Note VII.-Indeed, I cannot help likening his character to the architectural fabrics of other ages which he most delighted in, where there is such a congregation of imagery and tracery that one is apt to get bewildered among the variety of particular impressions, and not feel either the unity of the grand design or the height and solidness of the structure.-LOCKHART.

SECTION DIII.-INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.

RULE XXI. The principal noun or pronoun in the answer to a question must be in the same case with the corresponding interrogative word: DIRECT. Quest. Who is this? Ans. I. Quest. Whose is this? Ans. His. Quest. Whom do you seek? Ans. Him. OBLIQUE. Quest. Who do you say that it is? Ans. He. Quest. Whose do you say that it is? Ans. His. Quest. Whom do you say that they seek? Ans. Him.

Note I. When the answer is made by means of a pronoun, we can distinguish the accusative case from the nominative, especially when made in full. Thus the full answer to Whom do you say that they seek? is, I say that they seek him. Nevertheless, such

examples as Whom do they say it is? are common, especially in Oblique questions: "And he axed hem, and seide, Whom seien the people that I am? Thei answereden and seiden, Jon Baptist; and he seide to hem, But whom seien ye that I am?"—WICLIF, Lake ix. 18-20. "And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am?" Acts xiii. 25.

EXERCISES UNDER RULE XXI. (INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.)

a. Who has called for me? Him. F. S.

b. Whose books have you? John's. C. S.

c. What are poets and philosophers but torch-bearers leading us through the mazes and recesses of God's two majestic temples-the sensible and the spiritual world? C. S. Note I. But envy had no place in his nature. Whom was there to envy ?-Bulwer. This form should be avoided.

SECTION DIV.-INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS.

RULE XXII.—I. ONE, in phrases like ONE SAYS they say = on dit, French, is used Indeterminately. The pronoun has no particular antecedent: "One's leaning at first would be toward it." Section CCCXVI.

See

II. It also is used Indeterminately either as the subject or the predicate of a proposition; as, "It is this;" "this is it" "I am it;""it is I." When it is the subject of a proposition, the verb necessarily agrees with it, and can be of the singular number only, no matter what be the number of the predicate: It is this; it is these. When it is the predicate of a proposition, the number of the verb depends on the number of the subject.

III. THERE, adverbial in its classification, but pronominal in its origin, is also used Indeterminately, but only as the predicate of a proposition. It differs from it in this respect, and therefore differs from it in never affecting the number of the verb. This is determined by the nature of the subject: There is this; there are these. Though a predicate, there always stands in the beginning of propositions, i. e., in the place of the subject.

EXERCISES UNDER RULE XXII. (INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS.)

RULE XXII.-I. a. One would imagine theses to be the expressions of a man blessed with ease and affluence. C. S.

b. One might visit Paris in the interval. C. S.

II.-a. .'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
Macduff is fled to England.-Macbeth, iv. 1.

C. S.

b. 'Tis these that early taint the female soul.-POPE.

c. The indeterminate pronoun was formerly omitted; as,

C. S.

Now said the lady draweth toward the night.-F. Q«, i. i. 22.

III.—a. There are those who express a different opinion..

b. There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.-Julius Cæsar.

SECTION DV.-RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS.

RULE XXIII.-In the phrases, "They love EACH OTHER," "they killed ONE ANOTHER," there is a Reciprocal construction. In the one case, each is in apposition with they, or included in it, in the nominative case; in the other, one is in apposition with they, or included in it in both, other is in the objective case.

66

In a reciprocal construction, two or more propositions are abbreviated into one; as, "John and Henry love each other” —“ John loves Henry, and Henry loves John." Another refers to one of many, the other to one of two: "Two men were standing on the road, and another came up;" "Two men were standing on the road; one walked away, and the other remained." Another is sometimes improperly used for each other: "These two kinds of diction, prose and poetry, are so different one from another." Here each other is the correct phraseology.

EXERCISES UNDER RULE XXIII. (RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS.)

RULE XXIII.—a. William and Charles faithfully sought each other. C.S. b. William, Charles, and Eliza generously helped one another. C. S.

PROMISCUOUS EXERCISES ON PRONOUNS.

You will see one of the ablest men, one of the bravest officers this or any other country ever produced (it is hardly necessary to mention the name of Sir Walter Raleigh), sacrificed by the meanest prince that ever sat upon the throne to the vindictive jealousy of that haughty court.-Lord CHATHAM.

That philosophical statesman, Jack Cade, thus reproaches his prisoner, Lord Say :"It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear."

Language is the depository of the accumulated body of experience to which all former ages have contributed their part, and which is the inheritance of all yet to come. We have no right to prevent ourselves from transmitting to posterity a larger portion of this inheritance than we may ourselves have profited by.-MILL'S Logic.

The eager love of knowledge, and the no less eager love of action; the impulse to know, and the impulse to do these are elements spontaneously at work in human nature, and may appropriately be termed philosophical elements.

