is then styled a clause, a simple sentence, or a simple propo sition, words of nearly equivalent import. As, The city is large. The path up the mountain was exceedingly steep. They are taught by a good master. See Rice's Composition pages 7th and 65th.

The words phrase and clause may therefore be thus de fined:

A phrase is a connected assemblage of words, without a finite verb.

A clause is a connected assemblage of words, with a finite verb.*

A sentence is an assemblage of words making complete

sense.

The difference between a phrase, a clause, and a sentence, may be stated as follows: A sentence always, a clause some times, but a phrase never makes complete sense.

There are various kinds of phrases, such as substantive phrases, participial phrases, infinitive phrases, adverbial phrases, prepositional phrases, and interjectional phrases; so named from the office which they perform, or the parts of speech which they contain.

Clauses are frequently designated neuter, active-transitive, active-intransitive, and passive; in allusion to the verbs which form them. A clause which contains a relative pronoun is called a relative clause, and one containing a verb in the subjunctive mood is called the subjunctive clause. Specimens of most of these will be found in the following sentence:

Neuter clause,

Darius was

Substantive phrase in apposition, a King of Persia.

Active clause,

Alexander conquered Darius,
who fled from the field of battle.

(but) he was assassinated

[der,

by one of his own generals,
(who) coveting the favor of Alexan-
slew his unfortunate maste"
to secure his own interest
with that monarch.

A sentence usually consists subject, the verb, and the object.

of three principal parts, the As, The man struck the

* A finite verb is a verb that has a subject or nominative. Verbs in the infinitive mood, or the participle, as they have no nominative, are not condered finite verbs.

boy, Here man is the subject, struck the verb, and boy the object. Some verbs, however, admit no object, after them, and the sentence will then consist of only two principal parts, the subject and the verb. All the other parts of a sentence are merely adjuncts, relating to the principal parts, and designed to express some circumstance affecting their signification.

Sentences are of two kinds, simple sentences and compound

sentences.

A simple sentence contains but one nominative and one finite verb. As, "Life is short."

A compound sentence contains two or more simple sentences, joined together by one or more connecting words. As, "Life is short, and art is long." The different parts of a compound sentence are called members.

Clauses are joined together to form compound sentences by conjunctions and relative pronouns; and phrases are, for the most part, united by prepositions and adverbs; the latter are also frequently employed to connect minor clauses with the other parts of a sentence.

Both the subject and the object of a verb may be expressed as follows:

First. By a single noun or pronoun. As, [John] struck [him.]

Secondly. By a series of nouns or pronouns. As, [Diligence, industry, and proper improvement of time] are mate rial duties of the young.

Thirdly. By a substantive, or an infinitive phrase or phrases. As, [The acquisition of knowledge] is one of the most honorable occupations of youth.

Fourthly. By a noun or a pronoun, attended by a minor or relative clause. As, [The veil, which covers from our eyes the events of succeeding years] is a veil woven by the hand of mercy.

Fifthly. By an entire member of a compound sentence. As, [He who pretends to great sensibility towards men, and yet has no feeling for the high objects of religion, no heart to admire and adore the great Father of the Universe] has rea son to distrust the truth and delicacy of his sensibility.

The object of this lesson is to make the student acquainted with the constituent parts and members of sentences, both

simple and compound. The exercises that are subjoined, ar presented that he may distinguish the phrases from the clauses, the clauses from the sentences, the imperfect sentences from the perfect, and the simple from the compound.

Exercises.

The eye of the passing traveller may mark them, or mark them not but they stand peacefully in thousands over all the land; and most beau tiful do they make it, through all its wide valleys and narrow glens, — its low holms encircled by the rocky walls of some bonny burn, its green mounts elated with their little crowning groves of plane trees, its yellow cornfields, its bare pastoral hill-sides, and all its heathy moors, on whose black bosom lie shining or concealed glades of excessive verdure, inhabited by flowers, and visited only by the far-flying bees.

