Part 3 — CHAPTER V.—PRONOUNS.

The rules for the agreement of Pronouns with their antecedents are four; hence this chapter extends from the tenth rule to the thirteenth, inclusively. The cases of Pronouns are embraced with those of nouns, in the seven rules of the third chapter.

RULE X.—PRONOUNS.

A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender:[379] as, "This is the friend of whom I spoke; he has just arrived."—"This is the book which I bought; it is an excellent work."—"Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons to love it too."—Cowper.

"Speak thou, whose thoughts at humble peace repine, Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be thine?"—Dr. Johnson.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When a pronoun stands for some person or thing indefinite, or unknown to the speaker, this rule is not strictly applicable; because the person, number, and gender, are rather assumed in the pronoun, than regulated by an antecedent: as, "I do not care who knows it."—Steele. "Who touched me? Tell me who it was."—"We have no knowledge how, or by whom, it is inhabited."—ABBOT: Joh. Dict.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

The neuter pronoun it may be applied to a young child, or to other creatures masculine or feminine by nature, when they are not obviously distinguishable with regard to sex; as, "Which is the real friend to the child, the person who gives it the sweetmeats, or the person who, considering only its health, resists its importunities?"—Opis. "He loads the animal he is showing me, with so many trappings and collars, that I cannot distinctly view it"—Murray's Gram., p. 301. "The nightingale sings most sweetly when it sings in the night."—Bucke's Gram., p. 52.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

The pronoun it is often used without a definite reference to any antecedent, and is sometimes a mere expletive, and sometimes the representative of an action expressed afterwards by a verb; as, "Whether she grapple it with the pride of philosophy."—Chalmers. "Seeking to lord it over God's heritage."—The Friend, vii, 253. "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink."—Prov., xxxi, 4. "Having no temptation to it, God cannot act unjustly without defiling his nature."—Brown's Divinity, p. 11.

"Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe."—Milton.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

A singular antecedent with the adjective many, sometimes admits a plural pronoun, but never in the same clause; as, "Hard has been the fate of many a great genius, that while they have conferred immortality on others, they have wanted themselves some friend to embalm their names to posterity."—Welwood's Pref. to Rowe's Lucan.

"In Hawick twinkled many a light, Behind him soon they set in night."—W. Scott.

EXCEPTION FIFTH.

When a plural pronoun is put by enallagè for the singular, it does not agree with its noun in number, because it still requires a plural verb; as, "We [Lindley Murray] have followed those authors, who appear to have given them the most natural and intelligible distribution."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 29. "We shall close our remarks on this subject, by introducing the sentiments of Dr. Johnson respecting it."—Ib. "My lord, you know I love you"—Shakspeare.

EXCEPTION SIXTH.

The pronoun sometimes disagrees with its antecedent in one sense, because it takes it in an other; as, "I have perused Mr. Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, and find it[380] a very laborious, learned, and useful Work."—Tho. Knipe, D. D. "Lamps is of the plural number, because it means more than one."—Smith's New Gram., p. 8. "Man is of the masculine gender, because it is the name of a male."—Ib. "The Utica Sentinel says it has not heard whether the wounds are dangerous."—Evening Post. (Better: "The editor of the Utica Sentinel says, he has not heard," &c.) "There is little Benjamin with their ruler."—Psalms, lxviii, 27.

"Her end when emulation misses, She turns to envy, stings, and hisses."—Swift's Poems, p. 415.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE X.

OBS. 1.—Respecting a pronoun, the main thing is, that the reader perceive clearly for what it stands; and next, that he do not misapprehend its relation of case. For the sake of completeness and uniformity in parsing, it is, I think, expedient to apply the foregoing rule not only to those pronouns which have obvious antecedents expressed, but also to such as are not accompanied by the nouns for which they stand. Even those which are put for persons or things unknown or indefinite, may be said to agree with whatever is meant by them; that is, with such nouns as their own properties indicate. For the reader will naturally understand something by every pronoun, unless it be a mere expletive, and without any antecedent. For example: "It would depend upon who the forty were."—Trial at Steubenville, p. 50. Here who is an indefinite relative, equivalent to what persons; of the third person, plural, masculine; and is in the nominative case after were, by Rule 6th. For the full construction seems to be this: "It would depend upon the persons who the forty were." So which, for which person, or which thing, (if we call it a pronoun rather than an adjective,) may be said to have the properties of the noun person or thing understood; as,

"His notions fitted things so well, That which was which he could not tell."—Hudibras.

OBS. 2.—The pronoun we is used by the speaker or writer to represent himself and others, and is therefore plural. But it is sometimes used, by a sort of fiction, in stead of the singular, to intimate that the speaker or writer is not alone in his opinions; or, perhaps more frequently, to evade the charge of egotism; for this modest assumption of plurality seems most common with those who have something else to assume: as, "And so lately as 1809, Pope Pius VII, in excommunicating his 'own dear son,' Napoleon, whom he crowned and blessed, says: 'We, unworthy as we are, represent the God of peace.'"—Dr. Brownlee. "The coat fits us as well as if we had been melted and poured into it."—Prentice. Monarchs sometimes prefer we to I, in immediate connexion with a singular noun; as, "We Alexander, Autocrat of all the Russias."—"We the Emperor of China," &c.—Economy of Human Life, p. vi. They also employ the anomalous compound ourself, which is not often used by other people; as, "Witness ourself at Westminster, 28 day of April, in the tenth year of our reign. CHARLES."

"Cæs. What touches us ourself, shall be last serv'd." —Shak., J. C., Act iii, Sc. 1.

"Ourself to hoary Nestor will repair." —Pope, Iliad, B. x, l. 65.

OBS. 3.—The pronoun you, though originally and properly plural, is now generally applied alike to one person or to more. Several observations upon this fashionable substitution of the plural number for the singular, will be found in the fifth and sixth chapters of Etymology. This usage, however it may seem to involve a solecism, is established by that authority against which the mere grammarian has scarcely a right to remonstrate. Alexander Murray, the schoolmaster, observes, "When language was plain and simple, the English always said thou, when speaking to a single person. But when an affected politeness, and a fondness for continental manners and customs began to take place, persons of rank and fashion said you in stead of thou. The innovation gained ground, and custom gave sanction to the change, and stamped it with the authority of law."—English Gram., Third Edition, 1793, p. 107. This respectable grammarian acknowledged both thou and you to be of the second person singular. I do not, however, think it necessary or advisable to do this, or to encumber the conjugations, as some have done, by introducing the latter pronoun, and the corresponding form of the verb, as singular.[381] It is manifestly better to say, that the plural is used for the singular, by the figure Enallagè. For if you has literally become singular by virtue of this substitution, we also is singular for the same reason, as often as it is substituted for I; else the authority of innumerable authors, editors, compilers, and crowned, heads, is insufficient to make it so. And again, if you and the corresponding form of the verb are literally of the second person singular, (as Wells contends, with an array of more than sixty names of English grammarians to prove it,) then, by their own rule of concord, since thou and its verb are still generally retained in the same place by these grammarians, a verb that agrees with one of these nominatives, must also agree with the other; so that you hast and thou have, you seest and thou see, may be, so far as appears from their instructions, as good a concord as can be made of these words!

OBS. 4.—The putting of you for thou has introduced the anomalous compound yourself, which is now very generally used in stead of thyself. In this instance, as in the less frequent adoption of ourself for myself, Fashion so tramples upon the laws of grammar, that it is scarcely possible to frame an intelligible exception in her favour. These pronouns are essentially singular, both in form and meaning; and yet they cannot be used with I or thou, with me or thee, or with any verb that is literally singular; as, "I ourself am." but, on the contrary, they must be connected only with such plural terms as are put for the singular; as, "We ourself are king."—"Undoubtedly you yourself become an innovator."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 364; Campbell's Rhet., 167.

"Try touch, or sight, or smell; try what you will, You strangely find nought but yourself alone." —Pollok, C. of T., B. i, l. 162.

OBS. 5.—Such terms of address, as your Majesty, your Highness, your Lordship, your Honour, are sometimes followed by verbs and pronouns of the second person plural, substituted for the singular; and sometimes by words literally singular, and of the third person, with no other figure than a substitution of who for which: as, "Wherein your Lordship, who shines with so much distinction in the noblest assembly in the world, peculiarly excels"—Dedication of Sale's Koran. "We have good cause to give your Highness the first place; who, by a continued series of favours have obliged us, not only while you moved in a lower orb, but since the Lord hath called your Highness to supreme authority."—Massachusetts to Cromwell, in 1654.

OBS. 6.—The general usage of the French is like that of the English, you for thou; but Spanish, Portuguese, or German politeness requires that the third person be substituted for the second. And when they would be very courteous, the Germans use also the plural for the singular, as they for thou. Thus they have a fourfold method of addressing a person: as, they, denoting the highest degree of respect; he, a less degree; you, a degree still less; and thou, none at all, or absolute reproach. Yet, even among them, the last is used as a term of endearment to children, and of veneration to God! Thou, in English, still retains its place firmly, and without dispute, in all addresses to the Supreme Being; but in respect to the first person, an observant clergyman has suggested the following dilemma: "Some men will be pained, if a minister says we in the pulpit; and others will quarrel with him, if he says I."—Abbott's Young Christian, p. 268.

OBS. 7.—Any extensive perversion of the common words of a language from their original and proper use, is doubtless a matter of considerable moment. These changes in the use of the pronouns, being some of them evidently a sort of complimentary fictions, some religious people have made it a matter of conscience to abstain from them, and have published their reasons for so doing. But the moral objections which may lie against such or any other applications of words, do not come within the grammarian's province. Let every one consider for himself the moral bearing of what he utters: not forgetting the text, "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement: for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."—Matt., xii, 36 and 37. What scruples this declaration ought to raise, it is not my business to define. But if such be God's law, what shall be the reckoning of those who make no conscience of uttering continually, or when they will, not idle words only, but expressions the most absurd, insignificant, false, exaggerated, vulgar, indecent, injurious, wicked, sophistical, unprincipled, ungentle, and perhaps blasphemous, or profane?

