Chapter 13

+The Author's Style+.--This selection we may call +Narrative+, though there are descriptive touches in it. It is a story of what? Is the story clearly told throughout? If not, where is it obscure? Is it made interesting and entertaining? Is Mr. Warner here giving us a bit of his own experience? Or do you think he is drawing upon his imagination? Would you call the style plain, or does it abound with metaphors, similes, or other figures of speech? Are the sentences generally long, or generally short? What are the faults or foibles of these real or fancied plumbers? Does the author speak of them in a genial and lenient way? or is he hostile, and does he hold up their foibles to scorn and derision? Does he make us laugh with, or does he make us laugh at, the plumbers? If the former, the style is humorous; if the latter, the style is satirical or sarcastic. Would you call Mr. Warner's quality of style +Humor+? or that +form of wit+ known as +Satire+? Is our author's use of it delicate and refined? or is it gross and coarse? Does it stop short of making its object grotesque, or not? Can you name any writers whose humor or satire is coarse?

SUGGESTIONS FOB COMPOSITION WORK.

TO THE TEACHER.--See suggestions, pages 159, 160.

Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph.

FROM BEECHER'S "LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN."

1. Indolence inclines a man to rely upon others and not upon himself, to eat their bread and not his own. 2. His carelessness is somebody's loss; his neglect is somebody's downfall. 3. If he borrows, the article remains borrowed; if he begs and gets, it is as the letting out of waters--no one knows where it will stop. 4. He spoils your work, disappoints your expectations, exhausts your patience, eats up your substance, abuses your confidence, and hangs a dead weight upon all your plans; and the very best thing an honest man can do with a lazy man is to get rid of him.

1. Indolence promises without redeeming the pledge; a mist of forgetfulness rises up and obscures the memory of vows and oaths. 2. The negligence of laziness breeds more falsehoods than the cunning of the sharper. 3. As poverty waits upon the steps of indolence, so upon such poverty brood equivocations, subterfuges, lying denials. 4. Falsehood becomes the instrument of every plan. 5. Negligence of truth, next occasional falsehood, then wanton mendacity--these three strides traverse the whole road of lies.

1. Indolence as surely runs to dishonesty as to lying. 2. Indeed, they are but different parts of the same road, and not far apart. 3. In directing the conduct of the Ephesian converts, Paul says, "Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good." 4. The men who were thieves were those who had ceased to work. 5. Industry was the road back to honesty. 6. When stores are broken open, the idle are first suspected.

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+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.--Find in 1 two compound infinitive phrases and tell their use. Supply the words omitted from the last part of each compound. What shows that the parts of 2 are not closely connected? Would a conjunction bring them more closely together? If a conjunction is used, would you change the punctuation? A sentence that unites with another to make one greater sentence we call a _clause_. Read the first part of 2 and change _somebody's_ first to a phrase and then to a clause used like an adjective. What distinction can you make between the use of the semicolon and the use of the comma in 3? The clause _if he borrows_ is joined like an adverb to what verb? _If he begs and gets_? What pronoun more indefinite than _your_ might take its place in 4? What noun? Explain the use of the semicolon and the comma in 4. Supply _that_ after _thing_ and tell what clause is here used like an adjective. Find the office of _that_ by placing it after _do_. Find in 4 an infinitive phrase used as attribute complement.

Change the phrase in 1, paragraph 2, to a clause. Find in 2 the omitted predicate of the clause introduced by _than_. Find a compound subject in 3. Are _negligence_, _falsehood_, and _mendacity_, in 5, used as subjects? Explain their use and punctuation. (See Remark, Lesson 45.)

In 3, paragraph 3, how are the words borrowed from Paul marked? Change the quotation from Paul so as to give his thought but not his exact words. Are the quotation marks now needed? In 3 and 4 find clauses introduced by _that_, _which_, and _who_, and used like adjectives.

