VI. VERBS

VI. VERBS

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

RULE XIV.--FINITE VERBS.

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

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

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTES TO RULE XIV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"That evermore his teeth they _chatter, Chatter, chatter, chatter_ still."--Wordsworth.

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

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

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIV.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--VERB AFTER THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

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

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

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--VERB BEFORE THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE I.--THE RELATIVE AND VERB.

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE II.--NOMINATIVE WITH ADJUNCTS.

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE III.--COMPOSITE OR CONVERTED SUBJECTS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE V.--VERB BETWEEN TWO NOMINATIVES.

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

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

UNDER NOTE VI.--CHANGE THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

UNDER NOTE VII.--ADAPT FORM TO STYLE.

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

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

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

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

"'Twas thou, who, while thou seem'dst to chide, To give me all thy pittance tried."--Mitford's Blanch, p. 78.

2. Forms not proper for the Solemn or Biblical Style.

"The Lord has prepaid his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom rules over all."--See Key. "Thou answer'd them, O Lord our God: thou was a God that forgave them, though thou took vengeance of their inventions."--See Key. "Then thou spoke in vision to thy Holy One, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty."--See Key. "So then, it is not of him that wills, nor of him that rules, but of God that shows mercy; who dispenses his blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, as seems good in his sight."--See Key.

"Thou, the mean while, was blending with my thought; Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy."--Coleridge.

UNDER NOTE VIII.--EXPRESS THE NOMINATIVE.

"Who is here so base, that would be a bondman?"--Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 249. "Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman?"--Ib. "There is not a sparrow falls to the ground without his notice."--Murray's Gram., p. 300. "In order to adjust them so, as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and the strength of the period."--Ib., p. 324; Blair's Rhet., 118. "But, sometimes, there is a verb comest in."--Cobbett's English Gram., ¶248. "Mr. Prince has a genius would prompt him to better things."--Spectator, No. 466. "It is this removes that impenetrable mist."--Harris's Hermes, p. 362. "By the praise is given him for his courage."--Locke, on Education, p. 214. "There is no man would be more welcome here."--Steele, Spect., No. 544. "Between an antecedent and a consequent, or what goes before, and immediately follows."--Blair's Rhet., p. 141. "And as connected with what goes before and follows."-- Ib., p. 354. "There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake."--Lord Bacon. "All the various miseries of life, which people bring upon themselves by negligence and folly, and might have been avoided by proper care, are instances of this."--Butler's Analogy, p. 108. "Ancient philosophers have taught many things in favour of morality, so far at least as respect justice and goodness towards our fellow-creatures."--Gospel its own Witness, p. 56. "Indeed, if there be any such, have been, or appear to be of us, as suppose, there is not a wise man among us all, nor an honest man, that is able to judge betwixt his brethren; we shall not covet to meddle in their matter."--Barclay's Works, i, 504. "There were that drew back; there were that made shipwreck of faith: yea, there were that brought in damnable heresies."--Ib., i, 466. "The nature of the cause rendered this plan altogether proper, and in similar situations is fit to be imitated."--Blair's Rhet., p. 274. "This is an idiom to which our language is strongly inclined, and was formerly very prevalent."-- Churchill's Gram., p. 150. "His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones."--Job, viii, 17.

"New York, Fifthmonth 3d, 1823.

"Dear friend, Am sorry to hear of thy loss; but hope it may be retrieved. Should be happy to render thee any assistance in my power. Shall call to see thee to-morrow morning. Accept assurances of my regard. A. B."

"New York, May 3d, P. M., 1823.

"Dear Sir, Have just received the kind note favoured me with this morning; and cannot forbear to express my gratitude to you. On further information, find have not lost so much as at first supposed; and believe shall still be able to meet all my engagements. Should, however, be happy to see you. Accept, dear sir, my most cordial thanks. C. D."--See Brown's Institutes, p. 151.

"Will martial flames forever fire thy mind, And never, never be to Heaven resign'd?"--Pope, Odys., xii, 145.

UNDER NOTE IX.--APPLICATION OF MOODS.

First Clause of the Note.--For the Subjunctive Present.

"He will not be pardoned, unless he repents."--Brown's Institutes, p. 191.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb repents, which is here used to express a future contingency, is in the indicative mood. But, according to the first clause of Note 9th to Rule 14th, "A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive present." Therefore, repents should be repent; thus, "He will not be pardoned, unless he repent."]

"If thou findest any kernelwort in this marshy meadow, bring it to me."--Neef's Method of Teaching, p. 258. "If thou leavest the room, do not forget to shut that drawer."--Ib., p. 246. "If thou graspest it stoutly, thou wilt not be hurt."--Ib., p. 196. "On condition that he comes, I will consent to stay."--Murray's Exerc., p. 74. "If he is but discreet, he will succeed."--Inst., p. 191. "Take heed that thou speakest not to Jacob."--Ib. "If thou castest me off, I shall be miserable."-- Ib. "Send them to me, if thou pleasest."--Ib. "Watch the door of thy lips, lest thou utterest folly."--Ib. "Though a liar speaks the truth, he will hardly be believed."--Common School Manual, ii, 124. "I will go unless I should be ill."--Murray's Gram., p. 300. "If the word or words understood are supplied, the true construction will be apparent."-- Murray's Exercises in Parsing, p. 21. "Unless thou shalt see the propriety of the measure, we shall not desire thy support."--Murray's Key, p. 209. "Unless thou shouldst make a timely retreat, the danger will be unavoidable."--Ib., p. 209. "We may live happily, though our possessions are small."--Ib., p. 202. "If they are carefully studied, they will enable the student to parse all the exercises."--Ib., Note, p. 165. "If the accent is fairly preserved on the proper syllable, this drawling sound will never be heard."--Murray's Gram., p. 242. "One phrase may, in point of sense, be equivalent to another, though its grammatical nature is essentially different."--Ib., p. 108. "If any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man."--Dr. Webster's Bible. "Thy skill will be the greater, if thou hittest it."--Putnam's Analytical Reader, p. 204. "Thy skill will be the greater if thou hit'st it."--Cobb's N. A. Reader, p. 321. "We shall overtake him though he should run."--Priestley's Gram., p. 113; Murray's, 207; Smith's, 173. "We shall be disgusted if he gives us too much."--Blair's Rhet., p. 388.

"What is't to thee, if he neglect thy urn, Or without spices lets thy body burn?"--DRYDEN: Joh. Dict., w. What.

Second Clause of Note IX.--For the Subjunctive Imperfect.

"And so would I, if I was he."--Brown's Institutes, p. 191.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb was, which is here used to express a mere supposition, with indefinite time, is in the indicative mood. But, according to the second clause of Note 9th to Rule 14th, "A mere supposition, with indefinite time, is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive imperfect." Therefore, was should be were; thus, "And so would I, if I were he."]

"If I was a Greek, I should resist Turkish despotism."--Cardell's Elements of Gram., p. 80. "If he was to go, he would attend to your business."--Ib., p. 81. "If thou feltest as I do, we should soon decide."--Inst., p. 191. "Though thou sheddest thy blood in the cause, it would but prove thee sincerely a fool."--Ib. "If thou lovedst him, there would be more evidence of it."--Ib. "If thou couldst convince him, he would not act accordingly."--Murray's Key, p. 209. "If there was no liberty, there would be no real crime."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 118. "If the house was burnt down, the case would be the same."--Foster's Report, i, 89. "As if the mind was not always in action, when it prefers any thing!"--West, on Agency, p. 38. "Suppose I was to say, 'Light is a body.'"--Harris's Hermes, p. 78. "If either oxygen or azote was omitted, life would be destroyed."--Gurney's Evidences, p. 155. "The verb dare is sometimes used as if it was an auxiliary."--Priestley's Gram., p. 132. "A certain lady, whom I could name, if it was necessary."--Spectator, No. 536. "If the e was dropped, c and g would assume their hard sounds."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. 10. "He would no more comprehend it, than if it was the speech of a Hottentot."--Neef's Sketch, p. 112. "If thou knewest the gift of God," &c.--John, iv, 10. "I wish I was at home."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 260. "Fact alone does not constitute right; if it does, general warrants were lawful."--Junius, Let. xliv, p. 205. "Thou look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessest it."--Putnam's Analytical Reader, p. 202. "Thou look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it."--Cobb's N. A. Reader, p. 320. "He fought as if he had contended for life."--Hiley's Gram., p. 92. "He fought as if he had been contending for his life."--Ib., 92.

"The dewdrop glistens on thy leaf, As if thou seem'st to shed a tear; As if thou knew'st my tale of grief, Felt all my sufferings severe."--Alex. Letham.

Last Clause of Note IX.--For the Indicative Mood.

"If he know the way, he does not need a guide."--Brown's Institutes, p. 191.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb know, which is used to express a conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, is in the subjunctive mood. But, according to the last clause of Note 9th to Rule 14th, "A conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the indicative mood." Therefore, know should be knows; thus, "If he knows the way, he does not need a guide."]

"And if there be no difference, one of them must be superfluous, and ought to be rejected."--Murray's Gram., p. 149. "I cannot say that I admire this construction, though it be much used."--Priestley's Gram., p. 172. "We are disappointed, if the verb do not immediately follow it."--Ib., p. 177. "If it were they who acted so ungratefully, they are doubly in fault."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 223. "If art become apparent, it disgusts the reader."--Jamieson's Rhet., p. 80. "Though perspicuity be more properly a rhetorical than a grammatical quality, I thought it better to include it in this book."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 238. "Although the efficient cause be obscure, the final cause of those sensations lies open."--Blair's Rhet., p. 29. "Although the barrenness of language, and the want of words be doubtless one cause of the invention of tropes."--Ib., p. 135. "Though it enforce not its instructions, yet it furnishes us with a greater variety."--Ib., p. 353. "In other cases, though the idea be one, the words remain quite separate"--Priestley's Gram., p. 140. "Though the Form of our language be more simple, and has that peculiar Beauty."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. v. "Human works are of no significancy till they be completed."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 245. "Our disgust lessens gradually till it vanish altogether."--Ib., i, 338. "And our relish improves by use, till it arrive at perfection."--Ib., i, 338. "So long as he keep himself in his own proper element."--COKE: ib., i, 233. "Whether this translation were ever published or not I am wholly ignorant."--Sale's Koran, i, 13. "It is false to affirm, 'As it is day, it is light,' unless it actually be day."--Harris's Hermes, p. 246. "But we may at midnight affirm, 'If it be day, it is light.'"--Ibid. "If the Bible be true, it is a volume of unspeakable interest."--Dickinson. "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."--Heb., v, 8. "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?"--Matt., xxii, 45.

"'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill."--Pope, Ess. on Crit.

UNDER NOTE X.--FALSE SUBJUNCTIVES.

"If a man have built a house, the house is his."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 286.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb have built, which extends the subjunctive mood into the perfect tense, has the appearance of disagreeing with its nominative man. But, according to Note 10th to Rule 14th, "Every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood, as the reader will be likely to mistake for a discord between the verb and its nominative, ought to be avoided as an impropriety." Therefore, have built should be has built; thus, "If a man has built a house, the house is his."]

"If God have required them of him, as is the fact, he has time."--Ib., p. 351. "Unless a previous understanding to the contrary have been had with the Principal."--Berrian's Circular, p. 5. "O if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave."--Milton's Comus, l. 239. "O if Jove's will Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay."--Milton, Sonnet 1. "SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD: If thou love, If thou loved, If thou have loved, If thou had loved, If thou shall or will love, If thou shall or will have loved."--L. Murray's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 71; Cooper's Murray, 58; D. Adams's Gram., 48; and others. "Till religion, the pilot of the soul, have lent thee her unfathomable coil."--Tupper's Thoughts, p. 170. "Whether nature or art contribute most to form an orator, is a trifling inquiry."--Blair's Rhet., p. 338. "Year after year steals something from us; till the decaying fabric totter of itself, and crumble at length into dust."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 225. "If spiritual pride have not entirely vanquished humility."--West's Letters, p. 184. "Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter."--Exodus, xxi, 31. "It is doubtful whether the object introduced by way of simile, relate to what goes before, or to what follows."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 45.

"And bridle in thy headlong wave, Till thou our summons answer'd have."--Milt., Comus, l. 887.

RULE XV.--FINITE VERBS.

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The council were divided."--"The college of cardinals are the electors of the pope."--Murray's Key, p. 176. "Quintus Curtius relates, that a number of them were drowned in the river Lycus."--Home's Art of Thinking, p. 125.

"Yon host come learn'd in academic rules." --Rowe's Lucan, vii, 401.

"While heaven's high host on hallelujahs live." --Young's N. Th., iv, 378.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XV.

OBS. 1.--To this rule there are no exceptions; because, the collective noun being a name which even in the singular number "signifies many," the verb which agrees with it, can never properly be singular, unless the collection be taken literally as one aggregate, and not as "conveying the idea of plurality." Thus, the collective noun singular being in general susceptible of two senses, and consequently admitting two modes of concord, the form of the verb, whether singular or plural, becomes the principal index to the particular sense in which the nominative is taken. After such a noun, we can use either a singular verb, agreeing with it literally, strictly, formally, according to Rule 14th; as, "The whole number WAS two thousand and six hundred;" or a plural one, agreeing with it figuratively, virtually, ideally, according to Rule 15th; as, "The whole number WERE two thousand and six hundred."--2 Chron., xxvi, 12. So, when the collective noun is an antecedent, the relative having in itself no distinction of the numbers, its verb becomes the index to the sense of all three; as, "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that IS left."--Isaiah, xxxvii, 4. "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that ARE left."--2 Kings, xix, 4. Ordinarily the word remnant conveys no idea of plurality; but, it being here applied to persons, and having a meaning to which the mere singular neuter noun is not well adapted, the latter construction is preferable to the former. The Greek version varies more in the two places here cited; being plural in Isaiah, and singular in Kings. The Latin Vulgate, in both, is, "pro reliquiis quæ repertæ sunt:" i.e., "for the remains, or remnants, that are found."

OBS. 2.--Dr. Adam's rule is this: "A collective noun may be joined with a verb either of the singular or of the plural number; as, Multitudo stat, or stant; the multitude stands, or stand."--Latin and English Gram. To this doctrine, Lowth, Murray, and others, add: "Yet not without regard to the import of the word, as conveying unity or plurality of idea."--Lowth, p. 74; Murray, 152. If these latter authors mean, that collective nouns are permanently divided in import, so that some are invariably determined to the idea of unity, and others to that of plurality, they are wrong in principle; for, as Dr. Adam remarks, "A collective noun, when joined with a verb singular, expresses many considered as one whole; but when joined with a verb plural, it signifies many separately, or as individuals."--Adam's Gram., p. 154. And if this alone is what their addition means, it is entirely useless; and so, for all the purposes of parsing, is the singular half of the rule itself. Kirkham divides this rule into two, one for "unity of idea," and the other for "plurality of idea," shows how each is to be applied in parsing, according to his "systematick order;" and then, turning round with a gallant tilt at his own work, condemns both, as idle fabrications, which it were better to reject than to retain; alleging that, "The existence of such a thing as 'unity or plurality of idea,' as applicable to nouns of this class, is doubtful."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 59.[394] How then shall a plural verb or pronoun, after a collective noun, be parsed, seeing it does not agree with the noun by the ordinary rule of agreement? Will any one say, that every such construction is bad English? If this cannot be maintained, rules eleventh and fifteenth of this series are necessary. But when the noun conveys the idea of unity or takes the plural form, the verb or pronoun has no other than a literal agreement by the common rule; as,

"A priesthood, such as Baal's was of old, A people, such as never was till now."--Cowper.

OBS. 3.--Of the construction of the verb and collective noun, a late British author gives the following account: "Collective nouns are substantives which signify many in the singular number. Collective nouns are of two sorts: 1. Those which cannot become plural like other substantives; as, nobility, mankind, &c. 2. Those which can be made plural by the usual rules for a substantive; as, 'A multitude, multitudes; a crowd, crowds;' &c. Substantives which imply plurality in the singular number, and consequently have no other plural, generally require a plural verb. They are cattle, cavalry, clergy, commonalty, gentry, laity, mankind, nobility, peasantry people, populace, public, rabble, &c. [;] as, 'The public are informed.' Collective nouns which form a regular plural, such as, number, numbers; multitude, multitudes; have, like all other substantives, a singular verb, when they are in the singular number; and a plural verb, when they are in the plural number; as, 'A number of people is assembled; Numbers are assembled.'--'The fleet was dispersed; a part of it was injured; the several parts are now collected.'"-- Nixon's Parser, p. 120. To this, his main text, the author appends a note, from which the following passages are extracted: "There are few persons acquainted with Grammar, who may not have noticed, in many authors as well as speakers, an irregularity in supposing collective nouns to have, at one time, a singular meaning, and consequently to require a singular verb; and, at an other time, to have a plural meaning, and therefore to require a plural verb. This irregularity appears to have arisen from the want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective noun. This defect the author has endeavoured to supply; and, upon his definition, he has founded the two rules above. It is allowed on all sides that, hitherto, no satisfactory rules have been produced to enable the pupil to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, when a collective noun should have a singular verb, and when a plural one. A rule that simply tells its examiner, that when a collective noun in the nominative case conveys the idea of unity, its verb should be singular; and when it implies plurality, its verb should be plural, is of very little value; for such a rule will prove the pupil's being in the right, whether he should put the verb in the singular or the plural."--Ibid.

OBS. 4.--The foregoing explanation has many faults; and whoever trusts to it, or to any thing like it, will certainly be very much misled. In the first place, it is remarkable that an author who could suspect in others "the want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective noun," should have hoped to supply the defect by a definition so ambiguous and ill-written as is the one above. Secondly, his subdivision of this class of nouns into two sorts, is both baseless and nugatory; for that plurality which has reference to the individuals of an assemblage, has no manner of connexion or affinity with that which refers to more than one such aggregate; nor is there any interference of the one with the other, or any ground at all for supposing that the absence of the latter is, has been, or ought to be, the occasion for adopting the former. Hence, thirdly, his two rules, (though, so far as they go, they seem not untrue in themselves,) by their limitation under this false division, exclude and deny the true construction of the verb with the greater part of our collective nouns. For, fourthly, the first of these rules rashly presumes that any collective noun which in the singular number implies a plurality of individuals, is consequently destitute of any other plural; and the second accordingly supposes that no such nouns as, council, committee, jury, meeting, society, assembly, court, college, company, army, host, band, retinue, train, multitude, number, part, half, portion, majority, minority, remainder, set, sort, kind, class, nation, tribe, family, race, and a hundred more, can ever be properly used with a plural verb, except when they assume the plural form. To prove the falsity of this supposition, is needless. And, finally, the objection which this author advances against the common rules, is very far from proving them useless, or not greatly preferable to his own. If they do not in every instance enable the student to ascertain with certainty which form of concord he ought to prefer, it is only because no rules can possibly tell a man precisely when he ought to entertain the idea of unity, and when that of plurality. In some instances, these ideas are unavoidably mixed or associated, so that it is of little or no consequence which form of the verb we prefer; as, "Behold, the people IS one, and they have all one language."--Gen., xi, 6.

"Well, if a king's a lion, at the least The people ARE a many-headed beast."--Pope, Epist. i, l. 120.

OBS. 5.--Lindley Murray says, "On many occasions, where a noun of multitude is used, it is very difficult to decide, whether the verb should be in the singular, or in the plural number; and this difficulty has induced some grammarians to cut the knot at once, and to assert that every noun of multitude must always be considered as conveying the idea of unity."--Octavo Gram., p. 153. What these occasions, or who these grammarians, are, I know not; but it is certain that the difficulty here imagined does not concern the application of such rules as require the verb and pronoun to conform to the sense intended; and, where there is no apparent impropriety in adopting either number, there is no occasion to raise a scruple as to which is right. To cut knots by dogmatism, and to tie them by sophistry, are employments equally vain. It cannot be denied that there are in every multitude both a unity and a plurality, one or the other of which must be preferred as the principle of concord for the verb or the pronoun, or for both. Nor is the number of nouns small, or their use unfrequent, which, according to our best authors, admit of either construction: though Kirkham assails and repudiates his own rules, because, "Their application is quite limited."--Grammar in Familiar Lectures, p. 59.

OBS. 6.--Murray's doctrine seems to be, not that collective nouns are generally susceptible of two senses in respect to number, but that some naturally convey the idea of unity, others, that of plurality, and a few, either of these senses. The last, which are probably ten times more numerous than all the rest, he somehow merges or forgets, so as to speak of two classes only: saying, "Some nouns of multitude certainly convey to the mind an idea of plurality, others, that of a whole as one thing, and others again, sometimes that of unity, and sometimes that of plurality. On this ground, it is warrantable, and consistent with the nature of things, to apply a plural verb and pronoun to the one class, and a singular verb and pronoun to the other. We shall immediately perceive the impropriety of the following constructions: 'The clergy has withdrawn itself from the temporal courts;' 'The assembly was divided in its opinion;' &c."--Octavo Gram., p. 153. The simple fact is, that clergy, assembly, and perhaps every other collective noun, may sometimes convey the idea of unity, and sometimes that of plurality; but an "opinion" or a voluntary "withdrawing" is a personal act or quality; wherefore it is here more consistent to adopt the plural sense and construction, in which alone we take the collection as individuals, or persons.

OBS. 7.--Although a uniformity of number is generally preferable to diversity, in the construction of words that refer to the same collective noun: and although many grammarians deny that any departure from such uniformity is allowable; yet, if the singular be put first, a plural pronoun may sometimes follow without obvious impropriety: as, "So Judah was carried away out of their land."--2 Kings, xxv, 21. "Israel is reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry."--Friends' Bible, Hosea, x. "There is the enemy who wait to give us battle."--Murray's Introductory Reader, p. 36. When the idea of plurality predominates in the author's mind, a plural verb is sometimes used before a collective noun that has the singular article an or a; as, "There are a sort of authors, who seem to take up with appearances."-- Addison. "Here are a number of facts or incidents leading to the end in view."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 296. "There are a great number of exceedingly good writers among the French."--Maunder's Gram., p. 11.

"There in the forum swarm a numerous train, The subject of debate a townsman slain." --Pope, Iliad, B. xviii, l. 578.

OBS. 8.--Collective nouns, when they are merely partitive of the plural, like the words sort and number above, are usually connected with a plural verb, even though they have a singular definitive; as, "And this sort of adverbs commonly admit of Comparison."--Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 64. Here, perhaps, it would be better to say, "Adverbs of this sort commonly admit of comparison." "A part of the exports consist of raw silk."--Webster's Improved Gram., p. 100. This construction is censured by Murray, in his octavo Gram., p. 148; where we are told, that the verb should agree with the first noun only. Dr. Webster alludes to this circumstance, in improving his grammar, and admits that, "A part of the exports consists, seems to be more correct."--Improved Gram., p. 100. Yet he retains his original text, and obviously thinks it a light thing, that, "in some cases," his rules or examples "may not be vindicable." (See Obs. 14th, 15th, and 16th, on Rule 14th, of this code.) It would, I think, be better to say, "The exports consist partly of raw silk." Again: "A multitude of Latin words have, of late, been poured in upon us."--Blair's Rhet., p. 94. Better, perhaps: "Latin words, in great multitude, have, of late, been poured in upon us." So: "For the bulk of writers are very apt to confound them with each other."--Ib., p. 97. Better: "For most writers are very apt to confound them with each other." In the following example, (here cited as Kames has it, El. of Crit., ii, 247,) either the verb is, or the phrase, "There are some moveless men" might as well have been used:

"There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond."--Shak.

OBS. 9.--Collections of things are much less frequently and less properly regarded as individuals, or under the idea of plurality, than collections of persons. This distinction may account for the difference of construction in the two clauses of the following example; though I rather doubt whether a plural verb ought to be used in the former: "The number of commissioned officers in the guards are to the marching regiments as one to eleven: the number of regiments given to the guards, compared with those given to the line, is about three to one."--Junius, p. 147. Whenever the multitude is spoken of with reference to a personal act or quality, the verb ought, as I before suggested, to be in the plural number; as, "The public are informed."--"The plaintiff's counsel have assumed a difficult task."--"The committee were instructed to prepare a remonstrance." "The English nation declare they are grossly injured by their representatives."--Junius, p. 147. "One particular class of men are permitted to call themselves the King's friends."--Id., p. 176. "The Ministry have realized the compendious ideas of Caligula."--Id., p. 177. It is in accordance with this principle, that the following sentences have plural verbs and pronouns, though their definitives are singular, and perhaps ought to be singular: "So depraved were that people whom in their history we so much admire."--HUME: M'Ilvaine's Lect., p. 400. "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold."--Exodus, xxxii, 31. "This people thus gathered have not wanted those trials."--Barclay's Works, i, 460. The following examples, among others, are censured by Priestley, Murray, and the copyists of the latter, without sufficient discrimination, and for a reason which I think fallacious; namely, "because the ideas they represent seem not to be sufficiently divided in the mind:"--"The court of Rome were not without solicitude."--Hume. "The house of Lords were so much influenced by these reasons."--Id. See Priestley's Gram., p. 188; Murray's, 152; R. C. Smith's, 129; Ingersoll's, 248; and others.

OBS. 10.--In general, a collective noun, unless it be made plural in form, no more admits a plural adjective before it, than any other singular noun. Hence the impropriety of putting these or those before kind or sort; as, "These kind of knaves I know."--Shakspeare. Hence, too, I infer that cattle is not a collective noun, as Nixon would have it to be, but an irregular plural which has no singular; because we can say these cattle or those cattle, but neither a bullock nor a herd is ever called a cattle, this cattle, or that cattle. And if "cavalry, clergy, commonalty," &c., were like this word, they would all be plurals also, and not "substantives which imply plurality in the singular number, and consequently have no other plural." Whence it appears, that the writer who most broadly charges others with not understanding the nature of a collective noun, has most of all misconceived it himself. If there are not many clergies, it is because the clergy is one body, with one Head, and not because it is in a particular sense many. And, since the forms of words are not necessarily confined to things that exist, who shall say that the plural word clergies, as I have just used it, is not good English?

OBS. 11.--If we say, "these people," "these gentry," "these folk," we make people, gentry, and folk, not only irregular plurals, but plurals to which there are no correspondent singulars; but by these phrases, we must mean certain individuals, and not more than one people, gentry, or folk. But these names are sometimes collective nouns singular; and, as such, they may have verbs of either number, according to the sense; and may also form regular plurals, as peoples, and folks; though we seldom, if ever, speak of gentries; and folks is now often irregularly applied to persons, as if one person were a folk. So troops is sometimes irregularly, if not improperly, put for soldiers, as if a soldier were a troop; as, "While those gallant troops, by whom every hazardous, every laborious service is performed, are left to perish."--Junius, p. 147. In Genesis, xxvii, 29th, we read, "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee." But, according to the Vulgate, it ought to be, "Let peoples serve thee, and nations bow down to thee;" according to the Septuagint, "Let nations serve thee, and rulers bow down to thee." Among Murray's "instances of false syntax," we find the text, "This people draweth near to me with their mouth," &c.--Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 49. This is corrected in his Key, thus: "These people draw near to me with their mouth."--Ib., ii, 185. The Bible has it: "This people draw near me with their mouth."--Isaiah, xxix, 13. And again: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth.,"--Matt., xv, 8. Dr. Priestley thought it ought to be, "This people draws nigh unto me with their mouths."--Priestley's Gram., p. 63. The second evangelist omits some words: "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."--Mark, vii, 6. In my opinion, the plural verb is here to be preferred; because the pronoun their is plural, and the worship spoken of was a personal rather than a national act. Yet the adjective this must be retained, if the text specify the Jews as a people. As to the words mouth and heart, they are to be understood figuratively of speech and love; and I agree not with Priestley, that the plural number must necessarily be used. See Note 4th to Rule 4th.

OBS. 12.--In making an assertion concerning a number or quantity with some indefinite excess or allowance, we seem sometimes to take for the subject of the verb what is really the object of a preposition; as, "In a sermon, there may be from three to five, or six heads."--Blair's Rhet., p. 313. "In those of Germany, there are from eight to twelve professors."-- Dwight, Lit. Convention, p. 138. "About a million and a half was subscribed in a few days."--N. Y. Daily Advertiser. "About one hundred feet of the Muncy dam has been swept off."--N. Y. Observer. "Upwards of one hundred thousand dollars have been appropriated."--Newspaper. "But I fear there are between twenty and thirty of them."--Tooke's Diversions, ii, 441. "Besides which, there are upwards of fifty smaller islands."--Balbi's Geog., p. 30. "On board of which embarked upwards of three hundred passengers."--Robertson's Amer., ii, 419. The propriety of using above or upwards of for more than, is questionable, but the practice is not uncommon. When there is a preposition before what seems at first to be the subject of the verb, as in the foregoing instances, I imagine there is an ellipsis of the word number, amount, sum or quantity; the first of which words is a collective noun and may have a verb either singular or plural: as, "In a sermon, there may be any number from three to five or six heads." This is awkward, to be sure; but what does the Doctor's sentence mean, unless it is, that there may be an optional number of heads, varying from three to six?