OBS. 8.—The agreement of pronouns with their antecedents, it is necessary to observe, is liable to be controlled or affected by several of the figures of rhetoric. A noun used figuratively often suggests two different senses, the one literal, and the other tropical; and the agreement of the pronoun must be sometimes with this, and sometimes with that, according to the nature of the trope. If the reader be unacquainted with tropes and figures, he should turn to the explanation of them in Part Fourth of this work; but almost every one knows something about them, and such as must here be named, will perhaps be made sufficiently intelligible by the examples. There seems to be no occasion to introduce under this head more than four; namely, personification, metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche.

OBS. 9.—When a pronoun represents the name of an inanimate object personified, it agrees with its antecedent in the figurative, and not in the literal sense; as, "There were others whose crime it was rather to neglect Reason than to disobey her."—Dr. Johnson. "Penance dreams her life away."—Rogers. "Grim Darkness furls his leaden shroud."—Id. Here if the pronoun were made neuter, the personification would be destroyed; as, "By the progress which England had already made in navigation and commerce, it was now prepared for advancing farther."—Robertson's America, Vol. ii, p. 341. If the pronoun it was here intended to represent England, the feminine she would have been much better; and, if such was not the author's meaning, the sentence has some worse fault than the agreement of a pronoun with its noun in a wrong sense.

OBS. 10.—When the antecedent is applied metaphorically, the pronoun usually agrees with it in its literal, and not in its figurative sense; as, "Pitt was the pillar which upheld the state."—"The monarch of mountains rears his snowy head."—"The stone which the builders rejected."—Matt., xxi, 42. According to this rule, which would be better than whom, in the following text: "I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them an other little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots."—Daniel, vii, 8. In Rom., ix, 33, there is something similar: "Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Here the stone or rock is a metaphor for Christ, and the pronoun him may be referred to the sixth exception above; but the construction is not agreeable, because it is not regular: it would be more grammatical, to change on him to thereon. In the following example, the noun "wolves," which literally requires which, and not who, is used metaphorically for selfish priests; and, in the relative, the figurative or personal sense is allowed to prevail:

"Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves, Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven To their own vile advantages shall turn." —Milton, P. L., B. xii, l. 508.

This seems to me somewhat forced and catachrestical. So too, and worse, the following; which makes a star rise and speak:

"So spake our Morning Star then in his rise, And looking round on every side beheld A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades." —Id., P. R., B. i, l. 294.

OBS. 11.—When the antecedent is put by metonymy for a noun of different properties, the pronoun sometimes agrees with it in the figurative, and sometimes in the literal sense; as, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: [i. e., When Moses and the prophets called the Israelites, they often refused to hear:] they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them."—Hosea, xi, 1, 2, 3. The mixture and obscurity which are here, ought not to be imitated. The name of a man, put for the nation or tribe of his descendants, may have a pronoun of either number, and a nation may be figuratively represented as feminine; but a mingling of different genders or numbers ought to be avoided: as, "Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter."—Jeremiah, xlviii, 15.

"The wolf, who [say that] from the nightly fold, Fierce drags the bleating prey, ne'er drunk her milk, Nor wore her warming fleece."—Thomson's Seasons.

"That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven, Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish or a sparrow fall."—Pope's Essay on Man.

"And heaven behold its image in his breast."—Ib.

"Such fate to suffering worth is given, Who long with wants and woes has striven."—Burns.

OBS. 12.—When the antecedent is put by synecdoche for more or less than it literally signifies, the pronoun agrees with it in the figurative, and not in the literal sense; as,

"A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death."—Thomson

"But to the generous still improving mind, That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy, To him the long review of ordered life Is inward rapture only to be felt."—Id. Seasons.

OBS. 13.—Pronouns usually follow the words which they represent; but this order is sometimes reversed: as, "Whom the cap fits, let him put it on."—"Hark! they whisper; angels say," &c.—Pope. "Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion."—Old Test. And in some cases of apposition, the pronoun naturally comes first; as, "I Tertius"—"Ye lawyers." The pronoun it, likewise, very often precedes the clause or phrase which it represents; as, "Is it not manifest, that the generality of people speak and write very badly?"—Campbell's Rhet., p. 160; Murray's Gram., i, 358. This arrangement is too natural to be called a transposition. The most common form of the real inversion is that of the antecedent and relative in poetry; as,

"Who stops to plunder at this signal hour, The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour." —POPE: Iliad, xv, 400.

OBS. 14.—A pronoun sometimes represents a phrase or a sentence; and in this case the pronoun is always in the third person singular neuter: as, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not."—Gen., xxviii, 10. "Yet men can go on to vilify or disregard Christianity; which is to talk and act as if they had a demonstration of its falsehood."—Butler's Analogy, p. 269. "When it is asked wherein personal identity consists, the answer should be the same as if it were asked, wherein consists similitude or equality."—Ib., p. 270. "Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good."—Prov., xix, 2. In this last example, the pronoun is not really necessary. "That the soul be without knowledge, is not good."—Jenks's Prayers, p. 144. Sometimes an infinitive verb is taken as an antecedent; as, "He will not be able to think, without which it is impertinent to read; nor to act, without which it is impertinent to think."—Bolingbroke, on History, p. 103.

OBS. 15.—When a pronoun follows two words, having a neuter verb between them, and both referring to the same thing, it may represent either of them, but not often with the same meaning: as, 1. "I am the man, who command." Here, who command belongs to the subject I, and the meaning is, "I who command, am the man." (The latter expression places the relative nearer to its antecedent, and is therefore preferable.) 2. "I am the man who commands." Here, who commands belongs to the predicate man, and the meaning is, "I am the commander." Again: "I perceive thou art a pupil, who possessest good talents."—Cooper's Pl. and Pract. Gram., p. 136. Here the construction corresponds not to the perception, which is, of the pupil's talents. Say, therefore, "I perceive thou art a pupil possessing (or, who possesses) good talents."

OBS. 16.—After the expletive it, which may be employed to introduce a noun or a pronoun of any person, number, or gender, the above-mentioned distinction is generally disregarded; and the relative is most commonly made to agree with the latter word, especially if this word be of the first or the second person: as, "It is no more I that do it."—Rom., vii, 20. "For it is not ye that speak."—Matt., x, 20. The propriety of this construction is questionable. In the following examples, the relative agrees with the it, and not with the subsequent nouns: "It is the combined excellencies of all the denominations that gives to her her winning beauty and her powerful charms."—Bible Society's Report, 1838, p. 89. "It is purity and neatness of expression which is chiefly to be studied."—Blair's Rhet., p. 271. "It is not the difficulty of the language, but on the contrary the simplicity and facility of it, that occasions this neglect."—Lowth's Gram., p. vi. "It is a wise head and a good heart that constitutes a great man."—Child's Instructor, p. 22.

OBS. 17.—The pronoun it very frequently refers to something mentioned subsequently in the sentence; as, "It is useless to complain of what is irremediable." This pronoun is a necessary expletive at the commencement of any sentence in which the verb is followed by a phrase or a clause which, by transposition, might be made the subject of the verb; as, "It is impossible to please every one."—W. Allen's Gram. "It was requisite that the papers should be sent."—Ib. The following example is censured by the Rev. Matt. Harrison: "It is really curious, the course which balls will sometimes take."—Abernethy's Lectures. "This awkward expression," says the critic, "might have been avoided by saying, 'The course which balls will sometimes take is really curious.'"—Harrison, on the English Language, p. 147. If the construction is objectionable, it may, in this instance, be altered thus: "It is really curious, to observe the course which balls will sometimes take!" So, it appears, we may avoid a pleonasm by an addition. But he finds a worse example: saying, "Again, in an article from the 'New Monthly,' No. 103, we meet with the same form of expression, but with an aggravated aspect:—'It is incredible, the number of apothecaries' shops, presenting themselves.' It would be quite as easy to say, 'The number of apothecaries' shops, presenting themselves, is incredible.' "—Ib., p. 147. This, too, may take an infinitive, "to tell," or "to behold;" for there is no more extravagance in doubting one's eyes, than in declaring one's own statement "incredible." But I am not sure that the original form is not allowable. In the following line, we seem to have something like it:

"It curled not Tweed alone, that breeze."—Sir W. Scott.

OBS. 18.—Relative and interrogative pronouns are placed at or near the beginning of their own clauses; and the learner must observe that, through all their cases, they almost invariably retain this situation in the sentence, and are found before their verbs even when the order of the construction would reverse this arrangement: as, "He who preserves me, to whom I owe my being, whose I am, and whom I serve, is eternal."—Murray, p. 159. "He whom you seek."—Lowth.

"The good must merit God's peculiar care; But who, but God, can tell us who they are?"—Pope.

OBS. 19.—A relative pronoun, being the representative of some antecedent word or phrase, derives from this relation its person, number, and gender, but not its case. By taking an other relation of case, it helps to form an other clause; and, by retaining the essential meaning of its antecedent, serves to connect this clause to that in which the antecedent is found. No relative, therefore, can ever be used in an independent simple sentence, or be made the subject of a subjunctive verb, or be put in apposition with any noun or pronoun; but, like other connectives, this pronoun belongs at the head of a clause in a compound sentence, and excludes conjunctions, except when two such clauses are to be joined together, as in the following example: "I should be glad, at least, of an easy companion, who may tell me his thoughts, and to whom I may communicate mine."—Goldsmith's Essays, p. 196.

