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

me liberty, or give me death.’” 3. Red-hot is a compound adjective. 4. Telegraph is divided thus: tel-e-_graph_. 5. The profound learning of Sir William Jones (he was master of twenty-eight languages) was the wonder of his contemporaries. 6. By means of the apostrophe you know that love in mother’s love is a noun, and that i’s isn’t a verb.

+Direction+.–_Use capital letters and the proper marks of punctuation in these sentences, and give your reasons_:—

1. next to a conscience void of offense without which by the bye life isnt worth the living is the enjoyment of the social feelings 2. man the life boat 3. don’t neglect in writing to dot your is cross your ts and make your 7s unlike your 9s and don’t in speaking omit the hs from such words as which when and why or insert rs in law saw and raw 4. the scriptures tell us take no thought anxiety for the morrow 5. The speaker said american oratory rose to its high water mark in that great speech ending liberty and union now and forever one and inseparable

 

*

 

LESSON 149.

CAPITAL LETTERS AND PUNCTUATION—REVIEW.

+Direction+.—_Give the reason for each capital letter and each mark of punctuation in these sentences_:—

1. A bigot’s mind is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it contracts. 2. This is the motto of the University of Oxford: “The Lord is my light.” 3. The only fault ever found with him is, that he sometimes fights ahead of his orders. 4. The land flowing with “milk and honey” (see Numbers xiv. 8) was a long, narrow strip, lying along the eastern edge, or coast, of the Mediterranean, and consisted of three divisions; namely, 1. On the north, Galilee; 2. On the south, Judea; 3, In the middle, Samaria. 5. “What a lesson,” Trench well says, “the word ‘diligence’ contains!” 6. An honest man, my neighbor,—there he stands— Was struck—struck like a dog, by one who wore The badge of Ursini. 7. Thou, too, sail on, 0 Ship of State; Sail on, 0 Union, strong and great. 8. O’Connell asks, “The clause which does away with trial by jury—what, in the name of H–-n, is it, if it is not the establishment of a revolutionary tribunal?” 9. There are only three departments of the mind—the intellect, the feelings, and the will. 10. This—trial! 11. American nationality has made the desert to bud and blossom as the rose; it has quickened to life the giant brood of useful arts; it has whitened lake and ocean with the sails of a daring, new, and lawful trade; it has extended to exiles, flying as clouds, the asylum of our better liberty. 12. As I saw him [Weoster, the day before his great reply to Col. Hayne of South Carolina] in the evening, (if I may borrow an illustration from his favorite amusement) he was as unconcerned and as free of spirit as some here present have seen him while floating in his fishing-boat along a hazy shore, gently rocking on the tranquil tide, dropping his line here and there, with the varying fortune of the sport. The next morning he was like some mighty admiral, dark and terrible, casting the long shadow of his frowning tiers far over the sea, that seemed to sink beneath him; his broad pendant [pennant] streaming at the main, the stars and the stripes at the fore, the mizzen, and the peak; and bearing down like a tempest upon his antagonist, with all his canvas strained to the wind, and all his thunders roaring from his broadsides. 13. The “beatitudes” are found in Matt. v. 3—11.

TO THE TEACHER.—If further work in punctuation is needed, require the pupils to justify the punctuation of the sentences beginning page 314.

 

*

 

LESSON 150.

QUALITIES OF STYLE.

+Style+ is the manner in which one expresses himself. Styles differ as men differ. But there are some cardinal qualities that all good style must possess.

I. +Perspicuity.+—Perspicuity is opposed to obscurity of all kinds; it means clearness of expression. It demands that the thought in the sentence shall be plainly seen through the words of the sentence. Perspicuity is an indispensable quality of style; if the thought is not understood, or it is misunderstood, its expression might better have been left unattempted. Perspicuity depends mainly upon these few things:—

1. +One’s Clear Understanding of What One Attempts to Say.+—You cannot express to others more than you thoroughly know, or make your thought clearer to them than it is to yourself.

2. +The Unity of the Sentence.+—Many thoughts, or thoughts having no natural and close connection with each other, should not be crowded into one sentence.

3. +The Use of the Right Words.+—Use such words as convey your thought—each word expressing exactly your idea, no more, no less, no other. Use words in the senses recognized by the best authority. Do not omit words when they are needed, and do not use a superfluity of them. Be cautious in the use of he, she, it, and they. Use simple words—words which those who are addressed can readily understand. Avoid what are called bookish, inkhorn, terms; shun words that have passed out of use, and those that have no footing in the language—foreign words, words newly coined, and slang.

