affirmative; as, "_Not but_ that it is a wide place."--_Walker's
Particles_, p. 89. "_Non_ quo _non_ latus locus sit."--_Cic. Ac._, iv, 12.
It has already been stated, that _cannot but_ is equal to _must_; as, "It
is an affection which _cannot but_ be productive of some
distress."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 461. It seems questionable, whether _but_
is not here an adverb, rather than a conjunction. However this may be, by
the customary (but faulty) omission of the negative before _but_, in some
other sentences, that conjunction has acquired the adverbial sense of
_only_; and it may, when used with that signification, be called an
_adverb_. Thus, the text, "He hath _not_ grieved me _but_ in part." (_2
Cor._, ii, 5,) might drop the negative _not_, and still convey the same
meaning: "He hath grieved me _but_ in part;" i.e., "_only_ in part." In the
following examples, too, _but_ appears to be an adverb, like _only_:
"Things _but_ slightly connected should not be crowded into one
sentence."--_Murray's Octavo Gram., Index_. "The assertion, however, serves
_but_ to show their ignorance."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 96.
"Reason itself _but_ gives it edge and power."--_Pope_.
"Born _but_ to die, and reasoning _but_ to err."--_Id._
OBS. 29.--In some constructions of the word _but_, there is a remarkable
ambiguity; as, "There _cannot be but one_ capital musical pause in a
line."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 92. "A line _admits but one_ capital
pause."--_Ibid._ Thus does a great critic, in the same paragraph, palpably
contradict himself, and not perceive it. Both expressions are equivocal. He
ought rather to have said: "A line admits _no more than_ one capital
pause."--"There cannot be _more than_ one capital musical pause in a line."
Some would say--"admits _only_ one"--"there can be _only one_." But here,
too, is some ambiguity; because _only_ may relate either to _one_, or to
the preceding verb. The use of _only_ for _but_ or _except that_, is not
noticed by our lexicographers; nor is it, in my opinion, a practice much to
be commended, though often adopted by men that pretend to write
grammatically: as, "Interrogative pronouns are the same as _relative_, ONLY
their antecedents cannot be determined till the answer is _given to the
question_."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 16. "A diphthong is always long; as,
_Aurum, Cæsar_, &c. ONLY _præ_, in composition before a vowel is commonly
short."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 254; _Gould's_, 246.
OBS. 30.--It is said by some grammarians, that, "The adverb _there_ is
often used as an _expletive_, or as a word that adds nothing to the sense;
in which case, it precedes the verb and the nominative; as, '_There_ is a
person at the door.'"--_Murray's Gram._, p. 197; _Ingersoll's_, 205;
_Greenleaf's_, 33; _Nixon's Parser_, p. 53. It is true, that in our
language the word _there_ is thus used idiomatically, as an introductory
term, when we tell what is taking, or has taken, _place_; but still it is a
regular adverb _of place_, and relates to the verb agreeably to the common
rule for adverbs. In some instances it is even repeated in the same
sentence, because, in its introductory sense, it is always unemphatical;
as, "Because _there_ was pasture _there_ for their flocks."--_1 Chron._,
iv, 41. "If _there_ be indistinctness or disorder _there_, we can have no
success."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 271. "_There, there_ are schools adapted to
every age."--_Woodbridge, Lit. Conv._, p. 78. The import of the word is
more definite, when emphasis is laid upon it; but this is no good reason
for saying, with Dr. Webster, that it is "without signification," when it
is without emphasis; or, with Dr. Priestley, that it "seems to have no
meaning whatever, except it be thought to give a small degree of
emphasis."--_Rudiments of E. Gram._, p. 135.
OBS. 31.--The noun _place_ itself is just as loose and variable in its
meaning as the adverb _there_. For example; "_There_ is never any
difference;" i.e., "No difference ever takes _place_." Shall we say that
"_place_," in this sense, is not a noun of place? To _take place_, is, to
occur _somewhere_, or _anywhere_; and the unemphatic word _there_ is but as
indefinite in respect to place, as these other adverbs of place, or as the
noun itself. S. B. Goodenow accounts it a _great error_, to say that
_there_ is an adverb of place, when it is thus indefinite; and he chooses
to call it an "_indefinite pronoun_," as, "'What is _there_
here?'--'_There_ is no peace.'--'What need was _there_ of it?'" See his
_Gram._, p. 3 and p. 11. In treating of the various classes of adverbs, I
have admitted and shown, that _here, there_, and _where_, have sometimes
the nature of pronouns, especially in such compounds as _hereof, thereof,
whereof_; but in this instance, I see not what advantage there is in
calling _there_ a "pronoun:" we have just as much reason to call _here_ and
_where_ pronouns--and that, perhaps, on all occasions. Barnard says, "In
the sentence, '_There_ is one glory of the sun,' &c., the adverb _there_
qualifies the verb _is_, and seems to have the force of an affirmation,
like _truly_"--_Analytical Gram._, p. 234. But an adverb of the latter kind
may be used with the word _there_, and I perceive no particular similarity
between them: as, "_Verily there_ is a reward for the righteous."--_Psal._,
lviii, 11. "_Truly there_ is a glory of the sun."
OBS. 32.--There is a vulgar error of substituting the adverb _most_ for
_almost_, as in the phrases, "_most all_,"--"_most anywhere_,"--"_most
every day_,"--which we sometimes hear for "_almost all_,"--"_almost
anywhere_,"--"_almost every day_." The fault is gross, and chiefly
colloquial, but it is sometimes met with in books; as, "But thinking he had
replied _most_ too rashly, he said, 'I won't answer your
question.'"--_Wagstaff's History of Friends_, Vol. i, p. 207.
NOTES TO RULE XXI.
NOTE I.--Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the
sentence the most perspicuous and agreeable. Example of error: "We are in
no hazard of mistaking the sense of the author, though every word which he
uses _be not precise_ and exact."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 95; _Jamieson's_,
66. Murray says,--"though every word which he uses _is not precise_ and
exact."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 302. Better:--"though _not every word_ which he
uses, _is precise_ and exact."
NOTE II.--Adverbs should not be needlessly used for adjectives; nor should
they be employed when quality is to be expressed, and not manner: as, "That
the _now_ copies of the original text are entire."--_S. Fisher_. Say, "the
_present_ copies," or, "the _existing_ copies." "The arrows of calumny fall
_harmlessly_ at the feet of virtue."--_Murray's Key_, p. 167; _Merchant's
Gram._, 186; _Ingersoll's_, 10; _Kirkham's_, 24. Say, "fall _harmless_;" as
in this example: "The impending black cloud, which is regarded with so much
dread, may pass by _harmless_."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 262.
NOTE III.--With a verb of motion, most grammarians prefer _hither,
thither_, and _whither_, to _here, there_, and _where_, which are in common
use, and perhaps allowable, though not so good; as, "Come _hither_,
Charles,"--or, "Come _here_."
NOTE IV.--"To the adverbs _hence, thence_, and _whence_, the preposition
_from_ is frequently (though not with strict propriety) prefixed; as, _from
hence, from whence_."--See _W. Allen's Gram._, p. 174. Some critics,
however, think this construction allowable, notwithstanding the former word
is implied in the latter. See _Priestley's Gram._, p. 134; and _L.
Murray's_, p. 198. It is seldom elegant to use any word needlessly.
NOTE V.--The adverb _how_ should not be used before the conjunction _that_,
nor in stead of it; as, "He said _how_ he would go."--"Ye see _how that_
not many wise men are called." Expunge _how_. This is a vulgar error.
Somewhat similar is the use of _how_ for _lest_ or _that not_; as, "Be
cautious _how_ you offend him, i.e., _that_ you _do not_ offend him."--_W.
Allen's Gram._, p. 175.
NOTE VI.--The adverb _when, while_, or _where_, is not fit to follow the
verb _is_ in a definition, or to introduce a clause taken substantively;
because it expresses identity, not of being, but of time or place: as,
"_Concord_, is _when_ one word agrees with another in some
accidents."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 151; _Gould's_, 155. Say, "Concord is _the
agreement of_ one word with _an other_ in some _accident or_ accidents."
NOTE VII.--The adverb _no_ should not be used with reference to a _verb_ or
a _participle_. Such expressions as, "Tell me whether you will _go_ or
_no_," are therefore improper: _no_ should be _not_; because the verb _go_
is understood after it. The meaning is, "Tell me whether you will go or
_will not go_;" but nobody would think of saying, "Whether you will go or
_no go_."
NOTE VIII.--A negation, in English, admits but one negative word; because
two negatives in the same clause, usually contradict each other, and make
the meaning affirmative. The following example is therefore ungrammatical:
"For my part, I love him not, _nor_ hate him _not_."--_Beauties of
Shakspeare_, p. 16. Expunge the last _not_, or else change _nor_ to _and_.
NOTE IX.--The words _ever_ and _never_ should be carefully distinguished
according to their sense, and not confounded with each other in their
application. Example: "The Lord reigneth, be the earth _never so_
unquiet."--_Experience of St. Paul_, p. 195. Here, I suppose, the sense to
require _everso_, an adverb of degree: "Be the earth _everso_ unquiet."
That is,--"unquiet _in whatever degree_."
NOTE X.--Adverbs that end in _ly_, are in general preferable to those forms
which, for want of this distinction, may seem like adjectives misapplied.
Example: "There would be _scarce_ any such thing in nature as a
folio."--_Addison_. Better:--"_scarcely_."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXI.
EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--THE PLACING OF ADVERBS.
"All that is favoured by good use, is not proper to be
retained."--_Murray's Gram._, ii, p. 296.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the adverb _not_ is not put in the most
suitable place. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 21st, "Adverbs must
be placed in that position which will render the sentence the most
perspicuous and agreeable." The sentence will be improved by placing _not_
before _all_; thus, "_Not all_ that is favoured by good use, is proper to
be retained."]
"Every thing favoured by good use, [is] not on that account worthy to be
retained."--_Ib._, i, 369; _Campbell's Rhet._, p. 179. "Most men dream, but
all do not."--_Beattie's Moral Science_, i, 72. "By hasty composition, we
shall acquire certainly a very bad style."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 191. "The
comparisons are short, touching on one point only of resemblance."--_Ib._,
p. 416. "Having had once some considerable object set before us."--_Ib._,
p. 116. "The positive seems improperly to be called a degree."--_Adam's
Gram._, p. 69; _Gould's_, 68. "In some phrases the genitive is only
used."--_Adam_, 159; _Gould_, 161. "This blunder is said actually to have
occurred."--_Smith's Inductive Gram._, p. 5. "But every man is not called
James, nor every woman Mary."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 15. "Crotchets are
employed for the same purpose nearly as the parenthesis."--_Churchill's
Gram._, p. 167. "There is still a greater impropriety in a double
comparative."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 78. "We have often occasion to speak
of time."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 39. "The following sentence cannot be
possibly understood."--_Ib._, p. 104. "The words must be generally
separated from the context."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 155. "Words ending in
_ator_ have the accent generally on the penultimate."--_Murray's Gram._, i,
239. "The learned languages, with respect to voices, moods, and tenses,
are, in general, differently constructed from the English tongue."--_Ib._,
i, 101. "Adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express
compendiously in one word, what must otherwise have required two or
more."--_Ib._, i, 114. "But it is only so, when the expression can be
converted into the regular form of the possessive case."--_Ib._, i, 174.
"Enter, (says he) boldly, for here too there are gods."--_Harris's Hermes_,
p. 8. "For none work for ever so little a pittance that some cannot be
found to work for less."--_Sedgwick's Economy_, p. 190. "For sinners also
lend to sinners, to receive as much again."--_Luke_, vi, 34. "They must be
viewed exactly in the same light."--_Murray's Gram._, ii, 24. "If he does
but speak to display his abilities, he is unworthy of attention."--_Ib.,
Key_, ii, 207.
UNDER NOTE II.--ADVERBS FOR ADJECTIVES.
"Motion upwards is commonly more agreeable than motion
downwards."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 48. "There are but two ways possibly of
justification before God."--_Dr. Cox, on Quakerism_, p. 413. "This
construction sounds rather harshly."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 194;
_Ingersoll's_, 199. "A clear conception in the mind of the learner, of
regularly and well-formed letters."--_Com. School Journal_, i, 66. "He was
a great hearer of * * * Attalus, Sotion, Papirius, Fabianus, of whom he
makes often mention."--_Seneca's Morals_, p. 11. "It is only the Often
doing of a thing that makes it a Custom."--_Divine Right of Tythes_, p. 72.
"Because W. R. takes oft occasion to insinuate his jealousies of persons
and things."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 570. "Yet often touching will wear
gold."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 18. "Uneducated persons frequently use an
adjective, when they ought to use an adverb: as, 'The country looks
_beautiful_;' instead of _beautifully_."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 84. "The
adjective is put absolutely, or without its substantive."--_Ash's Gram._,
p. 57. "A noun or pronoun in the second person, may be put absolutely in
the nominative case."--_Harrison's Gram._, p. 45. "A noun or pronoun, when
put absolutely with a participle," &c.--_Ib._, p. 44; _Jaudon's Gram._,
108. "A verb in the infinitive mood absolute, stands independently of the
remaining part of the sentence."--_Wilbur and Livingston's Gram._, p. 24.
"At my return lately into England, I met a book intituled: 'The Iron
Age.'"--_Cowley's Preface_, p. v. "But he can discover no better foundation
for any of them, than the practice merely of Homer and Virgil."--_Kames,
El. of Criticism, Introd._, p. xxv.
UNDER NOTE III--HERE FOR HITHER, &c.
"It is reported that the governour will come here to-morrow."--_Kirkham's
Gram._, p. 196. "It _has been_ reported that the governour will come here
to-morrow."--_Ib., Key_, p. 227. "To catch a prospect of that lovely land
where his steps are tending."--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 244. "Plautus makes
one of his characters ask another where he is going with that Vulcan shut
up in a horn; that is, with a lanthorn in his hand."--_Adams's Rhet._ ii,
331. "When we left Cambridge, we intended to return there in a few
days."--_Anonym_. "Duncan comes here to-night."--_Shak., Macbeth_. "They
talked of returning here last week."--_J. M. Putnam's Gram._, p. 116.
UNDER NOTE IV.--FROM HENCE, &c.
"From hence he concludes that no inference can be drawn from the meaning of
the word, that a _constitution_ has a higher authority than a law or
statute."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 67. "From whence we may likewise date the
period of this event."--_Murray's Key_, ii, p. 202. "From hence it becomes
evident, that LANGUAGE, taken in the most comprehensive view, implies
certain Sounds, having certain Meanings."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 315. "They
returned to the city from whence they came out."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._,
p. 135. "Respecting ellipses, some grammarians differ strangely in their
ideas; and from thence has arisen a very whimsical diversity in their
systems of grammar."--_Author_. "What am I and from whence? i.e. what am I,
and from whence _am_ I?"--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 171.
