participle? 93. Is the case after the verb reckoned doubtful, when the
subject going before is a sentence, or something not declinable by cases?
94. In the sentence, "It is certainly as easy to be a _scholar_, as a
_gamester_," what is the case of _scholar_ and _gamester_, and why? 95. Are
there any verbs that sometimes connect like cases, and sometimes govern the
objective? 96. What faults are there in the rules given by _Lowth, Murray,
Smith_, and others, for the construction of _like cases_? 97. Can a
preposition ever govern any thing else than a noun or a pronoun? 98. Is
every thing that a preposition governs, necessarily supposed to have cases,
and to be in the objective? 99. Why or wherein is the common rule,
"Prepositions govern the objective case," defective or insufficient? 100.
In such phrases as _in vain, at first, in particular_, how is the adjective
to be parsed? 101. In such expressions as, "I give it up _for lost_,"--"I
take it _for granted_," how is the participle to be parsed? 102. In such
phrases as, _at once, from thence, till now_, how is the latter word to be
parsed? 103. What peculiarity is there in the construction of nouns of
time, measure, distance, or value? 104. What is observed of the words
_like, near_, and _nigh_? 105. What is observed of the word _worth_? 106.
According to Johnson and Tooke, what is _worth_, in such phrases as, "Wo
_worth_ the day?" 107. After verbs of _giving, paying_, and the like, what
ellipsis is apt to occur? 108. What is observed of the nouns used in dates?
109. What defect is observable in the common rules for "the case absolute,"
or "the nominative independent?" 110. In how many ways is the nominative
case put absolute? 111. What participle is often understood after nouns put
absolute? 112. In how many ways can nouns of the second person be employed?
113. What is said of nouns used in exclamations, or in mottoes and
abbreviated sayings? 114. What is observed of such phrases as, "_hand to
hand_,"--"_face to face_?" 115. What authors deny the existence of "the
case absolute?"
LESSON XIX.--ADJECTIVES.
1. Does the adjective frequently relate to what is not uttered with it? 2.
What is observed of those rules which suppose every adjective to relate to
some noun? 3. To what does the adjective usually relate, when it stands
alone after a finite verb? 4. Where is the noun or pronoun, when an
adjective follows an infinitive or a participle? 5. What is observed of
adjectives preceded by _the_ and used elliptically? 6. What is said of the
position of the adjective? 7. In what instances is the adjective placed
after its noun? 8. In what instances may the adjective either precede or
follow the noun? 9. What are the construction and import of the phrases,
_in particular, in general_, and the like? 10. What is said of adjectives
as agreeing or disagreeing with their nouns in number? 11. What is observed
of _this_ and _that_ as referring to two nouns connected? 12. What is
remarked of the use of adjectives for adverbs? 13. How can one determine
whether an adjective or an adverb is required? 14. What is remarked of the
placing of two or more adjectives before one noun? 15. How can one avoid
the ambiguity which Dr. Priestley notices in the use of the adjective _no_?
LESSON XX.--PRONOUNS.
1. Can such pronouns as stand for things not named, be said to agree with
the nouns for which they are substituted? 2. Is the pronoun _we_ singular
when it is used in lieu of _I_? 3. Is the pronoun _you_ singular when used
in lieu of _thou_ or _thee_? 4. What is there remarkable in the
construction of _ourself_ and _yourself_? 5. Of what person, number, and
gender, is the relative, when put after such terms of address as, _your
Majesty, your Highness, your Lordship, your Honour_? 6. How does the
English fashion of putting _you_ for _thou_, compare with the usage of the
French, and of other nations? 7. Do any imagine these fashionable
substitutions to be morally objectionable? 8. What figures of rhetoric are
liable to affect the agreement of pronouns with their antecedents? 9. How
does the pronoun agree with its noun in cases of personification? 10. How
does the pronoun agree with its noun in cases of metaphor? 11. How does the
pronoun agree with its noun in cases of metonymy? 12. How does the pronoun
agree with its noun in cases of synecdoche? 13. What is the usual position
of pronouns, and what exceptions are there? 14. When a pronoun represents a
phrase or sentence, of what person, number, and gender is it? 15. Under
what circumstances can a pronoun agree with either of two antecedents? 16.
With what does the relative agree when an other word is introduced by the
pronoun _it_? 17. In the sentence, "_It_ is useless to complain," what does
_it_ represent? 18. How are relative and interrogative pronouns placed? 19.
What are the chief constructional peculiarities of the relative pronouns?
20. Why does the author discard the two special rules commonly given for
the construction of relatives?
LESSON XXI.--PRONOUNS.
21. To what part of speech is the greatest number of rules applied in
parsing? 22. Of the twenty-four rules in this work, how many are applicable
to pronouns? 23. Of the seven rules for cases, how many are applicable to
relatives and interrogatives? 24. What is remarked of the ellipsis or
omission of the relative? 25. What is said of the suppression of the
antecedent? 26. What is noted of the word _which_, as applied to persons?
27. What relative is applied to a proper noun taken merely as a name? 28.
When do we employ the same relative in successive clauses? 29. What odd use
is sometimes made of the pronoun _your_? 30. Under what _figure_ of syntax
did the old grammarians rank the plural construction of a noun of
multitude? 31. Does a collective noun with a singular definitive before it
ever admit of a plural verb or pronoun? 32. Do collective nouns generally
admit of being made literally plural? 33. When joint antecedents are of
different persons, with which person does the pronoun agree? 34. When joint
antecedents differ in gender, of what gender is the pronoun? 35. Why is it
wrong to say, "The first has a lenis, _and_ the other an asper over
_them_?" 36. Can nouns without _and_ be taken jointly, as if they had it?
37. Can singular antecedents be so suggested as to require a plural
pronoun, when only one of them is uttered? 38. Why do singular antecedents
connected by _or_ or _nor_ appear to require a singular pronoun? 39. Can
different antecedents connected by _or_ be accurately represented by
differing pronouns connected in the same way? 40. Why are we apt to use a
plural pronoun after antecedents of different genders? 41. Do the Latin
grammars teach the same doctrine as the English, concerning nominatives or
antecedents connected disjunctively?
LESSON XXII.--VERBS.
1. What is necessary to every finite verb? 2. What is remarked of such
examples as this: "The _Pleasures_ of Memory _was_ published in 1702?" 3.
What is to be done with "_Thinks I_ to myself," and the like? 4. Is it
right to say with Smith, "Every hundred _years constitutes_ a century?" 5.
What needless ellipses both of nominatives and of verbs are commonly
supposed by our grammarians? 6. What actual ellipsis usually occurs with
the imperative mood? 7. What is observed concerning the place of the verb?
8. What besides a noun or a pronoun may be made the subject of a verb? 9.
What is remarked of the faulty omission of the pronoun _it_ before the
verb? 10 When an infinitive phrase is made the subject of a verb, do the
words remain adjuncts, or are they abstract? 11. How can we introduce a
noun or pronoun before the infinitive, and still make the whole phrase the
subject of a finite verb? 12. Can an objective before the infinitive become
"the subject of the affirmation?" 13. In making a phrase the subject of a
verb, do we produce an exception to Rule 14th? 14. Why is it wrong to say,
with Dr. Ash, "The king and queen appearing in public _was_ the cause of my
going?" 15. What inconsistency is found in Murray, with reference to his
"_nominative sentences_?" 16. What is Dr. Webster's ninth rule of syntax?
17. Why did Murray think all Webster's examples under this rule bad
English? 18. Why are both parties wrong in this instance? 19. What strange
error is taught by Cobbett, and by Wright, in regard to the relative and
its verb? 20. Is it demonstrable that verbs often agree with relatives? 21.
What is observed of the agreement of verbs in interrogative sentences? 22.
Do we ever find the subjunctive mood put after a relative pronoun? 23. What
is remarked of the difference between the indicative and the subjunctive
mood, and of the limits of the latter?
LESSON XXIII.--VERBS.
24. In respect to collective nouns, how is it generally determined, whether
they convey the idea of plurality or not? 25. What is stated of the rules
of Adam, Lowth, Murray, and Kirkham, concerning collective nouns? 26. What
is Nixon's notion of the construction of the verb and collective noun? 27.
Does this author appear to have gained "a _clear idea_ of the nature of a
collective noun?" 28. What great difficulty does Murray acknowledge
concerning "nouns of multitude?" 29. Does Murray's notion, that collective
nouns are of different sorts, appear to be consistent or warrantable? 30.
Can words that agree with the same collective noun, be of different
numbers? 31. What is observed of collective nouns used partitively? 32.
Which are the most apt to be taken plurally, collections of persons, or
collections of things? 33. Can a collective noun, as such, take a plural
adjective before it? 34. What is observed of the expressions, _these
people, these gentry, these folk_? 35. What is observed of sentences like
the following, in which there seems to be no nominative: "There _are_ from
eight to twelve professors?" 36. What rule does Dr. Webster give for such
examples as the following: "There _was_ more than a hundred and fifty
thousand pounds?" 37. What grammarians teach, that two or more nouns
connected by _and_, "always require the verb or pronoun to which they
refer, to be in the plural number?" 38. Does Murray acknowledge or furnish
any exceptions to this doctrine? 39. On what principle can one justify such
an example as this: "_All work and no play, makes_ Jack a dull boy?" 40.
What is remarked of instances like the following: "Prior's _Henry and Emma
contains_ an other beautiful example?" 41. What is said of the suppression
of the conjunction _and_? 42. When the speaker changes his nominative, to
take a stronger one, what concord has the verb? 43. When two or more
nominatives connected by _and_ explain a preceding one, what agreement has
the verb? 44. What grammarian approves of such expressions as, "Two and two
_is_ four?" 45. What is observed of verbs that agree with the nearest
nominative, and are understood to the rest? 46. When the nominatives
connected are of different persons, of what person is the verb?
LESSON XXIV.--VERBS.
47. What is the syntax of the verb, when one of its nominatives is
expressed, and an other or others implied? 48. What is the syntax of the
verb, when there are nominatives connected by _as_? 49. What is the
construction when two nominatives are connected by _as well as, but_, or
_save_? 50. Can words connected by _with_ be properly used as joint
nominatives? 51. Does the analogy of other languages with ours prove any
thing on this point? 52. What does Cobbett say about _with_ put for _and_?
53. What is the construction of such expressions as this: "A torch, _snuff_
and _all, goes_ out in a moment?" 54. Does our rule for the verb and
disjunct nominatives derive confirmation from the Latin and Greek syntax?
55. Why do collective nouns singular, when connected by _or_ or _nor_,
admit of a plural verb? 56. In the expression, "_I, thou, or he, may
affirm_," of what person and number is the verb? 57. Who says, "the verb
agrees with _the last nominative_?" 58. What authors prefer "_the nearest
person_," and "_the plural number_?" 59. What authors prefer "the _nearest
nominative_, whether singular or plural?" 60. What author declares it
improper ever to connect by _or_ or _nor_ any nominatives that require
different forms of the verb? 61. What is Cobbett's "_clear principle_" on
this head? 62. Can a zeugma of the verb be proved to be right, in spite of
these authorities? 63. When a verb has nominatives of different persons or
numbers, connected by _or_ or _nor_, with which of them does it _commonly_
agree? 64. When does it agree with the remoter nominative? 65. When a noun
is implied in an adjective of a different number, which word is regarded in
the formation of the verb? 66. What is remarked concerning the place of the
pronoun of the first person singular? 67. When verbs are connected by _and,
or_, or _nor_, do they necessarily agree with the same nominative? 68. Why
is the thirteenth rule of the author's Institutes and First Lines not
retained as a rule in this work? 69. Are verbs often connected without
agreeing in mood, tense, and form?
LESSON XXV.--VERBS.
70. What particular convenience do we find in having most of our tenses
composed of separable words? 71. Is the connecting of verbs elliptically,
or by parts, anything peculiar to our language? 72. What faults appear in
the teaching of our grammarians concerning _do_ used as a "substitute for
other verbs?" 73. What notions have been entertained concerning the word
_to_ as used before the infinitive verb? 74. How does Dr. Ash parse _to_
before the infinitive? 75. What grammarians have taught that the
preposition _to_ governs the infinitive mood? 76. Does Lowth agree with
Murray in the anomaly of supposing _to_ a preposition that governs nothing?
77. Why do those teach just as inconsistently, who forbear to call the _to_
a preposition? 78. What objections are there to the rule, with its
exceptions, "One verb governs an other in the infinitive mood?" 79. What
large exception to this rule has been recently discovered by Dr. Bullions?
80. Are the countless examples of this exception truly elliptical? 81. Is
the infinitive ever governed by a preposition in French, Spanish, or
Italian? 82. What whimsical account of the English infinitive is given by
Nixon? 83. How was the infinitive expressed in the Anglo-Saxon of the
eleventh century? 84. What does Richard Johnson infer from the fact that
the Latin infinitive is sometimes governed by a preposition? 85. What
reasons can be adduced to show that the infinitive is not a noun? 86. How
can it be proved that _to_ before the infinitive is a preposition? 87. What
does Dr. Wilson say of the character and _import_ of the infinitive? 88. To
what other terms can the infinitive be connected? 89. What is the
infinitive, and for what things may it stand? 90. Do these ten heads
embrace all the uses of the infinitive? 91. What is observed of Murray's
"_infinitive made absolute_?" 92. What is said of the position of the
infinitive? 93. Is the infinitive ever liable to be misplaced?
LESSON XXVI.--VERBS.
94. What is observed of the frequent ellipses of the verb _to be_, supposed
by Allen and others? 95. What is said of the suppression of _to_ and the
insertion of _be_; as, "To make himself _be_ heard?" 96. Why is it
necessary to use the sign _to_ before an abstract infinitive, where it
shows no relation? 97. What is observed concerning the distinction of
_voice_ in the simple infinitive and the first participle? 98. What do our
grammarians teach concerning the omission of _to_ before the infinitive,
after _bid, dare, feel_, &c.? 99. How do Ingersoll, Kirkham, and Smith,
agree with their master Murray, concerning such examples as, "_Let me go_?"
