§ "J\ r-n -1 -J l-^, ^ % r'- s 2 jE^I .,. . iov^ "^/^aaAiNnawv^ :5 m !i\/rnf . 3 -PI 3ri g -< I—) (^ \lNn-3V\V ^ iiir (.Df-r '% -*$ CO 6 1^ vM'JBRARYQr ^^t•llBBARY•Q^ '■^ ^^m^m-i^ ^OF-CALIFOfl'^ ^. .A^^FCAJIFOfi'^ \ C5 ,\WEUNIVERS/A Ac aa ^WE•lINIVER5'//v ^lOSANCE[Zj> Or O I± C3C? ^lOSANCElfj^ %a3AlNn-3WV^ MEUNiVER% vjclOSMElf^r^ ^ o t/> '^/^a3AINn-9WV ^ -s;^lUBRARY^/ " A I 3- so o ^ .,nF. CAilFO% /' ^^ ^PCALIFOi?^ 1^^ i^: '^yokwmm'^ -7 J / Tt) ERRORS IN THE USE OF ENGLISH. Manchester: Printed hy A. Ireland and Co., Pall Mall, FOR DAVID DOUGLAS. LONDON ------ HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DO. ----- SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE. CAMBRIDGE - - - . MACMILLAN AND CO. ERRORS IN THE USE OF ENGLISH BY THE LATE WILLIAM B. HODGSON, LL.D., FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PRECEl'TORS AKD PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. Seconb £&ition. EDINBURGH : DAVID DOUGLAS. 1882. All Rights reserved. r.liLIUKOV LiBAAAy INTRODUCTORY. Acting on the principle that example is better than precept, the Spartans impressed upon their children the wisdom of sobriety by showing them the folly of intemperance in the person of the drunken Helot. Similarly this work is meant to set forth the merits of correctness in English composition by furnishing examples of the demerits of incorrectness — to bring home the abstract rule that ' a sentence must be lucid in order and logical in sequence,' by citing such concrete specimens of obscure dis-order as ' The beaux of that day painted their faces as well as the women.' Rule and correct example of that rule might go in at one ear to come out at the other; but the notion of gallants painting their lady-loves a brilliant pink is not so easily forgotten, and, so long as it is kept in mind, this blunder of Isaac D'Israeli's attests the need, as the task of correcting it shows a mode, of arranging one's words in lucid order. So with our other examples. Let the teacher select a dozen at random, and give them to his learners, to be by them, if necessary, corrected with the aid of dictionary and grammar. ' Of dictionary and grammar,' — because this little work can no more supersede the use of formal helps to English composition than a picture-gallery or a museum does away with the need for handbooks on art and science. ' If necessary,' — because in these pages many instances occur of correct usage, and many more of ' blunders ' about which doctors differ whether the 6137G0 iv INTRODUCTORY. same are blunders indeed or not ; whether, for instance, beiween may not or may be used with more than two objects of refe- rence. Whatever the ultimate conclusion reached, assuredly a study of this moot point will leave the student more conversant with the different functions of between and among than he was before, and will convince him that some have unquestionably erred in their indiscriminating use of these two prepositions. Books somewhat similar to this have been published before ; among such may be noticed Modern English Literafiirc : Its Blemishes and Defects (London, 1857), by H. H. Breenj The Queen^s English (London, 1 864), by Dean Alford ; The Dean^s English (5th ed., London, 1866), by G. W. Moon ; Bad E?iglish (Loiidon, 1868), by the same author; and Good^EnglisIi (New York, 1867), by E. S. Gould. But Mr. Breen confined him- self mainly to the blemishes of a single author. Sir Archibald Alison ; Dean Alford and Mr. Gould are occupied with abstract errors ; and Mr. Moon is a critic of these and of other critics. All four in their way are excellent, though one wearies a little of Sir Archibald and yet again Sir Archibald, — though the abstract may seem less lively than the concrete, — and though a doctor may have some skill to heal in spite of his own head- cold or other ailment. As to this book, it is founded on actual blunders, verified by chapter-and-verse reference, and gathered in a course of desultory reading extending over the last thirty years. It does not aim at being exhaustive, that were unhappily no easy aim ; but at least it comprises all those every-day L breaches of every-day rules against which writers should stand on their strictest guard. For fuller exposition of these rules the student is referred to the following works, to which the writer here acknowledges his own indebtedness : — Professor Skeat's Etymological Dic- tionary of the English Tongue arranged on an Historical Basis INTRODUCTORY. (parts i.-iii., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1880), and the older dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Richardson, Chambers, and Wedg^vood ; the English Grammars of Dr. Crombie, Dr. Latham, Mr. C. P. Mason, Dr. Angus, and Professor Bain ; Professor Bain's Companion to the Higher English Grmmnar (London, 1874); Dr. Abbott's Shakesperean Gra/nmar (London, 1876); Dr. Morris's Outlines of English Accidence (London, 1876) ; Professor Earle's Philology of the English Tongue (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1873) ; Mr, Kington Oliphant's Staiidard English (London, 1873); and Dr. Fitzedward Hall's Modern E?iglish (London, 1873). W. B. H. [The materials of this little volume were selected by my husband from notes of many years' extensive and varied reading, and before his death they were arranged for publication in their present form. In now conducting the book through the press I have had the assistance of kind friends to whom his memory is dear. But, deprived of his own revisal, there may be errors and imperfections that have escaped our notice, and for such I must ask the reader's considerate indulgence. E. H. BoNALV Tower, Septctnber, l88l.^ J> CONTENTS. PAGE Part I. — Vocabulary . . . . i II. — Accidence 67 III. — Syntax 127 IV. — Rhetoric 1S3 PART I. VOCABULARY. ^art L VOCABULARY. UNDER THIS HEADING ARE RANGED, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, SPURIOUS WORDS AND WORDS USED WITH MEANINGS OTHER THAN THEIR OWN. ADVANTAGE (Mid. Eng. avantage, the modem d being due to the mistaken identification of the prefix a- with Lat. ad, 'to') is the Fr. avafitage, formed by the suffix -age from avant, 'before' (Low Lat. ab ante, abante), and signifies 'a state of forwardness or advance.^ There- fore 'benefit,' 'gain,' or ' profit ' should be substituted for the second ' advantage ' in the following sentence, since it is as impossible for all men to hold a common advantage (i.e., to be all in advance one of the other) as it is for all the horses in a race to come in first : — 'Free trade equalizes advantages, making the advantage of each the advantage oi all.'' — B. ZiNCKE, Egypt of the Pharaohs (1S71), ch. iv. p. 41. \- •'■ -■ AGGRAVATE (Lat. aggravare, 'to add to the weight,' from ad, 'to,' and gravis, ' heavy ') were best restricted to its original meaning, as in ' to a^^raz/ff/if an offence. ' Its employment as a synonym for 'irritate' or .'vex,' being quite superfluous, cannot be defended by an appeal to the secondary meaning of aggravare, ' to bear heavily on or annoy ' (c/. Livy, 22, 8) or to its cognate aggrieve. M. T., in the Appendix to Sir J. Coleridge's jMemoir of KMe (2nd ed., 1S69), so employs it : — 'Some speeches . . . occasionally grated upon and aggravated him more than he could bear.' — Vol. ii. p. 599. ALLUDE (Lat. alludere, 'to play with,' 'jest,' or, rarely, 'hint at in dis- course') is wrongly used, on a ludus a nan htdetido principle, when a long description has been, or is yet to be, inflicted upon listener or reader. Lady Eastlake, in her Life of John Gibson (1870), thus pre- faces a full account of Miss Hosmer : — 'We may now allude to the only pupil [whom] Gibson ever pro- fessed to teach, and in whom he may justly be said to have raised a living monument to himself.' — Ch. ii. p. 226. ALONE (Mid. Eng. al one, written apart, and even with a word inter- vening between them, e.g., 'a/ himself ^»^,' himself alone : William of Palerne, a.D. 1340, 1. 3316) means 'quite by oneself,' and is always an ALTERNATELY — ALTERNATIVE. adjective, differing herein from only (Angl.-Sax. an-lic — one-like), ^Vvlilch is Loth an adverb and an adjective. In some cases the words may be used indifferently, ' He only was saved' being as right as ' He alone was saved ;' and in Job i. 15 they are used together : ' I only am escaped alone to tell thee. ' But, as a rule, there is a marked distinc- tion between alone and only, a distinction that must be carefully observed in translating from Latin or any other foreign language. '■Hoc jglusfeci ' is ' I did it alone, ' quite by myself ; ' unica filia ' is ' an only (adj.) daughter;' and 'de re una solmn dissident^ is ' they differ on one point only' (adv.), solely on one point, but on one point. A study of our first four examples will bear this distinction further out, and will show why alone is wrong in the last :* 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'' — St. Luke iv. 4 \<:f, 'bi brsed. a//a;;if libbenn.' — Ormuliim, AD, 1200]. ' Money which she alone [i.e., without her husband's consent], and she only [i-e., she solely, none but she], has power to draw.' ' When made from the entire wheat, bread is the only substance, milk excepted, on which the human body can alone be supported in temperate climates.' — John Storie, T/ie Dietetic Errois of the People (1877), vol. i. p. 6. \Only and alone are here rightly distinguished, though it would be better if alone followed which. Ihe same writer quotes on p. 46 these lines : — ' Come then with me, adopt the simple plan To use alone the proper food of man. For it can only health and joy afford,' — where only should precede //]. ' I have read that — " All that poets sing or grief hath known Of hopes laid waste knells in that word alone ;" but for my part I would be disposed to give the palm for an utter misery-conveying sense to that word only. "It is not good for man to be alone," but to speak of a man as being alone does not necessarily imply that he is contemptible, while to speak of him as being only any- thing does.' — A Journeyman Engineer, Some Habits, iSr'c., of the Working Classes (1867), p. 264, 'Only a Lodger.' ' She was editress [editor] of a monthly periodical, which, much to her credit, she intended should (Hone have contributions from the pens of her own sex [should have contributions from the pens of her own sex 07ily'], making it an avenue alike [alike an avenue] for the development of female talent and an opening for employment and remuneration.' — Traits of Character (i860), vol, ii. p. 321. ALTERNATELY, ALTERNATION, and ALTERNATIVE all come from the Lat. alter. With a comparative suffix, alter is ety- mologically the same as the Gr. aAAos and eVepo?, the Lat. alius, the Ger. ander, and the Eng. other ; but the fact remains that it was never * According to ' Sylvanus Urban ' an Edinburgh drinking fountain bears the inscrip- tion, ' Water is not meant for man alone,' implying that we should not neglect dumb animals, who accordingly have a trough provided them. The whiskey-loving public, however, insisting on the true meaning o{ atone, interpret this inscription by ' Water is not meant for man by itself,' i.e., undiluted. APPRECIATE. used but in speaking of two ohjects or classes of objects, and Whately rightly defines alteritative as 'a choice between two courses' (Engl. Synonyms) . The loose employment of aZ/^vv/a/Ze'^ for ' course, ' of a//^r- \ nation for 'succession,' and of alternately for 'by turns,' destroys the \ force of the Latin derivatives, obliging one, for instance, to qualify alternative with epithets such as ' only possible.' 'We were left to the z\\d\z^ oi 'Caxto. alternatives .'' — Water Lily on the Danube (1853), ch. xii. p. 129. ' One of these ///r^t" suppositions is inevitable. . . . Whichever a//?/-- native may most commend itself to our judgment,' &c. — Rev. John Macnaught, Doctrine of Inspiration (2nd ed., 1857), p. 98. ' We cannot believe that these are the only alteriimives.'' — Manchester Examiner and Times, 23rd September, 1856. ' 'For they either have to prove in the face of experiment, by some arguments not yet discovered, that their position is a consistent one, or they have to give up their position ; the only other alternative being that they should accuse the Creator of woman of a great folly.' — James Stuart, M.A., The Teaching of Science, 'Woman's Work and Woman's Culture' (1869), p. 134-5. [A very weak dilemma, with a tliird alternative, even if it were otherwise correctly put.] ' The only possible alternative, if Ireland is to be won to a cordial union with Great Britain, is the endowment of all religions or the dis- endowment of all.' — Ed. Baines, M.P., Address to electors of Leeds, Alanchester Examiner and Times, 14th September, 186S. ' Sometimes she had lodgers, who were often there also. She had an alternation [succession] of them. There was the corn merchant, the advocate, the clergyman,' &c. — James Mcetwell (1866), vol. i. p. 76. 'The world ! It is a word capable of as diverse interpretations as the thing itself — a thing by various people supposed to belong to heaven, man, or the devil, or, alternately, to all three.' — A IVoman's Thoughts about Women (1S58), ch. ix. p. 219. APPRECIATE (like Appraise, from Lat. ad, 'to,' and pretium, 'price'), in the signification of 'to set a just value on,' is well exempli- fied by an anecdote in Baring Gould's Life of the Rev. R. S. Hawker (1S76) : — 'Talking oi appreciation, as Mr. Hawker said once, the scripture- reader, Mr. Bumpus, at , came to me the other day and said, "Please, Sir, I have been visiting and advising Farmer Matthews, but he did not quite appreciate me. In fact, he kicked me downstairs."' — Ch. vii. p. 194. To this, the rightful meaning of appreciate, two secondary meanings have been added — 'to raise in value' (transitive) and 'to rise in value' (intrans.), both of which are given in Webster's Dictionary* (Engl. ed. by Barker, Lond., 1832). A correspondent of the Economist (March I, 1879) writes: — * No sneer, but the statement of an historic fact, is here intended. Like Adam im- puting the Fall to Eve, we English often charge upon America our stifis of tongue or pen, forgetting that a receiver is worse than the original nlTender. New words must be judged on their intrinsic merits, and it were strange indeed if nothing good came out of the land of Hawthorne, Emerson, Lowell, and other great English writers, too many to mention here. APPROACH — ASTUTE. 'The employment of the word appixciation to denote a rise in value is creeping into use, apparently from American sources, but is, I think, much to be deprecated. Accurate thinking, especially on economic subjects, requires unambiguous terms, and it is certainly unwise to give a second and different meaning to a familiar term if another word can be discovered. If any article, say an ounce of gold, is submitted to appreciation, should its value be found to be less than it was six months before, it may be well said that on the appreciation gold is depreciating^. Could it be equally correctly said in the same case that on the appreciation gord was appreciating? The English language possesses powers by which the idea of addition can be easily given to a word by composition, as in inc7-ease as opposed to decrease, but more clearly in surcharge, S2ipplies, surplus, surrejoinder, &c. ; so, I would submit, by the genius of our tongue, the proper word to denote the converse of depreciation is Surpreciation.' 'It need not be hinted that to say this is to depreciate knowledge and appreciate ignorance.' — Scotsman, 26th December, 1857. 'He believed that the measures of the Bank should rather be said to have prevented an appreciation, than to have caused a depreciation, of the currency. ' — Saturday Review, APPROACH (Mid. Eng. aprochen, — Old Fr. aprochier, — to 4th cen- tury Lat. (7//;'('//a;r, 'to draw near to,' from «(/, 'to,' and/r<7/t', 'near') bears properly the same meaning as its Latin original, but iniproperly is often nowadays used for address, me7noriaUse, &c., an usage on whFch was founded an amusing article in the Edinburgh Daily Review, i6th December, 1879 : — ' In possession of all the facts revealed yesterday concerning the suc- cessive " approaches" to Dr. Scott — as if he were an Afghan fort, to be got near by sap and mine and trench before he is ultimately stormed and captured — the negotiations about money matters and the rest of it,' &c. Compare a letter addressed by me to the Educatioiial News in January, 1880 : — '"Approach" vice "Address" superseded. 'Sir, — It is reported in the Educational News of last week that the Vale of Aylesbury Clergy and Church Teachers' Association have approached the Education Department for some purpose in which their interests are concerned. This is a use, or rather an abuse, of the word approach which in newspapers has of late become very common. To approach is to draw near to, either literally (in place or time) or figu- ratively. In the language of religion, nothing can be more appropriate than such phrases as "to approach the throne of grace," the idea of reverential distance and profound humility and awe being thus expressed. But in the case of provosts, magistrates, ministers ot state, and even the Education Department, the term is wholly out of place and unau- thorised by any good example. To address, to memorialise, to appeal to, to petition, are one and all more correct, and more consistent with self-respect, than is the abject self-abasement of " to ^//r^iar/;." 'W. B. H.' ASTUTE (Lat. astutus, 'crafty, cunning;' 'perhaps,' says Skeat, 'from an amplified form aZ-5 of the root ak, "to pierce,'" and so cognate AVOCATION. with acute), in English, as in Latin, is commonly used in a bad sense, but is strangely employed in Mayhew's German Life (1864) : — 'There were only two classes astute enough to wear bonnets.' Vol. i. p. 24. — ' Twin children of luxury, begotten by the astute love of having one's daughters richly dressed.' Vol. i. p. 3. — 'Jewellery which the astute stranger might fancy to constitute their principal business.' Vol. i. p. 169. AVOCATION has entered English straight from the Latin, where avocatio, avocator, and avocare {ab, 'from,' and vocare, 'to call') alike convey the notion of calling off, diverting, distracting, or interrupting, as Senectus avocat a rebus gerendis, 'Old age calls us away from the conduct of business' (ClC, Sen. 5, 15)- In this sense avocation -was exclusively employed by our writers of the seventeenth and the earlier part of the eighteenth century, being often opposed to vocation (that state to which men are called).* During the last hundred years, however, these words, as distinct etymologically as abrogate and arrogate, have become confounded — a confusion that Skeat un- willingly accepts, defining avocation by 'pursuit, employment, busi- ness,' while pointing out that the prefix a- is the Latin ab, and not ad, 'to.' With an inconsistency strange in so able a philologist, Mr. Fitzedward Hall condemns in Modern English (1873), pp. 214-16, the use of avocation for vocation, but says of avocations : 'The plural, very anomalously, inverts, in most cases, the accepted signification of the singular. On the one hand, for example, Colman and Thornton, in The Connoisseur, No. 72, use it for "impediments" ["distractions," rather]. And so does the learned Miss Carter: "'If I had not been interrupted by the headache, and many other unpleasant az'oca//c7«j-."— Letters to Miss Talbot, vol. iv. p. 117. On the other hand, it was long ago used, sometimes to denote "pursuits," "duties" [a statement by no means borne out by Mr. Hall's quotations]; and such is, I think, almost exclusively, its modern import' [a statement disproved by our own examples]. Briefly, the case is this : If avocation and vocation are to be held synonymous, English is poorer by a useful, and richer by a superfluous, term. Then, too, the following thirty-six passages become blunted, if not indeed absolutely pointless : — ' Heaven is his vocation, and therefore he counts earthly employments avocations ; except in such cases which lie, as I may say, in the marches of divinity and have connection with his calling.^ — T. Fuller, 'Traits of a Good Bishop ' in H. Rogers' Fulleriana (1856), p. 134. ' Making abatement for his military avocations, and late applying him- self to study, scarce anyone is to be preferred before him for generality of human learning.' — T. Fuller, The Holy State (ed. 1S41), p. 72. [Here used, not for 'duties,' as Mr. Hall will have it, but for ' distrac- tions' from the pursuit of learning.] * Two passages illustrating the force o{ avocation acid ot vocation respectively are : — 'It is not the search for truth which (that) exhausts him, it is the being called off from it.' — M. Pattison, Isaac Casaubon (1875), p. 493 [i-e., the avocation ; the search for truth being the vocation]. 'There is a mystical meaning in that word by which each man names his vocation; it is his catling. Something has, then, called to him.' — M. D. Conway, The Eartk- ward Pilgrimage (i.'i-]Q), p. 192, xv. 8 AVOCATION. ' In the time of health, visits, businesses, cards, and I know not how many other avocations, which they justly style diversions, do succeed one another so thick, that in the day there is no time left for the distracted person to converse with his own thoughts.' — BoYLE, Occa- sional Reflections, s. 2, med. 6. 'The youth must have more violent pleasures to employ his time ; the man loves the hurry of an active life, devoted to the pursuits of wealth or ambition ; and, lastly, old age, having lost its capacity for these avocations, becomes its own insupportable burden.' — Grove, The Spectator, No. 6o6. [Quoted by Mr. Hall, but neither 'duties' nor ' pursuits' makes such good sense as does ' distractions.'] ' When his other more momentous avocatiojis of pedantry and peda- gogueism will give him an interval from his wrath and contention,' &c. — De Foe, The Political History of the Devil (ed. 1S40), p. 223.* ' Devotion is retirement from the world he has made to Him alone : it is to withdraw from the avocations of sense, to yield ourselves up to the influence of the divine presence.' — Bishop Butler (1726), ser- mon xiv. p. 278. ' I thought it my duty to complain of these frequent avocations'' — (interruptions). — Dr. Johnson, Rambler, Y^o. 132, ' The Difficulty of Educating a Young Nobleman.' ' I will not part with him till the spring, when he intends to plunge into the avocations of husbandry, which will at once employ and amuse his attention.' — Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (Works, 3rd ed., by R. Anderson, i8o6\ vol. vi. p. 394. ' Ever since we came hither, he has been remarkably assiduous in his attention to our family ; an attention which, in a man of his indolence and avocations, I should have thought altogether odd.' &c. — Id., ih., p. 103. ' The impetuous pursuits and avocations of youth have formerly hin- dered me from observing those rotten parts of human nature, which now appear so offensively [offensive] to my observation.' — Id., ib., p. 116. ' All the time he could spare from the avocations of his employment he spent in educating his daughter.' — Id., ib., p. 188. ' He proposed ... to find pleasure and employment for his wife in the management and avocations of her own family.' — Id., ib., p. 322. 'Some avocation deeming it to die.' — YoUNG, Night Thoughts, No. 4. [Here used in literal sense of 'calling away' or 'summons.'] ' Here (in St. Kikia) all the pernicious influence of evil company, all avocations from the great business of the spiritual life, all the great flatteries of sense and tune, are almost totally excluded.' — Rev. K. Macaulay, Hist, of St. Kilda (1764), p. 61. Gibbon, in his Autobiography, says : 'The slightest motive of lazi- ness or indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad, was allowed as a worthy impediment.' — Quoted in National Review, No. 3, January, 1856, p. 11. And again : 'The delay was owmg partly to the circumstances of my way of life, and avocations, and partly to my own fault.' — lb., ut siip., p. 22. * It is needless to repeat all Mr. Hall's examples, but it may be safely asserted that, with a single exception quoted below, none of those prior to 1750 bears out his statement that avocations was long ago used sometimes to denote ' pursuits,' ' duties.' AVOCATION. ' The ten or twelve years of St. Basil's monastic life were disturbed by long and frequent avocations.' — Dccl. and Fall of Rom. Emp., c. 37, 4, 395, note. And again: 'By the avocations of the schism, by foreign arms, and popular tumults, Urban the Sixth and his three successors were often compelled to interrupt their residence in the Vatican.' — c. 70, 8, 419. ' I never blended business of that kind with the functions of State, that no avocations might call off my attention from the duties of that post to which I was promoted.' — Melmoth's Pliny, 10, 4 (20). [The Latin is: 'Ut toto animo delegate mihi officio vacarem.'] 'You will, I am sure, not make a parade of affliction, but speedily resume the avocatiojis of your employment, and seek in the service of humanity the purest interruptions of agonizing thoughts.' — Mr. Taylor to Dr. Gooch, on the death of his wife, 181 1. Quoted in Quarterly Review, 1844, vol. 73, p. 57. [A fine use of the word.] ' Let us detain you (if you do come) as long as your other avocations will permit.' — Syd. Smith, let. 125, vol. ii. p. 139. [This is allow- able, and is probably correct.] ' Professional avocations, the going with my family abroad, and various other circumstances, prevented me from this undertaking.' — Preface by T. Forster, M.D., p. vii., to Letters of Locke, &^c. (1830). ' Amid the avocations of business, and the variety of other pursuits in which his taste or his duty led him to engage, the design (of writing the life of Lorenzo de' Medici) slumbered, but was not forgotten.' — Life of W. Roscoe (1833), vol. i. ch. v. p. 145. [Right here, by accident.] * I was, and am still, tormented by hourly intrusions and avocations.^ — B. G. NiEBUHR to George Grote, \x\. Life of George Grote (iSj^), ch. v. p. 52. ' I have a good apology for writing to you so late about your " His- tory," namely, that the (ZZ'^(:(z/w;w of London at one time, and a tour on the continent afterwards, gave me no leisure till lately.' — Henry Hallam to George Grote, 1846, m Life of George Grote (!?>'] t,), ch. xix. p. 164. ' I feel that . . . consequently such pursuits [dramatic composition] come to be less readily combined with other avocations. Other avoca- tions I am unable to discard.' — H. TaY'LOR, Pref. p. vi. to Notes from Life (1854). [Here rightly used, as appears more clearly from the context ; but at p. 74 he says : ' No one interest can be equally avail- able for opposite avocations' — an obvious misuse.] ' Our worldly professions, our worldly cares, the daily transactions of life, will not appear loss of time, nor avocations at variance with our principal work.' — TucKER, Light of Nature, quoted in Morning Clouds, 1857, p. 125. [Here the true meaning of the word seems to be recognised ; but the author o{ Morning \?, less exact, when at p. 116 he says : ' The hours which day after day are devoted to careful reading on secular subjects may appear to you withdi-aivn from higher avoca- tions, from prayer, and meditation, and religious reading.'] 'There are those who, in addition to the common practice of assembling on the Lord's day, the first day of the week, also remember the seventh day to keep it holy, separate from all s&cvXzx avocations.' — W. J. Fox, Works (1865), vol. iii. p. 61 ('Christianity,' sermon iv.). lO AVOCATION. [Here ^avocations'' may be defended, as the strict observance of the Sabbath may be taken to regard the secular -vocations of the Fridays as avocations on the seventh day.] ' There is a sort of prescriptive restriction on its ministers of com- bining any avocation with their stated duties except that of teacliers of youth.' — Id., ib., p. 279. [Here, again, teaching may be fairly called an avocatio7i, which calls away from preaching. But for examples of misuse of the word by this very writer, see below.] ' A very small fraction of its members ever enters the House of Peers ; the remainder are kept away by more tempting avocations of pleasure or of business,' &c. — Times, 12th June, 1867. ' I kept resolutely out of all court and diplomatic avocations, and saw Paris, and Letronne, and Burnouf,' — BuNSEN, Memoirs (Eng. trans., 186S), vol. i. p. 527. [C/. 'I hope that such courage will not be wanting in my own proper vocation.^ — /(/., ib., vol i. p. 206.] '"Every man," as Capt. Fred. Ingham approvingly quotes, "should know two things — a vocation and an avocation." The number of Americans who find their avocation in book-collecting has increased enormously within the last few years.' — New York S.W. Tribune, 22nd October, 1S69. ' If he worked as hard — morning, noon, and night — as your friend, he could not make such a glossary in less than seven years. But, considering his avocations, I believe his case is hopeless.' — George Chalmers, 1809, to A. Constable, Memoirs of A. C. (1873), ^o'- i- p. 432. ' Let your authorship be a pastime, not a trade ; let it be your avoca- tion, not your vocation.'' — F. Jacox, Aspects of Authorship (1872), p. 170, X. ' He tells Consuelo how overborne and overdone he is by his vocation and avocations,'' &c. — Id., ib., p. 314. ' The National Guard having his own affairs to attend to, is not likely, even with the best intentions, to devote himself so closely to the soldier's business as to become a thoroughly effective instrument in defending the country against invasion. Soldiering is with him not a vocatiojt, but an avocation.^ — Daily News, 25th August, 187 1. 'His churchmanship is the essence of tlie man; his profession of statesmanship or of law is little more than a secular avocation that does not engage his heart.' — Political Portraits (1873), p. 163, 'Lord Sel- borne.' [Used rightly and with discrimination.] ' Most men, perhaps especially eminent men, have a hobby, some absorbing object, the pursuit of which forms the most natural avocation of their mind. . , . A man's mental powers are thus refreshed and invigo- rated for the more serious and engrossing, if less congenial, occupation \vocation\ of his life.' — Henry Trimen, 'Mr. J. S. Mill's Botanical Studies,' p. 28 of Notices of J. S. M., from The Examiner, 1873. ' In the chapter on vocations and avocations, Mrs. Webster, after remarking upon the oft-forgotten but widely-different meaning [mean- ings] of the two words, sets forth in a feeling manner, no doubt from personal experience, the unnumbered trials of the literary man or woman, arising from the way in which their time is supposed to be the property of everyone who chooses to make demands on it, because brain- work "is carried on in the worker's private home [? house], with AVOCATION. X I no visible reminder of customer or client," and is supposed to be " so easy — what everybody can do at any time;" while in truth "the slave of the pen" is jnst the one who most suffers from such injustice, seeing that ideas are evanescent, and a train of thought is not to be conjured up at will. The sketch of the unfortunate woman whose vocation may be said to consist oi avocations, and whose duty it seems to be " to let her acquaintances make tatters of her time, and to make tatters of theirs in return," can scarcely be called a caricature.' — ' A Housewife's Opinions,' in The Spectator, May lO, 1879, p. 599. ' I might have given to my ordinary avocations, and what I deemed my divine vocations, a more practical and eftectual shape.' — William Maccall, Via Crucis (1S80), p. 41. The above examples, extending over more than two centuries, shovir avocation used with more or less propriety, both in the singular and plural, but oftener in the latter. This is but natural, since, though a man has but one vocation (the church, law, medicine, &c.), he may have many avocations, in the sense of 'diversions' (as fishing, music, and cards), or in the sense of 'distractions' (as illness, losses, and cares). The earliest instance of the misuse of avocation for vocation does not occur till 1724, and even this stands removed by nearly a hundred years from every similar blunder that we have lighted on. It is cited by Mr. Hall, who brings forward other examples from Mrs. Inchbald, Godwin, Sydney Smith, Bulwer Lytton ( The Coming Race, 6th ed. , 1872, p. 195), &c. See also F. Jacox's Shakspere Diversions (1875), pp. 353-57. note. 'I am now grown old in the avocatiotis oi the gown.' — Tracts by Bishop Warbiirton (1724), p. 15. 'They did not follow agriculture as their sole avocatiott, but they prosecuted it during the intervals of peace, and in the vacations of the Forum.' — DuNLOP's Hist, of Rotnan Lit., 2, 8. And again: 'The patricians who, in the city, were so distinct from the plebeian orders, were thus confounded with them in the country in the common avocations of husbandry.' — lb., 2, 7. 'The profession (the bar) itself may occasionally afford a respite from its more rigid avocations, and invite of its own accord to a temporary deviation from its more dreary pursuits.' — Sheil's Legal and Polit. Sketches (1855), vol. i. p. 63. [Wrongly used. But at p. 337, he says : ' He conceived his office to be incompatible with any matrimonial avocations.'' Here it is more correctly used, probably by chance.] Mrs. Stowe, in Dred, uses the word several times, and with different degrees of propriety: 'He went into a lawyer's office, where, by a pleasant fiction, he was said to be reading law, because he was occa- sionally seen at the office during the intervals of his most [more?] serious avocations of gambling and horse-racing and drinking.' — Ch. iv. [These may be called avocations, inasmuch as they called him from his proper business, but then he made them his vocations.'\ Again : ' The roving and unsettled nature of John Cripps' avocations and locations,' &c. — Ch. viii. p. 79. Again: 'But he invariably retreated from every one of his avoca- tions, in his own opinion a much abused man.' — P. 79. Again: 'He actually was made to believe that he had at last received his true vocation.'' — P. 79. 12 AVOCATION. ' Me is called away from his serious avocations so often, and his attention distracted with such irrelevant matters, that he is indignant.' Id., Our Charlie (1864), p. 6. It does not appear that Mrs. Stowe has caught the distinction. ' In eighteen months slie was glad that his avocations at chambers left her perfectly free,' &c. — E. M. Whitley, Friends of Bohemia {1857), vol. ii. p. 123. [Less questionably correct than usual.] ' As soon as they were established in their new residence, and her father had entered on the routine of his avocations, she arranged the little household as exactly as if her husband had been there.' — DiCKENS, A Tale of Two Cities, book iii. ch. viii. ' He goes amongst men in their daily avocations, and he promotes their loving one another as brethren,' &c. — W. J. Fox, Works (1865), vol. iii. p. 278. ' There are many other avocations which would harmonise far better with either than they do with each other.' — /(/. , ib., iii. 280. ' A life wholly devoted to duty is very easily diverted from ambition; and that of M. Reinhard was entirely taken up by his professional avo- cations, while he never was influenced in the slightest degree by an interested motive or a pretension to premature advancement.' — H. L. BULWER, Historical CJiaractcrs (186S), vol. i. p. 429. [Should be vocations, yet something might be urged on the other side in this special case.] ' Within the range of the daily avocation.'' — Miss WoLSTENHOLME, Wonian^s Work and Woniaii's Cnltiire (1869), p. 291. 'At Lawrence, where 35,000 girls are employed in the mills, I saw thousands of them at their looms, but could scarcely realize that this was their daily and hourly avocation.'' — David Macrae, The Ameri- cans at Home (1870), vol. ii. p. 279. 'Had Miss Hosmer's avocations permitted it, no one would have ventured to compete with her in editing the story of his life.' — Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson (1870), ch. ii. p. 230. [Of, at least, doubtful propriety.] ' Possible for men to pursue their ordinary avocations undisturbed by indignation or pity.' — Jn. Ruskin, Aratra Fentelici {i8y2), led. \. 'In our time the profession of letters is placed with other polite avocations' — {e.g:, those of clergymen, lawyers, and physicians). — jN. MORLEY, Voltaire (iSj2), p. 117. ' What secular avocation on earth was there for a young man (whose friends would not get him an appointment) which was at once gentle- manly, lucrative, and to be followed without special knowledge?' — George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872), bk. vi. vol. iii. p. 234, c. 56. 'Even the recreation (golf) of St. Andrews partakes of what is and ought to be its peculiar character and avocation.'— Henkv Cock- BURN, Memorials (1874), vol. ii. p. 66. 'I can write no more, for I am called to a less pleasant avocation.' — Charlotte Bronte, Letter quoted, on p. 47 of T. Wemyss Raid's Monograph on Charlotte B7-onte (1877). 'The pecuniary and other loss due to the interruption of daily avocations.' — Jn. Sully, Foi-tnightly Review, November, 1878, p. 717, 'Civilisation and Noise.' CALCULATE — CAPACIOUS. 1 3 ' Under [in] these circumstances the body feeds upon itself, only miserable sensations are alive, and the mind has neither leisure nor wish to pursue its own avocations.'' — WILKINSON, The Htujian Body, (Sr'c, p. 165, ch. 3, 'Assimilation.' CALCULATE, 'to reckon' (Lat. calculare, 'to reckon by help of small pebbles' or calculi, dimin. oi calx, 'chalk'), had the secondary meaning assigned it even so early as Johnson's day, of ' to adjust or project for any certain end.' It is very doubtful whether the word has ever thus been used transitively, as ' Nature calculates some men to high purposes ;' Johnson, at any rate, furnishes but one example, and that of the passive-participle form : ' The reasonableness of religion clearly appears, as it tends so directly to the happiness of men, and is upon all accounts, calculated iox our benefit.' This calculated, defined by Webster 'as adapted by design,' bears nowadays a heavy load of ill-packed meanings, being used in Chambers's History of English Literature (pp. 145, 223) for 'likely,' and in the following three pas- sages for 'fit,' 'able,' and 'suited': — 'He was short, small, meagre, and appeared calculated [fit?] for no other purpose than to augment the number of the Efeian's victims.' — Hue's Travels in Thibet, vol. i. p. 81. 'It is not every painter who [that] is calculated ]jCa\^ to show to so much advantage,' &c. — Q\-LZ\l^\%-x'' 'S, Life of Etty (1865), vol. ii. p. 277. [This mistake occurs oftener than once in Mr. Gilchrist's book.] 'Mr. Campbell's intention to write the lives of certain of the English poets— a task for which he is most admirably calculated' [suited]. — Arch, Constable, Memoir (1873), vol. i. p. 178. CALIGRAPHY, or CALLIGRAPHY (Gr. *caWiiypa<^.a, from prefix. KaAAi = (caAds, 'beautiful,' and 7pa<^eii', 'to write'), is sometimes used, not for 'fair penmanship,' as its etymology demands, but for simple ' pen- manship,' or even for a ' villainous scrawl,' as here : — ' Brodie made a scrawl on paper only to be equalled by the caligraphy of Elliotson.' — J. F. Clarke, Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1874), p. 326. A similar coupling of mcongruous terms is involved in such phrases as 'a wretched system of OWYYLOgraphy'' (Gr. 6p8os, 'right,' and ypi^etv, 'to spell'); while, on the other hand, '_/?«<; ca/Zgraphy ' and 'correct or/y^^graphy ' are tautological. Cf. : — ' Good orthography is as necessary as good caligraphy.'' — The Boys'' Own Paper, 17th January, 1880, p. 236, Notices to Correspondents. CAPACIOUS, according to Prof. Skeat, is an ill-formed word, seeming to come from a Fr. capacieux or Lat, capaciosus, words that have no existence ; and having for real source the crade form capaci- of the Lat. adj. capax, 'able to contain,' = capere, 'to hold.' Its meaning, any- how, is identical with that of capax, which we find applied to tvna, pharetra, circus, doiiius, &c., in every case conveying the idea of 'hold- ing.' The Irishman defined a net as 'holes tied together by string;' his blunder is almost matched in Mr. G. Hodder's Memories of my Time (1870), p. 321 : — ' A capacious rent had been made in a part of his costume.' [This is not the only instance in which this writer uses capacious falsely for large. Y 14 CLIMAX. CLIMAX (Gr. 'ladder,' from kXCvciv, 'to slope'), both in Greek and Latin, was the name of 'a figure in rhetoric that proceeds by degrees from one thing to another,'* to borrow the definition given in Kersey's Dictionary (2nd ed., 1715). Neither Johnson nor Webster recognized the modern use of climax in the sense of acme (Gr. 'point or edge,' from root fly^, 'to pierce'), a use as wrong as it is popular, though sanctioned even by Professor Skeat, with whom the word means 'highest degree.' As well might 'ascending scale^ mean the top note in a keyboard, or death be signified by ' dec/ining years.' In two only of our exam[)les does climax seem to bear its rightful sense of 'ascent;' in the next three acme, or an equivalent, is properly used where 'summit' is intended; last come nine instances of this almost universal error : — 'That complete union wljich makes the advancing years a climax.'' — George Eliot, Aliddlcmarch, Finale (1872), vol. iv. pt. viii. p. 358 \i.e., apparently: 'which makes us ascend, and not run down the hill']. 'The principal features of the measure are three: First, the three- stage process of granting a new licence, the assent of the Home Secretary being the y?«rt//;'(J(r^J'i' or climax; second, the almost com- plete elimination of any right of interference or control on the part of the ratepayers ; third, the novel manner and scale of punishment devised for infractions of the law, and the way in which these infrac- tions are to be watched and detected.' — Daily News, 3rd May, 1872. [A 'getting upstairs 'hardly outdone by Thackeray's Miss MacWhirter, but indicating the writer's dim perception of the word's true sense.] 'Epistolary novel-writing reached the acme of its popularity with Richardson's tales.' — Miss JuliaKavanagh, French Women of Letters {1862), vol. ii. p. 317, 'Madame Riccoboni.' 'The sovereign contempt of all speculation — simply as speculation — reaches its acme in the Essay on Bacon.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library, third series (1879), p. 295. ' In it, and by it, in our opinion, his genius, if not his fame, reached the cidmi7iating point.' — A. Hayward, Essays {\%']%), vol. i. p. 103, 'S. Rogers.' Climax for Acme. — 'To generalize on misery fatal to thousands of individuals, among whom there is no mutual compensation, is the climax of insult to their sufferings.' — Sir R. Phillips, Golden Rules for Bankers (1826), p. 77, and also p. 39. 'If any man did make such a remark [as that evil would work its own cure], it was a climax of political apathy.' — Sir R. Phillips, Golden Rules for Bankers (1826), p. 39. See also p. 77. 'When philosophic candour and intelligence are supposed to have hit their final climax in the doctrine that everything is both true and false at the same time.' — Jn. Morley, Voltaire (1872), p. 9, 'Pre- liminary.' 'The glories of the age of Louis XIV, were the climax of a set of ideas.'— /(^., p. 26, 'Prelim ' * Cf.: 'These are ascending stairs [ = this is a climax] — a good voice, winning manners, plain speech, chastened, however, by the schools into correctness ; but we must come to the main matters, of power of statement — know your fact, hug your fact.' — R. W. Emerson, Letters and H octal Aims (1876), p. 115, ' Eloquence.' CONDIGN — CONDONE IS 'By all manner of means read " Nightmare Abbey" — the climax of praise — it is short.'- Miss M. R. Mitford, Letters and Lije, second series (1872), p. 42. ' Oratory ... is proverbially rare among men of our nation, though when it does exist it seems to reach sometmies to the climax of power and grandeur.' — F. P. Cobbe, Theol. Rev., K^x\\, 1876, p. 260. 'The over-education of Greece has now reached its climax.'' — LEWIS Sergeant, Neiu Greece (1878), p. 56. 'They are immortal in dark power and insight and reality; not only the very cli?nax of human evil, but the most characteristic types of French vice.' — Edin. Rev., October, 1878, p. 552. 'All these reached their climax in the £maux et Camees, first pub- lished in 1856.'— G. Saintsbury, 'TheophileGautiet,'in^«0''^^<'/'2'«'«« Britannica (9th ed., 1879), vol. ix. CONDIGN comes through the Fr. condigne from the Lat. condignus (mtensitive prefix C07i- and digniis 'worthy,' akin to dectis, 'esteem,' = root dak, ' to worship '), and means, like its Latin original, ' well- merited.' So Fabyan, in his Chronicle (vol. i. c. 200), speaks of ' a co'ndy'^ie price ; ' and More, in a letter to his daughter, Margaret Roper (More's Life of Sir Thomas M., p. 140), of '■condign praise,' thelattef also using the phrase 'grace oi cotidignity,' i.e., deserved grace. Our _age, however, conscious it may be of its own demerits, never applies cqndignhni to 'punishment ;' and hence, acquiring the false signification of 'severe,' condign is often tautologically coupled with ' deserved.'* ' There was a Parliamentary surrender at discretion to stop further inquiry, and save the plotters, big and little, from condign and most deserved ^nmshratnt.' — Recollections, dj'c, ofjn. 0'Co7tnell,Esq.,RLP., vol. i. p. 155. '"He deserves some condign punishment," cried Mrs. Grantham, severely.' — Mrs. L. Linton, Lizzie Lorton (1866), ch. i. p. 37. ' Practical joking does not deserve condign punishment the less because it often succeeds in escaping it.' — Saturday Rev., 8th June, 1S67. ' The most trivial error of judgment, or the slightest failure of memory, on the part of his sons, was visited by the father with punishment as condign, as if the venial faults of childhood had been the deliberate sins of maturer years.' — J. C. YoUNG, Memoir of C. Af. Young (1871), vol. i. ch. i. p. 10. CONDONE (Lat. condonare, 'to present, give up, or pardon,' from con, 'wholly,' and donare, 'to give') bears properly the single meaning of 'forgive,' but with the authors of our modern Blunderland has Become a portmanteau compound of 'compensate,' and 'atone for,' e.g.,m:— 'The abolition of the income tax . . , more than ro«(/(j«^j for the turmoil of a general election.' — Newspaper Correspondent. 'There are plenty of places on the Continent where an income of ;^3,500 a year will condotie almost any offence, and it is idle to suppose * Similarly ' acuteness ' and ' poignancy ' are employed by themselves, as though they necessarily implied the notion of sorrow, in — ' His long sickness made his friends look on his release not with the acuteness and poignancy [of what?] which some bereavements call forth.' — Traits of Character (i860), vol. ii. p. 273. 1 6 CONSTANT. that a man who is sufficiently hardened to deliberately traffic in the infamy of a weak and guilty woman cares much for the opinion of those whose opinion is worth respect.' — Echo, August, 1871. ' Lady Drum hoped that those dangerous ideas about wild love- affairs being condoned by an after-marriage with a substitute chosen by relatives would not be translated into the uncongenial atmosphere of Scotland.' — W. Black, A Daughter of Heth (7th ed., 1871), vol. ii. p. 7. 