Part 15

"In war," answered the weaver, "the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time, and the faces of those we love become hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free."

"Is it so with all?" he asked.

"It is so with all," answered the weaver, "with the young as well as with the old, with the women as well as with the men, with the little children as well as with those who are stricken in years. The merchants grind us down, and we must needs do their bidding. The priest rides by and tells his beads, and no man has care of us. Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning, and Shame sits with us at night. But what are these things to thee? Thou art not one of us. Thy face is too happy." And he turned away scowling, and threw the shuttle across the loom, and the young King saw that it was threaded with a thread of gold.

And a great terror seized upon him, and he said to the weaver, "What robe is this that thou art weaving?"

"It is the robe for the coronation of the young King," he answered; "What is that to thee?"

And the young King gave a loud cry and woke and lo! he was in his own chamber, and through the window he saw the great honey-colored moon hanging in the dusky air.

SPELLING

LESSON 14

You remember in the formation of plurals, we learned that words ending in _y_ change _y_ to _i_ when _es_ is added; as, _lady, ladies_; _baby, babies_; _dry, dries_, etc.

There are several rules concerning words ending in _y_, knowledge of which will aid us greatly in spelling.

+1.+ +Words ending in _ie_ change the _ie_ to _y_ before _ing_ to prevent a confusing number of vowels.+ For example, _die, dying_; _lie, lying_; _tie, tying_.

+2.+ +Words of more than one syllable ending in _y_ preceded by a consonant, change _y_ into _i_ before all suffixes except those beginning with _i_.+ For example:

happy, happily, happiness; witty, wittier, wittiest; satisfy, satisfied, satisfying; envy, enviable, envying.

This exception is made for suffixes beginning with _i_, the most common of which is _ing_, to avoid having a confusing number of _i's_.

+3.+ +Most words ending in _y_ preceded by a vowel retain the _y_ before a suffix.+ For example:

destroy, destroyer, destroying; buy, buyer, buying; essay, essayed, essayist.

The following words are exception to this rule:

laid, paid, said, daily, staid.

Make as many words as you can out of the words given in this week's spelling lesson by adding one or more of the following suffixes: _er_, _est_, _ed_, _es_, _ing_, _ly_, _ness_, _ful_, _ment_, _al_.

+Monday+

Beauty Portray Deny Rare Multiply

+Tuesday+

Mercy Bury Obey Lovely Envy

+Wednesday+

Tie Defy Study Decry Crazy

+Thursday+

Merry Silly Lusty Imply Day

+Friday+

Dismay Duty Employ Satisfy Pretty

+Saturday+

Pay Joy Journey Qualify Sorry

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 15

Dear Comrade:

In this week's lesson we are finishing the study of adjectives, which adds another part of speech to those which we have studied. We can see in the study of each additional part of speech how each part has its place in the expression of our ideas. We could not express ourselves fully if we lacked any of these parts of speech. Each one is not an arbitrary addition to our language but has come to us out of the need for it. We see that there are no arbitrary rules but in language, as in all things else, growing needs have developed more efficient tools. With these have grown up certain rules of action so we can have a common usage and system in our use of these tools. It has taken years of effort to accomplish this. The changes have been slow and gradual, and this language which we are studying is the finished product.

This slow development in the use of language, even in our own lives, makes us realize how many thousands of years it must have taken our primitive ancestors to reach a point where they could use the phonetic alphabet. We have found that at first they used simple aids to memory, as knotted strings and tally sticks. Then they began to draw pictures of things about them and so were able to communicate with one another by means of these pictures. When a man was going away from his cave and wanted to leave word for those who might come, telling them where he had gone and how soon he would return, he drew a picture of a man over the entrance with the arm extended in the direction in which he had gone. Then he drew another picture of a man in a sleeping position and also one of a man with both hands extended in the gesture which indicated many. These two pictures showed that he would be away over many nights. In some such rude manner as this, they were able to communicate with one another.

But man soon began to _think_, and he needed to express ideas concerning things of which he could not draw pictures. He could draw a picture of the sun, but how could he indicate light? How could he indicate the different professions in which men engaged, such as the farmer and priest, etc.?

He was forced to invent symbols or signs to express these ideas, so his writing was no longer a picture of some object, but he added to it symbols of abstract ideas. A circle which stood for the sun written with the crescent which stood for the moon, indicated light. The bee became a symbol of industry. An ostrich feather was a symbol of justice, because these feathers were supposed to be of equal length. A picture of a woman stood simply for a woman, but a picture of two women stood for strife, and three women stood for intrigue. These old ancestors of ours became wise quite early concerning some things. The symbol for a priest in the early Egyptian picture writing was a jackal. Perhaps not because he "devoured widows' houses," but because the jackal was a very watchful animal. The symbol for mother was a vulture because that bird was believed to nourish its young with its own blood.

