He aimed only to make the deepest and most efficient impression; and he employed for this purpose, the plainest, the fewest, and the most emphatic words."-Ib., p. 68. "The high eloquence which I have last mentioned, is always the offspring of passion. A man actuated by a strong passion, becomes much greater than he is at other times. He is conscious of more strength and force; he utters greater sentiments, conceives higher designs, and executes them with a boldness and felicity, of which, on other occasions, he could not think himself capable."-Blair's Rhet., p. 236. "His words bore sterling weight, nervous and strong, In manly tides of sense they roll'd along."- Churchill. "To make the humble proud, the proud submiss, Wiser the wisest, and the brave more brave."-W. S. Landor. LESSON II.-PARSING. "I am satisfied that in this, as in all cases, it is best, safest, as well as most right and honorable, to speak freely and plainly."-Channing's Letter to Clay, p. 4. "The gospel, when preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, through the wonder-working power of God, can make the proud humble, the selfish disinterested, the worldly heavenly, the sensual pure."-Christian Experience, p. 399. "I am so much the better, as I am the liker* the best; and so much the holier, as I am more conformable to the holiest, or rather to Him who is holiness itself."— Bp. Beveridge. "Whether any thing in Christianity appears to them probable, or improbable; consistent, or inconsistent; agreeable to what they should have expected, or the contrary; wise and good, or ridiculous and useless; is perfectly irrelevant."-M'Ilvaine's Evidences, p. 523. "God's providence is higher, and deeper, and larger, and stronger, than all the skill of his adversaries; and his pleasure shall be accomplished in their overthrow, except they repent and become bis friends."-Cox, on Christianity, p. 445. "A just relish of what is beautiful, proper, elegant, and ornamental, in writing or painting, in architecture or gardening, is a fine preparation for the same just relish of these qualities in character and behaviour. To the man who has acquired a taste so acute and accomplished, every action wrong or improper must be highly disgustful: if, in any instance, the overbearing power of passion sway him from his duty, he returns to it with redoubled resolution never to be swayed a second time."Kames, Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 25. "In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find The justest rules and clearest method join'd."-Pope, on Crit. LESSON III.-PARSING. “There are several sorts of scandalous tempers; some malicious, and some effeminate; others obstinate, brutish, and savage. Some humours are childish and silly; some, false, and others, scurrilous; some, mercenary, and some, tyrannical."-Collier's Antoninus, p. 52. "Words are obviously voluntary signs: and they are also arbitrary; excepting a few simple sounds expressive of certain internal emotions, which sounds being the same in all languages, must be the work of nature: thus the unpremeditated tones of admiration are the same in all men."-Kames, Elements of Crit., i, 347. "A stately and majestic air requires sumptuous apparel, which ought not to be gaudy, nor crowded with little ornaments. A woman of consummate beauty can bear to be highly adorned, and yet shows best in a plain dress."—Ib., p. 279. "Of all external objects a graceful person is the most agreeable. But in vain will a person attempt to be graceful, who is deficient in amiable qualities.”—Ib., p. 299. The regular comparison of this word, (like, liker, likest,) seems to be obsolete, or nearly so. It is seldom met with, except in old books: yet we say, more like, or most like, less like, or least like. To say the flock with whom he is, is likest to Christ."-Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 180. "Of Godlike pow'r? for likest Gods they seem'd."-Milton, P. L. B. vi, 1. 301. "The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity bestowed upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority."Dr. Johnson, Rambler, Vol. ii, No. 93. "Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident; above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue."-Bacon's Essays, p. 145. "The wisest nations, having the most and best ideas, will consequently have the best and most copious languages."-Harris's Hermes, p. 408. "Here we trace the operation of powerful causes, while we remain ignorant of their nature; but everything goes on with such regularity and harmony, as to give a striking and convincing proof of a combining directing intelligence."-Life of W. Allen, Vol. i, p. 170. "The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever Timorous and loth, with novice modesty, IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. ERRORS OF ADJECTIVES. LESSON I-DEGREES. "I have the real excuse of the honestest sort of bankrupts."