100. What is affirmed of the difficulties of parsing the infinitive
according to the code of Murray? 101. How do Nutting, Kirkham, Nixon,
Cooper, and Sanborn, agree with Murray, or with one an other, in pointing
out what governs the infinitive? 102. What do Murray and others mean by
"_neuter verbs_," when they tell us that the taking of the infinitive
without _to_ "extends only to active and neuter verbs?" 103. How is the
infinitive used after _bid_? 104. How, after _dare_? 105. How, after
_feel_? 106. How, after _hear_? 107. How, after _let_? 108. How, after
_make_? 109. How, after _need_? 110. Is _need_ ever an auxiliary? 111. What
errors are taught by Greenleaf concerning _dare_ and _need_ or _needs_?
112. What is said of _see_, as governing the infinitive? 113. Do any other
verbs, besides these eight, take the infinitive after them without _to_?
114. How is the infinitive used after _have, help_, and _find_? 115. When
two or more infinitives occur in the same construction, must _to_ be used
with each? 116. What is said of the sign _to_ after _than_ or _as_?
LESSON XXVII.--PARTICIPLES.
1. What questionable uses of participles are commonly admitted by
grammarians? 2. Why does the author incline to condemn these peculiarities?
3. What is observed of the multiplicity of uses to which the participle in
_ing_ may be turned? 4. What is said of the participles which some suppose
to be put absolute? 5. How are participles placed? 6. What is said of the
transitive use of such words as _unbecoming_? 7. What distinction, in
respect to government, is to be observed between a participle and a
participial noun? 8. What shall we do when _of_ after the participial noun
is objectionable? 9. What is said of the correction of those examples in
which a needless article or possessive is put before the participle? 10.
What is stated of the retaining of adverbs with participial nouns? 11. Can
words having the form of the first participle be nouns, and clearly known
to be such, when they have no adjuncts? 12. What strictures are made on
Murray, Lennie, and Bullions, with reference to examples in which an
infinitive follows the participial noun? 13. In what instances is the first
participle equivalent to the infinitive? 14. What is said of certain
infinitives supposed to be erroneously put for participles? 15. What verbs
take the participle after them, and not the infinitive? 16. What is said of
those examples in which participles seem to be made the objects of verbs?
17. What is said of the teaching of Murray and others, that, "The
participle with its adjuncts may be considered as a _substantive phrase_?"
18. How does the English participle compare with the Latin gerund? 19. How
do Dr. Adam and others suppose "the gerund in English" to become a
"substantive," or noun? 20. How does the French construction of participles
and infinitives compare with the English?
LESSON XXVIII.--PARTICIPLES.
21. What difference does it make, whether we use the possessive case before
words in _ing_, or not? 22. What is said of the distinguishing or
confounding of different parts of speech, such as verbs, participles, and
nouns? 23. With how many other parts of speech does W. Allen confound the
participle? 24. How is the distinguishing of the participle from the verbal
noun inculcated by Allen, and their difference of meaning by Murray? 25. Is
it pretended that the authorities and reasons which oppose the mixed
construction of participles, are sufficient to prove such usage altogether
inadmissible? 26. Is it proper to teach, in general terms, that the noun or
pronoun which limits the meaning of a participle should be put in the
possessive case? 27. What is remarked of different cases used
indiscriminately before the participle or verbal noun? 28. What say Crombie
and others about this disputable phraseology? 29. What says Brown of this
their teaching? 30. How do Priestley and others pretend to distinguish
between the participial and the substantive use of verbals in _ing_? 31.
What does Brown say of this doctrine? 32. If when a participle becomes an
adjective it drops its regimen, should it not also drop it on becoming a
noun? 33. Where the sense admits of a choice of construction in respect to
the participle, is not attention due to the analogy of general grammar? 34.
Does it appear that nouns before participles are less frequently subjected
to their government than pronouns? 35. Why must a grammarian discriminate
between idioms, or peculiarities, and the common mode of expression? 36. Is
the Latin gerund, like the verbal in _ing_, sometimes active, sometimes
passive; and when the former governs the genitive, do we imitate the idiom
in English? 37. Is it agreed among grammarians, that the Latin gerund may
govern the genitive of the agent? 38. What distinction between the
participial and the substantive use of verbals in _ing_ do Crombie and
others propose to make? 39. How does this accord with the views of Murray,
Lowth, Adam, and Brown?. 40. How does Hiley treat the English participle?
41. What further is remarked concerning false teaching in relation to
participles?
LESSON XXIX.--ADVERBS.
1. What is replied to Dr. Adam's suggestion, "Adverbs sometimes qualify
substantives?" 2. Do not adverbs sometimes relate to participial nouns? 3.
If an adverbial word relates directly to a noun or pronoun, does not that
fact constitute it an adjective? 4. Are such expressions as, "the _then_
ministry," "the _above_ discourse," good English, or bad--well authorized,
or not? 5. When words commonly used as adverbs assume the construction of
nouns, how are they to be parsed? 6. Must not the parser be careful to
distinguish adverbs used substantively or adjectively, from such as may be
better resolved by the supposing of an ellipsis? 7. How is an adverb to be
parsed, when it seems to be put for a verb? 8. How are adverbs to be parsed
in such expressions as, "_Away with him?_" 9. What is observed of the
relation of conjunctive adverbs, and of the misuse of _when_? 10. What is
said in regard to the placing of adverbs? 11. What suggestions are made
concerning the word _no_? 12. What is remarked of two or more negatives in
the same sentence? 13. Is that a correct rule which says, "Two negatives,
in English, destroy each other, or are equivalent to an affirmative?" 14.
What is the dispute among grammarians concerning the adoption of _or_ or
_nor_ after _not_ or _no_? 15. What fault is found with the opinion of
Priestley, Murray, Ingersoll, and Smith, that "either of them may be used
with nearly equal propriety?" 16. How does John Burn propose to settle this
dispute? 17. How does Churchill treat the matter? 18. What does he say of
the manner in which "the use of _nor_ after _not_ has been introduced?" 19.
What other common modes of expression are censured by this author under the
same head? 20. How does Brown review these criticisms, and attempt to
settle the question? 21. What critical remark is made on the misuse of
_ever_ and _never_? 22. How does Churchill differ from Lowth respecting the
phrase, "_ever so wisely_," or "_never so wisely?_" 23. What is observed of
_never_ and _ever_ as seeming to be adjectives, and being liable to
contraction? 24. What strictures are made on the classification and placing
of the word _only_? 25. What is observed of the term _not but_, and of the
adverbial use of _but_? 26. What is noted of the ambiguous use of _but_ or
_only_? 27. What notions are inculcated by different grammarians about the
introductory word _there_?
LESSON XXX.--CONJUNCTIONS.
1. When two declinable words are connected by a conjunction, why are they
of the same case? 2. What is the power, and what the position, of a
conjunction that connects sentences or clauses? 3. What further is added
concerning the terms which conjunctions connect? 4. What is remarked of two
or more conjunctions coming together? 5. What is said of _and_ as supposed
to be used to call attention? 6. What relation of case occurs between nouns
connected by _as_? 7. Between what other related terms can _as_ be
employed? 8. What is _as_ when it is made the subject or the object of a
verb? 9. What questions are raised among grammarians, about the
construction of _as follow_ or _as follows_, and other similar phrases? 10.
What is said of Murray's mode of treating this subject? 11. Has Murray
written any thing which goes to show whether _as follows_ can be right or
not, when the preceding noun is plural? 12. What is the opinion of Nixon,
and of Crombie? 13. What conjunction is frequently understood? 14. What is
said of ellipsis after _than_ or _as_? 15. What is suggested concerning the
character and import of _than_ and _as_? 16. Does _than_ as well as _as_
usually take the same case after it that occurs before it? 17. Is the Greek
or Latin construction of the latter term in a comparison usually such as
ours? 18. What inferences have our grammarians made from the phrase _than
whom_? 19. Is _than_ supposed by Murray to be capable of governing any
other objective than _whom_? 20. What grammarian supposes _whom_ after
_than_ to be "in the objective case _absolute_?" 21. How does the author of
this work dispose of the example? 22. What notice is taken of O. B.
Peirce's Grammar, with reference to his manner of parsing words after
_than_ or _as_? 23. What says Churchill about the notion that certain
conjunctions govern the subjunctive mood? 24. What is said of the different
parts of speech contained in the list of correspondents?
LESSON XXXI.--PREPOSITIONS.
1. What is said of the parsing of a preposition? 2. How can the terms of
relation which pertain to the preposition be ascertained? 3. What is said
of the transposition of the two terms? 4. Between what parts of speech, as
terms of the relation, can a preposition be used? 5. What is said of the
ellipsis of one or the other of the terms? 6. Is _to_ before the infinitive
to be parsed just as any other preposition? 7. What is said of Dr. Adam's
"_To_ taken _absolutely_?" 8. What is observed in relation to the
exceptions to Rule 23d? 9. What is said of the placing of prepositions? 10.
What is told of two prepositions coming together? 11. In how many and what
ways does the relation of prepositions admit of complexity? 12. What is the
difference between _in_ and _into_? 13. What notice is taken of the
application of _between, betwixt, among, amongst, amid, amidst_? 14. What
erroneous remark have Priestley, Murray, and others, about two prepositions
"in the same construction?" 15. What false doctrine have Lowth, Murray, and
others, about the separating of the preposition from its noun? 16. What is
said of the prepositions which follow _averse_ and _aversion, except_ and
_exception_? 17. What is remarked concerning the use of _of, to, on_, and
_upon_? 18. Can there be an inelegant use of prepositions which is not
positively ungrammatical?
LESSON XXXII.--INTERJECTIONS.
1. Are all interjections to be parsed as being put absolute? 2. What is
said of _O_ and the vocative case? 3. What do Nixon and Kirkham erroneously
teach about cases governed by interjections? 4. What say Murray, Ingersoll,
and Lennie, about interjections and cases? 5. What is shown of the later
teaching to which Murray's erroneous and unoriginal remark about "_O, oh_,
and _ah_," has given rise? 6. What notice is taken of the application of
the rule for "_O, oh_, and _ah_," to nouns of the second person? 7. What is
observed concerning the further extension of this rule to nouns and
pronouns of the third person? 8. What authors teach that interjections are
put absolute, and have no government? 9. What is the construction of the
pronoun in "_Ah me!_" "_Ah him!_" or any similar exclamation? 10. Is the
common rule for interjections, as requiring certain cases after them,
sustained by any analogy from the Latin syntax? 11. Can it be shown, on
good authority, that _O_ in Latin may be followed by the nominative of the
first person or the accusative of the second? 12. What errors in the
construction and punctuation of interjectional phrases are quoted from
Fisk, Smith, and Kirkham? 13. What is said of those sentences in which an
interjection is followed by a preposition or the conjunction _that_? 14.
What is said of the place of the interjection? 15. What says O. B. Peirce
about the name and place of the interjection? 16. What is offered in
refutation of Peirce's doctrine?
[Now parse the six lessons of the _Thirteenth Praxis_; taking, if the
teacher please, the Italic or difficult words only; and referring to the
exceptions or observations under the rules, as often as there is occasion.
Then proceed to the correction of the eighteen lessons of _False Syntax_
contained in Chapter Twelfth, or the General Review.]
LESSON XXXIII.--GENERAL RULE.
1. Why were the general rule and the general or critical notes added to the
foregoing code of syntax? 2. What is the general rule? 3. How many are
there of the general or critical notes? 4. What says Critical Note 1st of
_the parts of speech_? 5. What says Note 2d of _the doubtful reference_ of
words? 6. What says Note 3d of _definitions_? 7. What says Note 4th of
_comparisons_? 8. What says Note 5th of _falsities_? 9. What says Note 6th
of _absurdities_? 10. What says Note 7th of _self-contradiction_? 11. What
says Note 8th of _senseless jumbling_? 12. What says Note 9th of _words
needless_? 13. What says Note 10th of _improper omissions_? 14. What says
Note 11th of _literary blunders_? 15. What says Note 12th of _literary
perversions_? 16. What says Note 13th of _literary awkwardness_? 17. What
says Note 14th of _literary ignorance_? 18. What says Note 15th of
_literary silliness_? 19. What says Note 16th of _errors incorrigible_? 20.
In what place are the rules, exceptions, notes, and observations, in the
foregoing system of syntax, enumerated and described? 21. What suggestions
are made in relation to the number of rules or notes, and the completeness
of the system? 22. What is remarked on the place and character of the
critical notes and the general rule? 23. What is noted in relation to the
unamendable imperfections sometimes found in ancient writings?
[Now correct--(or at least read, and compare with the Key--) the sixteen
lessons of _False Syntax_, arranged under appropriate heads, for the
application of the General Rule; the sixteen others adapted to the Critical
Notes; and the five concluding ones, for which the rules are various.]
CHAPTER XV.--FOR WRITING.
EXERCISES IN SYNTAX.
[Fist][When the pupil has been sufficiently exercised in _syntactical
parsing_, and has corrected _orally_, according to the formulas given, all
the examples of false syntax designed for oral exercises, or so many of
them as may be deemed sufficient; he should write out the following
exercises, correcting them according to the principles of syntax given in
the rules, notes, and observations, contained in the preceding chapters;
but omitting or varying the references, because his corrections cannot be
ascribed to the books which contain these errors.]
EXERCISE I.--ARTICLES.
