3 1822027536481
 
 LIBHAR 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 NIVERSITY OF CALIFORN A SAN^IEGO 
 
 3 1822 02753 6481 

 
 GRAMMAR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 
 
 IN A SERIES OF LETTERS. 
 
 Intended fcr (lie Use of Scboob and of Young Persons in 
 general; bat, more especially for the Use of Soldiers, 
 Sailors, Apprentice*, and Plough-boys. 
 
 BY WILLIAM COBBETT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR THOMAS DOLB?, 
 
 34, WARDOUR STREET, SOHO. 
 
 1819,
 
 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, u. 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the Seven- 
 (L. S.) tcenth day of July, in the forty-third year of the 
 
 Independence of the United States of America, 
 WILLIAM COBBETT, of the said District, hath deposited 
 in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he 
 claims as author and proprietor in the words following, to 
 wit: 
 
 " A Grammar of the English Language, in a series of 
 Letters, intended for the Use of Schools and of Young Per- 
 son* in general ; but more especially for the Use of Solditrs, 
 Sailors, Apprentices, and Plough-boys. By William Cobbett " 
 
 In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United 
 States, entitled " An Act for the encouragement of Learn- 
 ing, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Booki 
 to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the 
 time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled 
 " An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for 
 the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of 
 Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of 
 such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and ex- 
 tending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, en- 
 graving, and etching historical and other prints." 
 
 JAMES DILL, 
 
 Clerk of the Southern District o/ New- York, 
 
 at &tationer' 
 
 
 
 John M'Creery, Printer, 
 Black-Horse-Courtj Losdon.
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO MR. BEN BO IV, 
 
 Shoe-maker, of Manchester. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 WHEN, in the month of August, 1817", yon were shot up 
 in an English Dungeon by order of Lord Sidmouth, with, 
 oat any of the rules or forms prescribed by the law of the 
 land ; without having been confronted with your accuser, 
 without having been informed of the charge against you ; 
 while you were thus suffering under the fangs of absolute 
 power, I did myself the honour to address to you, from this 
 place, two Letters on English Grammar, and in those 
 Letters I stated to you my intention of publishing a book 
 on that subject. 
 
 This intention I have now fulfilled, and I dedicate the 
 
 work to you in the hope, that the dedication will long 
 
 continue to bear witness of my respect for yon, personally; 
 
 and of my admiration of your conduct. At the outset of 
 
 the first of the two Letters, of which I have just spoken, 
 
 I said : " Your conduct, while in London last winter, was 
 
 " Etich as to entitle you to my regard and respect, and the 
 
 ' mind and talents you discovered did not fail to excite 
 
 ' my admiration. You were the man, and, I believe, the 
 
 only man, who had the honesty and sincerity to tell Sir 
 
 ' Francis Burdett that the people were no longer to be 
 
 ' made the dupes of personal ambition. Your stock of 
 
 ' information, as to the state of the country ; your elo- 
 
 ' quent and forcible description of that state ; your view 
 
 ' of the causes of the evils ; your moderate manner of 
 
 'seeking a remedy; your zeal, your industry, your dis- 
 
 ' interestedness ; in short, every thing I saw in you tend- 
 
 ' ed to give me the highest opinion of your undersandiug 
 
 ' and talents, as well as of your public spirit and virtue. 
 
 A '.'
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 " If the bars of your Dungeon will afford you light suffi- 
 " cient to read, the sight of any public paper is, I see, de- 
 " nied you ; and, therefore, you ina,y, perhaps, close your 
 " eyes for ever without knowing of what I now address to 
 <( you ; but, at any rate, it will, if that event should hap- 
 " pen, be a source of satisfaction to me to know, that I 
 " have borne this public testimony, respecting your con- 
 " duct and character." 
 
 I assure you, Sir, that I feel not a little prond at now 
 finding, that, in refusing to accept of your liberty by en- 
 tering into those recognisances, which the insolence of 
 lawless power demanded of you ; in rejecting with indig- 
 nation, the proposition to induce you to purchase your own 
 ease and safety by a seeming acquiescence in the justice 
 of the acts of our country's oppressors ; I feel not a little 
 proud, at now finding, that, in making this noble stand in 
 defence of the laws and liberties of England, you have 
 fully verified, in the face of the world, the very high opi- 
 nion which I entertained of your understanding, disinte- 
 restedness, and public spirit. But, still greater is the plea- 
 sure I experience from the reflection, that, in your con- 
 duct, the nation has now a proof, that real greatness of 
 mind belongs to those, whom the insolence of wealth, and 
 of what is called birlh, has denominated the " Lower Or- 
 der*." 
 
 The prosperity, the happiness, the freedom, the great- 
 ness, the honour of England, have, all my life long, been 
 the things nearest my heart; and, as these all depend upon 
 the restoration of those rights, for which you have so 
 bravely contended and are still contending, I most anxi- 
 ously hope, that uninterrupted health will enable you to 
 animate millions to follow your bright example. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 WM. COBBETT, 
 
 Hyde Parfc, Nort/t Hempstead, Long Island, May <2, 181
 
 TO 
 
 MR. JAMES PAUL COBBETT. 
 
 LETTER 1. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 Morlh Hempslead, Long Island, Dec. 6, 1817. 
 
 YOU have now arrived at the age of fourteen 
 years without ever having been bidden, or even 
 advised, to look into a book ; and all you know of 
 reading or of writing you owe to your own unbias- 
 sed taste and choice. But while you have lived 
 unpersecuted by such importunities, you have had 
 the very great advantage of being bred up under a 
 roof, beneath which no cards, no dice, no gaming, 
 no senseless pastime of any description, ever found 
 a place. In the absence of these, books naturally be- 
 came your companions during some part of your tirae ; 
 you have read and have written because you saw 
 your elders read and write, just as you have learn- 
 ed to ride and hunt and shoot, to dig the beds in the 
 garden, to trim the flowers and to prune the trees. 
 The healthful exercise, and the pleasures, unmixed 
 with fear, which you have derived from these 
 sources, have given you " a sound rnind in a sound 
 body," and these, says an English writer, whose 
 works you will by-and-by read, " are the greatest 
 " blessings that God can give to man." 
 
 It is true, that these are very great blessings : 
 but, mere soundness of mind, without any mental 
 acquirements, is possessed by millions ; it is an ordi- 
 nary possession ; and it gives a man no fair preten- 
 sions to merit, because he owes it to accident, and
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. Letter 
 
 not to any thing done by himself. But knowledge, 
 in any art or science, being always the fruit of ob- 
 servation, study or practice, gives, in proportion to 
 its extent and usefulness, the possessor a just claim 
 to respect. We do, indeed, often see, all the out- 
 ward marks of respect bestowed upon persons mere- 
 ly because they are rich or powerful ; but these, 
 while they are bestowed with pain, are received 
 without pleasure. They drop from the tongue or 
 beam frem the features, but have no communication 
 with the heart. They are not the voluntary offerings 
 of admiration, or of gratitude; but are extorted from 
 the hopes, the fears, the anxieties, of poverty, of 
 meanness, or of guilt. Nor is respect due to hones- 
 ty, fidelity, or to any such qualities ; because, dis- 
 honesty and perfidy are crimes. To entitle a man 
 to respect there must be something of his own do- 
 ing, beyond the bounds of his well known duties 
 and obligations. 
 
 Therefore, being extremely desirous to see you, 
 my dear James, an object of respect, I now call 
 upon you to apply your mind to the acquiring of 
 that kind of knowledge which is inseparable from 
 an acquaintance with books : for, though knowledge, 
 in every art and science, is, if properly applied, 
 worthy of praise in proportion to its extent and use- 
 fulness, there are some kinds of knowledge which 
 are justly considered as of a superior order, not 
 only because the possession of them is a proof of 
 more than ordinary industry and talent, but because 
 the application of them has naturally a more pow- 
 erful influence in the affairs and on the condition of 
 our friends, acquaintances, neighbours, and country. 
 BLAKE, the Titchfield thatcher, who broke his leg 
 into splinters in falling from a wheat-rick, was, on 
 account of the knowledge which he possessed be- 
 yond that of labourers in general, an object of re- 
 spect ; but, in its degree, and in the feelings from 
 which it arose, how different was that respect frota
 
 I. INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 the respect due to our excellent neighbour Mr. 
 BLVNDELU, who restored the leg to perfect use, 
 after six garrison and army surgeons had declared 
 that it was impossible to preserve it, and that, if the 
 leg were not cut off, the man must die within twenty- 
 four hours. It is probable, that the time of Mr. 
 Blundell was not, on this occasion, occupied more, 
 altogether, than four days and four nights ; yet, the 
 effect was, a great benefit to be enjoyed by Blake 
 for probably thirty or forty years to come : and 
 while we must see, that this benefit would neces- 
 sarily extend itself to the whole of his numerous 
 family, we must not overlook those feelings of 
 pleasure, which the cure would naturally produce 
 amongst friends, acquaintances, and neighbours. 
 
 The respect due tn the profession of the Sur- 
 geon or Physician is, however, of an order inferior 
 to that which is due to the profession of the Law ; 
 for, whether in the character of Counsellor or of 
 Judge, here are required, not only uncommon in- 
 dustry, labour, and talent, in the acquirement o 
 knowledge, but, the application of this knowledge, 
 in defending the property of the feeble or incau- 
 tious against the attacks of the strong and the 
 wiles of the crafty, in affording protection to in- 
 nocence and securing punishment to guilt, has, in 
 the affairs of men and on their condition in life, a 
 much more extensive and more powerful influence 
 than can possibly arise from the application of 
 Surgical or Medical knowledge. 
 
 To the functions of Statesmen and Legislators 
 is due the highest respect which can be shown by 
 man to any thing human ; for, not only is the in- 
 dustry, labour, and talent, requisite in the acquire- 
 ment of knowledge, still greater add far greater 
 here, than in the profession of the Law ; but, of 
 the application of this knowledge the effects ar 
 jo transcendant in point of magnjtude as to place 
 them beyond all the bounds of comparison. Here
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. Letter 
 
 it is not individual persons with their families) 
 friends, and neighbours, that are affected ; but 
 whole countries and communities. Here the mat- 
 ters to be discussed and decided on, are peace or 
 war, and the liberty or slavery, happiness or 
 misery, of nations. Here a single instance of neg- 
 lect, a single oversight, a single error, may load 
 with calamity millions of men, and entail that ca- 
 lamity on a long series of future generations. 
 
 But, my dear James, you will always bear in 
 mind, that, as the degree and quality of our re- 
 spect rise in proportion to the influence, which 
 the different branches oF knowledge naturally have 
 in the affairs and on the condition of men ; so, in 
 cases of an imperfection in knowledge, or of neg- 
 lect of its application, or of its perversion to bad 
 purposes, all the feelings which are opposite to 
 that of respect, rise in the same proportion. To 
 ignorant pretenders to Surgery and Medicine we 
 award our contempt and scorn ; on time-serving 
 or treacherous Counsellors, and on cruel, or par- 
 tial Judges, we inflict our detestation and abhor- 
 rence -. while, on rapacious, corrupt, perfidious, 
 or tyrannical Statesmen and Legislators, the voice 
 of human nature cries aloud for execration and 
 vengeance. 
 
 The particular path of knowledge, to be pur- 
 sued by you, will be of your own choosing ; but, 
 as to knowledge connected with books, there is a 
 step to be taken before you can fairly enter upon 
 any path. In the immense field of this kind of 
 knowledge, innumerable are the paths, and GRAM- 
 MAR is the gate of entrance to them all. And, if 
 grammar be so useful in the attaining of know- 
 ledge, it is absolutely necessary in order to enable 
 the possessor to communicate, by writing, that 
 knowledge to others, without which communica- 
 tion the possession must be comparatively useless
 
 1. INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 to himself in many cases, and, in almost all cases, 
 to the rest of mankind. 
 
 The actions of men proceed from their thoughts. 
 In order to obtain the co-operation, the concur- 
 rence, or the consent, of others, we must com- 
 municate our thoughts to them. The means of 
 this communication are words ; and grammar teach 
 es us how to make use of words. Therefore, in all 
 the ranks, degrees, and situations of life, a know- 
 ledge of the principles and rules of grammar must 
 be useful; in some situations it must be necessary 
 to the avoiding of really injurious errors ; and in 
 no situation, which calls on a man to place his 
 thoughts upon paper, can the possession of it fail 
 to be a source of self-gratulatiou, or the want of it 
 a cause of mortification and sorrow. 
 
 But, to theacquiringof this branch of knowledge, 
 my dear son, there is one motive, which, though 
 it ought, at all times, to be strongly felt, ought, at 
 the present time, to be so felt in an extraordinary 
 degree : I mean, that desire, which every man, 
 and especially every young man, should entertain 
 to be able to assert with effect the rights and liber- 
 ties of his country. When you come to read the 
 history of those Laws of England, by which the 
 freedom of the people has been secured, and by 
 which the happiness and power and glory of our 
 famed and beloved country have been so greatly pro- 
 moted ; when you come to read the history of the 
 struggles of our forefathers,' by which these sacred 
 Laws have, from time to time, been defended 
 against despotic ambition; by which they have 
 been restored to vigour when on the eve of perish- 
 ing; by which their violators have never failed, 
 in the end, to be made to feel the just vengeance 
 of the People ; when you come to read the history 
 of these struggles in the cause of freedom, you will 
 find, that tyranny has no enemy so formidable as 
 the pen. And, while you will see with exultation 
 
 A3
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. Letter 
 
 the long-imprisoned, the heavily-fined, the banished 
 WILLIAM PRYNNE, returning to liberty, borne by 
 the people from Southampton to London, over a 
 road strewed with flowers ; then accusing, bring- 
 ing to trial and to the block, the tyrants, from whose 
 hands he and his country had unjustly and cruelly 
 suffered ; while your heart and the heart of every 
 young man in the kingdom will bound with joy at 
 the spectacle, you ought all to bear in mind, that, 
 without a knowledge of grammar, Mr. PRYNNE 
 could never have performed any of those acts, by 
 which his name has been thus preserved, and 
 which have caused his memory to be held in 
 honour. 
 
 Though I have now said what, I am sure, will 
 be more than sufficient to make you entertain a 
 strong desire to take this first step in the road to 
 literary knowledge, I cannot conclude this intro- 
 ductory letter, without observing, that you ought to 
 proceed in your study, not only with diligence, but 
 with patience ; that, if you meet with difficulties, 
 you should bear in mind, that, to enjoy the noble 
 prospect from Port's-Down Hill, you had first to 
 climb slowly to the top ; and that, if those difficul- 
 ties gather about you and impede your way, you 
 have only to call to your recollection any one of 
 the many days that you have toiled through briers 
 and brambles and bogs, cheered and urged on by 
 the hope of at last finding and killing your game. 
 
 I have put my work into the form of Letters, in 
 order that I might be continually reminded, that I 
 was addressing myself to persons, who needed to 
 be spoken to with great clearness. I have numbered 
 the Letters themselves, and also the paragraphs, in 
 order that I might be able, in some parts of the 
 work, to refer you to, or tell you where la loot al t 
 other parts of the work. And here I will just add, 
 that a s&tt len.ce , used as a term in grammar, means one 
 f those porticos of words, which is divided from
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 the rest by a single dot, which is called a period, 
 or full point; and that a paragraph means, one of 
 those collections, or blocks, of sentences, which is 
 divided from the rest of the work by beginning 
 a new line a little_/rMcr in than the lines in gene- 
 ral ; and, of course, all this part, which I have 
 just now written, beginning with " / have put my 
 work into the form," is a paragraph. 
 
 In a confident reliance on your attentiveness, in- 
 dustry, and patience, I have a hope not less confi- 
 dent of seeing you a man of real learning, employ- 
 ing your time and talents in aiding the cause of 
 truth and justice, in affording protection to defence- 
 less innocence, and in drawing down vengeance on 
 lawless oppression ; and, in that hope, I am your 
 happy as well as affectionate father, 
 
 WILLIAM COBBETT.
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 DEFINITION OF GRAMMAR AND OF ITS DIFIEIUNT 
 BRANCHES OR PARTS. 
 
 Mv DEAR JAMES, 
 
 1. IN the foregoing Letter I have hid be- 
 fore you some of the inducements to the study of 
 Grammar. In this, I will define, or describe, the 
 thing called Grammar; and also its different 
 Branches or Parts. 
 
 2. Grammar, as I observed to you before, 
 teaches us haw to make ttse of words; that is to 
 say, it teaches us how to make use of them in a 
 proper manner, as I used to teach you how to sow 
 and plant the beds in the garden? for you could 
 have thrown about seeds and stuck in plants of 
 some sort or other, in some way or other, without 
 any teaching of mine; and so can any body, with- 
 out rules or instructions, put masses of words upon 
 paper ; but to be able to choose the words which 
 ought to be employed, and to place them where 
 they ought to be placed, we must become acquaint- 
 ed with certain principles and rules; and these 
 principles and rales constitute what is called 
 Grammar. 
 
 3. Nor must you suppose, by-and-by, when 
 you come to read about Nouns and Verbs and Pro- 
 nouns, that all this tends to nothing but mere orna- 
 mental learning, that it is not altogether necessary, 
 and that people may write to be understood very 
 well without it. This is not the case ; for with- 
 out a pretty perfect knowledge relative to these 
 same Nouns and Verbs, those who write are never 
 sure that they put upon paper what they mean to 
 put upon paper. I will, before the close of these
 
 14 DEFINITION OF Letter 
 
 letters, show you, that even very learned men 
 have frequently written and caused to be publish- 
 ed, not only what they did not mean, but the very 
 contrary of what they meant; and if errors, such 
 as are here spoken of, are sometimes committed by 
 learned men, into what endless errors must those 
 fall, who have no knowledge of any principles or 
 rules, by the observance of which the like may 
 be avoided ? Grammar, perfectly understood, ena- 
 bles us, not only to express our meaning fully and 
 clearly, but so to express it as to enable us to defy 
 the ingenuity of man to give to our words any other 
 meaning than that which we ourselves intend them 
 to express. This, therefore, is a science of sub- 
 stantial utility. 
 
 4. As to the different Branches or Paris, of 
 Grammar, they are usually divided into/<?r ; and 
 they are thus named : Orthography, Prosody , Ety- 
 mology^ and Syntax. 
 
 5. There are two of these branches, on which 
 we have very little to say, and the names of which 
 have been kept in use from an unwillingness to 
 give up the practice of former times ; but, as it is 
 usual to give them a place, in books of this kind, 
 I will explain to you the nature of all the four 
 Branches. 
 
 6. ORTHOGRAPHY is a word made up o-f two 
 Greek words, which mean word-making^ or spelling. 
 The use of foreign words, in this manner,, was 
 introduced at the time when the English Language 
 was in a very barbarous state; and, though this 
 use has been continued, it ought to be a rule with 
 you, akvays, when you either write or speak, to 
 avoid the use of any foreign or uncommon word, if 
 you can express your meaning as fully and clearly 
 by an English word in common use. However, 
 Qrlhograpliy means neither more nor less than the 
 very humble business of putting Letters together 
 properly, so that they shall form Words* This is
 
 II. GRAMMAR AND ITS BRANCHES. 15 
 
 so very childish a concern, that I will not appear 
 to suppose it necessary for me to dwell upon it ; 
 but, as you will, by-and-by, meet with some di- 
 rections, under the head of Etymology, in which 
 directions Vowels and Consonants will be spoken of, 
 I will here, for form's sake, just observe, that the 
 letters A, E, I, O, and U, are Vowels.. Y, in cer- 
 tain cases, is also a Vowel. All the rest of the 
 letters of the alphabet are Consonants, 
 
 7. PROSODY is a word taken from the Greek 
 Language, and it means neither more nor less 
 than what is expressed by the more common 
 word PRONUNCIATION; that is to say, the 
 business of using the proper sound and employing 
 the due length of lime, in the uttering of syllables 
 and words. This is a matter, however, which 
 ought not to occupy much of your attention ; be- 
 cause pronunciation is learnt as birds leara to chirp 
 and sing. In some counties of England many 
 words are pronounced in a manner different from 
 that in which they are pronounced in other coun- 
 ties; and, between the pronunciation of Scotland 
 and that of Hampshire the difference is very great 
 indeed. But, while all inquiries into the causes 
 of these differences are useless, and all attempts 
 to remove them are vain, the differences are of 
 very little real consequence. For instance, though 
 the Scotch say coorn, the Londoners cawn, and 
 the Hampshire folks earn, we know that they all 
 mean to say corn. Children will pronounce as 
 their fathers and mothers pronounce ; and if, in 
 common conversation, or in speeches, the matter 
 be good and judiciously arranged, the facts clearly 
 stated, the arguments conclusive, the words well 
 chosen and properly placed, hearers, whose ap- 
 probation is worth having, will pay very little at- 
 tention to the accent. In short, it is sense, and 
 not sound, which is the object of your pursuit; 
 and ; therefore, I have said enough about Prosody.
 
 16 DEFINITION OF Letter 
 
 8. ETYMOLOGY is a very different matter; 
 and, under this head, you will enter on your study. 
 This is a word, which has been formed out of two 
 Greek words; and it means, the pedigree, or re- 
 lationship of words, or, the manner in which one 
 word grows out of, or comes from, another word. 
 For instance, the word walk expresses an action, 
 or movement, of our legs ; but, in some cases we 
 say walks, in others walked, in others walking. 
 These three latter words are all different from 
 each other, and they all differ from the original 
 word, walk ; but, the action, or movement, ex- 
 pressed by each of the four, is precisely the same 
 sort of action, or movement, and the three latter 
 words grow out of, or come from, the first. The 
 words here mentioned differ from each other with 
 regard to the letters of which they are composed. 
 This difference is made in order to express dif- 
 ferences as to the Persons who walk, as to the 
 Number of persons, as to the Time of walking. 
 You will come, by-and-by, to the principles and 
 rules, according to which the varying of the spel- 
 ling of words is made to correspond with these 
 and other differences ; and these principles and 
 rules constitute what is called Etymology. 
 
 9. SYNTAX is a word, which comes from the 
 Greek. It means, in that language, the joining 
 ofseverallhingslogeih.fr; and, as used by gram- 
 marians, it means those principles and rules, which 
 teach us how to put words together so as to form 
 sentences. It means, in short, sentence -making. 
 Having been taught by the rules of Etymology, 
 what are the relationships of words, how words 
 grow out of each other, how they are varied in 
 their letters in order to correspond with the va- 
 riation in the circumstances to which they apply, 
 Syntax will teach you how to give to all your 
 words their proper situation or place, when you 
 come to put them together into sentences. And
 
 II. GRAMMAR -AND ITS BRANCHES. 17 
 
 here you will have to do with points as well as 
 with words. The points are four in number, the 
 Comma, the Semi- Colon, the Colon, and the/fen'orf. 
 Besides these Points, there are certain marks, 
 such as the mark of interrogation, for instance ; 
 and, to use these points and marks properly is, 
 as you will by-and-by find, a matter of very great 
 importance. 
 
 10. I have now given you a description of Gram- 
 mar and of its separate Branches, or Parts. I have 
 shown you, that the two first of these Branches 
 may be dismissed without any further notice ; but, 
 very different indeed is the case with regard to the 
 two latter. Each of these will require several Let- 
 ters ; and those Letters will contain matter, which 
 it will be impossible to understand without the 
 greatest attention. You must read soberly and 
 slowly, and you must think as you read. You must 
 not hurry on from one Letter to another, as if you 
 were reading a history ; but you must have pa- 
 tience to get, if possible, at a clear comprehension 
 of one part of the subject before you proceed to 
 another part. When I was studying the French 
 language, the manner, in which I proceeded, was 
 this : when I had attentively read over, three times-, 
 a lesson, or other division of my Grammar, I wrote 
 the , lesson down upon a loose sheet of paper. I 
 then read it again several times in my own hand 
 writing. Then I copied it, in a very plain hand, 
 and without a blot, into a book, which I had made 
 for the purpose. But, if, in writing my lesson 
 down on a loose sheet of paper, I committed one 
 single error, however trifling, I used to tear the 
 paper, and write the whole down again ; and, fre- 
 quently, this occurred three or four times in the 
 writing down of one lesson. I, at first, found this 
 labour very irksome; but, having imposed it on 
 myself as a duty, I faithfully discharged that duty; 
 and long before I had proceeded half the way
 
 18 ETYMOLOGY, Letter 
 
 through my grammar, I experienced all the bene- 
 fits of my industry and perseverance. 
 
 LETTER 'III. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY. 
 
 The different Parts of Speech, or, Sorts of Words* 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 1 1 . IN the second Letter I have given you 
 a description of Etymology, and shown you, that 
 it treats of the pedigree, or relations/lip, of words, 
 of the nature of which relationship I have given 
 you a specimen in the word, walk. The next 
 thing is to teach yon the principles and rules, ac- 
 cording to which the spelling and employing of 
 words is varied in order to express the various 
 circumstances attending this relationship. But, 
 before I enter on this part of my instructions, I 
 must inform you, that there are several distinct sorts 
 of words, or, as they are usually called, Purls of 
 Speech; and, it will be necessary for you to he 
 able, before you proceed further, to distinguish 
 the words, belonging to each of these Parts of 
 Speech, from those, belonging to the other Parts, 
 There are J\[ine Parts of Speech, and they are 
 
 thus : 
 
 ARTICLES, 
 
 NOUNS, 
 
 PRONOUNS, 
 
 ADJECTIVES, 
 
 VERBS, 
 
 ADVERBS, 
 
 PREPOSITIONS, 
 
 CONJUNCTIONS, 
 
 INTERJECTIONS.
 
 III. PARTS OF SPEECH. 19 
 
 12. Before the serjeant begins to teach young 
 soldiers their exercise of the musket, he explains 
 to them the different parts of it; the butt, the 
 stock, the barrel, the loops, the swivels, and so 
 on ; because, unless they know these by their 
 names, they cannot know how to obey his instruc- 
 tions in the handling of the musket. Sailors, for 
 the same reason, are told which is the tiller, which 
 are the yards, which the shrouds, which the 
 tacks, which the sheets, which the booms, and 
 which each and every part of the ship. Appren- 
 tices are taught the names of all the tools used in 
 their trade ; and Plough-boys the names of the 
 various implements of husbandry. This species 
 of preliminary knowledge is absolutely necessary 
 in all these callings of life; but not more necessary 
 than it is for you to learn, before you go any fur- 
 ther, how to know the sorts of words one from 
 another. To teach you this, therefore, is the ob- 
 ject of the present Letter. 
 
 13. ARTICLES. There are but three in our 
 language; and these are, the, an, and a. Indeed, 
 there are but two, because an and a are the same 
 word, the latter being only an abbreviation, or a 
 shortening, of the former. I shall, by-and-by, give 
 you rules for the using of these Articles; but, my 
 business in this place is only to teach you how to 
 know one sort of words from another sort of 
 words. 
 
 14. NOUNS. The word noun means name, and 
 nothing more ; and Nouns are the names oj persons 
 and. tilings. As far as persons and other animals and 
 things that we can see go, it is very easy to dis- 
 tinguish Nouns; but, there are many Nouns, 
 which express what we can neither see, nor hear, 
 nor touch. For example : Conscience, Vanity , 
 Vice, Sobriety, Steadiness, Valour; and a great 
 number of others. Grammarians, anxious to give 
 some easy rule, by which the scholar might dis-
 
 20 ETYMOLOGY. Letter 
 
 tinguish nouns from other words, have directed 
 him to put the words, the good, before any word ; 
 and have told him, that, if the three words make 
 sense, the last word is a noun. This is frequently 
 the case ; as, the good house, the good dog ; but, 
 the good sobriety would not appear to be very good 
 sense. In fact, there is no rule of this kind that 
 will answer the purpose. You must employ your 
 mind in order to arrive at the knowledge here de- 
 sired. 
 
 15. Every word which stands for a person or 
 any animal, or for any thing of substance, dead or 
 alive, is a Noun. So far the matter is very easy. 
 Thus, man, cat, tree, log, are Nouns. But, when 
 we come to the words which are the names of 
 things, and which things are not substances, the 
 matter is not so easy ; and it requires a little sober 
 thought. This word, thought, for example, is a 
 Noun. 
 
 16. The only sure rule is this: that a word, 
 which stands for any thing that has an existence, is 
 a Noun. For example, Pride, Folly, Thought^ 
 Misery, fritlh, Falsehood, Opinion, Sentiment. 
 None of these have any substance. You cannot see 
 them, or touch them; but, they all have an ex- 
 istence. They all exist in the world ; and, there- 
 fore, the words which represent them, or stand 
 for them, are called Nouns. If you be still a 
 little puzzled here, you must not be impatient. 
 You will find the difficulty disappear in a short 
 time, if you exert your powers ol thinking. Ask 
 yourself what existence means. You will find that 
 the words, very, for, think, but, pretty, do not ex- 
 press any thing which has an existence, or a being ; 
 but, that the words, motive, zeal, pity, kindness, 
 do express things which have a being, or ex- 
 istence. 
 
 17. PRONOUNS. Words of this sort stand in 
 the place of Nouns. Their name is from the Latin.
 
 HI. PARTS OF SPEECH. 21 
 
 and it means For-nouns, or Far-names ; that is to 
 say, these words, called Pronouns, are usedyor, or 
 instead of, Nouns. He, She, Her, Him, Who, 
 for example, are Pronouns. The use of them is 
 to prevent the repetition of Nouns, and to make 
 speaking and writing more rapid and less encumi- 
 bered with words. An example will make this 
 clear to you in a minute. Thus : 
 
 18. A woman went to a man, and told him, 
 that he was in great danger of iieing murdered by a 
 gang of robbers, who had made preparations for at- 
 tacking /'/. He thanked her for her kindness, 
 and, as he was unable to defend himself, he left his 
 house, and went to a neighbour's. 
 
 19. Now, if there were no pronouns, this set*- 
 tence must be written as follows : A woman went 
 to a man, and told the man, that the man was in 
 great danger of being murdered by a gang of rob- 
 bers ; as a gang of robbers had made preparations 
 for attacking, the man. f/ie man thanked the wo<- 
 man for the woman's kindness, and, as the mart 
 was unable to defend the man's self, the man left 
 the man's house, and went to a neighbour's. 
 
 20. There are several different classes of Pro- 
 nouns ; but, of this, and of the manner of using 
 Pronouns, you will be informed by-and-by. All 
 that I aim at here is, to enable you to form a clear 
 idea with regard to the difference in the sorts of 
 words, or Parts of Speech. 
 
 21. ADJECTIVES. The word Adjective comes 
 from the word Adject, which means, to add to, to 
 join to, to put to ; and the word Adjective, in its 
 
 full literal sense, means, something added to some- 
 thing else. Therefore this term is used in grammar 
 as the name of that Part of Speech, which consists 
 of words, which are added, or put, to Nouns, in 
 order to express something relating to the Nouns, 
 which something could not be expressed without 
 the help of Adjectives. For instance, there are
 
 22 ETYMOLOGY. Letter 
 
 several turkeys in the yard, some black, some 
 white, some speckled ; and, then, there are large 
 ones and small ones of all the colours. I want you 
 to go and catch a turkey ; but I also want you to 
 catch a -white turkey, and not only a white turkey 
 but a large turkey. Therefore, I add, or put to 
 the Noun, the words while and large, which, 
 therefore, are called Adjectives. 
 
 22. Adjectives sometimes express the qualities 
 of the Nouns to which they are put ; and this be- 
 ing very frequently their use, some grammarians 
 have thrown aside the word Adjective, and have 
 called words of this sort, Qualities. But, this 
 name is not sufficiently comprehensive; for there 
 are many words, which are Adjectives, which have 
 nothing to do with the quality of the Nouns to 
 which they are put. Good and bad express quali- 
 ties, but long and short merely express dimension, 
 or duration, without giving any intimation as to the 
 quality of the things expressed by the Nouns to 
 which they are put; and yet, long and short are 
 Adjectives. You must read very attentively here, 
 and consider soberly. You must keep in mind the 
 above explanation of the meaning of the word Ad- 
 jective ; and, if you also bear in mind, that words 
 of this sort always express some quality, some pro- 
 perty, some appearance, or some distinctive cir- 
 cumstance, belonging to the Nouns to which thejr 
 are put, you will very easily, and in a very short 
 space of time, be able to distinguish an Adjective 
 from words belonging to any other Part of Speech. 
 
 23. VERBS. Grammarians appear to have been 
 at a loss in discovering a suitable appellation for 
 riiis important sort of words, or Part of Speech ; 
 for, the word, Verb^ means nothing more than 
 Word. In the Latin it is verbum, in the French 
 it is verbe ; and the French in their Bible, say 
 La Verle^ where we say The Word. The truth 
 is, that there are so many properties and circura-
 
 HI. TARTS OF SPEECH. 23 
 
 stances, so many and such different powers and 
 functions, belonging to this Part of Speech, that 
 the mind of man is unable to bring the whole of 
 them into any short and precise description. The 
 first grammar that I ever looked into told me, that 
 " a Verb is a word which signifies, to do, to be t 
 or to suffer." What was I to understand from this 
 laconic account? 
 
 24. Verbs express all the different actions and 
 movements of all creatures and of all things, whe- 
 ther alive or dead. As, for instance, to speak, to 
 bark, to grow, to moulder, to crack, to crumble, 
 and the like. In all these cases there is movement 
 clearly understood. But, in the cases of, to think, 
 to reflect, to remember, to like, to detest, and in. 
 an infinite number of cases, the movement is not 
 so easy to perceive. Yet these are all verbs, and 
 they do indeed express movements which we at- 
 tribute to the mind or the heart. But what shall 
 we say in the cases of to sit, to sleep, to rot, and 
 the like? Still these are all verbs. 
 
 25. Verbs are, then, a sort of words, the use of 
 which is to express the actions, the movements, and 
 the state or manner of being, of all creatures and 
 things, whether animate or inanimate. In speak- 
 ing with reference to a man, to fight is an action; 
 to reflect is a movement; to sit is a state of 
 being. 
 
 26. Of the manner of using verbs you will hear 
 a great deal by-and-by; but, what I have here 
 said will) if you read attentively, and take time to 
 consider, be sufficient to enable you to distinguish 
 Verbs from the words which belong to the other 
 Parts of Speech. 
 
 27. ADVERBS are so called because the words 
 which belong to this part of Speech are added to 
 verbs. But this is an inadequate description ; for, 
 as you will presently see, they are sometimes 
 otherwise employed. You have seen, that Verbs
 
 24 ETYMOLOGY. Letter 
 
 express actions, movements, and slates of being ; 
 and it is very frequently the use of adverbs to 
 express the manner of actions, movements, and 
 states of being. Thus : the man fights bravely ; 
 he reflects profoundly; he sits quietly. In these 
 instances the adverbs perform an office and ace 
 placed in a situation which fully justify the name 
 that has been given to this sort of words. But 
 there are many adverbs, which do not express the 
 manner of actions, movements, or states of being, 
 and which are not added to Verbs. For instance : 
 " When you sow small seeds, make the earth very 
 " fine, and if it have, of tale, been dry weather, 
 " take care to press the earth extremely hard upon 
 " the seeds." Here are four adverbs, but only 
 the last of the four expresses any thing connected 
 with a verb. This shows, that the name of this 
 class of words does not fully convey to our minds a 
 description of their use. 
 
 28. However, with this name you must be con- 
 tent ; but, you must bear in mind, that there are 
 adverbs of time, of place, and of degree^ as well 
 as of manner; and that their business is to ex- 
 press, or describe, some circumstances in addition 
 to all that is expressed by the Nouns, Adjectives, 
 and Verbs. In the above sentence for example, 
 the words when, very, of late, and extremely, add 
 greatly to the precept, which, without them, would 
 lose much of its force. 
 
 29. PREPOSITIONS. The prepositions are 
 in, to, for, from, of, by, with, into, against, at, 
 and several others. They are called Prepositions, 
 from two Latin words, meaning before and place ; 
 and this name is given them because they are in 
 most cases placed before Nouns and Pronouns: as, 
 " Indian Corn is sown in May. In June and the 
 " three following months, it is carefully cultivated. 
 " When ripe, in October, it is gathered in the 
 " field, by men who go from hill to hill with bas-
 
 III. PARTS OK SPEECH. 25 
 
 " kets, into which they put the ears. The leaves 
 *' and stalks are then collected for winter -use; 
 " and, they not only serve as food for cattle and 
 " sheep, but are excellent in the making of sheds 
 " to protect animals against the inclemency of the 
 " weather." 
 
 30. Prepositions are not very numerous, and, 
 though you will be taught to be very careful in 
 using them, the above sentence will be quite suf- 
 ficient to enable you to know the words belonging 
 to this Part of Speech from the words belonging to 
 any other Part of Speech. 
 
 31. CONJUNCTIONS are so called, because 
 they conjoin or join together, words, or parts of 
 sentences : as, " Peas and Beans may be severed 
 " from the ground before they be quite dry ; but 
 " they must not be put into stacks or barns until 
 " perfectly dry ;for t if they be, they will mould." 
 The word and joins together the words Peas and 
 Beaus, and, by the means of this junction, makes 
 all the remaining part of the sentence apply to 
 both. The word but connects the first with the 
 second member of the sentence. The word for t 
 which is sometimes a conjunction, performs, in this 
 case, the same office as the word but : it continues 
 the connexion; and thus does every part of the 
 sentence apply to each of the two nouns, which 
 are the subject of it. 
 
 32. INTERJECTIONS. This name comes 
 from two Latin words: inter, which means be- 
 t-ween, andjection, which means something thrown. 
 So that, the full literal meaning of the word is, 
 something thrown between. The Interjections are 
 Ah ! Oh ! Alas ! and such like, which, indeed, are 
 not words, because they have no definite meaning. 
 They are mere sounds, and they have been men- 
 tioned by me, merely because other grammarians 
 have considered them as being a Part of Speech.
 
 26 ETYMOLOCT Letter 
 
 But, this one notice of them will be quite suf- 
 ficient. 
 
 33. Thus, then, you are now able to distinguish, 
 in many cases, at least, to what Part of Speech be- 
 longs each of the several words which may come un- 
 der your observation. I shall now proceed to the 
 Etymology of each of these parts of Speech. As 
 we have done with the Interjections, there will re- 
 main only eight Parts to treat of, and this I shall 
 do in eight Letters, allotting one Letter to each 
 Part of Speech. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF ARTICLES. 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 34. IN Letter III, paragraph 13, you have 
 seen what sort of words ARTICLES are; that is to 
 say, you have there learnt how to distinguish the 
 words belonging to this Part of Speech from words 
 belonging to other Parts of Speech. You must 
 now turn to Letter II, paragraph 8. Having read 
 what you find there under the head of Etymology, 
 you will see at once, that my business, in this 
 present Letter, is, to teach you those principles 
 and rules, according to which Articles are varied 
 in order to make them suit the different circum- 
 stances which they are used to express. 
 
