not married to Stella, the fate of her rival leaves no stain on his memory. -J. C. COLLINS.

The difference of meaning between the first two sentences just quoted and the third is all-important. All three are conditioned statements. In the first two, however, the condition marked by "if" is called technically a "rejected condition, i. e., it is denied as a possibility and treated as a mere question for speculation. In the first sentence, Jebb implies that Hamlet was unable to stop there; in the second, Field implies that no general rule can be laid down. In the third sentence, on the other hand, the possibility of Swift's secret marriage to Stella is not rejected by any one. Some biographers of Swift have believed it, others have not; Collins disbelieves it. He merely attempts to put before the reader an alternative. Either Swift was married, then his conduct was inexcusable; or, he was not married, then his conduct was excusable.

Sentences like the third are, for past events, what the following sentence is for the future:

If it rains, I shall not come.

That is, I don't know whether it is going to rain or not. It may rain; in that case I stay at home. Whereas :

If he were here, he would help us.

is a rejected condition, a mere speculation. He is not here, and cannot be here, and we know it; consequently we must do without his help.

In the following the hypothetical member is without any "if" or other formal word; the hypothesis is suggested by the inverted word-order:

Had the trial been postponed, he might have been able to attend.— CURRAN.

Had they [these changes] taken place, not France, but England, would have had the honour of leading up the death-dance of democratic revolution.-BURKE.

Were I to stop here, I should fail utterly.

In the following sentences the usual order of members is inverted :

But that better kind of teacher and that larger expenditure are imperatively called for, if democratic institutions are to prosper and to promote continually the real warfare of the mass of the people.—C. W. ELIOT.

The aim of the article is attained, if it has helped to impress upon the reader this lesson, partly social and partly political: Take care of the children and the men and women will take care of themselves.—D. D. FIELD.

Calling the order in which the conditioning member1 comes first the normal order, we may say that the inverted order is generally due to a desire on the writer's part to fit the sentence into its surroundings in the paragraph or to give to the sentence a peculiar emphasis. This question is best discussed in connection with the relation of the sentence to the paragraph. See $ 31, 48.

Other modes of marking hypothesis :

Suppose—no extravagant supposition—that George III. had not recovered, that the rest of his long life had been passed in seclusion, Great Britain and Ireland would then have been, during thirty-two years, as completely separated as Great Britain and Spain.—MACAULAY.

Given the masses and distances of the planets, we can infer the perturbations consequent on their mutual attractions.—TYNDALL.

Multiplying all our powers by millions of millions, we do not reach the sun's expenditure. -TYNDALL.

In the last sentence, “multiplying" has the force of “if we multiply."

Provided it is consistent with the laws of thought, there is nothing that we may not have to accept as a probable hypothesis.—JEVons.

Whether he works within or without party lines, he can surely find plenty of men who are desirous of good government, etc.—ROOSEVELT. Here the member beginning with "whether" is merely another form of saying:

If he will only work somewhere, either within the party or outside of it, he can, etc.

We should note, however, that “if” does not always make the entire sentence one of conditioned statement; in other

1 By grammarians the conditioning member is called protasis; the consequent member, or conclusion, is called apodosis.

words, an "if" may introduce a mere phrase of hypothesis. For example:

But it is only right to say that those who have judged him [Swift] thus harshly have proceeded on an assumption which would, if correct, have greatly modified this view of the question.—J. C. Collins.

Plato especially . . . treats maritime communication, if pushed beyond the narrowest limits, as fatal to the success and permanence of any wise scheme of education.-GROTE.

On the other hand, a sentence really conditioned throughout may not make perfectly plain at the first glance the precise conditioned upon the "if." consequence For example:

If he should hear this, I do not know what he would do. Here the consequence of the "if he should hear " is not the expression "I do not know," but something quite different. The meaning of the whole sentence is rather:

If he should hear this, he would do something, I know not what. 2. Cause and Effect.-Under this head are here treated also the logical process of drawing a conclusion from a premise and the process of letting one action grow out of another.

As the Constitution now stands, it is conceded that you cannot put any unapportioned tax upon real estate.-J. H. CHOATE.

Since, as has been seen, Oratory was for the Greeks a fine art, it follows that Greek Oratory must have, after its own kind, that same typical character which belongs to Greek Sculpture and to Greek Tragedy. -JEBB.

