ED 
 
 BOOK 
 
 IN ENGUSH COMPOS ITtON 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 IFT OF 
 
 4^. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 .^V^, 
 
 Class 
 
 ^77 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/enlargedpracticeOOhitcrich 
 
BOOKS BY 
 
 ALFRED M. HITCHCOCK 
 
 of the Hartford (Conn.) Public High 
 School 
 
 PRACTICE BOOK IN ENG- 
 LISH COMPOSITION, 226 
 pp. i2mo. 80 cents. 
 
 ENLARGED PRACTICE BOOK 
 IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 374 pp. i2mo. $1.00. 
 
 WORDS AND SENTENCES 
 89 pp. i2mo. 35 cents. 
 
 HENRY U.OLT AND COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 
 
ENLARGED 
 PRACTICE-BOOK 
 
 IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 By 
 
 ALFRED M. HITCHCOCK 
 
 Hartford Public High School 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 ;£UfFORj:*V^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 1910 
 
Copyright, igo6, 1908, 1909, 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS 
 RAHWAY, N. J. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This Is not a new book, but an enlargement of 
 the Practice^Book, first published in 1906. 
 
 Part I, a collection of tasks in simple com.posi- 
 tion, remains precisely as it was. Words and Sen- 
 tences, published a year ago as a separate volume, 
 has been incorporated as Part II. It provides ex- 
 ercises in the use of the dictionary, in pronuncia- 
 tion, spelling, and grammar. Part III, containing 
 much new material and some old, is made up of a 
 large number of exercises designed to acquaint the 
 pupil with the essentials of rhetoric. Among the 
 new chapters in this section will be found two de- 
 voted to the paragraph and to figures of speech. 
 Part IV presents an elementary survey of versifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The key-note is still to be found in the words 
 simplicity and practice. Instead of elaborate state- 
 ments of theories and principles, a few plain sug- 
 gestions are slipped in here and there, cautions 
 against common errors, and hints in regard to how 
 
 o 
 
 09703 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 compositions may be made effective. The models 
 used are for the most part but schoolboy and 
 schoolgirl products, not extracts from great master- 
 pieces. Over-instruction, the bane of modern edu- 
 cation, has been guarded against; the pupil is 
 allowed to develop naturally. 
 
 The reception given the earlier editions seems 
 fully to justify the unusual emphasis placed upon 
 drill In the correct use of words and the 
 framing of sentences. These are days of care- 
 less, lawless speech; we must return to dictionary 
 and grammar. Only through persistent drill In 
 spelling, punctuation, and the building of sentences 
 that are grammatically and rhetorically good can 
 we hope to train our young people to speak and 
 write with correctness and skill. 
 
 The chapter devoted to the paragraph is, de- 
 signedly, unusually elementary and brief. Expe- 
 rienced teachers are beginning to question the 
 wisdom of confining practice largely to the writ- 
 ing of single paragraphs carefully constructed in 
 accordance with approved patterns. Better final 
 results. It Is thought, may be obtained by letting 
 the pupil, especially In his earlier years, express 
 himself somewhat freely. Individuality, provided 
 it be not downright lawless, Is better than artificial 
 perfection. Nice sequence In thought, so necessary 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 in paragraph structure, should not be expected of 
 immature minds. 
 
 The present edition of the Practice-Book fur- 
 nishes abundant material for at least two years of 
 study. 
 
 A. M. H. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 A Preliminary Word to the Pupil . . . 
 
 Page 
 xi 
 
 PART 1 
 
 EXERCISES IN SIMPLE COMPOSITION 
 Chapter 
 
 I. Narration 3 
 
 II. Narration — Continued 12 
 
 III. Exposition 21 
 
 IV. Description 34 
 
 V. Description — Continued 40 
 
 VI. Argument 47 
 
 VII. Letter- writing 56 
 
 VIII. Letter-writing — Continued 67 
 
 IX. Letter- writing — Continued 79 
 
 X. Story-telling 86 
 
 XI. Miscellaneous 95 
 
 PART II 
 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 XII. The Dictionary 109 
 
 XIII. Pronunciation : 120 
 
 XIV. World-building and Spelling 128 
 
 XV. Sentence Analysis : A Review of Grammar ... 150 
 
 PART III 
 
 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 XVI. Substitution and Combination 215 
 
 XVII. Clearness Through Unity 230 
 
 XVIII. Clearness Through Coherence 241 
 
 vii 
 
vm 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XIX. Clearness Through Punctuation 260 
 
 XX. Brevity, Precision, and Euphony 283 
 
 XXI. Variety in Sentence Structure 293 
 
 XXII. Figures of Speech 305 
 
 XXIII. The Paragraph 326 
 
 PART IV 
 
 VERSIFICATION 
 
 XXIV. Versification 343 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Correcting Phoof 369 
 
 Precept and Criticism 373 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TO FACE 
 PAGE 
 
 Young Handel 16 
 
 Franklin's Birthplace i^ 
 
 The Old Home 32 
 
 The Dining-room 33 
 
 Rydal Water 48 
 
 Song of the Lark 49 
 
 The Last Muster 64 
 
 Snow-bound 65 
 
 The Untraveled Road 96 
 
 The Visit 112 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 A PRELIMINARY WORD TO THE 
 PUPIL 
 
 In Scott's Ivanhpe when the mysterious Black 
 Knight and his doughty companions are about to 
 storm Torqullstone Castle, they prepare a chal- 
 lenge, as was the custom seven hundred years ago. 
 The archer Locksley signs this document not by 
 writing his name but by drawing a picture of an 
 arrow. The jester Wamba uses a cock's head for 
 his mark, and a rude cross suffices for Gurth the 
 swineherd. Apparently, of all the attacking party 
 the Black Knight alone knows how to write. And 
 when the challenge Is delivered to the lord of the 
 castle, he turns It this way and that as if It were a 
 puzzle, then hands It to a fellow Norman, who 
 promptly confesses that he too can neither read 
 nor write. Scott's descriptions may not be liter- 
 ally exact; yet doubtless most of even the great 
 men of the Middle Ages lived, fought, and died 
 without ever learning to write. 
 
 If we may trust a recent newspaper Item, from 
 900,000 to 1,000,000 letters are mailed at the 
 general post-office in New York City between four 
 in the afternoon and nine at night every business 
 day. Think, then, of all the letters written daily 
 in all the world, of the newspapers and the mag- 
 
 3d 
 
xii A PRELIMINARY WORD 
 
 azines and the books, of the pens that race and the 
 typewriters that clatter day in and day out from 
 one end of the year to the other. Times have in- 
 deed changed. 
 
 Occasionally we may wish that times had not 
 changed so much. Spelling books, grammars, and 
 composition manuals, comparatively recent inven- 
 tions, bring little joy. When struggling to put on 
 paper a few simple statements which would be easy 
 enough to make by word of mouth, we may vainly 
 wish we had been born centuries ago when the 
 battle-axe was mightier than the pen. Sometimes 
 we foolishly try to persuade ourselves that even to- 
 day it is possible to get along fairly well with only 
 very slight skill in expressing ourselves. Many, it 
 is argued, do succeed who cannot even write a mod- 
 erately correct letter. 
 
 But such reasoning is not sound. It is possible, 
 of course, for a cripple to limp from San Francisco 
 to New Orleans, but he had better travel by train, 
 if he can. It may be possible, under some circum- 
 stances, to succeed in life without skill as a writer; 
 but those who have so succeeded will tell you that 
 success came to them In spite of this drawback, 
 not because of It. Again and again have they lost 
 time, money, pleasure, opportunity to serve others, 
 because of their Inability to express themselves with 
 ease and force. They will say emphatically that 
 though by Itself mere ability to write and talk 
 effectively Is of no value. It Is a most necessary aid, 
 no matter what one's lot In life may be. 
 
A PRELIMINARY WORD xiil 
 
 Nor Is it wise to assume that all the skill needed 
 may be acquired without special training; that 
 through daily conversation, through reading news- 
 papers and books, and through writing now and 
 then a letter one can gain all the power that is nec- 
 essary. Some kinds of conversation, some kinds of 
 reading and letter-writing, are indeed a very great 
 help. It would be pleasant if they were the only aids 
 necessary. But they are not. The football player 
 acquires vim, quickness, ability to meet emergency, 
 not by playing a game now and then, but through 
 hard, systematic training. The West Point cadet 
 cannot get along without " setting-up " exercises to 
 give him full control of his body. The musician 
 patiently endures " five finger " exercises. The 
 sculptor, the artist, the craftsman, all have to learn 
 through long practice how to use the tools with 
 which their work is done. And the writer is no 
 exception ; there is no royal road for him, no easy, 
 always pleasant way of gaining mastery. If we 
 wish to be able to make known our wants, able to 
 persuade others to our way of thinking; if we wish 
 to share with others what we have seen and heard, 
 what we have thought and felt and imagined, we 
 must first learn through long, patient practice how 
 to express ourselves readily with clearness and 
 force. 
 
 This is a practice-book. It contains, first and 
 last, many hints which should be of service to the 
 untrained writer and talker. It points out little 
 errors to which he is inclined, and suggests ways 
 
xiV A PRELIMINARY WORD 
 
 of avoiding them. It contains many exercises, 
 some new, some centuries old, no doubt, but all de- 
 signed to furnish profitable drill. It is based on 
 the belief that we grow in usefulness and happi- 
 ness only by sharing what we have with others, that 
 much which is best worth sharing can be passed 
 about only through the medium of composition, 
 and that to succeed in composition, as in any other 
 line of activity, one must be willing to endure hard 
 labor. 
 
PART I 
 
 EXERCISES IN SIMPLE COMPOSITION 
 
OF THE 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 NARRATION 
 
 Here are three stories which you may have 
 heard many times, for they are old ones. Read 
 them carefully that you may be prepared to do 
 the tasks assigned on a later page. 
 
 An Italian nobleman was going to be married, and 
 everybody at his castle was busy helping to get ready the 
 marriage feast. There was one great drawback: there 
 had been such dreadful storms at sea that the fishermen 
 had not dared to venture out, and consequently there was 
 no fish to be had. I On the very morning of the feast, how- 
 ever, a poor fisherman appeared before the castle gate 
 with a large turbot on his back. The servants were so 
 delighted that they took him at once to the nobleman, who, 
 in the presence of his guests, bade him name his price and 
 it should be paid. To the surprise of all, the fisherman 
 said, " My price is one hundred lashes on my bare back, 
 and I cannot bate a single stroke! " 
 
 " Nonsense," said the nobleman, " you are joking. 
 Come, tell us. What is your price?" 
 
 The fisherman made the same answer as before. 
 
4 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 "Well," said the nobleman, "this is a strange jest; 
 but we must have the fish, so lay the lashes on lightly." 
 
 After fifty strokes had been given, the fisherman cried, 
 " Stop ! I have a partner in this business. He must have 
 his share." 
 
 "What!" cried the nobleman, "are there two such 
 madmen in the world? What is his name? We will 
 send for him at once." 
 
 " You have not far to go," answered the fisherman ; 
 " he is your own porter. He would not let me in till I 
 promised to give half of whatever I got for the turbot. 
 I want to keep my promise."! 
 
 "Aha!" said the noblAnan, "bring him here at 
 once." 
 
 The porter was brought. He received his full share 
 of the lashes, and they were not laid on lightly. He was 
 then turned away from the castle. The fisherman, on 
 the other hand, had an excellent dinner set before him, 
 and was sent away with a handsome present.* 
 
 A Spaniard was riding across a wide and uninhabited 
 tract of country in South America and had yet a long 
 distance to travel, when suddenly his horse fell lame. He 
 was in dismay, for he saw that it would never be able to 
 carry him home.! While debating what to do, he met 
 an Indian riding on a fine fresh horse; whereupon he 
 asked the Indian to exchange. This the Indian refused 
 to do; so the Spaniard by force compelled him to dis- 
 mount, and taking the fresh animal rode away, leaving 
 the lame horse for the Indian, who was soon left far 
 behind. 
 
 * This story and the two following are taken, by permission, from Fables^ 
 Anecdotes^ and Stories ^ published by the Boston School Supply Co. 
 
NARRATION 5 
 
 The Indian followed the tracks, however, until he 
 reached a town where he found the Spaniard and sum- 
 moned him to appear before a judge. When accused of 
 the theft, the Spaniard swore that the horse was his own 
 and that he had reared it from a colt. Then the Indian 
 besought the judge to send for the horse. This was done ; 
 and the Indian, throwing his cloak over the horse's head, 
 said to the judge, " This man swears he has had the horse 
 since it was a colt. Let him therefore tell you in which 
 of its eyes it is blind." 
 
 The Spaniard, not daring to hesitate, said at once, 
 " The right eye." 
 
 " Neither the right eye nor the left," said the Indian, 
 taking off the cloak. " He is not blind at all.'f 
 
 This was a proof so strong that the judge at once 
 ordered that the horse be restored to its owner, and sen- 
 tenced the Spaniard to pay a heavy fine. 
 
 A vizier who had displeased the Sultan was condemned 
 to be imprisoned for life in a high tower from which 
 escape seemed impossible. One night his wife came to the 
 foot of the tower, weeping bitterly for her husband. 
 When he heard her, and knew who it was, he called 
 out softly, " Do not weep, for I may yet be saved, if 
 you will do as I bid you. Go home, and bring with you 
 when you come again a live black beetle and a little butter. 
 Bring also a ball of fine silk, a ball of thread, a ball of 
 stout twine, and a coil of strong rope." His wife went, 
 and quickly returned with all these things. 
 
 " Now touch the beetle's head with butter," said the 
 vizier, " and tie one end of the silk thread round his body 
 and put him on the tower directly beneath my window." 
 
 All this was quickly done. The beetle, thinking from 
 
6 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 the smell of the butter that there must be a store of it 
 above, crawled straight up till he came to where the 
 vizier stood. In this way the prisoner got hold of one 
 end of the silk. But this had been tied to the thread, and 
 the thread to the stout twine, and the twine to the rope. 
 When the vizier had pulled up the rope, he fastened one 
 end of it inside the tower, then slid down to the ground, 
 and under cover of darkness fled. 
 
 EXERCISE 1 
 Written 
 
 Putting the hook aside, retell the story you like 
 best. Give it an appropriate title. 
 
 Do not try to recall the language of the- book, 
 yet do not reject any phrase which you may re- 
 member. The main thing is to tell the story in 
 your own way, bringing out the point as clearly 
 and effectively as you can. The first draft should 
 be made with moderate care, yet with little atten- 
 tion to such matters as punctuation. When revis- 
 ing this first draft, look closely at each sentence 
 to see that it is correct. As a final test before 
 making a neat copy, read aloud what you have 
 written. The ear is a good critic, often detecting 
 errors which the eye overlooks. 
 
NARRATION 7 
 
 EXERCISE 2 
 
 Written 
 
 Read carefully the two stories that follow; then, 
 putting the hook aside, retell one of them. 
 
 This task is more difficult than the first, partly 
 because each poem is little more than a bundle 
 of hints suggesting a story rather than telling one, 
 and partly because if you write in a natural way 
 you will use prose rather than poetry and must 
 therefore select your own words. You cannot, of 
 course, hope to do as well as the poet has done; 
 yet you can make your version of the story effect- 
 ive, perhaps adding details supplied by the imag- 
 ination. Before beginning, turn back to the stories 
 used in Exercise i and study them for a few min- 
 utes. Notice that each has three parts: first a 
 sentence or two explaining circumstances, then the 
 main incident, then the point — the little surprise 
 at the end. It is this surprise that makes a story. 
 And it is well, you will agree, to keep the reader 
 in suspense as long as possible. Yet unnecessary 
 details should be avoided, that the story may 
 unfold rapidly and not grow tiresome. When the 
 surprise has come, when the secret has been re- 
 vealed, the narrative should be brought quickly to 
 a close. 
 
ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 The Sad Little Lass* 
 
 " Why sit you here, my lass ? " said he. 
 " I came to see the king," said she, — 
 " To see the king come riding by, 
 
 While all the eager people cry 
 * God bless the king, and long live he ! ' 
 
 And therefore sit I here," said she. 
 
 ** Why do you weep, my lass ? " said he. 
 " Because that I am sad," said she. 
 " For when the king came riding by, 
 
 And all the people raised a cry, 
 
 I was so small I could not see ; 
 
 And therefore do I weep/' said she. 
 
 " Then weep no more, my lass! " said he. 
 " And pray, good sir, why not? " said she. 
 " Lift up your eyes of bonnie blue. 
 
 And look and look me through and through; 
 
 Nor say the king you could not see. 
 
 I am the king, my lass ! " said he. 
 
 Margaret Johnson 
 
 iNCroENT OF THE FRENCH CaMP 
 
 You know, we French stormed Ratisbon. 
 
 A mile or so away, 
 On a little mound. Napoleon 
 
 Stood on our storming-day, 
 
 * Reprinted from St. Nicholas magazine by permission of the author and the 
 Century Publishing Co. 
 
NARRATION 
 
 With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, 
 Legs wide, arms locked behind, 
 
 As if to balance the prone brow 
 Oppressive with its mind, y 
 
 Just as perchance he mused " My plans 
 
 That soar, to earth may fall, 
 Let once my army-leader Lannes 
 
 Waver at yonder wall " — 
 Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew 
 
 A rider, bound on bound. 
 Full-galloping; nor bridle drew 
 
 Until he reached the mound. 
 
 Then off there flung in smiling joy, 
 
 And held himself erect 
 By just his horse's mane, a boy; 
 
 You hardly could suspect — 
 (So tight he kept his lips compressed, 
 
 Scarce any blood came through) 
 You looked twice ere you saw his breast 
 
 Was all but shot in two. 
 
 " Well," cried he, " Emperor, by God's grace 
 
 We've got you Ratisbon! 
 The Marshal's in the market-place. 
 
 And you'll be there anon 
 To see your flag-bird flap his vans 
 
 Where I, to heart's desire, 
 Perched him ! "/ The chief's eye flashed ; his plans 
 
 Soared up again like fire. 
 
lo ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 The chief's eye flashed ; but presently 
 
 Softened itself, as sheathes 
 A film the mother-eagle's eye 
 
 When her bruised eaglet breathes. 
 " You're wounded ! " " Nay," the soldier's pride 
 
 Touched to the quick, he said; 
 " I'm killed. Sire! f And his chief beside 
 
 Smiling the boy fell dead. 
 
 Robert Browning 
 
 v^ EXERCISE 3 
 
 Written 
 
 Retell in the first person any one of the stories in 
 the first two exercises, imagining that you are the 
 porter, the wicked Spaniard, Napoleon, the king 
 who comforted the little lass, or the beetle. 
 
 What advantage is there in telling a story in 
 the first person? What advantage is there in using 
 the third person? Conversation gives life to a 
 narrative. If you are uncertain how conversation 
 should be arranged, and how capitals and quota- 
 tion-marks are used, turn to page 268. 
 
 EXERCISE 4 
 
 Oral 
 
 Come to class prepared to tell the best story you 
 can find. Consider this exercise a contest, the class 
 
NARRATION n 
 
 deciding by vote at the end of the hour which story- 
 teller has done best. 
 
 Good anecdotes appear in every issue of the 
 Youth's Companion, and occasionally one may be 
 found in the newspaper. Better than these are 
 the favorites which nearly everybody has in mind 
 — stories which father or mother tells over and 
 over again. But never mind the source ; the main 
 thing is to get a good story and tell it in an enter- 
 taining way. Be careful to vary the sentence form 
 when reporting conversation. Instead of begin- 
 ning with He said, divide the quoted sentence and 
 slip he said in between the two parts ; or invert the 
 words, putting said he at the close of the sentence. 
 Notice, when reading books, how skillfully the 
 trained story-teller uses these two words and sim- 
 ilar expressions. 
 
 EXERCISE 5 
 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page i6 is a picture which doubtless 
 you have seen before. Perhaps the story it tells is 
 familiar to you, or to your instructor, who will sup- 
 ply you with a hint or two. If not, use your 
 imagination. 
 
 Invent a story to match the picture, following in 
 a general way the plan used by Browning in his 
 Incident of the French Camp. Imagine that you 
 are young Handel, or some member of the group 
 standing in the doorway. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 NARRATION — Continued 
 
 The tasks In Chapter I provide practice In re- 
 production ; that Is, practice In retelling with only 
 slight changes what one has read or has heard. 
 The Incidents are furnished and, except In the last 
 exercise, the language Is suggested. The exercises 
 in Chapter II are a little more difficult, perhaps. In 
 that you are asked to find Incidents for yourselves, 
 and must use language that Is all your own. 
 
 EXERCISE 6 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a clear, connected account of something 
 that has actually happened to you, something which 
 can properly be called, in the title of the composi- 
 tion, A first experience. 
 
 Suggestions: i. My first party. 2. My first serious 
 accident. 3. My first attempt to swim. 4. The first 
 time I ever ran away. 5. My first experience with a 
 dentist. 6. My first severe punishment. 7. My first 
 experience as a cook. 8. My first day in school. 
 
 12 
 
NARRATION 13 
 
 9. My first shopping expedition. 10. My first football 
 game. 
 
 EXERCISE 7 
 
 Oral 
 
 ^Criticise the school composition given below, 
 pointing out the good as well as the had. 
 
 For example, has the writer chosen an Inter- 
 esting Incident, one that Is worth narrating? Do 
 you like the plan of the composition, the Incident 
 proper coming between two short paragraphs, one 
 leading up to the story and one away from it? 
 Is It correct to write he with two other boys were 
 coming home? What other expressions do you 
 find which you think should be changed? 
 
 Seeing the Dog Swim 
 
 My sisters and I are fond of having father tell us stories 
 on Sunday evenings. These stories always begin this 
 way: "When I was a boy, out in Ohio," etc., etc. Not 
 long ago he told us this one : 
 
 Father was about twelve years old. One spring after- 
 noon, when it was just beginning to get a little warmer, he 
 with two other boys were coming home in a light wagon. 
 They had been staying at the farm of the boys' father, 
 a Mr. Hall, about twelve miles from Columbus. When 
 half-way home they came to what is called Alum Creek. 
 It was about one hundred feet wide, but quite shallow — 
 perhaps four feet deep. There was a bridge across but, 
 boylike, father and his friends preferred fording it. 
 
14 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 When near the middle of the stream, one of the boys 
 suddenly said, *' Let's pitch the dog in and see him 
 swim ! " So father went to the back of the wagon, and 
 taking the dog in his arms threw him in with a great 
 splash. The horse, which had been drinking, was awfully 
 frightened, and pranced, pranced, pranced, over to the 
 other side and up onto the road. At the first great leap 
 the wagon was given a sudden jerk, and this pitched father 
 head first into the water. , At the same jerk the wagon 
 seat tipped over backwards, and the two Halls lay roll- 
 ing on their backs, choking with laughter. Father picked 
 himself up quickly, for the water was yet very cold. He 
 chased after the boys, but didn't catch up to them till on 
 the road. He, and the dog too, were soaking wet from 
 head to foot, and they had to drive six miles more, fac- 
 ing the wind. To use his own words, he " was nearly 
 perished." 
 
 For a long time after, my grandfather had a way of 
 bringing up the sad incident before any guests who might 
 be at the table, when stories were being told. ^' George," 
 he would ask of father, " what was that story about the 
 dog? " But father would only hang his head, so grand- 
 father would feel obliged to tell the story. 
 
 EXERCISE 8 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a short composition similar to the one 
 called for in Exercise 6, this time giving not your 
 own experience hut the experience of some one else. 
 Invent an appropriate title. 
 
NARRATION 15 
 
 Perhaps reading the anecdote given In Exer- 
 cise 7 has suggested some similar one which you 
 would like to give. Nearly every family has a 
 score or more of such stories which father, mother, 
 or grandparents tell concerning what happened to 
 them long ago when they were young. Tell your 
 favorite of all these " fireside reminiscences." 
 
 When reading aloud what you have written, are| 
 you sometimes surprised to find that you have used 
 some word over and over again till the repetition, 
 is unpleasant to the ear? For example, the first v 
 story under Exercise i contains this sentence: 
 There was one great drawback: there had been 
 such dreadful storms at sea that the fishermen had 
 not dared to venture out, and consequently there 
 was no fish to be had. The repetition Is unpleas- 
 ant, and would have been still more so had there- 
 fore been used In place of consequently. The word 
 horse is used somewhat freely In the second story, 
 though the narrator has tried to avoid the word 
 by employing synonyms. Such repetition, often 
 difficult to avoid. Is not a serious matter, yet It Is 
 one that the careful writer tries to remedy before 
 making a final copy of his work. Read aloud 
 some of the compositions you have written, to see 
 if you are repeating words unpleasantly. See Ex- 
 ercise 191 on page 289. 
 
i6 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 9 
 Written 
 
 Write a composition ^ the length to he determined 
 by your instructor, to which can appropriately be 
 given the title A day of my life. 
 
 There are days and days, some interesting, 
 others comparatively humdrum. You may select 
 either kind, though presumably you will prefer the 
 '.former. An absolutely faithful record of every- 
 i thing done from morning till night would contain 
 ^much that is of little interest. In most narratives 
 the writer has to select his material, picking out 
 the important things and passing by what every 
 one takes for granted. Do not say that on arising 
 in the morning you washed your face and hands 
 and dried them with a towel, for of course you do 
 that every morning. It is not necessary to say that 
 when the train reached your station, you got out ; 
 for of course you would get out, unless for some 
 reason you forgot to do so. Items of that sort are 
 unnecessary. 
 
 Which Is the better expression — two boys and 
 myself, or three of us boys ? Is it polite to say / 
 
 and my friend? 
 
 J 
 
 ! 
 
Copyrighted by the Perry Pictures Company. Used by permission 
 
NARRATION 17 
 
 • exercise 10 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a composition^ the length to he determined 
 by your instructor, to which can be properly ap- 
 plied one of the following titles: A narrow escape, 
 A sad accident, Almost a catastrophe, All due to 
 carelessness. 
 
 Let this be a truthful account of something you 
 have actually witnessed. In some respects this 
 is the most difficult task you have been given. 
 Try to do it well. Perhaps it will be wise to 
 keep in mind, while writing, an outline like the 
 following : 
 
 I Time and place 
 
 II Circumstances leading to the exciting mo- 
 ment 
 III The exciting moment 
 
 IV 
 
 A single sentence may be enough for the first 
 topic, but the second may call for ten. Be sure 
 that every circumstance is made clear; otherwise 
 the reader will become confused, not seeing things 
 distinctly but guessing at them and sometimes 
 guessing wrong. Failure to state some one little 
 particular may spoil the entire narrative. The 
 third topic, however, will be most trying of all; 
 for at exciting moments a great deal happens, the 
 senses receive many Impressions, and the emotions 
 are ever changing. Follow the chronological order 
 
i8 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 If possible; that is, narrate first what happened 
 first, second what happened next, and so on. Can 
 you guess what the fourth topic should be? Per- 
 haps as you narrate the incident no fourth topic 
 will be necessary. 
 
 EXERCISE 11 
 Oral 
 
 Criticise the following hastily written school 
 theme, pointing out the good as well as the had. 
 
 Is the composition well planned? Do you miss 
 any details necessary for a clear understanding of 
 things? By what devices does the writer convey 
 the idea of excitement, toward the end of the nar- 
 rative ? If asked to rewrite the composition, what 
 changes should you make ? 
 
 An Exciting Contest 
 
 The track was fine and smooth, without much dust, 
 and there could not have been a better day for a race. 
 The grandstand was crowded. All along the fence lining 
 the track were hundreds of automobiles. Behind the 
 grandstand there was a continuous roar from the big 
 racers. 
 
 A race had just been finished and there was a moment's 
 pause. Then out on the track came a large Peerless 
 followed by a small White steam. The Peerless was a 
 sixty-horse-power car driven by the well-known Barney 
 Oldfield, while the White was a smaller car of about 
 
NARRATION 19 
 
 fifteen horse-power driven by Webb Jay, also well known 
 in racing circles. Most of the crowd were inclined to 
 laugh at the White, but men who knew more were of a 
 different opinion. 
 
 The cars were on the line, the Peerless making a noise 
 like ten Gatling guns, the White making the peculiar 
 hiss due to the fierceness of the fire under her boiler. The 
 signal w^as given, and the cars were ofif, each striving 
 for the inside at the first turn. Great clouds of dust 
 rolled up, hiding them from view as they passed the first 
 turn, the Peerless leading. It seemed but a second or 
 two before they were round again. As they turned into 
 the home stretch all you could hear was the peculiar hum 
 of the wheels. This, as they drew near, grew louder, 
 and as they got opposite there was a very great noise, a 
 flying of dust — and they are taking the next turn. Within 
 a minute they were round again, plowing through the 
 dust which had not had time to settle. 
 
 Four times they went round the course at that fearful 
 pace. As they started the fifth, the people went wild 
 with excitement, for the little White was leading. 
 Around the turn they go, great clouds of dust rolling up. 
 Down the back stretch they fly, around the curve at the 
 far end of the course, and turn into the home stretch^ 
 The excitement is intense. On come the cars like bat- 
 tleships firing all their guns. The White is gaining, 
 gaining, gaining at a good rate. Nearer and nearer they 
 come. The White draws further away from the Peer- 
 less. The dust is so thick that the cars can hardly be 
 seen. ; There is a final rush and a roar, and one of the 
 most exciting races ever run on a circular track is fin- 
 ished. ■ The plucky little White is winner. 
 
20 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 12 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a short composition to which you can give 
 the title An exciting moment. 
 
 This may be a bit of adventure, a critical point 
 in some game or contest, or an experience similar 
 to the one called for in Exercise lo. Do not 
 waste time by giving too many preliminaries, but 
 come quickly to the exciting moment. Then try 
 the effect of a number of short sentences; often 
 they are better than long ones, when the writer is 
 trying to convey the idea that much is happening 
 all at once. Try using the present tense, but be 
 careful not to mix tenses. 
 
 + 
 
CHAPTER III 
 EXPOSITION 
 
 Chapters I and II are made up of exercises In 
 narration, a form of composition which gives an 
 orderly report of action. A story is a narration. 
 An orderly account of what you did last Saturday 
 would be a narration. Any composition, long or 
 short, which gives in orderly fashion the particu- 
 lars of an event or a series of events is a narration. 
 It is the commonest, though not necessarily the 
 simplest, kind of composition used in talking and 
 writing. 
 
 One secret of a good narrative lies In the word 
 orderly. Unless particulars are given in proper 
 order, the account becomes *' all mixed up." 
 Usually it is best to follow the chronological order, 
 telling first what happened first, second what hap- 
 pened next, and so on to the end. But even 
 though orderly a narrative Is sometimes faulty be- 
 cause Incomplete. How often when telling a story, 
 especially If the listener be a child. Is one Inter- 
 rupted by questions. The questions come because 
 particulars have been overlooked which are quite 
 necessary for a clear comprehension. 
 
 Oftentimes these particulars have to do with 
 
aa ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 what is called Exposition. A perfect definition of 
 this word would lead us into deep waters. For 
 the present it is enough to say that exposition 
 means almost the same as explanation. We use 
 exposition when we tell how we did a certain ex- 
 ample in arithmetic. We use it in telling how ice 
 cream is made, why some birds go south for the 
 winter, what makes the locomotive puff, or why we 
 were late for school. This paragraph is an ex- 
 ample of exposition, in that it tries to explain the 
 meaning of a word. 
 
 Order and completeness are quite as essential 
 in exposition as in narration. Not always is it 
 possible to follow a chronological order, but a plan 
 of some sort is desirable lest the explanation be- 
 come confusing. And it is necessary to watch lest 
 some important detail be overlooked, especially 
 when one is explaining something very familiar to 
 himself but quite unfamiliar to the one he is ad- 
 dressing. Your aunt, though learned in many 
 ways, probably knows but little about boys' games. 
 If explaining to her how squash is played, it would 
 be necessary to give many particulars which at first 
 might seem to you quite unnecessary. 
 
 The tasks which follow may seem simpler than 
 those in the preceding chapters, but in reality they 
 are more difficult. If it be true that there are fifty 
 who " take in " all that they witness where there 
 are but twenty-five who are able to record In an 
 orderly narrative what they have seen. It is prob- 
 ably true that there are twenty-five who ^' see 
 
EXPOSITION 23 
 
 through " things where there Is one who has the 
 ability to explain to others what he has seen 
 through. Clear minds are rare. 
 
 • EXERCISE 13 
 Oral and Written 
 
 Write answers to as many of the following 
 questions as you can in the time allotted, and come 
 to class prepared to answer orally several more. 
 
 Do not attempt too much. You will do well 
 If you succeed In giving clear, complete answers to 
 three or four questions. Write as If to one who 
 does not grasp things easily and must have every- 
 thing explained very clearly and In simple lan- 
 guage. When convenient, let the first sentence of 
 an answer include the wording of the question. If 
 several reasons are advanced, perhaps It Is well to 
 begin with the simplest, the most obvious. 
 
 Probably In doing this task and others soon to 
 follow you will use somewhat frequently sentences 
 containing enumerations. On page 267 are ex- 
 amples showing how such sentences should be 
 punctuated. 
 
 I. Why do birds have bills instead of teeth? 2. What 
 advantage is there in using a " float" when fishing? 3. 
 Why is the baseball made spherical, the football sphe- 
 roidal? 4. What things affect the climate of a place? 
 5. Why are story books illustrated? 6. Why does not 
 
24 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 the pond begin to freeze at the bottom? 7. Of what 
 use are city parks? 8. What causes tides? 9. Why is 
 football condemned by so many? 10. Why is a flash of 
 lightning followed by thunder? 11. What causes day 
 and night? 12. Why do so many rivers flow by large 
 cities? 13. Why are so many pupils late to school? 14. 
 Why are the ball bat and the tennis racquet so different 
 in shape? 15. How do boys' books differ from the books 
 girls enjoy reading? 16. Why do so many foreigners 
 come to our country? 
 
 ^ EXERCISE 14 
 
 Oral or Written 
 
 Ability to make things clear often receives a 
 severe test when one Is unexpectedly asked to direct 
 a stranger on his way. Possibly all of us know 
 how unpleasant the feeling is which comes when, a 
 few minutes too late, It flashes across us that we 
 have carelessly misdirected some one. No doubt 
 all of us have ourselves been misdirected and know 
 what it means to tramp a weary mile or two simply 
 because some one has been careless. What respect 
 we have for the clear-headed farmer who oblig- 
 ingly stops his horses and gives directions as unmis- 
 takable as his furrow is straight, not forgetting 
 distances, points of compass, the noticeable objects 
 along the way. Possibly he traces a rude map of 
 the region, marking out in the sand with the butt 
 of his whip each road and crossroad. At any 
 
EXPOSITION 25 
 
 rate, he makes the way clear before he returns to 
 his plowing. 
 
 Give brief hut clear directions for finding four 
 or five places suggested by the list below. Write 
 as if to one unacquainted with your town. 
 
 I. A certain pool in a trout stream. 2. A certain 
 counter in a department store. 3. The nearest fire-alarm 
 box. 4. A hollow tree In which you have hidden your 
 rifle. 5. A place where arbutus, or some other favorite 
 wild flower, grows. 6. Your doctor's office. 7. The 
 railroad station. 8. A good restaurant. 
 
 EXERCISE 15 
 
 Written 
 
 Give careful directions for making something in 
 the following list. Select^ if possible, something 
 you yourself have made. 
 
 I. A work-bench. 2. A fancy lamp-shade. 3. A 
 cornstalk fiddle. 4. Pop-corn balls. 5. An ice-boat. 6. 
 A log cabin. 7. Coffee. 8. A camp stove. 9. A win- 
 dow-garden. 10. A magic lantern. 11. A catamaran. 
 12. Maple sugar. 13. A water-wheel. 14. Butter. 15. 
 A willow whistle. 16. A double ripper. 17. A bead 
 chain. 18. A raft. ig. Apple dumplings. 20. An aqua- 
 rium. 21. Ice cream. 22. A water telescope. 23. A 
 toboggan-slide. 24. A cosey corner. 25. A balloon. 26. 
 A tree-top house. 27. A pretty apron. 28. A canoe. 29. 
 A beehive. 
 
26 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Try to Imagine what mistakes a novice might 
 make In following your directions, and warn 
 against them. Tell what should not be done, as 
 well as what should be done. Even though you 
 have little skill In drawing, try to make clear your 
 plans by means of rough Illustrations. The eye 
 may see at a glance something which would be dif- 
 ficult to Indicate even by writing a long paragraph. 
 
 EXERCISE 16 
 
 Written 
 
 Explain how some simple instrument, contri- 
 vance, or machine does its work. Select, if you 
 can, from the following list. 
 
 I. A grindstone. 2. A nutmeg-grater. 3. A thermo- 
 stat. 4. A churn. 5. A compass. 6. A mouse-trap. 
 7. An ash-sifter. 8. A fountain pen. 9. A spirit-level. 
 10. A horse-rake. 11. An egg-beater. 12. A thermom- 
 eter. 13. A sun-dial. 14. A wrench. 15. A student- 
 lamp. 16. A carpet-sweeper. 
 
 EXERCISE 17 
 Oral or Written 
 
 ^Ri 
 
 \ead carefully the following composition, then 
 prepare a similar account telling how some com- 
 mon thing is made. 
 
 This task will take you to some mill or factory 
 
EXPOSITION 27 
 
 and will call for accurate observation. Before tell- 
 ing how a machine does its work, it is often neces- 
 sary to describe it — tell what it looks like. In other 
 words, it is often necessary to compare that which 
 is unfamiliar with what is well known, pointing out 
 similarities and differences. Every one has seen a 
 pair of shears ; how proper it was for Mr. Frentz 
 to say that the device he was describing was little 
 more than a strong pair of shears. How large a 
 machine? As large as a sewing-machine. 
 
 Nails * 
 
 The making of nails is one of the oldest American, as 
 it is one of the oldest English, industries; but in Great 
 Britain the greater part of the product has been hand 
 work, in America machine work. 
 
 Of modern nails, the wire, or French, nails, and the 
 comm.on cut nails are made in quantities which far ex- 
 ceed all other kinds. The wire nails have increased 
 enormously in general use during the last fifteen or 
 twenty years, but there are still many purposes for which 
 cut nails are preferred. 
 
 The process of making wire nails is exceedingly simple 
 and almost wholly automatic. A large reel or spool of 
 wire of a size equal to that of the shank of the nail to 
 be made feeds forward at each revolution of the machine 
 a piece of wire equal to the length of the nail and a 
 fraction of an inch more. 
 
 This is seized firmly by clamps, which straighten while 
 
 * Reprinted from the Youth's Companion by permission of the Perry 
 Mason Co. 
 
28 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 they hold ft, and at the same time a pair of jaws so cut 
 the wire as to leave a sharp point to the nail. 
 
 Before the clamps let go their hold, a hammer, the 
 face of which is a die, strikes the other end of the wire a 
 sharp blow, which forms the head. 
 
 The clamps have corrugated surfaces, not merely to 
 hold the nail more securely, but to impress upon it a 
 series of ridges and depressions, which make it harder to 
 draw out when once driven home. 
 
 The making of cut nails is less automatic and much 
 harder. Any one who has seen a nail-maker at work will 
 understand the aptness of the old expression, " to work 
 like a nailer." The iron for cut nails is first rolled into 
 sheets, the thickness of which is equal to the thickness of 
 the nail. It is then cut into plates as wide as the nail 
 is long, and of such length as a man can handle con- 
 veniently — say from fifteen to twenty inches. 
 
 The nail-cutting machine is a heavy, compact piece of 
 mechanism not much larger than a sewing-machine, before 
 which the nail-maker sits on a stool. It consists of but 
 little more than a pair of shears strong enough to cut 
 iron three-eighths of an inch thick, and a heading hammer. 
 
 Any one who will examine a cut nail will find that the 
 shank tapers, not on all four sides from the head, as he 
 may have supposed, but on two sides only. The other 
 two sides are parallel. It is the neglect to notice this fact 
 which leads so many persons to start a nail into wood in 
 a way which splits it. 
 
 From a small furnace near the machine the nail-maker 
 draws a plate which has come to a dull red heat. Hold- 
 ing this by means of pincers, he feeds the edge farthest 
 from him to the jaws of the machine. As they descend 
 they shear a tapering strip from the edge. This is seized 
 
EXPOSITION 29 
 
 by clamps, which hold it just long enough for the heading 
 hammer to strike the blow which forms the head, and 
 then drop it. 
 
 Now if the nailer were simply to push the plate for- 
 ward again, the tapering character of the strip which is 
 sliced off would destroy the rectangular shape of the 
 plate, and the nails would neither be of a length nor have 
 square heads and points. To obviate this difficulty, the 
 plate must be turned over between every two nails that 
 are cut, so that the head of the nail will come alternately 
 from one side of the plate and from the other. 
 
 This — and it is the principal part of the nailer's work — 
 is done with a simple turn of the wrist, and the plate is 
 fed forward as before. As the machines run at consider- 
 able speed, and the " flop " must be accurately timed in 
 order that the end of the plate may meet the shears at 
 the right moment and in the right place^ the difficulty 
 and the tiresome nature of a nail-maker's work may be 
 imagined. Some idea of it may be had by holding the 
 thick end of a shingle in a pair of tongs and attempting 
 so to turn it with a single motion of the wrist that alter- 
 nate sides will lie uppermost on a table. 
 
 A good nail-maker will make from two to four flops — 
 that is, will cut from two to four nails — a second, the 
 smaller nails, of course, being made more rapidly than 
 the larger ones. As the plate grows cool it is returned to 
 the oven to be reheated, and another plate takes its place. 
 
 A nail-maker's hands and arms always show the char- 
 acter of his work by the tremendous development of cer- 
 tain special muscles, and by callouses which become as 
 hard as horn. 
 
 The common names of nails — sixpenny, eightpenny, 
 tenpenny, and so forth — are believed to be corruptions 
 
30 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 of six-pound, eight-pound, and ten-pound — names given 
 in England to denote the weight of one thousand of a 
 given kind of nails. Sixpenny and eightpenny was an 
 easy step from " six-pun' " and " eight-pun'." 
 
 Edward Williston Frentz 
 
 EXERCISE 18 
 
 Oral 
 
 Read the following with great care, that you 
 may he able to answer questions concerning it later 
 on. 
 
 How TO Pitch a Tent * 
 
 When five or six o'clock draws near, begin to look 
 about you for a good level dry place^ elevated some few 
 feet above the surroundings. Drop your pack or beach 
 your canoe. Examine the location carefully. You will 
 want two trees about ten feet apart from which to sus- 
 pend your tent, and a bit of flat ground underneath them. 
 Of course the flat ground need not be particularly unen- 
 cumbered by brush or saplings, so the combination ought 
 not to be hard to discover. Now return to your canoe. 
 Do not unpack the tent. 
 
 With the little axe clear the ground thoroughly. By 
 bending a sapling over strongly with the left hand, clip- 
 ping sharply at the strained fibers, and then bending it 
 as strongly the other way to repeat the axe stroke on 
 
 * Reprinted from T^e Forest by permission of Messrs. McClure, Phillips, & 
 Company. 
 
EXPOSITION 31 
 
 the other side, you will find that treelets of even two or 
 three inches diameter can be felled by two blows. In 
 a very few moments you will have accomplished a hole 
 in the forest, and your two supporting trees will stand 
 sentinel at either end of a most respectable-looking clear- 
 ing. Do not unpack the tent. 
 
 Now, although the ground seems free of all but unim- 
 portant growths, go over it thoroughly for little shrubs 
 and leaves. They look soft and yielding, but are often 
 possessed of unexpectedly abrasive roots. Besides, they 
 mask the face of the ground. When you have finished 
 pulling them up by the roots, you will find that your 
 supposedly level plot is knobby with hummocks. Stand 
 directly over each little mound; swing the back of your 
 axe vigorously against it, adze-wise, between your legs. 
 Nine times out of ten it will crumble, and the tenth time 
 means merely a root to cut or a stone to pry out. At 
 length you are possessed of a plot of clean, fresh earth, 
 level and soft, free from projections. But do not unpack 
 your tent. 
 
 Lay a young birch or maple an inch or so in diameter 
 across a log. Two clips will produce you a tent-peg. 
 If you are inexperienced, and cherish memories of striped 
 lawn markees, you will cut them about six inches long. 
 If you are wise and old and gray in woods experience, 
 you will multiply that length by four. Then your loops 
 will not slip off, and you will have a real grip on mother 
 earth, than which nothing can be more desirable in the 
 event of a heavy rain and wind squall about midnight. If 
 your axe is as sharp as it ought to be, you can point them 
 more neatly by holding them suspended in front of you 
 while you snip at their ends with the axe, than by resting 
 them against a solid base. Pile them together at the edge 
 
32 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 of the clearing. Cut a crotched sapling eight or ten feet 
 long. Now unpack your tent. 
 
 In a wooded country you will not take the time to 
 fool with tent-poles. A stout line run through the eye- 
 lets and along the apex will string it successfully between 
 your two trees. Draw the line as tight as possible, but 
 do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it still 
 sags a little. That is what your long crotched stick is 
 for. Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a 
 good rectangle and in such relation to the apex as to form 
 two isosceles triangles of the ends, your tent will stand 
 smoothly. Therefore, be an artist and do it right. Once 
 the four corners are well placed, the rest follows nat- 
 urally. Occasionally in the North Country it will be 
 found that the soil is too thin, over the rocks, to grip the 
 tent-pegs. In that case drive them at a sharp angle as 
 deep as they will go, and then lay a large flat stone across 
 the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will ride out a 
 gale. Finally, wedge your long sapling crotch under the 
 line — outside the tent, of course — to tighten it. Your 
 shelter is up. If you are a woodsman, ten or fifteen 
 minutes has sufficed to accomplish all this. 
 
 The Forest, by Stewart White 
 
 Are Mr. White's directions clear, orderly, com- 
 plete? What one thing above all others does 
 he wish to impress upon the reader? How does 
 he do this? How many things does he warn 
 the reader not to do? Has Mr. White used you 
 and your more freely than was necessary? Try 
 to reconstruct some of his sentences, omitting these 
 words. Suggest an appropriate title for each para- 
 
EXPOSITION 33 
 
 graph. Put a plan of this composition on the 
 blackboard. 
 
 EXERCISE 19 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a composition, about half as long as Mr, 
 Whitens, in which you tell how to do something. 
 Draw from your own experience, yet select if pos- 
 sible from the list which follows. 
 
 I. How to mark out an elliptical flower-bed. 2. How 
 to darn stockings. 3. How to get up an amateur circus. 
 4. How to build a fire out of doors. 5. How to remove 
 stains from clothing. 6. How to mark out a tennis- 
 court. 7. How to clean windows. 8. How to locate a 
 bee-tree. 9. How to make hay. 10. How to manage 
 a Hallowe'en party. 11. How to wash dishes. 12. 
 How to sweep a room. 13. How to mark out a base- 
 ball diamond. 14. How to take care of a bicycle. 15. 
 How to catch trout. 16. How to train a bird-dog. 17. 
 How to take a picture. 18 How to learn to swim. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 DESCRIPTION 
 
 A STORY which fails to let the reader know how 
 its characters look and in what kind of place they 
 live does not satisfy. Frequently an exposition 
 is as blind as can be, until a picture is given of 
 the thing — the machine, we will say — the workings 
 of which are being explained. In fact it matters 
 little what we may be talking or writing about, we 
 are sure to need pictures sooner or later. The 
 kind of composition which gives a picture is called 
 description. Speaking with greater accuracy, all 
 records of what the eyes see, the ears hear, the 
 nose smells — all records of impressions — are called 
 descriptions. 
 
 What is the secret of this important kind of 
 composition ? Evidently it is clearness. Before we 
 can describe anything clearly, we must see it clearly. 
 But even though we see a thing clearly, have it 
 before us as we talk or write, it is seldom easy to 
 describe it. Perhaps we use words inaccurately, 
 or carelessly forget to mention some important de- 
 tail. And even though we have seen clearly, have 
 used words with precision, and have forgotten no 
 detail, all may be confusing because the description 
 
 34 
 
DESCRIPTION 35 
 
 is not given in an orderly manner. It is like a 
 machine improperly put together. If you would 
 make your descriptions clear, be thorough, be accu- 
 rate, be orderly. 
 
 ^ EXERCISE 20 
 
 Written 
 
 Imagine that one of the following things has 
 been lost or stolen and that you have been called 
 upon to give in ten or fifteen lines an accurate de- 
 scription of it. Use complete sentences, 
 
 I. A set of old china. 2. A piece of furniture. 3. A 
 postal album. 4. A piece of jewelry. 5. A dog. 6. A 
 cat. 7. A horse. 8. The schoolroom clock. *9. An over- 
 coat. 10. A boat. II. A bicycle. 12. An odd cane. 
 13. A school-book. 14. A canary. 15. A piece of 
 statuary. 
 
 EXERCISE 21 
 
 Written 
 
 Perhaps Mars is inhabited and perhaps not. 
 We -will imagine that it is, and that wireless 
 telegraph communications have been established. 
 Messages are flying back and forth, for the Mar- 
 tians want to know all about our world and we are 
 equally curious about theirs. We learn that there 
 are no church spires in Mars, no ferryboats, no 
 
36 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 easy-chairs ; in fact there are very few things such 
 as are familiar to us. 
 
 Write a twenty-line description for an inhah* 
 itant of Mars, selecting a subject from the follow- 
 ing list. Make your description clear as sunlight; 
 otherwise you will not be understood. Bring in 
 explanation, if it is needed. 
 
 I. Church spires. 2. A ferry-boat. 3. Easy-chairs. 
 4. A telescope. 5. The peanut man's outfit. 6. A hurdy- 
 gurdy. 7. A watch. 8. A jack-knife. 9. A schoolroom 
 desk. 10. A postage stamp. 11. A bicycle. 12. An 
 apron. 13. An electric light. 14. A banjo. 
 
 ^ EXERCISE 22 
 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page 17 is a picture of Franklin's 
 birthplace. In many ways it differs from the 
 houses we see nowadays. Notice the overhanging 
 upper story, the projecting foundations, the cellar 
 door, the small-paned windows. If you were de- 
 scribing it, what should you mention first? What 
 next ? How would it do to begin at the . bot- 
 tom of the picture and work up? Or at the top 
 and work down ? Or would it be better to give in 
 a sentence or two a general description, then go 
 into details, finally giving the impression the pic- 
 ture as a whole makes on you ? 
 
DESCRIPTION 37 
 
 Study the picture, determine how you will pro- 
 ceed, then describe it as well as you can in fifteen 
 lines, 
 
 EXERCISE 23 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page 32 Is the picture of another old 
 building. It Is a larger, more elaborate dwelling 
 than Franklin's; there Is more In the picture to 
 describe. Notice the trees, the shadows, the road- 
 way — a score of things which the other picture 
 lacks. There Is more feeling In this picture, more 
 to stir the emotions. You cannot help thinking of 
 how much has taken place In this ancient dwelling, 
 of the good times and the sorrowful times It knew 
 before the days of the telephone and the telegraph. 
 Who planted the elm trees and the lilac bushes? 
 
 Write a forty-line description of this photo- 
 graph. Let the first four or five lines sketch the 
 scene in outline, then give in systematic order the 
 details. End with an account of how the picture 
 impresses you, what it calls to mind. Personify the 
 dwelling, if you wish, 
 
 EXERCISE 24 
 
 Oral 
 
 Describe a building with which you are well ac- 
 quainted. Perhaps the following list will prove 
 suggestive. 
 
38 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 I. The oldest house in town. 2. My house. 3. The 
 house across the way. 4. The schoolhouse. 5. A sky- 
 scraper. 6. A deserted farmhouse. 7. A log cabin. 8. 
 The blacksmith-shop. 9. A factory. 10. The railroad 
 station. 11. The roundhouse. 
 
 EXERCISE 25 
 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page 33 is an architect's drawing 
 showing a dining-room in a model house. Ex- 
 amine it carefully to see whether you like it. 
 What, should you say, are its dimensions? What 
 are its most noticeable features, distinguishing it 
 from other dining-rooms you have seen? 
 
 Describe this picture in ten or fifteen lines; then, 
 if you care to, add five or ten lines giving your 
 approval or disapproval of the architect's plan. 
 
 EXERCISE 26 
 
 Oral or Written 
 
 Give as accurate and telling a picture as you 
 can of one of the following interiors. Imagine that 
 you are talking to a blind boy. Do not forget that 
 you have other senses besides the sense of sight. 
 
 I. Our attic. 2. Our cellar. 3. A store window. 4. 
 The bird store. 5. A stateroom. 6. A Pullman car. 
 7. A country store. 8. Our pantry. 9. The woodshed. 
 
DESCRIPTION 39 
 
 lO. A boy's room. ii. A cosey corner. 12. A beehive. 
 13. The waiting-room at the dentist's. 14. The school- 
 room. 15. The waiting-room at the railroad station. 
 16. A section of a department store. 17. A studio. 18. 
 The reading-room. 19. The blacksmith-shop. 20. The 
 gymnasium. 21. A cave. 22. A mine. 23. A log 
 cabin. 24. An auction room. 25. A church steeple. 
 26. An engine-room. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 DESCRIPTION — Continued 
 
 A CAMERA, if given sunlight, tells the truth. 
 Whatever comes in front of its lens appears in the 
 photograph. No detail is forgotten, nothing is out 
 of its proper place. The human eye is a camera. 
 In a way it is right to say that whatever comes in 
 front of it is photographed on the retina. Yet we 
 all know that much which the eye sees does not 
 make any permanent impression ; we retain merely 
 what interests us and let the rest fade away. And 
 in describing what we have seen not only do we 
 give far fewer details than the camera gives, 
 merely selecting an item here, an item there, and 
 assuming that the imagination of the one to whom 
 we are writing or talking will supply the rest, but 
 we tell how we are impressed. We give our emo- 
 tions. A camera does not select, a camera does 
 not express emotions peculiar to itself; for a cam- 
 era is without brains and heart. 
 
 It will be well to remember this distinction be- 
 tween a camera and a person, while doing the tasks 
 which follow — tasks somewhat more difficult than 
 you have attempted thus far. Remember that you 
 have a brain and a heart. Remember that what 
 
 40 
 
DESCRIPTION 41 
 
 you see In a picture or a scene differs from what 
 any one else sees in it ; for no two pairs of eyes select 
 the same things. But be like the camera in one 
 respect. A camera stands still, except when moved 
 by the photographer. Sometimes when we are 
 describing a scene we tell what we see from one 
 standpoint, and then, without notifying the reader, 
 we continue our description from another stand- 
 point. This, of course, causes confusion. It is 
 well to let the reader know at the beginning of a 
 description what the describer's viewpoint Is, and 
 of course it Is essential that the reader be notified 
 whenever there is a change in viewpoint. 
 
 V/ EXERCISE 27 
 
 Written 
 
 Think of some place out of doors which interests 
 you exceedingly, a place you like to visit over and 
 over again. Describe it for a friend who lives 
 across the Atlantic. Try not only to make him see 
 it, hut to make him like it. Perhaps the following 
 titles will prove suggestive. 
 
 I. Our swimming-hole. 2. A trout-pool. 3. A way- 
 side watering-trough. 4. A village green. 5. A nook 
 in the woods. 6. A flower garden. 7. A maple grove. 
 8. The picnic-grounds. 9. The apple-orchard. 10. The 
 school-yard. ii. The lumber-camp. 12. A bit of a city 
 park. 13. The wharves. 14. The athletic field. 15. 
 The mill-pond. 16. The tennis-courts. 
 
0) 
 
 42 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 28 
 
 Oral or Written 
 
 To describe clearly an extended view calls for 
 more ability than any task assigned thus far; for 
 where the eye sees so much, the necessity of select::_ 
 ing a few things from among many becomes great^ 
 as does the necessity of having a definite plan. In 
 the first canto of Scott's Lady of the Lake there 
 is a most elaborate description of the Trossachs, 
 a wild glen. First, Scott gives in a few sentences 
 a general description. Then, beginning at the bot- 
 tom of the ravine and gradually climbing to lofty 
 peaks, he describes the vegetation. Finally he pic- 
 tures a rivulet running through the glen, telling 
 how it winds in and out, and, growing larger and 
 larger, at length flows Into Loch Katrine. Not 
 only is his description very thorough and orderly; 
 it is made beautiful and vivid by means of com- 
 parisons. The rocky summits suggest to him tur- 
 rets and domes and battlements. The brier-rose 
 and the creeping shrubs are banners. The stream- 
 let, as it broadens here and there, forms a dark- 
 blue mirror. Many of the trees clinging to the 
 rocks are likened to brave warriors. Scott was a 
 poet, with an eye trained to see beauty, and a mind 
 that was quick to discover likenesses. But we are 
 all poets to a degree, and can train ourselves to 
 make, in a natural way, little comparisons that add 
 beauty and vividness. 
 
DESCRIPTION 43 
 
 Describe the English lake shown in the illus- 
 tration (opposite page ^8) entitled Rydal Water. 
 Try to prop hy the suggestions given in the pre- 
 ceding paragraph. 
 
 EXERCISE 29 
 
 Oral or Written 
 
 Describe an extended view with which you are 
 very familiar, giving your composition one of the 
 titles suggested below. 
 
 I. The city as seen from the top of a high building. 
 2. From the brow of the hill. 3. A large pond. 4. A 
 country road. 5. Tracing the course of a stream. 
 6. A range of hills. 7. Looking down on the harbor. 
 S. A farm. 9. A village seen in the distance. 10. A 
 battle-field. 11. Looking down a city street. 12. A 
 park. 
 
 •^ EXERCISE 30 
 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page 49 Is a reproduction from a paint- 
 ing by Breton. It is called Song of the Lark. 
 Does it Interest you at all ? It may not at first, but 
 probably If you study it long enough Interest will 
 come. Where, should you guess, Is the scene laid ? 
 Is It the sun that Is rising behind the trees In the 
 background, or the moon ? Where is the girl going ? 
 
44 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 How old Is she ? Does she look strong, vigorous, 
 healthy? Is she an Intelligent girl? Is she happy? 
 Is she poor? In what respect Is her costume un- 
 usual? She Is listening. Is she not? How does 
 the painter let you know that she Is listening most 
 intently? When a great painter makes a picture, 
 he has, usually If not always, a thought which he 
 wishes to Impress. Do you catch the thought 
 lying back of this picture? 
 
 Describe Breton's Song of the Lark and tell 
 zvhat the picture means. Pay particular attention 
 to the expression of the girl's face. 
 
 >/ EXERCISE 31 
 
 Written 
 
 To give In a few lines a clear description of a 
 person Is of course most difficult; for such a de- 
 scription should tell far more than that which the 
 camera tells. Notice the following, for example, 
 taken from a recent number of the Literary Digest. 
 
 He Is forty-six, a shy, gentle little man, seldom speak- 
 ing, blushing when applauded, stuttering if suddenly 
 accosted, and dismayed when people call him " master." 
 He wears a close-fitting black frock coat. He is bald 
 as an egg; his cheeks are bordered with a short gray 
 beard; his strong, straight nose carries a pair of thick, 
 round glasses, and the eyes that look through them are 
 mild and a trifle wearied. 
 
DESCRIPTION 45 
 
 No doubt you will agree that this is a good 
 description, and that it is good because it tells far 
 more than could any photograph. 
 
 Here is another pen-portrait, taken from Dom- 
 bey and Son. Perhaps it tells but little more con- 
 cerning Mr. Bunsby than would a photograph ; but 
 It surely reveals the personality of Mr. Dickens. 
 Can you tell how this portrait differs from the 
 one just considered, as regards the method of 
 description ? 
 
 Immediately there appeared, coming slowly up above 
 the bulkhead of the cabin, another bulkhead — human, 
 and very large — with one stationary eye in the mahogany 
 face, and one movable one, on the principle of some 
 lighthouses. This head was decorated with shaggy hair, 
 like oakum, which had no governing Inclination towards 
 the north, east, west, or south, but Inclined to every point 
 upon it. The head was followed by a perfect desert of 
 chin, and by a shirt-collar and neckerchief, and by a dread- 
 nought pilot-coat, and by a pair of dread-nought pilot- 
 trousers, whereof the waistband was so broad and high 
 that It became a succeedaneum for a waistcoat, being orna- 
 mented near the wearer's breast-bone with some massive 
 wooden buttons, like backgammon men. As the lower 
 portions of these pantaloons became revealed, Bunsby 
 stood confessed; his hands In their pockets, which were 
 of vast size ; and his gaze directed, not at Captain Cuttle 
 or the ladles, but to the mast-head. 
 
 Write a description^ from ten to twenty lines 
 long, suggested by one of the titles given below. 
 
46 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Try to make the portrait reveal character. Imag- 
 ine that the person who?n you are describing is 
 doing some characteristic thing, 
 
 I. Grandmother. 2. The tramp. 3. A small boy 
 with new rubber boots. 4. The disgusted fisherman. 
 5. The postman. 6. My best friend. 7. A beggar. 8. 
 The baby. 9. The grocer's clerk. 10. Father. 11. Our 
 doctor. 12. George Washington. 13. The electric car 
 conductor. 14. The automobilist. 15. "Any rags?" 
 16. The hotel clerk. 17. The organ-grinder. 18. The 
 boy who sits across the aisle. 19. The peanut man. 
 20. The girl behind the notion counter. 21. The foot- 
 ball novice. 22. The small boy at the circus. 23. Faces 
 seen at the Zoo. 24. The judge. 25. A face from the 
 family album. 26. A successful cartoon. 27. Our par- 
 rot. 28. A mischievous girl in school. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 ARGUMENT 
 
 Narration tells a story, exposition explains, 
 and description pictures. A fourth kind of com- 
 position, which consciously or unconsciously we use 
 many times a day, is argument. When we try 
 to reason out what is true, what is right, what is 
 expedient, we argue. Success in life depends in 
 no small measure upon one's ability to argue, for 
 through argument we convince others and persuade 
 them to do as we wish. Training counts here 
 quite as much as it does in other kinds of battle, 
 and there is no better place in which to begin sys- 
 tematic training than a school debating club. By 
 all means join one as soon as you can, whether you 
 are a boy or a girl. Learn to talk fearlessly when 
 facing an audience. Learn how to defend your- 
 self without losing your head or your temper when 
 under fire. Here are a few simple suggestions 
 which may help you in your early attempts. 
 
