3. "Open your hand _wide_." "The apples boil _soft_." "The purest clay
is that which burns _white_." "Drink _deep_, or taste not the Pierian
spring."
4. "_What though_ the swelling surge thou see?" &c. "_What if_ the foot,
ordain'd the dust to tread?" &c.
REMARKS.--According to the principle of analysis assumed by many of our
most critical philologists, _but_ is _always_ a disjunctive conjunction;
and agreeably to the same authorities, to construe it, in any case, as a
preposition, would lead to error. See false Syntax under Rule 35. They
maintain, that its legitimate and undeviating office is, to join on a
member of a sentence which _expresses opposition of meaning_, and
thereby forms an exception to, or takes from the universality of, the
proposition contained in the preceding member of the sentence. That it
sustains its true character as a conjunction in all the examples under
number 1, will be shown by the following resolution of them.--"All were
well but the _stranger [was not well_."] "I saw nobody but [_I saw_] the
_stranger_." "None deserve the fair but the _brave_ [_deserve the
fair_."] "They postpone the thing which [_they ought to do, and do not]
but_ which [_thing_] they cannot avoid purposing to do." "This life, at
best, [_is not a reality,] but_ it is a dream. It [_affords not
unbounded fruition] but_ it affords a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If
he _touch_ the hills, _but exert no greater power upon them_, they will
smoke;"--"If _he exert no greater power upon the hills, but [be-out this
fact_] if he touch them, they will smoke." "Man _is not a stable being,
but_ he is a reed, floating on the current of time." This method of
analyzing sentences, however, if I mistake not, is too much on the plan
of our pretended philosophical writers, who, in their rage for ancient
constructions and combinations, often overlook the modern associated
meaning and application of this word. It appears to me to be more
consistent with the _modern_ use of the word, to consider it an _adverb_
in constructions like the following: "If he _but (only, merely)_ touch
the hills they will smoke."
_Except_ and _near_, in examples like the following, are generally
construed as prepositions: "All went _except him_;" "She stands _near
them_." But many contend, that when we employ _but_ instead of _except_,
in such constructions, a _nominative_ should follow: "All went _but he
[did not go_."] On this point and many others, _custom_ is _variable_;
but the period will doubtless arrive, when _but, worth_, and _like_,
will be considered prepositions, and, in constructions like the
foregoing, invariably be followed by an objective case. This will not be
the case, however, until the practice of supplying an ellipsis after
these words is entirely dropped.
_Poverty_, under number 2, is governed by the preposition
_notwithstanding_, Rule 31. The adjectives _wide, soft, white_, and
_deep_, under number 3, not only express the quality of nouns, but also
qualify verbs: Note 4, under Rule 18.--_What_, in the phrases "what
though" and "what if," is an interrogative in the objective case, and
governed by the verb _matters_ understood, or by some other verb; thus,
"What matters it--what dost thou fear, though thou see the swelling
surge?" "What would you think, if the foot, which is ordained to tread
the dust, aspired to be the head?"
In the following examples, the same word is used as several parts of
speech. But by exercising judgment sufficient to comprehend the meaning,
and by supplying what is understood, you will be able to analyze them
correctly.