UNDER NOTE V.--THE ADVERB HOW.
"It is strange how a writer, so accurate as Dean Swift, should have
stumbled on so improper an application of this particle."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 112. "Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us,"
&c.--_Acts_, xv, 7. "Let us take care _how_ we sin; i.e. _that_ we _do not_
sin."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 135. "We see by these instances, how
prepositions may be necessary to connect those words, which in their
signification are not naturally connected."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 118.
"Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?"--_2 Cor._, xiii, 5. "That thou mayest know how that the earth
is the Lord's."--_Exod._, ix, 29.
UNDER NOTE VI.--WHEN, WHILE, OR WHERE.
"Ellipsis is when one or more words are wanting, to complete the
sense."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 235; _Gould's_, p. 229; _B. F. Fisk's Greek
Gram._. 184. "Pleonasm is when a word more is added than is absolutely
necessary to express the sense."--_Same works_. "Hyst~eron prot~eron is
when that is put in the former part of the sentence, which, according to
the sense, should be in the latter."--_Adam_, p. 237; _Gould_, 230.
"Hysteron proteron, _n._ A rhetorical figure when that is said last which
was done first."--_Webster's Dict._ "A Barbarism is when a foreign or
strange word is _made use_ of."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 242; _Gould's_, 234. "A
Solecism is when the rules of Syntax are transgressed."--_Iidem, ib._ "An
Idiotism is when the manner of expression peculiar to one language is used
in another."--_Iid., ib._ "Tautology is when we either uselessly repeat the
same words, or repeat the same sense in different words."--_Adam_, p. 243;
_Gould_, 238. "Bombast is when high sounding words are used without
meaning, or upon a trifling occasion."--_Iid., ib._ "Amphibology is when,
by the ambiguity of the construction, the meaning may be taken in two
different senses."--_Iid., ib._ "Irony is when one means the contrary of
what is said."--_Adam_, p. 247; _Gould_, 237. "The Periphrasis, or
Circumlocution, is when several words are employed to express what might be
expressed in fewer."--_Iid., ib._ "Hyperbole is when a thing is magnified
above the truth,"--_Adam_, p. 249; _Gould_, 240. "Personification is when
we ascribe life, sentiments, or actions, to inanimate beings, or to
abstract qualities."--_Iid., ib._ "Apostrophe, or Address, is when the
speaker breaks off from the series of his discourse, and addresses himself
to some person present or absent, living or dead, or to inanimate nature,
as if endowed with sense and reason."--_Iid., ib._ "A Simile or Comparison
is when the resemblance between two objects, whether _real_ or _imaginary_,
is expressed in form."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 223. "Simile, or Comparison,
is when one thing is illustrated or heightened by comparing it to
another."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 250; _Gould's_, 240. "Antithesis, or
Opposition, is when things contrary or different are contrasted, to make
them appear in the more striking light."--_Iid., ib._ "Description, or
Imagery, [is] when any thing is painted in a lively manner, as if done
before our eyes."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 250. "Emphasis is when a particular
stress is laid on some word in a sentence."--_Ib._ "Epanorthosis, or
Correction, is when the speaker either recalls or corrects what he had last
said."--_Ib._ "Paralepsis, or Omission, is when one pretends to omit or
pass by, what he at the same time declares."--_Ib._ "Incrementum, or Climax
in sense, is when one member rises above another to the highest."--_Ib._,
p. 251. "A Metonymy is where the cause is put for the effect, or the effect
for the cause; the container for the thing contained; or the sign for the
thing signified."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 223. "Agreement is when one word
is like another in number, case, gender, or person."--_Frost's Gram._, p.
43; _Greenleaf's_, 32. "Government is when one word causes another to be in
some particular number, person, or case."--_Webster's Imp. Gram._, p. 89;
_Greenleaf's_, 32; _Frost's_, 43. "Fusion is while some solid substance is
converted into a fluid by heat."--_B._ "A Proper Diphthong is where both
the Vowels are sounded together; as, _oi_ in _Voice, ou_ in _House_."--
_Fisher's Gram._, p. 10. "An Improper Diphthong is where the Sound of but
one of the two Vowels is heard; as _e_ in _People_."--_Ib._, p. 11.
UNDER NOTE VII.--THE ADVERB NO FOR NOT.
"An adverb is joined to a verb to show how, or whether or no, or when, or
where one is, does, or suffers."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 62. "We must be
immortal, whether we will or no."--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 33. "He cares
not whether the world was made for Cæsar or no."--_American Quarterly
Review_. "I do not know whether they are out or no."--_Byron's Letters_.
"Whether it can be proved or no, is not the thing."--_Butler's Analogy_, p.
84. "Whether or no he makes use of the means commanded by God."--_Ib._,, p.
164. "Whether it pleases the world or no, the care is taken."--
_L'Estrange's Seneca_, p. 5. "How comes this to be never heard of nor in
the least questioned, whether the Law was undoubtedly of Moses's writing or
no?"--_Bp. Tomline's Evidences_, p. 44. "Whether he be a sinner or no, I
know not."--_John_, ix, 25. "Can I make men live, whether they will or
no?"--_Shak._
"Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they serve
Willing or no, who will but what they must?"--_Milton, P. L._
UNDER NOTE VIII.--OF DOUBLE NEGATIVES.
"We need not, nor do not, confine the purposes of God."--_Bentley_. "I
cannot by no means allow him that."--_Idem_. "We must try whether or no we
cannot increase the Attention by the Help of the Senses."--_Brightland's
Gram._, p. 263. "There is nothing more admirable nor more useful."--_Horne
Tooke_, Vol. i, p. 20. "And what in no time to come he can never be said to
have done, he can never be supposed to do."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p.
345. "No skill could obviate, nor no remedy dispel, the terrible
infection."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 114. "Prudery cannot be an indication
neither of sense nor of taste."--_Spurzheim, on Education_, p. 21. "But
that scripture, nor no other, speaks not of imperfect faith."--_Barclay's
Works_, i, 172. "But this scripture, nor none other, proves not that faith
was or is always accompanied with doubting."--_Ibid._ "The light of Christ
is not nor cannot be darkness."--_Ib._, p. 252. "Doth not the Scripture,
which cannot lie, give none of the saints this testimony?"--_Ib._, p. 379.
"Which do not continue, nor are not binding."--_Ib._, Vol. iii. p. 79. "It
not being perceived directly no more than the air."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p.
331. "Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray."--_Shak., Shrew_. "Where
there is no marked nor peculiar character in the style."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 175. "There can be no rules laid down, nor no manner
recommended."--_Sheridan's Lect._, p. 163.
"_Bates_. 'He hath not told his thought to the king?'
_K. Henry_. 'No; nor it is not meet he should.'"--_Shak_.
UNDER NOTE IX.--EVER AND NEVER.
"The prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we
never so weak; and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so
strong."--_Hooker_. "He is like to have no share in it, or to be ever the
better for it."--_Law and Grace_, p. 23. "In some parts of Chili, it seldom
or ever rains."--_Willetts's Geog_. "If Pompey shall but never so little
seem to like it."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 346. "Latin: 'Si Pompeius
_paulum_ modò ostenderit sibi placere.' _Cic_. i, 5."--_Ib._ "Though never
such a power of dogs and hunters pursue him."--_Walker, ib._ "Latin:
'_Quamlibet_ magnâ canum et venantium urgente vi.' _Plin_. l. 18, c.
16."--_Ib._ "Though you be never so excellent."--_Walker, ib._ "Latin:
'_Quantumvis_ licet excellas.' _Cic. de Amic_."--_Ib._ "If you do amiss
never so little."--_Walker, ib._ "Latin: 'Si _tantillum_ peccâssis.'
_Plaut. Rud._ 4, 4"--_Ib._ "If we cast our eyes never so little
down."--_Walker, ib._ "Latin: 'Si _tantulum_ oculos dejecerimus.' _Cic. 7.
Ver_."--_Ib._ "A wise man scorneth nothing, be it never so small or
homely."--_Book of Thoughts_, p. 37. "Because they have seldom or ever an
opportunity of learning them at all."--_Clarkson's Prize-Essay_, p. 170.
"We seldom or ever see those forsaken who trust in God."--_Atterbury_.
"Where, playing with him at bo-peep,
He solved all problems, ne'er so deep."--_Hudibras_.
UNDER NOTE X.--OF THE FORM OF ADVERBS.
"One can scarce think that Pope was capable of epic or tragic poetry; but
within a certain limited region, he has been outdone by no poet."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 403. "I, who now read, have near finished this
chapter."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 82. "And yet, to refine our taste with
respect to beauties of art or of nature, is scarce endeavoured in any
seminary of learning."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. viii. "By the
Numbers being confounded, and the Possessives wrong applied, the Passage is
neither English nor Grammar."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 123. "The letter G
is wrong named _jee_."--_Creighton's Dict._, p. viii. "Last; Remember that
in science, as in morals, authority cannot make right, what, in itself, is
wrong."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 194. "They regulate our taste even
where we are scarce sensible of them."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 96.
"Slow action, for example, is imitated by words pronounced slow."--_Ib._,
ii, 257. "Sure, if it be to profit withal, it must be in order to
save."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 366. "Which is scarce possible at
best."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 67. "Our wealth being near
finished."--HARRIS: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 80.
CHAPTER IX.--CONJUNCTIONS.
The syntax of Conjunctions consists, not (as L. Murray and others
erroneously teach) in "their power of determining the mood of verbs," or
the "cases of nouns and pronouns," but in the simple fact, that they link
together such and such terms, and thus "mark the connexions of human
thought."--_Beattie_.
RULE XXII.--CONJUNCTIONS.
Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences: as, "Let
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me _and_ thee, _and_ between my
herdmen _and_ thy herdmen; _for_ we are brethren."--_Gen._, xiii, 8.
"Ah! _if_ she lend not arms _as well as_ rules.
What can she more _than_ tell us we are fools?"--_Pope._
EXCEPTION FIRST.
The conjunction _that_ sometimes serves merely to introduce a sentence
which is made the subject or the object of a finite verb;[433] as, "_That_
mind is not matter, is certain."
"_That_ you have wronged me, doth appear in this."--_Shak._
"_That_ time is mine, O Mead! to thee, I owe."--_Young_.
EXCEPTION SECOND.
When two corresponding conjunctions occur, in their usual order, the former
should generally be parsed as referring to the latter, which is more
properly the connecting word; as, "_Neither_ sun _nor_ stars in many days
appeared."--_Acts_, xxvii, 20. "_Whether_ that evidence has been afforded
[_or_ not,] is a matter of investigation."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 18.
EXCEPTION THIRD. _Either_, corresponding to _or_, and _neither_,
corresponding to _nor_ or _not_, are sometimes transposed, so as to repeat
the disjunction or negation at the end of the sentence; as, "Where then was
their capacity of standing, _or_ his _either_?"--_Barclay's Works_, iii,
359. "It is _not_ dangerous _neither_."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 135.
"He is very tall, but _not_ too tall _neither._"--_Spect._, No. 475.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXII.
OBS. 1.--Conjunctions that connect particular _words_, generally join
similar parts of speech in a common dependence on some other term. Hence,
if the words connected be such as have _cases_, they will of course be in
the same case; as, "For _me_ and _thee_"--_Matt._, xvii, 27. "Honour thy
_father_ and thy _mother_."--_Ib._, xviii, 19. Here the latter noun or
pronoun is connected by _and_ to the former, and governed by the same
preposition or verb. Conjunctions themselves have no government, unless the
questionable phrase "_than whom_" may be reckoned an exception. See Obs.
17th below, and others that follow it.
OBS. 2.--Those conjunctions which connect _sentences_ or _clauses_,
commonly unite one sentence or clause to an other, either as an additional
assertion, or as a condition, a cause, or an end, of what is asserted. The
conjunction is placed _between_ the terms which it connects, except there
is a transposition, and then it stands before the dependent term, and
consequently at the beginning of the whole sentence: as, "He taketh away
the first, _that_ he may establish the second."--_Heb._, x, 9. "_That_ he
may establish the second, he taketh away the first."
OBS. 3.--The term that follows a conjunction, is in some instances a
_phrase_ of several words, yet not therefore a whole clause or member,
unless we suppose it elliptical, and supply what will make it such: as,
"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, AS _to the Lord_, AND _not unto
men_"--_Col._, iii, 23. If we say, this means, "as _doing it_ to the Lord,
and not _as doing it_ unto men," the terms are still mere phrases; but if
we say, the sense is, "as _if ye did it_ to the Lord, and not _as if ye did
it_ unto men," they are clauses, or sentences. Churchill says, "The office
of the conjunction is, to connect one _word_ with an other, or one _phrase_
with an other."--_New Gram._, p. 152. But he uses the term _phrase_ in a
more extended sense than I suppose it will strictly bear: he means by it, a
_clause_, or _member_; that is, a sentence which forms a part of a greater
sentence.
OBS. 4.--What is the office of this part of speech, according to Lennie,
Bullions, Brace, Hart, Hiley, Smith, M'Culloch, Webster, Wells, and others,
who say that it "joins _words_ and _sentences_ together," (see Errors on p.
434 of this work,) it is scarcely possible to conceive. If they imagine it
to connect "_words_" on the one side, to "_sentences_" on the other; this
is plainly absurd, and contrary to facts. If they suppose it to join
sentence to sentence, by merely connecting word to word, in a joint
relation; this also is absurd, and self-contradictory. Again, if they mean,
that the conjunction sometimes connects word with word, and sometimes,
sentence with sentence; _this sense they have not expressed_, but have
severally puzzled their readers by an ungrammatical use of the word
"_and_." One of the best among them says, "In _the sentence_, 'He _and_ I
must go,' the word _and_ unites _two sentences_, and thus _avoids_ an
unnecessary repetition; thus instead of saying, 'He must go,' 'I must go,'
we connect _the words He, I_, as the same thing is affirmed of _both_,
namely, _must go_."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 53. Here is the incongruous
suggestion, that _by connecting words only_, the conjunction in fact
_connects sentences_; and the stranger blunder concerning _those words_,
that "the same thing is affirmed of _both_, namely, [_that they_] _must
go_." Whereas it is plain, that nothing is affirmed of either: for "_He and
I must go_," only affirms of _him_ and _me_, that "_we must go_." And again
it is plain, that _and_ here connects nothing but the two pronouns; for no
one will say, that, "_He and I must go together_" is a compound sentence,
capable of being resolved into two simple sentences; and if, "_He and I
must go_," is compound because it is equivalent to, "He must go, and I must
go;" so is, "_We must go_," for the same reason, though it has but one
nominative and one verb. "_He and I_ were present," is rightly given by
Hiley as an example of _two pronouns_ connected together by _and_. (See
_his Gram._, p. 105.) But, of _verbs_ connected to each other, he absurdly
supposes the following to be examples: "He spake, _and_ it was done."--"I
know it, _and_ I can prove it."--"Do you say so, _and_ can you prove
it?"--_Ib._ Here _and_ connects _sentences_, and not particular _words_.
