Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Condition, and the latter (the principal clause) is called the APODOSIS, Conclusion. "If he visit Washington (Protasis) he will see the president" (Apodosis).

4. Relation of Manner; as, "He did that just as it ought to be done"=just right.

EXERCISES IN SENTENCES.

Name the following sentences, and point out the distinctive characteristics. As an additional exercise, let the pupil exhibit to the teacher Specimens of all the various kinds of sentences, either original or selected.

§ 581. How deeply must unbelief be rooted in our hearts, when we are surprised to find our prayers answered!

The imagination and the reason have each their truths, as well as the reason.

They remained where they have been residing the last five years.

A weak mind sinks under prosperity as well as under adversity. A strong and deep mind has two highest tides: when the moon is at the full, and when there is no moon.

What is the use of it? is the first question asked in England by almost every body about almost every thing.

Political economists tell us that self-love is the bond of society.

Many a man's vices have been nothing worse than good qualities run wild.

Who wants to see a masquerade? might be written under a looking-glass.

Religion presents few difficulties to the humble, many to the proud, insuperable ones to the vain.

This is the great blessing of marriage, that it delivers us from the tyranny of Meum and Tuum.

Said Cobbett, "Never think of mending what you write: let it go; no patching. As your pen moves, bear constantly in mind that it is making strokes that are to remain forever." We may keep the Devil without the swine, but not the swine without the devil.

Let him who desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed.

Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.

Avarice or cruelty was discernible in all their actions.
He committed the crime while you were absent.
If he were your friend, he would give you better advice.

Oh! for a muse of fire that would ascend

The highest heaven of invention!

Either he has been imprudent or his associates vindictive. The proudest word in English, to judge of the way of its carrying itself, is I. It is the least of monosyllables, if it be indeed a syllable; yet who in good society ever saw a little one! It has rained, for the ground is wet.

With some of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

He sought for happiness as an end, and therefore he was unsuccessful.

It is a mistake, however, to conclude that men are insensible to those beauties which they are not continually talking about and analyzing, that the love of nature is a new feeling because a taste for the picturesque is of modern date.

GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENTS.

§ 582. A GRAMMATICAL FORM is equivalent to another grammatical form when the first means the same, or nearly the same, as the second. But though they may agree in their Syntactical value, they may differ so much in their Logical, Rhetorical, or Poetical value as to furnish to the writer a ground of decided preference of one above the other. What is called a command of language is little else than a practical acquaintance with grammatical equivalents. The tasteful English linguist is he who habitually uses the better expression of two equivalents upon perceived grounds of pref

erence,

He understands both the points of agreement and the points of difference between two expressions. See § 439.

EXAMPLES OF GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENTS. § 583. 1. He reported the death of the king= He reported that the king was dead. Here a substantive is expanded

into a sentence.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

2. The scholars who were educated by him=The scholars educated by him. Here a proposition is abridged into an adjective.

3. I saw him before the time when you came before you came.

=

I saw him

Here a preposition, an article, a noun, and

an adverb, are abridged into an adverb.

[ocr errors]

4. When the troops had come over the river, they marched directly into the fort Having come over the river, the troops marched directly into the fort. Here a sentence is abridged into a participle.

5. He told the troops that they must not fire upon the enemy He told the troops not to fire upon the enemy. Here a sentence is abridged into an infinitive.

=

6. He is a man of learning = He is a learned man=He is not unlearned.

=

7. Riding on horseback is healthful To ride on horseback is healthful Horseback riding is healthful.

[ocr errors]

8. When the troops approached, they discharged their muskets=The troops approached and discharged their muskets. Here the subordinate construction is changed to the co-ordinate.

9. He gave up the undertaking=He relinquished the undertaking. By means of synonymous words, equivalents can be obtained whether those words are nouns, verbs, or adjectives. The double origin of our language (Gothic and Romanic) affords an extensive ground of choice in the use of

words.

10. Having conquered his enemies, he applied himself to the arts of peace After conquering his enemies, he applied himself to the arts of peace. These are specimens.