Since it made no difference to anybody else that Whittier had been in youth a farmer's boy in summer and a shoemaker in winter, it made no difference to him.-T. W. HIGGINSON.

Ungrateful that we are, no written or spoken eulogy of James Boswell anywhere exists.-CARLYLE.

Boswell wrote a good Book because he had a heart and an eye to discern Wisdom, and an utterance to render it forth.-CARLYLE.

Having tasted once the food of confiscation, the favorites became fierce and ravenous. -- BURKE.

The men of property in France, confiding in a force which seemed irresistible, . . . neglected to prepare for a conflict with their enemies at their own weapons.—BURKE.

Anxious [desirous?] to see the sport, I galloped forward and, entering a passage in the side of the mountain, ascended among the loose rocks as far as my horse could carry me.-PARKMAN.

3. Chronological dependence, sometimes with a suggestion of cause and effect.

As soon as the easy use of what I have called the tools of education is acquired, and even while this familiarity is being gained, the capacity for productiveness and enjoyment should begin to be trained through the progressive acquisition of an elementary knowledge of the external world.— C. W. ELIOT.

But as soon as you examine those cases you will see either that they bear no analogy to the case with which we have to deal, or that they corroborate my argument.-MACAULAY.

Looking back to those days of old, ere the gate shut to behind me, I can see now that to children with a proper equipment of parents these things would have worn a different aspect.-KENNETH GRAHAME.

Wherever this power and facility appear, we recognize the look and deportment of the gentleman.-Hazlitt.

Not long after the story was first circulated, he set to work to ascertain, if possible, the truth.-J. C. COLLINS.

When I took leave of Shaw at La Bonté's camp, I promised to meet him at Fort Laramie on the first of August.-PARKMAN.

They were close under the stern, before the guard on deck was aware of their approach.-IRVING.

And by the time I had got all this done, and had made my pack and bound it on the pack-saddle, the day was tiptoe on the threshold of the east.-R. L. STEVENSON.

While I was thus desperately tacking through the bog, children and cattle began to disperse, until only a pair of girls remained behind.— R. L. STEVENSON.

4. Comparison.

The farther we pursue this subject, the more its interest and its wonder grow upon us.- -TYNDALL.

What these animals [one excessively small, the other excessively large] are to the eye, a very short or a very long action would be to the memory. The first would be, as it were, lost and swallowed up by it, and the other difficult to be contained in it.-ADDISON.

He [Flaubert] loathed the smug face of facility as much as he suffered from the nightmare of toil.—HENRY JAMES.

5. Contrast. The contrast may be formally marked by certain words (connectives); or it may be in the thought alone.

Abundance of rain falls during the autumnal and winter months, little or none during the summer.-GROTE.

Fresh from the flattery of her courtiers, she [Elizabeth] would tolerate no flattery in the closet.-J. R. GREEN.

If political necessities made her life a lonely one, she [Elizabeth] had at any rate the satisfaction of averting war and conspiracies by love sonnets and romantic interviews, or of gaining a year of tranquillity by the dexterous spinning out of a flirtation.-J. R. GREEN.

Here "if" is not the ordinary "if" of hypothesis; it has rather the force of "though."

Ignoble, inexpressibly wearisome as the Queen's diplomacy seems to us now, tracing it as we do through a thousand despatches, it succeeded in its main end. It gained time. .-J. R. GREEN

Here the first "as" does not express comparison, but has the force of "though." See § 38.

However much he transcended the prevailing conception of his order, . . . he might be regarded as pretty fairly representing that order.DE QUINCEY.

Do what he will, however, the critic will still remain exposed to frequent misunderstandings.-MATTHEW ARNOLD.

The personages of the tale-though they give themselves out to be of ancient stability and considerable prominence—are really of the author's own making, or at all events, of his own mixing.-HAWTHORNE.

Several of the sentences quoted above might also be called sentences of concession; the writer concedes up to a certain point, then stops, and-going round-presents the subject from a different side. For example:

Although in one sense we are passive portions of the universe, in another we show a curious autonomy, as if we were small active centres on our own account.-WILLIAM JAMES.

6. Chronological suspense, with a suggestion of hypothesis. Till they have done so, let us decline to charge Swift with mendacity and hypocrisy.-J. C. COLLINS.

Here the "till" implies that Swift's detractors have not yet proved their charges and probably never will.

Usually, however, "till" (or "until ") does not indicate a hypothetical statement, but merely measures the time of one action by the time of another. For example: