UC-NRLF $B 3D7 ATT CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/constructiveexerOOfranrich CONSTRUCTIVE^ ■' EXERCISES IN ENGLISH BY MAUDE M. FRANK, A.B. INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, DE WITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL NEW YORK CITY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 1909 COPYBIOHT, 1909, Bt LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. EDUCATION DEPt» PREFACE The aim of this book is to do something toward sim- plifying one of the practical problems which confront the teacher of English in secondary schools. Owing to the increasingly varied demands of the subject, it is not unusual for the teacher possessed of even the most use- ful manual of rhetoric and composition to feel that " the little more " than the book affords in the way of practice would be very welcome. Every teacher with " a bit of fiat in his soul " will, of course, seek to provide this little more, by laying his memory and his reading under contribution in order to bring added emphasis to bear where it is needed. But how to present the result to his student public, — how to bridge the gap between con- sumer and producer, — is a troublesome question. Only on rare occasions can the time and the place and the students be found all together; and at best, the time required for placing supplementary exercises upon blackboards or for dictating them to classes must often be borrowed or stolen from other pedagogically worthy pursuits. The following pages are the result of an attempt to meet some of the difficulties of the situation. They are designed to furnish in convenient form more material for constructive work, both oral and written, than can be included in the necessarily comprehensive manual of 541410 iy PREFACE to-day, and thus to lessen the need for emphasizing theory and corrective work during the short time that can be devoted to formal rhetoric. In planning the exer- cises, special consideration has been given to the need for developing the student's vocabulary, and the selection of the illustrative passages has been made with a view to securing interest without sacrificing literary tone. It will be evident to any one familiar with the field of text-book literature that the exercises conform in the main to the accepted types of rhetorical practice-work, and can at most have only such claim to originality as lies in the selection and treatment of the material. For their courtesy in authorizing the use of selections from their publications thanks are due to many pub- lishers and authors in addition to those to whom ac- knowledgment has been made in the body of the text: to The Houghton Mifflin Company for the selections from James Russell Lowell's Essays, Emerson's Essays, E. C. Stedman's The Nature of Poetry, John Fiske's Old Virginia and Her Neighbors and The American Revolution, James Freeman Clarke's Self-Culture, Ros- siter Johnson's Introduction to Little Classics, Francis Lowell's Joan of Arc, Dean Briggs's Routine and Ideals, and John Corbin's An American at Oxford; to Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for the selections from Mrs. Oli- phant's Joan of Arc, Laurence Button's Talks in a Library, G. Masson's Story of Mediceval France, and A. C. Benson's At Large; to The Macmillan Com- pany for the selections from Alice Morse Earle's Child Life in Colonial Days and Home Life in Colonial Days, William Winter's Old Shrines and Ivy, Percy PREFACE V Mackaje's Canterbury Pilgrims, Lang, Leaf and Myers' translation of The Iliad, and Butcher and Lang's trans- lation of The Odyssey; to Messrs. Harper and Brothers for the selections from George William Curtis's Essays and As We Were Saying; to Messrs. D. Appleton and Company for the selections from E. E. Hale's Historic Boston; to Messrs. Thomas N'elson and Company for the selections from Mackenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century; to Messrs. Ginn and Company for the selec- tions from Miss Hersey's Talks to Girls; to Messrs. Henry Holt and Company for the selection from Pan- coast's Introduction to English Literature; to Messrs. Macmillan and Company for the selection from Maurice Hewlett's Quattrocentisteria ; to Messrs. Wm. Black- wood and Sons for the selection from Trollope's Auto- biography; to Messrs. Chas. Scribner's Sons for the quotation from Henley's Echoes; to Messrs. D. Apple- ton and Company and Messrs. Smith, Elder and Com- pany for Dr. Grimstone's letter from Anstey's Vice Versa; to The Macmillan Company and The Cam- bridge University Press for the selections from Sir Joshua Fitch's Lectures on Teaching; to Messrs. Chas. Scribner's Sons and Messrs. Chatto and Windus for the selections from Stevenson; to Messrs. Dodd, Mead and Company and Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Company for Austin Dobson's A Fancy from Fon- tenelle; to Messrs. Harper and Brothers and to Messrs. Chatto and Windus for the selection from McCarthy's Reign of Queen Anne; to Messrs. Doubleday, Page and Company and to the author for the quotation from Rudyard Kipling's Ballad of the King's Jest; to Mr. vi PKEFACE Edward Arnold and to Ealph Nevill, Esquire, for the selection from Lady Dorothy Nevill's Reminiscences; to Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Company and Messrs. Archibald Constable and Company for the selections from George Gissing's Private Papers of Henry Rye- croft; to Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Company and Mr. E. Grant Eichards for the selections from G. W. E. KusselFs A Pocketful of Sixpences; to Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Company and Messrs. John and A. Hallam Murray for the selections from On the Road through France to Florence; finally, to Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Company for the selections from Froude, Andrew Lang's Prince Prigio, Warner's English His- tory in Shakespeare's Plays, Bagehot's Economic Studies, Conington's translation of The ^neid, Roose- velt's New York, Russell's German Higher Schools, Creighton's A First History of France, and Bowen's Life of Edward Bowen, The valuable assistance rendered by Professor Helen Gray Cone of the Normal College, New York City, in reading the proof-sheets of these exercises is most grate- fully acknowledged. SUGGESTIONS "No definite scheme for using a book of supplementary exercises can in the nature of things be indicated, since the usefulness of such a book must depend to a great extent upon its elasticity of arrangement and its adapt- ability to the needs of classes varying in power and working under different conditions. Some features of the general plan may, however, require a word of explanation. 1. The greater part of the exercises have been planned with the object of furnishing material for classroom practice. Whenever the character of the ex- ercises will permit, therefore, much of the work should be done during the recitation period, and if practicable, orally. 2. The amount of time that may be profitably spent in such home preparation as is desirable has been con- sidered in determining the length of the exercises. 3. Strict consecutive order in using the material is in no way essential. As the headings indicate, the ex- ercises are arranged according to type rather than ac- cording to degree of difficulty. Exercises of similar type grouped under a single heading are, however, graded according to difficulty. 4. The exercises marked with an asterisk are in- tended for advanced pupils only. vii CONTENTS CHAPTER I.— VARIETY OF EXPRESSION PAGE 1. Direct and Indirect Quotation 1 2. Interrogation and Exclamation 4 3. Variety of Diction 8 4. Simplicity of Expression 15 5. Euphemisms 18 6. Use of Single Words to Secure Brevity 19 7. Specific Words 21 8. Generalizing from Specific Expressions 25 9. Choice of Expression 26 10. Shall and Will 33 CHAPTER II.— THE SENTENCE 1. Loose and Periodic Sentences 36 2. Parallel Structure 41 3. Emphasis 43 4. Variety of Structure 45 5. Short Sentences 50 6. Long Sentences 53 7. Use of Short Sentences as Introduction and as Con- clusion 55 8. Sentences Used as Models 60 CHAPTER HI.— THE PARAGRAPH 1. Limiting the Subject 63 2. The Topic-Sentence 63 3. Paragraph Unity 65 4. Paragraph Coherence 71 5. Paragraph Emphasis 76 6. Related Paragraphs 77 ix X CONTENTS CHAPTER IV.— RHYTHM PAGE 1. Line Division of Blank Verse 80 2. Restobing Rhythm 82 3. Altering Prose to Blank Verse 83 4. Completing Selections 84 CHAPTER v.— NARRATION 1. Supplying Conclusions 87 2. Amplifying Brief Narratives 88 3. Stating the Point 90 4. Writing Abridgments 92 5. Prose Versions of Poetical Narratives 99 6. Telling Stories from Different Points of View 103 7. Writinq Narratives Leading to Given Conclusions. . . 112 CHAPTER VI.— DESCRIPTION 1. Conveying Impression by Detail 115 2. Description by Conveying General Impression and by Detail 117 3. Pictorial Description 119 4. Description of Persons 120 5. Generalized Description 123 6. Contrasting Methods of Description 126 CHAPTER VII.— EXPOSITION 1. Definition 128 2. Exposition of Terms 131 3. Exposition of a Process 133 4. Exposition of a Method 134 5. Exposition of Propositions 135 6. Classification of Terms 137 CHAPTER VIII.— ARGUMENTATION 1. Statement of the Proposition 140 2. Outlining the Argument 144 3. Refutation 147 4. Fallacies 151 CHAPTER I VAEIETY OF EXPKESSION" I. Direct and Indirect Quotation A. In the following 'passages, change the direct quo- tations to indirect, paying particular attention to the correspondence of tenses: — Example. — Direct. After the loss of Calais, Queen Mary said, " When I die, ' Calais ' will be found written on my heart." Indirect. After the loss of Calais, Queen Mary said that when she died, " Calais " would be found written on her heart. 1. At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, John Hancock remarked to his associates, '^We must all hang together." " If we do not hang together," responded Benjamin Franklin, *^we shall all hang separately." 2. The music-master of George III said to his royal pupil, " There are three classes of violin players ; those who do not play at all, those who play very badly, and those who play well. Your Majesty has already succeeded in reach- ing the second class." 3. According to a German fable, when Hercules was ad- mitted to Olympus, he immediately sought out Juno and made obeisance to her, ^^ It is strange," remarked Jupiter, ; ^; :CW§a^UQTrV'E EXERCISES IN ENGLISH " that you should do such honor to your greatest enemy." " I owe my greatness to the obstacles which she placed in my path," responded the hero. 4. Marie Antoinette said to one of her ministers, " I have a difficult task which I wish you to perform." " If it is only difficult," was the diplomat's answer, " it is already done; if it is impossible, it shall be done." 6. A famous cartoon of the French Revolution represents the Assembly of the Notables as a flock of barnyard fowls called together by the farmer, who says to them, " I have assembled you to advise me with what sauce you are to be eaten." To this a cock responds, *'We don't want to be eaten at all," whereupon the farmer tells him, " You wan- der from the subject." B. Change the following from the indirect form to the direct: — 1. He argued with his father that he did not see why there should be kings who were rich while beggars were poor; and why the king should have poached eggs and plumcake at afternoon tea, while many other persons went without dinner. . . . And when the prince, after having his ears boxed, said that force was no argument, the king went away in a rage. — Andrew Lang: Prince Prigio. 2. When a lady showed Dr. Johnson a grotto she had been making, and asked him if it would not be a cool hab- itation in summer, he replied that he thought it would be — for a toad. 3. A very dull English nobleman once said that he would repeat a certain joke of Sheridan's. The latter, who was present, begged him not to do so, saying that a joke in his mouth was no laughing matter. VARIETY OF EXPEESSION 3 4. Pitt, while discussing French affairs in 1791, re- marked that England and the British Constitution were safe until the day of judgment. Burke replied, that it was the day of no judgment that he feared. 5. Prince Prigio was now called on to speak. He ad- mitted that the reward was offered for bringing the horns and tail, not for killing the monster. But were the king's intentions to go for nothing? When a subject only meant well, of course he had to suffer; but when a king said one thing was he not to be supposed to have meant another? Any fellow with a wagon could bring the horns and tail; the difficult thing was to kill the monster. If Benson's claim was allowed, the royal prerogative of saying one thing and meaning another was in danger. — Andrew Lang : Prince Prigio. C. In the following selection, change the direct quo- tations to indirect, and vice versa : — Opposite General Knox's bookshop was the best inn in town in 1776. I think Howe had his quarters there; I know that Washington took up his there, after his army entered. He took his landlady's little daughter on his knee. " Well, little lady, you have seen the English soldiers, and now you see the Yankees — which do you like best ? " Children are not good liars, and on Washington's knee no one, I suppose, could tell an untruth. The child said truly that she liked the redcoats best. The general laughed. "Yes, indeed," he said, "they have the best clothes. But it takes the ragged boys to do the fighting." — E. E. Hale: Historic Boston, 4 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH D. Make a connected narrative of the following correspondence between Lord Lytton and Lord WaU pole on the subject of the former's play, " Walpole," including the final comment. Use indirect quotation instead of the direct epistolary form. 1. " My dear Walpole : — Here I am at Bath — ^bored to death. I am thinking of writing a play about your great ancestor, Sir Robert. Had he not a sister Lucy, and did she not marry a Jacobite ? " 2. " My dear Lytton : — I care little for my family and less for Sir Robert, but I know that he never had a sister Lucy, so that she could not have married a Jacobite." 3. " My dear Walpole :— You are too late! Sir Robert had a sister Lucy, and she did marry a Jacobite." So, in defiance of history, the play " Walpole " came to be written. Lady Dorothy Nevill : Reminiscences. 2. Interrogation and Exclamation. A. In the following passages, substitute the declara- tive for the interrogative or the exclamatory form: — Example. — We have been told that the age was friv- olous and small. How, in the presence of these masters, shall we deny its grandeur? Where, if we remember also the achievements of Isaac New- ton, shall we find its compeer? — Spectator, Octo- ber 31, 1908. VAEIETY OF EXPEESSION 6 Eewkitten. — We have been told that the age was friv- olous and small. In the presence of these mas- ters, we cannot deny its grandeur. If we remem- ber also the achievements of Isaac ^N^ewton, we shall find its compeer nowhere. 1. There are two ways in which authors survive; one by the constant reading of their works, the other by their names. Is Milton a forgotten author? But how much is he read, compared with the contemporary singers? Is Plato forgotten? Yet how many know him except by name? — G. W. Curtis : Essays. 2. Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed — the opening feast of Prince George in London, or the resignation of Washington? Which is the noble character for after ages to admire — yon fribble dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder hero who sheathes his sword after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage in- domitable and a consummate victory? Which of these is the true gentleman? — Thackeray : George the Fourth. 3. What manner of life is that which is described in these pages, as the every-day existence of a thief? What charms has it for the young and ill-disposed, what allure- ments for the most jolter-headed of juveniles? Here are no canterings on moonlit heaths, no merrymakings in the snuggest of all possible caverns, none of the attractions of dress, . . . none of the dash and freedom with which *'the road" has been, time out of mind, invested. The cold, wet, shelterless midnight streets of London, the foul and frowsy dens where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn ; the haunts of hunger and disease, the shabby rags that scarce hold together; — where are the attractions 6 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH of these things? Have they no lesson, and do they not whisper something beyond the little-regarded warning of an abstract moral precept? — Dickens: Preface to Oliver Twist. 4. How very small a part of the world we truly live in is represented by what speaks to us through the senses, when compared with that vast realm of the mind which is peo- pled by memory and imagination and with such shining inhabitants! These walls, these faces, what are they in comparison with the countless images, the innumerable population which every one of us can summon up to the tiny show-box of the brain, in material breadth scarce a span, yet infinite as space and time ? And in what, I pray, are those we gravely call historical characters, of which each new historian strains his neck to get a new and dif- ferent view, in any sense more real than the personage of fiction ? — Lowell : Books and Libraries. 5. What is this naturalization, however, but a sort of parable of human life ? Are we not always trying to adjust ourselves to new relations, to get naturalized into a new family? Does one ever do it entirely? And how much of the lonesomeness of life comes from the failure to do it! It is a tremendous experiment, we all admit, to separate a person from his race, from his country, from his climate, and the habits of his part of the country, by marriage ; it is only an experiment differing in degree to introduce him by marriage into a new circle of kinsfolk. Is he ever any- thing but a sort of tolerated, criticised, or admired alien ? — G. W. Curtis: As We Were Saying, B. Recast the following passages in such a way as to add emphasis hy appropriate use of the interroga- tive form: — VAKIETY OF EXPRESSION 1 Example. — Universities arose while there were yet no books procurable; while a man for a single book had to give an estate of land. That in those cir- cumstances, when a man had some knowledge to communicate, he should do it by gathering the learners round him, face to face, was a necessity for him. If you wanted to know what Abelard knew, you must go and listen to Abelard. Thou- sands, as many as thirty thousand, went to hear Abelard and that metaphysical theology of his. And now for any other teacher who had also some- thing of his own to teach, there was a great con- venience opened ; so many thousands eager to learn were already assembled yonder; of all places the best place for him was that. For any third teacher it was better still ; and grew ever better, the more teachers there came. — Caelyle : The Hero as Man of Letters. Reweitten. — Universities arose while there were yet no books procurable ; while a man for a single book had to give an estate of land. Was it not a neces- sity in those circumstances, that when a man had some knowledge to communicate, he should do it by gathering the learners around him face to face ? How could you know what Abelard knew otherwise than by going and listening to Abelard? Thou- sands, as many as thirty thousand, went to hear Abelard and that metaphysical theology of his. And now for any other teacher who had also some- thing of his own to teach, was there not a great con- venience opened? So many thousands eager to 8 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH learn were already assembled yonder ; was not that of all places the best place for him ? And for any third teacher, was it not better still, growing ever the better the more teachers there came ? 1. I do assure those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and have obtained the blessing that they sought, that they are at this instant in very great straits. ... As yet they, and their German allies of twenty hireling states, have contended only with the unprepared strength of our own infant colonies. But America is not subdued. Not one unattacked village which was originally adverse throughout that vast continent has yet submitted from love or terror. You have the ground you encamp on; and you have no more. — ^BuRKE : Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. 2. If we think of it, all that a university, or final highest school can do for us, is still but what the first school began doing — teach us to read. We learn to read in various languages, in various sciences; we learn the alpha- bet and letters of all manner of books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowledge, is the books themselves! It depends on what we read, after aU manner of professors have done their best for us. — Carlyle : The Hero as Man of Letters, 3. Variety of Diction A. Recast each of the following statements in at least two ways, varying the wording as much as possible: — Example. — " The storm, however, beat idly on the ob- stinacy of the King " — may be recast as follows : — VARIETY OF EXPRESSIOlSr 9 (a) The King^ however, was not to be shaken by the fierceness of the opposition he had to encounter. (b) The fixity of the King's purpose was, however, in no way changed by the attack. 1. No man ignorant of history can govern. 2. The terror of death was powerless against men like these. 3. They take their statesmen at their word, and refuse to believe that they mean mischief. 4. Precise rules cannot be laid down which will meet all cases. 5. It is far easier to acquire facts than to judge what they prove. 6. If we keep our Indian Empire, we shall keep it by sweeping our brain clear of dreams. 7. We have to consider the million, not the units, the average, not the exceptions. 8. Labor is the inevitable lot of the majority, and the best education is that which will make their labor most productive. 9. After planting the banner of King George on the ruins of Fort Du Quesne, Captain Washington sheathed his sword and retired to private life. 10. The contributions of the scholars to the common- wealth were not appreciable in money, and were not re- warded with money. B. Substitute equivalent expressions for the itali- cized terms, 1. Not only in the court, but in both Houses of Parlia- ment, from the episcopal bench and from the pulpits of the 10 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH church-party, there were promulgated doctrines of the most dangerous kind. — Buckle. 2. In the notion of sovereignty they found inherent the notion of an indefeasible right to impose and exact taxes. — John Morley. 3. Exempt from his defects and irregularities, Burke wanted the suavity of Fox's manner, his amenity and his placability. — Wraxall: Memoirs. 4. Public calamity is a mighty leveler, and there are occasions when the slightest chance of doing good must be laid hold on even by the most inconsiderable person. — Burke. 5. Neither was the meanest peasant so much below the grandeur and the sorrow of the times as to confound bat- tles such as these which were gradually moulding the des- tinies of Christendom with the vulgar conflicts of ordinary warfare, so often no more than gladiatorial trials of na- tional prowess. — De Quincey. 6. Having received ordination at Easter, I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Hon. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her Ladyship. — Jane Austen. 7. The affairs of the antediluvian world lay in a nar- rower compass, their libraries were indifferently furnished, philosophical researches were carried on with much less industry and acuteness of penetration. — Cowper: Letters, 8. The increase of political liberty, the abolition of law VAEIETY OF EXPKESSION 11 restricting individual action, and the amelioration of the criminal code, have been accompanied by a hindred prog- ress towards non-coercive education. — Herbert Spencer. 9. As soon as these arrangements were made, he no longer deferred the execution of his project, which he hastened from a consideration of what the world suffered from his delay; so many were the grievances he intended to redress, the wrongs to rectify, errors to amend, abuses to reform, and debts to discharge. — Don Quixote; Trans. C. Jarvis. 10. Some parents are so hoodwinked by their excessive fondness that they see not the imperfections of their chil- dren, and mistake their folly and impertinence for spright- liness and wit; but I, who though seeming the parent, am in truth only the step-father of Don Quixote, will not yield to this prevailing infirmity. — Preface to same. * C. Rewrite, avoiding, as much as possible, the use of words of Latin origin, 1. That public virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members. Such a senti- ment, which has rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince, and it be- came necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different but not less forcible nature — honour and religion. The peasant or mechanic imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, 12 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH in which his rank and reputation would depend on his own valor, and that, although the prowess of a private soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his own behaviour might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army, to whose honours he was associated. He promised never to desert his stand- ard, to submit his own will to the commands of his lead- ers, and to sacrifice his life to the safety of the empire. . . . Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated re- compense, after the appointed term of service, alleviated the hardships of the military life, whilst on the other hand it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the severest punishment. — Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2. It will not be easy to find, in all the opulence of our language, a treatise so artfully variegated with successive representations of opposite probabilities, so enlivened with imagery, so brightened with illustrations. His portraits of the English dramatists are wrought with great spirit and diligence. The account of Shakespeare may stand as a per- petual model of encomiastic criticism; exact without minuteness, and lofty without exaggeration. The praise lavished by Longinus on the attestation of the heroes of Marathon by Demosthenes fades away before it. In a few lines is exhibited a character so extensive in its comprehen- sion, and so curious in its limitations, that nothing can be added, diminished or reformed; nor can the editors and admirers of Shakespeare, in all their emulation of rever- ence, boast of much more than of having diffused and par- aphrased this epitome of excellence, of having changed Dryden's gold for baser metal of lower value, though of greater bulk. — Johnson : Life of Dryden, VARIETY OF EXPRESSION 13 D. Give in modern English the substance of the following quotations from sixteenth and seventeenth century writers: — Example. — The well-known passage from Bacon's essay " On Studies/' " Crafty men contemn studies, sim- ple men admire them, and wise men use them. For they teach not their own use, hut that is a wis- dom without them and above them, won by observa- tion," — may be recast in this way : ^^ Learning is not unfrequently despised by the clever, practical man; it is regarded with childish wonder by the foolish, but it is truly appreciated only by the wise. For learning does not teach its possessor how to employ it ; the power to do this aright is a higher attainment than any scholarship, and can only come by thinking and observing." — Quoted from Sir Joshua Fitch : Lectures on Teaching, 1. It fortuned that as Macbeth and Banquo journeyed towards Torres, where the king then lay, they went sport- ing by the way together without other company save only themselves, passing through the woods and fields, when suddenly in the midst of a land, there met them three women in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of the elder world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said : — " All hail, Macbeth, thane of Glamis ! " (for he had lately entered into that office by the death of his father Sinel). 2. He hazardeth sore that waxeth wise by experience. 14 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH An unhappy master is he that is made cunning by many shipwrecks; a miserable merchant, that is neither rich nor wise but after some bankrupts. . . . We know by expe- rience itself that it is a marvellous pain to find out but a short way by long wandering. 