CHAPTER XXXIII
ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES
In preceding chapters we have spoken of the tendency in English speech and composition towards abridgment. Independent propositions become clauses, clauses become phrases, and phrases give place to words. This tendency to abbreviate the expression of thought is due to two causes: (1) a predominating interest in one’s ideas and a minor interest in the expression. In such a case one uses only the significant words, leaving out all those that can be supplied by the reader. (2) A desire to be impressive, to gain and keep the reader’s attention. At such times one rejects all unnecessary words as distracting attention from the main purpose and retarding the progress of the main thought. The result of either of these causes is an elliptical sentence--one that cannot be analyzed without supplying certain elements necessary to its grammatical structure.
Elliptical sentences are very common. Some of them have been already mentioned in different chapters, for instance, the common idiom, “I cannot but think.” Some other ellipses we shall make the subject of inquiry in the present chapter, and for convenience we shall take them up as ellipses in subordinate propositions and ellipses in principal propositions.
* * * * *
=Ellipses in Subordinate Propositions.=--
1. An elliptical adjective clause; as,--
“A sound _as of myriads singing_ From far and near stole in.”--_Whittier._
This ellipsis comes about through the omission of (1) the correlative of _as_, which in this case is _such_, (2) the noun _sound_, which can easily be supplied from the principal proposition, and (3) the verb _is_. Expanded the sentence reads,--“Such a sound as a sound of myriads singing is, from far and near stole in.”
2. The elliptical adverbial clause of time; as, “St. Patrick, _when a boy of twelve_, lights a fire with icicles.”--_Froude._
In discussing adverbs as modifiers of nouns in Chapter XXX, we found that an adjective clause is frequently abridged to an appositive phrase in which the base-word, or noun in apposition, is modified by an adverb. A sentence like the following might have arisen in such a way,--“St. Patrick, _then a boy of twelve_, lighted a fire with icicles.” Here we have an abridgment, but it is unnecessary to supply any ellipsis, for we may say that the adverb _then_ modifies _boy of twelve_. But in the sentence quoted we have not the simple adverb _then_, but the subordinating connective _when_. In order that it may perform its ordinary and proper function in the sentence, we supply after it the two words _he is_, making a regular adverbial clause of time, _when he is a boy of twelve_.
3. The elliptical clause of manner; as, “A great city sprang up _as if by magic_.” This construction has been spoken of in the chapter on prepositional phrases. It resembles the elliptical time clause in that the connective _as if_ is a subordinating connective and needs a complete proposition following it. In the sentence quoted we must therefore supply the words _it sprang up_.
In the elliptical modal clause the connective is often the one word _as_, though it generally has the meaning of _as if_; as, “On that I found scratched _as with a nail or fork_, the following inscription.”--_Holmes_.
4. The elliptical adverbial clause of condition.
(_a_) An omission of the connective and the subject; as, “This frame of mind was the great exploit of our voyage, _take it all in all_.”--_Stevenson._ Expanded for analysis this clause becomes, “_if we take it all in all_.”
(_b_) An omission of the subject and the verb. This is found in the familiar expression _if possible_, which is really _if it be possible_, also in such sentences as the following,--“What is the use of health and life _if not to do some work with them_?”--Here we may supply after _if_ the words _the use is_ or _it is_.
5. The elliptical adverbial clause of concession.
(_a_) An omission of connective and subject; as, “_Do what we may_, summer will have its flies.”--_Emerson._ In this sentence the verb _do_ is also to be supplied after the auxiliary _may_. Expanded the clause reads, _though we do what we may do_.
(_b_) An omission of subject and verb, the latter being a copula; as, “Solitude, _though silent as light_, is, like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man.”--_De Quincey._ Since the noun _solitude_ immediately precedes the clause as subject of the principal proposition, the clause is perfectly clear without even the pronoun _it_ for a subject, and the verb _is_ is easily understood. Only the new and necessary ideas need be expressed and these are the attribute _silent as light_. The base of such an attribute is not always an adjective; it may be a noun, a participle, or a prepositional phrase.
(_c_) An omission of connective and subject, sometimes also of copula or auxiliary, before a pair of words in opposition to each other and joined by _or_; as, “_Rain or shine_, the King rode every day for hours.”--_Thackeray._ This elliptical expression means “_though it might rain or might shine_.”
6. The elliptical adverbial clause consisting of a connective and a participial phrase. This may denote various relations,--time, manner, condition, etc., but is so frequent a construction that it seems best to treat it by itself. We have already spoken of this construction in the chapter on participial phrases, where we gave illustrations which might be disposed of without supplying any ellipsis. However, this disposition is not always satisfactory, and some may prefer to expand the clause in all cases of this kind. Illustrations are found in the following sentences:--
(_a_) Denoting time,--“No amount of hereditary virtue has thus far saved the merely devout communities from deteriorating, _when let alone_, into comfort and good dinners.”--_Higginson._
(_b_) Denoting manner,--“It blew in enormous sighs, dying away at regular intervals, _as if pausing to draw breath_.”--_Hearn._
(_c_) Denoting concession,--“Such men, _however pressed with business_, are always found capable of doing a little more.”
7. The elliptical adverbial clause of degree.--This is so frequent that we seldom find a clause of degree involving a comparison that is not elliptical. We shall take up first the ellipses after the conjunction _than_.
(_a_) An omission of the predicate when it is about the same as the predicate of the principal proposition; as, “Alas! books cannot be more than the men who write them (_are_).”
(_b_) An omission of both subject and verb when these are readily supplied from the context; as, “In no other spot had sympathy been more fiercely kindled than along that Western border where life was always tense with martial passion.”--_J. L. Allen._ After _than_ we are to understand the words _it had been kindled_.
(_c_) An omission of the subject. This may be the impersonal _it_; as, “His features were more refined than (_it_) was usual in Roman faces.”--_Froude._ Or the subject understood may be the indefinite pronoun _what_; as, “We have a great deal more kindness than (_what_) is ever spoken.”--_Emerson._
(_d_) Very much like the last type of sentence is one in which we cannot supply _what_ but must supply _those who_, with the verb _are_ for the predicate of _those_; as, “He met more people _than could be remembered_.” This clause expanded reads, “_than those are who can be remembered_.” This gives us a restrictive adjective clause within the clause of degree.
(_e_) We find cases of ellipsis after _than_ which it is difficult to supply, and some of them are familiar everyday expressions current everywhere and therefore invaluable in the communication of thought; as, “Naturally the coming of the Marques de Valdeflores at this critical juncture was regarded by the colonel as nothing less _than providential_.”--_Janvier._ Shall we make a clause here reading _than a providential thing is_?
Another difficult ellipsis is found in the sentence,--“He may look up to a tower of rock and see its broken edges, softened by _more than three-fourths of a mile_ of distance, directly above his eyes.”--_King._ It seems best here not to attempt to supply anything, but to take the italicized words as a unit, as if the one word _mile_ had been in their place. This sentence could, however, be expanded to read--_softened by more of distance than three fourths of a mile is_.