 I. In preparing a debate it is necessary to spend 
 a good share of your time in collecting facts. Be- 
 fore you can argue intelligently you must know 
 your subject thoroughly. The judges too must be 
 educated; otherwise they cannot determine whether 
 
 47 
 
48 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 your arguments are sound. Burke, one of Eng- 
 land's ablest debaters, often devoted over a third 
 of a speech to a clear statement of facts — informa- 
 tion which his hearers needed before they could 
 see the force of his arguments. Lincoln, it is said, 
 won his law cases largely through his patient, 
 thorough way of spreading out before judge and 
 jury all the facts, rather than through shrewdness 
 in argument. Be well informed yourself, then in- 
 form those whom you are addressing: that is 
 surely the first thing in all debate. 
 
 2. The facts having been ascertained and clearly 
 presented, it is time to advance reasons or proofs. 
 In later years, if you remain in school, you will 
 learn that there are certain definite ways of proving 
 things, but to attempt to explain them now would 
 probably end in confusion; so we will confine our- 
 selves to three suggestions. 
 
 First, do not try to give too many proofs. Of 
 ten which may occur to you, probably several are 
 a little wide of the mark, do not really prove any- 
 thing which you are under obligation to prove; 
 and several others, it may be, are after all too 
 feeble to be of much value. Can you not spare 
 them ? Two or three strong proofs will be enough. 
 A well-directed cannon is worth dozens of shot- 
 guns. 
 
 Second, remember that merely stating an argu- 
 ment amounts to little. You must put facts back 
 of it; you must restate it this way and that, illus- 
 trating it by example after example; you must clear 
 
Song of the La.rk 
 
ARGUMENT 49 
 
 away objections which may interfere with its ac- 
 ceptance. Drive it home. 
 
 Third, see that your matter is well arranged. 
 Let your hearers know early in your plea what, in a 
 general way, is to be your line of proof. It is 
 equally important that you turn back, just before 
 closing, and review what you have said, summariz- 
 ing, condensing everything into a nutshell. 
 
 • EXERCISE 32 
 Oral 
 
 A statement to be debated is called a proposi- 
 tion. The proposition should be so simply and 
 clearly stated that there can be no doubt in regard 
 to what it means; for if one side understands the 
 question in one way and the opposing side in an- 
 other way, there can be no fair contest. Many 
 school debates end in a tangle because this matter 
 is not properly attended to; and in the world at 
 large it is probably true that wrangling and the 
 hard feelings sure to follow are due less to a real 
 difference in opinion than to carelessly worded and 
 carelessly interpreted statements. 
 
 Point out words in the following propositions 
 which are too indefinite. Try to so reword each 
 statement that it will no longer be vague. 
 
 I. Sunday recreations should be prohibited. 2. Girls 
 should be taught manual training. 3. Cheap books 
 
50 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 ought not to be circulated by public libraries. 4. It is 
 wrong to hunt and fish. 5. Polar expeditions do not pay. 
 6. Too many hours a day should not be devoted to exer- 
 cise. 7. Everybody should attend church. 8. City stores 
 should close half a day a week during warm weather. 
 
 ^ EXERCISE 33 
 
 Written 
 
 Select two propositions from those found below. 
 Find three reasons in support of each and three 
 against; arrange these in the order of their im- 
 portance, placing the strongest last. 
 
 I. Two half-holidays a week would be better for our 
 school than one whole holiday. 2. Two sessions, one in 
 the forenoon and one in the afternoon, would be better 
 for our school than the present single session. 3. Monday 
 would make a better school holiday than Saturday. 4. 
 Every boy should own a dog. 5. All cats should be ex- 
 terminated. 6. Girls should contribute money to help 
 defray the expenses of our athletic association. 7. If a 
 street car is crowded, able-bodied men should offer their 
 seats to ladies who are standing. 
 
 y/ EXERCISE 34 
 
 Written 
 
 Take one of the reasons which you advanced in 
 the preceding exercise and, using it as the first sen- 
 
ARGUMENT 51 
 
 tence of a paragraph, add a number of sentences 
 reenforcing it. Explain, illustrate, or do what- 
 ever you think necessary to make your reasoning 
 effective. 
 
 Take one of the reasons zvhich you advanced in 
 the previous exercise and try to show that it is weak 
 or wholly false. . 
 
 EXERCISE 35 
 
 Oral 
 
 No matter how carefully a military campaign 
 may be planned, the opposing generals are practi- 
 cally sure to meet some surprises. The unexpected 
 happens; things do not work out as planned. It 
 Is the same In debate, which after all Is a kind of 
 warfare. Frequently the enemy discovers weak 
 spots In what you have thought were your strong- 
 est arguments. Even though you have, very prop- 
 erly, studied both sides of the question with equal 
 care, counter-arguments will be advanced which 
 have not occurred to you at all, It may be. Such 
 unexpected turns call for quick, clear thinking, 
 ability to judge whether an attack Is worth noticing 
 or merely a ruse, ability to detect In one's oppo- 
 nent's argument a fallacy. A fallacy Is an un- 
 sound or deceptive course of reasoning. It may 
 take many different forms, and when cleverly dis- 
 guised Is often hard to detect, especially In the heat 
 of debate. 
 
52 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Show wherein consists the fallacy in each of the 
 following. Make your explanation as clear as if 
 you were taking part in a debate. 
 
 H. Bo5^s should not be allowed to go in bathing, for 
 bathing frequently leads to fatal accidents. 2. For three 
 years in succession it has rained on circus day; therefore 
 circuses cause rain. |^ It always rains on circus day. 
 To-morrow is circus day ; therefore it will rain to-morrow. 
 t^4. When I asked Mary what time it was, she glanced at 
 the clock and then said, " Ten-thirty." But when I 
 looked at the clock a minute later, it was but twenty-nine 
 minutes of ten. Therefore Mary meant to deceive me. 
 5. Mr. Clark the machinist says that my bicycle is very 
 well made, but Tommy Jones and his brother William 
 both say that it is worthless. Since two pronounce the 
 wheel poor and only one pronounces it good, I conclude 
 that I have a poor wheel. 6. Many great men have been 
 wretched penmen. I am a wretched penman; therefore 
 I shall be a great man. 7. Birds can fly. I am much 
 larger and wiser than any bird; therefore I too should be 
 able to fly. 8. If I want a canoe I must buy one or else 
 steal one. Since I cannot degrade myself sufficiently to 
 steal, I shall never have a canoe unless I buy one. 9. Mary, 
 who is five feet tall, looks charming in a blue gown. 
 Therefore Edna, who is also five feet all, would look 
 charming in a blue gown. 10. The flowers of the field 
 do not toil, yet how beautiful and happy they are! There- 
 fore I will not toil. II. I have never seen a purple cow, 
 nor have I ever heard of one ; therefore there are no purple 
 cows. 12. Either it rains or it does not rain. It does 
 not rain; therefore it rains. 13. The umpire said that the 
 runner was safe at third base; but the runner admits that 
 
ARGUMENT 53 
 
 he was out. The third baseman is uncertain. I conclude 
 that the runner was out. 
 
 EXERCISE 36 
 Oral 
 
 Let every pupil come to class prepared to ad- 
 vance arguments for or against two of the follow- 
 ing statements, the two to he previously selected. 
 
 The instructor will arrange in parallel columns 
 on the blackboard arguments given for and 
 against each proposition. As often as an argu- 
 ment is fairly refuted by any one, a line will be 
 drawn through it. At the close of the period a 
 vote will be taken to determine whether the state- 
 ments are true. 
 
 I. The girls should have an athletic association as well 
 as the boys. 2. Pupils ought not to try to earn money 
 while attending high school unless compelled to do so to 
 support themselves. 3. Latin is a more useful language 
 than French. 4. Every boy should be taught how to use 
 firearms. 5. Football should be abolished. 6. Badges of 
 honor should be given for excellence in scholarship, just 
 as now they are given for success in athletics. 7. The 
 school paper is of as much importance as the school ath- 
 letic association. 8. Tennis is a better game than golf. 
 
54 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 37 
 
 Oral 
 
 Let the class select four members to debate one 
 of the following propositions a week later. Those 
 not selected will have the privilege of volunteering 
 on either side. 
 
 I. The orator exerts a greater influence than the ed- 
 itor. 2. The dramatist exerts a greater influence than 
 the novelist. 3. Shylock is a nobler character than Isaac 
 of York. 4. Rebecca is a nobler woman than Rowena. 
 5. The posting of advertisements on billboards should be 
 prohibited by law. 6. The millionaire is more to be 
 pitied than the man who has an income of fifteen hundred 
 dollars a year. 7. The publishing of cartoons of the 
 President should be prohibited by law. 8. The dog is 
 a nobler animal than the horse. 9. The doctor's profes- 
 sion is nobler than the lawyer's. 10. Two years of travel 
 constitutes a better preparation for life than four years 
 in college. 
 
 EXERCISE 38 
 
 Written 
 
 Defend either side of one of the following prop- 
 ositions. 
 
 I. A private workshop is better for the average boy 
 than a library of one hundred well-chosen books. 2. A 
 sailboat would be better for me than an automobile. 
 3. Our school should have an athletic field. 4. Birds 
 
ARGUMENT 55 
 
 reason. 5. The boy who lives in the country is more 
 to be envied than the boy who lives in the city. 6. It 
 is dishonest to get aid from a fellow pupil. 7. It is 
 useless to own books, if one has access to a good public 
 library. 8. Lee was a greater commander than Grant. 
 9. The navy did better service, during the Civil war, 
 than the army. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 LETTER-WRITING 
 
 A LETTER Is but a composition. Whatever 
 practice we give ourselves In telling accurately and 
 In a pleasing manner what we have heard or seen, 
 what we have felt, what we believe, will help us 
 to write better letters. There are, however, cer- 
 tain rules with which one should be familiar, rules 
 established by custom In regard to how letters 
 should begin and close. These will now be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 Every complete letter. It Is well to remember, 
 has seven parts: thQ_heading, which tells where 
 and when the letter Is written ; tht^addresj^ which 
 tells to whom It Is written; the salutation or greet- 
 ing ; the body or letter proper ; the leave-taking — 
 Yours truly or Very truly yours, for example; the 
 signature of the writer; the su^^rscripiion, or that 
 which Is written on the envelope. Perhaps the 
 best way to fix in the mind how these parts should 
 be arranged will be to examine them one or two 
 at a time through illustrations. 
 
 The heading Is commonly placed In the upper 
 right-hand corner of the first page, an Inch or two 
 from the top and fairly near the right-hand edge. 
 
 56 
 
LETTER-WRITING 57 
 
 Heading 
 
 158 Corporal St., Hartford, Conn. 
 Oct. 25, 1904 
 
 In the model above, the various Items are arranged 
 in two lines; but one, two, or three lines may be 
 used, according to the writer's taste. The date 
 always comes last and should never be* omitted, 
 no matter what the character of the letter may be. 
 But the rest of the heading — that which tells where 
 the letter is written — need not be given In full or 
 at all, if the one to whom the letter is written 
 knows perfectly well where the sender lives. Some- 
 times in social correspondence, but never in a busi- 
 ness letter, the address of the sender and the date 
 of writing are placed at the close rather than at 
 the beginning. This Is shown in specimen letters 
 on later pages. Note that where two or more 
 Items are In the same line they are separated by 
 the comma, but that no comma is placed at the end 
 of a line, and no periods are used except after 
 abbreviations. In other words, punctuation-marks 
 are placed only where they are actually needed. 
 
 Heading and address 
 
 158 Corporal St., Hartford, Conn. 
 Oct. 25, 1904 
 
 Ditson, Spalding, & Company 
 
 21 Elk St., Philadelphia 
 
58 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 In a business letter the address comes Invariably 
 a space or two below the heading and near the left 
 margin, the Items being arranged in one, two, or 
 three lines, grouped symmetrically. Here, as in 
 the heading, no punctuation is needed at the ends 
 of lines. In letters not of a business character, the 
 address Is commonly placed at the close. In writ- 
 ing to intimate friends or to relatives, the address 
 is of course unnecessary and is omitted altogether. 
 
 
 Heading, address, and salutation 
 
 
 
 158 Corporal St., Hartford, 
 Oct. 25, 1904 
 
 Conn. 
 
 Ditson, 
 
 Spalding, & Company 
 
 21 Elk St., Philadelphia 
 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 
 >< 
 
 I am in receipt of your letter 
 
 of the 
 
 The salutation, you will note, comes a space be- 
 low the address, in a business letter; in other let- 
 ters where the address is omitted, a space or two 
 below the heading. In either case, it begins at the 
 left margin. If, however, the address is all on one 
 line, and is very short. It is better to begin the 
 salutation below the last letter of the address. 
 Generally it Is followed by a colon. What the 
 salutation should be varies widely with circum- 
 stances. Sir and Madam are seldom used in ordi- 
 nary correspondence, being very formal and frigid. 
 
LETTER-WRITING 59 
 
 Dear Sir, Dear Madam, My dear Sir, and My 
 dear Madam are commonly used in business corre- 
 spondence, and In letters to strangers or to those 
 with whom one Is not Intimately acquainted. They 
 are dignified and courteous. Dear Madam is the 
 
 
 Heading, address, 
 
 and salutation 
 
 
 
 
 
 158 Corporal St. 
 
 
 
 
 Hartford, 
 
 Conn. 1 
 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 24, 
 
 1904 
 
 Professor John Tabb 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 
 
 
 
 It will give 
 
 the 
 
 mem- 
 
 bers 
 
 of the Primrose Club 
 
 great pleasure if 
 
 they 
 
 may 
 
 have your 
 
 
 
 
 proper salutation in a letter to an unmarried 
 woman with whom one Is not acquainted, yet it Is 
 also correct to write My dear Miss Blank. Gen- 
 tlemen and Mesdames are practically the only 
 forms now used In writing to business firms. My 
 dear Mr. Blank, My dear Mrs. Blank, and My 
 dear Miss Blank are used In social correspondence, 
 though If Miss Blank is no longer young. Dear 
 Madam Is a better form. It Is not necessary to 
 suggest the scores upon scores of Informal and af- 
 fectionate salutations, of which Dear John and 
 Dear Mary are the simplest types. Note that In 
 all salutations dear does not begin with a capital 
 
6o ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 except when It stands first, but that Sir, Madam, 
 Miss, etc., being titles of respect, do begin with 
 capitals. 
 
 The body, or letter proper, should begin a space 
 below the salutation and immediately under the 
 colon. There are few set rules to observe, yet 
 here are hints which may be of service. 
 
 First, business letters should be clear and brief, 
 for time is valuable and misunderstandings expen- 
 sive. Second, to begin with Js I have nothing else 
 to do, I will write, etc., etc., or Having nothing else 
 to do, I thought I would, etc., etc., is surely uncom- 
 plimentary. It is, of course, unnecessary to conclude 
 a letter with Having nothing else to say, I will 
 bring my letter to a close. Especially in business 
 correspondence, it is well when answering a letter 
 to refer to it in the first sentence, giving its date. 
 Third, avoid contractions. YWs for yours, rec^d 
 for received, ^ — except In firm names — for and 
 are not in good taste. We may write etc. for et 
 cetera, however, and in business correspondence 
 inst., prox., and ult. are allowable abbreviations 
 for Latin words meaning this month, next month, 
 and last month, as in the expression your letter of 
 the 2 1 St inst. Other Indications of haste, such as 
 undotted I's, uncrossed t's, lines crowded at the 
 ends, neglected indentions, and above all scrawling 
 penmanship, are, even though not Intended to be 
 so, disrespectful. Finally, fill the pages in regular 
 order, unless but two pages of a folded sheet are 
 needed, when the first and third may be used; and 
 
LETTER-WRITING 6i 
 
 write across the page as the lines are arranged in a 
 printed book. 
 
 You will find enclosed a check for ten dollars 
 and fifty cents, the amount due according to your 
 price-list. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 William H. Burbank 
 
 Leave-taking and signature 
 
 The leave-taking should come a space below the 
 body. Its position varies somewhat, according to 
 its length. There are many forms, the most com- 
 mon being Yours truly, Very truly yours, Yours 
 respectfully, and Yours sincerely. Note that only 
 the first word of the leave-taking begins with a cap- 
 ital, and that the last word is followed by a comma. 
 It is best not to conclude the body of a letter with 
 a sentence beginning with a participle and tacked 
 on to the leave-taking. Instead of Hoping I may 
 hear from you soon, I remain, etc., write simply / 
 hope to hear from you soon. I remain, once pop- 
 ular, is slowly disappearing. Be very careful not 
 to write Yours respectively for Yours respectfully. 
 
 The signature comes a space below the leave- 
 taking, and near the right edge of the page. Ex- 
 cept in informal letters, use for signature the name 
 you wish your correspondent to use in reply. Con- 
 fusion often arises when married women employ 
 two signatures interchangeably, Mrs. Clark may 
 
62 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 sign^her letters Mary Alton Clark, yet wish to be 
 addressed as Mrs. John K. Clark. In such case 
 she writes, a space below her signature and near 
 the left margin, Please address Mrs. John K. 
 Clark. Confusion arises also in regard to the sig- 
 
 
 
 
 Very 
 
 sincerely yours, 
 Mary Alton Clark 
 
 Please address 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 John 
 
 K. 
 
 Clark 
 
 
 Leave-taking and signature 
 
 nature of an unmarried woman. If Mary Alton 
 is unmarried, she should, in writing to a stranger, 
 follow the rule just laid down for married women, 
 
 Superscription 
 
 Mr. Henry K. Winslow 
 234 Spangler Avenue 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 writing below her signature and to the left. Please 
 address Miss Mary Alton. 
 
LETTER-WRITING 63 
 
 •^The proper arrangement of the superscription 
 varies with the shape of the envelope. Note the 
 order in which the items are given: name, street 
 
 Miss Mary Alton 
 
 234 Spangler Ave, 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 address, city, state. The postal regulations call 
 for a fourth item, the county. This is a reason- 
 able request, but it is often disregarded, especially 
 in New England. If used, it should be on a line 
 
 Mr. John H. Williams 
 
 9521 Calumet Ave. 
 Chicago 
 
 Illinois 
 Care of Mr. Edward F. Jones 
 
64 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 below the city or town. Note that all punctuation 
 is omitted except the period following abbrevia- 
 tions. Here are a few hints in regard to super- 
 scriptions. 
 
 First, see that the envelope is right side up be- 
 fore addressing it. Second, place the stamp where 
 it belongs — in the right-hand corner, not upside 
 down nor diagonally. Third, write the address 
 very plainly, giving the county except in cases 
 where you are positive that it is unnecessary, and 
 giving the state without abbreviation. It is never 
 quite safe to write merely City or Town, when 
 sending in-town letters, yet the practice is un- 
 fortunately common in social correspondence. In 
 writing to a person who is away from his home — 
 for example, staying with a friend — send the letter 
 Care of the one with whom he is staying. Fourth, 
 unless you use the regulation stamped return en- 
 velope furnished by the government, it is safest for 
 the sender to write his name and address in the 
 upper left-hand corner of the envelope. Fifth, write 
 28 West 56 Street, not No. 28 W. s6th St.; Rever- 
 end John M. Clark, D.D., not Rev. Dr. John M 
 Clark; Dr. John M. Jones, not John M. Jones 
 M.D.; Professor Harold L. Lake, not Prof. Har 
 old L. Lake, M.A.; John M. Geer, Esq., not Mr 
 John M. Geer, if Mr. Geer is a lawyer, or promi 
 nent in public affairs; Mr. John M. Clark, Prin 
 cipal of Blank Academy, not Prin. John M. Clark 
 Place Hon. before the names of judges, mayors 
 and governors. 
 
I'hotograiihed by Kiigeiie 1). Field 
 
 Snow-bound 
 
LETTER-WRITING 65 
 
 No doubt many of these details are familiar 
 to most young people, for we are taught how to 
 write letters almost as soon as we know how to 
 read. But merchants, manufacturers, and business 
 men generally, constantly complain that their 
 clerks do not know some of the simplest rules 
 of letter-writing; and it is to be feared that the 
 same charge might be brought against those who 
 write social notes. We are growing careless. It 
 has seemed best, therefore, to treat the subject 
 with unusual thoroughness. Here are a few final 
 words of caution. 
 
 Use black ink, a good pen, and white paper of 
 good quality, unruled, unperfumed. Envelopes 
 and paper should match. Beware of " Letter 
 Writers," little volumes containing specimen com- 
 positions to meet every occasion. It Is better to 
 be one's self, even if mistakes do occur, than blindly 
 follow a model. There are, however, reliable 
 works which are well worth consulting. The Eti- 
 quette of Correspondence by Helen Gavit, Studies 
 for Letters by Frances Callaway, and The Corre- 
 spondent by James Wood Davidson are full of 
 good suggestions. 
 
66 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 39 
 Oral 
 Answer the following questions. 
 
 1. Name the seven parts of a complete letter. Under 
 what circumstances may some of the parts be omitted? 
 
 2. What information is given in the heading? In 
 what order are the items arranged? What item of the 
 heading should never be omitted ? How should the head- 
 ing be punctuated? y the address given in the heading 
 is not the one to which the writer wishes a reply sent, 
 how does he indicate thisrj 
 
 3. What is the proper place for the address? How 
 should it be punctuated? Why in a business letter is it 
 best to place the address before the body? Why is the 
 address necessary at all? 
 
 4. How should the salutation be capitalized and punc- 
 tuated? Where should it be placed? What is the 
 proper salutation for a letter to an unmarried woman? 
 
 5. Where should the body of a letter begin? Why is 
 it advisable in answering a letter to refer to it by date? 
 What two objections can you make to the following be- 
 ginning: As I have nothing else to do, I thought I would 
 write you a letter"^ 
 
 6. Give the more common forms of leave-taking. How 
 should the leave-taking be capitalized and punctuated? 
 
 7. What advice can you give in regard to the signature 
 of a letter? 
 
 8. What items of information should appear in the 
 superscription ? 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LETTER-WRITING — Continued 
 
 Here are sixteen specimen letters. Study them 
 carefully. Try to find In them things which 
 are not quite as you think they should be. 
 There are questions on a later page which will 
 test the thoroughness with which your work is 
 done. 
 
 I 
 
 158 Corporal St., Hartford, Conn. 
 Oct. 25, 1904 
 Ditson, Spalding, & Co. 
 
 21 Bow St., Philadelphia 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 Please send by Adams Express the following 
 articles : 
 
 I doz. Keepwell tennis balls $4.00 
 
 I Kramer racket, 16 oz 4.00 
 
 I Kramer racket, 14 oz 4.00 
 
 I tennis net, " Quality A " 1.60 
 
 I marker 75 
 
 You will find enclosed my check for the proper 
 amount. 
 
 - Yours truly, 
 
 William H. Burbank 
 67 
 
68 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 DiTSON, Spalding, & Company 
 
 Dealers in Athletic Goods 
 
 21 Bow Street, Philadelphia, Penna. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 26, 1904 
 
 Mr. William H. Burbank 
 
 158 Corporal St., Hartford, Conn. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Accept our thanks for your favor of the 25th 
 inst. containing an order for tennis goods and enclosing 
 check for fourteen dollars thirty-five cents ($14.35). 
 We are sending the articles by to-day's express, charges 
 paid. You v^^ill find enclosed a receipted bill. 
 Gratefully yours, 
 
 Ditson, Spalding, & Company 
 
 123 Garden Street 
 
 Maplewood, Vermont 
 Nov. 3, 1904 
 Cairn & Company 
 
 29 Mayflov^^er St. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The Round Table, a literary club of forty 
 seniors in Maplewood High School, is to take up this 
 winter a study of letters based upon the published corre- 
 spondence of Longfellow, Stevenson, and one or two 
 others. Our purpose in planning such a course, aside 
 from the enjoyment coming from a somewhat intimate 
 acquaintance with the authors studied, is to teach our- 
 
LETTER- WRITING 69 
 
 selves something of the art of letter-writing. It has 
 occurred to us that the first requisite of a good letter Is 
 good stationery. Your local representatives, Messrs. 
 Wood & Towles, suggest that perhaps you v^Ill be w^IUing 
 to send us a few samples of what you consider correct In 
 quality and style. 
 
 Our club has no treasury ; It can therefore offer you no 
 compensation, except the comfortable feeling that one 
 experiences when aiding a good cause. It would be 
 known, however, that you were the donors, and that your 
 line of stationery is carried by a local firm. Perhaps 
 some of our members would be led, sooner or later, to 
 adopt your papers. But this Is, of course, conjectural. 
 If the request seems unreasonable, be assured that we 
 shall In no way be offended. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Alice Helene Cowles, 
 
 Secretary 
 
 ^4 
 
 Cairn & Company 
 
 Fine Paper Manufacturers 
 
 29 Mayflower St., Boston, Mass. 
 
 November 5, 1904 
 Miss Alice Helene Cowles 
 
 Maplewood, Vermont 
 My dear Miss Cowles: 
 
 Your letter of the 3d Inst, is at 
 hand and noted. We will make up for you three folders 
 showing various styles of high-grade papers in different 
 sizes, and arranged In such a way that they can be exhib- 
 ited conveniently. It will take several days to prepare 
 
70 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 these folders; we will, however, send them as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 We are interested in the plan of your club, and wish 
 you to feel that we esteem it a privilege to grant your 
 request. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Cairn & Company 
 
 5 
 
 III Pine St. 
 
 Deerford, R. I. 
 Oct. 2, 1904 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Permit me to thank you for your letter pub- 
 lished in a recent issue of the Morning Chronicle. We 
 boys feel precisely as you do about the matter. It does 
 seem as if in a city containing so many parks there might 
 be found some place where football could be played. 
 We realize that the game is not one that helps grass 
 to grow, and that spirited contests often attract noisy 
 crowds. Doubtless there are still other drawbacks. Yet 
 it does seem as if there were good points enough to over- 
 balance the bad ones, and that the game deserves a public 
 field. It is therefore a great pleasure to have you cham- 
 pion the cause. 
 
 You will pardon me, I hope, for sending you this note. 
 Your letter pleased me so much that I have allowed 
 myself to forget that you are a stranger, and probably 
 too busy to read a boy's letter. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 John Hartley Hale 
 Mr. Henry Clark Wilson 
 
 38 Schumann Terrace 
 
LETTER-WRITING 71 
 
 6 
 
 38 Schumann Terrace 
 October 5 
 My dear young friend: 
 
 Few men are too busy to read a 
 carefully written letter from a schoolboy, especially if 
 it contain a compliment. At any rate, I have read your 
 letter with interest. 
 
 Just what can be done to bring about the end we both 
 desire^ I do not at present clearly see; but perhaps some 
 way will appear before long. It occurs to me as I write 
 that I might, temporarily, help out by letting the boys 
 use my lot, corner of Broad and Lincoln streets. It is 
 not perfectly level, and there is a muddy spot in one 
 corner which would have to be filled in. To remedy this 
 defect would cost but little, however, and I think I could 
 attend to it. 
 
 If the plan pleases you, will you not call at my house 
 Friday evening at eight that we may talk it over? 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry C. Wilson 
 
 7 
 
 264 Capron Street 
 January 4 
 Mrs. J. C. Simpson 
 
 239 May Street 
 Dear Madam: 
 
 I learn through your advertisement in to- 
 night's Times that you desire a young girl to read to 
 you and to write letters from dictation. Please consider 
 me an applicant. 
 
 I am sixteen, a high school senior. I am not a trained 
 
72 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 reader; that is, I cannot read With elocutionary effect. 
 Nor can I claim to be unusually good in composition. 
 It seems to me, however, that I should be able to read 
 ordinary prose distinctly, and write with reasonable ac- 
 curacy. By permission I refer you to Principal Wilbur 
 F. Howells, who may be addressed at the high school. 
 
 I shall be pleased to call at your home whenever it 
 may be convenient to you. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Adele M. Peberdy 
 
 ^8 
 
 Dear Ellinwood: 
 
 This will introduce to you my very good 
 friend John Hartwell, who is to be in Waveland for a 
 few weeks. You will find him a capital fellow, with 
 athletic likings similar to j^our own. I am sure you will 
 take pleasure in doing what you can to make his stay 
 agreeable. 
 
 Your old-time college mate, 
 
 Marshall Hagar 
 34 Edgewood Place 
 November 24 
 
 9 
 
 Dear Miss White: 
 
 Please excuse me for being absent yes- 
 terday, and for not being prepared to recite to-day's 
 lessons. Mother was quite 111, and it became necessary 
 for me to remain at home and care for her. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Alfreda Roeder 
 June thirds 
 
LETTER-WRrriNG 73 
 
 '' lO 
 
 ■ ' Wednesday, 8 a.m. 
 
 Dear Tom: 
 
 Lunch at twelve to-day. Come. Don't wear 
 fine clothes, for the ponies need exercising. We shall 
 want to take a long scamper out to the Camp and back. 
 Remember, I never take " No " for an answer. James, 
 who bears this note, has orders to seize you by force of 
 arms if you show the slightest sign of resistance. 
 Yours, 
 
 Pembroke the Terrible 
 
 II 
 
 69 Peebles Court 
 My dear Miss Chad wick: 
 
 If you have no engagement for 
 Wednesday evening, October tenth, will you not give us 
 pleasure by dining with us informally at seven? 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Margaret Harmon 
 Saturday, October sixth 
 
 12 
 
 2251 Girard Avenue 
 My dear Miss Harmon: 
 
 It will be a great pleasure to 
 dine with you Wednesday, October tenth. How thought- 
 ful you were to remember that mother's absence from 
 home would leave me alone! 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Elizabeth Chadwick 
 Monday, October eighth 
 
74 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 13 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Simpson request the pleasure of Mr. 
 Wheeler's company at dinner on Wednesday, June 
 twenty- third, at seven o'clock. To meet Mr. James 
 Larkin. 
 
 23 Lear Street, June nineteenth 
 
 14 
 
 Mr. Wheeler regrets that a previous engagement pre- 
 vents him from accepting Mr. and Mrs. Simpson's kind 
 invitation to dine with them Wednesday, June twenty- 
 third. 
 
 1 1 Rowe Avenue, June twenty-first 
 
 15 
 
 Mr. Wheeler accepts with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. 
 Simpson's kind invitation to dine with them Wednesday, 
 June twenty-third, at seven o'clock. 
 
 1 1 Rowe Avenue, June twenty-first 
 
 16 
 
 Simsbury, Conn. 
 
 October 13, 1904 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 It seems an age since you left us, but I 
 suppose you have barely arrived and begun to " do " the 
 Fair. 
 
 The post-cards came, and are almost as pretty as the 
 German ones. We have swapped, because Fay liked 
 mine better than hers, and she has taken her birthday 
 money to buy an album. I have promised to help her 
 put all her cards into it next Saturday, if it happens to 
 
LETTER-WRITING 75 
 
 be rainy so that we cannot go chestnutting again. Pri- 
 vately, I hope it will be pleasant. 
 
 She and I take turns sitting at the head of the table, 
 and you can imagine what a morsel she looked last night, 
 sitting there so erect and dignified in your great carved 
 chair. Katy had another accident with the china — only 
 a common blue cup— and you would have smiled to hear 
 her say, " It doesn't matter," just as kindly as you would 
 have done. And she declined a second portion of pud- 
 ding, too, though it was the kind she ordered and was 
 very good. 
 
 I believe I promised to write you about my new 
 teachers. I was so unreconciled to parting with my dear 
 Mr. Graves, and I even dared to tell him so. But he 
 smiled at me in his own pleasant way, and only said, 
 "You see, Miss Dale, I can't be with you always! " I 
 haven't had time to " size up " the new ones yet, but 
 thus far one of them seems so stern and the other so 
 lovely and expectant that I can't possibly slight either 
 lesson, and so, between the two of them, I see strenuous 
 days ahead. 
 
 Your loving eldest, 
 
 Edith 
 
 P. S. Fay sends love, and says to write to her. 
 
 EXERCISE 40 
 Oral 
 
 Answer the following questions. 
 
 I. In the first specimen letter, might the heading have 
 been given a different arrangement? Why is the state 
 
76 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 not given in the address? Is the comma after Spalding 
 necessary? What advantage is there in placing each 
 item of the order on a separate line? Was it necessary 
 to mention the price of each article? Why mention that 
 a check accompanies the letter? 
 
 2. Was it necessary, in the second letter, to repeat the 
 word Philadelphia in the heading? What is the meaning 
 of inst.f What would the 2Sth ult. mean? Why do 
 Ditson, Spalding, & Co. mention the receipt of their cus- 
 tomer's letter? 
 
 3. How does the arrangement of the heading and 
 address in the third letter differ from the arrangement 
 of the heading and address in the first two ? What is the 
 uncontracted form of Messrs.? Why did not the secre- 
 tary of the Round Table put Miss before her name? 
 
 4. Why, in the fifth letter, is the address placed after 
 the body? Why, in the sixth, is it omitted? How do 
 you account for the difference between the leave-takings 
 in these two letters? 
 
 5. Account for the incompleteness of the heading and 
 the address in the seventh letter? Where else might the 
 heading have been placed? Had Mrs. Simpson been 
 unmarried, what would have been the proper salutation? 
 Criticise this letter of application, noting the good points 
 and also anything which you think might be improved. 
 What ought a letter of application to tell? Why should 
 it, ordinarily, be brief? 
 
 6. Is it polite to seal a letter of introduction? What 
 advantage is there in writing in the lower left-hand 
 corner of the envelope containing a letter of introduc- 
 tion the words Introducing Mr. ? Why, in this 
 
 specimen letter, is the heading placed after the body 
 and abbreviated somewhat? Under what circumstances 
 
 I 
 
LETTER-WRITING 77 
 
 should a letter of introduction contain the complete 
 address of the sender? Why should such a letter be 
 brief and contain nothing but the Introduction? 
 
 7. Study carefully the Invitations contained In letters 
 ten, eleven, and thirteen; then explain with accuracy 
 how and why they differ. Comment In the same way 
 on the replies to these invitations. Why do letters thir- 
 teen, fourteen, and fifteen contain no signature? 
 
 8. Important as It Is to be careful about the conven- 
 tionalities of letter-writing, they are, after all, of second- 
 ary consideration. What makes a letter from a friend 
 delightful? Why do you read some letters many times, 
 while others fail to interest you at all? What, then, is 
 the secret of good letter-writing? 
 
 EXERCISE 41 
 
 Written 
 
 Come to class prepared to do the following tasks 
 at the blackboard. 
 
 1. Write the Introductory and concluding parts — all, 
 that Is, except the body — of letters to five different firms. 
 
 2. Write the introductory parts of letters to the fol- 
 lowing: a doctor, a clergyman, a professor, the principal 
 of a school, and a Miss Mary L. Jordon of 2251 Hecla 
 Avenue In Chicago. 
 
 3. Direct envelopes to the following: a business house 
 In New York, a clergyman In Cleveland, a physician 
 living In a Maine village, the editor of a newspaper, a 
 cousin of your own age who is visiting relatives in New 
 Orleans, a boy friend who is spending the winter in 
 
78 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Edinburgh, a lawyer of your own town, the secretary of 
 a college, the mayor of your city or the first selectman 
 of your town, your aunt who is staying at the Waldorf 
 Astoria in New York, two sisters whom you are inviting 
 to lunch, Mr. and Mrs. Blank whom you are inviting 
 to dinner. 
 
 4. Write appropriate headings for letters supposed to 
 be written to-day from the following places: your home, 
 the school, the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago, the steam- 
 ship Tethys in mid-ocean, a village in Arizona, a camp 
 in the woods. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 I.ETTER-WRITING — Continued 
 
 EXERCISE 42 
 
 Written 
 
 Write one or more letters, according as your 
 instructor may determine, selecting from the fol- 
 lowing group. 
 
 I. To a friend, congratulating him on having won a 
 prize in a^ tennis tournament. 2. To a school friend, 
 inviting him to dine with you informally. 3. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Blank, accepting an invitation to dine with 
 them Wednesday. 4. To your postmaster, asking him 
 to forward your mail to a certain place for a given time. 
 5. To Perry Mason Company, asking them to send you 
 the Youth's Companion for one year. 6. To the secre- 
 tary of Blank College, asking him to send you a cata- 
 logue and also specimen entrance examination papers. 7. 
 To the local paper, asking to have inserted for three issues 
 an advertisement which you enclose. 8. To a friend, in- 
 forming him that he has been elected a member of the 
 school debating club, and explaining to him the nature 
 of the organization, the time and place of meeting, etc. 
 Express the hope that he will accept the election. 9. To 
 the secretary of the debating club, answering the letter 
 
 79 
 
8o ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 called for in the preceding. lo. To your teacher, asking 
 to be excused from reciting, ii. To your teacher, ex- 
 plaining your absence from school. 
 
 EXERCISE 43 
 
 Written 
 
 Perform, one of the tasks called for below. 
 
 I. You are contemplating spending your next long 
 
 vacation in . Write to a friend who has been 
 
 there, asking for information in regard to such things as 
 you wish to know before making your decision. 2. An- 
 swer a letter inquiring about the place In which you 
 spent your last vacation. Imagine that the letter Is from 
 
 a friend of your own age. 3. Your friend Is 
 
 coming to town with some friends who wish to see the 
 principal places of Interest. He writes to you for ad- 
 vice. Map out for him a forenoon, or a whole day, of 
 sight-seeing. Doubtless the party will get hungry; sug- 
 gest where a good dinner may be obtained. Be very 
 clear In all your statements. 4. Reply to a letter from 
 some one of your own age asking what to read. Do a 
 little more than give the titles of books, but do not inter- 
 fere with your friend's enjoyment by telling too much 
 about the volumes you recommend. 5. Write a mid- 
 summer letter to a classmate, asking him to contribute 
 an article to the school paper. Explain that as editor 
 you have found it difficult to obtain suitable material for 
 the October number. Discuss the kind of article you 
 think the readers would enjoy, and mention two or three 
 topics on which you think he could write entertainingly. 
 
LETTER-WRITING 8i 
 
 6. Imagine that you are a college graduate. Write to 
 a schoolgirl who has consulted you in regard to the ad- 
 visability of joining a debating club. 
 
 EXERCISE 44 
 Written 
 Perform one of the tasks called for below, 
 I. Answer one of the following advertisements: 
 
 Wanted: A high school boy who writes a good 
 hand and can spell correctly, to do clerical work 
 afternoons and Saturdays. Apply by letter to J. D. 
 Flynn, 86 Miles Building. 
 
 Wanted: High school girl to act as amanuensis 
 afternoons to elderly lady. Apply by letter to Miss 
 Sarah Levermore, 99 Cordial St. 
 
 2. John Carroll advertises that he wishes to exchange 
 his canoe for a bicycle. The canoe can be seen at Dol- 
 phin's boat-house, foot of Barnacle St. Write the ad- 
 vertisement and also a letter in reply to it. 
 
 3. The local paper has credited you with a brilliant 
 play in football which in reality was made by some one 
 else. Write to the editor suggesting that correction be 
 made. 
 
82 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 EXERCISE 45 
 
 Written 
 
 Perform one of the tasks called for below. 
 
 I. Charles, in his letter to you, finds fault with Mr. 
 Henty's stories. Reply, defending the author. 2. Mary, 
 with whom you have attended school in the city for years, 
 has moved to a small town. In a fit of homesickness 
 she writes a letter in which she bewails her fate and 
 enumerates the many disagreeable features, both in school 
 and out, of life in a small town. You reply, trying to 
 cheer her, and attempt to show that what seem to be dis- 
 advantages may in time prove blessings. You remind her 
 of some of the disadvantages of city life which she has 
 overlooked. Do not simply give enumerations, but en- 
 large upon each argument till it acquires force. 3. Write 
 to your friend the park commissioner, trying politely to 
 persuade him that the parks should be thrown open for 
 athletic contests. Write his reply in which he states, with 
 politeness equal to your own, the reasons why your request 
 cannot be granted. 4. Write to a friend giving an 
 account of a spirited school debate to which you have 
 recently listened. 
 
 EXERCISE 46 
 
 Written 
 
 The tasks in this exercise call for chains of 
 letters. Select the one which appeals to you most 
 strongly. 
 
 I. While crossing the Atlantic, you send adrift in a 
 securely corked bottle a brief letter inviting the one who 
 
LETTER-WRITING 83 
 
 finds the bottle to communicate with you. Write the 
 letter sent adrift, the letter sent by the finder, and your 
 reply. 
 
 2. On coming out of a store you take by mistake the 
 wrong bicycle. Discovering your error an hour later, 
 you hurry back to find your own wheel, which you had 
 left at the curb, gone. You advertise. Give the ad- 
 vertisement, the reply received, and your final apology. 
 
 3. Mr. of , a neighboring town, adver- 
 tises that he has lost a valuable dog, a brief descrip- 
 tion of which he gives. A reward is ofEered. You have 
 found a dog answering fairly well the description given; 
 
 so you write to Mr. , asking him to call or send 
 
 a messenger. But he replies that his dog has just re- 
 turned; the dog found cannot, therefore, be his. He 
 regrets that he has caused you trouble. Meanwhile your 
 friend , who has recently removed to a neighbor- 
 ing town, writes you a letter telling of his first impres- 
 sions of his new home. Quite incidentally he mentions 
 that he has lost his dog, purchased a short time before his 
 removal. He thinks that perhaps the dog may have pre- 
 ferred old quarters to new, and has therefore gone back 
 to them. You are asked to be on the lookout. You 
 
 reply, telling of your experience with Mr. , and 
 
 expressing joy that at last you have found the rightful 
 owner. You are surprised that you did not at once rec- 
 ognize the little fellow. You will ship the dog at once. 
 But back comes a note stating that the dog has been re- 
 ceived ; not the right one, however. He asks what he had 
 better do with it. Write the advertisement and all the 
 letters called for by the above circumstances; also write a 
 letter to your invalid uncle, telling him all about your 
 experiences and what finally became of the dog. 
 
84 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 4. You write to Mr. A , who ow^ns a farm on 
 
 the shores of , asking permission to camp next 
 
 summer on his grounds. You describe the particular 
 spot you have selected, a place you noted while driving 
 
 by, a year or two ago. Mr. A replies granting 
 
 your request, but suggesting that you may prefer one 
 or two other spots, which he describes, giving the ad- 
 vantages of each. You write to Jack telling him that 
 you are arranging a camping party for the coming sum- 
 mer and inviting him to join. You give him as many 
 particulars as you think he should know, and add a little 
 advice in regard to what he had better carry. Friend 
 Jack replies accepting your invitation. He asks for fur- 
 ther information on certain points. 
 
 5. You order from a New York firm dealing in camp 
 equipment a bill of goods, giving explicit directions in 
 regard to prices, when and where goods should be shipped, 
 etc. The firm in its reply states that it has not in stock 
 some of the articles desired, and inquires whether it may 
 substitute others. 
 
 6. Charles writes from camp a birch-bark letter to 
 Henry, who has been prevented by sickness from joining 
 the party. Henry, on the campers' return, invites all to 
 dine with him. Write his note to Charles, also Charles's 
 reply. Clyde cannot come. Write his letter of regrets. 
 
 EXERCISE 47 
 
 Written 
 
 Perform one of the tasks called for below. 
 
 I. Write to Mr. K , cabinet-maker, ordering him 
 
 to mate you a bookcase, or some other article. Give accu- 
 
LETTER-WRITING 85 
 
 rate particulars concerning materials, design, finish, etc. 
 Make clear, if you wish, by means of drawings. 2. You 
 are on a journey. Write a letter home telling about the 
 trip. 3. You have been in a railroad accident. To allay 
 possible anxiety, first telegraph home that you are safe, 
 then write a letter giving particulars. 4. You have wit- 
 nessed an electric-car accident in which several persons 
 were injured. The electric railway's attorney writes 
 asking you to state, as accurately as you can, all that you 
 saw. Give his letter and your reply. 5. You have moved 
 recently into a new house and are very enthusiastic about 
 it, though you miss some things you had come to like in 
 the old home. Write to a friend about it, making the 
 description of the new home so vivid that your friend will 
 get a correct impression. Be systematic, determining be- 
 forehand what order you will adopt in your description. 
 Pay particular attention to your own room, or to some 
 other which particularly interests you. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 STORY-TELLING 
 
 It is Improbable, though by no means impos- 
 sible, that any one into whose hands this book 
 may fall will ever become a great novelist. Yet 
 it is doubtless true that many young people — per- 
 haps it is safe to say most young people — have at 
 times a secret longing to be great story-tellers. 
 Not a few actually try a hand at it, only to 
 find that longing to be a second Dickens or a 
 second Scott, and trying to be one, and actually 
 becoming one are three very different things. 
 Great story-tellers, like great poets, are born, not 
 made. 
 
 It often happens, however, that trying hard to 
 do some worthy thing which is beyond our ability 
 helps us in many ways. Trying to write a story, 
 for example, may not produce a masterpiece, but it 
 Is pretty sure to increase our respect for those who 
 have succeeded where we have failed. It makes 
 us more sensitive to the beauty and strength of the 
 works of Hawthorne and Poe and the other mas- 
 ters. We read their stories with greater pleasure. 
 Perhaps this is the main reason why a little prac- 
 tice In this line Is profitable. But there Is another, 
 
 86 
 
STORY-TELLING 87 
 
 more practical reason. Back of all fiction lies 
 imagination, the ability to put one's self in an- 
 other's place. When Mr. Dickens wrote Great 
 Expectations, he had to be many other people be- 
 sides himself; he had to be an honest blacksmith 
 named Joe Gargery, a little lad named Pip, a 
 coarse convict with a vein of gold in his character, 
 a steel-hearted lawyer, and a score of other people, 
 shrewdly imagining what each would do and 
 say under certain conditions. That is what every 
 novelist must do ; that is what you try to do when 
 you write a tale for your classmates. And it is 
 something very similar to this, is it not, that the 
 merchant, the doctor, the teacher, the statesman 
 has to do. It is difficult for any one to succeed in 
 a great undertaking unless he has the power to put 
 himself in another's place ; it is difficult for him to 
 succeed unless he has imagination. 
 
 Exercising the imagination through story-telling 
 ought, therefore, to be exceedingly profitable; it 
 should not be altogether disagreeable. First at- 
 tempts may be somewhat crude, though they are 
 seldom uninteresting. The beginner often succeeds 
 remarkably well, turning out little stories that are 
 well worth listening to ; and through practice many 
 things at first very difficult become easier. For ex- 
 ample, there is the matter of finding a plot. We 
 discover sooner or later that there are events in our 
 own lives which, when enlarged upon and changed 
 a little — a story-teller has the right to tell things 
 as they might have happened ; he need not stick to 
 
88 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 the truth — make Interesting little comedies and 
 tragedies. We train our eyes to see stories lurk- 
 ing back of paragraphs In the dally paper. We 
 form the habit of Inventing stories to go with our 
 favorite pictures or to match a face seen but for an 
 instant in the crowded street. No matter where 
 we turn, we see, if our eyes are properly trained, 
 tales well worth telling. 
 
 An old story tells that years ago, when pirates 
 Infested the seas, a small merchantman laden with 
 dairy products, was being pursued by an ill-looking 
 craft, swift sailing and evidently well armed. Cap- 
 ture seemed Inevitable, and the captain of the mer- 
 chantman had made up his mind to surrender. But 
 one of his crew hit upon a clever scheme. Several 
 tubs of butter were brought up from the hold, and 
 the sides and deck of the ship, save for a little 
 space about the companlonway, were liberally 
 smeared with the contents. When the pirates — 
 But never mind the rest of that story. Here is 
 a second. 
 
 Years ago, when robbers were a terror to the 
 highways of England, a party of gentlemen and 
 ladies were traveling by coach to London. As they 
 became better acquainted, they fell Into conversa- 
 tion; and as was quite natural, their talk drifted 
 toward robberies and what should be done If the 
 coach were attacked. All were more or less ner- 
 vous, especially one gentleman who confessed that 
 he had with him twenty pounds. A lady more 
 calm than the rest suggested that he hide his money 
 
STORY-TELLING 89 
 
 In his boots, a bit of advice which he acted upon at 
 once. 
 
 Not many minutes later the robbers actually 
 appeared. The door was thrown open, and a 
 masked villain demanded money. Thereupon the 
 lady spoke up promptly and said, " You will find 
 what you want In that gentleman's boots." Off 
 came the boots, and away went the robber, evi- 
 dently satisfied with his find. When asked to ex- 
 plain her seemingly unpardonable conduct, the lady 
 declined, for the time being, but Invited all the 
 passengers to dine with her the following evening 
 at her London home. After dinner she would ex- 
 plain all to their complete satisfaction. 
 
 EXERCISE 48 
 
 Written 
 
 Complete either of these stories^ adding details 
 supplied by your imagination, and introducing 
 conversation wherever possible. Perhaps you will 
 prefer to tell your story in the first person, pre- 
 tending that you are the nervous gentleman who 
 lost his money, or the outwitted pirate. 
 
 EXERCISE 49 
 
 Written 
 
 Let each pupil bring to class four-fifths of a 
 short story. After each has told his fragment of 
 
90 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 a tale, let the rest of the class try to invent an 
 appropriate ending. 
 
 EXERCISE 50 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a short story based upon one of the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 I. John and his sister are standing in a badly crowded 
 street-car. He slyly removes her purse from her jacket 
 pocket, meaning to tease her later on when she discovers 
 her loss. But by mistake his hand goes into the wrong 
 pocket — not his sister's at all. Discovering what he has 
 done, an hour later, he tries to find out whose money he 
 has stolen. 
 
 V 2. Articles unclaimed at the custom house are after 
 a while auctioned off. A bed-quilt was bought by a poor 
 man at an auction. After being used for many years, it 
 was ripped open and found to contain . 
 
 3. A gentleman returning from Canada by train 
 brought with him a set of furs for his wife. Thinking to 
 avoid paying duty on them, he persuaded a stranger sit- 
 ting near him to wear them. The ruse was successful, so 
 far as deceiving the customs officer was concerned, but 
 when he wished the lady to return the furs, she objected. 
 How did the incident end? 
 
 4. Some little boys were sailing a clockwork steamer 
 on a small, rectangular reservoir. Setting the rudder at 
 what seemed a proper angle, they launched the craft. The 
 boat took a spiral course, and finally " ran down " in 
 the middle of the reservoir, too far from shore to be 
 
STORY-TELLING 91 
 
 rescued by the stone-and-strlng method. The boat 
 leaked; ft must be rescued quickly. The boys could not 
 swim. How was the steamer saved ? 
 
 5. An anarchist plans to blow up the state capitol. He 
 is crossing the park, towards dusk, carrying a satchel 
 containing an infernal machine securely nailed up in a 
 neat box and set to explode in one hour. Suddenly fear 
 or repentance seizes the anarchist; he must rid himself 
 of the satchel, placing it where no harm will be done. 
 He does not understand infernal machines. He is very 
 nervous, of course. What does he do? 
 
 J/ EXERCISE 51 
 Written 
 
 No doubt you have discovered by this time how 
 difficult it is to make characters talk In a natural 
 manner. Yet the life of a story Is often In Its 
 dialogue. When drawing a book from the library, 
 do you never run through the volume hastily to 
 see if it contains a liberal amount of conversation? 
 It is excellent practice to imagine what various peo- 
 ple would say under given circumstances. 
 
 Write a page or two of conversation suggested 
 by the titles found below. Use synonyms of He 
 SAID, to avoid monotony. Throw in little phrases 
 here and there telling how the characters say this 
 and that — with what facial expression, what ges- 
 tures, what tone of voice. Bring out the person- 
 ality of the speakers. 
 
92 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 I. Mary helps Emily unpack her trunk. They talk. 
 2. Overheard at the bargain counter. 3. A recess time 
 chat. 4. Just before the game, John explains things to 
 his Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary is from the country. 5. A 
 schoolboy tries to persuade his father to buy him a canoe. 
 6. Two tramps plan the day's campaign. 7. Just before 
 the battle. 8. A woman with four children and many 
 bundles boards a train. Mary wants a drink, Tommy 
 asks questions, etc., etc. 9. Two dogs discuss their mas- 
 ter. 10. The defeated football captain is consoled by his 
 mates. 11. Conversation between a deaf lady and a 
 street-car conductor. 12. A playground quarrel. 13. A 
 country boy and a city boy praise their schools. 14. Tom 
 Sawyer and Little Lord Fauntleroy. 
 
 EXERCISE 52 
 
 Written 
 
 Oftentimes in plays, and in story-books too, a 
 character is made to talk to himself — think out 
 loud. Talking to one's self is called soliloquy. It 
 is an ingenious device, as you can easily see. But 
 soliloquy is more difficult than dialogue. 
 
 Imagine any one of the following persons or 
 things thinking aloud, first telling in a sentence or 
 two the circumstances under which the soliloquy 
 occurs. 
 
 I. The waste-basket. 2. The school clock. 3. A 
 football. 4. A show-window model. 5. A parrot at the 
 bird-store. 6. The family cat. 7. The striker. 8. An 
 old lady knitting. 9. A ragged man who cannot find 
 
STORY-TELLING 93 
 
 employment. lo. The ragpicker, ii. The West Wind. 
 12. An ink-bottle. 13. An old sailor. 14. A broken 
 paddle. 15. A mirror. 16. A cake of ice in the refrig- 
 erator. 17. A worn doorstep. 
 
 EXERCISE 53 
 
 Written 
 
 In the eighteenth century it was the fashion to 
 tell stories In diary form. Sometimes letters were 
 Introduced. High school pupils of the present 
 day occasionally employ this device with success, 
 turning out short stories that are bright and read- 
 able. Perhaps you can do what others of your 
 years have done. 
 
 Write a few pages made up of extracts from an 
 imaginary diary. Do not try to tell a story , unless 
 this comes easily to you, but try to make what 
 you write reveal character — make the reader ac- 
 quainted with the one whose diary is presented. 
 Perhaps the following titles will prove suggestive, 
 
 I. The diary of a small boy. 2. The confessions of a 
 schoolgirl. 3. The diary of a yellow dog. 4. The diary 
 of a soldier. 5. The diary of an electric light. 
 
 EXERCISE 54 
 Written 
 
 It Is a good plan occasionally to attempt a short 
 narrative of the fairy-tale order, giving the imag- 
 
94 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Inatlon full sweep. Stop at nothing preposterous ; 
 remember that in the realm of make-believe all 
 things are possible. 
 
 Write a short story suggested by one of the fol- 
 lowing titles, 
 
 I. The interior of an Iceberg. 2. The land where lost 
 things go. 3. Riding on the back of the North Wind. 
 4. South-east of Nowhere. 5. The manuscript found 
 in a bottle. 6. Seaweed Villa. 7. A day in an airship. 
 8. The subterranean passages recently discovered beneath 
 our town. 9. To the center of the earth and back. 10. 
 A fairy tale brought up to date. 11. Told by a piece of 
 driftwood. 12. Ink-bottle imps and how they live. 
 
 V EXERCISE 55 
 Written 
 
 Facing page 64 is a reproduction of Herkomer's 
 The Last Muster. Who are these aged men, and 
 for what purpose are they assembled? As your 
 eye wanders from face to face, to what central 
 figure does It Inevitably return? What Is the 
 meaning of the title? 
 
 Perform one of the following tasks: (i) De- 
 scribe the picture as a whole. (2) Describe in 
 detail one or two figures. (3) Invent a story sug- 
 gested by the picture. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Life is full of contrasts: tears and laughter, 
 wisdom and folly, strength and weakness, success 
 and failure, and so on and on through the round of 
 human experience. In nature It Is the same. 
 Darkness follows light and light follows darkness. 
 Summer brings heat, winter snow and Ice. Beneath 
 the lofty mountain peaks which battle with every 
 wind that blows. He peaceful green valleys. The 
 ocean is now an angry demon, now a mild, sleepy 
 giant. 
 
 Writers have a way of using contrast to make 
 their compositions strong and effective. They 
 know that white never looks more pure than when 
 placed against something black and repulsive ; that 
 the hero will not seem really heroic unless there is 
 a villain about; that the happy ending will not be 
 appreciated unless it comes after many chapters 
 full of sorrow and struggle. All this you have 
 noticed many times, for the device is a common 
 one; but it may not have occurred to you to use it 
 in your compositions. Notice how effectively it is 
 employed in this schoolgirl theme. 
 
 95 
 
96 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 Before and After 
 
 April 9. — Oh, I am so tired to-day. I came down to 
 breakfast, and afterwards I must have walked quite half 
 a mile. I suppose I ought to take an egg, but some- 
 how I don't want one. No, I do not know where your 
 hat is, George. Find it yourself. By the bye, George, 
 get me that book I was reading. I don't know where it 
 is. Oh, you have plenty of time, for it is only ten min- 
 utes past one. After all, what does it matter if you are 
 a little late to school? Everybody seems to be going to 
 school. I wish I were. I wish I could even go to the 
 grammar school; anything would be better than doing 
 nothing! The doctor is horrid not to let me go. If I 
 ever do go, I shall be older than every one else. No, 
 I do not want an egg-nog; a raw egg goes down 
 more easily. Well, I might as well try to finish this 
 book. 
 
 November 9. — Mother, have you seen my gloves? 
 They are not with my coat and hat. Oh, yes, here they 
 are in my muff. Now I can't find my hat-pins. Never 
 mind; I have not time to look for them. Is breakfast 
 never to be ready? I am sure I shall be late if it is not 
 ready. Need I eat an egg? There is not time to eat an 
 egg and porridge too. Very well, I will. I am afraid I 
 shall not know my French. I only read it over. Is 
 " J'ai tombe " correct, or is " Je suis tombe " ? Oh, yes, 
 of course; I remember now. I can't eat any more, truly. 
 Now where are my books? Bother! I forgot to sharpen 
 those pencils. I shall have to do it at school. By the 
 bye, which should one say, "will I" or "shall I"? I 
 am sure that clock is slow. It must be more than five 
 minutes past eight. Won't it be fun to-day, for I have 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 97 
 
 five recitations instead of three! I hope I won't be late. 
 Good-bye. Good-bye. 
 
 Probably you would find it somewhat difficult 
 to write a composition similar to this theme ; for it 
 is what is called a monologue, a kind of writing 
 which requires unusual ability. It is not at all 
 difficult, however, to bring out clearly a striking 
 contrast. 
 
 ^ EXERCISE 56 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a two- or three-paragraph composition to 
 which you can give the title A Contrast, The fol- 
 lowing may suggest material, 
 
 I. The football player as he looks and feels when going 
 to his first game, and as he looks and feels when returning. 
 2. The dwelling as it looked just before the fire broke 
 out, and the ruins which remained an hour later. 3. The 
 small boy just before and just after Thanksgiving dinner. 
 4. A thrifty farm and a deserted farm. 5. The mill- 
 pond, winter and summer. 6. Going fishing and coming 
 home. 7. A stuffy parlor, and one that Isn't stuffy. 8. 
 Tommy's every-day table manners and his company man- 
 ners. 9. Going to school and returning from school. 
 10. What the boy looking through the window at the 
 bird-store thought of the parrot, and what the parrot 
 thought of the boy. 11. The good traits and the bad 
 traits of my best friend. 12. My party gown before and 
 after being caught by a summer shower. 13. A ship 
 
98 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 starting on a long cruise, and the same ship returning to 
 harbor. 14. The mountain side as it looked before and 
 after being swept by a fire. 15. How the victors felt and 
 how the vanquished felt. 16. A story-book as it looked 
 when first it came from the store, and as it looked years 
 afterward. 17. The beggar and the proud banker. 18. 
 June and November. 19. Saturday and Sunday. 20. 
 A city street, 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. 21. A country road 
 and a city thoroughfare. 22. The skyscraper and the 
 cobbler's shop. 23. The village elm and the field daisy. 
 24. The poor man's parlor and the rich man's. 25. A 
 meal in the woods and an elaborate course dinner. 26. 
 The athletic field just before and just after a great game. 
 27. The schoolroom, 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. 
 
 EXERCISE 57 
 
 Written 
 
 Facing page 6^ is a photograph of a wintry 
 scene in the country. Describe it as accurately and 
 feelingly as you can; then describe the same scene 
 as you fancy it may appear in midsummer. 
 
 EXERCISE 58 
 
 Written 
 
 Opposite page g6 is a picture entitled the Vn- 
 traveled Road. Describe the scene in not more 
 than fifty words. Then describe a scene as differ- 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 99 
 
 ent from this as you can imagine — a crowded city 
 street in midsummer, for example. 
 
 EXERCISE 59 
 Oral 
 
 Contrast calls for extremes. The two things 
 compared, though alike in some respects, must be 
 strikingly different in other respects. And therein 
 lies a grave danger; for in our eagerness to make 
 a contrast sharp and unmistakable, we are some- 
 times led to exaggerate, to picture things worse or 
 better than they really are. The first rule in com- 
 position is Tell the truth. Honesty underlies all 
 art. 
 
 Exercise 59 involves comparison, but not neces- 
 sarily sharp contrast. It calls, however, for an 
 eye, a mind, which detects differences, and no little 
 ability to point out clearly to others what the eye 
 and the mind have discovered. The task is far 
 more difficult than at first appears. 
 
 Prepare a talk, from five to ten minutes long, 
 suggested by some topic in the list below. If you 
 can make yourself clearer by means of rough illus- 
 trations, use the blackboard. 
 
 I. Three old coins. 2. Three rare stamps. 3. Two 
 beauties from my collection of butterflies. 4. Two or 
 three picture postals. 5. Easy-chairs that I have tried. 
 6. Several kinds of mouse-traps. 7. Three ways of heat- 
 
loo ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 ing houses. 8. Ways of lighting rooms. 9. Some of 
 the latest styles of hats. 10. Various kinds of summer- 
 ing places. II. Birds' nests. 12. Street entertainers. 
 13. What I like best in three of my friends. 14. Two 
 styles of automobiles. 15. The duties of quarter-back 
 compared with those of full-back. 16. The woods at 
 different seasons of the year. 17. Two attractive maga- 
 zine-covers. 
 
 ^EXERCISE 60 
 Written 
 
 It Is by no means easy to describe outward ap- 
 pearances — what the eye sees; but It Is far more 
 difficult to describe emotions. Perhaps the best 
 thing about the composition quoted on page 96 Is 
 that It tells us vividly how the girl who wrote It 
 felt on two occasions. 
 