3. And in all experience and stories you will find that three things that prepare and dispose an estate to war: the ambition of governors, a state of soldiers professed, and the hard means to live of many subjects. Whereof the last is the most forcible and the most constant. * E. Rewrite as in the preceding exercise, 1. Some man, if he be sick, can away with no wholesome meat, nor no medicine can go down with him, but if it be tempered with some such thing for his fantasy as maketh the meat or the medicine less wholesome than it should be. And yet while it will be no better, we must let him have it so. 2. Repulse and disgrace are two main causes of discon- tent, but to an understanding man, not so hardly to be taken. Caesar himself hath been denied, and when two stand equal in fortune, birth, and all other qualities alike, one of necessity must lose. Why shouldst thou take it so grievously ? 3. And certainly, as fame hath often been dangerous to the living, so is it to the dead of no use at all ; because sep- arate from knowledge. Which were it otherwise, and the extreme ill bargain of buying this lasting discourse, under- stood by them which are dissolved; they themselves would then rather have wished to have stolen out of the world without noise, than to be put in mind that they have pur- chased the report of their actions in the world by giving VAEIETY OF EXPRESSIOlSr 15 in spoil the inDocent and laboring soul to the idle and insolent. 4. Simplicity of Expression A. Give hriefly and simply the substance of the let- ter quoted below. Example. — The fact stated in the words : " Disease gloomed, and made long my wintry and vernal hours since I had the honour and delight of con- versing with you in Warwickshire '' (the opening sentence of a letter from Miss Seward, the ^^ Swan of Lichfield," to Dr. Parr), might have been put as follows : " Since I had the pleasure of meeting you in Warwickshire, I have had a tedious illness which lasted through the winter and spring." Letter dictated to his pupils by Dr. Grimstone, the master of Crichton House Academy : — " My dear parents (or parent, according to circum- stances) comma," (all of which several took down most industriously) — " You will be rejoiced to hear that, having arrived with safety at our destination, we have by this time fully resumed our customary regular round of earnest work relieved and sweetened by hearty play." (" Have you all got ^ hearty play ' down ? " inquired the Doctor rather suspiciously, while Jolland observed in an under- tone that it would take some time to get that down.) " I hope, I trust, I may say without undue conceit, to have made considerable progress in my school-tasks be- fore I rejoin the family circle for the Easter vacation, 16 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH as I think you will admit when I inform you of the program we intend " (" D. V. in brackets and capital letters " — as before, this was taken down by Jolland, who probably knew very much better) " . . .to work out during the term. In Latin, the class of which I am a member propose to thoroughly master the first book of Virgil's magnifi- cent Epic, need I say I refer to the soul-moving story of the Pious ^neas?" (Jolland was understood by his near neighbor to remark that he thought the explana- tion distinctly advisable), "whilst, in Greek, we have already commenced the thrilling account of the Anab- asis of Xenophon, that master of strategy! nor shall we, of course, neglect in either branch of study the syntax and construction of those two noble lan- guages. . . . In German, under the able tutelage of Herr Stoh- wasser, who, as I may possibly have mentioned to you in casual conversation, is a graduate of the University of Heidelberg, ... we have resigned ourselves to the spell of the Teutonian Shakespeare " (there was much difference of opinion as to the manner of spelling " Teutonian Shakespeare ") " as, in my opinion Schiller may be, not inaptly termed, and our French studies comprise such exercises, and short poems and tales as are best calculated to afford an insight into the intri- cacies of the Gallic tongue. But I would not have you imagine, my dear parents (or parent, as before), that, because the claims of the intellect have been thus amply provided for, the re- quirements of the body are necessarily overlooked! I VAKIETY OF EXPEESSION 17 have no intention of becoming a mere bookworm, and, on the contrary, we have had one excessively brisk and pleasant game of football already this season, and should, but for the unfortunate inclemency of the weather, have engaged again this afternoon in the mimic warfare. . . . I fear I must now relinquish my pen, as the time allotted for correspondence is fast waning to its close, and tea-time is approaching. Pray give my kindest re- membrances to all my numerous friends and relatives, and accept my fondest love and affection for yourselves and the various other members of the family circle. I am, I am rejoiced to say, in the enjoyment of excel- lent health, and surrounded as I am by congenial com- panions, and employed in interesting and agreeable pursuits, it is superfluous to add that I am happy. And now, my dear parents, believe me your dutiful and affectionate son, so and so. . . ." — F. Anstey: Vice Versa, B. The possibilities of Dr. Grimstone's letter-writ- ing style are suggested by the subjoined specimens of " Desultory Reflections," quoted from Punch by Ed- ward FitzGerald in " Polonius." Give the " Reflections " in their more familiar form. 1. Iniquitous intercourses contaminate proper habits. 2. One individual may pilfer a quadruped, where another may not cast his eyes over the boundary of a field. 3. In the absence of the feline race, the mice give them- selves up to various pastimes. 18 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 4. Feathered bipeds of advanced age are not to be en- trapped with the outer husks of corn. 5. More confectioners than are absolutely necessary are apt to ruin the potage, 5. Euphemisms Euphemism — a softened or an indirect statement of an unpleasant truth. Restate the following so as to bring out their literal meaning : — 1. She was but modestly addicted to her books. 2. The Sahib shot divinely, but God was very merciful to the birds. (An East Indian servant's answer to the in- quiry whether his master had had a successful day's sport.) 3. The last days of this great monarch (Henry VIII) were clouded by domestic difficulties. (Quoted by Mr. Bryce in a note to his essay on J. R. Green.) 4. James Payn said that his gift for mathematics con- sisted mainly of a distaste for the classics. 5. Years have made very little impression on him, either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces in his brain. 6. His hands seemed unused to the flimsy artifices of the bath. 7. Mrs. Primrose could read any English book without much spelling. 8. His sense of meum and tuum was imperfectly devel- oped. 9. He depended upon his imagination for his facts. 10. He was full of precaution against real or imaginary dangers. 11. He was conspicuously free from shyness. 12. It is a mode of travel to be recommended rather to the inquiring than to the fastidious mind. VARIETY OF EXPRESSION Id 6. Use of Single Words to Secure Brevity Substitute a single word for the italicized expressions, A. 1. "Waverley/' Scott's first prose romance, was published without the author's name. 2. Horace Greeley wrote a hand that was almost impoS' sible to read. 3. Achilles' mother dipped him into the river Sty:x, in order to render him incapable of being wounded. 4. The English language contains many pairs of words having the same meaning. 5. The story of the Nibelungen treasure is one of the best-known legends of the Middle Ages. 6. Milton's " Lycidas " is a famous poem lamenting the death of a friend. 7. Swallows move from one latitude to another with ex- traordinary rapidity and regularity. 8. Pope's early poems were descriptive of country life. 9. Tantalus was tormented by a hunger and thirst that could never be satisfied. 10. Thackeray was a writer who ridiculed the follies of mankind. B. 1. Burke tried to bring about a renewal of the friendly feeling between England and the colonies. 2. It was an accident which could not have been pre^ vented. 3. It is probable that Joan of Arc will soon be enrolled in the official catalogue of saints. 4. The head of the military college was an exceedingly strict disciplinarian. 5. Addison tells us that the Spectator, from earliest youth, was remarkable for being habitually silent. 20 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 6. Columbus's plan to reach the Indies by sailing west- ward seemed quite incapable of accomplishment to the nav- igators of his day. 7. " Weir of Hermiston/' the unfinished novel by Steven- son, was published after the author's death. 8. Wolfe's victory at Quebec meant to the French a loss that could never he m^ade up. 9. Most practical philosophers are believers in the doc- trine that good is stronger than evil. 10. Many beautiful melodies lose their charm for us when they become familiar through frequent repetition. C. 1. A government in which the ruler has absolute power no longer prevails in Turkey. 2. The Continental Congress made an enemy of Arnold by charging him with dishonest practices. 3. Richard Cromwell succeeded his father as Protector, but soon proved himself quite unfit for the responsibilities of the office. 4. The work of Thackeray was not estimated at its true value until " Vanity Fair " appeared. 5. Dickens won the admiration of the public very early in his career. 6. Burke said that none of the American colonists were without at least a slight and superficial knowledge of law. 7. When George III became incapable of governing, Parliament appointed the Prince of Wales ruler in place of the king. 8. During the reign of William and Mary, many of the oppressive laws affecting those not holding the doctrines of the Established Church were repealed. 9. A white flag in warfare is the sign of temporary ces- sation of hostilities. 10. Thackeray's " Novels by Eminent Hands " are hur^ VAEIETY OF EXPRESSION 21 Usque imitations of the style of famous nineteenth-century novelists. D. 1. The percentage of persons unable to read and write is much lower in northern than in southern Europe. 2. The bitterness expressed in " Gulliver's Travels " war- rants the reader in believing that Swift was a hater of mankind, 3. Lord Shaftesbury, the great lover and benefactor of mankind, was largely responsible for the reform of English factory legislation. 4. A common Roman inscription upon a tombstone was the phrase, " Bene merenti," " To one who has deserved well." 5. Thackeray represents Steele as being a spendthrift who was quite incapable of being reformed. 6. In modern plays, the plot is seldom explained by means of speeches uttered by the characters when alone. 7. " Alice in Wonderland " is probably the most popular of all books intended for young people. 8. Burke said that the discussion whether or not Eng- land had a right to tax the colonies was quite unrelated to the point at issue. 9. Macaulay's essays are written from the standpoint of a person who is earnestly devoted to his party. 10. Washington was elected president without a single opposing vote. 7. Specific Words A. Give five specific words describing or suggesting : — 1. The sound or motion of running water. 2. The quality of a voice. 3. A person's gait. 22 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 4. The giving forth of light. 5. The giving forth of heat. 6. A disturbance. 7. Air in motion. 8. Fear. 9. The notes of birds. 10. Wintry weather. Example. — Specific words describing the flights of birds, — circling, swooping, wheeling, darting, flut- tering. B. Give five nouns to which the following adjectives may he applied in other than the strictly literal sense: — Example. — The adjective " sharp " which, in its lit- eral use, suggests an appeal to the sense of touch may be used in the following connections: — A sharp rebuke, a sharp tongue, a sharp eye, sharp work, sharp practice. Bitter. Bright. Brilliant. Deep. Strong. Keen. Sorry. Happy. Heavy. Cold. C. Find five nouns to which the following adjec- tives may he correctly applied, avoiding such careless usage as *' a grand time/' " an elegant performance," " a nice day" etc. Grand. Elegant. Nice. Awful. Exquisite. D. Suhstitute specific words for the words enclosed in parentheses in the following sentences: — Example. — Here I can (walk) for hours . . . think- ing to (go) off into some less trodden path, yet hes- VARIETY OF EXPEESSION 23 itating to (leave) the one I am in, afraid to (break) the brittle threads of memory. Reweitten. — Here I can saunter for hours . . . thinking to strike off into some less trodden path, yet hesitating to quit the one I am in, afraid to snap the brittle threads of memory. — Hazlitt : Sketches, 1. Her enthusiasm (led) the hesitating generals to en- gage the (small number) of besiegers, and the (great) dis- proportion of forces at once made itself felt. 2. The sword of the Spaniard was (made) in the gold mines of (South America). 3. (Sad) voices, the (noise) of chains, and the (going) of many feet to and fro are heard through the darkness. 4. The (sound) of human voices was soon augmented and the (light) of torches soon appeared amid the (dark- ness) of the storm. 5. Of the poets lodged in their (poor) (dwellings), working often enough amid (hunger), darkness, (noise), dust, and desolation, I say nothing. 6. The (worn) tapestry, the (old) shelves, the large and clumsy, yet tottering, tables, chairs, and desks, the (neg- lected) grate, intimated the (disregard) of the lords of the Hall for learning. 7. The door stands ajar, and out of it (comes) a hand (holding) a torch — a (very) impressive device. 8. At first we (hurry) past suburban houses, with their (poor) little gardens, all (wet) with recent rain, in which marigolds are beginning to (grow). 9. There was a (pleasant) sensation of mingled security and awe with which I looked down from my (great) height, upon the (creatures) of the deep at their (strange) gam- bols. 24 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 10. A (number) of boys and girls came up from the place of execution, grouping themselves with many a (cry) of (pleasure) round a tall female (curiously) dressed. E. As in the preceding exercise. 1. Between the black, worm-eaten headlands there are little (places) well (kept) from the wind and the (stir) of the external sea, where the sand and weeds look up into the gazer's face from a depth of (still) water, and the (birds), (flying) and (chirping) from the ruined (rocks) alone disturb the (quiet) and the (brightness). — Adapted from Stevenson : On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places. 2. The shore was (beaten) by previous tempests; I had the memory at heart of the (foolish) strife of the pigmies who had erected these two castles and lived in them in mutual distrust and (unfriendliness), and knew I had only to put my head out of this little (spot) of shelter to find the (strong) wind blowing in my eyes, and yet there were the two great (spaces) of (still) blue air and (quiet) sea looking on, unconcerned and (apart), at the (disturb- ance) of the present moment, and the memorials of the precarious past. — The same, 3. The woods by night in all their (strange) effect, are not rightly to be understood until you can compare them with the woods by day. The (quiet) of the medium, the floor of (shining) sand, these trees that go streaming up like (great) sea- weeds and (move) in the winds like the weeds in submarine currents, all these set the mind work- ing on the thought of what you may have seen off a fore- land or over the side of a boat, and make you feel like a diver, down in the quiet water, (far) below the (moving) VAEIETY OF EXPEESSION 26 transitory surface of the sea. And yet in itself, as I say, the (strangeness) of the nocturnal solitudes is not to be felt fully without the sense of (difference). You must have risen in the morning, and seen the woods as they are by day, kindled and colored in the sun's light; you must have felt the odor of (many) trees at even, the (great) heat along the forest roads, and the coolness of the groves. — Adapted from Stevenson: Forest Notes. * 8. Generalizing from Specific Expressions Express the ideas conveyed in the following sen- tences, making the statements general instead of spe- cific: — Example. — The idea conveyed in " Men at this time made more account of a story from Boccaccio than of a story from the Bible" (J. K. Green) may be expressed in general terms as follows : ^' Men at this time cared more for profane than for sacred literature.'* 1. Macaulay would read a hundred books to write a sen- tence; he would travel twenty miles for a single line of description. — Thackeray. 2. You can never teach eitljer oak or beech To be aught but a greenwood tree. — Peacock. 3. It is settled that Juliet shall study; but shall she study with Romeo? — G. W. Curtis. 4. Coleridge wanted better bread than could be made of wheat. 26 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 5. Augustus boasted that he had found Rome brick and left it marble. 6. Charles X said that he had the choice between mount- ing a horse and mounting a tumbril. 7. " Take care that your northern laurels do not turn to southern willows/' was General Gates's warning to General Greene. 8. Goldsmith said of Johnson that he had nothing of the bear but his skin. 9. The three R's, if no industrial training has gone along with them, are apt, as Miss Nightingale observes, to produce a fourth R of rascality. — Froude. 10. In these bad days . . . it is considered more edu- cationally useful to know the principle of the common pump than Keats's " Ode to a Grecian urn." — A. BiREELL. g. Choice of Expression A. Tell, in each case, which of the expressions en- closed in parentheses is preferable, and give your rea- sons. 1. Goguelat and Choiseul are (hurrying) (plunging) through morasses, over cliffs, over stock and stone, in the (shaggy) (thick) woods of the Clermontais; by tracks, or trackless, with guides: hussars (tumbling) (falling) into pitfalls and lying swooned three-quarters of an hour, the rest refusing to march without them. . . . Thus they go plunging; (startle) (rustle) the owlet from his (branchy nest) (nest in the trees) ; (eat) (champ) the sweet-scented forest herb, queen-of-the-meadows spilling her spikenard; and frighten the ear of Night. But hark ! towards twelve o'clock, . . . sound of the tocsin from Varennes ? ( Stop- VAEIETY OF EXPRESSION 27 ping) (checking bridle), the hussar officer listens: " Some fire undoubtedly ! " — yet rides on, with double (haste) (breathlessness) to verify. — Carlyle: French Revolution, 2. Sandre could mark these things as he . . . went up a narrow street among the (quiet) (sleeping) houses. The day held (golden) (bright) promise; it was the day of his life. Meanwhile the mist (was close about) (clung to) him and (nipped) (chilled) him; what had fate in store? In the Piazza Santo Spirito, (dim) (grey) and hollow-sounding in the chilly silences, his own footsteps echoed solemnly as he passed by the door of the great ragged Church. Through the heavy darkness within, lights (flickered) (shone) faintly and went: service was not be- gun. A (dull) (drab) (group) (crew) of cripples (hung about) (lounged on) the steps, yawning and shivering, and two country girls were (walking) (strolling) to the mass with brown arms round each other's waists. — Maurice Hewlett: Quattrocentisteria. 3. A (line) (belt) of rhododendrons grew close down to one side of our pond, and along the edge of it many things (flourished rankly) (sprang up luxuriantly). If you crept through the undergrowth and crouched by the water's rim, it was easy — if your imagination was in (good) (healthy) working order, to transport yourself (promptly) (in a trice) to the (heart) (middle) of a tropical forest. Over- head the monkeys chattered, parrots (flew) (flashed) from bough to bough, strange large blossoms (bloomed) (shone) around you, and the (motion and sound) (push and rustle) of great beasts moving unseen thrilled you (delightfully) (deliciously). And if you lay down (with your nose an inch or two from) (near) the water, it was not long ere the old sense of proportion vanished (clean) (quite) away. The (shining) (glittering) insects that (flew) (darted) 28 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH to and fro on its surface became (fierce sea-monsters) (sea- monsters dire), the gnats that hung above them (swelled) (grew) to albatrosses, and the pond itself stretched out into a (great) (vast) inland sea, whereon a navy might (float) (ride) secure, and whence at any moment the (hairy scalp) (grotesque head) of a (strslnge sea-creature) (sea-serpent) might be seen to emerge. — Kenneth Grahame: The Golden Age,^ 4. There was no longer any (alarm) (concern) for the tackle, and it was but to (throw) (cast) the fly upon the river, near or far, for a trout instantly to (seize) (take) it. There was no (shy) (timid) rising where suspicion (re- strains) (balks) appetite. The fish were (devouring) (swallowing) with a deliberate seriousness every fish which (floated) (drifted) within their reach, (snapping) (clos- ing) their jaws upon it with a gulp of satisfaction. The only difficulty was in playing them when (hooked) (caught) with a delicate chalk-stream casting-line. — Froude: Cheneys and the House of Russell. 5. The stars were clear, colored, and (bright) (jewel- like) , but not frosty. A (faint) (thin) silvery vapor stood for the Milky Way. All around me the black (fir-tops) (fir-points) stood (upright) (straight) and stock-still. By the whiteness of the pack-saddle, I could see Modestine walking round and round at the length of her tether; I could hear her steadily (cropping) (munching at) the (sward) (grass) ; but there was not another sound save the indescribable quiet (talk) (murmur) of the (stream- let) (runnel) over these stones. I lay (idly) (lazily) smok- ing and studying the color of the sky, as we call the (stretch) (void) of space from where it showed a (glossy) (shining) blue-black between the stars. — Stevenson : Travels with a Donkey, ^ Copyright, by John Lane Company. VARIETY OF EXPEESSION 29 B. Fill the hlanJcs in the following passages with appropriate words which shall express the idea as spe- cifically as possible : — 1. Look at any active fish through the water by- sharp strol^es of its tail ; watch the form of a snake as it through the grass, or the graceful swan his neck as he over the water, and you will see how easily and the joints of the backbone must move one upon the other. 2. Selecting a piece of iron which I thought would serve my purpose, I placed it in the fire, and plying the bellows in a manner, soon made it hot ; then it with the tongs, I laid it on my anvil, and began to it with my hammer, according to the rules of my art. The dingle with my strokes. 3. The air clear but mild enough to make the sap ; of snow still shining in the moon- light and starlight; the distant of a wakeful owl ; the of pendent icicles and of blazing brush. 4. The Berceau de Dieu was a little village in the valley of the Seine. ... It was a place, with one stony street, with poplars and with elms; quaint houses, about whose a of white and gray pigeons all day long. 5. Here and there a leaf down, petals fell in a silent , a heavy moth slowly by, and when it settled, seemed to fall wearily; the tiny birds alighted on the walks, and about in tranquillity; even a stray rabbit sat a leaf that was to its liking, in the middle of a grassy space, with an air that seemed quite impudent in so a creature. 30 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH C. Fill the hlanks in the following sentences with appropriate adjectives or adverbs: — 1. Tarquin at first refused to buy the Sibylline books, because the price asked for them was . 2. King John signed Magna Charta most . 3. The dog looked at his master, hoping for permission to accompany him. 4. Macaulay tells us that Dr. Johnson was in his dress. 5. In ^'The Fortunes of Nigel," Scott gives us a portrayal of the eccentricities of James. 6. The American Indian was trained to bear pain 7. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, besides being a successful author, is one of the most of American physicians. 8. The arrangement of the flowers in the vase was thor- oughly . 9. Gargoyles, in medieval architecture, were carved in shapes of men and animals. 10. Macaulay was such a child that at the age of seven he had written a compendium of universal history. D. As in the preceding exercise, 1. The great powers of continental Europe maintain the numerical strength of their armies by means of military service. 2. The story of Dickens's boyhood, as told in Forster's " Life," reveals the fact that most of David Copperfield's early experiences are . 3. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem, the completion of "the wonderful one-horse shay" and the destruction of Lisbon took place ♦ VARIETY OF EXPRESSION 31 4. The treatment of animals in England and American is in great contrast to the cruelty often seen in southern countries. 5. Persons not accustomed to the bagpipe, often find the sounds it produces exceedingly . 6. Turkey is only in control of Egypt; the real masters of the country are the English. 7. Up to the present century, aerial navigation seemed to present an problem to experimenters. 8. Before any steps were taken to rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake, many of the inhabitants were housed in rough structures hastily erected. 9. During the reign of the early Hanoverian kings, po- litical corruption was so general that the most methods were commonly used by high officials. 10. When Lincoln defended the two brothers who were charged with murder, he presented his argument so that their acquittal was a matter of course. E. Fill the blanks in the following sentences with words expressing the opposite of the words italicized, A positive form, not merely the negative form of the original word should he given. For example, to ** civil/' " rude " rather than " uncivil " should he op- posed; to important, '' trivial " rather than " unimpor- tant:' 1. " The crowd which had assembled to see the execu- tion of Porteous, unwillingly upon hearing of his reprieve." 2. The testimony of the prisoner was contradicted by one witness, but by another. 3. The theory of philosophers is not invariably carried out in their . 32 CONSTKUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 4. The temporary structure will soon be replaced by one that is meant to be . 5. " Her very frowns are fairer far Than of other maidens are." 6. It is better to err through being too than by being precipitate. H. " And he owned with a grin That his favorite sin Is the pride that apes ." 8. In most colleges, certain studies are prescribed, others are . 9. Hogarth has two series of pictures, one called " The Idle Apprentice/' the other " The Apprentice.'' 10. He was well read in both sacred and liter- ature. 11. In countries where military service is compulsory, the position of the soldier is sometimes exalted at the ex- pense of the . 12. " All Nature is but unknown to thee ; All , direction which thou canst not see; All discord, not understood, All partial evil, good." 13. The golden-rod grows wild in America, but is in some parts of Europe. 14. " Chester has demonstrated that freedom and not is the cure for anarchy, as religion and not is the true remedy for superstition. 15. " I have, in general, no very exalted opinion of . . . any politics in which the plan is to be wholly sep- arated from the ." 16. " You deposed kings, you them." 17. Nominally the president is chosen by electors; the electors merely register the vote of the people. VARIETY OF EXPRESSION 33 18. "The question is whether you prefer satisfaction in your subjects, or .'^ 19. The optimist sees the silver lining of every cloud; the only the darkness of the surface. 20. In " The Merchant of Venice " there are four priri' cipal and two necessary characters. 10. Shall and Will To express simple futurity, " shall " is used in the first person, and " will '' in the second and third persons. In direct statements, " will " in the first person, and " shall " in the second and third persons, denote some- thing more than simple futurity. " Will " in the first person expresses determination ; " shall " in the second and third persons includes the idea of compulsion, or of destiny. A. Decide between " shall '* and '' will " in the fol- lowing quotations: — 1. "I suppose I (shall) (will) see you at Barchester the day after to-morrow,'^ said he. — Trollope. 2. I trust I (shall) (will) never more feel ambitious to see my name in print; if the wish should rise, I (shall) (will) look at Southey's letter, and suppress it. — Charlotte Bronte. 