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Burgundians essayed to make progress in the opposite direction, impelled by a similar ambition but with less barbarous manners.

Hints for correction :

1. Their: The anticipatory use of the pronoun here is bad (see § 48): Read, "Strangers to the arts of the Roman cities. . . they ravaged them with indifference," &c. 2. " Being": Participle without noun or pronoun to which it can refer (see § 64). Read, "They were pagans, and no religious sympathy," &c.: or change the latter part of the sentence: "Being pagans, no religious sympathy tempered the horrors of their warfare," in which case the participle belongs to the pronoun their. 3. Here use participial construction (§ 63): "sparing neither sex nor age, and destroying .. they advanced. 4. Position of adverb wrong (see §§ 85, 86); read, "They gradually advanced." 5. Position of noun enlargements wrong; read, "the Gothis... impelled by a similar ambition but with less barbarous manners, gradually," &c.

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EXERCISE 83.

1. The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of the faith. (B.)*

2. Often Caulaincourt or Duroc were up with him hard at work all night. (B.)

3. He had been severely chagrined at his frequent discomfitures and which had impaired the spirits of his followers.

4. It was at this moment that a declaration of rights was brought forward by M. ——, and is the same which is alluded to above.

5. When it becomes necessary to do a thing, the whole heart and

soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.

6. Arms they had nor scarcely any who knew the use of them.

7. I cannot consider Mr. B.'s book in scarcely any other light than a dramatic performance.

8. The population of whole districts, occasionally to the amount of five and six thousand labourers, were employed on the road. 9. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer and every occupation, profit by the aid which each receive from the other and from the whole.

10. Is there hardly an instance on record of such a coincidence?

EXERCISE 84.

A young man of the name of Clovis was at the head of the children of Merowig,' who combined a larger2 degree of reflection and skill with the warlike ardour of his predecessors. Partly as a precaution for the future, partly out of their hatred to the Arian powers, the bishops' of the portion of Gaul still subject to the empire, entered into relations with him of their own motion, sending frequent messages to him full of flattering expressions, many of them visited him in his camp, and they dignified it, in their Roman politeness, with the name of Aula Regia, or royal court. Insensible10 at first to their adulations, events seemed themselves to concur in promoting the grand plan of the Gallic clergy. Clovis married Clotilda a Christian princess; and the love of the faithful wife softened (as the historians of the time * This letter deuotes that the example is taken from Mr. Breen's English Literature.

Clovis

express it gradually12 the heart of the infidel husband. invoked Clotilda's god in a battle13 with some Germans who sought to follow the Franks into Gaul-his14 soldiers were giving way-and promised if he conquered to believe in him; he's conquered and kept his word.

HINTS.-1. Begin with this adverbial clause. 2. 'Large' is not a fit predicate of degree:' see § 124. Say 'higher' degree. 3. Arrange: 'who combined with the warlike. a higher degree,' &c. 4. Begin period with the subject. 5. Him:' repeat the noun (Clovis): or use a synonym with their enterprising neighbour' see § 28. 6. 'Of their own motion:' let this adverbial come next after the verb 'entered.' 7. Begin new period here. 8. 'It' is weak and ill-placed: use Relative, which they dignified,' &c. 9. Introduce this clause immediately before the verb: 'which, in their Roman politeness,' &c. 10. This adjective is noun-less. Read, 'He was insensible,' &c. 11. Parenthesis very awkwardly introduced: see § 107. Its proper place is after the word "wife." 12. Adv. misplaced. 13. Begin period with adverbial clause: In a battle,' &c. 14. Use conjunctive pron., 'whose soldiers were giving way.' 15. New sentence here.

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EXERCISE 85.

1. We have seen and heard these instruments, and can assure our readers that they are all and more than they are represented to be. 2. He put his theories into practice with the same sparkling levity as be had maintained them in argument.

3. The honour as well as the genius of De Foe were questioned. (B.)

4. The logical and historical analysis of a language generally in some degree coincides. (B.)

5. The literature of France, Germany, and England are at least as necessary for a man born in the 19th century as that of Rome or Athens. (B.)