'There was a certain vague earnestness of belief about him which qualified and condoned the shrewd and sometimes jocular looks of his father.' — Id., Madcap Violet (1877), ch. xxxiii. p. 297. ' Mrs. Dowse, in a worn and feeble voice, the defects of which were almost condoned by her cleverness of expression, sang all sorts of old and familiar Irish songs.' — Id., ib., ch. xxxiii. p. 302. ' His atrocious taste in dress might have been condoned by modesty of mien.' — AIc7i and Mamie rs in Parliament (1874), ch. v. p. 193. ' The crowd of idle, profligate courtiers, who felt their own vices condoned by a sovereign's example.' — Bossuet and his Contemporaries (1874), p. 243. ' The little mistake he made in allowing his name to appear as a member of the committee which supported the election of Sir D. Corrigan for Dublin, has been wisely condoned by the Conservatives, and the authorities have done well in saying nothing about it, and in letting bygones by bygones.' — May/air, 27th February, 1877, p. Ii. [This is right, but two pages later we have : — 'The fact of the hon. member's having since dined with the Prince of Wales did not condone his original offence against the conveniences' (convenances).] ' To persist in neglecting to have a child vaccinated is a breach of parental duty which nothing should be permitted to condone.'' — Times, April 5, 1878, Weekly edition, ' Compulsory Vaccination.' ' Could he imagine that such a tribute as he had laboured to collect would not have condoned the past ; that bygones would not have been bygones, and, in fact, would not have rendered a truly generous mind ten times more disposed to forgive and forget.' — Tracy Turnerelli, ' The People's Tribute * (to Lord Beaconsfield). ' Osman Pacha's gallant defence at Plevna was held to have condoned the offences of the Turkish Government against humanity.' — P. W. Clayden, Engla7id Under Lord Beacon f eld (1880), ch. xiv. p. 352. ' Its authority is used by them to condone the practice of bringing up a family of children in equal luxury, with the understanding that the means by which that style of living is supported will belong to the eldest son.' — Arthur Arnold, Free Land {18S0), ch. vii. p. 96. CONSTANT (Fr., from Lat. constans, the participle oi constare, a com- pound of «/;«, 'together,' and j-/rt;r, 'to stand') means 'firm' or 'stead- fast,' a meaning illustrated by the faggot of the yEsopian fable. Con- stancy, the noun, is rarely used but in this its legitimate sense, but r<'«j-/(7w/ and (r(7»j-/««/'/j/ are loosely employed for 'frequently 'and 'ofteji.' Thanks to this 'constant blunder' an English clergyman looks stead- fastly at a bull-fight, and yet protests against its cruelties : — ' I have constantly seen one bull kill six or seven horses, and have heard of one that has killed as many as seventeen. — H. J. Rose, Untrodden Spain (1875), vol. i. p. 374. CONVERSION. ly CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, 'a turning round,' from co7t, 'wholly,' and vcrtcrc, ' to turn'), in logic, signifies that the terms of a proposition are transposed, the subject becoming predicate, the predicate subject, e.g., 'Some boasters are cowards ; therefore, conversely. Some cowards are boasters.' It is in this its true logical, as also mathematical,* sense that converse is used in our first examples : — 'To have wit it is necessary to be endowed with a good understanding. The converse of this proposition is not true.' — Huetiaiza. Selections fi-ovi the French Anas (1797), vol. ii. p. 170. ' It is true, the object of laughter is always inferior to us ; but then the cojiverse is not true — that eveiyone who is inferior to us is an object of laughter.' — Syd. Smith, Moral Phil., lect. xi. p. 136. ' Though it be true that every religious man must be honest, the co7i- verse does not follow, that every honest man must be religious.' — Dr. Chalmers, Comme7-cial So-motts {^\h ed., 1820), dis. ii.p.57. ' When Tennyson makes Ulysses say, "I am a part of all that I have seen," it ought to be rather the converse — "What I have seen becomes a part of me.'" — Mrs. Jameson, Commonplace Book {i?i^/\.), 30, p. 33. ' "A pudding," Bysshe said, dogmatically, " is a prejudice. I have wished that the converse of this proposition were true, and that a pre- judice was a pudding ; and then, according to the judgment of my more enlightened young friends, I should never have been without one.'"— T. J. Hogg, Life of Shelley (1858). ' No one who can speak fluently feels the least difficulty in under- standing fluent speech. But the coiiverse is not at all true.' — A. J. Ellis, On the Acquisition of Languages {1875), p. 11. ' "Give to no unproportioned thought his act" (Hamlet) is a negative injunction, to which may be appended an affirmative and a converse of equal truth. "Give to each well-proportioned thought his act" is the affirmative ; the converse (if it can be so called) is, "Give your thoughts their acts, and they will have thereby the better chance to be well- proportioned." ' — H. Taylor, Notes from Books, p. 120, 'Words- worth's Sonnets.' In this last passage cojiveise is used with some respect at least to its- proper signification, but in our next examples it is confounded with reverse,^nverse, or offosite,'\ words of a widely different meaning : — * In Barlow's Mathentatical Dictionary . er; where a = aye, ever, ge is a common prefix, and hwaeper is Eng. whether.^ By the almost unanimous consent of grammarians either, as a distributive adjective, always i-etains the notion of duahty ; any one, therefore, should take its place in the following passages : — ' I should think myself happy if I could be admitted into your pro- tection and service as house-steward, clerk, butler, or bailiff, for either of which places I think myself tolerably well qualified,' — Smollett, Humphrey Clinker {^orks, 3rd ed,, by R, Anderson, 1806), vol, vi, p, 176. ' I need not pause here to prove the personality of the Tempter (Dr. Vaughan's own phrase !) — a personality which I do not hesitate to say is as distinctly put forward on the face of Holy Scripture as that of either (does he mean "any otie" ?) of the Persons of the adorable Trinity.' — Dr. Vaughan, quoted and commented upon by Dr, Donald- son, Christian Orthodoxy (1857), App. ii. p. 147. ' There have been thi-ce famous talkers in Great Britain, either of whom would ilhistrate what I say about dogmatists well enough for my purpose.' — O. W. Holmes, The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872), P- 278. Concerning the usage of ^zV/^^r and «^22'//<'r as conjunctions, it seems to be generally conceded* that these words, although originally con- templating no more than a duality, may be freely extended to any number of alternatives, as in — ' As for Baynard, neither his own good sense, nor the dread of indi- gence, nor the consideration of his children, has been offeree sufficient to stimulate him,' &c. — Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (Works, 3rd ed., by R. Anderson, 1806), vok vi. p. 325. ' The crowd had parted, and had made a circle elsewhere, and in the centre of it stood a man quite as noble [as], and more remarkable than either Sir Lionel, the Rector, or Martin,' — HENRY KiNGSLEY, Mademoiselle Mathilde (1868), vol. ii. p. 79. ' There [in the Bible], indeed, is something for the mind to grapple with, either in logic, in learning, or in imagination.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol, iii, p. 281, [For either read whether. '\ * By Mr. Fitzedward Hall {Modern English, p. 197), Professor Bain (Coiiipanion to Higher English Grammar, p. 146), &c., but not by Landor : — ' " Penetrated the uttermost recesses ;" he means the innermost. " Between vanity, methodism, and love ;" between is only for two, hy and twain. " Neither seen, heard, nor felt:" here again neither ■2C^^X\t% to two, not more.' — Biography of W. S. Landor, by Jn. Foster (1869), vol. ii. p 530. The following analogous employment of hal/is, certainly intolerable : — ' In his ranting way, half-poetical, half-inspired, half-idiotic, Coleridge began to console me.'— B. R. Havdon to Miss Mitford, Memoirs of Hay don (1S76), vol. i. p. 93. [Here are three halves! as in the Irish translationof Gallia omnis,' &c. 'All Gaul is quartered into three halves.'] ELIMINATE. 23 ' For surer sign had followed, either hand, Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.' Tennyson, Morte d' Arthur. Another question with regard to the use of either is raised by a correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Press, 27th Feb., 1858: — Another Conspiracy to Murder. ' I was surprised and sorry that Dr. Hodgson in his interesting and instructive lecture on " Improprieties in Speech and Writing," at the schoolroom of the Church of the Saviour, on P'riday evening, did not notice the constant use of the word '■'cither'''' instead of "each,'''' especially by newspaper writers. "Either" refers \.o one of two things.' " Each" to two things taken severally. One chair I may place on either side of the table I please. Tivo chairs I may place on each side of the table. Yet we are continually reading such phrases as " eit/ier side of the street was lined with the police ;" "on cither i\dQ of the throne was a chair of state;" "on either side of her Majesty stood," &c. Surely in all these cases the word " ^ac/i" should be used and not "either." There really seems a "conspiracy to murder" unfortunate "each," and "eliminate" or cast it out of the English language altogether. — Your obedient servant, F. B. B.' Mr. Mason has sufficiently answered this protest in his English Grammar (17th ed., 1874), p. 55, where he says: — 'Either originally meant both or each of tivo ; as " On either side one" (John xix. 18) ; " On either side of the river" (Rev. xxii. 2).' ELIMINATE (Fr., from Lat. eliminare, 'to put forth from the thres- hold, expel,' compounded of ^, 'forth,' and limin-, stem ol liinen, ' threshold ') bears, says C. Mansfield Ingleby, in JVotes and Queries (first ser., vol. ix., 1854, p. 119), the 'signification, whether sought from Latin usage and etymology, or from the works of English mathematicians, of "to turn out of doors," "to oust," or, as we say in the midland counties, "to get shut of." Within the last seven or eight years, however, this valuable spoil of dead Latinity has been strangely perverted, and, through the ignorance or carelessness of writers, it has bidden fair to take to itself two significations utterly distijnct from its derivation, viz., "to elicit"* and to "evaluate." . . . Be it remembered that the word obtained general currency from the cir- cumstance of its being originally admitted into mathematical works, there signifying the process of causing a function to disappear from an equation, the solution of which would be embarrassed by its presence. In other works the vrord elimination has but one correct signification, viz., "the extrusion of that which is superfluous or irrelevant."' The Saturday Revic'tv (5th September, 1S68, p. 314) protests against the use of eliminate in any but its mathematical sense : — 'Mr. Horsman's "first proposal is to eliminate ihe Bishops." If ever anyone skilled in the English language is destined to die of a word in philologic pain, that dreadful word eliminate will be the * This use o{ eliminate reminds one of a story told of Garrick. ' I think.' an actor said to him, ' that / struck out some beauties in my part.' ' 1 think you struck them all out,' was the reply. 24 ELIMINATE. death of some of us. Eliviinate is to take out of two sides of an equa- tion a quantity common to both. If Mr. Horsman meant to say that he wanted to banish, to get rid of, to expel the bishops, why did he not say so? He does not want to ehminate them, but to turn them out ; and to turn them out is easier to understand than to eliminate.' This is too rigorous, eliminate, as we shall show, being often used, both with propriety and effect, by non-mathematical writers. To 'eliminate the bishops' is not perhaps a phrase to be commended, but it does not involve the same blunder as the Weekly Jonrftars— 'We purpose, with the view chiefly oi eliminating the truth.' On this. Dr. F. R. Lees observes, in his History of a Bltmder: Letter to J. B. Goiigh (1858), p. 12 : — ' The purpose is to botch up a blunder. In what way? Why — by eliminating the truth ! Very proper plan for such a pur- pose. I need not tell a person versed in good English (even American- English) that eliminate Aots not mean to evolve, but signifies to THRUST OUT OF DOOR— to expel— to throw off. For once the Weekly has stumbled upon a true expression — by the accident of ignorant imita- tion of philosophical language.* Eliminate is rightly used in its literal sense in our first example, and in its metaphorical sense in the next fourteen examples, though a simpler word might sometimes have been advantageously employed. Then follow instances where 'elicit,' 'sift,' &c., have superseded the word's true meaning : — ' While revolving, whether instant elimination, enforced by kicks, might not be the most impressive.'— And. Halliday, Every Day Papers (1865), p. 117, ' Nobody's Dog.'* ■Culture, in so far as it affects the relation of the mind to the objects of thought, may be said to consist in the continual eli7nination of the accidental from the necessary.' — Clyde's Greek Grammar, preface, p. viii. _ ' The preparatory step of the discussion was, therefore, an elimina- tion of these less precise and appropriate significations, which, as they could at best only afford a remote genus and difference, were wholly incompetent for the purpose of a definition.' — Sir W. Hamilton, article on ' Logic,' in Edinburgh Review, April, 1833. ' Many philosophers had eliminated matter per se . . . from our knowledge; but . . . they were unable to eliminate it from our igno- rance. In point of fact the very door which shut them out of our know- ledge opened for them a refuge under the cover, or within the pale, of our ignorance.'— J. F. Ferrier, Instit, of Metaph. (2nd ed., 1856), prop. v. bk. ii. p. 420. '^//w/«a/z«j^ the cases of insanity and sudden passion, we find an immense mass of deliberate suicides.' — Westm. Rev., July, 1857, p. 58. * Compare, in French. ' II avail pousse du pied . . . I'humanite enti&re hors de lui. II venait d'elimmer le monde.'— Victor Hugo, Les Travailleiirs de la Mer (1866), vol. ii. p. 73, 1. 6, ch. 6. ' Shut out' would here exactly translate iliminer, which could hardly be so literally rendered in the following passage : — ' Rien de plus facile que A'l'liminer une science, lorsqu'on supprime purement et simplement les probU'mes qu'elle soulfeve, que Ton tient pour non avenus tons les faits qu'elle a gtablis et les ventes qu'elle a demontrees.' — Paul Javet, La Crise Piiilo- sophiqtie (1865), p. 98 (of M. Comte's System). ELIMINATE. 25 ' The salts and compounds of urea are eliminated by other excreting surfaces than those of the kidneys.'— Dr. Laycock, sect. 7, on Princi- ples and Methods of Med. Observation and Research (1S56), p. 202. 'Of course what I blamed is wholly eliminated'' (i.e., rejected, or rather, omitted). — Dr. Davidson, Facts, Statements, and Explana- tions, &c. (1857), p. 51. ' But the logicians of St. James and Versailles wisely chose to con- sider the matter in dispute as a European and not a Red man's question, eliminating \\\m from the argument, but employing his tomahawk as it might serve the turn of eitheV litigant.' — Thackeray, The Virginians (1857), No. 2, p. 47, ch. 6. ' If a man believes that matter cannot have a conscience, and that nothing exists except matter, no doubt he eliminates conscience from the world.'— 6'rt/. Rt-v., 22nd May, 1858, p. 529. ' As the chemist seeks to render his balances exquisitely sensitive, and carefully elitninatcs from his results all variations of temperature or other disturbing elements,' &c.— Cairo's Sermons (1858), p. 312, s. 11. ' You quote apologies of tyrannicide printed in England. What of that ? Are we to eli77tinate from our schools the old history of Greece and Rome?' &c. — Mazzini to Louis Napoleon, March, 185S. ' Miss Bronte found it needful to eliminate the supernatural, though she once or twice admits the preternatural in her pictures.' — Sat Rev., July, i860, p. 197. ' M. Comte's subjective synthesis consists only in eliminating from the sciences evei^thing that he deems useless.'— J. S. Mill, JVestm. Rev., July, 1865, p. 34. [Correctly used, as might be expected from Mr. Mill.] ' Now here the obvious method occurs of sifting the masses, so as to eliminate the worst elements and retain the best.' — Prof. Blackie, On Democracy (1867), p. 16. [Yet on p. 6 the Professor has misused eli?nittate for elicit, and heightened the error by immediately alluding to equations: — 'Every moral proposition has its counter proposition, with- out which the truth can no more be eliminated than an equation can be worked without the values on both sides. '] 'The poor author might complain that the most important moral was thus eliminated from his book.'— LESLIE STEPHEN, Hours in a Library, third series (1879), p. 1 18. ' Results which hardly anyone could have clearly anticipated, and yet in which, when once eliminated [elicited], no thinker can hesitate to acquiesce.' — Quart. Rev. (1S32), vol. xlvi. p. 8. ' Had the men of ancient days, when they peopled the universe with deities, a deeper perception of the religious element in the mind, than had Newton, when having eliminated [elicited] the great law of the natural creation, his enraptured soul burst forth into the infinite and the adored?' — J. D. MORELL, Lectures on the Philosophical Tendencies of the Age (1848), p. 41. 'It would not be, strictly speaking, correct to call them philosophical methods, because a philosophical method only exists when any tendency works itself clear, and gives rise to a formal, connected, and logical system of rules, by which we are to proceed in the elimination [elucidation] of truth.' — lb., pp. 145-6. 26 ELIMINATE. Even Mr. Ruskin is in error here : ' To cli??nnafe [separate] the real effect of art from the effects of the abuse with which it was associated.' — Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), notes, p. 201. 'They are now at college, and have imbibed in different degrees that curious theory which professedly recognises Christianity (as consigned to the New Testament) as a truly divine revelation, yet asserts that it is intermingled with a large amount of error and absurdity, and tells each man to eliminate the divine "element" for himself. According to this theory, the problem of eliciting revealed truth may be said to be indeterminate, the value of the unknown varies through all degrees of magnitude ; it is equal to anything, equal to everything, equal to nothing, equal to infinity.' — Professor Rogers, The EcUpse of Faith (1852), p. 392. 'AH we can attempt to do is to select the salient points of the work before us [Milnes' Life of Keats], and to present them to our readers in such juxtaposition and contrast as may seem to be best adapted to the elimination [elucidation] of their significance.' — N. Brit. Rev., vol. X. p. 72, November, 1848. ' Let us look, therefore, courageously at the popular dogma, that there are certain great ideas floating in the vast ocean of traditions which the old world exhibits to us, that the gospel appropriated some of these, and that we are to detect them and eliminate [separate] them from its own traditions.'— F. D. Maurice, Theological Essays (1853), p. 89. ' Never before was so much genuine poetiy ehminated [elicited] by such a process of gradual accumulation and repeated touches. ' — R. Car- RUTHERS, Life of Pope, 2nd. ed., Bohn, p. 185. ' His mission was to eliminate [rid] religion of all such and kindred rubbish.'— Gerritt Smith, lieligion of Reason (New York, 1S54), P- 145- ' It also looks to the final elimination [separation] of the soul from the body.' — Life of Sylvester yiidd ['Qosiou, 1854), ch. viii. p. 337. ' The human mind is capable of much, but it is not capable of eliminating [eliciting] from its own merely structural action such a body of truth as Christianity is, as Judaism was.' ' He [Emerson] is not so much of an idealist as not to know that it is not in the way he has described that any great truth has ever been eliminated [elicited], natural or revealed.' — Lit. Spectator, Edinburgh, June, 1856, No. 8, p. 123. ' He [Mr. John Faed] contents himself with giving us representations of Shakspere and Milton seated in fashionable studies, in as prosaic a fashion as he would have done a fashionable preacher eliminating [elaborating] a sermon, or a popular novelist evolving the plot of his forthcoming romance.' — Scotsman, 1 8th July, 1856. ' The objection first in obviousness, if not in importance, is that the proposal is ihe elimination [? separation] and elevation of a class. ' — Scotsman, 26th December, 1857. (Speaking of the scheme for a sepa- rate representation of the educated classes.) ' Having indicated the process oi elimination [? selection] by which the Israelites, as such, were separated from the rest of mankind,' &c. — Dr. Donaldson, Christian Orthodoxy (1857), p. 217, App. 3. 'The most puissant instrument of verification is the experimental ELIMINATE. 27 method, which by a process of elimmation and exclusion, directly interrogates nature.'— G. H. Lewes, Sea-Side Studies (1858), p. 39, p. i. ch. i. [Here probably used in sense of 'sifting,' since the true meaning would involve a tautology.] 'The book [Gladstone's Homer, &c.] concludes with three most attractive chapters under the title of ioiSbs, eliminating [eliciting] Homer's sense of beauty, number, axidco\o\xx.'—Athenitum, 17th April, i8'8 ' If Mezzofanti could get a native Indian who had been taught the Lord's Prayer in his own tongue to repeat that to him, and also the Ten Commandments, he could from such materials eliminate [elaborate] a gxa.mma.\-.^ — Examiner, 1st May, 1858. ' Mr. Monckton Milnes supported the amendment, and submitted the delay that it would afford supplied the means of cliniinating [eliciting or elaborating] a beneficial measure which would satisfy public opinion.' AJanehester Examiner and Times, 8th June, 1858, Debate on Mr. Gladstone's Amendment as to Indian Government. ' To study their laws, to eliminate [separate] the essential conditions from the non-essential,' &c.— M. Faraday, Athenaum, srd July, 1858, p. 19, on ' Science as a Branch of Education.' [The order should be just reversed.] . . ,r ' The ordinary modes by which the imagination eliminates itself through the bodily organs are surely by this time pretty well known to every °one of us.'— W. M. Wilkinson, Spirit Drawings [iS-y^), ch. iii. p. 40. [Ignorant use of fine words.] ' The learned world has been decidedly going backwards, and has eliminated [elaborated] a grand system for itself,' &c.— /(/., ib., ch. iv._ ' Whenever she spoke I involuntarily listened, for I felt sure that, if it were on a moral subject, some foundation would be cleared — if it were intellectual, some light would be eli>?iinated' [shed, or brought out].— Autobiography of Mary Anne Sehimmelpennitick (1858), vol. i. p. 196. ' Thanks to our respected townsman, Mr. Hay, who has eliminated [elicited] the principles, we are now quite certain that "Beauty is some- thing eternal and universal." '—Jn. Heiton, Castes of Edinburgh (1859), ch. ii. p. 9. ' You think that the elimination [separation] [from our sacred books] of what is imperishable truth from what is transitory in its nature cannot be logically effected.'— W. Smith, Gravenhurst (1S62), conv. 4, p. 232. 'The Lyceum has both religious and secular aims — religious in the highest sense of eliminating [eliciting] truth from spirit, fact and duty from truth.'— Advt. of The Spiritual Lyceum in the Spiritual Titties, 4th March, 1865. ' By such controversies, fairly conducted, truth is often eliminated ' [elicited].— Mr. Chambers, Deputy Recorder, Times, 5th March, 1866. 'Others speak from the throat in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and with an elaboration of syllables and emphasis so mixed together that no ear can eliminate [distinguish] the individual words.' — E. S. Gould, Good English (New York, 1867), p. 260, 'Clerical Elocution ' [A valuable book, yet contains a blunder like this.] 'The elevation of 100 eliminated [elicited] a hearty cheer from all quaners.'— Daily Nezus, 13th July, 1867, Report of Eton z'. Harrow Cricket Match. 28 EVACUATE — FEMALE. ^Eliminating [separating] the triie from the false, supplementing the incomplete,' &c. — W. R. Alger, Genius of Solitude (Boston, 1867), p. 373. ' Letourneur had lost his place in the Directory by the ballot, which was periodically to eliminate [? sift] it.'* — Sir II. L. EuLWER, Histor. Characters (1868), vol. i. p. 183. ' In order to perfect our condition and attain to the ^nx&sieliinination [? selection] of our species by the severity of the struggles our fore- fathers underwent.' — The Coming Race (1871), ch. xv. p. 119. * Too much presumption in their own excellencies, too little indul- gence to the defects of others, if it does not totally destroy our admira- tion, certainly eliminates [? estranges, alienates, or extinguishes] our affection; and it is far better to be beloved than admired.'— Mrs. Montagu, 1784, A Lady of the Last Century (1873), ch. xiii. p. 323. [Affected, if not absolutely wrong.] EVACUATE (Lat., from ^, 'out,' 2S\^ vacuus, 'empty') preserves it? proper meaning, 'to empty out, vacate,' in the military phrase, 'evacuation of a fortress.' It was probably a weakness for technical terms that misled a correspondent of the Daily News, 3rd May, 1872, into using evacziate for the humbler remove : — 'The wounded used to be stowed in it (the refreshment room at Meaux) till the time came conveniently to evacuate them.' — Daily News, 3rd May, 1S72. [It was the room that was evacuated, not its inmates.^ FAITHFUL, is often used to qualify 'promise,' a usage on which Miss Austen discourses thus: — '"Isabella promised so faithfully to write directly." — Promised so faithfully! A faithful promise ! That puzzles me. I have heard of a faithful performance. But a faithful promise; the fidelity of promising ! It is a power little worth knowing, however, since it can deceive and pain yovL.^—Northanger Abbey, vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 162. The easiest solution of the difficulty here raised is that in 'promised faithfully to write,' the adverb qualifies not ' promised,' but ' to write' ('She promised to write faithfully'), in which ca.se ' faithful promise ' may be considered an error due to construction louche or ambiguity. On the other hand it might be urged that faith (formed by Eng. sufhx -th from old Fr. fei or feid = Lat. fdes, akin to Gr. ttiVtis and weWeiu) comes from the root bhidh, 'to unite,' a weakened form of bhadh, 'to bind,' and that 'faithful,' therefore, means nothing more than 'binding.' But this is too far-fetched. FEMALE (Mid. Eng./tvw/f = Old Yx.femelle - I.2X. femella, a dimin. oi femina, 'she that brings forth,' from obsol. yi'Z'tvv, 'to generate, produce,' which, likey}//and Gr. ^vtiv, comes from root bhti, 'to exist') is, through a most misjudging delicacy (considering its etymology), preferred by certain writers to our good old English woman {wimman * Cf. ' Of such opposition Napoleon strove to rid himself, by an operation which he termed the "e/i/>ti)/tttwfi" of the tribunate.' — Makia Norris, Liyi and Times 0/ Mdiiie. de StUel (1853), ch. xxxv. p. 239. FEMALE. 29 in 1087, —wife-man), a preference shrewdly rebuked by a correspondent of the Manchester Examiner and Times, March, 1858 : — 'Sir, — What offence has the good old word " woman " committed that it is banished from speech and writing? We hear of ladies some- times, of females often, of women never. Newspapers, I grieve to say it, are the great corruptors of our langunge, if not of every other. The other day I read, in a certain journal, that a "female had been found dead at a road-side." My curiosity was excited. I read on, anxious to discover whether it was a cow, or a mare, or a she ass, or some other of the numerous race of females. From the context, however, I inferred, with more horror than certainty, that it was a woman that had so been found. It is true that a woman is a female, as a man is a male ; but a female is very far from being always a woman ; and, on the other hand, when we speak of a man we do not commonly call him a male. Why should woman be worse treated? Why should women be con- founded with lower animals of the feminine gender ? On Thursday last, I read a newspaper account of a fire in a cotton mill. It was told that "the men and females" in the room threw water in vain upon the burning mass ! Surely this reporter must have had some reason for perversity so pertinacious. I hope, sir, you will set your face against this vulgar ignorance and ignorant vulgarit)', and allow me to remain, yours respectfully, M. E. N.' In our first example female is rightly used, and in the second its contemptuous sense is justified by ample precedents. The seven remaining passages remind us of a rebuke addressed in our hearing by an Edinburgh tradeswoman to her child, who had spoken of a 'ram:' — 'Fie ! darling, you should always say "a male sheep." ' 'The ascetic rule of St. Basil, which the monks follow, is very severe : no female, not even a cow or a hen, is permitted to approach the Holy Hill [Mount Athos].'— ^r?V. Quar. Rev., July, 1869, p. 232, on Tozer's Researches in the Highlands of Turkey. ' He did not hid him go and sell himself to the ^rs\.fetnale he could find possessed of wealth.' — A. Trollope, Doctor Thome (1858), vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 122. 'With a reluctance not unnatural m a. female,^ &c. — Edin. Rev., Jan., 1842, No. 150, vol. Ixxiv. p. 500, on Miss Ferrier. ' Females mixed with the crowd, and, forgetting the stations which nature had fitted them to adorn, dealt boldly and extensively in the bubbles that rose before them,' &c. — Success in Life (1852), p. 253. 'The report of the Edinburgh Institution for the Education of Young Ladies, i. Park Place — explanatory of its plans, and embody- ing the principles of a sound educational system for females of the upper ranks ; with abstract of reports by the masters, &c. — is now ready, and may be had from the principal booksellers, or will be sent free, on application to the secretary at the institution. W. S. Dalgleish, A.m., secretary, i, Park Place, July 25, 1856.' ' What more delightful than the blush of a beautiful young female? Apollodorus (Geo. Gilfillan), in Critic, 29th May, 1858, p. 251. [In the same article it is more excusable to say : ' Is it not too bad, and shamefully ungallant, although perhaps characteristic of Pope, to seat z. female on the throne of Dullness?' p. 252.] 30 FUTURE. ' Clerkenwell. — Violent assaults by a jealous female upon a •woman.'' — Glowzuorm, 1st July, 1865. ' Who participated in his toils ? Who braved with him the incle- mency of the weather? Who shared his privations? K female (!) Who was she ? His sister. Miss Herschel it was who, '&c. — Memoir of Miss C. L. Herschel (1876), ch. vi. p. 223, Address to Astron. Society, by J. South, Esq., 8th February, 1828. FUTURE (Fr., from 'La.\.. fntiirtis, fut. part, from base /"«-, 'to be') means 'about to be,' 'coming,' but is often strangely^ employed for 'subsequent,' 'after,' or 'later.' This blunder is as though one upon a walk should say, 'I expect this next mile will be a tiring one,' and then at the end of it remark, ' I am not so tired by this tiexl [that last] mile as I expected.'* 'Tht future opportunity of discussing this difficult point presents itself in the chapter,' &c. —Edin. Rev., January, 1842, No. 150, vol. Ixxiv, p. 278. In the same article, apparently by Sir D. Brewster, this error again occurs, p. 276 — 'In 2i future part of the book he stands aghast,' &c. — though, in one place, p. 296, the writer does use 'sub- sequent.' 'And what was \.\\q future of these two?' — Traits of Character (i860), vol. ii. p. 303. [Subsequent career.] ' li\s future career is involved in mystery.' — Jas. Williams, Hise and Fall of the Model Republic (1863), ch. xiv. p. 305. ' Early in the following year, i860, the Fitzgeralds bought a place in the country, where they resided a good dealyi^;' the future.'' — Times, 22nd December, 1863, p. 7, col. i. ' It was a triumph certainly, and for the ftiture [thenceforw ard] Maurice found his men more easily managed.' — Too Much Alone (1865), ch. xviii. p. 164. ' Many a time in \.\ic future, when the story of the past was read by the clearer light of dearly-bought knowledge, Herbert Clyne thanked God,' &.C.— T00 Much Alone (1S65), ch. xi. p. 107. 'A fete must stand on its own merits, and not appeal to s.r\y future test, except our recollections.'' — Times, 23rd August, 1865, p. 8. ' In thinking of this intercourse by the light of future events, that evening stands out with some prominence.' — Mrs. Gaskell, Cousin Phillis (1866), p. 76. 'This apparently trifling event may perhaps be considered the foundation stone of his Juture scientific fame.' — J. F. M'Lennan, Memoir of Th, Drummond {iZb-j), p. 35. ' Of Xhs future history of Mrs. Macfarlane we have but one glimpse, * A similar confusion as to the writer's standpoint is seen in : — ' That might not be sc long as the Marquis supposed. If a picture of the chateau as it was to be a very few years hence [thence], and of fifty like it as they too were to be a very few years hence [thence], could have been shown to him that night, he might have been at a loss to claim his own from the ghastly, fire-charred, plunder-wrecked ruins. ' — Dickens, A Tate of Two Cities, bk. ii. ch. ix. par. 58. 'Can it be that that wondrous apparatus of faculties, all those garnered riches of thought, have passed like a vapour away ; to-day a power and a possession, lo-morrow a nonentity— the memory of a dream?' — Literary Spectator, May, 1856, vol. vii. p. 107, on the death of Sir William Hamilton. [It would be better to substitute yesterday for to-day, and to-aay for to-}norrow.\ GRAPHIC — IMMINENT. 31 but it is of a romantic nature.'— R. Chambers, Traditions of Edin- burgh (new ed., 1868), p. 315. 'Her (Katherine Nairne's) fiitnre life, it has been reported, ivas virtuous and fortunate.' — lb., p. 103. ' The Abbe Lamennais, whose previous and future career I may assume to be generally known, came to demand justice of the Chair of St. Peter against the throne of the bourgeois Galilean king.' — Lord Houghton, Monographs (1873), p. 45, 'Cardinal Wiseman.' 'It {Primatics, published in 1809, in C. Thirlwall's eleventh year) is a work of high promise, and the bishop's ////«;-(? history shows that it must be distinguished from similar displays of parental affection.' — Academy, 31st July, 1875, p. 116, 'Bishop Thirlwall.' 'At a. future meeiing Sir David (Brewster) was served with an indictment.' — Rev. C. Rogers, Leaves from my Autobiography (1876), p. 61. 'Where he met Blair, h\s future chaplain.' — lb., p. 74. 'In a. future letter Mr. Alder says.'— Smiles' Life of a Scottish Naturalist (1876), ch. xvi. p. 330. ' " Upon all future occasions," he said, " the queen was extremely affable."' — Milbank's Reminiscences of John Gibson. GRAPHIC (Lat. graphicus — Gr. ypa<#>iK:ds, 'belonging to painting or drawing,' from ypa.^eti', ' to ^'asy;?, draw, or paint') means 'picturesque,' 'pictorial,' and cannot rightly be used in speaking of sounds or scents, of anything in fact that might not be illustrated in the Graphic news- paper. Having spoken of Tennyson as ' profuse in the power of graphic representation,' Mr. Gladstone adds : — ' We use the word in what we conceive to be its only legitimate meaning, namely, after the manner and with the effect of painting. It signifies the quid, not the quale.'' — Gleanings of Past Years (1879), vol. ii. p. 172, note. So also Leslie Stephen : — ' And at moments when he is narrating their exploits, and can forget his elaborate argumentations, and refrain from bits of deliberate bom- bast, the style becomes graphic in the higher sense of a much-abused word.' — Hours in a Library (1879), 3rd series, ch. vii. p. 321. But WiLKiE Collins has graphically for ' strikingly, vividly, or impressively:' — ' She suddenly heard a loud report as of some heavy body falling (graphically i^rmtdhy ihQ witness "a banging scrash").' — The Dead Secret (ed. 1871), bk. iv. ch. iv. p. 173. IMMINENT (Lat. imminere, ' to project over, overhang, impend,' from in, 'upon, over,' and viinere, 'to jut out') may often be rendered by ' near at hand,' as in Sir Thomas More's ' sinne imminent or to come ' {Works, p. 370 b). Though, like impending, applied perhaps exclu- . sively to dangers {cf. the rock in the Tantalus legend, and the hatchet in Grimm's story of ' Clever Alice '), it is not synonymous with dan- gerous ; we could not speak of 'an imminent Al^'mt pass.' Equally wrong is the use of imminence for danger in ; — ' Never was my residence in such fearful imminence ' [from fire]. — Gilchrist's Life of Etty, vol. ii. p. 245. 22 IMPLICIT. IMPLICIT (Lat. impUcitus, pass. part, of implicare, 'to enfold, entangle, involve') is used in its literal sense by MiLTON,* ' And bush with frizzled hair implicit' {Par. Lost, vii. 323), an expression condemned in Landor's Imaginary Conversations (Works, vol. ii. p. 68). Its secondary, metaphorical sense is will illustrated by : — ' A weary chase to hunt out the fugitive glimmer of a meaning which may or may not be lurldng in the folds of_(=- implied or implicit in) a Latin sentence.'— J. Keble, quoted in his Memoir by Sir J. T. Cole- ridge (2nd ed., 1869), vol. i. p. 215. 'I'he following instances oi implicit ('enfolded, implied, virtual'), as opposed to explicit ('unfolded, expressed, plain'), show that the word has a definite meaning of its own : — ' Explicit faith in a doctrine means that we understand what the propositions are, and accept them. But if through blunder we accept a wrong set of propositions, so as to believe a false doctrine, we never- theless have implicit (or virtual) faith in the true one, if only we say from the heart, " Whatever the Church believes, I believe." '—F. W. Newman, Phases of Faith (1850), p. 229, note. 'Why should it be unnatural to suppose that speech was at first implicitly bestowed on us, and that it required time and experience to develop fully the implanted capacity ? ' — F. W. Farrar, On the Origin of Language (i860), ch. ii. p. 36. ' Tito's itnplicit desires were working themselves out now in very explicit thought.'— George Eliot, Romola, bk. ii. ch. xv. 'A metaphor is an implicit simile; and a simile is an explicit metaphor.' 'All writers implicitly recognise verification as the inseparable attendant of observation, induction, and deduction ; but they do not explicitly and emphatically assign to it the primary importance it should have.'— G. H. Lewes, Aristotle (1864), p. 108. ' The author by personally sending his work, or by directmg his accredited agent, the publisher, to act for him, implicitly enters into an agreement that an opinion shall be pronounced ; tacit and implied oxAy, but still as morally binding,' &c,— Th. Purnell, Literature and its Professors (1867), vol. ii. p. 22. ' To make explicit what is implicit in thought and its expression is a sign of intellectual progress.'— Rev, A. H. Sayce, 'The Jelly-Fish Theory of Language,' in Contetnp. Rev., April, 1876, p. 717. Most writers, however, ignore this definite meaning of implicit, which they loosely employ for 'absolute,' 'unquestioning,' 'unbounded,' &c., in such phrases as 'implicit faith,' 'implicit confidence,'' and 'im- plicit obedience.' On two opposite pages KiNGSLEY uses implicit in two different senses, the vulgar and the primitive :— I. ' An implicit faith which would be unworthy of the man.' * Imply is similarly used by Spenser :— ' An hateful snake, the which his taile uptyes In many folds, and mortall sting implyes.' Faery Qiieene, bk. 1. can. iv. St. 31. ' And Phoebus, flying so most shameful sight, His blushing face in foggy clouds implyes.' lb., can. vi. st. 6. And Ltnplicated by Shkllky : ' meeting boughs and implicated \t3.\&i.' IN- — INDIVIDUAL 33 2. ' Not explicitly by a reflective moralising, . . , but impliiitly., by investing them all with a rich love of colouring.' — Miscellanies (1S59), vol, i. pp. 224-5, ' Tennyson,' IN-, 'not' (by assimilation ?7-, im-, ir-, or, before^;?, ?'-, =Lat. in-, akin to Eng. tin-, Gr. ava-, Sansk. an- or a- ; all these being probably identical with the prep, ana, 'up or against'), is the regular negative prefix of substantives and adjectives of Latin origin, but, following Latin usage, not of verbs. Exceptions there are to the rule, tm- taking the place oi in- in unable, wico7nfortable, uncertain,* &c., as in- of iin- in a few verbs from adjectives or nouns, e.g., immortalise, indispose, and incapacitate. But such exceptions do not justify Cowper's unfreqiient, unpolite, and untractable, or the following : — 'The vocation in time comes to be thought mean and uncreditable'' [discreditable]. — Paley, Serttion, September 21, 17S2. ' That having with great skill put together a creature of which the principal elements are indlscri?ninat!ng\ affection, ill-requited devotion, ignorant partiality, a weak will, and a poor intellect, he calls on us to worship his poor idol as the type of female excellence. This is true.' — Ed in. Rev., 1848, on Thackeray. ' ///discriminating marauders.' —77/^ Public Schools, by the author of EtoJiiana (1867), p. 167. ' We regret to see upon the Continent the first signs of that sense- less and indiscrifninate clamour against the priests, which has been one of tlie worst features of popular continental revolutions. We advisedly use the word indiscrim!7iati7jg, because we are willing to allow that the dislike which men may reasonably entertain for a priestly caste bound together for the maintenance of what many people look upon as spiritual bondage can hardly fail, in rough times, to show itself towards the individuals who compose that caste.' — Echo, 15th November, 1870. 'Mr. Braham's arrangements are still i/nmafured.'' — A True Re- former (1873), vol. iii. ch. Ivi. p. 69. 'That is his own z^wvariable lesson, set in different lights.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library, 3rd series (1879), p. 116. 'An ?<«frequent and expensive post.' — Life of C. J. Mathews (1879), vol. ii. ch. V. p. 160. INDIVIDUAL (Lat. individuus, 'indivisible,' from in, 'not,' and dividere, ' to divide ') may stand for Persons only when these are viewed as atoms or units of a whole, e.g., ' While condemning the Jesuit order, we may freely admire some individuals belonging thereto.' But nowa- days, as a substitute for plain 7nan or woman, person,X &c., individual * Henry Kingsley, in ISIademoiselle M athilde (i?>(sS] , vol. ii. p. 221, has ' unineasur- able wickedness,' but unmeasurable is the commoner and correcter form. t Mr. MoRLEY rightly uses undiscrinthiating, though in the same sentence he falls into a common error : — ' One undiscriminating panegyrist calls him (E. Burke) the most profound and com- prehensive of political philosophers that has [have] yet existed in the world.' — Ed. Burke (1867), ch. i. p. I. * Party, too, is sometimes used iox person. Mr. G. H. Lewes told me of an undertaker who spoke of a corpse as ' ^Cn^ party in the next room ;' and, again, of some preacher who, in speaking of the false anticipations entertained by the Jews regarding Christ, D 34 INFALLIBLE — ISSUE. in journalistic slang has a money value of one farthing, at least where the newspaper lines do not exceed forty letters : — ' Everything around [in the parlour of Mr. R. M. Milnes] betokened the habitation of an iitdividiial of exquisite taste and of a fine apprecia- tion of the beautiful.' — J. Dix, Lions Living and Dead {iZ'^^), ch. xvii. p. 308. ' Who can believe that Petrarch s passion for such an individual [as Laura] was anything but a convenient hook whereon to hang the splendid work of art — glorious though a counterfeit —which so many have taken for the reflection of real passion ?' — The Critic, Mar. i, 1848. INFALLIBLE (Fr., from Low Lat. infallibilis, —in, 'not,' and fallo-e, ' to deceive, 'yJ;///, *to err') were best restricted to the meaning of 'liable to err.' So Shakspeare uses it {Measure for Measure, III. ii. 119), while in the scene immediately preceding (1. 170), he speaks of 'hopes that are fallible,' i.e., that may be disappointed. Its needless employment for inevitable occurs in a Catholic catechism, 'Ye shall infallibly be lost ;' and in — 'The itifallible fruit of the 43rd Elizabeth.' — JN. Keble, Memoir, by Sir J. T. Coleridge (2nd ed., 1869), vol. i. p. 191. INNATE (formerly innated, = Lat. innattts, from in, 'in,' z.\iAnasci, ' to be born '), in the following sentence, involves as gross an incon- gruity of terms as would the phrases ' congenital lameness caused by a fall from the nurse's arms,' or "■ 2. pre-historic hero immortalised in Froissart's chronicle :' — ' Over and above the buoyancy of spirits natural to youth, which tempts every schoolboy to mischief, there was present among the inmates of this juvenile ward an amount o{ innate depravity, due to early training and general recklessness of life, which soon led them to the most violent excesses.' — ARTHUR Griffiths, Monorials of Millbank (1875), vol. ii. ch. vi. p. 131. [Innate (inborn) depravity due to training !'\ ISSUE (Old Fr. issue, 'issue, end, success, event,' a fern, form of issu, the past part, oi issir, 'to go out,' = Lat. exire), in legal phraseology, remarked that it was difficult for them to believe that this was the party for whom they looked. A modern vulgarism most critics will pronounce this usage ; but Mr. Hall [On Reliable, pp. 167-172) shows that 'for several generations our ancestors largely employed farty for "person,"' and has collected upwards of a hundred references for it to writers of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. He cites:— ' If then he [Christ] be \.\\c: party whom all the prophets pointed at.' — Samuel Hieron, Works (ed. 1624), vol. i. p. 108. 'The party that was brought is Christ.'— Bishop Andrews, XCVI. Ser)nons 'ed. x66i), p 370. — examples that strike one as both irreverent, and oddly before their time, even though instances follow of a similar usage in writers of the last and the present century, e.g. : — ' He did not examine the wound till after the death ol\\\ft party.' — Letters o/yunius (1769), No. 8. ' Now would I give a trifle to know, historically and authentically, who was the greatest fool that ever lived. . . . Many of the present breed, I think, could, without much difficulty, name you the/aJ-Zy.'- Lamb, Essays of Elia, 'All Fools' Day.' ' This use of the word,' says Mr. Hall, ' when it appeared to be reviving, happened to strike more particularly the fancy of the vulgar ; and the consequence has been that the polite have chosen to leave it in their undisputed possession.' LADY. 35 is ' the close or result of pleadings, by which a single material point of lav or fact depending on the suit is presented for determination.' When in a trial one of the parties demurs to a statement, he is said to ' take issue.' The defendant may be bound to admit the demurrer, so far as to admit its right of inquiry, and then he is said to 'Join issue.' Thus to ' /a,^^ issue' means ' to deny ;' and to 'join issue' means to 'admit the right of denial,' but by no means to 'agree in the truth of the denial.' And to use 'join issue' simply for ' agree,' as in the next three passages, is an unwarrantable perversion of a legal metaphor : — ' So 1 turn from Juvenal 3.x\dJoi)t isstte with Cicero when he makes Cato say, in his eightieth year: "Nihil habeo quod incusem senec- tutem."'' — Prof PiLLANS, Speech at dinner given to him on Wednes- day, 1st June, 1853, reported in Scotsvian, 4th June, 1853. ' If a high tone be taken with the Turks — if they be told that if they do not join issue with us on one great point, ... I have not the slightest doubt, '&c. — Speech of Sir W. F. Williams, of Kars, at dinner of Reform Club, July, 1856. ' In their career father and son meet, joi7t issue, and pursue their nefarious occupation in conjunction.'— .S^c^/jwaw, 17th April, 1858, Review of Mayhew's Paved wilh Gold. LADY {lefdi in 1220, = Angl.-Sax, hlcefdige) is the fem. of Lord, and means, according to Max Miiller, 'she who looks after the loaf, ' the mistress. Skeat, on the other hand, identifies the second syllable with Angl.-Sax. dage, 'kneader,' which gives the sense of 'bread-kneader;' but, anyhow, from its earliest occurrence down to a very recent date, the word has been a title of superiority, all ladies being women, but all women not being ladies. That silly gentihty, however, which would fain eschew our good old homely woman, as has been shown under FEMALE and INDIVIDUAL, is synonymising lady and zuoman at a rate that will presently render the latter the worthier title of the two. A 'servant- gal' in Punch informs the mistress to whom she is applying for a place that 'a young lady had told her that she (the mistress) was a very nice sort of 7voman ;' which may be capped by the description of a knife- grinder (heard by the writer) as ' the gentleman wot does the knives and scissors.' The usage is sharply, but not too sharply, treated by a cor- respondent of the .ff^/Z^i^wr^/i Zjf^-^MW, loth January, 1857: — ' Clerical Vulgarity. ' " Who, in the name of heaven," a correspondent asks us, " is that Reverend James Anderson, who writes, prints, and publishes books, and damns them to the minds of all people of taste, ay, and of all people not wholly given up to an absolute destitution of taste — by one single word which he claps on the title-pages of his books ? This Rev. James Anderson has thrown upon the world no fewer than three different works, called ' Ladies o{ Xhe Reformation, first series;' 'Ladies of the Reformation, second series;' and ' Ladies oi \hQ Covenant;' and ever and anon when we read these coarse, vulgar, chamber-maid announce- ments of his, the Rev. James Anderson's vulgarity is doubly forced upon us ; for it is always ' Ladies of the Reformation, by the Rev. James Anderson, author o( Ladies of the Covenant,' or 'Ladies of the Covenant, by the Rev. James Anderson, author of Ladies of the Refor- 36 LAY. mation.' It is really too offensive of Mr. Anderson to keep continually cramming down our throats what a single taste of is provocative of vomiting. When does this vulgar flunkey of Protestantism intend to come out with his ' Gentlemen of the Reformation, being Memoirs of his most gracious Majesty King Henry VIII., the Right Rev. Dr. Thomas Cranmer, the Rev. Dr. Calvin, &c., &c.?' This vile abuser of language turns with abhorrence from the loveliest word in the English language — 'woman' — he turns from 'rapture-giving woman' to adopt what is merely a slang, cant term, which we are obliged at times to use under conventional constraint, but which no man, whom God and Nature did not intend for a flunkey of the flunkeys, would ever use without compulsion, and which, when speaking of heroines and saints, or of those whom the Reverend James Anderson (who we dare say is a bad enough judge of saints) would call saints, does neither more nor less than completely ruin his whole subject. If the Rev. James Ander- son were to be employed amongst those wretched creatures, ' sans eyes, sans ears, sans taste, sans everything,' who are threatening us with an improved translation of the Bible, we should have ruffian-like work of it. Adam will then say, ' The lady whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree ;' the angel Gabriel will hail the Virgin Mary with his 'Blessed art thou amongst ladies ;' and, most terrible of all profanation ! that most lovely of all the lovely sayings of Him who spake as never man spake, that most noble of eulogiums — when we consider what it is, and who it was that pronounced it — ever bestowed on a human creature, will be read thus : ' Wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this lady hath done be told for a memorial of her.' " ' Our readers may perhaps have heard of a clergyman of Mr. Ander- son's school who, in reading "The Churching of Women," being desirous of paying some respect to the quality of the woman before him, read : " O Lord, save this lady, thy servant ;" to which the cleik, not to be outdone in politeness, responded : " Who putteth her ladyship's trust in thee." '" Here," says a cold-blooded, tasteless friend, "is much criticism on the mere title-page of a book— yea, on the veiy first word of that title-page. May 1 not, passing over the ladies in the meantime, pro- ceed to peruse some pages of the large work of the Rev. James Ander- son, that I may taste what is the quality thereof?" "Senseless wretch ! what can be found behind such titles as ''Ladies of the Reformation' and ' Laiing shsmdiiy, and to say that 'such and such a thing see/ns a paradox' is to be guilty of the tautology that ' it seetns a seeming absurdity.' It reminds one of the Irishman's remark : ' My pig is not so heavy as I expected, and I never thought it would be.' Three only out of the following ten pas- sages avoid this blunder : — 'It is no less a truth than 2i paradox that there are no greater fools than atheistical wits, and none so credulous as infidels.' — Bentley, quoted in Quarterly Review (1832), vol. xlvi. p. 127, Monk's Life of Bentley. ' I do not believe I should be advancing a paradox if I say that transubstantiation may be clearly proved by certain warrant of Holy Scripture.' — Bishop Thirlwall. ' Paradoxical 2iS it may be, especially in contrast with the progress of England, ... it is strictly true,' &c.