OBS. 5.--Two or three conjunctions sometimes come together; as, "What
rests, _but that_ the mortal sentence pass?"--_Milton_. "_Nor yet that_ he
should offer himself often."--_Heb._, ix, 25. These may be severally parsed
as "connecting what precedes and what follows," and the observant reader
will not fail to notice, that such combinations of connecting particles are
sometimes required by the sense; but, since nothing that is needless, is
really proper, conjunctions should not be unnecessarily accumulated: as,
"_But_ AND _if_ that evil servant say in his heart," &c.--_Matt._, xxiv,
48. Greek, "[Greek: Ean de eipæ o kakos donlos ekeinos,]" &c. Here is no
_and_. "_But_ AND _if_ she depart."--_1 Cor._, vii, 11. This is almost a
literal rendering of the Greek, "[Greek: Ean de kai choristhæ.]"--yet
either _but_ or _and_ is certainly useless. "In several cases," says
Priestley, "we content ourselves, now, with fewer conjunctive particles
than our ancestors _did_ [say _used_]. Example: '_So_ AS _that_ his
doctrines were embraced by great numbers.' _Universal Hist._, Vol. 29, p.
501. _So that_ would have been much easier, and better."--_Priestley's
Gram._, p. 139. Some of the poets have often used the word _that_ as an
expletive, to fill the measure of their verse; as,
"When _that_ the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept."--_Shakspeare_.
"If _that_ he be a dog, beware his fangs."--_Id._
"That made him pine away and moulder,
As though _that_ he had been no soldier."--_Butler's Poems_, p. 164.
OBS. 6.--W. Allen remarks, that, "_And_ is sometimes introduced to engage
our attention to a following word or phrase; as, 'Part pays, _and_ justly,
the deserving steer.' [_Pope._] 'I see thee fall, _and_ by Achilles' hand.'
[_Id._]"--_Allen's E. Gram._, p. 184. The like idiom, he says, occurs in
these passages of Latin: "'Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit.' _Virg_.
'Mors _et_ fugacem persequitur virum.' _Hor_."--_Allen's Gram._, p. 184.
But it seems to me, that _and_ and _et_ are here regular connectives. The
former implies a repetition of the preceding verb: as, "Part pays, _and
justly pays_, the deserving steer."--"I see thee fall, _and fall by
Achilles' hand_." The latter refers back to what was said before: thus,
"Perhaps it will _also_ hereafter delight you to recount these
evils."--"_And_ death pursues the man that flees." In the following text,
the conjunction is more like an expletive; but even here it suggests an
extension of the discourse then in progress: "Lord, _and_ what shall this
man do?"--_John_, xxi, 21. "[Greek: Kurie, outos de ti;]"--"Domine, hic
_autem_ quid?"--_Beza_.
OBS. 7.--The conjunction _as_ often unites words that are in _apposition_,
or in _the same case_; as, "He offered _himself_ AS a _journeyman_."--"I
assume _it_ AS a _fact_."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 94. "In an other example
of the same kind, the _earth_, AS a common _mother_, is animated to give
refuge against a father's unkindness."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol ii, p.
168. "And then to offer _himself_ up AS a _sacrifice_ and _propitiation_
for them."--_Scougal_, p. 99. So, likewise, when an intransitive verb takes
the same case after as before it, by Rule 6th; as, "_Johnson_ soon after
engaged AS _usher_ in a school."--_L. Murray_. "_He_ was employed AS
_usher_." In all these examples, the case that follows _as_, is determined
by that which precedes. If after the verb "_engaged_" we supply _himself,
usher_ becomes objective, and is in apposition with the pronoun, and not in
agreement with _Johnson_: "He engaged _himself_ as _usher_." One late
writer, ignorant or regardless of the analogy of General Grammar, imagines
this case to be an "objective governed by the conjunction _as_," according
to the following rule: "The conjunction _as_, when it takes the meaning of
_for_, or _in the character of_, governs the objective case; as, Addison,
_as_ a _writer_ of prose, is highly distinguished."--_J. M. Putnam's
Gram._, p. 113. S. W. Clark, in his grammar published in 1848, sets _as_ in
his list of _prepositions_, with this example: "'That England can spare
from her service such men _as_ HIM.'--_Lord Brougham_."--_Clark's Practical
Gram._, p. 92. And again: "When the second term of a _Comparison of
equality_ is a Noun, or Pronoun, the _Preposition_ AS is commonly used.
Example--'He hath died to redeem such a rebel _as_ ME.'--_Wesley_."
Undoubtedly, Wesley and Brougham here erroneously supposed the _as_ to
connect _words only_, and consequently to require them to be in the same
case, agreeably to OBS. 1st, above; but a moment's reflection on the sense,
should convince any one, that the construction requires the nominative
forms _he_ and _I_, with the verbs _is_ and _am_ understood.
OBS. 8.--The conjunction _as_ may also be used between an adjective or a
participle and the noun to which the adjective or participle relates; as,
"It does not appear that brutes have the least reflex sense of _actions_ AS
_distinguished_ from events; or that will and design, which constitute the
very nature of _actions_ AS _such_, are at all an object of their
perception."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 277.
OBS. 9.--_As_ frequently has the force of a _relative pronoun_, and when it
evidently sustains the relation of a case, it ought to be called, and
generally _is_ called, a pronoun, rather than a conjunction; as, "Avoid
such _as are_ vicious,"--_Anon_. "But as many _as received_ him,"
&c.--_John_, i, 12. "We have reduced the terms into as small a number _as
was_ consistent with perspicuity and distinction."--_Brightland's Gram._,
p. ix. Here _as_ represents a noun, and while it serves to connect the two
parts of the sentence, it is also the subject of a verb. These being the
true characteristics of a relative pronoun, it is proper to refer the word
to that class. But when a clause or a sentence is the antecedent, it is
better to consider the _as_ a conjunction, and to supply the pronoun _it_,
if the writer has not used it; as, "He is angry, _as [it] appears_ by this
letter." Horne Tooke says, "The truth is, that AS is _also an article_; and
(however and whenever used in English) means the same as _It_, or _That_,
or _Which_."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. i, p. 223. But what definition
he would give to _"an article_," does not appear.
OBS. 10.--In some examples, it seems questionable whether _as_ ought to be
reckoned a pronoun, or ought rather to be parsed as a conjunction after
which a nominative is understood; as, "He then read the conditions _as
follow_."--"The conditions are _as follow_."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 106.
"The principal evidences on which this assertion is grounded, are _as
follow_."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 166. "The Quiescent verbs are _as
follow_."--_Pike's Heb. Lex._, p. 184. "The other numbers are duplications
of these, and proceed _as follow_"--_Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang._, Vol. ii,
p. 35. "The most eminent of the kennel are bloodhounds, which lead the van,
and are _as follow_."--_Steele, Tattler_, No. 62. "His words are _as
follow_."--_Spect._, No. 62. "The words are _as follow_."--_Addison,
Spect._, No. 513. "The objections that are raised against it as a tragedy,
are _as follow_."--_Gay, Pref. to What d' ye call it_. "The particulars are
_as follow_."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 93. "The principal interjections in
English are _as follow_."--_Ward's Gram._, p. 81. In all these instances,
one may suppose the final clause to mean, "as _they here_ follow;"--or,
supposing _as_ to be a pronoun, one may conceive it to mean, "_such_ as
follow." But some critical writers, it appears, prefer the singular verb,
"_as follows_" Hear Campbell: "When a verb is used _impersonally_, it ought
undoubtedly to be in the singular number, whether the neuter pronoun be
expressed or understood: and when no nominative in the sentence can
regularly be construed with the verb, it ought to be considered as
impersonal. For this reason, analogy as well as usage _favour_ [say
_favours_] this mode of expression, 'The conditions of the agreement
were _as follows_;' and not '_as follow_.' A few late writers have
inconsiderately adopted this last form through a mistake of the
construction. For the same reason we ought to say, 'I shall consider his
censures so far only as _concerns_ my friend's conduct;' and not 'so far as
_concern_.'"--_Philosophy of Rhet._, p. 229. It is too much to say, at
least of one of these sentences, that there is no nominative with which the
plural verb can be regularly construed. In the former, the word _as_ may be
said to be a plural nominative; or, if we will have this to be a
conjunction, the pronoun _they_, representing _conditions_, may be
regularly supplied, as above. In the latter, indeed, _as_ is not a pronoun;
because it refers to "_so far_," which is not a noun. But the sentence is
_bad English_; because the verb _concern_ or _concerns_ is improperly left
without a nominative. Say therefore, 'I shall consider his censures so far
only as _they concern_ my friend's conduct;'--or, 'so far only as _my
friend's conduct is concerned_.' The following is an other example which I
conceive to be wrong; because, with an adverb for its antecedent, _as_ is
made a nominative: "They ought therefore to be uttered _as quickly as is_
consistent with distinct articulation."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 76. Say
rather, "They ought therefore to be uttered _with as much rapidity_ as is
consistent with distinct articulation."
OBS. 11.--Lindley Murray was so much puzzled with Tooke's notion of _as_,
and Campbell's doctrine of the _impersonal verb_, that he has expressly
left his pupils to hesitate and doubt, like himself, whether one ought to
say "_as follows_" or "_as follow_," when the preceding noun is plural;
or--to furnish an alternative, (if they choose it,) he shows them at last
how they may _dodge the question_, by adopting some other phraseology. He
begins thus: "_Grammarians_ differ in opinion, respecting the propriety of
the following modes of expression: 'The arguments advanced were nearly _as
follows_;' 'the positions were, _as appears_, incontrovertible.'"--
_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 146. Then follows a detail of suggestions from
Campbell and others, all the quotations being anonymous, or at least
without definite references. Omitting these, I would here say of the two
examples given, that they are not parallel instances. For, "_as follows_,"
refers to what the arguments were,--to the things themselves, considered
plurally, and immediately to be exhibited; wherefore the expression ought
rather to have been, "_as follow_," or, "_as they here follow_." But, "_as
appears_" means "_as it appears_," or "_as the case now appears_;" and one
of these plain modes of expression would have been much preferable, because
the _as_ is here evidently nothing but a conjunction.
OBS. 12.--"The diversity of sentiment on this subject," says L. Murray,
"and the respectability of the different opponents, will naturally induce
_the readers_ to pause and reflect, before they decide."--_Octavo Gram._,
p. 147. The equivalent expressions by means of which he proposes to evade
at last the dilemma, are the following: "The arguments advanced were nearly
such as follow;"--"The arguments advanced were nearly of the following
nature;"--"The following are nearly the arguments which were advanced;"--
"The arguments advanced were nearly those which follow:"--"These, or nearly
these, were the arguments advanced;"--"The positions were such as appear
incontrovertible;"--"It appears that the positions were incontrovertible;"
--"That the positions were incontrovertible, is apparent;"--"The positions
were apparently incontrovertible;"--"In appearance, the positions were
incontrovertible."--_Ibid._ If to shun the expression will serve our turn,
surely here are ways enough! But to those who "pause and reflect" with the
intention _to decide_, I would commend the following example:
"Reconciliation was offered, on conditions as moderate as _were_ consistent
with a permanent union."--_Murray's Key_, under Rule 1. Here Murray
supposes "_was_" to be wrong, and accordingly changes it to "_were_," by
the Rule, "A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and
person." But the amendment is a pointed rejection of Campbell's "impersonal
verb," or verb which "has no nominative;" and if the singular is not right
here, the rhetorician's respectable authority vouches only for a catalogue
of errors. Again, if this verb must be _were_ in order to agree with its
nominative, it is still not clear that _as_, is, or ought to be, the
nominative; because the meaning may perhaps be better expressed thus:--"on
conditions as moderate _as any that were_ consistent with a permanent
union."
OBS. 13.--A late writer expresses his decision of the foregoing question
thus: "Of all the different opinions on a grammatical subject, which have
arisen in the literary world, there scarcely appears one more indefensible
than that of supposing _as follows_ to be an impersonal verb, and to be
correctly used in such sentences as this. 'The conditions were _as
follows_.' Nay, we are told that, "A few late writers have adopted this
form, 'The conditions were as follow,' _inconsiderately_;" and, to prove
this charge of inconsiderateness, the following sentence is brought
forward: 'I shall consider his censure [_censures_ is the word used by
Campbell and by Murray] so far only _as concern_ my friend's conduct.'
which should be, it is added, '_as concerns_, and not _as concern_.' If
analogy, simplicity, or syntactical authority, is of any value in our
resolution of the sentence, 'The conditions were as follows,' the word _as_
is as evident a relative as language can afford. It is undoubtedly
equivalent to _that_ or _which_, and relates to its antecedent _those_ or
_such_ understood, and should have been the nominative to the verb
_follow_; the sentence, in its present form, being inaccurate. The second
sentence is by no means a parallel one. The word _as_ is a conjunction; and
though it has, as a relative, a reference to its antecedent _so_, yet in
its capacity of a mere conjunction, it cannot possibly be the nominative
case to any verb. It should be, '_it concerns_.' Whenever _as_ relates to
an _adverbial_ antecedent; as in the sentence, '_So_ far _as_ it concerns
me,' it is merely a conjunction; but when it refers to an _adjective_
antecedent; as in the sentence, 'The business is _such as_ concerns me;' it
must be a relative, and susceptible of case, whether its antecedent is
expressed or understood; being, in fact, the nominative to the verb
_concerns_."--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 145. It will be perceived by the
preceding remarks, that I do not cite what is here said, as believing it to
be in all respects well said, though it is mainly so. In regard to the
point at issue, I shall add but one critical authority more: "'The
circumstances were as _follows_.' Several grammarians and critics have
approved this phraseology: I am inclined, however, to concur with those who
prefer '_as follow_.'"--_Crombie, on Etym. and Synt._, p. 388.
OBS. 14.--The conjunction _that_ is frequently understood; as, "It is
seldom [_that_] their counsels are listened to."--_Robertson's Amer._, i,
316. "The truth is, [_that_] grammar is very much neglected among
us."--_Lowth's Gram., Pref._, p. vi. "The Sportsman believes [_that_] there
is Good in his Chace [chase.]"--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 296.
