PART I A STUDY OF SENTENCES INTRODUCTION THIS is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman ? Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the wood lands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean. Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand Pré. 10 15 Every moment of our waking hours we are thinking about something. The something about which we are thinking may be very trivial, and our thoughts not worth recording. Sometimes, however, a great and good man will have 3 thoughts so beautiful that it will be a pleasure to the whole world to think them over after him. Let us think Longfellow's thoughts as nearly as we can, while we read his beautiful story of Evangeline. Did you ever go through a forest, looking for the most beautiful leaves, or along the bed of a stream, searching for the prettiest stones? Try, then, as you go through the lines of the poem, to see how many beautiful thoughts lie hidden there. Make use of your dictionary until you are sure of the meaning of every word in the text. Exercise 1 Answer the following questions after carefully studying the text: 1. How many years do you suppose this forest had stood there? How long do trees live? 2. Were the people healthful who used to be in this wood? Did their hearts beat strong? 3. Why did the people cover their roofs with thatch instead of shingles ? 4. How does a river that flows through a woodland resemble a person's life? 5. What sort of a picture do you have in your mind when you read of a waste farm? 6. Two leaves grew side by side throughout the long, golden summer, catching the same sunlight and rustling in the same breezes. What happened to these companion leaves when the frosts and winds of October came? 7. You read in your history that all that remains to-day of Jamestown, the first settlement made in Virginia, is the ruined tower of an old brick church on the bank of the James River. What remains of the village of Grand-Pré? SUBJECT AND PREDICATE In every thought that enters our mind we think about something. Whatever this something may be, we speak of it as the subject of the thought; and that which we think about it, we call the predicate. (Commit definitions, Grammar 1: 115, a and b.) Notice the first thought in the text, and let us imagine that Longfellow as he speaks is standing on one of the Acadian farms. Lifting his hand he points toward the forest and says, "This"—and immediately we know the subject of his thought: the something toward which he is pointing. Yet we may not know certainly what the this is until he says something about it: This is the forest. This, then, is the subject of his thought, and is the forest is the predicate. Both taken together form a sentence. (Grammar: 112.) Take another sentence: The frightened roe hears the voice of the huntsman. What we are talking about is the frightened roe, and what we say of it is that it hears the voice of the huntsman. Then The frightened roe is the subject, and hears the voice of the huntsman is the predicate. In this manner all sentences may be separated into the two parts, subject and predicate, although you may find it difficult sometimes until you have had practice. If you should suc 1 Figures refer to numbered articles in Part VI, Elements of Grammar. |