his majesty George the Third.-IRVING: Rip Van Winkle.

Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded, in an austere tone, "what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed riot in the village?"-Ibid.

He listened greedily to the thousand details of a farmer's labors, the autumn sowing, the winter work, the splendid feasts of harvest home and vintage, the flails beating the floor, the sound of the mills by the edge of the water, the tired horses led to the trough, the morning hunting in the mists, and above all, the long evenings around the fire, shortened by tales of marvel.-COPPEE: The Substitute.

(Note the closure at "labors.")

When Mrs. Durgan, widow of the late Sir John Durgan, arrived in their station, and after a short time had been proposed to by every single man at mess, she put the public sentiment very neatly when she explained that they were all so nice that unless she could marry them all, including the colonel and some majors who were already married, she was not going to content herself with one of them.-KIPLING: The Man Who Was.

Silas' hand satisfied itself with throwing the shuttle, and his eye with seeing the little squares in the cloth complete themselves under his effort. Then there were the calls of hunger: and Silas, in his solitude, had to

provide his own breakfast, dinner, and supper; and all
these immediate promptings helped, along with the
weaving, to reduce his life to the unquestioning activity
of a spinning insect. He hated the thought of the past;
there was nothing that called out his love and fellow-
ship towards the strangers he had come amongst; and
the future was all dark, for there was no unseen Love
that cared for him.-GEORGE ELIOT: Silas Marner.
(a. It seems best to regard the thought as incomplete
at “past” and "amongst." Why? b. How will you
group "breakfast, dinner, and supper"?)

They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,

And ate the cheese out of the vats,

And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,

And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking

In fifty different sharps and flats.

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;

And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling—
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives

Followed the Piper for their lives.

Out came the children running:
All the little boys and girls,

With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,

And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood
As if they were changed into blocks of wood,
Unable to move a step or cry

To the children merrily skipping by-
And could only follow with the eye

That joyous crowd at the Piper's back.
The Mayor sent east, west, north, and south
To offer the Piper by word of mouth,
Wherever it was man's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he'd only return the way he went,
And bring the children behind him.

-BROWNING: The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

(Nothing in the text of the first paragraph demands a rise or a fall of the voice at the end of each of the first six lines. So long as you have a reason you can use either; but after the sixth line there is no choice.

I prefer though I don't insist that you shouldto keep the sense open at the end of lines 11 and 12, but I think it is almost imperative to close it at "tumbling." But what will you do with all the "rats" and, particularly, why? And suppose you decide to close on the "rats," be careful of "wives." Further, there are interesting catches in many other lines, where you will have opportunity to test your knowledge of closure at commas; for instance, line 24, at "dumb"; line 25, at "wood."

But remember, finally, that while it is all a question of interpretation, there must be a reason for all you do.)

CHAPTER III

GROUP VALUES

SUBORDINATION

Here on this beach a hundred years ago,
Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,
The prettiest little damsel in the port,
And Phillip Ray, the miller's only son,
And Enoch Arden, a rough sailor's lad,
Made orphan by a winter shipwreck, play'd
Among the waste and lumber of the shore.

-TENNYSON: Enoch Arden.

If we omit from the above lines all but the main idea, the sentence reads:

Here on this beach a hundred years ago,
Three children of three houses

play'd

Among the waste and lumber of the shore.

In other words, the most important features of the picture are the three children playing on the shore. Let us now insert their names, and we have:

Here on this beach a hundred years ago,
Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,

And Phillip Ray,

And Enoch Arden,

play'd

Among the waste and lumber of the shore.

You observe that the names "Annie Lee," "Phillip Ray," and "Enoch Arden" are explanatory of the group "three children of three houses." They are, therefore, subordinate to the main idea; they are for the moment of secondary value. The author, after giving us the names of each of the children, adds another subordinate group of explanation: Annie Lee is the prettiest little damsel in the port; Phillip Ray is the miller's only son; and Enoch Arden is the rough sailor's lad, made orphan by a winter's shipwreck. Here, then, are groups of three distinct values, or degrees of importance. The most important is the statement that a hundred years ago three children played on the shore; the next important group gives the name of each child; and the least important gives the description of each child. entire sentence might be printed as on p. 74.

The

If all sentences were printed as we have printed the one from Enoch Arden we should have little trouble with subordinate values; but since they are not, we must train ourselves to recognize different degrees of thought values as they appear in the ordinary way in type. All type looks alike, one might say; the most important word or group has no greater prominence than the least necessary; and for this reason we must be the more careful in studying the printed page.

What adds to the difficulty is that the sentence becomes longer as subordinate groups are added, and the strain of concentration becomes greater and greater as (1) the subordinate group gets longer; or as (2) there is more than one successive subordinate group;