"England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."—Beaut. of Shak., p. 109.

LESSON IX.—CONJUNCTIONS.

"He readily comprehends the rules of Syntax, and their use and applicability in the examples before him."—Greenleaf's Gram., p. 6. "The works of AEschylus have suffered more by time, than any of the ancient tragedians."—Blair's Rhet., p. 470. "There is much more story, more bustle, and action, than on the French theatre."—Ib., p. 478. "Such an unremitted anxiety and perpetual application as engrosses our whole time and thoughts, are forbidden."—SOAME JENYNS: Tract, p. 12. "It seems to be nothing else but the simple form of the adjective."—Wright's Gram., p. 49. "But when I talk of Reasoning, I do not intend any other, but such as is suited to the Child's Capacity."—Locke, on Ed., p. 129. "Pronouns have no other use in language, but to represent nouns."—Jamieson's Rhet., p 83. "The speculative relied no farther on their own judgment, but to choose a leader, whom they implicitly followed."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. xxv. "Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art."—Beaut. of Shak., p. 266. "A Parenthesis is a clause introduced into the body of a sentence obliquely, and which may be omitted without injuring the grammatical construction."—Murray's Gram., i, 280; Ingersoll's, 292; Smith's, 192; Alden's, 162; A. Flint's, 114; Fisk's, 158; Cooper's, 187; Comly's, 163. "A Caret, marked thus ^ is placed where some word happens to be left out in writing, and which is inserted over the line."—Murray's Gram., i, 282; Ingersoll's, 293; and others. "At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down."—Jer., vi, 15. "Neither our virtues or vices are all our own."—DR. JOHNSON: Sanborn's Gram., p. 167. "I could not give him an answer as early as he had desired."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 200. "He is not as tall as his brother."—Nixon's Parser, p. 124. "It is difficult to judge when Lord Byron is serious or not."—Lady Blessington. "Some nouns are both of the second and third declension."—Gould's Lat. Gram., p. 48. "He was discouraged neither by danger or misfortune."—Wells's Hist., p. 161. "This is consistent neither with logic nor history."—The Dial, i, 62. "Parts of Sentences are simple and compound."—Blair's Gram., p. 114. "English verse is regulated rather by the number of syllables than of feet."—Ib., p. 120. "I know not what more he can do, but pray for him."—Locke, on Ed., p. 140. "Whilst they are learning, and apply themselves with Attention, they are to be kept in good Humour."—Ib., p. 295. "A man cannot have too much of it, nor too perfectly."—Ib., p. 322. "That you may so run, as you may obtain; and so fight, as you may overcome."—Wm. Penn. "It is the case of some, to contrive false periods of business, because they may seem men of despatch."—Lord Bacon. "'A tall man and a woman.' In this sentence there is no ellipsis; the adjective or quality respect only the man."—Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 95. "An abandonment of the policy is neither to be expected or desired."—Pres. Jackson's Message, 1830. "Which can be acquired by no other means but frequent exercise in speaking."—Blair's Rhet., p. 344. "The chief and fundamental rules of syntax are common to the English as well as the Latin tongue."—Ib., p. 90. "Then I exclaim, that my antagonist either is void of all taste, or that his taste is corrupted in a miserable degree."— Ib., p. 21. "I cannot pity any one who is under no distress of body nor of mind."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 44. "There was much genius in the world, before there were learning or arts to refine it."—Blair's Rhet., p. 391. "Such a Writer can have little else to do, but to new model the Paradoxes of ancient Scepticism."—Brown's Estimate, i, 102. "Our ideas of them being nothing else but a collection of the ordinary qualities observed in them."—Duncan's Logic, p. 25. "A non-ens or a negative can neither give pleasure nor pain."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 63. "So as they shall not justle and embarrass one another."—Blair's Lectures, p. 318. "He firmly refused to make use of any other voice but his own."— Goldsmith's Greece, i, 190. "Your marching regiments, Sir, will not make the guards their example, either as soldiers or subjects."—Junius, Let. 35. "Consequently, they had neither meaning, or beauty, to any but the natives of each country."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 161.

"The man of worth, and has not left his peer, Is in his narrow house for ever darkly laid."—Burns.

LESSON X.—PREPOSITIONS.

"These may be carried on progressively above any assignable limits."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 296. "To crowd in a single member of a period different subjects, is still worse than to crowd them into one period."—Ib., ii, 27. "Nor do we rigidly insist for melodious prose."—Ib., ii, 76. "The aversion we have at those who differ from us."—Ib., ii, 365. "For we cannot bear his shifting the scene every line."—LD. HALIFAX: ib., ii, 213. "We shall find that we come by it the same way."—Locke. "To this he has no better defense than that."—Barnes's Bed Book, p. 347. "Searching the person whom he suspects for having stolen his casket."—Blair's Rhet., p. 479. "Who are elected as vacancies occur by the whole Board."—Lit. Convention, p. 81. "Almost the only field of ambition of a German, is science."—DR. LIEBER: ib., p. 66. "The plan of education is very different to the one pursued in the sister country."—DR. COLEY, ib., p. 197. "Some writers on grammar have contended that adjectives relate to, and modify the action of verbs."—Wilcox's Gram., p. 61. "They are therefore of a mixed nature, participating of the properties both of pronouns and adjectives."— Ingersoll's Gram., p. 57. "For there is no authority which can justify the inserting the aspirate or doubling the vowel."—Knight, on Greek Alph., p. 52. "The distinction and arrangement between active, passive, and neuter verbs."—Wright's Gram, p. 176. "And see thou a hostile world to spread its delusive snares."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 167. "He may be precaution'd, and be made see, how those joyn in the Contempt."—Locke, on Ed., p. 155. "The contenting themselves now in the want of what they wish'd for, is a vertue."—Ib., p. 185. "If the Complaint be of something really worthy your notice."—Ib., p. 190. "True Fortitude I take to be the quiet Possession of a Man's self, and an undisturb'd doing his Duty."—Ib., p. 204. "For the custom of tormenting and killing of Beasts will, by degrees, harden their Minds even towards Men."—Ib., p. 216. "Children are whip'd to it, and made spend many Hours of their precious time uneasily in Latin."—Ib., p. 289. "The ancient rhetoricians have entered into a very minute and particular detail of this subject; more particular, indeed, than any other that regards language."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 123. "But the one should not be omitted without the other."—Bullions's Eng. Gram., p. 108. "In some of the common forms of speech, the relative pronoun is usually omitted."—Murray's Gram., i, 218; Weld's, 191. "There are a great variety of causes, which disqualify a witness from being received to testify in particular cases."—J. Q. Adams's Rhet., ii, 75. "Aside of all regard to interest, we should expect that," &c.—Webster's Essays, p. 82. "My opinion was given on a rather cursory perusal of the book."—Murray's Key, ii, 202. "And the next day, he was put on board his ship."—Ib., ii, 201. "Having the command of no emotions but of what are raised by sight."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 318. "Did these moral attributes exist in some other being beside himself."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 161. "He did not behave in that manner out of pride or contempt of the tribunal."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 190. "These prosecutions of William seem to have been the most iniquitous measures pursued by the court."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 199; Priestley's Gram., 126. "To restore myself into the good graces of my fair critics."—Dryden. "Objects denominated beautiful, please not in virtue of any one quality common to them all."—Blair's Rhet., p. 46. "This would have been less worthy notice, had not a writer or two of high rank lately adopted it."—Churchill's Gram., p. 197.

"A Grecian youth, with talents rare, Whom Plato's philosophic care," &c.—Felton's Gram., p. 145.

LESSON XI.—PROMISCUOUS.

"To excel, is become a much less considerable object."—Blair's Rhet., p. 351. "My robe, and my integrity to heaven, is all I now dare call mine own."—Beauties of Shak., p. 173. "So thou the garland wear'st successively."—Ib., p. 134. "For thou the garland wears successively."—Enfield's Speaker, p. 341. "If that thou need'st a Roman's, take it forth."—Ib., p. 357. "If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth."—Beauties of Shak., p. 256. "If thou provest this to be real, thou must be a smart lad, indeed."—Neef's Method of Teaching, p. 210. "And another Bridge of four hundred Foot in Length."—Brightland's Gram., p. 242. "Metonomy is putting one name for another on account of the near relation there is between them."—Fisher's Gram., p. 151. "An Antonomasia is putting an appellative or common name for a proper name."—Ib., p. 153. "Its being me needs make no difference in your determination."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 89. "The first and second page are torn."—Ib., p. 145. "John's being from home occasioned the delay."—Ib., p. 81. "His having neglected opportunities of improvement, was the cause of his disgrace."—Ib., p. 81. "He will regret his having neglected opportunities of improvement when it may be too late."—Ib., p. 81. "His being an expert dancer does not entitle him to our regard."—Ib., p. 82.[443] "Caesar went back to Rome to take possession of the public treasure, which his opponent, by a most unaccountable oversight, had neglected taking with him."—Goldsmith's Rome, p. 116. "And Caesar took out of the treasury, to the amount of three thousand pound weight of gold, besides an immense quantity of silver."—Ibid. "Rules and definitions, which should always be clear and intelligible as possible, are thus rendered obscure."—Greenleaf's Gram., p. 5. "So much both of ability and merit is seldom found."—Murray's Key, ii, 179. "If such maxims, and such practices prevail, what is become of decency and virtue?"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 78. "Especially if the subject require not so much pomp."—Blair's Rhet., p. 117. "However, the proper mixture of light and shade, in such compositions; the exact adjustment of all the figurative circumstances with the literal sense; have ever been considered as points of great nicety."—Murray's Gram., i, 343. "And adding to that hissing in our language, which is taken so much notice of by foreigners."—ADDISON: DR. COOTE: ib., i, 90. "Speaking impatiently to servants, or any thing that betrays unkindness or ill-humour, is certainly criminal."—Murray's Key, ii, 183; Merchant's, 190. "There is here a fulness and grandeur of expression well suited to the subject."—Blair's Rhet., p. 218. "I single Strada out among the moderns, because he had the foolish presumption to censure Tacitus."—Murray's Key, ii, 262. "I single him out among the moderns, because," &c.—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 116. "This is a rule not always observed, even by good writers, as strictly as it ought to be."—Blair's Rhet., p. 103. "But this gravity and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood."—Notes to the Dunciad. "The regularity and polish even of a turnpike-road has some influence upon the low people in the neighbourhood."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 358. "They become fond of regularity and neatness; which is displayed, first upon their yards and little enclosures, and next within doors."—Ibid. "The phrase, it is impossible to exist, gives us the idea of it's being impossible for men, or any body to exist."—Priestley's Gram., p. 85. "I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him."—Beauties of Shak., p. 151. "The reader's knowledge, as Dr. Campbell observes, may prevent his mistaking it."—Murray's Gram., i, 172; Crombie's, 253. "When two words are set in contrast or in opposition to one another, they are both emphatic."—Murray's Gram., i, 243. "The number of persons, men, women, and children, who were lost in the sea, was very great."—Ib., ii, 20. "Nor is the resemblance between the primary and resembling object pointed out"—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 179. "I think it the best book of the kind which I have met with."—DR. MATHEWS: Greenleaf's Gram., p. 2.

