LETTER WRITING

XV. LETTER WRITING

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Copy the following formal invitation to dinner : —

Mr. Harold C. Glover requests the pleasure of Mr. Donald MacPherson's company at dinner on Tuesday evening, January the twenty-fifth, at half after six o'clock.

The Kensington,

Write in the same form an invitation to one of your friends, to a five o'clock tea. Be careful of the capitals and punctuation. Copy the formal acceptance on p. 20.

Note that the letter of invitation begins with a paragraph, while the letter of acceptance does not. Either form is correct for formal invi

tations and acceptances.

Write a formal note regretting your inability to accept the invitation to dinner.

Mr. Donald MacPherson accepts with pleasure Mr. Harold C. Glover's kind invitation for dinner Tuesday evening, January the twenty-fifth, at half after six o'clock, 35 Harvard Street,

XVI. ELEMENTS OF SENTENCES

An element is one of the distinct parts of a sentence. The subject and predicate are called principal elements, because no sentence could be formed without them.

The copula is not an element: it is used merely to join a predicate to a subject, and to make an assertion.

Separating a sentence into its elements is called analysis. Let us now analyze some sentences according to the fol lowing models:

Apples are ripe.

"Apples" is the subject, it is that of which something is affirmed;

"ripe" is the predicate, it is that which is affirmed of the subject; "are"

"Birds" is the subject (why?); “fly" is the predicate (why?).

1. Ink is black. 2. Gold is yellow. 3. Lead is a metal. 4. Birds 6. Trees are plants. 7. Fishes swim. 10. Enoch may be

sing. 5. Vessels sail.

8. Elihu was tardy. 9. Mary was studious. angry. II. Snow falls.

12. Houses stand.

In the following diagrams, the subject, the predicate, and the copula of each principal proposition are placed above a horizontal base line.

The subject is separated from the predicate or from the copula by a vertical line drawn across this base line. The copula is separated from the predicate by a colon.

Diagram in the same manner the sentences that you have analyzed.

Choose a narrative subject. Outline it, and write the narrative.

XVIII. NOUN AND VERB

The man gave the boy a book, a sled, and a knife.

In this sentence the words "man," "boy," "book," "sled," and "knife" are names of objects. They are called nouns, which means names. All words used as the names of objects are nouns.

A noun is a name; as, bird, Mary, light.

Point out the nouns in the following sentences:·

I. The horses are in the pasture. 2. A needle has a sharp point. 3. The clouds rested on the summit of the mountain. 4. The boys got into the boat and rowed into the middle of the stream. 5. The king was overtaken by a shower a short distance from the avenue that surrounded the city. 6. Henry and Oliver are living with Mr. Fields, their uncle. 7. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath.

In this sentence "sleeps" expresses state or condition.

These

words are used to affirm action, being, or state of their subjects. They are called verbs.

The boy is running.

What word affirms? What word expresses action? The two words "is running" are taken together as a verb, expressing action and affirming it.

A verb is a word that expresses action, being, or state; as, "Mary plays." "I am." "The house stands."

Write sentences, using the following verbs as predicates:

Walk, sing, whistle, swim, wrestle, play, write, study, plow, reap, drive, neigh, cackle, whine, snarl, gobble, quarrel, fight, is running, was walking, has cackled, shall talk, may cry, can gobble, shall be crying.

COMPOSITION

Point out the nouns and verbs in the following sentences:

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1. The farmer plows in the spring and fall. 2. Their father gave them money. 3. The great tears sprang to their eyes. 4. They followed the cattle home. 5. The landlord answered his question. 6. He ordered him to go. 7. The pupils who had passed a good examination went home with joyful hearts.

Select the nouns and verbs from the following selection from "Rasselas."

XIX. COMPOSITION

THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY

THE place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part.

The only passage by which it could be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of nature or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which opened into the valley was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man could without the help of engines open or shut them.

From the mountains on every side rivulets descended that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl whom Nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more.

The sides of the mountains were covered with trees, the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks, and every month dropped fruits upon the ground. All animals that bite the grass or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the mountains