The Grammar of English Grammars
by
Gould Brown
Part 30 out of 54
stand a ruin _amidst_ ruins."--_Id._ In the following examples, the import
of these prepositions is not very accurately regarded; "The Greeks wrote in
capitals, and left no spaces between their words."--_Wilson's Essay_, p. 6.
This construction may perhaps be allowed, because the spaces by which words
are now divided, occur severally _between_ one word and an other; but the
author might as well have said, "and left no spaces _to distinguish_ their
words." "There was a hunting match agreed upon _betwixt_ a lion, an ass,
and a fox."--_L'Estrange_. Here _by_ or _among_ would, I think, be better
than _betwixt_, because the partners were more than two. "_Between_ two _or
more_ authors, different readers will differ, exceedingly, as to the
preference in point of merit."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 162; _Jamieson's_,
40; _Murray's Gram._, i, 360. Say, "_Concerning_ two or more authors,"
because _between_ is not consistent with the word _more_. "Rising _one
among another_ in the greatest confusion and disorder."--_Spect._, No. 476.
Say, "Rising _promiscuously_," or, "Rising _all at once_;" for _among_ is
not consistent with the distributive term _one an other_.
OBS. 14.--Of two prepositions coming together between the same terms of
relation, and sometimes connected in the same construction, I have given
several plain examples in this chapter, and in the tenth chapter of
Etymology, a very great number, all from sources sufficiently respectable.
But, in many of our English grammars, there is a stereotyped remark on this
point, originally written by Priestley, which it is proper here to cite, as
an other specimen of the Doctor's hastiness, and of the blind confidence of
certain compilers and copyists: "Two different prepositions _must be
improper_ in the same construction, and in the same sentence: [as,] _The
combat_ between _thirty Britons_, against _twenty English_. Smollett's
Voltaire, Vol. 2, p. 292."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 156. Lindley Murray and
others have the same remark, with the example altered thus: "The combat
_between_ thirty _French against_ twenty English."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo,
p. 200; _Smith's New Gram._, 167: _Fisk's_, 142; _Ingersoll's_, 228. W.
Allen has it thus: "Two different prepositions in the _same construction_
are improper; as, a combat _between twenty_ French _against thirty_
English."--_Elements of E. Gram._, p. 179. He gives the odds to the latter
party. Hiley, with no expense of thought, first takes from Murray, as he
from Priestley, the useless remark, "Different relations, and different
senses, must be expressed by different prepositions;" and then adds, "_One
relation_ must not, _therefore_, be expressed by two different prepositions
in the same clause; thus, 'The combat _between thirty_ French _against
thirty_ English,' should be, 'The combat _between thirty_ French _and
thirty_ English.'"--_Hiley's E. Gram._, p 97. It is manifest that the error
of this example is not in the use of _two prepositions_, nor is there any
truth or fitness in the note or notes made on it by all these critics; for
had they said, "The combat _of_ thirty French _against_ twenty English,"
there would still be two prepositions, but where would be the impropriety,
or where the sameness of construction, which they speak of? _Between_ is
incompatible with _against_, only because it requires two parties or things
for its own regimen; as, "The combat _between_ thirty _Frenchmen and_
twenty _Englishmen_." This is what Smollett should have written, to make
sense with the word "_between_."
OBS. 15.--With like implicitness, Hiley excepted, these grammarians and
others have adopted from Lowth an observation in which the learned doctor
has censured quite too strongly the joint reference of different
prepositions to the same objective noun: to wit, "Some writers separate the
preposition from its noun, in order to connect different prepositions to
the same noun; as, 'To suppose the zodiac and planets to be efficient _of_,
and antecedent _to_, themselves.' Bentley, Serm. 6. This [construction],
whether in the familiar or the solemn style, is _always inelegant_; and
_should never be admitted_, but in forms of law, and the like; where
fullness and exactness of expression must take _place_ of every other
consideration."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 96; _Murray's_, i, 200; _Smith's_,
167; _Fisk's_, 141; _Ingersoll's_, 228; _Alger's_, 67; _Picket's_, 207.
Churchill even goes further, both strengthening the censure, and
disallowing the exception: thus, "This, whether in the solemn or in the
familiar style, is _always_ inelegant, and should _never be admitted_. It
is an _awkward shift_ for avoiding the repetition of a word, _which might
be accomplished without it_ by any person who has the least command of
language."--_New Gram._, p. 341. Yet, with all their command of language,
not one of these gentlemen has told us how the foregoing sentence from
Bentley may be _amended_; while many of their number not only venture to
use different prepositions before the same noun, but even to add a phrase
which puts that noun in the nominative case: as, "Thus, the time of the
infinitive may be _before, after_, or _the same as_, the time of the
governing verb, according as the _thing_ signified by the infinitive is
supposed to be _before, after_, or _present with_, the _thing_ denoted by
the governing verb."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 191; _Ingersoll's_, 260; _R. C.
Smith's_, 159.
OBS. 16.--The structure of this example not only contradicts palpably, and
twice over, the doctrine cited above, but one may say of the former part of
it, as Lowth, Murray, and others do, (in no very accurate English,) of the
text 1 Cor., ii, 9: "There seems to be an impropriety in this sentence, in
which the same noun serves in a double capacity, performing at the same
time the _offices both of the nominative and objective cases_."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 224. See also _Lowth's Gram._, p. 73; _Ingersoll's_, 277;
_Fisk's_, 149; _Smith's_, 185. Two other examples, exactly like that which
is so pointedly censured above, are placed by Murray under his thirteenth
rule for the comma; and these likewise, with all faithfulness, are copied
by Ingersoll, Smith, Alger, Kirkham, Comly, Russell, and I know not how
many more. In short, not only does this rule of their punctuation include
the construction in question; but the following exception to it, which is
remarkable for its various faults, or thorough faultiness, is applicable to
_no other_: "Sometimes, when the _word_ with which the _last_ preposition
_agrees_, is _single_, it is better to _omit_ the comma before it: as,
'Many states were in alliance _with_, and under the protection _of_
Rome.'"--_Murray's Gram._, p. 272; _Smith's_, 190; _Ingersoll's_, 284;
_Kirkham's_, 215; _Alger's_, 79; _Alden's_, 149; _Abel Flint's_, 103;
_Russell's_, 115. But the blunders and contradictions on this point, end
not here. Dr. Blair happened most unlearnedly to say, "What is called
splitting of particles, or separating a preposition from the noun which it
governs, is _always to be avoided_. As if I should say, 'Though virtue
borrows no assistance from, yet it may often be accompanied by, the
advantages of fortune.'"--_Lect. XII_, p. 112. This too, though the author
himself did not _always_ respect the rule, has been thought worthy to be
copied, or stolen, with all its faults! See _Jamieson's Rhetoric_, p. 93;
and _Murray's Octavo Gram._, p. 319.
OBS. 17.--Dr. Lowth says, "The noun _aversion_, (that is, a turning away,)
as likewise the adjective _averse_, seems to require the preposition _from_
after it; and not so properly to admit of _to_, or _for_, which are often
used with it."--_Gram._, p. 98. But this doctrine has not been adopted by
the later grammarians: "The words _averse_ and _aversion_ (says Dr.
Campbell) are more properly construed with _to_ than with _from_. The
examples in favour of the latter preposition, are beyond comparison
outnumbered by those in favour of the former."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 201;
_Fisk's_, 142; _Ingersoll's_, 229. This however must be understood only of
mental aversion. The expression of Milton, "On the coast _averse from_
entrance," would not be improved, if _from_ were changed to _to_. So the
noun _exception_, and the verb to _except_, are sometimes followed by
_from_, which has regard to the Latin particle _ex_, with which the word
commences; but the noun at least is much more frequently, and perhaps more
properly, followed by _to_. Examples: "Objects of horror must be _excepted
from_ the foregoing theory."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 268. "_From_ which
there are but two _exceptions_, both of them rare."--_Ib._, ii. 89. "_To_
the rule that fixes the pause after the fifth portion, there is one
_exception_, and no more."--_Ib._, ii, 84. "No _exception_ can be taken
_to_ the justness of the figure."--_Ib._, ii, 37. "Originally there was no
_exception_ from the rule."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 58. "_From_ this rule
there is mostly an _exception_."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 269. "But _to_ this
rule there are many _exceptions._"--_Ib._, i. 240. "They are not to be
regarded as exceptions _from_ the rule,"--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 363.
OBS. 18.--After correcting the example. "He _knows_ nothing _on_ [of] it,"
Churchill remarks, "There seems to be a strange perverseness among the
_London vulgar_ in perpetually substituting _on_ for _of_, and _of_ for
_on_."--_New Gram._, p. 345. And among the expressions which Campbell
censures under the name of _vulgarism_, are the following: "'Tis my humble
request you will be particular in speaking _to_ the following
points."--_Guardian_, No. 57. "The preposition ought to have been _on_.
Precisely of the same stamp is the _on't_ for _of it_, so much used by one
class of writers."--_Philosophy of Rhet._, p. 217. So far as I have
observed, the use of _of_ for _on_ has never been frequent; and that of
_on_ for _of_, or _on't_ for _of it_, though it may never have been a
polite custom, is now a manifest _archaism_, or imitation of ancient usage.
"And so my young Master, whatever comes _on't_, must have a Wife look'd out
for him."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 378. In Saxon, _on_ was put for more than
half a dozen of our present prepositions. The difference between _of_ and
_on_ or _upon_, appears in general to be obvious enough; and yet there are
some phrases in which it is not easy to determine which of these words
ought to be preferred: as, "Many things they cannot _lay hold on_ at
once."--HOOKER: _Joh. Dict._ "Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God,
and _took hold of_ it."--2 SAM.: _ib._ "Rather thou shouldst _lay hold
upon_ him."--BEN JONSON: _ib._ "Let them find courage to _lay hold on_ the
occasion."--MILTON: _ib._ "The hand is fitted to _lay hold of_
objects."--RAY: _ib._ "My soul _took hold on_ thee."--ADDISON: _ib._ "To
_lay hold of_ this safe, this only method of cure."--ATTERBURY: _ib._ "And
_give_ fortune no more _hold_ of him."--DRYDEN: _ib._ "And his laws _take_
the surest _hold of_ us."--TILLOTSON: _ib._ "It will then be impossible
you can _have_ any _hold upon_ him."--SWIFT: _ib._ "The court of Rome
gladly _laid hold on_ all the opportunities."--_Murray's Key_, ii, p. 198.
"Then did the officer _lay hold of_ him and execute him."--_Ib._, ii, 219.
"When one can _lay hold upon_ some noted fact."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 311.
"But when we would _lay_ firm _hold of_ them."--_Ib._, p. 28. "An advantage
which every one is glad to _lay hold of_."--_Ib._, p. 75. "To have _laid_
fast _hold of_ it in his mind."--_Ib._, p. 94. "I would advise them to lay
aside their common-places, and to _think_ closely _of_ their
subject."--_Ib._, p. 317. "Did they not _take hold of_ your
fathers?"--_Zech._, i, 6. "Ten men shall _take hold of_ the skirt of one
that is a Jew."--_Ib._, viii, 23. "It is wrong to say, either 'to _lay_
hold _of_ a thing,' or 'to _take_ hold _on_ it.'"--_Blair's Gram._, p. 101.
In the following couplet, _on_ seems to have been preferred only for a
rhyme:
"Yet, lo! in me what authors have to _brag on_!
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon."--_Pope_.
OBS. 19.--In the allowable uses of prepositions, there may perhaps be some
room for choice; so that what to the mind of a critic may not appear the
fittest word, may yet be judged not positively ungrammatical. In this light
I incline to view the following examples: "Homer's plan is still more
defective, _upon_ another account."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 299.
Say--"_on an other_ account." "It was almost eight _of the_ clock before I
could leave that variety of objects."--_Spectator_, No. 454. Present usage
requires--"eight _o_'clock." "The Greek and Latin writers had a
considerable advantage _above_ us."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 114. "The study of
oratory has this advantage _above_ that of poetry."--_Ib._, p. 338. "A
metaphor has frequently an advantage _above_ a formal comparison."--
_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 150. This use of _above_ seems to be a sort of
Scotticism: an Englishman, I think, would say--"advantage _over_ us," &c.
"Hundreds have all these crowding upon them from morning _to_ night."--
_Abbott's Teacher_, p. 33. Better--"from morning _till_ night." But Horne
Tooke observes, "We apply TO indifferently to _place_ or _time_; but TILL
to _time_ only, and never to _place_. Thus we may say, 'From morn TO night
th' eternal larum rang;' or, 'From morn TILL night.' &c."--_Diversions of
Purley_, i, 284.
NOTES TO RULE XXIII.
NOTE I.--Prepositions must be chosen and employed agreeably to the usage
and idiom of the language, so as rightly to express the relations intended.
Example of error: "By which we arrive _to_ the last division."--_Richard W.
Green's Gram._, p. vii. Say,--"arrive _at_." NOTE II.--Those prepositions
which are particularly adapted in meaning to _two objects_, or to _more_,
ought to be confined strictly to the government of such terms only as suit
them. Example of error: "What is _Person_? It is the _medium of_
distinction _between_ the _speaker_, the _object_ addressed or spoken _to_,
and the _object_ spoken _of_."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 34. "_Between
three_" is an incongruity; and the text here cited is bad in several other
respects.
NOTE III.--An _ellipsis_ or _omission_ of the preposition is inelegant,
except where long and general use has sanctioned it, and made the relation
sufficiently intelligible. In the following sentence, _of_ is needed: "I
will not flatter you, that all I see in you is _worthy love_."--
_Shakspeare_. The following requires _from_: "Ridicule _is banished
France_, and is losing ground in England."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 106.
NOTE IV.--The _insertion_ of a preposition is also inelegant, when the
particle is needless, or when it only robs a transitive verb of its proper
regimen; as, "The people of England may congratulate _to_
themselves."--DRYDEN: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 163. "His servants ye are,
_to_ whom ye obey."--_Rom._, vi, 16.
NOTE V.--The preposition and its object should have that position in
respect to other words, which will render the sentence the most perspicuous
and agreeable. Examples of error: "Gratitude is a forcible and active
principle in good and generous minds."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 169.