OBS. 13.--Dr. Webster says, "When an aggregate amount is expressed by the plural names of the particulars composing that amount, the verb may be in the singular number; as, 'There was more than a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.' Mavor's Voyages." To this he adds, "However repugnant to the principles of grammar this may seem at first view, the practice is correct; for the affirmation is not made of the individual parts or divisions named, the pounds, but of the entire sum or amount."--Philosophical Gram., p. 146; Improved Gram., p. 100. The fact is, that the Doctor here, as in some other instances, deduces a false rule from a correct usage. It is plain that either the word more, taken substantively, or the noun to which it relates as an adjective, is the only nominative to the verb was. Mavor does not affirm that there were a hundred and fitly thousand pounds; but that there was more--i.e., more money than so many pounds are, or amount to. Oliver B. Peirce, too. falls into a multitude of strange errors respecting the nature of more than, and the construction of other words that accompany these. See his "Analytical Rules," and the manner in which he applies them, in "The Grammar," p. 195 et seq.

OBS. 14.--Among certain educationists,--grammarians, arithmeticians, schoolmasters, and others,--there has been of late not a little dispute concerning the syntax of the phraseology which we use, or should use, in expressing multiplication, or in speaking of abstract numbers. For example: is it better to say, "Twice one is two," or, "Twice one are two?"--"Two times one is two," or, "Two times one are two?"--"Twice two is four," or, "Twice two are four?"--"Thrice one is or are, three?"--"Three times one is, or are, three?"--"Three times naught is, or are, naught?"--"Thrice three is, or are, nine?"--"Three times four is, or are, twelve?"--"Seven times three make, or makes, twenty-one?"--"Three times his age do not, or does not, equal mine?"--"Three times the quantity is not, or are not, sufficient?"--"Three quarters of the men were discharged; and three quarters of the money was, or were, sent back?"--"As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12;" or, "As two are to four, so are six to twelve?"

OBS. 15.--Most of the foregoing expressions, though all are perhaps intelligible enough in common practice, are, in some respect, difficult of analysis, or grammatical resolution. I think it possible, however, to frame an argument of some plausibility in favour of every one of them. Yet it is hardly to be supposed, that any teacher will judge them all to be alike justifiable, or feel no interest in the questions which have been raised about them. That the language of arithmetic is often defective or questionable in respect to grammar, may be seen not only in many an ill choice between the foregoing variant and contrasted modes of expression, but in sundry other examples, of a somewhat similar character, for which it may be less easy to find advocates and published arguments. What critic will not judge the following phraseology to be faulty? "4 times two units is 8 units, and 4 times 5 tens is twenty tens."--Chase's Common School Arithmetic, 1848, p. 42. Or this? "1 time 1 is l. 2 times 1 are 2; 1 time 4 is 4, 2 times 4 are 8."--Ray's Arithmetic, 1853. Or this? "8 and 7 is 15, 9's out leaves 6; 3 and 8 is 11, 9's out leaves 2."--Babcock's Practical Arithmetic, 1829, p. 22. Or this again? "3 times 3 is 9, and 2 we had to carry is 11."--Ib., p. 20.

OBS. 16.--There are several different opinions as to what constitutes the grammatical subject of the verb in any ordinary English expression of multiplication. Besides this, we have some variety in the phraseology which precedes the verb; so that it is by no means certain, either that the multiplying terms are always of the same part of speech, or that the true nominative to the verb is not essentially different in different examples. Some absurdly teach, that an abstract number is necessarily expressed by "a singular noun," with only a singular meaning; that such a number, when multiplied, is always, of itself the subject of the assertion; and, consequently, that the verb must be singular, as agreeing only with this "singular noun." Others, not knowing how to parse separately the multiplying word or words and the number multiplied, take them both or all together as "the grammatical subject" with which the verb must agree. But, among these latter expounders, there are two opposite opinions on the very essential point, whether this "entire expression" requires a singular verb or a plural one:--as, whether we ought to say, "Twice one is two," or, "Twice one are two;"--"Twice two is four," or, "Twice two are four;"--"Three times one is three," or, "Three times one are three;"--"Three times three is nine," or, "Three times three are nine." Others, again, according to Dr. Bullions, and possibly according to their own notion, find the grammatical subject, sometimes, if not generally, in the multiplying term only; as, perhaps, is the case with those who write or speak as follows: "If we say, 'Three times one are three,' we make 'times' the subject of the verb."--Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 39. "Thus, 2 times 1 are 2; 2 times 2 are four; 2 times 3 are 6."--Chase's C. S. Arith., p. 43. "Say, 2 times O are O; 2 times 1 are 2."--Robinson's American Arith., 1825, p. 24.

OBS. 17.--Dr. Bullions, with a strange blunder of some sort in almost every sentence, propounds and defends his opinion on this subject thus: "Numeral adjectives, being also names of numbers, are often used as nouns, and so have the inflection and construction of nouns: thus, by twos, by tens, by fifties. Two is an even number. Twice two is four. Four is equal to twice two. In some arithmetics the language employed in the operation of multiplying--such as 'Twice two are four, twice three are six'--is incorrect. It should be, 'Twice two is four,' &c.; for the word two is used as a singular noun--the name of a number. The adverb 'twice' is not in construction with it, and consequently does not make it plural. The meaning is, 'The number two taken twice is equal to four.' For the same reason we should say, 'Three times two is six,' because the meaning is, 'Two taken three times is six.' If we say, 'Three times one are three,' we make 'times' the subject of the verb, whereas the subject of the verb really is 'one,' and 'times' is in the objective of number (§828). 2:4:: 6:12, should be read, 'As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12;' not 'As two are to four, so are six to twelve.' But when numerals denoting more than one, are used as adjectives, with a substantive expressed or understood, they must have a plural construction."--Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 39.

OBS. 18.--Since nouns and adjectives are different parts of speech, the suggestion, that, "Numeral adjectives are also names, or nouns," is, upon the very face of it, a flat absurdity; and the notion that "the name of a number" above unity, conveys only and always the idea of unity, like an ordinary "singular noun," is an other. A number in arithmetic is most commonly an adjective in grammar; and it is always, in form, an expression that tells how many, or--"denotes how many things are spoken of."--Chase, p. 11. But the name of a number is also a number, whenever it is not made plural in form. Thus four is a number, but fours is not; so ten is a number, but tens is not. Arithmetical numbers, which run on to infinity, severally consist of a definite idea of how many; each is a precise count by the unit; one being the beginning of the series, and the measure of every successive step. Grammatical numbers are only the verbal forms which distinguish one thing from more of the same sort. Thus the word fours or tens, unless some arithmetical number be prefixed to it, signifies nothing but a mere plurality which repeats indefinitely the collective idea of four or ten.

OBS. 19.--All actual names of numbers calculative, except one, (for naught, though it fills a place among numbers, is, in itself, a mere negation of number; and such terms as oneness, unity, duality, are not used in calculation,) are collective nouns--a circumstance which seems to make the discussion of the present topic appropriate to the location which is here given it under Rule 15th. Each of them denotes a particular aggregate of units. And if each, as signifying one whole, may convey the idea of unity, and take a singular verb; each, again, as denoting so many units, may quite as naturally take a plural verb, and be made to convey the idea of plurality. For the mere abstractness of numbers, or their separation from all "particular objects," by no means obliges us to limit them always to the construction with verbs singular. If it is right to say, "Two is an even number;" it is certainly no error to say, "Two are an even number." If it is allowable to say, "As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12;" it is as well, if not better, to say, "As two are to four, so are six to twelve." If it is correct to say, "Four is equal to twice two;" it is quite as grammatical to say, "Four are equal to twice two." Bullions bids say, "Twice two is four," and, "Three times two is six;" but I very much prefer to say, "Twice two are four," and, "Three times two are six." The Doctor's reasoning, whereby he condemns the latter phraseology, is founded only upon false assumptions. This I expect to show; and more--that the word which he prefers, is wrong.

OBS. 20.--As to what constitutes the subject of the verb in multiplication, I have already noticed three different opinions. There are yet three or four more, which must not be overlooked in a general examination of this grammatical dispute. Dr. Bullions's notion on this point, is stated with so little consistency, that one can hardly say what it is. At first, he seems to find his nominative in the multiplicand, "used as a singular noun;" but, when he ponders a little on the text, "Twice two is four," he finds the leading term not to be the word "two," but the word "number," understood. He resolves, indeed, that no one of the four words used, "is in construction with" any of the rest; for he thinks, "The meaning is, 'The number two taken twice is equal to four.'" Here, then, is a fourth opinion in relation to the subject of the verb: it must be "number" understood. Again, it is conceded by the same hand, that, "When numerals denoting more than one, are used as adjectives, with a substantive expressed or understood, they must have a plural construction." Now who can show that this is not the case in general with the numerals of multiplication? To explain the syntax of "Twice two are four," what can be more rational than to say, "The sense is, 'Twice two units, or things, are four?'" Is it not plain, that twice two things, of any sort, are four things of that same sort, and only so? Twice two duads are how many? Answer: Four duads, or eight units. Here, then, is a fifth opinion,--and a very fair one too,--according to which we have for the subject of the verb, not "two" nor "twice" nor "twice two," nor "number," understood before "two," but the plural noun "units" or "things" implied in or after the multiplicand.

OBS. 21.--It is a doctrine taught by sundry grammarians, and to some extent true, that a neuter verb between two nominatives "may agree with either of them." (See Note 5th to Rule 14th, and the footnote.) When, therefore, a person who knows this, meets with such examples as, "Twice one are two;"--"Twice one unit are two units;"--"Thrice one are three;"--he will of course be apt to refer the verb to the nominative which follows it, rather than to that which precedes it; taking the meaning to be, "Two are twice one;"--"Two units are twice one unit;"--"Three are thrice one." Now, if such is the sense, the construction in each of these instances is right, because it accords with such sense; the interpretation is right also, because it is the only one adapted to such a construction; and we have, concerning the subject of the verb, a sixth opinion,--a very proper one too,--that it is found, not where it is most natural to look for it, in the expression of the factors, but in a noun which is either uttered or implied in the product. But, no doubt, it is better to avoid this construction, by using such a verb as may be said to agree with the number multiplied. Again, and lastly, there may be, touching all such cases as, "Twice one are two," a seventh opinion, that the subject of the verb is the product taken substantively, and not as a numeral adjective. This idea, or the more comprehensive one, that all abstract numbers are nouns substantive, settles nothing concerning the main question, What form of the verb is required by an abstract number above unity? If the number be supposed an adjective, referring to the implied term units, or things, the verb must of course be plural; but if it be called a collective noun, the verb only follows and fixes "the idea of plurality," or "the idea of unity," as the writer or speaker chooses to adopt the one or the other.

OBS. 22.--It is marvellous, that four or five monosyllables, uttered together in a common simple sentence, could give rise to all this diversity of opinion concerning the subject of the verb; but, after all, the chief difficulty presented by the phraseology of multiplication, is that of ascertaining, not "the grammatical subject of the verb," but the grammatical relation between the multiplier and the multiplicand--the true way of parsing the terms once, twice, three times, &c., but especially the word times. That there must be some such relation, is obvious; but what is it? and how is it to be known? To most persons, undoubtedly, "Twice two," and, "Three times two," seem to be regular phrases, in which the words cannot lack syntactical connexion; yet Dr. Bullions, who is great authority with some thinkers, denies all immediate or direct relation between the word "two," and the term before it, preferring to parse both "twice" and "three times" as adjuncts to the participle "taken," understood. He says, "The adverb 'twice' is not in construction with 'two,' and consequently does not make it plural." His first assertion here is, in my opinion, untrue; and the second implies the very erroneous doctrine, that the word twice, if it relate to a singular term, will "make it plural." From a misconception like this, it probably is, that some who ought to be very accurate in speech, are afraid to say, "Twice one is two," or, "Thrice one is three," judging the singular verb to be wrong; and some there are who think, that "usage will not permit" a careful scholar so to speak. Now, analysis favours the singular form here; and it is contrary to a plain principle of General Grammar, to suppose that a plural verb can be demanded by any phrase which is made collectively the subject of the assertion. (See Note 3d, and Obs. 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, under Rule 14th.) Are is, therefore, not required here; and, if allowable, it is so only on the supposition that the leading nominative is put after it.

OBS. 23.--In Blanchard's small Arithmetic, published in 1854, the following inculcations occur: "When we say, 3 times 4 trees are 12 trees, we have reference to the objects counted; but in saying 3 times 4 is twelve, we mean, that 3 times the number 4, is the number 12. Here we use 4 and 12, not as numeral adjectives, but as nouns, the names of particular numbers, and as such, each conveys the idea of unity, and the entire expression is the subject of is, and conveys the idea of unity."--P. iv. Here we have, with an additional error concerning "the entire expression," a repetition of Dr. Bullions's erroneous assumption, that the name of a particular number, as being "a singular noun," must "convey the idea of unity," though the number itself be a distinct plurality. These men talk as if there were an absurdity in affirming that "the number 4" is plural! But, if four be taken as only one thing, how can three multiply this one thing into twelve? It is by no means proper to affirm, that, "Every four, taken three times, is, or are, twelve;" for three instances, or "times," of the figure 4, or of the word four, are only three 4's, or three verbal fours. And is it not because "the number 4" is plural--is in itself four units--and because the word four, or the figure 4, conveys explicitly the idea of this plurality, that the multiplication table is true, where it says, "3 times 4 are 12?" It is not right to say, "Three times one quaternion is twelve;" nor is it quite unobjectionable to say, with Blanchard "3 times the number 4, is the number 12." Besides, this pretended interpretation explains nothing. The syntax of the shorter text, "3 times 4 is 12," is in no way justified or illustrated by it. Who does not perceive that the four here spoken of must be four units, or four things of some sort; and that no such "four," multiplied by 3, or till "3 times," can "convey the idea of unity," or match a singular verb? Dr. Webster did not so conceive of this "abstract number," or of "the entire expression" in which it is multiplied; for he says, "Four times four amount to sixteen."--American Dict., w. Time.

OBS. 24.--In fact no phrase of multiplication is of such a nature that it can, with any plausibility be reckoned a composite subject of the verb. Once, twice, and thrice, are adverbs; and each of them may, in general, be parsed as relating directly to the multiplicand. Their construction, as well as that of the plural verb, is agreeable to the Latin norm; as, when Cicero says of somebody, "Si, bis bina quot essent, didicisset,"--"If he had learned how many twice two are."--See Ainsworth's Dict., w. Binus. The phrases, "one time," for once, and "two times" for twice, seem puerile expressions: they are not often used by competent teachers. Thrice is a good word, but more elegant than popular. Above twice, we use the phrases, three times, four times, and the like, which are severally composed of a numeral adjective and the noun times. If these words were united, as some think they ought to be, the compounds would be adverbs of time repeated; as, threetimes, fourtimes, &c., analogous to sometimes. Each word would answer, as each phrase now does, to the question, How often? These expressions are taken by some as having a direct adverbial relation to the terms which they qualify; but they are perhaps most commonly explained as being dependent on some preposition understood. See Obs. 1st on Rule 5th, and Obs. 6th on Rule 7th.

OBS. 25.--In multiplying one only, it is evidently best to use a singular verb: as, "Twice naught is naught;"--"Three times one is three." And, in multiplying any number above one, I judge a plural verb to be necessary: as, "Twice two are four;"--"Three times two are six;" because this number must be just so many in order to give the product. Dr. Bullions says, "We should say, 'Three times two is six,' because the meaning is, 'Two taken three times is six.'" This is neither reasoning, nor explanation, nor good grammar. The relation between "two" and "three," or the syntax of the word "times," or the propriety of the singular verb, is no more apparent in the latter expression than in the former. It would be better logic to affirm, "We should say, 'Three times two are six;' because the meaning is, 'Two (units), taken for, to, or till three times, are six.'" The preposition till, or until, is sometimes found in use before an expression of times numbered; as, "How oft shall I forgive? till seven times? I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven."--Matt., xviii, 21. But here is still a difficulty with repect to the multiplying term, or the word "times." For, unless, by an unallowable ellipsis, "seventy times seven," is presumed to mean, "seventy times of seven," the preposition Until must govern, not this noun "times." expressed, but an other, understood after "seven;" and the meaning must be, "Thou shalt forgive him until seventy-times seven times;" or--"until seven times taken for, to, or till, seventy times."

OBS. 26.--With too little regard to consistency. Dr. Bullions suggests that when "we make 'times' the subject of the verb," it is not "really" such, but "is in the objective of number." He is, doubtless, right in preferring to parse this word as an objective case, rather than as a nominative, in the construction to which he alludes; but to call it an "objective of number," is an uncouth error, a very strange mistake for so great a grammarian to utter: there being in grammar no such thing as "the objective of number:" nothing of the sort, even under his own "Special Rule," to which he refers us for it! And, if such a thing there were, so that a number could be "put in the objective case without a governing word," (see his §828,) the plural word times, since it denotes no particular aggregate of units, could never be an example of it. It is true that times, like days, weeks, and other nouns of time, may be, and often is, in the objective case without a governing word expressed; and, in such instances, it may be called the objective of repetition, or of time repeated. But the construction of the word appears to be such as is common to many nouns of time, of value, or of measure; which, in their relation to other words, seem to resemble adverbs, but which are usually said to be governed by prepositions understood: as, "Three days later;" i.e., "Later by three days."--"Three shillings cheaper;" i.e., "Cheaper by three shillings."--"Seven times hotter;" i.e., "Hotter by seven times."--"Four feet high;" i.e., "High to four feet."--"Ten years old;" i.e., "Old to ten years."--"Five times ten;" i.e., "Ten by five times;" or, perhaps, "Ten taken till five times."

NOTE TO RULE XV.

A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a verb in the third person, singular; and generally admits also the regular plural construction: as, "His army was defeated."--"His armies were defeated."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XV.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--THE IDEA OF PLURALITY.

"The gentry is punctilious in their etiquette."

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb is is of the singular number, and does not correctly agree with its nominative gentry, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 15th, "When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the verb must agree with it in the plural number." Therefore, is should be are; thus, "The gentry are punctilious in their etiquette."]

"In France the peasantry goes barefoot, and the middle sort makes use of wooden shoes."--HARVEY: Priestley's Gram., p. 188. "The people rejoices in that which should cause sorrow."--See Murray's Exercises, p. 49. "My people is foolish, they have not known me."--Jer., iv, 22; Lowth's Gram., p. 75. "For the people speaks, but does not write."--Philological Museum, i, 646. "So that all the people that was in the camp, trembled."--Exodus, xix, 16. "No company likes to confess that they are ignorant."--Student's Manual, p. 217. "Far the greater part of their captives was anciently sacrificed."--Robertson's America, i, 339. "Above one half of them was cut off before the return of spring."--Ib., ii, 419. "The other class, termed Figures of Thought, supposes the words to be used in their proper and literal meaning."--Blair's Rhet., p. 133; Murray's Gram., 337. "A multitude of words in their dialect approaches to the Teutonic form, and therefore afford excellent assistance."--Dr. Murray's Hist of Lang., i, 148. "A great majority of our authors is defective in manner."--James Brown's Crit. "The greater part of these new-coined words has been rejected."--Tooke's Diversions, ii, 445. "The greater part of the words it contains is subject to certain modifications and inflections."--The Friend, ii, 123. "While all our youth prefers her to the rest."--Waller's Poems, p. 17. "Mankind is appointed to live in a future state."--Butler's Analogy, p. 57. "The greater part of human kind speaks and acts wholly by imitation."--Wright's Gram., p. 169. "The greatest part of human gratifications approaches so nearly to vice."--Ibid.

"While still the busy world is treading o'er The paths they trod five thousand years before."--Young.

UNDER THE NOTE.--THE IDEA OF UNITY.

"In old English this species of words were numerous."--Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., ii, 6. "And a series of exercises in false grammar are introduced towards the end."--Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. iv. "And a jury, in conformity with the same idea, were anciently called homagium, the homage, or manhood."--Webster's Essays, p. 296. "With respect to the former, there are indeed plenty of means."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 319. "The number of school districts have increased since the last year."--Governor Throop, 1832. "The Yearly Meeting have purchased with its funds these publications."--Foster's Reports, i, 76. "Have the legislature power to prohibit assemblies?"--Wm. Sullivan. "So that the whole number of the streets were fifty."--Rollin's Ancient Hist., ii, 8. "The number of inhabitants were not more than four millions."--SMOLLETT: see Priestley's Gram., p. 193. "The House of Commons were of small weight."--HUME: Ib., p. 188. "The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me."--Psal. xxii, 16; Lowth's Gram., p. 75. "Every kind of convenience and comfort are provided."--Com. School Journal, i, 24. "Amidst the great decrease of the inhabitants of Spain, the body of the clergy have suffered no diminution; but has rather been gradually increasing."--Payne's Geog., ii, 418. "Small as the number of inhabitants are, yet their poverty is extreme."--Ib., ii, 417. "The number of the names were about one hundred and twenty."--Ware's Gram., p. 12; see Acts, i, 15.

RULE XVI.--FINITE VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together: as, "True rhetoric and sound logic are very nearly allied."--Blair's Rhet., p. 11. "Aggression and injury in no case justify retaliation."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 406.

"Judges and senates have been bought for gold, Esteem and love were never to be sold."--Pope.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When two nominatives connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, they are either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural verb; as, "Immediately comes a hue and cry after a gang of thieves."--L'Estrange. "The hue and cry of the country pursues him."--Junius, Letter xxiii. "Flesh and blood [i. e. man, or man's nature,] hath not revealed it unto thee."--Matt., xvi, 17." Descent and fall to us is adverse."--Milton, P. L., ii, 76. "This philosopher and poet was banished from his country."--"Such a Saviour and Redeemer is actually provided for us."--Gurney's Essays, p. 386. "Let us then declare what great things our God and Saviour has done for us."--Dr. Scott, on Luke viii. "Toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them."--Ezra, iv, 20.

"Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on."--Shakspeare.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

When two nominatives connected by and, are emphatically distinguished, they belong to different propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural verb; as, "Ambition, and not the safety of the state, was concerned."--Goldsmith. "Consanguinity, and not affinity, is the ground of the prohibition."--Webster's Essays, p. 324. "But a modification, and oftentimes a total change, takes place."--Maunder. "Somewhat, and, in many circumstances, a great deal too, is put upon us."--Butler's Analogy, p. 108. "Disgrace, and perhaps ruin, was the certain consequence of attempting the latter."--Robertson's America, i, 434.

"Ay, and no too, was no good divinity."--_Shakespeare.

"Love_, and love only, is the loan for love."--Young.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

When two or more nominatives connected by and are preceded by the adjective each, every, or no, they are taken separately, and do not require a plural verb; as, "When no part of their substance, and no one of their properties, is the same."--Bp. Butler. "Every limb and feature appears with its respective grace."--Steele. "Every person, and every occurrence, is beheld in the most favourable light."--Murray's Key, p. 190. "Each worm, and each insect, is a marvel of creative power."

"Whose every look and gesture was a joke To clapping theatres and shouting crowds."--Young.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

When the verb separates its nominatives, it agrees with that which precedes it, and is understood to the rest; as, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof."--Murray's Exercises, p. 36.

"Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame."--Milton.

"------Forth in the pleasing spring, Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness, and love."--Thomson.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVI.

OBS. 1.--According to Lindley Murray, (who, in all his compilation, from whatever learned authorities, refers us to no places in any book but his own.) "Dr. Blair observes, that 'two or more substantives, joined by a copulative, must always require the verb or pronoun to which they refer, to be placed in the plural number:' and this," continues the great Compiler, "is the general sentiment of English grammarians."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. The same thing is stated in many other grammars: thus, Ingersoll has the very same words, on the 238th page of his book; and R. C. Smith says, "Dr. Blair very justly observes," &c.--Productive Gram., p. 126. I therefore doubt not, the learned rhetorician has somewhere made some such remark: though I can neither supply the reference which these gentlemen omit, nor vouch for the accuracy of their quotation. But I trust to make it very clear, that so many grammarians as hold this sentiment, are no great readers, to say the least of them. Murray himself acknowledges one exception to this principle, and unconsciously furnishes examples of one or two more; but, in stead of placing the former in his Grammar, and under the rule, where the learner would be likely to notice it, he makes it an obscure and almost unintelligible note, in the margin of his Key, referring by an asterisk to the following correction: "Every man and every woman was numbered."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii. p. 190. To justify this phraseology, he talks thus: "Whatever number of nouns may be connected by a conjunction with the pronoun EVERY, this pronoun is as applicable to the whole mass of them, as to any one of the nouns; and therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually considered."--Ib. So much, then, for "the pronoun EVERY!" But, without other exceptions, what shall be done with the following texts from Murray himself? "The flock, and not the fleece, is, or ought to be the object of the shepherd's care."--Ib., ii, 184. "This prodigy of learning, this scholar, critic, and antiquary, was entirely destitute of breeding and civility."--Ib., ii, 217. And, in the following line, what conjunction appears, or what is the difference between "horror" and "black despair." that the verb should be made plural?

"What black despair, what horror, fill his mind!"--Ib., ii, 183.

"What black despair, what horror fills his heart!"--Thomson.[395]

OBS. 2.--Besides the many examples which may justly come under the four exceptions above specified, there are several questionable but customary expressions, which have some appearance of being deviations from this rule, but which may perhaps be reasonably explained on the principle of ellipsis: as, "All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy."--"Slow and steady often outtravels haste."--Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 23. "Little and often fills the purse."--Treasury of Knowledge, Part i, p. 446. "Fair and softly goes far." These maxims, by universal custom, lay claim to a singular verb; and, for my part, I know not how they can well be considered either real exceptions to the foregoing rule, or real inaccuracies under it; for, in most of them, the words connected are not nouns; and those which are so, may not be nominatives. And it is clear, that every exception must have some specific character by which it may be distinguished; else it destroys the rule, in stead of confirming it, as known exceptions are said to do. Murray appears to have thought the singular verb wrong; for, among his examples for parsing, he has, "Fair and softly go far," which instance is no more entitled to a plural verb than the rest. See his Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 5. Why not suppose them all to be elliptical? Their meaning may be as follows: "To have all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy."--"What is slow and steady, often outtravels haste."--"To put in little and often, fills the purse."--"What proceeds fair and softly, goes far." The following line from Shakspeare appears to be still more elliptical:

"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough."--Othello.

This may be supposed to mean, "He who is poor and content," &c. In the following sentence again, we may suppose an ellipsis of the phrase To have, at the beginning; though here, perhaps, to have pluralized the verb, would have been as well:

"One eye on death and one full fix'd on heaven, Becomes a mortal and immortal man."--Young.

OBS. 3.--The names of two persons are not unfrequently used jointly as the name of their story; in which sense, they must have a singular verb, if they have any; as, "Prior's Henry and Emma contains an other beautiful example."--Jamieson's Rhetoric, p. 179. I somewhat hesitate to call this an exception to the foregoing rule, because here too the phraseology may be supposed elliptical. The meaning is, "Prior's little poem, entitled, 'Henry and Emma,' contains," &c.;--or, "Prior's story of Henry and Emma contains," &c. And, if the first expression is only an abbreviation of one of these, the construction of the verb contains may be referred to Rule 14th. See Exception 1st to Rule 12th, and Obs. 2d on Rule 14th.

OBS. 4.--The conjunction and, by which alone we can with propriety connect different words to make them joint nominatives or joint antecedents, is sometimes suppressed and understood; but then its effect is the same, as if it were inserted; though a singular verb might sometimes be quite as proper in the same sentences, because it would merely imply a disjunctive conjunction or none at all: as, "The high breach of trust, the notorious corruption, are stated in the strongest terms."--Junius, Let. xx. "Envy, self-will, jealousy, pride, often reign there."--Abbott's Corner Stone, p. 111. (See Obs. 4th on Rule 12th.)

"Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doomed."--Beattie.

"Her heart, her mind, her love, is his alone."--Cowley.

In all the foregoing examples, a singular verb might have been used without impropriety; or the last, which is singular, might have been plural. But the following couplet evidently requires a plural verb, and is therefore correct as the poet wrote it; both because the latter noun is plural, and because the conjunction and is understood between the two. Yet a late grammarian, perceiving no difference between the joys of sense and the pleasure of reason, not only changes "lie" to "lies," but uses the perversion for a proof text, under a rule which refers the verb to the first noun only, and requires it to be singular. See Oliver B. Peirce's Gram., p. 250.

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense. Lie in three words--health, peace, and competence." --Pope's Ess., Ep. iv, l. 80.

OBS. 5.--When the speaker changes his nominative to take a stronger expression, he commonly uses no conjunction; but, putting the verb in agreement with the noun which is next to it, he leaves the other to an implied concord with its proper form of the same verb: as, "The man whose designs, whose whole conduct, tends to reduce me to subjection, that man is at war with me, though not a blow has yet been given, nor a sword drawn."--Blair's Rhet., p. 265. "All Greece, all the barbarian world, is too narrow for this man's ambition."--Ibid. "This self-command, this exertion of reason in the midst of passion, has a wonderful effect both to please and to persuade."--Ib., p. 260. "In the mutual influence of body and soul, there is a wisdom, a wonderful wisdom, which we cannot fathom."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. If the principle here stated is just, Murray has written the following models erroneously: "Virtue, honour, nay, even self-interest, conspire to recommend the measure."--Ib., p. 150. "Patriotism, morality, every public and private consideration, demand our submission to just and lawful government."--Ibid. In this latter instance, I should prefer the singular verb demands; and in the former, the expression ought to be otherwise altered, thus. "Virtue, honour, and interest, all conspire to recommend the measure." Or thus: "Virtue, honour--nay, even self-interest, recommends the measure." On this principle, too, Thomson was right, and this critic wrong, in the example cited at the close of the first observation above. This construction is again recurred to by Murray, in the second chapter of his Exercises; where he explicitly condemns the following sentence because the verb is singular: "Prudence, policy, nay, his own true interest, strongly recommends the line of conduct proposed to him."--Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 22.

