UC-NRLF *B 3D1 2bM WhatIs ENGLISH j m Mm Yj *^M 9 WARD A f i h mi lii! lib in t WHAT IS ENGLISH? A BOOK OF STRATEGY FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS BY C. H. WARD, M.A. HEAD OP THR DKPARTMKNT OP ENGLISH, THE TAPT SCHOOL, WATERTOWN, CONNECTICUT SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY CHICAGO ATLANTA NEW YORK Copyright 1917 by Scott, Foresman and Company 247 To ALBERT SHAW "Who once taught me the most valuable lesson an English teacher can learn 5 71 5574 PREFACE Many of the ideas in this book have been elabo- rated as special articles, but the chapters are in no sense a set of reprinted essays. Thanks are due to the following journals for permission to adapt or use parts of what they published: English Journal Intensive Spelling, Oct., 1914 Punctator Gingriens, Sep., 1915 We Must Not Be Enemies, Feb., 1916 The Bottomless Pond of oes, March, 1916 The Scale Illusion, April, 1917 Education English Apparatus, Nov., 1915 / ational Review What Is English? Feb., 1916 English Leaflet Inculcated Love, Feb., 1915 Defending Camelot, Oct., 1916 School Review A Platform of Grammar, April, 1916 Bulletin of the Illinois Association Exploring the Comma, Nov., 1916 CONTEXTS PAGE Preface 5 / Introduction 9 Chapter I. What English Is 15 II. Descent to Earth 29 —3* HI. Intensive Spelling 36 , IV. What Grammar Is All About 74 V. Teaching Grammar. 96 VI. John Wilson 's Idea 115 VII. What Is a Comma? 128 VIII. Present Usage in Pointing 154 • IX. Themes 189 1 X. Reading '.219 XI. Odds and Ends 244 L INTRODUCTION A paraphrase of the Advertisement to The Vicar of Wakefield will serve to introduce this book. "A hundred doubts may be stirred by this manual, and a hundred things could be said to prove them ground- less. But it is needless. A book may be iisefnj_ with 1 1 u merous_ over-statements , or it may be e rroneou s witEbuljaL_single emphatic remark. Such as are fond of pulpit-banging will turn with disdain from the author's simple work-shop. Such as mistake suave wording for sound teaching will find no help in this kit of tools for a laborer, and such as have been taught to deride accuracy will laugh at one whose whole stock of advice is drawn from the facts of a long experience.' p English has until recently been considered above and beyond other subjects of the curriculum. Its function lias been supposed to be the cultivation of insight into beauty, of charm and finesse in '■xpression. Teachers have taken pride in the idea that their beautiful occupation had little to do with imparting facts to crassly ignorant minds ; have felt little need of accurate knowledge or careful scheme of attack. Algohrn, Latin, physics — these required a teacher to have definite information and to go about his instruction according to plans worked out through centuries of experience. But English — that demanded only hazy desire and the throb of inspiration. A large proportion of its teachers, in both school and college, have been dilettanteish, 9 10 INTRODUCTION amateurish, ignorant of fact, and scornful of system. They have professed horror at the notion that the main purpose of secondary English is to attack methodically the most rudimentary illiteracy. They have felt that such a proposal could come only from a mental blacksmith, and have thus made the me- chanics of their art an almost unmentionable subject. But they have not denied the necessity of the gross mechanics, and in practice have done much good work. Such a jumble of emotion and fact perplexes the novice. And there is another potent cause of per- plexity — the experts in pedagogy. They occupy lofty positions, they thunder in conventions, they appal us with articles and books. Though they know nothing of the craft of teaching English, they tell us of noble aims: "Why instead of confining our students to English literature do we not make them acquainted with the first-class literature of man- kind V This from a prominent man in our oldest university. An even better-known man has written " authoritatively' ' about spelling. The only par- ticles of information in his brochure are wrong in principle; there is hardly a sentence that presents anything concrete; the adjurations are mostly im- possible to follow. Lest such violent language should seem the impertinence of a small man toward great ones, the reader is referred to an article in the Un- popular Review for July, 1916, "The Professor of Pedagogy Once More," written by a man who "for twenty years in several institutions has been next- door neighbor' ' to professors of pedagogy, and who "has on his shelves seventeen feet of pedagogic lit- erature." This article is not savage or vindictive INTRODUCTION 11 or satirical; it rather good-naturedly states such facts as these: " Among the secondary school-teach- ers, of course, the professor of pedagogy is an oracle and a great man. And it is the secondary school to which, almost exclusively, he addresses his litera- ture. . . . Few college professors would be so naive as to discuss their methods with a pedagogical expert. ... He knows, too, that only a sort of professional courtesy prevents them from frankly calling him a humbug. . . . His whole 'line of talk' reveals that he has never considered the ques- tion of dealing w T ith responsible minds. . . . Their praises of the delights of literature and art have a curious way of suggesting, by the vagueness and generality of the terms, that these delights are being reported, rather than recalled from personal experience. ... In the teacher of experience, who takes the pedagogical courses as a condition of promotion, they excite only ridicule and contempt." Where can the novice look for counsel! He knows not what his objective is, nor what to do, nor how to do it, nor how to correlate the demands for litera- ture and written composition and oral composition and spelling and grammar and " appreciation' ' and clear thinking and self-expression and sentence- structure and analysis of style — and so on, world without end. TngYj^fjipTmed tpflrhftrs F^lf^im ^" Q ^^ third of the English work in the high school? of the author's fltflte, and probably that ratio holds for the rest of the country. They cannot rely on their texts for guidance as teachers of algebra can; and so rapidly have methods changed that they may get only misdirection by recalling how they themselves were taught when they were in school. So there is a 12 INTRODUCTION real use for a vade mecum which shall display what one man has observed, what he has found essential, how he drives at that objective, and what devices he has learned to employ. Such a guide may be wide of the truth in some particulars ; not all of it can be used by any one reader. But it is a coherent body of practice which is available until a teacher has had time to build up a codex of his own. Everything here presented is the result of experience — an ex- perience based on acquaintance with the product of many schools in all parts of the country. Every one of the suggestions has been tested for at least five /years and most of them for twelve ; some for eighteen. Hardly anything has been arrived at by experiment- ing with a preconception ; everything has been forced upon the author by observing what was effective with particular young human beings who sat on material benches in an actual class-room. For the most part a colloquial style has been used. The author has thought it better to say "I" and "you" and "don't" and "tackle," because he is a practical workman who fears formality when he is talking about his trade. After this volume was ready for the press the author read Rollo Walter Brown's How the French 'Boy Learns to Write. Mr. Brown's inquiries were scrupulously and fully made; the results are care- fully compiled and temperately expressed. Here is an epitome of the judgment of the world's most clear- sighted, most literary nation on the teaching of its mother-tongue. It appears that the French boy, "not superior in intellect to the American boy, and not aided by some sort of magic in his native lan- guage, writes with sharper accuracy of thought, INTRODUCTION 13 surer and more intelligent freedom." Yet France "does not believe that the great body of boys shouM be trained in any special graces, has no idea of mak- ing a great body of literary writers. " "In the early grades the matters to receive chief attention are ordinary accuracy and conventional correctness." Simplified grammar, especially "the functions of words in ordinary sentences," is carried purpose- fully through the whole school course ; teachers take the position that a boy's ability to express himself well "must eventually depend in large measure upon his skill in handling the sentence, and that this skill must come in part from deep-seated, long-established knowledge of sentence elements." France requires that every pupil in its secondaire schools "shall have his attention called to punctuation" from his eighth t<> his tenth years and shall be taught "the principles of punctuation ' ' during the next two years. The suc- cess of these efforts may be gaged by one of Mr. Brown's experiments. A class of 28 French boys (aged 11 and 12) wrote from dictation a paragraph of Knglish (64 words) which they had never seen before; 11 wrote without error. When the same paragraph was tried in American schools with 500 pupils of the same or higher grades, only 11 wrote without error — i. e., the younger French pupils were 18 times better. This is hardly so astonishing as a bit of evidence that the present writer can adduce : a set of twelve-minute themes, written at Cambrai for an American teacher of English at the lycee, mere class tests for idiom written by fourteen-year-old boys, written tor a teacher who never had a word to say about punctuation — these show only two petty instances of carelessness with commas. France has 14 INTRODUCTION achieved in the schools, by the only possible method — patient and unrelenting care with fundamentals — what our best universities agonize over and can only partially attain. Anyone who is skeptical about the wisdom of What is English? will do well to read How the French Boy Learns to Write. The most astonishing portion of this message from France is the answer to the question: "What is the objective in all teaching of the mother-tongue f ' ' Our American answer has been that there is a double ob- jective : 1. (minor) some graces of style, 2. (major) stimulating a taste for good literature. But France says : " It is the conviction of the great body of teach- ers, as well as the Ministry, that work in grammar, rhetoric, and literature is in most respects lost unless it contributes to the pupil 's ability to give full, intel- ligent expression to his thought. Moreover, theories of teaching, and all the proposed changes in the course of study seem to be considered first in respect to their influence on this ability of the pupil. Ex- pression is not the sole end, but in all the lower schools it is the primary end." The voice of France speaks there. A voice is now being heard from American universities (see pages 17-22) that issues the same mandate to secondary teachers. It declares that originality without literacy is valueless. These voices must be heeded by one who would avoid failure. But the following of their counsel is a complicated task. It is the aim of this book to supply the knowledge necessary to success. CHAPTER I WHAT ENGLISH IS No inexperienced teacher needs to be told what algebra is, or Latin, or German. Among teachers and superintendents there is no discussion of what these subjects are, nor is there wide difference of opinion as to just how they must be taught. If a nov- Ice were suddenly told to take an arithmetic class, he would not need to consult about what he was to do; his textbook would be in itself a sufficient guide. The long sets of problems, the careful grading of these sets from very easy to somewhat hard, the elaborate display of every step in working a new kind of problem, the wary and slow advance from one small difficulty to another — the whole plan of the hook declares on every page that things which are simple to the teacher are perplexing to the child, that the teacher must take time and be thorough, that arithmetic is a long campaign in which the con- -t of simple fractions is a huge operation. But suppose the subject were new and that pro- bers of astronomy, with little sympathy for chil- dren's minds, were furnishing the textbooks. Their brains have heen engrossed with stellar parallax and the hyperbolic courses of comets. The result would be a preface explaining that "Arithmetic is an intro- duction t<> that noblest and most useful of sciences, to the science of quantity and arrangement, to the Btudy of i Ws {thmshes'3 three times This difficulty of rooting out an old habit, of fixing a new one in its place, of insuring the operation of the new habit when the mind is busy expressing ideas, is quite beyond the comprehension of any pro- fessor or critical parent. It passes the understand- ing of the teacher himself. Although at present I regard myself as a spelling fiend, still I am sure that a decade hence I shall look back upon my present self as mildly unconscious of the forces against which I struggle. The essence of these forces is always confusion. Some psychologist of the future may formulate the mental mix-ups; at present we guess and grope. But our minds must be cleared of the idea that we deal with mere heedlessness. Consider shepherd. Every boy and girl is confronted throughout his life with 44 WHAT IS ENGLISH? such spellings of the proper name as Shephard, Shepard, until his mental picture is a blurred and in- extricable composite. Ashes, fourty, villiage, dis- pair, shure, controle, flew, etc., are easily referable to parallel correct forms ; minuite may be due to bis- cuit. Oral confusions only partially account for such mistakes as probally, atheletics, supprise, enimy. Of a different sort and more complicated are errors in using suffixes. It is quite impossible for the trained mind to realize the alertness neces- sary in an immature mind, during the rush of a written test, if the knowledge of altering final letters is to be properly applied. For example, the teacher finds enjoies, is inflamed with wrath, wonders if the pupil has any mentality; inquires the next day in class about replies and employs, and finds that the understanding of the principle is perfectly clear; confronts the pupil with his idiotic enjoies and sav- agely demands whether his brain is larger than a pea ; the modest answer is, ' 'I got mixed up. ' ' Bright boys, whose accuracy in a spelling test is invincible, will in themes write ladie y s, dinning room, does' nt, and be just as puzzled as the teacher when the errors are disclosed. The old ignorance is always slipping in to confound the recently established knowledge. In some form or other misspelling is confusion. Therefore the first object of intensive spelling is to establish order. "This is invariably done"; "such a form does not exist"; "when must you always double V 9 "Henrys ought to look as strange to you as snow in July"; "there are only three pre- terits in aid 99 ; "only ex,' pro, and sub take ceed' 9 — and so on eternally, the old "alwayses" and "nevers" being unremittingly presented until they IXTKNSIVH SI'KLLING 45 are deeply planted in careless minds, take root, and crowd out the confusions. / It is the opposite of this plan, it is creating con-) fusion, to present there and their together, or seize and siege, or all right and already. When you dis- play as a group of freaks seize, weird, either, empha- size them as three of a kind, repeat them and ex- patiate upon them, then you make one clean-cut im- pression ; for a few in the class that one presentation is indelible. If you then say anything about siege, you smudge the mental diagram ; for some in the class you may have created permanent confusion. If all right gets fervid comment in a recitation (never is that wrong form to be exhibited), then there must be nothing said that day about already; for that would be to construct disorder. Examine your own processes, if you have any memories of that remote period when you had any slight troubles with spelling. Suppose you were in doubt about cemetary. Did it help you to pair it with secreteryf Was it your custom to put dis- similar words together and say, "Now, I will remem- ber that the first is different from the second" T Suppose that when you were a bit flustered before a (lass you had to declare the proper spelling of a word, would you wish menial pictures like these f incompat[ a Jble emba \ rrjass mcontest ^ a Jble ha \ rrjass Most of us have to pal the similar forms together. Once we have learned "stationery is not used in a / 46 WHAT IS ENGLISH? cemetery, ' ' no embarrassment can make ns err with either word. By some mnemonic device we fix the impression of two r's in embarrass; by another de- vice, in another brain-cell, we fix one r in harass; if we pair them, we are lost. The author can cite a striking proof from his own recent experience. A spelling test of twenty choice words that have been bowling over all the peda- gogues was dictated to him. One is caterpilll >r. Even the disciplined teacher's mind was confused; for it had seen both forms frequently, had pre- viously looked up the word, had thought of the two together (one as old, one as new) ; now, in the test, it hesitated, was confused, was lost. If that mind had grouped similar forms, had once said caterpillar is like pillar, it would have acquired knowledge. The whole system of intensive spelling is to build groups of words that corroborate each other. Almost, already, always, altogether belong together, help each other. All right must be kept as far apart as possible in time and thought. ' ' There is no such thing as an adjective in us" we must insist, "no such thing as an adjective in full"; later we may casually mention bogus and citrus, or comment on crop-full. "Speeches every week" will teach the spelling of two words; "he speaks in a weak voice" will, later, teach two others. But "he speaks a speech" may unteach spelling for life. Lose, move, and prove; laid, paid, said; exceed, proceed, succeed; divide and divine; he hadn't a particle of principle; the principal man was a practical man; ninth, truly, argument; decision and occasion — all such group- INTENSIVE SPELLING 47 - help to build up an assured and lasting knowledge. There is no other clue to the labyrinth of ie and v "Always expect it to be ie unless you know d< finitely to the contrary." Learn the four cases! in which it is ei: (1) when the sound is that of long! a or long i; (2) when the sound is short i or short ej cept mischief, kerchief, friend, and sieve); (3Y After c (except financier); (4) in six freaks: seize\ ucird, leisure, either, neither, inveigle. For practi-t ea] purposes the two great points to emphasize are: (I) always write ie for the long e sound — piece, be- lieve, fierce, siege, etc. — except seize, weird, and neither; (II) always ei after c. The whole matter can be remembered by the fol- lowing jangles, the plan of which is to suggest the rules in the first lines and the exceptions in the next two: v 1. I before e when sound is long e Seize, inveigle, either "Weird, leisure, neither 2. Ei after c or when sound is not e Financier, fiery, and mischief Friend, sieve, view, and kerchief This looks complicated to you; much more will it to your pupils. But so far as I know, it is the only rule given under heaven among men.| If you ap- proach it one step at a time, getting yourself and the M gradually familiar with it, it will finally sorin almost as simple as " Thirty days hath September." Should you not wish to use it, you can at least do valuable work (and tho important part) by empha- sizing the two points suggested abow. 48 WHAT IS ENGLISH? I will add a paragraph about some exceptions ; not because it is very useful and certainly not because your classes will ever need it, but so as to give assur- ance against embarrassment if a pupil should sud- denly spring one of the forms. There are no excep- ' tions to long a; use for illustration sleigh, freight, rein, vein, feint, their, heir. The only real exception to long i is fiery, for such forms as lie, vie, tries do not give trouble on this score, are not entered for discussion; use for illustration height, sleight, stein, meister singer, seismograph, kaleidoscope, eider- down, heigh-ho. Words in short i are foreign, sover- eign, surfeit, counterfeit; the only exceptions I know are mischief, kerchief, and sieve. "Short e" is put in above simply for completeness; the only one I have noted is heifer (though often leisure) ; the only exception is friend. One speller makes a point of glacier as an exception to the c rule, another is wor- ried about ancient, and we might add species; but these, on account of their sh sound, give no trouble, do not belong in this class. There are a number of exceptions to long e, but none that are likely to occur on themes; plebeian is a possibility; seignorage is an impossibility; Scotch forms like weir and teind are not in court; nor archaisms like teil; sheik and obeisance have a common pronunciation in long a. Lieu is like view. The first draft of this solution of ie and ei was printed in the New York Times in 1897, has been constantly checked up since, and may be trusted; though there is not the least doubt that shortly after this book is published I shall wish I had slipped in one more comment or exception. Remember: All these ins and outs are not vour business, but your INTENS1VK SPELLING 49 stock of reserve knowledge; all that count- much is "the two great points. ' \ Your business is always to determine what errox common and to dm ly at that. A few common names m your locality may be necessary, or a few names that are being frequently written because they occur in the books you study. I have heard of a teacher who always dictated for the last word of a spelling test the Indian name of the school in which he taught; it was known that the name would always be given, yet it was seldom that the whole class could w r rite it correctly. A wise teacher (whose chief interest is in literature) says that he finds it good economy to spend ten minutes in getting on the board by slow degrees, with facetious com- ment, with repetitions and variations, the name Macaulay. It is not a matter of commonness, but of what you find commonly misspelled. For example, in the Eng- lish Journal for June, 1916, two teachers in two dif- ferent kinds of schools testify that some of Mr. Jones's demons do not trouble them. But in gen- eral it is the same old list that is needed every- where. There is striking proof from preparatory schools that careful teachers working quite inde- pendently will reach very similar results as to demons. It may be well to print one list, which was irot up on this basis: Have we encountered a mis- spelling so often that it can be fairly called a demon? In case of doubt a word was excluded. A few of the forms were included more as illustrations of a type than as demonic in themselves — like emphatically and /.9. A few were due to local conditions — sucl leB&dtragedy. Hut you can certainly 50 WHAT IS ENGLISH? count that nine-tenths will trouble you in your first month. ' ' Second-grade words ' ' is used as a title for the first list simply because it is less sarcastic than ' ' for the little ones. ' ' All but six actually are in Mr. Jones's second-grade list, only "not quite so childish. " Fifth-grade' ' means SECOND-GRADE WORDS It is too big J rough 1 enough Their house I know the lesson which He knew it straight He threw the ball across The ball was thrown among He meant to do right every ' He shows good sense before He asks questions once He turns the crank He speaks in a weak voice crowd Tired after working some We got off the road piece He ought to have told us believe We told him friend Stay there since A new rule stretch Go through the woods a rough road They are almost here toward the house It is already five o 'clock It is quite cold He always comes The guide led us Although I don't want to No one except him Wait until six I am sure it is sugar Speeches every week Did you lose the money? INTENSIVE SPELLING 51 FIFTH -GRADE WORDS perhaps probably sentence surprise 1 E dropped before ing writing coming dining hoping Oana ing and shoeing are peculiar forms stop stopped stopping drag dragged dragging hop hopped hopping slam slammed slamming . sin sinned sinning strip stripped stripping plan planned planning begin beginning J occur occurred occurring compel compelled compelling refer referred referring prefer preferred preferring * omit omitted omitting control controlled controlling roll rolled rolling write written writing dine dined dining-room suffer suffered suffering offer offered offering travel traveled traveling- develop developed develop ing open opened opening 52 WHAT IS ENGLISH! 3 try trying tries tie tying ties lie lying lies tried tied lay It lay there yesterday It has lain there many days study studying studies hurry hurrying hurries studied hurried Verbs in ay — three peculiar forms lay laid lays pay paid pays say said says All other ay verbs are regular stay stayed stays play played plays delay delayed delays Consonant before y lady story family ladies stories families Vowel before y alley monkey alleys monkeys journey boy play journeys boys plays INTKNSIVK Sl'KLLING 53 easy easier easily- happy happier happiness heavy heavier heavily lucky luckier luckily busy business busily Adjecti\ 7 r es like these end in ful awful painful useful fearful hopeful successful 8 Adjectives like these end in ous famous ingenious generous cautious precious delicious conscious religious victorious curious jealous. suspicious furious mysterious various bogu* is a peculiar form dis + agree = disagree^ dis + appear = disappear .lis + appoint disappoint* dis + satisfied = dissatisfied 54 WHAT IS ENGLISH? mis + spell = misspell re + commend = recommend *> re -f collect = recollect accommodate £ } committee mean + ness = meanness drunken + ness = drunkenness sullen + ness = sullenness 10 No hyphens together nevertheless altogether nowhere without apiece whatever inside wherever outside 11 generally really naturally finally ^usually accidentally especially 4e*mairy=m a formal way formerly = in former times practically ar tistically frantically enthusiastically grammatically sarcastically emphatically ^ Publicly is a peculiar form INTENSIVE sn«: LLING 12 Two sep a rate words all right in spite at last in fact 13 Trouble with o forty prisoner porch lose move prove 55 14 trouble with u minute pursuit accustomed* guard ^jj four fourteen though thorough tmuble 15 Trouble with ou x of course not the ship's course prom I cloud loU«l double 56 WHAT IS ENGLISH? 16 Trouble with a separate any separation many preparation again secretary furnace grammar a stationary engine pleasant coarse cloth descendant rainy weather It doesn't affect me 17 Trouble with e describe pretty description repetition biggest benefit greatest whether to go or not enemy- buying stationery destroy a good effect despair a quiet Sunday 18 Trouble with i definite intelligent divide originally divine delicate privilege medicine view disturb similar 1NTBN8IVB SPELLING 57 19 Possessives a lady's hat the ladies' hats a fox's tail the foxes' tails Mr. Jones's house the Joneses' property the men's hats the children's toys its yours hers theirs whose One another's burdens Each other's arms Any one 's cap 20 An apostrophe shows that letters have been left out ha ve + not = haven 't ( 1 id + not = didn't a re + not = aren't w as + not = wasn't should* not = should n't does + not = doesn't we + wills well they + are = they 're it + i8 = it's you + have = you \« where • if w here's 58 WHAT IS ENGLISH? 21 a participle an article a principle a practical man the principal thing 22 Pronounce brilliant ruffian; a comes before i in the following : certain captain villain 23 decision } omission } , , , fone s = z . . two s's = sh occasion J permission J Possessive is a peculiar form 24 Queerly pronounced Wednesday carriage beautiful answer knowledge solemn marriage necessary one woman three women Ought not to be queerly pronounced government particularly arctic Saturday February quarter obstinate corner INTENSIVE SPELLING 25 No extra letters athletics translation possibly library translate apologies apologize 26 Single letters around amount arouse imitate image imagine 59 27 E before a suffix that begins with a consonant nineteen affectionately ninety immediately surely entirely safety < xtremely arrangement • Infinitely rely immensely Ninth, truly, argument are peculiar forms Drop e before a suffix that begins with a vowel Lovable immovable desirable 60 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Pronounce cable gable elegance Notice the e's in the following: noticeable changeable unmanageable peaceable vengeance E is kept in order to preserve the sound of c and g Judgment is a peculiar form 28 Double letters supplies address approach arrive 29 Some of the more common nouns in el angel tunnel nickel shovel channel level 30 Words that end in d or nd have on loud found frfw^ cloud ground proud sound ? But "put the w in crowd" 31 critic opinion criticize fascinate criticism INTENSIVK SPELLING 61 32 prophet a prophecy two prophecies 33 to prophesy ho prophesies Five Wonderful Words: goddess shepherd nymph comedy tragedy In two ways you will see that the list seems not to carry out what was said earlier. First, there appear to be some linkings of forms that are confused — like brilliant and certain, formerly and formally. This is partly for convenience in printing and partly with the hope that brilliant will make villian ridiculous I whereas already has no power to make alright ridiculous, but only to make it seem natural). Sec- ond, the list is unemphatic. This is because it is a mere record of what pupils already know. Every form has had its day or its year on the blackboard for special exposition. A noteworthy case is the six possessive forms, which represent a gory field of battle. Fox's will slaughter many a boy who can spell hallucination without a quiver; Joneses' is almost as deadly as a big howitzer. Those six forms are a whole campaign in themselves. Insist that one simple thing must be done for the singular— add 's. Why this is so difficult heaven only knows, but Burns's and Jones's are almost unattainable by some. Though many writers dislike the cacophony of Williams's and only a minority of speakers will say 62 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Howells's novels, it is certain that modern usage pre- fers to print the added s in all cases except for the name Jesus and a few combinations of sake {good- ness 9 sake). When pupils inquire, "But isn't Mr. Jones' house correct 1" answer that it is easier and safer to follow the invariable rule; for that is the fact in school work. But you need not insist that anyone should violate his sensibility. Insist on two simple steps for the plural possessive. The first is * ' Get your plural. 