(1) They have gone without saying good-by.

(2) Since they have forgotten their gloves, they have evidently gone off in a hurry.

(3) They have gone, and we shall not see them again until

to-morrow.

Examination reveals the fact that we have here three kinds of sentences, each essentially different from the others in its grammatical structure. In the first sentence, there is but one assertion; in the second, there are two, but one of them is made subordinate to the other; in the third, there are also two assertions, but in this case the two assertions are of coördinate rank. Hence the grammatical classification of sentences into (1) simple, (2) complex, and (3) compound sentences. These may be defined more fully as follows:

(1) A simple sentence is one in which there is but one statement or assertion. This assertion need not, of course, be limited to a bare statement of fact. There may be qualifications added, but these qualifications must be in the form of words or phrases only. Examples:

The sun shines.

For some days the king's death was kept a secret.

(2) A complex sentence is one in which there is a main assertion modified by one or more minor or subordinate assertions.

Examples:

It is unfortunate that this somewhat delicate situation should have arisen.

In his writings, indeed, the knowledge of life which he possessed in an eminent degree is very imperfectly exhibited.

On the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my forefathers I always keep holy, afte having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer.

If culture, then, is a study of perfection, and of harmonious perfection, general perfection, and perfection which consists in becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances, — it is clear that culture, instead of being the frivolous and useless thing which Mr. Bright, and Mr. Frederic Harrison, and many other Liberals are apt to call it, has a very important function to fulfil for mankind.

(3) A compound sentence is one in which there are two or more main or coördinate assertions. Each of these assertions may be modified by one or more subordinate assertions.

Examples:

All healthy people like their dinners, but their dinner is not the main object of their lives.

It was a dangerous step for him to take; but it was a step which, if he wished to hold what he had already won, he must take.

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the fullblown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.

For some years a boy's intellect is little more than an instrument for taking in facts, or a receptacle for storing them; he welcomes them as fast as they come to him; he lives on what

is without; he has his eyes ever about him; he has lively susceptibility of impressions; he imbibes information of every kind; and little does he make his own in a true sense of the word, living rather upon his neighbors all around him.

38. Unity in the sentence. The first requisite of a good sentence is that it should be a unit. It must be the presentation of one complete thought and only one.

In the simple sentence, there can, of course, be no violation of unity, since by its very nature it consists of but one assertion. In the complex sentence, too, from the fact that there is only one main assertion, there is always at least an appearance of unity. Logical unity may easily be destroyed here, however, by joining with the main assertion subordinate assertions which have no close or immediate relation to it. For example: "She played me something or other on the piano, which was a fine-looking instrument of the upright kind." Here the remark about the appearance of the piano has little or no relevancy to the main assertion, and should not, therefore, be made to appear as a modification of it. The subordinate clause cannot be used as a means of tacking on to the main clause anything or everything the writer happens to have in his mind at the moment; it must modify the main clause in fact as well as in form.

In compound sentences, unity may be much more easily violated than in complex sentences. Here, from the fact there must always be at least two coördinate assertions, there may often be a question

in the writer's mind as to whether these assertions are closely enough related to be joined together in one sentence. The beginner, to be sure, usually proceeds upon the assumption that he has but to join one clause with another by means of an “and” or a "but," or some such coärdinating conjunction, and that that is all there is to it. Needless to say, that is not all there is to it. Conjunctions have no magical power; they may reveal, but they cannot create relations between clauses.

The coördinate parts of a compound sentence must have a close natural or logical relation to each other, which will serve to bind them together and so give them, as a combination, unity. If they lack this close relation, they cannot make a good sentence. In the following sentence, for example, the lack of this close relation is apparent at a glance:

Some parts of the lake are very deep, as is the case with most of the Wisconsin lakes, and deep down in these holes amongst the reeds the musk llonge makes his home, and I know no better sport than to get out early in the morning with a deep troll baited with salt pork and wait for the big fellows to strike.

The assertion that it is good sport to troll for muskallonge in the early morning obviously has nothing to do with the assertion that some parts of a certain lake in Wisconsin are very deep. The two assertions can not, therefore, properly be put into the

same sentence.

Theoretically, the number of related assertions that may be grouped together in a single sentence is indeterminate. It all depends on how many the reader's mind can hold in suspension at once. In actual practice, however, whether a given series of coördinate assertions should be grouped together in one sentence or kept apart in separate sentences will usually depend on the effect that the writer intends. to produce.

To illustrate the point, take the following passages from Macaulay:

(a) Pitt, who did not love Legge, saw this event with indifference. But the danger was now fast approaching himself. Charles the Third of Spain had early conceived a deadly hatred of England. Twenty years before, when he was King of the Two Sicilies, he had been eager to join the coalition against Maria Theresa. But an English fleet had suddenly appeared in the Bay of Naples. An English Captain had landed, had proceeded to the palace, had laid a watch on the table, and had told his majesty that, within an hour, a treaty of neutrality must be signed, or a bombardment would comThe treaty was signed; the squadron sailed out of the bay twenty-four hours after it had sailed in; and from that day the ruling passion of the humbled Prince was aversion to the English name. He was at length in a situation to gratify that passion. He had recently become King of Spain and the Indies.

mence.

(b) Five years after the death of Prince Frederic, the public mind was for a time violently excited. But this excitement had nothing to do with the old disputes between Whigs and Tories. England was at war with France. The war had been feebly conducted. Minorca had been torn from us. Our fleet had retired before the white flag of the House of