The Grammar of English Grammars
by
Gould Brown
Part 31 out of 54
"Of which a few of the opening lines is all I shall give."--_Moore's Life
of Byron_. "The riches we had in England was the slow result of long
industry and wisdom."--DAVENANT: _Webster's Imp. Gram._, p. 21; _Phil.
Gram._, 29. "The following expression appears to be correct:--'Much publick
thanks _is_ due.'"--_Wright's Gram._, p. 201. "He hath been enabled to
correct many mistakes."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. x. "Which road takest thou
here?"--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 106. "Learnest thou thy lesson?"--_Ib._, p.
105. "Learned they their pieces perfectly?"--_Ibid._ "Thou learnedst thy
task well."--_Ibid._ "There are some can't relish the town, and others
can't away with the country."--WAY OF THE WORLD: _Kames, El. of Crit._, i,
304. "If thou meetest them, thou must put on an intrepid mien."--_Neef's
Method of Ed._, p. 201. "Struck with terror, as if Philip was something
more than human."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 265. "If the personification of the
form of Satan was admissible, it should certainly have been
masculine."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 176. "If only one follow, there seems
to be a defect in the sentence."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 104. "Sir, if
thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him."--_John_, xx,
15. "Blessed be the people that know the joyful sound."--_Psalms_, lxxxix,
15. "Every auditory take in good part those marks of respect and awe, which
are paid them by one who addresses them."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 308.
"Private causes were still pleaded [in the forum]: but the public was no
longer interested; nor any general attention drawn to what passed
there."--_Ib._, p. 249. "Nay, what evidence can be brought to show, that
the Inflection of the Classic tongues were not originally formed out of
obsolete auxiliary words?"--_Murray's Gram._, i, p. 112. "If the student
reflects, that the principal and the auxiliary forms but one verb, he will
have little or no difficulty, in the proper application of the present
rule."--_Ib._, p. 183. "For the sword of the enemy and fear is on every
side."--_Jeremiah_, vi, 26. "Even the Stoics agree that nature and
certainty is very hard to come at."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 71. "His
politeness and obliging behaviour was changed."--_Priestley's Gram._, p.
186. "His politeness and obliging behaviour were changed."--_Hume's Hist._,
Vol. vi, p. 14. "War and its honours was their employment and
ambition."--_Goldsmith_. "Does _a_ and _an_ mean the same thing?"--_R. W.
Green's Gram._, p. 15. "When a number of words _come_ in between the
discordant parts, the ear does not detect the error."--_Cobbett's Gram._,
185. "The sentence should be, 'When a number of words _comes_ in,'
&c."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 170. "The nature of our language, the accent and
pronunciation of it, inclines us to contract even all our regular
verbs."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 45. "The nature of our language, together with
the accent and pronunciation of it, incline us to contract even all our
Regular Verbs."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 45. "Prompt aid, and not promises, are
what we ought to give."--_Author_. "The position of the several organs
therefore, as well as their functions are ascertained."--_Medical
Magazine_, 1833, p. 5. "Every private company, and almost every public
assembly, afford opportunities of remarking the difference between a just
and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution."--_Enfield's Speaker_,
p. 9. "Such submission, together with the active principle of obedience,
make up the temper and character in us which answers to his sovereignty."--
_Butler's Analogy_, p. 126. "In happiness, as in other things, there is a
false and a true, an imaginary and a real."--_Fuller, on the Gospel_, p.
134. "To confound things that differ, and to make a distinction where there
is no difference, is equally unphilosophical."--_Author_.
"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows."--_Beaut. of Shak._, p. 51.
LESSON VI.--VERBS.
"Whose business or profession prevent their attendance in the
morning."--_Ogilby_. "And no church or officer have power over one
another."--LECHFORD: _in Hutchinson's Hist._, i, 373. "While neither reason
nor experience are sufficiently matured to protect them."--_Woodbridge_.
"Among the Greeks and Romans, every syllable, or the far greatest number at
least, was known to have a fixed and determined quantity."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 383. "Among the Greeks and Romans, every syllable, or at least
by far the greatest number of syllables, was known to have a fixed and
determined quantity."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 303. "Their vanity is
awakened and their passions exalted by the irritation, which their
self-love receives from contradiction."--_Influence of Literature_, Vol.
ii. p. 218. "I and he was neither of us any great swimmer."--_Anon_.
"Virtue, honour, nay, even self-interest, _conspire_ to recommend the
measure."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 150. "A correct plainness, and
elegant simplicity, is the proper character of an introduction."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 308. "In syntax there is what grammarians call concord or
agreement, and government."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 128. "People find
themselves able without much study to write and speak the English
intelligibly, and thus have been led to think rules of no utility."--
_Webster's Essays_, p. 6. "But the writer must be one who has studied to
inform himself well, who has pondered his subject with care, and addresses
himself to our judgment, rather than to our imagination."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 353. "But practice hath determined it otherwise; and has, in all the
languages with which we are much acquainted, supplied the place of an
interrogative mode, either by particles of interrogation, or by a peculiar
order of the words in the sentence."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 84. "If the Lord
have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering."--_1 Sam._,
xxvi, 19. "But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have
no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she
shall eat of her father's meat."--_Levit._, xxii, 13. "Since we never have,
nor ever shall study your sublime productions."--_Neef's Sketch_, p. 62.
"Enabling us to form more distinct images of objects, than can be done with
the utmost attention where these particulars are not found."--_Kames, El.
of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 174. "I hope you will consider what is spoke comes
from my love."--_Shak., Othello_. "We will then perceive how the designs of
emphasis may be marred,"--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 406. "I knew it was
Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs."--SHAK: _Joh. Dict.,
w._ ALE. "The youth was being consumed by a slow malady."--_Wright's
Gram._, p. 192. "If all men thought, spoke, and wrote alike, something
resembling a perfect adjustment of these points may be accomplished."--
_Ib._, p. 240. "If you will replace what has been long since expunged from
the language."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 167; _Murray's Gram._, i, 364. "As
in all those faulty instances, I have now been giving."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 149. "This mood has also been improperly used in the following
places."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 184. "He [Milton] seems to have been well
acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that nature had
bestowed upon him."--_Johnson's Life of Milton_. "Of which I already gave
one instance, the worst, indeed, that occurs in all the poem."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 395. "It is strange he never commanded you to have done
it."--_Anon_. "History painters would have found it difficult, to have
invented such a species of beings."--ADDISON: see _Lowth's Gram._, p. 87.
"Universal Grammar cannot be taught abstractedly, it must be done with
reference to some language already known."--_Lowth's Preface_, p. viii.
"And we might imagine, that if verbs had been so contrived, as simply to
express these, no more was needful."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 82. "To a writer
of such a genius as Dean Swift, the plain style was most admirably
fitted."--_Ib._, p. 181. "Please excuse my son's absence."--_Inst._, p.
188. "Bid the boys to come in immediately."--_Ib._
"Gives us the secrets of his Pagan hell,
Where ghost with ghost in sad communion dwell."
--_Crabbe's Bor._, p. 306.
"Alas! nor faith, nor valour now remain;
Sighs are but wind, and I must bear my chain."
--_Walpole's Catal._, p. 11.
LESSON VII.--PARTICIPLES.
"Of which the Author considers himself, in compiling the present work, as
merely laying of the foundation-stone."--_Blair's Gram._, p. ix. "On the
raising such lively and distinct images as are here described."--_Kames,
El. of Crit._, i, 89. "They are necessary to the avoiding Ambiguities."--
_Brightland's Gram._, p. 95. "There is no neglecting it without falling
into a dangerous error."--_Burlamaqui, on Law_, p. 41. "The contest
resembles Don Quixote's fighting windmills."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 67.
"That these verbs associate with verbs in all the tenses, is no proof of
their having no particular time of their own."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 190.
"To justify my not following the tract of the ancient rhetoricians."--
_Blair's Rhet._, p. 122. "The putting letters together, so as to make
words, is called spelling."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 11. "What is the
putting vowels and consonants together called?"--_Ib._, p. 12. "Nobody
knows of their being charitable but themselves."--_Fuller, on the Gospel_,
p. 29. "Payment was at length made, but no reason assigned for its having
been so long postponed."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 186; _Kirkham's_, 194;
_Ingersoll's_, 254. "Which will bear being brought into comparison with any
composition of the kind."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 396. "To render vice
ridiculous, is doing real service to the world."--_Ib._, p. 476. "It is
copying directly from nature; giving a plain rehearsal of what passed, or
was supposed to pass, in conversation."--_Ib._, p. 433. "Propriety of
pronunciation is giving to every word that sound, which the most polite
usage of the language appropriates to it."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 200.
"To occupy the mind, and prevent our regretting the insipidity of an
uniform plain."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 329. "There are a
hundred ways of any thing happening."--_Steele_. "Tell me, signor, what was
the cause of Antonio's sending Claudio to Venice, yesterday."--_Bucke's
Gram._, p 90. "Looking about for an outlet, some rich prospect unexpectedly
opens to view."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 334. "A hundred volumes of
modern novels may be read, without acquiring a new idea"--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 29. "Poetry admits of greater latitude than prose, with respect
to coining, or, at least, new compounding words."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 93.
"When laws were wrote on brazen tablets enforced by the sword."--_Notes to
the Dunciad_. "A pronoun, which saves the naming a person or thing a second
time, ought to be placed as near as possible to the name of that person or
thing."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 49. "The using a preposition in this
case, is not always a matter of choice."--_Ib._, ii, 37. "To save
multiplying words, I would be understood to comprehend both
circumstances."--_Ib._, i, 219. "Immoderate grief is mute: complaining is
struggling for consolation."--_Ib._, i, 398. "On the other hand, the
accelerating or retarding the natural course, excites a pain."--_Ib._, i,
259. "Human affairs require the distributing our attention."--_Ib._, i,
264. "By neglecting this circumstance, the following example is defective
in neatness."--_Ib._, ii, 29. "And therefore the suppressing copulatives
must animate a description."--_Ib._, ii, 32. "If the laying aside
copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the
period languid."--_Ib._, ii, 33. "It skills not asking my leave, said
Richard."--_Scott's Crusaders_. "To redeem his credit, he proposed being
sent once more to Sparta."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 129. "Dumas relates
his having given drink to a dog."--_Dr. Stone, on the Stomach_, p. 24.
"Both are, in a like way, instruments of our receiving such ideas from
external objects."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 66. "In order to your proper
handling such a subject."--_Spectator_, No. 533. "For I do not recollect
its being preceded by an open vowel."--_Knight, on the Greek Alphabet_, p.
56. "Such is setting up the form above the power of godliness."--_Barclay's
Works_, i, 72. "I remember walking once with my young acquaintance."--
_Hunt's Byron_, p 27. "He [Lord Byron] did not like paying a debt."--_Ib._,
p. 74. "I do not remember seeing Coleridge when I was a child."--_Ib._, p.
318. "In consequence of the dry rot's having been discovered, the mansion
has undergone a thorough repair."--_Maunder's Gram._, p. 17. "I would not
advise the following entirely the German system."--DR. LIEBER: _Lit.
Conv._, p. 66. "Would it not be making the students judges of the
professors?"--_Id., ib._, p. 4. "Little time should intervene between their
being proposed and decided upon."--PROF. VETHAKE: _ib._, p. 39. "It would
be nothing less than finding fault with the Creator."--_Ib._, p. 116.
"Having once been friends is a powerful reason, both of prudence and
conscience, to restrain us from ever becoming enemies."--_Secker_. "By
using the word as a conjunction, the ambiguity is prevented."--_Murray's
Gram._, i, 216.
"He forms his schemes the flood of vice to stem,
But preaching Jesus is not one of them."--_J. Taylor_.
LESSON VIII.--ADVERBS.
"Auxiliaries cannot only be inserted, but are really
understood,"--_Wright's Gram._, p 209. "He was since a hired Scribbler in
the Daily Courant."--_Notes to the Dunciad_, ii, 299. "In gardening,
luckily, relative beauty need never stand in opposition to intrinsic
beauty."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 330. "I doubt much of the propriety of
the following examples."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 44. "And [we see] how far
they have spread one of the worst Languages possibly in this part of the
world."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 341. "And in this manner to merely place him
on a level with the beast of the forest."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 5.
"Where, ah! where, has my darling fled?"--_Anon_. "As for this fellow, we
know not from whence he is."--_John_, ix, 29. "Ye see then how that by
works a man is justified, and not by faith only."--_James_, ii, 24. "The
_Mixt_ kind is where the poet speaks in his own person, and sometimes makes
other characters to speak."--_Adam's Lat. Gram._, p. 276; _Gould's_, 267.
"Interrogation is, when the writer or orator raises questions and returns
answers."--_Fisher's Gram._, p. 154. "Prevention is, when an author starts
an objection which he foresees may be made, and gives an answer to
it."--_Ib._, p. 154. "Will you let me alone, or no?"--_Walker's Particles_,
p. 184. "Neither man nor woman cannot resist an engaging exterior."--
_Chesterfield_, Let. lix. "Though the Cup be never so clean."--_Locke, on
Ed._, p. 65. "Seldom, or ever, did any one rise to eminence, by being a
witty lawyer."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 272. "The second rule, which I give,
respects the choice of subjects, from whence metaphors, and other figures,
are to be drawn."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 144. "In the figures which it uses,
it sets mirrors before us, where we may behold objects, a second time, in
their likeness."--_Ib._, p. 139. "Whose Business is to seek the true
measures of Right and Wrong, and not the Arts how to avoid doing the one,
and secure himself in doing the other."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 331. "The
occasions when you ought to personify things, and when you ought not,
cannot be stated in any precise rule."--_Cobbett's Eng. Gram._, 182.
