nothing of his highly untoward situation, made it more than usually difficult for him to cast aside or rightly subordinate.–Carlyle.
That there is no comma between facilities and the excesses is no defence, seeing how often commas go wrong; indeed the comma after age in the second piece, which is strictly wrong, is a proof how little reliance is to be placed on such signs.
50. Misplacement of Words
Generous interpretation will generally get at a writer's meaning; but for him to rely on that is to appeal ad misericordiam. Appended to the sentences, when necessary, is the result of supposing them to mean what they say.
It is with grief and pain, that, as admirers of the British aristocracy, we find ourselves obliged to admit the existence of so many ill qualities in a person whose name is in Debrett.–Thackeray. (implies that admirers must admit this more than other people)
It is from this fate that the son of a commanding prime minister is at any rate preserved.–Bagehot. (implies that preserved is a weak word used instead of a stronger)
And even if we could suppose it to be our duty, it is not one which, as was shown in the last chapter, we are practically competent to perform.–Balfour.
The chairman said there was no sadder sight in the world than to see women drunk, because they seemed to lose complete control of themselves. (implies that losing complete control leaves you with less than if you lost incomplete control)
The soldiers are deeply chagrined at having had to give up positions, in obedience to orders, which the Japanese could not take.–Times.
Great and heroic men have existed, who had almost no other information than by the printed page. I only would say, that it needs a strong head to bear that diet.–Emerson. (implies that no one else would say it)
Yes, the laziest of human beings, through the providence of God, a being, too, of rather inferior capacity, acquires the written part of a language so difficult that...–Borrow.
Right or wrong as his hypothesis may be, no one that knows him will suspect that he himself had not seen it, and seen over it...Neither, as we often hear, is there any superhuman faculty required to follow him.–Carlyle. (implies that we often hear there is not)
This, we say to ourselves, may be all very true (for have we, too, not browsed in the Dictionary of National Biography?); but why does Tanner
