CHAPTER II.

STUDIES IN DISCRIMINATION.

Completeness includes:

I. FINALITY.

Let the student, in the following examples, aim to assert his arguments or his principles so that there shall be no doubt of his interest in the subject.

I honestly and solemnly declare, I have in all seasons adhered to the system of 1766 for no other reason, than that I think it laid deep in your truest interests; and that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes, on the firmest foundations, a real, consistent, well-grounded authority in Parliament. Until you come back to that system, there will be no peace for England. - BURKE.

Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever! - WEBSTER.

The party of Freedom will certainly prevail. It may be by entering into and possessing one of the old parties, filling it with our own strong life; or it may be by drawing to itself the good and true from both who are unwilling to continue in a political combination when it ceases to represent their convictions; but, in one way or the other, its ultimate triumph is sure. Of this let no man doubt.— SUMNER.

II. MOMENTARY COMPLETENESS.

The purpose of the following drills is not to train the student in the manner of making inflections, but rather to

impress upon his mind the fact that rhetorically a sentence may be complete even though the point of completion be not marked by a full stop. In other words, the drill is one in mental, rather than vocal, technique.

The student must determine the purpose in every case, and then trust his voice to manifest that purpose.

"Hence! home,1 you idle creatures, get you home."

"Speak, what trade art thou?"

"Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule?"

"You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things."

66 'Many a time and oft

Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops.
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat

To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome."
"Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude."

"Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations."

"I was born free as Cæsar, so were you;

We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he."

"His coward lips did from their color fly,

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his lustre."

"Ye gods, it doth amaze me,

A man of such a feeble temper should

1 The falling inflection may properly be given on the italicized words; but the latter are not therefore necessarily to be emphasized.

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"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves."

"Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."

"Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mocked himself."

"Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous."

"Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,

And tell me truly what thou think'st of him."

Why, there was a crown offered him; and, being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus."

"I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it; it was mere foolery, I did not mark it."

"You look pale, and gaze,

And put on fear, and case yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens."

"Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste."

"How that might change his nature, there's the question."

"But when he once attains the upmost round

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend."

"... let us not break with him,

For he will never follow anything
That other men begin."

Grammatical and Formal Incompleteness.

I. SUBORDINATION.

"What India and France wanted, and that is what we want

to-day, was live men."

"This globe, once a mass of molten granite, now blooms almost a paradise."

Clive, ill and exhausted as he was, undertook to make an army of this undisciplined rabble, and marched with them to Covelong. A shot from the fort killed one of these extraordinary soldiers; on which all the rest faced about and ran away, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Clive rallied them. On another occasion, the noise of a gun terrified the sentinels so much that one of them was found, some hours later, at the bottom of a well. Clive gradually accustomed them to danger, and, by exposing himself constantly in the most perilous situation, shamed them into courage. He at length succeeded in forming a respectable force out of his unpromising materials. Covelong fell. Clive learned that a strong detachment was marching to relieve it from Chingleput. He took measures to prevent the enemy from learning that they were too late, laid an ambuscade for them on the road, killed a hundred of them with one fire, took three hundred prisoners, pursued the fugitives to the gates of Chingleput, laid siege instantly to that fastness, reputed one of the strongest in India, made a breach, and was on the point of storming, when the French commandant capitulated and retired with his men. - MACAULAY.

But scarce again his horn he wound,
When lo! forth starting at the sound,
From underneath an aged oak
That slanted from the islet rock,
A damsel guider of its way,

A little skiff shot to the bay,
That round the promontory steep
Led its deep line in graceful sweep,
Eddying, in almost viewless wave,
The sweeping willow twig to lave,

And kiss, with whispering sound and slow,
The beach of pebbles bright as snow.

II. ANTICIPATION.

SCOTT.

"Antonio, I am married to a wife,

Which is as dear to me as life itself;

But life itself, my wife, and all the world,

Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all

Here to this devil, to deliver you."

"But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house."

"I hold that he who humbly tries

To find wherein his duty lies,

And finding, does the same, and bears

Its burdens lightly, and its cares,

Is nobler, in his low estate,

Than crowned king or potentate."

"Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself."

"To prevent this, and secure the independence of the judges, after the English Revolution of 1689, it was fixed by the Act of Settlement, as it is called, that the King should not have the power to remove judges, but that they should hold their offices during good behavior.''

"Now, gentlemen, looking on the face of this, it would be naturally inferred that notwithstanding his 'good behavior,' and without alleging any violation of it, a judge could, nevertheless, be removed by address."

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Standing as we do to-day in the presence of this fearful evil, surrounded on all sides by the enemies of law and good government, with factions within our own ranks striving in selfish ways each to attain its own ends, nothing can save us but honesty, integrity, and magnanimity.”

There are many occasions when there is reasonable room for a difference of opinion in the rendition of certain passages. For instance, in the last of the extracts under Momentary Completeness," one might consider the sentence as momentarily complete at "anything." The stu

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