duration, is very reasonable to believe;" "To be temperate in eating and drinking, to use exercise in the open air, and to preserve the mind free from tumultuous emotions, are the best preservatives of health."

2. Every verb, except in the infinitive mood, or the participle, ought to have a nominative case, either expressed or implied: as, "Awake; arise;" that is, "Awake ye; arise ye."

"As

We shall here add some examples of inaccuracy, in the use of the verb without its nominative case. it hath pleased him of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and hath preserved you in the great danger," &c. The verb "hath preserved," has here no nominative case, for it cannot be properly supplied by the preceding word, "him," which is in the objective case. It ought to be," and as he hath preserved you;" or rather, "and to preserve you." "If the calm in which he was born, and lasted so long, had continued;" "and which lasted,” &c. "These we have extracted from an historian of undoubted credit, and are the same that were practised," &c.; "and they are the same." "A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage the business;" "and who had," &c. "A cloud gathering in the north; which we have helped to raise, and may quickly break in a storm upon our heads ;""and which may quickly."

3. Every nominative case, except the case absolute, and when an address is made to a person, should belong to some verb, either expressed or implied: as, "Who wrote this book?" "James ;" that is, " James wrote it." "To whom thus Adam," that is, "spoke."

One or two instances of the improper use of the nominative case, without any verb, expressed or implied, to answer it, may be sufficient to illustrate the usefulness of the preceding observation.

"Which rule, if it had been observed, a neighbouring prince would have wanted a great deal of that incense

which hath been offered up to him." The pronoun it is here the nominative case to the verb "observed;" and which rule, is left by itself, a nominative case without any verb following it. This form of expression, though improper, is very common. It ought to be, "If this rule had been observed," &c. "Man, though he has great variety of thoughts, and such from which others as well as himself might receive profit and delight, yet they are all within his own breast." In this sentence, the nominative man stands alone and unconnected with any verb, either expressed or implied. It should be," Though man has great variety," &c.

4. When a verb comes between two nouns, either of which may be understood as the subject of the affirmation, it may agree with either of them; but some regard must be had to that which is more naturally the subject of it, as also to that which stands next to the verb: as, "His meat was locusts and wild honey;" "A great cause of the low state of industry were the restraints put upon it;" "The wages of sin is death."

5. When the nominative case has no personal tense of a verb, but is put before a participle, independently on the rest of the sentence, it is called the case absolute: as, "Shame being lost, all virtue is lost;" "That having been discussed long ago, there is no occasion to resume it."

As in the use of the case absolute, the case is, in English, always the nominative, the following example is "Solomon was erroneous, in making it the objective.

of this mind; and I have no doubt he made as wise and true proverbs, as any body has done since; him only excepted, who was a much greater and wiser man than Solomon." It should be, "he only excepted."

The nominative case is commonly placed before the verb; but sometimes it is put after the verb, if it is a simple tense; and between the auxiliary, and the verb or participle, if a compound tense: as,

Ist. When a question is asked, a command given, or a wish expressed: as, "Confidest thou in me "Read thou;" "Mayst thou be happy !" "Long live the king!"

2d, When a supposition is made without the conjunc tion if: as, "Were it not for this;" "Had I been there." 3d, When a verb neuter is used: as, "On a sudden appeared the king."

4th, When the verb is preceded by the adverbs, here, there, then, thence, hence, thus, &c.: as, "Here am I;" "There was he slain ;" "Then cometh the end;" "Thence ariseth his grief;" " Hence proceeds his anger;""Thus was the affair settled."

5th, When a sentence depends on neither or nor, so as to be coupled with another sentence: as, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

The phrases, as follows, as appears, form what are called impersonal verbs; and should, therefore, be confined to the singular number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly as follows;" "The positions were as appears incontrovertible:" that is, "as it follows," "as it appears." If we give the sentence a different turn, and instead of as, say such as, the verb is no longer termed impersonal; but properly agrees with its nominative, in the plural number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly such as follow;" "The positions were such as appear incontrovertible."*

They who are inclined to favour the opinion of Horne Tooke, "That as, however and whenever used in English,

tion.

* In our ideas on this fubject, we are fupported by general usage, and by the authority of an eminent critic on language and compofi"When a verb is ufed imperfonally," fays Dr. Campbell in his Philofophy of Rhetoric, "it ought undoubtedly to be in the fingular number, whether the neuter pronoun be expreffed or underftood. For this reason, analogy and ufage favour this mode of expreffion: "The conditions of the agreement were as follows;" and not as follow. A few late writers have inconfiderately adopted this laft form, through a miftake of the conftruction. For the fame reason, we ought to fay, "I fhall confider his cenfures fo far only ar concerns my friend's conduct;" and not fo far as concern.' ”

means the same as it, or that, or which;" and who are not satisfied whether the verbs, in the sentences first mentioned, should be in the singular or the plural number, may vary the form of expression. Thus, the sense of the preceding sentences, may be conveyed in the following terms. "The arguments advanced were nearly of the following nature," "The following are nearly the arguments which were advanced;""The arguments advanced were nearly those which follow :" "It appears that the positions were incontrovertible;" « That the positions were incontrovertible is apparent ;" "The positions were apparently incontrovertible."

RULE II.

Two or more nouns, &c. in the fingular number, joined together by one or more copulative conjunctions, expreffed or understood, muft have verbs, nouns, and pronouns, agreeing with them. in the plural number: as, "Socrates and Plato were wife; they were the moft eminent philofophers of Greece;" "The fun that rolls over our heads, the food that we receive, the reft that we enjoy, daily admonish us of a fuperior and fuperintending Power."*

"By

66

are

This rule is often violated; some instances of which are annexed. "And so was also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon ;" "and so were also.” “All joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and ever, doth dwell;" "dwell for ever." whose power all good and evil is distributed ;" distributed." "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;"" are perished." "The thoughtless and intemperate enjoyment of pleasure, the criminal abuse of it, and the forgetfulness of our being accountable creatures, obliterates every serious thought

* See Key to the English Exercises. Ninth edition, p. 23.

of the proper business of life, and effaces the sense of religion and of God;" It ought to be, "obliterate” and "efface."

1. When the nouns are nearly related, or scarcely distinguishable in sense, and sometimes even when they are very different, some authors have thought it allowable to put the verbs, nouns, and pronouns, in the singular number: as, "Tranquillity and peace dwells there;" "Ignorance and negligence has produced the effect;" "The discomfiture and slaughter was very great." But it is evidently contrary to the first principles of grammar, to consider two distinct ideas as one, however nice may be their shades of difference: and if there be no difference, one of them must be superfluous, and ought to be rejected.

To support the above construction, it is said that the verb may be understood as applied to each of the preceding terms; as in the following example. “ Sand, and salt, and a mass of iron, is easier to bear than a man without understanding." But besides the confusion, and the latitude of application, which such a construction would introduce, it appears to be more proper and analogical, in cases where the verb is intended to be applied to any one of the terms, to make use of the disjunctive conjunction, which grammatically refers the verb to one or other of the preceding terms in a separate view. preserve the distinctive uses of the copulative and disjunctive conjunctions, would render the rules precise, consistent, and intelligible. Dr. Blair very justly observes, that "two or more substantives, joined by a copulative, must always require the verb or pronoun to which they refer, to be placed in the plural number."

Το

2. In many complex sentences, it is difficult for learners to determine, whether one or more of the clauses are to be considered as the nominative case; and consequently, whether the verb should be in the singular or the plural number. We shall, therefore, set down a number of varied examples of this nature, which may