An English Grammar Part 101

Exercise.

Rewrite the following extract from Irving's "Sketch Book," and change it to a direct quotation:--

He a.s.sured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by strange beings; that it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name; that his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their b.a.l.l.s, like distant peals of thunder.

VERBALS.

PARTICIPLES.

[Sidenote: _Careless use of the participial phrase._]

450. The following sentences ill.u.s.trate a misuse of the participial phrase:--

Pleased with the "Pilgrim's Progress," my first collection was of John Bunyan's works.--B. FRANKLIN.

My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill.--GOLDSMITH.

Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscente so suddenly, he a.s.sured me that nothing was more easy.--_Id._

Having thus run through the causes of the sublime, my first observation will be found nearly true.--BURKE

He therefore remained silent till he had repeated a paternoster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined.--SCOTT

Compare with these the following:--

[Sidenote: _A correct example._]

Going yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected.--ADDISON.

[Sidenote: _Notice this._]

The trouble is, in the sentences first quoted, that the main subject of the sentence is not the same word that would be the subject of the participle, if this were expanded into a verb.

[Sidenote: _Correction._]

Consequently one of two courses must be taken,--either change the participle to a verb with its appropriate subject, leaving the princ.i.p.al statement as it is; or change the princ.i.p.al proposition so it shall make logical connection with the participial phrase.

For example, the first sentence would be, either "_As I was_ pleased, ... my first collection was," etc., or "Pleased with the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' I made my first collection John Bunyan's works."

Exercise.--Rewrite the other four sentences so as to correct the careless use of the participial phrase.

INFINITIVES.

[Sidenote: _Adverb between_ to _and the infinitive._]

451. There is a construction which is becoming more and more common among good writers,--the placing an adverb between _to_ of the infinitive and the infinitive itself. The practice is condemned by many grammarians, while defended or excused by others. Standard writers often use it, and often, purposely or not, avoid it.

The following two examples show the adverb before the infinitive:--

[Sidenote: _The more common usage._]

He handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently _to show_ that he fully understood the business.--SCOTT.

It is a solemn, universal a.s.sertion, deeply _to be kept_ in mind by all sects.--RUSKIN.

This is the more common arrangement; yet frequently the desire seems to be to get the adverb snugly against the infinitive, to modify it as closely and clearly as possible.

Exercise.

In the following citations, see if the adverbs can be placed before or after the infinitive and still modify it as clearly as they now do:--

1. There are, then, many things _to be_ carefully _considered_, if a strike is to succeed.--LAUGHLIN.

2. That the mind may not have to go backwards and forwards in order _to_ rightly _connect_ them.--HERBERT SPENCER.

3. It may be easier to bear along all the qualifications of an idea ... than _to_ first imperfectly _conceive_ such idea.--_id._

4. In works of art, this kind of grandeur, which consists in mult.i.tude, is _to be_ very cautiously _admitted_.--BURKE.

5. That virtue which requires _to be_ ever _guarded_ is scarcely worth the sentinel.--GOLDSMITH.

6. Burke said that such "little arts and devices" were not _to be_ wholly _condemned_.--_The Nation_, No. 1533.

7. I wish the reader _to_ clearly _understand_.--RUSKIN.

8. Transactions which seem _to be_ most widely _separated_ from one another.--DR. BLAIR.

9. Would earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper _to be_ punctually _served up_.--ADDISON.

10. A little sketch of his, in which a cannon ball is supposed _to have_ just _carried off_ the head of an aide-de-camp.--TROLLOPE.

11. The ladies seem _to have been_ expressly _created_ to form helps meet for such gentlemen.--MACAULAY.

12. Sufficient to disgust a people whose manners were beginning _to be_ strongly _tinctured_ with austerity.--_Id._

13. The spirits, therefore, of those opposed to them seemed _to be_ considerably _damped_ by their continued success.--SCOTT.