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clusively evinced in the proper development of the diagram. To those who candidly consider, or who properly understand, its nature and office-work, a correct diagram of any element in analysis, is "an end of strife;" for, while the analysis may be consistent, without skill to represent it justly in the diagram, the diagram can not be correctly drawn without both involving and evincing the proper analysis.

Thirdly. The diagrams, as a sensible means of illustrating the nature and relations of elements in language as expressive of thought, require often a high degree of inventive capacity or a skillfulness in adaptation, which is quite foreign to many active thinkers. Power to detect and determine distinctions and relations is, by no means, power to present them clearly in some ingenious and effective scheme of graphic illustration.

Fourthly. The importance of the diagrams, as a means of adding demonstrative clearness to the result of the analysis, and of investing the whole study with a new and living interest, renders it a matter of the first moment that the attempt to use them should be put beyond the possibility of question or failure. He, whose use of the diagrams is not skillful and satisfactory, will not long sustain his own interest or that of his pupils.

Lastly. Standing out before the eye of the old-style grammarian, as the peculiar and most salient feature of the new method, the diagrams are usually seized upon as the object of the first and most virulent attack. Indeed, it is generally the case, that those who are conscious of the validity of the logical analysis, but who are unwilling to "cast their idols to the moles and to the bats," en

deavor to conceal their weakness, and justify their prejudices, by a furious onslaught upon the diagrams. While the main position is obviously impregnable to any direct attack, the effort is to practically destroy its strategic value, by a flank movement upon some more vulnernerable outpost. The enemy can not be vanquished, but the aim is to harass his forces by distracting though indecisive assaults.

For these reasons, then, the present effort will be somewhat closely restricted to the two-fold aim; the defence of the diagrams, and their more complete development.

PART I.

THE DIAGRAMS DEFENDED.

CHAPTER I.

THE GENERAL NATURE AND LAWS OF THE DIAGRAMS.

What is here proposed-General definition of diagrams-General examples-General Laws-First Law: Simple Principal Ele ments-Second Law: Principal Elements having a common connection-Third Law: Complex Principal Elements-Fourth Law: Adjunct Elements-Fifth Law: Auxiliary Elements, or Connectives-Sixth Law: Independent Elements.

Ir is not consistent with the ultimate purpose or plan of the present discussion, to enter largely at this point, upon the consideration of the nature and laws of the diagrams. Still, this topic claims such a general attention as will enable the reader to know what they are, and to comprehend more readily the arguments adduced in their favor, and the principles set forth in their ulterior development.

General Definition.

Grammatical diagrams,* as here considered, are a systematic and philosophical means of representing to the

* It will, of course, be understood that reference is had here solely to the system of diagrams devised by Prof. Clark.

eye, the various facts of structure and relation, involved in sentences or their organic parts, as developed and distinguished by their logical analysis. They involve the simple circumscription of the different organic elements in the sentence or its parts, according to their logical restriction, in figures like the following, or consistent variations of the same, and their natural adjustment and connection according to their logical functions, as seen in the following

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Compound, transitive sentences or propositions, with word or phrase adjuncts and auxiliaries attached.

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Compound, mixed sentences or propositions, with word

or phrase adjuncts and auxiliaries attached.

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Complex sentences of various kinds, with their word, phrase, or sentence adjuncts and auxiliaries attached or connected.

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