 35. You have seen, that there are but three ar- 
 ticles; namely A or AN, and THE. The two 
 former are, in fact, the same word, but, of this I 
 shall say more presently. They are called indefi- 
 nite Articles, because they do not define, or deter- 
 mine, what particular object is spoken of. The 
 Nouns, to which they are prefixed, only serve to
 
 IV. or ARTICLES. 27 
 
 point out the sort of person or thing spoken of, 
 without defining what person or what thing; as, 
 A tree is blown down. From this we learn that 
 some tree is blown down, but not what tree. But, 
 the definite Article, THE, determines the particu- 
 lar object of which we speak; as, the tree, which 
 stood close beside the barn, is blown down. In thi 
 last instance, we are not only informed that a 
 tree is blown down, but the sentence also informs 
 us what particular tree it is. This article is used 
 before nouns in the plural as well as before nouns 
 in the singular number. It is sometimes used be- 
 fore words expressive of degrees of comparison : 
 as, (he best, the worst, the highest, the lowest. When 
 we use a noun in the singular number to express 
 a whole species, or sort, we use the definite arti- 
 cle: thus, we say, the oak is a fine tree, when we 
 mean, that oaks are fine trees. 
 
 36. The Article A becomes AN when this arti- 
 cle comes immediately before any word which be- 
 gins with a vowel. This is for the sake of the 
 sound; as ; , an adder, an elephant, an inch, an oily 
 teed, an vglij hat. The word an is also used be- 
 fore words which begin with an h which is mule, 
 that is to say, which, though used in writing, is not 
 sounded in speaking ; as, an hour. This little va- 
 riation in the article is, as I said before, for the 
 sake of the sound ; for, it would be very disagree- 
 able to say, a adder, a elephant, a inch, a oily seed 
 a ugly hat, a hour, and the like. But, a is used, 
 in the usual way, before words, which begin with 
 an h which is sounded in speaking; as, a horse, a 
 hair, and the like. The indefinite article can 
 be used before nouns in the singular number only. 
 There is a seeming exception to this rule in cases 
 where the words Jew and many come before ihe 
 noun : as a few horses ; a great many horses : but, 
 in reality, this is not an exception, because the 
 words /Mf and many, mean number ; thus : a smalt 
 K >
 
 28 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 number of horses-; a great number of horses; and 
 the indefinite article agrees with this word number, 
 which is understood, and which is in the singu- 
 lar. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF NOUNS. 
 
 37. THIS, my Dear James, is a Letter of great 
 importance, and, therefore, it will require great 
 attention from you. Before you proceed further, 
 you will again look well at Letter II, paragraph 8, 
 and then at Letter III, paragraphs 14, 15, and 1 6, 
 and there read carefully every thing under the 
 head of Nouns. 
 
 38. Now, then, as Letter III. has taught you 
 how to distinguish Nouns from the words which 
 belong to the other Parts of Speech, the business 
 here is to teach you the principles and rules, ac- 
 cording to which Nouns are to be varied in the let- 
 ters of which they are composed, according to 
 which they are to be used, and according to which 
 they are to be considered in their bearings upon 
 other words in the sentences in which they are used. 
 
 89. In a Noun there are to be considered, the 
 branches, the numbers, the genders, and the cases ; 
 and all these must be attended to very carefully. 
 
 40. THE BRANCHES. There are two; for 
 Nouns are some of them PROPER and some COMMON. 
 A Noun is called propir, when it is used to distin- 
 guish one particular individual from the rest of the 
 individuals of the same species, or kind ; as, James, 
 Bolley, Hampshire. The Noun is called common, 
 when it applies to all individuals of a kind ; as 
 Man, Village, County. Bolley is a proper Noun, 
 because all villages have not this name ; but Vil-
 
 V. OF NOUNS. 29 
 
 lage is a common Noun, because all villages are 
 called by that name : the name is common to them 
 all. Several persons have the name of James, to 
 be sure, and there is a Hampshire in America as 
 well as in England ; but, still, these are proper 
 names, because the former is not common to all 
 men, nor the latter to all counties. Proper nouns 
 take no articles before them, because the extent of 
 their meaning is clearly pointed out in the word 
 itself. In figurative language, of which you will 
 know more by-and-by, we sometimes, however, 
 use the article ; as, "Goldsmith is a very pretty 
 " poet, but not to be compared to the Popes, the 
 " Drydens,or the Otways." And, again; " I wish 
 I had the wit of a Swijt." We also use the definite 
 article before proper nouns when a common noun 
 is understood to be left out; as, The Delaware; 
 meaning the River Delaware. Also when we speak 
 of more than one person of the same name ; as, 
 " the Henries, the Edwards." 
 
 41. THE NUMBERS. These are the Singular 
 and the Plural. The singular is the original word ; 
 and, in general, the Plural is formed by adding an 
 5 to the singular ; as dog, dogs. But, though the 
 greater part of our Nouns form their plurals from 
 the singular in this simple manner, there are many 
 which do not ; while there are some Nouns which 
 have no plural number at all, and some which have 
 no singular. Therefore, considering the above 
 to be the FIRST RULE, I shall add other rules with 
 regard to the Nouns which do not follow that rule. 
 THE SECOND RULE. Nouns, the singular num- 
 bers of which end in ch, sh, s, or x, require es to be 
 added in order to form their plural number; as 
 church, churches; brush, brushes; lass, lasses ;fox 9 
 foxes. THE THIRD RULE is, that Nouns, which 
 end in y, when they has a consonant coming imme- 
 diately before it, change the y into ies in forming 
 their plurals ; as, quantity, quantities. But, you
 
 30 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 must mind, that, if they be not immediately pre- 
 ceded by a consonant, the words follow the First 
 Rule, and take only an s in addition to their singu- 
 lar ; as, day, days. I am the more anxious to 
 guard you against error as to this matter, because 
 it is very common to see men of high rank and pro- 
 fession writing, vallies, vollies, attornifs, corres- 
 pondencies, conveniences, and the like, and yet all 
 these are erroneous. THE FOURTH RULE is, that 
 Nouns which end in a single/, or infe, form their 
 plurals by changing the/, or/<?, into ves ; as, loaf, 
 loaves ; wife, wires. But, this rule has exceptions 
 in the followingwords, which follow thtfirstRule : 
 Dwarf, mischief, handkerchief, chief, relief, grief. 
 The two last are seldom used in the plural num- 
 ber ; but, as they sometimes are, I have included 
 them. TheFiFTiiRuLE is,thatthefollowingNouns 
 have their plural in en : man, men ; woman, wo- 
 men ; ox, oxen ; child, children. And brethren it 
 used sometimes as the plural of brother. Th* 
 SIXTH RULE is, that all which nature, or art, or 
 habit, has made plural has no singular ; as ashes, 
 annals, bellows, bowels, thanks, breeches, en-frails, 
 lungs, scissors, snuffers, longs, wages, and some 
 others. There are also some nouns which have 
 no plural, such as those which express the quali- 
 ties or propensities or feelings of the mind or 
 heart ; as, huncsly, meekness, compassion. There 
 are, further, several names of herbs, metals, mi- 
 nerals, liquids, and of fleshy substances, which 
 have no plurals ; to which may be added the names 
 ef almost all sorts of grain. There are exceptions 
 here ; for, while Wheat has no plural, Outs have 
 seldom any singular. But all these words, and 
 others which are irregular in a similar way, are of 
 such very common use, that you will hardly ever 
 make a mistake in applying them ; for I will not 
 suppose it possible for my dear James to fall into 
 cither the company or the language of those per-
 
 V. OF NOUNS. 31 
 
 sons, who talk, and even write, about Barleys, 
 Wheats, Clovers, Flours, Grasses, and Malls. 
 There remain to be noticed, however, some words, 
 which are too irregular in the forming their plu- 
 rals to be brought under any distinct head even of 
 irregularity. I will, therefore, insert these as 
 they are used in both numbers. 
 
 SINGULAR. PLURAL. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 
 
 Die, Dice. Goose, Geese. 
 
 Mouse, Mice. Penny, Pence. 
 
 Louse, Lice. Tooth, Teeth. 
 
 Deer, Deer. Foot, Feet. 
 
 42. THE GENDERS. In the French language, 
 and many other languages, every noun is of the 
 masculine or of the feminine gender. Hand, for 
 instance, is of the feminine and arm of the mas- 
 culine, pen of the feminine and paper of the mas- 
 culine. This is not the case with our language, 
 which, in this respect, has followed the order of 
 nature. The names of all males are of the mas- 
 culine gender ; the names of all females are of the 
 feminine gender; and all other nouns are of the 
 neuter gender. And, you must observe, that, 
 even in speaking of living creatures, of which we 
 do not know the gender, we consider them to 
 be of the neuter. In strictness of language, we 
 could not, perhaps, apply the term gender to 
 things destitute of all sexual properties; but, as 
 it is applied with perfect propriety in the case of 
 males and females, and, as the application in the 
 case of inanimate or vegetable matter can lead to 
 no grammatical error, I have thought it best to 
 follow, in this respect, the example of other gram- 
 marians. It may be said, that the rule, which I 
 have here laid down, as being without any excep- 
 tion, has many exceptions ; for, that, in speaking
 
 32 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 of a ship, we say she and her. And, you know, 
 that our country folks in Hampshire call almost 
 every thing he or she. Sailors hare, for ages, 
 called their vessels shes, and it has been found 
 easier to adopt, than to eradicate, the vulgarism, 
 which is not only tolerated but cherished by that 
 just admiration, in which our country holds the 
 species of skill and of valour, to which it owes 
 much of its greatness and renown. It is curious 
 to observe, that country labourers give the fe- 
 minine appellations to those things only which 
 are more closely identified with themselves, ad 
 by the qualities and condition of which their own 
 efforts and their character as workmen are af- 
 fected. The mower calls his scythe a she; the 
 ploughman calls his plough a she ; but a prong, or 
 a shovel, or a harrow, which passes promiscu- 
 ously from hand to hand, and which is appropriat- 
 ed to no particular labourer, is called a he. It 
 \vas, doubtless, from this sort of habitual attach- 
 ment that our famous maritime solecism arose. 
 The deeds of labourers in the fields and of artisans 
 in their shops are not of public interest sufficiently 
 commanding to enable them to break in upon the 
 principles of language ; if they were, we should 
 soon have as many hes and shes as the French, or 
 any other nation in the world. 
 
 43. While, however, I lay down this rule as 
 required by strict grammatical correctness, I 
 must not omit to observe, that the licence allowed 
 to figurative language enables us to give the mas- 
 culine or feminine gender to inanimate objects. 
 This has been justly regarded as a great advantage 
 in our language. We can, whenever our subject 
 will justify it, transform into masculine or feminine, 
 nouns which are, strictly speaking, neuter ; and, 
 thus, by giving the functions of life to inanimate 
 bjects, enliven and elevate our style, and give
 
 V. OF NOUNS. S3 
 
 to our expressions great additional dignity and 
 force. 
 
 44. THE CASES OF NOUNS. The word case, as 
 applied to the concerns of life, has a variety of 
 meanings, or of different shades of meaning ; but, 
 its general meaning is, stale of things, or state of 
 something. Thus we say, " in that case, I agree 
 with you." Meaning, " that being the state of 
 things, or that being the stale of the matter, I agree 
 with you." Lawyers are said " to make out their 
 case; or not to make out their case:" meaning the 
 slate of the matter, which they have undertaken to 
 prove. So, when we say, that a horse is in good 
 case, we mean that he is in a good state. Nouns 
 may be in different states, or situations, as to othfir 
 nouns, or other words. For instance, a noun may 
 be the name of a person who strikes a horse, or of 
 a person who possesses a horse, or of a person 
 whom a horse kicks. And these different situations, 
 or states, are, therefore, called cases. 
 
 45. You will not quite fully comprehend the 
 use of these directions till you come to the Letter 
 on Verbs; but, it is necessary to explain here the 
 nature of these cases, in order that you may be pre- 
 pared well for the use of the terms, when I come to 
 speak of the Verbs. In the Latin language each 
 noun has several different endings, in order to de- 
 Jiote the different Cases in which it may be. In our 
 language there is but one of the Cases of nouns 
 which is expressed or denoted by a change in the 
 ending of the noun; and of this change I will 
 speak presently. 
 
 46. There are three Cases ; the Nominative, the 
 Possessive, and the Objective. A noun is in the 
 Nominative case, when it denotes a person, or 
 thing, which does something or is something ; as, 
 Richard strikes ; Richard is good. 
 
 47. A noun is ui the Possessive case when it 
 .names a person or thHng which possesses some other 
 
 B 3
 
 34 etYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 person or thing, or when there is One of the per- 
 sons or things belonging to the other ; as, Richard- s 
 hat; the mountain's lop; the nation's fleet. Here 
 Richard, mountain, and nation, are in the posses- 
 sive case, because they denote persons or things 
 which possess other persons or things, or have 
 other persons or things belonging to them. And 
 here is that change in the ending of the noun, of 
 which I spoke above. You see that Richatd, 
 mountain, and nation, has, each of them, an 5 
 added to it, and a mark of elision over; that is to 
 say, a comma, placed above the line, between the 
 last letter of the word and the s. This is done 
 for the purpose of distinguishing this case from 
 the plural number; or, at least, it answers this 
 purpose in all cases where the plural of the noun 
 would end in an s; though there are different opi- 
 nions as to the origin of its use. In nouns, which 
 do not end their plurals in s, the mark of elision 
 would not appear to be absolutely necessary. We 
 might write mans mind, womdns heart; but it is 
 best to use the mark of elision. When plural 
 nouns end with 5, you must not add an 5 to form 
 the possessive case, but put the elision mark only 
 after the 5, which ends the noun ; as, mountains' 
 tops; nations' fleets ; lasses' charms. Observe, 
 however, that, in every instance, the possessive 
 case may be expressed by a turn of the words: 
 as, the hat of Richard; the lop of the mountain ; 
 Ike fleet of the nation ; the mind of man ; and so 
 on. The nouns, notwithstanding this turn of the 
 words, are still in the possessive case 5 and, as to 
 when one mode of expression is best, and when 
 the other, it is a matter which must be left to 
 taste. 
 
 48. A noun Is in the objective case, when the 
 person or thing that it names or denotes is the 
 object, or end, of some act or of some movement, 
 i' some kind or other; Richard strikes Pder ;
 
 V. OF NOUNS. 35 
 
 Richard gave a blow to Peter; Richard goes after 
 Peter ; Richard hales Peter ; Richard wants arms; 
 Richard seeks after fame ; falsehood leads to mis- 
 chief ; oppression produces resistance; idleness is 
 the nurse of vice. Here you see, that all these 
 nouns in the objective case, are the object, the end, 
 or the effect, of something done or felt by some per- 
 son or thing, and which other person, or thing, is 
 in the nominative case. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 ETYMOLOGY OF PRONOUNS. 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 49. YOU will now refer to paragraphs 17, 
 18 and 19, in Letter III; which paragraphs will re- 
 freshen your memory as to the general nature and 
 use of Pronouns. Then, in proceeding to become 
 well acquainted with this part of speech, you will 
 first observe, that there are four classes, or de- 
 scriptions, of Pronouns : first, the Personal ; se- 
 cond, the Relative; third, the Demonstrative; and, 
 fourth, the Indefinite. 
 
 50. In PERSONAL PRONOUNS there are 
 four things to be considered ; the person, the num- 
 ber, the gender, and the case. 
 
 5 1 . There are three persons. The pronoun 
 which represents, or stands in the place of the 
 name of the person who speaks, is called the first 
 person ; that which stands in the place of the name 
 of the person who is spoken to, is called the second 
 person ; that which stands in the place of the name 
 of the person who is spoken of, is called the third 
 person. For example : " / am asking you about 
 " him." This circumstance of person you will,
 
 36 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 by-and-by, find to be of great moment ; because, 
 as you will see, the verbs vary their endings some- 
 times to correspond with the person of the pro- 
 noun; and, therefore, you ought to pay strict at- 
 tention to it at the outset. 
 
 52. The number is either singular or plura), 
 and the pronouns vary their spelling to express a 
 difference of number; as in this table, which 
 shows, at once, all the persons and all the num- 
 bers. 
 
 
 SINGULAR. 
 
 PLURAL, 
 
 First person. 
 
 I, 
 
 We. 
 
 Second person. 
 
 Thou, 
 
 You. 
 
 Third person. 
 
 He, 
 
 They. 
 
 53. The next thing is the gender. The pro- 
 nouns of the first and second person have no 
 changes to express gender; but the third person 
 singular has changes for that purpose : he, she, or 
 it ; and I need not point out to you the cases where 
 one of these ought to be used in preference to the 
 other. 
 
 54. The Case is the last thmg to be considered 
 in personal pronouns. The meaning of the word 
 case, as used in the rules of grammar, 1 have fully 
 explained to you in Letter V, paragraph 44. In 
 paragraphs 45, 46, 47 and 48, in that same Letter, 
 I have treated of the distinction between the cases. 
 Read all those paragraphs again before you pro- 
 ceed further : for now you will find their meaning 
 more clearly explained to you ; because the per- 
 sonal pronouns, and also some of the other pro- 
 nouns, have different endings, or are composed of 
 different letters, in order to point out the different 
 cases in which they are : as ; He, His, Him. 
 
 55. The personal pronouns have, like the nouns, 
 three cases ; the nominative, the possessive, and 
 the objective. The following table exhibits the
 
 VI. 
 
 OF PRONOUNS. 
 
 37 
 
 whole of them at one view, with all the circum- 
 stances of person, number, gender, and case. 
 
 SINGULAR NUMBER. 
 
 
 Nominative. 
 
 Possessive. 
 
 Otgective. 
 
 First person 
 
 I, 
 
 My, 1 
 Mine, 5 
 
 Me. 
 
 Second person 
 
 Tbon, 
 
 Thy, 1 
 Thine, 5 
 
 Thee. 
 
 f Mas. Gen. 
 
 He, 
 
 His, 
 
 Him. 
 
 Third pers.<? Fenaio. 
 
 She, 
 
 Hrr, ^ 
 Hers, J 
 
 Her. 
 
 C. Neuter, 
 
 It, 
 
 Its, 
 
 It. 
 
 PLURAL NUMBER. 
 
 
 Xominativt. 
 
 Possessive. 
 
 Objective, 
 
 First person 
 
 We, 
 
 Our, } 
 Ours, ) 
 
 Us. 
 
 
 
 V/iif "i 
 
 
 Second person 
 
 You, 
 
 i our, i 
 Yours, j 
 
 You. 
 
 f Mat. Gen. 
 Third pers.< Femin. 
 
 They, ^ 
 They, \ 
 
 Their, "1 
 
 Them. 
 
 (. Neuter, 
 
 They, 3 
 
 Theirs,^ 
 
 
 56. Upon this table there are some remarks to 
 be attended to. In the possessive cases of /, Thou, 
 She, We, You, and They, there are two different 
 words ; as, My or Mine; but, you know, that the 
 former is used when followed by the name of the 
 person or thing possessed ; and that the latter is 
 used when not so followed : as, " this is my pen ; this 
 pen is mine." And, it is the same with regard to 
 the possessive cases of Thou, She, We, You, and 
 They. 
 
 57. Thou is here given as the second person sin- 
 gular; but, common custom has set aside the rules 
 of Grammar in this case; and, though we, in par- 
 ticular cases, still make use of Thou and Thee, we 
 generally make use of You instead of either of them. 
 According to ancient rule and custom this is not 
 correct ; but, what a whole people adopts and uni- 
 versally practises, must, in such cases, be deemed
 
 38 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 correct, and to be a superseding of ancient rule 
 and custom. 
 
 58. Instead of you the ancient practice was to 
 put ye, in the nominative case of the second per- 
 son plural ; but, this practice is now laid aside, 
 except in cases, which very seldom occur ; but, 
 whenever ye is made use of, it must be in the no- 
 minative^ and never in the objective, case. I may, 
 speaking to several persons, say, " Ye have in- 
 jured me;" but not, " I have injured ye." 
 
 59. The words self and stives are sometimes 
 added to the personal pronouns ; as, myself, thy- 
 self, himself; but, as these compounded words are 
 liable to no variations that can possibly lead to er- 
 ror, it will be useless to do any thing further than 
 just to notice them. 
 
 60. The Pronoun //, though a personal pronoun, 
 does not always stand for, or, at least, appear to 
 stand for, any noun whatever ; but is used in or- 
 
 . der to point out a state of things, or the cause of 
 something produced. For instance: " //froze 
 " hard last night, and it was so cold, that // was 
 " with great difficulty the travellers kept on their 
 " journey." Now, -what was it that froze so hard ? 
 Not the frost ; because frost is the effect, and not 
 the cause, of freezing. We cannot say, that it was 
 the -weather that froze; because the freezing con- 
 stituted in part the weather itself. No: the pro- 
 noun it stands, in this place, for slate of things, or 
 circumstances; and this sentence might be written 
 thus: " The freezing was so hard last night, and 
 " the cold was so severe, that the travellers found 
 ' great difficulty in keeping on their journey." Let 
 us take another example or two. " // is a frost 
 " this morning, 11 will rain to-night. // will be 
 " fine to-morrow." That is to say, " A state of 
 u things called frost exists this morning ; a state of 
 "things called rain will exist to-night; and to- 
 *' morrow a state of things called fine weather,"
 
 VI. OF PRONOUNS. 39 
 
 Another example : " // is delightful to see brothers 
 ' " and sisters living in uninterrupted love to the end 
 " of their clays." That is to say; " The state of 
 " things, which exhibits brothers and sisters living 
 " in uninterrupted love to the end of their days, 
 *' is delightful to see." The pronoun it is, in this 
 its impersonal capacity, used in a great variety of 
 instances; but I forbear to extend my remarks on 
 the subject here, because those remarks will find 
 a more suitable place, when I come to another part 
 of my instructions. I have said enough here to 
 prevent the puzzling that might have arisen from 
 your perceiving, that the pronoun // was some- 
 times used without your being able to trace its con- 
 nexion with any noun either expressed or under- 
 stood. 
 
 61. In order, however, further to illustrate this 
 matter in this place, I will make a remark or two 
 upon the use of the word there. Example; " There 
 " are many men, who have been at Latin-Schools 
 " for years, and who, at last, cannot write six sen- 
 " tences in English correctly." Now, you know, 
 the \vord (here, in its usual sense, has reference to 
 place ; yet it has no such reference here. The 
 meaning is : lhat " many men are in existence, who 
 " have been at Latin-Schools." Again: " f/tere 
 " never was any thing so beautiful as that flower." 
 That is to say; "Anything so beautiful as that 
 -** flower never existed, or never was in being." 
 
 62. We now come to the RELAT:VE PRO- 
 NOUNS, of which class there are only thrte ; 
 namely, who, which, and thai. The two latter al- 
 ways remain the same, through all numbers, gen- 
 ders, and cases; but, the pronoun who, changes its 
 ending, in order to express the possessive and ob- 
 jective cases : as, who, whose, whom. 
 
 63. These pronouns are called relative, because 
 they always relate directly to some noun or some 
 personal pronoun, or to some combination of
 
 40 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 words, which is called the antecedent; that is to 
 say, the person or thing before going. Thus : " The 
 soldier, who was killed at the siege." Soldier is 
 the antecedent. Again: " The men, if I am right- 
 *' ly informed, who came hither last night, who 
 *' went away this morning, whose money you have 
 " received, and to whom you gave a receipt, are 
 <{ natives of South America." Men is here the 
 antecedent: and, in this sentence, there are all the 
 variations, to which this pronoun is liable. 
 
 64. Who, whose, and whom cannot be used cor- 
 rectly as relatives to any nouns or pronouns, 
 which do not represent men, women, or children. 
 It is not correct to say, the horse or the dog or the 
 tree, who was so and so ; or, to whom was done 
 this or that ; or, whose colour, or any thing else, 
 was such or such. But, the word That, as a rela- 
 tive pronoun, may be applied to nouns of all sorts ; 
 is, the boy that ran ; the horsz that galloped ; the 
 tree that was blown down. 
 
 65. Which, as a relative pronoun, is confined to ir- 
 rational creatures, and here it may be used, as a re- 
 lative, indifferently with that; as, the horse, which 
 galloped ; the tree, which was blown down. This 
 application of the relative which solely to irration- 
 al creatures is, however, of modern date; for, 
 in the Lord's Prayer, in the English Church ser- 
 vice, we say ; " Our Father which art in Heaven." 
 In the American Liturgy this error has been cor- 
 rected; and they say, "Our Father, who art in 
 Heaven." 
 
 66. I cannot, even for the present, quit these 
 relative pronouns without observing to you, that 
 they are words of vast importance, and that more 
 errors, and errors of greater consequence, arise 
 from a misapplication of them, than from the mis^ 
 application of almost all the other classes of words 
 put together. The reason is this : they are re- 
 l-alives, and they frequently stand as the repre-
 
 VI. OF PRONOUNS. 41 
 
 sentative of that which has gone before, and which 
 stands in a distant part of the sentence. This will 
 be more fully explained. when I come to the Syn- 
 tax of pronouns ; but the matter is of such great 
 moment, that I cannot refrain from giving you an 
 intimation of it here. 
 
 67. The DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS 
 are so called, because they more particularly mark, 
 or demonstrate, the nouns, before which they are 
 placed, or for which they sometimes stand. They 
 are, This, These, Thai, Those, and What. The use 
 of them is so well known, and is liable to so little 
 error, that my chief object in giving them this 
 separate place, is, to show you the difference be- 
 tween That, when a relative and when not a rela- 
 tive. Take an example; "That man is not the 
 " man, as far as I am able to discover, that came 
 " hither last night." The first of these Thais does 
 not relate to the man : it merely points him out ; 
 but the latter relates to him, carries you back to 
 him, and supplies the place of repetition. This 
 same word, That, is sometimes a Conjunction : as, 
 " That man is not the man, as far as I can dis- 
 " cover, that came hither last night, and that was 
 " so ill that he could hardly walk." The relative 
 is repeated in the third That : but, the fourth 
 That is merely a conjunction, serving to connect 
 the effect of the illness with the cause. 
 
 68. Perhaps a profound examination of the mat- 
 ter would lead to a proof of That being always a 
 pronoun; but, as such examination would be more 
 curious than useful, I shall content myself with 
 having clearly shown you the difference in its 
 offices as a relative, as a demonstrative, and as a 
 conjunction. 
 
 69. What, together with who, whose, whom, and 
 which, are employed in asking questions, and are, 
 sometimes, ranged under a separate head, and call- 
 ed interrogative pronouns. I have thought this
 
 42 ETYMOLOGY. Letter VI. 
 
 unnecessary; but, here is an observation of im- 
 portance to attend to; for, which, though, as a 
 relative it cannot be applied to the intellectual 
 species, is, as an interrogative, properly applied 
 to that species : as, " which man was it who spoke 
 to you?" 
 
 70. What sometimes stands for both noun and 
 relative pronoun : as, " What I want is well 
 known." That is to say, " "The thing which I 
 want is well known." Indeed, what has, in all 
 cases, this extended signification ; for, when, in 
 the way of inquiry as to words which we have 
 not clearly understood, we say, what? Our full 
 meaning is : " repeat to us that which you have 
 said, or the words which you have spoken." 
 
 71. The INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS 
 are so called, because they express their objects in 
 a general and indeterminate manner. Several of 
 them are also adjectives. It is only where they 
 are employed alone; that is to say, without nouns, 
 that they ought to be regarded as pronouns. For 
 instance : " One is always hearing of the unhappi- 
 ness of one person or another." The first of these 
 ones is a pronoun ; the last is an adjective, as is 
 also the word another ; for a noun is understood 
 to follow, though it is not expressed. These 
 pronouns are as follows : One, any, each, none^ 
 some, other, every, either, many, whoever, what- 
 ever, neither, and some few others, but all of them 
 words invariable in their Orthography, and all of 
 very common use.
 
 ( 43 j 
 
 .bus 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF ADJECTIVES. 
 
 Mv DEAR JAMES, 
 
 72, IN Letter III, paragraph 21, I have 
 described what an Adjective is. You will, there- 
 lore, now read that paragraph carefully over, be- 
 fore you proceed in studying the contents of the 
 present Letter. 
 
 73. The adjectives have no changes to express 
 gender, or case ; but, they have clianges to ex- 
 press degrees of comfxcrison. As adjectives de- 
 scribe the qualities and . properties of nouns, and 
 as thesq may be possessed in a degree higher in 
 one case thaniin another, the adjectives have de- 
 grees of comparison ; that is to say, changes in 
 their endings, to suit these varying circumstances. 
 A tree may be //*, but another may be higher^ 
 and a third may be the highest. Adjectives have, 
 then, these three degrees : the first degree, or 
 rather, the primitive word, is called the Positive ; 
 the second, the Comparative ; the third, the Super- 
 lative. For the forming of these degrees I shall 
 give you four rules', and, if you pay strict attention, 
 to these rules, you will need be told very little 
 more about this part of speech. 
 
 74. first Rule. Adjectives in general, which 
 end in a consonant, form their comparative degree 
 by adding er to the positive, and form their super- 
 lative degree by adding est to the positive : as, 
 
 . 
 
 FOSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Kich, Richer, Richest.
 
 44 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 75. Second Rule. Adjectives, which end in e t 
 add, in forming their comparative, only an r t and 
 in forming their superlative, st : as, 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Wise, Wiser, Wisest. 
 
 76. Third Rule. When the positive ends in rf, 
 g, or I, and when these consonants are, at the 
 same time, preceded by a single vowel, the conso- 
 nant is doubled in forming the comparative and su- 
 perlative: as, 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Red, Redder, Reddest. 
 
 Bi S> B'gger, Biggest. 
 
 Hot, Hotter, Hottest. 
 
 But, if the rf, g, or /, be preceded by another 
 consonant, or by more than one vowel, the final 
 consonant is not doubled in the forming of the two 
 latter degrees : as, 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Kind, Kinder, Kindest. 
 
 Neat Neater, Neatest. 
 
 77. Fourth Rule. When the positive ends iny, 
 preceded by a consonant, the y changes to ie in the 
 other degrees. 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Lovely, Lovelier, Loveliest. 
 
 Pretty, Prettier, Prettiest.
 
 VII. OF ADJECTIVES. 45 
 
 78. There are some adjectives which can be 
 reduced to no rule, and which must be considered 
 as irregular: as, 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Good, Better, Best. 
 
 Bad, Worse) Worst. 
 
 Little, Less, Least. 
 
 Much, More, Most. 
 
 79. Some adjectives can have no degrees of 
 comparison, because their signification admits of 
 no augmentation : as, all, each, every \ any, several^ 
 very, some ; and all the numerical adjectives ; as, 
 one, two, three ; first, second, third. 
 
 80. Adjectives which end in most, are superla- 
 tive, and admit of no change : as, utmost, upper- 
 most. 
 
 81. However, you will observe, that all adjec- 
 tives which admit of comparison, may form their 
 degrees by the use of the words more and mosti 
 as, 
 
 POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. SUPERLATIVE. 
 
 Rich, More rich, Most rich. 
 
 Tender, More tender, Most tender. 
 
 When the positive contains but one syllable, the 
 degrees are usually formed by adding to the positive 
 according to the four rules. When the positive 
 contains two syllables, it is matter of taste which 
 method you shall use in forming the degrees. The 
 ear is, in this case, the best guide. But, when the 
 positive contains more than hvo syllables, the 
 degrees must be formed by the use of more and 
 most. We may say tender and lendcrest, pleasanlcr
 
 46 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 and pleasantest, preliier and prettiest ; but wh 
 could endure delicalcr and ddicatest ? 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY Of VERBS. 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 82. THE first tiling you have to do in 
 beginning your study as to this important part of 
 speech, is to read again very slowly and carefully 
 paragraphs 23, 24, 25, and 26, in Letter III. 
 Having, by well attending to what is said in those 
 paragraphs, learnt 'to distinguish Verbs from the 
 words belonging to other parts of speech, you will 
 now enter, with a clear head, on an inquiry into the 
 variations, to which the words of this part of speech 
 are liable. 
 
 S3. SORTS OF VERBS. Verbs are considered as 
 aclire verbs, passive, or neuter. A verb is called 
 active when it expresses an action which is produced 
 by the nominative of the sentence: as, " Sidmguth 
 imprisoned Benbow." It is passive, when it ex- 
 presses an action, which is received, or endured, 
 by the person or thing which is the nominative of 
 the sentence : as, " Benbow is imprisoned." It 
 is neuter, when it expresses simply the state of 
 being, or of existence, of a person or thing: as, 
 "Benbow lies in irons;" or, when it expresses an 
 action confined ivilhin ihe aclor. 
 
 84. It is of great consequence, that you clearly 
 understand these distinctions, because 1 shall, by- 
 and-by, use these -terms very frequently. And, in 
 order to give you a proof of the necessity of attend- 
 ing to these distinctions, I will here give you. a 
 spetitnen of the errors, which are sometimes com-
 
 VIII. *r VERBS. 47 
 
 naitted by those who do not understand Grammar. 
 This last-mentioned Verb, to lie, becomes in the 
 past time, lay. Thus: " Benbow lies in irons 
 " now, but, until his refusal to enter into recog- 
 " nisances, he lay with his limbs unironed." This 
 verb is often confounded with the verb lo lay, 
 which is an active verb, and which becomes, in 
 its past time, laid. Thus : " I lay my hat on the 
 " table to-day, but, yesterday, I laid it on the 
 " shelf." Let us take another instance in order 
 the more clearly to explain this matter. A verb 
 may, sometimes, be what we call a neuter verb, 
 though it expresses an action; but this happens 
 when the action is confined within the actor;? 
 that is to say, when there is no object to -which the 
 action passes. Strike is clearly an active verb, be- 
 cause something is stricken ; a stroke is given lo, 
 or put upon, something. But, in the case of to rise, 
 though there is an action, it passes on to no ob- 
 ject ; as, I rise early. Here is no object to which 
 the action passes. But, to raise is an active verb, 
 because the action passes on to an object : as, I 
 raise a slick, I raise my hand, I raise my head< and 
 also, I raise myself ; because, though in this last 
 instance, the action is confined to ine, it is under- 
 stood, that my mind gives the motion to my body. 
 These two verbs are, in speaking and writing, in- 
 cessantly confounded ; though one is a neuter, and 
 the other an active verb, though one is regular 
 and the other irregular, and though they are not, : 
 in any person, time, or mode, composed of the; 
 same letters. This confusion could never take 
 place, if attention were paid to the principle above 
 laid down. 
 
 85. Having thus given you the means of distin- 
 guishing the sorts of Verbs, I now proceed to mat- 
 ters, which are common to all the sorts. There 
 are four things to he considered in a Verb ; th^ 
 person, the number, the lime, and the mode.
 
 48 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 86. THE PERSON. Read again Letter VI, on 
 the Etymology of Pronouns. You will there 
 clearly see the use of this distinction about per- 
 sons; and, as I have told you, you will find that it 
 is a matter of great consequence ; because, it will 
 now, at once, be evident to you, that, unless the 
 distinction of person be attended to, almost every 
 sentence must be erroneous. 
 
 87 . The verb must agree in person with the noun 
 or the pronoun, which is the nominative of the sen- 
 tence. Look back at Letter V, and at paragraphs 
 44, 45, 46, and 47, in order to refresh your me- 
 mory as to the nominative and other cases. The 
 verb, then, must agree with the nominative : as, " I 
 write ; he writes." To say, " I writes; he write :" 
 these would be both erroneous. 
 
 8S. Look back at the explanation about the per- 
 sons in the etymology of pronouns in Letter VI. 
 There are three persons ; but, our verbs have no 
 variation in their spelling, except for the third per- 
 son singular. For we say, " I write, you write , 
 *Pve write, they write ;" and only " he, she, or it 
 " writes." This, then, is a very plain matter. 
 
 89. NUMBER is a matter equally plain, seeing 
 that our verbs do not, except in one or two instan- 
 ces, vary their endings, to express number. But, 
 when several nouns, or pronouns, come together, 
 care must be taken to make the verb agree with 
 them : as, " Benbow and the two Evanses resist 
 the tyrants." Not resists. But this will be more 
 fully dwelt on in the Syntax. 
 
 90. THE TIME. The verb has variations to 
 express the time of an action: as, " Sidmouth 
 " writes a Circular Letter ; Sidmouth wrote a Cir- 
 ** cular Letter ; Sidmouth will write a Circular 
 * Letter." Again : " Evans defies the tyrants ; 
 " Evans defied the tyrants; Evans will defy the 
 " tyrants." The Times of a verb are, therefore, 
 called the present, the past and ihejulure.
 
 VIII. F VERBS. 49 
 
 91. THE MODES. The Modes of verbs are the 
 different manners of expressing an action, or a 
 state of being, which manners are sometimes po- 
 sitive, sometimes conditional, and sometimes inde- 
 terminate ; and there are changes, or variations, 
 in the spelling, or writing, of the verb, or of the 
 little words used with the verb, in order to ex- 
 press this difference in manner and sense. I will 
 give you an instance : "He walks fast." "If he 
 " walk fast, he will fatigue himself." In most 
 other languages, the verb changes its form very 
 often and very much to make it express the dif- 
 ferent modes. In ours it does not; because we 
 have little words called signs, which we use with 
 the verbs instead of varying the form of the verbs 
 themselves. To make this matter clear, I wilt 
 give you an example of the English compared 
 with the French language in this respect. 
 
 E. F. 
 
 I march, Je marche, <% 
 
 I marched, Je marchois, 
 
 I may march, Je marchasse, 
 
 I should march, Je marcherois. 
 
 There are other variations in the French verb ; 
 but we effect the purposes of these variations by 
 the use of the signs, shall, may, might, could, 
 would, and others. 
 
 92. The modes are four in number; the infini- 
 tive, the indicative, the subjunctive, and the impera- 
 tive. Besides these there are the two participles, 
 of which I shall speak presently. 
 
 93. The Infinitive mode is the verb in its pri- 
 mitive state : as, to march. And this is called the 
 infinitive, because it is without bounds or limit. 
 It merely expresses the action of marching, without
 
 50 ETYMOLOGY Letle? 
 
 any constraint as to person or number or time. 
 The little word, to, makes, in fact, a part of the 
 verb. This word, to, is, of itself, a preposition; 
 but, as prefixed to verbs, it is merely a sign of the 
 Infinitive Mode. In other languages, there is no 
 such sign. In the French, for instance, alter, 
 means, to go ; ecrire, means, to write. Thus, then, 
 you will bear in mind, that, in English, the to 
 makes a part of the verb itself, when in the infini- 
 tive mode. 
 
 94. The Indicative Mode is that, in which we 
 express an action, or state of being, positively; 
 that is to say, without any condition, or any depen- 
 dant circumstance. It merely indicates the action 
 or state of being, without subjoining any thing which 
 renders the action or state of being dependant on 
 any other action or state of being. Thus: "He 
 writes." This is the indicative. 
 
 95. But, the Subjunctive Mode comes into use, 
 when I say: " if he write, the guilty tyrants will 
 " be ready with their dungeons and axes." In 
 this case, there is something subjoined; and, there- 
 fore, this is called the subjunctive mode. Observe, 
 however, that, in our language, there is no very 
 great use in this distinction of modes ; because, for 
 the most part, our little signs do the business, and 
 they never vary in the letters of which they are 
 composed. The distinction is useful only as re- 
 gards the employment of verbs without the signs, 
 and where the signs are left to be understood ; as in 
 the above case : " If he should write, the guilty 
 "tyrants would be ready." And, observe, fur- 
 ther, that, when the signs are used, or understood, 
 the verb retains its original, or primitive, form, 
 throughout all the persons, numbers, and times. 
 
 96. The Imperative Mode is mentioned here 
 merely for form's sake. It is that state of the 
 verb which commands) orders, bids^ calls lo, or
 
 VIIL or VERBS. 51 
 
 invokes : as, u Come hither -, be gopd ; inarch away; 
 " pay me." In 1 other languages there are changes 
 in the spelling of the verbs to answer to this 
 mode ; but in ours there are none of these ; and, 
 therefore, the matter is hardly worth notice, ex- 
 cept as a mere matter of form. 
 