"They are institutions not merely of an useless, but of an hurtful
nature."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 344. "Quintilian prefers the full, the
copious, and the amplifying style."--_Ib._, p. 247. "The proper application
of rules respecting style, will always be best learned by the means of the
illustration which examples afford."--_Ib._, p. 224. "He was even tempted
to wish that he had such an one."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 41. "Every
limb of the human body has an agreeable and disagreeable motion."--_Kames,
El. of Crit._ i, 217. "To produce an uniformity of opinion in all
men."--_Ib._, ii. 365. "A writer that is really an humourist in character,
does this without design."--_Ib._, i. 303. "Addison was not an humourist in
character."--_Ib._, i. 303. "It merits not indeed the title of an universal
language."--_Ib._, i. 353. "It is unpleasant to find even a negative and
affirmative proposition connected."--_Ib._, ii. 25. "The sense is left
doubtful by wrong arrangement of members."--_Ib._, ii. 44. "As, for
example, between the adjective and following substantive."--_Ib._, ii. 104.
"Witness the following hyperbole, too bold even for an Hotspur."--_Ib._,
193. "It is disposed to carry along the good and bad properties of one to
another."--_Ib._, ii. 197. "What a kind of a man such an one is likely to
prove, is easy to foresee."--_Locke, on Education_, p. 47. "In propriety
there cannot be such a thing as an universal grammar, unless there were
such a thing as an universal language."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 47. "The
very same process by which he gets at the meaning of any ancient author,
carries him to a fair and a faithful rendering of the scriptures of the Old
and New Testament."--_Chalmers, Sermons_, p. 16. "But still a predominancy
of one or other quality in the minister is often visible."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 19. "Among the ancient critics, Longinus possessed most
delicacy; Aristotle, most correctness."--_Ib._, p. 20. "He then proceeded
to describe an hexameter and pentameter verse."--_Ward's Preface to Lily_,
p. vi. "And Alfred, who was no less able a negotiator than courageous a
warrior, was unanimously chosen King."--_Pinnock's Geog._, p. 271. "An
useless incident weakens the interest which we take in the
action."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 460. "This will lead into some detail; but I
hope an useful one."--_Ib._, p. 234. "When they understand how to write
English with due Connexion, Propriety, and Order, and are pretty well
Masters of a tolerable Narrative Stile, they may be advanced to writing of
Letters."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 337. "The Senate is divided into the Select
and Great Senate."--_Hewitt's Student-Life in Germany_, p. 28. "We see a
remains of this ceremonial yet in the public solemnities of the
universities."--_Ib._, p. 46.
"Where an huge pollard on the winter fire,
At an huge distance made them all retire."--_Crabbe, Borough_, p. 209.
EXERCISE II.--NOUNS, OR CASES.
"Childrens Minds are narrow, and weak, and usually susceptible but of one
Thought at once."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 297. "Rather for Example sake, than
that ther is any Great Matter in it."--_Right of Tythes_, p. xvii. "The
more that any mans worth is, the greater envy shall he be liable
to."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 461. "He who works only for the common
welfare is the most noble, and no one, but him, deserves the name."--
_Spurzheim, on Ed._, p. 182. "He then got into the carriage, to sit with
the man, whom he had been told was Morgan."--_Stone, on Masonry_, p. 480.
"But, for such footmen as thee and I are, let us never desire to meet with
an enemy."--_Bunyan's P. P._, p. 153. "One of them finds out that she is
Tibulluses Nemesis."--_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 446. "He may be
employed in reading such easy books as Corderius, and some of Erasmus'
Colloques, with an English translation."--_Burgh's Dignity_, Vol. i, p.
150. "For my preface was to show the method of the priests of Aberdeen's
procedure against the Quakers."--_Barclay's Works_, Vol. i, p. 235. "They
signify no more against us, than Cochlæus' lies against Luther."--_Ib._, i,
236. "To justify Moses his doing obeisance to his father in law."--_Ib._,
i, 241. "Which sort of clauses are generally included between two
comma's."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 306. "Between you and I, she is but a
cutler's wife."--_Goldsmith's Essays_, p. 187. "In Edward the third, King
of England's time."--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 104. "The nominative case is the
agent or doer."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 11. "_Dog_ is in the nominative
case, because it is the agent, actor, or doer."--_Ib._ "The actor or doer
is considered the naming or leading noun."--_Ib._ "The radical form of the
principal verb is made use of."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 24. "They would
have the same right to be taken notice of by grammarians."--_Ib._, p. 30.
"I shall not quarrel with the friend of twelve years standing."--
_Liberator_, ix, 39. "If there were none living but him, John would be
against Lilburne, and Lilburne against John."--_Biog. Dict., w. Lilburne_.
"When a personal pronoun is made use of to relate to them."--_Cobbett's
Eng. Gram._, ¶ 179. "The town was taken in a few hours time."--_Goldsmith's
Rome_, p. 120. "You must not employ such considerations merely as those
upon which the author here rests, taken from gratitude's being the law of
my nature."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 296. "Our author's second illustration, is
taken from praise being the most disinterested act of homage."--_Ib._, p.
301. "The first subdivision concerning praise being the most pleasant part
of devotion, is very just and well expressed."--_Ib._ "It was a cold
thought to dwell upon its disburdening the mind of debt."--_Ib._ "The
thought which runs through all this passage, of man's being the priest of
nature, and of his existence being calculated chiefly for this end, that he
might offer up the praises of the mute part of the creation, is an
ingenious thought and well expressed."--_Ib._, p. 297. "The mayor of
Newyork's portrait."--_Ware's English Grammar_, p. 9.
"Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake
Who hunger, and who thirst, for scribbling sake."
--_Pope, Dunciad_, i, 50.
EXERCISE III.--ADJECTIVES.
"Plumb down he drops ten thousand fathom deep."--_Milton, P. L._, B. ii, 1,
933. "In his Night Thoughts, there is much energy of expression: in the
three first, there are several pathetic passages."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
403. "Learn to pray, to pray greatly and strong."--_The Dial_, Vol. ii, p.
215. "The good and the bad genius are struggling with one another."--
_Philological Museum_, i, 490. "The definitions of the parts of speech, and
application of syntax, should be given almost simultaneous."--_Wilbur and
Livingston's Gram._, p. 6. "I had studied grammar previous to his
instructing me."--_Ib._, p. 13. "So difficult it is to separate these two
things from one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 92. "New words should never
be ventured upon, except by such whose established reputation gives them
some degree of dictatorial power over language."--_Ib._, p. 94. "The verses
necessarily succeed each other."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 142. "They saw
that it would be practicable to express, in writing, the whole combinations
of sounds which our words require."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 68. "There are
some Events, the Truth of which cannot appear to any, but such whose Minds
are first qualify'd by some certain Knowledge."--_Brightland's Gram._, p.
242. "These Sort of Feet are in Latin called Iambics."--_Fisher's Gram._,
p. 134. "And the Words are mostly so disposed, that the Accents may fall on
every 2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th Syllables."--_Ib._, p. 135. "If the verse
does not sound well and harmonious to the ear."--_Ib._, p. 136. "I gat me
men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as
musical instruments, and that of all sorts."--_Ecclesiastes_, ii, 8. "No
people have so studiously avoided the collision of consonants as the
Italians."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 183. "And these two subjects must
destroy one another."--_Ib._, p. 42. "Duration and space are two things in
some respects the most like, and in some respects the most unlike to one
another."--_Ib._, p. 103. "Nothing ever affected him so much, as this
misconduct of his friend."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 155. "To see the bearing
of the several parts of speech on each other."--_Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 2.
"Two or more adjectives following each other, either with or without a
conjunction, qualify the same word."--_Bullion's E. Gram._, p. 75. "The two
chapters which now remain, are by far the most important of any."--
_Student's Manual_, p. 293. "That has been the subject of no less than six
negotiations."--_Pres. Jackson's Message_, 1830. "His gravity makes him
work cautious."--_Steele, Spect._, No. 534. "Grandeur, being an extreme
vivid emotion, is not readily produced in perfection but by reiterated
impressions."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 203. "Every object appears less
than when viewed separately and independent of the series."--_Ib._, ii, 14.
"An Organ is the best of all other musical instruments."--_Dilworth's
English Tongue_, p. 94.
"Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well."--_Pope, on Crit._, l. 15.
EXERCISE IV.--PRONOUNS.
"You had musty victuals, and he hath holp to eat it."--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict.,
w. Victuals_. "Sometime am I all wound with adders, who, with cloven
tongues, do hiss me into madness."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 68. "When a
letter or syllable is transposed, it is called METATHESIS."--_Adam's Lat.
Gram._, p. 275. "When a letter or syllable is added to the beginning of a
word, it is called PROSTHESIS."--_Ib._ "If a letter or syllable be taken
from the beginning of a word, it is called APHÆRESIS."--_Ib._ "We can
examine few, or rather no Substances, so far, as to assure ourselves that
we have a certain Knowledge of most of its Properties."--_Brightland's
Gram._, p. 244. "Who do you dine with?"--_Fisher's Gram._, p. 99. "Who do
you speak to?"--_Shakspeare_. "All the objects of prayer are calculated to
excite the most active and vivid sentiments, which can arise in the heart
of man."--_Adams's Rhet._, i, 328. "It has been my endeavour to furnish you
with the most useful materials, which contribute to the purposes of
eloquence."--_Ib._, ii, 28. "All paraphrases are vicious: it is not
translating, it is commenting."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 163. "Did
you never bear false witness against thy neighbour?"--SIR W. DRAPER:
_Junius_, p. 40. "And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread: they
shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds."--_Jer._, v, 17. "He was the
spiritual rock who miraculously supplied the wants of the Israelites."--
_Gurney's Evidences_, p. 53. "To cull from the mass of mankind those
individuals upon which the attention ought to be most employed."--
_Rambler_, No. 4. "His speech contains one of the grossest and most
infamous calumnies which ever was uttered."--_Merchant's Gram. Key_, p.
198. "STROMBUS, i. m. A shell-fish of the sea, that has a leader whom they
follow as their king. Plin."--_Ainsworth's Dict._, 4to. "Whomsoever will,
let him come"--MORNING STAR: _Lib._, xi, 13. "Thy own words have convinced
me (stand a little more out of the sun if you please) that thou hast not
the least notion of true honour."--_Fielding_. "Whither art going, pretty
Annette? Your little feet you'll surely wet."--_L. M. Child_. "Metellus,
who conquered Macedon, was carried to the funeral pile by his four sons,
one of which was the prætor."--_Kennett's Roman Ant._, p. 332. "That not a
soldier which they did not know, should mingle himself among them."--
_Josephus_, Vol. v, p. 170. "The Neuter Gender denotes objects which are
neither males nor females."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 37. "And hence it
is, that the most important precept, which a rhetorical teacher can
inculcate respecting this part of discourse, is negative."--_Adams's
Rhet._, ii, 97. "The meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold,
is the offspring of heaven, one of the children of the Most High."--
_Scougal_, p. 102. "He shall sit next to Darius, because of his wisdom, and
shall be called Darius his cousin."--_1 Esdras_, iii, 7. "In 1757, he
published his 'Fleece;' but he did not long survive it."--_L. Murray,
Seq._, p. 252.
"The sun upon the calmest sea
Appears not half so bright as thee."--_Prior_.
EXERCISE V.--VERBS.
"The want of connexion here, as well as in the description of the prodigies
that accompanied the death of Cæsar, are scarce pardonable."--_Kames, El.
of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 38. "The causes of the original beauty of language,
considered as significant, which is a branch of the present subject, will
be explained in their order."--_Ib._, Vol. ii, p. 6. "Neither of these two
Definitions do rightly adjust the Genuine signification of this
Tense."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 280. "In the earnest hope that they may
prove as beneficial to other teachers as they have to the author."--_John
Flint's Gram._, p. 3. "And then an example is given showing the manner in
which the pupil should be required to classify."--_Ib._, p. 3. "_Qu_ in
English words are equivalent to _kw_."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 258. "_Qu_
has the power of _kw_, therefore quit doubles the final consonant in
forming its preterite."--_Ib._, p. 103. "The word pronoun or substantive
can be substituted, should any teacher prefer to do it"--_Ib._, p. 132.
"The three angles of a right-angled triangle were equal to two right angles
in the days of Moses, as well as now."--GOODELL: _Liberator_, Vol. xi, p.
4. "But now two paces of the vilest earth is room enough."--_Beaut. of
Shak._, p. 126. "Latin and French, as the World now goes, is by every one
acknowledged to be necessary."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 351. "These things,
that he will thus learn by sight, and have by roat in his Memory, is not
all, I confess, that he is to learn upon the Globes."--_Ib._, p. 321.
"Henry: if John shall meet me, I will hand him your note."--_O. B. Peirce's
Gram._, p. 261. "They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from
what they do at other times."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 329. "Cato reminded him
of many warnings he had gave him."--_Goldsmith's Rome_, i, 114. "The Wages
is small. The Compasses is broken."--_Fisher's Gram._, p. 95. "Prepare thy
heart for prayer, lest thou temptest God."--_Life of Luther_, p. 83. "That
a soldier should fly is a shameful thing."--_Adam's Lat. Gram._, p. 155.
"When there is two verbs which are together."--_Woodworth's Gram._, p. 27.
"Interjections are words used to express some passion of the mind; and is
followed by a note of admiration!"--_Infant School Gram._, p. 126. "And the
king said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth."--_2 Samuel_,
xviii, 25. "The opinions of the few must be overruled, and submit to the
opinions of the many."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 56. "One of the principal
difficulties which here occurs, has been already hinted."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 391. "With milky blood the heart is overflown."--_Thomson, Castle of
Ind_. "No man dare solicit for the votes of hiz nabors."--_Webster's
Essays_, p. 344. "Yet they cannot, and they have no right to exercise
it."--_Ib._, p. 56. "In order to make it be heard over their vast
theatres."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 471. "Sometimes, however, the relative and
its clause is placed before the antecedent and its clause."--_Bullions,
Lat. Gram._, p. 200.
"Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Does sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea."
--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 321.
EXERCISE VI.--PARTICIPLES.
"On the other hand, the degrading or vilifying an object, is done
successfully by ranking it with one that is really low."--_Kames, El. of
Crit._, ii, 50. "The magnifying or diminishing objects by means of
comparison, proceeds from the same cause."--_Ib._, i, 239. "Gratifying the
affection will also contribute to my own happiness."--_Ib._, i, 53. "The
pronouncing syllables in a high or a low tone."--_Ib._, ii, 77. "The
crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not
less faulty than crowding metaphors in that manner."--_Ib._, ii, 234. "To
approve is acknowledging we ought to do a thing; and to condemn is owning
we ought not to do it."--_Burlamaqui, on Law_, p. 39. "To be provoked that
God suffers men to act thus, is claiming to govern the word in his
stead."--_Secker_. "Let every subject be well understood before passing on
to another."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 18. "Doubling the _t_ in _bigotted_
is apt to lead to an erroneous accentuation of the word on the second
syllable."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 22. "Their compelling the man to serve
was an act of tyranny."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 54. "One of the greatest
misfortunes of the French tragedy is, its being always written in
rhyme."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 469. "Horace entitles his satire 'Sermones,'
and seems not to have intended rising much higher than prose put into
numbers."--_Ib._, p. 402. "Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
comforting the afflicted, yield more pleasure than we receive from those
actions which respect only ourselves."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 238. "But
when we attempt to go a step beyond this, and inquire what is the cause of
regularity and variety producing in our minds the sensation of beauty, any
reason we can assign is extremely imperfect."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 29. "In
an author's writing with propriety, his being free of the two former faults
seems implied."--_Ib._, p. 94. "To prevent our being carried away by that
torrent of false and frivolous taste."--_Ib._, p. 12. "When we are unable
to assign the reasons of our being pleased."--_Ib._, p. 15. "An adjective
will not make good sense without joining it to a noun."--_Sanborn's Gram._,
p. 12. "What is said respecting sentences being inverted?"--_Ib._, p. 71.
"Though he admits of all the other cases, made use of by the
Latins."--_Bicknell's Gram._, p. viii. "This indeed, is accounting but
feebly for its use in this instance."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 148. "The
knowledge of what passes in the mind is necessary for the understanding the
Principles of Grammar."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 73. "By _than's_ being
used instead of as, it is not asserted that the former has as much fruit as
the latter."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 207. "Thus much for the Settling
your Authority over your Children."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 58.
EXERCISE VII.--ADVERBS.
"There can scarce be a greater Defect in a Gentleman, than not to express
himself well either in Writing or Speaking."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 335. "She
seldom or ever wore a thing twice in the same way."--_Castle Rackrent_, p.
84. "So can I give no reason, nor I will not."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 45.
"Nor I know not where I did lodge last night."--_Ib._, p. 270. "It is to be
presumed they would become soonest proficient in Latin."--_Burn's Gram._,
p. xi. "The difficulty of which has not been a little increased by that
variety."--_Ward's Pref. to Lily's Gram._, p. xi. "That full endeavours be
used in every monthly meeting to seasonably end all business or cases that
come before them."--_N. E. Discipline_, p. 44. "In minds where they had
scarce any footing before."--_Spectator_, No. 566. "The negative form is
when the adverb _not_ is used."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 61. "The
interrogative form is when a question is asked."--_Ibid._ "The finding out
the Truth ought to be his whole Aim."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 239.
"Mention the first instance when _that_ is used in preference to _who,
whom_, or _which_."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 96. "The plot was always
exceeding simple. It admitted of few incidents."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 470.
"Their best tragedies make not a deep enough impression on the
heart."--_Ib._, p. 472. "The greatest genius on earth, not even a Bacon,
can be a perfect master of every branch."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 13. "The
verb OUGHT is only used in the indicative [and subjunctive moods]."--_Dr.
Ash's Gram._, p. 70. "It is still a greater deviation from congruity, to
affect not only variety in the words, but also in the construction."--
_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 28. "It has besides been found that, generally,
students attend those lectures more carefully for which they pay."--_Dr.
Lieber, Lit. Conv._, p. 65. "This book I obtained through a friend, it
being not exposed for sale."--_Woolsey, ib._, p. 76. "Here there is no
manner of resemblance but in the word _drown_."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii,
163. "We have had often occasion to inculcate, that the mind passeth easily
and sweetly along a train of connected objects."--_Ib._, ii, 197. "Observe
the periods when the most illustrious persons flourished."--_Worcester's
Hist._, p. iv. "For every horse is not called Bucephalus, nor every dog
Turk."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 15. "One can scarce avoid smiling at the
blindness of a certain critic."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 257. "Provided
always, that we run not into the extreme of pruning so very close, so as to
give a hardness and dryness to style."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 92;
_Blair's_, 111. "Agreement is when one word is like another in number,
case, gender or person."--_Frost's Gram._, p. 43. "Government is when one
word causes another to be in some particular number, person or
case."--_Ibid._ "It seems to be nothing more than the simple form of the
adjective, and to imply not either comparison or degree."--_Murray's
Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 47.
EXERCISE VIII.--CONJUNCTIONS.
"The Indians had neither cows, horses, oxen, or sheep."--_Olney's Introd.
to Geog._, p. 46. "Who have no other object in view, but, to make a show of
their supposed talents."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 344. "No other but these,
could draw the attention of men in their rude uncivilized state."--_Ib._,
p. 379. "That he shall stick at nothing, nor nothing stick with
him."--_Pope_. "To enliven it into a passion, no more is required but the
real or ideal presence of the object."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 110. "I
see no more to be made of it but to-rest upon the final cause first
mentioned."--_Ib._, i, 175. "No quality nor circumstance contributes more
to grandeur than force."--_Ib._, i, 215. "It being a quotation, not from a
poet nor orator, but from a grave author, writing an institute of
law."--_Ib._, i, 233. "And our sympathy cannot be otherwise gratified but
by giving all the succour in our power."--_Ib._, i, 362. "And to no verse,
as far as I know, is a greater variety of time necessary."--_Ib._, ii, 79.
"English Heroic verse admits no more but four capital pauses."--_Ib._, ii,
105. "The former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony."--_Ib._,
231. "But the plan was not perhaps as new as some might think
it."--_Literary Conv._, p. 85. "The impression received would probably be
neither confirmed or corrected."--_Ib._, p. 183. "Right is nothing else but
what reason acknowledges."--_Burlamaqui, on Law_, p. 32. "Though it should
be of no other use but this."--BP. WILKINS: _Tooke's D. P._, ii, 27. "One
hope no sooner dies in us but another rises up."--_Spect._, No. 535. "This
rule implies nothing else but the agreement of an adjective with a
substantive."--_Adams Latin Gram._, p. 156; _Gould's_, 129. "There can be
no doubt but the plan of exercise pointed out at page 132, is the best that
can be adopted."--_Blair's Gram._, p. viii. "The exertions of this
gentleman have done more than any other writer on the subject."--DR.
ABERCROMBIE: _Rec. in Murray's Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 306. "No accidental nor
unaccountable event ought to be admitted."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 273.
"Wherever there was much fire and vivacity in the genius of
nations."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 5. "I aim at nothing else but your
safety."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 90. "There are pains inflicted upon man
for other purposes except warning."--_Wayland's Moral Sci._, p. 122. "Of
whom we have no more but a single letter remaining."--_Campbell's Pref. to
Matthew_. "The publisher meant no more but that W. Ames was the
author."--_Sewel's History, Preface_, p. xii. "Be neether bashful, nor
discuver uncommon solicitude."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 403. "They put Minos
to death, by detaining him so long in a bath, till he fainted."--
_Lempriere's Dict._ "For who could be so hard-hearted to be severe?"--
_Cowley_. "He must neither be a panegyrist nor a satirist."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 353. "No man unbiassed by philosophical opinions, thinks that
life, air, or motion, are precisely the same things."--_Dr. Murray's Hist.
of Lang._, i, 426. "Which I had no sooner drank, but I found a pimple
rising in my forehead."--ADDISON: _Sanborn's Gram._, p. 182. "This I view
very important, and ought to be well understood."--_Osborn's Key_, p. 5.
"So that neither emphases, tones, or cadences should be the
same."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 5.
"You said no more but that yourselves must be
The judges of the scripture sense, not we."--_Dryden_, p. 96.
EXERCISE IX.--PREPOSITIONS.
"To be entirely devoid of relish for eloquence, poetry, or any of the fine
arts, is justly construed to be an unpromising symptom of youth."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 14. "Well met, George, for I was looking of you."--_Walker's
Particles_, p. 441. "There is another fact worthy attention."--_Channing's
Emancip._, p. 49. "They did not gather of a Lord's-day, in costly
temples."--_The Dial_, No. ii, p. 209. "But certain ideas have, by
convention between those who speak the same language, been agreed to be
represented by certain articulate sounds."--_Adams's Rhet._, ii, 271. "A
careful study of the language is previously requisite, in all who aim at
writing it properly."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 91. "He received his reward in a
small place, which he enjoyed to his death."--_Notes to the Dunciad_, B.
ii, l. 283. "Gaddi, the pupil of Cimabue, was not unworthy his
master."--_Literary History_, p. 268. "It is a new, and picturesque, and
glowing image, altogether worthy the talents of the great poet who
conceived it."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 100. "If the right does exist, it
is paramount his title."--_Angell, on Tide Waters_, p. 237. "The most
appropriate adjective should be placed nearest the noun."--_Sanborn's
Gram._, p. 194. "Is not Mr. Murray's octavo grammar more worthy the
dignified title of a 'Philosophical Grammar?'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 39.
"If it shall be found unworthy the approbation and patronage of the
literary public."--_Perley's Gram._, p. 3. "When the relative is preceded
by two words referring to the same thing, its proper antecedent is the one
next it."--_Bullions's E. Gram._, p. 101. "The magistrates commanded them
to depart the city."--_Sewel's Hist._, p. 97. "Mankind act oftener from
caprice than reason."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 272. "It can never view,
clearly and distinctly, above one object at a time."--_Jamieson's Rhet._,
p. 65. "The theory of speech, or systematic grammar, was never regularly
treated as a science till under the Macedonian kings."--_Knight, on Greek
Alph._, p. 106. "I have been at London a year, and I saw the king last
summer."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 198. "This is a crucifying of Christ, and
a rebelling of Christ."--_Waldenfield_. "There is another advantage worthy
our observation."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 26. "Certain conjunctions
also require the subjunctive mood after them, independently on the
sense."--_Grant's Lat. Gram._, p. 77. "If the critical reader will think
proper to admit of it at all."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 191. "It is the
business of an epic poet to copy after nature."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 427.
"Good as the cause is, it is one from which numbers have deserted."--
_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 222. "In respect of the images it will receive from
matter."--_Spectator_, No. 413. "Instead of following on to whither
morality would conduct it."--_Dymond's Essays_, p. 85. "A variety of
questions upon subjects on which their feelings, and wishes, and interests,
are involved."--_Ib._, p. 147. "In the Greek, Latin, Saxon, and German
tongues, some of these situations are termed CASES, and are expressed by
additions to the Noun instead of by separate words and phrases."--_Booth's
Introd._, p. 33. "Every teacher is bound during three times each week, to
deliver a public lecture, gratis."--_Howitt's Student-Life in Germany_, p.
35. "But the professors of every political as well as religious creed move
amongst each other in manifold circles."--_Ib._, p. 113.
EXERCISE X.--PROMISCUOUS.
"The inseparable Prepositions making no Sense alone, they are used only in
Composition."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. 66. "The English Scholar learns
little from the two last Rules."--_Ib., Pref._, p. xi. "To prevent the body
being stolen by the disciples."--_Watson's Apology_, p. 123. "To prevent
the Jews rejoicing at his death."--_Wood's Dict._, p. 584. "After he had
wrote the chronicles of the priesthood of John Hyrcanus."--_Whiston's
Josephus_, v, 195. "Such words are sometimes parsed as a direct address,
than which, nothing could be farther from the truth."--_Goodenow's Gram._,
p. 89. "The signs of the tenses in these modes are as follows."--_C.
Adams's Gram._, p. 33. "The signs of the tenses in the Potential mode are
as follows."--_Ibid._ "And, if more promiscuous examples be found
necessary, they may be taken from Mr. Murray's English Exercises."--
_Nesbit's Parsing_, p. xvi. "_One_ is a numeral adjective, the same as
_ten_."--_Ib._, p. 95. "Nothing so much distinguishes a little mind as to
stop at words."--MONTAGUE: _Letter-Writer_, p. 129. "But I say, again, What
signifies words?"--_Id., ib._ "Obedience to parents is a divine command,
given in both the Old and the New Testaments."--_Nesbit's Parsing_, p. 207.
"A Compound Subject is a union of several Subjects to all which belong the
same Attribute."--_Fosdick's De Sacy, on General Gram._, p. 22. "There are
other languages in which the Conjunctive does not prevent our expressing
the subject of the Conjunctive Proposition by a Pronoun."--_Ib._, p. 58.
"This distinction must necessarily be expressed by language, but there are
several different modes of doing it."--_Ib._, p. 64. "This action may be
considered with reference to the person or thing upon whom the action
falls."--_Ib._, p. 97. "There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent
our coining suitable words."--_Barnard's Gram._, p. 41. "What kind of a
book is this?"--_Ib._, p. 43. "Whence all but him had fled."--_Ib._, p. 58.
"Person is a distinction between individuals, as speaking, spoken to, or
spoken of."--_Ib._, p. 114. "He repented his having neglected his studies
at college."--_Emmons's Gram._, p. 19. "What avails the taking so much
medicine, when you are so careless about taking cold?"--_Ib._, p. 29.