"Thou warnst me [_that_] I have done amiss;
I should have earlier looked to this."--_Scott_.
OBS. 15.--After _than_ or _as_, connecting the terms of a comparison, there
is usually an ellipsis of some word or words. The construction of the words
employed may be seen, when the ellipsis is supplied; as, "They are stronger
_than we_" [are.]--_Numb._, xiii. 31. "Wisdom is better _than weapons_ of
war" [are.]--_Eccl._, ix, 18. "He does nothing who endeavours to do more
_than_ [what] _is allowed_ to humanity."--_Dr. Johnson_. "My punishment is
greater _than_ [what] _I can bear_."--_Gen._, iv, 13. "Ralph gave him more
_than I_" [gave him.]--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 351. "Ralph gave him more
_than_ [he gave] _me_."_--Ibid._ "Revelation, surely, was never intended
for such _as he_" [is.]--_Campbell's Four Gospels_, p. iv. "Let such as
_him_ sneer if they will."--_Liberator_, Vol. ix, p. 182. Here _him_ ought
to be _he_, according to Rule 2d, because the text speaks of such as _he
is_ or _was_. "'You were as innocent of it _as me_:' 'He did it _as well as
me_.' In both places it ought to be _I_: that is, _as I was, as I
did_."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 352.
"Rather let such poor souls _as you_ and _I_
Say that the holidays are drawing nigh."--_Swift_.
OBS. 16.--The doctrine above stated, of ellipses after _than_ and _as_,
proceeds on the supposition that these words _are conjunctions_, and that
they connect, not particular words merely, but sentences, or clauses. It is
the common doctrine of nearly all our grammarians, and is doubtless liable
to fewer objections than any other theory that ever has been, or ever can
be, devised in lieu of it. Yet _as_ is not always a conjunction; nor, when
it is a conjunction, does it always connect sentences; nor, when it
connects sentences, is there always an ellipsis; nor, when there is an
ellipsis, is it always quite certain what that ellipsis is. All these facts
have been made plain, by observations that have already been bestowed on
the word: and, according to some grammarians, the same things may severally
be affirmed of the word _than_. But most authors consider _than_ to be
always a conjunction, and generally, if not always, to connect _sentences_.
Johnson and Webster, in their dictionaries, mark it for an _adverb_; and
the latter says of it, "This word signifies also _then_, both in English
and Dutch."--_Webster's Amer. Dict._, 8vo, _w. Than_. But what he means by
"_also_," I know not; and surely, in no English of this age, is _than_
equivalent to _then_, or _then_ to _than_. The ancient practice of putting
_then_ for _than_, is now entirely obsolete;[434] and, as we have no other
term of the same import, most of our expositors merely explain _than_ as "a
particle used in comparison."--_Johnson, Worcester, Maunder_. Some absurdly
define it thus: "THAN, _adv_. Placed in comparison."--_Walker_, (Rhym.
Dict.,) _Jones, Scott_. According to this definition, _than_ would be a
_participle_! But, since an express comparison necessarily implies a
connexion between different terms, it cannot well be denied that _than_ is
a connective word; wherefore, not to detain the reader with any profitless
controversy, I shall take it for granted that this word is always a
conjunction. That it always connects sentences, I do not affirm; because
there are instances in which it is difficult to suppose it to connect
anything more than particular words: as, "Less judgement _than_ wit is more
sail _than_ ballast."--_Penn's Maxims_. "With no less eloquence _than_
freedom. 'Pari eloquentiâ _ac_ libertate.' _Tacitus_."--_Walker's
Particles_, p. 200. "Any comparison between these two classes of writers,
cannot be other _than_ vague and loose."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 347. "This
_far more than_ compensates all those little negligences."--_Ib._, p. 200.
"Remember Handel? Who that was not born
Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets,
Or can, _the more than Homer_ of his age?"--_Cowper_.
OBS. 17.--When any two declinable words are connected by _than_ or _as_,
they are almost always, according to the true idiom of our language, to be
put in the _same case_, whether we suppose an ellipsis in the construction
of the latter, or not; as, "My _Father_ is greater than _I_."--_Bible_.
"What do _ye_ more than _others_?"--_Matt._, v, 47. "More _men_ than
_women_ were there."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 114. "Entreat _him_ as a
_father_, and the younger _men_ as _brethren_."--_1 Tim._, v, 1. "I would
that all _men_ were even as _I_ myself."--_1 Cor._, vii, 7. "Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"--_John_, xxi, 15. This last text is
manifestly _ambiguous_; so that some readers will doubt whether it
means--"more than _thou lovest these_," or--"more than _these love me_." Is
not this because there is an _ellipsis_ in the sentence, and such a one as
may be variously conceived and supplied? The original too is ambiguous, but
not for the same reason: "[Greek: Simon Iona, agapas me pleion
touton];"--And so is the Latin of the Vulgate and of Montanus: "Simon Jona,
diligis me _plus his_?" Wherefore Beza expressed it differently: "Simon
_fili Jonæ_, diligis me plus _quâm hi_?" The French Bible has it: "Simon,
fils de Jona, m'aimes-tu plus que _ne font_ ceux-ci?" And the expression in
English should rather have been, "Lovest thou me more than _do_ these?"
OBS. 18.--The comparative degree, in Greek, is said to govern the genitive
case; in Latin, the ablative: that is, the genitive or the ablative is
sometimes put after this degree without any connecting particle
corresponding to _than_, and without producing a compound sentence. We have
examples in the phrases, "[Greek: pleion touton]" and "_plus his_," above.
Of such a construction our language admits no real example; that is, no
exact parallel. But we have an imitation of it in the phrase _than whom_,
as in this hackneyed example from Milton:
"Which, when Beëlzebub perceived, _than whom_,
Satan except, none higher sat," &c.--_Paradise Lost_, B. ii, l. 300.
The objective, _whom_, is here preferred to the nominative, _who_, because
the Latin ablative is commonly rendered by the former case, rather than by
the latter: but this phrase is no more explicable according to the usual
principles of English grammar, than the error of putting the objective case
for a version of the ablative absolute. If the imitation is to be judged
allowable, it is to us _a figure of syntax_--an obvious example of
_Enallagè_, and of that form of Enallagè, which is commonly called
_Antiptosis_, or the putting of one case for an other.
OBS. 19.--This use of _whom_ after _than_ has greatly puzzled and misled
our grammarians; many of whom have thence concluded that _than_ must needs
be, at least in this instance, a _preposition_,[435] and some have extended
the principle beyond this, so as to include _than which, than whose_ with
its following noun, and other nominatives which they will have to be
objectives; as, "I should seem guilty of ingratitude, _than which_ nothing
is more shameful." See _Russell's Gram._, p. 104. "Washington, _than whose
fame_ naught earthly can be purer."--_Peirce's Gram._, p. 204. "You have
given him more than _I_. You have sent her as much as _he_."--_Buchanan's
Eng. Syntax_, p. 116. These last two sentences are erroneously called by
their author, "_false syntax_;" not indeed with a notion that _than_ and
_as_ are prepositions, but on the false supposition that the preposition
_to_ must necessarily be understood between them and the pronouns, as it is
between the preceding verbs and the pronouns _him_ and _her_. But, in fact,
"You have given him more than _I_," is perfectly good English; the last
clause of which plainly means--"more than I _have given him_." And, "You
have sent her as much as _he_," will of course be understood to mean--"as
much as he _has sent her_;" but here, because the auxiliary implied is
different from the one expressed, it might have been as well to have
inserted it: thus, "_You have_ sent her as much as _he has_." "She reviles
you as much as _he_," is also good English, though found, with the
foregoing, among Buchanan's examples of "false syntax."
OBS. 20.--Murray's twentieth Rule of syntax avers, that, "When the
qualities of different things are compared, the latter noun or pronoun is
_not governed_ by the conjunction _than_ or _as_, but agrees with the
verb," &c.--_Octavo Gram._, p. 214; _Russell's Gram._, 103; _Bacon's_, 51;
_Alger's_, 71; _Smith's_, 179; _Fisk's_, 138. To this rule, the great
Compiler and most of his followers say, that _than whom_ "is an exception."
or "_seems to form_ an exception;" to which they add, that, "the phrase is,
however, avoided by the best modern writers."--_Murray_, i, 215. This
latter assertion Russell conceives to be untrue: the former he adopts; and,
calling _than whom_ "an exception to the general rule," says of it, (with
no great consistency,) "Here the conjunction _than_ has certainly the force
of a preposition, and supplies its place by governing the
relative."--_Russell's Abridgement of Murray's Gram._, p. 104. But this is
hardly an instance to which one would apply the maxim elsewhere adopted by
Murray: "_Exceptio probat regulam_."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 205. To ascribe
to a conjunction the governing power of a preposition, is a very wide step,
and quite too much like straddling the line which separates these parts of
speech one from the other.
OBS. 21.--Churchill says, "If there be no ellipsis to supply, as sometimes
happens when a pronoun relative occurs after _than_; the relative is to be
put in the _objective case absolute_: as, 'Alfred, _than whom_ a greater
king never reigned, deserves to be held up as a model to all future
sovereigns.'"--_New Gram._, p. 153. Among his Notes, he has one with
reference to this "_objective case absolute_," as follows: "It is not
governed by the conjunction, for on no other occasion does a conjunction
govern any case; or by any word understood, for we can insert no word, or
words, that will reconcile the phrase with any other rule of grammar: and
if we employ a pronoun personal instead of the relative, as _he_, which
will admit of being resolved elliptically, it must be put in the nominative
case."--_Ib._, p. 352. Against this gentleman's doctrine, one may very well
argue, as he himself does against that of Murray, Russell, and others; that
on no other occasion do we speak of putting "the objective case absolute;"
and if, agreeably to the analogy of our own tongue, our distinguished
authors would condescend to say _than who_,[436] surely nobody would think
of calling this an instance of the nominative case absolute,--except
perhaps one swaggering _new theorist_, that most pedantic of all scoffers,
Oliver B. Peirce.
OBS. 22.--The sum of the matter is this: the phrase, _than who_, is a more
regular and more analogical expression than _than whom_; but both are of
questionable propriety, and the former is seldom if ever found, except in
some few grammars; while the latter, which is in some sort a Latinism, may
be quoted from many of our most distinguished writers. And, since that
which is irregular cannot be parsed by rule, if out of respect to authority
we judge it allowable, it must be set down among the _figures_ of grammar;
which are, all of them, intentional deviations from the ordinary use of
words. One late author treats the point pretty well, in this short hint:
"After the conjunction _than_, contrary to analogy, _whom_ is used in stead
of _who_."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 106. An other gives his opinion in the
following note: "When _who_ immediately follows _than_, it is used
_improperly_ in the objective case; as, 'Alfred, _than whom_ a greater king
never reigned;'--_than whom_ is not grammatical. It ought to be, _than
who_; because _who_ is the nominative to _was_ understood.--_Than whom_ is
as bad a phrase as 'he is taller _than him_.' It is true that some of our
best writers have used _than whom_; but it is also true, that they have
used _other_ phrases which we have rejected as ungrammatical; then why not
reject this too?"--_Lennie's Grammar_, Edition of 1830, p. 105.
OBS. 23.--On this point. Bullions and Brace, two American copyists and
plagiarists of Lennie, adopt opposite notions. The latter copies the
foregoing note, without the last sentence; that is, without admitting that
"_than whom_" has ever been used by good writers. See _Brace's Gram._, p.
90. The former says, "The relative _usually_ follows _than_ in the
objective case, _even when the nominative goes before_; as, 'Alfred, than
whom a greater king never reigned.' This anomaly it is difficult to
explain. Most probably, _than_, at first had the force of a preposition,
which it now retains only when followed by the relative."--_Bullions, E.
Gram._, of 1843, p. 112. Again: "_A relative_ after _than_ is put in the
objective case; as, 'Satan, than _whom_ none higher sat.' This anomaly has
not been satisfactorily explained. In this case, some regard _than_ as a
preposition. _It_ is probably only a case of simple _enallagé_"--_Bullions,
Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, of 1849, p. 191. Prof. Fowler, in his great
publication, of 1850, says of this example, "The expression should be,
Satan, than _who_ None higher sat."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, §482, Note 2.
Thus, by one single form of _antiptosis_, have our grammarians been as much
divided and perplexed, as were the Latin grammarians by a vast number of
such changes; and, since there were some among the latter, who insisted on
a total rejection of the figure, there is no great presumption in
discarding, if we please, the very little that remains of it in English.
OBS. 24.--Peirce's _new theory_ of grammar rests mainly on the assumption,
that no correct sentence ever is, or can be, in any wise, _elliptical_.
This is one of the "Two GRAND PRINCIPLES" on which the author says his
"work is based."--_The Grammar_, p. 10. The other is, that grammar cannot
possibly be taught without a thorough reformation of its nomenclature, a
reformation involving a change of most of the names and technical terms
heretofore used for its elucidation. I do not give precisely his own words,
for one half of this author's system is expressed in such language as needs
to be translated _into English_ in order to be generally understood; but
this is precisely his meaning, and in words more intelligible. In what
estimation he holds these two positions, may be judged from the following
assertion: "_Without these grand points_, no work, whatever may be its
pretensions, can be A GRAMMAR of the LANGUAGE."--_Ib._ It follows that no
man who does not despise every other book that is called a grammar, can
entertain any favourable opinion of Peirce's. The author however is
tolerably consistent. He not only scorns to appeal, for the confirmation of
his own assertions and rules, to the judgement or practice of any other
writer, but counsels the learner to "spurn the idea of quoting, either as
proof or for defence, the authority of any man." See p. 13. The notable
results of these important premises are too numerous for detail even in
this general pandect. But it is to be mentioned here, that, according to
this theory, a nominative coming after _than_ or _as_, is in general to be
accounted a _nominative absolute_; that is, a nominative which is
independent of any verb; or, (as the ingenious author himself expresses
it,) "A word in the subjective case following another subjective, and
immediately preceded by _than, as_, or _not_, may be used _without an_
ASSERTER immediately depending on it for sense."--_Peirce's Gram._, p. 195.
See also his "_Grammatical Chart_, Rule I, Part 2."
OBS. 25.--"Lowth, Priestley, Murray, and most grammarians say, that
hypothetical, conditional, concessive, or exceptive conjunctions; as, _if,
lest, though, unless, except_; _require_, or _govern_ the subjunctive mood.