66

Keats, a little before he died, said, “I feel the daisies growing over me."

Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers stoop, and all talents do homage.

But if, which Heaven forbid ! it hath still been unfortunately determined that, because he hath not bent to power and authority, because he would not bow down before the golden calf and worship it, he is to be bound and cast into the furnace, I do trust in God there is a redeeming spirit in the Constitution, which will be seen to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and to preserve him unhurt by the conflagration.-Curran.

When there is a question of peace or war between two nations, that government feels itself in the wrong which refuses to state with clearness and precision what she would consider as a satisfaction and a pledge of peace.-C. J. Fox.

CHAPTER V.

SYNTAX OF THE VERB.

SECTION DVI.-CONCORD..

RULE XXIV. The Verb agrees with its Subject nominative in Number and Person; as, "I write," "thou rulest;"" he obeys." The verb does not necessarily agree with its Predicate nominative. See note below.

When a verb is said to agree with its subject nominative, it is meant that it is in the same person or number with the substantive or pronoun preceding. This is what is called, in grammatical language, CONCORD.

Every finite verb must have a subject nominative expressed or understood.

Note I.-Plural Subjects with singular Predicates: "Honest men are the salt of the earth;""Christians are the light of the world." The word that comes first must be presumed to be the subject until the contrary is proved. The way to justify such an expression as the wages of sin is death, is either to consider death not as the predicate but the subject, or, with Webster, to consider the word wages as singular.

Note II. Singular Subjects with plural Predicates. These constructions are rarer than the preceding, inasmuch as two or more persons (or things) are oftener spoken of as being equivalent to one, than one person (or thing) is spoken of as being equivalent to two "Sixpence is twelve half pennies;" "He is all head and shoulders."

or more:

Note III.-A Plural title applied to a Single object often takes the singular verb; as, "The Pleasures of Memory, by Rogers, is an admirable work.”

Note IV. The pronoun you, even when used to denote an individual, inasmuch as its form is plural, should have a plural verb: "The account you were pleased to send me," not "the account you was pleased to send me."

Note V.-A verb in the third person may have as its subject a sentence, or the clause of a sentence, or a verb in the infinitive mode, or any part of speech used as a noun; as, "To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting indeed, but it is fighting with shadows;" "To see is desirable;" "Red and green are different colours;""Once is too often;"" Over is not under" "An if ruins the case;" "Ah! is an interjection." We have here a part of a sentence, a verb in the infinitive mode, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction, and an interjection, used as substan-tives, and each the subject of a verb.

Note.VI.-There is one phrase in present use in which the personal pronoun ME precedes a verb in the third person: methinks, methought. Anciently, him was used in the same manner; as, Him thuhte, him thought. Him and me are here in the Anglo-Saxon it seems to me = mihi videtur.

dative case.

Methinks

=

Note VII.-In poetry, the verb may stand without a nominative in cases where in prose the omission would be improper; as, "Lives there who loves his pain?"-MILTON. That is, lives there a man who loves his pain?

Note VIII.-The verbs NEED and WANT are sometimes employed without a nominative, either expressed or implied; as, "There is no evidence of the fact, and there needs none;" "There wanted champions to espouse her cause." For the force of there, see Section

CCCOLI.

Note IX.-Verbs in the Imperative mode generally agree with the pronouns thou, yo, or you, expressed or understood; as, Love (thou); read ye or you. A verb in the Imperative mode is sometimes used Absolutely, having no direct reference to any particular subject addressed; as, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light.'

Gen. i. 3.

Note X.-A verb following the conjunction THAN sometimes stands without a nominative expressed; as, "Not that anything occurs in consequence of our late loss more

afflictive than was to be expected."-Life of Cowper, Letter 62. Forms of expression like this seem to be elliptical : "More afflictive than that which was to be expected." Note XI.-The verb is in some cases understood; as, "The combat deepens-on, ye Here rush or press is understood before on.

brave!"

Note XII.-The same form of the verb, whether simple, progressive, or emphatic, should be preserved throughout the sentence; as, 66 The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away;" "That man loves his friends and hates his enemies; "He was writing and he is writing;" "he did love and he does love."

EXERCISES IN THE SYNTAX OF THE VERB.

RULE XXIV.-a. A bee among the flowers of spring is one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon. C. S.

b. The Normans, under which general term is comprehended the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, were accustomed to rapine and slaughter. F. S.

c. Thinks I to myself, He will know better when he is older. F. S.

d. What signifies good opinions, unless they are attended by good conduct? F. S. Moneys is your suit.

Note I.-a.

What should say to you? F. S.

b. In the wilderness locusts were his meat. C. S.

Note II.-a. As to his person, he is all head and shoulders. C. S.

b. In English money a florin is two shillings. C. S.

Note III.-The pleasures of the imagination, by Akenside, is a highly philosophical poem. C. S.

Note IV.- -a. I came to see you because I knew you was my old master's friend. F. S. b. I recollect you was his advocate in that important trial. F. S.

