UNDER NOTE XIV.—SENTENCES FOR ANTECEDENTS.

"This seems not so allowable in prose; which the following erroneous examples will demonstrate."—Murray's Gram., p. 175. "The accent is laid upon the last syllable of a word; which is favourable to the melody."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 86. "Every line consists of ten syllables, five short and five long; from which there are but two exceptions, both of them rare."—Ib., ii, 89. "The soldiers refused obedience, which has been explained."—Nixon's Parser, p. 128. "Caesar overcame Pompey, which was lamented."—Ib. "The crowd hailed William, which was expected."—Ib. "The tribunes resisted Scipio, which was anticipated."—Ib. "The censors reproved vice, which was admired."—Ib. "The generals neglected discipline, which has been proved."—Ib. "There would be two nominatives to the verb was, which is improper."—Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 205; Gould's, 202. "His friend bore the abuse very patiently; which served to increase his rudeness: it produced, at length, contempt and insolence."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 50; Emmons's, 25. "Almost all compounded sentences, are more or less elliptical; some examples of which may be seen under the different parts of speech."—Murray's Gram., p. 217; Guy's, 90; R G. Smith's, 180; Ingersoll's, 153; Fisk's, 144; J. M. Putnam's, 137; Weld's, 190, Weld's Imp. Ed., 214.

UNDER NOTE XV.—REPEAT THE PRONOUN.

"In things of Nature's workmanship, whether we regard their internal or external structure, beauty and design are equally conspicuous."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 269. "It puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense."—Ib., ii, 231. "Neither my obligations to the muses, nor expectations from them, are so great."—Cowley's Preface. "The Fifth Annual Report of the Anti-Slavery Society of Ferrisburgh and vicinity."—Liberator, ix, 69. "Meaning taste in its figurative as well as proper sense."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 360. "Every measure in which either your personal or political character is concerned."—Junius, Let. ix. "A jealous, righteous God has often punished such in themselves or offspring."—Extracts, p. 179. "Hence their civil and religious history are inseparable."—Milman's Jews, i, 7. "Esau thus carelessly threw away both his civil and religious inheritance."—Ib., i, 24. "This intelligence excited not only our hopes, but fears likewise."—Jaudon's Gram., p. 170. "In what manner our defect of principle and ruling manners have completed the ruin of the national spirit of union."—Brown's Estimate, i, 77. "Considering her descent, her connexion, and present intercourse."—Webster's Essays, p. 85. "His own and wife's wardrobe are packed up in a firkin."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 73.

UNDER NOTE XVI.—CHANGE THE ANTECEDENT.

"The sound of e and o long, in their due degrees, will be preserved, and clearly distinguished."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 242. "If any person should be inclined to think," &c., "the author takes the liberty to suggest to them," &c.—Ib., Pref., p. iv. "And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it."—1 Kings, xxii, 43. "If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."—Matt., xviii, 35. "Nobody ever fancied they were slighted by him, or had the courage to think themselves his betters."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 8. "And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son."—Gen., xxvii, 15. "Where all the attention of man is given to their own indulgence."— Maturin's Sermons, p. 181. "The idea of a father is a notion superinduced to the substance, or man—let man be what it will."—Locke's Essay, i, 219. "Leaving every one to do as they list."—Barclay's Works, i, 460. "Each body performed his part handsomely."—J. Flint's Gram., p. 15. "This block of marble rests on two layers of stone, bound together with lead, which, however, has not prevented the Arabs from forcing out several of them."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 72.

"Love gives to every power a double power, Above their functions and their offices."—Shakspeare.

RULE XI.—PRONOUNS.

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The council were divided in their sentiments."—"The Christian world are beginning to awake out of their slumber."—C. Simeon. "Whatever Adam's posterity lost through him, that and more they gain in Christ."—J. Phipps.

"To this, one pathway gently-winding leads, Where march a train with baskets on their heads." —Pope, Iliad, B. xviii, l. 657.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XI.

OBS. 1.—The collective noun, or noun of multitude, being a name that signifies many, may in general be taken in either of two ways, according to the intention of the user: that is, either with reference to the aggregate as one thing, in which sense it will accord with the neuter pronoun it or which; or with reference to the individuals, so as to accord with a plural pronoun they, their, them, or who, masculine, or feminine, as the individuals of the assemblage may happen to be. The noun itself, being literally singular both in form and in fact, has not unfrequently some article or adjective before it that implies unity; so that the interpretation of it in a plural sense by the pronoun or verb, was perhaps not improperly regarded by the old grammarians as an example of the figure syllepsis:.as, "Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they all share one common nature."—Spectator, No. 287.

"Thus urg'd the chief; a generous troop appears, Who spread their bucklers and advance their spears." —Pope, Iliad, B. xi, l. 720.

OBS. 2.—Many of our grammarians say, "When a noun of multitude is preceded by a definitive word, which clearly limits the sense to an aggregate with an idea of unity, it requires a verb and pronoun to agree with it in the singular number."—Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249; Fisk's, 122; Fowler's, 528. But this principle, I apprehend, cannot be sustained by an appeal to general usage. The instances in practice are not few, in which both these senses are clearly indicated with regard to the same noun; as, "Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgement require secrecy."—Constitution of the United States, Art. i, Sec. 5. "I mean that part of mankind who are known by the name of women's men, or beaux."—Addison, Spect., No. 536. "A set of men who are common enough in the world."—Ibid. "It is vain for a people to expect to be free, unless they are first willing to be virtuous."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 397. "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed."—Matt., xiii, 15. "This enemy had now enlarged their confederacy, and made themselves more formidable than before."—Life of Antoninus, p. 62.

"Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms; So loud their clamour, and so keen their arms." —Pope, Iliad, B. xvi, l. 320.

OBS. 3.—Most collective nouns of the neuter gender, may take the regular plural form, and be represented by a pronoun in the third person, plural, neuter; as, "The nations will enforce their laws." This construction comes under Rule 10th, as does also the singular, "The nations will enforce its laws;" for, in either case, the agreement is entirely literal. Half of Murray's Rule 4th is therefore needless. To Rule 11th above, there are properly no exceptions; because the number of the pronoun is itself the index to the sense in which the antecedent is therein taken. It does not follow, however, but that there may be violations of the rule, or of the notes under it, by the adoption of one number when the other would be more correct, or in better taste. A collection of things inanimate, as a fleet, a heap, a row, a tier, a bundle, is seldom, if ever, taken distributively, with a plural pronoun. For a further elucidation of the construction of collective nouns, see Rule 15th, and the observations under it.

NOTES TO RULE XI.

NOTE I.—A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a pronoun in the third person, singular, neuter; as, "When a legislative body makes laws, it acts for itself only; but when it makes grants or contracts, it acts as a party."—Webster's Essays, p. 40. "A civilized people has no right to violate its solemn obligations, because the other party is uncivilized."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 314.

NOTE II.—When a collective noun is followed by two or more words which must each in some sense agree with it, uniformity of number is commonly preferable to diversity, and especially to such a mixture as puts the singular both before and after the plural; as, "That ingenious nation who have done so much honour to modern literature, possesses, in an eminent degree, the talent of narration."—Blair's Rhet., p. 364. Better: "which has done."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XI.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—THE IDEA OF PLURALITY.

"The jury will be confined till it agrees on a verdict."—Brown's Inst., p. 145.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun it is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent its antecedent jury, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 11th, "When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the pronoun must agree with it in the plural number." Therefore, it should be they; thus, "The jury will be confined till they agree on a verdict."]

"And mankind directed its first cares towards the needful."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 114. "It is difficult to deceive a free people respecting its true interest."—Life of Charles XII, p. 67. "All the virtues of mankind are to be counted upon a few fingers, but his follies and vices are innumerable."—Swift. "Every sect saith, 'Give me liberty:' but give it him, and to his power, he will not yield it to any body else."—Oliver Cromwell. "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion."—Numbers, xxiii, 24. "For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."—Gen., vi, 12. "There happened to the army a very strange accident, which put it in great consternation."—Goldsmith.

UNDER NOTE I.—THE IDEA OF UNITY.

"The meeting went on in their business as a united body."—Foster's Report, i, 69. "Every religious association has an undoubted right to adopt a creed for themselves."—Gould's Advocate, iii, 405. "It would therefore be extremely difficult to raise an insurrection in that State against their own government."—Webster's Essays, p. 104. "The mode in which a Lyceum can apply themselves in effecting a reform in common schools."—New York Lyceum. "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?"—Jeremiah, ii, 11. "In the holy scriptures each of the twelve tribes of Israel is often called by the name of the patriarch, from whom they descended."—J. Q. Adams's Rhet., ii, 331.

UNDER NOTE II.—UNIFORMITY OF NUMBER.