But in this they are certainly wrong: for, as Dr. Crombie rightly observes,
the verb is put in the subjunctive mood, because the mood expresses
contingency, _not because it follows the conjunction_: for these writers
themselves allow, that the same conjunctions are to be followed by the
indicative mood, when the verb is not intended to express a contingency. In
the following sentence: '_Though_ he _be_ displeased at it, I will bolt my
door; and _let_ him break it open _if_ he _dare_:' may we not as well
affirm, that _and_ governs the imperative mood, as that _though_ and _if_
govern the subjunctive?"--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 321.
OBS. 26.--In the list of _correspondents_ contained in Note 7th below,
there are some words which ought not to be called _conjunctions_, by the
parser; for the relation of a word as the proper correspondent to an other
word, does not necessarily determine its part of speech. Thus, _such_ is to
be parsed as an adjective; _as_, sometimes as a pronoun; _so_, as a
conjunctive adverb. And _only, merely, also_, and _even_, are sometimes
conjunctive adverbs; as, "_Nor_ is this _only_ a matter of convenience to
the poet, it is _also_ a source of gratification to the reader."--
_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 166. _Murray's, Gram._, i, 362. Professor Bullions
will have it, that these adverbs may relate to _nouns_--a doctrine which I
disapprove. He says "_Only, solely, chiefly, merely, too, also_, and
perhaps _a few others_, are sometimes _joined to substantives_; as, 'Not
_only_ the men, but the women _also_ were present.'"--_English Gram._, p.
116. _Only_ and _also_ are here, I think, conjunctive adverbs; but it is
not the office of adverbs to qualify nouns; and, that these words are
adjuncts to the nouns _men_ and _women_, rather than the verb _were_, which
is once expressed and once understood, I see no sufficient reason to
suppose. Some teachers imagine, that an adverb of this kind qualifies the
_whole clause_ in which it stands. But it would seem, that the relation of
such words to verbs, participles, or adjectives, according to the common
rule for adverbs, is in general sufficiently obvious: as, "The perfect
tense not _only refers_ to what is past, but _also conveys_ an allusion to
the present time."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 70. Is there any question about
the true mode of parsing "_only_" and "_also_" here? and have they not in
the other sentence, a relation similar to what is seen here?
NOTES TO RULE XXII.
NOTE I.--When two terms connected are each to be extended and completed in
sense by a third, they must both be such as will make sense with it. Thus,
in stead of saying, "He has made alterations and additions to the work,"
say, "He has made alterations _in_ the work, and additions _to it_;"
because the relation between _alterations_ and _work_ is not well expressed
by _to_.
NOTE II.--In general, any two terms which we connect by a conjunction,
should be the same in kind or quality, rather than different or
heterogeneous. Example: "The assistance was welcome, and seasonably
afforded."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 249. Better: "The assistance was
welcome, and _it was_ seasonably afforded." Or: "The assistance was _both
seasonable and welcome_."
NOTE III.--The conjunctions, copulative or disjunctive, affirmative or
negative, must be used with a due regard to their own import, and to the
true idiom of the language. Thus, say, "The general bent _or_ turn of the
language _is_ towards the other form;" and not, with Lowth and Churchill,
"The general bent _and_ turn of the language _is_ towards the other
form."--_Short Introd._, p. 60; _New Gram._, p. 113. So, say, "I cannot
deny _that_ there are perverse jades;" and not, with Addison, "I cannot
deny _but_ there are perverse jades."--_Spect._, No. 457. Again, say, "I
feared _that_ I should be deserted;" not, "_lest_ I should be deserted."
NOTE IV.--After _else, other,[437] otherwise, rather_, and all English
_comparatives_, the latter term of an exclusive comparison should be
introduced by the conjunction _than_--a word which is appropriated to this
use solely: as, "Style is nothing _else than_ that sort of expression which
our thoughts most readily assume."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 92. "What we call
fables or parables are no _other than_ allegories."--_Ib._, p. 151;
_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 243. "We judge _otherwise_ of them _than_ of
ourselves."--_R. Ainsworth_. "The premeditation should be of things _rather
than_ of words."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 262. "Is not the life _more than_
meat?"--_Com. Bible_. "Is not life a _greater_ gift _than_
food?"--_Campbell's Gospels_.
NOTE V.--Relative pronouns, being themselves a species of connective words,
necessarily exclude conjunctions; except there be two or more relative
clauses to be connected together; that is, one to the other. Example of
error: "The principal and distinguishing excellence of Virgil, _and which_,
in my opinion, he possesses beyond _all poets_, is tenderness."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 439. Better: "The principal and distinguishing excellence of
Virgil, _an excellence_ which, in my opinion, he possesses beyond all
_other_ poets, is tenderness."
NOTE VI.--The word _that_, (as was shown in the fifth chapter of
Etymology,) is often made a pronoun in respect to what precedes it, and a
conjunction in respect to what follows it--a construction which, for its
anomaly, ought to be rejected. For example: "_In the mean time_ THAT the
Muscovites were complaining to St. Nicholas, Charles returned thanks to
God, and prepared for new victories."--_Life of Charles XII_. Better thus:
"_While_ the Muscovites were _thus_ complaining to St. Nicholas, Charles
returned thanks to God, and prepared for new victories."
NOTE VII.--The words in each of the following pairs, are the proper
_correspondents_ to each other; and care should be taken, to give them
their right place in the sentence:
1. To _though_, corresponds _yet_; as, "_Though_ he were dead, _yet_ shall
he live."--_John_, xi, 25. 2. To _whether_, corresponds _or_; as,
"_Whether_ it be greater _or_ less."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 77.
3. To _either_, corresponds _or_; as, "The constant indulgence of a
declamatory manner, is not favourable _either_ to good composition, _or_
[to] good delivery."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 334.
4. To _neither_, corresponds _nor_; as, "John the Baptist came _neither_
eating bread _nor_ drinking wine."--_Luke_, vii, 33. "Thou shalt _neither_
vex a stranger _nor_ oppress him."--_Exod._, xxii, 21.
5. To _both_, corresponds _and_; as, "I am debtor _both_ to the Greeks
_and_ to the Barbarians, _both_ to the wise _and_ to the unwise."--_Rom._,
i, 14.
6. To _such_, corresponds _as_; (the former being a pronominal adjective,
and the latter a relative pronoun;) as, "An assembly _such as_ earth saw
never."--_Cowper_.
7. To _such_, corresponds _that_; with, a finite verb following, to express
a consequence: as, "The difference is _such that_ all will perceive it."
8. To _as_, corresponds _as_; with an adjective or an adverb, to express
equality of degree: as, "And he went out from his presence a leper _as_
white _as_ snow."--_2 Kings_. v. 27.
9. To _as_, corresponds _so_; with two verbs, to express proportion or
sameness: as, "_As_ two are to four, _so_ are six to twelve."--"_As_ the
tree falls, _so_ it must lie."
10. _So_ is used before _as_; with an adjective or an adverb, to limit the
degree by comparison: as, "How can you descend to a thing _so_ base _as_
falsehood?"
11. _So_ is used before _as_; with a negative preceding, to deny equality
of degree: as, "No lamb was e'er _so_ mild _as_ he."--_Langhorne_.
"Relatives are not _so_ useful in language _as_ conjunctions."--BEATTIE:
_Murray's Gram._, p. 126.
12. To _so_, corresponds _as_; with an infinitive following, to express a
consequence: as, "We ought, certainly, to read blank verse _so as_ to make
every line sensible to the ear"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 332.
13. To _so_, corresponds _that_; with a finite verb following, to express a
consequence: as, "No man was _so_ poor _that_ he could not make
restitution."--_Milman's Jews_, i, 113. "_So_ run _that_ ye may
obtain."--_1 Cor._, ix, 24.
14. To _not only_, or _not merely_, corresponds _but, but also_, or _but
even_; as, "In heroic times, smuggling and piracy were deemed _not only_
not infamous, _but_ [even] absolutely honourable."--_Maunder's Gram._, p.
15. "These are questions, _not_ of prudence _merely, but_ of morals
_also_."--_Dymond's Essay_, p. 82.
NOTE VIII.--"When correspondent conjunctions are used, the verb, or phrase,
that precedes the first, applies [also] to the second; but no word
following the former, can [by virtue of this correspondence,] be understood
after the latter."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 353. Such ellipses as the
following ought therefore in general to be avoided: "Tones are different
both from emphasis and [_from_] pauses."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, i, 250.
"Though both the intention and [_the_] purchase are now past."--_Ib._, ii,
24.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXII.
EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--TWO TERMS WITH ONE.
"The first proposal was essentially different and inferior to the
second."--_Inst._, p. 171.
[FORMULE,--Not proper, because the preposition _to_ is used with joint
reference to the two adjectives _different_ and _inferior_, which require
different prepositions. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 22d, "When
two terms connected are each to be extended and completed in sense by a
third, they must both be such as will make sense with it." The sentence may
be corrected thus: "The first proposal was essentially different from the
second, and inferior _to it_."]
"A neuter verb implies the state a subject is in, without acting upon, or
being acted upon, by another."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 30. "I answer,
you may and ought to use stories and anecdotes."--_Student's Manual_, p.
220. "ORACLE, n. Any person or place where certain decisions are
obtained."--_Webster's Dict._ "Forms of government may, and must be
occasionally, changed."--_Ld. Lyttelton_. "I have, and pretend to be a
tolerable judge."--_Spect._, No. 555. "Are we not lazy in our duties, or
make a Christ of them?"--_Baxter's Saints' Rest_. "They may not express
that idea which the author intends, but some other which only resembles, or
is a-kin to it."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 94. "We may, we ought therefore to
read them with a distinguishing eye."--_Ib._, p. 352. "Compare their
poverty, with what they might, and ought to possess."--_Sedgwick's Econ._,
p. 95. "He is a much better grammarian than they are."--_Murray's Key_,
8vo, p. 211. "He was more beloved, but not so much admired as
Cinthio."--ADDISON, ON MEDALS: _in Priestly's Gram._, p. 200. "Will it be
urged, that the four gospels are as old, or even older than
tradition?"--_Bolingb. Phil. Es._, iv, §19. "The court of Chancery
frequently mitigates, and breaks the teeth of the common
law."--_Spectator_, No. 564; _Ware's Gram._, p. 16. "Antony, coming along
side of her ship, entered it without seeing or being seen by
her."--_Goldsmith's Rome_, p. 160. "In candid minds, truth finds an
entrance, and a welcome too."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 168. "In many designs,
we may succeed and be miserable."--_lb._, p. 169. "In many pursuits, we
embark with pleasure, and land sorrowfully."--_Ib._, p. 170. "They are much
greater gainers than I am by this unexpected event."--_lb._, p. 211.
UNDER NOTE II.--HETEROGENEOUS TERMS.
"Athens saw them entering her gates and fill her academies."--_Chazotte's
Essay_, p. 30. "We have neither forgot his past, nor despair of his future
success."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 121. "Her monuments and temples had long
been shattered or crumbled into dust."--_Lit. Conv._, p. 15. "Competition
is excellent, and the vital principle in all these things."--DR. LIEBER:
_ib._, p. 64. "Whether provision should or not be made to meet this
exigency."--_Ib._, p. 128. "That our Saviour was divinely inspired, and
endued with supernatural powers, are positions that are here taken for
granted."--_Murray's Gram._, i. 206. "It would be much more eligible, to
contract or enlarge their extent, by explanatory notes and observations,
than by sweeping away our ancient landmarks, and setting up
others."--_Ib._, i. p. 30. "It is certainly much better, to supply the
defects and abridge superfluities, by occasional notes and observations,
than by disorganizing, or altering a system which has been so long
established."--_Ib._, i, 59. "To have only one tune, or measure, is not
much better than having none at all"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 126. "Facts too
well known and obvious to be insisted on."--_Ib._, p. 233. "In proportion
as all these circumstances are happily chosen, and of a sublime
kind."--_Ib._, p. 41. "If the description be too general, and divested of
circumstances."--_Ibid._ "He gained nothing further than to be
commended."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 210. "I cannot but think its application
somewhat strained, and out of place."--VETHAKE: _Lit. Conv._, p. 29. "Two
negatives in the same clause, or referring to the same thing, destroy each
other, and leave the sense affirmative."--_Maunders Gram._, p. 15. "Slates
are stone and used to cover roofs of houses."--_Webster's El.
Spelling-Book_, p. 47. "Every man of taste, and possessing an elevated
mind, ought to feel almost the necessity of apologizing for the power he
possesses."--_Influence of Literature_. Vol. ii, p, 122. "They very seldom
trouble themselves with Enquiries, or making useful observations of their
own."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 376.
"We've both the field and honour won;
The foe is profligate, and run."--_Hudibras_, p. 93.
UNDER NOTE III.--IMPORT OF CONJUNCTIONS.
"_The_ is sometimes used before adverbs in the comparative and superlative
degree."--_Lennie's Gram._, p. 6; _Bullions's_, 8; _Brace's_, 9. "The
definite article _the_ is frequently applied to adverbs in the comparative
and superlative degree."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 33; _Ingersoll's_, 33;
_Lowth's_, 14; _Fisk's_, 53; _Merchant's_, 24; and others. "Conjunctions
usually connect verbs in the same mode or tense."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p.
137. "Conjunctions connect verbs in the same style, and usually in the same
mode, tense, or form."--_Ib._ "The ruins of Greece and Rome are but the
monuments of her former greatness."--_Day's Gram._, p. 88. "In many of
these cases, it is not improbable, but that the articles were used
originally."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 152. "I cannot doubt but that these
objects are really what they appear to be."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 85.
"I question not but my reader will be as much pleased with it."--_Spect._,
No. 535. "It is ten to one but my friend Peter is among them."--_Ib._, No.
457. "I doubt not but such objections as these will be made."--_Locke, on
Education_, p. 169. "I doubt not but it will appear in the perusal of the
following sheets."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. vi. "It is not improbable, but
that, in time, these different constructions may be appropriated to
different uses."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 156. "But to forget or to
remember at pleasure, are equally beyond the power of man."--_Idler_, No.
72. "The nominative case follows the verb, in interrogative and imperative
sentences."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 290. "Can the fig-tree, my
brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?"--_James_, iii, 12.
"Whose characters are too profligate, that the managing of them should be
of any consequence."--_Swift, Examiner_, No. 24. "You that are a step
higher than a philosopher, a divine; yet have too much grace and wit than
to be a bishop."--_Pope, to Swift_, Let. 80. "The terms rich or poor enter
not into their language."--_Robertson's America_, Vol. i, p. 314. "This
pause is but seldom or ever sufficiently dwelt upon."--_Music of Nature_,
p. 181. "There would be no possibility of any such thing as human life and
human happiness."--_Butler's Anal._, p. 110. "The multitude rebuked them,
because they should hold their peace."--_Matt._, xx, 21.
