Question

Study each of the following sentences and notice the balance between its parts. Pick out other sentences in the text that reflect this kind of balance
a. It is right that a false Latin quantity should excite a smile in the House of Commons; but it is wrong that a false English meaning should not excite a frown there.
b. Let the accent of words be watched, by all means, but let the meaning be watched more closely still, and fewer will do the work.

Answer 1

1. A book is essentially not a talked thing but a written thing; and written, not with the view of more communication, but of permanence.

2. They do not give it to you by way of help, but of reward, and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they allow you to reach it.

3. You may dig long and find none; you must dig painfully to find any.

4. You might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough), and remain an utterly ‘illiterate’, uneducated person; but that if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter that is to say, with real accuracy you are forever more in some measure with an educated person.