[ 48 ] 



of Aiperfluous words ; they, perhaps, not lefs frequently violated 

 propriety: they not only ufed words in pairs to cxprefs fingle 

 ideas, but of thofe words, of which the meaning was not thus 

 propped by fubfidiary phrafes, the ufe was, in many inftances, 

 manifcftly improper, and in flill more vague. In the ufe of cor- 

 ponding particles, too, the ftyle of 88 was faulty in a great 

 degree f. Nor was it erroneous merely in the manner of con- 

 neding the component claufes of fentences together ; it was equally 

 fo in the connexion of the fentences themfelves Among the 

 writers of this period it is that we find the pradlice moft prevalent 

 of making which, at the beginning of one fentence, a relative to 

 the whole of that which precedes ; and furely nothing in ftyle 

 can be more inartificial, nothing more repugnant to precifion or 

 to tafte. 



Besides thofe more important defeds, there were others whicl 

 equally violated grace though they did not equally induce ob- 

 fcurity. Such are the frequent ufe of compound adverbs, where- 

 npon, whereas, wherein, &c. the ufe of the obfolcte pronominal 

 adjedives mine, thine, before fubftantives ; the formation of the 

 fuperlative degree by eji in pollyfyllable adjcdives ; and the fre- 

 quent introdudion of colloquial idioms. Of thefe charges it 

 will not be neccffary to give any other proof than a reference to 



the 



f Not uiifrequently, for inftance, neither and or, either and nor are made to cor- 

 refpond, and as is often ufed as a relative to a fubftantive with fame before it, «' in 

 " the fame manner as is related, &c." 