"Why should not we their ancient rites restore, And be what Rome or Athens were before."—Roscommon, p. 22.

LESSON XII.—TWO ERRORS.

"It is labour only which gives the relish to pleasure."—Murray's Key, ii, 234. "Groves are never as agreeable as in the opening of the spring."—Ib., p. 216. "His 'Philosophical Inquiry into the origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful' soon made him known to the literati."—Biog. Rhet., n. Burke. "An awful precipice or tower whence we look down on the objects which lie below."—Blair's Rhet., p. 30. "This passage, though very poetical, is, however, harsh and obscure; owing to no other cause but this, that three distinct metaphors are crowded together."—Ib., p. 149. "I propose making some observations."—Ib., p. 280. "I shall follow the same method here which I have all along pursued."—Ib., p. 346. "Mankind never resemble each other so much as they do in the beginnings of society."—Ib., p. 380. "But no ear is sensible of the termination of each foot, in reading an hexameter line."—Ib., p. 383. "The first thing, says he, which either a writer of fables, or of heroic poems, does, is, to choose some maxim or point of morality."—Ib., p. 421. "The fourth book has been always most justly admired, and abounds with beauties of the highest kind."—Ib., p. 439. "There is no attempt towards painting characters in the poem."—Ib., p. 446. "But the artificial contrasting of characters, and the introducing them always in pairs, and by opposites, gives too theatrical and affected an air to the piece."—Ib., p. 479. "Neither of them are arbitrary nor local."—Kames, El. of Crit., p. xxi. "If crowding figures be bad, it is still worse to graft one figure upon another."—Ib., ii, 236. "The crowding withal so many objects together, lessens the pleasure."—Ib., ii, 324. "This therefore lies not in the putting off the Hat, nor making of Compliments."—Locke, on Ed., p. 149. "But the Samaritan Vau may have been used, as the Jews did the Chaldaic, both for a vowel and consonant."—Wilson's Essay, p. 19. "But if a solemn and familiar pronunciation really exists in our language, is it not the business of a grammarian to mark both?"—Walker's Dict., Pref., p. 4. "By making sounds follow each other agreeable to certain laws."—Music of Nature, p. 406. "If there was no drinking intoxicating draughts, there could be no drunkards."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 178. "Socrates knew his own defects, and if he was proud of any thing, it was in the being thought to have none."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 188. "Lysander having brought his army to Ephesus, erected an arsenal for building of gallies."—Ib., i, 161. "The use of these signs are worthy remark."—Brightland's Gram., p. 94. "He received me in the same manner that I would you."—Smith's New Gram., p. 113. "Consisting both of the direct and collateral evidence."—Butler's Analogy, p. 224. "If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged."—1 Tim., v, 16. "For mens sakes are beasts bred."—Walker's Particles, p. 131. "From three a clock there was drinking and gaming."—Ib., p. 141. "Is this he that I am seeking of, or no?"—Ib., p. 248. "And for the upholding every one his own opinion, there is so much ado."—Sewel's Hist., p. 809. "Some of them however will be necessarily taken notice of."—Sale's Koran, p. 71. "The boys conducted themselves exceedingly indiscreet."—Merchant's Key, p. 195. "Their example, their influence, their fortune, every talent they possess, dispense blessings on all around them."—Ib., p. 197; Murray's Key, ii, 219. "The two Reynolds reciprocally converted one another"—Johnson's Lives, p. 185. "The destroying the two last Tacitus calls an attack upon virtue itself."—Goldsmith's Rome, p. 194. "Monies is your suit."—Beauties of Shak., p. 38. "Ch, is commonly sounded like tch; as in church; but in words derived from the Greek, has the sound of k."—Murray's Gram., i, 11. "When one is obliged to make some utensil supply purposes to which they were not originally destined."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 222. "But that a being baptized with water, is a washing away of sin, thou canst not from hence prove."—Barclay's Works, i, 190. "Being but spoke to one, it infers no universal command."—Ibid. "For if the laying aside Copulatives gives Force and Liveliness, a Redundancy of them must render the Period languid."—Buchanan's Syntax, p. 134. "James used to compare him to a cat, who always fell upon her legs."—ADAM'S HIST. OF ENG.: Crombie, p. 384.

"From the low earth aspiring genius springs, And sails triumphant born on eagles wings."—Lloyd, p. 162.

LESSON XIII.—TWO ERRORS.

"An ostentatious, a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, for instance, are always faults."—Blair's Rhet. p. 190. "Yet in this we find the English pronounce perfectly agreeable to rule."—Walker's Dict., p. 2. "But neither the perception of ideas, nor knowledge of any sort, are habits, though absolutely necessary to the forming of them."—Butler's Analogy, p. 111. "They were cast: and an heavy fine imposed upon them."—Goldsmiths Greece, ii, 30. "Without making this reflection, he cannot enter into the spirit, nor relish the composition of the author."—Blair's Rhet., p. 450. "The scholar should be instructed relative to finding his words."—Osborn's Key, p. 4. "And therefore they could neither have forged, or reversified them."—Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 30. "A dispensary is the place where medicines are dispensed."—Murray's Key, ii, 172. "Both the connexion and number of words is determined by general laws."—Neef's Sketch, p. 73. "An Anapsest has the two first syllables unaccented, and the last accented: as, 'Contravene, acquiesce.'"—Murray's Gram., i, 254. "An explicative sentence is, when a thing is said to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer, in a direct manner."—Ib., i, 141; Lowth's, 84. "BUT is a conjunction, in all cases when it is neither an adverb nor preposition."—Smith's New Gram., p. 109. "He wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring."—Esther, viii, 10. "Camm and Audland were departed the town before this time."—Sewel's Hist., p. 100. "Previous to their relinquishing the practice, they must be convinced."—Dr. Webster, on Slavery, p. 5. "Which he had thrown up previous to his setting out."—Grimshaw's Hist. U. S., p. 84. "He left him to the value of an hundred drachmas in Persian money."—Spect., No. 535. "All which the mind can ever contemplate concerning them, must be divided between the three."—Cardell's Philad. Gram., p. 80. "Tom Puzzle is one of the most eminent immethodical disputants of any that has fallen under my observation."—Spect., No. 476. "When you have once got him to think himself made amends for his suffering, by the praise is given him for his courage."—Locke, on Ed. Sec.115. "In all matters where simple reason, and mere speculation is concerned."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 136. "And therefore he should be spared the trouble of attending to any thing else, but his meaning."—Ib., p. 105. "It is this kind of phraseology which is distinguished by the epithet idiomatical, and hath been originally the spawn, partly of ignorance, and partly of affectation."—Campbell's Rhet. p. 185. Murray has it—"and which has been originally," &c.—Octavo Gram. i, 370. "That neither the letters nor inflection are such as could have been employed by the ancient inhabitants of Latium."—Knight, Gr. Alph. p. 13, "In cases where the verb is intended to be applied to any one of the terms."—Murray's Gram.,, 150. "But this people which know not the law, are accursed."—John, vii, 49. "And the magnitude of the chorusses have weight and sublimity."—Music of Nature, p. 428. "Dare he deny but there are some of his fraternity guilty?"—Barclays Works, i, 327. "Giving an account of most, if not all the papers had passed betwixt them."—Ib., i, 235. "In this manner, both as to parsing and correcting, all the rules of syntax should be treated, proceeding regularly according to their order."—Murray's Exercises, 12mo, p. x. "Ovando was allowed a brilliant retinue and a body guard."—Sketch of Columbus. "Is it I or he whom you requested to go?"—Kirkham's Gram., Key, p. 226. "Let thou and I go on."—Bunyan's P. P., p. 158. "This I no-where affirmed; and do wholly deny."—Barclay's Works, iii, 454. "But that I deny; and remains for him to prove."—Ibid. "Our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds."—SHAKSPEARE: Joh. Dict., w. Beneath. "Thou art the Lord who didst choose Abraham, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees."—Murray's Key, ii, 189. "He is the exhaustless fountain, from which emanates all these attributes, that exists throughout this wide creation."—Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 155. "I am he who have communed with the son of Neocles; I am he who have entered the gardens of pleasure."—Wright's Athens, p. 66.

"Such was in ancient times the tales received, Such by our good forefathers was believed." —Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, l. 605.

LESSON XIV.—TWO ERRORS.

