Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (popular books to read TXT) 📕

memory, a pensive Ruth, went gleaning the silent fields of childhood, and found the scattered grain still golden, and the morning sunlight fresh and fair.—_Curtis_. [Footnote: In Ruth of this sentence, we have a type of the metaphor called +Personification+—a figure in which things are raised above their proper plane, taken up toward or to that of persons. Things take on dignity and importance as they rise in the scale of being.

Note, moreover, that in this instance of the figure we have an +Allusion+. All the interest that the Ruth of the Bible awakens in us this allusion gathers about so common a thing as memory.]

 

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LESSON 48.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW.

Analysis.

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 passions, and keeps the soul in a perpetual calm.—_Addison_. 10. To discover the true nature of comets has hitherto 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.

 

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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.

 

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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 illustrate definitions and rules; illustrate the different uses of the participle and the infinitive, and illustrate the Caution regarding the use of the participle; illustrate the different ways in which words and phrases may be grammatically independent, and the punctuation of these independent elements.

 

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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 illustrate 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 circumnavigated 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 illustrating 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. Cassino has a lean and hungry look. A rock, huge and precipitous, stood in our path.

+Direction+.—_Observing this order, write three sentences illustrating 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 illustrating 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 illustrating the positions of participle and prepositional phrases_.

 

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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 impassioned 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 principal 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.

TO THE TEACHER.–-Where, in our directions in these Lessons on Arrangement and Contraction, we say change, transpose, or restore, the pupils need not write the sentences. They should study them and be able to read them. Require them to show what the sentence has lost or gained in the change.

+Direction+.—_Change these sentences from the usual to the transposed order by moving words or phrases to the front, and explain the effect_:—

1. He could not avoid it. 2. They were pretty lads. 3. The great Queen died in the year 1603. 4. He would not escape. 5. I must go. 6. She seemed young and sad. 7. He cried, “My son, my son!” 8. He ended his tale here. 9. The moon shone bright. 10. A frozen continent lies beyond the sea. 11. He was a contentious man. 12. It was quoted so. 13. Monmouth had never been accused of cowardice.

+Direction+.—_Change these sentences from the transposed order to the usual, and explain the effect_:—

1. Him, the Almighty Power hurled headlong. 2. Volatile he was. 3. Victories, indeed, they were. 4. Of noble race the lady came. 5. Slowly and sadly we laid him down. 6. Once again we’ll sleep secure. 7. This double office the participle performs. 8. That gale I well remember. 9. Churlish he often seemed. 10. One strong thing I find here below. 11. Overhead I heard a murmur. 12. To their will we must succumb. 13. Him they hanged. 14. Freely ye have received.

+Direction+.—_Write five sentences, each with one of the following nouns or adjectives as a complement; and five, each with one of the adverbs or phrases as predicate modifier; then transpose the ten with these same words moved to the front, and explain the effect_:—

Giant, character, happy, him, serene, often, in the market, long and deeply, then, under foot.

+Direction+.—_Transpose these sentences by placing the italicized words last, and note the effect_:—

1. The clouds lowering upon our house are buried in the deep bosom of the ocean. 2. Aeneas did bear from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder the old Anchises. 3. Such a heart beats in the breast of my people. 4. The great fire roared up the deep and wide chimney.

+Direction+.—_Change these to the usual order_:—

1. No woman was ever in this wild humor wooed and won. 2. Let a shroud, stripped from some privileged corpse, be, for its proper price, displayed. 3. An old clock, early one summer’s morning, before the stirring of the family, suddenly stopped. 4. Treasures of gold and of silver are, in the deep bosom of the earth, concealed. 5. Ease and grace in writing are, of all the acquisitions made in school, the most difficult and valuable.

+Direction+.—_Write three sentences, each with the following noun or adjective or phrase in its usual place in the predicate, and then transpose, placing these words wherever they can properly go_:—

Mountains, glad, by and by.

 

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LESSON 53.

ARRANGEMENT—TRANSPOSED ORDER.

+Direction+.—_Restore these sentences to their usual order by moving the object complement and the verb to their customary places, and tell what is lost by the change_:—

1. Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth. 2. “Exactly so,” replied the pendulum. 3. Me restored he to mine office. 4. A changed France have we. 5. These evils hath sin wrought.

+Direction+.—_Transpose these sentences by moving the object complement and the verb, and tell what is gained by the change_:—

1. The dial-plate exclaimed, “Lazy wire!” 2. The maiden has such charms. 3. The English character has faults and plenty of them. 4. I will make one effort more to save you. 5. The king does possess great power. 6. You have learned much in this short journey.

+Direction+.—_Write six transposed sentences with these nouns as object complements, and then restore them to their usual order_:—

Pause, cry, peace, horse, words, gift.

+Direction+.—_Restore these sentences to their usual order by moving the attribute complement and the verb to their usual places, and tell what is lost by the change_:—

1. A dainty plant is the ivy green. 2. Feet was I to the lame. 3. A mighty man is he. 4. As a mark of respect was the present given. 5. A giant towered he among men.

+Direction+.—_Transpose these sentences by moving the attribute complement and the verb, and tell what is gained by the change_:—

1. We are merry brides. 2. Washington is styled the “Father of his Country.” 3. He was a stark mosstrooping Scot. 4. The man seemed an incarnate demon. 5. Henry