-Cowley's Preface, p. viii. [FORMULE-Not proper, because the adjective honestest is harshly compared by est. But, according to a principle stated on page 283d concerning the regular degrees, "This method of comparison is to be applied only to monosyllables, and to dissyllables of a smooth termination, or such as receive it and still have but one syllable after the accent." Therefore, honestest should be most honest; thus, "I have the real excuse of the most honest sort of bankrupts."] "The honourablest part of talk, is, to give the occasion."-Bacon's Essays, p. 90. "To give him one of his own modestest proverbs."-Barclay's Works, iii, 340. "Our language is now certainly properer and more natural, than it was formerly."—Bp. Burnet. "Which will be of most and frequentest use to him in the world."-Locke, on Education, p. 163. "The same is notified in the notablest places in the diocese."- Whitgift. "But it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw." -Pilgrim's Progress, p. 70. "Four of the ancientest, soberest, and discreetest of the brethren, chosen for the occasion, shall regulatɔ it."-Locke, on Church Gov. "Nor can there be any clear understanding of any Roman author, especially of ancienter time, without this skill."-Walker's Particles, p. x. "Far the learnedest of the Greeks. '-Ib., p. 120. "The learneder thou art, the humbler be thou."-Ib., p. 228. "Ho is none of the best er honestest."-lb., p. 274. "The properest methods of communicating it to others.”—Burn's Gram., Pref., p. viii. "What heaven's great King hath powerfullest to send against us."-Paradise Lost. "Benedict is not the unhopefullest husband that I know."-SHAK.: in Joh. Dict. "That he should immediately do all tho meanest and triflingest things himself."-RAY: in Johnson's Gram., p. 6. "I shall be named among the famousest of women."-MILTON'S Samson Agonistes: ib. "Those have the inventivest heads for all purposes."-ASCHAM: ib. "The wretcheder are the contemners of all helps."-BEN JONSON: ib. "I will now deliver a few of the properest and naturallest considerations that belong to this piece."-WOTTON: ib. "The mortalest poisons practised by the West Indians, have some mixture of the blood, fat, or flesh of man."-BACON: ib. "He so won upon him, that he rendered him one of the faithfulest and most affectionate allies the Medes ever had."-Rollin, ii, 71. "You see before you,' says he to him, 'the most devoted servant, and the faithfullest ally, you ever had."-1b., ii, 79. “I chose the flourishing'st tree in all the park."—Cowley. "Which he placed, I think, some centuries backwarder than Julius Africanus thought fit to place it afterwards."--Bolingbroke, on History, p. 53. "The Tiber, the notedest river of Italy."-Littleton's Dict. "To fartherest shores the ambrosial spirit flies."-Cutler's Gram., p. 140. Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best."-Milton, B. viii, 1. 550. LESSON II-MIXED. "During the three or four first years of its existence."-Taylor's District School, p. 27. [FORMULE.-Not proper, because the cardinal numbers, three and four are put before the ordinal first. But, according to the 7th part of Obs. 7th, page 280th, "In specifying any part of a series, we ought to place the cardinal number after the ordinal." Therefore the words three and four should be placed after first; thus, "During the first three or four years of its existence."] "To the first of these divisions, my ten last lectures have been devoted."-Adams's Rhet., Vol. i, p. 391. "There are in the twenty-four states not less than sixty thousand common schools." Taylor's District School, p. 38. "I know of nothing which gives teachers so much trouble as this want of firmness."-lb., p. 57. "I know of nothing that throws such darkness over the line which separates right from wrong."-Ib., p. 58. "None need this purity and simplicity of language and thought so much as the common school instructor."-Ib., p. 64. "I know of no periodical that is so valuable to the teacher as the Annals of Education."-Ib., p. 67. "Are not these schools of the highest importance? Should not every individual feel the deepest interest in their character and condition?"-Ib., p. 78. "If instruction were made a profession, teachers would feel a sympathy for each other."-1b., p. 93. "Nothing is so likely to interest children as novelty and change."-b., p. 131. "I know of no labour which affords so much happiness as that of the teacher's."-Ib., p. 136. "Their school exercises are the most pleasant and agreeable of any that they engage in."-Ib., p. 136. "I know of no exercise so beneficial to the pupil as that of drawing maps."-Ib., p. 176. "I know of nothing in which our district schools are so defective as they are in the art of teaching grammar."-Ib., p. 196. "I know of nothing so easily acquired as history."-Пb., p. 206. "I know of nothing for which scholars usually have such an abhorrence, as composition."-Ib., p. 210. "There is nothing in our fellow-men that we should respect with so much sacredness as their good name."—Ib., p. 307. "Sure never any thing was so unbred as that odious man."-CONGREVE in Joh. Dict. "In the dialogue between the mariner and the shade of the deceast."