but of taste, so far as there is any question at all. A nondefining relative can never be omitted. The omission of a defining relative subject is often effective in verse, but in prose is either an archaism or a provincialism. It may, moreover, result in obscurity, as in the second of our examples, which may possibly puzzle the reader for a moment:
Now it would be some fresh insect won its way to a temporary fatal new development.—H. G. Wells.
No one finds himself planted at last in so terribly foul a morass, as he would fain stand still for ever on dry ground.—Trollope.
But when the defining relative is object, or has a preposition, there is no limit to the omission, unless euphony is allowed to be one. We give three instances in which the reader may or may not agree that the relative might have been retained with advantage:
We do that in our zeal our calmer moments would be afraid to answer.—Scott.
But did you ever see anything there you had never seen before?—Bagehot.
These ethical judgements we pass on self-regarding acts are ordinarily little emphasized.—Spencer.
(v) When a defining relative has the same preposition as its antecedent, it is not uncommon, in the written as well as in the spoken language, to omit the preposition in the relative clause. There is something to be said for a licence that rids us of such cumbrous formulae as 'in the way in which', 'to the extent to which', and the like; in writing, however, it should be used with caution if at all.
In the first place, if the preposition is to go, the relative should go too, or if retained should certainly be 'that', not 'which'; and if the verb of the relative clause is the same as in the main sentence, it should be represented by 'do', or (in a compound tense) by its auxiliary component.
Because they found that it touched them in a way which no book in the world could touch them.—Daily Telegraph.
The man who cleaned the slate in the manner which Sir E. Satow has done both in Morocco and Japan might surely rank as a reflective diplomatist.—Spectator.