3. There I (shall) (will) have all the privacy of a house without the encumbrance, and (shall) (will) be able to lock my friends out as often as I desire to hold free con- verse with my immortal mind. — Lamb, i 34 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 4. I (shall) (will) never dine in your house again, and when I do, I (shall) (will) like nothing, and when I do, I (shall) (will) commend nothing. — Horace Walpole. 5. I (shall) (will) not say that your mulberry trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive. We (shall) (will) have pease soon. — Miss Austen. 6. My English enemies are virulent and numerous, but I have met them all and hitherto triumphed, and I (shall) (will) meet them as long as I can speak, write, or pull a trigger. — Napier. 7. My eyes are open enough to see the same dull pros- pect, and to know that having made four-and-twenty steps more, I (shall) (will) be just where I am. — Gray. 8. I (shall) (will) do everything you desire your own way. — Steele. 9. I have ever hated all nations, professions, and com- munities; and all my love is towards individuals. . . . This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, and so I (shall) (will) go on until I have done with them. — Swift. 10. We (shall) (will) all meet again in another planet, cured of all defects. ... I (shall) (will) be more re- spectful to the upper clergy; but I (shall) (will) have as lively a sense as I now have of all your kindness and affec- tion for me. — Sydney Smith. B. Change the wording of the following passages, so as to show clearly the force of '' shall '' and " will "; — VARIETY OF EXPRESSION 35 Example. — " Hear me, for I will speak," is equivalent to " Hear me, for I am bound to speak " ; " The snow shall be their winding-sheet," to " They are destined to have the snow for their winding-sheet." 1. The bough that is dead shall be cut away, for the sake of the tree itself. Whatever record leap to light He never shall be shamed. If she love me, this believe, I will die ere she shall grieve. — Carlyle. — Tennyson. -George Wither. 4. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid. — Shakespeare. 5. Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. ^ — Kipling. 6. I will obey, not willingly alone. But gladly, as the precept were her own. — COWPER. 7. Whoe'er she be That not impossible she That shall command my life and me. — Crashaw. 8. The harvests of Arretium This year old men shall reap. •^ ^ — Macaulay. 9. I will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer. — General Grant. 10. If my calling be from God, and my testimony from the people, God and the people shall take it from me, else I will not part from it. ^ ^ — Cromwell. CHAPTER II THE SEiq^TENCE I. Loose and Periodic Sentences A. In a periodic sentence the sense is suspended until the end is reached. A loose sentence is complete in meaning at one or more points before its close. Recast the following loose sentences, changing them to periodic form: — Examples. — Loose sentence. And she came to an open place in the forest, and there the silver light fell clear from the sky, and she saw a great shad- owy rose-tree. — Andrew Lang: The Gold of Fairnilee, Changed to periodic form. And, coming to an open place in the forest, where the silver light fell clear from the sky, she saw a great shadowy rose- tree. Loose sentence. For in the whole scene there is only one book which is at once literature, like Hans Andersen, and yet a book for boys and not for children, and its name is " Treasure Island." — G. K. Chesterton: Robert Louis Steven- son. 89 THE SENTENCE 37 Changed to periodic form. For " Treasure Island " is the only book in the whole scene which is at once literature, like Hans Andersen, and yet a book not for children, but for boys. 1. We should not be worthy sons of our fathers were we so to regard great questions affecting the general freedom. 2. Hampden and Cromwell remained, and with them re- mained the evil genius of the house of Stuart. 3. Napoleon was possessed of an unparalleled talent for war, and knew that his sure path to greatness led through the carnage and agony of battle-fields. 4. The Welshmen fought hard; the English only won Wales bit by bit. 5. Montreal has taken immense strides forward commer- cially in the last twenty-five years, and the future alone can show to what vast importance she may attain. 6. John Adams, the first president of that name, though not born in Boston, lived in Boston for a considerable part of his early life. 7. There is no country in Europe which is so easy to overrun as Spain ; there is no country which it is more dif- ficult to conquer. 8. Now it happened that Charles had a favor to ask of the settlers in Virginia and was in the right sort of mood for a bargain. 9. In 1788 the first permanent English settlement was made on the site of the present city of Sydney, and the British colonial empire was definitely extended to these far-off waters of the Pacific. 10. The young sea-king had already gathered experi- ence in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main; this notable voyage taught him the same kind of feeling 38 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH towards Spaniards that Hannibal cherished towards Romans. B. 1. The information which Alfred now possessed ren- dered him extremely desirous of obtaining more, but his ignorance of Latin was an insuperable obstacle. 2. Life in a new country is hard and puts a heavy strain on the wicked and incompetent, but it offers a fair chance to all comers. 3. When these isolated colonies drew together and finally became compacted into a nation, their literature ceased to be wholly a literature of sections and expressed this new national spirit. 4. Gilbert turned to milder latitudes and dispatched his explorers in 1584 and his colonists in 1585 to the coast of what is now North Carolina. 5. He grouped around the jovial host of the Tabard Inn men and women of every class of society in England, set them on horseback to ride to Canterbury, and made each of them tell a tale. 6. Richard meanwhile had ridden round the northern wall of the City to the Wardrobe near Blackfriars, and from this new refuge he opened the negotiations. 7. It was natural that there should be a panic, and it was natural that the people should, in a panic, be unreasonable and credulous. 8. The whole of the Highland army got under arms and moved with incredible celerity by the path pro- posed. 9. He crowded into a few hours actions that would have given lustre to length of life, and, filling his day with great- ness, completed it before noon. 10. The day then cleared, and a dreadful fire poured THE SENTENCE 39 into the thickest of the French columns convinced Soult that the fight was yet to be won. C. Combine into periodic sentences the following groups of related statements: — Example. — (a) Thackeray did not visit the West nor Canada, (b) He went home v^ithout seeing Niagara Falls, (c) But v^herever he did go he found a generous and social welcome, and a re- spectful and sympathetic hearing. — G. W. Curtis: Essays. Combined. — " Though Thackeray did not visit the West and Canada, and though he went home with- out seeing Niagara Falls, wherever he did go he found both a generous and social welcome, and a respectful and sympathetic hearing." 1. (a) A clay-walled, thatched cottage of one story was their home for some twelve years. (b) Here their eldest child was born. (c) He was the immortal Eobert Burns. 2. (a) Mount Oliphant is another place of interest. (b) It is in the neighborhood of Alloway. (c) The poet lived here from his seventh to his sev- enteenth year. 3. (a) A drowsiness fell on King Eobert. (b) It was so heavy that he could not resist an in- clination to sleep. (c) He could not resist the inclination for all the danger he was in. 4. (a) During this time interest in men began to influ- ence poetry. 40 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH (b) It was an interest in man independent of nation, class, and caste. (c) We have already seen this interest in prose. 5. (a) A conservative reaction had followed the meeting of the Congress of Vienna. (b) It had given way by the year 1830. (c) It had given way before a fresh outbreak of the Revolutionary spirit. D. Combine in two different ways the statements lettered (a) and (h) under each of the following num- bers, forming, first, a loose sentence; second, a periodic sentence. Avoid the use of " and '* as a connective be- tween the clauses of the loose sentence. Example. — (a) Milton retired to a new home at Hor- ton. (b) Here he devoted himself to study. Loose. — Milton retired to a new home at Horton, where he devoted himself to study. Periodic. — Eetiring to a new home at Horton, Milton devoted himself to study. 1. (a) He lived at a time when criticism began to purify the verse of England. (b) He was able to keep his verse free from the false conceits of the Elizabethan writers. 2. (a) It is a very dramatic form for the story, (b) One almost wishes it were true. 3. (a) The Archbishop of Canterbury was immersed in the business of the state, (b) He was no mere politician. 4. (a) For a hundred years the country remained at peace. (b) The peace was the peace of despair ^ THE SENTENCE 41 5. (a) He was great in the council, (b) He was even greater in the field. 6. (a) The greater issues of English history do not act within the narrow limits of the mother island, (b) They lie in the destinies of future nations. 7. (a) England was far from being ruined by the great- ness of her defeat, (b) She rose from it stronger and more vigorous than ever. 8. (a) Burke's ideas were conceived by the reason. (b) They took shape and colour from the splendour and fire of his imagination. 9. (a) Marlborough knew nothing of honour or the finer sentiments of mankind. (b) He turned without a shock from guiding Europe and winning great victories to heap up igno- bly and dishonestly a huge and matchless for- tune. 10. (a) The King nerved himself for the interview, (b) He knew it could have but one issue. 2. Parallel Structure Parallel structure is the use of similar forms of ex- pression for corresponding or contrasting thoughts. A. Improve the following passages hy using par- allel structure: — Example. — " Kings v^ill be tyrants from policy, when principle makes subjects rebellious," is less effect- ive than the form used by Burke, " Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle." 42 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 1. It is not the dark place that hinders, but the dimness of the eye. 2. He has a hearty contempt for the people, and he relies firmly upon himself. 3. The world is a comedy to those who think, but to the sensitive it is tragic. 4. ^Tis to fail in life, but failure with what a grace! That is not lost which we do not regret. 5. He reads twenty books to write a sentence ; a hundred miles of travel furnish him with a line of description. 6. In the course of time we grow to love things we hated, and find hateful things we loved. Milton is not so dull as he once was, nor does Ainsworth, perhaps, amuse us so much. B. Rewrite the following selections, avoiding par- allel structure wherever possible: — 1. To a poet nothing can be useless. He must be con- versant with whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dread- ful; with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or re- ligious truth ; and he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction. — Johnson : Rasselas. 2. Like the hero of Homer, he enjoyed all the pleasures of fascination, but he was not fascinated. He listened to the songs of the Syrens, yet he glided by without being seduced to their fatal shore. He tasted the cup of Circe, but he bore about him a sure antidote against the effects THE SENTENCE 43 of its bewitching sweetness. The allusions which capti- vated his imagination never impaired his reasoning powers. The statesman was proof against the splendor, the solemnity, and the romance which enchanted the poet. — Macaulay : Essay on Milton. 3. Emphasis A. Recast the following sentences, altering the structure to make the beginnings more emphatic : — Example. — The main bearings of the national story are scrupulously adhered to in the plays, rich as they are in fancy and imagination. Recast. — " Rich as these plays are in fancy and imag- ination, the main bearings of the national story are scrupulously adhered to in them." 1. Another kindred tribe, the Jutes, whose name is still preserved in their district of Jutland, lay to the north of the English in their Sleswick home. 2. Fielding retains some of the most precious and splen- did human qualities and endowments, stained as you see him, and worn with care and dissipation. 3. Becket was as omnipotent as Wolsey after him and no less magnificent in his outward bearing. 4. There is over and above all these another sense and perhaps the most important of all in which we may speak of the feeling for Nature. 5. All Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen, Irishmen, are at Henry's side at Agincourt. 6. A general dissolution of the organization of mediaeval 44 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH society came with the Reformation, as its cause or as its consequence. 7. Henry's policy shrinks into littleness, great as were its issues, if we turn from it to the weighty movements which were now stirring the minds of men. 8. Keats took us back into mediaeval romance, not con- tent with carrying us into Greek life. 9. Since I waited in your outward rooms, or was re- pulsed from your door, my Lord, seven years have passed. 10. To have turned history too often into a mere record of the butchery of men by their fellow men is the reproach of historians. B. Rewrite the following paragraph, varying the sentence-beginnings : — There are several kinds of truth. There is the truth of pure mathematics, which is perfect as long as it concerns lines or figures which exist only as abstractions. There is the truth of a drama like " Hamlet," which is lit- erary invention, yet is a true picture of men and women. There is the truth in a picture of men and women. There is the truth of a fable. There is the truth of an edifying moral tale. There is the truth of a legend which has sprung up -involuntarily out of the hearts of a number of people, and therefore represents something in their own minds. Finally, there is the dull truth of plain experienced fact, which has to be painfully sifted out by comparisons of evidence, by observation, and when possible, by experiment, and is held at last, after all care has been taken by those who know what truth of fact means, with but graduated certainty, and as liable at all time to revision and correction. — Froude: The Oxford Counter-Reformation. THE SENTENCE 45 4. Variety of Structure A. Combine the statements under the following numbers in two different ways, varying either the rhetorical or the grammatical structure: — Example. — The faults of James, both as a man and as a prince, were numerous. Insensibility to the claims of genius and learn- ing was not among them. (a) Numerous as were the faults of James, both as a man and as a prince, insensibility to the claims of genius and learning was not among them. (b) James had numerous faults, both as a man and as a prince, but insensibility to the claims of genius was not among them. 1. (a) Cromwell had no desire to play the tyrant. (b) Cromwell had no belief in the permanence of a mere tyranny. 2. (a) I now found myself among noble avenues of elms and oaks. (b) Their vast size bespoke the growth of centuries. 3. (a) Burke advocated liberty in the rising colonies of the West, (b) He then championed justice and humanity in the newly-won dependency of India. 4. (a) The governing principle of Walpole's conduct was neither love of peace nor love of war. (b) It was love of power. 5. (a) The ascendency which Spain then had in Europe was in one sense well deserved. (b) It was an ascendency which had been gained by 46 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH unquestioned superiority in all the arts of policy and of war. 6. (a) A tenderness to the fallen has through many years been a feature of the English character, (b) For a time after the return of Charles it was scarcely discernible. 7. (a) An appalling plunge into murder and anarchy followed hard upon the triumph of the French Revolution. (b) It shocked into a sudden sobriety much of the vague enthusiasm for the cause of man. 8. (a) Bacon's talents were such as any minister might have been eager to enlist in the public service, (b) But his solicitations were unsuccessful. 9. (a) The French king pushed forward unwillingly, (b) At four in the afternoon he came in sight of the English. 10. (a) Chatham was broken with age and disease. (b) He was borne to the House of Lords to utter his protest against the proposal to surrender America. B. Combine each of the following groups of state- ments in two different ways, varying the structure as much as possible, but changing the wording no more than is necessary: — Example. — ^An immense multitude crowded the beach at Dover. They bordered the road along which the King traveled to London. In this immense multitude there was not one who was not weeping. (a) In the immense multitude which crowded THE SENTENCE 47 the beach at Dover and which bordered the road along which the King traveled to London, there was not one who was not weeping. (b) Crowding the beach at Dover and border- ing the road along which the King traveled to Lon- don, was an immense multitude, in which there was not one who was not weeping. 1. (a) It was an error to think Marlborough a happy- man. (b) He desired that the world should continue in that error. (c) He thought it better to be envied than pitied. 2. (a) Marlborough was never defeated in the field. (b) Victory after victory was snatched from him. (c) The victories were snatched from him by the inca- pacity of his officers or the stubbornness of the Dutch. 3. (a) We approached the church at Stratford through the avenue of limes. (b) We entered it through a Gothic porch. (c) The porch is highly ornamented, and has carved doors of massive oak. 4. (a) In London, Shakespeare soon formed a connec- tion with the theatre. (b) He became an actor and also an adapter of plays. (c) Not very long afterwards he began to write plays. 5. (a) The knights had been checked for a moment by the sight of the closed door. (b) They saw it unexpectedly thrown open. (c) They rushed into the church. 48 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH C. Change the structure of the sentences in the fol- lowing paragraphs in accordance with the directions appended to each: — 1. (a) All Europe was occupied with war at the open- ing of the nineteenth century, (b) The European people then numbered one hundred and seventy million, and of these four million were set apart to the business of fighting by their own choice or by the decree of their governments, (c) From the North to the South, from the East to the West, men toiled to burn each other's cities, that each other's fields might be wasted, for the destruction of each other's lives, (d) In some lands was heard the shout of victory; the defeated wailed in some, (e) Though this had already lasted for ten years, it was to last for fifteen years more, (f) It was not to cease till millions of men had perished. — R. Mackenzie : History of the Nineteenth Century (Adapted), Mahe (a) periodic. Make the conclusion of (h) more emphatic, Mahe the wording of the first two phrases of (c) specific; secure parallel structure in the conclusion, and in (d). Make (e) loose, and alter the emphasis in (f), 2. (a) It is not more difficult for the mineralogist to define a metal than for the critic to define a classic, (b) No attribute or property of metal can be mentioned — hard- ness, brittleness, malleability, magnetism, lustre, — ^but some acknowledged metal can be found which lacks it. (c) So when we come to define what is classic in literature, we find not a single quality that may not be dispensed with or that is not lacking in some universally accepted and THE SENTENCE 49 canonized piece of composition, (d) Is age a requisite? (e) Consider Mr. Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, which was recognized as classic and immortal the hour it was flashed from the wires and printed or misprinted in the five thousand journals of the land, (f) Is perfection of plot or unity of design necessary? (g) David Copper field can hardly be said to have a plot, and the *^ Merchant of Venice " is notably lacking in unity, (h) Is detailed grammatical and idiomatic correctness indispensable? (i) Then how few are the masters of English prose ! — EossiTER Johnson: Introduction to ''Little Classics/' Alter the emphasis in (a). Make (h) loose, Breah (c) into two sentences. Combine (d) and (e) ; (f) and (g); (h) and (i), 3. (a) No man in China is isolated, save by his own fault, (b) If it is not so easy for him to grow rich as with you, neither is it so easy for him to starve ; if he has not the motive to compete, neither has he the temptation to cheat and oppress, (c) Free at once from the torment of ambi- tion and the apprehension of distress, he has leisure to spare from the acquisition of the means of living for life itself. — G. Lowes Dickinson : Letters from a Chinese Official'- Make (a) periodic. Break up the parallelisms in (h). Alter the emphasis in (c). 4. (a) It is worth observing that in all these historical plays, which give an admirable picture of the spirit of the good old times, the moral inference does not depend at all 1 Copyright, by The S. S. McClure Company. 50 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH upon the nature of the actions, but on the dignity or mean- ness of the persons committing them, (b) " The Eagle England^' has a right "to be in prey," but the "weasel Scot " has none " to come sneaking to her nest," which she has left to pounce upon others, (c) Might was right with- out equivocation or disguise, in that heroic and chivalrous age. — Hazlitt: Lectures on Dramatic Literature, Break up (a) into two sentences. Make (h) and (c) periodic. 5. (a) This is evidently the writing not only of a man of good sense and natural good taste, but of a man of lit- erary habits, (b) Of the studies of Hampden little is known, (c) But, as it was at one time in contemplation to give him the charge of the education of the Prince of Wales, it cannot be doubted that his acquirements were con- siderable, (d) Davila, it is said, was one of his favorite writers, (e) The moderation of Davila's opinions and the perspicuity and manliness of his style could not but recom- mend him to so judicious a reader, (f) It is not improb- able that the parallel between France and England, the Huguenots and the Puritans, had struck the mind of Hampden, and that he already found within himself pow- ers not unequal to the lofty part of Coligni. — Macaulay : Essay on Hampden, Make (a) loose. Alter the emphasis in (b). Make (c) loose. Alter the emphasis in (d) and (e). Make (f) periodic, 5. Short Sentences A. Break up the following long sentences into shorter sentences: — THE SENTENCE 51 Example. — Dick set about almost all the undertakings of his life with inadequate means, and, as he took and furnished a house with the most generous in- tentions towards his friends, the most tender gal- lantry towards his wife, and with this only draw- back, that he had not wherewithal to pay the rent when quarter-day came, — so, in his life he pro- posed to himself the most magnificent schemes of virtue, forbearance, public and private good, and the advancement of his own and the national re- ligion ; but when he had to pay for these articles — so difficult to purchase and so costly to maintain — poor Dick's money was not forthcoming. — Thackeray : English Humorists. Rewritten in Short Sentences. — Dick set about all the undertakings of his life with inadequate means. He took and furnished a house with the most gen- erous intentions towards his friends, the most ten- der gallantry toward his wife. There was only this drawback, that he had not wherewithal to pay the rent when quarter-day came. So in his life he proposed to himself the most magnificent schemes of virtue, forbearance, public and private good, and the advancement of his own and the national religion. But these articles are difficult to pur- chase and costly to maintain. And when he had to pay for them Dick's money was not forth- coming. 1. Sad and suffering, issued from the British canton- ments a confused mass of Europeans and Asiatics, a min- gled crowd of combatants and non-combatants, of men of 62 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH various climes and complexion and habits — part of them peculiarly unfitted to endure the hardships of a rigorous climate, and many of a sex and tender age which in general exempts them from such scenes of horror. — Alison : History of Europe. 2. In an open space behind the constable there was seen approaching a "white chariot^' drawn by two palfreys in white damask which swept the ground ; a golden canopy borne above it, making music with silver bells ; and in the chariot sat the observed of all observers, the beautiful occa- sion of all this glittering homage; fortune's plaything of the hour, the Queen of England — queen at last — borne along upon the waves of this sea of glory, breathing the perfumed incense of greatness which she had risked her fair name, her delicacy, her honor, her self-respect, to win — and she had won it. — Froude: History of England. 3. Upon the higher ground, as may be seen in many towns of England, at the present day, stood the Guildhall and the Ward of the Aldermen, distinguished by houses partially built of stone pilfered from the old Roman monu- ments, forming a striking contrast to the outer circul and the suburbs, where, down to the water's edge and straggling beyond it, in an uncertain and precarious tenure, rose wooden sheds, rudely plastered or whitewashed, on the edge of the town-ditch, sheltering the last new settlers that had flocked into the town for occupation or protection ; a mixed race, of whom little inquiry was made; tolerated, not ac- knowledged; of all blood, all climates and all religions, permitted to live or die as it pleased God or themselves, provided only that they yielded due obedience to the civil authorities. — Brewer: The Friars and the Towns. THE SENTENCE 63 B. Rewrite the following paragraph, hreahing up the long sentences into shorter sentences: — Of those, two gentlemen who are about to act a very im- portant part in our history, one only was probably a native of Britain — we say probably — ^because the individual in question was himself quite uncertain, and, it must be added, entirely indifferent about his birthplace; but speaking the English language, and having been during the course of his life pretty generally engaged in the British service, he had a tolerably fair claim to the majestic title of Briton. His name was Peter Brock, otherwise Corporal Brock, of Lord Cutt's regiment of dragoons; he was of age about fifty-seven (even that point has never been ascertained) ; in height, about five feet six inches ; in weight, nearly thir- teen stone; with a chest that the celebrated Leitch himself might envy; ... a stomach so elastic that it would ac- commodate itself to any given or stolen quantity of food, a great aptitude for strong liquors; ... he was a lover of jokes, of which he made many, and passably bad ; when pleased, simply coarse, boisterous, and jovial ; when angry, a perfect demon, bullying, cursing, storming, fighting, as is sometimes the wont with gentlemen of his cloth and education. — Thackeray: Catherine. 6. Long Sentences Rewrite the following passages, combining the short sentences wherever possible: — Example. — " She loved gaiety and laughter and wit. A happy retort or a finished compliment never 54 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH failed to win her favor. She hoarded jewels. Her dresses were innumerable. Her vanity remained even to old age, the vanity of a coquette in her teens. No adulation was too fulsome for her; no flattery of her beauty too gross. '^ — J. K. Geeen; Short History of England. Rewritten. — Such was her love of gaiety and laughter and wit that a happy retort or a finished compli- ment never failed to win her favor. She hoarded jewels and her dresses were innumerable. Retain- ing even to old age the vanity of a coquette in her teens, she found no adulation too fulsome, no flat- tery of her beauty too gross. 1. To sum up, Hotspur is a magnificent animal. He is not a leader among animals, even. He is a soldier, not a captain. His heady temper brought about the defeat at Shrewsbury. He was a perfect type of the titled bravado. He fought valiantly and died on the field of battle hon- orable, but not all the glamour of poetry thrown over him by the power of genius can make him an ideal man. — Warner: English History in Shakespeare's Plays. 