"A nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs, achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can ever give."—J. Q. Adams. "The English nation, from which we descended, have been gaining their liberties inch by inch."—Webster's Essays, p. 45. "If a Yearly Meeting should undertake to alter its fundamental doctrines, is there any power in the society to prevent their doing so?"—Foster's Report, i, 96. "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother."—Proverbs, xxx, 11. "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."—Ib., xxx, 12. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them."—Numb., xxiii, 21. "My people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity."—Jer., xviii, 15. "When a quarterly meeting hath come to a judgment respecting any difference, relative to any monthly meeting belonging to them," &c.—Extracts, p. 195; N. E. Discip., p. 118. "The number of such compositions is every day increasing, and appear to be limited only by the pleasure or conveniency of the writer."—Booth's Introd. to Dict., p. 37. "The church of Christ hath the same power now as ever, and are led by the same Spirit into the same practices."—Barclay's Works, i, 477. "The army, whom the chief had thus abandoned, pursued meanwhile their miserable march."—Lockhart's Napoleon, ii, 165.

RULE XII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together: as, "Minos and Thales sung to the lyre the laws which they composed."—STRABO: Blair's Rhet., p. 379. "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided."—2 Sam., i, 23.

"Rhesus and Rhodius then unite their rills, Caresus roaring down the stony hills."—Pope, Il., B. xii, l. 17.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When two or more antecedents connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, they are either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural pronoun; as, "This great philosopher and statesman continued in public life till his eighty-second year."—"The same Spirit, light, and life, which enlighteneth, also sanctifieth, and there is not an other."—Penington. "My Constantius and Philetus confesseth me two years older when I writ it."—Cowley's Preface. "Remember these, O Jacob and Israel! for thou art my servant."—Isaiah, xliv, 21. "In that strength and cogency which renders eloquence powerful."—Blair's Rhet., p. 252.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

When two antecedents connected by and are emphatically distinguished, they belong to different propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural pronoun; as, "The butler, and not the baker, was restored to his office."—"The good man, and the sinner too, shall have his reward."—"Truth, and truth only, is worth seeking for its own sake."—"It is the sense in which the word is used, and not the letters of which it is composed, that determines what is the part of speech to which it belongs."—Cobbett's Gram., 130.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

When two or more antecedents connected by and are preceded by the adjective each, every, or no, they are taken separately, and do not require a plural pronoun; as, "Every plant and every tree produces others after its own kind."—"It is the cause of every reproach and distress which has attended your government."—Junius, Let. xxxv. But if the latter be a collective noun, the pronoun may be plural; as, "Each minister and each church act according to their own impressions."—Dr. M'Cartee.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XII.

OBS. 1.—When the antecedents are of different persons, the first person is preferred to the second, and the second to the third; as, "John, and thou, and I, are attached to our country."—"John and thou are attached to your country."—"The Lord open some light, and show both you and me our inheritance!"—Baxter. "Thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood."—Numbers, xviii, 1.

"For all are friends in heaven; all faithful friends; And many friendships in the days of Time Begun, are lasting here, and growing still: So grows ours evermore, both theirs and mine." —Pollok, C. of T., B. v, l. 335.

OBS 2.—The gender of pronouns, except in the third person singular, is distinguished only by their antecedents. In expressing that of a pronoun which has antecedents of different genders, the masculine should be preferred to the feminine, and the feminine to the neuter. The parser of English should remember, that this is a principle of General Grammar.

OBS 3.—When two words are taken separately as nominatives, they ought not to be united in the same sentence as antecedents. In the following example, therefore, them should be it: "The first has a lenis, and the other an asper over them."—Printer's Gram., p. 246. Better thus: "The first has a lenis over it, and the other an asper."

OBS. 4.—Nouns that stand as nominatives or antecedents, are sometimes taken conjointly when there is no conjunction expressed; as, "The historian, the orator, the philosopher, address themselves primarily to the understanding: their direct aim is, to inform, to persuade, to instruct."—Blair's Rhet., p. 377. The copulative and may here be said to be understood, because the verb and the pronouns are plural; but it seems better in general, either to introduce the connective word, or to take the nouns disjunctively: as, "They have all the copiousness, the fervour, the inculcating method, that is allowable and graceful in an orator; perhaps too much of it for a writer."—Blair's Rhet., p. 343. To this, however, there may be exceptions,—cases in which the plural form is to be preferred,—especially in poetry; as,

"Faith, justice, heaven itself, now quit their hold, When to false fame the captive heart is sold."—Brown, on Satire.

OBS. 5.—When two or more antecedents connected by and are nominally alike, one or more of them may be understood; and, in such a case, the pronoun must still be plural, as agreeing with all the nouns, whether expressed or implied: as, "But intellectual and moral culture ought to go hand in hand; they will greatly help each other."—Dr. Weeks. Here they stands for intellectual culture and moral culture. The following example is incorrect: "The Commanding and Unlimited mode may be used in an absolute sense, or without a name or substitute on which it can depend."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 80. Change it to they, or and to or. See Note 6th to Rule 16th.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XII.

PRONOUNS WITH ANTECEDENTS CONNECTED BY AND.

"Discontent and sorrow manifested itself in his countenance."—Brown's Inst., p. 146.

[FORMULE—Not proper, because the pronoun itself is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent its two antecedents discontent and sorrow, which are connected by and, and taken conjointly. But, according to Rule 12th, "When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with then, jointly in the plural, because they are taken together." Therefore, itself should be themselves; thus, "Discontent and sorrow manifested themselves in his countenance."]

"Both conversation and public speaking became more simple and plain, such as we now find it."—Blair's Rhet., p. 59. "Idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, &c."—JOHNSON: Priestley's Gram., p. 186. "Avoid questions and strife; it shows a busy and contentious disposition."—Wm. Penn. "To receive the gifts and benefits of God with thanksgiving, and witness it blessed and sanctified to us by the word and prayer, is owned by us."—Barclays Works, i, 213. "Both minister and magistrate are compelled to choose between his duty and his reputation."—Junius, p. 9. "All the sincerity, truth, and faithfulness, or disposition of heart or conscience to approve it, found among rational creatures, necessarily originate from God."—Brown's Divinity, p. 12. "Your levity and heedlessness, if it continue, will prevent all substantial improvement."—Brown's Inst., p. 147. "Poverty and obscurity will oppress him only who esteems it oppressive."—Ib. "Good sense and refined policy are obvious to few, because it cannot be discovered but by a train of reflection."—Ib. "Avoid haughtiness of behaviour, and affectation, of manners: it implies a want of solid merit."—Ib. "If love and unity continue, it will make you partakers of one an other's joy."—Ib. "Suffer not jealousy and distrust to enter: it will destroy, like a canker, every germ of friendship."—Ib. "Hatred and animosity are inconsistent with Christian charity; guard, therefore, against the slightest indulgence of it."—Ib. "Every man is entitled to liberty of conscience, and freedom of opinion, if he does not pervert it to the injury of others."—Ib.

"With the azure and vermilion Which is mix'd for my pavilion."—Byron's Manfred, p. 9.

RULE XIII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together: as; "James or John will favour us with his company."—"Neither wealth nor honour can secure the happiness of its votaries."

"What virtue or what mental grace, But men unqualified and base Will boast it their possession?"—Cowper, on Friendship.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIII.

OBS. 1.—When two or more singular antecedents are connected by or or nor, the pronoun which represents them, ought in general to be singular, because or and nor are disjunctives; and, to form a complete concord, the nouns ought also to be of the same person and gender, that the pronoun may agree in all respects with each of them. But when plural nouns are connected in this manner, the pronoun will of course be plural, though it still agrees with the antecedents singly; as, "Neither riches nor honours ever satisfy their pursuers." Sometimes, when different numbers occur together, we find the plural noun put last, and the pronoun made plural after both, especially if this noun is a mere substitute for the other; as,

"What's justice to a man, or laws, That never comes within their claws."—Hudibras.

OBS. 2.—When antecedents of different persons, numbers, or genders, are connected by or or nor, they cannot very properly be represented by any pronoun that is not applicable to each of them. The following sentences are therefore inaccurate; or at least they contradict the teachings of their own authors: "Either thou or I am greatly mistaken, in our judgment on this subject."—Murray's Key, p. 184 "Your character, which I, or any other writer, may now value ourselves by (upon) drawing."—SWIFT: Lowth's Gram., p. 96. "Either you or I will be in our place in due time."—Coopers Gram., p. 127. But different pronouns may be so connected as to refer to such antecedents taken separately; as, "By requiring greater labour from such slave or slaves, than he or she or they are able to perform."—Prince's Digest. Or, if the gender only be different, the masculine may involve the feminine by implication; as, "If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake."—Exodus, xxi, 26.

OBS. 3.—It is however very common to resort to the plural number in such instances as the foregoing, because our plural pronouns are alike in all the genders; as, "When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite."—Numbers, vi, 2. "Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman unto thy gates, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die."—Deut., xvii, 5. "Not on outward charms could he or she build their pretensions to please."—Opie, on Lying, p. 148. "Complimenting either man or woman on agreeable qualities which they do not possess, in hopes of imposing on their credulity."—Ib., p. 108. "Avidien, or his wife, (no matter which,) sell their presented partridges and fruits."—Pope, Sat. ii, l. 50. "Beginning with Latin or Greek hexameter, which are the same."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 79.

"Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, Transform themselves so strangely as the rich?" —Pope, Ep. i, l. 152.

OBS. 4.—From the observations and examples above, it may be perceived, that whenever there is a difference of person, number, or gender, in antecedents connected disjunctively, there is an inherent difficulty respecting the form of the pronoun personal. The best mode of meeting this inconvenience, or of avoiding it by a change of the phraseology, may be different on different occasions. The disjunctive connexion of explicit pronouns is the most correct, but it savours too much of legal precision and wordiness to be always eligible. Commonly an ingenious mind may invent some better expression, and yet avoid any syntactical anomaly. In Latin, when nouns are connected by the conjunctions which correspond to or or nor, the pronoun or verb is so often made plural, that no such principle as that of the foregoing Rule, or of Rule 17th, is taught by the common grammars of that language. How such usage can be logically right, however, it is difficult to imagine. Lowth, Murray, Webster, and most other English grammarians, teach, that, "The conjunction disjunctive has an effect contrary to that of the copulative; and, as the verb, noun, or pronoun, is referred to the preceding terms taken separately, it must be in the singular number."—Lowth's Gram., p. 75; L. Murray's, 151; Churchill's, 142; W. Allen's, 133; Lennie's, 83; and many others. If there is any allowable exception to this principle, it is for the adoption of the plural when the concord cannot be made by any one pronoun singular; as, "If I value my friend's wife or son upon account of their connexion with him."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 73. "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation."—Levit., x, 8. These examples, though they do not accord with the preceding rule, seem not to be susceptible of any change for the better. There are also some other modes of expression, in which nouns that are connected disjunctively, may afterwards be represented together; as "Foppery is a sort of folly much more contagious THAN pedantry; but as they result alike from affectation, they deserve alike to be proscribed."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 217.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIII.

PRONOUNS WITH ANTECEDENTS CONNECTED BY OR OR NOR.

"Neither prelate nor priest can give their flocks any decisive evidence that you are lawful pastors."—Dr. Brownlee.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun their is of the plural number, and does not correctly represent its two antecedents prelate and priest, which are connected by nor, and taken disjunctively. But, according to Rule 13th, "When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together." Therefore, their should be his; thus, "Neither prelate nor priest can give his flocks any decisive evidence that you are lawful pastors."]

"And is there a heart of parent or of child, that does not beat and burn within them?"—Maturin's Sermons, p. 367. "This is just as if an eye or a foot should demand a salary for their service to the body."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 178. "If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee."—Matt., xviii, 8. "The same might as well be said of Virgil, or any great author, whose general character will infallibly raise many casual additions to their reputation."—Pope's Pref. to Homer. "Either James or John, one of them, will come."—Smith's New Gram., p. 37. "Even a rugged rock or barren heath, though in themselves disagreeable, contribute by contrast to the beauty of the whole."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 185. "That neither Count Rechteren nor Monsieur Mesnager had behaved themselves right in this affair."—Spect., No. 481. "If an Aristotle, a Pythagoras, or a Galileo, suffer for their opinions, they are 'martyrs.'"—Gospel its own Witness, p. 80. "If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die; then the ox shall be surely stoned."—Exodus, xxi, 28. "She was calling out to one or an other, at every step, that a Habit was ensnaring them."—DR. JOHNSON: Murray's Sequel, 181. "Here is a Task put upon Children, that neither this Author, nor any other have yet undergone themselves."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 162. "Hence, if an adjective or participle be subjoined to the verb, when of the singular number, they will agree both in gender and number with the collective noun."—Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 154; Gould's, 158. "And if you can find a diphthong, or a triphthong, be pleased to point them out too."—Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 16. "And if you can find a diphthong, or a triphthong, a trissyllable, or a polysyllable, point them respectively out."—Ib., p. 25. "The false refuges in which the atheist or the sceptic have intrenched themselves."—Christian Spect., viii, 185. "While the man or woman thus assisted by art expects their charms will be imputed to nature alone."—Opie, 141. "When you press a watch, or pull a clock, they answer your question with precision; for they repeat exactly the hour of the day, and tell you neither more nor less than you desire to know."—Bolingbroke, on History, p. 102.

"Not the Mogul, or Czar of Muscovy, Not Prester John, or Cham of Tartary, Are in their houses Monarch more than I." —KING: Brit. Poets, Vol. iii, p. 613.



CHAPTER VI.—VERBS.

In this work, the syntax of Verbs is embraced in six consecutive rules, with the necessary exceptions, notes, and observations, under them; hence this chapter extends from the fourteenth to the twentieth rule in the series.

RULE XIV.—FINITE VERBS.

Every finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number: as, "I know; thou knowst, or knowest; he knows, or knoweth"—"The bird flies; the birds fly."

"Our fathers' fertile fields by slaves are till'd, And Rome with dregs of foreign lands is fill'd." —Rowe's Lucan, B. vii, l. 600.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIV.

OBS. 1.—To this general rule for the verb, there are properly no exceptions;[385] and all the special rules that follow, which prescribe the concord of verbs in particular instances, virtually accord with it. Every finite verb, (that is, every verb not in the infinitive mood,) must have some noun, pronoun, or phrase equivalent, known as the subject of the being, action, or passion;[386] and with this subject, whether expressed or understood, the verb must agree in person and number. The infinitive mood, as it does not unite with a nominative to form an assertion, is of course exempt from any such agreement. These may be considered principles of Universal Grammar. The Greeks, however, had a strange custom of using a plural noun of the neuter gender, with a verb of the third person singular; and in both Greek and Latin, the infinitive mood with an accusative before it was often equivalent to a finite verb with its nominative. In English we have neither of these usages; and plural nouns, even when they denote no absolute plurality, (as shears, scissors, trowsers, pantaloons, tongs,) require plural verbs or pronouns: as, "Your shears come too late, to clip the bird's wings."—SIDNEY: Churchill's Gram., p. 30.

OBS. 2.—When a book that bears a plural title, is spoken of as one thing, there is sometimes presented an apparent exception to the foregoing rule; as, "The Pleasures of Memory was published in the year 1792, and became at once popular."—Allan Cunningham. "The 'Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man' is written with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity."—Johnson's Life of Swift. "The 'Pleasures of Hope' is a splendid poem; it was written for perpetuity."—Samuel L. Knapp. In these instances, there is, I apprehend, either an agreement of the verb, by the figure syllepsis, with the mental conception of the thing spoken of; or an improper ellipsis of the common noun, with which each sentence ought to commence; as, "The poem entitled,"—"The work entitled," &c. But the plural title sometimes controls the form of the verb; as, "My Lives are reprinting."—Dr. Johnson.

OBS. 3.—In the figurative use of the present tense for the past or imperfect, the vulgar have a habit of putting the third person singular with the pronoun I; as, "Thinks I to myself."—Rev. J. Marriott. "O, says I, Jacky, are you at that work?"—Day's Sandford and Merton. "Huzza! huzza! Sir Condy Rackrent forever, was the first thing I hears in the morning."—Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, p. 97. This vulgarism is to be avoided, not by a simple omission of the terminational s, but rather by the use of the literal preterit: as, "Thought I to myself;"—"O, said I;"—"The first thing I heard." The same mode of correction is also proper, when, under like circumstances, there occurs a disagreement in number; as, "After the election was over, there comes shoals of people from all parts."—Castle Rackrent, p. 103. "Didn't ye hear it? says they that were looking on."—Ib., p. 147. Write, "there came,"—"said they."

OBS. 4.—It has already been noticed, that the article a, or a singular adjective, sometimes precedes an arithmetical number with a plural noun; as, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday."—Psalms, xc, 4. So we might say, "One thousand years are,"—"Each thousand years are"—"Every thousand years are," &c. But it would not be proper to say, "A thousand years is," or, "Every thousand years is;" because the noun years is plainly plural, and the anomaly of putting a singular verb after it, is both needless and unauthorized. Yet, to this general rule for the verb, the author of a certain "English Grammar on the Productive System," (a strange perversion of Murray's compilation, and a mere catch-penny work, now extensively used in New England,) is endeavouring to establish, by his own bare word, the following exception: "Every is sometimes associated with a plural noun, in which case the verb must be singular; as, 'Every hundred years constitutes a century.'"—Smith's New Gram., p. 103. His reason is this; that the phrase containing the nominative, "signifies a single period of time, and is, therefore, in reality singular."—Ib. Cutler also, a more recent writer, seems to have imbibed the same notion; for he gives the following sentence as an example of "false construction: Every hundred years are called a century."—Cutler's Grammar and Parser, p. 145. But, according to this argument, no plural verb could ever be used with any definite number of the parts of time; for any three years, forty years, or threescore years and ten, are as single a period of time, as "every hundred years," "every four years," or "every twenty-four hours." Nor is it true, that, "Every is sometimes associated with a plural noun;" for "every years" or "every hours," would be worse than nonsense. I, therefore, acknowledge no such exception; but, discarding the principle of the note, put this author's pretended corrections among my quotations of false syntax.