It naturally required a good memory and a clear grasp of association to be able to read this sort of writing. It required many centuries for this slow development of written speech.

The development of language has been a marvelous growth and a wonderful heritage has come to us. Let us never be satisfied until we have a mastery of our language and find a way to express the ideas that surge within us. A mastery of these lessons will help us.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

ADJECTIVES AND PRONOUNS

+258.+ From our study of the adjective, we know that it is a word used with a noun to qualify or limit its meaning. But a great many times we find these adjectives used without the noun which they modify. As, for example, I may say, _This is mine_, and the adjective _this_ is used alone without the noun which it modifies, and you are able to tell only by what I have been saying or by some action of mine to what I am referring when I say _this_.

When adjectives are used in this manner, they are used like pronouns--in place of a noun. So sometimes we find an adjective used with a noun, and sometimes used as a pronoun, in place of a noun; and since we name our parts of speech by the work which they do in the sentence, an adjective used in this way is not an adjective, but a pronoun or word used in place of a noun.

So these words are pronouns when they stand alone to represent things--when they are used in place of a noun. They are adjectives when they are used _with_ a noun to limit or qualify the noun. For example, I may say, _This tree is an elm, but that tree is an oak_. _This_ and _that_ in this sentence are adjectives used to modify the noun _tree_. But I may say, _This is an oak and that is an elm_, and in this sentence _this_ and _that_ are used without a noun, they are used as pronouns.

+259.+ Our being able to name every part of speech is not nearly so important as our being able to understand the functions of the different parts of speech and being able to use them correctly. But still it is well for us to be able to take a sentence and point out its different parts and tell what each part is and the function which it serves in the sentence. So sometimes in doing this we may find it difficult to tell whether certain words are adjectives or pronouns. We can distinguish between adjectives and pronouns by this rule:

When you cannot supply the noun which the adjective modifies, from the _same_ sentence, then the word which takes the place of the noun is a pronoun, but if you can supply the omitted noun from the same sentence, then the word is used as an adjective. Thus, we do not say that the noun is understood unless it has already been used in the same sentence and is omitted to avoid repetition. We make each sentence a law unto itself and classify each word in the sentence according to what it does in its own sentence.

So if a noun does not occur in the same sentence with the word about which we are in doubt as to whether it is a pronoun or adjective, it is a pronoun or word used in place of a noun. For example, in the sentence, _This book is good but that is better_; _book_ is understood after the word _that_ and left out to avoid tiresome repetition of the word _book_. Therefore _that_ is an adjective in this sentence. But if I say, _This is good, but that is better_; there is no noun understood, for there is no noun in the sentence which we can supply with _this_ and _that_. Therefore in this sentence _this_ and _that_ are pronouns, used in place of the noun. And since _this_ and _that_, when used as adjectives, are called demonstrative adjectives; therefore when _this_ and _that_, _these_ and _those_, and similar words, are used as pronouns they are called demonstrative pronouns.

+260.+ Be careful not to confuse the possessive pronouns with adjectives. Possessive pronouns modify the nouns with which they are used, but they are not adjectives, they are possessive pronouns. _My_, _his_, _her_, _its_, _our_, _your_ and _their_ are all possessive pronouns, not adjectives. Also be careful not to confuse nouns in the possessive form with adjectives.

ADJECTIVES AS NOUNS

+261.+ Sometimes you will find words, which we are accustomed to look upon as adjectives, used alone in the sentence without a noun which they modify. For example, we say, _The strong enslave the weak_. Here we have used the adjectives _strong_ and _weak_ without any accompanying noun. In sentences like this, these adjectives, being used as nouns, are classed as nouns. Remember, in your analysis of a sentence, that you name every word according to the work which it does in that sentence, so while these adjectives are doing the work of nouns, we will consider them as nouns.

These words are not used in the same manner in which demonstrative adjectives are used as pronouns. There is no noun omitted which might be inserted, but these adjectives are used rather to name a class. As, for example; when we say, _The strong_, _The weak_, we mean all those who are strong and all those who are weak, considered as a class. You will find adjectives used in this way quite often in your reading, and you will find that you use this construction very often in your ordinary speech. As, for example:

The rich look down upon the poor. The wise instruct the ignorant.

