ng-room, by it, and alongside of it, imposes on
the public. Grand seigniors in retirement, and unoccupied fine ladies,
enjoy the examination of the subtleties of words for the purpose
of composing maxims, definitions and characters. With admirable
scrupulousness and infinitely delicate tact, writers and people society
apply themselves to weighing each word and each phrase in order to
fix its sense, to measure its force and bearing, to determine its
affinities, use and connections This work of precision is carried on
from the earliest academicians, Vaugelas, Chapelain and Conrart, to the
end of the classic epoch, in the Synonymes by Bauzee and by Girard, in
the Remarque by Duclos, in the Commentaire by Voltaire on Corneille, in
the Lycee by la Harpe,[3219] in the efforts, the example, the practice
and the authority of the great and the inferior writers of which all are
correct. Never did architects, obliged to use ordinary broken highway
stones in building, better understand each piece, its dimensions,
its shape, its resistance, its possible connections and suitable
position.--Once this was learned, the task was to construct with the
least trouble and with the utmost solidity; the grammar was consequently
changed at the same time and in the same way as the dictionary. Hence no
longer permitting the words to reflect the way impressions and emotions
were felt; they now had to be regularly and rigorously assigned
according to the invariable hierarchy of concepts. The writer may no
longer begin his text with the leading figure or the main purpose of
his story; the setting is given and the places assigned beforehand. Each
part of the discourse has its own place; no omission or transposition is
permitted, as was done in the sixteenth century[3220]. All parts must
be included, each in its definite place: at first the subject of the
sentence with its appendices, then the verb, then the object direct,
and, finally, the indirect connections. In this way the sentence forms a
graduated scaffolding, the substance coming foremost, then the quality,
then the modes and varieties of the quality, just as a good architect
in the first place poses his foundation, then the building, then the
accessories, economically and prudently, with a view to adapt each
section of the edifice to the support of the section following after it.
No sentence demands any less attention than another, nor is there any in
which one may not at every step verify the