The Grammar of English Grammars
by
Gould Brown
Part 23 out of 54
_captain_."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "After this event _he_ became
_physician_ to the king."--_Ib._ That is, "When I _began to be_ an author,"
&c.
"Ev'n mean _self-love_ becomes, by force divine,
The _scale_ to measure others' wants by thine."--_Pope_.
OBS. 15.--The common instructions of our English grammars, in relation to
the subject of the preceding rule, are exceedingly erroneous and defective.
For example: "The verb TO BE, has _always_ a nominative case after it,
_unless it be_ in the infinitive mode."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 77. "The verb
TO BE _requires_ the same case after it as before it."--_Churchill's
Gram._, p. 142. "The verb TO BE, through all its variations, _has_ the same
case after it, _expressed or understood_, as _that_ which _next_ precedes
it."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 181; _Alger's_, 62; _Merchant's_, 91;
_Putnam's_, 116; _Smith's_, 97; and many others. "The verb TO BE has
_usually_ the same case after it, as that which _immediately_ precedes
it."--_Hall's Gram._, p. 31. "_Neuter verbs have_ the same case after them,
as that which _next_ precedes them."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 14. "Passive
verbs _which signify naming_, and others of a _similar nature_, have the
same case _before and after_ them."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "A Noun or
Pronoun used in predication with a verb, is in the Independent Case.
EXAMPLES--'Thou art a _scholar_.' 'It is _I_.' 'God is _love_.'"--_S. W.
Clark's Pract. Gram._, p. 149. So many and monstrous are the faults of
these rules, that nothing but very learned and reverend authority, could
possibly impose such teaching anywhere. The first, though written by Lowth,
is not a whit wiser than to say, "The preposition _to_ has _always_ an
infinitive mood after it, _unless it be_ a preposition." And this latter
absurdity is even a better rule for all infinitives, than the former for
all predicated nominatives. Nor is there much more fitness in any of the
rest. "The verb TO BE, _through all_," or even _in any_, of its parts, has
neither "_always_" nor _usually_ a case "_expressed_ or _understood_" after
it; and, even when there is a noun or a pronoun put after it, the case is,
in very many instances, not to be determined by that which "_next_" or
"_immediately_" precedes the verb. Examples: "A _sect of freethinkers_ is a
_sum_ of ciphers."--_Bentley_. "And _I_ am this _day_ weak, though anointed
_king_."--_2 Sam._, iii, 39. "_What_ made _Luther_ a great _man_, was _his_
unshaken _reliance_ on God."--_Kortz's Life of Luther_, p. 13. "The devil
offers his service; _He_ is sent with a positive _commission_ to be a lying
_spirit_ in the mouth of all the prophets."--_Calvin's Institutes_, p. 131.
It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words _sum, king,
reliance_, and _spirit_, are _nominatives_, after the verb or participle;
and not _objectives_, as they must be, if there were any truth in the
common assertion, "that the two cases, which, in the construction of the
sentence, are _the next_ before and after it, must always be
alike."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 98. Not only may the nominative before the
verb be followed by an objective, but the nominative after it may be
preceded by a possessive; as, "Amos, the herdsman of _Tekoa_, was not a
_prophet's_ son."--"It is the _king's_ chapel, and it is the _king's_
court."--_Amos_, vii, 13. How ignorant then must that person be, who cannot
see the falsity of the instructions above cited! How careless the reader
who overlooks it!
NOTES TO RULE VI.
NOTE I.--The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a
participial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid; for
the cases ought to be _clear_, even in exceptions to the common rules of
construction. Examples: (1.) "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state _of being a
widow_."--_Webster's Dict._ Say rather, "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state of a
widow."--_Johnson, Walker, Worcester_. (2.) "I had a suspicion of the
_fellow's_ being a _swindler_/" Say rather, "I had a suspicion _that the
fellow was a swindler_." (3.) "To prevent _its_ being a dry _detail_ of
terms."--_Buck_. Better, "To prevent it _from_ being a dry detail of
terms." [361]
NOTE II.--The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to
accord in signification, either literally or figuratively, with the
preceding term which is taken for a sign of the same thing. Errors: (1.)
"_To be convicted_ of bribery, was then a crime altogether
unpardonable."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 265. To be convicted of a crime, is not
the crime itself; say, therefore, "_Bribery_ was then a _crime_ altogether
unpardonable." (2.) "The second person is the _object_ of the
Imperative."--_Murray's Gram., Index_, ii, 292. Say rather, "The second
person is the _subject_ of the imperative;" for the _object_ of a verb is
the word governed by it, and not its nominative.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VI.
UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--OF PROPER IDENTITY.
"Who would not say, 'If it be _me_,' rather than, If it be
_I_?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 105.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the
pronoun _me_,--which comes after the neuter verb _be_, is in the objective
case, and does not agree with the pronoun _it_, the verb's nominative,[362]
which refers to the same thing. But, according to Rule 6th, "A noun or a
pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with
a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same thing." Therefore, _me_
should be _I_; thus, "Who would not say, 'If it be _I_,' rather than, 'If
it be _me_?'"]
"Who is there? It is me."--_Priestley, ib._, p. 104. "It is him."--_Id.,
ib._, 104. "Are these the houses you were speaking of? Yes, they are
them."--_Id., ib._, 104. "It is not me you are in love with."--_Addison's
Spect._, No. 290; _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104; and _Campbell's Rhet._, p.
203. "It cannot be me."--SWIFT: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104. "To that which
once was thee."--PRIOR: _ib._, 104. "There is but one man that she can
have, and that is me."--CLARISSA: _ib._, 104. "We enter, as it were, into
his body, and become, in some measure, him."--ADAM SMITH: _ib._, p. 105.
"Art thou proud yet? Ay, that I am not thee."--_Shak., Timon_. "He knew not
whom they were."--_Milnes, Greek Gram._, p. 234. "Who do you think me to
be?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 108. "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man,
am?"--_Matt._, xvi, 13. "But whom say ye that I am?"--_Ib._, xvi,
15.--"Whom think ye that I am? I am not he."--_Acts_, xiii, 25. "No; I am
mistaken; I perceive it is not the person whom I supposed it was."--_Winter
in London_, ii, 66. "And while it is Him I serve, life is not without
value."--_Zenobia_, i, 76. "Without ever dreaming it was him."--_Life of
Charles XII_, p. 271. "Or he was not the illiterate personage whom he
affected to be."--_Montgomery's Lect._ "Yet was he him, who was to be the
greatest apostle of the Gentiles."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 540. "Sweet was
the thrilling ecstacy; I know not if 'twas love, or thee."--_Queen's
Wake_, p. 14. "Time was, when none would cry, that oaf was me."--_Dryden,
Prol._ "No matter where the vanquish'd be, nor whom."--_Rowe's Lucan_, B.
i, l. 676. "No, I little thought it had been him."--_Life of Oration_.
"That reverence and godly fear, whose object is 'Him who can destroy both
body and soul in hell.'"--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 312. "It is us that they
seek to please, or rather to astonish."--_West's Letters_, p. 28. "Let the
same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac."--_Gen._, xxiv,
14. "Although I knew it to be he."--_Dickens's Notes_, p. 9. "Dear gentle
youth, is't none but thee?"--_Dorset's Poems_, p. 4. "Whom do they say it
is?"--_Fowler's E. Gram._, Sec.493.
"These are her garb, not her; they but express
Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress."--_Hannah More_.
UNDER NOTE I.--THE CASE DOUBTFUL.
"I had no knowledge of there being any connexion between them."--_Stone, on
Freemasonry_, p. 25. "To promote iniquity in others, is nearly the same as
being the actors of it ourselves."--_Murray's Key_, p. 170. "It must arise
from feeling delicately ourselves."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 330; _Murray's
Gram._, 248. "By reason of there not having been exercised a competent
physical power for their enforcement."--_Mass. Legislature_, 1839.
"PUPILAGE, _n._ The state of being a scholar."--_Johnson, Walker, Webster,
Worcester_. "Then the other part's being the definition would make it
include all verbs of every description."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 343.
"John's being my friend,[363] saved me from inconvenience."--_Ib._, p. 201.
"William's having become a judge, changed his whole demeanor."--_Ib._, p.
201. "William's having been a teacher, was the cause of the interest which
he felt."--_Ib._, p. 216. "The being but one among many stifleth the
chidings of conscience."--_Book of Thoughts_, p. 131. "As for its being
esteemed a close translalation [sic--KTH], I doubt not many have been led
into that error by the shortness of it."--_Pope's Pref. to Homer_. "All
presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings, must go upon
supposition that they are compounded, and so discerptible."--_Butler's
Analogy_, p. 63. "This argues rather their being proper
names."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 382. "But may it not be retorted, that its
being a gratification is that which excites our resentment?"--_Campbell's
Rhet._, p. 145. "Under the common notion, of its being a system of the
whole poetical art."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 401. "Whose time or other
circumstances forbid their becoming classical scholars."--_Literary
Convention_, p. 113. "It would preclude the notion of his being a merely
fictitious personage."--_Philological Museum_, i, 446. "For, or under
pretence of their being heretics or infidels."--_The Catholic Oath_; Geo.
III, 31st. "We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ's being the Object
of religious Adoration."--_Relig. World_, Vol. ii, p. 200. "To say nothing
of Dr. Priestley's being a strenuous advocate," &c.--_Ib._, ii, 207. "By
virtue of Adam's being their public head."--_Ib._, ii, 233. "Objections
against there being any such moral plan as this."--_Butler's Analogy_, p.
57. "A greater instance of a man's being a blockhead."--_Spect._, No. 520.
"We may insure or promote its being a happy state of existence to
ourselves."--_Gurney's Evidences_, p. 86. "By its often falling a victim to
the same kind of unnatural treatment."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 41.
"Their appearing foolishness is no presumption against this."--_Butler's
Analogy_, p. 189. "But what arises from their being offences; _i. e_. from
their being liable to be perverted."--_Ib._, p. 185. "And he entered into a
certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God."--_Acts_,
xviii, 7.
UNDER NOTE II.--OF FALSE IDENTIFICATION.
"But to be popular, he observes, is an ambiguous word."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 307. "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is often the
nominative case to a verb."--_L. Murray's Index, Octavo Gram._, Vol. ii, p.
290. "When any person, in speaking, introduces his own name, it is the
first person; as, 'I, James, of the city of Boston.'"--_R. C. Smith's New
Gram._, p. 43. "The name of the person spoken to, is the second person; as,
'James, come to me.'"--_Ibid._ "The name of the person or thing spoken of,
or about, is the third person; as, 'James has come.'"--_Ibid._ "The object
[of a passive verb] is always its subject or nominative case."--_Ib._, p.
62. "When a noun is in the nominative case to an active verb, it is the
actor."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 44. "And the person commanded, is its
nominative."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 120. "The first person is that who
speaks."--_Pasquier's Levizac_, p. 91. "The Conjugation of a Verb is its
different variations or inflections throughout the Moods and
Tenses."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 80. "The first person is the speaker. The
second person is the one spoken to. The third person is the one spoken
of."--_Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part i, p. 6; _Hiley's_, 18. "The first
person is the one that speaks, or the speaker."--_Sanborn's Gram._, pp. 23
and 75. "The second person is the one that is spoken to, or
addressed."--_Ibid._ "The third person is the one that is spoken of, or
that is the topic of conversation."--_Ibid._ "_I_, is the first person
Singular. _We_, is the first person Plural."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 51;
_Alger's, Ingersoll's_, and _many others_. "_Thou_, is the second person
Singular. _Ye_ or _you_, is the second person Plural."--_Ibid._ "_He, she_,
or _it_, is the third person Singular. _They_, is the third person
Plural."--_Ibid._ "The nominative case is the actor, or subject of the
verb."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 43. "The noun _John_ is the actor, therefore
John is in the nominative case."--_Ibid._ "The actor is always the
nominative case."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 62. "The nominative case is
always the agent or actor."--_Mack's Gram._, p. 67. "Tell the part of
speech each name is."--_J. Flint's Gram._, p. 6. "What number is _boy_?
Why? What number is _pens_? Why?"--_Ib._, p. 27. "The speaker is the first
person, the person spoken to, the second person, and the person or thing
spoken of, is the third person."--_Ib._, p. 26. "What nouns are masculine
gender? All males are masculine gender."--_Ib._, p. 28. "An interjection is
a sudden emotion of the mind."--_Barrett's Gram._, p. 62.
RULE VII.--OBJECTIVES.
A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by it in
the objective case: as, "The temple of _fame_ stands upon the _grave_: the
flame that burns upon its _altars_, is kindled from the _ashes_ of great
_men_"--_Hazlitt_.
"Life is His gift, from _whom_ whate'er life needs, With ev'ry good and
perfect _gift_, proceeds."--_Cowper_, Vol. i, p. 95.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VII.
OBS. 1.--To this rule there are no exceptions; for prepositions, in
English, govern no other case than the objective.[364] But the learner
should observe that most of our prepositions may take the _imperfect
participle_ for their object, and some, the _pluperfect_, or _preperfect_;
as, "_On opening_ the trial they accused him _of having defrauded_
them."--"A quick wit, a nice judgment, &c., could not raise this man _above
being received_ only upon the foot _of contributing_ to mirth and
diversion."--_Steele_. And the preposition _to_ is often followed by an
_infinitive verb_; as, "When one sort of wind is said _to whistle_, and an
other _to roar_; when a serpent is said _to hiss_, a fly _to buzz_, and
falling timber _to crash_; when a stream is said _to flow_, and hail _to
rattle_; the analogy between the word and the thing signified, is plainly
discernible."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 55. But let it not be supposed that
participles or infinitives, when they are governed by prepositions, are
therefore in the _objective case_; for case is no attribute of either of
these classes of words: they are indeclinable in English, whatever be the
relations they assume. They are governed _as participles_, or _as
infinitives_, and not _as cases_. The mere fact of government is so far
from _creating_ the modification governed, that it necessarily presupposes
it to exist, and that it is something cognizable in etymology.