9 9 They will flinch and shy and be astoundingly timorous. But gradually they will gain courage to write Charleses. Then, second step, put the apostrophe after the s, except in a few cases where the plural does not end in s — such as oxen and mice. For five years the school that prepared this list has used only the four hundred forms. It is an astonishing method. Ten years ago I should have called the man who proposed it just what you or your principal or your advisory friend will call him — a crank. It sounds preposterous, but is purely the result of experience and cannot be discredited except by somebody else 's conscientious trial for five years. Month after month and year after year the pupils are put through the same familiar pages. Spellers have been abandoned. All spelling time is devoted to trying to fix common forms ineradicably. Even in this the failure is woeful. Of 'course it is. Im- provement in spelling can be achieved only in pro- portion to the cube-root of the effort expended. At the end of the year only ten out of the twenty-five boys in the second-year class can spell all the words in the pamphlet. Nevertheless they are a better trained crowd than was produced by the old method. INTENSIVE SPELLING 63 The most hopeless spellers miss only 10 per cent of the words. After several reviews a test of thirty- fur words is marked zero for two errors. It is understood in the grading of themes and written tests that there are three kinds of misspell- ings: (1) unusual wojds, (2) words that the ideal pupil would ha\ rved, but to which attention has not been called, (3) words that have been spe- cially dwelt on. Nothing is deducted for the first kind, little for the second, but zero is the only limit for penalizing the third. A third-year pupil who writes ladys in an otherwise perfect hundred-word test may get 80 per cent in September or 40 per cent in June. For the violation of an invariable, familiar, clearly-understood rule no marking is too severe. And severity is the truest kindness. It often teaches a stupid pupil in October what leniency would leave untaught in June. There is, I am sure, one advantage in intensive spelling that no amount of spread-out work can secure: i t establishes a nucleus. W hen a pupil has reached the stage where dissapomt and finaly are ludicrous, where they instantly recall the teacher's invective, then that pupil is ready to be more ashamed ransative or to detect and reform apropriation. As long as he is taught that he is responsible for a vast field of seldom-used nouns he feels abused, he justifies his errors to himself ; but when he is strictly liable for only a few square yards he cannot excuse himself. He is then alive to errors; which means tli.it his intellect has been quickened. When a boy who used to look on Macauly with indifference has \ oome to look upon it as an absurdity, then he has ' taken a most significant intellectual step. 64 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Such advances dignify the petty and onerous teaching of spelling. And not in that homiletic sense in which we are encouraged to sweep a room as if it were God's work, but in that practical and scientific sense in which the dissection of a mosquito builds the Panama Canal. When you bring a pupil into a posi- tion where buisness is ludicrous, you have made him dread to be ludicrous in the case of other words ; you have disclosed that pest of indifference; you are preparing for a constructive work. Limiting the work to such a small area may seem intensive enough, yet even in this restricted space one portion is much more valuable, more difficult, and to be labored in more intensively than the rest. It is the portion that includes derived forms, like preterits and plurals. Don't think of the major part of your task as a list of words. That is what you will always be hearing and reading — how many thousand words should be in our list, or how many hundred. Even this chapter has been presenting a list. But the most limited list is still a collection of mere units. Much more important is a set of the few principles that govern common changes of form. To illustrate. The form stoped is a greater evil than seperate because it shows ignorance of an invariable principle whose application is required several times on every theme. It means that the pupil will go sluming and diping and that he will be forever triping and sliping in a most ghastly way. Ladys may not be worse than discribe, but it means a woeful ignorance that is going to be displayed in every composition; it signifies more illiteracy, a more hopeless mental state. A ladle's hat certifies that the writer is grossly uneducated, while probally ■ INTENSIVE SPELLING 65 proves no more than that he is careless. It is such always-used principles that we must drive at. Dissapear may be good evidence that the writer will misspell several similar words that occur once in a while; comeing is proof that he will misspell a hun- dred that occur constantly. It is these derived forms that multiply errors. When you establish such a type-form, you wipe out a whole regiment of the enemy. The following rules and groupings are mostly familiar, but some of the hints about what to expect and how to attack may be useful. i — AFFIXES 1. If a one-syllable verb ends in a single conso- nant preceded by a single vowel, double the conso- nant before ed. Stoped is the form that occurs ten times oftener than other failures of this class. Make pupils pronounce hope, hoped and then stope,stoped t ami ask if they know what stope means. This is not like exhibiting such wrong forms as wierd and! n Ir i (/lit, which the pupil never sees in his reading and which the teacher ought not to show him. Correct forms like slopped and sloped, lopped and loped are frequently seen and have to be distinguished. If the accent is on the last syllable of longer verbsi the situation is the same. Illustrate occurred by\ furred. Contrast it with cured and secured. Occured and controled are the common ones. Many pupils have no ear for the abstraction "accent on the last sy liable,' ' and are puzzled about preferred and of- fered. But if you pronounce prefer, with an exag- gerated emphasis, they smile at the curiosity. Then a good formula is: " Prefer ed ought to look just as 66 WHAT IS ENGLISH? queer to your eye as it sounds to your ear." Din- ning-room is a form that sometimes survives the most slaughterous attacks, and writting is very long- lived. (Chagrined is the only correct form of its kind.) 2. Drop a final e before a suffix beginning with a vowel. The instinctive dislike of doing this is very strong, so that while you very frequently see such an error as comeing in signs, you will probably never see shoeing misspelled. These oe verbs, and a few rarities like dye and singe (to avoid confusion) are the only ones that retain the e before ing. In Eng- land it is kept very commonly before able, and we all have to write mileage and acreage, but in America we consistently write tamable, lovable, etc. The exception is after a g or c "to preserve the soft sound.' ' Ask how a pupil pronounces cable and I gable; then force him to pronounce peacable and changable. The commonest exceptions are ninth, truly, judgment (almost universally printed so, de- spite dictionary warrant for the e), and argument. The regular ones that have to be most contended for are surely, arrangement, immediately, definitely. 3. Change y to i after a consonant : (a) in plurals — stories (but proper names are usually not changed — Henrys; and there are a few abnormal forms like stand-bys and drys) (b) in third singular — cries " (c) in past tense — cried •(d) in comparison — happier, luckiest (e) in adverbs — easily, luckily (f ) before ness — business INTENSIVE SPELLING 67 Probably not more than half your class can learn that last word until they see the demonstration: busy+ness=business. 4. Change ie to y in ti/inf/, lying, etc. 5. There are three irregular preterits in aid: laid, paid, said. All other ay verbs are regular, like stayed, delayed. u Delay' ' is not a compound like 4 * inlay, ' p and staid is so unusual that a college exam- iner once marked it an error. 6. Three eed verbs: exceed, proceed, succeed. Others are regular, like precede and the noun pro- cedure. 7. There are no adjectives in full except newly- coined, hyphenated words. They are always like useful. 8. Pupils use the double I in some common adverbs very grudgingly. The most abused are finally, accidentally, usually, and really. 9. Adjectives in ic have to take on an al before the ly. Publicly is an exceptional form. 10. Probably everyone in your class can spell appoint and knows that the common prefix is dis, yet a fourth of them will repeatedly misspell disap- point and disappear. The same form of emphasis is needed for re+commend, mean+ness, etc. 11. Usually al forms an adjective and le is a noun ending. Principal and principle look simple, but— 12. A few verbs like mimic and picnic require a A; before ing to preserve the hard sound of c. 13. Eight common nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant form their plurals by adding es: echo, hero, negro, no, potato, tomato, tornado, torpedo; also the game of dominoes, usually jingoes, and the 68 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Scotch jo. Most others must be os, and all others may be. The rule is usually given the other way round, but there is dictionary warrant for os in every case except as stated above. In all our dic- tionaries os is understood when no plural is indi- cated. n — CONFUSIONS 1. Certain, captain, and villain often appear with the i before the a — and then reappear frequently after you have had ruffian and Christian exhibited. 2. There is no generalization for the el and le nouns. The best I can do is to make sure of a few common ones in el, heading the list with angel. 3. An apostrophe shows where letters are omit- ted; no letters are added to form an abbreviation. Could anything be simpler? Could a sensible child ever require a second caution about e and no e in haven't and didn't P He could. Many require five or ten. 4. Use no apostrophe for the possessive of a per- sonal pronoun — its, yours, hers, theirs. Its is the one most commonly wrong. Whose is difficult for some to acquire. Indefinites (one, another, etc.) have the apostrophe. Be cautioned in advance about a way some children have of putting an apostrophe into a plain plural. 5. There is a strong tendency to hyphenate certain solid words, especially together, altogether, without, and nevertheless. 6. In view of what I know after eighteen years of experience I think the value of the miscellaneous hints in this paragraph is not less than twenty dol- INTENSIVE SPELLING 69 lars. One boy with a good mind persisted through ■ whole year in writing omit with two m's in spelling lessons. Oppinion is a parallel case. Boys from most cultured families will most marvelously per- sist in pr chaps and preformance. Boys who have known ex and capio for three years will in English sometimes except an invitation. For school pur- poses affect is a verb and effect is a noun ; never put them together for comment. " Don't despair; we can destroy the enemy' ' may teach three fearsome words with one effort. Avoid any exhibiting of forms that do not exist, like diden't, caption; it is dangerous to write occur ed or picnicing on the board unless they are audibly derived as strange monsters from cure and ice; if you hope to teach angel, do not write angle in that recitation. Pupils are mentally stone-deaf to the difference between occasion and occassion, picnicking and picnicing; only by forcing them to use their tongues, by making them say cassion, by insisting that they pronounce that wonderful new word occassion, will you get any- where at all. A boy will calmly pronounce picnicing in the orthodox way ; he has not felt the appeal until you make him say successively ice, icing, nicing, pic- nicing, or mice, micing, mimicing; he will balk at that last step and be unable to pronounce his own spell- ing. Turnes is not very common; showes is fairly frequent; ashes flourishes in its loneliness with a vigor that you will finally learn to stand in awe of. S apprise has more lives than a cargo of Kilkenny cats. Led has no life in it ; only by constant nourish- ment and zealous care can you keep it breathing. Alright is as resistless as Tammany, and for aught I can see is going to establish itself; it defines topp 70 WHAT IS ENGLISH? in my German lexicon and appeared in Scribner's for April, 1915. 7. All displays of erroneous forms are danger- ous. Wrong idioms have to be spoken and discussed, for they are often met in real life. The wrong spell- ing is very seldom seen in real life. Don't show it. 8. Always require the hyphens in such compound adjectives as six-cylinder, snow-clad, easy-going. It is marvelous to see how pupils who persistently omit this necessary link will refuse to give up the useless hyphen in today and will persist in to-gether and with-out. As to other compounds custom is variable ; it is a matter of how old and familiar they are. Baseball has long been solid ; basketball is very recent. You can find no rules and you need not worry; but encourage the hyphen, especially when the second part acts on the first (a pile-driver is for driving piles) ; and encourage the solid form if it is at all permissible. ' l Close up your compounds ' ' is ajjpqd motto. """U! Some groups of forms cannot be reduced to a rule. There is a whole book devoted to able and ible — without any resulting formula. Until some patient genius can phrase an inclusive statement about ance and ence we must be lenient with inde- pendance, or depend on special emphasis for such of this class as are being used constantly. Capital- ization is not worth worrying about beyond the most obvious and general rules. For example, the prob- lem of the K's in " God's in His heaven' ' is hardly worth comment, but the I in "We came to an Inn" deserves censure. 10. At this point I am expected to plead for simplified spelling, but it is hard to be interested in INTENSIVE SPELLING 71 such a slight revolution. I have no prejudice against any amount of new forms; allow boys to amuse themselves with thru even if they know nothing else about reformation. But neither can I get up enthu- siasm ; for so few of our troubles in secondary work are touched by the proposed changes ; the Board is not altering describe and separate and too. Their program might remove five per cent of my troubles, but might very likely add five per cent; because (here is the great point) most pupils are almost deaf to these phonetic differences that are as audible to philologists as the loud-sounding sea. If thirty very familiar words are dictated for a spelling lesson, it is nonsense to mark off only five per cent for each wrong word. That would be encouraging carelessness. Ten per cent would hardly afford much discouragement. Twenty per cent is mild enough for early in the year. Nothing is too strict after several reviews. This is not harshness, however; it is true kindness; for lenient marking is \ like Baying "Naughty, naughty!" to a burglar. Suppose you have put a (lass through all these common forms by making them copy the lists from the hoard, keep them in a notebook, and review them several times. Then you will do well to begin a campaign of dictating sentences, for the pupil who spells replies in a list of twenty words may spell reply s when his attention is distracted by ideas like this : "It is surprising how he loses his self-control. If his rich uncle asks whether the moon is made of green cheese, he blushes, hangs his head, and replies that he never was there." Use whimsical or lively or colloquial sentences. Get up little paragraphs that tell an anecdote. Read these entirely through / 72 WHAT IS ENGLISH? first, then dictate slowly in small sections. Dicta- tion of this sort can be made to review points of idiom and punctuation. Mark the misspelled words and return the paper. The errors must be corrected. Now, here is a small point that counts for much: Don't allow each word to be written out ten times. That seems not to accomplish anything. I know of a teacher's requir- ing a boy to write out since five hundred times in the afternoon — and finding that in the evening the boy had not learned how to spell since. Require a list of the misspelled words ; require this list to be written ten times. The reason why this is a better method is (I am guessing) that when the pupil begins his second list his mind has been off on other business, has had to attend to paid, cautious, and extremely; so that when it recurs to luckily it has to notice all over again, has to focus once more on what has been out of sight. Strange as it may seem, this chapter is not intended to discourage, but to furnish comfort. It is better to know what kind of difficulty we are encountering. Thor was filled with chagrin at his failure to lower a big drinking-horn; he was com- forted when it was explained to him that the horn was attached to the ocean. Spelling is not a mere dish at the feast of learning; it taps the untried deeps of psychology. Don't grow black in the face and strain frantically when you find it so weirdly impossible to get rid of dissapear. Keep cheerful. You can get fair results with a fair amount of work. If parents or a principal twit you because your pupils spell poorly — show them that " since" story. Probably the next teacher you consult after read- INTENSIVE SPELLING 73 ing this chapter will smile and tell you that there are many spelling cranks in our profession; that the dryasdusts are by instinct insistent on this soulless littleness. But observe that my notions have been imposed by a wisdom from above. The readers of Yale entrance papers used to be instructed to con- dition any candidate — no matter what graces of style and appreciation he showed — if in the course of an hour's writing he had misspelled four words. 1>. slnnan themes at Illinois are conditioned for two misspellings. Those are high authorities on the essentials of an English training. Their voices must touch our trembling ears. They know what they are talking about. CHAPTER IV WHAT GRAMMAR IS ALL ABOUT That closing remark about spelling is a good open- ing for the chapter on the most jejune of all subjects — English grammar. In 1909 the National Com- mittee sent a questionnaire to schools and colleges, as a basis for recommendations about entrance requirements. One topic was : Shall there be a sep- arate test in grammar? Only 45 per cent of the schools favored it, while 60 per cent of the colleges voted aye. This was not " Shall we have a gram- mar requirement V 9 , but " Shall we have a separate test?" The college instructor who is indifferent about that kind of foundation is a rarity. If he has anything at all to do with composition, he soon finds out what mischief is caused by ignorance of the ele- mentary anatomy of the mother-tongue. Plenty of secondary teachers are indifferent about grammar, giving only a grudging assent to a review in the first year of the high school ; but the men higher up vote a heartfelt and almost unanimous yes. This sort of contest about living soul-stuff and dead mind-stuff is as old as any art. But the archi- tects and painters and musicians have been wiser than modern teachers of English. In a volume of criticism of some famous painters, written by a painter, there is little said about charm and emotion and loveliness and depth of feeling. Howells makes 74 WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 75 a remark in some novel about the pitiful quality of this emotion-talk that a non-painter uses in com- menting on a picture. No — what the professional notes is the selecting of boards, the mixing of colors, the deftness in outlining, the study of lighting and Perspective. An art teacher (I speak ignorantly, but will take the hazard) insists on a foundation of anatomy and mechanical drawing and sketching dull plaster models — dry and soulless exercises. A good music teacher works with finger exercises — dry and soulless. Your architect must be drilled in stress and strain and shear, which are perfectly arid, unlovely things. It is much more than a comparison to say : A good language teacher must lay a dry and soulless founda- tion. That is, considered in itself it is unlovely; considered with a view to what is to rise above, it is beautiful. Did you ever look at a great pit where an architect was basing a sky-scraper T It is ugly and joyless. But it is the only way to secure those lofty, decorative cornices. If the teacher of any art desiccates his own soul, or if he loses sight of what lies beyond and above, or if he blinds his pupils to the real goal of endeavor — that is a sad affair. Many enthusiasts about Knglish ixrammar have doubtless !<>st the ion. Yet even that form of earnesFl>lm<]ness — if the choice had to be made — is better than the effort to be artistic without cellar walls or sound notions of perspective. The first chapter speaks about the danger of this artistic conception of English. We can seldom lift our eyes so high. A few boys and girls study paint- ing or the violin because of special ambition or tat 76 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ent ; every boy and girl must study English. We must teach such plain and fundamental stuff as all can learn. We must instruct in those mechanics which every novelist is keenly conscious of when he forms sentences (he may not have a set of names handy), which the orator felt in every period, which no builder of the lofty rhyme can disregard — and which the ordinary high-school pupil has no true perception of. Inspiring any young spirit is so dazzling a hope that few can look at it without blinking. It is a hope that sometimes beguiles teachers into the bog of shoddy work. As a matter of fact we are safe if we take Cardinal Newman 's ideal : I hold very strongly that the first step in intellectual training is to impress upon a boy's mind the idea of science, method, order, principle, and system; of rule and exception, of richness and harmony. This is commonly and excellently done by making him begin with grammar. We discover that two practical demands are made of us. First, that we furnish a simple basis of gram- matical notions on which teachers of other languages can work. This much they have a right to expect. It is a minor consideration and has little to do with determining our aims; but sometimes you will do well to find out what names and classifications are used in Latin and modern-language classes, so as not to have needless differences. The confusion in terminology used to be so great that a national com- mittee was appointed to draw up recommendations WHAT GRAMMAR J $ ABOUT 77 V for uniformity. Their report,* a 60-page pamphlet, may be of some help to you if you are not perplexed l»y the array of formalities. The other demand ought to underlie every plan, every detail that is taken up : Build a fo undation for Composition. If this is constantly iiTview, you will have~noTear that you are teaching a formal subject. "Formal" is the word. So damning is the epithet that some of us hardly dare mention syntax approv- ingly, for fear we shall be considered unfit to commune with those that are of purer fire. We cannot do more than dimly guess what horrors would be revealed if we could gather into one report a five-minute record from every grammar recitation in the United States on a certain day. Willie in Concord would be rehearsing the quaint truth that "The definite article the points out one or more particular objects as distinct from others of the same kind." Susie in San Diego would briskly declare that "Shall and should are often used in the second and third persons in subordinate clauses to express volition which is not that of the subject." Perhaps thousands of children are learning the six special irregularities of weak verbs, and hundreds may be memorizing the ninety-six prepositions. How could we expect that these crimes of ped- agogy would not be committed ? The rules and lists are given; they are surely not mere ornaments; there is nothing to indicate that they are for refer- ence only ; the teacher will not rashly infer that they are incitements to evil ; not a hint is given that one * It may be obtained by sending 20 cents to the secretary of the N. B. A., Ann Arb<> jan, for the Report of the Joint Commit- tee on Uniform Grammatical SonuncLr 78 WHAT IS ENGLISH? page is more valuable than another. If, for example, we find twelve pages of shall and would, and one and a half pages of predicate nominative, it is a fair inference that the one subject is eight times as valu- able as the other. Teachers do so understand the emphasis. They must suppose that a renowned pro- fessor has proportioned his matter according to some well-considered scheme. Indeed, the preface says that the book is "a means for continuous study." Apparently the author — and all other authors — believes that foreign plurals are as impor- tant as passive voice ; and that an analysis of adverb clauses as concessive, future conditional, etc., is three times as important as the matter of whether a clause is adverbial. The exercises indicate that as much drill ought to be given on indirect questions as on nominative cases. Yet every secondary teacher of experience knows that "continuous study" is fearfully wrong. In the first place, he suspects that such classifications as Abstract Nouns and Ordinal Numerals are of small value in themselves. He knows, in the second place, that time spent on genders and potential phrases is robbing a class of thorough instruction in funda- mentals. For he realizes, in the third place, how long and hard is the process of making one gram- matical truth take root. (Has any grammarian ever realized that years of repetition may not per- suade a pupil to use we shall in the plainest of in- dicative statements? Not even the writers of our latest rhetoric can say we should.) As a teacher becomes more familiar with these rudimentary diffi- culties, he learns the necessity of spending more time on them, for he believes, fourthly, that they are WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 79 important So, leaving long stretches of text quite untouched, he_ concentrates on rudiments. He does not pretend that his wisdom is greater than the author's, is perplexed at finding all authors against him; but the facts of his little campaign are clear before him, and without disputing the Higher Strat- egy he abandons it and develops his own small plans. The criterion by which he abandons or attacks is this: Whatever seems essential in a rational pro- gram of teaching composition is to be taken up thoroughly. If our combined wisdom should finally decide that nothing grammatical really functions in the art of making good sentences, that a knowl- edge of syntax is not comparable to perspective in painting or to finger-exercises in music, then the Study of grammar shall surely die, because it will have so little excuse for living. The question is to a certain extent debatable. I have not the least doubt that a great deal of effort as expended now- adays is a dead waste, for we don't frame sentences by grammatical analysis. But above a certain point acher cannol convey information about how to make good senl >r avoid poor ones unless the ils understand syntax. It is generally believed today — T can see no possible reason for not believ- — that a study of the simpler principles is neces- sary as a basis for rhetoric, that most matters of ( da Bffl tying forms are of very slight use. The most elementary but most incorrigible error in composition is the failure to know the difference between a fraction of a sentence and two whole Ben* i. -i ices. "No amount of ordinary correction seems sufficient to eradicate it," says the University of Illinois. The u half-sentence fault" and "comma 80 WHAT IS ENGLISH? fault" can be almost rooted out from an entire class of pupils three years below college grade by an f attack based on grammar. If it can be done other- / wise — say by prolonged drill in " sentence sense" without any reference to clauses, without reference to the difference between where and there, he and who — then that method of success ought to be pub- lished. I have never succeeded — that is, with a whole class — except by drill in clauses. "What is a dependent clause? Like what parts of speech are clauses used I ' ' When^a pupilj has finally learn ed to tell readily whether these groups of words are used like nouns, like adjectives, or like adverbs, he can be drilled in pointing them, will call himself stupid when he goes wrong on a theme, and will, if marked severely enough, quit one kind of half -sentence fault. A similar drill with verbals is necessary to remove another kind. If every teacher had clearly in mind when he took up personals and relatives that his business was to undermine sentence-errors, he would know how much to skip and where to dwell. He would care nothing for gender, person, and number, for thou wast, for " self -pronouns. ' ' He would care much to show how a relative is dependent, how it and its clause can be removed bodily without destroying the sentence. He would be interested in nominative and objective, for he would be looking forward to the study of noun clauses, to the time when pupils should see a that clause as subject or object, not to be pointed even by a comma — much less by a period. His heart could firmly endure all the "formal" drill, because he would know that it was not formal at all, but was living rhetorical substance. He could have visions WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 81 of shapely sentences rising from the welter, could hear old Effectiveness blow his wreathed horn — and would not be in the least forlorn. Suppose that we find on a theme: "Colonel Sell- ers was a peculiar man, if he happened to make any money, he would immediately give it away." What appeal are we to make? Doubtless a gifted teacher of long experience, who despises "formal" gram- mar, can devise a way of explaining that the condi- tional money-making looks forward to the statement about spending, and that there are two separate statements, and that a semicolon is necessary — thus avoiding the horrid nomenclature. But he is only doing without names what we average teachers, appealing to literal minds, do with names. Grant that his result is better for the soul of a bright pupil ; we have still to ask : What about the total of good to be obtained by a thousand ordinary teachers who attempt to follow him in dealing with a hundred thousand ordinary pupils? The question is of the greatest moment, yet national councils have hardly begun to ask it, and the answer will be long in doubt. My own guesses are (1) that only a small percentage of teachers make for themselves any complete explanation of what a sentence-error is, (2) that most of them have a horror of a gram- matical treatment, (3) that in avoiding the clause drill they wander amid a tangle of impressionism, imt guiding pupils to clear understanding. In brief: The unusual teacher's s uccess is due (though lie may not know it) to an understanding of flans the novice fails bccauge _he is ignorant_ ofJiQg-^o - handle clauses. The most disastrous ignorance in the realm of 82 WHAT IS ENGLISH? /clauses is a misapprehension of the nature of the | so-called "connectives." A teacher who knows how to distinguish in his own practice between independ- ent adverbs and real conjunctions, who can use semi- colons with the former and commas with the latter, may never have so formulated his knowledge that he can present a scheme of it to others. He cannot find a clear, analysis in any grammar. The grammatical surveys in rhetorics are misleading, indicating that the adverbs then and consequently are as subordi- nating as when and so that. One admirable text lumps