OBS. 5.—Different verbs always have different subjects, expressed or understood; except when two or more verbs are connected in the same construction, or when the same word is repeated for the sake of emphasis. But let not the reader believe the common doctrine of our grammarians, respecting either the ellipsis of nominatives or the ellipsis of verbs. In the text, "The man was old and crafty," Murray sees no connexion of the ideas of age and craftiness, but thinks the text a compound sentence, containing two nominatives and two verbs; i.e., "The man was old, and the man was crafty." [387] And all his other instances of "the ellipsis of the verb" are equally fanciful! See his Octavo Gram., p. 219; Duodecimo, 175. In the text, "God loves, protects, supports, and rewards the rights," there are four verbs in the same construction, agreeing with the same nominative, and governing the same object; but Buchanan and others expound it, "God loves, and God protects, and God supports, and God rewards the righteous."—English Syntax, p. 76; British Gram., 192. This also is fanciful and inconsistent. If the nominative is here "elegantly understood to each verb," so is the objective, which they do not repeat. "And again," they immediately add, "the verb is often understood to its noun or nouns; as, He dreams of gibbets, halters, racks, daggers, &c. i.e. He dreams of gibbets, and he dreams of halters, &c."—Same works and places. In none of these examples is there any occasion to suppose an ellipsis, if we admit that two or more words can be connected in the same construction!

OBS. 6.—Verbs in the imperative mood commonly agree with the pronoun thou, ye, or you, understood after them; as, "Heal [ye] the sick, cleanse [ye] the lepers, raise [ye] the dead, cast [ye] out devils."—Matt., x, 8. "Trust God and be doing, and leave the rest with him."—Dr. Sibs. When the doer of a thing must first proceed to the place of action, we sometimes use go or come before an other verb, without any conjunction between the two; as, "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard."—Matt., xxi, 28. "Come see a man who [has] told me all things that ever I did."—John, iv, 29. "He ordered his soldiers to go murder every child about Bethlehem, or near it."—Wood's Dict. of Bible, w. Herod. "Take a present in thine hand, and go meet the man of God."—2 Kings, viii, 8. "I will go see if he be at home."—Walker's Particles, p. 169.

OBS. 7.—The place of the verb has reference mainly to that of the subject with which it agrees, and that of the object which it governs; and as the arrangement of these, with the instances in which they come before or after the verb, has already been noticed, the position of the latter seems to require no further explanation. See Obs. 2d under Rule 2d, and Obs. 2d under Rule 5th.

OBS. 8.—The infinitive mood, a phrase, or a sentence, (and, according to some authors, the participle in ing, or a phrase beginning with this participle,) is sometimes the proper subject of a verb, being equivalent to a nominative of the third person singular; as, "To play is pleasant."—Lowth's Gram., p. 80. "To write well, is difficult; to speak eloquently, is still more difficult."—Blair's Rhet., p. 81. "To take men off from prayer, tends to irreligiousness, is granted."—Barclay's Works, i, 214. "To educate a child perfectly, requires profounder thought, greater wisdom, than to govern a state."—Channing's Self-Culture, p. 30. "To determine these points, belongs to good sense."—Blair's Rhet., p. 321. "How far the change would contribute to his welfare, comes to be considered."—Id., Sermons. "That too much care does hurt in any of our tasks, is a doctrine so flattering to indolence, that we ought to receive it with extreme caution."—Life of Schiller, p. 148. "That there is no disputing about taste, is a saying so generally received as to have become a proverb."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 360. "For what purpose they embarked, is not yet known."—"To live in sin and yet to believe the forgiveness of sin, is utterly impossible."—Dr. J. Owen.

"There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, But drinking largely sobers us again."—Pope.

OBS. 9.—The same meaning will be expressed, if the pronoun it be placed before the verb, and the infinitive, phrase, or santance, after it; as, "It is pleasant to play,"—"It is difficult to write well;" &c. The construction of the following sentences is rendered defective by the omission of this pronoun: "Why do ye that which [it] is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?"—Luke, vi, 2. "The show-bread, which [it] is not lawful to eat, but for the priests only."—Ib., vi, 4. "We have done that which [it] was our duty to do."—Ib., xvii, 10. Here the relative which ought to be in the objective case, governed by the infinitives; but the omission of the word it makes this relative the nominative to is or was, and leaves to do and to eat without any regimen. This is not ellipsis, but error. It is an accidental gap into which a side piece falls, and leaves a breach elsewhere. The following is somewhat like it, though what falls in, appears to leave no chasm: "From this deduction, [it] may be easily seen how it comes to pass, that personification makes so great a figure."—Blair's Rhet., p. 155. "Whether the author had any meaning in this expression, or what it was, [it] is not easy to determine."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 298. "That warm climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, [it] is very reasonable to believe."—Ib., p. 144. These also need the pronoun, though Murray thought them complete without it.

OBS. 10.—When the infinitive mood is made the subject of a finite verb, it is most commonly used to express action or state in the abstract; as, "To be contents his natural desire."—Pope. Here to be stands for simple existence; or if for the existence of the Indian, of whom the author speaks, that relation is merely implied. "To define ridicule, has puzzled and vexed every critic."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 300. Here "to define" expresses an action quite as distinct from any agent, as would the participial noun; as, "The defining of ridicule," &c. In connexion with the infinitive, a concrete quality may also be taken as an abstract; as, "To be good is to be happy." Here good and happy express the quality of goodness and the state of happiness considered abstractly; and therefore these adjectives do not relate to any particular noun. So also the passive infinitive, or a perfect participle taken in a passive sense; as, "To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom."—"To appear discouraged, is the way to become so." Here the satisfaction and the discouragement are considered abstractly, and without reference to any particular person. (See Obs. 12th and 13th on Rule 6th.) So too, apparently, the participles doing and suffering, as well as the adjective weak, in the following example:

"Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering."—Milton's Paradise Lost.

OBS. 11.—When the action or state is to be expressly limited to one class of beings, or to a particular person or thing, without making the verb finite; the noun or pronoun may be introduced before the infinitive by the preposition for: as, "For men to search their own glory, is not glory."—Prov., xxv, 27. "For a prince to be reduced by villany [sic—KTH] to my distressful circumstances, is calamity enough."—Translation of Sallust. "For holy persons to be humble, is as hard, as for a prince to submit himself to be guided by tutors."—TAYLOR: Priestley's Gram., p. 132; Murray's, 184. But such a limitation is sometimes implied, when the expression itself is general; as, "Not to know me, argues thyself unknown."—Milton. That is, "For thee not to know me." The phrase is put far, "Thy ignorance of me;" for an other's ignorance would be no argument in regard to the individual addressed. "I, to bear this, that never knew but better, is some burden."—Beauties of Shak., p. 327. Here the infinitive to bear, which is the subject of the verb is, is limited in sense by the pronoun I, which is put absolute in the nominative, though perhaps improperly; because, "For me to bear this," &c., will convey the same meaning, in a form much more common, and perhaps more grammatical. In the following couplet, there is an ellipsis of the infinitive; for the phrase, "fool with fool," means, "for fool to contend with fool," or, "for one fool to contend with an other:"

"Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor, But fool with fool is barb'rous civil war." —Pope, Dunciad, B. iii, l. 175.

OBS. 12.—The objective noun or pronoun thus introduced by for before the infinitive, was erroneously called by Priestley, "the subject of the affirmation;" (Gram., p. 132;) and Murray, Ingersoll, and others, have blindly copied the blunder. See Murray's Gram., p. 184; Ingersoll's, 244. Again, Ingersoll says, "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes the subject of a verb, and is, therefore, its NOMINATIVE."—Conversations on English Gram., p. 246. To this erroneous deduction, the phraseology used by Murray and others too plainly gives countenance: "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put as the nominative case to the verb."—Murray's Gram., p. 144; Fisk's, 123; Kirkham's, 188; Lennie's, 99; Bullions's, 89; and many more. Now the objective before the infinitive may not improperly be called the subject of this form of the verb, as the nominative is, of the finite; but to call it "the subject of the affirmation," is plainly absurd; because no infinitive, in English, ever expresses an affirmation. And again, if a whole phrase or sentence is made the subject of a finite verb, or of an affirmation, no one word contained in it, can singly claim this title. Nor can the whole, by virtue of this relation, be said to be "in the nominative case;" because, in the nature of things, neither phrases nor sentences are capable of being declined by cases.

OBS. 13.—Any phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a finite verb, must be taken in the sense of one thing, and be spoken of as a whole; so that the verb's agreement with it, in the third person singular, is not an exception to Rule 14th, but a construction in which the verb may be parsed by that rule. For any one thing merely spoken of, is of the third person singular, whatever may be the nature of its parts. Not every phrase or sentence, however, is fit to be made the subject of a verb;—that is, if its own import, and not the mere expression, is the thing whereof we affirm. Thus Dr. Ash's example for this very construction, "a sentence made the subject of a verb," is, I think, a palpable solecism: "The King and Queen appearing in public was the cause of my going."—Ash's Gram., p. 52. What is here before the verb was, is no "sentence;" but a mere phrase, and such a one as we should expect to see used independently, if any regard were had to its own import. The Doctor would tell us what "was the cause of his going:" and here he has two nominatives, which are equivalent to the plural they; q.d., "They appearing in public was the cause." But such a construction is not English. It is an other sample of the false illustration which grammar receives from those who invent the proof-texts which they ought to quote.

OBS. 14.—One of Murray's examples of what he erroneously terms "nominative sentences," i.e., "sentences or clauses constituting the subject of an affirmation," is the following: "A desire to excel others in learning and virtue [,] is commendable."—Gram., 8vo, p. 144. Here the verb is agrees regularly with the noun desire, and with that only; the whole text being merely a simple sentence, and totally irrelevant to the doctrine which it accompanies.[388] But the great "Compiler" supposes the adjuncts of this noun to be parts of the nominative, and imagines the verb to agree with all that precedes it. Yet, soon after, he expends upon the ninth rule of Webster's Philosophical Grammar a whole page of useless criticism, to show that the adjuncts of a noun are not to be taken as parts of the nominative; and that, when objectives are thus subjoined, "the assertion grammatically respects the first nouns only."—Ib., p. 148. I say useless, because the truth of the doctrine is so very plain. Some, however, may imagine an example like the following to be an exception to it; but I do not, because I think the true nominative suppressed:

"By force they could not introduce these gods; For ten to one in former days was odds."—Dryden's Poems, p. 38.

OBS. 15.—Dr. Webster's ninth rule is this: "When the nominative consists of several words, and the last of the names is in the plural number, the verb is commonly in the plural also; as, 'A part of the exports consist of raw silk.' 'The number of oysters increase.' GOLDSMITH. 'Such as the train of our ideas have lodged in our memories.' LOCKE. 'The greater part of philosophers have acknowledged the excellence of this government.' ANACHARSIS."—Philos. Gram., p. 146; Impr. Gram., 100. The last of these examples Murray omits; the second he changes thus: "A number of men and women were present." But all of them his reasoning condemns as ungrammatical. He thinks them wrong, upon the principle, that the verbs, being plural, do not agree with the first nouns only. Webster, on the contrary, judges them all to be right; and, upon this same principle, conceives that his rule must be so too. He did not retract or alter the doctrine after he saw the criticism, but republished it verbatim, in his "Improved Grammar," of 1831. Both err, and neither convinces the other.

OBS. 16.—In this instance, as Webster and Murray both teach erroneously, whoever follows either, will be led into many mistakes. The fact is, that some of the foregoing examples, though perhaps not all, are perfectly right; and hundreds more, of a similar character, might be quoted, which no true grammarian would presume to condemn. But what have these to do with the monstrous absurdity of supposing objective adjuncts to be "parts of the actual nominative?" The words, "part," "number," "train" and the like, are collective nouns; and, as such, they often have plural verbs in agreement with them. To say, "A number of men and women were present," is as correct as to say, "A very great number of our words are plainly derived from the Latin."—Blair's Rhet., p. 86. Murray's criticism, therefore, since it does not exempt these examples from the censure justly laid upon Webster's rule, will certainly mislead the learner. And again the rule, being utterly wrong in principle, will justify blunders like these: "The truth of the narratives have never been disputed;"—"The virtue of these men and women are indeed exemplary."—Murray's Gram., p. 148. In one of his notes, Murray suggests, that the article an or a before a collective noun must confine the verb to the singular number; as, "A great number of men and women was collected."—Ib., p. 153. But this doctrine he sometimes forgot or disregarded; as, "But if a number of interrogative or exclamatory sentences are thrown into one general group."—Ib., p. 284; Comly, 166; Fisk, 160; Ingersoll, 295.

OBS. 17.—Cobbett, in a long paragraph, (the 245th of his English Grammar,) stoutly denies that any relative pronoun can ever be the nominative to a verb; and, to maintain this absurdity, he will have the relative and its antecedent to be always alike in case, the only thing in which they are always independent of each other. To prove his point, he first frames these examples: "The men who are here, the man who is here; the cocks that crow, the cock that crows;" and then asks, "Now, if the relative be the nominative, why do the verbs change, seeing that here is no change in the relative?" He seems ignorant of the axiom, that two things severally equal to a third, are also equal to each other: and accordingly, to answer his own question, resorts to a new principle: "The verb is continually varying. Why does it vary? Because it disregards the relative and goes and finds the antecedent, and accommodates its number to that."—Ibid. To this wild doctrine, one erratic Irishman yields a full assent; and, in one American grammatist, we find a partial and unintentional concurrence with it.[389] But the fact is, the relative agrees with the antecedent, and the verb agrees with the relative: hence all three of the words are alike in person and number. But between the case of the relative and that of the antededent [sic—KTH], there never is, or can be, in our language, any sort of connexion or interference. The words belong to different clauses; and, if both be nominatives, they must be the subjects of different verbs: or, if the noun be sometimes put absolute in the nominative, the pronoun is still left to its own verb. But Cobbett concludes his observation thus: "You will observe, therefore, that, when I, in the etymology and syntax as relating to relative pronouns, speak of relatives as being in the nominative case, I mean, that they relate to nouns or to personal pronouns, which are in that case. The same observation applies to the other cases."—Ib., 245. This suggestion betrays in the critic an unaccountable ignorance of his subject.

OBS. 18.—Nothing is more certain, than that the relatives, who, which, what, that, and as, are often nominatives, and the only subjects of the verbs which follow them: as, "The Lord will show who are his, and who is holy."—Numbers, xvi, 5. "Hardly is there any person, but who, on such occasions, is disposed to be serious."—Blair's Rhet., p. 469. "Much of the merit of Mr. Addison's Cato depends upon that moral turn of thought which distinguishes it."—Ib., 469. "Admit not a single word but what is necessary."—Ib., p. 313. "The pleader must say nothing but what is true; and, at the same time, he must avoid saying any thing that will hurt his cause."—Ib., 313. "I proceed to mention such as appear to me most material."—Ib., p. 125. After but or than, there is sometimes an ellipsis of the relative, and perhaps also of the antecedent; as, "There is no heart but must feel them."—Blair's Rhet., p. 469. "There is no one but must be sensible of the extravagance."—Ib., p. 479. "Since we may date from it a more general and a more concerted opposition to France than there had been before."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 213. That is, "than what there had been before;"—or, "than any opposition which there had been before." "John has more fruit than can be gathered in a week."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., pp. 196 and 331. I suppose this sentence to mean, "John has more fruit than what can be gathered in a week." But the author of it denies that it is elliptical, and seems to suppose that can be gathered agrees with John. Part of his comment stands thus: "The above sentence—'John has more fruit than can be gathered in a week'—in every respect full and perfect—must, to be grammatical! according to all the 'old theories,' stand, John has more fruit than that fruit is which, or which fruit can be gathered in a week!!!"—Ib., 331. What shall be done with the headlong critic who thus mistakes exclamation points for arguments, and multiplies his confidence in proportion to his fallacies and errors?

OBS. 19.—In a question, the nominative I or thou put after the verb, controls the agreement, in preference to the interrogative who, which, or what, put before it; as, "Who am I? What am I? Who art thou? What art thou?" And, by analogy, this seems to be the case with all plurals; as, "Who are we? Who are you? Who are they? What are these?" But sometimes the interrogative pronoun is the only nominative used; and then the verb, whether singular or plural, must agree with this nominative, in the third person, and not, as Cobbett avers, with an antecedent understood: as, "Who is in the house? Who are in the house? Who strikes the iron? Who strike the iron? Who was in the street? Who were in the street?"—Cobbett's Gram., 245. All the interrogative pronouns may be used in either number, but, in examples like the following, I imagine the singular to be more proper than the plural: "What have become of our previous customs?"—Hunt's Byron, p. 121. "And what have become of my resolutions to return to God?"—Young Christian, 2d Ed., p. 91. When two nominatives of different properties come after the verb, the first controls the agreement, and neither the plural number nor the most worthy person is always preferred; as, "Is it I? Is it thou? Is it they?"

OBS. 20.—The verb after a relative sometimes has the appearance of disagreeing with its nominative, because the writer and his reader disagree in their conceptions of its mood. When a relative clause is subjoined to what is itself subjunctive or conditional, some writers suppose that the latter verb should be put in the subjunctive mood; as, "If there be any intrigue which stand separate and independent."—Blair's Rhet., p. 457. "The man also would be of considerable use, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice that were beginning to prevail."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 171. But I have elsewhere shown, that relatives, in English, are not compatible with the subjunctive mood; and it is certain, that no other mood than the indicative or the potential is commonly used after them. Say therefore, "If there be any intrigue which stands," &c. In assuming to himself the other text, Murray's says, "That man also would be of considerable use, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice that was beginning to prevail."—Octavo Gram., p. 366. But this seems too positive. The potential imperfect would be better: viz., "that might begin to prevail."