+The Grouping of Sentences into Paragraphs+.--You can easily learn the sub-topic, or thought, each of these paragraphs develops. See whether you can find it in the first sentence of each. Give the three sub-topics. Put together the three thoughts established in these paragraphs and tell what they prove. What they prove is that for which Mr. Beecher is contending; it may be written at the head of the extract as the general topic. What merits of the paragraph, already treated, are admirably illustrated in this extract?

+The Style of the Author+.--This selection is neither descriptive nor narrative; it is +Argumentative+. Mr. Beecher is trying to establish a certain proposition, and in the three paragraphs is giving three reasons, or arguments, to prove its truth. But the argument is not all thought, is not purely intellectual. It is suffused with feeling, is impassioned. Mr. Beecher's heart is in his work. This feeling warms and colors his style, and stimulates his fancy. As a consequence, figures of speech abound.

Notice that in 1, paragraph 1, the thought is repeated by means of the infinitive phrases. Read the words _Indolence inclines a man_ with each of the four infinitive phrases that follow. You will see that the thought is repeated. It is first expressed in a general way; by the aid of the second phrase we see the same thought from the negative side; the third phrase makes the statement more specific; the fourth puts the specific statement negatively. The needless repetition of the same thought in different words is one of the worst faults in writing. But Mr. Beecher's repetition is not needless. By every repetition here, Mr. Beecher makes his thought clearer and stronger. Examine the other sentences of this paragraph and see whether they enforce the leading thought by illustration, example, or consequence.

In what sentence is the style made +energetic+ by the aid of short predicates? How does the alternation of short sentences with long throughout the extract affect you? The alternation of plain with figurative sentences? Can you show that the author's style has +Variety+? Pick out the metaphors in 1, 2, 3, and 5, paragraph 2; and in 1 and 2, paragraph 3. Pick out the comparisons, or similes, in 3, paragraph 1, and in 3, paragraph 2. Figures of speech should add clearness and force. If you think these do, tell how. _Indolence_ in 1 and 3, paragraph 2, and _laziness_ in 2, introduce us to another figure. Something belonging to the men, a quality, is made to represent the men themselves. Such a figure is called +Metonymy+.

SUGGESTIONS FOB COMPOSITION WORK.

TO THE TEACHER.--Exercises in argumentative writing may be continued by making selections from the discussion of easy topics.

For original work we suggest debates on current topics. Compositions should be short.

Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph.

EXTRACT FROM DANIEL WEBSTER.

1. The assassin enters, through the window already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. 2. With noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall, half lighted by the moon; he winds up the ascent of the stairs and reaches the door of the chamber. 3. Of this he moves the lock, by soft and continued pressure, till it turns on its hinges without noise; and he enters, and beholds his victim before him.

1. The face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where to strike. 2. The fatal blow is given! and the victim passes, without a struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death. 3. It is the assassin's purpose to make sure work; and he plies the dagger, though it is obvious that life has been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon. 4. He even raises the aged arm that he may not fail in his aim at the heart, and places it again over the wounds of the poniard. 5. To finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse. 6. He feels for it, and ascertains that it beats no longer. 7. It is accomplished. 8. The deed is done.

1. He retreats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through it as he came in, and escapes. 2. He has done the murder. No eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. 3. The secret is his own, and it is safe.

1. Ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. 2. Such a secret can be safe nowhere. 3. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor corner where the guilty can bestow it, and say it is safe. 4. Not to speak of that eye which pierces through all disguises and beholds everything as in the splendor of noon, such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection even by men. 5. True it is, generally speaking, that "Murder will out." 6. True it is that Providence hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those who break the great law of heaven by shedding man's blood seldom succeed in avoiding discovery.

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+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.--Do the phrases in 1, paragraph 1, stand in their usual order, or are they transposed? In what different places may they stand? Does either phrase need to be transposed for emphasis or for clearness? Explain the punctuation. Begin 2 with _the lonely hall_, and notice that the sentence is thrown out of harmony with the other sentences, and that the assassin is for the moment lost sight of. Can you tell why? Notice that in the latter part of 2 the door is mentioned, and that 3 begins with _of this_, referring to the door. Can you find any other arrangement by which 3 will follow 2 so naturally? Can you change 3 so as to make the reference of _it_ clearer? What is the office of the _till_ clause? Does the clause following the semicolon modify anything? Would you call such a clause _dependent_, or would you call it _independent_? Explain the punctuation of 3.