together yet and indeed as connectives "before which a semicolon is preferable." This is just as untrue as to teach young people that sleep is "pref- erable" before morning and evening. Pupils must be taught that indeed is as independent as it, that yet is a conjunction like but, so that they may know assuredly that a semicolon is necessary with one word and is never essential w T ith the other. This is the fact of normal composition in schools, just as it is the fact of a normal pupil's life that he must sleep before morning and may sleep in the afternoon if peculiar circumstances make it advisable. I know by bitter experience how petty, how con- troversial, this appears to artistic minds. A dozen times since I began this chapter I have thought, " What's the use? You might as well try to interest this inexperienced teacher in the rat-proofing of New Orleans. ' ' And that very simile has given me heart to take up the pen again. For diseases that waste our national vigor can be contended against only after some dirty-aproned physician has dissected rattus or stegomyia. My laboratory may smell of dead yets and indeeds, but I verily believe that they WHAT GRAMMA if is AMOUT 83 the camera of dread contagion, and that if ire know abort them we shall give Dp exorcism and t'umi- ion, and shall gain health and prosperity by terminating pests. Half the college students in the aonntry are debilitated in their sentence-making organ. Is this a visitation of divine wrath! an nndinirnosable illness? a "miasma" against which we fthonld burn sulphurous wrath? or an unescapable contagion which we oimht to alleviate by a diet of literary ambrosia? My test-tubes assure me thai the plague is directly traceable to a bacillus, ignorun tm orammatica. I have demonstrated it on tens of thousands of themes; it always breeds true; its pres- ence in a human brain always develops sentence- errors ; when it is removed from a pupil, he no longer \\ rites sentence-errors. My anti-toxin is not a panacea. It no more produces graceful sentences than any specific remedy causes general bodily vigor. It does no more than rid the system of one malady. I have no recipe for increasing the mental robust- ness of the race. Just as it may be true that our ■rage of physical fitness has been lowered by arti ficial aids against disease, so it may be true that the injection of grammatical accuracy results in the ultimate weakening of esthetic vitality. I have never observed the least indication of such after-effects, nor can I conceive that they will occur. But that point ifl not here at issue. Nor arc we debating whether sentence -errors really signify in the sight of Heaven. To me personally the difference between omma and a semicolon is less than nothing. I only feel that if a youth is unable to grasp the dis- tinction he is mentally unworthy of a diploma — or 84 WHAT IS ENGLISH? else his teacher is unworthy of a salary. I note that the colleges and tax-payers demand that such knowledge shall be imparted, and that we are not meeting the demand successfully. "What follows is not a symposium of heart-throbs, but a method of deserving a hundred dollars a month. An inevitable cry of dismay must be forestalled: "Oh, this is an apotheosis of drugs! This will encourage novices to herd their pupils out of the pleasant pastures and confine them amid antidotes and syringes;' ' Peace! No medical thesis ever turned a lover of green fields into a worshiper of microbes. Anyone who can be turned from the paths of good sense by this chapter is already unfit to teach English. One principle is to be forever in mind: Pupils. X Trrngj Tmnw whflt words dn jn rptiIptipps That "Colonel Sellers was a peculiar man, if he happened to make money ,, will illustrate. What does if do? It joins its clause to ivould give. A pupil who has been taught to find out instantly what if does is pre- pared to understand why the comma before it is the saddest of blunders. Logically the comma is right, because what follows is subordinate in thought, explaining how the Colonel was peculiar. The Frenchman may indicate this subordination by a comma. We are not allowed to. Another illustra- tion is "A plague upon them, they're rotten.' ' Unless a person knows how plague is used there is no way to inform him that a mere comma is not acceptable after them. Our pointing in such cases depends upon grammatical dependence or independ- ence. And those arbitrary syntactical distinc- tions are never revealed by any amount of drill WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 85 in such mental states as " non-committal present conditional/ ' In it > normal use if is always a conjunction, but we should discredit the notion that a word is any- thing in itself. The letters t, h, and e sometimes form an adverb and sometimes an article. To teach that "concerning may be classed as a preposition* ■ : o damage the youthful mind, because it conveys the impression that a word is something in itself; whereas it really is a preposition if it does preposi- tionarworK . * * w hat does it do i Tnen what is it ? ' ^ Any deviation from this line of attach is turning a poor child's logic topsy-turvy. To expound "infini- tive clauses' ' or "infinitives as modifiers' f or "intransitive passive" (sic) is to double on our own tracks, eluding and baffling the pupil. Very few English forms are anything in themselves. Asked is nothing till you know what it does, but must be seen in action, to sleep is probably not an infinitive — and so on forever. There is hardly such a thing as a n intransitive verb. I read in my text that * ' Roared what?" would be an absurdity, but Shakespeare made somebody * ' roar these accusations forth. ' ' To classify roar as intransitive and then to say "here used transitively" is to spoil our own efforts. "Wliat docs it do? Then itjs transitive here." This truth about verbs is hardly credible to some persons of middle age who were brought up with texta modeled after the Latin, for in Latin a verb is usually transitive or intransitive in itself; it is that kind of verb. Reference to dictionaries is decep- tive because they seem to announce that a verb is hy nature one kind or the other. But try to find a dozen verbs that are not entered as both transitive s 86 WHAT IS ENGLISH? and intransitive. Such lugged-in Latin notions originally distorted our texts and are still potent causes of misstatement and wrong emphasis. The treatment of mood has been a process of forcing square English facts into round Latin holes. Think of defining case of English nouns as " variation in form. ' 9 Even the great and sensible Matzner devoted pages to the genders of our nouns, yet gender hardly exists in English. Since Latin grammars display elaborate schemes of conjugation, our grammars have done the same ; we have paraded principal parts and declensions and all manner of paradigms as if English forms were unknown and our task was to commit them painfully to memory. Every pupil has known the forms all his life. What he does not know is how to describe the functions of words. Not all classification of forms is worthless, but learning about kinds is of small value compared with learning about functions, and the difficulties of teach- ing a few necessities of syntax are so great that no ordinary school has time for anything more. Not one of us realizes how hard it is to make a whole class able to distinguish between subject, object, and predicate nominative. Scores of times I have seen normally bright pupils in a third year of review trip- ping over "up flew the windows' ' or learning all over again why a gerund is not a participle. What are those few necessities ? We might almost reply, "Whatever will explain clauses.' ' You can never know the nature of clauses until you under- stand the uses of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and relative pronouns. You cannot tell a clause from an independent sentence until you have studied per- sonals. You cannot know about nouns and pronouns WHAT GRAMMAB IS ABOUT 87 except in connection with transitive and intransi- tive verbs. Phrases will always be clauses until yon study prepositions. Clauses will never be clauses until you investigate conjunctions. And there you are. Through every inch of the drudgery you can see clauses. Familiarity with them will breed some ease in writing complex sentences, and so make style less childish. Knowledge o f them will put counter- feit sentences out of c ion. In your toiling with subject and object you have a purpose, a pre- vision of how you are going to destroy such monsters as "What you say, doesn't count, it's what you do." Ellipses are not futile puzzles if you are providing against "Why not, there's no danger." You can even behold above the meanest adverb a light which shall show young intellects why they must not let a weak adverb clause stand all alone between periods. What have you supposed you were going to do? B ; i i se a dust for no particular purpose ! If you know that every motion is going to help the next genera- tion to command a more decent style, shan't you feel that your occupation is less like devilish goose- stepping and more like godly labor! Your year's course begins with recognizing the p arts of speecH . They are not meaningless COUUleTB,— buT parts of a vital physiology. Definitions are merely brief statements of uses: a word used as a name, a word whose business is to modify nouns and pronouns, a word that has power to make a state- ment. Then you take up each in turn. Disregard- ing such relativities as "cognate object", "obi- rvice," you attend only to real uses — subject, vocative, indirect object, adverbial objective. In themselves these topics are exactly as inspiring as 88 WHAT IS ENGLISH? a heap of bones ; but a good physician can see all the way from the power of naming bones to the power of saving lives. Verily so can you if your eye is not dim. When Thomas learns that Royal George is not the object of down went, and then for three successive weeks hears that Barbara Frietchie is not the object of sprang, a wonderful conception begins to grow in Thomas's mind: "I needn't begin every sentence of my own with the subject." Incidentally he will be prepared to adopt such conventions as using commas with vocatives or appositives, and not using them before objective predicates. Must we hack our way through all these construc- tions f Probably yes — alas ! Why ? Because unless Thomas is responsible for every use he will not understand you some day when he has written ' ' The Judge was tall, dark-brown hair," or "When a boy is seriously hurt in football, even a broken arm or leg." You will point reproachfully at hair or arm and ask its construction; he will reply, "I guess that's one you didn't teach us." Accept any explanation that could possibly be deduced by a rational process. In "It cost a dollar" the noun might be called adverbial. And keep in mind always that the analysis which long habit makes obvious to us is essentially hard. Can you present off-hand an irresistible demonstration of the antipodal functions of the two following verbs? "She seems a goddess", "She resembles a goddess." Thence to those words that take the place of nouns. All the parade of ' l compound ", " demonstra- tive", "indefinite," is a show of phantoms, only to be glanced at. "What do they do?" Just what nouns do — except those relatives. Everything about T^adn^ tftljf-tuc s WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 89 pronouns is too easy, too vacuous to spend effort on compared with those relatives. They are weak by nat u iv, small, parasitic, unable to stand alone. They can be graphically charted by writing them in very small letters on a line slanting down from a big antecedent. This is not kindergartening; it is a primal fact about sentences. If a child establishes the mental habit of drawing a ring about a relative clause, he can always corral his relative construc- tions ; if he has formed no such habit, he will be for- r turning loose upon society such mavericks as "I have something here that as long as I keep it, I'll be unhappy." Nor have I observed that such a sense of restraint ever stiffened a lively style in the least Would Stevenson have been more charming if he had allowed his clauses to stampede t You will . never waste time by additional exercises in relatives, for no class ever knew them infallibly. It is doubt- ful whether you should touch upon relatives as descriptive and restrictive. The distinction is the most delicate and difficult in the whole field of rhe- toric, the hardest to formulate, the hardest for illit- erate minds to grasp. It must be mastered before clauses can be properly pointed, but "touching upon ' ' will accomplish nothing. Unless you can pre- sent it fully, you had best not take it up at all. It is a rhetorical distinction. As you have had nothing to do with 4< adjective pronouns," so you will not speak of "pronominal adjectives." We must play no game of now-you-see- it and now-you-don't. By their functions ye shall know them. With the exception of possessives^ To call these adjectives might help modern-language instructors, but it is doubtful whether we can afford 90 WHAT IS ENGLISH? to do so; for it creates the contradiction that pos- sessive nouns are nonns, but that possessive pro- nouns are adjectives. And consistency is precious in elementary grammar. We must advance con- sistently to participles. If you realize that they are the goal, and that a knowledge of them will prevent sentence-errors, you can handle adjectives with zeal. In adverbs a definition will be useful. (You will find that occasionally adverbs really modify preposi- tions and conjunctions: "right on that spot, stand- ing just where he told us. ' ') You will feel very little interest in the different kinds of meanings, or in irregular comparisons, or yes and no, or expletive there, or uses of the superlative. You are concerned with "What is it doing V 9 You will wish you could tear out that leaf that tells about "relativej^dy£rj)^" for it exposes a child to the plague,"abuses and mis- leads him. They are conjoining words. Interroga- tive adverbs are adverbs. The ideal text would alternate lessons in verbs x and constructions of nouns, for they are inseparable matters. You must join what the text has sundered. Four-fifths of your time on verbs will be spent_rn_ distinguishing betwen intransitive and passive, object and predicate nominative; one-fifth on all other matters. For sequence of tenses in composi- tion will never be influenced by parsings, and sub- junctive mood is not defined alike by any two grammarians. A statement or question of fact is indicative, a command is imperative, a mere condi- tion of mind is s ubjunct ive 1 — 116 more but so. And be willing to leave mood quite untaught until you have made doubly sure of the necessities. Prepositions — what delight have they promised WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 91 you! You can find them almost inspiring if you anticipate coherent modifiers and the clearer notions of clauses. A phrase is always a clause to Thomas, and until he can distinguish you have no language by which to explain some matters of arranging, vary- ing, and pointing. It is not that, grammar makes , good sentences, but that it f m,a>e? pna«i ble the j om- ' municating of ideas about forming sentences. So y onr object is to delimit prepositions from adve rbs on the one hand and conjun ctions on the other. "Tney a lways have obje cts, never modif y anything, but f o rm phrases that modify. IAke lH Hot ' ' an adjective used iiKe a preposition"; it is a preposition. YoTT never weary of inquiring what the object is and what the phrase modifies. And you look into the seeds of time and see an epoch when "in which he sat in" will be monstrous, and when a phrase will not be a sentence. There is a sense in which all this study is prelim- inary to conjunctions, for conjunctions mean clauses, / and clauses mean the approach — as near as mechan- 1 ics can go — to decent sentences. Your energy will all be directed at "What Hn^a if do*" One form of answer, one invariably, must be insisted on; any other will leave the class in a haze: "It attaches its (la use to one word." It may join a modifier or an object, but only when we know to what one word and for what purpose can we answer " TujyL_wJiaJLJrind j&iil" When and where are no guarantee of what the clause is. "How is the clause used?" In "Use such powers as you have" as joins a clause to the adjective such ; therefore the clause is adverbial, no matter what your text declares. It is doubtful whether as must ever be called a relative pronoun. 92 WHAT IS ENGLISH? There is in your text a section which ought to be excised by a national board of censorship. Some day it will be. It is that paragraph which asserts that some adverbs are conjunctions. Still is not a conjunction. However is not a conjunction — never in a secondary school. Nor is nevertheless nor more- over nor then. If this dictum is a flat denial of the whole thesis, then the thesis must go to smash. We face an ugly, illogical fact, a social taboo that is superior to all reason. The fact of custom is that we do not point these words with commas as we do though and unless. We place a deadly entanglement in the path of progress if we so much as whisper the possibility that these independent, adverbs might in any event ever conceivably be called conjunctions. No, we must shout the contrary. And as we vocifer- ate we may see opening before us a highway of real sentences on which pupils may safely travel to that Promised Land in which there are no sentence- errors. A verbal used like an adjective is a participle; a verbal used like a noun is an infinitive. TUat ought to be the limit of definition, but unfortunately a National Committee asks us to call ing infinitives gerunds. So be it, then. But assure your class that the difference is purely formal, that you are dissect- ing only adjective uses and noun uses. Never swerve from that. Never use the confusing " participial infinitive" nor "infinitive clause" nor "infinitive modifiers," nor "complementary" nor "purpose"; spend little time on phrases, tenses, or "pure adjec- tive." Drive at "Is it noun or adjective?" Every infinitive is used like a noun: "complementary" is a direct object; "purpose" and "modifier" are WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT 93 objects of to, and the phrase modifies. "Every par- ticiple must modify something. What is it? Why, then, is it dangling helpless in your sentence T M There is the program — to deal with no mere forms, to ask what words do, to keep before us the vision of better sentences. A text to put this into effect would have quite a dilTerent appearance from our present grammars. It would do in form what most experienced teachers do in practice: offer hardly any text, offer a thou- sand sentences to work with. Its few simple defini- tions would be mere titles for colloquial comment on a few principles. The comments would be brief, serving only to introduce the illustrations. And the illustrations would be nothing but introductions to the only part that counts — exercises. Probably nine- tenthfl of the book would be sentences so grouped as to afford easy preliminary drill on one topic, then on two topics mingled, every exercise including some sentences that contain no illustrations of the topic. This is not a policy of puzzles ; it is insurance against heedlessness — a highly important bit of tactics. The fences would be taken mostly from stories and criptions, so that they should seem human, some- what interesting, and so that their meaning should be obvious at first reading. We cannot reckon how unreal we have made grammar with our selections from Tennyson and Emerson. (And possibly have done something toward making literature odious.) It is more profitable to examine a live idiom like "I don't know who did it" than to whirl toward AizraePs outposts with "As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man." Does it sound like a program of easy incomplete- 94 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ness? It would be quite the contrary. For it is harder to be thorough in a few fundamentals than to hurry through a thousand non-essentials; more complete to know all of something than to know only a little about some things. Does it sound like a great lot of work for a small result? It is true in one way that a year of drill in syntax does not furnish much useful knowledge; many a skilful writer who in the truest sense under- stands his mother-tongue knows nothing of gram- matical formulas and would not have his skill per- ceptibly increased by a course in syntax. Grammar drill actually counts for very little in training a pupil to use the language correctly, for there are very few opportunities (like "if I'd have known' ' or "between you and I") to appeal to reason. It is a fact that though a man has all knowledge of diagram- ing clauses, so that he can analyze unfalteringly the maziest sentence of Pater or James, he may never- theless be unable to compose one interesting period. In spite of the various hints given above as to how grammar may be applied for obviating careless con- structions, it must be admitted that such applications come only now and then, could be made without all the preparatory analysis. Grammar probably trains the intellect no better than a dozen other subjects that have greater cultural content. What on earth does grammar do? It prepares a pupil to learn when he has reached the end of a sentence and to be instructed in punctuating that sentence. Is that a small result? It must look positively tiny to you; it appears insignificant to some experienced educators. That is because you measure size astro- nomically. To an astronomer the solution of a quad- WHAT GRAMMAR IS ABOUT ' 95 ratio equation is an achievement about the size of a pea ; to a grade pupil it is larger than the moon. The child is trained for years, slowly advanced from one simplicity to another, before he can begin algebra. Some day the world will realize that we have been regarding the solution of written-sentence forma- tions from the astronomer's view-point, have been, as it were, taking subtraction for granted and merely glancing at decimals. As a result our children have only the dimmest notion of what a sentence is ; the children become youths in high school, and still have the dimmest notion of what a sentence is ; here they are exercised in the higher calculus of English with- out knowing what plain quadratics are ; and half of them proceed to college quaternions before some sensible director of freshman composition requires them to learn why x 2 + y 2 cannot be factored. Al8 Professor Thomas of Minnesota says about ordinary college freshmen: "They have been left in total ignorance of the nature of a sentence. . . . The whole theory of punctuation still remains in worlds beyond their ken." Freshman instructors at Wil- liams have to devote the first weeks of the college i to drill in the rudiments of punctuation. And punctuation cannot be taught without a knowledge of clauses. If quadratics is a "small" result in mathematics, so is a knowledge of clauses "small" in English. Not otherwise. X I, CHAPTER V TEACHING GRAMMAR / One precept must be graven in your mind : Noth- ing is true simply because your text says it is true. A marvelous collection could be made of untruths that have been solemnly rehearsed from one genera- tion to another. One example is Dr. Johnson's guess that "had rather" is a vulgarism — an absolute fals- ity that lived unresisted for a century and a quarter, has been thirty years a-dying, and is not dead yet. Only five years ago an Atlantic contrib- utor inveighed against the ignorance of an age which had no more feeling for grammatical propriety than to use ' ' no one but me. ' ' She argued that i \ me ' ' was wrong. All such things-that-aren't-so arise from logical brains that argue. Grammar admits of no argument — at least Professor Whitney convinced most thinking Americans that it doesn't; and since his time a host of thinking professors have been beating into us the notion that reasoning about grammar is an utterly fatuous futility. Perhaps you have some conceptions about this or that usage as wrong * l because. ' ' You will constantly encounter prepossessions against respectable idioms ' ' because ' ' of some ratiocination. The only way to know about respectability is to know the facts of usage — has it been, or is it now, commonly employed by educated people f English grammar is always furnishing surprises, things you never thought of before. If you teach it twenty years, you will not get entirely beyond the 96 _./*.. ..i~- ^ ^iiswvrui* J2S jlr TEACHING GRAMMAR 97 unexpected. But the great body of usual explana- tions is not hard to acquire. The best guide for teachers that I happen to know is Grammar and Its Reasons by Mary H. Leonard. It is clear, sensible in its methods, remarkably complete, and always sound. The most thorough and reliable text is Whitney's Essentials of English Grammar, which, though designed as a textbook, is really a manual crammed full of information for the teacher. Kittredge and Farley's Advanced English Grammar, though mis- leading in some of its statements, records some facts of idiom that other authors have been too timorous to include. Armed with these three volumes you can bag almost any idiom that rears its fearsome head. Should you by any strange chance ever wish to go further in quest of facts from our literature, use Matzner's three- volume Grammatik. Even if the German comment is hard to read, the great stores of quotations are easy — and they are what o units. Otto Jespersen's volumes of syntax (in Knirlish) will he another tremendous collection of quotations, very originally and entertainingly grouped. It may be many years before this is completed; the first volume (1914) does not cover mueh of the field. English constructions are hard to reduce to an orderly scheme. After a person has been arranging an ; it is usually set off by commas ; it is 1 ' adponoed ' ' to that other noun or pronoun. Personal and demonstrative pronouns give no par- ticular trouble, except for the two peculiar uses of it. Expletive it is a dummy subject; the real subject lurks on the other side of the verb. Imper- sonal it has no conceivable antecedent; there is no other subject. The only kink with inter rogatives is, "You can't know the construction until you have put the question into the form of a statement." "Who are you?" becomes "You are who." Then TEACHING GRAMMAR 103 we see that "who is the object of are," and are later led to see that it is predicate nominative. But relatives! Suppose yourself, in a rather em- barrassing situation in which you are anxious to appear to advantage, confronted with this demand: 4 ' l-'orm a congeries of postulates so arranged that number two, in which number one is involved in a limiting capacity, shall be involved in a limiting capacity in number three, which is to be unin- volved." There is nothing hard about that, because you have a complete set of linguistic notions into which you can promptly transpose these not unusual terms and, unless you are pitifully flustered, can ful- fill the demand in an instant. Yet the scholastic in- tangibility of it, if you can imagine it thrust upon Borne mature mind that had educated itself without knowledge of dependent clauses, may feebly illus- trate the lack of appeal which "relative clause* • makes to the average fourteen-year-old boy. Draw a picture for him. It was in my third year of teaching that I rushed to the board, in a desperate mood, wrote in huge letters "THE MAN HAS GONE," and then, inside a loop connected to man, wrote in small letters "who was here." There was a graphic exhibit of the bigness and in- dependence of the main clause, and the small, ad- jectival l»<>ndage of the relative clause. I have used it ever since. This, like other eccentric schemes suggested in these pages, may not appeal to you. A man to whom I am mucli indebted once told me of a device which did not strike me favorably. I can't use it But I should certainly have taken it up — should have taken up anything— if I had not had another. 106 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Keep constantly before the class the essential idea that a clause contains a subject and verb, and is ijse*!^ like a single adjective, or a single adverb, or a single noun; that relative clauses are adjective clauses, be- cause they are always attached to, always modify, some noun or pronoun. Whenever you can make a pupil perceive this clearly you have conferred upon him a priceless gift — a bit more courage in tackling Shakespeare's sentences. You will moil in vain in the opening days with re- latives unless you follow the plan (or its equivalent in some shape) of "picking out the relative clause.' ' "What is the clause?' 