 97. The Participles , however, are different in 
 point of importance. They are of two sorts, 
 the active and passive. The former ends always in. 
 ing, and the latter is generally the same as the 
 past time of the verb out of which it grows. Thus : 
 working is an active participle, and -worked a pas- 
 sive participle. They are called participles be- 
 cause they partake of the qualities of other parts of 
 speech as well as of verbs. For instance : "I am 
 " working; working is laudable; a working man 
 " is more worthy of honour than a titled plun- 
 " derer who lives in idleness." In the first in- 
 stance, working is a verb, in the second, a noun, 
 in the third, ^n adjective. So, in the case of the 
 passive participle; I worked yesterday; that is 
 worked mortar. The first is a verb, the last an 
 adjective. 
 
 98. Thus have I gone through all the circum- 
 stances of change to which verbs are liable. I 
 will now give you the complete conjugation of a 
 verb. To conjugate, in its usual acceptation, 
 means, to join together ; and, as used by gramma- 
 rians, it means, to place under one view all the 
 variations in the form of a verb ; beginning with the 
 Infinitive Mode and ending with the Participle. I 
 will now lay before you, then, the conjugation of 
 the verb to work, exhibiting that verb in all its 
 persons, numbers, times and modes. 
 
 c 2
 
 52 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 INFINITIVE MODE. 
 To Work. 
 
 INDICATIVE Mont. 
 
 Singular. Plural. 
 
 v . ( 1st Person. I work, We work, 
 
 rjv < 2d Person. Thou workest, You work, 
 
 lime. ^ g^ p erson He, she, or it, works. They work. 
 
 p f I worked, 
 
 < Thou workedst, 
 
 lime - He worked. 
 
 I shall or will work, We shall or 
 
 will work, 
 
 Future J Thou shalt or wilt You shall or 
 
 Time, j work, will work, 
 
 I He shall or will work. They shall or 
 
 * will work. 
 
 SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 
 
 If I work, or may, might, could, would, or should, work. 
 
 If tUou work, or may, work. 
 
 If he, she, or il work, or inayest, work. 
 
 If wr work, or may, work. 
 
 If you work, or may, work. 
 If they work, or may, work. 
 
 IMPERATIVE MODE. 
 
 Let me work, Let us work, 
 
 Work thou, Work you, 
 
 Let him work. Let them work. 
 
 PARTICIPLES. 
 
 Active. Working. 
 Passive. Worked.
 
 VIII. OF VERBS. 53 
 
 99. Some explanatory remarks are necessary 
 here. The third person singular of the Indicative 
 used to be written with eth : as worketh ; but this 
 spelling has long been disused. The past time 
 may be formed by did: as, did work) instead of 
 worked ; and do work may be used in the present 
 time ; but, in fact, these little words are a great 
 deal more than mere marks of the times. They 
 are used in one time to express the negative of 
 another, or, to affirm with more than ordinary 
 emphasis. 
 
 100. Grammarians generally make a present 
 and a past time under the subjunctive mode -, but, 
 the truth is, that any of the signs may apply to the 
 present, past, or future of that Mode. These are 
 little words of vast import and of constant use ; 
 and, though that use is so very difficult to be 
 learned by foreigners, we ourselves never make 
 mistakes with regard to it. The verb to be alone 
 changes its form in order to make a past time in 
 the Subjunctive Mode. 
 
 101. As to the Imperative Mode, where the pro- 
 nouns Thou and You are put after the verb, we 
 seldom do this. We make use of the verb only, 
 which is quite sufficient. 
 
 102. Some Grammarians put in their conjuga- 
 tions what they call the compound times : as, I have 
 worked, I had worked, 1 shall have worked, 1 may 
 have worked, and so on. But, this can only serve to 
 fill up a book ; for all these consist merely in the 
 introduction and use of the verb to have in its va- 
 rious parts. In the above conjugation all the 
 changes or variations of the verb are exhibited ; 
 and it is those changes and variations, which, under 
 the present head, form the important object of our 
 inquiry. 
 
 103. The verbs to have and to be are of great 
 use in our language. They are called auxiliary 
 verbs. To let and to do are also called auxiliaries ;
 
 54 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 but they are of far less importance than to have 
 and to be. Before, however, I say more on the 
 subject of these auxiliaries, I must speak of all 
 the verbs as regular or irregular, just observing 
 here, that the word auxiliary means helper, or 
 helping. 
 
 104. Verbs-are called regular, where they have 
 their changes or variations according to a certain 
 rule, or manner. Thus : " I walk, I walked; I 
 work. I worked," But, I cannot say, " I wriled." 
 I must say, " I wrote." Now, observe, that we 
 call regular verbs all those which end their past 
 time oJ the Indicative and their passive participle 
 ined: and, if you now look back at the conjuga- 
 tion of the verb to work, you will find that that is 
 a regular verb. Indeed, this is the case with al- 
 most all our verbs. But, there are some little ir- 
 regularities even here, and they must be very well 
 attended to, because a want of attention to them 
 leads to very great errors even as to spelling. 
 
 105. These little irregularities 1 shall notice 
 under five separate heads ; and, if you should for- 
 get, at any time, what has been said on the subject, 
 a reference to these will, in a moment, set you 
 right. I. The verb to work is perfectly regular, 
 for, it has ed added to it, in order to form the past 
 time, and also in order to form the passive partici- 
 ple. It is the same with the verbs to walk, to turn, 
 to abandon, and numerous others. But, if the in- 
 finitive, that is to say, the primitive or original 
 word, end in e, then d only is added, in the past 
 time and participle, and st instead of est after Thou : 
 as, in the case of to move, which becomes moved 
 and niovest. You have seen also, in the case of 
 the verb to work, that we add only an s to form 
 the third person singular of the present of the in- 
 dicative: he works. But if the infinitive end in 
 h, s, x, or z, then es must be added ; as, to wish, 
 he wishes ; to toss, he losses ; to box, he boxes ; to
 
 VIII. OF VERBS. $5 
 
 buzz, he buzzes. II. When the infinitive ends iny, 
 and when that y has a consonant immediately before 
 it, the y is changed into ie to form the third person 
 singular of the present of the indicative: as, to 
 reply, he replies. But, (and I beg you to mark it 
 well) if the ending # have a vowel immediately be- 
 fore it, the verb follows the general rule, ill the 
 formation of the third person singular of the pre- 
 sent of the indicative : as, to delay, he delays ; and 
 not he delaies. It is the same in the second per- 
 son singular : as, to reply, thou repliest ; to delay, 
 thou delayest. III. When the infinitive ends in y, 
 with a consonant immediately before it, the past 
 time of the indicative and the passive participle 
 are formed by using an i instead of the y : as, to 
 reply, he replied; to deny, it was denied. But, if 
 the y be preceded by a vowel, ed is added to they 
 in the usual manner: as, to delay, he delayed. 
 IV. The active participle, which always ends in 
 ing, is, in general, formed by simply adding the ing 
 to the infinitive: as, to work, working; to talk, 
 talking. But, if the infinitive end in a single e, 
 the e is dropped ; as, to move, moving. The verb 
 to be is an exception to this ; but, then that is an 
 Irregular verb. It is when the infinitive ends in 
 a single e mind ; for, if the e be double, the gene- 
 ral rule is followed : as, to free, freeing. When 
 the infinitive ends in ie, those letters are changed 
 into y in the forming of the active participle : as 
 to lie, lying. V. When the infinitive ends in a 
 single consonant, which has a single vowel imme- 
 diately before it, the final consonant is doubled, not 
 only in forming the active participle, but also ia 
 forming the past time of the indicative, and the 
 passive participle : as, to rap, rapping, I rapped, 
 it was rapped. But, observe well, this rule holds 
 good only as to words of one syllable ; for, if the 
 infinitive of the verb have more than one syllable) 
 the consonant is not doubled unless the accent be on
 
 56 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 the last syllable ; and the accent means the main 
 force, or weight, or sound of the voice in pronounc- 
 ing the word. For instance, in the word to open, 
 the accent is on the first syllable; and, therefore, 
 we write, opening, opened. But, when we come 
 to the verb to refer , where we find the accent 011 
 the last syllable, we write referring, referred. 
 
 106. These irregularities, though very neces- 
 sary to be attended to, do not prevent us from con- 
 sidering the verbs, which are subject to them, as 
 regular verbs. The mark of a regular verb, is, 
 that its past lime and passive participle end in ed: 
 every verb, which does not answer to this mark, is 
 irregular. 
 
 107. I here are many of these irregular verbs, 
 of which I shall here insert a complete list. All 
 the irregularities, (except the little irregularities 
 just mentioned) which it is possible to find in an 
 English verb (the auxiliary verbs excepted) are 
 in the past time and the passive participle only. 
 Therefore, it will be sufficient to give a List, 
 showing, in those two instances, what are the ir- 
 regularities of each verb ; and, in order to render 
 this List convenient, and to shorten the work of 
 referring to it, I shall m;ike it alphabetical. With 
 the past time of the several verbs I shall use the 
 first person singular of the pronoun in order to 
 make my examples as clear as possible. 
 
 LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS. 
 
 INFINITIVE. PAST TIME. PARTICIPLE, 
 
 To abide,. I abode, abode, 
 
 to be, I was, been. 
 
 to bear, I bore, borne, 
 
 to beat, I beat, beaten, 
 
 to become, I became, become, 
 
 to befall, It befell, befell.
 
 VIII. 
 
 OF VERBS. 
 
 57 
 
 to beget, 
 
 I begot, 
 
 begotten. 
 
 to begin, 
 
 I began, 
 
 begun. 
 
 to behold, 
 
 I beheld, 
 
 beheld. 
 
 to bend, 
 
 I bent, 
 
 bent. 
 
 to beseech, 
 
 I besought, 
 
 besought. 
 
 to bid, 
 
 I bade, 
 
 bidden. 
 
 to bind, 
 
 I bound, 
 
 bound. 
 
 to bite, 
 
 I bit, 
 
 bitten. 
 
 to bleed, 
 
 I bled, 
 
 bled. 
 
 to break, 
 
 I broke, 
 
 broken. 
 
 to breed, 
 
 I bred, 
 
 bred. 
 
 to bring, 
 
 I brought, 
 
 brought. 
 
 to buy, 
 
 I bought, 
 
 bought. 
 
 to catch, 
 
 I caught, 
 
 caught. 
 
 to choose, 
 
 I chose, 
 
 chosen. 
 
 to cleave, 
 
 I clove, 
 
 cloven. 
 
 to come, 
 
 I came, 
 
 come. 
 
 to cost, 
 
 I cost, 
 
 cost. 
 
 to cut, 
 
 I cut, 
 
 cut. 
 
 to die, 
 
 I died, 
 
 dead. 
 
 to do, 
 
 I did, 
 
 done. 
 
 to drink, 
 
 I drank, 
 
 drunk. 
 
 to drive, 
 
 I drove, 
 
 driven. 
 
 to eat, 
 
 I ate, 
 
 eaten. 
 
 to fall, 
 
 I fell, 
 
 fallen. 
 
 to feed, 
 
 I fed, 
 
 fed. 
 
 to feel, 
 
 I felt, 
 
 felt. 
 
 to fight, 
 
 I fought, 
 
 fought. 
 
 to find, 
 
 I found, 
 
 found. 
 
 te flee, 
 
 I fled, 
 
 fled. 
 
 to fling, 
 
 I flung, 
 
 flung. 
 
 to fly, 
 
 I flew, 
 
 flown. 
 
 to forbear, 
 
 I forbore, 
 
 for born. 
 
 to forbid, 
 
 I forbade, 
 
 forbidden 
 
 to forget, 
 to forgive, 
 
 I forgot, 
 I forgave, 
 
 forgotten, 
 forgiven. 
 
 to forsake, 
 
 I forsook, 
 
 forsaken. 
 
 to get, 
 
 I got, 
 
 gotten. 
 
 to give, 
 
 I gave, 
 
 given. 
 
 
 c 3 

 
 58 
 
 ITYMOLOGY 
 
 Letter 
 
 Togo, 
 
 I went, 
 
 gone. 
 
 to grind. 
 
 I ground, 
 
 ground. 
 
 to have, 
 
 I had, 
 
 had. 
 
 to hear, 
 
 I heard, 
 
 heard. 
 
 to hide, 
 
 I hid, 
 
 hidden. 
 
 to hit, 
 
 I hit, 
 
 hit. 
 
 to hold, 
 
 I held, 
 
 held. 
 
 to hurt, 
 
 I hurt, 
 
 hurt. 
 
 to keep, 
 
 I kept, 
 
 kept. 
 
 to know, 
 
 I knew; 
 
 known. 
 
 to lay, 
 
 I laid, 
 
 laid. 
 
 to lead, 
 
 lied, 
 
 led. 
 
 to leave, 
 
 I left, 
 
 left. 
 
 to lend, 
 
 I lent, 
 
 lent. 
 
 to let, 
 
 llet, 
 
 let. 
 
 to lie, 
 
 I lay, 
 
 lain. 
 
 to lose, 
 
 I lost, 
 
 lost. 
 
 to make, 
 
 I made, 
 
 made. 
 
 to meet, 
 
 I met, 
 
 met. 
 
 to overcome, 
 
 I overcame, 
 
 overcome. 
 
 to overdo, 
 
 I overdid, 
 
 overdone. 
 
 to pass, 
 
 I passed, 
 
 past. 
 
 to pay, 
 
 I paid, 
 
 paid. 
 
 to put, 
 
 I put, 
 
 put. 
 
 to read, 
 
 I read, 
 
 read. 
 
 to rend, 
 
 I rent, 
 
 rent. 
 
 to ride, 
 
 I rode, 
 
 ridden. 
 
 to ring, 
 
 I rang, 
 
 rung. 
 
 to rise, 
 
 I rose, 
 
 risen. 
 
 to run, 
 
 I ran, 
 
 run. 
 
 to say, 
 
 I said, 
 
 said. 
 
 to see, 
 
 I saw, 
 
 seen. 
 
 to seek, 
 
 I sought, 
 
 sought. 
 
 to sell, 
 
 I sold, 
 
 sold. 
 
 to send, 
 
 I sent, 
 
 sent. 
 
 to set, 
 
 I set, 
 
 set. 
 
 to shake, 
 
 I shook, 
 
 shaken. 
 
 to shear, 
 
 I sheared, 
 
 shorn. 
 
 to shed, 
 
 I shed, 
 
 shed.
 
 VIII. 
 
 01 VERBS. 
 
 To show, 
 
 I showed, 
 
 shown. 
 
 to shrink, 
 
 I shrink, 
 
 shrunk. 
 
 to shoe, 
 
 I shod, 
 
 shod. 
 
 to shoot, 
 
 I shot, 
 
 shotteo. 
 
 to shut, 
 
 I shut, 
 
 shut. 
 
 to sing, 
 
 I sang, 
 
 sung. 
 
 to sink, 
 
 I sunk, 
 
 sunk. 
 
 to sit, 
 
 I sal, 
 
 sit tea. 
 
 to slay, 
 
 I slew, 
 
 slain. 
 
 to sleep, 
 
 I slept, 
 
 slept. 
 
 to slide, 
 
 I slid, 
 
 slidden. 
 
 to slit, 
 
 I slit, 
 
 slit. 
 
 to smite, 
 
 I smote, 
 
 smitten. 
 
 to speak, 
 
 I spoke, 
 
 spoken. 
 
 to speed, 
 
 I sped, 
 
 sped. 
 
 to spend, 
 
 I spent, 
 
 spent. 
 
 to spin, 
 
 I span, 
 
 spun. 
 
 to spit, 
 
 I spit, 
 
 spitten. 
 
 to spread, 
 
 I spread, 
 
 spread. 
 
 to stand, 
 
 I stood, 
 
 stood. 
 
 to steal, 
 
 I stole, 
 
 stolen. 
 
 to stick, 
 
 I stuck, 
 
 stuck. 
 
 to stink, 
 
 I stunk, 
 
 stunk. 
 
 to strike, 
 
 I struck, 
 
 struck. 
 
 to swear, 
 
 I swore, 
 
 sworn. 
 
 to take, 
 
 I took, 
 
 taken. 
 
 to teach, 
 
 I taught, 
 
 taught. 
 
 to tear, 
 
 I tore, 
 
 torn. 
 
 to tell, 
 
 I told, 
 
 told. 
 
 to think, 
 
 I thought, 
 
 thought. 
 
 to tread, 
 
 I trod, 
 
 trodden. 
 
 to understand, 
 
 I understood, 
 
 understood. 
 
 to wear, 
 
 I wore, 
 
 worn. 
 
 to win, 
 
 I won, 
 
 won. 
 
 to wind, 
 
 I wound, 
 
 wound. 
 
 to write, 
 
 I wrote, 
 
 written. 
 
 108. It is usual with grammarians to insert seve- 
 ral verbs in their List of Irregulars, which I have
 
 60 
 
 ETYMOLOGY 
 
 Letter 
 
 not inserted here. But, I have, in the above List, 
 placed every verb in our language which is really 
 irregular. However, I will here subjoin a list of 
 those verbs, which are, by some grammarians, 
 reckoned irregular; and, then, I will show you, 
 not only, that they are not irregular, strictly speak- 
 ing ; but, that you ought, by all means, to use them 
 in the regular form. 
 
 LIST OF VERBS, WHICH, BY SOME PERSONS, ARE 
 ERRONEOUSLY DEEMED IRREGULARS. 
 
 
 INFINITIVE. 
 
 To awake, 
 to bereave, 
 to blow, 
 to build, 
 
 PASSED TIME. 
 
 I awoke, 
 I bereft, 
 I blew, 
 I built, 
 
 PARTICIPl 
 
 awaked, 
 bereft, 
 blown, 
 built. 
 
 
 to burn, 
 
 I burnt, 
 
 burnt. 
 
 
 to burst, 
 
 I burst, 
 
 burst. 
 
 
 to cast, 
 
 I cast, 
 
 cast. 
 
 
 to chide, 
 
 I chid, 
 
 chidden. 
 
 
 to cling, 
 
 I clung, 
 
 clung. 
 
 
 to creep, 
 
 I crept, 
 
 crept. 
 
 
 to crow, 
 
 I crew, 
 
 crowed. 
 
 
 to curse, 
 
 I curst, 
 
 curst. 
 
 
 to dare, 
 
 I dared, 
 
 dared. 
 
 
 to deal, 
 
 I dealt, 
 
 dealt. 
 
 
 to dig, 
 
 I dug, 
 
 dug. 
 
 c 
 
 to dip, 
 
 I dipt, 
 
 dipt. 
 
 
 to draw, 
 
 I drew, 
 
 drawn. 
 
 
 to dream, 
 
 I dreamt, 
 
 dreamt. 
 
 
 to dwell, 
 
 I dwelt, 
 
 dwelt. 
 
 
 to freeze, 
 
 I froze, 
 
 frozen. 
 
 
 to geld, 
 
 I gelt, 
 
 gelt. 
 
 
 to gild, 
 
 I gilt, 
 
 gilt. 
 
 
 to gird, 
 
 I girt, 
 
 girt. 
 
 
 to grow, 
 
 I grew, 
 
 grown. 
 
 
 to hang, 
 
 1 hung, 
 
 hung.
 
 VIII. 
 
 OF VERBS. 
 
 To help, 
 
 to hew, 
 
 to kneel, 
 
 to knit, 
 
 to lade, 
 
 to leap, 
 
 to light, 
 
 to load, 
 
 to mean, 
 
 to mow, 
 
 to overflow, 
 
 to saw, 
 
 to shave, 
 
 to shred, 
 
 to shine, 
 
 to sling, 
 
 to slink, 
 
 to slip, 
 
 to smell, 
 
 to snow, 
 to sow, 
 to spell, 
 to spill, 
 to spit, 
 to split, 
 to spring, 
 to stamp, 
 to sting, 
 to strew, 
 to strow, 
 to stride, 
 to string, 
 to strip, 
 to strive, 
 to sweep, 
 to swell, 
 to swim, 
 to swing, 
 to thrive, 
 
 I helpt, 
 I hewed, 
 I knelt, 
 I knit, 
 I loaded, 
 I leapt, 
 I light, 
 I loaded, 
 I meant, 
 I mowed, 
 
 helpt. 
 
 hewn. 
 
 knelt. 
 
 knit. 
 
 laden. 
 
 leapt. 
 
 light. 
 
 loaden. 
 
 meant. 
 
 movrn. 
 
 I overflowed, overflown, 
 
 I sawed, sawn. 
 
 I shaved, shaven. 
 
 I shred, shred. 
 
 I shone, shone. 
 
 I slung, slung. 
 
 I slunk, slunk. 
 
 I slipt, slipt. 
 
 I smelt, smelt. 
 
 It snowed, snown. 
 
 I sowed, sown. 
 
 I spelt, spelt, 
 
 spilt, spilt, 
 
 spat, spitten. 
 
 split, split, 
 
 sprang, sprung, 
 
 stampt, stampt. 
 
 I stung or stang, stung. 
 
 I strewed, strewn. 
 
 I strow ed, strown. 
 
 I strode, stridden. 
 
 I strung, strung. 
 
 I stript, stript. 
 
 I strove, striven. 
 
 I swept, swept. 
 
 I swelled, swollen. 
 
 I swam, swum. 
 
 Iswung or swang, swung. 
 
 I throve, thriven.
 
 ETYMOLOGY 
 
 to throw, I threw, thrown, 
 
 to thrust, I thrust, thrust. 
 
 to wax, I waxed, waxen, 
 
 to weave, I wove, woven, 
 
 to weep, I wept, wept, 
 
 to whip. I whipt, whiot. 
 
 109. The greater part of these verbs have be- 
 come irregular by the bad practice of abbreviating, 
 or shortening, in writing. We are always given 
 to cut our words short ; and, with very few excep- 
 tions, you find people writing lov'd, mov'd, walk d; 
 instead of loved, moved, walked. They wish to 
 make the pen correspond with the tongue ; but, 
 they ought not, then, to write the word Ihe at full 
 length, nor the word of, nor any other little word ; 
 for, scarcely ever are these words fully sounded in 
 speaking. From lov'd, mov'd, walk d, it is very 
 easy to slide into lovl, movt, walkt. And this has 
 been the case with regard to curst, dealt, dwelt, 
 leapt, helpt, and many others in the last inserted 
 list. It is just as proper to say jumpt as it is to 
 say leapt, and just as proper to say walkt as either ; 
 and thus we might go on, till the orthography of 
 the whole language were changed. When the love 
 of contraction came to operate on such verbs as 
 to burst and to light, it found such a clump of con- 
 sonants already at the end of the words, that it 
 could add none. It could not enable the organs 
 even of English speech to pronounce bursl'd, 
 light' d. It, therefore, made really short work of 
 it, and, dropping the last syllable altogether, wrote, 
 burst, and light, in the past time and passive parti- 
 ciple. But, is it not more harmonious, as well as 
 more correct, to say, " the bubble is almost burst- 
 ed," than it is to say, " the bubble is almost 
 burst" ? And as to hang, is it not better to say, 
 hanged than hung? " I will be hanged if I do,"
 
 VIII. OF VKRBS. 63 
 
 is a very common phrase ; and is it not better than 
 it would be to say, " I will be hung if I do" ? 
 Many of these verbs, by being very difficult to con- 
 tract, have, as in the case of to hang, to swing, and 
 the like, reduced the shorteners to the necessity of 
 changing almost all the letters of the words : as, to 
 dare, durst ; but, is it not better to say I dared 
 than Idurst ? This habit of contracting, or shorten- 
 ing, is a very mischievous habit. It leads to the 
 destruction of all propriety in the use of letters ; 
 and, instead of a saving of time, it produces, by 
 the puzzling that it gives rise to, a great loss of time. 
 Hoping that what I have here said, will be a warn- 
 ing to yoli against the cutting of words short, I 
 have only to add, on the subject of irregular verbs, 
 that those in the last list are to be used in the 
 regular form, and that the only real irregulars are 
 those of the first list. Nay, I have, after all, left 
 some verbs in the first list, which may be used ia 
 the regular form : as, past, which may be, in the 
 participle, 'passed, and with full as much pro- 
 priety. 
 
 110. AUXILIARY VERBS. In the present Letter, 
 paragraph 103, I opened this part of my subject. 
 The word let, is the past time and the passive par- 
 ticiple of the verb to let. It is used as an auxilia- 
 ry, however, in the present lime ; and only in the 
 imperative mode : as, lei me go ; let us go ; let him 
 go. That is to say, leave me to go, leave us to go, 
 leave him to go. Perhaps, the meaning, fully ex- 
 pressed, would be, act in such a way that I may be 
 left to go, or suffered to go. 
 
 111. The Auxiliary do, which, for the past time, 
 becomes did, is part of the verb to do, which in 
 its past time is did, and in its passive participle 
 done. In this sense, it is not an auxiliary, but a 
 principal verb, and its meaning is equal to that of 
 to execute, or to perform : as, I do my -work, I exe- 
 tute my work) I perform my work. As an auxiliary
 
 64 STYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 or helper, it seems to denote the time of the princi- 
 pal verb : as, I do walk ; I did walk ; and, we 
 may say, I do execute my work, or, I do do my 
 work. In this last example the first do is an auxi- 
 liary, and the last do a principal verb. However, 
 as I said before, do and did, used as auxiliaries, 
 do a great deal more than merely express time. In 
 fact, they are not often used for that purpose only. 
 They are used for the purpose of affirming or de- 
 nying in a manner peculiarly strong : as, I do 
 work, means, that I work, notwithstanding all 
 that may be, or may have been, said, or thought, 
 to the contrary; or it means, that I work now, 
 and have not done it at some other stated, or sup- 
 posed, time. It is, with the exception of time, the 
 same as to the use of did. These are amongst 
 those little words of vast import, the proper force 
 and use of which foreigners scarcely ever learn, 
 and which we learn from our very infancy. 
 
 112. The verbs to have and to be are the two 
 great auxiliaries. These words demand an extra- 
 ordinary portion of your attention. They are 
 principal verbs as well as auxiliaries. The verb 
 to have, as a principal verb, signifies possession : as 
 / have a pen ; that is to say, I possess a pen. Then, 
 this is a word of very great use indeed in its ca- 
 pacity of principal verb ; for we say, I have ahead- 
 ache, have a haired of such a thing, I have a mind 
 to go; and hundreds of similar phrases. I possess 
 a headache, has the same meaning; but, the other 
 is more agreeable to the natural turn of our lan- 
 guage. As auxiliary this verb is absolutely ne- 
 cessary in forming what are called the compound 
 times of other verbs, and those times are called 
 compound, because they are formed of hvo or more 
 verbs. Suppose the subject to be of my working ; 
 and, that I want to tell you, that my work is ended; 
 that I have closed my work. I cannot, in a short 
 manner, tell you this without the help of the verb
 
 VIII. OF VERBS. 65 
 
 to have. To say / -work, or, / worked, or / will 
 work: these will not answer ray purpose. No: I 
 must call in the help of the verb to have, and tell 
 you I have worked. So, in the case of the past 
 time, I must say, I had worked ; in the future, I 
 shall have worked; in the subjunctive mode, I 
 must say, I may, might, could, or should have 
 worked. If you reflect a little you will find a clear 
 reason for employing the verb to have in this way; 
 for, when I say, " I have worked," my words 
 amount to this; that the act of working is now ire 
 my possession. It is completed. It is a thing Iown t 
 and, therefore, I say. I have it. 
 
 113. The verb lobe signifies existence when used 
 as a principal verb. " h'obe ill, to be well, to be 
 rich, to be poor," mean, to exist in illness, in. 
 health, in riches, in poverty This verb, in its 
 compound times requires the help of the verb, to 
 have : as, I have been, I had been, I shall have been, 
 and so on. As auxiliary, this verb is used with 
 the pailicip'ts of oiher verbs: /is, to be working, he 
 wot km/, it is worked. Now, you will perceive, 
 if you reflect, that these phrases mean as fol- 
 lows: existing in wo>k he exists in work, it exists 
 in a wotked suite.. Both 'hese verbs are some- 
 times used, at one and the same time, as auxiliaries 
 to other principal verbs: as, I have been writing; 
 I have been imprisoned; and so on; and, upon pa- 
 tient attention to whit has already been said, you 
 will find, that they retain, upon all occasions, their 
 full meaning of possession in the one case, and of 
 existence in the- o.heV. 
 
 114. Now, my dear James, if I have succeeded 
 in making clear to you the principle, out of which 
 the use of these words, as auxiliaries, has arisen, 
 I have accomplished a great deal ; for, if well 
 grounded in that principle, all the subsequent diffi- 
 culties will speedily vanish before you. 
 
 115. I now proceed to close this long and im-
 
 66 TV MO LOGY LettCi' 
 
 portant Letter by presenting to you the conjuga- 
 tion of these two verbs, both of which are irregu- 
 lar, and every irregularity is worthy of your strict 
 attention. 
 
 INFINITIVE MODE. 
 To have. 
 
 INDICATIVE MODE. 
 
 Singular. Plural. 
 
 1st Person, I have y We have, 
 
 Person, Thou hast, Yon have, 
 
 Person, He, she, or it has or 
 
 hath. They have. 
 
 I had, We had, 
 
 Thou hadst. You had, 
 
 He, she, or it bad. They had. 
 
 I shall, or will have, We shall, or will, have. 
 
 Thou shalt, or wilt, have, You shall, orwill, have, 
 He, she, or it, shall or will, 
 
 have. They shall; ot will, have, 
 
 SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. 
 
 If I have, or may, might, would, could, or should, have. 
 
 If thou have, or may, have. 
 
 If he, she, or it, have, or mayest, have. 
 
 If we have, or may, have. 
 
 If you have, or may, have. 
 
 If they bave, or may, have. 
 
 IMPERATIVE MODE. 
 
 Let me have, Let us have, 
 
 Have thou, Have you, 
 
 Let him, her, or it have. Let them have. 
 
 PARTICIPLES. 
 
 Active. Having. 
 Pasrivg. Had.
 
 VIII. OF VERBS* 67 
 
 116. Though I have inserted halh in the third 
 person singular of the present of the indicative, it 
 is hardly ever used. It is but of date, and ought 
 to be wholly laid aside. 
 
 117. The verb to be is still more irregular, but, 
 a little attention to its irregularities will prevent all 
 errors in the use of it. 
 
 INDICATIVE MODE. 
 Singular. Plural. 
 
 p C 1st Person, I am, We are, 
 
 Time' / 8d Per80n Thou art > You are > 
 
 C 3d Person, He, she, or it is. They are. 
 
 T> .. f - 1 WHS, Wo woro, 
 
 J^ 81 J . - Thou wast, You were, 
 
 lune. ^ - He> she> or it) 
 
 - 1 shall, or will, be, We shall, or will, be, 
 
 - Tboushalt,orwilt, be, You shall, or will, be, 
 Time. He, ** The yS h a ll,orwill,b e . 
 
 SWBJUNCTIVE MoE. 
 
 flf I be, or may, might, would, could, or should, be. 
 I If Thou be, or may, - " be. 
 Pres. 1 If He, she, or it, be, or mayest, - be. 
 
 Time. ] If \Vebe, or may, --- be. 
 j If You be, or may, -- -be. 
 
 Llf They be, or may, - . .. . be. 
 
 rlf I were, 
 I If Thou wert, 
 
 J If He she ' OI jt were 
 .^ If We were> 
 
 I If You were, 
 \Jf They were. 
 
 IMPERATIVE MODE. 
 
 Let me be, Let us be, 
 
 Be tliou, Be you, 
 
 Let him, she, or it, be. Let them be.
 
 68 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 118. In the Subjunctive Mode, I have made use 
 of the conjunction if, throughout all the conjuga- 
 tions of verbs. But, a verb may be in that Mode 
 without an if before it. The if is only one of the 
 murks of that mode. A verb is always in that 
 Mode, when the action or stale of being expressed 
 by the verb is expressed conditionally ; or when 
 the action or state of being is, in some way or 
 other, dependent on some other action or state of 
 being. But, of this I shall speak more at large 
 when I come to the Syntax of Verbs. 
 
 119. There remain a few words to be said about 
 the signs, the defective verbs, and the impersonal 
 verbs. The signs, may, might, can, could, will, 
 would, shall, should, and must, have all, originally, 
 been verbs, though they are now become defective 
 in almost all their parts, and serve only as signs to 
 
 Other vcrbo. Will, indeed, is part of U regular 
 
 verb : as, to will, they willed, they are willing, they 
 will be willing. The word would is certainly the 
 past time and passive participle of the same verb; 
 and, indeed, it is used as a principal verb now, in 
 certain cases : as, " I would he were rich." That 
 is to say, I desire, or, am willing, or, it is my wlll t 
 that he should he rich. But, deep inquiries regard- 
 ing the origin of these words are more curious than 
 useful. A mere idea of the nature of their origin 
 is enough. The word ought is a verb, defective in 
 most of its parrs. It certainly, however, is no 
 other than a part of the verb to owe, and is become 
 ought by corruption. For instance; " I ought to 
 write to you," means, That " 1 owe the perform- 
 ance of the act of writing to you." Ought is made 
 use of only in the present time, arid, for that reason, 
 a great deal has been lost to our language by this 
 corruption. As to the verbs, which some Gram- 
 marians have called impersonal, there are, in fact, 
 no such things in the English Language. By im- 
 personal verb is meant, a verb that has no noun or
 
 VIIL e? VERBS. 69 
 
 pronoun for its nominative case : no person or 
 thing that is the actor, or receiver of an action, or 
 that is in being. Thus : " It rains," is by some 
 called an impersonal verb ; but the pronoun it re- 
 presents the person. Look again at Letter VI, and 
 at paragraphs 60and 61. You will there find what 
 it is that this iV, in such cases, represents. 
 
 120. Thus I have concluded my Letter on the 
 Etymology of verbs, which is by far the most im- 
 portant part of the subject. Great as have been 
 my endeavours to make the matter clear to you, 
 lam aware, that, after the first reading of this 
 Letter, your mind will be greatly confused. You 
 will have had a glimpse at every thing in the Let- 
 ter, but will have seen nothing clearly. But, my 
 dear James, lay the book aside for a day or two. 
 Then read the whole Letter again and again. 
 Read it early, while your mind is clear, and while 
 sluggards are snoring. Write it down. Lay it 
 aside lor another day or two. Copy your own 
 writing. Think as you proceed ; and, at the end 
 of your copying, you will understand clearly all the 
 contents of the Letter. Do not attempt to study the 
 Letter piece by piece. In your readings as well as in 
 your copyings go clean throughout. If you follow 
 these instructions, the remaining part of your task 
 will be very easy and pleasant. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF ADVERBS. 
 
 121. IN Letter III, and in paragraphs 27 
 and 28, you will find a description of this part of 
 speech. Read again those two paragraphs, in or- 
 der to refresh your memory. There is not much 
 to be said about adverbs under the head of Etymo-
 
 70 ETYMOLOGY. Letter IX. 
 
 logy. They are words liable to few variations. 
 Adverbs are very numerous, and may be divided 
 into five principal classes ; that is to say, Adverbs 
 of time, of place, of order, of quality, and of man- 
 ner. This last class, which is the most numerous, 
 is composed of those which are derived, immedi- 
 ately, from adjectives, and which end in///; as, 
 especially, particularly, thankfully. 
 
 122. These adverbs, ending in ly, are, for the 
 most part, formed by simply adding ly to the ad- 
 jective: as especial becomes especially; but, if the 
 adjective end iny, thaty is changed into i in form- 
 ing the adverb : as, happy, happily ; steady, stea- 
 dily. If the adjective end in le s the e is dropped 
 in forming the adverb : as, possible, possibly. 
 
 123. Some lew adjectives, have degrees of com- 
 parison : as, " often, offener, ofienesl ; and those 
 which are derived from irregular adjectives, arc 
 irregular in forming their degrees of comparison: 
 as well, better, fast. 
 
 124. Some adverbs ire. simple, or single ; others 
 compound. The former consist of one word, the 
 latter of Iwo 9 or more words : as, happily ; at pre- 
 sent, notf-a-days ; which last uieans, at the days 
 that now are. Another adverb of this description 
 is, fry 'Olid by ; which is used to express, in a short 
 time; and literally it means near and near ; be- 
 cause by itself, as an adverb, means near, close be- 
 side* When adverbs are compound, the words 
 composing them ought to be connected by a hyphen, 
 or hyphens, as in the above examples of now-a- 
 days and by-and-by.
 
 f 71 ) 
 LETTER X. 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF PREPOSITIONS. 
 
 125. LETTER III, paragraphs 29 and 30, has 
 
 taught you of what description of words Preposi- 
 tions are. The chief ust of them is to express the 
 different relations or connexions, which nouns have 
 with each other, or, in which nouns stand with 
 regard to each other : as, John gives money to 
 Peter ; Peter receives money from John. It is 
 useless to attempt to go into curious inquiries as to 
 the origin of prepositions. They never change 
 their endings ; they are always written in the same 
 manner. Their use is the main thing to be con- 
 sidered; and that will become very clear to you, 
 when you come to the syntax. 
 
 126. There are \.\vo abbreviations^ or shortenings^ 
 of prepositions, which I will notice here, because 
 they are in constant use, and may excite doubts in 
 your mind. They are a and o' : as, I am a hunt- 
 ing ; he is a comi ng: it is one o'clock. The a, 
 thus added, is at, without doubt ; as, I am at hunt- 
 ing; he is at coming. Generally this is a vulgar 
 and redundant manner of speaking ; but it is in use. 
 In mercantile accounts you will frequently see this 
 fl made use of in a very odd sort of way : as, " six 
 bales marked 1 a 6." The merchant means, "six 
 bales marked from 1 to 6," But, this I take to 
 be a relick of the Norman French, which was 
 once the law and mercantile language of England ; 
 for, in French, d, with an accent, means to or at. 
 I wonder that merchants, who are generally men 
 of sound sense, do not discontinue the use of this 
 mark of affectation. And, I beg you, my dear 
 James, to bear in mind, that the only use of words 
 is to cause our meaning to be clearly understood; 
 and that the best words are those, which are fa-
 
 72 ETYMOLOGY Letter 
 
 miliar to the ears of the greatest number of per- 
 sons. The <?', with the mark of elision, means, 
 of, or of the, or on, or on the : as, two o'clock, is 
 the same as to say two of the clock, or two accord- 
 ing to the clock, or two on the clock. 
 
 127. As to the prepositions, which are joined to 
 verbs or other words : as to outlive, to undervalue, 
 to be overdone, it would be to waste our time to 
 spend it in any statements about them ; for, these 
 are other words than to live, to value, to be done. 
 If we were to go, in this way, into the subject of 
 the composition of words, where should we stop? 
 Thank/M/, thank/cs5, without, withm. These are 
 all compound words; but, of what use to us to enter 
 on, and spend our time in, inquiries of mere cu- 
 riosity ? It is for monks, and for Fellows of Eng- 
 lish Colleges, who live by the sweat of other peo- 
 ple's brows, to spend their time in this manner, and 
 to call the result of their studies learning : for you, 
 who will have to earn what you eat and what you 
 drink and what you wear, it is to avoid every thing 
 that tends not to real utility. 
 
 LETTER XI, 
 
 ETYMOLOGY OF CONJUNCTIONS. 
 
