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NOTE TO THE PUPIL.-Be sure that what is stated to be the basis of an element expresses both an idea and a relation.

"Sick men looked from their beds. Women and chidren, blind with fright, darted shrieking from the houses. A fierce, gaunt visage, the thrust of a pike, or blow of a rusty halberd such was the greeting that met all alike. The commander snatched his sword and target, and ran toward the principal breach, calling to his soldiers. A rush of Spaniards met him ; his men were cut down around him ; and he, with a soldier named Bartholomew, was forced back into the court-yard of his house. Here stood a tent, and as the pursuers stumbled among the cords, he escaped behind the house, sprang through the breach in the western rampart, and fled for the woods.-Parkman's Pioneers of France. "Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are! And glory to our sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, Through thy cornfields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France!

And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the

waters.

Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daugh

ters."-Macauley's Ivry.

I was lying during a fiery noon on the edge of the island, looking toward the opposite coast, when in the stillness of the hour I heard a strange mingling of distant sounds, yet so totally indistinct that I could conjecture it to be nothing but the raising of the Siege.

LESSON X.

ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES: THE PROPOSITION.

1. THE way is now prepared to begin the analysis of sentences, and the first step is to find the basis to which all the other parts are added.

2. Every sentence makes a statement, or more than one. The logical basis of a sentence is the judgment or thought expressed in it. This may be expanded into details, with added circumstances and limitations, so as to be complete and full; or it may be confined to one fact without expansion or additions. In any case, a sentence is based on thought, and is the expression of that thought.

3. Every sentence implies (a) something to think about and to speak about, and (b) something thought and said. These two are equally necessary parts of every sentence, and are named the subject and the predicate, and their combination is a PROPOSITION.

4. It is obvious, then, that the proposition is the basis of the sentence, as it expresses in its simplest form, what every sentence must contain.

5. What may be the subject of a sentence? Whatever some thing can be thought and said about. It may be (a) an object of sense; as, stars shine; (b) an object of thought but not of sense; as, mercy tempers justice; an action or state; as, to sing is pleasant; any group of words of which taken, as a whole, something may be said; as, that you have wronged me doth appear in this: in short, the expression of any thing about which a thought or judgment may be formed.

6. The subject of a sentence is known by its answering the question who or what, with the asserting word; as, A is Five and four make (or

Five and four. If this

a vowel: what is a vowel? A. makes) nine; what make nine? question is answered as simply as it can be without doing violence to the sense, the simple subject is discovered.

7. What may be predicated of a subject? Whatever judg ments are formed of it by thinking.

Knowing what is meant by bitterness, hardness, transparency, and comparing the properties of glass, for example, with our notions of these, the judgment is formed that they are in, or belong to, glass.

Children may be observed doing acts which agree with what is known as playing, reading, laughing, studying, etc.

By comparing Charles with what we understand a scholar, a gentleman, an errand boy, to be, we judge that he is, or is not, a scholar, a gentleman, or errand boy.

If we know what being in debt means, or being above reproach, or being about to sail for Europe, we may judge whether Mr. Brown does or does not come under these descriptions.

8. If these judgments should be put into words just as they are thought, they might take one of two forms.

(a.) One is this: brittle glass, laughing boy, Charles the Student, Mr. Brown about to sail for Europe. In this case, the quality, action, circumstance is said to be assumed of the person or thing. About glass thus assumed to be brittle, or Charles thus assumed to be a scholar, something might be asserted; as, brittle glass must be handled with care; Charles the scholar is not a rich man.

(b.) The second form is this: glass is brittle, boys are playing, Charles is a scholar, Mr. Brown is about to sail

for Europe. In this case, the quality, action, circumstance is asserted of the person or thing.

9. The essential difference between these two forms is made by the insertion of the word is between the person or thing and the quality or circumstance. Let it be clearly understood that without the word is the quality or circumstance mentioned is assumed, and that with this word it is asserted. Grammarians say that brittle in the first form modifies glass, and that it is predicated (or asserted) of glass in the second.

10. The union of the subject and what is said of it by means of some asserting word [see next lesson] is a PROPOSIThe word or words which tell what is asserted without the asserting word is called the ATTRIBUTE; those words with the asserting word make the PREDICATE.

TION.

11. Propositions assert (a) quality, or whatever else the adjective may denote, when an adjective stands in the predicate; as, time is short, we are seven; (b) action, or whatever else the verb may denote, when a participle stands in the predicate, or when the verb is attributive [see next lesson]; as, snow is falling, the [old] year dies; class, when a noun stands there; as, wheat is a vegetable, James was a king, and identity, or some circumstance of time, place, condition, etc., when a phrase is there; as, to hear is to obey, he is at home, he was in disgrace.

12. Some adverbs are used in the predicate; as, he is here, this is so; occasionally some other forms are found; most propositions, however, assert one of the four predicates given above.

13. The words which express the predicate in the simplest way without doing violence to the sense make the simple predicate.

14. The subject and the attribute may be a word, a phrase, or a clause; the asserting word, is of necessity, a word only, or some compound verbal form.

15. Essential statements and definitions in brief form. (1.) The PROPOSITION is the BASIS of the sentence.

(2.) A PROPOSITION is the UNION of SUBJECT and PREDI

CATE.

(3.) The SUBJECT is any thing about which a statement is made.

(4.) The ATTRIBUTE is what is said about a subject.

(5.) The ASSERTING WORD joins the attribute with the subject.

(6.) The ATTRIBUTE and the ASSERTING WORD make the

PREDICATE.

(7) Without the asserting word the attribute is assumed; with it, it is asserted.

(8.) Propositions assert, in the main, quality, action, class, and some circumstance of time, place, etc.

(9.) The proposition contains three distinct parts, viz: SUBJECT, ASSERTING WORD, and ATTRIBUTE, except when the two latter are combined in one verb.

16. Synopsis of simple propositions. any object

subject which

may be

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