7 must be the unfailing ques- tion. Consider "He who hesitates is lost." The he and the who are forever going to be entangled until the pupil learns to ' ' take that clause out of the sen- tence, ' ' and to put it one side, like a dissected organ, and then — never till then — to examine its functions. At first your class will dig out "who hesitates is" and hold it up, all dripping, for scrutiny. Insist that we must have only one leg — not a leg + half a body. Which is, being interpreted, one subject and one verb, with their modifiers. (Or at first you may prac- tice on bare subject and verb.) When this dissection can be performed, then you may unfold the precious truth that the construction of a relative is always found in its clause, never is mixed in the least with any shred of the sentence outside that clause. After driving this home you may cautiously take the next step: A relative's gender, person, and number are always found en- tirely outside of the clause — i. e., they depend on the antecedent. A pupil can decide whether that is a relative by TEACHING GRAMMAR 107 fading out whether it makes sense to substitute n-int nr uifiirh So far as I know it is never safe to trust him to decide in any other way. Relatives always scm to a class to be in apposi- tion with the antecedents. The answer is that they are not * * put alongside of in the same construction," but are subjects or objects, are not in any sense appositives. Have nothing to do with sub-classes of adjectives. The use of classifying at all (and the same is true of adverbs) is slight. But it is necessary to get at the distinction, between an adverb and a predicate adjective. If you are discussing ' ' The heavens grew dark," don't argue that "dark is an adjective." Dark is nothing per se. How is it used? It doesn't describe the way in which the heavens grew; they didn't grow in a dark manner. They grew to be dark. So of seem, appear, look, become, etc. Waste no energy over such a retained preposition as "This is being talked about." Never allow it to be called a part of the verb phrase; if it must be spoken of, it is more like an adverb— it has no object. Reserve your time and energy for the obvious prepo- sitional use in "What are you talking about?" Transitive and intransitive is one of the throe de- cisive battles of grammar. It Is so bound up~with predicate nominative that it is a good plan to sand- wieh the two topics. The worst cause of stumbling he definition, often taught in schools, that a tran- sit Lve verb is one which takes an object. Excom- municate it. Pronounce a formal anathema against the cursed thing. A transitive verb in the active voice always has an object, but never allow the mat- feer of "an object" to be associated with "transi- 108 WHAT IS ENGLISH? live." I keep the following scheme on the board every day and require the class to refer to it as they recite : Transitive active — always an object. passive — subject is acted on, no object. Intransitive subject acts, but there is no object. No Voice. Grammarians regularly speak of intransitives as active, but this is so confusing in elementary work, so destructive of the very distinction we are erect- ing, that it is best to insist on "has no voice' ' for class work. An active verb is considered a normal, decent kind. Passives and intransitives are confused. The steps to take in every approach are : (1) What is the subject? All is hopeless guess- work without this beginning. (2) Is the subject acting, or being acted on? (3) If it is acting, is there an object? Don't analyze verb phrases into component parts. In "This might easily have been sooner finished" might have been finished is the verb. Attack the conjugations thus : Apply the three fol- lowing tests ; if any one fits, the verb is regular ; if no one fits, it is irregular. (1) The past tense ends in a d or t which is not in the present (made, had, brought). (2) The principal parts are the same throughout (hit). (3) The vowel is merely shortened in the past (bleed). The subject is a non-essential, not worth going into detail with; but the general notion is useful. Subjunctive mood really exists in English in a few TEACHING GRAMMAR 109 formal or archaic uses like **if it were", "may it be", "though he have." These are real variations in form to show that the verbs express mere coudi tion or thought. Beyond this there is only a welter of subtleties, a flux of contradictory opinion. If left to your own devices, have nothing to do with any- thing but the few realities. If you are required to teach subjunctives, stick to one simple formula : Does . it clearly indicate a mere condition of thought? Many cases are debatable ; there are fewer subjunc- tives than you may suppose. Probably the following are indicative: "I could have shot it with perfect ease" (=the fact is that I had power to), "I may be wrong about this" (=the fact is that there is such a possibility), "Perhaps you would like to stay" (=the fact perhaps really is that). The following would usually be called subjunctive, because they clearly show, or the context shows, that the verb is qoI indicating a fact: "If only I could have shot it", "I might have gone to bed sooner", "Wouldn't he have enjoyed that!" Few will ever object to your method if you limit subjunctives to: (1) real sub- junctive by its form, (2) mere prayerful hope or exhortation that does not sound the least like fact,- (3) a condition that is clearly a case of speaking abonl what would be true if the facts were otherwise. Infinitives and participles must come last, because they are resemblance-words, with no new character- istic of tlx'ir own; and work with them is really im- possible until their prototypes are understood. They are words derived from verbs, having all the powers except the great one of making a statement, and used like nouns and adjectives. Any verbal used like a noun is an infinitive: to \ 110 WHAT IS ENGLISH? do, doing, to have been done (unless you de- cide to distinguish gerunds). The essential of all drill with infinitives is to explain their constructions as nouns. * ' Complementary ' ' is worse than nothing in English grammar. "Used like an adjective' ' (as in "the thing to do") is a sledge-hammer for batter- ing the foundations you have so laboriously laid. An infinitive is always a kind of noun. These so-called adjectival and adverbial uses can always be ex- plained as phrases in which the root infinitive is the object of to. The working formula for pupils is: Does it make fairly good sense to substitute for and the ing form? "That is a queer thing to do" be- comes "That is a queer thing for doing" ; "He went to die for his country" becomes "He went for dying, for the purpose of dying." This analysis is likely to become a favorite — it is so easy. It must not be allowed unless it can be defended by getting a "fair- ly sensible" result. Don't accept this "object of to ' ' analysis when another kind is possible. In "It seems queer to have been loafing here all summer" to have been loafing is the real or "logical" subject of seems. In "He is to die in the morning" to die may be called a predicate nominative. All grammars discuss "subject of the infinitive," and most are partial to it. I refused to teach it for. many years, following Whitney's analysis; later thought it might be the easy explanation for many cases, especially with verbs of commanding and the like; but have finally decided against it. "Subject of the infinitive" is a Latinism. In "He asked me to go" we do not feel that me is a subject; we feel it as an object. If we discard "subject of the infinitive," we do not have to contort so many English ideas to TEACHING QRAMMAB 111 . Latin framework. In " We considered him to be honest" him is the real object; to be is a kind of ob- tive predicate. In " ge urged us to go" to go is the object ; us is indirect. In ' * He made me eat ' ' eat is objective predicate, like "He made me an eater." Probably ten per cent of these analyses of infini- tives are not real analyses — i. e., they don't really explain anything. Say as much to your class occa- sionally. Our language is full of old worn-down stubs and metamorphosed fragments of idioms which cannot be neatly arranged in a cabinet as Latin specimens can. School work in grammar is not con- cerned with these except as interesting curios. They are specially numerous in infinitive syntax. The same kind of statement is true of participles. They are always used like adjectives. To say that a participle has an object or is modified by an adverb clause is nothing to the purpose. What noun or pro- noun does it modify? Not "How is it acted on?" but "How does it act?" So much for single words; now for phrases and clauses. It is best to reserve "phrase" for a preposition and its object.* To call "running at high speed" a phrase is misleading, or at least is such a generality- haze as makes travel difficult. If you call "the sun having risen" a phrase, you won't confuse a gram- marian: hut you will not light the paths for un- aoquainted t In the same way it is more effective to reserve •This sounds *Ike a deviation from the definition given by all grammarians, but is not really much of a departure from I practice. Whitney, for example, discusses nominative absolutes with- out onee using " phrase," and employs the word only m "verb phrase" and "prepositional phrase 112 WHAT IS ENGLISH? " clause' ' for dependent clause. "Main clause" is not confusing. Teach them in connection with con- junctions. A coordinating conjunction joins two nouns or two adjectives or two phrases or two clauses, yokes them as a pair, one being as important as the other. A subordinating conjunction joins a clause to some one word. You may never make real progress until you write out that main clause in huge letters and then, in a loop extending from the modified word, write the clause in small letters. In the case of subject clauses used after an expletive it ("It is not likely that he will come") the conjunction does no real conjoining, unless you say that it hitches an appositive clause to it. The truth of this is doubtful. One oddity may be worth mention in this connec- tion, just on the chance that it might prevent an embarrassing moment in class. "I am told that he is ill." That he is ill is a "retained obj ect," like "He was given a medal." Some are not in favor of diagraming the structure of a sentence. One teacher who has critically ob- served results in a long experience declares that boys learn the trick of making a passable diagram without acquiring any true understanding of struc- ture. That phenomenon is something I have never seen. Allow me to illustrate from algebra. A boy might learn to "diagram" the cube-root process, and then, by rote, without intelligence, apply his formula and his blocks to any number of different problems in extracting cube-root. He cannot learn any such formula for the solution of miscellaneous problems leading to simultaneous equations. Each one is a separate exercise in diagraming by the use of x, y, TEACHING GRAMMAR 113 and z the conditions named, under which two or three men run races or give away their money. Have you ever heard that a boy learned the trick of arriv- ing at his equations — his diagram, that is — without a corresponding apprehension of what he was doing? Of course there is such a thing as brainless luck occa- sionally, even in stating problems; but only occasionally. It is difficult not to believe that when a pupil can t sort out clauses and phrases and put them where I they belong in a schematic arrangement, he shows a j useful mental attainment — specially useful for his writing. The best diagram is the one that most simply dis- plays the real Structure of a sentence. The plan fol- lowed in the illustration below is to put the principal verb below its subject, to list all modifiers under the words they modify, and to place appositives, predi- cate nominatives, and objects at the right of the words that govern them. The sentence is : 4 * That same night of your desertion I came from a friend's house — where I was excessively admired, whatever you may think of it — and what should I hear but that a lass in a tartan screen desired to speak with me. ' ' Begin with easy sentences. Don't be in a rush to progress to hard ones. In all your irrnmmar work emphasize at every opportunity that you aim at practical, useful results, that mere puzzles are not dwelt on. Perhaps while you are dealing with verb phrases some pupil will write "it* he had of been." There is your chance. Aim at the essentials. In parsing don't waste time with classes and panders and inflections. If time is 114 WHAT IS ENGLISH? short, it is better to know unfalteringly what an in- transitive verb is than to have hazy ideas about in- flection of the future perfect, potential mood, parti- ciples in n as a mark of the old conjugation — and all the myriad of formalisms. Keep perpetually before you that vision of better sentences. I came 'that same night • of your desertion, from a friend's house 1% I was admired - (excessively obj. whatever # | you may think i of it i should hear what £ \<* obj. i lass desired to speak with me in a tartan screen A heavy line ^ clauses are used. rill show graphically how noun we fe object ar that you will not 1 i k e it appositive obj. CHAPTER VI JOHN WILSON'S IDEA The teaching of punctuation can be made to serve , i higher end than mere accuracy in using points; !i be made to cause a betterment in the quality of sentences, an enhancement in maturity and agree- ableness of form. The claim sounds extravagant. It seems at first view like a paradox to say that in- >t nation in placing commas* will refine the writing of sentences. As a theory no one could accept it. But it is a truth, proved by long experience, arrived at unexpectedly, found as a lucky by-product of a process that used to be thought too mean for noble minds. The fact is that after training in syntax a thorough course in punctuation does more to improve the quality of a n < !m< n- pupil's sentences than any amount of spiritual exhortation. Just why this should be so is hard to say. One probable reason is that in our headlong, impatient erica it is of the greatest benefit to a pupil to have to do something exactly right. We hear the despairing cry from every school and college that our yoigng people are careless, incapable of concentrating accurately, unable to enunciate, unable to phrase definite answers, unable to compose by a prede- termined plan. In 1!H4 the Harvard Board of ( Over- seers ?ote 14. This signifies something, is not an accident. You must know what is now going on in this change- able world of English, else you may be badly ham- pered by starting with antiquated ideas that will Interfere with your progress. A Yale professor of literature was recently asked what the college would like most stress put upon in the schools. "The sen- ' \ tence" was his unqualified answer. Of course there are elements of good sentences that punctuation never touches, but it may almost be said that these are beyond the reach of anything but native talent. Variety of forms is directly stimu lated, and unity is much emphasized. Suppose, how- ever, for the sake of argument, that the pointing of r 118 WHAT IS ENGLISH? other people's sentences gives no training in any quality of force or beauty. The greatest considera- tion has not been hinted at in that admission. The point to be attended to is this : If you should classify the illiterate blunders in a million words of college- entrance composition, excluding mistakes of spelling and syntax, you would find that the great majority were of just the sort that the study of punctuation tends to eradicate. I read each year more than two million words of school themes, have been for eight- een years classifying errors and studying remedies, have observed what works and what does not, have never had any fondness for theories, have not the slightest affection for commas — and I affirm without any hesitation that punctuation drill is what pro- duces decent sentences. The condition is similar to what we discovered about spelling: that the million errors are not a million at all, but a few hundred common forms incessantly reappearing. So of sen- tence-structure : it is not a case of a million clumsi- nesses, but of a few dozen common punctuation blunders that incessantly recur. And just as inten- sive spelling will remove the great bulk of offensive ignorance, so the greater part of sentence-crudeness will disappear after thorough work in pointing. How does the ordinary rhetoric address itself to this labor? By trying to persuade you and the pupils that nobody cares much about those arbitrary sym- bols. If it is a text that makes an honest effort, it is probably sprinkled with untruths. "Two words in apposition should not be separated by a comma" is the first rule in a 200-page manual that I had to use for many years. "Most of the slight pauses requir- ing a mark will be properly served by the comma" JOHN WILSON'S IDEA 119 is from a book containing much good analysis and sound advice. Another widely-used text requires the pupil to state "What kind of pause the author indi- cates by a comma." The ordinary text is a morgue for the corpses of what were once live truths. A capital book issued in 1912 announces that one use of the semicolon is to introduce. Another, bearing on its cover three mighty names, requires a comma to separate a long subject from its verb. * * A colon, ' p declares another Composition, "is used to separate the different members of a compound sentence, when they themselves are divided by semicolons' ' — an affirmation that contains only as much truth as "Horse-cars are used to convey the population of New York City." Such dead things do no damage; they are harmless. But it is harmful to teacher and pupil to present them as of equal importance with a rule for a comma before the conjunction but. For their effect is then to make a school suppose that all punctuation is as lifeless as themselves. In another way the ordinary "section" does dam- age — by so misstating the simplest truths that pupils and teacher are led to regard the whole subject as nebulous and mystical. For example, "To the mind of the writer, this explanation has much to commend it " is said to deserve a comma because the phrase is out of its natural order ; yet such a rule would call for a comma in "Over the door we hung a horse- shoe," where no rational punctuator now advises a point "Commas are used in a complex sentence to separate the dependent clause from the rest of the Bentenoe." Yes; also commas are not used for such a purpose ; also if a man is lost in a city he will find his way if he goes straight ahead — or turns. Here 120 WHAT IS ENGLISH? is the most elusive subject in the whole code (the distinction between a restrictive and a non-restric- tive clause) cheerfully committed to one vacuous rule and illustrated by two sentences containing restric- tive clauses ! Then the author adds, with an artless- ness that all power of sarcasm is feeble against, "If the connection is close, the comma is usually omit- ted." Of the same astounding quality is the rule, "Commas are used to separate the members of a compound sentence when they are short or closely connected," one illustration having the adversative yet and the other having five very brief and simi- lar imperatives without any conjunctions. Why should we be told when space is precious that "the dash is sometimes used with the colon"? It is equally true by modern canons that it is poor taste to use it so. Suppose that a pupil, having been taught that "adjective phrases are set off by commas," writes "I bought a couple, of newspapers"; shall we chide him for knowing too much about grammar? It is impossible to speak temperately of such futility masquerading as instruction. We have passed from untruths through chaos. The third division of this indictment of the ordinary "section" is its extreme brevity and resultlessness. Even if it presented only the truth, presented all the truth, what effect does such a summary conspectus ever have? Does it really perform work in the minds of flesh-and-blood children? Does it achieve the difficult task of planting habits, or accomplish the miracle of extirpating wrong habits ? If so, the average teacher should be enlightened as to how he may avoid his seventy-times-seven explaining of the old familiar rule, his careful preparation for in- JOHN WILSON'S IDK A 121 troducing a new one. If many intelligent pupils have to be hounded for years before they will habitually place a comma before an adversative conjunction, what infinitesimal tittle of influence is imparted by the following: " When a series of distinct statements all have a common dependence on what precedes or follows them, they may be separated from each other by semicolons M 1 A formal law, stating in three lines the whole mystery of non-restrictive clauses, offering no comment, supporting itself by the meagerest illus- trations, seems directed at some eidolon of a student, some pedagogic abstraction ; for mere human minds, albeit with a literary bent, are likely to falter after months of drill. Real results in actual young brains are obtained only by protracted and earnest drill — the kind of effort used by the supervisor of English who wrote in the English Journal for September, 1914, about " sentence sense.' ' Experience had taught her that true instruction is warfare, that the " section 1 ' is merely a colored poster advertising for volunteers. She said: "I wonder if other schools have to fight [what does the 'section' know about fighting?] as vigorously [how much vigor is there in the 'section'?] as we do to eradicate [what grub- bing for noxious roots does the 'section' do?] such mistake as this : ' My little sister is very pretty she has light hair and blue eyes."' Our "section" either has nothing to say about such an unscholarly negative or disposes of it with matadorish grace thus : ' ' The comma should not be used instead of a semicolon in sentences thus combined. ' ' What need for a "section" to declare bloody war and "wage it unremittingly for several years"? No need what- ever. The "section" has merely to wave its wand 122 WHAT IS ENGLISH? and say, "Be tliou eradicated. ' ' It deals only with magic, using cryptic utterances like "Sentences should not be written for the purpose of illustrating punctuation*' or "You can see from this conversa- tion of Tom and Maggie, how punctuation marks may suggest to the reader a number of things." (That comma after Maggie suggests one thing to at least one reader.) In the name of all that is easy and idyllic why should teachers countermine in the trenches and charge with bayonets if the pleasing incantations of ' ! sections ' ■ really effect any results 1 Whence came all these untruths and easy incanta- tions! From previous textbooks. Where did those authors get their knowledge and their mistakes? From still earlier books. If we follow up this cas- cade, what source do we reach! First we shall come upon Bigelow's manual, a storage reservoir that irrigated all the punctuational fields of the country in the 80 's and 90 's. Bigelow was editorial proof- reader for the Riverside Press, a sort of Archbishop of Commas for his generation, whose influence went everywhere and went deep. Thousands of profes- sors and editors hold today opinions that were first fed by the waters of his dicta. But he was not a source. He gave out no more than he received. The stream runs back to John Wilson's Treatise of 1871. Not that Wilson originated our usage. No man was powerful enough to do that. He often protests against the custom of his day, but he records it and has to yield to it. His Treatise was not a source of usage, but the one great source of ready-to-hand and easy-to-copy exposition of usagre. Wilson was an analytical Scotchman, who died in 1868. As a printer he had ideals ; as a theologian he JOHN WILSON'S IDEA 123 was a keen progressive ; he loved and helped to edit Bums; he received an honorary degree from Har- i; and all the days of his long life he studied punctuation. He reverenced his subject because of the assistance it could afford in developing a clear, sound style. Unlike the makers of our modern "sections," he could honestly testify that in the preparation of his nineteen editions in forty years "little aid could be derived from other writers.' ' His second American edition in 1855 he thought "the most complete of any on the subject that he has seen." Not content with having made the best, he continually amplified, revising and extending his comments, enforcing his precepts with many pages of illustrative sentences, and offering instruction by cat many more pages of unpunctuated sentences. The twentieth edition of the Treatise, brought out three years after his death, is the great storehouse which every succeeding text-maker has pillaged without acknowledgment — often, no doubt, plunder- ing at second or third hand, and so not even being ire whence hit booty had originally come. The little manual that puts "not" in its rule for apposi- tivee is sheer burglary from Wilson's treasures. That absurd perversion is taken verbatim, but the editor had not the wit to retain a qualifying clause cit* they may be regarded as a single phrase") which shows that Wilson conceived his rule as a tement of the exceptional case. Wilson is also responsible (heaven only knows why he phrased his rule as he did) for that commandment to "set off adjective phrases by commas." It was Wilson who dragged others to hideous ruin down by declaring that "two clauses, one depending on the other, are 124 WHAT IS ENGLISH? separated by a comma." He could hardly have said anything else if he paid deference to the facts of his period. But in his comments he urges the avoidance of a comma with a restrictive clause. His supple- mentary exposition is always clear and thorough. He maintains (what custom later overruled, but has now returned to) that the second comma should be used in John, James, and Harry. He perceived that a comma ought not to be placed between a subject and its verb; and he is sustained by the best modern usage. He announces (though he cannot disregard the universal opinion of his day) that punctuation has for its primary function the separating of gram- matical elements. Verbose and tiresome he may be, but his system is complete and unimpeachable. He justified his pronouncement that "the essential prin- ciples of punctuation are as fixed and determinate as the canons of syntax." He has not convinced the world of the truth of this. Practically every rhetorician in this country has taken his arrangement of rules directly or in- directly from Wilson, yet denies Wilson's funda- mental notion. It is curious to see how a whole gen- eration was willing to pillage the storehouse for facts, but scrupulously refrained from even looking at the central fact. The little things were easy to carry away; the main thing was too heavy to bother with. Those who "borrowed" or "used freely" were singularly forbearing in another way: they never touched what Wilson would have called the most valuable idea in his repository — namely, the itali- cized sentence at the end of this paragraph. Prob- ably the borrowers could not understand it. Possibly JOHN WILSON'S IDEA 125 it seemed wrong-end-to, and so they judged it was a misprint, a damaged piece of goods — and left it be- hind. Perhaps they were repelled by the four un- necessary commas. More likely they were charitable, feeling in their gratitude that they ought not to let the world know how rabid poor old Wilson grew in his later years. Since I have no reason for such compunctions, I will reveal what he said : "Punctua- tion has not received that attention which its impor- tance demands. Let punctuation form a branch of academical instruction; let it be studied after a competent knowledge of English etymology and syntax has been acquired; let the rules be thor- oughly comprehended by the pupil. It is worthy of remark, that, by habituating themselves to the prac- tice of pointing, their attention will naturally be directed to clearness of thought, and accuracy of expression. p ' This is not the ill-considered ranting of a hobbyist nor the excitement of enthusiasm. It is the deliber- ate, well-founded judgment of a canny Scot, of a rational, careful, highly respected, conservative citi- zen, whose intellect was stable and vigorous, whose whole big Treatise does not exhibit one piece of false analysis. Heed his advice so far as circumstances, at Smithboro permit. If you are not allowed to select/ a rhetoric that has many exercises, perhaps you can- arrange to have printed and sold to pupils at cost some strips of unpunctuated sentences. This is done with good results at some preparatory schools. An- other device, easier but not so effective, is to dictate every day a good illustrative sentence from news- papers or novels or your own brain. If punctuation is not in favor at Smithboro, don't begin a campaign \ 126 WHAT IS ENGLISH? for it. Keep quiet, do what you can, and bide your time* Perhaps after a year or two you can have your way, and you may even be instrumental in per- suading grade teachers to establish a few rudiments. A simple "Comma Book" has been used with telling effect on eighth-grade pupils. That is where the fight ought to begin. Those grade-years of writing without reference to points are what make high- school labor so herculean. In teaching punctuation you will never get any- where with abstractions. "Parenthetical" and " re- strictive' ' and " disjunctive * ' convey nothing to the average pupil — nor to the rest of us, for that mat- ter. What do you really learn about " category' J from this definition? "It is not an instrument which the mind uses, but is an element in a whole which in its unity the mind is." You can get nothing out of that unless you previously knew what it means. But you can learn something from this : "A category is a way the mind sees things ; it sees one thing happen after another thing ; it knows that a series of things has kept happening one after another for a long time ; it has to believe that the same series of hap- penings is going to continue tomorrow, and the day after, and so on ; and it can 't think of life except as such a series; and this f act-that- we-can't-get-away- from, this fact of happening-one-after-another, we call Time. That is one category. There is another one of Space." It is long-winded and very unphil- osophical ; but it does work in a plain human brain. Try always to be concrete, to talk of things, of known facts, when you have to explain "paren- thetical." Try punctuation. Give it a full trial. The JOHN WILSON'S IDEA 127 only objectors to it, so far as I know, are those who have never really tested it. The sentence-cam- paign is a real fight, a long one. Any teacher who has developed the punctuation strategy, who has fought vigorously and waged war for years, knows that nothing else he can do produces a tithe of such fundamental benefit. Plentiful exercises with plain human prose, not with the mystifications of oratory and poesy, is a mighty engine against the grisly legions of carelessness. You may mobilize your forces of "orderly thinking" and inspire them with devoted valor, but they are crude militia until Drill- master Punctuation has trained them in tactics. His task is long. He is harsh and unromantic. He must begin with grammar and dwell upon it pitilessly. Most recruits and taxpayers consider him brutal and inglorious. But he knows what war really is. He wins victories. CHAPTER VII WHAT IS A COMMA! Punctuation is considered the least interesting subject in the world, is never a topic at teachers ' conventions, will cause every friend to look bored and uneasy if suggested in conversation. This in- difference is due to three causes: (1) the feeling that punctuation is unesthetic, (2) ignorance of. the fact that it is of prime importance, (3) ignorance of what it is. Chapter I should have disposed of the first cause and Chapter VI of the second. The pur- pose of this chapter is to dispose of the third. The title is chosen because an adequate exposition of what a comma is reveals the whole sum of the knowl- edge we are seeking, is in fact about four-fifths of the total. A clear understanding is marvelously hard to get. Many persons cherish the most violent prejudices, so that one principal of schools will wish to dis- charge a teacher who uses no commas at the ends of lines in addressing an envelope, and a secretary of a state board of education will not allow any commas at all in his printed reports; one man is nauseated by a comma with a dash, and another is grieved at the boorishness of omitting it. Such ex- (treme feelings are exceptional. The more common attitude is that nobody really knows and that every person has to guess when it is time to stick in a mark. The following professions of agnosticism were all 128 WHAT IS A COMMA? 