2. The attack on the Bastile was not a matter of reason. It was an act of faith. Nobody made a suggestion. But all had a belief, and all acted. Along the streets, quays, bridges, boulevards, crowds shouted to crowds, " To the Bastile, to the Bastile." Nobody, I repeat, gave the in- itial push. — ^I^IicHELET : Revolution Frangaise. 3. Shortcomings there may be, and our business is to find them out and mend them. The means are now in our hands. The people have at last political power. All interests are not represented in Parliament. All are sure THE SENTENCE 55 of consideration. Class government is at an end. The age of monopolies is gone. England belongs to herself. We are at last free. -Froude : On Progress. (4) This is the point I wish to urge. Good temper and bad temper are symptoms of good and bad moral health. Good temper is not a thing to be aimed at directly ; it is a result. Bad temper, in like manner, is a result. It is symptomatic of some irregular abnormal action of the soul. You cannot cure it directly by an effort to be good-tem- pered. You can, no doubt, by an effort, repress its mani- festations. You cannot control yourself, so as not to say or do bad-tempered things. But the bad temper itself is to be cured, as a musician cures a discord in his instru- ment by tuning all the strings. F. Clarke: Self -Culture. 7. Use of Short Sentence as Introduction and as Conclusion A. The short sentence used as introduction. Note the use of the introductory short sentence in paragraphs 1 and 2, quoted below. In 3, 4, 5, and 6, the opening sentence is omitted. Frame short sentences which might serve for appropriate introductions. 1. A greater enterprise was now to he attempted. The Bastile was to the Parisians an expressive symbol of the despotism under which they and their fathers had groaned. It seemed hopeless for a mob to attempt the overthrow of the famous citadel, with its ponderous drawbridges, its massive walls, its lofty towers, its artillery which could in- flict injuries so terrible upon the undefended besiegers. 66 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH But the garrison was feeble in number and irresolute in spirit. Both governor and garrison quailed before the countless multitude of their assailants. The Bastile was surrendered after a slight resistance, and many of its de- fenders were pitilessly massacred. — ^R. Mackenzie: History of the Nineteenth Century. 2. Beauty is the quality which makes to endure. In a house that I know, I have noticed a block of spermaceti lying about closets and mantel-pieces for twenty years to- gether, simply because the tallow-man gave it the form of a rabbit, and, I suppose, it may continue to be lugged about unchanged for a century. Let an artist scrawl a few lines or figure on the back of a letter, and that scrap of paper is put in a portfolio, is framed and glazed, and, in proportion to the beauty of the lines drawn, will be kept for centuries. Burns writes a copy of verses, and sends them to a newspaper, and the human race take charge of them that they shall not perish. — Emerson: Beauty. 3. '( ) The hotels, kept in the English style, have French waiters and French cooks. The goods in the shop are English, but they are sold by French clerks. Through the quaint streets, which have been piously named for some old saints, pass the modern electric cars. In and out amongst the motley crowd of prosperous English merchants, curious Yankee tourists and pushing Irish cabmen, glide the sombre priest and the gray nun with her pale and downcast face. — F. E. Coe: Our American Neighbors.^ 4. ( ) We take pleasure in two amateur performances in the course of a winter, but a con- stant succession of them would be pretty painful. In point » Copyright by Silver, Burdett and Company. THE SENTENCE 6T of fact, the third-rate professional gives more pleasure in the long run than the first-rate amateur. This is because he knows how to use all his powers, and he makes the most of them. He may even turn his weaknesses to his advan- tage. (Witness Sir Henry Irving's impersonation of Louis XI.) The professional's performance is all of a piece; and though it may never reach any very high level, i*- has a certain consistency and completeness which make upon us the impression of reality. — H. E. Hersey: TalTcs to Girls. 5. ( ) 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man. A great part of our education is sympathetic and social. Boys and girls who have been brought up with well-informed and superior people show in their manners an inestimable grace. Fuller says that " William, Earl of Nassau, won a subject from the King of Spain every time he put off his hat." You can- not have one well-bred man without a whole society of such. They keep each other up to any high point. . . . Besides, we must remember the high school possibilities of a million of men. The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination is that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist, and that the poet, the mystic and the hero may hope to confront their counterparts. — Emerson: Culture. 6. ( ) Says the Guesser at Truth : " First thoughts are best, being those of generous impulse; whereas second thoughts are those of selfish prudence; best in worldly wisdom, but in a higher economy, worst." The proverb, in fact, as so many of its kind are said to do, tells just half the truth ; needing its converse to complete the whole. For, if a man be generous by nature, then it may be as the Guesser at Truth says. But if he be 58 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH ungenerous by nature, then the order is reversed, and the proverb will hold even in that better economy adverted to ; his first thoughts will be those of selfish policy; but his second may be those, not oi generous impulse indeed, but of a generous religion or philosophy. — Edward Fitzgerald: Polonius, B. The short sentence used as conclusion. Paragraphs 1 and 2 contain examples of the effective use of the short concluding sentence. In 3, 4, 5, and 6, the concluding sentence is omitted. Frame short sen- tences which would he effective as conclusions. 1. Of this second letter also she spoke, and told me that it contained an invitation to her to go and see the poet if ever she visited the Lakes. "But there was no money to spare," said she, "nor any prospect of my ever earning money enough to have the chance of so great a pleasure, so I gave up thinking of it." At the time we conversed together on the subject we were at the Lakes. But Souihey was dead. — ^Mrs. Gaskell: Life of Charlotte Bronte. 2. The reader or the spectator who would fully enjoy ^15 You Like It must accept it in the mood in which it was conceived. He knows that lions do not range French or English forests, and that Rosalind, though in man's ap- parel, would at once be recognized by the eyes of love. Yet to those and to all discrepancies he is blind. He even can assent to the spectacle of Jaques stretched beside the brawling stream at the foot of the antique oak, speaking his sermons upon human weakness, folly, and injustice, with nobody for an audience. He feels himself set free from the world of hard facts. He is in Arden. — William Winter: Old Shrines and Ivy, THE SENTENCE 59 3. There is a pleasant story of a Cambridge under- graduate finding it necessary to expound the four alle- gorical figures that crown the parapet of Trinity Library. They are the Learned Muses, as a matter of fact. " Wliat are those figures, Jack ? ^' said an ardent sister, laboring under the false feminine impression that men like explain- ing things. " Those/' said Jack, observing them for the first time in his life — " those are Faith, Hope, and Charity, of course." " Oh ! but there are four of them," said the irrepressible fair one. " What is the other ? " Jack, not to be dismayed, gave a hasty glance; and, observing what may be called philosophical instruments in the hands of the statue, said firmly, " That is Geography." ( ) A. C. Benson: At Large, 4. The power-loom had recently entered upon its ca- reer, and the poor hand-loom weaver was called to take the first step in his downward progress. His wages sank about one-half. . . . Long years of suffering followed to those whose fortunes were embarked in this sinking ship. The hungry weavers invoked the help of Parliament. . . . They proposed that the terrible power-loom should be re- strained by law, and when that was denied them fchey rose in their despair and lawlessly overthrew the machines which were devouring the bread of their children. They craved that a legal minimum of wages should be fixed, adequate for the maintenance of a family. Unfortunately it was beyond human power to grant their prayer. ( ) — R. Mackenzie: History of the Nineteenth Century. 5. The personality of Joan of Arc was so strong that her life takes its chief interest therefrom, rather than from its surroundings. But no man can exist apart from his 60 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH circumstances; these must in any case be the field of his effort, and in great measure, must determine the means which he uses and the end which he proposes to reach. To study the life of Joan of Arc apart from the life of her people and her generation is no less absurd than to regard her as their type. ( ) — Francis Lowell : Joan of Arc. 6. So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more. Of all my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. ( ) — Dickens: Preface to David Copperfield. * 8. Sentences Used as Models Write original sentences, following closely in rhe- torical structure and in general effect the models given below. The sentences should he based upon the facts of history or biography, or upon actual experience. Examples : — (a) We have portraits of all sorts of men, from Augustus Caesar to the King's dwarf; and all sorts of portraits, from a Titian treasured in the Louvre to a profile over the grocer's chimney-shelf. — Stevenson. (b) There are stains in the portrait of the first George, and traits in it which none of us need ad- mire; but among the nobler features are justice, THE SENTENCE 61 courage, moderation — and these we may recognize ere we turn the picture to the wall. — Thackeray. Imitated in Structure: — (a) History keeps records of innumerable wars, from the time of Troy to our own young century ; and chronicles the exploits of victorious generals, from Achilles to Lord Kitchener. (b) There were defects among the qualities of the Puritan fathers, and their lives had a harsh- ness which cannot but repel us; but their story shows us the stern beauty of piety, self-sacrifice, love of freedom, and these traits we should honor as the virtues of our country's youth. 1. Like his great contemporary. Bacon, he left the world and his own evil time behind him, and with the same quiet dignity sought the innocence and stillness of country life. — Stopford Brooke. 2. Of such humor as this, the ancients had barely a notion; it differs from theirs as the man differs from the baby; and seems almost like a new sense, peculiar to the modern world. — W. H. Mallock. 3. Baffled, discountenanced, subdued, discredited, as the cause of justice and humanity is, it will only be the dearer to me. — Burke. 4. It is only when we review the strangely mingled elements which make up the poem that we realize the genius which fused them into such a perfect whole. — J. E. Green. 62 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 5. Of Addison's contributions to the charity of the world, I have spoken before, in trying to depict that noble figure; and say now, as then, that we should thank him as one of the greatest benefactors of that vast and immeas- urably spreading family which speaks our common tongue. — Thackeray. 6. To free Scotland from the control of an unworthy aristocracy, to bid the dead virtues live again and plant the eternal rules in tlie consciences of the people — this, as I understand it, was what Knox was working at, and it was a comparatively simple thing. — Feoude. CHAPTEE III THE PAKAGKAPH 1. Limiting the Subject Limit each of the subjects given below to a topic that can be adequately discussed in a paragraph of about one hundred and fifty words. Examples. — The subject, " Shakespeare," may be lim- ited to the topic, " The surroundings of Shake- speare's boyhood " ; the subject, "Architecture," to " The modem office-building." 1. The Spanish- American war. 2. Music. 3. Citizenship. 4. Fairy tales. 5. The drama. 6. Winter. 7. West Point. 8. Napoleon. 9. Longfellow. 10. Canada. 2. The Topic-Sentence In the following paragraphs, the topic is definitely stated in the opening sentence, which may therefore be called the topic-sentence. 63 64 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 1. Some kinds of traveler's joy are common to every journey. To all except very distinguished people there is a sense of escape, a loosening of habit's fetters, and a pleasing loss of identity. There is always the hope that the people and things we may meet will be more agreeable than the people and things we are accustomed to. There is the still more glorious hope that the traveler himself may become more agreeable also. And behind such hope lie all the inherited joys of nomad life, — the uncertainty of the next night, the sense of space and air, the natural divisions of light and darkness, the exposure to the sun and wind and rain, — upon which things perhaps too much has been said of late; for the less said the less spoiled. — H. W. Nevinson : On the Road Through France to Florence. 2. When one is at home, how one*s affections grow about everything in the neighborhood! I always thought with fondness of this corner of Devon, but what was that compared with the love which now strengthens in me day by day! Beginning with my house, every stick and stone of it is dear to me as my heart's blood ; I find myself lay- ing an affectionate hand on the door-post, giving a pat, as I go by, to the garden gate. Every tree and shrub in the garden is my beloved friend; I touch them when need is, very tenderly, as though carelessness might pain, or rough- ness injure them. If I pull up a weed in the walk, I look at it with a certain sadness before throwing it away; it belongs to my home. — George Gissing: Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. On each of the following subjects write a paragraph of about one hundred and fifty words, beginning with a topic-sentence : — THE PARAGEAPH 65 1. School prizes. 2. An ideal holiday. 3. Popular songs. 4. My favorite villain in fiction. 5. Traveling libraries. 6. Eivalry among American cities. 7. Athletics for girls. 8. The animals in Kipling's "Jungle Books." 9. The Panama Canal. 10. Amateur photography. 3. Paragraph Unity A. The substance of a well-constructed paragraph can usually he expressed in a single sentence. In this way the unity of the paragraph may he tested. Ex- press in single sentences the central thoughts of the fol- lowing paragraphs: — Example. — " I take it for granted, gentlemen, that we sympathize in a proper horror of all punishment further than as it serves for an example. To whom then does the example of an execution in England for this American rebellion apply? Ke- member, you are told every day that the present is a contest between two countries ; and that we in England are at war for our own dignity against our rebellious children. Is this true? If it be, it is surely among such rebellious children that ex- amples for disobedience should be made, to be in any degree instructive; for who ever thought of teaching parents their duty by an example from the punishment of an undutiful son? As well 66 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH might the execution of a fugitive negro in the plan- tations be considered as a lesson to teach masters humanity to their slaves. Such executions may in- deed satiate our revenge; they may harden our hearts, and puff us up with pride and arrogance. Alas ! this is not instruction ! " — BuEKE ; Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, The substance of the foregoing paragraph may be expressed in the sentence : " The execution of an American rebel in England can serve no useful purpose, for it will not be an instructive example to the Americans." 1. You may here remark that, so far as we have gone, the Scottish Parliament entirely resembled the English in the nature of its Constitution. But there was this very material difference in the mode of transacting business, that in England, the peers, or great nobility, with the bishops and great abbots, sat, deliberated and voted, in a body by themselves, which was called the House of Lords, or of Peers, and the representatives of the counties or shires, together with those of the boroughs, occupied a dif- ferent place of meeting, and were called the Lower House, or the House of Commons. In Scotland, on the contrary, the nobles, prelates, representatives for the shires and dele- gates for the boroughs all sat in the same apartment and debated and voted as members of the same assembly. Since the union of the kingdom of England and Scotland, the Parliament, which represents both countries, sits and votes in two distinct bodies, called the two Houses of Parlia- ment, and there are many advantages attending that form of conducting the national business. — Scott: Tales of a Grandfather, THE PARAGRAPH 67 2. It has always been of prime interest to men — ^savage and civilized — ^to evoke the heat which lies hid everywhere in nature and kindle it into flame. Possibly the care which was taken to keep lights continually burning in cer- tain temples, and around which religious sanctions ulti- mately gathered, had its origin in the experienced difficulty of kindling light. But never was any widespread and urgent human want so imperfectly supplied. The earliest method of obtaining fire was by the friction of two pieces of dried wood. The next was the striking together of steel and flint. These two rude methods of obtaining the indispensable assistance of fire have served man during almost the whole of his career. Only so recently as about the time of the first Reform Bill has he been able to com- mand the services of a more convenient agency. — R. Mackenzie: History of the Nineteenth Century. 3. No greater contrast of conditions could exist than between the school life of what we love to call the "good old times'' and that of the far better times of to-day. Poor, small, and uncomfortable schoolhouses, scant fur- nishings, few and uninteresting books, tiresome and indif- ferent methods of teaching, great severity of discipline, were the accompaniments of school days until this century. Yet with all these disadvantages children obtained an edu- cation, for an education was warmly desired; no diffi- culties could chill that deep-lying longing for learning. " Child," said one noble New England mother of the olden days, "if God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, 'tis all thy mother ever asked for thee." — Alice Morse Earle: Child-Life in Colonial Days. 4. Chivalry was, to all intents and purposes, a kind of family, and as a natural result of that idea sprang up the 68 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH science of heraldry and the habit of armorial bearings. The warriors of antiquity, it is true, caused to be painted on their shields their banners, and their arms, the devices, colours and emblems by which they might be distinguished from a distance; but these symbols were essentially per- sonal and peculiar to the individuals who wore them. Mediaeval heraldry was a totally different thing; armorial bearings formed a family distinction, the more important in proportion as it could be traced further back. — G. Masson : The Story of Mediceval France. 5. When one thinks of the resounding chorus of grat- ulations with which the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America was heralded to a listening world, it is curious and instructive to notice the sort of comment which that great event called forth upon the occasion of its third centenary, while the independence of the United States was as yet a novel and ill-appreciated fact. In America very little fuss was made. Railways were as yet unknown, and the era of world's fairs had not begun. Of local celebrations there were two: one held in New York, the other in Boston; and as in 1892, so in 1792, New York followed the old style date, the twelftli "of October, while Boston undertook to correct the date for new style. This work was discreditably bungled, however, and the twenty- third of October was selected instead of the true date, the twenty-first. In New York the affair was conducted by the newly founded political society named for the Delaware chieftain Tammany; in Boston by the Massachusetts His- torical Society, whose founder. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, de- livered a thoughtful and scholarly address upon the occa- sion. Both commemorations of the day were very quiet and modest. — Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, 6. Adam Smith completed the Wealth of Nations in THE PARAGEAPH 69 1776, and our English, political economy is therefore just a hundred years old. In that time it has had a wonder- ful effect. The life of almost everyone in England — per- haps of everyone — is different and better in consequence of it. The whole commercial policy of the country is not so much founded on it as instinct with it. Ideas which are paradoxes everywhere else in the world are accepted axioms here as results of it. No other form of political philosophy has ever had one thousandth part of the influence on us; its teachings have settled down into the common sense of the nation, and have become irreversible. — Bagehot: Economic Studies, B. The following selections, as originally written, consisted of several paragraphs. At what points should the paragraph divisions he made f 1, Louis XVI next called a Swiss minister named Necker to manage his finances. Necker was an honest man, and clever in the banking business. He did not under- stand the needs of France as Turgot did, but he tried his best to keep things in order without making any startling changes. For five years he kept his office, and this gave France a little rest. It was at this time that the English colonies in America, led by George Washington, revolted against the English rule. They sent to ask help from France. The French philosophers, who were always talk- ing and writing about liberty, were full of sympathy with the rebels, and the king thought it a splendid opportunity for humbling England. So French troops were sent to help the Americans, and young Frenchmen fighting under Washington's leadership learnt a new love of liberty. One young nobleman, the Marquis of Lafayette, left the French court only a few days after his marriage, that he might go 10 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH and fight by the side of Washington. In this way some, even of the French nobility, were made to feel that the old state of things to which they were used in France could not last forever. In 1783 peace was signed at Versailles and England was obliged to recognize the independence of the United States. This war had cost a great deal of money. Necker got an idea that it would be well to let people know how the finances of the government were man- aged, and in this way to increase their confidence in him. He therefore published a report of the finances. This ex- cited much indignation. In France it had been the cus- tom to keep these things quite secret; now, it was said, Necker wished to imitate the English, and make the king only the servant of his subjects. Necker was obliged to leave the ministry. — A. Creighton : A First History of France. 2. My early recollections of the Highland scenery and customs made so favourable an impression in the poem called The Lady of the Lahe, that I was induced to think of attempting something of the same kind in prose. I had been a good deal in the Highlands at a time when they were much less accessible and much less visited than they have been of late years, and was acquainted with many of the old warriors of 1745, who were, like most vet- erans, easily induced to fight their battles over again for the benefit of a willing listener like myself. It naturally occurred to me that the ancient traditions and high spirit of a people who, living in a civilized age and country, re- tained so strong a tincture of manners belonging to an early period of society, must afford a subject favourable to romance, if it should not prove a curious tale marred in the telling. It was with some idea of this kind that, about the year 1805, 1 threw together about one-third of the first volume of Waverley. It was advertised to be published THE PARAGKAPH 11 by the late Mr. John Ballantyne, bookseller in Edinburgh, under the name of " Waverley : or 'Tis Fifty Years Since," a title afterward altered to " 'Tis Sixty Years Since," that the actual date of publication might be made to correspond with the period in which the scene was laid. Having pro- ceeded as far, I think, as the seventh chapter, I showed my book to a critical friend whose opinion was unfavourable; and having then some poetical reputation, I was unwilling to risk the loss of it by attempting a new style of compo- sition. I therefore threw aside the work I had com- menced, without either reluctance or remonstrance. I ought to add that though my ingenious friend's sentence was afterward reversed on an appeal to the public, it can- not be considered as any imputation on his good taste, for the specimen subjected to his criticism did not extend be- yond the departure of the hero for Scotland, and, conse- quently, had not entered upon the part of the story which was finally found most interesting. Be that as it may, this portion of the manuscript was laid aside in the drawers of an old writing-desk, which, on my first coming to reside at Abbotsford in 1811, was placed in a lumber garret, and entirely forgotten. Thus, though I sometimes, among other literary avocations, turned my thoughts to the con- tinuance of the romance which I had commenced, yet as I could not find what I had already written, after search- ing such repositories as were within my reach, and was too indolent to attempt to write it anew from memory, I as often laid aside all thoughts of that nature. — Scott: Preface to Waverley, 4. Paragraph Coherence A. The folloiving lists of related topics contain md' terial for development into paragraphs of about one 72 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH hundred and fifty ivords each. Secure coherence by arranging the topics in logical order of sequence. Example: — A period in the study-hall. (a) The idler in the study-hall. (b) Just before the beginning of the period. (c) The study-hall as a test of character. (d) Just before the end of the period. (e) The pupil who needs his study period. Arranged in logical order. (a) The study-hall as a test of character. (b) Just before the beginning of the period. (c) The idler in the study-hall. (d) The pupil who needs his study period. (e) Just before the end of the period. 1. A period in the gymnasium. (a) Some of the exercises. (b) Before the instruction begins. (c) Popularity of the gymnasium period. (d) The end of the period. (e) Arrangement of pupils for work. 2. The use of the telephone. (a) The business man's use of the telephone. (b) The superseding of letter- writing by telephone com- munication. (c) The difficulty of conceiving present-day life with- out the telephone. (d) The housekeeper's dependence upon the telephone. B. Develop each list of topics given in the preceding exercise into a paragraph of about one hundred and fifty ivords. THE PARAGEAPH 73 C. The following lists contain material for two re- lated paragraphs. Divide each list into two paragraph- groups. Example : — The typical high school paper. (a) Character of literary material. (b) By whom edited. (c) Contents. (d) Advantages of being an editor. (e) Size and appearance. (f) How editors are chosen. Divided into two paragraph-groups. (a) Size and appearance. (b) Contents. (c) Character of literary material. (a) By whom edited. (b) How editors are chosen. (c) Advantages of being an editor. 1. Picture post-cards. (a) Artistic merit of some. (b) Their popularity as souvenirs. (c) Their great vogue. (d) What they are. (e) Their popularity as substitutes for letters. (f) Different kinds. 