Plain English Part 52

"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 l.u.s.ty Imply Day

+Friday+

Dismay Duty Employ Satisfy Pretty

+Sat.u.r.day+

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 a.s.sociation 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 p.r.o.nOUNS

+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 p.r.o.nouns--in place of a noun. So sometimes we find an adjective used with a noun, and sometimes used as a p.r.o.noun, 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 p.r.o.noun or word used in place of a noun.