Better: "In good and generous minds, gratitude is a forcible and active
principle." "By a single stroke, he knows how to reach the heart."--
_Blair's Rhet._, p. 439. Better: "He knows how to reach the heart by a
single stroke."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXIII.
EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--CHOICE OF PREPOSITIONS.
"You have bestowed your favours to the most deserving persons."--_Swift, on
E. Tongue_.
[FORMULE.--Not proper because the relation between _have bestowed_ and
_persons_ is not correctly expressed by the preposition _to_. But,
according to Note 1st under Rule 23d, "Prepositions must be chosen and
employed agreeably to the usage and idiom of the language, so as rightly to
express the relations intended." This relation would be better expressed by
_upon_; thus, "You have bestowed your favours _upon_ the most deserving
persons."]
"But to rise beyond that, and overtop the crowd, is given to
few."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 351. "This also is a good sentence, and gives
occasion to no material remark."--_Ib._, p. 201. "Though Cicero endeavours
to give some reputation of the elder Cato, and those who were his
cotemporaries."--_Ib._, p. 245. "The change that was produced on eloquence,
is beautifully described in the Dialogue."--_Ib._, p. 249. "Without
carefully attending to the variation which they make upon the
idea."--_Ib._, p. 367. "All of a sudden, you are transported into a lofty
palace."--_Hazlitt's Lect._, p. 70. "Alike independent on one
another."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 398. "You will not think of them as
distinct processes going on independently on each other,"--_Channing's
Self-Culture_, p. 15. "Though we say, to _depend on, dependent on_, and
_independent on_, we say, _independently of_."--_Churchill's Gram._, p.
348. "Independently on the rest of the sentence."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 78;
_Guy's_, 88; _Murray's_, i, 145 and 184; _Ingersoll's_, 150; _Frost's_, 46;
_Fisk's_, 125; _Smith's New Gram._, 156; _Gould's Lat. Gram._, 209;
_Nixon's Parser_, 65. "Because they stand independent on the rest of the
sentence."--_Fisk's Gram._, p. 111. "When a substantive is joined with a
participle in English independently in the rest of the sentence."--_Adam's
Lat. and Eng. Gram., Boston Ed. of 1803_, p. 213; _Albany Ed. of 1820_, p.
166. "Conjunction, comes of the two Latin words _con_, together, and
_jungo_, to join."--_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 19. "How different to
this is the life of Fulvia!"--_Addison's Spect._, No. 15. "_Loved_ is a
participle or adjective, derived of the word _love_."--_Dr. Ash's Gram._,
p. 27. "But I would inquire at him, what an office is?"--_Barclay's Works_,
iii, 463. "For the capacity is brought unto action."--_Ib._, iii, 420. "In
this period, language and taste arrive to purity."--_Webster's Essays_, p.
94. "And should you not aspire at distinction in the republick of
letters."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 13. "Delivering you up to the synagogues,
and in prisons."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 55. "One that is kept from
falling in a ditch, is as truly saved, as he that is taken out of
one."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 312. "The best on it is, they are but a sort
of French Hugonots."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 62. "These last Ten Examples
are indeed of a different Nature to the former."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._,
p. 333. "For the initiation of students in the principles of the English
language."--ANNUAL REVIEW: _Murray's Gram._, ii, 299. "Richelieu profited
of every circumstance which the conjuncture afforded,"--_Bolingbroke, on
Hist._, p. 177. "In the names of drugs and plants, the mistake in a word
may endanger life."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 165. "In order to the carrying on
its several parts into execution."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 192. "His
abhorrence to the superstitious figure."--HUME: _Priestley's Gram._, p.
164. "Thy prejudice to my cause."--DRYDEN: _ib._, p. 164. "Which is found
among every species of liberty."--HUME: _ib._, p. 169. "In a hilly region
to the north of Jericho."--_Milman's Jews_, Vol. i, p. 8. "Two or more
singular nouns, coupled with AND, require a verb and pronoun in the
plural."--_Lennie's Gram._, p. 83.
"Books should to one of these four ends conduce,
For wisdom, piety, delight, or use."--_Denham_, p. 239.
UNDER NOTE II.--TWO OBJECTS OR MORE.
"The Anglo-Saxons, however, soon quarrelled between themselves for
precedence."--_Constable's Miscellany_, xx, p. 59. "The distinctions
between the principal parts of speech are founded in nature."--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 7. "I think I now understand the difference between the active,
passive, and neuter verbs."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 124. "Thus a figure
including a space between three lines, is the real as well as nominal
essence of a triangle."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 303. "We must distinguish
between an imperfect phrase, a simple sentence, and a compound
sentence."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 117; _Murray's_, i, 267; _Ingersoll's_,
280; _Guy's_, 97. "The Jews are strictly forbidden by their law, to
exercise usury among one another."--_Sale's Koran_, p. 177. "All the
writers have distinguished themselves among one another."--_Addison_. "This
expression also better secures the systematic uniformity between the three
cases."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 98. "When a disjunctive occurs between two
or more Infinitive Modes, or clauses, the verb must be singular."--
_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 95. "Several nouns or pronouns together in the same
case, not united by _and_, require a comma between each."--_Blair's Gram._,
p. 115. "The difference between the several vowels is produced by opening
the mouth differently, and placing the tongue in a different manner for
each."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 2. "Thus feet composed of syllables, being
pronounced with a sensible interval between each, make a more lively
impression than can be made by a continued sound."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
Vol. ii, p. 32. "The superlative degree implies a comparison between three
or more."--_Smith's Productive Gram._, p. 51. "They are used to mark a
distinction between several objects."--_Levizac's Gram._, p. 85.
UNDER NOTE III.--OMISSION OF PREPOSITIONS.
"This would have been less worthy notice."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 197.
"But I passed it, as a thing unworthy my notice."--_Werter_. "Which, in
compliment to me, perhaps, you may, one day, think worthy your
attention."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 81. "To think this small present worthy an
introduction to the young ladies of your very elegant establishment."--
_Ib._, p. iv. "There are but a few miles portage."--_Jefferson's Notes on
Virginia_, p. 17. "It is worthy notice, that our mountains are not
solitary."--_Ib._, p. 26. "It is of about one hundred feet diameter."--
_Ib._, 33. "Entering a hill a quarter or half a mile."--_Ib._, p. 47. "And
herself seems passing to that awful dissolution, whose issue is not given
human foresight to scan."--_Ib._, p. 100. "It was of a spheroidical form,
of about forty feet diameter at the base, and had been of about twelve feet
altitude."--_Ib._, p. 143. "Before this it was covered with trees of twelve
inches diameter, and round the base was an excavation of five feet depth
and width."--_Ibid._ "Then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own
pleasure."--_Deut._, xxiii, 24. "Then he brought me back the way of the
gate of the outward sanctuary."--_Ezekiel_, xliv, 1. "They will bless God
that he has peopled one half the world with a race of freemen."--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 94. "What use can these words be, till their meaning is
known?"--_Town's Analysis_, p. 7. "The tents of the Arabs now are black, or
a very dark colour."--_The Friend_, Vol. v, p. 265. "They may not be
unworthy the attention of young men."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 157. "The
pronoun that is frequently applied to persons, as well as things."--
_Merchant's Gram._, p. 87. "And _who_ is in the same case that _man_
is."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 148. "He saw a flaming stone, apparently about
four feet diameter."--_The Friend_, vii, 409. "Pliny informs us, that this
stone was the size of a cart."--_Ibid._ "Seneca was about twenty years of
age in the fifth year of Tiberius, when the Jews were expelled
Rome."--_Seneca's Morals_, p. 11. "I was prevented[438] reading a letter
which would have undeceived me."--_Hawkesworth, Adv._, No. 54. "If the
problem can be solved, we may be pardoned the inaccuracy of its
demonstration."--_Booth's Introd._, p. 25. "The army must of necessity be
the school, not of honour, but effeminacy."--_Brown's Estimate_, i. 65.
"Afraid of the virtue of a nation, in its opposing bad measures."--_Ib._,
i, 73. "The uniting them in various ways, so as to form words, would be
easy."--_Music of Nature_, p. 34. "I might be excused taking any more
notice of it."--_Watson's Apology_, p. 65. "Watch therefore; for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come."--_Matt._, xxiv, 42. "Here, not even
infants were spared the sword."--_M'Ilvaine's Lectures_, p. 313. "To
prevent men turning aside to corrupt modes of worship."--_Calvin's
Institutes_, B. I, Ch. 12, Sec. 1. "God expelled them the Garden of
Eden."--_Burder's Hist._, Vol. i, p. 10. "Nor could he refrain expressing
to the senate the agonies of his mind"--_Art of Thinking_, p. 123. "Who now
so strenuously opposes the granting him any new powers."--_Duncan's
Cicero_, p. 127. "That the laws of the censors have banished him the
forum."--_Ib._, p. 140. "We read not that he was degraded his office any
other way."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 149. "To all whom these presents shall
come, Greeting."--_Hutchinson's Mass._, i, 459. "On the 1st, August,
1834."--_British Act for the Abolition of Slavery_.
"Whether you had not some time in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him."--_Shak_.
UNDER NOTE IV.--OF NEEDLESS PREPOSITIONS.
"And the apostles and elders came together to consider of this
matter."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 481. "And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider of this matter."--_Acts_, xv, 6. "Adjectives in
our Language have neither Case, Gender, nor Number; the only Variation they
have is by Comparison."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 27. "'It is to you, that I
am indebted for this privilege;' that is, 'to you am I indebted;' or, 'It
is to you to whom I am indebted.'"--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 232. "_Books_ is
a noun, of the third person, plural number, of neuter gender,"--
_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 15. "_Brother's_ is a common substantive, of the
masculine gender, the third person, the singular number, and in the
possessive case."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 229. "_Virtue's_ is a common
substantive, of the third person, the singular number, and in the
possessive case."--_Ib._, i, 228. "When the authorities on one side greatly
preponderate, it is in vain to oppose the prevailing usage."--_Campbell's
Rhet._, p. 173; _Murray's Gram._, i, 367. "A captain of a troop of
banditti, had a mind to be plundering of Rome."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p.
51. "And, notwithstanding of its Verbal power, we have added the _to_ and
other signs of exertion."--_Booth's Introd._, p. 28. "Some of these
situations are termed CASES, and are expressed by additions to the Noun
instead of by separate words."--_Ib._, p. 33. "Is it such a fast that I
have chosen, that a man should afflict his soul for a day, and to bow down
his head like a bulrush?"--_Bacon's Wisdom_, p. 65. "And this first emotion
comes at last to be awakened by the accidental, instead of, by the
necessary antecedent."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 17. "At about the
same time, the subjugation of the Moors was completed."--_Balbi's Geog._,
p. 269. "God divided between the light and between the darkness."--
_Burder's Hist._, i, 1. "Notwithstanding of this, we are not against
outward significations of honour."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 242. "Whether
these words and practices of Job's friends, be for to be our rule."--_Ib._,
i, 243. "Such verb cannot admit of an objective case after it."--_Lowth's
Gram._, "For which God is now visibly punishing of these Nations."--_Right
of Tythes_, "In this respect, Tasso yields to no poet, except to
Homer."--_Blair's Rhet._, "Notwithstanding of the numerous panegyrics on
the ancient English liberty."--HUME: _Priestley's Gram._, "Their efforts
seemed to anticipate on the spirit, which became so general
afterwards."--_Id., ib._, p. 167.
UNDER NOTE V.--THE PLACING OF THE WORDS.
"But how short are my expressions of its excellency!"--_Baxter_. "There is
a remarkable union in his style, of harmony with ease."--_Blair's Rhet._,
"It disposes in the most artificial manner, of the light and shade, for
viewing every thing to the best advantage."--"Aristotle too holds an
eminent rank among didactic writers for his brevity."--"In an introduction,
correctness should be carefully studied in the expression."--"Precision is
to be studied, above all things in laying down a method."--"Which shall
make the impression on the mind of something that is one, whole and
entire."--"At the same time, there are some defects which must be
acknowledged in the Odyssey."--"Beauties, however, there are, in the
concluding books, of the tragic kind."--"These forms of conversation by
degrees multiplied and grew troublesome."--_Spectator_, No. 119. "When she
has made her own choice, for form's sake, she sends a conge-d'-elire to her
friends."--"Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an interest in him
who holds the reins of the whole creation in his hand."--"Let us endeavour
to establish to ourselves an interest in him, who, in his hand, holds the
reins of the whole creation."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 53. "The most
frequent measure next to this in English poetry is that of eight
syllables."--_Blair's Gram._, "To introduce as great a variety as possible
of cadences."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, "He addressed several exhortations to
them suitable to their circumstances."--_Murray's Key_, ii, "Habits must be
acquired of temperance and self-denial."--"In reducing the rules prescribed
to practice."--_Murray's Gram._, "But these parts must be so closely bound
together as to make the impression upon the mind, of one object, not of
many."--_Blair's Rhet._, "Errors are sometimes committed by the most
distinguished writer, with respect to the use of _shall_ and
_will_"--_Butler's Pract. Gram._,
CHAPTER XI--INTERJECTIONS.
Interjections, being seldom any thing more than natural sounds or short
words uttered independently, can hardly be said to have any _syntax_; but
since some rule is necessary to show the learner how to dispose of them in
parsing, a brief axiom for that purpose, is here added, which completes our
series of rules: and, after several remarks on this canon, and on the
common treatment of Interjections, this chapter is made to embrace
_Exercises_ upon all the other parts of speech, that the chapters in the
Key may correspond to those of the Grammar.
RULE XXIV.--INTERJECTIONS.
Interjections have no dependent construction; they are put absolute, either
alone, or with other words: as, "_O!_ let not thy heart despise me."--_Dr.
Johnson_. "_O_ cruel _thou_!"--_Pope, Odys._, B. xii, l. 333. "Ah wretched
_we_, poets of earth!"--_Cowley_,
"_Ah Dennis! Gildon ah!_ what ill-starr'd rage
Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?"
_Pope, Dunciad_, B. iii,
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIV.