 Write a short composition — a single para- 
 graph will do — to which you can give the title 
 How I feel. Use the present tense. Refer to the 
 list below for suggestions. 
 
 I. How I feel when about to get up on a frosty morn- 
 ing. 2. Mustering courage to " duck under " when in 
 swimming. 3. When I have not prepared my lesson and 
 expect to be called on next. 4. When I am obliged to 
 work Saturday morning before I can play. 5. When I 
 am taking my music lessons. 6. When I am having my 
 picture taken. 7. What I think about when waiting 
 my turn at the dentist's. 8. When we have company to 
 dinner. 9. When dinner is late and I am " hungry as 
 
MISCELLANEOUS loi 
 
 a bear." lO. When the whistle blows announcing that 
 there will be no school, ii. When I am caught in a 
 shower. 12. When I find, on boarding a car, that I have 
 no money with me. 13. When I am entertaining a caller 
 whom I do not like. 14. When I am trying to get to 
 sleep. 15. When I am trying to write a composition 
 and can think of nothing to say. 
 
 Not long ago the members of a first-year class 
 were invited to engage in a friendly competition 
 to see who could write the composition best de- 
 serving the title Wet! The terms of the compe- 
 tition were exceedingly simple. The theme might 
 be ten words long or five hundred. It might take 
 the form of a story, or it might be an account of 
 a personal experience, or it might be a bit of de- 
 scription. The one thing to be kept in mind was 
 that the composition should be very wet indeed 
 and give the reader the sensation of wetness. The 
 theme given below was selected by the class as 
 being the best handed in. 
 
 Wet! 
 
 On a wet day during the freshets the snow becomes 
 slush, the river rushes past bearing large lumps of fast- 
 melting ice, the streets become veritable rivers, and as 
 for the people . . . ! 
 
 There comes a man carrying an umbrella from which 
 streams of water fall. He rushes madly by, as if he 
 would get less wet when running; but in trying to avoid 
 an unusually large puddle he steps off the sidewalk into 
 
102 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 the wet snow, from which he emerges minus a rubber 
 and wetter than before. As he disappears we see half 
 a dozen girls crowded under one umbrella, their hair 
 sticking in wisps to their faces, their skirts held very 
 high, and their soaking " picture hats " hanging limply 
 over their eyes. As they cross the street (or canal), a 
 cart passes splashing mud and water over them, and so 
 confusing a bicycler that his wheel slips on the slithery 
 pavement, overturning him into the flowing brook of a 
 gutter. Now passes an automobile in which sit creatures 
 in rubber coats and hats down which flow countless 
 rivulets ending in a large puddle in each lap. Here, 
 walking or rather plodding along, goes a man the very 
 picture of wretchedness. His trousers cling to him, his 
 once fine silk hat looks like a private waterfall, and he 
 has in disgust at last folded his umbrella. By his side is a 
 little lady who looks as if she had just been drowned, lead- 
 ing a poor bedraggled dog something like a wash-cloth. 
 
 Still it rains, and still it thaws, and still the gutters 
 leak; and on the ceilings come damp spots; and always 
 from everywhere comes a steady drip, drip, drip. 
 
 This composition Is by no means perfect, but in 
 some respects It Is well done. We feel that It de- 
 serves Its title. Notice how many wet words there 
 are In It, the king of them all being the uncom- 
 mon term slithery. The street Is a river, the gut- 
 ter a brook, the silk hat a " private waterfall," the 
 dog " something like a wash-cloth "; and through 
 it all Is the drip, drip, drip of the ceaseless rain. 
 The reader cannot help feeling uncomfortably 
 moist. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 103 
 
 Such exercises are valuable, for they teach us 
 how to make what we write take hold of the reader. 
 Too often our compositions are painfully correct 
 and cover a great deal of ground, but still do not 
 make the reader feel as we want him to feel. We 
 witness an accident so terrible that the memory of 
 it haunts us day and night. We cannot get it out 
 of our minds. But when we give an account of it, 
 the reader does not shudder. We have a jolly 
 good time out in the woods, we try to cook a dinner 
 with humorous results, we get lost; but when we 
 write an account of It all, how tame and uninter- 
 esting it seems! That is because we have not 
 learned to say I will Interest the reader. He shall 
 see things as I have seen them. I will make him 
 feel as I have felt. 
 
 «> EXERCISE 61 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a composition, long or short as you please, 
 that will really deserve one of the following titles. 
 Make the composition take hold. 
 
 I. Wet. 2. Dry. 3. Hot. 4. Cold. 5. Hungry. 
 6. Tired. 7. Discouraged. 8. Dusty. 9. Neat. 10. 
 Crafty. 11. Cruel. 12. Homesick. 13. Dark. 14. 
 Sunshine. 15. Joy. 16. Greedy. 17. Breezy. 18. 
 Pride. 
 
I04 ENGLISH COMPOSITION ^ 
 
 EXERCISE 62 
 Written 
 
 Doubtless many of us have thought at times 
 how easy It would be to write Interesting compo- 
 sitions If only we could go where no one else has 
 goae and bring back accounts of strange things — 
 lands and people whom no one has written about. 
 The corner of the world with which we are ac- 
 quainted seems so commonplace ! Perhaps we are 
 partly right In so thinking, though It should be re- 
 membered that great writers find a way of making 
 common things Interesting. At any rate, few of 
 us can ever hope to travel to strange lands; so 
 why not be content to stay at home and use our 
 Imagination, making homely things seem of greater 
 value than they really are? 
 
 Imagine that you are a great explorer sent out 
 by some learned society. Be thorough, and bring 
 back a carefully prepared report. Here are places 
 to investigate. 
 
 I. The refrigerator. 2. The pantry. 3. The cellar. 
 4. The attic. 5. My neighbor's back yard. 6. Brother's 
 den. 7. The family album. 8. A neglected book-shelf. 
 9. A table drawer. 10. A waste-basket. 11. A vacant 
 lot. 12. A near-by brook. 13. An empty house. 14. 
 A chest of old toys. 15. A woodshed. 16. A tree. 17. 
 A church spire. 18. A barn. 19. A house-boat. 20. 
 The schoolroom. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 105 
 
 EXERCISE 63 
 Written 
 
 The preceding exercise invited you to write 
 about things so common and homely that you may 
 have thought the task hardly worth performing. 
 But the next exercise should command your very 
 best effort, for It Is one which for ages writers 
 great and small have considered worth while. 
 
 Write a composition^ somewhat longer than 
 those called for in previous exercises^ describing 
 the doings of nature. Tell nothing which you 
 have not yourself actually observed. Use the 
 present tense. Here are suggestive topics. 
 
 I. A glorious sunset. 2. How day comes. 3. An 
 ice-storm. 4. A thunder-storm. 5. The story of a bliz- 
 zard. 6. A hot day. 7. A spring freshet. 8. Watch- 
 ing the clouds. 9. The woods during a storm. 10. A 
 bit of April weather. 11. The fog. 12. A tornado. 
 
 EXERCISE 64 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a composition similar to the preceding 
 on a topic chosen from the following list. Let it 
 be a test of your power to observe accurately. Use 
 the present tense. 
 
 I. Watching a spider. 2. How school assembles. 3. 
 Watching the small boys play. 4. The approach of a 
 
io6 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 ship. 5. Watching the sparrows. 6. Watching the 
 postman. 7. Waiting for the papers. 8. The arrival 
 and departure of a train. 9. Half an hour from the life 
 of my dog. 10. A balky horse. 11. A busy street cor- 
 ner. 12. At the auction. 13. When they clean house 
 next door. 
 
 EXERCISE 65 
 
 Written 
 
 Write a short story suggested by Geofroy^s The 
 Visit, facing page 112. Or if you find story-writ- 
 ing too difficult, describe the picture as sympatheti- 
 cally as you can. 
 
PART II 
 
 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE DICTIONARY 
 
 The English language Is made up of hundreds 
 of thousands of words. Not all of these are In 
 use to-day; some are found only In very old books, 
 and still others are slowly dying. When the 
 spInnlng-wheel went out of use, a small group 
 of spInnlng-wheel terms slipped away because 
 there was nothing for them to do. When the 
 stage-coach disappeared, along with it went a 
 little vocabulary pertaining to stage-coach things. 
 Every important Invention, we may almost say 
 every change in fashion, retires, sometimes perma- 
 nently, a few words — renders them obsolete. 
 
 Related in a way to obsolete words are not a 
 few terms that are in every-day use, yet are found 
 in some small province only. The English-speak- 
 ing people are widely scattered; and though all 
 have the same names for most things, still each 
 country, each section of a country, each com- 
 munity even, has a few words that are not found 
 elsewhere, or if found elsewhere, then with differ- 
 ent meanings. There are terms peculiar to the 
 English colonies in Africa, for example. New 
 Englanders employ a few terms that sound strange 
 
 109 
 
no DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 to the ear of the Southerner. Provincialisms, as 
 such stay-at-home words are called, are to be 
 found everywhere, doing good service, but in a 
 narrow field. 
 
 Every art, trade, occupation, science has its 
 separate vocabulary of technical terms. The law- 
 yer employs many expressions that are meaning- 
 less to most of us; so too does the doctor. It is 
 said that the student of zoology who reads all 
 that has been written on this branch of science will 
 find over one hundred thousand terms employed, 
 comparatively few of which are in common use. 
 Every line of manufacture, every branch of sport 
 even, has its technical terms. They do not stay at 
 home as do provincialisms, but each group Is of 
 special service to some one class of individuals. 
 
 A recently published dictionary defines over 
 three hundred thousand terms, all of which. It is 
 claimed, are In active use to-day or are to be found 
 In books that English-speaking people may care to 
 read. This number is amazing, especially when 
 we bear In mind that many obsolete and provincial 
 words and a far greater number of technical terms 
 have been excluded. The dictionary Is even more 
 select than this. Every day new words come Into 
 existence. When things are discovered or in- 
 vented, they must be named. How many terms 
 associated with steam and electricity were un- 
 known a century ago ! Exploration, trade, manu- 
 facture, science, all are contributing each year a 
 large number of new words. But not all these 
 
THE DICTIONARY iii 
 
 find their way at once into the dictionary. They 
 must first be tried, passed about from mouth to 
 mouth for a time, experimented with, till it is rea- 
 sonably sure that they are really needed. 
 
 Not only is the dictionary cautious in accepting 
 newly coined words, as they are called ; it is care- 
 ful, though perhaps not sufficiently so, about ad- 
 mitting many expressions commonly heard on the 
 street or wherever people talk loosely — words 
 that are exceedingly coarse and vulgar, others that 
 are what we know as slang. Such colloquial or 
 loose expressions are seldom found in print. They 
 dwell on the outskirts of respectability, unfit to 
 appear in good society; or we may think of them 
 as vagrants. Occasionally a word of this sort 
 works its way out of the slums of speech and at 
 last gains admittance to the dictionary; yet where 
 one succeeds in living down its low origin, hun- 
 dreds remain but mouth-words, without respecta- 
 bility. Most of them live but a short time. 
 
 The immensity of the English language, even 
 when we exclude the relatively unimportant 
 groups of words just considered — the obsolete, 
 the provincial, the technical, the newly coined, the 
 colloquial or loose — is difficult to realize, except 
 as one compares it with his own scant vocabulary. 
 Shakespeare, we are told, used at least fifteen 
 thousand different words, Milton eight thousand. 
 The average man of to-day, it is estimated, em- 
 ploys about five thousand. But how about you? 
 How much of the English language do you pos- 
 
112 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 sess ? In a way, It is all yours ; in a truer sense, no 
 one really owns a word till he has mastered it — 
 can pronounce it, spell it, and knows precisely 
 what it means. If you were to attempt to make 
 a dictionary and record in it simply the words 
 you have thoroughly mastered, the words which 
 you really own, what would be the result? 
 
 Fortunately no one will ever set a task so unrea- 
 sonable. Every schoolboy knows that his vocab- 
 ulary is a small one, that he misspells, mispro- 
 nounces, misuses many of the terms he commonly 
 employs. It is no disgrace to be young; most of 
 the blunders, careless mistakes which fall from 
 the lips of schoolboys and schoolgirls, or slip from 
 their pens in writing letters, are pardonable. Yet 
 a time should come, and usually does come, when 
 the average youth begins to feel ashamed when he 
 blunders in his speech. He wants to put away 
 childish errors. He prefers not to misspell, mis- 
 pronounce, and misuse words. Perhaps someone 
 has laughed at him for spelling college with a d^ 
 or for pronouncing gentlemen as if it were spelled 
 genlemun, or for writing Mary's voice was edible 
 as far as the corner, or for closing a letter with 
 Yours respectively. It is not pleasant to be 
 laughed at. 
 
 Reforming one's speech, however, is not an 
 easy matter. Many of the words found in the 
 youth's vocabulary have been picked up by the ear, 
 on the street, on the playground; the eye may 
 never have seen them in the printed page. And 
 
By permUsiou of tha Cosmos Picturtig Co. 
 
 The Visit 
 
THE DICTIONARY 113 
 
 many words are so commonly mispronounced, or 
 indistinctly uttered, or improperly employed, that 
 the ear does not receive what is correct. Other 
 terms are acquired from reading; but the young 
 reader rushes along so rapidly that the eye merely 
 glances at words and does not hesitate to skip 
 whatever looks difficult in the way of long or 
 strange expressions. In this most natural manner 
 the mind receives many words which have been 
 imperfectly seen; the memory is crowded with 
 wrong or indistinct impressions. It is indeed dif- 
 ficult, where so much needs correcting, to deter- 
 mine where and how to begin. Here are a few 
 simple suggestions. 
 
 First, be convinced that the undertaking is 
 worth while. Every word mastered is a word 
 owned; it is so much power. We need all the 
 power we can get, in this busy age. A large 
 vocabulary may not be required for the work you 
 are to do, but a fully mastered vocabulary is nec- 
 essary. Mistakes in speech are costly; they cause 
 delays and misunderstandings. Have too a little 
 pride in the matter. Incorrect speech is the badge 
 of illiteracy. 
 
 Second, be more careful about what you read 
 and how you read. Form the habit of reading 
 aloud ten minutes every day, scanning each word 
 closely, pronouncing distinctly, bringing out clearly 
 the meaning of each sentence. No book is better 
 for this kind of drill than the Bible, but any good 
 book will do, or even the daily newspaper. Mem- 
 
114 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 orlze a short poem, now and then, or a paragraph 
 of vigorous prose. The purpose of exercise of 
 this sort Is to train the eye and the ear and the 
 tongue to do their work more carefully. 
 
 Third, take pains to use language correctly 
 when talking and writing. Break yourself of the 
 habit of careless expression. The little training 
 received In school will amount to nothing. If you 
 permit yourself to abuse language when you are 
 on the street or at home. Correct expression 
 comes through habit. Keep in training all the 
 time. 
 
 Finally, try to become Interested In words; 
 learn to respect them. Studying coins or stamps 
 Is not a fooHsh fad, neither Is collecting picture 
 postals; but words are more Interesting than coins 
 or stamps or postals, and are better worth study- 
 ing. On the Study of Words, by Archbishop 
 Trench, though written years ago, is a most de- 
 lightful book for present-day readers. Words and 
 their Ways in English Speech, by Greenough and 
 KIttredge, a more recent work, contains many In- 
 teresting chapters. But the best book of all Is the 
 dictionary itself. By all means own a good one 
 and learn how to use It. 
 
 Looked at In one way, the dictionary Is a vast 
 collection of condensed compositions, each telling 
 all that the average person needs to know about 
 some word: how It is spelled and pronounced, 
 and what are its meanings. Frequently a quota- 
 tion containing the word properly used will be 
 
THE DICTIONARY 115 
 
 given; and sometimes a group of synonyms, or 
 terms which have nearly the same meaning. The 
 dictionary does more than this. Whenever possi- 
 ble, It tells the life-story of a word — where It 
 came from, what It meant originally; for many 
 words change In meaning from age to age, just as 
 a person's character changes during his lifetime. 
 
 But there Is another way of regarding the dic- 
 tionary. It Is a great law book. Ours Is a free 
 country, yet we are not free to do as we please. 
 We must endure, for the common good, restraint 
 of many kinds. Words are free ; but when we mis- 
 use them we become law-breakers. One has no 
 more right to abuse or misuse his country's lan- 
 guage than he has to destroy his neighbor's prop- 
 erty. The dictionary, stern book, lays down 
 laws regarding spelling, pronunciation, meanings, 
 which word-respecting people obey. 
 
 Form the habit, then, of consulting a good, 
 unabridged dictionary. See what the law says 
 about this and that term which you are using 
 commonly, yet with a suspicion that you may be 
 using It Improperly. Lay down the book you are 
 reading, now and then, and look up the meaning 
 of some new word. If an expression has an odd 
 sound to your ear, and you find yourself wonder- 
 ing where It came from, how it got its present 
 meaning, turn to the dictionary. Perhaps It will 
 tell you precisely what you wish to know. Prac- 
 tice of this kind soon becomes fascinating, for 
 words are wonderful when studied. 
 
ii6 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 66 
 
 Reread Chapter XII to see if it does not con- 
 tain a few words about whose meanings you are 
 uncertain. Before consulting the dictionary, try 
 to reason out for yourself what each word must 
 mean. 
 
 EXERCISE 67 
 
 Open the dictionary at random and select an in- 
 teresting word. Give, in complete sentences, all 
 the information the dictionary supplies concern- 
 ing it. 
 
 EXERCISE 68 
 
 Without consulting a dictionary, try to dis- 
 cover how the following terms became a part of 
 the English language. What other words of this 
 sort can you suggest? 
 
 grunt snarl click chirp 
 
 hiss twitter chatter crackle 
 
 mew bang chickadee whiz 
 
 EXERCISE 69 
 
 The follozving are representatives of a class of 
 words which have come into the language in an 
 interesting way. Try to discover their origin, 
 
THE DICTIONARY 
 
 117 
 
 consulting for this purpose an unabridged diction- 
 ary. 
 
 italics 
 
 martial 
 
 bedlam 
 
 derrick 
 
 canary 
 
 phaeton 
 
 lynch 
 
 artesian 
 
 champagne 
 
 volcano 
 
 mackintosh 
 
 guillotine 
 
 meander 
 
 cereal 
 
 gingham 
 
 pullman 
 
 worsted 
 
 panic 
 
 damask 
 
 pompadour 
 
 cologne 
 
 macadam 
 
 dimity 
 
 quixotic 
 
 copper 
 
 guy 
 
 tantalize 
 
 namby-pamby 
 
 atlas 
 
 babel 
 
 calico 
 
 colossal 
 
 herculean 
 
 tawdry 
 
 cambric 
 
 boycott 
 
 
 EXERCISE 70 
 
 
 Nearly one-third of our language is, directly or 
 indirectly, of Latin origin; but every nation has 
 contributed a few terms. Where did each of the 
 following originate? First guess, then consult the 
 dictionary. 
 
 wigwam 
 
 soprano 
 
 lad 
 
 czar 
 
 potato 
 
 adieu 
 
 bungalow 
 
 canoe 
 
 tea 
 
 postscript 
 
 mosquito 
 
 physics 
 
 candy 
 
 telephone 
 
 tulip 
 
 minister 
 
 yacht 
 
 chess 
 
 ambassador 
 
 crag 
 
 sabbath 
 
 snob 
 
 daisy 
 
 dairy 
 
 
 EXERCISE 71 
 
 
 Often words become doubly interesting when 
 their derivation is known. THIMBLE, for exam- 
 
ii8 
 
 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 pie, comes from an Anglo-Saxon word thuma 
 meaning THUMB. Was the thimble once worn on 
 the thumb? squirrel is from a Greek word 
 meaning shadow-tail. So a squirrel is an animal 
 that casts a shadow with its tail? Look up the 
 derivation of the following. 
 
 Emma 
 
 miser 
 
 ' indent 
 
 villain 
 
 Margaret 
 
 witch 
 
 pope 
 
 sophomore 
 
 silly 
 
 cunning 
 
 curfew 
 
 dandelion 
 
 lunatic 
 
 salary 
 
 linen 
 
 buxom 
 
 cranberry 
 
 style 
 
 \ acrobat 
 
 debate 
 
 
 EXERCISE 72 
 
 
 Sometimes the full force of a word is not ap- 
 preciated until its derivation is known, dilapi- 
 dated, for example, is from a Latin word lapis 
 meaning a stone, and the prefix Dis meaning 
 APART. Knowing this, the word presents to the 
 mind a picture of a stone building tumbled down. 
 Consulting a good dictionary, try to discover the 
 original meaning of the following. 
 
 December 
 
 mayor valedictory Sunday 
 
 manuscript 
 
 centennial alderman Monday 
 
 bisect 
 
 ^accumulate journey Tuesday 
 
 phonograph 
 
 circus neighbor Wednesday 
 
 quadruped 
 
 error ^ arduous Thursday 
 
 bicycle 
 
 > eradicate wealth Friday 
 
 Florida 
 
 manufacture' subterranean Saturday 
 
THE DICTIONARY 119 
 
 EXERCISE 73 
 
 The words in the first two columns below are 
 from the French; the rest are from the Old Eng- 
 lish, or Anglo-Saxon. At one time the Norman- 
 French and the Anglo-Saxons lived side by side in 
 England. Which were the conquerors and which 
 the conquered people? 
 
 scepter prince spade house 
 
 throne f)alace rake home 
 
 royalty treasurer scythe hearth 
 
 court duke rye oats 
 
 EXERCISE 74 
 
 Explain the meaning of the following terms as 
 applied to words: OBSOLETE, technical, slang, 
 
 COLLOQUIAL, PROVINCIAL, NEWLY COINED. 
 
 Try to think of examples of each kind. You 
 zvill find in the Bible many words no longer used 
 in common speech. Strictly speaking, however, 
 they are not obsolete, but ARCHAIC. Archaic 
 means out of fashion but still understood. If you 
 have a friend who has at some time lived in a dis- 
 tant part of the country, you will notice, probably, 
 that he has in his vocabulary a few provincial 
 expressions. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Clear enunciation does not make a gentleman, 
 but it is a sign of good breeding. Educated peo- 
 ple, refined, courteous people, those who respect 
 language and are thoughtful of the comfort of 
 others, try to speak distinctly and correctly. They 
 consider it ill-mannered, when reading aloud or 
 talking, to mumble their words, misplace accents, 
 clip syllables, or otherwise abuse language. 
 
 Mispronunciation is due principally to careless- 
 ness. We know how most of the commoner 
 words should be pronounced, but we are slaves to 
 habit — the habit of reading and talking too rap- 
 idly. Ruskin, a great English essayist, once said, 
 " If you read ten pages of a good book, letter by 
 letter, that is to say, with real accuracy, you are 
 for evermore in some measure an educated per- 
 son." This kind of careful reading, the eye not- 
 ing every syllable, every letter, must form the 
 basis of all serious effort to learn how to pro- 
 nounce. But the ear must help the eye, intently 
 listening when those whom it is safe to imitate are 
 reading aloud or talking. And the vocal organs 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 
 121 
 
 must be trained to obey; for it is one thing to 
 know how a given word should be pronounced, 
 and quite another thing to be able to pronounce it. 
 Training the eye, the ear, and the tongue to take 
 pains : that is the secret of the whole matter. 
 
 The following exercises are exceedingly simple. 
 Their purpose is to call attention to a few of the 
 many words commonly mispronounced. To run 
 through them once or twice will accomplish little; 
 they call for repeated practice, day after day. 
 
 EXERCISE 75 
 
 Pronounce the following^ making sure that the 
 accent falls where it should. If in doubt, consult 
 a good dictionary. 
 
 address 
 
 deficit 
 
 alloy 
 
 incomparable 
 
 recess 
 
 hyperbole 
 
 alias 
 
 disreputable 
 
 discourse 
 
 idea 
 
 combatant 
 
 formidable 
 
 influence 
 
 precedence 
 
 reputable 
 
 gondola 
 
 express 
 
 precedent 
 
 infamous 
 
 chastisement 
 
 illustrate 
 
 mustache 
 
 condolence 
 
 clandestine 
 
 character 
 
 romance 
 
 caricature 
 
 irremediable 
 
 finance 
 
 herculean 
 
 comparable 
 
 deference 
 
 mischievous 
 
 exquisite 
 
 interesting 
 
 entire 
 
 
 EXERCISE 76 
 
 
 In careless speech perhaps becomes praps, 
 USUALLY contracts into USALLY. All the words 
 
122 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 in the following group suffer from this kind of 
 abuse. Pronounce carefully, giving each syllable 
 due attention. 
 
 general 
 
 calculate 
 
 miserable 
 
 artistically 
 
 several 
 
 usually 
 
 reverend 
 
 boisterous 
 
 personal 
 
 naturally 
 
 bravery 
 
 illiterate 
 
 temperance 
 
 governor 
 
 machinery 
 
 miniature 
 
 regular 
 
 original 
 
 battery 
 
 vulnerable 
 
 reasonable 
 
 parenthesis 
 
 restaurant 
 
 sarsaparilla 
 
 laboratory 
 
 incidentally 
 
 sentinel 
 
 cardinal 
 
 difference 
 
 superintendent 
 
 military 
 
 perhaps 
 
 singular 
 
 delivery 
 
 curiosity 
 
 enthusiasm 
 
 
 EXERCISE 77 
 
 
 ATH EL ETICS, SAWR, DROWNDED, and NAOW 
 are common mispronunciations of athletics, 
 SAW, DROWNED, and NOW. Occasionally a silent 
 letter is sounded, as in OFTEN and HERB. Be 
 careful not to make mistakes of this sort when pro- 
 nouncing the following words. 
 
 brethren Wales 
 
 draw spasm 
 
 business saw 
 
 down salmon 
 
 often found 
 
 athletics herb 
 
 umbrella house 
 
 sword ought 
 
 soda 
 
 drowned 
 
 straw 
 
 drama 
 
 intellect 
 
 cow 
 
 law 
 
 spasm 
 
 mountain 
 
 extra 
 
 how 
 
 thought 
 
 persevere 
 
 soften 
 
 caught 
 
 column 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 
 123 
 
 EXERCISE 78 
 
 PUNKIN and CUNNIN are common mispronun- 
 ciations of PUMPKIN and CUNNING. Pay espe- 
 cial attention to consonants when pronouncing the 
 following words. 
 
 fact 
 
 particular 
 
 arctic 
 
 subtract 
 
 government 
 
 adjacent 
 
 anarchy 
 
 reading 
 
 perfect 
 
 pumpkin 
 
 instinct 
 
 object 
 
 speaking 
 
 partridge 
 
 recognize 
 
 doing 
 
 quarter 
 
 expect 
 
 tract 
 
 accept 
 
 orphan 
 
 leaving 
 
 anything 
 
 Harvard 
 
 connect 
 
 except 
 
 recognition 
 
 cunning 
 
 including 
 
 extract 
 
 attract 
 
 February 
 
 EXERCISE 79 
 
 Pronounce, taking pains to give full value to 
 the vowel in each final syllable. Do not turn 
 OBJECT into OBjiCT, nor judgment into JUDG- 
 
 MUNT. 
 
 providence 
 
 admittance 
 
 audience 
 
 government 
 
 statement 
 
 argument 
 
 prominent 
 
 benevolence 
 
 sentiment 
 
 regular 
 
 reverence 
 
 extravagance 
 
 professor 
 
 parliament 
 
 restaurant 
 
 countrymen 
 
 jurymen 
 
 difference 
 
 vehement 
 
 accomplishment 
 
 gentlemen 
 
 reverend 
 
 battlement 
 
 independent 
 
 object 
 
 singular 
 
 irrelevant 
 
 intemperance 
 
 similar 
 
 accident 
 
 judgment 
 
 tenement 
 
 amusement 
 
 rudiments 
 
 disconsolate 
 
 expedient 
 
124 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 80 
 
 ITALIAN should not be pronounced as if spelled 
 EYETALIAN, nor AMERICAN as if it were amur- 
 ICAN. Pay particular attention to all the vowels 
 in this group of words. 
 
 foreigner 
 
 American 
 
 engine 
 
 genuine 
 
 nominate 
 
 capability 
 
 yet 
 
 separate 
 
 get 
 
 candidate 
 
 Italian 
 
 barbarism 
 
 educate 
 
 animal 
 
 solemn 
 
 clemency 
 
 rather 
 
 far 
 
 definition 
 
 representative 
 
 complicatfDn 
 
 visible 
 
 Coliseum 
 
 ceremony 
 
 
 EXERCISE 81 
 
 
 Give the vowel o its full sound. Do not sub- 
 stitute the sound of some other letter. Do not in- 
 sert the letter R. 
 
 mnocent 
 
 tomatoes 
 
 mountam 
 
 sonorous 
 
 eloquent 
 
 mosquito 
 
 decoration 
 
 introduction 
 
 society 
 
 diagonal 
 
 apologize 
 
 potatoes 
 
 swallow 
 
 professor 
 
 chocolate 
 
 piano 
 
 accommodate 
 
 fellow 
 
 borrow 
 
 process 
 
 provide 
 
 oyster 
 
 apoplexy 
 
 cow 
 
 composition 
 
 proposition 
 
 sorrow 
 
 often 
 
 hoist 
 
 lost 
 
 ought 
 
 bellow 
 
 pillow 
 
 propose 
 
 hollow 
 
 colony 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 
 125 
 
 EXERCISE 82 
 
 Perhaps no vowel is more commonly mispro- 
 nounced than U. Seldom should it he given the 
 sound of 00 as in the word BOOT. 
 
 blue 
 
 stupid 
 
 stimulate 
 
 occupy 
 
 student 
 
 produce 
 
 rudiments 
 
 durable 
 
 truth 
 
 tutor 
 
 picture 
 
 argument 
 
 tube 
 
 tune 
 
 educate 
 
 altitude 
 
 Tuesday- 
 
 dutiful 
 
 genuine 
 
 culinary 
 
 duke 
 
 attitude 
 
 institute 
 
 figure 
 
 gratitude 
 
 avenue 
 
 speculate 
 
 cruel 
 
 EXERCISE 83 
 
 The vowel A represents a number of different 
 sounds. Are you sure that you pronounce the fol- 
 lowing words correctly? 
 
 ask 
 
 parent 
 
 extra 
 
 calm 
 
 half 
 
 haunt 
 
 calf 
 
 because 
 
 gape 
 
 laugh 
 
 path 
 
 father 
 
 catch 
 
 chaste 
 
 psalm 
 
 vaunt 
 
 can't 
 
 launch 
 
 patent 
 
 alternate 
 
 EXERCISE 84 
 TH, NGTH, SPH, and similar combinations are 
 
 difficult for some tongues. 
 
 length thousand 
 
 depths drouth 
 
 Thursday diphthong 
 
 sphere architecture 
 
 through strength 
 
 Master the following, 
 
 twelfth eleventh 
 
 chasm thought 
 
 drought architect 
 
 eighth trough 
 
 naphtha throat 
 
126 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 85 
 
 Each word in this group presents some difficulty. 
 When in doubt, do not guess; consult a dictionary. 
 
 amateur 
 
 epitome 
 
 decrepit 
 
 coffee 
 
 juvenile 
 
 cayenne 
 
 column 
 
 clapboard 
 
 victuals 
 
 detour 
 
 again 
 
 creek 
 
 debris 
 
 suite 
 
 sesame 
 
 enmity 
 
 bestial 
 
 leisure 
 
 sergeant 
 
 immediate 
 
 viscount 
 
 odious 
 
 pantomime 
 
 representative 
 
 fiance 
 
 courtesy 
 
 forehead 
 
 apron 
 
 docile 
 
 irrelevant 
 
 tedious 
 
 spoon 
 
 deaf 
 
 hundred 
 
 chimney 
 
 inveigh 
 
 
 EXERCISE 86 
 
 
 The following are selected from the preceding' 
 groups. Pronounce them slowly and with distinct 
 enunciation. Go through the list again and again; 
 master each word. 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 influence 
 
 sphere 
 
 creek 
 
 February 
 
 discourse 
 
 tract 
 
 hundred 
 
 Italian 
 
 forehead 
 
 catch 
 
 umbrella 
 
 American 
 
 Wales 
 
 object 
 
 genuine 
 
 pumpkin 
 
 laugh 
 
 professor 
 
 subject 
 
 quarter 
 
 drowned 
 
 avenue 
 
 temperance 
 
 psalm 
 
 swallow 
 
 saw 
 
 mischievous 
 
 governor 
 
 height 
 
 column 
 
 address 
 
 solemn 
 
 length 
 
 partridge 
 
 express 
 
 illustrate 
 
 gentlemen 
 
 architect 
 
 athletics 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 
 127 
 
 'strength 
 
 ridiculous 
 
 interesting 
 
 recognize 
 
 laboratory- 
 
 sentiment 
 
 decorous 
 
 patent 
 
 character 
 
 willing 
 
 debris 
 
 illustrate 
 
 stupid 
 
 deaf 
 
 chimney 
 
 mustache 
 
 Arctic 
 
 intellect 
 
 suite 
 
 gratitude 
 
 engine 
 
 sword 
 
 twelfth 
 
 student 
 
 detour 
 
 superintendent 
 
 miserable 
 
 juvenile 
 
 fellow 
 
 fiance 
 
 romance 
 
 speaking 
 
 several 
 
 recess 
 
 diiference 
 
 gape 
 
 often 
 
 government 
 
 potatoes 
 
 pantomime 
 
 rather 
 
 coifee 
 
 produce 
 
 far 
 
 
 EXERCISE 87 
 
 
 Make a list of words you have discovered, 
 through your study of the preceding exercises, that 
 you have been unconsciously mispronouncing. 
 
 EXERCISE 88 
 
 Make a list of words you hear commonly mis- 
 pronounced by your associates. 
 
 EXERCISE 89 
 
 Write, as if to a child, a fifteen-line paragraph 
 explaining the dictionary' s way of indicating the 
 correct pronunciation of words. This is a difficult 
 task; do it well. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 
 
 Horse and shoe, when combined, form the com- 
 pound horseshoe. Add the suffix ness to the adjec- 
 tive good and we have the noun goodness. Regain 
 Is but the word gain plus a prefix. In returnable, 
 three elements are combined, a simple word, a 
 prefix, and a suffix; in ungentlemanly there are four 
 elements. Even a superficial examination of the 
 dictionary reveals the fact that comparatively few 
 words are simple ; that there are scores of prefixes, 
 scores of suffixes, by means of which our language 
 multiplies. 
 
 The words examined in the paragraph above 
 are readily analyzed; a glance shows how they are 
 put together. But analysis is not always so simple. 
 Words adopted from a foreign language do not, 
 as a rule, retain their original form ; only the vital 
 part of each — the root or the stem, as it is called — 
 is retained. Jacere, for example, is a foreign word 
 meaning to throw. Its root is ject, as seen in in- 
 terjection. Without some familiarity with foreign 
 languages, it is not always easy to detect word- 
 roots. Many prefixes too are from languages 
 
 128 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 129 
 
 other than our own. Some are so commonly em- 
 ployed that we recognize them readily enough and 
 know what they mean; yet occasionally one is so 
 changed in the process of joining it smoothly to a 
 root that to determine where the prefix ends and 
 the root begins is not a simple matter. 
 
 So many words are of Latin derivation — our 
 ponderous dictionary would shrink at least one- 
 third if they were all dropped from it — that some 
 educators believe the best way to master English 
 is to master Latin first. Whether this indirect 
 method is best or not, it is for several reasons an 
 exceedingly good one. Those who are unable or 
 unwilling to adopt it should at least master the 
 more commonly employed Latin prefixes. For 
 frequently a prefix furnishes a hint of what the 
 word it introduces means, and sometimes it throws 
 the door wide open, revealing at once the entire 
 secret. Familiarity with the Latin prefixes also 
 helps one to spell correctly. A large proportion 
 of words commonly misspelled are of Latin origin. 
 The trouble lies in the joint, where the prefix is 
 neatly attached to the root. If one knows the pre- 
 fixes thoroughly and understands word-joinery, 
 there is little danger of tripping; a moment's 
 thought will tell what the spelling must be. 
 
 Ab or abs signifies from. Norma is the Latin 
 word for rule; hence the English word normal^ 
 meaning according to rule or natural. Abnormal, 
 then, means away from the rule or unnatural. Ab- 
 stract is made up of abs and the root of a Latin 
 
130 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 word meaning to draw; hence to abstract Is to 
 draw from. 
 
 abduct abhor abdicate abolition 
 
 absolute abrupt absent abstain 
 
 Ante signifies before. This prefix is seen in 
 antedate and antecedent. Sometimes it changes to 
 anti, as in anticipate. There is a Greek prefix 
 anti meaning against. It is seen in antislavery and 
 antidote. An antidote is something given to coun- 
 teract or work against a poison or a disease. 
 
 anterior anteroom anticipation antique 
 
 antediluvian antiquity antiquary antechamber 
 
 Circum signifies about or around. It is found in 
 but few words and is easily recognized. 
 
 circumference circumnavigate circumspect 
 circumvent circumlocution circumscribe 
 
 De signifies from or down. Caput is Latin for 
 head; decapitate, then, means behead or take the 
 head from the body. Deposit is made up of de 
 meaning down and a Latin word signifying to 
 place or to put. 
 
 degrade deform debate deliberate 
 
 detest deflect debar deject 
 
 deduce decrease demerit decamp 
 
 Inter signifies between, together, or among. It 
 is easily recognized and presents no difficulties. 
 
 interval international interpose interrupt 
 
 interv^^eave Interregnum Interfere Intersect 
 interlude Intercollegiate Interview intermediate 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 131 
 
 Non signifies not. It presents no difficulties, 
 nonsense non-combatant nonpareil 
 
 nonconformity nonentity nondescript 
 
 noncommittal non-resident 
 
 Per signifies through or by. 
 
 perforate perpetual percent perusal 
 
 perpetrate permeate persevere perennial 
 
 persecute perspire permission perspective 
 
 Post signifies behind or after. 
 
 posterior postscript postgraduate posthumous 
 postpone posterity postlude post-mortem 
 
 Pre signifies before. Judicium is a Latin word 
 meaning judgment. A prejudice, then, is a judg- 
 ment formed before careful examination. Pre is 
 a very useful prefix, appearing in a great many 
 words. 
 
 prelude 
 
 preposition 
 
 prefix 
 
 prepaid 
 
 preface 
 
 preamble 
 
 presage 
 
 premature 
 
 precede 
 
 precaution 
 
 precipitate 
 
 preliminary 
 
 predominate 
 
 prehistoric 
 
 premium 
 
 predecessor 
 
 precept 
 
 premeditate 
 
 precocious 
 
 president 
 
 Pro signifies forward, before, or instead of. 
 Videre is the infinitive form of a Latin word mean- 
 ing to see. To provide, then. Is to look ahead or 
 make ready for what is to come. A great many 
 words contain this useful prefix. 
 
 proceed prologue prostrate promise 
 
 procession program promote professor 
 
 protect protrude promenade proclaim 
 
 project product prosecute pronoun 
 
132 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 Re signifies back or again, and appears in a mul- 
 titude of words. 
 
 rebate 
 
 recollect 
 
 retail 
 
 reiterate 
 
 recess 
 
 reconcile 
 
 reduce 
 
 remember 
 
 remunerate 
 
 repeal 
 
 resign 
 
 reply 
 
 retract 
 
 revenge 
 
 retreat 
 
 reflect 
 
 Se signifies apart. It appears in but few words. 
 
 secede seclude secret secrete 
 
 select separate seduce secretion 
 
 Super signifies above. It presents no difficulties. 
 
 superb superlative superstition 
 
 superintend superstructure superficial 
 
 superfluous supernumerary 
 
 Trans or tran signifies across, beyond, or 
 through. 
 
 transfer trans-Atlantic transient transpose 
 
 transplant translate transform transact 
 
 transparent translucent transom transgression 
 
 The fourteen prefixes considered thus far are 
 simpler than the six to be examined next, in that 
 they are unchangeable. Re remains re and se re- 
 mains se, no matter to what root they may be 
 joined. This is not true of the following. 
 
 Ad signifies to. It is recognized at once in 
 adhere and adjacent. In many words, however, 
 ad changes to ah, ac, af, ag, at, an, ap, ar, as, or at, 
 before b, c, f, g, I, n, p, r, s, and t. That is, for the 
 sake of ease in pronunciation the final letter of the 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 133 
 
 prefix changes to the first letter of the stem. 
 Words containing ad In a disguised form are mis- 
 spelled frequently. The troublesome ones, it will 
 be seen, contain the double consonant. It Is al- 
 most safe, when in doubt, to double the consonant. 
 
 annihilate 
 
 adapt 
 
 admission 
 
 affluence 
 
 abbreviate 
 
 application 
 
 affection 
 
 attempt 
 
 accent 
 
 arrogant 
 
 accompany 
 
 appearance 
 
 affix 
 
 assert 
 
 attribute 
 
 apparatus 
 
 alliteration 
 
 attend 
 
 arrive 
 
 array 
 
 Con signifies with or together. Other forms of 
 this suffix are com, col, cor, and co. Col Is found 
 before stems beginning with /, cor before stems 
 beginning with r, com before m, con before n. 
 Com and col appear before other letters too, but 
 not in words one is Inclined to misspell; so when 
 In doubt. It Is safe to double the consonant. Care- 
 fully note the spelling of the following. Observe, 
 too, how strong the idea of with or together Is in 
 most of the words. 
 
 convene 
 
 connect 
 
 combine 
 
 commerce 
 
 conference 
 
 concrete 
 
 compete 
 
 corrupt 
 
 conspire 
 
 concord 
 
 compare 
 
 correspond 
 
 continent 
 
 complex 
 
 command 
 
 collide 
 
 co-education 
 
 cohere 
 
 conspire 
 
 collection 
 
 Dis usually signifies apart, though sometimes It 
 has the force of a negative. Dif and di, other 
 forms of dis, are found in a few words. There 
 IS a temptation to substitute diss for dis In disap- 
 
134 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 pear and all other words in which the root begins 
 with a. The opposite tendency Is seen when the 
 root begins with s, as In dissatisfy. Most words 
 introduced by dis are familiar; a moment's thought 
 is all that Is necessary to determine the root, and 
 this once determined, the correct spelling becomes 
 obvious. 
 
 disability 
 
 dissect 
 
 dissolve 
 
 discomfort 
 
 disadvantage 
 
 dissemble 
 
 dissuade 
 
 digress 
 
 disapprove 
 
 dissent 
 
 discharge 
 
 dilute 
 
 disappoint 
 
 dissimilar 
 
 disengage 
 
 difficulty- 
 
 disallow 
 
 dissipate 
 
 disjoin 
 
 diffident 
 
 Ex signifies out, off, or beyond. E and ef are 
 other forms. Words Introduced by ex present 
 few difficulties; there Is no temptation to double 
 the final letter. E and ef are sometimes trouble- 
 some because the Latin stems they Introduce are 
 unfamiliar; or because we forget that ex changes 
 to ef before a stem beginning with /. Note with 
 care the words In the first two columns. 
 
 efface 
 
 emigrant 
 
 elapse 
 
 explain 
 
 effect 
 
 emissary 
 
 excavate 
 
 explode 
 
 effeminate 
 
 enervate 
 
 excellent 
 
 export 
 
 effervescent 
 
 eloquent 
 
 excursion 
 
 express 
 
 effort 
 
 elocution 
 
 exhaust 
 
 extort 
 
 In signifies in, into, or not, without. It Is ex- 
 ceedingly common, and exceedingly troublesome 
 to poor spellers, who forget, or do not know, that 
 in changes to il, im, ir, before I, m, r. 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 135 
 
 Study the following words faithfully, first not- 
 ing the form of the prefix, then determining the 
 significance of the prefix. 
 
 Infuse 
 
 Illegible 
 
 Immaterial 
 
 Irrational 
 
 innovation 
 
 Illiterate 
 
 Immediate 
 
 Irreducible 
 
 Inoculate 
 
 Illiberal 
 
 Immense 
 
 Irregular 
 
 Inquisitive 
 
 Illogical 
 
 Immigrant 
 
 Irreligious 
 
 Inhale 
 
 Illumine 
 
 Immoral 
 
 Irresolute 
 
 Inherit 
 
 Illustrate 
 
 Immunity 
 
 Irreverence 
 
 Sub signifies under. It changes to sue, suf, sug, 
 sum, sup, sur, before c, f, g, m, p, and r. Let the 
 poor speller remember this double consonant ar- 
 rangement; It will save him many slips. 
 
 subcontract 
 
 success 
 
 surreptitious 
 
 suppress 
 
 subscribe 
 
 suffix 
 
 summary 
 
 suppose 
 
 subdivide 
 
 suggest 
 
 support 
 
 suburb 
 
 subjugate 
 
 suffer 
 
 subconscious 
 
 suffice 
 
 In the following table the prefixes are, for con- 
 venient reference, arranged alphabetically. 
 
 Ab (abs) signifies from. 
 
 Ad (ab, ac, af, ag, al, 
 
 an, ap, ar, as, at) " to. 
 
 Ante " before. 
 
 Circum " about, around. 
 Con (co, col, com, 
 
 cor) " with or together. 
 
 De " from or down. 
 
 Dis (di, dif) " apart or not. 
 
 Ex " out, off, or beyond. 
 
136 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 In (il, 
 
 im, 
 
 ir) 
 
 
 signifies 
 
 { in, into, or not, with- 
 out. 
 
 Inter 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 between, together, or 
 among. 
 
 Non 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 not. 
 
 Per 
 
 
 
 
 it 
 
 through or by. 
 
 Post 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 behind or after. 
 
 Pre 
 
 
 
 
 ti 
 
 before. 
 
 Pro 
 
 
 
 
 <i 
 
 forward, before, or in- 
 stead of. 
 
 Re 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 back or again. 
 
 Se 
 
 
 
 
 t( 
 
 apart. 
 
 Sub (j 
 
 3UC, 
 
 suf, 
 
 sug, 
 
 
 
 sum, 
 
 sup 
 
 , sur) 
 
 ({ 
 
 under. 
 
 Super 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 above. 
 
 Trans 
 
 (tran) 
 
 
 « 
 
 across, beyond, or 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 through. 
 
 Suffixes, more numerous than prefixes, and fully 
 as useful, appear in so many of our commonest 
 words that their significance Is learned almost un- 
 consciously. It will not do to pass them by, how- 
 ever, without noting certain rules which tell how 
 suffixes are joined to stems. These rules should be 
 learned. 
 
 Final silent e is kept before an added syllable be- 
 ginning with a consonant, and dropped before a 
 suffix beginning with a vowel ; but words ending in 
 ce or ge retain the e before a and 0. Words ending 
 in t'e drop the e and change the / to / before ing. 
 
 Love-\-ly makes lovely, love-\-ahle makes lov- 
 able. Change+ahle makes changeable and serv- 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 137 
 
 ice+ahle makes serviceable; otherwise there would 
 be a temptation to give g and c the hard sound as 
 in rang and cup. Tie+ing makes tying. The e 
 is dropped since it is final silent e, and i changes to 
 y to prevent the doubling of i. Singeing and dye- 
 ing retain the e to distinguish them from singing 
 and dying. Truly, duly, shoeing, hoeing, toeing, 
 awful, argument, and judgment are other excep- 
 tions to the rule. 
 
 hoping 
 
 advertisement 
 
 subduing 
 
 amazement 
 
 excitement 
 
 tying 
 
 engagement 
 
 traceable 
 
 salable 
 
 infringement 
 
 coming 
 
 blamable 
 
 peaceable 
 
 tasty- 
 
 advantageous 
 
 conceivable 
 
 movable 
 
 spongy 
 
 dining 
 
 dying 
 
 Words ending in a single consonant preceded by a 
 single vowel double the consonant before an added 
 syllable beginning with a vowel, if the word formed 
 is to be accented on the syllable preceding the suf^ 
 fix; otherwise the consonant is not doubled. 
 
 This rule, like the preceding one, is to prevent 
 mispronunciation. Hop-\ring makes hopping. If 
 the consonant were not doubled, we should have 
 no way of distinguishing it from hoping, a very 
 different word. 
 
 goddess 
 
 deference 
 
 occurrence 
 
 usually 
 
 literally 
 
 baggage 
 
 redden 
 
 permitting 
 
 deferred 
 
 slipped 
 
 planned 
 
 nutting 
 
 preference 
 
 beginning 
 
 beginner 
 
 gripping 
 
 preferring 
 
 stopped 
 
 swimming 
 
 compelling 
 
138 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 When preceded by a consonant, final / is generally 
 changed to /before an added syllable not beginning 
 with /; otherwise it remains unchanged. 
 
 Holy-\-day makes holiday, and plenty-\-ful 
 makes plentiful; but joy-\-ful makes joyful, and 
 toy+ing makes toying. There are a few'exceptlons 
 to the rule, among them being shy, sly, and dry, 
 which retain the y before ness and ly; but these 
 we are not apt to misspell. 
 
 pitiful volleying compliance modifying 
 
 denying modifier joyous defiance 
 
 EXERCISE 90 
 
 Without referring to the table, explain the sig- 
 nificance of each of the following prefixes. 
 
 ab ante con dis in 
 
 ad circum de ex inter 
 
 EXERCISE 91 
 
 Explain the significance of each of the follow^ 
 ing prefixes. 
 
 non 
 
 post 
 
 pro se 
 
 super 
 
 per 
 
 pre 
 
 re sub 
 EXERCISE 92 
 
 trans 
 
 Without referring to any hook, write down all 
 the words you can think of which contain the prt- 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 139 
 
 iix AB in any of its forms. Do the same with each 
 of the twenty prefixes. (This may be made a 
 class contest.) 
 
 EXERCISE 93 
 
 What prefixes appear in the following words? 
 Give the original form of each. 
 
 apparel 
 
 commence 
 
 communicate 
 
 illegible 
 suppress 
 suffix 
 
 attribute 
 
 alliteration 
 
 illiterate 
 
 aggregate 
 supply- 
 irreligious 
 
 EXERCISE 94 
 
 In which of the following words has the prefix 
 the force of in or into, and in which has it the 
 force of NOT or without? 
 
 illogical irregular inspiration independent 
 illuminate immigrant inoculate infamy- 
 imbibe involuntary insane indebted 
 impediment insomnia inquisitive incendiary 
 
 EXERCISE 95 
 
 Open the dictionary at random and note how 
 many words containing Latin prefixes there are on 
 a single page. Do the same with a column from 
 the editorial page of any newspaper. Do the 
 same with a page from a magazine. 
 
140 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 96 
 
 CEIVE and CEPT are roots from a Latin word 
 meaning TO take. Form as many words as you 
 can by adding prefixes and suffixes. 
 
 CEDE, CEED, and CESS are roots meaning TO 
 GO or TO YIELD. Form from these roots as many 
 words as you can. 
 
 In the same manner form words from the roots 
 DUC and duct, which are from a Latin word 
 meaning to lead. 
 
 EXERCISE 97 
 
 FECT is from a Latin word meaning TO DO or 
 TO MAKE. Form words from it. 
 
 JECT is from a Latin word meaning TO THROW. 
 Form words from it. 
 
 JUNCT is from a Latin word meaning TO join. 
 Form words from it. 
 
 EXERCISE 98 
 
 MIT and MISS are roots meaning TO SEND. 
 Form words from. them. 
 
 PON and POSIT are roots meaning TO place. 
 Form words from. them. 
 
 TRACT means TO DRAW. Form words from it. 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 141 
 
 EXERCISE 99 
 
 State the rule for adding syllables to words end- 
 ing in silent E. 
 
 State the rule for adding syllables to words end- 
 ing in a single consonant preceded by a single 
 vowel. 
 
 State the rule for adding syllables to words end- 
 ing in Y. 
 
 EXERCISE 100 
 
 Give the rule governing each of the words in 
 the list below. 
 
 dying goddess hoeing deference 
 pitiful serviceable advantageous purity- 
 preference shammed lying hungriest 
 truly subduing judgment shying 
 
 EXERCISE 101 
 
 Study with great care the spelling of the follow- 
 ing zvords, paying particular attention to prefixes. 
 With what letter does the stem of each word 
 begin? 
 
 dissect 
 
 opponent 
 
 appoint 
 
 immediately 
 
 effervescent 
 
 disappear 
 
 aggregate 
 
 affirm 
 
 emergency 
 
 misspell 
 
 correspondent 
 
 addict 
 
 accuracy 
 
 immense 
 
 access 
 
 accidentally 
 
 emigrant 
 
 disagree 
 
 describe 
 
 ascertain 
 
 disobedience 
 
 adjacent 
 
 apparatus 
 
 dissimilar 
 
 irregular 
 
 suppress 
 
 effeminate 
 
 interrupt 
 
142 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 102 
 
 The following are troublesome because of their 
 suffixes, in each case there being a temptation to 
 use a wrong ending. Master them. 
 
 affirmative 
 
 visible 
 
 forcible 
 
 dictionary 
 
 spherical 
 
 bachelor 
 
 connotative 
 
 audible 
 
 coincidence 
 
 conservative 
 
 contemptible 
 
 identical 
 
 experience 
 
 popular 
 
 comparatively 
 
 obedience 
 
 burglar 
 
 infinite 
 
 spontaneous 
 
 purity 
 
 imperative 
 
 penitentiary 
 
 independence 
 
 resistance 
 
 participate 
 
 secretary 
 
 correspondent 
 
 conspirato] 
 
 
 EXERCISE 103 
 
 
 Words containing the diphthongs ei and ie are 
 troublesome until one learns that when the diph- 
 thong has the sound of long e, i comes first except 
 when the diphthong is preceded by c. Weird, 
 seize, neither, and leisure are important exceptions. 
 With this rule in mind, study the following words. 
 
 yield 
 
 niece 
 
 receive 
 
 conceive 
 
 shrieve 
 
 perceive 
 
 fiend 
 
 pierce 
 
 receipt 
 
 deceit 
 
 shriek 
 
 wield 
 
 relieve 
 
 besiege 
 
 achieve 
 
 apiece 
 
 
 EXERCISE 104 
 
 
 The following are commonly misspelled be- 
 cause commonly mispronounced. Are you sure 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 143 
 
 that you are accustomed to pronounce them cor- 
 rectly? 
 
 embroidery 
 
 recognize artistically 
 
 ransacking 
 
 tournament 
 
 sophomore cemetery 
 
 athletics 
 
 quarter 
 
 temperament farthest 
 
 cartridge 
 
 intellect 
 
 laboratory literally 
 
 lightning 
 
 strategy 
 
 accidentally tragedy 
 EXERCISE 105 
 
 tremendous 
 
 The following, frequently misspelled, are very 
 simple when analyzed. Often a long word is but a 
 short, familiar word to which prefix and suffix 
 have been added. A moment's thought should 
 clear away all difficulty. 
 
 recollect 
 agreeableness 
 narrative 
 sensibility 
 
 preparation 
 recommend 
 criticism 
 miraculous 
 
 imagmation 
 undoubtedly 
 ridgepole 
 graphically 
 
 incidentally 
 handsome 
 condescend 
 analysis 
 
 EXERCISE 106 
 
 Here are groups of words arranged in pairs. 
 Put each pair into a sentence or two so constructed 
 as to show without doubt that you know what each 
 word means. 
 
 admission 
 
 affect 
 
 allusion 
 
 altar 
 
 admittance 
 
 effect 
 
 illusion 
 
 alter 
 
 ascent 
 
 bare 
 
 berth 
 
 brake 
 
 assent 
 
 bear 
 
 birth 
 
 break 
 
144 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 breath 
 
 bridal 
 
 calendar 
 
 canon 
 
 breathe 
 
 bridle 
 
 calender 
 
 cannon 
 
 canvas 
 
 capital 
 
 ceiling 
 
 cereal 
 
 canvass 
 
 capitol 
 
 sealing 
 
 serial 
 
 cession 
 
 chandelier 
 
 cite 
 
 clothes 
 
 session 
 
 chanticleer 
 
 site 
 
 cloths 
 
 EXERCISE 107 
 Do the same with the following words. 
 
 coarser 
 
 colonel 
 
 complement 
 
 conservator] 
 
 courser 
 
 kernel 
 
 compliment 
 
 observatory 
 
 council 
 
 creak 
 
 currant 
 
 deceased 
 
 counsel 
 
 creek 
 
 current 
 
 diseased 
 
 desert 
 
 dual 
 
 dyeing 
 
 eligible 
 
 dessert 
 
 duel 
 
 dying 
 
 legible 
 
 emerge 
 
 emigrant 
 
 fain 
 
 faint 
 
 immerge 
 
 immigrant 
 
 feign 
 
 feint 
 
 feat 
 
 formally 
 
 fort 
 
 forth 
 
 fete 
 
 formerly 
 
 forte 
 
 fourth 
 
 EXERCISE 108 
 
 Do the same with the following words, ' 
 
 gait 
 gate 
 
 gilt 
 guilt 
 
 grease 
 Greece 
 
 hail 
 hale 
 
 heal 
 heel 
 
 hew 
 hue 
 
 humerus 
 humorous 
 
 lead 
 led 
 
 leaf 
 lief 
 
 lightening 
 lightning 
 
 lose 
 loose 
 
 mantel 
 mantle 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 145 
 
 meat 
 
 medal 
 
 miner 
 
 partition 
 
 mete 
 
 meddle 
 
 minor 
 
 petition 
 
 peace 
 
 peal 
 
 pedal 
 
 persecute 
 
 piece 
 
 peel 
 
 peddle 
 
 prosecute 
 
 pillar 
 
 prescribe 
 
 principal 
 
 prodigy 
 
 pillow 
 
 proscribe 
 
 principle 
 
 progeny 
 
 prophecy 
 
 real 
 
 respectfully 
 
 ring 
 
 prophesy 
 
 reel 
 
 respectively 
 
 wring 
 
 role 
 
 sewer 
 
 shear 
 
 sleight 
 
 roll 
 
 sower 
 
 sheer 
 
 slight 
 
 soar 
 
 stake 
 
 stationary 
 
 statue 
 
 sore 
 
 steak 
 
 stationery 
 
 statute 
 
 stile 
 
 tail 
 
 team 
 
 waist 
 
 style 
 
 tale 
 
 teem 
 
 waste 
 
 
 EXERCISE 109 
 
 
 Here are pnal lists of words, some of which we 
 have already examined, calling for careful study. 
 Analyze them syllable by syllable. Master them 
 once for all. 
 
 pronunciation 
 
 belligerent 
 
 prejudice 
 
 apparent 
 
 divine 
 
 among 
 
 imitate 
 
 arriving 
 
 salary 
 
 around 
 
 muscle 
 
 dissolve 
 
 control 
 
 brilliant 
 
 arrange 
 
 together 
 
 speech 
 
 proceed 
 
 altogether 
 
 equip 
 
 mysterious 
 
 beseech 
 
 business 
 
 whether 
 
146 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 vegetable 
 
 surprise 
 
 gas 
 
 rummage 
 
 galloped 
 
 separate 
 
 variegated 
 
 melancholy- 
 
 professor 
 
 similar 
 
 privilege 
 
 announce 
 
 artillery- 
 
 divide 
 
 appetite 
 
 EXERCISE 110 
 
 rhythm 
 
 catarrh 
 
 color 
 
 sleeve 
 
 malady 
 
 difficult 
 
 across 
 
 caterpillar 
 
 excel 
 
 sovereign 
 
 embarrass 
 
 restaurant 
 
 essential 
 
 acquisition 
 
 pamphlet 
 
 precede 
 
 villain 
 
 accord 
 
 expel 
 
 terrestrial 
 
 allow 
 
 hospital 
 
 undoubtedly 
 
 agreeable 
 
 grammar 
 
 writer 
 
 acquaintance 
 
 luscious 
 
 twelfth 
 
 burglary 
 
 callous 
 
 syllable 
 
 until 
 
 exaggerate 
 
 abolish 
 
 parliament 
 
 drowned 
 
 nymph 
 
 college 
 
 soliloquy- 
 
 accommodate 
 
 consonant 
 
 EXERCISE 111 
 
 persevere 
 
 marriage 
 
 bereave 
 
 academy 
 
 committee 
 
 possess 
 
 career 
 
 sympathy 
 
 finally 
 
 reverend 
 
 repetition 
 
 annual 
 
 agree 
 
 warrior 
 
 messenger 
 
 paradise 
 
 annex 
 
 resurrect 
 
 odor 
 
 opportunity 
 
 achieve 
 
 duchess 
 
 drudgery 
 
 graphically 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 147 
 
 noticeable 
 
 amateur 
 
 barbarous 
 
 pursue 
 
 assassin 
 
 shepherd 
 
 commencement 
 
 millionaire 
 
 accustomed 
 
 negotiate 
 
 remedy 
 EXERCISE 112 
 
 sergeant 
 
 accordingly 
 
 collapse 
 
 fascinate 
 
 milliner 
 
 feminine 
 
 discourtesy 
 
 gasoline 
 
 cylinder 
 
 disapprove 
 
 image 
 
 physical 
 
 hypocrisy 
 
 Italy 
 
 discipline 
 
 trespass 
 
 incandescent 
 
 genius 
 
 appeal 
 
 fiery 
 
 implement 
 
 haggard 
 
 describe 
 
 crystal 
 
 enemy 
 
 necessity 
 
 kerosene 
 
 complexion 
 
 crescent 
 
 different 
 
 dissipate 
 
 approach 
 
 coincide 
 
 unanimous 
 
 phase 
 
 etiquette 
 EXERCISE 113 
 
 all right 
 
 comical 
 
 chestnutting 
 
 alert 
 
 enthusiasm 
 
 excellent 
 
 comparative 
 
 existence 
 
 exhausting 
 
 exorbitant 
 
 identically 
 
 extraordinary 
 
 irascible 
 
 muscle 
 
 irresistible 
 
 impel 
 
 machinery 
 
 merely 
 
 medicinal 
 
 manageable 
 
 becoming 
 
 measure 
 
 referring 
 
 millinery 
 
 miracle 
 
 divisible 
 
 definitely 
 
 desirable 
 
 arose 
 
 despise 
 
 afraid 
 
 humorous 
 
 hypocrite 
 
 almost 
 
 paralyze 
 
 forty-four 
 
 fierce 
 
 pleasurable 
 
 perseverance 
 
 popped 
 
148 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 114 
 
 fulfil 
 
 fallacy 
 
 fictitious 
 
 acquire 
 
 apostrophe 
 
 association 
 
 driest 
 
 righteous 
 
 ridiculous 
 
 relieve 
 
 abstruse 
 
 remittance 
 
 religious 
 
 decorous 
 
 destroy 
 
 appeal 
 
 remembrance 
 
 diphthong 
 
 dubious 
 
 boundary 
 
 benefit 
 
 organization 
 
 orator 
 
 obedience 
 
 occupant 
 
 optician 
 
 lief 
 
 lucrative 
 
 genealogy 
 
 ninetieth 
 
 necessary 
 
 ninth 
 
 hurried 
 
 hygiene 
 
 holiness 
 
 neither 
 
 EXERCISE 115 
 
 queer 
 
 wield 
 
 vying 
 
 visitor 
 
 village 
 
 vicious 
 
 vertical 
 
 thief 
 
 tyrannize 
 
 till 
 
 tyrannize 
 
 siege 
 
 summary 
 
 sponging 
 
 sensible 
 
 success 
 
 surpass 
 
 sentinel 
 
 separate 
 
 sure 
 
 scheme 
 
 sufficient 
 
 supersede 
 
 schedule 
 
 spherical 
 
 souvenir 
 
 simile 
 
 privilege 
 
 pecuniary 
 
 possession 
 
 dutiful 
 
 plausible 
 
 parallel 
 
 prescription 
 
 probable 
 
 partner 
 
WORD-BUILDING AND SPELLING 149 
 
 For convenient reference the rules for spelling 
 are here brought together. 
 
