"Of genius—that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more; for every other writer since Milton must give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without consideration and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call or gather in one excursion was all that he sought and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and leveled by the roller."

There are forms of antithesis in which the contrast is only of a secondary kind.

Anxiety of Mind. See EQUANIMITY OF Mind. Anxious. This word is very often used when desirous would better express the meaning intended.

Anxious means full of anxiety; suffering from suspense

or uncertainty; concerned about the future; solicitous; unquiet; uneasy-which is wide of the meaning intended in the following sentences:

'Not anxious to get to Canada.”

"Mr. S. is not willing to accept [assume] the responsibility of backing the first production, which is the reason that Mr. O. is anxious to bring out the play in California." "A writer in Macmillan's Magazine, anxious to preserve the well of English undefiled, calls attention," etc. "Mr. Farnan assumes to be anxious to meet Mr. Sullivan."

"But I am still more anxious that you should not misjudge my father."

He is very intelligent, very liberal in his views, very anxious to do something for humanity."

"I recollect that you were anxious to hang him to the nearest tree."

"Your father is anxious to have you live in New York."

"Tyscovus was anxious to be married at once."

In all these sentences the meaning intended was far from being that of the word anxious; it was that of the word desirous.

Here are some examples of the proper use of anxious: "The office of the Monarch Line of steamships had many callers yesterday. They had friends or relatives on board the Lydian Monarch, and were anxious in regard to their fate."

"Then he was trying his 'prentice hand, and was more anxious about the treatment than about the matter."Julian Hawthorne.

"Naturally she was anxious about the appearance he made in what is called 'society.'”—Badeau.

Any. This word is sometimes made to do service for at all. We say properly, "She is not any better"; but we can not properly say, "She does not see any," meaning that she is blind.

Anybody else.

"Public-school teachers

are in

formed that anybody else's is correct."-N. Y. Times. An English writer says: "In such phrases as anybody else, and the like, else is often put in the possessive case, as, 'anybody else's servant'; and some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, arguing that somebody else is a compound noun." It is better grammar and more euphonious to consider else as being an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and s to the word that else qualifies; thus, anybody's else, nobody's else, somebody's else.

"The expressions some one else, any one else, every one else, somebody else, etc., are in good usage treated as substantive phrases and have the possessive inflection upon the else: as, somebody else's umbrella'; but some prefer to treat them simply as elliptical expressions; as 'the umbrella is somebody's else' (i. e., other than the person previously mentioned)."-Standard Dictionary.

Anyhow. "An exceedingly vulgar phrase," says Professor Mathews, in his Words: Their Use and Abuse. "Its use in any manner, by one who professes to write and speak the English tongue with purity, is unpardonable." Professor Mathews seems to have a special dislike for this colloquialism. It is recognized by the lexicographers, and I think is generally accounted, even by the careful, permissible in conversation, though incompatible with dignified diction, in which such phrases as "in any event,” “be that as it may," at any rate," and the like, are to be pre

ferred.

Aphorism. A principle or precept, either in science or in morals, that is presented to the understanding in a a few words, is called an aphorism.

“Strain the phraseology and you weaken the effect.” "When the words outnumber the thoughts, some of them are only in the way."

66

He that writes thoroughly well never uses more words or bigger words than are really necessary."

"Intemperance in the use of language is as much to be censured as intemperance in anything else; like intemperance in other things, its effect is vulgarizing."

Apostrophe. Turning from the person or persons to whom a discourse is addressed and appealing to some person or thing absent, constitutes what, in rhetoric, is called the apostrophe. The following are some examples: "O gentle sleep,

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?”

"Sail on, thou lone imperial bird

Of quenchless eye and tireless wing!"

"Help, angels, make assay!

Bow, stubborn knees! and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe :

All may yet be well!"

Appear. See SEEM.

Appreciate. If any word in the language has cause to complain of ill-treatment, this one has. Appreciate means, to estimate justly—to set the true value on men or things, their worth, beauty, or advantages of any sort whatsoever. Thus, an overestimate is no more appreciation than is an underestimate. A man is appreciated when his good and his bad qualities are justly considered

in our estimate of him. "I appreciate him highly"—an expression we often hear-is nonsense. "I have great regard for him," or, "I think a great deal of him," or, "I hold him in high esteem," is what we should say.

We value, or prize, things highly, not appreciate them highly. This word is also very improperly made to do service for rise or increase in value; thus, "Land appreciates rapidly in the West."

...

Dr. L. T. Townsend misuses appreciate in his Art of Speech, vol. i, p. 142, thus: "The laws of harmony . . may allow copiousness . . . in parts of a discourse . . . in order that the condensation of other parts may be the more highly appreciated." If the doctor had written more thoroughly appreciated he would have “passed muster."

Here is a very extraordinary use of the word by Mr. Chauncey Depew: "He appreciated that his countrymen had a claim on his memory."

Apprehend-Comprehend. The English often use the first of these two words where we use the second. Both express an effort of the thinking faculty; but to apprehend is simply to take an idea into the mind-it is the mind's first effort—while to comprehend is fully to understand. We are dull or quick of apprehension. Children apprehend much that they do not comprehend. Trench says, "We apprehend many truths which [that] we do not comprehend." Apprehend," says Crabb, " expresses the weakest kind of belief, the having [of] the least idea of the presence of a thing."

There is a distinction between the faculties of comprehension and apprehension. If I take the distance of a fixed star, it is beyond my mind to grasp the enormous distance. If I calculate that distance, at every step I know I am right. So we are able to support and sustain a truth,