3.

4.

A verb and an adverb:

'I am here."

'Gold is there.'

A verb and a noun:

'Gray hairs are Death's blossoms.'

To enjoy is to obey.'

"The report is, that he is a traitor.'

'Pilate's question was, "What is truth?"

Note I.- Evidently, by predicate and subject we here mean the leading term or base of the thing asserted, and of the thing about which the assertion is made.

Note II. It is implied in this exposition, as held by Aristotle, that the predicate must consist of two factors - - an assertive, and an attributive. The former is the essential life of the sentence - the engine that propels the train. In logic it is called the copula, to indicate that it identifies or distinguishes the two terms of a judgment: 'All S is P'; 'Man is mortal.'

6

Note III.— The copula, by preëminence, is 'be,' which originally expressed breathing, then existence, as it does now sometimes: I am,' ‘God is.' Gradually the substantive meaning faded out, and the word came to be used frequently as a mere coupler, serving to bring two ideas into connection: God is good.' Both uses occur in the passage: We believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' He who would be saved from hopeless confusion, however, will do well to remember that the verb 'to be,' in spite of the hair-splitting logicians, is fundamentally a synonyme with the verb 'to exist.' 'Victoria is queen' is, at bottom, equal to 'Victoria exists queen.' So in the Diversions of Purley, H. says he would rather chuse in the scale of beings to exist a mastiff or a mule,' which is absolutely the same as 'to be a mastiff or a mule.' 'The man is dying' is no other than "The man exists in a dying condition'; and The man is dead' is neither more nor less than The man (that is, his body) exists dead'; for the existence (ex-stare, to stand forth) predicated by 'to be' is predicable alike of things animate and inanimate. Aristotle says: The copula affirms merely a relative, not an absolute, existence.' 'Ptolemy is not alive' denies

his existence relative to life, but implies it in the other sense that he exists to us as a dead man can, by remembrance or tradition.

Note IV.- Understanding, therefore, that 'be' radically declares a thing existent, we may correctly affirm that the copula is an implied or formal portion of every predicate. It is the first, when being and attribution- the essentials of the predicate are expressed in one word; as, 'Socrates speaks,' where a certain act, that is, existence together with a certain condition of existence, is asserted. It is the second, when being and attribution are expressed in different words: (1) Socrates is . . . (speaking); (2) He is . . . . (condemned); (3) Gold is. (a metal); (4) It is . . . . (excellent).

Note V. The assertive element is modified, in (3) and (4), only by limitation; in (1) and (2), by both limitation and expansion. Convenience, however, justifies us in treating these latter as units. Thus, ignoring in practice the distinction which we make in theory, the term verb is applied equally to simple and composite forms. Grammatically, 'Birds fly' 'Birds are flying.'

Note VI.- Dismissing the historical fact that the assertive element denotes being, and confining our view to its superficial function as a coupler of concepts, we may receive intelligently the common statement that 'be' is a verb of incomplete predication, requiring, under this aspect, something additional to form any completed sense. The addition may be variously designated, as attribute, complement, or supplement.

Note VII.—A prepositional complement sometimes enters idiomatically into the structure of a verb-term as an organic constituent: 'burn up' (= consume), ‘keep on’(=continue), 'stand out' (= resist), 'make up' (= constitute), 'take up' (= arrest). We have a peculiar character to keep up (= maintain.)-Lamb. Such compounds are often transitive in the fullest sense, as tested by the passive construction: His zeal was wondered at.' 'The servant was spoken to by his master.'

Note VIII. Likewise, a few other verbs which share the office of the copula as ties, yet are somewhat more, are called copulatives:

(3) He lived. . . .
(an apostle), and died
(4) He appears, looks . . . . (a rascal).

(a martyr).

....

(5) He was thought, deemed, believed, supposed, called, named

(a villain).

(6) He was made, appointed, created . . . . (president).

Here the entire attribute includes the noun, and that part of the verb which is not mere copula — the extraneous ideas of seeming, becoming, thinking, believing, etc. Such copulatives are also known as apposition verbs, because their complements are in apposition with their subjects.

Note IX.-While we regard the two as coördinate parts of a whole, it is not inadmissible to regard the attributive elements secondarily as modifiers of the assertive, which, upon a rigorous analysis, are seen to be the ultimate foundation of the predicate,—a point to be elaborated hereafter.

Note X. He, therefore, who chooses to penetrate to the truth of the matter, and to consider the substratum of the predicate, or the nucleus of its polarization, as always a verb, may satisfy the demands of reason and of science, as well as his love of simplicity and of system.

EXERCISES.

Determine and state the principal elements in the following. If subject, whether it is a normal or an abnormal noun (or plurality of nouns). If predicate, whether the complex idea - being and attribution is expressed in one word or in several; if the latter, whether the form is to be considered a composite verb, or a verb (copulative) and its complement. In both cases, whether the element (subject or predicate) is of the entire sentence, or of a part (as in a clause):

1. I love to lose myself in other men's minds.-Lamb.

2. The Alps, piled in cold and still sublimity, are an image of despotism.

3. Extreme admiration puts out the critic's eye.

4. No scene is continually loved except one rich by joyful human labor.-Ruskin.

5. The evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race.-Mill.

6. He that allows himself to be a worm must not complain if he is trodden on.-Kant.

7. To speak perfectly well, one must feel that he has got to the bottom of his subject.- Whately.

8. All those things for which men plough, build, or sail, obey virtue.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Sallust.

Of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: 'It might have been.'- Whittier.

To be at war with one we love,

Doth work like madness in the brain.-Coleridge.

Of thousands, thou both sepulchre and pall,

Old Ocean, art!-Dana.

The blessed to-day is as completely so

As who began three thousand years ago.-Pope.

13. All night the dreadless angel, unpursued,

Through heaven's wide champaign held his way: till morn,
Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand

Unbarr'd the gates of light.-Milton.

14. The grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven.-Bible,

CHAPTER XI.

THE SENTENCE - SUBORDINATE ELEMENTS.

Were there a single man to be found with a firmness sufficient to efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received, and to apply his intellect free and without prevention, the best hopes might be entertained of his success.-BACON.

THE

HE most elementary form of sentence consists only of the essentials-Subject and Predicate. 'Fire burns,' Fire is burning,' 'Man is mortal.' These primary elements, however, may assume various positions, more or less divergent from the recognized order of arrangement:

Rose a nurse of ninety years,

Set her child upon her knee.- Tennyson.

Each may also, as here, be enlarged and complicated by additional words that give it completeness or precision of meaning. Thus, again: "The fire,' 'the bright fire,' 'the brightly blazing fire,' 'the brightly blazing fire which was seen in the distance.' Notwithstanding all this, the fundamental portion is fire,' to which the rest is secondary. In like manner:

The fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe;

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, etc.- Milton.

The following illustrates both points in a comprehensive

way: