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

supposed him to be a gentleman. 12. Food, keeping the body in health by making it warm and repairing its waste, is a necessity. 13. I will teach you the trick to prevent your being cheated another time. 14. She threatened to go beyond the sea, to throw herself out of the window, to drown herself. 15. Busied with public affairs, the council would sit for hours smoking and watching the smoke curl from their pipes to the ceiling.

 

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LESSON 43.

COMPOSITION—THE INFINITIVE.

+Direction+.—_Change the infinitives in these sentences into participles, and the participles into infinitives_:—

Notice that to, the only preposition used with the infinitive, is changed to toward, for, of, at, in, or on, when the infinitive is changed to a participle.

1. I am inclined to believe it. 2. I am ashamed to be seen there. 3. She will be grieved to hear it. 4. They trembled to hear such words. 5. It will serve for amusing the children. 6. There is a time to laugh. 7. I rejoice to hear it. 8. You are prompt to obey. 9. They delight to do it. 10. I am surprised at seeing you. 11. Stones are used in ballasting vessels.

+Direction+.—_Improve these sentences by changing the participles into infinitives, and the infinitives into participles_:—

1. We began ascending the mountain. 2. He did not recollect to have paid it. 3. I commenced to write a letter. 4. It is inconvenient being poor. 5. It is not wise complaining.

+Direction+.—_Vary these sentences as in the model_:—

+Model+.—_Rising early_ is healthful; To rise early is healthful; It is healthful to rise early; For one to rise early is healthful.

(Notice that the explanatory phrase after it is not set off by the comma.)

1. Reading good books is profitable. 2. Equivocating is disgraceful. 3. Slandering is base. 4. Indorsing another’s paper is dangerous. 5. Swearing is sinful.

+Direction.+—_Write nine sentences, in three of which the infinitive phrase shall be used as an adjective, in three as an adverb, and in three as a noun_.

+Direction.+—_Write eight sentences in which these verbs shall be followed by an infinitive without the to_:—

+Model.+—We saw the sun sink behind the mountain.

Bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, and see.

 

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LESSON 44.

WORDS AND PHRASES USED INDEPENDENTLY.

+Introductory Hints.+—In this Lesson we wish to notice words and phrases that in certain uses have no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. Dear Brutus serves only to arrest attention, and is independent by address.

Poor man! he never came back again. Poor man is independent by exclamation.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Rod and staff simply call attention to the objects before anything is said of them, and are independent by pleonasm—a construction used sometimes for rhetorical effect, but out of place in ordinary speech.

His master being absent, the business was neglected. His master being absent logically modifies the verb was neglected by assigning the cause, but the phrase has no connective expressed or understood, and is therefore grammatically independent. This is called the absolute phrase. An absolute phrase consists of a noun or a pronoun used independently with a modifying participle.

His conduct, generally speaking, was honorable. Speaking is a participle without connection, and with the adverb generally forms an independent phrase.

To confess the truth, I was wrong. The infinitive phrase is independent.

The adverbs well, now, why, there are sometimes independent; as, Well, life is an enigma; Now, that is strange; Why, it is already noon; There are pitch-pine Yankees and white-pine Yankees.

Interjections are without grammatical connection, as you have learned, and hence are independent.

Whatever is enclosed within marks of parenthesis is also independent of the rest of the sentence; as, I stake my fame (_and I had fame_), my heart, my hope, my soul, upon this cast.

+Analysis+.

1. The loveliest things in life, Tom, are but shadows.

+Explanation.+—_Tom_ is independent by address. But is an adjective modifying shadows.

2. There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights.

+Explanation+.—Often, as in this sentence, there is used idiomatically, merely to throw the subject after the verb, the idea of place having faded out of the word. To express place, another there may follow the predicate; as, There is gold there.

3. Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro. 4. Hope lost, all is lost. 5. The smith, a mighty man is he. 6. Why, this is not revenge. 7. Well, this is the forest of Arden. 8. Now, there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool. 9. To speak plainly, your habits are your worst enemies. 10. No accident occurring, we shall arrive to-morrow. 11. The teacher being sick, there was no school Friday. 12. Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts. 13. Properly speaking, there can be no chance in our affairs. 14. But the enemies of tyranny—their path leads to the scaffold. 15. She (oh, the artfulness of the woman!) managed the matter extremely well.

retreat | began =========|======= later -— day -–– A

16. A day later (Oct. 19, 1812) began the fatal retreat of the Grand Army, from Moscow.

See Lesson 35.

 

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LESSON 45.

COMPOSITION—INDEPENDENT WORDS AND PHRASES.

+COMMA—RULE.—Words and phrases independent or nearly so are set off by the comma.+

+Remark+.—Interjections, as you have seen, are usually followed by the exclamation point; and there, used merely to introduce, is never set off by the comma. When the break after pleonastic expressions is slight, as in (5), Lesson 44, the comma is used; but, if it is more abrupt, as in (14), the dash is required. If the independent expression can be omitted without affecting the sense, it may be enclosed within marks of parenthesis, as in (15) and (16). (For the uses of the dash and the marks of parenthesis, see Lesson 148.)

