PART VII. SPECIAL RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. (1.) EMPHASIS. 258. Emphasis and distinctness are obtained by the repetition of a Noun, instead of using such words as one and that : The army which now became supreme in the state was an army very different from any that has since been seen among us.—Macaulay. The sheep and the ox of that time were diminutive when compared with the sheep and oxen which are now driven to our markets.-Macaulay. The style of Bunyan is delightful to every reader, and invaluable as a study to every person who wishes to obtain a wide command over the English language. The vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common people.-Macaulay. The present constitution of our country is, to the constitution under which she flourished five hundred years ago, what the tree is to the sapling, what the man is to the boy.—Macaulay. 259. Emphasis and distinctness in a sentence are obtained by making its clauses and its phrases evenly balanced in length, as, for example, by repeating a Preposition : Everywhere flags were flying, bells and music sounding, wine and ale flowing in rivers to the health of him whose return was the return of peace, of law, and of freedom.-Macaulay. He was not to be corrupted either by titles or by money. Macaulay. As every climate has its peculiar diseases, so every walk of life has its peculiar temptations.—Macaulay. Such a man might fall a victim to power; but truth, and reason, and liberty, would fall with him.Bolingbroke. History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants or to justify the maxims of persecution.-Gibbon. The habits of his early life had accustomed him to bear privation with fortitude, but not to taste pleasure with moderation.-Macaulay. The Puritan hated bearbaiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectator. -Macaulay. NOTE.-Observe, in the last passage, how the balance is obtained by putting the negative clause first. 260. Emphasis is obtained when words at the commencement of a sentence are in contrast to words at the end : The grey old walls were hung with scarlet.-Macaulay. Neither the culprit nor his advocates attracted so much notice as his accusers.—Macaulay. About two thousand ministers of religion, whose conscience did not suffer them to conform, were driven from their benefices in one day.-Macaulay. Thinking thus of mankind, Charles naturally cared very little what they thought of him.—Macaulay. By no people has beauty been so highly esteemed as by the Greeks.-Pater. As it was with the faces of the men of this noble family, so was it also with their minds. Nature had done much for them all.—Macaulay. 261. Emphasis is obtained when an Adverbial expression is put at the commencement of the sentence:From that opinion we dissent.—Macaulay. At this time Addison seemed inclined to devote himself to poetry.—Macaulay. To the influence which Addison derived from his literary talents was added all the influence which arises from character.-Macaulay. On that goodness to which he ascribed all the happiness of his life, he relied in the hour of death.-Macaulay. In an evil hour the author of "Evelina" took the "Rambler" for her model.-Macaulay. For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down.-Lear, 5, 3, 5. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense.—Lear, 5, 3, 20. Deep in the shady sadness of a vale, Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star, Sat grey-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone.-Keats. 262. Emphasis is sometimes obtained by putting forward a Subject and not completing the sentence, or changing the form of construction: A peasant and a soldier, his nerves yielded not easily to the impressions of sympathy, and he could sustain without emotion the sight of tortures and death.Gibbon. Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, H. 5.; 4, 3, 34. (2.) POSITION OF ADVerbs. 263. An Adverb placed at the end of a sentence is intended to be emphatic : Sleep hath seiz'd me wholly.—Cymb. 2, 2, 7. He loved his mother dearly.-Cor. 5, 4, 25. In their prosperity my friends shall never hear of me; in their adversity, always.-Bolingbroke. He tells a fine story finely; but he cannot tell a plain story plainly.-Macaulay. If he take her, let him take her simply: the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way.-Wives, 3, 2, 77. Thou'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never.—Lear, 5, 3, 307. 264. Such Adverbs, or Adverbial expressions, as only, wholly, at least, and the like, should be closely connected with words and phrases that they are intended to limit :— Their unsuccessful effort for freedom served only to confirm their slavery.—Gibbon. Her power ended only with her life.—Gibbon. O my Antonio, I do know of these That therefore only are reputed wise For saying nothing.—Merch. 1, 1, 95. Slender. I hope I have your good-will, father Page. Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! 265. Alone is more emphatic than only :— In Hampden, and in Hampden alone, were united all the qualities which, at such a crisis, were necessary to save the state.-Macaulay. You alone I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign.-Gibbon. |