8. I can not tell where they have laid him. The last is an Adverbial sentence relating to place. See § 538.

9. He succeeds as his father did before him. The last is an Adverbial sentence relating to manner.

us.

10. The stars appear small-because they are distant from The last is an Adverbial sentence relating to manner.

11. They remained where they have been residing the last five years. This contains an adverbial sentence.

12. Political economists tell us that self-love is the bond of society. This contains a Substantive sentence.

13.

Oh! for a muse of fire that would ascend

The highest heaven of invention!

This is an Exclamatory sentence.

GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENTS.

§ 540. A GRAMMATICAL FORM is equivalent to another grammatical form when the first means the same, or nearly the same, as the second.

What is called a command of language is little else than a practical acquaintance with grammatical equivalents. The tasteful English scholar is he who habitually uses the better expression of two equivalents upon perceived grounds of preference. He understands both the points of agreement and the points of difference between two expressions.

EXAMPLES OF

GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENTS.

§ 541. 1. He reported the death of the king=He reported that the king was dead. Here a substantive is expanded into a sentence.

2. The scholars who were educated by him- The scholars educated by him. Here a proposition is abridged into an adjective.

3. I saw him before the time when you came=I saw him before you came. Here a preposition, an article, a noun, and an adverb, are abridged into an adverb.

4. When the troops had come over the river, they marched directly into the fort - Having come over the river, the troops marched directly into the fort. Here a sentence is abridged. into a participle.

5. He told the troops that they must not fire $$

upon the enemy

He told the troops not to fire upon the enemy. Here a sentence is abridged into an infinitive.

=3

6. He is a man of learning He is a learned man=He is not unlearned.

=

7. Riding on horseback is healthful To ride on horseback is healthful Horseback riding is healthful.

8. When the troops approached, they discharged their muskets The troops approached and discharged their muskets. Here the subordinate construction is changed to the co-ordinate. 9. He gave up the undertaking=He relinquished the undertaking.

10. Having conquered his enemies, he applied himself to the arts of peace After conquering his enemies, he applied himself to the arts of peace. These are specimens.

EXERCISES.

§ 542. Find equivalents for the following:

1. He examined me closer than my judge had done=

2. Were I to express my opinion fully=

3. Henry declared that it was John=

4. A gentleman who was coming here yesterday=
5. He arrived in the city and waited on the mayor=

TRANSLATION.

§ 543. Equivalents are very numerous in the English language. The learner will find it greatly for his advantage to write out phrases and sentences from books, and then write opposite to them, as above, equivalent expressions. Indeed, passages of considerable length might thus be profitably translated from one set of expressions to another, as in the following, from ISAAC TAYLOR, on Home Education:

"It was a brilliant night. Beneath a dark and cloudless vault, the snowy mantle of the mountain shone resplendent with the beams of a full Italian moon. The guides lay buried in the deepest sleep. Thus, in the midnight hour, at the

"The night was resplendent. The mountain, clad in spotless white, glistened against the deep blue of the sky in the light of the moon, then at the full, and such as it is seen in Italy. The guides were in the profoundest slumber; and I

rose.

height of ten thousand feet, I
stood alone, my resting-place a
pinnacle of rock that towered
darkly above the frozen wil-
derness from which it isolated
Below me the yawning
cliffs and uproarious desola-
tion of the glacier presented an
appalling picture of dangers
scarcely gone by. Around and
above was a sea of fair, treach-
erous snow, whose hidden
ils yet lay before us."

per

stood solitary, at an elevation of ten thousand feet, keeping the midnight watch, on a rocky turret, rearing itself gloomily out of the icy desert around. Beneath my feet lay the gaping chasms and wild solitudes of the glacier, reminding me of the frightful perils we had just escaped. On all sides, and about the upper path we had yet to tread, was outspread a fallacious expanse of snow."

