will be, its very existence or occurrence, is interesting to us; as, for instance, the fact that there are plenty of cookies in the jar, or that there was a terrific tornado in our town this spring. A characteristic of anything is whatever it may be or do.

EXERCISE 2

SEEING WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES MAKE YOU NOTICE DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF A THING

Tell what circumstances would make you notice each of the following characteristics of each thing named below; for example, you would think of the blueness of the water when you wanted to paint it, or perhaps in a different way when you were making the water blue in washing clothes.

EXERCISE 3

THINKING OF MANY CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERSON OR THING

Think of all the characteristics you know of each of the following and make lists in the form given above (Exercise 2), showing what each is, was, or may be and what each does or did.

1. Abraham Lincoln. 2. A snake.

3. A locomotive.

4. The sun.

5. My pony (dog, or other pet). 6. The human hand.

EXERCISE 4

PREDICATING CHARACTERISTICS

Remember that to predicate means to say or tell or assert. What is the difference between predicating and merely mentioning some characteristic of anything? This point is important to any real understanding of the sentence and needs further study.

Whenever for any reason we become especially interested in a particular characteristic of a watch or of water, and most often when we wish to point this out to someone else, we think, for example, "My watch is broken," or "Water quenches my thirst better than soda water or lemonade." We predicate the characteristic and thus make a sentence, with subject and predicate. Predicating a characteristic shows more interest in that characteristic than merely mentioning it would, as if we said, either to ourselves or to someone else, "a broken watch or thirst-quenching water." In the latter case we have only ideas, not thoughts. If you were looking out of the schoolroom window, thinking of something far away from the scene before you,

and a dog trotted across the yard, he would hardly attract your attention; at most he would be in the fringe of your consciousness. But suppose he were very large and black, you might notice him and think, or even say to someone near, "How big and black that dog is!" The next instant you might observe a more important characteristic, and think He is acting in a queer manner." Then instantly would come the thought "He is mad." If just then the primaryschool children were coming out of the building, you would think "That dog will bite the children."

So your attention would first focus on the color and size of the dog, next on his very unusual actions, next on his madness, next on what he would do. You predicate each characteristic in turn. It might happen, however, that your thoughts would come so fast that you would merely mention the size and color, as comparatively unimportant, and not predicate or assert them at all. Then you would say, perhaps, "That big black dog is foaming at the mouth!"

Thus we may think of several characteristics at a time, but we predicate only those in which for some reason or other we are especially interested. If we say, "That big black dog running down the street and barking is not mad but is only playing," we are probably thinking that somebody may imagine the dog is mad. We merely mention the size and color of the dog and what he is doing, in order to let our hearer know certainly what dog we mean; but we predicate his not being mad—as the other person may have thought he was—and his playing.

Using the lists from Exercises 2 and 3, predicate some characteristics and merely mention others; for example, "Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, was largely self-taught."

EXERCISE 5

NOTICING AND PREDICATING DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS SHOWN IN A PICTURE

In the picture on page 105 ("A Modern Miracle of Manna") see which member of the class can find and predicate the most characteristics of any person or thing that you see. Number the statements separately, so that you can know who has the longest list. You may decide that all shall give attention to a single person in the picture, as, for instance :

1. The man in the foreground is

2. He is

3. He is

EXERCISE 6

PREDICATING IMAGINARY CHARACTERISTICS

Predicate some interesting characteristic of each of the following things, and let the other members of the class guess the imaginary circumstances that you have in mind as making you say that particular thing. In some instances. predicate more than one characteristic; for example, "The music is sweet and far-away.”

Predicate three actions of each of the things mentioned in Exercise 6. Remember that action is whatever anything does, and is not necessarily movement visible to the eye. For example, the music pleases me. See how many different actions of these things you can imagine among you.

EXERCISE 8

FINDING GOOD NAMES FOR CHARACTERISTICS

In speaking of the characteristics predicated or merely mentioned, it is sometimes difficult to use good English unless you are careful and know how to name these characteristics. If possible use a name-word, or noun. For example, would you say that sour or sourness is a characteristic of the orange? If you say "Mr. Jones is an honest merchant" and wish to name the characteristic that you have predicated, you may say that the characteristic predicated of Mr. Jones is his being an honest merchant; or you may say that you have predicated the kind of man he is or, in other words, the class of men in which Mr. Jones belongs, — namely the class of honest merchants. The name of the characteristic of being happy is happiness; the name of the characteristic of being true is trueness or truth. Names of characteristics are useful in all speaking or writing, and therefore it is worth while to find accurate and simple ones.

What is the name of each of the characteristics suggested below? You may arrange the names in columns on a page or on the board; for example:

happy happiness moving moving

an honest man
ivy-covered

being an honest man being covered with ivy