[323] Some writers distinguish sentences as being of three kinds, simple, and complex, and compound; but, in this work, care has not in general been taken to discriminate between complex sentences and compound.  A late author states the difference thus:  “A sentence containing but one proposition is simple; a sentence containing two propositions, one of which modifies the other, is complex; a sentence containing two propositions which in no way modify each other, is compound.”—­Greene’s Analysis, p. 3.  The term compound, as applied to sentences, is not usually so restricted.  An other, using the same terms for a very different division, explains them thus:  “A Simple Sentence contains but one subject and one attribute; as, ‘The sun shines.’  A Complex Sentence contains two or more subjects of the same attribute, or two or more attributes of the same subject; as, ‘The sun and the stars shine.’  ’The sun rises and sets.’  ‘The sun and the stars rise and set.’  A Compound Sentence is composed of two or more simple or complex sentences united; as, ‘The sun shines, and the stars twinkle.’  ’The sun rises and sets, as the earth revolves.’”—­Pinneo’s English Teacher, p. 10; Analytical Gram., pp. 128, 142, and 146.  This notion of a complex sentence is not more common than Greene’s; nor is it yet apparent, that the usual division of sentences into two kinds ought to give place to any tripartite distribution.

[324] The terms clause and member, in grammar, appear to have been generally used as words synonymous; but some authors have thought it convenient to discriminate them, as having different senses.  Hiley says, “Those parts of a sentence which are separated by commas, are called clauses; and those separated by semicolons, are called members.”—­Hiley’ s Gram., p. 66.  W. Allen too confines the former term to simple members:  “A compound sentence is formed by uniting two or more simple sentences; as, Man is mortal, and life is uncertain.  Each of these simple sentences is called a clause.  When the members of a compound sentence are complex, they are subdivided into clauses; as, Virtue leads to honor, and insures true happiness; but vice degrades the understanding, and is succeeded by infamy.”—­Allen’s Gram., p. 128.  By some authors, the terms clause and phrase are often carelessly confounded, each being applied with no sort of regard to its proper import.  Thus, where L. Murray and his copyists expound their text about “the pupil’s composing frequently,” even the minor phrase, “composing frequently,” is absurdly called a clause; “an entire clause of a sentence.”—­See Murray’s Gram., p. 179; Alger’s, 61; Fisk’s, 108; Ingersoll’s, 180; Merchant’s,