— Prof. Cliffe Leslie, Za«^/ Systems, &c. (1870), p. 162. ' For my own part, how great a paradox soever my opinion may seem, I solemnly declare I see but little difference between having two husbands at one time, and at several times.'— Fielding, Amelia, bk. vi. ch. vii. par. 12. ' A sad and hideous sight it was ; yet one too common even then in those remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded, which the prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honour be it spoken) had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns; and which the legis- lation of that most wise, virtuous, and heroic inquisitor [paradoxical &s the words may seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried into effect in Peru,' &c.— KiNGSLEY, Westward Ho ! (ed. 1879), ch. xxv. p. 382. ' Paradox a.s\\.im.y a//^ar.'— Cardinal W^ISEMAN, Essays on Reli- gion and Literature [i%6\), p. 8, 'Inaugural Discourse.' ' This may see7n a paradox, but it is nevertheless a fact.' — J. S. MiLL, The Subjection of Woman (1869). ' It is less paradoxical Xhan it may seem, to say that this impression was strengthened by the very fact of his not speaking any foreign language.'— Sir H. Holland, Recollections of Past Life (1872), p. 216. PARTAKE— PLASTIC. 43 ' The doctrine in question only appears a paradox because it has usually been so expressed as apparently to contradict these well-known facts ; which, however, were equally well known to the authors of the doctrine, who, therefore, can only have adopted from inadvertence any form of expression which could to a candid person appear incon- sistent with it.' — J. S. Mill, Essay II., on 'Some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy' (ist ed., 1874), p. 74. [An awkward string of relatives, apart from the original blunder.] 'It is \ti% paradoxical \}l\z.x\ it may j-t'tv«, to say that this impression was strengthened by the very fact of his [Sir Joseph Banks'] not speaking any foreign language.' — J. F. Clarke, Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1S74), p. 479, quoted from Sir H. Holland. [This should be ' Paradoxical as it is, it is true that,' &c.] PARTAKE, ' to take part of, to share,' is a word that bears its meaning on its fice. Yet certain authors are given to expanding 'He dined,' ' He was greatly pleased,' into ' He partook of a frugal repast,' ' He partook of great intellectual enjoyment,' and that too often where only one person is concerned. This foolish blunder is chiefly committed by penny-a-liners and sensation novelists, but it occurs in Chambers's History of English Literature, pp. 145, 223. PERMEATE (1^2.1. permeare, from per, 'through,' and w^arc, 'to go, ' akin to Sansk. »ia, and so, literally, 'to measure' one's way) means 'to pass through, penetrate, pervade,' and not, as in the following passage, 'to indoctrinate': — ' The great difficulty in the way oi pertneatino the masses with sound ideas is the prevalent lack of elementary education.' — Jer. Head, Address at Middlesborough, 14th November, 1872, p. 21, and also p. II. [Unless a big word be indispensable, one might say 'to teach the masses sound ideas,' or ' to instruct the masses in sound ideas.'] PERSUADE (Lat. persuadere, 'to bring over by talking,' from /^r, ' thoroughly,' and stiadere, ' to advise') can stand for advise only when the advice has carried with it conviction. Miss Mitford did not mean, as persuade and the misplaced never imply, that her exhortations to publish always failed, but that she always advised young ladies not to publish : — ' Which is one reason why I never persuade young ladies to pub- lish.'— Miss Mitford's Letters and Life (1872), 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 127. PLASTIC (Or. TrAao-Ti/cd?, 'jkilful in moulding,' from i!\6.;//(/ others. ' — Woman in her Social and Domestic Character [t^th ed,, 1834), p. 3. PONDER (Lat. ponderare, 'to weigh,' from /(Jw^/wj, 'a weight,' from peudcre, ' to hang') were best employed as a transitive verb, the matter weighed or deliberated being put in the objective case without the intervention of a preposition.* Thus Milton has 'ponders all events;' the Authorised Version, ' Mary kept all these things and pondered them * It is true that the Lat. deliberare (comp. oi de, 'thoroughly,' and librare, 'to weigh,' from libra, 'balance') like its Engl, derivative deliberate commonly takes a preposition after it, aHitniun, jiidiciiim, ratioiie7n. Sic, being understood (c/ ' to suspend one's judg- ment about a matter'); but in the case ol ponder, Latin usage suggests, and English usage allows, the omission of a preposition, whose insertion certainly obscures the verb's true meaning. PREDICATE. 45 in her heart;' and Shakspere's usage would seem to have been as rare in the seventeenth, as it is common though not universal in the nine- teenth, century : — ' This tempest will not give me leave io ponder On things would hurt me more.' Ki7tg Lear, III. iv. 24. 'There is much to be pondered over before we can believe that to encourage the exodus of the Irish is the way to cure all evils.' — George Campbell, The Irish Land [iZSg), p. 150. ' As to any communication between the parted, I had never, during his life, pondered the possibility of it, although I had always had an inclination to believe that such intercourse had in rare instances taken place.' — George Macdonald, Wilfrid Cumbermede, ch. Ivii. m St. PauVs Magazine, December, 1871, p. 239. PREDICATE {La.^.. prczdtedre, 'to publish, state,' from /riZ", 'before, publicly,' and dtcdre, 'to sa)-') is a different word from Predict (Lat. preedlcere, 'to foretell,' from /r^, 'beforehand,' and dicere, ' to tell '), though dicdre and dicere are both ultimately referable to the same root dik, 'to show, point out,' whence also come Gr. SeUivtii, 'I show,' Goth. ga-(eihan, ^ to teU,' Ger. zeigen, ' to point out,' &c. Tertullian, it is true, occasionally employs p>-adicdre in the sense of 'to foretell' {e.£., in Png. in Persec. 6 and 12), but this usage never found favour with classic writers either in Latin or in English. In our first two examples the distinction between the two verbs is rightly preserved ; in the next €i&\Q.x\ predicate stands ior predict ; and in the last two p7-edict is mis- used {or predicate, a rarer blunder. ' Whether Mr. Campbell has surmounted all obstacles so far as to make these noble poems generally attractive to English readers it might be rash to predict.'' — Scotsman, 2ist August, 1873, Review of Prof. Campbell's translation of ' Three Plays of Sophocles.' ' Science is an aggregate of facts admitting of generalisation, so as to bring out some law enabling us to predicate their causal relations, and to /;"(&/ their appearance in appreciable circumstances.' — Dr. NoBLE on 'Statistics' (1866), p. 14. ' It needed no ghost from the grave, or rapping spirit from the invi- sible world, to predicate even then the success of the young D'Israeli in public life.' — R. R. Madden, Literary Life and Correspondence of the Coimtess of Blessington (1855). ' When cholera is scourging the land, you may predicate as well as trace its progress,' &c. — Prof. Miller, Alcohol, its Place and Power (1858), p. 117. ' A man of whom it might he predicated that his political power would end with his political life.'— A. Trollope, The Bertrams (1859), vol. ii. ch. i. p. II. ' Who [Burke] could trace effects to their causes, and predicate from the actual what must be the future.' — Cornelius O'Dowd, Men and Women (1865), and series, p. 28. ' It seems impossible that any young man can predicate what will be required of him to do and believe in the English Established Church.' — S. G. O., Times, 23rd October, 1866. 46 PREPOSTEROUS— PRIVILEGE. ' In the one case, M. de Talleyrand had nothing to hope ; in the other, it was necessary to fix attention on the fact that he had predicated misfortune.' — H. L, Bulwer, Historical Characters (i86S), vol. i. P- 377- ' Yet we will not learn of the past, and ■io predicate of the future.' — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Ourselves, (1869), p. 241. ' She says that it is a most real popularity, and that if anything like durability can ever hz predicated oi the French, it will prove a lasting one.'— Miss Mitford, Letter to Mr. Fields, quoted in Yesterdays 7vith Authors (1872), p. 307. 'That the process of heating or ventilating the building there [at S. Kensington] is mischievous in the highest degree, being destruction by desiccation, an equally complete if slower ruin, as [?] the combustion predicated by Mr. Page for the building in Trafalgar Square.' — Athe- ncBum, 23rd August, 1873, p. 247. ' It is impossilile io predicate what he will or will not do.' — Scotsman, 26th April, 1878. ' The interests of the "Royal" [Insurance Company] are not likely to suffer in his hands ; and, great as was Mr. Dove's success, we may iaxxly predicate at least equal prosperity under Mr. McLaren's manage- ment.' — Liverpool paper, quoted in Financial Record, &c., Edin., Sep- tember, 1879, P- 233. [The Record adds : 'That the predications of the writer . . . have not been falsified, we shall now proceed to show.'] ' There is no organ of which the concomitant mental feeling may be predicted with greater confidence' [than cautiousness]. — Chambers'' Information for the People, ' Phrenology,' p. 344. 'Still, as in a battle-field, so in the complex strivings of the human mind, general progress in a given direction may sometimes be pre- dicted when we are ignorant of its specific amount.' — Theolog. Rev., January, 1875, p. 97. [The concluding words, which seem inapplicable to the future, tend to show \.\\a.t predicated is meant.] PREPOSTEROUS is the \jsX. prcEposterus (from prce, 'before,' and posterns, ' last '), which, even with classic authors, often lost its old vigorous sense of 'hindmost first' {cf our 'cart before the horse') in the weaker meaning of 'absurd, unreasonable' (Cicero, Sallust, &c.). Our first example recognises the etymology, which the second misses while claiming to preserve : — ' In making the first chapter treat of Holy Scripture, the Confession begins at the wrong end, and is thus literally prepostei'ous, in the sense of putting that first which ought to be last.'— Fergus Ferguson, Reconstruction of the Creed {i?>']']), p. 17. 'The Chinese epicure who, according to Charles Lamb, burned a house to roast a pig was not guilty of a measure more prepostei-ous, in the true etymological sense of the word.' — Miss Wedgwood, Woirian's Work and Woman's Culture (1869), p. 173, ' Female Suffrage.' PRIVILEGE comes through the French from the Lat. privilegium {privtis, 'peculiar, private,'and lex, 'a law'), which, originally denoting 'a bill or law against an individual, was employed by post-Augustan writers in the sense of ' an ordinance in favour of an individual, a pre- PRIVILEGE. 47 rogative.' The latter is the true meaning both of the French* and of the English word, privilege standing opposed to right as monarchy to pantisocracy. Strange token, then, of altered times that not only are privileges themselves (monopolies, corvee, gabcUe, &c.) vanished or vanishing, but their very name bids fair to be transferred to their anti- podes, a change commented on in Carlyle's Past and Present, bk. iv. ch. i. Some words hunt in couples, run in pairs, are leashed together like greyhounds, e.g., 'A daughter of Day and Martm.'f So rii^hts and privileges are found together in most newspapers and platform radical speeches. 'The rights atid privileges o{ ihe -peoY^e.' The people can have no pri^'ileges, for that means something peculiar to some or one, as distinguished from others. So far as the word privus goes, which forms its first part, its old Latin sense is retained. It still means some- thing //zW/^ or 'peculiar,' and tv&n private laws ox pHvileges. Where the citizens of one state are distinguished, not from each other, but from the citizens of another state, there /rze-Z/^f^t? is rightly used, e.g., by General Pierce in his Inaugural Address (1S53) : — ' So long as he \_i.e., every citizen of the United States] can discern every star in its place upon that ensign, it \i\\\h&\\\?. privilege, and must be his acknowledged right, to stand unabashed even in the pre- sence of princes, with a proud consciousness that he is himself one of a nation of sovereigns.' So, too, when Milton says: 'We do not mean to destroy all the ^to^Ae'si-ights and privileges' (Def. Pop. Angl., ch. iv.), he is thinking! of the people as distinguished from senates, magistrates, and the king,' just as when he elsewhere speaks of 'the people's birthright aitd privi^ lege in time of parliament.' Again, when Gibbon says : ' In the time of Cicero, each private citizen enjoyed the //VOTYi^^f^ of anarchy' (ch. xliv. 5, 422), his use of the word gives force by its very seeming incorrectness. It is, in fact, as true a catachresis as is the phrase, ' He tells it to everybody as a secret. ' ' You must be alone if mountains are to make their full impression on you, if whatever in you that harmonises with their grand nature is to be touched ; . . . then a solemn gladness possesses your heart, and your being wakes to a sense of lis privilege.' — Walter White, On Foot through Tfrol (iSZi6), ch. xii. p. 252. * How admirably does Bastiat say : ' Lui, le gros public, imitant les classes supe. rieures, implore a son tour les/r/e//7i?^^f. . . . Mais aux depens de qui ? C'est ce dont il ne se met pas en peine. . . . Des privileges aux masses ! Peuple, r^flechis done au cercle vicieux oil tu te places. Privilege suppose quelqu'un pour en jouir, et quelqu'un pour le payer. On comprend un homme privilegie, une classe priviliigiee ; mais/ca/- on concevoir tout un petiple priviligii.' — Harmonies ^conovtiqites (2nd ed., 1851), ch. iv. p. 105. And so again : — ' Si I'on ne permet pas auxfemmes de jouir de droits legitimes, elles pervertiront les hommes et elles-memes pour obtenir d'illicites privileges.' — Translation by Mdlle. Flora Tristan of Mary Woolstonecroft's Prowtnade dans Londres (1842), p. 212. ' L'intfiret de quelques-uns mis au-dessus des besoins de tous, n'est autre chose qu'un privilege.' — Louis Couture, Gouvemement hiriditaire en France (1856), p. 176. ' L'homme lient bien plus a ses privileges qu'a ses droits. Rien n'est clairvoyant comrae regoisrae.'— P. Lanfrev, Essai sur La Revolution Franfaise (1879), ch. vii. p. 132. t According to an Irish boy, Sodom was ' destroyed with brimstone and treacle.' 48 PROGRESS AND RETROGRADE. Here, too, we have privilege correctly used, but the following instances of its misuse show Carlyle's criticism not to have been needless : — ' Fox endeavoured to secure the privileges and the happiness of the people of Asia and the people of Africa.' — W. Godwin on C. J. Fox, 1806, quoted in Memoir of W. G. (1876), vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 154. 'The h'xxh'Axxiw^^ privileges oi co?}imon-righis.' — Walker's Original, 1835 (5th ed., by W. Gray, 1875), P- 193- ' That equality before the law which recognizes no distinction of ranks— that by which the poor man's right to his cottage stands as secure from invasion as the rich man's right to his mansion. Here, then, is & privilege to be most earnestly coveted.' —M. D. HiLL, 'Charge in 1848,' quoted in Hfemoir of M. D. H. (1878), ch. xi. p. 227. ' A whole people were called upon to exercise such a privilege as that oi universal suffrage.' — Carleon, History of the French National Constitutional Assembly (1849), ^o'- ^- P- ''• ' From the life, death, and doctrine of the Saviour, they learned that all were brethren \x\. privilege as in nature, by religion as by blood.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. ii. p. 318. ' If they could not claim this common privilege, what rights were left which might not be withheld ?' — James Williams, The Rise attd Fall of the Model Republic (1863), p. 299. ' He must content himself with the common privileges of the esta- blishment.'— R. Buchanan, Life of David Gray (1868), p. no. 'And thus it was — amidst a general possession ol privileges, and a general equality of customs and ideas,' &c. — Sir H. L. Bulwer, His- torical Characters (1868), vol. i. p. 22. ' Wherever one class . . . has been placed at a disadvantage as com- pared with another class, has been deprived of whatsoever just /rzW- leges,'' &c. — ' Revolution seems to minds so constituted the direct effect of the opening out oi privilege to the many which has hitherto been the heritage of the few.' — 'Is there any one now living who doubts that revolution would have followed ere long the denial of that extension o{ popular privilege for which a patient people had waited long ?' — Mrs. Jos. Butler, lVo?nan^s Work and Woman's Culture (1869), Introduc- tion, pp. iii, xxiv, XXV. 'In the eighteenth century after Christ, England stood forth alone as an example to Europe oi the privileges that might be enjoyed by sub- jects under a constitutional monarchy. How these privileges were acquired is matter of history.' — Quarterly Revieiu, April, 1878, p. 283. ' I should have the utmost confidence in giving to the agricultural labourers the privilege — I would not say the privilege, but the right — of voting in the election of members of Parliament.' — R. N. Philips, M.P,, Manchester Examiner and Times, 20th January, 1879. PROGRESS and RETROGRADE, as neuter verbs, are words on which verbal critics have spilt vast quantities of ink. On progressing a correspondent of the Athemtum, April 25, 1857, p. 544, wrote thus : — ' Amongst the " prevalent corruptions of our language," there is one word (or term) I beg leave particularly to point out, and which, of late, seems to have obtained much favour and frequency with our writers, PROGRESS AND RETROGRADE. 49 and evidently from its "flavour" a highly-spiced Yankeeism.* I allude to the term (or word) "progressing," so frequently met with of late. I do not find in either Bailey or Johnson any such verb as "■ to progress,'''' from which alone the wox^ progressing covXA be derived, according to the etymology of our language. The States Dictionary of their Ian- • guage may possibly, in " going-ahead," contain such a VERB. Having but the two above-named English ones (to which I can refer on the subject) in my possession, I must leave the case for your observance and discrimination.' This is severe, but turn to the work of an American. In his Modern English (1873), p. 286, Mr. FiTZEDWARD Hall, after citing instances of progress as a neuter verb from writers of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, observes : ' Progress, the verb neuter, long erroneously j called an Americanism, has shifted its accent in becoming modern Eng- I lish [during the "age of Burke"]. That we should have a verb corre- sponding to the substantive /rci^r^Ji- is certainly desirable. If it had not been urgently desiderated, it would never have attained its present very general prevalence.' Dean Alford in 1864, and Mr. E. S. Gould in 1867, pointed out that progress had been thus employed by Shakespeare {King John, V. ii. 46), Milton {Treatise of Reformation), and Gibber; though the Dean seems still to demur to the modern accentuation, progi-ess, and to the forma- tion of a verb on a noun. But is not the verb formed on the past par- ticiple of progredior, just as digress is on that of digredior {cf. Skeat, s.v.) or transgress on that oi transgrediorl while as to the accent would Dean Alford have said ' io object,' ^ io project,' or 'to rebel?' Etymologically progress seems unimpeachable ; while retrograde, the verb, is at least a correcter formation than retrograde, the adjective, which was justly derided in Ben Jonson's Poetaster. Pliny has retro- gradi, and Marcianus Capella has retrogradare, so that retrograde, the verb, can boast an older pedigree than can our activef verb degrade, which has no corresponding degradare save in Low Latin. At the same time, writers may with advantage ask themselves, before they employ these verbs, whether advance, proceed, or go fof-U'ard might not be substituted for progress ; go backward or decline for retrograde, e.g., in the following passages : — 'From Ambition and Avarice, his suborner, let me progress to the second son of Pride, which is Vain-glory.'— Nash, Christ's Tears over Jerusalem (1594), p. 102, in Archaica, vol. i. 'And this is as farre as I allowed my discourse \.o progresse in this way.' — Donne, Biathanatos, ist ed., n. d., p. 213. ' \\Q.progresse in the wayes of vice.'— Feltham, Resolves (ed. 1628), p. 84. * Compare M. Way's assertion in his Remarques sur la Langtte Frangaise (1845), vol. i. pp. 447-448 : ^ Progressif et progresser sont dus a rimagination des ideologues du temps de Franklin, de Malesherbes, et de la guerre d'AmSrique. . . . Ce mot Jirogressi/ est perfide ; il s'en faut garder.' And on p. i&6 /'rogresser has hecn already branded as 'un barbarisme.' t Retrograde itself has been sometimes used as an active verb, eg. : — ' When Diogenes fell in the school of the Stoics, he answers his deriders with this question: "Why do you laugh at me iox falling backwards, when you yourselves do retrograde sonx lives '"' — Owkn Feltham, Resolves (1630), p. 8. E go PROLIFIC — QUALITY. '■Progressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle of Eternity.' — Milton, Treatise of Reformation in England. 'All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance' — GiBBON, vol. viii. ch. Ixxi. p. 441. ' Nations, as well as individuals, who do not progress must retro- grade.'' — Letter in Manchester Examiner and Times, 2 1st July, 1856. ' His scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than before. '—KlNGS- LEY, Westward Ho! (ed. 1879), ch. ii. p. 17. ' So continually progressing (the Yankees should be thanked instead of ridiculed for the word),' &c.— Sir James Stephen to the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, 5th November, 1845, quoted in Memoir of R. A. Vaughan (1864), p. 52. PROLIFIC means 'teeming, fruitful, productive,' being compounded of the Lat. proles, 'offspring,' ^.w^l facere 'to make,' the stem fac- turning into fie- in composition. To speak with the Manchester Examiner and Times (20th May, 1872) of 'prolific [i.e. frequent] jokes,' were to make a blunder equal to that involved in 'fruitful apples' or ' teeming lambs.' The word is rightly used in : — ' The last ten years especially have been prolific of these improve- ments.' — Sir H. Holland, Recollections of Past Life (1872), p. 14. ' Switzerland now so prolific of pleasure and enterprise.' — Id., ii., p. 122. QUALITY comes through Fr. qnalitc, from the Lat. qualitas, a coinage of Cicero's '' qtialitates igitur appellavi, quas Trotonrras Grarci vocant; quod ipsum apud Grsecos non est vulgi verbum, sed philosophorum' (CiC. Ac. I, 7, 25). Iloro? in Greek, as qnalis in Latin, meant simply ' of what sort ;' and similarly Troionj^ and qualitas denoted nothing more than 'quality' or 'property,' good or bad as the case might be. In French, howSver, qnalitc has come to bear the restricted meaning of '_§V7^^ qualities, '* and modern English writers are aping this undesirable restriction. t True, it might save us the trouble of prefixing an adjec- tive, but only at the cost of half of the noun's meaning, since one could no more speak of 'evil qualities,'' if goodness were always implied thereby, than one could of ' petty greatness ' or ' ignorant wisdom.' ' We have often had occasion to remark that if a man happen to pos- sess one mental quality in great abundance, the world in haste, and the ordinary fry of critics in their conceit, immediately proceed to deny him every other, or to derogate from the quality of those they are obliged to concede.'— George Gilfillan, Life of Samuel Butler (1854), * C/. : ' Non-cr€dulit6 qtialiti de jugement ; car la crfidulit^ est un d(faut d'esprit.' — St. Pirkre. ' II est dans la nature des talens incomplets de preferer leurs (/^aif kXcuK qualitas.' — Geokge Sand, Histoire de ma Vie, ch. xxxiv. 'Jamais sans doute deux nations ne se ressemblaient moins, soit par leurs qualitas, soit par leurs difatcts.' — Louis Blanc, Letires s-ur V Angleterre {\'i,t^).\a\. i. p. 20. \ Another restrictive use, that of qtiality for ' high estate, ' is rarer now, in literature at least, than it was a century ago. Villagers still speak of their superiors as ' the quality,' but a modern novelist would hardly write ; — ' She has been so obliging as to introduce my aunt and me to some of her particular friends ol quality.' — Smoi^lett, Humphrey Cli?iker (Works, ed. by Anderson, iSos;, vol. vi. p. 102. READING — RELIABLE. 51 vol. i. p. xii. [Here quality is used in two senses in one sentence, first for '^w^/ quality,' then in its proper, unrestricted meaning.] 'Their defects as well as their qualities.^ — Bayle St. John, Sub- alpine Kmgdotn (1856), vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 67. 'Mr. Addington was only remarkable for not being remarkable, whether for his qualities or his defects.'' — H. L. Bulwer, Historical Characters [l^dcj), vol. ii. p. 232. ' No speaker ever combined a greater variety of qualities, though many may have been superior in each of the excellences which he pos- sessed.'—/.^., vok ii. p. 427, 'Canning.' ' He had the qualities of his defects.'— Life of C. J. Mathews (1879), vol. ii. ch. viii. p. 274. READING has of late years become a favourite cant term in critics' phraseology, its sense, if any, being that of 'rendering.' In Our Mutual Friend, bk. iii. ch. x. p. 94, Dickens ironically remarks : — ' By the way, that word Reading, in its critical use, always charms me. An actress's Reading of a chambermaid, a dancer's Reading of a horr.pipe, a singer's Reading of a song, a marine painter's Reading of the sea, the kettle-drummer's Reading of an instrumental passage, are phrases ever youthful and delightful.' REDOLENT, 'smelling or savouring' (Lat. redolere, 'to shed an odour'), is oddly conjoined by Lady Eastlake with arrows,* whose per- fume has hitherto defied analysis : — ' As late as i860 he wrote to one who had observed symptoms more thzn usually redolent oi "the arrow of soft tribulations."' — Lady East- LAKE, Life of John Gibson (1S70), ch. xi. p. 239. REGALIA (Lat. neut. plur. of regalis, 'of or belonging to a king,' from rex, 'a king') is applicable only to emblems of royalty, not to the insignia (Lat. neut. plur. of insignis, 'remarkable') or badges of a club, as in — ' Atone of the meetings we reported yesterday, the president remarked that it had often happened that the money which should have gone to the payment of sick and burial claims had been squandered on foolish regalia, or voted for purposes quite at variance with the principles sup- posed to govern friendly societies.' — Alanchester Examiner and Times, 22nd May, 1872. RELIABLE is a 'neoterism' the objection to which is given, and a defence of which is undertaken, in a review of Dean Alford's Plea for the Queen's English : — 'Of course the Dean puts his veto (p. 253) upon reliable; men of his stamp always do. He alleges the staple argument of his class, that rely-upon-able would be the only legitimate form of such a derivative from rely. They ought fairly to put the cr.se somewhat thus : "It is unaccount-for-able, not to say laugh-at-able, that men will try to force upon the language a word so take-objection-to-able, so little avail-of-able, * Some Maori Porson may possibly in 1980 suggest aroma as an emendation for arrows, aroma being etymologically connected with aratio ' ploughing,' whence by an easy transition one arrives at tribulum, ' a threshing-sledge.' 52 REPLACE. and so far from indifference-with-able, as reliable,'" then we should see more clearly how much the plea is worth.' — N. Amer. Rev., October, 1866, p. 568. The author of the above is probably Mr. Fitzedward Hall, who has published a volume of 238 pages On English Adjectives in -Able, with special Reference to Reliable {'LoTi^., 1877). Reliable \s here shown to have the countenance of Coleridge, Gladstone, J. S. Mill, Dr. Newman, Dean Mansel, and Bishop Wilberforce, of the Times, the Athentrum, and even the Saturday Review (its bitter opponent), of writers, in short, a catalogue of whom 'would be all but endless.' At the same time Mr. Hall acknowledges that he himself has used the word but once 'in the course of some eight thousand printed pages;' and, since he does not quote the passage, he leaves us free to imagine that even there trustworthy might possibly have served his purpose. The following notes are supplementary to this exhaustive and curious monograph : — ' For choice and pith of language he belongs to a better age than ours, and might rub shoulders with Fuller and Browne, though he does use that abominable word reliable.^ — J. R. Lowell on Emerson. ' Perindo gave orders that every triistuwrthy vassal (I am afraid he would have said reliable, only the word had not then been invented).' — Prince Peri^tdd's JVish (1874), ch. viii. p. 57. ' Now I can fancy someone is saying, "A pretty fellow you are to swear at the word reliable, which has quite grown into the language, when you make use of such an awful comparative as 'witheringer.'"' — /^., p. 58. I ' The mere grammar of style teaches us not to say ^^ commence'''' where 1 we can say " be^n," or ^'reliable" where we can say ''trtistworthy."^ — i George Saintsbury, Fortnightly Review, February, 1876, p. 244, ' Modern English Prose.' REPLACE (Fr. remplacer) means properly 'to restore to its place,' as in — ' Upon arriving at Brussels, Wellington shook me warmly by the hand, and in a most feeling manner said that, as he was anxious to replace on his staff those officers who had served with him in the Penin- sula, he could no longer retain me.' — Lord W. P. Lennox, Celebrities I have Kno7vn (1S76), vol. i. p. 139. ' This is the theory, but how to replace the Emperor when he has been displaced by such an event as Waterloo or Sedan ?'^ — P. G. Hamerton, Round My House (1876), ch. x. p. 196. Yet this same writer says : — ' The picturesque old farmhouses, with their thatched roofs, dormer windows, and delightful disorder of quaint detail, are precious indeed to artists, yet we ought not to regret their now rapid disappearance, for they are replaced by buildings incompar- ably better planned for human health and convenience.' — lb., ch. xii. p. 284. Here, as in the following passages, replace is wrongly used for dis- place, succeed, supersede, take the place of. Sec, a blunder that is all but universal : * — * Not quite, as witness two examples : — ' The best means is to learn to care for other and better thines more than for money' or riches; in other words, it is by the help of what a great Christian writer [Dr. Chal- REPLACE. 53 * Nothing in London life has yet replaced what was the habitual society of Holland House.' — Sir H. Holland, Recollections of Fail Life (1S72), p. 228. ' The rich man has every thing that wealth can procure to replace, as far as possible, the comforts of civilization.' — C. A. Payton, The Dia- mond Diggings of South Africa (1872). [As if it meant ' to supply the place of. 'J 'That is, with Israel religion r^//a^^^ morality. ' — iL Arnold, Lite- rature and Dogma {1873), p. 48. ' Can we suppose that good blood replaces teaching?' — French Home Life (1873), ch. ii. p. 70. ' It [the death of Prince Albert] will entirely alter the Queen's exist- ence : he cannot be replaced.^ — Geo. Grote, quoted in Life of G. G., by Mrs. Grote {1873), ch. xxx. p. 256. ' The Protestant families that replaced them were destined to imbibe their ardour.' — Bernard, Life of S. Loi'er (iSjj^), vol. i. p. 159. [Read 'displaced.'] ' Amongst the metropolitan constituencies we notice that Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., has gained a seat in Marylebone, replacing one of its late Liberal members.' — Manchester Examiner and Times, 6th February, 1874. [Read 'displacing.'] 'Tragedy ceased with Rachel; Comedy has still Regnier, Got, Provost, and Madame Plessy ; but who is to replace them?' — G. H. Lewes, Actors, &c. (1875), ch. xii. p. 181. [Better, 'who is to take their place?'] 'When Parliament opened in 1873 ^ Liberal Government was in office, with a powerful majority and every sign of permanence ; now a Conservative Government replaces it, with a similar majority and similar prospects.' — Economist, 6th Februar}', 1875, p. 147. ' The building now in progress at Wormwood Scrubs, by which Mill- bank Prison is eventually to be replaced.^ — A. GRIFFITHS, Memorials of Millbank (1875), vol. i. p. 34. ' If Sydenham had to replace Locke as family physician at Exeter House, it is not likely that he practised as a doctor elsewhere.' — Bourne, Life of Locke {\%'](>),\o\.'\. p. 332. [Read 'take the place of.'] ' If low desires and bad habits could be replaced by high aspirations and habits in conformity with them.' — M. D. Hill, 1854, Memoir (1878), ch. xiv. p. 268. [Read 'displaced.'] _ A variation of the blunder is where replace is used in the sense of ' to fill up or supply the place of one thing by another,' as in — ' Dr. Mc Vicar's widowed sister was about to replace the long-lost lieutenant.' — Miss Taylor, Blindpits (1868), vol. ii. p. 48 \i.e., take a second husband]. ' The mental habits got during the preparation are, I think, incapable mers] called " the expulsive power of a new affection" displacing another less worthy.' — Hon. and Rev. W. H. Lvttelton, Sins of Trade, &c. (1874), p. 22. ' Up to July 3 all remained enigmatical ; but on this date observations were made which seemed to me to displace surmise and perplexity by the clearer light of physical demonstration.' — Dr. Jn. Tvndall, Contemp. i?/^a' against xU'—Dted, ch. xi. Yet we use 'well- principled ;' and /r/;iC/>/e(^ by itself occurs repeatedly in Fuller and other seventeenth, century divines. ULTRONEOUS - VERBAL. 5 7 ('eared'), barhafiis ('bearded'), fiirj-ittis (' towered'), and a host of otlier Latin participles, no corresponding verbs to which exist. A stronger objection to talented than its malformation is that it rests on a false metaphor. ' A /a/d'wte/ man ' should mean 'a man of talent^ (sing.), but the man in the parable with the single talent was not what is now implied in 'a talented man.' This objection, over- looked by the critics whom we have quoted above, is foreseen by Mr. Hall, who cites a long list of authorities for ' man oi talent'' in the sense of 'a man of genius' — Burke, Godwin, William Taylor, Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, De Quincey, Lord Macaulay, Cardinal Newman, &c., names that prove this usage to be accepted by many of England's greatest writers. Still it were always well that, before employing talented, we should first consider whether clever would not serve our turn as well or better, e.g., in such phrases as 'a talented young artist,' ' a talented review. ' ULTRONEOUS is a word not recognised by Johnson, and little needed by the English tongue, but one that, if used at all, can bear the meaning only of 'voluntary.' This was the sole signification of its Latin original, ultroneus, a derivative of ultra, ' beyond,' 'from the other side' (without aid from this), i.e., 'voluntarily.' ' Such essays may serve the hour fairly, but can seldom be of high worth ultroneoiisly.'' — T. Smibert, Preface to Poems (1851). On this the Seotsmait, of 6th September, 1851, observes: — ' Mr. S. is here most unfortunate in expression . . . ultroueously means volun- tarily, which, of course, cannot be what Mr. S. means. He seems to have used the word under the notion that it was a scholarly-like [scholarly] synonym of ultimately : if he had condescended to speak plain English, he ^^ ould have saved us this hint, and his readers would have known what uc meant.' VERBAL (Lat. verhum, 'a word') means 'couched in words,' spoken^ or written as the case may be, and is not synonymous with Oral, 'de- livered by word of mouth'* (Lat. os, oris, 'a mouth '), seeing that it is as impossible to pen as it is to utter a sentence without the use of words. Yet writers of standing have often confounded these two words, thereby obliterating the separate functions of each. What verbal's true func- tions are may be gathered from our first ten examples; what they are not is illustrated in the twelve that follow : — 'The " Songs without Words" had origin in the hal)itual necessity for musical expression in place of verbal.' — Art. 'Mendelssohn,' in Brit. Quart. Rev. (1856), vol. xxiv. p. 337. , ' If Austria is substituted for Russia, . . . the narrative will verbally [i.e., word for word] coincide with a passage in Lord Malmesbuiy's diary of 1807.' — Sat. Rev. i6th July, 1S57. ' I remember seeing in London a little indian-ink sketch of Shelley * To this very phrase, 'by luord of mouth,' we may perhaps ascribe the blunder of using verbal {or oral — a blunder into which even Mr. Gladstone fell oftener than once in his speech in favour of Milner Gibson's amendment in Lord Palmerston's Conspiracy BiU, February 19th, 1858. bo in 'i.iooTc's Life 0/ ByroJi, p. 3, there is quoted a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury, who speaks of 'good reasons that I can tell you when we max.. Jitter /or words tliati writing,' as if one could write, any more than speak, without words. 58 VERBAL. in the academic costume of Oxford. The sketch tallied pretty well with a ty^r^a/ description which I heard of him in some company,' &c. — De Quincey, quoted in MiM\e\.o\r% Shelley and his Writings (1858), vol. i. ch. xxi. p. 207. [Correct, as opposed to the drawing mentioned before. ] ' Household suffrage is virtually if not verbally extorted on one side and conceded on the other.' — Nat. Rev., April, i860, p. 430. [Com- pare, in Latin, the common antithesis oi re and verbo.l ' All is now fixed respecting my election, virtually as well as ver- bally.' — Prof. John Wilson, quoted in Memoir [1^62], vol. i. ch. ix. p. 319- ' We subjoin an engraving, copied from a photograph of the old building, which will give the reader a far better notion of the structure than any verbal description can convey to his mind.' — LIen. Mayhev^^, German Life, &c. (1864), vol. ii. p. 10. ' Failing thus to discover any valid antithesis between fact and theory, we must look upon the ordinary distinction as simply verbal.' — G, H. Lewes, Aristotle (1864), ch. iv. p. 75. ' The p)-actieal admission which he has made of a technical ignorance which, in this written document, he is ashamed verbally to admit, was in truth very honourable to him, and this time, at least, his acts were more prudent than his words.'— /'i?// Alall Gazette, lOth October, 1867. [Rightly used, opposed to ' practical,' not to ' written.'] ' In fact there are parts which are almost verbally repeated.' — H. L. BULWER, Historical Characters (1S68), p. 433. 'Some such doctrines would be verbally accepted by most men.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (third series, 1879), P- 39°- ' You will be pleased, madam, to remember, the lad was sent with a z/£;-Zia/ message to the doctor.' — Fielding's Amelia, bk. ii. ch. vii. ' When this was verbally conceded, the Chancellor required that they should have it in writing' — ToRRENS McCuLLAGH, Life of Sir j, Graham, vol. i. p. 400. 'I took no part whatever in defending Dr. Hampden in 1836; neither in writing nor by twn/did I engage in any, the least, degree in the controversy then carried on.' — Bishop of Salisbury, 29th Dec, 1847, quoted p. 94, &c., of Christmas' Concise History of the Hampden Controversy (1S48). ' It would be absurd to ask also, whether it was ever heard of that such a proceeding . . , should have been "condoned" by Parlia- mentary and popular parties which had just been engaged in a clamour against another ministry for having said vej-bally to the same foreign Government what, according to some tastes, ought to have been said in writing.' — Scotsman, 7th August, 1858. ' Without sending as much as a verbal message in answer to Mr. Slope's note.' — Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857), vol. i. ch. xviii. p. 276. 'It was only given verbally and without witnesses.' — lb., vol. ii. ch. v. p. 102. ' I need not here repeat that which I stated verbally on the occasion of our uUerview,' &c. — Lord STANLEY, Letter to Lond, Elect. Com., 2oth April, 1859. WHITHER. 59 ' These orders being illegal, they are generally communicated verbally [orally] ; but as the responsible editor is not always to be found at the moment, they are at times left in writing.' — Westminster Review, Oct., 185S, No. 28, p. 315. 'France under Louis Napoleon.' 'Though I can take him off to the life verbally, I can give no idea of him on paper.'— Lady Morgan, Memoir {1862), vol. ii. p. 328. [' Caricature' is not here meant.] ' By a private Wtv/^a/ arraneement, not even committed to writing. ' BULWER Lytton, What Will He Do With It? (1859), vol. iii. bk. vii. ch. x. p. 97. 'Some of the Judges have sent in statements of their views, while others have attended before the Commission, and verbally stated their opinions. The whole of the evidence, both oral and documentary, will be found in the appendix.' — Report of H. M. Commissioners on Capital Punishment, December, 1865. 'And your living on them is merely a verbal arrangement?' — Henry Kingsley, AIade?noiselle Mathilde (1868), vol. i. p. 242. WHITHER (Angl.-Sax. /^wV/t-r) signifies motion ^tg^ Where (Angl.- Sax. hvar) rest in, a place ; but certain writers employ the former for the latter adverb, pedantically or unconsciously imitating the constrtictio preegnans of Greek and of Roman authors : — Dr. Johnson, in a letter to Boswell, ist September, 1777, says : 'Upon my arrival hither.' — Boswell 's Life of Johnson, Croker's ed. {i860), vol. i. ch. Iviii. p. 538. [Theoretically hither \s unimpeachable, ( but the usage of our best writers substitutes here, there, or where for\ .^ hither, thither, and whither in this and similar cases. No one would ' • I say 'to arrive to a place.'] ' 'The Montanvert, whither we arrived about six o'clock.' — Alf. Wills, Wanderings Among the High Alps (1856), ch. ii. p. 56. 'The "old order changeth, giving place to new," and Lang, with Paisley, Elliott, Murray, and all the rest of them, has gone tvhither there is no marrying nor giving in marriage.' — Daily News, loth May, 1872. ' He never went thitherSdevQ with a certain reluctance.' — Mrs. Grote,\ Life of Geo. Grote (1873), ch. iv. p. 43. [Here rightly_used.] \ A GLANCi': at the foregoing pages will show that it is in the use of exotic rather than of home-grown words that blunders are oftenest made. The same holds good of terminations. No Englishman would for a moment confound laitfttl and lawless, lovely and loved, livelihood and liveliness, building and builder; and the reason is not far to seek. Even though he should not know that -fttl stands for -full, -ly for -like, or -hoodiox Old Eng. -had, 'a state or condition,' these suffixes are so often upon his lips that he would as soon forget their meaning as he would fail to recognise his wife or child. With classical sufiixes the case is otherwise, such being generally both less familiar and less intelligible to the Teutonic ear, while in their journeyings they have also altered more. Sometimes one Latin termination appears in Eng- lish under two different forms, each with its different sense; and though a philologist may trace the process, he cannot explain why 6o -TY — -SION. captivus has branched off into our captive, 'prisoner,' and caitiff, ' vil- lain.' How meaningless to uneducated speakers Latin prefixes and suffixes have often become, may be heard in their expcnsival (expen- sive), droise (advise), indistructed (instructed), tinnatuiablc (unnatural), &c. ; how meaningless they sometimes are to educated writers we proceed to show. -TY, the Lat. -tas {-tat) and the Fr. ic, added to adjective stems, has the force of the Eng. suffix -iiess, being used to convert them into mere abstract nouns, e.g., henignitas (kindness), certainty (sureness), dig- nity (worthiness). -CITY, the Lat. -citas {-citat) and the Fr. -cite, always implies the power or quality of being or doing something, e.g., capacity (power of holding), mendacity (quality of being false), perspi- cacity (power of seeing through), and veracity (quality of being truth- ful). This distinction is ignored in the following passages, since in the first four the ' power of seeing through things ' is intended, not I 'transparency;' and in the last two 'truth' (the 'being true'), not the j ' quality of speaking truth.' . ' He had a high estimation of the intellectual and moral power and :• perspicHity of the French n\m&.'— Memoirs of Baron Bunsen (1868), vol. i. p. 112. 'This "Bacchanal self-forgetfulness" was impossible to his rare ^f perspicl^ity.'' — Trans, of Ad. Stahr's Life of Lessing, by E. P. Evans ^ (Boston, 1866), vol. i. ch. iv. p. 349. 'It is instructive to observe how clearly these zealous and sensitive Teutons can perceive that Polish Posen must be essentially German, but that "German" Alsace can by no means be essentially French. We have noticed that on the occasion of the protest of the Polish deputies in the Reichstag, some months ago, the ingenious Prince \ ^c Bismarck displayed a similar perspicuity.'' — Spectator, 26th August, 1871, p. 1033. ' The great power of the Church, its hardihood of pretension and assertion, the unconditioned nature of its arguments, and the general ignorance, want o{ perspici^ity, and submissiveness of the laity, enabled it to fill up the breach in some shape or other, more or less vague.' — Westminster Review, January, 1873, p. 136. ' It would have puzzled him to make good the assertion if its veracity had been tested by the actual condition of the people.' — W. Forsyth, The Slavonic Provinces, &c. (1876), p. 169. 'These two points have no more to do with the verttcity of the Christian religion than chemistry.' — Letter of Jn. Scott to B. R. Haydon, 1817, Memoirs, &c., of B. R. H. (1876), vol, i. p. 313. [Is it 'than chemistry has,' or ' than with chemistry?'] -NCE (Lat. -nt-ia) and -TION or -SION (Lat. -ti-o, -tionis ; si-o, sionis) are English suffixes whose meanings are often more clearly dif- ferentiated than were their Latin originals, Betwieen prisci mo?'is obser- vantia and observatio maiidatortim dei one cannot draw a hard and fast distinction, as one can between ' the observance ofS-anAa.y'' and 'habits \ oi observation.^ So as a rule, three unwarrantable exceptions to which are here produced, acceptance denotes 'receiving' (active) or 'welcome;' acceptation, ' the being received ' (passive) or ' interpretation.' IDENTITY — NOVICE. 