Higher Lessons in English Part 86

1. The _devouring_ fire _uprooted_ the stubble.

2. The _brittle_ thread of life may be _cut_ asunder.

3. All the _ripe fruit_ of three-score years was _blighted_ in a day.

4. _Unravel_ the _obscurities_ of this _knotty_ question.

5. We must apply the _axe_ to the _fountain_ of this evil.

6. The man _stalks_ into court like a _motionless_ statue, with the _cloak_ of hypocrisy in his _mouth_.

7. The thin _mantle_ of snow _dissolved_.

8. I smell a _rat_, I see him _brewing_ in the air, but I shall yet _nip him in the bud_.

LESSON 155.

VARIETY IN EXPRESSION.

+Remark+.--You learned in Lessons 52, 53, 54 that the usual order may give way to the transposed; in 55, 56, that one kind of simple sentence may be changed to another; in 57, that simple sentences may be contracted; in 61, that adjectives may be expanded into clauses; in 67, that an adverb clause may stand before, between the parts of, and after, the independent clause; in 68, that an adverb clause may be contracted to a participle, a participle phrase, an absolute phrase, a prepositional phrase, that it may be contracted by the omission of words, and may be changed to an adjective clause or phrase; in 73, that a noun clause as subject may stand last, and as object complement may stand first, that it may be made prominent, and may be contracted; in 74, that direct quotations and questions may be changed to indirect, and indirect to direct; in 77, that compound sentences may be formed out of simple sentences, may be contracted to simple sentences, and may be changed to complex sentences; in 79, that participles, absolute phrases, and infinitives may be expanded into different kinds of clauses; and, in 130, that a verb may change its voice.

+Direction+.--_Ill.u.s.trate all these changes_.

+Direction+.--_Recast these sentences, avoiding offensive repet.i.tions of the same word or the same sounds_:--

1. We have to have money to have a horse.

2. We sailed across a bay and sailed up a creek and sailed back and sailed in all about fourteen miles.

3. It is then put into stacks, or it is put into barns either to use it to feed it to the stock or to sell it.

4. This day we undertake to render an account to the widows and orphans whom our decision will make; to the wretches that will be roasted at the stake.

5. The news of the battle of Bunker Hill, fought on the 17th of June in the year of our Lord 1775, roused the patriotism of the people to a high pitch of enthusiasm.

+Direction+.---_Using other words wholly or in part, see in how many ways you can express the thoughts contained in these sentences_:--

1. In the profusion and recklessness of her lies, Elizabeth had no peer in England.

2. Henry IV. said that James I. was the wisest fool in Christendom.

3. Cowper's letters are charming because they are simple and natural.

4. George IV., though he was p.r.o.nounced the first gentleman in Europe, was, nevertheless, a sn.o.b.

LESSON 156.

THE PARAGRAPH.

+The Paragraph+.--The clauses of complex sentences are so closely united in meaning that frequently they are not to be separated from each other even by the comma. The clauses of compound sentences are less closely united--a comma, a semicolon, or a colon is needed to divide them.

Between sentences there exists a wider separation in meaning, marked by a period or other terminal point. But even sentences may be connected, the bond which unites them being their common relation to the thought which jointly they develop. Sentences thus related are grouped together and form, as you have already learned, what we call a Paragraph, marked by beginning the first word a little to the right of the marginal line.

+Direction+.--_Notice the facts which this paragraph contains, and the relation to each other of the clauses and the sentences expressing these facts_:--

After a breeze of some sixty hours from the north and northwest, the wind died away about four o'clock yesterday afternoon. The calm continued till about nine in the evening. The mercury in the barometer fell, in the meantime, at an extraordinary rate; and the captain predicted that we should encounter a gale from the southeast. The gale came on about eleven o'clock; not violent at first, but increasing every moment.

1. A breeze from the north and northwest.

2. The wind died away.

3. A calm.

4. Barometer fell.

5. The captain predicted a gale.

6. It came on.

7. It increased in violence.

+Direction+.--Give and number the facts contained in the paragraph below:--

I awoke with a confused recollection of a good deal of rolling and thumping in the night, occasioned by the dashing of the waves against the ship.