"Active transitive verbs are those where the action passes from the agent
to the object."--_Ib._, p. 33. "Active intransitive verbs, are those where
the action is wholly confined to the agent or actor."--_Ibid._ "Passive
verbs express the receiving, or suffering, the action."--_Ib._, p. 34. "The
pluperfect tense expresses an action or event that passed prior or before
some other period of time specified in the sentence."--_Ib._, p. 42. "There
is no doubt of his being a great statesman."--_Ib._, p. 64. "Herschell is
the fartherest from the sun of any of the planets."--_Fuller's Gram._, p.
66. "There has not been introduced into the foregoing pages any reasons for
the classifications therein adopted."--_Ib._, p. 80. "There must be a comma
before the verb, as well as between each nominative case."--_Ib._, p. 98.
"_Yon_, with _former_ and _latter_, are also adjectives."--_Brace's Gram._,
p. 17. "You was."--_Ib._, p. 32. "If you was."--_Ib._, p. 39. "Two words
which end in _ly_ succeeding each other are indeed a little offensive to
the ear."--_Ib._, p. 85; _Lennie's Gram._, p. 102.
"Is endless life and happiness despis'd?
Or both wish'd here, where neither can be found?"--_Young_, p. 124.
EXERCISE XI.--PROMISCUOUS.
"Because any one of them is placed before a noun or pronoun, as you observe
I have done in every sentence."--_Rand's Gram._, p. 74. "_Might accompany_
is a transitive verb, because it expresses an action which effects the
object _me_."--_Gilbert's Gram._, p. 94. "_Intend_ is an intransitive verb
because it expresses an action which does not effect any object."--_Ib._,
p. 93. "Charles and Eliza were jealous of one another."--_J. M. Putnam's
Gram._, p. 44. "Thus _one another_ include both nouns."--_Ibid._ "When the
antecedent is a child, _that_ is elegantly used in preference to _who,
whom_, or _which_."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 94. "He can do no more in words,
but make out the expression of his will."--_Bp. Wilkins_. "The form of the
first person plural of the imperative, _love we_, is grown obsolete."--
_Lowth's Gram._, p. 38. "Excluding those verbs which are become
obsolete."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 47. "He who sighs for pleasure, the
voice of wisdom can never reach, nor the power of virtue touch."--_Wright's
Athens_, p. 64. "The other branch of wit in the thought, is that only which
is taken notice of by Addison."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 312. "When any
measure of the Chancellor was found fault with."--_Professors' Reasons_, p.
14. "_Whether_ was formerly made use of to signify interrogation."--
_Murray's Gram._, p. 54. "Under the article of _Pronouns_ the following
words must be taken notice of."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 95. "In a word, we
are afforded much pleasure, to be enabled to bestow our most unqualified
approbation on this excellent work."--_Wright's Gram., Rec._, p. 4. "For
Recreation is not being Idle, as every one may observe."--_Locke, on Ed._,
p. 365. "In the easier valuing and expressing that sum."--_Dilworth's
Arith._, p. 3. "Addition is putting together of two or more numbers."--
_Alexander's Arith._, p. 8. "The reigns of some of our British Queens may
fairly be urged in proof of woman being capable of discharging the most
arduous and complicated duties of government."--_West's Letters to Y. L._,
p. 43. "What is the import of that command to love such an one as
ourselves?"--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 206. "It should seem then the
grand question was, What is good?"--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 297. "The
rectifying bad habits depends upon our consciousness of them."--_Sheridan's
Elocution_, p. 32. "To prevent our being misled by a mere name."--
_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 168. "I was refused an opportunity of replying in
the latter review."--_Fowle's True English Gram._, p. 10. "But how rare is
such generosity and excellence as Howard displayed!"--_M'Culloch's Gram._,
p. 39. "The noun is in the Nominative case when it is the name of the
person or thing which acts or is spoken of."--_Ib._, p. 54. "The noun is in
the Objective case when it is the name of the person or thing which is the
object or end of an action or movement."--_Ib._, p. 54. "To prevent their
being erased from your memory."--_Mack's Gram._, p. 17. "Pleonasm, is when
a superfluous word is introduced abruptly."--_Ib._, p. 69.
"Man feels his weakness, and to numbers run,
Himself to strengthen, or himself to shun."--_Crabbe, Borough_, p. 137.
EXERCISE XII.--TWO ERRORS.
"Independent on the conjunction, the sense requires the subjunctive
mood."--_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 77. "A Verb in past time without a sign
is Imperfect tense."--_C. Adams's Gram._, p. 33. "New modelling your
household and personal ornaments is, I grant, an indispensable
duty."--_West's Letters to Y. L._, p. 58. "For grown ladies and gentlemen
learning to dance, sing, draw, or even walk, is now too frequent to excite
ridicule."--_Ib._, p. 123. "It is recorded that a physician let his horse
bleed on one of the evil days, and it soon lay dead."--_Constable's
Miscellany_, xxi. 99. "As to the apostrophe, it was seldom used to
distinguish the genitive case till about the beginning of the present
century, and then seems to have been introduced by mistake."--_Dr. Ash's
Gram._, p. 23. "One of the relatives only varied to express the three
cases."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 24. "What! does every body take their morning
draught of this liquor?"--_Collier's Cebes_. "Here, all things comes round,
and bring the same appearances a long with them."--_Collier's Antoninus_,
p. 103. "Most commonly both the relative and verb are elegantly left out in
the second member."--_Buchanan's Gram._, p. ix. "A fair receipt of water,
of some thirty or forty foot square."--_Bacon's Essays_, p. 127. "The old
know more indirect ways of outwiting others, than the young."--_Burgh's
Dignity_, i, 60. "The pronoun singular of the third person hath three
genders."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 21. "The preposition _to_ is made use of
before nouns of place, when they follow verbs and participles of
motion."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 203. "It is called, understanding human
nature, knowing the weak sides of men, &c."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p.
284. "Neither of which are taken notice of by this Grammar."--_Johnson's
Gram. Com._, p. 279. "But certainly no invention is entitled to such degree
of admiration as that of language."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 54. "The Indians,
the Persians, and Arabians, were all famous for their tales."--_Ib._, p.
374. "Such a leading word is the preposition and the conjunction."--
_Felch's Comp. Gram._, p. 21. "This, of all others, is the most encouraging
circumstance in these times."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 37. "The putting
any constraint on the organs of speech, or urging them to a more rapid
action than they can easily perform in their tender state, must be
productive of indistinctness in utterance."--_Ib._, p. 35. "Good
articulation is the foundation of a good delivery, in the same manner as
the sounding the simple notes in music, is the foundation of good
singing."--_Ib._, p. 33. "The offering praise and thanks to God, implies
our having a lively and devout sense of his excellencies and of his
benefits."--ATTERBURY: _Blair's Rhet._, p. 295. "The pause should not be
made till the fourth or sixth syllable."--_Blair, ib._, p. 333.
"Shenstone's pastoral ballad, in four parts, may justly be reckoned one of
the most elegant poems of this kind, which we have in English."--_Ib._, p.
394. "What need Christ to have died, if heaven could have contained
imperfect souls?"--_Baxter_. "Every person is not a man of genius, nor is
it necessary that he should."--_Seattle's Moral Science_, i, 69. "They were
alarmed from a quarter where they least expected."--_Goldsmith's Greece_,
ii, 6.
"If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty intrails."--SHAK.: _White's Verb_, p. 94.
EXERCISE XIII.--TWO ERRORS.
"In consequence of this, much time and labor are unprofitably expended, and
a confusion of ideas introduced into the mind, which, by never so wise a
method of subsequent instruction, it is very difficult completely to
remove."--_Grenville's Gram._, p. 3. "So that the restoring a natural
manner of delivery, would be bringing about an entire revolution, in its
most essential parts."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 170. "'Thou who loves
us, will protect us still:' here _who_ agrees with _thou_, and is
nominative to the verb loves."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 67. "The Active
voice signifies action; the Passive, suffering, or being the object of an
action."--_Adam's Latin Gram._, p. 80; _Gould's_, 77. "They sudden set upon
him, fearing no such thing."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 252. "_That_ may be
used as a pronoun, an adjective, and a conjunction, depending on the office
which it performs in the sentence."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 110. "This is
the distinguishing property of the church of Christ from all other
antichristian assemblies or churches."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 533. "My
lords, the course which the legislature formerly took with respect to the
slave-trade, appears to me to be well deserving the attention both of the
government and your lordships."--BROUGHAM: _Antislavery Reporter_, Vol. ii,
p. 218. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen."--_John_,
iii, 11. "This is a consequence I deny, and remains for him to
prove."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 329. "To back this, He brings in the
Authority of Accursius, and Consensius Romanus, to the latter of which he
confesses himself beholding for this Doctrine."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p.
343. "The compound tenses of the second order, or those in which the
participle present is made use of."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 24. "To lay
the accent always on the same syllable, and the same letter of the
syllable, which they do in common discourse."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p.
78. "Though the converting the _w_ into a _v_ is not so common as the
changing the _v_ into a _w_."--_Ib._, p. 46. "Nor is this all; for by means
of accent, the times of pauses also are rendered quicker, and their
proportions more easily to be adjusted and observed."--_Ib._, p. 72. "By
mouthing, is meant, dwelling upon syllables that have no accent: or
prolonging the sounds of the accented syllables, beyond their due
proportion of time."--_Ib._, p. 76. "Taunt him with the license of ink; if
thou thou'st him thrice, it shall not be amiss."--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict., w.
Thou_. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles
shall eat it."--_Prov._, xxx, 17. "Copying, or merely imitating others, is
the death of arts and sciences."--_Spurzheim, on Ed._, p. 170. "He is
arrived at that degree of perfection, as to surprise all his
acquaintance."--_Ensell's Gram._, p. 296. "Neither the King _nor_ Queen are
gone."--_Buchanan's E. Syntax_, p. 155. "_Many_ is pronounced as if it were
wrote _manny_."--_Dr. Johnson's Gram., with Dict._, p. 2.
"And as the music on the waters float,
Some bolder shore returns the soften'd note."
--_Crabbe, Borough_, p. 118.
EXERCISE XIV.--THREE ERRORS.
"It appears that the Temple was then a building, because these Tiles must
be supposed to be for the covering it."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 281.
"It was common for sheriffs to omit or excuse the not making returns for
several of the boroughs within their counties."--_Brown's Estimate_, Vol.
ii, p. 132. "The conjunction _as_ when it is connected with the pronoun,
such, many, or same, is sometimes called a relative pronoun."--_Kirkham's
Gram., the Compend_. "Mr. Addison has also much harmony in his style; more
easy and smooth, but less varied than Lord Shaftesbury."--_Blair's Rhet._,
p. 127; _Jamieson's_, 129. "A number of uniform lines having all the same
pause, are extremely fatiguing; which is remarkable in French
versification."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 104. "Adjectives
qualify or distinguish one noun from another."--_Fowle's True Eng. Gram._,
p. 13. "The words _one, other_, and _none_, are used in both
numbers."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 107. "A compound word is made up of two or
more words, usually joined by an hyphen, as summer-house, spirit-less,
school-master."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 7. "There is an inconvenience in
introducing new words by composition which nearly resembles others in use
before; as, _disserve_, which is too much like _deserve_."--_Priestley's
Gram._, p. 145. "For even in that case, the trangressing the limits in the
least, will scarce be pardoned."--_Sheridan's Lect._, p. 119. "What other
are the foregoing instances but describing the passion another
feels."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 388. "'Two and three are five.' If each
_substantive_ is to be taken separately as a subject, then 'two _is_ five,'
and 'three _is_ five.'"--_Goodenow's Gram._, p. 87. "The article _a_ joined
to the simple _pronoun other_ makes _it_ the compound _another_."--
_Priestley's Gram._, p. 96. "The _word another_ is composed of the
indefinite _article prefixed_ to the _word other_."--_Murray's Gram._, p.
57; et al. "In relating things that were formerly expressed by another
person, we often meet with modes of expression similar to the
following."--_Ib._, p. 191. "Dropping one l prevents the recurrence of
three very near each other."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 202. "Sometimes two
or more genitive cases succeed each other; as, 'John's wife's
father.'"--_Dalton's Gram._, p. 14. "Sometimes, though rarely, two nouns in
the possessive case immediately succeed each other, in the following form:
'My friend's wife's sister.'"--_Murray's Gram._, p. 45.
EXERCISE XV.--MANY ERRORS.
"Number is of a two fold nature,--Singular and Plural: and comprehends,
accordingly to its application, the distinction between them."--_Wright's
Gram._, p. 37. "The former, Figures of Words, are commonly called Tropes,
and _consists_ in a word's being employed to signify something, _which_ is
different from its original and primitive meaning."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo,
p. 337. "The former, figures of words, are commonly called tropes, and
_consist_ in a word's being employed to signify something _that_ is
different from its original and primitive meaning."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.
132. "A particular number of connected syllables are called feet, or
measured paces."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 118. "Many poems, and especially
songs, are written in the dactyl or anapæstic measure, some consisting of
eleven or twelve syllables, and some of less."--_Ib._, p. 121. "A Diphthong
makes always a long Syllable, unless one of the vowels be droped."--
_British Gram._, p. 34. "An Adverb is generally employed as an attributive,
to denote some peculiarity or manner of action, with respect to the time,
place, or order, of the noun or circumstance to which it is connected."--
_Wright's Definitions, Philos. Gram._, pp. 35 and 114. "A Verb expresses
the action, the suffering or enduring, or the existence or condition of a
noun."--_Ib._, pp. 35 and 64. "These three adjectives should be written
our's, your's, their's."--_Fowle's True Eng. Gram._, p. 22. "Never was man
so teized, or suffered half the uneasiness as I have done this evening."--
_Tattler_, No. 160; _Priestley's Gram._, p. 200; _Murray's_, i, 223. "There
may be reckoned in English four different cases, or relations of a
substantive, called the subjective, the possessive, the objective, and the
absolute cases."--_Goodenow's Gram._, p. 31. "To avoid the too often
repeating the Names of other Persons or Things of which we discourse, the
words _he, she, it, who, what_, were invented."--_Brightland's Gram._, p.