OBS. 20.—The two special rules commonly given by the grammarians, for the construction of relatives, are not only unnecessary,[382] but faulty. I shall notice them only to show my reasons for discarding them. With whom they originated, it is difficult to say. Paul's Accidence has them, and if Dean Colet, the supposed writer, did not take them from some earlier author, they must have been first taught by him, about the year 1510; and it is certain that they have been copied into almost every grammar published since. The first one is faulty, because, "When there cometh no nominative case between the relative and the verb, the relative shall [not always] be the nominative case to the verb;" as may be seen by the following examples: "Many are the works of human industry, which to begin and finish are [say is] hardly granted to the same man."—Dr. Johnson's Adv. to Dict. "They aim at his removal; which there is reason to fear they will effect."—"Which to avoid, I cut them off."—Shak., Hen. IV. The second rule is faulty, because, "When there cometh a nominative case between the relative and the verb, the relative shall [not always] be such case as the verb will have after it;" as may be seen by the following examples: "The author has not advanced any instances, which he does not think are pertinent."—Murray's Gram., i, 192. "Which we have reason to think was the case with the Greek and Latin."—Ib., 112. "Is this your son, who ye say was born blind?"—John, ix, 19. The case of the relative cannot be accurately determined by any rules of mere location. It may be nominative to a verb afar off, or it may be objective with a verb immediately following; as, "Which I do not find that there ever was."—Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 31. "And our chief reason for believing which is that our ancestors did so before us."—Philological Museum, i, 641. Both these particular rules are useless, because the general rules for the cases, as given in chapter third above, are applicable to relatives, sufficient to all the purpose, and not liable to any exceptions.

OBS. 21.—In syntactical parsing, each word, in general, is to be resolved by some one rule; but the parsing of a pronoun commonly requires two; one for its agreement with the noun or nouns for which it stands, and an other for its case. The rule of agreement will be one of the four which are embraced in this present chapter; and the rule for the case will be one of the seven which compose chapter third. So that the whole syntax of pronouns requires the application of eleven different rules, while that of nouns or verbs is embraced in six or seven, and that of any other part of speech, in one only. In respect to their cases, relatives and interrogatives admit of every construction common to nouns, or to the personal pronouns, except apposition. This is proved by the following examples:

1. Nominatives by Rule 2d: "I who write;—Thou who writest;—He who writes;—The animal which runs."—Dr. Adam. "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son."—Solomon. "He who does any thing which he knows is wrong, ventures on dangerous ground."—"What will become of us without religion?"—Blair. "Here I determined to wait the hand of death; which, I hope, when at last it comes, will fall lightly upon me."—Dr. Johnson. "What is sudden and unaccountable, serves to confound."—Crabb. "They only are wise, who are wise to salvation."—Goodwin.

2. Nominatives by Rule 6th: (i.e., words parsed as nominatives after the verbs, though mostly transposed:) "Who art thou?"—Bible. "What were we?"—Ib. "Do not tell them who I am."—"Let him be who he may, he is not the honest fellow that he seemed."—"The general conduct of mankind is neither what it was designed, nor what it ought to be."

3. Nominatives absolute by Rule 8th: "There are certain bounds to imprudence, which being transgressed, there remains no place for repentance in the natural course of things."—Bp. Butler. "Which being so, it need not be any wonder, why I should."—Walker's Particles, Pref., p. xiv. "He offered an apology, which not being admitted, he became submissive."—Murray's Key, p. 202. This construction of the relative is a Latinism, and very seldom used by the best English writers.

4. Possessives by Rule 4th: "The chief man of the island, whose name was Publius."—Acts. "Despair, a cruel tyrant, from whose prisons none can escape."—Dr. Johnson. "To contemplate on Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light."—Steele.

5. Objectives by Rule 5th: "Those whom she persuaded."—Dr. Johnson. "The cloak that I left at Troas."—St. Paul. "By the things which he suffered."—Id. "A man whom there is reason to suspect."—"What are we to do?"—Burke. "Love refuses nothing that love sends."—Gurnall. "The first thing, says he, is, to choose some maxim or point of morality; to inculcate which, is to be the design of his work."—Blair's Rhet., p. 421. "Whomsoever you please to appoint."—Lowth. "Whatsover [sic—KTH] he doeth, shall prosper."—Bible. "What we are afraid to do before men, we should be afraid to think before God."—Sibs. "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?"—Gen., xviii, 32. "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do?"—"Call imperfection what thou fanciest such."—Pope.

6. Objectives by Rule 6th: (i.e., pronouns parsed as objectives after neuter verbs, though they stand before them:) "He is not the man that I took him to be."—"Whom did you suppose me to be?"—"If the lad ever become what you wish him to be."

7. Objectives by Rule 7th: "To whom shall we go?"—Bible. "The laws by which the world is governed, are general."—Bp. Butler. "Whom he looks upon as his defender."—Addison. "That secret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are subject to."—Id. "I cannot but think the loss of such talents as the man of whom I am speaking was master of, a more melancholy instance."—Steele. "Grammar is the solid foundation upon which all other science rests."—Buchanan's Eng. Synt., p. xx.

OBS. 22.—In familiar language, the relative of the objective case is frequently understood; as, "The man [whom] I trust."—Cowper. "Here is the letter [which] I received." So in the following sentences: "This is the man they hate. These are the goods they bought. Are these the Gods they worship? Is this the woman you saw?"—Ash's Gram., p. 96. This ellipsis seems allowable only in the familiar style. In grave writing, or deliberate discourse, it is much better to express this relative. The omission of it is often attended with some obscurity; as, "The next error [that] I shall mention [,] is a capital one."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 157. "It is little [that] we know of the divine perfections."—Scougal, p. 94. "The faith [which] we give to memory, may be thought, on a superficial view, to be resolvable into consciousness, as well as that [which] we give to the immediate impressions of sense."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 53. "We speak that [which] we do know, and testify that [which] we have seen."—John, iii, 11. The omission of a relative in the nominative case, is almost always inelegant; as, "This is the worst thing [that] could happen."—"There were several things [which] brought it upon me."—Pilgrim's Progress, p. 162. The latter ellipsis may occur after but or than, and it is also sometimes allowed in poetry; as, [There is] "No person of reflection but [who] must be sensible, that an incident makes a stronger impression on an eye-witness, than when heard at second hand."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 257.

"In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man."—Pope, on Man.

"Abuse on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, spread."—Id., to Arbuthnot.

"There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools."—Id., to Augustus.

OBS. 23.—The antecedent is sometimes suppressed, especially in poetry; as, "Who will, may be a judge."—Churchill. "How shall I curse [him or them] whom God hath not cursed?"—Numbers, xxiii, 8. "There are, indeed, [some persons] who seem disposed to extend her authority much farther."—Campbell's Philosophy of Rhet., p. 187.

[He] "Who lives to nature, rarely can be poor; [He] Who lives to fancy, never can be rich."—Young.

"Serious should be an author's final views; [They] Who write for pure amusement, ne'er amuse."—Id.

OBS. 24.—Which, as well as who, was formerly applied to persons; as, "Our Father which art in heaven."—Bible. "Pray for them which despitefully use you."—Luke, vi, 28. And, as to the former example here cited, some British critics, still preferring the archaism, have accused "The Americans" of "poor criticism," in that they "have changed which into who, as being more consonant to the rules of Grammar." Falsely imagining, that which and who, with the same antecedent, can be of different genders, they allege, that, "The use of the neuter pronoun carried with it a certain vagueness and sublimity, not inappropriate in reminding us that our worship is addressed to a Being, infinite, and superior to all distinctions applicable to material objects."—Men and Manners in America: quoted and endorsed by the REV. MATT. HARRISON, in his treatise on the English Language, p. 191. This is all fancy; and, in my opinion, absurd. It is just like the religious prejudice which could discern "a singular propriety" in "the double superlative most highest."—Lowth's Gram., p. 28. But which may still be applied to a young child, if sex and intelligence be disregarded; as, "The child which died." Or even to adults, when they are spoken of without regard to a distinct personality or identity; as, "Which of you will go?"—"Crabb knoweth not which is which, himself or his parodist."—Leigh Hunt.

OBS. 25.—A proper name taken merely as a name, or an appellative taken in any sense not strictly personal, must be represented by which, and not by who; as, "Herod—which is but an other name for cruelty."—"In every prescription of duty, God proposeth himself as a rewarder; which he is only to those that please him."—Dr. J. Owen. Which would perhaps be more proper than whom, in the following passage: "They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them."—Psalms, cvi, 34. Dr. Blair has preferred it in the following instance: "My lion and my pillar are sufficiently interpreted by the mention of Achilles and the minister, which I join to them."—Lectures, p. 151. He meant, "whose names I connect with theirs;" and not, that he joined the person of Achilles to a lion, or that of a minister to a pillar.

OBS. 26.—When two or more relative clauses pertain to the same antecedent, if they are connected by a conjunction, the same relative ought to be employed in each, agreeably to the doctrine of the seventh note below; but if no conjunction is expressed or understood between them, the pronouns ought rather to be different; as, "There are many things that you can speak of, which cannot be seen."—R W. Green's Gram., p. 11. This distinction is noticed in the fifth chapter of Etymology, Obs. 29th, on the Classes of Pronouns. Dr. Priestley says, "Whatever relative be used, in a series of clauses, relating to the same antecedent, the same ought to be used in them all. 'It is remarkable, that Holland, against which the war was undertaken, and that, in the very beginning, was reduced to the brink of destruction, lost nothing.'—Universal History, Vol. 25, p. 117. It ought to have been, and which in the very beginning."—Priestley's Gram., p. 102. L. Murray, (as I have shown in the Introduction, Ch. x, ¶ 22,) assumes all this, without references; adding as a salvo the word "generally," which merely impairs the certainty of the rule:—"the same relative ought generally to be used in them all."—Octavo Gram., p. 155. And, of who and that, Cobbett says: "Either may do; but both never ought to be relatives of the same antecedent in the same sentence."—Gram., ¶ 202. The inaccuracy of these rules is as great as that of the phraseology which is corrected under them. In the following sentence, the first relative only is restrictive, and consequently the other may be different: "These were the officers that were called Homotimoi, and who signalized themselves afterwards so gloriously upon all occasions."—Rollin's Hist., ii, 62. See also in Rev., x, 6th, a similar example without the conjunction.

OBS. 27.—In conversation, the possessive pronoun your is sometimes used in a droll way, being shortened into your in pronunciation, and nothing more being meant by it, than might be expressed by the article an or a: as, "Rich honesty dwells, like your miser, sir, in a poor house; as, your pearl in your foul oyster."—Shakspeare.

NOTES TO RULE X.

NOTE 1.—A pronoun should not be introduced in connexion with words that belong more properly to the antecedent, or to an other pronoun; as, "And then there is good use for Pallas her glass."—Bacon's Wisdom, p. 22. Say—"for Pallas's glass."