4. +A Happy Arrangement.+—The relations of single words to each other, of phrases to the words they modify, and of clauses to one another should be obvious at a glance. The sentence should not need rearrangement in order to disclose the meaning. Sentences should stand in the paragraph so that the beginning of each shall tally exactly in thought with the sentence that precedes; and the ending of each, with the sentence that follows. Every paragraph should be a unit in thought, distinct from other paragraphs, holding to them the relation that its own sentences hold to one another, the relation that the several parts of each sentence hold to one another.

II. +Energy+.—By energy we mean force, vigor, of expression. In ordinary discourse, it is not often sought, and in no discourse is it constantly sought. We use energy when we wish to convince the intellect, arouse the feelings, and capture the will—lead one to do something. When energetic, we select words and images for strength and not for beauty; choose specific, and not general, terms; prefer the concrete to the abstract; use few words and crowd these with meaning; place subordinate clauses before the independent; and put the strongest word in the clause, the strongest clause in the sentence, the strongest sentence in the paragraph, and the strongest paragraph in the discourse, last. Energetic thought seeks variety of expression, is usually charged with intense feeling, and requires impassioned delivery.

III. +Imagery—Figures of Speech+.—Things stand in many relations to each other. Some +things are (1) like each other+ in some particular; other +things are (2) unlike each other+ in some particular; and still other +things stand to each other (3)+ in some +other+ noteworthy +relation than+ that of +likeness+ or +unlikeness+. Things long seen and associated by us in any of these relations come at last readily to suggest each other. +Figures of Speech+ are those expressions in which, departing from our ordinary manner in speaking of things, we assert or assume any of these notable relations. The first and great service of imagery is to the thought—it makes the thought clearer and stronger. Imagery adds beauty to style—a diamond brooch may adorn as well as do duty to the dress.

A +Simile+, or +Comparison+, is a figure of speech in which we point out or assert a likeness between things otherwise unlike; as, The gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land.

A +Metaphor+ is a figure of speech in which, assuming the likeness between two things, we bring over and apply to one of them the term that denotes the other; as, A stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond.

A +Personification+ is a figure of speech in which things are raised to a plane of being above their own—to or toward that of persons. It +raises+ (1) +mere things to+ the plane of +animals+; as, The sea licks your feet, its huge flanks purr pleasantly for you. It raises (2) +mere animals to+ the plane of +persons+; as, So talked the spirited, sly Snake. It +raises+ (3) +mere things to+ the plane of +persons+; as, Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own.

An +Antithesis+ is a figure of speech in which things mutually opposed in some particular are set over against each other; as, The mountains give their lost children berries and water; the sea mocks their thirst and lets them die.

A +Metonymy+ is a figure of speech in which the name of one thing connected to another by a relation other than likeness or unlikeness is brought over and applied to that other. The most important of these relations are (1) that of the +sign+ to the +thing signified+; (2) that of +cause+ to +effect+; (3) that of +instrument+ to the +user+ of it; (4) that of +container+ to the +thing contained+; (5) that of +material+ to the +thing made out of it+; (6) that of +contiguity+; (7) that of the +abstract+ to the +concrete+; and (8) that of +part+ to the +whole+ or of +whole+ to the +part+.

This last relation has been thought so important that the metonymy based upon it has received a distinct name—+Synecdoche+.

+IV. Variety+.—Variety is a quality of style opposed to monotonous uniformity. Nothing in discourse pleases us more than light and shade. In discourse properly varied, the same word does not appear with offensive frequency; long words alternate with short; the usual order now and then yields to the transposed; the verb in the assertive form frequently gives way to the participle and the infinitive, which assume; figures of speech sparkle here and there in a setting of plain language; the full method of statement is followed by the contracted; impassioned language is succeeded by the unemotional; long sentences stand side by side with short, and loose sentences with periods; declarative sentences are relieved by interrogative and exclamatory, and simple sentences by compound and complex; clauses have no rigidly fixed position; and sentences heavy with meaning and moving slowly are elbow to elbow with the light and tripping. In a word, no one form or method or matter is continued so long as to weary, and the reader is kept fresh and interested throughout. Variety is restful to the reader or hearer and therefore adds greatly to the clearness and to the force of what is addressed to him.

TO THE TEACHER.—Question the pupils upon every point taken up in this Lesson and require them to give illustrations where it is possible for them to do so.

 

*

 

LESSON 151.

PERSPICUITY—CRITICISM.

+General Direction+.—_In all your work in Composition attend carefully to the punctuation_.

+Direction+.—_Point out the faults, and recast these sentences, making them clear_:—

[Footnote: These four sentences and others in these Lessons, given just as we found them, have been culled from school compositions.]

1. He was locked in and so he sat still till the guard came and let him out, as soon as he stepped out on the ground, he saw the dead and dying laying about everywhere. 2. They used to ring a large bell at six o’clock in the morning for us to get up, then we had half an hour to dress in, after which