If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action. Life is our dictionary. Years are well spent in country labors; in town; in the insight into trades and manufactures; in frank intercourse with many men and women; in science; in art; to the one end of mastering in all their facts a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions. I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.—Emerson.
The following gives cause and effect:—
The King could not see that there were two Englands—that of himself and North, and that of Burke and Chatham. The result was inevitable. A third England sprang up across the sea.
The following sets up a quaint contrast. The passage is from Dr. Johnson’s allegory on Wit and Learning:—
Their conduct was, whenever they desired to recommend themselves to distinction, entirely opposite. Wit was daring and adventurous; Learning cautious and deliberate. Wit thought nothing reproachful but dullness; Learning was afraid of no imputation but that of error. Wit answered before he understood, lest his quickness of apprehension should be questioned; Learning paused, where there was no difficulty, lest any insidious sophism should lie undiscovered. Wit perplexed every debate by rapidity and confusion; Learning tired the hearers with endless distinctions, and prolonged the dispute without advantage, by proving that which never was denied. Wit, in hopes of shining, would venture to produce what he had not considered, and often succeeded beyond his own expectation, by following the train of a lucky thought; Learning would reject every new notion, for fear of being entangled in consequences which she could not foresee, and was often hindered, by her caution, from pressing her advantages, and subduing her opponent.
Oral Exercise.[29]—Each of the following paragraphs had a topic sentence stating a cause, which was then followed by a statement of the effect. Frame a topic sentence for each, stating the cause.
1. — — — — — — Consequently it is a good thing to apply pretty sharp tests to whatever offers itself as the genuine thing. Often the great schemes that men hatch for growing rich are nothing but pyrites. The acid of sharp common sense corrodes and discolors them.
2. — — — — — — — — — — — — Nothing worse could have befallen the man. Being unused to the possession of wealth he ran through his millions in a year. In 1876 his old friend Everard met him in the street and passed him by as a beggar.
Oral Exercise.—Examine the following paragraphs of explanation, and form a topic sentence for each.
1. — — — — — — — — — — — In other words, hold to the good you have. Let well enough alone. People lay great plans; they see the future through rosy lenses; they build castles in Spain. But great plans that can’t be carried out are of less value than small, practicable plans; the future is never just what it promises to be; and as for castles in Spain, of what value are they to owners who can neither rent nor inhabit them?