Give the effect of changing _resting_ in 1, paragraph 2, to the assertive form. Find in 1 a pronoun used adverbially and a phrase used as object complement. Expand the phrase into a clause. Give the modifiers of _passes_ in 2. Read the first part of 3 and put the explanatory phrase in place of _it_. What is the office of the _though_ clause? Find in this a clause doing the work of a noun and tell its office. In 4 would _his_ in place of _the_ before _aged_ and before _heart_ be ambiguous? If so, why? Find in this paragraph an infinitive phrase used independently. Find the object complement of _ascertains_ in 6. Are 7 and 8 identical in meaning?

Give the modifiers of _passes_ in paragraph 3. Explain the _as_ clause. What does _that_ in 1, paragraph 4, stand for? What kind of clause is introduced by _where_ in 3? By _which_ in 4? Expand the _as_ clause in 4 and tell its office. Find in 4 and 5 an infinitive phrase and a participle phrase used independently. Tell the office of the _that_ clauses in 5 and 6, and of the _who_ clause in 6.

+The Grouping of Sentences into Paragraphs+.--Look (1) at the order of the sentences in each paragraph, and (2) at the order of the paragraphs themselves. Neither order could be changed without making the stream of events run up hill, for each order is the order in which the events happened. Look (3) at the unity of each paragraph, and (4) at the larger unity of the four paragraphs--that of each paragraph determined by the relation of each sentence to the sub-topic of the paragraph, and that of the four paragraphs determined by their relation to the general topic of the extract. We add that the obvious reference of the repeated _he_ to the same person, and of _that_ and _secret_ in paragraph 4 demonstrates both unities. Look (5), and lastly, at the fact that the sub-topic of each paragraph is found in the first line of each paragraph. Could Webster have done more to make his thought seen and felt?

+The Style of the Author.+--This selection is largely +Narrative.+ Its leading facts were doubtless supplied by the testimony given in the case; but much of the matter must have come from the imagination of Mr. Webster. Everything is so skillfully and vividly put that the story, touched with description, has all the effect of an argument. One quality of it is its clearness, its perspicuity. It is noticeable also that very little imagery is used, that the language is plain language. But it is impossible to read these paragraphs without being most profoundly impressed with their energy, their force.

The style is forcible because (1) the +subject-matter+ is +easily grasped+; (2) because +simple words+ are +used+, words understood even by children; because (3) these +words+ are +specific+ and +individual+, not generic; because (4) of the grateful +variety of sentences+; (5) because of the +prevalence of short sentences+; because (6) of the +repetition of the thought+ in successive sentences; because (7), though the murder took place some time before, Webster speaks as if it were +now taking place+ in our very sight. Find proof of what we have just said--proof of (2), in paragraphs 1 and 3; proof of (3), in sentences 3, 4, and 5, paragraph 2; proof of (4), throughout; of (5) and (6), in paragraphs 3 and 4; and of (7), in the first three paragraphs.

In paragraph 3, a remarkable sameness prevails. The sentences here are framed largely on one plan. They are mostly of the same length. The order of the words in them is the same; often the words are the same; and, even when they are not, those in one clause or sentence seem to suggest those in the next. This sameness is not accidental. The more real the murderer's fancied security is made in this paragraph to appear, the more startling in the next paragraph will be the revelation of his mistake. Hence no novelty in the words or in their arrangement is allowed to distract our attention from the dominant thought. The sentences are made to look and sound alike and to be alike that their effect may be cumulative. The principle of +Parallel Construction+, the principle that sentences similar in thought should be similar in form, is here allowed free play.

TO THE TEACHER.--Do not be discouraged should your pupils fail to grasp at first all that is here taught. They probably will not fully comprehend it till they have returned to it several times. It will, however, be impossible for them to study it without profit. The meaning will grow upon them. In studying our questions and suggestions the pupils should have the "Extract" before them, and should try to verify in it all that is taught concerning it.

