In a former lecture, I promised to give you a more extensive explanation
of the cases of nouns; and, as they are, in many situations, a little
difficult to be ascertained, I will now offer some remarks on this
subject. But before you proceed, I wish you to parse all the examples in
the exercises just presented, observing to pay particular attention to
the remarks in the subjoined NOTE. Those remarks will assist you much in
analyzing.
A noun is sometimes nominative to a verb placed many lines after the
noun. You must exercise your judgment in this matter. Look at the
sentence in the preceding exercises beginning with, "He who, every
morning," &c. and see if you can find the verb to which _he_ is
nominative. What does _he_ do? He carries on a thread, &c. _He_, then,
is nominative to the verb _carries_. What does _who_ do? Who _plans_,
and who _follows_, &c. Then _who_ is nom. to _plans_, and _who_
understood, is nominative to _follows_.
"A soul without reflection, like a pile
Without inhabitant, to ruin runs."
In order to find the verb to which the noun _soul_, in this sentence, is
the nominative, put the question; What does a _soul_ without reflection
do? Such, a soul _runs_ to ruin, like a pile without inhabitant. Thus
you discover, that _soul_ is nominative to _runs_.
When the words of a sentence are arranged according to their natural
order, the nominative case, you recollect, is placed before the verb,
and the objective, after it; but when the words of a sentence are
transposed; that is, not arranged according to their natural order, it
frequently happens, that the nominative comes _after_, and the
objective, _before_ the verb; especially in poetry, or when a question
is asked: as, "Whence _arises_ the _misery_ of the present world?" "What
good _thing shall_ I _do_ to inherit eternal life?" Put these
expressions in the declarative form, and the nominative will _precede_,
and the objective _follow_ its verb: thus, "The _misery_ of the present
world _arises_ whence; I _shall do_ what good _thing_ to inherit eternal
life."
"Now came still _evening_ on, and twilight gray
Had, in her sober livery, all _things_ clad."
"Stern rugged nurse, thy rigid _lore_
With patience many a _year_ she bore."
What did the _evening_ do? The evening _came on_. Gray _twilight_ had
clad what? Twilight had clad all _things_ in her sober livery.
_Evening_, then, is nom. to _came_, and the noun _things_ is in the
objective case, and gov. by _had clad_: RULE 20. What did _she_ bear?
She bore thy rigid _lore_ with patience, _for_, or _during_, many a
year. Hence you find, that _lore_ is in the objective case, and governed
by _bore_, according to RULE 20. _Year_ is gov. by _during_ understood:
RULE 32.
A noun is frequently nominative to a verb understood, or in the
objective, and governed by a verb understood; as, "Lo, [_there is_] the
poor _Indian!_ whose untutored mind." "O, the _pain_ [_there is!_] the
_bliss_ [_there is_] in dying!" "All were sunk, but the wakeful
_nightingale_ [_was not sunk_."] "He thought as a _sage_ [_thinks_,]
though he felt as a _man_ [_feels_."] "His hopes, immortal, blow them
by, as _dust_ [_is blown by_."] Rule 35 applies to these last three
examples.
In the next place I will explain several cases of nouns and pronouns
which have not yet come under our notice. Sometimes a noun or pronoun
may be in the nominative case when it has no verb to agree with it.