position that we must attend to, if we wish to know all its parts grammatically? A. The predicate. Q. Shall I tell you now its grammatical name? It is called the "verb," or word, because it is the important word in a sentence; since, without it, we could not have a proposition, or a thought, expressed, and therefore could not have a sentence. Can you tell me the verb in every one of the sentences which we have attended to? A. [accordingly.]Q. Can you give other examples? A. [accordingly.] LESSON V. CLAUSES. Q. [After writing, on the blackboard, the sentence, “Heavy rain already falls, thick and fast, from the clouds."] Into how many parts do the commas divide this sentence? A. Three. Q. Shall I tell you the grammatical name for these parts? They are called "clauses," or enclosures, because they are enclosed by the commas. Can you tell me how many clauses there are in this sentence, written on the board? "Heavy rain already falls, thick and fast, from the clouds; and the wind blows hard." A. Four.-Q. From what point does a fourth clause commence? A. The semicolon.-Q. [After writing the sentence, "Heavy rain already falls, thick and fast, from the clouds; and the wind blows hard: it will be a stormy night."] How many clauses are there in this sentence? A. Five.-Q. From what point does the fifth clause commence? A. The colon.-Q. [After writing the sentence, "Heavy rain already falls, thick and fast, from the clouds; and the wind blows hard: it will be a stormy night; and I fear that our friends will be anxious about us, unless we set out at once, and drive rapidly."] How many clauses are there in this sentence? A. Eight.-Q. What points enclose the parts of this sentence? A. Commas, semicolons, a colon, and a period.-Q. Can you explain to me what a clause is? A. It is a part of a sentence separated from the rest by one or two points. Q. Can you show me, from your reading-book, examples of sentences which have but one clause? - two-three - four-five-six -or more? A. [accordingly.] LESSON VI. - PHRASES. Q. [After writing on the board the sentence, "Heavy rain already falls, thick and fast, from the clouds."] How many clauses did you say there are in this sentence? A. Three.-Q. Can you divide these clauses themselves? Try, by reading the sentence slowly and carefully, and watching whether you make any pauses, besides those which you make at the points. A. We pause a little at "Heavy rain," before we read "already falls." - Q. And does not that pause seem to join the two words, "Heavy rain," and the two words, "already falls?" Why may we not pause after "Heavy" and after" already"? A. Because Heavy" belongs to " rain," and "already" to "falls." Q. Why may we not omit a pause between "rain" and "already," and join them to one another? A. Because they do not belong to one another.-Q. Would it make sense, if we should pause after "Heavy" and " already," and make no pause between "rain" and "already"? A. No.-Q. Then, in reading, we must join those words of a sentence which are joined in sense, and separate those which are separated in sense, must we ? What did we call those clusters of words which are enclosed by points? A. Clauses. Q. Shall I tell you, now, the name of those little clusters, or groups, (as we sometimes call them,) of words which belong to one another, in sense, and are smaller than clauses, and therefore have no points to enclose them? We call them “phrases,” or sayings, because, although they do not, like a whole sentence, tell, or affirm, something, they say something. Can you show me phrases from any page of your reading-book? A. [accordingly.]—Q. When you compare clauses with phrases, what would you say of clauses? Are they anything more than longer phrases? Let us see. Is there any pause to be made in the clause "from the clouds," in the sentence we have been studying? A. No.-Q. Is it not a phrase then? A. Yes.-Q. Why? A. Because all the words are joined in the sense, and must be joined in reading.-Q. Some phrases then, may have more than two words? A. Yes; this one has - three.-Q. Do you see any other phrase, in this sentence, which is both a clause and a phrase? A. Yes; "thick and fast."Q. What shall we say, then, that a phrase is? A. As many words, or as few, as are closely joined in sense, whether they make a clause or not.-Q. Can you show me, from your reading-book, phrases of three, four, or five words? A. [accordingly.] LESSON VII.-WORDS, SYLLABLES, Letters. Q. We have been dividing sentences into clauses and phrases. Can we find any smaller part still than a phrase? What are phrases made of? A. Words.-Q. And what are words made of? A. Syllables.-Q. " 'Syllables" means taken together, or grouped. Can you show me examples of syllables? A. [accordingly.]Q. Do you remember that phrases are made up of groups of words? What should you then say syllables are made of? A. Groups of letters.-Q. Is there any smaller part of a syllable than a letter? A. No.