85. "Names which denote a number of the same things, are called nouns of
multitude."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 21. "But lest he should think, this
were too slightly a passing over his matter, I will propose to him to be
considered these things following."--_Barclay's Works_, Vol. iii, p. 472.
"In the pronunciation of the letters of the Hebrew proper names, we find
nearly the same rules prevail as in those of Greek and Latin."--_Walker's
Key_, p. 223. "The distributive pronominal adjectives _each, every,
either_, agree with _the_ nouns, _pronouns, and_ verbs of the singular
number only."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 89. "_Having treated_ of the different
_sorts_ of _words_, and _their_ various modifications, _which is_ the first
part of Etymology, _it_ is now proper to explain the _methods_ by which
_one word_ is derived from another."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 130.
EXERCISE XVI.--MANY ERRORS.
"A Noun with its Adjectives (or any governing Word with its Attendants) is
one compound Word, whence the Noun and Adjective so joined, do often admit
another Adjective, and sometimes a third, and so on; as, a Man, an old Man,
a very good old Man, a very learned, judicious, sober Man."--_British
Gram._, p. 195; _Buchanan's_, 79. "A substantive _with_ its adjective _is_
reckoned as one _compounded_ word; whence _they_ often take _another_
adjective, and sometimes a third, and so on: as, 'An old man; a good old
man; a very learned, judicious, good old man.'"--_L. Murray's Gram._, p.
169; _Ingersoll's_, 195; _and others_. "But though this elliptical style
_be_ intelligible, and _is_ allowable in conversation _and_ epistolary
_writing_, yet in all _writings_ of a serious or dignified kind, _is_
ungraceful."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 112. "There is no talent _so useful_
towards rising in the world, _or which_ puts men more out of the reach of
fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of
people, and is, in common language, called discretion."--SWIFT: _Blair's
Rhet._, p. 113. "Which to allow, is just as reasonable as to own, that 'tis
the greatest ill of a body to be in the utmost _manner_ maimed or
distorted; but _that_ to lose the use _only_ of one limb, or to be impaired
in some single organ or member, is no ill worthy the least notice."--
SHAFTESBURY: _ib._, p. 115; _Murray's Gram._, p. 322. "If the singular
nouns _and_ pronouns, which _are joined_ together by a copulative
conjunction, _be_ of _several_ persons, in _making_ the plural pronoun
_agree_ with them in person, the second person takes _place of_ the third,
and the _first of_ both."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 151; _et al_. "'The painter
* * * cannot exhibit various stages of the same action.' _In_ this sentence
we see that _the_ painter _governs_, or agrees with, the verb _can_, as
_its nominative_ case."--_Ib._, p. 195. "It expresses _also_ facts _which_
exist _generally_, at _all times_, general truths, attributes _which_ are
permanent, habits, customary actions, and the like, without the reference
to a specific time."--_Ib._, p. 73; _Webster's Philos. Gram._, p. 71. "The
different species of animals may therefore be considered, as so many
different nations speaking different languages, _that have_ no commerce
with _each_ other; each of _which_ consequently understands _none_ but
_their_ own."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 142. "It is also important to
_understand and_ apply the principles of grammar in our common
conversation; not only because _it_ enables us to make our language
_understood by educated_ persons, but because it furnishes the readiest
evidence _of our_ having received a good education _ourselves_."--_Frost's
Practical Gram._, p. 16.
EXERCISE XVII.--MANY ERRORS.
"This faulty Tumour in Stile is like an huge unpleasant Rock in a Champion
Country, that's difficult to be transcended."--_Holmes's Rhet._, Book ii,
p. 16. "For there are no Pelops's, nor Cadmus's, nor Danaus's dwell among
us."--_Ib._, p. 51. "None of these, except _will_, is ever used as a
principal verb, but as an auxiliary to some principal, either expressed or
understood."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 134. "Nouns which signify either the
male or female are common gender."--_Perley's Gram._, p. 11. "An Adjective
expresses the kind, number, or quality of a noun."--_Parker and Fox's
Gram._, Part I, p. 9. "There are six tenses; the Present, the Imperfect,
the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Future, and the Future Perfect
tenses."--_Ib._, p. 18. "_My_ refers to the first person singular, either
gender. _Our_ refers to the first person plural, either gender. _Thy_
refers to the second person singular, either gender. _Your_ refers to the
second person plural, either gender. _Their_ refers to the third person
plural, either gender."--_Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part II, p. 14. "Good
use, which for brevity's sake, shall hereafter include reputable, national,
and present use, is not always uniform in her decisions."--_Jamieson's
Rhet._, p. 44. "Nouns which denote but one object are considered in the
singular number."--_Edward's First Lessons in Gram._, p. 35. "If,
therefore, the example of Jesus should be plead to authorize accepting an
invitation to dine on the sabbath, it should be plead just as it
was."--_Barnes's Notes: on Luke_, xiv, 1. "The teacher will readily dictate
what part may be omitted, the first time going through it."--_Ainsworth's
Gram._, p. 4. "The contents of the following pages have been drawn chiefly,
with various modifications, from the same source which has supplied most
modern writers on this subject, viz. LINDLEY MURRAY'S GRAMMAR."--_Felton's
Gram._, p. 3. "The term _person_ in grammar distinguishes between the
speaker, the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing spoken
of."--_Ib._, p. 9. "In my father's garden grow the Maiden's Blush and the
Prince' Feather."--_Felton, ib._, p. 15. "A preposition is a word used to
connect words with one another, and show the relation between them. They
generally stand before nouns and pronouns."--_Ib._, p. 60. "Nouns or
pronouns addressed are always either in the second person, singular or
plural."--_Hallock's Gram._, p. 54. "The plural MEN not ending in s, is the
reason for adding the apostrophie's."--_T. Smith's Gram._, p. 19.
"_Pennies_ denote real coin; _pence_, their value in computation."--
_Hazen's Gram._, p. 24. "We commence, first, with _letters_, which is
termed _Orthography_; secondly, with _words_, denominated _Etymology_;
thirdly, with _sentences_, styled _Syntax_; fourthly, with _orations_ and
_poems_, called _Prosody_."--_Barrett's Gram._, p. 22. "Care must be taken,
that sentences of proper construction and obvious import be not rendered
obscure by the too free use of the ellipsis."--_Felton's Grammar,
Stereotype Edition_, p. 80.
EXERCISE XVIII.--PROMISCUOUS.
"Tropes and metaphors so closely resemble _each_ other that it is not
always easy, nor is it important to _be able_ to distinguish the _one_ from
the _other_."--_Parker and Fox, Part III_, p. 66. "With regard to
_relatives_, it may be further observed, that obscurity often arises from
_the_ too frequent repetition of them, particularly of the pronouns WHO,
and THEY, and THEM, and THEIRS. When we find _these personal pronouns_
crowding too fast upon us, we have often no method left, but to throw the
whole sentence into some other form."--_Ib._, p. 90; _Murray's Gram._, p.
311; _Blair's Rhet._, p. 106. "Do scholars acquire any valuable knowledge,
by learning to repeat long strings of words, without any definite ideas, or
_several jumbled_ together like rubbish in a corner, and apparently with no
application, _either for_ the improvement of mind _or of_ language?"--
_Cutler's Gram., Pref._, p. 5. "The being officiously good natured and
civil are things so uncommon in the world, that one cannot hear a man make
professions of them without being surprised, or at least, suspecting the
disinterestedness of his intentions."--FABLES: _Cutler's Gram._, p. 135.
"Irony is the intentional use of words to express a sense contrary to that
which the speaker or writer means to convey."--_Parker and Fox's Gram._,
Part III, p. 68. "The term _Substantive_ is derived from _substare_, to
_stand_, to _distinguish it_ from an adjective, which cannot, like the
noun, stand alone."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 11. "They have two numbers, _like
nouns_, the singular and plural; and three persons in each number, namely,
_I_, the first person, represents the speaker. _Thou_, the second person,
represents the person spoken to. _He, she, it_, the third person,
represents the person or thing spoken of."--_Ib._, p. 23. "_He, She, It_,
is the Third Person singular; but _he with others, she with others_, or _it
with others_, make each of them _they_, which is the Third Person
plural."--_White, on the English Verb_, p. 97. "The words _had I been_,
that is, the Third Past Tense of the Verb, marks the Supposition, as
referring itself, not to the Present, but to some former period of
time."--_Ib._, p. 88. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid
a too frequent repetition of the same word."--_Frazee's Improved Gram._, p.
122.
"That which he cannot use, and dare not show,
And would not give--why longer should he owe?"--_Crabbe_.
PART IV.
PROSODY.
Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.--The word _prosody_, (from the Greek--[Greek: pros], _to_, and
[Greek: dæ], _song_,) is, with regard to its derivation, exactly equivalent
to _accent_, or the Latin _accentus_, which is formed from _ad, to_, and
_cantus, song_: both terms, perhaps, originally signifying a _singing
with_, or _sounding to_, some instrument or voice. PROSODIA, as a Latin
word, is defined by Littleton, "Pars Grammaticæ quæ docet _accentus, h. e._
rationem atollendi et depremendi syllabas, tum quantitatem carundem." And
in English, "_The art of_ ACCENTING, _or the rule of pronouncing syllables
truly_, LONG _or_ SHORT."--_Litt. Dict._, 4to. This is a little varied by
Ainsworth thus: "_The rule of_ ACCENTING, _or pronouncing syllables truly,
whether_ LONG _or_ SHORT."--_Ains. Dict._, 4to. Accent, in English, belongs
as much to prose as to poetry; but some deny that in Latin it belongs to
either. There is also much difficulty about the import of the word; since
some prosodists identify _accent_ with _tone_; some take it for the
_inflections_ of voice; some call it the _pitch_ of vocal sounds; and some,
like the authors just cited, seem to confound it with _quantity_,--"LONG
_or_ SHORT." [459]
OBS. 2.--"_Prosody_," says a late writer, "strictly denotes only that
_musical tone_ or _melody_ which accompanies speech. But the usage of
modern grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the
term."--_Frost's Practical Grammar_, p. 160. This remark is a note upon the
following definition: "PROSODY is that part of grammar which treats of the
structure of Poetical Composition."--_Ibid._ Agreeably to this definition,
Frost's Prosody, with all the generality the author claims for it, embraces
only a brief account of Versification, with a few remarks on "Poetical
License." Of Pronunciation and the Figures of Speech, he takes no notice;
and Punctuation, which some place with Orthography, and others distinguish
as one of the chief parts of grammar, he exhibits as a portion of Syntax.
Not more comprehensive is this part of grammar, as exhibited in the works
of several other authors; but, by Lindley Murray, R. C. Smith, and some
others, both Punctuation and Pronunciation are placed here; though no
mention is made of the former in their subdivision of Prosody, which, they
not very aptly say, "consists of _two_ parts, Pronunciation and
Versification." Dr. Bullions, no less deficient in method, begins with
saying, "PROSODY consists of two parts; Elocution and Versification;"
(_Principles of E. Gram._, p. 163;) and then absurdly proceeds to treat of
it under the following _six_ principal heads: viz., Elocution,
Versification, Figures of Speech, Poetic License, Hints for Correct and
Elegant Writing, and Composition.
OBS. 3.--If, in regard to the subjects which may be treated under the name
of _Prosody_, "the usage of _modern_ grammarians justifies an extremely
general application of the term," such an application is certainly not
_less_ warranted by the usage of _old_ authors. But, by the practice of
neither, can it be _easily_ determined how many and what things _ought_ to
be embraced under this head. Of the different kinds of verse, or "the
structure of Poetical Compostion," some of the old prosodists took little
or no notice; because they thought it their chief business, to treat of
syllables, and determine the orthoëpy of words. The Prosody of Smetius,
dated 1509, (my edition of which was published in Germany in 1691,) is in
fact a _pronouncing dictionary_ of the Latin language. After a brief
abstract of the old rules of George Fabricius concerning quantity and
accent, it exhibits, in alphabetic order, and with all their syllables
marked, about twenty-eight thousand words, with a poetic line quoted
against each, to prove the pronunciation just. The Prosody of John
Genuensis, an other immense work, concluded by its author in 1286, improved
by Badius in 1506, and printed at Lyons in 1514, is also mainly a _Latin
dictionary_, with derivations and definitions as in other dictionaries. It
is a folio volume of seven hundred and thirty closely-printed pages; six
hundred of which are devoted to the vocabulary, the rest to orthography,
accent, etymology, syntax, figures, points--almost everything _but
versification_. Yet this vast sum of grammar has been entitled
_Prosody_--"_Prosodia seu Catholicon_"--"_Catholicon seu Universale
Vocabularium ac Summa Grammatices_."--See pp. 1 and 5.
CHAPTER I--PUNCTUATION.
Punctuation is the art of dividing literary composition, by points, or
stops, for the purpose of showing more clearly the sense and relation of
the words; and of noting the different pauses and inflections required in
reading.
The following are the principal points, or marks; namely, the Comma [,],
the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [.], the Dash [--], the
Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of
Exclamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()].
The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of
the comma; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon; and the Period,
or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon. The pauses required by the
other four, vary according to the structure of the sentence, and their
place in it. They may be equal to any of the foregoing.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.--The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech, have, in
reality, no definite and invariable proportions. Children are often told to
pause at a comma while they might count _one_; at a semicolon, _one, two_;
at a colon, _one, two, three_; at a period, _one, two, three, four_. This
may be of some use, as teaching them to observe the necessary stops, that
they may catch the sense; but the standard itself is variable, and so are
the times which good sense gives to the points. As a final stop, the period
is immeasurable; and so may be the pause after a question or an
exclamation.