6 1 ' The small acceptation [acceptance] which Mr. Coleridge's prose works have found.' — H. N. Coleridge, Note to Table-Talk of S. T. C. (1835), vol. i. p. 10. ' Many persons who appear to have thought little in this world worthy of their acceptation'' [acceptance]. — Quart. Rev. (1832), vol. xlvi. p. 30. ' None [words] remain more vague in their acceptance ' [accepta- tion]. — RusKIN, Severt Lamps of Architecture {\%\()), p. 173. So in this passage the active disposal, whose suffix -al is a modern formation freely tacked on to verbs, should have been used in place of dispositio7i, the former meaning 'disposing,' the latter 'being dis- posed': — ' However, I leave what I have written entirely at yovix disposition.' — Geo. GROTEtoJ. S. Mill, Life 0/ G. G. (1873), ch. xxxvi. p. 296. IDENTITY and IDENTIFICATION, derivatives both of Lat. idem, 'same,' in meaning differ as shoe and shoemakiiig, the -ty (Fr. te — Lat. tas) of the one being merely an equivalent of the English -ness, while -fication comes {xo\i\facere, 'to make.' Identity, therefore, means 'sameness,' identification 'making or proving the same;' and to confound these words is a blunder of which no scholar could be guilty. ' I am not justified so further to particularise their achievements as to make their identify easy.'— G. A. Sala, Belgravia, Aug., 1868, p. 200, 'Letters from Lilliput.' [In the reports of the dreadful accident, that month, on the L. & N. W. Railway, the same mistake occurs : ' The bodies were so charred as to render identity impossible.'] ' But Roger's identity must be beyond any doubt, and that cannot be obtained unless he comes where I am, either to England or to Paris. ' — Lady TiCHBORNE, letter to Mr, Gibbes, quoted in Tichborne Romance (1872), p. 107. ' He [Hume] was under the obligation of sometimes imagining his facts, from the difficulty of navignting his portly person to the other end of his sofa, wliere the means of their identity [verification] lay,' — G. J. HoLYOAKE, History of Co-operation (1S75), vol. i. pref, p. viii, ANTIQUARIAN is an adjectival derivative of the noun Antiquary (Lat. antiquarius, itself primarily an adjectival derivative of antiquus, ' old, from ante 'before'), and its meaning is ' relating to one engaged upon antiquities.' The blunder of using it for the noun from which it is derived is probably due to the supposed analogy oilibi-arian, unitaj-ian, trim- tarian, &c. , but these words have no intermediate forms answering to antiqua7y. ' He was the busiest and most correct antiquarian in the west ot England.' — Henry Kingsley, Mademoiselle Alathilde (1868), vol, ii. p. 100, ' John Yonge Akerman, an antiquarian, distinguished chiefly in the department of numismatics, was born in Wiltshire, on the 12th June, 1806.'— Art, 'Akerman,' in Enc. Brit. (9th ed., 1875), vol, i. Akin hereto is the frequtnt confusion between NOVITIATE and NOVICE, which stand to each other as diaconate to deacon, consulate to consul. Novitiate (Low I -at. nov Hiatus) means ' the office of a novice '* * C_f. ' She has been hitherto little more than a novice, but the intelligence and force which she displays as Miriam brings the tiovitiate to an end.' — Times, idth Nov., 1873. 62 -BLE — -OUS (Lat. itovituts, from novus, 'new'); and until it can be shown that there is no such word as iiovice in the En;,'lish tongue, it is idle to appeal to the twofold meaning ('magistracy' and 'magistrate') of the Lat. magistratii<;. 'Does this Educational Institute of Scotland invite its novitiate to pursue this study?' — A. M. Eell, On the Art of Deliveiy (1854), p. 14. ' Henryson was a student at the University of St. Andrews, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1479, and he seems to have travelled in his youth as a novitiate of the Franciscan order.' — W. E. Aytoitn, Scottish Ballads (1858), introduction, p. 64. ' The wisdom of the Jesuits is perhaps nowhere better shown than in the tremendous regimen of solitude and contemplation of death under which they put their novitiates.'' — W, R. Alger, The Getiiics of Solitude (Boston, 1S67), p. 149. [Yet on p. 351 the word is correctly used: 'his long novitiate of silence.'] ' No wonder the novitiate in medicine evinced so strong a feeling for the means of anatomical research.' — LoNSDALE, Life of R. Knox (1870), ch. iii. p. 63. ' Your Honour, in conducting the business of this court, has f^ver given to the youngest novitiate amongst us the same measure.' — Mr Greene, Q.C., to Vice-Chancellor Stuart, Echo, 25th March, 1871. ' The entry of three British (but all English) ladies of good birth and education as novitiates, by taking the white veil.' — Henry Cock- BURN, Memorials (1874), vol. i. ch. iii. p. 98. -BLE, -ABLE, or -IBLE is an adjective sufhx, attached for the most part to verbal stems, and then most commonly bearing a passive sense, ' that may or can be,' ' worthy or fit to be,' e.g., credible, 'worthy to be believed.' Attached, to nouns it is capriciously active or passive, but oftenest perhaps is equivalent to the English termination -worthy (cf. trustivorthy), e.g., in creditable and contemptible. -OUS, on the other hand, is always an active suffix, answering most closely to -iiigtcnA -Jul, cf. credulous (trusting), victorioits (conquering), and contemptuous (scornful), tuondrous (wonderful), &c. To any classical scholar a confu- sion between credible (credibilis) and credulous (credulus) must seem most strange, and, indeed, this is a blunder rarely met with ; but contemp- tible (late Lat. contemptibilis) for contemptuous (formed as if from a Lat. contemptuosus) occurs, according to Hall's Modern English (Lond., 1872), pp. 168 and 222, in Shakespeare, De Foe, Richardson, Sterne, Gibbon, Wilkes, &c., &c. ' They could not have had a better expositor than Mr. Charles Larkyns, or a more credible visitor than Mr. Verdant Green. XW^credi- bilitv was rather strongly put to the test,' &c. — Cuthbert Bede, Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, pt. i. ch. vii. p. 60. ' It contributed a good deal to confirm me in the contempTibk idea I always entertained of Cellarius.'— Gibbon, Miscellaneous IFor/cs, vol. v. p. 286. [See also his History of the Decline and Fall, Sec, ch Ixi.] ' To a gentleman who, at the close of a fierce dispute with Porson, exclaimed : " My opinion of you is most contemptible, sir," he retorted : " I never knew an opinion of yours that was not contemptible.'" ' — Rev. J. S. Watson, Life of Rd. Porson (1S61), ch. xxviii. p. 384. CONTINUOUS — DIREFUL. 63 ' Having expressed himself in terms of abhorrence of a piece of base- ness and treachery, the deHnquent said . " Well, sir, perhaps some day you may change your opinion of me." " Perhaps I may, sir," was the reply, "for if I shouM find anyone who holds a more contcniptiMn, opinion of you than I do myself, I should lay down my own and take up his."' — Life of the Rev. R. H. Barhain (1S70), vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 182. ' Two creditable [credible] witnesses, without having any communi- cation one with another, affirmed the appearance of the same man, with whose person they were both well acquainted.' — ^Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (K. Anderson's 3rd ed., 1S06), vol. vi. p. 305. ' I am creditably [credibly] informed that the Duke of Argyll can assemble five thousand men in arms.' — Id., ib., p. 2S3. CONTINUOUS and CONTINUAL are striking examples of the way in which different notions are expressed by slight divergencies of form. The first is the Lat. continuus, ' unmterrupted' (from cum, 'together,' and tenere, 'to hold'); the second, a formation unknown to Latin, though appearing in English as far back as the Ancren Riwle (1220). Their difference in meaning is set forth and illustrated in these two passages : — 'A "continuous" action is one which is uninterrupted, and goes on unceasingly as long as it lasts, though that time may be longer or shorter. "Continual" is that which is constantly renewed and recur- ring, though it may be interrupted as frequently as it is renewed. A storm of wind or rain, which never intermits an instant, is "con- tinuous;" a succession of showers is "continual." " If I am exposed to continual interruptions, I cannot pursue a continuous train of thought."' — Whately's Synonyms (1851), p. 55. ' The adoption of continuous brakes upon the British railways is becoming general. Let us hope that the result may be by means of the contin7ious brakes to avoid the continual smash, '—_/«^, llth October, 1879. As -BLE is generally a passive suffix, so -IVE (Lat. -iTms) is oftenestan active one, e.g., in attentive, purgative, conservative, cursive, &c. Not invariably, however, as witness collective, derivative, and pre- sumptive ('presumed or presumable'), which last is wrongly employed for presu>nptuo7is ('presuming') in — 'Self-reliant, he was not presumptive.'' — Life of Sylvester Judd (Boston, 1854), ch. xii. p. 466, This suffix -ive is attached to the supine stem of Latin verbs, e.g., cttrs-ive (currere, sup. curs-utn), penetrat-ive (penctrare, pcnctrat-tim), and prevettt-ive (pravenire, prcevent-um ). Preventative is an impos- sible^form, presupposing z. prceventare (sup. prcEventat-um) that has no- existence : — ' All who spoke on the subject agreed that properly-cooked food [the proper cooking of food] was a preventative of bad results.' — Triibner's Amer. and Orient. Lit. Rev., October 16, 1869, p. 553. DIREFUL is a word employed by Shakespeare in Richard IL, I. iii. 127, and Tempest, I. ii. 26, but the adjectival sufifix -fd is properly joined 64 -FICENT — DEDUCE. only to nouns, e.g., a7-tfiil, careful, useful, &c. ; and dire of course is an adjective, not noun, from the Lat. dims, 'frightful.' Exigencies of metre probably led Shakespeare to adopt the anomalous direful, but even that excuse is lacking in prose : — ' The direful traces of her late illness.' — Mrs. Grote, Life of George Grote (1873), ch. iv. p. 41. ' The news from India forms a direful corroboration,' &c. — Truth, September 11, 1S79. -FICENT (Lat./aaV, 'I do') and -VOLENT (Lat. volo, ' I wish'), as suffixes of bene, 'well,' or male, 'ill,' convey a widely different meaning, e.g., in : — ' This opinion established in bad minds, no benevolence, nor even bene- ficence, on the injured side, can eradicate it.' — Fielding, yb«a//^aM Wild, vol. V. p. 104. ' Of what use is even benevolence, but in as far as it is productive of beneficence.''*— ]kk. Bentham, Defence of Usury (4th ed., 1818), let. vi. p. 57- _ . * It appears to me indisputable that benevolent intention and beneficent tendency must combine to constitute the moral goodness of an action.' — Sharpe, Letters and Essays (i^^^), p. 148, 'Letter to Sir Jas. Mackin- tosh,' 1831. ' The instructors of youth have no more important duty than to incul- cate the great truth— that it is beneficence rather than benevolence— 2l\. least benevolence shown in beneficence — which can alone be regarded as a virtue and entitled to confidence and respect.' — Lord Brougham, Installation Address, Edinburgh, i860, p. 41. ' It is the fate of most men to be only benevolent. It was the good fortune of Joseph Locke to be not only benevolent but beneficent too.' — J. Devey, Life of Jos. Locke (1862), ch. xxiii. p. 340. ' To make an exceptionally good living out of benevolence that was not always beneficence.'' — Rev, R. RoWE, Friends and Acquaintances (1871), vol. ii. p. 171. ' He must not be satisfied with indolent benevolence, nor fancy him- self the friend of mankind, because in his heart he wishes well to the prosperity of the world.' — Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (ed. 1869), pt. ii. s. iii. ch. iii. p. 97. Yet in ch. ii. p. 89 the same great writer uses betteficent where bene- volent is obviously meant, a blunder that would hardly have been committed had zuell-doer and well-wisher been the words employed : — ' Though the intentions of any person should be ever so proper and beneficent on the one hand, or ever so improper and malevolent on the other, yet, if they fail in producing their effects, his merit seems imper- fect in the one case, and his demerit incomplete in the other.' DEDUCT and DEDUCE are both derivatives of Lat. deduco, 'I lead down or away,' formed, one from its supine deduct um, the other from its infinitive deducere. As is also the case with convict and convince, conduct and conduce, evict and evince, &c., their meanings have been * C/. 'La bienfaisance est ^ la bitnveillance ce que I'acte est au desir.' — Encyclo- pam/ier 'pander,' and so on. But etymology is not everything. It is conceivable that a foreigner might know the meaning of every word in Johnson'a Dictionary, yet might not be able to frame an intelligible English sentence. He must also know how English vvord§,.ajs_X.o^_be got . readjj^^ f or use , and liuw tllfe'y'^e to be cerrntnneH ; m other words, Tie 'must Tje'Tamiliar with the accidence and the syntax of the language. How unfamiliar these often are to English- men, even to English authors, will appear from the next two chapters, the first of which deals with the parts of speech (viewed in relation to the sentence) and with inflection, the second with points of syntax. ARTICLE, Of the article much need not here be said, most of the examples in which it is wrongly omitted being reserved for after consideration. But the rule may be noticed that, when one noun is qualified by several adjectives which cannot be regarded as describing one and the same thing, the article should be repeated ; a rule observed in the first of these examples, neg- lected in the other two :* — ' Philosophers rejected with equal fervour the established rehgious and the political creed.' — Leslie Stephen, Hotirs in a Library {t^xA. series, 1879), ch. iii. p. 124. ['The' is rightly repeated before 'political,' but 'established ' also ought perhaps to be repeated.] ' The creed of Zoroaster . . . supposes the co-existence of a benevolent an^Chialevolent principle, which contend together without either being able decisively to prevail over his antagonist.' — Sir Walter Scott, Deinonology, p. 88. [Read 'and of a malevolent.'] * The second example is correct according to some grammarians who hold that, if the noun is in the plural, the article must precede the first adjective only. But their rule takes no account of the ambiguity of such sentences as: 'They drowned the black and white kittens.' Does this mean 'the kittens that were white with black spots,' or 'the kittens that were white and the kittens that were black.' 'The white and black kittens' in the one case, and 'the white and M^ black kittens' in the other, leave no room for ambiguity. 70 NOUN. 'The old and I new opinions had their active partizans within the walls of the college.' — The Public Schools {1867), p. 13, ch. i. [Insert 'the' before 'new.'] In the next passage, as in similar cases, either the article should be 1 repeated, to avoid the awkwardness of 'more . . . happier,' or else the \ order might be changed, ' a happier and more settled ' : — 'Something is said of the speculative doubts and difficulties through which he won his way to a more settled and happier frame of mind.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 367. No is a shortened form of none (Angl.-Sax. nt^n = ne an, 'not one'), and therefore the indefinite article, being identical with dn, 'one,' is pleonastic in — ' No stronger and stranger a figure than his is described in the modern history of England.' — Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times (1879), vol. i. ch. ii. p. 31. NOUN. None but the grossly uneducated commit gross errors in the use of Eng- lish nominal inflections, these being as familiar as they are few and simple ; but foreign nouns, borrowed by English, yet retaining their original inflec- tions, have often proved pitfalls to unwary writers. Among such nouns are the Latin datum ('pi. data), 7?iagus (tnagi), tumulus (tumuli), genus (genera), larva (larva:), facetia (facetict), ephetnera (ephemera), ana analysis (analyses) ; the Gr^ok phenomenon (phenomena), and miasma (miasmata) ; the Hebrew cherub (cherttbim), and seraph ( seraphim ) ; the Italian virtuoso (virtuosi), and bandit (banditti) ; the French beau (beaux), chef-d'oeuvre (chefs.d'auvre), aide de camp (aides dc camp), &c. Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ' the chori of an opera,' ' the croci in a garden,' or ' the dogmata of the church;' but it may be regarded as an open question whether /(7r;«?xz), genius (geniuses, n\&T\; but .^i^w/V, spirits). Of pseudo- Latin plurals one need not speak at length ; it is enough to remark that men have been heard to talk of ' the throngs oi omnibi that ply the London streets;' that Thackeray is said to have known an eminent female gramma- rian who spoke of witnesses 'taking their affiesdavit ;' and that ' Ouida ' has eclipsed, not merely others, but herself, by stating that ' the hands of the Scipii were nailed to the rostrce.'' After that the following are tame : — ' He has not confined himself to English story, strikingly as its moving phantasmagoria come'iox\\\ from his magic hand.'— Sir A. ALISON, Essay on the Historical Romance, quoted by Mr. Breen. ADJECTIVE. 71 ' Ainsworth, whose talents for description and the drawing of the horrible liave led him to make his novels little more than pictorial phantasma- goria.' — lb., Breen. Of the other luminary I have named, I have not so much to say, in consequence of such litcra scripta of his as have escaped my confusion and destruction of MSS. being marked " private." ' — Jerdan's Autobiog7-aphy, Breen. ' But what will fame be ioati ephemera who no longer exists.' — Ben' jam IN Franklin, Breen. '^ phenomena common to an immense number of diseases.' — Dr. Lay- COCK, Principles and Methods of Medical Observation and Keseaixh (1856), lect. vii. p. 216. ' We have conceived a prejudice, possibly an unreasonable prejudice, but still strong, against a writer who talks of a dicta.' — Spectator, I4lh August, 1869, p. 966, notice of E. W. Cole's Real Place in History of ye sits and Paul. ' The writer is, we guess, an American — at least he talks of a fascinating ficrtice.' — Sat. Rev., 2nd December, 1865, p 712. ' These two fine paintings have by some connoisseurs been considered ihfi chef d'auvres of the series.'— Lady Jackson, Old Pans, &c. (1878), vol. i. ch. vii. p. 90- ADJECTIVE. With adjectives errors are oftenest committed in the degrees of com- parison. An object can be compared only with an object, or a class of objects, other than itself; or, if with itself, then with itself at some different stage of its existence. Thus we may compare the population of the England of to-day with that of France or of Elizabethan England, but to compare the census of 187 1 with the census of 1871 were like asking the price of a penny bun. When, therefore, a comparison is instituted (by means of a compara- tive followed by than), the things compared must be always excluded from the class of things with which it is compared, other* or some such word heirg indispensable in — • The letters published after C. Lamb's death and that of his sister, by Mr. Talfourd, make up a volume of more interest to me than any [othe?-] book of human composition.' — Memoir of C. R. Leslie (1S60), vol. i. ch. ii. p. 54. ' This work was, however, destined to cause Lady Morgan more trouble and annoyance than she met with in the whole of her literary life put together.'— Zrtf/j/ A/.'s Memoirs (1862), vol. ii. p. 304. [Read 'in all the rest of her literary life put together.'] ' Mazzini may be said to have done more for the unity of Italy than a>iy living man' [ergo, than himself, as he still lived in 1865]. — Spectator, April I, 1865, p. 348. [Read 'any other living man.'] ' Probably Lord Halifax is better versed in the real history of the period . . . than any living man or ("Bear" Ellis excepted) than any man who ever lived.' — Political Portraits (1873), p. 259, 'Lord Halifax.' [Read 'than any other living man.'] An exactly similar blunder occurs in the two next passages, 'just as * That birds are not bipeds is implied by the omission of other in — 'The moulting season is a verv delicate and interesting period both /or birds and bipeds.'' — R. H. Barham, Life, &c. 11870), vol. ii. p. 34. LRead 'for both birds and other bipeds.'] 72 ADJECTIVE. serious . . /as' being equal to 'no less serious . . . than,' and 'so grand ' to ' grander ' : — '"Your Englishman is just as serious in his sports as in any net of his life." " Much more so," observed Mr. P.'— Charles Delmer, vol. i. p. 237. [Read ' any other act.'] ' However, the beauty of the temples far outweighed the scale of our griefs, for nothing that remains in any part of the world are so grand and so perfect.'— C. J. Mathews, Autobiography (1879), vol. i. ch. v. p. 128. [Insert 'other' before 'part,' and for 'are' read 'is.'] The case is opposite with superlatives, which state the results of com- parison; as they must ^Hi-^nfs'hQ included in the class of things with which the comparison was made. Thus, ' St. Paul's is greater than all the . in fact, he had broken the promise he had personally given her.' — Mefnoirs of Baron Siockmar (1S72), vol. ii. ch. xxi. p. 17S. [By putting a comma after * A similar mistake is that of inserting a second subject in the shape of a noun, as in — ' Upon their reduction, Bato, their leader, being summoned before the tribunal of Tiberiu:;, and being demanded how he could offer to revolt against the power of Rome, the bold harbariaji rffpXxe:^,^ &.C. — Goldsmith's /?('w^, ch. xxiv. p. 257. [Here 'boldly' must be read fjpr ' the bold barbarian,' or, if these words are to be retained, the first ' being' must be changed to ' wis.' ' Demanded ' also should be 'asked,' since one can- not say ' to demand a person.'] 74 PRONOUN. 'Louis Philippe,' and omittinc^ the word 'he,' instead of an absolute clause at the opening of the sentence, we should have L. P. as nominative to 'must have found,' and followed by an appositive clause.] ' The ISisliop of Natal. having come to England on a mission of humanity, ,he was naturally asked to preach in one of the pulpits of the Church which had consecrated him, and sent him forth as a missionary bishop. — The Liberator, January, 1875, p. i. [By omitting 'he' before ' was,' and by I putting a comma after 'Natal,' instead of the absolute clause ending with 'humanity,' 'The Bishop' will become nominative to 'was,' and 'having I come.' &c., will be an appositive clause to the subject.] Equally pleonastic is the employment of two pronouns, one relative and one demonstrative, in the same clause* — two viceroys, as it were, in the same territory, e.g. : — 'I bemoan Lord Carlisle, for wJiotii, although I have never seen him, and he may never have heard of me, I have a sort of personal \\V\ngfor him.'' — Miss Mitford, Letters and Life (2nd series, 1872), vol. ii. p. 160. [Omit 'for him.'] ' And the reason seems to be given by some words of our Bible, which though they may not be the exact rendering of the original in that place, yet in themselves they explain the connexion of culture with conduct very well." — M. Arnold, IJteratiire and Dogma (1873), Conclusion, p. 382. [Dele 'they,' as superfluous, 'which being nominative to 'explain.'] ' Books that we can, at a glance, carry off all that is in them, are worse than useless for discipline.' — John Cameron, Phases of Thought (1870), p. 159. [This sentence must have been penned in an anarchical phase of thought, 'that' recognising no form of government, and 'in them ' usurp- ing a place to which it has no claim. Read 'whose entire contents we can carry off at a glance.'] In conversation the pronoun /is limited for the time being to a single person, the speaker ; you has a wider yet still a restricted meaning ;t but he, she, they, his, her, their, who, and whose may refer to ten million dif- ferent human beings, as it and which may to anything that heart of man * The opposite of this blunder occurs in^ ' In a previous part of this volume vife have endeavoured to describe the helplessness of the working man. •whose lot being cast in a large city, desires to find in it a dwelling suitable to good habits of cleanliness, separation, and~^entilation, and yet can find none.'— Burton's Political Economy, ch. xvii. p. 304. [Here 'desires,' so far from having two subjects, has none at all, since 'whose lot . city" is an absolute clause. Read : 'who, his lot being,' &c. , or better, 'who, living in a large city, desires,' (Sc-l ' They are hallowed by recollections of the great writer on the Sublime and Beautiful ; of that man o/ivhom Fox could well avow that he had learnt more from than from all other men and authors; and whose dereliction of early principles, however much we may regret [it], cannot weaken our admiration for his commanding genius nor the pride which we feel in calling him countryman.'— Hon. J. E. Murray, Smnmer in Pyrenees, vol. i. p. 84. [Read ' more from kiin.'} t Mr. Norris, the Assyrian scholar, once told me of an Eastern language in which there are two words for 'we,' according as it means 'you and I,' or 'he and I,' Ac. 'I'he need for this distinction is jocularly illustrated by a story from Punch, 26th October, 1878:— 'A Comprehensive Pronoun. — Hairdresser (affably): " It's 'ard ujjon bus, sir, to be in town at this time of the year." — T/ie Colonel: "Ah, I suppose you would like lo take your family down to the ^ia.-s\d P- 5- . . , ' It is not that sense of awe and gratitude which, as far as we can see, really fills the king, which blinds men to the dangers of success, but rather the absence of any such sense of av/e and gratitude.' — Spectator, 29th October, 1S70, p. 1277. [The second 'which' should be 'that.'] ' A reverent admission that it is God, and not General von Moltke, or the fidelity of the Hohenzollerns to their duty, who [that] has struck France with palsy and broken to pieces the formidable power which sixty years ago set Europe at defiance.' — Ib. ' It is not every man whose heart is in the right place, and whose head strives to master a comprehensive profession, whj [that] is able to compose a good military treatise.' — lb., 12th July, 1873, p. 898. ' And it is the very fact that there is so infinitesimal a religious public in Prussia which has no State-support, which makes the new State conditions of that support so truly formidable.' — lb., 17th October, 1874, p. 1291. [A clumsy sentence. The second 'which' should be 'that.'] ' The personal caprices of the Tudors were almost always dangerous 82 PRONOUN. and evil ; it was only the power that lay in them of subordinating the personal to tlie national feeling on matters ivhich most deeply affected' the nation, ivh'ich made them great sovereigns. '^/i(^. , 26th June, 1875, p. 820, Tennyson's ' Queen Mary.' [Transpose 'that' and the second 'which.' The first 'which' should be omitted, and 'affecting' substituted for 'affected.'] 'It is not Lord Hartington, but the Liberal party luho elected him to the lead, ifyho are responsible for the disappointment which his speeches some- times cause us.' — lb., 20lh November, 1875, p. 1446. [Read ' that ' foi the second 'who.'] ' It is the fences by which local bodies have been surrounded, the limitations which have been imposed upon them, which [that] have turned them into narrow, exclusive, and therefore more or less corrupt rings.' — lb., 1 6th August, 1879, p. 1037. ' There is scarcely one of the agitators who profess to speak the senti- ments of working-men, ivho has ever rallied more than a few hundreds of the roughs of London round him.'— IFcei/f Scotsman, 14th January, 1S71. [The second ' who ' should be ' that ;' but it would be better to begin the sentence thus : ' Of the agitators who,' &c., ' there is scarcely one that.'] ' It is not the citizen soldier who fights at Marathon and Platsea, or defends the rising Republics of Rome and North America, zMj ever be- comes fatal to liberty in his native land : it is the victorious mercenary, to whom a nation has entrusted its defence.' — Fortnightly Review, 1st Oct., 1871, p. 405, 'The Prospects of Liberalism in Germany,' by Karl Hille- brand. [The second ' who ' should be ' that. '] ' It is quite clear that it is not the last weight raised which regulates the weight of the letter; but the weight of the letter tvhich regulates, which is the last weight which will be raised.' — H. D. Macleod, Principles of Economics (2nd ed., 1872), vol. i. ch. x. p. 676. [Of these four 'whiches' all but the third should be 'that.'] ' There is not a minister in the Church who has ever asked me to preach for him who [that] has ever got a refusal if I was disengaged. — Rev. Jas. Mackie, Edin. Coiirant, 4th November, 1873, p. 8. ' There is another objection which has been brought against interference with the denominational system which [that] it may be desirable to notice.' Jas. Leese, Denominational Schools (2nd ed., 1870), p. 8. 'But next to the novelty and originality of these tales, it was their matchless force and vigour which [that] magnetically attracted the reading world.'— Elze's Life of Byron (1872), ch. v. p. 140. ' It was this which [that] made his sect so feared and hated among cer- tain classes in Rome.'— W. W. Story, Fortnightly Review, February, 1873, p. 195, 'A Conversation with Marcus Aurelius.' ' It was an aggravation of the circumstance which more than any other contributed to the decline of the Craft Gilds, vififch gave rise to the Trade- unions.' — Dr. Yeats, Gilds and their Functions (1873), p. 25. [Read ' that ' for second 'which.'] , 'The crisis is one of the most singular which have ever occurred.' — Economist, 27th September, 1873, p. 1 169. [The verb is rightly plural, but 'which' should be 'that.'] ' Work joined with excitement and success does not kill ; it is unsuccess- ful work and disappointment which [that] break a man down.' — A True Reformer (1873), vol. iii. p. 248. PRONOUN. 83 ' It was the very same Robespierre thai, while as yet diocesan judge at Arras, felt constrained to abdicate because, behold, one day comes a culprit whose crime merits hanging, and strict-minded, strait-laced flax's conscience will not permit the dooming of any son of Adam to die, rvJio, shortly after, was fully prepared to wade through floods of slaughter towards the enthro- nisation of his principles.' — W. T. Thornton, Anii-Utilita?-ianism (1S73), p. 29. [Transpose 'that 'and 'who.'] ' But we know who it was 7uho [that] first called us to this work, and who it is tuho [that] has brought our work to a point from which it will never recede. It was his Spirit which [that] sounded the trumpet note, it is his people 'd)ho [that] have heard and are unceasingly answering the call.' — Mrs. Butler, Letter to a Friend, 21st June, 1873. * It was his fiirst detailed confession of what he felt so continuously, and if that were possible ever more strongly as the years went on, that there is no single passage in any of his letters xi'hich [that] throws such a flood of illuminative light into the portions of his life which will always awaken the greatest interest.' — Jn. Forster, Life of C. Dickens (1873), vol. i'- ch. xiii. P- 254. ' Need I remind you that it was not pure intellect, but intellect perverted by the undue cultivation of the religious sentiment, which [that] caused all those frightful ecclesiastical persecutions and massacres which deluged Europe with human blood during the Middle Ages.' — John Macleod, Religion : Its Place in Human Culture (1873), p. 10. ' I am sure there is not an individual connected with the Daily N'etvs — who knows its true interests— «'/it7 will not look upon this day as the blackest in its calendar.' — W. H. Mills to C. W. Dilke, Papers of a Critic (1875), ^°'- ^ P- ^9' 'Memoir of C W. D.' [The second 'who' should be 'that.'] ' I am certain that, from ,the sub-editors down to the smallest boy, there is not one in the office that has had direct communication with you 7oho does not look upon your loss as a personal misfortune.'— /SS), ch, viii. p. 158. * A short lime ago a letter appeared m your paper from myself. — HiLDRATH Kay, to Manchester Exa?niner and Times, 23rd September, ' I do not know that Mr. Hall and myself e^ex enjoyed anything more, &c.— Mrs. S. C. Hall, in Morning Herald, 23rd September, 1856. ' The reader will be indebted for any interest he may find in these pages as much to my correspondents as myself '—The Public Schools (1867), pref. p. V. [Less incorrect than often, but ' as to me ' would be better.] ' I saw that it was impossible that Sir Lionel Somers and myself should ever get on well together as man and wife.'— HENRY KiNGSLEY, Made- moiselle Mathilde (186S), vol. i. p. 239. ' Truth, however, compels me to declare that myself and friend were ousted from the room,' &c.— Quoted in Mechanics' Magazine, 23rd Sept., 1871, p. 229. * The reflexive force is brought out by the following faulty ellipsis :— _ ^ ' Now I have a much better opinion of myself than the world at large entertains. — C. J. Mathews, Autobiography '1879),, vol i. ch. i. p. 2. [Read 'entertains of vie, since one cannot say ' the world thinks well of myself:) PRONOUN. 91 ' In October, George and myself went to spend a week or ten days at Hampton Court.'— Mrs. Grote, Life of Geo. Grole (1873), ch. xxvi. p. 223. ' This exploration proved not altogether infructuous of pleasure to both Grote and myself— lb., ch. xviii. p. 159. ' After an early dinner at Zermatt, my wife and wy/j^^ walked to the foot of the Gorner glacier.'— F. B. Zincke, A Mofzth in Switzerland (1873), ch. i. p. 9. \,Cf. 'After breakfast my wife and / walked up to the Riffel Hotel.'—//'., ch. ii. p. 11.] 'Jerrold, Mr. Herbert Ingram, Mr. Feter Cunningham, and myself viere out for a day's ramble.'— Dr. Chas. Mackay, Forly Years' Recollections (1S77), vol. ii. p. 292. These and those have greater emphasis than the simple personal pro- noiin they, for which they should be substituted in the following and similar passages':"— 'Their wages being inadequate, they who had laid up nothing, came immediately upon the parish ; they who had either made some little provi- sion themselves, or had received some from their fathers, were obliged to spend that first, and were then reduced to the necessity of joining the degraded ranks of applicants for parochial pay.' — J AS. STEVENS, The Poor Laws (1S31), p. 75. [Read 'those.'] ' They [those historians] who have talents want industry or virtue ; they [those] who have industry want talents.'— SOUTHEY, quoted in Quarterly Review (1844), vol. Ixxiii. p. 54. ' There is happiness for the man of science in his researches, for the artist in his perceptions and imitations of beauty, and for the poet in his creations. There is enjoyment rich and large for those who can merely appreciate what they can perform.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. iii. p. 160. [In last line for 'they' read 'these,'] ' Why should they [those] practise arts of cunning who have nothing to apprehend.' — Id., ib., vol. iii. p. 284. ' The bread and wine were supposed to be the viaticum of the departing spirit, until it was imagined .there was in them a peculiar sacredness, which they [those] might not partake of to whom other observances of Chris- tianity were open.' — LL, ib., vol vii. p. 5. ' If such persons were indifferent to Cobbett's defection, they [those] whose standard he joined hailed with enthusiasm his conversion.' — H. L. BULWER, Historical Characters (1868), vol. ii. p. 134. ' Those who confine their attention merely to the text will obtain but a very imperfect idea of the author's purpose and meaning; they will do better who give their attention to the notes; but only tluy who take the two together and read them in their connection will fully understand the sub- ject.' — D. Kay, Education and Religion (1873), P^ef. P- xiv. 'In Old English,' says Mr. Mason, 'there is a use of the possessive case* which has now disappeared, and which corresponds to what is called * It has always been commoner with possessive pronouns than with nouns, but that it is not unknown to the latter is seen in this Irish anecdote : — ' An attorney, not celebrated for his probity, was robbed one night on his way from Wicklow to Dubhn. His father, meeting Baron O'Grady the next day, said : " ]\Iy lord, have you heard of my son's robbery ?" " No, indeed," replied the Baron, "pray whom did he rob ?'" g2 PRONOUN the objective genitive in Latin (as avior pecunia, "the love of money"). Thus, in the English version of the Bible, Thy fear is used for the fear of Thee. In Shakespeare his taking ^>^ means the taking pfFof him' (English Grammar, p. 30, § 78). A more striking example than either of these is ^ yo7ir election cf God' (i Thess. i. 4), where we should now generally say ' Gocfs election of you.' That this usage, however, has not entirely disap- peared is shown by the following passages; that it were bet_ter clean done away with, appears from their ambiguity : — ~ ' '~f ' Nor was the actual efficiency of this immense army inferior to its imagi- native terrors.'— Alison, History of Europe. [For 'its' read ' inspired by it;' and for 'imaginative' 'imaginary.'] 'The length any reader chooses to go in their study, is his own affair,' &c. — ^James Hannay, a Course of English Literature (1866), ch. v. p. 98. [Read, ' the study of them.'] ' Thus the club of St. James', the cloister of Trinity College, had a writer to quote, whose sentiments were in favour of liberty, and whose language, agreeable to the ear of the gentleman and the scholar, did not, in defending the patriots of France, advise their ifnitaiion or patronise their excesses.'— H. L. BULWER, Historical Characters (1868), vol. ii. p. 9, ' Mackintosh.' [Here the first 'their ' is used objectively, the second subjectively; and by reading 'imitation of the 7? i' the awkwardness of using the same word in two senses is avoided.] ' The teaching of true science, 7vhose flattery hath for the most part usurped its place ' — StuarT, Woman's IVork and IVoman's Culture (1869), p. 141, ' The Teaching of Science.' [Read, ' flattery of which. '] ' Penetrated to his inmost heart with sympathy for the poor, he has been mistaken, again not without his own fault, for an advocate of their high-handed oppression.' — Quarterly Review, November, 1872, p. 366, ' Carlyle.' [Read ' oppression of them.'] ' Disobedience to this unbendmg law of nature must be followed by suffering, while its due observance fits man for residence on any part of the earth's surface.' — John Storie, The Dietetic Erj-ors of the People (1877), vol. i. p. 5. [Read, 'the due observance of it.'] ' " Steam factories of all descriptions [sorts, 'cf p. 20] have sprung up by the dozen, where their very suggestion was formerly considered an oftence," &c. An Englishman would have said, " the very suggestion of them.'" — Spectator, 13th September, 1879, p. 1160, 'Mr. Gladstone and the Greek Question.' [Read 'the very suggestion of them. '] The possessive pronouns, my, his, their, &c., were originally genitives of the personal pronouns, and we find them used as such in Anglo-Saxon, e.g., 'Gemun ])u min' {' Be thou mindful of me'). But for centuries they have been used only as adjectives, as such being unable to stand as ante- cedents to a relative ; and there is another reason"^f condemning sucH sentences 'I am his bondman who bought me,' viz., that the adjectival position of his makes it ambiguous whether it or bondman is the antece- dent of -cvho. The following passages, the first four of which are taken from Breen {Modern English Litet-ature, p. 45), furnish examples of this error : — ' Precision imports pruning the expression so as to exhibit neither more nor less than an exact copy of his idea who uses it.' — Blair, Lectures. [Read, ' the idea conceived by him who,' &c.] VERB. g^ ' The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of /u's wisdom w/io made it.' — Burke, Inquiry into the Sublime. [Read, 'the wisdom of^him \vho,' &c.] ' Dr. Wittman might have brought us "back not anile conjecture, but sound evidence of events which must determine his character who must determine our fate.' — Sydney Smith, Essays. [Read, ' the character of him who,' &c.] ' The sight of his blood whom they deemed invulnerable, shook the courage of the soldiers.' — Alison, History of Europe. [Read, ' the blood of him whom,' &c.] ' Cherishing, as his habitual emotions, more pure, delicate, generous, and exalted feelings, than reside in their bosoms, zuhose hearts have their home in the fashion of a world that passeth away.'— W. J. Fox, Christ and Christianity, ser. xxviii. p. 243. [Read, 'in the bosoms of those.'] 'Thus glorifying his name and mission who was the Prince of Peace.' — Id., Works, vol. ii. p. 258. [Read, ' the name and mission of him.'] In the next passage 'that' should obviously have been 'those,' since Lady Eastlake did not mean one statue executed by the three sculptors jointly : — ' The compliment paid to him by the late King of Bavaria, in placing his statue with thatol Thorwaldsen, Tenerani, and Rauch on the exterior of the Glyptothek.' — Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson (1S70), ch, xi. p. 240. VERB. Bask and Btisk have been called the only middle verbs possessed by English, but they are really borrowed Scandinavian compounds — bade sik, ' to bathe oneself,' and bud sik, ' to prepare oneself.' They illustrate, then, our common use of a transitive verb with a reflexive pronoun, expressed or understood, e.g., 'I amuse myself,' 'The sea breaks (itself).' There are two verbs that are used thus by the best writers, but with q^uestionablc propriety — Uo lose oneself (for 'to lose one's way'), and 'to enjoy oneself (for 'to enfoy a visit,' or walk, or view, &c.). ' Ccelum non animum mutant ' holds good of wanderers in a desert, who may lose their way, their baggage, everything but themselves; and surely a person who says, 'I enjoyed myself at the concert,' does not intend to imply that he found enjoyment in himself, and not in the music. Yet enjoy means ' to joy in,' not ' to amuse,' ' to divert,' or ' to please.' There is another quasi-middle usage, '_!_ am mistaken ' for 'I mistake.' Mistake, 'to take amiss,' is a transitive verb ('I mistook him for someone else '), and, like all transitive verbs, has a passive voice (' I was mistakcti for another'). There are, of course, passives that seem to have a middle force, 'I am deceived,' 'I am amused, '"&C. ; "but all of these have also a reflexive form, ' I deceive myself,' ' amuse myselfj' iSLx, This mistake has not, for one would never say, ' If I do not mistake myself; ' and therefore they offer no true analogy to ' I am mistaken,' which is neither necessary nor universal, as the following examples show : — 'But if I a/n mistaken [i.e., not recognised], where shall I Find the disguise to hide me from myself, As now I skulk from every other eye.' Shelley, The Cenci, V. i. 94 VERB. ' Though it may be said that he mistook the remedy for the evil,' &c. — Jas. Williams, Tlie Rise and Fall of the Model Republic {\'S>bi), p. 45. [Not 'was mistaken in,' and so right.] ' A version in modern English, in which the meaning of several passages is quite mistaken'' \i.e,, misunderstood]. — Saturday Revieiv, 7th July, 1868, p. 14. ' In the latter case a man may be mistaken, and his work burned, but by that very fire he will be saved.' — George Macdonald, Unspoken Ser- mons (1867), p. 147, note. [Here the meaning might be active or passive.] 'That he who made it, and reveal'd its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age.' — Cowper. [The common usage, which thus has Cowper's authority.] ' In noticing the death of the Duchess [of Orleans] last week tve were ?nistaken [i.e., we mistook, or were in error] in asserting that she changed her religion for Roman Catholicism on marrying the Duke of Orleans. She always remained a Lutheran.' — Leader, 29th May, 1858. ' Even his policy as foreign minister, mistaken and irritating as it often was, had stamped upon it a salutary sense of the greatness, and a keen jealousy of the honour of England.' — Political Portraits (1873), p. 133, ' Lord Russell.' [Read 'erroneous'] 'At Lady Montagu's (as INIadame de Bocage mistakenly calls her).' — Dr. DoRAN, A Lady of the Last Century (1873), P- 268. [Read ' mis- takingly' or 'erroneously.'] The mood in the use of which mistakes are commonest, is the sub- JunctivCj^ a mood that as a separate inflection is dying out in the language,* tKetendency being to merge the distinction between it and the indicative. It is not necessary here to dwell at length on what that distinction was ; the grammarians' rule will suffice: ' When in a conditional clause it is in- tended to express doubt or denial, use the subjunctive.' Our present blunder is the use, not so much of indicative for subjunctive, as of sub- junctive for indicative. 'There are,' writes" Mr. Kington Oliphant [^Standard English, p. 323), 'scholars, or men of strong mother wit, who, in prose and poetry, employ a sound Teutonic style ; . . . who are day by day straining the foul matter from our language, and are leading us back to old springs too long unsought ; who perhaps may yet keep alive our perishing subjunctive mood.' Whether the authors of the ten following passages should be ranked with these linguistic scavengers or not, certain it is that in eight out of the ten cases the subjunctive is distinctly wrong, and that in the ninth case the author clearly does not understand its function : — ' Were he still disposed to go there my purse shall he. open to him.' — Galt's Entail, vol. iii. p. 106. [For ' were he ' read ' if he is;' or 'shall' must be changed to 'would.'] * Be was not always an exclusively subjunctive form, the Southern form of the present indicative, found in Shakespeare and Milton, running : — Be, beest, be ; be or ben, be or l>e>i, bt, ben, or bin. In the Prayer Book revision of 1661 are was substituted for be in forty-three places. In the following passage be is a survival of Southern usage, not a misemployed subjunctive : — ' Yet though these [characters in Fielding's novels] be extremely well-drawn, they are not likely to become, in any great degree, the objects of imitation.'— N. Murray, Moral ef Fiction, p. 102. VERB. 95 ' But one thing is not to be forgotten, that no nation ever fell but by its own vices , and that if Venice were blotted out from the sovereignties of Europe, it was, after all, because Venice with her own hands had taken off the crown that in purer days sat upon her bright, bold brow, and had forgotten the covenant of her youth and the virtues which made her gieat.' Alexander Maclaren, A Spring Holiday in Italy, p. 217. [For 'were' read 'was.' 'Were' implies that Venice was not blotted out, and requires ' would be' in the apodosis.] ' If John «rr£ satisfied, why should she be discontented?' — Too Much Alom{i%()^, ch. XV. p. 151. ['Were' should be 'was,' since 'if here equals 'seeing that.'] ' It ought to weigh heavily on a man's conscience, if he have been the cause of another's deviating from sincerity.' — W, J. Fox, Works, vol. iii. p. 283. [For 'have' read 'has.'] ' Enough has been done, I trust, to satisfy them that if Keble ivas a scholar, a divine, a remarkably gifted poet, if he were exemplary as a friend, a brother, son and husband, so he was admirable in the discharge of his duties as a parish priest.' — Sir J. T. Coleridge, ]Me7)ioir of John Keble (and cd., 1869), vol. ii. ch. xxi. p. 575. [Read 'was' for 'were.'] ' If the cavern into which they entered were of artificial construction, considerable pains had been taken to make it look natural.' — V/. Black, A Daughter of Heth (7th ed., 1871), vol. ii. ch. xvi. p. 228. [Read 'was,' the writer meaning 'even if the cave,' 'although the cave.'] ' If he is ready when thus called upon, well is it for him, and he takes an important step either in temporal or in spiritual things, as the case may be. If he be not thus ready, self-reproach is his lot, and often shame and contempt.' — Rev. J. R. Pretyman, Stray Thoughts, quoted in Colburn's N. M. Mag., September, 1871, p. 355. [For 'be' read 'is.'] ' If ever man's humour were useful to instruct as well as to delight, it is that of Michael Angelo Titmarsh.'— G, B. Smith, Poets and Novelists (1875), p. 47, 'W. M. Thackeray.' [Read 'was.'] ' If our standard for man's and woman's education were on a level, if it was the natural thing for an intellectual woman to give as much time and energ}' to study as it is for an intellectual man,' &c. — Miss Wedgwood, Woman's Work atid Woman's Culture (1869), p. 269, 'Female Suffrage.' [Here the subjunctive ' were ' is right, implying that such and such is not the case ; but ' was,' the indicative, is wrong, so that ' were ' is clearly only a lucky shot.] ' Politics would become one network of complicated restrictions so soon as women shall succeed in getting their voice preponderant in the State.' — Spectator, 24th July, 1869, p. 867. [For 'shall' read 'should.'] In all the foregoing passages the error occurs in the conditional clause, in the next example we find it in the consequent clause: — • Only let a few more ladies follow in the steps of Madame Luce, and Moors and Arabs be generally tempted into having their boys taught with the sons of Europeans, and the war about orthodoxy would gradually dis- appear.' — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter with the Swallows (1867), ch. xiv. p. 226. [Read 'will.'] Polite letter-writers often say, * I shall have great pleasure in accepting your invitation.^ Here, the act of accepting being present, the present g6 VERB. tense, 'I have,' is required, but the bhinder is probably due to ^\ shall ha7'e great pleasure in coming,' which is perfectly correct. Akin to this mistake is the use of 'would be' for 'is' in — ' Surely it xvoidd be desirable that some person who knew Sir Walter . . . should be charged with this article.' — Macaulay to Napier, 1838, quoted in Life, &c. (1S76), vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 8. [' It is desirable,' but 'it would be a good thing.'] Two^constructions are awkwardly mixed in — ' Were it otherwise, andfw^ 'We7-e compelled to attire ourselves according to the feelings of another,' S^c. — H. C. Sirr, Chinaandthe Chinese (1849), vol. i. p. 311. [Read 'were we compelled,' or '?