129 made by men of exceptionally good intellect, all somewhat prominent as editors or educators: Kveryone has to pick up a system for himselt"; "I go absolutely by the way it feels ' ' ; * * I can 't argue the questions, but simply know that in my long proofreading career I have always done thus and so, and am sure I am right"; "no comprehen- sive code can possibly account for all the subtleties and emphases of the uses of commas ' ' ; * * no definite rules can be given"; u punctuation comes by na- ture"; "I strive instinctively to be clear." Is there in the whole range of human puzzles anything more baffling than this unanimous assertion that nobody can know what a comma is? I should not have the hardihood to write this chapter if it were not for three very good reasons: First, that all these agnos- tics really do use commas in ahout the same ways; •ml, that I am offering here nothing of my own, hut am merely referringyou to a source of indubitable authority; third, you will be saved any amount of perplexity and blundering it" you know of a surety exactly what a comma is. AVhen you have finished the chapter, look up the Century's definition; you can then be satisfied that you have acquired no ex- ceptional or unreliable notions. One caution may be necessary : don't try to prose- lyte other teachers, don't argue with older heads, don't strive to revolutionize methods or change text- books, or show them what's what in Smithboro. Teac h in the way you are asked to tea ch. If the principal or the head of the departmenf thinks that "tiffid rules" are destructive of the spirit, don't oppose him. You might as well hope to persuade an old man that hit religion is vain. "What follows is 130 WHAT IS ENGLISH? to inform you. Any teacher whose information is thorough will in due time, if he is tactful and hard- working, find that his ideas are effective without any propaganda. Be skeptical about what follows. You have only one writer's word for it, and you cannot be sure of its truth until you have tested and checked up for a year. If only this chapter prevents your present conceptions from solidifying without challenge and analysis, it will do much. "What is a comma? The most recent and most ambitious answer has been given in Educational Review for October, 1915. The writer presents a really able analysis, founded on observation, dis- playing with acumen the essence of what authors attempt with points. She makes short work of the comma-shows-a-pause idea. Next she sweeps away the criterion of syntax, because this is a dictum, not answerable to reason. "By virtue of what inherent quality," she asks, "does the vocative demand the comma I If the amateur ranges in literature he will learn that this construction often actually does ex- press itself without a point." She says that rhetor- ics are scholastic because they offer us a "synthesis of practice," as shown by their customary expres- sion, ' ' the comma is used. ' ' This will not do for her ; she must seek out a "working principle; not a code, but a real psychology, based on intrinsic character. " Ponder that concept — the "intrinsic character" of a comma. That means that a dot prolonged curv- ingly downward to a point has an inherent psycho- logical quality, a power implicit in that particular shape, belonging to it in its very existence. This is no distortion of her plain meaning, for she amplifies the thought on many pages with such expres- WHAT IS A COMMA? 131 sions as these: "Each sign must perform its func- tion by virtue of some immediate suggestive power, or not at all", "marks peculiarly suggestive in form", "the indeterminate curves of the interroga- tion", "the quick expressiveness of the other signs", "the comma, with its tiny hook leftward, creates a suspension", "the colon is essentially dramatic in effect, abrupt, definitive, revealing no suggestion of subordination." A mere man knows not how to treat that. As a fancy it is admirable. Moreover the writer applies her imaginings to the facts with rare discrimina- tion, interpreting the designs of authors with sympa- thetic skill. Hers is a competent mind and a seeing eye. That is why her notion is worth exhibiting. If she fables, what may not be expected from less gifted reasoners ? If she is right, the whole world is wrong; for the universal assumption has been that our points are arbitrary symbols, that their use is an artificial code, valid only because it is generally understood by a large body of readers. But this code she will not accept, because it "lies apart from natural creative expression." Hence no one can really know what a comma is unless he has that liter- ary sensibility which reveals the connotation insepar- able from a dot with a long tail. We cannot believe that any symbol conveys a message except to persons who are accustomed to it. A dash, a dot, and a dash suggest to our author suspension, decision, suspension; to some early printers they would have meant nothing, comma, nothing; to a telegraph operator they are the letter K. Commas "cannot set off a word" to her eye, but they actually do that for my eye. To her a dot 132 WHAT IS ENGLISH? symbolizes completeness ; to one who is familiar with repeating decimals it represents interminability. To her a semicolon is "a period made suspensive"; to a Greek scholar it is a question mark. To her mind the colon is dramatic; by "most" of Dr. Johnson's day it was confounded with a semicolon. ^ Such a child of fancy must be thrilled by the life history of that poor colon. There he was "inher- ently dramatic and definitive," of power to "charge with final force"— and yet for 700 years before -Gutenberg was born he had served as the smallest divider; in the Mainz Psalter of 1459 he was the slight mark between the ponderous commas that terminated sentences; and for a century after the founder of the Aldine Press was dead he could still be found in this menial office. Even Johnson's per- spicacity could recognize his nature only with a "per- haps," and had to acknowledge that he was "not very necessary, being used to mark a pause greater than that of a comma and less than that of a period. " To this day he does lowly duty in schedules and prayer-books and arithmetics. Not until 1915 was he known to have any intrinsic quality, and then his nature was visible to only one bright woman. To all the world besides he is inherently a mean- ingless pair of dots. Only recently has he been invested with an artificial significance, so that now we see him wearing the livery of a footman who is to usher us from the hall of a sentence into the draw- ing room ; appropriate only in constructions that are formal and dignified. This function has been assigned so recently that the Century defines a colon as marking "a discontinuity greater than that indi- cated by the semicolon." Most readers of this WHAT IS A COMMA! 133 article have lived long enough to watch the process tag spoil one particular oilier. The whimsy of "inherent quality" will hardly be dangerous in this form, for few will take it m ously. But in another guise it misleads intellectual men, who will tell you that they use the comma at a given point in an undefinable way, feeling that it is needed, feeling that it charges with emphasis the ression that follows. They feel that their emo- tion will he transmitted; are offended by the soulless suggestion that no-comma conveys anything until the world has agreed on a meaning. This curious fail- ure to realize that the force of points cannot be cre- 1 by the individual is shown in the ease with which we have credited the establishing of our punctuation to one man, the founder of the Aldine 1 'ress. If ever a man was fitted for that superhuman task, he was. In scholarship he was prodigious, in zeal he was lofty, in energy stupendous; he founded an academy ; he made of his assistants an even more powerful institution; his press was an educational fountain. From my youth up I have never doubt ed that he "primarily developed" or was "a pioneer* ' <>r that he " introduced.' * If the Century says so, who dares doubt 1 Yet such a feat he never attempted. Manutius no more introduced our punctuation than Chaucer invented poetry. He was not nearly so original as Chaucer. Indeed origi- nality was farthest from his aim. As he wanted his readers to understand easily, it was necessary to use points in conventional ways that had been familiar for — I don't know how long. Ko one has thouirht it worth while to write the tangled history. We may see modern-lookimr commas in Greek script of the 134 WHAT IS ENGLISH? sixth century and top-and-bottom periods in fifth- century Greek. Doubtless the mystic strands of pre- cedent stretch back unbroken through Alexandria to the founding of Thebes. The encyclopedia takes us as far as the third century B.C., when Aristo- phanes, a critical editor of Byzantium, "invented" a system. We might suppose from the introductions to treatises that during all those centuries no direc- tor of a scriptorium ever committed his code to writ- ing, and that the art of punctuation was again "invented" by Manutius, and that his grandson was the first to record a printer's system in his Orthographiae Ratio in 1561. We should have to guess that the art swam into view like a comet at the Bosporus, disappeared, and was never seen again till it shone over Venice seventeen centuries later. I have no time or knowledge to examine this astounding assumption. It is sufficient for our pur- pose to note that if we open a volume of medieval fac- similes, we may see a French MS. of the seventh cen- tury in which semicolons separate the sentences; most of the MSS. of later date show sentences begin- ning with capitals, ending with periods, and pointed freely with colons. The early printers adopted pre- cisely what the scribes had made familiar. Before Manutius ever saw a printing-press, perhaps before he had seen a printed book, three Germans produced at Paris a volume whose punctuation looks remark- ably modern, with its parentheses, its hyphens, and its commas — to mention only the refinements. In contrast to this a page of an Aldine preface of 1513 is a maze, so thickly is it strewn with commas, so bewildering is the use of the period as both an end stop and an internal point, so curious is the total WHAT IS A COMMA t 135 absence of the colon and the employment of a semi- colon as an abbreviation for we. Manutius's page is farther from the customs of our day than the page of Gerinir, Kranz, and Freiburger of 1471. Later printers were quite unconscious of what had been 44 established' ' at Venice. I have a beautiful piece of Dutch typography printed 127 years after Manu- tius was dead, in which the old-fashioned colons and slanting lines declare that their masters are inde- pendent of the Aldine Press. They followed a sys- tem that was more common in their part of the world. Every normal printer had to pass judgment on how to make his books most easy to read. The marks were few in number, but had been so long employed with such diversity and contrariety by the scribes that printers had to select from a bewildering mass of precedent. Practice was a Chaos where Opinion sat umpire and Prejudice was referee and Best Usage was an unknown god, ignorantly worshiped perhaps, but worshiped. Printers never so lost their reason as to conceive that they could originate anything. Their one hope was to guess at the prac- tice that was most generally acceptable. After 250 years they succeeded in the extraordinary task of agreeing on one fairly uniform code, in which a comma marked the smallest degree of separation. A common theory until after 1800 (it was never a fact) was that a comma indicated a pause for oral reading 1 . The new Britammoa says as much, and a most reverend American trio would instruct our youth in "indicating to the eye the pauses and the modulations of the voice." This definition is usually denied nowadays, but persists as vigorously as the fear of unlucky Fridays. Very recently I was told 136 WHAT IS ENGLISH? by a man who directs the typographical policy of a university journal that "a dash is used to prolong the pause indicated by a comma. ' ' Nothing will ever jar his calm certainty that this is truth. And it is true that an oral reader will usually (by no means always) halt for a comma and that the average pause at a semicolon may be less than at a period. But only a human metronome could possibly time himself by the points. Any novel opened at any page would prove in any psychological laboratory to any rational observer that a spirited reader can render the author's meaning properly only by pausing longer at some commas than at some periods, and by not pausing at all at other commas. The old notion is beneath argument. Take up any book printed when that notion was most common — say early in the last century — and observe how many points are method- ically placed where no reader ever thinks of pausing. Remembering that most literature is pointed by printers, inquire how many printers have ever meas- ured time-spaces. Not only is all observation of fact against this delusion; " authority' ' is overwhelm- ingly against it. As early as 1842 Francillon, a Lon- doner who reverenced authority, was not afraid to say that "such rules [of pausing] are of little or no value." Wilson, the father of American rule-books, announced its falsity; and time would fail me to quote the verdicts of Marsh and Bigelow and De- Vinne and the Fowlers and Orcutt and Teall and Klein and Manly. The pause myth would not be worth attention if it were not for an insidious faith which is corollary to it — namely, that we may tell where to insert commas in our writing by noticing whether there WHAT is A COMMA T 137 would be a pause in oral reading. Four times out of five the test applies; the fifth betrays sprawling ignorance. The test is a will-o-the-wisp that leads to such boggy forms as " Springfield Illinois, is his town," or "Hurry up Henry, you'll be late," or 44 That, was not to be thought of." It is exactly comparable to the belief that you may tell win to dig a well by noticing where a forked twig bends down. Since the water-witch seldom fails in a favor- able locality, many trust it so implicitly that no geologist can persuade them of their folly. Neither can any lazy writer who believes in pause-witchery be convinced by a presentation of the dull facts of syntactical stratification. Any open mind, if it is willing to observe a little and reason the least bit, can perceive what the truth is. We are getting on. A r>omm» is q IiHIq qifrnal showing disjunction that II nut oral. Of what kind, then? Many have answered: "The purpose is to indicate to the eye the construction of the sentence." I have quoted approvingly a pronouncement that "tin function is displaying grammatical st ructu re." This may be true or false. If "construc- tion" means kind of syntactical element, the defini- tion is absurdly untrue. No author or printer ever undertook to show that "this group is a preposi- tional phrase* ' or "here is an adverb clause.' ' Yet dozens of controversial paragraphs have been writ- ton to assert or deny that points exhibit structure. To assert what never was true of any printed page is folly ; to deny the existence of what never existed is folly. And since these writers are sensible beings, they must be misunderstanding one another. There is only one possible way of stating the case truly: 138 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Commas separate syntactical elements and their uses can be taught only to those who have a knowl- edge of syntax; they do not separate for the pur- pose of displaying grammatical relations. This is so obvious that I know not why men argue the ques- tion. Any long complex sentence so close-knit as to need no punctuation will settle it. Why, then, does a comma disjoin things! Because they are not closely connected in thought. Doubtless that formula is inadequate or illogical, so that it can be picked to pieces. But this is not a dialectic excursion; we wish to get somewhere. I mean that subjects and complements are closely related in thought to their verbs, and that restrictive modifiers are conceived as cohering to what they modify. If sentences had no other elements, it is unlikely that commas would ever have been invented. They are used to forewarn a reader of expressions that are interjected, absolute, parenthetical, loosely added, or set down as unconnected items in a series — in short (it might almost be said) such words or groups as have no structure. In this sense the statement that "punctuation indicates construc- tion' ' is strictly true, though some quibblers might prefer to say "indicates lack of construction." Whatever the term we employ, however judgment has fluctuated from age to age, the central fact has always been, apparent in every systematic effort, that printers have tried to warn readers of words that were juxtaposed but not interwoven. The desire for clearness has been so strong that until fifty years ago object clauses were regularly pointed, and to this day many rhetorics advise the separating of a subject clause from its immediately following verb. WHAT IS A COMMA t 139 Can lul writers of only a generation ago sometimes used twice as many commas as would be tolerated by a fastidious editor of today. Yet the principle has never altered. It has forever been a question of 44 Is this element to be considered as loosely con- joined?" When an author inserts a comma, takes it out, debates, puts it back again, he is engaged with some nice distinction. It appears to be a matter of commas. Hence he denies that punctuation is an exact system, and pities any mind that entertains such an absurdity. The fact is that he is not decid- ing about a comma ; he is determining his meaning, balancing two desirabilities: (1) linking his thought closely, (2) disjoining his thought somewhat. It Is a question of artistic effect, often a very delicate one. But when he has made choice of which mean- ing to express, the debate about a comma has disap- peared. The mark goes or stays by mechanical necessity. These entirely different processes, one artistic and one mechanical, have been confounded by rhetoricians, and hence the vehemence of their feel- ing that 44 all these subtleties and emphases cannot be codified." To be sure, the subtleties of meaning cannot be classified. No fiat can render perhaps always parenthetical or compel us to put a comma before the and that joins the members of a compound sentence. The law always reads in terms of if it is parenthetical, if you desire to show that the two members are not strictly coordinate, // a reader might for the moment suppose that the and was join- ing two words. The law seldom says, 44 Thou shalt use such a point with sneh a word": but rather, <4 When thou hast defined thy meaning to thyself, 140 WHAT IS ENGLISH? there is only one way to convey it." A verbal artist will protest that he feels a dozen different shades of meaning; he would like a graded series of commas. But there are no such things. All we have is the. one crude symbol to indicate disjunction. Once the sub- tlety of his thought is analyzed, there is no subtlety about putting in a comma to set off what is loosely connected. "By virtue of what inherent quality?" I know not. A vocative or a nominative absolute appears to me disruptive by nature. That may be a mere mat- ter of association, like taking it for granted that bare feet are inherently informal. I find it impossible to get interested in such metaphysics. No one can tell about the inherent quality of an artificial matter. We are dealing only with certain facts of civiliza- tion. The scribes did as a matter of fact inherit preconceptions that were older than Aristotle, teach- ings about absolute elements and minor portions of a period, which had long been shown by devices called puncta. The world has never departed far from their scheme. Nor have we any interest here in ideas about reforming usage, or in noticing how original minds amend or discard usages. We are looking at common custom. There is no denying that able writers have used commas to show pauses or emphases, and that groaning publishers have fol- lowed their copy. Very respectable brains have supposed that commas can be manipulated by indi- vidual taste and have pleaded for the signals that mean so much to those who hoist them. But what about us who read? Possibly we are like wireless ( operators who can receive a mixture of Morse and "i Continental; perhaps we can guess at a conglomer- WUAT IS A COMMA1 141 ate of three or four codes. But unless it is to some extent a prearrangement the most soulfully placed point conveys nothing to us. For example, a critical, level-headed editor recently spoke of "using a comma to emphasize what follows 1 '; yet the rhet- orics all speak of separation. And that "inherent quality' ' article directly contradicts the editor, declaring that "the mark from its form simply tails to affect the expression by which it is fol- lowed"; it states the complementary conviction that "the emphasis of the comma is wholly given to the matter by which the point is preceded." The dash of fancies is more mirth-provoking than usually comes to an essayist's hand, and a witty writer could entertain his readers with it. Our purpose, how- ever, is not to get fun, but information. If two such highly intelligent witnesses negative each other, they create an unescapable conviction that a comma no more shows direction than a white light can mean starboard to one skipper and port to another; that a comma will not obediently mean what we imagine it means; that we must humbly learn what it does actually signify in rhetorical navigation. Or is a sympathetic reader supposed to exercise some clair- voyant power that we ordinary fellows lack? It would be useful in reading illiterate themes, which are always pointed inspirationally. Young writers adore those rhetorical uses. They "kind of think" that some stop is demanded at this place, and in iroes a comma. Sign-painters often "feel" that this is a good spot for emphasis, and in goes a comma. The results are offensive to all who do not tli selves employ wmmmi in those ways, but the pupil and the painter are invariably unrocoptive of our 142 WHAT IS ENGLISH? criticism, proud that they are not hampered by rules. These are extreme cases, but not caricature. They remind us of the unpleasant likelihood that a comma is absurd unless used in just the ways prescribed by a considerable portion of humanity. My whole skepticism about rhetorical use is like the feeling Alice had in the Looking-Glass world when Humpty Dumpty declared that "slithy" was a portmanteau word, packed with a double meaning — lithe and slimy. Alice, we are told, thoughtfully asked another question. I am thoughtful and strive to be polite when a man tells me what a comma means to him. I shall now make a second inquiry, more difficult and more important than what a comma is : Where is the code for using it ? If a man from Mars, noticing that our clothes are similar in essentials but different in details, should wish to conform to the best mode, he would be per- plexed. Even if he disregarded the extremes of the actor's loudness and the collegian's slackness and the clergyman's severity, he would still see unrecon- cilable differences in the garb of men of his own age and status. Now they wear high vests at dinner and again they show a broad expense of stiff or of pleated bosom. In the same group of careful dressers some leave the bottom of the vest unbuttoned, some wear belts. Wiry do they differ? He makes bold to ask a man whose vest is entirely buttoned, "How do you decide this question of fashion?" The reply is, "Oh, there's no rule; it's a matter of individual taste." He asks a man with a pin in his tie, "Why do some men not wear pins ? ' ' And the reply is, " Oh, there 's no rule about it." But the Martian is a keen fellow. He can demonstrate in a minute that there are rules, WHAT IS A COMMA! 143 very binding ones. No one leaves the top of his vest unbuttoned; no one wears a flower in his tie. Al- though these matters are slight, the rules against them are as well known as the law against embezzle- ment — and better observed. Yet every man he ques- tions would scoff at the idea that there is any "authority" for doing or not doing. Every one asserts that he dresses as he likes. Not one has ever looked into a code of fashions; every one feels superior to a tailor's pictures or to a column in fue. All the Martian can do is to notice custom and follow as best he may. This is the situation when a pupil is required to i rite_coxrfict„sentences. He is a Martian, plunged into an intricacy of conventions. And every text- book declares, "Oh, there are no hard-and-fast rules." Yet if he has the least discernment he per- ceives all kinds of inviolable regulations. He is puzzled. We offer him meager instruction. The allegory is by no means a parallel. Clothing is a joking matter; punctuation is serious for a pupil. Fashions are forced upon us from infancy; punctua- tion is not, except in the case of those who are by temperament so observant that they acquire uncon- sciously the prevailing customs of spelling and pointing. This difference has never received proper attention from pedagogues. Many an editor and professor who never consciously acquired a single rule can use commas with unimpeachable skill. He has absorbed an accurate knowledge of the art with- out formal instruction, and therefore protests against teaching strict rules. But the majority of pupils, whose senses arc alert for matters of cos- tume, never distinguish between a comma and a 144 WHAT IS ENGLISH? period. They are from Mars and they must be shown. A more vital difference between the parable and the fact is that fashions in clothes vary from i spring to antumn, while custom in punctuation is a matter of generations. Youth hardly sees the garb of a generation ago; the commas of a past age are often before him. His teacher may be more familiar with Irving 's stops than with Kipling's, and hence is likely to suppose that there aren't any rules. The most misleading part of the parable is the correct dresser. We have small respect for a human clothes-horse; we don't wish to copy him. We do, however, respect the best modern usage as to stops. It may be so elusive that we doubt its existence, so mechanical that we get no joy out of it ; but if we could lay hands on a certified copy of Best Usage, knowing that it really deserved its title, really was a consensus of the best taste of our age, we should welcome it with gratitude, cleave to it, use it. Is such a code in existence ? Can we find any body of uniform practice? Here is a list of the possible sources of authority: - 1. Pure Eeason. I cannot understand this, and so cannot discuss it fairly. It would be fun to work out a consistent interpungendi ratio if one had power to foist it upon the world, but the work would be dreamy romance. The only practical course is to inquire: "What do commas mean to the men who use them most?" 2. Instinct. If this sounds like sarcasm, listen to the words of a teacher who inveighs against rules. "There has been too much worship and too little spirit in this matter of punctuation. Can we not WHAT IS A COMMA? 145 induce children to think so clearly that, when the Qtenoe does demand a semicolon, it is to be n not as a thing possessing grace in itself, but because without it some comma may not possess sufficient suggestive force?" This most attractive religion n -presents the hope of many righteous persons. I would give half my wealth if I could embrace the ereed, but since I have never seen it convey truth to illiterate minds, I must reject it. y 3. Authors. How can we get at them? Evidence of all kinds indicates that the majority (perhaps four-fifths) leave punctuation to the printer. Few of the minority would allow themselves to be called " authorities.' ' When we cite authors we make the assumption that they are as competent in pointing as in diction. Any sensible disputant about the meaning of words would agree in advance to quit his opposition to an idiom if six authors of estab- lished fame could be quoted against him. Words are an author's medium; his taste about them is significant. But as to that arbitrary comma-code, perhaps he knows it and probably he does not. j 4. Rhetorics. Most of these show considerable faith in instinct and reason, most of them speak of what authors do, every one prints laws that were drafted by printers, nearly all rehearse rules that died out of use decades ago. How can we look to them? 5. Publishers. It cannot be denied that influen- tial printers are the real developers of punctuation. The producers of books always have been. The younger Aldus 's Ratio was simplified for school use by Dutch printers. In America it was a Boston printer, Wilson, who developed a code so sound and 146 WHAT IS ENGLISH? comprehensive that for half a century his influence permeated all rhetorics. Today the greatest influ- ence behind our manuals is the judgment of a New York printer, DeVinne. Publishers have always been under the necessity of adopting some fixed method of making their books easily intelligible. They are sadly familiar with idiosyncrasies of copy, and appreciate as no author can how those oddities detract from effectiveness. Their office is to help a writer to express his personality by using their marks in only those ways that the world under- stands. The author may make a portmanteau of a comma; the publisher's business is to unpack. Rigid and wrong he may be at times, but in the main he is right. We could depend on any usage sanctioned by a majority of thoughtful publishers. The diffi- culty of compiling their judgments is that we never know how much of a compromise between printer and author is represented by any given book. The only way to discover how publishers agree would be to visit their offices, propose a questionnaire, tabu- late results. This would be an extensive labor, per- haps impossible; for some offices might be unable to extend so expensive a courtesy to the curious visitor. Is there any sixth kind of guidance? These five all reduce to one — publishers. If you could know the practice of twenty good houses in any matter, and should find them all agreeing, you would feel assured that you knew the best usage. If eighteen agreed, you could disregard the other two. Fifteen would make you confident enough. Who would stand out against a ruling that had eleven votes in its favor? Not that any decision would be binding upon a man WHAT rS A C0MMA1 147 who nurses prepossessions, but that it would inform HI teachable persons of what commas really do mean to the great world that we hope will understand our composition. Just such a compilation of the practice of pub- lishers is issued every month, sent everywhere, is in vy living-room in the country. We may not ad- mire the literary quality of the medium in which it is to be found, but that has nothing to do with the case. The dozens of publishers are zealous to dis- play current literature in the most attractive and easily understood way ; they employ men whose life study has been to know w r hat points mean to the world, to know what modern conventions really are, to follow and conform to good usage. They are con- servative enough to satisfy any professor. They may not be strong reasoners, but that very fact makes their counsel safe ; for a reasoner about any matter of custom is the worst ignoramus. It may also be said to their credit, as Prince Hal modestly said of himself in comparison with Falstaff, "I lack m nie of thy instinct.' ' They are the men who know. You may deny them all literary taste, all wit, all satility, and may shrug your shoulders at the small -mindedness of any one; nevertheless they are keen students of how to manipulate a few arbitrary lbols so that a writer's feeling may be conveyed with the least distortion. They build an arbitrary code; there is no other possibility under heaven. Any one of us could devise an infinitely more flexible ami inclusive set of signals, but it would be a toy, useless for communicating with our fellows. We 1 extend and improve the present code if only the work! would make us dictator and obediently 148 WHAT IS ENGLISH? learn our novelties. Americans, however, are so stubborn against useful innovation that they will hardly adopt the metric system. I still have to sell my potatoes by the clumsy bushel ; and I must con- sent to have my mental wares measured by the vulgar standard if I wish them transferred to other people's brains. Complete rules are given, to the last detail they are given, in our scrupulous