11. Turning now from the choice of words to their sequence, we
shall find the same general principle hold good. We have _a priori_
reasons for believing that in every sentence there is some one
order of words more effective than any other; and that this order
is the one which presents the elements of the proposition in the
succession in which they may be most readily put together. As in
a narrative, the events should be stated in such sequence that the
mind may not have to go backwards and forwards in order to rightly
connect them; as in a group of sentences, the arrangement should
be such, that each of them may be understood as it comes, without
waiting for subsequent ones; so in every sentence, the sequence of
words should be that which suggests the constituents of the thought
in the order most convenient for the building up that thought. Duly
to enforce this truth, and to prepare the way for applications of
it, we must briefly inquire into the mental act by which the meaning
of a series of words is apprehended.

12. We cannot more simply do this than by considering the
proper collocation of the substantive and adjective. Is it better
to place the adjective before the substantive, or the substantive
before the adjective? Ought we to say with the French--un _cheval
noir;_ or to say as we do--a black horse? Probably, most persons of
culture would decide that one order is as good as the other. Alive
to the bias produced by habit, they would ascribe to that the
preference they feel for our own form of expression. They would
expect those educated in the use of the opposite form to have an
equal preference for that. And thus they would conclude that neither
of these instinctive judgments is of any worth. There is, however, a
philosophical ground for deciding in favour of the English custom.