 1. When the diphthong ei or ie has the sound of 
 long e, / comes first except when the diphthong is 
 preceded by c. Weird, seize, neither, and leisure are 
 exceptions. 
 
 2. Final silent e is usually kept before an added 
 syllable beginning with a consonant, and dropped 
 before a suffix beginning with a vowel; but words 
 ending in ce or ge retain the e before a and 0. 
 Words ending in ie drop the e and change the / to 
 / before ing. Truly, duly, awful, argument, and judg- 
 ment are exceptions. 
 
 3. Words ending in a single consonant preceded 
 by a single vowel double the final consonant before 
 an added syllable beginning with a vowel, if the 
 word formed is to be accented on the syllable pre- 
 ceding the suffix; otherwise the consonant is not 
 doubled. 
 
 4. When preceded by a consonant, final / is gen- 
 erally changed to / before an added syllable not be- 
 ginning with i; otherwise it remains unchanged. 
 Shy, sly, and dry are exceptions, y being retained before 
 ness and ly. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SENTENCE ANALYSIS: A REVIEW 
 OF GRAMMAR 
 
 Words are but feeble things except when prop- 
 erly arranged In groups and set to work. They 
 resemble In this respect the parts of a machine, a 
 typewriter for Instance, which must be assembled 
 with care, each part properly fitted in its place, 
 before the machine becomes serviceable. The dic- 
 tionary, which we may call first of the great law- 
 books of language, considers words singly, telling 
 what each one means, how It should be spelled, 
 how pronounced. Grammar, correctly speaking, 
 includes all, or nearly all, that the average dic- 
 tionary contains. As the term is commonly em- 
 ployed, however, the special province of grammar 
 is to record what is good usage among language- 
 respecting people as regards words when grouped 
 for service — what forms they take and how they 
 are arranged. It may well be called the second 
 great law-book. The following review is much 
 too brief to be complete. It touches but lightly 
 upon many things and passes by others altogether, 
 the purpose being merely to freshen the memory 
 
 150 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 151 
 
 In regard to such matters as are of real Importance 
 to one who is trying to learn to speak and write 
 correctly. 
 
 The simplest word-group, It will be recalled, Is 
 the sentence, with Its two vital parts, subject and 
 predicate. The former names that concerning 
 which the sentence tells something; the latter is 
 the part which does the telling. There are four 
 kinds of sentences : the declarative, used In making 
 an assertion; the Interrogative, using In asking a 
 question; the Imperative, used in entreating, com- 
 manding, and in giving directions; the exclama- 
 tory, used In expressing deep feeling. 
 
 Declarative: The tide has turned. 
 Interrogative: Has the tide turned? 
 Imperative: Seek the truth. 
 Exclamatory: How gallantly they ride! 
 
 Another set of names is used to Indicate the 
 structure of sentences. If made up of one subject 
 and one predicate, a sentence Is called simple. If 
 made up of two or more Independent clauses, it 
 Is called compound. A sentence made up of one 
 independent clause and one or more dependent * 
 clauses is called complex. Compound-complex is 
 a name applied to a sentence made up of Independ- 
 ent clauses one or more of which are complex. By 
 clause, as used in the above definitions. Is meant 
 a group of words containing a subject and a pred- 
 icate and forming part of a sentence. It differs 
 
 o. >- 
 
52 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 
 from a phrase, which is a group of related words 
 that does not contain subject and predicate. It 
 resembles a phrase in that it is often used as if it 
 were a single word. 
 
 Phrase: in the morning 
 
 Clause : where I had determined to spend the night 
 
 Simple sentence: We reached the village. 
 
 Compound sentence: The stars fade and dawn appears. 
 
 Complex sentence: In the evening we reached the vil- 
 lage where I had determined to spend the night. 
 
 Compound-complex sentence: We discovered that we 
 had forgotten the packet and Pierre was sent for it. 
 
 Thus we have the following display. 
 
 Declarative making an assertion 
 Interrogative asking a question 
 Purpose -{ Imperative commanding, direct- 
 ing, or entreating 
 Exclamatory expressing deep feeling 
 
 Sentences -{ 
 
 Simple having but one subject 
 
 and one predicate 
 Structure i Co^^po^iid made up of two or more 
 
 independent clauses 
 Complex containing one or more 
 
 *- dependent clauses 
 
 There are eight kinds of words: nouns, pro- 
 nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, 
 conjunctions, and interjections. It should be re- 
 membered, however, that just as upon occasion a 
 lawyer may become a lecturer, or a schoolboy a 
 fisherman, so a given word may be now one " part 
 of speerh," now another. What a word is doing 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 153 
 
 determines what it should be called. If used to 
 name something, it is a noun. If used as a substi- 
 tute for a noun, it is a pronoun. Nouns and pro- 
 nouns, indeed all words or word-groups used like 
 nouns, are called substantives. A verb is a word 
 or phrase used to assert something concerning that 
 which a substantive names or designates. Adjec- 
 tives are words used to modify the meaning of 
 substantives, and adverbs are words used to mod- 
 ify the meaning of verbs, adjectives, or other ad- 
 verbs. Adjectives and adverbs, and all words or 
 word-groups used like adjectives or adverbs, are 
 called modifiers. Prepositions connect substantives 
 with other words, and show how they are related; 
 conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses. Prep- 
 ositions and conjunctions, and other parts of 
 speech when used like them, are called connectives. 
 An interjection is a word — a cry or an exclama- 
 tion — used to express deep feeling. These defini- 
 tions are not In every Instance complete; but they 
 serve sufficiently well to point out In a general way 
 the service performed by each part of speech. 
 
 Noun: The day Is done. 
 
 Pronoun: They run. 
 
 Verb: The birds have flown. 
 
 Adjective: A soft answer turneth away wrath. 
 
 Adverb : The sentinel walked softly. 
 
 Preposition : Two of the ships were lost. 
 
 Conjunction : Come and trip it as ye go. 
 
 Interjection: Alas! 
 
154 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 Thus we have the following display. 
 
 Parts of 
 Speech 
 
 Nouns -words used as names 
 
 Pronouns words used as substitutes for nouns 
 
 Verbs words used in making assertions 
 
 Adjectives words used to modify substantives 
 Adverbs words used to modify verbs, adjec- 
 
 tives, adverbs 
 Prepositions words used to connect substantives 
 with other words and show how 
 they are related 
 Conjunctions words used to connect words, 
 
 phrases, clauses 
 Interjections cries and exclamations used to 
 express deep feeling 
 
 Studying this table for a moment, one cannot 
 fail to see that the various parts of speech enjoy 
 but little independence; they must work together 
 just as the individuals of a community must; all 
 are needed, none is self-sufficient. Nouns are help- 
 less without verbs, and verbs helpless without 
 nouns. Pronouns, great time-savers that enable 
 us to take short cuts, and to push ahead without 
 too often retracing steps, are meaningless when by 
 themselves. Adjectives and adverbs must have 
 something to cling to, other words to work for; 
 and connectives, when by themselves, are like 
 mortar without bricks, bridges without banks to 
 join, or sign-boards where there are no cross-ways. 
 Interjections, of all the parts of speech, enjoy a 
 degree of lonely independence; yet a page of in- 
 terjections and nothing else would be unintelligible. 
 The Oh! Alas! or Mercy! means nothing until 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 155 
 
 some complete sentence explains what has pro- 
 duced the emotion represented by the exclamation. 
 
 In the second place it may be noted that though 
 no word Is wholly Independent, the eight parts of 
 speech are of different value or rank, this suggest- 
 ing again a parallel between words and individ- 
 uals. The noun Is easily the most Important, In 
 numbers as well as in service. If we could have 
 but this one part of speech w^e should manage 
 somehow, though lamely, without the other seven. 
 Next comes the verb, without which there could be 
 no complete sentence. A workaday world might 
 get along fairly well with these two parts of speech 
 alone. Adjectives and adverbs are plainly In- 
 ferior to nouns and verbs, and the connectives are 
 of a still lower order; yet vigor, precision, and 
 beauty of expression depend so largely on a com- 
 mand of these minor groups of words that they 
 are entitled to our full respect and merit close 
 study. The relative Importance of each part of 
 speech may be tested in an interesting way by tak- 
 ing a paragraph from any book and removing 
 from It in turn the nouns, the pronouns, and so on. 
 
 Finally comes the thought that though there is 
 no such thing as Independence among words, and 
 though some parts of speech may be considered 
 of higher rank than others, nevertheless each term 
 In the language enjoys a kind of supremacy, each 
 is a specialist doing some one thing better than It 
 can be done by any other. 
 
 Interjections and prepositions do not change in 
 
156 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 form, nor can they be subdivided into classes or 
 varieties according to the service they perform. 
 Other parts of speech may be subdivided, and 
 with the exception of the conjunction they may be 
 "inflected" more or less; that is, they may be 
 bent into this or that shape to express shades of 
 meaning and to show the relationship of word to 
 word, much as some machines may be " adjusted " 
 to perform different kinds of work. For exam- 
 ple, boys is an inflected form of boy, and worked 
 an inflected form of work. Centuries ago, our 
 language was much more highly inflected than it is 
 to-day. Many forms have dropped out of use, 
 and others are gradually disappearing. Yet the 
 shades of meaning and the relationships they once 
 expressed still remain, and often the names of 
 these are retained even though the inflected forms 
 are gone. We will now take up each part of 
 speech separately, considering its subdivisions, its 
 inflections, and the service it performs. 
 
 Nouns 
 
 ' Kinds common, proper 
 
 i number : singular, plural 
 Forms \ gender : masculine, feminine, neuter 
 
 ( case : nominative, possessive, objective 
 
 (i) subject of verb, (2) object of verb, (3) 
 indirect object of verb, (4) object of 
 preposition, (5) denoting possession, 
 How used ^ (6) appositive to a substantive, (7) 
 predicate nominative, (8) nominative 
 absolute, (9) nominative by address, 
 (10) adverbial objective 
 
 A common noun is a name which may be ap- 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 157 
 
 plied to any one of an entire class of things; a 
 proper noun designates a particular one, distin- 
 guishing it from others of the same class. Illit- 
 erate people sometimes fail to begin the proper 
 noun with a capital, and frequently begin with a 
 capital a word, especially the name of a plant or 
 an animal, with which they are not familiar. Dog 
 is a common noun; so too is ichthyosaurus, not- 
 withstanding the fact that it has many syllables 
 and sounds strange to the ear. '- ^ ^ » ' .'^\ 
 
 1 heregular way of forming the plural is by 
 adding s or es to the singular, observation rather 
 than hard and fast rules teaching which ending is 
 correct in a given case. It is well to remember, 
 however, that nouns ending in y preceded by a 
 consonant change the y to i and add es; that a few, 
 though not all, words ending in fe change the 
 f to V and add s; and that a few, though not all, 
 ending in o preceded by a consonant add es. For- 
 eign words are troublesome in that many of them 
 have plural endings not found in our language. 
 The oddest rule is that which bids us indicate the 
 plural of figures, letters, and signs by adding *s. 
 (See Exercise 121 on page 187.) 
 
 pony 
 
 ponies 
 
 valley 
 
 valleys 
 
 knife 
 
 knives 
 
 potato 
 
 potatoes 
 
 vertebra 
 
 vertebrae 
 
 6 
 
 6's 
 
 t 
 
 . t's 
 
 + 
 
 +'s 
 
 Few nouns have separate forms to indicate dif- 
 ference in gender; but that which a word names 
 may have gender, so we may speak of noum a§ mas- 
 
158 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 culine, feminine, and neuter. It is somewhat the 
 same with case as it is with gender. One form 
 now suffices for both nominative and objective; 
 the only inflection is that which denotes what is 
 loosely called possession. The regular way of 
 forming the possessive is by adding 's to the sin- 
 gular and to all plurals not ending in s. Plurals 
 ending in s add the apostrophe only. When a 
 noun of more than one syllable ends in an 5 or z 
 sound, some writers prefer to indicate the singular 
 possessive by adding simply the apostrophe; 
 others, and they are to be commended, follow 
 the regular rule. Ulysses's voyage, Xerxes' s ex- 
 ercises, and similar phrases have an unpleasant 
 sound. Perhaps the sanest way is to avoid such 
 ugly combinations by writing the voyage of 
 Ulysses and the exercises of Xerxes. If two or 
 more nouns joined by and show joint possession, 
 as in the sentence This is John and Henry's boat, 
 the sign of possession is needed with the last noun 
 only; but we write correctly This is either John's 
 or Henry's, and This is neither John's nor 
 Henry's, (See Exercise 122 on page 188.) 
 
 man's men's Dickens's masterpiece 
 
 lady's ladies' The deeds of Themistocles 
 
 Brown and Green's harness shop (joint possession) 
 Goldsmith's and Burns's poems (separate possession) 
 Is this Monday's or Tuesday's Tribune? 
 It Is neither Monday's nor Tuesday's. 
 
 The ways in which nouns are used will be better 
 understood later on when the other parts of speech 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 
 
 159 
 
 have been examined. Since this Is a review of 
 grammar, the following examples should not prove 
 wholly unintelligible. The numbers correspond to 
 those found In the table on page 156. 
 
 I. Fire burns. 2. Obey the law. 3. They offered 
 Ccesar a crown. 4. He lives in Savannah. 5. Great 
 Expectations is the title of one of Dickens's best novels. 
 6. We followed the Ohio River, a branch of the Missis- 
 sippi. 7. This is my native land. 8. The day being 
 clear, we had an extended view. 9. In thee, O Lord, do 
 I put my trust. 10. Good-bye, proud world, I'm going 
 home. 
 
 Pronouns 
 
 Kinds ^ 
 
 Forms 
 
 Personal: I, you, thou, he, she, it; 
 myself, yourself, etc. 
 
 Relative or Conjunctive : who, which, 
 what, that ; whoever, whatsoever, etc. 
 
 Demonstrative : this, that 
 
 Interrogative : who, which, what, 
 whether 
 
 Indefinite or Adjective : each, either, 
 neither, some, any, many, few, all, 
 both, aught, naught, one, some one, 
 any one, every one, no one, such 
 other, each other, one another 
 
 Person : first, second, third 
 
 Number : singular, plural 
 
 Gender : masculine, feminine, neuter 
 
 Case : nominative, possessive, objective 
 
 How used: (i) To take the place of the noun, 
 serving in all save the last of 
 the ten ways mentioned in 
 connection with nouns ; (2) to 
 take the place of a noun and at 
 the same time serve as a con- 
 nective (relative pronouns only) 
 
i6o 
 
 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 Personal pronouns, so called because some al- 
 ways represent the " first " person or the one 
 speaking, others the " second " person or the one 
 spoken to, and others the "third" person or the 
 person or thing spoken of, are so commonly mis- 
 used that it seems best to give their inflections in 
 full. 
 
 
 Sing. 
 
 Plu. 
 
 
 Sing. Plu. 
 
 Nom. 
 
 I 
 
 we 
 
 
 you you 
 
 Pes. 
 
 my 
 
 our 
 
 
 your your 
 
 
 or mine 
 
 or ours 
 
 
 or yours or yours 
 
 Obj. 
 
 me 
 
 us 
 
 
 you you 
 
 Nom. 
 
 thou 
 
 ye 
 
 
 he she it they 
 
 Pos. 
 
 thy 
 
 your 
 
 
 his her its their 
 
 
 or thine 
 
 ^r yours 
 
 
 {or hers) or theirs 
 
 Obj. 
 
 thee 
 
 you 
 
 Singul 
 
 him her it them 
 ar 
 
 Nom. 
 
 myself 
 
 thyself 
 or yourself 
 
 
 himself herself itself 
 
 Pos. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 — — — 
 
 Obj. 
 
 myself 
 
 r 
 
 Nom. c 
 
 thyself 
 or yourself 
 
 Plural 
 
 himself herself itself 
 
 
 mrselves yourselves themselves 
 
 
 Pos. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 Obj. ourselves yourselves themselves 
 
 Notice that there are no such forms as ourn, 
 youer, yourn, hisn, hern, their n, their selves, its- 
 self, and that in no form is the apostrophe used. 
 YouWe, 3, contracted form of you are, is often con- 
 fused with your. 
 
 The relative pronouns are so called because they 
 " relate " or refer to substantives. Since at the 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS i6i 
 
 same time they introduce clauses, thus serving as 
 connectives, they are also called conjunctive pro- 
 nouns. Of all the conjunctions, who alone is 
 inflected. 
 
 
 Sing. 
 
 Plu. 
 
 Nom. 
 
 who 
 
 who 
 
 Pos. 
 
 whose 
 
 whose 
 
 Obj. 
 
 whom 
 
 whom 
 
 Notice that there Is no such form as whoes or 
 whos. PFho^s is a contracted form of who is. 
 
 The interrogatives, so called because used in 
 asking questions, are not inflected, with the ex- 
 ception of who, which differs in no respect from 
 the relative who. 
 
 The demonstratives this and that, with their 
 plural forms these and those, direct attention to 
 persons or things, pointing them out. Be careful 
 not to use the personal pronoun as if it were a 
 demonstrative. Look at them boys should be 
 Look at those hoys. Remember too that these 
 and those are plural forms, while sort and kind 
 are singular. These kind, those sort, and similar 
 vulgarisms are very common. 
 
 The indefinites, so called because they do not 
 definitely represent particular persons or things, 
 are a low order of pronoun, more often used as 
 adjectives. Indeed, many pronouns do double 
 duty, serving now as pronouns, now as adjectives; 
 and we have seen that relative pronouns serve as 
 conjunctions. This leads to confusion, which dis- 
 appears only when we apply to a word in a given 
 
1 62 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 sentence the name which best describes the service 
 it performs in that sentence. 
 
 In the first group of sentences given below, the 
 pronouns are used like nouns, serving as subject, 
 object, etc., the numbers corresponding to those 
 in the noun table. Notice that the pronoun is 
 not used as an adverbial objective. In the second 
 group, the pronouns take the place of nouns and 
 at the same time serve as connectives. 
 
 I. This is the forest primeval. 2. Take it, if 
 you wish. 3. Please give him my cane. 4. May 
 we go with himl 5. My courage weakens, and 
 so, I suspect, does yours, 6. A few fortunate 
 ones, those who had clear records in deportment, 
 were permitted to go. 7. This is he. 8. This 
 having been attended to, we retired for the night. 
 9. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. 
 
 I. Let him who standeth take heed lest he fall. 
 2. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack 
 built. . 
 
 articles : a, an, the 
 
 numerals : one, two, first, sec- 
 
 . ond, etc. 
 
 pronominals: my, thy, his, her, 
 
 its : this, that ; which, what ; 
 
 each, every, either, neither, 
 
 some, any, many, few, all, 
 
 both, other 
 
 Adjec- , 
 tives 
 
 Kinds 
 
 limiting 
 
 I common 
 descriptive ^p^^pgj. 
 
 Forms : positive, comparative, superlative 
 
 How used : To modify substantives attributively, 
 appositively, and predicatively 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 163 
 
 Adjectives present few difficulties, except as they 
 change to Indicate degrees of comparison. In some 
 cases degree Is Indicated by an entire change of 
 word, as In good, better, best; In others -er and -est 
 are added to the positive form, as In sweet, 
 sweeter, sweetest; and In still others the compara- 
 tive and the superlative are Indicated by placing 
 more and most or less and least before the adjec- 
 tive. No rule covers all cases ; what Is right must 
 be learned through observation. Uneducated peo- 
 ple sometimes forget that a proper adjective — 
 that Is, an adjective derived from a proper noun, 
 as Roman derived from the proper noun Rome — 
 should begin with a capital. The distinction be- 
 tween a pronoun and a pronominal adjective Is not 
 troublesome If we remember that the adjective 
 always modifies a substantive. 
 Pronoun : This is my book. 
 
 What others have done, we may do. 
 
 Each may take one. 
 
 One may be mistaken. 
 Adjective: This book belongs to me. 
 
 The other house is preferable. 
 
 We do a little better each time. 
 
 One day follows another. 
 The three ways In which an adjective may be 
 used — perhaps we should say four ways, since an 
 adjective is sometimes used as a noun — are here 
 illustrated. 
 
 I. The green fields invite us. 2. The crowd, heedless, 
 rushed into danger. 3. The fields are green. 4. The 
 wicked shall perish. 
 
 
1 64 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 Kinds 
 
 Verbs ^ ^^^^^ 
 
 1. Transitive, intransitive 
 
 2. Strong conjugation, weak conjugation 
 
 Voice : active, passive 
 Mood : indicative, subjunctive, potential^ 
 imperative 
 
 Tense : present, past, future, perfect, past 
 
 perfect, future perfect 
 Person : first, second, third 
 Number : singular, plural 
 Verbals : infinitives, participles 
 
 . How used: (i) To form the essential part of the 
 predicate ; (2) to serve as a substan- 
 tive (infinitive) ; (3) to serve as an 
 adjective (participle) 
 
 The verb is a difficult part of speech to master. 
 Very few — perhaps It Is safe to say not more than 
 one in a hundred — ever do master it. Gramma- 
 rians cannot agree perfectly on all points relating 
 to it, and they differ widely in regard to the names 
 which should be applied to its various forms and 
 relations. We shall try, without going too deeply 
 Into matters, to get hold of such essentials as 
 are needed in order to talk about verbs intelli- 
 gibly and use them with a reasonable degree of 
 correctness. 
 
 A verb is used transitively when it requires an 
 object to complete its meaning; that Is, when It 
 requires a substantive to " receive Its action," as 
 in the sentence Jack built a house. A verb Is used 
 intransitively when it does not require an object, 
 as in the sentence The sun shines. Some verbs are 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 165 
 
 always used Intransitively, others may be used 
 either way. (See Exercise 129 on page 196.) 
 
 Verbs are said to be of the strong or the weak 
 conjugation according to the way they are in- 
 flected. Weak verbs regularly add d or ed to the 
 root to form the past tense and the past participle. 
 Strong verbs regularly change the vowel of the 
 root, either in the past tense or in the past parti- 
 ciple or in both, and sometimes add n or en to form 
 the past participle. 
 
 Weak conjugation: work, worked, worked 
 Strong conjugation: speak, spoke, spoken 
 
 Many verbs, both strong and weak, are In- 
 flected more or less irregularly, and some irregu- 
 larities are so misleading that it Is often difficult 
 to tell to what conjugation a verb belongs even 
 though its principal parts, as the present, past, and 
 past participle forms are called, are familiar to 
 us. It is a comfort to reflect that knowing the 
 principal parts of a verb is of more importance 
 than being able to tell to what conjugation It be- 
 longs. (See Exercise 125 on page 192.) 
 
 Perhaps the best way to get at the many diffi- 
 culties presented by voice, mood, and tense will be 
 to display a complete verb. Pronouns will be used 
 for the purpose of showing the various forms 
 called for by subjects In the first, second, and third 
 person, singular and plural; for a verb *' agrees " 
 with Its subject in person and number. It should 
 
i66 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 be remembered that the pronoun is not a part of 
 the verb. 
 
 ACTIVE VOICE 
 
 INDICATIVE MOOD 
 
 Simple Form 
 
 I love 
 
 you love or thou 
 
 lovest * 
 he loves 
 
 we love 
 you love 
 they love 
 
 Emphatic Form 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 I do love 
 
 you do love or thou 
 
 dost love 
 he does love or he 
 
 doth love 
 
 we do love 
 
 you ipr ye) do love 
 
 they do love 
 
 Progressive Form 
 
 I am loving 
 you are loving or 
 thou art loving 
 he is loving 
 
 we are loving 
 
 you {or ye) are loving 
 
 they are loving 
 
 PAST 
 
 I loved I did love 
 
 you loved or thou you did love or 
 
 lovedst thou didst love 
 
 he loved he did love 
 
 we loved 
 you loved 
 
 they loved 
 
 I shall love 
 you will love 
 he will love 
 
 we shall love 
 you will love 
 they will love 
 
 we did love 
 you {or ye) did 
 
 love 
 they did love 
 
 SIMPLE future 
 
 I was loving 
 you were loving or 
 thou wast loving 
 he was loving 
 
 we were loving 
 
 you {or ye) were loving 
 
 they were loving 
 
 I shall be loving 
 you will be loving 
 he will be loving 
 
 we shall be loving 
 you will be loving 
 they will be loving 
 
 * The older forms for the second person are given in the present and pjist 
 tenses only, though they arc found in other tenses as well. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 
 
 167 
 
 VOLITIONAL FUTURE 
 
 I will love 
 you shall love 
 he shall love 
 we will love 
 you shall love 
 they shall love 
 
 I have loved 
 you have loved 
 he has loved 
 we have loved 
 you have loved 
 they have loved 
 
 I had loved 
 you had loved 
 he had loved 
 we had loved 
 you had loved 
 they had loved 
 
 1 shall have loved 
 you will have loved 
 he will have loved 
 we shall have loved 
 you will have loved 
 they will have loved 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 PAST PERFECT 
 
 I will be loving 
 you shall be loving 
 he shall be loving 
 we will be loving 
 you shall be loving 
 they shall be loving 
 
 I have been loving 
 you have been loving 
 he has been loving 
 we have been loving 
 you have been loving 
 they have been loving 
 
 I had been loving 
 you had been loving 
 he had been loving 
 we had been loving 
 you had been loving 
 they had been loving 
 
 FUTURE PERFECT 
 
 I shall have been loving 
 you will have been loving 
 he will have been loving 
 we shall have been loving 
 you will have been loving 
 they will have been loving 
 
 SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD 
 
 Emphatic Form Progressive Form 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 (if) I, you, he love (if) I, you, he do love (if) I, you, he be 
 
 loving 
 
 (if) we, you, they (if) we, you, they do (if) we, you, they be 
 
 love loving 
 
 SIMPLE Form 
 
 love 
 
1 68 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 PAST 
 
 (if) I, you, he loved (if) I, you, he, did (if) I, you, he were 
 
 love loving 
 
 (if) we, you, they (if) we, you, they did (if) we, you, they 
 
 loved did love were loving 
 
 POTENTIAL MOOD 
 Simple Form Progressive Form 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 I, you, he may* love I, you, he may be loving 
 
 we, you, they may love we, you, they may be loving 
 
 PAST 
 
 I, you, he might f love I, you, he might be loving 
 
 we, you, they might love we, you, they might be loving 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 I, you, he may * have loved I, you, he may have been loving 
 we, you, they may have loved we, you, they may have been 
 
 loving 
 
 PAST PERFECT 
 
 I, you, he might f have loved I, you, he might have been lov- 
 ing 
 we, you, they might have we, you, they might have been 
 loved loving 
 
 IMPERATIVE MOOD 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 love do love be loving 
 
 INFINITIVES 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 to love, loving to be loving 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 to have loved, having loved to have been loving 
 
 loving 
 
 PARTICIPLES 
 PRESENT 
 
 having loved having been loving 
 
 * Can and must are other potential auxiliaries. 
 f Could, would and should are other auxiliaries. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 
 
 169 
 
 Simple Form 
 
 I am loved 
 you are loved 
 he is loved 
 
 we are loved 
 you are loved 
 they are loved 
 
 I was loved 
 you were loved 
 he was loved 
 
 we were loved 
 you were loved 
 they were loved 
 
 I shall be loved 
 I will be loved 
 1 have been loved 
 I had been loved 
 
 PASSIVE VOICE 
 
 INDICATIVE MOOD 
 
 PROGRESSIVE FORM 
 PRESENT 
 
 I am being loved 
 you are being loved 
 he is being loved 
 
 we are being loved 
 you are being loved 
 they are being loved 
 
 PAST 
 
 I was being loved 
 you were being loved 
 he was being loved 
 
 we were being loved 
 you were being loved 
 they were being loved 
 
 SIMPLE FUTURE 
 VOLITIONAL FUTURE 
 
 PAST PERFECT 
 
 FUTURE PERFECT 
 
 I shall have been loved 
 
 (if) I be loved 
 (if) I were loved 
 
 I may be loved 
 
 SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD 
 PRESENT 
 
 PAST 
 
 (if) I were being loved 
 
 POTENTIAL MOOD 
 
 PRESENT 
 
170 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 PAST 
 
 I might be loved 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 I may have been loved 
 
 PAST PERFECT 
 
 I might have been loved 
 
 IMPERATIVE MOOD 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 be loved 
 
 INFINITIVES 
 
 PRESENT 
 
 to be loved, being loved 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 to have been loved, having been loved 
 
 PARTICIPLES 
 PRESENT 
 
 being loved 
 
 PAST 
 
 loved 
 
 PERFECT 
 
 having been loved 
 
 As we study this display, we note first of all that 
 though the verb has a few inflections — loves, 
 loved, loving — its conjugation is made up largely 
 of phrases in which am, have, do, shall, will, may, 
 etc., appear. These words, verbs all of them, 
 are called auxiliaries, because they are used prin- 
 cipally in combination with other verbs, helping to 
 express various shades of meaning. It is good 
 mental exercise to dissect a long phrase like may 
 have been loving and try to determine what each 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 171 
 
 word does toward completing the Idea; but ordi- 
 narily It Is better for the young student to think 
 of the phrase as If It were all a single word. (See 
 Exercise 127 on page 194.) 
 
 The Indicative mood Is used In plain, straight- 
 away assertion and question. It presents no diffi- 
 culties except In two tenses, the past and the future, 
 and these must be examined with great care. 
 
 Was Is singular, were is plural. It Is therefore 
 Incorrect to write They was all present, We was 
 pleased to see him; for the verb should agree with 
 Its subject in number. But note that nowhere Is 
 was found in the second person singular. It Is 
 you were loving and not you was loving, you were 
 being loved and not you was being loved. It Is 
 odd that the plural form were should be used with 
 the singular pronoun you, but It Is so used by those 
 who speak correctly. Those who say you was In- 
 stead of you were belong, as a rule, to the large, 
 unfortunate class who use aint and haint for am 
 not and haven't. Aint and haint are forms un- 
 known to grammar. 
 
 Shall and will are troublesome because each per- 
 forms a double service, sometimes indicating plain 
 futurity and sometimes volition, or an act of the 
 will. They cease to give trouble when the mean- 
 ing of the words futurity and volition is clearly 
 understood and a few simple rules have been 
 mastered. When one says / shall be twenty to- 
 morrozv, or Friday will be the thirteenth, he does 
 not mean that he Is determined to be twenty on 
 
172 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 the morrow, or that he promises to make Friday 
 the thirteenth, for these are matters over which 
 he has no control; he simply states a future cer- 
 tainty. On the other hand / will give you a dollar 
 for your knife Is a promise; and He shall siifer 
 for this Is a threat or the expression of determina- 
 tion. Promises, threats, resolves, and the like, are 
 acts of the will ; they come under the general term 
 volition. Three rules cover nearly all troublesome 
 cases. 
 
 I. To express a simple future, use shall with the 
 first person, will with the second and the third. 
 
 II. To express volition, use will with the first per- 
 son, shall with the second and the third. 
 
 III. In an interrogative sentence, use shall with 
 the first person always. With the second person and 
 the third use shall when shall is expected in the 
 answer and will when will is expected in the answer. 
 
 (See Exercises 132 and 133 on pages 200-201.) 
 The subjunctive mood is used most commonly 
 In conditional clauses to imply that the contrary of 
 that which is stated is true, as In the sentence // 
 to-day were to-morrow^ we should know all about 
 it. It is also used sometimes to express a wish, 
 as in the sentence O that I were home! But the 
 subjunctive mood has almost disappeared from 
 our common speech. The idea of extreme doubt, 
 supposition, condition contrary to fact, etc., re- 
 mains, but It is no longer expressed by a separate 
 system of forms such as we have In the Indicative 
 mood. The indicative and potential forms, helped 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 173 
 
 out not a little by the conjunctions i/, though , un- 
 less, except, lest, and whether, now do most of the 
 work formerly done by the subjunctive. Little 
 attention, therefore, need be paid to this mood, ex- 
 cept in a single case where it still performs an im- 
 portant service. Notice carefully the indicative 
 and subjunctive past tense progressive forms of 
 the verb love. 
 
 Indicative 
 I was loving we were loving 
 
 you were loving you were loving 
 
 he was loving they were loving 
 
 Subjunctive 
 if I were loving if we were loving 
 
 if you were loving if you were loving 
 if he were loving if they were loving 
 
 The if is not a part of the verb ; it appears in con- 
 nection with the subjunctive merely because some 
 such conjunction is frequently, though not always, 
 used with that mood. It may be used with the 
 indicative too; but if I was loving and if I were 
 loving do not mean the same thing. The former 
 expresses a simple condition in past time; the lat- 
 ter has nothing to do with past time, but sets forth 
 a state of affairs contrary to fact or merely thought 
 of. Note the following sentences: 
 
 If the day was pleasant, they must have enjoyed the 
 drive. 
 
 If the day were pleasant, they might enjoy the drive. 
 
 In the first sentence the speaker tells simply 
 what must have happened under a given condition. 
 
174 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 The sentence has to do with past time. It does 
 not suppose something which is not true; it is a 
 pure conditional sentence. In the second there is 
 an element of make-believe. The day, we know 
 at once, is not pleasant, but the speaker imagines 
 what might happen were the day different. The 
 sentence has nothing to do with past time. The 
 rule covering the use of the two moods in the past 
 tense is as follows: 
 
 Use the past tense of the indicative to express sim- 
 ple condition in past time. Use the past tense of 
 the subjunctive to express the idea of uncertainty, 
 extreme doubt, or condition contrary to fact in pres- 
 ent time. (See Exercise 131 on page 199.) 
 
 Potential is a term, old-fashioned and very 
 much too narrow but still convenient, applied by 
 some to all verb phrases containing the auxiliaries 
 may, can, must, might, could, would, or should, 
 auxiliaries which help the verbs they accom- 
 pany to express a variety of ideas such as obli- 
 gation, power, possibility, liberty. Many gram- 
 marians believe that there is no potential mood; 
 the so-called potentials they class as indicatives 
 and subjunctives. It is of more importance that 
 we learn to use may, can, and the rest of the aux- 
 iliaries correctly than it is that we settle this dis- 
 puted point. 
 
 May, can, would, and should are the four aux- 
 iliaries most commonly misused. Can denotes 
 ability to do. May sometimes denotes a wish, as 
 in the sentence May you have a pleasant journey; 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 175 
 
 and sometimes possibility, as in the sentence It 
 may rain; and sometimes permission, as in the sen- 
 tence You may go now. The point to be remem- 
 bered is this: 
 
 Can denotes ability to do; may denotes permis- 
 sion. Hence You can go means You are able to 
 go; You may go means I give you permission to 
 go. (See Exercise 135 on page 202.) 
 
 Should is sometimes used to express the idea of 
 duty or obligation, and would to express the idea 
 of accustomed action, as in the sentences JVe 
 should be just to our enemies and We would hear 
 the swallows chattering in the big chimney when- 
 ever the mother bird brought food. But they are 
 used also like shall and will and in a general way 
 follow the same rules, should corresponding to 
 shall, and would corresponding to will. This is seen 
 when a sentence in direct discourse is turned into 
 indirect discourse. He said, '^ I shall be home to- 
 morrow^' becomes He said that he should be home 
 to-morrow. He said, '' / will help pay for the 
 boat " becomes He said he would help pay for the 
 boat. In a conditional clause, should is used with 
 all three persons to express futurity and would 
 with all three persons to express volition; but in 
 the principal clause of a conditional sentence, 
 should and would follow the rules for shall and 
 will. 
 
 Simple future; If he should call, I should be glad to 
 see him. 
 
176 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 Volition: If he should need money, I would send him 
 a draft. 
 
 All this is quite puzzling, but we may simplify 
 matters a little by remembering two rules which 
 cover nearly all troublesome cases. 
 
 I. In indirect discourse use should where shall 
 would be used in direct discourse ; use vyxtuld where 
 will would be used in direct discourse. 
 
 II. In the principal clause of a conditional sen- 
 tence, use should with the first person and would 
 with the second and third persons to express simple 
 future. Use would with the first person and should 
 with the second and third persons to express voli- 
 tional future. (See Exercise 134 on page 201.) 
 
 Infinitives are verb forms that are used like 
 nouns, and participles are verb forms that are used 
 like adjectives. They retain the essential idea of 
 the verb from which they are derived; like verbs 
 they have voice and tense; and they may be modi- 
 fied as verbs are modified, and may govern the ob- 
 jective case. At the same time they have the 
 force of nouns and adjectives. 
 
 The verb always forms the principal part of the 
 predicate, stating or asking something concerning 
 the substantive which serves as its subject. The 
 principal ways in which infinitives and participles 
 are used are illustrated below. Note that while 
 the infinitive commonly serves as a substantive, the 
 substantive idea is seen but dimly in the last three 
 examples in the first group. The last sentence in 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 
 
 177 
 
 the second group shows the participle In what Is 
 called the absolute construction. 
 
 I. To give Is more blessed than to receive. 2. Ask 
 him to wait for us. 3. I purchased this before see- 
 ing the others. 4. Winning a battle is not always 
 gaining what one desires. 5. It is never too late 
 to mend. 6. We went to the beach to gather drift- 
 wood. 7. It was a victory to be proud of. 8. I 
 am glad to hear such good news. 
 
 I. There is a familiar adage about whistling girls. 
 2. I left him standing by the road. 3. The dog, 
 barking furiously, soon frightened them away. 4. 
 Having sung till we could sing no more, we covered 
 the embers and prepared for bed. 5. The bell 
 having rung, we formed in line. 
 
 r Kinds 
 
 Adverbs - 
 
 'Simple 
 
 f hence, how, however, now, 
 
 so, then, thence, when, 
 
 Conjunctive ^ whence, where, whither, 
 
 why, etc. 
 Expletive: there 
 L Responsives : yes, no 
 Forms : positive, comparative, superlative 
 
 How used : To modify verbs, adjectives, and other 
 adverbs ; to serve as conjunctions 
 
 Adverbs are easily recognized, especially the 
 simple ones indicating time, place, motion, manner, 
 etc. A few are compared like adjectives. 
 
 much, more, most 
 
 soon, sooner, soonest 
 
 quickly, more quickly, most quickly 
 
 Conjunctive adverbs are so called because they 
 
178 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 introduce subordinate clauses much as relative 
 pronouns do, at the same time serving as modifiers. 
 
 Where have they gone? 
 
 They have gone where we cannot follow. 
 
 In the first sentence, where is plainly an adverb. 
 In the second, it serves not only as an adverb but 
 as a conjunction joining They have gone and we 
 cannot follow; hence it is a conjunctive adverb. 
 The expletive there, seen in such sentences as 
 There was mounting in hot haste, is so called be- 
 cause it " fills out." Since it stands first, often- 
 times, where we naturally expect to find the sub- 
 ject, it is frequently mistaken for the subject and 
 made to govern the verb. Thus we have such 
 errors as There was four of us; for the thought- 
 less person assumes that the expletive must be 
 singular and so should be followed by a verb in the 
 singular number. Yes and no, almost always used 
 independently, are not, strictly speaking, adverbs 
 at all, since they modify nothing. 
 
 The following sentences show how adverbs are 
 used. 
 
 I. Go quietly. 2. What could be more beauti- 
 ful! 3. She sleeps most soundly now. 4. He will 
 come when we are ready. 5. There are many rea- 
 sons why we should go. 6. Yes, let us be patient. 
 
 Prepositions 
 
 Kinds : All of the same kind 
 
 Forms : No changes in form 
 
 How used : To connect words and show the 
 relation between them 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 179 
 
 Prepositions form but a small group, a hundred 
 or so, not more than fifty or sixty of which are in 
 common use. All are of the same kind, do the 
 same thing; they introduce phrases, connecting 
 substantives with other words and showing the re- 
 lationship between them. The object of a prepo- 
 sition is in the objective case. When a preposi- 
 tional phrase modifies a substantive, it is called 
 an adjective phrase; when it is used like an adverb, 
 it is called an adverbial phrase. (See Exercise 118 
 on page 184.) 
 
 Adjective: He wore a badge of blue ribbon. 
 Adverbial: They will come in the morning. 
 
 r Kinds: Coordinate, subordinate 
 Conjunctions-/ Forms : No changes in form 
 
 [ How used : To connect words, phrases, clauses 
 
 Conjunctions dlflfer from prepositions in that the 
 former are frequently employed to connect clauses, 
 while the latter are always employed to connect 
 single words. When a conjunction is used to con- 
 nect single words, the words are in the same con- 
 struction; that Is, they are used alike, are of the 
 same rank. The two words joined by a preposi- 
 tion are always of unequal rank. 
 
 The house and the barn were burned. 
 The hay was stored in the barn. 
 
 In the first sentence house and barn are in the same 
 
i8o DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 construction; that Is, both are subjects of the same 
 verb. Was stored and harn, in the second sen- 
 tence, are in different constructions; harn modifies 
 was stored adverbially. It is not difficult, there- 
 fore, to tell whether a given connective is a prepo- 
 sition or a conjunction; but it is sometimes puz- 
 zling to tell whether a conjunction is coordinate 
 or subordinate. Coordinate conjunctions connect 
 words, phrases, and clauses which have the same 
 grammatical relation; that is, are in the same 
 construction. Subordinate conjunctions introduce 
 subordinate clauses, and are found, therefore. In 
 complex sentences only. There are three kinds of 
 subordinate or dependent clauses: adjective, ad- 
 verbial, and noun or substantive. If one can learn 
 to recognize these three kinds, he should have no 
 difficulty in distinguishing between the two kinds of 
 conjunctions. A noun clause is used like a noun, an 
 adjective clause is used like an adjective, and an 
 adverbial clause Is used like an adverb. The first 
 three illustrations given below contain subordinate 
 conjunctions introducing noun clauses, the remain- 
 ing ones contain subordinate conjunctions introduc- 
 ing adjective and adverbial clauses. 
 
 I. That the steamship is lost is beyond all ques- 
 tion. 2. They report that the steamship is lost. 3. 
 It all depends on where the steamship went ashore. 
 4. The steamship struck while the passengers were 
 at dinner. 5. // it had not been foggy, the acci- 
 dent would not have happened. 6. Do unto others 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS i8i 
 
 as you would have them do unto you. 7. Return 
 to the place whence you came. 8. There was a time 
 when we could have escaped. 
 
 All connectives — prepositions, relative pronouns, 
 simple conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs — are ex- 
 ceedingly important in that they bind together the 
 various parts of a sentence. (See Exercises 119 
 and 137 on pages 185 and 204.) 
 
 Selecting items here and there from the preced- 
 ing paragraphs, combining and condensing them, 
 we have the following summary concerning how 
 words are used in the building of sentences. 
 
 I. Every sentence must have a subject and a predicate, the 
 former naming that concerning which something is asserted 
 or some question asked, the latter asserting or asking some- 
 thing concerning that which the subject names. The vital 
 part of the predicate is always a verb. The vital part of the 
 subject is always a noun or some word or word-group that is 
 used like a noun. 
 
 II. The meaning of a verb may be modified (i) by a noun or 
 pronoun objective, (2) by a predicate noun or adjective quali- 
 ifying the subject of the verb, (3) by an adverb, an adverbial 
 phrase, or an adverbial clause. The' meaning of a noun may 
 be changed (i) by an adjective, (2) by a noun or a pronoun in 
 the possessive case, (3) by a phrase or a clause. An adjec- 
 tive may be modified by an adverb, an adverb by another 
 adverb. 
 
 Several of the rules governing person, number, 
 gender, and case have been given or implied In 
 earlier paragraphs. Supplementing these we have 
 the following. 
 
1 82 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 I. The subject of a verb is in the nominative case. 
 II. A verb agrees with its subject in person and number. 
 
 III. A noun or pronoun the object, direct or indirect, of a 
 
 verb is in the objective case. 
 
 IV. A predicate noun or pronoun agrees in case with the 
 
 subject it qualifies. 
 V. A word in apposition with another word agrees with 
 
 it in case. 
 VI. A noun or pronoun governed by a preposition is in the 
 
 objective case. 
 VII. A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in person, num- 
 ber, and gender. 
 VIII. A noun or pronoun with an appositive adjective or its 
 equivalent is sometimes used in the nominative case 
 absolutely. 
 
 EXERCISE 116 
 
 Point out the subject of each sentence. If the 
 subject is made up of more than one word, analyze 
 it, showing how the bare subject is expanded. 
 How many kinds of modifiers do you find? 
 
 I. Clouds will intervene. 2. Honor and shame from 
 no condition rise. —3. A pleasing countenance Is a silent 
 recommendation. 4. A fool's bolt is soon shot. -^. The 
 proof of the pudding Is In the eating. — ^. What cannot 
 be cured must be endured. 7. He who arrives first at 
 the mill should first have his grist. 8. To be poor with- 
 out being free Is the worst state Into which man can 
 fall. 9. In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for 
 a bright manhood, there Is no such word as fall. 10. It 
 is better to fall from the window than from the roof. 11. 
 Count not your chickens before they are hatched. 12. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 183 
 
 Avarice, mother of all wickedness, always thirsty for 
 more, opens wide her jaws for gold. 
 
 13. The Sunflower, thinking 'twas for him foul shame 
 To nap by daylight, strove t'excuse the blame; 
 It was not sleep that made him nod, he said, 
 But too great weight and largeness of his head. 
 
 — Cowley 
 
 EXERCISE 117 
 
 Point out the predicate of each sentence. If 
 the verb is modified, analyze the predicate, show- 
 ing how it is expanded. How many kinds of mod- 
 ifiers do you find? 
 
 I. Time flies. 2. Make haste slowly. 3. Light gains 
 make a heavy purse. 4. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. 
 5. At night all cats are gray. 6. Strike while the iron 
 is hot. 7. Give us this day our daily bread. 8. Young 
 folks tell what they do, old ones what they have done, 
 and fools what they intend to do. ^.-9. A soft answer 
 turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger. 
 — 'lO. A bad workman always quarrels with his tools. 11. 
 —When the fox is asleep, nothing falls into his mouth. 
 12. All is not gold that glitters. 
 
 13. When beechen buds begin to swell. 
 
 And woods the bluebird's warble know, 
 The yellow violet's modest bell 
 
 Peeps from the last year's leaves below. 
 
 — Bryant 
 
1 84 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 118 
 
 Point out the phrases and tell what each one 
 'modifies. Analyze each phrase. How many 
 kinds do you findf 
 
 ■ — ^ I. A hare is not caught by a drum. 2. Look not a 
 gift-horse in the mouth. 3. It is necessary to wait for the 
 lame man. — 4. A sparrow in the hand is better than a 
 goose on the wing. 5. Unto the pure all things are pure. 
 6. Burning the candle at both ends is folly. 7. To be 
 or not to be — that is the question. 8. He who follows 
 two hares is sure to catch neither. 9. We all have suffi- 
 cient strength to bear the misfortunes of others. 10. 
 — Frightening a bird is not the way to catch it. 11. It is 
 — great folly to think of being wise alone. 12. Please ask 
 him to remain a minute. 13. By following the trail we 
 easily found the cabin. 14. I do not enjoy being left 
 alone. 15. The brook, winding in and out, at length 
 reaches the river. 16. All hope having been abandoned, 
 the boat was allowed to drift. - 17. Having been warned 
 of their danger, the girls turned back. 18. The snow, 
 sweeping across the open fields, piled high against the 
 cabin. 19. Many a tale is lost in telling. 
 20. And then there was a little isle 
 Which in my very face did smile. 
 
 The only one in view; 
 A small green isle, it seemed no more. 
 Scarce broader than my dungeon door, 
 But in it there were three tall trees. 
 And o'er it blew- the mountain breeze, 
 And by it there were waters flowing, 
 And on it there were young flowers growing 
 Of gentle breath and hue. — Byron 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 185 
 
 EXERCISE 119 
 
 Point out and analyze each clause. Which 
 ones are subordinate? Which of the subordinate 
 clauses are noun or substantive? adjective? ad- 
 verbial? 
 
 I. Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes mon- 
 sters. ^-2. He who has good health is rich, though he 
 may not know it. 3?— What is well done is twice done. 4. 
 -Go where glory waits. 5. Ask what ye will and it shall 
 be granted. 6. Honor the old, instruct the young, con- 
 sult the wise, and bear with the foolish. 7. He that 
 gathereth in the summer is a wise son ; but he that sleepeth 
 in harvest is a son that causeth shame. 8r-Jf the sky falls, 
 we shall catch larks. ^r-One does not always know who 
 may be trusted. 10. Tell me what you read and I will 
 tell you what you are. 11. All philosophy, says Epictetus, 
 lies in the two words sustain and abstain. 12. We must 
 expect to work for what we get. 13. Where no wood 
 is, there the fire goeth out. 14. Much may be made of 
 a Scotchman, Johnson once remarked, if he be caught 
 young. 15. Make hay while the sun shines. 16. Keep 
 thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. 17. Let another 
 man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, 
 and not thine own lips. 
 
 18. For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 
 The saddest are these: " It might have been." 
 
 — Whittier 
 
 19, Breathes there the man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 
 " This is my own — my native land ! " — Scott 
 
1 86 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 120 
 
 Attention has been called to the fact that many 
 words are used now as one part of speechy now as 
 another. Note carefully each italicized word in 
 the sentences below. What duty does it perform? 
 What part of speech is it? What other part of 
 speech may it be at times? 
 
 I. Good, quickly, with, or, himself, and laughed are 
 common words. 2. Three cheers for the red, white, and 
 blue\ 3. The French were victorious. 4. The captain 
 made a home run. 5. Six of the boys consented. 6. Wait- 
 ~.ng is tiresome, even in this cool waiting-room. 7. To go 
 is better than to perish. 8. The tongue of the just is as 
 choice silver. 9. Be just to your enemies. 10. It called, 
 just then, a second time. 1 1 . They say he lives in a glass 
 house. 12. The wandering clouds go by. 13. Why do 
 you drive so fast"^ — ^4. Oh, young Lochinvar is come out 
 of the West. 15. Call me early, for I must take an 
 early train. 16. The under part next received attention. 
 17. The last shall be first. 18. He pitched an in curve. 
 19. He must be there by now. 20. Wait till the clouds 
 roll by. — 2ri. Yonder shepherd beckons. 22v~took yon- 
 der\ 23. Try hard to break this hard stone. 24. Good- 
 bye, proud world, I'm going home. 25. Please black the 
 stove. 26. The public made known their wishes. 27. 
 We walked about the garden. 28. The wind blew so 
 strong that they turned about and walked the other way. 
 — 29. Who called within? 30*-We shall be there within 
 an hour. 31. I am about through. 32. Since then, we 
 have been careful to lock the door. 33. Where shall 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 187 
 
 you house your canoe, this winter? 34. The culprit was 
 brought before the judge. 35. The judge had never 
 seen him before, 36. He escaped before he had served his 
 sentence. 37. Do not remain out after dark. 38. The 
 after effects were unpleasant. 39. We purchased a to 
 let sign. 40. I will come after I have finished my letter. 
 41. Slow M^^ please ! 42. TA^Ms too bad. 43. That hoy 
 is an athlete. 44. The errand that we were to do is 
 now unnecessary. 45. I think that we may go now. 46. 
 Now what part of speech is the word that"^ 47. My ship 
 rides at anchor. 48. This is mine. 49. This boy was 
 called Leonidas. 50. Let each take one. 51. Each girl 
 may take two. 52. Whose name was mentioned firstl 
 53. The one whose name is called first must go. 54. 
 IVho calls? 55. He goes last who once was first. 56. 
 Why are you so quiet? 57. The train was late^ so we 
 went for a walk. 58. When shall their glory fade! 59. 
 When the cats are away, the mice will play. 60. Why 
 should we complain? 61. He asked why we were so 
 merry. 62. Thank her for her kindness. 63. We have 
 waited since eleven. 64. Since we must remain, let us 
 make the best of it. 65. /F//er^ are the reapers? 66. Go 
 where glory waits. 67. The stag at eve had drunk his 
 fill. 68. We lost the way and had to foot it home. 
 
 EXERCISE 121 
 Write the plural forms of the following words. 
 
 ally 
 
 scarf 
 
 piano 
 
 parenthesis 
 
 alley 
 
 staff 
 
 echo 
 
 hypothesis 
 
 volley 
 
 cloth 
 
 solo 
 
 corps 
 
 valley 
 
 wife 
 
 tomato 
 
 tableau 
 
1 88 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 cry 
 
 self 
 
 alumna 
 
 beau 
 
 lady 
 
 himself 
 
 alumnus 
 
 genus 
 
 folly 
 
 myself 
 
 larva 
 
 radius 
 
 fairy 
 
 gulf 
 
 formula 
 
 Norman 
 
 gypsy 
 
 calf 
 
 focus 
 
 Northman 
 
 reply 
 
 roof 
 
 nebula 
 
 Frenchman 
 
 turkey 
 
 leaf 
 
 phenomenon German 
 
 pulley 
 
 proof 
 
 stratum 
 
 merchantman 
 
 galley 
 
 motto 
 
 bacterium 
 
 daughter-in-law 
 
 soliloquy 
 
 buffalo 
 
 medium 
 
 bill-of-fare 
 
 journey 
 
 domino 
 
 erratum 
 
 hanger-on 
 
 attorney 
 
 dynamo 
 
 dictum 
 
 handful 
 
 chimney 
 
 cargo 
 
 oasis 
 
 James 
 
 colloquy 
 
 veto 
 
 antithesis 
 
 Henry 
 
 caddy 
 
 hero 
 
 thesis 
 
 Mary 
 
 chief 
 
 portico 
 
 axis 
 
 Dr. Jones 
 
 dwarf 
 
 zero 
 
 analysis 
 
 Miss Stone 
 
 loaf 
 
 potato 
 
 crisis 
 
 Mrs. Grundy 
 
 M] 
 
 r. Grundy 
 
 Master Grundy 
 
 6 
 
 
 m 
 
 + 
 
 EXERCISE 122 
 
 Write the singular possessive forms of the fol- 
 lowing words. 
 
 Ally, alley, fairy, caddy, oasis, daughter-in-law, Mr. 
 Grundy, I, you, he, she, it, who, Dickens, Jones, Wiggs, 
 Themistocles, the King of England, Dickens and Thack- 
 eray (joint possession), Edward Clark, Esq., Byron and 
 Scott (individual possession), Addison or Steele (as in the 
 
 sentence This is or ), Keats, Holmes, 
 
 Clarke the hardware merchant. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 189 
 
 Write the plural possessive forms. 
 
 Ally, alley, lady, fairy, caddy, hero, oasis, corps, beau, 
 calf, daughter-in-law, they, Henry, Miss Stone, Jones, 
 Wiggs, Dickens, King of Sweden. 
 
 Which of the two forms enclosed in parenthesis 
 is correct? 
 
 I. Think of (me, my) asking such a question! 2. The 
 (train, train's) being late resulted in (them, their) fail- 
 ing to make connections. 3. There is some talk of (Mr. 
 Taylor's, Mr. Taylor) being made president. 4. What 
 sense is there in a (boy, boy's) losing his temper! 5. I 
 never heard of (him, his) doing anything cowardly. 
 
 EXERCISE 123 
 
 The sentences below illustrate common errors 
 in the use of pronouns and pronominal adjectives. 
 Correct the errors, in each case telling why the pro- 
 noun as used is incorrect, 
 
 I. The contrast between he and Macbeth is marked. 
 K2. Whom do they diink I am? 3. Let's see who'll get 
 there first, you or iiie. 4. If I were him, I'd accept the 
 offer. 5. Every one except she applauded the speaker. 
 6. Yourself and your family are invited to attend our 
 opening Friday evening. 7. Who is you're friend? 8. 
 We have been waiting this two hours. 9. Who'se to 
 blame? 10. They must look out for theirselves. 11. 
 Let he who standeth take heed lest he fall. 12. I am 
 sure it was them. 13. He shot hisself accidentally. 14. 
 
190 ENGLISH COMPOSITION 
 
 i Who are you going to invite? 15. I think it's wing is 
 broken. 16. The weather will not permit of me staying 
 out late. 17. Please pass me some of them grapes. 18. I 
 know who I like and who I don't like better than him. 
 19. He was less clumsy than myself. 20. This isn't ourn; 
 it must be theirn. 21. The three Clarke boys and myself 
 went in the automobile. 22. It must have been us you 
 saw. 23. There is no use in me trying for the prize. 
 24. They called upon a man whom they thought would 
 
 L surely know all about it. 25. I wonder who he means. 
 26. It lies between you and I. 27. Why should we not 
 enjoy what is our's? 28. The boat righted it's self in- 
 stantly. 29. He allowed my brother and I to take his 
 gun. 30. I think you are as tall as her. 31. Here is the 
 gentleman who you wished to see. 32. Between you and 
 I, the game was not won fairly. 33. Do you like these 
 
 ^ kind better? 34. I do not know who to turn to. 35. 
 
 V He is the one who I consider the strongest candidate. 
 36. Us girls have great larks. 37. I thought you said 
 their were good boats. Are these them? 38. Neither 
 John nor Arthur brought their lunch. 39. No one 
 should allow themselves to be deceived. 40. When any 
 one is going camping, they should take warm clothing. 
 
 EXERCISE 124 
 
 The simplest rule in sentence-building, and un- 
 questionably the rule most frequently violated, 
 states that a verb should agree with its subject in 
 person and number. He don't, you was, they was, 
 and / says are expressions commonly used even by 
 those who think that they speak correctly. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 191 
 
 Point out the hare subject of each of the fol- 
 lowing sentences. Point out the bare predicate. 
 Point out the error in agreement. Try to give a 
 clear explanation of how, in all probability, the 
 error came about. Was it due to failure to see 
 that the subject was a collective noun or the plural 
 form of a foreign term? Did the writer as- 
 sume that THERE, coming immediately before the 
 verb, was a substantive in the singular number? 
 Did he mistake for the subject some noun standing 
 nearer the verb than the real subject? Did he for- 
 get that WITH is a preposition, not a conjunction? 
 
 I. In back of the grapes was two pineapples. 2. There 
 was so many attending the game that we could not get a 
 good seat. 3. If each of the boys are closely watched, 
 the trick will soon be apparent. 4. First the girl's name 
 is given, then follows her age and birthplace. 5. This 
 house don't look quite so old-fashioned as the other. 6. 
 Under these was two basket-balls and a pair of boxing- 
 gloves. 7. On the north side is a door and two window^s. 
 8. He don't know any better than to say they aint\ 9. 
 There was but two girls present. 10. The phenomena 
 was most singular.' 11. The papers tell where and when 
 there is to be bargain sales. 12. Two of us remained at 
 home, so there was but two to go in the boat. 13. The 
 father with his three sons were saved. 14. Every one of 
 the articles were sold. 15. There's no two ways about it! 
 
 16. Tales of a Wayside Inn were written by Longfellow. 
 
 17. Fifteen minutes were soon gone. 18. No one but 
 Edward and George were absent. 19. It happened when 
 you was away. 20. More than one has made the same 
 
192 
 
 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 mistake. 21. Quickness as well as strength are needed. 
 22. A hundred feet of hose were rapidly paid out. 23. 
 To the captain and the manager of the team are due 
 most of the credit. 24. We was having the time of 
 our lives. 25. Honesty, as well as cleverness, count. 26. 
 Two-thirds of the roof were shingled before the rain fell. 
 27. My favorite study are mathematics. 28. The bind- 
 ing of the books were insecure. 29. Home, with all its 
 many comforts, were soon forgotten. 30. I says 
 "walk"; he says "ride". 31. On the platform even 
 with the sill is three cages. 32. Thirty thousand dollars 
 were paid for the mansion. 33. Each of the sticks were 
 given a coat of walnut stain. 34. Was you surprised to 
 see your mother? 35. Which of the two boys were John? 
 36. It will clear before eleven; you see if it don't. 
 