OBS. 21.—The termination st or est, with which the second person singular of the verb is formed in the indicative present, and, for the solemn style, in the imperfect also; and the termination s or es, with which the third person singular is formed in the indicative present, and only there; are signs of the mood and tense, as well as of the person and number, of the verb. They are not applicable to a future uncertainty, or to any mere supposition in which we would leave the time indefinite and make the action hypothetical; because they are commonly understood to fix the time of the verb to the present or the past, and to assume the action as either doing or done. For this reason, our best writers have always omitted those terminations, when they intended to represent the action as being doubtful and contingent as well as conditional. And this omission constitutes the whole formal difference between the indicative and the subjunctive mood. The essential difference has, by almost all grammarians, been conceived to extend somewhat further; for, if it were confined strictly within the limits of the literal variation, the subjunctive mood would embrace only two or three words in the whole formation of each verb. After the example of Priestley, Dr. Murray, A. Murray, Harrison, Alexander, and others, I have given to it all the persons of the two simple tenses, singular and plural; and, for various reasons, I am decidedly of the opinion, that these are its most proper limits. The perfect and pluperfect tenses, being past, cannot express what is really contingent or uncertain; and since, in expressing conditionally what may or may not happen, we use the subjunctive present as embracing the future indefinitely, there is no need of any formal futures for this mood. The comprehensive brevity of this form of the verb, is what chiefly commends it. It is not an elliptical form of the future, as some affirm it to be; nor equivalent to the indicative present, as others will have it; but a true subjunctive, though its distinctive parts are chiefly confined to the second and third persons singular of the simple verb: as, "Though thou wash thee with nitre."—Jer., ii, 22. "It is just, O great king! that a murderer perish."—Corneille. "This single crime, in my judgment, were sufficient to condemn him."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 82. "Beware that thou bring not my son thither."—BIBLE: Ward's Gram., p. 128. "See [that] thou tell no man."—Id., ib. These examples can hardly be resolved into any thing else than the subjunctive mood.

NOTES TO RULE XIV.

NOTE I.—When the nominative is a relative pronoun, the verb must agree with it in person and number, according to the pronoun's agreement with its true antecedent or antecedents. Example of error: "The second book [of the AEneid] is one of the greatest masterpieces that ever was executed by any hand."—Blair's Rhet., p. 439. Here the true antecedent is masterpieces, and not the word one; but was executed is singular, and "by any hand" implies but one agent. Either say, "It is one of the greatest masterpieces that ever were executed;" or else, "It is the greatest masterpiece that ever was executed by any hand." But these assertions differ much in their import.

NOTE II.—"The adjuncts of the nominative do not control its agreement with the verb; as, Six months' interest was due. The progress of his forces was impeded."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 131. "The ship, with all her furniture, was destroyed."—Murray's Gram., p. 150. "All appearances of modesty are favourable and prepossessing."—Blair's Rhet., p. 308. "The power of relishing natural enjoyments is soon gone."—Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 135. "I, your master, command you (not commands)"— Latham's Hand-Book, p. 330.[390]

NOTE III.—Any phrase, sentence, mere word, or other sign, taken as one whole, and made the subject of an assertion, requires a verb in the third person singular; as, "To lie is base."—Adam's Gram., p. 154. "When, to read and write, was of itself an honorary distinction."—Hazlitt's Lect., p. 40. "To admit a God and then refuse to worship him, is a modern and inconsistent practice."—Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 30. "We is a personal pronoun."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 227. "Th has two sounds."—Ib., p. 161. "The 's is annexed to each."—Bucke's Gram., p. 89. "Ld. stands for lord."—Webster's American Dict., 8vo.

NOTE IV.—The pronominal adjectives, each, one,[391] either, and neither, are always in the third person singular; and, when they are the leading words in their clauses, they require verbs and pronouns to agree with them accordingly: as, "Each of you is entitled to his share."—"Let no one deceive himself."

NOTE V.—A neuter or a passive verb between two nominatives should be made to agree with that which precedes it;[392] as, "Words are wind:" except when the terms are transposed, and the proper subject is put after the verb by question or hyperbaton; as, "His pavilion were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky."—Bible. "Who art thou?"—Ib. "The wages of sin is death."—Ib. Murray, Comly, and others. But, of this last example, Churchill says, "Wages are the subject, of which it is affirmed, that they are death."—New Gram., p. 314. If so, is ought to be are; unless Dr. Webster is right, who imagines wages to be singular, and cites this example to prove it so. See his Improved Gram., p. 21.

NOTE VI.—When the verb cannot well be made singular, the nominative should be made plural, that they may agree: or, if the verb cannot be plural, let the nominative be singular. Example of error: "For every one of them know their several duties."—Hope of Israel, p. 72. Say, "For all of them know their several duties."

NOTE VII.—When the verb has different forms, that form should be adopted, which is the most consistent with present and reputable usage in the style employed: thus, to say familiarly, "The clock hath stricken;"—"Thou laughedst and talkedst, when thou oughtest to have been silent;"—"He readeth and writeth, but he doth not cipher," would be no better, than to use don't, won't, can't, shan't, and didn't, in preaching.

NOTE VIII.—Every finite verb not in the imperative mood, should have a separate nominative expressed; as, "I came, I saw, I conquered:" except when the verb is repeated for the sake of emphasis, or connected to an other in the same construction, or put after but or than; as, "Not an eminent orator has lived but is an example of it."—Ware. "Where more is meant than meets the ear."—Milton's Allegro. (See Obs. 5th and Obs. 18th above.)

"They bud, blow, wither, fall, and die."—Watts.

"That evermore his teeth they chatter, Chatter, chatter, chatter still."—Wordsworth.

NOTE IX.—A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive present; and a mere supposition, with indefinite time, by a verb in the subjunctive imperfect; but a conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the indicative mood:[393] as, "If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever."—Bible. "If it were not so, I would have told you."—Ib. "If thou went, nothing would be gained."—"Though he is poor, he is contented."—"Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor."—2 Cor., viii, 9.

NOTE X.—In general, every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood, as the reader will be likely to mistake for a discord between the verb and its nominative, ought to be avoided as an impropriety: as, "We are not sensible of disproportion, till the difference between the quantities compared become the most striking circumstance."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 341. Say rather, "becomes;" which is indicative. "Till the general preference of certain forms have been declared."—Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. xvii. Say, "has been declared;" for "preference" is here the nominative, and Dr. Priestley himself recognizes no other subjunctive tenses than the present and the imperfect; as, "If thou love, If thou loved."—Ib., p. 16.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIV.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—VERB AFTER THE NOMINATIVE.

"Before you left Sicily, you was reconciled to Verres."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 19.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the passive verb was reconciled is of the singular number, and does not agree with its nominative you, which is of the second person plural. But, according to Rule 14th, "Every finite verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number." Therefore, was reconciled should be were reconciled; thus, "Before you left Sicily, you were reconciled to Verres."]

"Knowing that you was my old master's good friend."—Spect., No. 517. "When the judge dare not act, where is the loser's remedy?"—Webster's Essays, p. 131. "Which extends it no farther than the variation of the verb extend."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 211. "They presently dry without hurt, as myself hath often proved."—Roger Williams. "Whose goings forth hath been from of old, from everlasting."—Keith's Evidences. "You was paid to fight against Alexander, not to rail at him."—Porter's Analysis, p. 70. "Where more than one part of speech is almost always concerned."—Churchill's Gram., Pref., p. viii. "Nothing less than murders, rapines, and conflagrations, employ their thoughts."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 175. "I wondered where you was, my dear."—Lloyd's Poems, p. 185. "When thou most sweetly sings."—Drummond of Hawthornden. "Who dare, at the present day, avow himself equal to the task?"—Music of Nature, p. 11. "Every body are very kind to her, and not discourteous to me."—Byron's Letters. "As to what thou says respecting the diversity of opinions."—The Friend, Vol. ix, p. 45. "Thy nature, immortality, who knowest?"—Everest's Gram., p. 38. "The natural distinction of sex in animals gives rise to what, in grammar, is called genders."—Ib., p. 51. "Some pains has likewise been taken."—Scott's Pref. to Bible. "And many a steed in his stables were seen."—Penwarne's Poems, p. 108. "They was forced to eat what never was esteemed food."—Josephus's Jewish War, B. i, Ch. i, Sec.7. "This that yourself hath spoken, I desire that they may take their oaths upon."—Hutchinson's Mass., ii, 435. "By men whose experience best qualify them to judge."—Committee on Literature, N. Y. Legislature. "He dare venture to kill and destroy several other kinds of fish."—Johnson's Dict, w. Perch. "If a gudgeon meet a roach, He dare not venture to approach."—SWIFT: Ib., w. Roach. "Which thou endeavours to establish unto thyself."—Barclay's Works, i, 164. "But they pray together much oftener than thou insinuates."—Ib., i, 215. "Of people of all denominations, over whom thou presideth."—The Friend, Vol. v, p. 198. "I can produce ladies and gentlemen whose progress have been astonishing."—Chazotte, on Teaching Lang., p. 62. "Which of these two kinds of vice are more criminal?"—Brown's Estimate, ii, 115. "Every twenty-four hours affords to us the vicissitudes of day and night."—Smith's New Gram., p. 103. "Every four years adds another day."—Ib. "Every error I could find, Have my busy muse employed."—Swift's Poems, p. 335. "A studious scholar deserve the approbation of his teacher."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 226. "Perfect submission to the rules of a school indicate good breeding."—Ib., p. 37. "A comparison in which more than two is concerned."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 114. "By the facilities which artificial language afford them."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 16. "Now thyself hath lost both lop and top."—SPENSER: Joh. Dict., w. Lop. "Glad tidings is brought to the poor."—Campbell's Gospels: Luke, vii, 23. "Upon which, all that is pleasurable, or affecting in elocution, chiefly depend."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 129. "No pains has been spared to render this work complete."—Bullions, Lat. Gram., Pref., p. iv. "The United States contains more than a twentieth part of the land of this globe."—DE WITT CLINTON: Cobb's N. Amer. Reader, p. 173. "I am mindful that myself is (or am) strong."—Fowler's E. Gram., Sec. 500. "Myself is (not am) weak; thyself is (not art) weak."—Ib., Sec.479.