OBS. 2.--The brief assertion, that, "Prepositions govern the objective
case," which till very lately our grammarians have universally adopted as
their sole rule for both terms, the governing and the governed,--the
preposition and its object,--is, in respect to both, somewhat
exceptionable, being but partially and lamely applicable to either. It
neither explains the connecting nature of the preposition, nor applies to
all objectives, nor embraces all the terms which a preposition may govern.
It is true, that prepositions, when they introduce declinable words, or
words that have cases, always govern the objective; but the rule is liable
to be misunderstood, and is in fact often misapplied, as if it meant
something more than this. Besides, in no other instance do grammarians
attempt to parse both the governing word and the governed, by one and the
same rule. I have therefore placed the _objects_ of this government here,
where they belong in the order of the parts of speech, expressing the rule
in such terms as cannot be mistaken; and have also given, in its proper
place, a distinct rule for the construction of the preposition itself. See
Rule 23d.
OBS. 3.--Prepositions are sometimes _elliptically_ construed with
_adjectives_, the real object of the relation being thought to be some
objective noun understood: as, _in vain, in secret, at first, on high_; i.
e. _in a vain manner, in secret places, at the first time, on high places_.
Such phrases usually imply time, place, degree, or manner, and are
equivalent to adverbs. In parsing, the learner may supply the ellipsis.
OBS. 4.--In some phrases, a preposition seems to govern a _perfect
participle_; but these expressions are perhaps rather to be explained as
being elliptical: as, "To give it up _for lost_;"--"To take that _for
granted_ which is disputed."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 109. That is,
perhaps, "To give it up for _a thing_ lost;"--"To take that for _a thing_
granted," &c. In the following passage the words _ought_ and _should_ are
employed in such a manner that it is difficult to say to what part of
speech they belong: "It is that very character of _ought_ and _should_
which makes justice a law to us; and the same character is applicable to
propriety, though perhaps more faintly than to justice."--_Kames, El. of
Crit._, Vol. i, p. 286. The meaning seems to be, "It is that very character
of _being owed_ and _required, that_ makes justice a law to us;" and this
mode of expression, as it is more easy to be _parsed_, is perhaps more
grammatical than his Lordship's. But, as preterits are sometimes put by
_enallage_ for participles, a reference of them to this figure may afford a
mode of explanation in parsing, whenever they are introduced by a
preposition, and not by a nominative: as, "A kind of conquest Caesar made
here; but made not here his brag Of, _came_, and _saw_, and
_overcame_"--_Shak., Cymb._, iii, 1. That is,--"of _having come_, and
_seen_, and _overcome_." Here, however, by assuming that a _sentence_ is
the object of the preposition, we may suppose the pronoun _I_ to be
understood, as _ego_ is in the bulletin referred to, "_Veni, vidi, vici_."
For, as a short sentence is sometimes made the subject of a verb, so is it
sometimes made the object of a preposition; as,
"Earth's highest station ends _in, 'here he lies;'_
And '_dust to dust_,' concludes her noblest song."--_Young_.
OBS. 5.--In some instances, prepositions precede _adverbs_; as, _at once,
at unawares, from thence, from above, till now, till very lately, for once,
for ever_. Here the adverb, though an indeclinable word, appears to be made
_the object_ of the preposition. It is in fact used substantively, and
governed by the preposition. The term _forever_ is often written as one
word, and, as such, is obviously an adverb. The rest are what some writers
would call _adverbial phrases_; a term not very consistent with itself, or
with the true idea of _parsing_. If different parts of speech are to be
taken together as having the nature of an adverb, they ought rather to
coalesce and be united; for the verb to _parse_, being derived from the
Latin _pars_, a _part_, implies in general a distinct recognition of the
elements or words of every phrase or sentence.
OBS. 6.--Nouns of _time, measure, distance_, or _value_, have often so
direct a relation to verbs or adjectives, that the prepositions which are
supposed to govern them, are usually suppressed; as, "We rode _sixty miles_
that day." That is,--"_through_ sixty miles _on_ that day." "The country is
not a _farthing_ richer."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 122. That is,--"richer
_by_ a farthing." "The error has been copied _times_ without
number."--_Ib._, p. 281. That is,--"_on_ or _at_ times _innumerable_." "A
row of columns _ten feet_ high, and a row _twice that height_, require
different proportions." _Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 344. That is,--"high
_to_ ten feet," and, "a row _of_ twice that height." "_Altus sex pedes_,
High _on_ or _at_ six feet."--_Dr. Murray's Hist of Europ. Lang._, ii, 150.
All such nouns are in the _objective case_, and, in parsing them, the
learner may supply the ellipsis;[365] or, perhaps it might be as well, to
say, as do B. H. Smart and some others, that the noun is an objective of
time, measure, or value, taken _adverbially_, and relating directly to the
verb or adjective qualified by it. Such expressions as, "A board of six
feet _long_,"--"A boy _of_ twelve years _old_," are wrong. Either strike
out the _of_, or say, "A board of six feet _in length_,"--"A boy of twelve
years _of age_;" because this preposition is not suited to the adjective,
nor is the adjective fit to qualify the time or measure.
OBS. 7.--After the adjectives _like, near_, and _nigh_, the preposition
_to_ or _unto_ is often understood;[366] as, "It is _like_ [_to_ or _unto_]
silver."--_Allen_. "How _like_ the former."--_Dryden_. "_Near_ yonder
copse."--_Goldsmith_. "_Nigh_ this recess."--_Garth_. As similarity and
proximity are _relations_, and not _qualities_, it might seem proper to
call _like, near_, and _nigh_, prepositions; and some grammarians have so
classed the last two. Dr. Johnson seems to be inconsistent in calling
_near_ a preposition, in the phrase, "_So near_ thy heart," and an
adjective, in the phrase, "Being _near_ their master." See his _Quarto
Dict._ I have not placed them with the prepositions, for the following four
reasons: (1.) Because they are sometimes _compared_; (2.) Because they
sometimes have _adverbs_ evidently relating to them; (3.) Because the
preposition _to_ or _unto_ is sometimes expressed after them; and (4.)
Because the words which _usually_ stand for them in the learned languages,
are clearly _adjectives_.[367] But _like_, when it expresses similarity of
_manner_, and _near_ and _nigh_, when they express proximity of _degree_,
are _adverbs_.
OBS. 8.--The word _worth_ is often followed by an objective, or a
participle, which it appears to govern; as, "If your arguments produce no
conviction, they are _worth_ nothing to me."--_Beattie_. "To reign is
_worth_ ambition."--_Milton_. "This is life indeed, life _worth_
preserving."--_Addison_. It is not easy to determine to what part of speech
_worth_ here belongs. Dr. Johnson calls it an _adjective_, but says nothing
of the _object_ after it, which some suppose to be governed by _of_
understood. In this supposition, it is gratuitously assumed, that _worth_
is equivalent to _worthy_, after which _of_ should be expressed; as,
"Whatsoever is _worthy of_ their love, is _worth_ their anger."--_Denham_.
But as _worth_ appears to have no certain characteristic of an adjective,
some call it a _noun_, and suppose a double ellipsis; as, "'My knife is
worth a shilling;' i. e. 'My knife is _of the_ worth of a
shilling.'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 163. "'The book is worth that sum;' that
is, 'The book is (_the_) worth (_of_) that _sum_;' 'It is worth _while_;'
that is, 'It is (_the_) worth (_of the_) while.'"--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 54.
This is still less satisfactory;[368] and as the whole appears to be mere
guess-work, I see no good reason why _worth_ is not a _preposition_,
governing the noun or participle.[369] If an _adverb_ precede _worth_, it
may as well be referred to the foregoing verb, as when it occurs before any
other preposition: as, "It _is richly worth_ the money."--"It _lies
directly before_ your door." Or if we admit that an adverb sometimes
relates to this word, the same thing may be as true of other prepositions;
as, "And this is a lesson which, to the greatest part of mankind, is, I
think, _very well worth_ learning."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 303. "He sees let
down from the ceiling, _exactly over_ his head, a glittering sword, hung by
a single hair."--_Murray's E. Reader_, p. 33. See Exception 3d to Rule
21st.
OBS. 9.--Both Dr. Johnson and Horne Tooke, (who never agreed if they could
help it,) unite in saying that _worth_, in the phrases, "Wo _worth_ the
man,"--"Wo _worth_ the day," and the like, is from the imperative of the
Saxon verb _wyrthan_ or _weorthan_, to _be_; i. e., "Wo _be_ [_to_] the
man," or, "Wo _betide_ the man," &c. And the latter affirms, that, as the
preposition _by_ is from the imperative of _beon_, to _be_, so _with_,
(though admitted to be sometimes from _withan_, to join,) is often no other
than this same imperative verb _wyrth_ or _worth_: if so, the three words,
_by, with_, and _worth_, were originally synonymous, and should now be
referred at least to one and the same class. The _dative case_, or oblique
object, which they governed as _Saxon verbs_, becomes their proper object,
when taken as _English prepositions_; and in this also they appear to be
alike. _Worth_, then, when it signifies _value_, is a common noun; but when
it signifies _equal in value to_, it governs an objective, and has the
usual characteristics of a preposition. Instances may perhaps be found in
which _worth_ is an adjective, meaning _valuable_ or _useful_, as in the
following lines:
"They glow'd, and grew more intimate with God,
_More worth to_ men, more joyous to themselves."
--_Young_, N. ix, l. 988.
In one instance, the poet Campbell appears to have used the word
_worthless_ as a preposition:
"Eyes a mutual soul confessing,
Soon you'll make them grow
Dim, and _worthless your possessing_,
Not with age, but woe!"
OBS. 10.--After verbs of _giving, paying, procuring_, and some others,
there is usually an ellipsis of _to_ or _for_ before the objective of the
person; as, "Give [_to_] _him_ water to drink."--"Buy [_for_] _me_ a
knife."--"Pay [_to_] _them_ their wages." So in the exclamation, "Wo is
_me_!" meaning, "Wo is _to_ me!" This ellipsis occurs chiefly before the
personal pronouns, and before such nouns as come between the verb and its
direct object; as, "Whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth [_to_]
_God_ service."--_John_, xvi, 2. "Who brought [_to_] her _masters_ much
gain by soothsaying."--_Acts_, xvi, 16. "Because he gave not [_to_] _God_
the glory."--_Ib._, xii, 23. "Give [_to_] _me_ leave to allow [_to_]
_myself_ no respite from labour."--_Spect._, No. 454. "And the sons of
Joseph, which were born [_to_] _him_ in Egypt, were two souls."--_Gen._,
xlvi, 27. This elliptical construction of a few objectives, is what remains
to us of the ancient Saxon dative case. If the order of the words be
changed, the preposition must be inserted; as, "Pray do my service _to_ his
majesty."--_Shak_. The doctrine inculcated by several of our grammarians,
that, "Verbs of _asking, giving, teaching_, and _some others_, are often
employed to govern two objectives," (_Wells_, Sec.215,) I have, under a
preceding rule, discountenanced; preferring the supposition, which appears
to have greater weight of authority, as well as stronger support from
reason, that, in the instances cited in proof of such government, a
preposition is, in fact, understood. Upon this question of ellipsis,
depends, in all such instances, our manner of parsing one of the objective
words.
OBS. 11.--In _dates_, as they are usually written, there is much
abbreviation; and several nouns of place and time are set down in the
objective case, without the prepositions which govern them: as, "New York,
Wednesday, 20th October, 1830."--_Journal of Literary Convention_. That is,
"_At_ New York, _on_ Wednesday, _the_ 20th _day of_ October, _in the year_
1830."
NOTE TO RULE VII.
An objective noun of time or measure, if it qualifies a subsequent
adjective, must not also be made an adjunct to a preceding noun; as, "To an
infant _of_ only two or three years _old_."--_Dr. Wayland_. Expunge _of_,
or for _old_ write _of age_. The following is right: "The vast army of the
Canaanites, _nine hundred chariots strong_, covered the level plain of
Esdraelon."--_Milman's Jews_, Vol. i, p. 159. See Obs. 6th above.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VII. UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--OF THE OBJECTIVE IN
FORM.
"But I do not remember who they were for."--_Abbott's Teacher_, p. 265.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the pronoun _who_ is in the nominative case,
and is made the object of the preposition _for_. But, according to Rule
7th, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by
it in the objective case." Therefore, _who_ should be _whom_; thus, "But I
do not remember _whom_ they were for."]
"But if you can't help it, who do you complain of?"--_Collier's Antoninus_,
p. 137. "Who was it from? and what was it about?"--_Edgeworth's Frank_, p.
72. "I have plenty of victuals, and, between you and I, something in a
corner."--_Day's Sandford and Merton_. "The upper one, who I am now about
to speak of."--_Hunt's Byron_, p. 311. "And to poor we, thine enmity's most
capital."--_Beauties of Shakspeare_, p. 201. "Which thou dost confess, were
fit for thee to use, as they to claim."--_Ib._, p. 196. "To beg of thee, it
is my more dishonour, than thou of them."--_Ib._, p. 197. "There are still
a few who, like thou and I, drink nothing but water."--_Gil Blas_, Vol. i,
p. 104. "Thus, I _shall_ fall; Thou _shalt_ love thy neighbour; He _shall_
be rewarded, express no resolution on the part of _I, thou,
he_."--_Lennie's E. Gram._, p. 22; _Bullions's_, 32. "So saucy with the
hand of she here--What's her name?"--_Shak., Ant. and Cleop._, Act iii, Sc.
