THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF CONDITION
=Function.=--We are seldom able to make unqualified statements, because
few facts are universally true. On the contrary, we must carefully
hedge in our statements by certain restrictions, and a useful means for
doing this is the adverbial clause of condition. For instance, “The
knight ever came to the rescue of a woman in danger or distress,” is a
sweeping statement, and would instantly be disputed unless we add the
conditional clause, “_provided she was a lady_.”
Such a clause is often so important that writers place it at the
beginning of the sentence as if they wished to guard against
contradiction or misunderstanding, by putting their readers at once
into the proper attitude for comprehending their principal statement.
If we examine a few typical sentences, we shall see how useful is the
condition clause in a variety of ways.
1. “_If nettles and thistles grow in my cabbage garden_, I don’t try to
persuade them to grow into cabbages.”--_Froude._ Here the clause states
a condition which is to be regarded as really taking place. The idea of
time is also associated with that of condition.
2. “_If, in the least particular, one could derange the order of
nature_,--who would accept the gift of life?”--_Emerson._ The clause
here states an imaginary condition, but at the same time implies what
is the real state of the case; namely, that no one can, in the least
particular, derange the order of nature.
3. “I might have been a minister myself, for aught I know, _if this
clergyman had not looked and talked so like an undertaker_.”--_Holmes._
Here the sentence is so framed that the contrary of both clause and
principal proposition is implied; namely, this clergyman did look and
talk exactly like an undertaker, hence I am not a minister. Is it not
wonderful that by means of one set of words we may say two opposite
things, and not fail of being understood?
4. “_If I was ever weak enough to give anything to a petitioner of
whatever nationality_, it always rained decayed compatriots of his for
a month after.”--_Lowell._ Here the subordinate thought is put into the
form of a clause of condition, but at the same time we understand that
we are to find in it the _cause_ of the principal proposition.
5. “Middlingness is always pardonable, _so that one does not ask others
to take it for superiority_.”--_George Eliot._ The clause is here a
saving clause. It states the exception necessary to be made in order
that the principal proposition may be accepted as true.
6. “_If my friend was not a genius_, he was certainly a
monomaniac.”--_H. James._ This sentence does not mean that my friend
was a monomaniac provided he was not a genius, but is a brief way of
saying,--If you assert that my friend was not a genius, you will then
have to admit that he was certainly a monomaniac.
7. “She has met the equinoctials before, _if it is the equinoctials
that are beginning_.”--Black. Here the clause does not state a
condition for the principal proposition, but for some thought not
expressed,--this, perhaps: _and can meet this storm_.
In these sentences we have by no means shown all that may be
accomplished by the conditional clause. We have only indicated the
types of sentences most frequently met with in which this clause occurs.
* * * * *
=What the Conditional Clause modifies.=--The conditional clause is
usually brought into the sentence by the predicate of the principal
proposition, and so must be looked upon as an adjunct of that
predicate. Sometimes, however, it modifies a gerund, participle, or
infinitive. In the sentence;--“She must have a story, well, ill, or
indifferently told, _so there be life stirring in it, and plenty
of good or evil accidents_,” the clause modifies the participle
_told_ after it has been modified by the adverbs _well_, _ill_, and
_indifferently_.
* * * * *
=Introductory Word.=--1. The subordinating conjunctions _if_, _so_,
_unless_ (= _if not_).
2. The phrases _on condition that_, _conditionally that_, _in case
that_, _provided that_, _but that_, _so that_. These should be
considered as one word.
3. The imperatives _say_, _let_, _suppose_; as, “_Suppose you were
going to carpet a room_, would you use a carpet having representations
of flowers upon it?”--_Dickens._ Here the condition seems to be actual
and present, not imaginary.
4. The participles _providing_, _provided_, _supposing_. The first two
are especially useful in introducing a restriction.
Sometimes there is no connective, but the subordination and the nature
of the clause are indicated by the order of the words, the verb or
its auxiliary being placed before the subject; thus, “_Had I twenty
girls_, they should be brought up exactly in this fashion.”--_Lamb._
Exercise 16
Dispose of all clauses of condition in the following sentences:
1. If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’
on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a
stake of holly through his heart.--_Dickens._
2. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with
barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means
justified by actually effecting that end.--_Mill._
3. Education will not make people happy, unless it is directed into
useful channels.--_Lord._
4. The hall was open to all who came on condition that the guest
should leave his weapons at the door.--_Besant._
5. Should a man discover the art of transmuting metals, and present us
with a lump of gold as large as an ostrich egg, would it be in human
nature to inquire too nicely whether he had stolen the lead?--_Lowell._
6. He made very few rules, and in case one was broken in spirit or
in letter, the delinquent was set up on a high stool behind a small,
long-legged desk, facing the school, and made to read from the bad
boy’s scrap book.--_Annie Preston._
7. If you would not be known to do a thing, never do it.--_Emerson._
8. While you utterly shun slang, whether native or foreign born,--at
present, by the way, our popular writers use far less slang than
the English,--yet do not shrink from Americanisms, so they be good
ones.--_Higginson._
9. The Saxon is the man of all others slow to admit the thought of
revolution; but let him once admit it, he will carry it through
and make it stick--a secret hitherto undiscoverable by other
races.--_Lowell._
10. Had it been wholly serious, it would not have been wholly
French.--_Higginson._
11. If he was ambitious, his ambition had no petty aim.--_J. R. Green._
12. Talents are absolutely nothing to a man except he have the faculty
of work along with them.--_Lowell._