 128. IN Letter III, paragraph 31, you have had 
 a description of this sort of words, and also some ac- 
 count of the uses of them. Some of them are call- 
 ed copulative conjunctions, and others disjunctive. 
 They all serve to join together words, or parts of 
 sentences ; but, the former express an union in 
 the actions, or states of being, expressed by the 
 verb : as you and I talk. The latter a disunion : 
 as, you talk, but I act. The woids of this part of 
 speech never vary in their endings. They aje aK
 
 XII. CAUTIONARY REMARKS. 73 
 
 ways spelled in one and the same way. In them- 
 selves they present no difficulty , but, as you will 
 see by-and-by, to use them properly, with other 
 words, in the forming of sentences, demands a due 
 portion of your attention and care. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 CAUTIONARY REMARKS. 
 
 ' 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 129. BEFORE we enter on SYNTAX, let mt 
 give you a caution or two with regard to the con- 
 tents of the foregoing LETTERS. 
 
 130. There are some words, which, under dif- 
 ferent circumstances, belong to more than one part 
 of speech, as, indeed, you have seen, in the Parti- 
 ciples. But, this is by no means confined to that 
 particular description of words. I act. Here act 
 is a verb ; but the act performed by me shows the 
 very same word in the capacity of a noun. The 
 message was sent by him ; he stood by at the time. 
 In the first of these examples by is a preposition ; 
 in the last an adverb. Mind, therefore, that it is 
 the sense in which Ike word is used, and not the let- 
 ters of which it is composed, that determines what 
 is the part of speech to which it belongs. 
 
 131. Never attempt to get by role any part of 
 your instructions. Whoever fails into that prac- 
 tice soon begins to esteem the powers of memdry 
 more than those of reason ; and the former are 
 despicable indeed when compared to the latter. 
 When the fond parents of an eighth wonder of the 
 world call him forth into the middle of the parlour 
 to repeat to their visiters some speech of a play, 
 how angry would they be, if any one were to tell
 
 74 CAUTIONARY REMARKS. LCttCC 
 
 them, that their son's endowments equalled those 
 of a parrot or a bull-finch ! Yet, a German bird- 
 teacher would make either of these more perfect 
 in this species of oratory. It is this mode of teach- 
 ing, which is practised in the great schools, that 
 assists very much in making dunces of Lords and 
 Country Squires. They " gel their lesson;" that 
 is to say, they repeat the words of it ; but, as to its 
 sense and meaning, they seldom have any under- 
 standing. This operation is sometimes, for what 
 reason I know not, called getting a thing by heart. 
 It must, I should think, mean by hear' I ; that is to 
 say, by hear it. That a person may get and retain 
 and repeat a lesson in this way, without any effort 
 of the mind, is very clear from the fact, of which 
 we have daily proof, that people sing the words 
 and tune of a song with perfect correctness, at the 
 very time when they are most seriously thinking 
 and debating in their minds about matters of great 
 importance to them. 
 
 132. I have cautioned you before against study- 
 ing the foregoing instructions piece-meal ; that is 
 to say, a little bit at a time. Read a Letter all 
 through at once ; and, now that you have come to 
 the end of my instructions on Etymology, read all 
 the Letters through at once ; do this repeatedly ; 
 taking care to proceed slowly and carefully ; and, 
 at the end of a few days, all the matters treated of 
 will form a connected whole in your mind. 
 
 133. Before you proceed to the Syntax, try 
 yourself a little, thus : copy a short sentence from 
 any book. Then write down the words, one by 
 one, and write against each what part of speech 
 you think it belongs to. Then look for each word 
 in the dictionary, where you will find the several 
 parts of speech denoted by little letters after the 
 word : s. is for substantive, or noun ; pro. for pro- 
 noun ; a. for ar cle ; v. a. for verb active : v. n. 
 for verb neuter adj. for adjective ; adv. for ad-
 
 XIII. SYNTAX. 75 
 
 verb ; pre. for preposition ; con. for conjunction ; 
 int. for interjection. It will give you great plea- 
 sure and encouragement when you find that you are 
 right. If you be sometimes wrong, this will only 
 urge you to renewed exertion. You will be proud 
 to see, that, without any one at your elbow, you 
 have really acquired something which you can ne- 
 ver lose. You will begin, and with reason, to 
 think yourself learned ; your sight, though the 
 objects will still appear a good deal confused, will 
 dart into every part of the science ; and, you will 
 pant to complete what you will be convinced you 
 have successfully begun. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 SYNTAX GENERALLY CONSIDERED. 
 
 134. IN Letter II, paragraph 9, I shortly 
 explained to you the meaning of the word SYNTAX, 
 as that word is used in the teaching of grammar. 
 Read that paragraph again. 
 
 135. We are, then, now entering upon this 
 branch of your study ; and it is my object to teach 
 yo'i how to give all the words you make use of 
 their proper situation when you come to put them 
 into sentences. Because, though every word that 
 you make use of may be correctly spelled ; that is 
 to say, may have all the letters in it that it ought 
 to have, and no more than it ought to have ; and 
 though all the words may, at the same time, be 
 the fit words to use in order to express what you 
 wish to express ; yet, for want of a due observance 
 of the principles and rules of Syntax, your sen- 
 tences may be incorrect, and, in some cases,
 
 76 SYSTAX. Letter 
 
 they may not express what you wish them to ex- 
 press. 
 
 136. I shall, however, carry my instructions a 
 little further than the construction of independent 
 sentences. I shall make some remarks upon the 
 manner of putting sentences together ; and on the 
 things necessary to be understood, in order to en- 
 able a person to write a series of sentences. These 
 remarks will show you the use of figurative lan- 
 guage, and will, I hope, teach you how to avoid 
 the very common error of making your writing con- 
 fused and unintelligible. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 SYNTAX. 
 
 The Points and Marks made use of in Writing. 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 137. THERE are, as I informed you in para- 
 graph 9, Letter II, Points made use of in the mak- 
 ing, or writing, of sentences ; and, therefore, we 
 must first notice these ; because, as you will soon 
 see, the sense, or meaning, of the words is very 
 much dependent upon the points which are used 
 along with them. For instance : " you will be rich 
 if you be industrious, in a few years." Then again: 
 " you will be rich, if you be industrious in a few 
 years." Here, though in both sentences, the words 
 and also the order of the words are precisely the 
 same, the meaning of one of the sentences is very 
 different from that of the other. The first sentence 
 means, that you will, in a few years' time, be rich, 
 if you be industrious now. The second means, 
 that you will be rich, some time or other, if you be. 
 industrious in a few years from this lime. And all 
 this great difference in meaning is, as you must
 
 XIV. POINTS AND MARKS. ?7 
 
 see, produced solely by the difference in the situa* 
 tion of the comma. Put another comma after the 
 last word industrious, and the meaning becomes dubi- 
 ous. A memorable proof of the great importance 
 of attending to points was given to the English na- 
 tion in the year 1817. A Committee of the House 
 of Lords made a report to the House, respecting 
 certain political clubs. A secretary of one of those 
 clubs presented a petition to the House, in which 
 he declared positively, and offered to prove at the 
 bar, that a part of the report was totally false. At 
 first their Lordships blustered : their high blood 
 seemed to boil : but at last, the Chairman of the 
 Committee apologized for the report by saying, 
 that there ought to have been a full point where 
 there was only a comma 1 and that it was this, 
 which made that false, which would otherwise 
 have been, and which was intended to be, true ! 
 
 ] 38. These points being, then, things of so much 
 consequence in the forming of sentences, it is ne- 
 cessary that I explain to you the use of them, be- 
 fore I proceed any further. There are four of 
 them : the Full- Point , or Period; the Colon ; the 
 Semi-Colon; the Comma. 
 
 139. The Full-Point is a single dot, thus [.], and 
 it is used at the end of every complete sentence. 
 That is to say, at the end of every collection of 
 words, which makes a full and complete meaning, 
 and is not necessarily connected with other col- 
 lections of words. But a sentence may consist of 
 several members^ or divisions, and then it is 
 called a compound sentence. When it has no 
 division, it is called a simple sentence ; Thus : 
 " The people suffer great misery." This is a 
 simple sentence; but, " The people suffer great 
 misery, and daily perish for want," is a compound 
 sentence ; that is to say, it is compounded, or made 
 up, of two simple sentences. 
 
 140, The Colon, which is written thus :, is
 
 <S SYNTAX. Letter 
 
 next to the Full-Point in requiring a complete 
 sense in the words. It is, indeed, often used when 
 the sense is complete, but when there is something 
 still behind, which tends to make the sense fuller 
 or clearer. 
 
 141. The Semi-Colon is written thus [;], and it 
 is used to set off, or divide, simple sentences, in 
 cases where the Comma is not quite enough to 
 keep the meaning of the simple sentences suffi- 
 ciently distinct. 
 
 142. The Comma is written thus [,], and is used 
 to mark the shortest pauses in reading, and the 
 smallest divisions in writing. It has, by some 
 grammarians, been given as a rule, to use a comma 
 to set off every part of a compound sentence, 
 \vhich part has in it a verb not in the infinitive 
 mode; and, certainly, this is, in general, proper. 
 But, it is not always proper : and, besides, commas 
 are used, in numerous cases, to set off parts which 
 have no verbs in them ; and even to set off single 
 words, which are not verbs ; and of this the very sen- 
 tence, which I am now writing, gives you ample 
 proof. The comma marks the shortest pause that we 
 make in speaking ; and it is evident, that, in many 
 cases, its use must depend upon taste. It is some- 
 times used to give emphasis, or weight, to the word 
 after which it is put. Observe, now, the following 
 two sentences : "I was very well and cheerful last 
 44 week; but am rather feeble and low-spirited 
 " now." '* I am very willing to yield to your kind 
 *' requests ; but, I will set your harsh commands 
 " at defiance." Commas are made use of, when 
 phrases, that is to say, portions of words, are 
 thrown into a sentence, and which are not abso- 
 lutely necessary to assist in its grammatical con- 
 struction. For instance : " There were, in the 
 u year 1817, petitions from a million and a half of 
 " men, who, as they distinctly alleged, were suffer- 
 " ing the greatest possible hardships." The two
 
 XIV. POINTS "AND MARKS. 79 
 
 phrases, in italic&s, may be left out in the reading, 
 and still the sentence will have its full grammati- 
 cal construction. 
 
 143. Let us now take a compound sentence or 
 two, containing all the four points. " In a land of 
 " liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a dis- 
 " tinct order of the profession of arms. In abso- 
 " lute monarchies this is necessary for the safety 
 " of the prince, and arises from the main principle 
 " of their constitution, which is that of governing 
 " by fear ; but in free states the profession of a 
 " soldier, taken singly and merely as a profession, 
 44 is justly an object of jealousy. In these no man, 
 *' should take up arms, but with a view to defend 
 *' his country and its laws : he puts off the citizen 
 " when he enters the camp ; but it is because he is 
 * a citizen, and would continue so, that he makes 
 *' himself for a while a soldier. The laws therefore 
 " and constitution of these kingdoms know no sucli 
 " state as that of a perpetual standing soldier, bred 
 11 up to no other profession than that of war : and 
 '* it was not till the reign of Henry VII, that the 
 " kings of England had so much as a guard about 
 *' their persons." 
 
 This passage is taken from Blaclcstone's Com- 
 mentaries, Book I. Chapter 13. Here are four 
 complete sentences. The first is a simple sen- 
 tence. The other three are compound sentences. 
 Each of these latter has its members, all very ju- 
 diciously set off by points. The word so, in the 
 third sentence, ought to be such, or the wards a 
 citizen ought to be repeated. But, with this trifling 
 exception, these are very beautiful sentences. No- 
 thing affected or confused in them : all is simple, 
 clear, and harmonious. 
 
 144. You will now see, that it is quite impossi- 
 ble to give any precise rules for the use of these 
 several points. Much must be left to taste : 
 something must depend upon the weight which we
 
 80 SVNTAX. Letter 
 
 may wish to give to particular words, or phrases ; 
 and something on the seriousness, or the levity, of 
 the subject, on which we are writing. 
 
 145. Besides these points, however, there are 
 certain grammatical signs, or marks, which are 
 made use of in the writing of sentences: the mark 
 of parenthesis, the mark of inter rogation* the mark 
 of exclamation, the apostrophe, otherwise called the 
 jnark of elision, and the hyphen. 
 
 146. The mark of parenthesis consists of two 
 curved strokes drawn across the line of writing, 
 or of print. Its use is to enclose a phrase, thrown 
 in hastily to assist in elucidating our subject, or to 
 add force to our assertions or arguments. But, 
 observe, the parenthesis ought to be very sparingly 
 used. It is necessarily an interrupter : it breaks 
 in upon the regular course of the mind : it tends 
 to divert the attention from the main object of the 
 sentence. I will give you, from Mr. TULL, Chap. 
 XIII, an instance of the omission of the parenthe- 
 sis, and also of the proper employment of it. 
 *' PALLADIUS thought also, with otiiers of the an- 
 ct cients, that Heaven was to be frightened with red 
 <l cloth, with the feathers or the heart of an owl, 
 *' and a multitude cf such ridiculous scare-crows, 
 " from spoiling the fruits of the fields and gardens. 
 " The ancients, having no rational principles or 
 " theory of agriculture, placed their chief confi- 
 " dence in magical charms and enchantments, 
 " which he, who has the patience or curiosity to 
 " read, may find, under the title aforementioned, 
 " in CATO, in VARKO (and even COLUMELLA is as 
 "fulsome as any ofihemj, ail written in very fine 
 "language; which is most of the erudition that 
 " can be acquired, as to field husbandry, from the 
 " Greek and Latin writers, whether in verse or 
 " prose." For want of the mark of parenthesis in the 
 first of these sentences, we almost think, at the close 
 of it, that the author is speaking of the crows, and
 
 XIV. POINTS AND MARKS. 81 
 
 not of Heaven, being frightened from spoiling the 
 fruits of the fields and the gardens. But, with re- 
 gard to the use of the parenthesis, I shall speak, 
 perhaps, more fully by-and-by; for, the employ- 
 ment of it is a matter of some importance. 
 
 147. The mark of interrogation, which is writ- 
 ten thus [?], is used when a question is asked : as, 
 *' Who has my pen? What man is thai?" In these 
 and numerous other cases, the mark is not neces- 
 sary to our clearly comprehending the meaning of 
 the writer. But, this is not always the case. 
 " What does he say? Put the horse into the 
 stable." Again : " What does he say? Put the 
 horse into the stable?" In speaking, this great dif- 
 ference in the meaning, in this instance, would be 
 fully expressed by the voice and manner of the 
 speaker; but, in writing, the mark of interroga- 
 tion is, you see, absolutely necessary in order to 
 accomplish the purpose. 
 
 148. The mark of exclamation, or admiration, 
 is written thus [!], and, as its name denotes, is used 
 to distinguish words or sentences that are exclama- 
 tory, from such as are not: " What do you say '. 
 *' What do you say?" The difference in the sense 
 is very obvious here. Again : " He is going away 
 " lo-nigfil ! He is going away lo-night." The last 
 simply states the fact; but, the first, besides stating 
 the fact, expresses surprise at it. 
 
 149. The Apostrophe, or mark of elision, is a 
 comma, placed above the line, thus [']. Elision 
 means a culling off ; and this mark is used for that 
 purpose : as don't, for do not ; tho' , for though; 
 tov'd, for loved. I have mentioned this mark, be- 
 cause it is used properly enough in poetry ; but, I 
 beg you never to use it in prose in one single 
 instance during your whole life. It ought to 
 be called the mark not of elision, but of laziness 
 and vulgarity. It is necessary as the mark of the 
 possessive case of nouns, as you have seen in 
 
 D3
 
 82 SYNTAX. Letter 
 
 Letter V, paragraph 47. That is its use, and 
 any other employment of it is an abuse. 
 
 150. The Hyphen or Gonjoiner, is a little line, 
 drawn to connect words, or parts of words : as in 
 sea-Jisk; -water-rat. For, here are two distinct 
 words, though they, in these instances, make but 
 one. Sometimes the Hyphen is used to connect 
 many words together: "The never-to-be forgot- 
 " ten cruelty of the Borough-tyrants." When, in 
 Writing or in printing, a line ends with part of a 
 word, a hyphen is placed after that part, in order 
 to show that that part is to be joined, in the read* 
 ing, with that which begins the next line. 
 
 151. These are all the grammatical marks; but, 
 there are others, used in writing for the purpose 
 ef saving time and words. The mark of quotation^ 
 or of citing. This mark consists of two commas 
 placed thus " There were many men." It is 
 used to enclose words, taken from other writings, 
 or from other persons' discourse; and, indeed, it 
 is frequently used to enclose certain sentences, or 
 words, of the writer, when he wishes to mark 
 them as wholly distinct from the general course of 
 any statement that he is making, or of any instruc- 
 tion that he is giving. I have, for instance, in the 
 writing of these Letters to you, set off many of 
 my examples by marks of quotation. In short, its 
 use is to notify to the reader that such and such 
 words, or such and sucli sentences, are not to be 
 looked upon as forming part of the regular course 
 of those thoughts which are at the present time 
 coming from the mind of the writer. 
 
 152. This mark [?] is found in the Bible. It 
 jtands for Paragraph. This [fi] is sometimes used 
 instead of the word Stciion. As to stars [*] and 
 the other marks which are used for the purpose of 
 leading the eye of the reader to Notes, in the same 
 page, or at the end of the book, they are per- 
 fectly arbitrary. You may use for this purpose
 
 XIV. POINTS AND MARKS. 83 
 
 any marks that you please. But, let me observe 
 to you here, that Notes ought seldom to be resorted 
 to. Lite parenthesises, they are interrupters, 
 and much more troublesome interrupters, because 
 they generally tell a much longer story. The em- 
 ploying of them, arises, in almost all cases, from 
 confusion in the mind of the writer. He finds the 
 matter too much for him. He has not the talent to 
 work it all up into one lucid whole; and, therefore, 
 he puts part of it into Notes. Notes are seldom 
 read. If the text ; that is to say, the main part 
 of a writing, be of a nature to engage our earnest 
 attention, we have not time to stop to read the 
 notes ; and, if our attention be not earnestly en- 
 gaged by the text, we soon lay down the volume, 
 and, of course, read neither notes nor text. 
 
 153. As a mark of Abbreviation, the full point is 
 used : as, " Mr. Mrs." But, I know of hardly any 
 other words that ought to be abbreviated ; and if 
 these were not, it would be all the better. Peo- 
 ple may indulge themselves in this practice, until 
 at last, they come to write the greater part of their 
 words in single letters. The frequent use of ab- 
 breviations is always a mark of slovenliness and of 
 vulgarity. I have known Lords abbreviate almost 
 the half of their words : it was, very likely, be- 
 cause they did not know how to spell them to the 
 end. Instead of the word and, you often see peo- 
 ple put <b. For what reason I should like to know. 
 Bui to this -Jj- is sometimes added a c; thus: &c. 
 And is, in Latin, et, and c is the first letter of the 
 Latin word cetera, which means, the like, or so on. 
 Therefore this <bc. means and the like, or and so 
 on. This abbreviation of a foreign word is a most 
 convenient thing for such writers as have too much 
 indolence or too little sense to say fully and clearly 
 what they ought to say. If you mean to say and 
 the like, or, and so on, why not say it ? This ab- 
 breviation is very frequently made use of without
 
 84 SYNTAX. Lettei 
 
 the writer having any idea of its import. A writer 
 on grammar says ; " When these words are joined 
 " to if, since, &c. they lire adverbs." But, where 
 is the like of if t or of since J The best way to guard 
 yourself against the committing of similar errors is 
 never to use this abbreviation. 
 
 1.54. The use of CAPITALS and italicks I will no- 
 tice in this place. In the books, primed before the 
 middle of the last century, a capital letter was used 
 as the first letter of every noun. Capitals are now 
 used more sparingly. We use them at the begin- 
 ning of every paragraph, let the word be what it 
 may; at the beginning of every sentence, which 
 follows a full-point ; at the beginning of all proper 
 names; at the beginning of all adjectives growing 
 out of the names of countries, or nations: as, the 
 English language; the French fashion; the Ameri- 
 can government. \Ve use capitals, besides, at the 
 beginning of any word, when we think the use of 
 it likely to assist in elucidating our meaning, but 
 in general, we use them as above stated. The use 
 of italick characters, in print, is to point out, a& 
 worthy of particular attention, the words distin- 
 guished by those characters. In writing with a 
 pen, a stroke is drawn under such words as we 
 wish to be considered to be in italicks. If we wish 
 words to be put in SMALL CAPITALS, we draw two 
 strokes under them ; if in FULL CAPITALS, we 
 draw three strokes under them. 
 
 155. The last thing I shall mention, under this 
 head, is the caret [A], which is used to point up- 
 wards to a part which has been omitted, and which 
 is inserted between the line, where the caret is 
 placed, and the line above it. Things shojld be 
 called by their right names, and this should be 
 called the blunder-mark. I would have }o , my 
 dear James, scorn the use , of this thing. 7 hlnk 
 before you write; let it be your custom to write 
 cor redly and in a plain hand. Be as careful th it
 
 XIV. POINT* AND MARKS. 85 
 
 ueatuess, grammar, and sense prevail, when you 
 write to a blacksmith about shoeing a horse, as 
 when you write on the most important subjects and 
 wheu you expect what you write to be read by per- 
 sons whose good opinion you are most anxious to 
 obtain or secure. Habit is powerful in all cases ; 
 hut its power in this case is truly wonderful. 
 When you write, bear constantly . in mind, that 
 some one is to read and to understand what you 
 write. This will make your hand-writing, and 
 also your meaning, plain. Never think of mending 
 what you write. Let it go. No patching; no 
 ajler- pointing. As your pen moves, bear constantly 
 in mind, that it is making strokes which are to re- 
 main jar ever. Far, I hope, from my dear James, 
 will be the ridiculous, thecontemptibie, affectation, 
 of writing in a slovenly or illegible hand ; or, that 
 of signing his name otherwise than m plain let- 
 ters. 
 
 156. In concluding this Letter let me caution 
 you against the use of what, by some, is called the 
 dashl The dash is a stroke along the line: thus, 
 r " I am rich I was poor I shall be poor again." 
 This is wild work indeed ! Who is to know uhat 
 is intended by the use of these dashes? Those 
 who have thought proper, like Mr. Lindley Mur- 
 ray, to place tke dash amongst the grammatical 
 points, ought to give us some rule relative to its 
 different longitudinal dimensions in different cases. 
 The inch, the three-quarter-inch, the half-inch, the 
 quarter -inch. : these would be something determi- 
 nate ; but, " the dash," without measure, must be 
 a most perilous thing for a young grammarian to 
 handle. In short, " the dash" is a cover for igno- 
 rance as to the use of points, and it can answer no 
 other purpose. A dash is very often put, in 
 crowded print, in order to save the room that 
 would be lost by the breaks of distinct paragraphs. 
 This is another matter. Here the dash comes
 
 86 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 after a full point. It is the using of it in the body 
 of a sentence against which I caution you. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO ARTICLES. 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 157. BEFORE you proceed to my instructions 
 relative to the employing of articles, you will do well 
 to read again all the paragraphs in Letter IV. Our 
 articles are so few in number, and they are subject 
 to so little variation in their orthography, that very 
 few errors can arise in the use of them. But, still, 
 errors may arise ; and it will be necessary to guard 
 you against them. 
 
 158. You will not fall into very gross errors in 
 the use of the articles. You will not say, as in the 
 erroneous passage cited by DOCTOR LOWTH, " and 
 I persecuted this way unto the death," meaning 
 death generally ; but, you may commit errors less 
 glaring. '' The Chancellor informed the Queen 
 " of it, and she immediately sent for the Secre- 
 *' tary and Treasurer." Now, it is not certain, 
 here, whether the Secretary and Treasurer be not 
 one and the same person; which uncertainty would 
 have been avoided by a repetition of the article : 
 " the Secretary and the Treasurer:" and. you will 
 bear in mind, that, in every sentence, the very 
 first thing to be attended to, is clearness as to mean- 
 ing. 
 
 J59. Nouns which express the whole of a spe- 
 cies do not, in general, take the definite article : 
 as, " grass is good for horses, and wheat for men." 
 Yet, in speaking of the appearance of the face of 
 the country, we say, " the grass looks well; the
 
 XV. AS RELATING TO ARTICLES. 87 
 
 " wheat is blighted." The reason of this, is, that, 
 we are, in this last case, limiting our meaning to 
 the grass and the wheat, which are on the ground 
 at this time. " How do hops sell? Hops are dear; 
 " but the hops look promising." In this respect 
 there is a passage in Mr. TULL, which is faulty. 
 " Neither could weeds be of any prejudice to 
 " corn." It should be " the corn ;" for, he does 
 not mean corn universally, but the standing corn, 
 and the corn amongst which weeds grow ; and, 
 therefore, the definite article is required. 
 
 160. " Ten shillings the bushel," and like 
 phrases, are perfectly correct. They mean, "tea 
 " shillings by the bushel, or for the bushel." In- 
 stead of this mode of expression we sometimes use,. 
 " ten shillings a bushel ;" that is to say, ten shil- 
 lings/or a bushel, or a bushel at a time. Either 
 of these modes of expression is far preferable to 
 per bushel ; for, the per is not English, and is, to 
 the greater part of people,, a mystical sort of, 
 word . 
 
 161. The indefinite article a, or an, is used with 
 the words day, month, year, and others : as, once 
 a day ; twice a month ; a thousand pounds a year.. 
 It means in a day, in a month ; in, or for^ a year ; 
 and though per annum means the same as this last, 
 the English phrase is, in all respects, the best. 
 The same may be said of per cent, that \s per cen^ 
 turn, or, in plain English the hundredor a hundred : 
 by ten per centum we mean ten for the hundred t 
 or, ten for a hundred ; and why can we not, then, 
 say, in plain English, what \ve mean? 
 
 162. When (here are several nouns following the 
 indefinite article, care ought to be taken, that it 
 accord with them: " a dog, cat, owl, and sparrow." 
 Owl requires an ; and, therefore, the article must 
 be repeated in this phrase : as, " a dog, a cat, an 
 " ewl, and a sparrow."
 
 88 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 163. Nouns signifying fixed ami settled collections 
 of individuals: as, thousand, hundred, dozen, score, 
 take the indefinite article, though they are ol 
 plural meaning. It is a certain mass, or numljer, 
 or multitude ) called a score; and so on: and the 
 article agrees with these understood words, which 
 are in the singular number; 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO NOUNS. 
 MY DEAU JAMES, 
 
 164. READ again Letter V, the subject of which 
 is the Etymology of Nouns. Nouns are governed^ 
 as it is called, by verbs and prepositions; that is to 
 say, these latter sorts of words cause nouns to be in 
 such or such a case ; and there must be a concord,, 
 or an agreement, between the nouns and the other 
 words, which, along with the nouns, compose a 
 sentence. 
 
 165. But these matters will be best explained 
 when I come to the Syntax of Verbs; for, until we 
 take the verb into account, we cannot go far in 
 giving rules for the forming of sentences. Under 
 the present head, therefore, I shall content myself 
 with doing little more than to give some further 
 account of the manner of using the Possessive Case. 
 of nouns: that being the only case to denote which 
 our nouns vary their endings. 
 
 ] 60. This possessive case was pretty fully spoken 
 of by me in the Letter just referred to; but, there 
 are certain other observations to make with regard 
 to the using of it in sentences. When the noun, 
 which is in the possessive case, is expressed by u
 
 XVI. AS RELATING TO NOUNS. 89 
 
 circumlocution; that is to say, by many words in lieu 
 of dne, the sign of the possessive t:ase is joined to 
 theHastword: as, 4i John, the old farmer's, wife. 
 " Oliver, the spy's, evidence." It is, however, 
 much better to say, -" die wife of John, the old 
 " farmer. The evidence of Oliver, the spy." 
 
 167. When two or more nouns in the possessive 
 case follow each other and are joined by a conjunctive 
 conjunction, the sign of the possessive case is, when 
 the thing possessed is the same, put to the last noun 
 only : as, " Peter, Joseph, and Richard's estate." 
 In this example the thing possessed being one and 
 the same thing, the sign applies equally to each of 
 the three possessive nouns. But, " Peter's, Jo- 
 " seph's, and Richard's estate," implies that tack 
 has an estate; or, at least, it will admit of that 
 meaning being given to it, while the former phrase 
 will not. 
 
 168. Sometimes the sign of the possessive case 
 is left out, and a hyphen is used in ks stead: as, 
 *' Reynolds, i\\& government- spy." That is to say, 
 *' the government's spy," or" t he spy of the govern - 
 " rnent." These two words, joined in this man- 
 ner, are called a compound noun ; and, to this com- 
 pounding of nouns our language is very much 
 prone. We say, " chamber- Jt'oor, horse-shoe-, dog- 
 " collar ;" that is to say chamber's floor, house's 
 shoe, dogs collar. 
 
 169. This is an advantage peculiar to our lan- 
 guage. It enables us to say much in few words, 
 which always gives strength to language; and, 
 after clearness, strength is the most valuable qua- 
 lity that writing or speaking can possess. " The 
 "Yorkshire-men flew to arms." If we could not 
 compound our words, we must say, " the men of 
 " the shire of York flew to arms." When you 
 come to learn French, you will soon see how 
 much the English language is better than the French. 
 iii this respect.
 
 SO SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 170. You must take care, when you use the 
 possessive case, not to use after it words which 
 create a confusion in meaning. HUME has this 
 sentence : " They flew to arms and attacked 
 *' Norlhumbet land's house, whom they put to 
 death." We know what is meant, because whom can 
 relate to persons only ; but, if it had been an attack 
 on Northumberland's men, the meaning would have 
 been, that the men were put to death. However, 
 the sentence, as it stands, is sufficiently incorrect. 
 It should have been : " They flew to. arms, attack- 
 *' ed the house of Northumberland, and put him to 
 " death." 
 
 171. A passage from DOCTOR HUGH BLAIR, the 
 author of Lectures on Rhetoric, will give you ano- 
 ther instance of error in the use of the possessive 
 case. I take it from the 24th Lecture : "In com- 
 " paring Demosthenes and Cicero, most of the 
 " French critics are disposed to give the prefer- 
 " ence to the latter. P. Rapin the Jesuit, in the 
 '* parallels which he has drawn between some of 
 *' the most eminent Greek and Roman writers, 
 *' uniformly decides in favour of the Roman. Fot 
 *' the preference which he gives to Cicero, he 
 " assigns, and lays stress on one reason of a pretty 
 *' extraordinary nature, viz. that Demosthenes 
 *' could not possibly have so clear an insight as 
 ** Cicero into the manners and passions oi men j 
 ** Why? because he had not the advantage of pe- 
 " r using Aristotle's Treatise of Rhetoric, wherein,. 
 *' says our critic, he has fully laid open thai mys- 
 " lery : and to support this weighty argument, he 
 " enters into a controversy with A. Gelhus, in or- 
 t{ der to prove that Aristotle's Rhetoric was not 
 * c published till after Demosthenes had spoken, at 
 " leasl, his most considerable orations." It is sur- 
 prising thai the Doctor should have put such a 
 passage as this upon paper, and more surprising 
 that he should leave it in this state after having
 
 XVI. AS RELATING TO NOUNS. 91 
 
 perused it with that care, which is usually employ- 
 ed in examining writings that are to be put into 
 print, and especially writings in which every 
 word is expected to be used in a proper manner. 
 In Bacon, in Tull, in Blackstone, in Hume, in 
 Swift, in Bolingbroke ; in all writers, however 
 able, we find errors. Yet, though many of their 
 sentences will not stand the test of strict grammati- 
 cal criticism, the sense generally is clear to our 
 minds : and we read on. But, in this passage of 
 Doctor Blair, all is confusion: the mind is puzzled : 
 we, at last, hardly know whom or what the writer 
 is talking about ; and we fairly come to a stand. 
 
 172. In speaking of the many faults in this pas- 
 sage, I shall be obliged to make here observations 
 which would come under the head of pronouns, 
 verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. The first two of 
 the three sentences are, in themselves, rather ob_- 
 cure, and are well enough calculated for ushering 
 in the complete confusion that follows. The he 
 which comes immediately after the word because 
 may relate to Demosthenes ; but to what noua 
 does the second he relate? It would, when we 
 first look at it, seem to relate to the same noun as 
 die first he relates to ; for, the Doctor cannot call 
 jtrislollt's "Treatise of Rhetoric a he. No : in speak- 
 ing of this the Doctor says, " wherein ;" that is to 
 say, in which. He means, I dare say, that the fie 
 should stand for Aristotle; but it does not stand for 
 Aristotle. This noun is not a nominative in the 
 sentence ; and it cannot have the pronoun relating 
 to it as such. This he may relate to Cicero, who 
 may be supposed to have laid open a mystery 
 in the perusing of the treatise; and the words 
 which follow the he would seem to give counte- 
 nance to this supposition ; for, what mystery is. 
 meant by the words " that mystery?" Is it the 
 mystery of Rhetoric, or the mystery of the manners
 
 93 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 and passions of men? This is not all, however; 
 for the Doctor, as if bewitched by the love of con- 
 fusion, must tack on another long member to the sen- 
 tence, and bring forward another he to stand for P. 
 JBapin, whom and whose argument we have, amidst 
 the general confusion, wholly forgotten. There is 
 an error also in the use of the active participle, pe- 
 rusing. " Demosthenes could not have so com- 
 " plete an insight as Cicero, because he had not 
 " the advantage of perusing." That is to say, tin; 
 advantage of being engaged in perusing. But this is 
 not what is meant. The Doctor means, thathe/iarf 
 not hadtht advantage o/ perusing ; or, rather, that 
 lie had not the advantage of having perused. In 
 other words, that Demosthenes could not have, or 
 possess, a certain kind of knowledge, at the time 
 when he made his orations, because, at that time, he 
 had not, or did not possess, the advantage of having 
 perused, or having Jin 1 shed lo peruse, the treatise of 
 Aristotle. Towards the close of the last sentence 
 the adverb, " at least." is put in a wrong place. 
 The Doctor means, doubtless, that the adverb 
 should apply to considerable, and not to spoken ; 
 but, from its being wrong placed, it applies to the 
 latter, and not to the former. He means, to say, 
 that Demosthenes had spoken the most consider- 
 able, at least, of his orations ; but, as the words 
 now stand, they mean, that he had done the speaking 
 part to them, if he had done nothing more. There 
 is an error in the use of the word " insight," fol- 
 lowed, as it is, by " into." We may have a look, 
 or sight, j{0ahouse; but not an insight. This 
 would be to take an inside view of an inside. 
 
 173. We have, here, a pretty good proof, that 
 a knowledge of the Greek and Latin is not suffi- 
 cient to prevent men from writing bad English. 
 Here is a profound scholar, a teacher of rhetoric, 
 discussing the comparative merits oi Greek and
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO MtONOUNS. 93 
 
 Latiii writers, and disputing with a French critic : 
 here he is, writing English in a manner more incor- 
 rect than you will, I hope, be liable to write it at 
 the end of your reading of this little book. Lest 
 it should be supposed, that I have taken great 
 pains to hunt out this erroneous passage of Doctor 
 Blair, I will inform you, that I have hardly looked 
 intoJiis book. Your brothers, in reading it through, 
 Hawked a great number of erroneous passages, 
 from amongst which I have selected the passage 
 just cited. With what propriety, then, are the' 
 Greek and Latin languages called the " learned 
 languages ?" 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 1 74. YOU will now read again Letter VI. It 
 will bring you back to the subject of pronouns. 
 You will bear in mind that personal pronouns stand 
 Jor, or in the place of, nouns ; and, that the great- 
 est care ought always to be taken in using them ; 
 because, being small words, and in frequent use, 
 the proper weight of them is very often unattended 
 te. 
 
 175. You have seen, in the passage from Doctor 
 Blair, quoted in the foregoing Letter, what confu- 
 sion arises from the want of taking care, that the 
 pronoun relate clearly to its nominative case, and 
 that it be not left to be understood to relate to any 
 thing else. Little words, of great and sweeping 
 influence, ought to be used with the greatest care ; 
 because errors in the using of them make such 
 great errors in point of meaning. In order to ira-
 
 94 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 press, at the out-set, these precepts on your mind, 
 I will give you an instance of this kind of error 
 from ADDISON; and, what is well calculated to 
 heighten the interest you ought to feel upon the 
 occasion, is, that the sentence, which contains the 
 error, is, by Doctor Blair, held forth to students 
 of language, in the University of Edinburgh, as a 
 perfect model of correctness and of elegance. The 
 sentence is from Addison's Spectator, Number 4li.- 
 " There are, indeed, but very few, who know how 
 " to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any 
 " pleasures that are not criminal ; every diversion 
 " they take, is at the expense of some one virtue 
 <{ or other, and Iheir very first step out of busi- 
 * ( ness is into vice or folly." Doctor Blair says : 
 *' Nothing can be more elegant, or more finely 
 '* turned, than this sentence. It is neat, clear, and 
 '* musical. We could hardly alter one word, or 
 " displace one member, without spoiling it. Few 
 *' sentences are to be found more finished, or more 
 " happy." See Blair's 20th Lecture on Rhe- 
 toric. 
 
 176. Now, then, my dear little James, let us see 
 whether we, plain English scholars, have not a 
 little more judgment than this professor in a learned 
 University, who Could not, you will observe, be a 
 Doctor^ until he had preached a Sermon in the 
 Latin language. What does the pronoun they mean 
 in this sentence of Mr. Addison ? What noun does 
 it relate to, or stand for ? What noun is the nomi~ 
 native of the sentence ? The nominative of the sen- 
 tence is the word yew, meaning/7f persons. Very 
 well, then, the pronoun, they, relates to this nomi- 
 native ; and the meaning of the sentence is this : 
 " that but few persons know how to be idle and in- 
 u nocent; that few persons have a relish of any 
 " pleasures that are not criminal ; that every di- 
 " version these few persons take is at the expense of 
 " some one virtue or other, and that the very first
 
 XVII, AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 95 
 
 *' step of these few persons out of business is into 
 " vice or folly." So that the sentence says precisely 
 the contrary of what the author meant ; or, rather, 
 the whole is perfect nonsense. All this arises from 
 the misuse of the pronoun, they. If, instead of this 
 word, the Author had put, people in general, or 
 most people, or most men, or any word, or words, of 
 the same meaning, all would have been right. 
 
 177. I will take another instance of the conse- 
 quence of being careless m the use of personal pro- 
 nouns. It is from JUDGE BLACRSTONE, Book II, 
 Chapter 6. " For, the custom of the manor has, 
 " in both cases, so far superseded the will of the 
 " Lord, that, provided the services be performed, 
 " or stipulated for by fealty, he cannot, in the first 
 *' instance, refuse to admit the heir of his tenant 
 " upon his death ; nor, in the second, can he re- 
 " move his present tenant so long as he lives.'* 
 Here are lord, heir, and tenant, M confounded. We 
 may guess at the Judge's meaning; but, we can- 
 not say, that we know what it is : we cannot say that 
 we are certain -whose life, or whose death, he is 
 speaking of. 
 