Note V. a. Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

C. S.

b. Read, read, rang through the air morning, noon, and night, like the muezzins' call to prayer from the tops of their gilded minarets. -Nuces Philosophica. C. S.

c. That warm climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, is very reasonable to believe.

C. S.

d. "I cannot do it" never accomplished anything; "I will try' wonders.-HAWES.

e. For a lady to conduct herself in this manner is disgraceful. C. S. Note VI.-Methinks already I your tears survey.

C. S.

" has wrought

Note VII.-There have been that have delivered themselves from their ills by their good fortune or their virtue. F. S.

Note VIII.-There needed a new dispensation of religion for the moral reform of society. C. S.

Note IX. The expense amounted to, say five dollars. C. S.

Note X.—He felt himself addicted to philosophical speculations with more ardour than consisted well with the duties of a Roman and a senator. C. S. Note XI..-a. Charge, Chester, charge! on, Stanley, on! C. S

b. Once more unto the breach, my friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.

Note XII. He was writing and he does now write. F. S.

SECTION DVII.-THE VERB.

C. S.

with

RULE XXV.-When a verb has TWO OR MORE SUBJECTS in the singular number, joined by the copulative and, it must agree them in the plural number; as, "Reason and truth constitute intellectual gold." Instead of saying reason constitutes intellectual gold, truth constitutes intellectual gold, the two propositions are united in one compound sentence. The conjunction is sometimes understood; as, "Honour, justice, religion itself, were derided."

Note I.This rule has in the practice of writers some exceptions: "Nor were the young fellows so wholly lost to a sense of right, as pride and self-conceit has made them

affect to be."-Rambler, No. 97.

Here the verb, which is expressed after self-conceit, is considered as understood after pride. "Their safety and welfare is most concerned." -Spectator, No. 121. This was sometimes the case in Greek and Roman writers: "Mens enim et ratio, et consilium in senibus est."-CICERO, De Sen., cap. xix. Forms of expression like these should not be encouraged in the English language, though they can be defended, in some instances, on the ground of their expressing only one complex idea.

Note II.-Two or more nouns connected by the conjunction and, expressed or understood, and modified by the distributives EACH, EVERY, or EITHER, may have a verb in the singular number: "Either sex and every age was engaged in the pursuits of industry."GIBBON'S Roman Empire, chap. x. "The judicial and every other power is accountable to the legislative."-PALEY'S Philosophy, vi. 8.

Note III.-Where comparison is expressed or implied, and not combination, the verb should be singular; thus, "Cæsar as well as Cicero was remarkable for eloquence. Even when and used between two nouns, if a disuniting word is used with it, the verb should be in the singular number; as, "Good order, and not mean savings, produces honest profit."

Note IV.-When a verb comes in between its nominatives, it agrees with that which precedes it, and is understood as to the others; as, "John was present, and Henry, and Charles."

Note V.-When two nouns connected by the conjunction and express but one subject, the verb should be in the singular number; as, "That great statesman and general is entitled to the gratitude of his country."

Note VI. When nominatives to the same verb are of different persons, the verb must be in the plural number, and must agree with the first person rather than the second, and with the second rather than the third: "My sister and I are daily employed in our respective occupations."

EXERCISES UNDER RULE XXV.

RULE XXV.-a. Religion and virtue, our best support and highest honour, confers on the mind principles of noble independence. F. S.

F. S.

b. There is as much real religion and morality in this country as in any other. F. S. c. Wisdom, virtue, happiness, dwells with the golden mediocrity. Note I. a In that transaction their safety and welfare is most concerned.

F. S.

b. The fragrant woodbine and the sweet-scented myrtle renders the air in this spot truly delicious. F. S.

Note II.-In the camp of Israel every man and every woman were numbered. F. S. Note III. - -a. That superficial scholar and critic, like some renowned critics of our own, have furnished most decisive proofs that they knew not the characters of the Hebrew language. F. S.

b. Virtuous effort, and not depraved genius, win the prize. F. S. Note IV.

Forth in the pleasing spring

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. -THOMSON. C. S. Note V. Coleridge, that distinguished philosopher and celebrated poet, are receiving the meed of praise. F. S.

Note VI.-You and the doctor thinks unfavourably of my case. F. S.

SECTION DVIII.-THE VERB.

RULE XXVI.-When a verb has for its subject only ONE of two or more substantives singular, connected by the conjunctions or or nor, it is itself in the singular number; as, "Either John, or Peter, or James, was at the Exchange yesterday, but neither John nor Peter is there to-day."

Note I.-When a verb has nominatives of different persons connected by the disjunctive conjunctions or or nor, it must agree with that which is nearest; as, "Neither you nor I am concerned."

Note II.-When a verb has a Singular and a Plural nominative connected by or or nor, it agrees with its nearest nominative; as, "The dice-box or his cups were his ruin." Note III.-In sentences where there is but one proposition, when two or more subjects of different persons are in apposition, the verb agrees with the FIRST of them; as, "I,