support, when his powers of acting shall forsake him; and forbear to animadvert in age, with rigour, on faults which experience can alone correct. Let us consider that youth is of no long duration; and that when the enchantments of fancy in maturer age shall cease, and phantoms no more dance about us, we shall have no comforts but wise men's esteem, the approbation of our hearts, and the means of doing good: and let us live as men that are to grow old sometime, and to whom of all evils it will be the most dreadful, to count their years past only by follies, and to be reminded of their former luxuriance of health, by the maladies only which riot has produced. APPENDIX. CHAPTER I. ON TRANSPOSING THE MEMBERS OF A SENTENCE. THE practice of transposing the members of sentences, is an exercise so useful to young persons, that it requires a more particular explanation, than could have been properly given in the preceding work. A few of the various modes in which the parts of a sentence may be arranged, have, therefore, been collected; and they are, with other matter, produced in the form of an Appendix to the general Exercises. By examining them attentively. the student will perceive, in some degree, the nature and effect of transposition: and, by being frequently exercised in showing its variety in other sentences, he will obtain a facility in the operation; and a dexterity in discovering and applying, on all occasions, the clearest and most forcible arrangement. By this practice, he will also be able more readily to penetrate the meaning of such sentences, as are rendered obscure and perplexing to most readers, by the irregular disposition of their parts. The first and last forms of each class of examples, are to be considered as the least exceptionable. The Roman state evidently declined, in proportion to the increase of luxury. The Roman state, in proportion to the increase of luxury, evidently declined. In proportion to the increase of luxury, the Roman state evidently declined. I am willing to remit all that is past, provided it may be done with safety. I am willing, provided it may be done with safety, to remit all that is past. Provided it may be done with safety, I am willing to remit all that is past. That greatness of mind which shows itself in dangers and labours, if it wants justice, is blamable. |