Many examples will occur to you. Remember these adjectives are nouns when they do the work of nouns.

ADJECTIVES WITH PRONOUNS

+262.+ Since pronouns are used in place of nouns, they may have modifiers, also, just as nouns do. So you will often find adjectives used to modify pronouns. As, for example; _He, tired, weak and ill, was unable to hold his position_. Here, _tired_, _weak_ and _ill_ are adjectives modifying the pronoun _he_.

+263.+ We often find a participle used as an adjective with a pronoun. As, for example:

She, having finished her work, went home. They, having completed the organization, left the city. He, having been defeated, became discouraged.

In these sentences, the participles, _having finished_, _having completed_, and _having been defeated_, are used as adjectives to modify the pronouns _she_, _they_ and _he_.

COMPARISON

+264.+ We have found that adjectives are a very important part of our speech for without them we could not describe the various objects about us and make known to others our ideas concerning their various qualities. But with the addition of these helpful words we can describe very fully the qualities of the things with which we come into contact. We soon find, however, that there are varying degrees of these qualities. Some objects possess them in slight degree, some more fully and some in the highest degree. So we must have some way of expressing these varying degrees in the use of our adjectives.

This brings us to the study of comparison of adjectives. Suppose I say:

That orange is sweet, the one yonder is sweeter, but this one is sweetest.

I have used the adjective _sweet_ expressing a quality possessed by oranges in three different forms, _sweet_, _sweeter_ and _sweetest_. This is the change in the form of adjectives to show different degrees of quality. This change is called comparison, because we use it when we compare one thing with another in respect to some quality which they possess, but possess in different degrees.

The form of the adjective which expresses a simple quality, as _sweet_, is called the positive degree. That which expresses a quality in a greater degree, as _sweeter_, is called the comparative degree. That which expresses a quality in the greatest degree, as _sweetest_, is called the superlative degree.

+265.+ +Comparison is the change of form of an adjective to denote different degrees of quality.+

+There are three degrees of comparison, positive, comparative and superlative.+

+The positive degree of an adjective denotes simple quality.+

+The comparative degree denotes a higher degree of a quality.+

+The superlative degree denotes the highest degree of a quality.+

+266.+ Most adjectives of one syllable and many adjectives of two syllables regularly add _er_ to the positive to form the comparative degree, and _est_ to the positive to form the superlative degree, as:

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

sweet sweeter sweetest cold colder coldest soft softer softest brave braver bravest clear clearer clearest

+267.+ Adjectives ending in _y_ change _y_ to _i_ and add _er_ and _est_ to form the comparative and superlative degree, as:

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

busy busier busiest lazy lazier laziest sly slier sliest witty wittier wittiest

+268.+ Many adjectives cannot be compared by this change in the word itself, since the addition of _er_ and _est_ would make awkward or ill-sounding words. Hence we must employ another method to form the comparison of this sort of words. To say, _beautiful_, _beautifuller_, _beautifullest_, is awkward and does not sound well. So we say _beautiful_, _more beautiful_, _most beautiful_.

Many adjectives form the comparative and superlative degree by using _more_ and _most_ with the simple form of the adjective, as:

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

beautiful more beautiful most beautiful thankful more thankful most thankful sensitive more sensitive most sensitive wonderful more wonderful most wonderful

+269.+ Adjectives of two syllables, to which _er_ and _est_ are added to form the comparison, are chiefly those ending in _y_ or _le_, such as:

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

happy happier happiest noble nobler noblest steady steadier steadiest feeble feebler feeblest able abler ablest witty wittier wittiest

+270.+ Some adjectives, few in number, but which we use very often, are irregular in their comparison. The most important of these are as follows: (It would be well to memorize these.)

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

good better best well " " bad worse worst ill " " much more most many " " little less least late later latest latter last far farther farthest (up) adv. upper uppermost (in) adv. inner innermost

DESCENDING COMPARISON

+271.+ The change in form of adjectives in the positive, comparative and superlative shows that one object has more of a quality than others with which it is compared. But we also wish at times to express the fact that one object has less of the quality than is possessed by others with which it is compared; so we have what we may call the descending comparison, by means of phrases formed by using _less_ and _least_ instead of _more_ and _most_. Using _less_ with the positive degree means a degree less than the positive, while using _least_ expresses the lowest degree. For example:

Descending Comparison

_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_

beautiful less beautiful least beautiful intelligent less intelligent least intelligent sensitive less sensitive least sensitive thankful less thankful least thankful

PARTICIPLES AS ADJECTIVES

+272.+ You remember, when we studied the participle, that we found it was called a participle because it partook of the nature of two or more parts of speech. For example; in the sentence, _The singing of the birds greeted us_; _singing_ is a participle derived from the verb _sing_, and is used as a noun, the subject of the verb _greeted_.