OBS. 1.--To this rule, there are properly _no exceptions_. Though
interjections are sometimes uttered in close connexion with other words,
yet, being mere signs of passion or of feeling, they seem not to have any
strict grammatical relation, or dependence according to the sense. Being
destitute alike of relation, agreement, and government, they must be used
independently, if used at all. Yet an emotion signified in this manner, not
being causeless, may be accompanied by some object, expressed either by a
nominative absolute, or by an adjective after _for_: as, "_Alas!_ poor
_Yorick!_"--_Shak_. Here the grief denoted by _alas_, is certainly _for
Yorick_; as much so, as if the expression were, "Alas _for_ poor Yorick!"
But, in either case, _alas_, I think, has no dependent construction;
neither has _Yorick_, in the former, unless we suppose an ellipsis of some
governing word.
OBS. 2.--The interjection _O_ is common to many languages, and is
frequently uttered, in token of earnestness, before nouns or pronouns put
absolute by direct address; as, "Arise, _O Lord; O God_, lift up thine
hand."--_Psalms_, x, 12. "_O ye_ of little faith!"--_Matt._, vi, 30. The
Latin and Greek grammarians, therefore, made this interjection the _sign_
of the _vocative case_; which case is the same as the nominative put
absolute by address in English. But this particle is no positive index of
the vocative; because an independent address may be made without that sign,
and the _O_ may be used where there is no address: as, "_O_ scandalous
want! _O_ shameful omission!"--"Pray, _Sir_, don't be uneasy."--_Burgh's
Speaker_, p. 86.
OBS. 3.--Some grammarians ascribe to two or three of our interjections the
power of governing sometimes the nominative case, and sometimes the
objective. First, NIXON; in an exercise entitled, "NOMINATIVE GOVERNED BY
AN INTERJECTION," thus: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! _require_ after
them the nominative case of a _substantive_ in the _second_ person; as, 'O
thou _persecutor!_'--'O Alexander! thou hast slain thy friend.' _O_ is an
interjection, _governing_ the nominative case _Alexander_."--_English
Parser_, Again, under the title, "OBJECTIVE CASE GOVERNED BY AN
INTERJECTION," he says: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! _require_ after
them the objective case of a _substantive_ in the _first_ or _third_
person; as, 'Oh _me!_' 'Oh the _humiliations_!' _Oh_ is an interjection,
_governing_ the objective case _humiliations_."--These two rules are in
fact contradictory, while each of them absurdly suggests that _O, oh_, and
_ah_, are used only with nouns. So J. M. PUTNAM: "Interjections sometimes
_govern_ an objective case; as, _Ah me! O_ the tender _ties! O_ the soft
_enmity! O me_ miserable! _O_ wretched _prince! O_ cruel _reverse_ of
fortune! When an address is made, the interjection does not perform the
office of government."--_Putnam's Gram._, So KIRKHAM; who, under a rule
quite different from these, extends the doctrine of government to _all_
interjections: "According to the genius of the English language, transitive
verbs and prepositions _require_ the objective case of a noun or pronoun
after them; and this requisition is all that is meant by _government_, when
we say that these parts of speech _govern the objective_ case. THE SAME
PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO THE INTERJECTION. 'Interjections _require_ the
objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them; but the
nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, Ah _me_!
Oh _thou_! O my _country!_' To say, then, that interjections _require_
particular cases after them, is synonymous with saying, that they _govern_
those cases; and this office of the interjection is in _perfect accordance_
with that which it performs in the Latin, and many other
languages."--_Kirkham's Gram._, According to this, every interjection has
as much need of an object after it, as has a transitive verb or a
preposition! The rule has, certainly, _no_ "accordance" with what occurs in
Latin, or in any other language; it is wholly a fabrication, though found,
in some shape or other, in well-nigh all English grammars.
OBS. 4.--L. MURRAY'S doctrine on this point is thus expressed: "The
interjections _O! Oh!_ and _Ah! require_ the objective case of a pronoun in
the first person after them, as, 'O me! oh me! Ah me!' But the nominative
case in the second person: as, 'O thou persecutor!' 'Oh ye hypocrites!' 'O
thou, who dwellest,' &c."--_Octavo Gram._, INGERSOLL copies this most
faulty note literally, adding these words to its abrupt end,--i. e., to its
inexplicable "&c." used by Murray; "because the first person _is governed
by a preposition_ understood: as, 'Ah _for_ me!' or, '_O what will become
of_ me!' &c., and the second person is in the _nominative independent_,
there being a direct address."--_Conversations on E. Gram._, So we see that
this grammarian and Kirkham, both modifiers of Murray, understand their
master's false verb "_require_" very differently. LENNIE too, in renouncing
a part of Murray's double or threefold error, "_Oh! happy us!_" for, "_O_
happy _we!_" teaches thus: "Interjections sometimes _require_ the objective
case after them, but they never _govern_ it. In the first edition of this
grammar," says he, "I followed Mr. Murray and others, in leaving _we_, in
the exercises to be turned into _us_; but that it should be _we_, and not
_us_, is obvious; because it is the nominative to _are_ understood; thus,
_Oh_ happy _are we_, or, _Oh we are_ happy, (being) surrounded with so many
blessings."--_Lennie's Gram., Fifth Edition, Twelfth_, Here is an other
solution of the construction of this pronoun of the first person,
contradictory alike to Ingersoll's, to Kirkham's, and to Murray's; while
_all are wrong_, and this among the rest. The word should indeed be _we_,
and not _us_; because we have both analogy and good authority for the
former case, and nothing but the false conceit of sundry grammatists for
the latter. But it is a _nominative absolute_, like any other nominative
which we use in the same exclamatory manner. For the first person may just
as well be put in the nominative absolute, by exclamation, as any other;
as, "Behold _I_ and the _children_ whom God hath given me!"--_Heb._, "Ecce
_ego_ et _pueri_ quos mihi dedit Deus!"--_Beza_. "O brave _we!_"--_Dr.
Johnson, often_. So Horace: "O _ego_ laevus," &c.--_Ep. ad Pi._, 301.
"Ah! luckless _I!_ who purge in spring my spleen--
Else sure the first of bards had Horace been."
--_Francis's Hor._, ii, 209.
OBS. 5.--Whether Murray's remark above, on "_O! Oh!_ and _Ah!_" was
originally designed for a _rule of government_ or not, it is hardly worth
any one's while to inquire. It is too lame and inaccurate every way, to
deserve any notice, but that which should serve to explode it forever. Yet
no few, who have since made English grammars, have copied the text
literally; as they have, for the public benefit, stolen a thousand other
errors from the same quarter. The reader will find it, with little or no
change, in Smith's New Grammar, p. 96 and 134; Alger's, 56; Allen's, 117;
Russell's, 92; Blair's, 100, Guy's, 89; Abel Flint's, 59; A Teacher's, 43,
Picket's, 210; Cooper's[439] Murray, 136; Wilcox's, 95; Bucke's, 87;
Emmons's, 77; and probably in others. Lennie varies it _indefinitely_,
thus: "RULE. The interjections _Oh!_ and _Ah!_ &c. _generally_ require the
objective case of the first personal pronoun, _and_ the nominative of the
second; as, Ah _me!_ O _thou_ fool! O _ye_ hypocrites!"--_Lennie's Gram._,
p. 110; _Brace's_, 88. M'Culloch, after Crombie, thus: "RULE XX.
Interjections are joined with the objective case of the pronoun of the
first person, and with the nominative of the pronoun of the second; as, Ah
me! O ye hypocrites."--_Manual of E. Gram._, p. 145; and _Crombie's
Treatise_, p. 315; also _Fowler's E. Language_, p. 563. Hiley makes it a
note, thus: "The interjections. O! Oh! Ah! _are followed by_ the objective
case of a pronoun of the first person; as, _'Oh me!' 'Ah me!'_ but by the
nominative case of the pronoun in the second person; as, '_O thou_ who
dwellest.' "--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 82. This is what the same author
elsewhere calls "THE GOVERNMENT OF INTERJECTIONS;" though, like some
others, he had set it in the "Syntax of PRONOUNS." See _Ib._, p. 108.
Murray, in forming his own little "Abridgment," omitted it altogether. In
his other grammars, it is still a mere note, standing where he at first
absurdly put it, under his rule for the agreement of pronouns with their
antecedents. By many of his sage amenders, it has been placed in the
catalogue of principal rules. But, that it is no adequate rule for
interjections, is manifest; for, in its usual form, it is limited to
_three_, and none of these can ever, with any propriety, be parsed by it.
Murray himself has not used it in any of his forms of parsing. He
conceived, (as I hinted before in Chapter 1st,) that, "The syntax of the
Interjection is of _so very limited a nature_, that it _does not require_ a
distinct, appropriate rule."--_Octavo Gram._, i. 224.
OBS. 6.--Against this remark of Murray's, a good argument may be drawn from
the ridiculous use which has been made of his own suggestion in the other
place. For, though that suggestion never had in it the least shadow of
truth, and was never at all applicable either to the three interjections,
or to pronouns, or to cases, or to the persons, or to any thing else of
which it speaks, it has not only been often copied literally, and called a
"RULE" of syntax, but many have, yet more absurdly, made it a _general
canon_ which imposes on all interjections a syntax that belongs to none of
them. For example: "_An interjection must be followed_ by the objective
case of a pronoun in the first person; _and_ by a nominative of the second
person; as--_Oh me! ah me! oh thou! AH hail, ye_ happy men!"--_Jaudon's
Gram._, p. 116. This is as much as to say, that every interjection must
have a pronoun or two after it! Again: "_Interjections must be followed_ by
the objective case of the pronoun in the first person; as, O _me!_ Ah _me!_
and by the nominative case of the second person; as, O _thou_ persecutor!
Oh _ye_ hypocrites!"--_Merchant's Murray_, p. 80; _Merchant's School
Gram._, p. 99. I imagine there is a difference between O and _oh_,[440] and
that this author, as well as Murray, in the first and the last of these
examples, has misapplied them both. Again: "_Interjections require_ the
objective case of a pronoun of the first person, and the nominative case of
the second; as, _Ah me! O thou_"--_Frost's El. of E. Gram._, p. 48. This,
too, is general, but equivocal; as if one case or both were necessary to
each interjection!
OBS. 7.--Of _nouns_, or of the _third person_, the three rules last cited
say nothing;[441] though it appears from other evidence, that their authors
supposed them applicable at least to _some nouns_ of the _second person_.
The supposition however was quite needless, because each of their grammars
contains an other Rule, that, "When an address is made, the noun or pronoun
is in the nominative case _independent_;" which, by the by, is far from
being universally true, either of the noun or of the pronoun. Russell
imagines, "The words _depending_ upon interjections, have so near a
resemblance to those in a direct address, that they may very properly be
classed under the same general head," and be parsed as being, "in the
nominative case _independent_." See his "_Abridgment of Murray's Grammar_,"
p. 91. He does not perceive that _depending_ and _independent_ are words
that contradict each other. Into the same inconsistency, do nearly all
those gentlemen fall, who ascribe to interjections a control over cases.
Even Kirkham, who so earnestly contends that what any words _require_ after
them they must necessarily _govern_, forgets his whole argument, or justly
disbelieves it, whenever he parses any noun that is uttered with an
interjection. In short, he applies his principle to nothing but the word
_me_ in the phrases, "_Ah me!_" "_Oh me!_" and "_Me miserable!_" and even
these he parses falsely. The second person used in the vocative, or the
nominative put absolute by direct address, whether an interjection be used
or not, he rightly explains as being "in the nominative case independent;"
as, "O _Jerusalem, Jerusalem!_"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 130. "O _maid_ of
Inistore!"--_Ib._, p. 131. But he is wrong in saying that, "Whenever a noun
is of the second person, it is in the nominative case independent;" (_Ib._,
p. 130;) and still more so, in supposing that, "The principle contained in
the note" [which tells what interjections _require_,] "_proves_ that every
noun of the second person is in the nominative case."--_Ib._, p. 164. A
falsehood proves nothing but the ignorance or the wickedness of him who
utters it. He is wrong too, as well as many others, in supposing that this
nominative independent is not a nominative absolute; for, "The vocative is
[_generally_, if not _always_,] absolute."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 142. But
that nouns of the second person are not always absolute or independent, nor
always in the nominative case, or the vocative, appears, I think, by the
following example: "This is the stone which was set at nought _of you
builders_."--_Acts_, iv, II. See Obs. 3d on Rule 8th.
OBS. 8.--The third person, when uttered in exclamation, with an
interjection before it, is parsed by Kirkham, not as being governed by the
interjection, either in the nominative case, according to his own argument
and own rule above cited, or in the objective, according to Nixon's notion
of the construction; nor yet as being put absolute in the nominative, as I
believe it generally, if not always is; but as being "the nominative to a
verb understood; as, 'Lo,' _there is_ 'the poor _Indian_!' '0, the _pain_'
_there is!_ 'the _bliss_' _there is_ 'IN dying!'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p.
129. Pope's text is, "_Oh_ the pain, the bliss _of_ dying!" and, in all
that is here changed, the grammarian has perverted it, if not in all that
he has added. It is an other principle of Kirkham's Grammar, though a false
one, that, "Nouns have but two persons, the second and [the] third."--P.
37. So that, these two being disposed of agreeably to his own methods
above, which appear to include the second and third persons of pronouns
also, there remains to him nothing but the objective of the pronoun of the
first person to which he can suppose his other rule to apply; and I have
shown that there is no truth in it, even in regard to this. Yet, with the
strongest professions of adhering to the principles, and even to "the
language" of Lindley Murray, this gentleman, by copying somebody else in
preference to "that eminent philologist," has made himself one of those by
whom Murray's erroneous remark on _O, oh_, and _ah_, with pronouns of the
first and second persons, is not only stretched into a rule for all
interjections, but made to include nouns of the second person, and both
nouns and pronouns of the third person: as, "Interjections require the
objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them, but the
nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, 'Ah!
_me_; Oh! _thou_; O! _virtue_!'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 134;
Stereotype Ed., p. 177. See the same rule, with examples and punctuation
different, in his _Stereotype Edition_, p. 164; _Comly's Gram._, 116;
_Greenleaf's_, 36; and _Fisk's_, 144. All these authors, except Comly, who
comes much nearest to the thing, profess to present to us "_Murray's
Grammar Simplified_;" and this is a sample of their work of
_simplification_!--an ignorant piling of errors on errors!