2, Mark Twain. (a) Some famous characters in his books. (b) Reasons for his popularity. (c) His best-known works. (d) Affection with which he is regarded by the public. (e) Eank among American humorists. (f) The boys' favorites among his books. D. Develop each list given in the preceding exercise H CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH into two related paragraphs of about one hundred and fifty words each* E. Fill the hlanks in the paragraphs given helow with words or phrases, marking the relation between the thoughts, (Examples of words and phrases indicating relation of thought: But, moreover, indeed, of course, undoubt- edly, in the first place, such, thus.) A. 1. The college presidents, apparently, are even more oppressed than other men by the contradictions of our times. There are, ( ), many such contradictions. Never was talk of peace and the aspiration for universal peace so loudly spoken; ( ) the two most civilized nations of the world are waging wars which many of their critics think horribly unjustifiable. . . . ( ), no year in the history of the world has seen such magnificent gifts to philanthropy and education. . . . ( ) in this very year there have been combinations of capital the like of which the world has never dreamed of, and which many shrewd observers believe threaten the welfare of the working man. — H. E. Hersey: Talks to Girls. 2. Are we to be spirits or intelligent brutes; men or mere machines? ( ) is the question now put, as it has never been put before, to the nations of the West, and pre-eminently to the people of these states. ( ), were I an American, I should not question the capacity of my countrymen to answer it, and to answer it in the best and most fruitful sense. ( ) the THE PAEAGRAPH 75 consciousness of the immensity of the problem would, I think, check at the birth any tendency which I might other- wise have indulged to premature exultation. ( ) I should feel that the work had hardly been begun, that the foundations were barely laid; ( ), that the very plan of the building was not yet drawn up. ( ), looking across the ocean, to Europe and the far East, I should be anxious not, ( ) , to imitate the forms, but to appropriate the inspiration of that ancient world. — G. Lowes Dickinson: Letters from a Chinese Official.'- 3. In all relations with students school and college of- ficers should, ( ), be as open as they can be with- out violating the confidence of other men. ( ), no school or college officer should refuse to be open from the notion that openness means loss of dignity. Dignity is most easily lost by him who thinks too much about it; ( ) is the dignity of any two men alike. Presi- dent Eliot's, ( ), differs materially from President Roosevelt's; and we can hardly imagine their swapping; ( ) each of these gentlemen has in his own way ex- traordinary power over men. — L. B. R. Briggs : Routine and Ideals, 5. We agree with Lord Mahon in thinking highly of the Whigs of Queen Anne's reign. ( ) that part of their conduct which he selects for especial praise is precisely the part which we think most objectionable. We revere them as the great champions of political and of in- tellectual liberty. ( ), when raised to power, they were not exempt from the faults which power naturally engenders. ( ) they were men born in the seven- teenth century and . . . therefore ignorant of many truths which are familiar to men of the nineteenth cen- ' Published, and copyright, by The S. S. McClure Company. 16 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH tury; ( ) they were . . . the leaders of their spe- cies in a right direction. ( ) they did not allow to political discussion that latitude which to us appears rea- sonable and safe; ( ) to them we owe the removal of the censorship. ( ) that they did not carry the principle of religious toleration to its full extent ; ( ) to them we owe the Toleration Act. — Macaulay: War of the Succession in Spain. 6. A text-book is always employed in teaching physics and chemistry, precisely in the same manner as in teach- ing natural history. ( ) unlike the methods com- monly found in American and English schools, Ger- man teachers use these books for reference only. It is not expected, ( ), that they will take the place of the elaborate compendiums found in each schoolroom; they are mere outlines of the subject, intended to assist the pupil in making scientific classifications, not for purposes of recitation. ( ) as we have repeatedly observed, the German teacher never assigns a lesson in advance to be studied out at home. Recitations, ( ) , at least in the American sense, are unknown. — Russell: German Higher Schools, 5. Paragraph Emphasis, A. On the topics given below, write paragraphs in which the beginning is made emphatic by a short intro- ductory sentence. See Exercise 7-A, Page 55. 1. Late for school. 2. A tame animal I have known. 3. Failing in an examination. 4. A statesman of to-day. 5. A heroine of history. THE PAEAGKAPH 77 6. The pleasantest day of the week. 7. Giving the dog his bath. 8. A visit to the photographer. 9. The game that we lost. 10. Election day. B. Rewrite the paragraphs called for in Exercise A, using short concluding sentences, 6. Related Paragraphs. A. From each of the subjects given in the following list derive general topics for two related paragraphs: — Example : — Street-car advertisements. (a) The insistent nature of street-car advertisements. (b) The merit of some advertisements. 1. Having a hobby. 2. My favorite game. 3. The one-cent newspaper. 4. Schoolboy honor. 5. A boy's idea of humor. 6. A schoolgirl's idea of humor. 7. Ocean travel, past and present. 8. The fashion magazine. 9. Being just an average student. 10. Learning to skate. B. Write opening sentences (topic-sentences) for the paragraphs on the topics suggested in Exercise A. Example : — Street-car advertisements. (a) No one who rides can hope to escape from the ad- vertisements that decorate our street-cars. IS CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH (b) Some of these advertisements are evidently the work of persons of real ability. C. Develop the topic-sentences called for in the pre- ceding exercise into paragraphs of about one hundred words each. D. From the subjects given in the following list, derive general topics for three or more related para- graphs: — Example : — Fraternities in the high schools. (a) Recent criticism of high school fraternities. (b) Explanation of nature and purpose of fraterni- ties. (c) Value of pupils' views on this subject. 1. The peace conference at The Hague. 2. Helen Keller. 3. The Rhodes scholarships. 4. The popular magazine. 5. Air-ships. 6. Using slang. 7. How to train a dog. 8. Vacation work. 9. A popular author. 10. The public library. 11. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 12. The kind of vacation I should like best. E. Write opening sentences (topic-sentences) for the paragraphs on the topics suggested in Exercise D. THE PARAGRAPH 79 Example : — 1. Fraternities in the high schools. (a) The school authorities of some of our large cities have recently been very active in opposing the existence of fraternities in the high schools. (b) The purpose of a school or college fraternity is to associate as closely as possible a group of students who have common interests. (c) In a matter which affects the school life of a number of pupils, the views of the pupils have some bearing on the question. F. Develop the topic-sentences called for in the pre- ceding exercise into paragraphs of about one hundred words each. CHAPTEE IV KHYTHM I. Line Division of Blank Verse The following passages, though printed in prose form, are in reality hlanh verse. Rewrite them, making the proper line-divisions. Example. — " Yet as he goes he ponders at the helm of that bright island; where he feared to touch, his spirit readventures, and for years, where by his wife he slumbers safe at home, thoughts of that land revisit him; he sees the eternal mountains beckon and awakes yearning for that far home that might have been." — Stevenson : To N, V. de G, 8. Rewritten : — Yet as he goes he ponders at the helm, Of that bright island ; where he feared to touch, His spirit readventures ; and for years. Where by his wife he slumbers safe at home, Thoughts of that land revisit him ; he sees The eternal mountains beckon and awakes Yearning for that far home that might have been. 80 EHYTHM 81 1. An aged man now entered, and without one word, slept slowly on, and took the wrist of the pale maiden. She looked up and saw the fillet of the priest and calm cold eyes. Then turned she where her parents stood, and cried, " father ! grieve no more : the ships can sail." — Landok. 2. Push off, and sitting well in order smite the sound- ing furrows; for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sun- set, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die. — Tennyson". 3. Soon with a roaring rose the mighty fire, and the pile crackled ; and between the logs sharp quivering tongues of flame shot out and leaped, curling and darting higher, until they licked the summit of the pile, the dead, the mast, and ate the shrivelling sails ; but still the ship drove on, ablaze above the hull with fire. — Matthew Arnold. 4. Only the mountains that must feed my springs year after year and every year with snows as they have fed in- numerable years, — these mountains they are evermore the same, rooted and motionless; the solemn heavens are ever- more the same in stable rest. — James Thomson (B.V.). 5. And fifty knights rode with them to the shores of Severn, and they past to their own land. And there he kept the justice of the King so vigorously, yet mildly, that all hearts applauded, and the spiteful whisper died. — Tennyson. 6. Thither I came, and there amid the gloom spread by a brotherhood of lofty elms, appeared a roofless hut, four naked walls that stared upon each other ! I looked round, and to my wish and to my hope espied the friend I sought, a man of reverend age. — Wordsworth. 82 CONSTKUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 2. Restoring Rhythm In the following hlanh verse selections, the word order in each line has been changed and the rhythm destroyed in consequence. Rearrange the words in each line, re- storing the rhythm. Example : — Mountains of snow roll their gathering terrors, From steep to steep they come loud thundering down, A wintry waste all in dire commotion. And herds and flocks and swains and travelers Are whelmed deep beneath the smothering ruin. Reaeranged : — Mountains of snow their gathering terrors roll, From steep to steep loud thundering down they come, A wintry waste all in commotion dire, And herds and flocks and travelers and swains Beneath the smothering ruin deep are whelmed. — Thomson's Seasons. In heaps on heaps, sails the doubling vapour Along the loaded sky and, deep mingling. Sits, a settled gloom, on the horizon round. Not such as wintry storms shed on mortals, Oppressing life, but kind, lovely, gentle. — Altered from Thomson's Seasons. A fountain near, broad-lipped and vase-shapen, Where with tiny feet timorous birds alight And hesitate and bend listening wise ears And with undipped beak fly away again. — Altered from George Eliot's Spanish Gypsy. RHYTHM 83 3. And there where the road divides they parted, Withdrew there, the victor and the vanquished — They to die and he to the festal board. — Altered from Rogers's Italy, 4. Yet with great gifts and a noble nature Was he endow'd — wit, discretion, courage. An ample soul, and an equal temper. — Altered from Sir Henry Taylor's Philip van Artevelde. * 3. Altering Prose to Blank Verse * The difference between rhythmical prose and blank verse is often very slight, as may be seen by the illus- trations given below. In each case a few changes in diction and in word order have been sufficient to trans- form the prose into fairly correct blank verse. Examples : — (a) With that he gathered the clouds and troubled the waters of the deep, grasping his trident in his hands, and he roused all storms of all manner of winds, and shrouded in clouds the land and sea. — Odyssey: Butcher and Lang's Translation. Blank Verse : — Soon as he spake the clouds he gathered close, And troubled all the waters of the deep. His trident grasping in his mighty hands ; Then all the winds he roused to sudden storm, And shrouded land and sea in darkening clouds. (b) In the midst there stands, with boughs and aged arms outspread, a massive elm, of broad shade, the chosen 84 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH seat, so Rumor tells, of bodiless dreams, which cling close to its every leaf. — ^neid: Conington's Translation. Blank Verse : — There in the midst a massive elm-tree stands. With boughs and aged arms spread broad in shade. The chosen seat, so Rumor tells, of dreams, Which cling, all bodiless, to every leaf. Change the following prose selections into hlanh verse, making only such alterations in diction and word order as are necessitated by the rhythm: — 1. Making the tackling fast throughout the swift black ship, the men brought bowls brimming with wine; and to the gods that never die and never have been born they poured it forth, chiefest of all to her, the clear-eyed child of Zeus. — Odyssey: G. H. Palmer's Translation. 2. Straightway he bound beneath his feet his lovely golden sandals that wax not old, that bare him alike over the wet sea and over the limitless land, swift as the breath of the wind. — Odyssey: Butcher and Lang's Translation. 3. There are two gates of Sleep : the one, as story tells, of horn, supplying a ready exit for true spirits; the other gleaming with the polish of dazzling ivory, but through it the powers below send false dreams to the world above. — ^neid: Conington's Translation. 4. Nay, they stood firm and embattled like a steep rock and a great, hard by the hoary sea, a rock that abides the swift baths of the shrill winds and the swelling waves that roar against it. — Iliad: Lang, Leaf and Myers* Translation, RHYTHM 85 4. Completing Selections Fill the hlanhs in the folloiving selections with appro- priate words, considering both metre and meaning: — (A few words of explanation may possibly be needed to prevent this exercise from seeming unduly difficult. It should be understood that there is no question of find- ing the poet's word. If a suitable word be found, whether or not it occurs in the passage as originally written, the required result has been attained; and as the selections are all from Scott's poems, the substitu- tion of other words need not be considered unforgivable literary irreverence. We may be fairly certain, at any rate, that the poet himself would have been willing to forgive it. So, if we take the third selection as an illustration, the metre will not permit us to rest the spear against the " old " oak, but we may make the oak " aged " or " spreading " at will, in spite of the fact that the word actually used by the poet is '' knotted.") A. 1. The night is old ; on Rhine's broad breast, Glance stars which long to rest. 2. The Baron of Smaylho'me rose with day, He his courser on. 3. 'Tis noon — against the oak The hunters rest the spear. 4. Hour after hour he loved to pore On Shakespeare's rich and lore. 5. The short dark waves, heaved to the land, With plash kiss'd cliff or sand. 6. In Saxon strength the Abbey frown'd ■With arches, broad and round. 86 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 7. His bright and brief career is o'er. And his tuneful strains. 8. Awhile with hardihood Their English hearts the strife made good. 9. Dark at the base, unblest by beam, the black rocks, and roar'd the stream. 10. In youth he sought not pleasures found By youth in horse, and , and hound. But loved the quiet joys that wake By lonely stream and lake. B. 1. Time will the sharpest sword. Time will consume the strongest cord; That which hemp and steel. Mortal arm and nerve must feel. 2. The moss and lichen twined With fern and deer-hair checked and lined, A cushion fit for age ; And o'er him the aspen-tree, A restless, rustling canopy. 3. Old Stirling's towers arose in light. And, twined in links of silver bright. Her river lay. 4. The cliffs that their haughty head o'er the river's darksome bed Were now all naked, and grey, Now waving all with greenwood spray. 5. Oft, too, the ivy their breast. And its garland round their crest. chapter v itaeeatio:n" I. Supplying Conclusions Supply appropriate conclusions for the following fables adapted from Roger UEstrange's version of ^sops ''Fables'':— 1. As a fox was rummaging among a great many masks, he found, among the rest, one that was very finely cut. He took it up, and when he had considered it a while, " Well/' said he, " what a pity 'tis 2. There was a wolf which had seized upon a sheep, and was making off with it to his den. On his way he had the ill-fortune to meet with a lion, who, without more ado, made his booty of the carcass. " Why, how now ! " cried the wolf in a rage, "have ye no conscience, that ye rob honest folk on the King's highway?" The lion fell a-laughing. " Sirrah," said he 3. As a boar was whetting his teeth against a tree, up came a fox to him. " Pray, what do you mean by that ? " said he. " I see no occasion for it." " Well, but I do," said the boar. " It is true that there is no enemy at hand, but 87 88 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 4. A poor innocent stork had the ill-fortune to be taken in a net that was laid for geese and cranes. The stork's plea for herself was simplicity and piety ; the love she bore to mankind, and the service she did in picking up venom- ous creatures. "This is all true," said the husbandman, "but 5. A man, one bitter winter's night, found refuge in the hut of a satyr. No sooner was he within the door than he began blowing upon his fingers. " Pray, why do you blow upon your fingers ? " asked the satyr. " To warm them," answered the man. Soon the stayr set a bowl of steaming porridge before his guest, who, as he lifted the first spoon- ful to his mouth, blew upon it. " And why do you blow upon your food?" queried the satyr. "To cool it," re- sponded the man. " Out with you," said the satyr, 2. Amplifying Brief Narratives A. Amplify the following narratives, supplying ap- propriate details: — Example. — A donkey, one bitter winter, wished for the spring. When the spring came he found that he was worked harder than in the winter, and so longed for summer. But the summer brought him so much drudgery in the fields that he began to think autumn the best season. In the autumn, however, the harvest work was so heavy that he found himself longing for winter again. Amplified. — A donkey, one cold day, fell to reflecting on the trials of life in winter. The wind made NAEEATION 89 him shiver in his stall, he hated snow, and drag- ging a heavy sled over rough roads was the hardest work he had ever known. However, spring was well on the way, and he consoled himself with thoughts of warmer days, roadsides pleasant with grass, and perhaps a rainy week or two of leisure. But when the spring came his days were so full of labor that his mind turned for relief to the thought of drowsy summer, when one might loiter now and then, and flap one's ears in peace and contentment. But alas! the farm and garden bore fruit abund- antly and there was only one donkey to carry it to market. As he jogged home late at night, weary and footsore, he thought with longing of the beau- tiful days of the Indian summer, forgetting the endless tasks of the harvesting season. And before the harvest was over, he found himself wishing for the winter which he had once deemed so full of hardship. A. 1. A young wolf was boasting of his father, saying that he had slain more than two hundred foes before being overpowered. "But the two hundred were sheep," re- marked a fox, "and his conqueror was the only bull he ever attacked.'^ 2. A wagoner whose cart had stuck in the mire prayed to Hercules for help. Hercules appeared and advised the supplicant to strive to help himself. 3. A goose whose feathers were unusually white grew so proud that she believed herself to be a swan. She shunned her fellow-geese and tried in every way possible to imitate the swans. But she did not succeed in being any- thing but a very ridiculous goose. 90 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH B. 1. The sheep complained to Jupiter of his defense- lessness. Jupiter offered to equip him wjth the weapons of the tiger, the snake, or the goat, but the sheep was unwill- ing to accept any of the gifts, preferring to remain defense- less rather than to acquire the power of harming others. 2. The animals were anxious to determine precedence among themselves. The horse suggested man as the judge. But several of the most insignificant animals doubted whether man had sense enough to appreciate their hidden merits. Thereupon the horse remarked that those who distrusted their own cause were usually most sus- picious of the judge. 3. The Frogs petitioned Jupiter for a king, and re- ceived a log, in response to their request. Growing tired of so tame a ruler, they asked for a different king. This time Jupiter sent them a stork, who preyed upon them. When they again implored Jupiter for another king, he bade them endure the evils they complained of, since they had not known how to be content with what was fitting for them. 3. Stating the Point State in a brief phrase or sentence the point of each of the following anecdotes and fables: — (For example, the point of our national cherry-tree anecdote is the truthfulness of Washington ; of the fable of the fox and the crow, " Pay no heed to flatterers.") 1. Louis XIV, receiving in his sixty-fifth year the aged Marshal Tallard, after the grievous defeat of Blenheim, uttered no word of reproach, but merely remarked, "At our age, one has no more right to hope for happiness." NARRATION 91 2. Johnson was not an admirer of Sterne, and was unwilling to grant him the possession of any pathetic power. A young lady asserted in Johnson's presence that she found great pathos in Sterne's writings. " That is/' retorted the old philosopher, "because, dearest, you are a dunce." 3. Miss Repplier, in one of her essays, tells us Andrew Lang's little story of a verger in a Saxon town who was wont to show visitors a silver mouse, which had been offered by the women to the church in order that the town might be rid of mice. A Prussian officer asked jeeringly, " Are you such fools as to believe that the creatures went away because a silver mouse was dedicated ? " " Ah no," replied the verger, "or we should long ago have offered a silver Prussian." 4. A daring boy had mounted a fiery steed, and was riding proudly up and down. " For shame ! " a wild bull called out to the horse, " I would never allow myself to be mastered by a boy." "I see the matter in a different light," responded the horse. " What honor could I win by throwing a boy ? " — Lessing: Fables. 5. Tell me something about the foreign countries you have seen," said the fox to the much-traveled stork. Immediately the stork began to enumerate the ponds and swamps where he had found the most delicious worms and the fattest frogs. " You have been in Paris, my worthy sir. Pray where are the best dinners to be had? What French wines pleased your palate most ? " — Lessing: Fables, 6. At an important social occasion, Lord John Russell behaved in what seemed to the on-lookers a very extraor- dinary fashion. Suddenly rising from his chair next to 92 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH the Duchess of Sutherland, he hurriedly betook himself to a distant corner of the room and seated himself beside the Duchess of St. Albans. Upon being questioned as to the reason for the change, he explained that he had been unable to endure the heat of a great fire near his first position. " But," said his interlocutor, " I hope that you explained to the Duchess of Sutherland why you left her so sud- denly?" "Well, not exactly," replied Lord John Russell, "but I told the Duchess of St. Albans why I came to sit by her." 7. A certain man of Bagdad, says a Persian legend quoted by Edward FitzGerald in his " Polonius," dreamed one night that in a certain house in a certain street in Cairo he should find a treasure. To Egypt he accordingly set forth, and met in the desert with one who was on his road from Cairo to Bagdad, having dreamt that in a cer- tain house in a certain street there he should find a treas- ure; and so each of these men had been directed to each other's house to find a treasure that only needed looking for in his own. 8. An old ruinous tower which had harbored innu- merable jackdaws, sparrows, and bats, was at length re- paired. When the masons left it, the jackdaws, sparrows, and bats came back in search of their old dwellings. But these were all filled up. " Of what use now is this great building ? " said they. " Come, let us forsake this useless stone-heap." — ^Lessing: Fables. 4. Writing Abridgments A good abstract (or abridgment) should, as the Eng- lish Civil Service Commission puts it, contain all that is important in the narrative or correspondence, and noth- NAEEATION 93 ing that is unimportant, should present this material in consecutive and readable form, and be as brief as is compatible with completeness and distinctness. Example. — Siioet Naerative : — On reaching London, I went to my friend Clayton Freeling, who was then secretary of the Stamp Office, and was then taken by him to the scene of my future labours in St. Martin's-le-Grand. Sir Francis Freeling was the secretary, but he was greatly too high an official to be seen at first by a new junior clerk. I was taken, therefore, to his eldest son Henry Freeling, who was the assistant secretary, and by him I was examined as to my fitness. I was asked to copy some lines from the Times newspaper with an old quill pen, and at once made a series of blots and false spellings. " That won't do, you know," said Henry Freeling to his brother Clayton. Clayton, who was my friend, urged that I was nervous, and asked that I might be allowed to do a bit of writing at home and bring it as a sample on the next day. I was then asked whether I was proficient in arithmetic. What could I say? I had never learned the multiplication table, and had no more idea of the rule of three than of conic sections. " I know a little of it," I said humbly, whereupon I was sternly assured that on the morrow, should I suc- ceed in showing that my handwriting was all that it ought to be, I should be admitted into the Secretary's office of the General Post Office. If that little should not be found to comprise a thorough knowledge of all the ordinary rules, together with practices and quick skill, my career in life could not be made at the Post 94 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH Office. Going down the main stairs of the building — stairs which have I believe been now pulled down to make room for sorters and stampers — Clayton Ereeling told me not to be down-hearted. I was myself inclined to think that I had better go back to the school in Brus- sels. But, nevertheless, I went to work and under the surveillance of my elder brother made a beautiful tran- script of four or ^ve pages of Gibbon. With a faltering heart I took these on the next day to the office. With my caligraphy I was contented, but was certain that I should come to the ground among the figures. But when I got to " The Grand," as we used to call our office in those days, from its site in St. Martin's-le- Grand, I was seated at a desk without any further ref- erence to my competency. No one condescended even to look at my beautiful penmanship. — Anthony Trollope; Autobiography, Abridgment: — The method of my admission to the Stamp Office was as follows : My friend Clayton Freeling took me to his brother Henry, the Assistant Secretary. I was asked to copy a passage from The Times, and did it very badly. Upon Clayton's urging the plea of nervousness in my behalf, I was given permission to do the neces- sary writing at home, but was told that should my pen- manship prove satisfactory, I should then be examined as to my arithmetic. Knowing my disgracefully inad- equate knowledge of even the multiplication table, I was discouraged. N'evertheless, I did my best with the writing, and produced a fair copy of some pages of Gibbon. But when I took my work to the office the next NAEEATIOlSr 95 day my penmanship was completely ignored and I was assigned to a place without further questioning. Write abridgments of the following: — A. 1. The strayed revelers who gaze to-day from the ter- raced gardens of the " Star and Garter " may notice one feature in the landscape which neither Henry VIII nor Queen Caroline nor the poet Thomson, nor any of the his- torical inhabitants of loyal Eichmond, ever beheld. Pierc- ing the westward sky there rises a towering column, which guards and overlooks, as Burke would say, the subjected plains of Petersham and Twickenham. It is in reality the chimney of some gigantic waterworks, but it would never do to admit that so idyllic a landscape was profaned by so base and utilitarian an invader. In order to save the situation against tactless inquiries, Lord Russell, who lived for forty years close to the " Star and Garter " gate of Richmond Park, invented a pleasing myth. " What is that column ? " was the invariable question of the intelligent visitor. " Oh, don't you know, that is the Middlesex Mar- tyrs Memorial." It is an interesting trait of human na- ture that no one ever was found to ask who the M. M.'s were, or what was the cause for which they suffered. — G. W. E. Russell : A Pocketful of Sixpences. 