Just what is the best form for any sentence must always depend largely upon the context, and we will not attempt to decide in this case; but we can profitably consider the different effects of the several forms. The original arrangement in two separate sentences is not to be tolerated. Sentence I makes the hopelessness of the attack on the fort the thing of most importance, and the second coördinate clause merely emphasizes that hopelessness. In sentence 2 the first clause is subordinate, rather than coördinate as in the preceding, and because of this subordination it expresses a reason for the direct predication not manifest in the insistent hopelessness of form I. In sentence 3 the subordinate clause gives a reason as before, but in this form the emphasis is on the fact that the attack was given up only when it had become hopeless. Each of these sentences says the same thing, but the understanding of that thing which the reader will receive is not the same. The alteration in meaning comes through the change in the degree and character of the subordination of the secondary clause. The following sentences found in students' papers are faulty in the matter of the subordination of clauses.

1. Here tall trees grow on either side of the road, nicely mown grass plots come between the broad walks and the fences which inclose well-kept lawns.

2. At this Margy's hold relaxed, and her strength was totally exhausted, for she had fainted.

3. He arranged his head-gear and gave his signal, but the ball hit his shoulder, but fortunately landed in the arms of the great full-back, who hit center and gained five yards.

In the first sentence, which is part of a description of a village street, the relation of the concluding clause to the preceding, whether subordinate or coördinate, is not at once clear. The subject matter of the clause suggests the coördinate relation, but the relative which is a subordinate connective. Again, the word and seems at first to connect a new coördinate clause to the preceding instead of merely joining the nouns walks and fences. In re-writing this we must bear in mind that the degree of subordination which the grammatical structure indicates must be that which the subordination of thought requires. Here the concluding clause seems to be quite as important as those preceding, and there should be no subordination, the sentence re-written reading about as follows:

Here tall trees grow on both sides of the road, the lawns are well kept, and nicely mown grass plots come between the broad walks and the fences.

In the second sentence the subordination of the final clause is more clearly and unmistakably faulty. Either Margy fainted because her strength was totally exhausted, or her hold relaxed because she had fainted. Perhaps, if we say that her strength was exhausted, she fainted, and her hold relaxed, we shall have indicated the proper relation between the clauses, but in any case the final clause is not subordinate to the others. In the third sentence we have a subordinate clause within a subordinate, something of not infrequent occurrence

and not always easy to manage. Here, though the clauses beginning with the conjunction but are not in strictness grammatically subordinate, they are so in effect, while the first clause should be made subordinate in structure as it is in thought. Of course the repetition of the conjunction adds to the awkwardness of the construction, but the substitution of though for the second but will not make the sentence satisfactory Re-writing in such fashion as to make the first clause subordinate we shall have something like this:

When he had arranged his head-gear and given his signal, he was hit on the shoulder by the ball, but fortunately it landed in the arms of the great full-back, who hit center, and gained five yards.

35. Sentence-Variety. We get pleasure out of reading when each moment something that we did not know or had not felt before comes into our consciousness from the printed page. When the book in our hand ceases to give us new sensations, or to revive old ones with new vividness, we throw it down. In our reading, the pleasure of novelty may come to us through the subject matter or through the form of what we read. When it is something more than commonplace in the form that holds our attention we are less conscious of novelty as the source of pleasure, but it is so none the less truly. Monotony of sentence-structure will destroy our pleasure in almost any subject, if that monotony be sufficiently pronounced.

Philip Van Artevelde lived in the latter part of the fourteenth century. His father was the well-known Jacques Van Artevelde, from whom Philip inherited many of his military abilities. He was named Philip in honor of Philippa of Hainault, his godmother at his baptism.

In this paragraph the monotony of structure is not so great as is frequently the case; but each sentence begins with the subject followed immediately by the predicate. The subject of the first sentence is included in the subject of the second sentence, and again in the pronoun of the subject of the third sentence. This is a fault very common in the work of young and inexperienced writers, and one against which all writers have to guard continually. A composition that is made up largely of short simple sentences is more liable to the defect of monotonous structure than one composed of longer complex and compound sentences; since in short simple sentences it is difficult to vary the order of subject, predicate, and object. Even compound sentences are often little more than disjointed simple sentences strung together by various connectives. . The student should make continual effort to acquire variety of sentenceforms and ease in the use of them. A few methods of varying the simple form above are suggested here.

1. At home and abroad things were looking ominous for the new reign. MCCARTHY.

In this sentence a prepositional phrase precedes the subject.

2

2

similar

2. When an intelligent foreigner commences the study of English, he finds every page sprinkled with words whose form unequivocally betrays a Greek or Latin origin. MARCH.

An adverbial time clause here precedes the subject. Adverbial clauses of various sorts may be so used, concessive, conditional, causal, and others, and some of these forms are given in sentences 3 to 8 following.

3. So far as the nation at large was concerned, no history, no romance, hardly any poetry save the little known verse of Chaucer, existed in the English tongue when the Bible was ordered to be set up in churches. SAINTSBURY.

4. Had the Bible then for the first time appeared in an English dress, the translators would have been perplexed and confounded with the multitude of terms. MARSH.

5. That we may not enter the church out of the midst ✔of the horror of this, let us turn aside under the portico which looks towards the sea. RUSKIN.

6. Though the cadences of Newman's prose are rarely as marked as here, a subtle musical beauty runs elusively through it all. - GATES.

7. If there was any person entitled to speak with authority on the subject, that person was assuredly Mrs. Dingley. COLLINS.

8. As we track Elizabeth through her tortuous mazes of lying and intrigue, the sense of her greatness is almost lost in a sense of contempt.

GREEN.

Adverb clauses may take so many forms that several sentences in succession may begin with such clauses and yet seem unlike.