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thought," less expressive even than signs or gestures. "The strongest effects are produced by interjections, which condense entire sentences into syllables."

Direction. (1) Show what words are omitted in these expressions; and (2) expand each into a full sentence, and note the loss of strength:

1. Arbitrary principles, like those against which we now contend, have cost one king of England his life; another his crown. 2. Miscreant! 3. No minute guns, no flags at half mast, no nation in tears. 4. Well done, good and faithful servant. 5. Cheers for the living, tears for the dead. 6. Off with his head! so much for Buckingham. 7. Beautiful! 8. From me awhile. 9. Apace, Eros, apace. 10. On to Berlin. II. Ecclesiastical establishments from the White Sea to the Mediterranean. Down in front! 13. Away with him! Hats off! 16. Merry Christmas; happy New-Year. 17. True, the spectre is now small. 18. Not at all. not elect the president, somebody must. 21. Liberty first and Union afterwards. 22. Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.

12. 14. Sure of that? 15.

19. If the people do 20. No more of that.

Direction.-Contract these sentences by omitting the words that can be spared, and note the gain in vigor:

1. He is a monster. 2. It is an unspeakable cruelty. 3. It is not so. 4. America is young and free and prosperous. 5. It is true that Napoleon did not with bared arm rush into the midst of the combatants. 6. May woe betide those within. 7. What is the cause, then, Sir, the cause? 8. You shall go hence upon your wedding day. 9. What news have you heard from Genoa? 10. Thou art a Daniel come to judgment. II. Children are admitted at half price. 12. Rush ye to the field. 13. Do you let my deeds fall upon my head. 14. Let it be rich, but let it not be gaudy. 15. This do thou heed above all—to thine own self be thou true. 16. It is the cry of an aggrieved, of an insulted and of a much abused man. 17. Woe unto the man and woe unto the dynasty and woe unto the party and woe unto

the policy on which her blighting indignation shall fall. 18. Thanks be to God, men have at last begun to understand each other's rights, and have at last begun to feel for the wrongs of each other. 19. The liberty of the press is that sacred palladium which no influence, no power, no minister, no government, which nothing but the depravity or the folly or the corruption of a jury can ever destroy. 20. Go ye on, Romans, go ye on. 21. Fifty years of Europe are better than a cycle of Cathay is good.

Direction.-Bring in as many sentences which may be stripped of adjectives or adverbs or phrases or conjunctions or prepositions, of even the subject or the verb or of both, and gain in energy by the omission.

LESSON 62.

IDIOMS, PROVERBS, AND OTHER QUOTATIONS.

Discourse may be made energetic by the use of

IV. THE IDIOMS OF THE LANGUAGE, PROVERBS, AND OTHER APT QUOTATIONS.-Idioms are constructions and expressions peculiar to the language containing them. When we speak of the idiom of a language, we mean its general characteristics-the structure, spirit, and genius by which it is known, and by which it is differenced from other languages. But when we speak of an idiom of it or of its idioms, we mean constructions peculiar to it, and expressions which, translated literally into any other language, would not make sense in that language, or would not express that conveyed by the original. These idiomatic expressions, with which every language swarms, are often figurative, and always brief, and pregnant with meaning. In them lies much of the strength of the lan

guage, and through them runs its very life-blood. Their use makes discourse fresh, crisp, native, and forcible.

PROVERBS are pithy and sententious sayings. They are packed with the wit and wisdom of those who coined them and of the generations which have used and approved them. Some of them can be fathered upon great authors, many can be traced to no parentage; but the children of some one or of no one whom we can name, they have been adopted by all and belong to all and disclose "the interior history, the manners, the opinions, the beliefs, the customs of the people among whom they have had their course." Rolling down the stream of national life and smoothed and rounded by it, they are fit pebbles for use in any David's sling. Woe to the Goliath against whom they are skilfully hurled!