 178. Never write a personal pronoun, without 
 duly considering what noun, it will, upon a reading 
 of the sentence, be found to relate to. There must 
 be a noun, expressed or understood, to which the 
 pronoun clearly relates, or you will not write sense. 
 " The land-holder has been represented as a mon- 
 u ster which must be hunted down, and the fund- 
 " holder as a still greater evil, and both have been 
 " described as rapacious creatures, who take from 
 " the people fifteen pence out of every quartern 
 " loaf. They have been told that Parliamentary 
 " Reform is no more than a half-measure, changing 
 *' only one set of thieves for another : and that they 
 " must goto theland, as nothing short of that Would 
 " avail them." This is taken from the memorable 
 report of a committee of the House of Lords, in
 
 96 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 1817, on which report the cruel dungeon-bill was 
 passed. Now, to what nouns do these pronouns re- 
 late ? Who are the nominatives in the first sentence? 
 The land-holdtr and the fund-holder, to be sure ; 
 and, therefore, to them do the pronouns relate. 
 These Lords mean, doubtless, that the people had 
 been told, that the people must go to the land ; that 
 nothing else would avail the people : but, though 
 they mean this, they do not say it ; and this part .of 
 their report is as false in Grammar as the whole of 
 the report was in fact. : 
 
 17i>. When there are two or more nouns, con- 
 nected by a copulative conjunction, and when a per- 
 sonal pronoun is made use of to relate to them, or 
 stand for them, you must take care that the person- 
 al pronoun agree with them in number. " He was 
 " fonder of nothing than of ivit and raillery ; but, 
 *' he is far from being happy in it." This Doctor 
 Blair, in his XlXth Lecture, says of Lord Shaftes- 
 bury. Either wit and raillery are one and the same 
 thing, or they are different things : if the former, 
 one of the words is used unnecessarily ; if the 
 latter, the pronoun ought to have been, //tern, and 
 not it. 
 
 ISO. When, however, the nouns take the dis- 
 junctive conjunction, or, the pronoun must be in 
 the singular: as, "When he shoots a partridge, a 
 " pheasant, or a woodcock, he gives // away." 
 
 181. Nouns of number, or multitude, such as 
 Mob, Parliament , Rabble, House of Commons, Regi-> 
 meni, Court of King's Bench, Den of Thieves, and the 
 like, may Jiaye pronouns agreeing with them either 
 in the singular or in the plural number ; for, we 
 may, for instance, say of the House of Commons, 
 " they refused to hear evidence against Castlereagh, 
 " when Mr. Maddox accused him of having sold a 
 " seat ; or, 'it refused to hear evidence." But, we 
 must be uniform in our use of the pronoun in this 
 respect. AYe must not, in the same sentence, and .
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 97 
 
 applicable to the same noun, use the singular in one 
 part of the sentence and the plural in another part. 
 We must not, in speaking of the House of Commons, 
 for instance, say, " they^ one year, voted unani- 
 " raously, that cheap corn was an evil, and, the next 
 " year, it voted unanimously, that dear corn was 
 "an evil." There are persons, who pretend to 
 make very nice distinctions as to the cases when 
 these nouns of multitude ought to take the singular, 
 and when they ought to take the plaral, pronoun ; 
 but, these distinctions are too nice to be of any 
 real use. The rule is this : that nouns of multitude 
 may take either the singular, or the plural, pro- 
 noun; but not both in the same sentence. 
 
 182. As to gender, it is hardly possible to make 
 a mistake. There are no terminations to denote 
 gender, except in the third person singular, he, she, 
 or if. We do, however, often personify things. 
 Speaking of a nation we often say she; of the sun, 
 we say he; of the jnoon, we say s/te. We may 
 personify things at our pleasure ; but, we must 
 take care to be consistent, and not call a thing he, 
 or she, in one part of a sentence^ and it in another 
 part. The occasions when you ought to personify 
 things, and when you ought not, cannot be stated 
 in any precise rule. Your own taste and judgment 
 will be your best guides. I shall give you my 
 opinion about figures of speech in a future Letter. 
 
 183. Nouns which denote sorts, or kinds, of liv- 
 ing creatures, and which do not of themselves dis- 
 tinguish the male from the female, such as rabbit, 
 hare, hog, cat, pheasant, fowl, take the neuter 
 pronoun, unless we .happen to know the gender 
 of the individual we are speaking about. If I 
 see you with a cock- pleasant in your hand, I say, 
 " where did you shoot him," but, if you tell me 
 you have shot a pheasant, I say, " where did you 
 shoot it." 
 
 184. The personal pronouns in their possessive
 
 98 SYNTAX-, Letter 
 
 case must, of course, agree in number and gender 
 with their correspondent nouns or pronouns : 
 "John and Thomas have been so foolish as. to sell 
 " Iheir land and to purchase what is called stock; 
 " but their sister, who has too much sense to depend 
 " on a bubble for her daily bread, has kept her 
 " land : theirs is gone for ever ; but hers is safe." 
 So they must also, in their objective case: "John 
 " and Thomas will lose the interest of their money, 
 " which will soon cease to be paid to them. The 
 " rents of their sister will regularly be paid to her ; 
 " and, Richard will also enjoy his income, which is 
 " to be paid to him by his sister." If there be 
 nouns of both genders used before pronouns, care 
 must be taken, that no confusion, or obscurity arise 
 from the misuse of the pronoun. HUME says: 
 *' ; they declared it treason to atteftipt, imagine, or 
 " speak evil of the king, queen, or his heirs." 
 This has, at least, a meaning, which shuts out the 
 heirs of the queen. In such cases the noun should 
 be repealed. 
 
 185. Take care, in using the personal pronouns, 
 not to employ the objective case where you ought to 
 employ the nominative ; and take care also of the 
 epposile error. " Him strikes I : Her loves he." 
 These offend the ear at once. But, when a num- 
 ber of words come in between the discordant parts, 
 the ear does not detect the error. " It was some 
 " of those, who came hither last night, and went 
 " away this morning, who did the mischief, and 
 " not my brother and me." It ought to be " my 
 " brother and /." For, I am not, in this instance, 
 the object, but the oc/or, or supposed actor. 
 " Who broke that glass? It was me." It ought 
 to be 1; that is to say, " it was I who broke it." 
 Fill up the sentence with all the words that are 
 understood ; and, if there be errors you will soon 
 discover them, After the words tlian and as this 
 error, of putting the objective for the nominative,
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 99 
 
 is very frequently committed : as, "John was very 
 " rich, but Peter was richer than him; and, at the 
 " same time, as learned as him or any of his family." 
 It ought to be richer than he: as learned as he: for, 
 the full meaning here, is, " richer than he was : as 
 learned as he was." But, it does not always 
 happen, that the nominative case comes after than, 
 or, as: "I love you more than him I give you 
 " more than him : 1 love you as well as him." That 
 is to say, I love you more than / love him : I give 
 you more than I give lo him : I love you as well as 
 Hove him. Take away him and put he, in all these 
 cases, and the gramma? is just as good, only the 
 meaning is quite different. " I love you as well as 
 " him" means that I love you as well as I love 
 him ; but, " I love you as well as he," means, that 
 I love you as well as he loves you. 
 
 186. You see, then, of what importance this dis- 
 tinction of cases is. But, you must not look for 
 this word, or that word, coming before or coming 
 after, to be your guide. It is reason is to be your 
 sole guide. When the person or thing represented 
 by the pronoun is the object, then it must be in the 
 objective case : when it is the actor, or when it is 
 merely the person or thing said to be this or that, 
 then it must be in the nominative case. Read 
 again paragraphs 46, 47, and 48, of Letter III. 
 
 187. The errors, committed with regard to the 
 confounding of cases, arise most frequently, when 
 the pronouns are placed, in the sentences, at a 
 great distance, from the words which are con- 
 nected with them, and which determine the case. 
 " He and his sister, and not their uncle and 
 " cousins, the estate was given lo." Here is no- 
 thing that sounds harsh ; but, bring the pronoun 
 close to the preposition that demands the objective 
 case : say, the estate was given lo he ; and, then, 
 you perceive the grossness of the error in a mo- 
 ment. " The work of national ruin was pretty 
 
 * 2
 
 100 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 " effectually carried on by the ministers ; but more 
 " effectually by the paper-money makers than 
 "they." This does not hurt the ear; but, it 
 dught to be them: "more effectually than by 
 " them." 
 
 188. The pronouns mine, thine, theirs, yours, 
 hers, his, stand frequently by themselves; that is to 
 say, not followed by any noun. But, then, the 
 noun is understood. " This is hers." That is to 
 say, her property; her hat, or whatever else. 
 No difficulty can arise in the use of these words. 
 
 189. But, the use of the personal pronoun tl is 
 a subject of considerable importance. Read again 
 paragraphs 60 and 61, Letter VI. Think well 
 upon what you find there ; and, when you have 
 done that, proceed with me. This pronoun, with 
 the verb to be, is in constant use in our language. 
 To say; "your uncle came hither last night," is 
 not the same thing as to say " it was your uncle 
 who came hither last night," though the fact related 
 be the same. "///$/ who write," is very dif- 
 ferent from " I write," though, in both cases, my 
 being writing is the fact very clearly expressed, 
 and is one and the same fact. " // is those men, 
 *' who deserve well of their country," means a 
 great deal more than, " Those men deserve well of 
 *' their country." The principal verbs are the 
 same: the prepositions are the same; but the 
 real meaning is different. " // is the dews and 
 " showers thai make the grass grow," is very dif- 
 ferent from merely observing, that " Dews and 
 " showers make the grass grow." 
 
 190. DOCTOR LOWTH has given it as his opinion, 
 that it is not correct to place plural nouns, or pro- 
 nouns, after the it, thus used ; an opinion which 
 arose from the want of a little more reflection. 
 The it has nothing to do, grammatically speaking, 
 with the rest of the sentence. The it, together 
 with the verb to be, express stales oj 'being, in some
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 101 
 
 instances, and in others this phrase-serves to mark, 
 in a strong manner, the subject, in a mass, of what 
 is about to be affirmed, or denied. Of course, this 
 phrase, which is in almost incessant use, may be 
 followed by nouns and pronouns in the singular, or 
 in the plural, number. I forbear to multiply exam- 
 ples, or to enumerate the various ways in which 
 this phrase is used, because one grain of reasoning 
 is worth whole tons of memory. The principle 
 being once in your mind, it will be ready to be ap- 
 plied to every class of cases, and to every particular 
 case of each class. 
 
 191. For want of a reliance on principles, in- 
 stead of examples, how the latter have swelled in 
 number, and grammar-books in bulk ! But, it is 
 much easier to quote examples than to lay down 
 principles. For want of a little thought, as to the 
 matter immediately before us, some grammarians 
 have found out " an absolute case" as they call it; 
 and Mr. LINDLEY MURRAY gives an instance of it 
 in these words: " Shame being lost, all virtue is 
 lost." The full meaning of this sentence is this: 
 " // being, or the stale of things being such, that 
 shame is lost, all virtue is lost." 
 
 192. Owing to not seeing the use and power of 
 this it in their true light, many persons, after long 
 puzzling, think they must make the pronouns, 
 which immediately follow, conform to the cases, 
 which the verbs and prepositions of the sentence 
 demand. " It is them, and not the people, whom 
 " I address myself to." " It was/'w, and not the 
 " other man, that I sought after." The preposi- 
 tions, to and after, demand an objective case; and 
 they have it in the words whvmand lhaf. The pro- 
 nouns which follow the it and the verb to be, must 
 always be in the nominative case. 
 
 193. This it with its verb to be is sometimes em- 
 ployed with the preposition/or, with singular force 
 and effect. " // is for the guilty to live in fear, to
 
 102 SYNTAX, Lciter 
 
 " skulk and to hang their heads; but for the in- 
 " nocent it is to enjoy ease and tranquillity of miud, 
 " to scorn all disguise, and to carry themselves 
 " erect." This is much more forcible than to say: 
 " The guilty generally live in fear," and so on, 
 throughout the sentence. The word for, in this 
 ease, denotes appropriateness, or fitness ; and, the 
 full expression vvduld be this: "To the state of be~ 
 " ing, or slate of things called guiltiness, to live in 
 " fear is fitting, or is appropriate." If you pay at- 
 tention to the reason, on which the use of these 
 words is founded, you nill never be at a loss to use 
 them properly. 
 
 194. The word it is the greatest troubler that 
 I know of in language. It is so small, and so con- 
 venient, that few are careful enough in using it. 
 Writers seldom spare this word. Whenever they 
 are at a loss for either a nominative or an objective, 
 to their sentence, they, without any kind of cere- 
 mony, clap in an it. A very remarkable instance 
 of this pressing of poor it into actual service, con- 
 trary to the laws of Grammar and of sense, occurs 
 in a piece of composition, where we might, with 
 justice, insist on perfect correctness. This piece 
 is on the subject of grammar; it is a piece written 
 by a Doctor of Divinity, and read by him to stu- 
 dents in grammar and language in an academy; 
 and the very sentence that I arn now about to quote 
 is selected by the author of a grammar, as testi- 
 mony of high authority in favour of the excellence 
 of his work. Surely, if correctness be ever to be 
 expected, it must be in a case like this. I allude to 
 two sentences in the " Charge of the REVEREND 
 " DOCTOR ABERCROMBIE to the senior class of the 
 *' Philadelphia Academy, published in 1806," 
 which sentences have been selected and re-publish- 
 ed by Mr. LINDLEY MURRAY, as a testimonial of the 
 merits of his Grammar ; and which sentences are, 
 by Mr. MURRAY, given to us in the following words:
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. l03 
 
 14 The unwearied exertions of this gentleman have 
 44 done more towards elucidating the obscurities, 1 ' 
 44 aud embellishing the structure, of our language, 
 44 than any other writer on the subject. Such a 
 44 work, has long been wanted ; and, from the suc- 
 44 cess with which it is executed, cannot be too 
 44 highly appreciated." 
 
 195. As, in the learned Doctor's opinion, obscu- 
 rities can be elucidated, and, as, in the same opi- 
 nion, Mr. Murray is an able hand at this kind of 
 work, it would not be amiss were the grammarian 
 to try his skill upon this article from the hand of 
 his dignified eulogist : for, here is, if one may use 
 the expression, a constellation of obscurities. Our 
 poor, oppressed //, which we find forced into the 
 Doctor's service, in the second sentence, relates 
 to 4< such a work," though this work is nothing that 
 has an existence, notwithstanding it is said to be 
 44 executed." In the first sentence, the 44 exertions" 
 become, all of a sudden, a 44 writer:" the exertion^ 
 have done more than 44 any other writer:" for, 
 miad you, it is not the gtnileman that has done any 
 thing; it is 44 the exertions that have done" what is 
 said to be done. The word gentleman is in the 
 possessive case, and has nothing to do with the 
 action of the sentence. Let us give the sentence a 
 turn, and the Doctor and the Grammarian will 
 hear how it will sound. 4t This gentleman's exer- 
 44 iions have done more than any other writer." 
 This is upon a level with, 44 this gentleman's dog 
 44 has killed more hares than any other sportsman." 
 No doubt, DOCTOR ABEHCROMBIE meant to say: 
 4 ' the exertions of this gentleman have done more 
 '* than those of any other writer. Such a work as 
 " this gentleman's has long been wanted ; his 
 " work, seeing the successful manner of its exe- 
 4< cut ion, cannot be too highly commended." 
 Meant ! No doubt at all of that ! And, when we 
 lifiar a Hampshire plough-boy say : ' 4 Poll Cherry-
 
 104 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 " cheek have giv'd I thick hankecher," we know 
 very well that he means to say, " Poll Cherry- 
 11 cheek has given me this handkerchief:" and 
 yet, we are but too apt to laugh at him, and to call 
 him ignorant ; which is wrong ; because he has 
 no pretensions to a knowledge of grammar, and he 
 may be very skilful as a plough-boy. However, 
 we will not laugh at DOCTOR ABERCROMBIE, whom 
 I knew, many years ago, for a very kind and wor- 
 thy man, and who baptized your elder brother and 
 elder sister. But, if we may, in any case, be 
 allowed to laugh at the ignorance of our fellow 
 creatures, that case certainly does arise, when we 
 see a professed grammarian, the author of volu- 
 minous precepts and examples on the subject of 
 grammar, producing, in imitation of the possessors 
 of invaluable medical secrets, testimonials vouch- 
 ing for the efficacy of his literary panacea, and 
 when, in those very testimonials, we find most 
 flagrant instances of bad grammar. 
 
 196. However, my dear' James, let this strong 
 and striking instance of the misuse of the word it 
 serve you in the way of caution. Never put an it 
 upon paper without thinking well of what you are 
 about. When I see many its in a page, I always 
 tremble for the writer. 
 
 197. We now come to the second class of pro- 
 nouns; that is to say, the RELATIVE PRONOUNS, 
 of which you have had some account in Letter 
 VI. paragraphs, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66 ; which 
 paragraphs you should now read over again with 
 attention. 
 
 198. Who, which becomes whose in the posses- 
 sive case, and whom in the objective case, is, in 
 its use, confined to rational beings: for, though 
 some writers do say; " the country whose fertility 
 is great," and the like, it is not correct. We 
 must say; " the country, the fertility of which. 
 But, if we personify; if, for instance, we call a
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 105 
 
 nation a she, or the sun a he, we must then, if -we 
 have need of relative pronouns, take these, or the 
 word thai, which is a relative applicable to ra- 
 tional as well as irrational and even inanimate 
 beings. 
 
 199. The errors which are most frequent, in 
 the use of these relative pronounsj arise from not 
 taking care to use who and whom when they are 
 respectively demanded by the verbs or preposi- 
 tions. " fo who did you speak ? Whom is come 
 " to day ?" These sentences are too glaringly 
 wrong to pass from our pens to > the paper. But, 
 as in the case of personal pronouns, when the 
 relatives are placed, in the sentence, at a distance 
 from their antecedents, or verbs, or prepositions, 
 the ear gives us no assistance. " Who, of all the 
 " men in the world, do you think I saw, the other 
 " day. Who, for the sake of his numerous ser- 
 " vices, the office was given to." In both these 
 cases it ought to be whom. Bring the verb, in the 
 first, and the preposition in the second, case closer 
 to the relative; as, who I saw ; lo who Ihe office was 
 given; and, you see the error at once. But, take 
 care ! " Whom of all the men in the world, do 
 " you think was chosen to be sent 'as an embassa- 
 " dor? Whom, for the sake of his numerous ser- 
 " vices had an office of honour bestowed upon him.'' 
 These are nominative cases, and ought to have 
 who ; that is to^ay, " who was chosen ; who hadan 
 " office." 1 will not load you with numerous ex- 
 amples. Read again about the nominative and ob- 
 jective cases in Letter V. Apply your reason to the 
 subject. Who is the nominative, and whom the ob- 
 jective. Think well about the matter, and you 
 will want no more examples. 
 
 200. There is, however, .an erroneous way of 
 employing whom which I must point out to your 
 particular attention, because it is so often seen in 
 very good writers, and because it is very deceiv* 
 
 E 3
 
 106 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 ing. " The dnke of Argyle, than whom no man 
 " was more hearty in the cause. Cromwell, than 
 " whom no man was belter skilled in artifice." A 
 hundred such phrases might be collected from 
 HUME, BLACKSTONE, and even from Doctors BLAIR 
 and JOHNSON. Yet, they are bad grammar. In 
 all such cases, who should be made use of: for, it 
 is nominative and not objective. " No man was 
 " more hearty in the cause than he was : no man 
 " was better skilled in artifice than he was." It is 
 a very common parliament- house phrase, and, 
 therefore, presumptively corrupt ; but, it is a 
 Doctor Johnson phrase, too : " Pope, than whom 
 " few men had more vanity." The Doctor did 
 not say, " Myself, than whom few men have been 
 41 found more base, having, in my Dictionary, de- 
 " scribed a pensioner as a slave of state, and hav- 
 81 ing afterwards myself become a pensioner." 
 
 201. I differ, as to this matter, from Bishop 
 Lowth, who says, that u the relative who, having 
 ** reference to no verb or preposition understood, 
 " but only to its antecedent, when it follows lhan, is 
 14 always in (he objective case ; even though the pro- 
 " noun, if substituted in its place, would be in the 
 " nominative." And, then, he gives an instance from 
 Milton. '' Beelzebub, than whom, Satan except, none 
 " higher sat." It is curious enough, that this sentence 
 of the Bishop is, itself, ungrammatical ! Our poor, 
 unfortunate it is so placed as to make it a matter of 
 doubt whether the Bishop meant it to relate to 
 w/i0, or to its antecedent. However, we know his 
 meaning; but, though he says, that who, when it 
 follows ihan, is -always in the objective case, he 
 gives us no reason for this departure from a clear 
 general principle : unless we are to regard as a 
 reason, the example of Milton, who has com- 
 mitted m'any hundreds, if not thousands, of gram- 
 matical errors, many of which the Bishop himself 
 has pointed out. There is a sort of side-wind at-
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUNS. 107 
 
 tempt at a reason in the words, " having reference 
 " to no verb or preposition understood." I do not 
 see the reason even if this could be ; but, it ap- 
 pears to me impossible, that a noun or pronoun 
 can exist in a grammatical state without having re- 
 ference to some verb or preposition, either ex- 
 pressed or understood. What is meant by Milton? 
 " Than Beelzebub none sat higher, except Satan." 
 And, when, in order to avoid the repetition of the 
 word Beelzebub, the relative becomes necessary, 
 the full construction must be, " no devil sat higher 
 " than who sat. except Satan ;" and not, "no devil 
 " sat higher than whom sat." The supposition, 
 that there can be a noun, or pronoun, which has 
 reference to no veil/, and no preposition, is certainly 
 a mistake. 
 
 202. That, as a relative, may, as we have seen, 
 be applied either to persons or things ; but it has 
 no possessive case, and no change to denote the 
 other two cases. We say, " The man that- gives t 
 " and the man that a thing is given lo." But, there 
 are some instances, when it can hardly be called 
 proper to use (hat instead of who, or whom. Thus ; 
 direcily after a proper name, as in HUME : 
 " The queen gave orders for taking into custody 
 " the Duke of Northumberland, who fell on his 
 " knees to the Earl of Arundel, that arrested him." 
 Who would have been much better, though there 
 was a who just before in the sentence. In the 
 same author: "Douglas, who had prepared his 
 " people, and that was bent upon taking his part 
 " openly." This never ought to be, though we 
 see it continually. Either may do; but both never 
 ought to be relatives of the same antecedent in the 
 same sentence. And, indeed, it is very awkward, 
 to say the least of it, to use bolh in the same sen- 
 tence, though relating to different antecedents, if 
 all these be names of rational beings. " The 
 " JLordsj who made the first false report, and the
 
 108 STNTAX, Letter 
 
 " Commons, that seemed to vie with their Lord- 
 " ships in falsehood, became equally detested." 
 "That, as a relative, cannot take the preposition or 
 verb immediately before k : as, " the man, to whom 
 " I gave a book;" but I cannot say, " tht man lo that 
 '* I gave a book ; nor the knife to that I put a 
 *' handle." " Having defeated whom, he remained 
 " quiet ;" but, we cannot, in speaking of persons, 
 say, " having defeated that, he remained quiet." 
 
 203. Which, as a relative pronoun, is applied to 
 irrational beings only, and, as to those beings, it 
 may be employed indifferently with that, except in 
 the cases, where the relative comes directly after 
 a verb or a preposition, in the manner just spoken 
 of. We say " the town, the horse, the tree, 
 " which ; or to which ;" and so on. And we say, 
 " the town, the tree, the horse, that;" but not 
 to or for that. 
 
 204. We may, in speaking of nouns of multi- 
 tude, when the multitude consists of rational crea- 
 tures, and when we choose to consider it as a 
 singular noun, make use of who or whom, or of 
 which, just as we please. We may say, " the 
 *' crowd, which was going up the street ; or, the 
 " crowd, who was going up the street;" but, we 
 cannot make use of both in the same sentence and 
 relating to the same noun. Therefore, we cannot 
 say, " the crowd who was going up the street and 
 " which was making a great noise." We must 
 take the who, or the which, in both places. If 
 such noun of multitude be used in the plural num- 
 ber, we then go on with the idea of the rationality 
 of the individuals in our minds ; -and, therefore, we 
 make use of who and whom. u The assembly, who 
 " rejected the petition, but, to whom another was 
 " immediately presented." 
 
 205. Who, whose, whom, and which are em- 
 ployed in asking questions j to which, in this 
 capacity, we must add, what. " Who is in the
 
 XVII. AS RELATING TO PRONOUN*. 109 
 
 " house? Whose gun is that? Wliom do you love 
 "best? Wliat has happened to-day?" What, 
 means generally, as a relative, " the thing which :" 
 as, *' give me what I want." It may be used in tke 
 nominative and in the objective, case : " What 
 " happens to-day, may happen next week ; but-I 
 "know not to what we >shali .come at last:" or, 
 " the thing which happens to-day, may happen 
 "next week; but I know .not tke thing -which, we 
 " shall come to at last." 
 
 206. Which, though, in other cases, it cannot be 
 employed as a relative with nouns which are the 
 names of rational beings,- is, with such nouns, em- 
 ployed in asking questions: as, " the tyrants al- 
 " lege, that the petition was disrespectful. Which 
 " of the tyrants?" Again: ." one of the peti- 
 " tioners had his head cleaved by a soldier: 
 " Which?" That is to say, " which of the peti- 
 " tioners was it?" 
 
 207. What, when used in asking for a repetition 
 of what has been said : as, what ? means, " tell 
 " me that which, or the I king which, you have said.?' 
 This word is used, and with great force, in the 
 way of exclamation : " What I rob us of our right 
 " of suffrage, and, then, when ,we pray to have 
 " our right restored to us, shut us up in dun- 
 " geons !" The full meaning is this : " What do 
 " they do ? They rob us of our right." 
 
 208. It is not, in general, advisable to crowd 
 these relatives together; but, it sometimes hap- 
 pens that it is done. " Who, that has any sense, 
 " can believe such palpable falsehoods? What, that 
 " can be invented, can disguise these falsehoods? 
 " Whom, that you ever heard of, was a pardon ob- 
 " tained by from the mercy of a tyrant? Some 
 " men's rights have been taken from them by force 
 " and by genius, but whose, that the world ever 
 " heard of before, were taken away by ignorance 
 " and stupidity?"
 
 110 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 209. Whosoever, whosesoever, whomsoever , what- 
 soever, whichsoever, follow the rules applicable to 
 the original words. The so is an adverb, which, 
 in its general acceptation, means in like manner ; 
 and ever, which is also an adverb, means, at any 
 time, at all times, or always. These two words, 
 thus joined in whosoever, mean, who, in any case 
 that may be ; and so of the other three words* We 
 sometimes omit the so, and my, whoever, whomever, 
 whatever, and even whosever. It is a mere abbre- 
 viation. The so is understood ; and, it is best not 
 to omit to write it. Sometimes the soever is sepa- 
 rated from the pronoun : " What man soever he 
 might be." But, the main thing is, to understand 
 the reason upon which the use of these words stands ; 
 for, if you understand that, you will always use the 
 words properly. 
 
 210. The DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS havebeen 
 described in Letter VJ, paragraph 67; and, I have 
 very little to add to what is there said upon the 
 subject. They never change their endings, to 
 denote gender or case -, and the proper application 
 of them is so obvious, that it requires liule to be 
 said about it. However, we shall hear more of 
 these pronouns, when we come to the syntax of 
 verbs. One observation I will make here, how- 
 ever, because it will serve to caution you against 
 the commission of a very common error. You will 
 hardly say, " Them that write;" but, you maysay, 
 as many do, " We ought always to have a great re- 
 " gard/<?r them, whoare wise and good." Jt ought 
 to be, " for those, who are wise and good ;" because, 
 the word persons is understood : ' ' those per sons who 
 " are wise and good :" and, it is bad grammar to 
 say, " them persons who are wise and good." But, 
 observe, in another sense, this sentence would be 
 correct. If I am speaking of particular persons, 
 and, if my object be to make you understand, that 
 they are wise and good, and also, that I love them.
 
 XVII. A3 RELATING TO PRONOUNS. Ill 
 
 Then, I say, very correctly, " I love them, who 
 *' are wise and good." Thus: " The father has 
 " two children : he loves them, who are wise and 
 "good; and they love him, who is very indulgent." 
 It is the meaning that must be your guide ; and rea- 
 son must tell you what is the meaning. " They, 
 " who can write, save a great deal of bodily labour," 
 is very different from " Those who can write, save 
 *' a great deal of bodily labour." The those stands 
 for those persons ; that is to say, any per sons, per- 
 sons in general, who can write ; whereas, the they, 
 as here used, relates to some particular persons ; 
 and, the sentence means, that these particular per- 
 sons are able to write, and, by that means, they save 
 a great deal of bodily labour. DOCTOR BLAIR, in 
 his 21st Lecture, lias fallen into an error of this 
 ort : thus, " These two paragraphs are extremely 
 " worthy of Mr. ADDISON, and exhibit a style, 
 " which they, who can successfully imitate, may 
 " esteem themselves happy." It ought to be those 
 instead of they. But, this is not the only Fault in 
 this sentence. Why say "extremely worthy?" 
 Worthiness is a quality which hardly admits of de- 
 grees, and, surely, it does not admit of extremes. 
 Then again, at the close : to esteem is to prize, to 
 set value on, to value, highly. How, then, can men 
 ^^ esteem themselves happy?" How can they "prize 
 " Ihtmselves happy ?" How can they " highly value 
 " themselves happy?" My Dear Jaraes, let cham- 
 ber-maids and members of the House of Commons, 
 and learned Doctors, write thus : be you content 
 with plain words which convey your meaning: say 
 that a ihing is quite worthy of a man ; and that men 
 may deem themselves happy. 
 
 21 I. The INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS have been 
 
 enumerated in Letter VI, paragraph 71. They are 
 sometimes adjectives, as is stated in that paragraph. 
 Whoever, Whatever and Whichever (that is, whoso- 
 ever , whatsoever , whichsoever) though relatives, are
 
 112 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 indeterminate too. But, indeed, it signifies little how 
 these words are classed. It is the use of them that 
 we ought to look to. Every , which I have reckon- 
 ed amongst these pronouns, is never, now-a-days, 
 used without a noun, and is, therefore, in fact, an 
 adjective. The error that is most frequently com- 
 mitted in using these pronouns is, putting the plural 
 verb, or plural pronoun, after nouns preceded by 
 every, each or either ; especially in the case of eve- 
 ry : as ** every man; every body; every house.' 
 These are understood to mean, all the men, all the 
 people, all the houses ; but, only one man, one body, 
 one house, is spoken of, and, therefore, the verb 
 ought to be in the singular : as, " every body is 
 disgusted ;" and not " every body are disgusted." 
 
 212. Before you use any of these words, you 
 should think well on their true meaning; for, if you 
 do this, you will seldom commit errors in the use 
 of them. Doctor Johnson, in his Rambler, Num- 
 ber 177, has this passage. " Every one of these 
 " virtuosos looked on all his associates as wretches 
 " of depraved taste and narrow notions. Their con- 
 " versation was, therefore, fretful and waspish, their 
 " behaviour brutal, their merriment bluntly sarcas- 
 " tick, and their seriousness gloomy and suspi- 
 " cions." Now these theirs certainly relate to 
 every one, though the author meant, without doubt, 
 that they should relate to the whole body of virtuosos, 
 including the every one. The word therefore adds 
 to the confusion. The virtuosos were, therefore, 
 fretful and waspish. What for ? Was it because 
 every one saw his associates in a bad light? How 
 can my thinking meanly of others make their con- 
 versation fretful? If the Doctor had said: " These 
 virtuosos looked on each other. . . ." The meaning 
 would have been clear. 
 
 213. The pronoun either, which means one oj 
 two, is very often improperly employed. It is used 
 to denote one of three or more , which is always in-
 
 XVIII. AS RELATING TO ADJECTIVES. 11$ 
 
 correct. We say, " either the dog OF the cat ;" but 
 not, " tilher the dog^ the cat, or the pig." Sup- 
 pose some one to ask me, which I choose to have, 
 mutton, veal, or woodcock, I answer any one of 
 them ; and not either of them. Doctor Blair has 
 nsed any one where he ought to have used tither. 
 11 The two words are not altogether synonymous 
 " yet, in the present case, any ne of them would 
 " have been sufficient." 
 
 214. In concluding this Letter on the Syntax of 
 Pronouns, I must observe, that I leave inany of 
 these indeterminate pronouns unnoticed in a par- 
 ticular manner. To notice every one individually 
 could answer no purpose except that of swelling the 
 size of the book ; a thing which I most anxiously 
 wish to avoid. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO ADJECTIVES. 
 
 ' 
 
 215. BY this time, my dear James, you will 
 hardly want to be reminded of the nature of Ad- 
 jectives. However, it may not be amiss for you to 
 read again attentively the whole of Letter VII. 
 
 216. Adjectives, having no relative effect, con- 
 taining no representative quality, have not the dan- 
 gerous power possessed by pronouns of throwing 
 whole sentences into confusion, and of preventing 
 or totally destroying the writer's meaning. For 
 this reason, there is little to be said respecting the 
 using of Adjectives. 
 
 217. When you make use of an Adjective in the 
 way of comparison, take care that there be a con- 
 gruity, or fitness, in the things or .qualities com- 
 pared. Do not say that a thing is deeper than it 
 is broad or long; or that * man is taller than he it
 
 114 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 wise or rich. HUME says, " The principles of the 
 " Reformation were deeper in the prince's mind 
 *' than to be easily eradicated." This is no com- 
 parison at all. It is nonsense. 
 
 218. When Adjectives are used as nouns, they 
 must, in all respects, be treated as nouns. " The 
 " guilty, the innocent, the rich, the poor, are mixed 
 " together." But, we cannot say, " a guilty," 
 meaning to use the word guilty as a noun. 
 
 219. If two or more Adjectives are used as ap- 
 plicable to the same noun, there must be a comma, 
 or commas, to separate them : as, " a poor, unfor- 
 tunate man;" unless and or or be made use of, for 
 then a comma, or commas may be omitted : as, " a 
 *' lofty and large and excellent house." 
 
 220. Be rather sparing than liberal in the use of 
 Adjectives. One, which expresses your meaning, 
 is better than two, which can, at best, do no more 
 than express it, while the additional one may, possi- 
 bly, do harm. But, the error most common in the 
 use of Adjectives, is the endeavoring to strengthen 
 the Adjective by putting adverbs before it, and 
 which adverbs convey the notion, that the quality 
 or property expressed by the Adjective admits of 
 degrees: as, "rery honest, extremely just." A man 
 may be wiser than another wise man, an act maybe 
 more wicked than another wicked act ; but, a man 
 cannot be more honest than another : every man, 
 who is not honest, must be dishonest ; and every act 
 which is not just must be unjust. " Very right," 
 and " very wrong," are very common expressions, 
 but they are both incorrect. Some expressions may 
 \itmflre common than others ; but, that which Knot 
 right is wrong; and that which is not wrong is right. 
 There are here no intermediate degrees. We 
 should laugh to hear a man say: " you are a little 
 " right, I am a good deal wrong ; that person is ho- 
 " nest in a trifling degree ; that act was too just." 
 But, our ears are accustomed *o the adverbs of ex-
 
 XIX. AS EELAT1NG TO VERBS. 115 
 
 aggeration. Some writers deal in these to a degree 
 that tries the ear and offends the understanding. 
 With them, every thing is excessively or immensely 
 or extremely or vastly or surprisingly or wonder- 
 fully or abundantly, or the like. The notion of such 
 writers is, that these words give strength to what 
 they are saying. This is a great error. Strength 
 must be found in the thought, or, it will never be 
 found in the words. Big-sounding words, without 
 thoughts corresponding, are effort without effect. 
 
 21. Care must be taken, too, not to use such 
 Adjectives as are improper to be applied to the 
 nouns along with which they are used. "Good 
 " virtues; bad vices ; painful tooth-achs ; pleasing 
 " pleasures." These are staringly absurd ; but, 
 amongst a select society of empty, heads, " mode- 
 *' rale Reform" has long been a fashionable expres- 
 sion ; an expression which Major Cartwright, in 
 one of his essays, ridicules by asking the gentle- 
 men who use it, how they would like to obtain 
 moderate justice in a court of law, or to meet with 
 moderate chastity in a wife. 
 
 222. To secure yourself against the risk of com- 
 mitting such errors, you have only to take care to 
 ascertain the full meaning of every word you 
 employ. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO VERBS. 
 
 
 
 223. LET us, my dear James, get well through 
 this Letter; and, then, we may, I think, safeljr 
 say, that we know something of Grammar : a little 
 more, 1 hope, than is known by the greater part of 
 those, who call themselves Latin and Greek scho- 
 lars, and who dignify their having studied those
 
 116 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 languages with the name of " Liberal Educa- 
 " tion." 
 
 224. There can be no sentence, there can be 
 no sense in words, unless there be a verb, either 
 expressed or understood. Each of the other parts 
 of speech may, alternately, be dispensed with; 
 but the verb never can. The verb being, then, of 
 so much importance, you will do well to read 
 again, before you proceed further, paragraphs 23, 
 24, 25, and 26 in Letter III, and the whole of 
 Letter VIII. 
 
 225. Well, then, we have now to see how verbs 
 are used in sentences, and how a misuse of them 
 affects the meaning of the writer. There must, 
 you will bear in mind, always be a verb, express- 
 ed or understood. One would think, that this was 
 not the case in the direction, written on a post 
 letter. To John Goldsmith, Esq. Hambledon, 
 Hampshire. But, what do these words really 
 mean? "Why, they mean: "This letter is to be 
 " delivered to John Goldsmith, who is an Esquire, 
 " who lives at Harabledon, which is in Hampshire." 
 Thus, there are no less than five verbs, where we 
 thought there was no verb at all. " Sir, I beg 
 " you to give me a bit of bread." The sentence, 
 which follows the Sir, is complete ; but the Sir 
 appears to stand wholly without connexion. How- 
 ever, the full meaning is this : " I beg you, who 
 " area Sir, to give me a bit of bread." " What, 
 " Hunt?" That is to say, " what is said by you, 
 " whose name is Hunt?" Again, in the date of a 
 letter: " Long Island, 25 March, 1818." That 
 is : " I am now writing in Long Island ; this is the 
 " twenty-fifth day of March, and this month ism the 
 " one thousand eight hundred and eighteenth year 
 " of the Christian era." 
 
 226. Now, if you take time to reflect a little on 
 this matter, you will never be puzzled for a mo- 
 ment by those detached tfords, to suit which gram
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 117 
 
 marians have inveuted vocative cases and casts ab- 
 solute, and a great many other appellations, with 
 which they puzzle themselves, and confuse and be- 
 wilder and torment those who read their books. 
 
 227. We almost always, whether in speaking 
 or in writing, leave out some of the words, which 
 are necessary to a full expression of our meaning. 
 Tiiis leaving out is called the Ellipsis. Ellipsis 
 is, in geometry, an oval figure ; and, the com- 
 passes, in the tracing of the line of this figure, do 
 not take their full sweep all round, as in the 
 tracing of a circle, but they make skips and leave 
 out parts of the area, or surface, which parts 
 would be included in the circle. Hence it is, that 
 the skipping over, or leaving out, in speaking or in 
 writing, is called the Ellipsis; without making 
 use of which, we, as you will presently see, scarce- 
 ly ever open our lips or move our pens. " He 
 " told me, that he had given John the gun, which 
 " the gunsmith brought the other night." That 
 is : ** He told to me, that he had given to Joha 
 " the gun, which the gunsmith brought to this 
 u place, or hither, on the other night." This 
 would, you see, be very cumbrous and disagree- 
 able; and, therefore, seeing that the meaning is 
 quite clear without the words, marked by italicks, 
 we leave these words out. But, we may easily go 
 too far in this elliptical way, and say: " He told 
 ** me, he had given John the gun, the gunsmith 
 " brought the other night." This is leaving the 
 sentence too bare, and making it to be, if not 
 nonsense, hardly sense. 
 