6. A body of gentlemen come forward and profess contrary doctrines to those of the economists.

7. Once entered into that course of life, and there is no difference between the best castes and the worst.

8. Then we shall be able to fully and explicitly enter into the nature of the case.

9. The Spanish minister had access to the under-currents of court intrigue.

10. The next step was to stanch the wounds without the delay of a moment through which the Exchequer was bleeding to death.

EXERCISE 86.

In

N.B.-The Notes to Exercises 82 and 84 are designed to illustrate the systematic working of these Exercises. future such help will be supplied only occasionally. The italics indicate weak or faulty places.

(Subject continued from Ex. 84.)

"His (§ 28) example, the presents of Clotilda and the bishops (§ 80), and perhaps the attractiveness1 of novelty, eventuated in the conversion

of a number of Frank warriors, as many as three thousands, indeed, according to the historians. The baptismal ceremony was celebrated1 at Rheims; and all the splendour which could still be furnished by the arts of the Romans, which were soon to perish in the hands of the barbarians in Gaul,2 was displayed in profusion to adorn this triumph of the Catholic faith. The vestibule of the Cathedral was embellished and decorated with tapestry and garlands; veils of diversified1 colours mollified the glare of day; the most gorgeous perfumes blazed2 abundantly in precious vases of gold and silver. Advancing (§ 63) in pontifical robes to the baptistery, leading by the hand Clovis who was about to become his spiritual son, Father,' said he, marvelling at such pomp, is not this that Kingdom of Heaven which you promised me?' Messengers conveyed the intelligence of his baptism to the Pope of Rome speedily: whereupon letters of congratulation and of (§ 80) friendship were addressed from Rome to Clovis who thus acknowledged his sway; and he sent rich presents as tokens of filial submission in return to the blessed apostle Peter, the protector of the new Rome.

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HINTS.-1. Find simpler and better words than these. Eventuate' is specially bad; and baptismal ceremony' little better. 2. Are these the right words? Note the difference in the use of 'mollify' and 'soften.' 3. This is a good place to use a more ornate synonymleading by the hand the Frankish king. So below, instead of Rome, use the eternal city.' In both cases the reason is the same, to impress the reader with the significance of the act. 4. Use here the metaphor of a yoke.

EXERCISE 87.

1. Having the entire manuscript by me, such parts of it as I shall think requisite may perhaps from time to time be published.

2. How many weighty reasons does a man recollect, which his heat and violence made him utterly forget, when an argument is over.

3. To be angry with a man because he does not comprehend the force of your reasons is yet more absurd; or because he gives weak ones of his own.

4. To do so would involve the sacrifice of more time and expense than I can possibly afford.

5. Nothing secures a man more esteem and less envy from the company, than by choosing the part of moderator, without his taking part directly on either side in a dispute.

6. That our hero was always to be found where the mêlée was thickest, goes without saying.

7. It is probable the production of perishable commodities, even of the tenth part of them, beyond all possibility of use, will reduce one

half of their value.

8. That there is the poorest living in lands of the greatest plenty is generally observed: the people almost starve (like the schoolman's ass) between two meals.

9. In this small pamphlet there is as much genuine wit or more than would furnish out several ordinary octavos.

10. I intend going in for science when my examinations are all

over.

EXERCISE 88.

AN UNREMEMBERED DREAM.

Mr. Clarke relates the following anecdote:* "It was my father's usual custom to hear me repeat to him the lesson I was expected to say the next morning at school when I was a boy. I was then learning my Greek grammar at the time I refer to, the part which I had to repeat being the active voice of the verb Túπтw, and I went up to him just before bed-time as usual, but could not say it, and was sent to bed in disgrace. Going his rounds, as my father always invariably did, to the children's bed-rooms, to see that all was right, and coming as usual to my room, and hearing my voice, it was soon plain that I was talking in my sleep, in fact, conjugating the verb TUTTW, to which he listened attentively till I had gone through it all without a mistake. Coming down next morning, he summoned me to say my lesson, but I was ignorant of it as I had been the night before, and though he told me, which he did to encourage me, that he had heard me say it quite perfectly in my sleep, I was still unable to say my lesson.”