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PARTS OF SPEECH SUBDIVIDED

LESSON 85.

CLASSES OF NOUNS AND PRONOUNS.

+Introductory Hints+.--You have now reached a point where it becomes necessary to divide the eight great classes of words into subclasses.

You have learned that nouns are the names of things; as, _girl_, _Sarah_. The name _girl_ is held in common by all girls, and hence does not distinguish one girl from another. The name _Sarah_ is not thus held in common; it does distinguish one girl from other girls. Any name which belongs in common to all things of a class we call a +Common Noun+; and any particular name of an individual, distinguishing this individual from others of its class, we call a +Proper Noun+. The "proper, or individual, names" which in Rule 1, Lesson 8, you were told to begin with capital letters are proper nouns.

Such a word as _wheat_, _music_, or _architecture_ does not distinguish one thing from others of its class; there is but one thing in the class denoted by each, each thing forms a class by itself; and so we call these words common nouns.

In Lesson 8 you learned that pronouns are not names, but words used instead of names. Any one speaking of himself may use _I_, _my_, etc., instead of his own name; speaking to one, he may use _you_, _thou_, _your_, _thy_, etc., instead of that person's name; speaking of one, he may use _he_, _she_, _it_, _him_, _her_, etc., instead of that one's name. These little words that by their form denote the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of are called +Personal Pronouns+.

By adding _self_ to _my_, _thy_, _your_, _him_, _her_, and _it_, and _selves_ to _our_, _your_, and _them_, we form what are called +Compound Personal Pronouns+, used either for emphasis or to reflect the action of the verb back upon the actor; as, _Xerxes himself_ was the last to cross the Hellespont; The _mind_ cannot see _itself_.

If a noun, or some word or words used like a noun, is to be modified by a clause, the clause is introduced by _who_, _which_, _what_, or _that_; as, I know the man _that_ did that. These words, relating to words in another clause, and binding the clauses together, are called +Relative Pronouns+. By adding _ever_ and _soever_ to _who_, _which_, and _what_, we form what are called the +Compound Relative Pronouns+ _whoever_, _whosoever_, _whichever_, _whatever_, etc., used in a general way, and without any word expressed to which they relate.

If the speaker is ignorant of the name of a person or a thing and asks for it, he uses _who_, _which_, or _what_; as, _Who_ did that? These pronouns, used in asking questions, are called +Interrogative Pronouns+.

Instead of naming things a speaker may indicate them by words pointing them out as near or remote; as, Is _that_ a man? What is _this_? or by words telling something of their number, order, or quantity; as, _None_ are perfect; The _latter_ will do; _Much_ has been done. Such words we call +Adjective Pronouns+.

DEFINITIONS.

+A _Noun_ is the name of anything+. [Footnote: Most common nouns are derived from roots that denote qualities. The root does not necessarily denote the most essential quality of the thing, only its most obtrusive quality. The sky, a shower, and scum, for instance, have this most noticeable feature; they are a cover, they hide, conceal. This the root +sku+ signifies, and _sku_ is the main element in the words _sky_, _shower_ (Saxon _scu:r_), and _scum_ that name these objects, and in the adjective _obscure_.

A noun denoting at first only a single quality of its object comes gradually, by the association of this quality with the rest, to denote them all.

Herein proper nouns differ from common. However derived, as _Smith_ is from the man's office of smoothing, or _White_ from his color, the name soon ceases to denote quality, and becomes really meaningless.]

+A _Common Noun_ is a name which belongs to all things of a class+.

+A _Proper Noun_ is the particular name of an individual+.

+Remark+.--It may be well to note two classes of common nouns--_collective_ and _abstract_. A +Collective Noun+ is the name of a number of things taken together; as, _army_, _flock_, _mob_, _jury_. An +Abstract Noun+ is the name of a quality, an action, a being, or a state; as, _whiteness_, _beauty_, _wisdom_, (the) _singing_, _existence_, (the) _sleep_.

