grief as I am at this present.”–_Sheridan’s Elocution_, p. 138. “All languages differ from each other in their mode of inflexion.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, Pref., p. v. “Nouns and verbs are the only indispensable parts of speech–the one to express the subject spoken of, and the other the predicate or what is affirmed of it.”–_M’Culloch’s Gram._, p. 36. “The words in italics of the three latter examples, perform the office of substantives.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 66. “Such a structure of a sentence is always the mark of careless writing.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 231. “Nothing is frequently more hurtful to the grace or vivacity of a period, than superfluous dragging words at the conclusion.”–_Ib._, p. 205. “When its substantive is not joined to it, but referred to, or understood.”– _Lowth’s Gram._, p. 24. “Yet they have always some substantive belonging to them, either referred to, or understood.”–_Ib._, 24. “Because they define and limit the extent of the common name, or general term, to which they either refer, or are joined.'”–_Ib._, 24. “Every new object surprises, terrifies, and makes a strong impression on their mind.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 136. “His argument required to have been more fully unfolded, in order to make it be distinctly apprehended, and to give it its due force.”–_Ib._, p. 230. “Participles which are derived from active verbs, will govern the objective case, the same as the verbs from which they are derived”–_Emmons’s Gram._, p. 61. “Where, contrary to the rule, the nominative _I_ precedes, and the objective case _whom_ follows the verb.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 181. “The same conjunction governing both the indicative and the subjunctive moods, in the same sentence, and in the same circumstances, seems to be a great impropriety.”–_Ib._, p. 207; _Smith’s New Gram._, 173: see _Lowth’s Gram._, p. 105; _Fisk’s_, 128; and _Ingersoll’s_, 266. “A nice discernment, and accurate attention to the best usage, are necessary to direct us, on these occasions.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 170. “The Greeks and Romans, the former especially, were, in truth, much more musical nations than we; their genius was more turned to delight in the melody of speech.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 123. “When the sense admits it, the sooner a circumstance is introduced, the better, that the more important and significant words may possess the last place, quite disencumbered.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, i, p. 309; _Parker and Fox’s_, Part III, p. 88. “When the sense admits it, the sooner they are despatched, generally speaking, the better; that the more important and significant words may possess the last place, quite disencumbered.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 118. See also _Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 101. “Thus we find it, both in the Greek and Latin tongues.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 74. “A train of sentences, constructed in the same manner, and with the same number of members, should never be allowed to succeed one another.”–_Ib._, p. 102; _Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 306; _Parker and Fox’s Gram._, Part III, p. 86. “I proceed to lay down the rules to be observed in the conduct of metaphors, and which are much the same for tropes of every kind.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 143. “By a proper choice of words, we may produce a resemblance of other sounds which we mean to describe.”–_Ib._, p. 129; _Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 331. “The disguise can almost never be so perfect, but it is discovered.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 259. “The sense admits of no other pause than after the second syllable ‘sit,’ which therefore must be the only pause made in the reading.”–_Ib._, p. 333. “Not that I believe North America to be peopled so late as the twelfth century, the period of Madoc’s migration.”–_Webster’s Essays_, p. 212. “Money and commodities will always flow to that country, where they are most wanted and will command the most profit.”–_Ib._, p. 308. “That it contains no visible marks, of articles, which are the most important of all others, to a just delivery.”– _Sheridan’s Elocution_, p. 13. “And of virtue, from its beauty, we call it a fair and favourite maid.”–_Mack’s Gram._, p. 66. “The definite article may agree with nouns in the singular and plural number.”–_Infant School Gram._, p. 130.
LESSON XV.–MANY ERRORS.
(1.) “A compound word is included under the head of derivative words.”– _Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 23. (2.) “An Apostrophe, marked thus ‘ is used to abbreviate or shorten a word. Its chief use is to show the genitive case of nouns.”–_Ib._, p. 281.[449] (3.) “A Hyphen, marked thus – is employed in connecting compounded words. It is also used when a word is divided.”– _Ib._, p. 282. (4.) “The Acute Accent, marked thus : as, ‘_Fancy_.’ The Grave thus ` as, ‘_Favour_'”–_Ib._, p. 282. (5.) “The stress is laid on long and short syllables indiscriminately. In order to distinguish the one from the other, some writers of dictionaries have placed the grave on the former, and the acute on the latter.”–_Ib._, 282. (6.) “A Diaeresis, thus marked “, consists of two points placed over one of the two vowels that would otherwise make a diphthong, and parts them into syllables.”–_Ib._, 282. (7.) “A Section marked thus Sec., is the division of a discourse, or chapter, into less parts or portions.”–_Ib._, 282. (8.) “A Paragraph denotes the beginning of a new subject, or a sentence not connected with the foregoing. This character is chiefly used in the Old and in the New Testaments.”–_Ib._, 282. (9.) “A Quotation ” “. Two inverted commas are generally placed at the beginning of a phrase or a passage, which is quoted or transcribed from the speaker or author in his own words; and two commas in their direct position, are placed at the conclusion.”–_Ib._, 282. (10.) “A Brace is used in poetry at the end of a triplet or three lines, which have the same rhyme. Braces are also used to connect a number of words with one common term, and are introduced to prevent a repetition in writing or printing.”–_Ib._, p. 283. (11.) “Two or three asterisks generally denote the omission of some letters in a word, or of some bold or indelicate expression, or some defect in the manuscript.”–_Ib._, 283. (12.) “An Ellipsis —- is also used, when some letters in a word, or some words in a verse, are omitted.”–_Ib._, 283. (13.) “An Obelisk, which is marked thus [dagger], and Parallels thus ||, together with the letters of the Alphabet, and figures, are used as references to the margin, or bottom of the page.”–_Ib._, 283. (14.) “A note of interrogation should not be employed, in cases where it is only said a question has been asked, and where the words are not used as a question. ‘The Cyprians asked me why I wept.'”–_Ib._, p. 279; _Comly_, 163; _Ingersoll_, 291; _Fisk_, 157; _Flint_, 113. (15.) “A point of interrogation is improper after sentences which are not questions, but only expressions of admiration, or of some other emotion.”–_Same authors and places_. (16.) “The parenthesis incloses in the body of a sentence a member inserted into it, which is neither necessary to the sense, nor at all affects the construction.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 124. (17.) “Simple members connected by relatives, and comparatives, are for the most part distinguished by a comma.” [450]–_Ib._, p. 121. (18.) “Simple members of sentences connected by comparatives, are, for the most part, distinguished by a comma.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p 272; _Alden’s_, 148; _Ingersoll’s_, 284. See the same words without the last two commas, in _Comly’s Gram._, p. 149; _Alger’s_, 79; _Merchant’s Murray_, 143:–and this again, with a _different sense_, made by a comma before “_connected_,” in _Smith’s New Gram._, 190; _Abel Flint’s_, 103. (19.) “Simple members of sentences connected by comparatives, are for the most part distinguished by the comma.”–_Russell’s Gram._, p. 115. (20.) “Simple members of sentences, connected by comparatives, should generally be distinguished by a comma.”–_Merchant’s School Gram._, p. 150. (21.) “Simple members of sentences connected by _than_ or _so_, or that express contrast or comparison, should, generally, be divided by a comma.”–_Jaudon’s Gram._, p. 185. (22.) “Simple members of sentences, connected by comparatives, if they be long, are separated by a comma.”–_Cooper’s New Gram._, p. 195. See the same without the first comma, in _Cooper’s Murray_, p. 183. (23.) “Simple members of sentences connected by comparatives, and phrases placed in opposition to, or in contrast with, each other, are separated by commas.”–_Bullions_, p. 153; _Hiley_, 113. (24.) “On which ever word we lay the emphasis, whether on the first, second, third, or fourth, it strikes out a different sense.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 243. (25.) “To inform those who do not understand sea phrases, that, ‘We tacked to the larboard, and stood off to sea,’ would be expressing ourselves very obscurely.”–_Ib._, p. 296; _and Hiley’s Gram._, p. 151. (26.) “Of dissyllables, which are at once nouns and verbs, the verb has commonly the accent on the latter, and the noun, on the former syllable.”–_Murray_, p. 237. (27.) “And this gives our language a superior advantage to most others, in the poetical and rhetorical style.”–_Id. ib._, p. 38; _Ingersoll_, 27; _Fisk_, 57. (28.) “And this gives the English an advantage above most other languages in the poetical and rhetorical style.”–_Lowth’s Gram_, p. 19. (29.) “The second and third scholar may read the same sentence; and as many, as it is necessary to learn it perfectly to the whole.”–_Osborn’s Key_, p. 4.
(30.) “Bliss is the name in subject as a king, In who obtain defence, or who defend.” –_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 178.
LESSON XVI.–MANY ERRORS.
“The Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Corceans, speak different languages from one another, and from the inhabitants of China, but use, with these last people, the same written characters; a proof that the Chinese characters are like hieroglyphics, independent of language.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 18. “The Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Corceans, who speak different languages from one another, and from the inhabitants of China, use, however, the same written characters with them; and by this means correspond intelligibly with each other in writing, though ignorant of the language spoken in their several countries; a plain proof,” &c.–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 67. “The curved line is made square instead of round, for the reason beforementioned.”–_Knight, on the Greek Alphabet_, p. 6. “Every one should content himself with the use of those tones only that he is habituated to in speech, and to give none other to emphasis, but what he would do to the same words in discourse. Thus whatever he utters will be done with ease, and appear natural.”–_Sheridan’s Elocution_, p. 103. “Stops, or pauses, are a total cessation of sound during a perceptible, and in numerous compositions, a measurable space of time.”–_Ib._, p. 104. “Pauses or rests, in speaking and reading, are a total cessation of the voice during a perceptible, and, in many cases, a measurable space of time.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 248; _English Reader_, p. 13; _Goldsbury’s Gr._, 76; _Kirkham’s_, 208; _Felton’s_, 133; _et al._ “Nouns which express a small one of the kind are called _Diminutive Nouns_; as, lambkin, hillock, satchel, gosling, from lamb, hill, sack, goose.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, 1837, p. 9. “What is the cause that nonsense so often escapes being detected, both by the writer and by the reader?”–_Campbell’s Rhet._, p. xi, and 280. “An Interjection is a word used to express sudden emotion. They are so called, because they are generally thrown in between the parts of a sentence without reference to the structure of the other parts of it.”–_M’Culloch’s Gram._, p. 36. “_Ought_ (in duty bound) _oughtest, oughtedst_, are it’s only inflections.”–_Mackintosh’s Gram._, p. 165. “But the arrangment, government, agreement, and dependence of one word upon another, are referred to our reason.”–_Osborn’s Key, Pref._, p. 3. “_Me_ is a personal pronoun, first person singular, and the accusative case.”–_Guy’s Gram._, p. 20. “The substantive _self_ is added to a pronoun; as, herself, himself, &c.; and when thus united, is called a reciprocal pronoun.”–_Ib._, p. 18. “One cannot avoid thinking that our author had done better to have begun the first of these three sentences, with saying, _it is novelty which bestows charms on a monster_, &c.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 207. “The idea which they present to us of nature’s resembling art, of art’s being considered as an original, and nature as a copy,[451] seems not very distinct nor well brought out, nor indeed very material to our author’s purpose.”–_Ib._, p. 220. “The present construction of the sentence, has plainly been owing to hasty and careless writing.”–_Ib._, p. 220. “Adverbs serve to modify, or to denote some circumstance of an action, or of a quality, relative to its time, place, order, degree, and the other properties of it, which we have occasion to specify.”–_Ib._, p. 84. “The more that any nation is improved by science, and the more perfect their language becomes, we may naturally expect that it will abound more with connective particles.”–_Ib._, p. 85. “Mr. Greenleaf’s book is by far the best adapted for learners of any that has yet appeared on the subject.”–DR. FELTUS and BP. ONDERDONK: _Greenleaf’s Gram._, p. 2. “Punctuation is the art of marking in writing the several pauses, or rests, between sentences, and the parts of sentences, according to their proper quantity or proportion, as they are expressed in a just and accurate pronunciation.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 114. “A compound sentence must be resolved into simple ones, and separated by commas.”–_Greenleaf’s Gram._, p. 41; _Allen Fisk’s_, 155.[452] “Simple sentences should be separated from each other by commas, unless such sentences are connected by a conjunction: as, ‘Youth is passing away, age is approaching and death is near.'”–_Hall’s Gram._, p. 36. “_V_ has the sound of flat _f_, and bears the same relation to it, as _b_ does to _p, d_ to _t_, hard _g_ to _k_, and _z_ to _s_. It has one uniform sound.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 17; _Fisk’s_, 42. “_V_ is flat _f_, and bears the same relation to it as _b_ does to _p, d_ to _t_, hard _g_ to _k_, and _z_ to _s_. It is never irregular.”–_Walker’s Dict._, p. 52. “_V_ has the sound of flat _f_; and bears the same relation to it as _z_ does to _s_. It has one uniform sound.”–_Greenleaf’s Gram._, p. 20. “The author is explaining the distinction, between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 343. [The author is endeavouring] “to explain a very abstract point, the distinction between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 164. “HE (Anglo-Saxon _he_) is a Personal pronoun, of the Third Person, Masculine Gender (Decline he), of the singular number, in the nominative case.”–_Fowler’s E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, Sec.589.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE CRITICAL NOTES.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE I.–OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.
“The passive voice denotes a being acted upon.”–_Maunders Gram._, p. 6.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the term “_being acted upon_” as here used, suggests a doubt concerning its classification in parsing. But, according to Critical Note 1st, “Words that may constitute different parts of speech, must not be left doubtful as to their classification, or to what part of speech they belong.” Therefore, the phraseology should be altered; thus, “The passive voice denotes _an action received_.” Or; “The passive voice denotes _the receiving of an_ action.”]