"They reflect that they have been much diverted, but scarce can say about
what."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 151. "The eyebrows and shoulders should
seldom or ever be remarked by any perceptible motion."--_Adams's Rhet._,
ii, 389. "And the left hand or arm should seldom or never attempt any
motion by itself."--_Ib._, ii, 391. "Every speaker does not propose to
please the imagination."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 104. "And like Gallio,
they care little for none of these things."--_The Friend_, Vol. x, p. 351.
"They may inadvertently be imitated, in cases where the meaning would be
obscure."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 272. "Nor a man cannot make him
laugh."--_Shak_. "The Athenians, in their present distress, scarce knew
where to turn."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 156. "I do not remember where
ever God delivered his oracles by the multitude."--_Locke_. "The object of
this government is twofold, outwards and inwards."--_Barclay's Works_, i,
553. "In order to rightly understand what we read."--_Johnson's Gram.
Com._, p. 313. "That a design had been formed, to forcibly abduct or kidnap
Morgan."--_Stone, on Masonry_, p. 410. "But such imposture can never
maintain its ground long."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 10. "But sure it is equally
possible to apply the principles of reason and good sense to this art, as
to any other that is cultivated among men."--_Ibid._ "It would have been
better for you, to have remained illiterate, and to have been even hewers
of wood."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 374. "Dissyllables that have two vowels,
which are separated in the pronunciation, have always the accent on the
first syllable."--_Ib._, i, 238. "And they all turned their backs without
almost drawing a sword."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 224. "The principle of
duty takes naturally place of every other."--_Ib._, i, 342. "All that
glitters is not gold."--_Maunder's Gram._, p. 13. "Whether now or never so
many myriads of ages hence."--_Pres. Edwards_.
"England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror."--_Beaut. of Shak._, p. 109.
LESSON IX.--CONJUNCTIONS.
"He readily comprehends the rules of Syntax, and their use and
applicability in the examples before him."--_Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 6. "The
works of AEschylus have suffered more by time, than any of the ancient
tragedians."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 470. "There is much more story, more
bustle, and action, than on the French theatre."--_Ib._, p. 478. "Such an
unremitted anxiety and perpetual application as engrosses our whole time
and thoughts, are forbidden."--SOAME JENYNS: _Tract_, p. 12. "It seems to
be nothing else but the simple form of the adjective."--_Wright's Gram._,
p. 49. "But when I talk of _Reasoning_, I do not intend any other, but such
as is suited to the Child's Capacity."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 129. "Pronouns
have no other use in language, but to represent nouns."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p 83. "The speculative relied no farther on their own judgment, but
to choose a leader, whom they implicitly followed."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
Vol. i, p. xxv. "Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare,
forked animal as thou art."--_Beaut. of Shak._, p. 266. "A Parenthesis is a
clause introduced into the body of a sentence obliquely, and which may be
omitted without injuring the grammatical construction."--_Murray's Gram._,
i, 280; _Ingersoll's_, 292; _Smith's_, 192; _Alden's_, 162; _A. Flint's_,
114; _Fisk's_, 158; _Cooper's_, 187; _Comly's_, 163. "A Caret, marked thus
^ is placed where some word happens to be left _out in_ writing, and which
_is inserted over_ the line."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 282; _Ingersoll's_,
293; _and others_. "At the time that I visit them they shall be cast
down."--_Jer._, vi, 15. "Neither our virtues or vices are all our
own."--DR. JOHNSON: _Sanborn's Gram._, p. 167. "I could not give him an
answer as early as he had desired."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 200. "He is
not as tall as his brother."--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 124. "It is difficult to
judge when Lord Byron is serious or not."--_Lady Blessington_. "Some nouns
are both of the second and third declension."--_Gould's Lat. Gram._, p. 48.
"He was discouraged neither by danger or misfortune."--_Wells's Hist._, p.
161. "This is consistent neither with logic nor history."--_The Dial_, i,
62. "Parts of Sentences are simple and compound."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 114.
"English verse is regulated rather by the number of syllables than of
feet."--_Ib._, p. 120. "I know not what more he can do, but pray for
him."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 140. "Whilst they are learning, and apply
themselves with Attention, they are to be kept in good Humour."--_Ib._, p.
295. "A man cannot have too much of it, nor too perfectly."--_Ib._, p. 322.
"That you may so run, as you may obtain; and so fight, as you may
overcome."--_Wm. Penn_. "It is the case of some, to contrive false periods
of business, because they may seem men of despatch."--_Lord Bacon_. "'A
tall man and a woman.' In this sentence there is no ellipsis; the adjective
or quality respect only the man."--_Dr. Ash's Gram._, p. 95. "An
abandonment of the policy is neither to be expected or desired."--_Pres.
Jackson's Message_, 1830. "Which can be acquired by no other means but
frequent exercise in speaking."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 344. "The chief and
fundamental rules of syntax are common to the English as well as the Latin
tongue."--_Ib._, p. 90. "Then I exclaim, that my antagonist either is void
of all taste, or that his taste is corrupted in a miserable degree."--
_Ib._, p. 21. "I cannot pity any one who is under no distress of body nor
of mind."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 44. "There was much genius in the
world, before there were learning or arts to refine it."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 391. "Such a Writer can have little else to do, but to new model the
Paradoxes of ancient Scepticism."--_Brown's Estimate_, i, 102. "Our ideas
of them being nothing else but a collection of the ordinary qualities
observed in them."--_Duncan's Logic_, p. 25. "A _non-ens_ or a negative can
neither give pleasure nor pain."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 63. "So as they
shall not justle and embarrass one another."--_Blair's Lectures_, p. 318.
"He firmly refused to make use of any other voice but his own."--
_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 190. "Your marching regiments, Sir, will not make
the guards their example, either as soldiers or subjects."--_Junius, Let_.
35. "Consequently, they had neither meaning, or beauty, to any but the
natives of each country."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 161.
"The man of worth, and has not left his peer,
Is in his narrow house for ever darkly laid."--_Burns_.
LESSON X.--PREPOSITIONS.
"These may be carried on progressively above any assignable
limits."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 296. "To crowd in a single member of a
period different subjects, is still worse than to crowd them into one
period."--_Ib._, ii, 27. "Nor do we rigidly insist for melodious
prose."--_Ib._, ii, 76. "The aversion we have at those who differ from
us."--_Ib._, ii, 365. "For we cannot bear his shifting the scene every
line."--LD. HALIFAX: _ib._, ii, 213. "We shall find that we come by it the
same way."--_Locke_. "To this he has no better defense than
that."--_Barnes's Bed Book_, p. 347. "Searching the person whom he suspects
for having stolen his casket."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 479. "Who are elected
as vacancies occur by the whole Board."--_Lit. Convention_, p. 81. "Almost
the only field of ambition of a German, is science."--DR. LIEBER: _ib._, p.
66. "The plan of education is very different to the one pursued in the
sister country."--DR. COLEY, _ib._, p. 197. "Some writers on grammar have
contended that adjectives relate to, and modify the action of
verbs."--_Wilcox's Gram._, p. 61. "They are therefore of a mixed nature,
participating of the properties both of pronouns and adjectives."--
_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 57. "For there is no authority which can justify
the inserting the aspirate or doubling the vowel."--_Knight, on Greek
Alph._, p. 52. "The distinction and arrangement between active, passive,
and neuter verbs."--_Wright's Gram_, p. 176. "And see thou a hostile world
_to_ spread its delusive snares."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 167. "He may be
precaution'd, and be made see, how those joyn in the Contempt."--_Locke, on
Ed._, p. 155. "The contenting themselves now in the want of what they
wish'd for, is a vertue."--_Ib._, p. 185. "If the Complaint be of something
really worthy your notice."--_Ib._, p. 190. "True Fortitude I take to be
the quiet Possession of a Man's self, and an undisturb'd doing his
Duty."--_Ib._, p. 204. "For the custom of tormenting and killing of Beasts
will, by degrees, harden their Minds even towards Men."--_Ib._, p. 216.
"Children are whip'd to it, and made spend many Hours of their precious
time uneasily in Latin."--_Ib._, p. 289. "The ancient rhetoricians have
entered into a very minute and particular detail of this subject; more
particular, indeed, than any other that regards language."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p. 123. "But the one should not be omitted without the
other."--_Bullions's Eng. Gram._, p. 108. "In some of the common forms of
speech, the relative pronoun is usually omitted."--_Murray's Gram._, i,
218; _Weld's_, 191. "There are a great variety of causes, which disqualify
a witness from being received to testify in particular cases."--_J. Q.
Adams's Rhet._, ii, 75. "Aside of all regard to interest, we should expect
that," &c.--_Webster's Essays_, p. 82. "My opinion was given on a rather
cursory perusal of the book."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 202. "And the next day,
he was put on board his ship."--_Ib._, ii, 201. "Having the command of no
emotions but of what are raised by sight."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 318.
"Did these moral attributes exist in some other being beside
himself."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 161. "He did not behave in that
manner out of pride or contempt of the tribunal."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i,
190. "These prosecutions of William seem to have been the most iniquitous
measures pursued by the court."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 199; _Priestley's
Gram._, 126. "To restore myself into the good graces of my fair
critics."--_Dryden_. "Objects denominated beautiful, please not in virtue
of any one quality common to them all."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 46. "This
would have been less worthy notice, had not a writer or two of high rank
lately adopted it."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 197.
"A Grecian youth, with talents rare,
Whom Plato's philosophic care," &c.--_Felton's Gram._, p. 145.
LESSON XI.--PROMISCUOUS.
"To excel, is become a much less considerable object."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
351. "My robe, and my integrity to heaven, is all I now dare call mine
own."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 173. "So thou the garland wear'st
successively."--_Ib._, p. 134. "For thou the garland wears
successively."--_Enfield's Speaker_, p. 341. "If that thou need'st a
Roman's, take it forth."--_Ib._, p. 357. "If that thou be'st a Roman, take
it forth."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 256. "If thou provest this to be real,
thou must be a smart lad, indeed."--_Neef's Method of Teaching_, p. 210.
"And another Bridge of four hundred Foot in Length."--_Brightland's Gram._,
p. 242. "_Metonomy_ is putting one name for another on account of the near
relation there is between them."--_Fisher's Gram._, p. 151. "An
_Antonomasia_ is putting an appellative or common name for a proper
name."--_Ib._, p. 153. "Its being me needs make no difference in your
determination."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 89. "The first and second page
are torn."--_Ib._, p. 145. "John's being from home occasioned the
delay."--_Ib._, p. 81. "His having neglected opportunities of improvement,
was the cause of his disgrace."--_Ib._, p. 81. "He will regret his having
neglected opportunities of improvement when it may be too late."--_Ib._, p.
81. "His being an expert dancer does not entitle him to our
regard."--_Ib._, p. 82.[443] "Caesar went back to Rome to take possession of
the public treasure, which his opponent, by a most unaccountable oversight,
had neglected taking with him."--_Goldsmith's Rome_, p. 116. "And Caesar
took out of the treasury, to the amount of three thousand pound weight of
gold, besides an immense quantity of silver."--_Ibid._ "Rules and
definitions, which should always be clear and intelligible as possible, are
thus rendered obscure."--_Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 5. "So much both of
ability and merit is seldom found."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 179. "If such
maxims, and such practices prevail, what is become of decency and
virtue?"--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 78. "Especially if the subject require
not so much pomp."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 117. "However, the proper mixture
of light and shade, in such compositions; the exact adjustment of all the
figurative circumstances with the literal sense; have ever been considered
as points of great nicety."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 343. "And adding to that
hissing in our language, which is taken so much notice of by
foreigners."--ADDISON: DR. COOTE: _ib._, i, 90. "Speaking impatiently to
servants, or any thing that betrays unkindness or ill-humour, is certainly
criminal."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 183; _Merchant's_, 190. "There is here a
fulness and grandeur of expression well suited to the subject."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 218. "I single Strada out among the moderns, because he had the
foolish presumption to censure Tacitus."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 262. "I
single him out among the moderns, because," &c.--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._,
p. 116. "This is a rule not always observed, even by good writers, as
strictly as it ought to be."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 103. "But this gravity
and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge,
do never reach to manhood."--_Notes to the Dunciad_. "The regularity and
polish even of a turnpike-road has some influence upon the low people in
the neighbourhood."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 358. "They become fond of
regularity and neatness; which is displayed, first upon their yards and
little enclosures, and next within doors."--_Ibid._ "The phrase, _it is
impossible to exist_, gives us the idea of it's being impossible for men,
or any body to exist."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 85. "I'll give a thousand
pound to look upon him."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 151. "The reader's
knowledge, as Dr. Campbell observes, may prevent his mistaking
it."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 172; _Crombie's_, 253. "When two words are set
in contrast or in opposition to one another, they are both
emphatic."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 243. "The number of persons, men, women,
and children, who were lost in the sea, was very great."--_Ib._, ii, 20.
"Nor is the resemblance between the primary and resembling object pointed
out"--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 179. "I think it the best book of the kind
which I have met with."--DR. MATHEWS: _Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 2.
"Why should not we their ancient rites restore,
And be what Rome or Athens were before."--_Roscommon_, p. 22.
LESSON XII.--TWO ERRORS.
"It is labour only which gives the relish to pleasure."--_Murray's Key_,
ii, 234. "Groves are never as agreeable as in the opening of the
spring."--_Ib._, p. 216. "His 'Philosophical Inquiry into the origin of our
Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful' soon made him known to the
literati."--_Biog. Rhet., n. Burke_. "An awful precipice or tower whence we
look down on the objects which lie below."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 30. "This
passage, though very poetical, is, however, harsh and obscure; owing to no
other cause but this, that three distinct metaphors are crowded
together."--_Ib._, p. 149. "I propose making some observations."--_Ib._, p.