-Philological Museum, i, 466. "These master-works would still be less excellent and finisht."-Ib., i, 469. "Every attempt to staylace the language of polisht conversation, renders our phraseology inelegant and clumsy.”—Ib., i, €78. "Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words that ever blotted paper."-SHAK.: in Joh. Dict. "With the most easy, undisobliging transitions."-BROOME: ib. "Fear is, of all affections, the unaptest to admit any conference with reason."-HOOKER: ib. "Most chymists think glass a body more undestroyable than gold itself."-BOYLE: ib. "To part with unhackt edges, and bear back our barge undinted."-SHAK.: ib. "Erasmus, who was an unbigotted Roman Catholic, was transported with this passage."-ADDISON : ib. "There are no less than five words, with any of which the sentence might have terminated."- Campbell's Rhet., p. 397. "The one preach Christ of contention; but the other, of love."-Philippians, i, 16. "Hence we find less discontent and heart-burnings, than where the subjects are unequally burdened."—Art of Thinking, p. 56. "The serpent, subtil'st beast of all the field, I knew; but not with human voice indu'd."-MILTON: Joh. Dict., w. Human. "How much more grievous would our lives appear, To reach th' eighth hundred, than the eightieth year?"-DENHAM: B. P., ii, 244. LESSON III-MIXED. "Brutus engaged with Aruns; and so fierce was the attack, that they pierced one another at the same time."-Lempriere's Dict. [FORMULE.-Not proper, because the phrase one another is here applied to two persons only, the words an and other being needlessly compounded. But, according to Observation 15th, on the Classes of Adjectives, each other must be applied to two persons or things, and one an other to more than two. Therefore one another should here be each other; thus, "Brutus engaged with Aruns; and so fierce was the attack, that they pierced each other at the same time."] "Her two brothers were one after another turned into stone."-Art of Thinking, p. 194. "Nouns are often used as adjectives; as, A gold-ring, a silver-cup."-Lennie's Gram., p. 14. "Fire and water destroy one another."- Wanostrocht's Gram., p. 82. "Two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative."-Louth's Gram., p. 94; E. Devis's, 111; Mack's, 147; Murray's, 193; Churchill's, 148; Putnam's, 135; C. Adams's, 102; Hamlin's, 79; Alger's, 66; Fisk's, 140; Ingersoll's, 207; and many others. "Two negatives destroy one another, and are generally equivalent to an affirmative."-Kirkham's Gram., p. 191; Felton's, 85. "Two negatives destroy one another and make an affirmative."-J. Flint's Gram., p. 79. "Two negatives destroy one another, being equivalent to an affirmative."-Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 43. Two objects, resembling one another, are presented to the imagination."-Parker's Exercises in Comp., p. 47. "Mankind, in order to hold converse with each other, found it necessary to give names to objects.”—Kirkham's Gram., p. 42. "Words are derived from each other* in various ways."-Cooper's Gram., p. 108. "There are many other ways of deriving words from one another."-Murray's Gram., p. 131. "When several verbs connected by conjunctions, succeed each other in a sentence, the auxiliary is usually omitted except with the first."-Frost's Gram., p. 91. "Two or more verbs, having the same nominative case, and immediately following one another, are also separated by commas."-Murray's Gram., p. 270; C. Adams's, 126; Russell's, 113; and others. "Two or more adverbs immediately succeeding each other, must be separated by commas."-Same Grammars. "If, however, the members succeeding each other, are very closely connected, the comma is unnecessary."-Murray's Gram., p. 273; Comly's, 152; This example, and several others that follow it, are no ordinary solecisms; they are downright Irish bulls, making actions or relations reciprocal, where reciprocity is utterly unimaginable. Two words can no more be "derived from each other," than two living creatures can have received their existence from each other. So, two things can never succeed each other," except they alternate or move in a circle; and a greater number in train can "follow one an other" only in some imperfect sense, not at all reciprocal. In some instances, therefore, the best form of correction will be, to reject the reciprocal terms altogether.-G. BROWN. This doctrine of punctuation, if not absolutely false in itself, is here very badly taught. When only two words, of any sort, occur in the same construction, they seldom require the comma; and never can they need more than one, whereas these grammarians, by their plural word "commas," suggest a constant demand for two or more.-G. BROWN, and others. "Gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man."-Mur., p. 287. "Several verbs in the infinitive mood, having a common dependence, and succeeding one another, are also divided by commas." Comly's Gram., p. 153. "The several words of which it consists, have so near a relation to each other."