“Milton, in some of his prose works, has very finely turned periods.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 127; _Jamieson’s_, 129. “These will be found to be all, or chiefly, of that class.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 32. “All appearances of an author’s affecting harmony, are disagreeable.”–_Ib._, p. 127; _Jamieson_, 128. “Some nouns have a double increase, that is, increase by more syllables than one; as, _iter, itin~eris_.”–_Adam’s Gram._, p. 255; _Gould’s_, 241. “The powers of man are enlarged by advancing cultivation.”–_Gurney’s Essays_, p. 62. “It is always important to begin well; to make a favourable impression at first setting out.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 307. “For if one take a wrong method at first setting out, it will lead him astray in all that follows.”–_Ib._, 313. “His mind is full of his subject, and his words are all expressive.”–_Ib._, 179. “How exquisitely is this all performed in Greek!”–_Harris’s Hermes_, p. 422. “How little is all this to satisfy the ambition of an immortal soul!”– _Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 253. “So as to exhibit the object in its full and most striking point of view.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 41. “And that the author know how to descend with propriety to the plain, as well as how to rise to the bold and figured style.”–_Ib._, p. 401. “The heart can only answer to the heart.”–_Ib._, p. 259. “Upon its first being perceived.”–_Harris’s Hermes_, p. 229. “Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.”–_Judges_, xvi, 25. “And he made them sport.”–_Ibid._ “The term _suffer_ in this definition is used in a technical sense, and means simply the receiving of an action, or the being acted upon.”–_Bullions_, p. 29. “The Text is what is only meant to be taught in Schools.”–_Brightland, Pref._, p. ix. “The perfect participle denotes action or being perfected or finished.”– _Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 78. “From the intricacy and confusion which are produced by their being blended together.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 66. “This very circumstance of a word’s being employed antithetically, renders it important in the sentence.”–_Kirkham’s Elocution_, p. 121. “It [the pronoun _that_] is applied to both persons and things.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 53. “Concerning us, as being every where evil spoken of.”–_Barclay’s Works_, Vol. ii, p. vi. “Every thing beside was buried in a profound silence.”–_Steele_. “They raise more full conviction than any reasonings produce.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 367. “It appears to me no more than a fanciful refinement.”–_Ib._, p. 436. “The regular resolution throughout of a complete passage.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. vii. “The infinitive is known by its being immediately preceded by the word _to_.”–_Maunders Gram._, p. 6. “It will not be gaining much ground to urge that the basket, or vase, is understood to be the capital.”–_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 356. “The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject is drinking ink figuratively.”–_Ib._, ii, 231. “That we run not into the extreme of pruning so very close.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 111. “Being obliged to rest for a little on the preposition by itself.”–_Ib._, p. 112; _Jamieson’s Rhet._, 93. “Being obliged to rest a little on the preposition by itself.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 319. “Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.”–_1 Chron._, xxix, 15. “There maybe a more particular expression attempted, of certain objects, by means of resembling sounds.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 129; _Jamieson’s_, 130; _Murray’s Gram._, 331. “The right disposition of the shade, makes the light and colouring strike the more.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, 144. “I observed that a diffuse style inclines most to long periods.”–_Ib._, p. 178. “Their poor Arguments, which they only Pickt up and down the Highway “–_Divine Right of Tythes_, p. iii. “Which must be little, but a transcribing out of their writings.”–_Barclay’s Works_, iii, 353. “That single impulse is a forcing out of almost all the breath.”–_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 254. “Picini compares modulation to the turning off from a road.”–_Gardiner’s Music of Nature_, p. 405. “So much has been written, on and off, of almost every subject.”–_The Friend_, ii, 117. “By reading books written by the best authors, his mind became highly improved.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 201. “For I never made the being richly provided a token of a spiritual ministry.”–_Barclay’s Works_, iii, 470.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE II.–OF DOUBTFUL REFERENCE.
“However disagreeable, we must resolutely perform our duty.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 171.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the adjective _disagreeable_ appears to relate to the pronoun _we_, though such a relation was probably not intended by the author. But, according to Critical Note 2d, “The reference of words to other words, or their syntactical relation according to the sense, should never be left doubtful, by any one who means to be understood.” The sentence may be amended thus: “However disagreeable _the task_, we must resolutely perform our duty.”]
“The formation of verbs in English, both regular and irregular, is derived from the Saxon.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 47. “Time and chance have an influence on all things human, and on nothing more remarkably than on language.”–_Campbell’s Rhet._, p. 180. “Time and chance have an influence on all things human, and on nothing more remarkable than on language.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 47. “Archytases being a virtuous man, who happened to perish once upon a time, is with him a sufficient ground,” &c.–_Philological Museum_, i, 466. “He will be the better qualified to understand, with accuracy, the meaning of a numerous class of words, in which they form a material part.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 120. “We should continually have the goal in view, which would direct us in the race.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 172. “But [Addison’s figures] seem to rise of their own accord from the subject, and constantly embellish it.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 150; _Jamieson’s_, 157. “As far as persons and other animals and things that we can see go, it is very easy to distinguish Nouns.”–_Cobbett’s Gram._, 14. “Dissyllables ending in _y, e_ mute, or accented on the last syllable, may be sometimes compared like monosyllables.”–_Frost’s El. of Gram._, p. 12. “Admitting the above objection, it will not overrule the design.”–_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 140. “These philosophical innovators forget, that objects are like men, known only by their actions.”–_Dr. Murray’s Hist. of Lang._, i, 326. “The connexion between words and ideas is arbitrary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 1. “The connexion between words and ideas may, in general, be considered as arbitrary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 53. “A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage and multiply and defend his corruptions.”–_Swift_. “They have no more control over him than any other men.”–_Wayland’s Moral Science_, 1st Ed., p. 372. “His old words are all true English, and numbers exquisite.”–_Spectator_, No. 540. “It has been said, that not only Jesuits can equivocate.”–_Murray’s Exercises_, 8vo, p. 121. “It has been said, that Jesuits can not only equivocate.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 253. “The nominative of the first and second person in Latin is seldom expressed.”–_Adam’s Gram._, p. 154; _Gould’s_, 157. “Some words are the same in both numbers.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 40; _Ingersoll’s_, 18; _Fisk’s_, 59; _Kirkham’s_, 39; _W. Allen’s_, 42; et al. “Some nouns are the same in both numbers.”–_Merchant’s Gram._, p. 29; _Smith’s_, 45; et al. “Others are the same in both numbers; as, _deer, swine_, &c.”–_Frost’s El. of Gram._, p. 8. “The following list denotes the sounds of the consonants, being in number twenty-two.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 6; _Fisk’s_, 36. “And is the ignorance of these peasants a reason for others to remain ignorant; or to render the subject a less becoming inquiry?”–_Harris’s Hermes_, p. 293; _Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 288. “He is one of the most correct, and perhaps the best, of our prose writers.”–_Lowth’s Gram., Pref._, p. iv., “The motions of a vortex and a whirlwind are perfectly similar.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 131. “What I have been saying throws light upon one important verse in the Bible, which I should like to have read.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 182. “When there are any circumstances of time, place, or other limitations, which the principal object of our sentence requires to have connected with it.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 115; _Jamieson’s Rhet._, 98; _Murray’s Gram._, i, 322. “Interjections are words used to express emotion, affection, or passion, and imply suddenness.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 77. “But the genitive is only used to express the measure of things in the plural number.”–_Adam’s Gram._, p. 200; _Gould’s_, 198. “The buildings of the institution have been enlarged; the expense of which, added to the increased price of provisions, renders it necessary to advance the terms of admission.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 183. “These sentences are far less difficult than complex.”–_S. S. Greene’s Analysis, or Grammar_, 1st Ed., p. 179.
“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray.”–_Gray’s Elegy_.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE III.–OF DEFINITIONS.
(1.) “_Definition_ is such a description of things as exactly describes the thing and that thing only.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 135.
[FORMULE.–Not
proper, because this definition of a _definition_ is not accurately adapted to the thing. But, according to Critical Note 3d, “A definition, in order to be perfect, must include the whole thing, or class of things, which it pretends to define, and exclude every thing which comes not under the name.” [453] The example may be amended thus: “A definition is a _short and lucid_ description of a _thing, or species, according to its nature and properties._”]
(2.) “Language, in general, signifies the expression of our ideas by certain articulate sounds, which are used as the signs of those ideas.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 53. (3.) “A WORD is an articulate _sound_ used by common consent as the sign of an idea,”–_Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gr._, p. 17. (4.) “A word is a sound, or combination of sounds, which is used in the expression of thought”–_Hazen’s Gram._, p. 12. (5.) “_Words_ are articulate sounds, used as _signs_ to convey our ideas.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 5. (6.) “A _word_ is a number of letters used together to represent some idea.”–_Hart’s E. Gram._, p. 28. (7.) “A _Word_ is a combination of letters, used as the sign of an idea.”–_S. W. Clark’s Practical Gram._, p. 9. (8.) “A _word_ is a letter or a combination of letters, used as the sign of an idea.”–_Wells’s School Gram._, p. 41. (9.) “Words are articulate sounds, by which ideas are communicated.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 28. (10.) “Words are certain articulate sounds used by common consent as signs of our ideas.”–_Bullions, Principles of E. Gram._, p. 6; _Lat. Gram._, 6; see _Lowth, Murray, Smith, et al._ (11.) “Words are sounds used as signs of our ideas.”–_W. Allen’s Gram._, p. 30. (12.) “Orthography means _word-making_ or _spelling_.'”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 19; _Smith’s New Gram._, p. 41. (13.) “A vowel is a letter, the name of which constitutes a full, open sound.”–_Hazen’s Gram._, p. 10; _Lennie’s, 5; Brace’s, 7._ (14.) “Spelling is the art of reading by naming the letters singly, and rightly dividing words into their syllables. Or, in writing, it is the expressing of a word by its proper letters.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 5; _Churchill’s_, 20. (15.) “Spelling is the art of rightly dividing words into their syllables, or of expressing a word by its proper letters.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 21; _Ingersoll’s, 6; Merchant’s, 10; Alger’s, 12; Greenleaf’s, 20_; and others. (16) “Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper letters; or of rightly dividing words into syllables.”–_Comly’s Gram._, p. 8. (17.) “Spelling is the art of expressing a word by its proper letters, and rightly dividing it into syllables.”–_Bullions’s Princ. of E. Gram._, p. 2. (18.) “Spelling is the art of expressing a word by its proper letters.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 23; _Sanborn’s_, p. 259. (19.) “A syllable is a sound either simple or compounded, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or part of a word.”–_Lowth_, p. 5; _Murray_, 21; _Ingersoll_, 6; _Fisk_, 11; _Greenleaf_, 20: _Merchant_, 9; _Alger_, 12; _Bucke_, 15; _Smith_, 118; _et al_. (20.) “A Syllable is a complete Sound uttered in one Breath.”–_British Gram._, p. 32; _Buchanan’s_, 5. (21.) “A syllable is a distinct sound, uttered by a single impulse of the voice.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 20. (22.) “A Syllable is a distinct sound forming the whole of a word, or so much of it as can be sounded at once.”–_Bullions, E. Gr._, p. 2. (23.) “A _syllable_ is a word, or part of a word, or as much as can be sounded at once.”–_Picket’s Gram._, p. 10. (24.) “A diphthong is the union of two Vowels, both of which are pronounced as one: as in bear and beat.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 15. (25.) “A diphthong consists of two vowels, forming one syllable; as, _ea_, in _beat_.”–_Guy’s Gram._, p. 2. (26.) “A triphthong consists of three vowels forming one syllable; as, _eau_ in _beauty_.”–_Ib._ (27.) “But the Triphthong is the union of three Vowels, pronounced as one.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 15. (28.) “What is a Noun Substantive? A Noun Substantive is the thing itself; as, a Man, a Boy.”–_British Gram._, p. 85; _Buchanan’s_, 26. (29.) “An adjective is a word added to nouns to describe them.”–_Maunder’s Gram._, p. 1. (30.) “An adjective is a word joined to a noun, to describe or define it.”–_Smith’s New Gram._, p. 51. (31.) “An adjective is a word used to describe or define a noun.”–_Wilcox’s Gram._, p. 2. (32.) “The adjective is added to the noun, to express the quality of it”–_Murray’s Gram._, 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 27; _Lowth_, p. 6. (33.) “An adjective expresses the quality of the noun to which it is applied; and may generally be known by its making sense in connection with it; as, ‘A _good_ man,’ ‘A _genteel_ woman.'”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 34. (34.) “An adverb is a word used to modify the sense of other words.”–_Wilcox’s Gram._, p. 2. (35.) “An adverb is a word joined to a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, to modify or denote some circumstance respecting it.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 66; _Lat. Gram._, 185. (36.) “A Substantive or Noun is a name given to every object which the senses can perceive; the understanding comprehend; or the imagination entertain.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 34. (37.) “GENDER means the distinction of nouns with regard to sex.”–_Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 9. (38.) “Gender is a distinction of nouns with regard to sex.”–_Frost’s Gram._, p. 7. (39.) “Gender is a distinction of nouns in regard to sex.”–_Perley’s Gram._, p. 10. (40.) “Gender is the distinction of nouns, in regard to sex.”–_Cooper’s Murray_, 24; _Practical Gram._, 21. (41.) “Gender is the distinction of nouns with regard to sex.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 37; _Alger’s_, 16; _Bacon’s_, 12; _R. G. Greene’s_, 16; _Bullions, Prin._, 5th Ed., 9; _his New Gr._, 22; _Fisk’s_, 19; _Hull’s_, 9; _Ingersoll’s_, 15. (42.) “Gender is the distinction of sex.”–_Alden’s Gram._, p. 9; _Comly’s_, 20; _Dalton’s_, 11; _Davenport’s_, 15; _J. Flint’s_, 28; A. _Flint’s_, 11; _Greenleaf’s_, 21; _Guy’s_, 4; _Hart’s_, 36; _Hiley’s_, 12; _Kirkham’s_, 34; _Lennie’s_, 11; _Picket’s_, 25; _Smith’s_, 43; _Sanborn’s_, 25; _Wilcox’s_, 8. (43.) “Gender is the distinction of Sex, or the Difference betwixt Male and Female.”–_British Gram._, p. 94; _Buchanan’s_, 18. (44.) “Why are nouns divided into genders? To distinguish their sexes.”–_Fowle’s True Eng. Gram._, p. 10. (45.) “What is meant by _Gender?_ The different sexes.”–_Burn’s Gram._, p. 34. (46) “Gender, in grammar, is a difference of termination, to express distinction of sex.”–_Webster’s Philos. Gram._, p 30; _Improved Gram._, 22. (47.) “Gender signifies a distinction of nouns, according to the different sexes of things they denote.”–_Coar’s Gram._, p. 2. (48.) “Gender is the distinction occasioned by sex. Though there are but two sexes, still nouns necessarily admit of four distinctions[454] of gender.”–_Hall’s Gram._, p. 6. (49.) “Gender is a term which is employed for the distinction of nouns with regard to sex and species.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 41. (50.) “Gender is a Distinction of Sex.”–_Fisher’s Gram._, p. 53. (51.) “GENDER marks the distinction of Sex.”–_W. Allen’s Gram._, p. 37. (52.) “_Gender_ means the kind, or sex. There are four genders.”–_Parker and Fox’s, Part I_, p. 7. (53.) “Gender is a property of the noun which distinguishes sex.”–_Weld’s Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 57. (54.) “Gender is a property of the noun or pronoun by which it distinguishes sex.”–_Weld’s Grammar Abridged_, p. 49. (55.) “Case is the state or condition of a noun with respect to the other words in a sentence.”–_Bullion’s, E. Gram._, p. 16; _his Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p. 31. (56.) “_Case_ means the different state or situation of nouns with regard to other words.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 55. (57.) “The cases of substantives signify their different terminations, which serve to express the relation of one thing to another.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 35. (58.) “Government is the power which one _part of speech_ has over _another_, when it causes it or requires it to be of some particular person, number, gender, case, style, or mode.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 126; see _Murray’s Gram._, 142; _Smith’s_, 119; _Pond’s_, 88; _et al_. (59.) “A simple sentence is a sentence which contains only one nominative case and one verb to agree with it.”–_Sanborn, ib._; see _Murray’s Gram., et al_. (60.) “Declension means putting a noun through the different cases.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 58. (61.) “Zeugma is when two or more substantives have a verb in common, which is applicable only to one of them.”–_B. F. Fisk’s Greek Gram._, p. 185. (62.) “An Irregular Verb is that which has its passed tense and perfect participle terminating differently; as, smite, smote, smitten.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 92. (63.) “_Personal_ pronouns are employed as substitutes for nouns that denote _persons_.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 23.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE IV.–OF COMPARISONS.
