" says, "The Londoner
sometimes confounds two different forms; as _contagious_ for _contiguous;
eminent_ for _imminent; humorous_ for _humorsome; ingeniously_ for
_ingenuously; luxurious_ for _luxuriant; scrupulosity_ for _scruple;
successfully_ for _successively_."--See _Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 87; and
Pref., p. vi.

PRECEPT V.--Think clearly, and avoid absurd or incompatible expressions.
Example of error: "To pursue _those_ remarks, would, _probably_, be of no
further _service_ to the learner than _that of burdening his memory_ with a
catalogue of dry and _uninteresting_ peculiarities; _which may gratify
curiosity_, without affording information adequate to the trouble of the
perusal."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 122.

PRECEPT VI.--Avoid words that are useless; and, especially, a
multiplication of them into sentences, members, or clauses, that may well
be spared. Example: "If one could _really_ be a spectator of what is
passing in the world _around us_ without taking part in the events, _or
sharing in the passions and actual performance on the stage; if we could
set ourselves down, as it were, in a private box of the world's great
theatre, and quietly look on at the piece that is playing, no more moved
than is absolutely implied by sympathy with our fellow-creatures, what a
curious, what an amusing_, what an interesting spectacle would life
present."--G. P. R. JAMES: "_The Forger_," commencement of Chap. xxxi. This
sentence contains _eighty-seven_ words, "of which _sixty-one_ are entirely
unnecessary to the expression of the author's idea, if idea it can be
called."--_Holden's Review_.

OBSERVATION.

Verbosity, as well as tautology, is not so directly opposite to precision,
as to conciseness, or brevity. From the manner in which lawyers usually
multiply terms in order to express their facts _precisely_, it would seem
that, with them, precision consists rather in the use of _many_ words than
of _few_. But the ordinary style of legal instruments no popular writer can
imitate without becoming ridiculous. A terse or concise style is very apt
to be elliptical: and, in some particular instances, must be so; but, at
the same time, the full expression, perhaps, may have more _precision_,
though it be less agreeable. For example: "A word of one syllable, is
called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, _is called_ a dissyllable:
a word of three syllables, _is called_ a trisyllable: a word of four or
more syllables, _is called