"O imitatores servum pecus! ut mihi saepe
Bilem, saepe jocum vestri movere tumultus!"--_Horace_.
OBS. 9.--Since so many of our grammarians conceive that interjections
require or govern cases, it may be proper to cite some who teach otherwise.
"Interjections, in English, have no government."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 111.
"Interjections have no government, or admit of no construction."--_Coar's
Gram._, p. 189. "Interjections have no connexion with other
word's."--_Fuller's Gram._, p. 71. "The interjection, in a grammatical
sense, is totally unconnected with every other word in a sentence. Its
arrangement, of course, is altogether arbitrary, and cannot admit of any
theory."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 83. "Interjections cannot properly have
either concord or government. They are only mere sounds excited by passion,
and have no just connexion with any other part of a sentence. Whatever
case, therefore, is joined with them, must depend on some other word
understood, except the vocative, which is always placed
absolutely."--_Adam's Latin Gram._, p. 196; _Gould's_, 193. If this is true
of the Latin language, a slight variation will make it as true of ours.
"Interjections, and phrases resembling them, are taken absolutely; as,
_Oh_, world, _thy slippery turns_! But the phrases Oh _me_! and Ah _me_!
frequently occur."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 188. This passage is, in several
respects, wrong; yet the leading idea is true. The author entitles it,
"SYNTAX OF INTERJECTIONS," yet absurdly includes in it I know not what
_phrases_! In the phrase, "_thy slippery turns!_" no word is absolute, or
"taken absolutely" but this noun "_turns_;" and this, without the least
hint of its _case_, the learned author will have us to understand to be
absolute, because the phrase _resembles an interjection!_ But the noun
"_world_" which is also absolute, and which still more resembles an
interjection, he will have to be so for a different reason--because it is
in what he chooses to call the _vocative case_. But, according to custom,
he should rather have put his interjection absolute _with_ the noun, and
written it, "_O world_," and not, "_Oh, world_." What he meant to do with
"_Oh me!_ and _Ah me!_" is doubtful. If any phrases come fairly under his
rule, these are the very ones; and yet he seems to introduce them as
exceptions! Of these, it can hardly be said, that they "_frequently_
occur." Lowth notices only the latter, which he supposes elliptical. The
former I do not remember to have met with more than three or four times;
except in grammars, which in this case are hardly to be called authorities:
"_Oh! me_, how fared it with me then?"--_Job Scott_. "_Oh me!_ all the
horse have got over the river, what shall we do?"--WALTON: _Joh. Dict._
"But when he was first seen, _oh me!_
What shrieking and what misery!"--_Wordsworth's Works_, p. 114.
OBS. 10.--When a declinable word not in the nominative absolute, follows an
interjection, as part of an imperfect exclamation, its construction (if the
phrase be good English) depends on something understood; as, "Ah
_me!_"--that is, "Ah! _pity_ me;" or, "Ah! _it grieves_ me;" or, as some
will have it, (because the expression in Latin is "_Hei mihi!_") "Ah _for_
me!"--_Ingersoll_. "Ah! _wo is to_ me."--_Lowth_. "Ah! _sorrow is to_
me."--_Coar_. So of "_oh me!_" for, in these expressions, if not generally,
_oh_ and _ah_ are exactly equivalent the one to the other. As for "_O me_"
it is now seldom met with, though Shakspeare has it a few times. From these
examples, O. B. Peirce erroneously imagines the "independent case" of the
pronoun _I_ to be _me_, and accordingly parses the word without supposing
an ellipsis; but in the plural he makes that case to be _we_, and not _us_.
So, having found an example of "Ah _Him!_" which, according to one half of
our grammarians, is bad English, he conceives the independent case of _he_
to be _him_; but in the plural, and in both numbers of the words _thou_ and
_she_, he makes it the nominative, or the same in form as the nominative.
So builds he "the temple of Grammatical consistency!"--P. 7. Nixon and
Cooper must of course approve of "_Ah him!_" because they assume that the
interjection _ah_ "_requires_" or "_governs_" the objective case of the
third person. Others must condemn the expression, because they teach that
_ah_ requires the nominative case of this person. Thus Greenleaf sets down
for false syntax, "O! happy _them_, surrounded with so many
blessings!"--_Gram. Simplified_, p. 47. Here, undoubtedly, the word should
be _they_; and, by analogy, (if indeed the instances are analogous,) it
would seem more proper to say, "Ah _he!_" the nominative being our only
case absolute. But if any will insist that "_Ah him!_" is good English,
they must suppose that _him_ is governed by something understood; as, "Ah!
I _lament_ him;" or, "Ah! _I mourn for_ him." And possibly, on this
principle, the example referred to may be most correct as it stands, with
the pronoun in the objective case: "_Ah Him!_ the first great martyr in
this great cause."--D. WEBSTER: _Peirce's Gram._, p. 199.
OBS. 11.--If we turn to the Latin syntax, to determine by analogy what case
is used, or ought to be used, after our English interjections, in stead of
finding a "perfect accordance" between that syntax and the rule for which
such accordance has been claimed, we see at once an utter repugnance, and
that the pretence of their agreement is only a sample of Kirkham's
unconscionable pedantry. The rule, in all its modifications, is based on
the principle, that the choice of _cases_ depends on the distinction of
_persons_--a principle plainly contrary to the usage of the Latin classics,
and altogether untrue. In Latin, some interjections are construed with the
nominative, the accusative, or the vocative; some, only with the dative;
some, only with the vocative. But, in English, these four cases are all
included in two, the nominative and the objective; and, the case
independent or absolute being necessarily the nominative, it follows that
the objective, if it occur after an interjection, must be the object of
something which is capable of governing it. If any disputant, by supposing
ellipses, will make objectives of what I call nominatives absolute, so be
it; but I insist that interjections, in fact, never "require" or "govern"
one case more than an other. So Peirce, and Kirkham, and Ingersoll, with
pointed self-contradiction, may continue to make "the independent case,"
whether vocative or merely exclamatory, the subject of a verb, expressed or
understood; but I will content myself with endeavouring to establish a
syntax not liable to this sort of objection. In doing this, it is proper to
look at all the facts which go to show what is right, or wrong. "_Lo, the
poor Indian!_" is in Latin, "_Ecce pauper Indus!_" or, "_Ecce pauperem
Indum!_" This use of either the nominative or the accusative after _ecce_,
if it proves any thing concerning the case of the word _Indian_, proves it
doubtful. Some, it seems, pronounce it an objective. Some, like Murray, say
nothing about it. Following the analogy of our own language, I refer it to
the nominative absolute, because there is nothing to determine it to be
otherwise. In the examples. "_Heu me miserum!_ Ah _wretch_ that I
am!"--(_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 263.) and "_Miser ego homo!_ O wretched
_man_ that I am!"--(_Rom._, vii, 24,) if the word _that_ is a relative
pronoun, as I incline to think it is, the case of the nouns _wretch_ and
_man_ does not depend on any other words, either expressed or implied. They
are therefore nominatives absolute, according to Rule 8th, though the Latin
words may be most properly explained on the principle of ellipsis.
OBS. 12.--Of some impenetrable blockhead, Horace, telling how himself was
vexed, says: "_O te_, Bollane, cerebri Felicem! aiebam tacitus."--_Lib._ i,
_Sat._ ix, 11. Literally: "_O thee_, Bollanus, happy of brain! said I to
myself." That is, "O! _I envy_ thee," &c. This shows that _O_ does not
"require the nominative case of the second person" after it, at least, in
Latin. Neither does _oh_ or _ah_: for, if a governing word be suggested,
the objective may be proper; as, "Whom did he injure? Ah! _thee_, my
boy?"--or even the possessive; as, "Whose sobs do I hear? Oh! _thine_, my
child?" Kirkham tells us truly, (Gram., p. 126,) that the exclamation "_O
my_" is frequently heard in conversation. These last resemble Lucan's use
of the genitive, with an ellipsis of the governing noun: "_O miserae
sortis!_" i.e., "_O_ [men] _of miserable lot!_" In short, all the Latin
cases as well as all the English, may possibly occur after one or other of
the interjections. I have instanced all but the ablative, and the following
is literally an example of that, though the word _quanto_ is construed
adverbially: "Ah, _quanto_ satius est!"--_Ter. And._, ii, 1. "Ah, _how
much_ better it is!" I have also shown, by good authorities, that the
nominative of the first person, both in English and in Latin, may be
properly used after those interjections which have been supposed to require
or govern the objective. But how far is analogy alone a justification? Is
"_O thee_" good English, because "_O te_" is good Latin? No: nor is it bad
for the reason which our grammarians assign, but because our best writers
never use it, and because _O_ is more properly the sign of the vocative.
The literal version above should therefore be changed; as, "O Bollanus,
_thou_ happy numskull! said I to myself."
OBS. 13--Allen Fisk, "author of Adam's Latin Grammar Simplified," and of
"Murray's English Grammar Simplified," sets down for "_False Syntax_" not
only that hackneyed example, "Oh! happy we," &c., but, "O! You, who love
iniquity," and, "Ah! you, who hate the light."--_Fisk's E. Gram._, p. 144.
But, to imagine that either _you_ or _we_ is wrong here, is certainly no
sing of a great linguist; and his punctuation is very inconsistent both
with his own rule of syntax and with common practice. An interjection set
off by a comma or an exclamation point, is of course put absolute _singly_,
or by itself. If it is to be read as being put absolute with something
else, the separation is improper. One might just as well divide a
preposition from its object, as an interjection from the case which it is
supposed to govern. Yet we find here not only such a division as Murray
sometimes improperly adopted, but in one instance a total separation, with
a capital following; as, "O! You, who love iniquity," for, "O you who love
iniquity!" or "O ye," &c. If a point be here set between the two pronouns,
the speaker accuses all his hearers of loving iniquity; if this point be
removed, he addresses only such as do love it. But an interjection and a
pronoun, each put absolute singly, one after the other, seem to me not to
constitute a very natural exclamation. The last example above should
therefore be, "Ah! you hate the light." The first should be written, "_O_
happy we!"
OBS. 14.--In other grammars, too, there are many instances of some of the
errors here pointed out. R. C. Smith knows no difference between _O_ and
_oh_; takes "_Oh!_ happy _us_" to be accurate English; sees no impropriety
in separating interjections from the pronouns which he supposes them to
"govern;" writes the same examples variously, even on the same page;
inserts or omits commas or exclamation points at random; yet makes the
latter the means by which interjections are to be known! See his _New
Gram._, pp. 40, 96 and 134. Kirkham, who lays claim to "a new system of
punctuation," and also stoutly asserts the governing power of
interjections, writes, and rewrites, and finally stereotypes, in one part
of his book. "Ah me! _Oh_ thou! O my country!" and in an other, "Ah! me;
_Oh!_ thou; O! virtue." See Obs. 3d and Obs. 8th above. From such hands,
any thing "_new_" should be received with caution: this last specimen of
his scholarship has more errors than words.
OBS. 15.--Some few of our interjections seem to admit of a connexion with
other words by means of a preposition or the conjunction _that_ as, "O _to_
forget her!"--_Young_. "O _for_ that warning voice!"--_Milton_. "O _that_
they were wise!"--_Deut._, xxxii, 29. "O _that_ my people had hearkened
unto me!"--_Ps._, lxxxi, 13, "Alas _for_ Sicily!"--_Cowper_. "O _for_ a
world in principle as chaste As this is gross and selfish!"--_Id._ "Hurrah
_for_ Jackson!"--_Newspaper_. "A bawd, sir, fy _upon_ him!"--SHAK.: _Joh.
Dict._ "And fy _on_ fortune, mine avowed foe!"--SPENCER: _ib._ This
connexion, however, even if we parse all the words just as they stand, does
not give to the interjection itself any dependent construction. It appears
indeed to refute Jamieson's assertion, that, "The interjection is _totally
unconnected_ with every other word in a sentence;" but I did not quote this
passage, with any averment of its accuracy; and, certainly, many nouns
which are put absolute themselves, have in like manner a connexion with
words that are not put absolute: as, "O _Lord_ God of hosts, hear my
prayer; give ear, O _God_ of Jacob. Selah."--_Ps._, lxxxiv, 8. But if any
will suppose, that in the foregoing examples something else than the
interjection must be the antecedent term to the preposition or the
conjunction, they may consider the expressions elliptical: though it must
be confessed, that much of their vivacity will be lost, when the supposed
ellipses are supplied: as, "O! _I desire_ to forget her."--"O! _how I long_
for that warning voice!"--"O! _how I wish_ that they were wise!"--"Alas! I
_wail_ for Sicily."--"Hurrah! _I shout_ for Jackson."--"Fy! _cry out_ upon
him." Lindley Murray has one example of this kind, and if his punctuation
of it is not bad in all his editions, there must be an ellipsis in the
expression: "O! _for_ better times."--_Octavo Gram._, ii, 6; _Duodecimo
Exercises_, p. 10. He also writes it thus: "O. _for_ better
times."--_Octavo Gram._, i, 120; _Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 47. According to
common usage, it should be, "O for better times!"
OBS. 16.--The interjection may be placed at the _beginning_ or the _end_ of
a simple sentence, and sometimes _between_ its less intimate parts; but
this part of speech is seldom, if ever, allowed to interrupt the connexion
of any words which are closely united in sense. Murray's definition of an
interjection, as I have elsewhere shown, is faulty, and directly
contradicted by his example: "O virtue! how amiable thou art!"--_Octavo
Gram._, i, 28 and 128; ii. 2. This was a favourite sentence with Murray,
and he appears to have written it uniformly in this fashion; which,
undoubtedly, is altogether right, except that the word _"virtue"_ should
have had a capital Vee, because the quality is here personified.
