into a long reach of water, where the breeze was in her favor; another shout of laughter drowned the maledictions of the muddy man; the sails filled; Colossus of Rhodes, smiling and bowing as hero of the moment, ducked as the main boom swept round, and the schooner, leaning slightly to the pleasant influence, rustled a moment over the bulrushes, and then sped far away down the rippling bayou."

II.

Distribution of Emphasis. This important part of sentence construction may perhaps best be introduced by a general rule :

Seek so to place words that they shall emphasize themselves; and do not make the interpretation of a sentence depend on the manner in which it is read.

This rule suggests one or two remarks.

1. If a word does not by its position emphasize itself, the writer makes but a poor apology for the fact by underlining. "In good prose," says Frederick Schlegel, "every word should be underlined"; by which he means, every word should be the right word and in the right place. In proportion as writers acquire skill and fineness in the use of language they trust less to bringing out emphasis by the use of italics, and more to the cogency of perfect arrangement.

2. If the interpretation of a sentence is not to depend on a particular manner of reading, it is of great importance that the writer be unerring in regard to the natural and right manner of reading. No better aid to the proper building of sentences can be mentioned than skill in interpretative reading, — by which term is meant, reading that gives to every word, in itself and in its relations to other words, the power and stress most consonant with the writer's idea. I have known authors whose methods of sentence structure, elaborated with care yet radically vicious, could be traced directly to a false standard of interpretative reading.

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Emphatic Places of the Sentence. The distribution of emphasis is first to be determined inside of the sentence or clause, and this by a recognition of the places where emphasis is most naturally concentrated.

1. The natural emphatic places of a sentence or clause are the beginning and the end, and it is here that we look for the most important words. The question how to give special distinction to some particular word generally resolves itself into the question how to make it occupy one of these positions.

2. Which of these positions a word must occupy, in order to be more than usually emphatic, depends upon the place it naturally occupies in the sentence. Thus, the principal subject, belonging naturally at the beginning, occupies that place as a matter of course, and when there has no special emphasis. To make the subject especially emphatic, therefore, we need to put it out of its usual position by driving it toward the end. Again, the predicate verb, adjective, or object, which belongs naturally in the latter part of the sentence, acquires especial distinction by being placed at the beginning.

NOTE. The means employed for placing words out of their usual position have already been described and exemplified under Prospective Reference, Suspension, and Inversion. See preceding, pages 133, 146, 165. A few additional examples may be given here.

1. It is to be noted that when the subject is driven toward the end, it may sometimes become the grammatical object of a verb or preposition, and still remain the rhetorical subject, or subject of remark. The subject may be thus changed :

By a prospective word: "On whatever side we principally strikes us is his wonderful invention."

contemplate Homer, what Here the word “what” is

used provisionally for the subject, until the subject is expressed.

By suspension : "On seeking for some clue to the law underlying these current maxims, we may see shadowed forth in many of them, the importance of economizing the reader's attention." Here the subject of remark has by the suspension become the grammatical object.

By inversion: "The wages of sin is death." Here subject and predicate have changed places.

2. The same means may be used in displacing the predicate; indeed, the same agency that emphasizes the one often emphasizes the other, in the same

sentence.

By simple inversion : "Flashed all their sabres bare.” merciful."

"Blessed are the

The prospective there or it, which emphasizes the subject, also emphasizes

the verb, by placing it before its subject; for instance, "There is not, and there never was, on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination, as the Roman Catholic Church." Here both subject and verb are emphasized by their unusual position.

3. A conditional clause at the beginning of the sentence, being a means of securing suspense, refuses emphasis to itself, and merely accumulates emphasis for the succeeding. To give a conditional clause special distinction, therefore, place it last.

EXAMPLES OF EMPHASIZED CONDITIONAL CLAUSE. "Of what consequence are all the qualities of a doctrine, if that doctrine be not communicated? and communicated it is not, if it be not understood."-"This would seem to indicate that we may have-nay, are already possessed of — an American literature, composed of American materials, provided only that we consent to adopt the 'Saturday Review's' conception of what literature is."

4. An adverbial word or phrase, whose unemphatic place is before its verb, is emphasized by being placed at the end, and still more by being placed at the beginning.

1. Adverb at the end. "This procedure modifies the result "If he takes this course he will surely come to disaster in

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2. Adverb at the beginning. Slowly and sadly we laid him down." "In no modern country has ideality been more retarded than in our own; and I think that certain restrictions have peculiarly limited production in the field of Poetry, - the chief of imaginative arts." Here the emphasis of the adverbial phrase is aided by inversion.

