PRECEPT IV.—­When things are to be compared or contrasted, their resemblance or opposition will be rendered more striking, if a pretty near resemblance in the language and construction of the two members, be preserved.  Example:  “The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.”  Better:  “The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the applause of others.”—­See Murray’s Gram., p. 324.

PRECEPT V.—­Remember that it is, in general, ungraceful to end a sentence with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word or phrase, which may either be omitted or be introduced earlier.  “For instance, it is a great deal better to say, ’Avarice is a crime of which wise men are often guilty,’ than to say, ’Avarice is a crime which wise men are often guilty of.’”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 117; Murray’s Gram., p. 323.

END OF THE THIRD APPENDIX.

APPENDIX IV.

TO PART FOURTH, OR PROSODY.

OF POETIC DICTION.

Poetry, as defined by Dr. Blair, “is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination, formed, most commonly, into regular numbers.”—­Rhet., p. 377.  The style of poetry differs, in many respects, from that which is commonly adopted in prose.  Poetic diction abounds in bold figures of speech, and unusual collocations of words.  A great part of the figures, which have been treated of in one of the chapters of Prosody, are purely poetical.  The primary aim of a poet, is, to please and to move; and, therefore, it is to the imagination, and the passions, that he speaks.  He may also, and he should, have it in his view, to instruct and to reform; but it is indirectly, and by pleasing and moving, that such a writer accomplishes this end.  The exterior and most obvious distinction of poetry, is versification:  yet there are some forms of verse so loose and familiar, as to be hardly distinguishable from prose; and there is also a species of prose, so measured in its cadences, and so much raised in its tone, as to approach very nearly to poetic numbers.

This double approximation of some poetry to prose, and of some prose to poetry, not only makes it a matter of acknowledged difficulty to distinguish, by satisfactory definitions, the two species of composition, but, in many instances, embarrasses with like difficulty the attempt to show, by statements and examples, what usages or licenses, found in English works, are proper to be regarded as peculiarities of poetic diction.  It is purposed here, to enumerate sundry deviations from the common style of prose; and perhaps all of them, or nearly all, may be justly considered as pertaining only to poetry.

POETICAL PECULIARITIES.

The following are among the chief peculiarities in which the poets indulge, and are indulged:—­