Higher Lessons in English | Page 4

function of paragraphs; and have led him on from the composition of
single sentences of all kinds to the composition of these great groups of
sentences. But the distinctive features of "Higher Lessons" that have
made the work so useful and so popular stand as they have stood--the

Study of Words from their Offices in the Sentence, Analysis for the
sake of subsequent Synthesis, Easy Gradation, the Subdivisions and
Modifications of the Parts of Speech after the treatment of these in the
Sentence, etc., etc. We confess to some surprise that so little of what
was thought good in matter and method years ago has been seriously
affected by criticism since.
The additions made to "Higher Lessons"--additions that bring the work
up to the latest requirements--are generally in foot-notes to pages, and
sometimes are incorporated into the body of the Lessons, which in
number and numbering remain as they were. The books of former
editions and those of this revised edition can, therefore, be used in the
same class without any inconvenience.
Of the teachers who have given us invaluable assistance in this
Revision, we wish specially to name Prof. Henry M. Worrell, of the
Polytechnic Institute; and in this edition of the work, as in the
preceding, we take pleasure in acknowledging our great indebtedness to
our critic, the distinguished Prof. Francis A. March, of Lafayette
College.
* * * * *
LESSON 1.
A TALK ON LANGUAGE.
Let us talk to-day about a language that we never learn from a grammar
or from a book of any kind--a language that we come by naturally, and
use without thinking of it.
It is a universal language, and consequently needs no interpreter.
People of all lands and of all degrees of culture use it; even the brute
animals in some measure understand it.
This Natural language is the language of cries, laughter, and tones, the
language of the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whole face; the language
of gestures and postures.

The child's cry tells of its wants; its sob, of grief; its scream, of pain; its
laugh, of delight. The boy raises his eyebrows in surprise and his nose
in disgust, leans forward in expectation, draws back in fear, makes a
fist in anger, and calls or drives away his dog simply by the tone in
which he speaks.
But feelings and desires are not the only things we wish to
communicate. Early in life we begin to acquire knowledge and learn to
think, and then we feel the need of a better language.
Suppose, for instance, you have formed an idea of a day; could you
express this by a tone, a look, or a gesture?
If you wish to tell me the fact that yesterday was cloudy, or that the
days are shorter in winter than in summer, you find it wholly
impossible to do this by means of Natural language.
To communicate, then, your thoughts, or even the mental pictures we
have called ideas, you need a language more nearly perfect.
This language is made up of words.
These words you learn from your mothers, and so Word language is
your mother-tongue. You learn them, also, from your friends and
teachers, your playmates and companions, and you learn them by
reading; for words, as you know, may be written as well as spoken.
This Word language we may, from its superiority, call +Language
Proper+.
Natural language, as was said, precedes this Word language, but gives
way as Word language comes in and takes its place; yet Natural
language may be used, and always should be used, to assist and
strengthen Word language. In earnest conversation we enforce what we
say in words, by the tone in which we utter them, by the varying
expression of the face, and by the movements of the different parts of
the body.

The look or the gesture may even dart ahead of the word, or it may
contradict it, and thus convict the speaker of ignorance or deception.
The happy union of the two kinds of language is the charm of all good
reading and speaking. The teacher of elocution is ever trying to recall
the pupil to the tones, the facial expression, and the action, so natural to
him in childhood and in animated conversation.
+DEFINITION.--Language Proper consists of the spoken and the
written words used to communicate ideas and thoughts+.
+DEFINITION.--English Grammar is the science which teaches the
forms, uses, and relations of the words of the English language.+
* * * * *
LESSON 2.
A TALK ON THOUGHTS AND SENTENCES.
To express a thought we use more than a single word, and the words
arranged to express a thought we call a sentence.
But there was a time when, through lack of words, we compressed our
thought into