=

EXERCISES.

$584. Find equivalents for the following:

1. He examined me closer than my judge had done = 2. Were I to express my opinion=

3. He declared that it was he =

4. A gentleman who was coming here yesterday=
5. He arrived in the city and waited on the mayor=
§ 584. Equivalents are very numerous in the English lan

guage. The learner will find it greatly for his advantage to write out phrases and sentences from books, and then write opposite to them, as above, equivalent expressions. Indeed, passages of considerable length might thus be profitably translated from one set of expressions to another, as in the follow ing, from ISAAC TAYLOR on Home Education: "It was a brilliant night. "The night was resplen Beneath a dark and cloudless vault, the snowy mantle of the mountain shone resplendent with the beams of a full Italian moon. The guides lay buried in the deepest sleep. Thus, in the midnight hour, at the height of ten thousand feet, I stood alone, my resting-place a pinnacle of rock that towered darkly above the frozen wilderness from which it isolated rose. Below me the yawning cliffs and uproarious desolation of the glacier presented an appalling picture of dangers scarcely gone by. Around and above was a sea of fair, treacherous snow, whose hidden perils yet lay before us."

[ocr errors]

dent. The mountain, clad in spotless white, glistened against the deep blue of the sky in the light of the moon, then at the full, and such as it is seen in Italy. The guides were in the profoundest slumber; and I stood solitary, at an elevation of ten thousand feet, keeping the midnight watch, on a rocky turret, rearing itself gloomily out of the icy desert around. Beneath my feet lay the gaping chasms and wild solitudes of the glacier, reminding me of the frightful perils we had just escaped. On all sides, and about the upper path we had yet to tread, was outspread a fallacious expanse of snow."

§ 585. Translate the following Old English, written in the fourteenth century, into Modern English:

"Then thus in getting riches ye musten flee idleness; and afterward ye shulen usen the riches which ye hav geten by your wit and by your travail in such manner that men hold you not too scarce, ne too sparing, ne fool-large, that is to say, over large spender; for right as men blamen an averitious man on account of his scarcity, in the same wise he is to blame that spendeth over largely; and therefore,' saith Caton, use' (he saith) the riches that thou hast vgeten in such manner that men hav no matter ne cause to call thee nother

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

6

wretch; for it is a great shame to a man to hav a poor heart and a rich purse.' He saith, also, The goods that thou hast ygeten, use them by measure, that is to sayen, spend measureably; for they that solely wasten and despenden the goods that they hav, when they hav no more proper of 'eir own, that they shapen 'em to take the goods of another man.' CHAUCER.

[ocr errors]

§ 586. Translate the following poetry, written in the fifteenth century, into modern prose:

"In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,

I heard a wife sing to her child that long before had wept ;
She sighed sore, and sang full sweet to bring the babe to rest
That would not cease, but cried still in sucking at her breast.
She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with her child;
She rocked it and rated it until on her it smiled;

Then did she say, 'Now have I found the present true to prove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love."

PROMISCUOUS

R. EDWARDS.

EXERCISES IN FALSE SYNTAX.

§ 587. The Learner is expected to make the corrections and give the Rules.

1. The milk-maid singeth blithe,

And the shepherd whets his scythe.-MILTON.

2. Their idleness, as well as the large societies which they form, incline them to pleasure and gallantry.

3. King James the First was seized with a tertian ague, which, when his courtiers assured him, from the proverb, that it was health for a king, he replied, that the proverb was meant for a young king.

4. To be humane, candid, and generous, are in every case very high degrees of merit.

5. Nor have I, like an heir unknown,

Seized upon Attalus his throne.

6. I have read the Emperor's Charles the Fifth's life. 7. Dear Savior! what great crime have I done? Who of those who believed in you have I ever treated so cruelly?

8. He whom ye pretend reigns in heaven, is so far from protecting the miserable sons of men, that he perpetually delights to blast the sweetest flowers in the garden of hope.

« PreviousContinue »