SEN 



SEN 



He was in high favour with Martin Luther, a good judge 

 of mufic ; and Sebaldus Hayden, in 1540, calls him the 

 prince of German muficians. 



SENTENCE, in Laiu, doom; a judgment pafled in 

 court by the judge upon lome proccfs either civil or cri- 

 minal. 



Sentences iLve e\t\\tr definitive, which put an end to the 

 fuit and controverfy, and regard the principal matter in 

 queftion ; or interlocutory, which determine only fome inci- 

 dental matter ; contradihory. Sec. 



There are Sentences of abfolution, excommunication, &c. 



Superior judges may either confirm or annul the fentences 

 of inferior ones. 



Every fentence muft be in writing, on a flamp, and it 

 muft be pronounced in the prefence of both parties ; other- 

 wife fentence given in abfence nf one of the parties is void. 



Sentences, Three conformable, tres fententta: conformes. 

 In the Romiih Ecclejiajlical Laiu, it is allowed to appeal 

 three times ; fo that there mull be three conformable fentences 

 before the decifions of the judges can take effeft. The firit 

 degree of jurifdiftion is in the bifhop's official ; from him 

 an appeal lies to the metropohtan, from the metropolitan to 

 the primate, or immediately to the pope. If the appeal 

 . come from the metropolitan to the pope, the pope is obliged 

 to delegate judges in partibus ; and then if the three fen- 

 tences pafled in thefe three ft ages be conformable, there is no 

 farther appeal; but if one of them annul another, new 

 judges are to be required of the pope for a fourth fentence ; 

 and thus they fometimes proceed to a iixth or feventh fen- 

 tence. 



This number of jurifdiftions is found infinitely preju- 

 dicial to the public, and vexatious to private perfons. 



Sentence, in Grammar, denotes a period, or a fet of 

 words comprehending fome perfeft fenfe or fentiment of 

 mind. 



Every fentence comprehends at lead two words. 



Mr. Harris, in his Hermes, p. 17, &c, confidering that 

 the leading powers of the foul are thofe of perception and 

 volition, obferves, that every fentence, in reference to thefe 

 powers, will be either a fentence of affertion, or a fentence 

 of volition : and he defcribes it as a compound quantity of 

 found fignificant, of which certain parts are themfelves alfo 

 fignificant. Thus he diltinguifhes a fentence from a word, 

 which is a found fignificant, of which no part is of itfelf 

 fignificant. 



The bufinefs of pointing is, to diftinguilh the feveral 

 parts and members of fentences, fo as to render the fenfe of 

 it the cleareft, apteft, and fuUeft poflible. See Punctua- 

 tion. 



In every fentence there are two parts neceffarily required ; 

 a noun for the fubjeft, and a definite verb ; whatever is 

 found more than thefe two, affefts one of them, either im- 

 mediately, or by the intervention of fome other, by which 

 the firlt is affefked. 



Again, every fentence is either fimple or conjunft : a 

 ftmple fentence is that confiding of one fingle fiibjeft, and 

 one finite verb. A conjunS, or compounded fentence, con- 

 tains feveral fubjefts, and finite verbs, either exprcfsly or 

 implicitly ; or it confids of two or more fimple fentences 

 connefted together. 



A fimple fentence needs no point or didinftion, only a pe- 

 riod 10 clofe it ; as, A good man loves virtue for itfelf. In fuch 

 a fentence, the feveral adjundls affcft either tlie fubjeft, or 

 the verb, in a different manner. Thus the word good ex- 

 prefles the quality of the lubjeft, virtue the objcd of the 

 aftion, and, for itfelf, the end of it. Now none of thefe 

 adjunfts can be feparaicd from the red of tlie fcntcnoe ; for 

 Vol. XXXII. 



if one be, why (hould not all the red ? And if all be, the 

 fentence will be minced into almoft as many parts as there 

 are words. 



But if feveral adjunfts be attributed in- the fame manner 

 either to the fubjeft, or the verb ; the fentence becomes 

 conjunft, and is to be divided into parts. 



In every conjunft fentence, as many fubjefts, or as many 

 finite verbs as there are, either expreffed or implied, fo 

 many diftinftions may there be. Thus, My hopes, fears, 

 joys, pains, all centre in you ; and thus Cicero, Catilina, abiit, 

 excejftt, evajit, erupit. The reaion of which pointing is ob- 

 vious ; for as many fubjefts or finite verbs as there are in 

 a fentence, fo many members does it really contain ; when- 

 ever, therefore, there occur more nouns than verbs, or con- 

 trariwife, they are to be conceived as equal ; fince, as every 

 fubjeft requires its verb, fo every verb requires its fubjeft, 

 with which it may agree, excepting, perhaps, in fome 

 figurative expreffions. 



Indeed there are fome othei kinds of fentences which 

 may be ranked amongd the conjunft kind, particularly the 

 abfolute ablative, as it is called. Thus, Phyjicians, the 

 difeafe once difcovered, think the cure half lurought ; where the 

 words, difeafe once difcovered, are equivalent to, ivhen the 

 caufe of the difeafe is difcovered. — So alfo in nouns added by 

 appofition, as. The Scots, an hardy people, endured it all ; fo 

 alfo in vocative cafes and interjeftions, as. This, my friend, 

 you mufl allow me ; and. What, for heaven's fake ! ivould he 

 beat? 



The cafe is much the fame when feveral adjunfts affeft 

 either the fubjeft of the fentence or the verb in the fame 

 manner, or at lead iomething by which one of them is 

 affefted, as, A good, luife, learned man is an ornament to the 

 commonivealth : where the feveral adjeftives, denoting fo 

 many qualities of the fubjeft, are to be feparated from one 

 another. Again, when I_ fay. Tour voice, countenance, 

 geflure, terrified him, the feveral nominative cafes denote fo 

 many modes of the verb, which are likewife to be didin- 

 guidied from each other. The cafe is the fame in ad- 

 verbs, as. He behaved hhnfelf modeftly, prudently, virtuoufly. 

 In the firll example, the adjunfts immediately affeft the 

 fubjeft ; in the third, the verb ; in the following one, 

 another adjunft, as, I fatu a man loaden "with age, Jicknefs, 

 •wounds. 



Now, as many fuch adjunfts as there are, fo many feveral 

 members does the fentence contain ; which are to be didin- 

 guifhed from each other, as much as feveral fubjefts or finite 

 verbs ; and that this is the cafe in all conjunft lentences, 

 appears hence, that all thefe adjunfts, whether they be 

 verbs or nouns, &c. will admit of a conjunftion copulative, 

 by which they may be joined together. And wherever 

 there is a copulative, or room for it, there a new member of 

 a fentence begins. For the other partitions, &c. of fen- 

 tences, fee Colon, Semicolon, and Period. 



Sentence is alfo ufed, in Rhetoric and Poetry, for a fhort 

 pithy remark, or refleftion, containing fome fentiment of ufe 

 in the condiift of life. 



Such are Difcite jitftitinm moniti, £3" non temnere divos ; or, 

 A teneris affuefcere multum efl, &c. 



Sentences, father Bollu obferves, render poems ufeful ; 

 and, befides, add I know not what ludre and fpirit, whicli 

 pleafes. Bll^ there is no virtue which is not accompanied 

 with fome dangerous vice. Too many fentences give a 

 poem too philolophical an air, and fink it into a kind of 

 gravity ; this is lefs fit for the majedy of a poem than the 

 dudy of a learned man, and the quaintnefs of a dogmatid. 

 Such thoughts not only contain, but infpire a certain calm 

 wifdom, which is direftly oppofite to tlie pafliuns, and cools 

 K k them 