 EXERCISE 125 
 
 Learn the following table so thoroughly that if 
 a principal part of any verb be given you can with- 
 out hesitation supply the remaining parts. Words 
 starred are of the new or weak conjugation. 
 
 arise 
 
 arose 
 
 arisen 
 
 bring* 
 
 brought 
 
 brought 
 
 awake 
 
 awoke 
 
 awaked 
 
 burst 
 
 burst 
 
 burst 
 
 bear 
 
 bore or 
 
 born or 
 
 choose 
 
 chose 
 
 chosen 
 
 
 bare 
 
 borne 
 
 cling 
 
 clung 
 
 clung 
 
 beat 
 
 beat 
 
 beaten 
 
 come 
 
 came 
 
 come 
 
 begin 
 
 began 
 
 begun 
 
 cost* 
 
 cost 
 
 cost 
 
 bend* 
 
 bent 
 
 bent 
 
 do 
 
 did 
 
 done 
 
 bid 
 
 bade or 
 
 bidden 
 
 draw 
 
 drew 
 
 draw^n 
 
 
 bid 
 
 
 drink 
 
 drank 
 
 drunk 
 
 bite 
 
 bit 
 
 bitten 
 
 drive 
 
 drove 
 
 driven 
 
 break 
 
 broke 
 
 broken 
 
 drown * 
 
 drowned 
 
 drowned 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 
 
 193 
 
 eat 
 
 ate<?reat 
 
 : eaten 
 
 rid* 
 
 rid 
 
 rid 
 
 fight 
 
 fought 
 
 fought 
 
 run 
 
 ran 
 
 run 
 
 flee* 
 
 fled 
 
 fled 
 
 see 
 
 saw 
 
 seen 
 
 fling 
 
 flung 
 
 flung 
 
 set* 
 
 set 
 
 set 
 
 flow* 
 
 flowed 
 
 flowed 
 
 shrink * 
 
 shrank 
 
 shrunk 
 
 fly 
 
 flew 
 
 flown 
 
 sing 
 
 sang 
 
 sung 
 
 forbid 
 
 forbade 
 
 forbidden 
 
 sit 
 
 sat 
 
 sat 
 
 forget 
 
 forgot 
 
 forgotten 
 
 sla}'- 
 
 slew 
 
 slain 
 
 freeze 
 
 froze 
 
 frozen 
 
 sling 
 
 slung 
 
 slung 
 
 give 
 
 gave 
 
 given 
 
 speak 
 
 spoke 
 
 spoken 
 
 go 
 
 went 
 
 gone 
 
 spring 
 
 sprang 
 
 sprung 
 
 grow 
 
 grew 
 
 grown 
 
 steal 
 
 stole 
 
 stolen 
 
 hear* 
 
 heard 
 
 heard 
 
 string 
 
 strung 
 
 strung 
 
 hit* 
 
 hit 
 
 hit 
 
 swear 
 
 swore 
 
 sworn 
 
 hurt* 
 
 hurt 
 
 hurt 
 
 swim 
 
 swam 
 
 swum 
 
 knit* 
 
 knit 
 
 knit 
 
 tear 
 
 tore 
 
 torn 
 
 lay* 
 
 laid 
 
 laid 
 
 think * 
 
 thought 
 
 thought 
 
 lead* 
 
 led 
 
 led 
 
 throw 
 
 threw 
 
 thrown 
 
 leap* 
 
 leapt 
 
 leapt 
 
 wake * 
 
 waked 
 
 waked 
 
 let* 
 
 let 
 
 let 
 
 
 or woke 
 
 
 lie 
 
 lay 
 
 lain 
 
 wear 
 
 wore 
 
 worn 
 
 lie* 
 
 lied 
 
 lied 
 
 wet* 
 
 wet 
 
 wet 
 
 loose * 
 
 loosed 
 
 loosed 
 
 wring 
 
 wrung 
 
 wrung 
 
 lose * 
 
 lost 
 
 lost 
 
 write 
 
 wrote 
 
 written 
 
 put* 
 
 put 
 
 put 
 
 
 
 
 EXERCISE 126 
 
 Notice that there are no such forms as brung, 
 
 BUSTED, COSTED, DROWNDED, GROWED, HITTED, 
 HURTED, RUNNED, SWORED, SWIMMED, WORED. 
 
 Write sentences in which the past tense and past 
 participle forms of the following verbs are used. 
 
 bring 
 bursf 
 
 cost 
 drown 
 
 grow 
 hit 
 
 hurt 
 run 
 
 wear 
 
 swim 
 
 swear 
 
194 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 127 
 Give the following forms. 
 
 Active and passive past perfect of beat. 
 
 Active past, simple and progressive forms, of hurt. 
 
 Passive past progressive of bite. 
 
 All the infinitives and participles of bring; the active 
 past of come, eat, and fling. 
 
 Passive past progressive of hear. 
 
 Active past progressive of lie (to recline). 
 
 Active potential past of see. 
 
 Active present and past subjunctive of sing. 
 
 Participles of swim. 
 
 Active present progressive of slay. 
 
 Passive present progressive of slay. 
 
 Active simple future of write. 
 
 Synopsis (all first person forms in all moods and tenses, 
 all imperative, infinitive, and participial forms) of love. 
 
 Conjugate work in the active progressive. Conjugate 
 in full the verb HELP. 
 
 EXERCISE 128 
 
 Insert verbs as indicated, using active forms un- 
 less otherwise directed. 
 
 I. He said that they (past perfect of awake). 2. Try 
 my remedy. It can't be (past participle of beat). 3. 
 We (past of begin) where they (past perfect of begin). 
 4. If you (pastperfect passive of bite) by the dog, you 
 would not like it. 5. He (past of bid) James do as he 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 195 
 
 (past perfect passive of bid), 6. Did you say that his arm 
 (past passive of break) ? 7. I wish you (past perfect of 
 bring) him along too. 8. I might have gone had I (past 
 participle of choose). 9. He (past of cling) to it that 
 he was right. 10. He (past of do) it. I saw him when 
 he (past of Jo) it. 11. Did you say that he (past of 
 drink) after all the rest (past perfect of drink) ? 12. The 
 servant (past of eat) after the others (past perfect of eat). 
 
 13. Up he (past of fling) his cap and shouted for joy. 
 
 14. The bird flew in the same direction that the river 
 (past of flow). 15. After all the others (past perfect of 
 fly), the old crow (past of fly) too. 16. He (past 
 of forbid) loud talking in the corridor. 17. The boy 
 (past perfect of forget) all about it. 18. My fingers 
 (present passive of freeze). 19. I wonder if the pond 
 (present passive of freeze) solid. 20. It happened 
 after they (past perfect of go) for help. 21. He (past 
 of lay) the apple on the plate, and there it still lies. 
 22. The log has lain for years just where it (past passive 
 of lay). 23. They (past of lead) the way. 24. We 
 (past of lie) for hours where you (past perfect of lie). 
 25. He (past of lay) the mattress on the ground and 
 there we (past of lie). 26. If you take the dog, I fear 
 you (future of lose) him. 27. It Is easy (Infinitive of 
 lose) the way. 28. By that time the boy (past perfect of 
 run) away. 29. He (past of see) us when we (past of 
 do) It. 30. As he (past of sit) down he (past of set) 
 his hat on the table. 31. If you (past perfect of set) the 
 vase on the shelf, It would not have fallen. 32. The dog 
 (past perfect of shake) the life out of the rat. 33. We 
 (past of shrink) from the undertaking just as you (past 
 of shrink) from It. 34. He said the garment (past per- 
 fect of shrink). 35. He (past of sit) down in the 
 
196 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 chair that (past of set) In the corner. 36. His books 
 (past passive of sling) over his shoulder. 37. Not till 
 he (past perfect of speak) did he consider it useless to try. 
 38. He knew that the steel bar (past perfect passive of 
 steal). 39. I thought he (past perfect of swear) that it 
 was true. 40. After he (past perfect of swim) the river, 
 he found himself exhausted. 41. If he (past perfect of 
 throw) the ball to first, the run would not have counted. 
 42. You (past of wake) John, but Henry (past of 
 awake) of his own accord. 43. I wish I (past perfect of 
 wear) a heavier coat. 44. She (past progressive of 
 wring) the clothes when the bell (past of ring). 45. 
 You may read what you (perfect of write). 
 
 EXERCISE 129 
 
 Which of the verbs found in Exercise 12^ are 
 always used transitively? intransitively? Which 
 may be used either way? 
 
 EXERCISE 130 
 
 Lie, sit, and awake are intransitive ; lay, set, and 
 wake are transitive. Rivers flow; birds fly. We 
 ring the bell ; we ivring wet clothes. We lose, not 
 loose, our gloves. 
 
 Supply the correct forms in the following sen- 
 tences, using forms of AWAKE and wake in the 
 first group, FLOW and FLY in the second group, 
 and so on. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 197 
 
 1. I at six. When did you ? Did 
 
 you of your own accord, or did you have some 
 
 one you? Had he when you knocked? 
 
 Who the others, yesterday morning? Please see 
 
 if father has ; if he has not, please him. 
 
 Emily too. 
 
 2. Where did the river formerly ? How long 
 
 has it in its present channel? If we say that the 
 
 brook fairly flew by the door, do we mean simply that 
 
 it by the door ? Will the water that has 
 
 by the mill never return? John carelessly said that the 
 
 river over its banks last spring. Of course he 
 
 meant that it its banks last spring. 
 
 3. I think I will down for a few minutes. 
 
 Please the blankets out in the orchard where you 
 
 them yesterday. How often have I there 
 
 this summer ! Where is my book ? I must have mis 
 
 it. Perhaps it on the library table. I think 
 
 you will find it there. If any one should call, 
 
 do not say that I am not at home; for that would 
 be . 
 
 4. I am always things. This is the third 
 
 thimble I have lost within a year. How much time 
 
 one while hunting for lost things! Do you ever 
 
 things? things is one of my worst fail- 
 ings. By the way, isn't this nut a little ? Please 
 
 get a wrench and tighten it. But do not get it too tight ; 
 it should be a little . 
 
 5. the bell would mean twisting it; the 
 
 hands would mean making them give forth the sound of 
 
 a bell. Was not John wet when they pulled him 
 
 out of the stream! His cries for help have been 
 
 in my ears all day. How it did his mother's 
 
H 
 
 198 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 heart to see him struggh'ng in the water! Well, get his 
 
 ^^CK clothes and we will run them through the . 
 
 ) j 6. jle has set his heart on getting the prize, and has 
 
 up night after night to study. Do down 
 
 and let me tell you about it. your hat on the 
 
 ^ table. You wish a fan? still and let me get 
 
 one. I ought not to be here using one myself 
 
 without offering you one too. Will you excuse me a 
 
 minute? Just before you came into the room, 
 
 I something on the stove. I'm afraid there will 
 
 be trouble if It there much longer. What a hard 
 
 cold you have! I mistrust you caught It by on 
 
 the grass yesterday while John was out the 
 
 shrubs. 
 
 I. The tree has there many years. 2. Let the 
 
 book where it is. 3. Jjhink I have here 
 
 long enough. 4. We at anchor till the storm 
 
 blew over. 5. In which direction does our camp 
 
 ? 6. The grounds were beautifully out. 
 
 7. When the culprits were caught, they the 
 
 blame on others. 8. Speckle has an egg In the 
 
 box that by the stable door. 9. J_tbink the 
 
 town now to the east. 10. Will you not 
 
 down? II. He said that he would down for a 
 
 while; so we his blankets in the shade. 12. 
 
 His only fault, he said, In the one word 
 
 ambition. 13. Where the tree falleth, there must 
 
 it . 
 
 I. He was in the room. 2. We had 
 
 up most of the night. 3. After the sun had 
 
 , the air grew chilly. 4. Please down a 
 
 minute. 5. After we had there a long time, the 
 
 door opened. 6. The house, he said, back a 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 199 
 
 little from the street. 7. Old wives a-sunning . 
 
 8. The little bird at his door in the sun. 
 
 EXERCISE 131 
 
 Complete the following sentences by inserting 
 WAS and WERE where needed, in each case giving a 
 reason for your choice. Remember that the indic- 
 ative is used to denote simple condition in past 
 time, the subjunctive were to denote a mere sup- 
 position or to present a state of affairs contrary to 
 fact. 
 
 I. We looked to see if it still raining. 2. If 
 
 he coming, he would be here now. 3. If he 
 
 tardy, he should bring an excuse. 4. If I 
 
 you, I should start at once. 5. Would that it 
 
 true! 6. If he asked, he would come. 7. If 
 
 he asked, I knew nothing of it. 8. I wish that 
 
 I with you. 9. If he strong, we should 
 
 take him with us. 10. If it true then, it must 
 
 be true now. 11. He would seem stern it not 
 
 for a twinkle in his eye. 12. If it he, I failed to 
 
 recognize him. 13. Suppose you asked to go; 
 
 what should you say? 14. We used the cottage as freely 
 
 as if it our own. 15. Why, man, if the river 
 
 dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the 
 
 wind down, I could drive the boat with my sighs. 
 
 16. Love Virtue; she alone is free. 
 
 She can teach you how to climb 
 
 Higher than the sphery chime; 
 
 Or, if Virtue feeble , 
 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her. — Milton 
 
200 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 132 
 
 Supply SHALL or will, whichever is correct, in 
 each of the following sentences. 
 
 I. I hope to see you often. 2. I am deter- 
 mined that he have a pleasant time. 3. If you 
 
 call at eight, you find me at home. 4. 
 
 I be greatly obliged if you bring the 
 
 books with you. 5. We know that we have to 
 
 work hard, but we think it do us no harm. 6. 
 
 John is determined that he be first. 7. John 
 
 tells me that he be able to join the party.* 8. 
 
 He writes that he be sixteen to-morrow. 9. If 
 
 you go, I want to go too. 10. I think we 
 
 be asked to remain. 11. The weather forecaster says 
 
 that we have a fair day to-morrow. 12. I think 
 
 we see land before night. 13. you be 
 
 able to accompany us? 14. When we reach 
 
 Dallas? 15. we have time to purchase tickets? 
 
 16. What I do if it rains? 17. you be 
 
 sorry to see the snow come? 18. How I know 
 
 where to go? 19. we be permitted to take 
 
 books home? 20. there be a bonfire, do you 
 
 think? 21. they know which road to take? 
 
 EXERCISE 133 
 
 Show very clearly that the meaning of each of 
 the following sentences changes according as 
 SHALL or WILL is supplied. 
 
 * Where shall would be used in direct discourse, use shall in indirect dis- 
 course ; where wilt would be used, use will in the indirect. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 201 
 you attend the concert? 2. We 
 
 not disappoint you. 3. There be no laughter. 
 
 4. they wait for us? 5. He read the 
 
 book. 6. he provide lunch? 7. I be 
 
 king. 8. I drown, if you do not help me. 9. 
 
 He drown, if you do not help him. 10. You 
 
 drown, if no one helps you. 11. We 
 
 reach New York before eight. 12. I contribute 
 
 ten dollars. 13. you try for honors? 14. He 
 
 reports that the train wait for us. 
 
 EXERCISE 134 
 
 Supply SHOULD and would where the sense 
 requires in the following sentences. 
 
 I. I like to help you, and I if I could. 
 
 2. I hoped that I not be asked. 3. I know I 
 
 enjoy golf, but I think I prefer tennis. 
 
 4. I be afraid to ride such a spirited ^horse. 5. 
 
 If you will permit me, I like to add a word. 6. 
 
 If you rescued the crew, you be rewarded. 7. 
 
 He said that I go if there was room. 8. He 
 
 asked if I take him too. 9. I be sorry to 
 
 see him fail. 10. I send him aid if I thought he 
 
 would accept it. 11. What we do with a white 
 
 elephant if we had one? 12. I thought I fail. 
 
 13. If you speak to him, he give you a 
 
 courteous answer. 14. Had I been in his position, I 
 
 have done the same. 15. We planned that he 
 
 go by train. 16. If you be in town, we 
 
 be pleased to have you call. 17. He promised 
 
 that the next lesson be better prepared. 18. 
 
202 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 He thought that he find it. 19. We returned it 
 
 lest he think it had been stolen. 20. He thought 
 
 he be forced to tell the secret, in spite of all he 
 
 could do. 21. Had we delayed a moment longer, we 
 
 have lost everything. 22. I like to know 
 
 who that man is. 23. I thought I not like 
 
 rowing, but I do like it. 24. I was afraid I be 
 
 late. 25. Even if I missed the train, I be able 
 
 to walk home. 26. If it were to offend him, I 
 
 never forgive myself. 27. What we do if the 
 
 water supply were to fail? 28. We be delighted 
 
 to have you come. 29. If you fail, how sorry I 
 
 be. 30. I prefer to have you go in my 
 
 place. 31. Had we started a minute sooner, we 
 
 have caught it. 32. Were I to fail, I — be dis- 
 couraged. 33. He said we do as we pleased. 
 
 34. I think you would try again. 35. At this 
 
 point we like to ask a question. 36. I said that 
 
 I be sixteen to-morrow. 37. You be 
 
 surprised to see how he has grown. 38. If you were to 
 
 come after six, you find me at home. 39. If we 
 
 were to start now, do you think we be in time? 
 
 40. If it rain, we feel like going? 41. 
 
 She was sure every minute that she be thrown ofiE 
 
 and hurt. 42. I as lief do one thing as the other. 
 
 43. Where I go? 44. If you call me by 
 
 my real name, you oblige me. 
 
 EXERCISE 135 
 
 Show clearly that each sentence changes in mean- 
 ing according as may or can is supplied. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 203 
 
 I. I help you? 2. we tell all that we 
 
 know? 3. we not find our way back to the 
 
 boat? 4. He says you go. 5. we have 
 
 the pleasure of your company? 6. What more 
 
 be done? 7. This not be done; it is against the 
 
 rules. 
 
 8. Now my task is lightly done, 
 I fly and I run. 
 
 EXERCISE 136 
 
 Tell very clearly why each of the following sen- 
 tences is incorrect. 
 
 I. He thinks he must of left it in the train. 2. This 
 was the first time I was ever elected to office. 3. I 
 should be pleased if he will' call at my homeA 4- Do 
 you know when he come to town? 5. We done the best 
 we could. 6. They, thinking him to have been with 
 the others, did not worry about his absence, 7. You 
 had ought to have seen us!., 8. It ^s enough tohj^ 
 discouraged any one. 9. I intended to haVe written 
 long ago.. 10. If I permit you to go, I shoum nave to 
 ask you to return before nine. 11. I am not sure where 
 they went, but I think they may have we^*shopping. 
 12. They must have forgot- all about it. 13. When the 
 storm broke, we all ^ri- for shelter. 14. Probably they 
 "would have drove on for another hour, had not darkness 
 overtaken them.' 15. Don't it look dark! 
 
204 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 EXERCISE 137 
 
 Point out the connectives and tell what part of 
 speech each connective is. Which ones do double 
 duty, serving not only as connectives but as mod- 
 ifiers or substantives? Which of the conjunctions 
 are coordinate and which are subordinate? 
 
 I. He who hesitates is lost. 2. We sailed above the 
 clouds. 3. Time and tide wait for no man. 4. Neither 
 this nor that is precisely what I wish; but I will take a 
 little of each unless you can show me something else. 
 5. Notwithstanding the weight of the anchor, the' yacht 
 continued to drift. 6. Let him who standeth take heed 
 lest he fall. 7. Underneath his faults were virtues little 
 dreamed of. 8. Let us accept whatever comes and be 
 of good cheer. 9. Although we have failed twice, a 
 third time we may succeed. 10. Before breakfast, take 
 a brisk walk through the fields. 11. The paths of glory 
 lead but to the grave. 12. I go where the winds take 
 me. 13. Do you know why the harebell hangs its head? 
 14. We do not know whether to go or to remain; but 
 since it matters little which we do, we will decide the 
 matter by lot. 15. If thou faint in the day of adversity, 
 thy strength is small. 16. Can you imagine what has 
 happened that the train is so late? 17. Though he fall, 
 he shall not be utterly cast down. 18. I do not see how 
 we could have missed our way. 19. Between the hills 
 lay a peaceful valley through which ran a sober little 
 stream. 20. The undertaking is hazardous; still all 
 may go well, provided we are careful. 21. Notwith- 
 standing all that has been said, the prisoner is blame- 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 205 
 
 less. 22. Throughout the night came cries of distress 
 from many quarters. 23. All except honor is lost. 24. 
 Therefore, since the whole is equal to the sum of all its 
 parts, the angle A equals the angle B. 25. Wait till you 
 have heard both sides. 
 
 EXERCISE 138 
 
 Point out the errors in the following sentences, 
 
 I. We had neither food or shelter. 2. I got this book 
 off of James. 3. The reason we did this was because 
 we knew no better. 4. I am not sure but what we had 
 better go now. 5. We arrived at about six in the even- 
 ing. 6. He says he don't want no dinner. 7. We have 
 no money nor no means of procuring it. 8. He looks 
 like he was lame. 9. How nicely this tastes! 10. He 
 has an italian accent. 11. Can you not make it a little 
 rounder at the top and squarer at the base? And make 
 this edge a little straighter. 12. It will not rain before 
 noon, I don't think. 13. We reached shore easy enough. 
 14. He returned in a very different spirit than he once 
 had. 15. Would he not comply to your wishes? 16. 
 No sooner had she said this when she began to cry. 17. 
 Strike out boldly like me! 18. This is very different 
 than what we expected. 19. It was not as bad as we 
 expected. 20. Like as not we'll meet them. 21. This 
 is very pretty, but I think the other more preferable. 
 22. Any one would have done the same had he been 
 frightened like John was. 23. As quick as the twigs 
 kindle, put on the heavier wood. 24. Now pour enough 
 water in the pan to cover the dishes. 25. These kind are 
 hard to catch. 26. A dollar doesn't last long when 
 
2o6 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 divided between six hungry boys. 27. I don't know as 
 I can say much more, gentlemen. 28. I shall be unable 
 to go without I get my lessons first. 29. By eight we 
 were near starved. 30. Scarcely had we fallen asleep 
 than the fire-bell began to ring. 
 
 EXERCISE 139 
 
 Analyzing a sentence means taking It to pieces 
 and explaining how Its parts are related. First 
 we should tell whether the sentence Is simple, com- 
 pound, or complex. If It Is compound, the clauses 
 should be pointed out and the word or words con- 
 necting them; if complex, the principal clause 
 should be pointed out first, then the subordinate 
 members. Next we should analyze each clause, 
 pointing out subject and predicate and the modi- 
 fiers of each. 
 
 Analyze the sentences in Exercises 116, 117, 118, 
 119, and 137. 
 
 EXERCISE 140 
 
 Parsing a word means telling ( i ) what part of 
 speech It Is, (2) what Inflected form It represents, 
 (3) how It Is used, (4) what rule It obeys. The 
 things to be told of the different parts of speech 
 are as follows. 
 
 Noun: Kind (common or proper), number, gen- 
 der, case, how used, rule. 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 207 
 
 Pronoun: Kind (personal, relative, demonstra- 
 tive, interrogative, or indefinite), antecedent if the 
 pronoun is a relative, gender if it is a personal pro- 
 noun, person if it is a personal or relative pronoun, 
 number, case, how used, rule. 
 
 Adjective: Kind (article, numeral, pronominal; 
 common or proper), degree if the adjective can be 
 compared, how used. 
 
 Verb: Kind (transitive or intransitive), conju- 
 gation (old or new), principal parts, voice, mode, 
 tense, person, number, rule. 
 
 Adverb: Kind (simple, conjunctive, expletive, re- 
 sponsive), degree if the adverb can be compared, 
 how used. 
 
 Preposition : The word it governs, the words be- 
 tween which it shows relation. 
 
 Conjunction: Kind (coordinate or subordinate) ; 
 the words, phrases, or clauses it connects. 
 
 Interjection: Definition. 
 
 Infinitive or Participle : To what verb it belongs, 
 voice, tense, how used. 
 
 Parse each word found in Exercises 116, 117, 
 118, 119, and 137. 
 
 EXERCISE 141 
 
 Analyze the following sentences and parse each 
 word. 
 
 I. Geography explains history. 2. Death lays his icy 
 hands on kings. 3. Unto the pure all things are pure. 
 
2o8 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 4. And when his armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, 
 he fell likewise on the sword and died. 5. Heaven lies 
 about us in our infancy. 6. A man without a sense of 
 humor, some one has said, is occasionally to be respected, 
 often to be feared, and nearly always to be avoided. 7. 
 Facts in the mind, says Sir Oliver Lodge, are not dead 
 things in a portmanteau; they are live things in a pond. 
 8. Truth makes all things plain. 9. Patience is bitter 
 but its fruit is sweet. 10. A good name is better than 
 a girdle of gold. 11. Labor rids us of three great evils: 
 tediousness, vice, and poverty. 12. In vain do you lead 
 the ox to the water, if he is not thirsty. 13. Many gen- 
 erations have come and gone since the little Mayflower 
 lay rocking in yonder bay, with the Pilgrim mothers and 
 sisters looking out wistfully over the then lonely waters, 
 and the children, cooped up for many a weary week, ask- 
 ing when at last they should be put on shore. 14. A 
 wise man thinks before he speaks; but a fool speaks and 
 then thinks of what he has been saying. 15. Disputes 
 would not continue so long, if the wrong lay but on one 
 side. 16. It avails little to know what ought to be done, 
 if you do not know how it is to be done. 17. The most 
 original modern authors, says Goethe, are not so because 
 they advance what is new, but simply because they know 
 how to put what they have to say as if it had never 
 been said before. 18. As soon as the house was full and 
 the candles lighted, my old friend stood up and looked 
 about him with that pleasure which a mind seasoned 
 with humanity naturally feels in itself at the sight of a 
 multitude of people who seem pleased with one another 
 and partake of the same common enjoyment., 19. We 
 remain shackled by timidity till we have learned to speak 
 with propriety. 20. The earth opens her bosom to re- 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS ' 209 
 
 ceive impartially the beggar and the prince. 21. I know 
 not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me 
 liberty or give me death! 22. The planter, who is man 
 sent out into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered 
 by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees 
 his bushel and his cart and nothing beyond, and sinks 
 into the farmer instead of the man on the farm. 23. It 
 is a pleasing sight, of a Sunday morning, when the bell 
 is sending its sober melody across the quiet fields, to 
 behold the peasantry in their best finery, with ruddy faces 
 and modest cheerfulness, thronging tranquilly along the 
 green lanes to church; but it is still more pleasing to see 
 them in the evenings, gathered about their cottage doors 
 and appearing to exult in the humble comforts and em- 
 bellishments which their own hands have spread around 
 them. 24. After these words, the dragon, awful mon- 
 ster, flashing with blazing flames, came on all wroth a 
 second time to meet his hated foeman. 
 
 EXERCISE 142 
 
 Analyze each sentence in A Preliminary Word 
 to the Pupil on page xi. 
 
 EXERCISE 143 
 
 Analyze the following sentences and parse each 
 word. 
 
 I. The moon was afloat 
 
 Like a golden boat 
 On the sea-blue depths of the sky 
 When the miller of Dee 
 With his children three 
 On his fat, red horse rode by. 
 
210 DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR 
 
 2. Who lacks the art to shape his thought, I hold, 
 Were little poorer if he lacked the thought. 
 
 —Aldrich 
 
 3. The evil that men do lives after them; 
 The good is oft interred with their bones. 
 
 — Shakespeare 
 
 4. Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; 
 
 He who would search for pearls must dive below. 
 
 — Dry den 
 
 5. The stars look very cold about the sky. 
 
 And I have many miles on foot to fare. — Keats 
 
 6. I read whatever bards have sung 
 
 Of lands beyond the sea; 
 And the bright days when I was young 
 
 Come thronging back to me. — Longfellow 
 
 7. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
 
 A stately pleasure-dome decree 
 Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
 Through caverns measureless to man 
 Down to a sunless sea. — Coleridge 
 
 8. In the moonlight the shepherds. 
 
 Soft lulled by the rills. 
 Lie wrapt in their blankets, 
 Asleep on the hills. — Arnold 
 
 9. Yonder in the heather there's a bed for sleeping. 
 Drink for one athirst, ripe blackberries to eat; 
 Yonder in the sun the merry hares go leaping, 
 And the pool is clear for travel-weary feet. 
 
 — Ada Smith 
 
SENTENCE ANALYSIS 211 
 
 10. The hare limped trembling through the frozen 
 
 grass ; 
 And silent was the flock in woolly fold; 
 Numb were the Beadsman's fingers while he told 
 His rosary, and while his frosted breath, 
 Like pious incense from a censer old, 
 Seemed taking flight for heaven, without a death, 
 Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer 
 
 he saith. — Keats 
 
 11. While you converse with lords and dukes, 
 I have their betters here — my books; 
 Fixed in an elbow-chair at ease, 
 
 I choose companions as I please. 
 
 I'd rather have one single shelf 
 
 Than ail my friends, except yourself; 
 
 For, after all that can be said. 
 
 Our best acquaintances are the dead. — Sheridan 
 
PART III 
 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 
 
 It matters little whether we write He lives in 
 the house which stands on the corner, He lives in 
 the house on the corner, or He lives in the corner 
 house. The three statements are nearly identical 
 in meaning. Yet in the first the word house is mod- 
 ified by a clause of five words, in the second by a 
 phrase of three words, in the third by a single 
 word. The skilled writer knows how to gain force 
 by making his statements brief and concise, how 
 to gain clearness by spreading out a sentence, how 
 to avoid an unpleasant combination of sounds or 
 escape monotony of structure by shifting from 
 clause to phrase, from phrase to adjective or ad- 
 verb or noun. He knows when to combine several 
 statements Into a single sentence; when to cut up 
 a long, intricate sentence into a number of short, 
 simple ones. This he has learned through prac- 
 tice, just as you may learn it. But it is not an 
 easy matter. Even after years of training the care- 
 ful writer finds that he must spend no little energy, 
 when revising his work, in changing sentences this 
 way and that to make them clear, forceful, har- 
 monious. 
 
 215 
 
2i6 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 144 
 
 In the first group of sentences below, substitute 
 single words for phrases; in the second group, sub- 
 stitute phrases for single words; in the third group, 
 substitute simpler expressions — words or phrases — 
 for clauses. Try to determine in each case whether 
 anything is gained by the change. 
 
 I. He was a man of courage. 2. We acted ivith de- 
 liberation. 3. In the morning the air is sweet and pure. 
 4. His muscles are as strong as bands of iron. 5. He 
 clung to his purpose with tenacity. 6. The house of Mr. 
 Jones was struck by lightning. 7. He has the strength 
 of an ox. 8. She wore a gown of light blue. 9. He 
 turned the leaves in a quiet manner. 
 
 I. The royal palace is well guarded. 2. Gradually he 
 crept nearer the sentinel. 3. Instantly the report of a 
 musket was heard. 4. The cave's entrance was funnel- 
 shape. 5. He died poor. 6. He plays more skilfully 
 than Harold. 7. Please go home immediately. 8. 
 Away she sailed on golden wings. 9. Her cheeks are 
 rosy. 10. The cane has a golden head. 
 
 I. What we ate was well cooked. 2. I think I know 
 what he intends to do. 3. The man who is poor may not 
 be to blame for his poverty. 4. He is safest from danger 
 who is on his guard. 5. He is guilty of a crime that is 
 punishable by death. 6. When he returned, he bought 
 the store. 7. Berries that grow by the wayside are 
 smaller yet sweeter than berries that are grown in gar- 
 dens. 8. A lad who seems to be stupid may be a genius. 
 9. Boys who grow up in the country are often stronger 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 217 
 
 than those who live in the city. 10. Let those who are 
 to speak come to the platform. 11. I experienced a feel- 
 ing of joy that cannot be described. 12. He was ad- 
 mired by all who lived in his time. 
 
 EXERCISE 145 
 
 Infinitive and participle constructions are often 
 convenient. Instead of He came to the city that 
 he might see the capital building, we may write He 
 came to the city to see the capitol building. In- 
 stead of When his task was completed, he went 
 out to play, we may substitute Having completed 
 his task, he went out to play. For Girls who whis- 
 tle do not always meet bad ends, we may substitute 
 Whistling girls do not always meet bad ends. 
 
 Substitute infinitives and participles wherever 
 you can, in the following sentences, noting in each 
 case whether anything is gained by the change. 
 
 I. When he had finished the regular course, he de- 
 cided to remain two years more. 2. She burst into tears 
 and threw herself at his feet. 3. Men who labor must 
 have their recreation. 4. He strained every muscle, for 
 he was determined to win. 5. If you turn to the north, 
 you will see a mountain which rises abruptly from the 
 plain. 6. He hoped to find his companion, so he turned 
 back. 7. A tall pine crowns the bluff and seems to 
 guard the bay. 8. The room is a spacious one which 
 will seat fifty pupils. 9. Then Sweet made a run, which 
 tied the score. 10. The duke, who thought the fisher- 
 
2i8 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 man was jesting, agreed to give one hundred lashes foi 
 the fish. 
 
 EXERCISE 146 
 
 When reciting a lesson or telling a story, the 
 temptation is strong to link together assertion after 
 assertion with the conjunction and, making of an 
 extended narrative a single long, rambling sen- 
 tence. We do this largely through habit; or Is it 
 because and acts as a kind of easy-chair for the 
 mind, giving It a little rest between each two state- 
 ments? Whatever the cause may be, the practice 
 is a bad one. It is better to use short, abrupt sen- 
 tences than to join by and assertions that a**e not 
 closely related or are of unequal value. It Is bet- 
 ter still to learn to subordinate dependent state- 
 ments, using simple and complex sentences freely, 
 the compound sentences rarely. 
 
 Subordinate statements of minor importance by 
 substituting participial, infinitive, and appositional 
 phrases for clauses. 
 
 \l. West Point is a small town in Orange County, New 
 York, and has a population of about one thousand. 2. 
 He walked up the main street and found all the stores 
 closed. 3. In the gymnasium exhibition, we played an 
 important part and covered ourselves with glory. 4. 
 -Wright Lorimer played the part of David, and he is the 
 author of the play. 5. We started south and made 
 Goodwin Park our objective point. 6. Ellen suspected 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 219 
 
 Red Murdock, and sent Allan to learn from him his pur- 
 pose in bringing Fitz James to the cave. 7. He sprang 
 to his feet and demanded his name. 8. The odor is faint 
 and recalls that of sweet violets. 9. We pushed on and 
 soon emerged into a stumpy field at the head of a deep 
 valley. 10. The ancients were not accurate observers, 
 and in this respect they were like w^omen and children. 
 II. Of a warm thawy day in February, the snow^ is sud- 
 denly covered with myriads of snow^-fleas, and these look 
 like black, new powder just spilt there. "^2. The wind 
 began to blow and the man turned up his coat-collar. 
 13. They disputed for ^ while and then the Wind saw 
 a traveler passing by. 14. It was a disastrous fire, and 
 the loss proved to be over twenty thousand dollars. 15. 
 Unceasing efforts w^re made to relieve his pain, and at 
 last he was made comfortable. 16. I looked down and 
 saw footprints. 17. Boswell was a Scotch lawyer and 
 a great admirer of Samuel Johnson. 18. One hand is 
 spread out, and the fingers are extended, and the palm 
 is turned down, in a typical singer's attitude. 49. Swift 
 was born in Dublin in 1667, and was the greatest satirist 
 of his day. 20. The sunshine-recorder is a recent addi- 
 tion to the Weather Bureau equipment and plays an im- 
 portant part in forecasting. 21. He was completely dis- 
 couraged and began to cry. 22. The sky had been dark 
 with threatening clouds, but now it was everywhere clear. 
 23. The birds were badly frightened and soon abandoned 
 their nest. 
 
 EXERCISE 147 
 
 Make each sentence in the first group either sim- 
 ple or complex. Make each sentence in the second 
 
220 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 group simple. Try to give prominence to state>- 
 ments which seem most important. 
 
 I. I have a partner and he is your porter and he 
 should receive his share of the reward. 2. I v^^as sewing 
 by the window and I happened to look up from my work 
 and there was father coming in through the ,,gate. 3. 
 Faith is lost, honor dies, and the man is dead. 4. I went 
 to bed at half-past nine and it was still snowing. 5. The 
 dishes were w^ashed, the kitchen swept, and then we went 
 berrying. 6. The conversation was not very brisk for 
 a few minutes, but after a while it became animated. 
 
 7. We rounded a deeply w^ooded point and there before 
 us was the town of Hamilton. 8. The gong sounded 
 nine times and we all prepared for fire-drill. 9. He 
 turned to close the door and I noticed that his hand 
 trembled. 10. The guide walked ahead of us, pointed 
 out the trail, and warned us against hidden dangers. 
 
 I. Once upon a time there was a nobleman who was 
 going to marry a peasant girl. 2. After again calling 
 Burt, who did not answer, we started for home. 3. We 
 did not come here that we might annoy you. 4. When 
 he saw how things were going, he gave up all hope. 
 
 5. The boy, who was an id]e fellow, made little progress. 
 
 6. Enfield, which is a sleepy little town, came next into 
 view. 7. A brook which is near by furnishes cool water. 
 
 8. The book is full of stories which are exciting enough 
 for any one. 9. When the life-saver saw the lad's peril, 
 he ran to the rescue. 10. I am just foolish enough so 
 that flattery pleases me. 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION ,221 
 
 EXERCISE 148 
 
 Substitute for each group of sentences a single 
 sentence in which are combined all the assertions 
 of the group. Avoid the compound sentence. Be 
 careful to subordinate statements of minor impor- 
 tance. 
 
 I. A nobleman was to marry a princess. His servants 
 were busy. They wxre preparing the wedding feast. 
 2. A stranger climbed the glade. This he did as the 
 minstrel finished his song. The glade led to the cave. 
 The stranger was dressed in a hunting suit of Lincoln 
 green. 3. He gave her a ring. This, he said, the king 
 had given him for saving his life. 4. The sumac presents 
 in early spring a mere fuzzy knot. From this knot, by 
 and by, emerges a soft, furry kitten's paw. John Bur- 
 roughs writes this. The paw is tawny-colored. 5. 
 The skipper was an old man. His face was brown and 
 wrinkled. He liked to spin yarns. 6. John Bright be- 
 came an excellent speaker and writer. This he accom- 
 plished by studying the best English authors. 7. You 
 seem timid. This puzzles me. You will pardon me 
 for saying so. '8. My den is in the attic. It is a large, 
 airy room. There is little furniture in it. The walls are 
 bare. 9. Two ladies stop before one of the shop win- 
 dows. They appear to be mother and daughter. They 
 talk excitedly about the Christmas display. K). The 
 Richard had forty guns. Six of these were eighteen- 
 pounders. The rest were twelve-, nine-, and six-pounders. 
 II. Hepzibah grew deadly white. She staggered toward 
 Phoebe. She let her head fall on the young girl's shoul- 
 der. This she did no sooner than the judge had disap- 
 
222 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 peared. 12. Phoebe then threw down a whole handful 
 of pennies. The monkey picked them up. This he did 
 with joyless eagerness. He handed them to the Italian 
 for safe keeping. Immediately he recommenced a series 
 of pantomimic petitions for more. 
 
 EXERCISE 149 
 
 Combine each of the following groups of related 
 assertions into a single sentence. Be careful to 
 arrange the statements in proper order. Subor- 
 dinate statements of minor importance. 
 
 I. Harry has been invited. Mary has been invited. 
 Ellen has been invited. 2. Her eyes are clear. They 
 reveal her character. They are gray. They are fear- 
 less. 3. He hunted for the ring in the house. He 
 hunted for it in the garden. He searched for it in the 
 street. The ring was of great value. The lady lost it 
 yesterday. The search was in vain. 4. Morning came. 
 John arose early. He breakfasted hastily. He did not 
 stop to light the camp fire. He paddled hastily across 
 the lake. He hoped to find his companion. This com- 
 panion he had lost the day before, i 5. He lives in a 
 cabin. This cabin is built of logs. It is thatched with 
 hemlock boughs. It stands near a spring. It is at this 
 spring that the campers get their water. He lives alone. 
 6. The man had no covering for his head. His head 
 was defended by his own thick hair. This hair was mat- 
 ted and twisted together. It was scorched by the sun. 
 It was a rusty dark red in color. It formed a contrast 
 with the beard on his cheeks. The beard was overgrown. 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 223 
 
 It was yellow or amber in color. 7. The house stands 
 half-way down a by-street. The by-street is in one of 
 our New England towns. The house has seven acutely 
 peaked gables. These gables face toward various points 
 of the compass. It has a huge, clustered chimney. It 
 is a rust>', wooden house. 8. The boys had selected a 
 site for their camp. This they had done before I had 
 arrived. The site chosen was on high, dry ground". It 
 was in a grove of pines. The pines bordered a beautiful 
 sheet of water. This sheet of water is about three miles 
 in circumference. 9. He seized upon Ivanhoe. This he 
 did with as much ease as the Templar had shown in 
 carrying oif Rebecca. He rushed with him to the pos- 
 tern. He again entered the castle. This he did after 
 delivering his burden to the care of two yeomen. He 
 entered the castle to assist in the rescue of the other 
 prisoners. 
 
 EXERCISE 150 
 
 A paragraph made up of short, jerky sentences 
 is unpleasant to read, but Is preferable to one that 
 rambles on and on, conjunctions and commas tak- 
 ing the place of periods. So exasperating Is this 
 form of poor English that many hard names have 
 been given It. It has been called " the bad error," 
 " the child's error," " the badge of Ignorance," 
 " the badge of shiftlessness," " the hopeless error." 
 Calling names seldom does any good. We had bet- 
 ter forget all these epithets and simply bear in 
 mind that the habit of running sentences together 
 is an exceedingly unfortunate one, very hard to 
 
224 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 overcome. It can be broken up only by long, de- 
 termined effort. In Exercise 147 you were asked 
 to improve sentences containing several statements 
 by subordinating the less important assertions. Ex- 
 ercise 150 is made up of sentences, some of them 
 taken from school compositions, some from printed 
 books, which contain too much. Subordinating 
 one or two statements will not do; the sentences 
 need to be cut up into shorter ones. 
 
 Cut up the following sentences into shorter ones, 
 making whatever changes you think necessary. 
 
 I. The tower was now blazing fiercely and the firemen 
 seemed unable to cope with it, as there were so few 
 engines there, the rest being busy at another fire. 2. The 
 large tower clocks were destroyed, and after the fire was 
 out the hands pointed to a few minutes after the fire 
 broke out. 3. This tree is thirty years old, the trunk 
 seven feet in circumference, spreading out, when about 
 four feet from the ground, into numerous and graceful 
 branches ; it is nearly flat on top ; the leaf is of a dark and 
 glossy green. 4. A little to the eastward is the residence 
 of the American Consul ; during the Rebellion he rendered 
 his government great service, and his berth here during 
 that period was anything but a bed of roses, for as these 
 islands were a base from whence the blockade-runners 
 drew their supplies, he was regarded by that fraternity 
 and their sympathizers here in the light of a spy upon 
 their movements. 5. Strange tales are told of the vorac- 
 ity of these finny monsters — of unfortunate dogs slipping 
 in and being devoured, and if the visitor should come to 
 the place when the gropers are hungry, and dip the end 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 225 
 
 of his boot or his pocket handkerchief among the gaping 
 throng, he will soon become convinced that they are a 
 fearful lot of creatures. 6. I started to wheel round the 
 square and to do so I went dow^n Court street and 
 turned up Main, and just as I turned the corner I felt 
 something strike me, and it was the shaft of an express 
 wagon. 7. There are many private gardens in the vicin- 
 ity of Hamilton that are exquisitely laid out and kept in 
 perfect order, some of them contain magnificent specimens 
 of the India-rubber tree, one very near the Hamilton 
 House can be seen that was sent here thirty-five years 
 ago from Essequebo; it is now grown to be an enormous 
 tree, the trunk twelve feet in circumference, running up 
 three or four feet from the ground, and covering with 
 its dense shade space all around of at least seventy feet. 
 8. A good way is to put the coffee in a small muslin bag, 
 tied loosely, then boil it five minutes, and your grounds 
 can be removed before serving. 9. I like all outdoor 
 games, but tennis is best of all, it not only affords good 
 exercise but is exciting. 10. Half-way down the side street 
 stands a seven-gabled structure, this is the Pyncheon house. 
 II. I was beginning to get impatient when I saw two old 
 gentlemen, one was very short and stout, the other tall 
 and thin, wearing a black suit and a high hat. 12. The 
 Sun then began the contest, he darted hot rays at the 
 traveler's head. 13. I hear that it is good skating, out 
 at the lake, crowds are going out there on the electrics. 
 14. Sirens are great horn-like affairs blown by com- 
 pressed air, sounds from a siren have been heard at a 
 distance of twenty-five miles. 15. Then the wind blew 
 as hard as it could, the harder it blew the tighter the 
 man drew his cloak about him. 16. The last thing at 
 night take a few handfuls of clean, dry pebbles, heat them 
 
226 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 in the frying-pan until very hot, place them in the wet 
 boots, they will dry them out thoroughly in a few hours, 
 shake once in a while. 17. I am sure you will like our 
 city, it is very pretty and contains many parks, the most 
 central is Bushnell park where the fountain is, this park 
 is overlooked by the Capitol. 18. There are many 
 places of interest here, perhaps the one that you will 
 like best is the art museum. 19. We have our camp in 
 a grove, in front is a lake a mile long. 20. The ride 
 to Rainbow is beautiful, all along the route the fields are 
 white with daisies. 21. As we were walking up the street 
 we met Tom, and he suggested that we go down to the 
 river and see the boat come in, so down we went and 
 arrived just in time to see her come up to the wharf, and 
 much to our surprise we found Uncle Harry there, he 
 was down there waiting for a friend. 22. Passing up 
 the side street we came to the main thoroughfare, and 
 there we saw many stores, and I suggested to my friend 
 that we do a little shopping, for I needed several things, 
 and she agreed that this was a good plan, so we entered 
 one of the largest establishments. 
 
 EXERCISE 151 
 
 Inability to see where sentences end leads to a 
 second error, the opposite of that noted in the pre- 
 ceding exercise. A clause or a phrase which comes 
 at the end of a sentence Is treated as If It were an 
 Independent assertion. Apposltlonal phrases, ex- 
 planatory participial phrases beginning with a pro- 
 noun, relative clauses beginning with who or 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 227 
 
 which, and clauses beginning with while or since 
 used as a conjunction, are especially troublesome. 
 
 Correct the following. Name each amputated 
 part, telling whether it is a phrase or a clause, and 
 show clearly that it belongs to the rest of the sen- 
 tence and cannot stand alone. 
 
 i.^^The mountains, to be sure, are grand to look at, 
 but one tires of their monotony. While the ocean, ever 
 changing, is always fascinating. 2. No doubt this state- 
 ment is quite true. Since few wealthy boys care enough 
 about sports to engage in them enthusiastically. 3. Seed 
 covered with too much earth may never sprout, or if 
 they do sprout, the little shoots will never reach the 
 surface. Especially flower seeds, which should be 
 planted very near the surface. 4. The story had to be 
 told to Mrs. Richards. How they had all three spoken 
 of the skating. How each had made up his mind to go 
 without letting the others know about it. How they had 
 all met unexpectedly while on the pond. 5- The porter 
 was given a beating and then discharged. While the fish- 
 erman received a good reward. 6. In order to form a 
 just conclusion two topics must be considered. First, 
 whether the prisoner committed the crime. Second, 
 whether he is of sound mind. 7. The skating on the 
 pond is seldom good. The reason being that, as the 
 water is drawn off by the mills, the ice breaks away from 
 the banks. 8. Some of Pope's poetry is shallow, treating 
 serious matters with levity. While that of Tennyson is 
 more serious. 9. I cannot begin to tell all the fun we 
 had. The picnics, the fishing parties, the straw rides. 
 10. Wamba furnishes fun by his wit, the Friar by his 
 remarks. While Athelstane amuses by his actions. 
 
228 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 Isaac a target for the wit of others, ii. I think Scott 
 introduces this incident for two reasons. First, to give 
 Fitz James good cause for hating Roderick; second, to 
 show which side, according to Brian's prophecy, is going 
 to win. I2i Then it was tear, tug, tussle. Neither side 
 having the advantage. 13. There are two good hotels. 
 One at the north end and one at the south. 14. On a 
 bare table the Friar set pulse and water for the Knight. 
 Who, noticing the hermit's healthy appearance, declined 
 to believe that the fare offered him was the best the 
 larder afforded. 1.5. The train, contrary to custom, 
 slowed up at the cross-road and finally stopped. Which 
 was just what we wished. 16. Donald was chosen cap- 
 tain. He being the oldest boy in the party. 
 
 EXERCISE 152 
 
 When reading a story, we very much prefer to 
 find given the exact words of the characters rather 
 than a mere general report of what has been said. 
 That is to say, we prefer direct discourse to indi- 
 rect discourse. Yet when we are asked to tell a 
 story, we seem afraid to use quotation-marks, 
 afraid to Introduce a little conversation now and 
 then. Perhaps that Is why we fail to be Inter- 
 esting. 
 
 Change the following from indirect to direct 
 discourse. 
 
 I. He asked the lad his name, and the Soy replied 
 that his name was Miltiades but that he was called Ti for 
 short. 2. Phoebe asked her cousin Hepzibah if she had 
 
SUBSTITUTION AND COMBINATION 229 
 
 just spoken to her, and Hepzibah replied that she had not. 
 
 3. Astonished at the sight of a strange soldier descending, 
 steed in hand, from that solitary mountain, the corporal 
 stepped forth and challenged him. He asked who went 
 there. The soldier replied that it was a friend. Then the 
 corporal asked who and what he was. Thereupon he was 
 answered that he was a poor soldier just from the wars, 
 with a cracked crown and an empty purse for reward. 
 
 4. When the girl was alone, the manikin came again 
 for the third time, and asked her what she would give 
 him if he would spin the straw for her this time also. 
 The girl answered that she had nothing left that she could 
 give. He then asked her to promise that if she should 
 become queen she would give him her first child. 5. 
 Johnny asked the teacher, as he came into the primary 
 room one morning in June, what the flag was upon the 
 school building for that day. The teacher thought for a 
 moment and then answered that really she could not 
 remember. She said that he might go to the principal's 
 room and look at the card and then come back and tell 
 her and the pupils. Johnny dashed off and a few mo- 
 ments later returned, looking important. The teacher, 
 thereupon, asked Johnny to tell what the flag was up for. 
 Johnny replied promptly that it was to celebrate some- 
 body's wedding. The teacher repeated Johnny's words 
 slowly, then said that that could not be, for there was no 
 flag-day which celebrated a wedding. Johnny main- 
 tained stoutly that it had something to do with a wed- 
 ding, for the card said so. The teacher was not con- 
 vinced, and leaving the room she went to make a personal 
 investigation. Under the date of the day in question she 
 found that it was the engagement of the Monitor and 
 the Merrimac. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 
 
 Imagine a cabinet containing, besides the cups, 
 saucers, and plates for which it was designed, a 
 few carpenter's tools — saws, hammers, chisels. 
 Imagine a sentence containing items that are not 
 closely related. Or take this one, fresh from a 
 school composition: Hartford has many beautiful 
 parks, and Mark Twain once made his home in the 
 city. Plainly this too is a hammer and teacup com- 
 bination. The sentence lacks unity. It lacks unity 
 not because it contains more than one statement, 
 but because the items brought together are but re- 
 motely related. 
 
 Not only should all the items brought together 
 be closely related; they should be so displayed that 
 their relative importance is easily recognized; for 
 usually some one item deserves to stand out more 
 prominently than the rest. In this respect sen- 
 tences resemble pictures. A picture may show 
 many different things — a lonely stretch of ocean, 
 for example, a sky overcast, in the distance a half- 
 seen shore; but the eye is drawn irresistibly to a 
 mass of floating wreckage, it may be, above which 
 
 230 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 231 
 
 white gulls are circling. All the Items are needed, 
 but attention Is focused upon one; the rest are 
 subordinated. The child links statement to state- 
 ment as If all were of equal Importance. As he 
 grows older, he learns how to subordinate what- 
 ever Is of minor Importance by throwing It Into a 
 dependent clause or phrase, or even Into a single 
 word modifier, adjective or adverb. Instead of 
 Hartford is the capital of Connecticut and is on 
 the Connecticut river, he writes Hartford, the cap- 
 ital of Connecticut, is on the Connecticut river. 
 
 Unity, then, demands two things : first, that only 
 Items closely related be brought together; second, 
 that when related Items are brought together, they 
 be so displayed that whatever deserves prominence 
 receives it, and all else Is subordinated. 
 
 As the term has been used thus far, unity has 
 to do with subject-matter. There is another kind, 
 better called uniformity perhaps, which has to do 
 with sentence designing. The meaning of uni- 
 formity may be illustrated in various ways. Imag- 
 ine, for example, a porch with pillars no two of the 
 same design, or a boy whose shoes are not mates. 
 Like the porch, like the boy whose shoes are not 
 mates, are sentences which have what Is known as 
 the shifting construction, a fault more often than 
 otherwise due to carelessness, or inability to keep 
 in mind till the last word is written the general 
 plan or design of the sentence. For example, we 
 shift unconsciously from present tense to past, 
 from active voice to passive, from masculine or 
 
232 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 feminine gender to neuter, and even from third 
 person to first, through mere carelessness, there be- 
 ing no good reason why such changes should be 
 made. We join by and the two forms of the in- 
 finitive, as in the sentence / dislike writing compo- 
 sitions and to memorize poetry. Of the terms of 
 an enumeration we make the first a noun, the sec- 
 ond a phrase, the third a clause, it may be, when 
 all the terms might be nouns, or all might be 
 clauses. In short the careless writer does not take 
 sufficient pains to make similar such elements as 
 are in the same grammatical or logical construction. 
 He forgets that when uniformity is lacking where 
 uniformity is expected, the reader's sense of order 
 is disturbed. 
 
 This chapter may be condensed into the follow- 
 ing three-fold counsel: First, be careful not to 
 crowd into a sentence items but remotely related; 
 second, give prominence to whatever deserves it 
 and subordinate whatever is of minor importance ; 
 third, take pains to make similar such elements as 
 are in the same construction. Remember the china 
 cabinet, the mass of wreckage with the gulls cir- 
 cling above, and the pair of shoes that are not 
 mates. 
 
 Several of the exercises in the preceding chapter 
 afford practice in securing unity where unity is lack- 
 ing. Here are additional exercises of a similar 
 character. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 233 
 
 EXERCISE 153 
 
 Reconstruct the following sentences, in each case 
 making some one item stand out prominently, 
 
 I. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and It is some- 
 times called The Hub. 2. I closed my eyes and thought 
 I could meet my fate more easily in that way. ^. We 
 walked up the street and it led to the center of the town 
 and I was surprised to see how narrow this busy thor- 
 oughfare was. 4. It was a large house and it had seven 
 acutely peaked gables and these gables met in a clustered 
 chimney. 5. It was a warm day in August and I planned 
 to visit a small island just off the shore. '^. The three 
 were disguised as tillers of the soil and started on their 
 journey to Camelot. 7. It was a delightful ride and we 
 reached home in time for supper. 8. In front was a 
 large door and on each side of this was a narrow window. 
 9>^ Madame Defarge was a stout woman and kept a wine- 
 shop. 10. Comus was the son of Circe and he possessed 
 the same power his mother had. 11. The first scene is a 
 minor one, and shows that Antony is working out his 
 plans. 
 
 EXERCISE 154 
 
 Reconstruct the following. If a sentence con- 
 tains items that are hut remotely related, substitute 
 for it two or more shorter sentences. 
 
 I. The picnic was held at Laurel Park and all the way 
 out the children laughed and sang. 2. We were about 
 to leave the swing and Helen caught her foot and over she 
 
234 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 went; but as the swing was going slowly, she did not 
 hurt herself, but it took some time to brush the dust 
 from her frock. 3. At twelve we ate lunch, which we 
 enjoyed very much, and while we were eating, a hungry 
 looking cat walked up and got a good supply of food; 
 that is, whatever we did not care to save. 4. He was 
 made Poet Laureate in 1843, and died peacefully April 
 twenty-third, as his favorite clock struck the hour of noon. 
 
 EXERCISE 155 
 
 Combine each group of statements into a single 
 sentence^ giving prominence to whatever deserves 
 it. 
 
 I. Over the heavy projecting fireplace was suspended a 
 picture of a warrior in armor. He was standing by a 
 white horse. On the opposite wall hung helmet, buckler, 
 and lance. 2. The squire was a fine, healthy-looking old 
 gentleman. His silver hair curled lightly round an open 
 countenance. His face was florid. 3. A post-chaise 
 drove up to the door. I had not been long at the inn 
 when this happened. 4. There were the customary 
 lights. Besides these there were two wax tapers. These 
 are called Christmas candles. They were wreathed with 
 green. They were placed on a highly polished beaufet 
 among the family plate. 5. The grate had been re- 
 moved from the fireplace. This had been done to make 
 way for a fire of wood. In the midst of the fire was an 
 enormous log glowing and blazing. The fireplace was 
 wide and overwhelming. The log sent forth a vast vol- 
 ume of heat and light. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 235 
 
 EXERCISE 156 
 
 Combine each group of statements into a com- 
 plex sentence, 
 
 I. Our eldest son was named George. He was named 
 after his uncle. This uncle had left us ten thousand 
 pounds. 2. We received a card from the two ladies. 
 This card came towards the end of the week. They 
 hoped, the card said, to see all our family at church the 
 Sunday following. 3. Mr. Thornhill's butler came. His 
 purpose in coming was to congratulate us upon our good 
 fortune. He said that he had overheard his young master 
 mention our names with great commendation. Moses 
 had scarce gone when the butler appeared. 4. Most of 
 the family walked to the church. This they did because 
 the morning, though frosty, was remarkably fine and 
 clear. The church was an old building of gray stone. 
 It stood near a village about half a mile from the park 
 gate. 5. The butler brought in a huge silver vessel. 
 This he did when the cloth was removed. He placed the 
 vessel before the squire. It was of rare and curious 
 workmanship. 
 
 EXERCISE 157 
 
 Combine each group of statements into a sim- 
 ple sentence y giving prominence to whatever de- 
 serves it. 
 
 I. At a little distance from my house was a seat. My 
 predecessor had made it. The seat was overshadowed 
 by hawthorn and honeysuckle. 2. His schoolhouse was 
 
236 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 a low building. It was rudely constructed of logs. It 
 contained but one room. The room was a large one. 
 The windows were partly glazed. They were partly 
 patched with leaves. The leaves were from old copy- 
 books. 3. The schoolhouse was in a pleasant situation. 
 A brook ran close by. The building stood just at the 
 foot of a woody hill. Conveniently near grew a formi- 
 dable birch tree. The situation was lovely. 4. Hard by 
 the farmhouse was a barn. This barn might have served 
 for a church, it was so large. Every window and crevice 
 seemed bursting forth with the treasure of the farm. 5. 
 It was a spacious farmhouse. It was high-ridged, but it 
 had low-sloping roofs. The low, projecting eaves formed 
 a piazza along the front. The piazza could be closed up 
 in bad weather. The house was built in the style handed 
 down from the first Dutch settlers. 
 
 EXERCISE 158 
 
 Reconstruct the following sentences with a view 
 to bringing about uniformity. 
 
 I. The yacht gave its owner a feeling of intense pride 
 as she crept ahead of her competitors. 2. When a boy is 
 going to a ball game, he will use every means to be on 
 time ; so why should they not take equal pains not to be 
 late to school? 3. You find that many of your com- 
 petitors are expert; so when the day for the swimming 
 contest arrives, it is not strange that one should feel 
 nervous. 4. Mr. Jones accepts with pleasure Mrs. 
 Brown's invitation to dine with her Thursday the seven- 
 teenth. Yours truly, Alfred L. Jones. 5. If final y 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 237 
 
 is preceded by a consonant, change the y to i before add- 
 ing a suffix not beginning with i; otherwise it does not 
 change. 6. As they entered the building, Mary says 
 laughingly to Ellen, " Well, sister, I presume you have 
 forgotten your tickets, as usual." 7. After dinner each 
 was conducted to their rooms. 8. After this the mix- 
 ture is stirred constantly until it becomes smooth; then 
 add ale enough to make it thin, cook it a few minutes 
 longer, and serve on dry toast or crackers. 9. To be 
 thoroughly mastered, an essay by Bacon must be read 
 and reread, weighing each word and pondering its mean- 
 ing. 10. She believes that if one does not wear a precious 
 stone appropriate to the month of their birth, they will 
 have bad luck. 
 
 EXERCISE 159 
 
 Improve the following sentences, keeping in 
 mind that a coordinate conjunction should be used 
 to join elements of the same kind only. 
 
 V. Three things are necessary: first, a good play; sec- 
 ond, a good seat; third, be sure to leave your worries at 
 home. \^. To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read 
 and to hear, and inquiring and answering inquiries is the 
 business of the scholar. 3. At first I was overawed by 
 the immensity of the building and because there was such 
 a host of people hurrying about. 4. These garments are 
 popular for three reasons: first, they are exceedingly be- 
 coming; second, their light weight; and third, for their 
 warmth. 5. Every now and then a carriage would come 
 rumbling up the driveway and was greeted by shouts and 
 
238 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 cheers. 6. No sooner had the luggage been taken from 
 the launch and the tables were set, than a terrible rum- 
 bling was heard. 7. Lamb, a contemporary of Words- 
 worth and Byron, was born February 10, 1775, in the 
 Temple, London, where his father was a clerk to Samuel 
 Salt, and was in very poor circumstances. 8. He was a 
 boy of good character and who was popular among his 
 mates. 9. No sooner had we reached the house and began 
 to feel at home than the order came to pack for another 
 long journey. 10. Mr. George Clarke, now vice presi- 
 dent and director of the bank, its cashier at organization, 
 and who has been officially connected with it for many 
 years, celebrates his eightieth birthday to-morrow. 11. 
 Please print this advertisement for three days, and enclosed 
 3^ou will find twenty-five cents. 12. He began to suspect 
 Cassius, one of his associates, and to whom he was warmly 
 attached. 13. No sooner did Brutus depart and Antony 
 had mounted the pulpit than all was lost. M4. To the 
 right of the door is a thriving vine which clambers high 
 and covering one of the windows completely. \/i5. Ma- 
 caulay wrote the essay because he admired Addison and 
 to correct false impressions concerning him. 16. I have, 
 and often shall, look back to the pleasure of our visit. 
 117. The lady, having lost her way, and as night was com- 
 ing on, felt that her plight was serious. 18. Round 
 about the Kaiser were gathered the wealth, the intellect, 
 the beauty, and the aldermen and common councilors of 
 London. 19. I have tried to show that Gareth pos- 
 sessed the following good qualities: courtesy, ambitious, 
 braveness, and strong willed. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH UNITY 239 
 
 EXERCISE 160 
 
 Remodel the following. Avoid the shifting con^ 
 struction; keep your point of view. When neces- 
 sary, make two sentences of one. 
 