280. "I shall follow the same method here which I have all along
pursued."--_Ib._, p. 346. "Mankind never resemble each other so much as
they do in the beginnings of society."--_Ib._, p. 380. "But no ear is
sensible of the termination of each foot, in reading an hexameter
line."--_Ib._, p. 383. "The first thing, says he, which either a writer of
fables, or of heroic poems, does, is, to choose some maxim or point of
morality."--_Ib._, p. 421. "The fourth book has been always most justly
admired, and abounds with beauties of the highest kind."--_Ib._, p. 439.
"There is no attempt towards painting characters in the poem."--_Ib._, p.
446. "But the artificial contrasting of characters, and the introducing
them always in pairs, and by opposites, gives too theatrical and affected
an air to the piece."--_Ib._, p. 479. "Neither of them are arbitrary nor
local."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, p. xxi. "If crowding figures be bad, it is
still worse to graft one figure upon another."--_Ib._, ii, 236. "The
crowding withal so many objects together, lessens the pleasure."--_Ib._,
ii, 324. "This therefore lies not in the putting off the Hat, nor making of
Compliments."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 149. "But the Samaritan Vau may have
been used, as the Jews did the Chaldaic, both for a vowel and
consonant."--_Wilson's Essay_, p. 19. "But if a solemn and familiar
pronunciation really exists in our language, is it not the business of a
grammarian to mark both?"--_Walker's Dict., Pref._, p. 4. "By making sounds
follow each other agreeable to certain laws."--_Music of Nature_, p. 406.
"If there was no drinking intoxicating draughts, there could be no
drunkards."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 178. "Socrates knew his own
defects, and if he was proud of any thing, it was in the being thought to
have none."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 188. "Lysander having brought his
army to Ephesus, erected an arsenal for building of gallies."--_Ib._, i,
161. "The use of these signs are worthy remark."--_Brightland's Gram._, p.
94. "He received me in the same manner that I would you."--_Smith's New
Gram._, p. 113. "Consisting both of the direct and collateral
evidence."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 224. "If any man or woman that believeth
have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged."--_1
Tim._, v, 16. "For mens sakes are beasts bred."--_Walker's Particles_, p.
131. "From three a clock there was drinking and gaming."--_Ib._, p. 141.
"Is this he that I am seeking of, or no?"--_Ib._, p. 248. "And for the
upholding every one his own opinion, there is so much ado."--_Sewel's
Hist._, p. 809. "Some of them however will be necessarily taken notice
of."--_Sale's Koran_, p. 71. "The boys conducted themselves exceedingly
indiscreet."--_Merchant's Key_, p. 195. "Their example, their influence,
their fortune, every talent they possess, dispense blessings on all around
them."--_Ib._, p. 197; _Murray's Key_, ii, 219. "The two _Reynolds_
reciprocally converted one another"--_Johnson's Lives_, p. 185. "The
destroying the two last Tacitus calls an attack upon virtue
itself."--_Goldsmith's Rome_, p. 194. "Monies is your suit."--_Beauties of
Shak._, p. 38. "_Ch_, is commonly sounded like _tch_; as in church; but in
words derived from the Greek, has the sound of _k_."--_Murray's Gram._, i,
11. "When one is obliged to make some utensil supply purposes to which they
were not originally destined."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 222. "But that a
being baptized with water, is a washing away of sin, thou canst not from
hence prove."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 190. "Being but spoke to one, it
infers no universal command."--_Ibid._ "For if the laying aside Copulatives
gives Force and Liveliness, a Redundancy of them must render the Period
languid."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 134. "James used to compare him to a
cat, who always fell upon her legs."--ADAM'S HIST. OF ENG.: _Crombie_, p.
384.
"From the low earth aspiring genius springs,
And sails triumphant born on eagles wings."--_Lloyd_, p. 162.
LESSON XIII.--TWO ERRORS.
"An ostentatious, a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, for instance, are
always faults."--_Blair's Rhet._ p. 190. "Yet in this we find the English
pronounce perfectly agreeable to rule."--_Walker's Dict._, p. 2. "But
neither the perception of ideas, nor knowledge of any sort, are habits,
though absolutely necessary to the forming of them."--_Butler's Analogy_,
p. 111. "They were cast: and an heavy fine imposed upon them."--_Goldsmiths
Greece_, ii, 30. "Without making this reflection, he cannot enter into the
spirit, nor relish the composition of the author."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
450. "The scholar should be instructed relative to finding his
words."--_Osborn's Key_, p. 4. "And therefore they could neither have
forged, or reversified them."--_Knight, on the Greek Alph._, p. 30. "A
dispensary is the place where medicines are dispensed."--_Murray's Key_,
ii, 172. "Both the connexion and number of words is determined by general
laws."--_Neef's Sketch_, p. 73. "An Anapsest has the two first syllables
unaccented, and the last accented: as, 'Contravene, acquiesce.'"--_Murray's
Gram._, i, 254. "An explicative sentence is, when a thing is said to be or
not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer, in a direct
manner."--_Ib._, i, 141; _Lowth's_, 84. "BUT is a _conjunction_, in all
cases when it is neither an adverb nor preposition."--_Smith's New Gram._,
p. 109. "He wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the
king's ring."--_Esther_, viii, 10. "Camm and Audland were departed the town
before this time."--_Sewel's Hist._, p. 100. "Previous to their
relinquishing the practice, they must be convinced."--_Dr. Webster, on
Slavery_, p. 5. "Which he had thrown up previous to his setting
out."--_Grimshaw's Hist. U. S._, p. 84. "He left him to the value of an
hundred drachmas in Persian money."--_Spect._, No. 535. "All which the mind
can ever contemplate concerning them, must be divided between the
three."--_Cardell's Philad. Gram._, p. 80. "Tom Puzzle is one of the most
eminent immethodical disputants of any that has fallen under my
observation."--_Spect._, No. 476. "When you have once got him to think
himself made amends for his suffering, by the praise is given him for his
courage."--_Locke, on Ed_. Sec.115. "In all matters where simple reason, and
mere speculation is concerned."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 136. "And
therefore he should be spared the trouble of attending to any thing else,
but his meaning."--_Ib._, p. 105. "It is this kind of phraseology which is
distinguished by the epithet _idiomatical_, and hath been originally the
spawn, partly of ignorance, and partly of affectation."--_Campbell's Rhet._
p. 185. Murray has it--"and _which has_ been originally," &c.--_Octavo
Gram._ i, 370. "That neither the letters nor inflection are such as could
have been employed by the ancient inhabitants of Latium."--_Knight, Gr.
Alph_. p. 13, "In cases where the verb is intended to be applied to any one
of the terms."--_Murray's Gram._,, 150. "But this people which know not the
law, are accursed."--_John_, vii, 49. "And the magnitude of the chorusses
have weight and sublimity."--_Music of Nature_, p. 428. "Dare he deny but
there are some of his fraternity guilty?"--_Barclays Works_, i, 327.
"Giving an account of most, if not all the papers had passed betwixt
them."--_Ib._, i, 235. "In this manner, both as to parsing and correcting,
all the rules of syntax should be treated, proceeding regularly according
to their order."--_Murray's Exercises_, 12mo, p. x. "Ovando was allowed a
brilliant retinue and a body guard."--_Sketch of Columbus_. "Is it I or he
whom you requested to go?"--_Kirkham's Gram., Key_, p. 226. "Let thou and I
go on."--_Bunyan's P. P._, p. 158. "This I no-where affirmed; and do wholly
deny."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 454. "But that I deny; and remains for him
to prove."--_Ibid._ "Our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it
bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds."--SHAKSPEARE: _Joh.
Dict., w. Beneath_. "Thou art the Lord who didst choose Abraham, and
broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 189.
"He is the exhaustless fountain, from which emanates all these attributes,
that exists throughout this wide creation."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, 1st
Ed., p. 155. "I am he who have communed with the son of Neocles; I am he
who have entered the gardens of pleasure."--_Wright's Athens_, p. 66.
"Such was in ancient times the tales received,
Such by our good forefathers was believed."
--_Rowe's Lucan_, B. ix, l. 605.
LESSON XIV.--TWO ERRORS.
"The noun or pronoun that stand before the active verb, may be called the
agent."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 121. "Such seems to be the musings of
our hero of the grammar-quill, when he penned the first part of his
grammar."--_Merchant's Criticisms_. "Two dots, the one placed above the
other [:], is called Sheva, and represents a very short _e_."--_Wilson's
Hebrew Gram._, p. 43. "Great has been, and is, the obscurity and
difficulty, in the nature and application of them."--_Butler's Analogy_, p.
184. "As two is to four, so is four to eight."--_Everest's Gram._, p. 231.
"The invention and use of it [arithmetic] reaches back to a period so
remote as is beyond the knowledge of history."--_Robertson's America_, i,
288. "What it presents as objects of contemplation or enjoyment, fills and
satisfies his mind."--_Ib._, i, 377. "If he dare not say they are, as I
know he dare not, how must I then distinguish?"--_Barclay's Works_, iii,
311. "He was now grown so fond of solitude that all company was become
uneasy to him."--_Life of Cicero_, p. 32. "Violence and spoil is heard in
her; before me continually is grief and wounds."--_Jeremiah_, vi, 7.
"Bayle's Intelligence from the Republic of Letters, which make eleven
volumes in duodecimo, are truly a model in this kind."--_Formey's
Belles-Lettres_, p. 68. "To render pauses pleasing and expressive, they
must not only be made in the right place, but also accompanied with a
proper tone of voice."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 249. "The opposing the
opinions, and rectifying the mistakes of others, is what truth and
sincerity sometimes require of us."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 211. "It is very
probable that this assembly was called, to clear some doubt which the king
had, about the lawfulness of the Hollanders' throwing off the monarchy of
Spain, and withdrawing, entirely, their allegiance to that
crown."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 195. "Naming the cases and numbers of a noun
in their order is called declining it."--_Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 10.
"The embodying them is, therefore, only collecting such component parts of
words."--_Town's Analysis_, p. 4. "The one is the voice heard at Christ's
being baptized; the other, at his being transfigured."--_Barclays Works_,
i, 267. "Understanding the literal sense would not have prevented their
condemning the guiltless."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 168. "As if this were
taking the execution of justice out of the hand of God, and giving it to
nature."--_Ib._, p. 194. "They will say, you must conceal this good opinion
of yourself; which yet is allowing the thing, though not the showing
it."--_Sheffield's Works_, ii, 244. "So as to signify not only the doing an
action, but the causing it to be done."--_Pike's Hebrew Lexicon_, p. 180.
"This, certainly, was both dividing the unity of God, and limiting his
immensity."--_Calvin's Institutes_, B. i, Ch. 13. "Tones being infinite in
number, and varying in almost every individual, the arranging them under
distinct heads, and reducing them to any fixed and permanent rules, may be
considered as the last refinement in language."--_Knight, on Gr. Alph._, p.
16. "The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it,
and until he have performed the intents of his heart."--_Jeremiah_, xxx,
24. "We seek for more heroic and illustrious deeds, for more diversified
and surprising events."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 373. "We distinguish the
Genders, or the Male and Female Sex, four different Ways."--_Buchanan's
Gram._, p. 20. "Thus, ch and g, are ever hard. It is therefore proper to
retain these sounds in Hebrew names, which have not been modernised, or
changed by public use."--_Wilson's Essay on Gram._, p. 24. "The Substantive
or noun is the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have
any notion."--_Lindley Murray's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 26. "The SUBSTANTIVE, or
NOUN; being the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have
any notion."--_Dr. Lowth's Gram._, p. 6. "The _Noun_ is the name of any
thing that exists, or of which we have, or can form, an idea."--_Maunders
Gram._, p. 1. "A noun is the name of any thing in existence, or of which we
can form an idea."--_Ib._, p. 1. (See False Syntax under Note 7th to Rule
10th.) "The next thing to be taken Care of, is to keep him exactly to
speaking of Truth."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 254. "The material, vegetable, and
animal world, receive this influence according to their several
capacities."--_The Dial_, i, 59. "And yet, it is fairly defensible on the
principles of the schoolmen; if that can be called principles which
consists merely in words."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 274.
"Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fears to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes."--_Beaut. of Shak._, p. 317.
LESSON XV.--THREE ERRORS.
"The silver age is reckoned to have commenced on the death of Augustus, and
continued to the end of Trajan's reign."--_Gould's Lat. Gram._, p. 277.
"Language is become, in modern times, more correct, indeed, and
accurate."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 65. "It is evident, that words are most
agreeable to the ear which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, where
there is a proper intermixture of vowels and consonants."--_Ib._, p. 121.