/"it were otherwise.'] ' C(7z//(/ her husband /z'rz'e' ill afforded to buy new clothes, zxiA she had, been compelled to darn,' &c. — Too Mitch Alone, ch. vi. p. 56. [For 'she had ' read ' had she. '] ' For neither did 1 feel the night breeze chill me, as we rushed through it, nor pirtook, in any sort, of the desire my companions testified to cover themselves from the rain.' — Lockhart, Valerius, vol. li. p. 199. [Read ' nor did I partake. '] ' That your memorialists consider that could returns be taken from China in sufficient quantity, the exportation of British manufactures would be increased to an enormous extent, China being not only the most populous country in the world, but its inhabitants are probably the most dress-loving people, and the most prone to the indulgence of cheap luxuries with which we are acquainted.' — 'Memorial from Merchants for Reduction in Tea Duties,' Times, i6th March, 1853. [Read 'being' for 'are,' or 'since not only is China,' &c.] ' Did ever man put God to the proof on that promise, and found it broken? Never.' — Last Leaves from the Journal of Jiilian Charles Yottng (1875), sermon v. p. 273. [Read 'find.'] Verbs connected by and, nor, than, &c., and referring to simultaneous acts, must agree in tense ; and a like succession of tense should be observed in one verb^cTepending on another. The force of these rules will be best understood by studying the neglect of them in — ' I never was so long in company with a girl in my life — trying to enter- tain her — and succeedso ill.' — Miss Austen, Mansfield Park, vol. ii. p. 160. [' I never wrtj' . . . z.x\A sticceeded.^^ ' I have often thought that, when men are intent on cards, their coun- tenances show far more of their real characters than when they engaged in conversation.' — Ed. Dicey, A Month in Russia (1867), ch. xviii. p. 215. [It should be ' engage ' or ' are engaged.'] • If Haydon had'been insincere in his desire for the public good, and under cover of such professions to be merely striving after his own personal and pecuniary advantage, there would be some ground to condemn him.' — Memoir of B. R. Haydon, vol. i. p. 130, 2nd period. [For ' to be ' read 'had been,' and for ' would be ' read ' would have been.'] ' We can conceive no argument more utterly baseless than that which assumes he would have accomplished all he has done, and a great deal more, if a different principle of action were substituted for that which, as yet, has always been the mainspring of his movements.' — Quart. Rev. (1832), vol, xlvii. p. 410. [' ?rt7?- H 98 VERB. rately accepting sin were [are] better than levity and falsehood simply drifting into danger.' — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Sowing the Wind (1S67), vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 165. Akin to the above is the error of using the perfect form of the infinitive^ for the simple or indefinite form, after a perfect verb,* e.g., ' I intended to liave written' for ' I intended to write.'' When the action or state denoted by the secondary verb (the infinitive) is prior to that expressed by the pri- mary verb, then of course that infinitive must be in the perfect, e.g. , ' He was proved to have been born in France,' or 'I seemed to have seen the book before.' These are no violation of the rule that, in making a pre- sent statement past, only the principal verb need change its tense. Thus 'I expect to hear' becomes * I expected to hear;' 'He is said tb"be wise,' 'He was said to be vyise;' 'He is believed to be writing,' 'He was believed to be writing;' and 'He is believed to have written,' 'He was believed to have written.' The following specimens of correct usage exem- plify our meaning : — ' One of his poetical lyrics was erroneously attributed to the late Earl of Ellesmere ; and when that accomplished nobleman disclaimed its author- ship, but at the same time declared that he should have been proud to have written if, our peasant's gratification rose into inwrn^h..'— Statesman, 13th March, 1858, notice of Robert Story's Poems. [This is perfectly correct, because the original words were : ' I should be proud to have zuritten (not write) it.'] • Not sorry that we had seen this famous cave, but heartily glad that we had not to see it over again.' — Times, 28th December, 1866. ' I would rather read than have written it.'— H. Crabb RobINSON's Diary, &c. (1869), vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 124. ' I had intended to enable the reader to test the justice of my judgment by citing and criticising one or two passages of the rival versions.' — Academy, 9th January, 1875, p. 33, F. Storr on Crawley's Thucydides. [Correct, not ' I had intended to have enabled the reader to have tested, ' &c. ] ' If the traveller is in haste, and wants rather to have seen the country and the people than to see them, let him take the diligence.'— John Latouche, Travels in Portugal (1875), ch. i. p. I. ' Few things would give me more pleasure than to have written [italics in original] a tolerable article for a work {Encyclop. Brit.] which will con- tain so many excellent ones ; but that is the only tense of the verb I can look to with satisfaction.'— F. Jeffrey, 1816, Letters to Macvey Napier (priv. prin., 1877), p. If. [Note the difference, 'to write' and 'to have written.'] The force of the infinitival tenses in the last sentence but one would be perfectly retained even though it ran, ' If the traveller wanted rather to have seen the country and the people than to see them ;' but it would be lost if 'have seen' were substituted for 'see,' on the faulty principle of the following passages : — * Or of a perfect for an indefinite subjunctive, as in — ' When I inserted the stripes and curves, her delight was such that I greatly feared she •would have embraced me.'— C. W. Dilke, Greater Britain (1S68J, vol. i. p. 370. [Read ' would embrace.'] VERB. 99 * I must not omit one [name], which would alone have been sufficient to have shown that there is no necessary connection between scepticism and the philosophy of the human mind ; I mean Bishop Butler.' — Syd. Smith, Moral Philosophy, introd. lect. p. lo. [Read 'be 'and 'show.'] ' I meant, when first I came, to have botight [buy] all Paris.' — Id., let. cclii. vol. ii. p. 266. ' He paid me many compliments upon my sermon against bad husbands, so that it is clear he ititended to have made a very good one. ' — Id, , let. clxxvii. vol. ii. p. 197. [Read ' to make,' at any rate. Only the context could show whether ' intended ' or ' intends ' is right.] ' I should have thought it a gross act of tyranny to have interfered either with his political or his religious opinions.' — Id., on 'Ballot.' [Read 'to interfere with either his,' &c.] ' It had been my intention to luive collected the remnants of Keats' com- positions,' &c. — Shelley, Memorials, p. 152. [Read 'to collect.'] ' My notions of the morality of controversy are so strict, that had I in the course of my profession as an advocate at the bar, ever been guilty of one act of abusing that pledge of accuracy, I should have deserved to have been stripped of my gown.' — J AS. Simpson, Letter to John Colquhoun, 6th August, 1837. [In the first place ' to have been ' ought to be ' to be'; in the second it should be, not 'I should have deserved,' but 'I should have thought that I deserved.'] ' And it is but a fair presumption, that had he received half the patronage enjoyed by many far less deserving, he would have lived to have realized those ardent expectations excited by the perusal of his works, — he would have lived to have merged the foibles of his early years in the splendour of enlightened manhood ; they say, "best men are moulded out of faults;" he would have lived to have nobly earned and proudly claimed a most conspicuous elevation on the poetic mount.' — Jn. Dix, Life of Chatterton (1837), p. 297. [Read 'to realize,' &c.] ' The Prince had determined, the moment he should have entered upon his office, to have changed the administration.' — Sir S. ROMILLY, Life (3rd ed., 1S42), vol. ii. p. 176. [Read 'to change.'] ' It would have required a long and careful study of the profound writers of what Lord Bacon teiTns the Georgics of the mind ; concerning the hus- bandry' and tillage thereof, to have been able only to trace out the compli- cated involutions of the bandage which covered many eyes.' — Kenelm H. DiGBY, The Broad Stone of Honour (1848), p. 151. [A mLxed metaphor.] ' Had instruction of this kind been needed formerly, it would have been impossible to have procured it ; and had it been possible to have procured it, it would have been impossible to have connected it with the old, nan-ow, single-subject system.' — Rev. F. B. Zincke, School of the Future (1852), p. 85. [Read ' to procure,' * to connect.'] ' I intended to have insisted ow this sjmipathy at greater length,' &c. — John Ruskin, Architecture and Painting {\'i<^i^, lect. iii. p. 144. ' I liiould have liked to have asked,' &ic. — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. i. p. 79. [Read ' should ' and ' ask. '] * It would have been wrong to have refused his kindness.' — lb,, vol. ii. p. 243. [Read ' to refuse.'] ' Friendships which we once hoped and believed would never have grown cold.' — F. W. Farrar, Julian Home {1859), p. 332. [Read 'grow.'] 100 VERB. ' To have stiggested [to suggest] a remedy too mild to be efficacious, or so violent that it would have been [be] peremptorily rejected by the patient, would have been alike unavailing in the achievement of any desirable end.' — JAS. Williams, The Kise and Fall of the Model Republic (1863), pref. p. ix. ' The first effect would have been to have destroyed the Republic' — lb., ch. xi. p. 171. [Read 'to destroy.'] ' How Ursula . . . must have delighted to have told [to tell] the little fellow tales.'— H. Mayhew, Gei-man Life (1864), vol. ii. p. 19. ' We happened to have been [to be] present on the occasion, and found,' &c. — lb., vol. ii. p. 69. ' We should have thought that the Bishop [of Oxford] might have been contented to have pointed out [to point out] that to nations, as to indivi- duals, selfishness is its own worst punishment.' — Spectator, ist September, 1866, p. 966. ' He would have liked to have read [to read] it to Isola ; it would have been pleasant to have heard [to hear] his own voice giving due emphasis to the big words.' — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Sowing the Wind (1867), vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 42. ' If he had lived longer, it would have been difficult for him to have kept [to keep] the station to which he had risen.' — H. L. Bulwer, Historical Characters (1S68), vol. ii. p. 412, 'Canning.' ' Could I have chosen my own period of the world to have lived [to live] in, and my own type of life, it should be [have been] the feudal age, and the life of a Cid, the redresser of wrongs.' — Rev. F. W. Robertson, Life, &c. (1868), p. 37. ' Faults very often drop from us by thinking about them. I was re- marking to a friend one day the common negligence of writing " I never should have thought to have seen you here," when he smiled and showed me that I myself had done it in the Examiner. I thought I should have dropt at the shock!' — W. S. Landor, quoted in his Biog. by John Forster (1869), vol. ii. bk. vii. p. 420. ' Not that a sunbeam would have been so foolish as to have come in [to come in] ; it would have known how much it would have been [it would be] out of place.' — Mrs. Harvey, Cositas Espai'iolas (1875), ch. viii. P- 139- ' I had hoped never to have seen the statues again when I missed them on the bridge' [over the Seine]. — Macaulay, Life and Letters (1876), vol. ii. p. 47. [Read 'to see.'] Sometimes the error consists in putting the infinitive, instead of the verb on which it depends, in the perfect tense, e.^. : — ' I should like very much to have seeji him.' — Sydney Smith, let. cxlix. vol. ii. p. 164. [Better: ' I should have liked to see.'] ' There are many of the remaining portions of these Aphorisms, on which we should like to have dwelt,' &c. — N. Brit. Rev., May, 1853, p. 105. [' Should have liked to dwell.'] ' It was, however, his [the Lord Advocate's] intention to have introduced an amending bill, but the state of the public business prevented him.' — Scotsman, London Letter on the House of Commons, y^ih. June, l875' [Read, 'it had been his intention to introduce.'] Two blunders sui generis in the use of tenses are made in — VERB. 10 1 * If it had not have happened that the way of the curious party lay in the direction,' &c. — James Greenwood, Unse^ttimcntal Journeys (1867), vol. i. p. 7. [Read, 'if it had not happened.'] ' Instead of turning out, as he woiiid had to have done on any other working morning.' — Sorne Habits and Customs of the Working Classes (1867), p. 114. [This is worse than ' would have had to have done,' It should be, ' would have had to do. '] In contracted sentences, in subordinate clauses, and in answers, the auxiliaries have, do, shall, -will, juay, and can admit an ellips is of the prin- cipaWeib, e.g., 'I never did, and I never can, like his opinions';' 'I am surprised that he has acted as he has;' 'Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me? 1 have.'' But such ellipsis Is justifiable only when the form of _ the pr incipal verb, as it stands in the one' sentence, is such as can lie "repeated wTthbut change in the other. ' He should not do as he has ' {do) is therefore wrong, as also are — ' Shelley, like Byron, knew early what it was to love ; almost all the great poets /^az'*?.'— Medwin's Memoir of Shelley (1833), p. 9. [Read either 'have known it,' or better 'like Byron and almost all the great poets.'] ' It will be by grafting the feeble shoots of Liberty upon the stock of Catholicism ; an experiment which has hitherto, and must ever, prove abor- tive.'— Doblado's Letters (2nd ed.), let. xiii. p. 392. [Read, 'has hitherto proved. '] ' That foreign taste, habits, arts, interests, and persuasions fuay have and did exercise a powerful influence is doubtless true.' — Jas. Williams, 77^1? Rise and Fall of the Model Republic {1863), p, 38. [Insert ' exercised' after ' have. '] ' We are all apt to imagine that what is, always has, and always will he.'— Too Much Alotie (1865), ch. i. p. 2. [Insert ' been ' after 'has.'] ' She could meet no one among the lanes and cornfields who could either claim her, as had those odious relations of hers.' — Mrs. L. LiNTON, Sowing the Wind, (1867), vol. i. ch. viii. p. 204. [Read, 'as those odious rela- tions had done. '] ' Through God's great mercy and grace she never has, and let us humbly trust and believe she never tc'///. ' — Rev. W. McIlwaine, On a Religious Establishment (Dublin, 186S), p. 39. 'But youwill(J^ar it as you /irtz/c' so many things.' — Sir J. T. Coleridge, Memoir of Jn. Keble (2nd. ed., 1869), vol. ii. ch. xvii. p, 403. [Read 'have borne.'] ' I am anxious for the time when he will talk as much nonsense to me as I have to him.' — W. S. Landor to Southey, 1819, Biography ofW. S. Landor, by John Forster (1869), vol. i. p. 452. [Read 'have talked.'] ' But the problem is one which no research has hitherto solved, and pro- bably never K//7/.'— Sir H. Holland, Recollections of Past Z?/^ (1872), ch. xiii. p. 345. [Read 'will solve.' Nor can one say '■no research never will.' Correct, therefore: 'is one that research has never solved, and probably never will solve. '] ' When reasonable men are compelled to belong to a society whose mem- bers in authority proclaim as truths doctrines which they cannot accept in any sense as true, — when they are compelled to acquiesce in what they believe 102 VERB. to be gross superstitions — they will, and in patient, indifferent Spain they have, for a while, given a silent acquiescence.' — H. J. Rose, Untrodden Spain (1875), vol. i. p. 244. [Read, 'they will give.' The italicised 'they,' moreover, is extremely ambiguous. Read, 'whose doctrines, proclaimed by members in authority, they cannot accept in any sense as true.'] ' Failing, as others have, to reconcile poetry and metaphysics, he suc- ceeds better in speculations inspired by the revelations of lens and laboratory.' — E. C. Stedman, Victorian Poets {1876), p, 170, 'Alfred Tennyson. ' [Read ' have failed. '] ' No introduction has, nor in all probability ever will, authorize that which common thinkers would call a liberty.' — P. B. Shelley to W. Godwin, 1811, Memoirs of W. G. (1876), vol. i. p. 201. [Read, 'an in- troduction never has authorized, and in all probability never will authorize.'] ' Some part of this exemption and liability may, and no doubt is, due to mental or physical causes in the unhappy or fortunate individual.' — Spectator, 24th March, 1877, p. 370. [Read ' may be.'] 'Blake wrote and drew with marvellous genius, but I doubt whether any one has or would care to follow in his steps.' — T. Gambier Parry, Transactions of Social Science Association (1878), p. 148. [Read 'has followed. '] ' He ridicules the notion that truth will prevail ; it never has and it never will.^ — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 266, 'Landor.' [Read, 'has prevailed and it never will prevail.'] ' Dr. Donald Macleod, minister of Park Church, Glasgow, and editor of Good Words, writes to the papers denying indignantly the insinuation made by one of his supporters in Auld Reekie (save us from our friends), that while he discharged the clerical duties thoroughly he only discharged the editorial duties partially, that while he did the one class in propria persona, he did the other principally by deputy. He says, inter alia, " The correspondence alone which I have to conduct is at once extensive and demanding thoughtful attention, but I never have, nor ever will, allow literary work to interfere with the due discharge of pastoral." You 7iever have allow that, doctor, the magistrate means Mr. Editor, and he hopes, too, that you never will allowed it, never no more. "Literary work,'^ indeed ! Is this epistle of the reverend editor a specimen of his literary work, and is the parcel like the sample ? Literary work, by George (the Bailie means by Saint George's) — well, let us hope at any rate that the pastoral work is more pastoral than the literary is literary.' — The Bailie, November 5, 1879. ' I never have, and never will, attack a man for speculative opinions.' — H. T. Buckle, 1859, Life and Letters (1880), vol. i. p. 311. [Read 'have attacked.'] ' He dare not,' 'he need not,' are pronounced solecisms by Crombie, but pliilology justifies the non-inflection of dare, it being really an old past tense, like can and shall. ' But, ' says Prof Skeat, ' the form he dares is now often used, and will probably displace the obsolescent he dare, though grammati- cally as incorrect as he shafts or he cans.'' ' He dares (challenges) me to do it ' is, of course, universal ; and some grammarians (e.g., Mr. Mason, p. 84) would draw a like distinction between ' He needs (transitive) nothing' and ' He need (incomplete predication) not do it.' A false analogy, however, to VERB. 103 an obsolescent form is hardly sufficient warranty for need, which therefore we would change to needs in — ' The harsh but salutary doctrine of self-dependence need never be heard of.'—Miss MULOCK, A Woman's Thoughts About Women (185S), p. 24. Participles are often a valuable means of condensation, as instead of two clauses, with two finite verbs, one finite clause and participle will suffice when there is a common subject, e*.^., ^Bomm 1800, /^t' died in i864' = 'He was born in 1800, and died in 1864.' • Viezinng such a wealth of female beauty, and seeing on eveiy hand so many charming faces and graceful figures, / am sometimes disposed to look at our girls as the Scottish maiden looked at love — in the abstract.' — A. Halliday, Sunnyside Papers (1866), ch. ix. p. 105. ' Accident having opened a new and most congenial career to him, and having become a great favourite of and of much use to Mr. Nash, he ultimately accompanied his patron to London.' — C. J. Mathews, Auto- biography (1879), vol. ii. p. 39. [Read, 'he became a great favourite . . . and ultimately,' &c.] These two passages illustrate the convenience and the dangers of this participial construction. The first is perfectly correct, ' viewing . . . figures' standing in opposition to the subject 'I.' The second is not actually incorrect, but there is obvious awkwardness in the two ' havings ' — the one absolute, the second in apposition to the subject 'he,' but con- nected with its absolute predecessor by 'and.' Too great care cannot be exercised to leave no doubt as to what a participle really is placed in apposition to, if one would avoid the error known as the ' misrelated participle.' In the following examples we have first — cases where the sen- ~lence~contains no word to which the participle can possibly refer,* next — cases where it refers to a possessive pronoun only, and lastly— cases where its true relation is obscured by faulty collocation. ' Having thus asserted his prerogative, and put on his clothes with the help of a valet, the count with my nephew and me, were introduced by his son ; and received with his usual style of rustic civility.'— Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ycA ed. of Works, by R. Anderson, 1806), vol. vi. p. 184. [' Having' here refers to the person whom the Count was visiting, as appears from the context. ' Were,' too, should be ' was.'] ' Sir Charles Wetherell addressed the House [of Lords] for three hours . . . ; when, being fatigued by his exertions, their lordships adjourned to the following day. '—j9;'iV?>/^ Almaiiac (1836), p. 198. [It would appear I that their lordships were fatigued with his (Sir C. W.'s) exertions.] ' Being exceedingly fond of birds, an aviary is always to be found in the grounds. '—H. C. SiRR, China and the Chinese (1849), vol. i. p. 326. ' There is a story of a father whom his son resolved to rob. Having left unguarded the key of his escritoire as if through forgetfulness, the thief rushed towards the gold.'— Prof. J. P. Nichol, Moral Training in our Common Schools (1S58), p. 32. *■ Speaking ^x'Cn a poor woman about the daughter of her neighbour, ... she said, " I reckon,'" he— Life Amongst the Colliers (1862), p. 13. * It should be observed that there are a few participles whichmay be used absolutely,, and which in fact have assumed a quasi-prepositional characteK ^Sifch are notwitll- standing, concerning, regarding, &c. 104 V^^^- ' For being now without a father's protection, and under the sanctuary of his roof, St. John Aylott . . . was only careful,' &c. — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Sowing the Wind (1^6"]), vol. ii. p. 245. [Read, 'as she was.'] ' The admiral was called upon to say whether he recognized in the body present the corpse of the Emperor Maximilian. . . . Replying in the affir- mative, the coffin was again closed.' — Letter from Vera Cruz, quoted in Pall Mall Gazette, 31st December, 1867. ' Considering it merely in that light, it is the most ancient and the most curious memorial of the early history of mankind.' — H. L. BuLWER, Histo- rical Characters [i%6?,), vol. ii. p. 16. [For 'considering it' read 'considered.'] ' It became desirable on every account to settle as soon as possible the differences between the colony and the mother country ; and, having vainly attempted to do this in other ways, it vjas resolved at last to send some supe- rior diplomatist,' &c. — Id., ib., vol. ii. p. 344. * Being one of the principal churches in Sydney, it was not unnatural to look for some degree of intelligence in the preaching department.' — The Pilgrim and the Shrine (1868), vol. ii. p. 249. ' Having indignantly refused to relinquish her profligate associates, the Cure of St. Sulpice declined administering the sacrament.' — Woman in France. [It seems that it is the Cure, not Madame de Berri, that refused to relinquish the profligate associates.] 'John Gibson died on the 27th of January, 1866, and lies in the English cemetery at Rome. Having beett decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour, a company of French soldiers, with muflied drums, formed part of the funeral procession, and fired a salute over the grave.' — Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson (1870), p. 243. [It was J. G., not the French soldiers, that had the cross of the Legion of Honour.] ' Gliding along its passages, many a 2vord ■wa.s uttered,' &c. — Too Much Alone (1863), ch. xiii. p. 123. ' Conversing one day with Beecher on the subject of the war, he said : "Our triumph is producing a speedier eff"ect upon you than upon our- selves. ' — D. Macrae, The Americans at Home (1870), vol. i. p. 64 \i.e., Beecher conversing with himself]. ' Looking back on the affair, after the lapse of years, the chief mistake seems to have been the simultaneity of the new ecclesiastical arrangement and the advent of the Cardinal Archbishop.' — Lord Houghton, Mono- graphs (1873), p. 56, 'Cardinal Wiseman.' ' Having ]\i%i now spoken rather of the disciples than of the Master, this opportunity may be taken to say that,' &c.— Dr. W. Sharp, Essays on Medicine (1874), essay xiii. p. 342. ' Having perceived i\i& weakness of his poems upon the Franco-German war, they now re-appear to us under new titles, and largely pruned or otherwise remodelled.'— E. C. Stedman, Victorian Poets (1876), p. 354, ' Robert Buchanan.' ' Looking back from this distance of time and across a change of political and social manners far greater than the distance of time might seem to explain, it appears difficult to understand the passionate emotions which the accession of the young Queen seems to have excited on all sides.' — Justin McCarthy, History of Our Ow/i Times (1879), vol. i. ch. i. p. 20. ' Allowing for the exaggeration of friendship and poetry, this is not a bad description of what Lord John Russell's style became at its best.' — Id., ib., vol. i. ch. ii. p. 43. VERB. 105 * Amazed at the alteration in his manner, every sentence that he uttered increased ,^ keeping\\\. going after it has been started. '— Prof. Cairnes, Essays in * Political Economy (1873), p. 205. [Insert 'of after 'keeping,' as after ' starting.'] A common and a kindred error is exemplified in ' I heard othm run- ning away,' 'It is of no use yoii' saying so' for *■ hu running,' 'your saying.' Reverse the order of these sentences, and the error is obvious — ' He running away was announced to me,' ' You saying that is of no use.' Here ' running away ' and ' saying ' are as much substantives as are * 'Generally,' because, as is pointed out in Moon's Bad English (1868), pp. 115-6. there certainly seems to be a difference between 'The meeting e^Edwin and Arthur was long delayed' and 'The meeting Edwin and Arthur was a great pleasure tome. ' The hearing (j/the case is fixed for Monday' is right beyond all question, but it is not so ceVtain whether we'should say : ' 'The hearing a lie'differs from the telling a lie,' or ' the hearing of . . . the telling of^ lie.' One way of solving the doubt is to omit the definite article, another to substitute a substantive for the verbal, e.g., in — ' Trajan's suppression of the informers ; his discouraging prosecutions under -t-^^" Majestatis; his relaxation of the tax on inheritances; and the impartiality with which he suffered the law to take its course against his own procurators when they were guilty of any abuse of power, were .ill real proofs of his sincerity.'— Dr. Arnold, Roman Lite- rature in the Time of Trajan 11852), p. 387. [Read ' discouragement of for the ambi- guous 'discouraging.'] ... .,, 'Admitting that our brains accomplish much without our conscious guidance, will help us to realize that our relation to them is of a variable, an intermitting, and (we may therefore venture to hope) of a terminable kind.'— Miss Cobbe, Unconscious Leretiration (1872), p. 333. [Read ' The admission.'] VERBALS. 109 ' escape ' and ' assertion,' and require like them possessive pronouns. Mr. Mason, however, remarks on p. 169, that 'there are some expressions in which the attributive pronoun is always used, as " You will oblige me by all leaving the room ;" "I have my doulsts as to this being true ;" " You seem to understand me by each at once her choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips " (Macbeth) ; and the best writers sanction the participial con- struction, as "Upon Nigel inquiring'''' (Scott); "These circumstances may lead to your Ladyship quitting this house " (Thackeray),' &c. To us these passages seem as mdefensible as 'Nigel inquiry,' 'her Ladyship departure ; ' and to need correction as much as the following : — ' It was supposed that the waggon wheels' resting on a smooth surface would diminish friction.' — ^J. Devey, Life of J. Locke (1862), p. 51. [The insertion of an apostrophe after wheels, to show that it is a genitive, gives the required sense, 'the fact that the wheels rest.'] ' ILorace trembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting moment in the history of poetry and friendship.' — Gibbon, ch. Ivi., fiote 7, p. 233. [' Horace's trembling' is probably intended, but even so 'moment' is not a very happy word. ' Episode ' would possibly be better.] ' Vico observes that the zvife' bringing a dowry is evidence of her freedom.'— Buckle, Works (1872), vol. i. p. 369. [Read, 'the wife's bringing,' &c.] ' Was the mere fact of Mr. Trelyott returning to Eglosilyan next day anything to be sad about?' — W. Black, Three Feathers, ch. xxviii. p. 48 (Cornhill, March, 1875, P- 3^2). [Read, 'Mr. Trelyon's returning,' or, better, 'Mr. Trelyon's return.'] ' I suppose her knowledge of the Einperor having left nothing to his son induced her to make such a will.'— Madame Bonaparte, Life and Letters (1879), ch. viii. p. 137. [Read ' Emperor's.'] ' The report of her death originated from her having been despaired of in September.' — lb., ch. viii. p. 139. [Here 'her' is probably the possessive pronoun, and so correct, since on the next page we find : ' The absence of my correspondent . . . prevented //w making the inquiries sooner.'] Compare on the point this passage from the Quarterly Review, July, 1876, p. 8, note, from a review of the Life of Macaulay : — 'In an unpublished paper on "Appointment by Competition," we find in vol. ii. p. 342, the following sentence: ^''Instead of purity resulting from that arrangement to Lndia, England itself would soon be tainted." Can the construction of which the words we have italicised are an example be found anywhere in the published works of Macaulay? Or in any writer of fair repute before the present century ? Or even before the present day ? Let any one, who desires to test its accuracy, try to translate it into a foreign language. Fonblanque, who was laudably jealous for our noble mother tongue, protested against this usage. His editor records the protest, and in the next page himself commits the crime. We find another example in Macaulay's letter to his father, at p. 150 of vol. i. : "All minds seem to be perfectly made up as to the certainty of Catholic Etnancipation having come at last." This very slovenly form of speech is now coming in upon us like a flood through the influence of newspapers, official correspondence, and we know not what beside.' no ADVERB — PREPOSITION. ADVERB. The employment of adverbs as adjectives is not to be commended. Early in this century, Crombie, while condemning ^soonest and deepest root,' 'a soon issue,' and 'the tlieti ministry,' observed that 'this error seems to gain ground; it should therefore be vigilantly opposed, and carefully avoided.' Instances of its occurrence since Crombie's day are — ' I suppose Attwood borrowed the money, from this remarkable and cere- monious acknowledgment on his part : had I been sober I would just as soon have lent him the nose on my face ; for, in my then circumstances, the note was of much more consequence to me.' — ^W. M. Thackeray, The Paris Sketchbook (1840), 'A Gambler's Death,' par. 10. [Read, 'in my circumstances at the time.'] ' Campian looked back at the fair innocent creature, whose long dark curls, after the then country fashion, rolled down from beneath the hood below her waist.' — Kingsley, Westivard Ho! (ed. 1879), ch. iv. p. 64. [Read, 'ruling country fashion,' or 'country fashion of the day.'] ' The seldom use of it.' — Archbishop Trench, Select Glossary (3rd ed., 1865), p. 109. [Read 'rare.'] 'My Lord Duke's entertainments were both seldom and shabby.' — Thackeray, Esmotid, bk. ii. ch. xiv. [Read 'rare,' 'few,' or ' unfre- quent.'] ' There are a few disagreeable matters of style [in Augusta Webster's Works], such as the repeated use of the adverb almost as an adjective, "an almost child;" and the same misuse of other adverbs, as in — "to think on the once themes is to be my once self;" and "joy at this house's now des- pair. " Such things as these are too dreadful to criticise.' — H. B. Forman, Ozir Living Poets (187 1 ), p. 173. In the next example the adverb otherwise is promoted to substantival dignity by a blunder commoner in 'penny dreadfuls' than in quarterly reviews — ' Boys or lads from all the schools competed, and their success or other- wise indicated whose teaching was most efficient.' — Westminster Review, January, 1873, p. 143. [Read, 'success or ^i7«r^.'] PREPOSITION. ' The original function of prepositions,' says Mr. Mason, 'was to give precision and definiteness to the somewhat vague ideas of the relation of actions to things, which was expressed by the case-endings of nouns.' In English, where all the case-endings with one exception are lost, preposi- tions play an unusually important part; the sense of a sentence may be wholly changed by the substitution of one of these defining words for another, e.g., in — ' He is on the way to (from) London ;' 'The money was given by (to) him;' or 'John reached the winning-post before (after) Charles.' In short and simple sentences like these no one could easily go astray ; but in longer sentences, or in metaphorical usage, confusion of pre- positions is not rare. Starting with one idea, the writer drops it, and unwittingly takes up another; or he fails to comprehend the simile on which PREPOSITION. 1 1 1 his metaphor is based. No one would say, ' I gazed at Edinburgh in (from) Arthur's Seat,' or 'I beheld the c\\.y front (in) the light of a summer dawn ; ' but, in metaphors, we meet with '/« this point of view' and ^from that light,' e.g. — 'If I did not consider them in [from] a different point of view.' — William Lowndes to Dr. Parr, quoted in Dr. P.'s Works (1828), vol. viii. p. 380. ' Looked at in [from] this point of view, we cannot refuse to regard them as organisms of some peculiar and amazing kind.' — S. Smiles, Industrial Biography (1863), ch. xv. p. 298. ' In [from] this point of view, Mr. Spencer and Comte seem to divide the elements of the truth between them.'— Prof. E. Caird, Contemp. Rev., July, 1879, p. 667, ' Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte.' * To these expressions of the opinion of Dr. Thirlwall the better part of the Liberal party in the Church naturally looked, as the best exposition of the question in the light from [in] which, by their religious temperament and political principles, they are disposed to regard it.'— Rev. F. Arnold, B.A., Our Bishops mid Deans {\'i-]^),\o\. ii. ch. i.p. 20, 'Literary Bishops.' In all the next six passages except the last, the blunder seems due to a confusion of two ideas : — '^To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because forsooth she has dared to love a Catholic ; and drag her home, to be forced ... to renounce that Church into whose maternal bosom she has doubtless long since found! rest and holiness !'—Kingsley, IVestzuard Ho ! (ed. 1879), ch. xiv. p. ^ 240. ['Found rest in,' but 'fled for rest itito.'^ ' I really believe tliat, except to doctors and clergymen, and the very few intimate friends who have seen me frequently, even my state of extremity has been doubted.' — Miss Mitford, Letters and Life (2nd series, 1872), vol. ii. p. 147. ['Doubted by,' but 'seemed doubtful to.'\ ' I think it must have been He some such primitive explanation of the whooping-cough that there has grown up in Austria the unique custom of treating that disease by administering the rod.' — M. D. Conway, Fraser's Magazine, May, 1873, P- 6x5, 'Vienna.' ['Has grown up from,' but 'is due to. '] 'To the Italian (even to one who carries a stiletto) the English practice of boxing is a sheer brutality ; while to an Englishman (himself perhaps not a Joseph) the cavaliere sen^ente is looked upoti with reprobation tem- pered by scorn.'— George Calvert, Essays ^stkeiical (Boston, 1875). ['Is looked Vi^^on. by,' but 'is an object of reprobation to.'] ' From this coalition and not from the spirit of its own laws and institu- tions, he attributed the harsh and ungenerous treatment of our fallen enemy Napoleon Buonaparte.' — Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher (1875), p. 374. ['Attributed to,' but 'he derived \t from,' or 'it arose /ri7;«.'] ' Darmstadt, in addition to its library and theatre, recommended itself to \i\xa.fHin its freedom from noise, 2.nAfrom the woods in its vicinity.' — Ed. Zeller, Strauss in his Life and Writings (1874), p. 124, translation. [For the first and third 'from' read ' by.'] Sometimes even the right preposition is used in the early part of a sen- tence, but later on another takes its place, e.g. — ' The crimes which he [Dr. Biichner] lays to the charge of Christianity may have been due rather to the absence of its true spirit in many of its 112 PREPOSITION. so-called disciples than from any inherent intolerance in that spirit itself.' — Scotsman, May, 1872, Review of 'Dr. Biichner on Man.' ['From' is due probably to a non-existent 'may have arisen.'] ' They all agreed that inferior men, getting possession of this power, per- sistently applied it to their own narrow purposes, rather than ?»^ upholding the principles of an institution then falling into disrepute by reason of these vices.' — Memoir of B. R. Haydon (1876), vol. i. p. 26. [For 'in' read 'to.' The author probably fancied he had used the verb ' employed.'] ' As a rule, the girls appeared less intelligent than the boys. Miss Whately informed me that the appearance was less f7-oi7i any want of natural intellect, than in making them understand the advantages of educa- tion.' — Facta non Verba (1874), by the Author of Contrasts, p. 279. ['In,' due perhaps to ' consisted m,' should be 'from,' but even then the sense is incomplete. Read, 'arose less from any want of natural intellect than from the difficulty of making,' &c.] ' The gossip of the time in which they live is certain to credit them con- tinually ivith vices in which they do not indulge, and in faults which they do not commit.' — Prof. Rogers, Historical Gleanings, p. 143. [On this Mr. A. B. Beavan remarks : ' i. Can Mr. Rogers construe this passage ? 2. Can anybody else?' — Thorold Rogers, the Historical (Tare) Gleaner (1870), p. 18.] Some blunders in the use of prepositions seem so to have stereotyped themselves as now to be almost universal. No one would say, 'He turned away to ((or from) him in a rage;' but nine perhaps out of ten authors write, ' I am averse to (not from) this proposal,' though averse (Lat. averstts, from ai>, 'away,' and vertere, 'to turn') bears just the same meaning as 'turned away.' The blunder seems to be based on the false analogy of 'adverse (hostilely opposed) to;' and Mr. Fitzedward Hall remarks that ' if we had had a verb neuter avert, it may be that the influence of the preposition it would regularly have taken would have kept us from altering the " averse /;w«" of our forefathers into "averse /«?," now generally pre- \a.\ent' (Afodern English, p. 83). The two usages are seen in — ' He was not averse from a moderate quantity of good, sound, fruity port.' — G. A. Sala, Gentleman's Magazine, Sept., 1878, p. 261, 'Cupid.' ' Politics, as he makes even Demosthenes admit, are the "sad refuge of restless minds, averse/;-;?^ business and /row study.'" — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 276, ' Landor.' 'You are already acquainted with his aversion to the multitude.' — Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (Works, 3rd ed., by R. Anderson, 1806), vol. vi. p. 126. ' I exhorted him to turn that disagreeable piece of formality out of the house, if he should find her averse to his proposal.' — lb., p. 333. ' It is singular, at times, how averse the relations of a man's first wife are /o his marrying again.' — Smart, Two Roses, quoted and condemned by Spectator, 23rd October, 1875, p. 1332. Mr. Hall's remark upon 'averse to'' occurs in the middle of his exhaustive discussion (pp. 77-84) of the euphonic colloquialism, 'different /£>,' for 'differentyVow,' a colloquialism that, creeping into literature as early, at least, as 1603, was afterwards employed by Hay ward, Glanvill, Addison, Steele, Gibber, Richardson, Shenstone, Foote, Miss Bumey, Southey, PREPOSITION. 113 and modem wT-iters by the score. In favour of ' different to ' it might be urged that in Latin poetrj' differre occasionally took the dative {cf. Horace's ' tragico differre colori,' Ars Poet., 236) ; but English analogy is certainly opposed to it. No Englishman writes ' differ to; though 'differ with ' (cf. Cicero's 'hoc genus causae atfn superiore differt,' /nv. 2, 30) is by no means rare, when 'in opinion' or the like is expressed or understood,* e.g. — 'If to differ, ever hereafter, -witk an upstart minister is to be construed,' &c. — John Wilkes, A^oftk Briton, No. 37. ' He was the only one who ventured to differ with that great minister on important questions.' — J. F. Clarke, Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1872), p. 467. The conclusion arrived at by Mr. Hall appears to be that Englishmen may follow ' the vast majority of their educated countrymen, f in preference to obeying the behests of transcendental grammarians;' that we may put up with 'different /«fj pronounces the phrase " different to" a vulgarism ? Yet a correspondent of that paper, in condemning the ex- pression, " the Commons disagree to the amendment of the Lords," also attacks the other phrase, " different to," which has been consecrated by the best modern English writers, including Thackeray himself. In America we usually say " different from ;" in Eng- land they seldom or never do. Yet it is certain that our usage not only conforms more closely to the genius of the language, but is inherited from the older English writers. It is hard to say how the abomination of "different to" crept into modern English, as spoken and written in England ; but, at all events, it is current enough now. Thackeray, perhaps the most consummate master of English of his day, was once talking with the poet Lowell (himself hardly, if at all, the inferior of Thackeray in that respect) with regard to Henry Esmond, which the novelist had just finished. He challenged Mr. Lowell to find a single sentence or phrase in that book, which, so far as usage was concerned, a- writer of Esmond's day would not have employed. Lowell promptly fastened upon. '• different to," and Thackeray was forced to own the slip into which modernised Englishi had betrayed him.' 114 PREPOSITION. 'This brings to my mind another instance of the same nature, where our English poet, by not attending to the pecuHar expression of his author, has given us a picture of a very different kind than what Homer intended.' Fitzosborne's Letters, let. xxi. 'The seventeenth century evidently had a diffei-ent notion of books and women than that which flourishes in the nineteenth,' — Pall Mall Gazette, 22nd August, 1867. ' Provision is made for happiness of a quite different nature than can be said to be made for misery.' — W. Smith, Gravenhnrst (1S62), introd., p. 9. Between is a much-abused preposition. The Anglo-Saxon be-twionan was a compound of be, ' by,' and tweonum, the dative plural of tweon, 'twain;' and the parts of the compound were sometimes separated, as in ' bi s£em tweonum'' — 'by seas twain,' i.e., 'between two seas.' Duality js the fundamental notion Of betzveen, which cannot therefore correcTly~'Be^ employed with more than two objects of reference,* or without the two objects being clearly indicated, e.g., one cannot say, ' I stood between twenty persons whom I did not know,' or 'I stood between an oak tree.' Instances of betzveen with more than two objects are — ' Betzveen the offences of blasphemy, hypocrisy, and perjury, and par- taking of the guilt of all three, lies that of apostacy.' — Miss CoBBE, Intui- tive Morals {1S57), vol. ii. sec. ii. p. 18. ' Praxiteles is said to have definitively given the character of sensuality to Venus, who had previously floated betzveen several ideals of beauty.' — Lecky, Hist, of Rationalism (1865), vol. i. p. 271, note. ' Through Lessing, Mendelssohn subsequently became acquainted with Nicolai, and soon a close union was formed betzveen those three young men.'— Stahr, Life of Lessing, translated by E. P. Evans (Boston, 1866), vol. i. p. 133. 'The immense advantages of this system of communication between all who are working among the poor cannot be over estimated.' — How to Relieve the Poor of Edinburgh (1867), p. 15. [Read 'among.'] ' This plan has done much to bridge over the gulf between the working man and his employer, and indeed betzveen all classes.' — lb., p. 20. ' Stirring up at the same time no little ill-will between \zma:Q.^ the various races — English, French, Scotch, and Irish — who inhabited Canada.' — Westminster Review, April, 186S, p. 450. ' It would be as well to inquire into the chances of establishing a mutu- ally benefiting intercourse between the several universities of our nation.' — Prof. D. M. Thompson, Wayside Thoughts (1868), p. 214, 'Youth and College.' ' Nearly one hundred ounces were divided betzveen [among] the four in the first fortnight.' — The Pilgrim and the Shrine {1868), vol. i. p. 179. * It should, however, be remarked that authadiiea-diffex on the point, «;ome main- taining that beUvecn, like Ger. z'wiscken (from zivei; (r/TGrimm, Deutsche Gramm, iii. 269), doubt, and di- or dis- in dknde. disagree, ike, no longer necessarily implies duality. Johnson (ed. 1785) says that ' betivee/i is properly used of two, and among of more, but perhaps this accuracy is not always preserved ;' while \Vkbster (Lend, ed., 1832) denies that 'it is restricted to two.' In our examples it wilt be noticed that between~'m' some cases is unquestionably wrong, in others it would not suffice to substitute another preposition, but the entire sentence would have to be re-written. PREPOSITION. 115 ' A constant intercourse hetii'ec7i the students of the various professional schools, and heixucen these and the students in arts, is surely of great im- portance in giving breadth and fairness to their respective views.' — J. P. Mahaffy, Macmillan's Magazine, September, 1869, p. 46S, ' Trinity College, Dublin.' ' Now if we recognize this truth in the case of men as betiueen [among] themselves, how can we refuse assent to it as between men and women ?' — Boyd KiNNEAR, IVoman's Work, &c. (1867), p. 339, essay x. ' Opinion is divided betiveen [among] Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, and Mrs. Ord.' — Dr. Doran-, A Lady of the Last Century (1873), p. 272, ' The third chair that is vacant lies between three professors.' — Edmond About, 23rd August, 1873, p. 242. In the following passages it is not clearlyjnd icated what the two object s _arg_to which bet'ween refers : — ' Between each plane-tree are planted box-trees,' &c. — Melmoth's Piiny, V. 6. [Insert ' and the next' after 'plane-tree.'] ' The dearest mterests of mankind imperiously demand that a certain etiquette of fashion should no longer impose its flimsy barriers between the free communication of intellect.' — P. B. Shelley to W. Godwin, i8ii,ii. 201. ['Impose' demands 'on,' but 'oppose ... to' would be preferable.] ' Interposing an obstacle between the union.' — ^Jos. Devey, Life of Locke (1862). ' It was published in successive parts, long intervals befiueen each period of publication.' — JN. Anster, LL.D., German Literature (Dublin, 2nd series, 1864), p. 158. ' Where, bet-ween every stitch, she could look up and see what was going on in the street.' — Mrs. Gaskell, Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1866), p. 1 86. ' Madame de N was vibrating bei'wixt the first of these epochs.' — Sterne, quoted by Th. Purnell, in Literature andits Professors {l?>6j), p. 215. ' When they endeavour to draw a line between some books as entitled to the subjugation of human reason, 7vhile of other books reason is allowed to judge.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. xii. p. 273. [Ill-balanced. Read, ' and other books of which reason,' &c.] * Man is not always to be condemned for not distinguishing between Christianity in itself, and in the declarations and faith of all around him.' Ld., ib., vol. i. p. 152. [Read either 'between Christianity in itself and Christianity in the,' &c., or 'distinguishing Christianity in itself from Christianity in,' &c.] ' There is no real belief until one discerns the necessary harmony between ( ez'ery pnj-t of the divine whole.' — The Pilgrim and the Shrine {xZ^Z), vol. i. 1 ch. ii. p. 43. 