270 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



fabrics brought by the merchants of Venice to the mart of Pavia. 

 The ancient preparation of salt and the curing of fish were 

 never disregarded. The Adriatic sands supplied material adapted 

 for a glass of rare beauty and value. Mirrors and other articles 

 of Venetian manufacture were highly prized. Venetian gold- 

 smiths' work was universally famed. Brass and iron foundries 

 prepared the raw material for the armourers, whose weapons, 

 helmets, and bucklers were unsurpassed for strength and 

 beauty. Ship-building, with a people whose principle it was 

 always to have more ships than any other state, was necessarily 

 a very important branch of industry. 



Not satisfied with penetrating to every part open to enterprise, 

 the Venetians travelled into regions before unknown, and gave 

 to the world the record of their daring adventures. Maffeo and 

 Nicolo Polo spent fifteen years visiting Egypt, Persia, India, the 

 Khan of Tartary, and the Grand Khan or Emperor of China. 

 Marco Polo, son of Nicolo, as well as Barthema and Joseph 

 Barbaro, extended the knowledge obtained by their precursors in 

 Northern Europe and Asia ; Nicolo and Antonio Teno reached 

 Greenland and Iceland, and Quirini wrote an account of his 

 travels in Norway. 



It was by such energy of character, directed to commerce and 

 adventure,, that the Venetians gained their vast wealth. With 

 the erroneous ideas of their age, however, they were jealous of the 

 prosperity of the other commercial states of Italy, and were not 

 happy till Genoa had been crippled. The same impolitic spirit 

 led their rulers to fetter manufactures with restrictions intended 

 to benefit the citizens at the expense of foreign states, but really 

 injuring both, by preventing competition, and thus lessening the 

 production of wealth. Duties were laid upon almost every 

 sir tide of home and foreign trade, and state monopolies of salt 

 and other substances were established. The revenues of Venice 

 were raised almost exclusively by these impolitic modes. For 

 a while the facilities afforded by their splendid mercantile fleet, 

 and by the accumulation of capital, enabled the Venetians to 

 defy competition, but in the end they were scarcely able to hold 

 their own, either in manufactures or commerce. The Flanders 

 argosies were prohibited from returning with money in exchange, 

 but were required to bring merchandise, such as amber and 

 English wool, by which the Venetians thought to secure a double 

 profit. It led, however, to the northern nations abandoning 

 the trade with Venice, and dealing elsewhere. Forgetful of the 

 sources of their wealth, the Venetians went so far as to forbid 

 their nobles to trade. 



Nevertheless, Venice might have outgrown a bad policy, had 

 not a sudden and unexpected blow laid her commerce prostrate. 

 The Venetian ambassador at the Court of Lisbon informed his 

 government that Portuguese vessels had arrived in the Tagus, 

 direct from India, after having colonised several places and 

 established factories in that country. The full import of this 

 intelligence was understood at St. Mark's. The first thought of 

 the Senate was to crush the Portuguese commerce. Finding it 

 impossible to prevail upon the Egyptian Sultan to assist them 

 with a fleet in blockading the Indian coasts, they now sued for 

 a treaty of commerce with Portugal, offering to become the 

 sole purchasers of Indian commodities, but were refused. Venice 

 declined, therefore, not through conquest, like the great commer- 

 cial cities of antiquity, but from the diversion of trade into new 

 routes, which were the result of increased geographical knowledge. 



The later history of the city is comparatively unimportant. 

 The Venetians acquired fresh inland territory, but the golden 

 period of their commerce had passed away. Within narrower 

 bounds, they preserve their old forms of industry even to this 

 day. _ 



LESSONS IN GERMAN. LXXJI. 



SYNTAX. 



119. 



SYNTAX is that part of Grammar which unfolds the relations 

 and offices of words as arranged and combined in sentences. 



The essential parts of every sentence are the subject, which 

 is that of which something is affirmed ; and the predicate, which 

 is that which contains the affirmation. 



The subject is either a noun or that which is the representa- 

 tive or equivalsr.t of a noun ; the predicate is either a verb 

 alone, or a verb in conjunction with some other part or parts of 

 speech. All other words entering into a sentence are to be re- 



garded as mere adjuncts. The following sentences exhibit the 

 subject and the predicate under several varieties of form : 



Subject. Predicate. 



