Chapter II: Syntax (5)

I find fault _with_: I find a fault _in_. Write _in_ or _with_, as one or the other phrase is meant.

The Diet should leave to the Tsar _the initiative of_ taking such measures as may be necessary.--_Times._

M. Delcassé took _the initiative of_ turning the conversation to Moroccan affairs.--_Times._

We assume the _right of_ turning, we take the _initiative in_ turning.

Those, who are urging with most ardour what are called the greatest _benefits_ of mankind.--EMERSON.

Benefits _of_ the benefactor, but _to_ the beneficiary.

A power to marshal and adjust particulars, which can only come from an _insight of_ [into] their whole connection.--EMERSON.

From its driving energy, its personal weight, its invincible _oblivion to_ [of] certain things, there sprang up in Redwood’s mind the most grotesque and strange of images.--H. G. WELLS.

4. Superfluous prepositions, whether due to ignorance of idiom, negligence, or mistaken zeal for accuracy.

_As to_ Mr. Lovelace’s approbation of your assumption-scheme, I wonder not _at_.--RICHARDSON.

A something _of_ which the sense can in no way assist the mind to form a conception _of_.--_Daily Telegraph._

The Congress could occupy itself with no more important question than _with_ this.--HUXLEY.

This is due to confusion with ‘could occupy itself with no question more profitably than with this’.

5. Necessary prepositions omitted.

The Lady Henrietta ... _wrote him_ regularly through his bankers, and once in a while he _wrote her_.--BARONESS VON HUTTEN.

_Write_ without _to_ will now pass in commercial letters only; elsewhere, we can say ‘I write you a report, a letter’, but neither ‘I will write you’ simply, nor ‘I wrote you that there was danger’. That is, we must only omit the _to_ when _you_ not only is the indirect object, but is unmistakably so at first sight. It may be said that _I write you_ is good old English. So is _he was a-doing of it_; _I guess_ is good Chaucerian. But in neither case can the appeal to a dead usage--dead in polite society, or in England--justify what is a modern vulgarism.

6. Compound prepositions and conjunctions.

The increasing use of these is much to be regretted. They, and the love for abstract expression with which they are closely allied, are responsible for much of what is flaccid, diffuse, and nerveless, in modern writing. They are generally, no doubt, invented by persons who want to express a more precise shade of meaning than they can find in anything already existing; but they are soon caught up by others who not only do not need the new delicate instrument, but do not understand it. _Inasmuch_ as, for instance, originally expressed that the truth of its clause gave the exact measure of the truth that belonged to the main sentence. So (from the _Oxford Dictionary_):

God is only God inasmuch as he is the Moral Governor of the world.--SIR W. HAMILTON.

But long before Hamilton’s day the word passed, very naturally, into the meaning, for which it need never have been invented, of _since_ or _because_. Consequently most people who need the original idea have not the courage to use _inasmuch as_ for it, like Sir W. Hamilton, but resort to new combinations with _far_. Those new combinations, however, as will be shown, fluctuate and are confused with one another. The best thing we can now do with _inasmuch_ as is to get it decently buried; when it means _since_, _since_ is better; when it means what it once meant, no one understands it. The moral we wish to draw is that these compounds should be left altogether alone except in passages where great precision is wanted. Just as a word like _save_ (except) is ruined for the poet by being used on every page of ordinary prose (which it disfigures in revenge for its own degradation), so _inasmuch_ as is spoilt for the logician.

We shall first illustrate the absurd prevailing abuse of the compound preposition _as to_. In each of the following sentences, if _as to_ is simply left out, no difference whatever is made in the meaning. It is only familiarity with unnecessary circumlocution that makes such a state of things tolerable to any one with a glimmering of literary discernment. _As to_ flows from the pen now at every possible opportunity, till many writers seem quite unaware that such words as _question_ or _doubt_ can bear the weight of a _whether_-clause without help from this offensive parasite.

With the idea of endeavouring to ascertain as to this, I invited....--_Times._

Confronted with the simple question as to in what way other people’s sisters, wives and daughters differ from theirs....--_Daily Telegraph._

It is not quite clear as to what happened.--_Westminster Gazette._

Doubt is expressed as to whether the fall of Port Arthur will materially affect the situation.--_Times._

I feel tempted to narrate one that occurred to me, leaving it to your judgment as to whether it is worthy of notice in your paper.--_Spectator._

I was entirely indifferent as to the results of the game, caring nothing at all _as to_ whether I had losses or gains.--CORELLI.

The first _as to_ in this may pass, though plain _to_ is better.

German anticipations with regard to the future are apparently based upon the question as to how far the Sultan will....--_Times._

But you are dying to know what brings me here, and even if you find nothing new in it you will perhaps think _it_ makes some difference _as to_ who says a thing.--GREENWOOD.

This is the worst of all. The subject of _makes_ (anticipated in the ordinary way by _it_) is _who says a thing_; but the construction is obscured by the insertion of _as to_. We are forced to suppose, wrongly, that _it_ means _what brings me here_. Worse than the worst, however, at least more aggressively wrong, is an instance that we find while correcting this sheet for the press:

... Although it is open to doubt as to what extent individual saving through more than one provident institution prevails.--_Westminster Gazette._

Another objection to the compound prepositions and conjunctions is that they are frequently confused with one another or miswritten. We illustrate from two sets. (_a_) The word _view_ is common in the forms _in view of_, _with a view to_, _with the view of_. The first expresses external circumstances, existing or likely to occur, that must be taken into account; as, _In view of these doubts about the next dividend, we do not recommend_.... The other two both express the object aimed at, but must not have the correspondence, _a_ view _to_, _the_ view _of_, upset.

