Chapter VI: Verbs (1)

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

RULE XIV.--FINITE VERBS.

Every finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number: as, "I _know_; thou _knowst_, or _knowest_; he _knows_, or _knoweth_"--"The bird _flies_; the birds _fly_."

"Our fathers' fertile _fields_ by slaves _are till'd_,
And _Rome_ with dregs of foreign lands _is fill'd_."
--_Rowe's Lucan_, B. vii, l. 600.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIV.

OBS. 1.--To this general rule for the verb, there are properly _no exceptions_;[385] and all the special rules that follow, which prescribe the concord of verbs in particular instances, virtually accord with it. Every _finite verb_, (that is, every verb _not in the infinitive mood_,) must have some noun, pronoun, or phrase equivalent, known as the _subject_ of the being, action, or passion;[386] and with this subject, whether expressed or understood, the verb must agree in person and number. The infinitive mood, as it does not unite with a nominative to form an assertion, is of course exempt from any such agreement. These may be considered principles of Universal Grammar. The Greeks, however, had a strange custom of using a plural noun of the neuter gender, with a verb of the third person singular; and in both Greek and Latin, the infinitive mood with an accusative before it was often equivalent to a finite verb with its nominative. In English we have _neither of these usages_; and plural nouns, even when they denote no absolute plurality, (as _shears, scissors, trowsers, pantaloons, tongs_,) require plural verbs or pronouns: as, "Your _shears come_ too late, to clip the bird's wings."--SIDNEY: _Churchill's Gram._, p. 30.

OBS. 2.--When a book that bears a plural title, is spoken of as one thing, there is sometimes presented an _apparent exception_ to the foregoing rule; as, "The _Pleasures_ of Memory _was published_ in the year 1792, and became at once popular."--_Allan Cunningham_. "The '_Sentiments_ of a Church-of-England Man' _is written_ with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity."--_Johnson's Life of Swift_. "The '_Pleasures_ of Hope' _is_ a splendid poem; _it_ was written for perpetuity."--_Samuel L. Knapp_. In these instances, there is, I apprehend, either an agreement of the verb, by the figure _syllepsis_, with the mental conception of the thing spoken of; or an improper ellipsis of the common noun, with which each sentence ought to commence; as, "The _poem_ entitled,"--"The _work_ entitled," &c. But the plural title sometimes controls the form of the verb; as, "My Lives are reprinting."--_Dr. Johnson_.

OBS. 3.--In the figurative use of the present tense for the past or imperfect, the vulgar have a habit of putting the third person singular with the pronoun _I_; as, "_Thinks I_ to myself."--_Rev. J. Marriott_. "O, _says I_, Jacky, are you at that work?"--_Day's Sandford and Merton_. "Huzza! huzza! Sir Condy Rackrent forever, was the first thing _I hears_ in the morning."--_Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent_, p. 97. This vulgarism is to be avoided, not by a simple omission of the terminational _s_, but rather by the use of the literal preterit: as, "_Thought_ I to myself;"--"O, _said_ I;"--"The first thing I _heard_." The same mode of correction is also proper, when, under like circumstances, there occurs a disagreement in number; as, "After the election was over, there _comes shoals_ of people from all parts."--_Castle Rackrent_, p. 103. "Didn't ye hear it? _says they_ that were looking on."--_Ib._, p. 147. Write, "there _came_,"--"_said they_."

OBS. 4.--It has already been noticed, that the article _a_, or a singular adjective, sometimes precedes an arithmetical number with a plural noun; as, "_A thousand years_ in thy sight _are_ but as yesterday."--_Psalms_, xc, 4. So we might say, "_One_ thousand years _are_,"--"_Each_ thousand years _are_"--"_Every_ thousand years _are_," &c. But it would not be proper to say, "A thousand years _is_," or, "Every thousand years _is_;" because the noun _years_ is plainly plural, and the anomaly of putting a singular verb after it, is both needless and unauthorized. Yet, to this general rule for the verb, the author of a certain "English Grammar _on the Productive System_," (a strange perversion of Murray's compilation, and a mere catch-penny work, now extensively used in New England,) is endeavouring to establish, by his own bare word, the following exception: "_Every_ is sometimes associated with a plural noun, in which case the verb must be singular; as, 'Every hundred years _constitutes_ a century.'"--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 103. His _reason_ is this; that the phrase containing the nominative, "_signifies a single period of time_, and is, therefore, _in reality_ singular."--_Ib._ Cutler also, a more recent writer, seems to have imbibed the same notion; for he gives the following sentence as an example of "false construction: Every hundred years _are_ called a century."--_Cutler's Grammar and Parser_, p. 145. But, according to this argument, no plural verb could ever be used with any _definite number_ of the parts of time; for any three years, forty years, or threescore years and ten, are as single a period of time, as "every hundred years," "every four years," or "every twenty-four hours." Nor is it true, that, "_Every_ is sometimes associated with a plural noun;" for "_every years_" or "_every hours_," would be worse than nonsense. I, therefore, acknowledge no such exception; but, discarding the principle of the note, put this author's pretended _corrections_ among my quotations of _false syntax_.