See _Murray's Gram._, i, 325. "It would have had no other effect, but to
add a word unnecessarily to the sentence."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 194. "But
as rumours arose of the judges having been corrupted by money in this
cause, these gave occasions to much popular clamour, and had thrown a heavy
odium on Cluentius."--_Ib._, p. 273. "A Participle is derived of a verb,
and partakes of the nature both of the verb and the adjective."--_Dr. Ash's
Gram._, p. 39; _E. Devis's_, 9. "I will have learned my grammar before you
learn your's."--_Wilbur and Liv. Gram._, p. 14. "There is no earthly object
capable of making such various and such forcible impressions upon the human
mind as a complete speaker."--_Perry's Dict., Pref._ "It was not the
carrying the bag which made Judas a thief and an hireling."--_South_. "As
the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one
Christ."--_Athanasian Creed_. "And I will say to them which were not my
people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."--_Hosea_,
ii, 23. "Where there is nothing in the sense which requires the last sound
to be elevated or emphatical, an easy fall, sufficient to show that the
sense is finished, will be proper."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 250. "Each party
produces words where the letter _a_ is sounded in the manner they contend
for."--_Walker's Dict._, p. 1. "To countenance persons who are guilty of
bad actions, is scarcely one remove from actually committing
them."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 233. "'To countenance persons who are guilty
of bad actions,' is part of a sentence, which is the nominative case to the
verb 'is.'"--_Ibid._ "What is called splitting of particles, or separating
a preposition from the noun which it governs, is always to be
avoided."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 112; _Jamieson's_, 93. See _Murray's Gram._,
i, 319. "There is, properly, no more than one pause or rest in the
sentence, falling betwixt the two members into which it is
divided."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 125; _Jamieson's_, 126; _Murray's Gram._, i,
329. "Going barefoot does not at all help on the way to heaven."--_Steele,
Spect._, No. 497. "There is no Body but condemns this in others, though
they overlook it in themselves."--_Locke, on Ed._, Sec.145. "In the same
sentence, be careful not to use the same word too frequently, nor in
different senses."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 296. "Nothing could have made her
so unhappy, as marrying a man who possessed such principles."--_Murray's
Key_, ii, 200. "A warlike, various, and a tragical age is best to write of,
but worst to write in."--_Cowley's Pref._, p. vi. "When thou instances
Peter his baptizing Cornelius."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 188. "To introduce
two or more leading thoughts or agents, which have no natural relation to,
or dependence on one another."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 313. "Animals, again,
are fitted to one another, and to the elements where they live, and to
which they are as appendices."--_Ibid._ "This melody, or varying the sound
of each word so often, is a proof of nothing, however, but of the fine ear
of that people."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 5. "They can each in their turns
be made use of upon occasion."--_Duncan's Logic_, p. 191. "In this reign
lived the poet Chaucer, who, with Gower, are the first authors who can
properly be said to have written English."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 144. "In
the translating these kind of expressions, consider the IT IS, as if it
were _they_, or _they are_."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 179. "The chin has
an important office to perform; for upon its activity we either disclose a
polite or vulgar pronunciation."--_Music of Nature_, p. 27. "For no other
reason, but his being found in bad company."--_Webster's Amer.
Spelling-Book_, p. 96. "It is usual to compare them in the same manner as
Polisyllables."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 77. "The infinitive mood is
recognised easier than any others, because the preposition _to_ precedes
it."--_Bucke's Gram._, p, 95. "Prepositions, you recollect, connect words
as well as conjunctions: how, then, can you tell the one from the
other?"--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 38.
"No kind of work requires so nice a touch,
And if well finish'd, nothing shines so much"
--_Sheffield, Duke of Buck._
LESSON XVI--THREE ERRORS.
"It is the final pause which alone, on many occasions, marks the difference
between prose and verse; which will be evident from the following
arrangement of a few poetical lines."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 260. "I shall
do all I can to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure
which I have."--GUARDIAN: see _Campbell's Rhet._, p. 207. "I shall do all I
can, to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure which I
have taken."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 215. "It is the nature of extreme
self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and [or _an_] it were but
to roast their eggs."--_Ld. Bacon_. "Did ever man struggle more earnestly
in a cause where both his honour and life are concerned?"--_Duncan's
Cicero_, p. 15. "So the rests and pauses, between sentences and their
parts, are marked by points."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 114. "Yet the case and
mode is not influenced by them, but determined by the nature of the
sentence."--_Ib._, p. 113. "By not attending to this rule, many errors have
been committed: a number of which is subjoined, as a further caution and
direction to the learner."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 114. "Though thou clothest
thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,
though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself
fair."--_Jeremiah_, iv, 30. "But that the doing good to others will make us
happy, is not so evident; feeding the hungry, for example, or clothing the
naked."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 161. "There is no other God but him, no
other light but his."--_William Penn_. "How little reason to wonder, that a
perfect and accomplished orator, should be one of the characters that is
most rarely found?"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 337. "Because they neither express
doing nor receiving an action."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 53. "To find the
answers, will require an effort of mind, and when given, will be the result
of reflection, showing that the subject is understood."--_Ib._, p. vii. "To
say, that 'the sun rises,' is trite and common; but it becomes a
magnificent image when expressed as Mr. Thomson has done."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 137. "The declining a word is the giving it different
endings."--_Ware's Gram._, p. 7. "And so much are they for every one's
following their own mind."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 462. "More than one
overture for a peace was made, but Cleon prevented their taking
effect."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 121. "Neither in English or in any other
language is this word, and that which corresponds to it in other languages,
any more an article, than _two, three, four_."--DR. WEBSTER: _Knickerbocker
of 1836_. "But the most irksome conversation of all others I have met
within the neighbourhood, has been among two or three of your
travellers."--_Spect._, No. 474. "Set down the two first terms of
supposition under each other in the first place."--_Smiley's Arithmetic_,
p. 79. "It is an useful rule too, to fix our eye on some of the most
distant persons in the assembly."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 328. "He will
generally please most, when pleasing is not his sole nor chief
aim."--_Ib._, p. 336. "At length, the consuls return to the camp, and
inform them they could receive no other terms but that of surrendering
their arms, and passing under the yoke."--_Ib._, p. 360. "Nor is mankind so
much to blame, in his choice thus determining him."--SWIFT: _Crombie's
Treatise_, p 360. "These forms are what is called Number."--_Fosdick's De
Sacy_, p. 62. "In languages which admit but two Genders, all Nouns are
either Masculine or Feminine, even though they designate beings which are
neither male or female."--_Ib._, p. 66. "It is called a _Verb_ or _Word_ by
way of eminence, because it is the most essential word in a sentence,
without which the other parts of speech can form no complete
sense."--_Gould's Adam's Gram._, p. 76. "The sentence will consist of two
members, which are commonly separated from one another by a
comma."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 7. "Loud and soft in speaking, is like the
_forte_ and _piano_ in music, it only refers to the different degrees of
force used in the same key; whereas high and low imply a change of
key."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 116. "They are chiefly three: the
acquisition of knowledge; the assisting the memory to treasure up this
knowledge; or the communicating it to others."--_Ib._, p. 11.
"These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness,
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends,
Than twenty silly ducking observants."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 261.
LESSON XVII.--MANY ERRORS.
"A man will be forgiven, even great errors, in a foreign language; but in
his own, even the least slips are justly laid hold of, and
ridiculed."--_American Chesterfield_, p 83. "_Let_ does not only express
permission; but praying, exhorting, commanding."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 41.
"_Let_, not only expresses permission, but entreating, exhorting,
commanding."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 88; _Ingersoll's_, 135. "That death
which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but putting off these
bodies."--_Sherlock_. "They differ from the saints recorded both in the Old
and New Testaments."--_Newton_. "The nature therefore of relation consists
in the referring or comparing two things one to another; from which
comparison, one or both comes to be denominated"--_Locke's Essay_, i, 220.
"It is not credible, that there hath been any one who through the whole
course of their lives will say, that they have kept themselves undefiled
with the least spot or stain of sin."--_Witsius_. "If acting conformably to
the will of our Creator;--if promoting the welfare of mankind around
us;--if securing our own happiness;--are objects of the highest
moment:--then we are loudly called upon to cultivate and extend the great
interests of religion and virtue"--_Murray's Gram._, i, 278; _Comly's_,
163; _Ingersoll's_, 291. "By the verb being in the plural number, it is
supposed that it has a plural nominative, which is not the case. The only
nominative to the verb, is, _the officer_: the expression _his guard_, are
in the objective case, governed by the preposition _with_; and they cannot
consequently form the nominative, or any part of it. The prominent subject,
and the true nominative of the verb, and to which the verb peculiarly
refers, is _the officer_."--_Murray's Parsing_, Cr. 8vo, ii, 22. "This is
another use, that, in my opinion, contributes rather to make a man learned
than wise; and is neither capable of pleasing the understanding, or
imagination."--ADDISON: _Churchill's Gram._, p. 353. "The work is a dull
performance; and is capable of pleasing neither the understanding, nor the
imagination."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 210. "I would recommend the Elements of
English Grammar, by Mr. Frost. Its plan is after Murray, but his
definitions and language is simplified as far as the nature of the subject
will admit, to meet the understanding of children. It also embraces more
copious examples and exercises in Parsing than is usual in elementary
treatises."--_Hall's Lectures on School-Keeping_, 1st Ed., p. 37. "More
rain falls in the first two summer months, than in the first two winter
ones: but it makes a much greater show upon the earth, in these than in
those; because there is a much slower evaporation."--_Murray's Key_, ii,
189. See _Priestley's Gram._, p. 90. "They often contribute also to the
rendering some persons prosperous though wicked: and, which is still worse,
to the rewarding some actions though vicious, and punishing other actions
though virtuous."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 92. "From hence, to such a man,
arises naturally a secret satisfaction and sense of security, and implicit
hope of somewhat further."--_Ib._, p. 93. "So much for the third and last
cause of illusion that was taken notice of, arising from the abuse of very
general and abstract terms, which is the principal source of all the
nonsense that hath been vented by metaphysicians, mystagogues, and
theologians."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 297. "As to those animals whose use
is less common, or who on account of the places which they inhabit, fall
less under our observation, as fishes and birds, or whom their diminutive
size removes still further from our observation, we generally, in English,
employ a single Noun to designate both Genders, Masculine and
Feminine."--_Fosdick's De Sacy_, p. 67. "Adjectives may always be
distinguished by their being the word, or words, made use of to describe
the quality, or condition, of whatever is mentioned."--_Emmons's Gram._, p.
20. "Adverb signifies a word added to a verb, participle, adjective, or
other adverb, to describe or qualify their qualities."--_Ib._, p. 64. "The
joining together two such grand objects, and the representing them both as
subject, at one moment, to the command of God, produces a noble
effect."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 37. "Twisted columns, for instance, are
undoubtedly ornamental; but as they have an appearance of weakness, they
always displease when they are made use of to support any part of a
building that is massy, and that seems to require a more substantial
prop."--_Ib._, p. 40. "Upon a vast number of inscriptions, some upon rocks,
some upon stones of a defined shape, is found an Alphabet different from
the Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews, and also unlike that of any modern
nation."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, p. 176.
LESSON XVIII--MANY ERRORS.
"'The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the northeast side of
Lilliput, from whence it is parted only by a channel of 800 yards wide.'
_Gulliver's Travels_. The ambiguity may be removed thus:--'from whence it
is parted by a channel of 800 yards wide only.'"--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
ii, 44. "The nominative case is usually the agent or doer, and always the
subject of the verb."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 47. "There is an
originality, richness, and variety in his [Spenser's] allegorical
personages, which almost vies with the splendor of the ancient
mythology."--_Hazlitt's Lect._, p. 68. "As neither the Jewish nor Christian
revelation have been universal, and as they have been afforded to a greater
or less part of the world at different times; so likewise, at different
times, both revelations have had different degrees of evidence."--_Butler's
Analogy_, p. 210. "Thus we see, that killing a man with a sword or a
hatchet, are looked upon as no distinct species of action: but if the point
of the sword first enter the body, it passes for a distinct species, called
_stabbing_."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 314. "If a soul sin, and commit a
trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was
delivered him to keep, or hath deceived his neighbour, or have found that
which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of
all these that a man doeth, sinning therein, then it shall be,"
&c.--_Lev._, vi, 2. "As the doing and teaching the commandments of God is
the great proof of virtue, so the breaking them, and the teaching others to
break them, is the great proof of vice."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p.
281. "In Pope's terrific maltreatment of the latter simile, it is neither
true to mind or eye."--_Coleridge's Introd._, p. 14. "And the two brothers
were seen, transported with rage and fury, endeavouring like Eteocles and
Polynices to plunge their swords into each other's hearts, and to assure
themselves of the throne by the death of their rival."--_Goldsmith's
Greece_, i, 176. "Is it not plain, therefore, that neither the castle, the
planet, nor the cloud, which you see here, are those real ones, which you
suppose exist at a distance?"--_Berkley's Alciphron_, p 166. "I have often
wondered how it comes to pass, that every Body should love themselves best,
and yet value their neighbours Opinion about themselves more than their
own."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 226. "VIRTUE ([Greek: Aretahe], Virtus) as
well as most of its Species, are all Feminine, perhaps from their Beauty
and amiable appearance."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 55. "Virtue, with most of
its Species, are all Feminine, from their Beauty and amiable Appearance;
and so Vice becomes Feminine of Course, as being Virtue's natural
opposite."--_British Gram._, p. 97. "Virtue, with most of its Species, is
Feminine, and so is Vice, for being Virtue's opposite."--_Buchanan's
Gram._, p. 22. "From this deduction, may be easily seen how it comes to
pass, that personification makes so great a figure in all compositions,
where imagination or passion have any concern."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 155.
"An Article is a word prefixed to a substantive to point them out, and to
show how far their signification extends."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 4. "All
men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights--among which are,
the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and
protecting property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining
happiness."--_Constitution of New Hampshire_. "From Grammarians who form
their ideas, and make their decisions, respecting this part of English
Grammar, on the principles and construction of languages, which, in these
points, do not suit the peculiar nature of our own, but differ considerably
from it, we may naturally expect grammatical schemes that are not very
perspicuous, or perfectly consistent, and which will tend more to perplex
than inform the learner."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 68; _Hall's_, 15. "There
are, indeed, very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a
relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; every diversion they take,
is at the expense of some one virtue or another, and their very first step
out of business is into vice or folly."--ADDISON: _Blair's Rhet._, p.
201.[444]
"Hail, holy love! thou word that sums all bliss!
Gives and receives all bliss: fullest when most
Thou givest; spring-head of all felicity!"
--_Pollok, C. of T._, B. v, 1, 193.
CHAPTER XIII.--GENERAL RULE.
The following comprehensive canon for the correction of all sorts of
nondescript errors in syntax, and the several critical or general notes
under it, seem necessary for the completion of my design; which is, to
furnish a thorough exposition of the various faults against which the
student of English grammar has occasion to be put upon his guard.
GENERAL RULE OF SYNTAX.
In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the
words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent
construction should be preserved throughout.
CRITICAL NOTES TO THE GENERAL RULE.
CRITICAL NOTE I.--OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.
Words that may constitute different parts of speech, must not be left
doubtful as to their classification, or to what part of speech they belong.
CRITICAL NOTE II.--OF DOUBTFUL REFERENCE.
