Higher Lessons in English Part 38

` ' and ` .......

opportunity | ` had escaped ============|==`============ the | ` ` '

` `while ` he | ` tarried ----|------------- | that ----- '

earth | ' is round =========|======'======== | '

that ' and ----- ......

it | ' revolves '

===|='============'= | He | proved | / ====|============= |

+Explanation+.--The first diagram ill.u.s.trates the a.n.a.lysis of the compound adjective clause in (3) below. Each adjective clause is connected to _insects_ by _which_. _And_ connects the co-ordinate clauses. The second diagram shows that the clause _while he tarried_ modifies both predicates of the independent clauses. _While_ modifies _had pa.s.sed, had escaped_, and _tarried_, as ill.u.s.trated by the short lines under the first two verbs and the line over _tarried_. The office of _while_ as connective is shown by the dotted lines. The third diagram ill.u.s.trates the a.n.a.lysis of a complex sentence containing a compound noun clause.

1. Sin has a great many tools, but a lie is a handle which fits them all.

2. Some one has said that the milkman's favorite song should be, "Shall we gather at the river?"

3. Some of the insects which are most admired, which are decorated with the most brilliant colors, and which soar on the most ethereal wings, have pa.s.sed the greater portion of their lives in the bowels of the earth.

4. Still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.

5. When a man becomes overheated by working, running, rowing, or making furious speeches, the six or seven millions of perspiration tubes pour out their fluid, and the whole body is bathed and cooled.

6. Milton said that he did not educate his daughters in the languages, because one tongue was enough for a woman. [Footnote: In _tongue_, as here used, we have a +Pun+--a witty expression in which a word agreeing in sound with another word, but differing in meaning from it, is used in place of that other.]

7. Glaciers, flowing down mountain gorges, obey the law of rivers; the upper surface flows faster than the lower, and the center faster than the adjacent sides.

8. Not to wear one's best things every day is a maxim of New England thrift, which is as little disputed as any verse in the catechism.

9. In Holland the stork is protected by law, because it eats the frogs and worms that would injure the dikes.

10. It is one of the most marvelous facts in the natural world that, though hydrogen is highly inflammable, and oxygen is a supporter of combustion, both, combined, form an element, water, which is destructive to fire.

11. In your war of 1812, when your arms on sh.o.r.e were covered by disaster, when Winchester had been defeated, when the Army of the Northwest had surrendered, and when the gloom of despondency hung, like a cloud, over the land, who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the welkin ring with the shouts of victory? [Footnote: The _when_ clauses in (11), as the _which_ clauses in (3), are formed on the same plan, have their words in the same order. This principle of +Parallel Construction+, requiring like ideas to be expressed alike, holds also in phrases, as in (10) and (14), Lesson 28, and in (14) and (15), Lesson 46, and holds supremely with sentences in the paragraph, as is explained on page 168. Parallel construction contributes to the clearness, and consequently to the force, of expression.]

LESSON 79.

EXPANSION.

+Participles+ may be expanded into different kinds of +clauses+.

+Direction+.--_Expand the participles in these sentences into the clauses indicated_:--

1. Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it. (Adjective clause.) 2. Desiring to live long, no one would be old. (Concession.) 3. They went to the temple, suing for pardon. (Purpose.) 4. White garments, reflecting the rays of the sun, are cool in summer.

(Cause.) 5. Loved by all, he must have a genial disposition. (Evidence.) 6. Writing carefully, you will learn to write well. (Condition.) 7. Sitting there, I heard the cry of "Fire!" (Time.) 8. She regrets not having read it. (Noun clause.) 9. The icebergs floated down, cooling the air for miles around, (Independent clause.)

+Absolute phrases+ may be expanded into different kinds of +clauses+.

+Direction+.--_Expand these absolute phrases into the clauses indicated_:--

1. Troy being taken by the Greeks, Aeneas came into Italy. (Time.) 2. The bridges having been swept away, we returned. (Cause.) 3. A cause not preceding, no effect is produced. (Condition.) 4. All things else being destroyed, virtue could sustain itself.

(Concession.) 5. There being no dew this morning, it must have been cloudy or windy last night. (Evidence.) 6. The infantry advanced, the cavalry remaining in the rear. (Independent clause.)

+Infinitive+ phrases may be expanded into different kinds of +clauses+.

+Direction+.--_Expand these infinitive phrases into the clauses indicated_:--

1. They have nothing to wear. (Adjective clause.) 2. The weather is so warm as to dissolve the snow. (Degree.) 3. Herod will seek the young child to destroy it. (Purpose.) 4. The adversative sentence faces, so to speak, half way about on _but_.

(Condition.) 5. He is a fool to waste his time so. (Cause.) 6. I shall be happy to hear of your safe arrival. (Time.) 7. He does not know where to go. (Noun clause.)

+Direction+.--_Complete these elliptical expressions_:--

1. And so shall Regulus, though dead, fight as he never fought before.

2. Oh, that I might have one more day!

3. He is braver than wise.

4. What if he is poor?

5. He handles it as if it were gla.s.s.

6. I regard him more as a historian than as a poet.

7. He is not an Englishman, but a Frenchman.

8. Much as he loved his wealth, he loved his children better.

9. I will go whether you go or not.

10. It happens with books as with mere acquaintances.

11. No examples, however awful, sink into the heart.

LESSON 80.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW.

a.n.a.lysis.

1. Whenever the wandering demon of Drunkenness finds a s.h.i.+p adrift, he steps on board, takes the helm, and steers straight for the Maelstrom.--_Holmes_.

2. The energy which drives our locomotives and forces our steams.h.i.+ps through the waves comes from the sun.--_Cooke_.

3. No scene is continually loved but one rich by joyful human labor, smooth in field, fair in garden, full in orchard.--_Ruskin_.

4. What is bolder than a miller's neck-cloth, which takes a thief by the throat every morning?--_German Proverb_.

5. The setting sun stretched his celestial rods of light across the level landscape, and smote the rivers and the brooks and the ponds, and they became as blood.--_Longfellow_.

6. Were the happiness of the next world as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.--_Sir T. Browne_.

7. There is a good deal of oratory in me, but I don't do as well as I can, in any one place, out of respect to the memory of Patrick Henry.--_Nasby_.

8. Van Twiller's full-fed cheeks, which seemed to have taken toll of everything that went into his mouth, were curiously mottled and streaked with dusky red, like a spitzenburg apple.--_Irving_.

9. The evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race.--_Mill_.

10. There is no getting along with Johnson; if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the b.u.t.t of it.--_Goldsmith_.

11. We think in words; and, when we lack fit words, we lack fit thoughts.--_White_.

12. To speak perfectly well one must feel that he has got to the bottom of his subject.--_Whately_.

13. Office confers no honor upon a man who is worthy of it, and it will disgrace every man who is not.--_Holland_.

14. The men whom men respect, the women whom women approve, are the men and women who bless their species.--_Parton_.

LESSON 81.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW.

a.n.a.lysis.

1. A ruler who appoints any man to an office when there is in his dominions another man better qualified for it sins against G.o.d and against the state.--_Koran_.

2. We wondered whether the saltness of the Dead Sea was not Lot's wife in solution.--_Curtis_.