Another common instance is found in the sentence,--“He was _more than venerated_ in his day.”--_Lord._ This passive construction comes from the active--“We _more than venerated_ him,” which in turn comes from the sentence,--“We _did more than venerate_ him.” It is possible to supply the ellipsis in the last sentence, making it,--“We did more than to venerate him (_is much_),” but the other two sentences must be considered idiomatic.
An idiom similar to the last is found in the sentence,--“In very marked contrast with this younger man is the _something more than middle-aged_ Register of Deeds.”--_Holmes._ The italicized words are a group signifying one idea, for which we have no single word. The base-word of the group is _more_, but this alone is not a modifier of _Register of Deeds_. So far as the group of words modifies the noun phrase _Register of Deeds_, it cannot be separated.
* * * * *
We come now to ellipses in clauses of degree after the conjunction _as_.
(_a_) The subject may be omitted; as, “These are by no means so nearly connected _as might be thought at first sight_.”--_Bagehot._ Here we may supply _it_ after _as_, or we may make the clause read “_as they might be thought to be at first sight_.”
(_b_) The subject and auxiliary of the verb may be omitted when they can easily be supplied from the principal proposition; as, “His fellow-conspirators were hanged nearly as fast _as taken_.”--_Howells._ The clause expanded is “_as they were taken_.”
(_c_) As after _than_, so after _as_ we have some idiomatic expressions arising by ellipsis which it seems best not to fill out; as, “He knew that into the world where Ramona really lived he _did not so much as enter_.”--_H. H._ This predicate may be expanded to read _did not do so much as to enter is much_, but this is very awkward. Besides, _so_ _much as_ has to us an adverbial force, being almost equivalent to the adverb _even_.
An extension of this construction is found in the following sentence from Hawthorne,--“It was doubtful whether the poor lady _had so much as closed_ her eyes during the brief night of midsummer.” The ellipsis could be supplied if the predicate were _had done so much as close_, but as it stands it must be considered an idiom and left as it is. This construction has even gone over into the passive voice; as, “Parliament _is not so much as mentioned_ in the whole instrument.”--_Webster._
Another familiar elliptical construction is found in the sentence,--“But you think you _may as well have_ the right thing for your money.”--_Ruskin._ If one wishes he may expand this sentence so that it will read,--“you may have the right thing for your money as well _as you may not have it_.” Here the entire clause is to be supplied. Sometimes a portion of it is expressed, as in the sentence,--“You may as well go _as not_.”
A peculiar expression denoting degree, which it seems best to give here although it follows neither _than_ nor _as_ is found in the sentence, He was _all but killed_. It seems best not to separate _all but_, but to consider the expression as one adverbial modifier of the passive verb _was killed_. In the sentence, He was _all but dead_, we may say if we choose that _all_ is used as the base-word of the adjective complement of _was_, and is modified by the prepositional phrase _but dead_. However, the sentence does not appeal to us in this way; we do not naturally make the separation between _all_ on one side and _but dead_ on the other. Still less do we make such a separation when the word following _but_ is a verb; as in, “We _all but_ _won_.” Instead of this we keep the words _all but_ together as if they were one word, having almost the same meaning as the adverb _nearly_.
* * * * *
=Ellipses in Principal Propositions.=--1. The entire subject and part of the predicate may be omitted; as, “A prick (= _I gave her a prick_) and she passed the most inviting stable door.”--_Stevenson._ Here the abbreviated expression accords well with the thought.
2. If part of a compound sentence is the same as what has already been expressed, it is frequently omitted; as, “The former seems to have been a loyal and homely soul; the latter (_seems to have been_) restless, imperious, penetrating, unamiable.”--_Morley._
3. In replies to questions, that part is often omitted which can be supplied from the question; as, “‘What do you hope?’ ‘That long before this moon has grown old, you will be quite strong again.’”--_Miss Mulock._ The reply is here a noun clause, object of _hope_, which with its subject _I_ is to be supplied.
4. In sentences beginning with the words _no wonder_, the verb _is_ and the anticipative subject _it_ are to be supplied. The real subject is a noun clause following _no wonder_; as, “No wonder the princess loved him.”--_Stockton._
5. The verb and the anticipative subject _it_ are often omitted at the beginning of sentences introduced by _no matter_; as, “No matter just at this moment, what he said.”--_Holmes._ Here the real subject of the predicate _is no matter_ is the noun clause _what he said_.
6. Some interrogative or exclamative sentences begin with the words _what if_. The word _what_ is all that is left of a principal proposition, and _if_ introduces a conditional clause. It may seem best sometimes to dispose of this if-clause as a noun clause used as the real subject of the principal proposition. The principal proposition may be expanded to read,--“_What does it matter_,” “_what matter is it_,” “_what difference does it make_,” etc.; as, “What (_would the result be_) if one of the Himalayas could be cloven from its topmost tile of ice to its torrid base?”--_King._
7. A construction similar to the last is one in which the negative adverb _not_ takes the place of a whole proposition; as, “Not that I could see the boat drift, for I could not, the stars being all gone by this time.”--_S. L. Clemens._ We may expand this sentence to read,--“_I do not mean_ that I could see,” or “_I would not say_ that I could see.”
8. Exclamative sentences expressing a wish often begin with the verb _would_, which is to be taken as equivalent to _wish_ with the subject _I_ omitted. _Would_ is followed by a noun clause used as its object; as, “Would to Heaven that we had a sieve, that we could so much as fancy any kind of sieve that would do this work.”
9. The imperative _let_ is sometimes omitted at the beginning of a sentence, especially before the verb _suffice_; as, “_Suffice_ it here to say that the people in all times enjoyed a freedom far above that possessed by any other city of Europe.”--_Besant._
Exercise 42
Expand the following elliptical sentences. Analyze them.