The reference of words to other words, or their syntactical relation
according to the sense, should never be left doubtful, by any one who means
to be understood.
CRITICAL NOTE III.--OF DEFINITIONS.
A definition, in order to be perfect, must include the whole thing, or
class of things, which it pretends to define, and exclude every thing which
comes not under the name.
CRITICAL NOTE IV.--OF COMPARISONS.
A comparison is a form of speech which requires some similarity or common
property in the things compared; without which, it becomes a solecism.
CRITICAL NOTE V.--OF FALSITIES.
Sentences that convey a meaning manifestly false, should be changed,
rejected, or contradicted; because they distort language from its chief
end, or only worthy use; which is, to state facts, and to tell the truth.
CRITICAL NOTE VI.--OF ABSURDITIES.
Absurdities, of every kind, are contrary to grammar, because they are
contrary to reason, or good sense, which is the foundation of grammar.
CRITICAL NOTE VII.--OF SELF-CONTRADICTION.
Every writer or speaker should be careful not to contradict himself; for
what is self-contradictory, is both null in argument, and bad in style.
CRITICAL NOTE VIII.--OF SENSELESS JUMBLING.
To jumble together words without care for the sense, is an unpardonable
negligence, and an abuse of the human understanding.
CRITICAL NOTE IX.--OF WORDS NEEDLESS.
Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber
the expression, ought in general to be omitted.
CRITICAL NOTE X.--OF IMPROPER OMISSIONS.
Words necessary to the sense, or even to the melody or beauty of a
sentence, ought seldom, if ever, to be omitted.
CRITICAL NOTE XI.--OF LITERARY BLUNDERS.
Grave blunders made in the name of learning, are the strongest of all
certificates against the books which contain them unreproved.
CRITICAL NOTE XII.--OF PERVERSIONS.
Proof-texts in grammar, if not in all argument, should be quoted literally;
and even that which needs to be corrected, must never be perverted.
CRITICAL NOTE XIII.--OF AWKWARDNESS.
Awkwardness, or inelegance of expression, is a reprehensible defect in
style, whether it violate any of the common rules of syntax or not.
CRITICAL NOTE XIV.--OF IGNORANCE.
Any use of words that implies ignorance of their meaning, or of their
proper orthography, is particularly unscholarlike; and, in proportion to
the author's pretensions to learning, disgraceful.
CRITICAL NOTE XV.--OF SILLINESS. Silly remarks and idle truisms are traits
of a feeble style, and, when their weakness is positive, or inherent, they
ought to be entirely omitted. CRITICAL NOTE XVI.--OF THE INCORRIGIBLE.
Passages too erroneous for correction, may be criticised, orally or
otherwise, and then passed over without any attempt to amend them.[445]
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYNTAX.
OBS. 1.--In the foregoing code of syntax, the author has taken the parts of
speech in their order, and comprised all the general principles of
relation, agreement, and government, in twenty-four leading Rules. Of these
rules, eight--(namely, the 1st, of _Articles_; the 4th, of _Possessives_;
the 9th, of _Adjectives_; the 20th, of _Participles_; the 21st, of
_Adverbs_; the 22d, of _Conjunctions_; the 23d, of _Prepositions_; and the
24th, of _Interjections_--) are used only in parsing. The remaining
sixteen, because they embrace principles that are sometimes violated in
practice, answer the double purpose of parsing and correcting. The
Exceptions, of which there are thirty-two, (all occasionally applicable in
parsing,) belong to nine different rules, and refer to all the parts of
speech, except nouns and interjections. The Notes, of which there are one
hundred and fifty-two, are subordinate rules of syntax, not designed to be
used in parsing, but formed for the exposition and correction of so many
different forms of false grammar. The Observations, of which there are, in
this part of the work, without the present series, four hundred and
ninety-seven, are designed not only to defend and confirm the doctrines
adopted by the author, but to explain the arrangement of words, and
whatever is difficult or peculiar in construction.
OBS. 2.--The rules in a system of syntax may be more or less comprehensive,
as well as more or less simple or complex; consequently they may, without
deficiency or redundance, be more or less numerous. But either complexity
or vagueness, as well as redundance or deficiency, is a fault; and, when
all these faults are properly avoided, and the two great ends of methodical
syntax, _parsing_ and _correcting_, are duly answered, perhaps the
requisite number of syntactical rules, or grammatical canons, will no
longer appear very indeterminate. In the preceding chapters, the essential
principles of English syntax are supposed to be pretty fully developed; but
there are yet to be exhibited some forms of error, which must be corrected
under other heads or maxims, and for the treatment of which the several
dogmas of this chapter are added. Completeness in the system, however, does
not imply that it must have shown the pupil how to correct every form of
language that is amiss: for there may be in composition many errors of such
a nature that no rule of grammar can show, either what should be
substituted for the faulty expression, or what fashion of amendment may be
the most eligible. The inaccuracy may be gross and obvious, but the
correction difficult or impossible. Because the sentence may require a
change throughout; and a total change is not properly a correction; it is a
substitution of something new, for what was, perhaps, in itself
incorrigible.
OBS. 3.--The notes which are above denominated _Critical_ or _General_, are
not all of them obviously different in kind from the other notes; but they
all are such as could not well have been placed in any of the earlier
chapters of the book. The _General Rule of Syntax_, since it is not a canon
to be used in parsing, but one that is to be applied only in the correcting
of false syntax, might seem perhaps to belong rather to this order of
notes; but I have chosen to treat it with some peculiar distinction,
because it is not only more comprehensive than any other rule or note, but
is in one respect more important; it is the rule which will be cited for
the correction of the greatest number and variety of errors. Being designed
to meet every possible form of inaccuracy in the mere construction of
sentences,--or, at least, every corrigible solecism by which any principle
of syntax can be violated,--it necessarily includes almost all the other
rules and notes. It is too broad to convey very definite instruction, and
therefore ought not in general to be applied where a more particular rule
or note is clearly applicable. A few examples, not properly fitting under
any other head, will serve to show its use and application: such examples
are given, in great abundance, in the false syntax below. If, in some of
the instances selected, this rule is applied to faults that might as well
have been corrected by some other, the choice, in such cases, is deemed of
little or no importance.
OBS. 4.--The imperfection of _ancient_ writing, especially in regard to
division and punctuation, has left the syntactical relation of words, and
also the sense of passages, in no few instances, uncertain; and has
consequently made, where the text has been thought worthy of it, an
abundance of difficult work for translators, critics, and commentators.
Rules of grammar, now made and observed, as they ought to be, may free the
compositions of this, or a future age, from similar embarrassments; and it
is both just and useful, to test our authors by them, criticising or
correcting their known blunders according to the present rules of accurate
writing. But the readers and expounders of what has come to us from remote
time, can be rightly guided only by such principles and facts as have the
stamp of creditable antiquity. Hence there are, undoubtedly, in books, some
errors and defects which have outlived the _time in which_, and the
_authority b which_, they might have been corrected. As we have no right to
make a man say that which he himself never said or intended to say, so we
have in fact none to fix a positive meaning upon his language, without
knowing for a certainty what he meant by it. Reason, or good sense, which,
as I have suggested, is the foundation of grammar and of all good writing,
is indeed a perpetual as well as a universal principle; but, since the
exercises of our reason must, from the very nature of the faculty, be
limited to what we know and understand, we are not competent to the
positive correction, or to the sure translation, of what is obscure and
disputable in the standard books of antiquity.
OBS. 5.--Let me cite an example: "For all this I considered in my heart,
even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their
works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred _by_
all _that is_ before them. All _things come_ alike to all."--
_Ecclesiastes_, ix, 1. Here is, doubtless, _one_ error which any English
scholar may point out or correct. The pronoun "_them_" should be _him_,
because its intended antecedent appears to be "_man_," and not "_the
righteous and the wise_," going before. But are there not _other_ faults in
the version? The common French Bible, in this place, has the following
import: "Surely I have applied my heart to all that, and to unfold all
this; _to wit_, that the righteous and the wise, and their actions, _are_
in the hand of God and love and hatred; _and that_ men know nothing of all
_that which is_ before them. All _happens_ equally to all." The Latin
Vulgate gives this sense: "All these things have I considered in my heart,
that I might understand them accurately: the righteous and the wise, and
their works, are in the hand of God; and yet man doth not know, whether by
love or by hatred lie may be worthy: but all things in the future are kept
uncertain, so that all may happen alike to the righteous man and to the
wicked." In the Greek of the Septuagint, the introductory members of this
passage are left at the end of the preceding chapter, and are literally
thus: "that all this I received into my heart, and my heart understood all
this." The rest, commencing a new chapter, is as follows: "For the
righteous and the wise and their works _are_ in the hand of God, and indeed
both love and hatred man knoweth not: all things before their face _are_
vanity to all." Now, which of these several readings is the nearest to what
Solomon meant by the original text, or which is the farthest from it, and
therefore the most faulty, I leave it to men more learned than myself to
decide; but, certainly, there is no _inspired authority_ in any of them,
but _in so far as they convey the sense which he really intended_. And if
his meaning had not been, by some imperfection in the oldest expression we
have of it, _obscured and partly lost_, there could be neither cause nor
excuse for these discrepancies. I say this with no willingness to
depreciate the general authority of the Holy Scriptures, which are for the
most part clear in their import, and very ably translated into English, as
well as into other languages.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE GENERAL RULE.
LESSON I.--ARTICLES.
(1.) "An article is a part of speech placed before
nouns."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 11.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the article _an_ is here inconsistent with
the term "_part of speech_;" for the text declares one thing of a kind to
be the whole kind. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the
formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words
should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent
construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected
in two ways, thus: "_The_ article is a part of speech placed before
nouns;"--or better, "_An_ article is a word placed before nouns." [446]]
(2.) "An article is a part of speech used to limit nouns."--_Gilbert's
Gram._, p. 19. (3.) "An article is a part of speech set before nouns to fix
their vague Signification."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 18. (4.) "An adjective is a
part of speech used to describe a noun."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p. 19. (5.) "A
pronoun is a part of speech used instead of a noun."--_Ibid._; and _Weld's
Gram._, pp. 30 and 50; _Abridg._, pp. 29 and 46. (6.) "A Pronoun is a Part
of Speech which is often used instead of a Noun Substantive common, and
supplies the Want of a Noun proper."--_British Gram._, p. 102; _Buchanan's
Gram._, p. 29. (7.) "A verb is a part of speech, which signifies _to be, to
do, or to be acted upon_"--_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 17. (8.) "A verb
is a part of speech, which signifies _to be, to act, or to receive an
action_."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 11. (9.) "A verb is a part of speech by
which any thing is asserted."--_Weld's Gram_, p. 50; _Abridg._, 46 and 58.
(10.) "A verb is a part of speech which expresses action, or existence, in
a direct manner."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p. 20. (11.) "A participle is a part
of speech derived from a verb, and expresses action or existence in an
indirect manner."--_Ibid._ (12.) "A Participle is a Part of Speech derived
from a Verb, and denotes being, doing, or suffering, and implies Time, as a
Verb does."--_British Gram._, p. 139; _Buchanan's_, p. 46. "An adverb is a
part of speech used to add to the meaning of verbs, adjectives, and
participles."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p. 20. (14.) "An adverb is an
indeclinable part of speech, added to a verb, adjective, or other adverb,
to express some circumstance, quality, or manner of their signification."--
_Adam's Gram._, p. 142; _Gould's_, 147. (15.) "An Adverb is a part of
speech joined to a verb, an Adjective, a Participle, and sometimes to
another Adverb, to express the quality or circumstance of it."--_Ash's
Gram._, p. 47, (16.) "An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a Verb,
Adjective, Participle, and sometimes to another Adverb, to express some
circumstances respecting it."--_Beck's Gram._, p. 23. (17.) "An Adverb is a
Part of Speech which is joined to a Verb, Adjective, Participle, or to
another Adverb to express some Modification, or Circumstance, Quality, or
Manner of their Signification."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 61. (18.) "An
Adverb is a part of speech added to a Verb (whence the name), and sometimes
even to another word."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 76. (19.) "A conjunction is a
part of speech used to connect words and sentences."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p.
20; _Weld's_, 51. (20.) "A Conjunction is a part of speech that joins words
or sentences together."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 43. (21.) "A Conjunction is that
part of speech which connect sentences, or parts of sentences or single
words."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 41. (22.) "A Conjunction is a part of speech,
that is used principally to connect sentences, so as, out of two, three, or
more, sentences, to make one."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 28. (23.) "A
Conjunction is a part of speech that is chiefly used to connect sentences,
joining two or more simple sentences into one compound sentence: it
sometimes connects only words."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 118. (24.) "A
Conjunction is a Part of Speech which joins Sentences together, and shews
the Manner of their Dependance upon one another."--_British Gram._, p. 163;
_Buchanan's_, p. 64; _E. Devis's_. 103. (25.) "A preposition is a part of
Speech used to show the relation between other words."--_Gilbert's Gram._,
p. 20. (26.) "A Preposition is a part of speech which serves to connect
words and show the relation between them."--_Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 42.
(27.) "A _preposition_ is a part of speech used to connect words and show
their relation."--_Weld's Gram._, p. 51; _Abridg_. 47. (28.) "A preposition
is that part of speech which shows the position of persons or things, or
the relation that one noun or pronoun bears toward another."--_Blair's
Gram._, p. 40. (29.) "A Preposition is a Part of Speech, which being added
to any other Parts of Speech serves to shew their State, Relation or
Reference to each other."--_British Gram._, p. 165; _Buchanan's_, p. 65.