"My banks they are furnish'd with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep."—Shenstone, p. 284.

This last instance, however, is only an example of pleonasm; which is allowable and frequent in animated discourse, but inelegant in any other. Our grammarians have condemned it too positively. It occurs sundry times in the Bible; as, "Know ye that the LORD he is God."—Psalms, c, 3.

NOTE II.—A change of number in the second person, or even a promiscuous use of ye and you in the same case and the same style, is inelegant, and ought to be avoided; as, "You wept, and I for thee"—"Harry, said my lord, don't cry; I'll give you something towards thy loss."—Swift's Poems, p. 267. "Ye sons of sloth, you offspring of darkness, awake from your sleep."—Brown's Metaphors, p. 96. Our poets have very often adopted the former solecism, to accommodate their measure, or to avoid the harshness of the old verb in the second person singular: as, "Thy heart is yet blameless, O fly while you may!"—Queen's Wake, p. 46.

"Oh! Peggy, Peggy, when thou goest to brew, Consider well what you're about to do."—King's Poems, p. 594.

"As in that lov'd Athenian bower, You learn'd an all-commanding power, Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd! Can well recall what then it heard."—Collins, Ode to Music.

NOTE III.—The relative who is applied only to persons, and to animals or things personified; and which, to brute animals and inanimate things spoken of literally: as, "The judge who presided;"—"The old crab who advised the young one;"—"The horse which ran away;"—"The book which was given me."

NOTE IV.—Nouns of multitude, unless they express persons directly as such, should not be represented by the relative who: to say, "The family whom I visited," would hardly be proper; that would here be better. When such nouns are strictly of the neuter gender, which may represent them; as, "The committees which were appointed." But where the idea of rationality is predominant, who or whom seems not to be improper; as, "The conclusion of the Iliad is like the exit of a great man out of company whom he has entertained magnificently."—Cowper. "A law is only the expression of the desire of a multitude who have power to punish."—Brown's Philosophy of the Mind.

NOTE V.—In general, the pronoun must so agree with its antecedent as to present the same idea, and never in such a manner as to confound the name with the thing signified, or any two things with each other. Examples: "Jane is in the nominative case, because it leads the sentence."—Infant School Gram., p. 30. Here it represents the word "Jane" and not the person Jane. "What mark or sign is put after master to show that he is in the possessive case? Spell it"—Ib., p. 32. Here the word "master" is most absurdly confounded with the man; and that to accommodate grammar to a child's comprehension!

NOTE VI.—The relative that may be applied either to persons or to things. In the following cases, it is more appropriate than who, whom, or which; and ought to be preferred, unless it be necessary to use a preposition before the relative:—(1.) After an adjective of the superlative degree, when the relative clause is restrictive;[383] as, "He was the first that came."—"He was the fittest person that could then be found."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 422. "The Greeks were the greatest reasoners that ever appeared in the world."—BEATTIE: Murray's Gram., p. 127. (2.) After the adjective same, when the relative clause is restrictive; as, "He is the same man that you saw before."— Priestley's Gram., p. 101; Murray's, 156; Campbell's Rhet., 422. (3.) After the antecedent who; as, "Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"—Washington. (4.) After two or more antecedents that demand a relative adapted both to persons and to things; as, "He spoke largely of the men and things that he had seen."—"When some particular person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be more distinctly marked."— Murray's Gram., p. 51. (5.) After an unlimited antecedent which the relative clause is designed to restrict; as, "Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."—Gray. "Music that accords with the present tone of mind, is, on that account, doubly agreeable."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 311. "For Theocritus descends sometimes into ideas that are gross and mean."—Blair's Rhet., p. 393. (6.) After any antecedent introduced by the expletive it; as, "It is you that suffer."—"It was I, and not he, that did it."—Churchill's Gram., p. 142. "It was not he[384] that they were so angry with."—Murray's Exercises, R. 17. "It was not Gavius alone that Verres meant to insult."—Blair's Rhet., p. 325. (7.) And, in general, wherever the propriety of who or which is doubtful; as, "The little child that was placed in the midst."

NOTE VII.—When two or more relative clauses connected by a conjunction have a similar dependence in respect to the antecedent, the same pronoun must be employed in each; as, "O thou, who art, and who wast, and who art to come!"—"And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped."—Jer., viii, 2. NOTE VIII.—The relative, and the preposition governing it, should not be omitted, when they are necessary to the sense intended, or to a proper connexion of the parts of the sentence; as, "He is still in the situation you saw him." Better thus: "He is still in the situation in which you saw him."

NOTE IX.—After certain nouns, of time, place, manner, or cause, the conjunctive adverbs when, where, whither, whence, how, and why, are a sort of special relatives; but no such adverb should be used where a preposition and a relative pronoun would better express the relation of the terms: as, "A cause where justice is so much concerned." Say, "A cause in which." See Etymology, Obs. 6th, 7th, and 8th, on the Classes of Adverbs.

NOTE X.—Where a pronoun or a pronominal adjective will not express the meaning clearly, the noun must be repeated, or inserted in stead of it: as, "We see the beautiful variety of colour in the rainbow, and are led to consider the cause of it." Say,—"the cause of that variety;" because the it may mean the variety, the colour, or the rainbow.

NOTE XI.—To prevent ambiguity or obscurity, the relative should, in general, be placed as near as possible to the antecedent. The following sentence is therefore faulty: "He is like a beast of prey, that is void of compassion." Better thus: "He that is void of compassion, is like a beast of prey."

NOTE XII.—The pronoun what should never be used in stead of the conjunction that; as, "Think no man so perfect but what he may err." This is a vulgar fault. Say,—"but that he may err."

NOTE XIII.—A pronoun should never be used to represent an adjective,—except the pronominal adjectives, and others taken substantively; because a pronoun can neither express a concrete quality as such, nor convert it properly into an abstract: as, "Be attentive; without which you will learn nothing." Better thus: "Be attentive; for without attention you will learn nothing."

NOTE XIV.—Though the relative which may in some instances stand for a phrase or a sentence, it is seldom, if ever, a fit representative of an indicative assertion; as, "The man opposed me, which was anticipated."— Nixon's Parser, p. 127. Say,—"but his opposition was anticipated." Or: "The man opposed me, as was anticipated." Or:—"as I expected he would." Again: "The captain disobeys orders, which is punished."—Ib., p. 128. This is an other factitious sentence, formed after the same model, and too erroneous for correction: none but a conceited grammatist could ever have framed such a construction.

NOTE XV.—The possessive pronouns, my, thy, his, her, its, &c., should be inserted or repeated as often as the sense or construction of the sentence requires them; their omission, like that of the articles, can scarcely in any instance constitute a proper ellipsis: as, "Of Princeton and vicinity."—Say, "Of Princeton and its vicinity." "The man and wife."—Say, "The man and his wife." "Many verbs vary both their signification and construction."—Adam's Gram., p. 170; Gould's, 171. Say,—"and their construction."

NOTE XVI.—In the correcting of any discord between the antecedent and its pronoun, if the latter for any sufficient reason is most proper as it stands, the former must be changed to accord with it: as, "Let us discuss what relates to each particular in their order:—its order."— Priestley's Gram., p. 193. Better thus: "Let us discuss what relates to the several particulars, in their order." For the order of things implies plurality.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE X. UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—OF AGREEMENT

"The subject is to be joined with his predicate."—BP. WILKINS: Lowth's Gram., p. 42.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun his is of the masculine gender, and does not correctly represent its antecedent noun subject, which is of the third person, singular, neuter. But, according to Rule 10th, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender." Therefore, his should be its; thus, "The subject is to be joined with its predicate."]

"Every one must judge of their own feelings."—Byron's Letters. "Every one in the family should know their duty."—Wm. Penn. "To introduce its possessor into 'that way in which it should go.'"—Infant School Gram., p. v. "Do not they say, every true believer has the Spirit of God in them?"—Barclay's Works, iii, 388. "There is none in their natural state righteous, no not one."—Wood's Dict. of Bible, ii, 129. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own."—John, xv, 19. "His form had not yet lost all her original brightness."—Milton. "No one will answer as if I were their friend or companion."—Steele, Spect., No. 534. "But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."— Philippians, ii, 3. "And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour."—Zechariah, viii, 17. "For every tree is known by his own fruit."—Luke, vi, 44. "But she fell to laughing, like one out of their right mind."—Castle Rackrent, p. 51. "Now these systems, so far from having any tendency to make men better, have a manifest tendency to make him worse."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 128. "And nobody else would make that city their refuge any more."—Josephus's Life, p. 158. "What is quantity, as it respects syllables or words? It is that time which is occupied in pronouncing it."—Bradley's Gram., p. 108. "In such expressions the adjective so much resembles an adverb in its meaning, that they are usually parsed as such."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 103. "The tongue is like a race-horse; which runs the faster the less weight it carries."—ADDISON: Joh. Dict.; Murray's Key, Rule 8. "As two thoughtless boys were trying to see which could lift the greatest weight with their jaws, one of them had several of his firm-set teeth wrenched from their sockets."—Newspaper. "Everybody nowadays publishes memoirs; everybody has recollections which they think worthy of recording."—Duchess D'Abrantes, p. 25. "Every body trembled for themselves or their friends."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 171.

"A steed comes at morning: no rider is there; But its bridle is red with the sign of despair."—Campbell.

UNDER NOTE I.—PRONOUNS WRONG OR NEEDLESS.

"Charles loves to study; but John, alas! he is very idle."—Merchant's School Gram., p. 22. "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?"—Matt., vii, 9. "Who, in stead of going about doing good, they are perpetually intent upon doing mischief."— Tillotson. "Whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pontius Pilate."—Acts, iii, 13. "Whom, when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber."—Acts, ix, 37. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God."—2 Chron., xxxiii, 13. "Whatever a man conceives clearly, he may, if he will be at the trouble, put it into distinct propositions, and express it clearly to others."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 293. "But to that point of time which he has chosen, the painter being entirely confined, he cannot exhibit various stages of the same action."—Blair's Rhet., p. 52. "It is without any proof at all what he subjoins."—Barclay's Works, i, 301. "George Fox his Testimony concerning Robert Barclay."—Ib., i, 111. "According to the author of the Postscript his advice."—Ib., iii, 263. "These things seem as ugly to the Eye of their Meditations, as those Æthiopians pictur'd in Nemesis her Pitcher."—Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients, p. 49. "Moreover, there is always a twofold Condition propounded with Sphynx her Ænigma's."—Ib., p. 73. "Whoever believeth not therein, they shall perish."—Sale's Koran, p. 20. "When, at Sestius his entreaty, I had been at his house."—Walker's Particles, p. 59.