1. Slow wavelets caressed the bland brown beach with a sound as of kisses and whispers.--_Hearn._
2. I am alone; my bugle strain May call some straggler of the train; Or, fall the worst that may betide, Ere now this falchion has been tried.--_Scott._
3. The thing for thee to do is, if possible, to cease to be a hollow-sounding shell of hearsays and become a faithful discerning soul.--_Carlyle._
4. Another, his big brother, though evidently some years younger, is selling doughnuts and bonbons.--_Mrs. Dodge._
5. While resting thus, she became aware of another presence, and turning her head, beheld a small boy with his cap in one hand and a hammer in the other.--_M. A. H. Clarke._
6. Philip, so far from having the least disposition to yield in the matter of the great religious persecution, was more determined as to his course than ever.--_Motley._
7. The others, to do them justice, more than atoned for Dr. Théophile’s coldness by their effusive friendliness.--_Janvier._
8. The stranger attempted once or twice to stem the torrent of words, but in vain; so he bowed his head and suffered it to flow on.--_Irving._
9. No matter whether or not Moses was gifted in a most extraordinary degree to write his code.--_Lord._
10. What if thou withdraw Unheeded by the living, and no friend Take note of thy departure.--_Bryant._
11. Would I were in a wilderness of apes, tossing cocoanuts about, grinning and grinned at.--_Lamb._
12. The country rose as one man at his refusal.--_J. R. Green._
13. Mr. Simon Watts, though of extremely limited means, had some ambition.--_R. M. Johnston._
14. Never do we more evince our arrogant ignorance than when we boast our knowledge.--_Everett._
15. They are soon to be matched in a longer and more determined combat than the world has ever seen.--_Motley._
16. Grief of that sort, and at that age, has killed more than ever have been counted amongst its martyrs.--_De Quincey._
17. This resolution was in the same words, when originally submitted by Mr. Lee, as when finally passed.--_Webster._
18. What matter if the Governor removes you from office? he cannot remove you from the lake; and if readers or customers will not bite, the pickerel will.--_Higginson._
19. To Thompson’s credit be it recorded he showed no tendency to desert the cause he had espoused.--_Tyndall._
20. In 1784, when he was twenty-one years of age, Carlton Palace was given to him, and furnished by the nation with as much luxury as could be devised.--_Thackeray._
21. More than a thousand feet beneath us was the arching head of a waterfall.--_King._
22. Now it sank to a murmur, as of one who consoles and soothes and promises things to come.--_Besant._
23. They built their cities as if for eternity.--_Froude._
24. To Nature therefore we turn as to the oldest and most influential teacher of our race.--_Mabie._
23. His legs, though exceeding short, were sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sustain; so that, when erect, he had not a little the appearance of a robustious beer-barrel standing on skids.--_Irving._
26. This is a sturdy looking personage of a good deal more than middle age.--_Holmes._
27. There seems no end to the charm of their vast, smooth, all but melancholy expanses.--_Howells._
28. No wonder that the ladies look complacently at the glassy ice; with a stove for a footstool, one might sit easily beside the North Pole.--_Mrs. Dodge._
29. Not that my motives were not as pure and as patriotic as ever carried any man into public office.--_Clay._
30. Despising every other acquirement as superficial and useless, they came to their task as to a sport.--_Lamb._
31. Wet or dry, light or dark, the stout old George was always in his place to say amen to the chaplain.--_Thackeray._
32. Here the poet caught the first glimpse of a greater and freer life than moved within the narrow horizon of the Norwegian capital.--_Boyesen._
33. Seven altogether; a delightful number for a dinner party, supposing the units to be delightful, but everything depends on that.--_George Eliot._
34. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued as in the presence of higher qualities.--_Webster._
35. We ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effective contribution to the happiness of others.--_Sir John Lubbock._
36. This only proves the profundity of an observation made by Mr. Bagehot--a man who carried away into the next world more originality of thought than is now to be found in the Three Estates of the Realm.--_Birrell._
37. Venice lures you in a gondola into one of her remote canals, where you glide through an avenue as secret and as still as if sea-deep under our work-day world.--_Howells._
38. What if their palaces were grand, and their villas beautiful, and their dresses magnificent, and their furniture costly, if their lives were spent in ignoble and enervating pleasures, as is generally admitted?--_Lord._
39. Antwerp shook as with an earthquake.--_Motley._
40. His age, though rich in minor decorative arts, had no accomplished statuary.--_Lang._
41. His pride never appeared in loftier and nobler form than in his attitude towards the people at large.--_J. R. Green._
42. Suffice it to say that he received an offer of the high and responsible station of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.--_Webster._
43. That one purpose of malice faithfully pursued has quartered some people upon our national funds of homage as by a perpetual annuity.--_De Quincey._
44. Though not more than twice as large as New England, it presented every variety of climate.--_Prescott._
45. Although it was slipping down more than half a mile of undisturbed depth it appeared to be creeping at its own will and leisure.--_King._
46. He did not seem so much desirous of provoking discussion by the questions which he asked, as of obtaining information at any rate.--_Lamb._
47. Would to Heaven I could persuade you of this world-old fact, than which Fate is not surer, that Truth and Justice alone are capable of being conserved.--_Carlyle._
48. But death was then scarcely intelligible to me, and I could not so properly be said to suffer sorrow as a sad perplexity.--_De Quincey._
49. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.--_Webster._
50. Their frequent overflow when forced back upon their currents by the strong sea, rendered the country almost uninhabitable.--_Motley._
51. What if this man Odin should have felt that perhaps _he_ was divine?--_Carlyle._
52. I do not see my way through it as clearly as could be wished.--_De Quincey._
53. Woe to the child who happens to be born with a weak will in New England.--_J. F. Clarke._
54. Turn wheresoe’er I may By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more.--_Wordsworth._
55. At close quarters his striped coat is all but as fine as the tiger’s, while the form and movement of his body are in every way nobler.--_Drummond._
MISCELLANEOUS SENTENCES
1. Who knows but the world may end to-night?--_Browning._
2. The white-coated sentinels never cease to pace the bastions, night or day.--_Howells._
3. Marcus Aurelius is immortal, not so much for what he did as for what he was.--_Lord._
4. To the right lay the sea, sometimes at full tide, sometimes withdrawn to the very horizon; but he knew it for the same sea.--_Kipling._
5. Outside her kennel, the mastiff old Lay fast asleep, in moonshine cold.--_Coleridge._
6. Come to read the other side of her, she had a trust in God Almighty that was like the bow-anchor of a three-decker.--_Holmes._
7. “What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice; not that she much wanted to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that _somebody_ ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.--_Lewis Carroll._
8. The General was on his feet as if by the touch of a spring.--_Cable._
9. It isn’t fair to judge a man’s promise by one performance, and that one a livery stable, so I shall say nothing.--_Mrs. Wiggin._
10. Finishing a thing, doing it thoroughly before we begin anything else, is very important to our own happiness and the good of others.--_J. F. Clarke._
11. Upon the beach lies a piece of timber, part of a wreck; the wood is torn and the fibres rent where it was battered against the dull edge of the rocks.--_Jefferies._
12. And then, being given many rich gifts by the old Rajah, he set out to return home.--_Old Deccan Days._
13. There should find a peaceable refuge the odd volumes of honored sets, which go mourning all their days for their lost brother.--_Holmes._
14. Look backward only to correct an error of conduct for the next attempt.--_George Meredith._
15. Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn.--_Dickens._
16. A man can find more reasons for doing as he wishes than for doing as he ought.--_Ruskin._
17. Mist may rest upon the surrounding landscape, but our own path is visible from hour to hour, from day to day.--_Gladstone._
18. I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the Happiness of Duty.--_Lubbock._
19. In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.--_Longfellow._
20. One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.--_Lowell._
21. His home was at the top of a house of four floors, each with accommodation for at least two families, and here he had lived with his mother since his father’s death six months ago.--_Barrie._
22. As usual, the king-bird united the characters of brave defender and tender lover.--_Olive T. Miller._
23. And thus I came to the robber’s highway, walking circumspectly, scanning the skyline of every hill, and searching the folds of every valley, for any moving figure.--_Blackmore._
24. Mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all.--_Froude._
25. Every position in life, great or small, can be made as great or as little as we desire to make it.--_Dean Stanley._
26. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessing.--_Carlyle._
27. Granted that swimming must be learned; granted that the arts of the orator must be learned.--_Hale._
28. Then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions ducking under the rollers; or coming in on top of a comber and landing with a swash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach.--_Kipling._
29. When each man is true to himself, then must all things prosper.--_Spencer._
30. How easy it is to follow one of the two lives--the animal or the intellectual! how difficult to conciliate the two!--_Hamerton._