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

OBS. 6.--Verbs in the imperative mood commonly agree with the pronoun _thou, ye_, or _you_, understood after them; as, "_Heal [ye_] the sick, _cleanse [ye_] the lepers, _raise [ye_] the dead, _cast [ye_] out devils."--_Matt._, x, 8. "_Trust_ God and _be doing_, and _leave_ the rest with him."--_Dr. Sibs_. When the doer of a thing must first proceed to the place of action, we sometimes use _go_ or _come_ before an other verb, without any conjunction between the two; as, "Son, _go work_ to-day in my vineyard."--_Matt._, xxi, 28. "_Come see_ a man who [has] told me all things that ever I did."--_John_, iv, 29. "He ordered his soldiers to _go murder_ every child about Bethlehem, or near it."--_Wood's Dict. of Bible, w. Herod_. "Take a present in thine hand, and _go meet_ the man of God."--_2 Kings_, viii, 8. "I will _go see_ if he be at home."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 169.

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

OBS. 8.--The infinitive mood, a phrase, or a sentence, (and, according to some authors, the participle in _ing_, or a phrase beginning with this participle,) is sometimes the proper subject of a verb, being equivalent to a nominative of the third person singular; as, "To play _is_ pleasant."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 80. "To write well, _is_ difficult; to speak eloquently, _is_ still more difficult."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 81. "To take men off from prayer, _tends_ to irreligiousness, _is granted_."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 214. "To educate a child perfectly, _requires_ profounder thought, greater wisdom, than to govern a state."--_Channing's Self-Culture_, p. 30. "To determine these points, _belongs_ to good sense."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 321. "How far the change would contribute to his welfare, _comes_ to be considered."--_Id., Sermons_. "That too much care does hurt in any of our tasks, _is_ a doctrine so flattering to indolence, that we ought to receive it with extreme caution."--_Life of Schiller_, p. 148. "That there is no disputing about taste, _is_ a saying so generally received as to have become a proverb."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 360. "For what purpose they embarked, _is_ not yet known."--"To live in sin and yet to believe the forgiveness of sin, _is_ utterly impossible."--_Dr. J. Owen_.

"There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely _sobers_ us again."--_Pope_.

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

OBS. 10.--When the infinitive mood is made the subject of a finite verb, it is most commonly used to express action or state in the abstract; as, "_To be_ contents his natural desire."--_Pope_. Here _to be_ stands for simple _existence_; or if for the existence _of the Indian_, of whom the author speaks, that relation is merely implied. "_To define ridicule_, has puzzled and vexed every critic."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 300. Here "_to define_" expresses an action quite as distinct from any agent, as would the participial noun; as, "The _defining of_ ridicule," &c. In connexion with the infinitive, a concrete quality may also be taken as an abstract; as, "_To be good_ is _to be happy_." Here _good_ and _happy_ express the quality of _goodness_ and the state of _happiness_ considered abstractly; and therefore these adjectives do not relate to any particular noun. So also the passive infinitive, or a perfect participle taken in a passive sense; as, "_To be satisfied with a little_, is the greatest wisdom."--"_To appear discouraged_, is the way to become so." Here the _satisfaction_ and the _discouragement_ are considered abstractly, and without reference to any particular person. (See Obs. 12th and 13th on Rule 6th.) So too, apparently, the participles _doing_ and _suffering_, as well as the adjective _weak_, in the following example:

"Fallen Cherub, to be _weak_ is miserable,
_Doing_ or _suffering_."--_Milton's Paradise Lost_.