"The noun or pronoun that stand before the active verb, may be called the agent."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 121. "Such seems to be the musings of our hero of the grammar-quill, when he penned the first part of his grammar."—Merchant's Criticisms. "Two dots, the one placed above the other [:], is called Sheva, and represents a very short e."—Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 43. "Great has been, and is, the obscurity and difficulty, in the nature and application of them."—Butler's Analogy, p. 184. "As two is to four, so is four to eight."—Everest's Gram., p. 231. "The invention and use of it [arithmetic] reaches back to a period so remote as is beyond the knowledge of history."—Robertson's America, i, 288. "What it presents as objects of contemplation or enjoyment, fills and satisfies his mind."—Ib., i, 377. "If he dare not say they are, as I know he dare not, how must I then distinguish?"—Barclay's Works, iii, 311. "He was now grown so fond of solitude that all company was become uneasy to him."—Life of Cicero, p. 32. "Violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds."—Jeremiah, vi, 7. "Bayle's Intelligence from the Republic of Letters, which make eleven volumes in duodecimo, are truly a model in this kind."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 68. "To render pauses pleasing and expressive, they must not only be made in the right place, but also accompanied with a proper tone of voice."—Murray's Gram., i, 249. "The opposing the opinions, and rectifying the mistakes of others, is what truth and sincerity sometimes require of us."—Locke, on Ed., p. 211. "It is very probable that this assembly was called, to clear some doubt which the king had, about the lawfulness of the Hollanders' throwing off the monarchy of Spain, and withdrawing, entirely, their allegiance to that crown."—Murray's Key, ii, 195. "Naming the cases and numbers of a noun in their order is called declining it."—Frost's El. of Gram., p. 10. "The embodying them is, therefore, only collecting such component parts of words."—Town's Analysis, p. 4. "The one is the voice heard at Christ's being baptized; the other, at his being transfigured."—Barclays Works, i, 267. "Understanding the literal sense would not have prevented their condemning the guiltless."—Butler's Analogy, p. 168. "As if this were taking the execution of justice out of the hand of God, and giving it to nature."—Ib., p. 194. "They will say, you must conceal this good opinion of yourself; which yet is allowing the thing, though not the showing it."—Sheffield's Works, ii, 244. "So as to signify not only the doing an action, but the causing it to be done."—Pike's Hebrew Lexicon, p. 180. "This, certainly, was both dividing the unity of God, and limiting his immensity."—Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 13. "Tones being infinite in number, and varying in almost every individual, the arranging them under distinct heads, and reducing them to any fixed and permanent rules, may be considered as the last refinement in language."—Knight, on Gr. Alph., p. 16. "The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart."—Jeremiah, xxx, 24. "We seek for more heroic and illustrious deeds, for more diversified and surprising events."—Blair's Rhet., p. 373. "We distinguish the Genders, or the Male and Female Sex, four different Ways."—Buchanan's Gram., p. 20. "Thus, ch and g, are ever hard. It is therefore proper to retain these sounds in Hebrew names, which have not been modernised, or changed by public use."—Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 24. "The Substantive or noun is the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have any notion."—Lindley Murray's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 26. "The SUBSTANTIVE, or NOUN; being the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have any notion."—Dr. Lowth's Gram., p. 6. "The Noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have, or can form, an idea."—Maunders Gram., p. 1. "A noun is the name of any thing in existence, or of which we can form an idea."—Ib., p. 1. (See False Syntax under Note 7th to Rule 10th.) "The next thing to be taken Care of, is to keep him exactly to speaking of Truth."—Locke, on Ed., p. 254. "The material, vegetable, and animal world, receive this influence according to their several capacities."—The Dial, i, 59. "And yet, it is fairly defensible on the principles of the schoolmen; if that can be called principles which consists merely in words."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 274.

"Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, And fears to die? famine is in thy cheeks, Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes."—Beaut. of Shak., p. 317.

LESSON XV.—THREE ERRORS.

"The silver age is reckoned to have commenced on the death of Augustus, and continued to the end of Trajan's reign."—Gould's Lat. Gram., p. 277. "Language is become, in modern times, more correct, indeed, and accurate."—Blair's Rhet., p. 65. "It is evident, that words are most agreeable to the ear which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, where there is a proper intermixture of vowels and consonants."—Ib., p. 121. See Murray's Gram., i, 325. "It would have had no other effect, but to add a word unnecessarily to the sentence."—Blair's Rhet., p. 194. "But as rumours arose of the judges having been corrupted by money in this cause, these gave occasions to much popular clamour, and had thrown a heavy odium on Cluentius."—Ib., p. 273. "A Participle is derived of a verb, and partakes of the nature both of the verb and the adjective."—Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 39; E. Devis's, 9. "I will have learned my grammar before you learn your's."—Wilbur and Liv. Gram., p. 14. "There is no earthly object capable of making such various and such forcible impressions upon the human mind as a complete speaker."—Perry's Dict., Pref. "It was not the carrying the bag which made Judas a thief and an hireling."—South. "As the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ."—Athanasian Creed. "And I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."—Hosea, ii, 23. "Where there is nothing in the sense which requires the last sound to be elevated or emphatical, an easy fall, sufficient to show that the sense is finished, will be proper."—Murray's Gram., i, 250. "Each party produces words where the letter a is sounded in the manner they contend for."—Walker's Dict., p. 1. "To countenance persons who are guilty of bad actions, is scarcely one remove from actually committing them."—Murray's Gram., i, 233. "'To countenance persons who are guilty of bad actions,' is part of a sentence, which is the nominative case to the verb 'is.'"—Ibid. "What is called splitting of particles, or separating a preposition from the noun which it governs, is always to be avoided."—Blair's Rhet., p. 112; Jamieson's, 93. See Murray's Gram., i, 319. "There is, properly, no more than one pause or rest in the sentence, falling betwixt the two members into which it is divided."—Blair's Rhet., p. 125; Jamieson's, 126; Murray's Gram., i, 329. "Going barefoot does not at all help on the way to heaven."—Steele, Spect., No. 497. "There is no Body but condemns this in others, though they overlook it in themselves."—Locke, on Ed., Sec.145. "In the same sentence, be careful not to use the same word too frequently, nor in different senses."—Murray's Gram., i, 296. "Nothing could have made her so unhappy, as marrying a man who possessed such principles."—Murray's Key, ii, 200. "A warlike, various, and a tragical age is best to write of, but worst to write in."—Cowley's Pref., p. vi. "When thou instances Peter his baptizing Cornelius."—Barclay's Works, i, 188. "To introduce two or more leading thoughts or agents, which have no natural relation to, or dependence on one another."—Murray's Gram., i, 313. "Animals, again, are fitted to one another, and to the elements where they live, and to which they are as appendices."—Ibid. "This melody, or varying the sound of each word so often, is a proof of nothing, however, but of the fine ear of that people."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 5. "They can each in their turns be made use of upon occasion."—Duncan's Logic, p. 191. "In this reign lived the poet Chaucer, who, with Gower, are the first authors who can properly be said to have written English."—Bucke's Gram., p. 144. "In the translating these kind of expressions, consider the IT IS, as if it were they, or they are."—Walker's Particles, p. 179. "The chin has an important office to perform; for upon its activity we either disclose a polite or vulgar pronunciation."—Music of Nature, p. 27. "For no other reason, but his being found in bad company."—Webster's Amer. Spelling-Book, p. 96. "It is usual to compare them in the same manner as Polisyllables."—Priestley's Gram., p. 77. "The infinitive mood is recognised easier than any others, because the preposition to precedes it."—Bucke's Gram., p, 95. "Prepositions, you recollect, connect words as well as conjunctions: how, then, can you tell the one from the other?"—Smith's New Gram., p. 38.

"No kind of work requires so nice a touch, And if well finish'd, nothing shines so much" —Sheffield, Duke of Buck.

LESSON XVI—THREE ERRORS.

"It is the final pause which alone, on many occasions, marks the difference between prose and verse; which will be evident from the following arrangement of a few poetical lines."—Murray's Gram., i, 260. "I shall do all I can to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure which I have."—GUARDIAN: see Campbell's Rhet., p. 207. "I shall do all I can, to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure which I have taken."—Murray's Key, ii, 215. "It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and [or an] it were but to roast their eggs."—Ld. Bacon. "Did ever man struggle more earnestly in a cause where both his honour and life are concerned?"—Duncan's Cicero, p. 15. "So the rests and pauses, between sentences and their parts, are marked by points."—Lowth's Gram., p. 114. "Yet the case and mode is not influenced by them, but determined by the nature of the sentence."—Ib., p. 113. "By not attending to this rule, many errors have been committed: a number of which is subjoined, as a further caution and direction to the learner."—Murray's Gram., i, 114. "Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair."—Jeremiah, iv, 30. "But that the doing good to others will make us happy, is not so evident; feeding the hungry, for example, or clothing the naked."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 161. "There is no other God but him, no other light but his."—William Penn. "How little reason to wonder, that a perfect and accomplished orator, should be one of the characters that is most rarely found?"—Blair's Rhet., p. 337. "Because they neither express doing nor receiving an action."—Infant School Gram., p. 53. "To find the answers, will require an effort of mind, and when given, will be the result of reflection, showing that the subject is understood."—Ib., p. vii. "To say, that 'the sun rises,' is trite and common; but it becomes a magnificent image when expressed as Mr. Thomson has done."—Blair's Rhet., p. 137. "The declining a word is the giving it different endings."—Ware's Gram., p. 7. "And so much are they for every one's following their own mind."—Barclay's Works, i, 462. "More than one overture for a peace was made, but Cleon prevented their taking effect."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 121. "Neither in English or in any other language is this word, and that which corresponds to it in other languages, any more an article, than two, three, four."—DR. WEBSTER: Knickerbocker of 1836. "But the most irksome conversation of all others I have met within the neighbourhood, has been among two or three of your travellers."—Spect., No. 474. "Set down the two first terms of supposition under each other in the first place."—Smiley's Arithmetic, p. 79. "It is an useful rule too, to fix our eye on some of the most distant persons in the assembly."—Blair's Rhet., p. 328. "He will generally please most, when pleasing is not his sole nor chief aim."—Ib., p. 336. "At length, the consuls return to the camp, and inform them they could receive no other terms but that of surrendering their arms, and passing under the yoke."—Ib., p. 360. "Nor is mankind so much to blame, in his choice thus determining him."—SWIFT: Crombie's Treatise, p 360. "These forms are what is called Number."—Fosdick's De Sacy, p. 62. "In languages which admit but two Genders, all Nouns are either Masculine or Feminine, even though they designate beings which are neither male or female."—Ib., p. 66. "It is called a Verb or Word by way of eminence, because it is the most essential word in a sentence, without which the other parts of speech can form no complete sense."—Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 76. "The sentence will consist of two members, which are commonly separated from one another by a comma."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 7. "Loud and soft in speaking, is like the forte and piano in music, it only refers to the different degrees of force used in the same key; whereas high and low imply a change of key."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 116. "They are chiefly three: the acquisition of knowledge; the assisting the memory to treasure up this knowledge; or the communicating it to others."—Ib., p. 11.