5. "It may sometimes be the nature of the clause to refuse emphasis to itself; so that, though placed at the end, it does not interfere with the importance of a preceding clause."

EXAMPLE.

"In the sentence, 'Dissipation wastes health, as well as time,' the loose addition, 'as well as time,' cannot deprive 'health' of the stress that would naturally be put upon it."1

Dynamic Stress in Clauses and Sentences. - Emphasis has also to be so distributed as to make clauses and sentences rightly an

1 Remark and example taken from Bain's " English Composition and Rhetoric," p. 135.

swer to each other; and this is done by proper recognition of the dynamic stress.

The term dynamic stress is here adopted to indicate the concentration of emphasis at some determinate point. Every sentence and every clause has its dynamic point, from which its power and significance are to be reckoned, which point should be accurately noted by the writer, in order to determine the proper relation of parts to each other.

The following suggestions are of importance.

1. When a clause or sentence takes its cue from some idea in the preceding, it is important that the preceding idea thus recognized should be made prominent by the dynamic stress.

ILLUSTRATION. - From Dickens: "It was remarkable, that although he (Barnaby Rudge) had that dim sense of the past, he sought out Hugh's dog, and took him under his care; and that he never could be tempted into London." Here the first clause has not the right stress for clearness, because what follows derives its significance from the dimness of the vision, not the possession of it; and this fact of dimness is left subordinate. By making it prominent the succeeding is much better prepared for and explained; thus: "It was remarkable that, although his sense of the past was so dim, he sought out Hugh's dog," etc.

A frequent cause of vagueness is the coupling of a conjunctional relation, adversative or illative, on what is not the main idea but only a subordinate one, of the preceding clause. Example from General Grant's Memoirs: "I occupied a tug from which I could see the effect of the battle on both sides, within range of the enemy's guns; but a small tug, without armament, was not calculated to attract the fire of batteries while they were being assailed themselves." Here the adversative takes its cue from "within range of the enemy's guns," which is too insignificantly placed for such a use of it. Notice the difference of, "The tug that I occupied, from which I could see . . . was within range of the enemy's guns; but," etc. Of course, if stress is needed on "I occupied," a different recast is to be sought.

2. When, in clauses or sentences of like construction, an element has once had a certain stress, there is no need of giving it the same stress again, except in cases where it is desirable to emphasize by iteration. It is better to put the repeated idea in a subordinate relation, or change its order, so that the stress may be

reserved for a new aspect of the thought. See preceding paragraph 78, page 163..

EXAMPLES. From Canon Farrar: "That Dryden was a great poet is undeniable; that he desecrated his powers and burned them, like the incense of Israel, in unhallowed shrines, is no less certain." Here stress is laid on "is undeniable" in the first clause, and on "is no less certain" in the second, two corresponding elements of structure, and not needing to be made so prominent by the iteration. Having emphasized the predicate in the first clause, we may better lay the stress on a new element in the second; thus: "That Dryden was a great poet is undeniable; but it is no less certain that he desecrated his powers and burned them, like the incense of Israel, in unhallowed shrines."

Another example, from Anthony Trollope: "That some facts were stated inaccurately, I do not doubt; that many opinions were crude, I am quite sure; that I had failed to understand much which I attempted to explain, is possible." Here the first two clauses may fitly stand as they are, being a climax; but a variation of stress would be of advantage in the third:-" and it is quite possible that I had failed to understand," etc.

3. In a series of sentences the stress should be varied continually, so as to come in the beginning of some sentences and at the end of others, regard being had always for the two considerations : variation of rhythm, and grouping of similar ideas together.

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EXAMPLE. In the following passage there is much monotony in the sentences from the fact that all are of nearly the same length, and that in all but one the stress is thrown toward the end by means of suspensive phrases placed at the beginning. The passage and an emendation are placed side by side.

Centuries ago, before printed books and newspapers were known, there was an age of intellectual darkness and confusion. Between ancient and modern civilizations, and separating the one from the other, this period of darkness extends. In a world where justice and liberty could not be found, quarreling and fighting were almost the sole occupation. Physical strength and the possession of lands determined a man's power. From the poor

Centuries ago, before printed books and newspapers were known, there was an age of intellectual darkness and confusion. This dark period was the separating era between ancient and modern civilizations. Justice and liberty were unknown terms in those days; the world's chief occupation was quarreling and fighting. A man's power was determined by his physical strength, and by the lands he possessed. From the poor peasant to the