2. Theuth was one of the ancient gods of Egypt, who was the first to invent arithmetic and geometry and draughts and dice, but especially letters. Now Thamus was at this time the king of Egypt, and dwelt in the great city of Thebes. To him Theuth went and showed him all the arts which he had devised, and asked him to make them known to the rest of the Egyptians. Thamus asked him what was the use of each. But when they came to the let- ters, "This knowledge, King," said the deity, "will make thy people wiser, for I have invented it both as a 96 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH medicine for memory and for wisdom/' But the king an- swered, " Most ingenious Theuth, it is for you to find out cunning inventions ; it is for others to judge of their worth and their nobleness. But methinks you, out of fondness for your own discovery, have attributed to it precisely the opposite effect to that which it will have. For this inven- tion will produce forgetfulness on the part of those who use it, since by trusting to writing, they will remember out- wardly by means of foreign marks, and not inwardly by means of their own faculties. You are providing for my people the appearance rather than the reality of wisdom. For they will think they have got hold of something val- uable when they only possess themselves of written words, and they will deem themselves wise without being so.'' — Plato : Phcedrus, 3. The excellent story of the Boston schoolboys who waited upon the English general is well known to most children in the Northern States. . . . The Latin School then stood where Parker's Hotel is now, on the south side of that School Street to which the school gave its name. The spot is directly opposite where Franklin's statue now stands. This is just where it should be, for Franklin was a schoolboy in the same school, when the schoolhouse occu- pied the site where the statue now is. The boys, be- fore and after school, were in the habit of coasting from the hill, then higher than it is now, which rises above the Congregational House, behind the great pile of the new Tremont Buildings. They coasted down what we call Bea- con Street across Tremont Street and kept on down School Street to Washington Street. General Haldimand, a brig- adier in the English army, occupied the house which stood on School Street next below where the Parker House now is. Haldimand's servant did not like this coasting business And he scattered ashes on the coast so as to make it easier NARRATION 97 for his master and the officers to come in and out at the Beacon Street door. Finding that their remonstrances failed, the Latin School boys appointed a committee of their first class to wait upon Haldimand. Haldimand re- ceived them courteously, and the boys told him that coast- ing was one of their inalienable rights. Haldimand did not wish to make more trouble in a town which was as ripe for rebellion as Boston, so he sent for the servant and gave him a good scolding, and bade him take care every cold night to repair the coast by pouring water upon it, which should freeze so that it should be kept in good con- dition for the boys. — E. E. Hale : Historic Boston. B. 1. All who are acquainted with the early history of the Italian stage are aware that Arlechino is not, in his original conception, a mere worker of marvels with his wooden sword, a jumper in and out of windows, as upon our theatre, but, as his parti-colored jacket implies, a buffoon or clown, whose mouth, far from being eternally closed, as amongst us, is filled, like that of Touchstone, with quips, and cranks, and witty devices, very often de- livered extempore. It is not easy to trace how he became possessed of his black vizard, which was anciently made in the resemblance of the face of a cat; but it seems that the mask was essential to the performance of the character, as will appear from the following theatrical anecdote : — An actor on the Italian stage permitted at the Foire du St. Germain, in Paris, was renowned for the wild, ven- turous, and extravagant wit, the brilliant sallies, and for- tunate repartees, with which he prodigally seasoned the character of the parti-colored jester. Some critics, whose good-will towards a favorite performer was stronger than their judgment, took occasion to remonstrate with the sue- 98 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH cessful actor on the subject of the grotesque vizard. They went wilily to their purpose, observing that his classical and attic wit, his delicate vein of humor, his happy turn for dialogue were rendered burlesque and ludicrous by this unmeaning and bizarre disguise, and that those attri- butes would become far more impressive, if aided by the spirit of his eye and the expression of his natural features. The actor's vanity was easily so far engaged as to induce him to make the experiment. He played Harlequin bare- faced, but was considered on all hands as having made a total failure. He had lost the audacity which a sense of incognito bestowed, and with it all the reckless play of raillery which gave vivacity to his original acting. He cursed his advisers, and resumed his grotesque vizard ; but, it is said, without ever being able to regain the care- less and successful levity which the consciousness of the disguise had formerly bestowed. — Scott : Introduction to Chronicles of the Canongate, 2. Hrothgar, a Danish king, builds for himself a splen- did mead-hall, Heorot, wherein he sits feasting with his thegns. A fiendish monster, Grendel, lurking in the dark marshes without, is tortured by the sounds of minstrelsy that reach him from the hall. In jealous hate he enters Heorot by night and slays thirty sleeping companions of the king. Again and again he comes to destroy, until the splendid hall has to be forsaken. After twelve years Beo- wulf, a prince of the Geats, or Goths, endowed with the strength of thirty men, comes with his followers in a ship to rid Hrothgar of this scourge. He is made welcome, and that night he and his band occupy the hall. All are asleep save Beowulf, when Grendel strides into the hall, his eyes glowing like flames. He snatches a warrior, rends him to pieces, and greedily devours him. Then he attacks NARRATION 99 Beowulf and they close in deadly grapple, the hero using no weapon, but trusting solely in his mighty strength. The stanch hall trembles with the fierceness of the con- test; the massive benches are splintered, the Danes stand around, panic-stricken. Then Grendel howling, strives to escape, but Beowulf crushes him with his terrible hand grip. At length the demon, with the loss of an arm, wrenches himself free, and flies to the fens to die. On the morrow all crowd round Beowulf rejoicing, but the next night GrendeFs mother comes to avenge her son, and carries off one of the thegns. Beowulf resolves to con- quer this new foe. With his thegns he tracks the woman fiend over murky moors, through rocky gorges, and by the haunts of the water nixies, until he comes upon a stagnant pool, frothing with blood and overhung by gloomy trees. By night the waters are livid with flame. The deer, pur- sued by dogs, will die on the bank rather than tempt those unsounded depths. It is a place of terror. Beowulf plunges in and fights the water fiend in her cave under the flood. His sword proves useless against her. Again he trusts to sheer strength. " So it behooves a man to act when he thinks to attain enduring praise; — he will not be caring for his life." Beowulf falls, and the fiend is upon him, her knife drawn. Then the hero snatches from a pile of arms a mighty sword, giant-forged, and slays his ad- versary. Again there is mirth and praise at Heorot. — Pancoast : Introduction to English Literature. * 5. Prose Versions of Poetical Narratives A. Give in prose the substance of the following poem, retaining as much as possible the tone and feel- ing of the original: — 100 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH A Fancy from Fontenelle. The rose in the garden slipped her bud, And she laughed in the pride of her youthful blood, As she thought of the Gardener standing by — " He is old — so old ! And he soon must die ! " The full rose waxed in the warm June air, And she spread and spread till her heart lay bare, And she laughed once more as she heard his tread — " He is older now ! He will soon be dead ! " But the breeze of the morning blew, and found That the leaves of the blown Rose strewed the ground ; And he came at noon, that Gardener old. And he raked them gently under the mould. And I wove the thing to a random rhyme; For the Rose is Beauty; the Gardener, Time. — Austin Dobson. B. The following poem hy an eminent jurist is a version in hallad form of a series of incidents which gave rise to several lawsuits. State all the facts in prose, disregarding the hallad refrain. Marmot v. Hampton. When Hampton sold goods to Harriot, Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! Then Harriot paid, and receipt he got; Alas ! it were better he paid it not. Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. For the false knave Hampton sued lilni amain ; Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! The receipt whereby his discharge was plain Did Harriot seek, and he sought in vain: Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. He must needs pay twice and for costs was bound; Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! But there came a day the receipt was found, He never had liever no thing on ground. Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. " Go to, now, this knave in my turn I'll sue, (Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway!) And his pride and his evil gains undo ; " But what should befall full little he knew. Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. " Sir plaintiff," quoth Kenyon, " your wit is but raw, {Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway!) For to wage this emprise which never man saw. To get back money paid under process of law.*' Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. His name hath the crier thrice called upon, Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! And he standeth nonsuit with his cause undone, But if a new trial may yet be won. Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. m OONSTRIJCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH And Gibbs doth eagerly move the court, Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! For such actions are worthy by good report, And the doubt is full weighty for cutting short; Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. And but the judges were wrathful men ! Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! " If we granted a rule, it were danger then No action should henceforth have end again " : Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. And another spake: " Shall we give pretence Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! To fling doors open for negligence Of parties unready with evidence ? " Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. And a third : " Thus dooms which be dight and clear {Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway!) Were upset for new matters brought up in arrear, A thing most monstrous for ears to hear." Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. So Harriot must pay for the commonwealth's sake. Woe's me for goods sold, and wellaway! And if like ensample ye will not make, Keep shrewdly, good folk, all receipts that ye take. Sing sorrow for money had and received. And alack for the common counts, 0. — Sir Frederick Pollock : Leading Cases Done Into English. * By permission of the author, and of Messrs. Macmillan and Co. NAERATION 103 6. Telling Stories from Different Points of View A. Give the substance of the following story, as the Prince might have told it: — When Prince Alexander of Battenberg, one of the young- est of Queen Victoria's many grandsons^ was at Eton, he found, as often happens with boys, whether royal or not, that he had spent his allowance of pocket money long be- fore the next instalment was due. He thereupon wrote to his illustrious grandmother, asking her to relieve his finan- cial straits. The expected remittance did not come, but the prince received instead a letter from the queen in which she very sensibly reminded her extravagant little grandson that it was the duty of little boys to keep within their allowance. The answer to this grandmotherly piece of advice was as follows: "My dear Grandmama: I am sure you will be glad to know that I need not trouble you for any money just now, for I sold your last letter to another boy for thirty shillings.'' B. Tell the story of the Boston schoolboys (Page 96 j from the 'point of view of General Haldimand's servant, C. Tell the following story from the point of view of one of the strangers: — When the Authors' Club was in its comparative infancy, a select little party of its members found themselves in its rooms in West Twenty-third Street one night, sitting about a fire that would not burn. A heavy snow was falling and the weather was bitterly cold. A motion to adjourn to a neigh- boring hotel was carried unanimously, and thither we went in pursuit of light and warmth. The great bar-room was 104 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH crowded, and it was with no little difficulty that we found a place to seat ourselves. At last two gentlemen at a table in a far corner courteously made room for us. We gath- ered from their conversation that they were strangers in New York, and that they had been to hear John Fiske lecture on the " Nebular Hypothesis," that evening at the Cooper Institute. Their discourse was so intelligent that Mr. Stedman hazarded a few remarks, saying that we were all friends of the lecturer, and the talk became general. They seemed to be pleased with us, and we were interested in them, and as we rose to leave the room, Mr. Stedman ventured to tell them who we were. "This is Mr. Co- nant," he said, "of Harper's WeeTcly. This, Mr. Julian Hawthorne. This, Mr. George Parsons Lathrop. This, Mr. Richard Grant White, the Shakespearian author. This, Mr. George Cary Eggleston, of The World. This, Professor Boyesen, of Cornell. This, Mr. Bunner, of Puch. This, Mr. Laurence Hutton, the historian of the stage, and I am Mr. E. C. Stedman." The strangers looked at us for a moment in solemn silence, when the elder of them said: "I am Bismarck, and my friend is the Pope of Rome." And without a word of "good-night" or a glance behind them, they hurried out into the storm. To this day, no doubt, they are convinced they had fallen into the nest of a gang of bunco-steerers, and they are still con- gratulating themselves on their escape. — Laurence Hutton: Talks in a Library, D. Tell the story of Don Quixote's adventure with the windmills, given in the selection below, first from Don Quixote's point of view, then from Sancho Panza's. Engaged in this discourse, they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills, which are in that plain; and as soon as NAERATION 105 Don Quixote espied them, he said to his squire, " Fortune disposes our affairs better than we ourselves could have desired; look yonder, friend Sancho Panza, where thou mayest discover somewhat more than thirty monstrous giants, whom I intend to encounter and slay, and with their spoils we will begin to enrich ourselves; for it is lawful war, and doing God good service, to remove so wicked a generation from off the face of the earth." "What giants ? " said Sancho Panza. " Those thou seest yonder," answered his master, " with their long arms ; for some are wont to have them almost of the length of two leagues." " Look, sir," answered Sancho, " those which appear yon- der are not giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are the sails, which, whirled about by the wind, make the millstone go." "It is very evident," answered Don Quixote, "that thou art not versed in the business of ad- ventures. They are giants ; and if thou art afraid, get thee aside and pray, whilst I engage with them in fierce and unequal combat." So saying, he clapped spurs to his steed, notwithstanding the cries his squire sent after him, assur- ing him that they were certainly windmills, and not giants. But he was so fally possessed that they were giants, that he neither heard the outcries of his squire Sancho, nor yet discerned what they were, though he was very near them, but went on crying out aloud, " Fly not, ye cow- ards and vile caitiffs ! for it is a single knight who assaults you." The wind now rising a little, the great sails began to move; upon which Don Quixote called out, "Although ye should have more arms than the giant Briareus, ye shall pay for it." Then recommending himself devoutly to his lady Dul- cinea, beseeching her to succor him in the present danger, being well covered with his buckler and setting his lance in the rest, he rushed on as fast as Rozinante could gallop, 106 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH and attacked the first mill before him; when, running his lance into the sail, the wind whirled it about with so much violence that it broke the lance to shivers, dragging horse and rider after it, and tumbling them over and over on the plain in very evil plight. Sancho Panza hastened to his assistance as fast as the ass could carry him ; and when he came up to his master he found him unable to stir, so vio- lent was the blow which he and Rozinante had received in their fall. ^' God save me ! " quoth Sancho, " did not I warn you to have a care of what you did, for that they were nothing but windmills? And nobody could mistake them but one that had the like in his head." " Peace, friend Sancho,^' answered Don Quixote; "for matters of war are, of all others, most subject to continual change. Now I verily believe, and it is most certainly the fact, that the sage Freston, who stole away my chamber and books, has metamorphosed these giants into windmills, on pur- pose to deprive me of the glory of vanquishing them, so great is the enmity he bears me! But his wicked arts will finally avail but little against the goodness of my sword." " God grant it ! " answered Sancho Panza ; then helping him to rise, he mounted him again upon his steed, which was almost disjointed. * E. The following selection from '' Henry Es- mond/' in which Thackeray reproduces so perfectly the tone and diction of the famous " Spectator '* essays, contains accounts of the same incident from different points of view. Give a brief abstract of each paper, maintaining the distinct point of view in each case. " Spectator. '' No. 341. " Tuesday, April 1, 1712. Mutate nomine de te Fahula narratur. — Horace. Thyself the moral of the Fable see.— -Creech. NAKKATION 107 1. *' Jocasta is known as a woman of learning and fash- ion, and as one of the most amiable persons of this court and country. She is at home two mornings of the week, and all the wits and a few of the beauties of London flock to her assemblies. When she goes abroad to Tunbridge or the Bath, a retinue of adorers rides the journey with her; and besides the London beaux, she has a crowd of admirers at the Wells, the polite amongst the natives of Sussex and Somerset pressing round her tea-tables, and being anxious for a nod from her chair. Jocasta's acquaintance is thus very numerous. Indeed, 'tis one smart writer's work to keep her visiting-book — a strong footman is engaged to carry it; and it would require a much stronger head even than Jocasta's own to remember the names of all her dear friends. " Either at Epsom Wells or at Tunbridge (for of this important matter Jocasta cannot be certain) it was her ladyship's fortune to become acquainted with a young gen- tleman, whose conversation was so sprightly, and manners amiable, that she invited the agreeable young spark to visit her if ever he came to London, where her house in Spring Garden should be open to him. Charming as he was, and without any manner of doubt a pretty fellow, Jocasta hath such a regiment of the like continually march- ing round her standard, that 'tis no wonder her attention is distracted amongst them. And so, though this gentle- man made a considerable impression upon her, and touched her heart for at least three and twenty minutes, it must be owned that she has forgotten his name. He is a dark man, and may be eight and twenty years old. His dress is sober, though of rich materials. He has a mole on his forehead over his left eye; has a blue ribbon to his cane and sword, and wears his own hair. '^Jocasta was much flattered by beholding her admirer 108 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH (for that everybody admires who sees her is a point which she never can for a moment doubt) in the next pew to her at St. James's Church last Sunday; and the manner iij which he appeared to go to sleep during the sermon — though from under his fringed eyelids it was evident he was casting glances of respectful rapture toward Jocasta — deeply moved and interested her. On coming out of church, he found his way to her chair, and made her an elegant bow as she stepped into it. She saw him at Court afterwards, where he carried himself with a most distin- guished air, though none of her acquaintances knew his name; and the next night he was at the play, where her ladyship was pleased to acknowledge him from the side- box. " During the whole of the comedy she racked her brains so to remember his name that she did not hear a word of the piece ; and having the happiness to meet him once more in the lobby of the playhouse, she went up to him in a flutter, and bade him remember that she kept two nights in the week, and that she longed to see him at Spring Garden. " He appeared on Tuesday, in a rich suit, showing a very fine taste both in the tailor and wearer ; and though a knot of us were gathered round the charming Jocasta, fellows who pretended to know every face upon the town, not one could tell the gentleman's name in reply to Jocasta's eager inquiries, flung to the right and left of her as he advanced up the room with a bow that would become a duke. "Jocasta acknowledged this salute with one of those smiles and curtsies of which that lady hath the secret. She curtsies with a languishing air, as if to say, * You are come at last. I have been pining for you ; ' and then she finishes her victim with a killing look, which declares : * Philander I I have no eyes but for you.' Camilla hath as good a curtsy perhaps, and Thalestris much such another NAKRATION 109 look; but the glance and the curtsy together belong to Jocasta of all the English beauties alone. " ' Welcome to London, sir/ says she. ^ One can see you are from the country by your looks.^ She would have said ' Epsom/ or * Tunbridge/ had she remembered rightly at which place she had met the stranger; but, alas! she had forgotten. "The gentleman said, 'he had been in town but three days ; and one of his reasons for coming hither was to have the honor of paying his court to Jocasta.' " She said, * the waters had agreed with her but indif- ferently.' " ' The waters were for the sick/ the gentleman said : * the young and beautiful came but to make them sparkle. And as the clergyman read the services on Sunday/ he added, ' your ladyship reminded me of the angel that vis- ited the pool.' A murmur of approbation saluted this sally. Manilio, who is a wit when he is not at cards, was in such a rage that he revoked when he heard it. " Jocasta was an angel visiting the waters ; but at which of the Bethesdas? She was puzzled more and more; and, as her way always is, looked the more innocent and sim- ple, the more artful her intentions were. " * We were discoursing/ says she, ' about spelling of names and words when you came. Why should we say goold and write gold, and call china chayney, and Caven- dish Candish, and Cholmondeley Chumley? If we call Pulteney Poltney, why shouldn't we call poultry pultry — and ' " ' Such an enchantress as your ladyship,' says he, ' is mistress of all sorts of spells.' But this was Dr. Swift's pun, and we all knew it. " ' And — and how do you spell your name ? ' says she, coming to the point at length ; for this sprightly conversa- no CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH tion had lasted much longer than is here set down, and been carried on through at least three dishes of tea. " ^ Oh, madam/ says he, * I spell my name with the y' And laying down his dish, my gentleman made another elegant bow, and was gone in a moment. '^ Jocasta hath had no sleep since this mortification, and the stranger's disappearance. If balked in anything, she is sure to lose her health and temper ; and we, her servants, suffer, as usual, during the angry fits of our Queen. Can you help us, Mr. Spectator, who know everything, to read this riddle for her, and set at rest all our minds? We find in her list, Mr. Berty, Mr. Smith, Mr. Pike, Mr. Tyler — who may be Mr. Bertie, Mr. Smyth, Mr. Pyke, Mr. Tiler, for what we know. She hath turned away the clerk of her visiting-book, a poor fellow with a great family of children. Read me this riddle, good Mr. Shortface, and oblige your admirer — CEdipus.'''' 2. "The Trumpet Coffee-House, Whitehall. " Mr. Spectator, — I am a gentleman but little acquainted with the town, though I have had a university education, and passed some years serving my country abroad, where my name is better known than in the coffee-house and St. James's. "Two years since my uncle died, leaving me a pretty estate in the county of Kent ; and being at Tunbridge Wells last summer, after my mourning was over, and on the look- out, if truth must be told, for some young lady who would share with me the solitude of my great Kentish house, and be kind to my tenantry (for whom a woman can do a great deal more good than the best-intentioned man can), I was greatly fascinated by a young lady of London, who was the toast of all the company at the Wells. Every one knows Saccharissa's beauty; and I think, Mr. Spectator, no one better than herself. NAREATION 111 "My table-book informs me that I danced no less than seven and twenty sets with her at the Assembly. I treated her to the fiddles twice. I was admitted on several days to her lodging, and received by her with a great deal of dis- tinction, and, for a time, was entirely her slave. It was only when I found, from common talk of the company at the Wells, and from narrowly watching one, who I once thought of asking the most sacred question a man can put to a woman, that I became aware how unfit she was to be a country gentleman's wife ; and that this fair creature was but a heartless worldly jilt, playing with affections that she never meant to return, and, indeed, incapable of re- turning them. 'Tis admiration such women want, not love that touches them ; and I can conceive, in her old age, no more wretched creature than this lady will be, when her beauty hath deserted her, when her admirers have left her, and she hath neither friendship nor religion to console her. " Business calling me to London, I went to St. James's Church last Sunday, and there opposite me sat my beauty of the Wells. Her behavior during the whole service was so pert, languishing and absurd ; she flirted her fan, and ogled and eyed me in a manner so indecent, that I was obliged to shut my eyes, so as actually not to see her, and whenever I opened them beheld hers (and very bright they are) still staring at me. I fell in with her afterwards at Court, and at the playhouse; and here nothing would satisfy her but she must elbow through the crowd and speak to me, and invite me to the assembly, which she holds at her house, not very far from Ch-r-ng Cr-ss. " Having made her a promise to attend, of course I kept my promise ; and found the young widow in the midst of a half-dozen of card tables, and a crowd of wits and admirers. I made the best bow I could, and advanced towards her; and saw by a peculiar puzzled look in her face, though 112 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH she tried to hide her perplexity, that she had forgotten even my name. " Her talk, artful as it was, convinced me that I had guessed aright. She turned the conversation most ridicu- lously upon the spelling of names and words; and I replied with as ridiculous fulsome compliments as I could pay her; indeed, one in which I compared her to an angel vis- iting the sick wells, went a little too far ; nor should I have employed it, but that the allusion came from the Second Lesson last Sunday, which we both had heard, and I was pressed to answer her. " Then she came to the question, which I knew was awaiting me, and asked how I spelt my name ? ' Madam,' says I, turning on my heel, ' I spell it with a y.