An English Grammar Part 78

(4) _Degree:_ "We have won gold enough _to serve_ us the rest of our lives;" "But the poor lady was too sad _to talk_ except to the boys now and again."

(5) _Condition:_ "You would fancy, _to hear_ McOrator after dinner, the Scotch fighting all the battles;" "_To say_ what good of fas.h.i.+on we can, it rests on reality" (the last is not a simple sentence, but it furnishes a good example of this use of the infinitive).

362. The fact that the infinitives in Sec. 361 are used adverbially, is evident from the meaning of the sentences.

Whether each sentence containing an adverbial infinitive has the meaning of purpose, result, etc., may be found out by turning the infinitive into an equivalent clause, such as those studied under subordinate conjunctions.

To test this, notice the following:--

In (1), _to look_ means _that he might look_; _to please_ is equivalent to _that he may please_,--both purpose clauses.

In (2), _to find_ shows the result of the return; _not to take pity_ is equivalent to _that it would not take pity_.

In (3), _to part_ means _because I part_, etc.; and _to betray_ and _to bring_ express the reason, equivalent to _that you betray_, etc.

In (4), _to serve_ and _to talk_ are equivalent to [_as much gold_]

_as will serve us_; and "too sad _to talk_" also shows degree.

In (5), _to hear_ means _if you should hear_, and _to say_ is equivalent to _if we say_,--both expressing condition.

363. V. The independent use, which is of two kinds,--

(1) Thrown loosely into the sentence; as in Sec. 355, (3).

(2) _Exclamatory:_ "I a philosopher! I _advance_ pretensions;" "'He _to die_!' resumed the bishop." (See also Sec. 268, 4.)

OUTLINE OF a.n.a.lYSIS.

364. In a.n.a.lyzing simple sentences, give--

(1) The predicate. If it is an incomplete verb, give the complement (Secs. 344 and 350) and its modifiers (Sec. 351).

(2) The object of the verb (Sec. 349).

(3) Modifiers of the object (Sec. 351).

(4) Modifiers of the predicate (Sec. 352).

(5) The subject (Sec. 347).

(6) Modifiers of the subject (Sec. 351).

(7) Independent elements (Sec. 355).

This is not the same order that the parts of the sentence usually have; but it is believed that the student will proceed more easily by finding the predicate with its modifiers, object, etc., and then finding the subject by placing the question _who_ or _what_ before it.

Exercise in a.n.a.lyzing Simple Sentences.

a.n.a.lyze the following according to the directions given:--

1. Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour.

2. I will try to keep the balance true.

3. The questions of Whence? What? and Whither? and the solution of these, must be in a life, not in a book.

4. The ward meetings on election days are not softened by any misgiving of the value of these ballotings.

5. Our English Bible is a wonderful specimen of the strength and music of the English language.

6. Through the years and the centuries, through evil agents, through toys and atoms, a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams.

7. To be hurried away by every event, is to have no political system at all.

8. This mysticism the ancients called ecstasy,--a getting-out of their bodies to think.

9. He risked everything, and spared nothing, neither ammunition, nor money, nor troops, nor generals, nor himself.

10. We are always in peril, always in a bad plight, just on the edge of destruction, and only to be saved by invention and courage.

11. His opinion is always original, and to the purpose.

12. To these gifts of nature, Napoleon added the advantage of having been born to a private and humble fortune.

13. The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green and blue and white.

14. We one day descried some shapeless object floating at a distance.

15. Old Adam, the carrion crow, The old crow of Cairo; He sat in the shower, and let it flow Under his tail and over his crest.

16. It costs no more for a wise soul to convey his quality to other men.

17. It is easy to sugar to be sweet.

18. At times the black volume of clouds overhead seemed rent asunder by flashes of lightning.

19. The whole figure and air, good and amiable otherwise, might be called flabby and irresolute.

20. I have heard Coleridge talk, with eager energy, two stricken hours, and communicate no meaning whatsoever to any individual.

21. The word _conscience_ has become almost confined, in popular use, to the moral sphere.

22. You may ramble a whole day together, and every moment discover something new.