periodicals. Authors' contributions are not evidence, for without a vast deal of consulting we could not separate the igno- rance of amateurs from an established policy. The parts of each issue — notably the editorials — that are known to be conformed to a system will furnish the facts of usage as one office interprets them. Start with the Nation. Though it will not furnish emo- tional dialogue, a single number will show examples of three-fourths of all the customs we may have doubts about. To be specific, let us hunt for a comma with a dash. "We shall not find it. The combination is not to be found in the Outlook. The Christmas Harper's shows not one case in the prose of eighteen writers ; evidently the editors are severe against the use. We cannot find it in the Saturday Evening Post, nor in Scribner's unless copy has been fol- lowed, nor in Life, nor in Collier's, nor in any (?) newspaper. I have observed it in only three month- lies and in a few college journals that prefer a staid conservatism. Will you decide that such a minority is right and that the great majority is lacking in sensitiveness for the finer nuances? Even if you cannot give up the cherished practice for yourself, will you dare advise others to follow it? Will you disdain such WHAT IS A COMMA 149 hority? Hear the words of one of America's greatest scholars, Professor Marsh, who wrote in a puristic period, who was so refined as to lament the "corrupt" pronunciation of Cholmondeley, who said of the cnide journalism of the 50*8: "There is no agency through which man acts more powerfully upon the mind of his fellow-man, and the influence of the art of printing upon language and thought has reached its acme in the daily newspaper." If he were restored to life today, would he not feel respectful toward our best weeklies! One of the most conservative American editors of influential magazines has declared that changes of punctuation in periodicals begin with the newspapers, and an- other that dailies like the New York Post and Times are safer than the monthlies. The present-day aggregate of clear-eyed, respon- sive, conscientious typography has attained almost complete solidarity. Notice a few examples of how it differs from the rhetorics: it practically never furnishes an instance of a semicolon before such words as namely; it never omits the comma before a vocative; only grudgingly and with a big IF will it put a comma between a subject clause and its verb ; it will not use a comma after an introductory phrase except to show that the words are parenthetical; it never tries to replace omitted words by a comma. In these cases it shows the tendency to be rid of the superfluous commas of our grandfathers. It is even attacking (the newspapers are fairly assaulting) the comma after an introductory adverb clause that is restrictive in meaning. In one case the vote is for a comma that rhetoricians are indifferent about, before the conjunction but. This is practical- IV 150 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ly invariable, except for contrasting two words. Every instance in which the manuals are contradic- tory can be decided by submitting it to the only court that has jurisdiction. A jury of twenty careful periodicals with literary motives will give at least a four-to-one verdict on any case brought before it for trial. I may agree with one of those verdicts and think another absurd; what I opine is not of the least importance. I may rebel at such decisions as are pure convention; the more fool I. In other matters I am sane; why not in this one? Though I may privately feel that lace at my wrists would em- phasize my gentle breeding more than stiff cuffs, I sadly defer to society's prejudice. I ought to do the same in dressing my thoughts. "We could do much more than settle the little cases of " always yes" and "always no"; we could learn to state simple principles which will instantly fur- nish the "yes" or the "no" when we have defined our meaning. For example, shall there be a comma before andl (1) No, whenever it is clearly apparent that and is joining two similar units, whether words, phrases, or clauses. If the eye might at first glance suppose that and is joining the following word, whereas it is really adding a whole group of words, warn the eye by a comma. (2) Yes, if the two items (especially clauses) are to be shown as dissimilar in time, mood, subject, or form of emphasis. (3) Yes, if and is joining the last two items of a series in which the previous items are not joined by and. The sum of all such trifles is a trifle. This chapter would be too trifling to print if its objective were a sheaf of rules. My aim is very different. I have in mind the fearful ignorance of college youths as WHAT IS A COMMA! 151 to what a decent sentence is. All instructors testify to it and are horror-struck by it. They are all but helpless before it, because the schools have given them so little foundation on which to build. Most of our colleges have to take violent measures to secure some degree of improvement. Why have the schools done so poorly? Because the textbooks say, "No definite rules can be given"; because those books that do present a fairly consistent code are uncinphatic as to what virtues are cardinal, what sins are deadly; because teachers who do not know the facts of punctuation are thus encouraged in ignorance and laziness; because back of all this charming indifference to "hard-and-fast-rules" lies a most pestilential indifference to the distinction be- tween a comma and a period; and because the anemia of that indifference produces in pupils the extreme of heedlessness and sloth. Whether good usage calls for a comma with and is the pettiest thing in the world; whether this group of words de- mands a period is the most important matter in the whole range of formal education. Until the entire body of law is known to be definite, is definitely and emphatically presented in texts, is a definitely re- quired part of every English teacher's equipment, so long will college men be hopelessly indefinite as to the distinction between part of a sentence and two sentences. All too well we can imagine the horrors of what injudicious persons will do when set to teaching punctuation as "a system precise in every detail.' * Perhaps we must acknowledge that a large part of them will regard a comma with and as more precious than a lively simile. But that is the fault of teach- 152 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ers. Punctuation is no enemy to life and vigor. Any teacher whose nature would make him too zealous about commas is damned already, is already injur- ing young minds by the exercise of a dispiriting per- sonality. We shall make him no worse by requiring him to teach a precise code. We shall probably make him better, for his mechanical mind will no longer be deluded by the fancy that he is dispensing a manna of grace and charm. And sensible teachers will be just as inspiring as before; you can't put their powers out of gear by asking them to impart a simple body of useful knowledge. Indeed their energy will be better directed if they are not in the dark ; they will work with more assurance and peace of mind. They will give our young citizens a much better education. I have no fear that they will repress Young Amer- ica's spontaneity. I make no proposal to shackle youth with commandments or consign it to dun- geons of exactitude. In no way nor in the slightest degree have I hinted at reducing freedom of expres- sion. The severest teacher of the code might still stimulate the fullest liberty of style. There is noth- ing in any paragraph to discourage license of style, if that is wanted in some quarters. I have no thought of restriction. Yet I shall be so understood. There will be readers whose preconceptions will cause them to remark when they have skimmed through, "An- other mechanic! Another man who would algebrai- cize fancy and plot the flight of winged words !" Not so. This is a gospel of freedom. Any author, young or old, is hereby urged to set down his emo- tions in phrases as original or graceful or lofty as his imagination can body forth. There is nothing WHAT IS A COMMA 1 ' to hinder even ecstasy. The most bighly- vi n >ught verse of Noyes or the most trenchant phrasing of Kipling is conveyed more tellingly be- cause these authors have pointed according to pres- ent usage. I am only urging the necessity of recog- nizing usage in dealing with commas. A writer ought] to choose words, not by grace of Worcester, but by knowledge of usage; so that his design will not be ipeckled uncouthly. He ought to put them together, not by courtesy of parsings, but by knowledge of idioms; so that his design will not be askew. And with a similar motive he ought to separate them into srroups, not through fear of some "authority's" precepts, but by knowledge of what points really mean today; so that his design will stand out clear and firm. CHAPTER VIII PRESENT USAGE IN POINTING This chapter is not for use in class. Many of the questions will never arise there; some of them you may never need to bother your head with. It is designed to furnish what I myself should have been so thankful for, a handy but ample record of all pos- sible ins and outs of punctuation. If some of it strikes you at first sight as going too much into details, remember that the dictionary's three col- umns of sub-headed discussion of but was not in- tended to be read at one sitting. For reference purposes a summary must be complete. The man who supervised the publishing of the Century Dictionary, DeVinne, got out in , 1901 a chapter on punctuation; the critical reader of the Standard Dictionary, F. Horace Teall, published the latest edition of his manual in 1914; two English- men who abridged the Oxford Dictionary wrote a long chapter in 1906; the University of Chicago Manual was revised in 1915. Every rule that fol- lows, every least comment, is in accord with one of these books'; nothing of importance is in contradic- tion to any one of them, for there is no material difference between them. No observant eyes can look about upon present usage without seeing just what these men have seen. It is in codifying that the differences occur. These are partly due to the kind of readers addressed. 154 USAGE IN POINTING 155 DeVinne wrote for compositors, having in mind all conceivable kinds of printed matter; Teall is think- ing of all kinds of writers. Again, there are differ- ences due to the writers' training and kind of life, and to their mental make-ups. They attempt one of the most difficult of intellectual feats — to sort out and give an exposition of an arbitrary lot of social customs. If you have observed how some of the best-informed minds may go astray in giving an account of the uses of words, you will expect any writer on punctuation to fail in some ways to be clear or consistent or complete or shrewd in analysis. Doubtless my arrangement ramifies into too many particulars. If I were trying to inform the ignorant, I should follow a very different plan. But you are not uninformed; and, if I can judge by my own wishes when I consult books of reference, you will prefer a prolix completeness to a generalization that lacks just that particular point you wanted to make sure of. A word as to the different manuals that may be referred to if you wish to verify or to get a different dew of what follows. Punctuation by F. Hoi Teall (Appleton) is a product of long experience; sound and sensible ; it follows the plan of ' * reducing the number of rules to the fewest possible.' ' Why We Punctuate b y W. L. Klein (Lancet Pub. Co7, Minneapolis) is not a ready-reference manual, but an acute analysis of the "reasons for the use of marks." The King's English by H. W. and F. G . Fowler has a most useful chapter on punctuation wliielTgoes at length into many moot points, illus- trating in i chatty style and commenting with a good sense that never fails. It is not an orderly code tor 156 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ready reference, but is a cornucopia of wisdom. X The safest, most usable, and most compendious guide is A Manual for Writers published by the University of Chicago Press. Its authors are Pro- fessor Manly, head of the department of English, and John Arthur Powell, an editor for the Univer- sity Press. No faith on this globe is so firmly held as that an all-embracing code cannot be framed. The first — and the last — principal or fellow-teacher that you consult will warn you against any hope of account- ing in advance for " every possible case of doubt.' ' Even Teall thinks that "probably it cannot be done." The answer is: "Try to find the case that this code does not clearly account for." Propose to your adviser that he prepare a list of five doubts, not that "could not" be provided for, but that are not actually provided for in the following summary. You will also be warned against "rigid rules." The reply is that there is precious little rigidity about these rules, that they cannot possibly hamper or stiffen any sensible writer in the least. They merely record what points signify in current usage, and their only purpose is to enable a writer to have free trade with his reader. Ignorance of them is a very real restriction ; knowledge of them is freedom from bondage. Some of these rules (the vocative, e. g.) are pure conventions, but are so universally observed that a writer who disregards them may be thought ignorant or presumptuous. Most of them, however, can be applied only after we have answered the question, "What is the meaning?" A writer who does not know the code distorts the meaning that he wants USAGE IX POINTING 161 to convey. Hence in handling unpunctuated sen- tences with a class the attack must always he, "What di«l the author mean? What must he have meant!" pupil can make out any case at all to prove that those words in that order might mean what you never thought of their meaning, he must have credit He must even be commended. A situation of that sort, where teacher expected one thing and pupil proved that quite another was possible, is often the most lively illustration to a class of the great prin- ciple : \\ . must know what we are trying to express. The exclamation mark is used after any form of sentence to show that the writer is not asking a real question or giving a real command or stating a fact or wish, but is exclaiming emotionally. It is most commonly used thus: Oh, what a sight it was! But it shows the point of greatest emotion, and hence there are these arrangements: Alas! this is all too true. Good heavens! look at that! There is — alas! — no other way. Sometimes a series of exclamations or brief questions are printed without capitals. This is because they are to appear as one sentence, as if there were semicolons between. But no semicolon or comma is ever used with the mark of exclamation or question. Indirect questions end with a period. I asked him what he was doing. The period is not needed after headings nor after words written in a column; in- r be tolerated in school. It is deadly there. (See a further discussion under The Semicolon.) Modern usage is chary of such a form, though it much more frequently indulges in a series of three sentences. If this is novel to you, if it seems unrea- sonable, forbear all logic. Accept it. It is the fact. In the Outlook editorials of one issue are: Belgium was an international minor; Greece was an adult. A letter from the Chamber of Commerce is always read, accidents are discussed, and methods of pre- vention are taught. It is unsafe to mention such possibilities to a class, though it may not be neces- sary to mark them wrong on a theme. (h) In certain cases the comma is used with' co- ordinating conjunctions in a series. One case lias been explained (c, above). There are two others, which must be prefaced by a classification. The following are not conjunctions at all in a discussion of punctuation, but are independent adverbs, to be used after a semicolon or period: accordingly, con- 160 WHAT IS ENGLISH? sequentiy, however, indeed, moreover, nevertheless, still, then, therefore. There is one big cause of con- fusion out of the way. Interwoven with it is the grammatical distinction between dependent and in- dependent clauses. Thus for is regularly classified as "independent," as equivalent to "and the reason is"; while because is called "dependent," equiva- lent to "for the reason that." Similarly though is called dependent in a concessive use and independ- ent when equivalent to but. Such demarcations are the subtlest of puzzles, beyond the province of mere grammar. They are refinements which, as Matzner says, cannot be demonstrated in some cases. In school use for is regularly subordinating, though is coordinating. A generation ago so was hardly ad- mitted to the Century as a conjunction; now it is in the commonest use (fearfully common in school) for so that, subordinating. With all these psycho- logical values we need have no concern. All doubt- ful or variant functions group themselves quite naturally under III, 5, as subordinating. This sec- tion deals only with those that link or contrast two equal units. Those that link are and, or, and some correlatives ; those that contrast are but and a num- ber of others often used as equivalent : yet, though, while, and sometimes nor and only. (i) The link-words are not to be pointed whenever it is easily apparent that they are joining two coor- dinate items in a series. This often extends to the two clauses of a short compound sentence. But if the reader might suppose that these conjunctions are joining the following word, while they really are joining a whole group, warn the eye by a comma. One or two of them had pistols, and a great many I SAGE i\ POINTING 161 muskets lay in a berth. The comma shows that and does not join pistols and muskets. (j) If the two items (especially clauses) are to be shown as dissimilar in time, mood, subject, or form tatniM nt, use a comma. This is often the case with or. Do so at once, or you shall suffer for it It nost noticeable when and is used with another con- junction or an adverb: and 80 f and hence, and then, and not. Occasionally two coordinate words have dif- nt constructions dependent on thorn: Eat, and drink this wine. (k) The adversatives like but might almost be said to demand a comma by their "inherent qual- ity." I am only too well aware that this use is not pointed out in rhetorics and manuals, hut it is evei where scrupulously observed. "Comma before conjunction but" is always to be insisted on. The following from the Evening Post of one issue show a universal practice: not theories, but things; warmly human, yet critically stimulating. Rhet- orics hanlly even recommend the following, but they are required by our court: She is unconquered, not because of patriotism, but because of the Channel. Not only wasps, but all the bees. The comma is not unusual even in poor but honest parents. (1) The handy half-truth for school use is " Put a comma before the conjunction between the parts of a compound sentence.' ' This is usually right and never entirely wrong, though it countenances such a needless comma as His father was Irish, and his mother was Scotch. III. Parenthetical uses can be displayed more easily for reference by arranging them in five divi- 162 WHAT IS ENGLISH? sions, of which the fifth presents the most difficult problem in rhetoric. 1. Appositives are set off. (a) Unless they are customarily thought of or spoken as a solid phrase, like the poet Milton, my son John, I myself, your old wife Joan. This last is a very questionable example, for it looks in print as if she were one of two or three wives, (b) Titles and degrees that follow a name are written as appositives. A. C. Wyeth, M. P. J. Langdon Short, Ph.D. (c) An appositive may have or before it. Mrs. Tulliver's teraphim, or household gods, (d) Pupils always think when studying grammar that an objective predicate is an appositive, and they sometimes point it so. Duncan made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. 2. The successive items of an address and of a date are set off. Goldsmith was born at Pallas, County Longford, Ireland, on November 10, 1728, the fifth of eight children, (a) The comma before the name of a state is usually said to show an omitted in, but commas are not used nowadays to show omissions. Moreover the " omission' * idea does not account for the comma after the state; it is "both sides" that needs emphasis, (b) No comma is used between the month and the day of the month, nor in such a form as in the year 1782, nor between the number and the street, nor before b.c, a.m., etc. (c) The majority of letter-writers and nearly all stenographers put commas at the ends of lines when such items occur as the heading of a letter; almost as great a majority still use them in addressing an envelope. But the use is old-fash- ioned, is not in favor among those whose opinion is worth most, and is sure to die before long. Such USAGE IN POINTING 163 commas accomplish nothing but unsightliness. Peri- ods for abbreviations must be used at the ends of lines. Allan McCord, Esq. 14 South Avenue Lancaster Indiana 3. Words, phrases, and clauses used somewhat parenthetically are set off. Specially common exam- ples are however, nevertheless, too, then, indeed, in fact, in the second place, it seems, they say. (a) How- ever is nearly always parenthetical, but no expres- sion is in itself parenthetical. There can never be any rule about what must be done with this word or that phrase; it is always a question of "Do I wish to have this understood as parenthetical ?" (b) The best judgment of today is to be sparing about pointing such modal adverbs as indeed, per- haps, possibly, because they are much more likely to be close modifiers in the writer's actual thought, and because if he insists on expressing himself with so many jerky asides he tires us. In the following the writers are most likely using the words parenthet- ical! y : There is, indeed, no other possible reason. It is conceivable, perhaps, that Jane lied. Scott may have decided, possibly, that suicide was justifiable. In the following the words are close modifiers: In- deed you may. You can perhaps be of some assist- ance. There may possibly be a better road. There is a story of an eminent university official who called up an editor's office to say that he feared he had omitted the commas with a perhaps, his notion be- ing that the word, not the thought, required point- 164 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ing. (c) Always think of such words and phrases as questions of "both sides.' ' Never discuss them as introductory. If they begin a sentence, their position does not necessitate a comma; it is a mat- ter of whether they would have two commas if they were transplanted to the middle of the sentence. This "both sides" idea is most important also with terminal expressions, as will be seen when it comes to the dash. You and your pupils will always be in danger unless your test is "How would it be in the middle of the sentence V 9 ( d ) Phrases are never pointed because they are introductory. Pupils are passionately fond of that comma and can with diffi- culty be reconciled to omitting it after even such a brief phrase as In 1856 he sailed for Europe; much less are they content with Through the plate-glass windows of his office in the tenth story of the Metro- politan Building we could see her funnels. But no comma is called for after Building. The modern notion is that phrases ought not to be "out of their natural order," that a writer ought to place them coherently, that commas would usually belie his real meaning by indicating that the phrase is parenthetical. (e) Occasionally a well-placed phrase may happen to create a misunderstanding of construction — e. g., In comparison with this more expensive food means nothing, where at first glance a reader might think it was this food. So the eye might erroneously read greeting on the deck in the following: But during all the greeting on the deck lies the body of the dead captain. Modern usage tolerates a comma in such predicaments if there is real need of disjoining a modifier — not otherwise. Real need is rare. In This, Gareth hearing and USAGE IN POINTING 165 King, of the Khyber Rifles the authors have done is a doubtful service, (f) Etc. is always red parenthetical; also conversational U and why at the beginning of a sentence; and usually versational now is pointed to distinguish it from the adverb of time. Well, what do you say? Why, I hardly know. Now, that is just the point. 4. Participial and other adjectival expressions that modify in an appositive way are set off. But Nat, fearing some trick, would not enter. My wife, pale and trembling, clasped her little ones. Struck by this answer, the judge paused, (a) Such parti- eiples are extremely common in themes — altogether too common. For pupils who have had Latin see and hear ablative absolutes so constantly that they Blip into the way of requiring all sorts of work from an English participle, work for which our verbal is not strong enough — e. g., Trudging along wearily, after a sleepless night, no farm-house was anywhere to be seen, (b) Participles are often predicate adjectives or objective predicates and not to bo off: The wind goes whistling. The rope could be seen dangling. We found him hunting, (c) They «>tten close modifiers: The man walking on the other side sees us. (d) By a curious perversity pupils who are careless about Rounding the buoy, we started for home will put a comma in After rounding the buoy we started for home or in Round- ing the buoy was not difficult, (e) Sometimes an word that looks like such a participle is in ailing an ellipsis for a closely-modifying clan-' : Coming down he felt all right (-"when ho was coming down"), (f) Non-restrictive phrases are to be set off: His legs were thick, like an alligator's. 166 WHAT IS ENGLISH? The scenery was placid, with now and then some cottages. The room in which he sat, with its simple furniture. The scenery was not "placid with cot- tages ' ' ; the man did not ' ' sit with furniture. ' ' But non-restrictive phrases seldom have a right to exist; they usually result from ambiguous arrangement of words, (g) In a sentence like the following the comma is often omitted before the participle : He was fagged out; but wishing to be polite, he began a conversation. This is to show that wishing is not parenthetical after but; it is appositive before he. For school use, however, such a nicety should not be mentioned. "Both sides' ' is your maxim. 5. Non-restrictive clauses are set off. Though he was dishonest, he was loyal. We were led to a little clearing, where the children had a play-house. These often appear as introductory or terminal, are often so classified; but ought to be thought of as somewhat parenthetical, as "both sides" matters. The great question always is "Does the clause modi- fy closely V There is no universal formula for getting the answer. The most generally applicable test that I know is "Does the clause mean that particular one or that particular kind oft" As a matter of fact we adults "feel" that it is not re- strictive, and our account of that feeling is likely to be that there is a slight pause in reading. There is a pause; that is a pretty sure test for us. But this is vague, very often misleading, and it encour- ages that deadly comma-shows-a-pause notion. Again, we analyze our feeling by saying that the clause is not so essential to the principal idea, that taking it out would not detract essentially; whereas the removal of a restrictive clause leaves a mere USAGE IN POINTING 167 grammatical skeleton like Make hay or No boy can be popular. Hut this too is vague and is seldom use- ful. For us and for the pupils there is only one test that I have yet discovered: that particular one. It applies to all varieties of clauses — thus: (1) "for that particular reason", (2) "at that particular time when", (3) "at that particular place where", (4) "for the particular purpose of", (5) "with that particular man who", (6) "in the particular way thai" Examples are: ( 1 ) They fight because they are attacked, (2) He came when we were sitting down to dinner, (3) Look in the drawer where he keeps his money, (4) He died that we might be saved, (5) We finally detected the man who was making the trouble, (6) They were grouped as actors are at the end of a play. But notice how as adds another idea in the following: They were grouped with reference to an audience, as actors are at the end of a play. A pupil who has learned that brick of experimenting by saying "that particular" before the antecedent of the clause may conquer a mystery that would otherwise forever baffle him. I speak of it at length because I searched so long be- fore I found it, and after I had it for relatives was still another couple of years in applying it to all the others. Pupils always hope for a rule that there must be a comma before because, where, etc. There is no such thing. The writer must decide whether he means for the particular reason tlmt, at the par- t tenia r place where. Bright students will see the absurdity of "Don't go for the particular reason that you might catch smallpox" or "He lived in that particular Florida where there is never any 168 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ice." When dull ones think these sound rational, try the alternatives: " Don't go, and the reason for not going is" and "He lived in Florida, arid there is never any ice there." They are always to inquire whether it seems more like that particular or like and, whether it limits closely or is added on. The "added on" test may prove more convincing for such restrictive clauses as I have a ring which my father used to wear. We found a restaurant where there was no orchestra. Sometimes the truth is readily apparent from the direct question — the fun- damental one — "Does it modify closely? Does it 'run along solid' in meaning?" If this seems to you like depending, after all, on "Is there a pause?" be warned that it is nothing of the kind. If you can leave the whole non-restrictive problem half taught (and many schools have to), the pause explanation is the primrose path. But it is the path of endless error. Compare the time-halt be- fore the two following clauses from Kipling and see how debatable the questions of pointing remain : And once from the north where he had doubled back eight hundred miles. "There is no holding the young pony from the game," said the horse-dealer when the Col- onel pointed out that vagabonding was absurd. How you will pause, because you detect which clause is restrictive, is not the point. What will the pupil do when he is trying to find out which is restrictive ? But as soon as you apply "from that particular north where" and "at that particular time when the Colonel pointed out," you will get light. I can testify that the hour when I first saw the value of \»,i; in POINTING this test marks an epoob in my experience. Before that I could never make headway (a) The following always introduce non-res tive clauses: (1) as and (2) since showing a reason, (3) for, (4) so and so that showing result. (1) He refused to join us, as he was suspicious of our pur- pose. The omission of this comma before "as that a reason" is the sure mark of an uneducated or unsensitive mind, and is an extremely common fault in school composition. (2) Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part. (3) Don't hurry, for you have plenty of time. (4) The porter had been most unobliging, so we gave him no tip. The natives were in an ugly mood, so that our plight was really serious. So that showing propose may occa- sionally be restrictive. The dance was cut short so that we might take the midnight boat (i. e., "in order that we might") « (b) Some novelists and all secondary students are excessively fond of additive whens and wheres. In this manner we all sat ruminating upon schemes of vengeance, when the other little boy came run- ning in. Her object was to gain a small port about two leagues distant, where she had provided a vessel for her escape. If used, they must have the comma, and the necessity for the comma can best be shown by explaining them as equivalent to and then, 1 there. (c) The relative that is usually restrictive, though non-restriotive uses are not rare. This is the cat that ate the rat that lived in the house that Jack built. Whoever, whatever, etc., are ahraj i trietive if they are relatives. Whoever did such a deed ought to confess (in which whoever is 170 WHAT IS ENGLISH? a relative, having for its antecedent the understood he that is the subject of ought). Whatever he puts his strong hand to is sure to succeed. But in such constructions as Whoever he is, I'm not afraid of him the whoever clause is adverbial, modifying am. (d) Noun clauses used as subject or object should never be set off. That my colleague and I should have decided to leave our usual guide at home during the one successful trip of the year seemed a perver- sity of fate. They may be long, the eye may need a rest, there may be a pause, many editors still use a comma after a long subject, most rhetorics prefer it — in spite of all those pseudo-reasons the practice is so antagonistic to present notions that it is surely dying, is all but dead. Even in such occasional oddi- ties as Whatever is is right it is better not to try to make a comma do what it is not fitted to do. The Century prints the quotation ' ' That that is is ' ' with- out a comma. Noun clauses used as appositives are not set off except for giving the effect of "namely" or "as follows." The idea that the earth is round was not original with Columbus. No saying was oftener in his mouth than that fine apothegm of Bentley, that no man was ever written down but by himself. (e) Clauses of comparison introduced by than, so . . . that, as ... as are not pointed. He was so much engrossed in his delicate task of measuring the infinitesimal difference that he did not look up. (f) The introductory adverb clause is about the only matter in which present usage is not settled. When the Mogul asks for the rents which were re- served to him by that very grant, he is told that he is a mere pageant. (An adverb clause is the only USAGE IN POINTING 171 kind that can properly be called "introductory.") Introductory phrases used to be pointed, and to this day there is a very prevalent feeling that if they are long they should have the comma. But the modern system knows nothing about relative length; it is based on disjunction in meaning, and it rules that after a coherent introductory phrase there is no dis- junction. All signs are that the clause is going the same course. Most careful weeklies still insert the comma, but the newspapers are indifferent to it; and newspapers have thus far in history infallibly shown what the conservatives were going to do later. Their < ditors are studious to make matter easy to read, are more sympathetic, can venture to try experiments, watch each other's style shrewdly, adopt readily what proves advantageous. One of the most con- servative punctuators in the country has declared that what the dailies do now the weeklies will soon be doing. Hence little attention need be paid to pointing an introductory clause, though it is still com- mon custom. I require it in exercises, but do not follow it up much. Even conservatives will not find fault with an uncommaed clause if it is in any sense restrictive. Introductory clauses with as, since, and though are always pointed, and if clauses usually are. However, in the following example the if clause is so close a modifier within the that clause that most journalists would not like to break up the coherence with a comma: The modern notion is that if a phrase is out of its natural order a writer has been clumsy. A -imilar case is s<>< m in The police, or "bulls" as he calls them, are friendly. A comma before as would be logical, but would deceive the eye by break tag the continuity of the whole interjected expression. 