"There high on Sipylus his shaggy brow, She stands, her own sad monument of woe." —Pope's Homer, B. xxiv, l. 777.

UNDER NOTE II.—CHANGE OF NUMBER.

"So will I send upon you famine, and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee."—Ezekiel, v, 17. "Why do you plead so much for it? why do ye preach it up?"—Barclay's Works, i, 180. "Since thou hast decreed that I shall bear man, your darling."—Edward's First Lesson in Gram., p. 106. "You have my book and I have thine; i.e. thy book."—Chandler's Gram., 1821, p. 22. "Neither art thou such a one as to be ignorant of what you are."—Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. 70. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you."—Jeremiah, iii, 12. "The Almighty, unwilling to cut thee off in the fullness of iniquity, has sent me to give you warning."—Art of Thinking, p. 278. "Wert thou born only for pleasure? were you never to do any thing?"—Collier's Antoninus, p. 63. "Thou shalt be required to go to God, to die, and give up your account."—BARNES'S NOTES: on Luke, xii, 20. "And canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator? would not such a sight annihilate you?"—Milton. "If the prophet had commanded thee to do some great thing, would you have refused?"—Common School Journal, i, 80. "Art thou a penitent? Evince your sincerity by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance."—Christian's Vade-Mecum, p. 117. "I will call thee my dear son: I remember all your tenderness."— Classic Tales, p. 8. "So do thou, my son: open your ears, and your eyes."—Wright's Athens, p. 33. "I promise you, this was enough to discourage thee."—Pilgrim's Progress, p. 446. "Ere you remark an other's sin, Bid thy own conscience look within."—Gay. "Permit that I share in thy woe, The privilege can you refuse?"—Perfect's Poems, p. 6. "Ah! Strephon, how can you despise Her who without thy pity dies?"—Swift's Poems, p. 340.

"Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff, And I must own, you've measur'd out enough."—Shenstone.

"This day, dear Bee, is thy nativity; Had Fate a luckier one, she'd give it ye."—Swift.

UNDER NOTE III.—WHO AND WHICH.

"Exactly like so many puppets, who are moved by wires."—Blair's Rhet., p. 462. "They are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt."—Leviticus, xxv, 42. "Behold I and the children which God hath given me."—Heb., ii, 13; Webster's Bible, and others. "And he sent Eliakim which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe."—2 Kings, xix, 2. "In a short time the streets were cleared of the corpses who filled them."—M'Ilvaine's Led., p. 411. "They are not of those which teach things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake."—Barclay's Works, i, 435. "As a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces."—Micah, v, 8. "Frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water."—Rasselas, p. 10. "He had two sons, one of which was adopted by the family of Maximus."—Lempriere, w. Æmytius. "And the ants, who are collected by the smell, are burned by fire."—The Friend, xii, 49. "They being the agents, to which this thing was trusted."—Nixon's Parser, p. 139. "A packhorse who is driven constantly forwards and backwards to market."—LOCKE: Joh. Dict. "By instructing children, the affection of which will be increased."—Nixon's Parser, p. 136. "He had a comely young woman which travelled with him."—Hutchinson's Hist., i, 29. "A butterfly, which thought himself an accomplished traveller, happened to light upon a beehive."—Inst., p. 143. "It is an enormous elephant of stone, who disgorges from his uplifted trunk a vast but graceful shower."—Zenobia, i, 150. "He was met by a dolphin, who sometimes swam before him, and sometimes behind him."—Edward's First Lessons in Gram., p. 34.

"That Cæsar's horse, who, as fame goes, Had corns upon his feet and toes, Was not by half so tender-hooft, Nor trod upon the ground so soft."—Hudibras, p. 6.

UNDER NOTE IV.—NOUNS OF MULTITUDE.

"He instructed and fed the crowds who surrounded him."—Murray's Exercises, p. 52. "The court, who gives currency to manners, ought to be exemplary."—Ibid. "Nor does he describe classes of sinners who do not exist."—Anti-Slavery Magazine, i, 27. "Because the nations among whom they took their rise, were not savage."—Murray's Gram., p. 113. "Among nations who are in the first and rude periods of society."—Blair's Rhet., p. 60. "The martial spirit of those nations, among whom the feudal government prevailed."—Ib., p. 374. "France who was in alliance with Sweden."—Smollett's Voltaire, vi, 187. "That faction in England who most powerfully opposed his arbitrary pretensions."—Mrs. Macaulay's Hist., iii, 21. "We may say, the crowd, who was going up the street.'"—Cobbett's Gram., ¶ 204. "Such members of the Convention who formed this Lyceum, as have subscribed this Constitution."—New-York Lyceum.

UNDER NOTE V.—CONFUSION OF SENSES.

"The possessor shall take a particular form to show its case."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 53. "Of which reasons the principal one is, that no Noun, properly so called, implies its own Presence."—Harris's Hermes, p. 76. "Boston is a proper noun, which distinguishes it from other cities."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 22. "Conjunction means union, or joining together. It is used to join or unite either words or sentences."—Ib., p. 20. "The word interjection means thrown among. It is interspersed among other words to express sudden or strong emotion."—Ib., p. 21. "In deed, or in very deed, may better be written separately, as they formerly were."—Cardell's Gram., 12mo, p. 89. "Alexander, on the contrary, is a particular name, and is restricted to distinguish him alone."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 25. "As an indication that nature itself had changed her course."—Hist. of America, p. 9. "Of removing from the United States and her territories the free people of colour."—Jenifer. "So that gh may be said not to have their proper sound."—Webster's El. Spelling-Book, p. 10. "Are we to welcome the loathsome harlot, and introduce it to our children?"—Maturin's Sermons, p. 167. "The first question is this, 'Is reputable, national, and present use, which, for brevity's sake, I shall hereafter simply denominate good use, always uniform in her decisions?"—Campbell's Rhet., p. 171. "Time is always masculine, on account of its mighty efficacy. Virtue is feminine from its beauty, and its being the object of love."—Murray's Gram., p. 37; Blair's, 125; Sanborn's, 189; Emmons's, 13; Putnam's, 25; Fisk's, 57; Ingersoll's, 26; Greenleaf's, 21. See also Blair's Rhet., p. 76. "When you speak to a person or thing, it is in the second person."—Bartlett's Manual, Part ii, p. 27. "You now know the noun, for it means name."—Ibid. "T. What do you see? P. A book. T. Spell it."—R. W. Green's Gram., p. 12. "T. What do you see now? P. Two books. T. Spell them."—Ibid. "If the United States lose her rights as a nation."—Liberator, Vol. ix, p. 24. "When a person or thing is addressed or spoken to, it is in the second person."—Frost's El. of Gram., p. 7. "When a person or thing is spoken of, it is in the third person."—Ibid. "The ox, that ploughs the ground, has the same plural termination also, oxen."—Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 40.

"Hail, happy States! thine is the blissful seat, Where nature's gifts and art's improvements meet." EVERETT: Columbian Orator, p. 239.

UNDER NOTE VI.—THE RELATIVE THAT.

(1.) "This is the most useful art which men possess."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 275. "The earliest accounts which history gives us concerning all nations, bear testimony to these facts."—Blair's Rhet., p. 379; Jamieson's, 300. "Mr. Addison was the first who attempted a regular inquiry" [into the pleasures of taste.]—Blair's Rhet., p. 28. "One of the first who introduced it was Montesquieu."—Murray's Gram., p. 125. "Massillon is perhaps the most eloquent writer of sermons which modern times have produced."—Blair's Rhet., p. 289. "The greatest barber who ever lived, is our guiding star and prototype."—Hart's Figaro, No. 6.

(2.) "When prepositions are subjoined to nouns, they are generally the same which are subjoined to the verbs, from which the nouns are derived."—Priestley's Gram., p. 157. "The same proportions which are agreeable in a model, are not agreeable in a large building."—Kames, EL of Crit., ii, 343. "The same ornaments, which we admire in a private apartment, are unseemly in a temple."—Murray's Gram., p. 128. "The same whom John saw also in the sun."—Milton. P. L., B. iii, l. 623.

(3.) "Who can ever be easy, who is reproached with his own ill conduct?"—Thomas à Kempis, p. 72. "Who is she who comes clothed in a robe of green?"—Inst., p. 143. "Who who has either sense or civility, does not perceive the vileness of profanity?"

(4.) "The second person denotes the person or thing which is spoken to."—Compendium in Kirkham's Gram. "The third person denotes the person or thing which is spoken of."—Ibid. "A passive verb denotes action received or endured by the person or thing which is its nominative."—Ibid, and Gram., p. 157. "The princes and states who had neglected or favoured the growth of this power."—Bolingbroke, on History, p. 222. "The nominative expresses the name of the person, or thing which acts, or which is the subject of discourse."—Hiley's Gram., p. 19. (5.) "Authors who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty."—Blair's Rhet., p. 108. "Writers who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty."—Murray's Gram., p. 313. "The neuter gender denotes objects which are neither male nor female."—Merchant's Gram., p. 26. "The neuter gender denotes things which have no sex."—Kirkham's Compendium. "Nouns which denote objects neither male nor female, are of the neuter gender."—Wells's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 49. "Objects and ideas which have been long familiar, make too faint an impression to give an agreeable exercise to our faculties."—Blair's Rhet., p. 50. "Cases which custom has left dubious, are certainly within the grammarian's province."—Murray's Gram., p. 164. "Substantives which end in ery, signify action or habit."—Ib., p. 132. "After all which can be done to render the definitions and rules of grammar accurate," &c.—Ib., p. 36. "Possibly, all which I have said, is known and taught."—A. B. Johnson's Plan of a Dict., p. 15.