Words and phrases nearly independent are those which, like however, of course, indeed, in short, by the bye, for instance, and accordingly, do not modify a word or a phrase alone, but rather the sentence as a whole; as, Lee did not, however, follow Washington’s orders.

+Direction.+—_Write sentences illustrating the several kinds of independent expressions, and punctuate according to the Rule as explained_.

+Direction.+—_Write short sentences in which these words and phrases, used in a manner nearly independent, shall occur, and punctuate them properly_:—

In short, indeed, now and then, for instance, accordingly, moreover, however, at least, in general, no doubt, by the bye, by the way, then, too, of course, in fine, namely, above all, therefore.

+Direction.+—_Write short sentences in which these words shall modify same particular word or phrase so closely as not to be set off by the comma_:—

Indeed, surely, too, then, now, further, why, again, still.

+Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph.+

(SEE PAGES 160-162.)

TO THE TEACHER.—See suggestions to the teacher, pages 30,150.

 

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LESSON 46.

SENTENCES CLASSIFIED WITH RESPECT TO MEANING.

+Introductory Hints+.—In the previous Lessons we have considered the sentence with respect to the words and phrases composing it. Let us now look at it as a whole.

The mountains lift up their heads. This sentence is used simply to affirm, or to declare a fact, and is called a +Declarative Sentence.+

Do the mountains lift up their heads? This sentence expresses a question, and is called an +Interrogative Sentence.+

Lift up your heads. This sentence expresses a command, and is called an +Imperative Sentence+. Such expressions as You must go, You shall go are equivalent to imperative sentences, though they have not the imperative form.

How the mountains lift up their heads! In this sentence the thought is expressed with strong emotion. It is called an +Exclamatory Sentence+. How and what usually introduce such sentences; but a declarative, an interrogative, or an imperative sentence may become exclamatory when the speaker uses it mainly to give vent to his feelings; as, It is impossible! How can I endure it! Talk of hypocrisy after this!

 

+DEFINITION.—A Declarative Sentence is one that is used to affirm or to deny.+

+DEFINITION.—An Interrogative Sentence is one that expresses a question.+

+DEFINITION.—An Imperative Sentence is one that expresses a command or an entreaty.+

+DEFINITION.—An Exclamatory Sentence is one that expresses sudden thought or strong feeling.+ [Footnote: For punctuation, see page 42.]

+INTERROGATION POINT—RULE.—Every direct interrogative sentence should be followed by an interrogation point.+

+Remark.+—When an interrogative sentence is made a part of another sentence, it may be direct; as, He asked, “What is the trouble?” or indirect; as, He asked what the trouble was. (See Lesson 74.)

 

Analysis.

+Direction.+—_Before analyzing these sentences, classify them, and justify the terminal marks of punctuation:_—

1. There are no accidents in the providence of God. 2. Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part? 3. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.

(The subject is you understood.)

4. How wonderful is the advent of spring! 5. Oh! a dainty plant is the ivy green! 6. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. 7. Alexander the Great died at Babylon in the thirty-third year of his age. 8. How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man’s self to himself! 9. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 10. Lend me your ears. 11. What brilliant rings the planet Saturn has! 12. What power shall blanch the sullied snow of character? 13. The laws of nature are the thoughts of God. 14. How beautiful was the snow, falling all day long, all night long, on the roofs of the living, on the graves of the dead! 15. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British Channel, bearded the lion in his den, and woke the echoes of old Albion’s hills by the thunders of his cannon and the shouts of his triumph?

 

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LESSON 47.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW

Analysis.

1. Poetry is only the eloquence and enthusiasm of religion.—_Wordsworth_. 2. Refusing to bare his head to any earthly potentate, Richelieu would permit no eminent author to stand bareheaded in his presence. —_Stephen_. 3. The Queen of England is simply a piece of historic heraldry; a flag, floating grandly over a Liberal ministry yesterday, over a Tory ministry to-day.—_Conway_. 4. The vulgar intellectual palate hankers after the titillation of foaming phrase.—_Lowell_. 5. Two mighty vortices, Pericles and Alexander the Great, drew into strong eddies about themselves all the glory and the pomp of Greek literature, Greek eloquence, Greek wisdom, Greek art.—_De Quincey_. 6. Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, lie in three words— health, peace, and competence.—_Pope_. 7. Extreme admiration puts out the critic’s eye.—_Tyler_. [Footnote: Weighty thoughts tersely expressed, like (7), (8), and (10) in this Lesson, are called Epigrams. What quality do you think they impart to one’s style?] 8. The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun.— Longfellow. 9. Things mean, the Thistle, the Leek, the Broom of the Plantagenets, become noble by association.—_F. W. Robertson_. 10. Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the night.— Beecher. 11. In that calm Syrian afternoon,