OBS. 2.--The first four points take their names from the parts of
discourse, or of a sentence, which are distinguished by them. The _Period_,
or _circuit_, is a complete _round_ of words, often consisting of several
clauses or members, and always bringing out full sense at the close. The
_Colon_, or _member_, is the greatest division or _limb_ of a period, and
is the chief constructive part of a compound sentence. The _Semicolon, half
member_, or _half limb_, is the greatest division of a colon, and is
properly a smaller constructive part of a compound sentence. The _Comma_,
or _segment_, is a small part of a clause _cut off_, and is properly the
least constructive part of a compound sentence. A _simple sentence_ is
sometimes a whole period, sometimes a chief member, sometimes a half
member, sometimes a segment, and sometimes perhaps even less. Hence it may
require the period, the colon, the semicolon, the comma, or even no point,
according to the manner in which it is used. A sentence whose relatives and
adjuncts are all taken in a restrictive sense, may be considerably complex,
and yet require no division by points; as,
"Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
On you who wrong me not for him who wrong'd."--_Milton_.
OBS. 3.--The system of punctuation now used in English, is, in its main
features, common to very many languages. It is used in Latin, French,
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and perhaps most of the
tongues in which books are now written or printed. The Germans, however,
make less frequent use of the comma than we; and the Spaniards usually mark
a question or an exclamation _doubly_, inverting the point at the beginning
of the sentence. In Greek, the difference is greater: the colon, expressed
by the upper dot alone, is the only point between the comma and the period;
the ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, is hardly recognized, though some
printers of the classics have occasionally introduced it; and the eroteme,
or note of interrogation, retains in that language its pristine form, which
is that of our semicolon. In Hebrew, a full stop is denoted by a heavy
colon, or something like it; and this is the only pointing adopted, when
the vowel points and the accents are not used.
OBS. 4.--Though the points in use, and the principles on which they ought
to be applied, are in general well fixed, and common to almost all sorts of
books; yet, through the negligence of editors, the imperfections of copy,
the carelessness of printers, or some other means, it happens, that
different editions and different versions of the same work are often found
pointed very variously. This circumstance, provided the sense is still
preserved, is commonly thought to be of little moment. But all _writers_
will do well to remember, that they owe it to their readers, to show them
at once how they mean to be read; and since the punctuation of the early
printers was unquestionably very _defective_, the republishers of ancient
books should not be over scrupulous about an exact imitation of it; they
may, with proper caution, correct obvious faults.
OBS. 5.--The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the
depth of antiquity. It appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and
inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them; and it is said by
some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different
positions of this dot alone. But after the adoption of the small letters,
which improvement is referred to the ninth century, both the comma and the
colon came into use, and also the Greek note of interrogation. In old
books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present form, but in
that of a straight stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words.
Though the colon is of Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two
dots we owe to the Latin authors, or perhaps to the early printers of Latin
books. The semicolon was first used in Italy, and was not adopted in
England till about the year 1600. Our marks for questions and exclamations
were also derived from the same source, probably at a date somewhat
earlier. The curves of the parenthesis have likewise been in use for
several centuries. But the clash is a more recent invention: Lowth, Ash,
and Ward,--Buchanan, Bicknell, and Burn,--though they name all the rest,
make no mention of this mark; but it appears by their books, that they all
occasionally _used_ it.
OBS. 6--Of the _colon_ it may be observed, that it is now much less
frequently used than it was formerly; its place being usurped, sometimes by
the semicolon, and sometimes by the period. For this ill reason, some late
grammarians have discarded it altogether. Thus Felton: "The COLON is now so
seldom used by good writers, that rules for its use are
unnecessary."--_Concise Manual of English Gram._, p. 140. So Nutting: "It
will be noticed, that the _colon_ is omitted in this system; because it is
omitted by the majority of the writers of the present age; three points,
with the dash, being considered sufficient to mark the different lengths of
the pauses."--_Practical Grammar_, p. 120. These critics, whenever they
have occasion to copy such authors as Milton and Pope, do not scruple to
mutilate their punctuation by putting semicolons or periods for all the
colons they find. But who cannot perceive, that without the colon, the
semicolon becomes an absurdity? It can no longer be a _semicolon_, unless
the half can remain when the whole is taken away! The colon, being the
older point of the two, and once very fashionable, is doubtless on record
in more instances than the semicolon; and, if now, after both have been in
common use for some hundreds of years, it be found out that only one is
needed, perhaps it would be more reasonable to prefer the former. Should
public opinion ever be found to coincide with the suggestions of the two
authors last quoted, there will be reason to regret that Caxton, the old
English typographer of the fifteenth century, who for a while successfully
withstood, in his own country, the introduction of the semicolon, had not
the power to prevent it forever. In short, to leave no literary
extravagance unbroached, the latter point also has not lacked a modern
impugner. "One of the greatest improvements in punctuation," says Justin
Brenan, "is the rejection of the eternal semicolons of our ancestors. In
latter times, the semicolon has been gradually disappearing, not only from
the newspapers, but from books."--_Brenan's "Composition and Punctuation
familiarly Explained"_, p. 100; London, 1830. The colon and the semicolon
are both useful, and, not unfrequently, necessary; and all correct writers
will, I doubt not, continue to use both.
OBS. 7--Since Dr. Blair published his emphatic caution against too frequent
a use of _parentheses_, there has been, if not an abatement of the kind of
error which he intended to censure, at least a diminution in the use of the
_curves_, the sign of a parenthesis. These, too, some inconsiderate
grammarians now pronounce to be out of vogue. "The parenthesis is now
generally exploded as a deformity."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 362. "The
Parenthesis, () has become nearly obsolete, except in mere references, and
the like; its place, by modern writers, being usually supplied by the use
of the comma, and the dash."--_Nutting's Practical Gram._, p. 126;
_Frazee's Improved Grammar_, p. 187. More use may have been made of the
curves than was necessary, and more of the parenthesis itself than was
agreeable to good taste; but, the sign being well adapted to the
construction, and the construction being sometimes sprightly and elegant,
there are no good reasons for wishing to discard either of them; nor is it
true, that the former "has become nearly obsolete."
OBS. 8--The name _parenthesis_ is, which literally means a
_putting-in-between_, is usually applied both to the _curves_, and to the
incidental _clause_ which they enclose. This twofold application of the
term involves some inconvenience, if not impropriety. According to Dr.
Johnson, the enclosed "_sentence_" alone is the _parenthesis_; but
Worcester, agreeably to common usage, defines the word as meaning also "the
_mark_ thus ()." But, as this sign consists of two distinct parts, two
corresponding curves, it seems more natural to use a plural name: hence L.
Murray, when he would designate the sign only, adopted a plural expression;
as, "_the parenthetical characters_,"--"_the parenthetical marks_." So, in
another case, which is similar: "the _hooks_ in which words are included,"
are commonly called _crotchets_ or _brackets_; though Bucke, in his
Classical Grammar, I know not why, calls the two "[ ] a _Crotchet_;" (p.
23;) and Webster, in his octavo Dictionary, defines a "_Bracket_, in
printing," as Johnson does a "_Crotchet_" by a plural noun: "_hooks_; thus,
[ ]." Again, in his grammars, Dr. Webster rather confusedly says: "The
parenthesis () and hooks [] include a remark or clause, not essential to
the sentence in construction."--_Philosophical Gram._, p. 219; _Improved
Gram._, p. 154. But, in his Dictionary, he forgets both the hooks and the
parenthesis that are here spoken of; and, with still worse confusion or
inaccuracy, says: "The _parenthesis_ is usually included in _hooks_ or
curved lines, thus, ()." Here he either improperly calls these regular
little curves "_hooks_," or erroneously suggests that both the hooks and
the curves are usual and appropriate signs of "_the parenthesis_." In
Garner's quarto Dictionary, the French word _Crochet_, as used by printers,
is translated, "_A brace, a crotchet, a parenthesis_;" and the English word
_Crotchet_ is defined, "The _mark_ of a _parenthesis_, in printing, thus [
]." But Webster defines _Crotchet_, "In printing, a _hook_ including words,
a _sentence_ or a _passage_ distinguished from the rest, thus []." This
again is both ambiguous and otherwise inaccurate. It conveys no clear idea
of what a crotchet is. _One_ hook _includes_ nothing. Therefore Johnson
said: "_Hooks_ in which words are included [thus]." But if each of the
hooks is a crotchet, as Webster suggests, and almost every body supposes,
then both lexicographers are wrong in not making the whole expression
plural: thus, "_Crotchets_, in printing, are angular _hooks_ usually
including some explanatory words." But is this all that Webster meant? I
cannot tell. He may be understood as saying also, that a _Crotchet_ is "_a
sentence_ or _a passage_ distinguished from the rest, thus [];" and
doubtless it would be much better to call a hint thus marked, a _crotchet_,
than to call it _a parenthesis_, as some have done. In Parker and Fox's
Grammar, and also in Parker's Aids to English Composition, the term
_Brackets_ only is applied to these angular hooks; and, contrary to all
usage of other authors, so far as I know, the name of _Crotchets_ is there
given to the _Curves_. And then, as if this application of the word were
general, and its propriety indisputable, the pupil is simply told: "The
_curved lines_ between which a parenthesis is enclosed are called
_Crotchets_."--_Gram._, Part III, p. 30; _Aids_, p. 40. "Called
_Crotchets_" by whom? That not even Mr. Parker himself knows them by that
name, the following most inaccurate passage is a proof: "The _note_ of
admiration _and_ interrogation, as also the _parenthesis_, the _bracket_,
and the reference marks, [are noted in the margin] in the same manner as
the apostrophe."--_Aids_, p. 314. In some late grammars, (for example,
_Hazen's_ and _Day's_,) the parenthetic curves are called "_the
Parentheses_" From this the student must understand that it always takes
_two parentheses_ to make _one parenthesis!_ If then it is objectionable,
to call the two marks "_a parenthesis_," it is much more so, to call each
of them by that name, or both "_the parentheses_." And since Murray's
phrases are both entirely too long for common use, what better name can be
given them than this very simple one, _the Curves_?
OBS. 9.--The words _eroteme_ and _ecphoneme_, which, like _aposteme_ and
_philosopheme_, are orderly derivatives from Greek roots[460], I have
ventured to suggest as fitter names for the two marks to which they are
applied as above, than are any of the long catalogue which other
grammarians, each choosing for himself have presented. These marks have not
unfrequently been called "_the interrogation_ and the _exclamation_;" which
names are not very suitable, because they have other uses in grammar.
According to Dr. Blair, as well as L. Murray and others, interrogation and
exclamation are "passionate _figures_" of rhetoric, and oftentimes also
plain "unfigured" expressions. The former however are frequently and more
fitly called by their Greek names _erotesis_ and _ecphonesis_, terms to
which those above have a happy correspondence. By Dr. Webster and some
others, all _interjections_ are called "_exclamations_;" and, as each of
these is usually followed by the mark of emotion, it cannot but be
inconvenient to call both by the same name.
OBS. 10.--For things so common as the marks of asking and exclaiming, it is
desirable to have simple and appropriate _names_, or at least some settled
mode of denomination; but, it is remarkable, that Lindley Murray, in
mentioning these characters six times, uses six different modes of
expression, and all of them complex: (1.) "Notes of Interrogation and
Exclamation." (2.) "The point of Interrogation,?"--"The point of
Exclamation,!" (3.) "The Interrogatory Point."--"The Exclamatory Point."
(4.) "A note of interrogation,"--"The note of exclamation." (5.) "The
interrogation and exclamation points." (6.) "The points of Interrogation
and Exclamation."--_Murray, Flint, Ingersoll, Alden, Pond_. With much
better taste, some writers denote them uniformly thus: (7.) "The Note of
Interrogation,"--"The Note of Exclamation."--_Churchill, Hiley_. In
addition to these names, all of which are too long, there may be cited many
others, though none that are unobjectionable: (8.) "The Interrogative
sign,"--"The Exclamatory sign."--_Peirce, Hazen_. (9.) "The Mark of
Interrogation,"--"The Mark of Exclamation."--_Ward, Felton, Hendrick_.
(10.) "The Interrogative point,"--"The Exclamation point."--_T. Smith,
Alger_. (11.) "The interrogation point,"--"The exclamation
point."--_Webster, St. Quentin, S. Putnam_. (12.) "A Note of
Interrogation,"--"A Note of Admiration."--_Coar, Nutting_. (13.) "The
Interrogative point,"--"The Note of Admiration, or of vocation."--_Bucke_.
(14.) "Interrogation (?),"--"Admiration (!) or Exclamation."--_Lennie,
Bullions_. (15.) "A Point of Interrogation,"--"A Point of Admiration or
Exclamation."--_Buchanan_. (16.) "The Interrogation Point (?),"--"The
Admiration Point (!)."--_Perley_. (17.) "An interrogation (?),"--"An
exclamation (!)."--_Cutler_. (18.) "The interrogator?"--"The
exclaimor!"--_Day's Gram._, p. 112. [The putting of "_exclaimor_" for
_exclaimer_, like this author's changing of _quoters_ to "_quotors_," as a
name for the guillemets, is probably a mere sample of ignorance.] (19.)
"Question point,"--"Exclamation point."--_Sanborn_, p. 272.
SECTION I.--THE COMMA.
The Comma is used to separate those parts of a sentence, which are so
nearly connected in sense, as to be only one degree removed from that close
connexion which admits no point.
RULE I.--SIMPLE SENTENCES.
A simple sentence does not, in general, admit the comma; as, "The weakest
reasoners are the most positive."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 202. "Theology
has not hesitated to make or support a doctrine by the position of a
comma."--_Tract on Tone_, p. 4.
