9. The conjunction has the same function as the preposition: it unites one object to another object; but it differs from it, inasmuch as the preposition has but a single word for its antecedent, and a single word for its objective case, while the conjunction has an entire phrase for antecedent, and the same for complement. It characterizes the point of view under the sway of which the relations should be regarded: restrictive, as but; hypothetical or conditional, as if? conclusive, as then, etc., etc. The conjunction presents a general view to our thought, it is the reunion of scattered facts; it is essentially elliptical.
10. The interjection responds to those circumstances where the soul, moved and shaken by a crowd of emotions at once, feels that by uttering a phrase it would be far from expressing what it experiences. It then exhales a sound, and confides to gesture the transmission of its emotion.
The interjection is essentially elliptical, because, expressing nothing in itself, it expresses at the time all that the gesture desires it to express, for ellipsis is a hidden sense, the revelation of which belongs exclusively to gesture.
It must first be noted that these degrees are numbered from one to nine, and that, of all the grammatical values defined, the conjunction, interjection and adverb are classed highest.
Delsarte made the following experiment one day in the "Circle of Learned Societies," during a lecture:
"Which word," he asked his audience, "requires most emphasis in the lines--
"The wave draws near, it breaks, and vomits up before our eyes,
Amid the surging foam, a monster huge of size?"
The absence of any rule applicable to the subject caused the most complete anarchy among the listeners. One thought that the word to be emphasized must be monster--as indicating an object of terror; another gave the preference to the adjective huge. Still another thought that vomits demanded the most expressive accent, from the ugliness of that which it expresses.
Delsarte repeated the lines:
"The wave draws near, it breaks, and ... vomits up before our eyes."