-Q. Can you tell me now what is the smallest part of a sentence? A. A letter. Q. What branch of education do we call that which teaches us about sentences, words, syllables, and letters? A. Grammar. — Q. Do you know any one word which we can use, when we mean to express what grammar teaches us. We say arithmetic teaches us about number, geography teaches us about the earth, astronomy teaches us about the stars, and grammar teaches us about what? A. Language. Q. And language is made up of what? A. Sentences, words, syllables, and letters.-Q. Letters, then, are the smallest part of language. If we wish to study language, then, what must we begin with, if we wish to take up the smallest and easiest part? A. Letters.-Q. What is this? [Making a short perpendicular line on the blackboard.] A. A mark. —— Q. What is it now? [Drawing a short hair-line across the head and foot of the line.] A. It is the letter I.-Q. A letter, then, is a mark, a mark for what? A. A sound of the voice. — Q. Of what kind, —a musical, or a speaking sound? A. A speaking sound.-Q. How many letters belong to our language? A. Twenty-six. LESSON VIII. — ORTHOEPY. - Q. If there are twenty-six letters in our alphabet, and every letter is the mark for a sound of the voice, how many different sounds must there be in our language? A. Twenty-six. — Q. But some of our letters have several different sounds. How do we sound "a" in the word "all"? - in the word "arm" — in the word "and" in the word "ale" — in the word "air"? A. [accordingly.] Q. [After exemplifying the various sounds of all the letters of the alphabet.] You observe, then, that, although we have, in our alphabet, but twenty-six letters, we have about forty different sounds represented by them. Now, as all the syllables and words of our language are made up from these forty or more sounds, what must we know, in order to read or speak our language rightly? A. We must know these sounds, and how to put them together. Q. Do you wish to know what that part of grammar is called which teaches us about these sounds? It is called "orthoëpy," which means correct speech or pronunciation. What do we call the part of grammar which teaches us to pronounce correctly? A. Orthoëpy.-Q. How does grammar teach us this branch of language? It gives us certain rules in our grammar book. But does it not lead us to make use of other books? What do we learn from the primer, the spelling-book, the dictionary? A. How to spell words, and how to pronounce them, and what their meaning is.-Q. Yes; grammar is meant to teach us everything about language, even to our letters; and the primer, the spelling-book, and the dictionary, are all grammar books, because they all teach us to understand and use the words of our language rightly. When I am talking, how do my words enter into your minds? Could you understand them, if you were deaf? You receive them into your mind, by what? A. By the ear.-Q. When I write words on the blackboard, or when you read them in a book, how do you receive them into your mind,— by what? A. By the eye. — Q, What kind of language do we call that in which words come from the voice to the ear? A. Speech, ― spoken language. — Q. What do we call that which comes from letters to the eye? A. Writing, written language, — printing. — Q. Which kind of language does orthoëpy teach us? A. Spoken language. LESSON IX.-ORTHOGRAPHY. - Q. How is spoken language changed into written language? Letters, you said, are marks for speaking sounds or speech. How, then, may we communicate, by language, with persons who are at a great distance from us, -in another part of the world perhaps, - or how may our words be brought to the minds of people after we are dead? A. By writing or printing.-Q. What is writing or printing?-A. Making marks for the sounds which we should make if we were speaking. When people read these marks, they will know our words, and understand our meaning.-Q. What kind of language do we call this? A. Written language. Q. Can you tell me the name of the part of grammar which teaches us written language? A. Orthography. Q. "Orthography" means correct writing, - the correct writing of language, not the penmanship, but what? A. Spelling. Q. What do we learn, then, from this part of grammar? A. To put the proper letters and syllables into words, when we write them. Q. What means does grammar use to teach us this part of language? How are we taught to spell correctly? A. By the words given us in the primer, the spelling-book, and the dictionary, and by rules in the grammar book itself.-Q. Now you will understand why the science of language is called “grammar.” The word "grammar" signifies writing; and, as it requires more knowledge of language to write it correctly, than to speak it, the part of language which requires most scientific knowledge, the written part, is that which we are supposed to be chiefly studying, when we are learning language. Hence it is called grammar. Because it is meant princi - - Why is grammar so called? A. pally to teach written language. Note.-The exercises prescribed in this manual, for young pupils, are designed, chiefly, for practice in the first stages of gram |