OBS. 11.--When the action or state is to be expressly limited to one class of beings, or to a particular person or thing, without making the verb finite; the noun or pronoun may be introduced before the infinitive by the preposition _for_: as, "_For men to search_ their own glory, is not glory."--_Prov._, xxv, 27. "_For a prince to be reduced_ by villany [sic--KTH] to my distressful circumstances, is calamity enough."--_Translation of Sallust_. "_For holy persons to be humble_, is as hard, as _for a prince to submit_ himself to be guided by tutors."--TAYLOR: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 132; _Murray's_, 184. But such a limitation is sometimes implied, when the expression itself is general; as, "_Not to know me_, argues thyself unknown."--_Milton_. That is, "_For thee_ not to know me." The phrase is put far, "_Thy ignorance of me_;" for an other's ignorance would be no argument in regard to the individual addressed. "_I, to bear this_, that never knew but better, _is_ some burden."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 327. Here the infinitive _to bear_, which is the subject of the verb _is_, is limited in sense by the pronoun _I_, which is put absolute in the nominative, though perhaps _improperly_; because, "_For me to bear this_," &c., will convey the same meaning, in a form much more common, and perhaps more grammatical. In the following couplet, there is an ellipsis of the infinitive; for the phrase, "fool with fool," means, "_for_ fool _to contend_ with fool," or, "for one fool to contend with an other:"

"Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor,
But _fool with fool_ is barb'rous civil war."
--_Pope, Dunciad_, B. iii, l. 175.

OBS. 12.--The objective noun or pronoun thus introduced by _for_ before the infinitive, was erroneously called by Priestley, "_the subject of the affirmation_;" (_Gram._, p. 132;) and Murray, Ingersoll, and others, have blindly copied the blunder. See _Murray's Gram._, p. 184; _Ingersoll's_, 244. Again, Ingersoll says, "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes the subject of a verb, _and is, therefore, its_ NOMINATIVE."--_Conversations on English Gram._, p. 246. To this erroneous deduction, the phraseology used by Murray and others too plainly gives countenance: "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put _as the nominative case_ to the verb."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 144; _Fisk's_, 123; _Kirkham's_, 188; _Lennie's_, 99; _Bullions's_, 89; and many more. Now the objective before the infinitive may not improperly be called _the subject_ of this form of the verb, as the nominative is, of the finite; but to call it "the subject _of the affirmation_," is plainly absurd; because no infinitive, in English, ever expresses an affirmation. And again, if a whole phrase or sentence is made the subject of a _finite_ verb, or of an affirmation, no one word contained in it, can singly claim this title. Nor can the whole, by virtue of this relation, be said to be "in the _nominative case_;" because, in the nature of things, neither phrases nor sentences are capable of being declined by cases.

OBS. 13.--Any phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a finite verb, must be taken in the sense of _one thing_, and be spoken of as _a whole_; so that the verb's agreement with it, in the third person singular, is not an exception to Rule 14th, but a construction in which the verb may be parsed by that rule. For any one thing merely spoken of, is of the third person singular, whatever may be the nature of its parts. Not every phrase or sentence, however, is fit to be made the subject of a verb;--that is, if its own import, and not the mere expression, is the thing whereof we affirm. Thus Dr. Ash's example for this very construction, "a _sentence_ made the subject of a verb," is, I think, a palpable solecism: "The King and Queen appearing in public _was_ the cause of my going."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 52. What is here before the verb _was_, is _no_ "_sentence_;" but a mere phrase, and such a one as we should expect to see used independently, if any regard were had to its own import. The Doctor would tell us what "was _the cause_ of his going:" and here he has two nominatives, which are equivalent to the plural _they_; q.d., "_They_ appearing in public _was_ the cause." But such a construction is not English. It is an other sample of the false illustration which grammar receives from those who _invent_ the proof-texts which they ought to _quote_.

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

"By force they could not introduce these gods;
For _ten to one_ in former days _was_ odds."--_Dryden's Poems_, p. 38.

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

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

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

OBS. 18.--Nothing is more certain, than that the relatives, _who, which, what, that_, and _as_, are often nominatives, and the only subjects of the verbs which follow them: as, "The Lord will show _who are_ his, and _who is_ holy."--_Numbers_, xvi, 5. "Hardly is there any person, but _who_, on such occasions, _is disposed_ to be serious."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 469. "Much of the merit of Mr. Addison's Cato depends upon that moral turn of thought _which distinguishes_ it."--_Ib._, 469. "Admit not a single word but _what is_ necessary."--_Ib._, p. 313. "The pleader must say nothing but _what is_ true; and, at the same time, he must avoid saying any thing _that will hurt_ his cause."--_Ib._, 313. "I proceed to mention such _as appear_ to me most material."--_Ib._, p. 125. After _but_ or _than_, there is sometimes an ellipsis of the relative, and perhaps also of the antecedent; as, "There is no heart _but must feel_ them."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 469. "There is no one _but must be_ sensible of the extravagance."--_Ib._, p. 479. "Since we may date from it a more general and a more concerted opposition to France _than there had been_ before."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 213. That is, "than _what_ there had been before;"--or, "than _any opposition which_ there had been before." "John has more fruit _than can be gathered_ in a week."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, pp. 196 and 331. I suppose this sentence to mean, "John has more fruit than _what_ can be gathered in a week." But the author of it denies that it is elliptical, and seems to suppose that _can be gathered_ agrees with _John_. Part of his comment stands thus: "The above sentence--'John has more fruit than can be gathered in a week'--in every respect full and _perfect_--must, to be _grammatical_! according to _all_ the 'old theories,' stand, John has more fruit than _that fruit is which, or which fruit_ can be gathered in a week!!!"--_Ib._, 331. What shall be done with the headlong critic who thus mistakes exclamation points for arguments, and multiplies his confidence in proportion to his fallacies and errors?

