Part 3 — CHAPTER VI.—VERBS.

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

RULE XIV.—FINITE VERBS.

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

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

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTES TO RULE XIV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"That evermore his teeth they chatter, Chatter, chatter, chatter still."—Wordsworth.

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

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

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIV.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—VERB AFTER THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

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

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

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—VERB BEFORE THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE I.—THE RELATIVE AND VERB.

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE II.—NOMINATIVE WITH ADJUNCTS.

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE III.—COMPOSITE OR CONVERTED SUBJECTS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE V.—VERB BETWEEN TWO NOMINATIVES.

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

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

UNDER NOTE VI.—CHANGE THE NOMINATIVE.

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

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

UNDER NOTE VII.—ADAPT FORM TO STYLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE VIII.—EXPRESS THE NOMINATIVE.

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

"New York, Fifthmonth 3d, 1823.

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE IX.—APPLICATION OF MOODS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNDER NOTE X.—FALSE SUBJUNCTIVES.

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

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

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

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

RULE XV.—FINITE VERBS.

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

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

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

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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