The Grammar of English Grammars Part 36

_Task_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Of_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a p.r.o.noun.

_A_ is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification. 2. The indefinite article is _an_ or _a_, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular one.

_Schoolmaster_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Laboriously_ is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner.

_Prompting_ is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, partic.i.p.ating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb.

_And_ is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected.

_Urging_ is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, partic.i.p.ating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb.

_An_ is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification. 2. The indefinite article is _an_ or _a_, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular one.

_Indolent_ is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality.

_Cla.s.s_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Is_ is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_.

_Worse_ is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality.

_Than_ is a conjunction. 1, A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected.

_He_ is a p.r.o.noun. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used in stead of a noun.

_Who_ is a p.r.o.noun. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used in stead of a noun.

_Drives_ is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_.

_Lazy_ is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality.

_Horses_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Along_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a p.r.o.noun.

_A_ is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification. 2. The indefinite article is _an_ or _a_, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular one.

_Sandy_ is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality.

_Road_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

LESSON I.--PARSING.

"The Honourable, the Corporation of the city, granted the use of the common council chamber, for holding the Convention; generously adding the privilege of occupying the rotunda, or the new court-room, if either would better suit the wishes of the committee."--_Journal of Literary Convention_, N. Y., 1830.

"When the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole; the genus for a species, or a species for the genus; the singular number for the plural, or the plural for the singular; and, in general, when any thing less, or any thing more, is put for the precise object meant; the figure is called a Synecdoche."--See _Blair's Rhet._, p. 141.

"The truth is, a representative, as an individual, is on a footing with other people; but, as a representative of a State, he is invested with a share of the sovereign authority, and is so far a governor of the people."--See _Webster's Essays_, p. 50.

"Knowledge is the fruit of mental labour--the food and the feast of the mind. In the pursuit of knowledge, the greater the excellence of the subject of inquiry, the deeper ought to be the interest, the more ardent the investigation, and the dearer to the mind the acquisition of the truth."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 15.

"Canst thou, O partial Sleep! give thy repose To the wet seaboy in an hour so rude?"--_Shakspeare_.

LESSON II.--PARSING.

"Every family has a master; (or a mistress--I beg the ladies' pardon;) a s.h.i.+p has a master; when a house is to be built, there is a master; when the highways are repairing, there is a master; every little school has a master: the continent is a great school; the boys are numerous, and full of roguish tricks; and there is no master. The boys in this great school play truant, and there is no person to chastise them."--See _Webster's Essays_, p. 128.

"A man who purposely rushes down a precipice and breaks his arm, has no right to say, that surgeons are an evil in society. A legislature may unjustly limit the surgeon's fee; but the broken arm must be healed, and a surgeon is the only man to restore it."--See _ib._, p. 135.

"But what new sympathies sprung up immediately where the gospel prevailed!

It was made the duty of the whole Christian community to provide for the stranger, the poor, the sick, the aged, the widow, and the orphan."--_M'Ilvaine's Evi._, p. 408.

"In the English language, the same word is often employed both as a noun and as a verb; and sometimes as an adjective, and even as an adverb and a preposition also. Of this, _round_ is an example."--See _Churchill's Gram._, p. 24.

"The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket, arose from the well."--_Woodworth_.

LESSON III.--PARSING.

"Most of the objects in a natural landscape are beautiful, and some of them are grand: a flowing river, a spreading oak, a round hill, an extended plain, are delightful; and even a rugged rock, and a barren heath, though in themselves disagreeable, contribute by contrast to the beauty of the whole."--See _Kames's El. of Crit._, i, 185.

"An animal body is still more admirable, in the disposition of its several parts, and in their order and symmetry: there is not a bone, a muscle, a blood-vessel, a nerve, that hath not one corresponding to it on the opposite side; and the same order is carried through the most minute parts."--See _ib._, i, 271. "The const.i.tuent parts of a plant, the roots, the stem, the branches, the leaves, the fruit, are really different systems, united by a mutual dependence on each other."--_Ib._, i, 272.

"With respect to the form of this ornament, I observe, that a circle is a more agreeable figure than a square, a globe than a cube, and a cylinder than a parallelopipedon. A column is a more agreeable figure than a pilaster; and, for that reason, it ought to be preferred, all other circ.u.mstances being equal. An other reason concurs, that a column connected with a wall, which is a plain surface, makes a greater variety than a pilaster."--See _ib._, ii, 352.

"But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee!

Go, count the busy drops that swell the sea."--_Rogers_.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

ERRORS RESPECTING ARTICLES.

LESSON I.--ADAPT THE ARTICLES.

"Honour is an useful distinction in life."--_Milnes's Greek Grammar_, p.

vii.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the article _an_ is used before _useful_, which begins with the sound of _yu_. But, according to a principle expressed on page 225th, "_A_ is to be used whenever the following word begins with a consonant sound." Therefore, _an_ should here be changed to _a_; thus, "Honour is _a_ useful distinction in life."]

"No writer, therefore, ought to foment an humour of innovation."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 55. "Conjunctions require a situation between the things of which they form an union."--_Ib._, p. 83. "Nothing is more easy than to mistake an _u_ for an _a_."--_Tooke's Diversions_, i, 130. "From making so ill an use of our innocent expressions."--_Wm. Penn_.

"To grant thee an heavenly and incorruptible crown of glory."--_Sewel's Hist., Ded._, p. iv. "It in no wise follows, that such an one was able to predict."--_Ib._, p. viii. "With an harmless patience they have borne most heavy oppressions,"--_Ib._, p. x. "My attendance was to make me an happier man."--_Spect._, No. 480. "On the wonderful nature of an human mind."--_Ib._, 554. "I have got an hussy of a maid, who is most craftily given to this."--_Ib._, No. 534. "Argus is said to have had an hundred eyes, some of which were always awake."--_Cla.s.sic Stories_, p. 148.

"Centiped, an hundred feet; centennial, consisting of a hundred years."--_Town's a.n.a.lysis_, p. 19. "No good man, he thought, could be an heretic."--_Gilpin's Lives_, p. 72. "As, a Christian, an infidel, an heathen."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 50. "Of two or more words, usually joined by an hyphen."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 7. "We may consider the whole s.p.a.ce of an hundred years as time present."--BEATTIE: _Murray's Gram._, p. 69. "In guarding against such an use of meats and drinks."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 138.