Part 21

"'It was an example of the love to form comparisons': read, 'of forming.'

"'Repetition is always to be preferred before obscurity': read, 'to.'

"'He made an effort for meeting them': read, 'to meet.'

"'They have no other object but to come': read, 'other object than,' or omit 'other.'

"Two verbs are not unfrequently followed by a single preposition, which accords with one only; e. g., 'This duty is repeated and inculcated upon the reader.' 'Repeat upon' is nonsense; we must read 'is repeated to and inculcated upon.'"--Nichol's "English Composition," p. 39. We often see for used with the substantive sympathy; the best practice, however, uses with; thus, "Words can not express the deep sympathy I feel with you."--Queen Victoria.

PARTY. This is a very good word in its place, but it is very much out of its place when used--as it often is by the vulgar--where good taste would use the word person.

PATRONIZE. This word and its derivatives would be much less used by the American tradesman than they are, if he were better acquainted with their true meaning. Then he would solicit his neighbors' custom, not their patronage. A man can have no patrons without incurring obligations--without becoming a protégé; while a man may have customers innumerable, and, instead of placing himself under obligations to them, he may place them under obligations to him. Princes are the patrons of those tradesmen whom they allow to call themselves their purveyors; as, "John Smith, Haberdasher to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales." Here the Prince patronizes John Smith.

PELL-MELL. This adverb means mixed or mingled together; as, "Men, horses, chariots, crowded pell-mell." It can not properly be applied to an individual. To say, for example, "He rushed pell-mell down the stairs," is as incorrect as it would be to say, "He rushed down the stairs mixed together."

PER. This Latin preposition is a good deal used in English, as, for example, in such phrases as per day, per man, per pound, per ton, and so on. In all such cases it is better to use plain English, and say, a day, a man, a pound, a ton, etc. Per is correct before Latin nouns only; as, per annum, per diem, per cent., etc.

PERFORM. "She performs on the piano beautifully." In how much better taste it is to say simply, "She plays the piano well," or, more superlatively, "exceedingly well," or "admirably"! If we talk about performing on musical instruments, to be consistent, we should call those who perform, piano-performers, cornet-performers, violin-performers, and so on.

PERPETUALLY. This word is sometimes misused for continually. Dr. William Mathews, in his "Words, their Use and Abuse," says: "The Irish are perpetually using shall for will." Perpetual means never ceasing, continuing without intermission, uninterrupted; while continual means that which is constantly renewed and recurring with perhaps frequent stops and interruptions. As the Irish do something besides misuse shall, the Doctor should have said that they continually use shall for will. I might perhaps venture to intimate that perpetually is likewise misused in the following sentence, which I copy from the "London Queen," if I were not conscious that the monster who can write and print such a sentence would not hesitate to cable a thunderbolt at an offender on the slightest provocation. Judge, if my fears are groundless: "But some few people contract the ugly habit of making use of these expressions unconsciously and continuously, perpetually interlarding their conversation with them."

PERSON. See PARTY; also, INDIVIDUAL.

PERSONALTY. This word does not, as some persons think, mean the articles worn on one's person. It is properly a law term, and means personal property. "There is but one case on record of a peer of England leaving over $7,500,000 personalty."

PERSONIFICATION. That rhetorical figure which attributes sex, life, or action to inanimate objects, or ascribes to objects and brutes the acts and qualities of rational beings, is called personification or prosopopœia.

"The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap their hands." "The worm, aware of his intent, harangued him thus."

"See, Winter comes to rule the varied year, Sullen and sad with all his rising train."--Thomson.

"So saying, her rash hand, in evil hour, Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate! Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost."--Milton.

"War and Love are strange compeers. War sheds blood, and Love sheds tears; War has swords, and Love has darts; War breaks heads, and Love breaks hearts."

"Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears."

"The English language, by reserving the distinction of gender for living beings that have sex, gives especial scope for personification. The highest form of personification should be used seldom, and only when justified by the presence of strong feeling."--Bain.

"Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."--Cowper.

PHENOMENON. Plural, phenomena.

PLEAD. The imperfect tense and the perfect participle of the verb to plead are both pleaded and not plead. "He pleaded not guilty." "You should have pleaded your cause with more fervor."

PLENTY. In Worcester's Dictionary we find the following note: "Plenty is much used colloquially as an adjective, in the sense of plentiful, both in this country and in England; and this use is supported by respectable authorities, though it is condemned by various critics. Johnson says: 'It is used barbarously, I think, for plentiful'; and Dr. Campbell, in his 'Philosophy of Rhetoric,' says: 'Plenty for plentiful appears to me so gross a vulgarism that I should not have thought it worthy of a place here if I had not sometimes found it in works of considerable merit.'" We should say, then, that money is plentiful, and not that it is plenty.

PLEONASM. Redundancy or pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to express the thought clearly. "They returned back again to the same city from whence they came forth": the five words in italics are redundant or pleonastic. "The different departments of science and of art mutually reflect light on each other": either of the expressions in italics embodies the whole idea. "The universal opinion of all men" is a pleonastic expression often heard. "I wrote you a letter yesterday": here a letter is redundant.

Redundancy is sometimes permissible for the surer conveyance of meaning, for emphasis, and in the language of poetic embellishment.

POLITE. This word is much used by persons of doubtful culture, where those of the better sort use the word kind. We accept kind, not polite invitations; and, when any one has been obliging, we tell him that he has been kind; and, when an interviewing reporter tells us of his having met with a polite reception, we may be sure that the person by whom he has been received deserves well for his considerate kindness. "I thank you and Mrs. Pope for my kind reception."--Atterbury.

PORTION. This word is often incorrectly used for part. A portion is properly a part assigned, allotted, set aside for a special purpose; a share, a division. The verb to portion means to divide, to parcel, to endow. We ask, therefore, "In what part [not, in what portion] of the country, state, county, town, or street do you live?"--or, if we prefer grandiloquence to correctness, reside. In the sentence, "A large portion of the land is unfilled," the right word would be either part or proportion, according to the intention of the writer.