hear of it will, I am sure, deeply lament the occurrence," would have made the repetition too obvious and too barren. Words employed for repetition ought to have enough difference in meaning to give a new turn to the idea An idea expressed by a particular term, for instance, may be repeated by one more general; or in the repetition we may put not the term itself but the definition or some characterization of it. "As EXAMPLES. —1. Repetition of particular term by general. he rounded the rock, to his great surprise he saw a bear only a few yards away. The beast discovered him at once." 2. Repetition of terms by definition. "One ought to have a conscience in literature as in morals; it is of great importance that the reading-matter of the people should be regulated by a serious regard for what is true and reasonable and pure." In this sentence we not only repeat without seeming to do so, but we reveal in the repetition what we mean by the terms "literature" and "conscience." 71. Be careful of repeated sounds. Repeated words, as spoken of in the preceding rule, involve, of course, repetition of the same sound; and this is one reason why, unless the repetition is desirable on other grounds (see Rule 55), they should be avoided. Even more prevalent, and to be detected only by reading aloud, is the inadvertent repetition of the same sound, like a rhyme. EXAMPLE. "As I gazed upon the mighty work, I said to myself, 'Now Athens is indeed secure; come Greek or come Persian, nothing will subdue her." Not always can such repetition be avoided; but when it cannot, the writer can at least endeavor to drive the repeated sound into a place where it will not balance with the other, or have the same stress of voice. EXAMPLES. Compare the following sentences : "To have a whole realm of thought, or activity, or wise counsel, ringing with your name, this is the real and worthy glory that you may crown with the title fame." fill a "To have your name whole realm of thought, or activity, or wise counsel, this is the real and worthy glory that you may crown with the title fame." Note how unobtrusive the repeated sound has become. A frequent and natural inadvertence in repeated sounds is the thoughtless use of two adverbs or other words ending in -ly, one after the other. EXAMPLES. -"He has had such long-continued disease of the eyes that he is now nearly entirely blind. — Mr. T has an extremely lovely residence in Hampshire County. 72. Test your work by ear for harsh combinations. Single words that are harsh in sound. cannot, of course, be avoided, when they convey the exact sense. But when they must occur, immediate attention should be directed to make the harshness stop with them, and not be perpetuated in a combination of harsh sounds. Most of such combinations occur inadvertently; it is important, therefore, as important as in music, to keep the ear alert and well trained. EXAMPLES. "The closing notes of the anthem died away among the vaultings of the high-arched church." Such a word as "edifice" or "structure" would obviate this difficult sound. NOTE. Of course a harsh sound or combination may be desirable to express a harsh idea; see Rule 61, above. 73. To make expression flowing, test the accents. It will be perceived by the ear test that when a succession of unaccented syllables come together the effect is a peculiar huddling of sounds; a number of accented sylla bles together, on the other hand, compel a slow, dragging utterance. Either of these effects may be desirable for a purpose; but they do not make the style flowing; an alternation of accented and unaccented sounds is needed for that. EXAMPLES OF EFFECT. -1. Unaccented syllables. If we had such a combination as "árbitrarily interrelated," the seven unaccented syllables together would make a mere half intelligible huddle. 2. Accented syllables. Pope's line, "Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone," moves slowly because most of the words are emphatic and so require accent; the repetition of the h-sound serves to strengthen the accent. II. Exercises for acquiring Smoothness. Smoothness is acquired by learning to think at every step how your sentences sound; until that habit is acquired, no one can be unerring in his combinations of letters and syllables. This gives importance and value to the practice of reading aloud, a practice too much neglected. I. Read aloud and revise the following sentences. The poorest in the land have medicine and nursing freely at their command. The young fellow is to his relatives a veritable thorn in the flesh; no wonder then that the young fellow's relatives occasionally groan at having such a thorn continually troubling them. The strands were stretched through an alley seventy-five feet in length. There is no one here who is competent to attend him; and if a serious emergency should arise, which in the present state of things would be no surprise, who would there be to defend him? 'Twas thou that soothed'st the rough rugg'd bed of pain. No one can be truly holy, or manifest a thoroughly lowly character in this corrupted life. The merry little stream seemed to like to ooze through every barrier which the utmost effort of the carrier could build against it. The lady was distinguished by a costly and showy brooch, with which she pinned her costly lace scarf. The brooch was remarked upon by many, who wondered that a person in her station should be distinguished by such a showy brooch. Are these the thanks that thou hast thought to reward thy benefactors with? The meeting was closed fully as peremptorily as it was called. Edward Everett, in a celebrated oration, named Washington the beacon-light of the American nation; and the oration describes what a beacon-light his upright character and his sound judgment were to the nation in the most critical period of its history. The river has a name the same as the name that the Indians gave it. Three days passed and he received no answer to his petition for relief; another day passed and he still received no answer; a fifth and a sixth day passed, and still no answer to his petition for relief was received. His case was getting desperate. How eminently trustworthily he has performed his task; better service than his no employers could ask. The orders of the department are ordinarily posted on the bulletin board, in order that mistakes may be detected and corrected. 2. Rewrite the following little narrative, amending according to the notes and references.1 1 This narrative is put in here partly, as the previous compositions have been, to furnish opportunities for revision of the style, and partly to illustrate what may be made a valuable rhetorical exercise, namely, the re The king stopped his horse and laid his hand on Sir Lancelot's arm, and asked what noise that was (60). Sir Lancelot (70) said (70) that he heard nothing, except the sound (61) b of the wind, and he asked (60) what there was(54) © to hear in such a desolate place as that. King Arthur asked this question as hed and Sir Lancelot were riding together under a precipice of rock which overhung the path (57). The path led through (49) a lonely ravine far from any human abode, and it was raining and windy, and the ride was very uncomfortable (49). King Arthur's (70) question was the first word that was (23) 8 spoken for some time. "There," said (70) h the king, "do you not hear it again? It sounds strangely like the wail of a child; but where can it be?" As he spoke a blast of wind bore down to their ears from some place which was (58) seemingly high up in thej air, a faint wail (70). They strained1 their eyes in the direction of the wail (70) and could just make out, but dimly because the air was full of mist and rain (57)m the stump of an old oak, which projected out from the cliff (58), and way (2) out toward the end a mass which was like a tuft (58) and looked like a large (46) nest. It is a producing of a poetical passage in the spirit and style of prose. prose version of the following lines from Tennyson's Last Tournament (lines 10-22): "For Arthur and Sir Lancelot riding once Far down beneath a winding wall of rock |