take the possessive form. They prevented him going forward' better, 'They prevented his going forward.' 'He was dismissed without any reason being assigned.' 'The boy died through his clothes being burned.' 'We hear little

of any connection being kept up between the two nations.' The men rowed vigorously for fear of the tide turning against us.' But most examples of the construction without the possessive form are OBVIOUSLY DUE TO MERE SLOVENLINESS. 'In case of your being absent': here being is an infinitive [verbal, or participial, noun] qualified by the possessive your. 'In case of your being present': here being would have to be construed as a participle. The possessive construction is, in this case, the primitive and regular construction; THE OTHER IS A MERE LAPSE. The difficulty of adhering to the possessive form occurs when the subject is not a person: 'It does not seem safe to rely on the rule of demand creating supply': in strictness, ‘Demand's creating supply.' 'A petition was presented against the license being granted.' But for the awkwardness of extending the possessive to impersonal subjects, it would be right to say, 'against the license's being granted.' He had conducted the ball without any complaint being urged against him.' The possessive would be suitable, but undesirable and unnecessary."-Professor Alexander Bain.

Though the ordinary syntax of the possessive case is sufficiently plain and easy, there is, perhaps, among all the puzzling and disputable points of grammar, nothing more difficult of decision than are some questions that occur respecting the right management of this case. The observations that have been made show that possessives before participles are seldom to be approved. The following example is manifestly inconsistent with itself, and, in my

opinion, the three possessives are all wrong: 'The kitchen, too, now begins to give dreadful note of preparation; not from armorers accomplishing the knights, but from the shopmaid's chopping forcemeat, the apprentice's cleaning knives, and the journeyman's receiving a practical lesson in the art of waiting at table.' 'The daily instances of men's dying around us.' Say rather, ‘Of men dying around us.' The leading word in sense ought not to be made the adjunct in construction."-Goold Brown.

Casualty. This word is often heard with the incorrect addition of a syllable-casuality—which is not recognized by the lexicographers.

Casualty is frequently misused for accident. Accident, contingency, and casualty, according to Crabb, all imply things that take place independently of our intentions. Accidents are more than contingencies, and casualties have regard simply to circumstances. Accidents are frequently occasioned by carelessness, but casualties are altogether independent of ourselves. We are all exposed to the most calamitous accidents; our happiness depends upon many contingencies; the best concerted scheme may be thwarted by casualties that no foresight can prevent.

"This deformity has the same effect in natural faults as maiming and mutilation has from accidents."-Burke.

"Men are exposed to more casualties than women, as battles, sea voyages, with several dangerous trades and professions."-Addison.

Celobrity. "A number of celebrities witnessed the first representation." This word is frequently used, especially in the newspapers, as a concrete term; but it would be better to use it in its abstract sense only, and, in sentences like the one above, to say distinguished persons. Character-Reputation. These two words are not

synonyms, though often used as such.

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Character means

the sum of distinguishing qualities. Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters."-Lavater. Reputation means the estimation in which one is held. One's reputation, then, is what is thought of one's character; consequently, one may have a good reputation and a bad character, or a good character and a bad reputation. Calumny may injure reputation, but not character. Sir Peter does not leave his character behind him, but his reputation-his good name.

Cheap. The dictionaries define this adjective as meaning, bearing a low price, or to be had at a low price; but nowadays good usage makes it mean that a thing may be had, or has been sold, at a bargain. Hence, in order to make sure of being understood, it is better to say low-priced, when one means low-priced, than to use the word cheap. What is low-priced, as everybody knows, is often dear, and what is high-priced is often cheap. A diamond necklace might be cheap at ten thousand dollars, and a pinchbeck necklace dear at ten dollars.

"We are

Cherubim. The Hebrew plural of cherub. authorized," says Dr. Campbell, "both by use and analogy, to say either cherubs and seraphs, according to the English idiom, or cherubim and seraphim, according to the Oriental. The former suits better the familiar, the latter the solemn, style. As the words cherubim and seraphim are plural, the terms cherubims and seraphims, as expressing the plural, are quite improper."-Philosophy of Rhetoric.

Chiefly. This is one of quite a list of words that are often misplaced.

In my last conversation with Mr. Benjamin he chiefly spoke of [spoke chiefly of] luminaries of the English bench

and bar."

Childish. Occasionally misused for childlike, as it is in the following sentence:

'Her [Taglioni's] difficulty seems to be to keep to the floor. You have the feeling, while you gaze upon her, that if she were to rise and float away like Ariel, you would scarce be surprised; yet all is done with such a childish unconsciousness of admiration that the delight with which she fills you is unmingled."

Childish ways are always offensive in those that have, in years, ceased to be children.

Citizen. This word properly means, one who has certain political rights; when, therefore, it is used, as it often is, to designate persons who may be aliens, it, to say the least, betrays a want of care in the selection of words. "Several citizens were injured by the explosion." Here some other word-persons, for example-should be used.

Claim. Says Prof. J. S. Blackwell: "Claim in the sense of maintain is too modern to have much authority other than that of newspaper hacks."

Says Mr. Gilbert M. Tucker, of The Cultivator and Country Gentleman: "Allow me to call your attention to one important and disgusting blunder not noted by you— the use of claim for say, assert, think, or maintain. I think this is far more frequently heard, taking the country through, than the opposite error of using allow in the same way."

Clever. In this country the word clever is most improperly used in the sense of good-natured, well-disposed, good-hearted. It is properly used in the sense in which we are wont most inelegantly to use the word smart, though it is a less colloquial term, and is of wider application. In England the phrase “a clever man ” is the equivalent of the French phrase, un homme d'esprit." The word is properly used in the following sentences: "Every work of

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Archbishop Whately must be an object of interest to the admirers of clever reasoning"; "Cobbett's letter . . . very clever, but very mischievous"; "Bonaparte was certainly as clever a man as ever [has] lived."

Climax. A clause, a sentence, a paragraph, or any literary composition whatsoever, is said to end with a climax when, by an artistic arrangement, the more effective is made to follow the less effective in regular gradation. Any great departure from the order of ascending strength is called an anti-climax. Here are some examples of climax :

"Give all diligence; add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity."

"What is every year of a wise man's life but a criticism on the past! Those whose life is the shortest live long enough to laugh at one half of it; the boy despises the infant, the man the boy, the sage both, and the Christian all."

"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god!"

The word climax should not be used for acme. They are not even synonyms.

'Epistolary novel-writing reached the acme of its popularity with Richardson's tales." Correctly used.

"The glories of the age of Louis XIV were the climax [acme] of a set of ideas."

'They are not only the very climax [acme] of human evil, but the most characteristic types of French vice."