3. By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned,
By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.

69. The excessive use of adjectives-a fault to which young writers are addicted—is very enfeebling to style. Hence the following rule: Never use an adjective unless its meaning adds to the main thought of the sentence.

EXERCISE 32.
A.

Give strength to the following sentences by improving the position of the italicized words:

1. Such things were not allowed formerly.

2. It was a practice which no one knew the origin of.

3. My purpose is to bring the fact that I have stated into prominence. 4. Internal commerce has been greatly increased since the introduction into the country of railroads.

5. Scott is an author whom every one is delighted with.

6. But the design succeeded; he betrayed the city, and was made governor of it.

B.

Change the following loose sentences into periods:

1. Nothing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments when public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited.

2. We came to our journey's end, at last, with no small difficulty, after much fatigue, through deep roads and bad weather.

3. The wonderful invention of Homer is what principally strikes us, on whatever side we contemplate him.

4. The live thunder leaps far along from peak to peak, among the rattling crags.

5. Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top of Horeb or of Sinai didst inspire that Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed, in the beginning, how the heavens and earth rose out of chaos, sing of man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe, with loss of Eden, till one greater man restore us, and regain the blissful seat.

III. FIGURES OF LANGUAGE.

70. One of the principal means for adding both strength and beauty to a sentence is the use of figures of speech.

71. Definition. Figures of speech are certain modes of expression different from those of ordinary speech. A word used figuratively is a word used in a sense suggested by the imagination.

The four figures of speech most used are

1. Simile. 2. Metaphor. 3. Metonymy. 4. Synecdoche.

72. Simile and metaphor both express comparison. In the simile, one object is said to resemble another; and some sign of comparison (as, like, etc.) stands between them. In the metaphor, an object is spoken of as if it were another, and no sign of comparison is used. A metaphor is an im plied simile. Thus

1. SIMILE.—The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.
METAPHOR.—The Assyrian wolf came down on the fold.

2. SIMILE. He is like a lion in the fight.

METAPHOR.-He is a lion in the fight.

73. Metonymy is the use of the name of one object to rep‐ resent some related object, when the relation is not mere resemblance. In this figure correlative terms are interchanged.

1. The effect is sometimes put for the cause: as, Gray hairs [meaning old age] should be respected.

2. The thing containing is put for the thing contained: as, He drank the fatal cup [meaning the draught in the cup].

3. The sign is put for the thing signified: as, The sceptre [meaning sovereignty] shall not depart from Judah.

4. The author is put for his writings: as, Have you read Milton? [meaning Milton's works].

74. Synecdoche is the figure which puts a part for the whole: as, "Consider the lilies [that is, flowers in general] how they grow."

Underline the words expressing simile:

1. Keep me as the apple of thine eye.

2. Grateful persons resemble fertile fields.

3. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream.

4. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, as the dew upon the grass. 5. The broad circumference (of the shield) hung on his shoulders like the

moon.

6. Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside.

B.

Compare the following pairs of objects respectively, showing their points of resemblance:

1. Food and books.

2. The troubles of a child and an April shower.

3. Life and a battle.

4. Prosperity and sunshine.

5. Heaven and home.

C.

Transpose the following metaphoric expressions into the plain form:

EXAMPLE.-He bore away the palm.
CHANGED. He obtained the prize.

4. Choate was one of the brightest luminaries of the age.

5. She shed a flood of tears.

6. Though his couch was the wayside and his pillow a stone, he slept sound till morning.

7. There is a blush on the cheek of night.

D.

Underline the metonymies, and then change the figures into plain language:

1. Flee from the bottle.

2. Have you read Irving?

3. The country was wasted by the sword.

4. The stranger praised the eloquence of our pulpit, bar, and senate.

5. He has a long purse. Frial

6. Death knocks alike at the palace and the cottage.

E.

Underline the synecdoches, and then convert them intc

plain language:

There are fifty sail in the harbor There are fifty ships in the harbor.

1. There are fifty sail in the harbor.

2. All hands take hold.

3. Give us this day our daily bread.
4. The face of the deep is frozen over.
5. My roof shall always shelter you.

F.

Tell the kind of figure exemplified in each of the following sentences:

1. The sun of liberty is set; we must now light the candles of industry and economy.

2. Trade, like a restive horse, is not easily managed.

3. Father, thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns; thou

Didst weave this verdant roof.

4. Am I a soldier of the cross?

5. The pen is mightier than the sword.

6. Pitt was the pilot who guided the ship of state through a stormy sea.

7. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,

Burned in the water; the poop was beaten gold.

8. All flesh is grass, and all its glory fades

Like the fair flower dishevelled in the wind.

9. Like a tempest down the ridges Swept the hurricane of steel. 10. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. 11. Who steals my purse steals trash. 12. The hedges are white with May.

CHAPTER VII.

THEMES AND ESSAYS.

75. A theme is an exercise in which the subject is treated according to a set of heads methodically arranged. In this respect it differs from the essay, wherein the writer is at liberty to follow his own inclination as to the arrangement of his ideas.

For a systematic exhibit of the Rules of Punctuation, see page 97.

I. THE STRUCTURE OF PARAGRAPHS.

76. A paragraph is a connected series of sentences relating to the same subject and forming a constituent part of a composition.

A composition of any length-even a letter (unless the very briefest note)--requires a division into paragraphs in order to please the eye and to render the relation of its parts readily intelligible.

77. There are three qualities to be aimed at in the construction of paragraphs, namely: I. UNITY; II. CONTINUITY; III. VARIETY.

78. Unity. In order that a paragraph shall possess the quality of unity, it is requisite that the sentences composing it shall relate, each and all, to one definite division of the subject which they illustrate and explain.

A mere collocation of sentences, without a central thought, is destitute of the essential element of a paragraph, just as a sentence made up of several heterogeneous ideas is properly no sentence at all.