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Wholegrain Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
Can you clarify for me this extract
The Confidence Man - Herman Melville
http://www.online-literature.com/melville/confidence-man/7/
Such goodness seemed his, allied with such fortune, that, so far as his own personal experience could have gone, scarcely could he have known ill, physical or moral; and as for knowing or suspecting the latter in any serious degree (supposing such degree of it to be), by observation or philosophy; for that, probably, his nature, by its opposition, imperfectly qualified, or from it wholly exempted.
I understand the sentence, but still I have some questions:
1 by "its opposition" does he mean the contrary to his nature, that is ill-natured?
2 what "it" stands for in "...or from it wholly exempted?
3 what "words" did he ellide in the second and third part of the sentence, if allowing for ellipsises?
http://www.online-literature.com/melville/confidence-man/7/
Such goodness seemed his, allied with such fortune, that, so far as his own personal experience could have gone, scarcely could he have known ill, physical or moral; and as for knowing or suspecting the latter in any serious degree (supposing such degree of it to be), by observation or philosophy; for that, probably, his nature, by its opposition, imperfectly qualified, or from it wholly exempted.
I understand the sentence, but still I have some questions:
1 by "its opposition" does he mean the contrary to his nature, that is ill-natured?
2 what "it" stands for in "...or from it wholly exempted?
3 what "words" did he ellide in the second and third part of the sentence, if allowing for ellipsises?
Top answer
Wholegrain, I'll stop answering your questions, as you don't seem to know how to reply and how to thank people.
- Wholegrain, I'll stop answering your questions, as you don't seem to know how to reply and how to thank people.
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2 Answers
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Wholegrain, I'll stop answering your questions, as you don't seem to know how to reply and how to thank people.
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