“We abound more in vowel and diphthong sounds, than most languages.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 89.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the
terms _we_ and _languages_, which are here used to form a comparison, express things which are totally unlike. But, according to Critical Note 4th, “A comparison is a form of speech which requires some similarity or common property in the things compared; without which, it becomes a solecism.” Therefore, the expression ought to be changed; thus, “_Our language abounds_ more in vowel and diphthong sounds, than most _other tongues_.” Or: “We abound more in vowel and _diphthongal_ sounds, than most _nations_.”]
“A line thus accented, has a more spirited air, than when the accent is placed on any other syllable.”–_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 86. “Homer introduceth his deities with no greater ceremony than as mortals; and Virgil has still less moderation.”–_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 287. “Which the more refined taste of later writers, who had far inferior genius to them, would have taught them to avoid.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 28. “The poetry, however, of the Book of Job, is not only equal to that of any other of the sacred writings, but is superior to them all, except those of Isaiah alone.”–_Ib._, p. 419. “On the whole, Paradise Lost is a poem that abounds with beauties of every kind, and that justly entitles its author to a degree of fame not inferior to any poet.”–_Ib._, p. 452. “Most of the French writers compose in short sentences; though their style in general, is not concise; commonly less so than the bulk of English writers, whose sentences are much longer.”–_Ib._, p. 178. “The principles of the Reformation were deeper in the prince’s mind than to be easily eradicated.”–HUME: _Cobbett’s E. Gram._, 217. “Whether they do not create jealousy and animosity more hurtful than the benefit derived from them.”–DR. J. LEO WOLF: _Lit. Conv._, p. 250. “The Scotch have preserved the ancient character of their music more entire than any other country.”–_Music of Nature_, p. 461. “When the time or quantity of one syllable exceeds the rest, that syllable readily receives the accent.”–_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 277. “What then can be more obviously true than that it should be made as just as we can?”–_Dymond’s Essays_, p. 198. “It was not likely that they would criminate themselves more than they could avoid.”–_Clarkson’s Hist., Abridged_, p. 76. “Their understandings were the most acute of any people who have ever lived.”–_Knapp’s Lectures_, p32. “The patentees have printed it with neat types, and upon better paper than was done formerly.”–_Lily’s Gram., Pref._, p. xiii. “In reality, its relative use is not exactly like any other word.”–_Felch’s Comprehensive Gram._, p. 62. “Thus, instead of two books, which are required, (the grammar and the exercises,) the learner finds both in one, for a price at least not greater than the others.”–_Bullions’s E. Gram._, Recom., p. iii; _New Ed._, Recom., p. 6. “They are not improperly regarded as pronouns, though in a sense less strict than the others”–_Ib._, p. 199. “We have had the opportunity, as will readily be believed, of becoming conversant with the case much more particularly, than the generality of our readers can be supposed to have had.”–_The British Friend_, 11mo, 29th, 1845.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE V.–OF FALSITIES.
“The long sound of _i_ is compounded of the sound of _a_, as heard in _ball_, and that of _e_, as heard in _be_.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. 3.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the sentence falsely teaches, that the long sound of _i_ is that of the diphthong heard in _oil_ or _boy_. But, according to Critical Note 5th, “Sentences that convey a meaning manifestly false, should be changed, rejected, or contradicted; because they distort language from its chief end, or only worthy use; which is, to state facts, and to tell the truth.” The error may be corrected thus: “The long sound of _i_ is _like a very quick union_ of the sound of _a_, as heard in _bar_, and that of _e_, as heard in _be_.”]
“The omission of a word necessary to grammatical propriety, is called ELLIPSIS.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 45. “Every substantive is of the third person.”–_Alexander Murray’s Gram._, p. 91. “A noun, when the subject is spoken _to_, is in the second person; and when spoken _of_, it is in the third person; but never in the first.”–_Nutting’s Gram._, p. 17. “With us, no substantive nouns have gender, or are masculine and feminine, except the proper names of male and female creatures.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 156. “Apostrophe is a little mark signifying that something is shortened; as, for William his hat, we say, William’s hat.”–_Infant School Gram._, p. 30. “When a word beginning with a vowel is coupled with one beginning with a consonant, the indefinite article must be repeated; thus, ‘Sir Matthew Hale was _a_ noble and _an_ impartial judge;’ ‘Pope was _an_ elegant and _a_ nervous writer.'”–_Maunder’s Gram._, p. 11. “_W_ and _y_ are consonants, when they begin a word or syllable; but in every other situation they are vowels.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 7: _Bacon, Comly, Cooper, Fish, Ingersoll, Kirkham, Smith, et al_. “_The_ is used before all adjectives and substantives, let them begin as they will.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 26. “Prepositions are also prefixed to words in such manner, as to coalesce with them, and to become a part of them.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 66. “But _h_ is entirely silent at the beginning of syllables not accented, as _historian_.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 5. “Any word that will make sense with _to_ before it, is a verb.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 44. “Verbs do not, in reality, express actions; but they are intrinsically the mere _names_ of actions.”–_Ib._, p. 37. “The nominative is the actor or subject, and the active verb is the action performed by the nominative.”–_Ib._, p. 45. “If, therefore, only one creature or thing acts, only one action, at the same instant, can be done; as, the _girl writes_.”–_Ib._, 45. “The verb _writes_ denotes but one action, which the girl performs; therefore the verb _writes_ is of the singular number.”–_Ib._, 45. “And when I say, Two men _walk_, is it not equally apparent, that _walk_ is plural, because it expresses _two_ actions?”–_Ib._, p. 47. “The subjunctive mood is formed by adding a conjunction to the indicative mood.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 16. “The possessive case should always be distinguished by the apostrophe.”– _Frost’s El. of Gram._, Rule 44th, p. 49. “‘At these proceedings of the commons,’–Here _of_ is the sign of the genitive or possessive case, and _commons_ is of that case, governed of proceedings.”–_Alex. Murray’s Gram._, p. 95. “Here let it be observed again that, strictly speaking, no verbs have numbers nor persons, neither have nouns nor pronouns persons, when they refer to irrational creatures and inanimate things.”–_S. Barrett’s Gram._, p. 136. “The noun or pronoun denoting the person or thing addressed or spoken to, is in the nominative case independent.”–_Frost’s El. of Gram._, Rule 8th, p. 44. “Every noun, when addressed, becomes of the second person, and is in the nominative case absolute; as–‘_Paul_, thou art beside thyself.'”–_Jaudon’s Gram._, Rule 19th, p. 108. “Does the Conjunction join Words together? No; only Sentences.”–_British Gram._, p. 103. “No; the Conjunction only joins sentences together.”–_Buchanan’s Gram._, p. 64. “Every Genitive has a Noun to govern it, expressed or understood; as, St. James’s, _Palace_ is understood; therefore one Genitive cannot govern another.”–_Ib._, p. 111. “Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun, belongs to a substantive, expressed or understood.”– _Murray’s Gram._, p. 161; _Bacon’s_, 48; _Alger’s_, 57; _et al_. “Every adjective qualifies a substantive expressed or understood.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 97. “Every adjective belongs to some noun expressed or understood.”–_Ingersoll’s Gram._, p. 36. “Adjectives belong to the nouns which they describe.”–_Smith’s New Gram._, p. 137. “Adjectives must agree with the nouns, which they qualify.”–_Fisk’s Murray_, p. 101. “The Adjective must agree with its Substantive in Number.”–_Buchanan’s Gram._, p. 94. “Every adjective and participle belongs to some noun or pronoun expressed or understood.”–_Frost’s El. of Gram._, p. 44. “Every Verb of the Infinitive Mood, supposes a verb before it expressed or understood.”–_Buchanan’s Gram._, p. 94. “Every Adverb has its Verb expressed or understood.”–_Ib._, p. 94. “Conjunctions which connect Sentence to Sentence, are always placed betwixt the two Propositions or Sentences which they unite.”–_Ib._, p. 88. “The words _for all that_, seem to be too low.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 213. “_For all that_ seems to be too low and vulgar.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 139. “The reader, or hearer, then, understands from _and_, that he is to add something.”–_J. Brown’s E. Syntax_, p. 124. “But _and_ never, never connects one _thing_ with another thing, nor one _word_ with another word.”–_Ib._, p. 122. “‘Six, and six are twelve.’ Here it is affirmed that, _six is twelve_!”–_Ib._, p. 120. “‘John, and his wife have six children.’ This is an instance of gross _catachresis_. It is here affirmed that John has six children, and that his wife has six children.”–_Ib._, p. 122. “Nothing which is not right can be great.”–_Murray’s Exercises_, 8vo, p. 146: see _Rambler_, No. 185. “Nothing can be great which is not right.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 277. “The highest degree of reverence should be paid to youth.”–_Ib._, p. 278. “There is, in many minds, neither knowledge nor understanding.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 151; _Russell’s_, 84; _Alger’s_, 54; _Bacon’s_, 47; _et al_. “Formerly, what we call the objective cases of our pronouns, were employed in the same manner as our present nominatives are.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 164. “As it respects a choice of words and expressions, no rules of grammar can materially aid the learner.”–_S. S. Greene’s Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 202. “Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, is a Noun.”–_Fowler’s E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, Sec.137. “As all men are not brave, _brave_ is itself comparative.”–_Ib._, Sec.190.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VI.–OF ABSURDITIES.
(1.) “And sometimes two unaccented syllables follow each other.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 384.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the phrase, “_follow each other_,” is here an absurdity; it being impossible for two things to “follow each other,” except they alternate, or whirl round. But, according to Critical Note 6th, “Absurdities, of every kind, are contrary to grammar; because they are contrary to reason, or good sense, which is the foundation of grammar.” Therefore, a different expression should here be chosen; thus: “And sometimes two unaccented syllables _come together_.” Or: “And sometimes _one_ unaccented _syllable follows an_ other.”]
(2.) “What nouns frequently succeed each other?”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 65. (3.) “Words are derived from one another in various ways.”–_Ib._, p. 288; _Merchant’s Gram._, 78; _Weld’s_, 2d Edition, 222. (4.) “Prepositions are derived from the two Latin words _prae_ and _pono_, which signify before and place.”–_Mack’s Gram._, p. 86. (5.) “He was sadly laughed at for such conduct.”–_Bullion’s E. Gram._, p. 79. (6.) “Every adjective pronoun belongs to some noun or pronoun expressed or understood.”–_Ingersoll’s Gram._, p. 212. (7.) “If he [Addison] fails in anything, it is in want of strength and precision, which renders his manner not altogether a proper model.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 187. (8.) “Indeed, if Horace be deficient in any thing, it is in this, of not being sufficiently attentive to juncture and connexion of parts.”–_Ib._, p. 401. (9.) “The pupil is now supposed to be acquainted with the nine sorts of speech, and their most usual modifications.”–_Taylor’s District School_, p. 204. (10.) “I could see, hear, taste, and smell the rose.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 156. (11.) “The triphthong _iou_ is sometimes pronounced distinctly in two syllables; as in bilious, various, abstemious.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 13; _Walker’s Dict._, Prin. 292, p. 37. (12.) “The diphthong _aa_ generally sounds like a short in proper names; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac; but not in Baal, Gaal.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 10. (13.) “Participles are sometimes governed by the article; for the present participle, with the definite article _the_ before it, becomes a substantive.”–_Ib._, p. 192. (14.) “Words ending with _y_, preceded by a consonant, form the plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, verbal nouns, past participles, comparatives and superlatives, by changing _y_ into _i_.”–_Walker’s Rhyming Dict._, p. viii; _Murray’s Gram._, 23; _Merchant’s Murray_, 13; _Fisk’s_, 44; _Kirkham’s_, 23; _Greenleaf’s_, 20; _Wright’s Gram._, 28; _et al_. (15.) “But _y_ preceded by a vowel, _in such instances as the above_, is not changed; as boy, boys.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 24; _Merchant’s, Fisk’s, Kirkham’s, Greenleaf’s, et al_. (16.) “But when _y_ is preceded by a vowel, it is very rarely[455] changed in the additional syllable: as coy, coyly.”–_Murray’s Gram. again_, p. 24; _Merchant’s_, 14; _Fisk’s_, 45; _Greenleaf’s_, 20; _Wright’s_, 29; _et al_. (17.) “But when _y_ is preceded by a vowel, _in such instances_, it is very rarely changed into _i_; as coy, COYLESS.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 24. (18.) “Sentences are of a twofold nature: Simple and Compound.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 123. (19.) “The neuter pronoun _it_ is applied to all nouns and pronouns: as, _It_ is _he; it_ is _she; it_ is _they; it_ is the _land_.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 92. (20.) “_It is_ and _it was_, are often used in a plural construction; as, ‘_It was_ the heretics who first began to rail.'”–_Merchant’s Gram._, p. 87. (21.) “_It is_ and _it was_, are often, after the manner of the French, used in a plural construction, and by some of our best writers: as, ‘_It was_ the _heretics that_ first began to rail.’ Smollett.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 190; _Murray’s_, 158; _Smith’s_, 134; _Ingersoll’s_, 210; _Fisk’s_, 115; _et al_. (22.) “_w_ and _y_, as consonants, have one sound.”–_Town’s Spelling-Book_, p. 9. (23.) “The conjunction _as_ is frequently used as a relative.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 93. (24.) “When several clauses succeed each other, the conjunction may be omitted with propriety.”–_Merchant’s Gram._, p. 97. (25.) “If, however, the members succeeding each other, are very closely connected, the comma is unnecessary: as, ‘Revelation tells us how we may attain happiness.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 273; _Merchant’s_, 151; _Russell’s_, 115; _Comly’s_, 152; _Alger’s_, 80; _Smith’s_, 190; _et al_. (26.) “The mind has difficulty in passing readily through so many different views given it, in quick succession, of the same object.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 149. (27.) “The mind has difficulty in passing readily through many different views of the same object, presented in quick succession.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 341. (28.) “Adjective pronouns are a kind of adjectives which point out nouns by some distinct specification.”–_Kirkham’s Gram., the Compend, or Table_. (29.) “A noun of multitude conveying plurality of idea[456], must have a verb or pronoun agreeing with it in the plural.”–_Ib._, pp. 59 and 181: see also _Lowth’s Gram._, p. 74; _L. Murray’s_, 152; _Comly’s_, 80; _Lennie’s_, 87; _Alger’s_, 54; _Jaudon’s_, 96; _Alden’s_, 81; _Parker and Fox’s_, I, 76; II, 26; _and others_. (30.) “A noun or pronoun signifying possession, is governed by the noun it possesses.”–_Greenleaf’s Gram._, p. 35. (31.) “A noun signifying possession, is governed by the noun which it possesses.”–_Wilbur and Livingston’s Gram._, p. 24. (32.) “A noun or pronoun in the possessive case is governed by the noun it possesses.”–_Goldsbury’s Gram._, p. 68. (33.) “The possessive case is governed by the person or thing possessed; as, ‘this is _his_ book.'”–_P. E. Day’s Gram._, p. 81. (34.) “A noun or pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the noun which it possesses.”–_Kirkham’s Gram., Rule_ 12th, pp. 52 and 181; _Frazer’s Gram._, 1844, p. 25; _F. H. Miller’s_, 21. (35.) “Here the boy is represented as acting. He is, therefore, in the nominative case.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 41. (36.) “Some of the auxiliaries are themselves principal verbs, as: _have, do, will_, and _am_, or _be_.”–_Cooper’s Grammars, both_, p. 50. (37.) “Nouns of the male kind are masculine. Those of the female kind are feminine.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 6. (38.) “‘To-day’s lesson is longer than yesterday’s:’ here _to-day_ and _yesterday_ are substantives.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 114; _Ingersoll’s_, 50; _et al._ (39.) “In this example, _to-day_ and _yesterday_ are nouns in the possessive case.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 88. (40.) “An Indian in Britain would be much surprised to stumble upon an elephant feeding at large in the open fields.”–_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 219. (41.) “If we were to contrive a new language, we might make any articulate sound the sign of any idea: there would be no impropriety in calling oxen _men_, or rational beings by the name of _oxen_.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 139. (42.) “All the parts of a sentence should correspond to each other.”–_Ib._, p. 222; _Kirkham’s_, 193; _Ingersoll’s_, 275; _Goldsbury’s_, 74; _Hiley’s_, 110; _Weld’s_, 193; _Alger’s_, 71; _Fisk’s_, 148; _S. Putnam’s_, 95; _Merchant’s_, 101; _Merchant’s Murray_, 95.
