at the manner in which it is expressed. This will lead him to take a step
or two over into the field of literature. If the attempt is made, one
condition seems imperative--the pupil should thoroughly understand what the
author says. We know no better way to secure this than to exact of him a
careful reproduction in his own words of the author's thought. This will
reveal to him the differences between his work and the original; and bring
into relief the peculiarity of each author's style--the stateliness of De
Quincey's, for instance, the vividness of Webster's, the oratorical
character of Macaulay's, the ruggedness of Carlyle's, the poetical beauty
of Emerson's, the humor of Irving's, and the brilliancy of Holmes's--the
last lines from whom are purposely stilted, as we learn from the context.
The pupil may see how ellipses and transpositions and imagery abound in
poetry, and how, in the use of these particulars, poets differ from each
other. He may note that poems are not pitched in the same key--that the
extracts from Wordsworth and Goldsmith and Cowper, for example, deal with
common facts and in a homely way, that the one from Lowell is in a higher
key, while that from Shelley is all imagination, and is crowded with
audacious imagery, all exquisite except in the first line, where the moon,
converted by metaphor into a maiden, has that said of her that is
inconsistent with her in her new character.
1. It is thought by some people that all those stars which you see
glittering so restlessly on a keen, frosty night in a high latitude, and
which seem to have been sown broadcast with as much carelessness as
grain lies on a threshing-floor, here showing vast zaarahs of desert
blue sky, there again lying close, and to some eyes presenting
"The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest,"
are, in fact, gathered into zones or _strata_; that our own wicked
little earth, with the whole of our peculiar solar system, is a part of
such a zone; and that all this perfect geometry of the heavens, these
_radii_ in the mighty wheel, would become apparent, if we, the
spectators, could but survey it from the true center; which center may
be far too distant for any vision of man, naked or armed, to reach.--_De
Quincey_
2. On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off,
they [our fathers] raised their flag against a power to which, for
purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her
glory, is not to be compared--a power which has dotted over the surface
of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts; whose
morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours,
circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial
airs of England.--_Webster_.
3. In some far-away and yet undreamt-of hour, I can even imagine that
England may cast all thoughts of possessive wealth back to the barbaric
nations among whom they first arose; and that, while the sands of the
Indus and adamant of Golconda may yet stiffen the housings of the
charger and flash from the turban of the slave, she, as a Christian
mother, may at last attain to the virtues and the treasures of a Heathen
one, and be able to lead forth her Sons, saying, "These are my
Jewels."--_Ruskin_.
4. And, when those who have rivaled her [Athens's] greatness shall have
shared her fate; when civilization and knowledge shall have fixed their
abode in distant continents; when the scepter shall have passed away
from England; when, perhaps, travelers from distant regions shall in
vain labor to decipher on some moldering pedestal the name of our
proudest chief, shall hear savage hymns chanted to some misshapen idol
over the ruined dome of our proudest temple, and shall see a single
naked fisherman wash his nets in the river of the ten thousand
masts,--her influence and her glory will still survive, fresh in eternal
youth, exempt from mutability and decay, immortal as the intellectual
principle from which they derived their origin, and over which they
exercise their control.--_Macaulay_.
5. To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last, bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony and shroud and pall
And breathless darkness and the narrow house
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart,--
Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around--
Earth and her waters and the depths of air--
Comes a still voice.--_Bryant_.
6. Pleasant it was, when woods were green,
And winds were soft and low,
To lie amid some sylvan scene,
Where, the long drooping boughs between,
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen
Alternate come and go;
Or where the denser grove receives
No sunlight from above,
But the dark foliage interweaves
In one unbroken roof of leaves,
Underneath whose sloping eaves
The shadows hardly move.--_Longfellow_.
7. I like the lad who, when his father thought
To clip his morning nap by hackneyed praise
Of vagrant worm by early songster caught,
Cried, "Served him right! 'tis not at all surprising;
The worm was punished, sir, for early rising."--_Saxe_.
8. There were communities, scarce known by name
In these degenerate days, but once far-famed,
Where liberty and justice, hand in hand,
Ordered the common weal; where great men grew
Up to their natural eminence, and none
Saving the wise, just, eloquent, were great;
Where power was of God's gift to whom he gave
Supremacy of merit--the sole means
And broad highway to power, that ever then
Was meritoriously administered,
Whilst all its instruments, from first to last,
The tools of state for service high or low,
Were chosen for their aptness to those ends
Which virtue meditates.--_Henry Taylor_.
