§ 10. The Participle.

1. Participles being verbal adjectives, possess the concord of adjectives, and the government of the verbs to which they belong.

2. The participles of transitive verbs admit of degrees of comparison; as, more loving,'' most amusing.'

In this case they are treated as adjectives.

3. In tenses formed by the auxiliary verb To Be, the participle agrees with the subject of the verb; as,

'He is walking fast.'

4. In tenses of transitive verbs formed by the auxiliary Have, the participle agrees with the object of the verb; as,

'He has written the letter."

5. Gerunds are verbal nouns, therefore they can be the subjects or objects of verbs, which participles cannot be; as,

1. Whenever the conjunction that expresses intention, and consequently connects two verbs, the second of which denotes an action which takes place after the action denoted by the first, the verb in question must be in the same tense; as,

"I do this that I may gain by it."

"I did this that I might gain by it.". -Latham.

2. Correlative subjunctive forms may be gathered from the following:

(i) If he be here, he is in this room, or I will find him.'

(ii) If he have paid the money it is at the bank, or will be

(iii)

found there to-morrow.'

'If he were here, I would tell him.'

(iv) 'If he had been here, I should have found him.'

(v) If he were (or were to be, or should be) rewarded, others would be encouraged by his success.'

(vi) 'If he should, or would, or were to try, he would succeed.' -Angus.

§ 12. General Remarks.

The imperative, the infinitive, with 'to' and in 'ing,' are sometimes used absolutely; as,

'Many boys, say twenty, were present.'

'To tell you the truth, I do not believe him.'

Judging at random, there were over a hundred.'

§ 13. Conjunctions, Prepositions, Adverbs.

1. A conjunction is employed to connect clauses.

In such expressions as 'two and two are four,' and has the force of with, and is prepositional.

2. If governs both the indicative and subjunctive. With the former it means since; with the latter, supposing that. To ascertain the proper mood of the verb, insert immediately after the conjunction one of the two following phrases :

(i) 'As is the case;' (ii) 'As may be the case.'

When (i) is required, the verb should be in the indicative mood; when (ii) satisfies the expression, the verb must be in the subjunctive mood; as,

'If (as is the case) he is gone, I must follow him.'

'If (as may be the case) he be gone, I must follow him.'

3. Although, though, also govern the indicative and subjunctive.

4.* Conjunctions that are intended to express uncertainty, whether of condition (if, unless, as, though), of concession (though, however), of purpose (in order that, lest); or of time, place, manner (wherever, whenever, until), govern the subjunctive; as,

Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.'-A.

* See § 9, 4.

5. Than is a conjunction, and takes the same case (ejusdem generis) after it as before it.

6. When conjunctions are used to connect clauses, each clause must make complete grammatical sense; as,

'He was more beloved (add, than), but not so much admired, as Cinthio.'

7. Generally, prepositions stand before the words they govern. They never stand before the relative 'that'; when the sentence is interrogative, or the relative is omitted, they are placed after the verb; as,

'What did he do it for?'

8. The word or phrase which belongs to the governed word should always be so placed that the connection may be clear; as,

'Errors are committed by the most distinguished writers [with respect to shall and will'].

This should be written thus:

'Errors with respect to shall and will are committed,' &c.

For Prepositional Constructions, see Hiley's English Grammar.

9. Adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. When they stand alone, as, yes, no, certainly, they stand for a whole sentence. Sometimes they seem to qualify prepositions, nouns, or words belonging to other parts of speech; as,

'I hear the far-off curfew bell!'-Milton.

10. In Anglo-Saxon, and in Greek and French, two negatives strengthen the negation. In English and Latin they destroy one. another.

11. Ever and never are often confounded. Never is an adverb of time; as, 'Seldom or never has such misfortune happened.' Ever is an adverb both of time and degree; as, 'Ever with thee,' 'Ever so good.'

'Charm he ever so wisely' is better than 'never so wisely,' though this last is admissible.

12. When the word not comes between an indicative, imperative, or subjunctive mood, and an infinitive verb, it is almost always taken with the word it follows.

13. From the time of Wycliffe to the time of Sir Thomas More, there was a minute distinction between yea, nay, and yes, no. Yea and nay answered affirmative questions; as,

'Will he come?' Ans. 'Yea,' or 'Nay.

Yes and no answered negative questions; as,

'Will he not come?' Answ. 'Yes,' or 'No.'

CHAPTER VI.

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

1. Definition. FIGURES OF SPEECH are peculiar forms of expression-recognised derivations from the ordinary forms, grammatical constructions, and literal meanings of words and phrases.

2. According to this definition we ought to divide Figures of Speech into Figures of Orthography, Figures of Syntax, and Figures of Rhetoric. For general purposes it will be better to consider the last two divisions as one, so as to have but two classes, (i) Grammatical or Etymological Figures; (ii) Figures of Speech.

3. Etymological Figures are modes whereby words undergo change, especially in process of formation or derivation.

4. These Figures are—

(i) Syncope, whereby a word is abbreviated; as, lord for hlaf-ord.

(ii) Metathesis, whereby letters in the same word are interchanged; as, nostrils for nose-thirles; brunt, for burnt; brid for bird.

5. Three are ADDITIVE:

(i) Prothesis, whereby a letter or syllable is added to the beginning of a word; as, espy for spy.

(ii) Epenthesis, whereby the insertion of a letter or letters, or a syllable, is made in the middle of a word; as, farth-er for far-rer.

(iii) Paragoge, whereby an addition of a letter or letters is made to the end of a word; as, soun-d from son.

6. Three are SUBTRACTIVE :—

1. Apheresis, whereby a letter or syllable is taken from the beginning of a word; as, uncle, from av-uncle.

2. Elision, whereby a withdrawal is made from the middle of a word; as, muster from mo-n-strare.

3. Apocope, whereby a letter or syllable is taken from the
end of a word; as, sue from suivre.

7. Figures of Speech are peculiar forms of expression.
(i) Pleonasm is redundancy of expression; as,
'I know thee, stranger, who thou art.'

(ii) Ellipsis is deficiency of expression; as,

'She went to St. Paul's,' i. e. ' cathedral.'

(iii) Personification is a figure of speech whereby we clothe qualities or inanimate objects with the attributes of life; as,

'Hope spread her wings, and flew away.'

(iv) Simile is the comparison of two ideas, and corresponds to a ratio; as,

'Youth is like the spring.'

(v) Metaphor (transference of ideas) is the comparison of ratios or relations of ideas, and corresponds to a proportion; as,