This is not, as we might suppose, the opening of a digression on the old drama. He is merely taking a step out of the subject that he may return with greater force. The next sentence is

"But whoever compares even the least decorous plays of Fletcher with those contained in the volume before us, will see how much the profligacy which follows a period of overstrained austerity goes beyond the profligacy which precedes such a period."

In the same Essay a paragraph on the morality of Greek writings proceeds as follows:

"The immoral English writers of the seventeenth century are indeed much less excusable than those of Greece and Rome. But the worst English writings of the seventeenth century are decent, compared with much that has been bequeathed to us by Greece and Rome. Plato, we have little doubt, was a much better man than Sir George Etherege. But Plato has written things at which Sir George Etherege would have shuddered.”

The effect of these sudden interruptions of continuity is still more abrupt when the contrasting statement is introduced, as it were, in fragments. Thus, towards the close of a flowing declamation on the beneficial influence of the Romam Catholic Church in the dark ages, he staggers us by abruptly declaring—

"The sixteenth century was comparatively a time of light."

Of this fragmentary statement we can make nothing. We stumble on, bewildered, to the next :—

"Yet even in the sixteenth century a considerable number of those who quitted the old religion followed the first confident and plausible guide who offered himself, and were soon led into errors far more serious than they ha renounced."

Now we can guess at his drift, and pass lightly over a sentence of examples—

"Thus Matthias and Kniperdoling, apostles of lust, robbery, and murder, were able for a time to rule great cities

ว

reaching the explicit statement of the idea in the following

sentence:

"In a darker age such false prophets might have founded empires; and Christianity might have been distorted into a cruel and licentious superstition, more noxious not only than Popery, but even than Islamism.”

Apart from the abruptness of these sudden and discontinuous changes of subject, the introduction of generalities, contrasting statements, qualifications, and suchlike, before we know formally their bearing upon the subject in hand, has something of the effect of the periodic structure upon a larger scale: we are, as in an expanded period, kept in suspense until the application is fully developed.

2. The rule of Paralle! Contruction is that "when several consecutive sentences iterate or illustrate the same idea, they should, as far as possible, be formed alike." Macaulay observes this rule better perhaps than any of our popular writers. With his natural sense of perspicuous effect, he felt the advantage of keeping the principal subject prominent throughout all the sentences of a paragraph.

He is far, indeed, from being perfect. Thus, in the passage recently quoted concerning the Italian States, the illustrations of the general principle invert the position of the leading subject. The general proposition is made concerning the people, and two of the illustrations are stated as if the subject of discourse bad been the despots and their hardships. Consider, for instance, the first illustration :

"The most arbitrary of the Cæsars found it necessary to feed and divert the inhabitants of their unwieldy capital at the expense of the provinces." Here the phrase "at the expense of the provinces" is improperly prominent who paid the bill is a matter of no importance; the point is that the inhabitants of Rome extorted the treat. Let us put it as follows:

"The inhabitants of the unwieldy capital of the Cæsars exac'ed expensive bounties of food and diversion from the most arbitrary of their masters.' Our amendment may be less elegant, but, in that particular connection, it is more perspicuous.

Though open to improvement, Macaulay undoubtedly owes not a little of his perspicuity to the observance of this rule. Whole paragraphs might be quoted containing little or nothing to alter; particularly when he exerts himself to give a sustained account of an institution or an individual-the Roman Catholic Church or Hyder Ali. When he does not give the leading place to the principal subject, he awards it to some subject introduced in his peculiar way for purposes of contrast, and for the time occupying the foreground in the exposition.

The uses of parallel structure may be studied to advantage in Macaulay. Usually but slight alterations are required, and no harm need be done to the variety of his expression. The following is another good case where some slight changes make an obvious improvement. The passage occurs in an exposition of the theme that "No men occupy so splendid a place in history as those who have founded monarchies on the ruins of republican institutions" :

"In nations broken to the curb, in nations long accustomed to be transferred from one tyrant to another, a man without eminent qualities may easily gain supreme power. The defection of a troop of guards, a conspiracy of eunuchs, a popular tumult, might place an indolent senator or a brutal

soldier on the throne of the Roman world. Similar revolutions have often occurred in the despotic States of Asia. But a community which has heard the voice of truth and experienced the pleasures of liberty, in which the merits of statesmen and of systems are freely canvassed, in which obedience is paid not to persons but to laws, in which magistrates are regarded not as the lords but as the servants of the public, in which the excitement of party is a necessary of life, in which political warfare is reduced to a system of tactics; such a community is not easily reduced to servitude."

The subject being the grandeur of men that have made themselves absolute over free institutions, it would obviously conduce to perspicuity to make that subject prominent throughout, as it is in the first sentence. The conclusion of the last sentence drops the usurper altogether, and lets the pervading idea slip out of clear comprehension into vagueness. Let us try the effect, as regards clearness, of some such alterations as the following:

66

'In the Roman world an indolent senator or a brutal soldier might be placed on the imperial throne by the defection, &c.; and similar revolutions have often occurred in the despotic States of Asia. But in a community, &c.; in a community thus free and enlightened, only men of rare genius for command can hope to obtain the mastery."