9. Stranger, these gloomy boughs
Had charms for him; and here he loved to sit,
His only visitant a straggling sheep,
The stone-chat, or the glancing sand-piper;
And on these barren rocks, with fern and heath
And juniper and thistle sprinkled o'er,
Fixing his downcast eye, he many an hour
A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here
An emblem of his own unfruitful life;
And, lifting up his head, he then would gaze
On the more distant scene,--how lovely 't is
Thou seest,--and he would gaze till it became
Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain
The beauty, still more beauteous.--_Wordsworth_.
10. But, when the next sun brake from underground,
Then, those two brethren slowly with bent brows
Accompanying, the sad chariot-bier
Past like a shadow thro' the field, that shone
Full-summer, to that stream whereon the barge,
Pall'd all its length in blackest samite, lay.
There sat the life-long creature of the house,
Loyal, the dumb old servitor, on deck,
Winking his eyes, and twisted all his face.
So those two brethren from the chariot took
And on the black decks laid her in her bed,
Set in her hand a lily, o'er her hung
The silken case with braided blazonings,
And kiss'd her quiet brows, and, saying to her,
"Sister, farewell forever," and again,
"Farewell, sweet sister," parted all in tears.--_Tennyson_
11. Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 't is something, nothing;
'T was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.--_Shakespeare_.
12. When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he, returning, chide,--
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
--_Milton_.--_Sonnet on his Blindness_.
13. Ah! on Thanksgiving Day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New-Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored;
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,--
What moistens the lip, and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin-pie?
--_Whittier_.
14. That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
--_Shelley.--The Cloud_.
15. Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close,
Up yonder hill the village murmur rose.
There, as I passed with careless steps and slow,
The mingling notes came softened from below;
The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung,
The sober herd that lowed to meet their young,
The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool,
The playful children just let loose from school,
The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind,--
These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
And filled each pause the nightingale had made.
--_Goldsmith_.
16. To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;--
This is not solitude; 't is but to hold
Converse with nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.
--_Byron_.
17. The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang,
And through the dark arch a charger sprang,
Bearing Sir Launfal, the maiden knight,
In his gilded mail, that flamed so bright
It seemed the dark castle had gathered all
Those shafts the fierce sun had shot over its wall
In his siege of three hundred summers long,
And, binding them all in one blazing sheaf,
Had cast them forth; so, young and strong
And lightsome as a locust leaf,
Sir Launfal flashed forth in his maiden mail
To seek in all climes for the Holy Grail.--_Lowell_.
18. Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise,--
We love the play-place of our early days;
The scene is touching, and the heart is stone
That feels not at the sight, and feels at none.
The wall on which we tried our graving skill,
The very name we carved subsisting still;
The bench on which we sat while deep employed,
Tho' mangled, hacked, and hewed, not yet destroyed;
The little ones, unbuttoned, glowing hot,
Playing our games, and on the very spot,
As happy as we once, to kneel and draw
The chalky ring and knuckle down at taw,
To pitch the ball into the grounded hat,
Or drive it devious with a dexterous pat;--
The pleasing spectacle at once excites
Such recollection of our own delights
That, viewing it, we seem almost t' obtain
Our innocent, sweet, simple years again.--_Cowper_.
19. Considering our present advanced state of culture, and how the torch of
science has now been brandished and borne about, with more or less
effect, for five thousand years and upwards; how, in these times
especially, not only the torch still burns, and perhaps more fiercely
than ever, but innumerable rush-lights and sulphur-matches, kindled
thereat, are also glancing in every direction, so that not the smallest
cranny or doghole in nature or art can remain unilluminated,--it might
strike the reflective mind with some surprise that hitherto little or
nothing of a fundamental character, whether in the way of philosophy or
history, has been written on the subject of Clothes.--_Carlyle_.
20. When we see one word of a frail man on the throne of France tearing a
hundred thousand sons from their homes, breaking asunder the sacred
ties of domestic life, sentencing myriads of the young to make murder
their calling and rapacity their means of support, and extorting from
nations their treasures to extend this ruinous sway, we are ready to
ask ourselves, Is not this a dream? and, when the sad reality comes
home to us, we blush for a race which can stoop to such an abject lot.
At length, indeed, we see the tyrant humbled, stripped of power, but
stripped by those who, in the main, are not unwilling to play the
despot on a narrower scale, and to break down the spirit of nations
under the same iron sway.--_Channing_.
21. There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the
year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the
heavenly bodies, and the earth make a harmony, as if Nature would
indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet,
nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and
we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that
has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the
ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts.---_Emerson_.
