Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/143

And in order to bring her to a right understanding, she underwent a system of persecution.—S. Ferrier.

Write they subjected her to for she underwent.

Her friendship is too precious to me, not to doubt my own merits on the one hand, and not to be anxious for the preservation of it on the other.—Richardson.

Write I value her friendship too highly not to...

One cannot do good to a man whose mouth has been gagged in order not to hear what he desires for his welfare.—Times.

Grammar suggests that his mouth—or, if indulgent, that he—is not to hear; but the person meant is one. Write one has gagged for has been gagged.

Germany has, alas ! victories enough not to add one of the kind which would have been implied in the retirement of M. Delcassé.—Times.

It is France, not Germany, that should not add. Write without France's adding.

In order to obtain peace, ordinary battles followed by ordinary victories and ordinary results will only lead to a useless prolongation of the struggle.—Times.

This is a triumph of inconsequence. Write If peace is the object, it should be remembered that ordinary...

It will have occurred to the reader that, while most of the sentences quoted are to be condemned, objection to a few of them might be called pedantic. The fact is that every writer probably breaks the rule often, and escapes notice, other people's, his own, or both. Different readers, however, will be critical in different degrees; and whoever breaks the rule does so at his own risk; if his offence is noticed, that is hanging evidence against him by itself; if it is not noticed, it is not an offence. Of saying on page 127 Mistakes are mended sometimes by inserting the subject, we plead Guilty if we were caught in the act, but otherwise Not Guilty.

3. Choice between the gerund with preposition and the infinitive.

It was said in the preliminary section on the Participle and Gerund that writing—the verbal noun or gerund—and to