OBS. 19.--In a question, the nominative _I_ or _thou_ put after the verb, controls the agreement, in preference to the interrogative _who, which_, or _what_, put before it; as, "_Who am I? What am I? Who art thou? What art thou?_" And, by analogy, this seems to be the case with all plurals; as, "_Who are we? Who are you? Who are they? What are these_?" But sometimes the interrogative pronoun is the only nominative used; and then the verb, whether singular or plural, must agree with this nominative, in the third person, and not, as Cobbett avers, with an antecedent understood: as, "_Who is_ in the house? _Who are_ in the house? _Who strikes_ the iron? _Who strike_ the iron? _Who was_ in the street? _Who were_ in the street?"--_Cobbett's Gram._, ¶ 245. All the interrogative pronouns may be used in either number, but, in examples like the following, I imagine the singular to be more proper than the plural: "_What have become_ of our previous customs?"--_Hunt's Byron_, p. 121. "And _what have become_ of my resolutions to return to God?"--_Young Christian_, 2d Ed., p. 91. When two nominatives of different properties come after the verb, the first controls the agreement, and neither the plural number nor the most worthy person is always preferred; as, "_Is it I? Is it thou? Is it they_?"

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

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

NOTES TO RULE XIV.

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

NOTE II.--"The adjuncts of the nominative do not control its agreement with the verb; as, Six months' _interest was_ due. The _progress_ of his forces _was_ impeded."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 131. "The _ship_, with all her furniture, was destroyed."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 150. "All _appearances_ of modesty _are_ favourable and prepossessing."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 308. "The _power_ of relishing natural enjoyments _is_ soon gone."--_Fuller, on the Gospel_, p. 135. "_I_, your master, _command_ you (not _commands_)"-- _Latham's Hand-Book_, p. 330.[390]

NOTE III.--Any phrase, sentence, mere word, or other sign, taken as one whole, and made the subject of an assertion, requires a verb in the third person singular; as, "To lie _is_ base."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 154. "When, to read and write, _was_ of itself an honorary distinction."--_Hazlitt's Lect._, p. 40. "To admit a God and then refuse to worship him, _is_ a modern and inconsistent practice."--_Fuller, on the Gospel_, p. 30. "_We is_ a personal pronoun."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 227. "_Th has_ two sounds."--_Ib._, p. 161. "The _'s is annexed_ to each."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 89. "_Ld. stands_ for _lord_."--_Webster's American Dict._, 8vo.

NOTE IV.--The pronominal adjectives, _each, one,[391] either_, and _neither_, are always in the third person singular; and, when they are the leading words in their clauses, they require verbs and pronouns to agree with them accordingly: as, "_Each_ of you _is_ entitled to _his_ share."--"Let no _one_ deceive _himself_."

NOTE V.--A neuter or a passive verb between two nominatives should be made to agree with that which precedes it;[392] as, "Words _are_ wind:" except when the terms are transposed, and the proper subject is put after the verb by _question_ or _hyperbaton_; as, "His pavilion _were_ dark _waters_ and thick _clouds_ of the sky."--_Bible_. "Who _art thou_?"--_Ib._ "The wages of sin _is death_."--_Ib. Murray, Comly_, and others. But, of this last example, Churchill says, "_Wages are_ the subject, of which it is affirmed, that _they are_ death."--_New Gram._, p. 314. If so, _is_ ought to be _are_; unless Dr. Webster is right, who imagines _wages_ to be _singular_, and cites this example to prove it so. See his _Improved Gram._, p. 21.

NOTE VI.--When the verb cannot well be made singular, the nominative should be made plural, that they may agree: or, if the verb cannot be plural, let the nominative be singular. Example of error: "For _every one_ of them _know_ their several duties."--_Hope of Israel_, p. 72. Say, "For _all_ of them know their several duties."