(6.) "It is a strong and manly style which should chiefly be studied."—Blair's Rhet., p. 261. "It is this which chiefly makes a division appear neat and elegant."—Ib., p. 313. "I hope it is not I with whom he is displeased."—Murray's Key, R. 17. "When it is this alone which renders the sentence obscure."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 242. "This sort of full and ample assertion, 'it is this which,' is fit to be used when a proposition of importance is laid down."—Blair's Rhet., p. 197. "She is the person whom I understood it to have been." See Murray's Gram., p. 181. "Was it thou, or the wind, who shut the door?"—Inst., p. 143. "It was not I who shut it."—Ib.

(7.) "He is not the person who it seemed he was."—Murray's Gram., p. 181; Ingersoll's, p. 147. "He is really the person who he appeared to be."—Same. "She is not now the woman whom they represented her to have been."—Same. "An only child, is one who has neither brother nor sister; a child alone, is one who is left by itself"—Blair's Rhet., p. 98; Jamieson's, 71; Murray's Gram. 303.

UNDER NOTE VII.—RELATIVE CLAUSES CONNECTED.

(1.) "A Substantive, or Noun, is the name of a thing; of whatever we conceive in any way to subsist, or of which we have any notion."—Lowth's Gram., p. 14. (2.) "A Substantive or noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 27; Alger's, 15; Bacon's, 9; E. Dean's, 8; A. Flint's, 10; Folker's, 5; Hamlin's, 9; Ingersoll's, 14; Merchant's, 25; Pond's, 15; S. Putnam's, 10; Rand's, 9; Russell's, 9; T. Smith's, 12; and others. (3.) "A substantive or noun is the name of any person, place, or thing that exists, or of which we can have an idea."—Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 6. (4.) "A noun is the name of anything that exists, or of which we form an idea."—Hallock's Gram., p. 37. (5.) "A Noun is the name of any person, place, object, or thing, that exists, or which we may conceive to exist."—D. C. Allen's Grammatic Guide, p. 19. (6.) "The name of every thing that exists, or of which we can form any notion, is a noun."—Fisk's Murray's Gram., p. 56. (7.) "An allegory is the representation of some one thing by an other that resembles it, and which is made to stand for it."—Murray's Gram., p. 341. (8.) "Had he exhibited such sentences as contained ideas inapplicable to young minds, or which were of a trivial or injurious nature."—Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. v. (9.) "Man would have others obey him, even his own kind; but he will not obey God, that is so much above him, and who made him."—Penn's Maxims. (10.) "But what we may consider here, and which few Persons have taken Notice of, is," &c.—Brightland's Gram., p. 117. (11.) "The Compiler has not inserted such verbs as are irregular only in familiar writing or discourse, and which are improperly terminated by t, instead of ed."—Murray's Gram., p. 107; Fisk's, 81; Hart's, 68; Ingersoll's, 104; Merchant's, 63. (12.) "The remaining parts of speech, which are called the indeclinable parts, or that admit of no variations, will not detain us long."—Blair's Rhet., p. 84.

UNDER NOTE VIII.—THE RELATIVE AND PREPOSITION.

"In the temper of mind he was then."—Addison, Spect., No. 54. "To bring them into the condition I am at present."—Spect., No. 520. "In the posture I lay."—Swift's Gulliver. "In the sense it is sometimes taken."—Barclay's Works, i, 527. "Tools and utensils are said to be right, when they serve for the uses they were made."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 99. "If, in the extreme danger I now am, I do not imitate the behaviour of those," &c.—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 193. "News was brought, that Darius was but twenty miles from the place they then were."—Ib., ii, 113. "Alexander, upon hearing this news, continued four days in the place he then was."—Ib., ii, 113. "To read, in the best manner it is now taught."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 246. "It may be expedient to give a few directions as to the manner it should be studied."—Hallock's Gram., p. 9. "Participles are words derived from verbs, and convey an idea of the acting of an agent, or the suffering of an object, with the time it happens."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 50.

"Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies."—Beauties of Shak., p. 173.

UNDER NOTE IX.—ADVERBS FOR RELATIVES.

"In compositions where pronunciation has no place."—Blair's Rhet., p. 101. "They framed a protestation, where they repeated their claims."—Hume's Hist. "Which have reference to Substances, where Sex never had existence."—Harris's Hermes, p. 43. "Which denote substances where sex never had existence."—Murray's Gram., p. 38; Fisk's, 57. "There is no rule given how truth may be found out."—Walker's Particles, p. 160. "The nature of the objects whence they are taken."—Blair's Rhet., p. 165. "That darkness of character, where we can see no heart."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 236. "The states where they negotiated."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 159. "Till the motives whence men act be known."—Beattie's Moral Science, p. 262. "He assigns the principles whence their power of pleasing flows."—Blair's Rhet., p. 19. "But I went on, and so finished this History in that form as it now appears."—Sewel's Preface, p. v. "By prepositions we express the cause why, the instrument by which, wherewith, or the manner how a thing is done."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 128; John Burn's, 121. "They are not such in the language whence they are derived."—Town's Analysis, p. 13. "I find it very hard to persuade several, that their passions are affected by words from whence they have no ideas."—Burke, on the Sublime, p. 95. "The known end, then, why we are placed in a state of so much affliction, hazard, and difficulty, is our improvement in virtue and piety."—Butler's Anal., p. 109.

"Yet such his acts, as Greeks unborn shall tell, And curse the battle where their fathers fell." —Pope, Il., B. x, I. 61.

UNDER NOTE X.—REPEAT THE NOUN.

"Youth may be thoughtful, but it is not very common."—Webster's El. Spelling-Book, p. 85. "A proper name is that given to one person or thing."—Bartlett's School Manual, ii, 27. "A common name is that given to many things of the same sort."—Ibid. "This rule is often violated; some instances of which are annexed."—Murray's Gram., p. 149; Ingersoll's, 237. "This is altogether careless writing. It renders style often obscure, always embarrassed and inelegant."—Blair's Rhet., p. 106. "Every inversion which is not governed by this rule, will be disrelished by every one of taste."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 62. "A proper diphthong is that in which both the vowels are sounded."—Murray's Gram., p. 9; Alger's, 11; Bacon's, 8; Merchant's, 9; Hiley's, 3; and others. "An improper Diphthong is one in which only one of the two Vowels is sounded."—Lennie's Gram., p. 5. "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants, are called Hebrews."—Wood's Dict. "Every word in our language, of more than one syllable, has one of them distinguished from the rest in this manner."—Murray's Gram., p. 236. "Two consonants proper to begin a word must not be separated; as, fa-ble, sti-fle. But when they come between two vowels, and are such as cannot begin a word, they must be divided; as, ut-most, un-der."—Ib., p. 22. "Shall the intellect alone feel no pleasures in its energy, when we allow them to the grossest energies of appetite and sense?"—Harris's Hermes, p. 298; Murray's Gram., 289. "No man hath a propensity to vice as such: on the contrary, a wicked deed disgusts him, and makes him abhor the author."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 66. "The same that belong to nouns, belong also to pronouns."—Greenleaf's Gram., p. 8. "What is Language? It is the means of communicating thoughts from one to another."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 15. "A simple word is that which is not made up of more than one."—Adam's Gram., p. 4; Gould's, p. 4. "A compound word is that which is made up of two or more words."—Ib. "When a conjunction is to be supplied, it is called Asyndeton."—Adam's Gram., p. 235.

UNDER NOTE XI.—PLACE OF THE RELATIVE.

"It gives a meaning to words, which they would not have."—Murray's Gram., p. 244. "There are many words in the English language, that are sometimes used as adjectives, and sometimes as adverbs."—Ib., p. 114. "Which do not more effectually show the varied intentions of the mind, than the auxiliaries do which are used to form the potential mood."—Ib., p. 67. "These accents make different impressions on the mind, which will be the subject of a following speculation."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 108. "And others very much differed from the writer's words, to whom they were ascribed."—Pref. to Lily's Gram., p. xii. "Where there is nothing in the sense which requires the last sound to be elevated, an easy fall will be proper."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 250; Bullions's E. Gram., 167. "There is an ellipsis of the verb in the last clause, which, when you supply, you find it necessary to use the adverb not."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 176; Murray's Gram., 368. "Study is singular number, because its nominative I is, with which it agrees."—Smith's New Gram., p. 22. "John is the person, or, thou art who is in error."—Wright's Gram., p. 136. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin."—2 Cor., v, 21.

"Take that of me, my friend, who have the power To seal the accuser's lips."—Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 268.

UNDER NOTE XII.—WHAT FOR THAT.

"I had no idea but what the story was true."—Browns Inst., p. 144. "The post-boy is not so weary but what he can whistle."—Ib. "He had no intimation but what the men were honest."—Ib. "Neither Lady Haversham nor Miss Mildmay will ever believe, but what I have been entirely to blame."—See Priestley's Gram., p. 93. "I am not satisfied, but what the integrity of our friends is more essential to our welfare than their knowledge of the world."—Ibid. "There is, indeed, nothing in poetry, so entertaining or descriptive, but what a didactic writer of genius may be allowed to introduce in some part of his work."—Blair's Rhet., p. 401. "Brasidas, being bit by a mouse he had catched, let it slip out of his fingers: 'No creature, (says he,) is so contemptible but what may provide for its own safety, if it have courage.'"—PLUTARCH: Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 81.

UNDER NOTE XIII.—ADJECTIVES FOR ANTECEDENTS.

"In narration, Homer is, at all times, remarkably concise, which renders him lively and agreeable."—Blair's Rhet., p. 435. "It is usual to talk of a nervous, a feeble, or a spirited style; which are plainly the characters of a writer's manner of thinking."—Ib., p. 92. "It is too violent an alteration, if any alteration were necessary, which none is."—Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 134. "Some men are too ignorant to be humble, without which, there can be no docility."—Berkley's Alciphron, p. 385. "Judas declared him innocent; which he could not be, had he in any respect deceived the disciples."—Porteus. "They supposed him to be innocent, which he certainly was not."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 50; Emmons's, 25. "They accounted him honest, which he certainly was not."—Fetch's Comp. Gram., p. 89. "Be accurate in all you say or do; for it is important in all the concerns of life."—Brown's Inst., p. 145. "Every law supposes the transgressor to be wicked; which indeed he is, if the law is just."—Ib. "To be pure in heart, pious, and benevolent, which all may be, constitutes human happiness."—Murray's Gram., p. 232. "To be dexterous in danger, is a virtue; but to court danger to show it, is weakness."—Penn's Maxims.