(30.) "An interjection is a part of speech used to express sudden passion
or emotion."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p. 20. (31.) "An interjection is a part of
speech used in giving utterance to some sudden feeling or emotion."--
_Weld's Gram._, pp. 49 and 51; _Abridg._, 44 and 47. (32.) "An Interjection
is that part of speech which denotes any sudden affection or emotion of the
mind."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 42. (33) "An Interjection is a Part of Speech
thrown into discourse, and denotes some sudden Passion or Emotion of the
Soul."--_British Gram._, p. 172; _Buchanan's_, p. 67.
(34.) "A scene might tempt some peaceful sage
To rear him a lone hermitage."
--_Union Poems_, p. 89.
(35.) "Not all the storms that shake the pole
Can e'er disturb thy halcyon soul,
And smooth th' unaltered brow."
--_Day's Gram._, p. 78; _E. Reader_, 230.
LESSON II.--NOUNS. "The thrones of every monarchy felt the
shock."--_Frelinghuysen_.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the plural noun _thrones_ has not a clear
and regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according
to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences the
consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed;
and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved
throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: "The _throne_ of every
monarchy felt the shock."]
"These principles ought to be deeply impressed upon the minds of every
American."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 44. "The word _church_ and _shire_ are
radically the same."--_Ib._, p. 256. "They may not, in their present form,
be readily accommodated to every circumstance belonging to the possessive
cases of nouns."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 53. "_Will_, in the second
and third person, only foretels."--_Ib._, p. 88. "Which seem to form the
true distinction between the subjunctive and the indicative moods."--_Ib._,
p. 208. "The very general approbation, which this performance of Walker has
received from the public."--_Ib._, p. 241. "Lest she carry her improvements
this way too far."--CAMPBELL: _ib._, p. 371. "Charles was extravagant, and
by this means became poor and despicable."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 189.
"We should entertain no prejudices against simple and rustic
persons."--_Ib._, p. 205. "These are indeed the foundations of all solid
merit."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 175. "And his embellishment, by means of
musical cadence, figures, or other parts of speech."--_Ib._, p. 175. "If he
is at no pains to engage us by the employment of figures, musical
arrangement, or any other art of writing."--_Ib._, p. 181. "The most
eminent of the sacred poets are, the Author of the book of Job, David and
Isaiah."--_Ib._, p. 418. "Nothing, in any poet, is more beautifully
described than the death of old Priam."--_Ib._, p. 439. "When two vowels
meet together, and are sounded at one breath, they are called
_diphthongs_."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 10. "How many _ss_ would goodness
then end with? Three."--_Ib._, p. 33. "_Birds_ is a noun, the name of a
thing or creature."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 53. "Adam gave names to every
living creature."--_Bicknell's Gram._, Part ii, p. 5. "The steps of a stair
ought to be accommodated to the human figure."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol.
ii, p. 337. "Nor ought an emblem more than a simile to be founded on low or
familiar objects."--_Ib._, Vol. ii. p. 357. "Whatever the Latin has not
from the Greek, it has from the Goth."--_Tooke's Diversions_, Vol. ii, p.
450. "The mint and secretary of state's offices are neat buildings."--_The
Friend_, Vol. iv, p. 266. "The scenes of dead and still life are apt to
pall upon us."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 407. "And Thomas Aquinas and Duns
Scotus, the angelical and the subtle doctors, are the brightest stars in
the scholastic constellation."--_Literary Hist._, p. 244. "The English
language has three methods of distinguishing the sex."--_Murray's Gram._,
p. 38; _Ingersoll's_, 27; _Alger's_, 16; _Bacon's_, 13; _Fisk's_, 58;
_Greenleaf's_, 21. "The English language has three methods of
distinguishing sex."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 44. "In English there are the
three following methods of distinguishing sex."--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 26.
"There are three ways of distinguishing the sex."--_Lennie's Gram._, p. 10;
_Picket's_, 26; _Bullions's_, 10. "There are three ways of distinguishing
sex."--_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 26. "Gender is distinguished in three
ways."--_Maunder's Gram._, p. 2. "Neither discourse in general, nor poetry
in particular, can be called altogether imitative arts."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 51.
"Do we for this the gods and conscience brave,
That one may rule and make the rest a slave?"
--_Rowe's Lucan_, B. ii, l. 96.
LESSON III.--ADJECTIVES.
"There is a deal of more heads, than either heart or horns."--_Barclay's
Works_, i, 234.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the adjective _more_ has not a clear and
regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according to
the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency
and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a
regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved
throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: "There is a deal _more_ of
heads, than _of_ either heart or horns."]
"For, of all villains, I think he has the wrong name."--_Bunyan's P. P._,
p. 86. "Of all the men that I met in my pilgrimage, he, I think bears the
wrong name."--_Ib._, p. 84. "I am surprized to see so much of the
distribution, and technical terms of the Latin grammar, retained in the
grammar of our tongue."--_Priestley's Gram., Pref._, p. vi. "Nor did the
Duke of Burgundy bring him the smallest assistance."--HUME: _Priestley's
Gram._, p. 178. "Else he will find it difficult to make one obstinate
believe him."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 243. "Are there any adjectives
which form the degrees of comparison peculiar to themselves?"--_Infant
School Gram._, p. 46. "Yet the verbs are all of the indicative
mood."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 33. "The word _candidate_ is in the absolute
case."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 155. "An Iambus has the first syllable
unaccented, and the latter accented."--_Russell's Gram._, p. 108; _Smith's
New Gram._, 188. "A Dactyl has the first syllable accented, and the two
latter unaccented."--_L. Murray_, p. 253; _Bullions's E. Gram._, 170;
_Smith's_, 188; _Kirkham's_, 219; _Guy's_, 120; _Blair's_, 118;
_Merchant's_, 167; _Russell's_, 109. "It is proper to begin with a capital
the first word of every book, chapter, letter, note, or any other piece of
writing."--_L. Murray_, p. 284; _R. C. Smith's New Gram._, 192;
_Ingersoll's_, 295; _Comly's_, 166; _Merchant's_, 14; _Greenleaf's_, 42;
_D. C. Allen's_, 85; _Fisk's_, 159; _Bullions's_, 158; _Kirkham's_, 219;
_Hiley's_, 119; _Weld's Abridged_, 16; _Bullions's Analyt. and Pract._, 16;
_Fowler's E. Gr._, 674. "Five and seven make twelve, and one makes
thirteen."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 227. "I wish to cultivate a farther
acquaintance with you."--_Ib._, p. 272. "Let us consider the proper means
to effect our purpose."--_Ib._, p. 276. "Yet they are of such a similar
nature, as readily to mix and blend."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 48. "The Latin
is formed on the same model, but more imperfect."--_Ib._, p. 83. "I know
very well how much pains have been taken."--_Sir W. Temple_. "The
management of the breath requires a good deal of care."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 331. "Because the mind, during such a momentary stupefaction, is in a
good measure, if not totally, insensible."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i,
p. 222. "Motives alone of reason and interest are not sufficient."--_Ib._,
Vol. i, p. 232. "To render the composition distinct in its parts, and
striking on the whole,"--_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 333. "_A_ and _an_ are named
indefinite because they denote some one thing of a kind."--_Maunder's
Gram._, p. 1. "_The_ is named definite, because it points out some
particular thing."--_Ibid._ "So much depends upon the proper construction
of sentences, that, in every sort of composition, we cannot be too strict
in our attention to it."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 103. "All sort of declamation
and public speaking, was carried on by them."--_Ib._, p. 123. "The first
has on many occasions, a sublimity to which the latter never
attains."--_Ib._, p. 440. "When the words _therefore, consequently,
accordingly_, and the like are used in connexion with other conjunctions,
they are adverbs."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 88. "Rude nations make little or
no allusions to the productions of the arts."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 10.
"While two of her maids knelt on either side of her."--_Mirror_, xi, 307.
"The third personal pronouns differ from each other in meaning and use, as
follows."--_Bullions, Lat. Gram._, p. 65. "It was happy for the state, that
Fabius continued in the command with Minucius: the former's phlegm was a
check upon the latter's vivacity."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 57. "If it
should be objected that the words must and ought, in the preceding
sentences, are all in the present tense."--_Ib._, p. 108. "But it will be
well if you turn to them, every now and then."--_Buckets Classical Gram._,
p. 6. "That every part should have a dependence on, and mutually contribute
to support each other."--_Rollin's Hist._, ii, 115. "The phrase, '_Good, my
Lord_,' is not common, and low."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 110.
"That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other."--_Cowper_.
LESSON IV.--PRONOUNS.
"If I can contribute to your and my country's glory."--_Goldsmith_.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the pronoun _your_ has not a clear and
regular construction, adapted to the author's meaning. But, according to
the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency
and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a
regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved
throughout." The sentence, having a doubtful or double meaning, may be
corrected in two ways, thus: "If I can contribute to our country's
glory;"--or, "If I can contribute to your _glory_ and _that of my
country_."]
"As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each their
verb."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 120. "He is likewise required to make examples
himself."--_J. Flint's Gram._, p. 3. "If the emphasis be placed wrong, we
shall pervert and confound the meaning wholly."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p.
242. "If the emphasis be placed wrong, we pervert and confound the meaning
wholly."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 330. "It was this that characterized the
great men of antiquity; it is this, which must distinguish moderns who
would tread in their steps."--_Ib._, p. 341. "I am a great enemy to
implicit faith, as well the Popish as Presbyterian, who in that are much
what alike."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 280. "Will he thence dare to say the
apostle held another Christ than he that died?"--_Ib._, iii, 414. "What
need you be anxious about this event?"--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 188. "If
a substantive can be placed after the verb, it is active."--_Alex. Murray's
Gram._, p. 31 "When we see bad men honoured and prosperous in the world, it
is some discouragement to virtue."--_L. Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 224. "It is
a happiness to young persons, when they are preserved from the snares of
the world, as in a garden enclosed."--_Ib._, p. 171. "The court of Queen
Elizabeth, which was but another name for prudence and economy."--
_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 24. "It is no wonder if such a man did not shine
at the court of Queen Elizabeth, who was but another name for prudence and
economy. Here which ought to be used, and not who."--_Priestley's Gram._,
p. 99; _Fowler's_, Sec.488. "Better thus; Whose name was but another word for
prudence, &c."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 157; _Fish's_, 115; Ingersoll's, 221;
Smith's, 133; and others. "A Defective verb is one that wants some of its
parts. They are chiefly the Auxiliary and Impersonal verbs."--_Bullions, E.
Gram._, p. 31; _Old Editions_, 32. "Some writers have given our moods a
much greater extent than we have assigned to them."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo,
p. 67. "The Personal Pronouns give information which no other words are
capable of conveying."--_M'Culloch's Gram._, p. 37, "When the article _a,
an_, or _the_ precedes the participle, it also becomes a noun."--
_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 93. "There is a preference to be given to
some of these, which custom and judgment must determine."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 107. "Many writers affect to subjoin to any word the
preposition with which it is compounded, or the idea of which it
implies."--_Ib._, p. 200; _Priestley's Gram._, 157.
"Say, dost thou know Tectidius?--Who, the wretch
Whose lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch?"
--_Dryden's IV Sat. of Pers._
LESSON V.--VERBS.
"We would naturally expect, that the word _depend_, would require _from_
after it."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 201. "A dish which they pretend to be
made of emerald."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 198. "For the very nature of a
sentence implies one proposition to be expressed."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
106. "Without a careful attention to the sense, we would be naturally led,
by the rules of syntax, to refer it to the rising and setting of the
sun."--_Ib._, p. 105. "For any rules that can be given, on this subject,
are very general."--_Ib._, p. 125. "He is in the right, if eloquence were
what he conceives it to be."--_Ib._, p. 234. "There I would prefer a more
free and diffuse manner."--_Ib._, p. 178. "Yet that they also agreed and
resembled one another, in certain qualities."--_Ib._, p. 73. "But since he
must restore her, he insists to have another in her place."--_Ib._, p. 431.
"But these are far from being so frequent or so common as has been
supposed."--_Ib._, p. 445. "We are not misled to assign a wrong place to
the pleasant or painful feelings." _Kames, El. of Crit._, Introd., p.
xviii. "Which are of greater importance than is commonly thought."--Vol.
ii, p. 92. "Since these qualities are both coarse and common, lets find out
the mark of a man of probity."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 40. "Cicero did
what no man had ever done before him, draw up a treatise of consolation for
himself."--_Life of Cicero_. "Then there can be no other Doubt remain of
the Truth."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 245. "I have observed some satirists
use the term."--_Bullions's Prin. of E. Gram._, p. 79. "Such men are ready
to despond, or commence enemies."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 83. "Common nouns
express names common to many things."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 18. "To
make ourselves be heard by one to whom we address ourselves."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 328. "That, in reading poetry, he may be the better able to
judge of its correctness, and relish its beauties."--_Murray's Gram._, p.
252. "On the stretch to comprehend, and keep pace with the author."--
_Blair's Rhet._, p. 150. "For it might have been sold for more than three
hundred pence, and have been given to the poor."--_Mark_, xiv, 5. "He is a
beam that is departed, and left no streak of light behind."--OSSIAN:
_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 262. "No part of this incident ought to have
been represented, but reserved for a narrative."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
ii, 294. "The rulers and people debauching themselves, brings ruin on a
country."--_Ware's Gram._, p. 9. "When _Doctor, Miss, Master, &c._, is
prefixed to a name, the last of the two words is commonly made plural; as,
the _Doctor Nettletons_--the two _Miss Hudsons_."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._,
p. 106. "Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this
day."--_Matt._, xxvii, 8. "To comprehend the situations of other countries,
which perhaps may be necessary for him to explore."--_Brown's Estimate_,
ii, 111. "We content ourselves, now, with fewer conjunctive particles than
our ancestors did."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 139. "And who will be chiefly
liable to make mistakes where others have been mistaken before
them."--_Ib._, p. 156. "The voice of nature and revelation
unites."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, 3d Ed., p. 307.
"This adjective you see we can't admit,
But changed to _worse_, will make it just and fit."
--_Tobitt's Gram._, p. 63.
