xt, in order to
accommodate it to the parser's or reader's ignorance of the principles of
syntax. There never can be either a general uniformity or a
self-consistency in our methods of parsing, or in our notions of grammar,
till the true nature of an ellipsis is clearly ascertained; so that the
writer shall distinguish it from a _blundering omission_ that impairs the
sense, and the reader or parser be barred from an _arbitrary insertion_ of
what would be cumbrous and useless. By adopting loose and extravagant ideas
of the nature of this figure, some pretenders to learning and philosophy
have been led into the most whimsical and opposite notions concerning the
grammatical construction of language. Thus, with equal absurdity, _Cardell_
and _Sherman_, in their _Philosophic Grammars_, attempt to confute the
doctrines of their predecessors, by supposing _ellipses_ at pleasure. And
while the former teaches, that prepositions do not govern the objective
case, but that every verb is transitive, and governs at least two objects,
expressed or _understood_, its own and that of a preposition: the latter,
with just as good an argument, contends that no verb is transitive, but
that every objective case is governed by a preposition expressed or
_understood_. A world of nonsense for lack of a _definition!_

II. PLEONASM is the introduction of superfluous words; as, "But of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat _of it_."--_Gen._,
ii, 17. This figure is allowable only, when, in animated discourse, it
abruptly introduces an emphatic word, or repeats an idea to impress it more
strongly; as, "_He_ that hath ears to hear, let him hear."--_Bible_. "All
ye inhabitants of the world, and _dwellers on the earth_."--_Id._ "There
shall not be left one stone upon another _that shall not be thrown
down_."--_Id._ "I know thee _who thou art_."--_Id._ A Pleonasm, as perhaps
in these instances, is sometimes impressive and elegant; but an unemphatic
repetition of the same idea, is one of the worst faults of bad writing.

OBS.--Strong passion is not always satisfied with saying a thing once, and
in the fewest words possible; nor is it natural that it should be. Hence
repetitions indicative of intense feeling may constitute a beauty of the
highest kind, when, if the feeling were wanting, or supposed to be so, they
would be reckoned intolerable tautologies. The following is an example,
which the reader may appreciate the better, if he