OBS. 17.--Misled by the false notion, that the term _interjection_ is
appropriate only to what is "thrown in between the parts of a _sentence_,"
and perceiving that this is in fact but rarely the situation of this part
of speech, a recent critic, (to whom I should owe some acknowledgements, if
he were not wrong in every thing in which he charges me with error,) not
only denounces this name as "_barbarous_," preferring Webster's loose term,
"_exclamation_;" but avers, that, "The words called _interjection_ should
_never_ be so used--should _always stand alone_; as, 'Oh! virtue, how
amiable thou art.' 'Oh? Absalom, my son.' G. Brown," continues he, "drags
one into the middle of a sentence, _where it never belonged_; thus, 'This
enterprise, _alas_! will never compensate us for the trouble and expense
with which it has been attended.' If G. B. meant the _enterprize_ of
studying grammar, in the old theories, his sentiment is very appropriate;
but his _alas_! he should have known enough to have put into the right
place:--before the sentence representing the fact that excites the emotion
expressed by _alas_! See on the Chart part 3, of RULE XVII. An
_exclamation_ must _always precede_ the phrase or sentence describing the
fact that excites the emotion to be expressed by the _exclamation_; as:
Alas! I have alienated my friend! _Oh!_ Glorious hope of bliss
secure!"--_Oliver B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 375. "O Glorious hope of bliss
secure!"--_Ib._, p. 184. "O _glorious_ hope!"--_Ib._, p. 304.
OBS. 18.--I see no reason to believe, that the class of words which have
always, and almost universally, been called _interjections_, can ever be
more conveniently explained under any other name; and, as for the term
_exclamation_, which is preferred also by Cutler, Felton, Spencer, and S.
W. Clark, it appears to me much less suitable than the old one, because it
is less specific. Any words uttered loudly in the same breath, are _an
exclamation_. This name therefore is too general; it includes other parts
of speech than interjections; and it was but a foolish whim in Dr. Webster,
to prefer it in his dictionaries. When David "cried _with a loud voice_, O
my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" [442] he uttered _two_
exclamations, but they included all his words. He did not, like my critic
above, set off his first word with an interrogation point, or any other
point. But, says Peirce, "These words are _used in exclaiming_, and are
what all know them to be, _exclamations_; as I call them. May I not _call_
them what they _are_?"--_Ibid._ Yes, truly. But to _exclaim_ is to _cry
out_, and consequently every _outcry_ is an _exclamation_; though there are
two chances to one, that _no interjection_ at all be used by the bawler. As
good an argument, or better, may be framed against every one of this
gentleman's professed improvements in grammar; and as for his punctuation
and orthography, any reader may be presumed capable of seeing that they are
not fit to be proposed as models.
OBS. 19.--I like my position of the word "_alas_" better than that which
Peirce supposes to be its only right place; and, certainly, his rule for
the location of words of this sort, as well as his notion that they must
stand alone, is as false, as it is new. The obvious misstatement of Lowth,
Adam, Gould, Murray, Churchill, Alger, Smith, Guy, Ingersoll, and others,
that, "Interjections are words thrown in between the parts of _a
sentence_," I had not only excluded from my grammars, but expressly
censured in them. It was not, therefore, to prop any error of the old
theorists, that I happened to set one interjection "_where_" according to
this new oracle, "_it never belonged_." And if any body but he has been
practically misled by their mistake, it is not I, but more probably some of
the following authors, here cited for his refutation: "I fear, _alas!_ for
my life."--_Fisk's Gram._, p. 89. "I have been occupied, _alas_! with
trifles."--_Murray's Gr., Ex. for Parsing_, p. 5; _Guy's_, p. 56. "We
eagerly pursue pleasure, but, _alas!_ we often mistake the road."--_Smith's
New Gram._, p. 40, "To-morrow, _alas!_ thou _mayest_ be
comfortless!"--_Wright's Gram._, p. 35. "Time flies, _O!_ how
swiftly."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 226. "My friend, _alas!_ is dead."--_J.
Flint's Gram._, p. 21. "But _John, alas! he_ is very idle."--_Merchant's
Gram._, p. 22. "For pale and wan he was, _alas_ the while!"--SPENSER: _Joh.
Dict._ "But yet, _alas! O_ but yet, _alas!_ our haps be but hard
haps."--SYDNEY: _ib._ "Nay, (what's incredible,) _alack!_ I _hardly_ hear a
woman's clack."--SWIFT: _ib._ "Thus life is spent (_oh fie_ upon't!) In
being touch'd, and crying--Don't!"--_Cowper_, i, 231. "For whom, _alas!_
dost thou prepare The sweets that I was wont to share"--_Id._, i, 203. "But
here, _alas!_ the difference lies."--_Id._, i. 100. "Their names, _alas_!
in vain reproach an age," &c.--_Id._, i, 88. "What nature, _alas!_ has
denied," &c.--_Id._, i, 235. "A. _Hail_ Sternhold, then; and Hopkins,
_hail!_ B. Amen."--_Id._, i 25.
"These Fate reserv'd to grace thy reign divine,
Foreseen by me, but _ah!_ withheld from mine!"--_Pope, Dun._, iii, 215.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX PROMISCUOUS. [Fist] [The following examples of bad grammar,
being similar in their character to others already exhibited, are to be
corrected, by the pupil, according to formules previously given.]
LESSON I.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.
"Such an one I believe yours will be proved to be."--PEET: _Farnum's
Gram._, p. 1. "Of the distinction between the imperfect and the perfect
tenses, it may be observed," &c.--_Ainsworth's Gram._, p. 122. "The subject
is certainly worthy consideration."--_Ib._, p. 117. "By this means all
ambiguity and controversy is avoided on this point."--_Bullions, Principles
of Eng. Gram., 5th Ed., Pref._, p. vi. "The perfect participle in English
has both an active and passive signification."--_Ib._, p. 58. "The old
house is at length fallen down."--_Ib._, p. 78. "The king, with the lords
and commons, constitute the English form of government."--_Ib._, p. 93.
"The verb in the singular agrees with the person next it."--_Ib._, p. 95.
"Jane found Seth's gloves in James' hat."--_Felton's Gram._, p. 15.
"Charles' task is too great."--_Ibid._, 15. "The conjugation of a verb is
the naming, in regular order, its several modes tenses, numbers and
persons."--_Ib._, p. 24. "The long remembered beggar was his
guest."--_Ib._, 1st Ed., p. 65. "Participles refer to nouns and
pronouns."--_Ib._, p. 81. "F has an uniform sound in every position except
in _of_."--_Hallock's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 15. "There are three genders; the
masculine, the feminine and neuter."--_Ib._, p. 43. "When _so that_ occur
together, sometimes the particle _so_ is taken as an adverb."--_Ib._, p.
124. "The definition of the articles show that they modify the words to
which they belong."--_Ib._, p. 138. "The auxiliaries _shall, will_, or
_should_ is implied."--_Ib._, p. 192. "Single rhyme trochaic omits the
final short syllable."--_Ib._, p. 244. "Agreeable to this, we read of names
being blotted out of God's book,"--BURDER: _ib._, p. 156; _Webster's
Philos. Gram._, 155; _Improved Gram._, 107. "The first person is the person
speaking."--_Goldsbury's Common School Gram._, p. 10. "Accent is the laying
a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain letter or syllable in a
word."--_Ib._, Ed. of 1842, p. 75. "Thomas' horse was caught."--_Felton's
Gram._, p. 64. "You was loved."--_Ib._, p. 45. "The nominative and
objective end the same."--_Rev. T. Smith's Gram._, p. 18. "The number of
pronouns, like those of substantives, are two, the singular and the
plural."--_Ib._, p. 22. "_I_ is called the pronoun of the _first_ person,
which is the person speaking."--_Frost's Practical Gram._, p. 32. "The
essential elements of the phrase is an intransitive gerundive and an
adjective."--_Hazen's Practical Gram._, p. 141. "Being rich is no
justification for such impudence."--_Ib._, p. 141. "His having been a
soldier in the revolution is not doubted."--_Ib._, p. 143. "Catching fish
is the chief employment of the inhabitants. The chief employment of the
inhabitants is catching fish."--_Ib._, p. 144. "The cold weather did not
prevent the work's being finished at the time specified."--_Ib._, p. 145.
"The former viciousness of that man caused his being suspected of this
crime."--_Ib._, p. 145. "But person and number applied to verbs means,
certain terminations."--_Barrett's Gram._, p. 69. "Robert fell a
tree."--_Ib._, p. 64. "Charles raised up."--_Ib._, p. 64. "It might not be
an useless waste of time."--_Ib._, p. 42. "Neither will you have that
_implicit faith_ in the writings and works of others which characterise the
vulgar,"--_Ib._, p. 5. "_I_, is the first person, because it denotes the
speaker."--_Ib._, p. 46. "I would refer the student to Hedges' or Watts'
Logic."--_Ib._, p. 15. "Hedge's, Watt's, Kirwin's, and Collard's
Logic."--_Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part III, p. 116. "Letters are called
vowels which make a full and perfect sound of themselves."--_Cutler's
Gram._, p. 10. "It has both a singular and plural construction."--_Ib._, p.
23. "For he beholdest thy beams no more."--_Ib._, p. 136. "To this
sentiment the Committee has the candour to incline, as it will appear by
their summing up."--_Macpherson's Ossian, Prelim. Disc._, p. xviii. "This
is reducing the point at issue to a narrow compass."--_Ib._, p. xxv. "Since
the English sat foot upon the soil."--_Exiles of Nova Scotia_, p. 12. "The
arrangement of its different parts are easily retained by the
memory."--_Hiley's Gram._, 3d Ed., p. 262. "The words employed are the most
appropriate which could have been selected."--_Ib._, p. 182. "To prevent it
launching!"--_Ib._, p. 135. "Webster has been followed in preference to
others, where it differs from them."--_Frazee's Gram._, p. 8. "Exclamation
and Interrogation are often mistaken for one another."--_Buchanan's E.
Syntax_, p. 160. "When all nature is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor
guilt keep their vigils."--_Felton's Gram._, p. 96.
"When all nature's hushed asleep,
Nor love, nor guilt, their vigils keep."--_Ib._, p. 95.
LESSON II.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.
"A VERSIFYER and POET are two different Things."--_Brightland's Gram._, p.
163. "Those Qualities will arise from the well expressing of the
Subject."--_Ib._, p. 165. "Therefore the explanation of _network_, is taken
no notice of here."--_Mason's Supplement_, p. vii. "When emphasis or pathos
are necessary to be expressed."--_Humphrey's Punctuation_, p. 38. "Whether
this mode of punctuation is correct, and whether it be proper to close the
sentence with the mark of admiration, may be made a question."--_Ib._, p.
39. "But not every writer in those days were thus correct."--_Ib._, p. 59.
"The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no less than four."--_Ib._, p.
69. "Our present code of rules are thought to be generally correct."--
_Ib._, p. 70. "To prevent its running into another."--_Humphrey's Prosody_,
p. 7. "Shakespeare, perhaps, the greatest poetical genius which England has
produced."--_Ib._, p. 93. "This I will illustrate by example; but prior to
which a few preliminary remarks may be necessary."--_Ib._, p. 107. "All
such are entitled to two accents each, and some of which to two accents
nearly equal."--_Ib._, p. 109. "But some cases of the kind are so plain
that no one need to exercise his judgment therein."--_Ib._, p. 122. "I have
forbore to use the word."--_Ib._, p. 127. "The propositions, 'He may
study,' 'He might study,' 'He could study,' affirms an ability or power to
study."--_Hallock's Gram. of_ 1842, p. 76. "The divisions of the tenses has
occasioned grammarians much trouble and perplexity."--_Ib._, p. 77. "By
adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this subject, it may be
rendered highly attractive to young learners."--_Wells's Sch. Gram._, 1st
Ed., p. 1; 3d, 9; 113th, 11. "The definitions and rules of different
grammarians were carefully compared with each other."--_Ib., Preface_, p.
iii. "So as not wholly to prevent some sounds issuing."--_Sheridan's
Elements of English_, p. 64. "Letters of the Alphabet not yet taken notice
of."--_Ib._, p. 11. "IT _is sad_, IT _is strange_, &c., seems to express
only that _the thing_ is sad, strange, &c."--_The Well-Wishers' Gram._, p.
68. "THE WINNING is easier than THE PRESERVING a conquest."--_Ib._, p. 65.
"The United States finds itself the owner of a vast region of country at
the West."--_Horace Mann in Congress_, 1848. "One or more letters placed
before a word is a Prefix."--_S. W. Clark's Pract. Gram._, p. 42. "One or
more letters added to a word is a Suffix."--_Ib._, p. 42. "Two-thirds of my
hair has fallen off."--_Ib._, p. 126. "'Suspecting,' describes 'we,' by
expressing, incidentally, an act of 'we.'"--_Ib._, p. 130. "Daniel's
predictions are now being fulfilled."--_Ib._, p. 136. "His being a scholar,
entitles him to respect."--_Ib._, p. 141. "I doubted his having been a
soldier."--_Ib._, p. 142. "Taking a madman's sword to prevent his doing
mischief, cannot be regarded as robbing him."--_Ib._, p. 129. "I thought it
to be him; but it was not him."--_Ib._, p. 149. "It was not me that you
saw."--_Ib._, p. 149. "Not to know what happened before you was born, is
always to be a boy."--_Ib._, p. 149. "How long was you going? Three
days."--_Ib._, 158. "The qualifying Adjective is placed next the
Noun."--_Ib._, p. 165. "All went but me."--_Ib._, p. 93. "This is parsing
their own language, and not the author's."--_Wells's School Gram._, 1st
Ed., p. 73. "Nouns which denote males, are of the masculine
gender."--_Ib._, p. 49. "Nouns which denote females, are of the feminine
gender."--_Ib._, p. 49. "When a comparison is expressed between more than
two objects of the same class, the superlative degree is employed."--_Ib._,
p. 133. "Where _d_ or _t_ go before, the additional letter _d_ or _t_, in
this contracted form, coalesce into one letter with the radical _d_ or
_t_."--_Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 9. "Write words which will show what kind
of a house you live in--what kind of a book you hold in your hand--what
kind of a day it is."--_Weld's Gram._, p. 7. "One word or more is often
joined to nouns or pronouns to modify their meaning."--_Ib., 2d Ed._, p.
