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writers. Mannerism, on the other hand, consists in some marked peculiarity in the method of composition; being in regard to style what deformity is in regard to the human features. This peculiarity assumes different forms with different writers. With some it is mere affectation: with others, and by far the greater number, it is quite involuntary, and is as difficult to lay aside, as it is easy to take up. One writer exhibits it in the copious use of foreign words; another in the unnecessary use of parentheses; a third in a startling method of punctuation; a fourth in the

repetition of certain words in close juxtaposition; Success (Eri)

a fifth in the adoption of strange titles for his works. Having already spoken of the use and abuse of foreign words, I shall now proceed to lay before the reader some samples of the other kinds of mannerism.

Nothing affords a clearer demonstration of the incapacity of an author to embody his thoughts in intelligible language than the frequent use of the parenthesis. In an able writer it is often the effect of negligence; in a mediocre one it may be reckoned the consequence of mediocrity; and if in the correctest composition it is sometimes unavoidable, it must be admitted that there are few sentences, in which it occurs, that might not be improved either by its omission altogether, or by a judicious transposition of some of the members of the sentence. The prose writers most

free from this blemish are Gibbon, Hallam, and Macaulay. The one most tainted by it is Charles Lamb. And after all, one half of Lamb's parentheses are only so in form. Substitute commas and semicolons, and you will not find the slightest alteration in the sense. No doubt, real, unmistakable parentheses abound, but they are part of his style; a species of mannerism, characteristic of his lighter compositions. He throws them in upon all occasions; gives them the most fantastic shapes; plays with them; tosses them about; and yet, all the while, the sense is clear, and, in so far as parentheses are concerned, perfectly intelligible. Lamb uses a parenthesis as the author of "Don Juan" does a digression. Indeed, Byron's digressions are nothing but long parentheses, in which he contrives, as it were by accident, to introduce some of his wittiest and wisest sayings.

A parenthesis is to literary composition what a police-officer is to the composition of society. Where there is much disorganization, the constable's staff is often raised to separate conflicting parties, and maintain order and decorum among the several members of the community. Where the intellectual constitution is defective, the parenthesis is frequently in requisition to marshal the jostling ideas, and prevent them from falling foul of each other in their struggles for utterance. The social body that stands least

in need of the one, and the mental organization that seldomest requires the other, are those which have made the greatest advances towards perfection.

Some parentheses are merely useless, being the result of ignorance or carelessness in the writer. Take for example the following from Sir B. Lytton:

"Yet, I believe, on the whole, it would be an aristocracy very much resembling the present one (only without the control which the king's prerogative at present affords him)." -England and the English.

A comma here, after the word " one," is all that was required; instead of which we have a parenthesis, with no other effect than that of shutting out the concluding part of the sentence, which does not require to be separated from that which precedes it.

In another part of the same work Sir Bulwer has this example :

"Our ancestors founded certain great schools (that now rear the nobles, the gentry, and the merchants) for the benefit of the poor."

Here is a short sentence of only two lines, but put together in such a manner that a parenthesis is resorted to, lest it should be inferred, contrary to the writer's intention, that the nobles, the gentry, and the merchants, are reared for the benefit of the poor; whereas, if each part of the sentence had been set down in its natural order,

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the necessity of a parenthesis for the eye, and of

a change of tone for the ear, would have been obviated. The sentence should stand thus:

"Our ancestors founded, for the benefit of the poor, certain great schools, that now rear the nobles, the gentry, and the merchants."

Another objectionable form of this figure is where one parenthesis is made to include another. Sir Bulwer Lytton shall again afford an illustration :

"If it be true that the negligent or evil example of the aristocracy be thus powerfully pernicious, (not, we will acknowledge, from a design on their part, but (we will take the mildest supposition) from a want of attention—from a want of being thoroughly aroused to the nature and extent of their own influence) if this be true, how necessary have been the expositions of this work!"-England and the English.

But the worst species of parenthesis is that which to its native deformity adds the blemish of false grammar or distorted sense. Here is an instance from Sir A. Alison-the dash being used instead of the ordinary mark :

"This wise and humane act was accompanied by one commuting the punishment of death pronounced against Victor Boirier and François Meunier-who had been convicted of an attempt on the king's life by firing into his carriage, though happily without effect, as he was going in state to the Legislative Body, on the first day of the session, accompanied by his two sons-into ten years' banishment."-History of Europe from Fall of Napoleon.

This parenthesis sins by its great length. Before it is closed, the reader has already lost

sight of the first part of the sentence, and is led to the conclusion that Louis Philippe was accompanied by his two sons, into ten years' banishment. And yet, to make the whole perfectly intelligible, without the aid of any parenthesis, all the writer had to do was to insert the words, "into ten years' banishment," after the word "commuting," thus:

"This wise and humane act was accompanied by one commuting, into ten years' banishment, the punishment of death pronounced against Victor Boirier and François Meunier," &c.

Under this description of parenthesis may be classed the following from Mrs. Foster's "HandBook of European Literature:"

"Hume's 'Natural Religion' called forth Dr. Beattie's (author of the 'Minstrel') able work."

And Bishop Thirlwall, in his reply to Bishop Hall, presents us with another instance :—

"I can confirm the accuracy of Mr. Evans's (the rural dean) statements with regard to the churches."

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Of faults of style, this is one of the most offensive to the ear. Besides the jingle occasioned at the opening of the parenthesis, by bringing together the words, "Beattie's (author' "Evans's (the rural dean ;" and, at the closing, "Minstrel) able work"-" Dean) statements,' we have the obvious inaccuracy of making a noun in the possessive case correspond to another noun

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