 I. Burke's objections to the use of force were (i) its 
 uncertainty, (2) it is temporary, (3) impairs the object 
 fought for, (4) England has no experience in using force 
 in this form of restraint. 2. His objections to the use of 
 force were that it was uncertain, temporary, that it im- 
 pairs the object, and that experience did not show It to 
 be wise to use force. 3. The toy schooner in the fore- 
 ground is trimmed with tinsel ropes and little electric 
 lights of different colors, and having perfumery bottles 
 as a cargo. 4. Messala tells TItlnlus to find Pindarus and 
 that he himself would tell Brutus. 5. I used to go down 
 to the wharf every afternoon and listen to the fishermen 
 tell about their experiences and to watch the boats come 
 in. 6. He offered wine to every traveler, and if they 
 took It, their head was changed into that of a beast. 7. 
 The case contained a collection of coins, some of England, 
 some of Spain, and some from this country. 8. He hears 
 the lark singing and the crowing of the cock. 9. His 
 good traits are determination, faithfulness, generous, and 
 honesty. 10. There are men who fish for the mere joy 
 of killing trout, and other fish such as the tarpon in 
 Florida are caught because they are gamey and fight for 
 their lives, and after they are caught are not used. 11. 
 Jerry had a very hoarse voice and wore an old cocked hat 
 down over his eyes, which gave him a sinister expression. 
 12. The average ferry-boat Is very clumsy and draws 
 about three feet of water. 13. Dost thou hesitate? You 
 
240 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 are lost if you delay. 14. Sabrina was rescued by the 
 daughters of Nereus, who, putting her through an immor- 
 tal change, she becomes goddess of the river Severn. 15. 
 Addison had a better education than Johnson did. 16. 
 He desired an amendment of the Treason Act, and to 
 pass a law that judges should hold office during good 
 behavior. 17. Much space is devoted to criticisms of his 
 works and in describing his trials in getting them pub- 
 lished. 18. The changes in the rules have brought about 
 improvement, both from the spectators' standpoint and in 
 making the game less dangerous. 19. There shall be 
 an advisory board of three, the duty of which shall be 
 to advise the officers of the association and attend to such 
 business as may be referred to them. I29. The mob meets 
 Cinna and wish to put him to -death. 21. The boys de- 
 cide that they could go no further that night and to make 
 a rude shelter that would serve to keep off the rain. (2yt. 
 This is the house that I mentioned and which is for sale. 
 23. Not having heard from the agent, and as there was 
 no time to lose, we made our purchases elsewhere. 24. 
 Boys that are physically strong, and who are willing to 
 work, are sure of employment. 2j. He promised to go 
 quickly and that he would never return. 26. The colo- 
 nists were descendants of the English and have the Eng- 
 lish conception of what constitutes liberty. 27. He saw 
 the trout as it lay near the bottom, and soon had him in 
 his basket. 28. The sources of this spirit of^liberty were 
 as follows: their religion, education, slavery in the South, 
 form of government, distance from the mother country, 
 and they were descendants of liberty loving Englishmen. 
 29. I am more desirous of pleasing him than to succeed 
 in this enterprise. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 
 
 The purpose of this chapter is to show how 
 clearness and force may be gained through taking 
 pains to so arrange each sentence that the rela- 
 tionship of part to part is unmistakable. It has 
 to do with what is called coherence. 
 
 Seldom do subject and predicate give any trou- 
 ble ; they are, as a rule, discoverable at a glance, even 
 when sentences are clumsily constructed. Rarely 
 do adjectives stray from the words they qualify. 
 But adverbs, phrases, and clauses are sometimes 
 placed so far away from the words they modify 
 as to cause the reader perplexity; and pronouns are 
 used so carelessly that it Is not always clear to what 
 antecedents they should be referred. In a word, 
 through faulty arrangement many sentences are 
 like picture puzzles ; the various parts lie before the 
 reader, but they are almost meaningless till prop- 
 erly fitted together. Plain courtesy should prompt 
 one to spare the reader this unpleasant task, which 
 distracts attention and therefore weakens the force 
 of the message the sentence conveys. 
 
 But coherence is a broad term, embracing far 
 241 
 
242 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 more than grammatical arrangement. We say of 
 a person slightly out of his mind that he talks in- 
 coherently, meaning that what he says does not 
 follow the natural order; there Is no logical se- 
 quence to his utterances. Everything Is " mixed 
 up '* — his mind wanders. The constable Dog- 
 berry, a character In Much Ado about Nothings 
 thus accuses his prisoners: " Marry, sir, they have 
 committed false report; moreover, they have 
 spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; 
 sixth and lastly, they have belled a lady; thirdly, 
 they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, 
 they are lying knaves.'' We laugh not only at the 
 constable's misuse of words, but at the illogical 
 way in which he numbers his charges; for surely 
 thirdly belongs before sixthly and lastly, and we 
 question his secondarily. 
 
 There Is something of Dogberry In most of us. 
 We do not always think straight, and consequently 
 our sentences ramble. We do not follow the nat- 
 ural sequence of time, when telling a story, nor do 
 we have a definite plan when describing a land- 
 scape. Endeavoring to explain things, we jumble 
 together cause and effect, acts and motives. That 
 Is, we set down items carelessly, without troubling 
 to arrange them. It Is as if the coal car were 
 placed in front of the locomotive, and the caboose 
 In the middle of the train. 
 
 Not only should the Items of a sentence be ar- 
 ranged In accordance with some natural or logical 
 plan, that coming first which belongs first, and so 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 243 
 
 on, but extreme care should be taken In making 
 transitions from one Item or assertion to the next. 
 A sentence may be extremely long and contain 
 many Items, yet be perfectly clear, provided the 
 transitions are carefully managed. The trained 
 writer may be told by the skill with which he uses 
 certain words serving as guides or heralds lead- 
 ing the reader's mind from one part of a sentence 
 to another part, or from one sentence to the next, 
 and explaining the relationship of what Is coming 
 to what has gone before. 
 
 Best known of all these guides is and, which 
 simply bids the reader go right on; what follows 
 is but a continuation, or is like what precedes. 
 And corresponds to the plus sign in arithmetic. 
 But, on the contrary, warns that exception is to 
 be taken to a previous statement; it announces 
 opposition, or a contrast. If what follows is merely 
 an explanation of what is behind, there stands for 
 announcing a cause or reason. Therefore heralds 
 a conclusion or consequence. Then and there are 
 time and place keepers, helping the reader to keep 
 orderly track of things as they happen one after 
 another. And, but, for^ therefore, then, and there, 
 to which may be added if announcing a condition, 
 are guides which save a great deal of trouble. Or 
 we may think of them as links binding together 
 the parts of a sentence, or as bridges leading from 
 one statement to another. Whether we think of 
 them as bridges, links, guides, or heralds, we see 
 their purpose. It takes years of practice, how- 
 
244 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 ever, to learn to use them effectively. Indeed, an 
 untrained writer Is detected at once by the clumsi- 
 ness with which he links statement to statement, 
 just as an unskilled carpenter Is betrayed by his 
 poor " joinery." The tendency is to omit the links 
 altogether, or to use a weak word where a strong 
 one is needed, or to use and, hut, etc., over and 
 over, as if there were not many words which serve 
 admirably as synonyms for each. 
 
 This is the conclusion : Take pains to so arrange 
 each sentence that it coheres grammatically and 
 logically. Acquire the art of using transitional 
 words and phrases with precision. 
 
 EXERCISE 161 
 
 Revise the following, with a view to making the 
 meaning clearer. Do not hesitate to entirely recast 
 a sentence, if by so doing you can make it distinctly 
 better. 
 
 I. The corn was roasted by the boys on the ends of 
 long, pointed sticks. 2. He then conducted me to a little 
 chapel where all his ancestors had been married for cen- 
 turies. 3. I neither call myself rich nor poor. 4. The 
 hound was making a desperate attempt to get his fore- 
 paws over the side of the boat, at the same time seizing 
 the rope that held the boat in his teeth. 5. Three days 
 after the close of school, June 25, we started on our 
 cruise. 6. He had only been present three days, when he 
 was taken ill. 7. This was taken from the dress which 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 245 
 
 Marie Antoinette wore at her execution by an eye wit- 
 ness. 8. Echo, a mountain nymph, fell in love with the 
 son of a river god named Narcissus. 9. He noticed sev- 
 eral odd-looking persons going in and out of a certain 
 room. This aroused his curiosity, and he resolved to 
 enter himself. 10. Both the speeches of Brutus and ^ 
 Antony were delivered with a definite purpose in view. . 
 II. Lady Macbeth did not continue murdering people 
 like Macbeth; her conscience was too tender. 12. He 
 saw the form of the crouching bloodhound, his eyes glar- 
 ing in the moonlight, his jaws open and poising for a 
 spring. 13. Brutus finds the book he has lost in the 
 pocket of his dressing-gown. 14. He was driving awa>^ 
 from the church where he had been married in a coach/ 
 and six. 15. In the South at Christmas time the children 
 delight in shooting off firecrackers, for Christmas is 
 Fourth of July to them also. 16. After a while we left 
 the road and followed a swift-flowing brook, with occa- 
 sional sluggish spots where lilies grew in abundance. 17. 
 As a writer Macaulay considers Addison onj.y rema rkable 
 along one line. 18. Milton very unwillingly gave his 
 tribute to the memory of his dead friend, probably be- 
 cause he felt that his grief was too sacred for public dis- 
 play. 19. Macaulay was displeased with Miss Aikin's 
 life of Addison, and so resolved to write an essay on Addi- 
 son himself. 20. He brought out a snowplow built of 
 old boards from under the shed. 21. We built a stone 
 fireplace and put the top of an old stove which had been 
 left by previous campers on top of it. 22. We walked 
 up to the cabin, where many fisherman's articles lay scat- 
 tered about, including nets, lobster pots, fish lines, and 
 bait. 23. In the opening lines of the poem Milton shows 
 his unwillingness to write repeatedly. 24. After the 
 
246 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 cheer there was a lull, which was broken by the starter's 
 voice, Mr. Alvord. 25. The hero of the book's name Is 
 Theodore. 26. Brutus tries to show the people In his 
 speech that It was right to kill Caesar. 27. The novel 
 jIves the events which led up to the battle In story form. 
 28. The Board of Education has resolved to erect a build- 
 ing large enough to accommodate five hundred students 
 three stories high. 29. These lines were written nearly 
 I fifty years ago by one who has for several years lain in 
 the grave for his own amusement. 
 
 EXERCISE 162 
 
 Pronouns are the principal ofenders in the fol- 
 lowing sentences. Every pronoun should, of 
 course, have a clearly defined, easily discoverable 
 antecedent. Every relative clause should he so 
 placed that the reader can see at a glance its con- 
 nection with the rest of the sentence. Revise, re- 
 moving all obscurity, ambiguity, and awkwardness 
 of expression. 
 
 I. This was due to the guide's carelessness, who neg- 
 lected to tie the boats securely. 2. They gave grass to 
 the animal which was not fit to be eaten. 3. Each man 
 had to slide down a rope to the ground which was at- 
 tached to the roof. 4. She called out to him to unravel 
 his stocking and tie something heavy to the end of it. 5. 
 Then we entered a room where they make the moulds. 
 6. In Milton's poem Lycidas he, Milton, laments the loss 
 of his friend King. 7. In the business world many a 
 young man has worked his way from a low position to a 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 247 
 
 high one, passing by people who have been employed there 
 a longer time than he has been. 8. Just as they were 
 about to begin, there came a rap at the gate, which, upon 
 being opened, disclosed a fisherman. 9. I hope this letter 
 will reach some kind person's hands who will come to my 
 rescue. 10. A carpet-sweeper is a contrivance for picking 
 up dust and scraps from the floor when it is rolled up 
 and down. 11. He gave my uncle the tickets, who 
 thanked him for them. 12^ In scene two it shows Brutus 
 and Cassius quarreling. 13. In Antony's speech he did 
 not refer to himself as he (Brutus) did in his. 14. On 
 our way we passed John's house, whom we asked to join 
 our party. 15. We saw the house in which Maria 
 Mitchell was born, who was a distinguished astronomer. 
 16. Strangers notice at Mt. Holyoke college little marks 
 of courtesy such as getting o^ the sidewalks and giving 
 them the best seats, ip At the universities they do a 
 great deal to help needy students. 18. The racing 
 proved the one uninteresting feature of the day, owing to 
 the fact that each was won in three straight heats. 19. 
 A huge brass-trimmed urn ornaments the top of the stove 
 which is about five feet high. 20. We took the shucks 
 off the walnuts and stirred them into the candy. 21. 
 John Bright, an excellent speaker and w^riter, accom- 
 plished this by studying the best English authors. 22. 
 A look of disappointment came over his face, but it sud- 
 denly lit up again as he answered. 23. I asked the man's 
 advice who made the boat. 24. If the diphthong ie has 
 the sound of long e, the i comes first unless it is preceded 
 by c. 25. On the second day, my feet got so blistered 
 that I had to go barefoot ; so I tied my bootlaces together 
 and put them over my shoulder. 26. We rode on till 
 we reached a stream they call Dean Branch. 27. We 
 
248 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 put the cattails to soak — in oil, not water — and the next 
 day persuaded the boys to bring us driftwood; but it 
 was no easy task. It took three-quarters of an hour to 
 get them keyed up to the proper pitch. 28. Supposing 
 the regular station of the Atlantic fleet had been the 
 Pacific coast and an outbreak had occurred in New York 
 which required the Pacific fleet to come to the Atlantic 
 coast, then England might justly have claimed that the 
 United States was going to make war on them. 29. The 
 King had appointed councilors before the colony sailed 
 from England, but instead of making known their names 
 he gave strict orders that they should be placed in a sealed 
 box not to be opened till the Colony reached America. 
 Curiously enough, when the names were taken from the 
 box, John Smith was found among them. 30. We sat 
 before the kitchen fire, which was the best room in the 
 house. 31. And the man came into the house; and he 
 ungirdled his camels, and gave straw and provender for 
 the camels, and water to wash his feet and the men's feet 
 that were with him. 32. I cannot begin to tell you 
 how many windows there are, but I know there are about 
 as many as there are doorknobs, one of which is open that 
 the summer breeze may blow in and out to suit itself. 
 33. Another thing I noticed was the lengthy paragraph- 
 ing, one I found being four and one-half pages long. 34. 
 She clambered into the boat, with the help of the others, 
 and took off her shoes, and for the rest of the ride they 
 were very quiet because frightened. 35. It is less than 
 twenty-one years since the first house was erected in 
 B , and now it contains 20,120 inhabitants. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 249 
 
 EXERCISE 163 
 
 // a participial phrase has no substantive to 
 which it can attach itself, or if it dangles loosely 
 between two substantives, the sentence is pretty 
 sure to be ambiguous or obscure or even meaning- 
 less. Especially in elliptical sentences is there dan- 
 ger that the reader will relate the participle to some 
 substantive expressed, when it really modifies a sub- 
 stantive which the writer has merely in mind. Re- 
 vise the following sentences. 
 
 I. I sailed on a first-class steamer, being fully equipped 
 with the latest improvements. 2. We walked down the 
 main street, paved with cobble stones. 3. On entering 
 the room, the first thing that met his eyes was a large, 
 square table. 4. After long wondering what was to be- 
 come of me, the lid of the box in which I was confined 
 was raised. 5. Theater programmes are often read 
 through from cover to cover while waiting for the cur- 
 tain to rise. 6. Tins should be washed in hot, soapy 
 water, taking especial care of seams and corners. 7. 
 Having had your bath and having been tucked in clean 
 sheets, the nurse puts the room to rights. 8. After trying 
 to get away from me several times, I finally got the cattle 
 home about half past seven. 9. Drawing nearer, the 
 mountain appears more rugged, with a thick undergrowth 
 of white birch brush ; advancing towards the top, the trees 
 begin to thin out. 10. In those days the mail was car- 
 ried by men on horseback from place to place, exchang- 
 ing the mail at each town, one man covering a large 
 territory. 11. The first impression I received was that 
 
250 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 a great many toys had been emptied into the window 
 without trying to put them in any kind of order. 12. 
 Having given the usher our tickets, he escorted us to our 
 seats. 13. Such as drank of the magic liquid, she touched 
 with her magic wand, thereby changing them into grovel- 
 ing swine, but retaining their consciousness. 14. Being 
 nearly exhausted, we carried him to camp on an impro- 
 vised stretcher. 15. The behavior of the boys can hardly 
 be excused on any ground, refusing to help the old man 
 when he cried out to them. 16. Before entering the 
 park a fine view of the city can be had. 17. One day 
 when sitting on the beach, the tide was coming in, and as 
 we looked we saw a little child standing knee-deep in the 
 water. 18. The hides were cured, making them soft and 
 
 supple. 19. B is eight miles from any railway. 
 
 Located in the heart of the Berkshires, the scenery is hard 
 to surpass. 20. We all enjoyed watching these poor peo- 
 ple with their bags and bundles around on deck smoking 
 and talking among themselves. 21. In 1618 his educa- 
 tion proper began, studying at home, in school, and with 
 different tutors. 22. On ringing the bell the wicket 
 was opened from within. 23. Winding in and out be- 
 tween beautiful banks, many an exclamation fell from 
 their lips. 
 
 EXAMPLE 164 
 
 Not infrequently sentences are faulty because 
 necessary words have been omitted. Such omis- 
 sions are like ditches which the reader must bridge 
 before he can pass on. Supply necessary words 
 missing from the following sentences. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 251 
 
 I. You make the custard first, and when cooked pour 
 into the freezer-can. 2. Oliver Twist, one of Dickens's 
 novels, is as interesting to a boy as a girl. 3. It is as 
 quick, if not quicker than, the other. 4. He never has, 
 and I fear he never will be, fond of reading. 5. He then 
 suggested we go see the hens. 6. The instruments used 
 in recording the weather are the barometer, wind-gauge, 
 anemometer, sunshine-recorder, rain-gauge, and snow- 
 gauge. 7. Will the person who by mistake took a bicycle 
 from in front of the post office yesterday kindly return 
 or notify A. M. Garvin? 8. Wanted: A servant who 
 can cook and care for children. 9. It was a beautiful 
 June evening that our party gathered about the camp fire. 
 10. While driving to town, the horse ran away. 11. The 
 leader directs the orchestra, a task calling for great tact, 
 especially so since many players are foreigners whose cus- 
 toms are different from ours and are easily offended. 
 12. Her character was quite unlike the other members 
 of the family. 13. Perhaps squirrels think autumn too 
 short a season to prepare for winter. 14. In those days 
 every lady of refinement, as well as man, could read 
 Greek. 15. Newcastle is only eighteen miles from Can- 
 ton, and we knew that when trains run on time it takes 
 about an hour. 16. The dog goes after the cows, and 
 he brings them successfully, if nothing is the matter, when 
 one of the men has to go and call them. 17. He showed 
 me a lot of medals he won. 18. He decided that he did 
 not care for the position, so gave it up. 19. She 
 beats the mixture till smooth. 20. Why is it that so 
 many more study French than Latin? 21. We stopped 
 to get some gasoline and oil up. 22. I had great fun 
 driving the horse from the top of the hay-load. 23. The 
 training squad needs but outdoor practice to develop it 
 
252 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 into as promising a squad as the school has had for years, 
 and from which can be picked a winning team. 24. If 
 the seams of your gloves hurt you, turn inside out. 25. 
 Clean the meat thoroughly, then roll in flour. 26. Do 
 not forget forty pounds is the limit of man's pack. More 
 is making a pack-mule of him. 27. Saturday is better 
 than any day In the week. 28. There were twenty posts, 
 with a space of ten feet between each. 29. We went to 
 pick flowers and fish. 30. The reader is shown first an 
 English forest, then a Saxon home, from there to tourna- 
 ment grounds near a small town, then to the home of a 
 wealthy Jew. 
 
 EXERCISE 165 
 
 Revise the following sentences, supplying neces- 
 sary words. 
 
 I. The captain said that while the steamer was In the 
 ice track the weather became cold enough to wear an 
 overcoat. 2. The second year, each lad must kill, either 
 with his arrow or spear, an antelope and many other dif- 
 ficult feats. 3. These facts do not, and ought not In any 
 way, lessen our sense of Indebtedness. 4. Sometimes the 
 chair is mounted upon two slightly curved pieces of wood 
 so that it will rock to and fro when desired. 5. Macau- 
 lay's style is very different from other authors we have 
 studied. 6. His opinion Is very much taken In affairs of 
 state, having read the Sunday papers for the last half cen- 
 tury. 7. The grove Is a nice place to picnic. 8. He 
 likes the first better than any in the lot. 9. I then drop 
 the corn mixture by tablespoonfuls into the hot fat, and 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 253 
 
 fry like eggs, turning over when one side Is a golden 
 brown. 10. He looked for some place to sleep. 11. I 
 always have, and always shall be, glad to serve you. 12. 
 The little canary took the journey with us; please thank 
 John for sending us the cage to travel in. 13. Lord 
 North's plan and Burke's are in some respects similar 
 and dissimilar. 14. Drawn up on the beach were two 
 boats used by the fishermen to row ashore when they go 
 home at night. 15. This being the only park of its kind 
 in the city, will be greatly appreciated. 16. The title is 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Mrs. Stowe. 17. The tribes- 
 man learns, also the use of weapons, tanning of hides, 
 dressing of the meat, and other useful things. 18. This 
 is a book that will be read by generations to come as well 
 as those gone by. 
 
 EXERCISE 166 
 
 Combine each group into a single sentence free 
 from unnecessary words. 
 
 I. Among the country schoolhouses which I have seen, 
 this one in particular pleased me. This schoolhouse 
 stood at the foot of a long hill. It was made of wood and 
 was painted white. It had green blinds. 2. My dwell- 
 ing, which consisted of a somewhat shaky cabin, was situ- 
 ated on a little rise of ground. The cabin consisted of 
 but one room with but little furniture. 3. In the center 
 is a wreath. From this wreath come strings. These 
 strings are made of paper cut Into fancy shapes. They 
 extend from the wreath to each corner of the window. 
 This arrangement makes the window look pretty. 4. 
 They divide the crowd. Brutus takes one section and 
 
254 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 Casslus the other. 5. Two elderly ladles live In a house 
 in the city. The house, which is a rambling wooden 
 structure, is older than its inhabitants. 6. To the south 
 lies lofty Mt. Sunapee, 2700 feet high. To the west 
 lies Mt. Kearsarge, 2300 feet high. Both are surrounded 
 by many foothills. 7. This house has many windows. 
 Each has twenty-four panes of glass, small and square. 
 8. The Pequots were the most warlike Indians of New 
 England. They were settled in the southeast part of 
 what is now Connecticut. 9. Charles Lamb was con- 
 temporary with Wordsworth and Coleridge. He was 
 born in 1775 and he died in 1834. 
 
 EXERCISE 167 
 
 The principal members of the AND group of con- 
 nectives are TOO, also, likewise, besides, fur- 
 thermore, MOREOVER, AGAIN, IN ADDITION TO 
 this, in like manner. Select from this list a 
 word or a phrase for each dash in the following 
 sentences. Try not to use the same expression 
 twice. 
 
 I. He promised us a cottage free of charge, and the 
 use of a boat too. he said we might help our- 
 selves to his corn and potatoes. 2. The guide crossed the 
 fissure by crawling cautiously along a decayed log which 
 threatened every moment to give way beneath him. 
 
 every member of his party reached the other side 
 
 in safety. 3. I think we had better return at once, for 
 it looks like rain. we promised to be back before 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 255 
 
 dark, and it is now after six o'clock. 4. Apples are in- 
 deed a wholesome fruit; no one will deny that. Cher- 
 ries are excellent. But give me peaches, if you 
 
 please. 5. Think of the fun we shall have in camp, 
 cooking our own meals, washing our own dishes, and all 
 
 that. Think of the poor fellows who never get 
 
 an outing. 6. Our opponents may claim that in a small 
 college one forms closer friendships with his classmates. 
 
 they may maintain that in the smaller institution 
 
 one comes immediately under the professors and is not 
 entrusted to tutors. 7. I think the girls did exceedingly 
 well, if we consider that they were younger than their 
 
 opponents. We should remember that their 
 
 strongest debater was unable to be present. 8. Consider, 
 if you please, that our task was exceedingly difficult. 
 
 Consider that we were inexperienced. 9. We 
 
 furnished them shelter for the night, and in the morn- 
 ing a hearty breakfast. we supplied them with 
 
 money enough to take them back home. 
 
 EXERCISE 168 
 
 The principal members of the BUT group are 
 YET, STILL, NEVERTHELESS, HOWEVER, FOR ALL 
 THAT, ON THE CONTRARY, AT THE SAME TIME, ON 
 THE OTHER HAND. Select from this list a word or 
 a phrase for each dash in the following sentences. 
 Try not to use the same expression twice. 
 
 I. Janet is not a brilliant girl, and much of her time 
 
 is given to home duties; she is so persevering 
 
 that I think she may win the scholarship prize. 2. We 
 
256 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 stated our case and asked him to help us, but it was of 
 
 no use. He did agree to try to Interest others 
 
 in our cause. 3. There are, it must be admitted, serious 
 
 obstacles in our way, and we may fail altogether ; 
 
 let us try, and try hard. 4. In autumn, when the young 
 birds have flown, you can collect many nests and study 
 
 their beautiful workmanship; pray keep your 
 
 hands off them while they are in use, for it is neither 
 kind nor polite to meddle. 5. It rained almost contin- 
 uously throughout the day, the wind was cold, and the 
 
 work disagreeable. no one uttered a word of 
 
 complaint. 6. Do you fancy that Gaytown is an ugly 
 little village with shabby stores and ill-kept streets? 
 
 it is as pretty a place as one cares to see. 7. To 
 
 be sure, your garden is ruined, and I cannot blame you 
 
 for feeling provoked; you should remember 
 
 that the mischief-makers were very little fellows and 
 did not realize what grief they would cause you. 8. An 
 automobile never shies, never gets tired, never gets sick. 
 
 A horse is thoroughly unreliable, " a vain thing 
 
 for safety." 9. Of course it is laughable that w^e hunted 
 through meadow after meadow, and at last found the 
 
 plant growing in our own back yard; who ever 
 
 would have thought of looking there for it! 
 
 EXERCISE 169 
 
 The principal members of the THEREFORE 
 group are consequently, accordingly, thus, 
 
 THEN, so, hence, AS A RESULT, AS A CONSE- 
 QUENCE. Invent pairs of sentences, in each case 
 introducing the second sentence by some member 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 257 
 
 of the THEREFORE group. Try to use every 
 member. 
 
 The principal members of the THEN GROUP are 
 
 PRESENTLY, MEANWHILE, THEREUPON, EVENTU- 
 ALLY, TO CONCLUDE, THEREAFTER, INCIDENT- 
 ALLY, TO CROWN ALL. Invent two or three short 
 paragraphs, using in each as many of the above 
 terms as you can conveniently. 
 
 EXERCISE 170 
 
 Supply an appropriate word or phrase for each 
 dash in the following sentences. 
 
 I. After dinner we went to the music-room, where Mary 
 
 and Helen entertained us by playing duets. a 
 
 most delightful evening was spent. 2. Success in life 
 
 does not always mean accumulated wealth; here 
 
 in America, we are told, it is coming to mean that. 3. In 
 schools and colleges we do not find education without 
 
 athletics; it has frequently been shown that 
 
 the exaltation of one weakens the power of the other. 
 4. Some are inclined to think that exercise is unimpor- 
 tant; Addison says that, were not exercise abso- 
 lutely necessary for our well-being, nature would not 
 have made the body so proper for it. 5. The sun came 
 
 out, the man felt warm took ofiE his coat. 
 
 6. A Spaniard was riding through a barren country when 
 
 his horse fell lame. He was in dismay he spied 
 
 an Indian coming toward him on a fresh horse. 7. 
 Owing to recent storms no fish could be had for the 
 feast. On the eventful morning a poor fisher- 
 
258 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 man came to the gate carrying a large turbot. 8. Isaac 
 
 stumbles and falls; Wamba jumps forward and 
 
 triumphantly waves his wooden sword. 
 
 EXERCISE 171 
 
 Improve the following sentences by substituting 
 better words or phrases for the words italicized. 
 
 I. Reluctantly the king ordered his servants to whip 
 the little boy, and to lay the blows on lightly. 2. During 
 the summer he enjoyed a pleasant outing as well as earn- 
 ing a little money. 3. The athlete feels defeat like a sol- 
 dier does who has lost a battle. 4. Determined to get the 
 man's cloak, the wind blew harder and harder; and the 
 traveler merely wrapt it the closer about him. 5. Won 
 by flattery, I consented to turn the grindstone; and long 
 before the scythe was sharp I felt sorry that I had agreed 
 to help him. 6. Better keep your wood dry by stacking 
 it under a tree ; and should rain fall, it will remain fairly 
 dry. 7. The Spaniard asked the Indian to exchange 
 horses, and the Indian refused; and the Spaniard forced 
 him to do it. 8. The prisoner did not dare to hesitate; 
 and he answered promptly, " The left eye, sir." 9. I 
 watched for several minutes and to my surprise I saw the 
 muskrat reappear. 10. At last the Wind gave it \x^,as he 
 saw that it was of no use to blow any longer. 11. It 
 taught me a good lesson, because after that I used greater 
 care. 12. The snow was knee deep but I went to school; 
 but I had to turn back, as there was no session that day 
 on account of the storm. 13. A traveler came along just 
 then, and the Wind said, " I will make him take off his 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH COHERENCE 259 
 
 coat." 14. He thought he was not strong enough for 
 the mile run, and entered the half-mile. 15. The reason 
 for the postponement was because it was very stormy. 
 16. I took the seven-fifteen train from Hartford and due 
 in New Haven about eight forty-five. 17. Many objec- 
 tions are raised against this plan. 18. They procured him 
 a pension of three hundred pounds which besides his pri- 
 vate means made him well off. 19. Most of the trees 
 are birches, and there are a few pines. 20. It looked like 
 some one had capsized. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 
 
 Even though perfectly adjusted part to part, 
 each word in its proper place, a sentence may lack 
 clearness and force because incorrectly punctuated. 
 Commas, semicolons, and the other points are as 
 necessary to the written or printed page as are 
 pauses, gestures, facial expression, and voice em- 
 phasis to oral discourse. They aid the reader to 
 see at a glance what words should be taken to- 
 gether; they point out relationship. Often the 
 entire meaning of a sentence is controlled by a 
 single punctuation mark. 
 
 Periods, exclamation points, and interrogation 
 points, most commonly found at sentence-ends, 
 rarely give trouble. The apostrophe, indicating 
 possession and contraction, presents no difficulty, 
 though it is frequently misused through careless- 
 ness. The troublesome points are the comma, the 
 semicolon, the colon, and quotation marks. To 
 use these points effectively requires no little skill. 
 The rules which follow do not cover all cases, yet 
 they furnish a fairly complete working equipment. 
 They should be mastered. 
 
 260 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 261 
 
 / 
 
 I. Use the period after a complete declarative or 
 imperative sentence. 
 
 Be careful not to treat a phrase or a clause as 
 if it were a complete sentence. The following, for 
 example, is incorrectly punctuated. We made 
 Charles our captain. He being by far the best 
 player. This should read We made Charles our 
 captain, he being by far the best player. Be equally 
 careful not to run sentences together. The tempta- 
 tion to make this error Is especially great when the 
 second of two sentences begins with a pronoun re- 
 ferring to a substantive In the first. It Is Incorrect 
 to write Charles makes a good captain, he is our 
 best player and the fellows respect him. A period 
 should take the place of the comma after captain. 
 (See Exercises 150 and 151, pages 223-26.) 
 
 II. Avoid placing a punctuation mark of any kind 
 between such parts of a sentence as are closely re- 
 lated and are in their natural grammatical order. 
 
 For example, avoid separating a subject from 
 Its predicate, a verb from Its complement, a prepo- 
 sition from Its object, an adjective from the noun 
 It modifies when the adjective immediately pre- 
 cedes the noun, an adverb from the adjective it 
 modifies when the adverb immediately precedes the 
 adjective. If the subject of a sentence Is extremely 
 long and complex, or if it ends with a verb, a 
 comma may be needed to aid the reader to see at 
 once where the predicate begins ; but such cases are 
 rare. 
 
262 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 III. If the terms of a series are all in the same 
 construction and are not joined by conjunctions, 
 the comma should be used to separate them. If 
 only the last two are joined by a conjunction, the 
 comma should be used regardless of the connective. 
 
 The series may consist of a number of nouns 
 all subjects of the same verb, a number of verbs 
 having a common subject, a number of modifiers 
 (adjectives, adverbs, phrases, or clauses) modify- 
 ing the same word. It may consist of the clauses 
 of a compound sentence, and occasionally of a 
 number of short, closely related independent state- 
 ments. The important thing to remember is that 
 the terms separated must be in what may be called 
 parallel construction. Here are illustrations. 
 
 Morning, afternoon, and evening slipped away. 
 
 I arose softly, slipped on my clothes, and opened the 
 door suddenly. 
 
 I came, I saw, I conquered. 
 
 IV. Use the comma to set off a dependent clause 
 when it precedes a principal clause. 
 
 Notice that the rule has to do with clauses, not 
 with phrases. Seldom Is It necessary to set off a 
 phrase even when It stands first In a sentence, un- 
 less the phrase Is participial. Occasionally It be- 
 comes necessary to set off an Introductory adverb. 
 No rule can be framed to cover all cases, but the 
 underlying principle Is clear. When the comma 
 is really needed to show at a glance where the 
 dependent element leaves off and the principal ele- 
 ment begins. It should be used. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 263 
 
 As he was passing by, the door opened suddenly. 
 
 Being admonished, let us follow better things. 
 
 To be sure, there are exceptions to most rules. 
 
 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep. 
 
 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
 
 V. Use the comma to set off non-restrictive 
 phrases and clauses. 
 
 A phrase or clause is restrictive when It narrows 
 or closely defines what it modifies ; or when it picks 
 out one thing from among several, as do the words 
 this and that. Removing a restrictive word-group 
 changes the meaning of the sentence In which It 
 occurs. A non-restrlctlve word-group contains an 
 additional statement, explanatory or Incidental. 
 The sentence does not change materially when a 
 non-restrlctlve phrase or clause Is removed. For 
 example, In the statement The greatest man is he 
 who does not lose his child's heart, the relative 
 clause Is restrictive. Remove the clause, and the 
 sentence becomes meaningless. In the statement 
 Affliction, like an iron-smith, shapes as it strikes, 
 the phrase like an iron-smith Is non-restrlctlve ; the 
 meaning Is clear even when the phrase is removed. 
 Here are further Illustrations. 
 
 He who strives should win. (restrictive) 
 
 Bruce, who had failed many times, finally succeeded, 
 (non-restrictive) 
 
 The station which Nelson had chosen was some fifty 
 miles to the west of Cadiz, (restrictive) 
 
 The storm, which by noon had spent its fury, entirely 
 disappeared before dusk. (non-restrictive) 
 
264 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 VI. Use the comma to set off words or word- 
 groups when they interrupt the thought or the 
 grammatical order. 
 
 This rule, necessarily vague and covering many 
 cases, should not be followed blindly; the writer 
 must use judgment. Some interruptions are so 
 slight that they do not call for punctuation ; others 
 need careful attention. The Interruption may be 
 caused by words coming between subject and pred- 
 icate, or between a verb and Its complement. It 
 may consist of words Independent by address, 
 a word or phrase in apposition, an absolute 
 phrase, or an explanatory phrase Interrupting a 
 clause. Among brief expressions often, though 
 not always, used parenthetically are too, also, 
 moreover, indeed, namely, again, no doubt, in 
 short, of course, consequently, for instance, so to 
 speak, in truth. 
 
 Most rules, to be sure, have their exceptions. 
 
 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. 
 
 The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, 
 Sat by the fire and talked the night away. 
 
 VII. Avoid placing the comma before WHEN, 
 WHERE, WHETHER, IF, or THAT, when it introduces 
 an object clause. But place the comma before a co- 
 ordinate conjunction (and, but, FOR, AS, be- 
 cause, OR, nor) if by so doing you can make the 
 meaning clearer. 
 
 The first section of this rule is covered by Rule 
 II.; for since the verb and its object are closely 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 265 
 
 related parts, nothing Is gained by separating them. 
 The reason underlying the second section rests In 
 the fact that some words are used now as prepo- 
 sitions, now as conjunctions; and in the fact that 
 coordinate conjunctions sometimes join single 
 words, sometimes clauses. It Is therefore neces- 
 sary, at times, to place a comma before a conjunc- 
 tion In order to show that It Is not a preposition, 
 or to show that the conjunction Introduces not a 
 single word but a clause. That Is, the comma 
 prevents the reader from hurrying on too rapidly; 
 It shows him the relationship of that which fol- 
 lows to that which precedes. Notice carefully the 
 following sentences. If the comma were omitted 
 in the last four, the rapid reader might, for a 
 moment, miss the meaning. 
 
 He said that all was ready. 
 
 Please ask him when we may come. 
 
 He liked none, but the first and last of the songs pleased 
 me exceedingly. 
 
 We ran as fast as we could, for the boat left promptly 
 at five. 
 
 For supper we had bread and jam, and nothing else 
 could have pleased us more. 
 
 In this room were twenty-five seats, and two long 
 benches up in front where the children sat when reciting. 
 
 i^VIII. Use the semicolon as if it were a large 
 comma, to separate phrases or clauses in the same 
 construction when they are exceptionally long, or 
 when one or both are so broken by commas that, 
 
266 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 were not the semicolon used, the eye would not 
 readily perceive where one phrase or clause ends 
 and the next begins. 
 
 Notice carefully that the word-groups separated 
 must be in the same construction; for the semi- 
 colon should not be used to separate a principal 
 clause from a dependent. The following sen- 
 tences, though long and somewhat complicated, are 
 clear because the semicolon shows at a glance 
 where each term of a series ends. 
 
 There was the honest cock robin, the favorite game of 
 stripling sportsmen, with its loud, querulous note; and the 
 twittering blackbirds, flying in sable clouds; and the 
 golden-winged woodpecker, with his crimson crest, his 
 broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the cedar- 
 bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its 
 little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that 
 noisy coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white 
 underclothes, screaming and chattering, bobbing and nod- 
 ding and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms 
 with every songster of the grove. 
 
 If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of 
 American liberty be, for the greater part, or rather en- 
 tirely, impracticable; if the ideas of criminal process be 
 inapplicable, or if inapplicable are in the highest degree 
 inexpedient, what way remains? 
 
 IX. Use the semicolon as if it were a small pe- 
 riod, placing it between independent statements so 
 closely related in thought that it is undesirable to 
 separate them with a period. 
 
 This is a dangerous rule for young writers, for 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 267 
 
 their tendency is to use the semicolon too freely. 
 When in doubt whether a semicolon or a period 
 is the proper point, use the period; when hesitating 
 between a comma and a period, use the latter. 
 Here are examples. 
 
 Burke's plan was simple, direct, sure; Lord North's 
 was complex, indirect, and uncertain. 
 
 I am her kinsman ; let me, therefore, avenge her wrong. 
 
 If fortune favors you, do not be elated; if she frowns, 
 do not despair. 
 
 X. Use the colon after AS FOLLOWS, THE FOL- 
 LOWING, IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER^ THUS, 
 THIS, THESE, and similar expressions, when they 
 introduce quotations, enumerations, or explana- 
 tions. Namely, for instance, for example, 
 and THAT IS, when introducing enumerations or 
 explanations, are almost always preceded by the 
 semicolon and followed by the comma. 
 
 Notice the following examples. 
 
 In the closing paragraph are found these words: " Gen- 
 tlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in con- 
 cord, not conflict; and that our real eminence rests in 
 the victories of peace, not those of war." 
 
 The five simple colors are these: red, orange, yellow, 
 green, blue, and violet. 
 
 There are many shades of blue; for example, robin's- 
 egg, turquoise, gobelin, and cyan. 
 
 XI. Use quotation marks to enclose a direct quo- 
 tation. 
 
268 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 This is the general rule, related to which are a 
 number of minor ones. These must be examined 
 with care. 
 
 1 . Be sure that the words enclosed are the exact 
 words of the person quoted. It is wrong, for ex- 
 ample, to write He said '^ that he would come to- 
 morrow!^ Either the quotation marks should be 
 removed or the sentence changed to read He said, 
 '' / will come to-morrow!' 
 
 2. When a quoted sentence is interrupted by a 
 parenthetical expression such as said he, two pairs 
 of quotation marks are needed, one for each sec- 
 tion. The first word of the second section should 
 not begin with a capital, unless it is a proper noun 
 or the pronoun I. Example : '' This,'^ said he, ^' is 
 most fortunate!' 
 
 3. // the quotation consists of a number of sen- 
 tences, all by the same person, do not place marks 
 before and after each sentence, but simply before 
 the first and after the last. If the quotation con- 
 sists of several paragraphs, all by the same person, 
 place marks before each one, but after the last one 
 only. 
 
 4. Use single marks to set of a quotation within 
 a quotation. Example : '^ / think,'' he replied, 
 '' that it was Pope who said ' To err is human! " 
 
 5. When reporting an extended conversation — 
 something more than a brief anecdote, indicate by 
 means of indention where one speaker concludes 
 and another begins. 
 
 6. Never use a semicolon after the words intrO' 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 269 
 
 ducing a quotation. If the passage is long and for- 
 mal, it may he preceded hy a colon; if short, a 
 comma is sufficient. See Rule IX. 
 
 EXERCISE 172 
 
 Keeping Rule I. in mind, prove that each of the 
 following is incorrectly punctuated. 
 
 I. Please come, if you cannot, let me know by Monday./ 
 #2. Convention day means two things to me. First, an 
 extra nap in the morning; second, an opportunity to prac- 
 tice what I have learned in the domestic science course. 
 3. I found my maid Katie there, she had come earlier in \/ 
 the morning and had put everything in order. 4. Re- 5 
 membering my promise to come home early, 1 started on 
 a run for the cottage. My companions calling after me, 
 " 'Fraid-cat! " ^ The college catalogue will tell you alW 
 about it, why not send for one? 6. Leaving his com-j/ 
 panions at the door, he entered a high-vaulted hall. At 
 the further end of which he saw, seated high on his 
 throne, the king. 7. The two plans differ widely. One^' 
 being mild, simple, reasonable, the other being harsh, 
 complicated, unreasonable. 8. When in trouble, rub this 
 ring, it has magic powers. 9* She told how Uther had 
 coveted a field belonging to her husband. How, when 
 gold was proffered and refused, Uther took the field by 
 force. MO. Through the center of the room ran a long, -.' 
 solid table, about which were seated some two-score men. 
 Large men with long hair and rudely clad. 11. I like n/ 
 this author very much, his works are clear and interesting. 
 12, The storm, after raging violently for several hours, 
 
270 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 at length died down. Which gave us an opportunity to 
 hurry home. 13. We asked Clarke to take the lead. He 
 ^ being acquainted with the trail. 14. Tilton, our half- 
 *^back, excelled in speed and in strength too. While Far- 
 A rel, his opponent, excelled in judgment and nerve. 15. At 
 last a vote was taken. The result proving beyond ques- 
 tion that Meredith was the favorite. 16. We were In 
 doubt regarding which of the roads was the better, one 
 was sandy yet level, the other hilly. 17. I am sure you 
 will like the book, It Is one of the most Interesting I have 
 read this year. 
 
 EXERCISE 173 
 
 Prove that Rule II. is violated in each of the 
 following. 
 
 I. We walked down a narrow, dingy, poorly paved, 
 alley. 2. The window contained many toys, such as, 
 tops, marbles, and building-blocks, y The speakers on 
 the affirmative were, John Clarke and Edwin Mitchell. 
 4. That he could work as well as play, was soon dis- 
 covered. X^. Finally he said, that If Saturday should 
 prove stormy we might go the following Monday. 6. 
 He politely requested, that the boys make less noise. 7. 
 Here comes my long, lost dog. 8. Our shopping kept us 
 busy for hours; so we were obliged to take a late, after- 
 noon train. ^ Twelve, sturdy, lads at once volunteered. 
 10. His purpose In doing this was, to show that he bore 
 us no ill win. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 271 
 
 EXERCISE 174 
 
 Punctuate the following, keeping in mind Rule 
 III. 
 
 I. God can change the lowest to the highest abase the 
 proud and raise the humble, jk Reading maketh a full 
 man conference a ready man and writing an exact man. 
 3. The force the size and the weight of our vessel bore 
 her down beneath the waves. 4. He beheld something 
 huge misshapen black and towering. 5. There was a 
 sloping lawn a fine stream at the foot of it and a tract of 
 park beyond. 6r They kept up the Christmas carol sent 
 true-love-knots on Valentine's morning ate pancakes on 
 Shrovetide showed their wit on the first of April and 
 religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas eve. 7. The 
 narrator was a pleasant shabby gentlemanly fellow in 
 pepper-and-salt clothes. ^ Everybody has his own the- 
 ater, in which he is manager actor prompter playwright 
 sceneshifter boxkeeper doorkeeper, all in one, and audi- 
 ence into the bargain. 9. That he could not reason that 
 he had no wit no humor no eloquence is apparent from 
 his writings. 
 
 10. The days are cold the nights are long 
 The north wind sings a doleful song. 
 
 EXERCISE 175 
 
 Punctuate the following, keeping in mind Rules 
 IV, and V, 
 
 V. If time is precious no book that will not improve by 
 repeated readings deserves to be read at all declares Car- 
 
272 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 lyle. 2. Arriving in the city about seven in the evening 
 we drove to the nearest hotel. 3. My friend proposed 
 that we should alight and walk through the park to the 
 hall which was at no great distance. 4. In the center 
 of the road stood an enormous tulip tree which towered 
 like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood 
 and formed a kind of landmark. %f The station which 
 Nelson had* chosen was some fifty miles to the west of 
 Cadiz near Cape St. Mary's. 6. While he watched a 
 beggar limped by. 7. As you know the earth turns on 
 its axis once a day. 8. Under the new rules a letter 
 weighing not over one-half an ounce was carried any dis- 
 tance under three hundred miles for five cents. 9. You do 
 so well in many ways that I wish you might do still better. 
 10. Gregory's is a little village situated on a hill at the 
 northern extremity of the lake. 11. Gregory's situated 
 on a hill at the northern extremity of the lake is a little 
 village, ite'. The night before he had said that there 
 was no danger. 13. By daring great fears are concealed. 
 14. When a fish is nibbling the float goes under the sur- 
 face of the water. 15. The room was paneled with 
 cornices of heavy carved work in which flowers and gro- 
 tesque faces were strangely mingled and a row of black- 
 looking portraits stared mournfully at me from the walls. 
 
 EXERCISE 176 
 
 Punctuate such of the following as need punc- 
 tuation, keeping in mind Rules IV. and V. 
 
 I. He was a man free from all perfidy. 2. Read care- 
 fully what you write to make sure that everything is clear. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 273 
 
 3. If you wish to reach the highest begin at the lowest. 
 
 4. Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow, if: 
 Next comes the monk riding a fine white horse and wear- 
 ing a gown the sleeves of which are edged with fur. ^ 
 He was asked to take the place of the third runner who 
 had sprained his knee. 7. He saw the walls of the 
 church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. 8. Comus 
 offers her the glass which she refuses. 9. As we rode 
 along the air became cooler and more bracing. 10. In 
 all fifteen fires were started. 11. If you wish another to 
 keep your secret first keep it yourself. 12. While we 
 were eating the clouds began to gather. 13. The bind- 
 ing is black with red corners. 14. As spring came on 
 preparations were made for leaving the colony. 15.- Not 
 long after the door of the coach was thrown open and a 
 masked robber appeared. 16. These men wrote chron-, 
 icles homilies and lives of saints all in Latin. 
 
 17. He that hath light within his own clear breast 
 May sit i' the center and enjoy bright day 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun 
 Himself is his own dungeon. — Milton 
 
 EXERCISE 177 
 
 Punctuate such of the following as need punc- 
 tuating. Keep in mind Rule VI. 
 
 I. Grendel's mother however sought revenge. 2. It is 
 I am sure the safest plan. 3. Please sir may we take 
 your boat? 4. Scott himself could not have done better. 
 5. Sport the farmer's collie drove the sheep down the 
 
274 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 lane. 6. The greatest of faults some one has said is to 
 be conscious of none. 7. His wife Calpurnia tries to 
 dissuade him. 8. There was in fact nothing that could 
 make us angry with the world or with each other. ^ 
 Johnson one of the most eminent English writers of the 
 eighteenth century was the son of Michael Johnson who 
 was at the beginning of that century a magistrate of Lich- 
 field and a bookseller of great note in the midland coun- 
 ties. 10. It does not appear that these two men the most 
 eminent writer of the generation which was going out and 
 the most eminent writer of the generation which was 
 coming in ever saw each other. 11. Johnson the man 
 is more interesting than Johnson the writer. 12. Come 
 said he let us be going. 13. O father Zeus no more 
 shall I be honored among gods if mortal men the people 
 of Phaeacia honor me not though men of my own kin. 
 
 EXERCISE 178 
 Punctuate, keeping in mind Rule VII. 
 
 «r. So spake she nor did the father of gods and men 
 disregard her. 2. His conscience troubled him for in his 
 heart were several lies — white ones but lies none the less. 
 3. The Squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most 
 pathetic part of my sermon and his lady return my wife's 
 civilities with a mutilated courtesy. 4. Ichabod endeav- 
 ored to dodge the missile but too late. 5. The gates of 
 heaven are so easily found when w^e are little and they 
 are always standing open to let children wander in. 6. 
 Just at the harbor's head a leafy olive stands and near it 
 a pleasant darksome cave sacred to the nymphs called 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 275 
 
 Nereids. 7. Within the cave are bowls and jars of stone 
 and here bees hive their honey. 8. We had been back 
 and forth across the lake and round and round the lake. 
 9. My orchards were often robbed by schoolboys and 
 my wife's custards plundered by the cats or the children. 
 j^ A suit of mourning has transformed my coquette into 
 a prude and a new set of ribbons has given her younger 
 sister more than natural vivacity. 11. The pleasantest 
 things in the world are pleasant thoughts and the great 
 art in life is to have as many of them as possible. 
 12. The winds were high and the clouds were dark 
 And the boat returned no more. 
 
 EXERCISE 179 
 
 Punctuate, keeping in mind Rules VIII. and IX. 
 
 I. If fortune favors you do not be elated if she frowns 
 do not despair. 2. The world is not yet exhausted let 
 me see something tomorrow which I never saw before. 
 3. Not a limb not a fiber about him was idle and to have 
 seen his loosely hung frame in full motion and clattering 
 about the room you would have thought Saint Vitas him- 
 self that blessed patron of the dance was figuring before 
 you in person. 4. Evil manners soil a fine dress more 
 than mud good manners by their deeds easily adorn a 
 humble garb. ^. To have a great man for an intimate 
 friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it 
 those who have fear it. 6< Words convey the mental 
 treasures of one period to the generations that follow and 
 laden with this their precious freight they sail safely 
 across gulfs of time in which empires have suffered ship- 
 wreck and the languages of common life have sunk into 
 
276 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 oblivion. 7. The debaters were the following: affirm- 
 ative Clarke and Edwards negative Partridge and Em- 
 erson. 8. Three things are necessary: first a sound body 
 second a good mind third and this Is most Important of 
 all a good character. 9. He reached the room by climb- 
 ing a ladder then drawing up the ladder he shut the trap 
 door and planted his chair on It. 10. I am sure It was 
 not Henry he Is too generous a boy to do such a deed. 
 II. We must go now It will soon be dark. 12. No harm 
 was Intended we were simply thoughtless. 13. She seized 
 upon the warrior and clutched him with her horrid 
 claws nevertheless she did no harm to his sound body for 
 the rigid armor girt him round about so that she could 
 not pierce the byrnie the linked coat of mail with her 
 hateful fingers. 14. I am her kinsman let me right the 
 wrong. 15. I was fatigued with traveling rowing and 
 want of rest I was very hungry and my whole stock of 
 cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling In cop- 
 per. 16. The school-house being deserted soon fell to decay 
 and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the un- 
 fortunate pedagogue and the plowboy loitering home- 
 ward of a still summer evening has often fancied his voice 
 at a distance chanting a melancholy psalm tune among 
 the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 17. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day 
 
 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea 
 The plowman homeward plods his weary way 
 And leaves the world to darkness and to mCo 
 
 18. Music resembles poetry In each 
 
 Are nameless graces which no methods teach. 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 277 
 
 EXERCISE 180 
 
 Punctuate the following, keeping in mind Rule 
 X. Supply capitals where they are needed, 
 
 I. There are five simple colors red orange yellow 
 green blue and violet. 2. The five simple colors are red 
 orange yellow green blue and violet. 3. There are five 
 simple colors namely red orange yellow green blue and 
 violet. 4. The five simple colors are as follows red 
 orange yellow green blue and violet. ^ The simple 
 colors are these red orange yellow green blue and violet. 
 6. The recipe for rabbit pie begins thus first catch the 
 rabbit. 7. The address began as follows there are three 
 kinds of people whom I like men women and children. 
 8. Our reason for postponing the trip was this the roads 
 owing to recent rains were in a bad state. ^ The hour 
 was spent in the following manner first we wrote for ten 
 minutes on some familiar topic then a few of the compo- 
 sitions were read and criticised after which we were 
 given practice in extemporaneous speaking. 10. There 
 are many ways of meeting expenses while attending col- 
 lege for example one may tutor his less fortunate mates 
 or if not too proud he may serve as waiter or even as jan- 
 itor. II. The capital leading questions on which you 
 must this day decide are these two first whether you 
 ought to concede and secondly what your concession 
 ought to be. 12. This nation has formally acknowledged 
 two things first that the Colonies had gone beyond their 
 abilities Parliament having thought it necessary to reim- 
 burse them secondly that they had acted legally and 
 laudably in their grants of money and their maintenance 
 of troops since the compensation is expressly given as re- 
 
278 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 ward and encouragement. 13. The message was this 
 come Thursday if possible. 
 
 EXERCISE 181 
 
 Criticise the following sentences. 
 
 I. " Well," he exclaimed, " We can try." 2. " Where 
 have you been " ? she asked. 3. " This," he explained, 
 " is the assembly hall." " Here the entire school gathers 
 every Tuesday morning for worship." 4. He declared 
 " that every little was sure to help." 5. " His last 
 words," the officer said, were don't give up the ship." 6. 
 " Have you no more of this kind," the gentleman en- 
 quired? 7. *' I came," she sobbed, "To see the grand 
 procession pass and to hear the people shout long live 
 the king." 8. Have you ever read, "Silas Marner"? 
 9. We chose the following motto ; " Live and let live." 
 
 Punctuate the following sentences, supplying 
 capitals wherever needed. 
 
 \ir. What cried I is my young landlord then the nephew 
 of a man whose virtues generosity and singularities are 
 so universally known? I have heard Sir William 
 Thornhill represented as one of the most generous yet 
 whimsical men in the kingdom a man of consummate 
 benevolence. Something perhaps too much so replied Mr. 
 Burchell at least he carried benevolence to an excess when 
 young. 2. We all followed him several paces from the door 
 bawling after him good luck good luck till we could see 
 him no longer. 3. Where are you going my pretty maid 
 said he I'm going a-milking sir said she. 4. He began as 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 279 
 
 follows friends Romans countrymen. 5. The title of the 
 book he replied is Silas Marner and then he proceeded 
 to tell the story. H^. He admitted that the roads were 
 bad but he added I think they are not impassable. 7. 
 The noblest study of mankind declares Pope is man. 8. 
 The guide called out as we passed his tent enquiring 
 where we were going. 9. It w^as a fine sunny morning 
 when the thrilling cry of land was given from the mast- 
 head. 
 
 EXERCISE 182 
 
 Punctuate the following, in each case justifying 
 your punctuation, 
 
 I. The article was entitled hints to owners of bicycles. 
 2. The sources of this spirit of freedom were first descent 
 second education third form of government fourth the 
 form of religion in the North fifth slavery in the South 
 and sixth the distance from England. 3. Chariots horses 
 men were huddled together. 4. There were three other 
 apartments one for my wife and me another for our two 
 daughters within our own and the third with two beds 
 for the rest of the children. 5. On my return I found 
 the family about to start for the shore of course I went 
 too. 6. Look at the picture before us the wild wood the 
 stately palace the river with its reedy margin. 7. I 
 knew a very wise man declared Andrew Fletcher that 
 believed that if a man were permitted to make all the 
 ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a 
 nation. 8. The king then remembered that it was no 
 fault of the messenger that King Mark was disreputable 
 therefore Sir Kay should see that he was kindly treated. 
 9. Yes and no are easily said but before they are said it 
 
28o RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 is necessary to think a long time. lO. I remember con- 
 fessed the dark-haired lady that at one time my greatest 
 desire in life was to become a golden-haired blue-eyed 
 individual very beautiful at the suggestion of some grown- 
 ups I drank quantities of milk which I detested for sev- 
 eral weeks to bring about the desired transformation. 
 The process was so extremely slow and unpleasant that 
 I finally abandoned it in disgust, ii. Three centuries 
 have elapsed since he founded with a few dejected colo- 
 nists the first English settlement in America at James- 
 town Virginia. 12. It is stagnant waters which corrupt 
 themselves not those in agitation and on which the winds 
 of heaven are freely blowing. 13. Metaphors are no 
 arguments my pretty maiden said the Lady Hermione 
 smiling I am sorry for that madam answered Margaret 
 for they are such a pretty indirect way of telling ones 
 mind when it differs from ones betters. 
 14. Thirty days hath September 
 April June and November 
 All the rest have thirty-one 
 Excepting February alone 
 Which has just eight and a score 
 Till leap-year gives it one day more. 
 
 EXERCISE 183 
 
 Justify the punctuation in the following sen- 
 tences. 
 
 I. Some hold that the colonists were all mercilessly 
 slain by the savages; others say that they starved to 
 death, either on the way or at Croaton; still others think 
 
CLEARNESS THROUGH PUNCTUATION 281 
 
 that they lived witli the Indians after waiting in vain 
 for their own people to come to their aid. 2. It is chiefly 
 through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior 
 minds, and these invaluable means of communication are 
 in the reach of all. 3. The old philosopher is still among 
 us in the brown coat with metal buttons and the shirt 
 which ought to be at wash, blinking, puffing, rolling his 
 head, drumming with his fingers, tearing his meat like a 
 tiger, and swallowing his tea in oceans. 4. Such a mark 
 of national respect was due to the unsullied statesman, to 
 the accomplished scholar, to the master of pure English 
 eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. 
 It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone 
 knew how to use ridicule without abusing it; who, with- 
 out inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform ; and 
 who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous 
 separation, during which wit had been led astray by 
 profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism. 5. Nelson, who 
 was already dressed, exclaimed, the moment he saw him, 
 " I am sure you bring me news of the French and Span- 
 ish fleet ! I think I shall yet have to beat them ! " 6. 
 When Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he called for his son- 
 in-law, and while the Tweed murmured through the 
 woods, and a September sun lit up the bowers, whose 
 growth he had watched so eagerly, said to him, " Be a 
 good man; only that can comfort you when you come to 
 lie here!" 7. They had now reached the road which 
 turns off to Sleepy Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed 
 possessed with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an 
 opposite turn and plunged headlong down hill to the left, 
 8. Courage leads to heaven; fear, to death. 
 9. Learn to read slow ; all other graces 
 Will follow in their proper places. 
 
282 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 10. A thing of beauty is a joy forever; 
 Its loveliness increases; it will never 
 Pass into nothingness, but still will keep 
 A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
 Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breath- 
 ing. — Keats 
 
 EXERCISE 184 
 
 Criticise the following sentences. 
 
 I. Its growing dark; lets start for camp. 2. Who's 
 dog is it? 3. He purchased a thousand dollar's worth. 
 4. Are you fond of Dicken's works? 5. We filled our 
 pocket's with apples. 6. Your always losing something. 
 7. Dot your is and cross your ts. 8. She cannot ap- 
 prove of Harry having a canoe. 9. Where is you're gun ? 
 10. You may all pass to Miss Robbinses room. 11. I 
 think you should make better fours and 7s. 12. He 
 found a ladies glove. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 BREVITY, PRECISION, AND EUPHONY 
 
 Sentences that ramble on and on stating essen- 
 tially the same thing over and over, sentences bur- 
 dened with much that is of so little consequence as 
 not to be worth recording, and sentences in which 
 twenty words are employed to do the work of ten 
 are as tiresome as they are common. Tautology, 
 pleonasm, verbosity, prolixity, redundancy, and 
 circumlocution are learned names for various kinds 
 of sinning against brevity. Forget the names, but 
 cultivate the habit of being reasonably brief. 
 First determine definitely what you wish to say, 
 then say it, and stop when it is said. Do not wear 
 out the reader's patience. When revising, strike 
 out unnecessary words — conjunctions, adverbs, ad- 
 jectives, and even clauses. Above all, try to sub- 
 stitute strong, precise words for weak phrases. 
 Cutting away the unnecessary and substituting the 
 strong for the weak imparts vigor and precision. 
 
 With brevity may be associated euphony. It is 
 a common experience that carefully penned sen- 
 tences fail to please even though they seem to say 
 precisely what the writer intended, and with due 
 
 283 
 
284 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 economy In the use of words. The meaning Is 
 clear, but the sentences do not sound right, do not 
 run smoothly. Just as certain colors harmonize, 
 so certain sounds go well together. Our language 
 Is rich In synonyms; nearly every thought may be 
 expressed In so many different ways that It Is al- 
 most always possible to avoid unpleasant word 
 combinations, provided one's ear Is sufficiently 
 trained to recognize harmony and rhythm. It re- 
 quires no training of this kind, however, to detect 
 unnecessary word repetition, the commonest sin 
 against euphony; and even a little practice will 
 teach one how to avoid monotony In sentence 
 structure by departing occasionally from the nat- 
 ural grammatical order of subject first, then pred- 
 icate, and by varying the position of adjective mod- 
 ifiers. Test your sentences by reading them aloud. 
 
 EXERCISE 185 
 
 Condense, removing useless words and making 
 other necessary changes. 
 
 I. He had nothing to look forw^ard to in the future. 
 
 2. The plans are alike in that they both advocate peace. 
 
 3. Then put sofa pillows about so as to make the window 
 seat look pretty. 4. This is a good poem, but the other 
 is equally as Interesting. 5. It has a long handle about six 
 feet long. 6. We then retraced our steps back to camp. 
 
