66 "" 49 office is to throw the real subject after the predicate verb. Another word used in the same way is there; for example, "There is no good reason for a bad action."-Spurgeon. This word is not the adverb there, for it conveys no idea whatever. It does nothing at all for the meaning of the sentence, as is shown by our slighting it in reading. After the anticipative subject there the real subject is almost always a noun with modifiers, but it may be a noun clause; for example, -"No, indeed, there is no wonder that God loved the world." Phillips Brooks. The verb in these sentences is usually some form of the verb be. It is not the copula so often as it is the complete intransitive verb be, meaning exist. In the sentence, There are many kinds of sea fowl that feed on fish and build their nests on the sea coast," the entire predicate is the verb are. 66 When the verb is a copula it is often completed by a prepositional phrase denoting an attribute of the subject. For example, “There is not a crevice in it where anything green can lodge and grow." King. Here the predicate is is in it. 66 Other intransitive verbs are occasionally found after there, as in the sentence, There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin." - Campbell. Exercise 7 Select noun clauses in the following sentences, telling the use of each, its introductory word, and use of that word in the clause, if it has any. 1. People are always cheating themselves with the idea that they would do this or that desirable thing, if they only had time. 2. My notion is that you should let me go, and give me a lamb or goose or two every month, and then I could live without stealing. Froude. 3. He was desirous that the people should think for themselves as well as tax themselves. Macaulay. 4. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 5. I'm very certain there was nothing about him that could spoil. Jerrold. 6. The Reverend Amos Barton did not come to Shepperton until long after Mr. Gilfil had departed this life. - George Eliot. 7. I think it does not matter just when I came to Venice. Howells. 8. We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow. - Macaulay. 9. The worst of a modern stylish mansion is, that it has no place for ghosts. - Holmes. 10. It is with lent money that all evil is mainly done, and all unjust war protracted. - Ruskin. II. The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. — Irving. 12. I need not say that in real sound stupidity the English are unrivaled. — Bagehot. 13. What his violins were to Stradivarius, and his fresco to Leonardo, and his campaigns to Napoleon, that was his history to Macaulay. Trevelyan. 14. It is by his poetry that Milton is best known; and it is of his poetry that we first wish to speak. — Macaulay. 15. Shall I care about how they criticise the outside of my life? Phillips Brooks. 16. The next half hour, at most, would decide the question of whether he would or would not get up from his bed and leave the room. - Collins. 17. So, what was contentment in the slave became philanthropy in the emperor. Lord. 18. They showed no reverence except that they did not talk or laugh loudly. - Besant. 19. We are convinced that the measure was most injurious to the cause of freedom. Macaulay. 20. We must not wonder that the outside of books is so different, when the inner nature of those for whom they are written is so changed. — Bagehot. 21. Now, what puzzles me is, that anybody, old or young, should forget this, — that the path of life leads to something. Munger. 22. I can say to you what I cannot first say to myself. Emerson. 23. They were compelled to choose whether they would trust a tyrant or conquer him. Macaulay. 24. The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. — Bagehot. 25. Men are what their mothers made them. - Emerson. CHAPTER VIII ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES CONTAINING NOUN CLAUSES It is most convenient to analyze the noun clause last, even if it is the subject of the sentence. As soon as the clause is mentioned, however, as a sentence-element, its introductory word should be given. Clauses within the noun clause should be disposed of after the rest of the noun clause has been analyzed. A direct quotation is frequently introduced into a sentence to fulfill the office of a noun clause. In structure and form it is like an independent proposition, but in function it is subordinate; for example, "The first and last and closest trial question to any living creature is, 66 What do you like?" Ruskin. Notice that this sentence is declarative though the quotation is interrogative. Exercise 8 Analyze the following sentences: I. Whoever has common sense and a sound heart has the power by which Whittier may be appreciated. Masson. 2. It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple-tree is connected with that of man. Thoreau. 3. We were welcomed to a Highlander's home and told where we could fish to advantage from three o'clock till dark. Bolles. 4. The announcement that for centuries the tropical forests of Central America have hidden within their tangled growth the ruined homes and temples of a past race, stirs the civilized world with a strange, deep wonder. Agassiz. 5. I was quite determined that the old set of singers should be dismissed. George Eliot. 6. It was within the dingy walls of this little potentate's imperial palace that I chose my country residence. — Longfellow. 7. Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. — Carlyle. 8. The question of common-sense is always, what is it good for? a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage. - Lowell. 9. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. — Irving. 10. I am told that one of the most reliable weather signs they have down in Texas is afforded by the ants. Burroughs. II. "It is only the love of all humanity that can keep from bitterness," said Brian. FUNCTION OF ADVERBIAL CLAUSE 53 12. I left my own garden yesterday, and went over to where Polly was getting the weeds out of one of her flower-beds. Warner. 13. "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar. Scott. 14. Whoever allies himself with God is armed with all the forces of the invisible world. -J. F. Clarke. 15. Boom is not a nice place, and is only remarkable for one thing that the majority of the inhabitants have a private opinion that they can speak English, which is not justified by fact. Stevenson. 16. I do not doubt but that many of you came unwillingly to-night. Ruskin. 17. With nature and God one law is inexorable disuses or misuses a faculty must lose it. — Hillis. 18. It is by little things that we know ourselves. - Holmes. 19. I felt in every fibre that this woodman invariably cheated me in measurement. - Howells. 66 20. 'How happy," exclaimed this child of air, "Are the holy spirits who wander there, Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall!" - Moore. CHAPTER IX THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF TIME Function. All actions or events can be referred to some time past, present, or future. Frequently the whole significance of an event depends upon either the time of its occurrence or its duration; hence it is often desirable and sometimes necessary to tell the time when an action takes place or state the period of its con |