UNDER NOTE IV.--OF THE CONJUNCTION THAN.
"A metaphor is nothing else but a short comparison."--_Adam's Gram._, p.
243; _Gould's_, 236. "There being no other dictator here but use."--
_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 167. "This Construction is no otherwise known in
English but by supplying the first or second Person Plural."--_Buchanan's
Syntax_, p. xi. "Cyaxares was no sooner in the throne, but he was engaged
in a terrible war."--_Rollin's Hist._, ii, 62. "Those classics contain
little else but histories of murders."--_Am. Museum_, v, 526. "Ye shall not
worship any other except God."--_Sale's Koran_, p. 15. "Their relation,
therefore, is not otherwise to be ascertained but by their place."--
_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 260. "For he no sooner accosted her, but he gained
his point."--_Burder's Hist._, i, 6. "And all the modern writers on this
subject have done little else but translate them."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
336. "One who had no other aim, but to talk copiously and plausibly."--
_Ib._, p. 317. "We can refer it to no other cause but the structure of the
eye."--_Ib._, p. 46. "No more is required but singly an act of vision."--
_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 171. "We find no more in its composition, but the
particulars now mentioned."--_ Ib._, i, 48. "He pretends not to say, that
it hath any other effect but to raise surprise."--_Ib._, ii, 61. "No sooner
was the princess dead, but he freed himself."--_Johnson's Sketch of Morin_.
"_Ought_ is an imperfect verb, for it has no other modification besides
this one."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 113. "The verb is palpably nothing else
but the tie."--_Neef's Sketch_, p. 66. "Does he mean that theism is capable
of nothing else except being opposed to polytheism or atheism?"--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 104. "Is it meant that theism is capable of nothing else besides
being opposed to polytheism, or atheism?"--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 307.
"There is no other method of teaching that of which any one is ignorant,
but by means of something already known"--DR. JOHNSON: _Murray's Gram._, i,
163; _Ingersoll's_, 214. "O fairest flower, no sooner blown but blasted!"--
_Milton's Poems_, p, 132. "Architecture and gardening cannot otherwise
entertain the mind, but by raising certain agreeable emotions or
feelings."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 318. "Or, rather, they are nothing
else but nouns."--_British Gram._, p. 95.
"As if religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended."--_Hudibras_, p. 11.
UNDER NOTE V.--RELATIVES EXCLUDE CONJUNCTIONS.
"To prepare the Jews for the reception of a prophet mightier than him, and
whose shoes he was not worthy to bear."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 214.
"Has this word which represents an action an object after it, and on which
it terminates?"--_Osborn's Key_, p. 3. "The stores of literature lie before
him, and from which he may collect, for use, many lessons of wisdom."--
_Knapp's Lectures_, p. 31. "Many and various great advantages of this
Grammar, and which are wanting in others, might be enumerated."--
_Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 6. "About the time of Solon, the Athenian
legislator, the custom is said to have been introduced, and which still
prevails, of writing in lines from left to right."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p.
19. "The fundamental rule of the construction of sentences, and into which
all others might be resolved, undoubtedly is, to communicate, in the
clearest and most natural order, the ideas which we mean to transfuse into
the minds of others."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 120; _Jamieson's_, 102. "He left
a son of a singular character, and who behaved so ill that he was put in
prison."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 221. "He discovered some qualities in the
youth, of a disagreeable nature, and which to him were wholly
unaccountable."--_Ib._, p. 213. "An emphatical pause is made, after
something has been said of peculiar moment, and on which we want ['desire'
_M_.] to fix the hearer's attention."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 331; _Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 248. "But we have duplicates of each, agreeing in movement,
though differing in measure, and which make different impressions on the
ear."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 259.
UNDER NOTE VI.--OF THE WORD THAT.
"It will greatly facilitate the labours of the teacher, at the same time
that it will relieve the pupil of many difficulties."--_Frost's El. of E.
Gram._, p. 4. "At the same time that the pupil is engaged in the exercises
just mentioned, it will be a proper time to study the whole Grammar in
course."--_Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram._, Revised Ed., p. viii. "On the same
ground that a participle and auxiliary are allowed to form a
tense."--BEATTIE: _Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 76. "On the same ground that
the voices, moods, and tenses, are admitted into the English
tongue."--_Ib._, p. 101. "The five examples last mentioned, are corrected
on the same principle that the preceding examples are corrected."--_Ib._,
p. 186; _Ingersoll's Gram._, 254. "The brazen age began at the death of
Trajan, and lasted till the time that Rome was taken by the
Goths."--_Gould's Lat. Gram._, p. 277. "The introduction to the Duodecimo
Edition, is retained in this volume, for the same reason that the original
introduction to the Grammar, is retained in the first volume."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, Vol. ii, p. iv. "The verb must also be of the same person that
the nominative case is."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 16. "The adjective
pronoun _their_, is plural for the same reason that _who_ is."--_Ib._, p.
84. "The Sabellians could not justly be called Patripassians, in the same
sense that the Noetians were so called."--_Religious World_, Vol. ii, p.
122. "This is one reason that we pass over such smooth language, without
suspecting that it contains little or no meaning."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo,
p. 298. "The first place that both armies came in sight of each other was
on the opposite banks of the river Apsus."--_Goldsmith's Rome_, p. 118. "At
the very time that the author gave him the first book for his
perusal."--_Campbell's Rhetoric, Preface_, p. iv. "Peter will sup at the
time that Paul will dine."--_Fosdick's De Sacy_, p. 81. "Peter will be
supping at the time that Paul will enter."--_Ibid._ "These, at the same
time that they may serve as models to those who may wish to imitate them,
will give me an opportunity to cast more light upon the principles of this
book."--_Ib._, p. 115.
"Time was, like thee, they life possest,
And time shall be, that thou shalt rest."
--PARNELL; _Mur. Seq._, p. 241.
UNDER NOTE VII.--OF THE CORRESPONDENTS.
"Our manners should neither be gross, nor excessively
refined."--_Merchant's Gram._, p. 11. "A neuter verb expresses neither
action or passion, but being, or a state of being."--_O. B. Peirce's
Gram._, p. 342. "The old books are neither _English_ grammars, or
_grammars_, in any sense of the English Language."--_Ib._, p. 378. "The
author is apprehensive that his work is not yet as accurate and as much
simplified as it may be."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 7. "The writer could not
treat some topicks as extensively as was desirable."--_Ib._, p. 10. "Which
would be a matter of such nicety, as no degree of human wisdom could
regulate."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 26. "No undertaking is so great or
difficult which he cannot direct."--_Duncan's Cic._, p. 126. "It is a good
which neither depends on the will of others, nor on the affluence of
external fortune."--_Harris's Hermes_, 299; _Murray's Gram._, i, 289. "Not
only his estate, his reputation too has suffered by his
misconduct."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 150; _Ingersoll's_, 238. "Neither do
they extend as far as might be imagined at first view."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 350. "There is no language so poor, but it hath two or three past
tenses."--_Ib._, p. 82. "As far as this system is founded in truth,
language appears to be not altogether arbitrary in its origin."--_Ib._, p.
56. "I have not that command of these convulsions as is
necessary."--_Spect._, No. 474. "Conversation with such who know no arts
which polish life."--_Ib._, No. 480. "And which can be neither very lively
or very forcible."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 78. "To that degree as to give
proper names to rivers."--_Dr. Murray's Hist of Lang._, i, 327. "In the
utter overthrow of such who hate to be reformed."--_Barclay's Works_, i,
443. "But still so much of it is retained, as greatly injures the
uniformity of the whole."--_Priestley's Gram., Pref._, p. vii. "Some of
them have gone to that height of extravagance, as to assert," &c.--_Ib._,
p. 91. "A teacher is confined--not more than a merchant, and probably not
as much."--_Abbott's Teacher_, p. 27. "It shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come."--_Matt._, xii, 32.
"Which no body presumes, or is so sanguine to hope."--_Swift, Drap. Let._
v. "For the torrent of the voice, left neither time or power in the organs,
to shape the words properly."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 118. "That he may
neither unnecessarily waste his voice by throwing out too much, or diminish
his power by using too little."--_Ib._, p. 123. "I have retained only such
which appear most agreeable to the measures of Analogy."--_Littleton's
Dict., Pref._ "He is both a prudent and industrious man."--_Day's Gram._,
p. 70. "Conjunctions either connect words or sentences."--_Ib._, pp. 81 and
101.
"Such silly girls who love to chat and play,
Deserve no care, their time is thrown away."--_Tobitt's Gram._, p. 20.
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen."--POPE: _Mur. Gram._, ii, 17.
"Justice must punish the rebellious deed:
Yet punish so, as pity shall exceed."--DRYDEN: _in Joh. Dict._
UNDER NOTE VIII.--IMPROPER ELLIPSES.
"_That, whose_, and _as_ relate to either persons or things."--_Sanborn's
Gram._, p. 93. "_Which_ and _what_, as adjectives, relate either to persons
or things."--_Ib._, p. 70. "Whether of a public or private nature."--
_Adam's Rhet._, i, 43. "Which are included both among the public and
private wrongs."--_Ib._, i, 308. "I might extract both from the old and new
testament numberless examples of induction."--_Ib._, ii, 66. "Many verbs
are used both in an active and neuter signification."--_Lowth's Gram._, p.
30; _Alger's_, 26; _Guy's_, 21; _Murray's_, 60. "Its influence is likely to
be considerable, both on the morals, and taste of a nation."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 373. "The subject afforded a variety of scenes, both of the
awful and tender kind."--_Ib._, p. 439. "Restlessness of mind disqualifies
us, both for the enjoyment of peace, and the performance of our
duty."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 166; _Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 10. "Adjective
Pronouns are of a mixed nature, participating the properties both of
pronouns and adjectives."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 55; _Merchant's_, 43;
_Flint's_, 22. "Adjective Pronouns have the nature both of the adjective
and the pronoun."--_Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 15. "Pronominal adjectives
are a kind of compound part of speech, partaking the nature both of
pronouns and adjectives."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 36. "Nouns are used either
in the singular or plural number."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 11. "The question
is not, whether the nominative or accusative ought to follow the particles
_than_ and _as_; but, whether these particles are, in such particular
cases, to be regarded as conjunctions or prepositions."--_Campbell's
Rhet._, p. 204. "In English many verbs are used both as transitives and
intransitives."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 83. "He sendeth rain both on the
just and unjust."--_Guy's Gram._, p. 56. "A foot consists either of two or
three syllables."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 118. "Because they participate the
nature both of adverbs and conjunctions."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 116.
"Surely, Romans, what I am now about to say, ought neither to be omitted
nor pass without notice."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 196. "Their language
frequently amounts, not only to bad sense, but _non_-sense."--_Kirkham's
Gram._, p. 14. "Hence arises the necessity of a social state to man both
for the unfolding, and exerting of his nobler faculties."--_Sheridan's
Elocution_, p. 147. "Whether the subject be of the real or feigned
kind."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 454. "Not only was liberty entirely
extinguished, but arbitrary power felt in its heaviest and most oppressive
weight."--_Ib._, p. 249. "This rule is applicable also both to verbal
Critics and Grammarians."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 144. "Both the rules and
exceptions of a language must have obtained the sanction of good
usage."--_Ib._, p. 143.
CHAPTER X.--PREPOSITIONS.
The syntax of Prepositions consists, not solely or mainly in their power of
governing the objective case, (though this alone is the scope which most
grammarians have given it,) but in their adaptation to the other terms
between which they express certain relations, such as appear by the sense
of the words uttered.
RULE XXIII.--PREPOSITIONS.
Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts
expressed by them: as; "He came _from_ Rome _to_ Paris, _in_ the company
_of_ many eminent men, and passed _with_ them _through_ many
cities"--_Analectic Magazine_.
"Ah! who can tell the triumphs _of_ the mind,
_By_ truth illumin'd, and _by_ taste refin'd?"--_Rogers_.
EXCEPTION FIRST.
The preposition _to_, before an abstract infinitive, and at the head of a
phrase which is made the subject of a verb, has no proper antecedent term
of relation; as, "_To_ learn to die, is the great business of
life."--_Dillwyn_. "Nevertheless, _to_ abide in the flesh, is more needful
for you."--ST. PAUL: _Phil._, i, 24. "_To_ be reduced to poverty, is a
great affliction."
"Too much _to_ know, is, to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name."--_Shakspeare_.
EXCEPTION SECOND.
The preposition _for_, when it introduces its object before an infinitive,
and the whole phrase is made the subject of a verb, has properly no
antecedent term of relation; as, "_For_ us to learn to die, is the great
business of life."--"Nevertheless, _for_ me to abide in the flesh, is more
needful for you."--"_For_ an old man to be reduced to poverty is a very
great affliction."
"_For_ man to tell how human life began,
Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?"--_Milton_.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIII.
OBS. 1.--In parsing any ordinary preposition, the learner should name the
_two terms_ of the relation, and apply the foregoing rule, after the manner
prescribed in Praxis 12th of this work. The principle is simple and
etymological, being implied in the very definition of a preposition, yet
not the less necessary to be given as a rule of syntax. Among tolerable
writers, the prepositions exhibit more errors than any other equal number
of words. This is probably owing to the careless manner in which they are
usually slurred over in parsing. But the parsers, in general, have at least
this excuse, that their text-books have taught them no better; they
therefore call the preposition _a preposition_, and leave its use and
meaning unexplained.
OBS. 2.--If the learner be at any loss to discover the true terms of
relation, let him ask and answer _two questions_: first, with the
interrogative _what_ before the preposition, to find the antecedent; and
then, with the same pronoun after the preposition, to find the subsequent
term. These questions answered according to the sense, will always give the
true terms. For example: "They dashed that rapid torrent
through."--_Scott_. Ques. _What_ through? Ans. "_Dashed through_." Ques.
Through _what?_ Ans. "_Through that torrent_." For the meaning is--"They
dashed through that rapid torrent." If one term is perfectly obvious, (as
it almost always is,) find the other in this way; as, "Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge."--_Psal._, xix, 2.
Ques. _What_ unto day? Ans. "_Uttereth unto day_." Ques. _What_ unto night?
Ans. "_Showeth unto night_" For the meaning is--"Day uttereth speech unto
day, and night showeth knowledge unto night." To parse rightly, is, to
understand rightly; and what is well expressed, it is a shame to
misunderstand or misinterpret. But sometimes the position of the two nouns
is such, that it may require some reflection to find either; as,
"Or that choice plant, so grateful to the nose,
Which _in_ I know not what far country grows."--_Churchill_, p. 18.