NOTE.-Narrative requires a short, simple, bright style. The above is an exaggerated specimen of the very opposite manner, in which one clause comes dragging on at the tail of another, often without any grammatical connection. Give each point of the story a sentence to itself. Be sparing in the use of Participles and Relatives; and say everything in the simplest and directest manner possible.

EXERCISE 89.
TAUTOLOGY. (See § 81).†

1. The preparations for the grand expedition to South America, which had been so long in preparation, went on without intermission.

2. The concourse of strangers attracted by its celebrity, its monuments, its galleries, its theatres, and its other attractions was immense. 3. One only ray of hope remained to the royal family from the situation of the Duchess de Berri, which gave hopes that an heir might yet be preserved for the monarchy, and the hopes of the assassin blasted. 4. The constituents of the boroughs were persons renting tenements rented at from £10 to £20.

5. The contraction of the currency and consequent fall of the prices cf agricultural produce 50 per cent., fell with crushing effect upon the country.

6. So general was the feeling on this subject that it was made the subject of a distinct pledge to the electors.

7. Twelve persons were seized in the cathedral under the most suspicious circumstances, but five only were convicted, and that only of the minor offence of concealing a conspiracy, which was only punishable with imprisonment.

8. In many of his works we see a complete acquaintance with the secret springs of evil which are ever springing up in the breast.

9. Such was the pitiable state of weakness to which the British naval force had been reduced by the ceaseless reductions of previous years. 10. This proposal was no great violation of the liberties of the subject, for it only proposed to subject military persons to the trial of their military superiors.

*Shepherd, On Dreams.' (Altered.)

The examples in this Exercise are from Breen, pp. 170, 171.

EXERCISE 90.

ALFRED.

King Alfred was the most learned of all his subjects,1 while quite a youth he had visited the southern countries of Europe, and had observed closely their manners, and he was conversant with the learned languages, and with most of the writings of antiquity, and this superior knowledge created a certain degree of contempt for the nation he governed in the mind of the king, who had small respect for the information or intelligence of the great national council, the Assembly of Wise Men, and was full of the ideas of absolute power which so frequently recur again and again in the Roman writers, having an ardent desire for political reforms in the state, he framed infinite plans, which we may perhaps concede were better in themselves than the ancient Anglo-Saxon practices they were destined to replace, but wanting that essential and indispensable requisite, the sanction of a people, who neither understood nor desired them. Some severe features of Alfred's government have vaguely been preserved by tradition; and they used to speak of the excessive rigour he applied to the punishment of prevaricators2 and other evil judges long after his death, and this severity was far from agreeable to a people who valued the life of a freeman at that time more highly than regularity in the administration of public affairs, although it had for its object the good of the Anglo-Saxon nation.1

HINTS.-1. Remember that it is usually best to begin with a short sentence. Also when a point in the narrative is really independent, do not encumber it by tacking it on to something else. 2. "Prevaricator" in legal Roman sense, one who, while professing to accuse, plays into the hands of the opposite party to screen a criminal from punishment. 3. Begin with this adverbial clause. 4. This conditional [adverbial] clause should come earlier.

EXERCISE 91.

1. A case of extraordinary and most careless recklessness came before the magistrates yesterday.

2. During the past year it would seem that dishonest impostors, who impose upon the kind-hearted and benevolent, and rob the really poor, have been more than usually active.

3. On the whole there is a general concurrence of unanimity in favour of the English system of muzzle-loading, shared even by the officers who have recently attended at the experimental trial of the German breech-loaders at Mappen.

4. This morning the third day's sederunt of the association opened, in weather more resembling that of April than the month of August. 5. This region was the emporium of the slave-trade, and though some Portuguese were still interested in it, they belonged to the criminal class, and they could no more be held responsible for their crimes than England for those who were executed at Newgate.

6. Henry V., indeed, if Shakspeare were well informed, was a dexterous wooer in his way.

7. No sooner had the members of committee taken their seat on the platform than a gang of roughs commenced to whistle and howl. 8. The body of the hall was crowded by men of the class of

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