 228. Reserving some further remarks, to be 
 made by-and-by, on the Ellipsis, I have now to de- 
 sire, that, always, when you are examining a sen- 
 tence, you will take into your view the words that 
 are left 6ul. If you have any doubt as to the cor- 
 rectness of the sentence, fill it up by putting in the
 
 SYMTAX, Letter 
 
 left-out words, and, if there be an error, you will 
 soon discover it. 
 
 229. Keeping in mind these remarks on the sub- 
 ject of understood words, you will now listen atten- 
 tively to me, while I endeavour to explain to you 
 the manner in which verbs ought to be used in sen- 
 tences. 
 
 230. The first thing is, to come at a clear under- 
 standing with regard to the cases of nouns and pro- 
 nouns as connected, in use, with verbs and preposi- 
 tions ; for, on this connexion, depends a great deal. 
 Verbs govern, as it is called, nouns and pronouns ; 
 that is to say, they sometimes cause, or make, nouns 
 er pronouns to be in a certain case. Nouns do not 
 vary their endings to denote different cases; but 
 pronouns do; as you have seen in Letter VI. 
 Therefore, to illustrate this matter, I will take the 
 pronoun personal of the third person singular, which 
 in the nominative case, is, he, possessive case, his, 
 objective case, him. 
 
 231 . When a man (it is the same with regard to 
 any other person or thing) is the actor, or doer, the 
 man is in the nominative case, and the correspond- 
 ing pronoun is, he : " He strikes." The same case 
 exists when the man is the receiver or endurer, of 
 an action. " He is striken." It is still the same 
 case when the man is said to be in any state or con- 
 dition. " He is unhappy." Indeed, there is no 
 difference in these two latter instances; for, "A? 
 " is striken," is no other than to say that " he 15 in 
 " a state, or condition, called striken." Observe, 
 too, that, in these two latter instances, the he is fol- 
 lowed by the verb lo be : he is striken, he is unhap- 
 py; and, observe, moreover, that whenever the 
 verb to be is used, the receiver, or be-cr, (if I may 
 make a word) is, and must be, in the nominative 
 case. But, now, let me stop a little to guard you 
 against a puzzle. I say, " the verb lo be ;" but, I 
 do not mean those two words always. When I say,
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 119 
 
 the verb to be, I may mean as in the above exam- 
 ples, 15. This is the verb lo be, in the third person 
 singular. " I write." I should say, that here is 
 the pronoun /and the verb lo -write ; that is to say, 
 it is the verb to write in one of its forms. The to 
 is the sign of the infinitive mode; and the verb in 
 that state, is the root, or the foundation, from which 
 all the different parts or forms proceed. Having 
 guarded ourselves against this puzzler, let us come 
 back to our nominative case. The actor, the doer, 
 the receiver of an action, the be-er, must always be 
 in the nominative case; and, it is called nominative 
 case, because it is that state, or situation, or case, 
 in which the person, or thing, is named without be- 
 ing pointed out as the object, or end, of any forego- 
 ing action or purpose: as, "he strikes; he is strik- 
 " en ; he is happy." This word nominative is not 
 a good word ; acting and being case, would be 
 much better. This word, nominative, like most of 
 the terms used in teaching grammar, has been tak- 
 en from the Latin. It is bad ; it is inadequate to 
 its intended purpose; but, it is used; and, if we 
 understand its meaning, or, rather, what it is de- 
 signed to mean, its intrinsic insufficiency is of no 
 consequence. Thus, I hope, then, that we know 
 what the nominative is. " He writes; he sings; 
 "he is sick; he is well: he is smitten; he is 
 " good;" and so on, always with a he. 
 
 232. But (and now pay attention) if the action 
 pass from the actor to a person or thing acted upon, 
 and, if there be no part of the verb, to be, employ- 
 ed ; then the person or thing acted upon is in the 
 ebjective case: as, " he smites him; he strikes him; 
 " he kills him." In these instances we wish to 
 show, not only an action that is performed and the 
 person who performs it, but also the person upon 
 whom it is performed. Here, therefore, we state 
 the actor, ihe action, and the object; and, the per- 
 son or thing which is the object, is in the objective
 
 120 STNTAX, Letter 
 
 case. The verb is said, in such instances, to go- 
 vern the noun or pronoun ; that is to say, to make 
 -it, or force it, to be in the objective case ; and, to 
 make us use him instead of he. 
 
 233. However, I remember, that I was very 
 much puzzled on account of these cases. 1 saw, 
 that when " Peter was smitten," Peter was in the 
 nominative case; but, that, when any person or 
 thing "had smitten Peter," Peter was in the object- 
 ive case. This puzzled me much ; and the loose 
 and imperfect definitions of my grammar-book yield- 
 ed me no clue to a disentanglement. Reflection on 
 the reason for this apparent inconsistency soon 
 taught me, however, that, in the first of these 
 cases, Peter is merely named, or nominated, as the 
 receiver of an action : and that, in the latter in- 
 stance, Peter is mentioned as the object of the ac- 
 tion of some other person or thing, expressed or un- 
 derstood. I perceived, that, in the first instance, 
 " Peter is smitten," I had a complete sense. I was 
 informed as to the person who had received an ac- 
 tion, and also as to what sort of action he had re- 
 ceived. And, I perceived, that, in the second in- 
 stance, "John has smitten Peter," there was an 
 actor who took possession of the use of the verb, 
 and made Peter the object of it : and that this actor, 
 John, now took to the nominative, and put Peter in 
 the objective case. 
 
 234. This puzzle was, however, hardly got over, 
 when another presented itself: for, 1 conceived the 
 notion, that Peter was in the nominative only be- 
 cause no actor was mentioned at all in the sentence ; 
 but, I soon discovered this to be an error: for, I 
 found that, " Peter is smitten by John," still left 
 Peter in the nominative; and that, if I used the 
 pronoun, I must say, " he is smitten by John;" and 
 not " him is smitten by John." 
 
 235. Upon this puzzle I dwelt a long time : a 
 whole week, at least. For, I was not content unless
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 121 
 
 I could reconcile every thing to reason ; and, I 
 could see no reason for this. Peter, in this last 
 instance, appeared to be the object, and there was 
 the actor, John. My ear, indeed, assured me, that 
 it was right to say, " he is smitten by John ;" hut 
 my reason doubted the information and assurances 
 of my ear. 
 
 236. At last, the little insignificant word, by, at- 
 tracted my attention. This word, in this place, is 
 a preposition. Ah ! That is it ! prepositions govern 
 nouns and pronouns : that is to say, make them to be 
 in the objective case ! So that, Jolin, who had 
 plagued me so much, I found to be in the objective 
 case ; and, I found, that, if I pul him out, and put 
 the pronoun in his place, I must say, " Peter is 
 smitten by him." 
 
 237. Now, then, my dear James, do you clearly 
 understand this? If you do not, have patience. 
 Read and think, and weigh well every part of what 
 I have here written: for, as you will immediately 
 see, a clear understanding with regard to the cases 
 is one of the main inlets to a perfect knowledge of 
 grammar. 
 
 239. Verbs, of which there must be one at least, 
 expressed or understood, in every sentence, must 
 agree in person and in number with the nouns or 
 pronouns, which are the nominatives of the sen- 
 tence ; that is to say, the verbs must be of the 
 same person and same number as the nominatives 
 are. Verbs frequently change their forms and end- 
 ings to make themselves agree with their notnina- 
 tives. How necessary is it, then, to know what 
 is, and what is not, a nominative in a sentence ! 
 Let us take an example. " John smite Peter." 
 What are these words ? John is a noun, third per- 
 son, singular number, nominative case. Smite is a 
 verb, first person, singular number. Peter is a 
 noun, third person, singular number, objective 
 caie. Therefore the sentence is incorrect ; for
 
 122 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 the nominative, John, is in the third person, and the 
 verb is in the first ; while both ought to be in the 
 same person. The sentence ought to be, "John 
 smites Peter;" and not " John smile Peter." 
 
 239- This is, to be sure, a very glaring error : 
 but still it is no more than an error, and is, in fact, 
 as excusable as any other grammatical error. 
 " The men lives in the country." Here, the verb, 
 lives, is in the singular number, and the noun, men, 
 which is the nominative, is in the plural number. 
 " The men live in the country," it ought to be. 
 These errors stare us in the face. But, when the 
 sentences become longer, and embrace several 
 nominatives and verbs, we do not so readily per- 
 ceive the errors that are committed. " The inten- 
 " tion of the act of parliament, and not its several 
 " penalties, decide the character of the corrupt as- 
 *' sembly by whom it was passed." Here the noun, 
 penalties, comes so near to the verb, decide, that 
 the ear deceives the judgment. But, the noun, in- 
 tention, is the nominative to the verb, which there- 
 fore, ought to be, decides. Let us take a sentence 
 still more deceiving. " Without the aid of a fraudu-' 
 " lent paper money, the tyrants never could have 
 " performed any of those deeds, by which their 
 " safety have been endangered, and which have, at the 
 " same time, made them detested." Deeds, is the 
 nominative to the last have and its principal verb; 
 but safety is the nominative to theirs/ have ; and, 
 therefore, this first have ought to have been has. 
 You see, that the error arises from our having the 
 plural noun, deeds, in our eye and ear. Take all 
 the rest of the sentence away, and leave " safely 
 have been" standing by itself, and then the error 
 is as flagrant as " }ohn smite Peter." Watch me, 
 now, in the next sentence. " It must be observed, 
 " that land fell greatly in price as soon as the 
 " cheats began to draw in their paper money. Iq 
 " such cases the quantity and quality of the land is
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 123 
 
 " the same as it was before ; but, the price is re- 
 " duced, all of a sudden, by a change in the value 
 " and power of the money, which becomes verydif- 
 " ferent from what it was." Here are two com- 
 plete sentences, which go very glibly off the tongue.' 
 There is nothing in them that offends the ear. The 
 fust is, indeed, correct; but, the last is a mass of 
 error. Quantity and quality, which are the nomi- 
 native in the first member of the sentence, make, to- 
 gether, a plural, and should have been followed, 
 after the word land, by are and not by is; and, the 
 it was, which follows, should, of course, have been, 
 ihcij were. In the second member of the sentence, 
 value and. poiver are the nominative of becomes, 
 which, therefore, should have been, become ; and, 
 then, again, there follows an it was instead of they 
 were. We are misled, in such cases, by the near- 
 ness of the singular noun, which comes in between 
 the nominatives and the verbs. We should not be 
 likely to say, " quantity and quality is; value and 
 power becomes." But when a singular noun comes 
 in between such nominatives and the verbs, we are 
 very apt to be thinking of that noun, and to commit 
 error. When we once begin, we keep on ; and, 
 if the sentence be long, we get together, at last, a 
 fine collection of verbs and pronouns, making as 
 complete nonsense as heart can wish. Judge 
 Blackstone in the 4th Book, Chapter 33, says, 
 " The very scheme and model of the administra- 
 " tion of common justice between party and party, 
 " was entirely settled by this king ; and has con- 
 " tinned nearly the same to this day." Adminis- 
 tration of common justice was full upon the Judge's 
 ear: down he clapped, was; and, has, naturally 
 followed : and, thus, my dear son, in grammar, as 
 in moral conduct, one fault almost necessarily pro- 
 duces others. 
 
 240. Look, therefore, at your nominative, before 
 you put a verb upon paper ; for, you see, it may
 
 124 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 be one word, or two, or mare words. But, observe, 
 if there be two, or more singular nouns or pro- 
 nouns, separated by or, which, you know is a dis- 
 joining conjunction; then, the verb must be in the 
 singular ; as, " a soldier or a sailor, who has 
 " served his country faithfully, is fairly entitled to a 
 " pension; but who will say, that a prostituted 
 *' peer, a pimp, or a buffoon, merits a similar pro- 
 " vision from the public?" 
 
 241. It sometimes happens, that there are, in 
 the nominative, two or more nouns, or pronouns, 
 and that they are in different numbers, or in differ- 
 ent persons : as, " fhe minister, or the Borough-ty- 
 " rants." These nouns cannot have the verb to 
 agree with them both. Therefore, if it be the con- 
 spiring of these wretches against the liberties of 
 the people, of which we have to speak, we cannot 
 say, " The minister, or the borough-tyrants, con- 
 *' spire ;" because the verb would then not agree in 
 number with the noun, minister : nor can we say, 
 conspires; because the verb would not agree with 
 the noun, borough-tyrants. Therefore, we must 
 not write such sentences : we must say, " The 
 " minister conspires, or the borough-tyrants con- 
 " spire against the liberties of the people." Repe- 
 tition is, sometimes, disagreeable to the ear ; but, 
 it is better to repeat, be it ever so often, than to 
 write bad grammar, which is only another term 
 for nonsense. 
 
 242. When nominatives are separated by nor, 
 the rule of or must be followed. " Neither man 
 *' nor beast is safe in such weather;" and not are 
 safe. And, if nominatives of different numbers 
 present themselves, we must not give them j verb 
 which disagrees with either the one or the other. 
 We must not say: " Neither the halter nor the 
 " bayonets are sufficient to prevent us from obtain- 
 " ing our rights." We must avoid this bad gram- 
 mar by using a different form of words : as, " We
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 125 
 
 " are to be prevented from obtaining our rights by 
 " neither the halter nor the bayonets." And, why 
 should we wish to write bad grammar, if we can ex- 
 press our meaning in good grammar? 
 
 243. If or or nor disjoin nouns and pronouns of 
 different persons, these nouns and pronouns, though 
 they be all of the same number , cannot be the nomi- 
 native of one and the same verb. We cannot say 
 " They or J am in fault ; I, or they, or he, is the 
 " author of it ; George or I am the person." Mr. 
 Lindley Murray says, that we may use these phra- 
 ses ; and, that we have only to take care that the 
 verb agree with that person, which is placed near- 
 est to it ; but, he says also, that it would be better to 
 avoid such phrases by giving a different turn to our 
 words. I do not like to leave any thing to chance 
 or to discretion, when we have a clear principle 
 for our guide. Fill up the sentences ; and, you 
 will see what pretty work here is. " They am. in 
 " fault or I am in fault; I is the author, or they is 
 " the author, or he is the author: George am the 
 " person, or / am the person." Mr. Murray gives 
 a similar latitude as to the verbs used with a mix- 
 ture of plurals and singulars, as mentioned in the 
 foregoing paragraph. The truth, I suspect, is, that 
 Mr. Murray, observing that great writers frequently 
 committed these errors, thought it prudent to give 
 up the cause of grammar, rather than seem to set 
 himself against such formidable authority. But, 
 if we follow this course, it is pretty clear, that we 
 shall very soon be left with no principle and no rule 
 of grammar. 
 
 244. The nominative is frequently a noun of 
 multitude ; as mob, parliament, gang. Now, where 
 this is the case, the verb is used in the singular or in 
 the plural, upon precisely the same principles, that 
 the pronouns are so used ; and as these principles, 
 together with ample illustrations in the way of ex- 
 ample, have been given you in Letter XVII, para-
 
 126 ,jt4fl, SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 graph 181,1 need say nothing more of the matter. 
 I will just observe, however, that consistency, in the 
 use of the verb, in such, cases, is the main thing to 
 keep in view. We may say: " The gang of bo- 
 *' rough-tyrants is cruel:" or, that "the gang of bo- 
 *' rough-tyrants ere cruel;" but, if we go on to speak 
 of their notoriously brutal ignorance, we must not 
 say: "The gang of borough- ty rants is cruel, and 
 *' are also notoriously as ignorant as brutes." We 
 must use 'is in both places, or are in both places, 
 
 245. In looking for the nominative of a sentence, 
 take care that the relative pronoun, be not a stum- 
 bling block, fur relatives have no changes to denote 
 number or person ; and, though they may sometimes 
 appear to be, of themselves, nominatives, they never 
 can be such. " The raen who are here : the man 
 *' ivho is here; the cocks that crow, the cock that 
 *' crpws." Now, if the relative be the nominative, 
 yvhy do the verbs change, seeing that here is no change 
 in the relative ? No : the verb, m pursuit of its no- 
 minative, runs through the relatives to come at their 
 antecedents, men, man, cocks, cock. Bishop Lowth 
 says, however, that " the relative is the nominative 
 *' when no other nominative conies between it and 
 " the verb ;" and Mr. Murray has very faithfully 
 copied this erroneous observation. " Who is in the 
 " house? Who are in the house? Who strikes the 
 *' iron ? Who strike the iron? Who was in the street ? 
 *' Who. were in the street?" Now, here is, in all 
 these instances, no other nominative between the re- 
 lative and the verb ; and yet the verb is continually 
 varying. Why does it vary? Because it disregards 
 the relative arid goes and finds the antecedent, and 
 accommodates its number to that antecedent. The 
 antecedents are, in these instances, understood ; 
 " What person is in the house? What persons are 
 *' in the house? What person strikes the iron? 
 " What persons strike the iron ? What person was 
 ts in the street? What persons were in the street ?" 
 The Bishop seems to kave had a misgiving in his mind ,
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 127 
 
 when he gave this account of the nominative func- 
 tions of the relative ; for he adds, " the relative is 
 *' of the same person as the antecedent : and the verb 
 " agrees with ii accordingly. " Oh, oh ! But, the re- 
 lative is always the same , and is of any and of every 
 number and person. How, then, can the verb, when 
 it makes its changes in number and person, be said 
 to agree with the relative? Disagree, indeed, with 
 the relative the verb cannot any more than it can 
 with a preposition ; for the relative has, like the pre- 
 position, no changes to denote cases; but, the danger 
 is, that, in certain instances, the relative may be 
 laken for a nominative, without your looking after 
 the antecedent, which is the real nominative, and 
 that, thus, not having the number and person of the 
 antecedent clearly in your mind, you may give to 
 the verb a wrong number or person. It is very 
 seldom, that those who lay down erroneous rules 
 furnish us with examples by the means of which 
 we are enabled to detect the error of these rules : 
 yet, Mr. Murray has, in the present case, done this 
 most amply. For, in another part of his book, he 
 has these two examples: " I am the general, who 
 " give the orders to day. I am the general, wht 
 " gives the orders to day." Here the antecedents as 
 well as the relatives are precisely the same; the, 
 order of the words is the same ; and yet the verbs 
 are different. Why ? Because, in the first exam- 
 ple, the pronoun / is the nominative, and, in the 
 second, the noun general. The first means, "/, 
 " who am the general here, give the orders to- 
 " day." The second means, " The general, who 
 " gives the orders to-day, is I." Nothing can more 
 clearly show, that the relative cannot be the nomi- 
 native, and that, to consider it as a nominative must 
 lead to error and confusion. You will observe, 
 therefore, that, when I, in the Etymology and 
 Syntax as relating to relative pronouns, speak of 
 relatives as being in the nominative case, I mean.
 
 J28 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 that they relate to nouns or to personal pronouns, 
 which are in thai case. The same observation ap- 
 plies to the other cases. 
 
 246, We are sometimes embarrassed to fix pre- 
 cisely on the nominative, when a sort of addition 
 is made to it by words expressing persons or things 
 that accompany it: as, " Sidmouth, with Oliver the 
 " spy, have brought Brandreth to the block. " W 
 hesitate to determine, whether Sidmouth alone, is 
 the nominative, or whether the nominative in- 
 cludes Oliver ; and, of course, we hesitate which 
 to employ, the singular or the plural verb ; that i* 
 to say, has, or have. The meaning must be our 
 guide. If we mean, that the act has been done by 
 Sidmouth himself, and that the spy has been a mere 
 involuntary agent, then we ought to use the singu- 
 lar ; but, if we believe, that the spy has been a 
 co-operator ; an associate ; an accomplice ; then, we 
 must use the plural of the verb. " Sidmouth, with 
 " his Circular Letter, has produced great oppres- 
 *'* sion and flagrant violations of law." Has, by all 
 means, in this case ; because the Letter is a mere 
 instrument. Give the sentence a turn: " Sid- 
 " mouth has produced great oppression and flagrant 
 41 violations of the law with his Circular Letter." 
 This is good ; but, Sidraouth " has brought Bran- 
 u dreth to the block with Oliver the spy," is bad. 
 It sounds badly; and it is bad sense. Jt does not 
 say what we mean it should say. " A leg of mut- 
 11 ton, with turnips and carrots, is very good." 
 If We mean to say, that a leg of mutton, when cook- 
 ed with these vegetables, is good, we must use is ; 
 but, if we are speaking of the goodness of a leg of 
 mutton and these vegetables taken all together, we 
 must use are. When with means along with, to- 
 gether with, in company with, and the like, it is 
 nearly the same as and: and then the plural verb 
 must be used. " He, with his bare hand, takes up 
 " hot iron." Net " he, with his bare hand, take
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 
 
 " up." " He, with his brothers, are able to do 
 " much." Not " is able to do much." If the pro- 
 noun be used instead of brothers, it will be in the 
 objective case : " He, with Ihem, are able to do 
 much." But, this is no impediment to the inclu- 
 ding of the noun (represented by them) in the no- 
 minative. With, which is a preposition, takes the 
 objective case after it; but, if the persons, or 
 things, represented by the words coming after the 
 preposition, form part of the actors in a sentence, 
 the understood nouns make part of the nominatives. 
 ** The bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, were 
 11 stolen." For, if wesay, was stolen, itispossible 
 for us to mean, that the bag only was stolen. " So- 
 " briety, with great industry and talent, enable a 
 11 man to perform great deeds." And not enables; 
 for, sobriety alone would not enable a man to do 
 great things. " The borough- tyranny, with the 
 " paper- money makers, have produced misery and 
 " starvation." And not has ; for we mean that the 
 two have co-operated. " Zeal, with discretion, do 
 much ;" and not " does much ;" for, we mean, on 
 the contrary, that it does nothing. It is the mean- 
 ing that must determine which of the numbers we 
 ought, in all such cases, to empty. 
 
 247. The verb to be sometimes comes between 
 two nouns of different numbers. " The great evil 
 " is the borough- debt." In this instance there is 
 nothing to embarrass us ; because mV and borough- 
 debt are both in the singular. But: "the great 
 "evil is the taxes" is not so clear of embarrassment. 
 The embarrassment is the same, when there is a 
 singular noun on one side and two or more singu- 
 lars or plurals ou the other side: " as the curse of 
 " the country j's. the profligacy, the rapacity, the 
 " corruption of the law-makers, the base subser- 
 " viency of the administrators of the law, and the 
 ** frauds of the makers of paper-money." Now, we 
 wean, here, that these things constitute, or form,, 
 
 F3
 
 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 or make up, a curse. We. mean, that the curse 
 consists of these things ; and, if we said this, there 
 would be no puzzling. "The evil is the taxes." 
 That is the taxes constitute the evil ; but, we can- 
 not say, " the evil are the taxes;" nor can we say, 
 that " the curse are these things." Avoid, then, 
 the use of ihe verb to be, in all such cases. Say, 
 the curse of the country consists of, or arises/row, 
 or is produced by. Doctor Blair, in his 19th Lec- 
 ture, says: " a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, 
 ." are always/a//s." The or required the singular 
 verb, is; but, faults required are. If he had put 
 is and faulty, there would have been no doubt of 
 his being correct. But, as the sentence now stands, 
 there is great room for doubt, and that, too, as to 
 more than one point : for fault means defect, and a 
 style, which is a whole, cannot well be called a de- 
 fect, which means a want of goodness in a part. 
 Feebleness, harshness, obscurity, are faults. But, 
 to call the style itself, to call the whole thing, a 
 fault, is more than the Doctor meant. The style 
 jmay be faulty, and yet it may not be a fault. The 
 Doctor's work is faulty: but, surely, the work is 
 not a fault.' 
 
 248. Lest you should be, in certain instances, 
 puzzled to find your nominative case, which, as you 
 jmustnow see, constitutes the main spring and regu- 
 lator of every sentence, I will here point out to 
 you some instances, wherein there is vised, appa- 
 rently, neither verb nor nominative. " In general, 
 u I dislike to drink wine." This in general is no 
 more, in fact, than one word. It means generally. 
 But, sometimes, there is a verb comes in; " gene- 
 *' rally speaking." Thus: u The borough-tyrants, 
 44 generally speaking, are great fools as well as 
 ** rogues." That is to say, " when we speak gene- 
 M rally;" or, " if we are speaking generally;" or, 
 " when men, or people, speak generally." For ob- 
 serve, that there never can be a sentence without a
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 131 
 
 verb, expressed or understood, and that ihere never 
 can be a verb without a nominative case expressed 
 or understood. 
 
 249. Sometimes not only two or more nouns, or 
 pronouns, maybe the nominative of a sentence; 
 but many other words along with them may assist in 
 making a nominative: as, *.' Pitt, Rose, Steel, and 
 " their associates' giving to Walter a sum of the 
 " public money as a reward for libelling the sous of 
 " the king was extremely profligate and base." 
 That is to say, this act of Pitt and his associates 
 iv as extremely profligate and base. It is, when you 
 come to inquire, the act which is the nominative, 
 and all the other words only go to describe the ori- 
 gin and end of the act. 
 
 250. You must take care, that there be a nomina- 
 tive, and that it be clearly expressed or under- 
 stood. " The Attorney General, Gibbs, whose 
 *' malignity induced him to be extremely violent, 
 " and was listened to by the Judges." The first 
 verb, induced has a nominative, namely, the malig- 
 nity of the Attorney General, Gibbs: but the was 
 has no nominative, either expressed or clearly un- 
 derstood ; and, we cannot, therefore, tell, what or 
 whom it was that was listened to : whether the ma- 
 lignity of Gibbs, or Gibbs himself. It should have 
 been, and who, or, and/if, was listened to; and then 
 we should have known, that it was Gibbs himself 
 that was listened to. The omitting of the nomina- 
 tive, five hundred instances of which I could draw 
 from Judge Blackstone and Doctor Johnson, arises 
 very often from a desire to avoid a repetition of the 
 noun or pronoun ; but, repetition is always to be 
 preferred before obscurity. 
 
 251. Now, my dear James, I hope, that I have 
 explained to you sufficiently, not only what (he nomi- 
 native is, but what are its powers in every sen- 
 tence ; and that I have imprinted deeply on your 
 mind the necessity of keeping the nominative con-
 
 13'2 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 stantly in your eye. For want of doing this, Judge 
 Blackstone has, in Book IV, Chap. ]/, committed 
 some most ludicrous errors. " Our ancient Saxon 
 " laws nominally punished theft with death, if above 
 " the value of twelvepence ; but the criminal was 
 " permitted to redeem his life by a pecuniary ran- 
 " som ; as among their German ancestors." What 
 confusion is here ! Whose ancestors? Theirs. 
 Who are they ? Why the criminal. Thtirs, if it 
 relate to any thing, must relate to laws ; and then 
 the laws have ancestors. Then, what is it that was 
 to be of above the value of twelvepence ? The 
 death or the theft? By, " if above the value of 
 " twelvepence," the Judge without doubt, meant, 
 <c if the thing stolen were above the value of twelve- 
 *' pence;" but he says no such thing; and the mean- 
 ing of the words is, if the death were above the 
 value of twelvepenee. The sentence should havt 
 stood thus : " Our ancient Saxon laws nominally 
 " punished theft with death, if the thing stolen were 
 " above the value of twelvepence ; but the crimi- 
 " nals were permitted to redeem their lives by a 
 " pecuniary ransom ; as amongst their German an- 
 " cestors." I could quote, from the same author, 
 hundreds of examples of similar errors ; but, wer 
 there only this one to be found in a work, which 
 is composed of matter, which was read, in the way 
 of Lectures, by a professor of law to students in the 
 University of Oxford, even this one ought to be 
 sufficient te convince you of the importance of at- 
 lending to the precepts, which I have given you 
 relative to this part of our subject. 
 
 2fc2. As to the objective case it has nothing to do 
 with verbs ; because, a noun which is not in the 
 nominative must be in the objective; and because 
 verbs do never vary their endings to make them- 
 selves agree with the objective. This case has 
 been sufficiently explained under the head of per- 
 sonal prcnouns, which have endings to denote iU
 
 XIX. A$ RELATING TO VERBS. 13S 
 
 253. The possessive case, likewise, has nothing to 
 do with verbs, only, you must take care, that you 
 do not, in any instance, look upon it as a nomina- 
 tive. " The quality of the apples were good." 
 No : it must be was; for quality is the nominative 
 and apples the possessive. " The want of learning, 
 " talent, and sense, are more visible in the two 
 *' houses of parliament, than in any other part of the 
 " nation." Take care upon all such occasions. Such 
 sentences are, as to grammatical construction, very 
 deceiving. It should be " is more visible;" for 
 want is the nominative; and learning, latent, and 
 sense, are in the possessive. The want of learning, 
 and so on. 
 
 254. You now know all about the person and 
 number of verbs. You know the reasons upon 
 which are founded their variations with regard to 
 these two circumstances. Look, now, at the con- 
 jugation in Letter VIII, paragraph 98 ; and, you 
 will see, that there remain the Times and Modes to 
 be considered. 
 
 255. Of Times there is very little to be said 
 here. All the fanciful distinctions of, perfect, pre- 
 sent, more past, and more perfect past, and numerous 
 others, only tend to bewilder, confuse, and disgust 
 the learner. There can be but three times, the 
 present, the past, and the future ; and, for the ex- 
 pressing of these, our language provides us with 
 words and terminations the most suitable that can 
 possibly be conceived. In some languages, which 
 contain no little words such as our signs, will, shall, 
 may, and so on, the verbs themselves change their 
 form in order to express what we express by the 
 help of these signs. There are two past limes in 
 French, for instance : I will give you an example 
 in order to explain this matter. " The people 
 it every day gave money to the tyrants, who, in re- 
 " turn, gave the people dungeons and axes." Now 
 here is our word gave, which is the past time of the
 
 134 SYNTAX, Leuer 
 
 verb to give. It is the same word, you see, in both 
 instances ; but you will see it different in ihe 
 French. " Tous les jours le peuple donnoienl dc 
 *' 1'argent aux tyrans, qni, en retour, doiinerenl au 
 "' peuple des cachots et des baches." You see, 
 thai, in one place, our give is translated by donnoienl, 
 and, in the other place, by doiinerenl. One of these 
 is called, in French, the has I' imperfect, and the 
 other, the past perfect. Tins distinction is neces- 
 sary in the French; but similar distinctions are 
 wholly unnecessary in English. 
 
 256. In the Latin language, the verbs change 
 their endings so as to include in the verbs themselves 
 what we express by our "auxiliary verb to have. And 
 they have as many changes, or different endings, as 
 are required to express all those various circum- 
 stances of time that we express by, work, worked, 
 shall work, may work, might work, hare worked, 
 had worked, shall Have watktd, may have worked, 
 might have worked ; and so on. It is, therefore, 
 necessary for the Latins to have distinct appella- 
 tions to suit these various circumstances of time, or 
 states of an Action ; but, such distinction of appel- 
 lations taii be of no 'use to us, whose verbs never 
 vary their endings, to express time, except the sin- 
 gle variation from the present to the past ; for, even 
 as to the future, the signs answer our purpose. In 
 our compound times, that is to say, such as, I have 
 worked, there is the verb to hare, which becomes 
 had, or shall hare, and so on. 
 
 257. Why, then, should we perplex ourselves 
 with a multitude cf artificial distinctions, which can- 
 not, by any possibility, be of any use in practice? 
 These distinctions have been introduced from this 
 cause : those who have written English Grammars, 
 have been taught Latin; and, either unable to di- 
 vest themselves of their Latin rules, or unwilling to 
 treat with simplicity that, which, if made somewhat 
 of a mystery, would make them appear more learn-
 
 XIX, AS RELATING 10 VERBS. 1 J^' 
 
 ed than the mass of the people, they have endeavour- 
 ed to make our simple language turn and twist it- 
 self so as to become as complex in its principles as 
 the Latin language is. 
 
 258. There are, however, some few remarks to 
 be made with regard to the limes of verbs ; but, be- 
 fore I make them, I must speak of the participles. 
 Just cast your eye again on Letter VIII, paragraphs 
 97 and 102. Look also at the conjugations of the 
 verbs, to work, to have and lo be, in that same letter. 
 These participles^ you see, with the help of lo have 
 and to be, form our compound times. \ need not tell 
 you, that I was working means the same as I work- 
 ed, only that the former supposes that something 
 else was going on at the same time, or that some- 
 thing happened at the time I was working, or that, 
 at least, there is some circumstance of action or of 
 existence collateral with my working : as, " I was 
 *' working when he came; I was sick while I was 
 " working ; it rained -while I was working ; she 
 *' scolded wliile 1 was working." I need not tell you 
 the use of do and did; I need not say, that I do 
 work is the same as, I work, only the former ex- 
 presses the aciion more positively, and adds some 
 degree of force to the assertion ; and that did tvork 
 is the same as worked, only the former is, in the 
 past time, of the same use as do is in the present. 
 I need not dwell here on the uses of iw7/, shall, 
 may, might, should, would, fan, could and must; 
 which uses, various as they are, are as well known 
 to us all as the uses of our teeth and our noses ; and 
 to misapply which words argues, not only a defi- 
 ciency in the reasoning faculties, but almost a de- 
 iiciency in instinctive discrimination. I will not, 
 my dear James, in imitation of the learned doctors, 
 pester you with a philological examination into the 
 origin and properties of words, with regard to the 
 use of which, if you were to commit an error in 
 conversation, your brother Richard, who is four
 
 136 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 years old, would instantly put you right. Of all 
 these little words I have said quite enough before ; 
 but, when the verbs to have and to be are used as 
 auxiliaries to principal verbs, and, especially when 
 the sentences are long, errors of great consequence 
 may be committed ; and, therefore, against these 
 it will be proper to guard you. 
 
 259. fime is so plain a matter; it must be so 
 well known to us, whether it be the present^ the 
 past or the future that we mean to express, that, 
 we shall hardly say " we work" when we are 
 speaking of our having worked last year. But, 
 you have seen, in Letter XVI, paragraph 171 (look 
 at it again,) that Doctor Blair could make a mis- 
 lake in describing the time of an aclion* Doctor 
 Blair makes use of, " it had been better omitted." 
 Meaning, that it " would have been better to ornit 
 " it," This is a sheer vulgarism, like, " I had as 
 11 lief be killed as enslaved." Which ought to be, 
 u I would as lief." But, the most common error is, 
 the using of the verb to hare with the passive par- 
 ticiple, when the past time, simply, of the verb 
 ought to be used. " Mr. Speaker, I expected, from 
 *' the former language, and positive promises of the 
 " Noble Lord and the Right Honorable the Chan- 
 " cellorof the Exchequer, to have seen the Bank pay- 
 " ing in gold and silver." This is House-of-Com- 
 nions' language. Avoid it as you would avoid all the 
 rest of their corruptions. I expected to see, to be 
 sure, and not to have seen, because the have seen car- 
 ries your act of seeing back beyond the period, within 
 which it is supposed to have been expected to take 
 place. " I expected to have ploughed my land last 
 " Monday." That is to say, " 1 last Monday was 
 *' in the act of expecting to have ploughed my land 
 " before that day.' 3 But, this is not what the wri- 
 ter means He means to say, that, last Monday, 
 r before that day, he was in the act of expecting
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 37 
 
 to plough his land on that day. " I called on him 
 and -wished lo have submitted my manuscript to 
 him." Five hundred of such errors are to be found 
 in Doctor Goldsmith's works. " I wished, then 
 and there ) to submit my manuscript to him." I 
 wished lo do something there, and did not then 
 wish that I had done something before. 
 
 260. When you use the active participle, take 
 care that the limes be attended to, and that you do 
 not, by mis-application, make confusion and non- 
 sense. " I had not the pleasure of hearing his sen- 
 *' timents, when I wrote that letter." It sheuld be 
 of having heard*; because the hearing must be sup- 
 posed to have been wanted previous to the act of 
 writing. This word wanted, and the word wanting, 
 are frequently misused. " All that was wanting 
 " was honesty." It should be wanted. " The 
 u Bank is weighed in the balance and found want- 
 " ing," and not wanted. Found to be wanting, or in 
 want : in want of money to pay its notes. 
 
 261. I will not fatigue your memory with more 
 examples relating to the times of verbs. Consider 
 well what you mean ; what you wish to say. Ex- 
 amine well into the true meaning of your words ; 
 and you will never make a mistake as to the times. 
 " I thought to have heard the Noble Lord produce 
 11 something like proof." No! My dear James will 
 never fall into the use of such senseless gabble ! You 
 would think of hearing something; you would think 
 of to hear, not lo have heard. You would be wail- 
 ing to hear, and not, like these men, be waiting to 
 have heard. " I should have liked lo have been in- 
 " formed of the amount of the Exchequer Bills." 
 A phraseology like this can be becoming only in 
 those Houses, where it was proposed to relieve the 
 distresses of the nation by setting the labourers to 
 dig holes one day and fill them up the next. 
 
 262. It is erroneous to confound the past time 
 with the passive participle of the verb. But, now,
 
 138 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 before I speak of this very common error, let us see 
 a little more about the participles. You have seen, 
 in Letter VIII, what the participles are : you have 
 seen, that working is the active participle, and work- 
 ed the passive participle. We shall speak fully of 
 the active by-and-by. The passive participle and 
 the verb to be> or some part of that verb, make 
 what is called the passive verb. This is not a verb 
 which, in its origin^ differs from an active verb in 
 like manner as a neuter verb differs from an active 
 verb. To sleep is neuter in its origin, and must, 
 in all its parts be neuter; but, every active verb 
 may become a passive verb. The passive verb is, 
 in fact, that state of an active verb which expresses, 
 as we have seen above, the action as being received^ 
 or endured; and it is called passive, because, the 
 receiver or endurer of the action is passive; that 
 is to say, does nothing. "John smites; John is 
 smitten." Thus, then, the passive verb is no other 
 than the passive participle, used along with some 
 part of the verb to be. 
 
 263. Now, then, let us see a specimen of the er- 
 rors, of which I spoke at the beginning of the last 
 paragraph. When the verb is regular , there can be 
 no error of this sort; because the pasi time and the 
 passive participle are written in the same manner 
 as, "John worked; John is worked," But, when the 
 verb is irregular, and when the past time and the 
 passive participle are written in a manner different 
 from each other, there is room for error, and error 
 is often committed : "John smote; John is smote." 
 This is gross. It offends the ear; but, when a 
 company, consisting of men who have been enabled, 
 by the favour of the late William Pitt, to plunder 
 and insult the people, meet under the name of a 
 Pitt Club, to celebrate the birth-day of that corrupt 
 and cruel minister, those who publish accounts of 
 their festivities, always tell us, that such and such 
 toasts were drank; instead of drunk. I drank at
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 139 
 
 my dinner to day ; but the milk and water, which I 
 drank, were drunk by me. In the lists of irregular 
 verbs, in Letter VIII, the xiifferences between the 
 past times and the passive participles are all clear- 
 ly shown. You often hear people say, and see them 
 write, " We have spoke ; it was spoke in my hear- 
 " ing; But, we have came; it was did;" are just as 
 correct. 
 