OTHER QUOTATIONS-thoughts and words borrowed from great writers and speakers-may fitly be used any. where and by any one. One's discourse should not be a patchwork to which others have contributed as much as he has, but the occasional and happy use of quotations betrays an acquaintance with authors that is grateful to reader or hearer. Arraying behind his own thought the authority of greater names, these quotations give to what he himself says an edge and a momentum which without such re-enforcement it could not have.

Direction. We give, below, a few common idioms and proverbs. Render these in words of your own, and note, by comparison, how tame and feeble is your translation of them:

1. He was beside himself with rage. 2. They got wind of his purpose. 3. Goethe set little store by useless learning. 4. The project took air. 5. This took place yesterday. 6. He had a stroke of luck. 7. How do you do? 8. Make way for liberty. 9. He jumped to the conclusion. 10. What's the matter? II,

12. The building took 15. He is out of his

Darnley turned out a dissolute husband. fire. 13. He fell asleep. 14. Look out. head. 16. She struck an attitude. 17. I have seen full many a chill September. 18. Etymology brings us acquainted with strange bedfellows. 19. We cannot help knowing that skies are blue and grass is growing. 20. Johnson did his sentences out of English into Johnsonese 21. He went about to show his adversary's weakness. 22. There are many obstacles in the way. 23. It is I, he, we, they. 24. Elizabeth played fast and loose with her Alençon lover. 25. Under the circumstances, he did right. 26. I had rather be a dog. 27. They had a falling out, but are now at one. 28. Murder will out. 29. Now-a-days. 30. Methinks I see my father. 31. The train was behind time. 32. Salmasius was put to the worse by Milton. 33. From then to now the movement has been toward simplicity. 34. He was in at the death. 35. Newton was out in his calculation. 36. I know it for certain. 37. He did not break off his bad habits for long. 38. The bridge gave way. 39. He drove a hard bargain. 40. Boswell scraped acquaintance with Voltaire and Wesley. 41. He got well, got out. 42. Luther broke with Erasmus. 43. Will you please help me?

PROVERBS.-1. A carpenter is known by his chips. 2. Fast bind, fast find. 3. He has too many irons in the fire. 4. What can't be cured must be endured. 5. Make hay while the sun shines. 6. Give the devil his due. 7. Money makes the mare go. 8. Charity begins at home. 9. A stitch in time saves nine. 10. The receiver's as bad as the thief. II. Man's extremity God's opportunity. 12. Misfortunes never come single. 13. A burnt child fears the fire. 14. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. 15. The river past, and God forgotten. 16. He who will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock. 17. A fool's bolt is soon shot. 18. One must not look a gifthorse in the mouth. 19. Tell the truth, and shame the devil. 20. Ill weeds grow apace. 21. If you give him an inch, he'll take an ell. 22. Penny wise and pound foolish. 23. The loveliest bird has no song. 24. Barking dogs seldom bite. 25. Short reckonings make long friends. 26. A good word costs

nothing. 27. The child is the father of the man. 28. Time and tide wait for no man. 29. Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow. 30. Save the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves. 31. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. 32. A new broom sweeps clean. 33. Practice makes perfect. 34. A miss is as good as a mile. 35. Forewarned is fore-armed. 36. Enough is as good as a feast. 37. If the shoe fits, put it on. 38. Still waters run deep. 39. None so deaf as those who will not hear. 40. It's an ill wind that blows nobody good.

LESSON 63.

IDIOMS AND PROVERBS.

Direction. Bring in as many idioms of expression and of construction, without any taint of vulgarity upon them, and as many proverbs as you have time to find.

LESSON 64.

THE CLIMAX.

Discourse may be made energetic by an arrangement of parts seen in

V. THE CLIMAX.-A climax is an expression whose parts are arranged in the order of their strength, the weakest standing first. This order may hold in (1) words, (2) phrases, (3) clauses, and (4) sentences. Paragraphs, even, may stand in this order, and so the points of a discourse. The parts of a climax grow in importance, the most forcible standing last, and making the deepest impression the last impression being the impression of the

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