'Between the junction of the Zuba and Feather rivers, a considerable space is left dry.' — lb., vol. i. ch, vi. p. 236. ['Between the Z. and F. rivers at their junction,' &c.] ' The statement is dovetailed in between an attack on aristocratic con- verts to Rome and young men in business who attend "Ritualist cere- monial"' — Sat. Rev., 8th June, 1S67, p. 726. [Defective construction. 'Between an attack and young men,' instead of between one attack and another.] Ii6 PREPOSITION. 'The first impression of him [Paganini] is something bdwecn that of the Devil and Don Quixote.' — R. H. Horne, Gentleman' s Magazine, June, 1871, p. 96. [The Devil and Don Quixote make two impressions, not one impression. The words ' that of should therefore precede ' Don Quixote;' or, better, 'is of something between the D. and D. Q.'] ' The total absence of discrimination bettvcen the relative value 0/ facts,'' See— St. PauPs, April, 1868, p. 66, ' Spiritual Wives.' 'I see no difference in this respect between the dweller in clubs ^^ in convents.' — Miss Wedgwood, Woman's Work and Woman's Culture (1869), p. 260, 'Female Suffrage.' [Read, 'between the dweller in clubs and the dweller in convents.'] ^ ' If he does not distinguish between the province of reason and^emotion — the most difficult of philosophical problems — he keeps clear of the cruder mysticism.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 199. [Insert 'that of before '^motion.'] ' Between such a Scylla andlCharybdis, who can steer clear?' — Miss S. Jex Blake, Woman's Work arid Woman's Culture (1869), p. 118. [Repeat ' such a ' before ' Charybdis.'] ' We are too apt to forget that between the real hidden nature of the respectable and [that of], the disreputable classes, the difference is not quite so sharp and decided as it flatters our self-love to imagine.' — Pall Mall Gazette, 4th October, 1867. [Here, too, the sense seems to require some such antithesis as ' between the hidden depravity of the respectable and the open depravity of the disreputable classes.'] A mistaken dread of repetition sometimes leads writers to omit a prepxt^ Sition that is absolutely necessary to render the construction complete, e.g. — ' Breaking a constitution by the very same errors, that so many have been broke before.' — Swift. [Read, ' have been broken by before.'] ' Idleness, vice, and infidelity render us, where in doubt, more distres- singly dejected, and take off the relish and enjoyment /r^jw what we might otherwise draw comfort and delight.' — Haydon's 'Table Talk,' quoted m vol. ii. p. 375 of his Memoir (1876). [Read, '■from what we might other- wise draw comfort and delightyVow.'] ' In either case, the Governments of Mr. Perceval and of Lord Liverpool, by their conduct towards Lord Wellington, placed themselves m a position it is to be regretted an English Government should appear.' — Memoir of B. R. Haydott (1876), vol. ii. p. 434, note by editor. [Read, 'm a position in which it is to be regretted an English Government should appear.'] ' She is a wonder and a monument of what a human being in firm or infirm health is capable.'— Letter by S. May, in Miss Martineau's Memo- 7-ials (iSjj), vol. iii. p. 444. [Read, '^what a human being is capable ^.'] In the following the non-repetition of a preposition affects the sense:— 'Ignorant miners were terrorized into voting4inder penalty of excommuni- cation from church privileges in this world andtdamnation in the next. ' — Will 0' the Wisp, 13th February, 1869, p. 271. [The insertion of the word 'of before 'damnation' would prevent an ambiguity if not an absurdity.] ' Some time ago a royal warrant was issued providing for the withdrawal of medical officers in the army from regimental work, andjlheir employ- ment in general duty.' — Scotsman, 1 8th August, 1873, London Correspon- dent. [' For' should be here repeated, as 'from' might be understood.] CONJUNCTION. 1 1 y ' When he directs his powers against sheer obstruction and antiquated prejudice — against abuses in prisons, owthe game laws, orleducation— we can have no fault to find.'— Leslie Stephen, Hours i7i"a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 172. ['In' should be repeated, for the writer does not mean 'against education,' though he may mean 'against the game laws.'] Similar ambiguity may be caused by the omission of^second mfinitival_ 'Jo,' ^.^., in— ^ f ^ ' ' They forget to consult, and, as far as they are not vicious, "conform to the tastes, feelings, habits, of those whose happiness they would promote, and think only of their own.' — W. J. Fox, C/wist and Christianily, Works, vol. ii. p. 106. [The want of 'to' before 'conform' reverses the meaning.] ' Of all the eminent men of his time, he appears to have been the most sincere, andVacted throughout in harmony with his own nature.' — Th. PURNELL, Literature and its Professors (1867), p. 140, ' Giraldus Cam- brensis.' [Insert 'to have' before 'acted.'] ' Prompts him to praise orjdisparage the work he is reviewing.' — lb., p. 17, 'Criticism.' [Insert 'to' before 'disparage,' which otherwise looks like a mere explanatory alternative.] ' Refuse to bow before shadows and worship phrases.' — Lord Beacons- FIELD, Coningsby, last par. [Insert 'to' before 'worship;' though, perhaps, the passage as it stands, more truly, if unintentionally, or contrary to intention, accords better with the writer's character.] Sometimes, on the other hand, a preposition is wrongly repeated, or confusion arises from a too frequent use ofthe same preposition in different connections, as in — ' It would not suit the rules of art, nor if. my own feelings, to write in that style.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), ch. viii. p. 334. [Delete the second 'of,' since the writer does not mean ^ rules of my own feelings.'] * Perhaps we might venture to add, that it is hardly explicable, except as a portrait drawn by a skilful hand guided by love, and by love intensified by the consciousness of some impassable barrier.' — lb., ch. viii. p. 348. [Too many ' bys. '] CONJUNCTION, By the absorbtion of the conjunctive particle that many prepositions I have Tteen transformed into conjunctions — but, after, ere, before, for, till, \ ffic. It is not always easy to determine how far this process may be legitimately carried, but few writers would sanction the vulgar usage of against: ' Have it ready against I come.' Except, which at first formed a nominative or objective absolute with the succeeding clause, and which in time has come to be used as a preposition, is questionably used as a conjunction. Such usage has the authority of the Authorised Version {.'Except a man be born,' John iii. 5); still, unless would be generally held preferable to except, as it certainly would \ii\o without, in— ' Do' not trouble yourself about writing to me, except you are quite in the humour for it.'— John Keble, Memoir, by Sir J. T. Coleridge (2nd ed., 1869), vol. i. ch. v. p. 81. [In another letter quoted by Sir J. T. C. without is thus used.] Ii8 CONJUNCTION. ' It has no literary pretensions, except [unless] the total absence of all pretension may pass for one in these days of abundant conceit.' — Miss MiTFORD, Letters and Life {2nd series, 1872), vol. i. p. 150. ' You know, my uncle declared he would not suffer me to return without [unless] my mamma desired it.' — Sidney Biddulph, vol. iv. p. 276. Similarly the adverb like is often improperly, because needlessly, em- ployed for like as or simply as, e.g., in — ' Bidding the customers, like [as] Queen Eleanor did Fair Rosamond.' — Mayhew, Ge7-man Life, &c. (1864), vol. i. p. 21. 'A timid, nervous child, like [as] Martin was.' — Lb., vol. i. p. 96. 'And if each man would only add his mite, like [as] the pilgrim adds his stone to the heap in the desert, the temple would soon rise and show its fair proportions to the world.' — Js. Bromfield, Lower Brittany, «&c. (2nd ed., 1866), ch. XX. p. 313. ' A nation must laugh, and there is all the difference whether it laughs like a satyr, or like [as] those bitter fishwomen did in France at blood and slaughter, or like [as] we have laughed under Punch's auspices for many years.'— J. Hain Friswell, Men of Letters LLonestly Criticised (1870), p. 54, 'Mark Lemon.' ' Is the demand of the cotton and of the iron for money so real and spe- cific that the coin is produced, like [as] wine is produced in bottles for the drinkers who desire to drink wine ?' — Bonamy Price, Principles of Cur- rency (1869), lect. v. p. 162. 'Then, with ingenuous vanity, and forgetting grammar in gush, he [C. Dickens] protests : "Nobody will miss \vzx like I shall.'" — Temple Bar, May, 1873, p. 183, on ' Jn. Forster's Life of C. Dickens.* Or directly (as if 'directly that,^ cf, 'the moment I saw' for 'the moment that I saw') is used as a conjunction, where asioon as would in every way be better, e.g. — " ' Directly the session of 1870 commenced, the Government was pressed to do something to preserve Epping Forest.' — H. Fawcett, Pauperism (1871), ch. vii. p. 263. ' Directly Louis XVI. came to the throne, Maurepas made Vergennes Minister for Foreign Affairs.' — H. T. Buckle, Works (1872), vol. i. p. 269. ^Directly on the accession of Louis XVI., Maurepas, not the King, called Turgot to the finances.' — Lb., p. 268. [The first is wrong ; the second is "g^t.] ' But this does not make it the less really trifling, or hinder one nowadays seeing it to be trifling directly we examine it.' — M. Arnold,. Literanire and Dogtna (1873), ch. v. p. 142. [Besides the false use of the adverb, ' one ' should be ' one's.'] ' Directly he saw she was serious, however, his rage and mortification were indescribable.' — W. Black, Cornhill Magazine, March, 1875, ch. xxviii. par. 27, p. 379, ' Three Feathers.' The non-repetition of conjunctions, as of prepositions, may pervert the meaning of a sentence, e.g. — ' But perhaps one is unduly biassed by the charm of a complete escape from the thousand and one affectations, which have grown up since Fielding died, andVwe have all become so much wiser and more learned than all CONJUNCTION. 119 previous generations.'— Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), ch. ii. p. 92. [Repeat 'since' before 'we have.'] Or by the omission of a ^x^Jhat the balance of a sentence may be destroyed, as in— ' I have not given them when, perhaps, they were most necessar}' ; but only when I fancied [that] they might be useful, or that I had something pertinent to quote or to say.' — J. R. McCuLLOCH, Catalogue of Books belongingto a Political Economist (1S62), p. viii. 'We believe [that] the freedom and happiness of a people are not the result of their political institutions, but that their political institutions are, in great degree, the result of their own temper and aspiration.' — Th. PURNELL, Literature audits Professors (1S67), p. 267. These are awkward enough, but the following are absolutely incoherent, the_conjunctio_n //;a/ having nothing to depend on in the preceding clause^ Only re- writing can mend them : — ' The difficulty of collecting the leaves from the shrubs, which are described to groiu in this district on sides of inaccessible precipices, is said to be excessive, and that the labourers engaged in the task are let down by means of iron chains.' — H. C. SiRR, China and the Chinese (1849), vol. i. ch. XX. p. 349. [Read, ' It is said that the difficulty of collecting the leaves from the shrubs, which grow in this district on sides of inacces- sible precipices, is excessive, and that the labourers,' &c. ' Dr. Foley declaresjlung disease to be very rare in Algeria, both among Europeans and natives, and that the disease, if the patient be brought out here in an early stage, not only ceases to make progress, but shows a marked amelioration.' — MissM. B. Edwards,^ Winter with the Szvallows (1867), p. 285. [This should be 'declares that lung disease is very rare, and that,'' &c. Further, say ' among both.'] ' I still seem to feel the Queen's broad arrow stamped upon me, and that the men whom in my vanity I imagined I wished to benefit in a red coat, I might now benefit with a better-founded hope of usefulness in the more sombre garb of a minister of Christ.'— Rev. F. W. Robertson, Life, &c. (186S), p. 25. [A vei7 faulty sentence, best corrected perhaps by inserting ' am persuaded ' before ' that the men whom,' &c.] -^ ' He experienced no small exultation then, when he saw this state of things reversed, and that the King of England was once more a personage whose policy created hope and alarm.' — H. L. Bulwer, Historical Charac- ters {1868), vol. ii. p. 365. [Read, 'when he saw that this state of things was reversed, and that the King,' &c.; or omit 'that' and ' was.'] ' The French Celt, he maintained, would never become a colonist in Algeria, and that he did not thrive in Corsica.'— Lonsdale, Life of P. Am(7x (1870), ch. XV, p. 301. [Read, 'he niaintamed that the French Celt would never . . . Algeria, and thafhe,^ &c.] ' To him all the light and joy of the world seemed to be buried in the little grave beside him ; and that there was no to-morrow that could bring him back the delight of the days that were.'— W. BLACK, A Daughter of Heth (7th ed., 1871), vol. iii. ch. xix. p. 281. [Read, 'It seemed to him that all the light and joy were buried, and that there was,' &c.] ' The Treaty is said to have received some modification in its passage through the Foreign Affairs Committee, and that these modifications arc 120 CONJUNCTION. likely to be adhered to by the ^tnzX.^.'' —Manchester Examiner and Times, 24th May, 1S72. [Read, ' It is said //^a^ the treaty has received ... and Ma/ these,' &c.] ' They were inclined to regard most consulting men as incompetent, andj that the members of a Profession who could so quarrel amongst themselves and vilify each other were no better than they should be, and a great deal worse than people in general had supposed.'— J. F. Clarke, Autobiog. Recollections of the Aledical Profession (1874), ch. vii. p. 70. [Insert 'to believe' before 'that the members.'] ' Rubens is said to have prepared sketches for these pictures while in Paris, but that the subsequent misfortunes of his patroness prevented the carrying out of her project.'— Lady Jackson, Old Paris, &c. (1878), vol. L ch. vii. p. 90. [Read, ' It is said that Rubens prepared ... but that the subsequent,' (Sic] That, on the other hand, is sometimes redundantly repeated, e.g. — ' It by no means follows that because it has been an invaluable discovery to make a portion of government depend upon a particular principle, that every portion of a government should be deduced from that principle.' — Sir H. L. BuLWER, Historical Characters (1868), vol. i. p. 89. ' Until this be altered for the better, I do not see that we are likely to grow much wiser, or that, though political power may pass into different hands, that it will be exercised more purely or sensibly than it has been.' Dr. Arnold, Miscell. Works, let. ii., 'Education of the Middle Classes.' * I do not think that in writing a book intended to represent the Spanish lower classes as they are at the present time, that that book would seem complete without some notice being taken of the bull- fight. '—H. J. Rose;, Utttrodden Spain (1875), vol. i. ch. xxxiii. p. 378. ' I tell him that if you were to hear him speak English — which he does in the prettiest manner— ///a/ you could not refrain from kissing him.'— C. J. Mathews, Autobiogi-apliy (1879), vol. i. ch. v. p. 129, ' We cannot help fondly imagining that upon starting with a fair wind on a voyage of only a day and a half, that our arrival will be speedy in proportion to the favour of the breeze.' — lb., p. 315. ' One instance is afforded by the friendly manner in which Lady Nor- mandy begged that whenever one of us dined out without the other — which of course sometimes happens — that the uninvited one would come to them.' — lb., vol. ii. ch. i. p. 21. ' He must remember that, although the first people in Europe would like his society, and place him on an equality with themselves, that none of them would either give or lend him a farthing.' — Madame Bonafarte, Life and Letters (1879), ch. ix. p. 148. Instead of repeating the conjunction used in the preceding clause, some writers have a trick of introducing a subsequent clause_by /Wj imitating, consciously or unconsciously, the French idiom parce que . . . qjie ; e.g. — ' Far distant be the day when the minuted and measured walk along the Trumpington or the Bicester Road takes the place of the manly exercise of the cricket ground and the river, or that lectures multiply while sports decrease.' — Quarterly Reviexv {\'iA^, vol. Ixxiii. p. loo. ' 7/" you had a niece engaged to be married, and that you thought,' &c. — Mrs. RiDDELL, The World in the Church (1863), vol. i. p. 179. CONJUNCTION. 121 'T/'it were attempted, and that any troublesome point came on the tapis,' &c. — lb., vol. ii. p. 310. ' I had a sensation as though I had been walking through long, dark alleys in a subterranean coal cellar, and that I now through an opening saw the light of day.' — Prof. D. W. THOMPSON, Wayside Thoughts {1868), p. 81, 'School Memories.' ' When I recollect the way in which you saw me opposed to Perceval on the 2ist of February, 1803, and that I compare his present situation with mine,'&c.^Sir Tas. Mackintosh, quoted by H. L. Bulwer, in Hist07-ical Characters (1S68), vol. ii. p. 30. ' Whether this disaster was originated by some malicious or interested incendiary, or that the inventor had forgotten to arrange "leaden wires with iron weights" over a few protecting machines, which is more likely, it is not material to inquire.' — R. H. Horne, Gentleman^ s Magazine, March, 1871, p. 442. ' Whether his legs had expanded with his years, or that the longitude of his trousers had shrunk from their proper proportions by reason of repeated washings, remains an insoluble problem.' — J. C Young, Alemoir 0/ C. Jl/. Yoi/ng, Sec. (1871), vol. i. ch. ix. p. 334. 'It must remain fixed for the latter end of April, tmless any very bad weather should set in, or that you can fix with agreeable travelling com- pany.' — And. Grote, Letter to Jos. Grote, 1767, Life of Geo. Grate (1873), ch. i. p. 3, introd. ' Unfortunately, general disappointment was felt among readers beyond Italy and France, because the discoveries of men belonging toother nation- alities were not treated with proper fairness, and because not only undue prominence was given even to the less important observations made by Father Secchi himself, but that, in fact, the greater portion of the contents of the original consisted wholly of Father Secchi s own observations and his own conclusions therefrom.' — Westminster Review, Jan., 1873, p. 284. ' Either because he is not a demigod, or //^a/' through long security he has lost the power to take the buffets and rewards of fortune "with equal thanks," he does not move entirely contented within the shadow that for the hour has crossed his triumphal path.' — E. C. Stedman, Victorian Poets (1876), p. 151, 'Alf. Tennyson.' ' There is not one of them but had his road shortened by such study, that had his eyes opened to new beauties, his capacities strengthened, his views enlarged, and his enthusiasms confirmed.' — B. R. Haydon to D. Wilkie, 1814, Llemoirs, &c. (1876), vol. i. p. 284. ' If I do not speak of them it is because they do not come within my subject, and not that they are lightly esteemed by me.' — Wyke Bayliss, The Witness of Art, &c. (1876), ch. i. p. 13. ' I have seldom if ever seen him ' is a contracted form of ' I have seldom seen him, ?/, indeed, I have ever seen him at all.' 'I have seldom or never seen him,' on the other hand, stands for 'I 'hs.xQ seldom seen him, or rather I have never seen him at all.' Each phrase has its own peculiar meaning, but the 'seldom or ever' and 'seldom if never' of the following passages are meaningless alike: — ' Those who walk in their sleep have seldom jhc, ever the most distant recollection that they have been dreaming at all.' — Sydney Smith, Mi>ral Philosophy (1850), lect. ii. p. 75. 122 CONJUNCTION. ' In contrary instances, seldom or ever.'' — Id. ( i S55), lect. ix. vol. ii. p. 12. ' A friendship among persons of different sexes rarely ^- ever takes place in this country.' — Id., Memoir, vol. i. p. 131. ' That refinement which is seldom ■»«: ever found except among persons that have experienced superior advantages to those which I have enjoyed.' Fred. Douglas, Speech in My Bondage and My Freedom (New York, 1855), p. 407. ' Humanity seldom or ever shows itself in inferior dispositions.' — Quart. Review. January, 1858, p. 208 ; and ib., p. 204. ' Nowadays, statesmen, divines . . . are seldom -or ever disposed to carry out their principles to their legitimate extent.' — A. Helps, Friends in Council (ncvi series, 1859), vol. ii. p. 133, 'Upon Pleasantness.' 'Premature decay is seldom or ever local.' — Id., Reahnah (1868), vol. ii. p. 232. ' You seldom or ever see a hale or hearty man or woman vending water- cresses,' &c. — Jas. Greenwood, Unsentimental Journeys, &c. (1867), ch. xvii. p. 116. 'Your Christmas writers are seldom or ever oi this sort.' — Id., ib., ch. xix. p. 137. ' Such goods are made for export, and are seldom or ever used in this country; being far too common.' — Five Years of Penal Servitude {iSjS), P- 353- ' I gave no more t/ian I could help'' is a type of an almost universal blunder; how universal, will be felt at once from the awkward un-Englisli soundT of 'I gave no more than I could not help.'' Yet the latter is undoubtedly correct, though it takes some little reflection to convince one- self of the fact. ' I could not help giving more' equals ' I ivas obliged to give more,' tiot help being a double negative, i.e., an affirmative ; and every one would rightly say, ' I gave no more than I was obliged to give.' This error is precisely similar to the last, ' seldom or ever' for ' seldom i/ever;' since people who write ' I shall give no more than I can help' are uncon- sciously following the false analogy of ' I shall give no more if I can help it.' For an avoidance of this error we must go back to the eighteenth century ; cases of its commission by modern authors might be multiplied ad infinitum — ' Of a gentleman who made some figure among the literati of his time he [Dr. Johnson] said: "What eminence he had was by a felicity of manner; he had no more learning than what he could not help."' — BoswELL, Life of John son (Croker's ed., i860), vol. i. ch. Ixviii. aet. 70, 1779, p. 629. 'A lady who gives them no more trouble than she can avoid.'' — Miss MULOCK, A Woman'' s Thoughts About Women (1858), p. 31. ' We thought it imprudent to delay our return longer than could be avoided.' — Mrs. Freshfield, A Summer Tour in the Orisons (1S62), p. 132. [This should be ' than could not be avoided,' or ' than was inevitable.'] ' He lost no more time in setting out than could [not] be avoided.' — BuNSEN, Letter to Archdeacon Hare, Memoirs (1868), vol. ii. p. 192. Another misuse of than is making it follow scarcely, hardly, in such sentences as ' I had scarcely addressed him than he knew me.' This also is a confusion of two constructions — ' 1 had no sooner addressed him than CONJUNCTION. 123 he knew me,' and ' I had scarcely addressed him luhen he knew me.' It might perhaps be urged that ats in German stands for both 'when' and 'than;' and that than (Angl.-Sax. J^onne) itself originally meant 'when,' 'John is taller //^a« Charles' equalling 'When Charles is tall {i.e. when tire tallness of Charles is .regarded) John is taller' (Mason, Engl. Gram., p. 100, note). But the fact remains that, in modern usage, than is used only after comparatives to introduce the standard of comparison, and in the following sentences j:ea;rd.'/2'* requires -when:- — ^Scarcely had Bentley thus established his fame in this department of letters, than [when] he as suddenly broke forth in a still higher.' — Quart. Rev. (1832), vol. xlvi. p. 126, 'Monk's Life of Bentley.' ' Scarcely had she gone, than [when] Clodius and several of his gay com- panions broke in upon him.' — BuLWER, Last Days of Pojnpeii, vol. i. p. 263. ' But, as it happened, scarcely had Phcebe's eyes rested again on the judge's countenance than [when] all its ugly sternness vanished.' — N. Haw- thorne, The House of the Seven Gables, ch. viii. p. 94. ' I had scarcely passed a projecting crag, than [when] there burst an ex- plosion.' — Walter White, J\Iont Blanc and Back, p. 100. ' He had scarcely done so, than [when] a French lieutenant endeavoured to thrust in below him.'— Dr. DoRAN, Table Traits (2nd ed., 1854), p. 428. 'Scarcely was my sister gone, thati [when] I had the opportunity,' &c. — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. i. ch. vi. p. 139. ' But scarce were they hidden away, I declare. Than [when] the giant came in with a curious air.' Tom Hood, jun.. Fairy Realm (1868), p. 87. * Scarcely was breakfast over than [when] a message was brought that Mr. Cassilis desired to see his niece privately.' — W. Black, A Daughter of Heth (7th ed., 1871), vol. i. p. 46. ' Scarcely had Wilkes been lodged in the Tower, than [when] a writ of habeas corpus was served upon two of the king's messengers.' — W. F. Rae, Wilkes, She)-idan, and Fox (1874), p. 40. [On the next page we read: 'No sooner was he at home again than he penned a letter.' This is correct, but the error just noticed occurs often in the book.] ' Hardly had misconduct in one shape succumbed to treatment, than [when] it broke out in another.' — A. GRIFFITHS, Memorials of Millbank (1875), vol. i. p. 162. Similarly than is wrong, as following no comparative in — ' But as I cannot bear to see you, for whom I would sacrifice my life, made uneasy, I know of myway to rid you of the importunity of your friends on my account than that of remitting my unacceptable addresses.' — Sidney Biddulph, vol. iv. p. 304. [Either read 'but' for 'than,' or insert 'other' between 'no' and 'way.'t] "" * Abbott, in his Shakespearian Grammar, % 127, cites instances of the use of but for than, and scarce is wrongly followed by but\n — _ ' Scarce was Sylla dead, but [when] he put in for public employment ; he brought \/ith him all his ambition.' — Vertot's Rotn. Re/>nb., vol. ii. p. 317. t An error exactly the reverse of this occurs in — ' I must confess I saw no other disappointed individual leaving the boot shop except myself.'' — Rev. C. M. Daviks, D.D., //ir/^TO ' Such are a few of the many paradoxes/one could cite from his writings, and which are now before me.' — lb., vol. ii. p. 182, 'Cobbett.' [Insert 'which' after 'paradoxes.'] ' Those whom privileges not acquired by their merit, and which they feel to be disproportioned to it, inspire with additional humility, are always the few and the best few.' — J. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869), p. 151. [Pity that so fine a thought should not be better expressed.] ' It was as a sick-nurse that poor Mrs. Wylie first came in my way; I saw her again, laid up with a fever} she had caught in her vocation, and w//zV/?-had proved fatal' — AMY Dalton, The Streets and Lanes of a City (1871), ch. iii. p. 74. [Insert 'which' after 'fever.' Also for 'had proved' read ' proved.'] ' It obtains the power to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at work on it; and which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the vril power, it is as much compelled to obey as if it were displaced by a visible bodily force.' — The Coming i^aa- ( 1 87 1), ch. xvi. p. 132. [Delete 'and,' but even then the sentence is very clumsy.] ' There are, nevertheless, certain general conditions and principles common to all particular histories, and which are essential to enable us to explain and concatenate the facts of every particular history.' — Geo. Grote, Letter to Sir G. C. Lewis, quoted in Westminster Review, July, 1873, p. 152. [Omit ' which are,' as worse than superfluous.] ' Then these errors or delusions — as we call them — become so powerful, that their authority over the reasoning faculty is absolute, and from which there is no appeal.' — Jn. Macleod, Religion: Its Place in Human Cul- ture (1873), p. 13. [Read, ' and admits of no appeal. '] ' We are in an age of weak beliefs, and in which such belief as men have is much more determined by their wish to believe than by any mental appreciation of evidence.' — J. S. Mill, Three Essays on Religion (1874), p. 70, 'Utility of Religion.' ['An age in which' is better than 'and in which.'] ' It was by the cultivation of this intellectual virtue that the Protestant scholars of France were distinguished, and to xvhich they owe their im- measurable superiority over the Catholic school of French Hellenists.' — M. Pattison, Casaubon (1875), ch. x. p. 51Q. [Read, 'It was the culti- vation of this intellectual virtue by which the Protestant scholars of France were distinguished, and to which,'' &c.; or for 'and to which'' read 'and to this.'] ' It is a doctrine not very easily adapted to his habitual creed, and which drops out of his mind whenever he passes from external nature to himself or his fellows.' — LESLIE Stephen, Hows in a Library (3rd series, 1879), ch. iii. p. 134. [Insert ' which is' after 'doctrine.'] ' Lord Chelmsford is put on his trial for an alleged mistake in the dis- position of troops in war, and why not a police officer tvho has placed a young man's life in peril, and who, but for public energy, would have been executed.' — W. E. Stutter, Letter in Manchester Examiner and Ti?nes, 20th March, 1879. [The second 'who' refers to 'man;' but it ought izS CONJUNCTION. grammatically to refer to 'officer.' Read, 'who has emperilled the life of a young man who,' &c., though even then the repetition of the relative is awkward.] ' As Nature succeeds to the place of a God whom men were conceived to be bound to obey, but able arbitrarily to disobey, so is it represented as the source of a law distinct from the actual course of human life, and \.o xvhich it does not necessarily conform.' — Professor E. Caird, Contemp. Review, May, 1879, p. 19S. [Insert before 'distinct' 'which is.'] PART III. SYNTAX. fart Ml. SYNTAX From errors in the use of words and their inflections we come to errors in the construction of sentences, from verbal corruptions to violations ot the rntes^T"S)'ntax. 5yntax"Ts to composition what tactics are to warfare — well-chosen words and carefully-picked troops suffering alike from faulty marshalling. And just as armies or regiments are harder to handle thanj single companies, so breaches of concord, of government, and of due collo-l cation are commoner in long than in short sentences. 'Says we' is_aj blunder of the grossest kind, violating as it does the primary law of con- cord; that 'a verb must agree with its subject in number and in person;' and seldom in any but illiterate compositions do we meet with transgres- sions of that law in sentences so simple as — ' Their peculiar haunt, it is said, are the deep gorges of the mountain.' — Hue's Travels in Thibet, vol. ii. p. lOO. ' The door of one [cell] is open ; and within stands two cloaked _/f^r^j.' — KiNGSLEY, Westward Ho ! {e.A. 1879), ch. xxii. p. 346. ' "Stop her," was Amyas's first words.'' — lb., ch. xxv. p. 398. ' To Marat, and Danton, and Robespierre are due the honour of having made it universal.' — J. Williams, The Rise and Fall of the Model Republic (1863), p. 150. ' The sympathies of the anti-slavery party of the world is invoked. — lb., P- 379- ' In these expressions were shadowed out the whole of that course subse- quently developed.' — H. L. BuLWER, Historical Characters (iS6S), vol. ii. P- 336- 'Bustle of composition are to be found in many instances.' — S. KiRKUP in Memoirs of B. J?. Haydon {1876), vol. li. p. 163, Only by 'bustle of composition' can the above seven blunders be accounted for ; or this, where one subject is actually followed by two verbs in different numbers — ' Almost every house in the place has lodgings or are pensions or hotels. ' — T. C. Paris, Letters from the Pyrenees (1843), P- '61. But one can understand how in longer or more complicated sentences even careful writers may forget or mistake the subject, e.g., in — ' Cowper's tears are always wrung from him by intense anguish of soul. 132 CONCORD. and never, as is occasionally the case with Rousseau, suggests [suggest] that the weeper is proud of his excessive tenderness.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), oh. iii, p. 98. [Or insert 'this' between 'and' and 'never.'] 'The poetical associations with which the first cowzw^of spring arf inva- riably connected are not in this climate without their interruptions.' — Mrs. Ellis, Stmuner and Winter in the Pyrenees, ch. vii. p. 189. ['Coming is,'' not 'associations which ar^. '] ' His attempt to preach extempore, and the shame and pain to which his failure expose him, are in a small way really tragic' — Spectator, 1st July, 1865, p. 724, Review of 'George Macdonald's "Alec Forbes of How- glen." ' [' Failure exposes,'' not ' shame and pain which expose.'''\ ' Almost every hour brings him within sight of some scene which have these marks set upon it.'— Sir H. Holland, Recollections of Past Life {1872), p. 39. [' Scenes which have,' but ^ some scene which has.'''\ Often, by what Dr. Abbott terms the 'Error of Proximity,' the verb is inadvertently referred to that which is not the real object, e.g., to an intervening plural genitive or other oblique case, in — ' Rattlesnakes start from the cavities of the rocks, and the scream of eagles soaring among the whirlwinds of eddying vapours which obscure the gulf of the cataract, at intervals announce [announces] that the raging waters have hurled some bewildered animal over the precipice.' — Howi- son's Canada, p. 97. ' One holds a greater stock of instruments, and the debtor side of his account is proportionably greater, the others hold a less stock, and the credit side of their hunk accounts are [is] proportionably greater.' — John Rae, Statement of some New Principles in Political Economy, Sec. (Boston, 1834), p. 407, notes. ' The danger of seditions and insurrections have [has] been talked of, as if the most ignorant nations were not the most easily misled, and the most prone to tumults.' — Sir S. Romilly, 1807, Life (3rded., 1842), vol. ii. p. 68. ' The privilege by which the mind like the lamps of a mail coach, moving rapidly through the midnight woods, illuminate [illuminates], for one instant, the foliage or sleeping umbrage of the thickets ; and in the next instant, have [has] quitted them, to carry their radiance forward upon endless successions of objects.' — De Quincey, Literacy Rem., vol. ii. ch. xxiii. p. 298. ' The rapid exercise of the repeated acts of perception interfere [interferes] with the simultaneous exercise of the memory.' — Dr. Pusey, Collegiate and Professional Teaching and Discipline (1S54), p. 18. ' I learned from him that not a line of the lectures were [was] written, nor even their materials prepared.' — P. G. Patmore, Aly Friends and Ac- quaintances (1854), vol. ii. p. 251, ' W. Hazlitt.' ' The game was played out, and the end was come, as the end of such matters generally comi [comes], by gradual decay, petty disaster, and mis- take.'— Kingsley, Westivard Ho! (ed. 1879), ch. xxxi. p. 498. ' The appeara7ice of many things in the country, in the villages we have passed through, and in this place [Brussels] rt'wma' [reminds] me of the Dutch and Flemish pictures.'— C. R. Leslie, R.A., Autob. Recollections (i860), vol. ii. p. 275. * The number of nights on which late sounds of conviviality were heard SUBJECT AND VERB. 133 roaring round this giant cheese, are [is] tenaciously remembered by many good-wives in West Pennard.'— Jn. Hollingshead, Ways of Life {\Zb\), p. 148. ' The opposition of interests which we have spoken of only refer to variations in the relative magnitude of those portions or shares into which wealth is distributed.' — Fawcett, Manual of Political Economy, bk. ii. ch. iii. p. 147. ['Refer' should be 'refers;' but it is not good to say the ' opposition refers.'] ' Nothing but dreary dykes, muddy and straight, guarded by the ghosts of suicidal pollards, and by rows of dreary and desolate mills, occur to break the blank grey monotony of the landscape.' — F. W, Farrar, St. Wini- freds (1863), ch. xxi. p. 237. [Nothing occurs'\ ' The existence of these differences do [does] not justify European nations, ' &c. — J. Williams, The Rise and Fall of the Model Republic (1863), p. 171- ' A reverence for a particular form of government, or for the principles upon which a government is founded, are [is] not the growth of a day, but of generations and ages.' — lb., p. 20. ' The frequent recurrence of dramatic performances at the Old Exchange, prior to the erection of the Marsden Street Theatre, 77iake [makes] the tent appear a groundless conjecture.' — R. W. Procter, Manchester in Holiday Dress (1S66), ch. i. p. 7. ' I thus obtained a character for natural powers of reasoning which I could not refute, and yet which I felt were [was] undeserved.' — Amelia B. Edwards, Miss Careio (1865), vol. iii. p. 44. ' A sojourn of five years in the military hospitals, camps, and towns of Algeria, have [has] originated and strengthened these opinions.' — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter with the Sivallows (1867), p. 285. ' The reappearance of whose well-remembered faces, after twenty years' separation, are [is] associated in memory with that bright and inspiring scene.' — Memoir of Bunsen (1868), vol. ii. ch. xvii. p. 375. ' The delusiveness of Bolingbroke's repeated observations are [is] trans- parent enough.' — A. W. Ward, M.A., AlemoirofAlex. Pope, prefixed to ed. of Pope's Works, quoted in Brit. Quart. Rev., July, 1S69, p. 273. ' The task, a special task, of circulating the old truths, showing tliem in new lights, belong [belongs] to quite another person. ' — R. Buchanan, Life of David Gray (1868), p. 57. ' Culture points out that the harmonious perfection of generations of Puritans and Nonconformists have [has] been, in consequence, sacrificed.' — M. Arnold, Culture and Atiarchy (1869), ch. i. p. 35. ' M. Guizot's republication of some of his more important political essays, written at intervals during a period of fifty years, are [is] interesting at the present moment.' — Westminster Review, July, 1869, p. 272. ' The inferior nu?nber of red particles in their blood do [does] not make women the political inferiors of men.' — Prof. T. C. Leslie, Speech at Meeting of Women's Suffrage Society, 25th March, 1871, p. 8. 'The greatest variety of forms, with the least meaning in them, were its excellencies.' — W. B. Scott, Fortnightly Review, October, 1870, p. 398, ' Ornamental Art in England.' [Was its excellency.] ' The dilapidation of his fortunes, in spite of his heroic efforts to retrieve them, almost recojicile [reconciles] one to his death.' — J. C. YouNG, Memoir of C. M. Young, &c. (1871), vol. i. p. 235. 134 CONCORD. ' The hitrodudion of such beverages as tea and coffee have [has] not been without their [its] effect.' — Westminster Review, April, 1872, No. 82, p. 5S4. ' It should be gratefully acknowledged that the information which is obtained by such pursuits as those of Prof. Haughton, when confined within their proper limits, are [is] highly interesting, and sometimes of value.' — Dr. W. Sharp, Essays on Medicine (1874), essay xix. p. 556. ' The use of preparations of disgusting substances, such as products of disease, &c., which some homcsopathists have attempted to introduce as medicines, are [is] disliked and rejected.' — lb., essay xiii. p. 342. ' As has been stated already, the severity of the symptoms were [was] no criterion of the severity of the disease.' — A. Griffiths, AIe7norials 0/ Millbank (1875), vol. i. p. 80. ' The investigation of the laws under which the fifty-four simple bodies have formed the numerous compound substances which we see in nature ; and the means by which compound substances can be resolved into their original elements, or thrown into new combinations, are the objects of the science of Chemistry.' — Chambers' Introduction to the Sciences, p. 76, ' Elements of Matter.' [Here the seeming subjects to the verb are, are investigation and means, a most illogical collocation. The sentence should run thus : ' The investigation of the laws . . . and of the means . . . is the object,' &c.] 'The Prince Regent's /n'j-^w/ of casts from the Elgin Marbles have [has] arrived at Florence, and I hope you have seen them.' — Haydon to Kirkup, Memoir of B. R. Haydon (1876), vol. ii. p. 171. 'The translation of specimens from " Recent French Poets," by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, are [is] very brightly done.' — Guardian, 12th November, 1879, p. 161 5. ' On the tenant being ejected, the unexhausted value of the unpaid manures go [goes] to the landlord, without any allowance to either the tenant or the creditors who furnished them.' — A. McNeal Caird, Report on the Present State of the Agriculture of Scotland (1878), p. 130. In the following passages the true subject is obscured by two or more singular genitives or other oblique cases, or by two dependent clauses: — ' I have no feeling [feelings] connected with my general recollection of them, but those to which the combination of good sense, wit, and genius naturally ^/z'^ [gives] rise.' — Rev. Sydney Smith to Sir R. Peel, Memoir ofS. S. (1855)', vol. i. p. 314. ' An attention to order, neatness, and propriety of dress, and manners too, are [is] perfectly consistent with the engaging virtue of which I am treating.' — Miss Appleton, Early Education, p. 139. ' Therefore /^rwz'w/ow for me to visit him in his prison, and procure him such assistance as he might need, we7-e\yi2s\ readily granted. ' — Holcroft's Travels, vol. i. p. 209, 'Baron Trenck.' ' All the vast comprehensiveness oiV €i7&Q^&z, Rubens, and Titian are [is] now to be set aside.' — B. R. Haydon, quoted in Autobiographical Recol- lections of C. R. Leslie (i860), vol. i. p. 228. ' The loss of Wilkie and Chantrey seem [seems], with our present pro- spects, not likely to be soon supplied.' — C. R. Leslie, R.A., Autobio- graphical Recollections (i860), vol. ii. p. 264. ' This tone of mystery, disguise, and rapid changes of scene . . . give SUBJECT AND VERB. 135 [gives] an element of romance to Lady Morgan's novels zuhich remove [re- moves] them from real life or "the light of common day,'" — Lady Morgan\ Memoirs (1862), vol. ii. p. 77. *A difference in colour, capacity, and race constitute [constitutes] no reason,' &c. — J. Williams, The Rise and Fall of the Model Republic {1863), p. 171. ' The notion that a crisis in the Roman question had arrived, and that the French garrison would be promptly withdrawn from the Roman capital of Italy, ivcre the foolish dreams of an impulsive people.' — Col. Chambers, Garibaldi, &c. (1864), p. 176. [Read either 'notions' or 'was' and ' dream.'] ' A moral and honourable mode of action and thought are [is] enforced as a duty.' — Mayhew, German Life, &c. (1864), vol. ii. p. 95. ' The sight of the manner in which the meals were served and taken were [was] enough to turn our stomach.'— /<^., vol. ii. p. 224. ' Poor livings in the diocese of Oxford are a great scandal ; but Mr. Disraeli prescribing the polity and dictating the doctrines of the Church of England are [is] a greater.' — Sattirday Review, 3rd December, 1864, p. 679. [Here 'are' would have been right, had the reviewer written 'Mr. Disraeli's,' when 'prescribing' and 'dictating' would have been verbals ((/! p. 108). One man's actions may be more than one, i.e., plural, but the man himself cannot be so.] ' But the principle itself that investigations and discoveries in old studies are generally uninstructive because they are of a special nature, or that they are of a special nature because they grow out of special inquiries, are both unsound.' — Prof. Vaughan, Oxford Reform, p. 47. [It should be 'is in both respects,' &c.] ' If a man's conscience is either crotchety, superstitious, or cowardly, this is positive proof that the man himself must have been either false, idle, or cowardly in his thoughts, and some degree of disapprobation and contempt «r£? the appropriate ///«w/;/«t'«/j for these offences.' — Saturday Review, 2nd September, 1865, p. 295. [Should be 'is' and 'punishment.'] ' I will not state them in my own language, but in the language of one the poetical charm of whose mind and style have perhaps a little over- clouded his reputation as a political philosopher.' — Hon. R. Lowe, Speech, 3rd May, 1865, p. 10, on 'Macaulay.' [It should be 'has' not 'have,' 'charm' being the subject ; but it would be better to omit 'mind and.' What do we know of his tiiind but through his style of expression ?] ' The state of confusion, apprehension, and surprise in which they were plunged by the death of their Master, 7?take [makes] it very unaccountable that an attempt so daring . . . should have been made.' — W. J. P'ox, Works, vol. ii. p. 312. ' It is not altogether an unreasonable hypothesis advocated by Warbur- ton, that eventually in the celebration [of the Eleusinian mysteries] some- thing like the unity of the Divine power and the immortality of the soul were [was] inculcated.' — lb., vol. vii. p 238. ' His knowledge of French and Italian literature were [was] far beyond the common.' — A Friend, in Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson (186S), p. 46. ' The history of Dr. Mitford's extravagance and folly have [has] been written by Mr. Harness himself.' — Life of Rev. IV, LL. (1871), ch. x. p. 242. ' The adhesion of Miss Braine, who had been Miss Doughty's governess, 136 CONCORD. and of Moore, Roger's servant in South America, ivcre [was] not obtained until 1866.' — The Tichborne Romance., by a Barrister (1872), p. 204. 'Thus Honegger's estif?iate of S. Warren, W. Carleton, and D. Jerrold occupy more space and claim greater prominence than his estimate of Thackeray or I3rowning.' — Westminster Review, October, 1872, p. 538. [Read either 'estimates,' or 'occupies and claims.'] ' How different it will be when the teaching in church and school alike are [is] built upon the axiom ascribed to them [it] in " By and By," that, as in the region of Morals, the Divine Will can never conflict with the Moral law ; so in the region of Physics, the Divine Will can never conflict with the Natural \a-w.''—/estis verstis Christianity, by a Cantab (1873), p. 29. ' But I think that experience, both in nature and in society, a;r [is] against that ditch-water philosophy.' — C. Kingsley, Lectures in America (1875), p. no. ' Increase of ease and fame have strengthened his inclination to accept things as they are.' — E. C. Stedman, Victorian Pacts (1876), p. 191. [Read 'has,' 'increase' being the subject. Perhaps 'of should be re- peated before ' fame. *] The rule of the concord of subject and verb is unquestionably observed in the first and violated in remainder of the next examples : — ' Since the outbreak of the Crimean war, the moral and physical condition of the British soldier and sailor has occupied a large share of public atten- tion.' — Rev. C. Rogers, Leaves from my Autobiography (1876), p. 226. ' There was scarcely one question in which the moral, the intellectual, social, or even physical well-being of his fellow men were [was] concerned to the advancement of which he has not endeavoured to contribute.' — Lord MONTEAGLE of Rev. S. Smith, Memoir of S. S., vol. i. p. 30. ' The moody and savage state of mind of the sullen and ambitious man are [is] admirably drawn.' — Spectator, 2nd September, 1865, p. 979. ' Both his and their safety were [was] at this time endangered by being in Judea.' — W. J. Fox, Wo7-ks, vol. ii. p. 207. ' They calculated, as temporal and spiritual ambition do [does] always calculate, on the faculty of controlling or cajoling the mass of mankind.' — lb., p. 316. Yet there are sentences whose only subject expressed is in the singular, but whose verb is in the plural, and which nevertheless are deemed correct by certain grammarians. Thus Prof. Bain states, in his English^Grainmar, p. 176, that 'when the same noun is coupled with two. adjectives, so as to mean different things, there is a plurality of sense, and the plural is required, e.g., " The logical and the historical atialysis of a language generally coincide." ' So, too. Dr. Angus, § 368 : — ' When in any sentence there is an ellipsis of a noun, and more than one is implied, the verb is still plural, as "The rising and the falling inflection are to be carefully dis- tinguished." ' One thing is certain, that the verb must be in the plural, bur it is no less certain that 'inflection are' has an extremely awkward sound. How such awkwardness may be avoided is shown in our first three passages and in the suggested emendations of those that follow them : — ' It was written to convince such persons that . . . the popular theology and the learned theology are alike formed upon a profound misapprehen- sion of the Bible.' — M. Arnold, Conie/nporary Review, vol. xxiv. p. 796. SUBJECT AND VERB. 137 'Just as, to the apprehension even of Professor Miiller, who holds language to be absolutely identical with thought and reason, linguistic science and mental science are not one and the same thing.' — Professor "Whitney, Orte?ifal and Lin^iis^ic Sntdies {New York, 1873), P- 261. ' Hardly any teacher has trained so great a number of illustrious scholars, and his direct influence and his indirect influence /iave both been immense.' — Rev. F. Arnold, B.A., Our Bishops mid Demis (1875), vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 242. ' The allusive or figurative, and the literal expression-Are equally appro- priate and intelligible.