26. There is nothing so powerful as truth-and often nothing so strange.

27. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

28. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

29. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

30. We must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

31. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

32. Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix.
33. I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more is none.

Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.

35. Blow, blow, thou winter wind!

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude.

36. Think naught a trifle, though it small appear;

Small sands the mountain, moments make the year,
And trifles life.

37. Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.

EXERCISE 75.

Construct five elliptical sentences, and tell what words are omitted.

END OF PART I.

PART II

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

CHAPTER I

OF THE RECOGNITION OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH

HAVING in Part I studied sentences as wholes and become familiar with their general structure, we are now prepared to study the uses and forms of single words.

82. Words Classified According to Function.Our language contains more than two hundred thousand words; but when we examine the ways in which these words are used in sentences, we find that we can arrange them all in a few general classes according to their function, that is, according to what they do. These general classes are called the Parts of Speech.'

83. Nouns.-Examine the italicized words in the following sentence:

The gallant crew of the battleship Maine were under perfect discipline.

The italicized words, you observe, are names. Definition.-A word used as a name is called a

Noun.

1 To the Teacher.-The definitions of the parts of speech seem to present no special difficulty to pupils; the real difficulty is to recognize the different kinds of words as they occur. In this chapter, therefore, much space has been given to

exercises.

Other examples are:

Names of objects: Webster, Chicago, army, iron.
Names of actions: walking, laughter, retreat, delay.
Names of qualities: sweetness, warmth, beauty, vice.
Names of conditions: sickness, sleep, death, fatigue.
Names of thoughts: idea, doubt, belief, opinion.

EXERCISE 76.

Write the names of two things that you can see; of two that you can hear but not see; of two that you can feel but not see; of two that you can taste but not see; of two that you can smell but not see; of two that you can neither see, taste, feel, hear, nor smell.

EXERCISE 77.

Point out the nouns in the following sentences:

1. Brevity is the soul of wit. 2. Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. 3. They that die by famine die by inches. 4. Nothing is impossible to diligence and skill. 5. The music of the great organ sometimes sounds like the roll of thunder. 6. The length of the journey and the difficulty of the road over the mountains discouraged the soldiers, though the general spirit of the army remained excellent. 7. Sailing on this lake is somewhat dangerous, because the wind comes through the gaps of the mountains in sudden and uneven puffs. 8. Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. 9. Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

IO.

II.

The tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

To the Teacher.-If more drill in the recognition of nouns is needed, Exercises 15 and 71 will be found suitable.