^ And so I left her, wondering at the light-heartedness of the town- people, who forget and make friends so easily, and re- solved to look elsewhere for a partner for your constant reader, Cymon Wyldoats." "You know my real name, Mr. Spectator, in which there is no such letter as hupsilon. But if the lady, whom I have called Saccharissa, wonders that I appear no more at the tea-tables, she is hereby respectfully informed the reason y/' 7. Writing Narratives Leading up to Given Conclusions Invent short, simple narratives for which the sen- tences given below shall form appropriate conclusions. Example : — Suggested conclusion — " And I left him standing on the bank of the river." Narrative: — Hov^ did it come to pass that my friend and I parted? That is something I shall never NARRATION 113 forget until I grow too old to remember anything. Affairs weren't going just the way they should have gone at the farm, and my folks decided to sell the place with the stock and move into the city. Happy ? Well, I just jumped up and down, sing- ing and shouting, for a full minute. Then I re- membered. All the castles I had built crumbled in an instant. Bob! He was a puppy when I was six, a full-grown dog well on in life now that I was twelve, — companion of all my walks, the only comrade I had on my little fishing expedi- tions along the banks of the sluggish old Des Moines. What wonder it almost broke my heart to part with him ? Our walks were numbered now. They generally led straight down to the murky river. We would both stare across at the fields stretching to the eastward, covered with ripening grain. And then I would look towards him and bury my head in his furry coat, while he would whine pitifully, as if he knew. Finally the day came. Early in the morning everyone had finished preparations, and had gathered at our little landing to await the steam- boat that was to carry us away. Bob and I were together for the last time. My arms were about his neck; his big brown head was pressed close to mine. I felt as if the day of doom had come ; as if I were losing a part of myself. I knew nothing of what was going on about me. Not even that the boat had arrived. Someone tore my hands 114 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH apart and rushed me aboard. The whistle shrieked, the engine started, the boat moved slowly off, and I left him standing on the bank of the river. — Pupil's exercise, 1. I had won, but somehow my victory failed to give me pleasure. 2. That was the last I saw of my gray-coated friend. 3. At last he joined us, and the dejected group was complete. 4. Closing the gate behind her, she walked bravely away in the direction of the post-office. 5. We looked dismally at one another and wondered, " Had it been worth while? '' CHAPTER VI DESCEIPTIOISr I. Conveying Impression by Detail Example : — In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill, A kafila camped at the foot of the hill. The blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose, And tent-peg answered to hammer-nose; And the picketed ponies shag and wild, Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled; And the bubbling camels beside the load Sprawled for a furlong adown the road. And the Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale, Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale; And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food. And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Jumrood. — Kipling: Ballad of the King's Jest In the foregoing descriptive passage, the impression of the sound and stir of an Eastern caravan is con- veyed by the many words and phrases suggesting action. The tent-pegs answer to the hammer; the wild ponies are picketed, and strain at their ropes; their feed is piled ; the camels bubble and sprawl ; the cats spit at the dogs ; the tribesmen bellow. Light and color are given to the picture by the turquoise twilight, the blue smoke- haze, the twinkling campfires. 115 116 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH In the two following 'passages, the same subject, " Twilight, '' has been treated so as to convey contrasting impressions. What is the impression conveyed in each case? What details are used to produce the desired effect? How silver falls the night! The hills lie down like sheep ; the young frog flutes ; The yellow-hammer, from his coppice, pipes Drowsy rehearsals of his matin-song; The latest swallow dips behind the stack. 'What beauty dreams in silence! The white stars, Like folded daisies in a summer field, Sleep in their dew, and by yon primrose gap In darkness' hedge, St. Ruth hath dropped her sickle. — Percy Mackaye: The Canterbury Pilgrims, A sudden pang contracts the heart of day. As fades the glory of the summer sun; The bats replace the swallows one by one; The cries of playing children die away. Like one in pain, a bell begins to sway, A few white oxen, from their labor done, Pass ghostly through the dusk ; the crone that spun Beside her door, turns in, and all grows grey. — Eugene Lee-Hamilton. Use each of the following subjects as the basis for two paragraphs of description conveying contrasting or widely different impressions: — Example. — The subject " Noon " may be used as the basis, first, for a paragraph describing the hurry and crowding of the business streets of a great city at the noonday hour ; then, for a paragraph de- DESCRIPTION m scribing the stillness of a meadow on a midsum- mer noon. 1. Noon. 2. The first snowstorm. 3. A familiar room. 4. A riverside scene. 5. The college campus. 2. Description by Conveying General Impression and by Detail 1. Our sensations on first beholding the Leaning Tower are peculiar. It leans to an alarming degree, and seen afar off ... it has the appearance of leaning still more. ... Its exceeding decliningness has done much to stop people's eyes to its exceeding loveliness. Leigh Hunt has well said, '^ I know not whether my first sensation at the sight of the Leaning Tower was admiration of its ex- treme beauty, or astonishment at its posture.'' And if so cultivated a judge could thus hesitate, is it any wonder that the prevailing attitude is rather one of open-mouthed astonishment at its awryness than anything else? The posture of the belfry, due, as I think, to an unhappy acci- dent, has been its great misfortune. It is really a thing of exquisite beauty; its loveliness increases; it never palls on our senses ; and yet it is almost impossible that the modern traveler (whose coach will not tarry his pleasure) should, in his between train visit to Pisa, have time to get the posture out of his mind and dwell in satisfaction on the beauty alone. . . . 2. The foundations of the Leaning Tower were laid in 1174, to be precise, on the eve of the Feast of St. Lawrence (August 9) . . . It is built entirely of white marble, 118 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH tinged now with the yellow of age, but white in the sun- light, and white from a distance. Two hundred and seven are the marble columns, which run round its eight stories, and two hundred and ninety the marble steps which lead to its summit. Here dwell the spirits of seven solemn bells, all tuned to a most religious harmony. . . . The Tower is one hundred and seventy-nine feet high, and is fourteen feet out of the perpendicular. Loud and long have been the disputes as to whether it was so built, or whether its position comes from a slipping of the foundation. . . . The simple fact is that we are without contemporary documents on the subject, and in the absence of such doc- uments, a positive conclusion is impossible. — M. Carmichael : On the Road through France to Florence. In the first of the two paragraphs quoted above, a general impression is conveyed; in the second, a brief but detailed description is given. Write two paragraphs, either related or independent, on one or more of the subjects in the following list. In the first paragraph, try to convey a general impression; in the second, give descriptive detail, 1. A favorite spot. 2. An unfamiliar city. 3. A public building. 4. A classroom during an examination. 5. A pleasure resort. 6. A summer cottage. 7. A second-hand bookstore. 8. The principal's office. 9. A garden. 10. A church. DESCRIPTIOlSr 119 3. Pictorial Description Write one or two short paragraphs of description suggested by the quotations given below. Example (based on 6) : — The dark wharves stretch into the stream, piled high with merchandise from foreign parts, and swarming with men scurrying hither and thither, toiling under loads. The tides sweep eddying into the harbor. All manner of ships dot the water; ships of all sizes, flying the colors of all nations, some back from distant ports, with paint dulled by the salt waves; others fresh from the shipyards with metal flashing in the sun, and great white sails standing out sharply against the buildings on the shore. Among the figures on the decks are olive-skinned, oval-visaged Spaniards, and my mind follows them to their strange, bright land. — Pupil's exercise, 1. A beggar-child sat at a quay's edge. — Browning: Tray. 3. The last tall son of Lot and Bellicent, Gareth, in a showerful spring, stared at the spate. — Tennyson: Gareth and Lynette. 3. But may my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale. And love the high embowed roof With antique pillars, mossy proof. — Milton: U Penseroso. 4. Still stands the schoolhouse by the road, A ragged beggar sunning. — Whittier: In School Days, 120 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 5. One by one from the windows The lights have all been sped ; Never a blind looks conscious. The street is asleep in bed ! — Henley: Echoes. 6. I remember the black wharves and the slips. And the sea-tides tossing free ; And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, And the beauty and mystery of the ships. — Longfellow: My Lost Youth, 4. Description of Persons The following descriptions of persons (in which class Dr, John Browns Rab may without impropriety he in- cluded) convey impressions hy emphasizing certain marked characteristics or significant circumstances. For example, in (1), the details, few as they are, show plainly Mrs, Transome's high breeding and narrow means. What are the impressions conveyed hy the other selections? 1. She was a tall, proud-looking woman, with abundant gray hair, dark eyes and eyebrows, and a somewhat eagle- like though not unfeminine face. Her tight-fitting black dress was much worn ; the fine lace of her cuffs and collar and of the small veil which fell backward over her high comb was visibly mended; but rare jewels flashed on her hands, which lay on her folded black-clad arms like finely cut onyx cameos. — George Eliot: Felix Holt, 2. Sir Abraham was a tall, thin man, with hair prema- turely gray, but bearing no other sign of age. He had a slight stoop, in his neck rather than his back, acquired by DESCEIPTION 121 his constant habit of leaning forward as he addressed his various audiences. He might be fifty years old, and would have looked young for his age had not constant work hard- ened his features, and given him the appearance of a machine with a mind. His face was full of intellect but devoid of natural expression. — Trollope: The Warden, 3. My liege, I did deny no prisoners ; But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and extreme toil. Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword. Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dressed, Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new reap'd, Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest home ; He was perfumed like a milliner; And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet-box, which ever and anon He gave his nose, and took't away again; Who, therewith angry, when it next came there. Took it in snuff, — and still he smil'd and talk'd, And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by. He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly, To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse Betwixt the wind and his nobility. — Shakespeare: Henry IV. 4. The reader is desired to ,mark this Monk. A person- able man of seven and forty, stout made, stands erect as a pillar; with bushy eyebrows, the eyes of him beaming onto you in a really strange way; the face massive grave, with a very eminent nose ; his head almost bald, its auburn remnants of hair, and the copious ruddy beard getting slightly streaked with gray. This is Brother Samson; a man worth looking at. — Carlyle : Past and Present 122 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 5. Amid a heap of books and other literary lumber which had accumulated around him, sat, in his well-worn leathern elbow-chair, the learned minister of St. Ronan's; a thin, spare man, beyond the middle age, of a dark complexion, but with eyes which, though now obscured and vacant, had been once bright, soft, and expressive. His hair might have appeared much more disorderly, had it not been thinned by time; black stockings, ungartered, marked his professional dress, and his feet were thrust into old slip- shod shoes, which served him instead of slippers. — Scott: St. Ronan's Well. 6. She was by no means young, and her hair was thin as well as gray; her face, which was oval and delicately curved, might formerly have been beautiful ; the eyes were bright and eager, and constantly in motion; her lips were thin and as full of independent action as her eyes ; she had thin hands, so small that they might have belonged to a child of eight, and she might boast, when inclined for vaunting, the narrowest and most sloping shoulders that ever were seen. — Sir Walter Besant : All Sorts and Conditions of Men. 7. He was brindled and gray like Rubislaw granite ; his hair short, hard and close like a lion's ; his body thick-set, like a little bull — a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety pounds' weight, at the least. He had a large, blunt head, his muzzle black as night, his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or two — being all he had — gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle all over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop Leighton's father's. — Pb, John Brown ; Rab and His Friends. DESCRIPTION 123 Write brief descriptions of persons or of animals, including such details as convey impressions of the fol- lowing characteristics or conditions: — 1. Self-respecting poverty. 2. Conscious importance. 3. Timidity. 4. Prosperity. 5. Severity. 6. Indolence. 7. Defeat (moral). 8. Insignificance. 5. Generalized Description A. In the paragraph given below, an object is de- scribed clearly and accurately by naming all the fea- tures common to every object belonging to the class. The first book from which children of the Colonists learned their letters and to spell, was not really a book at all, in our sense of the word. It was what was called a horn-book. A thin piece of wood, usually about four or five inches long and two inches wide, had placed upon it a sheet of paper a trifle smaller, printed at the top with the alphabet in large and small letters; below were simple syllables such as ab, eb, ib, ob, etc. ; then came the Lord's Prayer. This printed page was covered with a thin sheet of yellowish horn, which was not as transparent as glass, yet permitted the letters to be read through it ; and both the paper and the horn were fastened around the edges to the wood by a narrow strip of metal, usually brass, which was tacked down by fine tacks or nails. It was, therefore, a book of a single page. At the two upper corners of the page were crosses, hence learning to read the horn-book was 124 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH often called " reading a criss-cross row." At the lower end of the wooden back was usually a little handle which often was pierced with a hole; thus the horn-book could be car- ried by a string, which could be placed around the neck or hung by the side. — Alice Morse Earle: Child-Life in Colonial Days. Write a paragraph of generalized description, giving a clear and accurate idea of one of the subjects in the following list: — 1. A department store. 2. A grain elevator. 3. A college student's room. 4. A tennis court. 6. A dachshund. 6. A college athlete. 7. An apartment house. 8. A catboat. 9. A florist's shop. 10. A Christmas tree. B. The first of the two paragraphs quoted below cortr tains a generalized description of a type of dwelling, the early New Yorh house; the second, a description of a particular dwelling, the parsonage at Haworth, Note the difference in treatment and write two paragraphs on each of the subjects given in the subjoined list. Con- sider each subject first as naming a class or type, and then as naming a special member of a class. Aim at giving a clear and vivid impression in each paragraph, (a) The houses of the rich were quaint and comfortable, with steeply sloping roofs and crow-step gables. A wide DESCEIPTION 125 hall led through the middle, from door to door, with rooms on either side. Everything was solid and substantial, from the huge canopied four-post bedstead and the cumbrous cabinets, chairs, tables, stools, and settees, to the stores of massive silver plate, each piece a rich heirloom, engraved with the coat-of-arms of the owner. There were rugs on the floors, and curtains and leather hangings on the walls ; and there were tall eight-day clocks, and stiff ancestral portraits. Clumsy carriages, and fat geldings to draw them, stood in a few of the stables; and the trim gardens were filled with shrubbery fruit-trees, and a wealth of flowers, laid out in prim, sweet-smelling beds, divided by neatly-kept paths. — Theodore Eoosevelt: New York. (b) The parsonage stands at right angles to the road, facing down upon the church; so that, in fact, par- sonage, church, and belfried schoolhouse, form three sides of an irregular oblong, of which the fourth is open to the fields and moors that lie beyond. The area of this oblong is filled up by a crowded churchyard, and a small garden or court in front of the clergyman's house. . . . Underneath the windows is a narrow flower border, carefully tended in days of yore, although only the most hardy plants could be made to grow there. Within the stone wall, which keeps out the surrounding churchyard, are bushes of elder and lilac; the rest of the ground is occupied by a square grass plot and a gravel walk. The house is of grey stone, two stories high, heavily roofed with flags, in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering. It appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of four rooms on each story, the two windows on the right (as the visitor stands with his back to the church, ready to enter in at the front door) belonging to Mr. Bronte's study, 126 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH the two on the left to the family sitting-room. Every- thing about the place tells of the most dainty order, the most exquisite cleanliness. The doorsteps are spotless, the small, old-fashioned window-panes glitter like looking- glass. Inside and outside of that house cleanliness goes up into its essence, purity. — Mks. Gaskell: Life of Charlotte Bronte. 1. The suburban town. 2. The railway station. 3. The public library. 4. The country store. 5. The ocean steamer. * 6. Contrasting Methods of Description (Literary and Scientific Methods.) The following passage from Edmund Clarence Sted- man's " The Nature of Poetry,'' illustrates the differ- ence between the poetic and the scientific method of treating a familiar subject: — " But to show the distinction as directly affecting modes of expression, take . . . for instance, the methods applied to the treatment of one of our recur- rent coast storms. The poet says : ^When descends on the Atlantic The gigantic Storm wind of the Equinox, Landward in his wrath he scourges The toiling surges Laden with sea-weed from the rocks.' Or take this stanza by a later balladist : DESCRIPTION 127 ^ The East wind gathered, all unknown, A thick sea-cloud his course before. He left by night the frozen zone, And smote the cliffs of Labrador; He lashed the coasts on either hand. And betwixt the Cape and Newfoundland Into the bay his armies pour/ All this impersonation is translated by the Weather Bureau into something like the following : An area of extreme low pressure is rapidly moving up the Atlantic coast, with wind and rain. Storm-centre now off Charleston, S. C. Wind N. E. Velocity 54. Barometer 29.6. The disturbance will reach New York on Wednesday, and proceed eastward to the Banks and Bay St. Lawrence. Danger signals ordered for all North At- lantic ports." Reversing the process illustrated in the above-quoted selection, hut using 'prose instead of poetry, write short descriptive passages based on the following reports: — 1. The cold wave this morning covers the entire state, and has extended into the northern and western upper lake region. The lowest temperature reported was 21° below zero at White River, Canada. In New York the thermom- eter varied from 20° to 15° with low barometric pressure, and heavy snowfall. 2. The storm of Wednesday developed great energy during the day, with a northward movement, and is central this morning over eastern New York. The rain area for the day covered the Atlantic States and lower lake region, and there were heavy northeasterly gales on the N. E. coast, and some moderately high winds on the lower coast. CHAPTEE VII EXPOSITIO:t^ I. Definition A. 'A simple form of exposition is definition. A logical definition should name the term to be defined, place it in its class (genus), and give the differentia, or points wherein it differs from all other members of the class. A logical definition should be distinguished from a characterization, which is a description of a term by naming one or more representative qualities. For ex- ample, Newman's statement, ^^ It is almost the defini- tion of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain," fulfils by implication the requirements of a logical definition, the term to be defined being " gen- tleman," the genus " man," and the differentia " who never inflicts pain." The familiar saying, " A public office is a public trust," is a characterization. Which of the following quotations are logical defini- tions? Which are characterizations? In the case of the definitions, state (1) the term to be defined, (2) the genus, (S) the differentia. 1. Manners are the happy ways of doing things. — Emeeson. 128 EXPOSITION 129 2. A proverb is the wisdom of many, and the wit of one. — LoED John Eussell. 3. The epigram, in its first intention, may be described as a very short poem, summing up as though in a memo- rial inscription what it is desired to make permanently memorable in a single action or situation. — J. W. Mackail. 4. The qualities rare in a bee that we meet In an epigram never should fail; The body should always be little and sweet. And the sting should be left in its tail. — From the Latin; author unknown, 5. A people is but the attempt of many To rise to the completer life of one. — Browning. 6. I have called the principle by which each slight vari- ation, if useful, is preserved, natural selection. — Darwin. 7. Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pom- pous in the grave. __gj^ Thomas Browne. 8. A good citizen is . . . the constant participator in political struggles, who has well-governed convictions, and a strong determination to influence, by all honorable means, the opinion of the community. — Nicholas Murray Butler. 9. Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the term, a strong, dogged, unenlight- ened opponent of the children of light. — Matthew Arnold. 10. Literature consists of all the books — and they are not so many — ^where moral truth and human passion are touched with a certain largeness, sanity, and attraction of ^^^^^' — John Morley. 130 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH B. 1. Chivalry is the enthusiasm of the strong for the rights of the weak. ^BURKE. 2. A lyric poem is a short, intense expression of ideal emotion, embodied in singing verse. — H. Bates: Introduction to Pdlgrave*s '^Golden Treasury" 3. History in its true sense is a traveling in the past. — W. H. Mallock. 4. An examination is an impious attempt to fathom the depth of human ignorance. — W. H. Thompson. 5. A snob is one who meanly admires mean things. — Thackeray. 6. Ethics is the art and science of human action as di- rected towards the chief good of life. — Aristotle. 7. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. — Burke. 8. I have read somewhere . . . that history is philos- ophy teaching by example. — Bolingbroke. 9. Democracy means a government not merely by num- bers of isolated individuals, but by a demos — ^by men accus- tomed to live in demoi or corporate bodies, and accustomed therefore to the self-control, obedience to law and self-sacri- ficing public spirit without which a corporate body cannot exist. — Quoted by G. W. E. Russell in An Onlooker's Notebook. 10. The meaning of democracy is not " I'm as good as you are," but "You're as good as I am." — Lowell. EXPOSITION 131 C. Both the form and the substance of a definition may he indicative of the point of view or the character of the framer. In what way does each of the following definitions taken from Johnson s Dictionary reflect Johnson s individuality ? 1. Networks — anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections. 2. Grub-street — the name of a street in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Gruh-street. 3. Lexicographer — a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge. 4. Excise — a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid. 5. Pension — ^pay given to a state hireling to betray his country. 6. Oats — a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. 2. Exposition of Terms A. A term may be explained in a paragraph of expo- sition as follows: — Example. — Paragraph of exposition on the term " Mo- hocks." The literature of the time is full of the terrible doings of the Mohocks. The famous name of these disturbers of the public peace is supposed to be taken from the Mohawk Indians, a tribe which had its home in what is now the state of New York. The Mohocks were, in fact, a race 132 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH of street ruffians whose doings corresponded in many ways with those of the modern Hooligans, only that the Mohocks were recruited for the most part from a class much higher than that which pesters the streets in London's present days. The Mohocks were the " bloods " and " rakes " of that generation, and were dissipated scamps, belonging to what are conventionally termed the better classes of so- ciety. Their main ambition and chief pastime in life appear to have been to set the ordinary civic laws at de- fiance and win fame for themselves by deeds of wanton and utterly unprofitable violence in the streets at night. A man acquired renown among his own set by leading a band of this kind and making night hideous to the peaceful pas- sengers in the street. — Justin McCarthy: Reign of Queen Anne, Write paragraphs of exposition, explaining the fol- lowing terms : — 1. The college yell. 2. Old age pensions. 3. Association football. 4. The Audubon Society. 5. A county fair. 6. Yellow journalism. 7. The Puritan Fathers. 8. Hallowe'en. 9. Guy Fawkes' Day. 10. The " Forty-Niners.'' * B. Explain the appropriateness of the titles of the following works: — 1. Vanity Fair. — Thackeray. 2, Twelfth Night. — Shakespeare. EXPOSITION 133 3. The Giaour. — ^Byron. 4. Sartor Eesartus. — Carlyle. 5. Sesame and Lilies. — Euskin. 6. Ichabod. — Whittier. 7. A Laodicean. — Thomas Hardy. 8. The New Grub Street. — George Gissing. 9. Pisgah-Sights. — Browning. 10. Prseterita. — Euskin. 