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. iii. p. 274. [Read 'expressions,' or, better, insert 'expression' after ' figurative.'] 'But most of all do the false and the true elevation of sentiment part company in the mode of regarding social institutions.' — lb., p. 280. [In- sert ' elevation ' after ' false. '] ' The material and mental worldjhave their points of union, blending them together.' — Id. [Read, 'the material and mental worlds have,'&c.] ' In him [Rossini] the commercial and literary spirit fought out that warfare which has too often been carried on between thet?i.'' — Id., Works, vol. xxii. p. I ID. [Read, ' the commercial spirit and the literary spirit.'] ' Ornate [music] and grotesque music have common faults. ' — Robert Buchanan, Life of David Gray (1868), p. 47. 'Vocal and instrumental music now invariably y^r/w a considerable por- tion of the programme.' — Some Habits and Customs of the Woiking Classes, by a Journeyman Engineer (1867), p. 179. ' The temporal and the spiritual Ruler ever thus appear in the theocracy.' Rev. W. McIlwaine, On a Religious Establishment (Dublin, 1868), p. 32. [' Ruler ' should be inserted after ' temporal.'] ' But as with Socrates moral a7id intellectual excellence -were inseparable, and as he could discover no security for conduct but knowledge, so he could find, in the first instance, at least, no other subject for knowledge but human conduct.' — Saturday Review, i8th July, 1868, p. 94. ' It is not only possible, but probable, that on this point lay and clerical opinion are at variance. Such an admission is, however, disastrous for the Church, because it implies a fundamental difference between the mode [cf p. 114] in which the members of the Church and its pastors regard a subject of vital importance.' — Manchester Examiner and Times, 23rd December, 1869. 'Bodily and intellectual labour were paid at the same rate of wages.' — M. D. Conway, Introduction to N. Hawthorne's Note Books (1869), p. 15. [Insert ' labour ' after 'bodily.'] ' Sacred and profane wisdom agree in declaring that " pride goeth before a fall.'" — The Church Times, nth June, 1869, p. 227. 'Northern and Southern preaching differs somewhat.' — D. MACRAE, The Atnericans at Home (1870), vol ii. p. 377. [Read, ' Northern preach- ing ' and ' differ. '] ' Owing to these and other causes, high and low life are gradually melt- ing into one another.' — Amy Dutton, The Streets and Lanes of a City (187 1 ), ch. v. p. 157. [Insert 'life' after 'high.'] ' Those more important and complex changes which political and social science respectively have brought about.' — Sir H. HOLLAND, Recollections of Past Life [i^-] 2), ch. xiii. p. 344. 138 CONCORD. ' Both individual and nalional prosperitj/ are reconcilable with the prin- ciples of justice and brotherly kindness, nor can they safely rest upon any other foundation.' — Fraser's Magazine, June, 1872, p. 666, 'The Agri- cultural Strike.' ' To be worth anything, literary and scientific criticism require, both of them, the finest heads and the most sure tact.' — M. Arnold, Literattire atid Dogma (1873), ch. vi. p. 178. [Read, 'criticism, whether literary or scientific, requires.'] ' So false , . . are both popular and learned science in their criticism of the Bible.' — Id., ib., p. 302. ' To be worth anything, literaiy and scientific criticism require the finest heads and the most sure tact. They require, besides, that the world and the world's experience shall have come some considerable -wo-yJ^Jesus versus Christianity, by a Cantab (1873), p. 24. [Ecce iteritm Crispinusl Read 'requires' and 'it.'] ' The theoretic and the practical morality of every nation are [is] far more influenced by national law and history, by literature and science, than by its religious creed ; and, in turn, the current morals modify the creed,' — Professor F. W. Newman, The Historical Depravation of Christianity (1873), p. 4. ' It is true that Scotch and English patronage are two different things.' Spectator, 23rd May, 1874, p, 650. [Read, 'Scotch patronage.'] ' Rules whose wisdom both English and American experience are suffi- cient to approve.' — Professor Jas. Bryce, Macmillan^s Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 57, 'American Experience in the Relief of the Poor.' [Read, 'Rules the wisdom of which is sufficiently approved by both English and American experience.'] ' It is an imitation of the apostrophe of Polyphemus to Galatea, and never zuere the antique and vaoAoxn feeling more finely contrasted.' — E. C. Stedman, Victorian Poets (iSyb), ch. vii. p. 228. [' P'eeling were' is very incorrect. Neither is the same feeling both antique and modern. Read, ' the antique and the modern feelings.'] ' When the literary and commercial value of a book are necessarily the same.' — Kegan Paul, Memoir of W. Godwin (1876), vol. ii. p. 663. ' Lutheran and Calvinistic teaching are the reverse of this.' — S. B. Gould, Life of R. S. Haivker, the Vicar of Aforwenstow (iSjS), ch. ix. p. 232. [Read, 'Lutheran teaching.'] ' The rational and the emotional jiature [natures] have such intricate relations that one cannot exist in great richness and force without justifying an inference as to the other.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Lidrary (3rd series, 1879), p. 183. ' Now, the people who laid the foundation on which Aryan and Semitic civilisation more immediately stand [stands] may be roughly classified with a family of wide geographical range, and using languages giving only slender evidences of kinship.' — Ed. Clodd, Modern Review, No. 3, July, 1880, p. 507, 'The Later Stone Age in Europe.' Akm to the foregoing are — ' The law of the centripetal and that of the tangential force must have been known before the motions of the earth and planets could be ex- plained.' — J. S. Mill, Some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy (1S44), p. 139. [This is rightly expressed.] SUBJECT AND VERB, 139 'The courage of the soldier and' the citizen ay-e essentially different. The one is momentary and involuntary, the other permanent and voluntary.' — W. Hazlitt, Free Thoughts on Public Affairs, or Advice to a Patriot (1806), p. 43. [Insert ' that of after 'soldier and.'] ' The obstinate tnaintcjiafice, in the interest of a class, of an alien church and an alien land-law in Ireland are faults, not misfortunes, now.' — GoLDWiN Smith, Three English Statesmen {1867), p. 99, ' Pitt.' ' The divergence between master and disciple, and naturally therefore between the disciples themselves, becomes visible in the next generation at least.' — Saturday Review, 18th July, 1868, p. 95. [Here, perhaps, it would be better to repeat the noun 'divergence,' and to put the verb in the plural.] ' Obedience to God and to the king had been firmly associated with each other, and so they remained.' — JuLiA Wedgwood, John Wesley, &c. (1870), ch. V. p. 134. [Read, 'obedience to the king.'] ' The zueb of the natural and the supernatural are so woven together in the soul that they cannot be untied.' — Jn. Duncan, LL.D., Colloquies Peripateticce (3rd ed., 1871), p. 106. [After 'natural and' insert 'that of; 'that' is singular, though 'are' is plural.] ' The same line of proof would show that the stature of a man and boy were identical.' — G. Darwin, Contemporary Review (1876), vol. xxiv. p. 895, 'Professor Whitney,' &c. [Insert 'that of,' and for 'were' read 'are.'] ' Certainly, in the best counties, such as Lincolnshire, a rise in rents and wages has been found to go together.' — A. K. C. in Spectator, 3rd July, 1875, p. 850. [Read, ' a rise in rents and a rise in wages have been found,' &C.J ' We have already given our reasons for thinking that pre-eminence in " reception " and " distribution " are incompatible.' — Westminster Review, "^ July, 1875, P- 67. [Before 'distribution repeat 'pre-eminence in.'] ' The result of his investigations appears to be that the position of idealist and, materialist ji^alike untenable.' — lb,, p. 229. [Before 'mate- rialist ' insert ' that of, ' and for ' is ' read ' are. '] ' In the dark and melancholy winter of 1S08, when the measure of French power and European suffering lucre alike full.' — Geo. Ticknor, 1816, Life of G. T. (Boston, 1S76), vol. i. p. io2. On p. 103. ib., G. T, says, correctly, m the same letter to his father : ' In consequence of this, the spirit of the government [in Prussia] and the spirit of the people are now decidedly at variance, and time must determine which will prevail.' ' If the subject of a sentence consist of two nouns or pronouns united by the conjunction and, the verb must be put in the plural.' Such is the law of all grammarians, and such is the practice of most English writers, but not of all, as witness — ' Some of this tea was presented to us, and the delicious flavour and aroma of the same is deeply engraved or engrafted on the tablets of our mental organisation, and the heart of our memory.' — H. C. SiRR, China and the Chinese (1849), vol. i. ch. xx. p. 363. [The author should have explained in a foot-note the process of engraving and engrafting tastes and smells upon tablets and hearts. Otherwise the reader may charge him with mixing his metaphors, and may besides inquire whether the heart of one's memory at all resembles the heart of a cabbage.] ' Perhaps the greatness of mind and beauty of soul with which courage 140 CON'CORD. loves to associate, like generosity, is a gift of nature.' — Miss APPLETON, Early Education, p. 206. ' Unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and commerce, and beauty, and science, which has in later centuries made that lovely isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas.'— KiNGSLEY, Westtvard Ho! (ed. 1879), ^- xvii. p. 281. ' Exactly opposite each other stands a church and a gin-palace.' — James Greenwood, Unsentimental Jotimeys (1867), ch. ii. p. 8. ' The kno'djlcdgc gathered up during a long course of years by the diffe- rent religious bodies, and that acquired by the recent investigations of their experienced agents, visiting independently of each other, is concentrated into one focus, so as to throw light on each case.' — How to Relieve the Poor of Edinburgh (1867), p. 15. ' Next to the fire, on the right-hand side as you looked at it, ivas the writing table, and the shaded lamp of M. D'Isigny himself.' — Henry KiNGSLEY, Mademoiselle Mathilde (186S), vol. i. p. 15. ' You, for whom, on so many accounts, I feel an affection and interest which the letigth and amount of our acquaintance hardly justifies.'' — Miss MiTFORD, Letters and Life (2nd series, 1872), vol. i. p. 150. ' The fire which glows in Macaulay's history, the intense patriotic feel- ing, the love of certain moral qualities, is not ailtogether of the highest kind.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), ch. vii. P- 319- ' Cowper agrees with Rousseau in finding that the contemplation of scenery, unpolluted by human passions, and the enjoyment of a calm domestic life, is the best anodyne for a spirit wearied with the perpetual disorders of a corrupt social order.' — lb., p. 132. ' The knowledge and, what is more, the thoroughly . . . assimilated knowledge is enormous.' — lb., ch. vii. p. 311. [This is right, the only subject being 'knowledge.'] Where the subject to a verb is a single infinitival clause or a single substantival clause, the verb should stand in the singular, as ' To love him is no sin,' 'When and where he was born is not known.' The next passages offend against this rule, but in none of them is a change of the verb's number sufficient correction : — ' To be active in the affairs of one's native corporation, and in settling controversies among one's friends there, are employments of the most laudable kind.' — Melmoth's Pliny, VII. 15. [Read 'is an employ- ment.'] ' To aim at public and private good are so far from being inconsistent, that they mutually promote each other.' — Bishop Butler (1726), ser, i. p. 5. [Read, 'to aim at public good and to aim at private good.'] ' Who are the Ministers of the Crown are the accidents of history.' — Disraeli's Manifesto, (\\ioX(tiX\i\ Saturday Rcvieio,z']'Ca.Vi.^^', 1865, which notices the strangeness of the grammar. [For ' are ' might be read ' be-., longs to.'] \Vhen the subject of a sentence is connected with another noun by 'with' oiT^as well as,' the verb, say our grammarians, should be put in the sin- _gular.. Thus in Barnes's English Speech-Craft (1879), p. 41, we find : ' "Tifie house and the goods -coere burnt;" but " the house with the goods ■was (not -were) burnt, " since it is only the house that is in the speech-case, SUBJECT AND VERB. 141 as the goods are in the mate-case. " The house w^j burnt with the goods. " ' The rule requires, however, some quahfication.. * A woman with a child in Tier arms 7iccds only one ticket' is both good grammar and good sense ; but 'A woman with a man requires two tickets' is as faulty in sense as : 'A woman with a man require two tickets' is faulty in grammar. Where \ plurality is signified (as in woman + man), the copulative should be 'and,^' hot 'with"" or 'as well as.' In the following passages, then, either the verb should have been singular, or 'and' should have been the copulative used : — ' Poor Mrs. B. s crippled baby, with [and] all his many other failures, 'U>e7'e at once forgotten by his patients.' — Jn. IIollingshead, Ways of Life (1861), p. 139. ' A weekly contemporary describing some experimental operations lately carried out at Chatham, says: "The electric light, with powerful reflec- tors, are [is] the means to be employed." Is them? — we beg pardon — Are it? Well, then, we trust next time the writer of that sentence takes up the pen he will use a little powerful reflection before he employs the English language.' — Fun, 2Sth September, 1867. 'With selfish people, ihe frequency of imposture, together with [and] the inefficacy of all present arrangements, serz'e as an excuse for not giving at all.' — Ho-U! to Relieve the Four of Edinbzirgh (1867), p. 8. ' My sympathy with him in this ill-usage, along with [and] my admi- ration of his fortitude and generosity, %vei-e the beginning of the great affection that I afterwards had for him.' — Hope, Stories of School Life (1868), ch. iii. p 25. [Or else 'were' should be 'was,' the subject being 'sympathy.'] ' A comprehensive view of a large assemblage of intellectual data, with a commanding perception of the conclusions to which they point, depend on the possession of special knowledge and the exercise of special faculties, a result of individual development which cannot be imparted to those not in possession of the materials of inference, or who have the powers that must be brought to bear upon such interests and questions only in an inchoate state.' — J. H. Thom, Theological Review, July, 1870, p. 370, on ' Newman's Grammar of Assent.' ['Depend' should be ' depends,' unless for ' with' we substitute ' and.' For ' not in possession of read ' who do not possess,' for sake of ' or who' following. Cf p. 123.] 'The amount of discussion which finds utterance in the poem, equally with [and] the valuable analysis of mental phenomena, are nothing less than startling.' — H. B. Forman, Our Living Foets (iSyi), p, 494, 'George Eliot.' ' The control, as well as the support, which a father exercises over his family, were, by the dispensation of Providence, withdrawn,' — Rev. W, Leggatt, Account of Ten Years^ Educational Fxperi>?ient among Destitute Boys (1871), p. 8. [Read 'was.' Further, a father exercises control, but not support, over his family.] ' And then your remoteness from the actual work of the ministry, as well as [and] the dash of self-confidence, which is the youthful form of undeveloped power, lead to a critical spirit applied to us who are already in the field, that is not good to be indulged.' — Rev. Alex. Maclaren, Counsels for the Study and the Life (1864), p. 17. ' Patriotism induces me to draw a veil over the defects of my countr}', and policy as well as fashion dictate[s] patriotic feelings,' — Madame Bonaparte, Life and Letters (1879), ch. iii. p. 61. ,< 142 CONCORD. A kindred blunder is committed in — ' With [By] strict missionaries eating horseflesh was classed with idol- worship and exposure of infants as three things which a heathen man must renounce when he became a Christian.' — Fall Mall Gazette, 24th January, 1868. [Read either 'eating horseflesh, idolatry, and exposure of infants were classed,' &c. , or 'as a thing' for ' as three things.'] ' In the court of his successor, language, like manners and public prin- ciple, reached M^?> lowest point of declension.' — Lucy Aikin, Memoir, &c, (1864), p. 80, 'Words upon Words.' ['Their' should be 'its,' or 'like ' should be omitted.] Dr. Abbott, in his Shakspearian Grammar, § 335, cites thirty-two pas- sages from .Shakspeare where ' there is,' ' there was,' &c., precede a plural_ subigct., or two or more singular subjects ; but this Js contrary to modern_ usage, a usage departed from in — , ' 'There is little illustration, and no side lights of suggestion.' — G. H. Lewes, Aristotle (1864), ch. i. p. 26. [Insert ' there are' before 'no.'] ' On the table there was neatly and handily arranged two long pipes,' &c. — Jas. Greenwood, Unsentimental Journeys (1S67), ch. xxiii. p. 171. * In what particular, pray, does [do] the Old Kalabar heathen orgies resemble Widdles's?' — Id., ib., ch. xxix. p. 225. ' There seems [seem] to be either fewer highly-educated women in the United States than in England, or they have less influence.' — Spectator, 19th September, 1868, p. IO96. ' There exists [exist], sometimes only in germ and potentially, sometimes more or less developed, the same tendencies and passions which have made our fellow-citizens of other classes what they are.' — M. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy {1869), ch. iii. p. 105. ' There is [are] such malice, treachery, and dissimulation, even among professed friends and intimate companions, as cannot fail to strike a virtuous mind with horror.'— SMOLLETT, Humphrey Clinker (Works, 3rd ed,, by R. Anderson, 1806), vol. iv. p. 346. ' Although the market traffic had not yet commenced, there was [were] considerable noise and confusion.' — Jas. Greenwood, Unsentimental Journeys {1S67), p. 18. ' Why is [are] the scraping of fiddles, the twanging of harps, and the dulcet notes of concertinas allowed?' — Il>., p. 53. ' Surely there is [are] both grandeur and eloquence in his apostrophe to the atheists, whom he knew abounded in Louis XIV. 's Court, and whom he warned that, let them affect to disbelieve as they would, their eternity was an inevitable fact. — Bossitet and his Contemporaries (1874), p. 100. [Read ' who.' The second 'whom' is correct.] ' There was [were] about her the brilliancy of courts and palaces, the enchantment of a love-story, the suffering of a victim of despotic power.' — Madame Bonaparte, Life atid Letters (1879), ch. xviii. p. 278. ' There was the buoyancy of spirit, the undoubting confidence that the riddle of the universe had at last been satisfactorily solved, and the power of seizing the picturesque and striking aspects of things, and embodying abstract theories in vivid symbols which marks the second order of intel- lects.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), p. 366. Two or more singular nouns, connected by or and nor, imply an alterna- baBJECT AND VERB, 1 43 live, and consequently require a singular verb. Often, however, and, both . . . and would be better tlian or, neither . . . nor, the disjunctive force of the latter being rather apparent than real. By ' Either John or Charles is coming ' is meant that not more than one of them will come, and, the notion of plurality being thus excluded, the verb should obviously be singular. But the grammatical error in the first of our examples would best be mended, not by changing the number of the verb, but by deleting the first 'or' and substituting 'and ' for the second : — * It is not that A670S or 'pnv-a. or "^wrJ) have any intrinsic superiority over ratio or verbiim or vox,'' &c. — Prof. Earle, The Philology of the English Tongue (2nd ed., 1873), p. 245. ' Neither the thought nor the accomplishment were [was] of the world.' W, J. Fox, Christ and Christianity, ser. xviii. p. 244. ' Indeed, neither he nor the great ]\Ir. Addison was intended by nature to be kings [a king] of men.' — Th. Purnell, Lite7-ature and its Professors (1867), p. 243, 'Swift.' ' Surely none of our readers are so unfortunate as not to know some man or wotnan who carry this atmosphere of peace and goodwill about \i\\kTTiem.' — Henry Kingsley, Mademoiselle Mathilde (1868), vol. i. P- "^- ' ... ' No action or mstitution can be salutary and stable which are [is] not based on reason and the will of God.' — M. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy {1869), p. 9. ' The excommunication of the .Stock Exchange is far more terrible than the interdict of the Pope or the bar of the Empire ever were [was].' — Prof. Rogers, Historical Gleanings, p. 32. [On this, Mr. A. Beavan remarks : 'The "Historical Gleaner" appears to have forgotten his grammar,' — Thorold Rogers the Historical (Tare) Gleaner (1870), p. 9.] ' When Mr. Williams, or Miss Hosmer, or any other friend were [was] unable to accompany him from Rome to England, a courier had him in charge.' — Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson (1870), ch. xi. p. 233. ' Locomotion, no doubt, is difficult and costly to the poor ; but in civi- lised States neither the difficulty nor the cost are [is] insuperable.' — W. R. Greg, Enigmas of Life (1872), ch. ii. p. 78, 'Malthus Notwithstanding.' 'Neither his conduct nor his language have [has] left me with that impres- sion.' — Lord Ho'JGHTON, Monographs (1873), P- 276. ' The body is constantly changing, and the mind is only a change of thought corresponding ; neither body nor mind are [is] identical or the same for any two seconds together, but [they] are part of, and in con- stant flux with, all the forces around,' — C. Bray, Illusion and Delusion (1873), p. 21. A very nice question arises, _\vhen two singular pronouns of different per- ^sons^are connected by a disjunctive, as to what person and number the verb should stand-in. Should one say, ' Neither he nor I are wrong,' ~*^ either he nor I am wrong,' or 'Neither he nor I is wrong?' Quot homines tot sententicB ; indeed, opinions outnumber the grammarians, since on p. 164 of his English Grammar (19th ed., 1874), Mr. Mason takes for granted the correctness of ' Neither you nor I am right, ' yet four pages later declares that to him ' such sentences sound simply barbarous, ' and elects in favour of ' Neither you nor I are right,' On the whole, the latter seems the least" objectionable form, avoiding at least the awkwardness of 144 CONCORD. bringing 'I' and 'is' into close juxtaposition, as Latham would have us do. In the following passage ' have ' may, for all its forms tell us, be regarded either as the third person plural or the first person singular: — ' And as he intends to push this with all his interest, neither he nor I have any doubt of his success.' — Fielding, Amelia, bk. ix. oh. iv. par. 3. Other questions arise as to the prober number of the verb after certain nouns that are really or seemingly plural in form, but have a sliiguIaF' _meaning. Eaves (Mid. Eng. eiiese, pi. ciieses), alms (Angl.-Sax. celmasse = Gr. eAerj/xoo-vinj), and riches (Fr. rickesse) are not true plurals, but com- monly take the plural verb ; and summons (Old Fr. semonce) does double duty, summonses having fallen into disrepute, though as correct as licences. News, measles, smallpox, and gallows are plurals, but are nearly always followed by a^s ingular verb ; concerning means, odds, and pains opinion is divided, and it is really indiiferent whether they take a singular or a plural verb, provided the two constructions are not mixed. Thus one may say, 'Great pains have been taken,' but not ^ Much pains /irtz'^ been taken ;' ' All possible means have been adopted,' but not ' Every means have been tried.' So 'exist' should have been 'exists' in — ' We may be quite certain that there exist^ no surer means of counter- acting Wahabee bigotry than that of unconditional and friendly intercourse between the French and Arab inhabitants of Algeria.' — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter with the Swallows (1867), ch. xiv. p. 213. 'When the nominative,' writes Prof. Eain {English Grammar, p. 177), 'is aj:elatiye pronoun we must look to the antecedent in order to determine_ the number of the verb : " Alljjv 'Ca.zX.pass by." The following is a common error: "One of the most valuable /'(JC/Jj that /^a^ appeared in any language."' So common, indeed, is this error that one may almost say that it is oftener committed than avoided, cases of such avoidance being — ' There is scarcely one of his [De Foe's] writings which does not bear the impress of his deep sense of the all-outweighing importance of a religious life.' — Nat. Rev., No. 6, October, 1856, p. 409. [Here the singular is correct for an obvious reason.] ' Professor Heyse, whose book is one of the wisest and most beautiful treatises on this subject which have ever fallen into my hands.' — F. W. Farrar, Chapters on Languages (1865), pref. p. ix. ' D'Aguesseau was one of the most illustrious of the illustrious magis- trates that have presided in the high courts of France.' — J. R. McCulloch, A Catalogue of Books, the Property of a Political Economist (1862), p. 28. ' Arthur Penrhyn Stanley is one of those few men who naturally rise superior to any accidental preferment.' — Rev. F. Arnold, B. A., Otir Bishops and Deans (1875), vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 237. [Correct, not 'rises.' But on p. 298 of same vol. Mr. A. says of Dean Goulburn: 'He has written one of the most useful and widely-circulated religious manuals that has [have] been produced for many years.'] ' "Hylas," the celebrated thirteenth idyl of Theocritus, is one of the most perfect which have come down to our time.' — E. C. Stedman, Vic- torian Poets (1876), p. 211. 'It is, of course, not one of the poems which sho^o the poet's genius at its highest point.' — Spectator, 21st June, 1879, p. 790, 'Tennyson's Lover's Tale'' SUBJECT AND VERB. 145 The next quotation shows how easily one may fall into the error com- mitted in the passages that follow it, since here neither singular nor plural \ is grammatically wrong, though the sense differs according to which is 1 used : — "' ' And we now come to one of the causes of shipwreck which has never been duly considered.' — R. H. HoRNE, Gentleman's Magazine, March, ( 1 87 1, p. 437. [Ought 'has' to be 'have?' Probably not ; for the writer I does not seem to mean ' of the causes . . . which have never been . . . we I come to one.' But rather, 'we come to a cause of shipwreck which has \ never,* &c. If so, it would have been better to say 'a cause' than 'one of the causes.'] ' This is one of the very best treatises on money and coins that has [have] ever been published.' — J. R. McCulloch, Literature of Political Economy (1845), p. 163. Compare the following from the next page : — ' Snelling is one of the most esteemed numismatical writers that this country /i^5 produced.' — lb., p. 164. [Right, but ' that /zat'^ appeared in this country.'] ' I confess that I am one of those who am unable to refuse my assent to the conclusions of those philosophers who assert that nothing exists but as it is perceived.'— Percy B. Shelley, quoted in Nat. Rev., No. 6, Oct., 1856, p. 359. [Read '_are' for 'am' and omit ' my.'] ' One oi those fanciful, exotic combinations \.\\2X gives [give] the same im- pression of brilliancy and richness that one receives from tropical insects and flowers.' — Mrs. Stowe, Dred, ch. v. One of the first things that opens [open] your eyes to the state of domestic service is the time you have frequently to wait at the door before the bell is answered.' — D. Macrae, The Americans at Home, vol. i. p. 39. ' One of the most awful miracles, according to its own pretensions, that has [have] ever been recorded as exhibited on the face of the earth.' — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. vii. p. 6. ' Those who care to study the details of one of the most repulsive narra- tives which has [have] ever come under our notice may learn them from Mr. Dixon.'— 5A PauPs, April, 1868, p. 72, 'Spiritual Wives.' ' A letter — one of the most shameful that has [have] ever come from a per- son of Mr. Disraeli's official eminence.' — Northern Whig, 17th April, 1868. ' We do not mention this point from any desire to cavil at the results of one of the most interesting experiments which has [have] recently been carried out.' — Spectator, 21st August 1869, p. 9S4, 'Heat from the Moon.' 'This was one of the first of the economical arrangements which was [were] effected immediately after the Reform Bill.'— Mrs. Butler, Memoir of John Grey (1869), ch. vii. p. 155. ' One of the most extraordinary psychological phenomena that ever ruas [were] witnessed among mankind.' — Life of Rev. W. Harness {\'?>1\),'^.l^. ' It is too valuable an object to be attained without labour and patience, and the conviction of this ought to encourage the promoters in their efforts to carry out one of the grandest and most thoroughly-useful educational schemes that has [have] of late years been brought before the public' — Educational Times, June, 187 1, p. 57. ' This is one of the pleasantest books about Russia that has [have] appeared since the publication of Mr. Sutherland Edwards' delightful "Russians at Home."' — Spectator, 3rd June, 1871, p. 671. K 146 CONCORD. ' This is one of the most important cases of releasing right of re-entry for conditions broken zvhich has been settled by arbitration for a considerable period.'— O. W. Holmes, The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872), ch. xi. p. 309. [Read, 'that have.'] •Cardinal Wiseman has taken advantage of the attack to put forth one of the most brilliant appeals that has [have] appeared in my time.'— Miss MiTFORD, Letter to Mr. Fields, 1850, quoted in Yesterdays with Authors (1872), p. 286. ' I think it \Le The&tre cP Education, by Madame de Genlis] is one of the prettiest books that has [have] been written for young persons. ' — Mrs. Montagu, 1782, quoted in Dr. Doran's Lady of the Last Century (1873). P- 310- ' The plan proposed by Mr. Bright was certainly one of the boldest that has [have] ever been put forward.' — W. N, MoLESWORTH, The History of England from the Year 1830. ' He subsequently published his essay, and it proved to be one of the most valuable works that has [have] ever issued from the press.' — ^J. F. Clarke, Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession (1874), ch. xix. p. 239. ' His [Dante's] is a poem, one of the completest works that exists [exist] in any language.' — R. Atkinson, Contetnp. Rev. (1874), vol. xxiv. p. 438. ' It is one of those characters that requires peculiar care, which only repe- tition can give, but it never can be a part that can inspire a person with an eager desire to go to a theatre to see represented.' — Macready, Diary, quoted in Reminiscences of M. (1875), 'vol- ii. p. 53. [Read ' require,' and insert 'it' before ' represented.'] ' Fielding is supposed to be simply taking one side in one of those per- petual controversies which has occupied many generations and never approaches a settlement.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Libj-ary (3rd series, 1879), ch. ii. p. 82. [All difficulty is removed by saying 'a per- petual controversy.'] 'The "White Doe" is one of those poems which makes many readers inclined to feel a certain tenderness for Jeffrey's dogged insensibility.' — lb., p. 220. [Read, 'is a poem which makes,'] 'Whereon Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of his, which (as Amyas said afterwards) was so abominably like a sneer, that he had often hard work to keep his hands off the man.' — KiNGSLEY, Westward Ho ! (ed. 1S79), ch. ix. p. 179. [Read, 'with a smile which,' &c.] Through a similar neglect of the true antecedent, ajwrong demonstrative orpersonal pronoun is sometimes used, e.g., in — ~~^I am one of those who cannot describe what /[they] do not see.' — W. H. Russell, Diaiy During the Last Great War (1874), ch. xvi. P- 514- ' One of those good-hearted and morally-indolent people who let thmgs go their own way, and have no thought of interfering with any one provided no one interferes with him' [them], — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Sowing the Wind (iS6~), vol. i. ch. viii. p. 209. ' But neither during this transient gleam of returning favour, nor after it, did M. de Talleyrand's opinion against the chances which Napoleon was unnecessarily (as he thought) running, ever vary; neither zve?-e they [was it] disguised.'— H. L. Bulwer, Historical Characters (1868), vol. i. p. 253. SUBJECT AND VERB. 147 'Now it is quite true that a person of beautiful mind, dwelling on what- ever appears to them [him] most desirable . . . will not only pass their [his] time pleasantly,' &c. — ]^. RusKiN, Ethics of the Dust, lect. vii. p. 146. Another heinous and common error in the use of the relative is that of putting it in the objective case as though it were governed by a verb, or verbalpHrase, inserted parenthetically between it and the verb to which it is really nominative, e.g., ' I saw the man ivhom (they thought) 7vas dead.' No one could write, 'I thought him was dead;' but many are misled by the fancied analogy of ' 1 believed him to be dead ' or ' whom I supposed to (>^dead.' With pseudo-precisians, too, whotn has always the same supe- riority over who as a gorgeous toilette has over morning dress. The first of our authors avoids this pitfall; the rest rush into it : — ' By those whom we had been accustomed to regard as her ablest defenders, and who we thought would have sacrificed everything that was most dear,' &c.— Speech by Rev. Mr. Stewart, quoted by A. K. H. Boyd in his Lessons of Middle Age (1868), ch. vii. p. 193. 'Milton, in his "Iconoclastes," insolently wrote : "I shall not instance an abstruse author, wherein the king might be less conversant, but one whom [whoj we wxU know was the closet companion of these his solitudes, ^Villiam Shakespeare."' — I. D'Israeli, Comme^ttaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First (1830), vol. iii. ch. vi. p. 109. 'The younger Harper, whom [who] they agree was rather nice-looking.' — Agatha! s Husband {\'6i)T^), vol. i. ch. i. p. 28. 'The very two individuals whom [who] he thought were far away.' — Disraeli, Vivian Grey, bk. ii. ch. iii. • Nina was annoyed by the presence of Mr. Jekyl, whom [who] her brother insisted should remain to dinner.' — Mrs. H. B. Stowe, Dred, ch. xiv. ' Mr. and Mrs. Oswell, whom [who] I thought were most delightful people.' — G. Melly, School Experiences of a Fag {!%<)£,), p. 94. ' A quiet and steady boy, whom [who] I firmly believe never sinned in word, thought, or action.' — Lb., p. 187. ' Friday, whom [who] he thinks would be better than a dog, and almost as good as a pony.' — Nat. Rev., October, 1S56, No. 6, p. 391. ' The unfortunate clergy of Great Britain, whom [who] they concluded must all be in a state of proximate starvation,' — Border Lands of Spain and France (1856), ch. iii. p. 66. ' The Record has not ceased its attacks on Bishop Jackson, whom [who] it fears may be translated to the See of London.' — J. W. Donaldson, Christian Orthodoxy (1857), app. vi. p. 334. ' I was assured that if taken up by English capitalists, whom [who] they seemed very anxious should buy and work them, the mines would be found highly remunerative.' — King, Pennine Alps (1858), ch. xv. p. 345. 'Mrs. Treherne, whom [who] I trusted would have taken her share in the nursing, proving more of a hindrance than a help.' — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. ii. p. 33. ' Francis, who fidgets them both to death, and whom [who] I was so thankful was not coming,' &c. — Lb., vol. ii. p. 139. ' Even papa, who Penelope told me she had seen brushing the dust off an old rocking-horse,' &c. — lb., p. 237. [Should be 'whom,' governed by 'seen.'] 148 CONCORD. * Whom [who] Mr. J. informed me, died young,' &c. — lb., vol. ii. p. 281. ' Yet I see wretches here whotn I cantiot hardly believe share the same common womanhood as my Theodora.' — lb., vol. iii. p. 118. [For 'whom' read 'who,' for 'cannot' 'can,' and for 'share' 'have,' deleting 'common.'] ' I have seen some criminals in my lifetime tuhom [who], had I been superstitious, I should have said were children of the Devil.' — Mrs. RiDDELL, 77?^ World in the Church (1863), vol. ii. p. 45. ' That great Teacher himself w/;('w [who] he might fear would have passed away ... is ever waiting,' &c. — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. iii. ch. ii. p. 166. ' With a scream of joy, Dharma turned round and saw the adopted son, whom [who] she believed was at that moment in some Italian dungeon.' — Dharma (1865), vol. iii. p. 247. ' Our method of protecting "defenceless woman," of guarding the being who??! [who] we say is weak in body and in mind, is to place her almost as completely at man's mercy as the slave at his master's.' — Social and Pali- tical Dependence of Wo?nen (1867), p. 25. 'I have seen a woman meet with an indignant rejection the offer of a man %vhom [who] she knew had for his object simply a wife, and marriage in general.'— Mrs. Butler, Woi?ien^s Work, &c. (1869), p. xxxii. ' Six o'clock came, and with it the company in succession. Hook, Mathews, and the rest — all but the anonymous guest, who??i [who] Yates began to think, and almost to hope, would not come at all.' — Life of the Rev. R. H. Ba?-ha?H (1870), vol. i. ch. vi. p. 260. ' He was dissatisfied with those who?n circumstances had forbidden should ever be like himself.' — F. B. Zincke, Egypt of the Pha?-aohs, &c. (1871), ch. ix. p. 66. ['Whom' should be 'who,' nominative to 'should be.' But, as this sounds ill before 'had forbidden,' for 'should ever be,' read 'ever to be.'] ' When Mrs. Anne died, her name and mantle fell worthily on Miss Anne, jun., who?n [who] it was easy to see would be Mrs. Anne in time.'^ Mrs. L. Potter, Lancashire Me??iories (1879), p. 114. So in the following passages the relative, or indefinite relative, is wronglj put in the oblique case, its verb thereby being left without a subject. The cause of the blunder is not always self-evident, but in the first four instances the relative seems to have been attracted into the case of a suppressed antecedent :* — * Compare these passages. All five are grammatically correct (though the first has a decidedly un-English ring); but most readers perhaps would be inclined to substitute the oblique case for the subject, and vice versa: — 'This beautiful supplement to Isaiah, by whoinsoezier written, is inspired by,' SiC. — Dr. Donaldson, Christian Orthodoxy (1857), app. ii. p. 133. 'Hannah More says, or some of those good women, I forget who.' — Mrs. H. B. Stowe, Dred, ch. iii. [The phrase is elliptical, and this is a case in which it is very easy to err, because no verb follows. C/. the usage of Lat. nescio yuis.] ' The churl in spirit, up or down Along the scale of ranks, thro' all, To uiho may grasp a golden ball. By blood a king, at heart a clown.' Tennyson, In Memoriam. ' A blind unquestioning vassalage to whomsoever it has pleased him to set up for a hero.' — J. R. Lowell, My Study Windows (i%ji), p. 138, 'Carlyle.' [Right; governed by ' set up.'] ' We think it will be granted by whoever has listened to this strain,' &c. — Saturday Review, 27th May, 1865, p. 625. SUBJECT AND VERB. 149 ' Let us neither call it progress nor retrogression, but a reality, palpably developing itself before our eyes, and certainly not capable of being inter- rupted by whomsoever may desire to interrupt it.' — Burton, Political Economy, ch. ii. p. 37. [Read, 'call it neither,'' &c., and ' whosever.'] ' Pray remain single, and marry nobody (let him be whom he may).' — Sydney Smith, let. Ixxxiv. vol. ii. p. 82. ' The sign of the Good Samaritan is written on the face of whomsoever [whosoever] opens to the stranger.' — Louisa M. Alcott, Work (1873), vol. ii. p. 43. ' One evening of each week was set apart by Mr. Power for the reception oitvhomsocver [whosoever] chose to visit him.' — lb., vol. ii. p. 137. ' Why should I be told to serve Him if I do not know whom it is I serve?' — Florence Nightingale, Eraser's Magazine, May, 1873, p. 572, 'A Note of Interrogation.' [Read, 'who it is that I serve.'] ' I offer a prize of six pairs of gloves to whomsoever [whosoever] will tell me what idea in this second part is mine.' — Ch. Dickens, Letters, 1869 {18S0), vol. ii. p. 426. 'You can keep this letter, and show it to ivhoever you like.' — H. T. Buckle, 1859, Life and Letters (1880), vol. i. p. 307. [Here 'whom- ever' would be correct, if somewhat pedantic] 'The Fiantaichean or Feen, whomsoever [whosoever] they were, are always represented as hunting wild boars.' — J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands (i860), vol. i. introd. p. xci. ' Those two, no matter who spoke, or whom was addressed, looked at each other.' — Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, vol. i. pt. ii. No, 7, ch. vi. p. 218. ' Whom they were I really cannot specify.' — Mrs. Grote, Life of Ary Scheffer (i860), ch. vii. p. 76. Sometimes a compound sentence — one, namely, that contains two or more co-ordinate assertions — is put in contracted form, one predicate having two or more subjects, e.g., 'Woe came with war and want [came] with woe,' ' Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note [was heard].' Such ^contraction is only admissible where the subjects are in the same number, since otherwise the rule of the concord of subject and verb is violated, e.g., 'He was spared, but they [was] hanged.' This error,* as will be seen from the subjoined examples, is oftenest committed with the verb of incomplete predication to be : — ' His [Peter the Hermit's] diet was abstemious, his prayers [were] long and fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he distributed vvith the other.' — GiBBON, c. 58, 7, 312. ' They are easily avoided, and their existence [is] forgotten,' &c. — Hon. J, E. Murray, Summer in Pyrenees, vol. i. p. 97. ' The Bishop of Exeter is credited with a bon mot. A young lady visiting Bishopstowe made the remark that Torquay was very like Swit- zerland. "Very," replied his lordship, "except that there is no sea in Switzerland and [that there are] no mountains in Torquay."' * An instance of its rare occurrence in French is : — ' Pourquoi \z\xx parole ss\.-elte si douce et si harmonieuse, leurs gestes si sobres et si calmes, leurs moiivemens si gracieux.' — Jules Ballot, Histoire de t' Insurrection Cr(- toise (Paris, 1868), p. 238. 150 CONCORD. ' Great 7vas the generalship and various [were] the contrivances,' &c, — Rev. S. Smith, 7I/^//w;> (1855), vol. ii. p. 166. ' At which last Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, and seeing [was] believing.' — Kingsley, IVestward Ho ! [ed. 1879), ch. xi. p. 201. ' His brow was wrinkled, his lip compressed, his eyes [were] full of a terrible strong calm.' — //>., ch. xxvi. p. 423. ' His kindness of heart was very great, his simplicity of character [was] extreme, and his scientific acquirements [were] considerable enough to entitle him to much reputation in the European republic of learned men. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives and Daughters (1864), ch. iv. ' Still was her inward structure unchanged, her essential duties ivej-e unvaried, her course [was] pursued with equal success.' — Cardinal Wise- man, Essays on Religion and Literature (1865), p. 15, ' Inaugural Discourse.' ' The civil government was then very submissive, and heretics [were] almost unknown,' — Lecky, History of Rationalism (1865), vol. ii. p. 120. ' At present all contributions of facts are to be welcomed, all hasty theo- rising [is to be] discouraged.' — Spectator, 2nd December, 1865, p. 985. ' Not only was the watch discovered, but duplicates [were] found,' &c. — Traits of Character (i860), vol. ii. p. 339. ' For this purpose was the gospel proclaimed ; ... for this was death abolished ; and heaven and earth were united and reconciled, and the king- dom of God [was] established in all the universality of its spirit,' &c. — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. iii. p. 98. ' Such are the extreme evils of poverty in cities, and such [is] the appalling contrast which presents itself to the senses, the judgment, and the heart.' — lb., p. 114. * Whenever and wherever they die, their loss is to be lamented, and their memories [are to be] cherished.' — lb., p. 128. ' The natural and the supernatural are alike God's acts, only the one is common, the other uncommon ; but both [are] rational and credible ; as both may be portions of a common plan.' — lb., p. 146. ' Their instrument was the human heart, their harmonies [were] those of human affections.' — lb., p. 272. 'His beard was white, his face pale and melancholy, his eyes [were] lustrous.' — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter tvith the Swallows (1867), ch. ii. p. 25. ' Thermometers , , . were carefully observed, the temperature [was] recorded, and a reduction made,' &c. — J. F. McLennan, Memoir of Th. Drummond (1867), p. 83. 'The country was divided into counties, and the counties [were] placed under magistrates.' — lb., p. 208. ' The country was laid waste, the cattle and crops, and even the houses [were] destroyed.' — lb., p. 206. 'The English were repeatedly defeated, their dominion in the island [was] almost lost.' — lb., 207. ' They were spreading his reputation, and every day [was] bringing him new friends. ' — Ib.,^. I19. ' Public opinion is a reality as solid to him as the globe, its phenomena [are] as influential as sunshine and darkness.' — W. R. Alger, Genius of Solitude (Boston, 1867), p. 231. SUBJECT AND VERB. 15 1 * The connection of heart and brain in him was wonderfully intimate, the quantity and obstinacy of emotion [were] extraordinary.' — lb., p. 255. ' It would have overwhelmed anyone whose pride was less colossal, whose strength [was] less obstinate, whose resources [were] less rich than his.' — /(^., p. 294. ' The premises are spacious, and specially adapted to the purposes of education, and the locality [is] one of the most healthy suburbs of London.' Advertisement of Dr. Edward T. Wilson's school at Brixton Hill, Times, 3rd January, 1867. 'It has been found in the forty years that have passed since "useful knowledge" was broached and mechanics' institutes [were] founded, that,' &c. — W. Johnson, M.A., Essays on a Liberal Education (1867), p. 354. ' Why is the number of persons injured not reported, and [why are] the injuries which they received not stated?' — Th. Drummond, quoted in Aiemoir of T. D., by J. F. McLennan (1867), p. 271. ' But this error was corrected, and its consequences [were] repudiated, by the British Minister, who emphatically asserted the principle of Chinese jurisdiction over Chinese territory.' — Saturday Review, 22nd August, 1868, p. 248. ' So tickle was his [King Theodore's] temper, so intermingled [were] his good and bad qualities, so inscrutable his motives, that the attempt to draw a full and correct portrait of him has always baffled me.' — H. Rassam, Narrative of British Mission to Theodore, native land, and who preserved pure their faith and honour,' &c.— James, Attila, ch. ii. p. 49. [Either read 'his' or delete 'one' after 'any.'] ' It is true that when perspective was first discovered, every body [all] amused //^^wj-f/z/^j- with it. ' — Jn. Ruskin, The Elements of Drawitig {\'&^']), pref. , p. xviii. 'He hoped every one [all] had enjoyed themselves very much.' — Guy Livingstone (1858), ch. ii. p. 15. [' Enjoyed themselves' is further objec- tionable. Cf. p. 93.] ' One fine afternoon, everybody was [all were] on deck, amusing them- selves as they could.' — Charles Reade, Hard Cash (ed., 1863), vol. i, p. 308. ' Each thought of the other's grief, — each prayed for the other rather than for themselves.'' — Mrs. Gaskell, Mr. Harrison^ Confessions (1866), ch. vii. p. 206. [In this case of father and daughter 'himself would be incor- rect. A periphrasis is here indispensable.] ' Every one was [all were] full of themselves, though each asked ques- tions of the other, about which they did not care a pinch of snuff to be informed.' — Sidney Biddulph, vol. iv. p. 175. "■ Nobody ever put so much of themselves into their work.' — Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879), ch. viii. p. 333, 'Char- lotte Bronte.' [Sex here makes a difficulty — his or her?] ' In Europe no 07ie marries unless they have the certain means of sup- porting their children.' — Madame Bonaparte, Life and Letters (1879), ch. viii. p. 135. [Read, 'people do not marry.'] In this last example one is inclined to read 'none marry,' but none ^ (Angl.