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Page iii
... instances from . The plan of the book was dictated by the following considerations . It is notorious that English writers seldom look into a grammar or composition book ; the reading of grammars is repellent because , being bound to be ...
... instances from . The plan of the book was dictated by the following considerations . It is notorious that English writers seldom look into a grammar or composition book ; the reading of grammars is repellent because , being bound to be ...
Page 7
... instance , may be con- sidered to fall below the dignity required of a philosophic essay . The same might , with less reason , be said of our simplified newspaper extracts ; a great journal has a tone that must be kept up ; if it had ...
... instance , may be con- sidered to fall below the dignity required of a philosophic essay . The same might , with less reason , be said of our simplified newspaper extracts ; a great journal has a tone that must be kept up ; if it had ...
Page 11
... . Entomological research , for instance , does not look for insects , but for facts about insects . 3. Give - and - take forms , in which there are two words , with different constructions , that might properly be used , and MALAPROPS 11.
... . Entomological research , for instance , does not look for insects , but for facts about insects . 3. Give - and - take forms , in which there are two words , with different constructions , that might properly be used , and MALAPROPS 11.
Page 17
... — Times . ( skilful ) Idiom confines skilled , except in poetry , almost entirely to the word labour , and to craftsmen - a skilled mason , for instance . N.S. C It is to the Convention , therefore , that reference MALAPROPS 17.
... — Times . ( skilful ) Idiom confines skilled , except in poetry , almost entirely to the word labour , and to craftsmen - a skilled mason , for instance . N.S. C It is to the Convention , therefore , that reference MALAPROPS 17.
Page 19
... instance , motor , argon , appendicitis . It is interesting to see that the last word did not exist , or was at least too obscure to be recorded , when the Oxford Dic- tionary began to come out in 1888 ; we cannot do without it now ...
... instance , motor , argon , appendicitis . It is interesting to see that the last word did not exist , or was at least too obscure to be recorded , when the Oxford Dic- tionary began to come out in 1888 ; we cannot do without it now ...
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Common terms and phrases
adjective Admiral Rozhdestvensky adverb ambiguity answer antecedent apodosis archaism asked avoid Balfour Beadnell BENSON better blunder brackets BRONTË comma common compound confusion conjunction coordination correct Daily Telegraph dash defining clause Dictionary doubt E. F. BENSON effect elegant variation English exclamation expressed fact FERRIER following examples French full stop gerund give grammatical hyphen idiom implied infinitive inserted instance inversion J. R. GREEN kind less literary means meant merely metaphor mistake modern natural necessary never non-defining clause noun object omitted original parenthesis participle perhaps person phrase possible practically preposition present principle pronoun protasis punctuation pure system question quotation marks reader relative clause repetition result rhetorical rule Russian seems semicolon sense slang sometimes Spectator stand statement subordinate clause substantival clause substitute thing thought tion true ugly usage Vanity Fair verb Westminster Gazette words writer wrong
Popular passages
Page 305 - Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.
Page 237 - Philosophers assert, that Nature is unlimited in her operations; that she has inexhaustible treasures in reserve; that knowledge will always be progressive ; and that all future generations will continue to make discoveries, of which we have not the least idea.
Page 62 - All the faculties of Burns's mind were, as far as I could judge, equally vigorous ; and his predilection for poetry was rather the result of his own enthusiastic and impassioned temper, than of a genius exclusively adapted to that species of composition. From his conversation I should have pronounced him to be fitted to excel in whatever walk of ambition he had chosen to exert his abilities.
Page 295 - ... unimpassioned rock, they share also its endurance ; and while the winds of departing spring scatter the white hawthorn blossom like drifted snow, and summer dims on the parched meadow the drooping of its cowslip-gold, — far above, among the mountains, the silver lichen-spots rest, starlike, on the stone ; and the gathering orange stain upon the edge of yonder western peak reflects the sunsets of a thousand years.
Page 163 - I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting churches from all that looks like absolute government is so much to be sought in their religious tenets, as in their history.
Page 232 - Thus, their work, however imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it may have been, brought them face to face with all the leading aspects of the many-sided mind of man. For these studies did really contain, at any rate in embryo — sometimes, it may be, in caricature — what we now call Philosophy, Mathematical and Physical Science, and Art.
Page 295 - ... bread; go, Teachers of content and honest pride, into the mine, the mill, the forge, the squalid depths of deepest ignorance, and uttermost abyss of man's neglect, and say can any hopeful plant spring up in air so foul that it extinguishes the soul's bright torch as fast as it is kindled!
Page 142 - ... where our sympathy is most wanted — in the distresses of others. If this passion was simply painful, we would shun with the greatest care all persons and places that could excite such a passion, as some, who are so far gone in indolence as not to endure any strong impression, actually do. But the case is widely different with the greater part of mankind; there is no spectacle we so eagerly pursue as that of some uncommon and grievous calamity; so that whether the misfortune is before...
Page 305 - To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear: and under him My Genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was by Caesar.