Misplaced Words

"Of all the faults to be found in writing," says Cobbett, "this is one of the most common, and perhaps it leads to the greatest number of misconceptions. All the words may be the proper words to be used upon the occasion, and yet, by a misplacing of a part of them, the meaning may be wholly destroyed; and even made to be the contrary of what it ought to be." "I asked the question with no other intention than to set the gentleman free from the nece ity of silence, and to give him an opportunity of mingling on equal terms with a polite a embly from which, however uneasy , he could not then escape , by a kind introduction of the only subject on which I believed him to be able to speak with propriety."—Dr. Johnson. "This," says Cobbett, "is a very bad sentence altogether. ' However uneasy ' applies to a embly and not to gentleman . Only observe how easily this might have been avoided. 'From which he , however uneasy , could not then escape.' After this we have, ' he could not then escape , by a kind introduction .' We know what is meant ; but the Doctor, with all his commas , leaves the sentence confused. Let us see whether we can not make it clear. 'I asked the question with no other intention than, by a kind introduction of the only subject on which I believed him to be able to speak with propriety, to set the gentleman free from the nece ity of silence, and to give him an opportunity of mingling on equal terms with a polite a embly from which he, however uneasy, could not then escape.'" "Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes, in this lower world ."—Doctor Watts' "Logic." "I have before showed an error," Cobbett remarks, "in the first sentence of Doctor Watts' work. This is the second sentence. The words in this lower world are not words misplaced only; they are wholly unnece ary , and they do great harm; for they do these two things: first, they imply that there are brutes in the higher world ; and, second, they excite a doubt whether we are raised above those brutes . "I might greatly extend the number of my extracts from these authors; but here, I trust, are enough. I had noted down about two hundred errors in Dr. Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets'; but, afterward perceiving that he had revised and corrected 'The Rambler' with extraordinary care , I chose to make my extracts from that work rather than from the 'Lives of the Poets.'" The position of the adverb should be as near as po ible to the word it qualifies. Sometimes we place it before the auxiliary and sometimes after it, according to the thought we wish to expre . The difference between "The fish should properly be broiled" and "The fish should be properly broiled" is apparent at a glance. "The colon may be properly used in the following cases": should be, "may properly be used." "This mode of expre ion rather suits a familiar than a grave style": should be, "suits a familiar rather than a grave style." "It is a frequent error in the writings even of some good authors": should be, "in the writings of even some good authors." " Both the circumstances of contingency and futurity are nece ary": should be, "The circumstances of contingency and futurity are both nece ary." "He has made charges... which he has failed utterly to sustain."—"New York Tribune." Here it is uncertain at first sight which verb the adverb is intended to qualify; but the nature of the case makes it probable that the writer meant "has utterly failed to sustain." Mistaken. "If I am not mistaken , you are in the wrong": say, "If I mistake not ." "I tell you, you are mistaken ." Here mistaken means, "You are wrong; you do not understand"; but it might be taken to mean, "I mistake you ." For "you are mistaken ," say, "you mistake ." If, as Horace and Profe or Davidson aver, usage in language makes right, then the grammarians ought long ago to have invented some theory upon which the locution you are mistaken could be defended. Until they do invent such a theory, it will be better to say you mistake , he mistakes , and so on; or you are , or he is —as the case may be— in error .