5. Should a man discover the art of transmuting metals, and present us with a lump of gold as large as an ostrich egg, would it be in human nature to inquire too nicely whether he had stolen the lead?—Lowell.
6. He made very few rules, and in case one was broken in spirit or in letter, the delinquent was set up on a high stool behind a small, long-legged desk, facing the school, and made to read from the bad boy’s scrap book.—Annie Preston.
7. If you would not be known to do a thing, never do it.—Emerson.
8. While you utterly shun slang, whether native or foreign born,—at present, by the way, our popular writers use far less slang than the English,—yet do not shrink from Americanisms, so they be good ones.—Higginson.
9. The Saxon is the man of all others slow to admit the thought of revolution; but let him once admit it, he will carry it through and make it stick—a secret hitherto undiscoverable by other races.—Lowell.
10. Had it been wholly serious, it would not have been wholly French.—Higginson.
11. If he was ambitious, his ambition had no petty aim.—J. R. Green.
12. Talents are absolutely nothing to a man except he have the faculty of work along with them.—Lowell.
CHAPTER XVI
THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF CONCESSION