11. "All debts are cleared between you and I."--_Id., Merchant of Venice_,
Act iii, Sc. 2. "Her price is paid, and she is sold like thou."--_Milman's
Fall of Jerusalem_. "Search through all the most flourishing era's of
Greece."--_Brown's Estimate_, ii, 16. "The family of the Rudolph's had been
long distinguished."--_The Friend_, Vol. v, p. 54. "It will do well enough
for you and I."--_Castle Rackrent_, p. 120. "The public will soon
discriminate between him who is the sycophant, and he who is the
teacher."--_Chazotte's Essay_, p. 10. "We are still much at a loss who
civil power belongs to."--_Locke_. "What do you call it? and who does it
belong to?"--_Collier's Cebes_. "He had received no lessons from the
Socrates's, the Plato's, and the Confucius's of the age."--_Hatter's
Letters_. "I cannot tell who to compare them to."--_Bunyan's P. P._, p.
128. "I see there was some resemblance betwixt this good man and
I."--_Pilgrim's Progress_, p. 298. "They by that means have brought
themselves into the hands and house of I do not know who."--_Ib._, p. 196.
"But at length she said there was a great deal of difference between Mr.
Cotton and we."--_Hutchinson's Mass._, ii, 430. "So you must ride on
horseback after we." [370]--MRS. GILPIN: _Cowper_, i, 275. "A separation
must soon take place between our minister and I."--_Werter_, p. 109. "When
she exclaimed on Hastings, you, and I."--_Shakspeare_. "To who? to thee?
What art thou?"--_Id._ "That they should always bear the certain marks who
they came from."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 221.
"This life has joys for you and I,
And joys that riches ne'er could buy."--_Burns_.
UNDER THE NOTE--OF TIME OR MEASURE.
"Such as almost every child of ten years old knows."--_Town's Analysis_, p.
4. "One winter's school of four months, will carry any industrious scholar,
of ten or twelve years old, completely through this book."--_Ib._, p. 12.
"A boy of six years old may be taught to speak as correctly, as Cicero did
before the Roman Senate."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 27. "A lad of about
twelve years old, who was taken captive by the Indians."--_Ib._, p. 235.
"Of nothing else but that individual white figure of five inches long which
is before him."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 288. "Where lies the fault, that
boys of eight or ten years old, are with great difficulty made to
understand any of its principles."--_Guy's Gram._, p. v. "Where language of
three centuries old is employed."--_Booth's Introd. to Dict._, p. 21. "Let
a gallows be made of fifty cubits high."--_Esther_, v. 14. "I say to this
child of nine years old bring me that hat, he hastens and brings it
me."--_Osborn's Key_, p. 3. "He laid a floor twelve feet long, and nine
feet wide; that is, over the extent _of_ twelve feet long, and _of_ nine
feet wide."--_Merchants School Gram._, p. 95. "The Goulah people are a
tribe of about fifty thousand strong."--_Examiner_, No. 71. RULE
VIII.--NOM. ABSOLUTE.
A Noun or a Pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case
depends on no other word: as, _"He failing, who shall meet
success?"_--"Your _fathers_, where are they? and the _prophets_, do they
live forever?"--_Zech._, i, 5. "Or _I_ only and _Barnabas_, have not we
power to forbear working?"--_1 Cor._, ix, 6. "Nay but, O man, who art thou
that repliest against God?"--_Rom._, ix, 20. "O rare _we!_"--_Cowper_.
"Miserable _they!_"--_Thomson_.
"The _hour_ conceal'd, and so remote the _fear_, Death still draws nearer,
never seeming near."--_Pope_.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VIII.
OBS. 1.--Many grammarians make an idle distinction between the nominative
_absolute_ and the nominative _independent_, as if these epithets were not
synonymous; and, at the same time, they are miserably deficient in
directions for disposing of the words so employed. Their two rules do not
embrace more than one half of those _frequent_ examples in which the case
of the noun or pronoun depends on no other word. Of course, the remaining
half cannot be parsed by any of the rules which they give. The lack of a
comprehensive rule, like the one above, is a great and glaring defect in
all the English grammars that the author has seen, except his own, and such
as are indebted to him for such a rule. It is proper, however, that the
different forms of expression which are embraced in this general rule,
should be discriminated, one from an other, by the scholar: let him
therefore, in parsing any nominative absolute, tell _how it is put so_;
whether with a _participle_, by direct _address_, by _pleonasm_, or by
_exclamation_. For, in discourse, a noun or a pronoun is put absolute in
the nominative, after _four modes_, or under the following _four
circumstances_: (of which Murray's "case absolute," or "nominative
absolute," contains only the first:)
I. When, _with a participle_, it is used to express a cause, or a
concomitant fact; as, "I say, _this being so_, the _law being broken_,
justice takes place."--_Law and Grace_, p. 27. _"Pontius Pilate being_
governor of Judea, and _Herod being_ tetrarch of Galilee, and his _brother_
Philip tetrarch of Iturea." &c.--_Luke_, iii, 1. "I _being_ in the way, the
Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren."--_Gen._, xxiv, 27.
---------"While shame, _thou looking on_,
Shame to be overcome or overreach'd,
Would utmost vigor raise."--_Milton, P. L._, B. ix, 1, 312.
II. When, _by direct address_, it is put in the second person, and set off
from the verb, by a comma or an exclamation point; as, "At length, _Seged_,
reflect and be wise."--_Dr. Johnson._ "It may be, _drunkard, swearer, liar,
thief_, thou dost not think of this."--_Law and Grace_, p. 27.
"_This said_, he form'd thee, _Adam!_ thee, O _man!_
_Dust_ of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd
The breath of life."--_Milton's Paradise Lost_, B. vii, l. 524.
III. When, by _pleonasm_, it is introduced abruptly for the sake of
emphasis, and is not made the subject or the object of any verb; as, "_He_
that hath, to him shall be given."--_Mark_, iv, 25. "_He_ that is holy, let
him be holy still."--_Rev._, xxii, 11. "_Gad_, a troop shall overcome
him."--_Gen._, xlix, 19. "The _north_ and the _south_, thou hast created
them."--_Psalms_, lxxxix, 12. "And _they_ that have believing masters, let
them not despise them."--_1 Tim._, vi, 2. "And the _leper_ in whom the
plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare."--_Levit._, xiii,
45. "_They_ who serve me with adoration,--I am in them, and they [are] in
me."--R. W. EMERSON: _Liberator_, No. 996.
-------------------------"What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and, we fools of nature,[371]
So horribly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?"--_Shak. Hamlet._
IV. When, _by mere exclamation_, it is used without address, and without
other words expressed or implied to give it construction; as, "And the Lord
passed by before him, and proclaimed, _the Lord, the Lord God_, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth."
_Exodus_, xxxiv, 6. "O _the depth_ of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God!"--_Rom._, xi, 33. "I should not like to see her limping
back, Poor _beast_!"--_Southey_.
"Oh! deep enchanting prelude to repose,
The dawn of bliss, the _twilight_ of our woes!"--_Campbell_.
OBS. 2.--The nominative put absolute with a participle, is often equivalent
to a dependent clause commencing with _when, while, if, since_, or
_because_. Thus, "I being a child," may be equal to, "When I was a child,"
or, "Because I was a child." Here, in lieu of the nominative, the Greeks
used the genitive case, and the Latins, the ablative. Thus, the phrase,
"[Greek: Kai hysteraesantos oinou]," "_And the wine failing_," is rendered
by Montanus, "_Et deficiente vino_;" but by Beza, "_Et cum defecisset
vinum_;" and in our Bible, "_And when they wanted wine_."--_John_, ii, 3.
After a noun or a pronoun thus put absolute, the participle _being_ is
frequently understood, especially if an adjective or a like case come after
the participle; as,
"They left their bones beneath unfriendly skies,
His worthless absolution [_being_] all the prize."
--_Cowper_, Vol. i, p. 84.
"Alike in ignorance, _his reason_ [------] _such_,
Whether he thinks too little or too much."--_Pope, on Man_.
OBS. 3.--The case which is put absolute in addresses or invocations, is
what in the Latin and Greek grammars is called _the Vocative_. Richard
Johnson says, "The only use of the Vocative Case, is, to call upon a
Person, or a thing put Personally, which we speak to, to give notice to
what we direct our Speech; and this is therefore, properly speaking, the
_only Case absolute or independent_ which we may make use of without
respect to any other Word."--_Gram. Commentaries_, p. 131. This remark,
however, applies not justly to our language; for, with us, the vocative
case, is unknown, or not distinguished from the nominative. In English, all
nouns of the second person are either put absolute in the nominative,
according to Rule 8th, or in apposition with their own pronouns placed
before them, according to Rule 3d: as, "This is the stone which was set at
nought of _you builders_."--_Acts_, iv, 11. "How much rather ought _you
receivers_ to be considered as abandoned and execrable!"--_Clarkson's
Essay_, p. 114.
"Peace! _minion_, peace! it boots not me to hear
The selfish counsel of _you hangers-on_."
--_Brown's Inst._, p. 189.
"Ye _Sylphs_ and _Sylphids_, to your chief give ear;
_Fays, Faries, Genii, Elves_, and Daemons, hear!"
--_Pope, R. L._, ii, 74.
OBS. 4.--The case of nouns used in exclamations, or in mottoes and
abbreviated sayings, often depends, or may be conceived to depend, on
something _understood_; and, when their construction can be satisfactorily
explained on the principle of ellipsis, they are _not put absolute_, unless
the ellipsis be that of the participle. The following examples may perhaps
be resolved in this manner, though the expressions will lose much of their
vivacity: "A _horse_! a _horse_! my _kingdom_ for a horse!"--_Shak._ "And
he said unto his father, My _head_! my _head_!"--_2 Kings_, iv, 19. "And
Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, _heaps_ upon heaps, with the jaw
of an ass, have I slain a thousand men."--_Judges_, xv, 16. "Ye have heard
that it hath been said, An _eye_ for an eye, and a _tooth_ for a
tooth."--_Matt._, v, 38. "_Peace_, be still."--_Mark_, iv, 39. "One God,
_world_ without end. Amen."--_Com. Prayer_.
"_My fan_, let others say, who laugh at toil;
_Fan! hood! glove! scarf!_ is her laconic style."--_Young_.
OBS. 5.--"Such Expressions as, _Hand to Hand, Face to Face, Foot to Foot_,
are of the nature of Adverbs, and are of elliptical Construction: For the
Meaning is, _Hand_ OPPOSED _to Hand_, &c."--_W. Ward's Gram._, p. 100. This
learned and ingenious author seems to suppose the former noun to be here
put absolute with a participle understood; and this is probably the best
way of explaining the construction both of that word and of the preposition
that follows it. So Samson's phrase, "_heaps upon heaps_," may mean, "heaps
_being piled_ upon heaps;" and Scott's, "_man to man_, and _steel to
steel_," may be interpreted, "_man being opposed_ to man, and _steel being
opposed_ to steel:"
"Now, man to man, and steel to steel,
A chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel."--_Lady of the Lake_.
OBS. 6.--Cobbett, after his own hasty and dogmatical manner, rejects the
whole theory of nominatives absolute, and teaches his "soldiers, sailors,
apprentices, and ploughboys," that, "The supposition, that there can be a
noun, or pronoun, which has reference to _no_ verb, and _no preposition_,
is certainly a mistake."--_Cobbett's E. Gram._, 201. To sustain his
position, he lays violent hands upon the plain truth, and even trips
himself up in the act. Thus: "For want of a little thought, as to the
matter immediately before us, some grammarians have found out '_an absolute
case_,' as they call it; and Mr. Lindley Murray gives an instance of it in
these words: '_Shame being lost_, all virtue is lost.' The full meaning of
this sentence is this: '_It being_, or _the state of things being such,
that_ shame _is_ lost, all virtue is lost.'"--_Cobbett's E. Gram._, 191.
Again: "There must, you will bear in mind, always be a verb expressed or
understood. One would think, that this was not the case in [some instances:
as,] '_Sir_, I beg you to give me a bit of bread.' The sentence which
follows the _Sir_, is complete; but the _Sir_ appears to stand wholly
without connexion. However, the full meaning is this: 'I beg you, _who are
a Sir_, to give me a bit of bread.' Now, if you take time to reflect a
little on this matter, you will never be puzzled for a moment by those
detached words, to suit which grammarians have invented _vocative cases_
and _cases absolute_, and a great many other appellations, with which they
puzzle themselves, and confuse and bewilder and torment those who read
their books."--_Ib._, Let. xix, 225 and 226. All this is just like
Cobbett. But, let his admirers reflect on the matter as long as they
please, the two _independent_ nominatives _it_ and _state_, in the text,
"_It being_, or the state of things _being_ such," will forever stand a
glaring confutation both of his doctrine and of his censure: "the _case
absolute_" is there still! He has, in fact, only converted the single
example into a double one!
