14. For every bucket of water that ye bring to us, that we may pour it into the tank, which is the Market, behold! we will give you a penny.—Bellamy.
15. A ruined man staggers down to ruin because there was not wisdom enough in him.—Carlyle.
16. Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.—Kipling.
17. He only meant to walk up and down her street, so that she might see him from the window, and know that this splendid thing was he.—Barrie.
18. If we wore prints, instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing material.—Mrs. Gaskell.
CHAPTER XV
THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF CONDITION
Function.—We are seldom able to make unqualified statements, because few facts are universally true. On the contrary, we must carefully hedge in our statements by certain restrictions, and a useful means for doing this is the adverbial clause of condition. For instance, “The knight ever came to the rescue of a woman in danger or distress,” is a sweeping statement, and would instantly be disputed unless we add the conditional clause, “provided she was a lady.”
Such a clause is often so important that writers place it at the beginning of the sentence as if they wished to guard against contradiction or misunderstanding, by putting their readers at once into the proper attitude for comprehending their principal statement.
If we examine a few typical sentences, we shall see how useful is the condition clause in a variety of ways.