CHAPTER V.

OF THE PURITY OF LANGUAGE.

Four things are necessary to make language pure.

1. The right rendering of those _particles_, which some antecedent _particle_ does require; as to a _not only_, a _not also_; and then they are rendered right, when they are not suspended too long.

2. _The use of proper words_, rather than _circumlocutions_; unless there be motive to make one do it of purpose.

3. That there be nothing of _double construction_, unless there be cause to do it of purpose; as the prophets of the heathen, who speak in general terms, to the end they may the better maintain the truth of their prophecies; which is easier maintained in _generals_, than in _particulars_. For it is easier to divine whether a number be _even_ or _odd_, than _how many_; and that a thing _will be_, than _what_ it will be.

4. Concordance of gender, number, and person; as not to say _him_ for _her_, _man_ for _men_, _hath_ for _have_.

In sum, a man’s language ought to be easy for another to read, pronounce, and point.

Besides, to divers _antecedents_, let divers _relatives_, or one common to them all, be correspondent; as, he _saw_ the colour, he _heard_ the sound; or he _perceived_ both colour and sound: but by no means, _he heard or saw_ both.

Lastly, that which is to be interposed by _parenthesis_, let it be done quickly: as, _I purposed, having spoken to him_ (_to this, and to this purpose_), _afterward to be gone_. For to put it off thus; _I resolved, after I had spoken to him, to be gone; but the subject of my speech was to this and this purpose_; is vicious.

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