Hurrying on my clothes, I found such of the pa.s.sengers as could stand, at the doors of the hurricane-house, holding on, and looking out in the utmost consternation. It was still quite dark. Four of the sails were already in ribbons: the winds whistling through the cordage; the rain dashing furiously and in torrents; the noise and spray scarcely less than I found them under the great sheet at Niagara.

+Direction+.---_Weave the facts below into a paragraph, supplying all you need to make the narrative smooth_:--

Rip's beard was grizzled. Fowling-piece rusty. Dress uncouth. Women and children at his heels. Attracted attention. Was eyed from head to foot. Was asked on which side he voted. Whether he was Federal or Democrat. Rip was dazed by the question. Stared in stupidity.

+Direction+.---_Weave the facts below into two paragraphs, supplying what you need, and tell what each paragraph is about_:--

In place of the old tree there was a pole. This was tall and naked. A flag was fluttering from it. The flag had on it the stars and stripes. This was strange to Rip. But Rip saw something he remembered. The tavern sign. He recognized on it the face of King George. Still the picture was changed.

The red coat gone. One of blue and buff in its place. A sword, and not a scepter, in the hand. Wore a c.o.c.ked hat. Underneath was painted--"General Washington."

LESSON 157.

THE PARAGRAPH.

+Direction+.---_Weave the facts below into three paragraphs, and write on the margin what each is about_:--

The Nile rises in great lakes. Runs north. Sources two thousand miles from Alexandria. Receives two branches only. Runs through an alluvial valley.

Course through the valley is 1,500 miles. Plows into the Mediterranean. Two princ.i.p.al channels. Minor outlets. Nile overflows its banks. Overflow caused by rains at the sources. The melting of the mountain snows. Begins at the end of June. Rises four inches daily. Rises till the close of September. Subsides. Whole valley an inland sea. Only villages above the surface. The valley very fertile. The deposit. The fertile strip is from five to one hundred and fifty miles wide. Renowned for fruitfulness. Egypt long the granary of the world. Three crops from December to June.

Productions--grain, cotton, and indigo.

Direction.---_Weave these facts into four paragraphs, writing the margin of each the main thought_:--

The robin is thought by some to be migratory. But he stays with us all winter. Cheerful. Noisy. Poor soloist. A spice of vulgarity in him. Dash of prose in his song. Appet.i.te extraordinary. Eats his own weight in a short time. Taste for fruit. Eats with a relishing gulp, like Dr. Johnson's. Fond of cherries. Earliest mess of peas. Mulberries. Lion's share of the raspberries. Angleworms his delight. A few years ago I had a grapevine. A foreigner. Shy of bearing. This summer bore a score of bunches. They secreted sugar from the sunbeams. One morning, went to pick them. The robins beforehand with me. Bustled out from the leaves. Made shrill, unhandsome remarks about me. Had sacked the vine. Remnant of a single bunch. How it looked at the bottom of my basket! A humming-bird's egg in an eagle's nest. Laughed. Robins joined in the merriment.

LESSON 158.

PARAGRAPHS AND THE THEME.

+Direction+.--_Weave these facts into four paragraphs_:--

Note that the several paragraphs form a composition, or +Theme+, the general subject of which is WOUTER VAN TWILLER (according to Diedrich Knickerbocker).

I. +Who he was+.--Van Twiller was a Dutchman. Born at Rotterdam. Descended from burgomasters. In 1629 appointed governor of Nieuw Nederlandts. Arrived in June at New Amsterdam--New York city.

II. +Person+.--Was five feet six inches high, six feet five in circ.u.mference. Head spherical, and too large for any neck. Nature set it on the back-bone. Body capacious. Legs short and st.u.r.dy. A beer-barrel on skids. Face a vast, unfurrowed expanse. No lines of thought. Two small, gray eyes. Cheeks had taken toll of all that had entered his mouth. Mottled and streaked with dusky red.