The following anecdote is to the point :--- A medical witness, describing the injuries of the prosecutor, said that he had found him suffering from a severe contusion of the integuments under the left orbit, with great extravasation of blood and ecchymosis in the surrounding cellular tissue, which was in a tumefied state. The judge interrupted him with: 'You mean, I suppose, that the man had a black eye.’ 'Yes,' said the doctor. Then,' asked the judge,' why not say so at once?' Exercise 75. Substitute non-technical words for those printed in italics. The bound volume was forfeited as a deodand but not claimed. The child has premonitory symptoms of incipient rubcola [is going to have the measles]. Nucleated corpuscles multiply by division which is fissiparous or gemmiparous. Elastic tissue occurs both in the form of fibres and thin homogeneous membranes. It gets its name from being highly extensible and resilient. Adipose tissue consists of a number of minute vesicles. The costal cartilages are prolonged forward to the sternum. Articulating with the upper end of the sternum in the human subject are the clavicles. ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS. MEANING DEPENDENT ON ARRANGEMENT. 139. A lady who was watching an artist at work on a picture asked him what was the secret of gocd painting. There is no secret,' he replied; all that you have to do is to choose the right colours and put them in the right places.' Thank you very much,' she said; 'I am glad that it is so easy; I will go home and begin at once.' 140. The artist's description of the art of painting may be adapted to the art of composition. All that we have to do is to choose the right words and put them in the right places. 141. The arrangement of words is not subject to such rigid rules in fully inflected languages as in languages that are less inflected. Thus, in Latin, the sentence Gloria virtutem sequitur may without any change of meaning be written Gloria sequitur virtutem; Sequitur gloria virtutem; Sequitur virtutem gloria; Virtutem sequitur gloria; and Virtutem gloria sequitur; whereas the corresponding English sentence can be written in only one way— Glory follows virtue. 142. This example shows that when the Subject and the Object are both Nouns we cannot, from the formation1 of the words, tell which is the Subject and which is the Object; only the position of the words enables us to decide. 143. Moreover, the whole meaning of a sentence may depend on the placing of a word less important than either Subject or Object. Thus the sentence The inspector promised to examine the school which was closed may, by the insertion of the Adverb yesterday in three different places, be made to convey three different meanings:— (1) The inspector yesterday promised to examine the school which was closed. (2) The inspector promised to examine yesterday the school which was closed. (3) The inspector promised to examine the school which was closed yesterday. THE USUAL ORDER. 144. Much insight into the principles which underlie the arrangement of words may be derived from an examination of the order in which the different parts of a given sentence are placed. This statement needs some trifling qualifications. When, for example, the Nouns are of different Numbers we can tell from the Number of the Verb which Noun is the Subject. Exercise 76. Examine the order in which the different parts of the following sentences are placed. Note Rain is falling. Thou art the man. The very houses seem asleep. The path of duty is the way to glory. What objects are the fountains Every turf beneath their feet Britannia needs no bulwarks, He has exalted them of low degree. An unwonted splendour brightened Evil communications corrupt good manners. All the valuable books then extant in all the vernacular dialects of Europe would hardly have filled a single shelf. The squire sent her a brace of partridges. The spirit of your fathers Shall start from every wavė. Man wants but little here below. That you have wronged me doth appear in this. Things are not what they seem. See 'Notes for Teachers,' Note 15. They say the tongues of dying men He hath heard that men of few words are the best men. The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead. The spirits I have raised abandon me. He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping. The nightingale's high note is heard. A Turkey carpet was the lawn Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders generally discover everybody's face but their own. Nature never did betray The heart that loved her. The king himself has followed her, When she has gone before. Life has passed with me but roughly My muse doth not delight me As she did before. Corruption was necessary to the Tudors, for their parliaments were feeble. Freely we serve because we freely love. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Let my people go that they may serve me. Have respect to mine honour that you may believe. Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee. As the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So honour peereth through the meanest habit. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished. Had she lived a twelvemonth more, She had not died to-day. Know ye not Agincourt? Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty? We shall soon meet again. Our name is no more heard there. Every jolly Jack will soon be coming back. The two great national seats of learning had even then acquired the characters which they still retain. Some of them would even in our time deserve the praise of eminent disinterestedness. Those who had directed public affairs had been, with few exceptions, warriors or priests. The woman, being in great trouble, was weeping. My friends, expecting me, did not go out. The principles of conservatism and reform carried on their warfare in every part of society, in every congregation, in every school of learning, round the hearth of every private family, in the recesses of every reflecting mind. There is in the wide lone sea A spot unmarked but holy. . There came a lion and a bear. There stood proud forms around his throne. It was told the king of Egypt that the people fled.. The reader will, of course, understand the precise amount of seasoning which must be added to it before he adopts it as one of the axioms of his life. Audacious self-esteem, with good ground for it, is always imposing. Don't you know how hard it is for some people to get out of a room after their visit is really over? The race that shortens its weapons lengthens its boundaries. The Subject. 145. The Subject usually comes before the Verb; as Rain is falling. Thou art the man. Saul was chosen king. The Object. 146. The Object is placed after the Verb; as Cats catch mice. Soldiers fight battles. Mary is minding baby. |