 264. Done is the passive participle of to do, atrd 
 it is very often misused. This done is frequently 
 a very great offender against Grammar. To do is 
 the act of doing. We often see people write: " I 
 11 did not speak, yesterday, so well as I wished to 
 " have done." Now, what is meant by the writer? 
 He means to say, that he did not speak so well as 
 lie then tvislied, or was wishing, to speak. There- 
 fore, the sentence should be: " I did not speak yes- 
 " terday so well as I wished to do." That is to 
 say, u so well as I wished to do it ;" that is to say, 
 to do, or to perform, the act of speaking. 
 
 265. Take great care not to be too free in your 
 use of the verb to do, in any of its times or modes. 
 It is a nice little handy word, and, like our op- 
 pressed it, it is made use of very often, when the 
 writer is at a loss for what to put down. To do is 
 to act, and, therefore, it never can, in any of its 
 parts, supply the place of H'tteuter verb. Yet, to 
 employ it for this purpose is very common. Dr. 
 Blair, in his 23rd Lecture says : " It is somewhat 
 *' unfortunate, that this Number of the Spectator 
 " did not end, as it might very well have done, 
 " with the former beautiful period." That is to 
 say, " done it." And, then, we ask : done what? 
 Not the act of ending : because, in this case, there 
 is no action at all. The verb means to e&tiie to an 
 end; to cease ; not to go any furl her. This same 
 verb, to end, is, sometimes, an active verb: " I end 
 " my sentence-," and then the verb to do may sup- 
 ply its place: as, "I have not ended my sentence
 
 140 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 '* so well as I might have done ;" that is, done it; 
 that is, done, or performed, the act of ending. But, 
 the Number of the Spectator was no actor : it was 
 expected to perform nothing : it was, by the Doctor, 
 wished to have ceased to proceed. " Did not end, 
 i; as it very well might have ended, ....." This 
 would have been correct; but the doctor wished 
 to avoid the repetition, and thus he fell into bad 
 grammar. " Mr. Speaker, I do not feel so well 
 " satisfied as I should have done, if the Right Hon- 
 " ourable Gentleman had explained the matter more 
 " fully." You constantly hear talk like this a- 
 mongst the babblers, whom corruption makes law- 
 givers. To feel satisfied is, when the satisfaction 
 is to arise from conviction produced by fact or rea- 
 soning, a senseless expression; and to supply its 
 place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb., by 
 to do, is as senseless. Done what ? Done the act 
 of feeling? " I do not feel so well satisfied as I 
 " should have done, or executed, or performed, the 
 " act of feeling!" What incomprehensible words ! 
 Very becoming in the creatures of corruption, but 
 ridiculous in any other persons in the world. 
 
 266. But, do not misunderstand me. Do not 
 confound do and did, as parts of a principal verb 
 with the same words, as parts of an auxiliary. 
 Read again Letter VIII, paragraph 111. Do and 
 did, as helpers, are used with neuter as well as with 
 active verbs ; for here it is not their business to sup- 
 ply the place of other verbs, but merely to add 
 strength to affirmations and negations, or to mark 
 time: as "The sentence does end; I do feel 
 easy." But done, which is the passive participle of 
 the active verb to do, can never be used as an 
 auxiliary. The want of making this distinction has 
 led to the very common error, of which I spoke iu 
 the last . paragraph, and against which I am very 
 desirous to guard you. 
 
 267. In sentences, which are negative, or inter*
 
 XIX. AS RELATING T6 VERBS. 141 
 
 rogative, do and did express lime : as, " You do 
 " not sleep ; did you not feel?" But they do not 
 here supply the place of other verbs: they merely 
 help; and their assistance is useful only as to the 
 circumstance of time ; for we may say ; " you sleep 
 " not; felt you not?" And if, in answer to this 
 question, I say, " I did," the word feel is under- 
 stood : " I did feel." 
 
 268. Well, then, I think, that, as far as relates 
 to the active verb, the passive verb, and the 
 passive participle, enough has now ben said. You 
 have seen, too, something of the difference be- 
 tween the functions of the active verb and those of 
 the neuter; hut, there are a few remarks to be 
 made with regard to the latter. A neuter verb 
 cannot have a noun or pronoun in the objective 
 case after it; for though we say, " I dream a 
 dream" it is understood that my mind has been 
 engaged in a dream. " I live a good life," means 
 that I am living in a good manner. " I -walk my 
 horse about," means, that I lead, or conduct my 
 horse in the pace called a walk. Nor, can a neu- 
 ter verb become passive; because a passive verb 
 is no other than a verb describing an action receiv- 
 ed, or endured. " The Noble Earl, on returning 
 *' to town, found that the Noble Countess was 
 " eloped with his Grace." I read this very sen- 
 tence in an English newspaper not long ago. It 
 should be had eloped; for, was eloped, means that 
 somebody had eloped the Countess: it means, that 
 she had received, or endured, from some actor, ike 
 act of eloping, whereas, she is the actress, and the 
 act is confined to herself. The verb is called neu- 
 ter because the action does not pass over to any 
 thing. There are verbs which are inactive : such 
 as to sil, to sleep, to exist. These are also neuter 
 verbs, of course. But, inactivity Is not necessary 
 to the making of a verb neuter. It is sufficient,
 
 142 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 for this purpose, that the action do not pass from 
 the actor to any object. 
 
 269. In the instance just mentioned the error is 
 flagrant: " Was eloped" is what few persons 
 would put down in writing: yet, any body might 
 do it upon the authority of Doctor Johnson : for 
 he says, in his Dictionary, that to elope is an ac- 
 tive verb, though, he says that it is synonymous, 
 with to run away, which in the same Dictionary, 
 he says is a neuter verb. However, let those who 
 prefer Doctor Johnson's authority to the dictates of 
 reason and common sense, say, that " his Grace 
 " eloped the Countess ; and, that, accordingly the 
 " Countess was eloped." 
 
 . 270. The danger of error, in cases of this kind, 
 arises from the circumstance of there being many 
 .verbs, which are active in one sense and neuter in 
 another. The verb to endure, for instance, when 
 it means to support, to sustain^ is active : as, " I 
 " endure, pain." But, when it means to last, to 
 continue, it is neuter: as, " The earth endure* 
 lt from age to age." In the first sense we can 
 say, the pain is endured ; but, in the last, we can- 
 not say, the earth is endured from age to age. We 
 say, indeed, / am fallen; the colt is grown, the 
 trees are rotten, the stone is crumbled, the post is 
 mouldered, the pitcher is cracked; though to grow, 
 to rot, to crumble, to moulder, to crack, are, all of 
 them, neuter verbs. But it is clearly understood 
 here, that we mean, that, the colt is in a grown, or 
 augmented state; that the trees are in a rotten slate; 
 and so on: and, it is equally clear, that we could 
 not mean, that the Countess was in an eloped stale. 
 "TheNoble Earl found that the countess was gone." 
 This is correct, though to go be a neuter verb. 
 But, gone, in this sense, is not the participle of 
 the verb to go : it is merely an adjective, meaning 
 absent. If we put any word after it, which gives 
 it a verbal signification, it becomes erroneous.
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 143 
 
 ' He found that the Countess was gone out of the 
 " house." That is to say, was absent out of the 
 house ; and this is nonsense. It must, in this case, 
 be, " He found, that the Countess had gone out of 
 " (he house." 
 
 271 . Much more might be said upon this part of 
 nay subject ; many niceties might be stated and 
 discussed; but, I have said quite enough on it to 
 answer every useful purpose. Here, as every where 
 else, take time to think. There is a reason for 
 the right use of every word. Have your meaning 
 clear in your mind ; know the meaning of all the 
 words you employ; and, then, you will seldom 
 commit errors. 
 
 271. There remains to be noticed the use of the 
 
 active participle^ and then we shall have a lew, 
 
 and only a few, words to say upon the subject of 
 
 the Modes of verbs. As to the active participle, 
 
 paragraph 97, in Letter VIII, will have told you 
 
 nearly all that is necessary. We know well, that 
 
 J am working, means that I work, and soon. There 
 
 is great nicety in distinguishing the circumstances 
 
 which call for the use of the one from those which 
 
 call for the use of the other ; but, like many other 
 
 things, though very difficult to explain by words, 
 
 these circumstances are perfectly well understood, 
 
 and scrupulously attended to, by even the most 
 
 illiterate persons. The active participle is, you 
 
 know, sometimes a noun in its functions: as, 
 
 " working is good for our health." Here it is the 
 
 nominative case to the verb is. Sometimes it is an 
 
 adjective, as, " the working people." As a noun 
 
 it may be in either of the three cases : as, " Work- 
 
 " ing is good ; the advantage of working ; I like 
 
 " working." It may be in the singular, oc in 
 
 the plural: " The working of the mines : the 
 
 " workings of corruption." Of course it requires 
 
 articles and prepositions as nouns require them. 
 
 More need not be said about it ; and, indeed, my
 
 144 SYNTAX, Letter 
 
 chief purpose in mentioning the active participle in 
 this place is to remind you, that it may be a no- 
 minative case in a sentence. 
 
 273. The Modes have been explained in Letter 
 VIII. paragraphs 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96. Read 
 those paragraphs again. The injinitivt mode has, 
 in almost all respects, the powers of a noun. " To 
 " work is good for our health." Here it is the 
 nominative of the sentence. " To eat, to drink, 
 " and to sleep are necessary." It cannot become 
 a plural ; but it may be, and frequently is, in the ob- 
 jective case ; as, " I want to eat." The to is, in 
 some few cases, omitted, when the infinitive is 
 the objective case : "as, / dare write.". But, I 
 *' dare to write," is just as neat, and more proper. 
 The to is omitted by the use of the Ellipsis: as, 
 " 1 like tf shoot, hunt, and course." But, care 
 must be taken not to leaye out the lo, if you there- 
 by make the meaning doubtful. Repetition is, 
 sometimes, disagreeable, and tends to enfeeble 
 language: but, it is always preferable to" obscurity. 
 
 274. If you cast your eye ence more on the 
 conjugation of the verb to work in Letter VIII, 
 you will see that I have there set down the three 
 other Modes with all their persons, numbers, and 
 times. The Imperative Mode I dispatched very 
 quietly by a single shorl paragraph; and, indeed, 
 in treating of the other two Modes, the Indicative 
 and the Subjunctive, there is nothing to do but to 
 point out the trifling variations that our verbs un- 
 dergo in order to make them suit their forms to the 
 differences of Mode. The Indicative Mode is that 
 manner of using the verb which is applied when 
 we are speaking of an action without any other 
 action being at all connected with it so as to make 
 the one a condition or consequence of the other. 
 " He works every day ; he rides out ;" and so on. 
 But, there may be a condition or a consequence 
 dependent on this working and riding; and, in
 
 A.IX. AS R EL AT **e ''to VERBS. 145 
 
 that case, these verbs must be in the subjunctive 
 mode ; because the action they express deptnds 
 on something subjoined. " If he -work every day, 
 " he shall be paid every day; if he ride out, he 
 " will not be at home by supper-time." The s is 
 dropped at the end of the verbs here; and the 
 true cause is this, that there is a sign understood. 
 If filled up, the sentence would stand thus : " if he 
 " should work ; if he should ride out." So that, 
 after all, tlie verb has, in reality, no change of ter- 
 mination to denote what is called mode. And all 
 the fuss, which Grammarians have made about the 
 potential modes and other fanciful distinctions of 
 the kind, only serve to puzzle and perplex the 
 learner. 
 
 275. Verbs in general, and, indeed, all the 
 verbs, except the verb to be, have always the same 
 /orm in the present lime of the indicative and in that 
 of the subjunctive, in all the persons, save the se- 
 cond and third person singular. Thug we say, in 
 the present of the indicative, I work, we wvrk, you 
 work, they work ; and, in the subjunctive the same. 
 But, we say, in the former, thou workesl, he works; 
 while, in the subjunctive we say, thou work, he 
 work; that is to say, thou mayest work, or might- 
 est, or shouldest (and so on) work ; and he may 
 work, or might, or should ; as the sense may re- 
 quire. Therefore, as to all verbs, except the verb 
 to be, it is only in these two persons that any thing 
 can happen to render any distinction of mode ne- 
 cessary. But, the verb to be, has more of variation 
 than any other verb. All other verbs have the same 
 form in their indicative present lime as in their in- 
 finitive mode, with the trifling exception of the st 
 and 5 added to the second and third person singu- 
 lar : as, to have, to write, to work, to run ; I have, 
 I wriie, 1 work, I run. But, the verb to be, be- 
 comes in its present time of the indicative; I am, 
 thou art, he is. we are, you are, they are ; which 
 G
 
 146 SYNTAX, Letters. 
 
 are great changes. Therefore, as the subjunctive 
 in all its persons, takes the infinitive of the verb 
 without any change at all, the verb to be exhibits 
 the use of this mode most clearly ; for, instead of 
 lam, thou art, he is, we are, the subjunctive re- 
 quire?, I be, thon be, he be, we be : that is to say, 
 I may be, or might be; and so on. Look now at 
 the conjugation of the verb (o be, in Letter VIII, 
 paragraph 117; and then come back to me. 
 
 2?6\ You see, then, that this important verb, the 
 verb to be, has a form, in some of its persons, ap- 
 propriated to the subjunctive mode. This is a mat- 
 ter of consequence. Distinctions, without differ- 
 ences in the things distinguished, are fanciful, and, 
 at best, useless. Here is a real difference; a 
 practical difference ; a difference in the form of the 
 word. Here is a past time of the subjunctive; a 
 past lime distinguished, in some of its persons, by 
 a different manner of spelling, or writing, the word. 
 If I be ; if I were; if \\ewere : and not if I was, if he 
 was. In the case of other verbs, the past of the in- 
 dicative is the same as the past of the subjunctive ; 
 that is to say, the verb is written in the same let- 
 ters ; but, in the case of (he verb to be, it is other- 
 wise. If I worked, if I smote, if [ had. Here the 
 verbs are the same as in, I woiked, I smole, I had; 
 but, in the case of the verb to be, we must say, in 
 the past of the indicative, I was, and in that of 
 the subjunctive, if I were. 
 
 277. The question, then, is this: What are the 
 cases, in which we ought to use the subjunctive 
 form? Bishop Lowth, and on his authority, Mr. 
 Lindley Murray, have said, that some conjunctions 
 have a government of verbs ; that is to say, make 
 them or force them to be in the subjunctive mode. 
 And then these gentlemen mention particularly the 
 conjunctions, if, though, unless, and some others. 
 But (and these gentlemen allow it) the verbs which 
 follow these conjunctions are not always in the sub-
 
 XIX. AS RELATING TO VERBS. 147 
 
 junctive mode; and, the using of that mode must 
 depend, not upon the conjunction, but upon the 
 sense of the whole sentence. How, then, can the 
 conjunctions govern the verb ? It is the sense, the 
 mean ing of the whole sentence, which must govern : 
 and of this you will presently see clear proof. " If 
 '' it be dark, do not come home, //"eating is neces- 
 " sary toman, he ought not to be a glutton." In the 
 first of these sentences, the matter expressed by the 
 verb may be or may not be. There exists an un- 
 certainty on the subject. And, if the sentence were 
 filled up, it would stand thus : " If it should be 
 " dark, do not come home." But, in the second sen- 
 tence, there exists no such uncertainty. We know, 
 and all the world knows, that eating is necessary to 
 man. We could not fill up the sentence with 
 sfwnld. And, therefore, we make use of 'is. Thus., 
 then, the conjunction if, which, you see, i.> em- 
 ployed in both cases, has nothing at all to do with 
 the government of the verb. It is the sense which 
 governs. 
 
 278. There is a great necessity for care as to this' 
 matter: for, the meaning of what we write is very 
 much affected, when ue make use of the modes in- 
 discriminately. Let us take an instance. " Though 
 " her chastity for right and becoming, it gives her no 
 st claim to praise; because she would be criminal, if 
 " she were not chaste." Now, by employing the 
 subjunctive in the first member of the sentence, we 
 leave it uncertain whether it be right, or not, for her 
 to be chaste; and, by employing it, in ihe second, 
 we express a doubt as to the fact of her chastity. 
 We mean neither of these; and, therefore, not- 
 withstanding here are a though and an if, both the 
 verbs ought to be in the indicative. " Though her 
 " chastity is right and becoming, it gives her no 
 " claim to praise; because, she would be criminal, 
 " //she was not chaste." Fill up with the signs. 
 " Though her chastity may be right ; if she should
 
 148 SYNTAX, Letted 
 
 " nol be chaste:" and, then, you see, at once, what 
 a difference there is hi the meaning. 
 
 279. The subjunctive is necessarily always used 
 where a sign is left oui: as, " Take care, that he 
 tl come to morrow, thatyoa be ready to receive him, 
 *' that he be well received, and that all things be duly 
 " prepared for his entertainment." Fill up with the 
 signs, and you will see the reason for what you 
 write. 
 
 280. The verb to be is sometimes used thus: 
 f< Were he rich, I should not like him the better. 
 " Were it not dark, I would go." That is to say, 
 if he were ; if it. were. " It were a jest indeed, to 
 *' consider a set of seat-sellers and seat-buyers as a 
 " lawful legislative body. It were to violate every 
 11 principle of morality to consider honesty as a 
 " virtue, when not to be honest is a crime which 
 " the law punishes." The /'/ stands for a great deal 
 here. " Ridiculous, indeed, would the state of our 
 " minds be, if it were such as to exhibit a set of 
 " seat-sellers and seat-buyers as a lawful legislative 
 ' c body." I mention these instances, because they ap- 
 pear unaccountable; and, I never like to slur things 
 over. Those expressions, for the using of which we 
 cannot give a reason^ ought not to be used at all. 
 
 281. As lo instances, in which authors have vio- 
 lated the principles oi Grammar, with respect to 
 the use of the modes,, I could easily fill a book much 
 larger than this with instances of this kind from 
 Judge Blackstone and Doct or Johnson. One only 
 shall suffice. I take it from the Judge's first Book. 
 " Therefore, r/the king purchases lands of the na- 
 " ture of gavelkind, where all (he sons inherit 
 " equally ; yet, upon the king's demise, his eldest 
 " son shall succeed to these lands alone.'' Here is 
 fine confusion, riot to say something inclining to- 
 wards high treason; for, if the king's son be to in- 
 herit these lands alone, he, of course, is not to in- 
 herit the crown. But, it is the verb purchases, with
 
 XX. AS RELATING TO ADVERBS. 
 
 which we have to do at present. Now, it is very 
 notorious, that the king does not purchase lands in 
 gavelkmd, nor any other lands ; whereas, from the 
 form of the verb, it is taken for granted, that he 
 does it. It should have been, " If the kitig pur- 
 chase lands ;" that is to say, if he were to purchase, 
 or if he should purchase. 
 
 282. Thus, my dear James, have I gone through 
 all that appeared to me of importance, relating to 
 verbs. Every part of the Letter ought to be care- 
 fully read, and its meaning ought to be well weigh- 
 ed in your mind ; but, always recollect, that, in 
 the using of verbs, that which requires your first 
 and most earnest care, is the ascertaining of the 
 nominative of the sentence ; for, out of every hun- 
 dred grammatical errors, full fifty, I believe, 
 are committed for want ef due attention as to this 
 matter. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, 
 AND CONJUNCTIONS. 
 
 283. AFTER what has been said, my dear James, 
 on the subject of the verb, there remains little to 
 be added. The Adverbs, Prepositions, and Con- 
 junctions are all words, which never vary their end- 
 ings. Their uses have been sufficiently illustrated 
 in the letters on the SVNTAX of Nouns, Pronouns, 
 and Verbs. In a Letter, which is yet to come, and 
 which will contain specimens of false grammar, 
 the misuse of many words belonging to these infe- 
 rior parts of speech will be noticed; but, it would 
 be a waste of your time to detain you by an elabo-
 
 150 SYNTAX. L 
 
 rate account of that which it is, by this time, hard- 
 ly possible for you not to understand. 
 
 284. Some grammarians have given lists of ad- 
 verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. For what 
 reason 1 know not, seeing that they have not at- 
 tempted to give lists of the words of other parts of 
 speech. These lists must be defective, and, there- 
 fore, worse than no lists. To find out the meaning 
 of single words, the Dictionary is the place. The 
 business of grammar is to show the connection be- 
 tween words, and the manner of using words pro- 
 perly. The sole cause of this dwelling upon these 
 parts of speech appears to me to have been a no- 
 lion, that they would seem to be neglected, unless 
 3. certain number of pages of the book were allotted 
 to each. To be sure each of thejn is a part of 
 speech, as completely ?s the little finger is a part 
 of the body; but, few persons will think, that, be- 
 cause we descant very frequently, and at great 
 length, upon the qualities of the head and heart, we 
 ought to do the same with regard to the qualities of 
 the little finger. 
 
 285. I omitted in the Letter on verbs, to notice 
 the use of the word thing; and I am not sorry 
 that I did, because, by my noticing it in this con- 
 cluding paragraph, the matter may make a deeper 
 impression on your mind. "Thing is, of course, a 
 noun. A pen is a thing, and every animal, or crea- 
 ture, animate or inanimate, is a thing. We apply 
 it to the representing of every creature in the uni- 
 verse, except to men, women, and children; and 
 a creature is that which has been created, be it 
 living, like ahorse, or dead like dirt, or stones. 
 .The use of the word thing as far as this goes, is 
 plainly reconcilable to reason ; but, " to get drunk 
 is a beastly thing." Here is neither human being, 
 irrational, animal, nor inanimate creature. Here 
 is merely an action : Well, then, this action is the 
 thing; for, as you have seen in Letter XIX, pa.-
 
 XXI. SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. ]5l 
 
 ragraph 273, a verb in the infinitive mode, has, in 
 almost all respects, the functions and p\vers of a 
 noun. " It was a most atrocious thing to uphold 
 " the Bank of England in refusing to give gold for 
 " its promissory notes, and to compel the nation 
 " to submit to the wrong that it sustained from that 
 " refusal." The meaning is, that the whole of 
 these measures, or transactions, constituted a most 
 atrocious deed or thing. 
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR, TAKEN FROM THE 
 WRITINGS OF DOCTOR JOHNSON AND FROM THOSE 
 OF DOCTOR WATTS. 
 
 THE chief object of this Letter is to prove to you 
 the necessity of using great care and caution in the 
 construction of your sentences. When you see 
 writers like Doctor Johnson and Doctor Watts com- 
 mitting grammatical errors, and, in some instances, 
 making their words amount to nonsense, or, at least, 
 making their meaning doubtful ; when you see this 
 in the author of a grammar and of a dictionary of 
 the English Language, and in the author of a work 
 on the subject of Logic ; and when you are informed 
 that these were two of the most learned men that 
 England ever produced, you cannot fail to be con- 
 vinced, that constant care and caution are necessary 
 to prevent you from committing not only similar, 
 but much greater, errors. 
 
 Another object, in the producing of these speci- 
 mens, is to convince you, that a knowledge of the 
 Latin and Greek Languages does not prevent men 
 from writing bad English. Those Languages are,
 
 152 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR, 
 
 by impostors and their dupes, called " the learned 
 " languages ;" and those who have paid for having 
 studied tlvem are said to have received " a liberal 
 " educatiou." These appellations are false, and, 
 of course, they lead to false conclusions. Learning, 
 as a noun, means knowledge, and learned means 
 knowing, or, possessed of knowledge. Learning is, 
 then, to be acquired by conception; and, it is shown 
 in Judgment, in reasoning^ and in the various modes 
 of employing it. What, then, can learning have 
 to do with any particular tongue ? Good grammar, 
 for instance, written in Welsh, or in the language 
 of the Chipewan Savages, is more learned than 
 bad grammar written in Greek. The learning is 
 in the mind and not on the tongue : learning con- 
 sists of ideas, and not of the noise that is made by 
 the mouth. If, for instance, the Reports, drawn 
 up by the House of Commons, and which are com- 
 positions discovering, in every sentence, ignorance 
 the most profound, were written in Latin, should 
 we then call them learned? Should we say, that 
 the mere change of the words from one tongue into 
 another, made that learned which was before un- 
 learned ? As well may we say, that a falsehood 
 written in English would have been truth if written 
 in Latin ; and as well may w say, that a certain 
 hand-writing is a learned hand-writing, or that 
 certain sorts ot ink and paper, are learned ink and 
 paper, as that a language, or tongue, is a learned 
 language, or tongue. 
 
 The cause of the use of this false appellation, 
 " learned languages," is this, that those who teach 
 them in Ei<gland have, in consequence of their 
 teaching, very large estates in house and land) which 
 are public property, but which are, by abuse, 
 seized on by, and used lor the sole beneht of, those 
 teachers, who are the relations or dependents of the 
 alU devour ing Aristocracy. In order to give a co- 
 lour of reasonableness to this act of plunder, the
 
 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 153 
 
 languages taught by these spoilers are called " the 
 learned languages;" and, which appellation is, at 
 the same time, intended to cause the mass of the 
 people to believe, that the professors and learners 
 of these languages are, in point of wisdom, far 
 superior to other men ; and, to establish the opinion 
 that ail but themselves are unlearned persons. la 
 short, the appellation, like many others, is a trick 
 which fraud has furnished for the purpose of guard- 
 ing the plunderers against that just punishment, 
 which the people, if not deceived, would, long ago, 
 have inflicted on them. 
 
 It is curious enough, that this appellation of 
 " learned languages" is confined to the English na- 
 tion, and the American, which inherits it from the 
 English. Neither in France, in Spain, in Italy, nor 
 in Germany, is this false and absurd appellation in 
 use. The same motives have not existed in those 
 countries. There the monks and other priests have 
 plundered by open force. They had not any occa- 
 sion to resort to this species of imposture. But, in 
 England, the plunder required to be glossed over. 
 There was something or other reqirred in that 
 country as an apology for taking many millions a 
 year from the public to keep men to do no appa- 
 rently useful tbjng. 
 
 Seeing themselves unable to maintain the posi- 
 tion, that the Latin and Greek are more " learned 
 " languages" than others, the impostors and their 
 dupes tell us, that this is not what they mean. 
 They mean, they say, not that those languages are, 
 in themselves^ more learned than others ; but that, 
 to possess a knowledge of them is a proof that the 
 possessor is a learned man. To be sure, they do 
 .not oifer us any argument in support of this asser- 
 tion ; while it would be easy to show, that the 
 assertion must, in every case, be false. But, le 
 it suffice, for this time, that we show, that the 
 possession of the knowledge of those languages, 
 G 3
 
 154 SPECIMENS Or FALSE GRAMMAU. Letter 
 
 does not prevent men from committing numeroir- 
 grammatical errors when they write in their native 
 language. 
 
 I have, for this purpose, fixed upon the writings 
 of Doctor Johnson and of Doctor Watts; because, 
 besides its being well known, that they were deeply 
 skilled in Latin and Greek, it would be difficult to 
 lind two men with more real learning. I take also 
 the two works, for which they are, respectively, 
 the most celebrated: the RAMBLER of Doctor John- 
 son and the LOGIC of Doctor Watts. These are 
 works of very great learning. The RAMBLER, 
 though its general tendency is to spread a gloom 
 over life and to damp all enterprize, private as well 
 as public, displays a vast fund of knowledge in the 
 science of morals ; and the LOGIC, though the reli- 
 gious zeal of its pious, sincere, and benevolent au- 
 thor, has led him into the very great error of taking 
 his examples of self-evident propositions from 
 amongst those, many of which, great numbers of 
 men think not to be self-evident, is a work wherein 
 profound learning is conveyed in a style the most 
 simple and in a manner the most pleasing. It is 
 impossible to believe that the Logic was not revised 
 with great care ; and, as to the Rambler, the bio- 
 grapher of its author tells us, that the Doctor made 
 six thousand corrections and alterations before the 
 work was printed in volumes. 
 
 The RAMBLER is in Numbers ; therefore, at the 
 end of each extract from it, I shall put the letter R. 
 and the Number. The Lome is divided into Parts 
 and Chapters. At the end of each extract from it, 
 I shall put L. ; and then add the Part and Chapter. 
 I shall range the extracts under the names of the 
 Farts of Speech, to which the erroneous words re- 
 spectively belong.
 
 XXI. SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 155 
 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 " I invited her to spend a day in viewing a seat 
 " and gardens." R. No. 34. 
 
 *' For all our speculative acquaintance with things 
 " should be made subservient to our better conduct 
 " in Ike civil and religious life." L. Introduction. 
 
 The indefinite Article, , cannot, you know, be 
 put before a plural noun. We cannot say a gardens; 
 but, this is, in fact, said in the above extract. It 
 should have been " a seat and its gardens." " Ci- 
 " vil and religious life" are general and indefinite 
 in the second extract. The article, therefore, was 
 unnecessary, and is improperly used. Look back 
 at the use of Articles, Letter IV. 
 
 NOUNS. 
 
 <c Among the innumerable historical authors , 
 " who fill every nation with accounts of Ikeir an- 
 " ceslors, or undertake to transmit to futurity the 
 " events of their own time, the greater part, when 
 " fashion and novelty have ceased to recommend 
 " them, are of no other use than chronological me- 
 " mortals, which necessity may sometimes require 
 " to be consulted." R. No. 122. 
 
 This is all confusion. Whose ancestors? The 
 nation 's ancestors are meant ; but, the author's are 
 expressed. The two theirs and the them clearly 
 apply to the same noun. How easily all this con- 
 fusion would have been avoided by considering the 
 nation as a singular, and saying Us ancestors ! In 
 the latter part of the sentence, \.\\& authors are called 
 chronological memorials; and though we may, in 
 some cases, use the word author for author's -work; 
 yet, in a case like this, where we are speaking of the 
 authors as actors, we cannot take such a liberty. 
 
 " Each of these classes of the human race has de- 
 " sires, fears, and conversation, peculiar to itself;
 
 156 SPECIMENS OF *ALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 ' cares which anolher cannot feel, and pleasures 
 i' which he cannot partake." R. No. l60. 
 
 The noun of multitude, classes, being preceded by 
 each, has the pronoun, itself, properly put after it ; 
 but the he does not correspond with these. It 
 should have been it. With regard to these two 
 extracts, see paragraph 181. 
 
 " His great ambition was to shoot flying, and 
 " he, therefore, spent whole days in the woods, 
 14 pursuing game, which, before he was near enough 
 " to see them, his approach frighted away." R. 
 No. 66'. 
 
 Gflme is not a noun of multitude, like Mob, or 
 House of Commons. There are different games, or 
 pastimes; but, this word, as applied to the describ- 
 ing of wild animals, has no plural ; and, therefore, 
 cannot have a plural pronoun to stand for it. 
 
 44 The obvious duties of piety towards God and 
 14 love towards man, with the governments of all 
 " our inclinations and passions." L. Part 4. 
 
 This plural is so clearly wrong, that I need not 
 show why it is wrong. 
 
 44 And by this mean they will better judge what 
 to choose." L. Part 4. 
 
 Mean, as a noun, is never used in the singular. 
 It, like some other words, has broken loose from all 
 principle and rule. By universal- acquiescence, it 
 is become always a plural, whether used with sin- 
 gular cr plural pronouns and articles, or not. Doc- 
 tor Watts, in other instances, says, this means. 
 
 44 Having delayed to buy a coach myself, till I 
 44 should have the lady's opinion, for whose use it 
 44 was intended." R. No. 34. 
 
 We know that whose relates to lady, according 
 to the Doctor's meaning; but, grammatically, it 
 does not. It relates to opinion. It should have 
 been 44 the opinion of the lady, for whose use." 
 See Syntax of Nouns, Letter XVI, paragraphs 170 
 and 171.
 
 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 157 
 
 PRONOUNS. 
 
 " Had the opinion of my censurers been unani- 
 " mous, it might have overset my resolution ; but, 
 " since I find them at variance with each other, I 
 " caa, without scruple, neglect them, and follow 
 " my own imagination." R. No. 23. 
 
 You see, the Doctor has, in the last member of 
 the sentence, the censurers in his eye, and he for- 
 gets his nominative, opinion. It is the opinion 
 that was not unanimous, and not the censurers who 
 were not unanimous ; for, they were unanimous in 
 censuring. 
 
 ' They that frequent the chambers of the sick, 
 " will generally find the sharpest pains, and most 
 " stubborn malauies, among them whom, confidence 
 " in the force of nature formerly betrayed to negli- 
 " gence or irregularity ; and that superfluity of 
 " strength, which was at once their boast and their 
 " snare, has often, in the end, no other effect, than 
 ** that it continues them long in impotence and. an- 
 " guish." R. No. 38. 
 
 The They and thr first them ought to be those ; 
 the to ought to be into. The two theirs and the 
 last them are not absolutely faulty, but they do not 
 clearly enough relate to their antecedent. 
 
 " METISSA brought with her an old maid, re- 
 " commended by her mother, who taught liar all 
 " the arts of domestick management, and was, on 
 ** every occasion, her chief agent and directress. 
 " They soon invented one reason or other to quarrel 
 " with all my servants, and either prevailed on me 
 " to turn them away, or treated them so ill, that 
 *' they left me of themselves, and always supplied 
 " their places with some brought from my wife's 
 " family." R. No. 35. 
 
 Here is perfect confusion and pell-mell ! which 
 of the two, the old maid or the mother, was it that 
 taught the arts of domestick management? And
 
 158 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 which of the two was taught, Melissa or the old 
 maid? " They soon invented." Who are ihey ? 
 Are there two, or all the three? And, who supplied 
 the places of the servants ? The meaning of the 
 words clearly is. that the servants themselves sup- 
 plied the places. It is very rarely that we meet with 
 so bad a sentence as this. 
 
 " 1 shall not trouble you with a history of the 
 " stratagems practised upon my judgment, or the 
 " allurements tried upon tny heart, which, if you 
 *' have, in any part of your life, been acquainted 
 " with rural politicks, you will easily conceive. 
 <l Their arls have no great variety, Ihey think no- 
 *' thing worlh their care but money." R. No. 35. 
 
 " Their arts :" but whose arts ? There is no an- 
 tecedent, except " r in al politicks ;" and, thus, all 
 this last sentence is perfect nonsense. 
 
 " But the fear of not being approved as just co- 
 " piers of human manners is not the most important 
 " concern that an author of this sort ought to have 
 " before him." R. No. 4. 
 
 An autlior cannot be said to fear not to be ap- 
 proved as just copiers. The word author ought to 
 have been in the plural and him ought to have been 
 them. 
 
 " The wit, whose vivacity condemns slower 
 " tongues to silence ; the scholar, whose knowledge 
 " allows no man to think he instructs him." R. 
 No. 188. 
 
 Which of the two is allowed ? The scholar, or the 
 no man? Which of the two does he relate to? 
 Which of the two does the him relate to? By a 
 little reflection we may come at the Doctor's mean- 
 ing; but, if we must stop to discover the gramma- 
 tical meaning of an author's words, how are we to 
 iuibibe the science which he would teach us? 
 
 " The state of the possessor of humble virtues, 
 " to the affecter of great excellences, is that of a 
 * 5inall cottage of stone, to the oalace raised with
 
 :xr. SPE 
 
 XXf. SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 159 
 
 " ice by the empress of Russia ; it was for a time, 
 *' splendid and luminous, but the first sunshine 
 " melted it to nothing." R. No. 21. 
 
 Which, instead of it, would have made clear that 
 which is now dubious ; for it may relate to cottage 
 as well as to palace ; or it may relate to state. 
 
 " The love of retirement has, in all ages, ad- 
 " hered closely to those minds, which have been 
 " most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by ge- 
 " nius. Those who enjoyed every thing generally 
 " supposed to confer happiness, have been forced to 
 " seek // in the shades of privacy." R. No. 7. 
 
 To seek what? The love of retirement, or every 
 thing ? The Doctor means happiness, but his words 
 do not mean it. 
 
 " Yet there is a certain race of men, that make it 
 " their duty to hinder the reception of every work 
 " of learning or genius, who stand as centinels in 
 " the avenues of fame, and value themselves upon 
 " giving ignorance and envy the first notice of a 
 " prey."R. No. 3. 
 
 Thai, or who, may, as we have seen, be the rela- 
 tive of a noun, which is the name of a rational be- 
 ing or beings; but both cannot be used, as applica- 
 ble to the same noun in the same sentence. Nor is 
 " a prey" proper. Prey has no singular. It is 
 like fat, meat, grease, garbage, and many other 
 words of that description. 
 
 " For, among all the animals, upon which 'nature 
 " has impressed deformity and horror, there was 
 " none whom he durst not encounter rather than a 
 ; ' beetle." R. No. 126. 
 
 Here are whom and which used as the relatives 
 fo the same noun ; and, besides, we know, that 
 whom can, in no case, be a relative to irrational 
 creatures, and, in this case, the author is speaking 
 of such creatures only. " Horror" is not a thing 
 that can be impressed upon another thing so as to 
 be seen. Horror is a feeling of the mind; for,
 
 160 SPECIMENS OT> JALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 though we say, " horror was visible pn his counte- 
 nance," we clearly mean, that, the outward sigws 
 of horror were visible. We cannot see horror as 
 we can deformity. It should have been " defor- 
 mity and Itidsousness." 
 
 " To eull from the mass of mankind those indi- 
 " viduals, upon which die attention ought to be 
 " most employed." 7^., No. 4. 
 
 The antecedent belongs to rational beings, and, 
 therefore, the which should have been whom. 
 
 " This determination led me to Metissa, the 
 " daughter of Chrysophilus, whose person was at 
 " least without deformity. " R. No. 35. 
 
 The person of which of the two? Not of the old 
 Papa, to be sure ; and yet this is what itie words 
 mean. 
 
 " To persuade them who are entering the world, 
 " that all are i equally vicious, is not to awaken 
 "judgment." R. No. 119. 
 
 'those persons^ \ylio are entering the world, and 
 not any particular persons of whom we have al- 
 read,y been speaking. ,We cannot say, them, per- 
 sons; and, therefore, this sentence is incorrect. 
 
 " Of these pretenders it is fit to distinguish those 
 " who endeavour to detehe from Lhtm who are de- 
 " ceived." R. No. 189. 
 
 " I have, therefore, given a place to what may 
 " not be useless to them whose chief ambition is to 
 " please." R. No. 34. 
 
 The thcms in these two sentences should be. those. 
 But, them who are deceived has another sort of error 
 attached to it, for the who, remember, is not, of it- 
 self, a nominative. The antecedent, as you have 
 seen, must be taken into view. This antecedent, 
 must be, the persons, understood ; aud then we 
 have them persons are deceived. 
 
 " Reason, as to the power and principles of it, is 
 " the common gift of God to uian." L. Introduc- 
 tion.
 
 XXI. SPECIMENS OF FALSE 6RAMUAR. Itii 
 
 The it may relate to power as well as to reason. 
 Therefore, it would have been better to say, " Rea- 
 " son, as to its power and principles ;" for if clear- 
 ness is always necessary, how necessary must it be 
 in the teaching of Logic ! 
 
 " Ail the prudence that any man exerts in his 
 11 common concerns of life."- -L. Introduction. 
 
 Any man means, here, the same as men in gene- 
 ral, and the concerns mean, the concerns common 
 to mtn in general; arid, therefore, the article the 
 should have been used instead of the pronouri his. 
 
 " It gives pain to the mind and memory, and ex- 
 *' poses the unskilful hearer to mingle the superior 
 "and inferior particulars together; it leads them 
 " into a thick wood instead of open day-light, and 
 " places them in a labyrinth instead of a plain 
 " path." L. Part 4. Chap. 2. 
 