 7. Hitherto and up to this time we had caught no trout. 
 
 8. I wonder where he lives at. 9. The window con- 
 
BREVITY, PRECISION, AND EUPHONY 285 
 
 tained chairs, tables, and etc. 10. He gave the both of us 
 all we could carry. 1 1 . Antony sent a messenger to 
 Octavius so as to let him know of Caesar's death. 12. 
 In the cutting room, which is situated on the second 
 floor, is where the actual construction of the tire is begun. 
 13. After I had made careful examination, I decided to 
 take the red one. 14. The pears were delicious, and the 
 peaches were equally as good. 15. We went camping 
 out over at Snipsic Lake. 16. The incidents which hap- 
 pened were many and various. 17. Let the water boil 
 about five minutes from the time it first begins to boil. 
 
 18. We could have gone yesterday had we have cared to. 
 
 19. I cannot approve of it by any manner of means. 20. 
 The people, although they said that Brutus was right, yet 
 nevertheless they were soon won over by Antony. 21. 
 As I have not heard from you, I therefore conclude that 
 all is well. 22. They returned back again to the same 
 city from whence they came forth. 23. The following 
 way is one way of making a catamaran. 24. I could not 
 see but what all was right. 25. They each had a dollar 
 apiece. 26. Macaulay first begins by telling of John- 
 son's father. 27. While I was debating what I should 
 do, I saw Henry approaching. 28. I see him every now 
 and then. 29. We shall be with you by the latter end 
 of May. 30. Once upon a time there were some men 
 building a tall brick chimney. 31. It appears to be a 
 rough-looking place. 32. The lodge was covered on the 
 outside with vines which grew all over it. 33. His down- 
 fall was due to the excessive drinking of intoxicating 
 liquors. 34. He could boast of a long line of ancestors 
 back of him. 35. Hence it follows, therefore, that you 
 were right. 36. Add together these three numbers. 37. 
 It was an unintentional blunder. 
 
286 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 186 
 
 Reconstruct the following sentences, exercising 
 economy, 
 
 I. Henry gave up at once, but Edward he stuck to the 
 task. 2. From this mammoth station trains start every 
 few minutes for their destinations. 3. After dinner we 
 sang some songs and played some games. 4. What kind 
 of a bird is it? 5. The sea-fight was a wonderful spec- 
 tacle to the spectators. 6. " I think," she said, " that if 
 a person has a talent for anything, even if it is only for 
 washing windows, that she should cultivate it." 7. Like 
 all new novelties, this device must win popularity. 8. 
 It must have been an interesting sight to see the two 
 commanders under the elm tree. 9. At the age of four- 
 teen years he went to sea. 10. I think that by leaving 
 home when he was young that John acquired the ability to 
 look out for himself. 11. At about ten o'clock we atll 
 went home. 12. The present system of forecasting the 
 w^eather now used was developed in 1870. 13. Although 
 personally I have had no experience myself, I can tell what 
 others of experience have reported. 14. Of course there 
 are many other ways of which I know nothing about. 
 15. Ellen skates very well for a new beginner. 16. After 
 talking about the boat with a man who had long made 
 a business of making boats, we decided that we would 
 make our boat of cedar wood. 17. She did not look 
 to see where she was going to. 18. He would rather die 
 than to live in disgrace. 19. In some of the cities there 
 are large mills where cotton goods are made, which afford 
 work for many people. 20. The cat stays in on rainy 
 days because that she does not like to wet her feet. 21. 
 
BREVITY, PRECISION, AND EUPHONY 287 
 
 The loftiest mountains in this fairyland, I do not think, 
 were not over six feet high. 22. The road is poor, it 
 being sandy. 23. I have got you now^. 24. It was so 
 foggy we couldn't hardly see the shore. 25. They feared 
 the consequences that would follow. 26. Nearly every 
 day we visit the shore and go in bathing, fishing, or 
 sailing. 
 
 EXERCISE 187 
 
 Condense the following. 
 
 I. It is evident that this picture was taken on a bright 
 day. 2. To clean windows, the first thing to do is to 
 get a basin of warm water, a cake of soap, and two or 
 three cloths. 3. This story which I recall to mind is 
 not clear in my memory as to whether I read it, made it 
 up, or heard it told to me as an actual experience. 4. 
 The main reason why Brutus was asked to join the con- 
 spiracy was because he was a man of great influence. 5. 
 A small party of settlers wound their way along a lonely 
 Indian trail through a dense forest of pines. It was a 
 crooked path, winding in and out occasionally to avoid a 
 huge tree trunk or a small bog, and bore the traces of 
 flat moccasined feet and five clawed paws. 6. The results 
 that resulted resulted in the following results. 7. He 
 wore a long coat which by its appearance looked to be 
 old. 8. It was a sad sight to witness. 9. I cannot help 
 but feel discouraged. 10. His father, who was an attor- 
 ney and well to do, was of an old Scotch family, and his 
 mother also, who was the daughter of a distinguished 
 physician in Edinburgh. 
 
288 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 188 
 
 The words in each of the following groups have 
 a family resemblance, yet each word conveys a 
 shade of meaning or is used in a particular way 
 that gives it individuality. 
 
 Study these groups with a view to discovering 
 exact meanings, nice distinctions. Practice of this 
 kind is of value in that it teaches one to he precise. 
 
 I. Awful, dreadful, terrible, fearful, horrible, appal- 
 ling; grand, imposing, majestic. 2. Nice, splendid, de- 
 lightful, elegant; prim, trim, tidy, dainty, fine, exquisite. 
 3. Beautiful, pretty, lovely, handsome, charming, at- 
 tractive. 4. Sweet, gentle, affectionate, kind, amiable. 
 5. Fierce, wild, ferocious, furious. 6. Big, great, large, 
 Immense, enormous, colossal, gigantic, vast, extensive. 7. 
 Clever, bright, smart, gifted, sharp, talented, capable, 
 quick-witted. 8. Polite, courteous, well-bred, genteel, 
 gentlemanly, tactful, civil, urbane. 9. Ignorant, Illiter- 
 ate, uneducated, misinformed. Ill-informed. 10. Guess, 
 suppose. Imagine, think, conjecture, presume. 11. 
 Scholar, pupil, student. 12. Home, house, dwelling, 
 residence, abode. 13. Show, play, performance, enter- 
 tainment, festival, celebration, game, contest, exercises. 
 14. Silly, foolish, ridiculous, ludicrous, stupid. 15. Pleas- 
 ant, pleasing, agreeable, good-natured. 16. Answer, 
 reply, rejoin, exclaim, retort, cry, say. 17. Lie, deceit, 
 prevarication, fraud, cunning, hypocrisy, duplicity, fabri- 
 cation, falsehood. Imposition. 18. Wit, witticism, droll- 
 ery, humor, joke, pleasantry, facetlousness. 19. Hate, 
 dislike, detest, despise, abhor. 20. Faithful, true, loyal, 
 
BREVITY, PRECISION, AND EUPHONY 289 
 
 trustworthy. Incorruptible. 21. Job, trade, calling, vo- 
 cation, employment, business, profession, occupation. 
 
 EXERCISE 189 
 
 Form groups like the above, associating related 
 words with each of the following. Point out 
 shades of meaning and 'special uses. 
 
 love 
 
 discover crafty 
 
 coax 
 
 lively 
 
 curious stingy 
 
 amazement 
 
 awkward 
 
 look lazy 
 
 anger 
 
 hit 
 
 afraid annoy 
 
 call 
 
 price 
 
 brave behavior 
 
 happy 
 
 get 
 
 journey very 
 EXERCISE 190 
 
 little 
 
 Define the following in such a way as to bring 
 out clearly the meaning, 
 
 I. Audience, spectators 2. teach, learn 3. leave, let 
 
 4. stop, stay 5. show, play 6. ride, drive 7. verbal, 
 
 oral 8. invent, discover 9. practical, practicable 10. 
 party, person 
 
 EXERCISE 191 
 
 Reconstruct the following sentences, avoiding 
 unpleasant repetition. 
 
290 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 I. At first it only sprinkled and we thought it was 
 only a passing shower. 2. Ice could be seen on most 
 store windows so that very little could be seen of what 
 was within. 3. The wind grew colder and colder; but 
 the man would not take off his coat but pulled it closer 
 about him. 4. As the sun grew still warmer, he took off 
 the rest of his clothes and bathed in a brook to cool off. 
 5. The day was spent very quietly, but we decided it 
 had been a very pleasant day. 6. There are drawbacks 
 to all attempts to earn money to pay for a person's edu- 
 cation; for example, a person is often tempted to attempt 
 too much. 7. Pushing other things aside, I came to an 
 old chest standing grim and silent, and thickly covered 
 with dust. A moment's thought told me that it was 
 the old chest containing the toys of my childhood days. 
 8. The sun is sinking, and there is a glorious flood of 
 pink light flooding the distant mountains. 9. The robins 
 would run a little way, then stop and pick up something, 
 then raise their heads and look about quickly as though 
 looking to see if there was anything to harm them. 10. 
 The first thing I noticed as I sat down before the window 
 to take down notes was the red sky in the northeast. It 
 was a very dark red near the horizon, but grew into the 
 pale blue after reaching far up. 11. There is a large 
 pond here, bordered with bushes. We walked around 
 the pond and up the hill on the west side of the pond. 
 12. One by one the girls walked away. One could see 
 them strolling about. 13. He fished with a long bamboo 
 pole at least ten feet long. 14. Addison soon became 
 interested in this field of work and soon drifted from 
 politics to literature. 15. Now he has broken off a stick 
 for Mary; so off they scamper. 16. He attended school 
 at the Hillhouse school. 17. After my long tramp, I 
 
BREVITY, PRECISION, AND EUPHONY 291 
 
 felt very tired; so I retired early. 18. It is very warm 
 here in the summer time; but you will not mind that, as 
 that is the time that people go away to the shore or to the 
 mountains. 
 
 EXERCISE 192 
 
 Recast the following, with a view to avoiding 
 unpleasant word and sound repetition. 
 
 I. What with parties and other good times not much 
 time was left for homesickness. 2. The house where I 
 was visiting stood quite a distance from the road. The 
 house was old-fashioned, with long, wide verandas. 3. 
 His expression expressed his ever varying emotions. 4. 
 To any one who enjoys outdoor life there is not anything 
 so enjoyable as camping out. 5. She had a magic drink 
 which she enticed travelers to drink; and if they drank, 
 her magic wand transformed them to beasts. 6. Winter 
 is here, and with it the fireside tales we all love to hear. 
 7. Whether one looks toward a distant city at sunrise, 
 mid-day, sunset, twilight, or midnight, it is ever an object 
 of fascination. At a distance of seven or eight miles a 
 distant city's spires, tall buildings, and smoke stacks can 
 be seen beneath thin trails of wind-blown smoke. 8. 
 But for thirteen years there was no outbreak. All this 
 time Philip kept himself under restraint. Although again 
 and again the Plymouth people suspected him of plotting 
 against them, he always succeeded in convincing them 
 that their suspicions were unfounded. On being called 
 to trial in 1671, he even agreed to give up to the whites 
 all his firearms, hut " all '* in this case meant hut seventy 
 
292 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 muskets. 9. I was surprised to see my children gathered 
 about my knee. Seeing it was nearly bedtime, I told 
 them a story, then sent them to bed. 10. One of his 
 stories that interested us greatly was one that told how 
 he had nearly lost one of his dogs. 11. There were a 
 few houses near there. 12. About thirty boys left the 
 building about two-thirty. 13. After walking quite a 
 distance we found a grape vine with quite a good many 
 clusters of grapes on it. After we had eaten quite a few, 
 we began to fill our pails. 14. The nobleman, seeing 
 that he could not make the fisherman change his price, 
 said, " Well, I must have the fish." Then he called a 
 servant and said, " Give this man thirty lashes, but Jay 
 them on lightly." When the fifteenth lash had been 
 given the fisherman said, ''Stop! I have a partner; he 
 must have his share." The nobleman said, ''What! are 
 there two such madmen?" 15. It was not just to give 
 all the reward to James just because he arrived first, for 
 Henry worked just as hard as he. 16. The cheering 
 from the other side at length subsided. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 
 
 Sentences are called declarative, interroga- 
 tive, or exclamatory according as they make asser- 
 tions, ask questions, or express deep and sudden 
 emotions. Yet a study of good literature reveals 
 that the interrogative and the exclamatory are 
 sometimes used for dramatic effect. The interro- 
 gation point often suggests more than a mere ques- 
 tion ; it Is like a beckoning hand, or a voice calling 
 Come and deny this. It is a challenge to combat. 
 The exclamation point resembles in shape a sti- 
 letto ; the exclamatory sentence sometimes stirs the 
 feelings as a declarative could not. It stabs ! 
 
 Notice the challenging interrogatives in Shy- 
 lock's reply to Salarino. *' He hath disgraced me, 
 and hindered me half a million; laughed at my 
 losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation; 
 thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated 
 mine enemies, and what's the reason? I am a 
 Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands? 
 organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed 
 with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, 
 subject to the same diseases, healed by the same 
 means, warmed and cooled by the same summer 
 
 293 
 
294 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 and winter, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do 
 we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? 
 If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong 
 us, shall we not be revenged? " Shylock does not 
 ask these questions for the purpose of gaining in- 
 formation; every interrogation is a challenge. 
 And in the opening scene of Julius Caesar, how 
 effective is not only the interrogative but the 
 exclamatory sentence, as used in the speech of 
 Marullus. 
 
 Wherefore rejoice! What conquest brings he home? 
 
 What tributaries follow him to Rome, 
 
 To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? 
 
 You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! 
 
 O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 
 
 Knew you not Pompey? . . . 
 
 And do you now put on your best attire ? 
 And do you now cull out a holiday? 
 And do you now strew flowers in his way 
 That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ? 
 Be gone! 
 
 The orator, the poet. Indeed whoever wishes to 
 stir the feelings of those addressed, does not use 
 the declarative alone; he employs all three forms, 
 and not solely for the purpose of securing variety. 
 Even the schoolboy can learn, with a little 
 practice, to use these stronger, sharper weapons 
 effectively. 
 
 Sentences may be classified in still another way. 
 
VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 295 
 
 They are said to be periodic, loose, or balanced. 
 Notice the following fragment of a sentence. 
 
 Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal . 
 
 Did the rascal leap? hop? creep? He ran. But 
 until the word ran is added the sense is suspended. 
 A sentence in which the meaning is thus suspended 
 till the end is called periodic. It is effective be- 
 cause it holds the reader's attention, keeps him 
 alert, arouses his curiosity. It is better, often- 
 times, than the so-called loose sentence, the or- 
 dinary kind, where a good part of the meaning is 
 grasped some time before the period is reached, 
 the last words being a subordinate clause, it may 
 be, or an unimportant modifier. Just as there are 
 many degrees of looseness, so too, it should be 
 remembered, periodic is a relative term; but the 
 device always has the same purpose, namely, to 
 hold the reader in suspense. 
 
 A balanced sentence, as the name implies, is a 
 sentence in which one part balances another — a 
 clumsy definition, but better, perhaps, than a longer 
 one covering all possible varieties. To use a 
 homely illustration, the balance is arranged like a 
 see-saw, with a pivotal point on each side of which 
 is a load, the loads being practically equal. No- 
 tice the following : A juggler is a wit in things, and 
 a wit a juggler in words. In this sentence, as in 
 most balanced sentences, the conjunction forms the 
 pivot. Juggler and wit are found preceding the 
 pivot; they are also found, in reverse order, fol- 
 lowing the pivot. Things balances words. Here 
 
296 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 is another example: Integrity without knowledge 
 is weak and useless, and knowledge without integ- 
 rity is dangerous and dreadful. In this sentence 
 Integrity without knowledge is balanced by knowl- 
 edge without integrity; weak and useless is bal- 
 anced by dangerous and dreadful. Sometimes but 
 part of a sentence is involved, as in the line 
 
 To stop too fearful, and too faint to go. 
 
 This sentence arrangement is effective for a 
 number of reasons. First, it throws into promi- 
 nence the important words through contrast or 
 antithesis, just as we set white against black, the 
 good against the bad, to emphasize the difference. 
 Second, it pleases because of its symmetry; we like 
 to have things well balanced, like to see two parts 
 of anything correspond, or match each other. 
 Third, it enables the writer to put his thought in 
 such attractive form that it is easily remembered, 
 like a proverb or an epigram. 
 
 Related, in a way, to the periodic sentence is 
 one arranged on the climax plan, the interest in- 
 creasing step by step, the more important or the 
 more interesting following the less important or 
 less interesting, till an impressive close is reached. 
 It is like the ascent of a hill, each upward climb 
 revealing some unexpected view more beautiful 
 than the preceding one; or like the approach of a 
 grand pageant, at first seen but imperfectly, then 
 more distinctly, and at last in all its splendor of 
 
VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 297 
 
 movement and color. Not every sentence can be 
 cast in climax order, yet It Is well to keep In mind, 
 when writing, that such order Is effective. We 
 see It faintly In the Roman general's message 
 home : / came, I saw, I conquered. It Is conspic- 
 uous In the following lines from Longfellow's The 
 Launching of the Ship. 
 
 And see ! she stirs ! 
 
 She starts — she moves — she seems to feel 
 
 The thrill of life along her keel, 
 
 And, spurning with her foot the ground, 
 
 With one exulting, joyous bound, 
 
 She leaps into the ocean's arms! 
 
 Simpler than any of the devices thus far men- 
 tioned, commonplace yet effective, is plain repeti- 
 tion of word or phrase. 
 
 Alone, alone, all, all alone, * 
 
 Alone on a wide, wide sea! } 
 
 And never a saint took pity on 
 My soul in agony. 
 
 Thus the Ancient Mariner to the Wedding Guest, 
 impressively picturing his first emotion upon real- 
 izing that all his companions are dead. It would 
 be easy to multiply examples, for prose no less than 
 poetry Is full of them, and we use the device com- 
 monly In daily conversation. 
 
 Finally, any unusual arrangement of the sen- 
 tence serves to attract notice; and by keeping this 
 in mind the skilled writer often succeeds in focus- 
 
298 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 ing attention upon some word or phrase which 
 otherwise would have little power. Macaulay uses 
 this device repeatedly, and it Is a favorite with the 
 poets. 
 
 Black grew the sky, — all black, all black; 
 The clouds were everywhere. 
 
 The first of these two lines is more impressive than 
 it would be if written 
 
 The sky grew black, — all black, all black. 
 
 The repetition Is effective; but the adjective, com- 
 ing first, jumps out at the reader In a startling 
 manner. Whatever stands first In a sentence, espe- 
 cially If naturally It would be placed elsewhere, 
 gains emphasis. 
 
 Always to write with a view to gaining force 
 through varying the sentence structure would be 
 unwise. Effective composition Is not a series of 
 clever tricks. The devices mentioned in this chap- 
 ter are of value only when used In moderation. 
 They should be kept in- mind when revising rather 
 than when making a first draft. Yet It Is remark- 
 able how often even Inexperienced writers employ 
 them unknowingly — remarkable, yet not strange; 
 for after all, they are natural expedients, appeal- 
 ing strongly to human nature. We crave variety; 
 monotony wearies us. We enjoy the challenge of 
 the interrogative, the shock of the exclamatory. 
 
VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 299 
 
 We like to be kept in suspense, especially if sur- 
 prise follows, as it does frequently in the periodic 
 sentence and the sentence arranged in climax order. 
 We enjoy contrast and symmetry, especially if 
 compounded with ingenuity, and these are the 
 essence of the balance. We like to have our at- 
 tention impelled, as it is when a word or phrase is 
 repeated or is made to pop out at us from some 
 unusual position. Challenge, shock, suspense, sur- 
 prise, contrast, symmetry, variety: these, after all, 
 are common weapons useful in commanding atten- 
 tion; but they should be used seriously, not as one 
 brandishes a tin sword or beats a toy drum. 
 
 EXERCISE 193 
 
 Study the following sentences. What devices 
 do you find illustrated? Are any of the sentences 
 periodic? balanced? arranged in climax order? 
 Where is emphasis attempted through repetition 
 or unusual position? Where is the short sentence 
 used effectively? 
 
 I. To err is human; to forgive, divine. 2. If the true 
 spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, It will burn. 
 3. Long and fierce was the altercation. 4. We, we alon^ 
 — I say It openly — we, the consuls, are wanting In our 
 duty. 5. Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with 
 what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with 
 what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 
 6. The memory of other authors is kept alive by their 
 
300 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 works; but the memory of Johnson keeps many of his 
 "V works alive. 7. His temper was sweet, his affections 
 L warm, his spirits lively, and his principles weak. 8. This 
 called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
 killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my 
 country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not 
 think that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 
 Logan will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is 
 there to mourn for Logan? Not one! 9. Do men 
 gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 10. Sudden 
 prosperity had turned Garrick's head. Continued adver- 
 sity had soured Johnson's temper. 11. All things come 
 round to him who will but wait. 12. Onward therefore 
 the Kalmucks pressed, marking the lines of their wide ex- 
 tending march over the sad solitudes of the steppes by a 
 never-ending chain of corpses. 13. And the king was 
 much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate 
 and wept ; and as he went, thus he said : O my son Absa- 
 lom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my 
 son, my son! 14. The vigilance of the supreme magis- 
 trate may do much, but much will still remain undone. 
 He can never know all the crimes that are committed, 
 /and can seldom punish all that he knows. 15. He that 
 I findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life 
 \ for my sake shall find it. 16. Such is the spirit of Lib- 
 erty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. 
 She grovels, she hisses, she stings. 17. It is in vain, sir, 
 to extenuate matters. Gentlemen may cry Peace, Peace 
 — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! 
 The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to 
 our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren 
 are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? 
 What is it that the gentlemen wish? What would they 
 
VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 301 
 
 have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
 chased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, 
 Almighty God! I know not what course others may 
 take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! 
 18. The sea drives us to the barbarians, and the bar-i 
 barians drive us back to the sea. 
 
 19. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow 
 By taking nor by giving of excess, 
 
 Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend, 
 I'll break a custom. 
 
 20. Eight bells! and suddenly abaft, 
 
 With a great rush of rain, 
 Making the ocean white with spume, 
 In darkness like the day of doom, 
 
 On came the hurricane. 
 
 EXERCISE 194 
 
 Study the following sentences, noticing the dra- 
 matic devices employed. 
 
 I. There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the\ , 
 Navy of Charles II. But the seamen were not gentlemen ^ 
 and the gentlemen were not seamen. 2. To hope for safetyx 
 in flight, when you have turned away from the enemy/ 
 by which the body Is defended, Is indeed madness. ^. 
 Anne had felt a strong aversion, personal, political, and 
 religious, to the Whig party. 4. Yet a few months, and 
 the same mourners passed again along the same aisle. 
 The same sad anthem was again chanted. The same 
 vault was again opened; and the coffin of Craggs was 
 placed close to the coffin of Addison. 5. Faithful are the 
 
302 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are de- 
 ceitful. 6. Yet this father, this high priest, this invio- 
 lable being, hero, god, is dead; alas! dead not by the vio- 
 lence of some disease, nor exhausted by old age, nor 
 wounded abroad somewhere in some war, nor snatched 
 away irresistibly by some supernatural force; but plotted 
 against here within the walls — the man that safely led an 
 army into Britain; ambushed in this city — the man who 
 had increased its circuit; struck down in the senate-house 
 — the man that had reared another such edifice at his own 
 charge; unarmed, the brave warrior; defenceless, the pro- 
 moter of peace; the judge beside the court of justice; the 
 governor beside the seat of government; at the hands of 
 citizens — he whom none of the enemy had been able to 
 kill even when he fell into the sea; at the hands of his 
 comrades — he who had often taken pity on them. 7. 
 Can the blind lead the blind ? shall they not both fall into 
 the ditch? 8. It is not the dark place that hinders, but 
 the dim eye. 9. He prostrated himself in the dust be- 
 fore his Maker; but he set his foot on the neck of his 
 king. 10. He who, in an enlightened and literary soci- 
 ety, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little 
 child. II. On a rock where the snow still lay, though 
 the Italian spring was now far advanced, was perched the 
 little fortress of San Marino. 12. Whom therefore ye 
 ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 13. Dead 
 rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang. 14. Men have been re- 
 called from banishment by a dead man; the freedom of 
 the city has been conferred not only on individuals but on 
 entire nations and provinces by a dead man; our rev- 
 enues have been diminished by the granting of countless 
 /exemptions by a dead man. 15. The king's wrath is as a 
 yroaring lion, but his favor is as dew upon grass. 16. 
 
VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE 303 
 
 Nor, we are convinced, will the severest of our readers 
 blame us if, on an occasion like the present, we turn for 
 a short time from the topics of the day, to commemorate, 
 in all love and reverence, the genius and virtues of John 
 Milton, the poet, the statesman, the philosopher, the glory 
 of English literature, the champion and martyr of English 
 liberty. 17. Is a candle brought to be put under a 
 bushel, or under a bed, and not to be set on a candle- 
 stick? 18. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
 earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for yourselves 
 treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
 corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal ; 
 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 
 19. All at once, and by mere accident, he had lighted upon^ 
 a vein of pure gold. 20. When we take a little nearer^ 
 and more detailed view, we perceive that nature has, as 
 it were, ordained that this people and this country shall 
 ultimately constitute several different nations, 
 and miserable was the way in which you led you: 
 into towns ; shameful was the pillage in every city of gol( 
 and silver, and above all, of men. 22. What did Par- 
 liament with this audacious address? Reject it as 
 a libel? Treat it as an affront to government? Spurn 
 it as a derogation from the rights of legislature? Did 
 they toss it over the table ? Did they burn it by the hands 
 of the common hangman? They took the petition of 
 grievance, all rugged as it was, without softening or tem- 
 perament, unpurged of the original bitterness and indig- 
 nation of complaint; they made it the very preamble to 
 their act of redress, and consecrated its principle to all 
 ages in the sanctity of legislation. 23. He was a rake 
 among scholars, and a scholar among rakes. 
 
 untry snaii 
 
 21. Cruel\ 
 )ur soldiers! 
 :ity of gol(/ 
 
304 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 195 
 
 Reconstruct the following sentences in such a 
 way as to make the italicized words stand out more 
 emphatically. 
 
 I. He obeys very well when his master Is present; it is 
 another matter when his master is away. 2. He went\ y 
 straight up to the door and banged upon it with his fist. 3^ 
 You will regret it, if you do not come. 4. He saw the 
 engine dash by, happening to go to the window. 5. The 
 night was wild. 6. We shall see our native land no more. 
 \i<{ 7. She instantly launched her boat. 8. I have no silver 
 and gold. 9. It Is true that the end crowns the work, but 
 only such work as the man has found himself qualified for. 
 10. Death is the wages of sin. 
 
 EXERCISE 196 
 
 Bring to class sentences illustrating some of the 
 devices studied in the three preceding exercises. 
 Invent the sentences or take them from books, 
 whichever you please. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FIGURES OF SPEECH 
 
 Seldom do we say things In the plainest, most 
 ordinary way possible; a desire to be clear and 
 forceful leads us to depart from matter-of-fact ex- 
 pression. Such departures are called figures of 
 speech. Exclamation, Interrogation, contrast, and 
 climax, considered In the preceding chapter, are 
 figures having to do with sentence structure. Two 
 other* common varieties are simile and metaphor. 
 A simile Is a fully expressed comparison. There 
 are three illustrations of It in the following stanza. 
 
 Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, 
 Her cheeks like the dawn of day, 
 
 And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds 
 That ope in the month of May. 
 
 Notice that In each case the things compared are 
 named, the point of likeness indicated, and a word 
 of comparison — like, as — employed. Notice too 
 that the things compared are quite dissimilar In all 
 respects save one. When we say that one of two 
 pencils Is longer than the other we do not use sim- 
 ile, since the comparison Is between things of the 
 same class or kind. There Is no departure from 
 matter-of-fact statement. 
 
 305 
 
3o6 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 Similes are effective first, perhaps, because they 
 add clearness, help the reader to get more com- 
 pletely the thought, the fancy, the image in the 
 writer's mind. This, which the writer alone has 
 seen or felt, is declared to be like that, which all 
 have seen or felt. We have not seen the maiden's 
 cheeks, but when the poet tells us they were like the 
 dawn of day, we realize that they were fresh and 
 beautiful. Each simile, then, is a journey to the 
 unknown by way of that which is known. Second, 
 there comes to the reader the pleasure of surprise 
 through finding that things apparently so unlike 
 possess one characteristic In common. Finally, 
 that which a simile brings to mind Is often beau- 
 tiful in itself, or stirring, uplifting. Sometimes It 
 Is not a picture but a memory, or a story from 
 the distant past, magically summoned forth by a 
 few charmed words. 
 
 Seldom do similes come to any one through con- 
 scious effort ; the best ones slip Into the mind unin- 
 vited. Even such as come spontaneously may well 
 be closely scanned. The things compared may 
 * be so nearly alike that the element of surprise will 
 be lacking, or both so unfamiliar that nothing will 
 be gained by pointing out similarity. Above all, 
 beware of similes that have been used thousands 
 of times till they are no longer fresh. Several 
 years ago there went the rounds of the news- 
 papers a long poem made up exclusively of 
 worn-out comparisons. The first stanza was as 
 follows : 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 307 
 
 As deaf as an adder, 
 
 As black as a crow, 
 As sharp as a razor. 
 
 As dull as a hoe, 
 As meek as Moses, 
 
 As true as steel. 
 As dumb as an oyster, 
 
 As slippery 's an eel. 
 
 Such similitudes, and there are hundreds In dally 
 use, Impart weakness rather than strength. 
 
 A metaphor is an Implied comparison — a simile 
 condensed, usually into a single word. Marullus 
 employs metaphor when he cries out to the rabble 
 
 You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things ! 
 
 So too does Coleridge In the line 
 
 Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship. 
 
 In each case a likeness Is Implied, not completely 
 expressed as In simile. The Roman citizens are 
 like blocks and stones in that they are senseless, 
 Marullus thinks; but he merely calls them blocks 
 and stones, assuming that the point of resemblance 
 Is evident. The ship is like a bird In that It 
 moves swiftly, as if its sails were wings; but birds 
 are not mentioned directly, simply suggested in the 
 word flew. Many similes are easily changed Into 
 metaphor ; all metaphors may be changed Into sim- 
 iles. Simile is the quieter, more deliberate form 
 of expression; metaphor Is swifter, often more 
 startling. 
 
3o8 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 Our common speech Is crowded with metaphors, 
 some so worn, so " faded," that they are no longer 
 recognized as figures. It Is the basis of perhaps 
 nine-tenths of our slang. *' Jones plowed to sec- 
 ond base," writes the baseball editor. "The 
 fielding on both sides was green, with saffron 
 touches J' The man whose mind Is not right Is said 
 to be " off his trolley " — as If he were an electric 
 car, or to have " bats In his belfry." The son 
 who goes wrong Is a " black sheep "; whatever Is 
 disagreeable " goes against the grain," and the un- 
 expected " beats the Dutch." It is hardly neces- 
 sary to multiply examples. 
 
 Slang may have its uses; frequently it flashes 
 forth in humorous guise a truth that would seem 
 commonplace if stated In commonplace language. 
 It Is a time-saver. But unfortunately many slang 
 expressions are coarse, vulgar. No amount of 
 humor atones for vulgarity. Moreover, expres- 
 sions that are bandied about soon become cheap. 
 Few things are more disgusting than conversation 
 tricked out with second-hand wit. Avoid the met- 
 aphor of slang, then. And be careful lest your 
 metaphor be taken literally, causing merriment 
 where merriment Is least desired. Life magazine, 
 not long ago, gathered a number of expressions 
 used by the modern novelist in describing eyes, 
 among which were the following: " With her eyes 
 she riveted him to the spot "; " She permitted her 
 eyes to rest upon the ceiling a moment, and then 
 they roamed carelessly about the room"; " Isa- 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 309 
 
 beFs eyes took in everything that the room con- 
 tained." This last suggests the enraptured tourist 
 who stood by the Grand Canal in Venice, " drink- 
 ing it all in," and the dear blundering lady who 
 could not open her mouth without " putting her 
 foot in it." 
 
 Finally, avoid mixed and inappropriate meta- 
 phors. Oft quoted are the following lines from 
 Addison. 
 
 I bridle in my struggling muse with pain, 
 That longs to launch into a bolder strain. 
 
 The muse could not well be both a steed and a ship, 
 and neither ship nor steed could sing acceptably. 
 Another incongruous mixture, likewise oft quoted, 
 is the following: " Gentlemen of the jury, it will 
 be for you to say whether this defendant shall be 
 allowed to come into court with unblushing foot- 
 steps, with the cloak of hypocrisy in his mouth, 
 and take three bullocks out of my client's pocket 
 with impunity." 
 
 Personification is a form of metaphor in which 
 something inanimate — for example, a tree, an ani- 
 mal, or a quality — is treated as if it had mind and 
 personality. A low order of personification is that 
 which implies that natural objects such as flowers, 
 or forces of nature such as the winds or the ocean, 
 are not human beings but animals of lower order 
 than man. It is a simple figure. Children use it 
 unconsciously when talking to their playthings. 
 Poetry is full of it, for the poet realizes that mind, 
 
310 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 heart, soul are more interesting than Inanimate 
 rocks and trees. Notice the examples in the fol- 
 lowing passages. 
 
 O Cicero, 
 I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 
 Have rlv'd the knotty oaks, and I have seen 
 The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam. 
 To be exalted with the threatening clouds. . . . 
 
 Scolding, ambitious, rage, and threatening are 
 terms applicable to persons, not to things. 
 
 An allegory is an expanded metaphor taking 
 the form of a story emphasizing a truth which the 
 reader is left to discover. When Gareth, who 
 wishes to go to Arthur's court and become a 
 knight. Is urged by his mother to remain at home 
 till he is older, contenting himself with the harm- 
 less chase and a " comfortable " wife, he tells her 
 a story. It is of a royal prince who asked for a 
 bride; and the king, his father, set two before him. 
 
 One was fair, strong, arm'd — 
 
 But to be won by force — and many men 
 
 Desired her; one, good lack, no man desired. 
 
 The king declared that unless he won the first by 
 force, he must wed the other, 
 
 A red-faced bride who knew herself so vile, 
 That evermore she long'd to hide herself. 
 
 The name of one was Fame ; the name of the other, 
 Shame. Here, then, is a comparison Implied be- 
 tween Gareth and the royal prince. Just as the 
 royal prince might escape hardship by accepting 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 311 
 
 Shame, so Gareth might, yet not without shame, 
 stay at home and lead a safe, comfortable life. 
 Fame, he is trying to show his mother, comes only 
 through hardship and daring; ease and inactivity 
 are shameful. 
 
 Sometimes an allegory is a metaphor so fully 
 expanded as to fill an entire volume. Bunyan's 
 Pilgrim's Progress is an example of such. It 
 purports to be the adventures of Pilgrim on his 
 long and perilous journey to Celestial City; yet 
 there is a half-hidden meaning. Bunyan is but 
 trying to show the struggles a mortal must make 
 in purging his character of sin. The parables in 
 the New Testament, short, imaginary narratives 
 used by Christ in his preaching, are briefer alle- 
 gories; so too are fables, in which frequently, 
 though not always, the actors are animals or inan- 
 imate things. Yet all, whether long or short, are 
 but metaphors, or in some cases similes, expanded 
 into stories; all contain truths left for the reader 
 to discover. They are impressive because stories 
 are more interesting than plain statement, more 
 easily remembered. 
 
 Exclamation, interrogation, contrast, and climax 
 may be called figures of form or arrangement; 
 simile and metaphor in its various forms are called 
 figures of comparison. Very closely related to the 
 latter is metonymy,* difficult to define because there 
 
 * It has seemed best not to attempt to distinguish between synecdoche and 
 metonymy, but to consider them as one figure. 
 
312 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 are so many varieties that It Is not easy to state in 
 a few words its essentials. For practical purposes 
 it is sufficient to define it awkwardly as a figure in 
 which something is named by the name of some- 
 thing associated with it. The commonest forms 
 are those in which the name of a part is substituted 
 for the name of the whole, and those in which a 
 thing Is given the name of something not a part of 
 It but associated with it. The football is called a 
 pigskin, the baseball a rawhide — the name of the 
 material being substituted for the name of the 
 article made from the material. We speak of 
 shop hands, meaning men who work in shops. 
 Sailors are tars, or salts, because tar and salt are 
 associated with the seaman's life. We speak of 
 reading Dickens, though of course we read not the 
 man but his books. It would be uncomplimentary 
 to the older rhetorics to close this list of examples 
 without explaining that when we say the kettle 
 boils, we mean that the water In the kettle boils. 
 In each case, it will be noted, the figure involves 
 a transfer or substitution of names. Seldom if 
 ever Is comparison involved; there is no added 
 picture as in simile. It is a useful figure In that It 
 focuses attention upon some one detail of a picture, 
 intensifying the impression. To say that the gen- 
 eral advanced with a force of bayonets conveys a 
 more vivid picture, perhaps, than to say he ad- 
 vanced with a force of soldiers. It is perhaps 
 more picturesque, a shade less severe, to say of a 
 man that he is too fond of the bottle than it Is to 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 313 
 
 say that he Is too fond of Intoxicating liquor. At 
 any rate, metonymy, like metaphor, saves time. 
 Often It makes one word do the work of ten; it 
 economizes attention by confining It to a single, 
 significant item. 
 
 Hyperbole Is the rhetorical name for exagger- 
 ation when employed not for the purpose of deceiv- 
 ing but to make a statement Impressive. The 
 waves ran " mountain high," declares the poet, not 
 with the thought that his words will be taken lit- 
 erally, but for the purpose of stirring the Imagi- 
 nation, which otherwise may picture waves alto- 
 gether too tame. It Is a noble figure when nobly 
 employed; a tiresome, degrading one as used ex- 
 travagantly by many young people and not a few 
 of their elders, who continue to live though " tired 
 to death," and declare that things quite ordinary 
 are " just heavenly." There Is a wide difference 
 between the language of real. Intense emotion and 
 language that is mere gush. 
 
 Irony is quite as common as hyperbole. It is 
 the name applied to words which state the opposite 
 of what the speaker or writer intends shall be un- 
 derstood. When Antony Is addressing the Ro- 
 man rabble, he refers many times to Brutus and 
 the other conspirators as " honorable " men. At 
 first he seems to use the word sincerely, but as he 
 slowly gains the confidence of his hearers, it be- 
 comes apparent that he would have them believe 
 the conspirators quite the reverse of honorable. 
 Like hyperbole, Irony is used much too freely, 
 
314 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 thoughtlessly, In dally speech, especially the con- 
 temptuous, scornful, taunting, or sneering v^arlety 
 known as sarcasm, which stings and cuts. In 
 short. It Is a strong weapon, effective If prop- 
 erly employed, yet out of place save when the 
 speaker feels righteous Indignation, justifiable 
 scorn. 
 
 For convenience of reference the rhetorical 
 terms employed in this chapter and the preceding 
 one are here brought together and newly defined. 
 
 Figure of Speech: Any departure from plain, ordi- 
 nary expression, for the purpose of gaining a desired effect. 
 Simile: A fully expressed comparison. In its purest 
 form the things compared are named, the point of resem- 
 blance indicated, and a word denoting resemblance (like, 
 as, so) employed. 
 
 Metaphor: An implied comparison — a simile con- 
 densed, usually into a single word. 
 
 Personification: A metaphor In which something in- 
 animate — for example, a tree, an animal, or a quality — is 
 treated as if It had mind and personality. A low order 
 of personification implies that natural objects such as 
 plants, or forces of nature such as the wind, are not 
 human, yet have the attributes of animals of a lower order 
 than man. 
 
 Allegory: An expanded metaphor taking the form of 
 a story emphasizing a truth which the reader is left to 
 discover. 
 
 Parable: A name applied almost exclusively to the 
 short, imaginary stories used by Christ in his preaching; 
 a species of allegory. 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 315 
 
 Fable: A brief allegorical tale in which usually, 
 though not always, the characters are animals or inan- 
 imate things. 
 
 Metonymy: A figure in which something is named by 
 the name of something associated with it. 
 
 Hyperbole: A rhetorical name for exaggeration when 
 employed not for the purpose of deceiving but to make a 
 statement impressive. 
 
 Irony: A figure in which the words employed appar- 
 ently mean one thing but in reality are designed to convey 
 a meaning precisely the opposite. 
 
 Sarcasm: Scornful, contemptuous, taunting, or sneer- 
 ing irony. 
 
 Contrast or Antithesis : A figure in which things are 
 brought into prominence by being placed in opposition. 
 
 Climax: An arrangement by which the interest in- 
 creases step by step, the more important or the more inter- 
 esting following the less important or less interesting, till 
 an impressive close is reached. 
 
 Interrogation : An opinion expressed, more forcefully 
 than otherwise would be possible, in the form of a 
 question. 
 
 Exclamation: A sudden, deep emotion expressed in 
 the form of an exclamatory sentence or phrase. 
 
 EXERCISE 197 
 
 The following quotations contain at least eight 
 different figures. Pick them out and name them. 
 
 I. He shook the fragment of his blade 
 And shouted " Victory! " 
 
3i6 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 2. So ran the tale like fire about the court. 
 
 3. A death-white mist slept over sand and sea. 
 
 4. A good father! A good husband! Ample apology 
 for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood! 
 
 5. Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all. 
 
 6. The old philosopher Is still among us. In the brown 
 coat with the metal buttons, and the shirt which ought to 
 be at wash, blinking, puffing, rolling his head, drumming 
 with his fingers, tearing his meat like a tiger, and swal- 
 lowing his tea in oceans. 7. A widow woman kept a hen 
 that laid an egg every morning. Thought the woman to 
 herself, " If I double my hen's allowance of barley, she 
 will lay twice a day." So she tried her plan, and the hen 
 became so fat and sleek that she left off laying altogether. 
 8. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten 
 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the 
 bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were 
 foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and 
 took no oil with them ; but the wise took oil in their ves- 
 sels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they 
 all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a 
 cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to 
 meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed 
 their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise. Give 
 us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise 
 answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us 
 and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for 
 yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bride- 
 groom came; and they that were ready went in with him 
 to the marriage; and the door was shut. Afterwards 
 came also the other virgins, saying. Lord, Lord, open to 
 us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I 
 know you not. 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 317 
 
 EXERCISE 198 
 
 Here are similes to study. In each case name 
 the two things compared, the point of resemblance, 
 and the word used to denote likeness. Which 
 ones present pictures? Which ones suggest sto- 
 ries? Which ones take you to nature? to his- 
 tory? to literature? In which ones is the element 
 of surprise great? Which ones seem common- 
 place? How many can you turn into metaphor? 
 Consider in each case whether the comparison is 
 an appropriate one. What figures other than 
 simile can you find? 
 
 1. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, 
 
 Through the whistling sleet and snow, 
 Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept 
 Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe. 
 
 2. The bride hath paced into the hall ; 
 
 Red as a rose is she. 
 
 3. 'Mid the sharp short emerald wheat, scarce risen three 
 
 fingers well, 
 The wild tulip, at end of its tube, blows out its great 
 
 red bell 
 Like a thin clear bubble of blood, for the children to 
 
 pick and sell. 
 
 4. And I saw him, after, stand 
 
 High on a heap of slain, from spur to plume 
 Red as the rising sun with heathen blood. 
 
 5. Day after day, day after day, 
 
 We stuck, nor breath nor motion; 
 As idle as a painted ship 
 .Upon a painted ocean. 
 
3i8 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 6. As fire drives out fire, so pity pity. 
 
 7. Then after one long slope was mounted [they] saw, 
 Bowl-shaped, thro' tops of many thousand pines 
 
 A gloomy-shaded hollow slowly sink 
 To westward — in the depths whereof a mere, 
 Round as the red eye of an eagle-owl, 
 Under the half-dead sunset glared. 
 
 8. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 
 Like a Colossus, and we petty men 
 
 Walk under his huge legs and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonorable graves. 
 
 9. And all the year long at the villa [there is] nothing 
 
 to see though you linger. 
 Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted 
 forefinger. 
 
 10. Let torture strain the truth till It be white 
 As snow thrice-sifted by the frozen wind. 
 
 11. 'TIs with our judgments as our watches; none 
 Go just alike, yet each believes his own. 
 
 12. Lo, where thy father Lot beside the hearth 
 Lies like a log, and all but smouldered out! 
 
 13. With sloping masts and dripping prow, 
 
 As who pursued with yell and blow 
 Still treads the shadow of his foe 
 
 And forward bends his head, 
 The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast. 
 
 And southward aye we fled. 
 
 14. But pleasures are like poppies spread, 
 You seize the flow'r, Its bloom is shed ; 
 Or like the snow falls In the river, 
 
 A moment white — then melts forever; 
 
 Or like the borealls race. 
 
 That flits ere you can point their place; 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 319 
 
 Or like the rainbow's lovely form 
 Evanishing amid the storm. 
 
 15. From bastion'd walls 
 
 Like threaded spiders, one by one, we dropt, 
 And flying reach'd the frontier. 
 
 16. And I sat down and wrote 
 
 In such a hand as when a field of corn 
 Bows all its ears before a roaring East. 
 
 17. And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes 
 As bottom agates seen to wave and float 
 
 In crystal currents of clear moving seas. 
 
 18. Our years are like the shadows 
 
 On sunny hills that lie, 
 Or grasses in the meadows 
 
 That blossom but to die; 
 A sleep, a dream, a story. 
 
 By strangers quickly told, 
 An unremaining glory 
 
 Of things that soon are old. 
 
 19. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the proph- 
 ets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often 
 would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
 hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
 not! 20. As a falcon upon the mountains, swiftest of 
 winged things, swoopeth fleetly after a trembling dove; and 
 she before him fleeth, while he with shrill screams hard at 
 hand still darteth at her, for his heart urgeth him to 
 seize her; so Achilles in hot haste flew straight for him, 
 and Hector fled beneath the Trojans' walls, and plied 
 swift knees. 21. For we must needs die, and are as 
 water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up 
 again. 22. Like Achilles of old, each strong man has his 
 vulnerable spot. 23. The work an unknown good man 
 
320 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden under- 
 ground, secretly making the ground green. 24. As the 
 sun, writes Bishop Trench, can image itself alike in a tiny 
 dewdrop, or in the mighty ocean, and can do it, though 
 on a different scale, as perfectly in the one as in the other, 
 so the spirit of poetry can dwell in and glorify alike a 
 word and an Iliad. 25. Stevenson says that we see places 
 through our humours as through differently colored glasses. 
 26. The little, narrow, crooked town of Dover hid itself 
 away from the beach, and ran its head into the chalk 
 cliifs, like a marine ostrich. 27. First it was hot as an 
 oven, then cold as ice ; but we were all as lively as crickets 
 and gay as larks. 28. Although smart as a whip, unfor- 
 tunately he is as deaf as a post and blind as a bat. 
 
 EXERCISE 199 
 
 Here are metaphors. In each case name the 
 tzvo things compared and point out the word or 
 words which imply similarity. Expand each met- 
 aphor, if possible, into a fully expressed simile. 
 Which are personifications? Which suggest a pic- 
 ture? a story? Which do you like best? What 
 figures other than metaphor do you discover? 
 
 1. The sails at noon left off their tune. 
 
 2. The little brook heard it and built him a roof 
 'Neath which he could house him, winter-proof." 
 
 3. He watched the wheeling eddies boil. 
 
 4. His honor rooted in dishonor stood. 
 
 5. He was all stiletto and mask. 
 
 6. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 321 
 
 7. There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune, 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 
 8. I'll about 
 And drive away the vulgar from the streets; 
 So do you too, where you perceive them thick. 
 These growing feathers pluck'd from Csesar's wing 
 Will make him fly an ordinary pitch 
 
 Who else would soar above the view of men, 
 And keep us all in fearful servitude. 
 
 9. And ever, against eating cares. 
 Lap me in soft Lydian airs 
 Married to immortal verse. 
 
 10. Then from where he sat 
 
 At Arthur's right, with smiling face arose. 
 With smiling face and frowning heart, a prince 
 In the mid might and flourish of his May, 
 Gawain. 
 
 11. Love Virtue; she alone is free. 
 She can teach ye how to climb 
 Higher than the sphery chime; 
 Or if Virtue feeble were. 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her. 
 
 12. Thereat the Lady stretch'd a vulture throat 
 And shot from crooked lips a haggard smile. 
 
 13. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, 
 Which gives men stomach to digest his words 
 With better appetite. 
 
 14. Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, 
 Thou's met me in an evil hour; 
 
322 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 For I maun crush amang the stour 
 
 Thy slender stem; 
 To spare thee now is past my pow'r, 
 
 Thou bonnie gem. 
 
 EXERCISE 200 
 
 What figures do you recognize in the following 
 time-zvorn phrases f Expand each into a complete 
 simile, 
 
 I. Every tning Is in apple pie order. 2. Wait till I get 
 my back up. 3. He has an axe to grind. 4. Your cake 
 is dough. 5. It's a drug on the market. 6. He can't 
 hold a candle to some I've seen. 7. He's a big gun; the 
 rest are but small-fry. 8. His nose is out of joint; he 
 seems down in the mouth. 9. Wait till my ship comes 
 in. 10. This style is all the go. 11. Don't monkey with the 
 saw. 12. Is he up to snuff? 13. He handles the ribbons 
 well. 14. That took the shine all off. 15. See the poor 
 wall-flowers. 16. I should like a square meal. 17. Slow 
 coach! 18. Let's take French leave. 19. You're a brick 
 — you take the cake! 20. The foregoing expressions are 
 a mere drop in the bucket. 
 
 EXERCISE 201 
 
 With few exceptions the following are from a 
 collection of twisted metaphors recently published 
 in the Christian World (London), Point out the 
 absurdities. 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 323 
 
 I. The harvest which the present Government has sown 
 is already coming home to roost. 2. The debate in the 
 House of Lords has, I think, finally cleared the air. We 
 know at last whither the country is being steered. There 
 is the figurehead with his hand on the rudder ; there is the 
 man that moves the figurehead. The figurehead is Mr. 
 Balfour; the man is Mr. Chamberlain. 3. Mr. Mc- 
 Kenna's sword was an overloaded pistol which, being hung 
 up in a tight corner lest it should burst, pretended to be 
 dead until it got up and trotted home on the friendly back 
 of the Bishop of St. Asaph. 4. The flood-gates of irre- 
 ligion and intemperance are stalking arm in arm through- 
 out the land. 5. This bill effects such a change that the 
 last leap in the dark was a mere flea-bite. 6. That is 
 the marrow of the Education Act, and it will not be 
 taken out by Dr. Clifford or anybody else. It is founded 
 on a granite foundation, and speaks in a voice not to be 
 drowned in sectarian clamor. 7. The government has got 
 rid of the barbed-wire entanglements and is now in smooth 
 water. 8. If we give the House of Lords rope enough, 
 they will soon fill up the cup of their iniquity. 9. Though 
 the Tories keep dragging the Home-Rule red herring 
 across our path, it misses fire every time. 10. It is hoped 
 that some of the seed sown will not fall on deaf ears. 
 II. I smell a rat; I see it floating through the air; and, 
 by heavens, I'll nip it in the bud! 12. Japan has leapt 
 from rung to rung of the ladder of national greatness, and 
 promises to be as leaven to the whole East, rousing, vital- 
 izing, developing what has lain in the valley of dry bones 
 for many centuries. 13. Denmark is a little tongue of 
 land holding on by its eyelids. 
 
324 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 202 
 
 Show that in the following examples of meton- 
 ymy there is in each case an exchange of names 
 between things associated. 
 
 I. The pen Is mightier than the sword. 2. We should 
 respect the cloth. 3. Which exerts the greater influence, 
 press or pulpit? 4. The table was excellent; no one 
 could complain of the board. 5. Take care not to break 
 the china. 6. Our braves soon put the redskins to flight. 
 7. Letters flourished as never before. 8. Shall we go 
 by trolley? 9. Sixty souls were lost. 10. He unfurled 
 the Stars and Stripes. 11. Let us honor the Blue and the 
 Gray. 12. The lumberman pulled off his cowhides. 13. 
 She was a lass of fifteen summers. 14. Let's take our 
 wheels. 15. It was a fleet of twenty sails. 16. The 
 ardent wooer won her hand. 17. There must always 
 be Rockefellers and Carnegies as well as the " submerged 
 tenth." 18. The force advanced rapidly, our gallants 
 never flinching. 19. Have you read the morning paper? 
 20. My love is like the red, red rose. 21. He sheathed 
 his blade. 22. First came the speech from the crown. 
 23. Death is not easily escaped, try it who will ; but every 
 living soul among the children of men dwelling upon 
 earth goeth of necessity unto his destined place, where 
 the body, fast in its narrow bed, sleepeth after the feast. 
 
 24. The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade 
 For talking age and whispering lovers made. 
 
 25. And Earl Doorm 
 Struck with the knife's haft hard against the board, 
 And call'd for flesh and wine to feed his spears. 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH 325 
 
 26. At her left a child, 
 
 In shining draperies, headed like a star, 
 Her maiden babe, a double April old, 
 Aglaia slept. 
 
 EXERCISE 203 
 
 What figure is illustrated in such adjectives as 
 HERCULEAN, AUGEAN, ATLANTEAN? What Other 
 
 proper adjectives can you think of that deserve to 
 be called figures? 
 
 EXERCISE 204 
 
 Bring to class five similes and five metaphors 
 which you have found in your recent reading. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 THE PARAGRAPH 
 
 A GROUP of related sentences — related In that 
 they are brought together to accomplish some one 
 thing — Is called a paragraph. It may stand alone, 
 complete In Itself, or It may form part of a longer 
 composition. It may contain many words, three 
 hundred perhaps being an extreme number, or very 
 few. This we learned years ago, no doubt, and 
 also that the first line of each paragraph should be 
 indented. 
 
 Narrative, explanatory, descriptive, and argu- 
 mentative are familiar terms applied to paragraphs 
 according as the subject-matter Is narration, ex- 
 planation, description, or argument. Introductory, 
 transitional, and concluding or summarizing are 
 terms Indicating certain duties sometimes per- 
 formed by the paragraph when It Is a part of a 
 longer composition. These too are familiar, yet 
 each calls for a little explanation. 
 
 " My sentence Is for open war,'' abruptly begins 
 the fallen angel Moloch in his speech to his fellow 
 chieftains In Pandemonium; and we feel that he 
 could not have made a more Impressive start. A 
 beginning thus abrupt, however, Is not always ad- 
 
 326 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 327 
 
 visable. Sometimes It is better to lead up to the 
 subject gradually by means of a sentence or two, 
 perhaps an entire paragraph, bearing to the rest of 
 the composition sortiewhat the relationship a porch 
 bears to the mansion to which it gives entrance. 
 Instead of beginning bluntly with some such state- 
 ment as We started Friday mornings taking the 
 eight o^clock express from Atlanta, an account of 
 a journey might better, possibly, begin with an in- 
 troductory paragraph stating the purpose of the 
 trip, telling who were in the party, and giving other 
 similar items of interest. Yet it is far better to 
 omit such preliminaries than to make the intro- 
 duction so long through unnecessary explanation 
 that it becomes tiresome. School compositions are, 
 too frequently, largely porch ; the mansion is over- 
 shadowed. 
 
 Not uncommonly abrupt endings are as effect- 
 ive as abrupt beginnings. Surely it is better to 
 stop abruptly than to continue on and on without 
 adding anything of interest. But there are times 
 when a concluding or summarizing paragraph is 
 of great service. The account of the journey 
 proper having been completed, it may be well to 
 end with a few backward-glancing sentences re- 
 viewing the entire trip, perhaps telling what of all 
 that has been seen or heard or done stands out 
 most clearly in memory, what has been most pleas- 
 ant, what least agreeable. The summary is ex- 
 ceptionally useful In argumentative writing where, 
 a number of arguments having been given at con- 
 
328 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 siderable length, all are finally restated in con« 
 densed form. The advantage is evident. The 
 summary selects, rearranges, and puts into a small 
 package, as it were, whatever it is desirable that 
 the reader should carry away. 
 
 Abrupt transitions too are not uncommon. Ma- 
 caulay, a skilled English essayist, often passes 
 from topic to topic so unexpectedly that for the 
 moment the reader is confused; yet the final effect 
 is good. The transitional paragraph, however, is 
 sometimes needed. We find it in good prose, a 
 few sentences letting the reader know that one 
 topic is finished, another about to be taken up. 
 Frequently it is a combination of summary and 
 introduction. Whatever its form, it should be 
 brief; a sentence often serves quite as well as a 
 paragraph, and commonly a single phrase is suf- 
 ficient to bridge the gap or point the way. 
 y Just as compositions of some length contain in- 
 troductory, transitional, and concluding para- 
 graphs, so too single paragraphs may call for 
 introductory, transitional, and concluding sen- 
 tences. They may also contain what is known as 
 the topical sentence. A good paragraph possesses 
 unity, has a central idea. This central idea is like 
 the hub to a wheel. Remove the hub and out fall 
 the spokes. The topical sentence, as its name im- 
 plies, gives this idea, or at least lets the reader 
 know what the paragraph is about — announces the 
 subject. Unlike the hub, it does not occupy a cen- 
 tral position, as a rule; its natural place is at or 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 329 
 
 near the beginning. Sometimes It Is not needed 
 at all, the central purpose which binds the sentences 
 Into unity being evident without It. The Impor- 
 tant part played by the topical sentence In para- 
 graph structure Is shown In the following buUdlng- 
 plans. 
 
 First plan: Begin a narrative or descriptive par- 
 
 ^ agraph with a topical sentence which furnishes an 
 outline, and follow this with sentences giving de- 
 tails. Last Saturday, the topical sentence may 
 state, / spent a most enjoyable day in the woods. 
 This Is but an outline; It calls for details, an ac- 
 count of the Incidents which made the day enjoy- 
 able. When dressed in his masquerading costume, 
 his appearance was most ludicrous. The portrait 
 in this sentence Is but an outline ; descriptive details 
 are needed to explain the adjective ludicrous. 
 To begin with an outline statement and follow 
 
 ' this with particulars Is so natural that It hardly 
 needs emphasizing. The real difficulty arises In 
 determining the order In which particulars should 
 be given. In narration, the chronological order is 
 evidently best. In description, the difficulty is 
 greater; perhaps the simplest way Is to pass from 
 one Item to that which Is next In place. Certainly 
 it will not do, when describing a building or a 
 person, for example, to skip about unsystem- 
 atlcally; there must be arrangement of some 
 kind. 
 
 Second plan: Begin an explanatory paragraph 
 with a topical sentence general in character and 
 
330 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 follow it with detailed explanation. The explain- 
 ing may be little more than an enumeration, as in 
 a paragraph beginning with this sentence: Of all 
 the boys in the class, I remember but four dis- 
 tinctly. It may call for definition. The statement 
 Lincoln was a self-made man might be misleading 
 were it not followed by a detailed definition of 
 what is meant by self-made. Many have gained a 
 good education without ever attending college. 
 This calls for examples or illustrations. A better 
 idea of CromwelV s character may be had through 
 comparing him with Napoleon, noting points of 
 resemblance and points of dissimilarity. Here the 
 topical sentence heralds an extended comparison. 
 Enumeration, definition, illustration, example, and 
 comparison are words to keep In mind when writ- 
 ing explanatory paragraphs. 
 
 The best arrangement of items Is more difficult 
 to discover In explanation than In description or In 
 narration. Not always can time or place order be 
 followed. Frequently it Is best to begin with that 
 which will be most easily understood and advance 
 gradually towards the more difficult. Sometimes it 
 is well to arrange items In the order of their Impor- 
 tance or their interest to the reader. No general 
 rule can be given. 
 
 Third plan: Begin an argumentative paragraph 
 with a topical sentence containing the proposition 
 and follow it with proofs. This is, of course, the 
 natural thing to do ; nor is it necessary to add that 
 the arguments may well be arranged in the order of 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 331 
 
 their Importance. Sometimes it is best to let the 
 arguments precede the topical sentence, leading 
 up to It gradually. This Is especially desirable 
 when that which one wishes to establish as true is 
 something which one's readers are unwilling to 
 accept. 
 
 Fourth plan: Construct the paragraph on the 
 balance or climax plan. Macaulay Is exceptionally 
 skilful in his use of the balance. As the eye of 
 the reader runs from line to line, not infrequently 
 it notes, about midway In the paragraph, the little 
 word but serving as pivot. What goes before Is 
 balanced by that which follows, and a strong con- 
 trast is obtained. Many of his paragraphs are con- 
 structed climax-wise. The following Illustration, 
 however. Is not from Macaulay but from Burke's 
 Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Notice how 
 sentence follows sentence with increasing force till 
 a most Impressive end Is reached. 
 
 " Therefore hath it with all confidence been 
 ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, that I 
 impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and mis- 
 demeanors. I Impeach him in the name of the 
 Commons' House of Parliament, whose trust he 
 has betrayed. I Impeach him in the name of the 
 English nation, whose honor he has sullied. I 
 Impeach him in the name of the people of India, 
 whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose 
 country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, In 
 the name of human nature Itself, in the name of 
 both sexes, In the name of every age. In the name 
 
332 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 of every rank, I Impeach the common enemy and 
 oppressor of all." 
 
 There are still other building-plans, but perhaps 
 those given above are all that It Is wise to place 
 before young writers. Indeed, there Is no little 
 danger In making too extended a study of the para- 
 graph lest It lead one to think that whatever he 
 has to say must be cast in some particular form. 
 The main thing, after all, Is to know pretty defi- 
 nitely, before putting pen to paper, what one wishes 
 to say; and knowing this, to say It so plainly, 
 clearly, that the reader will easily understand, so 
 earnestly that the reader will not only understand 
 but will be impressed. If the writer has but 
 learned to " think straight," his sentences will fall 
 naturally Into orderly paragraph groups. 
 