Translate the following Old English, written in the fourteenth century, into modern English:

"Then thus in getting riches ye musten flee idleness; and afterward ye shulen usen the riches which ye have geten by your wit and by your travail in such manner that men hold you not too scarce, ne too sparing, ne fool-large, that is to say, over large spender; for right as men blamen an averitious man on account of his scarcity, in the same wise he is to blame that spendeth over largely; and therefore,' saith Caton, 'use' (he saith) the riches that thou hast ygeten in such manner that men have no matter ne cause to call thee nother wretch; for it is a great shame to a man to hav a poor heart and a rich purse.' He saith also, 'The goods that thou hast ygeten, use them by measure, that is to sayen, spend measureably; for they that solely wasten and despenden the goods that they hav, when they have no more proper of 'eir own, that they shapen 'em to take the goods of another man.'"-CHAUCER.

Translate the following poetry, written in the fifteenth century, into modern prose:

"In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept,

I heard a wife sing to her child that long before had wept;

She sighed sore, and sang full sweet to bring the babe to rest
That would not cease, but cried still in sucking at her breast.
She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with her child;
She rocked it and rated it until on her it smiled;
Then did she say, ' Now have I found the present true to prove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.”

R. EDWARDS.

CHAPTER XI.

RULES FOR THE CHOICE OF WORDS AND GRAMMATI CAL CONSTRUCTIONS.

544. USAGE gives the law to language; usage,'

Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi. But we are met by the inquiry, What kind of usage?

RULE I.—It must be REPUTABLE usage. Here we are met by the inquiry, What is reputable usage? To this it may be safely answered, it is such usage as is found in the works of those who are regarded by the public as reputable authors.

RULE II.-It must be NATIONAL usage. It is not enough that a word or phrase is used in some county in England, or in some section in our own country. It must be the general language of the nation at large.

RULE III.-It must be PRESENT usage. Old words are going out of use. New words are coming into use.

ways be easy to determine what present usage is.

It may not al

A word lately coined may be more safely used in a newspaper than in grave history. An obsolete word can be used in poetry when it can not be in prose. Pope's rule is a good one:

"In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,

Alike fantastic if too new or old;

Be not the first by whom the new is tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

RULE IV. When the usage is divided as to any words and phrases, and when one of the expressions is susceptible of more than one meaning, while the other admits of only one, the expression which is UNIVOCAL is to be preferred to the one that is EQUIVOCAL. Thus, proposal for a thing offered or proposed is better than proposition, which has also another meaning. Thus we say, "He demonstrated the fifth proposition, and he rejected the proposal of his friend." So the term primitive, as equivalent to original, is preferable to primary. The latter is synonymous with principal, and is opposed to secondary; the former is equivalent to original, and is opposed to derivative or acquired.

RULE V. In doubtful cases, ANALOGY should be regarded. Thus it is better to use scarcely as an adverb than to use scarce. RULE VI.-When expressions are in other respects equal, that should be preferred which is most AGREEABLE TO THE EAR. authenticity is preferable to authenticalness.

Thus

RULE VII. SIMPLICITY should be regarded. Thus accept and approve are preferable to accept of and approve of. ·

RULE VIII-ETYMOLOGY should be regarded. Thus unloose should, by analogy, signify to tie, just as to untie signifies to loose. To annul and disannul ought, by analogy, to be contraries, though they are used as synonymous.

RULE IX. All those expressions which, according to the established rules of the language, either have no meaning or involve a contradiction, or, according to the fair construction of the words, convey a meaning different from the intention of the speaker, should be dismissed. Thus, when a person says, "He sings a good song," the words strictly imply that the song is good; whereas the speaker means to say, "He sings well.”

PURITY.

§ 545. PURITY in the English language implies three things: I. That the words be English and not foreign.

II. That their construction be English.

III. That the words and phrases employed express the precise meaning which custom has assigned to them.

Accordingly, in three different ways it may be injured:

1. The words may not be English. This fault has been called Barbarism.

2. The construction of the sentence may not be in the English idiom. This fault has the name of Solecism.

3. The words and phrases may not be employed to express the precise meaning which custom has affixed to them. This fault is called Impropriety.

BARBARISM.

§ 546. BARBARISM may consist in the use of words entirely obsolete; or in the use of words entirely new; or in the use of new formations and derivations.

1. "Their alliance was sealed by the nuptial of Henry with