"Then pain compels the impatient soul to seize
On promis'd hopes of instantaneous ease."--_Crabbe_.
EXCEPTION.--LONG SIMPLE SENTENCES.
When the nominative in a long simple sentence is accompanied by
inseparable adjuncts, or when several words together are used in stead of a
nominative, a comma should be placed immediately before the verb; as,
"Confession of sin without amendment, obtains no pardon."--_Dillwyn's
Reflections_, p. 6. "To be totally indifferent to praise or censure, is a
real defect in character."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 268.
"O that the tenor of my just complaint,[461]
Were sculpt with steel in rocks of adamant!"--_Sandys_.
RULE II.--SIMPLE MEMBERS.
The simple members of a compound sentence, whether successive or involved,
elliptical or complete, are generally divided by the comma; as,
1. "Here stand we both, and aim we at the best."--_Shak._
2. "I, that did never weep, now melt in woe."--_Id._
3. "Tide life, tide death, I come without delay."--_Id._
4. "I am their mother, who shall bar me from them?"--_Id._
5. "How wretched, were I mortal, were my state!"--_Pope_.
6. "Go; while thou mayst, avoid the dreadful fate."--_Id._
7. "Grief aids disease, remember'd folly stings,
And his last sighs reproach the faith of kings."--_Johnson_.
EXCEPTION I.--RESTRICTIVE RELATIVES.
When a relative immediately follows its antecedent, and is taken in a
restrictive sense, the comma should not be introduced _before_ it; as, "For
the things _which_ are seen, are temporal; but the things _which_ are not
seen, are eternal."--_2 Cor._, iv, 18. "A letter is a character _that_
expresses a sound without any meaning."--_St. Quentin's General Gram._, p.
3.
EXCEPTION II.--SHORT TERMS CLOSELY CONNECTED.
When the simple members are short, and closely connected by a conjunction
or a conjunctive adverb, the comma is generally omitted; as, "Honest
poverty is better _than_ wealthy fraud."--_Dillwyn's Ref._, p. 11. "Let him
tell me _whether_ the number of the stars be even or odd."--TAYLOR: _Joh.
Dict., w. Even_. "It is impossible _that_ our knowledge of words should
outstrip our knowledge of things."--CAMPBELL: _Murray's Gram._, p 359.
EXCEPTION III.--ELLIPTICAL MEMBERS UNITED.
When two simple members are immediately united, through ellipsis of the
relative, the antecedent, or the conjunction _that_, the comma is not
inserted; as, "Make an experiment on the first man you meet."--_Berkley's
Alciphron_, p. 125. "Our philosophers do infinitely despise and pity
whoever shall propose or accept any other motive to virtue."--_Ib._, p.
126. "It is certain we imagine before we reflect."--_Ib._, p. 359.
"The same good sense that makes a man excel,
Still makes him doubt he ne'er has written well."--_Young_.
RULE III.--MORE THAN TWO WORDS.
When more than two words or terms are connected in the same construction,
or in a joint dependence on some other term, by conjunctions expressed or
understood, the comma should be inserted after every one of them but the
last; and, if they are nominatives before a verb, the comma should follow
the last also:[462] as,
1. "Who, to the enraptur'd heart, and ear, and eye,
Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody."--_Beattie_.
2. "Ah! what avails * * * * * * * * *
All that art, fortune, enterprise, can bring,
If envy, scorn, remorse, or pride, the bosom wring?"--_Id._.
3. "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible;
Thou, stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless."--_Shak_.
4. "She plans, provides, expatiates, triumphs there."--_Young_.
5. ----"So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."--_Milton_.
RULE IV.--ONLY TWO WORDS.
When only two words or terms are connected by a conjunction, they should
not be separated by the comma; as, "It is a _stupid and barbarous_ way to
extend dominion by arms; for true power is to be got by _arts and
industry_"--_Spectator_, No. 2.
"_Despair and anguish_ fled the struggling soul."--_Goldsmith._
EXCEPTION I.--TWO WORDS WITH ADJUNCTS.
When the two words connected have several adjuncts, or when one of them has
an adjunct that relates not to both, the comma is inserted; as, "I shall
spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion
useful."--_Spectator_, No. 10. "_Who_ is applied to persons, or things
personified."--_Bullions._
"With listless eyes the dotard views the store,
He views, and wonders that they please no more."--_Johnson_.
EXCEPTION II.--TWO TERMS CONTRASTED.
When two connected words or phrases are contrasted, or emphatically
distinguished, the comma is inserted; as, "The vain are easily obliged, and
easily disobliged."--_Kames_.
"Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand."--_Beattie_.
"'Tis certain he could write, and cipher too."--_Goldsmith_.
EXCEPTION III.--ALTERNATIVE OF WORDS.
When there is merely an alternative of names, or an explanatory change of
terms, the comma is usually inserted; as, "We saw a large opening, or
inlet."--_W. Allen_. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as
well as other apostles?"--_Cor._, ix, 5.
EXCEPTION IV.--CONJUNCTION UNDERSTOOD.
When the conjunction is understood, the comma is inserted; and, if two
separated words or terms refer alike to a third term, the second requires a
second comma: as, "Reason, virtue, answer one great aim."--_L. Murray,
Gram._, p. 269.
"To him the church, the realm, their pow'rs consign."--_Johnson_.
"She thought the isle that gave her birth.
The sweetest, wildest land on earth."--_Hogg_.
RULE V.--WORDS IN PAIRS.
When successive words are joined in pairs by conjunctions, they should be
separated in pairs by the comma; as, "Interest and ambition, honour and
shame, friendship and enmity, gratitude and revenge, are the prime movers
in public transactions."--_W. Allen_. "But, whether ingenious or dull,
learned or ignorant, clownish or polite, every innocent man, without
exception, has as good a right to liberty as to life."--_Beattie's Moral
Science_, p. 313.
"Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate,
O'erspread with snares the crowded maze of fate."--_Dr. Johnson_.
RULE VI.--WORDS PUT ABSOLUTE.
Nouns or pronouns put absolute, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by
the comma; as, "The prince, _his father being dead_, succeeded."--"_This
done_, we parted."--"_Zaccheus_, make haste and come down."--"_His
proctorship in Sicily_, what did it produce?"--_Cicero_.
"Wing'd with his fears, on foot he strove to fly,
_His steeds too distant_, and _the foe too nigh_"
--_Pope, Iliad_, xi, 440.
RULE VII.--WORDS IN APPOSITION.
Words in apposition, (especially if they have adjuncts,) are generally set
off by the comma; as, "He that now calls upon thee, is Theodore, _the
hermit of Teneriffe_."--_Johnson_. "LOWTH, _Dr. Robert, bishop of London_,
born in 1710, died in 1787."--_Biog. Dict._ "HOME, _Henry, lord
Kames_."--_Ib._
"What next I bring shall please thee, be assur'd,
Thy _likeness_, thy fit _help_, thy other _self_,
Thy _wish_ exactly to thy heart's desire."--_Milton, P. L._, viii, 450.
"And he, their prince, shall rank among my peers."--_Byron_.
EXCEPTION I.--COMPLEX NAMES.
When several words, in their common order, are used as one compound name,
the comma is not inserted; as, "Dr. Samuel Johnson,"--"Publius Gavius
Cosanus."
EXCEPTION II.--CLOSE APPOSITION.
When a common and a proper name are closely united, the comma is not
inserted; as, "The brook Kidron,"--"The river Don,"--"The empress
Catharine,"--"Paul the Apostle."
EXCEPTION III.--PRONOUN WITHOUT PAUSE.
When a pronoun is added to an other word merely for emphasis and
distinction, the comma is not inserted; as, "Ye men of Athens,"--"I
myself,"--"Thou flaming minister,"--"You princes."
EXCEPTION IV.--NAMES ACQUIRED.
When a name acquired by some action or relation, is put in apposition with
a preceding noun or pronoun, the comma is not inserted; as, "I made the
_ground_ my _bed_;"--"To make _him king_;"--"_Whom_ they revered as
_God_;"--"With _modesty_ thy _guide_."--_Pope._
RULE VIII.--ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives, when something depends on them, or when they have the import of
a dependent clause, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma;
as,
1. ----------------------------"Among the roots
Of hazel, _pendent o'er the plaintive stream_,
They frame the first foundation of their domes."--_Thomson_.
2. -------------------------"Up springs the lark,
_Shrill-voic'd_ and _loud_, the messenger of morn."--_Id._
EXCEPTION.--ADJECTIVES RESTRICTIVE.
When an adjective immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a
restrictive sense, the comma should not be used before it; as,
----"And on the coast _averse_
From entrance or cherubic watch."--_Milton, P. L._, B. ix, l. 68.
RULE IX.--FINITE VERBS.
Where a finite verb is understood, a comma is generally required; as, "From
law arises security; from security, curiosity; from curiosity,
knowledge."--_Murray_.
"Else all my prose and verse were much the same;
This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fallen lame."--_Pope_.
EXCEPTION.--VERY SLIGHT PAUSE.
As the semicolon must separate the clauses when the comma is inserted by
this rule, if the pause for the omitted verb be very slight, it may be left
unmarked, and the comma be used for the clauses; as, "When the profligate
speaks of piety, the miser of generosity, the coward of valour, and the
corrupt of integrity, they are only the more despised by those who know
them."--_Comstock's Elocution_, p. 132.
RULE X.--INFINITIVES.
The infinitive mood, when it follows a verb from which it must be
separated, or when it depends on something remote or understood, is
generally, with its adjuncts, set off by the comma; as, "One of the
greatest secrets in composition is, _to know_ when to be
simple."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 151. "To confess the truth, I was much in
fault."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 271.
"The Governor of all--has interposed,
Not seldom, his avenging arm, _to smite_
The injurious trampler upon nature's law."--_Cowper_.
RULE XI.--PARTICIPLES.
Participles, when something depends on them, when they have the import of a
dependent clause, or when they relate to something understood, should, with
their adjuncts, he set off by the comma; as, 1. "Law is a rule of civil
conduct, _prescribed_ by the supreme power in a state, _commanding_ what is
right, and _prohibiting_ what is wrong."--BLACKSTONE: _Beattie's Moral
Science_, p. 346.
2. "Young Edwin, _lighted by the evening star,
Lingering and list'ning_ wander'd down the vale."--_Beattie_.
3. "_United_, we stand; _divided_, we fall."--_Motto_.
4. "_Properly speaking_, there is no such thing as chance."
EXCEPTION.--PARTICIPLES RESTRICTIVE.
When a participle immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a
restrictive sense, the comma should not be used before it; as,
"A man _renown'd for repartee_,
Will seldom scruple to make free
With friendship's finest feeling."--_Cowper_.
RULE XII.--ADVERBS. Adverbs, when they break the connexion of a simple
sentence, or when they have not a close dependence on some particular word
in the context, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as,
"We must not, _however_, confound this gentleness with the artificial
courtesy of the world."--"_Besides_, the mind must be employed."--_Gilpin_.
"_Most unquestionably_, no fraud was equal to all this."--_Lyttelton_.
"But, _unfortunately for us_, the tide was ebbing already."
"When buttress and buttress, _alternately_,
Seem framed of ebon and ivory."--_Scott's Lay_, p. 33.
RULE XIII.--CONJUNCTIONS.
Conjunctions, when they are separated from the principal clauses that
depend on them, or when they introduce examples, are generally set off by
the comma; _as_, "_But_, by a timely call upon Religion, the force of Habit
was eluded."--_Johnson_.
"They know the neck that joins the shore and sea,
_Or_, ah! how chang'd that fearless laugh would be."--_Crabbe_.
RULE XIV.--PREPOSITIONS.
Prepositions and their objects, when they break the connexion of a simple
sentence, or when they do not closely follow the words on which they
depend, are generally set off by the comma; as, "Fashion is, _for the most
part_, nothing but the ostentation of riches."--"_By reading_, we add the
experience of others to our own."
"In vain the sage, _with retrospective eye_,
Would from th' apparent What conclude the Why."--_Pope_.
RULE XV.--INTERJECTIONS.
Interjections that require a pause, though more commonly emphatic and
followed by the ecphoneme, are sometimes set off by the comma; as, "For,
_lo_, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the
north."--_Jeremiah_, i, 15. "_O_, 'twas about something you would not
understand."--_Columbian Orator_, p. 221. "_Ha, ha!_ you were finely taken
in, then!"--_Aikin_. "_Ha, ha, ha!_ A facetious gentleman, truly!"--_Id._
"_Oh_, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim,
Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame?"--_Pope_.
RULE XVI.--WORDS REPEATED.
A word emphatically repeated, is generally set off by the comma; as,
"Happy, happy, happy pair!"--_Dryden_. "Ay, ay, there is some comfort in
that."--_Shak_. "Ah! no, no, no."--_Dryden_.
"The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well!"--_Woodworth_.
RULE XVII.--DEPENDENT QUOTATIONS.
A quotation, observation, or description, when it is introduced in close
dependence on a verb, (as, _say, reply, cry_, or the like,) is generally
separated from the rest of the sentence by the comma; as, "'The book of
nature,' said he, 'is before thee.'"--_Hawkesworth_. "I say unto all,
Watch."--_Mark_. "'The boy has become a man,' means, 'he has _grown to be_
a man.' 'Such conduct becomes a man,' means, 'such conduct _befits_
him.'"--_Hart's Gram._, p. 116.
"While man exclaims, 'See all things for my use!'
'See man for mine!' replies a pamper'd goose."--_Pope_.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE PUNCTUATION.--ERRORS CONCERNING THE COMMA.
UNDER RULE I.--OF SIMPLE SENTENCES.
"Short, simple sentences should not be separated by a comma."--_Felton's
Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 135; 3d Ed., Stereotyped, p. 137.