Prev | Current Page 187 | Next

"A work on english grammar and composition"


8. Not to wear one's best things every day is a maxim of New England
thrift, which is as little disputed as any verse in the catechism.
9. In Holland the stork is protected by law, because it eats the frogs and
worms that would injure the dikes.
10. It is one of the most marvelous facts in the natural world that, though
hydrogen is highly inflammable, and oxygen is a supporter of
combustion, both, combined, form an element, water, which is
destructive to fire.
11. In your war of 1812, when your arms on shore were covered by disaster,
when Winchester had been defeated, when the Army of the Northwest had
surrendered, and when the gloom of despondency hung, like a cloud, over
the land, who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the
welkin ring with the shouts of victory? [Footnote: The _when_ clauses
in (11), as the _which_ clauses in (3), are formed on the same plan,
have their words in the same order. This principle of +Parallel
Construction+, requiring like ideas to be expressed alike, holds also
in phrases, as in (10) and (14), Lesson 28, and in (14) and (15),
Lesson 46, and holds supremely with sentences in the paragraph, as is
explained on page 168. Parallel construction contributes to the
clearness, and consequently to the force, of expression.


Pages:
175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199