(3) An adjective:  “Great geniuses have the shortest biographies;” “Her father was a prince in Lebanon,—­proud, unforgiving, austere.”

(4) Prepositional phrase:  “Are the opinions of a man on right and wrong on fate and causation, at the mercy of a broken sleep or an indigestion?” “The poet needs a ground in popular tradition to work on.”

(5) Infinitive phrase:  “The way to know him is to compare him, not with nature, but with other men;” “She has a new and unattempted problem to solve;” “The simplest utterances are worthiest to be written.”

(6) Participial phrase:  “Another reading, given at the request of a Dutch lady, was the scene from King John;” “This was the hour already appointed for the baptism of the new Christian daughter.”

Exercise.—­In each sentence in Sec. 351, tell whether the subject, object, or complement is modified.

II.  Modifiers of the Predicate.

352.  Since the predicate is always a verb, the word modifying it must be an adverb or its equivalent:—­

(1) Adverb: “Slowly and sadly we laid him down.”

(2) Prepositional phrase:  “The little carriage is creeping on at one mile an hour;” “In the twinkling of an eye, our horses had carried us to the termination of the umbrageous isle.”

In such a sentence as, “He died like a God,” the word group like a God is often taken as a phrase; but it is really a contracted clause, the verb being omitted.

[Sidenote:  Tells how.]

(3) Participial phrase: “She comes down from heaven to his help, interpreting for him the most difficult truths, and leading him from star to star.”

(4) Infinitive phrase: “No imprudent, no sociable angel, ever dropped an early syllable to answer his longing.”

(For participial and infinitive phrases, see further Secs. 357-363.)

(5) Indirect object: “I gave every man a trumpet;” “Give them not only noble teachings, but noble teachers.”

These are equivalent to the phrases to every man and to them, and modify the predicate in the same way.

[Sidenote:  Retained with passive; or]

When the verb is changed from active to passive, the indirect object is retained, as in these sentences:  “It is left you to find out the reason why;” “All such knowledge should be given her.”

[Sidenote:  subject of passive verb and direct object retained.]

Or sometimes the indirect object of the active voice becomes the subject of the passive, and the direct object is retained:  for example, “She is to be taught to extend the limits of her sympathy;” “I was shown an immense sarcophagus.”