UNDER NOTE XIV.—SENTENCES FOR ANTECEDENTS.

"This seems not so allowable in prose; which the following erroneous examples will demonstrate."—Murray's Gram., p. 175. "The accent is laid upon the last syllable of a word; which is favourable to the melody."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 86. "Every line consists of ten syllables, five short and five long; from which there are but two exceptions, both of them rare."—Ib., ii, 89. "The soldiers refused obedience, which has been explained."—Nixon's Parser, p. 128. "Cæsar overcame Pompey, which was lamented."—Ib. "The crowd hailed William, which was expected."—Ib. "The tribunes resisted Scipio, which was anticipated."—Ib. "The censors reproved vice, which was admired."—Ib. "The generals neglected discipline, which has been proved."—Ib. "There would be two nominatives to the verb was, which is improper."—Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 205; Gould's, 202. "His friend bore the abuse very patiently; which served to increase his rudeness: it produced, at length, contempt and insolence."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 50; Emmons's, 25. "Almost all compounded sentences, are more or less elliptical; some examples of which may be seen under the different parts of speech."—Murray's Gram., p. 217; Guy's, 90; R G. Smith's, 180; Ingersoll's, 153; Fisk's, 144; J. M. Putnam's, 137; Weld's, 190, Weld's Imp. Ed., 214.

UNDER NOTE XV.—REPEAT THE PRONOUN.

"In things of Nature's workmanship, whether we regard their internal or external structure, beauty and design are equally conspicuous."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 269. "It puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense."—Ib., ii, 231. "Neither my obligations to the muses, nor expectations from them, are so great."—Cowley's Preface. "The Fifth Annual Report of the Anti-Slavery Society of Ferrisburgh and vicinity."—Liberator, ix, 69. "Meaning taste in its figurative as well as proper sense."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 360. "Every measure in which either your personal or political character is concerned."—Junius, Let. ix. "A jealous, righteous God has often punished such in themselves or offspring."—Extracts, p. 179. "Hence their civil and religious history are inseparable."—Milman's Jews, i, 7. "Esau thus carelessly threw away both his civil and religious inheritance."—Ib., i, 24. "This intelligence excited not only our hopes, but fears likewise."—Jaudon's Gram., p. 170. "In what manner our defect of principle and ruling manners have completed the ruin of the national spirit of union."—Brown's Estimate, i, 77. "Considering her descent, her connexion, and present intercourse."—Webster's Essays, p. 85. "His own and wife's wardrobe are packed up in a firkin."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 73.

UNDER NOTE XVI.—CHANGE THE ANTECEDENT.

"The sound of e and o long, in their due degrees, will be preserved, and clearly distinguished."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 242. "If any person should be inclined to think," &c., "the author takes the liberty to suggest to them," &c.—Ib., Pref., p. iv. "And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it."—1 Kings, xxii, 43. "If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."—Matt., xviii, 35. "Nobody ever fancied they were slighted by him, or had the courage to think themselves his betters."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 8. "And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son."—Gen., xxvii, 15. "Where all the attention of man is given to their own indulgence."— Maturin's Sermons, p. 181. "The idea of a father is a notion superinduced to the substance, or man—let man be what it will."—Locke's Essay, i, 219. "Leaving every one to do as they list."—Barclay's Works, i, 460. "Each body performed his part handsomely."—J. Flint's Gram., p. 15. "This block of marble rests on two layers of stone, bound together with lead, which, however, has not prevented the Arabs from forcing out several of them."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 72.

"Love gives to every power a double power, Above their functions and their offices."—Shakspeare.

RULE XI.—PRONOUNS.

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The council were divided in their sentiments."—"The Christian world are beginning to awake out of their slumber."—C. Simeon. "Whatever Adam's posterity lost through him, that and more they gain in Christ."—J. Phipps.

"To this, one pathway gently-winding leads, Where march a train with baskets on their heads." —Pope, Iliad, B. xviii, l. 657.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XI.

OBS. 1.—The collective noun, or noun of multitude, being a name that signifies many, may in general be taken in either of two ways, according to the intention of the user: that is, either with reference to the aggregate as one thing, in which sense it will accord with the neuter pronoun it or which; or with reference to the individuals, so as to accord with a plural pronoun they, their, them, or who, masculine, or feminine, as the individuals of the assemblage may happen to be. The noun itself, being literally singular both in form and in fact, has not unfrequently some article or adjective before it that implies unity; so that the interpretation of it in a plural sense by the pronoun or verb, was perhaps not improperly regarded by the old grammarians as an example of the figure syllepsis:.as, "Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they all share one common nature."—Spectator, No. 287.

"Thus urg'd the chief; a generous troop appears, Who spread their bucklers and advance their spears." —Pope, Iliad, B. xi, l. 720.

OBS. 2.—Many of our grammarians say, "When a noun of multitude is preceded by a definitive word, which clearly limits the sense to an aggregate with an idea of unity, it requires a verb and pronoun to agree with it in the singular number."—Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249; Fisk's, 122; Fowler's, 528. But this principle, I apprehend, cannot be sustained by an appeal to general usage. The instances in practice are not few, in which both these senses are clearly indicated with regard to the same noun; as, "Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgement require secrecy."—Constitution of the United States, Art. i, Sec. 5. "I mean that part of mankind who are known by the name of women's men, or beaux."—Addison, Spect., No. 536. "A set of men who are common enough in the world."—Ibid. "It is vain for a people to expect to be free, unless they are first willing to be virtuous."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 397. "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed."—Matt., xiii, 15. "This enemy had now enlarged their confederacy, and made themselves more formidable than before."—Life of Antoninus, p. 62.

"Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms; So loud their clamour, and so keen their arms." —Pope, Iliad, B. xvi, l. 320.

OBS. 3.—Most collective nouns of the neuter gender, may take the regular plural form, and be represented by a pronoun in the third person, plural, neuter; as, "The nations will enforce their laws." This construction comes under Rule 10th, as does also the singular, "The nations will enforce its laws;" for, in either case, the agreement is entirely literal. Half of Murray's Rule 4th is therefore needless. To Rule 11th above, there are properly no exceptions; because the number of the pronoun is itself the index to the sense in which the antecedent is therein taken. It does not follow, however, but that there may be violations of the rule, or of the notes under it, by the adoption of one number when the other would be more correct, or in better taste. A collection of things inanimate, as a fleet, a heap, a row, a tier, a bundle, is seldom, if ever, taken distributively, with a plural pronoun. For a further elucidation of the construction of collective nouns, see Rule 15th, and the observations under it.

NOTES TO RULE XI.

NOTE I.—A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a pronoun in the third person, singular, neuter; as, "When a legislative body makes laws, it acts for itself only; but when it makes grants or contracts, it acts as a party."—Webster's Essays, p. 40. "A civilized people has no right to violate its solemn obligations, because the other party is uncivilized."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 314.

NOTE II.—When a collective noun is followed by two or more words which must each in some sense agree with it, uniformity of number is commonly preferable to diversity, and especially to such a mixture as puts the singular both before and after the plural; as, "That ingenious nation who have done so much honour to modern literature, possesses, in an eminent degree, the talent of narration."—Blair's Rhet., p. 364. Better: "which has done."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XI.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—THE IDEA OF PLURALITY.

"The jury will be confined till it agrees on a verdict."—Brown's Inst., p. 145.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun it is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent its antecedent jury, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 11th, "When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the pronoun must agree with it in the plural number." Therefore, it should be they; thus, "The jury will be confined till they agree on a verdict."]

"And mankind directed its first cares towards the needful."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 114. "It is difficult to deceive a free people respecting its true interest."—Life of Charles XII, p. 67. "All the virtues of mankind are to be counted upon a few fingers, but his follies and vices are innumerable."—Swift. "Every sect saith, 'Give me liberty:' but give it him, and to his power, he will not yield it to any body else."—Oliver Cromwell. "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion."—Numbers, xxiii, 24. "For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."—Gen., vi, 12. "There happened to the army a very strange accident, which put it in great consternation."—Goldsmith.

UNDER NOTE I.—THE IDEA OF UNITY.

"The meeting went on in their business as a united body."—Foster's Report, i, 69. "Every religious association has an undoubted right to adopt a creed for themselves."—Gould's Advocate, iii, 405. "It would therefore be extremely difficult to raise an insurrection in that State against their own government."—Webster's Essays, p. 104. "The mode in which a Lyceum can apply themselves in effecting a reform in common schools."—New York Lyceum. "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?"—Jeremiah, ii, 11. "In the holy scriptures each of the twelve tribes of Israel is often called by the name of the patriarch, from whom they descended."—J. Q. Adams's Rhet., ii, 331.

UNDER NOTE II.—UNIFORMITY OF NUMBER.

"A nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs, achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can ever give."—J. Q. Adams. "The English nation, from which we descended, have been gaining their liberties inch by inch."—Webster's Essays, p. 45. "If a Yearly Meeting should undertake to alter its fundamental doctrines, is there any power in the society to prevent their doing so?"—Foster's Report, i, 96. "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother."—Proverbs, xxx, 11. "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."—Ib., xxx, 12. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them."—Numb., xxiii, 21. "My people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity."—Jer., xviii, 15. "When a quarterly meeting hath come to a judgment respecting any difference, relative to any monthly meeting belonging to them," &c.—Extracts, p. 195; N. E. Discip., p. 118. "The number of such compositions is every day increasing, and appear to be limited only by the pleasure or conveniency of the writer."—Booth's Introd. to Dict., p. 37. "The church of Christ hath the same power now as ever, and are led by the same Spirit into the same practices."—Barclay's Works, i, 477. "The army, whom the chief had thus abandoned, pursued meanwhile their miserable march."—Lockhart's Napoleon, ii, 165.