OBS. 3.--When a preposition _begins_ or _ends_ a sentence or clause, the
terms of relation, if both are given, are transposed; as, "To a studious
_man_, action is a relief."--_Burgh_. That is, "Action is a relief _to_ a
studious man." "_Science_ they [the ladies] do not _pretend_ TO."--_Id._
That is, "They do not pretend _to_ science." "Until I have done that
_which_ I _have spoken_ to thee OF."--_Gen._, xxviii, 15. The word governed
by the preposition is always the subsequent term of the relation, however
it may be placed; and if this be a relative pronoun, the transposition is
permanent. The preposition, however, may be put before any relative, except
_that_ and _as_; and this is commonly thought to be its most appropriate
place: as, "Until I have done that _of which_ I have spoken to thee," Of
the placing of it last, Lowth says, "This is an idiom _which_ our language
is strongly inclined _to_;" Murray and others, "This is an idiom _to which_
our language is strongly inclined:" while they all add, "it prevails in
common conversation, and suits very well with the familiar style in
writing; but the placing of the preposition before the relative, is more
graceful, as well as more perspicuous, and agrees much better with the
solemn and elevated style."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 95; _Murray's_, 8vo, p.
200; _Fisk's_, 141; _R. C. Smiths_, 167; _Ingersoll's_, 227; _Churchill's_.
150.
OBS. 4.--The terms of relation between which a preposition may be used, are
very various. The _former_ or _antecedent_ term may be a noun, an
adjective, a pronoun, a verb, a participle, or an adverb: and, in some
instances, we find not only one preposition put before an other, but even a
conjunction or an interjection used on this side; as, "_Because_ OF
offences."--"_Alas_ FOR him!"--The _latter_ or _subsequent_ term, which is
the word governed by the preposition, may be a noun, a pronoun, a
pronominal adjective, an infinitive verb, or an imperfect or preperfect
participle: and, in some instances, prepositions appear to govern adverbs,
or even whole phrases. See the observations in the tenth chapter of
Etymology.
OBS. 5.--Both terms of the relation are usually expressed; though either of
them may, in some instances, be left out, the other being given: as, (1.)
THE FORMER--"All shall know me, [_reckoning_] FROM the least to the
greatest."--_Heb._, viii, 11. [_I say_] "IN a word, it would entirely
defeat the purpose."--_Blair_. "When I speak of reputation, I mean not only
[_reputation_] IN regard to knowledge, but [_reputation_] IN regard to the
talent of communicating knowledge."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 163; _Murray's
Gram._, i, 360. (2.) THE LATTER--"Opinions and ceremonies [_which_] they
would die FOR."--_Locke_. "IN [_those_] who obtain defence, or [_in those_]
who defend."--_Pope_. "Others are more modest than [_what_] this comes
TO."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 66.
OBS. 6.--The only proper exceptions to the foregoing rule, are those which
are inserted above, unless the abstract infinitive used as a predicate is
also to be excepted; as, "In both, to reason right, is _to_
submit."--_Pope_. But here most if not all grammarians would say, the verb
"_is_" is the antecedent term, or what their syntax takes to govern the
infinitive. The relation, however, is not such as when we say, "He _is to
submit_;" that is, "He _must submit_, or _ought to submit_;" but, perhaps,
to insist on a different mode of parsing the more separable infinitive or
its preposition, would be a needless refinement. Yet some regard ought to
be paid to the different relations which the infinitive may bear to this
finite verb. For want of a due estimate of this difference, the following
sentence is, I think, very faulty: "The great business of this life _is to
prepare_, and _qualify us_, for the enjoyment of a better."--_Murray's
Gram._, Vol. i, p. 373. If the author meant to tell what our great business
in this life is, he should rather have said: "The great business of this
life is, to prepare and qualify _ourselves_ for the enjoyment of a better."
OBS. 7.--In relation to the infinitive, Dr. Adam remarks, that, "_To_ in
English is often taken _absolutely_; as, _To_ confess the truth; _To_
proceed; _To_ conclude."--_Latin and Eng. Gram._, p. 182. But the assertion
is not entirely true; nor are his examples appropriate; for what he and
many other grammarians call the _infinitive absolute_, evidently depends on
something _understood_; and the preposition is, surely, in no instance
independent of what follows it, and is therefore never entirely absolute.
Prepositions are not to be supposed to have no antecedent term, merely
because they stand at the head of a phrase or sentence which is made the
subject of a verb; for the phrase or sentence itself often contains that
term, as in the following example: "_In_ what way mind acts upon matter, is
unknown." Here _in_ shows the relation between _acts_ and _way_; because
the expression suggests, that mind _acts_ IN _some way_ upon matter.
OBS. 8.--The second exception above, wherever it is found applicable,
cancels the first; because it introduces an antecedent term before the
preposition _to_, as may be seen by the examples given. It is questionable
too, whether both of them may not also be cancelled in an other way; that
is, by transposition and the introduction of the pronoun _it_ for the
nominative: as, "_It_ is a great _affliction_, TO _be reduced_ to
poverty."--"_It_ is _hard_ FOR _man_ to tell how human life
began."--"Nevertheless _it_ is more needful for you, THAT _I should abide_
in the flesh." We cannot so well say, "It is more needful _for you_, FOR
_me to abide_ in the flesh;" but we may say, "It is, _on your account_,
more needful FOR _me to abide_ in the flesh." If these, and other similar
examples, are not to be accounted additional instances in which _to_ and
_for_, and also the conjunction that, are without any proper antecedent
terms, we must suppose these particles to show the relation between what
precedes and what follows them.
OBS. 9.--The preposition (as its name implies) _precedes_ the word which it
governs. Yet there are some exceptions. In the familiar style, a
preposition governing a relative or an interrogative pronoun, is often
separated from its object, and connected with the other term of relation;
as, "_Whom_ did he speak _to_?" But it is more dignified, and in general
more graceful, to place the preposition before the pronoun; as, "_To whom_
did he speak?" The relatives _that_ and _as_, if governed by a preposition,
must always precede it. In some instances, the pronoun must be supplied in
parsing; as, "To set off the banquet [_that_ or _which_] he gives notice
_of_."--_Philological Museum_, i, 454. Sometimes the objective word is put
first because it is emphatical; as, "_This_ the great understand, _this_
they pique themselves _upon_."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 66. Prepositions of
more than one syllable, are sometimes put immediately after their objects,
especially in poetry; as, "Known all the _world over_."--_Walker's
Particles_ p. 291. "The thing is known all _Lesbos over_."--_Ibid._
"Wild Carron's lonely _woods among_."--_Langhorne_.
"Thy deep _ravines_ and _dells along_."--_Sir W. Scott_.
OBS. 10.--Two prepositions sometimes come together; as, "Lambeth is _over
against_ Westminster abbey."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 118. "And _from before_
the lustre of her face, White break the clouds away."--_Thomson_. "And the
meagre fiend Blows mildew _from between_ his shrivell'd lips."--_Cowper_.
These, in most instances, though they are not usually written as compounds,
appear naturally to coalesce in their syntax, as was observed in the tenth
chapter of Etymology, and to express a sort of compound relation between
the other terms with which they are connected. When such is their
character, they ought to be taken together in parsing; for, if we parse
them separately, we must either call the first an adverb, or suppose some
very awkward ellipsis. Some instances however occur, in which an object may
easily be supplied to the former word, and perhaps ought to be; as, "He is
at liberty to sell it _at_ [a price] _above_ a fair remuneration."--
_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 258. "And I wish they had been at the bottom
of the ditch I pulled you out of, _instead of_ [being] _upon_ my
back."--_Sandford and Merton_, p. 29. In such examples as the following,
the first preposition, _of_, appears to me to govern the plural noun which
ends the sentence; and the intermediate ones, _from_ and _to_, to have both
terms of their relation _understood_: "Iambic verse consists _of from_ two
_to_ six feet; that is, _of from_ four _to_ twelve syllables."--_Blair's
Gram._, p. 119. "Trochaic verse consists _of from_ one to three
feet."--_Ibid._ The meaning is--"Iambic verse consists _of feet_ varying in
number from two to six; or (it consists) _of syllables_ varying from four
to twelve."--"Trochaic verse consists _of feet_ varying from one _foot_ to
three _feet_."
OBS. 11.--One antecedent term may have several prepositions depending on
it, with one object after each, or more than one after any, or only one
after both or all; as, "A declaration _for_ virtue and _against_
vice."--_Butler's Anal._, p. 157. "A positive law _against_ all fraud,
falsehood, _and_ violence, and _for_, or _in_ favour _of_, all justice
_and_ truth." "For _of_ him, and _through_ him, and _to_ him, are all
things."--_Bible_. In fact, not only may the relation be simple in regard
to all or any of the words, but it may also be complex in regard to all or
any of them. Hence several different prepositions, whether they have
different antecedent terms or only one and the same, may refer either
jointly or severally to one object or to more. This follows, because not
only may either antecedents or objects be connected by conjunctions, but
prepositions also admit of this construction, with or without a connecting
of their antecedents. Examples: "They are capable _of_, and placed _in_,
different stations in the society of mankind."--_Butler's Anal._, p. 115.
"Our perception _of_ vice _and_ ill desert arises _from_, and is the result
_of_, a comparison _of_ actions _with_ the nature _and_ capacities _of_ the
agent."--_Ib._, p. 279. "And the design _of_ this chapter is, _to_ inquire
how far this is the case; how far, _over and above_ the moral nature which
God has given us, _and_ our natural notion _of_ him, as righteous governor
_of_ those his creatures _to_ whom he has given this nature; I say, how
far, _besides_ this, the principles _and_ beginnings _of_ a moral
government _over_ the world may be discerned, _notwithstanding and amidst_
all the confusion _and_ disorder _of_ it."--_Ib._, p. 85.
OBS. 12.--The preposition _into_, expresses a relation produced by motion
or change; and _in_, the same relation, without reference to motion as
having produced it: hence, "to walk _into_ the garden," and, "to walk _in_
the garden," are very different in meaning. "It is disagreeable to find a
word split _into_ two by a pause."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 83. This
appears to be right in sense, but because brevity is desirable in
unemphatic particles, I suppose most persons would say, "split _in_ two."
In the Bible we have the phrases, "rent _in_ twain,"--"cut _in_
pieces,"--"brake _in_ pieces the rocks,"--"brake all their bones _in
pieces_,"--"brake them _to_ pieces,"--"broken _to_ pieces,"--"pulled _in_
pieces." In all these, except the first, _to_ may perhaps be considered
preferable to _in_; and _into_ would be objectionable only because it is
longer and less simple. "Half of them dare not shake the snow from off
their cassocks, lest they shake themselves _to_ pieces."--SHAK.: _Kames_,
ii, 246.
OBS. 13.--_Between_, or _betwixt_, is used in reference to two things or
parties; _among_, or _amongst, amid_, or _amidst_, in reference to a
greater number, or to something by which an other may be surrounded: as,
"Thou pendulum _betwixt_ a smile and tear."--_Byron_. "The host _between
the_ mountain and the shore."--_Id._ "To meditate _amongst_ decay, and
stand a ruin _amidst_ ruins."--_Id._ In the following examples, the import
of these prepositions is not very accurately regarded; "The Greeks wrote in
capitals, and left no spaces between their words."--_Wilson's Essay_, p. 6.
This construction may perhaps be allowed, because the spaces by which words
are now divided, occur severally _between_ one word and an other; but the
author might as well have said, "and left no spaces _to distinguish_ their
words." "There was a hunting match agreed upon _betwixt_ a lion, an ass,
and a fox."--_L'Estrange_. Here _by_ or _among_ would, I think, be better
than _betwixt_, because the partners were more than two. "_Between_ two _or
more_ authors, different readers will differ, exceedingly, as to the
preference in point of merit."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 162; _Jamieson's_,
40; _Murray's Gram._, i, 360. Say, "_Concerning_ two or more authors,"
because _between_ is not consistent with the word _more_. "Rising _one
among another_ in the greatest confusion and disorder."--_Spect._, No. 476.
Say, "Rising _promiscuously_," or, "Rising _all at once_;" for _among_ is
not consistent with the distributive term _one an other_.
OBS. 14.--Of two prepositions coming together between the same terms of
relation, and sometimes connected in the same construction, I have given
several plain examples in this chapter, and in the tenth chapter of
Etymology, a very great number, all from sources sufficiently respectable.
But, in many of our English grammars, there is a stereotyped remark on this
point, originally written by Priestley, which it is proper here to cite, as
an other specimen of the Doctor's hastiness, and of the blind confidence of
certain compilers and copyists: "Two different prepositions _must be
improper_ in the same construction, and in the same sentence: [as,] _The
combat_ between _thirty Britons_, against _twenty English_. Smollett's
Voltaire, Vol. 2, p. 292."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 156. Lindley Murray and
others have the same remark, with the example altered thus: "The combat
_between_ thirty _French against_ twenty English."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo,
p. 200; _Smith's New Gram._, 167: _Fisk's_, 142; _Ingersoll's_, 228. W.
Allen has it thus: "Two different prepositions in the _same construction_
are improper; as, a combat _between twenty_ French _against thirty_
English."--_Elements of E. Gram._, p. 179. He gives the odds to the latter
party. Hiley, with no expense of thought, first takes from Murray, as he
from Priestley, the useless remark, "Different relations, and different
senses, must be expressed by different prepositions;" and then adds, "_One
relation_ must not, _therefore_, be expressed by two different prepositions
in the same clause; thus, 'The combat _between thirty_ French _against
thirty_ English,' should be, 'The combat _between thirty_ French _and
thirty_ English.'"--_Hiley's E. Gram._, p 97. It is manifest that the error
of this example is not in the use of _two prepositions_, nor is there any
truth or fitness in the note or notes made on it by all these critics; for
had they said, "The combat _of_ thirty French _against_ twenty English,"
there would still be two prepositions, but where would be the impropriety,
or where the sameness of construction, which they speak of? _Between_ is
incompatible with _against_, only because it requires two parties or things
for its own regimen; as, "The combat _between_ thirty _Frenchmen and_
twenty _Englishmen_." This is what Smollett should have written, to make
sense with the word "_between_."
OBS. 15.--With like implicitness, Hiley excepted, these grammarians and
others have adopted from Lowth an observation in which the learned doctor
has censured quite too strongly the joint reference of different
prepositions to the same objective noun: to wit, "Some writers separate the
preposition from its noun, in order to connect different prepositions to
the same noun; as, 'To suppose the zodiac and planets to be efficient _of_,
and antecedent _to_, themselves.' Bentley, Serm. 6. This [construction],
whether in the familiar or the solemn style, is _always inelegant_; and
_should never be admitted_, but in forms of law, and the like; where
fullness and exactness of expression must take _place_ of every other
consideration."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 96; _Murray's_, i, 200; _Smith's_,
167; _Fisk's_, 141; _Ingersoll's_, 228; _Alger's_, 67; _Picket's_, 207.