31. Govern the lips As they were palace-doors, the King within.
32. The way to be satisfied with the present state of things is to enjoy that state of things.--_Bagehot._
33. It is lawful to pray God that we be not led into temptation; but not lawful to skulk from those that come to us.--_Stevenson._
34. The consequence was that just when we were the most afraid to laugh, we saw the most comical things to laugh at.--_Beecher._
35. It’s wiser being good than bad; It’s safer being meek than fierce; It’s fitter being sane than mad.
36. To be sure, eyes are not so common as people think, or poets would be plentier.--_Lowell._
37. The actual problem to be solved is not what to teach, but how to teach.--_C. W. Eliot._
38. If it be the pleasure of heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may.--_Webster._
39. The ministers are good talkers, only the struggle between nature and grace makes some of ’em a little awkward occasionally.--_Holmes._
40. I hope your hearts will never get to be so dry and hard that they will not beat responsive to brave and noble deeds, even if they are not exactly prudent.--_Munger._
41. For months his only splendid possession had been a penny despised by trade because of a large round hole in it, as if some previous owner had cut a farthing out of it.--_Barrie._
42. Better to finish one small enterprise than to leave many large ones half-done.--_J. F. Clarke._
43. But woe to the man who is not ready for the opportunity when it comes.--_Hale._
44. They were assigned a dwelling place in the vilest and unhealthiest part of the city.--_Howells._
45. For to miss the joy is to miss all.--_Stevenson._
46. The reason why men succeed who mind their own business is because there is so little competition.--_Crawford._
47. All that is purchasable in the capitals of the world is not to be weighed in comparison with the simple enjoyment that may be crowded into one hour of sunshine.--_Higginson._
48. How the English navy came to hold so extraordinary a position is worth reflecting on.--_Froude._
49. The most troublesome meddler was, as might be expected, an English sparrow.--_Olive T. Miller._
50. We look before and after And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. --_Shelley._
51. But no living person is sunk so low as not to be imitated by somebody.--_Wm. James._
52. ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is simply a narrative of facts, though the facts did not happen to take place.--_Stephen._
53. When the Yosemite was discovered, it was supposed to be the only valley of the kind; but nature is not so poor as to possess only one of anything.--_Muir._
54. The haste to get rich, and the intense struggles of business rivalry, probably destroy as many lives in America every year as are lost in a great battle.--_J. F. Clarke._
55. I must be Mabel after all, and shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn.--_Lewis Carroll._
56. As soon as a stranger is introduced into any company, one of the first questions which all wish to have answered, is, How does that man get his living?--_Emerson._
57. “Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural,” answered Miss Rebecca.--_Thackeray._
58. And was not their experience, who lived in remote cabins, or wandered night after night through the loneliest woods, stronger evidence than the cold reasoning of those who hardly ever stirred abroad except in daylight?--_Page._
59. His head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupendous dimensions, that Dame Nature, with all her sex’s ingenuity would have been puzzled to construct a neck capable of supporting it; wherefore she wisely declined the attempt, and settled it firmly on the top of his backbone, just between the shoulders.--_Irving._
60. Once an artist has chosen evil and not good, his clay model ceases to be art and becomes only a mass of mud.--_Hillis._
61. Kill not--for Pity’s sake--and lest ye slay The meanest thing upon its upward way.--_E. Arnold._
62. Then we are told how Fielding emptied his pockets into those of a poorer friend; and when the tax-gatherer came, said, “Friendship has called for the money; let the collector call again!”--_Stephen._
63. He visited the nest when empty; he managed to have frequent peeps at the young; and notwithstanding he was driven off every time, he still hung around, with prying ways so exasperating that he well deserved a thrashing, and I wonder he did not get it.--_Olive T. Miller._
64. Divinity lies all about us, and culture is too hide-bound to even suspect the fact.--_Wm. James._
65. I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind.--_Wordsworth._
66. It is the people who rule.--_Hale._
67. You will walk in no public thoroughfare or remotest byway of English Existence, but you will meet a man, an interest of men, that has given up hope in the Everlasting True, and placed its hope in the Temporary, half or wholly False.--_Carlyle._
68. To separate pain from ill-doing is to fight against the constitution of things, and will be followed by far more pain.--_Spencer._
69. There was a story in our family, which I used to hear when a boy, that Governor Brooks, when an officer in the Revolution, received an order from General Washington to go somewhere, when he was lying helpless from rheumatism.--_J. F. Clarke._
70. Summer and winter came again--crocuses and roses; why not little Jane?--_De Quincey._
71. Every here and there, in an opening, appeared the great gold face of the west.--_Stevenson._
72. If I were writing a poem, you would expect, as a matter of course, that there would be a digression now and then.--_Holmes._
73. One said, “I am Health, and whom I touch shall never know pain nor sickness.”--_Schreiner._
74. I never knew a man to escape failure, in either body or mind, who worked seven days in the week.--_Peel._
75. Now this blush of beauty upon the cheek without represents regular habits for the health within.--_Hillis._
76. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.--_Wm. James._
77. Enough if in our hearts we know There’s such a place as Yarrow.--_Wordsworth._
78. The early white settlers of Kentucky soon became more than a match for the Indians in everything wherein the Indian excelled.--_J. F. Clarke._
79. An honorable defeat is better than a mean victory, and no one is really the worse for being beaten, unless he loses heart.--_Lubbock._
80. God’s influence on the heart was like the flowing wind--free, felt, and yet mysterious.--_Geikie._
81. Ha, it was only last week I had a new nozzle put on that umbrella.--_Jerrold._
82. We doubt whether there is in English literature a more triumphant book than Boswell’s.--_Birrell._
83. They would not eat except from off one plate.--_Old Deccan Days._
84. Science has nothing to do with Christ, except in so far as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence.--_Darwin._
85. Think of being moved religiously by looking at a pinnacle or bluff from thousand feet high, and then think what the earth contains which might move us.--_King._
86. It was Bagheera, the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk.--_Kipling._
87. It is not desirable to go out of one’s way to be original; but it is to be hoped that it may lie in one’s way.--_Higginson._
88. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.--_Macaulay._
89. I know few Christians so convinced of the splendor of the rooms in their Father’s house as to be happier when their friends are called to those mansions than they would have been if the Queen had sent for them to live at court; nor has the Church’s most ardent “desire to depart and be with Christ” ever cured it of the singular habit of putting on mourning for every person summoned to such departure.--_Ruskin._
90. Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just.--_Lowell._
91. The very word “education” is a standing protest against dogmatic teaching.--_C. W. Eliot._
92. He is as noiseless in a room as any of us women; and, more than that, with all his look of unmistakable mental firmness and power, he is as nervously sensitive as the weakest of us.--_Collins._
93. In a word, as Alphonse Karr puts it, the more we change, the more we remain the same.--_Besant._
94. Marshy ground covered their right; on the left, the most exposed part of the position, the hus-carles or body-guard of Harold, men in full armor and wielding huge axes, were grouped round the Golden Dragon of Wessex and the Standard of the King.--_J. R. Green._
95. I was startled at hearing her address by the familiar name of Benjamin the young physician I have referred to, until I found on enquiry, what I might have guessed by the size of his slices of pie and other little marks of favoritism, that he was her son.--_Holmes._