3. The opening sentence in his paragraphs is not always a clue to the main subject. Of this we have had an example.

One of his great arts of surprise is to occupy the first sentences of the paragraph with circumstances leading us to expect the opposite of what is really the main statement. Very often all the sentences up to the last are a preparation for the shock of astonishment administered at the close. We are told what ought to have happened, what was expected to happen, or what happened in some other age or country under similar circumstances, before we reach the gist of the paragraph, which is to tell us what really happened in some particular case. The following paragraph is constructed on this plan :

"No part of the system of the old Church had been more detested by the Reformers than the honour paid to celibacy. They held that the doctrine of Rome on this subject had been prophetically condemned by the apostle Paul as a doctrine of devils; and they dwelt much on the crimes and scandals which seemed to prove the justice of this awful denunciation. Luther had evinced his own opinion in the clearest manner, by espousing a nun. Some of the most illustrious bishops and priests who had died by fire during the reign of Mary had left wives and children. Now, however, it began to be rumoured that the old monastic spirit had reappeared in the Church of England; that there was in high quarters a prejudice against married priests; that even laymen, who called themselves Protestants, had made resolutions of celibacy which almost amounted to vows; nay, that a minister of the established religion had set up a nunnery, in which the psalms were chanted at midnight by a company of virgins dedicated to God.'

In such paragraphs, to indicate the drift at the beginning would alter the character of the composition. But in many cases the

delay of the main proposition is purposeless, and serves only to confuse. Thus, in a paragraph detailing the circumstances that made it impossible to transfer to the King of England the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Pope, he begins

"The immediate effect of the Reformation in England was by no means favourable to political liberty. The authority which had been exercised by the Popes was transferred almost entire to the King. Two formidable powers which had often served to check each other were united in a single despot. If the system on which the founders of the Church of England acted could have been permanent, the Reformation would have been in a political sense the greatest curse that ever fell on our country. But that system carried within it the seeds of its own death." (And so on through a long paragrapn.)

We do not catch the drift of the paragraph until we reach the fourth sentence, and we do not know that it is the key to the subject till we have read the whole. An ordinary reader, asked to summarise such a paragraph after a single perusal, would give but a poor account of it. He would naturally recall the first sentences, and comparing these with the tenor of the latter part of the paragraph, would almost to a certainty founder in the attempt to reconcile them. It would have been far better to begin with the fourth sentence. This, though not a direct statement of the substance of the paragraph, states it by implication. The three first sentences should be thrown into their natural position of subordination. We should then have some such opening as follows:

"If the system on which the founders of the Church of England acted could have been permanent, the Reformation would have been in a political sense the greatest curse that ever fell on our country. At first, indeed, it seemed by no means favourable to political liberty. The authority exercised by the Popes was transferred almost entire to the King. Two formidable powers that had often served to check each other were united in a single despot. But this union could not last; the appearance of danger soon vanished.'

His paragraphs often begin with one or more short sentences, recapitulating the previous paragraph. It is a good deal a matter of taste; but probably most authorities would prefer that these short sentences were prefixel to the real substance of the paragraph in the form of clauses. Thus, take his account of the reaction of public feeling after the warm reception of William and Mary

"The ill-humour of the clergy and of the army could not but be noticed by the most heedless; for the clergy and the army were distinguished by obvious peculiarities of garb. Black coats and red coats,' said a vehement Whig in the House of Commons, are the curses of the nation.' But the discontent was not confined to the black coats and the red coats."

Now the discontent among the other classes being the subject of the paragraph, many would prefer to have all the above condensed into one sentence, in some such way as follows:

"Although the ill-humour of the clergy and the army could not fail to be most remarked, distinguished as they were from other classes by their pecu liar garb (black coats and red coats,' said a vehement Whig in the House of Commons, are the curses of the nation'), yet the clergy and the army were not the only discontented classes. "

4. Dislocation.-In delineating a character, or in giving an account of a town, he would not seem to have bestowed much attention on the order of the circumstances in his statement.

To take an example from the celebrated third chapter of his History:

"Norwich was the capital of a large and fruitful province. It was the residence of a bishop and of a chapter. It was the chief seat of the chief manufacture of the realm. Some men distinguished by learning and science had recently dwelt there; and no place in the kingdom, except the capital and the universities, had more attractions for the curious. The library, the museum, the aviary, and the botanical garden of Sir Thomas Browne, was thought by the Fellows of the Royal Society well worthy of a long pilgrimage. Norwich had also a court in miniature."

(Here follows a picturesque account of the mansion of the Dukes of Norwich; their state-the golden goblets, silver tongs and shovels, paintings, gems; a picturesque description of the festive reception of Charles II. in 1671; a similar description of the return of the Duke of Norwich. After this the paragraph closes abruptly with the statement—)

"In the year 1693, the population of Norwich was found, by actual enuineration, to be between twenty-eight and twenty-nine thousand souls."

Now here the statement that Norwich was the chief seat of the chief manufacture of the realm deserved to be made more prominent. Further, there is some confusion in thrusting it in between the bishop and the literary celebrities; it has more natural affinity with the largeness and fruitfulness of the province, and, if it is useful to preserve continuity of ideas, should have been placed next to the first sentence. The number of the population comes in very abruptly: seeing that he makes the population his first care in this chapter, and maintains it to be the most important fact, one is surprised that he did not observe on the small scale what he considered advisable on the great scale.

The paragraphs of this same third chapter are a very good study upon this point of arrangement, and afford scope for a great deal of casuistry. If we take the chapter as a whole, the order and proportion of the statements are open to many objections. It may, indeed, be doubted whether there is in the chapter any principle either of order or of proportion. One statement seems to suggest another; at the end the reader feels that he has passed through a brilliant muddle; whether he has obtained the complete Pisgah