“I think that my continued efforts to find the child alive are justified by the great good that would obtain were I to succeed.”
Is this sentence correct to grammar? What does it mean, especially “great good that would obtain were I to succeed.”
were I to succeed?
Hi Volcano,
The sentence you quote does have a certain literary flavour about it but I would agree ii is grammatically correct. Let me try to say it in other words: I think I am justified in continuing to find the child still alive mainly because of the great benefit that would be gained if I was successful.
The unusual use of ‘obtain’ is probably the part that you found confusing. Usually ‘obtain’ is another word for ‘get’ or ‘acquire’ but here it is used without an object to mean ‘exist’
Alan
Hi Volcano
Just a small added note since you asked specifically about “were I to succeed”:
The phrase “were I to succeed” is a more formal/literary way of saying “if I succeeded”.
.