(43.) “Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped, Along the pavement roll’d the mutt’ring head.” –_Odyssey_, xxii, 365.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VII.–OF SELF-CONTRADICTION.
(1.) “Though the construction will not admit of a _plural verb_, the sentence would certainly stand better thus: ‘The king, the lords, and the commons, _form_ an excellent constitution.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 151; _Ingersoll’s_, 239.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the first clause here quoted is contradicted by the last. But, according to Critical Note 7th, “Every writer or speaker should be careful not to contradict himself; for what is self-contradictory, is both null in argument, and bad in style.” The following change may remove the discrepance: “Though ‘The king _with_ the lords and commons,’ _must have a singular rather than_ a plural verb, the sentence would certainly stand better thus: ‘The king, the lords, _and_ the commons, _form_ an excellent constitution.'”]
(2.) “_L_ has always a soft liquid sound; as in love, billow, quarrel. It is sometimes mute: as in half, talk, psalm.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 14; _Fisk’s_, 40. (3.) “_L_ has always a soft liquid sound; as in _love, billow_. It is often silent; as in _half, talk, almond_.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 22. (4.) “The words _means_ and _amends_, though formerly used in the singular, as well as in the plural number, are now, by polite writers, restricted to the latter. Our most distinguished modern authors say, ‘by _this means_,’ as well as, by _these means_.'”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 150. (5.) “‘A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues: an enemy inflames his crimes.’ Better thus: ‘A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues: an enemy his crimes.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, Vol. i, p. 325. “A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes”–_Key_, Vol. ii, p. 173. (6.) “The auxiliary _have_, in the perfect tense of the subjunctive mood, should be avoided.”–_Merchant’s Gram._, p. 97. “Subjunctive Mood, Perfect Tense. If I _have_ loved, If thou hast loved,” &c.–p. 51. (7.) “There is also an impropriety in governing both the indicative and subjunctive moods, with the same conjunction; as, ‘_If_ a man _have_ a hundred sheep, and _if_ one of them _be_ gone astray,’ &c. It should be, and one of them _is_ gone astray, &c.”–_Ib._, p. 97. (8.) “The rising series of contrasts convey inexpressible dignity and energy to the conclusion.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 79. (9.) “A groan or a shriek is instantly understood, as a language extorted by distress, a language which no art can counterfeit, and which conveys a meaning that words are utterly inadequate to express.”–_Porter’s Analysis_, p. 127. “A groan or shriek speaks to the ear, as the language of distress, with far more thrilling effect than words. Yet these may be counterfeited by art.”–_Ib._, p. 147. (10.) “These words [_book_ and _pen_] cannot be put together in such a way as will constitute plurality.”–_James Brown’s English Syntax_, p. 125. (11.) “Nor can the real _pen_, and the real _book_ be expressed in two words in such a manner as will constitute _plurality_ in _grammar._”–_Ibid._ (12.) “_Our_ is an adjective pronoun of the possessive kind. Decline it.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 227. (13.) “_This_ and _that_, and likewise their Plurals, are always opposed to each other in a Sentence.”–_Buchanan’s Syntax_, p. 103. “When _this_ or _that_ is used alone, i.e. not opposed to each other, _this_ is written or spoken of Persons or Things immediately present, and as it were before our Eyes, or nearest with relation to Place or Time. _That_ is spoken or written of Persons or Things passed, absent and distant in relation to Time and Place.”–_Ibid._ (14.) “Active and neuter verbs may be conjugated by adding their present participle to the auxiliary verb _to be_, through all its variations.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 159. “_Be_ is an auxiliary whenever it is placed before the perfect participle of another verb, but in every other situation, it is a _principal_ verb.”–_Ib._, p. 155. (15.) “A verb in the imperative mood, is always of the second person.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 136. “The verbs, according to an idiom of our language, or the poet’s license, are used in the _imperative_, agreeing with a nominative of the first or third person.”–_Ib._, p. 164. (16.) “Personal Pronouns are distinguished from the relative, by their denoting the _person_ of the nouns for which they stand.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 97. “Pronouns of the first person, do not agree in person with the nouns they represent.”–_Ib._, p. 98. (17.) “Nouns have three cases, nominative, possessive, and objective.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 6. “Personal pronouns have, like nouns, two cases, nominative and objective.”–_Ib._, p. 10. (18.). “In some instances the preposition suffers no change, but becomes an adverb merely by its application: as, ‘He was _near_ falling.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 116. (19.) “Some nouns are used only in the plural; as, _ashes, literati, minutiae_, SHEEP, DEER.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 43. “Some nouns are the same in both numbers, as, _alms, couple_, DEER, _series, species, pair_, SHEEP.”–_Ibid._ “Among the inferior parts of speech there are some _pairs_ or _couples_”–_Ib._, p. 94. (20.) “Concerning the pronominal _adjectives_, that _can_ and _can not, may_ and _may not_, represents _its_ noun.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 336. (21.) “The _article a_ is in a few instances employed in the sense of a _preposition_; as, Simon Peter said I go _a_ [to] fishing.”–_Weld’s Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 177; Abridg., 128. “‘To go a fishing;’ i.e. to go _on_ a fishing voyage or business.”–_Weld’s Gram._, p. 192. (22.) “So also verbs, really transitive, are used intransitively, when they have no object.”–_Bullions’s Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, p. 60.
(23.) “When first young Maro, in his boundless mind, A work t’ outlast immortal Rome design’d.” –_Pope, on Crit._, l. 130.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VIII.–OF SENSELESS JUMBLING.
“Number distinguishes them [viz., _nouns_], as one, or many, of the same kind, called the singular and plural.”–_Dr. Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric_, p. 74.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the words of this text appear to be so carelessly put together, as to make nothing but jargon, or a sort of scholastic balderdash. But, according to Critical Note 8th, “To jumble together words without care for the sense, is an unpardonable negligence, and an abuse of the human understanding.” I think the learned author should rather have said: “_There are two numbers_ called the singular and _the_ plural, _which_ distinguish nouns as _signifying either_ one _thing_, or many of the same kind.”]
“Here the noun _James Munroe_ is addressed, he is spoken to, it is here a noun of the second person.”–_Mack’s Gram._, p. 66. “The number and case of a verb can never be ascertained until its nominative is known.”–_Emmons’s Gram._, p. 36. “A noun of multitude, or signifying many, may have the verb and pronoun agreeing with it either in the singular or plural number; yet not without regard to the import of the word, as conveying unity or plurality of idea.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 75; _Murray’s_, 152; _Alger’s_, 54; _Russell’s_, 55; _Ingersoll’s_, 248; _et al._ “To express the present and past imperfect of the active and neuter verb, the auxiliary _do_ is sometimes used: I _do_ (now) love; I _did_ (then) love.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 40. “If these are perfectly committed, they will be able to take twenty lines for a lesson on the second day; and may be increased each day.”–_Osborn’s Key_, p. 4. “When _c_ is joined with _h (ch)_, they are generally sounded in the same manner: as in Charles, church, cheerfulness, and cheese. But foreign words (except in those derived from the French, as _chagrin, chicanery_, and _chaise_, in which _ch_ are sounded like _sh_) are pronounced like _k_; as in Chaos, character, chorus, and chimera.”–_Bucke’s Classical Gram._, p. 10. “Some substantives, naturally neuter, are, by a figure of speech, converted into the masculine or feminine gender.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 37; _Comly’s_, 20; _Bacon’s_, 13; _A Teacher’s_, 8; _Alger’s_, 16; _Lennie’s_, 11; _Fisk’s_, 56; _Merchant’s_, 27; _Kirkham’s_, 35; _et al._ “Words in the English language may be classified under ten general heads, the names of which classes are usually termed the ten parts of speech.”–_Nutting’s Gram._, p. 14. “‘Mercy is the true badge of nobility.’ _Nobility_ is a noun of multitude, mas. and fem. gender, third person, sing. and in the obj. case, and governed by ‘of:’ RULE 31.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 161. “gh, are either silent, or have the sound of f, as in laugh.”–_Town’s Spelling-Book_, p. 10. “As many people as were destroyed, were as many languages or dialects lost and blotted out from the general catalogue.”–_Chazotte’s Essay_, p. 25. “The _grammars_ of some languages contain a greater number of _the_ moods, than _others_, and exhibit _them_ in different forms.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo. Vol. i, p. 95. “A COMPARISON OR SIMILE, is, _when_ the resemblance between two objects _is expressed in form_, and _generally pursued_ more fully than the nature of a metaphor admits.”–_Ib._, p. 343. “In _some dialects_, the word _what_ is improperly used for _that_, and sometimes we find it in _this sense_ in writing.”–_Ib._, p. 156; _Priestley’s Gram._, 93; _Smith’s_, 132; _Merchant’s_, 87; _Fisk’s_, 114; _Ingersoll’s_, 220; _et al._ “Brown makes great ado concerning the adname principles of preceding works, in relation to the _gender_ of pronouns.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 323. “The nominative precedes and performs the action of the verb.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 8. “The Primitive are those which cannot receive more simple forms than those which they already possess.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 28. “The long sound [of _i_] is always marked by the _e_ final in monosyllables; as, thin, thine; except give, live.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 13; _Fisk’s_, 39; _et al._ “But the third person or thing spoken of being absent, and in many respects unknown, it is necessary that it should be marked by a distinction of gender.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 21; _L. Murray’s_, 51; _et al._ “Each of the diphthongal letters was doubtless, originally heard in pronouncing the words which contain them. Though this is not the case at present, with respect to many of them, these combinations still retain the name of diphthongs; but, to distinguish them, they are marked by the term _improper_.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 9; _Fisk’s_, 37; _et al._ “A Mode is the form of, or manner of using a verb, by which the being, action, or passion is expressed “–_Alex. Murray’s Gram._, p. 32. “The word _that_ is a demonstrative pronoun when it is followed immediately by a substantive, to which it is either joined, or refers, and which it limits or qualifies.”–_Lindley Murray’s Gram._, p. 54.
“The guiltless woe of being past,
Is future glory’s deathless heir.”–_Sumner L. Fairfield._
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE IX.–OF WORDS NEEDLESS.
“A knowledge of grammar enables us to express ourselves better in conversation and in writing composition.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 7.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the word _composition_ is here needless. But, according to Critical Note 9th, “Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber the expression, ought in general to be omitted.” The sentence would be better without this word, thus: “A knowledge of grammar enables us to express ourselves better in conversation and in writing.”]
“And hence we infer, that there is no other dictator here but use.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 42. “Whence little else is gained, except correct spelling and pronunciation.”–_Town’s Spelling-Book_, p. 5. “The man who is faithfully attached to religion, may be relied on, with humble confidence.”–_Merchants School Gram._, p. 76. “Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?”–_2 Sam._, vii, 5. “The house was deemed polluted which was entered into by so abandoned a woman.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 279. “The farther that he searches, the firmer will be his belief.”–_Keith’s Evidences_, p. 4. “I deny not, but that religion consists in these things.”–_Barclays Works_, i, 321. “Except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.”–_Esther_, ii, 14. “The proper method of reading these lines, is to read them according as the sense dictates.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 386. “When any words become obsolete, or at least are never used, except as constituting part of particular phrases, it is better to dispense with their service entirely, and give up the phrases.”–_Campbell’s Rhet._, p. 185; _Murray’s Gram._, p. 370. “Those savage people seemed to have no element but that of war.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 211. “_Man_ is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and in the nominative case.”–_J. Flint’s Gram._, p. 33. “The orator, according as circumstances require, will employ them all.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 247. “By deferring our repentance, we accumulate our sorrows.”–_Murray’s Key_, ii, p. 166. “There is no doubt but that public speaking became early an engine of government.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 245. “The different meaning of these two first words may not at first occur.”–_Ib._, p. 225. “The sentiment is well expressed by Plato, but much better by Solomon than him.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 214; _Ingersoll’s_, 251; _Smith’s_, 179; _et al_. “They have had a greater privilege than we have had.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 211. “Every thing should be so arranged, as that what goes before may give light and force to what follows.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 311. “So as that his doctrines were embraced by great numbers.”–UNIV. HIST.: _Priestley’s Gram._, p. 139. “They have taken another and a shorter cut.”–SOUTH: _Joh. Dict._ “The Imperfect Tense of a regular verb is formed from the present by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the present; as, ‘I _loved_.'”–_Frost’s El. of Gram._, p. 32. “The pronoun _their_ does not agree in gender or number with the noun ‘man,’ for which it stands.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 182. “This mark denotes any thing of wonder, surprise, joy, grief, or sudden emotion.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 19. “We are all accountable creatures, each for himself.”–_Murray’s Key_, p. 204; _Merchant’s_, 195. “If he has commanded it, then I must obey.”–_Smith’s New Gram._, pp. 110 and 112. “I now present him with a form of the diatonic scale.”–_Dr. John Barber’s Elocution_, p. xi. “One after another of their favourite rivers have been reluctantly abandoned.”–_Hodgson’s Tour_. “_Particular_ and _peculiar_ are words of different import from each other.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 196. “Some adverbs admit rules of comparison: as Soon, sooner, soonest.”–_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 76. “From having exposed himself too freely in different climates, he entirely lost his health.”–_Murray’s Key_. p. 200. “The Verb must agree with its Nominative before it in Number and Person.”–_Buchanan’s Syntax_, p. 93. “Write twenty short sentences containing only adjectives.”–_Abbot’s Teacher_, p. 102. “This general inclination and tendency of the language seems to have given occasion to the introducing of a very great corruption.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 60. “The second requisite of a perfect sentence, is its _Unity_.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 311. “It is scarcely necessary to apologize for omitting to insert their names.”–_Ib._, p. vii. “The letters of the English Language, called the English Alphabet, are twenty-six in number.”–_Ib._, p. 2; _T. Smith’s_, 5; _Fisk’s_, 10; _Alger’s_, 9; _et al_. “A writer who employs antiquated or novel phraseology, must do it with design: he cannot err from inadvertence as he may do it with respect to provincial or vulgar expressions.”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 56. “The _Vocative_ case, in some Grammars, is wholly omitted; why, if we must have cases, I could never understand the propriety of.”–_Bucke’s Classical Gram._, p. 45. “Active verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary verb _I have_; passive verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary verb _I am_.”–_Ib._, p. 57. “What word, then, may _and_ be called? A Conjunction.”–_Smith’s New Gram._, p. 37. “Have they ascertained the person who gave the information?”–_Bullions’s E. Gram._, p. 81.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE X.–OF IMPROPER OMISSIONS.