"These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness, Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends, Than twenty silly ducking observants."—Beauties of Shak., p. 261.

LESSON XVII.—MANY ERRORS.

"A man will be forgiven, even great errors, in a foreign language; but in his own, even the least slips are justly laid hold of, and ridiculed."—American Chesterfield, p 83. "Let does not only express permission; but praying, exhorting, commanding."—Lowth's Gram., p. 41. "Let, not only expresses permission, but entreating, exhorting, commanding."—Murray's Gram., p. 88; Ingersoll's, 135. "That death which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but putting off these bodies."—Sherlock. "They differ from the saints recorded both in the Old and New Testaments."—Newton. "The nature therefore of relation consists in the referring or comparing two things one to another; from which comparison, one or both comes to be denominated"—Locke's Essay, i, 220. "It is not credible, that there hath been any one who through the whole course of their lives will say, that they have kept themselves undefiled with the least spot or stain of sin."—Witsius. "If acting conformably to the will of our Creator;—if promoting the welfare of mankind around us;—if securing our own happiness;—are objects of the highest moment:—then we are loudly called upon to cultivate and extend the great interests of religion and virtue"—Murray's Gram., i, 278; Comly's, 163; Ingersoll's, 291. "By the verb being in the plural number, it is supposed that it has a plural nominative, which is not the case. The only nominative to the verb, is, the officer: the expression his guard, are in the objective case, governed by the preposition with; and they cannot consequently form the nominative, or any part of it. The prominent subject, and the true nominative of the verb, and to which the verb peculiarly refers, is the officer."—Murray's Parsing, Cr. 8vo, ii, 22. "This is another use, that, in my opinion, contributes rather to make a man learned than wise; and is neither capable of pleasing the understanding, or imagination."—ADDISON: Churchill's Gram., p. 353. "The work is a dull performance; and is capable of pleasing neither the understanding, nor the imagination."—Murray's Key, ii, 210. "I would recommend the Elements of English Grammar, by Mr. Frost. Its plan is after Murray, but his definitions and language is simplified as far as the nature of the subject will admit, to meet the understanding of children. It also embraces more copious examples and exercises in Parsing than is usual in elementary treatises."—Hall's Lectures on School-Keeping, 1st Ed., p. 37. "More rain falls in the first two summer months, than in the first two winter ones: but it makes a much greater show upon the earth, in these than in those; because there is a much slower evaporation."—Murray's Key, ii, 189. See Priestley's Gram., p. 90. "They often contribute also to the rendering some persons prosperous though wicked: and, which is still worse, to the rewarding some actions though vicious, and punishing other actions though virtuous."—Butler's Analogy, p. 92. "From hence, to such a man, arises naturally a secret satisfaction and sense of security, and implicit hope of somewhat further."—Ib., p. 93. "So much for the third and last cause of illusion that was taken notice of, arising from the abuse of very general and abstract terms, which is the principal source of all the nonsense that hath been vented by metaphysicians, mystagogues, and theologians."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 297. "As to those animals whose use is less common, or who on account of the places which they inhabit, fall less under our observation, as fishes and birds, or whom their diminutive size removes still further from our observation, we generally, in English, employ a single Noun to designate both Genders, Masculine and Feminine."—Fosdick's De Sacy, p. 67. "Adjectives may always be distinguished by their being the word, or words, made use of to describe the quality, or condition, of whatever is mentioned."—Emmons's Gram., p. 20. "Adverb signifies a word added to a verb, participle, adjective, or other adverb, to describe or qualify their qualities."—Ib., p. 64. "The joining together two such grand objects, and the representing them both as subject, at one moment, to the command of God, produces a noble effect."—Blair's Rhet., p. 37. "Twisted columns, for instance, are undoubtedly ornamental; but as they have an appearance of weakness, they always displease when they are made use of to support any part of a building that is massy, and that seems to require a more substantial prop."—Ib., p. 40. "Upon a vast number of inscriptions, some upon rocks, some upon stones of a defined shape, is found an Alphabet different from the Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews, and also unlike that of any modern nation."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 176.

LESSON XVIII—MANY ERRORS.

"'The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the northeast side of Lilliput, from whence it is parted only by a channel of 800 yards wide.' Gulliver's Travels. The ambiguity may be removed thus:—'from whence it is parted by a channel of 800 yards wide only.'"—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 44. "The nominative case is usually the agent or doer, and always the subject of the verb."—Smith's New Gram., p. 47. "There is an originality, richness, and variety in his [Spenser's] allegorical personages, which almost vies with the splendor of the ancient mythology."—Hazlitt's Lect., p. 68. "As neither the Jewish nor Christian revelation have been universal, and as they have been afforded to a greater or less part of the world at different times; so likewise, at different times, both revelations have had different degrees of evidence."—Butler's Analogy, p. 210. "Thus we see, that killing a man with a sword or a hatchet, are looked upon as no distinct species of action: but if the point of the sword first enter the body, it passes for a distinct species, called stabbing."—Locke's Essay, p. 314. "If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or hath deceived his neighbour, or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein, then it shall be," &c.—Lev., vi, 2. "As the doing and teaching the commandments of God is the great proof of virtue, so the breaking them, and the teaching others to break them, is the great proof of vice."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 281. "In Pope's terrific maltreatment of the latter simile, it is neither true to mind or eye."—Coleridge's Introd., p. 14. "And the two brothers were seen, transported with rage and fury, endeavouring like Eteocles and Polynices to plunge their swords into each other's hearts, and to assure themselves of the throne by the death of their rival."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 176. "Is it not plain, therefore, that neither the castle, the planet, nor the cloud, which you see here, are those real ones, which you suppose exist at a distance?"—Berkley's Alciphron, p 166. "I have often wondered how it comes to pass, that every Body should love themselves best, and yet value their neighbours Opinion about themselves more than their own."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 226. "VIRTUE ([Greek: Aretahe], Virtus) as well as most of its Species, are all Feminine, perhaps from their Beauty and amiable appearance."—Harris's Hermes, p. 55. "Virtue, with most of its Species, are all Feminine, from their Beauty and amiable Appearance; and so Vice becomes Feminine of Course, as being Virtue's natural opposite."—British Gram., p. 97. "Virtue, with most of its Species, is Feminine, and so is Vice, for being Virtue's opposite."—Buchanan's Gram., p. 22. "From this deduction, may be easily seen how it comes to pass, that personification makes so great a figure in all compositions, where imagination or passion have any concern."—Blair's Rhet., p. 155. "An Article is a word prefixed to a substantive to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends."—Folker's Gram., p. 4. "All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights—among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness."—Constitution of New Hampshire. "From Grammarians who form their ideas, and make their decisions, respecting this part of English Grammar, on the principles and construction of languages, which, in these points, do not suit the peculiar nature of our own, but differ considerably from it, we may naturally expect grammatical schemes that are not very perspicuous, or perfectly consistent, and which will tend more to perplex than inform the learner."—Murray's Gram., p. 68; Hall's, 15. "There are, indeed, very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; every diversion they take, is at the expense of some one virtue or another, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly."—ADDISON: Blair's Rhet., p. 201.[444]

"Hail, holy love! thou word that sums all bliss! Gives and receives all bliss: fullest when most Thou givest; spring-head of all felicity!" —Pollok, C. of T., B. v, 1, 193.



CHAPTER XIII.—GENERAL RULE.

The following comprehensive canon for the correction of all sorts of nondescript errors in syntax, and the several critical or general notes under it, seem necessary for the completion of my design; which is, to furnish a thorough exposition of the various faults against which the student of English grammar has occasion to be put upon his guard.

GENERAL RULE OF SYNTAX.

In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout.

CRITICAL NOTES TO THE GENERAL RULE.

CRITICAL NOTE I.—OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

Words that may constitute different parts of speech, must not be left doubtful as to their classification, or to what part of speech they belong.

CRITICAL NOTE II.—OF DOUBTFUL REFERENCE.

The reference of words to other words, or their syntactical relation according to the sense, should never be left doubtful, by any one who means to be understood.

CRITICAL NOTE III.—OF DEFINITIONS.

A definition, in order to be perfect, must include the whole thing, or class of things, which it pretends to define, and exclude every thing which comes not under the name.

CRITICAL NOTE IV.—OF COMPARISONS.

A comparison is a form of speech which requires some similarity or common property in the things compared; without which, it becomes a solecism.

CRITICAL NOTE V.—OF FALSITIES.

Sentences that convey a meaning manifestly false, should be changed, rejected, or contradicted; because they distort language from its chief end, or only worthy use; which is, to state facts, and to tell the truth. CRITICAL NOTE VI.—OF ABSURDITIES.