OBS. 6.--When two or more nominatives are in apposition with a preceding one which they explain, the verb must agree with the first word only, because the others are adjuncts to this, and not joint subjects to the verb; as, "Loudd, the ancient Lydda and Diospolis, appears like a place lately ravaged by fire and sword."--Keith's Evidences, p. 93. "Beattie, James,--a philosopher and poet,--was born in Scotland, in the year 1735."--Murray's Sequel, p. 306. "For, the quantity, the length, and shortness of our syllables, is not, by any means, so fixed."--Blair's Rhet., p. 124. This principle, like the preceding one, persuades me again to dissent from Murray, who corrects or perverts the following sentence, by changing originates to originate: "All that makes a figure on the great theatre of the world; the employments of the busy, the enterprises of the ambitious, and the exploits of the warlike; the virtues which form the happiness, and the crimes which occasion the misery of mankind; originates in that silent and secret recess of thought, which is hidden from every human eye."--See Murray's Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 181; or his Duodecimo Key, p. 21. The true subject of this proposition is the noun all, which is singular; and the other nominatives are subordinate to this, and merely explanatory of it.

OBS. 7.--Dr. Webster says, "Enumeration and addition of numbers are usually expressed in the singular number; [as,] two and two is four; seven and nine is sixteen; that is, the sum of seven and nine is sixteen. But modern usage inclines to reject the use of the verb in the singular number, in these and similar phrases."--Improved Gram., p. 106. Among its many faults, this passage exhibits a virtual contradiction. For what "modern usage inclines to reject," can hardly be the fashion in which any ideas "are usually expressed." Besides, I may safely aver, that this is a kind of phraseology which all correct usage always did reject. It is not only a gross vulgarism, but a plain and palpable violation of the foregoing rule of syntax; and, as such it must be reputed, if the rule has any propriety at all. What "enumeration" has to do with it, is more than I can tell. But Dr. Webster once admired and commended this mode of speech, as one of the "wonderful proofs of ingenuity in the framers of language;" and laboured to defend it as being "correct upon principle;" that is, upon the principle that "the sum of" is understood to be the subject of the affirmation, when one says, "Two and two is four," in stead of, "Two and two are four."--See Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 153. This seems to me a "wonderful proof" of ignorance in a very learned man. OBS. 8.--In Greek and Latin, the verb frequently agrees with the nearest nominative, and is understood to the rest; and this construction is sometimes imitated in English, especially if the nouns follow the verb: as, "[Greek: Nuni do MENEI pistis, elpis agape, ta tria tanta]."--"Nunc vero manet fides, spes, charitas; tria hæc."--"Now abideth faith, hope, charity; these three."--1 Cor., xiii, 13. "And now abideth confession, prayer, and praise, these three; but the greatest of these is praise."--ATTERBURY: Blair's Rhet., p. 300. The propriety of this usage, so far as our language is concerned, I doubt. It seems to open a door for numerous deviations from the foregoing rule, and deviations of such a sort, that if they are to be considered exceptions, one can hardly tell why. The practice, however, is not uncommon, especially if there are more nouns than two, and each is emphatic; as, "Wonderful was the patience, fortitude, self-denial, and bravery of our ancestors."--Webster's Hist. of U. S., p. 118. "It is the very thing I would have you make out: for therein consists the form, and use, and nature of language."--Berkley's Alciphron, p. 161. "There is the proper noun, and the common noun. There is the singular noun, and the plural noun."--Emmons's Gram., p. 11. "From him proceeds power, sanctification, truth, grace, and every other blessing we can conceive."--Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 13. "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?"--Jer., vi, 20. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."--Matt., vi, 13. In all these instances, the plural verb might have been used; and yet perhaps the singular may be justified on the ground that there is a distinct and emphatic enumeration of the nouns. Thus, it would be proper to say, "Thine are the kingdom, the power, and the glory;" but this construction seems less emphatic than the preceding, which means, "For thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, and thine is the glory, forever;" and this repetition is still more emphatic, and perhaps more proper, than the elliptical form. The repetition of the conjunction "and," in the original text as above, adds time and emphasis to the reading, and makes the singular verb more proper than it would otherwise be; for which reason, the following form, in which the Rev. Dr. Bullions has set the sentence down for bad English, is in some sort a perversion of the Scripture: "Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory."--Bullions's E. Gram., p. 141.

OBS. 9.--When the nominatives are of different persons, the verb agrees with the first person in preference to the second, and with the second in preference to the third; for thou and I, or he, thou, and I, are equivalent to we; and thou and he are equivalent to you: as, "Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, thou and Ziba divide the land."--2 Sam., xix. 29. That is, "divide ye the land." "And live thou and thy children of the rest."--2 Kings, iv, 7. "That I and thy people have found grace in thy sight."--Exodus, xxxiii, 16. "I and my kingdom are guiltless."--2 Sam., iii, 28. "I, and you, and Piso perhaps too, are in a state of dissatisfaction."--Zenobia, i, 114.

"Then I, and you, and all of us, fell down, Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us."--Shak., J. Cæsar.

OBS. 10.--When two or more nominatives connected by and are of the same form but distinguished by adjectives or possessives, one or more of them may be omitted by ellipsis, but the verb must be plural, and agree with them all; as, "A literary, a scientific, a wealthy, and a poor man, were assembled in one room."--Peirce's Gram., p. 263. Here four different men are clearly spoken of. "Else the rising and the falling emphasis are the same."--Knowles's Elocutionist, p. 33. Here the noun emphasis is understood after rising. "The singular and [the] plural form seem to be confounded."--Lowth's Gram., p. 22. Here the noun form is presented to the mind twice; and therefore the article should have been repeated. See Obs. 15th on Rule 1st. "My farm and William's are adjacent to each other."--Peirce's Gram., p. 220. Here the noun farm is understood after the possessive William's, though the author of the sentence foolishly attempts to explain it otherwise. "Seth's, Richard's and Edmund's farms are those which their fathers left them."--Ib., p. 257. Here the noun farms is understood after Seth's, and again after Richard's; so that the sentence is written wrong, unless each man has more than one farm. "Was not Demosthenes's style, and his master Plato's, perfectly Attic; and yet none more lofty?"--Milnes's Greek Gram., p. 241. Here style is understood after Plato's; wherefore was should rather be were, or else and should be changed to as well as. But the text, as it stands, is not much unlike some of the exceptions noticed above. "The character of a fop, and of a rough warrior, are no where more successfully contrasted."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 236. Here the ellipsis is not very proper. Say, "the character of a fop, and that of a rough warrior," &c. Again: "We may observe, that the eloquence of the bar, of the legislature, and of public assemblies, are seldom or ever found united to high perfection in the same person."--J. Q. Adams's Rhet., Vol. i, p. 256. Here the ellipsis cannot so well be avoided by means of the pronominal adjective that, and therefore it may be thought more excusable; but I should prefer a repetition of the nominative: as, "We may observe, that the eloquence of the bar, the eloquence of the legislature, and the eloquence of public assemblies, are seldom if ever found united, in any high degree, in the same person."

OBS. 11.--The conjunction as, when it connects nominatives that are in apposition, or significant of the same person or thing, is commonly placed at the beginning of a sentence, so that the verb agrees with its proper nominative following the explanatory word: thus, "As a poet, he holds a high rank."--Murray's Sequel, p. 355. "As a poet, Addison claims a high praise."--Ib., p. 304. "As a model of English prose, his writings merit the greatest praise."--Ib., p. 305. But when this conjunction denotes a comparison between different persons or things signified by two nominatives, there must be two verbs expressed or understood, each agreeing with its own subject; as, "Such writers as he [is,] have no reputation worth any man's envy." [396]

"Such men as he [is] be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves."--Shakspeare.

OBS. 12.--When two nominatives are connected by as well as, but, or save, they must in fact have two verbs, though in most instances only one is expressed; as, "Such is the mutual dependence of words in sentences, that several others, as well as [is] the adjective, are not to be used alone."--Dr. Wilson's Essay, p. 99. "The Constitution was to be the one fundamental law of the land, to which all, as well States as people, should submit."--W. I. BOWDITCH: Liberator, No. 984. "As well those which history, as those which experience offers to our reflection."-- Bolingbroke, on History, p. 85. Here the words "offers to our reflection" are understood after "history." "None but He who discerns futurity, could have foretold and described all these things."--Keith's Evidences, p. 62. "That there was in those times no other writer, of any degree of eminence, save he himself."--Pope's Works, Vol. iii, p. 43.

"I do entreat you not a man depart, Save I alone, till Antony have spoke."--Shak., J. Cæsar.

OBS. 13.--Some grammarians say, that but and save, when they denote exception, should govern the objective case as prepositions. But this idea is, without doubt, contrary to the current usage of the best authors, either ancient or modern. Wherefore I think it evident that these grammarians err. The objective case of nouns being like the nominative, the point can be proved only by the pronouns; as, "There is none but he alone."--Perkins's Theology, 1608. "There is none other but he."--Mark, xii, 32. (This text is good authority as regards the case, though it is incorrect in an other respect: it should have been, "There is none but he," or else, "There is no other than he.") "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven."--John, iii, 13. "Not that any man hath seen the father, save he which is of God."--John, vi, 46. "Few can, save he and I."--Byron's Werner. "There is none justified, but he that is in measure sanctified."--Isaac Penington. Save, as a conjunction, is nearly obsolete.

OBS. 14.--In Rev., ii, 17th, we read, "Which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it;" and again, xiii, 17th, "That no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark." The following text is inaccurate, but not in the construction of the nominative they: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given."--Matt., xix, 11. The version ought to have been, "Not all men can receive this saying, but they only to whom it is given:" i.e., "they only can receive it, to whom there is given power to receive it." Of but with a nominative, examples may be multiplied indefinitely. The following are as good as any: "There is no God but He."--Sale's Koran, p. 27. "The former none but He could execute."--Maturin's Sermons, p. 317. "There was nobody at home but I."--Walker's Particles, p. 95. "A fact, of which as none but he could be conscious, [so] none but he could be the publisher of it."--Pope's Works, Vol. iii, p. 117. "Few but they who are involved in the vices, are involved in the irreligion of the times."--Brown's Estimate, i, 101.

"I claim my right. No Grecian prince but I Has power this bow to grant, or to deny." --Pope, Odys., B. xxi, l. 272.

"Thus she, and none but she, the insulting rage Of heretics oppos'd from age to age." --Dryden's Poems, p. 98.

In opposition to all these authorities, and many more that might be added, we have, with now and then a text of false syntax, the absurd opinion of perhaps a score or two of our grammarians; one of whom imagines he has found in the following couplet from Swift, an example to the purpose; but he forgets that the verb let governs the objective case:

"Let none but him who rules the thunder, Attempt to part these twain asunder." --Perley's Gram., p. 62.

OBS. 15.--It is truly a wonder, that so many professed critics should not see the absurdity of taking but and save for "prepositions," when this can be done only by condemning the current usage of nearly all good authors, as well as the common opinion of most grammarians; and the greater is the wonder, because they seem to do it innocently, or to teach it childishly, as not knowing that they cannot justify both sides, when the question lies between opposite and contradictory principles. By this sort of simplicity, which approves of errors, if much practised, and of opposites, or essential contraries, when authorities may be found for them, no work, perhaps, is more strikingly characterized, than the popular School Grammar of W. H. Wells. This author says, "The use of but as a preposition is approved by J. E. Worcester, John Walker, R. C. Smith, Picket, Hiley, Angus, Lynde, Hull, Powers, Spear, Farnum, Fowle, Goldsbury, Perley, Cobb, Badgley, Cooper, Jones, Davis, Beall, Hendrick, Hazen, and Goodenow."--School Gram., 1850, p. 178. But what if all these authors do prefer, "but him," and "save him," where ten times as many would say, "but he," "save he?" Is it therefore difficult to determine which party is right? Or is it proper for a grammarian to name sundry authorities on both sides, excite doubt in the mind of his reader, and leave the matter unsettled? "The use of but as a preposition," he also states, "is discountenanced by G. Brown, Sanborn, Murray, S. Oliver, and several other grammarians. (See also an able article in the Mass. Common School Journal, Vol. ii, p. 19.)"--School Gram., p. 178.

OBS. 16.--Wells passes no censure on the use of nominatives after but and save; does not intimate which case is fittest to follow these words; gives no false syntax under his rule for the regimen of prepositions; but inserts there the following brief remarks and examples:

"REM. 3.--The word save is frequently used to perform the office of a preposition; as, 'And all desisted, all save him alone.'--Wordsworth."

"REM. 4.--But is sometimes employed as a preposition, in the sense of except; as, 'The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but him had fled.'--Hemans."--Ib., p. 167.

Now, "BUT," says Worcester, as well as Tooke and others, was "originally bot, contracted from be out;" and, if this notion of its etymology is just, it must certainly be followed by the nominative case, rather than by the objective; for the imperative be or be out governs no case, admits no additional term but a nominative--an obvious and important fact, quite overlooked by those who call but a preposition. According to Allen H. Weld, but and save "are commonly considered prepositions," but "are more commonly termed conjunctions!" This author repeats Wells's examples of "save him," and "but him," as being right; and mixes them with opposite examples of "save he," "but he," "save I," which he thinks to be more right!--Weld's Gram., p. 187.

OBS. 17.--Professor Fowler, too, an other author remarkable for a facility of embracing incompatibles, contraries, or dubieties, not only condemns as "false syntax" the use of save for an exceptive conjunction. (§587. ¶28,) but cites approvingly from Latham the following very strange absurdity: "One and the same word, in one and the same sentence, may be a Conjunction or [a] Preposition, as the case may be: [as] All fled but John."--Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 555. This is equivalent to saying, that "one and the same sentence" may be two different sentences; may, without error, be understood in two different senses; may be rightly taken, resolved, and parsed in two different ways! Nay, it is equivalent to a denial of the old logical position, that "It is impossible for a thing to be and not be at the same time;" for it supposes "but," in the instance given, to be at once both a conjunction and not a conjunction, both a preposition and not a preposition, "as the case may be!" It is true, that "one and the same word" may sometimes be differently parsed by different grammarians, and possibly even an adept may doubt who or what is right. But what ambiguity of construction, or what diversity of interpretation, proceeding from the same hand, can these admissions be supposed to warrant? The foregoing citation is a boyish attempt to justify different modes of parsing the same expression, on the ground that the expression itself is equivocal. "All fled but John," is thought to mean equally well, "All fled but he," and, "All fled but him;" while these latter expressions are erroneously presumed to be alike good English, and to have a difference of meaning corresponding to their difference of construction. Now, what is equivocal, or ambiguous, being therefore erroneous, is to be corrected, rather than parsed in any way. But I deny both the ambiguity and the difference of meaning which these critics profess to find among the said phrases. "John fled not, but all the rest fled," is virtually what is told us in each of them; but, in the form, "All fled but him," it is told ungrammatically; in the other two, correctly.

OBS. 18.--In Latin, cum with an ablative, sometimes has, or is supposed to have, the force of the conjunction et with a nominative; as, "Dux cum aliquot principibus capiuntur."--LIVY: W. Allen's Gram., p. 131. In imitation of this construction, some English writers have substituted with for and, and varied the verb accordingly; as, "A long course of time, with a variety of accidents and circumstances, are requisite to produce those revolutions."--HUME: Allen's Gram., p. 131; Ware's, 12; Priestley's, 186. This phraseology, though censured by Allen, was expressly approved by Priestley, who introduced the present example, as his proof text under the following observation: "It is not necessary that the two subjects of an affirmation should stand in the very same construction, to require the verb to be in the plural number. If one of them be made to depend upon the other by a connecting particle, it may, in some cases, have the same force, as if it were independent of it."--Priestley's Gram., p. 186. Lindley Murray, on the contrary, condemns this doctrine, and after citing the same example with others, says: "It is however, proper to observe that these modes of expression do not appear to be warranted by the just principles of construction."-- Octavo Gram., p. 150. He then proceeds to prove his point, by alleging that the preposition governs the objective case in English, and the ablative in Latin, and that what is so governed, cannot be the nominative, or any part of it. All this is true enough, but still some men who know it perfectly well, will now and then write as if they did not believe it. And so it was with the writers of Latin and Greek. They sometimes wrote bad syntax; and the grammarians have not always seen and censured their errors as they ought. Since the preposition makes its object only an adjunct of the preceding noun, or of something else, I imagine that any construction which thus assumes two different cases as joint nominatives or joint antecedents, must needs be inherently faulty.

OBS. 19.--Dr. Adam simply remarks, "The plural is sometimes used after the preposition cum put for et; as, Remo cum fratre Quirinus jura dabunt. Virg."--Latin and English Gram., p. 207; Gould's Adam's Latin Gram., p. 204; W. Allen's English Gram., 131. This example is not fairly cited; though many have adopted the perversion, as if they knew no better. Alexander has it in a worse form still: "Quirinus, cum fratre, jura dabunt."--Latin Gram., p. 47. Virgil's words are, "Cana FIDES, et VESTA, Remo cum fratre Quirinus, Jura dabunt."--Æneid, B. i, l. 296. Nor is cum here "put for et," unless we suppose also an antiptosis of Remo fratre for Remus frater; and then what shall the literal meaning be, and how shall the rules of syntax be accommodated to such changes? Fair examples, that bear upon the point, may, however, be adduced from good authors, and in various languages; but the question is, are they correct in syntax? Thus Dr. Robertson: "The palace of Pizarro, together with the houses of several of his adherents, were pillaged by the soldiers."-- Hist. of Amer., Vol. ii, p. 133. To me, this appears plainly ungrammatical; and, certainly, there are ways enough in which it may be corrected. First, with the present connective retained, "were" ought to be was. Secondly, if were be retained, "together with" ought to be changed to and, or and also. Thirdly, we may well change both, and say, "The palace of Pizarro, as well as the houses of several of his adherents, was pillaged by the soldiers." Again, in Mark, ix, 4th, we read: "And there appeared unto them Elias, with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus." If this text meant that the three disciples were talking with Jesus, it would be right as it stands; but St. Matthew has it, "And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him;" and our version in Luke is, "And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias."--Chap. ix, 30. By these corresponding texts, then, we learn, that the pronoun they, which our translators inserted, was meant for "Elias with Moses;" but the Greek verb for "appeared," as used by Mark, is singular, and agrees only with Elias. "[Greek: Kai ophthæ autois Aelias sun Mosei, kai hæsan syllalountes to Iæsoy.]"--"Et apparuit illis Elias cum Mose, et erant colloquentes Jesu."--Montanus. "Et visus est eis Elias cum Mose, qui colloquebantur cum Jesu."--Beza. This is as discrepant as our version, though not so ambiguous. The French Bible avoids the incongruity: "Et iis virent paroître Moyse et Elie, qui s'entretenoient avec Jésus." That is, "And there appeared to them Moses and Elias, who were talking with Jesus." Perhaps the closest and best version of the Greek would be, "And there appeared to them Elias, with Moses;[397] and these two were talking with Jesus." There is, in our Bible, an other instance of the construction now in question; but it has no support from the Septuagint, the Vulgate, or the French: to wit, "The second [lot came forth] to Gedaliah, who with his brethren and sons were twelve."--1 Chron., xxv, 9. Better: "and he, his brethren, and his sons, were twelve."

OBS. 20.--Cobbett, who, though he wrote several grammars, was but a very superficial grammarian, seems never to have doubted the propriety of putting with for and; and yet he was confessedly not a little puzzled to find out when to use a singular, and when a plural verb, after a nominative with such "a sort of addition made to it." The 246th paragraph of his English Grammar is a long and fruitless attempt to fix a rule for the guidance of the learner in this matter. After dashing off a culpable example, "Sidmouth, with Oliver the spye, have brought Brandreth to the block;" or, as his late editions have it, "The Tyrant, with the Spy, have brought Peter to the block." He adds: "We hesitate which to employ, the singular or the plural verb; that is to say, has or have. The meaning must be our guide. If we mean, that the act has been done by the Tyrant himself, and that the spy has been a mere involuntary agent, then we ought to use the singular; but if we believe that the spy has been a co-operator, an associate, an accomplice, then we must use the plural verb." Ay, truly; but must we not also, in the latter case, use and, and not with? After some further illustrations, he says: "When with means along with, together with, in Company with, and the like, it is nearly the same as and; and then the plural verb must be used: [as,] 'He, with his brothers, are able to do much.' Not, 'is able to do much.' If the pronoun be used instead of brothers, it will be in the objective case: 'He, with them, are able to do much.' But this is no impediment to the including of the noun (represented by them) in the nominative." I wonder what would be an impediment to the absurdities of such a dogmatist! The following is his last example: "'Zeal, with discretion, do much;' and not 'does much;' for we mean, on the contrary, that it does nothing. It is the meaning that must determine which of the numbers we ought to employ." This author's examples are all fictions of his own, and such of them as here have a plural verb, are wrong. His rule is also wrong, and contrary to the best authority. St. Paul says to Timothy, "Godliness with contentment is great gain:"--1 Tim., vi, 6. This text is right; but Cobbett's principle would go to prove it erroneous. Is he the only man who has ever had a right notion of its meaning? or is he not rather at fault in his interpretations?

OBS. 21.--There is one other apparent exception to Rule 16th, (or perhaps a real one,) in which there is either an ellipsis of the preposition with, or else the verb is made singular because the first noun only is its true subject, and the others are explanatory nominatives to which the same verb must be understood in the plural number; as, "A torch, snuff and all, goes out in a moment, when dipped in the vapour."--ADDISON: in Johnson's Dict., w. All. "Down comes the tree, nest, eagles, and all."--See All, ibidem. Here goes and comes are necessarily made singular, the former agreeing with torch and the latter with tree; and, if the other nouns, which are like an explanatory parenthesis, are nominatives, as they appear to me to be, they must be subjects of go and come understood. Cobbett teaches us to say, "The bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, were stolen," and not, was stolen. "For," says he, "if we say was stolen, it is possible for us to mean, that the bag only was stolen,"--English Gram., ¶ 246. And I suppose he would say, "The bag, guineas, dollars, and all, were stolen," and not, "was stolen;" for here a rule of syntax might be urged, in addition to his false argument from the sense. But the meaning of the former sentence is, "The bag was stolen, with the guineas and dollars in it;" and the meaning of the latter is, "The bag was stolen, guineas, dollars, and all." Nor can there be any doubt about the meaning, place the words which way you will; and whatever, in either case, may be the true construction of the words in the parenthetical or explanatory phrase, they should not, I think, prevent the verb from agreeing with the first noun only. But if the other nouns intervene without affecting this concord, and without a preposition to govern them, it may be well to distinguish them in the punctuation; as, "The bag, (guineas, dollars, and all,) was stolen."

NOTES TO RULE XVI.

NOTE I.--When the conjunction and between two nominatives appears to require a plural verb, but such form of the verb is not agreeable, it is better to reject or change the connective, that the verb may stand correctly in the singular number; as, "There is a peculiar force and beauty in this figure."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 224. Better: "There is a peculiar force, as well as a peculiar beauty, in this figure." "What means this restless stir and commotion of mind?"--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 242. Better: "What means this restless stir, this commotion of mind?"

NOTE II.--When two subjects or antecedents are connected, one of which is taken affirmatively, and the other negatively, they belong to different propositions; and the verb or pronoun must agree with the affirmative subject, and be understood to the other: as "Diligent industry, and not mean savings, produces honourable competence."--"Not a loud voice but strong proofs bring conviction."--"My poverty, but not my will, consents."--Shakespeare.

NOTE III.--When two subjects or antecedents are connected by as well as, but, or save, they belong to different propositions; and, (unless one of them is preceded by the adverb not,) the verb and pronoun must agree with the former and be understood to the latter: as, "Veracity, as well as justice, is to be our rule of life."--Butler's Analogy, p. 283. "The lowest mechanic, as well as the richest citizen, may boast that thousands of his fellow-creatures are employed for him."--Percival's Tales, ii, 177. "These principles, as well as every just rule of criticism, are founded upon the sensitive part of our nature."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. xxvi. "Nothing but wailings was heard."--"None but thou can aid us."--"No mortal man, save he," &c., "had e'er survived to say he saw."--Sir W. Scott.

NOTE IV.--When two or more subjects or antecedents are preceded by the adjective each, every, or no, they are taken separately; and, (except no be followed by a plural noun,) they require the verb and pronoun to be in the singular number: as, "No rank, no honour, no fortune, no condition in life, makes the guilty mind happy."--"Every phrase and every figure which he uses, tends to render the picture more lively and complete."--Blair's Rhet., p. 179.

"And every sense, and every heart, is joy."--Thomson.

"Each beast, each insect, happy in its own."--Pope.

NOTE V.--When any words or terms are to be taken conjointly as subjects or antecedents, the conjunction and, (in preference to with, or, nor, or any thing else,) must connect them. The following sentence is therefore inaccurate; with should be and; or else were should be was: "One of them, [the] wife of Thomas Cole, with her husband, were shot down, the others escaped."--Hutchinson's Hist., Vol. ii, p. 86. So, in the following couplet, or should be and, or else engines should be engine:

"What if the head, the eye, or ear repined, To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?"--Pope.

NOTE VI.--Improper omissions must be supplied; but when there occurs a true ellipsis in the construction of joint nominatives or joint antecedents, the verb or pronoun must agree with them in the plural, just as if all the words were expressed: as, "The second and the third Epistle of John are each but one short chapter."--"The metaphorical and the literal meaning are improperly mixed."--Murray's Gram., p. 339. "The Doctrine of Words, separately consider'd, and in a Sentence, are Things distinct enough."--Brightland's Gram., Pref., p. iv. Better perhaps: "The doctrine of words separately considered, and that of words in a sentence, are things distinct enough."

"The Curii's and the Camilli's little field, To vast extended territories yield."--Rowe's Lucan, B. i, l. 320.

NOTE VII.--Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by and, require a plural verb, and generally a plural noun too, if a nominative follow the verb; as, "To be wise in our own eyes, to be wise in the opinion of the world, and to be wise in the sight of our Creator, are three things so very different, as rarely to coincide."--Blair. "'This picture of my friend,' and 'This picture of my friend's,' suggest very different ideas."--Priestley's Gram., p. 71; Murray's, i, 178.

"Read of this burgess--on the stone appear, How worthy he! how virtuous! and how dear!"--Crabbe.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVI.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--THE VERB AFTER JOINT NOMINATIVES.

"So much ability and merit is seldom found."--Murray's Key, 12mo, p. 18; Merchant's School Gram., p. 190.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb is is in the singular number, and does not correctly agree with its two nominatives, ability and merit, which are connected by and, and taken conjointly. But, according to Rule 16th, "When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together." Therefore, is should be are; thus, "So much ability and merit are seldom found." Or: "So much ability and so much merit are seldom found."]

"The syntax and etymology of the language is thus spread before the learner."--Bullions's English Gram., 2d Edition, Rec., p. iii. "Dr. Johnson tells us, that in English poetry the accent and the quantity of syllables is the same thing."--J. Q. Adams's Rhet., ii, 213. "Their general scope and tendency, having never been clearly apprehended, is not remembered at all."--Murray's Gram., i, p. 126. "The soil and sovereignty was not purchased of the natives."--Knapp's Lect. on Amer. Lit., p. 55. "The boldness, freedom, and variety of our blank verse, is infinitely more favourable than rhyme, to all kinds of sublime poetry."--Blair's Rhet., p. 40. "The vivacity and sensibility of the Greeks seems to have been much greater than ours."--Ib., p. 253. "For sometimes the Mood and Tense is signified by the Verb, sometimes they are signified of the Verb by something else.'"--Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 254. "The Verb and the Noun making a complete Sense, which the Participle and the Noun does not."--Ib., p. 255. "The growth and decay of passions and emotions, traced through all their mazes, is a subject too extensive for an undertaking like the present."--Kames El. of Crit., i, 108. "The true meaning and etymology of some of his words was lost."--Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 37. "When the force and direction of personal satire is no longer understood."--Junius, p. 5. "The frame and condition of man admits of no other principle."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 54. "Some considerable time and care was necessary."--Ib., ii 150. "In consequence of this idea, much ridicule and censure has been thrown upon Milton."--Blair's Rhet., p. 428. "With rational beings, nature and reason is the same thing."--Collier's Antoninus, p. 111. "And the flax and the barley was smitten."--Exod., ix, 31. "The colon, and semicolon, divides a period, this with, and that without a connective."--J. Ware's Gram., p. 27. "Consequently wherever space and time is found, there God must also be."--Sir Isaac Newton. "As the past tense and perfect participle of love ends in ed, it is regular."--Chandler's Gram., p. 40; New Edition, p. 66. "But the usual arrangement and nomenclature prevents this from being readily seen."--Butler's Practical Gram., p. 3. "Do and did simply implies opposition or emphasis."--Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 41. "I and another make we, plural: Thou and another is as much as ye: He, she, or it and another make they"--Ib., p. 124. "I and another, is as much as (we) the first Person Plural; Thou and another, is as much as (ye) the second Person Plural; He, she, or it, and another, is as much as (they) the third Person Plural."--British Gram., p. 193; Buchanan's Syntax, p. 76. "God and thou art two, and thou and thy neighbour are two."--The Love Conquest, p. 25. "Just as an and a has arisen out of the numeral one."--Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo. 1850, §200. "The tone and style of each of them, particularly the first and the last, is very different."--Blair's Rhet., p. 246. "Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten."--Deut., xiii, 22. "Then I may conclude that two and three makes not five."--Barclay's Works, iii, 354. "Which at sundry times thou and thy brethren hast received from us."--Ib., i, 165. "Two and two is four, and one is five."--POPE: Lives of the Poets, p. 490. "Humility and knowledge with poor apparel, excels pride and ignorance under costly array."--Day's Gram., Parsing Lesson, p. 100. "A page and a half has been added to the section on composition."--Bullions's E. Gram., 5th Ed., Pref., p. vii. "Accuracy and expertness in this exercise is an important acquisition."--Ib., p. 71.

"Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing."--Milton's Poems, p. 139.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--THE VERB BEFORE JOINT NOMINATIVES.

"There is a good and a bad, a right and a wrong in taste, as in other things."--Blair's Rhet., p. 21. "Whence has arisen much stiffness and affectation."--Ib., p. 133. "To this error is owing, in a great measure, that intricacy and harshness, in his figurative language, which I before remarked."--Ib., p. 150; Jamieson's Rhet., 157. "Hence, in his Night Thoughts, there prevails an obscurity and hardness in his style."--Blair's Rhet., p. 150. "There is, however, in that work much good sense, and excellent criticism."--Ib., p. 401. "There is too much low wit and scurrility in Plautus."--Ib., p. 481. "There is too much reasoning and refinement; too much pomp and studied beauty in them."--Ib., p. 468. "Hence arises the structure and characteristic expression of exclamation."--Rush on the Voice, p. 229. "And such pilots is he and his brethren, according to their own confession."--Barclay's Works, iii, 314. "Of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus: who concerning the truth have erred."--2 Tim., ii, 17. "Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan."--1 Tim., i, 20. "And so was James and John, the sons of Zebedee."--Luke, v, 10. "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing."--James, iii, 10. "Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good."--Lam., iii, 38. "In which there is most plainly a right and a wrong."--Butler's Analogy, p. 215. "In this sentence there is both an actor and an object."--Smith's Inductive Gram., p. 14. "In the breast-plate was placed the mysterious Urim and Thummim."--Milman's Jews, i, 88. "What is the gender, number, and person of those in the first?"--Smith's Productive Gram., p. 19. "There seems to be a familiarity and want of dignity in it."--Priestley's Gram., p. 150. "It has been often asked, what is Latin and Greek?"--Literary Convention, p. 209. "For where does beauty and high wit But in your constellation meet?"--Hudibras, p. 134. "Thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus."--Paradise Lost, B. ix, l. 81. "On these foundations seems to rest the midnight riot and dissipation of modern assemblies."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 46. "But what has disease, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts can be allured to dwell?"--Johnson's Life of Swift, p. 492. "How is the gender and number of the relative known?"--Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 32.

"High rides the sun, thick rolls the dust, And feebler speeds the blow and thrust."--Sir W. Scott.

UNDER NOTE I.--CHANGE THE CONNECTIVE.

"In every language there prevails a certain structure and analogy of parts, which is understood to give foundation to the most reputable usage."--Blair's Rhet., p. 90. "There runs through his whole manner, a stiffness and affectation, which renders him very unfit to be considered a general model."--Ib., p. 102. "But where declamation and improvement in speech is the sole aim"--Ib., p. 257. "For it is by these chiefly, that the train of thought, the course of reasoning, and the whole progress of the mind, in continued discourse of all kinds, is laid open."--Lowth's Gram., p. 103. "In all writing and discourse, the proper composition and structure of sentnences is of the highest importance."--Blair's Rhet., p. 101. "Here the wishful look and expectation of the beggar naturally leads to a vivid conception of that which was the object of his thoughts."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 386. "Who say, that the outward naming of Christ, and signing of the cross, puts away devils."--Barclay's Works, i, 146. "By which an oath and penalty was to be imposed upon the members."--Junius, p. 6. "Light and knowledge, in what manner soever afforded us, is equally from God."--Butler's Analogy, p. 264. "For instance, sickness and untimely death is the consequence of intemperance."--Ib., p. 78. "When grief, and blood ill-tempered vexeth him."--Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 256. "Does continuity and connexion create sympathy and relation in the parts of the body?"--Collier's Antoninus, p. 111. "His greatest concern, and highest enjoyment, was to be approved in the sight of his Creator."--Murray's Key, p. 224. "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?"--2 Sam, iii, 38. "What is vice and wickedness? No rarity, you may depend on it."--Collier's Antoninus, p. 107. "There is also the fear and apprehension of it."--Butler's Analogy, p. 87. "The apostrophe and s, ('s,) is an abbreviation for is, the termination of the old English genitive."--Bullions, E. Gram., p. 17. "Ti, ce, and ci, when followed by a vowel, usually has the sound of sh; as in partial, special, ocean."--Weld's Gram., p. 15.

"Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear Compels me to disturb your season due."--Milton's Lycidas.

"Debauches and excess, though with less noise, As great a portion of mankind destroys."--Waller, p. 55.

UNDER NOTE II.--AFFIRMATION WITH NEGATION.

"Wisdom, and not wealth, procure esteem."--Brown's Inst., p. 156. "Prudence, and not pomp, are the basis of his fame."--Ib. "Not fear, but labour have overcome him."--Ib. "The decency, and not the abstinence, make the difference."--Ib. "Not her beauty, but her talents attracts attention."--Ib. "It is her talents, and not her beauty, that attracts attention."--Ib. "It is her beauty, and not her talents that attract attention."--Ib.

"His belly, not his brains, this impulse give: He'll grow immortal; for he cannot live."--Young, to Pope.

UNDER NOTE III.--AS WELL AS, BUT, OR SAVE.

"Common sense as well as piety tell us these are proper."--Family Commentary, p. 64. "For without it the critic, as well as the undertaker, ignorant of any rule, have nothing left but to abandon themselves to chance."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 42. "And accordingly hatred as well as love are extinguished by long absence."--Ib., i, 113. "But at every turn the richest melody as well as the sublimest sentiments are conspicuous."--Ib., ii, 121. "But it, as well as the lines immediately subsequent, defy all translation."--Coleridge's Introduction, p. 96. "But their religion, as well as their customs, and manners, were strangely misrepresented."--BOLINGBROKE, ON HISTORY, p. 123; Priestley's Gram., p. 192; Murray's Exercises, p. 47. "But his jealous policy, as well as the fatal antipathy of Fonseca, were conspicuous."--Robertson's America, i, 191. "When their extent as well as their value were unknown."--Ib., ii, 138. "The Etymology, as well as the Syntax, of the more difficult parts of speech are reserved for his attention [at a later period]."--Parker and Fox's E. Gram., Part i, p. 3. "What I myself owe to him, no one but myself know."--See Wright's Athens, p. 96. "None, but thou, O mighty prince! canst avert the blow."--Inst., p. 156. "Nothing, but frivolous amusements, please the indolent."--Ib.

"Nought, save the gurglings of the rill, were heard."--G. B.

"All songsters, save the hooting owl, was mute."--G. B.

UNDER NOTE IV.--EACH, EVERY, OR NO.

"Give every word, and every member, their due weight and force."--Blair's Rhet., p. 110. "And to one of these belong every noun, and every third person of every verb."--Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 74. "No law, no restraint, no regulation, are required to keep him in bounds."--Literary Convention, p. 260. "By that time, every window and every door in the street were full of heads."--N. Y. Observer, No. 503. "Every system of religion, and every school of philosophy, stand back from this field, and leave Jesus Christ alone, the solitary example"--The Corner Stone, p. 17. "Each day, and each hour, bring their portion of duty."--Inst., p. 156. "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him."--1 Sam., xxii, 2. "Every private Christian and member of the church ought to read and peruse the Scriptures, that they may know their faith and belief founded upon them."--Barclay's Works, i, 340. "And every mountain and island were moved out of their places."--Rev., vi, 14.

"No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd hermit rest self-satisfied."

UNDER NOTE V.--WITH, OR, &c. FOR AND.

"The side A, with the sides B and C, compose the triangle."--Tobitt's Gram., p. 48; Felch's, 69; Ware's, 12. "The stream, the rock, or the tree, must each of them stand forth, so as to make a figure in the imagination."--Blair's Rhet., p. 390. "While this, with euphony, constitute, finally, the whole."--O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 293. "The bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, were stolen."--Cobbett's E. Gram., ¶246. "Sobriety, with great industry and talent, enable a man to perform great deeds."--Ib., ¶245. "The it, together with the verb to be, express states of being."--Ib., ¶190. "Where Leonidas the Spartan king, with his chosen band, fighting for their country, were cut off to the last man."--Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 203. "And Leah also, with her children, came near and bowed themselves."--Gen., xxxiii, 7. "The First or Second will, either of them, by themselves coalesce with the Third, but not with each other."--Harris's Hermes, p. 74. "The whole must centre in the query, whether Tragedy or Comedy are hurtful and dangerous representations?"--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 215. "Grief as well as joy are infectious: the emotions they raise in the spectator resemble them perfectly."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 157. "But in all other words the Qu are both sounded."--Ensell's Gram., p. 16. "Qu (which are always together) have the sound of ku or k, as in queen, opaque."-- Goodenow's Gram., p. 45. "In this selection the ai form distinct syllables."--Walker's Key, p. 290. "And a considerable village, with gardens, fields, &c., extend around on each side of the square."-- Liberator, Vol. ix, p. 140. "Affection, or interest, guide our notions and behaviour in the affairs of life; imagination and passion affect the sentiments that we entertain in matters of taste."--Jamieson's Rhet., p. 171. "She heard none of those intimations of her defects, which envy, petulance, or anger, produce among children."--Rambler, No. 189. "The King, with the Lords and Commons, constitute an excellent form of government."--Crombie's Treatise, p. 242. "If we say, 'I am the man, who commands you,' the relative clause, with the antecedent man, form the predicate."--Ib., p. 266.

"The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim." --ADDISON. Murray's Key, p. 174; Day's Gram., p. 92; Farnum's, 106.

UNDER NOTE VI.--ELLIPTICAL CONSTRUCTIONS.

"There is a reputable and a disreputable practice."--Adams's Rhet., Vol. i, p. 350. "This and this man was born in her."--Milton's Psalms, lxxxvii. "This and that man was born in her."--Psal. lxxxvii, 5. "This and that man was born there."--Hendrick's Gram., p. 94. "Thus le in l~ego and l~egi seem to be sounded equally long."--Adam's Gram., p. 253; Gould's, 243. "A distinct and an accurate articulation forms the groundwork of good delivery."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 25. "How is vocal and written language understood?"--C. W. Sanders, Spelling-Book, p. 7. "The good, the wise, and the learned man is an ornament to human society."--Bartlett's Reader. "On some points, the expression of song and speech is identical."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 425. "To every room there was an open and secret passage."--Johnson's Rasselas, p. 13. "There iz such a thing az tru and false taste, and the latter az often directs fashion, az the former."--Webster's Essays, p. 401. "There is such a thing as a prudent and imprudent institution of life, with regard to our health and our affairs"--Butler's Analogy, p. 210. "The lot of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, however different in one respect, have in another corresponded with wonderful exactness."--Hope of Israel, p. 301. "On these final syllables the radical and vanishing movement is performed."--Rush, on the Voice, p. 64. "To be young or old, good, just, or the contrary, are physical or moral events."--SPURZHEIM: Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 29. "The eloquence of George Whitfield and of John Wesley was of a very different character each from the other."--Dr. Sharp. "The affinity of m for the series b, and of n for the series t, give occasion for other Euphonic changes."--Fowler's E. Gram., §77.

"Pylades' soul and mad Orestes', was In these, if we believe Pythagoras"--Cowley's Poems, p. 3.

UNDER NOTE VII.--DISTINCT SUBJECT PHRASES.

"To be moderate in our views, and to proceed temperately in the pursuit of them, is the best way to ensure success."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 206. "To be of any species, and to have a right to the name of that species, is all one."--Locke's Essay, p. 300. "With whom to will and to do is the same."--Jamieson's Sacred History, Vol. ii, p. 22. "To profess, and to possess, is very different things."--Inst., p. 156. "To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, is duties of universal obligation."--Ib. "To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be large or small, and to be moved swiftly or slowly, is all equally alien from the nature of thought."--Ib. "The resolving of a sentence into its elements or parts of speech and stating the Accidents which belong to these, is called PARSING."--Bullion's Pract. Lessons, p. 9. "To spin and to weave, to knit and to sew, was once a girl's employment; but now to dress and catch a beau, is all she calls enjoyment."--Lynn News, Vol. 8, No. 1.

RULE XVII.--FINITE VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together: as, "Fear or jealousy affects him."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 133. "Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object finds: creation sleeps."--Young. "Neither character nor dialogue was yet understood."--L. Murray's Gram., p. 151.

"The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, Safest and seemliest by her husband stays."--Milton, P. L., ix, 267.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVII.

OBS. 1.--To this rule, so far as its application is practicable, there are properly no exceptions; for, or and nor being disjunctive conjunctions, the nominatives are of course to assume the verb separately, and as agreeing with each. Such agreement seems to be positively required by the alternativeness of the expression. Yet the ancient grammarians seldom, if at all, insisted on it. In Latin and Greek, a plural verb is often employed with singular nominatives thus connected; as,

"Tunc nec mens mini, nec color Certa sede manent."--HORACE. See W. Allen's Gram., p. 133.

[Greek: "Ean de adelphos æ adelphæ lumnoi huparchosi, kai leipomenoi osi tæs ephæmerou trophæs."]--James, ii. 15. And the best scholars have sometimes improperly imitated this construction in English; as, "Neither Virgil nor Homer were deficient in any of the former beauties."--DRYDEN'S PREFACE: Brit. Poets, Vol. iii, p. 168. "Neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add any idea to his [Plato's] categories."--R. W. EMERSON: Liberator, No. 996.

"He comes--nor want nor cold his course delay: Hide, blushing Glory! hide Pultowa's day."--Dr. Johnson.

"No monstrous height, or breadth, or length, appear; The whole at once is bold and regular."--Pope, on Crit., l. 250.

OBS. 2.--When two collective nouns of the singular form are connected by or or nor, the verb may agree with them in the plural number, because such agreement is adapted to each of them, according to Rule 15th; as, "Why mankind, or such a part of mankind, are placed in this condition."--Butler's Analogy, p. 213. "But neither the Board of Control nor the Court of Directors have any scruples about sanctioning the abuses of which I have spoken."--Glory and Shame of England, Vol. ii, p. 70.

OBS. 3.--When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers, connected by or or nor, an explicit concord with each is impossible; because the verb cannot be of different persons or numbers at the same time; nor is it so, even when its form is made the same in all the persons and numbers: thus, "I, thou, [or] he, may affirm; we, ye, or they, may affirm."--Beattie's Moral Science, p. 36. Respecting the proper management of the verb when its nominatives thus disagree, the views of our grammarians are not exactly coincident. Few however are ignorant enough, or rash enough, to deny that there may be an implicit or implied concord in such cases,--a zeugma of the verb in English, as well as of the verb or of the adjective in Latin or Greek. Of this, the following is a brief example: "But he nor I feel more."--Dr. Young, Night iii, p. 35. And I shall by-and-by add others--enough, I hope, to confute those false critics who condemn all such phraseology.

OBS. 4.--W. Allen's rule is this: "If the nominatives are of different numbers or persons, the verb agrees with the last; as, he or his brothers were there; neither you nor I am concerned."--English Gram., p. 133. Lindley Murray, and others, say: (1.) "When singular pronouns, or a noun and pronoun, of different persons, are disjunctively connected, the verb must agree with that person which is placed nearest to it: as, 'I or thou art to blame;' 'Thou or I am in fault;' 'I, or thou, or he, is the author of it;' 'George or I am the person.' But it would be better to say; 'Either I am to blame, or thou art,' &c. (2.) When a disjunctive occurs between a singular noun, or pronoun, and a plural one, the verb is made to agree with the plural noun and pronoun: as, 'Neither poverty nor riches were injurious to him;' 'I or they were offended by it.' But in this case, the plural noun or pronoun, when it can conveniently be done, should be placed next to the verb."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 151; Smith's New Gram., 128; Alger's Gram., 54; Comly's, 78 and 79; Merchant's, 86; Picket's, 175; and many more. There are other grammarians who teach, that the verb must agree with the nominative which is placed next to it, whether this be singular or plural; as, "Neither the servants nor the master is respected;"--"Neither the master nor the servants are respected."--Alexander Murray's Gram., p. 65. "But if neither the writings nor the author is in existence, the Imperfect should be used."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 107.

OBS. 5.--On this point, a new author has just given us the following precept and criticism: "Never connect by or, or nor, two or more names or substitutes that have the same asserter [i.e. verb] depending on them for sense, if when taken separately, they require different forms of the asserters. Examples. 'Neither you nor I am concerned. Either he or thou wast there. Either they or he is faulty.' These examples are as erroneous as it would be to say, 'Neither you am concerned, nor am I.' 'Either he wast there, or thou wast.' 'Either they is faulty, or he is.' The sentences should stand thus--'Neither of us is concerned,' or, 'neither are you concerned, nor am I.' 'Either he was there, or thou wast.' 'Either they are faulty, or he is. They are, however, in all their impropriety, writen [sic--KTH] according to the principles of Goold Brown's grammar! and the theories of most of the former writers."--Oliver B. Peirce's Gram., p. 252. We shall see by-and-by who is right.

OBS. 6.--Cobbett also--while he approves of such English as, "He, with them, are able to do much," for, "He and they are able to do much"--condemns expressly every possible example in which the verb has not a full and explicit concord with each of its nominatives, if they are connected by or or nor. His doctrine is this: "If nominatives of different numbers present themselves, we must not give them a verb which disagrees with either the one or the other. We must not say: 'Neither the halter nor the bayonets are sufficient to prevent us from obtaining our rights.' We must avoid this bad grammar by using a different form of words: as, 'We are to be prevented from obtaining our rights by neither the halter nor the bayonets.' And, why should we wish to write bad grammar, if we can express our meaning in good grammar?"--Cobbett's E. Gram., ¶ 242. This question would have more force, if the correction here offered did not convey a meaning widely different from that of the sentence corrected. But he goes on: "We cannot say, 'They or I am in fault; I, or they, or he, is the author of it; George or I am the person.' Mr. Lindley Murray says, that we may use these phrases; and that we have only to take care that the verb agree with that person which is placed nearest to it; but, he says also, that it would be better to avoid such phrases by giving a different turn to our words. I do not like to leave any thing to chance or to discretion, when we have a clear principle for our guide."--Ib., ¶ 243. This author's "clear principle" is merely his own confident assumption, that every form of figurative or implied agreement, every thing which the old grammarians denominated zeugma, is at once to be condemned as a solecism. He is however supported by an other late writer of much greater merit. See Churchill's New Gram., pp. 142 and 312.

OBS. 7.--If, in lieu of their fictitious examples, our grammarians would give us actual quotations from reputable authors, their instructions would doubtless gain something in accuracy, and still more in authority. "I or they were offended by it," and, "I, or thou, or he, is the author of it," are expressions that I shall not defend. They imply an egotistical speaker, who either does not know, or will not tell, whether he is offended or not,--whether he is the author or not! Again, there are expressions that are unobjectionable, and yet not conformable to any of the rules just quoted. That nominatives may be correctly connected by or or nor without an express agreement of the verb with each of them, is a point which can be proved to as full certainty as almost any other in grammar; Churchill, Cobbett, and Peirce to the contrary notwithstanding. But with which of the nominatives the verb shall expressly agree, or to which of them it may most properly be understood, is a matter not easy to be settled by any sure general rule. Nor is the lack of such a rule a very important defect, though the inculcation of a false or imperfect one may be. So judged at least the ancient grammarians, who noticed and named almost every possible form of the zeugma, without censuring any as being ungrammatical. In the Institutes of English Grammar, I noted first the usual form of this concord, and then the allowable exceptions; but a few late writers, we see, denounce every form of it, exceptions and all: and, standing alone in their notions of the figure, value their own authority more than that of all other critics together.

OBS. 8.--In English, as in other languages, when a verb has discordant nominatives connected disjunctively, it most commonly agrees expressly with that which is nearest, and only by implication, with the more remote; as, "When some word or words are dependent on the attribute."--Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 153. "To the first of these qualities, dulness or refinements are dangerous enemies."--Brown's Estimate, Vol. ii, p. 15. "He hazards his own life with that of his enemy, and one or both are very honorably murdered."--Webster's Essays, p. 235. "The consequence is, that they frown upon everyone whose faults or negligence interrupts or retards their lessons."--W. C. Woodbridge: Lit. Conv., p. 114. "Good intentions, or at least sincerity of purpose, was never denied her."--West's Letters, p. 43. "Yet this proves not that either he or we judge them to be the rule."--Barclay's Works, i, 157. "First clear yourselves of popery before you or thou dost throw it upon us."--Ib., i, 169. "Is the gospel or glad tidings of this salvation brought nigh unto all?"--Ib., i, 362. "Being persuaded, that either they, or their cause, is naught."--Ib., i, 504. "And the reader may judge whether he or I do most fully acknowledge man's fall."--Ib., iii, 332. "To do justice to the Ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any two, of the three Estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third."--Junius, Letter xvii. "The forest, or hunting-grounds, are deemed the property of the tribe."--Robertson's America, i, 313. "Birth or titles confer no preëminence."--Ib., ii, 184. "Neither tobacco nor hides were imported from Caraccas into Spain."--Ib., ii, 507. "The keys or seed-vessel of the maple has two large side-wings."--The Friend, vii, 97. "An example or two are sufficient to illustrate the general observation."--Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., i, 58.

"Not thou, nor those thy factious arts engage, Shall reap that harvest of rebellious rage."--Dryden, p. 60.

OBS. 9.--But when the remoter nominative is the principal word, and the nearer one is expressed parenthetically, the verb agrees literally with the former, and only by implication, with the latter; as, "One example, (or ten,) says nothing against it."--Leigh Hunt. "And we, (or future ages,) may possibly have a proof of it."--Bp. Butler. So, when the alternative is merely in the words, not in the thought, the former term is sometimes considered the principal one, and is therefore allowed to control the verb; but there is always a harshness in this mixture of different numbers, and, to render such a construction tolerable, it is necessary to read the latter term like a parenthesis, and make the former emphatic: as, "A parenthesis, or brackets, consists of two angular strokes, or hooks, enclosing one or more words."--Whiting's Reader, p. 28. "To show us that our own schemes, or prudence, have no share in our advancements."--Addison. "The Mexican figures, or picture-writing, represent things, not words; they exhibit images to the eye, not ideas to the understanding."--Murray's Gram., p. 243; English Reader, p. xiii. "At Travancore, Koprah, or dried cocoa-nut kernels, is monopolized by government."--Maunder's Gram., p. 12. "The Scriptures, or Bible, are the only authentic source."--Bp. Tomline's Evidences.

"Nor foes nor fortune take this power away; And is my Abelard less kind than they?"--Pope, p. 334.

OBS. 10.--The English adjective being indeclinable, we have no examples of some of the forms of zeugma which occur in Latin and Greek. But adjectives differing in number, are sometimes connected without a repetition of the noun; and, in the agreement of the verb, the noun which is understood, is less apt to be regarded than that which is expressed, though the latter be more remote; as, "There are one or two small irregularities to be noted."--Lowth's Gram., p. 63. "There are one or two persons, and but one or two."--Hazlitt's Lectures. "There are one or two others."--Crombie's Treatise, p. 206. "There are one or two."--Blair's Rhet., p. 319. "There are one or more seminaries in every province."--H. E. Dwight: Lit. Conv., p. 133. "Whether one or more of the clauses are to be considered the nominative case."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. "So that, I believe, there is not more than one genuine example extant."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 10. "There is, properly, no more than one pause or rest in the sentence."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 329; Blair's Rhet., p. 125. "Sometimes a small letter or two is added to the capital."--Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 223; Gould's, 283. Among the examples in the seventh paragraph above, there is one like this last, but with a plural verb; and if either is objectionable, is should here be are. The preceding example, too, is such as I would not imitate. To L. Murray, the following sentence seemed false syntax, because one does not agree with persons: "He saw one or more persons enter the garden."--Murray's Exercises, Rule 8th, p. 54. In his Key, he has it thus: "He saw one person, or more than one, enter the garden."--Oct. Gram., Vol. ii, p. 189. To me, this stiff correction, which many later grammarians have copied, seems worse than none. And the effect of the principle may be noticed in Murray's style elsewhere; as, "When a semicolon, or more than one, have preceded."--Octavo Gram., i, p. 277; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 288. Here a ready writer would be very apt to prefer one of the following phrases: "When a semicolon or two have preceded,"--"When one or two semicolons have preceded,"--"When one or more semicolons have preceded." It is better to write by guess, than to become systematically awkward in expression.

OBS. 11.--In Greek and Latin, the pronoun of the first person, according to our critics, is generally[398] placed first; as, "[Greek: Ego kai su ta dikaia poiæsomen]. Xen."--Milnes's Gr. Gram., p. 120. That is, "Ego et tu justa faciemus." Again: "Ego et Cicero valemus. Cic."--Buchanan's Pref., p. x; Adam's Gram., 206; Gould's, 203. "I and Cicero are well."--Ib. But, in English, a modest speaker usually gives to others the precedence, and mentions himself last; as, "He, or thou, or I, must go."--"Thou and I will do what is right."--"Cicero and I are well."--Dr. Adam.[399] Yet, in speaking of himself and his dependants, a person most commonly takes rank before them; as, "Your inestimable letters supported myself, my wife, and children, in adversity."--Lucien Bonaparte, Charlemagne, p. v. "And I shall be destroyed, I and my house."--Gen., xxxiv, 30. And in acknowledging a fault, misfortune, or censure, any speaker may assume the first place; as, "Both I and thou are in the fault."--Adam's Gram., p. 207. "Both I and you are in fault."--Buchanan's Syntax, p. ix. "Trusty did not do it; I and Robert did it."--Edgeworth's Stories.

"With critic scales, weighs out the partial wit, What I, or you, or he, or no one writ." --Lloyd's Poems, p. 162.

OBS. 12.--According to the theory of this work, verbs themselves are not unfrequently connected, one to an other, by and, or, or nor; so that two or more of them, being properly in the same construction, may be parsed as agreeing with the same nominative: as, "So that the blind and dumb [man] both spake and saw."--Matt., xii, 22. "That no one might buy or sell."--Rev., xiii, 17. "Which see not, nor hear, nor know."--Dan., v, 23. We have certainly very many examples like these, in which it is neither convenient nor necessary to suppose an ellipsis of the nominative before the latter verb, or before all but the first, as most of our grammarians do, whenever they find two or more finite verbs connected in this manner. It is true, the nominative may, in most instances, be repeated without injury to the sense; but this fact is no proof of such an ellipsis; because many a sentence which is not incomplete, may possibly take additional words without change of meaning. But these authors, (as I have already suggested under the head of conjunctions,) have not been very careful of their own consistency. If they teach, that, "Every finite verb has its own separate nominative, either expressed or implied," which idea Murray and others seem to have gathered from Lowth; or if they say, that, "Conjunctions really unite sentences, when they appear to unite only words," which notion they may have acquired from Harris; what room is there for that common assertion, that, "Conjunctions connect the same moods and tenses of verbs," which is a part of Murray's eighteenth rule, and found in most of our grammars? For no agreement is usually required between verbs that have separate nominatives; and if we supply a nominative wherever we do not find one for each verb, then in fact no two verbs will ever be connected by any conjunction.

OBS. 13.--What agreement there must be, between verbs that are in the same construction, it is not easy to determine with certainty. Some of the Latin grammarians tell us, that certain conjunctions connect "sometimes similar moods and tenses, and sometimes similar moods but different tenses." See Prat's Grammatica Latina, Octavo, Part ii, p. 95. Ruddiman, Adam, and Grant, omit the concord of tenses, and enumerate certain conjunctions which "couple like cases and moods." But all of them acknowledge some exceptions to their rules. The instructions of Lindley Murray and others, on this point, may be summed up in the following canon: "When verbs are connected by a conjunction, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or have separate nominatives expressed." This rule, (with a considerable exception to it, which other authors had not noticed.) was adopted by myself in the Institutes of English Grammar, and also retained in the Brief Abstract of that work, entitled, The First Lines of English Grammar. It there stands as the thirteenth in the series of principal rules; but, as there is no occasion to refer to it in the exercise of parsing, I now think, a less prominent place may suit it as well or better. The principle may be considered as being less certain and less important than most of the usual rules of syntax: I shall therefore both modify the expression of it, and place it among the notes of the present code. See Notes 5th and 6th below.