 The grammar is clearly bad ; and the rhtlorick 
 is not quite free from fault. Labyrinth is the op- 
 posite of plain path, but open day-light is not the 
 opposite of a thick wood. Open plain would have 
 been better than open day - light ; for open day-light 
 may exist along with a thick wood. 
 
 VERBS. 
 
 " There are many things which we every day see 
 ** others unable to perform, and, perhaps, have 
 " even miscarried ourselves in attempting; and yet 
 " can hardly allow to be difficult." R. No. 122. 
 
 This sentence has in it one of the greatest of 
 faults. The nominative case of can allow is not 
 clear to us. This is a manner too elliptical. " We 
 " can hardly allow them," is what was meant. 
 
 "A man's eagerness to do that goad, to which -he 
 " is not called, will betray him into crimes." R. 
 No. 8. 
 
 The man is not called to the good, but to do the 
 good. It is not my business, at this time, to criii-
 
 162 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 else the opinions of Doctoi Johnson ; but, I cannot 
 refrain from just remarking upon this sentence, that 
 it contains the sura total of passive obedience and 
 non-resistance. It condemns all disinterested zeal 
 and every thing worthy of the name of patriot- 
 ism. 
 
 " We are not compelled to toil through half a 
 " folio to be convinced, that the author has broke 
 " his promise." R. No. 1. 
 
 " The Muses, when they sung before the throne 
 " of Jupiter." R. No. 3. 
 
 In the first of these, the passed //me is used where 
 the passive participle ought to have been used ; and, 
 in the second, the passive participle is used in place 
 of the passed lime. Broken and sang were the pro- 
 per words. 
 
 " My purpose was, after ten months more spent 
 *' in commerce, to have withdrawn my wealth to a 
 " safer country." R. No. 120. 
 
 The purpose was present, and, therefore, it was 
 his purpose to withdraw his wealth. 
 
 " A man may, by great attention, persuade 
 " others, that he really has the qualities that he 
 " presumes to boast ; but, the hour will come when 
 " he should exert them, and then whatever he en- 
 *' joyed in praise, he must suffer in reproach." 
 R. No. 20. 
 
 Here is a complete confounding of limes. In- 
 stead of should, it should be ought to ; and instead 
 of enjoyed, it should be, may have enjoyed,. The 
 sense is bad too ; for, how can a man sujfer in re- 
 proach what he has enjoyed in praise ? 
 
 " He had taught himself to think riches more 
 " valuable than nature designed them, and to ex- 
 " pect from them " R. No. 120. 
 
 " I could prudently adventure an inseparable 
 11 union." R. No. 119. 
 
 " I propose to endeavour the entertainment of my 
 *' countrymen." R. No. 1.
 
 XXI. SPECIMENS 0V FALSE GRAMMAR. 163 
 
 4 ( I Je'uiay, by attending the remarks, which every 
 *' paper will produce." R. No. 1. 
 
 In each of these four sentences, a neuter verb has 
 die powers of an active verb given to it. " Design- 
 " ed them to be; adventure on; endeavour to en- 
 " lerlain ; attending to." To design a thing is to 
 draw it ; to ad end a thing is to wait on it. No 
 case occurs to me at present, wherein adventure and 
 endeavour can be active verbs ; but, at any rate, 
 they ought not to have assumed the active office 
 here. 
 
 " I was not condemned in my youth to solitude, 
 " either by indigence or deformity, nor passed the 
 " earlier part of life without the flattery of court- 
 ' ship." R. No. 119. 
 
 The verb cannot change from a neuter to an ac- 
 tive without a repetition of the nominative. It 
 should have been : nor did I pass; or, nor passed f. 
 " ANTHEA wan content to call a coach, andcrys- 
 " sedthe brook." R. No. 34. 
 
 It should be " she crossed the brook." 
 " He will be welcomed with ardour, unless he 
 *' destroys those recommendations by his faults." - 
 R. No. 160. 
 
 " Jf^t thinks his own judgment not sufficiently 
 "enlightened, he may rectify his opinions." R. 
 No. IV 
 
 " If \\ejinds, with all his industry, and all his 
 " artifices, that he cannot deserve regard, or can- 
 " riot obtain it, he may let the design fall." R. 
 No. 1. 
 
 The subjunctive mode ought to be used in all 
 these three sentences. In the first, the meaning is, 
 " unless he should destroy." In the two last, the 
 Doctor is speaking of his own undertaking; and, he 
 means, " the author, if he should think, if he 
 " should find; may then rectify his opinions; may 
 " then let fall his design." He therefore, should 
 have written, " if he think ; if he find."
 
 64 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. -Letter 
 
 " Follow solid argument wherever it leads you." 
 L. Part 3. 
 
 Wherever it may lead you, or shall lead you, is 
 meant; and, therefore, the subjunctive mode was 
 necessary. It should have been: "wherever it 
 " lead you." 
 
 " See, therefore, that your general definitions, or 
 " descriptions are as accurate as the nature of the 
 " thing will bear.' see that your general divisions 
 *' and distributions be just and exact : see that your 
 " axioms be sufficiently evident : see that your 
 *' principles be well drawn." L. Part 4. 
 
 All these members are correct > except the first, 
 where the verb is put in the indicative mode instead 
 of the Subjunctive. All the four have the same 
 turn-: they are all in the same mode, or manner: 
 they should, therefore, all hava had the verb in the 
 same Jorm. They all required the Subjunctive 
 form. 
 
 PARTICIPLES. 
 
 " Or. it is the drawing a conclusion, which was 
 " before either, uni.novv.tt, QJC dark." L. Intro- 
 duction. 
 
 It should be, " the Drawing of a conclusion;" 
 for, in this case, the active participle becomes a 
 noun. " The act of drawing" is meant, and 
 clearly understood ; and we cannot say, " the acf 
 " drawing a conclusion." When the article- conies 
 before, there must be the preposition afier the 
 participle. To omit the preposition in such cases 
 is an error very common, and, therefore, I have 
 noticed the error in this instance,, in order to pui 
 you on your guard. 
 
 ADVERBS. 
 
 " For thoughts are only criminal, when they 
 " are first chosen, and then voluntarily continued*" 
 R. No, 8.
 
 XXI. SPECIMEN'S OF FALSI, GRAMMAR. 
 
 The station, or place, of the adverb is a great 
 matter. The Doctor does not mean here that which 
 his words mean. He means, that " thoughts are 
 " criminal, only when they are first chosen and 
 " then voluntarily continued." As the vfords 
 stand, they mean, that " thoughts are nothing else, 
 " or nothing more-* than criminal/' in the case 
 supposed. But, here are other words riot very 
 properly used. I should like to be informed how- 
 a thought can be chosen ; how that is possible : 
 and also, how we can continue a thought, or how 
 we can discontinue a thought, at our will* The 
 science here is so very profound that we cannot see 
 the bottom of it. Swift says, " whatever is dark 
 *' is deefi. Stir a puddle, and it is deeper than a 
 " well." Doctor Johnsou deals too much in this kind 
 of profundity. 
 
 " I have heard how some crhicks have been pa- 
 " cified with claret and a supper, and others laid 
 " asleep with the soft notes of flattery." R. No. 1. 
 
 How means the manner in which. As, " how 
 " do you do ?" That is, ". in what manne r do you 
 " carry yourself on." But, the Doctor tells us here, 
 in other words, the precise manner in which the 
 Criticks were pacified. The how, therefore, should 
 have been thai. 
 
 *' I hope not much to tire those whom I shall not 
 happen to please." R. No. 1. 
 
 He did not mean that he did not much hope, but 
 that he hoped not to lire much. " I hope I shall 
 *' not much lire those whom I may not happen to 
 " please." This was what he meant; but he does 
 not say it. 
 
 " And it is a good judgment alone can dictate 
 Ci how/ar to proceed in it and when to stop." 
 L. Part 4. 
 
 Doctor Watts is speaking here of writing. In 
 such a case an adverb, like how far, expressive of 
 longitudinal space, introduces a rhetorical figure ;
 
 166 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 for the plain meaning is, that judgment will dictate 
 how much lo write on it, and not how far to proceed 
 in it. The figure, however, is very proper, and 
 much better than the literal words. But, when a 
 figure is begun it should be carried on throughout, 
 which is not the case here ; for, the Doctor begins 
 with -a figure of longitudinal space, and ends with a 
 figure of time. It should have been, " where to 
 "stop." Or, "How long to proceed in it and 
 " when to stop." To tell a man how far he is to 
 go into the Western Countries of America, and 
 when he is to stop, is a very different thing from 
 telling him how far he is to go and where he is to 
 stop. I have dwelt, thus, on this distinction, for 
 the purpose of putting you on the watch, and 
 guarding you against confounding figures. The less 
 you use them the better, till you understand more 
 about tl-em. 
 
 " In searching out matters of fact in times past 
 " or in distant places, in which case moral evidence 
 " is sufficient, and moral certainly is the utmost 
 " that can be attained, here we derive a greater 
 " assurance of the truth of il by a number of per- 
 " sons, or multitude of circumstances concurring to 
 " bear witness to it." L. Part 3. 
 
 The Adverb, here, is wholly unnecessary, and it 
 does harm. But, what shall we say of the of it 
 and the to i I ? What is the antecedent of the it? 
 Is matters of fact the antecedent? Then them, and 
 not it, should have been the pronoun. Is evidence 
 the antecedent ? Then we have circumstances bear- 
 ing witness to evidence ! Is certainly the antece- 
 dent ? Then we have the truth of certainty .' 
 Mind, my dear James, this sentence is taken from 
 a treatise on Logic! How necessary is it, then, for 
 you, to be careful in the^ use oi this powerful little 
 word j it.'
 
 XXI. SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 167 
 
 PREPOSITIONS. 
 
 " Aad, as this praciice is a commodious subject 
 " of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the 
 
 " serious, it has been ridiculed " R. No. 
 
 123. 
 
 With the gay -, for, to the gay, means, that the 
 raillery is addressed to the gay, which was not the 
 author's meaning. 
 
 " When I was deliberating to what new qualifi- 
 " cations I should aspire." R. No. 123. 
 
 With regard lo, it ought to have been ; for, we 
 cannot deliberate a thing, nor to a thing. > 
 
 " If I am not commended for the beauty of my 
 " works, I may hope to be pardoned for their bre- 
 11 vity." R. No. 1. 
 
 We may commend him for the beauty of his 
 works ; and we may pardon him for their brevity, 
 if we deem the brevity a fault ; but, this is not 
 what he means. He means, that, at any rate, he 
 shall have the merit of brevity : " If I am not com- 
 " mended for the beauty of my works, I may hope 
 " to be pardoned on account of their brevity." 
 This was what the Doctor meant; but this would 
 have marred a little the antithesis: it would have 
 unsettled a little the balance of that see-saw^ in 
 which Dr. Johnson so much delighted, and which, 
 falling into the hands of novel- writers and of Mem- 
 bers of Parliament, has, by moving unencumbered 
 with any of the Doctor's reason or sense, lulled so 
 many thousands asleep ! Doctor Johnson created a 
 race of writers and speakers. " Mr. Speaker, that 
 " the state of the nation is very critical, all men 
 ' must allow ; but, that it is wholly desperate, few 
 " men will believe." When you hear, or see, a 
 sentence like this, be sure that the person who 
 speaks, or writes it, has been reading Doctor John- 
 son, or some of his imitators. But, observe, these 
 imitators go no further than the frame of the sen-
 
 168 SPECIMENS OF fALsr GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 tences. They, in general, take special care not to 
 imitate the Doctor in knowledge and reasoning. 
 
 I have now lying on the table before me forty- 
 eight errors in the use, or omission, of Preposi- 
 tions, by Doctor Watts. I will notice but two of 
 them ; the first is an error of commission, the se- 
 cond, of omission. 
 
 ** When we would prove the importance of any 
 " scriptural doctrine, or duty, the multitude of 
 " texts, wherein it is repealed and inculcated upon 
 tf the reader, seems naturally to instruct us, that it 
 ** is a matter of greater importance than other 
 " things which are but slightly or singly mentioned 
 " in the Bible." L. Part 3. 
 
 The words repeated and inculcated both apply to 
 upon ; but we cannot repeat a thing upon a reader, 
 and the words, here used, mean this. When se- 
 veral verbs, or participles, are joined together by a 
 copulative conjunction, care must be taken that the 
 act described by each verb or participle, be such 
 as can be performed by the agent, and, performed, 
 too, in the manner, or for the purpose, or on the 
 object, designated by the other words of the sen- 
 tence. 
 
 The other instance of error in the use of the Prt~ 
 posilion occurs on the very first sentence in the trea- 
 tise on Logic. 
 
 " Logic is the art of using reason well in our en- 
 " quiries after truth, and the communication of it 
 " to others." L. Introduction. 
 
 The meaning of the words is this : that " Logic 
 " is the art of using reason well in our enquiries 
 " after truth, and is also the communication of it 
 " to others." To be sure we do understand that it 
 means, that " Logic is the art of using reason well 
 *' in our enquiries after truth, and in the communi- 
 " cation of it to others;" but, surely, in a case like 
 this, no room for doubt or for hesitation ought to 
 have been left. Nor is " using reason well" a well-
 
 IMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. 169 
 
 chosen phrase. It nmy mean treating it well; not 
 'ill-treating it. " Using reason properly," or " e/- 
 *' ploying reason well," would have been better; 
 For, observe, Doctor Watts is here giving a defini- 
 tion of the thing of which he was about to treat ; 
 and he is speaking to persons unacquainted with that 
 thing ; for, as to those acquainted with it no defini- 
 tion was wanted. Clearness, every where desir- 
 able, was here absolutely necessary. 
 
 CONJUNCTIONS. 
 
 " As t notwithstanding all that wit, or malice, or 
 t; pride, or prudence will be able to suggest, men 
 " and women must, at last, pass their lives toge- 
 " ther, I have never, therefore, thought those wri- 
 " ters friends to human happiness, who endeavour 
 ** to excite in either sex a general contempt or sus- 
 " picion of the othfir." R. No. 119, 
 
 The as is unnecessary ; or the therefore is unne- 
 cessary. 
 
 " But the happy historian has no other labour 
 " than of gathering what tradition pours down be- 
 fore him." R. No. 122. 
 
 " Some have advanced without due attention to 
 " the consequences of this notion, that certain vir- 
 " lues have their correspondent faults, and there- 
 " fore, to exhibit either apart is to deviate from 
 " probability." R. Ne. 4. 
 
 " But, if the power of example is so great as to 
 *' take possession of the memory by a kind of vio- 
 " lence, care ought to be taken, that, when the 
 " choice is unrestrained, the best examples only 
 " should be exhibited ; and I hat which is likely to 
 " operate so strongly, should not be mischievous 
 " or uncertain in its effects." R. No. 4. 
 
 It should have been, in the first -of these extracts, 
 ;{ than that of gathering:" in the second, "and that 
 " therefore :" in the third, " and that that which is 
 H
 
 170 SPECIMENS O* Al,SK GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 " likely." If the Doctor wished to avoid putting 
 two lhats close together, he should have chosen an* 
 other form for his sentence. The that which is a 
 relative, and the conjunction that was required to go 
 before it. 
 
 " It is, therefore an useful thing, when we have 
 ** a fundamental truth, we use the synthetick rae- 
 11 thod to explain it." L. P. 4. 
 
 It should have been, that we use. 
 
 WRONG PLACING OF WORDS. 
 
 Of all the faults to be found in writing this is 
 one of the most common, and, perhaps, it leads to 
 the greatest number of misconceptions. All the 
 words may be the proper words to be used upon the 
 occasion ; and yet, by a misplacing of a part of 
 them, the meaning may be wholly destroyed ; and, 
 even made to be the contrary of what it ought 
 to be. 
 
 " I asked the question with no other intention 
 " than to set the gentleman free from the necessity 
 " of silence, and give him an opportunity of ming- 
 *' ling on equal terms with a polite assembly, from 
 " which, however uneasy, he could not then escape, 
 *' by a kind introduction of the only subject on 
 ** which I believed him to be able to speak with 
 " propriety." R. No. 126. 
 
 This is a very bad sentence altogether. " How- 
 *' ever uneasy" applies to assembly, and not io gen- 
 lleman. Only observe how easily this might have 
 been avoided. " From which he, however uneasy, 
 *' could not then escape." After this we have 
 *' he could not then escape, by a kind introduction." 
 We know what is meant; but, (he Doctor, with all 
 his commas, leaves the sentence confused. Let us 
 see whether we cannot make it clear. " I asked 
 *' the question with no other intention than, by a 
 11 kind introduction of the only subject on which I
 
 XXI. KPECIMENS 09 FALSE GRAMMAR. Ifl 
 
 " believed him to be able to speak with propriety, 
 * to set the gentleman free from the necessity of 
 * silence, and to give him an opportunity of ming- 
 ** ling on equal terms with a polite assembly, from 
 " which he, however uneasy, could not then 
 "escape." 
 
 *' Reason is the glory of human nature, and one 
 " of the chief eminences whereby we are rahed 
 *' above our fellow -creatures, the brutes, in this 
 *' lower world." L. Introduction. 
 
 I before showed an error in the first sentence of 
 Doctor Watts's work. This is the second sentence. 
 The words, "in ibis lower world" are not words 
 misplaced only : they are wholly unnecessary, and 
 they do great harm ; for, they do these two things : 
 first, they imply, that there are brutes in the higher 
 world; and, second, they excite a doubt, whether 
 we are raised above those brutes. 
 
 I might, my dear James, greatly extend the num- 
 ber of my extracts from both these authors ; buL 
 here, I trust, are enough. I had noted down about 
 two hundred errors in Doctor Johnson's Lives of (lie 
 Poets; but, afterwards, perceiving, that he had re- 
 vised and corrected the RAMBLER with extraordi- 
 nary care, I chose to make my extracts from that 
 tvork rather than from the Lives of the Poets. 
 
 DOUBLE NEGATIVE AND ELLIPSIS. 
 
 Before I dismiss the Specimens of Bad Grammar, 
 1 will just take, from TULL, a sentence, which con- 
 tains striking instances of the misapplication of 
 Negatives and of the Ellipsis. In our language 
 Iwo negatives, applied to the same verb, or to the 
 same words of any sort, amount to aa affirmative: 
 as, " Do not give him none of your money." That 
 is to say, " give him seme of your money ;" though 
 <he contrary is meant. It should be, " do not give 
 him any of your money." Errors, as to this wat- 
 II f
 
 172 SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR. Letter 
 
 (er, occur most frequently, when the sentence is 
 formed in such a manner as to lead the writer out of 
 sight and out of sound of the first negative before 
 he comes to the point where he thinks a second is 
 required: as, "Neither Richard nor Peter, as I 
 " have been informed, and, indeed, as it has been 
 t{ proved to me, never gave James authority t 
 *' write to me." You see, it ought to be ever. 
 But, in this case, as in most others, there requires 
 nothing more than a little thought. You see clear- 
 ly, that two negatives, applied to th same verb, 
 destroy the negative effect of each other. " I will 
 " not never write." This is the contrary of " I 
 " will never write." 
 
 The Ellipsis, of which I spoke in Letter XIX, 
 paragraph 227, ought to be used with great care. 
 Read that paragraph again ; and then attend to the 
 following sentence of MR.TULL, which I select in 
 order to show you, that very fine thoughts may be 
 greatly marred by too free an use of the Ellipsis. 
 
 " It is strange, that no Author should never have 
 u written fully of the fabrick of ploughs ! Men of 
 " greatest learning have spent their time in con- 
 " triving instruments to measure the immense dis- 
 " tance of the stars, and in finding out the dimen- 
 " sions and even weight of the planets. They 
 11 think it more eligible to study the art of plough- 
 " ing the sea with ships, than of tilling the land 
 11 with ploughs. They bestow the utmost of their 
 " skill, learnedly to pervert the natural use of all 
 " the elements for destruction of their own species 
 *' by the bloody art of war; and some waste their 
 " whole lives in studying how to arm death with 
 ** new engines of horror, and inventing an infinite 
 " variety of slaughter; but think it beneath men 
 " of learning (who only are capable of doing it) to 
 " employ their learned labours in the invention of 
 " new, or even improving the old, instruments /0f 
 " increasing of bread."
 
 XXH. IN A KING'S SPEECH. 175 
 
 of a King's Speech, it is not one man, but nine 
 men, whose judgment and practical talent are em- 
 ployed. A King's Speech is, too, a very short 
 piece of writing. The topicks are all distinct. 
 Very little is said upon each. There is no reason- 
 ing. It is all plain matter of fact, or of simple ob- 
 servation. The thing is done with all the advan- 
 tages of abundant time for examination and re-ex- 
 amination. Each of the Ministers has a copy of 
 the Speech to read, to examine, and to observe 
 upon ; and, when no one has any thing left to sug- 
 gest in the way of alteration or improvement, the 
 Speech is agreed to, and put into the mouth of the 
 King. 
 
 Surely, therefore, if, in any human effort, per- 
 fection can be expected, we have a right to expect 
 it in a King's Speech. You shall now see, then, 
 what pretty stuff is put together, and delivered to 
 the Parliament, under the name of King's Speeches. 
 
 The Speech, which I am about to examine, is, 
 indeed, a Speech of the Regent ; but, I might take 
 any other of these Speeches. I choose this parti- 
 cular Speech, because th subjects of it are familiar 
 in America as well as in England. It was spoken 
 on the 8th of November, 1814. I shall take a sen* 
 fence at a time, in order to avoid confusion. 
 
 " My Lords and Gentlemen, It is with deep re- 
 " grtt that I am again obliged to announce the con- 
 " tinuaiice of His Majesty's lamented indisposi- 
 " tion." 
 
 Even in this short sentence there is something 
 equivocal ; for, it may be, that the Prince's regret 
 arises from his being obliged to announce, and not 
 from the thing announced. If he had said : " With 
 " deep regret I announce," or, " I announce with 
 " deep regret/' there would have been nothing 
 equivocal. And, in a composition like this, all 
 ought to be as clear as the pebbled brook. 
 
 "It -would have given me great satisfaction to
 
 176 ERRORS ANB NONSENSE Letter 
 
 " have been enabled to communicate to you the ler- 
 u mination of the war between this country and 
 " the United States of America." 
 
 The double compound times of the verbs, in the 
 ftrst part of the sentence, make the words mean, 
 that it would, before Ike Prince came to the House, 
 have given him great satisfaction to be enabled to 
 communicate ; whereas, he meant, u it would, now t 
 " have given me great satisfaction to be enabled to 
 " communicate." In the latter part of the sentence 
 we have a little nonsense. What does termination 
 mean ? It means, in this case, end, or conclusion; 
 and, thus, the Prince wished to communicate an end 
 to the wise men, by whom he was surrounded ! 
 To communicate is to impart to another any thing 
 that we have in our possession or within our power. 
 And so, the Prince wished to impart the end ta the 
 Noble Lords and Honourable Gentlemen. He 
 might wish to impart, or communicate, the news, 
 or the intelligence, of the end; but, he could not 
 communicate the end itself. What should we say, 
 if some one were to tell us, that an Officer had ar- 
 rived, and brought home the termination of a battle 
 and carried it to Carleton House and communicated 
 it to the Prince? We should laugh at our rnfor- 
 maut's ignorance of grammar, though we should 
 understand what he meant. And, shall we, then, 
 be so partial and so unjust as to reverence in King's 
 Councillors that which we should laugh at in one of 
 our neighbours ? To act thus would be, my dear 
 Son, a base abandonment of our reason, which is, 
 to use the words of Dr. Watts, the common gift of 
 God to man. 
 
 "Although this war originated in the most un- 
 " provoked aggression on the part of the Govern- 
 " ment of the United States, and was calculated to 
 " promote the designs of the common enemy of 
 " Europe against the rights and independence of aH 
 ' lher nations, I never have ceased to entertain a
 
 XXII. IN A KING'S SPEECH. 177 
 
 " sincere desire to bring it to a conclusion on just 
 44 and honourable terms C' 
 
 The Ike most would lead us to suppose, that there 
 had been more than one aggression, and that the 
 war originated in the most unprovoked of them ; 
 whereas the Prince's meaning was, that the aggres- 
 sion was an unprovoked one, unprovoked in the su- 
 perlative degree; and that, therefore, it was a most 
 unprovoked aggression. The words ail other na- 
 tions, may mean all nations except England; or, all 
 nations out of Europe ; or, all nations other than 
 the United Stales ; or, all nations except the enemy's 
 own nation. Guess you which of these is the 
 meaning : I confess that I am wholly unable to de- 
 termine the question. But, what does the close of 
 the sentence mean, when taken into view with the 
 although at the beginning ? Does the Prince mean, 
 that he would be justified in wanting to make peace 
 on unjust and dishonourable terms, because the 
 enemy had been the aggressor? He might, indeed, 
 wish to make it on terms dishonourable, and even 
 disgraceful, to the enemy ; but, could he possibly 
 wish to make it on unjust terms ? Does he mean, 
 that an aggression, however wicked and unprovok- 
 ed, would give him a right to do injustice? Yet, 
 if he do not mean this, what does he mean ? Per- 
 haps (for there is no certainty) he may mean, that 
 he wishe to bring th war to a conclusion as soon 
 as he can get jusl and honourable terms from the 
 enemy ; but, then, what is he to do with the M- 
 Uiougli? Let us try this. " I am ready," say you, 
 41 to make peace, if you will give me jusl terms, al- 
 " though you are the aggressor." To be sure you 
 are, whether I be the aggressor or not ! All that 
 you can possibly have the face to ask of me is jus- 
 lice ; and, therefore, why do you connect your wish 
 for peace with this although ? Either you mean, 
 that my aggression gives you a right to demand of 
 me more than justice, or you talk nonsense. Nor 
 H 3
 
 17S ERRORS AND NONSENSE 
 
 must we overlook the word " Government," which 
 is introduced here. In the sentence before, the 
 Prince wished to communicate the end of the war 
 between " this country and the United Stale* ;" but, 
 in this sentence we are at war with " the Govern- 
 " ment of the United States." This was a poor 
 trick of sophistry, and as such we will let it pass 
 with only observing, that such low trickery is not 
 very becoming in men selected from " a noble, ho- 
 11 noumble and reverend assembly." 
 
 *' I am sliU engaged in negociations for thispur- 
 " pose." 
 
 That is the purpose of bringing the war to a con- 
 clusion. A very good purpose; but, why still* 
 He had not told his nobles and his boroughmen 
 that he had been engaged in negociations. Even 
 this short, simple sentence could not be made with- 
 out fault. 
 
 " The success of them must, however, depend 
 "on my disposition being met with corresponding 
 " sentiments on the part of the enemy." 
 
 Now, suppose, I were to say, " my wagon was 
 " met with Mr. Tredwell's coach." Should you 
 not think, that somebody had met the wagon and 
 coach both going together the same way ? To be 
 sure you would. But, if I were to say, my wagon 
 was met by Mr. Tredwell's coach, you would 
 rtiink, that they had approached e,ach t*'er from 
 different spots. And, therefore, the Prince should 
 have said, " met by." This sentence, however, 
 short as it happily is, is too long to be content with 
 one error. Disposition, in this sense of the word, 
 means, slate, or bent, or temper, of mind; and 
 the word stnliments means, thoughts, or opinions. 
 So, here we liave a temper of mind met by thoughts. 
 Thoughts may correspond, or agree with, a temper 
 of mind; but, how are they to meet it? If the 
 Prince had said, " my disposition being met by a 
 4t corresponding disposition on the part of the
 
 XXII. IN A KING'S SPEECH. 179 
 
 " enemy," he would have uttered plain and dig- 
 nified language. 
 
 " The operations of his Majesty's forces by sen 
 " and land in the Chesapeake, in the course of the 
 " present year, have been attended with the most 
 " brilliant and successful results." 
 
 Were there only the bad placing of the different 
 members of this sentence, the fault would be suffi- 
 cient. But, we do not know, whether the Prince 
 means 0/feralions by sea and land, or forces by sea 
 and land. 
 
 " The flottilla of ihe enemy in the Patuxent Iras 
 " been destroyed. The signal defeat of I heir land 
 u forces enabled a detachment of his Majesty's 
 u army to take possession of the City of Washiagton; 
 " and the spirit of enterprize, which has charac- 
 " temed all the movements in that quarter, has 
 " produced on the inhabitants a deep and sensible 
 " impression of the calamities of a war in which 
 " they have been so wantonly involved." 
 
 Enemy is not a noun of multitude, like gong, or 
 House of Commons, or den of thieves; and, there- 
 fore, when used in the singular, must have singular 
 pronouns and verbs to agree with it. Their, in the 
 second of these sentences, should have been his. A 
 sensible impression is an impression Jell ; a deep 
 impression is one more felt. Therefore, it was 
 44 a sensible and deep impression." But, indeed, 
 sensible had no business there ; for, an impression 
 that is deep must be sensible. What would you 
 think of a man who should say : " J have not only 
 " been slabbed^ but my sic in has been cut?" Why 
 you would think, to be sure, that he must be a man 
 (selected from the noble, honourable, and reverend 
 assembly at Whitehall. 
 
 " The expedition directed from Halifax to the 
 " Northern coast of the United States, has termi* 
 " natetl iu a manner net less satisfactory."
 
 ISO EUROR3 AND NONSENSE Letter 
 
 Than what ? The Prince has told us, before 
 this, of nothing that has terminated satisfactorily, 
 He has talked of a brilliant result, and of an im- 
 pression made on the inhabitants ; but of no termi- 
 nation has he talked ; nor has he said a word about 
 sail sf action . We must always take care how we 
 use, in one sentence, words which refer to any 
 thing said in former sentences. 
 
 " The successful course of this operation has been, 
 "followed by the immediate submission of the ex- 
 " tensive and important district east of the Ponob- 
 " scot river to his Majesty's arms." 
 
 This sentence 'is a disgrace even to a Ministry 
 selected by the grovelling borough-tyrants. What 
 do they mean by a course being followed by a suit- 
 mission ? And then, " has been followed by the 
 " immediate submission." One would think, that 
 some French emigrant priest was employed to write 
 this speech. He, indeed, would say, " a etc suivie 
 " par la soumission immediate." But, when we 
 make use of any word, like immediate, which 
 carries us back to the time and scene of action, we 
 must use the past lime of the verb, and say, " was 
 *' followed by the immediate submission." That 
 is to^ay, was then followed bythe//jn immediate; 
 and not, has now been followed by the then imme- 
 diate submission. The close of this sentence ex- 
 hibits a fine instance of want of skill in the placing 
 of the parts of a sentence. Could these noble and 
 reverend persons find no place but the end for " to 
 " his Majesty s arms?" There was, but they 
 could not see it, a place made on purpose, after the 
 word submission. 
 
 It is unnecessary, my dear James, for me to 
 proceed further with an exposure of the bad gram- 
 mar and the nonsense of this speech. There is 
 not, in the whole speech, one single sentence that 
 is free from error. Nor, will you be at all sur-
 
 XXII. IN A KING'S SPEECH. 181 
 
 prized at this, if ever you should hear these per- 
 sons uttering their own speeches in those places, 
 which, when you were a naughty little boy, you 
 used to call " the Thieves' Houses." IF you should 
 ever hear them there, stammering and repeating 
 and putting forth their nonsense, your wonder will 
 be, not that they wrote .1 King's Speech so badly, 
 but that they contrived to put upon paper sentences 
 sufficiently grammatical to enable us to guess at the 
 meaning. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 ON PUTTING SENTENCES TOGETHER, AND ON 
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 
 
 MY DEAR JAMES, 
 
 I HAVE now done with the subject of Gram- 
 mar, which, as you know, teaches us to use words 
 in a proper manner. But, though you now, I 
 hope, understand how to avoid error in the fonuing 
 of sentences, I think it right not to conclude my 
 instructions without saying a few words upon the 
 subject of adding sentence, to sentence, and on the 
 subject oi 'figurative language. 
 
 Language is made use ot for one of three pur- 
 poses ; namely, to inform, to convince, or to per- 
 suade. The fa'rst, requiring merely the talent of 
 telling what we know, is a matter oi little diffi- 
 culty. The second demands reasoning. The third, 
 besides reasoning, demands all the aid that we can 
 obtain from the use of figures of speech, or, a?
 
 182 N PUTTING SENTENCES TOGETHER, Letter 
 
 they are sometimes called, figures of rhttorick, 
 which last wurd means, the power of persuasion. 
 
 Whatever may be the purpose, for which we 
 use language, it seldom can happen that we do not 
 stand in need of more than one sentence; and, 
 therefore, others must be added. There is no 
 precise rule ; there can be no precise rule, with 
 regard to the manner of doing this. When we 
 have said one thing, we must add another ; and so 
 on, until we have said all that we have to say. 
 But, we ought to take care, and great care, that, 
 if any words in a sentence relate, in any way, to 
 words thai have gone before, we make these words 
 correspond grammatically with those foregoing 
 words ; an instance of the want of which care you 
 have seen in paragraph 1/8. 
 
 The order of the matter will be, in almost all 
 cases, that of your thoughts. Sit down to write 
 what you have thought, and not to think what you 
 shall write. Use the first words that occur to you, 
 and never attempt to alter a thought; for, that 
 which has come of itslf into your mind is likely 
 to pass into that of another more readily and with 
 more effect than any thing which you can, by re- 
 flection, invent. 
 
 Never stop to make choice of words. Put down 
 your thought in words just as they come. Follow 
 the order which your thought will point out ; and 
 it will push you on to get it upon the paper as 
 quickly and as clearly as possible. 
 
 Thoughts come much faster than we can put 
 them upon paper. They produce one another; 
 and, this order of their coming is, in almost every 
 case, the best possible order that they can have on 
 paper : yet, if you have several in your mind, 
 rising above each other in point of force, the most 
 forcible will naturally come the last upon papu. 
 
 Mr. Lindley Murray gives rules about long stn-
 
 XXIII. AND OS FIGURATITI LANCVAf. 185 
 
 fences and short sentences and about a due mixture 
 of long and short ; and, he also gives rules about 
 the letters that sentences should begin with and the 
 syllables that they should end with. Such rules 
 might be very well if we were to sing our writing ; 
 but, when the use of writing is to inform, to con- 
 vince, or to persuade, what can it have to do with 
 such rules? 
 
 There are certain connecting words, which it is of 
 importance to use properly : such as therefore , 
 which means for that cause, Jar that reason. We 
 must take cave, when we use such words, that there 
 is occasion for using them. We must take care, 
 that, when we use but, or for, or any other con- 
 necting word, the sense of our sentences requires 
 such word to be used; for, if such words be im- 
 properly used, they throw all into confusion. You 
 have seen the shameful effect of an although in the 
 King's Speech, which I noticed in my last Letter. 
 The adverbs when, then, while, now, there, and 
 some others, are connecting words, and not used 
 in their strictly literal sense. For example : " Well, 
 u then, 1 will not do it." Then, in its literal sense, 
 means at that time, or in that time: as, " I was in 
 " America then." But, " Well, then," means, 
 " Well, if that be so," or " let that be so," or 
 ** in that case." You have only to accustom your- 
 self a little to reflect on the meaning of these words ; 
 for that will soon teach you never to employ them 
 improperly. 
 
 A writing, or written discourse, is generally 
 broken into paragraphs. When a new paragraph 
 should begin, the nature of your thoughts must tell 
 you. The propriety of it will be pointed out to 
 you by the difference between the thoughts which 
 are coming and those which have gone before. It is 
 impossible to frame rules for regulating such divi- 
 sions. When a man divides his work into Parts,
 
 184 ON PUTTING SENTENCES TOGETHER, 
 
 Books, Chapters, and Sections, he makes the di- 
 vision according to that which the matter has taken 
 in his mind; and, when he comes to write, he has 
 no other guide for the distribution of his matter into 
 sentences and paragraphs. 
 
 Never write about any matter that you do not 
 well undfrstand. If you clearly understand all 
 about your matter, you will never want thoughts, 
 and thoughts instantly become words. 
 . One of the greatest of all faults in writing and 
 in speaking is this ; the using of many words to say 
 little. In order to guard yourself against this fault, 
 inquire what is the substance, or amount^ of what 
 you have said. Take a long speech of some talking 
 Lord, and put down upon paper what the amount 
 of it is. You will mostly find, that the amount is 
 very small ; but, at any rate, when you get it, you 
 will then be able to examine it, and to tell what it 
 is worth. A very few examinations of this sort 
 will so frighten you, that you will be for ever after 
 upon your guard against talking a great deal and 
 saying little. 
 
 Figurative language is very fine when properly em- 
 ployed ; but, figures of rhetorick are edge tools and 
 two-edge tools too. Take care how you touch them ! 
 They are called figures, because they represent other 
 things than the words in their literal meaning stand 
 for. For instance : " The tyrants oppress and starve 
 " the people. The people would live amidst abun- 
 lt dance, if those cormorants did not devour the 
 11 fruit of their labour." I shall only observe to 
 you upon this subject, that, if you use figures of 
 rhetorick, you ought to take care that they do not 
 make nonsense of what you say, nor excite the 
 ridicule of those to whom you write. Mr. Murray, 
 in an address to his students, tells them, that he 
 is about to offer them some advice with regard to 
 " their future walks in the paths of literature."
 
 XXIII. AND ON FIGUtAttVE LANGUAGE. 185 
 
 Now, though a man may lake a -walk along a path, 
 a walk means also ths ground laid out in a certain 
 shape, and such a walk /s wider than a path. He, 
 in another part of this address, tells them, that 
 they are in " the rnorning of life, and that that is 
 "the season lor exertion." The morning, my 
 dear James, is not a season. The year, indeed, 
 has seasons, but the day has none. If Le had said 
 the spring of life, then he might have added the 
 season of exertion. 1 told you (hey were edge-tools. 
 Beware of them. 
 
 I am now, my dear son, arrived at the last para- 
 graph of my treatise, and I hope, that when you 
 arrive at it, you will understand grammar suffici- 
 ently to enable you to write without committing 
 frequent and glaring errors. I shall now leave you, 
 for about four months, to read and write English : 
 to practise what you have now been taught. At 
 the end of those four months, I shall have prepared 
 a Grammar to teach you the French L&iguage, 
 which language I Lope to hear you speak, and to 
 see you write, well, at the end of one year from 
 this time. With English and French on your 
 tongue and in your pen, you have a resource, not 
 only greatly valuable in itself, but a resource that 
 you can be deprived of by none of those changes 
 and chances which deprive men of pecuniary pos- 
 sessions, and which, in some cases, make the purse- 
 proud man of yesterday a crawling sycophant to- 
 day. Health, without which life is not worth 
 having, you will hardly fail to secure by early- 
 rising, exe, else, sobriety, and abstemiousness as to 
 food. Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It 
 is the mind that lives ; and the length of life ought 
 to be measured by the number and importance of 
 our ideas-; and not by the number of our days. 
 Never, therefore, esteem men merely on account 
 of their riches or their station. Respect goodness,
 
 186 OK fUTTIHG 9CNTINCES TOCTHl, 8tC. 
 
 find it where you will. Honour talent wherever 
 you behold it unassociated with vice ; but, honour 
 it most when accompanied with exertion, and es- 
 pecially when exerted in the cause of truth and 
 justice; but, above all, when it steps forward to 
 protect defenceless innocence against the attacks of 
 powerful guilt. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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