“All qualities of things are called adnouns, or adjectives.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 10.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because this expression lacks two or three words which are necessary to the sense intended. But according to Critical Note 10th, “Words necessary to the sense, or even to the melody or beauty of a sentence, ought seldom, if ever, to be omitted.” The sentence may be amended thus: “All _words signifying concrete_ qualities of things, are called adnouns, or adjectives.”]
“The–signifies the long or accented syllable, and the breve indicates a short or unaccented syllable.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 118. “Whose duty is to help young ministers.”–_N. E. Discipline_, p. 78. “The passage is closely connected with what precedes and follows.”–_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 255 “The work is not completed, but soon will be.”–_Smith’s Productive Gram._, p. 113. “Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared?”–_Isaiah_, lvii, 11. “There is a God who made and governs the world.”–_Butler’s Analogy_, p. 263. “It was this made them so haughty.”–_Goldsmith’s Greece_, Vol. ii, p. 102. “How far the whole charge affected him is not easy to determine.”– _Ib._, i, p. 189. “They saw, and worshipped the God, that made them.”– _Bucke’s Gram._, p. 157. “The errors frequent in the use of hyperboles, arise either from overstraining, or introducing them on unsuitable occasions.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 256. “The preposition _in_ is set before countries, cities, and large towns; as, ‘He lives _in_ France, _in_ London, or _in_ Birmingham.’ But before villages, single houses, and cities which are in distant countries, _at_ is used; as, ‘He lives _at_ Hackney.'”–_Ib._, p. 204; _Dr. Ash’s Gram._, 60; _Ingersoll’s_, 232; _Smith’s_, 170; _Fisk’s_, 143; _et al._ “And, in such recollection, the thing is not figured as in our view, nor any image formed.”–_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 86. “Intrinsic and relative beauty must be handled separately.”–_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 336. “He should be on his guard not to do them injustice, by disguising, or placing them in a false light.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 272. “In that work, we are frequently interrupted by unnatural thoughts.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 275. “To this point have tended all the rules I have given.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 120. “To these points have tended all the rules which have been given.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 356. “Language, as written, or oral, is addressed to the eye, or to the ear.”–_Lit. Conv._, p. 181. “He will learn, Sir, that to accuse and prove are very different.”–_Walpole_. “They crowded around the door so as to prevent others going out.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 17. “One person or thing is singular number; more than one person or thing is plural number.”–_John Flint’s Gram._, p. 27. “According to the sense or relation in which nouns are used, they are in the NOMINATIVE or POSSESSIVE CASE, thus, _nom_. man; _poss_. man’s.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 11. “Nouns or pronouns in the possessive case are placed before the nouns which govern them, to which they belong.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 130. “A teacher is explaining the difference between a noun and verb.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 72. “And therefore the two ends, or extremities, must directly answer to the north and south pole.”–HARRIS: _Joh. Dict., w. Gnomon_. “_Walks_ or _walketh, rides_ or _rideth, stands_ or _standeth_, are of the third person singular.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 47. “I grew immediately roguish and pleasant to a degree, in the same strain.”–SWIFT: _Tattler_, 31. “An Anapaest has the first syllables unaccented, and the last accented.”– _Blair’s Gram._, p. 119. “An Anapaest has the first two syllables unaccented, and the last accented.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 219; _Bullions’s Principles_, 170. “An Anapaest has the two first syllables unaccented, and the last accented.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 254; _Jamieson’s Rhet._, 305; _Smith’s New Gram._, 188; _Guy’s Gram._, 120; _Merchant’s_, 167; _Russell’s_, 109; _Picket’s_, 226. “But hearing and vision differ not more than words spoken and written.”–_Wilson’s Essay on Gram._, p. 21. “They are considered by some prepositions.”–_Cooper’s Pl. and Pr. Gram._, p. 102. “When those powers have been deluded and gone astray.”–_Philological Museum_, i, 642. “They will soon understand this, and like it.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 92. “They have been expelled their native country Romagna.”–_Leigh Hunt, on Byron_, p. 18. “Future time is expressed two different ways.”–_Adam’s Gram._, p. 80; _Gould’s_, 78. “Such as the borrowing from history some noted event.”–_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 280. “Every Verb must agree with its Nominative in Number and Person.”–_Burke’s Gram._, p. 94. “We are struck, we know not how, with the symmetry of any thing we see.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 268. “Under this head, I shall consider every thing necessary to a good delivery.”– _Sheridan’s Lect._, p. 26. “A good ear is the gift of nature; it may be much improved, but not acquired by art.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 298. “‘Truth,’ A noun, neuter, singular, the nominative.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 73. “‘Possess,’ A verb transitive, present, indicative active,–third person plural.”–_Ibid._, 73. “_Fear_ is a noun, neuter, singular, and is the nominative to (or subject of) _is_.”–_Id., ib._, p. 133. “_Is_ is a verb, intrans., irregular–am, was, been; it is in the present, indicative, third person singular, and agrees with its nominative _fear_. Rule 1. ‘A verb agrees,’ &c.”–_Ibid._, 133. “_Ae_ in _Gaelic_, has the sound of long _a_.”–_Wells’s School Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 29.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XI.–OF LITERARY BLUNDERS.
“Repeat some [adverbs] that are composed of the article _a_ and nouns.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 89.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the grammatist here mistakes for the article _a_, the prefix or preposition _a_; as in “_aside, ashore, afoot, astray_,” &c. But, according to Critical Note 11th, “Grave blunders made in the name of learning, are the strongest of all certificates against the books which contain them unreproved.” The error should be corrected thus: “Repeat some adverbs that are composed of the _prefix a, or preposition a_, and nouns.”]
“Participles are so called, because derived from the Latin word _participium_, which signifies _to partake_.”–_Merchant’s School Gram._, p. 18. “The possessive _follows_ another noun, and is known by the sign of ‘_s_ or _of_.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 8. “Reciprocal pronouns are formed by adding _self_ or _selves_ to the possessive; as, _myself, yourselves_.”– _Ib._, p. 10. “The word _self_, and its plural _selves_, must be considered nouns, as they occupy the places of nouns, and stand for the names of them.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 61. “The Dactyl, _rolls round_, expresses beautifully the majesty of the sun in his course.”–_Webster’s Philos. Gram._, p. 231; _Webster’s Imp. Gram._, p. 165; _Frazee’s Imp. Gram._, p. 192. “Prepositions govern the objective case; as, John learned his lesson.”–_Frazee’s Gram._, p. 153. “Prosody primarily signified punctuation; and as the name implies, related to stopping _by the way_.”–_Hendrick’s Gram._, p. 103. “On such a principle of forming modes, there would be as many modes as verbs; and instead of four modes, we should have forty-three thousand, which is the number of verbs in the English language, according to Lowth.”–_Hallock’s Gram._, p. 76. “The following phrases are elliptical: ‘To let _out_ blood.’ ‘To go a hunting:’ that is,’ To go on a hunting excursion.'”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 129. “In Rhyme, the last syllable of every two lines has the same sound.”–_Id., Practical Lessons_, p. 129. “The possessive case plural, ending in _es_, has the apostrophe, but omits the _s_; as, _Eagles’_ wings.”–_Weld’s Gram._, p. 62; _Abridg._, p. 54. “Horses (plural) -mane, [should be written] horses’ mane.”–_Weld’, ib._, pp. 62 and 54. “W takes its written form from the union of two _v_’s, this being the form of the Roman capital letter which we call _V_.”–_Fowler’s E. Gram._, 1850, p. 157. “In the sentence, ‘I saw the lady who sings,’ what _word_ do I say sings?”–_J. Flint’s Gram._, p. 12. “In the sentence, ‘this is the pen which John made,’ what _word_ do I say John made?”–_Ibid._ “‘That we fall into _no_ sin:’ _no_, an adverb used idiomatically, instead of we do not fall into any sin.”–_Blair’s Gram._, p. 54. “‘That _all_ our doings may be ordered by thy governance:’ _all_, a pronoun used for _the whole_.”–_Ibid._ “‘Let him be made _to_ study.’ What causes the sign _to_ to be expressed before _study?_ Its being used in the passive voice after _be made_.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 145. “The following Verbs have neither Preter-Tense nor Passive-participle, viz. Cast, cut, cost, shut, let, bid, shed, hurt, hit, put, &c.”– _Buchanan’s Gram._, p. 60. “The agreement, which _every_ word has with _the_ others in person, gender, _and_ case, is called CONCORD; and that power which one _person of speech_ has over _another_, in respect to ruling its case, mood, or _tense_, is called GOVERNMENT.”–_Bucke’s Classical Gram._, p. 83. “The word _ticks_ tells what the noun _watch_ does.”– _Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 15. “_Breve_ ([~]) _marks a short_ vowel or syllable, and the dash (–) a long.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 157; _Lennie_, 137. “Charles, you, by your diligence, make easy work of the task given you by your preceptor.’ The first _you_ is used in the nom. poss. and obj. case.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 103. “_Ouy_ in _bouy_ is a proper tripthong. _Eau_ in flambeau is an improper tripthong.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 255. “‘While I of things to come, As past rehearsing, sing.’ POLLOK. That is, ‘While I sing of things which are to come, as one sings of things which are past rehearsing.'”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 169. “A simple sentence has in it but one nominative, and one neuter verb.”–_Folker’s Gram._, p. 14. “An Irregular Verb is that which has its passed tense and perfect participle terminating differently; as, smite, smote, smitten.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 92. “But when the antecedent is used in a general sense, a comma is properly inserted before the relative; as, ‘There is no _charm_ in the female sex, _which_ can supply the place of virtue.'”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 213. “Two capitals in this way denote the plural number; L. D. _Legis Doctor_; LL. D. _Legum Doctor_.”–_Gould’s Lat. Gram._, p. 274. “Was any person besides the mercer present? Yes, both he and his clerk.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 188. “_Adnoun_, or _Adjective_, comes from the Latin, _ad_ and _jicio_, to _add to_.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 69. “Another figure of speech, proper only to animated and warm composition, is what some critical writers call vision; when, _in place_ of relating _some thing that is past_, we use the _present tense_, and describe _it_ as actually _passing_ before our eyes. _Thus Cicero_, in his fourth oration against Cataline: ‘I seem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all nations, suddenly involved in one conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citizens lying unburied in the midst of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethegus rises to my view, while with a savage joy he is triumphing in _your_ miseries.'”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 171. “Vision is another figure of speech, which is proper only in animated and warm composition. It is produced when, _instead_ of relating _something that is past_, we use the present tense,” &c.– _Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 352. “When several verbs follow one another, having the same nominative, the auxiliary is frequently _omitted after the first_ through an ellipsis, and understood _to the rest_; as, ‘He has gone and left me;’ that is, ‘He has gone, and _has_ left me.’ “–_Comly’s Gram._, p. 94. “When I use the word _pillar_ as supporting an edifice, I employ it literally.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, 3d Ed., p. 133. “The conjunction _nor_ is often used for _neither_; as,
‘Simois _nor_ Xanthus shall be wanting there.'”–_Ib._, p. 129.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XII.–OF PERVERSIONS.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 330; _Hallock’s Gram._, p. 179; _Melmoth, on Scripture_, p. 16.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because this reading is false in relation to the word “_heavens_;” nor is it usual to put a comma after the word “_beginning_.” But, according to Critical Note 12th, “Proof-tests in grammar, if not in all argument, should be quoted literally; and even that which needs to be corrected, must never be perverted.” The authorized text is this: “In the beginning God created the _heaven_ and the earth.”–_Gen._, i, 1.]
“Canst thou, by searching, find out the Lord?”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 335. “Great is the Lord, just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 171; _L. Murray’s_, 168; _Merchant’s_, 90; _R. C. Smith’s_, 145; _Ingersoll’s_, 194; _Ensell’s_, 330; _Fisk’s_, 104; _et al_. “Every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”–_Alex. Murray’s Gram._, p. 137. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 211; _Bullions’s_, 111 and 113; _Everest’s_, 230; _Smith’s_, 177; _et al_. “Whose foundation was overflown with a flood.”–FRIENDS’ BIBLE: _Job_, xxii, 16. “Take my yoke upon ye, for my yoke is easy.”–_The Friend_, Vol. iv, p. 150. “I will to prepare a place for you.”–_Weld’s E. Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 67. “Ye who are dead hath he quickened.”–_lb._, p. 189; Imp. Ed., 195. “Go, flee thee away into the land of Judea.”–_Hart’s Gram._, p. 115. “Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 222. “Thine is the day and night.”–_Brown’s Concordance_, p. 82. “Faith worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 282. “Soon shall the dust return to dust, and the soul, to God who gave it. BIBLE.”–_Ib._, p. 166. “For, in the end, it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. It will lead thee into destruction, and cause thee to utter perverse things. Thou wilt be like him who lieth down in the midst of the sea. BIBLE.”–_Ib._, p. 167. “The memory of the just shall be honored: but the name of the wicked shall rot. BIBLE.”–_Ib._, p. 168. “He that is slow in anger, is better than the mighty. He that ruleth his spirit, is better than he that taketh a city. BIBLE.”–_Ib._, p. 72. “The Lord loveth whomsoever he correcteth; as the father correcteth the son in whom he delighteth. BIBLE.”–_Ib._, p. 72. “The first future tense represents what is to take place hereafter. G. B.”–_Ib._, p. 366. “Teach me to feel another’s wo; [and] To hide what faults I see.”–_Ib._, p. 197. “Thy speech bewrayeth thee; for thou art a Gallilean.”–_Murray’s Ex._, ii, p. 118. “Thy speech _betrays_ thee; for thou art a Gallilean.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 250. “Strait is the gate, and narrow the way, that leads to life eternal.”–_Ib., Key_, p. 172. “Straight is the gate,” &c.–_Ib., Ex._, p. 36. “‘Thou buildest the wall, that thou _mayst_ be their king.’ _Neh._, vi, 6.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 210. “‘There is forgiveness with thee, that thou _mayst_ be feared.’ _Psalms_, cxxx, 4.”–_Ib._, p. 210. “But yesterday, the word, _Cesar_, might Have stood against the world.”–_Kirkham’s Elocution_, p. 316. “The northeast spends its rage. THOMSON.”–_Joh. Dict., w. Effusive._ “Tells how the drudging goblet swet. MILTON.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. 263. “And to his faithful servant hath in place _Bore_ witness gloriously. SAM. AGON.”–_Ib._, p. 266. “Then, if thou fallest, O Cromwell, Thou fallest a blessed martyr.”–_Kirkham’s Elocution_, p. 190. “I see the dagger-crest of Mar, I see the _Morays’_ silver star, _Waves_ o’er the cloud of Saxon war, That up the lake _came_ winding far!–SCOTT.”–_Merchant’s School Gram._, p. 143. “Each _bird, and_ each insect, _is_ happy in its _kind_.”–_Ib._, p. 85. “_They who are_ learning to _compose and_ arrange _their_ sentences with accuracy and order, _are_ learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order. BLAIR.”–_Ib._, p. 176; _L. Murray’s Gram._, Title-page, 8vo and 12mo. “We, then, as workers together with _you_, beseech you also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”–_James Brown’s Eng. Syntax_, p. 129. “And on the _bounty_ of thy goodness calls.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 246. “Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds _retentive_ to their own. COWPER.”–_Merchant’s School Gram._, p. 172. “_Oh!_ let me listen to the _word_ of life. THOMSON.”–_Ib._, p. 155. “Save that from yonder ivy-mantled _bower_, &c. GRAY’S ELEGY.”–_Tooke’s Div. of Purley_, Vol. i, p. 116. “_Weigh_ the _mens_ wits against the _ladies hairs_. POPE.”–_Dr. Johnson’s Gram._, p. 6. “_Weigh_ the men’s wits against the _women’s hairs_. POPE.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. 214. “_Prior_ to the publication of Lowth’s _excellent little grammar_, the grammatical study of our _own_ language, formed no part of the ordinary method of instruction. HILEY’S PREFACE.”–_Dr. Bullions’s E. Gram._, 1843, p. 189. “Let there be no strife betwixt me and thee.”–_Weld’s Gram._, p. 143.