NOTE VII.--When the verb has different forms, that form should be adopted, which is the most consistent with present and reputable usage in the style employed: thus, to say familiarly, "The clock _hath stricken_;"--"Thou _laughedst_ and _talkedst_, when thou _oughtest_ to have been silent;"--"He _readeth_ and _writeth_, but he _doth_ not cipher," would be no better, than to use _don't, won't, can't, shan't_, and _didn't_, in preaching.

NOTE VIII.--Every finite verb not in the imperative mood, should have a separate nominative expressed; as, "_I came, I saw, I conquered_:" except when the verb is repeated for the sake of emphasis, or connected to an other in the same construction, or put after _but_ or _than_; as, "Not an eminent orator has lived _but is_ an example of it."--_Ware_. "Where more is meant _than meets_ the ear."--_Milton's Allegro_. (See Obs. 5th and Obs. 18th above.)

"They _bud, blow, wither, fall_, and _die_."--_Watts_.

"That evermore his teeth they _chatter,
Chatter, chatter, chatter_ still."--_Wordsworth_.

NOTE IX.--A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive present; and a mere supposition, with indefinite time, by a verb in the subjunctive imperfect; but a conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the indicative mood:[393] as, "If thou _forsake_ him, he will cast thee off forever."--_Bible_. "If it _were_ not so, I would have told you."--_Ib._ "If thou _went_, nothing would be gained."--"Though he _is_ poor, he is contented."--"Though he _was_ rich, yet for your sakes he became poor."--_2 Cor._, viii, 9.

NOTE X.--In general, every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood, as the reader will be likely to mistake for a discord between the verb and its nominative, ought to be avoided as an impropriety: as, "We are not sensible of disproportion, till the difference between the quantities compared _become_ the most striking circumstance."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 341. Say rather, "_becomes_;" which is indicative. "Till the general preference of certain forms _have been declared_."--_Priestley's Gram., Pref._, p. xvii. Say, "_has been declared_;" for "_preference_" is here the nominative, and Dr. Priestley himself recognizes no other subjunctive tenses than the present and the imperfect; as, "If thou _love_, If thou _loved_."--_Ib._, p. 16.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIV.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--VERB AFTER THE NOMINATIVE.

"Before you left Sicily, you was reconciled to Verres."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 19.

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

"Knowing that you was my old master's good friend."--_Spect._, No. 517. "When the judge dare not act, where is the loser's remedy?"--_Webster's Essays_, p. 131. "Which extends it no farther than the variation of the verb extend."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, Vol. i, p. 211. "They presently dry without hurt, as myself hath often proved."--_Roger Williams_. "Whose goings forth hath been from of old, from everlasting."--_Keith's Evidences_. "You was paid to fight against Alexander, not to rail at him."--_Porter's Analysis_, p. 70. "Where more than one part of speech is almost always concerned."--_Churchill's Gram., Pref._, p. viii. "Nothing less than murders, rapines, and conflagrations, employ their thoughts."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 175. "I wondered where you was, my dear."--_Lloyd's Poems_, p. 185. "When thou most sweetly sings."--_Drummond of Hawthornden_. "Who dare, at the present day, avow himself equal to the task?"--_Music of Nature_, p. 11. "Every body are very kind to her, and not discourteous to me."--_Byron's Letters_. "As to what thou says respecting the diversity of opinions."--_The Friend_, Vol. ix, p. 45. "Thy nature, immortality, who knowest?"--_Everest's Gram._, p. 38. "The natural distinction of sex in animals gives rise to what, in grammar, is called genders."--_Ib._, p. 51. "Some pains has likewise been taken."--_Scott's Pref. to Bible_. "And many a steed in his stables were seen."--_Penwarne's Poems_, p. 108. "They was forced to eat what never was esteemed food."--_Josephus's Jewish War_, B. i, Ch. i, §7. "This that yourself hath spoken, I desire that they may take their oaths upon."--_Hutchinson's Mass._, ii, 435. "By men whose experience best qualify them to judge."--_Committee on Literature, N. Y. Legislature_. "He dare venture to kill and destroy several other kinds of fish."--_Johnson's Dict, w. Perch_. "If a gudgeon meet a roach, He dare not venture to approach."--SWIFT: _Ib., w. Roach_. "Which thou endeavours to establish unto thyself."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 164. "But they pray together much oftener than thou insinuates."--_Ib._, i, 215. "Of people of all denominations, over whom thou presideth."--_The Friend_, Vol. v, p. 198. "I can produce ladies and gentlemen whose progress have been astonishing."--_Chazotte, on Teaching Lang._, p. 62. "Which of these two kinds of vice are more criminal?"--_Brown's Estimate_, ii, 115. "Every twenty-four hours affords to us the vicissitudes of day and night."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 103. "Every four years adds another day."--_Ib._ "Every error I could find, Have my busy muse employed."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 335. "A studious scholar deserve the approbation of his teacher."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 226. "Perfect submission to the rules of a school indicate good breeding."--_Ib._, p. 37. "A comparison in which more than two is concerned."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 114. "By the facilities which artificial language afford them."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 16. "Now thyself hath lost both lop and top."--SPENSER: _Joh. Dict., w. Lop._ "Glad tidings is brought to the poor."--_Campbell's Gospels: Luke_, vii, 23. "Upon which, all that is pleasurable, or affecting in elocution, chiefly depend."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 129. "No pains has been spared to render this work complete."--_Bullions, Lat. Gram., Pref._, p. iv. "The United States contains more than a twentieth part of the land of this globe."--DE WITT CLINTON: _Cobb's N. Amer. Reader_, p. 173. "I am mindful that myself is (or am) strong."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, § 500. "Myself _is_ (not _am_) weak; thyself _is_ (not _art_) weak."--_Ib._, §479.

