Higher Lessons in English Part 21

8. You are prompt to obey.

9. They delight to do it.

10. I am surprised at seeing you.

11. Stones are used in ballasting vessels.

+Direction+.--_Improve these sentences by changing the participles into infinitives, and the infinitives into participles_:--

1. We began ascending the mountain.

2. He did not recollect to have paid it.

3. I commenced to write a letter.

4. It is inconvenient being poor.

5. It is not wise complaining.

+Direction+.--_Vary these sentences as in the model_:--

+Model+.--_Rising early_ is healthful; _To rise_ early is healthful; _It_ is healthful _to rise_ early; _For one to rise_ early is healthful.

(Notice that the explanatory phrase after _it_ is not set off by the comma.)

1. Reading good books is profitable.

2. Equivocating is disgraceful.

3. Slandering is base.

4. Indorsing another's paper is dangerous.

5. Swearing is sinful.

+Direction.+--_Write nine sentences, in three of which the infinitive phrase shall be used as an adjective, in three as an adverb, and in three as a noun_.

+Direction.+--_Write eight sentences in which these verbs shall be followed by an infinitive without the to_:--

+Model.+--We _saw_ the sun _sink_ behind the mountain.

Bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, and see.

LESSON 44.

WORDS AND PHRASES USED INDEPENDENTLY.

+Introductory Hints.+--In this Lesson we wish to notice words and phrases that in certain uses have no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence.

_The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. Dear Brutus_ serves only to arrest attention, and is independent by address.

_Poor man! he never came back again. Poor man_ is independent by exclamation.

_Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me_. _Rod_ and _staff_ simply call attention to the objects before anything is said of them, and are independent by pleonasm--a construction used sometimes for rhetorical effect, but out of place in ordinary speech.

_His master being absent, the business was neglected. His master being absent_ logically modifies the verb _was neglected_ by a.s.signing the cause, but the phrase has no connective expressed or understood, and is therefore grammatically independent. This is called the _absolute phrase_. An _absolute phrase_ consists of a noun or a p.r.o.noun used independently with a modifying participle.

_His conduct, generally speaking, was honorable. Speaking_ is a participle without connection, and with the adverb _generally_ forms an independent phrase.

_To confess the truth, I was wrong._ The infinitive phrase is independent.

The adverbs _well, now, why, there_ are sometimes independent; as, _Well_, life is an enigma; _Now_, that is strange; _Why_, it is already noon; _There_ are pitch-pine Yankees and white-pine Yankees.

Interjections are without grammatical connection, as you have learned, and hence are independent.

Whatever is enclosed within marks of parenthesis is also independent of the rest of the sentence; as, I stake my fame (_and I had fame_), my heart, my hope, my soul, upon this cast.

+a.n.a.lysis+.

1. The loveliest things in life, Tom, are but shadows.

+Explanation.+--_Tom_ is independent by address. _But_ is an adjective modifying _shadows_.

2. There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights.

+Explanation+.--Often, as in this sentence, _there_ is used idiomatically, merely to throw the subject after the verb, the idea of place having faded out of the word. To express place, another _there_ may follow the predicate; as, _There_ is gold _there_.

3. Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro.

4. Hope lost, all is lost.

5. The smith, a mighty man is he.

6. Why, this is not revenge.

7. Well, this is the forest of Arden.

8. Now, there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool.

9. To speak plainly, your habits are your worst enemies.

10. No accident occurring, we shall arrive to-morrow.

11. The teacher being sick, there was no school Friday.

12. Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Ma.s.sachusetts.

13. Properly speaking, there can be no chance in our affairs.

14. But the enemies of tyranny--their path leads to the scaffold.

15. She (oh, the artfulness of the woman!) managed the matter extremely well.

retreat | began =========|======= later --- day ------- A

16. A day later (Oct. 19, 1812) began the fatal retreat of the Grand Army, from Moscow.

See Lesson 35.

LESSON 45.

COMPOSITION--INDEPENDENT WORDS AND PHRASES.

+COMMA--RULE.--Words and phrases independent or nearly so are set off by the comma.+

+Remark+.--Interjections, as you have seen, are usually followed by the exclamation point; and _there_, used merely to introduce, is never set off by the comma. When the break after pleonastic expressions is slight, as in (5), Lesson 44, the comma is used; but, if it is more abrupt, as in (14), the dash is required. If the independent expression can be omitted without affecting the sense, it may be enclosed within marks of parenthesis, as in (15) and (16). (For the uses of the dash and the marks of parenthesis, see Lesson 148.)

Words and phrases nearly independent are those which, like _however, of course, indeed, in short, by the bye, for instance_, and _accordingly_, do not modify a word or a phrase alone, but rather the sentence as a whole; as, Lee did not, _however_, follow Washington's orders.