Absurdities, of every kind, are contrary to grammar, because they are contrary to reason, or good sense, which is the foundation of grammar.

CRITICAL NOTE VII.—OF SELF-CONTRADICTION.

Every writer or speaker should be careful not to contradict himself; for what is self-contradictory, is both null in argument, and bad in style.

CRITICAL NOTE VIII.—OF SENSELESS JUMBLING.

To jumble together words without care for the sense, is an unpardonable negligence, and an abuse of the human understanding.

CRITICAL NOTE IX.—OF WORDS NEEDLESS.

Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber the expression, ought in general to be omitted.

CRITICAL NOTE X.—OF IMPROPER OMISSIONS.

Words necessary to the sense, or even to the melody or beauty of a sentence, ought seldom, if ever, to be omitted.

CRITICAL NOTE XI.—OF LITERARY BLUNDERS.

Grave blunders made in the name of learning, are the strongest of all certificates against the books which contain them unreproved.

CRITICAL NOTE XII.—OF PERVERSIONS.

Proof-texts in grammar, if not in all argument, should be quoted literally; and even that which needs to be corrected, must never be perverted.

CRITICAL NOTE XIII.—OF AWKWARDNESS.

Awkwardness, or inelegance of expression, is a reprehensible defect in style, whether it violate any of the common rules of syntax or not.

CRITICAL NOTE XIV.—OF IGNORANCE.

Any use of words that implies ignorance of their meaning, or of their proper orthography, is particularly unscholarlike; and, in proportion to the author's pretensions to learning, disgraceful.

CRITICAL NOTE XV.—OF SILLINESS. Silly remarks and idle truisms are traits of a feeble style, and, when their weakness is positive, or inherent, they ought to be entirely omitted. CRITICAL NOTE XVI.—OF THE INCORRIGIBLE.

Passages too erroneous for correction, may be criticised, orally or otherwise, and then passed over without any attempt to amend them.[445]

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYNTAX.

OBS. 1.—In the foregoing code of syntax, the author has taken the parts of speech in their order, and comprised all the general principles of relation, agreement, and government, in twenty-four leading Rules. Of these rules, eight—(namely, the 1st, of Articles; the 4th, of Possessives; the 9th, of Adjectives; the 20th, of Participles; the 21st, of Adverbs; the 22d, of Conjunctions; the 23d, of Prepositions; and the 24th, of Interjections—) are used only in parsing. The remaining sixteen, because they embrace principles that are sometimes violated in practice, answer the double purpose of parsing and correcting. The Exceptions, of which there are thirty-two, (all occasionally applicable in parsing,) belong to nine different rules, and refer to all the parts of speech, except nouns and interjections. The Notes, of which there are one hundred and fifty-two, are subordinate rules of syntax, not designed to be used in parsing, but formed for the exposition and correction of so many different forms of false grammar. The Observations, of which there are, in this part of the work, without the present series, four hundred and ninety-seven, are designed not only to defend and confirm the doctrines adopted by the author, but to explain the arrangement of words, and whatever is difficult or peculiar in construction.

OBS. 2.—The rules in a system of syntax may be more or less comprehensive, as well as more or less simple or complex; consequently they may, without deficiency or redundance, be more or less numerous. But either complexity or vagueness, as well as redundance or deficiency, is a fault; and, when all these faults are properly avoided, and the two great ends of methodical syntax, parsing and correcting, are duly answered, perhaps the requisite number of syntactical rules, or grammatical canons, will no longer appear very indeterminate. In the preceding chapters, the essential principles of English syntax are supposed to be pretty fully developed; but there are yet to be exhibited some forms of error, which must be corrected under other heads or maxims, and for the treatment of which the several dogmas of this chapter are added. Completeness in the system, however, does not imply that it must have shown the pupil how to correct every form of language that is amiss: for there may be in composition many errors of such a nature that no rule of grammar can show, either what should be substituted for the faulty expression, or what fashion of amendment may be the most eligible. The inaccuracy may be gross and obvious, but the correction difficult or impossible. Because the sentence may require a change throughout; and a total change is not properly a correction; it is a substitution of something new, for what was, perhaps, in itself incorrigible.

OBS. 3.—The notes which are above denominated Critical or General, are not all of them obviously different in kind from the other notes; but they all are such as could not well have been placed in any of the earlier chapters of the book. The General Rule of Syntax, since it is not a canon to be used in parsing, but one that is to be applied only in the correcting of false syntax, might seem perhaps to belong rather to this order of notes; but I have chosen to treat it with some peculiar distinction, because it is not only more comprehensive than any other rule or note, but is in one respect more important; it is the rule which will be cited for the correction of the greatest number and variety of errors. Being designed to meet every possible form of inaccuracy in the mere construction of sentences,—or, at least, every corrigible solecism by which any principle of syntax can be violated,—it necessarily includes almost all the other rules and notes. It is too broad to convey very definite instruction, and therefore ought not in general to be applied where a more particular rule or note is clearly applicable. A few examples, not properly fitting under any other head, will serve to show its use and application: such examples are given, in great abundance, in the false syntax below. If, in some of the instances selected, this rule is applied to faults that might as well have been corrected by some other, the choice, in such cases, is deemed of little or no importance.

OBS. 4.—The imperfection of ancient writing, especially in regard to division and punctuation, has left the syntactical relation of words, and also the sense of passages, in no few instances, uncertain; and has consequently made, where the text has been thought worthy of it, an abundance of difficult work for translators, critics, and commentators. Rules of grammar, now made and observed, as they ought to be, may free the compositions of this, or a future age, from similar embarrassments; and it is both just and useful, to test our authors by them, criticising or correcting their known blunders according to the present rules of accurate writing. But the readers and expounders of what has come to us from remote time, can be rightly guided only by such principles and facts as have the stamp of creditable antiquity. Hence there are, undoubtedly, in books, some errors and defects which have outlived the time in which, and the authority b which, they might have been corrected. As we have no right to make a man say that which he himself never said or intended to say, so we have in fact none to fix a positive meaning upon his language, without knowing for a certainty what he meant by it. Reason, or good sense, which, as I have suggested, is the foundation of grammar and of all good writing, is indeed a perpetual as well as a universal principle; but, since the exercises of our reason must, from the very nature of the faculty, be limited to what we know and understand, we are not competent to the positive correction, or to the sure translation, of what is obscure and disputable in the standard books of antiquity.

OBS. 5.—Let me cite an example: "For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all."— Ecclesiastes, ix, 1. Here is, doubtless, one error which any English scholar may point out or correct. The pronoun "them" should be him, because its intended antecedent appears to be "man," and not "the righteous and the wise," going before. But are there not other faults in the version? The common French Bible, in this place, has the following import: "Surely I have applied my heart to all that, and to unfold all this; to wit, that the righteous and the wise, and their actions, are in the hand of God and love and hatred; and that men know nothing of all that which is before them. All happens equally to all." The Latin Vulgate gives this sense: "All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might understand them accurately: the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; and yet man doth not know, whether by love or by hatred lie may be worthy: but all things in the future are kept uncertain, so that all may happen alike to the righteous man and to the wicked." In the Greek of the Septuagint, the introductory members of this passage are left at the end of the preceding chapter, and are literally thus: "that all this I received into my heart, and my heart understood all this." The rest, commencing a new chapter, is as follows: "For the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, and indeed both love and hatred man knoweth not: all things before their face are vanity to all." Now, which of these several readings is the nearest to what Solomon meant by the original text, or which is the farthest from it, and therefore the most faulty, I leave it to men more learned than myself to decide; but, certainly, there is no inspired authority in any of them, but in so far as they convey the sense which he really intended. And if his meaning had not been, by some imperfection in the oldest expression we have of it, obscured and partly lost, there could be neither cause nor excuse for these discrepancies. I say this with no willingness to depreciate the general authority of the Holy Scriptures, which are for the most part clear in their import, and very ably translated into English, as well as into other languages.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE GENERAL RULE.

LESSON I.—ARTICLES.

(1.) "An article is a part of speech placed before nouns."—Comly's Gram., p. 11.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the article an is here inconsistent with the term "part of speech;" for the text declares one thing of a kind to be the whole kind. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected in two ways, thus: "The article is a part of speech placed before nouns;"—or better, "An article is a word placed before nouns." [446]]