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

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--VERB BEFORE THE NOMINATIVE.

"Where was you born? In London."--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p. 133. "There is frequent occasions for commas."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 281. "There necessarily follows from thence, these plain and unquestionable consequences."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 191. "And to this impression contribute the redoubled effort."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 112. "Or if he was, was there no spiritual men then?"--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 86. "So by these two also is signified their contrary principles."--_Ib._, iii, 200. "In the motions made with the hands, consist the chief part of gesture in speaking."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 336. "Dare he assume the name of a popular magistrate?"--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 140. "There was no damages as in England, and so Scott lost his wager."--_Byron_. "In fact there exists such resemblances."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 64. "To him giveth all the prophets witness."--_Crewdson's Beacon_, p. 79. "That there was so many witnesses and actors."--_Addison's Evidences_, p. 37. "How does this man's definitions stand affected?"--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 136. "Whence comes all the powers and prerogatives of rational beings?"--_Ib._, p. 144. "Nor does the Scriptures cited by thee prove thy intent."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 155. "Nor do the Scripture cited by thee prove the contrary."--_Ib._, i, 211. "Why then cite thou a Scripture which is so plain and clear for it?"--_Ib._, i, 163. "But what saith the Scriptures as to respect of persons among Christians?"--_Ib._, i, 404. "But in the mind of man, while in the savage state, there seems to be hardly any ideas but what enter by the senses."--_Robertson's America_, i, 289. "What sounds have each of the vowels?"--_Griscom's Questions_. "Out of this has grown up aristocracies, monarchies, despotisms, tyrannies."--_Brownson's Elwood_, p. 222. "And there was taken up, of fragments that remained to them, twelve baskets."-- _Luke_, ix, 17. "There seems to be but two general classes."--_Day's Gram._, p. 3. "Hence arises the six forms of expressing time."--_Ib._, p. 37. "There seems to be no other words required."--_Chandler's Gram._, p. 28. "If there is two, the second increment is the syllable next the last."--_Bullions, Lat. Gram._, 12th Ed., p. 281. "Hence arises the following advantages."--_Id., Analyt. and Pract. Gram._, 1849, p. 67. "There is no data by which it can be estimated."--_J. C. Calhoun's Speech_, March 4, 1850. "To this class belong the Chinese [language], in which we have nothing but naked roots."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, p. 27. "There was several other grotesque figures that presented themselves."-- _Spect._, No. 173. "In these consist that sovereign good which ancient sages so much extol."--_Percival's Tales_, ii, 221. "Here comes those I have done good to against my will."--_Shak., Shrew_. "Where there is more than one auxiliary."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 80.

"On me to cast those eyes where shine nobility."
--SIDNEY: _Joh. Dict._

"Here's half-pence in plenty, for one you'll have twenty."
--_Swift's Poems_, p. 347.

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

UNDER NOTE I.--THE RELATIVE AND VERB.