OBS. 7.--The Irish philologer, J. W. Wright, is even more confident than
Cobbett, in denouncing "_the case absolute_;" and more severe in his
reprehension of "Grammarians in general, and Lowth and Murray in
particular," for entertaining the idea of such a case. "Surprise must
cease," says he, "on an acquaintance with the fact, that persons who imbibe
such fantastical doctrine _should be destitute of sterling information_ on
the subject of English grammar.--The English language is a stranger to this
case. We speak thus, with confidence, conscious of the justness of _our_
opinion:--an opinion, not precipitately formed, but one which is the result
of mature and deliberate inquiry. '_Shame being lost_, all virtue is lost:'
The meaning of this is,--'_When_ shame _is being lost_, all virtue is
lost.' Here, the words _is being lost_ form _the true present tense_ of the
passive voice; in which voice, all verbs, thus expressed, are
_unsuspectedly_ situated: thus, agreeing with the noun _shame_, as the
nominative of the first member of the sentence."--_Wright's Philosophical
Gram._, p. 192. With all his deliberation, this gentleman has committed one
oversight here, which, as it goes to contradict his scheme of the passive
verb, some of his sixty venerable commenders ought to have pointed out to
him. My old friend, the "Professor of _Elocution_ in Columbia College," who
finds by this work of "superior excellence," that "the nature of the
_verb_, the most difficult part of grammar, has been, at length,
_satisfactorily explained_," ought by no means, after his "very attentive
examination" of the book, to have left this service to me. In the clause,
"all virtue _is lost_," the passive verb "_is lost_" has the form which
Murray gave it--the form which, till within a year or two, _all men_
supposed to be the only right one; but, according to this new philosophy of
the language, all men have been as much in error in this matter, as in
their notion of the nominative absolute. If Wright's theory of the verb is
correct, the only just form of the foregoing expression is, "all virtue _is
being lost_." If this central position is untenable, his management of the
nominative absolute falls of course. To me, the inserting of the word
_being_ into all our passive verbs, seems the most monstrous absurdity ever
broached in the name of grammar. The threescore certifiers to the accuracy
of that theory, have, I trow, only recorded themselves as so many
_ignoramuses_; for there are more than threescore myriads of better
judgements against them.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VIII.
NOUNS OR PRONOUNS PUT ABSOLUTE.
"Him having ended his discourse, the assembly dispersed."--_Brown's Inst._,
p. 190.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the pronoun _him_, whose case depends on no
other word, is in the objective case. But, according to Rule 8th, "A noun
or a pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case depends on no
other word." Therefore, _him_ should be _he_; thus, "_He_ having ended his
discourse, the assembly dispersed."]
"Me being young, they deceived
me."--_Inst. E. Gram._, p. 190. "Them refusing to comply, I
withdrew."--_Ib._ "Thee being present, he would not tell what he
knew."--_Ib._ "The child is lost; and me, whither shall I go?"--_Ib._ "Oh!
happy us, surrounded with so many blessings."--_Murray's Key_, p. 187;
_Merchant's_, 197; _Smith's New Gram._, 96; _Farnum's_, 63. "'Thee, too!
Brutus, my son!' cried Caesar, overcome."--_Brown's Inst._, p. 190. "Thee!
Maria! and so late! and who is thy companion?"--_New-York Mirror_, Vol. x,
p. 353. "How swiftly our time passes away! and ah! us, how little concerned
to improve it!"--_Comly's Gram., Key_, p. 192.
"There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thee, only thee, directing all our way."
CHAPTER IV.--ADJECTIVES.
The syntax of the English Adjective is fully embraced in the following
brief rule, together with the exceptions, observations, and notes, which
are, in due order, subjoined.
RULE IX.--ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns: as, "_Miserable_ comforters are ye
_all_"--_Job_, xvi, 2. "_No worldly_ enjoyments are _adequate_ to the
_high_ desires and powers of an _immortal_ spirit."--_Blair_.
"Whatever faction's _partial_ notions are,
_No_ hand is wholly _innocent_ in war."
--_Rowe's Lucan_, B. vii, l. 191.
EXCEPTION FIRST.
An adjective sometimes relates to a _phrase_ or _sentence_ which is made
the subject of an intervening verb; as, "_To insult the afflicted_, is
_impious_"--_Dillwyn_. "_That he should refuse_, is not _strange_"--"_To
err_ is _human_." _Murray_ says, "_Human_ belongs to its substantive
'nature' understood."--_Gram._, p. 233. From this I dissent.
EXCEPTION SECOND.
In combined arithmetical numbers, one adjective often relates _to an
other_, and the whole phrase, to a subsequent noun; as, "_One thousand four
hundred and fifty-six_ men."--"Six dollars and _eighty-seven and a half_
cents for _every five_ days' service."--"In the _one hundred and
twenty-second_ year."--"_One seven_ times more than it was wont to be
heated."--_Daniel_, iii, 19.
EXCEPTION THIRD.
With an infinitive or a participle denoting being or action in the
abstract, an adjective is sometimes also taken _abstractly_; (that is,
without reference to any particular noun, pronoun, or other subject;) as,
"To be _sincere_, is to be _wise, innocent_, and _safe_."--_Hawkesworth_.
"_Capacity_ marks the abstract quality of being _able_ to receive or
hold."--_Crabb's Synonymes_. "Indeed, the main secret of being _sublime_,
is to say great things in few and plain words."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 215.
"Concerning being _free_ from sin in heaven, there is no
question."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 437. Better: "Concerning _freedom_ from
sin," &c.
EXCEPTION FOURTH.
Adjectives are sometimes substituted for their corresponding abstract
nouns; (perhaps, in most instances, _elliptically_, like Greek neuters;)
as, "The sensations of _sublime_ and _beautiful_ are not always
distinguished by very distant boundaries."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 47. That
is, "of _sublimity_ and _beauty_." "The faults opposite to _the sublime_
are chiefly two: _the frigid_, and _the bombast_"--_Ib._, p. 44. Better:
"The faults opposite to _sublimity_, are chiefly two; _frigidity_ and
_bombast_." "Yet the ruling character of the nation was that of _barbarous_
and _cruel_."--_Brown's Estimate_, ii, 26. That is, "of _barbarity_ and
_cruelty_." "In a word, _agreeable_ and _disagreeable_ are qualities of the
objects we perceive," &c.--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 99. "_Polished_, or
_refined_, was the idea which the author had in view."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
219.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE IX.
OBS. 1.--Adjectives often relate to nouns or pronouns _understood_; as, "A
new sorrow recalls _all_ the _former_" [sorrows].--_Art of Thinking_, p.
31. [The place] "_Farthest_ from him is best."--_Milton, P. L._ "To whom
they all gave heed, from the _least_ [person] to the _greatest_"
[person].--_Acts_, viii, 10. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of
lords, a great God, a _mighty_ [God], and a _terrible_" [God].--_Deut._, x,
17. "Every one can distinguish an _angry_ from a _placid_, a _cheerful_
from a _melancholy_, a _thoughtful_ from a _thoughtless_, and a _dull_ from
a penetrating, countenance."--_Beattie's Moral Science_, p. 192. Here the
word _countenance_ is understood seven times; for eight different
countenances are spoken of. "He came unto his _own_ [possessions], and his
_own_ [men] received him not."--_John_, i, 11. The _Rev. J. G. Cooper_, has
it: "He came unto his own (_creatures_,) and his own (_creatures_) received
him not."--_Pl. and Pract. Gram._, p. 44. This ambitious editor of Virgil,
abridger of Murray, expounder of the Bible, and author of several "new and
improved" grammars, (of different languages,) should have understood this
text, notwithstanding the obscurity of our version. "[Greek: Eis ta idia
aelthe. kai oi idioi auton ou parelabon]."--"In _propria_ venit, et
_proprii_ eum non receperunt."--_Montanus_. "Ad _sua_ venit, et sui eum non
exceperunt."--_Beza_. "Il est venu _chez soi_; et _les siens_ ne l'ont
point recu."--_French Bible_. Sometimes the construction of the adjective
involves an ellipsis of _several words_, and those perhaps the principal
parts of the clause; as, "The sea appeared to be agitated more than [in
that degree _which_ is] _usual_."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 217. "During the
course of the sentence, the scene should be changed as little as [in the
least] _possible_" [degree].--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 107; _Murray's Gram._,
8vo, p. 312.
"Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find,
Why [_thou art_] form'd so _weak_, so _little_, and so _blind_"
--_Pope_.
OBS. 2.--Because _qualities_ belong only to _things_, most grammarians
teach, that, "_Adjectives_ are capable of being added _to nouns
only_."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 26. Or, as Murray expresses the doctrine:
"Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun, _belongs to a substantive_,
expressed or understood."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 161. "The adjective _always_
relates to a _substantive_."--_Ib._, p. 169. This teaching, which is alike
repugnant to the true _definition_ of an adjective, to the true _rule_ for
its construction, and to _all the exceptions_ to this rule, is but a sample
of that hasty sort of induction, which is ever jumping to false conclusions
for want of a fair comprehension of the facts in point. The position would
not be tenable, even if all our _pronouns_ were admitted to be _nouns_, or
"_substantives_;" and, if these two parts of speech are to be
distinguished, the consequence must be, that Murray supposes a countless
number of unnecessary and absurd _ellipses._ It is sufficiently evident,
that in the construction of sentences, adjectives often relate immediately
to _pronouns_, and only through them to the nouns which they represent.
Examples: "I should like to know who has been carried off, except _poor
dear me_."--_Byron_. "To _poor us_ there is not much hope
remaining."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p 204. "It is the final pause _which
alone_, on many occasions, marks the difference between prose and
verse."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 260. "And sometimes after _them
both_."--_Ib._, p. 196. "All men hail'd _me happy_."--_Milton_. "To receive
_unhappy me_."--_Dryden_. "Superior to _them all_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
419. "_They_ returned to their own country, _full_ of the discoveries which
they had made."--_Ib._, p. 350. "_All ye_ are brethren."--_Matt._, xxiii,
8. "And _him only_ shalt thou serve."--_Matt._, iv, 10.
"Go _wiser thou_, and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence."--_Pope_.
OBS. 3.--When an adjective follows a finite verb, and is not followed by a
noun, it generally relates to the subject of the verb; as, "_I_ am _glad_
that the _door_ is made _wide_."--"An unbounded _prospect_ doth not long
continue _agreeable_."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 244. "Every thing which
is _false, vicious_, or _unworthy_, is _despicable_ to him, though all the
world should approve it."--_Spectator_, No. 520. Here _false, vicious_, and
_unworthy_, relate to _which_; and _despicable_ relates to _thing_. The
practice of Murray and his followers, of supplying a "substantive" in all
such cases, is absurd. "When the Adjective forms the _Attribute_ of a
Proposition, it belongs to the noun [or pronoun] which serves as the
_Subject_ of the Proposition, and cannot be joined to any other noun, since
it is of the Subject that we affirm the quality expressed by this
Adjective."--_De Sacy, on General Gram._, p. 37. In some peculiar phrases,
however, such as, _to fall short of, to make bold with, to set light by_,
the adjective has such a connexion with the verb, that it may seem
questionable how it ought to be explained in parsing. Examples: (1.) "This
latter mode of expression falls _short_ of the force and vehemence of the
former."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 353. Some will suppose the word _short_
to be here used _adverbially_, or to qualify _falls_ only; but perhaps it
may as well be parsed as an adjective, forming a predicate with "_falls_,"
and relating to "_mode_," the nominative. (2.) "And that I have made so
_bold_ with thy glorious Majesty."--_Jenks's Prayers_, p. 156. This
expression is perhaps elliptical: it may mean, "that I have made _myself_
so bold," &c. (3.) "Cursed be he that _setteth light_ by his father or his
mother: and all the people shall say, Amen."--_Deut._, xxvii, 16. This may
mean, "that setteth light _esteem_ or _estimation_," &c.
OBS. 4.--When an adjective follows an infinitive or a participle, the noun
or pronoun to which it relates, is sometimes before it, and sometimes after
it, and often considerably remote; as, "A real gentleman cannot but
practice those virtues _which_, by an intimate knowledge of mankind, he has
found to be _useful_ to them."--"He [a melancholy enthusiast] thinks
_himself_ obliged in duty to be _sad_ and _disconsolate_."--_Addison_. "He
is scandalized at _youth_ for being _lively_, and at _childhood_ for being
playful."--_Id._ "But growing _weary_ of one who almost walked him out of
breath, _he_ left him for Horace and Anacreon."--_Steele._
OBS. 5.--Adjectives preceded by the definite article, are often used, by
_ellipsis_, as _nouns_; as, _the learned_, for _learned men_. Such phrases
usually designate those classes of persons or things, which are
characterized by the qualities they express; and this, the reader must
observe, is a use quite different from that _substitution_ of adjectives
for nouns, which is noticed in the fourth exception above. In _our_
language, the several senses in which adjectives may thus be taken, are not
distinguished with that clearness which the inflections of other tongues
secure. Thus, _the noble, the vile, the excellent_, or _the beautiful_, may
be put for three extra constructions: first, for _noble persons, vile
persons_, &c.; secondly, for _the noble man, the vile man_, &c.; thirdly,
for the abstract qualities, _nobility, vileness, excellence, beauty_. The
last-named usage forms an exception to the rule; in the other two the noun
is understood, and should be supplied by the parser. Such terms, if
elliptical, are most commonly of the plural number, and refer to the word
_persons_ or _things_ understood; as, "_The careless_ and _the imprudent,
the giddy_ and _the fickle, the ungrateful_ and _the interested_,
everywhere meet us."--_Blair_. Here the noun _persons_ is to be six times
supplied. "Wherever there is taste, _the witty_ and _the humorous_ make
themselves perceived."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 21. Here the author meant,
simply, the qualities _wit_ and _humour_, and he ought to have used these
words, because the others are equivocal, and are more naturally conceived
to refer to persons. In the following couplet, the noun _places_ or
_things_ is understood after "_open_," and again after "_covert_," which
last word is sometimes misprinted "_coverts_:"
"Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what _the open_, what _the covert_, yield."--_Pope, on Man._
OBS. 6.--The adjective, in English, is generally placed immediately _before
its noun_; as, "_Vain_ man! is grandeur given to _gay_ attire?"--_Beattie_.
