s.

3. The spell of life went forth from her ever-creative spirit, and
communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame
wherever it may be applied.

ANALYZING COMPLEX SENTENCES.

379. These suggestions will be found helpful:--

(1) See that the sentence and all its parts are placed in the natural
order of subject, predicate, object, and modifiers.

(2) First take the sentence _as a whole_; find the principal subject
and principal predicate; then treat noun clauses as nouns, adjective
clauses as adjectives modifying certain words, and adverb clauses as
single modifying adverbs.

(3) Analyze each clause as a simple sentence. For example, in the
sentence, "Cannot we conceive that Odin was a reality?" _we_ is the
principal subject; _cannot conceive_ is the principal predicate; its
object is _that Odin was a reality_, of which clause _Odin_ is the
subject, etc.

380. It is sometimes of great advantage to map out a sentence after
analyzing it, so as to picture the parts and their relations. To take
a sentence:--

"I cannot help thinking that the fault is in themselves, and that
if the church and the cataract were in the habit of giving away
their thoughts with that rash generosity which characterizes
tourists, they might perhaps say of their visitors, 'Well, if you
are those men of whom we have heard so much, we are a little
disappointed, to tell the truth.'"

This may be represented as follows:--

I cannot help thinking
____________________
|
_______________________|
|
| (_a_) THAT THE FAULT IS IN THEMSELVES, AND
|
| (_b_) [THAT] THEY MIGHT (PERHAPS) SAY OF THEIR VISITORS
| ___________________
| |
| _____________________________|_________________________________
| | |
| | (_a_) We are (a little) disappointed |
| O| ___________________________ |
O| b| ________________________| |
b| j| M| |
j| e| o| (_b_) If you are those men |
e| c| d| ___ |
c| t| i| _______________________