f any) in which he
has passed with special distinction.

'The Section or Sections (if any)'--But, how, if they are not any, could
they be indicated by a mark however convenient?

The Examiners will have regard to the style and method of the
candidate's answers, and will give credit for excellence _in these
respects_.

Have you begun to detect the two main vices of Jargon? The first is that
it uses circumlocution rather than short straight speech. It says 'In the
case of John Jenkins deceased, the coffin' when it means 'John Jenkins's
coffin': and its yea is not yea, neither is its nay nay: but its answer
is in the affirmative or in the negative, as the foolish and superfluous
'case' may be. The second vice is that it habitually chooses vague woolly
abstract nouns rather than concrete ones. I shall have something to say
by-and-by about the concrete noun, and how you should ever be struggling
for it whether in prose or in verse. For the moment I content myself with
advising you, if you would write masculine English, never to forget the
old tag of your Latin Grammar--

Masculine will only be
Things that you can touch and see.

But since these lectures are meant to be a course in First Aid to
writing, I will content myself with one or two extremely rough rules: yet
I shall be disappointed if you do not find them serviceable.

The first is:--Whenever in your reading you come across one of these
words, _case, instance, character, nature, condition, persuasion,
degree_--whenever in writing your pen betrays you to one or another of
them--pull yourself up and take thought. If it be 'case' (I choose it as
Jargon's dearest child--'in Heaven yclept Metonomy') turn to the
dictionary, if you will, and seek out what meaning can be derived from
_casus_, its Latin ancestor: then try how, with a little trouble, you can
extricate yourself from that case. The odds are, you will feel like a
butterfly who has discarded his chrysalis.

Here are some specimens to try your hand on--

(1) All those tears which inundated Lord Hugh Cecil's head were
dry in the case of Mr Harold Cox.

Poor Mr Cox! left gasping in his aquarium!

(2) [From a cigar-merchant] In any case, let us send you a case
on approval.

(3) It is contended that Consols have fallen in consequence:
but such is by no means the case.

'Such,' by the way, is another spoilt child of Jargon, especially in
Committee'