(2.) "An article is a part of speech used to limit nouns."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 19. (3.) "An article is a part of speech set before nouns to fix their vague Signification."—Ash's Gram., p. 18. (4.) "An adjective is a part of speech used to describe a noun."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 19. (5.) "A pronoun is a part of speech used instead of a noun."—Ibid.; and Weld's Gram., pp. 30 and 50; Abridg., pp. 29 and 46. (6.) "A Pronoun is a Part of Speech which is often used instead of a Noun Substantive common, and supplies the Want of a Noun proper."—British Gram., p. 102; Buchanan's Gram., p. 29. (7.) "A verb is a part of speech, which signifies to be, to do, or to be acted upon"—Merchant's School Gram., p. 17. (8.) "A verb is a part of speech, which signifies to be, to act, or to receive an action."—Comly's Gram., p. 11. (9.) "A verb is a part of speech by which any thing is asserted."—Weld's Gram, p. 50; Abridg., 46 and 58. (10.) "A verb is a part of speech which expresses action, or existence, in a direct manner."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (11.) "A participle is a part of speech derived from a verb, and expresses action or existence in an indirect manner."—Ibid. (12.) "A Participle is a Part of Speech derived from a Verb, and denotes being, doing, or suffering, and implies Time, as a Verb does."—British Gram., p. 139; Buchanan's, p. 46. "An adverb is a part of speech used to add to the meaning of verbs, adjectives, and participles."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (14.) "An adverb is an indeclinable part of speech, added to a verb, adjective, or other adverb, to express some circumstance, quality, or manner of their signification."— Adam's Gram., p. 142; Gould's, 147. (15.) "An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an Adjective, a Participle, and sometimes to another Adverb, to express the quality or circumstance of it."—Ash's Gram., p. 47, (16.) "An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a Verb, Adjective, Participle, and sometimes to another Adverb, to express some circumstances respecting it."—Beck's Gram., p. 23. (17.) "An Adverb is a Part of Speech which is joined to a Verb, Adjective, Participle, or to another Adverb to express some Modification, or Circumstance, Quality, or Manner of their Signification."—Buchanan's Gram., p. 61. (18.) "An Adverb is a part of speech added to a Verb (whence the name), and sometimes even to another word."—Bucke's Gram., p. 76. (19.) "A conjunction is a part of speech used to connect words and sentences."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 20; Weld's, 51. (20.) "A Conjunction is a part of speech that joins words or sentences together."—Ash's Gram., p. 43. (21.) "A Conjunction is that part of speech which connect sentences, or parts of sentences or single words."—Blair's Gram., p. 41. (22.) "A Conjunction is a part of speech, that is used principally to connect sentences, so as, out of two, three, or more, sentences, to make one."—Bucke's Gram., p. 28. (23.) "A Conjunction is a part of speech that is chiefly used to connect sentences, joining two or more simple sentences into one compound sentence: it sometimes connects only words."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 118. (24.) "A Conjunction is a Part of Speech which joins Sentences together, and shews the Manner of their Dependance upon one another."—British Gram., p. 163; Buchanan's, p. 64; E. Devis's. 103. (25.) "A preposition is a part of Speech used to show the relation between other words."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (26.) "A Preposition is a part of speech which serves to connect words and show the relation between them."—Frost's El. of Gram., p. 42. (27.) "A preposition is a part of speech used to connect words and show their relation."—Weld's Gram., p. 51; Abridg. 47. (28.) "A preposition is that part of speech which shows the position of persons or things, or the relation that one noun or pronoun bears toward another."—Blair's Gram., p. 40. (29.) "A Preposition is a Part of Speech, which being added to any other Parts of Speech serves to shew their State, Relation or Reference to each other."—British Gram., p. 165; Buchanan's, p. 65. (30.) "An interjection is a part of speech used to express sudden passion or emotion."—Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (31.) "An interjection is a part of speech used in giving utterance to some sudden feeling or emotion."— Weld's Gram., pp. 49 and 51; Abridg., 44 and 47. (32.) "An Interjection is that part of speech which denotes any sudden affection or emotion of the mind."—Blair's Gram., p. 42. (33) "An Interjection is a Part of Speech thrown into discourse, and denotes some sudden Passion or Emotion of the Soul."—British Gram., p. 172; Buchanan's, p. 67.

(34.) "A scene might tempt some peaceful sage To rear him a lone hermitage." —Union Poems, p. 89.

(35.) "Not all the storms that shake the pole Can e'er disturb thy halcyon soul, And smooth th' unaltered brow." —Day's Gram., p. 78; E. Reader, 230.

LESSON II.—NOUNS. "The thrones of every monarchy felt the shock."—Frelinghuysen.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the plural noun thrones has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: "The throne of every monarchy felt the shock."]

"These principles ought to be deeply impressed upon the minds of every American."—Webster's Essays, p. 44. "The word church and shire are radically the same."—Ib., p. 256. "They may not, in their present form, be readily accommodated to every circumstance belonging to the possessive cases of nouns."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 53. "Will, in the second and third person, only foretels."—Ib., p. 88. "Which seem to form the true distinction between the subjunctive and the indicative moods."—Ib., p. 208. "The very general approbation, which this performance of Walker has received from the public."—Ib., p. 241. "Lest she carry her improvements this way too far."—CAMPBELL: ib., p. 371. "Charles was extravagant, and by this means became poor and despicable."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 189. "We should entertain no prejudices against simple and rustic persons."—Ib., p. 205. "These are indeed the foundations of all solid merit."—Blair's Rhet., p. 175. "And his embellishment, by means of musical cadence, figures, or other parts of speech."—Ib., p. 175. "If he is at no pains to engage us by the employment of figures, musical arrangement, or any other art of writing."—Ib., p. 181. "The most eminent of the sacred poets are, the Author of the book of Job, David and Isaiah."—Ib., p. 418. "Nothing, in any poet, is more beautifully described than the death of old Priam."—Ib., p. 439. "When two vowels meet together, and are sounded at one breath, they are called diphthongs."—Infant School Gram., p. 10. "How many ss would goodness then end with? Three."—Ib., p. 33. "Birds is a noun, the name of a thing or creature."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 53. "Adam gave names to every living creature."—Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 5. "The steps of a stair ought to be accommodated to the human figure."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 337. "Nor ought an emblem more than a simile to be founded on low or familiar objects."—Ib., Vol. ii. p. 357. "Whatever the Latin has not from the Greek, it has from the Goth."—Tooke's Diversions, Vol. ii, p. 450. "The mint and secretary of state's offices are neat buildings."—The Friend, Vol. iv, p. 266. "The scenes of dead and still life are apt to pall upon us."—Blair's Rhet., p. 407. "And Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, the angelical and the subtle doctors, are the brightest stars in the scholastic constellation."—Literary Hist., p. 244. "The English language has three methods of distinguishing the sex."—Murray's Gram., p. 38; Ingersoll's, 27; Alger's, 16; Bacon's, 13; Fisk's, 58; Greenleaf's, 21. "The English language has three methods of distinguishing sex."—Smith's New Gram., p. 44. "In English there are the three following methods of distinguishing sex."—Jaudon's Gram., p. 26. "There are three ways of distinguishing the sex."—Lennie's Gram., p. 10; Picket's, 26; Bullions's, 10. "There are three ways of distinguishing sex."—Merchant's School Gram., p. 26. "Gender is distinguished in three ways."—Maunder's Gram., p. 2. "Neither discourse in general, nor poetry in particular, can be called altogether imitative arts."—Blair's Rhet., p. 51.

"Do we for this the gods and conscience brave, That one may rule and make the rest a slave?" —Rowe's Lucan, B. ii, l. 96.

LESSON III.—ADJECTIVES.

"There is a deal of more heads, than either heart or horns."—Barclay's Works, i, 234.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the adjective more has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: "There is a deal more of heads, than of either heart or horns."]

"For, of all villains, I think he has the wrong name."—Bunyan's P. P., p. 86. "Of all the men that I met in my pilgrimage, he, I think bears the wrong name."—Ib., p. 84. "I am surprized to see so much of the distribution, and technical terms of the Latin grammar, retained in the grammar of our tongue."—Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. vi. "Nor did the Duke of Burgundy bring him the smallest assistance."—HUME: Priestley's Gram., p. 178. "Else he will find it difficult to make one obstinate believe him."—Brightland's Gram., p. 243. "Are there any adjectives which form the degrees of comparison peculiar to themselves?"—Infant School Gram., p. 46. "Yet the verbs are all of the indicative mood."—Lowth's Gram., p. 33. "The word candidate is in the absolute case."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 155. "An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the latter accented."—Russell's Gram., p. 108; Smith's New Gram., 188. "A Dactyl has the first syllable accented, and the two latter unaccented."—L. Murray, p. 253; Bullions's E. Gram., 170; Smith's, 188; Kirkham's, 219; Guy's, 120; Blair's, 118; Merchant's, 167; Russell's, 109. "It is proper to begin with a capital the first word of every book, chapter, letter, note, or any other piece of writing."—L. Murray, p. 284; R. C. Smith's New Gram., 192; Ingersoll's, 295; Comly's, 166; Merchant's, 14; Greenleaf's, 42; D. C. Allen's, 85; Fisk's, 159; Bullions's, 158; Kirkham's, 219; Hiley's, 119; Weld's Abridged, 16; Bullions's Analyt. and Pract., 16; Fowler's E. Gr., 674. "Five and seven make twelve, and one makes thirteen."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 227. "I wish to cultivate a farther acquaintance with you."—Ib., p. 272. "Let us consider the proper means to effect our purpose."—Ib., p. 276. "Yet they are of such a similar nature, as readily to mix and blend."—Blair's Rhet., p. 48. "The Latin is formed on the same model, but more imperfect."—Ib., p. 83. "I know very well how much pains have been taken."—Sir W. Temple. "The management of the breath requires a good deal of care."—Blair's Rhet., p. 331. "Because the mind, during such a momentary stupefaction, is in a good measure, if not totally, insensible."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 222. "Motives alone of reason and interest are not sufficient."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 232. "To render the composition distinct in its parts, and striking on the whole,"—Ib., Vol. ii, p. 333. "A and an are named indefinite because they denote some one thing of a kind."—Maunder's Gram., p. 1. "The is named definite, because it points out some particular thing."—Ibid. "So much depends upon the proper construction of sentences, that, in every sort of composition, we cannot be too strict in our attention to it."—Blair's Rhet., p. 103. "All sort of declamation and public speaking, was carried on by them."—Ib., p. 123. "The first has on many occasions, a sublimity to which the latter never attains."—Ib., p. 440. "When the words therefore, consequently, accordingly, and the like are used in connexion with other conjunctions, they are adverbs."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 88. "Rude nations make little or no allusions to the productions of the arts."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 10. "While two of her maids knelt on either side of her."—Mirror, xi, 307. "The third personal pronouns differ from each other in meaning and use, as follows."—Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. 65. "It was happy for the state, that Fabius continued in the command with Minucius: the former's phlegm was a check upon the latter's vivacity."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 57. "If it should be objected that the words must and ought, in the preceding sentences, are all in the present tense."—Ib., p. 108. "But it will be well if you turn to them, every now and then."—Buckets Classical Gram., p. 6. "That every part should have a dependence on, and mutually contribute to support each other."—Rollin's Hist., ii, 115. "The phrase, 'Good, my Lord,' is not common, and low."—Priestley's Gram., p. 110.