A Resolution was moved and carried _in favour of_ giving facilities to the public vaccination officers of the Metropolis to enter the schools of the Board _for the purpose of_ examining the arms of the children _with a view to_ advising the parents to allow their children to be vaccinated.--_Spectator._

The Sultan ... will seek to obtain money by contracting loans with private firms _in view of_ beginning for himself the preliminary reforms.--_Times._

If Germany has anything to propose _in view of_ the safeguarding of her own interests, it will certainly meet with that courteous consideration which is traditional in French diplomacy.--_Times._

Its execution is being carefully prepared _with a view of_ avoiding any collision with the natives.--_Times._

My company has been approached by several firms _with a view of_ overcoming the difficulty.--_Times._

Of these the first is correct; but the sentence it comes in is so typical of the compound-prepositional style that no one who reads it will be surprised that its patrons should sometimes get mixed; how should people who write like that keep their ideas clear? The second should have _with a view to_. Still more should the third, which is ambiguous as well as unidiomatic; the words used ought to mean _seeing that her interests are safeguarded already_. The fourth and fifth should again have _with a view to_ (or _with the view of_).

(_b_) The combinations with _far_--_as far as_, _so far as_, _so far that_, _in so far as_, _in so far that_, of which the last is certainly, and the last but one probably needless--have some distinctions and limitations often neglected. For instance, _as far as_ must not be followed by a mere noun except in the literal sense, _as far as London_. _So far as_ and _so far that_ are distinguished by good writers in being applied, the first to clauses that contain a doubtful or varying fact, the other to clauses containing an ascertained or positive fact. _So far as_ (and _in so far as_), that is, means _to whatever extent_, and _so far that_ means _to this extent, namely that_.

The question of the Capitulations and of the Mixed Tribunals is not in any way essentially British, save _in so far as_ the position of Great Britain in Egypt makes her primarily responsible.--_Times._

Correct; but _except that_ would be much better than _save in so far as_.

Previous to 1895, when a separate constitution existed for the Bombay and Madras armies, possibly a military department and a military member were necessary in order to focus at the seat of government the general military situation in India, but in the judgment of many officers well qualified to form an opinion, no such department under present conditions is really requisite, _in so far as_ the action of the Commander-in-Chief is thwarted in cases where he should be the best judge of what is necessary.--_Times._

Entirely wrong. It is confused with _inasmuch as_, and _since_ should be written.

The officials have done their utmost to enforce neutrality, and have _in so far_ succeeded _as_ the Baltic fleet keeps outside the three-mile limit.--_Times._

Should be _so far succeeded that_; we are meant to understand that the fleet does keep outside, though it does not go right away as might be wished.

The previous appeal made by M. Delcassé was _so far_ successful _as_ the Tsar himself sent orders to Admiral Rozhdestvensky to comply with the injunctions of the French colonial authorities.--_Times._

_As_ should be _that_. It is not doubtful to what extent or whether the Tsar sent. He did send; that is the only point.

They are exceptional in character, _in so far as_ they do not appear to be modifications of the epidermis.--HUXLEY.

Should probably be _so far exceptional that_. The point is that there _is_ this amount of the exceptional in them, not that their irregularity depends on the doubtful fact of their not being modifications; the word _appear_ ought otherwise to have been parenthetically arranged.

This influence was _so far_ indirect _in that_ it was greatly furthered by Le Sage, who borrowed the form of his Spanish contemporaries.--_Times._

A mixture of _was so far indirect that_ and _was indirect in that_.

He seemed quickly to give up first-hand observation and to be content to reproduce and re-reproduce his early impressions, always trusting to his own invention, and the reading public’s inveterate preference for symmetry and satisfaction, to pull him through. They have pulled him through _in so far as_ they have made his name popular; but an artist and a realist--possibly even a humourist--have been lost.--_Times._

_In so far as_ leaves the popularity and the pulling through doubtful, which they are clearly not meant to be. It should be _so far that_.

A man can get help from above to do what _as far as_ human possibility has proved out of his power.--_Daily Telegraph._

This is a whole sentence, not a fragment, as might be supposed. But _as far as_ (except in the local sense) must have a verb, finite or infinite. Supply _goes_.

The large majority would reply in the affirmative, _in so far as_ to admit that there is a God.--_Daily Telegraph._

_So far as to admit_, or _in so far as they would admit_; not the mixture. And this distinction is perhaps the only justification for the existence of _in so far as_ by the side of _so far as_; the first is only conjunction, the second can be preposition as well.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] The reason why many who as a rule use the possessive are willing to do without it after verbs like _prevent_ is perhaps this: in _I prevented him going_ they consciously or unconsciously regard both _him_ and _going_ as nouns, one the indirect, one the direct object, as in _I refused him leave_.

[11] Dr. Henry Bradley, _The Making of English_, p. 53.