30. "_Good_ is an adjective; it explains the quality or character of every
person or thing to which it is applied."--_Ib._, p. 33; _Abridg._, 32. "A
great public as well as private advantage arises from every one's devoting
himself to that occupation which he prefers, and for which he is specially
fitted."--WAYLAND: _Wells's Gram._, p. 121; _Weld's_, 180. "There was a
chance of his recovering his senses. Not thus: 'There was a chance of him
recovering his senses.' MACAULEY."--See _Wells's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 121;
113th, 135. "This may be known by its not having any connecting word
immediately preceding it."--_Weld's Gram., 2d Edition_, p. 181. "There are
_irregular_ expressions occasionally to be met with, which usage or custom
rather than analogy, sanction."--_Ib._, p. 143. "He added an anecdote of
Quinn's relieving Thomson from prison."--_Ib._, p. 150. "The daily labor of
her hands procure for her all that is necessary."--_Ib._, p. 182. "Its
being _me_, need make no change in your determination."--_Hart's Gram._, p.
128. "The classification of words into what is called the Parts of
Speech."--_Weld's Gram._, p. 5. "Such licenses may be explained under what
is usually termed Figures."--_Ib._, p. 212.
"Liberal, not lavish, is kind nature's hands."--_Ib._, p. 196.
"They fall successive and successive live."--_Ib._, p. 213.
LESSON III.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.
"A figure of Etymology is the intentional deviation in the usual form of a
word."--_Weld's Gram., 2d Edition_, p. 213. "A figure of Syntax is the
intentional deviation in the usual construction of a word."--_Ib._, 213.
"Synecdoche is putting the name of the whole of anything for a part or a
part for the whole."--_Ib._, 215. "Apostrophe is turning off from the
regular course of the subject to address some person or thing."--_Ib._,
215. "Even young pupils will perform such exercises with surprising
interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a little time, more
knowledge of the structure of Language than he can acquire by a drilling of
several years in the usual routine of parsing."--_Ib., Preface_, p. iv. "A
few Rules of construction are employed in this Part, to guide in the
exercise of parsing."--_Ibidem_. "The name of every person, object, or
thing, which can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun."--_Ib._, p. 18;
_Abridged Ed._, 19. "A dot, resembling our period, is used between every
word, as well as at the close of the verses."--_W. Day's Punctuation_, p.
16; _London_, 1847. "Casting types in matrices was invented by Peter
Schoeffer, in 1452."--_Ib._, p. 23. "On perusing it, he said, that, so far
from it showing the prisoner's guilt, it positively established his
innocence."--_Ib._, p. 37. "By printing the _nominative_ and _verb_ in
_Italic_ letters, the reader will be able to distinguish them at a
glance."--_Ib._, p. 77. "It is well, no doubt, to avoid using unnecessary
words."--_Ib._, p. 99. "Meeting a friend the other day, he said to me,
'Where are you going?'"--_Ib._, p. 124. "John was first denied _apples_,
then he was promised _them_, then he was offered _them_."--_Lennie's
Gram._, 5th Ed., p. 62. "He was denied admission."--_Wells's School Gram._,
1st Ed., p. 146. "They were offered a pardon."--_Pond's Murray_, p. 118;
_Wells_, 146. "I was this day shown a new potatoe."--DARWIN: _Webster's
Philos. Gram._, p. 179; _Imp. Gram._, 128; _Frazee's Gram._, 153; _Weld's_,
153. "Nouns or pronouns which denote males are of the masculine
gender."--_S. S. Greene's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 211. "There are three degrees
of comparison--the positive, comparative, and superlative."--_Ib._, p. 216;
_First Les._, p. 49. "The first two refer to direction; the third, to
locality."--_Ib., Gr._, p. 103. "The following are some of the verbs which
take a direct and indirect object."--_Ib._, p. 62. "I was not aware of his
being the judge of the Supreme Court."--_Ib._, p. 86. "An indirect question
may refer to either of the five elements of a declarative
sentence."--_Ib._, p. 123. "I am not sure _that he will be present_ = _of
his being present_."--_Ib._, p. 169. "We left on Tuesday."--_Ib._, p. 103.
"He left, as he told me, before the arrival of the steamer."--_Ib._, p.
143. "We told him _that he must leave_ = We told him _to leave_."--_Ib._,
p. 168. "Because he was unable to persuade the multitude, he left in
disgust."--_Ib._, p. 172. "He _left_, and _took_ his brother with
him."--_Ib._, p. 254. "This stating, or declaring, or denying any thing, is
called the indicative mode, or manner of speaking."--_Weld's Gram._, 2d
Ed., p. 72; _Abr. Ed._, 59. "This took place at our friend Sir Joshua
Reynold's."--_Weld's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 150; _Imp. Ed._, 154. "The manner
of a young lady's employing herself usefully in reading will be the subject
of another paper."--_Ib._, 150; or 154. "Very little time is necessary for
Johnson's concluding a treaty with the bookseller."--_Ib._, 150; or 154.
"My father is not now sick, but if he _was_ your services would be
welcome."--_Chandler's Grammar_, 1821, p. 54. "When we begin to write or
speak, we ought previously to fix in our minds a clear conception of the
end to be aimed at."--_Blair's Rhetoric_, p. 193. "Length of days are in
her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor."--_Bullions's
Analytical and Practical Grammar_, 1849, p. 59. "The active and passive
present express different ideas."--_Ib._, p. 235. "An _Improper Diphthong_,
or Digraph, is a diphthong in which only one of the vowels are
sounded."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, Sec.115. "The real origin of the
words are to be sought in the Latin."--_Ib._, Sec.120. "What sort of an
alphabet the Gothic languages possess, we know; what sort of alphabet they
require, we can determine."--_Ib._, Sec.127. "The Runic Alphabet whether
borrowed or invented by the early Goths, is of greater antiquity than
either the oldest Teutonic or the Moeso-Gothic Alphabets."--_Ib._, Sec.129.
"Common to the Masculine and the Neuter Genders."--_Ib._, Sec.222. "In the
Anglo-Saxon _his_ was common to both the Masculine and Neuter
Genders."--_Ib._, Sec.222. "When time, number, or dimension are specified, the
adjective follows the substantive."--_Ib._, Sec.459. "Nor pain, nor grief, nor
anxious fear Invade thy bounds."--_Ib._, Sec.563. "To Brighton the Pavilion
lends a _lath and plaster_ grace."--_Ib._, Sec.590. "From this consideration
nouns have been given but one person, the THIRD."--_D. C. Allen's Grammatic
Guide_, p. 10.
"For it seems to guard and cherish
Even the wayward dreamer--I."--_Home Journal_.
EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.
PRAXIS XIII.--SYNTACTICAL.
_In the following Lessons, are exemplified most of the Exceptions, some of
the Notes, and many of the Observations, under the preceding Rules of
Syntax; to which Exceptions, Notes, or Observations, the learner may recur,
for an explanation of whatsoever is difficult in the parsing, or peculiar
in the construction, of these examples or others._
LESSON I.--PROSE.
"_The_ higher a bird flies, _the_ more out of danger he is; and _the_
higher a Christian soars above the world, _the_ safer are his
comforts."--_Sparke_.
"_In_ this point of view, and _with_ this explanation, _it_ is supposed by
some grammarians, that our language contains _a_ few Impersonal Verbs; that
is, _verbs_ which declare the existence of some action or state, but
_which_ do not refer to any animate being, or any determinate particluar
subject."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 109.
"Thus in England and France, a great landholder possesses _a_ hundred
_times_ the property that is necessary for the subsistence of a family; and
each landlord has perhaps _a_ hundred families dependent on him for
subsistence."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 87.
"_It_ is as possible to become _pedantick_ by fear of pedantry, as to be
_troublesome_ by ill timed civility."--_Johnson's Rambler_, No. 173.
"_To_ commence _author, is_ to claim praise; and no man can justly aspire
to honour, but at the hazard of disgrace."--_Ib._, No. 93.
"_For_ ministers to be silent in the cause of Christ, _is_ to renounce it;
and to fly _is_ to desert it."--SOUTH: _Crabb's Synonymes_, p. 7.
"Such instances shew how much _the sublime_ depends upon a just selection
of circumstances; and _with_ how great care every circumstance must be
avoided, which _by_ bordering _in the least_ upon _the mean_, or even upon
_the gay_ or _the trifling_, alters the tone of the emotion."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 43.
"This great poet and philosopher, _the_ more _he_ contemplated the nature
of the Deity, _found_ that _he_ waded _but the_ more out of his depth, and
that _he_ lost _himself_ in the thought _instead_ of finding an end to
it."--_Addison_. "_Odin, which_ in Anglo-Saxon was _Woden_, was the supreme
god of the Goths, answering to the Jupiter of the Greeks."--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 262.
"Because confidence, that _charm_ and _cement_ of intimacy, _is_ wholly
wanting in the intercourse."--_Opie, on Lying_, p. 146.
"Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also _of_ taste, _of_
smell, and _of_ touch: but the chief _fund_ of comparison _are objects_ of
sight."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 136.
"The various relations of the various Objects exhibited by this (I mean
relations of _near_ and _distant, present_ and _absent, same_ and
_different, definite_ and _indefinite_, &c.) made it necessary that _here
there_ should not be one, but many Pronouns, such as _He, This, That,
Other, Any, Some_, &c."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 72.
"Mr. Pope's Ethical Epistles _deserve_ to be mentioned with signal honour,
_as_ a _model_, next to _perfect, of_ this kind of poetry."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 402.
"The knowledge _of why_ they so exist, must be the last act of favour
_which_ time and toil will bestow."--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 253.
"_It_ is unbelief, and _not faith, that_ sinks the sinner into
despondency.--Christianity disowns such characters."--_Fuller, on the
Gospel_, p. 141.
"That God created the universe, [and] that men are accountable for their
actions, _are frequently mentioned_ by logicians, as instances of the mind
judging."
LESSON II.--PROSE.
"_To_ censure works, _not men, is_ the just _prerogative_ of criticism, and
accordingly all personal censure is here avoided, unless _where necessary_
to illustrate some general proposition."--_Kames, El. of Crit.,
Introduction_, p. 27.
"_There remains_ to show by examples the manner of treating subjects, so as
to give them a ridiculous appearance."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 303.
"The making of poetry, _like_ any other _handicraft_, may be learned by
industry."--_Macpherson's Preface to Ossian_, p. xiv.
"Whatever is found more strange or beautiful than _was expected_, is judged
to be more strange or beautiful than it is in reality."--_Kames, El. of
Crit._, Vol. i, p. 243.
"Thus the body of an animal, and of a plant, _are composed_ of certain
great vessels; these[,] of _smaller_; and these again[,] of still
_smaller_, without end, _as_ far as we can discover."--_Id., ib._, p. 270.
"This cause of beauty, is too extensive to be handled _as a branch_ of any
other subject: for _to_ ascertain with accuracy even the proper meaning of
words, _not to talk_ of their figurative power, _would require_ a large
volume; _an_ useful _work_ indeed, but not to be attempted without a large
stock of time, study, and reflection."--_Id._, Vol. ii, p. 16.
"O the hourly _dangers_ that we here walk _in_! Every sense, and member,
_is_ a snare; every creature, and every duty, _is_ a snare to
us."--_Baxter, Saints's Rest_.
"_For_ a man _to give_ his opinion of what he sees _but_ in part, _is_ an
unjustifiable _piece_ of rashness and folly."--_Addison_.
"_That_ the sentiments thus prevalent among the early Jews _respecting_ the
divine authority of the Old Testament were correct, _appears_ from the
testimony of Jesus Christ and his apostles."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 69.
"So in Society we are not our _own_, but Christ's, and the church's, to
good works and services, yet all in love."--_Barclay's Works_, Vol. i, p.
84.
"He [_Dr. Johnson_] sat up in his bed, _clapped_ his hands, _and cried, 'O
brave we_!'--a peculiar _exclamation_ of _his_ when he rejoices."--
_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, Vol. iii, p. 56.
"Single, double, and treble emphasis _are_ nothing but examples of
antithesis."--_Knowles's Elocutionist_, p. xxviii.
"The curious _thing, and what_, I would almost say, _settles_ the point,
_is_, that we do _Horace_ no service, even according to our view of the
matter, by rejecting the scholiast's explanation. No two eggs can be _more
like each other_ than Horace's _Malthinus_ and Seneca's _Mecenas_."--
_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 477. "_Acting, conduct, behaviour_,
abstracted from all regard to what is, in fact and event, the consequence
of _it, is itself_ the natural object of this moral discernment, as
speculative truth _and_ [say _or_] falsehood is _of_ speculative
reason."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 277.
"_To_ do what is _right_, with unperverted faculties, _is_ ten _times
easier_ than to undo what is wrong."--_Porter's Analysis_, p. 37.
"Some _natures the_ more _pains_ a man takes to reclaim them, _the_ worse
they are."--L'ESTRANGE: _Johnson's Dict., w. Pains_.
"Says _John Milton_, in that impassioned speech for the Liberty of
Unlicensed Printing, where every word leaps with intellectual life, '_Who_
kills a man, _kills_ a reasonable creature, God's image; but _who_ destroys
a good book, _kills_ reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in
the eye. Many a man lives a burden upon the earth; but a good book is the
precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on
purpose for a life beyond life!'"--_Louisville Examiner_, June, 1850.
LESSON III.--PROSE.
"The philosopher, the saint, or the hero--_the_ wise, _the_ good, or the
great man--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, _which_ a
proper education might have disinterred and _brought_ to
light."--_Addison_.
"The _year before_, he had so used the matter, that _what_ by force, _what_
by policy, he had taken from the Christians _above_ thirty small
castles."--_Knolles_.
"_It_ is an important truth, that religion, vital _religion_, the
_religion_ of the heart, is the most powerful auxiliary of reason, in
waging war with the passions, and promoting that sweet composure which
constitutes the peace of God."--_Murray's Key_, p. 181.
"_Pray, sir, be pleased_ to take the part of _us beauties_ and _fortunes_
into your consideration, and do not let us _be flattered_ out of our
senses. _Tell_ people that _we_ fair _ones_ expect honest plain answers, as
well as other folks."--_Spectator_, No. 534. "_Unhappy it_ would be _for_
us, _did_ not uniformity _prevail_ in morals: _that_ our actions should
uniformly be directed to what is _good_ and against what is _ill_, is the
greatest _blessing_ in society; and _in_ order to uniformity of action,
uniformity of sentiment is indispensable."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii,
p. 366.
