Why is all this to be swept away?' I perfectly agree
with Dr. Johnson upon this head, and am persuaded that executions now,
the solemn procession being discontinued, have not nearly the effect
which they formerly had. Magistrates both in London, and elsewhere,
have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own case.
Johnson's attention to precision and clearness in expression was very
remarkable. He disapproved of parentheses; and I believe in all his
voluminous writings, not half a dozen of them will be found. He never
used the phrases the former and the latter, having observed, that they
often occasioned obscurity; he therefore contrived to construct his
sentences so as not to have occasion for them, and would even rather
repeat the same words, in order to avoid them. Nothing is more common
than to mistake surnames when we hear them carelessly uttered for the
first time. To prevent this, he used not only to pronounce them slowly
and distinctly, but to take the trouble of spelling them; a practice
which I have often followed; and which I wish were general.
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