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into prominence by means of increased emphasis, and what should be thrown into the shade as being merely subordinate to the general idea. All correct reading is based upon correct analysis; and on this ground, it is considered, that the present selection, by indicating the analysis in the text, will offer advantages, as a poetical reading-book, which no other work has as yet attempted to combine.

II. The next purpose which it is hoped will be answered in the present little work is, to furnish a text-book, by which the teacher may apply the principles of analysis with more ease and certainty to himself, than he can do by the mere use of the grammar. Many times the question has been put to me, whether I could not publish a key to the Exercises already issued. This I have always been unwilling to do, inasmuch as I have considered, that grammar, rightly regarded, could only be taught, to any practical advantage, by thoroughly comprehending the principles; and that a comprehension of the principles would render any key to the Exercises unnecessary. At the same time, there are evidently many difficulties and obscurities in the analysis of sentences, which can only be cleared up by going straight through some text-book, and grappling with those difficulties as they occur. This, then, has been attempted in the present publication.

The mode, in which it is done, is what I have next to explain. To indicate the general analysis of the sentences I have employed thick and thin lines. A thick line always indicates, that the sentence preceding it is a Principal sentence. A thin line indicates, that it is Subordinate. With regard to the form of the marks, I have employed only three, viz., | ] and ) The first of these marks indicates, that the sentence preceding it is complete; the second denotes, that it is incomplete, i.e., either elliptical or contracted. The third denotes, that the sentence is divided; so that by looking on to the next curved line, the other portion of it can at once be detected. There is only one case not provided for by this system of marks; that, namely, in which an elliptical sentence is also a divided one. Properly speaking, the indication of this ought to be the two appropriate marks put together thus )]; but as this would be a rather too clumsy kind of symbol, to introduce into the text, I have simply employed the curve, and left it to the ingenuity of the student to discover, whether the sentence as marked and divided by the curve is elliptical or not.

To render the use of the marks more easy, I shall now particularize a few of the difficulties, which the system of analysis presents, and show, how I have solved them in the text of the poetry selected and analysed.

(1.) I shall first allude to difficult cases, which arise from the combination of several clauses, where there is only one predicate involved. Thus, we sometimes find several different Subjects, and those perhaps enlarged Subjects,

and standing even in adversative relation to each other, where there is only one Predicate expressed, as

"Not rural sights alone, but rural sounds

Exhilarate the spirits."-Task, 1. 181.

Again, we find a similar combination of Objects, as

"Thence with what pleasure have we just discerned

The distant plough slow moving, and beside

His labouring team, that swerved not from the track
The sturdy swain diminished to a boy."-Task, I. 159.

Exactly in the same manner several Adjuncts may be found combined, which give each such a different force to the whole assertion, that they are in sense equivalent to so many sentences; as in the following passage :

He pursued his task sometimes under the pressure of great difficulties, and sometimes under the inspiration of great hopes.

Now in all such cases, to make the analysis, logically considered, complete, we should have to repeat the Predicate over again to each Subject, each Object, or each Extension, as the case may be. This I have not done. Wherever only one predicate is expressed or implied, I have regarded that, as deciding the unity of the sentence grammatically considered, and placed the indications accordingly. Only in very few and peculiar cases, on the con trary, can two predicates be allowed to stand in a simple sentence, as in the following:

"[What wonder then] that health and virtue

Should most abound, and least be threatened
In the fields and groves."-Task, 1. 750.

For here the two affirmations, should most abound, and, least be threatened, are drawn so closely together, and are so intimately connected with the same subjects and the same extensions, that it would rather do violence than otherwise to the whole logical construction of the passage to expand them out into two distinct sentences. I can see no great objection, therefore, to let them stand as one complex affirmation, and analyse them accordingly.

There is another case of combination, which frequently presents itself, in which a number of Infinitive Moods occur, all dependent on the same principal verb, thus

"The greater part

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake

God their creator, and the invisible

Glory of him (that made them) to transform

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned

With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,

And devils to adore for deities."-Paradise Lost, 1. 367

In this, and all such cases, the unity of the finite verb decides the unity of the sentence for analysis. Of course, there are really three affirmations indicated by the three infinitives, to forsake, to transform, and to adore, but as they are all dependent on the one finite verb, corrupted, they are virtually bound together by this common tie, into one complex affirmation.

(2.) I have to notice difficult cases of analysis which arise from elliptical or apparently elliptical expressions. These cases are numerous and often perplexing, and therefore demand some degree of careful consideration.

There is a great variety of passages coming under this head, in which a clause is introduced by conjunctions, such as-as, than, yet, although, if, whether, &c.

First, let us look at some peculiar combinations with as. When as is used to introduce a correlative assertion, the ellipsis is generally quite obvious, e.g., John is as tall as William. Here of course, we might clump the whole expression (as tall as William) together, and regard it as an attribute to John. But if we enter into the analysis of each word, the ellipsis must be supplied, and it will stand

John is as tall, as William [is tall].

