Higher Lessons in English Part 23

a.n.a.lysis.

1. By means of steam man realizes the fable of Aeolus's bag, and carries the two-and-thirty winds in the boiler of his boat.--_Emerson_.

2. The Angel of Life winds our brains up once for all, then closes the case, and gives the key into the hands of the Angel of Resurrection.--_Holmes_.

3. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.--_Canning_.

4. The prominent nose of the New Englander is evidence of the constant linguistic exercise of that organ.--_Warner_.

5. Every Latin word has its function as noun or verb or adverb ticketed upon it.--_Earle_.

6. The Alps, piled in cold and still sublimity, are an image of despotism.--_Phillips_.

7. I want my husband to be submissive without looking so.--_Gail Hamilton_.

8. I love to lose myself in other men's minds.--_Lamb_.

9. Cheerfulness banishes all anxious care and discontent, soothes and composes the pa.s.sions, and keeps the soul in a perpetual calm.--_Addison_.

10. To discover the true nature of comets has. .h.i.therto proved beyond the power of science.

+Explanation+.--_Beyond the power of science = impossible_, and is therefore an attribute complement. The preposition _beyond_ shows the relation, in sense, of _power_ to the subject phrase.

11. Authors must not, like Chinese soldiers, expect to win victories by turning somersets in the air.--_Longfellow_.

LESSON 49.

REVIEW OF PUNCTUATION.

+Direction+.--_Give the reasons, so far as you have been taught, for the marks of punctuation used in Lessons_ 44, 46, 47, _and_ 48.

LESSON 50.

REVIEW.

TO THE TEACHER.--See suggestions, Lesson 16.

+Direction+.--_Review from Lesson_ 37 _to Lesson_ 46, _inclusive_.

Give, in some such way as we have outlined in preceding Review Lessons, the substance of the "Introductory Hints;" repeat and ill.u.s.trate definitions and rules; ill.u.s.trate the different uses of the participle and the infinitive, and ill.u.s.trate the Caution regarding the use of the participle; ill.u.s.trate the different ways in which words and phrases may be grammatically independent, and the punctuation of these independent elements.

LESSON 51.

ARRANGEMENT--USUAL ORDER.

TO THE TEACHER.--If, from lack of time or from the necessity of conforming to a prescribed course of study, it is found desirable to abridge these Lessons on Arrangement and Contraction, the exercises to be written may be omitted, and the pupil may be required to ill.u.s.trate the positions of the different parts, in both the Usual and the Transposed order, and then to read the examples given, making the required changes orally.

The eight following Lessons may thus be reduced to two or three.

Let us recall the +Usual Order+ of words and phrases in a simple declarative sentence.

The verb follows the subject, and the object complement follows the verb.

+Example+.--_Drake circ.u.mnavigated the globe_.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write three sentences each with an object complement._

An adjective or a possessive modifier precedes its noun, and an explanatory modifier follows it.

+Examples+.--_Man's life is a brief span. Moses, the lawgiver_, came down from the Mount.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write four sentences, two with possessive modifiers and two with explanatory, each sentence containing an adjective._

The attribute complement, whether noun or adjective, follows the verb, the objective complement follows the object complement, and the indirect object precedes the direct.

+Examples+.--Egypt _is the valley_ of the Nile. Eastern life _is dreamy_.

They made _Bonaparte consul_. They offered _Caesar a crown_.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write four sentences ill.u.s.trating the positions of the noun and of the adjective when they perform these offices_.

If adjectives are of unequal rank, the one most closely modifying the noun stands nearest to it; if of the same rank, they stand in the order of their length--the shortest first.

+Examples+.--_Two honest young_ men enlisted. Ca.s.sino has a _lean_ and _hungry_ look. A rock, _huge_ and _precipitous_, stood in our path.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write three sentences ill.u.s.trating the relative position of adjectives before and after the noun_.

An adverb precedes the adjective, the adverb, or the phrase which it modifies; precedes or follows (more frequently follows) the simple verb or the verb with its complement; and follows one or more words of the verb if the verb is compound.

+Examples+.--The light _far in the distance_ is _so very bright_. I _soon found him_. I _hurt him badly_. He _had often been there_.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write sentences ill.u.s.trating these several positions of the adverb_.

Phrases follow the words they modify; if a word has two or more phrases, those most closely modifying it stand nearest to it.

+Examples+.--_Facts once established_ are facts forever. He _sailed for Liverpool on Monday_.

+Direction+.--_Observing this order, write sentences ill.u.s.trating the positions of participle and prepositional phrases_.

LESSON 52.

ARRANGEMENT--TRANSPOSED ORDER.

+Introductory Hints+.--The usual order of words, spoken of in the preceding Lesson, is not the only order admissible in an English sentence; on the contrary, great freedom in the placing of words and phrases is sometimes allowable. Let the relation of the words be kept obvious and, consequently, the thought clear, and in poetry, in impa.s.sioned oratory, in excited speech of any kind, one may deviate widely from this order.

A writer's meaning is never distributed evenly among his words; more of it lies in some words than in others. Under the influence of strong feeling, one may move words out of their accustomed place, and, by thus attracting attention to them, give them additional importance to the reader or hearer.

When any word or phrase in the predicate stands out of its usual place, appearing either at the front of the sentence or at the end, we have what we may call the +Transposed Order+. _I dare not venture to go down into the cabin--Venture to go down into the cabin I dare not. You shall die--Die you shall. Their names will forever live on the lips of the people--Their names will, on the lips of the people, forever live_.

When the word or phrase moved to the front carries the verb, or the princ.i.p.al word of it, before the subject, we have the extreme example of the transposed order; as, _A yeoman had he. Strange is the magic of a turban._ The whole of a verb is not placed at the beginning of a declarative sentence except in poetry; as, _Flashed all their sabers bare_.