Plain English Part 67

+Guilty+, of (not for). He is guilty _of_ the crime.

+Incentive+, to (not for). It is a great incentive _to_ action.

+Receive+, from, (not of). Received _from_ John Smith, thirty dollars, etc.

+FRIDAY+

+Infer+, from, (not by). I infer this _from_ your remarks, not _by_ your remarks.

+Introduce+; A man is introduced _to_ a woman, a speaker _to_ an audience; _into_ society or _into_ new surroundings. We introduce a bill _in_ Congress or a resolution _in_ a committee.

+Involved+, in (not with). We are involved _in_ difficulties.

+Listen+; We listen +for+ the expected news; we listen +to+ our friends, not _at_.

+Married+; One person is married +to+ another, not +with+ another.

+SAt.u.r.dAY+

+Matter+, with, (not of). What is the matter _with_ this?

+Opposition+, to (not against). There is opposition _to_ the motion.

+Part+, to part _from_, means to leave. I will part _from_ my friends.

To part _with_ means to give up. A fool soon parts _with_ his money.

+Remedy+, for; We have a remedy _for_ the disease.

+Preventive+, against; We have a preventive _against_ disease.

It is easy to sit in the suns.h.i.+ne And talk to the man in the shade; It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat, And point out the places to wade.

But once we pa.s.s into the shadows We murmur and fret and frown; At our length from the bank, we shout for a plank, Or throw up our hands and go down.

It is easy to sit in a carriage And counsel the man on foot; But get down and walk and you'll change your talk, _As_ you feel the peg in your boot.

It is easy to tell the toiler _How_ best he can carry his pack; But not one can rate a burden's weight _Until_ it has been on his back.

The up-curled mouth of pleasure Can preach of sorrow's worth; But give it a sip, and a wryer lip, Was never made on earth.

--_Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x_.

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 19

Dear Comrade:

In this lesson we are completing our study of the preposition. The preposition is one of the last parts of speech which we take up for study and it is also one of the last parts of speech to be added to our vocabulary. The child does not use the preposition when it first begins to talk. It uses the names of things; words of action; words that describe objects and actions. It does not begin to use prepositions until it begins to relate ideas.

The relation of ideas means that we are thinking; combining ideas into thoughts. Then we begin to need prepositions, which are words of relation, connecting words, expressing the relations.h.i.+p between ideas.

The measure of the fullness and richness of our lives is the measure of our understanding of the world about us, of the relations.h.i.+p existing between the different phases of that world and of our relations.h.i.+p to it all.

So words do not mean much to us until we can relate them to our own lives and our own experiences. When you look up a word in the dictionary, do not study the word alone; study also the thing for which it stands. A person with a good memory might acquire a vocabulary by sheer feat of memory; but what good would it do unless each word could be related to practical experience? It is only in this way that words become _alive_ to us. We must have an idea, a concept and knowledge of the thing for which the word stands.

So let us use our dictionary in this way. Do not be satisfied when you have looked up a word simply to know how to spell and p.r.o.nounce the word and understand somewhat of its meaning. Do not be satisfied until it has become a live word to you. Have a clear image and understanding of just what each word stands for. Use the words in sentences of your own. Use them in your conversation. Make them a part of your every-day life.

Do not pa.s.s over any of the words in the lesson without understanding their meaning. Study the poem _Abou Ben Adhem_ in this week's lesson.

After you have read it over a number of times, close the book and rewrite the poem in prose in your own language. Then compare your version with the poem. Note where you have used different expressions and decide which is the better, the words used in the poem or your own words. Rewrite it several times until you have a well-written version of this poem.

Exercises such as this will increase your vocabulary and quickly develop the power of expression. No power can come in any department of life without effort having been expended in its acquisition. Our great writers have been careful students. Robert Louis Stevenson says that he has often spent a half a day searching for the particular word which he needed to express precisely the idea in mind. Stevenson is a master of the English and this power came to him by this sort of studious and earnest work.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

AN IMPORTANT WORD

+309.+ Things are not always to be judged by their size. Sometimes the most important things are very small and unimportant in appearance. A great machine is before you. You see its giant wheels, its huge levers.

These may seem to be the most important parts of the machine, but here and there throughout this great machine are little screws and bolts.

These bind the giant parts together. Without these connecting links, the great wheels and levers and revolving belts could not work together. Let a little bolt slip out of its place in the mechanism, and the great wheels stop, the throbbing machinery comes to a standstill. No work is possible until this little bolt has been replaced.

So in our sentence building, the _preposition_ is the bolt that joins words together. The importance of the preposition in a language increases just in proportion as the nation learns to think more exactly and express itself more accurately.

We found in our last lesson that by changing a preposition we can change the entire meaning of the sentence. A man's life may depend upon the use of a certain preposition. You may swear his life away by bearing testimony to the fact whether you saw him _within_ the house, or _without_ the house; or _before_ dark, or _after_ dark.

+310.+ The preposition is an important word in the sentence. We can use it to serve our purpose in various ways. We have found, for instance, that we can use it:

_First_, to change an adjective into an adjective phrase. As, for example:

The _fearless_ man demands his rights.

The man _without fear_ demands his rights.

_Second_, to change an adverb into an adverb phrase. As, for example:

We want to possess _peacefully_ the fruits of our labor.

We want to possess _in peace_ the fruits of our labor.

_Third_, to express a meaning which we can express in no other way; as, for example, _They are fighting for their country_. There is no single word which we can use to express the meaning which we express in the phrase, _for their country_.

+311.+ So the preposition has given us a new means of expression, _the prepositional phrase_. We can, by its help, use a phrase in place of an adjective to modify a noun or a p.r.o.noun, and in place of an adverb to modify a verb or an adjective. And we can also use the prepositional phrase to express relations.h.i.+p which we cannot express by a single adjective or adverb.

If I want to tell you that I see a bird in yonder tree, such an expression would be impossible without that little preposition _in_. By the use of various prepositions, I can express to you the relations.h.i.+p between the bird and the tree. I can tell you whether it is _under_ the tree, or _in_ the tree, or _over_ the tree, or flying _around_ the tree, or _near_ the tree. By the use of the various prepositions, I can express accurately the relations.h.i.+p that exists between the _bird_ and the _tree_.

Exercise 1

Look up the list of prepositions in Section 306, on page 184. Use the following pairs of words in sentences and use as many different prepositions as you can to express the different relations.h.i.+ps which may be expressed between these words. For example, take the two words, _man_ and _house_. You may say:

The man went _around_ the house.

The man went _about_ the house.

The man went _over_ the house.