Those adjectives which relate to _pronouns_, most commonly follow them; as,
"They left _me weary_ on a grassy turf."--_Milton._ But to both these
general rules there are many exceptions; for the position of an adjective
may be varied by a variety of circumstances, not excepting the mere
convenience of emphasis: as, "And Jehu said, Unto _which_ of _all us_?"--_2
Kings_, ix, 5. In the following instances the adjective is placed _after
the word_ to which it relates:
1. When other words depend on the adjective, or stand before it to qualify
it; as, "A mind _conscious of right_,"--"A wall _three feet thick_,"--"A
body of troops _fifty thousand strong_."
2. When the quality results from an action, or receives its application
through a verb or participle; as, "Virtue renders _life happy_."--"He was
in Tirzah, drinking _himself drunk_ in the house of Arza."--_1 Kings_, xvi,
9. "All men agree to call _vinegar sour, honey sweet_, and _aloes
bitter_."--_Burke, on Taste_, p. 38. "God made _thee perfect_, not
_immutable_."--_Milton_.
3. When the quality excites admiration, and the adjective would thus be
more clearly distinctive; as, "Goodness _infinite_,"--"Wisdom
_unsearchable_."--_Murray_.
4. When a verb comes between the adjective and the noun; as, "Truth stands
_independent_ of all external things."--_Burgh_. "Honour is not _seemly_
for a fool."--_Solomon_.
5. When the adjective is formed by means of the prefix _a_; as, _afraid,
alert, alike, alive, alone, asleep, awake, aware, averse, ashamed, askew_.
To these may be added a few other words; as, _else, enough, extant,
extinct, fraught, pursuant_.
6. When the adjective has the nature, but not the form, of a participle;
as, "A queen _regnant_,"--"The prince _regent_,"--"The heir
_apparent_,"--"A lion, not _rampant_, but _couchant_ or _dormant_"--"For
the time then _present_."
OBS. 7.--In some instances, the adjective may
_either precede or follow_ its noun; and the writer may take his choice, in
respect to its position: as, 1. In _poetry_--provided the sense be obvious;
as,
------------------"Wilt thou to the _isles
Atlantic_, to the _rich Hesperian clime_,
Fly in the train of Autumn?"
--_Akenside, P. of I._, Book i, p. 27.
-----------------------------"Wilt thou fly
With laughing Autumn to _the Atlantic isles_,
And range with him th' _Hesperian field_?"
--_Id. Bucke's Gram._, p. 120.
2. When technical usage favours one order, and common usage an other; as,
"A notary _public_," or, "A _public_ notary;"--"The heir _presumptive_,"
or, "The _presumptive_ heir."--See _Johnson's Dict._, and _Webster's_.
3. When an adverb precedes the adjective; as, "A Being _infinitely_ wise,"
or, "An _infinitely wise_ Being." Murray, Comly, and others, here approve
only the former order; but the latter is certainly not ungrammatical.
4. When several adjectives belong to the same noun; as, "A woman, _modest,
sensible_, and _virtuous_," or, "A _modest, sensible_, and _virtuous_
woman." Here again, Murray, Comly, and others, approve only the former
order; but I judge the latter to be quite as good.
5. When the adjective is emphatic, it may be _foremost_ in the sentence,
though the natural order of the words would bring it last; as, "_Weighty_
is the anger of the righteous."--_Bible_. "_Blessed_ are the pure in
heart."--_Ib._ "_Great_ is the earth, _high_ is the heaven, _swift_ is the
sun in his course."--_1 Esdras_, iv, 34. "_The more laborious_ the life is,
_the less populous_ is the country."--_Goldsmith's Essays_, p. 151.
6. When the adjective and its noun both follow a verb as parts of the
predicate, either may possibly come before the other, yet the arrangement
is _fixed by the sense intended_: thus there is a great difference between
the assertions, "We call the _boy good_," and, "We call the _good boy_"
OBS. 8.--By an ellipsis of the noun, an adjective with a preposition before
it, is sometimes equivalent to an adverb; as, _"In particular;"_ that is,
_"In a particular manner;"_ equivalent to _particularly_. So _"in general"_
is equivalent to _generally_. It has already been suggested, that, in
parsing, the scholar should here supply the ellipsis. See Obs. 3d, under
Rule vii.
OBS. 9.--Though English adjectives are, for the most part, incapable of any
_agreement_, yet such of them as denote unity or plurality, ought in
general to have nouns of the same number: as, _this man, one man, two men,
many men_.[372] In phrases of this form, the rule is well observed; but in
some peculiar ways of numbering things, it is commonly disregarded; for
certain nouns are taken in a plural sense without assuming the plural
termination. Thus people talk of many _stone_ of cheese,--many _sail_ of
vessels,--many _stand_ of arms,--many _head_ of cattle,--many _dozen_ of
eggs,--many _brace_ of partridges,--many _pair_ of shoes. So we read in
the Bible of "two hundred _pennyworth_ of bread," and "twelve _manner_ of
fruits." In all such phraseology, there is, in regard to the _form_ of the
latter word, an evident disagreement of the adjective with its immediate
noun; but sometimes, (where the preposition _of_ does not occur,)
expressions that seem somewhat like these, may be elliptical: as when
historians tell of _many thousand foot_ (soldiers), or _many hundred horse_
(troops). To denote a collective number, a singular adjective may precede a
plural one; as, "_One_ hundred men,"--"_Every_ six weeks." And to denote
plurality, the adjective many may, in like manner, precede _an_ or _a_ with
a singular noun; as, "The Odyssey entertains us with _many a wonderful
adventure_, and _many a landscape_ of nature."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 436."
There _starts up many_ a writer."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 306.
"Full _many a flower is born_ to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."--_Gray_.
OBS. 10.--Though _this_ and _that_ cannot relate to plurals, many writers
do not hesitate to place them before singulars taken conjointly, which are
equivalent to plurals; as, "_This power and will_ do necessarily produce
that which man is empowered to do."--_Sale's Koran_, i, 229. "_That
sobriety and self-denial_ which are essential to the support of
virtue."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 218. "_This modesty and decency_ were
looked upon by them as a law of nature."--_Rollin's Hist._, ii, 45. Here
the plural forms, _these_ and _those_, cannot be substituted; but the
singular may be repeated, if the repetition be thought necessary. Yet, when
these same pronominal adjectives are placed _after_ the nouns to suggest
the things again, they must be made plural; as, "_Modesty and decency_ were
thus carefully guarded, for _these_ were looked upon as being enjoined by
the law of nature."
OBS. 11.--In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs is improper; but, in
poetry, an adjective relating to the noun or pronoun, is sometimes
elegantly used in stead of an adverb qualifying the verb or participle; as;
"_Gradual_ sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm."--_Thomson's Seasons_, p.
34. "To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts _Continual_
climb."--_Ib._, p. 48. "As on he walks _Graceful_, and crows
defiance."--_Ib._, p. 56. "As through the falling glooms _Pensive_ I
stray."--_Ib._, p. 80. "They, _sportive_, wheel; or, sailing down the
stream, Are snatch'd _immediate_ by the quick-eyed trout."--_Ib._, p. 82.
"_Incessant_ still you flow."--_Ib._, p. 91. "The shatter'd clouds
_Tumultuous_ rove, the interminable sky _Sublimer_ swells."--_Ib._, p. 116.
In order to determine, in difficult cases, whether an adjective or an
adverb is required, the learner should carefully attend to the definitions
of these parts of speech, and consider whether, in the case in question,
_quality_ is to be expressed, or _manner_: if the former, an adjective is
always proper; if the latter, an adverb. That is, in this case, the adverb,
though not always required in poetry, is specially requisite in prose. The
following examples will illustrate this point: "She looks _cold_;"--"She
looks _coldly_ on him."--"I sat _silent_;"--"I sat _silently_
musing."--"Stand _firm_; maintain your cause _firmly_." See _Etymology_,
Chap, viii, Obs. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, on the Modifications of Adverbs.
OBS. 12.--In English, an adjective and its noun are often taken as a sort
of compound term, to which other adjectives may be added; as, "An _old
man_; a _good_ old man; a very _learned, judicious_, good old man."--_L.
Murray's Gram._, p. 169; _Brit. Gram._, 195; _Buchanan's_, 79. "Of an
_other determinate positive new_ birth, subsequent to baptism, we know
nothing."--_West's Letters_, p. 183. When adjectives are thus accumulated,
the subsequent ones should convey such ideas as the former may consistently
qualify, otherwise the expression will be objectionable. Thus the ordinal
adjectives, _first, second, third, next_, and _last_, may qualify the
cardinal numbers, but they cannot very properly be qualified by them. When,
therefore, we specify any part of a series, the cardinal adjective ought,
by good right, to follow the ordinal, and not, as in the following phrase,
be placed before it: "In reading the _nine last chapters_ of
John."--_Fuller_. Properly speaking, there is but one last chapter in any
book. Say, therefore, "the _last nine_ chapters;" for, out of the
twenty-one chapters in John, a man may select several different nines. (See
_Etymology_, Chap, iv, Obs. 7th, on the Degrees of Comparison.) When one of
the adjectives merely qualifies the other, they should be joined together
by a hyphen; as, "A _red-hot_ iron."--"A _dead-ripe_ melon." And when both
or all refer equally and solely to the noun, they ought either to be
connected by a conjunction, or to be separated by a comma. The following
example is therefore faulty: "It is the business of an epic poet, to form a
_probable interesting_ tale."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 427. Say, "probable
_and_ interesting;" or else insert a comma in lieu of the conjunction.
"Around him wide a sable army stand,
A _low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band_."
--_Dunciad_, B. ii, l. 355.
OBS. 13.--Dr. Priestley has observed: "There is a remarkable ambiguity in
the use of the negative adjective _no_; and I do not see," says he, "how it
can be remedied in any language. If I say, '_No laws are better than the
English_,' it is only my known sentiments that can inform a person whether
I mean to praise, or dispraise _them_."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 136. It
may not be possible to remove the ambiguity from the phraseology here
cited, but it is easy enough to avoid the form, and say in stead of it,
"_The English laws are worse than none_," or, "_The English laws are as
good as any_;" and, in neither of these expressions, is there any
ambiguity, though the other may doubtless be taken in either of these
senses. Such an ambiguity is sometimes used on purpose: as when one man
says of an other, "He is no small knave;" or, "He is no small fool."
"There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, _no small fool, a lord_."--_Pope_, p. 409.
NOTES TO RULE IX.
NOTE I.--Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their
nouns in number: as, "_That sort, those sorts_;"--"_This hand, these
hands_." [373]
NOTE II.--When the adjective is necessarily plural, or necessarily
singular, the noun should be made so too: as, "_Twenty pounds_" not,
"Twenty _pound_;"--"_Four feet_ long," not, "_Four foot_ long;"--"_One
session_" not, "One _sessions_."
NOTE III.--The reciprocal expression, _one an other_, should not be applied
to two objects, nor _each other_, or _one the other_, to more than two; as,
"Verse and prose, on some occasions, run into _one another_, like light and
shade."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 377; _Jamieson's_, 298. Say, "into _each
other_" "For mankind have always been butchering _each other_"--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 151. Say, "_one an other_" See _Etymology_, Chap, iv, Obs.
15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, on the Classes of Adjectives.
NOTE IV.--When the comparative degree is employed with _than_, the latter
term of comparison should _never include_ the former; nor the former the
latter: as, "_Iron is more useful_ than _all the metals_"--"_All the metals
are less useful_ than _iron_." In either case, it should be, "all the other
metals,"
NOTE V.--When the superlative degree is employed, the latter term of
comparison, which is introduced by _of_, should _never exclude_ the former;
as, "A fondness for show, is, of all _other_ follies, the most vain." Here
the word _other_ should be expunged; for this latter term must _include_
the former: that is, the fondness for show must be one of the follies of
which it is the vainest.
NOTE VI.--When equality is denied, or inequality affirmed, neither term of
the comparison should _ever include_ the other; because every thing must
needs be equal to itself, and it is absurd to suggest that a part surpasses
the whole: as, "_No writings whatever_ abound _so much_ with the bold and
animated figures, _as the sacred books_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 414. Say,
"No _other_ writings whatever;" because the sacred books are "_writings_"
See _Etymology_, Chap, iv, Obs. 6th, on Regular Comparison.
NOTE VII.--Comparative terminations, and adverbs of degree, should not be
applied to adjectives that are not susceptible of comparison; and all
double comparatives and double superlatives should be avoided: as, "_So
universal_ a complaint:" say rather, "_So general_."--"Some _less nobler_
plunder:" say, "_less noble_"--"The _most straitest_ sect:" expunge _most_.
See _Etymology_, Chap, iv, from Obs. 5th to Obs. 13th, on Irregular
Comparison.[374]
NOTE VIII.--When adjectives are connected by _and, or_, or _nor_, the
shortest and simplest should in general be placed first; as, "He is _older_
and _more respectable_ than his brother." To say, "_more respectable_ and
_older_" would be obviously inelegant, as possibly involving the inaccuracy
of "_more older_."