-Murray's Gram., p. 268; Comly's, 144; Russell's, 111; and others. "When two or more verbs have the same nominative, and immediately follow one another, or two or more adverbs immediately succeed one another, they must be separated by commas."-Comly's Gram., p. 145. "Nouns frequently succeed each other, meaning the same thing."-Sanborn's Gram., p. 63. "And these two tenses may thus answer one another."-Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 322. "Or some other relation which two objects bear to one another."-Jamieson's Rhet., p. 149. "That the heathens tolerated each other, is allowed."-Gospel its own Witness, p. 76. "And yet these two persons love one another tenderly."-Murray's E. Reader, p. 112. "In the six hundredth and first year."-Gen., viii, 13. "Nor is this arguing of his but a reiterate clamour."-Barclay's Works, i, 250. "In severals of them the inward life of Christianity is to be found."—1b., iii, 272. "Though Alvarez, Despauterius, and other, allow it not to be Plural."―Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 169. "Even the most dissipate and shameless blushed at the sight."-Lemp. Dict., w. Antiochus. "We feel a superior satisfaction in surveying the life of animals, than that of vegetables."-Jamieson's Rhet., 172. "But this man is so full fraughted with malice."-Barclay's Works, iii, 265. "That I suggest some things concerning the properest means."-Blair's Rhet., p. 337. "So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair That ever since in love's embraces met."-Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 321. Will be for thee no sitting, or not long."—Id., P. R., B. iv, 1. 106. CHAPTER V.-PRONOUNS. A Pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun: as, The boy loves his book; he has long lessons, and he learns them well. The pronouns in our language are twenty-four; and their variations are thirty-two so that the number of words of this class, is fifty-six. OBSERVATIONS. OBS. 1.—The word for which a pronoun stands, is called its antecedent, because it usually precedes the pronoun. But some have limited the term antecedent to the word represented by a relative pronoun. There can be no propriety in this, unless we will have every pronoun to be a relative, when it stands for a noun which precedes it; and, if so, it should be called something else, when the noun is to be found elsewhere. In the example above, his and he represent boy, and them represents lessons; and these nouns are as truly the antecedents to the pronouns, as any can be. Yet his, he, and them, in our most approved grammars, are not called relative pronouns, but personal. OBS. 2.-Every pronoun may be explained as standing for the name of something, for the thing itself unnamed, or for a former pronoun; and, with the noun, pronoun, or thing, for which it stands, every pronoun must agree in person, number, and gender. The exceptions to this, whether apparent or real, are very few; and, as their occurrence is unfrequent, there will be little occasion to notice them till we come to syntax. But if the student will observe the use and import of pronouns, he may easily see, that some of them are put substantively, for nouns not previously introduced; some, relatively, for nouns or pronouns going before; some, adjectively, for nouns that must follow them in any explanation which can be made of the sense. These three modes of substitution, are very different, each from the others. Yet they do not serve for an accurate division of the pronouns; because it often happens, that a substitute which commonly represents the noun in one of these ways, will sometimes represent it in an other. OBS. 3.-The pronouns I and thou, in their different modifications, stand immediately for persons that are, in general, sufficiently known without being named; (I meaning the speaker, and thou, the hearer;) their antecedents, or nouns, are therefore generally understood. The other personal pronouns, also, are sometimes taken in a general and demonstrative sense, to denote persons or things not previously mentioned; as, "He that hath knowledge, spareth his words.”— Bible. Here he is equivalent to the man, or the person. "The care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity."-Bacon. Here them is equivalent to those persons. "How far do you call it to such a place?"-Priestley's Gram., p. 85. Here it, according to Priestley, is put for the distance. "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth."-Malachi, ii, 7. Here they is put indefinitely for men or people. So who and which, though called relatives, do not always relate to a noun or pronoun going before them; for who may be a direct substitute for what person; and which may mean which person, or which thing: as, "And he that was healed, wist not who it was."-John, v, 13. That is, "The man who was healed, knew not what person it was." "I care not which you take; they are so much alike, ono cannot tell which is which." OBS. 4.-A pronoun with which a question is asked, usually stands for some person or thing unknown to the speaker; the noun, therefore, cannot occur before it, but may be used after it or in place of it. Examples: "In the grave, who shall give thee thanks?"