96. It is when to-morrow’s burden is added to the burden of to-day, that the weight is more than a man can bear.--_MacDonald._
97. He grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve among the mountains.--_Irving._
98. To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.--_Stevenson._
99. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals and forts.--_Longfellow._
100. Modern imaginative literature has become so self-conscious, and therefore so melancholy, that Art, which should be “the world’s sweet inn,” whither we repair for refreshment and repose, has become rather a watering place, where one’s own private touch of the liver-complaint is exasperated by the affluence of other sufferers whose talk is a narrative of morbid symptoms.--_Lowell._
101. The farmer was twisting a halter to do what he threatened, when the fox, whose tongue had helped him in hard pinches before, thought there could be no harm in trying whether it might not do him one more good turn.--_Froude._
102. If the youth decides to consume all his time and strength in making his arms big and his legs brawny, he ends his career a physical giant, indeed, but also an intellectual pigmy.--_Hillis._
103. Experienced soldiers tell us that at first men are sickened by the smell and newness of blood, almost to death and fainting; but that as soon as they harden their hearts and stiffen their minds, as soon as they _will_ bear it, then comes an appetite for slaughter.--_Bagehot._
104. Take away from us what the Greeks have given; and I hardly can imagine how low the modern European would stand.--_Ruskin._
105. And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine, Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent. --_Browning._
106. Though the French sailed out again, romance remained behind to dwell forever in Port Royal’s placid basin.--_Bolles._
107. There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance, that imitation is suicide.--_Emerson._
108. Now to Baloo’s word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept the man’s cub according to the Law.--_Kipling._
109. I believe it is by persons believing themselves in the right that nine-tenths of the tyranny of this world has been perpetrated.--_Thackeray._
110. It is a just and a feeling remark of Dr. Johnson’s that we never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.--_De Quincey._
111. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between savage and civilized man.--_Darwin._
112. It’s no matter what you say when you talk to yourself, but when you talk to other people, your business is to use words with reference to the way in which those other people are like to understand them.--_Holmes._
113. Mammon is not a god at all; but a devil, and even a very despicable devil.--_Carlyle._
114. The ship-builder who built the pinnace of Columbus has as much claim to the discovery of America as he who suggests a thought by which some other man opens new worlds to us has to a share in that achievement by him unconceived and inconceivable.--_Lowell._
115. Where, twisted round the barren oak, The summer vine in beauty clung, And summer winds the stillness broke, The crystal icicle is hung.--_Longfellow._
116. Whilst Johnson was preëminently a reasonable man, reasonable in all his demands and expectations, Carlyle was the most unreasonable mortal that ever exhausted the patience of nurse, mother, or wife.--_Birrell._
117. That house was built on purpose to show in what an exceeding small compass comfort may be packed.--_Mitford._
118. But the life which is to endure grows slowly; and as the soil must be prepared before the wheat can be sown, so before the kingdom of heaven could throw up its shoots there was needed a kingdom of this world where the nations were neither torn in pieces by violence, nor were rushing after false ideals and spurious ambitions.--_Fronde._
119. Words afford a more delicious music than the chords of any instrument; they are susceptible of richer colors than any painter’s palette; and that they should be used merely for the transportation of intelligence, as a wheelbarrow carries brick, is not enough.--_Higginson._
120. It always seems to be raining harder than it really is when you look at the weather through the window.--_Lubbock._
121. Sleep and dreams exist on this condition--that no one wake the dreamer.--_Schreiner._
122. It is only when you stick it in the silver candlestick and introduce it into the drawing-room, that a tallow-dip seems plebeian, dim, and ineffectual.--_George Eliot._
123. The crow boasts from the moment his loud voice first comes back to his ears from the echoing hillside, he steals from the time he sees the corn blades start from the furrow.--_Bolles._
124. A man who has learned to do anything well enjoys doing it. This is the lure which wise Nature uses to lead us to finish our work.--_J. F. Clarke._
125. A great Bostonian, whom I remember to have heard speculate on the superiority of a state of civilization in which you could buy two cents’ worth of beef to one in which so small a quantity was unpurchasable, would find the system perfected in Venice, where you can buy half a cent’s worth.--_Howells._
126. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape.--_Irving._
127. It is easy to sugar to be sweet and to nitre to be salt.--_Emerson._
128. Even Baloo, half smothered under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling as he heard the big Black Panther asking for help.--_Kipling._
129. Even Shakespeare, who seems to come in after everybody has done his best with a “Let me take hold a minute and show you how to do it,” could not have bettered this (_a line of Chaucer’s_).--_Lowell._
130. When I had the pleasure of staying at your father’s house, you told me, rather to my surprise, that it was impossible for you to go to balls and dinner-parties because you did not possess such a thing as a dress coat.--_Hamerton._
131. If, in the future, an age of general well-being is to arrive, its children will turn, as all men who have the opportunity must, to what is best in human art, to the literature of Greece.--_Lang._
132. I fear you will laugh when I tell you what I conceive to be about the most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent, and on a large scale; it is much stupidity.--_Bagehot._
133. Look beneath the surface anywhere and you can find ugly things enough, especially if you have a taste for the revolting.--_Stephen._
134. Tug as he would at the old man’s wrists, the hangman could not force him to unclinch his hands.--_Dickens._
135. His dislike of books was instinctive, hearty, and uncompromising.--_Boyesen._
136. It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon, A noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune.--_Coleridge._
137. Toil--toil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand--is the only true manhood, the only true nobility.--_Orville Dewey._
138. He had his eye all but exclusively directed on terrestrial matters.--_Carlyle._
139. And then, again, some of our old beliefs are dying out every year, and others feed on them and grow fat, or get poisoned, as the case may be.--_Holmes._
140. Old Matthew Maule, in a word, was executed for the crime of witchcraft.--_Hawthorne._
141. Our lodging-places must be the simple homes of Gaelic-speaking Presbyterians, in whose eyes we should be foreigners, not to say heathen.--_Bolles._
142. Dr. Bushby is said to have kept his hat on in the presence of King Charles, that the boys might see what a great man he was.--_Lubbock._
143. Look strictly into the nature of the power of your Goddess of Getting-on; and you will find she is the goddess--not of everybody’s getting on--but only of somebody’s getting on.--_Ruskin._
144. Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces.--_Kipling._
145. The capacity of indignation makes an essential part of the outfit of every honest man, but I am inclined to doubt whether he is a wise one who allows himself to act upon its first hints.--_Lowell._
146. We honor the rich, because they have externally the freedom, power, and grace which we feel to be proper to man, proper to us.--_Emerson._
147. Originality is simply a fresh pair of eyes.--_Higginson._
148. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own.--_Irving._
149. There are more fools and fewer hypocrites than the wise world dreams of.--_Schreiner._
150. It has been well said that an Englishman is never happy but when he is miserable; that a Scotchman is never at home but when he is abroad; that an Irishman is never at peace but when he is at war.--_Walker._
INDEX
_A_, modifying a pronominal adjective, 194.
