hat and wig;

He lost them sooner than at first,

For why they were too big.”—CowPER.

27. Beauty is perfection unmodified by a predominating expression.

28. Did you never observe (says Mr. Gray, in a letter to a friend), while rocking winds are piping loud, that pause, as the gust is recollecting itself, and rising upon the ear in a shrill and plaintive note, like the swell of an Eolian harp? I do assure you there is nothing in the world so like the voice of a spirit.

29. The foundations of his Fame are laid deep and imperishable, and the superstructure is already erected.-New Englander. Explain the idiom. See § 516.

30. The language of the moral law is, man shall not kill; the language of the law of nature is, a stone will fall to the ground. WHEWELL. Explain the difference in use of the words shall and will.

31. Each kind of life has its own system of organs. The center of the organic life is the heart; of the animal life, the brains. The functions of organic life act continuously; those of animal life, intermittingly.-Pre-Adamite Earth. Give the rule for each. What ellipsis is there in the second member of the second sentence?

32. What signify to me the beautiful discourses and praises

one lavishes on one's self and one's friends?-LAMARTINE.

Give an account of one, &c.

33.

Spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues: nor Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty Goddess, she determines
Herself the Glory of a creditor;

Both thanks and use.-Measure for Measure.

Justified on the ground of ancient usage.

34. The affections are to the intellect what the forge is to the metal; it is they which temper and shape it to all great purposes: soften, strengthen, and purify it.-MRS. JAMESON.

35. He was far from conspiring the death of rivals whom he admired the most and feared the least in the Convention. -LAMARTINe.

36. Malevolti had noticed these splenetic efforts; but though a man of fiery character, and proud enough to dare the proudest he who ruffled his complacency by a look, &c. In what case is he, and how used?

37. But the only reliable and certain evidence of devotion to the Constitution is, to abstain, on the one hand, from violating it, and to repel, on the other, all attempts to violate it. It is only by faithfully performing these high duties that the Constitution can be preserved, and with it the Union.J. C. CALHOUN. What part of the last sentence does it rep

resent?

38. And such, Mr. President, was the high estimate which I formed of his transcendent talents, at the end of his service in the executive department under the administration of Mr. Monroe, that, had he been translated to the highest office in the Government, I should have felt perfectly assured that, under his auspices, the honor, the prosperity, and the glory of our country would have been safely preserved.-H. CLAY.

39. We shall delight to speak of him to those who are coming after us. When the time shall come that we shall go, one after another, in succession, to our graves, we shall carry with us a deep impression of his genius and character, his honor and integrity, his amiable deportment in private life, and the purity of his exalted patriotism.-D. WEBSTER.

CHAPTER XII.

RULES FOR THE CHOICE OF WORDS AND GRAMMATI-
CAL CONSTRUCTIONS.

$591. USAGE gives the law to language; usage,

Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.

But we are met by the inquiry, What kind of usage?
RULE I. It must be REPUTABLE usage.

Here we are met

To this it may be

by the inquiry, What is reputable usage?
safely answered, it is such usage as is found in the works of
those who are regarded by the public as reputable authors.

RULE II. It must be NATIONAL usage. It is not enough that a word or phrase is used in some county in England, or in some section in our own country. It must be the general language of the nation at large.

RULE III.-It must be PRESENT usage. Old words are going out of use. New words are coming into use. It may not always be easy to determine what present usage is. A word lately coined may be more safely used in a newspaper than in grave history. An obsolete word can be used in poetry when it can not be in prose. Pope's rule is a good one: "In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,

Alike fantastic if too new or old;

Be not the first by whom the new is tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

RULE IV. When the usage is divided as to any words
and phrases, and when one of the expressions is susceptible
of more than one meaning, while the other admits of only one,
the expression which is UNIVOCAL is to be preferred to the
one that is equivocal.
equivocal. Thus, proposal for a thing offered or
proposed is better than proposition, which has also another
meaning. Thus we say, "He demonstrated the fifth prop-
osition, and he rejected the proposal of his friend." So the
term primitive, as equivalent to original, is preferable to
primary. The latter is synonymous with principal, and is