266 COMPOSITION. will settle down to a steadier life, and who succeed in carrying out their better purpose." Here the two statements cannot equally be made of few young men ; it is only the second that can rightly be predicated of them, the first being preparatory to this. The first clause ought therefore to be subordinated in structure to the second; thus: "Henry V. was one of those few young men who, having given up their youth . . . with the resolve that..., actually succeed in carrying out their better purpose." The following sentence appears in the Authorized Version of the New Testament: "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." Here it is evident that the thanks are due not for what is said in the first clause but only for the fact mentioned in the second. The makers of the Revised Version, recognizing this, subordinate thus: "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered." A poorer verse on the whole, but better subordinated. 48. Subordination by means of a conjunction may be augmented, that is, the subordinate clause made less emphatic and obtrusive, by condensed and rapid structure where occasion permits, and by putting the subordinate clause in an inconspicuous position. The opposite means are relied on when the condition is the important part of the sentence. EXAMPLES. Note the difference in emphasis between the conditional clauses in the following examples. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." Here the if-clause attracts comparatively little attention, being buried in the sentence. Compare the following: — "But now farewell. I am going a long way With these thou seëst - if indeed I go (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)— To the island-valley of Avilion." Here the if-clause has an emphatic place, being after the principal assertion; and the condition is made distinctive by the word indeed, and the parenthesis following. 49. Subordination inside a clause already subordinate should be made by the use of a different conjunction; else there is danger that the second clause may be read as coördinate with the other instead of subordinate to it. EXAMPLES. -"If the man will make full restitution of the stolen goods, if he is honest in his expressed purpose to lead a better life, he may be pardoned." Here the second subordination would be better effected by another conjunction: “provided indeed he is honest,” etc. The particle provided would be, perhaps, too prosaic for poetry; but notice the following: "But thou-if thou wilt seek earnestly unto God, And to the Almighty make supplication,— So be that thou art pure and upright, Verily then He will awake for thee, - And will restore the habitation of thy righteousness." 1 Here the second subordination, which evidently must be made tributary to the first, is made consistently with the poetic nature of the passage. Sequential. By this term we may designate those subordinating conjunctions which, instead of indicating an antecedent condition or accompaniment, carry on the assertion to a result or object. TYPE CONJUNCTION AND LIST. - The representative of this kind of conjunctional relation is THAT. Others are in order that, so that, as well as, as much as, whereby. 50. Conjunctions of this class are valuable for prolonging an assertion beyond its natural close until something essential to its full significance is added. A danger to be guarded against, however, is the involved construction which these conjunctions are liable to occasion. NOTE. These conjunctions are derived from the relative and are much like the relative construction in the facility with which they add new elements. An example of their usefulness: "He is so anxious to carry his point that he cares not what point he carries." An example to show the danger of involved construction: "Eusebius tells that Dionysius of Corinth relates that Dionysius the Areopagite, who was converted to the faith by Paul the Apostle, according to the account given in the Acts, was the first bishop of Athens."2 Here it is evident that the style may easily become strung-out and loose. 1 Revised translation of Job viii. 6, by the author of this book. CHAPTER IX. ORGANIC PROCESSES. EVERY composition, from the phrase onward, with all its component parts and stages, is an organism, wherein every part derives vitality from every other, and all are subservient to one unity of impression. The processes that are employed in evolving an organism of this kind have, therefore, applications beyond the limits of the phrase; they may on occasion extend to the ordering of a whole section or even discourse; they belong, in fact, to all organization of thought. Here, however, it is proposed to examine the most directly practical of them merely in their principle and first application, which, being understood, will naturally enough suggest their functions in a broader field. I. NEGATION. To create greater distinction for an idea, or to set one idea over against another, much recourse is had to the negative in some form or degree. Degrees of Negation. The typical means of expressing the negative, with no special connotation of stress or lightness, is the adverb not. For some purposes it may be desirable to intensify this negation, for others to soften it. 1. For intensifying the negative the most absolute means is the adjective no, taking the place of the adverb and negating the whole subject instead of the act. The adverb itself, too, is often strengthened either by a supporting adverb or by an equivalent containing no, as in the expressions not at all, in no wise, by no means. EXAMPLES. One can easily feel the difference in intensity between these two forms of negation: "Since the fall, mere men are not able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God"; with which compare : "No mere man, since the fall, is able," etc. This second sentence throws the negation into a stronger part of the assertion. Carlyle, whose tendency to negation was something of a mannerism, shall furnish examples of intensified negative. "Shall we say, then, Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison? Not so: his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far nobler, clearer; — perhaps not less but more important.”—“This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot consider him so.” '—" He is by no means the truest of Prophets; but I do esteem him a true one.”- No most gifted eye can exhaust the significance of any object." This example makes its negative still more rhetorical by assuming that there can be more than one superlative. "No Dilettantism in this Mahomet; it is a business of Reprobation and Salvation with him; of Time and Eternity; he is in deadly earnest about it!" Here the absolute no is so strong that it can dispense with the verb and make its assertion alone.1 2. For softening the negative, various means are available. In negating a quality the negative prefix un- or in- (sometimes non-) is milder than the adverb not. In negating an act, the word nor, uncorrelative, at the beginning of the clause, softens the negation; it sounds literary, however, not conversational. The negative adverb may also be made unobtrusive by being buried in its clause. EXAMPLES. -1. Of the prefix negative. The increased use of forms in un-, already noticed (see above, p. 67, example 4), has greatly enlarged the vocabulary of the negative; e.g. "As in flame and lightning, it stands written there; awful, unspeakable, ever present to him."-The following sentences give all degrees, strong and mild: "The one must in nowise be done, the other in nowise left undone. You shall not measure them; they are incommensurable; the one is death eternal to a man, the other is life eternal." 1 1 Examples taken from Carlyle's Hero Worship. 2. Of the uncorrelative nor. "But those were simple, fortunate times for the young minstrel, who took his success modestly and gladly, nor forgot his work withal; and he now enjoyed a season as poetic as ever afterward came to him."1 "Yet in my secret mind one way I know, Nor do I judge if it shall win or fail; But much must still be tried, which shall but fail." 2 3. Of the unobtrusively placed negative. "In fiction, no more than elsewhere, may a writer pretend to be what he is not, or to know what he knows not." Note how much milder this is than to say, "No more in fiction than elsewhere," etc. Double Negative. In English the use of two negatives to strengthen the negation, though native to the language, has through Latin influence been abandoned, and now survives only as a vulgarism. For modified affirmation, however, the double negative, one of the negations being expressed by a prefix, is extensively employed. 3. The value of the double negative as an affirmative lies in the fact that it expresses a milder and more guarded degree of meaning than does direct affirmation; it is employed, accordingly, in the interests of precision. EXAMPLES. "It is not improbable that from this acknowledged power of public censure grew in time the practice of auricular confession." Here the writer, unwilling to commit himself to the unqualified assertion that the thing is probable, chooses rather to negative the opposite. — In the following, too, the hedging of the assertion by double negative states the fact with obviously greater precision : "After a while, the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness of the place; and in after days remembered this part of his life as a period not unhappy.” This construction, as it reveals effort, may easily be overworked; note for example the following: "Yet it is not unremarkable that an experi 1 STEDMAN, Poets of America, p. 403. 2 MATTHEW ARNOLD, Balder Dead. 8 LOUNSBURY, History of the English Language, p. 135. 4 THACKERAY, Henry Esmond, Chap. iv. |