OBS. 14.--By the agreement of verbs with each other in form, it is meant, that the simple form and the compound, the familiar form and the solemn, the affirmative form and the negative, or the active form and the passive, are not to be connected without a repetition of the nominative. With respect to our language, this part of the rule is doubtless as important, and as true, as any other. A thorough agreement, then, in mood, tense, and form, is generally required, when verbs are connected by and, or, or nor; and, under each part of this concord, there may be cited certain errors which ought to be avoided, as will by-and-by be shown. But, at the same time, there seem to be many allowable violations of the rule, some or other of which may perhaps form exceptions to every part of it. For example, the tense may be varied, as it often is in Latin; thus, "As the general state of religion has been, is, or shall be, affected by them."--Butlers Analogy, p. 241. "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shall be, because thou hast judged thus."--Rev., xvi, 5. In the former of these examples, a repetition of the nominative would not be agreeable; in the latter, it would perhaps be an improvement: as, "who art, and who wast, and who shalt be." (I here change the pronoun, because the relative which is not now applied as above.) "This dedication may serve for almost any book, that has been, or shall be published."--Campbell's Rhet. p. 207; Murray's Gram., p. 222. "It ought to be, 'has been, is, or shall be, published.'"--Crombie's Treatise, p. 383. "Truth and good sense are firm, and will establish themselves."--Blair's Rhet. p. 286. "Whereas Milton followed a different plan, and has given a tragic conclusion to a poem otherwise epic in its form."--Ib., p. 428. "I am certain, that such are not, nor ever were, the tenets of the church of England."--West's Letters, p. 148. "They deserve, and will meet with, no regard."--Blair's Rhet., p. 109.

"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be." --Pope, on Crit.

OBS. 15.--So verbs differing in mood or form may sometimes agree with the same nominative, if the simplest verb be placed first--rarely, I think, if the words stand in any other order: as, "One may be free from affectation and not have merit"--Blair's Rhet., p. 189. "There is, and can be, no other person."--Murray's Key. 8vo. p. 224. "To see what is, and is allowed to be, the plain natural rule."--Butler's Analogy, p. 284. "This great experiment has worked, and is working, well, every way well"--BRADBURN: Liberator, ix. 162. "This edition of Mr. Murray's works on English Grammar, deserves a place in Libraries, and will not fail to obtain it."--BRITISH CRITIC: Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 299.

"What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy."--Pope.

"Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."--Id.

OBS. 16.--Since most of the tenses of an English verb are composed of two or more words, to prevent a needless or disagreeable repetition of auxiliaries, participles, and principal verbs, those parts which are common to two or more verbs in the same sentence, are generally expressed to the first, and understood to the rest; or reserved, and put last, as the common supplement of each; as, "To which they do or can extend."--Butler's Analogy, p. 77. "He may, as any one may, if he will, incur an infamous execution from the hands of civil justice."--Ib., p. 82. "All that has usurped the name of virtue, and [has] deceived us by its semblance, must be a mockery and a delusion."--Dr. Chalmers. "Human praise, and human eloquence, may acknowledge it, but the Discerner of the heart never will" [acknowledge it].--Id. "We use thee not so hardly, as prouder livers do" [use thee].--Shak. "Which they might have foreseen and [might have] avoided."--Butler. "Every sincere endeavour to amend, shall be assisted, [shall be] accepted, and [shall be] rewarded."--Carter. "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and [will] stand and [will] call on the name of the Lord his God, and [will] strike his hand over the place, and [will] recover the leper."--2 Kings, v, 11. "They mean to, and will, hear patiently."--Salem Register. That is, "They mean to hear patiently, and they will hear patiently." "He can create, and he destroy."--Bible. That is,--"and he can destroy."

"Virtue may be assail'd, but never hurt, Surpris'd by unjust force, but not inthrall'd."--Milton.

"Mortals whose pleasures are their only care, First wish to be imposed on, and then are."--Cowper.

OBS. 17.--From the foregoing examples, it may be seen, that the complex and divisible structure of the English moods and tenses, produces, when verbs are connected together, a striking peculiarity of construction in our language, as compared with the nearest corresponding construction in Latin or Greek. For we can connect different auxiliaries, participles, or principal verbs, without repeating, and apparently without connecting, the other parts of the mood or tense. And although it is commonly supposed that these parts are necessarily understood wherever they are not repeated, there are sentences, and those not a few, in which we cannot express them, without inserting also an additional nominative, and producing distinct clauses; as, "Should it not be taken up and pursued?"--Dr. Chalmers. "Where thieves do not break through nor steal."--Matt., vi, 20. "None present could either read or explain the writing-."--Wood's Dict., Vol. i, p. 159. Thus we sometimes make a single auxiliary an index to the mood and tense of more than one verb.

OBS. 18.--The verb do, which is sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb, is thought by some grammarians to be also fitly made a substitute for other verbs, as a pronoun is for nouns; but this doctrine has not been taught with accuracy, and the practice under it will in many instances be found to involve a solecism. In this kind of substitution, there must either be a true ellipsis of the principal verb, so that do is only an auxiliary; or else the verb do, with its object or adverb, if it need one, must exactly correspond to an action described before; so that to speak of doing this or thus, is merely the shortest way of repeating the idea: as, "He loves not plays, as thou dost. Antony."--Shak. That is, "as thou dost love plays." "This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; and, to do that well, craves a kind of wit."--Id. Here, "to do that," is, "to play the fool." "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."--Gen., xviii, 30. Do what? Destroy the city, as had been threatened. Where do is an auxiliary, there is no real substitution; and, in the other instances, it is not properly the verb do, that is the substitute, but rather the word that follows it--or perhaps, both. For, since every action consists in doing something or in doing somehow, this general verb do, with this, that, it, thus, or so, to identify the action, may assume the import of many a longer phrase. But care must be taken not to substitute this verb for any term to which it is not equivalent; as, "The a is certainly to be sounded as the English do."--Walker's Dict., w. A. Say, "as the English sound it;" for do is here absurd, and grossly solecistical. "The duke had not behaved with that loyalty with which he ought to have done."--Lowth's Gram., p. 111; Murray's, i, 212; Churchill's, 355; Fisk's, 137; Ingersoll's, 269. Say, "with which he ought to have behaved;" for, to have done with loyalty is not what was meant--far from it. Clarendon wrote the text thus: "The Duke had not behaved with that loyalty, as he ought to have done." This should have been corrected, not by changing "as" to "with which", but by saying--"with that loyalty which he ought to have observed;" or, "which would have become him".

OBS. 19.--It is little to the credit of our grammarians, to find so many of them thus concurring in the same obvious error, and even making bad English worse. The very examples which have hitherto been given to prove that do may be a substitute for other verbs, are none of them in point, and all of them have been constantly and shamefully misinterpreted. Thus: "They [do and did] sometimes also supply the place of another verb, and make the repetition of it, in the same or a subsequent sentence, unnecessary: as, 'You attend not to your studies as he does;' (i. e. as he attends, &c.) 'I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;' (i. e. if I come not.)"--L. Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 88; R. C. Smith's, 88; Ingersoll's, 135; Fisk's, 78; A. Flint's, 41; Hiley's, 30. This remark, but not the examples, was taken from Lowths Gram., p. 41. Churchill varies it thus, and retains Lowth's example: "It [i. e., do] is used also, to supply the place of another verb, in order to avoid the repetition of it: as, 'He loves not plays, As thou dost, Antony.' SHAKS."--New Gram., p. 96. Greenleaf says, "To prevent the repetition of one or more verbs, in the same, or [a] following sentence, we frequently make use of do AND did; as, 'Jack learns the English language as fast as Henry does;' that is, 'as fast as Henry learns.' 'I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;' that is, 'if I come not.'"--Gram. Simplified, p. 27. Sanborn says, "Do is also used instead of another verb, and not unfrequently instead of both the verb and its object; as, 'he loves work as well as you do;' that is, as well as you love work."--Analyt. Gram., p. 112. Now all these interpretations are wrong; the word do, dost, or does, being simply an auxiliary, after which the principal verb (with its object where it has one) is understood. But the first example is bad English, and its explanation is still worse. For, "As he attends, &c.," means, "As he attends to your studies!" And what good sense is there in this? The sentence ought to have been, "You do not attend to your studies, as he does to his." That is--"as he does attend to his studies." This plainly shows that there is, in the text, no real substitution of does for attends. So of all other examples exhibited in our grammars, under this head: there is nothing to the purpose, in any of them; the common principle of ellipsis resolves them all. Yet, strange to say, in the latest and most learned of this sort of text-books, we find the same sham example, fictitious and solecistical as it is, still blindly repeated, to show that "does" is not in its own place, as an auxiliary, but "supplies the place of another verb."--Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo. 1850. p. 265.

NOTES TO RULE XVII.

NOTE I.--When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers,[400] connected by or or nor, it must agree with the nearest, (unless an other be the principal term,) and must be understood to the rest, in the person and number required; as, "Neither you nor I am concerned."--W. Allen. "That neither they nor ye also die."--Numb., xviii, 3.

"But neither god, nor shrine, nor mystic rite, Their city, nor her walls, his soul delight." --Rowe's Lucan, B. x, l. 26.

NOTE II.--But, since all nominatives that require different forms of the verb, virtually produce separate clauses or propositions, it is better to complete the concord whenever we conveniently can, by expressing the verb or its auxiliary in connexion with each of them; as, "Either thou art to blame, or I am."--Comly's Gram., p. 78. "Neither were their numbers, nor was their destination, known."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 134. So in clauses connected by and: as, "But declamation is idle, and murmurs fruitless."--Webster's Essays, p. 82. Say,--"and murmurs are fruitless."

NOTE III.--In English, the speaker should always mention himself last; unless his own superior dignity, or the confessional nature of the expression, warrant him in taking the precedence: as, "Thou or I must go."--"He then addressed his discourse to my father and me."--"Ellen and I will seek, apart, the refuge of some forest cell."--Scott. See Obs. 11th above.

NOTE IV.--Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by or or nor, require a singular verb; and, if a nominative come after the verb, that must be singular also: as, "That a drunkard should be poor, or that a fop should be ignorant, is not strange."--"To give an affront, or to take one tamely, is no mark of a great mind." So, when the phrases are unconnected: as, "To spread suspicion, to invent calumnies, to propagate scandal, requires neither labour nor courage."--Rambler, No. 183.

NOTE V.--In general, when verbs are connected by and, or, or nor, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or the simplest in form must be placed first; as, "So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh."--Isaiah, xxxvii, 37. "For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die."--Acts, xxv, 11.

NOTE VI.--In stead of conjoining discordant verbs, it is in general better to repeat the nominative or insert a new one; as, "He was greatly heated, and [he] drank with avidity."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "A person may be great or rich by chance; but cannot be wise or good, without taking pains for it."--Ib., p. 200. Say,--"but no one can be wise or good, without taking pains for it."

NOTE VII.--A mixture of the forms of the solemn style and the familiar, is inelegant, whether the verbs refer to the same nominative or have different ones expressed; as, "What appears tottering and in hazard of tumbling, produceth in the spectator the painful emotion of fear."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 356. "And the milkmaid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his sithe."--Milton's Allegro, l. 65 and 66.

NOTE VIII.--To use different moods under precisely the same circumstances, is improper, even if the verbs have separate nominatives; as, "Bating that one speak and an other answers, it is quite the same."--Blair's Rhet., p. 368. Say,--"that one speaks;" for both the speaking and the answering are assumed as facts.

NOTE IX.--When two terms are connected, which involve different forms of the same verb, such parts of the compound tenses as are not common to both forms, should be inserted in full: except sometimes after the auxiliary do; as, "And then he falls, as I do."--Shak. That is, "as I do fall." The following sentences are therefore faulty: "I think myself highly obliged to make his fortune, as he has mine."--Spect., No. 474. Say,--"as he has made mine." "Every attempt to remove them, has, and likely will prove unsuccessful."--Gay's Prosodical Gram., p. 4. Say,--"has proved, and likely will prove, unsuccessful."

NOTE X.--The verb do must never be substituted for any term to which its own meaning is not adapted; nor is there any use in putting it for a preceding verb that is equally short: as, "When we see how confidently men rest on groundless surmises in reference to their own souls, we cannot wonder that they do it in reference to others."--Simeon. Better:--"that they so rest in reference to the souls of others;" for this repeats the idea with more exactness. NOTE XI.--The preterit should not be employed to form the compound tenses of the verb; nor should the perfect participle be used for the preterit or confounded with the present. Thus: say, "To have gone," not, "To have went;" and, "I did so," not, "I done so;" or, "He saw them," not, "He seen them." Again: say not, "It was lift or hoist up;" but, "It was lifted or hoisted up."

NOTE XII.--Care should be taken, to give every verb or participle its appropriate form, and not to confound those which resemble each other; as, to flee and to fly, to lay and to lie, to sit and to set, to fall and to fell, &c. Thus: say, "He lay by the fire;" not, "He laid by the fire;"--"He has become rich;" not, "He is become rich;"--"I would rather stay;" not, "I had rather stay."

NOTE XIII.--In the syntax of words that express time, whether they be verbs, adverbs, or nouns, the order and fitness of time should be observed, that the tenses may be used according to their import. Thus: in stead of, "I have seen him last week;" say, "I saw him last week;"--and, in stead of, "I saw him this week;" say, "I have seen him this week." So, in stead of, "I told you already;" or, "I have told you before;" say, "I have told you already;"--"I told you before."

NOTE XIV.--Verbs of commanding, desiring, expecting, hoping, intending, permitting, and some others, in all their tenses, refer to actions or events, relatively present or future: one should therefore say, "I hoped you would come;" not, "I hoped you would have come;"--and, "I intended to do it;" not, "I intended to have done it;"--&c.

NOTE XV.--Propositions that are as true now as they ever were or will be, should generally be expressed in the present tense: as, "He seemed hardly to know, that two and two make four;" not, "made."--Blair's Gram., p. 65. "He will tell you, that whatever is, is right." Sometimes the present tense is improper with the conjunction that, though it would be quite proper without it; as, "Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet."--Mark, vi, 15. Here That should be omitted, or else is should be was. The capital T is also improper.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVII.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--NOMINATIVES CONNECTED BY OR.

"We do not know in what either reason or instinct consist."--Rambler, No. 41.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb consist is of the plural number, and does not correctly agree with its two nominatives, reason and instinct, which are connected by or, and taken disjunctively. But, according to Rule 17th, "When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together." Therefore, consist should be consists; thus, "We do not know in what either reason or instinct consists."]

"A noun or a pronoun joined with a participle, constitute a nominative case absolute."--Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 50. "The relative will be of that case, which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, use to govern."--Dr. Adam's Gram., p. 203. "Which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, usually govern."--Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 200.[401] "In the different modes of pronunciation which habit or caprice give rise to."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 14. "By which he, or his deputy, were authorized to cut down any trees in Whittlebury forest."--Junius, p. 251. "Wherever objects were to be named, in which sound, noise, or motion were concerned, the imitation by words was abundantly obvious."--Blair's Rhet., p. 55. "The pleasure or pain resulting from a train of perceptions in different circumstances, are a beautiful contrivance of nature for valuable purposes."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 262. "Because their foolish vanity or their criminal ambition represent the principles by which they are influenced, as absolutely perfect."--Life of Madame De Stael, p. 2. "Hence naturally arise indifference or aversion between the parties."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 37. "A penitent unbeliever, or an impenitent believer, are characters no where to be found."--Tract, No. 183. "Copying whatever is peculiar in the talk of all those whose birth or fortune entitle them to imitation."--Rambler, No. 194. "Where love, hatred, fear, or contempt, are often of decisive influence."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 119. "A lucky anecdote, or an enlivening tale relieve the folio page."--D'Israeli's Curiosities, Vol. i, p. 15. "For outward matter or event, fashion not the character within."--Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "Yet sometimes we have seen that wine, or chance, have warmed cold brains."--Dryden's Poems, p. 76. "Motion is a Genus; Flight, a Species; this Flight or that Flight are Individuals."--Harris's Hermes, p. 38. "When et, aut, vel, sine, or nec, are joined to different members of the same sentence."--Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 206; Gould's Lat. Gram., 203; Grant's, 266. "Wisdom or folly govern us."--Fisk's English Gram., 84. "A or an are styled indefinite articles."--Folker's Gram., p. 4. "A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, shoot up into prodigies."--Spectator, No. 7. "Are either the subject or the predicate in the second sentence modified?"--Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 578, §589.

"Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know." --Pope, Iliad, B. x, l. 293.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--NOMINATIVES CONNECTED BY NOR.

"Neither he nor she have spoken to him."--Perrin's Gram., p. 237. "For want of a process of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preserve the reader from weariness."--JOHNSON: in Crabb's Syn., p. 511. "Neither history nor tradition furnish such information."--Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 2. "Neither the form nor power of the liquids have varied materially."--Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 16. "Where neither noise nor motion are concerned."--Blair's Rhet., p. 55. "Neither Charles nor his brother were qualified to support such a system."--Junius, p. 250. "When, therefore, neither the liveliness of representation, nor the warmth of passion, serve, as it were, to cover the trespass, it is not safe to leave the beaten track."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 381. "In many countries called Christian, neither Christianity, nor its evidence, are fairly laid before men."--Butler's Analogy, p. 269. "Neither the intellect nor the heart are capable of being driven."--Abbott's Teacher, p. 20. "Throughout this hymn, neither Apollo nor Diana are in any way connected with the Sun or Moon."--Coleridge's Introd., p. 199. "Of which, neither he, nor this Grammar, take any notice."--Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 346. "Neither their solicitude nor their foresight extend so far."--Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 287. "Neither Gomara, nor Oviedo, nor Herrera, consider Ojeda, or his companion Vespucci, as the first discoverers of the continent of America."--Ib., Vol. i, p. 471. "Neither the general situation of our colonies, nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms, have been thought worthy of a moment's consideration."--Junius, p. 174.

"Nor War nor Wisdom yield our Jews delight, They will not study, and they dare not fight." --Crabbe's Borough, p. 50.

"Nor time nor chance breed such confusions yet, Nor are the mean so rais'd, nor sunk the great." --Rowe's Lucan, B. iii, l. 213.

UNDER NOTE I.--NOMINATIVES THAT DISAGREE.

"The definite article the, designates what particular thing or things is meant."--Merchant's School Gram., p. 23 and p. 33. "Sometimes a word or words necessary to complete the grammatical construction of a sentence, is not expressed, but omitted by ellipsis."--Burr's Gram., p. 26. "Ellipsis, or abbreviations, is the wheels of language."--Maunder's Gram., p. 12. "The conditions or tenor of none of them appear at this day."--Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass., Vol. i, p. 16. "Neither men nor money were wanting for the service."--Ib., Vol. i, p. 279. "Either our own feelings, or the representation of those of others, require frequent emphatic distinction."--Barber's Exercises, p. 13. "Either Atoms and Chance, or Nature are uppermost: now I am for the latter part of the disjunction,"--Collier's Antoninus, p. 181. "Their riches or poverty are generally proportioned to their activity or indolence."--Ross Cox's Narrative. "Concerning the other part of him, neither you nor he seem to have entertained an idea."--Bp. Horne. "Whose earnings or income are so small."--N. E. Discipline, p. 130. "Neither riches nor fame render a man happy."--Day's Gram., p. 71. "The references to the pages, always point to the first volume, unless the Exercises or Key are mentioned."--Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 283.

UNDER NOTE II.--COMPLETE THE CONCORD.

"My lord, you wrong my father; nor he nor I are capable of harbouring a thought against your peace."--Walpole. "There was no division of acts; no pauses or interval between them; but the stage was continually full; occupied either by the actors, or the chorus."--Blair's Rhet., p. 463. "Every word ending in B, P, F, as also many in V, are of this order."--Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., i, 73. "As proud as we are of human reason, nothing can be more absurd than the general system of human life and human knowledge."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 347. "By which the body of sin and death is done away, and we cleansed."--Barclay's Works, i, 165. "And those were already converted, and regeneration begun in them."--Ib., iii, 433. "For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years."--Luke, i, 18. "Who is my mother, or my brethren?"--Mark, iii, 33. "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering."--Isaiah, xl, 16. "Information has been obtained, and some trials made."--Society in America, i, 308. "It is as obvious, and its causes more easily understood."--Webster's Essays, p. 84. "All languages furnish examples of this kind, and the English as many as any other."--Priestley's Gram., p. 157. "The winters are long, and the cold intense."--Morse's Geog., p. 39. "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!"--Prov., v, 12. "The vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta extinguished."--Lempriere, w. Vestales. "Riches beget pride; pride, impatience."--Bullions's Practical Lessons, p. 89. "Grammar is not reasoning, any more than organization is thought, or letters sounds."--Enclytica, p. 90. "Words are implements, and grammar a machine."--Ib., p. 91.

UNDER NOTE III.--PLACE OF THE FIRST PERSON.

"I or thou art the person who must undertake the business proposed."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 184. "I and he were there."--Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 51. "And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he."--Gen., xli, 11. "If my views remain the same as mine and his were in 1833."--GOODELL: Liberator, ix, 148. "I and my father were riding out."--Inst., p. 158. "The premiums were given to me and George."--Ib. "I and Jane are invited."--Ib. "They ought to invite me and my sister."--Ib. "I and you intend going."--Guy's Gram., p. 55. "I and John are going to Town."--British Gram., p. 193. "I, and he are sick. I, and thou are well."--James Brown's American Gram., Boston Edition of 1841, p. 123. "I, and he is. I, and thou art. I, and he writes."--Ib., p. 126. "I, and they are well. I, thou, and she were walking."--Ib., p. 127.

UNDER NOTE IV.--DISTINCT SUBJECT PHRASES.

"To practise tale-bearing, or even to countenance it, are great injustice."--Brown's Inst., p. 159. "To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, are contemptible perfidy."--Ib. "To write all substantives with capital letters, or to exclude them from adjectives derived from proper names, may perhaps be thought offences too small for animadversion; but the evil of innovation is always something."--Dr. Barrow's Essays, p. 88. "To live in such families, or to have such servants, are blessings from God."--Family Commentary, p. 64. "How they portioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, are utterly unknown."--Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 4. "To speak or to write perspicuously and agreeably, are attainments of the utmost consequence to all who purpose, either by speech or writing, to address the public."--Blair's Rhet., p. 11.

UNDER NOTE V.--MAKE THE VERBS AGREE.

"Doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?"--Matt., xviii, 12. "Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced?"--Jer., xxvi, 19. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgement with thee?"--Job, xiv, 3. "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain."--James, i, 26. "If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one an other."--Leviticus, xxv, 14. "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, shall have become poor, and be sold to thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant."--WEBSTER'S BIBLE: Lev., xxv, 39. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee," &c.--Matt., v, 23. "Anthea was content to call a coach, and crossed the brook."--Rambler, No. 34. "It is either totally suppressed, or appears in its lowest and most imperfect form."--Blair's Rhet., p. 23. "But if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth."--John, ix, 31. "Whereby his righteousness and obedience, death and sufferings without, become profitable unto us, and is made ours."--Barclay's Works, i, 164. "Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had aught against me."--Acts, xxiv, 19.

"Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land, shall see That man hath yet a soul, and dare be free."--Campbell.

UNDER NOTE VI.--USE SEPARATE NOMINATIVES.

"H is only an aspiration or breathing; and sometimes at the beginning of a word is not sounded at all."--Lowth's Gram., p. 4. "Man was made for society, and ought to extend his good will to all men."--Ib., p. 12; Murray's, i, 170. "There is, and must be, a supreme being, of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom, who created and supports them."--Beattie's Moral Science, p. 201. "Were you not affrighted, and mistook a spirit for a body?"--Watson's Apology, p. 122. "The latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but agrees with the verb, or is governed by the verb or the preposition, expressed or understood."-- Murray's Gram., p. 214; Russell's, 103; Bacon's, 51; Alger's, 71; R. C. Smith's, 179. "He had mistaken his true interests, and found himself forsaken."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "The amputation was exceedingly well performed, and saved the patient's life."--Ib., p. 191. "The intentions of some of these philosophers, nay, of many [,] might have been, and probably were good."--Ib., p. 216. "This may be true, and yet will not justify the practice."--Webster's Essays, p. 33. "From the practice of those who have had a liberal education, and are therefore presumed to be best acquainted with men and things."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 161. "For those energies and bounties which created and preserve the universe."--J. Q. Adams's Rhet., i, 327. "I shall make it once for all and hope it will be afterwards remembered."--Blair's Lect., p. 45. "This consequence is drawn too abruptly, and needed more explanation."--Ib., p. 229. "They must be used with more caution, and require more preparation."-- Ib., p. 153. "The apostrophe denotes the omission of an i, which was formerly inserted, and made an addition of a syllable to the word."-- Priestley's Gram., p. 67. "The succession may be rendered more various or more uniform, but in one shape or an other is unavoidable."--Kames, El. of Crit., i. 253. "It excites neither terror nor compassion, nor is agreeable in any respect."--Ib., ii, 277.

"Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords No flight for thoughts, but poorly stick at words."--Denham.

UNDER NOTE VII.--MIXTURE OF DIFFERENT STYLES.

"Let us read the living page, whose every character delighteth and instructs us."--Maunder's Gram., p. 5. "For if it be in any degree obscure, it puzzles, and doth not please."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 357. "When a speaker addresseth himself to the understanding, he proposes the instruction of his hearers."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 13. "As the wine which strengthens and refresheth the heart."--H. Adams's View, p. 221. "This truth he wrappeth in an allegory, and feigns that one of the goddesses had taken up her abode with the other."--Pope's Works, iii, 46. "God searcheth and understands the heart."--Thomas à Kempis. "The grace of God, that brings salvation hath appeared to all men."--Barclays Works, i, 366. "Also we speak not in the words, which man's wisdom teaches; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."--Ib., i, 388. "But he hath an objection, which he urgeth, and by which he thinks to overturn all."--Ib., iii, 327. "In that it gives them not that comfort and joy which it giveth unto them who love it."--Ib., i, 142. "Thou here misunderstood the place and misappliedst it."--Ib., iii, 38. "Like the barren heath in the desert, which knoweth not when good comes."--Friends' Extracts, p. 128; N. E. Discip., p. 75. "It speaketh of the time past, but shews that something was then doing, but not quite finished."--E. Devis's Gram., p. 42. "It subsists in spite of them; it advanceth unobserved."--PASCAL: Addison's Evidences, p. 17.

"But where is he, the Pilgrim of my song?-- Methinks he cometh late and tarries long."--Byron, Cant. iv, St. 164.

UNDER NOTE VII.--CONFUSION OF MOODS.

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone astray, &c."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 227 with 197. "As a speaker advances in his discourse, especially if it be somewhat impassioned, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and louder tone will naturally steal upon him."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 68. "If one man esteem a day above another, and another esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."--Barclay's Works, i, 439. "If there be but one body of legislators, it is no better than a tyranny; if there are only two, there will want a casting voice."--Addison, Spect., No. 287. "Should you come up this way, and I am still here, you need not be assured how glad I shall be to see you."--Ld. Byron. "If he repent and becomes holy, let him enjoy God and heaven."--Brownson's Elwood, p. 248. "If thy fellow approach thee, naked and destitute, and thou shouldst say unto him, 'Depart in peace; be you warmed and filled;' and yet shouldst give him not those things that are needful to him, what benevolence is there in thy conduct?"--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 108.

"Get on your nightgown, lost occasion calls us. And show us to be watchers." --Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 278.

"But if it climb, with your assisting hands, The Trojan walls, and in the city stands." --Dryden's Virgil, ii, 145.

--------------------------"Though Heaven's king Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, Us'd to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels." --Milton, P. L., iv, l. 973.

"Us'd to the yoke, draw'dst his triumphant wheels." --Lowth's Gram., p. 106.

UNDER NOTE IX.--IMPROPER ELLIPSES.

"Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has."--Education Reporter. "Which they neither have nor can do."--Barclay's Works, iii, 73. "The Lord hath, and doth, and will reveal his will to his people, and hath and doth raise up members of his body," &c.--Ib., i, 484. "We see then, that the Lord hath, and doth give such."--Ib., i, 484. "Towards those that have or do declare themselves members."--Ib., i, 494. "For which we can, and have given our sufficient reasons."--Ib., i, 507. "When we mention the several properties of the different words in sentences, in the same manner as we have those of William's, above, what is the exercise called?"--Smith's New Gram., p. 12. "It is, however to be doubted whether this peculiarity of the Greek idiom, ever has or will obtain extensively in the English."--Nutting's Gram., p. 47. "Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as much as we?"--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 111. "Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as they ought to be in order to move and persuade."--Kirkham's Elocution, p. 151.

UNDER NOTE X.--DO, USED AS A SUBSTITUTE.

