Higher Lessons in English - Part 22
Library

Part 22

+Direction.+--_Write sentences ill.u.s.trating the several kinds of independent expressions, and punctuate according to the Rule as explained_.

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

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

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

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

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

(SEE PAGES 160-162.)

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

LESSON 46.

SENTENCES CLa.s.sIFIED WITH RESPECT TO MEANING.

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

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

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

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

_How the mountains lift up their heads!_ In this sentence the thought is expressed with strong emotion. It is called an +Exclamatory Sentence+.

_How_ and _what_ usually introduce such sentences; but a declarative, an interrogative, or an imperative sentence may become exclamatory when the speaker uses it mainly to give vent to his feelings; as, _It is impossible!

How can I endure it! Talk of hypocrisy after this!_

+DEFINITION.--A _Declarative Sentence_ is one that is used to affirm or to deny.+

+DEFINITION.--An _Interrogative Sentence_ is one that expresses a question.+

+DEFINITION.--An _Imperative Sentence_ is one that expresses a command or an entreaty.+

+DEFINITION.--An _Exclamatory Sentence_ is one that expresses sudden thought or strong feeling.+ [Footnote: For punctuation, see page 42.]

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

+Remark.+--When an interrogative sentence is made a part of another sentence, it may be direct; as, He asked, "_What is the trouble?_" or indirect; as, He asked _what the trouble was_. (See Lesson 74.)

a.n.a.lysis.

+Direction.+--_Before a.n.a.lyzing these sentences, cla.s.sify them, and justify the terminal marks of punctuation:_--

1. There are no accidents in the providence of G.o.d.

2. Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part?

3. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.

(The subject is _you_ understood.)

4. How wonderful is the advent of spring!

5. Oh! a dainty plant is the ivy green!

6. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.

7. Alexander the Great died at Babylon in the thirty-third year of his age.

8. How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself!

9. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy G.o.d in vain.

10. Lend me your ears.

11. What brilliant rings the planet Saturn has!

12. What power shall blanch the sullied snow of character?

13. The laws of nature are the thoughts of G.o.d.

14. How beautiful was the snow, falling all day long, all night long, on the roofs of the living, on the graves of the dead!

15. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British Channel, bearded the lion in his den, and woke the echoes of old Albion's hills by the thunders of his cannon and the shouts of his triumph?

LESSON 47.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW

a.n.a.lysis.

1. Poetry is only the eloquence and enthusiasm of religion.--_Wordsworth_.

2. Refusing to bare his head to any earthly potentate, Richelieu would permit no eminent author to stand bareheaded in his presence.

--_Stephen_.

3. The Queen of England is simply a piece of historic heraldry; a flag, floating grandly over a Liberal ministry yesterday, over a Tory ministry to-day.--_Conway_.

4. The vulgar intellectual palate hankers after the t.i.tillation of foaming phrase.--_Lowell_.

5. Two mighty vortices, Pericles and Alexander the Great, drew into strong eddies about themselves all the glory and the pomp of Greek literature, Greek eloquence, Greek wisdom, Greek art.--_De Quincey_.

6. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, lie in three words-- health, peace, and competence.--_Pope_.

7. Extreme admiration puts out the critic's eye.--_Tyler_. [Footnote: Weighty thoughts tersely expressed, like (7), (8), and (10) in this Lesson, are called Epigrams. What quality do you think they impart to one's style?]

8. The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun.-- _Longfellow_.

9. Things mean, the Thistle, the Leek, the Broom of the Plantagenets, become n.o.ble by a.s.sociation.--_F. W. Robertson_.

10. Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the night.-- _Beecher_.

11. In that calm Syrian afternoon, memory, a pensive Ruth, went gleaning the silent fields of childhood, and found the scattered grain still golden, and the morning sunlight fresh and fair.--_Curtis_. [Footnote: In _Ruth_ of this sentence, we have a type of the metaphor called +Personification+--a figure in which things are raised above their proper plane, taken up toward or to that of persons. Things take on dignity and importance as they rise in the scale of being.

Note, moreover, that in this instance of the figure we have an +Allusion+. All the interest that the Ruth of the Bible awakens in us this allusion gathers about so common a thing as memory.]

LESSON 48.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES IN REVIEW.