-Sax. ndn — ne an, 'not one') itself is etymologically singular. ' None but the brave deserves the fair ' wrote Dryden, but oftenest perhaps the line is quoted ' None but the brave dese7-ve the fair ;' and ^ None are so, blind as those that won't see ' is certainly the current version of the proverb. The Gr. ovSeVes, the Lat. nulli, and the Ger. keine m\^\i all be adduced in defence of the plural usage, but sometimes it is indisputably wron^, e.g., in — ' Mind says one, soul says another, brain or matter says a third, but none of these are [is] right.' — C. Bray, Illusion and Delusion (1873), p. 20. Nor can there be a question that in the next examples a most un- necessary blunder is committed by making one the subject of a plural verb^ or the antecedent to a plural pronoun :* — * Equally needless is a similar blunder in Welwood's preface to Rowe's translation of Lucan, since the author might either have written ' many geniuses,' or ' he has ... he has . . . himself ... his name' : — ' Hard has been the fate of many a genius, that while they have conferred immor- tality on others, they have wanted themselves some friends to embalm theimamesto posterity,' SUBJECT AND VERB. 155 ' It is true that not one of the bright particular stars of Polish history were [was] of that line or age.' — Saturday Review, 19th July, 1865, p. 242. ' Mr. Tennyson has his faults, and faults which any one professing to give a critical estimate of his works are [is] bound to point out, on pain of being pronounced disqualified for the office which >^^ assut?ies.' — Jb., i8th April, 1868, p. 522. ' It would distend the gorge of Job himself, to see one of these regularly late men join a company which they [he] had purposely kept waitmg, in order that attention might be attracted to the/n [him] before, and more particularly at, the moment when they were [he was] pleased to arrive.' — Chambers^ Journal, No. 117, 'Punctuality.' ' There was something indignant in her manner, like one who felt them- selves [herself] under the mortifying necessity of conforming themselves [herself, or delete] to the will of others. ' — Sidney Biddulph, vol. iv. p. 78. ' And I spoke it in the tone of one who is ashamed of their [her] own absurdity.' — lb., p. 1 16. One, the indefinite pronoun, should certainly not be followed by 'they' oT~^ieir ;' but it is a disputed point whether 'he' and 'his' (as in French) or ' one ' and ' one's ' is the correcter. On the whole, the authority of writers and grammarians is in favour of the latter. Cf. : — ' One could not help coveting the privileges they enjoyed for their sisters,' &c. — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter with the Swalloius (1867), ch. xiv. p. 236. [Read, ' One could not help coveting for one's sisters the privileges that they enjoyed.'] ' When one suddenly wakes up deaf, one forgets for a time that one has already been blind.' — W. Stigand, Life of H. Heine (1875), vol. i. ch. xii. p. 342. [Not ' he ' which some writers think wrong, after ' one.'] Like each and every, the distributive pronouns either and neither should be fo llowed by a singular verb, not by a plural one, as in — ' While either of these are [is] hungry, Nor poppy nor Mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the East Will ever medicine them [him] to slumber.' Fielding, Amelia, bk. viii. ch. viii. par. 2. ' Homer, you know, has employed many verses in the description of the arms of Achilles, as Virgil also has in those of ^neas ; yet neither of them are [is] prolix, because they each keep [each keeps] within the limits of their\\i\'s\ original design.' — Melmoth's Plinv, V. 6. [The Latin is more correct. ' Brevis tamen uterque est, quia/aaV quod instituit.'] ' Nepos answered him ; Celsus replied ; and neither of them rvere [was] sparing of reflections on each [the] other.' — lb., VI. 5. ' I mean to give you a large dose of my conversation, and, lest it becomes [become] too exciting, to season it with a little reading, out of something that neither of you take the smallest interest in, and will be able to go to sleep over properly.' — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 48. [It should be (l) ' neither takes,' and (2) 'both will be able,' &c.] ' In fact she did not want Pamela as she had wanted her. And the consequence was that they had been much longer apart than either of them, occupied with their [her] own concerns, had been aware.' — Mrs. Oliphant, The Browntozvs (1868), vol. ii. p. 25. 156 CONCORD. ' Neither of these boys were [was] so remarkable for their talent as for [the] thoroughness of their work.' — Rev. G. Butler, IVoman^s Work and IVotnan^s Culture (1869), p. 68. [Omit 'their' in both lines.] ' In this composition ««V/ii?r of the arms rr(3j-j-[es] the body.' — Lady East- LAKE, Life of John Gibson (1870), ch. viii. p. 185. ' I shall be almost pleased if either Mansel or T. S. Baynes are [is] able, on any particular points, to weaken the force of it.' — George Grote to J. S. Mill, 1865, Life of G. G. (1873), ch. xxxiii. p. 275. Errors in the use of the demonstrative adjectives, this and that^ have been instanced in the preceding paragraphs, but a grosser, or at least more obvious, blunder is that of making them plural before the singular nouns, Jiindox sort, 2A\'C\ — ' I always delight in overthrowing those [that] kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their [his] premeditated contempt.' — Miss Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. x. ' You have been so used to these [this] so7-t of impertinences,' &c. — Rev. Syd. Smith to C. Dickens, 6th January, 1843, vol. ii. let. ccccxciii. p. 481. ' Would it not be better to keep some memorandum of ^Awi? [this] sort of engagements?' — /d., ib., vol. ii. let. clxi. p. 177. ' Those are [That is] not thiise [the] sort of things that give me the feeling of gratitude.' — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. iii. ch. vii. p. 123. [Doubly wrong ; should be ' the sort.'] ' There are women as well as men who can thoroughly enjoy these [this] j^r/ of romantic spots. ' — Saturday Rcvie^v, 2nd September, 1865, p. 293. ' Ihese [This] kind of books fill [fills] up the long tapestry of history with little bits of detail which give human interest to it.' — James Hannay, A Course of English Literature (l^dd), p. lOl. English adjectives have discarded their old inflections, so cannot give rise to questions of concord, 'beautiful' qualifying 'man' and 'men,' 'woman' and 'women' alike. In French the case is different, adjectives having four distinct forms, — two for the masculine and the feminine singular, and two for the masculine and the feminine plural,— and to confound these forms were as flagrant an error as it would be in English to speak of 'King Victoria' or of 'this famous men.' Yet just such an error is made by writers who apply indiscriminately the French feminine adjectives naive and petite to 'man' or 'men,' 'woman' or 'women.' With ««/z/^* this error is almost universal, though not quite, as our first two passages show: — ' We may quote one wai/" remark.' — Spectator, 28th January, 1871, p. 11. * This mastery of naive over na'ifv/2L'?, probably due, in part to the forms naivete and ndivement, in part to the fact that naiveti is a feminine quality rather than a male. Chafierone, a favourite word with society papers, is unknown to French, where the word is chaperon, ' a hood,' our metaphorical use of the term being paralleled by that oi bonnet, the man who covers a thimble-rigger's knavery. The printer's error of placing a grave accent over the Latin preposition a, 'from,' as though it were the French a, 'to,' occurs more than once in Sayce's Comparative Philology (Lond., 1875) ; and a similar specimen of pseudo-erudition is well hit off in The iVorking Man's Way in the World, ch. xii. p. 2g6 : — ' I got on tolerably well with my new duty, and received the best proof of success by the absence, for several months, of remark from any quarter. Freedom from blame being the only praise which a reader ever gets, I naturally looked upon that state of things as GOVERNMENT. 157 ' He [Jn. Ruskin] quite forgets, in his love for the naif old painter [Giotto], that he is painting him.' — Miss MiTFORD, Letters and Life (2nd series, 1872), vol. ii. p. 145. ' And thus 7iaive [naif], unique, he stood out in hold relief,' &c. — Life of Sylvester Jtidd {\%'i)^), ch. xii. p. 466. ' We must be very naive [naifs] to imagine that they sound our praises over the tomb of the Prophet.' — Miss M. B. Edwards, A Winter with the S-i allows (1867), p. 206. ' Poppy was so delightfully naive [naif] in his approval of persons and things.'— /t/., Kitty (1869), vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 39. ' He was a fresh young Irishman, who had seen little of Great Britain, and who was altogether so genial and naive [naif] in his remarks that I could not help liking him.' — Cornhill, Januarv, 1875, vol. xxxi. p. 31, ' People who ivill Talk. ' ' I knew very well that I could if I chose talk to such naive [naifs] people about subjects which would shock an English lady,' &c. — C. G. Leland, Macrn ilia lis Magazine, November, 1879, p. 54, 'The Russian Gipsies.' ' He [Tom Moore] was a dapper little man, so short as to look quite /^/?V^ [petit].' — ^J. Dix, Lions Living and Dead {\Z^2), ch. vi. p. 96. ' He is short and for his years bulky— his features are /^//Vf [petits],' &c. — Traits of Character (1S60), vol. ii. p. 108. ' He had jwa///^/zV^ [petits] features.' — [b.,\o\. ii. p. 207. [Omit 'small.'] * His features were almost ridiculously /if///^ [petits].' — Lb., vol. ii. p. 213. From Concord we come to Government, the foremost rule of which is that ' transitive verbs, with their participles and gerunds, govern the objective case.' The rule is violated in — encouraging, and began to feel secure upon my stool. But, one fine summer's morning, about eleven o'clock, the counting-house bell rung [rang], and I was ordered to make a prompt appearance before the head of the firm, whom as yet I had never seen. 1 obeyed immediately, and was ushered into the presence of a gouty sexagenarian, upon whose rather childish and naturally good-humoured countenance a frown, got up for the occa- sion, sat with a very ill grace, and between whom and myself [me] the following brief dialogue ensued:— '" Mr. ," said the elderly gentleman, "you are the new rweader, I undershtand, and, of coiirse, a man of education, as a rweader ish. I am rweally ashtonished, shir, zhat you should make shuch a shtoopid blunder as shish — do you shink I pay you forty shillinsh a week for zhat, shir?" " Allow me to ask what has gone wrong, sir ? " " Why, shish has gone wrong, shir " — and he handed me the sheet. "Will you have the goodness to point it out, sir? I see nothing wrong." " Don't pretend to be blind, shir ! You know zhat we alwaysh put ' bonajide' wish a shircumflexh a ; and you have left it out, shir." "No I have not, sir — with submission, the words '■ bond fide' do not occur in the page." "Why, what do you mean by zhat, shir?" (pointing to the words "bona fides"). "What's zhat but bond fide in zhe plural. Of courshe, if we have a shircumflexh in zhe shingular, we have it in zhe plural too." " Excuse me, sir, you have made a slight mistake ; bona fides is not the plural of bond fide. The word bona in the one instance is in the nominative, in the other it is in the abla- tive case ; it would be a blunder to use the accent in the nominative." " Nommany ! — nommany ! — ablaty ! — Oh, ish zhat it ? I musht talk to my shon about it. — Ha ! I dare shay you are right, Mr. ; bond fide in zhe plural don't carry zhe acshent, you shay. Oh, very well ; if zhat's zhe cashe, itsh all right. Zhat will do, shir — you may go down now, shir" I bowed accordingly, and returned to my stool below ; and thus ended my first inter- view with the erudite principal, who never summoned me to a second conference — at least on the subject of a blunder.' 158 GOVERNMENT. ' He, who had always inspired in her a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now sa7v the object of open pleasantry.' — Miss AuSTEN, Pride and Prejudice, ch. Ixi. [For 'he' read 'him.'] ' I experienced little difficulty in distinguishing from among the pedes- trians who thronged the pavement thev [those] who had business with St. Bartholomew.' — James Greenwood, Unsentimental Jouriieys (1867), p. i. 'No; men very like him at each of the places mentioned, but not he [him].'^/(^., p. 14. [This is in answer to the question: 'Where had I before seen this muscular pawnbroker? At the dog-show?' &c.] '■Let you and / [me] look at these, for they say that there are none such in the world.' — Hy. Kingsley, Mademoiselle Afatkilde [i?>6?>), vol. iii. p. 130. 'Stay; I will not kill ye ; let me not call ye cowards,' &c. — Raymond LuLLY, G?'eat Elixir (1870). [' After this, we can only feebly remark that ye is not the accusative oi you.' — Spectator, 7th May, 1870, p. 593.] ' Thackeray, having been requested to write in a lady's album, found, on scanning its contents, the subjoined lines : — " Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains — They crown'd him long ago ; ' But who they got to put it on Nobody seems to know. "Albert Smith." Under these T. speedily wrote the following : — "A Humble Suggestion: " I know that Albert wrote in hurry ; To criticize I scarce presume ; But yet methinks that Lindley Murray, Instead of who, had written whom. "W. M. Thackeray.'" — George Hodder, Memories of My Time (1870), ch. xiii. p. 284. ' And now, my classmates ; ye remaining few That number not the half of those we knew. Ye, against whose familiar names not yet The fatal asterisk of death is set. Ye [You] I salute.' — Longfellow, ' Morituri te salutant,' in The Masque of Pandora and other Poems (1876). And, since conjunctions connect nouns and pronouns in the same case, and since a noun or pronoun placed in apposition must be in the same case as the noun or pronoun to which it is apposed, the rule is also violated in— ' No more Spaniard-hunting for me now, my masters. God will send no such fools as / [me] upon His errands.' — Kingsley, Westward Ho! (ed. 1879), ch. xxxii. p. 513. [The opposite of this error is made in — ' "Non- sense!" said Amyas, "we could kill every soul of them in half an hour, and they know that as well as me [I do]." ' — lb., ch. xxiv. p. 363. And : ' She is not even as big as me [I am].'— 73., ch. xxviii. p. 445.] ' In this state Frank Churchill had found her, she [her] trembling, they [them] loud and insolent.' — Miss Austen, Emma, ch. xxxix. ' May Heaven only keep tis a long time yet in the same relation — he [him] wondering, / [me] not.' — Lessing, quoted in Stahr's Life of Lessing, translated by E. P. Evans (Boston, 1866), vol. ii. bk. xii. ch. v. p. 264. ' I wish that little Mavey would find them closeted together, he [him] GOVERNMENT. 159 softened by her tears, and she [her] receiving his devotions with effusion.' — Mrs. Lynn Linton, Sowing the Wind (1867), vol. iii. p. 215. ' She carried her little wail to old Lady Somers, and pointed out to her how terribly it would undermine her husband's influence to have a Papist, and he [him] a Frenchman, in the house.' — Henry Kingsley, Mademoi- selle Mathilde (1868), vol. ii. p. 99. ' Mr. Brownlow had presumed to scold her, to blame her for what she had been doing, she [her] whom nobody ever blamed,' &c. — Mrs. Oliphant, The Brozvnlou's (1868), vol. ii. ch. xviii. p. 43. ' To send me away, and for a whole year, too — / [me], who had never crept from under the parental wing — -was a startling idea.' — C.J. Mathews, Autobiography (1879), vol. i. ch. iv. p. 77. [Apposition of 'I' and 'me.'] After prepositions, too, a noun or a pronoun must be put in the objective case, both when the noun or pronoun immediately follows such prepositions, ^nd~wheniL stands in apposition. The following are ungrammatical : — ' He hath given away above half his fortune to the Lord knows who [whom].' — Fielding, Amelia, bk. ix. ch. x., last par. but four. 'Now he had lost her, he wanted her back; and perhaps every one present, except he [him or himself], guessed why.' — Kingsley, Westward Bo! (ed. 1879), ch. xxv. p. 398. • His imitators for the most part serve but to denote the painful difference there is between the founder of a style and he who attempts to copy it.' — G. B. Smith, Poets and Novelists (1875), p. 369. [Read 'him,' though that is not very good.] ' It is in this particular that the great difference lies between the labourer who moves to Yorkshire and he [him] who moves to Canada.' — IVestfuinster Review, July, 1879, p. 48. ' The mother-lady was constantly picturing to her own imagination the gradual ruin of her own and darling son — he who had been the pride of her maternal heart, the joy of her widowhood, and the glory of her expecta- tions.' — Galt, Sir Andrew Wylie, vol. i. p. 295. [Read 'him,' or better omit 'he' altogether.] ' He went to the offices of Mr. Donkin, the oldest and most respected attorney in Monkshaven — he who had been employed to draw up the law papers,' &c. — Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia' s Lovers (1863), vol. ii. p. 195. [Alter as in last example.] ' God forbid that John Hawkins's wife should refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and /z^ [him] a gentleman born.' — Kingsley, West- ward Ho! (ed. 1879), "ch. xiii. p. 233. ' I don't forget the danger and the woe ofowt weak woman, and she [her] the daughter of a man who once stood in this room.' — lb., ch. xxix. p. 469. 'It is characteristic of them to appear but to one person, and_^^^the most interested, the most likely to be deluded,' &c. — W. J. Fox, Works, vol. ii. p. 331. [False apposition, 'one' objective, 'he' nominative. _S.ubstitute 'that.'] * Besides my father and Uncle Haddock — he [him] of the silver plates,' &c. — James Greenwood, Unse7itimental Journeys (1867), p. 14.0. ' And the major-domo, without the wildest idea of what Father Martin spoke about, said promptly, with the well-trained dexterity of an old ser- vant, and he [him] a Frenchman: " Such a course would be wrong in two ways." '—Henry Kingsley, Mademoiselle Mathilde (1868), vol. iii. p. 50. i6o GOVERNMENT. ' I then became known to that venerable agriculturist, Sir John Sinclair, he whose zeal in agriculture led him to spend his entire life in obtaining information,' &c. — John Grey, quoted in Mrs. Butler's Memoir of J. G. (1869), ch. ii. p. 45. [Omit 'he.'] ' Nobody in the world had ever the least control over him but her. '— W. Black, Comhill, April, 1875, ch. xxix, p. 386, par. 13, 'Three Feathers.' The last example is perfectly correct, but being here a preposition. 1 Thatt, however, is always a conjunction, and as such has no governing force, but must couple like cases, not nominatives with objectives, or vice versd* as in — ' He must be a wiser man than me [I am], who can tell what advantage or satisfaction he derives from having brought such a nest of hornets about his ears.' — SMOLLETT, Humphrey Clinker (Works, 3rd ed., by R. Ander- son, 1806), vol. vi. p. 145. 'The smooth manner of the spy, curiously in dissonance with his osten- tatiously rough dress, and probably with his usual demeanour, received such a check from the inscrutability of Carton — who was a mystery to wiser and honester men than he [him]— that it faltered here, and failed him.' — Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, bk. iii. ch. viii. ' I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than me [I am], I know ; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it were at God's good earth.' — KiNGSLEY, Westward Ho ! (ed. 1879), ch. xvii. p. 280. 'Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; but come behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the grave the body of a better man than /[me].' — Ih., ch. xxxiii. p. 515. ' W. Godwin objected to the phrase — " Osah is prettier than me" in the MS. of Mrs. Inchbald. Mrs. I., in 1805, admits that she is not " the slightest judge of grammar. She doubts her former belief that grammar was established and immovable, as she has been shown cases of good writers differing extremely, and says she has been told that correct- ness is often inelegant." If this be true, it is a fine thing for women, and some men. But it seems that "Osah is prettier than /" has Godwin, Lowth, and Scripture on its side. Three high authorities.' — Memoir of W. Godwin (1876), vol. ii. p. 142. The last example leads to the question, What is the proper case after the auxiliary verb ' to be?' The nominative as a rule, beyond a doubt ; but ' It is me ' has found defenders in Dr. Latham ^History of the English Language, pp. 584-86), Dean Alford {Quee7i's English, pp. 142-46), Prof. Bain {English Grammar, p. 179), Mr. Mason {English Gramtnar, p. 55), &c. Old English authors wrote neither 'It is /' nor 'It is w^,' but 'I am it,' which corresponds to modern German usage; and our present phrase appears to have been copied from the French ' C'est moi,'' with * Prof. Bain defends ' the use of tne, him after the conjunction than, in whose favour there is the authority of an extensive, if not predominating, usage: "She was neither better nor wiser tlian you or tne." — Thackeray.' Universal usage could hardly, it seems I to us, justify this departure from a general rule, such departure being always unneces- ' sary, and often leading to serious ambiguity. Once admit it, and how can you decide whether 'You know him better than me' means 'you know him better than (you know) me,' or 'You know him better than I (do)?' GOVERNMENT. i6i which 'It is me'' agrees more closely than does 'It is /.' Still, 'She it was' would certainly be an improvement in the first of our two examples; in the second, the use of the objective case in one clause, and of a subjective in another, involves an obvious self-contradiction : — ' It was her \i.e.. Nature] who, by producing in divers places, springs of hot, and even of boiling water, taught men, in all probability, to give different degrees of heat to their baths.' — D'Arnay, Life of the Romans, p. lOO. ' If there is anyone embarrassed it will not be me, and it will not be she.' — W. Black, Madeod of Dare (1878), vol. ii. ch. xi. p. 192. In contracted sentences the laws of concord and government are often violated by neglect to repeat the relative when the case is changed. Who may with perfect correctness pay a double debt in ' Rousseau, who was born and buried at Baireuth;' but one should not write 'who was born ' and they buried, ' 7vhom being required before the transitive verb. The same remarks hold good of which, since even though its subjective and objective cases are indistinguishable, logical accuracy forbids that one should be unable to say whether it is in the subjective or the objective case, whether it depends on a preposition or stands by itself. What awkwardness arises from carelessness in this respect may be seen from — ' Byron (as in the case of Charles Skinner Matthews, of tvhom he used to talk so much, and [whom he] regretted so deeply), not being a great reader himself, liked the company of those who were,' &c. — Medwin, Memoir of Shelley {iZil), p. 33. ' In the abyss of the past eternity we see the Creator for ever designing, and for ever accomplishing the supremest end at -which infinite justice and goodness could aim, and [which] absolute wisdom and power [could] bring to pass.' — Miss Cobbe, Essay on Intuitive Morals (1855), P'- '• ch. IV. p. 178. ' The upper part of the house, of which I know nothing, and [which I] have never seen.' — A Life for a Life (1859), vol. ii. p. 65. ' Nor do I, either in or out of Cambrid:^e, know any one with whom I can converse more pleasantly, or [whom I] wouhi prefer z.% my companion,' &c. — Traits of Character, by a Contemporary (1S60), vol. ii. p. 9. ' A man could not sustain such a position ; it represents a momentary action, which the sculptor must have often seen,, and [which] is perfectly true to nature.' — Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson (1870), ch. viii. p. 185. ' The domain of the husband to whom she felt that she had sold herself, and [by whom she] had been paid the strict price— nay paid more than she had dared to ask.' — George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, bk. vii. p. 6. 'One of the last of his parliamentary speeches was delivered in defence of Warren Hastings, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship, and [whom he] regarded as a consummate statesman and the saviour of India.' — W. F. ^A^, John JF/Z^fj- (1874), p. 114. ' He had boldly exposed the negligence, the ignorance, the low taste, and particular shortcomings of those on whom British art had to rely, and [whom] society believed in.' — Memoir of B, R. Haydon (1876), vol. i. p. 67. ' While at Brussels, he fought a duel by moonlight with a Spaniard ivith whom he had been gambling, and [whom he] suspected of cheating him.' Lady JacksOiN, Old Paris {1878), vol. i. ch. xxv. p. 341. 1 62 COLLOCATION, ' Originality in politics, as in every field of art, consists in the use and application of the ideas which we get or [which] are given to us.' — ^JuSTlN McCarthy, History of Our Ozvn Times (1879), vol. i. ch. ii. p. 44. The following is perfectly correct ; hut if, as is not unlikely, Miss Mar- tineau had said, 'at which all smile,' then it would have been necessary to write, ' and which we all justify ' : — ' It is a persuasion which we all smile at in one another, and justify in ourselves.' — Miss Martineau, Ilhistratiojts of Political Economy (3rd ed., 1832), vol. i. pref , p. iv. For a different reason the relative should have been repeated in the next example, because there are two nominatives, 'noise' and 'who,' in the sentence, either of which might grammatically be the subject of • had heard.' It would be still better to make the last clause run, ' having, as they concluded, heard,' &c., since it is not sufficiently co-ordinate with the second clause to be coupled to it by 'and' : — ' The noise [that] the Princess made was however heard by the person beneath who stopped, and [who] they concluded had heard the casement open.' — Castle of Otranto, p. 48. After concord and government comes the third but not the least important branch of syntax — order of words. Its most general principles are that what is to be thought of first should be mentioned first, and that things to be thought of together should be placed in close conjunction. In no language of culture is the order of words of such high importance as in English, English having lost almost all its inflexions, or suffixes expressive of relation. The Latin sentence 'Johanna.? et Cs.ro\us GulielmM;« CQciAertint^ can bear but a single meaning, shuffle its words as you will; but according as you arrange the five English words, 'John,' 'Charles,' 'William,' 'and,' 'killed,' you can express six wholly different statements: — 'John and Charles killed William;' 'John killed William and Charles,' &c.* A dinner, whose materials had been carefully chosen and admirably cooked, would be ruined were soup and ice-pudding served up in the same tureen, and the partridges smothered with lobster-sauce ; and similarly a sentence, in spite of well-picked words and studious avoidance of broken concord and government, may by faulty arrangement be turned into perfect nonsense. Take for example : — ' The French papers say of a recent duel : " One of the combatants was unhurt, and the other sustained a wound 2)t the a7-in of no importance^ Which arm is \\i\%V— Punch, 5th October, 1S72. ' A piano for sale by a lady about to cross the Channel in an oak case with carved legs.' — Advt. in English journal. ' He blew out his brains after bidding his wife goodbye with a gun.' — Connecticut paper. 'The Moor seizing a bolster, full of rage and jealousy, smothers her.' — Critique on Othello. * A rare example of ambiguous collocation in French is : ' Deux d'entrc cux, M. et J., furent surpris dans une mairie au moment oil la troupe y penetrait, les armes it la main.' — V. ScHOELCHER, Le Gotiveruement du Deux Decembre, p. 474. [If it was the ' troupe ' that had the ' armes,' as seems probable, it would be well to put the last five words after ' troupe J ' if 'M. et J.,' after 'surpris.'J COLLOCATION. 163 'Paid to a woman whose husband was drowned by order of the vestry under London Bridge, £l. is.' — Books of an Overseer of a London vestry. ' Erected to the memory of John Philhps accidentally shot as a mark of affection by his brother.' — Epitaph in an Ulster churchyard. ' The Board of Education has resolved to erect a building large enough to accommodate 500 students three stories high.' — Wisconsin paper. These sentences are extreme instances of what by the French is termed ' construction louche' (squinting construction) ; in a homely English phrase, 'they have one eye on the pot, and the other up the chimney.' No one could fail to be struck by their absurdity, but many might fail to impute this absurdity to wrong collocation of words that in themselves are right enough; many might slur them over as Irish bulls or eccentricities of Yankee editors. Doubtless such blunders are commonest in ephemeral productions, one-third of our examples being culled from newspapers ; but it will be seen that they are by no means peculiar to newspapers or even to lighter literature, and the graver the work the more ridiculous appears the blunder. ' Sir Morton Peto spoke of the notion that the national debt might be \ repudiated U'ith absolute contempt.'' — Spectator, i8th November, 1855, p. ) 1272. [' With,' &c., should follow 'spoke.'] ' When President Lincoln . . . permitted forts and batteries to be built around Fort Sumter, whose guns bore upon every one of them, without opposition, the sigh went again through the land, "Oh for an hour of Jack- son ! " ' — M. D. C.[on\vay], in the Spectator, 7th June, 1875, P- 608. [The words 'without opposition' ought to come after 'permitted' or 'built.'] 'Charles Lamb, in his "Notes on the Dramatists,'* says of Drayton that, in his " Polyolbion," he has gone over our land with the fidelity of a herald and the painful love of a son, and has not left a rivulet so narrow that it may be stepped over without honourable fnention.^ — Spectator, 9th November, 1867, p. 1263. ['Without honourable mention' ought to follow 'left.'] ' The workmen are beginning to arrest men who express Fenian senti- menls/or themse/ves.' — 3., 2Sth December, 1867, p. 1473. [' For them- selves' should follow ' beginning.'] ' Lord Carnarvon objected to the magnitude of the pension assigned to the retired Bishops not ivithout reason.' — /b., 17th July, 1869. [Though it would appear that 'not without reason' is here predicated of the 'pen- sion ' and not of the 'objection,' the probability is, if we examine the context, that this is not the writer's meaning. He ought, thyefore, to have placed the words ' not without reason ' after the word ' objected,' In the other case they ought to have followed the word 'assigned.' This, Jform of error is so common in the Spectator as to be a characteristic] ' A clever magistrate would see whether he [a witness] was deliberately lying a great deal better tkatt a stupid jury.' ~Ib., 14th August, 1S69, p. 951. In the same article, on 'Lying in Court,' a column before, occurs this expression : ' A man beats a witness who had stated the truth in Court nearly to death.' [In the first instance the words in italics should follow 'see.' In the second, they should follow 'beats.'] ' The house affirmed the proposal to abolish University tests with enthusiasm.' — lb., 14th August, 1869, p. 948. [The words italicised should follow 'affirmed.'] 'The Government at Cuba — or rather a military tribunal acting under 1 64 COLLOCATION. its orders— condemned a seaman to death for aiding the insurgents, appa- rently in the face of evidence.'' — lb., 4th September, iSeg, p.' 1029. [Transpose the last clause, so as to make it follow 'condemned.'] _' Mr. C. Buxton, M.P., was shot at by a secretary under notice to quit, with whom Mr. Buxton was finding {ixvAi— very fortunately itithout effect]' lb., 30th April, 1870, p. 541. [The words italicised should follow 'shot at.'] ' To point out why it would be impossible to go so far as Mr. Winter- botham . . . demands, -Mithozet giving tip all hope of passing the Bill.' lb., 7th May, 1870, p. 577. [The last clause should follow 'impossible.'] ' The Queen opened the new and handsome building of the University of London in Burlington Gardens on Wednesday, in the designs and execution of which Mr. Pennethorne is thought to have surpassed himself, — with a ceremonial of some pomp.'— lb., 14th May, 1870, p. 601. [The last clause should either have begun the sentence, or have followed ' The Queen' or 'opened.'] ' It would be a rash, ambitious precipitation of results, likely enough to come in time, and to come beneficially, by the use of bloody ?neans which could probably defeat instead of furthering those ends.' — lb., 19th Nov., 1870, p. 1373. [The last clause belongs to ' precipitation,' and not to 'come beneficially.' The sentence should be wholly changed.'] ' The opposite of denial is affirmation ; and it no more follows that there is any moral inconsistency in the change, than in rejecting a scientific theory which explained all the old facts known to you and had therefore been accepted, on the production of neiv facts inconsistent tvith it.'— lb., 3rd December, 1870, p. 1442. [The last clause relates to 'rejecting ' and not to 'accepted,' and ought to be transposed.] 'That England should resist the development of Bismarckism through the destruction of France, by force.'— Ih., loth December, 1870, p. 1470. ['By force' should follow ' resist.'] ' People have being crying out that Germany never could be an aggres- sive power a great deal too soon.'— lb., 17th December, 1870, p, 1501. [The last five words should follow ' crying out.'] ' When Mr. Gladstone said that the true end and object of free thought was to cleave to objects of faith freely chosen, and not to end in a life rather roving and vagrant than free ... he seems to us to have expressed what we have been putting with force as ivell as beauty.'— lb., 28th December, 1872, p. 1656. [The last six words should follow 'expressed.'] ' It is, indeed, most curious that Mr. Carlyle, whose man of men is the courteous, imperturbable, mild-mannered Goethe, and Mr. Ruskin, who reveres Walter Scott, and is at present extracting the essence of Lock- hart's biography for the instruction of workmen and labourers, should be the polar opposites, in their habitual and ferocious denunciations, of the men whom they set up as examples.'— 76., 9th August, 1873, p. ion. [The italicised words should follow 'should be.'] 'It [the pamphlet on Ultramontanism] must clear Mr. Gladstone of suspicion of Romanising with all sensible men for ever.' — //'., 14th Nov., 1874. [Read, ' With all sensible men, it must for ever clear Mr. Gladstone of suspicion of Romanising.'] ' So gifted are they with correctness of ear, that they can reproduce an air after once hearing it with the most perfect exactness.' — lb., 26th October, 1876, p. 1341, 'Three Years in Roumania.' [Read, 'that after pnce hearing an air, they can reproduce it with the most perfect exactness.'] COLLOCATION. 165 ' Nevertheless, though we do not expect the abolition of foolish specula- tion y)-^;// the labours of the Royal Cfinmission, we do expect some good from its appointment.'— 73., 24th March, 1877, p. 365. [After 'expect' insert the italicised words.] ' M. O'Quin has the courage to denounce the symmetrical arrangements of the French Budget which Mr. Gladstone so much admires as little else than a delusion.^ — Saturday Review, 3rd June, 1865. [The last words 'as little,' &c., should follow 'denounce,' they are not even preceded by a comma.] 'A master who is essentially a crammer cannot be prevented from con- tinuing to cram by any power on eai-th.'' — lb., 22nd August, 1S6S, p. 256. [The last five words should follow 'prevented.'] ' The relations between Church and State in this country are not so smooth that the clergy can long go on refusing people communion solely on the giound that they have contracted marriages which Parliament has declared legal, without giving rise to great confusion.^ — lb., 30th April, 1870, p. 562. [The italicised words should follow ' clergy.'] ' An unquestioned man of genius.' — J. Devey, Life of Locke (1862), p. 97. [Read, 'a man of unquestioned genius.'] ' Without a detail of their duties, our readers will take it upon our assertion that the Irish stipendiary magistrate has it in his power to do more good or more harm by his actions, direct and indirect, on local politics than any other servant of the crown, save the half-dozen highest officers of the State, in that division of the empire in which he serves.' — Times, 6th February, 1854. [The last clause ought be introduced earlier, say after 'power,' or better, after 'harm.'] ' We complimented them upon discussing matters which were in some countries found irritating ?'« so calm a wayf — lb., 6th February, 1865. [The words italicised should follow ' discussing.'] 'Thus taking up the part which Mr. Hume had made peculiarly his own during a long public career, but not with equal success.' — lb., 1st May, 1865, on death of Mr. W^ Williams, M.P. [The last clause should come in after ' taking up.'] ' President Johnson has suspended the execution of the sentence of Mrs. Bessie Perrin, of Baltimore, for disloyalty during her good behaviour.' — Jb., 7th July, 1865. [The writer speaks more correctly than he thinks or means.] ' You have already been informed of the sale of Ford's Theatre, where Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, y^r 7-eligious purposes.'— lb.. Correspondent from Philadelphia, loth July, 1865. [The last three words should follow 'sale.'] ' Is it credible that, under Hanoverian rule, Emden should have been actually precluded from prospering, by the vengeful spite of the King? — lb., Prussian Correspondent, 26th October, 1866. [The last clause should follow ' Emden.'] ' Let not English manufacturers depart from the maxims of self-help which have made them what they are, by calling upon the Governmeftt to do their work for them.' — lb., 6th February, 186S. [The last clause ought to follow 'English manufacturers.'] ' M. Guizot, writing of the stirring times in which he played a prominent part iti the tone of an impartial spectator,' &c. — lb., 3rd Januarj', "^868. [The last seven words should precede ' of the stirring,' &c.] 1 66 COLLOCATION. ' Preaching versus Practice. — A dying woman was taken by her hus- band, a navvy, in an open cart seven miles, to the Winchester Hospital, the otlier day; was admitted, and put to bed. In the course of a quarter of an hour, the Rev. E. Stuart, the chairman of the hospital, came into the ward, and seeing that the woman was not clean, and badly clad, directed the attention of the officers of the institution to a rule requiring that all patients should come clean, and with a certain number of clean garments, and finally ordered the patient to be expelled at once. So the dying woman v/as taken back seven miles in an open cart, and being met near her jour- ney's end by another clergyman, was by him accompanied to an adjacent workhouse, where she died of syncope, brought on by exposure. The editor of the Medical Times, who reprints the story from a Hampshire paper, says that he fell asleep after reading it, and dreamed that he was in Winchester Cathedral listening to an eloquent sermon on Christ cleansing the lepers from the reverend the chairman, in aid of the funds of the County Hospital.' — Scotsmaji, 1 6th February, 1865. [' Cleansing the lepers from the reverend,' &c. !] ' Four men were killed on the day of the receipt of the news of the assassination of President Lincoln in New Orleans for rejoicing over his death.' — lb., 20th May, 1865. ['On the day of the reception of the news of the assassination of President Lincoln, four men were killed in New Orleans for rejoicing over his death.'] ' We should be thankful that America is there to feed our people in times of scarcity, instead of trying to keep out what God has provided for them, by imposing protective duties.' — Letter to ^'ri^/.fwaw, 2nd September, 1879. [The last clause should follow ' trying.'] ' Lord Palmerston refused to join Lord Derby on a fraudulent pretext.' — The Press, February, 1855. [The last four words should follow 'refused.'] ' If we are to believe the text, our hero was the guide, philosopher, and friend of Dr. Andrew Thomson ivhen only a lad of thirteen.' — Literary Spectator, May, 1856, No. 7, p. 79, Review of ' Gilfillan's Life.' [Query: Was it ' our hero ' or Dr. A. T. that was thirteen years of age ? That it was the former is not so apparent as it ought to be, and would be if the last six words followed 'hero.'] ' A very strong opinion has been expressed by the governors iti reply to a circular issued by the head-master, in favourof the removal of the Charter- house School from its present site into the country.' — Newspaper para- graph, August, 1865. [A clearer arrangement would have been : ' In reply to a circular issued,' &c., 'a very strong opinion,' &c.] ' This is only one instance of several where your reviewer has imputed to me errors which I have not committed, in order that he may correct them. ' — M. S. MosELY, in Athemtum, i6th May, i868, p. 698. [The last clause refers to 'imputed' not to 'committed.' Read, 'where errors that I have not committed have been imputed to me by your reviewer in order,' &c.] ' As the leading and consistent champion of the oppressed, I trust you will permit me in your columns to advocate the cause of moderate humanity to helpless animals.'— M. B. to Editor of /?' Telegraph, iSth September, 1S69. [The writer probably means, but does not say, that the Editor of the D. T. is ' the leading and consistent champion.' He seems to assume that title to himself. The first clause should follow 'you.'] ' k frittered away the success gained through an alliance with scientific principles which would have carried any set of men to a triumph by a series COLLOCATION. 167 of outrages on all the opinions which have the deepest j-oot in the English mind.' — Pall Mall Gazette, 24th December, 1869, p. i. [Tlie italicised clause ought to precede ' it frittered away'.] ' If, follozuing the example of our neighbours across the Channel, we are not inclined to declare a republic in political matters, it is refreshing to think,' &c. — Announcement of meeting of British Association at Liver- pool, jManchester Examiner and Times, lOth September, 1870. [This says the opposite of what is meant. ' Our neighbours have been inclined to declare a republic, ' and, by supposition, we are not. It ought to run thus, therefore : * If we are not inclined to declare a republic, in imita- tion of our neighbours,' &c.] ' If we add the condition of hard labour to the terms of imprisonment as defined in the existing law, it cannot be said that we shall not be able to visit offences which are regarded with universal abhorrence zoith some- thing like adequate severity.' — //?., 6th June, 1S72. [Clumsy; 'with some- thing,' &c., should follow ' visit.'] 'It became necessary for Lord Clarendon to give him [King Bomba] several significant hints as to the possible consequences of his policy before he would allow the allies to obtain supplies from Sicily, or even permit the sale of the most common provisions for the troops employed in the East in the Neapolitan ports.' — Daily A^ews, 9th December, 1S70. [The last four words should follow ' the sale.'] ' The majority of families depend for the whole of their reading on the libraries, and expect to have all the new books the moment they are pub- lished /c^r a few guineas a year.' — lb., 28th June, 1871, p. 5. [The last six words should follow * expect,' or ' to have.'] ' Although in London he had carried off several prizes and won his scholarship with the greatest ease, by reason of his itwther's death, now, his chief incentive to exertion seemed to be removed.' — Illusti-ated Review, 28th August, 1873, p. 191, 'Memoir of R. A. Proctor.' [Place 'now' before ' by reason,' &c.] ' In certain trifling discourses of yours you call Dr. Hammond knave in plain terms, who was one of the King's chaplains, and one that he valued above all the resty^;' no other reason but because he had called you a gram- marian.' — Milton, Def. Pop. Angl. against Salmasius. [Is the last clause a sequel to 'call . . . knave,' or to 'valued'?] ' It troubles the brain of children to be suddenly roused in a morning, and to be snatched away from sleep, wherein they are much deeper plunged than men, luith haste and violence.' — C. Cotton, Life of Montaigne, pre- fixed to his Essays (16S5), vol. i. [It should be 'snatched away with haste and violence from,' &c.] ' I rise in consequence of the notice I gave to the House, to make a motion of as serious importance as, I believe, ever came under your con- sideration, to the interest and honour of the nation.' — General BURGOYNE, Speech, 1772. [The last clause should follow ' importance.'] 'That they should be exposed to that ridicule, by the forward imbecility of friendship, from which they appear to be protected by intrinsic worth, is so painful a consideration, that the very thought of it, we are persuaded, will induce Mr. Bowles to desist from writing on political subjects.' — Syd. S'^myi, Edinburgh Pcviczv, i?i02. [It should be, 'exposed, by the forward imbecility of friendship, to that ridicule from which.'] ' The noble use he made of valuable patronage when it did come into 1 68 COLLOCATION. his hands, must sufficiently exonerate him from the suspicion of acting from interested motives in the eyes of any candid man.''— ?,\d. Smith, A/emoirs (i85S\ vol. i. p. 274. ['In the eyes,' &c., should follow 'exonerate him.'] ' The pedant Mr. Malone conjectures to be Matthew Clifford, Master of the Charter House.'— Sir W. Scott's Note on Dryden's Bed. Epis. to Sedley, prefixed to his play 'Assignation.' [The two first words should follow 'conjectures.'] ' The beaux of that day used the abominable art of painting their faces, as well as the women.'— \i\Kz D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature. [The last five words should follow 'beaux.'] ' Hence he considered marriage zuith a modern political economist as very dangerous.'—//;. [The italicised words should follow ' hence.'] ' You might not have distinguished how I came by my look and manner.' Miss Austen, Emma, ch. xxvi. [Ambiguous ; it should be 'distinguished by my look,' ^c] 'Mrs. Jennings entered the drawing-room, where Elinor was sitting by herself, zvith an air of such hurrying imp07-tance as p7-eparcd her to liear something wonderful.' —Id., Sense and Sensibility, ch. xxxvii. [This sen- tence requires to be re-arranged.] ' I earnestly pressed his coming to us, in my letter,' ^tc.—Id., ib., ch. xlviii. [' In my letter' should either stand first or follow ' earnestly.'] ' She performed her promise of being discreet, to admiration.'— Id., ib., ch. xxxvii. [The two last words should follow ' performed.'] 'The carriage stopped at the small gate which led by a short gravel walk to the house amidst the nods and smiles of the luhole party.' — Id., Pride and Prejudice, ch. xxviii. [The italicised words should stand first.] ' Could not think of her as under the agitations of jealousy 7vithout great pity.'— Id., Mansfield Park, vol. i. ch. xiv. p. 96. [It should be, 'could not, without great pity, think,' &c.] ' He always read Lord Byron's writings as soon as they were published, with great avidity.'— Yi^Qi^\J^% Life of Fuseli (1831), vol. i. p. 359. [The last three words should stand first or follow ' read.'] ' He seldom took up the Bible, which he frequently did, without shedding tears.'— Ib., vol. i. p. 389. [Must be re-arranged.] ' The grave ironical argument, to prove Bentley not the author of his own T^2i.n-\^\AQi( attribiited by Dr. Monk to Smalridge).' — Quarterly Review (1832), vol. xlvi. p. 134, 'Monk's Life of Bentley.' [The parenthetical clause should follow ' argument. ' It is that, not Bentley's pamphlet, which Monk attributed to Smalridge.] ' Having read in Dr. Gerhard the admirable effects of swallowing a gold bullet upon his father.' — Southey, The Doctor, ch. xxiv. p. i. [the last three words should follow ' effects.'] 'It was destroyed by fire, in 181 1, it is said, by the soldiers of an Italian regiment, who were quartered there, to avoid the labour of carrying wood and water up the hill.' —Water Lily on the Danube (iS$^), ch. xiv. p. 175. ' They followed the advance of the courageous party, step by step, through telescopes.' — Albert Smith, Mont Blanc, ch. vi. p. 93. ['Through telescopes' should come after 'followed.'] 'The convict-ship was bearing him to expiate his crimes against the laws of his country m another hemisphere.' — J. M. Capes, M. A., Sunday in London (1850), ch. x. p. 291. [The last three words should follow * expiate, '] COLLOCATION. i6g 'Nor indeed, can those habits be formed with certainty which are to (ontimic during- life in a shorter space.' — Knox, Flays, vol. ii. p. 56. [The italicised words should follow ' habits.'] ' I will merely say that , . . if spared to occupy such a position as he now solicits/tir a fezu years, he will not only discharge most ably the duties,' &c. — Testimonial from Dr. Candlish in favour of Prof. Fraser, i6th May, 1S56, Edin. [It should be, 'if spared for a few years,' or ' if spared to occupiy for a few years,' the latter being preferable.] ' She detested him because she had deluded herself, 7i