_About_, modifying an infinitive, 125, note.
Absolute phrase, 134; without a participle, 135; after _with_ or _without_, 135; containing a prepositional phrase, 152; stereotyped, 197.
_According as_, introducing a clause of degree, 90.
_According to_, a preposition, 154.
Adverbs, modifying prepositional phrases, 156, 194; modifying nouns, 195; used independently, 202; as sentence modifiers, 209.
Adverbial noun, function of, 189; modifying a prepositional phrase, 156, 190; an adjective, 190; an adverb, 190; a clause, 190.
_Ago_, modified by an adverbial noun, 191.
_All but_, 221.
_All the quicker_, 193.
Analysis, method of, 38, 51, 66.
_And_, introducing a sentence, 106.
Anticipative subject, _there_, 49; _it_, 44.
Appositive, a noun clause, 47; function of, 161; with base-word a noun, 162; an adjective, 163; a pronoun, 163; a pronominal adjective, 163; a participle, 163; an infinitive, 114; a gerund, 141; what it modifies, 164; introductory word, 164; case and number of appositive noun, 165; position of appositive phrase, 166.
_As_, introducing an appositive, 165; a relative pronoun, 32; a subjective complement, 178; an objective complement, 181; a proposition used independently, 204; a phrase or clause modifying a sentence, 210.
_As for_, introducing an independent noun, 202.
_As if_, _as though_, introducing a modal clause, 64.
_Ask_, followed by two direct objects, 172.
_As long as_, _as soon as_, introducing a clause of time, 56.
_As to_, a preposition, 154; introducing an independent noun, 202.
_As well as_, a coördinating conjunction, 106.
_At a loss_, 124.
_At the best_, 193.
_At their wits’ end_, 125.
_Be_, meaning _go_, 123, note.
_By and by_, 196.
_But_, a relative pronoun, 32; introducing a noun clause, 45; a clause of result, 75; a sentence, 107; used adjectively, 195.
_Can but_, _cannot but_, 125, note.
Clauses,-- Adjective, function of, 28; classification, 29; restrictive, 30; unrestrictive, 30; introductory word, 30; what they modify, 33; position of, 35; introduced by subordinating conjunction _that_, 33; modifying _it_, 34; modifying a proposition, 34. Adverbial, modifying nouns, 195; of time, 53; introductory word, 54; what it modifies, 56; of place, function of, 59; peculiarities, 60; introductory word, 60; of manner, function of, 62; introductory word, 63; position of, 64; of cause, function of, 68; what it denotes, 69; connective, 70; what it modifies, 70; position of, 71; reason clause used independently, 205; of purpose, 73; connective, 73; of result, 74; of condition, 78; what it modifies, 80; introductory word, 80; of concession, 82; introductory word, 83; of degree or comparison, 87; classification, 88. Substantive, 42; function of, 42; uses, subject, 43; object of verb, 44; objective complement, 45; object of preposition, 45; appositive, 47; subjective complement, 47; after a preposition understood, 47; introductory word, 47.
Compound sentences, 18, 97; members of in same line of thought, 97; one imperative, one declarative, 98; in contrast, 98; in alternation, 99; second member a consequence, 99; an inference, 100; an explanation, 100; omission of conjunction in, 101; number of members in, 101.
Conjunctions, coördinating, joining dissimilar elements, 106; subordinating, introducing participial phrases, 132.
Conjunctive adverbs, introducing adjective clauses, 35; noun clauses, 48; participial phrases, 131.
Correlatives, 108; whether--or, 48, 83, 165; when--then, 55; where--there, 60; as--so, 63; so--that, 74; though--yet, 85; either--or, 99, 108; by as much--by so much, 90; neither--nor, 108; both--and, 108; not only--but, 108; so--as, 121.
_Day by day_, 196.
Ellipses, cause of, 214; in adjective clauses, 215; in adverbial clauses of time, 215; of manner, 216; of condition, 216; of concession, 217; of degree, introduced by _than_, 218; by _as_, 220; resulting in a participial phrase, 218; in independent propositions, 222; in compound sentences, 222; in answers to questions, 222.
_Even_, modifying a prepositional phrase, 156. Exclamative sentences, 26; used independently, 204; introduced by _would_, 223.
_Far from_, introducing a sentence modifier, 211.
_For_, as coördinating conjunction, 100; introducing an objective complement, 181; an independent element, 205.
Gerund, nature, 139; forms, 139; uses, subject, 140; object, 140; objective complement, 141; subjective complement, 141; appositive, 141; object of preposition, 141; adverbial noun, 141; adjective, 141; peculiar constructions, 141.
_Go_, followed by an infinitive, 123.
_Good and strong_, an idiom, 191, note.
_Had rather_, 117, note.
_Have_, followed by an infinitive, 117.
_If_, introducing clause of concession, 84.
Imperative sentences, 25; used independently, 204.
Independent elements, noun of address, 201; pleonastic noun, 202; adverb, 202; interjection, 202; prepositional phrase, 203; imperative sentence, 204; exclamative sentence, 204; clause of reason, 205.
Indirect object, function of, 186; position of, 186; becoming subject of passive verb, 187; after certain verbs, 188.
Infinitives, nature of, 112; forms, 113; uses, adjective, 114; appositive, 114; subject, 114; after anticipative subject, _it_, 116; object of verb, 116; part of double object of verb, 117; of preposition _for_, 125; subjective complement, 120; adverbial modifier, of verb, 121; of adjective or adverb, 123; object of preposition, 125; independent, 125; sign _to_ omitted, 117.
_In other words_, introducing an appositive, 165.
_In proportion as_, introducing clause of degree, 90.
_Instead of_, a preposition, 154.
_Interjection_, 202.
_It_, modified by an adjective clause, 34; used as anticipative subject before a noun clause, 43; before an infinitive, 116.
_Just the same_, 194.
_Let_, introducing clause of condition, 80.