22. Did you never, in walking in the fields, come across a large flat
stone, which had lain, nobody knows how long, just where you found it,
with the grass forming a little hedge, as it were, all round it, close
to its edges; and have you not, in obedience to a kind of feeling that
told you it had been lying there long enough, insinuated your stick or
your foot or your fingers under its edge, and turned it over as a
housewife turns a cake, when she says to herself, "It's done brown
enough by this time"? But no sooner is the stone turned and the
wholesome light of day let upon this compressed and blinded community
of creeping things than all of them which enjoy the luxury of legs--and
some of them have a good many--rush round wildly, butting each other
and everything in their way, and end in a general stampede for
underground retreats from the region poisoned by sunshine. Next year
you will find the grass growing tall and green where the stone lay; the
ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle had his hole; the
dandelion and the buttercup are growing there, and the broad fans of
insect-angels open and shut over their golden disks, as the rhythmic
waves of blissful consciousness pulsate through their glorified
being.--_Holmes_.
23. There is a different and sterner path;--I know not whether there be any
now qualified to tread it; I am not sure that even one has ever
followed it implicitly, in view of the certain meagerness of its
temporal rewards, and the haste wherewith any fame acquired in a sphere
so thoroughly ephemeral as the Editor's must be shrouded by the dark
waters of oblivion. This path demands an ear ever open to the plaints
of the wronged and the suffering, though they can never repay advocacy,
and those who mainly support newspapers will be annoyed and often
exposed by it; a heart as sensitive to oppression and degradation in
the next street as if they were practiced in Brazil or Japan; a pen as
ready to expose and reprove the crimes whereby wealth is amassed and
luxury enjoyed in our own country at this hour as if they had been
committed only by Turks or pagans in Asia some centuries
ago.--_Greeley_.
24. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and
the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an
improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economical old lady, which
was to suspend a large lump directly over the tea-table, by a string
from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth--an
ingenious expedient, which is still kept up by some families in Albany,
but which prevails without exception in Communipaw, Bergen, Platbush,
and all our uncontaminated Dutch villages.--_Irving_.
* * * * *
COMPOSITION.
LESSON 146.
SUMMARY OF RULES FOR CAPITAL LETTERS AND PUNCTUATION.
CAPITAL LETTERS, TERMINAL MARKS, AND THE COMMA.
+Capital Letters+.--The first word of (1) a sentence, (2) a line of poetry,
(3) a direct quotation making complete sense or a direct question
introduced into a sentence, and (4) phrases or clauses separately numbered
or paragraphed should begin with a capital letter. Begin with a capital
letter (5) proper names (including all names of the Deity), and words
derived from them, (6) names of things vividly personified, and (7) most
abbreviations. Write in capital letters (8) the words I and 0, and (9)
numbers in the Roman notation. [Footnote: Small letters are often used in
referring to sections, chapters, etc.]
+Period+.--Place a period after (1) a declarative or an imperative
sentence, (2) an abbreviation, (3) a number written in the Roman notation,
and (4) Arabic figures used to enumerate.
+Interrogation Point+.--Every direct interrogative sentence or clause
should be followed by an interrogation point.
+Exclamation Point+.--All exclamatory expressions must be followed by the
exclamation point.
+Comma+.--Set off by the comma (1) an explanatory modifier which does not
restrict the modified term or combine closely with it; (2) a participle
used as an adjective modifier, with the words belonging to it, unless
restrictive; (3) the adjective clause when not restrictive; (4) the adverb
clause, unless it closely follows and restricts the word it modifies; (5) a
phrase out of its usual order or not closely connected with the word it
modifies; (6) a word or phrase independent or nearly so; (7) a direct
quotation introduced into a sentence, unless formally introduced; (8) a
noun clause used as an attribute complement; and (9) a term connected to
another by _or_ and having the same meaning. Separate by the comma (10)
connected words and phrases, unless all the conjunctions are expressed;
(11) co-ordinate clauses when short and closely connected; and (12) the
parts of a compound predicate, and other phrases, when long or differently
modified. Use the comma (13) to denote an omission of words; (14) after
_as_, _namely_, etc., introducing illustrations; and (15) when it is needed
to prevent ambiguity.
+Direction+.--_Give the Rule for each capital letter and each mark of
punctuation in these sentences, except the colon, the semicolon, and the
quotation marks_:--
1. Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III., three sons of Catherine de
Medici and Henry II., sat upon the French throne.
2. The pupil asked, "When shall I use _O_, and when shall I use _oh?_"
3. Purity of style forbids us to use: 1. Foreign words; 2. Obsolete words;
3. Low words, or slang.
4. It is easy, Mistress Dial, for you, who have always, as everybody knows,
set yourself up above me, to accuse me of laziness.