"Thou who loves us, wilt protect us still."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 67. "To use that endearing language, Our Father, who is in heaven"--_Bates's Doctrines_, p. 103. "Resembling the passions that produceth these actions."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 157. "Except _dwarf, grief, hoof, muff_, &c. which takes _s_ to make the plural."--_Ash's Gram._, p. 19. "As the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure."-- _Gen._ xxxiii, 14 "Where is the man who dare affirm that such an action is mad?"--_Werter_. "The ninth book of Livy affords one of the most beautiful exemplifications of historical painting, that is any where to be met with."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 360. "In some studies too, that relate to taste and fine writing, which is our object," &c.--_Ib._, p. 349. "Of those affecting situations, which makes man's heart feel for man."--_Ib._, p. 464. "We see very plainly, that it is neither Osmyn, nor Jane Shore, that speak."--_Ib._, p. 468. "It should assume that briskness and ease, which is suited to the freedom of dialogue."--_Ib._, p. 469. "Yet they grant, that none ought to be admitted into the ministry, but such as is truly pious."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 147. "This letter is one of the best that has been written about Lord Byron."--_Hunt's Byron_, p. 119. "Thus, besides what was sunk, the Athenians took above two hundred ships."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 102. "To have made and declared such orders as was necessary."--_Hutchinson's Hist._, i, 470. "The idea of such a collection of men as make an army."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 217. "I'm not the first that have been wretched."--_Southern's In. Ad._, Act 2. "And the faint sparks of it, which is in the angels, are concealed from our view."--_Calvin's Institutes_, B. i, Ch. 11. "The subjects are of such a nature, as allow room for much diversity of taste and sentiment."--_Blair's Rhet., Pref._, p. 5. "It is in order to propose examples of such perfection, as are not to be found in the real examples of society."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 16. "I do not believe that he would amuse himself with such fooleries as has been attributed to him."--_Ib._, p. 218. "That shepherd, who first taughtst the chosen seed."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 238. "With respect to the vehemence and warmth which is allowed in popular eloquence."-- _Blair's Rhet._, p. 261. "Ambition is one of those passions that is never to be satisfied."--_Home's Art of Thinking_, p. 36. "Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel."--_2 Samuel_, v, 2; and _1 Chron._, xi, 2. "Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah?"--_1 Kings_, xiii, 14.

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

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

UNDER NOTE II.--NOMINATIVE WITH ADJUNCTS.

"The literal sense of the words are, that the action had been done."--_Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang._, i, 65. "The rapidity of his movements were beyond example."--_Wells's Hist._, p. 161. "Murray's Grammar, together with his Exercises and Key, have nearly superseded every thing else of the kind."--EVAN'S REC.: _Murray's Gram._, 8vo, ii, 305. "The mechanism of clocks and watches were totally unknown."--HUME: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 193. "The _it_, together with the verb _to be_, express states of being."--_Cobbett's Eng. Gram._, ¶ 190. "Hence it is, that the profuse variety of objects in some natural landscapes, neither breed confusion nor fatigue."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 266. "Such a clatter of sounds indicate rage and ferocity."--_Music of Nature_, p. 195. "One of the fields make threescore square yards, and the other only fifty-five."--_Duncan's Logic_, p. 8. "The happy effects of this fable is worth attending to."--_Bailey's Ovid_, p. x. "Yet the glorious serenity of its parting rays still linger with us."--_Gould's Advocate_. "Enough of its form and force are retained to render them uneasy."--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 261. "The works of nature, in this respect, is extremely regular."--_Dr. Pratt's Werter_. "No small addition of exotic and foreign words and phrases have been made by commerce."--_Bicknell's Gram._, Part ii, p. 10. "The dialect of some nouns are taken notice of in the notes."--_Milnes, Greek Gram._, p. 255. "It has been said, that a discovery of the full resources of the arts, afford the means of debasement, or of perversion."--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. xxvii. "By which means the Order of the Words are disturbed."--_Holmes's Rhet._, B. i, p. 57. "The twofold influence of these and the others require the asserter to be in the plural form."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 251. "And each of these afford employment."--_Percival's Tales_, Vol. ii, p. 175. "The pronunciation of the vowels are best explained under the rules relative to the consonants."--_Coar's Gram._, p. 7. "The judicial power of these courts extend to all cases in law and equity."--_Hall and Baker's School Hist._, p. 286. "One of you have stolen my money."--_Rational Humorist_, p. 45. "Such redundancy of epithets, instead of pleasing, produce satiety and disgust."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 256. "It has been alleged, that a compliance with the rules of Rhetoric, tend to cramp the mind."--_Hiley's Gram._, 3d Ed., p. 187. "Each of these are presented to us in different relations"--_Hendrick's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 34. "The past tense of these verbs, _should, would, might, could_, are very indefinite with respect to time."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 33; 5th Ed., p. 31. "The power of the words, which are said to govern this mood, are distinctly understood."--_Chandler's Gram._, Ed. of 1821, p. 33.

