When the sun melts the snow in high Pamere.
—M. Arnold.
10. On a fine, breezy forenoon I am audaciously skeptical, but, as twilight sets in, my credulity grows steadily, till it becomes equal to anything that could be desired.—De Quincey.
11. Although it was now well on towards dark and the sun was down an hour or so, I could see the robbers’ road before me in a trough of the winding hills, where the brook plowed down from the higher barrows, and the coving banks were roofed with furze.—Blackmore.
12. In one place the poet describes a congregation gathered to listen to a preacher in a great unillumined cathedral at night.—Wm. James.
CHAPTER II
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPOSITIONS
How Propositions differ in Nature.—In studying the human body we cannot help seeing that all the prominent members are not equally important. Some could exist independently of others, while some are joined directly to a more important part, and, if separated from it, would have no use or life. So, in studying a sentence, we notice that all the propositions are not equal in rank. Some are complete sentences in themselves; others would not make sense if they were obliged to stand alone. Hence there arise two classes of propositions,—principal and subordinate, or independent and dependent.
In every sentence there is at least one primary thought which it is the author’s main purpose to communicate, and this will always be found in the principal proposition. There may be modifying circumstances of time, place, manner, condition, etc., which he wishes to embody in his sentence, but he brings these in by means of words and phrases, which are elements of the principal proposition, or else, if the language affords no adequate words and phrases, by means of subordinate propositions.
In the following sentence from Carlyle,—“How true is that old fable of the Sphinx, who sat by the wayside propounding her riddle to the passengers,” there are plainly two propositions. It is also plain that the thought which the author wished most to convey is this,—The old fable of the Sphinx is true. In fact, it was the prime importance of this thought that led him to put it in the principal proposition. He chose to add the thought expressed in the second proposition, but he showed its minor importance by constructing the proposition so that it serves as a mere modifier of the word Sphinx. From a grammatical point of view the first proposition is complete,—it could stand alone and make sense; hence it is called independent. On the other hand, the second proposition, if separated from the first, would lose its meaning; it is therefore said to be dependent.