"Thus the pleasure of all the senses is _the same_ in _all, high_ and _low,
learned_ and _unlearned_."--_Burke, on Taste_, p. 39.
"_Upwards_ of eight millions of acres _have_, I believe, been thus disposed
of."--_Society in America_, Vol. i, p. 333.
"The Latin Grammar comes _something_ nearer, but yet does not hit the mark
_neither_."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 281.
"_Of_ the like nature is the following inaccuracy of _Dean
Swift's_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 105. "Thus, Sir, I have given _you_ my own
opinion, relating to this weighty affair, as well as _that_ of a great
majority of both houses here."--_Ib._
"A foot is just _twelve_ times as long as an _inch_; and an hour is sixty
_times_ the _length_ of a minute."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 48.
"What can we expect, who come _a gleaning_, not after the first reapers,
but after the _very_ beggars?"--_Cowley's Pref. to Poems_, p. x.
"In our _Lord's being betrayed_ into the hands of the chief-priests and
scribes, by Judas Iscariot; in _his being_ by them _delivered_ to the
Gentiles; in _his being mocked, scourged, spitted on_, [say _spit upon_,]
and _crucified_; and in his _rising_ from the dead after three days; there
was much that was singular, complicated, and not to be easily calculated on
before hand."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 40.
"To be _morose, implacable, inexorable_, and _revengeful_, is one of the
greatest degeneracies of human nature."--_Dr. J. Owen_.
"Now, says _he_, if tragedy, which is in its nature _grand_ and _lofty_,
will not admit of this, _who can forbear laughing_ to hear the historian
Gorgias Leontinus styling Xerxes, that cowardly Persian king, _Jupiter_;
and vultures, living _sepulchres_?"--_Holmes's Rhetoric?_, Part II, p. 14.
"O let thy all-seeing eye, and not the eye of the world, be the star to
steer my course _by_; and let thy blessed favour, more than the liking of
any sinful men, be ever my study and delight."--_Jenks's Prayers_, p. 156.
LESSON IV.--PROSE.
"O _the Hope_ of Israel, _the Saviour thereof_ in time of trouble, why
_shouldest thou_ be as a _stranger_ in the land, and as a way-faring _man_,
that turneth aside to tarry for a night?"--_Jeremiah_, xiv, 8.
"When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the
ark was _a preparing, wherein_ few, _that_ is, eight souls, were
saved."--_1 Peter_, iii, 20.
"Mercy and truth _are_ met together; righteousness and peace have kissed
_each other_."--_Psalms_, lxxxv, 10.
"But _in vain_ they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men."--_Matt._, xv, 9.
"Knowest thou not this _of old_, since man was placed upon the earth, that
the _triumphing_ of the _wicked_ is short, and the joy of the hypocrite
_but_ for a moment?"--_Job_, xx, 4, 5.
"For now we _see_ through a glass darkly; but _then, face_ to _face_: now I
_know_ in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."--_1 Cor._,
xiii, 12.
"For then the _king of Babylon's_ army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the
_Prophet_ was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the _king of
Judah's_ house."--_Jer._, xxxii, 2.
"For Herod had laid hold on John, and _bound_ him, and _put_ him in prison,
for _Herodias'_ sake, his _brother_ Philip's _wife_."--_Matt._, xiv, 3.
"And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, _of Huram_
my _father's_, the _son_ of a woman of the daughters of Dan."--_2 Chron._,
ii, 13.
"Bring no _more_ vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new
moons and sabbaths, the _calling_ of assemblies, I _cannot away with: it_
is iniquity _even_ the solemn _meeting_."--_Isaiah_, i, 13.
"For I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth
herself, that spreadeth her hands, _saying_, Woe is _me_ now! for my soul
is wearied _because_ of murderers."--_Jer._, iv, 31.
"She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the _images_ of the Chaldeans
portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding
in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes _to_ look _to, after_
the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the _land_ of their
nativity."--_Ezekiel_, xxiii, 15.
"And on them _was written_ according to all the words which the Lord spake
with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the
assembly."--_Deut._, ix, 10.
"And he charged them that they _should tell no man_: but _the_ more he
charged them, so much _the_ more a great _deal_ they published
it."--_Mark_, vii, 36.
"The results which God has connected with actions, will inevitably occur,
all the created _power_ in the universe to the contrary
_notwithstanding_."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 5.
"Am _I_ not an _apostle_? am _I_ not _free_? have I not seen Jesus Christ
our Lord? are not _ye_ my _work_ in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto
others, yet doubtless I am _to_ you; for the _seal_ of _mine_ apostleship
are _ye_ in the Lord."--_1 Cor._, ix, 1, 2.
"Not _to insist_ upon this, _it_ is evident, that formality is a term of
general import. It implies, that in religious exercises of all kinds _the_
outward and [the] inward man _are_ at diametrical variance."--_Chapman's
Sermons to Presbyterians_, p. 354.
LESSON V.--VERSE.
"_See_ the sole bliss Heaven _could_ on all _bestow_,
Which _who but_ feels, can taste, _but_ thinks, can know;
Yet, poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
_The bad_ must miss, _the good_, untaught, will find."--_Pope_.
"There _are, who, deaf_ to mad Ambition's call,
Would shrink to hear th' obstreperous trump of fame;
Supremely _blest_, if to their portion fall
Health, competence, and peace."--_Beattie_.
"High stations _tumult_, but _not bliss_, create;
None think _the great_ unhappy, but _the great_.
Fools gaze and _envy_: envy darts a sting,
Which makes a swain as _wretched_ as a king."--_Young_.
"Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
_Sink_ down, _ye mountains_; and, _ye valleys, rise_;
With heads declin'd, _ye cedars_, homage _pay_;
_Be_ smooth, _ye rocks; ye_ rapid _floods, give_ way."--_Pope_.
"Amid the forms which this full world presents
_Like rivals to his_ choice, what human breast
E'er doubts, before the _transient and minute_,
To prize the _vast_, the _stable_, and _sublime_?"--_Akenside_.
"Now fears in dire vicissitude invade;
The rustling brake _alarms_, and quiv'ring _shade_:
_Nor_ light nor darkness brings his _pain_ relief;
One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief."--_Johnson_.
"If Merab's choice could have complied with _mine_,
Merab, my elder comfort, had been _thine_:
And _hers_, at _last_, should have with _mine_ complied,
Had I not _thine_ and Michael's heart descried."--_Cowley_.
"The people have _as much_ a negative voice
To hinder _making_ war without their choice,
As kings of making laws in parliament:
'_No money' is_ as _good_ as '_No assent_.'"--_Butler_.
"Full _many a gem_ of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full _many a flower_ is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."--_Gray_.
"_Oh fool_! to think God hates the worthy _mind_,
The lover and the love of human kind,
_Whose_ life is healthful, and _whose_ conscience clear,
Because _he_ wants _a_ thousand pounds _a_ year."--_Pope_.
"O _Freedom_! sovereign _boon_ of Heav'n,
Great _charter_, with our being given;
For _which_ the patriot and the sage
Have plann'd, have bled thro' ev'ry age!"--_Mallet_.
LESSON VI.--VERSE.
"Am I to set my life upon a throw,
Because a bear is rude and surly? _No_."--_Cowper_.
"_Poor, guiltless I_! and can I choose but _smile_,
When every coxcomb knows me by my style?"--_Pope_.
"Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,
_Prayer_ all his _business_, all his _pleasure praise_."--_Parnell_.
"These are _thy_ blessings, _Industry_! rough power;
_Whom_ labour still attends, and _sweat_, and _pain_."--_Thomson_.
"_What ho! thou genius_ of the clime, _what ho_!
Liest thou _asleep_ beneath these hills of snow?"--_Dryden_.
"_What_! canst thou not forbear me _half an hour_?
Then _get_ thee gone, and _dig_ my grave thyself."--_Shak_.
"Then palaces and lofty domes arose;
_These_ for devotion, and for pleasure _those_."--_Blackmore_.
"'Tis very dangerous, _tampering_ with a muse;
The profit's small, and you have much to lose."--_Roscommon_.
"_Lucretius English'd_! 't was a work _might shake_
The power of English verse to undertake."--_Otway_.
"_The best_ may slip, and _the_ most _cautious fall_;
He's _more_ than _mortal_, that ne'er err'd _at all_."--_Pomfret_.
"_Poets_ large _souls_ heaven's noblest stamps do bear,
_Poets_, the watchful angels' darling care."--_Stepney_.
"Sorrow breaks reasons, and reposing hours;
Makes the night _morning_, and the noon-tide _night_."--_Shak._
"Nor then the solemn nightingale _ceas'd warbling_."--_Milton_.
"And O, poor hapless _nightingale_, thought I,
How _sweet_ thou singst, how _near_ the deadly _snare_!"--_Id._
"He calls for _famine_, and the meagre fiend
Blows mildew _from between his_ shrivell'd lips."--_Cowper_.
"If o'er their lives a refluent _glance_ they cast,
Theirs is _the present_ who can praise _the past_."--_Shenstone_.
"Who wickedly is _wise_, or madly _brave,
Is but the more_ a fool, the _more_ a knave."--_Pope_.
"Great _eldest-born_ of Dullness, blind and bold!
_Tyrant!_ more cruel than Procrustes old;
Who, to his iron bed, by torture, fits,
Their nobler _part_, the _souls_ of suffering wits."--_Mallet_.
"Parthenia, _rise_.--What voice alarms my ear?
_Away_. Approach not. Hah! _Alexis_ there!"--_Gay_.
"Nor is it _harsh_ to make, nor _hard_ to find
A country _with--ay_, or without mankind."--_Byron_.
"A _frame_ of adamant, a _soul_ of fire,
_No_ dangers fright him, and _no_ labours tire."--_Johnson_.
"Now _pall_ the tasteless _meats_, and joyless _wines_,
And _luxury_ with sighs _her slave resigns_."--_Id._
"_Seems?_ madam; nay, it is: I know not _seems_--
For I have that within which passes show."--_Hamlet_.
"_Return? said_ Hector, fir'd with stern disdain:
_What! coop_ whole armies in our walls again?"--_Pope_.
"He whom the fortune of the field shall cast
_From forth_ his chariot, _mount_ the next in haste."--_Id._
"_Yet here, Laertes? aboard, aboard, for_ shame!"--_Shak_.
"_Justice_, most gracious _Duke; O grant me_ justice!"--_Id._
"But what a _vengeance_ makes thee _fly_
From me too, as thine enemy?"--_Butler_.
"Immortal _Peter_! first of monarchs! He
His stubborn _country_ tam'd, _her_ rocks, _her_ fens,
_Her_ floods, _her_ seas, _her_ ill-submitting sons."--_Thomson_.
"O arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket, thou:--
Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread!
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard,
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st."
SHAK.: _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV, Sc 3.
CHAPTER XII.--GENERAL REVIEW.
This twelfth chapter of Syntax is devoted to a series of lessons,
methodically digested, wherein are reviewed and reapplied, mostly in the
order of the parts of speech, all those syntactical principles heretofore
given which are useful for the correction of errors.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX FOR A GENERAL REVIEW.
[Fist][The following examples of false syntax are arranged for a General
Review of the doctrines contained in the preceding Rules and Notes. Being
nearly all of them exact quotations, they are also a sort of syllabus of
verbal criticism on the various works from which they are taken. What
corrections they are supposed to need, may be seen by inspection of the
twelfth chapter of the Key. It is here expected, that by recurring to the
instructions before given, the learner who takes them as an oral exercise,
will ascertain for himself the proper form of correcting each example,
according to the particular Rule or Note under which it belongs. When two
or more errors occur in the same example, they ought to be corrected
successively, in their order. The erroneous sentence being read aloud as it
stands, the pupil should say, "_first_, Not proper, because, &c." And when
the first error has thus been duly corrected by a brief and regular
syllogism, either the same pupil or an other should immediately proceed,
and say, "_Secondly_, Not proper _again_, because," &c. And so of the third
error, and the fourth, if there be so many. In this manner, a class may be
taught to speak in succession without any waste of time, and, after some
practice, with a near approach to the PERFECT ACCURACY which is the great
end of grammatical instruction. When time cannot be allowed for this
regular exercise, these examples may still be profitably rehearsed by a
more rapid process, one pupil reading aloud the quoted false grammar, and
an other responding to each example, by reading the intended correction
from the Key.]
LESSON I.--ARTICLES.
"And they took stones, and made an heap."--_Com. Bibles; Gen._, xxxi, 46.
"And I do know a many fools, that stand in better place."--_Beauties of
Shak._, p. 44. "It is a strong antidote to the turbulence of passion, and
violence of pursuit."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. xxiii. "The word
_news_ may admit of either a singular or plural application."--_Wright's
Gram._, p. 39. "He has earned a fair and a honorable reputation."--_Ib._,
p. 140. "There are two general forms, called the solemn and familiar
style."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 109. "Neither the article nor preposition
may be omitted."--_Wright's Gram._, p 190. "A close union is also
observable between the Subjunctive and Potential Moods."--_Ib._, p. 72. "We
should render service, equally, to a friend, neighbour, and an
enemy."--_Ib._, p. 140. "Till an habit is obtained of aspirating
strongly."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 49. "There is an uniform, steady use
of the same signs."--_Ib._, p. 163. "A traveller remarks the most objects
he sees."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 72. "What is the name of the river on
which London stands? The Thames."--"We sometimes find the last line of a
couplet or triplet stretched out to twelve syllables."--_Adam's Lat. and
Eng. Gram._, p. 282. "Nouns which follow active verbs, are not in the
nominative case."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 14. "It is a solemn duty to speak
plainly of wrongs, which good men perpetrate."--_Channing's Emancip._, p.
71. "Gathering of riches is a pleasant torment."--_Treasury of Knowledge,
Dict._, p. 446. "It [the lamentation of Helen for Hector] is worth the
being quoted."--_Coleridge's Introd._, p. 100. "_Council_ is a noun which
admits of a singular and plural form."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 137. "To
exhibit the connexion between the Old and the New Testaments."--_Keith's
Evidences_, p. 25. "An apostrophe discovers the omission of a letter or
letters."--_Guy's Gram_, p. 95. "He is immediately ordained, or rather
acknowledged an hero."--_Pope, Preface to the Dunciad_. "Which is the same
in both the leading and following State."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 86.