RULE XII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together: as, "Minos and Thales sung to the lyre the laws which they composed."—STRABO: Blair's Rhet., p. 379. "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided."—2 Sam., i, 23.

"Rhesus and Rhodius then unite their rills, Caresus roaring down the stony hills."—Pope, Il., B. xii, l. 17.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When two or more antecedents connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, they are either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural pronoun; as, "This great philosopher and statesman continued in public life till his eighty-second year."—"The same Spirit, light, and life, which enlighteneth, also sanctifieth, and there is not an other."—Penington. "My Constantius and Philetus confesseth me two years older when I writ it."—Cowley's Preface. "Remember these, O Jacob and Israel! for thou art my servant."—Isaiah, xliv, 21. "In that strength and cogency which renders eloquence powerful."—Blair's Rhet., p. 252.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

When two antecedents connected by and are emphatically distinguished, they belong to different propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural pronoun; as, "The butler, and not the baker, was restored to his office."—"The good man, and the sinner too, shall have his reward."—"Truth, and truth only, is worth seeking for its own sake."—"It is the sense in which the word is used, and not the letters of which it is composed, that determines what is the part of speech to which it belongs."—Cobbett's Gram., ¶ 130.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

When two or more antecedents connected by and are preceded by the adjective each, every, or no, they are taken separately, and do not require a plural pronoun; as, "Every plant and every tree produces others after its own kind."—"It is the cause of every reproach and distress which has attended your government."—Junius, Let. xxxv. But if the latter be a collective noun, the pronoun may be plural; as, "Each minister and each church act according to their own impressions."—Dr. M'Cartee.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XII.

OBS. 1.—When the antecedents are of different persons, the first person is preferred to the second, and the second to the third; as, "John, and thou, and I, are attached to our country."—"John and thou are attached to your country."—"The Lord open some light, and show both you and me our inheritance!"—Baxter. "Thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood."—Numbers, xviii, 1.

"For all are friends in heaven; all faithful friends; And many friendships in the days of Time Begun, are lasting here, and growing still: So grows ours evermore, both theirs and mine." —Pollok, C. of T., B. v, l. 335.

OBS 2.—The gender of pronouns, except in the third person singular, is distinguished only by their antecedents. In expressing that of a pronoun which has antecedents of different genders, the masculine should be preferred to the feminine, and the feminine to the neuter. The parser of English should remember, that this is a principle of General Grammar.

OBS 3.—When two words are taken separately as nominatives, they ought not to be united in the same sentence as antecedents. In the following example, therefore, them should be it: "The first has a lenis, and the other an asper over them."—Printer's Gram., p. 246. Better thus: "The first has a lenis over it, and the other an asper."

OBS. 4.—Nouns that stand as nominatives or antecedents, are sometimes taken conjointly when there is no conjunction expressed; as, "The historian, the orator, the philosopher, address themselves primarily to the understanding: their direct aim is, to inform, to persuade, to instruct."—Blair's Rhet., p. 377. The copulative and may here be said to be understood, because the verb and the pronouns are plural; but it seems better in general, either to introduce the connective word, or to take the nouns disjunctively: as, "They have all the copiousness, the fervour, the inculcating method, that is allowable and graceful in an orator; perhaps too much of it for a writer."—Blair's Rhet., p. 343. To this, however, there may be exceptions,—cases in which the plural form is to be preferred,—especially in poetry; as,

"Faith, justice, heaven itself, now quit their hold, When to false fame the captive heart is sold."—Brown, on Satire.

OBS. 5.—When two or more antecedents connected by and are nominally alike, one or more of them may be understood; and, in such a case, the pronoun must still be plural, as agreeing with all the nouns, whether expressed or implied: as, "But intellectual and moral culture ought to go hand in hand; they will greatly help each other."—Dr. Weeks. Here they stands for intellectual culture and moral culture. The following example is incorrect: "The Commanding and Unlimited mode may be used in an absolute sense, or without a name or substitute on which it can depend."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 80. Change it to they, or and to or. See Note 6th to Rule 16th.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XII.

PRONOUNS WITH ANTECEDENTS CONNECTED BY AND.

"Discontent and sorrow manifested itself in his countenance."—Brown's Inst., p. 146.

[FORMULE—Not proper, because the pronoun itself is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent its two antecedents discontent and sorrow, which are connected by and, and taken conjointly. But, according to Rule 12th, "When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with then, jointly in the plural, because they are taken together." Therefore, itself should be themselves; thus, "Discontent and sorrow manifested themselves in his countenance."]

"Both conversation and public speaking became more simple and plain, such as we now find it."—Blair's Rhet., p. 59. "Idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, &c."—JOHNSON: Priestley's Gram., p. 186. "Avoid questions and strife; it shows a busy and contentious disposition."—Wm. Penn. "To receive the gifts and benefits of God with thanksgiving, and witness it blessed and sanctified to us by the word and prayer, is owned by us."—Barclays Works, i, 213. "Both minister and magistrate are compelled to choose between his duty and his reputation."—Junius, p. 9. "All the sincerity, truth, and faithfulness, or disposition of heart or conscience to approve it, found among rational creatures, necessarily originate from God."—Brown's Divinity, p. 12. "Your levity and heedlessness, if it continue, will prevent all substantial improvement."—Brown's Inst., p. 147. "Poverty and obscurity will oppress him only who esteems it oppressive."—Ib. "Good sense and refined policy are obvious to few, because it cannot be discovered but by a train of reflection."—Ib. "Avoid haughtiness of behaviour, and affectation, of manners: it implies a want of solid merit."—Ib. "If love and unity continue, it will make you partakers of one an other's joy."—Ib. "Suffer not jealousy and distrust to enter: it will destroy, like a canker, every germ of friendship."—Ib. "Hatred and animosity are inconsistent with Christian charity; guard, therefore, against the slightest indulgence of it."—Ib. "Every man is entitled to liberty of conscience, and freedom of opinion, if he does not pervert it to the injury of others."—Ib.

"With the azure and vermilion Which is mix'd for my pavilion."—Byron's Manfred, p. 9.

RULE XIII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together: as; "James or John will favour us with his company."—"Neither wealth nor honour can secure the happiness of its votaries."

"What virtue or what mental grace, But men unqualified and base Will boast it their possession?"—Cowper, on Friendship.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIII.

OBS. 1.—When two or more singular antecedents are connected by or or nor, the pronoun which represents them, ought in general to be singular, because or and nor are disjunctives; and, to form a complete concord, the nouns ought also to be of the same person and gender, that the pronoun may agree in all respects with each of them. But when plural nouns are connected in this manner, the pronoun will of course be plural, though it still agrees with the antecedents singly; as, "Neither riches nor honours ever satisfy their pursuers." Sometimes, when different numbers occur together, we find the plural noun put last, and the pronoun made plural after both, especially if this noun is a mere substitute for the other; as,

"What's justice to a man, or laws, That never comes within their claws."—Hudibras.

OBS. 2.—When antecedents of different persons, numbers, or genders, are connected by or or nor, they cannot very properly be represented by any pronoun that is not applicable to each of them. The following sentences are therefore inaccurate; or at least they contradict the teachings of their own authors: "Either thou or I am greatly mistaken, in our judgment on this subject."—Murray's Key, p. 184 "Your character, which I, or any other writer, may now value ourselves by (upon) drawing."—SWIFT: Lowth's Gram., p. 96. "Either you or I will be in our place in due time."—Coopers Gram., p. 127. But different pronouns may be so connected as to refer to such antecedents taken separately; as, "By requiring greater labour from such slave or slaves, than he or she or they are able to perform."—Prince's Digest. Or, if the gender only be different, the masculine may involve the feminine by implication; as, "If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake."—Exodus, xxi, 26.

OBS. 3.—It is however very common to resort to the plural number in such instances as the foregoing, because our plural pronouns are alike in all the genders; as, "When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite."—Numbers, vi, 2. "Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman unto thy gates, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die."—Deut., xvii, 5. "Not on outward charms could he or she build their pretensions to please."—Opie, on Lying, p. 148. "Complimenting either man or woman on agreeable qualities which they do not possess, in hopes of imposing on their credulity."—Ib., p. 108. "Avidien, or his wife, (no matter which,) sell their presented partridges and fruits."—Pope, Sat. ii, l. 50. "Beginning with Latin or Greek hexameter, which are the same."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 79.

"Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, Transform themselves so strangely as the rich?" —Pope, Ep. i, l. 152.

OBS. 4.—From the observations and examples above, it may be perceived, that whenever there is a difference of person, number, or gender, in antecedents connected disjunctively, there is an inherent difficulty respecting the form of the pronoun personal. The best mode of meeting this inconvenience, or of avoiding it by a change of the phraseology, may be different on different occasions. The disjunctive connexion of explicit pronouns is the most correct, but it savours too much of legal precision and wordiness to be always eligible. Commonly an ingenious mind may invent some better expression, and yet avoid any syntactical anomaly. In Latin, when nouns are connected by the conjunctions which correspond to or or nor, the pronoun or verb is so often made plural, that no such principle as that of the foregoing Rule, or of Rule 17th, is taught by the common grammars of that language. How such usage can be logically right, however, it is difficult to imagine. Lowth, Murray, Webster, and most other English grammarians, teach, that, "The conjunction disjunctive has an effect contrary to that of the copulative; and, as the verb, noun, or pronoun, is referred to the preceding terms taken separately, it must be in the singular number."—Lowth's Gram., p. 75; L. Murray's, 151; Churchill's, 142; W. Allen's, 133; Lennie's, 83; and many others. If there is any allowable exception to this principle, it is for the adoption of the plural when the concord cannot be made by any one pronoun singular; as, "If I value my friend's wife or son upon account of their connexion with him."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 73. "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation."—Levit., x, 8. These examples, though they do not accord with the preceding rule, seem not to be susceptible of any change for the better. There are also some other modes of expression, in which nouns that are connected disjunctively, may afterwards be represented together; as "Foppery is a sort of folly much more contagious THAN pedantry; but as they result alike from affectation, they deserve alike to be proscribed."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 217.