"That brother should not war with brother, And worry and devour each other."—Cowper.

LESSON IV.—PRONOUNS.

"If I can contribute to your and my country's glory."—Goldsmith.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun your has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence, having a doubtful or double meaning, may be corrected in two ways, thus: "If I can contribute to our country's glory;"—or, "If I can contribute to your glory and that of my country."]

"As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each their verb."—Lowth's Gram., p. 120. "He is likewise required to make examples himself."—J. Flint's Gram., p. 3. "If the emphasis be placed wrong, we shall pervert and confound the meaning wholly."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 242. "If the emphasis be placed wrong, we pervert and confound the meaning wholly."—Blair's Rhet., p. 330. "It was this that characterized the great men of antiquity; it is this, which must distinguish moderns who would tread in their steps."—Ib., p. 341. "I am a great enemy to implicit faith, as well the Popish as Presbyterian, who in that are much what alike."—Barclay's Works, iii, 280. "Will he thence dare to say the apostle held another Christ than he that died?"—Ib., iii, 414. "What need you be anxious about this event?"—Collier's Antoninus, p. 188. "If a substantive can be placed after the verb, it is active."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 31 "When we see bad men honoured and prosperous in the world, it is some discouragement to virtue."—L. Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 224. "It is a happiness to young persons, when they are preserved from the snares of the world, as in a garden enclosed."—Ib., p. 171. "The court of Queen Elizabeth, which was but another name for prudence and economy."— Bullions, E. Gram., p. 24. "It is no wonder if such a man did not shine at the court of Queen Elizabeth, who was but another name for prudence and economy. Here which ought to be used, and not who."—Priestley's Gram., p. 99; Fowler's, Sec.488. "Better thus; Whose name was but another word for prudence, &c."—Murray's Gram., p. 157; Fish's, 115; Ingersoll's, 221; Smith's, 133; and others. "A Defective verb is one that wants some of its parts. They are chiefly the Auxiliary and Impersonal verbs."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 31; Old Editions, 32. "Some writers have given our moods a much greater extent than we have assigned to them."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 67. "The Personal Pronouns give information which no other words are capable of conveying."—M'Culloch's Gram., p. 37, "When the article a, an, or the precedes the participle, it also becomes a noun."— Merchant's School Gram., p. 93. "There is a preference to be given to some of these, which custom and judgment must determine."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 107. "Many writers affect to subjoin to any word the preposition with which it is compounded, or the idea of which it implies."—Ib., p. 200; Priestley's Gram., 157.

"Say, dost thou know Tectidius?—Who, the wretch Whose lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch?" —Dryden's IV Sat. of Pers.

LESSON V.—VERBS.

"We would naturally expect, that the word depend, would require from after it."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 201. "A dish which they pretend to be made of emerald."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 198. "For the very nature of a sentence implies one proposition to be expressed."—Blair's Rhet., p. 106. "Without a careful attention to the sense, we would be naturally led, by the rules of syntax, to refer it to the rising and setting of the sun."—Ib., p. 105. "For any rules that can be given, on this subject, are very general."—Ib., p. 125. "He is in the right, if eloquence were what he conceives it to be."—Ib., p. 234. "There I would prefer a more free and diffuse manner."—Ib., p. 178. "Yet that they also agreed and resembled one another, in certain qualities."—Ib., p. 73. "But since he must restore her, he insists to have another in her place."—Ib., p. 431. "But these are far from being so frequent or so common as has been supposed."—Ib., p. 445. "We are not misled to assign a wrong place to the pleasant or painful feelings." Kames, El. of Crit., Introd., p. xviii. "Which are of greater importance than is commonly thought."—Vol. ii, p. 92. "Since these qualities are both coarse and common, lets find out the mark of a man of probity."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 40. "Cicero did what no man had ever done before him, draw up a treatise of consolation for himself."—Life of Cicero. "Then there can be no other Doubt remain of the Truth."—Brightland's Gram., p. 245. "I have observed some satirists use the term."—Bullions's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 79. "Such men are ready to despond, or commence enemies."—Webster's Essays, p. 83. "Common nouns express names common to many things."—Infant School Gram., p. 18. "To make ourselves be heard by one to whom we address ourselves."—Blair's Rhet., p. 328. "That, in reading poetry, he may be the better able to judge of its correctness, and relish its beauties."—Murray's Gram., p. 252. "On the stretch to comprehend, and keep pace with the author."— Blair's Rhet., p. 150. "For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor."—Mark, xiv, 5. "He is a beam that is departed, and left no streak of light behind."—OSSIAN: Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 262. "No part of this incident ought to have been represented, but reserved for a narrative."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 294. "The rulers and people debauching themselves, brings ruin on a country."—Ware's Gram., p. 9. "When Doctor, Miss, Master, &c., is prefixed to a name, the last of the two words is commonly made plural; as, the Doctor Nettletons—the two Miss Hudsons."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 106. "Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day."—Matt., xxvii, 8. "To comprehend the situations of other countries, which perhaps may be necessary for him to explore."—Brown's Estimate, ii, 111. "We content ourselves, now, with fewer conjunctive particles than our ancestors did."—Priestley's Gram., p. 139. "And who will be chiefly liable to make mistakes where others have been mistaken before them."—Ib., p. 156. "The voice of nature and revelation unites."—Wayland's Moral Science, 3d Ed., p. 307.

"This adjective you see we can't admit, But changed to worse, will make it just and fit." —Tobitt's Gram., p. 63.

LESSON VI.—PARTICIPLES.

"Its application is not arbitrary, depending on the caprice of readers."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 246. "This is the more expedient, from the work's being designed for the benefit of private learners."—Ib., Vol. ii, p. 161. "A man, he tells us, ordered by his will, to have erected for him a statue."—Blair's Rhet., p. 106. "From some likeness too remote, and laying too far out of the road of ordinary thought."—Ib., p. 146. "Money is a fluid in the commercial world, rolling from hand to hand."—Webster's Essays, p. 123. "He pays much attention to learning and singing songs."—Ib. p. 246. "I would not be understood to consider singing songs as criminal."—"It is a decided case by the Great Master of writing."—Preface to Waller, p. 5. "Did they ever bear a testimony against writing books?"—Bates's Misc. Repository. "Exclamations are sometimes mistaking for interrogations."—Hist. of Printing, 1770. "Which cannot fail proving of service."—Smith's Printer's Gram. "Hewn into such figures as would make them easily and firmly incorporated."—BEATTIE: Murray's Gram., i, 126. "Following the rule and example are practical inductive questions."—J. Flint's Gram., p. 3. "I think there will be an advantage in my having collected examples from modern writings."—Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. xi. "He was eager of recommending it to his fellow-citizens."—HUME: p. 160. "The good lady was careful of serving me of every thing."—"No revelation would have been given, had the light of nature been sufficient in such a sense, as to render one not wanting and useless."—Butler's Analogy, p. 155. "Description, again is the raising in the mind the conception of an object by means of some arbitrary or instituted symbols."—Blair's Rhet., p. 52. "Disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for our being done."—Ib. p. 326. "There is a distinction which, in the use of them, is deserving of attention."—Maunder's Gram., p. 15. "A model has been contrived, which is not very expensive, and easily managed."—Education Reporter. "The conspiracy was the more easily discovered, from its being known to many."—Murray's Key, ii, 191. "That celebrated work had been nearly ten years published, before its importance was at all understood."—Ib. p. 220. "The sceptre's being ostensibly grasped by a female hand, does not reverse the general order of Government."—West's Letters to a Lady, p. 43. "I have hesitated signing the Declaration of Sentiments."—Liberator, x, 16. "The prolonging of men's lives when the world needed to be peopled, and now shortening them when that necessity hath ceased to exist."—Brown's Divinity, p. 7. "Before the performance commences, we have displayed the insipid formalities of the prelusive scene."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 23. "It forbade the lending of money, or sending goods, or in any way embarking capital in transactions connected with that foreign traffic."—LORD BROUGHAM: B. and F. Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. ii, p. 218. "Even abstract ideas have sometimes conferred upon them the same important prerogative."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 171. "Like other terminations, ment changes y into i, when preceded by a consonant."—Walker's Rhyming Dict., p. xiii; Murray's Gram., p. 24: Ingersoll's, 11. "The term proper is from being proper, that is, peculiar to the individual bearing the name. The term common is from being common to every individual comprised in the class."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, Sec.139.

"Thus oft by mariners are shown (Unless the men of Kent are liars) Earl Godwin's castles overflown, And palace-roofs, and steeple-spires." —Swift, p. 313.

LESSON VII.—ADVERBS.