"And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be done."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 36. "Such a sentiment from a man expiring of his wounds, is truly heroic, and must elevate the mind to the greatest height that can be done by a single expression."--Ib., i, 204. "Successive images making thus deeper and deeper impressions, must elevate more than any single image can do."--Ib., i, 205. "Besides making a deeper impression than can be done by cool reasoning."--Ib., ii, 273. "Yet a poet, by the force of genius alone, can rise higher than a public speaker can do."--Blair's Rhet., p. 338. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they have done, should have induced them to go farther."--Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. vii. "The pupil should commit the first section perfectly, before he does the second part of grammar."-- Bradley's Gram., p. 77. "The Greek ch was pronounced hard, as we now do in chord."--Booth's Introd. to Dict., p. 61. "They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from what they do at other times."-- Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xi. "And give him the formal cool reception that Simon had done."--Dr. Scott, on Luke, vii. "I do not say, as some have done."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 271. "If he suppose the first, he may do the last."--Barclay's Works, ii, 406. "Who are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old did him in his outward."--Ib., i, 506. "That text of Revelations must not be understood, as he doth it."-- Ib., iii, 309. "Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him, that he can do it readily."--Smith's New Gram., p. 13. "Perhaps it is running the same course which Rome had done before."--Middleton's Life of Cicero. "It ought even on this ground to be avoided; which may easily be done by a different construction."--Churchill's Gram., p. 312. "These two languages are now pronounced in England as no other nation in Europe does besides."--Creighton's Dict., p. xi. "Germany ran the same risk that Italy had done."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 211: see Priestley's Gram., p. 196.

UNDER NOTE XI.--PRETERITS AND PARTICIPLES.

"The Beggars themselves will be broke in a trice."--Swift's Poems, p. 347. "The hoop is hoist above his nose."--Ib., p. 404. "My heart was lift up in the ways of the Lord. 2 CHRON."--Joh. Dict., w. Lift. "Who sin so oft have mourned, Yet to temptation ran."--Burns. "Who would not have let them appeared."--Steele. "He would have had you sought for ease at the hands of Mr. Legality."--Pilgrim's Progress, p. 31. "From me his madding mind is start, And wooes the widow's daughter of the glen."--SPENSER: Joh. Dict., w. Glen. "The man has spoke, and still speaks."--Ash's Gram., p. 54. "For you have but mistook me all this while."--Beauties of Shak., p. 114. "And will you rent our ancient love asunder."--Ib., p. 52. "Mr. Birney has plead the inexpediency of passing such resolutions."-- Liberator, Vol. xiii, p. 194. "Who have wore out their years in such most painful Labours."--Littleton's Dict., Pref. "And in the conclusion you were chose probationer."--Spectator, No. 32.

"How she was lost, took captive, made a slave; And how against him set that should her save."--Bunyan.

UNDER NOTE XII.--VERBS CONFOUNDED.

"But Moses preferred to wile away his time."--Parker's English Composition, p. 15. "His face shown with the rays of the sun."--Calvin's Inst., 4to, p. 76. "Whom they had sat at defiance so lately."-- Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 320. "And when he was set, his disciples came unto him."--Matt., v, 1. "When he was set down on the judgement-seat."-- Ib., xxvii, 19. "And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them."--Luke, xxii, 55. "So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?"--John, xiii, 12. "Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."--Rev., iii, 21. "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."-- Heb., viii, 1. "And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."--Ib., xii, 2.[402] "He sat on foot a furious persecution."-- Payne's Geog., ii, 418. "There layeth an obligation upon the saints, to help such."--Barclay's Works, i, 389. "There let him lay."--Byron's Pilgrimage, C. iv, st. 180. "Nothing but moss, and shrubs, and stinted trees, can grow upon it."--Morse's Geog., p. 43. "Who had lain out considerable sums purely to distinguish themselves."--Goldsmith's Greece, i, 132. "Whereunto the righteous fly and are safe."--Barclay's Works, i, 146. "He raiseth from supper, and laid aside his garments."--Ib., i, 438. "Whither--Oh! whither shall I fly?"--Murray's English Reader, p. 123. "Flying from an adopted murderer."--Ib., p. 122. "To you I fly for refuge."--Ib., p. 124. "The sign that should warn his disciples to fly from approaching ruin."--Keith's Evidences, p. 62. "In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation."--Rush, on the Voice, p. xxiii. "In which some only bleat, bark, mew, winnow, and bray, a little better than others."--Ib., p. 90. "Who represented to him the unreasonableness of being effected with such unmanly fears."--Rollin's Hist., ii, 106. "Thou sawedst every action."--Guy's School Gram., p. 46. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he or she taught."--Coar's Gram., p. 79. "Valerian is taken by Sapor and flead alive, A. D. 260."--Lempriere's Chron. Table, Dict., p. xix. "What a fine vehicle is it now become for all conceptions of the mind!"--Blair's Rhet., p. 139. "What are become of so many productions?" --Volney's Ruins, p. 8. "What are become of those ages of abundance and of life?"--Keith's Evidences, p. 107. "The Spartan admiral was sailed to the Hellespont."--Goldsmiths Greece, i, 150. "As soon as he was landed, the multitude thronged about him."--Ib., i, 160. "Cyrus was arrived at Sardis."--Ib., i, 161. "Whose year was expired."--Ib., i, 162. "It had better have been, 'that faction which.'"--Priestley's Gram., p. 97. "This people is become a great nation."--Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249. "And here we are got into the region of ornament."--Blair's Rhet., p. 181. "The ungraceful parenthesis which follows, had far better have been avoided."--Ib., p. 215. "Who forced him under water, and there held him until drounded."--Indian Wars, p. 55.

"I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him."--Cowper.

UNDER NOTE XIII.--WORDS THAT EXPRESS TIME.

"I had finished my letter before my brother arrived."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 139. "I had written before I received his letter."--Blair's Rhet., p. 82. "From what has been formerly delivered."--Ib., p. 182. "Arts were of late introduced among them."--Ib., p. 245. "I am not of opinion that such rules can be of much use, unless persons saw them exemplified."--Ib., p. 336. "If we use the noun itself, we should say, 'This composition is John's.' "--Murray's Gram., p. 174. "But if the assertion referred to something, that is not always the same, or supposed to be so, the past tense must be applied."--Ib., p. 191. "They told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."--Luke, xviii, 37. "There is no particular intimation but that I continued to work, even to the present moment."--R. W. Green's Gram., p. 39. "Generally, as was observed already, it is but hinted in a single word or phrase."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 36. "The wittiness of the passage was already illustrated."--Ib., p. 36. "As was observed already."--Ib., p. 56. "It was said already in general."--Ib., p. 95. "As I hinted already."--Ib., p. 134. "What I believe was hinted once already."--Ib., p. 148. "It is obvious, as hath been hinted formerly, that this is but an artificial and arbitrary connexion."--Ib., p. 282. "They have done anciently a great deal of hurt."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 109. "Then said Paul, I knew not, brethren, that he is the High Priest."--Dr. Webster's Bible: Acts, xxiii, 5. "Most prepositions originally denote the relation of place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations."--Lowth's Gram., p. 65; Churchill's, 116. "His gift was but a poor offering, when we consider his estate."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 194. "If he should succeed, and should obtain his end, he will not be the happier for it."--Murray's Gram., i, p. 207. "These are torrents that swell to-day, and have spent themselves by to-morrow."--Blair's Rhet., p. 286. "Who have called that wheat to-day, which they have called tares to-morrow."--Barclay's Works, iii. 168. "He thought it had been one of his tenants."--Ib., i, 11. "But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."--Luke, xvi, 30. "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."--Ib., verse 31. "But it is while men slept that the archenemy has always sown his tares."--The Friend, x, 351. "Crescens would not fail to have exposed him."--Addison's Evidences, p. 30.

"Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound; Fierce as he mov'd, his silver shafts resound." --Pope, Iliad, B. i, l. 64.

UNDER NOTE XIV.--VERBS OF COMMANDING, &c.

"Had I commanded you to have done this, you would have thought hard of it."--G. B. "I found him better than I expected to have found him."--Priestley's Gram., p. 126. "There are several smaller faults, which I at first intended to have enumerated."--Webster's Essays, p. 246. "Antithesis, therefore, may, on many occasions, be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen the impression which we intend that any object should make."--Blair's Rhet., p. 168. "The girl said, if her master would but have let her had money, she might have been well long ago."--See Priestley's Gram., p. 127. "Nor is there the least ground to fear, that we should be cramped here within too narrow limits."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 163; Murray's Gram., i, 360. "The Romans, flushed with success, expected to have retaken it."--Hooke's Hist., p. 37. "I would not have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais scattered."--STERNE: Enfield's Speaker, p. 54. "We expected that he would have arrived last night."--Inst. p. 192. "Our friends intended to have met us."--Ib. "We hoped to have seen you."--Ib. "He would not have been allowed to have entered."--Ib.

UNDER NOTE XV.--PERMANENT PROPOSITIONS.

"Cicero maintained that whatsoever was useful was good."--"I observed that love constituted the whole moral character of God."--Dwight. "Thinking that one gained nothing by being a good man."--Voltaire. "I have already told you that I was a gentleman."--Fontaine. "If I should ask, whether ice and water were two distinct species of things."--Locke. "A stranger to the poem would not easily discover that this was verse."--Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 260. "The doctor affirmed, that fever always produced thirst."--Inst., p. 192. "The ancients asserted, that virtue was its own reward."--Ib. "They should not have repeated the error, of insisting that the infinitive was a mere noun."--Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 288. "It was observed in Chap. III. that the distinctive or had a double use."--Churchill's Gram., p. 154. "Two young gentlemen, who have made a discovery that there was no God."--Swift.

RULE XVIII.--INFINITIVES.

The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition TO, which commonly connects it to a finite verb: as, "I desire TO learn."--Dr. Adam. "Of me the Roman people have many pledges, which I must strive, with my utmost endeavours, TO preserve, TO defend, TO confirm, and TO redeem."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 41.

"What if the foot, ordain'd the dust TO tread, Or hand TO toil, aspir'd TO be the head?"--Pope.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVIII.

OBS. 1.--No word is more variously explained by grammarians, than this word TO, which is put before the verb in the infinitive mood. Johnson, Walker, Scott, Todd, and some other lexicographers, call it an adverb; but, in explaining its use, they say it denotes certain relations, which it is not the office of an adverb to express. (See the word in Johnson's Quarto Dictionary.) D. St. Quentin, in his Rudiments of General Grammar, says, "To, before a verb, is an adverb;" and yet his "Adverbs are words that are joined to verbs or adjectives, and express some circumstance or quality." See pp. 33 and 39. Lowth, Priestley, Fisher, L. Murray, Webster, Wilson, S. W. Clark, Coar, Comly, Blair, Felch, Fisk, Greenleaf, Hart, Weld, Webber, and others, call it a preposition; and some of these ascribe to it the government of the verb, while others do not. Lowth says, "The preposition TO, placed before the verb, makes the infinitive mood."--Short Gram., p. 42. "Now this," says Horne Tooke, "is manifestly not so: for TO placed before the verb loveth, will not make the infinitive mood. He would have said more truly, that TO placed before some nouns, makes verbs."--Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 287.

OBS. 2.--Skinner, in his Canones Etymologici, calls this TO "an equivocal article,"--Tooke, ib., i, 288. Nutting, a late American grammarian, says: "The sign TO is no other than the Greek article to; as, to agapan [, to love]; or, as some say, it is the Saxon do"--Practical Gram., p. 66. Thus, by suggesting two false and inconsistent derivations, though he uses not the name equivocal article, he first makes the word an article, and then equivocal--equivocal in etymology, and of course in meaning.[403] Nixon, in his English Parser, supposes it to be, unequivocally, the Greek article [Greek: to], the. See the work, p. 83. D. Booth says, "To is, by us, applied to Verbs; but it was the neuter Article (the) among the Greeks."--Introd. to Analyt. Dict., p. 60. According to Horne Tooke, "Minshew also distinguishes between the preposition TO, and the sign of the infinitive TO. Of the former he is silent, and of the latter he says: 'To, as to make, to walk, to do, a Græco articulo [Greek: to].' But Dr. Gregory Sharpe is persuaded, that our language has taken it from the Hebrew. And Vossius derives the correspondent Latin preposition AD from the same source."--Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 293.

OBS. 3.--Tooke also says, "I observe, that Junius and Skinner and Johnson, have not chosen to give the slightest hint concerning the derivation of TO."--Ibid. But, certainly, of his adverb TO, Johnson gives this hint: "TO, Saxon; te, Dutch." And Webster, who calls it not an adverb, but a preposition, gives the same hint of the source from which it comes to us. This is as much as to say, it is etymologically the old Saxon preposition to--which, truly, it is--the very same word that, for a thousand years or more, has been used before nouns and pronouns to govern the objective case. Tooke himself does not deny this; but, conceiving that almost all particles, whether English or any other, can be traced back to ancient verbs or nouns, he hunts for the root of this, in a remoter region, where he pretends to find that to has the same origin as do; and though he detects the former in a Gothic noun, he scruples not to identify it with an auxiliary verb! Yet he elsewhere expressly denies, "that any words change their nature by use, so as to belong sometimes to one part of speech, and sometimes to another."--Div. of Pur., Vol. i, p. 68.

OBS 4.--From this, the fair inference is, that he will have both to and do to be "nouns substantive" still! "Do (the auxiliary verb, as it has been called) is derived from the same root, and is indeed the same word as TO."--Ib., Vol. i, p. 290. "Since FROM means commencement or beginning, TO must mean end or termination."--Ib., i, 283. "The preposition TO (in Dutch written TOE and TOT, a little nearer to the original) is the Gothic substantive [Gothic: taui] or [Gothic: tauhts], i. e. act, effect, result, consummation. Which Gothic substantive is indeed itself no other than the past participle of the verb [Gothic: taujan], agere. And what is done, is terminated, ended, finished."--Ib., i, 285. No wonder that Johnson, Skinner, and Junius, gave no hint of this derivation: it is not worth the ink it takes, if it cannot be made more sure. But in showing its bearing on the verb, the author not unjustly complains of our grammarians, that: "Of all the points which they endeavour to shuffle over, there is none in which they do it more grossly than in this of the infinitive."--Ib., i, 287.

OBS. 5.--Many are content to call the word TO a prefix, a particle, a little word, a sign of the infinitive, a part of the infinitive, a part of the verb, and the like, without telling us whence it comes, how it differs from the preposition to, or to what part of speech it belongs. It certainly is not what we usually call a prefix, because we never join it to the verb; yet there are three instances in which it becomes such, before a noun: viz., to-day, to-night, to-morrow. If it is a "particle," so is any other preposition, as well as every small and invariable word. If it is a "little word," the whole bigness of a preposition is unquestionably found in it; and no "word" is so small but that it must belong to some one of the ten classes called parts of speech. If it is a "sign of the infinitive," because it is used before no other mood; so is it a sign of the objective case, or of what in Latin is called the dative, because it precedes no other case. If we suppose it to be a "part of the infinitive," or a "part of the verb," it is certainly no necessary part of either; because there is no verb which may not, in several different ways, be properly used in the infinitive without it. But if it be a part of the infinitive, it must be a verb, and ought to be classed with the auxiliaries. Dr. Ash accordingly placed it among the auxiliaries; but he says, (inaccurately, however,) "The auxiliary sign seems to have the nature of adverbs."--Grammatical Institutes, p. 33. "The auxiliary [signs] are, to, do, did, have, had, shall, will, may, can, must, might," &c.--Ib., p. 31.

OBS. 6.--It is clear, as I have already shown, that the word to may be a sign of the infinitive, and yet not be a part of it. Dr. Ash supposes, it may even be a part of the mood, and yet not be a part of the verb. How this can be, I see not, unless the mood consists in something else than either the form or the parts of the verb. This grammarian says, "In parsing, every word should be considered as a distinct part of speech: for though two or more words may be united to form a mode, a tense, or a comparison; yet it seems quite improper to unite two or more words to make a noun, a verb, an adjective, &c."--Gram. Inst., p. 28. All the auxiliaries, therefore, and the particle to among them, he parses separately; but he follows not his own advice, to make them distinct parts of speech; for he calls them all signs only, and signs are not one of his ten parts of speech. And the participle too, which is one of the ten, and which he declares to be "no part of the verb," he parses separately; calling it a verb, and not a participle, as often as it accompanies any of his auxiliary signs. This is certainly a greater impropriety than there can be in supposing an auxiliary and a participle to constitute a verb; for the mood and tense are the properties of the compound, and ought not to be ascribed to the principal term only. Not so with the preposition to before the infinitive, any more than with the conjunction if before the subjunctive. These may well be parsed as separate parts of speech; for these moods are sometimes formed, and are completely distinguished in each of their tenses, without the adding of these signs.

OBS. 7.--After a careful examination of what others have taught respecting this disputed point in grammar, I have given, in the preceding rule, that explanation which I consider to be the most correct and the most simple, and also as well authorized as any. Who first parsed the infinitive in this manner, I know not; probably those who first called the to a preposition; among whom were Lowth and the author of the old British Grammar. The doctrine did not originate with me, or with Comly, or with any American author. In Coar's English Grammar, published in London in 1796. the phrase to trample is parsed thus: "To--A preposition, serving for a sign of the infinitive mood to the verb Trample--A verb neuter, infinitive mood, present tense, governed by the preposition TO before it. RULE. The preposition to before a verb, is the sign of the infinitive mood." See the work, p. 263. This was written by a gentleman who speaks of his "long habit of teaching the Latin Tongue," and who was certainly partial enough to the principles of Latin grammar, since he adopts in English the whole detail of Latin cases.

OBS 8.--In Fisher's English Grammar, London, 1800, (of which there had been many earlier editions,) we find the following rule of syntax: "When two principal Verbs come together, the latter of them expresses an unlimited Sense, with the Preposition to before it; as he loved to learn; I chose to dance: and is called the infinitive Verb, which may also follow a Name or Quality; as, a Time to sing; a Book delightful to read." That this author supposed the infinitive to be governed by to, and not by the preceding verb, noun, or adjective, is plain from the following note, which he gives in his margin: "The Scholar will best understand this, by being told that infinite or invariable Verbs, having neither Number, Person, nor Nominative Word belonging to them, are known or governed by the Preposition TO coming before them. The Sign to is often understood; as, Bid Robert and his company (to) tarry."--Fisher's New Gram., p. 95.

OBS. 9.--The forms of parsing, and also the rules, which are given in the early English grammars, are so very defective, that it is often impossible to say positively, what their authors did, or did not, intend to teach. Dr. Lowth's specimen of "grammatical resolution" contains four infinitives. In his explanation of the first, the preposition and the verb are parsed separately, as above; except that he says nothing about government. In his account of the other three, the two words are taken together, and called a "verb, in the infinitive mode." But as he elsewhere calls the particle to a preposition, and nowhere speaks of any thing else as governing the infinitive, it seems fair to infer, that he conceived the verb to be the regimen of this preposition.[404] If such was his idea, we have the learned Doctor's authority in opposition to that of his professed admirers and copyists. Of these, Lindley Murray is doubtless the most famous. But Murray's twelfth rule of syntax, while it expressly calls to before the infinitive a preposition, absurdly takes away from it this regimen, and leaves us a preposition that governs nothing, and has apparently nothing to do with the relation of the terms between which it occurs.

OBS. 10.--Many later grammarians, perceiving the absurdity of calling to before the infinitive a preposition without supposing it to govern the verb, have studiously avoided this name; and have either made the "little word" a supernumerary part of speech, or treated it as no part of speech at all. Among these, if I mistake not, are Allen, Lennie, Bullions, Alger, Guy, Churchill, Hiley, Nutting, Mulligan, Spencer, and Wells. Except Comly, the numerous modifiers of Murray's Grammar are none of them more consistent, on this point, than was Murray himself. Such of them as do not follow him literally, either deny, or forbear to affirm, that to before a verb is a preposition; and consequently either tell us not what it is, or tell us falsely; some calling it "a part of the verb," while they neither join it to the verb as a prefix, nor include it among the auxiliaries. Thus Kirkham: "To is not a preposition when joined to a verb in this mood; thus, to ride, to rule; but it should be parsed with the verb, and as a part of it."--Gram. in Familiar Lect., p. 137. So R. C. Smith: "This little word to when used before verbs in this manner, is not a preposition, but forms a part of the verb, and, in parsing, should be so considered."--Productive Gram., p. 65. How can that be "a part of the verb," which is a word used before it? or how is to "joined to the verb," or made a part of it, in the phrase, "to ride?" But Smith does not abide by his own doctrine; for, in an other part of his book, he adopts the phraseology of Murray, and makes to a preposition: saying, "The preposition TO, though generally used before the latter verb, is sometimes properly omitted; as, 'I heard him say it;' instead of 'to say it.'"--Productive Gram., p. 156. See Murray's Rule 12th.

OBS. 11.--Most English grammarians have considered the word to as a part of the infinitive, a part of the verb; and, like the teachers of Latin, have referred the government of this mood to a preceding verb. But the rule which they give, is partial, and often inapplicable; and their exceptions to it, or the heterogeneous parts into which some of them divide it, are both numerous and puzzling. They teach that at least half of the ten different parts of speech "frequently govern the infinitive:" if so, there should be a distinct rule for each; for why should the government of one part of speech be made an exception to that of an other? and, if this be done, with respect to the infinitive, why not also with respect to the objective case? In all instances to which their rule is applicable, the rule which I have given, amounts to the same thing; and it obviates the necessity for their numerous exceptions, and the embarrassment arising from other constructions of the infinitive not noticed in them. Why then is the simplest solution imaginable still so frequently rejected for so much complexity and inconsistency? Or how can the more common rule in question be suitable for a child, if its applicability depends on a relation between the two verbs, which the preposition to sometimes expresses, and sometimes does not?

OBS. 12.--All authors admit that in some instances, the sign to is "superfluous and improper," the construction and government appearing complete without it; and the "Rev. Peter Bullions, D. D., Professor of Languages in the Albany Academy," has recently published a grammar, in which he adopts the common rule, "One verb governs another in the infinitive mood; as, I desire to learn;" and then remarks, "The infinitive after a verb is governed by it only when the attribute expressed by the infinitive is either the subject or [the] object of the other verb. In such expressions as 'I read to learn,' the infinitive is not governed by 'I read,' but depends on the phrase 'in order to' understood."--Bullions's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 110. But, "I read 'in order to' to learn," is not English; though it might be, if either to were any thing else than a preposition: as, "Now set to to learn your lesson." This broad exception, therefore, which embraces well-nigh half the infinitives in the language, though it contains some obvious truth, is both carelessly stated, and badly resolved. The single particle to is quite sufficient, both to govern the infinitive, and to connect it to any antecedent term which can make sense with such an adjunct. But, in fact, the reverend author must have meant to use the "little word" but once; and also to deny that it is a preposition; for he elsewhere says expressly, though, beyond question, erroneously, "A preposition should never be used before the infinitive."--Ib., p. 92. And he also says, "The Infinitive mood expresses a thing in a general manner, without distinction of number, person, or time, and commonly has TO before it."--Ib., Second Edition, p. 35. Now if TO is "before" the mood, it is certainly not a part of it. And again, if this mood had no distinction of "time," our author's two tenses of it, and his own two special rules for their application, would be as absurd as is his notion of its government. See his Obs. 6 and 7, ib., p. 124.

OBS. 13.--Richard Hiley, too, a grammarian of perhaps more merit, is equally faulty in his explanation of the infinitive mood. In the first place, he absurdly says, "TO before the infinitive mood, is considered as forming part of the verb; but in every other situation it is a preposition."--Hiley's Gram., Third Edition, p. 28. To teach that a "part of the verb" stands "before the mood," is an absurdity manifestly greater, than the very opposite notion of Dr. Ash, that what is not a part of the verb, may yet be included in the mood. There is no need of either of these false suppositions; or of the suggestion, doubly false, that to "in every other situation, is a preposition." What does preposition mean? Is to a preposition when it is placed after a verb, and not a preposition when it is placed before it? For example: "I rise to shut to the door."--See Luke, xiii, 25.

OBS. 14.--In his syntax, this author further says, "When two verbs come together, the latter must be in the infinitive mood, when it denotes the object of the former; as, 'Study to improve.'" This is his Rule. Now look at his Notes. "1. When the latter verb does not express the object, but the end, or something remote, the word for, or the words in order to, are understood; as, 'I read to learn;' that is, 'I read for to learn,' or, 'in order [TO] to learn.' The word for, however, is never, in such instances, expressed in good language. 2. The infinitive is frequently governed by adjectives, substantives, and participles; but in this instance also, a preposition is understood, though never expressed; as, 'Eager to learn;' that is, 'eager for to learn;' or, 'for learning;' 'A desire to improve;' that is, 'for to improve.'"--Hiley's Gram., p. 89. Here we see the origin of some of Bullions's blunders. To is so small a word, it slips through the fingers of these gentlemen. Words utterly needless, and worse than needless, they foist into our language, in instances beyond number, to explain infinitives that occur at almost every breath. Their students must see that, "I read to learn," and, "I study to improve," with countless other examples of either sort, are very different constructions, and not to be parsed by the same rule! And here the only government of the infinitive which Hiley affirms, is immediately contradicted by the supposition of a needless for "understood."

OBS. 15.--In all such examples as, "I read to learn,"--"I strive to learn"--"Some eat to live,"--"Some live to eat,"--"She sings to cheer him,"--"I come to aid you,"--"I go to prepare a place for you,"--the action and its purpose are connected by the word to; and if, in the countless instances of this kind, the former verbs do not govern the latter, it is not because the phraseology is elliptical, or ever was elliptical,[405] but because in no case is there any such government, except in the construction of those verbs which take the infinitive after them without the preposition to. Professor Bullions will have the infinitive to be governed by a finite verb, "when the attribute expressed by the infinitive is the subject of the other verb." An infinitive may be made the subject of a finite verb; but this grammarian has mistaken the established meaning of subject, as well as of attribute, and therefore written nonsense. Dr. Johnson defines his adverb TO, "A particle coming between two verbs, and noting the second as the object of the first." But of all the words which, according to my opponents and their oracles, govern the infinitive, probably not more than a quarter are such verbs as usually have an object after them. Where then is the propriety of their notion of infinitive government? And what advantage has it, even where it is least objectionable?

OBS. 16.--Take for an example of this contrast the terms, "Strive to enter in--many will seek to enter in."--Luke, xiii, 24. Why should it be thought more eligible to say, that the verb strive or will seek governs the infinitive verb to enter; than to say, that to is a preposition, showing the relation between strive and enter, or between will seek and enter, and governing the latter verb? (See the exact and only needful form for parsing any such term, in the Twelfth Praxis of this work.) None, I presume, will deny, that in the Greek or the Latin of these phrases, the finite verbs govern the infinitive; or that, in the French, the infinitive entrer is governed first by one preposition, and then by an other. "Contendite intrare--multi quærent intrare."--Montanus. "Efforcez-vous _d'_entrer--plusieurs chercheront à y entrer."--French Bible. In my opinion, to before a verb is as fairly a preposition as the French de or à; and it is the main design of these observations, while they candidly show the reader what others teach, to prove it so. The only construction which makes it any thing else, is that which puts it after a verb or a participle, in the sense of an adverbial supplement; as, "The infernal idol is bowed down to."--Herald of Freedom. "Going to and fro."--Bible. "At length he came to."--"Tell him to heave to."--"He was ready to set to." With singular absurdness of opinion, some grammarians call to a preposition, when it thus follows a verb and governs nothing, who resolutely deny it that name, when it precedes the verb, and requires it to be in the infinitive mood, as in the last two examples. Now, if this is not government, what is? And if to, without government, is not an adverb, what is? See Obs. 2d on the List of Prepositions.

OBS. 17.--The infinitive thus admits a simpler solution in English, than in most other languages; because we less frequently use it without a preposition, and seldom, if ever, allow any variety in this connecting and governing particle. And yet in no other language has its construction given rise to a tenth part of that variety of absurd opinions, which the defender of its true syntax must refute in ours. In French, the infinitive, though frequently placed in immediate dependence on an other verb, may also be governed by several different prepositions, (as, à, de, pour, sans, après,) according to the sense.[406] In Spanish and Italian, the construction is similar. In Latin and Greek, the infinitive is, for the most part, immediately dependent on an other verb. But, according to the grammars, it may stand for a noun, in all the six cases; and many have called it an indeclinable noun. See the Port-Royal Latin and Greek grammars; in which several peculiar constructions of the infinitive are referred to the government of a preposition--constructions that occur frequently in Greek, and sometimes even in Latin.

OBS. 18.--It is from an improper extension of the principles of these "learned languages" to ours, that much of the false teaching which has so greatly and so long embarrassed this part of English grammar, has been, and continues to be, derived. A late author, who supposes every infinitive to be virtually a noun, and who thinks he finds in ours all the cases of an English noun, not excepting the possessive, gives the following account of its origin and nature: "This mood, with almost all its properties and uses, has been adopted into our language from the ancient Greek and Latin tongues. * * * The definite article [Greek: tò] [,] the, which they [the Greeks] used before the infinitive, to mark, in an especial manner, its nature of a substantive, is evidently the same word that we use before our infinitive; thus, 'to write,' signifies the writing; that is, the action of writing;--and when a verb governs an infinitive, it only governs it as in the objective case."--Nixon's English Parser, p. 83. But who will believe, that our old Saxon ancestors borrowed from Greek or Latin what is now our construction of the very root of the English verb, when, in all likelihood, they could not read a word in either of those languages, or scarcely knew the letters in their own, and while it is plain that they took not thence even the inflection of a single branch of any verb whatever?

