TYPICAL SENTENCES

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3. "I might have been a minister myself, for aught I know, if this clergyman had not looked and talked so like an undertaker." · Holmes. Here the sentence is so framed that the contrary of both clause and principal proposition is implied; namely, this clergyman did look and talk exactly like an undertaker, hence I am not a minister. Is it not wonderful that by means of one set of words we may say two opposite things, and not fail of being understood?

4. "If I was ever weak enough to give anything to a petitioner of whatever nationality, it always rained decayed compatriots of his for a month after."- Lowell. Here the subordinate thought is put into the form of a clause of condition, but at the same time we understand that we are to find in it the cause of the principal proposition.

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5. Middlingness is always pardonable, so that one does not ask others to take it for superiority." — George Eliot. The clause is here a saving clause. It states the exception necessary to be made in order that the principal proposition may be accepted as true.

6. "If my friend was not a genius, he was certainly a monomaniac."- H. James. This sentence does not mean that my friend was a monomaniac provided he was not a genius, but is a brief way of saying, If you assert that my friend was not a genius, you will then have to admit that he was certainly a monomaniac.

7. "She has met the equinoctials before, if it is the equinoctials that are beginning." — Black. Here the clause does not state a condition for the principal proposition, but for some thought not expressed, — this, per haps and can meet this storm.

In these sentences we have by no means shown all that may be accomplished by the conditional clause. We have only indicated the types of sentences most frequently met with in which this clause occurs.

The con

What the Conditional Clause modifies. ditional clause is usually brought into the sentence by the predicate of the principal proposition, and so must be looked upon as an adjunct of that predicate. Sometimes, however, it modifies a gerund, participle, or infinitive. In the sentence, — “She must have a story, well, ill, or indifferently told, so there be life stirring in.it, and plenty of good or evil accidents," the clause modifies the participle told after it has been modified by the adverbs well, ill, and indifferently.

Introductory Word. 1. The subordinating conjunctions if, so, unless (= if not).

2. The phrases on condition that, conditionally that, in case that, provided that, but that, so that. These should be considered as one word.

3. The imperatives say, let, suppose; as, "Suppose you were going to carpet a room, would you use a carpet having representations of flowers upon it?" - Dickens. Here the condition seems to be actual and present, not imaginary.

4. The participles providing, provided, supposing. The first two are especially useful in introducing a restriction.

Sometimes there is no connective, but the subordination and the nature of the clause are indicated by the order of the words, the verb or its auxiliary being placed

before the subject; thus," Had I twenty girls, they should be brought up exactly in this fashion." - Lamb.

Exercise 16

Dispose of all clauses of condition in the following

sentences:

1. If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Dickens.

2. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. — Mill.

3. Education will not make people happy, unless it is directed into useful channels. — Lord.

4. The hall was open to all who came on condition that the guest should leave his weapons at the door. - Besant.

5. Should a man discover the art of transmuting metals, and present us with a lump of gold as large as an ostrich egg, would it be in human nature to inquire too nicely whether he had stolen the lead? - Lowell.

6. He made very few rules, and in case one was broken in spirit or in letter, the delinquent was set up on a high stool behind a small, long-legged desk, facing the school, and made to read from the bad boy's scrap book. - Annie Preston.

7. If you would not be known to do a thing, never do it. Emerson.

8. While you utterly shun slang, whether native or foreign born, at present, by the way, our popular writers use far less slang than the English, yet do not shrink from Americanisms, Higginson.

so they be good ones.

9. The Saxon is the man of all others slow to admit the thought of revolution; but let him once admit it, he will carry it through and make it stick a secret hitherto undiscoverable by other races. - Lowell.

10. Had it been wholly serious, it would not have been wholly French.

Higginson.

11. If he was ambitious, his ambition had no petty aim.

J. R. Green.

12. Talents are absolutely nothing to a man except he have the faculty of work along with them. - Lowell.

CHAPTER XVI

THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF CONCESSION

Function. In the compound sentence," The whale is not a fish, but we speak of the 'whale fishery,'" we have joined two thoughts which are opposed to each other, but we have made them of equal importance. Now, if we wish to make one of them more prominent, and at the same time indicate that it is true in spite of the other, we construct our sentence as follows, The whale is not a fish though we speak of the 'whale fishery.'

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Here the main thought is the whale is not a fish, and by the form in which we have expressed the other thought, we have shown not only that there is an opposition between the two thoughts, which was likewise shown in the compound sentence, but also that it is strange that the two thoughts are true at the same time when they seem mutually contradictory. This second sentence is complex, and the dependent proposition is an adverbial clause of concession. It does not necessarily indicate that two thoughts are opposed to each other; sometimes they only stand in contrast; as, While

INTRODUCTORY WORD

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(though) his fame rests on his Meditations, as that of David rests upon his Psalms, he yet rendered great military service to The Empire." - Lord.

We may define a concessive clause as one that concedes or grants something in contrast or opposition to what is expressed in the principal proposition. It modifies a verb or a verb with modifiers. It varies but little in function, the slight variations being indicated by the choice of the introductory word.

Introductory Word. 1. Though or although.

This

is the conjunction oftenest used; indeed, all the other words or phrases used are more or less equivalent to it in meaning. Albeit was formerly much used, and we occasionally find it in poetry now, but it is very seldom used in spoken English or in ordinary prose composition. 2. Whether. This word with its correlative or is used when we wish to say that a thing is true in spite of two other facts or conditions which are contrary to each other; as, “The balconies are always charming, whether they hang high over the streets or look out upon the canals." - Howells.

3. The indefinite pronouns whoever, whatever, whichever; the adjectives whatever and whichever; and the adverb however. These words signify that the clause is to be taken in its widest possible application; as, Upon whatever career you may enter, intellectual quickness, industry, and the power of bearing fatigue are three great advantages."- Huxley. Here the clause means, though you may enter upon any career whatsoever.

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4. No matter. This phrase together with the adverb how is a frequent substitute for the connective however.