NOTE IX.--When one adjective is superadded to an other without a
conjunction expressed or understood, the most distinguishing quality must
be expressed next to the noun, and the latter must be such as the former
may consistently qualify; as, "An _agreeable young_ man," not, "A _young
agreeable_ man."--"The art of speaking, like _all other practical_ arts,
may be facilitated by rules,"--_Enfield's Speaker_, p. 10. Example of
error: "The Anglo-Saxon language possessed, for the _two first_ persons, a
_Dual_ number."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 1850, p. 59. Say, "the _first two_
persons;" for the _second_ of three can hardly be one of the _first_; and
"_two first_" with the _second_ and _third_ added, will clearly make _more_
than three. See Obs. 12th, above.
NOTE X.--In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs, is a vulgar error;
the adverb alone being proper, when _manner_ or _degree_ is to be
expressed, and not _quality_; as, "He writes _elegant_;" say,
"_elegantly_."--"It is a _remarkable_ good likeness;" say, "_remarkably
good_."
NOTE XI.--The pronoun _them_ should never be used as an adjective, in lieu
of _those_: say, "I bought _those_ books;" not, "_them_ books." This also
is a vulgar error, and chiefly confined to the conversation of the
unlearned.[375]
NOTE XII.--When the pronominal adjectives, _this_ and _that_, or _these_
and _those_, are contrasted; _this_ or _these_ should represent the latter
of the antecedent terms, and _that_ or _those_ the former: as,
"And, reason raise o'er instinct as you can,
In _this_ 'tis God directs, in _that_ 'tis man."--_Pope_.
"Farewell my friends! farewell my foes!
My peace with _these_, my love with _those_!"--_Burns_.
NOTE XIII.--The pronominal adjectives _either_ and _neither_, in strict
propriety of syntax, relate to two things only; when more are referred to,
_any_ and _none_, or _any one_ and _no one_, should be used in stead of
them: as, "_Any_ of the three," or, "_Any one_ of the three;" not,
"_Either_ of the three."--"_None_ of the four," or, "_No one_ of the four;"
not, "_Neither_ of the four." [376]
NOTE XIV.--The adjective _whole_ must not be used in a plural sense, for
_all_; nor _less_, in the sense of _fewer_; nor _more_ or _most_, in any
ambiguous construction, where it may be either an adverb of degree, or an
adjective of number or quantity: as, "Almost the _whole_ inhabitants were
present."--HUME: see _Priestley's Gram._, p. 190.[377] Say, "Almost _all_
the inhabitants." "No _less_ than three dictionaries have been published to
correct it."--_Dr. Webster_. Say, "No _fewer_." "This trade enriched some
_people more_ than them."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 215. This passage
is not clear in its import: it may have either of two meanings. Say, "This
trade enriched some _other_ people, _besides_ them." Or, "This trade
enriched some _others_ more than _it did them_."
NOTE XV.--Participial adjectives retain the termination, but not the
government of participles; when, therefore, they are followed by the
objective case, a preposition must be inserted to govern it: as, "The man
who is most _sparing of_ his words, is generally most _deserving of_
attention."
NOTE XVI.--When the figure of any adjective affects the syntax and sense of
the sentence, care must be taken to give to the word or words that form,
simple or compound, which suits the true meaning and construction.
Examples: "He is _forehead bald_, yet he is clean."--FRIENDS' BIBLE:
_Lev._, xiii, 41. Say, "_forehead-bald._,"--ALGER'S BIBLE, and SCOTT'S.
"From such phrases as, '_New England scenery_,' convenience requires the
_omission_ of the hyphen."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 89. This is a false
notion. Without the hyphen, the phrase properly means, "_New scenery in
England_;" but _New-England scenery_ is scenery in New England. "'_Many
coloured wings_,' means _many wings which are coloured_; but
'_many-coloured wings_' means _wings of many colours_."--_Blair's Gram._,
p. 116.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE IX.
EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--AGREEMENT OF ADJECTIVES.
"I am not recommending these kind of sufferings to your liking."--BP.
SHERLOCK: _Lowth's Gram._, p. 87.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the adjective _these_ is plural, and does
not agree with its noun _kind_, which is singular. But, according to Note
1st under Rule 9th: "Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree
with their nouns in number." Therefore, _these_ should be _this_; thus, "I
am not recommending _this_ kind of sufferings."]
"I have not been to London this five years."--_Webster's Philos. Gram._, p.
152. "These kind of verbs are more expressive than their radicals."--_Dr.
Murray's Hist. of Lang._, Vol. ii, p. 163. "Few of us would be less
corrupted than kings are, were we, like them, beset with flatterers, and
poisoned with that vermin."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 66. "But it seems this
literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious
labours."--_Roderick Random_, Vol. ii, p. 87. "If I had not left off
troubling myself about those kind of things."--_Swift_. "For these sort of
things are usually join'd to the most noted fortune."--_Bacon's Essays_, p.
101. "The nature of that riches and long-suffering is, to lead to
repentance."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 380. "I fancy they are these kind of
gods, which Horace mentions."--_Addison, on Medals_, p. 74. "During that
eight days they are prohibited from touching the skin."--_Hope of Israel_,
p. 78. "Besides, he had not much provisions left for his
army."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 86. "Are you not ashamed to have no other
thoughts than that of amassing wealth, and of acquiring glory, credit, and
dignities?"--_Ib._, p. 192. "It distinguisheth still more remarkably the
feelings of the former from that of the latter."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
Vol. i, p. xvii. "And this good tidings of the reign shall be published
through all the world."--_Campbell's Gospels, Matt._, xxiv, 14. "This
twenty years have I been with thee."--_Gen._, xxxi, 38. "In these kind of
expressions some words seem to be understood."--_Walker's Particles_, p.
179. "He thought these kind of excesses indicative of greatness."--_Hunt's
Byron_, p. 117. "These sort of fellows are very numerous."--_Spect._, No.
486. "Whereas these sort of men cannot give account of their
faith."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 444. "But the question is, whether that be
the words."--_Ib._, iii, 321. "So that these sort of Expressions are not
properly Optative."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 276. "Many things are not
that which they appear to be."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 176. "So that every
possible means are used."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. iv.
"We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,
Which for this nineteen years we have let sleep."--_Shak_.
"They could not speak; and so I left them both,
To bear this tidings to the bloody king."--_Id., Richard III_.
UNDER NOTE II.--OF FIXED NUMBERS.
"Why, I think she cannot be above six foot two inches high."--_Spect._, No.
533. "The world is pretty regular for about forty rod east and ten
west."--_Ib._, No. 535. "The standard being more than two foot above
it."--BACON: _Joh. Dict., w. Standard_. "Supposing (among other Things) he
saw two Suns, and two Thebes."--_Bacon's Wisdom_, p. 25. "On the right hand
we go into a parlour thirty three foot by thirty nine."--_Sheffield's
Works_, ii, 258. "Three pound of gold went to one shield."--_1 Kings_, x,
17. "Such an assemblage of men as there appears to have been at that
sessions."--_The Friend_, x, 389. "And, truly, he hath saved me this
pains."--_Barclay's Works_, ii, 266. "Within this three mile may you see it
coming."--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict., w. Mile_. "Most of the churches, not all, had
one or more ruling elder."--_Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass._, i, 375. "While a
Minute Philosopher, not six foot high, attempts to dethrone the Monarch of
the universe."--_Berkley's Alciphron_, p. 151. "The wall is ten foot
high."--_Harrison's Gram._, p. 50. "The stalls must be ten foot
broad."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 201. "A close prisoner in a room twenty
foot square, being at the north side of his chamber, is at liberty to walk
twenty foot southward, not to walk twenty foot northward."--LOCKE: _Joh.
Dict., w. Northward_. "Nor, after all this pains and industry, did they
think themselves qualified."--_Columbian Orator_, p. 13. "No less than
thirteen _gypsies_ were condemned at one Suffolk assizes, and
executed."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 333. "The king was petitioned to appoint
one, or more, person, or persons."--MACAULAY: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 194.
"He carries weight! he rides a race! 'Tis for a thousand pound!"--_Cowper's
Poems_, i, 279. "They carry three tire of guns at the head, and at the
stern there are two tire of guns."--_Joh. Dict., w. Galleass_. "The verses
consist of two sort of rhymes."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 112. "A
present of 40 camel's load of the most precious things of Syria."--_Wood's
Dict._, Vol. i, p. 162. "A large grammar, that shall extend to every
minutiae."--_S. Barrett's Gram._, Tenth Ed., Pref., p. iii.
"So many spots, like naeves on Venus' soil,
One jewel set off with so many foil."--_Dryden_.
"For, of the lower end, two handful
It had devour'd, it was so manful."--_Hudibras_, i, 365.
UNDER NOTE III.--OF RECIPROCALS.
"That _shall_ and _will_ might be substituted for one
another."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 131. "We use not _shall_ and _will_
promiscuously for one another."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 110. "But I wish
to distinguish the three high ones from each other also."--_Fowle's True
Eng. Gram._, p. 13. "Or on some other relation, which two objects bear to
one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 142. "Yet the two words lie so near to
one another in meaning, that in the present case, any one of them, perhaps,
would have been sufficient."--_Ib._, p. 203. "Both orators use great
liberties with one another."--_Ib._, p. 244. "That greater separation of
the two sexes from one another."--_Ib._, p. 466. "Most of whom live remote
from each other."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 39. "Teachers like to see their
pupils polite to each other."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p. 28. "In a
little time, he and I must keep company with one another only."--_Spect._,
No. 474. "Thoughts and circumstances crowd upon each other."--_Kames, El.
of Crit._, i, 32. "They cannot see how the ancient Greeks could understand
each other."--_Literary Convention_, p. 96. "The spirit of the poet, the
patriot, and the prophet, vied with each other in his breast."--_Hazlitt's
Lect._, p. 112. "Athamas and Ino loved one another."--_Classic Tales_, p.
91. "Where two things are compared or contrasted to one another."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 119. "Where two things are compared, or contrasted, with one
another."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 324. "In the classification of
words, almost all writers differ from each other."--_Bullions, E. Gram._,
p. iv.
"I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell;
We'll no more meet; no more see one another."--_Shak. Lear_.
UNDER NOTE IV.--OF COMPARATIVES.
"Errours in Education should be less indulged than any."--_Locke, on Ed._,
p. iv. "This was less his case than any man's that ever wrote."--_Pref. to
Waller_. "This trade enriched some people more than it enriched
them." [378]--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 215. "The Chaldee alphabet, in
which the Old Testament has reached us, is more beautiful than any ancient
character known."--_Wilson's Essay_, p. 5. "The Christian religion gives a
more lovely character of God, than any religion ever did."--_Murray's Key_,
p. 169. "The temple of Cholula was deemed more holy than any in New
Spain."--_Robertson's America_, ii, 477. "Cibber grants it to be a better
poem of its kind than ever was writ."--_Pope_. "Shakspeare is more faithful
to the true language of nature, than any writer."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 468.
"One son I had--one, more than all my sons, the strength of
Troy."--_Cowper's Homer_. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his
children, because he was the son of his old age."--_Gen._, xxxvii, 3.
UNDER NOTE V.--OF SUPERLATIVES.
"Of all other simpletons, he was the greatest."--_Nutting's English
Idioms_. "Of all other beings, man has certainly the greatest reason for
gratitude."--_Ibid., Gram._, p. 110. "This lady is the prettiest of all her
sisters."--_Peyton's Elements of Eng. Lang._, p. 39. "The relation which,
of all others, is by far the most fruitful of tropes, I have not yet
mentioned."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 141. "He studied Greek the most of any
nobleman."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 231. "And indeed that was the
qualification of all others most wanted at that time."--_Goldsmith's
Greece_, ii, 35. "Yet we deny that the knowledge of him, as outwardly
crucified, is the best of all other knowledge of him."--_Barclay's Works_,
i, 144. "Our ideas of numbers are of all others the most accurate and
distinct."--_Duncan's Logic_, p. 35. "This indeed is of all others the case
when it can be least necessary to name the agent."--_J. Q. Adams's Rhet._,
i, 231. "The period, to which you have arrived, is perhaps the most
critical and important of any moment of your lives."--_Ib._, i, 394.
"Perry's royal octavo is esteemed the best of any pronouncing Dictionary
yet known."--_Red Book_, p. x. "This is the tenth persecution, and of all
the foregoing, the most bloody."--_Sammes's Antiquities_, Chap. xiii. "The
English tongue is the most susceptible of sublime imagery, of any language
in the world."--See _Bucke's Gram._, p. 141. "Homer is universally allowed
to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever."--_Pope's
Preface to Homer_. "In a version of this particular work, which most of any
other seems to require a venerable antique cast."--_Ib._ "Because I think
him the best informed of any naturalist who has ever written."--
_Jefferson's Notes_, p. 82. "Man is capable of being the most social of any
animal."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 145. "It is of all others that which
most moves us."--_Ib._, p. 158. "Which of all others, is the most necessary
article."--_Ib._, p. 166.
"Quoth he 'this gambol thou advisest,
Is, of all others, the unwisest.'"--_Hudibras_, iii, 316.
UNDER NOTE VI.--INCLUSIVE TERMS. "Noah and his family outlived all the
people who lived before the flood."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p. 101.
"I think it superior to any work of that nature we have yet had."--_Dr.
Blair's Rec. in Murray's Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 300. "We have had no
grammarian who has employed so much labour and judgment upon our native
language, as the author of these volumes."--_British Critic, ib._, ii, 299.
