The reason I take to be what follows. A continued sound, if not strong, tends to lay us asleep. An interrupted sound rouses and animates by its repeated impulses. Hence it is, that syllables collected into feet, being pronounced with a sensible interval betwixt each, make more lively impressions than can be made by a continued sound. A period, the members of which are connected by copulatives, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued sound: and therefore to suppress the copulatives must animate a description. To suppress the copulatives hath another good effect. The members of a period connected by the proper copulatives, glide smoothly and gently along; and are a proof of sedateness and leisure in the speaker. On the other hand, a man in the hurry of passion, neglecting copulatives and other particles, expresses the principal image only. Hence it is, that hurry or quick action is best expressed without copulatives: Veni, vidi, vici. ---- Ite: Ferte cite flammas, date vela, impellite remos. _Æneid._ iv. 593. Quis globus, O Cives, caligine volvitur atra? Ferte cite ferrum, date tela, scandite muros. Hostis adest, eja. _Æneid._ ix. 36. In this view Longinus[88] justly compares copulatives in a period to strait tying, which in a race obstructs the freedom of motion. It follows from the same premisses, that to multiply copulatives in the same period ought to be avoided. For if the laying aside copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid. I appeal to the following instance, though there are not more than two copulatives. Upon looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands; and at the same time protesting their own innocence, and desiring my advice upon this occasion. _Spectator_, Nº 170. I except the case where the words are intended to express the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty. Dining one day at an alderman’s in the city, Peter observed him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of his sirloin of beef. “Beef,” said the sage magistrate, “is the king of meat: Beef comprehends in it the quintescence of partridge, and quail, and venison, and pheasant, and plum-pudding, and custard.” _Tale of Tub_, § 4. And the author shows great taste in varying the expression in the mouth of Peter, who is represented more animated. “Bread,” says he, “dear brothers, is the staff of life, in which bread is contained, _inclusivè_, the quintescence of beef, mutton, veal, venison, partridge, plum-pudding, and custard.”