“What! canst thou not bear with me half an hour?–SHARP.” –_Ib._, p. 185.
“Till then who knew the force of those dire dreams.–MILTON.” –_Ib._, p. 186.
“In words, as fashions, the rule will hold, Alike fantastic, if too new or old:”
–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 136.
“Be not the first, by whom the new _is_ tried, Nor yet the last, to lay the old aside.” –_Bucke’s Gram._, p. 104.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XIII.–OF AWKWARDNESS.
“They slew Varus, who was he that I mentioned before.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 194.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the phrase, “_who was he that_,” is here prolix and awkward. But, according to Critical Note 13th, “Awkwardness, or inelegance of expression, is a reprehensible defect in style, whether it violate any of the common rules of syntax or not.” This example may be improved thus: “They slew Varus, _whom_ I mentioned before.”]
“Maria rejected Valerius, who was he that she had rejected before.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 174. “The English in its substantives has but two different terminations for cases.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 18. “Socrates and Plato were wise; they were the most eminent philosophers of Greece.”–_Ib._, p. 175; _Murray’s Gram._, 149; _et al._ “Whether one person or more than one, were concerned in the business, does not yet appear.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 184. “And that, consequently, the verb and pronoun agreeing with it, cannot with propriety, be ever used in the plural number.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 153; _Ingersoll’s_, 249; _et al._ “A second help may be the conversing frequently and freely with those of your own sex who are like minded.”–_John Wesley_. “Four of the semi-vowels, namely, _l, m, n, r_, are also distinguished by the name of _liquids_, from their readily uniting with other consonants, and flowing as it were into their sounds.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 8; _Churchill’s_, 5; _Alger’s_, 11; _et al._ “Some conjunctions have _their_ correspondent conjunctions _belonging to them_: so that, _in_ the subsequent member of the sentence the _latter answers_ to the former.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 109: _Adam’s_, 209; _Gould’s_, 205; _L. Murray’s_, 211; _Ingersoll’s_, 268; _Fisk’s_, 137; _Churchill’s_, 153; _Fowler’s_, 562; _et al._ “The mutes are those consonants, whose sounds cannot be protracted. The _semi-vowels, such whose_ sounds can be continued _at pleasure, partaking_ of the nature of vowels, from _which_ they derive their name.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p 9; _et al._ “The pronoun of the third person, of the masculine and feminine gender, is sometimes used as a noun, and regularly declined: as, ‘The _hes_ in birds.’ BACON. ‘The _shes_ of Italy.’ SHAK.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. 73. “The following _examples_ also _of_ separation of a preposition from the word which it governs, _is_ improper _in common writings_.”–_C. Adams’s Gram._, p. 103. “The word _whose_ begins likewise to be restricted to persons, but _it_ is not _done_ so generally but that good writers, and even in prose, use it when speaking of things.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 99; _L. Murray’s_, 157; _Fisk’s_, 115; _et al._ “There are new and surpassing wonders present themselves to our views.”–_Sherlock_. “Inaccuracies are often found in the way wherein the degrees of comparison are applied and construed.”–_Campbell’s Rhet._, p. 202. “Inaccuracies are often found in the way in which the degrees of comparison are applied and construed.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 167; _Smith’s_, 144; _Ingersoll’s_, 193; _et al._ “The connecting circumstance is placed too remotely, to be either perspicuous or agreeable.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 177. “Those tenses are called simple tenses, which are formed of the principal without an auxiliary verb.”–_Ib._, p. 91. “The nearer _that_ men approach to _each other_, the more numerous are their points of contact and the greater will be their pleasures or their pains.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 275. “This is the machine that he is the inventor of.”–_Nixon’s Parser_, p. 124. “To give this sentence the interrogative form, it should be expressed thus.”–_Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 279. “Never employ those words which may be susceptible of a sense different from the sense you intend to be conveyed.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 152. “Sixty pages are occupied in explaining what would not require more than ten or twelve to be explained according to the ordinary method.”–_Ib., Pref._, p. ix. “The present participle in _-ing_ always expresses an action, or the suffering of an action, or the being, state, or condition of a thing as _continuing_ and _progressive_.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 57. “The _Present participle of all active verbs[457]_ has an active signification; as, James _is building_ the house. _In many of these_, however, _it has also_ a passive _signification_; as, _the_ house _was building when the wall fell_.”–_Id., ib._, 2d or 4th Ed., p. 57. “Previous to parsing this sentence, it may be analyzed to the young pupil by such questions as the following, viz.”–_Id., ib._, p. 73. “Subsequent to that period, however, attention has been paid to this important subject.”–_Ib._, New Ed., p. 189; _Hiley’s Preface_, p. vi. “A definition of a word is an explanation in what sense the word is used, or what idea or object we mean by it, and which may be expressed by any one or more of the properties, effects, or circumstances of that object, so as sufficiently to distinguish it from other objects.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 245.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XIV.–OF IGNORANCE.
“What is an Asserter? It is _the part of speech_ which asserts.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 20.
[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the term “_Asserter_” which is here put for _Verb_, is both ignorantly misspelled, and whimsically misapplied. But, according to Critical Note 14th, “Any use of words that implies ignorance of their meaning, or of their proper orthography, is particularly unscholarlike; and, in proportion to the author’s pretensions to learning, disgraceful.” The errors here committed might have been avoided thus: “What is _a verb_? It is _a word_ which signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_.” Or thus: “What is an _assertor_? Ans. ‘One who affirms positively; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator.’–_Webster’s Dict._”]
“Virgil wrote the AEnead.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 56. “Which, to a supercilious or inconsiderate Japaner, would seem very idle and impertinent.”–_Locke, on Ed._, p. 225. “Will not a look of disdain cast upon you, throw you into a foment?”–_Life of Th. Say_, p. 146. “It may be of use to the scholar, to remark in this place, that though only the conjunction _if_ is affixed to the verb, any other conjunction proper for the subjunctive mood, may, with equal propriety, be occasionally annexed.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 93. “When proper names have an article annexed to them, they are used as common names.”–_Ib._, p. 36; _Ingersoll’s_, 25; _et al._ “When a proper noun has an article annexed to it, it is used as a common noun.”–_Merchant’s Gram._, p. 25. “Seeming to disenthral the death-field of its terrors.”–_Ib._, p. 109. “For the same reason, we might, without any disparagement to the language, dispense with the terminations of our verbs in the singular.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 50. “It diminishes all possibility of being misunderstood.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 175. “Approximation to excellence is all that we can expect.”–_Ib._, p. 42. “I have often joined in singing with musicianists at Norwich.”–_Music of Nature_, p. 274. “When not standing in regular prosic order.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 281. “Disregardless of the dogmas and edicts of the philosophical umpire.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 75. “Others begin to talk before their mouths are open, affixing the mouth-closing M to most of their words–as M-yes for Yes.”–_Music of Nature_, p. 28. “That noted close of his, _esse videatur_, exposed him to censure among his cotemporaries.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 127. “OWN. Formerly, a man’s _own_ was what he _worked for, own_ being a past participle of a verb signifying to _work_.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 71. “As [requires] so: expressing a comparison of quality: as, ‘_As_ the one dieth, _so_ dieth the other.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 212; _R. C. Smith’s_, 177; _and many others_. “To obey our parents is a solemn duty.”–_Parker and Fox’s Gram._, Part I, p. 67. “Most all the political papers of the kingdom have touched upon these things.”–H. C. WRIGHT: _Liberator_, Vol. xiv, p. 22. “I shall take leave to make a few observations upon the subject.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. iii. “His loss I have endeavoured to supply, as far as additional vigilance and industry would allow.”–_Ib._, p. xi. “That they should make vegetation so exhuberant as to anticipate every want.”–_Frazee’s Gram._, p. 43. “The quotors ” ” which denote that one or more words are extracted from another author.”–_Day’s District School Gram._, p. 112. “Ninevah and Assyria were two of the most noted cities of ancient history.”–_Ib._, p. 32 and p. 88. “Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, _is_ a celebrated ancient city.”–_Ib._, p. 88. “It may, however, be rendered definite by introducing some definition of time; as, yesterday, last week, &c.”–_Bullions’s E. Gram._, p. 40. “The last is called heroic measure, and is the same that is used by Milton, Young, Thompson, Pollock, &c.”–_Id., Practical Lessons_, p. 129. “Perrenial ones must be sought in the delightful regions above.”–_Hallock’s Gram._, p. 194. “Intransitive verbs are those which are inseperable from the effect produced.”–_Cutler’s Gram._, p. 31. “Femenine gender, belongs to women, and animals of the female kind.”–_Ib._, p. 15. “_Woe!_ unto you scribes and pharasees.”–_Day’s Gram._, p. 74. “A pyrrick, which has both its syllables short.”–_Ib._, p. 114. “What kind of Jesamine? a Jesamine in flower, or a flowery Jesamine.”–_Barrett’s Gram._, 10th Ed., p. 53. “_Language_, derived from ‘linguae,’ the tongue, is the _faculty_ of communicating our thoughts to _each_ other, by proper words, used by common consent, as signs of our ideas.”–_Ib._, p. 9. “Say _none_, not _nara_”–_Staniford’s Gram._, p. 81. “ARY ONE, for either.”–_Pond’s Larger Gram._, p. 194. (See Obs. 24th, on the Syntax of Adverbs, and the Note at the bottom of the page.)
“Earth loses thy _patron_ for ever and aye; O sailor boy! sailor boy! peace to thy soul.” –_S. Barrett’s Gram._, 1837, p. 116.
“His brow was sad, his eye beneath, Flashed like a halcyon from its sheath.” –_Liberator_, Vol. 12, p. 24.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XV.–OF SILLINESS AND TRUISMS.
“Such is the state of man, that he is never at rest.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 57.
[FORMULE.–This is a remark of no wisdom or force, because it would be nearer the truth, to say, “Such is the state of man, that he _must often_ rest,” But, according to Critical Note 15th, “Silly remarks and idle truisms are traits of a feeble style, and when their weakness is positive, or inherent, they ought to be entirely omitted.” It is useless to attempt a correction of this example, for it is not susceptible of any form worth preserving.]
“Participles belong to the nouns or pronouns to which they relate.”–_Wells’s Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 153. “Though the measure is mysterious, it is worthy of attention.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 221. “Though the measure is _mysterious_, it is not unworthy your attention.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, pp. 197 and 227. “The inquietude of his mind made his station and wealth far from being enviable.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 250. “By rules so general and comprehensive as these are [,] the clearest ideas are conveyed.”–_Ib._, p. 273. “The mind of man cannot be long without some food to nourish the activity of its thoughts.”–_Ib._, p. 185. “Not having known, or not having considered, the measures proposed, he failed of success.”–_Ib._, p. 202. “Not having known or considered the subject, he made a crude decision.”–_Ib._, p. 275. “Not to exasperate him, I spoke only a very few words.”–_Ib._, p. 257. “These are points too trivial, to be noticed. They are objects with which I am totally unacquainted.”–_Ib._, p. 275. “Before we close this section, it may afford instruction to the learners, to be informed, more particularly than they have been.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 110. “The articles are often properly omitted: when used, they should be justly applied, according to their distinct nature.”–_Ib._, p. 170; _Alger’s_, 60. “Any thing, which is done now, is supposed to be done at the present time.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 34. “Any thing which was done yesterday is supposed to be done in past time.”–_Ib._, 34. “Any thing which may be done hereafter, is supposed to be done in future time.”–_Ib._, 34. “When the mind compares two things in reference to each other, it performs the operation of comparing.”–_Ib._, p. 244. “The persons, with whom you dispute, are not of your opinion.”–_Cooper’s Pl. and Pr. Gram._, p. 124. “But the preposition _at_ is _always used_ when it _follows the neuter Verb_ in the same Case: as, ‘I have been _at_ London.'”–_Dr. Ash’s Gram._, p. 60. “But the preposition _at_ is _generally used_ after the neuter verb _to be_: as, ‘I have been _at_ London.'”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 203; _Ingersoll’s_, 231; _Fisk’s_, 143; _et al._ “The article _the_ has sometimes a _different_ effect, in distinguishing a person by an epithet.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 172. “The article _the_ has, sometimes, a fine effect, in distinguishing a person by an epithet.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 151. “Some nouns have plurals belonging only to themselves.”–_Infant School Gram._, p. 26. “Sentences are either simple or compound.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 68. “All sentences are either simple or compound.”–_Gould’s Adam’s Gram._, p. 155. “The definite article _the_ belongs to nouns in the singular or plural number.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, Rule 2d, p. 156. “Where a riddle is not intended, it is _always a fault_ in allegory to be _too dark_.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 151; _Murray’s Gram._, 343. “There may be an _excess in too many_ short sentences _also_; by _which_ the sense is split and broken.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 101. “Are there any nouns you cannot see, hear, or feel, but only think of? Name such a noun.”–_Infant School Gram._, p. 17. “_Flock_ is of the singular number, it denotes but one flock–and in the nominative case, it is the _active agent_ of the verb.”–_Kirkham’s Gram._, p. 58. “The article THE _agrees_ with nouns of the _singular or plural_ number.”–_Parker and Fox’s Gram._, p. 8. “The admiral bombarded Algiers, which has been continued.”–_Nixon’s Parser_, p. 128. “The world demanded freedom, which might have been expected.”–_Ibid._ “The past tense represents an action as past and finished, either with or without respect to the time when.”–_Felton’s Gram._, p. 22. “That boy rode the _wicked_ horse.”–_Butler’s Practical Gram._, p. 42. “The snake _swallowed itself_.”–_Ib._, p. 57. “_Do_ is sometimes used when _shall or should_ is omitted; as, ‘if thou _do_ repent.'”–_Ib._, p. 85. “SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. This mood _has the tenses of the indicative_.”–_Ib._, p. 87. “As _nouns never speak_, they are never in the first person.”–_Davis’s Practical Gram._, p. 148. “Nearly _all parts_ of speech are _used more or less_ in an _elliptical sense_.”–_Day’s District School Gram._, p. 80. “RULE. No word in a period can have any greater _extension_ than the _other_ words _or sections_ in the same sentence _will give_ it.”–_Barrett’s Revised Gram._, p. 38 and p. 43. “Words used exclusively as Adverbs, should not be used as adjectives.”–_Clark’s Practical Gram._, p. 166. “Adjectives used in Predication, should not take the Adverbial form.”–_Ib._, pp. 167 and 173.
UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XVI.–OF THE INCORRIGIBLE.
“And this state of things belonging to the painter governs it in the possessive case.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 195; _Ingersoll’s_, 201; _et al._
[FORMULE.–This composition is incorrigibly bad. The participle “_belonging_” which seems to relate to “_things_,” is improperly meant to qualify “_state_.” And the “_state of things_,” (which _state_ really belongs _only to the things_,) is absurdly supposed to belong to a _person_–i. e., “_to the painter_.” Then this _man_, to whom the “state of things” is said to belong, is forthwith called “_it_,” and nonsensically declared to be “in the possessive case.” But, according to Critical Note 16th, “Passages too erroneous for correction, may be criticised, orally or otherwise, and then passed over without any attempt to amend them.” Therefore, no correction is attempted here.]
“Nouns or pronouns, following the verb _to be_; or the words _than, but, as_; or that answer the question _who?_ have the same case _after as preceded_ them.”–_Beck’s Gram._, p. 29. “The common gender is _when_ the noun may be either masculine or feminine.”–_Frost’s Gram._, p. 8. “The possessive is generally pronounced the same as if the _s_ were added.”–_Alden’s Gram._, p. 11. “For, assuredly, as soon as men _had got_ beyond simple interjections, and began to communicate _themselves_ by discourse, they would be under a necessity of assigning names to the objects they _saw around_ them, _which_ in grammatical language, _is called the invention_ of substantive nouns.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 72. “Young children will learn to form letters as _soon_, if not _readier, than they_ will when older.”–_Taylor’s District School_, p. 159. “This comparing words with one another, constitutes what is called the _degrees_ of comparison.”–_Sanborn’s Gram._, p. 29. “Whenever a noun is _immediately annexed_ to a _preceding neuter_ verb, it _expresses either_ the same notion _with_ the verb, or denotes only _the_ circumstance of the _action.”_–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 73. “Two or more nouns or pronouns joined _singular_ together by the conjunction _and, must have verbs_ agreeing with them in the plural number.”–_Infant School Gram._, p. 129. “Possessive and demonstrative pronouns agree with their nouns in number and case; as, ‘my brother,’ ‘this slate, ‘these slates.'”–_Ib._, p. 130. “Participles which have no relation to time are used either as adjectives or as substantives.”–_Maunder’s Gram._, p. 1. “They are in use only in some of their times and modes; and in some of them are a composition of times of several defective verbs, having the same signification.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 59. “When _words_ of the possessive case _that are_ in apposition, _follow one another_ in quick succession, the possessive sign should be annexed to the _last only_, and _understood_ to the rest; as, ‘For David, my servant’s sake.'”–_Comly’s Gram._, p. 92. “_By this order_, the first nine _rules_ accord with _those_ which respect the _rules_ of concord; and the _remainder include_, though _they_ extend beyond the _rules_ of government.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 143. “_Own_ and _self_, in the plural _selves_, are _joined_ to the possessives, _my, our, thy, your, his, her, their_; as, _my own_ hand, _myself, yourselves_; both of them expressing emphasis or opposition, as, ‘I did it _my own self_,’ that is, _and_ no one else; the latter also forming the reciprocal pronoun, as, ‘he hurt _himself_.'”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 25. “A _flowing_ copious style, therefore, is required _in_ all public speakers; _guarding_, at the _same time_, against such a degree of _diffusion_, as renders _them_ languid and tiresome; _which_ will always _prove the case_, when they _inculcate_ too much, and present the _same thought_ under _too many_ different views.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 177. “As sentences should be cleared of redundant words, so also of redundant members. As every word ought to present a new idea, so every member ought to contain a new thought. Opposed to _this_, stands the fault we sometimes meet with, of the _last_ member of a period _being_ no other than _the_ echo of the _former_, or _the_ repetition of it in _somewhat_ a different form.” [458]–_Ib._, p. 111. “_Which_ always refers grammatically to the substantive _immediately preceding_: [as,] ‘It is folly to pretend, by heaping up treasures, to arm ourselves against the accidents of _life, which_ nothing can protect us against, but the good providence of our heavenly Father.'”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 311; _Maunder’s_, p. 18; _Blair’s Rhet._, p. 105. “The English _adjectives_, having but a very limited syntax, _is classed_ with _its_ kindred _article_, the _adjective pronoun_, under the eighth rule.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, 8vo, p. 143. “When a _substantive_ is put _absolutely_, and does _not agree_ with the following verb, it _remains independent on_ the participle, and _is called_ the _case_ absolute, or the _nominative_ absolute.”–_Ib._, p. 195. “It will, doubtless, _sometimes_ happen, that, on _this occasion_, as well as on many _other occasions_, a strict adherence to grammatical rules, _would_ render _the_ language stiff and formal: but when _cases of this sort_ occur, it is better to give the expression a _different_ turn, than to violate _grammar_ for the sake of _ease_, or even of _elegance_.”–_Ib._, p. 208. “Number, which distinguishes _objects_ as _singly_ or _collectively_, must have been coeval with the very infancy of language”–_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 25. “The article _a_ or _an_ agrees with nouns _in_ the singular number _only, individually_ or _collectively_.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 170; _and others_. “No language is perfect _because it is_ a human invention.”–_Parker and Fox’s Grammar_, Part III, p. 112. “The _participles_, or as they may properly be termed, _forms_ of the verb in the _second infinitive_, usually _precedes another_ verb, and _states_ some fact, or event, from which an _inference_ is drawn _by that verb_; as, ‘the sun _having arisen_, they departed.'”–_Day’s Grammar_, 2nd Ed., p. 36. “They must describe _what has happened_ as having done so in the past _or the present_ time, or as _likely to occur_ in the future.”–_The Well-Wishers’ Grammar, Introd._, p. 5. “Nouns are either male, female, or neither.”–_Fowle’s Common School Grammar_, Part Second, p. 12. “Possessive _Adjectives_ express possession, and distinguish _nouns_ from _each_ other by showing _to what_ they belong; as, _my hat, John’s_ hat.”–_Ib._, p. 31.
PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF FALSE SYNTAX.
LESSON I.–VARIOUS RULES.
“What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of Italy, Spain, or France?”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 185. “What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of France?”–_Ingersoll’s Gram._, p. 152. “‘I believe your Lordship will agree with me, in the reason why our language is less refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France.’ DEAN SWIFT. Even in this short sentence, we may discern an inaccuracy–‘why our language is less refined than _those_ of Italy, Spain, or France;’ putting the pronoun _those_ in the plural, when the antecedent substantive to which it refers is in the singular, _our language_.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 228. “The sentence might have been made to run much better in this way; ‘why our language is less refined than the Italian, Spanish, or French.'”–_Ibid._ “But when arranged in an entire sentence, which they must be to make a complete sense, they show it still more evidently.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 65. “This is a more artificial and refined construction than that, in which the common connective is simply made use of.”–_Ib._, p. 127. “We shall present the reader with a list of Prepositions, which are derived from the Latin and Greek languages.”–_Ib._, p. 120. “Relatives comprehend the meaning of a pronoun and conjunction copulative.”–_Ib._, p. 126. “Personal pronouns being used to supply the place of the noun, are not employed in the same part of the sentence as the noun which they represent.”–_Ib._, p. 155; _R. C. Smith’s Gram._, 131. “There is very seldom any occasion for a substitute in the same part where the principal word is present.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 155. “We hardly consider little children as persons, because that term gives us the idea of reason and reflection.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 98; _Murray’s_, 157; _Smith’s_, 133; _and others_. “The occasion of exerting each of these qualities is different.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 95; _Murray’s Gram._, 302; _Jamieson’s Rhet._, 66. “I’ll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal and who he stands still withal. I pray thee, who doth he trot withal?”–_Shakspeare_. “By greatness, I do not only mean the bulk of any single object, but the largeness of a whole view.”–_Addison_. “The question may then be put, What does he more than mean?”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 103. “The question might be put, what more does he than only mean?”–_Ib._, p. 204. “He is surprised to find himself got to so great a distance, from the object with which he at first set out.”–_Ib._, p. 108. “He is surprised to find himself at so great a distance from the object with which he sets out.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 313. “Few precise rules can be given, which will hold without exception in all cases.”–_Ib._, p. 267; _Lowth’s Gram._, p. 115. “Versification is the arrangement of a certain number of syllables according to certain laws.”–_Dr. Johnson’s Gram._, p. 13. “Versification is the arrangement of a certain number and variety of syllables, according to certain laws.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 252; R. C. Smith’s, 187; and others. “Charlotte, the friend of Amelia, to whom no one imputed blame, was too prompt in her own vindication.”–_Murray’s Key_, 8vo, p. 273. “Mr. Pitt, joining the war party in 1793, the most striking and the most fatal instance of this offence, is the one which at once presents itself.”–_Brougham’s Sketches_, Vol. i, p. 57. “To the framing such a sound constitution of mind.”–_The American Lady_, p. 132. “‘I beseech you,’ said St. Paul to his Ephesian converts, ‘that ye walk worthy the vocation wherewith ye are called.'”–_Ib._, p. 208. “So as to prevent its being equal to that.”–_Booth’s Introd._, p. 88. “When speaking of an action’s being performed.”–_Ib._, p. 89. “And, in all questions of an action’s being so performed, _est_ is added to the second person.”–_Ib._, p. 72. “No account can be given of this, than that custom has blinded their eyes.”–_Dymond’s Essays_, p. 269.
“Design, or chance, make other wive; But nature did this match contrive.”–_Waller_, p. 24.
LESSON II.–VARIOUS RULES.
“I suppose each of you think it is your own nail.”–_Abbott’s Teacher_, p. 58. “They are useless, from their being apparently based upon this supposition.”–_Ib._, p. 71. “The form and manner, in which this plan may be adopted, is various.”–_Ib._, p. 83. “Making intellectual effort, and acquiring knowledge, are always pleasant to the human mind.”–_Ib._, p. 85. “This will do more than the best lecture which ever was delivered.”–_Ib._, p. 90. “Doing easy things is generally dull work.”–_Ib._, p. 92. “Such is the tone and manner of some teachers.”–_Ib._, p. 118. “Well, the fault is, being disorderly at prayer time.”–_Ib._, p. 153. “Do you remember speaking on this subject in school?”–_Ib._, p. 154. “The course above recommended, is not trying lax and inefficient measures.”–_Ib._, p. 156. “Our community is agreed that there is a God.”–_Ib._, p. 163. “It prevents their being interested in what is said.”–_Ib._, p. 175. “We will also suppose that I call another boy to me, who I have reason to believe to be a sincere Christian.”–_Ib._, p. 180. “Five minutes notice is given by the bell.”–_Ib._, p. 211. “The Annals of Education gives notice of it.”–_Ib._, p. 240. “Teacher’s meetings will be interesting and useful.”–_Ib._, p. 243. “She thought an half hour’s study would conquer all the difficulties.”–_Ib._, p. 257. “The difference between an honest and an hypocritical confession.”–_Ib._, p. 263. “There is no point of attainment where we must stop.”–_Ib._, p. 267. “Now six hours is as much as is expected of teachers.”–_Ib._, p. 268. “How much is seven times nine?”–_Ib._, p. 292. “Then the reckoning proceeds till it come to _ten hundred_.”–_Frost’s Practical Gram._, p. 170. “Your success will depend on your own exertions; see, then, that you are diligent.”–_Ib._, p. 142. “Subjunctive Mood, Present Tense: If I am known, If thou art known. If he is known: etc.”–_Ib._, p. 91. “If I be loved, If thou be loved, If he be loved;” &c.–_Ib._, p. 85. “An Interjection is a word used to express sudden emotion. They are so called, because they are generally thrown in between the parts of a sentence without any reference to the structure of the other parts of it.”–_Ib._, p. 35. “The Cardinals are those which simplify or denote number; as one, two, three.”–_Ib._, p. 31. “More than one organ is concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant.”–_Ib._, p. 21. “To extract from them all the Terms we make use in our Divisions and Subdivisions of the Art.”–_Holmes’s Rhetoric_, Pref. “And there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.”–_Ezekiel_, ii, 10. “If I were to be judged as to my behaviour, compared with that of John’s.”–_Josephus_, Vol. 5, p. 172. “When the preposition _to_ signifies _in order to_, it used to be preceded by _for_, which is now almost obsolete; What went ye out _for to_ see.”–_Priestley’s Gram._, p. 132. “This makes the proper perfect tense, which, in English, is always expressed by the help of the auxiliary verb, ‘I have written.'”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 82. “Indeed, in the formation of character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and the third virtues.”–_Sanders, Spelling-Book_, p. 93. “The reducing them to the condition of the beasts that perish.”–_Dymond’s Essays_, p. 67. “Yet this affords no reason to deny that the nature of the gift is not the same, or that both are not divine.”–_Ib._, p. 68. “If God have made known his will.”–_Ib._, p. 98. “If Christ have prohibited them, [i.e., oaths,] nothing else can prove them right.”–_Ib._, p. 150 “That the taking them is wrong, every man who simply consults his own heart, will know.”–_Ib._, p. 163. “These evils would be spared the world, if one did not write.”–_Ib._, p. 168. “It is in a great degree our own faults.”–_Ib._, p. 200. “It is worthy observation that lesson-learning is nearly excluded.”–_Ib._, p. 212. “Who spares the aggressor’s life even to the endangering his own.”–_Ib._, p. 227. “Who advocates the taking the life of an aggressor.”–_Ib._, p. 229. “And thence up to the intentionally and voluntary fraudulent.”–_Ib._, p. 318. “‘And the contention was so great among them, that they departed asunder, one from _an_other.’–_Acts_, xv. 39.”–_Rev. Matt. Harrison’s English Lang._, p. 235. “Here the man is John, and John is the man; so the words are _the imagination and the fancy_, and _the imagination and the fancy_ are the _words_.”–_Harrison’s E. Lang._, p. 227. “The article, which is here so emphatic in the Greek, is lost sight of in our translation.”–_Ib._, p. 223. “We have no less than thirty pronouns.”–_Ib._, p. 166. “It will admit of a pronoun being joined to it.”–_Ib._, p. 137. “From intercourse and from conquest, all the languages of Europe participate with each other.”–_Ib._, p. 104. “It is not always necessity, therefore, that has been the cause of our introducing terms derived from the classical languages.”–_Ib._, p. 100. “The man of genius stamps upon it any impression that he pleases.”–_Ib._, p. 90. “The proportion of names ending in _son_ preponderate greatly among the Dano-Saxon population of the North.”–_Ib._, p. 43. “As a proof of the strong similarity between the English and the Danish languages.”–_Ib._, p. 37. “A century from the time that Hengist and Horsa landed on the Isle of Thanet.”–_Ib._, p. 27.
“I saw the colours waving in the wind, And they within, to mischief how combin’d.”–_Bunyan_.
LESSON III.–VARIOUS RULES.