172 WHAT IS ENGLISH? If an author wishes a comma in such a parenthesis, he should use dashes to set off the whole. The police — or " bulls/ ' as he calls them — are friendly. (g) And even if you can't see why, do as I ask. There would be reason in putting commas around the if clause, but the reasons against it are stronger : (1) The clause would look parenthetical, (2) and is not joining simply do as I ask, but the whole con- ditional complex idea. The comma after such an initial conjunction is omitted. (h) The main clause that introduces a direct quotation is set off. f ' Quit worrying, ' ' said he, ! ! and go to work." No capital is used after the interrupt- ing words, but the beginning of the quotation is capitalized. He shouted across the water, ' 'We've lost an oar." No comma is used with another point, such as a question mark. " Where are we?" he whispered. "Oh, you scoundrel!" she hissed. An indirect quotation is regularly left unpointed nowa- days; quotation marks were formerly frequent in novels. I declared that my only wish was to help him. No comma or capital should be used with a quoted expression that is used as a component part of the sentence. The statement that we have "moiled and pothered too long" is only partially true. (i) Pupils of intelligence have often formed the habit of putting a comma at the beginning of a line. They will agree that this is absurd — and then do it again the next week. (j) "When in doubt as to using a comma, don't. THE SEMICOLON ^ The semicolon is used between the items of a series if one of the items contains a comma. A civic digni- USAGE IN POINTING 173 tary, being ill, and fanciful in proportion, went from doctor to doctor; and having arrived at death's door, sent for Peter. This is not necessarily because of the importance of the items, but in order that a sentence may not appear divided into more parts than it m tually contains, in order that the main parts may be easily recognizable. The stock illustration is an editorial type of sentence containing three members, each of which has commas within it. Needless to say, students seldom compose in that style. This principle of the "one-commaed item" is applied by heedful writers to compound sentences whose brev- ity might not seem to require a semicolon. Glance at the following: This must sound queer to you, and even though I had leisure to explain, you might not be convinced. It appears at first glance to consist of three coordinate clauses, but in fact there are only two. A semicolon before and is preferable, not be- cause of the length of what follows, but because at that point there is greater disjunction of meaning than after explain. The idea could have been well applied to the following, quoted from a writer whose style is usually crisp and clear: More and more he was being forgotten, though, he saw, and it was this which troubled him. The same rule that was given for a commaed series holds for a semicoloned seri< if only the last two items are joined by and, the semicolon must be used with it. I saved his life from a bear; he mine in the Rhine, for he swims like a duck and I like a hod o' bricks; and we saved one another's lives at an inn in Burgundy. Its great us<- is to show thai sentences grammati- (•ally independent are closely connected in thought. He can't hear; he's deaf. The >t niggle to plant that 174 WHAT IS ENGLISH? conception in young minds is harder and very much more important than any other labor in composition. We have seen that the principal objective of gram- mar is that conception. It could almost be said that the aim of all drill in punctuation is to know what commas are, so that they will not be used to sepa- rate sentences. No other idea in rhetoric has a tithe of the importance that attaches to grammatically independent, though connected in thought. It would be difficult to overstate either the value or the diffi- culty of establishing this notion as a habit of mind, so that a pupil will jump if he finds himself about to commit the high crime.* The work should be done mostly in the grammar grades, and some time it will be ; but at present college instructors have to battle against sentence-errors. ^ One device that helps is to present correct forms in pairs: < The deer paused; this was what I expected. The deer paused, which was what I expected. We needn't run; it's not late. We needn't run, for it's not late. Teach that the comma alone will never do; there must be either a semicolon, or a comma with a con- joining word. The converse kind of sentence-error — pointing a phrase or clause with a semicolon — is not so common on themes. In unpunctuated exercises the most usual sort of unwariness is with participial expres- sions like the stores being so low that they feared starvation. *See the sixth paragraph of the Introduction for a striking proof of the importance that attaches to this notion in French education. USAGE IN POINTING 175 Make these t\\«» nsei of tha gemicnlon pietuu'uqmr by railing tbem tl„» "^QnMp.PMnfflfl" nru\ tlin "hqlf. per^L" The most useful maxim is "A semicolon never introduces anything." Pupils are fond of put- ting it after J/ Kf and before a quotation. much for pe< Only a few comments are Enquired on usage. In it > * * half -period* ' function a semicolon always signifies that what follows is to be understood as having the value of an independent predication, though it may not be one grammatically. H. nee authors who wish to be impressive sometimes separate a series of phrases, or even single words, by this heavy stop. Especially common (and often effective in skilful hands) is the use before coordinating conjunctions, and sometimes before subordinating words. Thi- says to a reader, "Regard what follows as equivalent to an independent statement.' ' But pupils must not be allowed to put a semicolon before subordinate expressions. Tell them that they may exercise their esthetic judgment after they have graduated from college. The word following is never capitalized. Yet a semicolon is regarded as so much like a period that dashed-off words do not require the second are wfaride a mark of interrogation or exclamation, but are inside if the mark of emotion is not a part of the quotation. If only yon had not said, "lam indifferent"! John asked, "Did you hear me say, 'Come on'?" (c) If the introducing words are at the end of a line, the ma must be after them on that line and the quo- tation marks at the beginning of the next lino, (d) The greatest difficulty in themes is with such a quo- tation as "Come in here," he said. M [i*i inner." A comma for a period there has the primal, eldest curse upon it. It is the unforgivable sin. (e) If a speaker's sentence is interrupted, loft unfinished, use a long dash and put the quotation marks after the dash. "Look!" he gasped. "Well, did " No period is needed. PARENTHESES Parentheses show an explanation of some word or statement. Since a necessity of stopping to explain suggests involved thought, our quick-mov- ing, straightforward generation is impatient of parentheses. They are at present being supplanted lashes. Except for enumeration in scholarly works they always appear as a pair of marks following the mat- that is being commented on. Hence thoir func- tion is peculiarly plain, and there is almost complete 178 WHAT IS ENGLISH? agreement as to punctuation connected with them. This was not always so. As late as 1881 Bigelow's handbook enjoined the following pointing: Fifteen pauls, (a scudo and a half,) buonomano included. This is copied from the Eiverside edition of Lowell of 1892. Nowadays we should never see anything but Fifteen pauls (a scudo and a half), buonomano included. Such a bit of ancient history would de- serve no mention here if it were not that this puzzling doubled comma still persists to some extent in con- nection with a pair of dashes. The curious perver- sity with parentheses has been duly buried; the same perversity with dashes is dead, but not yet committed to the grave. The universal present ruling for parentheses is to use exactly the same points, in the same ways, that would appear if the parenthesis were removed. The matter between the marks is punctuated just as it would be if it were not parenthetical, except that a sentence is not capitalized and that a terminal comma is not used : (set on by Wakem, of course) . Of course an independent sentence made parenthet- ical between two sentences begins with a capital and has its terminal point inside the second paren- thesis. "Come here at once." (You can't imagine my speaking so firmly?) "What have you done?" Within a sentence there never can be any point just lief ore the parentheses, except in some extraordinary case, like If he comes, (do you) let me know. Pupils seldom have a real need for parentheses. Indeed they rather need to be discouraged from such asides, because they easily fall into the way of using an aimless "as I said before" or "I forgot to say that." They will most awkwardly prevent ambig- USAGE IN POINTING 179 uity of pronouns by repeating in parenthesis the v« noun for which they hive used a pronoun. And they are very fearful that after they have been speak ing of a character his name will not be known to apply to him: hence they wearisomely append "that was my hero 's name. ■ ' THE DASH Writers whose habits were fixed more than thirty irs ago regard the dash as somewhat sensational, i will employ it very sparingly or not at all in for- mal composition. It has an emotional function, to indicate abruptly -changed constructions or unex- pected turns of thought. "I tell thee men will laugh —ah!" She ended in a little scream. The — but, pooh! — it is not for an old man like me, etc. But in the last quarter-century dashes have been almost universally adopted as a convenient mark of I m i vn thesis. Unless Carranza should do what he has never succeeded yet in doing — establish a competent government and maintain order — the next duty would be to occupy strategic centers. A pair of hes shows matter that is more necessary to con- the real thought, that is less like a pure explana- fciOD or an aside. Dashes are less formal than paren- theses, do not show such aloofness. They have grown in favor so much that nowadays almost every page taid editorials furnishes examples. The common- est form of this use is when the dashed-off matter is at the end of the sentence. Two of the members have opposed the action of the majority — Governor Mon- tague and Representative Shirley. This is so fre- quent in all editorials, rhetorics, and literature of lay that it is thought of by many as a distinctive 180 WHAT IS ENGLISH? form. In reality it is only a species of the paren- thetical. It would be logical to use a comma after the second dash in cases where the comma would be required if the dashed-off matter were removed, as in If you can — and I hope you can — , we shall be much pleased. This would be exactly like the use with parentheses. But the comma looks so remote and dangling that printers were never willing to put it there; instead they evolved a practice of reduplicating, placing a comma before each dash. These commas were com- pletely unreasonable and never assisted the eye, but previous to 1880 few American publishers dared omit them, and to this day there are unobservantly con- servative people to whom the custom is very dear. Yet the custom is thoroughly dead, though the ghost of it may be seen lingering in the Atlantic, the Century, the North American Review, and a few college journals. The New York Evening Post, a most conservative journal, abandoned the combina- tion so many years ago that the present proofread- ers know nothing about it. Another theory expressed in some rhetorics is that a dash " strengthens ' * the comma, yet even the Atlantic and the Century of- fices deny all knowledge of such a use. In the spring of 1916 the Atlantic quit the use of "strengthened," and the Revieiv of Reviews abandoned the " comma- dash' ' entirely. The combination is not tolerated by the author of any good manual published since 1900 except Klein, and he admits a "quite general" usage opposed to his preference. The dash should never be used with a comma or semicolon. The most singular way in which rhetorics have lagged a generation behind actual practice is in ad- USAGE IX POINTING 181 vising a semicolon before such introductory words as namely and < .//.. where present usage puts a dfl tree this Wileoniaa rule ae trustingly as ugh their highest duty was to be blind to facts. Ono author recited this credo in 1D10, but omitP d it in his edition of 191 \\ and two otlier good books have rejected it. All must discard it soon, for it is an utter untruth. It originated quite naturally from such a form as this: He is not popular; that is, he is not in the public eye. Here the explanation is put in the form of an independent, coordinate statement. That is may be employed so, frequently to the extent of beginning a new sentence. Similarly it may be argued that < ///and words of that kind are elliptical for these are by name or these are as follows. If they are thus understood and if they are always employed at the end of a sentence, a semicolon is a reasonable mark. It is utterly unreasonable under any other condi- tions. (1) If you should wish to put the apposit matter within the sentence, you would have to sur- round it with a pair of semicolons, as is actually dope in a remarkable quotation in Johnson's Diction- under )Hi»irlif. But no rhetorician has the hanli- l to do this; in his own text he at once employs a pair of dashes, putting a comma after the nhi. There is one argument — namely, the increase of wages — which is peculiarly appealing. And tide is the fact modern usage. (2) If there is no nam* l>i (or any li word as vie., f>>nif. ae) f the semicolon would become monstrous, for it would then appear as a mark of introduction, as a colon. Such a function it has never had. No rhetorician will e it so in hiswritinir. (3) To ii we must) that a >emi- 182 WHAT IS ENGLISH? colon never introduces, and then to teach that it introduces a list of particulars with namely, is peda- gogic crime. It is curious to see how several modern text-makers forget their rule and exhibit present usage in the body of their work by employing the dash constantly before appositive constructions, even before the very words that they have listed under their semicolon rule. (4) The semicolon rule is con- trary to facts. I have examined two yards of gram- mars and dictionaries without finding such a use in any book less than fifty years old. Of course it appears not infrequently when an old-fashioned writer's copy is being followed; even in Outlook and Post it is seen occasionally to introduce the equiva- lent of a statement. Otherwise it is a ghost of a former reality. The introductory word can be found punctuated with every possible permutation of comma, dash, and colon, but there is no body of usage to support most of these variations. It is unusual to find the colon before or the~cT*tsh after, and it is illogical. If a handbook to which you are referring advises on page 10 that a colon should precede viz., look on pages 55 and 56, where you will see the colon quite properly after viz. and thus, and always after as follows. Namely (which I use to represent all such words) need not be considered parenthetical, and ofteifis not in scholarly works that have to eliminate as many points as possible; personally I wish the world had taken this cue from the scholars; but it has not; in ordinary composition namely is paren- thetical. The choice between comma and colon to follow namely is entirely a matter of how formal the introduction is to be. Hence we have the simple and USAGE IN POINTING 183 obvious principle that there is a big disjunction fore namely (to point oil all that follows), an small disjunction after namely (to set off that mere word). This shows how ambiguous is the very com- mon practice of using a comma both before and after, which ought to mean that namely could bo taken out without destroying the continuity. That is what the commas really do mean in the following: We have one great fear — the fear, namely, that you will desert us. That is precisely what they do not mean in the following: But it does indicate something else, namely, an expectation that they can succeed. Both the logic and the facts of present usage call for a dash before this last namely and a comma after it. A comma before and a colon after to wit and viz. are common today, especially in legal phrasing; but the comma is a weak mark for such a position. The dash is normal. Present usage reduces to one simple ruling: Put a dash before and a comma after ; use the colon after to show importance or formality. This is simple; it is consistent with the facts and the reasoning of modern usage ; it is always applicable, whether the appositive matter is terminal or medial, whether or not there is an introductory word. Perhaps the most useful function of dashes and parentheses is to prevent a confusing array of com- mas that are performing different grades of duty, as in He sometimes served a plain dinner, a veal pie, or a leg of lamb, and a rice pudding. A dash after dinner would show that that word is not the first of four coordinate items. In the following each comma •roperly employed, but the whole series is bewil- dering: Only four Republicans, Coates, Grattan, 184 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Holden, and Kissel, upheld him, the other four votes coming from Grady, Frawley, and Sullivan, Tam- many members, and Cullen of Queens. Dashes, parentheses, and quotation marks are the only points allowed at the beginning of a line. Only occasionally will you encounter any punctu- ation puzzle that is not definitely provided for above. There is always the possibility of some absurd con- struction which could be indicated only by absurd pointing — e.g., Why do you ask, "May I come in?"? In the first place, that last question mark is patently nonsensical. In the second place, it is the construc- tion that is faulty; no one ought to desire to show that two questions end simultaneously. So always. You may perchance be told that there are two schools of punctuation — "open" and "close"; that the former means getting rid of all possible points; that its vogue is chiefly in slap-dash newspapers; that the latter is more refined and is cultivated in the college world ; that the author of What Is Eng- lish? is a devotee of the open system. Very little is heard of those terms nowadays, for they merely described a revolution (begun in the 60's and con- cluded in the 90's) against the copious Wilsonian commas. I am a devotee of nothing but the safest and soundest present usage. No jot or tittle of per- sonal preference has been admitted to this chapter. The code here presented is conservative, would have to be called close. Don't lug much of the treatise into class. It doesn't belong there. It is only to furnish you com- plete knowledge for emergencies, just as a dictionary tells you thousands of things that never come up in recitations — but they might. You need to know . EN POINTING 185 orehand. The tern big matters in school are quo- tations l»«»th sides of DOS n -trictive matter; comma before but, so, for, as; the difference between a comma ami a period This last is worth much more than all the rest together. 00) K>N RULES [Except for period, question mark, exclamation mark, and quotation marks. Numbers of subhead ings do not correspond to the numbering in the Chapter.] COMMA Never osed in connection with another mark of punctuation. I. Independent Elements Set Off 1. Ah and nh when these are followed by ex- clamatory expressions. Ye$ and no. 3. Xonns of address (not alter 0). II. Items of a Series Separated 1. Unconnected, coordinate words, phrases, or clauses (but successive adjectives are often not coordinate in value). 2. Three or more (rarely two) short and simi- lar independent statement-. 3. With and or or: a. h< 'tween last two items if there is no conjunction between previous it«>ms. 186 WHAT IS ENGLISH? b. Between clauses if it is needful to warn a reader that the conjunction is not con- necting merely two words. c. Between clauses to show that they are dissimilar in subject, mood, time, etc. 4. Before the adversatives but, while, though, yet, not, nor when they introduce clauses. III. Parenthetical Uses 1. Appositives, unless they form customary phrases. 2. Appositive adjective expressions, especially participial phrases. 3. Successive terms in dates and addresses (these not being "coordinate items/ ' but successive explanations — parenthetical) ; not to be used at the end of a line in a letter- head or on an envelope. 4. Any word, phrase, or very brief clause that is to be shown as merely interjected : always etc. ; nearly always however and such intro- ducing words as namely, e.g. ; usually con- versational why, well, and now. 5. Modifying prepositional phrases that are not restrictive in meaning (these are rare). 6. Modifying clauses which are not restrictive in meaning — i.e., which are equivalent to a statement added with and : always with as, since, and for showing a reason; with so and so that showing result. USAGE IN POINTING 187 7. After introductory adverb clause: always with as, since, though, and although ; usually with if; otherwise not necessary if the clause is to be shown as restrictive in mean- ing. 8. The main clause that introduces a quotation, but not in combination with a question mark or exclamation mark. SEMICOLON 1. Separates coordinate expressions if one of these contains a comma — the " double comma" use. 2. Separates sentences that are closely connected in thought — the * * half period ' ' use. 3. Shows that words, phrases, or dependent clauses are to be regarded as having the importance of independent statements. COLON Always equivalent to "as follows." Introduces a list of particulars, or a sentence that explains particularly a general statement. May be used before a quotation or after such words as namely to show that what follows is formally introduced, as being long or important. A semicolon between two statements means that they ;iiv coordinate in value; a colon means that the following statement explains or gives the par- ticulars of the preceding statement. 188 WHAT IS ENGLISH? PARENTHESES Indicate added information, not strictly essential to the meaning. DASH 1. Shows an abruptly changed construction or an uncompleted statement. 2. Shows an appositive expression more abrupt or interjected than would be indicated by a comma. 3. Useful for an appositive expression that contains a comma. 4. A pair of dashes shows a modifying side-remark. 5. A pair of dashes is specially common for apposi- tive matter introduced by such words as namely, e.g. Such matter is commonly at the end of a sentence, and hence only one dash appears. Only dashes, parentheses, and quotation marks may stand at the beginning of a line. CHAPTER IX THEMES One of the best high schools in the country used to have an arrangement by which English teachers were given a mathematics class in order that this easier work might relieve the tedium of theme-read- ing. It is a labor from which many teachers shrink. If this chapter can show two ways of making it lighter and more effective, your peace of mind will be conserved and your energy better applied. 