"No persons feel so much the distresses of others, as they who have
experienced distress themselves."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo., p. 227. "Never was
any people so much infatuated as the Jewish nation."--_Ib._, p. 185;
_Frazee's Gram._, p. 135. "No tongue is so full of connective particles as
the Greek."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 85. "Never sovereign was so much beloved
by the people."--_Murray's Exercises_, R. xv, p. 68. "No sovereign was ever
so much beloved by the people."--_Murray's Key_, p. 202. "Nothing ever
affected her so much as this misconduct of her child."--_Ib._, p. 203;
_Merchant's_, 195. "Of all the figures of speech, none comes so near to
painting as metaphor."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 142; _Jamieson's_, 149. "I know
none so happy in his metaphors as Mr. Addison."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 150.
"Of all the English authors, none is so happy in his metaphors as
Addison."--_Jamieson's, Rhet._, p. 157. "Perhaps no writer in the world was
ever so frugal of his words as Aristotle."--_Blair_, p. 177; _Jamieson_,
251. "Never was any writer so happy in that concise spirited style as Mr.
Pope."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 403. "In the harmonious structure and
disposition of periods, no writer whatever, ancient or modern, equals
Cicero."--_Blair_, 121; _Jamieson_, 123. "Nothing delights me so much as
the works of nature."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 150. "No person was
ever so perplexed as he has been to-day."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 216. "In no
case are writers so apt to err as in the position of the word
_only_."--_Maunder's Gram._, p. 15. "For nothing is so tiresome as
perpetual uniformity."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 102.
"No writing lifts exalted man so high,
As sacred and soul-moving poesy."--_Sheffield_.
UNDER NOTE VII.--EXTRA COMPARISONS.
"How much more are ye better than the fowls!"--_Luke_, xii, 24. "Do not
thou hasten above the Most Highest."--_2 Esdras_, iv, 34. "This word _peer_
is most principally used for the nobility of the realm."--_Cowell_.
"Because the same is not only most universally received," &c.--_Barclay's
Works_, i, 447. "This is, I say, not the best and most principal
evidence."--_Ib._, iii, 41. "Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows
unto the Most Highest."--_The Psalter_, Ps. 1, 14. "The holy place of the
tabernacle of the Most Highest."--_Ib._, Ps. xlvi, 4. "As boys should be
educated with temperance, so the first greatest lesson that should be
taught them is to admire frugality."--_Goldsmith's Essays_, p. 152. "More
universal terms are put for such as are more restricted."--_Brown's
Metaphors_, p. 11. "This was the most unkindest cut of all."--_Dodd's
Beauties of Shak._, p. 251; _Singer's Shak._, ii, 264. "To take the basest
and most poorest shape."--_Dodd's Shak._, p. 261. "I'll forbear: and am
fallen out with my more headier will."--_Ib._, p. 262. "The power of the
Most Highest guard thee from sin."--_Percival, on Apostolic Succession_, p.
90. "Which title had been more truer, if the dictionary had been in Latin
and Welch."--VERSTEGAN: _Harrison's E. Lang._, p. 254. "The waters are more
sooner and harder frozen, than more further upward, within the
inlands."--_Id., ib._ "At every descent, the worst may become more
worse."--H. MANN: _Louisville Examiner_, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 149.
"Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands."--_Shakspeare_.
"A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far
Than arms, a sullen interval of war."--_Dryden_.
UNDER NOTE VIII.--ADJECTIVES CONNECTED.
"It breaks forth in its most energetick, impassioned, and highest
strain."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 66. "He has fallen into the most gross
and vilest sort of railing."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 261. "To receive that
more general and higher instruction which the public affords."--_District
School_, p. 281. "If the best things have the perfectest and best
operations."--HOOKER: _Joh. Dict._ "It became the plainest and most
elegant, the most splendid and richest, of all languages."--See _Bucke's
Gram._, p. 140. "But the most frequent and the principal use of pauses, is,
to mark the divisions of the sense."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 331; _Murray's
Gram._, 248. "That every thing belonging to ourselves is the perfectest and
the best."--_Clarkson's Prize Essay_, p. 189. "And to instruct their pupils
in the most thorough and best manner."--_Report of a School Committee_.
UNDER NOTE IX.--ADJECTIVES SUPERADDED.
"The Father is figured out as an old venerable man."--_Dr. Brownlee's
Controversy_. "There never was exhibited such another masterpiece of
ghostly assurance."--_Id._ "After the three first sentences, the question
is entirely lost."--_Spect._, No, 476. "The four last parts of speech are
commonly called particles."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 14. "The two last
chapters will not be found deficient in this respect."--_Student's Manual_,
p. 6. "Write upon your slates a list of the ten first nouns."--_Abbott's
Teacher_, p. 85. "We have a few remains of other two Greek poets in the
pastoral style, Moschus and Bion."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 393. "The nine
first chapters of the book of Proverbs are highly poetical."--_Ib._, p.
417. "For of these five heads, only the two first have any particular
relation to the sublime."--_Ib._, p. 35. "The resembling sounds of the two
last syllables give a ludicrous air to the whole."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
ii, 69. "The three last are arbitrary."--_Ib._, p. 72. "But in the phrase
'She hangs the curtains,' the verb _hangs_ is a transitive active
verb."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 30. "If our definition of a verb, and the
arrangement of transitive or intransitive active, passive, and neuter
verbs, are properly understood."--_Ib._, 15th Ed., p. 30. "These two last
lines have an embarrassing construction."--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 160.
"God was provoked to drown them all, but Noah and other seven
persons."--_Wood's Dict._, ii, 129. "The _six first_ books of the AEneid are
extremely beautiful."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 27. "A few more
instances only can be given here."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 131. "A few more
years will obliterate every vestige of a subjunctive form."--_Nutting's
Gram._, p. 46. "Some define them to be verbs devoid of the two first
persons."--_Crombie's Treatise_, p. 205. "In such another Essay-tract as
this."--_White's English Verb_, p. 302. "But we fear that not such another
man is to be found."--REV. ED. IRVING: _on Horne's Psalms_, p. xxiii.
"Oh such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man!"--SHAK., _Antony and Cleopatra_.
UNDER NOTE X.--ADJECTIVES FOR ADVERBS.
"_The_ is an article, relating to the noun _balm_, agreeable to Rule
11."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 133. "_Wise_ is an adjective relating to the noun
_man's_, agreeable to Rule 11th."--_Ibid._, 12th Ed., often. "To whom I
observed, that the beer was extreme good."--_Goldsmith's Essays_, p. 127.
"He writes remarkably elegant."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 152. "John
behaves truly civil to all men."--_Ib._, p. 153. "All the sorts of words
hitherto considered have each of them some meaning, even when taken
separate."--_Beattie's Moral Science_, i, 44. "He behaved himself
conformable to that blessed example."--_Sprat's Sermons_, p. 80.
"Marvellous graceful."--_Clarendon, Life_, p. 18. "The Queen having changed
her ministry suitable to her wisdom."--_Swift, Exam._, No. 21. "The
assertions of this author are easier detected."--_Swift_: censured in
_Lowth's Gram._, p. 93. "The characteristic of his sect allowed him to
affirm no stronger than that."--_Bentley: ibid._ "If one author had spoken
nobler and loftier than an other."--_Id., ib._ "Xenophon says
express."--_Id., ib._ "I can never think so very mean of him."--_Id., ib._
"To convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds,
which they have ungodly committed."--_Jude_, 15th: _ib._ "I think it very
masterly written."--_Swift to Pope_, Let. 74: _ib._ "The whole design must
refer to the golden age, which it lively represents."--_Addison, on Medals:
ib._ "Agreeable to this, we read of names being blotted out of God's
book."--BURDER: approved in _Webster's Impr. Gram._, p. 107; _Frazee's_,
140; _Maltby's_, 93. "Agreeable to the law of nature, children are bound to
support their indigent parents."--_Webster's Impr. Gram._, p. 109. "Words
taken independent of their meaning are parsed as nouns of the neuter
gender."--_Maltby's Gr._, 96.
"Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works."--_Beaut. of Shak._, p. 236.
UNDER NOTE XI.--THEM FOR THOSE.
"Though he was not known by them letters, or the name Christ."--_Wm.
Bayly's Works_, p. 94. "In a gig, or some of them things."--_Edgeworth's
Castle Rackrent_, p. 35. "When cross-examined by them lawyers."--_Ib._, p.
98. "As the custom in them cases is."--_Ib._, p. 101. "If you'd have
listened to them slanders."--_Ib._, p. 115. "The old people were telling
stories about them fairies, but to the best of my judgment there's nothing
in it."--_Ib._, p. 188. "And is it not a pity that the Quakers have no
better authority to substantiate their principles than the testimony of
them old Pharisees?"--_Hibbard's Errors of the Quakers_, p. 107.
UNDER NOTE XII.--THIS AND THAT.
"Hope is as strong an incentive to action, as fear: this is the
anticipation of good, that of evil."--_Brown's Institutes_, p. 135. "The
poor want some advantages which the rich enjoy; but we should not therefore
account those happy, and these miserable."--_Ib._
"Ellen and Margaret fearfully,
Sought comfort in each other's eye;
Then turned their ghastly look each one,
This to her sire, that to her son."
_Scott's Lady of the Lake_, Canto ii, Stanza 29.
"Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids,
In one sad day beheld the Stygian shades;
These by Apollo's silver bow were slain,
Those Cynthia's arrows stretched upon the plain."
--_Pope, Il._, xxiv, 760.
"Memory and forecast just returns engage,
This pointing back to youth, that on to age."
--See _Key_.
UNDER NOTE XIII.--EITHER AND NEITHER.
"These make the three great subjects of discussion among mankind; truth,
duty, and interest. But the arguments directed towards either of them are
generically distinct."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 318. "A thousand other
deviations may be made, and still either of them may be correct in
principle. For these divisions and their technical terms, are all
arbitrary."--_R. W. Green's Inductive Gram._, p. vi. "Thus it appears, that
our alphabet is deficient, as it has but seven vowels to represent thirteen
different sounds; and has no letter to represent either of five simple
consonant sounds."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 19. "Then neither of these
[five] verbs can be neuter."--_Oliver B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 343. "And the
_asserter_ is in neither of the four already mentioned."--_Ib._, p. 356.
"As it is not in either of these four."--_Ib._, p. 356. "See whether or not
the word comes within the definition of either of the other three simple
cases."--_Ib._, p. 51. "Neither of the ten was there."--_Frazee's Gram._,
p. 108. "Here are ten oranges, take either of them."--_Ib._, p. 102. "There
are three modes, by either of which recollection will generally be
supplied; inclination, practice, and association."--_Rippingham's Art of
Speaking_, p. xxix. "Words not reducible to either of the three preceding
heads."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, pp. 335 and 340. "Now a sentence
may be analyzed in reference to either of these [four] classes."--_Ib._, p.
577.
UNDER NOTE XIV.--WHOLE, LESS, MORE, AND MOST.
"Does not all proceed from the law, which regulates the whole departments
of the state?"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 278. "A messenger relates to Theseus
the whole particulars."--_Kames. El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 313. "There are
no less than twenty dipthhongs [sic--KTH] in the English language."--_Dr.
Ash's Gram._, p. xii. "The Redcross Knight runs through the whole steps of
the Christian life."--_Spectator_ No. 540. "There were not less than fifty
or sixty persons present."--_Teachers' Report._ "Greater experience, and
more cultivated society, abate the warmth of imagination, and chasten the
manner of expression."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 152; _Murray's Gram._, i, 351.
"By which means knowledge, much more than oratory, is become the principal
requisite."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 254. "No less than seven illustrious
cities disputed the right of having given birth to the greatest of
poets."--_Lemp. Dict., n. Homer._ "Temperance, more than medicines, is the
proper means of curing many diseases."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 222. "I do
not suppose, that we Britons want genius, more than our
neighbours."--_Ib._, p. 215. "In which he saith, he has found no less than
twelve untruths."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 460. "The several places of
rendezvous were concerted, and the whole operations fixed."--HUME: see
_Priestley's Gram._, p. 190. "In these rigid opinions the whole sectaries
concurred."--_Id., ib._ "Out of whose modifications have been made most
complex modes."--LOCKE: _Sanborn's Gram._, p. 148. "The Chinese vary each
of their words on no less than five different tones."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
58. "These people, though they possess more shining qualities, are not so
proud as he is, nor so vain as she."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 211. "'Tis
certain, we believe ourselves more, after we have made a thorough Inquiry
into the Thing."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 244. "As well as the whole
Course and Reasons of the Operation."--_Ib._ "Those rules and principles
which are of most practical advantage."--_Newman's Rhet._, p. 4. "And there
shall be no more curse."--_Rev._, xxii, 3. "And there shall be no more
death."--_Rev._, xxi, 4. "But in recompense, we have more pleasing pictures
of ancient manners."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 436. "Our language has suffered
more injurious changes in America, since the British army landed on our
shores, than it had suffered before, in the period of three
centuries."--_Webster's Essays_, Ed. of 1790, p. 96. "The whole
conveniences of life are derived from mutual aid and support in
society."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 166.
UNDER NOTE XV.--PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES.