"Pronouns, as will be seen hereafter, have a distinct nominative,
possessive, and objective case."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 15. "A word of many
syllables is called polysyllable."--_Beck's Outline of E. Gram._, p. 4.
"Nouns have two numbers, singular and plural."--_Ib._, p. 6. "They have
three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter."--_Ib._, p. 6. "They have
three cases, nominative, possessive, and objective."--_Ib._, p. 6.
"Personal Pronouns have, like Nouns, two numbers, singular and plural.
Three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Two cases, nominative and
objective."--_Ib._, p. 10. "He must be wise enough to know the singular
from plural."--_Ib._, p. 20. "Though they may be able to meet the every
reproach which any one of their fellows may prefer."--_Chalmers, Sermons_,
p. 104. "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as
Paul the aged."--_Ep. to Philemon_, 9. "Being such one as Paul the
aged."--_Dr. Webster's Bible_. "A people that jeoparded their lives unto
the death."--_Judges_, v, 18. "By preventing the too great accumulation of
seed within a too narrow compass."--_The Friend_, Vol. vii, p. 97. "Who
fills up the middle space between the animal and intellectual nature, the
visible and invisible world."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 519. "The Psalms
abound with instances of an harmonious arrangement of the
words."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 339. "On another table were an ewer
and vase, likewise of gold."--_N. Y. Mirror_, xi, 307. "_Th_ is said to
have two sounds sharp, and flat."--_Wilson's Essay on Gram._, p. 33.
"Section (Sec.) is used in subdividing of a chapter into lesser
parts."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 152. "Try it in a Dog or an Horse or any
other Creature."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 46. "But particularly in learning of
Languages there is least occasion for poseing of Children."--_Ib._, p.
296. "What kind of a noun is _river_, and why?"--_Smith's New Gram._, p.
10. "Is _William's_ a proper or common noun?"--_Ib._, p. 12. "What kind of
an article, then, shall we call _the_?"--_Ib._, p. 13.
"Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
Or with a rival's or an eunuch's spite."--_Pope, on Crit._, l. 30.
LESSON II.--NOUNS, OR CASES.
"And there is stamped upon their Imaginations Idea's that follow them with
Terror and Affrightment."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 251. "There's not a wretch
that lives on common charity, but's happier than me."--VENICE PRESERVED:
_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 63. "But they overwhelm whomsoever is ignorant of
them."--_Common School Journal_, i,115. "I have received a letter from my
cousin, she that was here last week."--_Inst._, p. 129. "Gentlemens Houses
are seldom without Variety of Company."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 107. "Because
Fortune has laid them below the level of others, at their Masters
feet."--_Ib._, p. 221. "We blamed neither John nor Mary's delay."--_Nixon's
Parser_, p. 117. "The book was written by Luther the reformer's
order."--_Ib._, p. 59. "I saw on the table of the saloon Blair's Sermons,
and somebody else (I forget who's) sermons, and a set of noisy
children."--_Lord Byron's Letters_. "Or saith he it altogether for our
sakes?"--_1 Cor._, ix, 10. "He was not aware of the duke's being his
competitor."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 190. "It is no condition of a word's
being an adjective, that it must be placed before a noun."--FOWLE: _ib._,
p. 190. "Though their Reason corrected the wrong Idea's they had taken
in."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 251. "It was him, who taught me to hate
slavery."--_Morris, in Congress_, 1839. "It is him and his kindred, who
live upon the labour of others."--_Id., ib._ "Payment of Tribute is an
Acknowledgment of his being King to whom we think it Due."--_Right of
Tythes_, p. 161. "When we comprehend what we are taught."--_Ingersoll's
Gram._, p. 14. "The following words, and parts of words, must be taken
notice of."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 96. "Hence tears and commiseration are
so often made use of."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 269. "JOHN-A-NOKES, _n. s._ A
fictitious name, made use of in law proceedings."--_Chalmers, Eng. Dict._
"The construction of Matter, and Part taken hold of."--_B. F. Fisk's Greek
Gram._, p. x. "And such other names, as carry with them the Idea's of some
thing terrible and hurtful."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 250. "Every learner then
would surely be glad to be spared the trouble and fatigue"--_Pike's Hebrew
Lexicon_, p. iv. "'Tis not the owning ones Dissent from another, that I
speak against."--_Locke, on Ed._, p 265. "A man that cannot Fence will be
more careful to keep out of Bullies and Gamesters Company, and will not be
half so apt to stand upon Punctilio's."--_Ib._, p. 357. "From such Persons
it is, one may learn more in one Day, than in a Years rambling from one Inn
to another."--_Ib._, p. 377. "A long syllable is generally considered to be
twice the length of a short one."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 117. "_I_ is of the
first person, and singular number; _Thou_ is second per. sing.; _He, She_,
or _It_, is third per. sing.; _We_ is first per. plural; _Ye_ or _You_ is
second per. plural; _They_ is third per. plural."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p.
46. "This actor, doer, or producer of the action, is the
nominative."--_Ib._, p. 43. "No Body can think a Boy of Three or Seven
Years old, should be argued with, as a grown Man."--_Locke, on Ed._, p.
129. "This was in one of the Pharisees' houses, not, in Simon the
leper's."--_Hammond_. "Impossible! it can't be me."--_Swift_. "Whose grey
top shall tremble, Him descending."--_Dr. Bentley_. "What gender is
_woman_, and why?"--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 8. "What gender, then, is
_man_, and why?"--_Ibid._ "Who is _I_; who do you mean when you say
_I?"--R. W. Green's Gram._, p. 19. "It [Parnassus] is a pleasant air, but a
barren soil."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 311. "You may, in three days time, go
from Galilee to Jerusalem."--_Josephus_, Vol. 5, p. 174. "And that which is
left of the meat-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons."--SCOTT'S BIBLE,
and BRUCE'S: _Lev._, ii, 10. See also ii, 3.
"For none in all the world, without a lie,
Can say that this is mine, excepting I."--_Bunyan_.
LESSON III.--ADJECTIVES
"When he can be their Remembrancer and Advocate every Assises and
Sessions."--_Right of Tythes_, p. 244. "Doing, denotes all manner of
action; as, to dance, to play, to write, to read, to teach, to fight,
&c."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 33. "Seven foot long,"--"eight foot
long,"--"fifty foot long."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 205. "Nearly the whole
of this twenty-five millions of dollars is a dead loss to the
nation."--_Fowler, on Tobacco_, p. 16. "Two negatives destroy one
another."--_R. W. Green's Gram._, p. 92. "We are warned against excusing
sin in ourselves, or in each other."--_The Friend_, iv, 108. "The Russian
empire is more extensive than any government in the world."--_School Geog_.
"You will always have the Satisfaction to think it the Money of all other
the best laid out."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 145. "There is no one passion
which all mankind so naturally give into as pride."--_Steele, Spect._, No.
462. "O, throw away the worser part of it."--_Beauties of Shak._, p 237.
"He showed us a more agreeable and easier way."--_Inst._, p. 134. "And the
four last [are] to point out those further improvements."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p. 52; _Campbell's_, 187. "Where he has not distinct and, different
clear Idea's."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 353. "Oh, when shall we have such
another Rector of Laracor!"--_Hazlitt's Lect_. "Speech must have been
absolutely necessary previous to the formation of society."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p. 2. "Go and tell them boys to be still."--_Inst._, p. 135.
"Wrongs are engraved on marble; benefits, on sand: these are apt to be
requited; those, forgot."--_B_. "Neither of these several interpretations
is the true one."--_B_. "My friend indulged himself in some freaks
unbefitting the gravity of a clergyman."--_B_. "And their Pardon is All
that either of their Impropriators will have to plead."--_Right of Tythes_,
p. 196. "But the time usually chosen to send young Men abroad, is, I think,
of all other, that which renders them least capable of reaping those
Advantages."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 372. "It is a mere figment of the human
imagination, a rhapsody of the transcendent unintelligible."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p. 120. "It contains a greater assemblage of sublime ideas, of bold
and daring figures, than is perhaps any where to be met with."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 162. "The order in which the two last words are placed, should
have been reversed."--_Ib._, p. 204. "The _orders_ in which the two last
words are placed, should have been reversed."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p.
310. "In Demosthenes, eloquence _shown_ forth with higher splendour, than
perhaps in any that ever bore the name of an orator."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
242. "The circumstance of his being poor is decidedly favorable."--
_Student's Manual_, p. 286. "The temptations to dissipation are greatly
lessened by his being poor."--_Ib._, p. 287. "For with her death that
tidings came."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 257. "The next objection is, that
these sort of authors are poor."--_Cleland_. "Presenting Emma as Miss
Castlemain to these acquaintance."--_Opie's Temper_. "I doubt not but it
will please more than the opera."--_Spect._, No. 28. "The world knows only
two, that's Rome and I."--_Ben Jonson_. "I distinguish these two things
from one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 29. "And in this case, mankind
reciprocally claim, and allow indulgence to each other."--_Sheridan's
Lect._, p. 29. "The six last books are said not to have received the
finishing hand of the author."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 438. "The best executed
part of the work, is the first six books."--_Ib._, p. 447.
"To reason how can we be said to rise?
So many cares attend the being wise."--_Sheffield_.
LESSON IV.--PRONOUNS.
"Once upon a time a goose fed its young by a pond side."--_Goldsmith's
Essays_, p. 175. "If either [work] have a sufficient degree of merit to
recommend them to the attention of the public."--_Walker's Rhyming Dict._,
p. iii. "Now W. Mitchell his deceit is very remarkable."--_Barclay's
Works_, i, 264 "My brother, I did not put the question to thee, for that I
doubted of the truth of your belief."--_Bunyan's P. P._, p. 158. "I had two
elder brothers, one of which was a lieutenant-colonel."--_Robinson Crusoe_,
p. 2. "Though _James_ is here the object of the action, yet, he is in the
nominative case."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 64. "Here, _John_ is the actor; and
is known to be the nominative, by its answering to the question, 'Who
struck Richard?'"--_Ib._, p. 43. "One of the most distinguished privileges
which Providence has conferred on mankind, is the power of communicating
their thoughts to one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 9. "With some of the
most refined feelings which belong to our frame."--_Ib._, p. 13. "And the
same instructions which assist others in composing, will assist them in
judging of, and relishing, the beauties of composition."--_Ib._, p. 12. "To
overthrow all which had been yielded in favour of the army."--_Mrs.
Macaulay's Hist._, i, 335. "Let your faith stand in the Lord God who
changes not, and that created all, and gives the increase of
all."--_Friends' Advices_, 1676. "For it is, in truth, the sentiment or
passion, which lies under the figured expression, that gives it any
merit."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 133. "Verbs are words which affirm the being,
doing, or suffering of a thing, together with the time it happens."--_Al.
Murray's Gram._, p. 29. "The Byass will always hang on that side, that
nature first placed it."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 177. "They should be brought
to do the things are fit for them."--_Ib._, p. 178. "Various sources whence
the English language is derived."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 286. "This
attention to the several cases, when it is proper to omit and when to
redouble the copulative, is of considerable importance."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 113. "Cicero, for instance, speaking of the cases where killing another
is lawful in self defence, uses the following words."--_Ib._, p. 156. "But
there is no nation, hardly any person so phlegmatic, as not to accompany
their words with some actions and gesticulations, on all occasions, when
they are much in earnest."--_Ib._, p. 335. "_William's_ is said to be
governed by _coat_, because it follows _William's_"--_Smith's New Gram._,
p. 12. "There are many occasions in life, in which silence and simplicity
are true wisdom."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 197. "In choosing umpires, the
avarice of whom is excited."--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 153. "The boroughs sent
representatives, which had been enacted."--_Ib._, p. 154. "No man believes
but what there is some order in the universe."--_Anon._ "The moon is
orderly in her changes, which she could not be by accident."--_Id._ "Of
Sphynx her riddles, they are generally two kinds."--_Bacons Wisdom_, p. 73.
"They must generally find either their Friends or Enemies in
Power."--_Brown's Estimate_, Vol. ii, p. 166. "For of old, every one took
upon them to write what happened in their own time."--_Josephus's Jewish
War, Pref._, p. 4. "The Almighty cut off the family of Eli the high priest,
for its transgressions."--See _Key_. "The convention then resolved
themselves into a committee of the whole."--_Inst._, p. 146. "The severity
with which this denomination was treated, appeared rather to invite than to
deter them from flocking to the colony."--_H. Adams's View_, p. 71. "Many
Christians abuse the Scriptures and the traditions of the apostles, to
uphold things quite contrary to it."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 461. "Thus, a
circle, a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, please the eye, by their
regularity, as beautiful figures."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 46. "Elba is
remakable [sic--KTH] for its being the place to which Bonaparte was
banished in 1814."--See _Sanborn's Gram._, p. 190. "The editor has the
reputation of his being a good linguist and critic."--See _ib._ "'Tis a
Pride should be cherished in them."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 129. "And to
restore us the Hopes of Fruits, to reward our Pains in its season."--_Ib._,
p. 136. "The comick representation of Death's victim relating its own
tale."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 103. "As for Scioppius his Grammar, that doth
wholly concern the Latin Tongue."--DR. WILKINS: _Tooke's D. P._, i, 7.
"And chiefly thee, O Spirit, who dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou knowest."--_Bucke's Classical Gram._, p. 45.
LESSON V.--VERBS.
"And there was in the same country shepherds, abiding in the
field."--SCOTT'S BIBLE: _Luke_, ii. 8. "Whereof every one bear
twins."--COM. BIBLE: _Sol. Song_, iv, 2. "Whereof every one bare
twins."--ALGER'S BIBLE: _ib._ "Whereof every one beareth twins."--SCOTT'S
BIBLE: _ib._ "He strikes out of his nature one of the most divine
principles, that is planted in it."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 181. "_Genii_,
denote aerial spirits."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 40. "In proportion as the long
and large prevalence of such corruptions have been obtained by force."--BP.
HALIFAX: _Brier's Analogy_, p. xvi. "Neither of these are fix'd to a Word
of a general Signification, or proper Name."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 95.
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