_Like_, is it a preposition? 154.
_Make believe_, followed by object, 173.
_Make free_, followed by an infinitive, 182.
_Make up your mind_, followed by an object, 173.
_Mine_, as subjective complement, 176.
_Namely_, introducing an appositive, 164.
_Near_, _next_, _next door_, 155.
_Nevertheless_, coördinating conjunction, 99.
_Night through, the_, 157.
_No less than_, a coördinating conjunction, 107.
_No matter_, introducing clause of concession, 83; remaining after an ellipsis, 222.
_No wonder_, 222.
_None the less_, 193.
_None the worse_, 193.
_Not_, as an abridgment of a proposition, 223.
_Notwithstanding_, introducing clause of concession, 84.
_Now that_, introducing clause of time, 56.
Object, direct, a noun clause, 43; nature of, 169; cognate, 172; reflexive, 173; of preposition, 151; a noun clause, 45.
Objective complement, function of, 179; a noun clause, 44; gerund, 141; participle, 182, note; after certain verbs, 181; introduced by _as_ or _for_, 181; position of, 182.
_Off hand_, 196.
_Only_, a coördinating conjunction, 99.
_One behind the other_, 197.
_Or_, introducing an appositive, 165.
_Ought_, followed by an infinitive, 117.
_Out of_, a preposition, 154.
_Owing to_, a preposition, 154.
Participles, introducing clause of condition, 80; nature of, 129; forms, 130; seeming passive, 130, note; uses, mere adjective, 131; substantive, 131; instead of adjective clause, 131; of adverbial clause, 132; in absolute phrase, 134; accompanying a verb, 135; part of double object, 136; adverbial, 136; independent, 136; in peculiar constructions, 142; as prepositions, 154; as base of objective complement, 182, note; remaining after an ellipsis in a clause, 217.
_Partly_, modifying prepositional phrase, 156.
Prepositions, omitted before noun clause, 46; two in succession, 151; as part of verb phrase, 153; compound, 154; modified by adverbs, 157; position of, 157.
Prepositional phrases, function of, 146; used adjectively, modifying nouns, 148; completing intransitive verbs, 150; noun complement, 150, note; adverbial modifier, of verb, 150; of adjective, 151; modifying _alas_, 151, note; object of preposition, 153; part of absolute phrase, 152; with adverb or adjective for object, 154; modified, by a noun, 156; by an adverb, 156, 193; used independently, 203; as sentence modifiers, 209.
Propositions, constituent parts of, 7; classification, 11; principal or independent, 12; tests for, 13; subordinate or dependent, 12; function of, 14; independent, 204.
_Provided_, _providing_, introducing clauses of condition, 80.
_Quite the contrary_, 193.
Relative pronouns, introducing adjective clauses, 31; _as_ and _but_, 32; position in clause, 35; omission of antecedent, 35; introducing noun clauses, 47.
_Say_, introducing clause of condition, 80.
_See fit_, followed by an infinitive, 182.
Sentences, classification, according to structure, 18; according to form, 23; difficult to classify, 19; simple, 18; complex, 18; compound, 19; complex-compound, 19; partially-compound, 20; declarative, 23; interrogative, 23; imperative, 25; exclamative, 26.
Sentence modifiers, adverbs, 209; prepositional phrases, 210; phrases introduced by _as_, 210; clauses introduced by _as_, 211.
_Side by side_, 197.
_So_, as subjective complement, 177.
_So far as_, introducing clauses of degree, 91.
_Still_, as coördinating conjunction, 99.
Subjective complement, function of, 175; a noun clause, 47; an infinitive, 119; a participle, 130, note; a gerund, 141; a prepositional phrase, 176; after certain verbs, 177; introduced by _as_ or _for_, 178.
_Such_, modified by an as-clause, 32.
_Suffice_, introducing a sentence, 223.
_Suppose_, _supposing_, introducing clauses of condition, 80.
_Teach_, followed by two direct objects, 172.
_Tell_, followed by noun and infinitive, 119.
_Than_, joining coördinate elements, 107; introducing infinitives, 124.
_Thanks to you_, 204.
_That_, subordinating conjunction introducing adjective clauses, 33.
_That is_, introducing an appositive, 165.
_That is to say_, 122.
_The_, modifying an adjective or adverb, 193.
_Think best_, followed by an infinitive, 182.
_Though_, joining coördinate elements, 107.
_Time out of mind_, 197.
_To wit_ introducing an appositive, 165.
Transitive verbs, nature of, 170. made so by addition of adverb or preposition, 172.
_Upside down_, 197.
_Used_, followed by an infinitive, 123.
_What_, retained in infinitive phrases, 116; modifying prepositional phrases, 156.
_What if_, 222.
_Which_, retained in infinitive phrases, 116.
_While_, introducing clauses of concession, 84; as coördinating conjunction, 98, 99.
_With_, _without_, followed by an absolute phrase, 135.
_World over, the_, 157.
_Worth_, followed by a gerund, 141; by a noun, 190.
_Would_, introducing exclamative sentences, 223.
_Wrong side out_, 197.
_Year round, the_, 157.
ADVERTISEMENTS
GARNER’S GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
By JAMES W. GARNER, Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois
With Special State Editions
Merits the special consideration of teachers in secondary schools because in the first place it includes the most recent governmental problems of interest and importance, and in the second it devotes an unusual amount of space to a practical account of the workings of our government. The treatment, which is simple and interesting, proceeds from the simple to the most complex, presenting in turn the local, state, and national forms of government.
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OUTLINES OF ANCIENT HISTORY
By WILLIAM C. MOREY, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Rochester
This course in ancient history, from the earliest times to Charlemagne, meets fully the requirements of the College Entrance Examination Board, and of the New York State Education Department. The same vital features which have made the author’s Greek History and Roman History so successful, have been retained in this book. The same topical method of treatment, the same arrangement by paragraphs, the same simple, direct style, and the same clear and graphic presentation, are among its chief characteristics.
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NEW MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY
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By SAMUEL BANNISTER HARDING, Ph. D., Professor of European History, Indiana University.
Based upon the author’s “Essentials in Mediaeval and Modern History,” prepared in consultation with ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, LL.D., Professor of History, Harvard University.
While based on the author’s previous Essentials in Mediaeval and Modern History, in the present volume the plan has been so reorganized, the scope so extended, and the matter so largely rewritten, that the result is practically a new book. The present volume reflects the suggestions of many teachers who have used the previous work in their classes. The aim of this book has been to increase the emphasis on social, industrial, and cultural topics and to enable the student to understand modern conditions and tendencies.
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FRANÇOIS’ ESSENTIALS OF FRENCH
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A course for beginners, whose acquirement of a foreign language is often hampered by an incomplete mastery of English grammar. The development here proceeds from the known English form to the unknown French form, with constant comparison and contrast of the two languages. This system will tend to fortify students by forcing them to notice and analyze the English as well as the French forms of expression.