3. Exposition of a Process The following paragraph illustrates an exposition of a process leading to the production of a concrete result. The making of a portion of the autumn's crop of apples into dried applies, apple-sauce, and apple-butter for winter was preceded in many country homes by an apple-paring. The cheerful kitchen of a farmhouse was set with an array of empty pans, tubs, and baskets; of sharp knives and heaped-up barrels of apples. A circle of laughing faces completed the scene, and the barrels of apples were quickly emptied by the many skillful hands. The apples intended for drying were strung on linen threads and hung on the kitchen and attic rafters. The following day the stout crane in the open fire-place was hung with brass kettles which were filled with the pared apples, sweet and sour in proper proportions, sour at the bottom since they required more time to cook. If quinces could be had, they were added to give flavor, and molasses, or boiled-down pungent "apple-molasses," was added for sweetening. As there was danger that the sauce would burn over the roaring logs, many housewives placed clean straw at the bottom of the kettle to keep the apples from the fiercest heat. Days were spent in preparing the winter's stock of apple-sauce, but when done and placed in barrels in the cellar, it was 134 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH always ready for use, and when slightly frozen was a keen relish. Apple-butter was made of the pared apples boiled down with cider. — Alice Morse Earle: Home Life in Colonial Days. Write paragraphs of exposition on the following subjects: — 1. How to make a window-box. 2. How to build a grate fire. 3. How to make a snow-man. 4. How to make a pine pillow. 5. How to passepartout a picture. 6. How to make an ornamental calendar. 7. How to make an omelette. 8. How to prepare a camp breakfast. 9. How to make Christmas greens. 10. How to make a magazine cover. 4. Exposition of a Method The following paragraph contains the exposition of a method or plan. The tubbing season is brought to an end with a race be- tween the fours. Where there are half a dozen fours in training, two heats of three boats each are rowed the first day, and the finals between the best two crews on the fol- lowing day. The method of conducting these races is characteristic of boating on the Isis and the Cam. As the river is too narrow to row abreast, the crews start a definite distance apart, and row to three flags a mile or so up the river, which are exactly as far apart as the boats at starting. At each of these flags an eightsman is sta- EXPOSITION 135 tioned. In the races I saw they flourished huge dueling pistols, and when the appropriate crew passed the flag, the appropriate man let off his pistol. The crew that is first welcomed with a pistol-shot wins. These races are less ex- citing than the bumping races ; yet they have a picturesque quality of their own, and they settle the question of supe- riority with much less rowing. The members of the win- ning four get each a pretty enough prize to remember the race by, and the torpidsman at stroke holds the "Junior fours cup '' for the year. — John Corbin: An American at Oxford. Write paragraphs of exposition on the following sub- jects: — 1. How the president is elected. 2. How a school library is catalogued. 3. How the parts are assigned in amateur theatricals. 4. How to care for a city garden. 5. How to care for rabbits. 6. How to pack a trunk. 7. How to criticise a novel. 8. How to decorate a Christmas tree. 9. How to hive bees. 10. How to organize a glee club. 5. Exposition of Propositions The following selection illustrates the exposition of a proposition or statement, " Opinion in good men," says Milton, " is but knowledge in the making." All opinions, properly so called, are stages on the road to truth. It does not follow that a man will travel further; but if he has really considered the 136 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH world and drawn a conclusion, he has traveled as far. This does not apply to formulae got by rote, which are stages on the road to nowhere but second childhood and the grave. To have a catchword in your mouth is not the same thing as to hold an opinion; still less is it the s^me thing as to have made one for yourself. — Stevenson: Virginihus Puerisque, Write short expositions of the propositions in the following: — A. 1. Evil is wrought by want of thought As well as by want of heart. — Hood. 2. At leaving even the most unpleasant people And places, one keeps looking at the steeple. — ^Byron. 3. One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilder- ness of criticism. — Lowell. 4. To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step towards knowledge. — Disraeli. 5. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. — Tennyson. * B. 1. To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old. — Holmes. 2. There is only one real misfortune for a man, and that is to know that he has been at fault. — La Bruyere. 3. Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melan- choly as a battle won. — The Duke of Wellington. EXPOSITION 137 4. God bless the King! — I mean, the Faith's defender; God bless — no harm in blessing — the Pretender! But who Pretender is, and who is King, God bless us all — that's quite another thing. — John Byrom. 5. The fraction of life can be increased in value not so much by increasing the numerator as by lessening the de- nominator. Nay, unless my algebra deceive me, unity itself divided by zero will give infinity. Make thy claim of wages a zero then — thou hast the world under thy feet. — Carlyle. 6. Classification of Terms A term is classified when a division is made v^^hich includes all the parts considered under the head of the term. Example. — The term " literature " may be classified by division into " prose " and " poetry " ; the term " trees/' by division into " deciduous trees " and " evergreen trees." A. Classify the following terms, dividing into two groups in each case. Avoid classifications stated in merely negative form, such as '' hrich " and " not- hrick " for '' houses " ; and incomplete classifications, such as *' rich " and " poor '' for '' residents of New Yorh." 1. Monarchies. 2. Citizens. 3. Soldiers. 4. Athletics. 5. Money. . ' 138 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 6. Plants. 7. Mathematics. 8. Lakes. 9. Matter. 10. Europeans. B. Classify the terms given below, making three or more divisions. Example. — " Sentences " may be classified as " simple, complex, compound " ; " forms of discourse " as " narration, description, exposition, argumenta- tion." 1. History. 2. Government. 3. Narrative poetry. 4. College students. 5. Mathematics. 6. Matter. 7. Immigrants. 8. Caucasians. 9. Fiction. 10. Lines. C. Different classifications of the same term may be made by using different principles of division. Example. — " Newspapers " may be classified as " morning " and " evening," by considering the time of publication; as "partisan" or "non-par- tisan," by considering their political attitude. CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 139 Classify each of the following terms according to two or more principles of division: — 1. Schools. 2. Colleges. 3. Studies. 4. Polygons. 5. Music. 6. Ships. 7. Words. 8. Languages. 9. Quadrilaterals. 10. Poetry. CHAPTEE VIII AKGUMENTATIOlSr I. Statement of the Proposition In argumentation, reasons are set forth for the purpose of deriving a conclusion from them. The con- clusion to be reached must be in the form of a state- ment or proposition. A. From the terms given helow derive definitely worded propositions which may he argued. Example. — From the term " Secondary education " may be derived the proposition, " Secondary edu- cation should be made compulsory in the United States," or " Secondary education should be pro- vided by the community only for such pupils as can prove their ability to profit by it." 1. Naturalization. 2. The study of Latin. 3. The small college. 4. The reading of popular fiction. 5. Old age pensions. 6. The elective system of studies. 7. Moving picture exhibitions. 8. Vivisection. 9. Industrial education. 10. Fraternities. 140 ARGUMENTATION 141 B. 8tate the propositions contained or implied in the paragraphs of argumentation given below. Example. — Had Shylock relented after that most beau- tiful appeal to liis mercy, which Shakespeare has here placed as the exponent of the higher principle on which all law and all right are essentially de- pendent, the real moral of the drama would have been destroyed. The weight of injuries trans- mitted to Shylock from his forefathers, and still heaped upon him even by the best of those by whom he was surrounded, was not so easily to become light, and to cease to exasperate his nature. Nor would it have been a true picture of society in the sixteenth century had the poet shown the judges of the Jew wholly magnanimous in granting him the mercy which he denied to the Christian. . . . — Chas. Knight : Pictorial Edition of Shake- speare, The proposition implied in the above-quoted para- graph may be stated thus: The conclusion of the trial in " The Merchant of Venice " is both effective and appropriate. 1. I have no desire to lessen our guilt, whatever cruel- ties may have been practised by English hands against the Heavenly Maid. And much was practised — the iron cage, the chains, the brutal guards, the final stake, for which may God and also the world forgive a crime fully and often confessed. But it was by French wits and French inge- nuity that she was tortured for three months and betrayed to her death. A prisoner of war, yet taken and tried as a criminal, the first step in her downfall was a disgrace to 142 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH two chivalrous nations; but the shame is greater upon those who sold than upon those who bought; and greatest of all upon those who did not move heaven and earth, nay, did not move a finger to rescue. And indeed we have been the most penitent of all concerned; we have shrived our- self by open confession and tears. We have quarreled with our Shakespeare on account of the Maid, and do not know how we could have forgiven him, but for the notable and delightful discovery that it was not he, after all, but another and a lesser hand that endeavored to befoul her shining garments. France has never quarreled with her Voltaire for a much fouler and more intentional blas- phemy. — M-UQ, Oliphant : Life of Jeanne d'Arc. 2. Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth With such a full and unwithdrawing hand. Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable. But all to sate and please the curious taste? And set to work millions of spinning worms That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk To deck her sons ; and that no corner might Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems To store her children with. If all the world Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse. Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, The All-giver would be unthanked, would be un- praised, Not half his riches known and yet despised. — Milton: Comus, ARGUMENTATION 143 3. Is it not an absurd and almost sacrilegious belief that the more a man studies Nature, the less he reveres it? Think you that a drop of water, which to the vulgar eye is merely a drop of water, loses anything in the eye of the physicist who knows that its elements are held together by a force which if suddenly liberated would produce a flash of lightning ? Think you that what is carelessly looked upon by the uninitiated as a mere snowflake does not suggest higher associations to one who has seen through a micro- scope the wondrously-varied and elegant forms of rock- crystals? Think you that the rounded rock marked with parallel scratches, calls up as much poetry in an ignorant mind as in the mind of a geologist who knows that over this rock a glacier slid a million of years ago ? The truth is, that those who have never entered on scientific pursuits are blind to most of the poetry by which they are sur- rounded. Whoever has not in youth collected plants and insects, knows not half the halo of interest which lanes and hedgerows can assume. Whoever has not sought for fossils has little idea of the poetical associations that sur- round the places where imbedded treasures were found. Whoever at the seaside has not had a microscope and aqua- rium, has yet to learn what the highest pleasures of the seaside are. — Herbert Spencer: Education, 4. We return finally to the fundamental reason for teaching mathematics at all. . . . Is it because the doc- trines of number and of magnitude are in themselves so valuable, or stand in any visible relation to the subjects with which we have to deal most in after life? Assuredly not. But it is because a certain kind of mental exercise, of unquestioned service in connection with all conceivable subjects of thought, is best to be had in the domain of mathematics. Because in that high and serene region 144 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH there is no party spirit, no personal controversy, no compro- mise, no balancing of probabilities, no painful misgivings, lest what seems true to-day may prove to be false to-mor- row. Here, at least, the student moves from step to step, from premise to inference, from the known to the hitherto unknown, from antecedent to consequent, with a firm and assured tread, knowing well that he is in the presence of the highest certitude of which the human intelligence is capable, and that there are the methods by which approx- imate certitude is attainable in other departments of knowl- edge. — Sir Joshua Fitch : Lectures on Teaching, 2. Outlining the Argument A. Outline in the form of a simple brief the argvr ments contained in the paragraphs given below. To do so, first state the central thought in the form of a prop- osition, then append related statements which prove the first proposition. Example. — All the advantages of this superiority de- rived from our infinite resources and our isolated position are at once imperiled if the principle be admitted that European pov^ers may convert Amer- ican states into colonies or provinces of their own. The disastrous consequences to the United States of such a condition of things are obvious. The loss of prestige, of authority, and of weight in the councils of the family of the nations, would be among the least of them. Our only real rivals in peace as well as enemies in war would be found . located at our very doors. Thus far in our history; ARGUMENTATION 145 we have been spared the burdens and evils of im- mense standing armies. But with the powers of Europe permanently encamped on American soil, the ideal conditions we have thus far enjoyed can- not be expected to continue. We too must be armed to the teeth. — ^EiCHABD Olney: Letter to Ambassador Bayard. Outlined in the Form of a Brief : I. To admit the principle that European powers may convert American states into colonies or provinces of their own would be disastrous to the United States ; for, (a) It would result in the loss of our position among the nations. (b) It would imperil the advantages derived from our superior position. (c) It would necessitate the establishment and maintenance of a large standing army. 1. Such is only a part of the indictment against the English alphabet. Shall we try to get up a society for re- forming it? Well, I for one, should not. First, because the task is so formidable. To do it effectively we must have thirty-eight characters instead of twenty-six; we must cease to employ many of the letters we now use, and the whole aspect of the written language must be altered. And even when the written lan- guage had been truly conformed to the speech of the capital and of educated persons, it would remain untrue and non-phonetic in Yorkshire and Devonshire, and even in Scotland and Ireland, unless all provincialisms and dialectic varieties are to be obliterated; which is nei- ther probable nor in itself eminently desirable. Then the 146 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH price we should pay for such a reform would be very heavy. We of this generation, who have been educated in the anomalous system, would learn the new one, I grant, without much difficulty, and for our lifetime both the old and the new literature would be read. But to the next gen- eration, educated on the more rational principle, our pres- ent spelling would be hopelessly unintelligible, and the whole of our past literature, everything that is not worth reprinting, would become a foreign language, and would remain unread by our successors. — Sir Joshua Fitch: Lectures on Teaching. 2. Is Lady Macbeth's swooning, at the close of her hus- band's most graphic picture of the position of the corpses, real or pretended ? . . . She had been about a business that must have some- how shook her nerves, — granting them to be of iron. She would herself have murdered Duncan had he not resem- bled her father as he slept; and on sudden discernment of that dreadful resemblance, her soul must have shuddered, if her body served her to stagger away from parricide. On the deed being done, she is terrified after a different manner from the doer of the deed, but her terror is as great. . . . That knocking, too, alarmed the Lady — be- lieve me, ... as much as her husband, and to keep cool and collected before him, so as to be able to support him at that moment with her advice, must have tried the utmost strength of her nature. Call her Fiend — she was a Woman. Downstairs she comes — and stands among them all, at first like one alarmed only — astounded by what she hears, and striving to simulate the ignorance of the innocent — *' What, in our house ? " " Too cruel anywhere ! " What she must have suffered then Shakespeare lets us conceive for ourselves; and what in her husband's elaborate de- scription of his inconsiderate additional murders, "The AEGUMENTATION" 147 whole is too much for her/' she "is perplexed in the ex- treme " — and the sinner swoons. — John" Wilson (Christopher North) : Nodes Ambrosiance. 3. Was there any internal evidence which proved Addi- son to be the author of this version ? Was it a work which Tickell was incapable of producing? Surely not. Tickell was a fellow of a College at Oxford, and must be supposed to have been able to construe the Iliad, and he was a better versifier than his friend. We are not aware that Pope pre- tended to have discovered any turns of expression peculiar to Addison. Had such turns of expression been discov- ered, they would be sufficiently accounted for by supposing Addison to have corrected his friend's lines, as he owned that he had done. — ^Macaulay: Essay on Addison, B. Write outlines (in the form of briefs) for single paragraphs of argumentation on the propositions called for in Exercise A, Page 140. C. Develop the outlines called for in the preceding exercise into argumentative paragraphs of one hundred and fifty to two hundred words. 3. Refutation A. Refutation is the disproof of an opposing argu- ment. Outline in the form of a brief the refutations contained in the paragraphs given below. State clearly the argument to be refuted. Example. — I have no wish to deny that the Stamp Act was a grievance to the Americans, but it is due to the truth of history that the gross exaggerations which have been repeated on the subject should be 148 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH dispelled, and that the nature of the alleged tyranny of England should be clearly defined. It cannot be too distinctly stated that there is not a fragment of evidence that any English statesman, or any class of English people, desired to raise anything by direct taxation from the colonies for purposes that were purely English. They did not ask them to contribute anything to the support of the navy which protected their coast, or anything to the interest of the English debt. At the close of the war which had left England overwhelmed with additional burdens, in which the whole resources of the British Empire had been strained for the extension and security of the British territory in America, by which American colonists had gained incomparably more than any other of the subjects of the Crown, the colonies were asked to bear their share in the burden of the Empire by contributing a third part — they would no doubt have been asked to contribute the whole — of what was required for the maintenance of an army of ten thousand men, intended primarily for their own defence. One hundred thousand pounds was the highest estimate of what the Stamp Act would annually produce, and it was rather less than a third part of the ex- pense of the new army. This was what England asked from the most prosperous portion of her Empire. Every farthing which it was intended to raise in America, it was intended also to spend there. — Lecky: History of XVIII Century in England. AEGUMENTATION 149 Outlined : — The passage of tlie Stamp Act was not, as has been alleged, an act of tyranny on the part of England, for, I. There is no evidence that England desired to tax the colonies for purely English purposes ; for, (a) They were not asked to contribute to anything but to the support of the army required for their own defense. II. The tax imposed was not heavy; for, (a) The Stamp Act would have produced less than a third of the expense of the new army. 1. It is right that we should feel pity for the fate of Andre ; but it is unfortunate that pity should be permitted to cloud the judgment of the historian, as in the case of Lord Stanhope, who stands almost alone among competent writers in impugning the justice of Andre's sentence. One remark of Lord Stanhope's I am tempted to quote, as an amusing instance of that certain air of " condescension " which Mr. Lowell has observed in our British cousins. He seeks to throw discredit upon the military commission by gravely assuming that the American generals must, of course, have been ignorant men, " who had probably never so much as heard of Vattel or Puffendorf," and accordingly '^ could be no fit judges on any nice or doubtful point of military law." Now of the twelve American generals who sat in judgment on Andre, at least seven were men of ex- cellent education, two of them having taken degrees at Harvard, and two at English universities. Green, the president, a self-educated man, who used in leisure mo- ments to read Latin poets by the light of his camp-fire, had paid especial attention to military law, and had care- fully read and copiously annotated his copy of Vattel. 150 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH The judgment of these twelve men agreed with that of Steuben (formerly a staff officer of Frederick the Great) and Lafayette, who sat with them on commission, and, moreover, no nice or intricate questions were raised. It was natural enough that Andre's friends should make the most of the fact that when captured he was traveling under a pass granted by the commander of West Point ; but to ask the court to accept such a plea was not introducing any nice or doubtful question; it was simply contending that "the wilful abuse of a privilege is entitled to the same respect as its legitimate exercise.'' — Fiske: American Revolution. 2. The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is pro- duced, generally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling testimony to character. He had so many private virtues! And had James the Second no private virtues ? Was even Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being judges, destitute of pri- vate virtues ? And what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the household decencies which half the tombstones in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father! A good husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood ! — Macaulay : Essay on Milton. 3. *' I distinctly prefer that my son should not be an ath- lete," said a friend of mine, who is also a parent, to me the other day. . . . " I want him to have quiet family tastes, to care for butterflies and beetles, to be sober- minded, reasonable, domestic. Your games are a mere ex- crescence on a properly disciplined life, are a factitious pleasure and an artificial employment of energy." " Thou ARGUMENTATION 151 fool ! " I said to him (I am not habitually impolite, but I have been pursuing my theological studies a good deal lately), "is not all school artificial to the last degree?" " So much the worse for it, is it ? That is just what you complain of? Why, is not all our life a purely arti- ficial produce from the lives of past ancestors, and is not the business of each generation, if Darwinism be true, nothing else than to artifise its successors? Beetle me no beetles! I am not going to give up what I see visibly to be the food of health and virtue, because you consider that a Swiss Family Robinson could do very nicely without it.'^ — Edvtard Bowen : On Games, B. Prepare outlines in the form of briefs for para- graphs refuting arguments which might he brought for- ward to disprove the propositions contained in the paragraphs called for in Exercise A, Page 140. C. Develop the outlines called for in the preceding exercise into paragraphs of one hundred and fifty to two hundred words. 4. Fallacies A fallacy is a piece of false reasoning. Some of the commoner fallacies which may be recognized without the aid of the formal study of logic are as follows : — Generalizing from insufficient examples, as when a traveler, having met with a few instances of discour- tesy, concludes that all foreigners have bad manners. Begging the question, or assuming what should be proved, as when a debater announces his intention of proving that our present injudicious foreign policy 162 CONSTEUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH should be discontinued, thus taking for granted what he is required to prove, namely, that our foreign policy is injudicious. Arguing in a circle, or using one unproved assertion to prove another, as when the high moral character of a public official is deduced from his conduct while in office, and his conduct is justified by referring to his high moral character. The non sequitur fallacy, or assuming hastily or falsely the existence of the relation of cause and effect, as when the British matron of the slums protested against the compulsory vaccination law, asserting that she would not permit her children to be vaccinated, for her neighbor had had six children vaccinated the pre- vious year, and one of them had died six months after- wards. Equivocation, or the use of a term in two different senses, as when the statements that designing persons are untrustworthy and that everybody forms designs are given as justification for the conclusion that nobody is to be trusted. — (Davis.) Point out and classify the fallacies in the following: — 1. " It will be wrong, I feel sure it will. Don't you remember what that lady we met at the Royston Baths told us about the child her sister adopted? That was the only adopting I ever heard of, and the child was transported when it was twenty-three. Dear Godfrey, don't ask me to do what I know is wrong." — George Eliot : Silas Marner, ARGUMENTATION 153 2. For many generations the people of the Isle of St. Kilda believed that the arrival of a ship in the harbor in- flicted on the islanders epidemic colds in the head, and many ingenious reasons were devised by clever men why the ship should cause colds among the population. At last it occurred to somebody that the ship might not be the cause of the colds, but that both might be the common effects of some other cause, and it was then remembered that a ship could only enter the harbor when there was a strong north-east wind blowing. — John Morley. 3. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school, and . . . con- trary to the king, his crown, and his dignity, thou hast built a paper mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominations as no Christian ear can endure to hear. — Shakespeare: Henry VI. 4. All Cilieians are bad men; Cinyras is the only good man among them, and Cinyras is — a Cilician. — Greeh Anthology. 5. " Do you remember,'^ said the foolish woman in the '^ Spectator " to her husband, " that the pigeon-house fell the very morning that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the table ? " " Yes, my dear," replies the gentleman, " and the next post brought us an account of the defeat of Almanza." 6. As two boys were walking through the fields they found a peach. A dispute arose as to how the treasure- trove should be shared, and it was finally agreed that one should take the outside and the other the inside. He who received the stone found little to be satisfied with, but de- termined to be wiser next time. A little farther along 164 CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH the road they discovered a nut ; " The outside for me," cried the one who had fared ill before; but the shell was no whit softer than the stone had been. 7. If a man who turnips cries Cries not when his father dies, 'Tis a proof that he would rather Have a turnip than his father. — Dr. Johnson. fp^' n UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY ^ 'i'll ill i!] ! i ill ! if;:,. 'l!i ilililjiii ililiii!!! 1 liili llllll iiii !M;ii!i!i:!iiiiiiiii!iiiiii i^iiiiPiiiiiljii' i li ini'iii'iMi: Iiii I iiiiii iipii^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiii iiiijiiiiijiijiiiiii 1 |!!|y ijiHi i ijiiiiillil I Iiii I! ! Hiliil i ilPl! I! I iiiiiiiiiiiiiilliliii'