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Read Ebook: A First Book in Writing English by Lewis Edwin Herbert
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Ebook has 836 lines and 73738 words, and 17 pages
The following list of abbreviations should be learned, Latin words and all.
D. C. L. Doctor of Civil Law.
D. D. S. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
E. E. Errors excepted.
E. O. E. Errors and omissions excepted.
F. R. S. Fellow of the Royal Society.
M. A. Master of Arts.
MESSRS. Gentlemen.
MME. Madame.
MLLE. Mademoiselle.
MS., or Ms. Manuscript. MSS. Manuscripts.
N. S. New Style .
O. S. Old Style .
PP. Pages.
GRAMMATICAL PHASES OF WRITING ENGLISH
The present chapter reviews only those grammatical principles that are sometimes violated by students who have had a year of formal grammar.
This week will see the last times of "The Rogue's Comedy," as next season Mr. Willard will play the new play of Henry Arthur Jones entitled "The Physician" exclusively.
Subject and complement of an intransitive verb agree in case.
"Shall you be at the pier by three, Abner?" Abner replies, "I certainly shall." "Will you kindly bring my lunch with you? the cook has it ready." "I will, with great pleasure."
"Yes; why?"
"Oh, I know something of him at home, and like to excuse him--will you swap?"
" will you give me?"
"Well, let's see; there's Willis, Johnson--no, that won't do. Yes, I have it--there's young East, I'll give you him."
"Don't you wish you may get it?" replied Green. "I'll tell you what I'll do--I'll give you two for Willis ."
" then?" asked Snooks.
"Hall and Brown."
" have 'em at a gift."
ON DIVIDING A PARAGRAPH INTO SENTENCES
Note how each of the following miniature compositions has a root, from which the rest of the paragraph springs necessarily.
Study now another paragraph:--
It is saying less than the truth to affirm that an excellent book is like a well-chosen and well-tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same gratification, if only we ourselves return to it with the same healthful appetite.--COLERIDGE.
In this passage from Coleridge the first sentence is the root of the paragraph; 'a book is like a fruit tree.' But the second sentence is made shorter than the first, because it is to state the pith of the paragraph more clearly and emphatically than did the first. The meaning of the first sentence is a little vague; how a book is like a fruit tree, it does not say. The second sentence does say how. Note, then, that a short sentence is always emphatic, and that accordingly it should be used to state something that is important in the paragraph.
Study also the following paragraph:--
Our chief want in life, is somebody who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great. There is a sublime attraction in him to whatever virtue is in us. How he flings wide the doors of existence! What questions we ask of him! what an understanding we have! how few words are needed! It is the only real society.--EMERSON.
In this paragraph of Emerson's, the main ideas are stated in brief sentences, and the summary of the paragraph comes in a sentence of six short words. But note that in the last sentence except one, the writer groups three clauses, because the three constitute parts of one main idea of the paragraph.
Read the following rather abstruse paragraphs, and decide as to which shows the chief divisions of the whole thought.
There is, first, the literature of knowledge; and, secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is, to teach; the function of the second is, to move; the first is a rudder, the second an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy.--DE QUINCEY.
There is, first, the literature of knowledge. And, secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is, to teach. The function of the second is, to move. The first is a rudder. The second, an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding. The second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy.
From a study of the foregoing selections, it becomes clear that the sentence is not its own master. It is the servant of the paragraph. The paragraph, having an idea to give, uses sentences to develop this idea. A skilful writer is not in haste to crowd into a sentence all of one large, complex thought. The full expression of that thought is the task of the paragraph. The sentences are the means by which its parts may be made clear. The long sentences are for explanatory details; the short ones are for emphatic summaries or generalizations, and for rapid narrative.
Oliver Orlando's brother did not like him and when he heard that Orlando whipped Charles he was very angry and was going to burn Orlando's house up with him in it, but Adam, Orlando's faithful servant, ran out and told him, so they got all the money they had and started for the forest of Arden, when they got pretty near there Adam being so old fainted from hunger.
Oliver, Orlando's brother, did not like him; and when he heard that Orlando whipped Charles he was very angry, and was going to burn Orlando's house up with him in it. But Adam, Orlando's faithful servant, ran out and told him. So they got together all the money they had, and started for the forest of Arden. When they got pretty near there, Adam, being so old, fainted from hunger.
A great silence made itself felt. Then, on a sudden, a dry sound cracked in the air. The viscount had slapped his adversary's face. Every one rose to interfere. Cards were exchanged between the two.
Now, a child gives his ideas in mere bits; he cannot express the relations of the bits to each other. For example:--
My aunt was a very large woman. My uncle was a very thin man. He was very delicate. He dwindled. I mean, he got thinner and punier every day. And my aunt thought a great deal of him. She wished him to get well. She gave him a great deal of medicine. She gave him so much that he began to get worse. He finally died.
If we combine the eight sentences by the help of the semicolon, we get four, somewhat like the following:--
My aunt was a very large woman; my uncle, on the contrary, was a very thin delicate man. He dwindled; that is, he got thinner and punier every day. My aunt thought a good deal of him, and naturally she wished him to get well. She gave him, accordingly, a great deal of medicine. She gave him so much indeed that he began to get worse; and, finally, he died.
The last beams of day were now faintly streaming through the painted windows in the high vaults above me. The lower parts of the abbey were already wrapped in the obscurity of twilight. The chapels and aisles grew darker and darker. The effigies of the kings faded into shadows. The marble figures of the monuments assumed strange shapes in the uncertain light. The evening breeze crept through the aisles like the cold breath of the grave. And even the distant footfall of a verger, traversing the Poet's Corner, had something strange and dreary in its sound. I slowly retraced my morning's walk. And as I passed out at the portal of the cloisters, the door, closing with a jarring noise behind me, filled the whole building with echoes.
Evidently the punctuation here is largely dependent on the different states of mind. A calm, logical attitude is reflected in the nice distinctions conveyed by the colon and comma. An excited mood over-emphasizes each detail, and makes it a sentence. There is sometimes need of indignant emphasis on each detail. Perhaps therefore the strict unity of the sentence may sometimes be sacrificed for the sake of emphasis. Such a sacrifice however should very rarely be made.
The first thing which Tom saw was the black cedars, high and sharp against the rosy dawn. And St. Brandan's Isle reflected double in the still broad silver sea. The wind sung softly in the cedars, and the water sung among the caves. The sea-birds sung as they streamed out into the ocean, and the land-birds as they built among the boughs. And the air was so full of song that it stirred St. Brandan and his hermits, as they slumbered in the shade. And they moved their good old lips, and sung their good old hymn amid their dreams. But among all the songs one came across the water more sweet and clear than all, for it was the song of a young girl's voice.
Cardinal Newman once wrote a burlesque of this scatter-brained kind of writing. He pretends that the lad is writing a theme on the topic, "Fortune favors the brave." In the midst of it the boy says:--
Napoleon, too, shows us how little we can rely on fortune; but his faults, great as they were, are being redeemed by his nephew, Louis Napoleon, who has shown himself very different from what was expected, though he has never explained how he came to swear to the constitution, and then mounted the imperial throne.
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