OBS. 19.--The particle to, being a very common preposition in the Saxon tongue, has been generally used before the English infinitive, ever since the English language, or any thing like it, existed. And it has always governed the verb, not indeed "as in the objective case," for no verb is ever declined by cases, but simply as the infinitive mood. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels, which was made as early as the eleventh century, the infinitive mood is sometimes expressed in this manner, and sometimes by the termination on without the preposition. Dr. Johnson's History of the English Language, prefixed to his large Dictionary, contains, of this version, and of Wickliffe's, the whole of the first chapter of Luke; except that the latter omits the first four verses, so that the numbers for reference do not correspond. Putting, for convenience, English characters for the Saxon, I shall cite here three examples from each; and these, if he will, the reader may compare with the 19th, the 77th, and the 79th verse, in our common Bible. SAXON: "And ic eom asend with the sprecan. and the this bodian."--Lucæ, i, 19. WICKLIFFE: "And Y am sent to thee to speke and to evangelise to thee these thingis."--Luk, i, 15. SAXON: "To syllene his folce hæle gewit on hyra synna forgyfnesse."--Lucæ, i, 77. WICKLIFFE: "To geve science of heelth to his puple into remissioun of her synnes."--Luk, i, 73. SAXON: "Onlyhtan tham the on thystrum and on deathes sceade sittath. ure fet to gereccenne on sibbe weg."--Lucæ, i, 79. WICKLIFFE: "To geve light to them that sitten in derknessis, and in schadowe of deeth, to dresse oure feet into the weye of pees."--Luk, i, 75. "In Anglo-Saxon," says Dr. Latham, "the dative of the infinitive verb ended in -nne, and was preceded by the preposition to: as, To lufienne = ad amandum [= to loving, or to love]; To bærnenne = ad urendum [= to burning, or to burn]; To syllanne = ad dandum [= to giving, or to give]."--Hand-Book, p. 205.

OBS. 20.--Such, then, has ever been the usual construction of the English infinitive mood; and a wilder interpretation than that which supposes to an article, and says, "to write signifies the writing," cannot possibly be put upon it. On this supposition, "I am going to write a letter," is a pure Grecism; meaning, "I am going the writing a letter," which is utter nonsense. And further, the infinitive in Greek and Latin, as well as in Saxon and English, is always in fact governed as a mood, rather than as a case, notwithstanding that the Greek article in any of its four different cases may, in some instances, be put before it; for even with an article before it, the Greek infinitive usually retains its regimen as a verb, and is therefore not "a substantive," or noun. I am well aware that some learned critics, conceiving that the essence of the verb consists in predication, have plainly denied that the infinitive is a verb; and, because it may be made the subject of a finite verb, or may be governed by a verb or a preposition, have chosen to call it "a mere noun substantive." Among these is the erudite Richard Johnson, who, with so much ability and lost labour, exposed, in his Commentaries, the errors and defects of Lily's Grammar and others. This author adduces several reasons for his opinion; one of which is the following: "Thirdly, it is found to have a Preposition set before it, an other sure sign of a Substantive; as, 'Ille nihil præter loqui, et ipsum maledicè et malignè, didicit.' Liv. l. 45, p. 888. [That is, "He learned nothing but to speak, and that slanderously and maliciously."] 'At si quis sibi beneficium dat, nihil interest inter dare et accipere.' Seneca, de Ben. l. 5, c. 10." [That is, "If any one bestows a benefit on himself, there is no difference between give and take;" [407]--or, "between bestowing and receiving."]--See Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 342. But I deny that a preposition is a "sure sign of a substantive." (See Obs. 2d on the Prepositions, and also Obs. 1st on the List of Prepositions, in the tenth chapter of Etymology.) And if we appeal to philological authorities, to determine whether infinitives are nouns or verbs, there will certainly be found more for the latter name, than the former; that is, more in number, if not in weight; though it must be confessed, that many of the old Latin grammarians did, as Priscian tells us, consider the infinitive a noun, calling it Nomen Verbi, the Name of the Verb.[408] If we appeal to reasons, there are more also of these;--or at least as many, and most of them better: as, 1. That the infinitive is often transitive; 2. That it has tenses; 3. That it is qualified by adverbs, rather than by adjectives; 4. That it is never declined like a noun; 5. That the action or state expressed by it, is not commonly abstract, though it may be so sometimes; 6. That in some languages it is the root from which all other parts of the verb are derived, as it is in English.

OBS. 21.--So far as I know, it has not yet been denied, that to before a participle is a preposition, or that a preposition before a participle governs it; though there are not a few who erroneously suppose that participles, by virtue of such government, are necessarily converted into nouns. Against this latter idea, there are many sufficient reasons; but let them now pass, because they belong not here. I am only going to prove, in this place, that to before the infinitive is just such a word as it is before the participle; and this can be done, call either of them what you will. It is plain, that if the infinitive and the participle are ever equivalent to each other, the same word to before them both must needs be equivalent to itself. Now I imagine there are some examples of each equivalence; as, "When we are habituated to doing [or to do] any thing wrong, we become blinded by it."--Young Christian, p. 326. "The lyre, or harp, was best adapted to accompanying [or to accompany] their declamations."--Music of Nature, p. 336. "The new beginner should be accustomed to giving [or to give] all the reasons for each part of speech."--Nutting's Gram., p. 88. "Which, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt [say, to corrupting] our language."--SWIFT: Blair's Rhet., p. 108. Besides these instances of sameness in the particle, there are some cases of constructional ambiguity, the noun and the verb having the same form, and the to not determining which is meant: as, "He was inclined to sleep."--"It must be a bitter experience, to be more accustomed to hate than to love." Here are double doubts for the discriminators: their "sign of the infinitive" fails, or becomes uncertain; because they do not know it from a preposition. Cannot my opponents see in these examples an argument against the distinction which they attempt to draw between to and to? An other argument as good, is also afforded by the fact, that our ancestors often used the participle after to, in the very same texts in which we have since adopted the infinitive in its stead; as, "And if yee wolen resceyue, he is Elie that is to comynge."--Matt., xi, 14. "Ihesu that delyueride us fro wraththe to comynge."--1 Thes., i, 10. These, and seventeen other examples of the same kind, may be seen in Tooke's Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii. pp. 457 and 458.

OBS. 22.--Dr. James P. Wilson, speaking of the English infinitive, says:--"But if the appellation of mode be denied it, it is then a verbal noun. This is indeed its truest character, because its idea ever represents an object of approach. To supplies the defect of a termination characteristic of the infinitive, precedes it, and marks it either as that, towards which the preceding verb is directed;[409] or it signifies act, and shows the word to import an action. When the infinitive is the expression of an immediate action, which it must be, after the verbs, bid, can, dare, do, feel, hear, let, make, may, must, need, see, shall, and will, the preposition TO is omitted."--Essay on Grammar, p. 129. That the truest character of the infinitive is that of a verbal noun, is not to be conceded, in weak abandonment of all the reasons for a contrary opinion, until it can be shown that the action or being expressed by it, must needs assume a substantive character, in order to be "that towards which the preceding verb is directed." But this character is manifestly not supposable of any of those infinitives which, according to the foregoing quotation, must follow other verbs without the intervention of the preposition to: as, "Bid him come;"--"He can walk." And I see no reason to suppose it, where the relation of the infinitive to an other word is not "immediate" but marked by the preposition, as above described. For example: "And he laboured till the going-down of the sun TO deliver him."--Dan., vi, 14. Here deliver is governed by to, and connected by it to the finite verb laboured; but to tell us, it is to be understood substantively rather than actively, is an assumption as false, as it is needless.

OBS. 23.--To deny to the infinitive the appellation of mood, no more makes it a verbal noun, than does the Doctor's solecism about what "ITS IDEA ever represents." "The infinitive therefore," as Horne Tooke observes, "appears plainly to be what the Stoics called it, the very verb itself, pure and uncompounded."--Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 286. Not indeed as including the particle to, or as it stands in the English perfect tense, but as it occurs in the simple root. But I cited Dr. Wilson, as above, not so much with a design of animadverting again on this point, as with reference to the import of the particle to; of which he furnishes a twofold explanation, leaving the reader to take which part he will of the contradiction. He at first conceives it to convey in general the idea of "towards," and to mark the infinitive as a term "towards which" something else "is directed." If this interpretation is the true one, it is plain that to before a verb is no other than the common preposition to; and this idea is confirmed by its ancient usage, and by all that is certainly known of its derivation. But if we take the second solution, and say, "it signifies act," we make it not a preposition, but either a noun or a verb; and then the question arises, Which of these is it? Besides, what sense can there be, in supposing to go to mean act go, or to be equivalent to do go.[410]

OBS. 24.--Though the infinitive is commonly made an adjunct to some finite verb, yet it may be connected to almost all the other parts of speech, or even to an other infinitive. The preposition to being its only and almost universal index, we seldom find any other preposition put before this; unless the word about, in such a situation, is a preposition, as I incline to think it is.[411] Anciently, the infinitive was sometimes preceded by for as well as to; as, "I went up to Jerusalem for to worship."--Acts, xxiv, 11. "What went ye out for to see?"--Luke, vii, 26. "And stood up for to read."--Luke, iv, 16. Here modern usage rejects the former preposition: the idiom is left to the uneducated. But it seems practicable to subjoin the infinitive to every one of the ten parts of speech, except the article: as,

1. To a noun; as, "If there is any precept to obtain felicity."--Hawkesworth. "It is high time to awake out of sleep."--Rom., xiii, 11. "To flee from the wrath to come."--Matt., iii, 7.

2. To an adjective; as, "He seemed desirous to speak, yet unwilling to offend."--Hawkesworth. "He who is the slowest to promise, is the quickest to perform."--Art of Thinking, p. 35.

3. To a pronoun; as, "I discovered him to be a scholar."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cæsar?"--Luke, xx, 22. "Let me desire you to reflect impartially."--BLAIR: Murray's Eng. Reader, p. 77. "Whom hast thou then or what t' accuse?"--Milton, P. L., iv, 67.

4. To a finite verb; as, "Then Peter began to rebuke him."--Matt., xvi, 22. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."--Luke, xix, 10.

5. To an other infinitive; as, "To go to enter into Egypt."--Jer., xli, 17. "We are not often willing to wait to consider."--J. Abbott. "For what had he to do to chide at me?"--Shak.

6. To a participle; as, "Still threatening to devour me."--Milton. "Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash of some rich burgher."--Id.

7. To an adverb; as, "She is old enough to go to school."--"I know not how to act."--Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "Tell me when to come, and where to meet you."--"He hath not where to lay his head."

8. To a conjunction; as, "He knows better than to trust you."--"It was so hot as to melt these ornaments."--"Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it."--Dr. Johnson.

9. To a preposition; as, "I was about to write."--Rev., x, 4. "Not for to hide it in a hedge."--Burns's Poems, p. 42. "Amatum iri, To be about to be loved."--Adam's Gram., p. 95.[412]

10. To an interjection; as, "O to forget her!"--Young's Night Thoughts.

OBS. 25.--The infinitive is the mere verb, without affirmation, without person or number, and therefore without the agreement peculiar to a finite verb. (See Obs. 8th on Rule 2d.) But, in most instances, it is not without limitation of the being, action, or passion, to some particular person or persons, thing or things, that are said, supposed, or denied, to be, to act, or to be acted upon. Whenever it is not thus limited, it is taken abstractly, and has some resemblance to a noun: because it then suggests the being, action, or passion alone: though, even then, the active infinitive may still govern the objective case; and it may also be easy to imagine to whom or to what the being, action, or passion, naturally pertains. The uses of the infinitive are so many and various, that it is no easy matter to classify them accurately. The following are unquestionably the chief of the things for which it may stand:

1. For the supplement to an other verb, to complete the sense; as, "Loose him, and let him go."--John, xi, 44. "They that go to seek mixed wine."--Prov., xxiii, 30. "His hands refuse to labour."--Ib., xxi, 25. "If you choose to have those terms."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "How our old translators first struggled to express this."--Ib., ii, 456. "To any one who will please to examine our language."--Ib., ii, 444. "They are forced to give up at last."--Ib., ii, 375. "Which ought to be done."--Ib., ii, 451. "Which came to pass."--Acts, xi, 28. "I dare engage to make it out."--Swift.

2. For the purpose, or end, of that to which it is added; as, "Each has employed his time and pains to establish a criterion."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "I shall not stop now, to assist in their elucidation."--Ib., ii, 75. "Our purposes are not endowed with words to make them known."--Ib., ii, 74. [A] "TOOL is some instrument taken up to work with."--Ib., ii, 145. "Labour not to be rich."--Prov., xxiii, 4. "I flee unto thee to hide me."--Ps., cxliii, 9. "Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him."--Ib., cxl, 11.

3. For the object of an affection or passion; as, "He loves to ride."--"I desire to hear her speak again."--Shale. "If we wish to avoid important error."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 3. "Who rejoice to do evil."--Prov., ii, 14. "All agreeing in earnestness to see him."--Shak. "Our curiosity is raised to know what lies beyond."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 335.

4. For the cause of an affection or passion; as, "I rejoice to hear it."--"By which I hope to have laid a foundation," &c.--Blair's Rhet., p. 34. "For he made me mad, to see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet."--Beauties of Shak., p. 118. "Thou didst eat strange flesh, which some did die to look on."--Ib., p. 182. "They grieved to see their best allies at variance."--Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 165.

5. For the subject of a proposition, or the chief term in such subject; as, "To steal is sinful."--"To do justice and judgement, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."--Prov., xxi, 3. "To do RIGHT, is, to do that which is ordered to be done."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 7. "To go to law to plague a neighbour, has in it more of malice, than of love to justice."--Seattle's Mor. Sci., i, 177.

6. For the predicate of a proposition, or the chief term in such predicate; as, "To enjoy is to obey."--Pope. "The property of rain is to wet, and fire, to burn."--Beauties of Shak., p. 15. "To die is to be banished from myself."--Ib., p. 82. "The best way is, to slander Valentine."--Ib., p. 83. "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil."--Prov., xvi, 17.

7. For a coming event, or what will be; as, "A mutilated structure soon to fall."--Cowper. "He being dead, and I speedily to follow him."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 111. "She shall rejoice in time to come."--Prov., xxxi, 25. "Things present, or things to come."--1 Cor., iii, 22.

8. For a necessary event, or what ought to be; as, "It is to be remembered."--"It is never to be forgotten."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 2. "An oversight much to be deplored."--Ib., ii, 460. "The sign is not to be used by itself, or to stand alone; but is to be joined to some other term."--Ib., ii, 372. "The Lord's name is to be praised."--Ps., cxiii, 3.

9. For what is previously suggested by another word; as, "I have faith to believe."--"The glossarist did well here not to yield to his inclination."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 329. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."--Ps., xcii, 1. "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief."--Prov., x, 23. "They have the gift to know it."--Shak. "We have no remaining occupation but to take care of the public."--Art of Thinking, p. 52.

10. For a term of comparison or measure; as, "He was so much affected as to weep."--"Who could do no less than furnish him."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 408. "I shall venture no farther than to explain the nature and convenience of these abbreviations."--Ib., ii, 439. "I have already said enough to show what sort of operation that is."--Ib., ii, 358.

OBS. 26.--After dismissing all the examples which may fairly be referred to one or other of the ten heads above enumerated, an observant reader may yet find other uses of the infinitive, and those so dissimilar that they can hardly be reduced to any one head or rule; except that all are governed by the preposition to, which points towards or to the verb; as, "A great altar to see to."--Joshua, xxii, 10. "[Greek: Bomon megan tou idein]."--Septuagint. That is, "An altar great to behold." "Altare infinitæ magnitudinis."--Vulgate. "Un fort grand autel."--French Bible. "Easy to be entreated."--Jos., iii, 17. "There was none to help."--Ps., cvii, 12. "He had rained down manna upon them to eat."--Ps., lxxviii, 24. "Remember his commandments to do them."--Ps., viii, 18. "Preserve thou those that are appointed to die."--Ps., lxxix, 11. "As coals to burning coals, and as wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife."--Prov., xxvi, 21. "These are far beyond the reach and power of any kings to do away."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 126. "I know not indeed what to do with those words."--Ib., ii, 441. "They will be as little able to justify their innovation."--Ib., ii, 448. "I leave you to compare them."--Ib., ii, 458. "There is no occasion to attribute it."--Ib., ii, 375. "There is no day for me to look upon."--Beauties of Shak., p. 82. "Having no external thing to lose."--Ib., p. 100. "I'll never be a gosling to obey instinct."--Ib., p. 200. "Whereto serves mercy, but to confront the visage of offence?"--Ib., p. 233. "If things do not go to suit him."--Liberator, ix, 182. "And, to be plain, I think there is not half a kiss to choose, who loves an other best."--Shak., p. 91. "But to return to R. Johnson's instance of good man."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 370. Our common Bibles have this text: "And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull."--Judges, ix, 53. Perhaps the interpretation of this may be, "and so as completely to break his skull." The octavo edition stereotyped by "the Bible Association of Friends in America," has it, "and all-to brake his skull." This, most probably, was supposed by the editors to mean, "and completely broke his skull;" but all-to is no proper compound word, and therefore the change is a perversion. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the common French version, all accord with the simple indicative construction, "and broke his skull."

OBS. 27.--According to Lindley Murray, "The infinitive mood is often made absolute, or used independently on [say of] the rest of the sentence, supplying the place of the conjunction that with the potential mood: as, 'To confess the truth, I was in fault;' 'To begin with the first;' 'To proceed;' 'To conclude;' that is, 'That I may confess,' &c."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 184; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 244. Some other compilers have adopted the same doctrine. But on what ground the substitution of one mood for the other is imagined, I see not. The reader will observe that this potential mood is here just as much "made absolute," as is the infinitive; for there is nothing expressed to which the conjunction that connects the one phrase, or the preposition to the other. But possibly, in either case, there may be an ellipsis of some antecedent term; and surely, if we imagine the construction to be complete without any such term, we make the conjunction the more anomalous word of the two. Confession of the truth, is here the aim of speaking, but not of what is spoken. The whole sentence may be, "In order to confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault." Or, "In order that I may confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault." I do not deny, that the infinitive, or a phrase of which the infinitive is a part, is sometimes put absolute; for, if it is not so in any of the foregoing examples, it appears to be so in the following: "For every object has several faces, so to speak, by which it may be presented to us."--Blair's Rhet., p. 41. "To declare a thing shall be, long before it is in being, and then to bring about the accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration; this, or nothing, is the work of God."--Justin Martyr.

"To be, or not to be;--that is the question."--Shakspeare.

"To die;--to sleep;--To sleep! perchance, to dream!"--Id., Hamlet.

OBS. 28.--The infinitive usually follows the word on which it depends, or to which the particle to connects it; but this order is sometimes reversed: as, "To beg I am ashamed."--Luke, xvi, 3. "To keep them no longer in suspense, [I say plainly,] Sir Roger de Coverly is dead."--Addison. "To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal."--Milton.

"To catch your vivid scenes, too gross her hand."--Thomson.

OBS. 29.--Though, in respect to its syntax, the infinitive is oftener connected with a verb, a participle, or an adjective, than with a noun or a pronoun, it should never be so placed that the reader will be liable to mistake the person to whom, or the thing to which, the being, action, or passion, pertains. Examples of error: "This system will require a long time to be executed as it should be."--Journal of N. Y. Lit. Convention, 1830, p. 91. It is not the time, that is to be executed; therefore say, "This system, to be executed as it should be, will require a long time." "He spoke in a manner distinct enough to be heard by the whole assembly."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 192. This implies that the orator's manner was heard! But the grammarian interprets his own meaning, by the following alternative: "Or--He spoke distinctly enough to be heard by the whole assembly."--Ibid. This suggests that the man himself was heard. "When they hit upon a figure that pleases them, they are loth to part with it, and frequently continue it so long, as to become tedious and intricate."--Murray's Gram., p. 341. Is it the authors, or their figure, that becomes tedious and intricate? If the latter, strike out, "so long, as to become," and say, "till it becomes." "Facts are always of the greatest consequence to be remembered during the course of the pleading."--Blair's Rhet., p. 272. The rhetorician here meant: "The facts stated in an argument, are always those parts of it, which it is most important that the hearers should be made to remember."

OBS. 30.--According to some grammarians, "The Infinitive of the verb to be, is often understood; as, 'I considered it [to be] necessary to send the dispatches.'"--W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. In this example, as in thousands more, of various forms, the verb to be may be inserted without affecting the sense; but I doubt the necessity of supposing an ellipsis in such sentences. The adjective or participle that follows, always relates to the preceding objective; and if a noun is used, it is but an other objective in apposition with the former: as, "I considered it an imposition." The verb to be, with the perfect participle, forms the passive infinitive; and the supposition of such an ellipsis, extensively affects one's mode of parsing. Thus, "He considered himself insulted," "I will suppose the work accomplished," and many similar sentences, might be supposed to contain passive infinitives. Allen says, "In the following construction, the words in italics are (elliptically) passive infinitives; I saw the bird caught, and the hare killed; we heard the letters read."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 168. Dr. Priestley observes, "There is a remarkable ambiguity in the use of the participle preterite, as the same word may express a thing either doing, or done; as, I went to see the child dressed."--Priestley's Gram., p. 125. If the Doctor's participle is ambiguous, I imagine that Allen's infinitives are just as much so. "The participle which we denominate past, often means an action whilst performing: thus, I saw the battle fought, and the standard lowered."--Wilson's Essay, p. 158. Sometimes, especially in familiar conversation, an infinitive verb is suppressed, and the sign of it retained; as, "They might have aided us; they ought to" [have aided us].--Herald of Freedom. "We have tried to like it, but it's hard to."--Lynn News.

OBS. 31.--After the verb make, some writers insert the verb be, and suppress the preposition to; as, "He must make every syllable, and even every letter, in the word which he pronounces, be heard distinctly."--Blair's Rhet., p. 329; Murray's E. Reader, p. 9. "You must make yourself be heard with pleasure and attention."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 84. "To make himself be heard by all."--Blair's Rhet., p. 328. "To make ourselves be heard by one."--Ibid. "Clear enough to make me be understood."--Locke, on Ed., p. 198. In my opinion, it would be better, either to insert the to, or to use the participle only; as, "The information which he possessed, made his company to be courted."--Dr. M'Rie. "Which will both show the importance of this rule, and make the application of it to be understood."--Blair's Rhet., p. 103. Or, as in these brief forms: "To make himself heard by all."--"Clear enough to make me understood."

OBS. 32.--In those languages in which the infinitive is distinguished as such by its termination, this part of the verb may be used alone as the subject of a finite verb; but in English it is always necessary to retain the sign to before an abstract infinitive, because there is nothing else to distinguish the verb from a noun. Here we may see a difference between our language and the French, although it has been shown, that in their government of the infinitive they are in some degree analogous:--"HAÏR est un tourment; AIMER est un besoin de l'âme."--M. de Ségur. "To hate is a torment; to love is a requisite of the soul." If from this any will argue that to is not here a preposition, the same argument will be as good, to prove that for is not a preposition when it governs the objective case; because that also may be used without any antecedent term of relation: as, "They are by no means points of equal importance, for me to be deprived of your affections, and for him to be defeated in his prosecution."--Anon., in W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. I said, the sign to must always be put before an abstract infinitive: but possibly a repetition of this sign may not always be necessary, when several such infinitives occur in the same construction: as, "But, to fill a heart with joy, restore content to the afflicted, or relieve the necessitous, these fall not within the reach of their five senses."--Art of Thinking, p. 66. It may be too much to affirm, that this is positively ungrammatical; yet it would be as well or better, to express it thus: "But to relieve the necessitous, to restore content to the afflicted, and to fill a heart with joy, these full not within the reach of their five senses."

OBS. 33.--In the use of the English infinitive, as well as of the participle in ing, the distinction of voice is often disregarded; the active form being used in what, with respect to the noun before it, is a passive sense: as, "There's no time to waste."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 82. "You are to blame."--Ib. "The humming-bird is delightful to look upon."--Ib. "What pain it was to drown."--Shak. "The thing's to do."--Id. "When deed of danger was to do."--Scott. "The evil I bring upon myself, is the hardest to bear."--Home's Art of Thinking, p. 27. "Pride is worse to bear than cruelty."--Ib., p. 37. These are in fact active verbs, and not passive. We may suggest agents for them, if we please; as, "There is no time for us to waste." That the simple participle in ing may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere. It seems sometimes to have no distinction of voice; as, "What is worth doing, is worth doing well."--Com. Maxim. This is certainly much more agreeable, than to say, "What is worth being done, is worth being done well." In respect to the voice of the infinitive, and of this participle, many of our grammarians are obviously hypercritical. For example: "The active voice should not be used for the passive; as, I have work to do: a house to sell, to let, instead of to be done, to be sold, to be let."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 220. "Active verbs are often used improperly with a passive signification, as, 'the house is building, lodgings to let, he has a house to sell, nothing is wanting;' in stead of 'the house is being built, lodgings to be lett, he has a house to be sold, nothing is wanted.'"--Blair's Gram., p. 64. In punctuation, orthography, and the use of capitals, here are more errors than it is worth while to particularize. With regard to such phraseology as, "The house is being built," see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Compound Form of Conjugation. To say, "I have work to do,"--"He has a house to sell,"--or, "We have lodgings to let," is just as good English, as to say, "I have meat to eat."--John, iv, 32. And who, but some sciolist in grammar, would, in all such instances, prefer the passive voice?

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVIII.

INFINITIVES DEMANDING THE PARTICLE TO.

"William, please hand me that pencil."--R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 12.

[FORMULE--Not proper, because the infinitive verb hand is not preceded by the preposition to. But, according to Rule 18th, "The preposition to governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb." Therefore, to should be here inserted; thus, "William, please to hand me that pencil."]

"Please insert points so as to make sense."--Davis's Gram., p. 123. "I have known Lords abbreviate almost the half of their words."--Cobbett's English Gram., ¶ 153. "We shall find the practice perfectly accord with the theory."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 23. "But it would tend to obscure, rather than elucidate the subject."--L. Murray's Gram., p. 95. "Please divide it for them as it should be."--Willett's Arith., p. 193. "So as neither to embarrass, nor weaken the sentence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 116; Murray's Gram., 322. "Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare,[413] and hear his heavenly discourse."--SHERLOCK: Blair's Rhet., p. 157; Murray's Gram., 347. "That we need not be surprised to find this hold in eloquence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 174. "Where he has no occasion either to divide or explain."--Ib., p. 305. "And they will find their pupils improve by hasty and pleasant steps."--Russell's Gram., Pref., p. 4. "The teacher however will please observe," &c.--Infant School Gram., p. 8. "Please attend to a few rules in what is called syntax."--Ib., p. 128. "They may dispense with the laws to favor their friends, or secure their office."--Webster's Essays, p. 39. "To take back a gift, or break a contract, is a wanton abuse."--Ib., p. 41. "The legislature has nothing to do, but let it bear its own price."--Ib., p. 315. "He is not to form, but copy characters."--Rambler, No. 122. "I have known a woman make use of a shoeing-horn."--Spect., No. 536. "Finding this experiment answer, in every respect, their wishes."--Sandford and Merton, p. 51. "In fine let him cause his argument conclude in the term of the question."--Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 443.

"That he permitted not the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly."--Shakspeare, Hamlet.

RULE XIX.--INFINITIVES. The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their participles, usually take the Infinitive after them without the preposition to: as, "If he bade thee depart, how darest thou stay?"--"I dare not let my mind be idle as I walk in the streets."--Cotton Mather.

"Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep, Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see thee weep." --Pope's Homer.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIX.

OBS. 1.--Respecting the syntax of the infinitive mood when the particle to is not expressed before it, our grammarians are almost as much at variance, as I have shown them to be, when they find the particle employed. Concerning verbs governed by verbs, Lindley Murray, and some others, are the most clear and positive, where their doctrine is the most obviously wrong; and, where they might have affirmed with truth, that the former verb governs the latter, they only tell us that "the preposition TO is sometimes properly omitted,"--or that such and such verbs "have commonly other verbs following them without the sign TO."--Murray's Gram., p. 183; Alger's, 63; W. Allen's, 167, and others. If these authors meant, that the preposition to is omitted by ellipsis, they ought to have said so. Then the many admirers and remodellers of Murray's Grammar might at least have understood him alike. Then, too, any proper definition of ellipsis must have proved both them and him to be clearly wrong about this construction also. If the word to is really "understood," whenever it is omitted after bid, dare, feel, &c., as some authors, affirm, then is it here the governing word, if anywhere; and this nineteenth rule, however common, is useless to the parser.[414] Then, too, does no English verb ever govern the infinitive without governing also a preposition, "expressed or understood." Whatever is omitted by ellipsis, and truly "understood," really belongs to the grammatical construction; and therefore, if inserted, it cannot be actually improper, though it may be unnecessary. But all our grammarians admit, that to before the infinitive is sometimes "superfluous and improper."--Murray's Gram., p. 183. I imagine, there cannot be any proper ellipsis of to before the infinitive, except in some forms of comparison; because, wherever else it is necessary, either to the sense or to the construction, it ought to be inserted. And wherever the to is rightly used, it is properly the governing word; but where it cannot be inserted without impropriety, it is absurd to say, that it is "understood." The infinitive that is put after such a verb or participle as excludes the preposition to, is governed by this verb or participle, if it is governed by any thing: as,

"To make them _do, undo, eat, drink, stand, move, Talk, think_, and feel, exactly as he chose."--Pollok, p. 69.