LESSON VI.--PARTICIPLES.
"Its application is not arbitrary, depending on the caprice of
readers."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 246. "This is the more
expedient, from the work's being designed for the benefit of private
learners."--_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 161. "A man, he tells us, ordered by his
will, to have erected for him a statue."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 106. "From
some likeness too remote, and laying too far out of the road of ordinary
thought."--_Ib._, p. 146. "Money is a fluid in the commercial world,
rolling from hand to hand."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 123. "He pays much
attention to learning and singing songs."--_Ib._ p. 246. "I would not be
understood to consider singing songs as criminal."--"It is a decided case
by the Great Master of writing."--_Preface to Waller_, p. 5. "Did they ever
bear a testimony against writing books?"--_Bates's Misc. Repository_.
"Exclamations are sometimes mistaking for interrogations."--_Hist. of
Printing_, 1770. "Which cannot fail proving of service."--_Smith's
Printer's Gram._ "Hewn into such figures as would make them easily and
firmly incorporated."--BEATTIE: _Murray's Gram._, i, 126. "Following the
rule and example are practical inductive questions."--_J. Flint's Gram._,
p. 3. "I think there will be an advantage in my having collected examples
from modern writings."--_Priestley's Gram._, Pref., p. xi. "He was eager of
recommending it to his fellow-citizens."--HUME: p. 160. "The good lady was
careful of serving me of every thing."--"No revelation would have been
given, had the light of nature been sufficient in such a sense, as to
render one not wanting and useless."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 155.
"Description, again is the raising in the mind the conception of an object
by means of some arbitrary or instituted symbols."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 52.
"Disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for our being
done."--_Ib._ p. 326. "There is a distinction which, in the use of them, is
deserving of attention."--_Maunder's Gram._, p. 15. "A model has been
contrived, which is not very expensive, and easily managed."--_Education
Reporter_. "The conspiracy was the more easily discovered, from its being
known to many."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 191. "That celebrated work had been
nearly ten years published, before its importance was at all
understood."--_Ib._ p. 220. "The sceptre's being ostensibly grasped by a
female hand, does not reverse the general order of Government."--_West's
Letters to a Lady_, p. 43. "I have hesitated signing the Declaration of
Sentiments."--_Liberator_, x, 16. "The prolonging of men's lives when the
world needed to be peopled, and now shortening them when that necessity
hath ceased to exist."--_Brown's Divinity_, p. 7. "Before the performance
commences, we have displayed the insipid formalities of the prelusive
scene."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 23. "It forbade the lending of money, or
sending goods, or in any way embarking capital in transactions connected
with that foreign traffic."--LORD BROUGHAM: _B. and F. Anti-Slavery
Reporter_, Vol. ii, p. 218. "Even abstract ideas have sometimes conferred
upon them the same important prerogative."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 171.
"Like other terminations, _ment_ changes _y_ into _i_, when preceded by a
consonant."--_Walker's Rhyming Dict._, p. xiii; _Murray's Gram._, p. 24:
_Ingersoll's_, 11. "The term _proper_ is from being _proper_, that is,
_peculiar_ to the individual bearing the name. The term _common_ is from
being _common_ to every individual comprised in the class."--_Fowler's E.
Gram._, 8vo, 1850, Sec.139.
"Thus oft by mariners are shown (Unless the men of Kent are liars)
Earl Godwin's castles overflown, And palace-roofs, and steeple-spires."
--_Swift_, p. 313.
LESSON VII.--ADVERBS.
"He spoke to every man and woman there."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 220;
_Fisk's_, 147. "Thought and language act and react upon each other
mutually."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 120; _Murray's Exercises_, 133. "Thought
and expression act upon each other mutually."--See _Murray's Key_, p. 264.
"They have neither the leisure nor the means of attaining scarcely any
knowledge, except what lies within the contracted circle of their several
professions."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 359. "Before they are capable of
understanding but little, or indeed any thing of many other branches of
education."--_Olney's Introd. to Geog._, p. 5. "There is not more beauty in
one of them than in another."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 275. "Which appear not
constructed according to any certain rule."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 47. "The
vehement manner of speaking became not so universal."--_Ib._, p. 61. "All
languages, however, do not agree in this mode of expression."--_Ib._, p.
77. "The great occasion of setting aside this particular day."--ATTERBURY:
p. 294. "He is much more promising now than formerly."--_Murray's Gram._,
Vol. ii, p. 4. "They are placed before a participle, independently on the
rest of the sentence."--_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 21. "This opinion appears to be
not well considered."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 153; _Ingersoll's_, 249.
"Precision in language merits a full explication; and the more, because
distinct ideas are, perhaps, not commonly formed about it."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 94. "In the more sublime parts of poetry, he [Pope] is not so
distinguished."--_Ib._, p. 403. "How far the author was altogether happy in
the choice of his subject, may be questioned."--_Ib._, p. 450. "But here
also there is a great error in the common practice."--_Webster's Essays_,
p. 7. "This order is the very order of the human mind, which makes things
we are sensible of, a means to come at those that are not so."--_Formey's
Belles-Lettres, Foreman's Version_, p. 113. "Now, Who is not Discouraged,
and Fears Want, when he has no money?"--_Divine Right of Tythes_, p. 23.
"Which the Authors of this work, consider of but little or no
use."--_Wilbur and Livingston's Gram._, p. 6. "And here indeed the
distinction between these two classes begins not to be clear."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 152. "But this is a manner which deserves not to be
imitated."--_Ib._, p. 180. "And in this department a person never effects
so little, as when he attempts too much."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 173;
_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 367. "The verb that signifies merely being, is
neuter."--_Dr. Ash's Gram._, p. 27. "I hope not much to tire those whom I
shall not happen to please."--_Rambler_, No. 1. "Who were utterly unable to
pronounce some letters, and others very indistinctly."--_Sheridan's
Elocution_, p. 32. "The learner may point out the active, passive, and
neuter verbs in the following examples, and state the reasons why."--_C.
Adams's Gram._, p. 27. "These words are most always conjunctions."--_S.
Barrett's Revised Gram._, p. 73.
"How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said, nor sung!"--_Dunciad_.
LESSON VIII.--CONJUNCTIONS.
"Who at least either knew not, nor loved to make, a distinction."--_Dr.
Murray's Hist. of Europ. Lang._, i, 322. "It is childish in the last
degree, if this become the ground of estranged affection."--_L. Murray's
Key_, ii, 228. "When the regular or the irregular verb is to be preferred,
p. 107."--_Murray's Index, Gram._, ii, 296. "The books were to have been
sold, as this day."--_Priestley's E. Gram._, p. 138. "Do, an if you
will."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 195. "If a man had a positive idea of
infinite, either duration or space, he could add two infinites
together."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 174. "None shall more willingly agree
and advance the same nor I."--EARL OF MORTON: _Robertson's Scotland_, ii,
428. "That it cannot be but hurtful to continue it."--_Barclay's Works_, i,
192. "A conjunction joins words and sentences."--_Beck's Gram._, pp. 4 and
25. "The copulative conjunction connects words and sentences together and
continues the sense."--_Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 42. "The Conjunction
Copulative serves to connect or continue a sentence, by expressing an
addition, a supposition, a cause, &c."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, i, 123. "All
Construction is either true or apparent; or in other Words just and
figurative."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 130; _British Gram._, 234. "But the
divine character is such that none but a divine hand could draw."--_The
Friend_, Vol. v, p. 72. "Who is so mad, that, on inspecting the heavens, is
insensible of a God?"--CICERO:--_Dr. Gibbons_. "It is now submitted to an
enlightened public, with little desire on the part of the Author, than its
general utility."--_Town's Analysis_, 9th Ed., p. 5. "This will
sufficiently explain the reason, that so many provincials have grown old in
the capital without making any change in their original
dialect."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 51. "Of these they had chiefly three
in general use, which were denominated accents, and the term used in the
plural number."--_Ib._, p. 56. "And this is one of the chief reasons, that
dramatic representations have ever held the first rank amongst the
diversions of mankind."--_Ib._, p. 95. "Which is the chief reason that
public reading is in general so disgusting."--_Ib._, p. 96. "At the same
time that they learn to read."--_Ib._, p. 96. "He is always to pronounce
his words exactly with the same accent that he speaks them."--_Ib._, p. 98.
"In order to know what another knows, and in the same manner that he knows
it."--_Ib._, p. 136. "For the same reason that it is in a more limited
state assigned to the several tribes of animals."--_Ib._, p. 145. "Were
there masters to teach this, in the same manner as other arts are
taught."--_Ib._, p. 169.
"Whose own example strengthens all his laws;
And is himself that great Sublime he draws."--_Pope, on Crit._, l. 680.
LESSON IX.--PREPOSITIONS.
"The word _so_ has, sometimes, the same meaning with _also, likewise, the
same_."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 137. "The verb _use_ relates not to
pleasures of the imagination, but to the terms of fancy and imagination,
which he was to employ as synonymous."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 197. "It never
can view, clearly and distinctly, above one object at a time."--_Ib._, p.
94. "This figure [Euphemism] is often the same with the
Periphrasis."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 247; _Gould's_, 238. "All the between
time of youth and old age."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 83. "When one thing
is said to act upon, or do something to another."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 70.
"Such a composition has as much of meaning in it, as a mummy has
life."--_Journal of Lit. Convention_, p. 81. "That young men of from
fourteen to eighteen were not the best judges."--_Ib._, p. 130. "This day
is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy."--_2 Kings_, xix, 3.
"Blank verse has the same pauses and accents with rhyme."--_Kames, El. of
Crit._, ii, 119. "In prosody, long syllables are distinguished by ([=]),
and short ones by what is called _breve_ ([~])."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 22.
"Sometimes both articles are left out, especially in poetry."--_Ib._, p.
26. "In the following example, the pronoun and participle are omitted: [_He
being_] 'Conscious of his own weight and importance, the aid of others was
not solicited.'"--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 221. "He was an excellent
person; a mirror of ancient faith in early youth."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p.
172. "The carrying on its several parts into execution."--_Butler's
Analogy_, p. 192. "Concord, is the agreement which one word has over
another, in gender, number, case, and person."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 3. "It
might perhaps have given me a greater taste of its antiquities."--ADDISON:
_Priestley's Gram._, p. 160. "To call of a person, and to wait of
him."--_Priestley, ib._, p. 161. "The great difficulty they found of fixing
just sentiments."--HUME: _ib._, p. 161. "Developing the difference between
the three."--_James Brown's first American Gram._, p. 12. "When the
substantive singular ends in _x, ch_ soft, _sh, ss_, or _s_, we add _es_ in
the plural."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 40. "We shall present him with a list or
specimen of them."--_Ib._, p. 132. "It is very common to hear of the evils
of pernicious reading, of how it enervates the mind, or how it depraves the
principles."--_Dymond's Essays_, p. 168. "In this example, the verb
'arises' is understood before 'curiosity' and 'knowledge.'"--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 274; _Ingersoll's_, 286; _Comly's_, 155; and others. "The
connective is frequently omitted between several words."--_Wilcox's Gram._,
p. 81. "He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of
your sight."--_Joshua_, xxiii, 5. "Who makes his sun shine and his rain to
descend upon the just and the unjust."--_M'Ilvaine's Lectures_, p. 411.
LESSON X.--MIXED EXAMPLES.
"This sentence violates the rules of grammar."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, Vol.
ii, pp. 19 and 21. "The words _thou_ and _shalt_ are again reduced to short
quantities."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 246. "Have the greater men always been the
most popular? By no means."--DR. LIEBER: _Lit. Conv._, p. 64. "St. Paul
positively stated that, 'he who loves one another has fulfilled the
law.'"--_Spurzheim, on Education_, p. 248. "More than one organ is
concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant."--_M'Culloch's
Gram._, p. 18. "If the reader will pardon my descending so
low."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 20. "To adjust them so, as shall consist
equally with the perspicuity and the grace of the period."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 118: _Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 324. "This class exhibits a
lamentable want of simplicity and inefficiency."--_Gardiner's Music of
Nature_, p. 481. "Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, where we
see to the very bottom."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 93. "Whose style flows always
like a limpid stream, through which we see to the very bottom."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 293. "We make use of the ellipsis." [447]--_Ib._, p. 217.
"The ellipsis of the article is thus used."--_Ib._, p. 217. "Sometimes the
ellipsis is improperly applied to nouns of different numbers: as, 'A
magnificent house and gardens.'"--_Ib._, p. 218. "In some very emphatic
expressions, the ellipsis should not be used."--_Ib._, 218. "The ellipsis
of the adjective is used in the following manner."--_Ib._, 218. "The
following is the ellipsis of the pronoun."--_Ib._, 218. "The ellipsis of
the verb is used in the following instances."--_Ib._, p. 219. "The ellipsis
of the adverb is used in the following manner."--_Ib._, 219. "The following
instances, though short, contain much of the ellipsis."--_Ib._, 220. "If no
emphasis be placed on any words, not only will discourse be rendered heavy
and lifeless, but the meaning often ambiguous."--_Ib._, 242. See _Hart's
Gram._, p. 172. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only is
discourse, rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning left often
ambiguous."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 330; _Murray's Eng. Reader_, p. xi. "He
regards his word, but thou dost not regard it."--_Bullions's E. Gram._, p.
129; _his Analytical and Practical Gram._, p. 196. "He regards his word,
but thou dost not: i.e. dost not regard it."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p.
219; _Parker and Fox's_, p. 96; _Weld's_, 192. "I have learned my task, but
you have not; i.e. have not learned."--_Ib., Mur._, 219; &c. "When the
omission of words would obscure the sentence, weaken its force, or be
attended with an impropriety, they must be expressed."--_Ib._, p. 217;
_Weld's Gram._ 190. "And therefore the verb is correctly put in the
singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually
considered."--_Murray's Gram._ 8vo, ii, 24 and 190. "I understood him the
best of all who spoke on the subject."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 192. "I
understood him better than any other who spoke on the subject."--_Ibid._,
"The roughness found on our entrance into the paths of virtue and learning,
grow smoother as we advance."--_Ib._, p. 171. "The roughnesses,"
&c.--_Murray's Key_, 12mo, p 8. "Nothing promotes knowledge more than
steady application, and a habit of observation."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p.