 EXERCISE 205 
 
 Construct paragraphs, one or more as the in- 
 structor may direct, using the following topical 
 sentences, 
 
 I. Last Saturday was for me an unusually busy time. 
 (Give the incidents, real or imaginary, needed to explain 
 the word busy. Try to close with a sentence bringing the 
 reader back to the topical sentence.) 2. It requires but 
 patience and a little skill to make a . (Give direc- 
 tions in careful detail. Here too perhaps you can close 
 with a general statement.) 3. Drivers of automobiles are 
 oftentimes inexcusably reckless. (Expand by means of 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 333 
 
 illustrations or Incidents. Follow the Incidents, if you 
 can, with a strong concluding sentence.) 4. The dic- 
 tionary does far more than simply give the meanings of 
 words. ( In explaining what else the dictionary does, fol- 
 low the climax order, reserving to the last that which to 
 you seems most important.) 5. To the uninitiated, foot- 
 ball seems very simple. (Devote a few sentences to a 
 development of this idea; then produce a sharp contrast 
 by showing how complicated the game really Is — how 
 much skill it requires.) 6. It would not be easy to imag- 
 ine two people differing more widely in appearance and 
 
 character than A and B . (Before beginning, 
 
 try to determine which will be better, to devote 
 
 the first part of the paragraph to A alone, 
 
 the rest to B , or to employ a series of 
 
 point for point comparisons.) 7. Which shall it be, rugs 
 or a carpet? (Expand by considering the advantages and 
 disadvantages of each; then close with a sentence contain- 
 ing your final decision.) 8. The view from the brow of 
 
 hill Is a sufficient reward for the climb. (First 
 
 give an outline sketch ; follow this with orderly details ; 
 close with a general statement.) 9. And here Is my den. 
 (Imagine that some one is with you, now on the threshold, 
 now following you about. Go from general description 
 to particular, then back to general.) 10. I can think of 
 
 reasons why I have selected college. (Try 
 
 to discover an effective order of presentation.) 
 
 EXERCISE 206 
 
 Expand the following sentences, two or more of 
 them as the instructor may direct, into paragraphs. 
 
334 . RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 I. Not all that one hears is to be believed. 2. For 
 these reasons, then, I think that examinations, though of 
 course disagreeable, should not be done away with. 3. 
 Thus ended our pleasant holiday. (Assuming that the 
 holiday has been described in detail, follow this topical 
 sentence with two or three reviewing sentences.) 4. 
 is an ideal schoolmate. (Let the rest of the para- 
 graph explain what to you the word ideal means.) 5. 
 One should not look a gift-horse in the mouth. (Explain 
 fully what this means, perhaps using an illustration or 
 two.) 6. It never rains but it pours. (Explain by 
 means of illustrations. Perhaps you can manage to close 
 with a sentence containing the wise saying.) 7. A large 
 school is like a little city. (Carry out the comparison.) 
 8. Addison says that only " men of fine parts " deserve 
 to be hanged. (Explain fully, paying particular atten- 
 tion to the expression " fine parts.") 9. What we lack is 
 school spirit. (Tell what you mean by school spirit, 
 then strengthen the definition by means of illustrations.) 
 10. There are several plans which one may follow in 
 building paragraphs. 
 
 EXERCISE 207 
 
 Here are initial sentences from a number of con- 
 secutive paragraphs from Macaulay's Life of 
 Johnson. In which of these do you discover words 
 referring to what precedes? In which do you dis- 
 cover a hint of what the rest of the paragraph is 
 about? 
 
 I. While leading this vagrant and miserable life, John- 
 son fell in love. 2. His marriage made it necessary for 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 335 
 
 him to exert himself more strenuously than he had hitherto 
 done. 3. At length Johnson, in the twenty-eighth year of 
 his age, determined to seek his fortune in the capital as a 
 literary adventurer. 4. Never, since literature became a 
 calling in England, had it been a less gainful calling than 
 at the time when Johnson took up residence in London. 
 5. Some time appears to have elapsed before Johnson was 
 able to form any literary connection from which he could 
 expect more than bread for the day which was passing 
 over him. 6. The effect of the privations and sufferings 
 which he endured at this time was discernible to the last 
 in his temper and his deportment. 7. About a year after 
 Johnson had begun to reside in London, he was fortunate 
 enough to obtain regular employment from Cave, an en- 
 terprising and intelligent bookseller, who was proprietor 
 and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine. 8. A few 
 weeks after Johnson had entered on these obscure labors, 
 he published a work which at once placed him high among 
 the writers of his age. 9. Johnson's London appeared 
 without his name in May, 1738. 
 
 EXERCISE 208 
 
 In the following paragraphs, point out words or 
 phrases which serve to link sentence to sentence. 
 
 In the midst of his discourse the bell rang for dinner, 
 where the gentleman I have been speaking of had the 
 pleasure of seeing the huge jack he had caught served up 
 for the first dish in a most sumptuous manner. Upon 
 our sitting down to it he gave a long account how he 
 had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at length 
 drew it out upon the bank, with several other particulars 
 
336 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 that lasted all the first course. A dish of wild fowl that 
 came afterwards furnished conversation for the rest of 
 the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of 
 Will's for improving the quail-pipe. 
 
 I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old 
 friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John 
 Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb the 
 congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is remark- 
 able for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking 
 his heels for his diversion. This authority of the knight, 
 though exerted in that odd measure which accompanies 
 him in all circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon 
 the parish, who are not polite enough to see anything 
 ridiculous in his behavior; besides that the general good 
 sense and worthiness of his character make his friends 
 observe these little singularities as foils that rather set 
 off than blemish his good qualities. 
 
 EXERCISE 209 
 
 Here is a schoolgirl composition, just as it was 
 received by the instructor except that the inden- 
 tions have been filled up. How should it be para^ 
 graphed? 
 
 A DESERTED FARMHOUSE 
 
 Standing by a lonely country road, a mile or more from the 
 nearest village, there is an old deserted farmhouse. It is a 
 low two-storied house, originally white, but now gray and 
 weather-beaten and slowly crumbling to ruin. The signs 
 of its desertedness are readily seen. The grass has grown 
 up high, almost completely hiding the path from the door- 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 337 
 
 step to the road, only a few of the windows have panes of 
 glass in them, the roof is full of holes, the broken blinds 
 swing back and forth with the gentlest breeze, the old 
 well under the shade of the apple-tree is moss-covered, 
 and the old stone wall has fallen down in many places. 
 Behind the house, the empty farm-yard and cornfields also 
 show that they have been deserted. Beyond the old stone 
 wall, on the south side of the house, stretch away the 
 meadows. On the other side are the apple orchards, 
 while in front is the country road, which on either side 
 for a long way is lined with tall trees which meet together 
 over it, forming a beautiful archway, while along the 
 roadside bloom the wild flowers in their seasons. I can- 
 not decide at what time of the year I best like to make 
 a pilgrimage to the picturesque old house. I love to go 
 there on a spring morning when everything about it is 
 so fresh and young, when the robins are singing so 
 cheerily in the beautiful apple orchards, which are in 
 their full glory with their thousands of delightfully fra- 
 grant blossoms, when the dandelions bloom so gaily, and 
 when everything except the house seems young and happy. 
 It is on a morning in this season that I like to imagine 
 that once this old house too may have been young and 
 that there may have lived in it happy, contented peo- 
 ple. One of those rare June days that Lowell tells us 
 of, when 
 
 •* Heaven tries the earth, if it be in tune, 
 And over it softly her warm ear lays," 
 
 is another time when I like to visit the place. The 
 meadows on the south side of the house are filled with 
 the sweetlj^-scented clovers, the bright-eyed daisies, and the 
 golden butter-cups; the roses in the front door-yard and 
 
338 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 the honey-suckle twining so lovingly about the old porch 
 make the old gray house look less dreary than usual. It 
 Is at this time, after the long, hot walk up the country 
 road, that I like to stroll out Into the orchard and there 
 sit on the old seat In one of the apple trees In full sight 
 of the house and dream of the many scenes It may have 
 witnessed. At this season, when everything about Is so 
 full of beauty, it seems as if the house, if it could, would 
 unfold some pleasant, happy secrets it knew of and would 
 tell some pretty little romances Its old walls had seen In 
 the days of its youth. I think my visits at this season of 
 the year are longer than at other times, for everything 
 about the house is so beautiful that, under the influence 
 of its surroundings. It seems to lose some of Its dismal- 
 ness. How different It all is on a cold, windy autumn 
 day. Then the surroundings seem to be more in harmony 
 with the old house, but not completely so ; for the wind in 
 its play blows the merry red leaves about it, while It 
 seems to look down frowning on their play. This is no 
 time to dream In the orchard. To keep warm one 
 must keep moving, and Is led rather to prowl about 
 the house, peeking In at the windows and looking In 
 vain for the cheerful blaze that will probably never 
 again be seen on the hearth. It seems so dreary and 
 forlorn, as the wind blows the blinds back and forth 
 and howls around the aged house, that one commences to 
 think of the dreariness and sadness It may have seen, and 
 longs to return to his home. It seems to me that the 
 time when, more than at all others, the house and its sur- 
 roundings are in harmony, is on a cold, gray, winter's 
 afternoon, when the newly fallen snow covers everything. 
 The old year and the white, silent snow seem to be in 
 accordance with the house, so old and silent. The red 
 
THE PARAGRAPH 339 
 
 sun sets in the west and Is reflected in the broken panes 
 of the windows. The bright light seems for a moment 
 to impart some life to the old deserted house, but after 
 the sun goes down all grows dreary and silent again ; even 
 the hoarse, noisy crows are silent, and, if we remain still 
 longer, the moon comes out and shines on it and gives 
 to all a ghostly appearance. Playful little breezes blow 
 clouds of the soft snow into fantastical shapes, and from 
 time to time the winds, groaning and moaning, blow 
 about the house. The night grows colder, and we decide 
 to return to our home, leaving the deserted house in its 
 solitude. But all the way home, in spite of the merry 
 sleigh-bells and the prospect of a blazing fire before us, 
 we cannot help thinking of the dreary old house standing 
 alone in the moonlight. Of course we can never know 
 all the history of the old deserted farmhouse, but it 
 seems to me that, if it could talk and would tell us its 
 story, it would be something like the story of the year. 
 I like to think that in its early days it was filled with 
 young people, happy and contented in the spring of their 
 lives; that in later years it held these same people within 
 its walls, but that they had developed into beautiful ma- 
 turer persons, even as the spring-time of the year changes 
 into the summer. In still later years the young people 
 may have left their happy homes to go to other homes of 
 their own, and the two aged parents have been left alone 
 in the old home. The summer of the house had gone and 
 its fall-time had come, just as the summer-time of the year 
 goes and the fall-time fills its place. Finally these 
 two aged ones also may have departed and left the old 
 house to desolation and dreariness, to the winter-time of 
 its life. And so let us leave it as we saw it on that win- 
 ter's night, standing alone in its desertedness. 
 
340 RHETORIC IN PRACTICE 
 
 EXERCISE 210 
 
 Cooperative planning is exceedingly valuable 
 practice. Let the entire class, working together, 
 plan out a composition on some topic selected by 
 the instructor. Invent a title for each paragraph, 
 these titles to be recorded on the blackboard. This 
 task, perhaps as profitable as any suggested thus 
 far, may well be repeated many times. 
 
 EXERCISE 211 
 
 Invent initial sentences for the paragraphs of a 
 composition planned out according to Exercise 210. 
 
 EXERCISE 212 
 
 Let each member of the class expand into a 
 paragraph a topical sentence furnished by his 
 neighbor. 
 
 EXERCISE 213 
 
 Examine the compositions you have written dur- 
 ing the past term, for the purpose of seeing where, 
 were you rewriting, you would wish to improve the 
 paragraph structure. 
 
PART IV 
 
 VERSIFICATION 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 VERSIFICATION 
 
 Place before you a volume of poetry and a 
 volume of prose, then consider carefully, as you 
 turn the leaves, wherein the two forms of expres- 
 sion differ. 
 
 First the eye notes at once that while in prose 
 the lines run from margin to margin, the length 
 being determined only by the width of the page, 
 in poetry the lines are shorter and frequently vary 
 in length — not by accident, but according to a 
 definite plan, evidently. Moreover the lines of 
 poetry are In groups, as a rule, corresponding in 
 a way to the paragraph groups found in prose, yet 
 far more nearly uniform as regards size. 
 
 Then the ear quickly discovers. If passages are 
 read aloud, that In most poetry there is rhyme, — 
 not accidental, but employed according to a defi- 
 nite plan, usually the same plan being adhered to 
 in all the line-groups making up a complete poem. 
 More than this, the ear detects a kind of swing or 
 rhythmical movement. Evidently the poet has so 
 chosen and arranged his words that the voice, nat- 
 urally emphasizing some syllables and passing 
 
 343 
 
344 VERSIFICATION 
 
 lightly over others, produces a sort of tune which 
 pleases the ear. It suggests the tramp-tr^mp of 
 marching soldiers, or better still, the lighter tread 
 of the dance. Finally, the sensitive ear detects not 
 only rhyme and rhythm, but harmony of sound; 
 for vowels and consonants may be combined har- 
 moniously much as if they were musical notes or 
 shades of color. They are so combined in good 
 prose, it is true, yet not to the degree found in good 
 poetry. 
 
 Thus much the eye and the ear discover quite 
 easily; but if one wishes to fully appreciate the art 
 of poetry and be able to talk about it understand- 
 ingly, he must make a closer survey and learn to 
 use a few technical terms. 
 
 A line of poetry is called, technically, a verse. 
 There are as many verses in any poem as there are 
 lines. We speak of a line of prose as containing 
 so many words, the number being of little conse- 
 quence; in poetry syllables are considered rather 
 than words, and importance is attached to the 
 number receiving a stress or accent. A line is 
 named according to the number of stressed sylla- 
 bles it contains.* It is called monometer, dimeter, 
 trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, hep- 
 tameter, according as it contains one, two, three, 
 four, ^ve, six, or seven accented syllables. Here 
 are examples. 
 
 * This statement may be modified by those who recognize a metrical foot 
 containing two stresses. 
 
VERSIFICATION 345 
 
 Monometer: Away! 
 Dimeter : This song of mine 
 Trimeter: Heroic womanhood 
 Tetrameter: Lilies whiter than the snow 
 Pentameter: The poet in a golden clime was born 
 Hexameter: This is the forest primeval, the murmuring 
 pines and the hemlocks 
 
 Heptameter: There's not a joy the world can give like 
 that it takes away 
 
 We note in passing that not all stressed syllables 
 receive the same degree of voice emphasis. In the 
 tetrameter line, for example, than receives a lighter 
 accent than that bestowed upon snow. In the sec- 
 ond place we note that no syllable Is accented which 
 would not naturally be stressed in prose, though 
 to bring out the swing, the cadence, the voice at 
 times varies slightly the natural degree of em- 
 phasis. 
 
 To describe a line with precision, more must be 
 known than merely the number of stresses it con- 
 tains; the unaccented syllables must be considered. 
 For convenience, the line Is thought of as made up 
 of syllable groups called feet, and these too have 
 names. A foot of two syllables the first of which 
 receives the accent Is called a trochee. A foot of 
 two syllables the second of which receives the 
 accent Is called an Iambus. A foot of three syl- 
 lables the first of which receives the accent Is called 
 a dactyl. A foot of three syllables the third of 
 which receives the accent is called an anapaest. 
 Here are examples. 
 
346 VERSIFICATION 
 
 Trochee : silver Dactyl : glittering 
 
 Iambus : beware Anapaest : to the brave 
 
 The adjectives derived from these nouns are tro- 
 chaic, iambic, dactylic, anapaestic. Hence we 
 may speak of trochaic, iambic, dactylic, or ana- 
 paestic lines, meaning that they are made up of 
 trochees, iambi, dactyls, or anapaests. And by 
 combining these adjecttves with the words monom- 
 eter, dimeter, etc., we have such terms as trochaic 
 dimeter, iambic pentameter, etc. Here are a few 
 examples. 
 
 Iambic monometer: Be gone! 
 
 Iambic dimeter: The day | is done 
 
 Iambic trimeter : Hero | ic wom | anhood 
 
 Iambic tetrameter: It hailed | the ships | and cried | 
 " Sail on " 
 
 Iambic pentameter : The qual | ity | of mer | cy is | not 
 strain'd 
 
 Iambic hexameter: And 6ft | en knockt | his breast, ] as 
 one I that did | repent 
 
 Trochaic hexameter : Dainty | little | maiden, | whither | 
 would you I wander? 
 
 Anapaestic tetrameter: With the fife | and the horn | 
 and the war- | beating gong 
 
 Dactylic dimeter: Cannon to | right of them 
 
 Thus we have convenient names for twenty-eight 
 different kinds of lines. Comparatively few of 
 these, however, are common in English poetry. 
 
 But variety does not stop here. A succession of 
 lines containing none but iambic feet, for example, 
 
VERSIFICATION 347 
 
 would be as monotonously unmusical as the sounds 
 which come from the builder's hammer. Occa- 
 sionally the regularity must be broken. To avoid 
 monotony, or to gain prominence for some particu- 
 lar word or syllable needing emphasis, a trochee or 
 an anapaest may be substituted for an iambus. 
 Loosely speaking, all four kinds of feet are inter- 
 changeable. Moreover, not uncommonly an extra 
 unaccented syllable is found at the end of a line, 
 and occasionally just before a pronounced pause 
 within the line. Or a final unaccented syllable may 
 be missing. The line with the extra syllable at the 
 end is called feminine; the line in which the final 
 syllable is missing is called truncated. Notice the 
 following. 
 
 1. Run to I your hou | ses, fall | upon | your knees 
 
 2. It is I the bright | day that | brings forth | the 
 ad I der 
 
 3. So strange | ly you daz | zle my eye 
 
 4. Lilies I whiter | than the | snow 
 
 5. Know ye the | land where the | cypress and | myrtle 
 
 6. Hated | by one | he loves; | brav'd by | his broth | er 
 
 In the first foot of the first line a trochee is substi- 
 tuted for an iambus. In the second example we 
 note the added syllable at the end, making the line 
 feminine. The fourth line Is truncated. In the 
 third, an iambus takes the place of an anapaest; in 
 the fifth, a trochee Is substituted for a dactyl. The 
 last line contains three variations, two trochees in 
 place of iambi, and a feminine ending. 
 
348 VERSIFICATION 
 
 Examples might easily be multiplied with a view 
 to showing still other devices by means of which 
 the poet, though bound by the laws of verse to 
 adhere to a definite scheme, manages to keep the 
 scheme from being too boldly apparent; yet no 
 matter what changes are introduced, the cadence, 
 the rhythmic swing which charms the ear, is never 
 lost. 
 
 By far the most common line In English poetry 
 is the iambic pentameter. Unrhymed iambic pen- 
 tameter is called blank verse. It Is the noblest of 
 verse forms, most dignified, appropriate for lofty 
 themes. It is king of all English meters. We 
 find it in Shakespeare's plays, in Milton's Paradise 
 Lost, and in Tennyson's Idylls of the King. It is 
 not arranged in line-groups of equal size, but is 
 paragraphed like prose. Some one has said that 
 blank verse Is the easiest of all forms of poetry to 
 write, but the most difficult to write well. It is 
 easiest because It does not call for rhyming, nor for 
 any variation In the length of the line; it Is most 
 difficult because one who employs it must man- 
 age to make his lines attractively musical and 
 impressive without rhyming them, without vary- 
 ing their length and combining them In stanza 
 form. 
 
 Here Is an example of blank verse, with the 
 meter marked In the usual way; that Is, the stressed 
 syllables are indicated by means of the accent sign 
 ('), and the feet are separated by means of little 
 lines (I). 
 
VERSIFICATION 349 
 
 1. The qual | ity | of mer | cy is | not strain'd ; 
 
 2. It drop I peth as | the gen | tie rain | from heav'n 
 
 3. Upon I the place | beneath : | it is | twice blest ; 
 
 4. It bless j eth him | that gives | and him | that takes: 
 
 5. 'Tis might | iest in | the might | iest: it | becomes 
 
 6. The thron | ed mon | arch bet | ter than | his crown ; 
 
 7. His seep I ter shows | the force | of tem | poral 
 pow I er, 
 
 8. The at | tribute | to awe | and maj | esty, 
 
 9. Wherein | doth sit | the dread | and fear | of kings 
 
 10. But mer | cy is | above | this seep | ter'd sway; 
 
 11. It is I enthron | ed in | the hearts | of kings, 
 
 12. It is I an at I tribute | to God | himself; 
 
 I J. And earth | ly power | doth then | show lik | est 
 God's, 
 
 14. When mer I cy sea | sons jus i tice. 
 
 Notice that each line save the last, which Is in- 
 complete, contains five accents, not all of them 
 equally Important, It Is true, yet all falling upon 
 syllables which might receive some degree of em- 
 phasis In prose; and that most of the feet are 
 iambic, so that nearly every line contains ten syl- 
 lables. There are a few exceptions. In the sec- 
 ond line, heaven must be pronounced as If It were 
 one syllable; the second syllable Is but barely 
 sounded even In prose. In the fifth line, mightiest 
 Is treated as If It were a word of two syllables; we 
 seldom make three of It, even In prose. Such slur- 
 ring, or running together of unimportant syllables. 
 Is common In all poetry. In the sixth line, we note 
 the opposite device, a word pronounced as one syl- 
 
350 VERSIFICATION 
 
 lable made into two. Final -ed is frequently so 
 treated. In the seventh line the fifth foot is an 
 anapaest, unless the reader prefers to run together 
 two syllables; and the line has a feminine ending. 
 Or power may be treated as if it were one syllable, 
 as doubtless it should be treated in the thirteenth 
 line. Such changes as those pointed out are so 
 common that the reader hardly notices them; the 
 Iambic swing carries him along from line to line 
 irresistibly. It is only when we stop to analyze, 
 that they become apparent. 
 
 Next in importance to blank verse is the heroic 
 couplet — iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs. 
 Like blank verse, it is not, as a rule, arranged in 
 stanzas, but is paragraphed like prose. It is used 
 in long narrative poems. Chaucer and Dryden 
 and Pope employ it freely. At its best it is very 
 good; when poorly managed, it becomes cheap and 
 sing-songy. Some one has called it the rocking- 
 horse measure, because the first line of each coup- 
 let seems to go up — up — up, the second down — 
 down — down ; and between couplets there is apt to 
 be quite a pause, as if the entire poem were divided 
 into two-line links partially independent of each 
 other. Here is an example taken from Pope's 
 translation of the Iliad. 
 
 Thus hav | ing spoke | th' fllus | trious chief | of Troy 
 Stretched his | fond arms | to clasp | the love | ly boy. 
 The babe | clung cry | ing to | his nurse | 's breast, 
 Scar'd at I the daz I zling helm I and nod I ding crest. 
 
VERSIFICATION 35 1 
 
 With se I cret pleas |ure each | fond par | ent smil'd, 
 And Hec | tor hast | ed to | relieve | his child ; 
 The glit I tering ter | rors from | his brow | unbound, 
 And placed I the beam | ing hel | met on | the ground, 
 Then kiss'd |the child, | and, lift | ing high | in air, 
 Thus to I the gods | preferr'd | a f a | ther's prayer : 
 
 Two lines rhyming together, as in the measure 
 just described, are called a couplet, regardless of 
 their length or the kind of foot employed. Three 
 lines rhyming together are called a triplet. Trip- 
 lets are usually printed in stanza form. Here are 
 the opening lines of one of Tennyson's songs. 
 
 Oh ! what I is so swe6t | as a morn | ing in spring, 
 
 When the gale | is all fresh | ness, and larks | on the wing. 
 
 In clear | liquid car | ols their grat | itude sing? 
 
 I rove I o'er the hill | as it spark | les with dew, 
 
 And the red | flush of Phoe | bus with ec | stasy view, 
 
 As he breaks | thro' the east | o'er thy crags, | Benvenu ! 
 
 Far more common than the triple rhyme is the 
 four line stanza or quatrain. The rhymes may be 
 in various combinations. In the first of the fol- 
 lowing quatrains, it will be noted that the first line 
 rhymes with the last, the second with the third; 
 in the second, the first line rhymes with the third, 
 the second with the fourth. The third quatrain 
 is made up of two couplets ; and in the last quatrain 
 there is but a single rhyme, that between the sec- 
 ond and fourth lines. 
 
352 VERSIFICATION 
 
 I held I It truth | with him | who sings 
 j To one | clear harp | in di | vers tones, 
 ( That men | may rise | on step | ping-stones 
 Of their | dead selves | to high | er things. 
 
 r Once more | the gate | behind | me falls; 
 f -l Once more | before | my face 
 j L I see I the moul | der'd Ab | bey-walls 
 I That stand | within | the chace. 
 
 You must wake | and call | me ear | ly, call | me ear | ly, 
 
 moth I er dear: 
 To-mor | row 'ill be | the hap | piest time | of all | the 
 
 glad I New-year; 
 
 Of all I the glad | New-year, | mother, | the mad | dest, 
 
 mer | riest day ; 
 For I 'm I to be Queen | o' the May, | mother, | I 'm to | 
 
 be Queen | o' the May. 
 
 It is I an an I cient Mar | iner 
 r And he stop | peth one | of three, 
 ■j By thy long | gray beard | and glit | tering eye 
 I Now where | fore stop'st | thou me? 
 
 By varying not only the rhyme but the length of 
 line, the quatrain may be made to assume a great 
 many forms, as any hymnal will show, for the 
 quatrain is a favorite with writers of hymns. 
 
 To describe in detail all possible stanza forms 
 would be unprofitable. We shall do well If at 
 present we keep In mind the meaning of the terms 
 blank verse, heroic couplets, triple rhyme, and 
 quatrain, and learn a convenient way of describing 
 any possible verse combination. In describing a 
 
VERSIFICATION 353 
 
 stanza, first state the number of lines It contains; 
 second, describe the hnes; third, give the rhyming 
 scheme. A convenient way of indicating rhyme 
 is by means of small letters. The rhyming scheme 
 of the first quatrain above is thus indicated as abba; 
 that is, the first and fourth lines rhyme, and the 
 second and third. In the second, the scheme is 
 abab, m the third aabb, and In the fourth abcb. 
 The lines rhyming, it will be noticed, are repre- 
 sented by the same letter. A complete description 
 of the first quatrain would be as follows: It is 
 made up of four iambic tetrameter lines, the rhym- 
 ing scheme being abba. The second would be 
 described thus : It is made up of four lines, the first 
 and third iambic tetrameter, the second and fourth 
 iambic trimeters, the rhyming scheme being abab. 
 Closely related to rhyme is the device called allit- 
 eration, or the repetition of similar sounds. No- 
 tice the following lines. 
 
 1. E/alne the fair, E/alne the /ovab/e, 
 E/aine the lily maid of Asto/at 
 
 2. With prudes for /)roctors, dowagers for ^eans, 
 And sweet ^irl-^raduates in their golden hair 
 
 In the first quotation, the poet plays a little tune 
 with the letter /. In the second, p and d form 
 alliterative pairs, and g is three times repeated. 
 A less noble example is found in the familiar Peter 
 Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. It is 
 hardly necessary to mention the cheap alliterations 
 found in newspaper headings and In advertise- 
 
354 VERSIFICATION 
 
 ments. Skilfully employed, alliteration adds ma- 
 terially to the charm of verse. In Anglo-Saxon 
 poetry, it takes the place of rhyme altogether. 
 
 Associated in a way with alliteration is onoma- 
 topoeia, a device much simpler than its name, by 
 means of which the sounds of words are made to 
 suggest what the words describe. An earlier chap- 
 ter calls attention to certain purely imitative words 
 — whiz, bang, gurgle, etc. Onomatopoeia Is not 
 always directly imitative; usually, as employed by 
 the skilled writer of poetry or prose, it is merely 
 suggestive. In Tennyson's The Northern Farmer, 
 a father is urging his son to marry for money, or 
 property. He introduces the subject in this way: 
 
 Dosn't thou 'ear my 'ersc's [horse's] legs, as they canters 
 
 awaay ? 
 Proputty, proputty, proputty — that's what I 'ears 'em 
 saay. 
 
 The proputty, proputty, proputty suggests un- 
 mistakably the sound of the horse's hoofs. Though 
 one has never studied Latin, he can hardly fail to 
 catch the hoof-beat in the following line. 
 
 Quad ru pe | dante pu | trem soni | tu quatit | ungula | 
 campum. 
 
 In Browning's Up at a Villa occurs the line 
 
 Bang-whang, whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife. 
 
 And here we have a more delicate degree of ono- 
 matopoeia : 
 
VERSIFICATION 355 
 
 I heard the ripple washing in the reeds 
 And the wild water lapping on the crag. 
 
 In these illustrations, the device Is easily de- 
 tected, for In each case there Is direct Imitation, or 
 at least the sound echoes the sense. Sometimes, 
 however, the reader merely feels that the words 
 are appropriate, feels that the sounds are not only 
 In harmony with each other, but in harmony with 
 the sense. 
 
 It may well be asked, why take the trouble to 
 study versification and learn such technical terms 
 as anapastic dimeter, truncated, etc. Cannot 
 poetry be enjoyed without study? Of course it 
 can, in large measure. Versification, after all, con- 
 cerns merely the outward form of poetry; or we 
 may think of it as but the musical accompaniment 
 to the poet's thought and fancy and feeling. 
 Yet this musical accompaniment is essential 
 to poetry, and therefore deserves attention. 
 We may derive pleasure from witnessing a 
 contest of skill and strength, a football game for 
 example, without being familiar with the rules gov- 
 erning it, or able to distinguish between plays 
 which are commonplace and others truly wonder- 
 ful; but how much greater and more intelligent 
 the pleasure which comes to one who knows the 
 game thoroughly, sees the splendid pluck and gen- 
 eralship which sends the ball here and there. In 
 the same way a painting may be mildly appreciated 
 by one who knows little about color and composi- 
 
356 VERSIFICATION 
 
 tion; but there Is a better, more just appreciation 
 and pleasure which comes through patient study 
 only. Versification Is a kind of contest, as one 
 soon discovers if he tries to write poetry. Rhythm 
 and rhyme do not always come when bidden ; or If 
 they come, away may fly the thought to be ex- 
 pressed. Versification, like painting. Is an art, and 
 all art Is difficult. We all enjoy seeing some one 
 win against great odds, overcoming that which 
 seems nearly Impossible. But to appreciate any 
 great effort, we must in some degree share it. A 
 study of versification trains the ear. It helps one 
 to see how really wonderful is the poet's art. 
 
 For convenience of reference, the technical terms 
 employed In this chapter, and a few related terms, 
 are here brought together. 
 
 Accent : The emphasis which the voice gives a syllable 
 to show that it is of more importance than neighboring 
 syllables. 
 
 Rhythm: The swing or movement imparted by the 
 occurrence of stressed or accented syllables at regular in- 
 tervals. 
 
 Meter : The rhythmical arrangement of words. 
 
 Verse : A line of poetry. 
 
 Foot: A group of syllables one of which is always ac- 
 cented ; a unit of rhythm. 
 
 Monometer : A line containing one accented syllable. 
 
 Dimeter: A line containing two accented syllables. 
 
 Trimeter : A line containing three accented syllables. 
 
 Tetrameter : A line containing four accented syllables. 
 
 Pentameter : A line containing five accented syllables. 
 
VERSIFICATION 357 
 
 Hexameter : A line containing six accented syllables. 
 
 Heptameter: A line containing seven accented sylla- 
 bles. 
 
 Iambus : A foot of two syllables the second of which 
 receives the accent. 
 
 Trochee: A foot of two syllables the first of which 
 receives the accent. 
 
 Anapaest; A foot of three syllables the last of which 
 receives the accent. 
 
 Dactyl : A foot of three syllables the first of which re- 
 ceives the accent. 
 
 Rhyme : Similarity of sound, usually found at the end 
 of lines. 
 
 Stanza: A group of metrically related lines; a minor 
 division of a poem. 
 
 Blank Verse: Unrhymed poetry, normally iambic 
 pentameter. 
 
 Couplet : Two consecutive lines, usually rhyming. 
 
 Heroic Couplets: Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in 
 pairs. 
 
 Triplet: Three consecutive lines, usually rhyming. 
 
 Quatrain : A four line stanza. 
 
 Spenserian Stanza: Eight iambic pentameter lines 
 followed by an iambic hexameter (Alexandrine) line, the 
 rhyming scheme being ahabbchcc. 
 
 Italian Sonnet : A poem of fourteen iambic pentameter 
 lines, an eight line group followed by a six line group, the 
 rhyming scheme of the first being ahha abba, of the second 
 cdcdcd or cdecde. 
 
 Feminine Line: One containing an extra unaccented 
 syllable at the end. 
 
 Truncated Line : One in which a final unaccented syl- 
 lable is missing. 
 
358 VERSIFICATION 
 
 Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually 
 at the beginning of a syllable. 
 
 Onomatopoeia: A correspondence between sense and 
 sound through imitation or suggestion. 
 
 Scanning : Separating a verse into its metrical feet, or 
 reading a verse so as to show the succession of feet. 
 
 EXERCISE 214 
 
 Mark the scansion of the following; that is, 
 separate the feet by means of dividing lines and 
 place the accent mark over the stressed syllables. 
 Give each line its proper name. Name each foot. 
 
 1. I heard the trailing garments of the night. 
 
 2. Tell me not in mournful numbers 
 
 3. The night is come, but not too soon. 
 
 4. Upon the meadows low 
 
 5. Excelsior! 
 
 6. Tears upon his eyelids glistened. 
 
 7. Solemnly, mournfully 
 
 8. Now had the season returned, when the nights grow 
 colder and longer. 
 
 9. Filled the river full of fishes 
 
 10. In the silence of morning the sound of the bird 
 
 11. Awake, awake, my Lyre. 
 
 12. I am monarch of all I survey. 
 
 13. Oh could I feel as I have felt, — or be what I have 
 been. 
 
 14. I should have known what fruit would spring from 
 such a seed. 
 
 15. With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail 
 
VERSIFICATION 359 
 
 1 6. 'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark. 
 
 17. Away! 
 
 18. As it fell upon a day 
 
 EXERCISE 215 
 
 In the same way mark the scansion of the fol- 
 lowing lines. Place a caret ( A ) wherever a foot 
 seems defective because lacking an unaccented syl- 
 lable, and indicate by means of an ^^^ where you 
 think two syllables should be run together. In de- 
 scribing a line containing more than one kind of 
 foot, remember that the prevailing foot — the foot 
 occurring most frequently — determines the name 
 of the line. 
 
 1. Drink to me only with thine eyes. 
 
 2. Duncan Gray came here to woo. 
 
 3. He is gone on the mountain. 
 
 4. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour. 
 
 5. Phcebus, arise. 
 
 6. The twentieth year is well-nigh past. 
 
 7. When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at 
 hame 
 
 8. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. 
 
 9. He is not doubted. A word, Lucilius. 
 
 10. That touches Caesar nearer; read it, Caesar. 
 
 11. I sat by the dreary hearth alone. 
 
 12. Come, dear children, let us away. 
 
 13. Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to 
 spare 
 
36o VERSIFICATION 
 
 EXERCISE 216 
 
 Mark the scansion of the following. Describe 
 each stanza. 
 
 1. The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared; 
 
 Merrily did we drop 
 Below the kirk, below the hill, 
 Below the lighthouse top. 
 
 — Coleridge's Ancient Mariner 
 
 2. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
 
 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 
 The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 
 And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 
 — Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard 
 
 3. The stag at eve had drunk his fill, 
 Where danced the moon on Monan's rill, 
 And deep his midnight lair had made 
 
 In lone Glenartney's hazel shade; 
 
 But when the sun his beacon red 
 
 Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head. 
 
 The deep-mouthed bloodhounds' heavy bay 
 
 Resounded up the rocky way, 
 
 And faint, from farther distance borne. 
 
 Were heard the clanging hoof and horn. 
 
 — Scott's Lady of the Lake 
 
 4. Pansies, Lilies, Kingcups, Daisies, 
 Let them live upon their praises; 
 Long as there's a sun that sets. 
 Primroses will have their glory ; 
 Long as there are Violets, 
 
 They will have a place in story: 
 
VERSIFICATION 361 
 
 There's a flower that shall be mine, 
 'Tis the little Celandine. 
 — Wordzvorth's To the Small Celandine 
 
 5. Then out spake brave Horatius, 
 
 The Captain of the Gate : 
 " To every man upon this earth 
 
 Death cometh soon or late. 
 And how can man die better 
 
 Than facing fearful odds, 
 For the ashes of his fathers. 
 
 And the temples of his gods ? " 
 
 — Macaulay*s Horatius 
 
 6. But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane. 
 In proving foresight may be vain: 
 The best laid schemes o' mice an' men 
 
 Gang aft a-gley, 
 An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain 
 For promis'd joy. 
 
 — Burns*s To a Mouse 
 
 7. Merry it is in the good greenwood, 
 
 When the mavis and merle are singing, 
 When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry, 
 And the hunter's horn is ringing. 
 
 — Scott* s Alice Brand j in Lady of the Lake 
 
 8. Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances ! 
 
 Honored and blessed be the ever-green Pine! 
 Long may the tree, in his banner that glances, 
 Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line ! 
 Heaven send it happy dew, 
 Earth lend it sap anew. 
 Gaily to bourgeon and broadly to grow, 
 
362 VERSIFICATION 
 
 While every Highland glen 
 Sends our shout back again, 
 " Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu ho ! leroe ! " 
 
 — Scott's Boat Song, in Lady of the Lake 
 
 9. The world is too much with us; late and soon, 
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 
 Little we see in Nature that is ours ; 
 We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 
 The sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; 
 The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
 And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers ; 
 For this, for everything, we are out of tune ; 
 It moves us not. Great God! I'd rather be 
 A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn ; 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea. 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 
 Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 
 
 — Wordsworth 
 
 EXERCISE 217 
 
 Here are lines to study. Point out examples of 
 onomatopceia, and determine where it is employed 
 most successfully. Point out lines in which the 
 poet appears to be making melody by repetition of 
 some letter — that is, point out examples of alliter- 
 ation. Point out lines in which melody is due to 
 the skilful arrangement of vowel sounds. Which 
 lines are to your ear especially musical? Which 
 seem commonplace? 
 
VERSIFICATION 363 
 
 1. Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching. 
 
 2. And from its station in the hall 
 An ancient timepiece says to all, — 
 
 " Forever — never ! 
 Never — forever ! " 
 
 3. And seeing her so sweet and serviceable, 
 Geraint had longing in him evermore 
 To stoop and kiss the tender little thumb 
 That cross'd the trencher as she laid it down. 
 
 4. Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms. 
 
 5. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, 
 
 The furrow followed free: 
 We were the first that ever burst 
 Into that silent sea, 
 
 6. O marvelously modest maiden you! 
 
 7. When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces, 
 
 The mother of months, in meadow or plain, 
 Fills the shadows and windy places 
 
 With lisp of leaves and ripples of rain ; 
 
 And the brown bright nightingale amorous 
 Is half assuaged for Itylus, 
 For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces, 
 The tongueless vigil, and all the pain. 
 8 At this upon the sward 
 
 She tapt her tiny silken sandal'd foot. 
 9. And overhead 
 
 The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime 
 Made noise of bees and breeze from end to end. 
 
 10. With lengths of yellow ringlet like a girl. 
 
 11. Now, while they spake, I saw my father's face 
 Grow long and broad like a rising moon. 
 
364 VERSIFICATION 
 
 Inflamed with wrath: he started on his feet, 
 Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent 
 The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof 
 From skirt to skirt ; and at the last he swore 
 That he would send a hundred thousand men, 
 And bring her in a whirlwind ; then he chew'd 
 The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath ; and cook his spleen, 
 Communing with his captains of the war. 
 
 12. And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw, 
 
 13. Let lovely lilacs line Lee's lonely lane. 
 
 14. The fire less fiercely flamed from his head. 
 
 15. Here comes a laggard hanging down his head. 
 Who seems no better than a beaten hound. 
 
 16. The ice was here, the ice was there, 
 
 The ice was all around: 
 It cracked and growled, and roared and howled. 
 Like noises in a swound ! 
 
 17. I stood and seem'd to hear 
 As in a poplar grove when a light wind makes 
 A lisping of the innumerous leaf and dies. 
 Each hissing in his neighbor's ear; and then 
 
 A strangled titter, out of which there brake 
 
 On all sides, clamoring etiquette to death. 
 
 Unmeasured mirth; while now the two old kings 
 
 Began to wag their baldness up and down, 
 
 The fresh young captains flash'd their glittering 
 
 teeth. 
 The huge bush-bearded barons heav'd and blew, 
 And slain with laughter roU'd the gilded squire. 
 
VERSIFICATION 365 
 
 18. The splendor falls on castle walls 
 
 And snowy summits old In story; 
 The long light shakes across the lakes 
 
 And the wild cataract leaps In glory. 
 Blow, bugles, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
 Blow, bugles, answer echoes, dying, dying, dying. 
 
 19. He found an ancient dame in dim brocade. 
 
 20. Then the good King gave order to let blow 
 His horns for hunting on the morrow morn. 
 
 21. And by and by the people, when they met 
 In twos and threes, or fuller company. 
 Began to scoff and jeer and babble of him. 
 
 22. The great organ almost burst his pipes. 
 Groaning for power, and rolling thro' the court 
 A long melodious thunder to the sound 
 
 Of solemn psalms and silver litanies. 
 
 23. O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South, 
 Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves. 
 And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee. 
 
 24. Her fancy dwelling in this dusky hall 
 
 25. Row, vassals, row, for the pride of the Highlands! 
 
 Stretch to j^our oars, for the ever-green Pine! 
 O, that the rose-bud that graces yon islands. 
 
 Were wreathed in a garland around him to twine! 
 O that some seedling gem. 
 Worthy such noble stem 
 Honour'd and bless'd in their shadow might grow! 
 Loud should Clan-Alpine then 
 Ring from her deepmost glen, 
 ** Roderigh, Vich Alpine dhu, ho I ieroe ! " 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CORRECTING PROOF 
 
 Sooner or later nearly every one has occasion 
 to get something printed. It may not be a book, 
 perhaps nothing more than a pamphlet, a circu- 
 lar, or a plain advertisement; yet It Is seldom pos- 
 sible to escape the printer altogether. When 
 " copy " has been " set up " and an '' Impression " 
 taken, the printer sends to the writer " proof- 
 sheets"; for there may have been errors In the 
 manuscript given to the compositor, and still other 
 errors may have crept in during typesetting. 
 Then comes proof-reading. 
 
 Every one should know how to correct proof. 
 But to do this easily one must first learn to use 
 certain symbols, a kind of sign-language employed 
 by printers. Usually it takes two marks or signs 
 to Indicate a desired correction, one in the printed 
 matter to point out where the change is to be made, 
 and one in the broad margin always found In 
 proof-sheets, to tell the printer what change to 
 make. The most important of these signs are the 
 following. 
 
 367 
 
^68 APPENDIX 
 
 y\ Insert at this point. That which is to be in- 
 serted is placed in the margin. If a letter, 
 a word, or a punctuation-mark is wrong, a 
 line is drawn through it, and the right let- 
 ter, word, or punctuation-mark is placed in 
 the margin. 
 
 \L) Insert or substitute a period at the point indi- 
 cated, 
 
 ^^ Insert an apostrophe, 
 V^ v^ Insert quotation-marks, 
 ^ Insert a hyphen. 
 :4¥ Make a space at the point indicated. 
 O Join. 
 
 Take out. A line is drawn through whatever 
 is to be removed. 
 
 ^c. 
 
 Change from capital to small letter. The 
 small letters are kept in the compositor's 
 lower case. 
 
 ^^^' Change to capital. 
 ^<^^a£. Change to italics. 
 
 ^ur»n^. Change to roman type. In preparing copy for 
 the printer the writer underlines once words 
 to be put in italics, twice words to be put 
 in small capitals, three times words to be 
 put in large capitals. 
 Wrong font. That is, the letter through 
 which a line is drawn is not of the proper 
 size or style. 
 
 4Ar, 
 
CORRECTING PROOF 369 
 
 X Defective type. 
 9 Letter upside down. 
 ^^ Transpose. The words or letters which 
 
 should change places are linked by 
 
 an ( 
 
 <5^ Begin a new paragraph here. When the break 
 occurs in a line, the dividing point is indi- 
 cated by an | 
 TVir 97* No paragraph here, 
 
 ^,4^t[f. Restore. If the proof-reader makes a change 
 which afterwards he finds unnecessary, he 
 places a row of dots underneath his blunder, 
 and writes stet. in the margin. 
 Qk Is this right? These two symbols are used 
 ^f principally by the printer to call the writer's 
 
 ? attention to something wrong which he 
 
 thinks may have escaped attention. 
 The main thing in correcting proof is to make 
 the printer understand what is wanted. It is bet- 
 ter to write out corrections in full, if by so doing 
 the desired change can be more clearly indicated. 
 Where several corrections occur In the same line, 
 they should be separated by an oblique' / line. 
 Just how this is done, and how the various symbols 
 are employed, will be seen In the following exercise. 
 
370 APPENDIX 
 
 EXERCISE 218 
 
 Explain the meaning of the symbols found in 
 this specimen proof-sheet. 
 
 Ua^y The three spinsters. 
 
 --AC./ T here was once a girl who was lazy and would 
 
 yzayru/ V:2^ ^P^'?^ and her mother could not persuade her 
 
 ', / to do it^do what she would. At last the mother 
 
 became angry and out of patience, and gave ^ 
 ^. c./ her a good ^eating, so that she cried out loudly. 
 ^2^ cjj-/ p At that moment the ^ueen was going hj/, fjs, <^/qI<^<^I 
 / she heard the crying she stopped and, goinginto ^ ' ' 
 the house, she asked the mother why she was 
 O' beating her dauglQer so that everyone outside 
 
 in the street could hear her criesT t , The woman n/ 
 was ashamed to tell of her daughters laziness, ^^/ 
 •/ ^/ ^^ ^^ "^^^A^ cannot stop her from spinning. 
 «^ a/Sheis for/ever at/tt, and I am poor and. can;^ %t 
 not' furnish her with flax enough." 
 Then \ answered ) the Queen^ *'I like nothing ;^ / 
 i^AM,/ better the sound of the spinning wheel; let 
 
 me take your daughter with me to castle I have ^^^^/./ 
 J plenty of flax^ she shall spin there to her neart*8 ' • / 
 content." 
 The mother was only Aerglad of the offer, and ^^J 
 o^fJ the Queea took the girl with her. Whe^the 
 
 ' IliiA/^-rk cjV» /^XT7£k/l nai» 4-r\i»ii£i T»/\rkrMO Trrnirir* x%ai^*c^ ¥\\\£^t\ 
 
 Queen showed her three rooms which,;8e^ filled 
 ^ the finesj,flax as full as thejj^tSould hold. 
 Now you ;e^ spin me>fcms flax," said she. 
 
 ^/'Or.//mt]( the finesj,flax as full as thejj^^uld hold. 
 / / '*Now you ;e^ spin me>fcms flax," said ^^^>''^****^:^^ j 
 i55V and when you can show icme all done you shall ^ / 
 if/ nave my eldejft son for bridegroom. You may 
 X be pooi, but I malye nothing of that. Your f 
 industry is dowry ej^ough." 
 
 iGrimm Brothers. JitAJi,/ 
 
CORRECTING PROOF 371 
 
 EXERCISE 219 
 
 Point out the errors in the following mutilated 
 extract from Irving's Rip Van Winkle, and ex- 
 plain to the class what symbols you would use in 
 telling the printer to correct these errors. 
 
 Poor rip was atlast reduced almost to despair; and his 
 only alternative, to escape the labor of the farm and the 
 clamor of his wife, was to take in hand his gun and stroll 
 away into the woods. 
 
 Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a 
 tree, and share the contents of his wallet with Wolfe, with 
 whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. 
 
 " Poor Wolf," he would say thy mistress leads thee a 
 dogs life of it. But never mind my lad, whilst I live live 
 thou shalst never want a friend to stand by thee ! " 
 
 Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his mas- 
 ter's face; And if dogs ca nfeel pity, I verily beleavc 
 he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. 
 
 EXERCISE 220 
 
 The following anecdote is taken from The 
 Youth^s Companion. But many changes have 
 been made. Here and there a word has been mis- 
 spelled or omitted. Punctuation-marks have been 
 removed or otherwise tampered with. The conver- 
 sation has been printed solidly; that is, each remark 
 no longer appears as a separate paragraph. In 
 the original, the word Tribune Is, very properly, 
 printed In italics; here It Is In roman. 
 
 How would you indicate by means of printer^s 
 
372 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 symbols the changes that should he made to restore 
 this anecdote to its original form? How would 
 you indicate that at its head should stand in large 
 capitals the title He paid his debt promptly? 
 
 A train was just starting to leave suburban station says 
 the New York Tribune when an olderly man rushed acrost 
 the platform and jumped on one of slowly moving cars 
 the rear end brakeman who was standing by reached up 
 just as the man got abroad grabbed his coat tails and 
 pulled him off there he said sternly I have saved your life ! 
 don't ever try to board a train that way again Thank 
 you said the old man calmly thank you for your thought- 
 ful kindness it is three hours till the next trane isent it 
 three hours and a quarter said the breakman. But it 
 is better to wait that length of time then be killed. The 
 long train, mean while had been slowly gliding by slowly 
 gathering Spead. Finaly the last car apeared. This was 
 the brakeman's car the one which he had been waiting 
 and with the easy grace borne of long practice he started 
 to step magestcly on it. But the old gentleman siezed 
 him by the coat and with a strong jerk pulled him back 
 and held him until it was too. One good turn deserves 
 another said the old gentleman with a smile, you saved 
 my life I have saved yours now we arequits. 
 
 EXERCISE 221 
 
 Copy as carelessly as you please any ten-line 
 anecdote from The YoutKs Companion or some 
 other periodical, then indicate by means of print- 
 er's symbols what corrections should be made to 
 restore it to its original form. 
 
PRECEPT AND CRITICISM 
 
 Here are fifteen precepts having to do for the 
 most part with words and sentences, followed by 
 eighteen typical criticisms such as the instructor 
 finds frequent occasion to use when reading school 
 compositions. It is more agreeable to discover 
 one's failings than to have them pointed out. Be 
 your own critic. 
 
 1. Be sure that you know the meaning of every 
 word you use. When in doubt, consult a good dic- 
 tionary. (See Chapter XII.) 
 
 2. Watch your spelling. Do not guess ; consult 
 a dictionary. Master the rules; learn the Latin 
 prefixes. (See Chapter xiv.) 
 
 3. Keep your vocabulary simple. Avoid for- 
 eign, provincial, technical, and newly coined ex- 
 pressions. Other things being equal, familiar 
 words are preferable to unfamiliar. (See Chapter 
 
 XII.) 
 
 4. Keep your vocabulary pure. Avoid col- 
 loquial, loose, and slangy expressions. (See Chap- 
 ter xii.) 
 
 5. Master English grammar. Learn thor- 
 oughly the correct forms of the various parts of 
 
 373 
 
374 APPENDIX 
 
 speech; obey the rules of syntax. (See Chap- 
 ter XV.) 
 
 6. So construct your sentences that the relation- 
 ship of part to part will be seen at a glance. Place 
 modifiers near the words they modify; be sure that 
 pronouns have clearly defined antecedents; avoid 
 the dangling participle. ( See Chapter xviii. ) 
 
 7. Learn to use introductory and transitional 
 words and phrases skillfully. (See Chapter 
 XVIII.) 
 
 8. Master the rules of punctuation. (See 
 Chapter XIX.) 
 
 9. Preserve unity. Exclude what is irrelevant; 
 subordinate whatever Is of minor Importance ; avoid 
 parenthetical expressions. (See Chapter xvii.) 
 
 10. Preserve uniformity in sentence design. Do 
 not yoke in parallel construction elements unequal 
 in value or unlike in form; avoid shifting the point 
 of view. (See Chapter xvii.) 
 
 1 1 . Exercise economy. Strike out useless words. 
 Do not give needless Information, nor say prac- 
 tically the same thing over and over. (See Chap- 
 ters XVIII, XX.) 
 
 12. Be precise. Choose your words with care. 
 Say what you mean. (See Chapter xx, Exercises 
 188-190.) 
 
 13. Try to make your sentences euphonious — 
 agreeable to the ear. Avoid harsh sounds and 
 needless repetition. (See Chapter xx.) 
 
 14. Gain force through variety. Avoid a 
 ^ucppssion of short sentences. Experiment now 
 
PRECEPT AND CRITICISM 375 
 
 and then with the interrogative and the exclam- 
 atory sentence. Try the balanced and the periodic. 
 (See Chapter xxi.) 
 
 15. Do not be afraid to use figurative language. 
 Simile, metaphor, and personification are quite as 
 serviceable in prose as in poetry. (See Chapters 
 XXI, XXII.) 
 
 16. The subject you have chosen is too diffi- 
 cult. Another time, try something simpler, some- 
 thing in which you are more deeply interested. 
 
 17. You have not mastered your subject. One 
 cannot hope to write successfully except on topics 
 with which he is thoroughly familiar. Investigate, 
 study, think; then write. 
 
 18. The subject you have chosen Is excellent, 
 but It is too broad. You would have been more 
 successful had you narrowed the field. It Is better 
 to do a little and do it well. 
 
 19. Your composition begins weakly. Open- 
 ing paragraphs are important; for If the reader is 
 not pleased at the outset, he may turn away. Make 
 your porch inviting. 
 
 20. Your opening paragraph Is too pre- 
 tentious. It leads the reader to expect far more 
 than you have provided. Nothing Is gained by a 
 false promise. 
 
 21. Your composition ends weakly — simply 
 dwindles away. Last Impressions are so Important 
 that you should try for a more ef][ective close. It 
 is possible, sometimes, to give In a concluding par- 
 agraph the essence of all that has gone before. 
 
376 APPENDIX 
 
 Condense, summarize, or at least end with some- 
 thing attractive. 
 
 2 2. Are you sure that you have taken up 
 the topics in the best order? Follow a time or 
 place sequence when possible. Do not mingle 
 causes and effects. Often it is possible to arrange 
 topics in climax order, or in such manner as to 
 bring out effectively a marked contrast. It will not 
 do to dash down your thoughts without stopping 
 to arrange them. 
 
 23. Your composition is poorly proportioned. 
 Here and there a topic needs expanding, and in one 
 or two places you have dallied too long. 
 
 24. Your composition lacks unity. It contains 
 fragments of several compositions, all tumbled in 
 together. 
 
 25. How little of yourself has gone into this 
 composition — as if you had carefully guarded 
 against revealing your emotions ! Yet it is the per- 
 sonal note that the reader enjoys. Your composi- 
 tion does not sound like you. Be natural ; give vent 
 to your feelings. 
 
 26. Your narrative contains too many dry de- 
 tails. A list of places visited, with the hours of 
 arrival and departure, interests the reader but little ; 
 he does not care for time-tables. What did you see 
 that interested you greatly? What did you talk 
 about? Really, you have given the reader little 
 more than an empty shell. 
 
 27. Your description is methodical and 
 thorough, you have kept the point of view very 
 
PRECEPT AND CRITICISM 377 
 
 well ; but It is photographic. You have forgotten all 
 about color. You have put little of yourself Into 
 your paragraphs. 
 
 28. In several places your composition is 
 not clear. No doubt the thought Is plain to you, 
 but it has not been given clear expression. Have 
 you used words enough, sentences enough? Have 
 you not left gaps for the reader to bridge ? 
 
 29. The Ideas in this composition are ex- 
 cellent, but they are unattractively expressed. It 
 is a pity that one who has so much that Is worth 
 communicating should be willing to express him- 
 self so clumsily. 
 
 30. You are inclined to be verbose. Here 
 are labyrinthine sentences which say very little. 
 Condense ; your readers have no time to waste. 
 
 31. Parts of this composition are In bad 
 taste. Humor is excellent; let fun bubble forth 
 whenever there is good occasion. But treat serious 
 matters seriously. Above all, never be coarse or 
 rude. 
 
 32. This composition Is too illiterate to de- 
 serve a reading. Here are misspelled words, errors 
 in grammar, faulty punctuation, and what not. 
 Rewrite it before any one else sees it. Use a new 
 pen and a clean blotter. 
 
 33. Acknowledge Indebtedness. Compositions 
 based upon what one has read are entirely proper; 
 but one cannot be too careful in acknowledging 
 whatever he has taken from the printed page. 
 The best place for such acknowledgment is in the 
 opening paragraph. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adjectives, 162-163 
 
 Adventure, imaginary, 104 
 
 Adverbs, 177-178 
 
 Allegory, 310 
 
 Alliteration, 353 
 
 And improperly used, 218-220 
 
 Argument, 47-55 
 
 Balanced sentence, 295-296 
 Brevity, 283-287 
 
 Can and may, 174-175 
 
 Child's error, 223-228 
 
 Clearness : through coherence, 
 241-259; through punctuation, 
 260-282; through unity, 230- 
 240; through precision, 283, 
 288-289 
 
 Climax: in the sentence, 296; 
 in the paragraph, 331 
 
 Coherence, 241-259; arrange- 
 ment of sentence elements, 
 244-246; pronoun and ante- 
 cedent, 246-248 ; wandering 
 participle, 249-250; necessary 
 words omitted, 250-254; in- 
 troductory and link words, 
 
 254-259 
 
 Colloquial words, ill 
 
 Combining sentences, 221-223, 
 234-236, 253-254 
 
 Comparison, exercises in, 99 
 
 Conjunctions, 179-180 
 
 Contrast: in sentence, 295-296; 
 in paragraph, 331 ; in com- 
 position, 95-99 
 
 Conversation, 91-92, 228-229 
 
 Debate, 47-55 
 
 Declarative sentence, 151-152; 
 
 293 
 Description, 34-46 
 Diary, 93 
 
 Dictionary, 109-119 
 Direct and indirect discourse, 
 
 228-229 
 
 Euphony, 283, 289-292 
 Exclamatory sentence, 
 
 152, 293-294 
 Exposition, 21-33 
 
 151- 
 
 Fable, 311 
 Fairy tale, 93-94 
 Figures of speech, 
 defined, 3 14-31 5 
 
 305-325 
 
 How I feel, exercise in com- 
 position, lOO-IOI 
 Hyperbola, 313 
 
 Infinitives and participles, 176- 
 
 177, 217 
 Interjections, 153 
 Interrogative sentences, 151- 
 
 152, 293-294 , , 
 
 Introductory and transitional 
 
 words, 243-244, 254-259 
 Introductory paragraphs, 326 
 Irony, 313 
 
 Letter- writing : parts of letter 
 named, 56-64; specimen let- 
 ters, 67-75; tasks, (/), 74-85 
 
 Link words, 242-244, 254-259 
 
 Loose sentences, 295 
 
 379 
 
38o 
 
 INDEX 
 
 May and can, 174-175 
 Metaphor, 307-309 
 Metonymy, 311 
 Miscellaneous exercises in 
 
 composition, 95-106 
 Modifiers properly placed, 240, 
 
 244-246 
 
 Narration, 3-20 
 Newly coined words, iio-iii 
 Nouns, 156-159; plurals, 157; 
 possessives, 158 
 
 Observing nature, exercises, 
 
 105-106 
 Obsolete words, 109 
 Onomatopoeia, 354-355 
 
 Parable, 311 
 
 Paragraphs, 326-340 ; kinds, 
 326-327 ; topical sentence, 
 328; plans, 329-332 
 
 Parsing, rules for, 206-207 
 
 Participles: definition, 176-177; 
 participial constructions, 217; 
 wandering participles, 249 
 
 Parts of speech defined, 152- 
 156 
 
 Periodic sentence, 295 
 
 Personification, 399-310 
 
 Precept and Criticism, 373 
 
 Precision, 283, 288-289 
 
 Prefixes, Latin, 129-136; list 
 of,, 135-136 
 
 Preliminary word to pupil, 
 xi-xiv 
 
 Prepositions, 178-179 
 
 Pronouns, 159-162; and ante- 
 cedents, 246-248 
 
 Pronunciation, 120-127 
 
 Proof-reading, 367-372 
 
 Provincial words, 109 
 
 Punctuation, 260-282 
 
 Pupils' compositions : Seeing 
 the dog swim, 13-14; Excit- 
 ing contest, 18-19; Before 
 and after, 96; Wet, 101-102; 
 Deserted farmhouse, 336-339 
 
 Repetition : faulty, 289-292 ; for 
 
 emphasis, 297 
 Reproduction, exercises in, 3- 
 
 II 
 Rhetoric in practice, 215-325 
 
 Sentences : declarative, inter- 
 rogative, imperative, exclam- 
 atory, 151, 293-294; simple, 
 compound, complex, 151- 
 152; periodic, loose, balanced, 
 295-296; topical, 328; care- 
 ful arrangement of elements 
 in, 241-246; variety in struc- 
 ture, 293-304 
 
 Shall , and will, 171-172 
 
 Should and would, 175-176 
 
 Simile, 305-307 
 
 Slang, III, 308 
 
 Soliloquy, 92 
 
 Spelling, 128-149; rules for, 
 149 
 
 Story-telling exercises m, 86- 
 
 94 
 Subordination in sentence 
 
 building, 218-223 
 Substitution and combination, 
 
 215-229 
 Sufiixes, 136-138 
 Summary, paragraph, 326-328 
 Synonyms, 288-289 
 Syntax, rules of, 181-182 
 
 Technical words, no 
 Transitional words and 
 
 phrases, 242-244, 254-259 ; 
 
 paragraph, 326-328 
 
 Uniformity in sentence struc- 
 ture, 231-232, 236-240 
 
 Unity, clearness through, 230- 
 240 
 
 Unusual arrangement, force 
 through, 297-298 
 
 Variety in sentence structure, 
 293-304 
 
INDEX 
 
 38i 
 
 Verbs, 164-177; strong and 
 weak, 165; principal parts, 
 192-193; was and were, 171, 
 173; shall and will, 171-172; 
 can and may, 174-175; should 
 and would, 175-176 
 
 Versification, 343-365 ; terms 
 defined, 356-358 
 
 Was and were, 171, 173 
 Words : obsolete, provincial, 
 technical, newly coined, col- 
 loquial, 109 -hi; word- 
 building and spelling, 128- 
 149; too few, 250-254; un- 
 necessary, 284-287 
 
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 MAR 25 193& 
 
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Enlarged ])ractice book 
 
 YB 02219 
 
 V 
 
 T 
 
 THE UNI' 
 
 iBRARY