5. He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.
6. The Holy Land was, indeed, among the early conquests of the Saracens,
Caliph Omar having, in 637 A. D., taken Jerusalem.
7. He who teaches, often learns himself.
8. San Salvador, Oct. 12, 1492.
9. Some letters are superfluous; as, _c_ and _q_.
10. No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing
hours with flying feet!
Direction.--_Use capital letters and the proper marks of punctuation
in these sentences, and give your reasons:_--
1. and lo from the assembled crowd
there rose a shout prolonged and loud
that to the ocean seemed to say
take her o bridegroom old and gray
2. a large rough mantle of sheepskin fastened around the loins by a girdle
or belt of hide was the only covering of that strange solitary man
elijah the tishbite
3. The result however of the three years' reign or tyranny of jas ii was
that wm of orange came over from holland and without shedding a drop of
blood became a d 1688 wm in of england
4. _o_ has three sounds: 1. that in _not_; 2. that in _note_; 3. that in
_move_
5. lowell asks and what is so rare as a day in June
6. spring is a fickle mistress but summer is more staid
7. if i may judge by his gorgeous colors and the exquisite sweetness and
variety of his music autumn is i should say the poet of the family
8. new york apr 30 1789
9. some letters stand each for many sounds; as _a_ and _o_
* * * * *
LESSON 147.
SUMMARY OF RULES--CONTINUED.
SEMICOLON AND COLON.
+Semicolon+.--Co-ordinate clauses, (1) when slightly connected, or (2) when
themselves divided by the comma, must be separated by the semicolon. Use
the semicolon (3) between serial phrases or clauses having a common
dependence on something which precedes or follows; and (4) before _as_, _to
wit_, _namely_, _i_. _e_., and _that is_, when they introduce examples or
illustrations.
+Direction+.--_Justify each capital letter and each mark of punctuation
(except the colon) in these sentences_:--
1. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it
will richly compensate for both.
2. Some words are delightful to the ear; as, _Ontario_, _golden_, _oriole_.
3. The shouts of revelry had died away; the roar of the lion had ceased;
the last loiterer had retired from the banquet; and the lights in the
palace of the victor were extinguished.
4. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who
heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw
their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill: and the
very walls will cry out in its support.
+Direction+.---_Use capital letters and the proper marks of punctuation in
these sentences, and give your reasons_:--
1. all parts of a plant reduce to three namely root stem and leaf
2. when the world is dark with tempests when thunder rolls and lightning
flies thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds and laughest at the
storm
3. the oaks of the mountains fall the mountains themselves decay with years
the ocean shrinks and grows again the moon herself is lost in heaven
4. kennedy taking from her a handkerchief edged with gold pinned it over
her eyes the executioners holding her by the arms led her to the block
and the queen kneeling down said repeatedly with a firm voice into thy
hands o lord i commend my spirit
+Colon+.--Use the colon (1) between the parts of a sentence when these
parts are themselves divided by the semicolon, and (2) before a quotation
or an enumeration of particulars when formally introduced.
+Direction+.--_Justify each capital letter and each mark of punctuation in
these sentences_:--
1. You may swell every expense, and strain every effort, still more
extravagantly; accumulate every assistance you can beg and borrow;
traffic and barter with every little, pitiful German prince that sells
and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign country: your
efforts are forever vain and impotent.
2. This is a precept of Socrates: "Know thyself."
+Direction+.--_Use capital letters and the proper marks of punctuation in
these sentences, and give your reasons_:--
1. the advice given ran thus take care of the minutes and the hours will
take care of themselves
2. we may abound in meetings and movements enthusiastic gatherings in the
field and forest may kindle all minds with a common sentiment but it is
all in vain if men do not retire from the tumult to the silent culture
of every right disposition
+Direction+.---_Write sentences illustrating the several uses of the
semicolon, the colon, and the comma_.
* * * * *
LESSON 148.
SUMMARY OF RULES--CONTINUED.
THE DASH, MARKS OF PARENTHESIS, APOSTROPHE, HYPHEN, QUOTATION MARKS, AND
BRACKETS.
+Dash+.--Use the dash where there is an omission (1) of letters or figures,
and (2) of such words as _as_, _namely_, or _that is_, introducing
illustrations or equivalent expressions. Use the dash (3) where the
sentence breaks off abruptly, and the same thought is resumed after a
slight suspension, or another takes its place; and (4) before a word or
phrase repeated at intervals for emphasis. The dash may be used (5) instead
of marks of parenthesis, and may (6) follow other marks, adding to their
force.
+Direction+.--_Justify each capital letter and each mark of punctuation in
these sentences:--_