OBS. 2.--Ingersoll, who converted Murray's Grammar into "Conversations," says, "I will just remark to you that the verbs in the infinitive mood, that follow make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, and their participles, are always GOVERNED by them."--Conv. on Eng. Gram., p. 120. Kirkham, who pretended to turn the same book into "Familiar Lectures," says, "To, the sign of the infinitive mood, is often understood before the verb; as, 'Let me proceed;' that is, Let me to proceed."--Gram. in Fam. Lect., p. 137. The lecturer, however, does not suppose the infinitive to be here governed by the preposition to, or the verb let, but rather by the pronoun me. For, in an other place, he avers, that the infinitive may be governed by a noun or a pronoun; as, "Let him do it."--Ib., p. 187. Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objective noun or pronoun that intervenes, none of those verbs that take the infinitive after them without the preposition, will usually be found to govern it, except dare and need; and if need, in such a case, is an auxiliary, no government pertains to that. R. C. Smith, an other modifier of Murray, having the same false notion of ellipsis, says, "To, the usual sign of this mood, is sometimes understood; as, 'Let me go,' instead of, 'Let me to go.'"--Smith's New Gram., p. 65. According to Murray, whom these men profess to follow, let, in all these examples, is an auxiliary, and the verb that follows it, is not in the infinitive mood, but in the imperative. So they severally contradict their oracle, and all are wrong, both he and they! The disciples pretend to correct their master, by supposing "Let me to go," and "Let me to proceed," good English!

OBS. 3.--It is often impossible to say by what the infinitive is governed, according to the instructions of Murray, or according to any author who does not parse it as I do. Nutting says, "The infinitive mode sometimes follows the comparative conjunctions, as, than, and how, WITHOUT GOVERNMENT."--Practical Gram., p. 106. Murray's uncertainty[415] may have led to some part of this notion, but the idea that how is a "comparative conjunction," is a blunder entirely new. Kirkham is so puzzled by "the language of that eminent philologist," that he bolts outright from the course of his guide, and runs he knows not whither; feigning that other able writers have well contended, "that this mood IS NOT GOVERNED by any particular word." Accordingly he leaves his pupils at liberty to "reject the idea of government, as applied to the verb in this mood;" and even frames a rule which refers it always "To some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 188. Murray teaches that the object of the active verb sometimes governs the infinitive that follows it: as, "They have a desire to improve."--Octavo Gram., p. 184. To what extent, in practice, he would carry this doctrine, nobody can tell; probably to every sentence in which this object is the antecedent term to the preposition to, and perhaps further: as, "I have a house to sell"--Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "I feel a desire to excel." "I felt my heart within me die."--Merrick.

OBS. 4.--Nutting supposes that the objective case before the infinitive always governs it wherever it denotes the agent of the infinitive action; as, "He commands me to write a letter."--Practical Gram., p. 96. Nixon, on the contrary, contends, that the finite verb, in such a sentence, can govern only one object, and that this object is the infinitive. "The objective case preceding it," he says, "is the subject or agent of that infinitive, and not governed by the preceding verb." His example is, "Let them go."--English Parser, p. 97. "In the examples, 'He is endeavouring to persuade them to learn,'--'It is pleasant to see the sun,'--the pronoun them, the adjective pleasant, and the participle endeavouring, I consider as governing the following verb in the infinitive mode."--Cooper's Plain and Pract. Gram., p. 144. "Some erroneously say that pronouns govern the infinitive mode in such examples as this: 'I expected him to be present.' We will change the expression: 'He was expected to be present.' All will admit that to be is governed by was expected. The same verb that governs it in the passive voice, governs it in the active."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 144. So do our professed grammarians differ about the government of the infinitive, even in the most common constructions of it! Often, however, it makes but little difference in regard to the sense, which of the two words is considered the governing or antecedent term; but where the preposition is excluded, the construction seems to imply some immediate influence of the finite verb upon the infinitive.

OBS. 5.--The extent of this influence, or of such government, has never yet been clearly determined. "This irregularity," says Murray, "extends only to active or neuter verbs: ['active and neuter verbs,' says Fisk:] for all the verbs above mentioned, when made passive, require the preposition to before the following verb: as, 'He was seen to go;' 'He was heard to speak;' 'They were bidden to be upon their guard.'"--Murray's Gram., p. 183. Fisk adds with no great accuracy "In the past and future tenses of the active voice also, these verbs generally require the sign to, to be prefixed to the following verbs; as, 'You have dared to proceed without authority;' 'They will not dare to attack you.'"--Gram. Simplified, p. 125. What these gentlemen here call "neuter verbs," are only the two words dare and need, which are, in most cases, active, though not always transitive; unless the infinitive itself can make them so--an inconsistent doctrine of theirs which I have elsewhere refuted. (See Obs. 3rd on Rule 5th.) These two verbs take the infinitive after them without the preposition, only when they are intransitive; while all the rest seem to have this power, only when they are transitive. If there are any exceptions, they shall presently be considered. A more particular examination of the construction proper for the infinitive after each of these eight verbs, seems necessary for a right understanding of the rule.

OBS. 6.--Of the verb BID. This verb, in any of its tenses, when it commands an action, usually governs an object and also an infinitive, which come together; as, "Thou bidst the world adore."--Thomson. "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing."--2 Kings, v, 13. But when it means, to promise or offer, the infinitive that follows, must be introduced by the preposition to; as, "He bids fair to excel them all"--"Perhaps no person under heaven bids more unlikely to be saved."--Brown's Divinity, p. vii. "And each bade high to win him."--GRANVILLE: Joh. Dict. After the compound forbid, the preposition is also necessary; as, "Where honeysuckles forbid the sun to enter."--Beauties of Shak.. p. 57. In poetry, if the measure happens to require it, the word to is sometimes allowed after the simple verb bid, denoting a command; as,

"Bid me to strike my dearest brother dead, To bring my aged father's hoary head."--Rowe's Lucan, B. i, l. 677.

OBS. 7.--Of the verb DARE. This verb, when used intransitively, and its irregular preterit durst, which is never transitive, usually take the infinitive after them without to; as, "I dare do all that may become a man: Who dares do more, is none."--Shakspeare. "If he durst steal any thing adventurously."--Id. "Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms."--Milton. "Like one who durst his destiny control."--Dryden. In these examples, the former verbs have some resemblance to auxiliaries, and the insertion of the preposition to would be improper. But when we take away this resemblance, by giving dare or dared, an objective case, the preposition is requisite before the infinitive; as, "Time! I dare thee to discover Such a youth or such a lover."--Dryden. "He dares me to enter the lists."--Fisk's Gram., p. 125. So when dare itself is in the infinitive mood, or is put after an auxiliary, the preposition is not improper; as, "And let a private man dare to say that it will."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 147. "Would its compiler dare to affront the Deity?"--West's Letters, p. 151. "What power so great, to dare to disobey?"--Pope's Homer. "Some would even dare to die."--Bible. "What would dare to molest him?"--Dr. Johnson. "Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?"--Junius, Let. xxxiii. Perhaps these examples might be considered good English, either with or without the to; but the last one would be still better thus: "Dare you prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?" Dr. Priestley thinks the following sentence would have been better with the preposition inserted: "Who have dared defy the worst."--HARRIS: Priestley's Gram., p. 132. To is sometimes used after the simple verb, in the present tense; as, "Those whose words no one dares to repeat."--Opie, on Lying, p. 147.

"Dare I to leave of humble prose the shore?" --Young, p. 377.

"Against heaven's endless mercies pour'd, how dar'st thou to rebel?" --Id., p. 380.

"The man who dares to be a wretch, deserves still greater pain." --Id., p. 381.

OBS. 8.--Of the verb FEEL. This verb, in any of its tenses, may govern the infinitive without the sign to; but it does this, only when it is used transitively, and that in regard to a bodily perception: as, "I feel it move."--"I felt something sting me." If we speak of feeling any mental affection, or if we use the verb intransitively, the infinitive that follows, requires the preposition; as, "I feel it to be my duty."--"I felt ashamed to ask."--"I feel afraid to go alone."--"I felt about, to find the door." One may say of what is painful to the body, "I feel it to be severe."

OBS. 9.--Of the verb HEAR. This verb is often intransitive, but it is usually followed by an objective case when it governs the infinitive; as. "To hear a bird sing."--Webster. "You have never heard me say so." For this reason, I am inclined to think that those sentences in which it appears to govern the infinitive alone, are elliptical; as, "I have heard tell of such things."--"And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it."--Gen, xli, 15. Such examples may be the same as. "I have heard people tell,"--"I have heard men say," &c.

OBS. 10.--Of the verb LET. By many grammarians this verb has been erroneously called an auxiliary of the optative mood; or, as Dr. Johnson terms it, "a sign of the optative mood:" though none deny, that it is sometimes also a principal verb. It is, in fact, always a principal verb; because, as we now apply it, it is always transitive. It commonly governs an objective noun or pronoun, and also an infinitive without the sign to; as, "Rise up, let us go."--Mark. "Thou shalt let it rest."--Exodus. But sometimes the infinitive coalesces with it more nearly than the objective, so that the latter is placed after both verbs; as, "The solution lets go the mercury."--Newton. "One lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration."--Locke. "Back! on your lives; let be, said he, my prey."--Dryden. The phrase, let go, is sometimes spoken for, let go your hold; and let be, for let him be, let it be, &c. In such instances, therefore, the verb let is not really intransitive. This verb, even in the passive form, may have the infinitive after it without the preposition to; as, "Nothing is let slip."--Walker's English Particles, p. 165. "They were let go in peace."--Acts, xv, 33. "The stage was never empty, nor the curtain let fall."--Blair's Rhet., p. 459. "The pye's question was wisely let fall without a reply."--L'Estrange. With respect to other passives, Murray and Fisk appear to be right; and sometimes the preposition is used after this one: as, "There's a letter for you, sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is."--Shakspeare. Let, when used intransitively, required the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "He would not let [i. e. forbear] to counsel the king."--Bacon. But this use of let is now obsolete.

OBS. 11.--Of the verb MAKE. This verb, like most of the others, never immediately governs an infinitive, unless it also governs a noun or a pronoun which is the immediate subject of such infinitive; as, "You make me blush."--"This only made the youngster laugh"--Webster's Spelling-Book. "Which soon made the young chap hasten down."--Ib. But in very many instances it is quite proper to insert the preposition where this verb is transitive; as, "He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."--Mark, vii, 37. "He makes the excellency of a sentence to consist in four things."--Blair's Rhet., p. 122; Jamieson's, 124. "It is this that makes the observance of the dramatic unities to be of consequence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 464. "In making some tenses of the English verb to consist of principal and auxiliary."--Murray's Gram., p. 76. "When make is intransitive, it has some qualifying word after it, besides the sign of the infinitive; as,--I think he will make out to pay his debts." Formerly, the preposition to was almost always inserted to govern the infinitive after make or made; as, "Lest I make my brother to offend."--1 Cor., viii, 13. "He made many to fall."--Jer., xlvi, 16. Yet, in the following text, it is omitted, even where the verb is meant to be passive: "And it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man."--Dan., vii, 4. This construction is improper, and not free from ambiguity; because stand may be a noun, and made, an active verb governing it. There may also be uncertainty in the meaning, where the insertion of the preposition leaves none in the construction; for made may signify either created or compelled, and the infinitive after it, may denote either the purpose of creation, or the effect of any temporary compulsion: as, "We are made to be serviceable to others."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 167. "Man was made to mourn."--Burns. "Taste was never made to cater for vanity."--Blair. The primitive word make seldom, if ever, produces a construction that is thus equivocal. The infinitive following it without to, always denotes the effect of the making, and not the purpose of the maker; as, "He made his son Skjöld be received there as king."--North. Antiq., p. 81. But the same meaning may be conveyed when the to is used; as,

"The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace; And makes all ills that vex us here to cease."--Waller, p. 56.

OBS. 12.--Of the verb NEED. I incline to think, that the word need, whenever it is rightly followed by the infinitive without to, is, in reality an auxiliary of the potential mood; and that, like may, can, and must, it may properly be used, in both the present and the perfect tense, without personal inflection: as, "He need not go, He need not have gone;" where, if need is a principal verb, and governs the infinitive without to, the expressions must be, "He needs not go, He needed not go, or, He has not needed go." But none of these three forms is agreeable; and the last two are never used. Wherefore, in stead of placing in my code of false syntax the numerous examples of the former kind, with which the style of our grammarians and critics has furnished me, I have exhibited many of them, in contrast with others, in the eighth and ninth observations on the Conjugation of Verbs; in which observations, the reader may see what reasons there are for supposing the word need to be sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb. Because no other author has yet intentionally recognized the propriety of this distinction, I have gone no farther than to show on what grounds, and with what authority from usage, it might be acknowledged. If we adopt this distinction, perhaps it will be found that the regular or principal verb need always requires, or, at least, always admits, the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "They need not to be specially indicated."--Adams's Rhet., i, 302. "We need only to remark."--Ib., ii, 224. "A young man needed only to ask himself," &c.--Ib., i, 117. "Nor is it conceivable to me, that the lightning of a Demosthenes could need to be sped upon the wings of a semiquaver."--Ib., ii, 226. "But these people need to be informed."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 220. "No man needed less to be informed."--Ib., p. 175. "We need only to mention the difficulty that arises."--Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 362. "Can there need to be argument to prove so plain a point?"--Graham's Lect. "Moral instruction needs to have a more prominent place."--Dr. Weeks. "Pride, ambition, and selfishness, need to be restrained."--Id. "Articles are sometimes omitted, where they need to be used."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 197. "Whose power needs not to be dreaded."--Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 93. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed."--2 Tim., ii, 15. "The small boys may have needed to be managed according to the school system."--T. D. Woolsey. "The difficulty of making variety consistent, needs not to disturb him."--Rambler, No. 122. "A more cogent proof needs not to be introduced."--Wright's Gram., p. 66. "No person needs to be informed, that you is used in addressing a single person."--Wilcox's Gram., p. 19. "I hope I need not to advise you further."--Shak., All's Well.

"Nor me, nor other god, thou needst to fear, For thou to all the heavenly host art dear."--Congreve.

OBS. 13.--If need is ever an auxiliary, the essential difference between an auxiliary and a principal verb, will very well account for the otherwise puzzling fact, that good writers sometimes inflect this verb, and sometimes do not; and that they sometimes use to after it, and sometimes do not. Nor do I see in what other way a grammarian can treat it, without condemning as bad English a great number of very common phrases which he cannot change for the better. On this principle, such examples as, "He need not proceed," and "He needs not to proceed," may be perfectly right in either form; though Murray, Crombie,[416] Fisk, Ingersoll, Smith, C. Adams, and many others, pronounce both these forms to be wrong; and unanimously, (though contrary to what is perhaps the best usage,) prefer, "He needs not proceed."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 180.

OBS. 14.--On questions of grammar, the practice of authors ought to be of more weight, than the dogmatism of grammarians; but it is often difficult to decide well by either; because errors and contradictions abound in both. For example: Dr. Blair says, (in speaking of the persons represented by I and thou,) "Their sex needs not be marked."--Rhet., p. 79. Jamieson abridges the work, and says, "needs not to be marked."--Gram. of Rhet., p. 28. Dr. Lowth also says, "needs not be marked."--Gram., p. 21. Churchill enlarges the work, and says, "needs not to be marked."--New Gram., p. 72. Lindley Murray copies Lowth, and says, "needs not be marked."--Gram., 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 39; 23d Ed., p. 51; and perhaps all other editions. He afterwards enlarges his own work, and says, "needs not to be marked."--Octavo Gram., p. 51. But, according to Greenleaf they all express the idea ungrammatically; the only true form being, "Their sex need not be marked." See Gram. Simplified, p. 48. In the two places in which the etymology and the syntax of this verb are examined, I have cited from proper sources more than twenty examples in which to is used after it, and more than twenty others in which the verb is not inflected in the third person singular. In the latter, need is treated as an auxiliary; in the former, it is a principal verb, of the regular construction. If the principal verb need can also govern the infinitive without to, as all our grammarians have supposed, then there is a third form which is unobjectionable, and my pupils may take their choice of the three. But still there is a fourth form which nobody approves, though the hands of some great men have furnished us with examples of it: as, "A figure of thought need not to detort the words from their literal sense."--J. Q. Adams's Lectures, Vol. ii, p. 254. "Which a man need only to appeal to his own feelings immediately to evince."--Clarkson's Prize-Essay on Slavery, p. 106.

OBS. 15.--Webster and Greenleaf seem inclined to justify the use of dare, as well as of need, for the third person singular. Their doctrine is this: "In popular practice it is used in the third person, without the personal termination. Thus, instead of saying, 'He dares not do it;' WE generally say, 'He dare not do it.' In like manner, need, when an active verb, is regular in its inflections; as, 'A man needs more prudence.' But when intransitive, it drops the personal terminations in the present tense, and is followed by a verb without the prefix to; as, 'A man need not be uneasy.'"--Greenleaf s Grammar Simplified, p. 38; Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 178; Improved Gram., 127. Each part of this explanation appears to me erroneous. In popular practice, one shall oftener hear, "He dares n't do it," or even, "You dares n't do it," than, "He dare not do it." But it is only in the trained practice of the schools, that he shall ever hear, "He needs n't do it," or, "He needs not do it." If need is sometimes used without inflection, this peculiarity, or the disuse of to before the subsequent infinitive, is not a necessary result of its "intransitive" character. And as to their latent nominative, "whereof there is no account," or, "whereof there needs no account;" their fact, of which "there is no evidence," or of which "there needs no evidence;" I judge it a remarkable phenomenon, that authors of so high pretensions, could find, in these transpositions, a nominative to "is," but none to "needs!" See a marginal note under Rule 14th, at p. 570.

OBS. 16.--Of the verb SEE. This verb, whenever it governs the infinitive without to, governs also an objective noun or pronoun; as, "See me do it."--"I saw him do it."--Murray. Whenever it is intransitive, the following infinitive must be governed by to; as, "I will see to have it done."--Comly's Gram., p. 98; Greenleaf's, 38. "How could he see to do them?"--Beauties of Shak., p. 43. In the following text, see is transitive, and governs the infinitive; but the two verbs are put so far apart, that it requires some skill in the reader to make their relation apparent: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place," &c.--Matt., xxiv, 15. An other scripturist uses the participle, and says--"standing where it ought not," &c.--Mark, xiii, 14. The Greek word is the same in both; it is a participle, agreeing with the noun for abomination. Sometimes the preposition to seems to be admitted on purpose to protract the expression: as,

"Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, And with her breath she did perfume the air."--Shak.

OBS 17.--A few other verbs, besides the eight which are mentioned in the foregoing rule and remarks, sometimes have the infinitive after them without to. W. Allen teaches, that, "The sign to is generally omitted," not only after these eight, but also after eight others; namely, "find, have, help, mark, observe, perceive, watch, and the old preterit gan, for began; and sometimes after behold and know."--Elements of Gram., p. 167. Perhaps he may have found some instances of the omission of the preposition after all these, but in my opinion his rule gives a very unwarrantable extension to this "irregularity," as Murray calls it. The usage belongs only to particular verbs, and to them not in all their applications. Other verbs of the same import do not in general admit the same idiom. But, by a license for the most part peculiar to the poets, the preposition to is occasionally omitted, especially after verbs equivalent to those which exclude it; as, "And force them sit."--Cowper's Task, p. 46. That is, "And make them sit." According to Churchill, "To use ought or cause in this manner, is a Scotticism: [as,] 'Won't you cause them remove the hares?'--'You ought not walk.' SHAK."--New Gram., p. 317. The verbs, behold, view, observe, mark, watch, and spy, are only other words for see; as, "There might you behold one joy crown an other."--Shak. "There I sat, viewing the silver stream glide silently towards the tempestuous sea."--Walton. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."--Luke, x, 18.

"Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them _spy Come_ tripping to the room where thou didst lie."--Milton.

------"Nor with less dread the loud Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow."--Id., P. L., vi, 60.

OBS. 18.--After have, help, and find, the infinitive sometimes occurs without the preposition to, but much oftener with it; as, "When enumerating objects which we wish to have appear distinct."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 222. "Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth."--Ld. Bacon. "What wilt thou have me to do?"--Acts, ix, 6. "He will have us to acknowledge him."--Scougal, p. 102. "I had to walk all the way."--Lennie's Gram., p. 85. "Would you have them let go then? No."--Walker's Particles, p. 248. According to Allen's rule, this question is ambiguous; but the learned author explains it in Latin thus: "Placet igitur eos dimitti? Minimé." That is, "Would you have them dismissed then? No." Had he meant, "Would you have them to let go then?" he would doubtless have said so. Kirkham, by adding help to Murray's list, enumerates nine verbs which he will have to exclude the sign of the infinitive; as, "Help me do it."--Gram., p. 188. But good writers sometimes use the particle to after this verb; as, "And Danby's matchless impudence helped to support the knave."--DRYDEN: Joh. Dict., w. Help. Dr. Priestley says, "It must, I suppose, be according to the Scotch idiom that Mrs. Macaulay omits it after the verb help: 'To help carry on the new measures of the court.' History, Vol. iv, p. 150."--Priestley's Gram., p. 133. "You will find the difficulty disappear in a short time."--Cobbett's English Gram., ¶ 16. "We shall always find this distinction obtain."--Blair's Rhet., p. 245. Here the preposition to might have been inserted with propriety. Without it, a plural noun will render the construction equivocal. The sentence, "You will find the difficulties disappear in a short time," will probably be understood to mean, "You will find that the difficulties disappear in a short time." "I do not find him reject his authority."--Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 167. Here too the preposition might as well have been inserted. But, as this use of the infinitive is a sort of Latinism, some critics would choose to say, "I do not find that he rejects his authority." "Cyrus was extremely glad to find them have such sentiments of religion."--Rollin, ii, 117. Here the infinitive may be varied either by the participle or by the indicative; as, "to find them having," or, "to find they had." Of the three expressions, the last, I think, is rather the best.

OBS. 19.--When two or more infinitives are connected in the same construction, one preposition sometimes governs them both or all; a repetition of the particle not being always necessary, unless we mean to make the terms severally emphatical. This fact is one evidence that to is not a necessary part of each infinitive verb, as some will have it to be. Examples: "Lord, suffer me first TO go and bury my father."--Matt., viii, 21. "To shut the door, means, TO throw or cast the door to."--Tooke's D. P., ii, 105. "Most authors expect the printer TO spell, point, and digest their copy, that it may be intelligible to the reader."--Printer's Grammar.

"I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield."--Shak.

OBS. 20.--An infinitive that explains an other, may sometimes be introduced without the preposition to; because, the former having it, the construction of the latter is made the same by this kind of apposition: as, "The most accomplished way of using books at present is, TO serve them as some do lords; learn their titles, and, then brag of their acquaintance."--SWIFT: Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 166.

OBS. 21.--After than or as, the sign of the infinitive is sometimes required, and sometimes excluded; and in some instances we can either insert it or not, as we please. The latter term of a comparison is almost always more or less elliptical; and as the nature of its ellipsis depends on the structure of the former term, so does the necessity of inserting or of omitting the sign of the infinitive. Examples: "No desire is more universal than [is the desire] to be exalted and honoured."--Kames, El. of Crit., i, 197. "The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as [is the difficulty] to find a friend worth dying for."--Id., Art of Thinking, p. 42. "It is no more in one's power to love or not to love, than [it is in one's power] to be in health or out of order."--Ib., p. 45. "Men are more likely to be praised into virtue, than [they are likely] to be railed out of vice."--Ib., p. 48. "It is more tolerable to be always alone, than [it is tolerable] never to be so."--Ib., p. 26. "Nothing [is] more easy than to do mischief [is easy]: nothing [is] more difficult than to suffer without complaining" [is difficult].--Ib., p. 46. Or: "than [it is easy] to do mischief:" &c., "than [it is difficult] to suffer," &c. "It is more agreeable to the nature of most men to follow than [it is agreeable to their nature] to lead."--Ib., p. 55. In all these examples, the preposition to is very properly inserted; but what excludes it from the former term of a comparison, will exclude it from the latter, if such governing verb be understood there: as, "You no more heard me say those words, than [you heard me] talk Greek." It may be equally proper to say, "We choose rather to lead than follow," or, "We choose rather to lead than to follow."--Art of Thinking, p. 37. The meaning in either case is, "We choose to lead rather than we choose to follow." In the following example, there is perhaps an ellipsis of to before cite: "I need do nothing more than simply cite the explicit declarations," &c.--Gurney's Peculiarities, p. 4. So in these: "Nature did no more than furnish the power and means."--Sheridan's Elocution, p. 147.

"To beg, than work, he better understands; Or we perhaps might take him off thy hands." --Pope's Odyssey, xvii, 260.

OBS. 22.--It has been stated, in Obs. 16th on Rule 17th, that good writers are apt to shun a repetition of any part common to two or more verbs in the same sentence; and among the examples there cited is this: "They mean to, and will, hear patiently."--Salem Register. So one might say, "Can a man arrive at excellence, who has no desire to?"--"I do not wish to go, nor expect to."--"Open the door, if you are going to." Answer: "We want to, and try to, but can't." Such ellipses of the infinitive after to, are by no means uncommon, especially in conversation; nor do they appear to me to be always reprehensible, since they prevent repetition, and may contribute to brevity without obscurity. But Dr. Bullions has lately thought proper to condemn them; for such is presumed to have been the design of the following note: "To, the sign of the infinitive, should never be used for the infinitive itself. Thus, 'I have not written, and I do not intend to,' is a colloquial vulgarism for, 'I have not written, and I do not intend to write.'"--Bullions's Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 179. His "Exercises to be corrected," here, are these: "Be sure to write yourself and tell him to. And live as God designed me to."--Ib., 1st Ed., p. 180. It being manifest, that to cannot "be used for"--(that is, in place of--)what is implied after it, this is certainly a very awkward way of hinting "there should never be an ellipsis of the infinitive after to." But, from the false syntax furnished, this appears to have been the meaning intended. The examples are severally faulty, but not for the reason suggested--not because "to" is used for "write" or "live"--not, indeed, for any one reason common to the three--but because, in the first, "to write" and "have not written," have nothing in common which we can omit; in the second, the mood of "tell" is doubtful, and, without a comma after "yourself," we cannot precisely know the meaning; in the third, the mood, the person, and the number of "live," are all unknown. See Note 9th to Rule 17th, above; and Note 2d to the General Rule, below.

OBS. 23.--Of some infinitives, it is hard to say whether they are transitive or intransitive; as, "Well, then, let us proceed; we have other forced marches to make; other enemies to subdue; more laurels to acquire; and more injuries to avenge."--BONAPARTE: Columbian Orator, p. 136. These, without ellipsis, are intransitive; but relatives may be inserted.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIX.

INFINITIVES AFTER BID, DARE, FEEL, HEAR, LET, &c.

"I dare not to proceed so hastily, lest I should give offence."--Murray's Exercises, p. 63.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the preposition to is inserted before proceed, which follows the active verb dare. But, according to Rule 19th, "The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their participles, usually take the infinitive after them without the preposition to;" and this is an instance in which the finite verb should immediately govern the infinitive. Therefore, the to should be omitted; thus, "I dare not proceed so hastily," &c.]

"Their character is formed, and made appear."--Butler's Analogy, p. 115.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the preposition to is not inserted between made and appear, the verb is made being passive. But, according to Obs. 5th and 10th on Rule 19th, those verbs which in the active form govern the infinitive without to, do not so govern it when they are made passive, except the verb let. Therefore, to should be here inserted; thus, "Their character is formed, and made to appear."]

"Let there be but matter and opportunity offered, and you shall see them quickly to revive again."--Wisdom of the Ancients, p. 53. "It has been made appear, that there is no presumption against a revelation."--Butler's Analogy, p. 252. "MANIFEST, v. t. To reveal; to make to appear; to show plainly."--Webster's American Dict. "Let him to reign like unto good Aurelius, or let him to bleed like unto Socrates."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 169. "To sing I could not; to complain I durst not."--S. Fothergill. "If T. M. be not so frequently heard pray by them."--Barclay's Works, iii, 132. "How many of your own church members were never heard pray?"--Ib., iii, 133. "Yea, we are bidden pray one for another."--Ib., iii, 145. "He was made believe that neither the king's death, nor imprisonment would help him."--Sheffield's Works, ii, 281. "I felt a chilling sensation to creep over me."--Inst., p. 188. "I dare to say he has not got home yet."--Ib. "We sometimes see bad men to be honoured."--Ib. "I saw him to move."--Felch's Comprehensive Gram., p. 62. "For see thou, ah! see thou a hostile world to raise its terrours."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 167. "But that he make him to rehearse so."--Lily's Gram., p. xv. "Let us to rise."--Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 41.

"Scripture, you know, exhorts us to it; Bids us to 'seek peace, and ensue it.'"--Swift's Poems, p. 336.

"Who bade the mud from Dives' wheel To spurn the rags of Lazarus? Come, brother, in that dust we'll kneel, Confessing Heaven that ruled it thus."--Christmas Book.

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