1 hiring the last few years there has been a great deal of discussion about how to grade themes. Every rimenter has produced an astounding result like this: twenty themes were submitted to ten teachers for grading; the marks on one theme varied between 25 and 90; two given themes were marked 60 and 90 by A, 80 and 50 respectively by B; discrepancies in the same teaching force, among instructors supposed to be familiar with a common system, showed bewil- ingly variant estimates. The English world has n puzzling about uniformity; about a criterion; about some way of getting a body of intelligent teach- ers to agree that a given theme is very poor, just passing, Of very good. In universities where twenty or thirty freshman instructors are reading one huge of themes from one class for one kind of credit it lias hem absolutely essential t particular^ instructions, which readers have had to follow pre- 189 190 WHAT IS ENGLISH? cisely; any other procedure, any trusting to indi- vidual taste, would be criminally unfair. Yet the universal assumption until very recently has been that a theme, like a story in a magazine, is in the last analysis ungradable ; that it is an expres- sion of a personality, making one appeal to A and a very different appeal to B; that there is no possi- bility of a uniform rating of its merits. Most editors and superintendents and business men and clergy- men still take it for granted that the mark on a theme is a literary evaluation. Perhaps you have taken that for granted. The first half dozen rhetorics you examine will convey the same impression by speak- ing of "self-expression" and "polishing our work." The most ambitious effort to get some uniformity- criterion, a scale devised by Professor Hillegas of Columbia, is based on the same assumption. It is in effect a set of selections graduated in literary merit from the zero of a thoughtless child to the 100% of a Hawthorne; with this set of selections the theme- reader is to familiarize himself; then after a quick perusal of any composition he can estimate that its merit is nearer that of no. 7 than of no. 6, and hence marks it 70. This is delightfully easy, is alluring, and has received a great deal of attention from re- viewers and conventions ; but I do not hear that it is actually being used much. If it were a practical device, it would be as handy as a gravity-bulb for quick and precise measure of literary value. That is just the point: it is largely an esthetic measure. Is that what needs measuring in school themes? Are we in the position of an editor decid- ing whether an article is worth purchasing? He thinks of four counts: strength of subject, charm of THEMES 191 style, coherence and emphasis of structure, accuracy in rod) petty mechanics as idiom and sentence-struc- ture Spoiling and punctuation are less than noth- ing in his consideration, for a twenty-dollar-a-week proofreader can attend to such minutiae. An editor can easily revise poor syntax and diction if there is not too much of it. As to orderly structure of the whole, it is likely that any contributor who has a message and some stylistic ability will have com- posed his matter effectively, or that he could, at the editor's suggestion, alter any carelessness of ar- rangement. The editor is simply judging whether the MS. offers an interesting expression of personality. But every conscientious band of freshman instruct- ors finds that it has to pass the opposite kind of opinion. We have heard the explicit announcement from Wisconsin and Illinois ; the facts are undoubt- edly the same at any college where honest effort is guided by clear apprehension of facts. We are not concerned with elective courses whose objective is literary knack; Ave speak of work required of all freshmen. What is true for them must be more true of the first years of high school. All pupils do not have literary skill. Only a small percentage of them have. Quite a proportion of teachers have only a tincture of such talent. You very likely were on the board of the Ulula and you have sent a story to ibner's and an essay to the Atlantic. But you are unusual. We average teachers have small hopes of literary tame. If we strive to write gracefully, we are apt to appear affected. If we suppose that we must teach pupils to write gracefully, we shall teach than atl. ( tation. We shall probably do a much worse thing — convince them that we are insincere 192 WHAT IS ENGLISH? and that all our talk about Addisonian charm is pre- tense. Our first business is care and accuracy. It is well to say frequently to yourself and occa- sionally to the class that you cannot require a pleas- ing style, for that is an innate quality ; that you can- not teach more than some faintest hints of what constitutes a pleasing style, for that is unteachable ; that perhaps a few in the class were born with a degree of power that is greater than the teacher's, just as every now and then some school football- player is born to be a college player of more strength than his present coach. What most do not possess, what cannot be taught, you have no right to require ; it is folly to require it. But what every ordinary child can do, what his parents and employer insist upon, what he must learn if he is to graduate, is to avoid hideous errors of spelling and sentence-struc- ture, and to acquire some ability to divide into para- graphs and to proceed in a somewhat orderly fashion to a conclusion. One man's private judgment about this is worth almost nothing. Don't take stock in the previous paragraphs just because they are in a printed book. There is some contrary evidence — for example, one teacher of girls testifies that she divides the school for English work, not by regular classification, but by literary ability. I should guess that a majority of principals and parents still think that themes ought to be graded for style. Don't oppose the opin- ion of those in authority at Smithboro. Find out what is wanted and follow orders. Find out defi- nitely, or definitely interpret for yourself, what is the limit of deduction from an orderly and pleasing theme for mere mechanical errors. Inquire for that THEMES 193 form of directions; decide clearly in your own mind according to that form. If a theme is reasonably well arranged and is not dull, it deserves 100 as a piece of school literature; how much may be taken off for mechanical errors if the passing mark is 70 T The answer from the universities, from the college board, from the careful preparatory schools, is 11 enough to make the mark zero." But the Smith- bo ro school may be crowded, so that most students must be promoted, and hence marking must be leni- ent ; or, again, Smithboro may have an old-fashioned horror of mechanics, so that the instructions may be "never more than 30.' ' Then you are to resolve pri- vately that you will never deduct for mere prosiness and will seldom deduct more than 20 for ordinary incoherence or lack of emphasis. One other prelimi- nary question you are to get answered : How strict is the grading in this school? C ompare notes with c olleagues during tha npepfnff wppIts, so as to make sure that your marks arc not noticeably high or low. You have now assured yourself peace of mind by taking theme-grading out of the region of guess and mystery and worriment and setting up an arithmet- ical standard. In so doing you are not professing that you have equated charms and commas or estab- lished a percentage basis for personality. You have declined that impossible task. You have simply re- fused to put English on grounds that no other sub- ject stands on. You have safeguarded your own f airness ; you will be able to tell both Willie and his plexed mother just why the mark was E. If any doubt of the justice of this arithmetic haunts you, reflect that our whole system of rating intellectual achievement is utterly inadequate; every year we 194 WHAT IS ENGLISH? refuse to graduate able citizens and give valedictory honors to those who can contribute little to civili- zation. But this is the best adjustment we can make at present. We cannot hope to set up separate stand- ards for English. Furthermore, you will be more useful if you preserve your peace of mind, and only by adopting one consistent, easy, invariable plan can you feel sure — and make pupils feel sure — that your grades mean anything or that there is any pos- sibility of their improving. In another closely related way you can conserve your nerve-power: by not taking to heart all the exhortation to * ' stimulate orderly thinking. ■ ' Every English teacher does what he can in that way, ought to accomplish something; but the total must always be slight. Orderly thinking, like popularity and good nature and charitableness, is not in the cur- riculum. It is a rare gift. A congressman who can think perfectly straight is everywhere looked for and nowhere found. If most philosophers and economists can really think straight, whence came all the opportunities for reviewers to point out how crookedly they think? No, the power to think straight is not granted to most of us — much less can we instil it. Except in one sense : we can impart a good deal of useful instruction in setting down straight the thoughts that are committed to paper. We can, by reading good themes and orderly pas- sages from literature or magazines, give common- place minds some ability to substitute for a 3-1-2 or- der the 1-2-3 order. And constant reference to good examples will enable many pupils to show the reader by connectives that the thoughts are coherently ar- ranged. Education is at bottom a matter of drill in THEMES 195 imitating processes, and English can do no more than to train young minds in following a few simple models of orderly structure. It cannot confer any power. We are not supermen to be charged with a task so ineffably hard. That idea of "following simple models of orderly structure" has never been grasped in America, but we are beginning to get hold of it. Most of us have allowed pupils to write unoutlined, unprepared-for themes, thus training them in disorder. Or we have gone to the other extreme with elaborate subheaded outlines that do not correspond to any normal frame- work of a brief composition. P revision is what we must learn — setting before children a scheme by X which they may see in advance the progress through the few main divisions. Simplicity is the need that we must recognize — not sentences, not a dozen head- ings, not elaboration of major and minor, but just three or four or five titles of the natural groups of thought. Of course the active minds should be encouraged to vary this, to change it completely if they wish ; and it should be understood that no one is obliged to write out an outline in advance, for some original brains will not be helped by that process. But minds that get good results without a formal v plan are planning informally. Whether the scheme is written, is unwritten, or is formed unconsciously, y^^- it exists ; a good theme always shows a design. The V" ordinary high-school writer will learn more about structure if an outline is suggested in advance. The slow and the uninventive must be provided with the simple plan which they will not originate for them- selves. The best training for getting up an outline is to read a good first paragraph of a theme and ^ 196 WHAT IS ENGLISH? inquire what its title might be — what one thing it is all about ; what one thing the second paragraph is all about ; and so on until four or five titles are displayed in sequence on the board. What always needs em- phasis, what will .produce conviction and cause im- provement, is simplicity. A series of four brief titles is proof that order is not merely heaven's first law, but a mundane possibility. Providing an outline is the surest device for securing at least the appearance of "orderly thinking." So much for the general theory. Later in the chapter are some practical hints for outlining and paragraphing. Be skeptical about "placing before our classes examples of literary skill which shall be at once models after which to fashion their own work, and an inspiration to ambitious effort." It would be idyllic to follow that program if our classes were composed of a few chosen girls who would make the effort. But most of the boys will not feel the least inspiration, will think you are unfair, and will sup- pose that you are urging them to be insincere. If you persist against those literal minds, you will wear your heart out ; you will not get the esthetic result ; you will perceive that you are encouraging outra- geous carelessness, accomplishing neither the lofty nor the lowly result; and then you will reproach yourself and distrust yourself and waste energy. Unless you can live on illusions, be blind to hideous facts, and remain indifferent to the plainest duty, the "literary model" plan will destroy equanimity. If you have one clear, simple objective— decent Eng- lish — your own mind will not be tortured about a criterion. You will have the same kind of business THEMES 197 that a teacher has in any other subject, to require care and precision in simple intellectual tasks. You will not be striding the blasts or summoning spirits into a circle, but will be engaged in a normal peda- gogic employment. Yet beyond and above this you have a chance that does not exist in other subjects. You can encourage interesting writing. You may — you should — have it understood that a lively and entertaining compo tion is worth more than a dull one. "Here is a theme that is careless in spots, so that by regular arithmetic it would be marked 50; but because it was really amusing it was marked 70. ' ' You never know ^ what spark you may kindle by remarking, "This theme is so good that it ought to be handed in to the Literaria board.' ' When you read a brisk begin- ning or a surprising close, quote a happy bit of invention or a neat turn or a clever bit of character- izing, you are reminding the class that you are not a comma-fiend. K< a-.> eiti 198 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Ms own judgment or a literary standard that is un- known to the class; but bringing to bear the social pressure, convincing pupils that they are required to do only what their social group approves. This thesis is soundly and convincingly presented in S. A. Leonard's Eiverside Monograph, English Composi- tion as a Social Problem. The idea is not to be grasped in a minute — nor in a month. Have it always in mind.* Sometimes, especially early in the year, there will be such epidemics of heedlessness that you may do well to announce that there is no opportunity for reading whole themes. Hold up the bunch and say that half of them would keep the attention of the class, that one of them is as good as some sketches that have been sold for money, that three are better than many college students can write, that you wish you might read some of them — but that it is impos- sible to squander time for pleasure as long as there is so much wild carelessness to deal with. Then sail into them for the rattle-headed spelling and the coun- terfeit sentences. Keep them informed that commas do not make a theme, that often a theme which you mark is a much finer thing than one marked 90; but that if you don't count off strictly for errors you will leave them uneducated. "You have a gift for saying things with snap; it's a talent that many firms are paying good money for today ; cultivate it ; I will help you to make it useful by marking every careless theme zero." In any and every way that your tact can devise show them that the strictness with mechanics is only to keep them from being a 'Compare the very interesting experiment with social approval in literature, the third extract in Chapter X, pages 232-238. THEMES 199 laughing-stock to a critical world. Ask them what impression they would get of a stranger who began a letter i "Dear sir youde ought to of let me sel you them goods/ ' Insist that some of them would im- press an employer almost as unfavorably. Try_Jo I show them that a splotch of ignorance on_a _pag& is as injurious as a stain on a white tie— no one can see anything but the stain,. Bead them what an Ameri- can poet, \l. II. Stoddard, said of Poe's original handwritten copy of A MS. Found in a Bottle: 11 There was genius in everything they listened to; there was no uncertain grammar, no feeble phrase- ology, no ill-placed punctuation. ' 9 The mark after genius is not a colon. Stoddard was not indicating that the genius was constituted as follows, but that Poe had certain commonplace abili- ties in addition to the great one. Keep the semi- colon in mind when you decide just what theme- reading is, and for school purposes regard what fol- lows as the climax. If you know what you are aiming at, if you have a single purpose, you will remove the burdensome fear of "Oughtn't I to be doing something else ? ' ' The other way of lightening labor is similar : Re- duce all correcting to the simplest arithmetical basis, read once rapidly, deduct mechanically; don't fraz- zle your nerves by trying to weigh what cannot be ireigliedj nor tolerate any qualms about the queer result of a low mark for lively writing and a high mark for prosy work. The secret of fair and rapid grading is to establish your "unit error," to indicate the number of these in the simplest manner, to com- pute in a few seconds what the grade is. Here are the details of marking one freshman theme in the 200 WHAT IS ENGLISH? fourth month of the year. The unit for one class may be changed several times a year, is different for different classes and different schools ; but once you understand the scheme you can see what value is needed for the unit in your class. In the case of this particular theme the class has been many times warned about too and their, etc., has been drilled in simple punctuation, and has learned again and again of the atrocity of a sentence-error. Such errors as omitting a comma before so and but, mis- spelling its, omitting an apostrophe from a posses- sive count five each. Such forms as ladys, J one's now count two errors. Because to for too has been unusually stressed and everyone knows what is wrong the instant he sees it, it counts three errors. You open the theme and begin reading, not expect- ing to see everything that is wrong, not losing the run of the little narrative, but marking whatever you do see — that will be quite enough. The open- ing paragraph is not indented ; the red pencil dashes down a I about where the indention ought to be. That first paragraph, only two lines long, is clearly a mere introductory sentence ; down goes ' l No Par. ' ' Then there is no trouble till the seventh line, where you find orrange ; you dash a ring around it to show that it must be corrected, but is not counted as an error. Next you find "He said for me to come right in and that he would cook us a supper for us." That is a clumsy change of construction, very dis- agreeable to you; you would like to write a note in the margin dilating upon the awkwardness ; but you do nothing of the kind, for the matter has not yet been spoken of in class. You simply put a ring around for us and speed ahead. On the second page Til K. Mi is v W< 11, it happens that you have mentioned this only twice, that you are not positive it ought to count double ; one line goes under it. Near the end is comming, and while it may deserve a treble line, you Leniently underscore it only twice. The whole story la decently arranged, reasonably well told; count up. Two for the paragraphing, one for whd's, two for I ming = 25 ; 100 — 25 = 75. Time of reading 275 words not over three minutes; after a year's experi- ence, when you are used to the system and have grown acquainted with the peculiarities of pupils and have removed a large proportion of the first-of- the-year carelessness, you can finish in two minutes. It is more than likely that this strikes you as not theme- reading at all but as mere addition of bits of scum that fleck the deep waters as well as the roily 1 diddle. Part of your astonishment is due to not dwelling enough on "the whole is decently arranged, reasonably well told." That is a big assumption. On many themes there will have to be structural cor- rections: of general incoherence, or of monotonous sentences, or of faulty time-order, or of mispropor- tion, or of dwindling interest, or the like. But in first- i r work such correction should be of the simplest kind an d only in palpable cases . You will be estab- lishing habits of irood tin-in.' planning, will have or- derly arrangement much in mind; but these larger matters require less attention than you think: the small details are very much more difficult and im- portant than might be supposed, even in the upper classes. You are not doing college work, but are four years below that. Memories of theme-criticism in college may vitiate your labor. You may marvel at the proposal to measure health 202 WHAT IS ENGLISH? and depth by counting misspellings. If so, don't on any account accept this method. Don't workLaecord- ing to any plan that violates your feelings. I know very well that in the whole opinionated range of this most opinionated of subjects there- is no place where a man so insensibly slips into a habit (directed at first by chance, confirmed without analysis) and grows so accustomed to his opinions that he cannot entertain any objection to them. You are urged not to adopt anything that does not appeal to you. Be wary — I will go so far as to say — about adopting it if it does appeal to you. Think it over ; make experi- ments. "B ut on no account theoriz e. A physician smiles wearily when people theorize about ailments and remedies, for he is so familiar with a thousand forms of illness which reduce to a few of the simplest causes of ill health. A patient 's most violent tooth- ache is nothing in his estimation, but he is most solicitous about that pin-scratch. This may be more than an analogy when applied to the author, who sees every month a thousand composition defects, who has taught his thousand boys of all sorts under conditions that oblige him to rate them according to college-entrance ability, in conformity with the same sort of rating for other subjects. He finds that all the weaknesses can be reduced to a few simple kinds. Fewness and simplicity are as much a mystery to him as tetanus is to a doctor, but he has learned the fact. A physician knows that the yellow on a tongue amounts to nothing in itself, that scraping it off will produce no health ; yet he sets about eradicating it. He wants to produce such a change in the system that the tongue will grow red. So a teacher is not merely scraping off a symptom when he grades for THEMES 203 mechanical errors; he is correcting and vitalizing a mind, setting up that carefulness which is mental healt h. When you regard the little errors as an out- ward certificate of an inward weakness, when you have learned that they can be removed only by severe and protracted regimen, when you have for a long term of years observed how mental vigor is increased after the evil symptoms have been got rid of, then you may marvel at your present skepticism. We need not depend upon a medical parallel. From three quite different sources I learn that mediocre dramatic talent is most assisted by train- ing in clearness of enunciation. I cannot vouch for this because I never tried it. But I do know by experience with declamations that for several years I failed to get best results because I went in for tone- v. i nation and pauses and dramatic changes. Boys of small ability — the great majority — were per- plexed by my efforts. I gradually learned to say, 4 ' Make it clear. Take time to make every word distinct" With mere articulation as my first pur- pose I had a higher average of success. The same sort of thing is true of all arts. Are young musi- cians — even those of marked ability — taught to " ex- press personality"! They are drilled and drilled and drilled in finger-exercises and positions. Are novitiates in painting and sculpture — even those of special promise — exhorted to create with vivacity and esprit? They study anatomy and perspective. And they are selected individuals, drawn to the itadioe by the urge of innate aptitude. Suppose that all the students of a high school had to know the rudiments of piano-playing or sketching a scene. Sometimes I wonder — onlv wonder of course — 204 WHAT IS ENGLISH? whether the very fact that the average teacher of English is not an artist in language may not explain why we go to work so much more rhapsodically than the teachers of other arts. Occasionally I wonder how Milton and Kipling would teach English — after ten years of experience. I suspect they would concede something to liter- ary ability, would admit that two variations of strictly mechanical marking are proper: (1) To deduct something (say not over 20%) for generally faulty arrangement; (2) to reserve the right to add a bonus (say not over 20%, or at the very most not over 30%) for pleasing effectiveness. Then without distraction they could affix grades that would mean something in another school; they could with less labor be four times as useful, since they could read four times as many compositions; .they could per- form a work for which the colleges would call them blessed. What should pupils write about? Always about familiar matters in which they have a real interest. It may occasionally happen that a class is so well acquainted with a book that they will care to discuss some character — what was wrong with Godfrey Cass? was Banquo dishonest? If at any time you are sure they have some thoughts which only lazi- ness would prevent their caring to express, assign such a topic; but in general don't. If you ever feel sure that their minds really contain some elemen- tary criticism, try that; but the experiment is of doubtful utility. Give them subjects that they have been interested in. Limit yourself further by the consideration that though they were interested in that tramp, they were not seeing him, as you were, THEMES 205 tli rough literary lenses; they were not calling to mind the dainty character sketch or the dramatic awesomeness of a wrecked life; they were not see- ing through him to a pile of words about him. You are always in danger of beginn'mir al the literary enHjtfLa^snbject. Don't. Begin with tin- tiling in itself. What did they notice? How did they feelT Why 7 210 WHAT IS ENGLISH? ping of a story with that bright climax that is worth all the rest of the narrative. Examples can be imitated. Theories and methods are ineffective. For many years I never required an outline, but thought I ought to. I am now requiring that on the top of the first page there shall be a numbered series of titles for each paragraph ; the directions are ' ' one brief title for each paragraph, so that I can see at a glance just why you divided as you did." This has commended itself so strongly that I shall never abandon it. Though I suspect that half the outlines are simply added after the paragraphing is all com- pleted, this does not worry me. The point is that each young writer feels a responsibility for naming some time just what he has been about. Perhaps it does him more good to find out as he reviews his theme that two paragraph titles are absurdly similar or that the third paragraph demands two titles. The plan results in better dividing — that's the whole point. And what about paragraphs? I don't know. No- body knows. A decade ago they were the central citadel to be attacked. Teachers directed all be- sieging operations at them. Sentences were simply outlying breastworks. Even today paragraphing is the subject of monographs and long chapters. My own feeling is this: reajly effective paragraphing is the outward sign of an inward and spiritual con- dition ; it shows sound thinking. No teacher, in any subject, can do much to develop the power of sound thinking. He can do no more than instruct a dull mind in the forms of reasoning about triangles; can go no further than developing to some extent the knowledge of the facts of Latin syntax. Power to Til KM 1 211 think originally — well, what do you say! Now, a me is a piece of original work. We can teach a boy that it ought normally to appear in several divi sions and can exact that appearance. We can do more. W T e can train him (after a fashion) to stick to one part of his subject in each chunk of composi- ti'ii, to carry us from one to the next without too violent a jolt, and to arrive at something better than the middle of his subject. That is no mean result. It is a great big one. We take our youngest boys (corresponding to the eighth grade or a first form) through that stage of development at which they are able to leave an inch of margin on the left (no slight achievement) and to present a 250-word composition as not less than i nor more than four or five blocks, each of which is indented. We speak of these blocks as para- graphs. We speak often of "one part in one para- graph,' ' but do not go deeper into the philosophy than to point out that "here you begin to tell about what happened next morning' ' or "here a new per- beghifl to do things" or "here you go to a dif- ■nt place.' ' The next year we insist more defi- nitely on having a reason for paragraphing. From the beginning we discourage the one-or-two sentence paragraph, especially the separation of that intro- tory sentence of the first paragraph as if it were an introductory paragraph to the whole theme. We try to get separate paragraphs for dialogue, but otherwise maintain that a 300- word theme would seldom need six divisions. In the third year we keep up an incessant command, "Name the topic." We are always inquisitive as to why this division was made or why no division was made there. 212 WHAT IS ENGLISH? Take plenty of time when you assign the first theme to give exact instructions as to form. Make everything explicit, say it twice, leave nothing to be taken for granted. There is to be a margin at the left one inch wide, and there is to be no margin at the right. There is to be a title set well up above the first line, each word of which (except articles, conjunctions, and prepositions) is to be capitalized. Announce the required length as "not less than so many words"; for if you say "pages," you will have to accept half -measure from some. At the t op of the first page there shall be "just one brief title for each paragraph," numbered to correspond to the paragraphs. Pages are to be numbered, are to be arranged in the right order, are to be folded in one way; the name is to appear on the side you specify. You gather up the sheaf the following day and take it home to read. U se the very simplest marks . Some schools publish an incredibly long list of sym- bols to denote the kinds of errors. How many they actually use, how accurately the students know what they mean, I cannot say. Nor can I condemn the P method, because I have never given it a trial. I have, however, some indications that it cannot pay for the extra care and time it demands. There must be an advantage to the student in finding out what is wrong. Not that I ever puzzle him. I never mark a kind of error which has not been fully commented on in recitations ; or if I do, I write a brief explana- tion in the margin. Occasionally I have to make sure that he sees the reason for a correction. If, for instance, he has one parenthetical comma and has forgotten the other, I draw a ring around the THK.MKs 213 comma, run a line over to where the other comma ought to be, continue the line out to the margin, and write "Two." I may draw a long line under a series of words on either side of a conjunction and write in the margin "Punct." Sometimes I may run a line from an unpunctuated who or where out to a "Restrictive! "in the margin, but I avoid most time- killing memoranda and notes and queries and sting- ing rebukes and humorous comments. Usually a big lamation mark or a huge X or a huge V will do more work. In marginal comments I seldom rewrite anything or try to do more detailed criticizing than just to say "Clumsy" or "Change" or "Rewrite." (At the end of the theme I may write a sentence or two of general criticism or of directions for recast- ing or of encouragement.) I often pass over oddities of diction. I sometimes judge that a form like Not at all, that's not true is "really" a sentence error, but that I will not count off for it; though I require it to be rewritten with a semicolon. If there is only one carelessness on a theme, or if there are two or three rather slight faults in a good piece of writing. I may mark "+=100," which means that general Hence has caused the small blemishes to be ex- cused. Similarly if the writing is generally heedless I may count off somewhat more than the arithmet- ical total or count up the smaller errors unforgiv- ing 1\. I dash a ring around such queer things as "the kens of the police", "to float on the currant", "again once more"; but I am not much concerned with them. Occasionally there will be in one sen- t- nee a double error— e. g., "And, to my small knowledge there haven't been many had wrecks on tin \. w Haven." The phrasing is clumsy, mixing 214 WHAT IS ENGLISH? two idioms and conveying nothing; but that is a once-in-a-great-while matter compared with "two commas or none." So, to avoid a complicated lot of correcting at one spot, I indicate the punctuation and say nothing about the wording. The misused comma may seem to you insignificant compared with the clumsy phrasing, but it is really the greater error in freshman English. Such a phrasing may be typical of a careless mind, but is not a typical form of carelessness. We must watch for the ever- lastingly recurrent particulars, following the Law- renceville motto that "The only inexcusable fault is carelessness. 7 ' On the back of some themes I jot abbreviated memoranda of what needs com- ment before the whole class — of what is eternal and typical. Then I give a harangue about "the same old things that we have been hearing all these months' ' — like laid for lay; and I try to get time for some of the more common kinds of clumsiness: "the body was cut and scratched with numerous finger-marks • ', "refrains from hitting him with the excuse' ' (with causes more absurdities than any other word), "since they both were in each other's company" (both is a constant nuisance). . It is always the same old things. The more ex- perience you gain, the more you will see that all I avoidable awkwardness and all attainable graces reduce to a few simple fundamentals. Do you strive for maturity in sentences? Attack so, ceaselessly putting on the board 50 that, and so; attack so he could not, always suggesting and so could not. In- veigh against the aimless repetition of words. It passes all belief how a pupil never hears his own sentences until you read them before the class ; how THEMES 215 month after month he will persist in saying "Then w< came to a cliff; at the foot of this cliff"; how he cannot give up that repeated noun; how after you have three times trailed your red pencil across one of his pages to show nine boats or ten rooms or eleven Indians he will submit you a page with