+A _Pronoun_ is a word used for a noun+. [Footnote: In our definition and general treatment of the pronoun, we have conformed to the traditional views of grammarians; but it may be well for the student to note that pronouns are something more than mere substitutes for nouns, and that their primary function is not to prevent the repetition of nouns.

1. Pronouns are not the names of things. They do not, like nouns, lay hold of qualities and name things by them. They seize upon relations that objects sustain to each other and denote the objects by these relations. _I_, _you_, and _he_ denote their objects by the relations these objects sustain to the act of speaking; _I_ denotes the speaker; _you_, the one spoken to; and _he_ or _she_ or _it_, the one spoken of. _This_ and _that_ denote their objects by the relative distance of these from the speaker; _some_ and _few_ and _others_ indicate parts separated from the rest. Gestures could express all that many pronouns express.

2. It follows that pronouns are more general than nouns. Any person, or even an animal or a thing personified, may use _I_ when referring to himself, _you_ when referring to the one addressed, and _he_, _she_, _it_, and _they_ when referring to the person or persons, the thing or things, spoken of--and all creatures and things, except the speaker and the one spoken to, fall into the last list. Some pronouns are so general, and hence so vague, in their denotement that they show the speaker's complete ignorance of the objects they denote. In, _Who_ did it? _Which_ of them did you see? the questioner is trying to find out the one for whom _Who_ stands, and the person or thing that _Which_ denotes. To what does _it_ refer in, _it_ rains; How is _it_ with you?

3. Some pronouns stand for a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, going before or coming after. _To be_ or _not to be_--_that_ is the question. _It_ is doubtful _whether the North Pole will ever be reached_. _The sails turned, the corn was ground_, after _which_ the wind ceased. _Ought you to go_? I cannot answer _that_. In the first of these sentences, _that_ stands for a phrase; in the last, for a sentence. _It_ and _which_ in the second and third sentences stand for clauses.

4. _Which_, retaining its office as connective, may as an adjective accompany its noun; as, I craved his forbearance a little longer, _which forbearance_ he allowed me.]

+A _Personal Pronoun_ is a pronoun that by its form denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

+A _Relative Pronoun_ is one that relates to some preceding word or words and connects clauses+.

+An _Interrogative Pronoun_ is one with which a question is asked+.

+An _Adjective Pronoun_ is one that performs the offices of both an adjective and a noun+.

The simple personal pronouns are:--_I, thou, you, he, she, and it_.

The compound personal pronouns are:--_Myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, and itself_.

The simple relative pronouns are:--_Who, which, that_, and _what_. [Footnote: _As_, in such sentences as this: Give such things _as_ you can spare, may be treated as a relative pronoun. But by expanding the sentence _as_ is seen to be a conjunctive adverb--Give such things _as those are which_ you can spare.

_But_ used after a negative is sometimes called a "negative relative" = _that not_; as, There is not a man here _but_ would die for such a cause. When the sentence is expanded, _but_ is found to be a preposition--There is not a man here _but_ (= _except_) the one who would die, etc.]

The compound relative pronouns are:--

_Whoever or whosoever, whichever_ or _whichsoever_, _whatever_ or _whatsoever_.

The interrogative pronouns are:--

_Who, which_, and _what_.

Some of the more common adjective pronouns are:--

All, another, any, both, each, either, enough, few, former, latter, little, many, much, neither, none, one, other, same, several, such, that, these, this, those, whole, etc. [Footnote: The adjective pronouns _this, that, these_, and _those_ are called +Demonstrative+ pronouns. _All, any, both, each, either, many, one, other_, etc. are called +Indefinite+ pronouns because they do not point out and particularize like the demonstratives. _Each, either_, and _neither_ are also called +Distributives+.

But for the fact that such words as _brave, good_, etc. in the phrases _the brave_, _the good_, etc. describe--which pronouns never do--we might call them adjective pronouns. They may be treated as nouns, or as adjectives modifying nouns to be supplied.