. "Only" is a word to be watched. Like adverbs are
correlative conjunctions. They are frequently so placed that they do
not join the elements they were intended to unite.

He seized the young girl as she rose from the water almost
roughly.

I think I hardly shall.

I only went as far as the gate.

"Who shall say, of us who know only of rest and peace by
toil and strife?"

He not only learned algebra readily but also Latin.

Phrases and clauses may lose their reference by being removed from the
words they modify.

Toiling up the hill, he arrived at Hotel Bellevue through a
drizzling rain.

Addison rose to a post which dukes, the heads of the great
houses of Talbot, Russell, and Bentinck, have thought it an
honor to fill without high birth, and with little property.

"Fred was liked well; but he had the habit of that class
that cannot get the English Language in the right order when
a little excited."

All the classes of errors which have been exemplified here are due to
the infringement of one rule: things that belong together in thought
should stand together in composition. Nothing should be allowed to
come between a pronoun, an adjective, an adverb, a correlative, a
phrase, or a clause, and the word it modifies. Sometimes other
modifiers have to be taken into account: where more than one word or
phrase modifies the same word, a trial will have to be made to arrange
them so that there shall be no obscurity or absurdity. Keep related
ideas together; keep unrelated ideas apart.

Parallel Construction.

The second principle which helps to make the relation of parts clear
is parallel construction. It has already been explained in paragraphs.
In sentences the commonest errors are in linking an infinitive with a
gerund, a participle with a verb, an active with a passive voice, a
phrase with a clause. The result is sentences like the following:--

You cannot persuade him to go and into buying what he does
not want.

Thus he spoke, and turning to the door.

The king began to force the collection of duties, and an
army was sent by him to execute his wishes.

He was resolved to use patience and that he would often
exercise charity.

Such sentences are offensive to the ear; and were they as long as the
ones below, they would not be clear.

"You cannot persuade them _to burn_ their books of cu