265. "Virtue confers supreme dignity on man: and should be his chief
desire."--_Ib._, p. 192; _and Merchant's_, 192. "The Supreme author of our
being has so formed the soul of man, that nothing but himself can be its
last, adequate, and proper happiness."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 413;
_Blair's Rhet._, p. 213. "The inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations
of our Europeans; because, they say, any one may place trees in equal rows
and uniform figures."--_Ad., Spect._, No. 414; _Blair's Rhet._, p. 222.
"The divine laws are not reversible by those of men."--_Murray's Key_, ii,
167. "In both of these examples, the relative and the verb _which was_, are
understood."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 273; _Comly's_, 152; _Ingersoll's_, 285.
"The Greek and Latin languages, though, for many reasons, they cannot be
called dialects of one another, are nevertheless closely connected."--_Dr.
Murray's Hist. of European Lang._, Vol. ii, p. 51. "To ascertain and settle
which, of a white rose or a red rose, breathes the sweetest
fragrance."--_J. Q. Adams, Orat._, 1831. "To which he can afford to devote
much less of his time and labour."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 254.
"Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too little or too much."
--_Pope, on Crit._, 1, 384.
LESSON XI.--BAD PHRASES.
"He had as good leave his vessel to the direction of the winds."--SOUTH:
_in Joh. Dict._ "Without good nature and gratitude, men had as good live in
a wilderness as in society."--L'ESTRANGE: _ib._ "And for this reason such
lines almost never occur together."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 385. "His being a
great man did not make him a happy man."--_Crombie's Treatise_, p. 288.
"Let that which tends to the making cold your love be judged in all."--_S.
Crisp_. "It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind
of man so weak but it mates and masters the fear of death."--_Bacon's
Essays_, p. 4. "Accent dignifies the syllable on which it is laid, and
makes it more distinguished by the ear than the rest."--_Sheridan's Lect._,
p. 80; _Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 244. "Before he proceeds to argue either
on one side or other."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 313. "The change in general of
manners throughout all Europe."--_Ib._, p. 375. "The sweetness and beauty
of Virgil's numbers, throughout his whole works."--_Ib._, p. 440. "The
French writers of sermons study neatness and elegance in laying down their
heads."--_Ib._, p. 13. "This almost never fails to prove a refrigerant to
passion."--_Ib._, p. 321. "At least their fathers, brothers, and uncles,
cannot, as good relations and good citizens, dispense with their not
standing forth to demand vengeance."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, Vol. i, p. 191.
"Alleging, that their crying down the church of Rome, was a joining hand
with the Turks."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 239. "To which is added the
Assembly of Divines Catechism."--_New-England Primer_, p. 1. "This
treachery was always present in both their thoughts."--_Dr. Robertson_.
"Thus far both their words agree." ("_Convenient adhuo utriusqus verba_.
Plaut.")--_Walker's Particles_, p. 125. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is
the branching out into several parts of what might be expressed in fewer
words."--_Gould's Gram_, p. 241. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is when
what might be expressed in a few words, is branched out into several
parts."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 251. "Which may sit from time to time where you
dwell or in the neighbouring vicinity."--_Taylor's District School_, 1st
Ed., p. 281. "Place together a large and a small sized animal of the same
species."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 235. "The weight of the swimming body
is equal to that of the weight, of the quantity of fluid displaced by
it."--_Percival's Tales_, ii, 213. "The Subjunctive mood, in all its
tenses, is similar to that of the Optative."--_Gwilt's Saxon Gram._, p. 27.
"No other feeling of obligation remains, except that of
fidelity."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, 1st Ed., p. 82. "Who asked him,
'What could be the reason, that whole audiences should be moved to tears,
at the representation of some story on the stage.'"--_Sheridan's
Elocution_, p. 175. "Art not thou and you ashamed to affirm, that the best
works of the Spirit of Christ in his saints are as filthy
rags?"--_Barclay's Works_, i, 174. "A neuter verb becomes active, when
followed by a noun of the same signification with its own."--_Sanborn's
Gram._, p. 127. "But he has judged better, in omitting to repeat the
article _the_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 194. "Many objects please us as highly
beautiful, which have almost no variety at all."--_Ib._, p. 46. "Yet
notwithstanding, they sometimes follow them."--_Emmons's Gram._, p. 21.
"For I know of nothing more material in all the whole Subject, than this
doctrine of Mood and Tense."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 292. "It is by no
means impossible for an errour to be got rid of or supprest."--
_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 642. "These are things of the highest
importance to the growing age."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 250. "He had
better have omitted the word _many_."--_Blair's Rhet._ p. 205. "Which had
better have been separated."--_Ib._, p. 225. "Figures and metaphors,
therefore, should, on no occasion be stuck on too profusely."--_Ib._, p.
144; _Jamieson's Rhet._, 150. "Metaphors, as well as other figures, should
on no occasion, be stuck on too profusely."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 338;
_Russell's_, 136. "Something like this has been reproached to
Tacitus."--BOLINGBROKE: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 164.
"O thou, whom all mankind in vain withstand,
Each of whose blood must one day stain thy hand!"
--_Sheffield's Temple of Death_.
LESSON XII.--TWO ERRORS.[448]
"Pronouns are sometimes made to precede the things which they
represent."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 160. "Most prepositions originally denote
the relation of place."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 65. "_Which_ is applied to
inferior animals and things without life."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 24;
_Pract. Lessons_, 30. "What noun do they describe or tell the
kind?"--_Infant School Gram._, p. 41. "Iron cannon, as well as brass, is
now universally cast solid."--_Jamieson's Dict._ "We have philosophers,
eminent and conspicuous, perhaps, beyond any nation."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
251. "This is a question about words alone, and which common sense easily
determines."--_Ib._, p. 320. "The low [pitch of the voice] is, when he
approaches to a whisper."--_Ib._, p. 328. "Which, as to the effect, is just
the same with using no such distinctions at all."--_Ib._, p. 33. "These two
systems, therefore, differ in reality very little from one
another."--_Ib._, p. 23. "It were needless to give many instances, as they
occur so often."--_Ib._, p. 109. "There are many occasions when this is
neither requisite nor would be proper."--_Ib._, p. 311. "Dramatic poetry
divides itself into the two forms, of comedy or tragedy."--_Ib._, p. 452.
"No man ever rhymed truer and evener than he."--_Pref. to Waller_, p. 5.
"The Doctor did not reap a profit from his poetical labours equal to those
of his prose."--_Johnson's Life of Goldsmith_. "We will follow that which
we found our fathers practice."--_Sale's Koran_, i, 28. "And I would deeply
regret having published them."--_Infant School Gram._, p. vii. "Figures
exhibit ideas in a manner more vivid and impressive, than could be done by
plain language."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 222. "The allegory is finely drawn,
only the heads various."--_Spect._, No. 540. "I should not have thought it
worthy a place here."--_Crombie's Treatise_, p. 219. "In this style,
Tacitus excels all writers, ancient and modern."--_Kames, El. of Crit._,
ii, 261. "No author, ancient or modern, possesses the art of dialogue equal
to Shakspeare."--_Ib._, ii, 294. "The names of every thing we hear, see,
smell, taste, and feel, are nouns."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 16. "What
number are these boys? these pictures? &c."--_Ib._, p. 23. "This sentence
is faulty, somewhat in the same manner with the last."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
230. "Besides perspicuity, he pursues propriety, purity, and precision, in
his language; which forms one degree, and no inconsiderable one, of
beauty."--_Ib._, p. 181. "Many critical terms have unfortunately been
employed in a sense too loose and vague; none more so, than that of the
sublime."--_Ib._, p. 35. "Hence, no word in the language is used in a more
vague signification than beauty."--_Ib._, p. 45. "But, still, he made use
only of general terms in speech."--_Ib._, p. 73. "These give life, body,
and colouring to the recital of facts, and enable us to behold them as
present, and passing before our eyes."--_Ib._, p. 360. "Which carried an
ideal chivalry to a still more extravagant height than it had risen in
fact."--_Ib._, p. 374. "We write much more supinely, and at our ease, than
the ancients."--_Ib._, p. 351. "This appears indeed to form the
characteristical difference between the ancient poets, orators, and
historians, compared with the modern."--_Ib._, p. 350. "To violate this
rule, as is too often done by the English, shews great incorrectness."--
_Ib._, p. 463. "It is impossible, by means of any study to avoid their
appearing stiff and forced."--_Ib._, p. 335. "Besides its giving the
speaker the disagreeable appearance of one who endeavours to compel
assent."--_Ib._, p. 328. "And, on occasions where a light or ludicrous
anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into
a note, than to hazard becoming too familiar."--_Ib._, p. 359. "The great
business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a
better."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 373. "In some dictionaries,
accordingly, it was omitted; and in others stigmatized as a barbarism."--
_Crombie's Treatise_, p. 322. "You cannot see, or think of, a thing, unless
it be a noun."--_Mack's Gram._, p. 65. "The fleet are all arrived and
moored in safety."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 185.
LESSON XIII.--TWO ERRORS.
"They have each their distinct and exactly-limited relation to
gravity."--_Hasler's Astronomy_, p 219. "But in cases which would give too
much of the hissing sound, the omission takes place even in
prose."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 175. "After _o_ it [the _w_] is
sometimes not sounded at all; sometimes like a single _u_."--_Lowth's
Gram._, p. 3. "It is situation chiefly which decides _of_ the fortunes and
characters of men."--HUME: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 159. "It is situation
chiefly which decides the fortune (or, _concerning_ the fortune) and
characters of men."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 201. "The vice of
covetousness is what enters deeper into the soul than any other."--_Ib._,
p. 167; _Ingersoll's_, 193; _Fisk's_, 103; _Campbell's Rhet._, 205.
"Covetousness, of all vices, enters the deepest into the soul."--_Murray_,
167; _and others_. "Covetousness is what of all vices enters the deepest
into the soul."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 205. "The vice of covetousness is
what enters deepest into the soul of any other."--_Guardian_, No. 19.
"_Would_ primarily denotes inclination of will; and _should_, obligation;
but they both vary their import, and are often used to express simple
event."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 43; _Murray's_, 89; _Fisk's_, 78;
_Greenleaf's_, 27. "But they both vary their import, and are often used to
express simple events."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 39; _Ingersoll's_, 137. "But
they vary their import, and are often used to express simple event."--_Abel
Flint's Gram._, p 42. "A double conjunctive, in two correspondent clauses
of a sentence, is sometimes made use of: as, '_Had_ he done this, he _had_
escaped.'"--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 213; _Ingersoll's_, 269. "The
pleasures of the understanding are preferable to those of the imagination,
or of sense."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 191. "Claudian, in a fragment upon
the wars of the giants, has contrived to render this idea of their throwing
the mountains, which is in itself so grand, burlesque, and
ridiculous."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 42. "To which not only no other writings
are to be preferred, but even in divers respects not comparable."--
_Barclay's Works_, i, 53. "To distinguish them in the understanding, and
treat of their several natures, in the same cool manner as we do with
regard to other ideas."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 137. "For it has
nothing to do with parsing, or analyzing, language."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p.
19. Or: "For it has nothing to do with parsing, or analyzing,
language."--_Ib., Second Edition_, p. 16. "Neither was that language [the
Latin] ever so vulgar in Britain."--SWIFT: see _Blair's Rhet._, p. 228.
"All that I propose is to give some openings into the pleasures of
taste."--_Ib._, p. 28. "But it would have been better omitted in the
following sentences."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 210. "But I think it had
better be omitted in the following sentence."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 162.
"They appear, in this case, like excrescences jutting out from the body,
which had better have been wanted."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 326. "And
therefore, the fable of the Harpies, in the third book of the AEneid, and
the allegory of Sin and Death, in the second book of Paradise Lost, had
been better omitted in these celebrated poems."--_Ib._, p. 430. "Ellipsis
is an elegant Suppression (or the leaving out) of a Word, or Words in a
Sentence."--_British Gram._, p. 234; _Buchanan's_, p. 131. "The article _a_
or _an_ had better be omitted in this construction."--_Blair's Gram._, p.
67. "Now suppose the articles had not been left out in these
passages."--_Burke's Gram._, p. 27. "To give separate names to every one of
those trees, would have been an endless and impracticable
undertaking."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 72. "_Ei_, in general, sounds the same
as long and slender _a_."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 12. "When a conjunction is
used apparently redundant it is called Polysyndeton."--_Adam's Gram._, p.
236; _Gould's_, 229. "_Each, every, either, neither_, denote the persons or
things which make up a number, as taken separately or distributively."--
_M'Culloch's Gram._, p. 31. "The Principal Sentence must be expressed by
verbs in the Indicative, Imperative, or Potential Modes."--_Clark's Pract.
Gram._, p. 133. "Hence he is diffuse, where he ought to have been
pressing."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 246. "All manner of subjects admit of
explaining comparisons."--_Ib._, p. 164; _Jamieson's Rhet._, 161. "The
present or imperfect participle denotes action or being continued, but not
perfected."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 78. "What are verbs? Those words which
express what the nouns do"--_Fowle's True Eng. Gram._, p. 29.
"Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."
--_J. Sheffield, Duke of Buck_.
"Such was that muse whose rules and practice tell
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."
--_Pope, on Criticism_.
LESSON XIV.--THREE ERRORS.
"In some words the metaphorical sense has justled out the original sense
altogether, so that in respect of it they are become obsolete."--
_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 323. "Sure never any mortal was so overwhelmed with
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