“A ship expected: of whom we say, _she_ sails well.”–_Ben Jonson’s Gram._, Chap. 10. “Honesty is reckoned little worth.”–_Paul’s Accidence_, p. 58. “Learn to esteem life as it ought.”–_Economy of Human Life_, p. 118. “As the soundest health is less perceived than the lightest malady, so the highest joy toucheth us less deep than the smallest sorrow.”–_Ib._, p. 152. “Being young is no apology for being frivolous.”–_Whiting’s Elementary Reader_, p. 117. “The porch was the same width with the temple.”–_Milman’s Jews_, Vol. i. p. 208. “The other tribes neither contributed to his rise or downfall.”–_Ib._, Vol. i. p. 165. “His whole laws and religion would have been shaken to its foundation.”–_Ib._, Vol. i. p. 109. “The English has most commonly been neglected, and children taught only the Latin syntax.”–_Lily’s Gram., Pref._, p. xi. “They are not taken notice of in the notes.”–_Ib._, p. x. “He walks in righteousness, doing what he would be done to.”–_S. Fisher’s Works_, p. 14. “They stand independently on the rest of the sentence.”–_Ingersoll’s Gram._, p. 151. “My uncle, with his son, were in town yesterday.”–_Lennie’s Gram._, p. 142. “She with her sisters are well.”–_Ib._, p. 143. “His purse, with its contents, were abstracted from his pocket.”–_Ib._, p. 143. “The great constitutional feature of this institution being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next begins.”–_Dickens’s Notes_, p. 27. “His disregarding his parents’ advice has brought him into disgrace.”–_Farnum’s Pract. Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 19. “Error: Can you tell me the reason of his father making that remark?–_Ib._, p. 93. Cor.: Can you tell me the reason of his father’s making that remark?”–See _Farnum’s Gram._, Rule 12th. p. 76. “Error: What is the reason of our teacher detaining us so long?–_Ib._, p. 76. Cor.: What is the reason of our _teacher’s_ detaining us so long?”–See _Ib._ “Error: I am certain of the boy having said so. Correction: I am certain of the _boy’s_ having said so.”–_Exercises in Farnum’s Gram._, p. 76. “_Which_ means any thing or things before-named; and _that_ may represent any person or persons, thing or things, which have been speaking, spoken to or spoken of.”–_Dr. Perley’s Gram._, p. 9. “A certain number of syllables connected, form a foot. They are called _feet_, because it is by their aid that the voice, as it were, steps along.”–_L. Murray’s Gram._, p. 252; _C. Adams’s_, 121. “Asking questions with a principal verb–as, _Teach I? Burns he_, &c. are barbarisms, and carefully to be avoided.”–_Alex. Murray’s Gram._, p. 122. “Tell whether the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, or 23d Rules are to be used, and repeat the Rule.”–_Parker and Fox’s Gram._, Part I, p. 4. “The resolution was adopted without much deliberation, which caused great dissatisfaction.”–_Ib._, p. 71. “The man is now taken much notice of by the people thereabouts.”–_Edward’s First Lessons in Gram._, p. 42. “The sand prevents their sticking to one another.”–_Ib._, p. 84. “Defective Verbs are those which are used only in some of their moods and tenses.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 108; _Guy’s_, 42; _Russell’s_, 46; _Bacon’s_, 42; _Frost’s_, 40; _Alger’s_, 47; _S. Putnam’s_, 47; _Goldsbury’s_, 54; _Felton’s_, 59; and _others_. “Defective verbs are those which want some of their moods and tenses.”–_Lennie’s Gram._, p. 47; _Bullions, E. Gram._, 65; _Practical Lessons_, 75. “Defective Verbs want some of their parts.”–_Bullions, Lat. Gram._, p. 78. “A Defective verb is one that wants some of its parts.”–_Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, 1849, p. 101. “To the irregular verbs are to be added the defective; which are not only for the most part irregular, but also wanting in some of their parts.”–_Lowth’s Gram._, p. 59. “To the irregular verbs are to be added the defective; which are not only wanting in some of their parts, but are, when inflected, irregular.”–_Churchill’s Gram._, p. 112. “When two or more nouns succeed each other in the possessive case.”–_Farnum’s Gram._, 2d Ed., pp. 20 and 63. “When several short sentences succeed each other.”–_Ib._, p. 113. “Words are divided into ten Classes, and are called PARTS OF SPEECH.”–_Ainsworth’s Gram._, p. 8. “A Passive Verb has its _agent_ or _doer_ always in the objective case, and is governed by a preposition.”–_Ib._, p. 40. “I am surprised at your negligent attention.” _Ib._, p. 43. “SINGULAR: Thou lovest or you love. _You_ has always a plural verb.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 43. “How do you know that _love_ is the first person? _Ans_. Because _we_ is the first personal pronoun.”–_Id., ib._, p. 47; _Lennie’s Gram._, p. 26. “The lowing herd wind slowly round the lea.”–_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 96. “Iambic verses have every second, fourth, and other even syllables accented.”–_Ib._, p. 170. “Contractions are often made in poetry, which are not allowable in prose.”–_Ib._, p. 179. “Yet to their general’s voice they all obeyed.”–_Ib._, p. 179. “It never presents to his mind but one new subject at the same time.”–_Felton’s Gram._, 1st edition, p. 6. “When the name of a quality is abstracted, that is separated from its substance, it is called an abstract noun.”–_Ib._, p. 9. “Nouns are in the _first_ person when speaking.”–_Ib._, p. 9. “Which of the two brothers are graduates?”–_Hallock’s Gram._, p. 59. “I am a linen draper bold, as you and all the world doth know.”–_Ib._, p. 60. “O the bliss, the pain of dying!”–_Ib._, p. 127. “This do; take you censers, Korah, and all his company.”–_Numbers_, xvi, 6. “There are two participles,–the _present_ and _perfect_; as, _reading, having read_. Transitive verbs have an _active_ and _passive_ participle. Examples: ACTIVE, _Present_, Loving; _Perfect_, Having loved: PASSIVE, _Present_, Loved _or_ being loved; _Perfect_, Having been loved.”–_S. S. Greene’s Analysis_, 1st Ed., p. 225.
“O heav’n, in my connubial hour decree This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he.”–_Pope_.
LESSON IV.–VARIOUS RULES.
“The _Past Tenses_ represent a conditional past fact or event, and of which the speaker is uncertain.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 89. “Care also should be taken that they are not introduced too abundantly.”–_Ib._, p. 134. “Till they are become familiar to the mind.”–_Ib._, Pref., p. v. “When once a particular arrangement and phraseology are become familiar to the mind.”–_Ib._, p. vii. “I have furnished the student with the plainest and most practical directions which I could devise.”–_Ib._, p. xiv. “When you are become conversant with the Rules of Grammar, you will then be qualified to commence the study of Style.”–_Ib._, p. xxii. “_C_ has a soft sound like _s_ before _e, i_, and _y_, generally.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 10. “_G_ before _e, i_, and _y_, is soft; as in genius, ginger, Egypt.”–_Ib._, p. 12. “_C_ before _e, i_, and _y_, generally sounds soft like _s_.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 4. “_G_ is soft before _e, i_, and _y_, as in genius, ginger, Egypt.”–_Ib._, p. 4. “As a perfect Alphabet must always contain as many letters as there are elementary sounds in the language, the English Alphabet is therefore both defective and redundant.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 5. “Common Nouns are the names given to a whole class or species, and are applicable to every individual of that class.”–_Ib._, p. 11. “Thus an adjective has always a noun either expressed or understood.”–_Ib._, p. 20. “First, let us consider emphasis; by _this_, is meant a _stronger_ and _fuller_ sound of voice, by which we distinguish _the accented syllable_ of some word, on _which_ we _design to lay_ particular stress, _and to shew_ how _it effects_ the rest of the sentence.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 330. “By emphasis is meant a _stronger_ and _fuller_ sound of voice, by which we distinguish some word or words on which we _design to lay_ particular stress, _and to show_ how _they affect_ the rest of the sentence.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 242. “Such a simple question as this: ‘Do you ride to town to-day,’ is capable of _no fewer than_ four different acceptations, _according as_ the emphasis is differently placed _on the words_.”–_Blair’s Rhet._, p. 330; _Murray’s Gram._, p. 242. “Thus, _bravely_, or ‘in a brave manner,’ is derived from _brave-like_.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 51. “In the same manner, the different parts of speech are formed from each other generally by means of some affix.”–_Ib._, p. 60. “Words derived from each other, are always, more or less, allied in signification.”–_Ib._, p. 60. “When a noun of multitude conveys unity of idea the verb and pronoun should be singular. But when it conveys plurality of idea, the verb and pronoun must be plural.”–_Hiley’s Gram._, p. 71. “They have spent their whole time to make the sacred chronology agree with that of the profane.”–_Ib._, p. 87. “‘I have studied my lesson, but you _have_ not;’ that is, ‘but you have not _studied_ it.'”–_Ib._, p. 109. “When words follow each other in pairs, there is a comma between each pair.”–_Ib._, p. 112; _Bullions_, 152; _Lennie_, 132. “When words follow each other in pairs, the pairs should be marked by the comma.”–_Farnum’s Gram._, p. 111. “His ‘Studies of Nature,’ is deservedly a popular work.”–_Univ. Biog. Dict., n. St. Pierre_. “‘Here lies _his_ head, a _youth_ to fortune and to fame unknown.’ ‘Youth,’ here is in the _possessive_ (the sign being omitted), and is _in apposition_ with his.’ The meaning is, ‘the head of him, a youth.’ &c.”–_Hart’s E. Gram._, p. 124. “The pronoun I, and the interjection O, should be written with a capital.”–_Weld’s E. Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 16. “The pronoun _I_ always should be written with a capital letter.”–_Ib._, p. 68. “He went from England to York.”–_Ib._, p. 41. “An adverb is a part of speech joined to verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, to modify their meaning.”–_Ib._, p. 51; “_Abridged Ed._,” 46. “_Singular_, signifies ‘one person or thing.’ _Plural_, (Latin _plus_,) signifies ‘more than one.'”–_Weld’s Gram._, p. 55. “When the present ends in e, _d_ only is added to form the Imperfect and Perfect participle.”–_Ib._, p. 82. “SYNAERESIS is the contraction of two syllables into one; as, _Seest_ for _see-est, drowned_ for _drown-ed_”–_Ib._, p. 213. “Words ending in _ee_ drop the final _e_ on receiving an additional syllable beginning with _e_; as, _see, seest, agree, agreed_.”–_Ib._, p, 227. “Monosyllables in _f, l_, or _s_, preceded by a single vowel are doubled; as, staff, grass, mill.”–_Ib._, p. 226. “Words ending _ie_ drop the _e_ and take _y_; as die, _dying_.”–_Ib._, p. 226. “One number may be used for another; as, _we_ for _I, you_ for _thou_.”–_S. S. Greene’s Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 198. “STR~OBILE, _n._ A pericarp made up of scales that lie over each other. SMART.”–_Worcester’s Univ. and Crit. Dict._
“Yet ever from the clearest source have ran Some gross allay, some tincture of the man.”–_Dr. Lowth_.
LESSON V.–VARIOUS RULES.
“The possessive case is always followed by the noun which is the name of the thing possessed, expressed or understood.”–_Felton’s Gram._, p. 61; _Revised Edition_, pp. 64 and 86. “Hadmer of Aggstein was as pious, devout, and praying a Christian, as were Nelson, Washington, or Jefferson; or as are Wellington, Tyler, Clay, or Polk.”–H. C. WRIGHT: _Liberator_, Vol. xv, p. 21. “A word in the possessive case is not an independent noun, and cannot stand by its self.”–_Wright’s Gram._, p. 130. “Mary is not handsome, but she is good-natured, which is better than beauty.”–_St. Quentin’s Gram._, p. 9. “After the practice of joining words together had ceased, notes of distinction were placed at the end of every word.”–_Murray’s Gram._, p. 267; _Hallock’s_, 224. “Neither Henry nor Charles dissipate his time.”–_Hallock’s Gram._, p. 166. “‘He had taken from the Christians’ abode thirty small castles.’–_Knowles._”–_Ib._, p. 61. “In _whatever_ character Butler was admitted, is unknown.”–_Ib._, p. 62. “How is the agent of a passive, and the object of an active verb often left?”–_Ib._, p. 88. “By _subject_ is meant the word of which something is declared of its object.”–_Chandler’s Gram._, 1821, p. 103. “Care should also be taken that an intransitive verb is not used instead of a transitive: as, I lay, (the bricks) for, I lie down; I raise the house, for I rise; I sit down, for, I set the chair down, &c.”–_Ib._, p. 114. “On them depend the duration of our Constitution and our country.”–_J. C. Calhoun at Memphis_. “In the present sentence neither the sense nor the measure require _what_.”–_Chandler’s Gram._, 1821, p. 164. “The Irish thought themselves oppress’d by the Law that forbid them to draw with their Horses Tails.”–_Brightland’s Gram._, Pref., p. iii. “So _willingly_ are adverbs, qualifying deceives.”–_Cutler’s Gram._, p. 90. “Epicurus for experiment sake confined himself to a narrower diet than that of the severest prisons.”–_Ib._, p. 116. “Derivative words are such as are compounded of other words, as common-wealth, good-ness, false-hood.”–_Ib._, p. 12. “The distinction here insisted on is as old as Aristotle, and should not be lost sight of.”–_Hart’s Gram._, p. 61. “The Tenses of the Subjunctive and the Potential Moods.”–_Ib._, p. 80. “A triphthong is a union of three vowels uttered in like manner: as, _uoy_ in buoy.”–_P. Davis’s Practical Gram._, p. xvi. “Common nouns are the names of a species or kind.”–_Ib._, p. 8. “The superlative degree is a comparison between three or more.”–_Ib._, p. 14. “An adverb is a word or phrase serving to give an additional idea of a verb, and adjective, article, or another adverb.”–_Ib._, p. 36. “When several nouns in the possessive case succeed each other, each showing possession of the same noun, it is only necessary to add the sign of the possessive to the last: as, He sells men, women, and _children’s_ shoes. Dog. cat, and _tiger’s_ feet are digitated.”–_Ib._, p. 72. “A rail-road is making _should be_ A rail-road is _being made_. A school-house is building, _should be_ A school-house is _being_ built.”–_Ib._, p. 113. “Auxiliaries are not of themselves verbs; they resemble in their character and use those terminational or other inflections in other languages, _which we are obliged to use in ours_ to express the action in the mode, tense, &c., desired.”–_Ib._, p. 158. “Please hold my horse while I speak to my friend.”–_Ib._, p. 159. “If I say, ‘Give me _the_ book,’ I ask for some _particular_ book.”–_Butler’s Practical Gram._, p. 39. “There are five men here.”–_Ib._, p. 134. “In the active the object may be omitted; in the passive the name of the agent may be omitted.”–_Ib._, p. 63. “The Progressive and the Emphatic forms give in each case a different shade of meaning to the verb.”–_Hart’s Gram._, p. 80. “_That_ is a Kind of a Redditive Conjunction, when it answers to _so_ and _such._”–_W. Ward’s Gram._, p. 152. “He attributes to negligence your failing to succeed in that business.”–_Smart’s Accidence_, p. 36. “Does _will_ and _go_ express but _our_ action?”–_S. Barrett’s Revised Gram._, p. 58. “Language is the