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

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

UNDER NOTE III.--COMPOSITE OR CONVERTED SUBJECTS.

"Many are the works of human industry, which to begin and finish are hardly granted to the same man."--_Johnson, Adv. to Dict._ "To lay down rules for these are as inefficacious."--_Dr. Pratt's Werter_, p. 19. "To profess regard, and to act _differently_, discover a base mind."--_Murray's Key_, ii, p. 206. See also _Bullions's E. Gram._, 82 and 112; _Lennie's_, 58. "To magnify to the height of wonder things great, new, and admirable, extremely please the mind of man."--_Fisher's Gram._, p. 152. "In this passage, _according as_ are used in a manner which is very common."--_Webster's Philosophical Gram._, p. 183. "A _cause de_ are called a preposition; _a cause que_, a conjunction."--DR. WEBSTER: _Knickerbocker_, 1836. "To these are given to speak in the name of the Lord."--_The Friend_, vii, 256. "While _wheat_ has no plural, _oats_ have seldom any singular."--_Cobbett's E. Gram._ ¶ 41. "He cannot assert that _ll_ are inserted in _fullness_ to denote the sound of _u_."--_Cobb's Review of Webster_, p. 11. "_ch_ have the power of _k_."--_Gould's Adam's Gram._, p. 2. "_ti_, before a vowel, and unaccented, have the sound of _si_ or _ci_."--_Ibid._ "In words derived from the French, as _chagrin, chicanery_, and _chaise, ch_ are sounded like _sh_."--_Bucke's Gram._, p. 10. "But in the word _schism, schismatic_, &c., the _ch_ are silent."--_Ibid._ "_Ph_ are always sounded like _f_, at the beginning of words."--_Bucke's Gram._ "_Ph_ have the sound of _f_ as in _philosophy_."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p. 11. "_Sh_ have one sound only as in _shall_."--_Ib._ "_Th_ have two sounds."--_Ib._ "_Sc_ have the sound of _sk_, before _a, o, u_, and _r_."--_Ib._ "Aw, have the sound of _a_ in hall."--_Bolles's Spelling-Book_, p. vi. "Ew, sound like _u_."--_Ib._ "Ow, when both sounded, have the sound of _ou_."--_Ib._ "Ui, when both pronounced in one syllable sound like _wi_ in _languid_."--_Ib._

"_Ui_ three several Sorts of Sound express,
As _Guile, rebuild, Bruise_ and _Recruit_ confess."
--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 34.

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

"When each of the letters which compose this word, have been learned."--_Dr. Weeks, on Orthog._, p. 22. "As neither of us deny that both Homer and Virgil have great beauties."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 21. "Yet neither of them are remarkable for precision."--_Ib._, p. 95. "How far each of the three great epic poets have distinguished themselves."--_Ib._, p. 427. "Each of these produce a separate agreeable sensation."--_Ib._, p. 48. "On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keep the sabbath."--_Tr. of Irenæus_. "And each of them bear the image of purity and holiness."--_Hope of Israel_, p. 81. "Were either of these meetings ever acknowledged or recognized?"--_Foster's Report_, i, 96. "Whilst neither of these letters exist in the Eugubian inscription."--_Knight, on Greek Alph._, p. 122. "And neither of them are properly termed indefinite."--_Wilson's Essay on Gram._, p. 88. "As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each their verb."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 120. "Sometimes when the word ends in _s_, neither of the signs are used."--_Alex. Murray's Gram._, p. 21. "And as neither of these manners offend the ear."--_Walker's Dict., Pref._, p. 5. "Neither of these two Tenses are confined to this signification only."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 339. "But neither of these circumstances are intended here."--_Tooke's Diversions_, ii, 237. "So that all are indebted to each, and each are dependent upon all."--_Am. Bible Society's Rep._, 1838, p. 89. "And yet neither of them express any more action in this case than they did in the other."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 201. "Each of these expressions denote action."--_Hallock's Gram._, p. 74. "Neither of these moods seem to be defined by distinct boundaries."--_Butler's Practical Gram._, p. 66. "Neither of these solutions are correct."-- _Bullions, Lat. Gram._, p. 236. "Neither bear any sign of case at all."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, §217.

"Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk."--_Byron_.

"And tell what each of them by th'other lose."--_Shak., Cori._, iii, 2.

UNDER NOTE V.--VERB BETWEEN TWO NOMINATIVES.