"How pale each worshipful and reverend guest Rise from a clergy or a city feast!"—Pope, Sat. ii, l. 75.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—VERB BEFORE THE NOMINATIVE.

"Where was you born? In London."—Buchanan's Syntax, p. 133. "There is frequent occasions for commas."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 281. "There necessarily follows from thence, these plain and unquestionable consequences."—Priestley's Gram., p. 191. "And to this impression contribute the redoubled effort."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 112. "Or if he was, was there no spiritual men then?"—Barclay's Works, iii, 86. "So by these two also is signified their contrary principles."—Ib., iii, 200. "In the motions made with the hands, consist the chief part of gesture in speaking."—Blair's Rhet., p. 336. "Dare he assume the name of a popular magistrate?"—Duncan's Cicero, p. 140. "There was no damages as in England, and so Scott lost his wager."—Byron. "In fact there exists such resemblances."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 64. "To him giveth all the prophets witness."—Crewdson's Beacon, p. 79. "That there was so many witnesses and actors."—Addison's Evidences, p. 37. "How does this man's definitions stand affected?"—Collier's Antoninus, p. 136. "Whence comes all the powers and prerogatives of rational beings?"—Ib., p. 144. "Nor does the Scriptures cited by thee prove thy intent."—Barclay's Works, i, 155. "Nor do the Scripture cited by thee prove the contrary."—Ib., i, 211. "Why then cite thou a Scripture which is so plain and clear for it?"—Ib., i, 163. "But what saith the Scriptures as to respect of persons among Christians?"—Ib., i, 404. "But in the mind of man, while in the savage state, there seems to be hardly any ideas but what enter by the senses."—Robertson's America, i, 289. "What sounds have each of the vowels?"—Griscom's Questions. "Out of this has grown up aristocracies, monarchies, despotisms, tyrannies."—Brownson's Elwood, p. 222. "And there was taken up, of fragments that remained to them, twelve baskets."— Luke, ix, 17. "There seems to be but two general classes."—Day's Gram., p. 3. "Hence arises the six forms of expressing time."—Ib., p. 37. "There seems to be no other words required."—Chandler's Gram., p. 28. "If there is two, the second increment is the syllable next the last."—Bullions, Lat. Gram., 12th Ed., p. 281. "Hence arises the following advantages."—Id., Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 67. "There is no data by which it can be estimated."—J. C. Calhoun's Speech, March 4, 1850. "To this class belong the Chinese [language], in which we have nothing but naked roots."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 27. "There was several other grotesque figures that presented themselves."— Spect., No. 173. "In these consist that sovereign good which ancient sages so much extol."—Percival's Tales, ii, 221. "Here comes those I have done good to against my will."—Shak., Shrew. "Where there is more than one auxiliary."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 80.

"On me to cast those eyes where shine nobility." —SIDNEY: Joh. Dict.

"Here's half-pence in plenty, for one you'll have twenty." —Swift's Poems, p. 347.

"Ah, Jockey, ill advises thou, I wis, To think of songs at such a time as this." —Churchill, p. 18.

UNDER NOTE I.—THE RELATIVE AND VERB.

"Thou who loves us, wilt protect us still."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 67. "To use that endearing language, Our Father, who is in heaven"—Bates's Doctrines, p. 103. "Resembling the passions that produceth these actions."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 157. "Except dwarf, grief, hoof, muff, &c. which takes s to make the plural."—Ash's Gram., p. 19. "As the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure."— Gen. xxxiii, 14 "Where is the man who dare affirm that such an action is mad?"—Werter. "The ninth book of Livy affords one of the most beautiful exemplifications of historical painting, that is any where to be met with."—Blair's Rhet., p. 360. "In some studies too, that relate to taste and fine writing, which is our object," &c.—Ib., p. 349. "Of those affecting situations, which makes man's heart feel for man."—Ib., p. 464. "We see very plainly, that it is neither Osmyn, nor Jane Shore, that speak."—Ib., p. 468. "It should assume that briskness and ease, which is suited to the freedom of dialogue."—Ib., p. 469. "Yet they grant, that none ought to be admitted into the ministry, but such as is truly pious."—Barclay's Works, iii, 147. "This letter is one of the best that has been written about Lord Byron."—Hunt's Byron, p. 119. "Thus, besides what was sunk, the Athenians took above two hundred ships."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 102. "To have made and declared such orders as was necessary."—Hutchinson's Hist., i, 470. "The idea of such a collection of men as make an army."—Locke's Essay, p. 217. "I'm not the first that have been wretched."—Southern's In. Ad., Act 2. "And the faint sparks of it, which is in the angels, are concealed from our view."—Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 11. "The subjects are of such a nature, as allow room for much diversity of taste and sentiment."—Blair's Rhet., Pref., p. 5. "It is in order to propose examples of such perfection, as are not to be found in the real examples of society."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 16. "I do not believe that he would amuse himself with such fooleries as has been attributed to him."—Ib., p. 218. "That shepherd, who first taughtst the chosen seed."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 238. "With respect to the vehemence and warmth which is allowed in popular eloquence."— Blair's Rhet., p. 261. "Ambition is one of those passions that is never to be satisfied."—Home's Art of Thinking, p. 36. "Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel."—2 Samuel, v, 2; and 1 Chron., xi, 2. "Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah?"—1 Kings, xiii, 14.

"How beauty is excell'd by manly grace And wisdom, which alone is truly fair."—Milton, B. iv, l. 490.

"What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown, While others sleep, thus range the camp alone?"—Pope, Il., x, 90.

UNDER NOTE II.—NOMINATIVE WITH ADJUNCTS.

"The literal sense of the words are, that the action had been done."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., i, 65. "The rapidity of his movements were beyond example."—Wells's Hist., p. 161. "Murray's Grammar, together with his Exercises and Key, have nearly superseded every thing else of the kind."—EVAN'S REC.: Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 305. "The mechanism of clocks and watches were totally unknown."—HUME: Priestley's Gram., p. 193. "The it, together with the verb to be, express states of being."—Cobbett's Eng. Gram., 190. "Hence it is, that the profuse variety of objects in some natural landscapes, neither breed confusion nor fatigue."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 266. "Such a clatter of sounds indicate rage and ferocity."—Music of Nature, p. 195. "One of the fields make threescore square yards, and the other only fifty-five."—Duncan's Logic, p. 8. "The happy effects of this fable is worth attending to."—Bailey's Ovid, p. x. "Yet the glorious serenity of its parting rays still linger with us."—Gould's Advocate. "Enough of its form and force are retained to render them uneasy."—Maturin's Sermons, p. 261. "The works of nature, in this respect, is extremely regular."—Dr. Pratt's Werter. "No small addition of exotic and foreign words and phrases have been made by commerce."—Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 10. "The dialect of some nouns are taken notice of in the notes."—Milnes, Greek Gram., p. 255. "It has been said, that a discovery of the full resources of the arts, afford the means of debasement, or of perversion."—Rush, on the Voice, p. xxvii. "By which means the Order of the Words are disturbed."—Holmes's Rhet., B. i, p. 57. "The twofold influence of these and the others require the asserter to be in the plural form."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 251. "And each of these afford employment."—Percival's Tales, Vol. ii, p. 175. "The pronunciation of the vowels are best explained under the rules relative to the consonants."—Coar's Gram., p. 7. "The judicial power of these courts extend to all cases in law and equity."—Hall and Baker's School Hist., p. 286. "One of you have stolen my money."—Rational Humorist, p. 45. "Such redundancy of epithets, instead of pleasing, produce satiety and disgust."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 256. "It has been alleged, that a compliance with the rules of Rhetoric, tend to cramp the mind."—Hiley's Gram., 3d Ed., p. 187. "Each of these are presented to us in different relations"—Hendrick's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 34. "The past tense of these verbs, should, would, might, could, are very indefinite with respect to time."—Bullions, E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 33; 5th Ed., p. 31. "The power of the words, which are said to govern this mood, are distinctly understood."—Chandler's Gram., Ed. of 1821, p. 33.