The case is precisely similar when as introduces a secondary attribute or adverbial adjunct,-e.g., John runs as fast as William; where (as-fast-as William) is really an adverbial qualification to runs; but which, if analysed in detail, must be understood with the ellipsis,-John runs as fast as William [runs]. In this work, I have as a rule followed the detailed analysis in such

cases.

There is another set of examples, however, in which as is not used correlatively; for example,—

Again

"Overthwart the stream

That, as with molten glass, in-lays the vale," &c.

He assured me, as a man of honour, that what he said was true. And again

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They all regarded Socrates as a wise man.

In all such cases, there is not the least reason for expanding the clause into a sentence, by imagining a predicate to be omitted. In the first instance, as with molten glass," is clearly an adjunct to the verb in-lays, and may be so treated; in the second case, it is an enlargement to the subject He; in the third case, it is a kind of secondary or indirect Object, and has been already so explained in the Grammar and Analysis (vide Gr. 76, Remark 2).

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correlative clauses, wnich are not always so easy of interpretation as those aoove noticed. The simplest form of these cases occurs in expressions like My Father is greater than I,"

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where the I is evidently the subject to the suppressed predicate, am great. The peculiarity here is, that the comparative form, as used in the principal sentence, becomes positive in the elliptical one; so that the mind has to evolve the Positive form out of the Comparative, and then supply it. The perplexity, which the scholar may feel in supplying this ellipsis, is heightened when the comparative form of the adjective is irregular, as in the line"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,"

where the ellipsis must really be as follows:

To reign in Hell is better, than to serve in Heaven [is good].

In these instances with than, as in those before explained, the whole clause, taken together, is simply an attribute to some principal noun or verb; but the words cannot be analysed individually without an ellipsis being admitted and supplied.

We can now consider all together that large class of examples in which a clause is introduced by such conjunctions as, though, although, yet, whether, as soon as, &c. These conjunctions, of course, can all legitimately introduce adverbial sentences; but the cases we have now in view are those, in which they introduce phrases, that might, perhaps, naturally be regarded at first as elliptical sentences, but which really are not so. The following examples will suffice to explain what we mean :

"Blest he, though undistinguished from the crowd

By wealth and dignity, who dwells secure," &c.-Task, 1. 595.

"Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh,

Yet heard in scenes, where peace for ever reigns,

And only there, please highly for their sake."-Task, I. 207.

"Powers,

That put to proof his high supremacy,

Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate."-Paradise Lost, I. 132.

"I cannot think thee yet so dull of heart

And spiritless, as never to regret

Sweets tasted here, and left as soon as known."-Task, 1. 650.

In all such cases as these, I have taken the phrase, not as being an ellip tical sentence, but simply as an attribute to the word in connexion with which it stands. Of course, the conjunctions do not, in these cases, retain their purely conjunctive force as links between sentences; they approach nearer to the adverb in signification; but the whole force of the phrases themselves assumes a decidedly attributive character, and not at all a predi.

cative one. In this manner, accordingly, they will be found to have been uniformly analysed in the following pages.

Imperative Moods, again, form a peculiar case for analysis. We can hardly call them, strictly speaking, elliptical, as in many instances they will hardly admit the subject thou, or you to be expressed without actually damaging the force of the command. And yet a Subject must be logically implied, wherever there is a Predicate. I have admitted, accordingly, the force of this consideration, and always analysed them as elliptical sentences. The most perplexing of them is the case of the word let. Let requires an Objective case between it and the infinitive, as "Let me go," while the me has really the force of a Subject in the whole phrase, according to the analogy of may I go. In this case, I have also been obliged to put grammar before logic, and take let as an Imperative mood with the suppressed Subject thou. There are a few other elliptical cases connected with the expressions such and such as. Thus, in Paradise Lost, Book 1. 144, we have the expression, speaking of the Almighty, "Since no less than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours."

Now, the whole phrase fully expanded would read thus, Since no less a power than such a one, as his is, could have o'erpowered, &c. In these very elliptical forms the student must consult his judgment. I have, for brevity's sake, taken "no less than such" all together, as the Subject of the sentence, which it really is; but, of course, any one, if he prefer, can enter into the detailed analysis of each separate word, and evolve all the complete phraseology, which it really implies, out of it.

Lastly, in such exclamatory expressions as this,—

"But what! if he our conqueror," &c.,

I have always supposed that there is an ellipsis equivalent to—What matters it? and have marked it in the text accordingly.

These, then, are some of the more important elliptical expressions; we

come next

(3.) To peculiarities of construction, a few of which need to be specially noted. First, with regard to the use of the Infinitive mood, there are a few peculiarities which might, at first sight, occasion some difficulty, e.g.,—

"From your love I have a warranty

To unburden all my plots and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe."

The whole Very closely sense of the

Here the infinitive to get clear depends on the verbal force of the words plots and purposes; and the how has an adverbial force qualifying it. phrase therefore must go as a dependency on these two nouns. connected with this, is the frequent use of the infinitive, in the Latin Gerund, in such phrases as this

I am grieved to see you in pair.

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