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 aeneid] 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.