SOME RULES FOR UNITY

(1) Do not put into a sentence matter that cannot be grouped about one central idea.

[Bad.] Dr. Kane described the Arctic silence as sometimes almost dreadful; [and one day at dinner, while Thackeray was quietly smoking and Kane was fresh from his travels, he told them a story of a sailor reading Pendennis].

(2) Do not put into two or more sentences matter that had better be put into a single sentence.

[Bad.] It is the impression that China has three systems of religious belief. This impression is general. These three systems are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. It is true that the Government recognizes these three. It is not true that each has equally strong hold on the people. The struggle was decided long ago. Taoism and Buddhism take only what Confucianism has left.

[Good.] It is the general impression that China has three systems of religious belief, - Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Though it is true that the Government recognizes these three, it is not true that each has an equally strong hold on the people. The struggle was decided long ago, and Taoism and Buddhism take only what Confucianism has left.

SECTION 34

Kinds of Sentences

1. DECLARATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, IMPERATIVE, AND EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES

A sentence may belong to each of three classes. In the first class, it may be either a declarative, an interrogative, an imperative, or an exclamatory sentence; in the second, it may be either a simple, a complex, or a compound sentence; in the third, it may be either a loose or a periodic sentence. Thus, to take an example, "Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe" is a declarative, simple, periodic

sentence; it belongs to each of the three classes of sen. tences. The first two classes are commonly written about in grammar, and the third, in rhetoric. But all three classes may profitably be considered here, since all have more or less to do with matters of taste and judgment.

The first class of sentences, however, may be dismissed with a word or two. Any boy or girl who has studied grammar can define a declarative, an interrogative, an imperative, or an exclamatory sentence. It is a different matter to know the comparative effectiveness of these sentences in written composition, and to put this knowledge to use in theme work. The following examples illustrate different uses of the least familiar of these sentences, and study of these examples will reveal the chief distinguishing features of each kind of sentence. In studying these examples, it may be well to change them about from one kind to another, and to determine whether loss or gain follows the changes :

1. Honest labor bears an honest face.

2. What's in a name?

3.

4.

A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

Hear the sledges with the bells, silver bells —

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

5. Hurrah! hurrah! Come here! It's perfectly splendid!

You

can see one - two-three-four-five-you can see seven different cascades!

6. The game is done! I've won! I've won!

7.

Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,

Beloved from pole to pole!

8. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from

evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for Amen.-1611 Version.

ever.

9. Bah! That's the third umbrella gone since Christmas. What were you to do? Why, let him go home in the rain, to be sure. I'm very certain there was nothing about him that could spoil. Take cold? Indeed! He doesn't look lik one of the sort to take cold. Besides, he'd better have taken cold than taken our umbrella. Do you hear the rain, Mr. Caudle? I say, DO YOU HEAR THE RAIN? And, as I'm alive, if it isn't Saint Swithin's Day!-DOUGLAS WILLIAM JERROLD, Mrs. Caudle's Umbrella Lecture.

SECTION 35

Kinds of Sentences

2. SIMPLE, COMPLEX, AND COMPOUND SENTENCES

Simple, complex, and compound sentences show a broader range of effects than do those we have just considered. a. Simple Sentences. — The simple sentence makes only one statement; for example, (1) “The pond is frozen, (2) "The hills and the plain are white with snow," (3) "The snow is falling and drifting about the house," (4) "Snow and ice cover the lake and the river." Thus, in the simple sentence, there may be more than one subject (2), more than one predicate (3), or, in some cases, both (4).

The simple sentence is valued chiefly for its clearness and directness. This is due in part to the fact that it is commonly shorter than either the complex or the compound sentence, and in part to the fact that its subject and predicate, which express the most important ideas in the sentence, stand out more prominently than in the combined sentences. A short simple sentence may therefore be used, before or after or in the midst of several

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long complex and compound sentences, to attract the reader's attention to an important thought. But simple sentences in unbroken succession, and unvaried in length and construction, are likely to tire the reader. They do so very often in newspaper reports, especially where there is any straining for effect, as in reports of thrilling accidents, and so on. Even in the first half of Macaulay's paragraph, quoted in Exercise 46, which abounds in simple sentences, and in which this form is perhaps shown at its best, there is a staccato effect that strikes the ear unpleasantly, an effect that in this case is no doubt partially due to the sentence length.

b. Complex Sentences. The complex sentence makes one principal statement, and one or more statements that are dependent upon it for their meaning; for example, "Things are not what they seem," "Since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour" (FRANKLIN), "Write in your heart that every day is the best day in the year" (EMERSON).

Though the complex sentence is not ordinarily so clear and direct as the simple sentence, it is inuch more accurate. Not all our ideas are of equal importance. Some of them are of vastly greater importance than others, and most of them have more or less subtle relations among themselves. The complex sentence, if we are skilful in the handling of it, enables us to show the relative importance of our ideas, and to mark the precise relation of one idea to another. In Franklin's sentence, for example, "thou art not sure of a minute" is of less importance than "throw not away an hour." But the former statement is nevertheless closely related to the latter, it gives Franklin's reason for saying "throw not away an hour,'

en

- and should therefore be put into the same sentence. "Since" and a comma, the complex structure, abled Franklin not only to put these two statements into a single sentence, but also to show their precise relation and their comparative importance. Furthermore, a succession of complex sentences, from the very nature of their varied structure, can never be so tiresome as a succession of simple sentences. A superficial examination of the best pieces of prose writing, moreover, is enough to show that many of the most musical, of the most powerful, of the most sublime passages are written in complex sentences. Here again the sentence length, as we shall see later on, helps in producing the effect. In Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, however, in which the sentences are mainly complex, and in which, with the exception of the last, they are also short, the style is noble and elevated. On the other hand, the complex sentence is conducive to digressions, as in De Quincey's works, and to over-looseness, as in Carlyle's works.

c. Compound Sentences. The compound sentence makes two or more statements of equal value; for example, "Truth needs not many words, but a false tale a large preamble," "A nod for a wise man, and a rod for a fool," "The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and who rest in unvisited tombs" (GEORGE ELIOT). These statements, as the examples show, may be either simple or complex, and are commonly connected by a coördinate conjunction.

1 Quoted at p. 187.