¶ The models precede the rules, the salient features being made prominent by heavy type. The rules cover the necessary facts of the language as simply and completely as possible, but the student is not confused by masses of exceptions, peculiarities, and idioms rarely seen and still more rarely used. The vocabulary, of moderate extent, is composed of ordinary words likely to be used in everyday conversation, and is increased slowly, care being taken to repeat the words again and again in succeeding exercises.
¶ The first lessons have been made short and simple, in order to allow for the initial difficulties. The exercises are composed of sentences connected in sense so far as this is possible without detriment to the application of the principles and repetition of words. Each lesson includes generally four exercises: a review, a portion of French text, a set of questions based on the text and usually followed by a grammar drill, and an English exercise based entirely on the text and on the rules developed in the lesson. Reading lessons are introduced at intervals and may serve also as exercises in pronunciation, dictation, conversation, or review of rules.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
MILNE’S STANDARD ALGEBRA
By WILLIAM J. MILNE, Ph.D., LL.D., President of the New York State Normal College, Albany, N. Y.
The Standard Algebra conforms to the most recent courses of study. The inductive method of presentation is followed, but declarative statements and observations are used, instead of questions. Added to this kind of unfolding and development of the subject are illustrative problems and explanations to bring out specific points, the whole being driven home by varied and abundant practice.
¶ The problems are fresh in character, and besides the traditional problems include a large number drawn from physics, geometry, and commercial life. They are classified according to the nature of the equations involved, not according to subject matter. The statement of necessary definitions and of principles is clear and concise, but the proofs of principles, except some important ones, are left for the maturer years of the pupil.
¶ Accuracy and self-reliance are encouraged by the use of numerous checks and tests, and by the requirement that results be verified. The subject of graphs is treated after simple equations, introduced by some of their simple uses in representing statistics, and in picturing two related quantities in the process of change, and again after quadratics. Later they are utilized in discussing the values of quadratic expressions. Factoring receives particular attention. Not only are the usual cases given fully and completely with plenty of practice, but the factor theorem is taught.
¶ The helpful and frequent reviews are made up of pointed oral questions, abstract exercises, problems, and recent college entrance examination questions. The book is unusually handy in size and convenient for the pocket. The page size is small.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
PLANT LIFE AND PLANT USES
By JOHN GAYLORD COULTER, Ph. D.
An elementary textbook providing a foundation for the study of agriculture, domestic science, or college botany. But it is more than a textbook on botany--it is a book about the fundamentals of plant life and about the relations between plants and man. It presents as fully as is desirable for required courses in high schools those large facts about plants which form the present basis of the science of botany. Yet the treatment has in view preparation for life in general, and not preparation for any particular kind of calling.
The subject is dealt with from the viewpoint of the pupil rather than from that of the teacher or the scientist. The style is simple, clear, and conversational, yet the method is distinctly scientific, and the book has a cultural as well as a practical object.
The text has a unity of organization. So far as practicable the familiar always precedes the unfamiliar in the sequence of topics, and the facts are made to hang together in order that the pupil may see relationships. Such topics as forestry, plant breeding, weeds, plant enemies and diseases, plant culture, decorative plants, and economic bacteria are discussed where most pertinent to the general theme rather than in separate chapters which destroy the continuity. The questions and suggestions which follow the chapters are of two kinds; some are designed merely to serve as an aid in the study of the text, while others suggest outside study and inquiry. The classified tables of terms which precede the index are intended to serve the student in review, and to be a general guide to the relative values of the facts presented. More than 200 attractive illustrations, many of them original, are included in the book.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
ESSENTIALS OF BIOLOGY
By GEORGE WILLIAM HUNTER, A. M., Head of Department of Biology, De Witt Clinton High School, New York City.
This new first-year course treats the subject of biology as a whole, and meets the requirements of the leading colleges and associations of science teachers. Instead of discussing plants, animals, and man as separate forms of living organisms, it treats of life in a comprehensive manner, and particularly in its relations to the progress of humanity. Each main topic is introduced by a problem, which the pupil is to solve by actual laboratory work. The text that follows explains and illustrates the meaning of each problem. The work throughout aims to have a human interest and a practical value, and to provide the simplest and most easily comprehended method of demonstration. At the end of each chapter are lists of references to both elementary and advanced books for collateral reading.
SHARPE’S LABORATORY MANUAL IN BIOLOGY
In this Manual the 56 important problems of Hunter’s Essentials of Biology are solved; that is, the principles of biology are developed from the laboratory standpoint. It is a teacher’s detailed directions put into print. It states the problems, and then tells what materials and apparatus are necessary and how they are to be used, how to avoid mistakes, and how to get at the facts when they are found. Following each problem and its solution is a full list of references to other books.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
WEBSTER’S SECONDARY SCHOOL DICTIONARY
This new dictionary is based on Webster’s New International Dictionary, and therefore conforms to the best present usage. It presents the largest number of words and phrases ever included in a school dictionary--all those, however new, likely to be needed by any pupil. It is a reference book for the reader and a guide in the use of English, both oral and written. It fills every requirement that can reasonably be expected of a dictionary of moderate size.
¶ This new book gives the preference to forms of spelling now current in the United States, in cases of doubt leaning toward the simpler forms that may be coming into use. In the matter of pronunciation such alternatives are included as are in very common use, but the one that is preferred is clearly indicated. Each definition is in the form of a specific statement accompanied by one or more synonyms, between which careful discrimination is made.
¶ In addition, this dictionary includes an unusual amount of supplementary information of value to students: the etymology, syllabication and capitalization of words; many proper names from folklore, mythology, and the Bible; a list of prefixes and suffixes; all irregularly inflected forms; rules for spelling; 2329 lists of synonyms, in which 3518 words are carefully discriminated; answers to many questions on the use of correct English constantly asked by pupils; a guide to pronunciation; abbreviations used in writing and printing; a list of 1200 foreign words and phrases; a dictionary of 5400 proper names of persons and places, etc.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS
Published Complete and in Sections
We issue a Catalogue of High School and College Textbooks, which we have tried to make as valuable and as useful to teachers as possible. In this catalogue are set forth briefly and clearly the scope and leading characteristics of each of our best textbooks. In most cases there are also given testimonials from well-known teachers, which have been selected quite as much for their descriptive qualities as for their value as commendations.
¶ For the convenience of teachers this Catalogue is also published in separate sections treating of the various branches of study. These pamphlets are entitled: English, Mathematics, History and Political Science, Science, Modern Foreign Languages, Ancient Languages, Commercial Subjects, and Philosophy and Education. A single pamphlet is devoted to the Newest Books in all subjects.
¶ Teachers seeking the newest and best books for their classes are invited to send for our Complete High School and College Catalogue, or for such sections as may be of greatest interest.
¶ Copies of our price lists, or of special circulars, in which these books are described at greater length than the space limitations of the catalogue permit, will be mailed to any address on request.
¶ All correspondence should be addressed to the nearest of the following offices of the company: New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Bold type thus: =strong=.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.