Churchill even goes further, both strengthening the censure, and
disallowing the exception: thus, "This, whether in the solemn or in the
familiar style, is _always_ inelegant, and should _never be admitted_. It
is an _awkward shift_ for avoiding the repetition of a word, _which might
be accomplished without it_ by any person who has the least command of
language."--_New Gram._, p. 341. Yet, with all their command of language,
not one of these gentlemen has told us how the foregoing sentence from
Bentley may be _amended_; while many of their number not only venture to
use different prepositions before the same noun, but even to add a phrase
which puts that noun in the nominative case: as, "Thus, the time of the
infinitive may be _before, after_, or _the same as_, the time of the
governing verb, according as the _thing_ signified by the infinitive is
supposed to be _before, after_, or _present with_, the _thing_ denoted by
the governing verb."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 191; _Ingersoll's_, 260; _R. C.
Smith's_, 159.
OBS. 16.--The structure of this example not only contradicts palpably, and
twice over, the doctrine cited above, but one may say of the former part of
it, as Lowth, Murray, and others do, (in no very accurate English,) of the
text 1 Cor., ii, 9: "There seems to be an impropriety in this sentence, in
which the same noun serves in a double capacity, performing at the same
time the _offices both of the nominative and objective cases_."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 224. See also _Lowth's Gram._, p. 73; _Ingersoll's_, 277;
_Fisk's_, 149; _Smith's_, 185. Two other examples, exactly like that which
is so pointedly censured above, are placed by Murray under his thirteenth
rule for the comma; and these likewise, with all faithfulness, are copied
by Ingersoll, Smith, Alger, Kirkham, Comly, Russell, and I know not how
many more. In short, not only does this rule of their punctuation include
the construction in question; but the following exception to it, which is
remarkable for its various faults, or thorough faultiness, is applicable to
_no other_: "Sometimes, when the _word_ with which the _last_ preposition
_agrees_, is _single_, it is better to _omit_ the comma before it: as,
'Many states were in alliance _with_, and under the protection _of_
Rome.'"--_Murray's Gram._, p. 272; _Smith's_, 190; _Ingersoll's_, 284;
_Kirkham's_, 215; _Alger's_, 79; _Alden's_, 149; _Abel Flint's_, 103;
_Russell's_, 115. But the blunders and contradictions on this point, end
not here. Dr. Blair happened most unlearnedly to say, "What is called
splitting of particles, or separating a preposition from the noun which it
governs, is _always to be avoided_. As if I should say, 'Though virtue
borrows no assistance from, yet it may often be accompanied by, the
advantages of fortune.'"--_Lect. XII_, p. 112. This too, though the author
himself did not _always_ respect the rule, has been thought worthy to be
copied, or stolen, with all its faults! See _Jamieson's Rhetoric_, p. 93;
and _Murray's Octavo Gram._, p. 319.
OBS. 17.--Dr. Lowth says, "The noun _aversion_, (that is, a turning away,)
as likewise the adjective _averse_, seems to require the preposition _from_
after it; and not so properly to admit of _to_, or _for_, which are often
used with it."--_Gram._, p. 98. But this doctrine has not been adopted by
the later grammarians: "The words _averse_ and _aversion_ (says Dr.
Campbell) are more properly construed with _to_ than with _from_. The
examples in favour of the latter preposition, are beyond comparison
outnumbered by those in favour of the former."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 201;
_Fisk's_, 142; _Ingersoll's_, 229. This however must be understood only of
mental aversion. The expression of Milton, "On the coast _averse from_
entrance," would not be improved, if _from_ were changed to _to_. So the
noun _exception_, and the verb to _except_, are sometimes followed by
_from_, which has regard to the Latin particle _ex_, with which the word
commences; but the noun at least is much more frequently, and perhaps more
properly, followed by _to_. Examples: "Objects of horror must be _excepted
from_ the foregoing theory."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 268. "_From_ which
there are but two _exceptions_, both of them rare."--_Ib._, ii. 89. "_To_
the rule that fixes the pause after the fifth portion, there is one
_exception_, and no more."--_Ib._, ii, 84. "No _exception_ can be taken
_to_ the justness of the figure."--_Ib._, ii, 37. "Originally there was no
_exception_ from the rule."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 58. "_From_ this rule
there is mostly an _exception_."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 269. "But _to_ this
rule there are many _exceptions._"--_Ib._, i. 240. "They are not to be
regarded as exceptions _from_ the rule,"--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 363.
OBS. 18.--After correcting the example. "He _knows_ nothing _on_ [of] it,"
Churchill remarks, "There seems to be a strange perverseness among the
_London vulgar_ in perpetually substituting _on_ for _of_, and _of_ for
_on_."--_New Gram._, p. 345. And among the expressions which Campbell
censures under the name of _vulgarism_, are the following: "'Tis my humble
request you will be particular in speaking _to_ the following
points."--_Guardian_, No. 57. "The preposition ought to have been _on_.
Precisely of the same stamp is the _on't_ for _of it_, so much used by one
class of writers."--_Philosophy of Rhet._, p. 217. So far as I have
observed, the use of _of_ for _on_ has never been frequent; and that of
_on_ for _of_, or _on't_ for _of it_, though it may never have been a
polite custom, is now a manifest _archaism_, or imitation of ancient usage.
"And so my young Master, whatever comes _on't_, must have a Wife look'd out
for him."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 378. In Saxon, _on_ was put for more than
half a dozen of our present prepositions. The difference between _of_ and
_on_ or _upon_, appears in general to be obvious enough; and yet there are
some phrases in which it is not easy to determine which of these words
ought to be preferred: as, "Many things they cannot _lay hold on_ at
once."--HOOKER: _Joh. Dict._ "Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God,
and _took hold of_ it."--2 SAM.: _ib._ "Rather thou shouldst _lay hold
upon_ him."--BEN JONSON: _ib._ "Let them find courage to _lay hold on_ the
occasion."--MILTON: _ib._ "The hand is fitted to _lay hold of_
objects."--RAY: _ib._ "My soul _took hold on_ thee."--ADDISON: _ib._ "To
_lay hold of_ this safe, this only method of cure."--ATTERBURY: _ib._ "And
_give_ fortune no more _hold_ of him."--DRYDEN: _ib._ "And his laws _take_
the surest _hold of_ us."--TILLOTSON: _ib._ "It will then be impossible
you can _have_ any _hold upon_ him."--SWIFT: _ib._ "The court of Rome
gladly _laid hold on_ all the opportunities."--_Murray's Key_, ii, p. 198.
"Then did the officer _lay hold of_ him and execute him."--_Ib._, ii, 219.
"When one can _lay hold upon_ some noted fact."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 311.
"But when we would _lay_ firm _hold of_ them."--_Ib._, p. 28. "An advantage
which every one is glad to _lay hold of_."--_Ib._, p. 75. "To have _laid_
fast _hold of_ it in his mind."--_Ib._, p. 94. "I would advise them to lay
aside their common-places, and to _think_ closely _of_ their
subject."--_Ib._, p. 317. "Did they not _take hold of_ your
fathers?"--_Zech._, i, 6. "Ten men shall _take hold of_ the skirt of one
that is a Jew."--_Ib._, viii, 23. "It is wrong to say, either 'to _lay_
hold _of_ a thing,' or 'to _take_ hold _on_ it.'"--_Blair's Gram._, p. 101.
In the following couplet, _on_ seems to have been preferred only for a
rhyme:
"Yet, lo! in me what authors have to _brag on_!
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon."--_Pope_.
OBS. 19.--In the allowable uses of prepositions, there may perhaps be some
room for choice; so that what to the mind of a critic may not appear the
fittest word, may yet be judged not positively ungrammatical. In this light
I incline to view the following examples: "Homer's plan is still more
defective, _upon_ another account."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 299.
Say--"_on an other_ account." "It was almost eight _of the_ clock before I
could leave that variety of objects."--_Spectator_, No. 454. Present usage
requires--"eight _o_'clock." "The Greek and Latin writers had a
considerable advantage _above_ us."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 114. "The study of
oratory has this advantage _above_ that of poetry."--_Ib._, p. 338. "A
metaphor has frequently an advantage _above_ a formal comparison."--
_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 150. This use of _above_ seems to be a sort of
Scotticism: an Englishman, I think, would say--"advantage _over_ us," &c.
"Hundreds have all these crowding upon them from morning _to_ night."--
_Abbott's Teacher_, p. 33. Better--"from morning _till_ night." But Horne
Tooke observes, "We apply TO indifferently to _place_ or _time_; but TILL
to _time_ only, and never to _place_. Thus we may say, 'From morn TO night
th' eternal larum rang;' or, 'From morn TILL night.' &c."--_Diversions of
Purley_, i, 284.
NOTES TO RULE XXIII.
NOTE I.--Prepositions must be chosen and employed agreeably to the usage
and idiom of the language, so as rightly to express the relations intended.
Example of error: "By which we arrive _to_ the last division."--_Richard W.
Green's Gram._, p. vii. Say,--"arrive _at_." NOTE II.--Those prepositions
which are particularly adapted in meaning to _two objects_, or to _more_,
ought to be confined strictly to the government of such terms only as suit
them. Example of error: "What is _Person_? It is the _medium of_
distinction _between_ the _speaker_, the _object_ addressed or spoken _to_,
and the _object_ spoken _of_."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 34. "_Between
three_" is an incongruity; and the text here cited is bad in several other
respects.
NOTE III.--An _ellipsis_ or _omission_ of the preposition is inelegant,
except where long and general use has sanctioned it, and made the relation
sufficiently intelligible. In the following sentence, _of_ is needed: "I
will not flatter you, that all I see in you is _worthy love_."--
_Shakspeare_. The following requires _from_: "Ridicule _is banished
France_, and is losing ground in England."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 106.
NOTE IV.--The _insertion_ of a preposition is also inelegant, when the
particle is needless, or when it only robs a transitive verb of its proper
regimen; as, "The people of England may congratulate _to_
themselves."--DRYDEN: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 163. "His servants ye are,
_to_ whom ye obey."--_Rom._, vi, 16.
NOTE V.--The preposition and its object should have that position in
respect to other words, which will render the sentence the most perspicuous
and agreeable. Examples of error: "Gratitude is a forcible and active
principle in good and generous minds."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 169.
Better: "In good and generous minds, gratitude is a forcible and active
principle." "By a single stroke, he knows how to reach the heart."--
_Blair's Rhet._, p. 439. Better: "He knows how to reach the heart by a
single stroke."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXIII.
EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--CHOICE OF PREPOSITIONS.
"You have bestowed your favours to the most deserving persons."--_Swift, on
E. Tongue_.
[FORMULE.--Not proper because the relation between _have bestowed_ and
_persons_ is not correctly expressed by the preposition _to_. But,
according to Note 1st under Rule 23d, "Prepositions must be chosen and
employed agreeably to the usage and idiom of the language, so as rightly to
express the relations intended." This relation would be better expressed by
_upon_; thus, "You have bestowed your favours _upon_ the most deserving
persons."]
"But to rise beyond that, and overtop the crowd, is given to
few."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 351. "This also is a good sentence, and gives
occasion to no material remark."--_Ib._, p. 201. "Though Cicero endeavours
to give some reputation of the elder Cato, and those who were his
cotemporaries."--_Ib._, p. 245. "The change that was produced on eloquence,
is beautifully described in the Dialogue."--_Ib._, p. 249. "Without
carefully attending to the variation which they make upon the
idea."--_Ib._, p. 367. "All of a sudden, you are transported into a lofty
palace."--_Hazlitt's Lect._, p. 70. "Alike independent on one
another."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 398. "You will not think of them as
distinct processes going on independently on each other,"--_Channing's
Self-Culture_, p. 15. "Though we say, to _depend on, dependent on_, and
_independent on_, we say, _independently of_."--_Churchill's Gram._, p.
348. "Independently on the rest of the sentence."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 78;
_Guy's_, 88; _Murray's_, i, 145 and 184; _Ingersoll's_, 150; _Frost's_, 46;
_Fisk's_, 125; _Smith's New Gram._, 156; _Gould's Lat. Gram._, 209;
_Nixon's Parser_, 65. "Because they stand independent on the rest of the
sentence."--_Fisk's Gram._, p. 111. "When a substantive is joined with a
participle in English independently in the rest of the sentence."--_Adam's
Lat. and Eng. Gram., Boston Ed. of 1803_, p. 213; _Albany Ed. of 1820_, p.
166. "Conjunction, comes of the two Latin words _con_, together, and
_jungo_, to join."--_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 19. "How different to
this is the life of Fulvia!"--_Addison's Spect._, No. 15. "_Loved_ is a
participle or adjective, derived of the word _love_."--_Dr. Ash's Gram._,
p. 27. "But I would inquire at him, what an office is?"--_Barclay's Works_,
iii, 463. "For the capacity is brought unto action."--_Ib._, iii, 420. "In
this period, language and taste arrive to purity."--_Webster's Essays_, p.
94. "And should you not aspire at distinction in the republick of
letters."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 13. "Delivering you up to the synagogues,
and in prisons."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 55. "One that is kept from
falling in a ditch, is as truly saved, as he that is taken out of
one."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 312. "The best on it is, they are but a sort
of French Hugonots."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 62. "These last Ten Examples
are indeed of a different Nature to the former."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._,
p. 333. "For the initiation of students in the principles of the English
language."--ANNUAL REVIEW: _Murray's Gram._, ii, 299. "Richelieu profited
of every circumstance which the conjuncture afforded,"--_Bolingbroke, on
Hist._, p. 177. "In the names of drugs and plants, the mistake in a word
may endanger life."--_Murray's Key_, ii, 165. "In order to the carrying on
its several parts into execution."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 192. "His
abhorrence to the superstitious figure."--HUME: _Priestley's Gram._, p.
164. "Thy prejudice to my cause."--DRYDEN: _ib._, p. 164. "Which is found
among every species of liberty."--HUME: _ib._, p. 169. "In a hilly region
to the north of Jericho."--_Milman's Jews_, Vol. i, p. 8. "Two or more
singular nouns, coupled with AND, require a verb and pronoun in the
plural."--_Lennie's Gram._, p. 83.
"Books should to one of these four ends conduce,
For wisdom, piety, delight, or use."--_Denham_, p. 239.
UNDER NOTE II.--TWO OBJECTS OR MORE.