Higher Lessons in English Part 28

_A discreet youth makes friends_. In Lesson 17 you learned that you could expand the adjective _discreet_ into a phrase, and say, A youth of discretion makes friends. You are now to learn that you can expand it into an expression that a.s.serts, and say, A youth _that is discreet_ makes friends. This part of the sentence and the other part, _A youth makes friends_, containing each a subject and a predicate, we call +Clauses+.

The adjective clause _that is discreet_, performing the office of a single word, we call a +Dependent Clause+; _A youth makes friends_, not performing such office, we call an +Independent Clause+.

The whole sentence, composed of an independent and a dependent clause, we call a +Complex Sentence+.

A dependent clause that does the work of an adjective is called an +Adjective Clause+.

a.n.a.lysis.

1. They that touch pitch will be defiled.

They | will be defiled =======|===================== ` | ` ` that ` | touch | pitch --------|--------'------- |

+Explanation+.--The relative importance of the two clauses is shown by their position, by their connection, and by the difference in the shading of the lines. The p.r.o.noun _that_ is written on the subject line of the dependent clause. _That_ performs the office of a conjunction also. This office is shown by the dotted line. As modifiers are joined by slanting lines to the words they modify, you learn from this diagram that _that touch pitch_ is a modifier of _they_.

+Oral a.n.a.lysis+.--This is a complex sentence because it consists of an independent clause and a dependent clause. _They will be defiled_ is the independent clause, and _that touch pitch_ is the dependent. _That touch pitch_ is a modifier of _they_ because it limits the meaning of _they_; the dependent clause is connected by its subject _that_ to _they_.

TO THE TEACHER.--Ill.u.s.trate the connecting force of _who, which_, and _that_ by subst.i.tuting for them the words for which they stand, and noting the loss of connection.

2. The lever which moves the world of mind is the printing-press.

3. Wine makes the face of him who drinks it to excess blush for his habits.

+Explanation+.--The adjective clause does not always modify the subject.

4. Photography is the art which enables commonplace mediocrity to look like genius.

5. In 1685 Louis XIV. signed the ordinance that revoked the Edict of Nantes.

6. The thirteen colonies were welded together by the measures which Samuel Adams framed.

+Explanation+.--The p.r.o.noun connecting an adjective clause is not always a subject.

7. The guilt of the slave-trade, [Footnote: See Lesson 61, foot-note.]

which sprang out of the traffic with Guinea, rests with John Hawkins.

8. I found the place to which you referred.

I | found | place ====|================== | the ` ` you | referred ` ------|---------- ` | to ` which ` -------

9. The spirit in which we act is the highest matter.

10. It was the same book that I referred to.

+Explanation+.--The phrase _to that_ modifies _referred_. _That_ connects the adjective clause. When the p.r.o.noun _that_ connects an adjective clause, the preposition never precedes. The diagram is similar to that of (8).

11. She that I spoke to was blind.

12. Grouchy did not arrive at the time that Napoleon most needed him.

+Explanation+.--A preposition is wanting. _That = in which_. (Can you find a word that would here sound better than _that_?)

13. Attention is the stuff that memory is made of.

14. It is to you that I speak.

+Explanation+.--Here the preposition, which usually would stand last in the sentence, is found before the complement of the independent clause. In a.n.a.lysis restore the preposition to its usual place--It is you that I speak _to_. _That I speak to_ modifies the subject.

15. It was from me that he received the information.

(_Me_ must be changed to _I_ when _from_ is restored to its usual position.)

16. Islands are the tops of mountains whose base is in the bed of the ocean.

mountains ----------- ` ` base | is ` ------|----- ` `.....whose

+Explanation+.--The connecting p.r.o.noun is here a possessive modifier of _base_.

17. Unhappy is the man whose mother does not make all mothers interesting.

LESSON 60.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSES--CONTINUED.

a.n.a.lysis.

1. Trillions of waves of ether enter the eye and hit the retina in the time you take to breathe.

+Explanation+.--The connecting p.r.o.noun _that_ [Footnote: When _whom_, _which_, and _that_ would, if used, be object complements, they are often omitted. Macaulay is the only writer we have found who seldom or never omits them.] is omitted.

2. The smith takes his name from his smoothing the metals he works on.

3. Socrates was one of the greatest sages the world ever saw.

4. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.

+Explanation+.--The adjective clause modifies the omitted antecedent of _whom_. Supply _him_.

5. He did what was right.

He | did | x ====|====================== | ` ` what ` | was right ---------|-------------

+Explanation+.--The adjective clause modifies the omitted word _thing_, or some word whose meaning is general or indefinite. [Footnote: Many grammarians prefer to treat _what was right_ as a noun clause (see Lesson 71), the object of _did_. They would treat in the same way clauses introduced by _whoever_, _whatever_, _whichever_.

"_What_ was originally an interrogative and introduced substantive clauses.

Its use as a compound relative is an extension of its use as an indirect interrogative; it is confined to clauses which may be pa.r.s.ed as substantives, and before which no antecedent is needed, or permitted to be expressed. Its possessive _whose_ has, however, attained the full construction of a relative."--_Prof. F. A. March_.]

6. What is false in this world below betrays itself in a love of show.

7. The swan achieved what the goose conceived.

8. What men he had were true.

The relative p.r.o.noun _what_ here precedes its noun like an adjective.

a.n.a.lyze as if arranged thus: The men _what_ (= _that_ or _whom_) _he had_ were true.