-Ps., vi, 5. Here the word who is equivalent to what person, taken interrogatively. "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"—John, viii, 48. That is, "Which man of you?" Master, what shall we do?"-Luke, iii, 12. That is, "What act, or thing?" These solutions, however, convert which and what into adjectives: and, in fact, as they have no inflections for the numbers and cases, there is reason to think them at all times essentially such. We call them pronouns, to avoid the inconvenience of supposing and supplying an infinite multitude of ellipses. But who, though often equivalent (as above) to an adjective and a noun, is never itself used adjectively; it is always a pronoun. OBS. 5.-In respect to who or whom, it sometimes makes little or no difference to the sense, whether we take it as a demonstrative pronoun equivalent to what person, or suppose it to relate to an antecedent understood before it: as, "Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will."-John, v, 21. That is—“what persons he will," or, "those persons whom he will;" for the Greek word for whom, is, in this instance, plural. The former is a shorter explanation of the meaning, but the latter I take to be the true account of the construction; for, by the other, we make whom a double relative, and the object of two governing words at once. So, perhaps, of the following example, which Dr. Johnson cites under the word who, to show what he calls its "disjunctive sense:". "There thou tellst of kings, and who aspire; Who fall, who rise, who triumph, who do moan.”—Daniel. OBS. 6.-It sometimes happens that the real antecedent, or the term which in the order of the sense must stand before the pronoun, is not placed antecedently to it, in the order given to the words: as, "It is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not heard, shall understand."-Romans, xv, 21. Here the sense is, "They to whom he was not spoken of, shall see." Whoever takes the passage otherwise, totally misunderstands it. And yet the same order of the words might be used to signify, "They shall see to whom (that is, to what persons) he was not spoken of." Transpositions of this kind, as well as of every other, occur most frequently in poetry. The following example is from an Essay on Satire, printed with Pope's Works, but written by one of his friends: "Whose is the crime, the scandal too be theirs ; The knave and fool are their own libellers."-J. Brown. OBS. 7.-The personal and the interrogative pronouns often stand in construction as the antecedents to other pronouns: as, "He also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster."-Prov., xviii, 9. Here he and him are each equivalent to the man, and each is taken as the antecedent to the relative which follows it. "For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one: for which cause, he is not ashamed to call them brethren."Heb., ii, 11. Here he and they may be considered the antecedents to that and who, of the first clause, and also to he and them, of the second. So the interrogative who may be the antecedent to the relative that; as, "Who that has any moral sense, dares tell lies?" Here who, being equivalent to what person, is the term with which the other pronoun agrees. Nay, an interrogative pronoun, (or the noun which is implied in it,) may be the antecedent to a personal pronoun; as, "Who hath first given to Him, and it shall bo recompensed to him again?"-Romans, xi, 35. Here the idea is, "What person hath first given any thing to the Lord, so that it ought to be repaid him?" that is, "so that the gift ought to be recompensed from Heaven to the giver ?" In the following example, the first pronoun is the antecedent to all the rest: "And he that never doubted of his state, He may perhaps-perhaps he may-too late."-Cowper. OBS. 8.-So the personal pronouns of the possessive case, (which some call adjectives,) are sometimes represented by relatives, though less frequently than their primitives: as, "How different, O Ortogrul, is thy condition, who art doomed to the perpetual torments of unsatisfied desire!"-Dr. Johnson. Here who is of the second person, singular, masculine; and represents the antecedent pronoun thy: for thy is a pronoun, and not (as some writers will have it) an adjective. Examples like this, disprove the doctrine of those grammarians who say that my, thy, his, her, its, and their plurals, our, your, their, are adjectives. For, if they were mere adjectives, they could not thus be made antecedents. Examples of this construction are sufficiently common, and sufficiently clear, to settle that point, unless they can be better explained in some other way. Take an instance or two more: "And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."-1 Cor., x, 11. "Be thou the first true merit to befriend; His praise is lost, who stays till all commend."-Pope. CLASSES. Pronouns are divided into three classes; personal, relative, and inter rogative. |