God exists. 



Man is mortal. 



Throwing the stone was his crime. 



In the sentence God exists, the verb exists is the predicate, 

 affirming, as it does, existence of the Almighty. But in the 

 sentence man is mortal, mortality is what is affirmed of man, 

 and the verb (is) is the mere link that connects the subject and 

 the predicate together. It is thence called the copula ( 158). 



Sentences are either simple (i.e., contain a single assertion or 

 proposition) or compound (i.e., contain two or more assertions or 

 propositions). Of the various parts of a sentence, whether prin- 

 cipal or adjunct, we come now to speak more in detail, so as to 

 show the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement of 

 words in construction. 



120. THE ARTICLES. 



RULE. 



The article in German, whether definite or indefinite, is gene- 

 rally employed wherever the corresponding article would be 

 used in English. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



This rule is, of course, founded upon the presumption that the 

 student is familiar with the usage of the English in respect to 

 the article. In the specifications that follow, therefore, he is to 

 look only for the points in which the German differs from the 

 usage of our own language. 



(1.) The Germans insert the definite article 



(a) Before words of abstract or universal signification ; as, 

 ber aWenfcft. tfl fierbltd), man (i.e. every man) is mortal; ba o(b tjl 

 befynbar, gold is ductile; bag Sebcn tjlt f 111-5, Hfo i short ; btcSugenb 

 fufyrt jum liicte, virtue leads to happiness. 



(b) Before the names of certain divisions or periods of time ; 

 as, ber Souutag, Sunday ; kcr 0iontag, Monday ; ber ^cjcmbev, De- 

 cember ; ter Slugufl, August ; ber ontmer, summer. 



(c) Before certain names (feminities) of countries ; as, kie 

 uvfet, Turkey ; bic cfyreeij, Switzerland ; bie Sombarbei, Lombardy. 



(d) Before the names of authors, when used to denote their 

 works ; as, \fy (efe ben 8tf|tng, I am reading Lessing. 



(e) Before the proper names or titles of persons, when used 

 in a way denoting familiarity or inferiority ; as, grape bit QRarie, 

 greet (or remember me to) Mary ; fage bem Sutler, bajj id? if)n ju 

 fefyen tounfcf;e, tell Luther that I wish to see him : also when 

 connected with attributive adjectives ; as, bie fkine @cpt;ie, little 

 Sophia. 



(/) Before words (especially proper names of persons) whose 

 cases are not made known either by a change of termination or 

 by the presence of a preposition; as, bag Sebeu ber Suvflcn, the 

 life of princes; bie gtau beg of rate?, the wife of Socrates; ber 

 Sag ber JRacfye, the day of (the) vengeance. 



(g) Before the names of ranks, bodies, or systems of doctrine ; 

 as, bag 5par(ament, Parliament; bie JRegierung, government; bie 

 2JJonardbje, monarchy; bag (5riflcnt6,um, Christianity: also in such 

 phrases as tit ber tabt, in town; in ber ,Rtrd;e, at church; bie 

 metjlen 2Renfc6. en, most men. 



(h) Before the words (signifying) half and both; as, bte tyalbt 

 (not fyalbe bie) 3al)f, half the number; bie beiben (not beibe bie) 

 SBriiter, both the brothers. 



(i) Before words denoting the limit within which certain 

 Specified numbers or amounts are confined, wherein in English 

 the indefinite article would be used ; as, jtuetmal bie 2Bcc$e, twice 

 a week. 



(k) Before a past participle joined with a noun which in 

 English precedes the participle; as, bag serlorcne $arabieg (literally, 

 the lost Paradise), Paradise Lost. 



(2.) Note, further, that the German differs from the English 

 in omitting the definite article 



(a) Before certain law appellatives ; as, SSeflagtcr, (the) defen- 

 dant ; tflager, (the) plaintiff ; 2lppe(tant, (the) appellant ; Supplicant, 

 (the) petitioner. 



(b) Before certain common expressions, such as in Befter Orb- 

 nung, in (the) best order ; llebevbringer btefeg, (the) bearer of this ; 

 and certain adjectives and participles treated as nouns; as, 

 crfterer, (the) former; Icfcterer, (the) latter; befagter, (the) beforesaid 

 (person). 



(c) Before certain proper names of places; as, Dflinbten, (M) 