By arguments so strong. If we could imagine. They all agree in the belief. The fearful consequences. In spite of all admonition and reproof. Feel themselves at liberty. Such an undertaking would be vain. I am desirous of explaining. For the reasons already given. We cannot but rejoice that. Directed their attention. Attempted to prove. Make themselves accountable. The question which arises has puzzled. Has produced in our mind. Religion has its seat in the heart. Were now out in thousands. Would be expedient. Remains for us to notice. On the Sabbath morning. Overgrown with grass and moss. With somewhat diminished lustre. The daisies of a luxuriant spring had covered the spot. Opportunity of addressing each other. Had fatally infected. With indescribable pleasure. The most remote period of time. We hoped that this sight. The interior of the cavern. Very important purposes. Have a tendency to preserve. Withdraws his propitious light. However base or unworthy. Is the emblem of. How boundless. The tender assiduities of friendship. Irregular projecting rocks. Was peculiarly dear. With very great pleasure. The refulgent lamp of nignt. The science which treats of language is called Grammar. Writing is the art of making thoughts visible.

Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray

Had in her sober livery all things clad.

The melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year,

Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere, Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead. They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.

The lower animals, as far as we are able to judge, are entirely occupied with the objects of their present perceptions; and the case is nearly the same with the lower orders of our own species.

Diligence, industry and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the young.

Honor and shame from no condition rise;

Act well your part, there all the honor lies.

Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines.

Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have not charity, I am nothing.

X.

USE OF WORDS, PHRASES, AND CLAUSES, IN THE EXPANSION OF THE IDEA.

The previous Exercise having rendered the student familiar with the parts of which a compound sentence is composed, it is now proposed that he be exercised in the construction of such sentences; as in the following

We went.

We went in a carriage.

Example.

We went in a carriage to the meeting.

We went in a carriage to the meeting last night.

We went in a carriage to the meeting in Church Street last night.

We went in a carriage to the meeting in Church Street last night, and heard an excellent sermon.

We went in a carriage to the meeting in Church Street last night, with a number of friends, and heard an excellent sermon from the Rev. Mr. Stevens.

We went in a carriage to the meeting in Church Street last night, with a number of friends from the country, and heard an excellent sermon from the Rev. Mr. Stevens, on the duties of children to their parents.

We went in a carriage to the meeting in Church Street last night, with a number of friends from the country, and heard an excellent sermon from the Rev. Mr. Stevens, on the duties of children to their parents, delivered in a very solemn and impressive manner.

Exercises.

In the same manner the student may expand the following simple

sentences:

My father sailed.

John related.

If Henry had not disobeyed.
God created.

I remember.

Habitual indolerce undermines.

They have done all they could.
A cat caught.

A thief was caught.
The lightning struck.
The river rolled.
The minister preached.

The artist painted
I have purchased.
His parents reside.
The boy fell.
The girls rose.
A mad dog bit.

The sheriff took.

The wind blew down.

The tide overflowed.
The earthquake destroyed

A large number of peopled assembled. The beggar came.

Geography teaches.

I heard him sing.

XI.

OF THE PARTS AND ADJUNCTS OF A SENTENCE.

The natural order of an English sentence is to place the subject with its adjuncts, if any, at the beginning of the sentence, and the verb and the objective, with their respective adjuncts after it. This order, however, it is not necessary always to preserve, but on the contrary the beauty and harmony of the sentence are often greatly increased by a departure from it. With respect to the cadence, or close of a sentence, care should be taken that it be not abrupt nor unpleasant. In order to give a sentence its proper close, the longest member and the fullest words should be reserved for the conclusion. But in the distribution of the members, and in the cadencc of the period, as well as in the sentences themselves, variety must be observed; for the mind and the ear soon tire with a frequent repetition of the same tone.

In the following example the student will notice the different order in which the parts of the sentence are arranged, while they still collectively convey the same idea. The different forms of construction, which depend on the power of varying the arrangement, have a material effect upon the precision and harmony of the sentence; and therefore that arrangement is always to be preferred, which, while it sounds most harmoniously to the ear, conveys most clearly the idea intended to be expressed.