"He spoke to every man and woman there."—Murray's Gram., p. 220; Fisk's, 147. "Thought and language act and react upon each other mutually."—Blair's Rhet., p. 120; Murray's Exercises, 133. "Thought and expression act upon each other mutually."—See Murray's Key, p. 264. "They have neither the leisure nor the means of attaining scarcely any knowledge, except what lies within the contracted circle of their several professions."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 359. "Before they are capable of understanding but little, or indeed any thing of many other branches of education."—Olney's Introd. to Geog., p. 5. "There is not more beauty in one of them than in another."—Murray's Key, ii, 275. "Which appear not constructed according to any certain rule."—Blair's Rhet., p. 47. "The vehement manner of speaking became not so universal."—Ib., p. 61. "All languages, however, do not agree in this mode of expression."—Ib., p. 77. "The great occasion of setting aside this particular day."—ATTERBURY: p. 294. "He is much more promising now than formerly."—Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 4. "They are placed before a participle, independently on the rest of the sentence."—Ib., Vol. ii, p. 21. "This opinion appears to be not well considered."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249. "Precision in language merits a full explication; and the more, because distinct ideas are, perhaps, not commonly formed about it."—Blair's Rhet., p. 94. "In the more sublime parts of poetry, he [Pope] is not so distinguished."—Ib., p. 403. "How far the author was altogether happy in the choice of his subject, may be questioned."—Ib., p. 450. "But here also there is a great error in the common practice."—Webster's Essays, p. 7. "This order is the very order of the human mind, which makes things we are sensible of, a means to come at those that are not so."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, Foreman's Version, p. 113. "Now, Who is not Discouraged, and Fears Want, when he has no money?"—Divine Right of Tythes, p. 23. "Which the Authors of this work, consider of but little or no use."—Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 6. "And here indeed the distinction between these two classes begins not to be clear."—Blair's Rhet., p. 152. "But this is a manner which deserves not to be imitated."—Ib., p. 180. "And in this department a person never effects so little, as when he attempts too much."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 173; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 367. "The verb that signifies merely being, is neuter."—Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 27. "I hope not much to tire those whom I shall not happen to please."—Rambler, No. 1. "Who were utterly unable to pronounce some letters, and others very indistinctly."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 32. "The learner may point out the active, passive, and neuter verbs in the following examples, and state the reasons why."—C. Adams's Gram., p. 27. "These words are most always conjunctions."—S. Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 73.

"How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue! How sweet the periods, neither said, nor sung!"—Dunciad.

LESSON VIII.—CONJUNCTIONS.

"Who at least either knew not, nor loved to make, a distinction."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of Europ. Lang., i, 322. "It is childish in the last degree, if this become the ground of estranged affection."—L. Murray's Key, ii, 228. "When the regular or the irregular verb is to be preferred, p. 107."—Murray's Index, Gram., ii, 296. "The books were to have been sold, as this day."—Priestley's E. Gram., p. 138. "Do, an if you will."—Beauties of Shak., p. 195. "If a man had a positive idea of infinite, either duration or space, he could add two infinites together."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 174. "None shall more willingly agree and advance the same nor I."—EARL OF MORTON: Robertson's Scotland, ii, 428. "That it cannot be but hurtful to continue it."—Barclay's Works, i, 192. "A conjunction joins words and sentences."—Beck's Gram., pp. 4 and 25. "The copulative conjunction connects words and sentences together and continues the sense."—Frost's El. of Gram., p. 42. "The Conjunction Copulative serves to connect or continue a sentence, by expressing an addition, a supposition, a cause, &c."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, i, 123. "All Construction is either true or apparent; or in other Words just and figurative."—Buchanan's Syntax, p. 130; British Gram., 234. "But the divine character is such that none but a divine hand could draw."—The Friend, Vol. v, p. 72. "Who is so mad, that, on inspecting the heavens, is insensible of a God?"—CICERO:—Dr. Gibbons. "It is now submitted to an enlightened public, with little desire on the part of the Author, than its general utility."—Town's Analysis, 9th Ed., p. 5. "This will sufficiently explain the reason, that so many provincials have grown old in the capital without making any change in their original dialect."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 51. "Of these they had chiefly three in general use, which were denominated accents, and the term used in the plural number."—Ib., p. 56. "And this is one of the chief reasons, that dramatic representations have ever held the first rank amongst the diversions of mankind."—Ib., p. 95. "Which is the chief reason that public reading is in general so disgusting."—Ib., p. 96. "At the same time that they learn to read."—Ib., p. 96. "He is always to pronounce his words exactly with the same accent that he speaks them."—Ib., p. 98. "In order to know what another knows, and in the same manner that he knows it."—Ib., p. 136. "For the same reason that it is in a more limited state assigned to the several tribes of animals."—Ib., p. 145. "Were there masters to teach this, in the same manner as other arts are taught."—Ib., p. 169.

"Whose own example strengthens all his laws; And is himself that great Sublime he draws."—Pope, on Crit., l. 680.

LESSON IX.—PREPOSITIONS.

"The word so has, sometimes, the same meaning with also, likewise, the same."—Priestley's Gram., p. 137. "The verb use relates not to pleasures of the imagination, but to the terms of fancy and imagination, which he was to employ as synonymous."—Blair's Rhet., p. 197. "It never can view, clearly and distinctly, above one object at a time."—Ib., p. 94. "This figure [Euphemism] is often the same with the Periphrasis."—Adam's Gram., p. 247; Gould's, 238. "All the between time of youth and old age."—Walker's Particles, p. 83. "When one thing is said to act upon, or do something to another."—Lowth's Gram., p. 70. "Such a composition has as much of meaning in it, as a mummy has life."—Journal of Lit. Convention, p. 81. "That young men of from fourteen to eighteen were not the best judges."—Ib., p. 130. "This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy."—2 Kings, xix, 3. "Blank verse has the same pauses and accents with rhyme."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 119. "In prosody, long syllables are distinguished by ([=]), and short ones by what is called breve ([~])."—Bucke's Gram., p. 22. "Sometimes both articles are left out, especially in poetry."—Ib., p. 26. "In the following example, the pronoun and participle are omitted: [He being] 'Conscious of his own weight and importance, the aid of others was not solicited.'"—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 221. "He was an excellent person; a mirror of ancient faith in early youth."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 172. "The carrying on its several parts into execution."—Butler's Analogy, p. 192. "Concord, is the agreement which one word has over another, in gender, number, case, and person."—Folker's Gram., p. 3. "It might perhaps have given me a greater taste of its antiquities."—ADDISON: Priestley's Gram., p. 160. "To call of a person, and to wait of him."—Priestley, ib., p. 161. "The great difficulty they found of fixing just sentiments."—HUME: ib., p. 161. "Developing the difference between the three."—James Brown's first American Gram., p. 12. "When the substantive singular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es in the plural."—Murray's Gram., p. 40. "We shall present him with a list or specimen of them."—Ib., p. 132. "It is very common to hear of the evils of pernicious reading, of how it enervates the mind, or how it depraves the principles."—Dymond's Essays, p. 168. "In this example, the verb 'arises' is understood before 'curiosity' and 'knowledge.'"—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 274; Ingersoll's, 286; Comly's, 155; and others. "The connective is frequently omitted between several words."—Wilcox's Gram., p. 81. "He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight."—Joshua, xxiii, 5. "Who makes his sun shine and his rain to descend upon the just and the unjust."—M'Ilvaine's Lectures, p. 411.

LESSON X.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"This sentence violates the rules of grammar."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, pp. 19 and 21. "The words thou and shalt are again reduced to short quantities."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 246. "Have the greater men always been the most popular? By no means."—DR. LIEBER: Lit. Conv., p. 64. "St. Paul positively stated that, 'he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.'"—Spurzheim, on Education, p. 248. "More than one organ is concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant."—M'Culloch's Gram., p. 18. "If the reader will pardon my descending so low."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 20. "To adjust them so, as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and the grace of the period."—Blair's Rhet., p. 118: Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 324. "This class exhibits a lamentable want of simplicity and inefficiency."—Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 481. "Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, where we see to the very bottom."—Blair's Rhet., p. 93. "Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, through which we see to the very bottom."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 293. "We make use of the ellipsis." [447]—Ib., p. 217. "The ellipsis of the article is thus used."—Ib., p. 217. "Sometimes the ellipsis is improperly applied to nouns of different numbers: as, 'A magnificent house and gardens.'"—Ib., p. 218. "In some very emphatic expressions, the ellipsis should not be used."—Ib., 218. "The ellipsis of the adjective is used in the following manner."—Ib., 218. "The following is the ellipsis of the pronoun."—Ib., 218. "The ellipsis of the verb is used in the following instances."—Ib., p. 219. "The ellipsis of the adverb is used in the following manner."—Ib., 219. "The following instances, though short, contain much of the ellipsis."—Ib., 220. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only will discourse be rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning often ambiguous."—Ib., 242. See Hart's Gram., p. 172. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only is discourse, rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning left often ambiguous."—Blair's Rhet., p. 330; Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xi. "He regards his word, but thou dost not regard it."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 129; his Analytical and Practical Gram., p. 196. "He regards his word, but thou dost not: i.e. dost not regard it."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 219; Parker and Fox's, p. 96; Weld's, 192. "I have learned my task, but you have not; i.e. have not learned."—Ib., Mur., 219; &c. "When the omission of words would obscure the sentence, weaken its force, or be attended with an impropriety, they must be expressed."—Ib., p. 217; Weld's Gram. 190. "And therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually considered."—Murray's Gram. 8vo, ii, 24 and 190. "I understood him the best of all who spoke on the subject."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 192. "I understood him better than any other who spoke on the subject."—Ibid., "The roughness found on our entrance into the paths of virtue and learning, grow smoother as we advance."—Ib., p. 171. "The roughnesses," &c.—Murray's Key, 12mo, p 8. "Nothing promotes knowledge more than steady application, and a habit of observation."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 265. "Virtue confers supreme dignity on man: and should be his chief desire."—Ib., p. 192; and Merchant's, 192. "The Supreme author of our being has so formed the soul of man, that nothing but himself can be its last, adequate, and proper happiness."—Addison, Spect., No. 413; Blair's Rhet., p. 213. "The inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations of our Europeans; because, they say, any one may place trees in equal rows and uniform figures."—Ad., Spect., No. 414; Blair's Rhet., p. 222. "The divine laws are not reversible by those of men."—Murray's Key, ii, 167. "In both of these examples, the relative and the verb which was, are understood."—Murray's Gram., p. 273; Comly's, 152; Ingersoll's, 285. "The Greek and Latin languages, though, for many reasons, they cannot be called dialects of one another, are nevertheless closely connected."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of European Lang., Vol. ii, p. 51. "To ascertain and settle which, of a white rose or a red rose, breathes the sweetest fragrance."—J. Q. Adams, Orat., 1831. "To which he can afford to devote much less of his time and labour."—Blair's Rhet., p. 254.