"And now, at length, the fated term of years The world's desire have brought, and lo! the God appears." —Dr. Lowth, on "the Genealogy of Christ."

"Variety of Numbers still belong To the soft Melody of Ode or Song." —Brightland's Gram., p. 170.

UNDER NOTE III.—COMPOSITE OR CONVERTED SUBJECTS.

"Many are the works of human industry, which to begin and finish are hardly granted to the same man."—Johnson, Adv. to Dict. "To lay down rules for these are as inefficacious."—Dr. Pratt's Werter, p. 19. "To profess regard, and to act differently, discover a base mind."—Murray's Key, ii, p. 206. See also Bullions's E. Gram., 82 and 112; Lennie's, 58. "To magnify to the height of wonder things great, new, and admirable, extremely please the mind of man."—Fisher's Gram., p. 152. "In this passage, according as are used in a manner which is very common."—Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 183. "A cause de are called a preposition; a cause que, a conjunction."—DR. WEBSTER: Knickerbocker, 1836. "To these are given to speak in the name of the Lord."—The Friend, vii, 256. "While wheat has no plural, oats have seldom any singular."—Cobbett's E. Gram. 41. "He cannot assert that ll are inserted in fullness to denote the sound of u."—Cobb's Review of Webster, p. 11. "ch have the power of k."—Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 2. "ti, before a vowel, and unaccented, have the sound of si or ci."—Ibid. "In words derived from the French, as chagrin, chicanery, and chaise, ch are sounded like sh."—Bucke's Gram., p. 10. "But in the word schism, schismatic, &c., the ch are silent."—Ibid. "Ph are always sounded like f, at the beginning of words."—Bucke's Gram. "Ph have the sound of f as in philosophy."—Webster's El. Spelling-Book, p. 11. "Sh have one sound only as in shall."—Ib. "Th have two sounds."—Ib. "Sc have the sound of sk, before a, o, u, and r."—Ib. "Aw, have the sound of a in hall."—Bolles's Spelling-Book, p. vi. "Ew, sound like u."—Ib. "Ow, when both sounded, have the sound of ou."—Ib. "Ui, when both pronounced in one syllable sound like wi in languid."—Ib.

"Ui three several Sorts of Sound express, As Guile, rebuild, Bruise and Recruit confess." —Brightland's Gram., p. 34.

UNDER NOTE IV.—EACH, ONE, EITHER, AND NEITHER.

"When each of the letters which compose this word, have been learned."—Dr. Weeks, on Orthog., p. 22. "As neither of us deny that both Homer and Virgil have great beauties."—Blair's Rhet., p. 21. "Yet neither of them are remarkable for precision."—Ib., p. 95. "How far each of the three great epic poets have distinguished themselves."—Ib., p. 427. "Each of these produce a separate agreeable sensation."—Ib., p. 48. "On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keep the sabbath."—Tr. of Irenaeus. "And each of them bear the image of purity and holiness."—Hope of Israel, p. 81. "Were either of these meetings ever acknowledged or recognized?"—Foster's Report, i, 96. "Whilst neither of these letters exist in the Eugubian inscription."—Knight, on Greek Alph., p. 122. "And neither of them are properly termed indefinite."—Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 88. "As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each their verb."—Lowth's Gram., p. 120. "Sometimes when the word ends in s, neither of the signs are used."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 21. "And as neither of these manners offend the ear."—Walker's Dict., Pref., p. 5. "Neither of these two Tenses are confined to this signification only."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 339. "But neither of these circumstances are intended here."—Tooke's Diversions, ii, 237. "So that all are indebted to each, and each are dependent upon all."—Am. Bible Society's Rep., 1838, p. 89. "And yet neither of them express any more action in this case than they did in the other."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 201. "Each of these expressions denote action."—Hallock's Gram., p. 74. "Neither of these moods seem to be defined by distinct boundaries."—Butler's Practical Gram., p. 66. "Neither of these solutions are correct."— Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. 236. "Neither bear any sign of case at all."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, Sec.217.

"Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk."—Byron.

"And tell what each of them by th'other lose."—Shak., Cori., iii, 2.

UNDER NOTE V.—VERB BETWEEN TWO NOMINATIVES.

"The quarrels of lovers is a renewal of love."—Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 156; Alexander's, 49; Gould's, 159; Bullions's, 206. "Two dots, one placed above the other, is called Sheva."—Dr. Wilson's Heb. Gram., p. 43. "A few centuries, more or less, is a matter of small consequence."—Ib. p. 31. "Pictures were the first step towards the art of writing. Hieroglyphicks was the second step."—Parker's English Composition, p. 27. "The comeliness of youth are modesty and frankness; of age, condescension and dignity."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 166. "Merit and good works is the end of man's motion."—Lord Bacon. "Divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mind."—Shakspeare. "The clothing of the natives were the skins of wild beasts."—Indian Wars, p. 92. "Prepossessions in favor of our nativ town, is not a matter of surprise."—Webster's Essays, p. 217. "Two shillings and six pence is half a crown, but not a half crown."—Priestley's Gram., p. 150; Bicknell's, ii, 53. "Two vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and uniting in one sound, is called a dipthong."—Cooper's Pl. and Pr. Gram., p. 1. "Two or more sentences united together is called a Compound Sentence."—P. E. Day's District School Gram., p. 10. "Two or more words rightly put together, but not completing an entire proposition, is called a Phrase."—Ibid. "But the common Number of Times are five."—The British Grammar, p. 122. "Technical terms, injudiciously introduced, is another source of darkness in composition."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 107. "The United States is the great middle division of North America."—Morse's Geog., p. 44. "A great cause of the low state of industry were the restraints put upon it."—HUME: Murray's Gram., p. 145; Ingersoll's, 172; Sanborn's, 192; Smith's, 123; and others. "Here two tall ships becomes the victor's prey."—Rowe's Lucan, B. ii, l. 1098. "The expenses incident to an outfit is surely no object."—The Friend, Vol. iii., p. 200.

"Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep."—Milton.

UNDER NOTE VI.—CHANGE THE NOMINATIVE.

"Much pains has been taken to explain all the kinds of words."—Infant School Gram. p. 128. "Not less [time] than three years are spent in attaining this faculty."—Music of Nature, p. 28. "Where this night are met in state Many a friend to gratulate His wish'd presence."—Milton's Comus. l. 948. "Peace! my darling, here's no danger, Here's no oxen near thy bed."—Watts. "But every one of these are mere conjectures, and some of them very unhappy ones."—Coleridge's Introduction, p. 61. "The old theorists, calling the Interrogatives and Repliers, adverbs, is only a part of their regular system of naming words."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 374. "Where a series of sentences occur, place them in the order in which the facts occur."—Ib., p. 264. "And that the whole in conjunction make a regular chain of causes and effects."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 275. "The origin of the Grecian, and Roman republics, though equally involved in the obscurities and uncertainties of fabulous events, present one remarkable distinction."—Adam's Rhet., i, 95. "In these respects, mankind is left by nature an unformed, unfinished creature."—Butler's Analogy, p. 144. "The scripture are the oracles of God himself."—HOOKER: Joh. Dict., w. Oracle. "And at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits."—Solomon's Song, vii, 13. "The preterit of pluck, look, and toss are, in speech, pronounced pluckt, lookt, tosst."—Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, Sec.68.

"Severe the doom that length of days impose, To stand sad witness of unnumber'd woes!"—Melmoth.

UNDER NOTE VII.—ADAPT FORM TO STYLE.

1. Forms not proper for the Common or Familiar Style.

"Was it thou that buildedst that house?"—Inst., p. 151. "That boy writeth very elegantly."—Ib. "Couldest not thou write without blotting thy book?"—Ib. "Thinkest thou not it will rain to-day?"—Ib. "Doth not your cousin intend to visit you?"—Ib. "That boy hath torn my book."—Ib. "Was it thou that spreadest the hay?"—Ib. "Was it James, or thou, that didst let him in?"—Ib. "He dareth not say a word."—Ib. "Thou stoodest in my way and hinderedst me."—Ib.

"Whom see I?—Whom seest thou now?—Whom sees he?—Whom lovest thou most?—What dost thou to-day?—What person seest thou teaching that boy?—He hath two new knives.—Which road takest thou?—What child teaches he?"—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 66. "Thou, who makest my shoes, sellest many more."—Ib., p. 67.

"The English language hath been much cultivated during the last two hundred years. It hath been considerably polished and refined."—Lowth's Gram., Pref., p. iii. "This stile is ostentatious, and doth not suit grave writing."—Priestley's Gram., p. 82. "But custom hath now appropriated who to persons, and which to things."—Ib., p. 97. "The indicative mood sheweth or declareth; as, Ego amo, I love: or else asketh a question; as, Amas tu? Dost thou love?"—Paul's Accidence, Ed. of 1793, p. 16. "Though thou canst not do much for the cause, thou mayst and shouldst do something."—Murray's Gram., p. 143. "The support of so many of his relations, was a heavy task; but thou knowest he paid it cheerfully."—Murray's Key, R. 1, p. 180. "It may, and often doth, come short of it."—Campbell's Rhetoric, p. 160.