Exercise.
Rewrite the following extract from Irving's "Sketch Book," and change it to a direct quotation:—
He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by strange beings; that it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name; that his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.
VERBALS.
PARTICIPLES.
Careless use of the participial phrase.
450. The following sentences illustrate a misuse of the participial phrase:—
Pleased with the "Pilgrim's Progress," my first collection was of John Bunyan's works.—B. Franklin.
My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill.—Goldsmith.
Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscente so suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy.—Id.
Having thus run through the causes of the sublime, my first observation will be found nearly true.—Burke
He therefore remained silent till he had repeated a paternoster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined.—Scott
Compare with these the following:—
A correct example.
Going yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected.—Addison.
Notice this.
The trouble is, in the sentences first quoted, that the main subject of the sentence is not the same word that would be the subject of the participle, if this were expanded into a verb.
Correction.
Consequently one of two courses must be taken,—either change the participle to a verb with its appropriate subject, leaving the principal statement as it is; or change the principal proposition so it shall make logical connection with the participial phrase.
For example, the first sentence would be, either "As I was pleased, ... my first collection was," etc., or "Pleased with the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' I made my first collection John Bunyan's works."
Exercise.—Rewrite the other four sentences so as to correct the careless use of the participial phrase.
INFINITIVES.
Adverb between to and the infinitive.
451. There is a construction which is becoming more and more common among good writers,—the placing an adverb between to of the infinitive and the infinitive itself. The practice is condemned by many grammarians, while defended or excused by others. Standard writers often use it, and often, purposely or not, avoid it.
The following two examples show the adverb before the infinitive:—
The more common usage.
He handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show that he fully understood the business.—Scott.
It is a solemn, universal assertion, deeply to be kept in mind by all sects.—Ruskin.
This is the more common arrangement; yet frequently the desire seems to be to get the adverb snugly against the infinitive, to modify it as closely and clearly as possible.