*33. Suspense[13] is gained by placing a Participle or Adjective that qualifies the Subject, before the Subject.*
"Deserted by his friends, he was forced to have recourse to those that had been his enemies." Here, if we write, "He, deserted by his friends, was forced &c.," he is unduly emphasized; and if we write, "He was forced to have recourse to his enemies, having been deserted by his friends," the effect is very flat.
Of course we might sometimes write "He was deserted and forced &c." But this cannot be done where the "desertion" is to be not stated but implied.
Often, when a participle qualifying the subject is introduced late in the sentence, it causes positive ambiguity: "With this small force the general determined to attack the foe, flushed with recent victory and rendered negligent by success."
An excessive use of the suspensive participle is French and objectionable: e.g. "Careless by nature, and too much engaged with business to think of the morrow, spoiled by a long-established liberty and a fabulous prosperity, having for many generations forgotten the scourge of war, we allow ourselves to drift on without taking heed of the signs of the times." The remedy is to convert the participle into a verb depending on a conjunction: "Because we are by nature careless, &c.;" or to convert the participle into a verb co-ordinate with the principal verb, e.g. "We are by nature careless, &c., and therefore we allow ourselves, &c."
*34. Suspensive Conjunctions, e.g. "either," "not only," "on the one hand," add clearness.*-Take the following sentence:-"You must take this extremely perilous course, in which success is uncertain, and failure disgraceful, as well as ruinous, or else the liberty of your country is endangered." Here, the meaning is liable to be misunderstood, till the reader has gone half through the sentence. Write "Either you must," &c., and the reader is, from the first, prepared for an alternative. Other suspensive conjunctions or phrases are partly, for our part; in the first place; it is true; doubtless; of course; though; on the one hand.
*35. Repeat the Subject when the omission would cause ambiguity or obscurity.*-The omission is particularly likely to cause obscurity after a Relative standing as Subject:-
"He professes to be helping the nation, which in reality is suffering from his flattery, and (he? or it?) will not permit anyone else to give it advice."
The Relative should be repeated when it is the Subject of several Verbs. "All the pleasing illusions which made power gentle and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments that beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason."
*36. Repeat a Preposition after an intervening Conjunction, especially if a Verb and an Object also intervene.*
"He forgets the gratitude that he owes to those that helped all his companions when he was poor and uninfluential, and (to) John Smith in particular." Here, omit to, and the meaning may be "that helped all his companions, and John Smith in particular." The intervention of the verb and object, "helped" and "companions," causes this ambiguity.
*37. When there are several Verbs at some distance from a Conjunction on which they depend, repeat the Conjunction.*[14]
"When we look back upon the havoc that two hundred years have made in the ranks of our national authors-and, above all, (when) we refer their rapid disappearance to the quick succession of new competitors-we cannot help being dismayed at the prospect that lies before the writers of the present day."
Here omit "when," and we at once substitute a parenthetical statement for what is really a subordinate clause.
In reporting a speech or opinion, "that" must be continually repeated, to avoid the danger of confusing what the writer says with what others say.
"We might say that the Cæsars did not persecute the Christians; (that) they only punished men who were charged, rightly or wrongly, with burning Rome, and committing the foulest abominations in secret assemblies; and (that) the refusal to throw frankincense on the altar of Jupiter was not the crime, but only evidence of the crime." But see (6 b).
*37 a. Repeat Verbs after the conjunctions "than," "as," &c.*
"I think he likes me better than you;" i.e. either "than you like me," or "he likes you."
"Cardinal Richelieu hated Buckingham as sincerely as did the
Spaniard Olivares." Omit "did," and you cause ambiguity.
*38. If the sentence is so long that it is difficult to keep the thread of meaning unbroken, repeat the subject, or some other emphatic word, or a summary of what has been said.*
"Gold and cotton, banks and railways, crowded ports, and populous cities-these are not the elements that constitute a great nation."
This repetition (though useful and, when used in moderation, not unpleasant) is more common with speakers than with writers, and with slovenly speakers than with good speakers.
"The country is in such a condition, that if we delay longer some fair measure of reform, sufficient at least to satisfy the more moderate, and much more, if we refuse all reform whatsoever-I say, if we adopt so unwise a policy, the country is in such a condition that we may precipitate a revolution."
Where the relative is either implied (in a participle) or repeated, the antecedent must often be repeated also. In the following sentence we have the Subject repeated not only in the final summary, but also as the antecedent:-
"But if there were, in any part of the world, a national church regarded as heretical by four-fifths of the nation committed to its care; a church established and maintained by the sword; a church producing twice as many riots as conversions; a church which, though possessing great wealth and power, and though long backed by persecuting laws, had, in the course of many generations, been found unable to propagate its doctrines, and barely able to maintain its ground; a church so odious that fraud and violence, when used against its clear rights of property, were generally regarded as fair play; a church whose ministers were preaching to desolate walls, and with difficulty obtaining their lawful subsistence by the help of bayonets,-such a church, on our principles, could not, we must own, be defended."
*39. It is a help to clearness, when the first part of the sentence prepares the way for the middle and the middle for the end, in a kind of ascent. This ascent is called "climax."*
In the following there are two climaxes, each of which has three terms:-
"To gossip(a) is a fault(b); to libel(a'), a crime(b'); to slander(a''), a sin(b'')."
In the following, there are several climaxes, and note how they contribute to the clearness of a long sentence:-
"Man, working, has contrived(a) the Atlantic Cable, but I declare that it astonishes(b) me far more to think that for his mere amusement(c), that to entertain a mere idle hour(c'), he has created(a') 'Othello' and 'Lear,' and I am more than astonished, I am awe-struck(b'), at that inexplicable elasticity of his nature which enables him, instead of turning away(d) from calamity and grief(e), or instead of merely defying(d') them, actually to make them the material of his amusement(d''), and to draw from the wildest agonies of the human spirit(e') a pleasure which is not only not cruel(f), but is in the highest degree pure and ennobling(f')."
The neglect of climax produces an abruptness that interferes with the even flow of thought. Thus, if Pope, in his ironical address to mankind, had written-
"Go, wondrous creature, mount where science guides;
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule"-
the ascent would have been too rapid. The transition from earth to heaven, and from investigating to governing, is prepared by the intervening climax-
"Instruct the planets in what orbs to run;
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair."
*40. When the thought is expected to ascend and yet descends, feebleness and sometimes confusion is the result. The descent is called "bathos."*
"What pen can describe the tears, the lamentations, the agonies, the animated remonstrances of the unfortunate prisoners?"
"She was a woman of many accomplishments and virtues, graceful in her movements, winning in her address, a kind friend, a faithful and loving wife, a most affectionate mother, and she played beautifully on the pianoforte."
INTENTIONAL BATHOS has a humorous incongruity and abruptness that is sometimes forcible. For example, after the climax ending with the line-
"Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule,"
Pope adds-
"Then drop into thyself, and be a fool."
*40 a. A new construction should not be introduced without cause.*-A sudden and apparently unnecessary change of construction causes awkwardness and roughness at least, and sometimes breaks the flow of the sentence so seriously as to cause perplexity. Thus, write "virtuous and accomplished," or "of many virtues and...