"To such as think the nature of it deserving their attention."--_Butler's
Analogy_, p. 84. "In all points, more deserving the approbation of their
readers."--_Keepsake_, 1830. "But to give way to childish sensations was
unbecoming our nature."--_Lempriere's Dict., n. Zeno._ "The following
extracts are deserving the serious perusal of all."--_The Friend_, Vol. v,
p. 135. "No inquiry into wisdom, however superficial, is undeserving
attention."--_Bulwer's Disowned_, ii, 95. "The opinions of illustrious men
are deserving great consideration."--_Porter's Family Journal_, p. 3. "And
resolutely keeps its laws, Uncaring consequences."--_Burns's Works_, ii,
43. "This is an item that is deserving more attention."--_Goodell's
Lectures._
"Leave then thy joys, unsuiting such an age, To a fresh comer, and resign
the stage."--_Dryden._
UNDER NOTE XVI.--FIGURE OF ADJECTIVES.
"The tall dark mountains and the deep toned seas."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p.
278. "O! learn from him To station quick eyed Prudence at the
helm."--ANON.: _Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 104. "He went in a one horse
chaise."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 113. "It ought to be, 'in a one horse
chaise.'"--_Dr. Crombie's Treatise_, p. 334. "These are marked with the
above mentioned letters."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 4. "A many headed
faction."--_Ware's Gram._, p. 18. "Lest there should be no authority in any
popular grammar for the perhaps heaven inspired effort."--_Fowle's True
English Gram._, Part 2d, p. 25. "Common metre stanzas consist of four
Iambic lines; one of eight, and the next of six syllables. They were
formerly written in two fourteen syllable lines."--_Goodenow's Gram._, p.
69. "Short metre stanzas consist of four Iambic lines; the third of eight,
and the rest of six syllables."--_Ibid._ "Particular metre stanzas consist
of six Iambic lines; the third and sixth of six syllables, the rest of
eight."--_Ibid._ "Hallelujah metre stanzas consist of six Iambic lines; the
last two of eight syllables, and the rest of six."--_Ibid._ "Long metre
stanzas are merely the union of four Iambic lines, of ten syllables
each."--_Ibid._ "A majesty more commanding than is to be found among the
rest of the Old Testament poets."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 418.
"You sulphurous and thought executed fires, Vaunt couriers to oak cleaving
thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all shaking thunder Strike
flat the thick rotundity o' the world!"--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 264.
CHAPTER V.--PRONOUNS.
The rules for the agreement of Pronouns with their antecedents are four;
hence this chapter extends from the tenth rule to the thirteenth,
inclusively. The _cases_ of Pronouns are embraced with those of nouns, in
the seven rules of the third chapter.
RULE X.--PRONOUNS.
A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it
represents, in person, number, and gender:[379] as, "This is the friend _of
whom I spoke_; he has just arrived."--"This is the book _which I_ bought;
it is an excellent work."--"_Ye_, therefore, _who_ love mercy, teach _your_
sons to love _it_ too."--_Cowper._
"Speak _thou, whose_ thoughts at humble peace repine,
Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be _thine_?"--_Dr. Johnson_.
EXCEPTION FIRST.
When a pronoun stands for some person or thing _indefinite_, or _unknown to
the speaker_, this rule is not _strictly_ applicable; because the person,
number, and gender, are rather assumed in the pronoun, than regulated by an
antecedent: as, "I do not care _who_ knows it."--_Steele_. "_Who_ touched
me? Tell me _who_ it was."--"We have no knowledge how, or by _whom_, it is
inhabited."--ABBOT: _Joh. Dict._
EXCEPTION SECOND.
The neuter pronoun _it_ may be applied to a young child, or to other
creatures masculine or feminine by nature, when they are not obviously
distinguishable with regard to sex; as, "Which is the real friend to the
_child_, the person who gives _it_ the sweetmeats, or the person who,
considering only _its_ health, resists _its_ importunities?"--_Opis._ "He
loads the _animal_ he is showing me, with so many trappings and collars,
that I cannot distinctly view _it_"--_Murray's Gram._, p. 301. "The
_nightingale_ sings most sweetly when _it_ sings in the night."--_Bucke's
Gram._, p. 52.
EXCEPTION THIRD.
The pronoun _it_ is often used without a definite reference to any
antecedent, and is sometimes a mere expletive, and sometimes the
representative of an action expressed afterwards by a verb; as, "Whether
she grapple _it_ with the pride of philosophy."--_Chalmers._ "Seeking to
lord _it_ over God's heritage."--_The Friend_, vii, 253. "_It_ is not for
kings, O Lemuel, _it_ is not for kings _to drink_ wine, nor for princes
strong drink."--_Prov._, xxxi, 4. "Having no temptation to _it_, God cannot
_act unjustly_ without defiling his nature."--_Brown's Divinity_, p. 11.
"Come, and trip _it_ as you go, On the light fantastic toe."--_Milton._
EXCEPTION FOURTH.
A singular antecedent with the adjective _many_, sometimes admits a plural
pronoun, but never in the same clause; as, "Hard has been the fate of
_many_ a great _genius_, that while _they_ have conferred immortality on
others, _they_ have wanted themselves some friend to embalm their names to
posterity."--_Welwood's Pref. to Rowe's Lucan._
"In Hawick twinkled _many a light_,
Behind him soon _they_ set in night."--_W. Scott._
EXCEPTION FIFTH.
When a plural pronoun is put by enallage for the singular, it does not
agree with its noun in number, because it still requires a plural verb; as,
"_We_ [Lindley Murray] _have followed_ those authors, who appear to have
given them the most natural and intelligible distribution."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 29. "_We shall close our_ remarks on this subject, by
introducing the sentiments of Dr. Johnson respecting it."--_Ib._ "My lord,
_you know_ I love _you_"--_Shakspeare._
EXCEPTION SIXTH.
The pronoun sometimes disagrees with its antecedent in one sense, because
it takes it in an other; as, "I have perused Mr. Johnson's _Grammatical
Commentaries_, and find _it_[380] a very laborious, learned, and useful
Work."--_Tho. Knipe_, D. D. "_Lamps_ is of the plural number, because _it_
means more than one."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 8. "_Man_ is of the
masculine gender, because _it_ is the name of a male."--_Ib._ "The _Utica
Sentinel_ says _it_ has not heard whether the wounds are
dangerous."--_Evening Post_. (Better: "The _editor_ of the Utica Sentinel
says, _he_ has not heard," &c.) "There is little _Benjamin_ with _their_
ruler."--_Psalms_, lxviii, 27.
"_Her_ end when _emulation_ misses,
_She_ turns to envy, stings, and hisses."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 415.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE X.
OBS. 1.--Respecting a pronoun, the main thing is, that the reader perceive
clearly _for what it stands_; and next, that he do not misapprehend _its
relation of case_. For the sake of completeness and uniformity in parsing,
it is, I think, expedient to apply the foregoing rule not only to those
pronouns which have obvious antecedents expressed, but also to such as are
not accompanied by the nouns for which they stand. Even those which are put
for persons or things unknown or indefinite, may be said to agree with
whatever is meant by them; that is, with such nouns as their own properties
indicate. For the reader will naturally understand something by every
pronoun, unless it be a mere expletive, and without any antecedent. For
example: "It would depend upon _who_ the forty were."--_Trial at
Steubenville_, p. 50. Here _who_ is an indefinite relative, equivalent to
_what persons_; of the third person, plural, masculine; and is in the
nominative case after were, by Rule 6th. For the full construction seems to
be this: "It would depend upon _the persons who_ the forty were." So
_which_, for _which person_, or _which thing_, (if we call it a pronoun
rather than an adjective,) may be said to have the properties of the noun
_person_ or _thing_ understood; as,
"His notions fitted things so well,
That _which_ was _which_ he could not tell."--_Hudibras_.
OBS. 2.--The pronoun _we_ is used by the speaker or writer to represent
himself and others, and is therefore plural. But it is sometimes used, by a
sort of fiction, in stead of the singular, to intimate that the speaker or
writer is not alone in his opinions; or, perhaps more frequently, to evade
the charge of egotism; for this modest assumption of plurality seems most
common with those who have something else to assume: as, "And so lately as
1809, Pope Pius VII, in excommunicating his 'own dear son,' Napoleon, whom
he crowned and blessed, says: '_We_, unworthy as _we_ are, represent the
God of peace.'"--_Dr. Brownlee_. "The coat fits _us_ as well as if _we_ had
been melted and poured into it."--_Prentice_. Monarchs sometimes prefer
_we_ to _I_, in immediate connexion with a singular noun; as, "_We
Alexander_, Autocrat of all the Russias."--"_We the Emperor_ of China,"
&c.--_Economy of Human Life_, p. vi. They also employ the anomalous
compound _ourself_, which is not often used by other people; as, "Witness
_ourself_ at Westminster, 28 day of April, in the tenth year of _our_
reign. CHARLES."
"_Caes._ What touches _us ourself_, shall be last serv'd."
--_Shak., J. C._, Act iii, Sc. 1.
"_Ourself_ to hoary Nestor will repair."
--_Pope, Iliad_, B. x, l. 65.
OBS. 3.--The pronoun _you_, though originally and properly plural, is now
generally applied alike to one person or to more. Several observations upon
this fashionable substitution of the plural number for the singular, will
be found in the fifth and sixth chapters of Etymology. This usage, however
it may seem to involve a solecism, is established by that authority against
which the mere grammarian has scarcely a right to remonstrate. Alexander
Murray, the schoolmaster, observes, "When language was plain and simple,
the English always said _thou_, when speaking to a single person. But when
an affected politeness, and a fondness for continental manners and customs
began to take place, persons of rank and fashion said _you_ in stead of
_thou_. The innovation gained ground, and custom gave sanction to the
change, and stamped it with the authority of law."--_English Gram._, Third
Edition, 1793, p. 107. This respectable grammarian acknowledged both _thou_
and _you_ to be of the second person singular. I do not, however, think it
necessary or advisable to do this, or to encumber the conjugations, as some
have done, by introducing the latter pronoun, and the corresponding form of
the verb, as singular.[381] It is manifestly better to say, that the plural
is used _for the singular_, by the figure _Enallage_. For if _you_ has
literally become singular by virtue of this substitution, _we_ also is
singular for the same reason, as often as it is substituted for _I_; else
the authority of innumerable authors, editors, compilers, and crowned,
heads, is insufficient to make it so. And again, if _you_ and the
corresponding form of the verb are _literally of the second person
singular_, (as Wells contends, with an array of more than sixty names of
English grammarians to prove it,) then, by their own rule of concord, since
_thou_ and its verb are still generally retained in the same place by these
grammarians, a verb that agrees with one of these nominatives, must also
agree with the other; so that _you hast_ and _thou have, you seest_ and
_thou see_, may be, so far as appears from _their_ instructions, as good a
concord as can be made of these words!
OBS. 4.--The putting of you for thou has introduced the anomalous compound
_yourself_, which is now very generally used in stead of _thyself_. In this
instance, as in the less frequent adoption of _ourself_ for _myself_,
Fashion so tramples upon the laws of grammar, that it is scarcely possible
to frame an intelligible exception in her favour. These pronouns are
essentially singular, both in form and meaning; and yet they cannot be used
with _I_ or _thou_, with _me_ or _thee_, or with any verb that is literally
singular; as, "_I ourself am._" but, on the contrary, they must be
connected only with such plural terms as are put for the singular; as, "_We
ourself are_ king."--"Undoubtedly _you yourself become_ an innovator."--_L.
Murray's Gram._, p. 364; _Campbell's Rhet._, 167.
"Try touch, or sight, or smell; try what you will,
_You_ strangely _find_ nought but _yourself_ alone."
--_Pollok, C. of T._, B. i, l. 162.
OBS. 5.--Such terms of address, as _your Majesty, your Highness, your
Lordship, your Honour_, are sometimes followed by verbs and pronouns of the
second person plural, substituted for the singular; and sometimes by words
literally singular, and of the third person, with no other figure than a
substitution of _who_ for _which_: as, "Wherein _your Lordship, who shines_
with so much distinction in the noblest assembly in the world, peculiarly
_excels_"--_Dedication of Sale's Koran_. "We have good cause to give _your
Highness_ the first place; _who_, by a continued series of favours _have
obliged_ us, not only while _you moved_ in a lower orb, but since the Lord
hath called _your Highness_ to supreme authority."--_Massachusetts to
Cromwell_, in 1654.
OBS. 6.--The general usage of the French is like that of the English, _you_
for _thou_; but Spanish, Portuguese, or German politeness requires that the
third person be substituted for the second. And when they would be very
courteous, the Germans use also the plural for the singular, as _they_ for
_thou_. Thus they have a fourfold method of addressing a person: as,
_they_, denoting the highest degree of respect; _he_, a less degree; _you_,
a degree still less; and _thou_, none at all, or absolute reproach. Yet,
even among them, the last is used as a term of endearment to children, and
of veneration to God! _Thou_, in English, still retains its place firmly,
and without dispute, in all addresses to the Supreme Being; but in respect
to the _first person_, an observant clergyman has suggested the following
dilemma: "Some men will be pained, if a minister says _we_ in the pulpit;
and others will quarrel with him, if he says _I_."--_Abbott's Young
Christian_, p. 268.
OBS. 7.--Any extensive perversion of the common words of a language from
their original and proper use, is doubtless a matter of considerable
moment. These changes in the use of the pronouns, being some of them
evidently a sort of complimentary fictions, some religious people have made
it a matter of conscience to abstain from them, and have published their
reasons for so doing. But the _moral objections_ which may lie against such
or any other applications of words, do not come within the grammarian's
province. Let every one consider for himself the moral bearing of what he
utters: not forgetting the text, "But I say unto you, that _every idle
word_ that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of
judgement: for _by thy words_ thou shalt be justified, and _by thy words_
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