But participles are used not only as nouns; they may also be used as adjectives. For example; we may say, _The singing birds greeted us_. Here the participle _singing_ describes the birds, telling what kind of birds greeted us, and is used as an adjective modifying the noun _birds_.

You will recall that we found there were two forms of the participle, the present participle and the past participle. The present participle is formed by adding _ing_ to the root form of the verb; and the past participle in regular verbs is formed by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the root form, and in irregular verbs by a change in the verb form itself. These two simple forms of participles are often used as adjectives.

+273.+ The present participle is almost always active; that is, it refers to the actor. As, for example; _Vessels, carrying soldiers, are constantly arriving_. Here the present participle _carrying_ describes the noun _vessels_, and yet retains its function as a verb and has an object, _soldiers_. So it partakes of two parts of speech, the verb and the adjective.

+274.+ The past participle, when used alone, is almost always passive, for it refers not to the actor, but to what is acted upon, thus:

The army, beaten but not conquered, prepared for a siege.

In this sentence _beaten_ is the past participle of the irregular verb _beat_, and _conquered_ is the past participle of the regular verb _conquer_, and both modify the noun _army_, but refer to it, not as the actor, but as the receiver of the action. Hence, the past participle is also the _passive_ participle.

Note in the following sentences the use of the present and past participle as adjectives:

A _refreshing_ breeze came from the hills. They escaped from the _burning_ building. _Toiling_, _rejoicing_, _sorrowing_, onward through life he goes. The man, _defeated_ in his purpose, gave up in despair. The child, _driven_ in its youth to work, is robbed of the joy of childhood. The army, _forced_ to retreat, destroyed all in its path. The children, _neglected_ by society, grow up without their rightful opportunities.

Exercise 1

The adjectives and participles used as adjectives in the following sentences are printed in _italics_. Determine which adjectives are capable of comparison, and whether they are compared by adding _er_ or _est_, or by the use of _more_ and _most_.

In _a_ community _regulated_ by laws of demand and supply, but _protected_ from _open_ violence, _the_ persons who become _rich_ are, generally _speaking_, _industrious_, _resolute_, _proud_, _covetous_, _prompt_, _methodical_, _sensible_, _unimaginative_, _insensitive_ and _ignorant_. _The_ persons who remain _poor_ are _the_ entirely _foolish_, _the_ entirely _wise_, _the idle_, _the reckless_, _the humble_, _the thoughtful_, _the dull_, _the imaginative_, _the sensitive_, _the well-informed_, _the improvident_, _the_ irregularly and impulsively _wicked_, _the clumsy_ knave, _the open_ thief, and _the_ entirely _merciful_, _just_ and _godly_ persons.--_Ruskin_.

PARTICIPLE PHRASES

+275.+ If you will refer now to Lesson 9 you will find that we studied in that lesson concerning participle phrases; that is, several words used as a participle. We found that these participle phrases may also be used as nouns; as, for example:

His having joined the union caused him to lose his position.

_Having joined_ is here a participle phrase used as a noun, subject of the verb _caused_. Participle phrases may also be used as adjectives.

You remember that we had four participle phrases, as follows:

+Present perfect+, _active_, having called. +Present perfect+, _passive_, having been called. +Progressive+, _active_, having been calling. +Progressive+, _passive_, being called.

These participle phrases are used as adjectives to describe and modify nouns, thus:

The soldier, _having joined_ his comrades, fought in the trenches. The nurse, _having been watching_ for days, was nearly exhausted.

The passive phrases also are used as adjectives, thus:

The woman, _having been hired_ by the manager, went to work. The man, _being attacked_, fought bravely.

Here the participle phrases _having been hired_ and _being attacked_ are used as adjectives to modify the nouns _woman_ and _man_.

Use the participles and participle phrases of the verbs _see_ and _obey_ in sentences of your own.

USES OF ADJECTIVES

+276.+ In our use of adjectives, we find it convenient to use them in several different ways. The most common use is closely connected with the noun as a modifying word, seeming in a sense almost a part of the noun; as in the sentence, _These brave men have bequeathed to us splendid victories_. In this sentence _these_ and _brave_ are easily discovered to be adjectives, being used in such close connection with the noun.