"Mercy is the true badge of nobility."

Mercy is a noun common, of the neuter gender, third person, singular number, and in the nominative case to "is:" RULE 3. The nominative case governs the verb.

Is is an irregular neuter verb, indicative mood, present tense, third person, singular number, agreeing with "mercy," accord ing to RULE 4. The verb must agree, &c.

The is a definite article, belonging to "badge" in the singular number: RULE 2. The definite article the, &c.

True is an adjective in the positive degree, and belongs to the noun "badge:" RULE 18. Adjectives belong, &c.

Badge is a noun com. neuter gender, third person, singular number, and in the nominative case after "is," and put by apposition with "mercy," according to RULE 21. The verb to be may have the same case after it as before it.

Of is a preposition, connecting "badge” and “nobility," and showing the relation between them.

Nobility is a noun of multitude, mas. and fem. gender, third person, sing. and in the obj. case, and governed by "of:" RULE 31. Prepositions govern the objective case.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss.

What I forfeit for myself is a trifle; that my indiscretions should reach my posterity, wounds me to the heart.

Lady Jane Gray fell a sacrifice to the wild ambition of the duke of Northumberland.

King Missipsi charged his sons to consider the senate and people of Rome as proprietors of the kingdom of Numidia.

Hazael smote the children of Israel in all their coasts; and from what is left on record of his actions, he plainly appears to have proved, what the prophet foresaw him to be, a man of violence, cruelty, and blood.

Heaven hides from brutes what men, from men what spirits know.

He that formed the ear, can he not hear?

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

NOTE 1. Learn, in the first of the preceding examples, is a transitive verb, because the action passes over from the nom. you understood, to the rest of the sentence for its object: RULE 24. In the next example, that my indiscre tions should reach my posterity, is a part of a sentence put as the nominative to the verb wounds, according to the same Rule.

2. The noun sacrifice, in the third example, is nom. after the active-intransitive verb fell: RULE 22. The noun proprietors, in the next sentence, is in the objective case, and put. by apposition with senate and people: RULE 7, or governed by consider, understood, according to RULE 35.

3. In the fifth example, what, following proved, is a compound rela

Thing, the antecedent part, is in the nom. case after to be, understood, and put by apposition with he, according to RULE 21, and NOTE. Which, the relative part, is in the obj. case after to be expressed, and put by apposition with him, according to the same RULE. Man is in the obj. case, put by ap position with which: RULE 7. The latter part of the sentence may be liter rally rendered thus: He plainly appears to have proved to be that base char acter which the prophet foresaw him to be, viz. a man of violence, cruelty, and blood. The antecedent part of the first what, in the next sentence, is governed by hides; and which, the relative part, is governed by know understood. The antecedent part of the second what, is governed by hides under stood, and the relative part is governed by know expressed.

4. The first he, in the seventh example, is, in the opinion of some, nom. to can hear understood; but Mr. N. R. Smith, a distinguished and acute grammarian, suggests the propriety of rendering the sentence thus; "He that formed the ear, formed it to hear; can he not hear?" The first he, in the last example, is redundant; yet the construction is sometimes admissible, for the expression is more forcible than it would be to say, "Let him hear who hath ears to hear ;" and if we adopt the ingenious method of Mr. Smith, the sentence is grammatical, and may be rendered thus; "He that hath ears, hath ears to hear; let him hear."

EXERCISES IN PARSING.
Idioms, anomalies, and intricacies.

1. "The wall is three feet high."
2. "His son is eight years old."
3. My knife is worth a shilling."

4. "She is worth him and all his connexions.”
5. "He has been there three times."

6. "The hat cost ten dollars.”

7. "The load weighs a tun.”

8. "The spar measures ninety feet."

REMARKS.Anomaly is derived from the Greek, a, without, and omaios similar; that is, without similarity. Some give its derivation thus; anomaly, from the Latin, ab, from, or out of, and norma, a rule, or law, means an adlaw; a mode of expression that departs from the rules, laws, or general usages of the language; a construction in language peculiar to itself. Thus, it is a general rule of the language, that adjectives of one syllable are com pared by adding r, or er, and st, or est, to the positive degree; but good, better, best; bad, worse, worst, are not compared according to the general rule. They are, therefore, anomalies. The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular: man, men; woman, women; child, children; penny, pence, are anomalies. The use of news, means, alms, and amends, in the singular, constitutes anomalies. Anomalous constructions are correct according to custom; but, as they are departures from general rules, by them they cannot be analyzed.

An idiom, Latin idioma, a construction peculiar to a language, may be an anomaly, or it may not. An idiomatical expression which is not an anoiraiy, can be analyzed.

Feet and years, in the 1, and 2, examples, are not in the nominative after is, according to Rule 21, because they are not in apposition with the respective nouns that precede the verb; but the constructions are anomalous; and, therefore, no rule can be applied to analyze them. The same ideas, hower, can be conveyed by a legitimate construction which can be analyzed "The height of the wall is three feet;" "The age of my son is eight

An anomaly, when ascertained to be such, is easily disposed of; but some times it is very difficult to decide whether a construction is anomalous or not. The 3d, 4th, and 5th examples, are generally considered anomalies; but if we supply, as we are, perhaps, warranted in doing, the associated words which modern refinement has dropped, they will cease to be anomalies; thus, "My knife is of the worth of a shilling;" "—of the worth of him," &c. "He has been there for three times;" as we say, "I was unwell for three days, after I arrived;" or, "I was unwell three days." Thus it appears, that by tracing back, for a few centuries, what the merely modern English scholar supposes to be an anomaly, an ellipsis will frequently be discovered, which, when supplied, destroys the anomaly.

On extreme points, and peculiar and varying constructions in a living language, the most able philologists can never be agreed; because many usages will always be unsettled and fluctuating, and will, consequently, be disposed of according to the caprice of the grammarian. By some, a sentence may be treated as an anomaly; by others who contend for, and supply, an ellipsis, the same sentence may be analyzed according to the ellipsis supplied; whilst others, who deny both the elliptical and anomalous character of the sentence, construct a rule by which to analyze it, which rule has for its foundation the principle contained in that sentence only. This last mode of procedure, inasmuch as it requires us to make a rule for every peculiar construction in the language, appears to me to be the most exceptionable of the three. It ap pears to be multiplying rules beyond the bounds of utility.

The verbs,cost, weighs, and measures, in the 6th, 7th, and 8th examples, may be considered as transitive. See remarks on resemble, kave, own, &c., page 56.

EXAMPLES.

1. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." "" "Let us make man.' "Let us bow before the Lord," "Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre."

2, "Be it enacted." "Be it remembered."

"Blessed be he hat blesseth thee; and cursed be he that curseth thee." "My soul, turn from them :-turn we to survey," &c.

3. "Methinks I see the portals of eternity wide open to receive him." "Methought I was incarcerated beneath the mighty deep." "I was there just thirty years ago."

4.Their laws and their manners, generally speaking, were extremely rude." "Considering their means, they have effected much."

5. "Ah me! nor hope nor life remains."

"Me miserable! which way shall I fly?".

6. "O happiness! our being's end and aim!

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name,
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die.".

The verb let, in the idiomatick examples under number 1, has no nomina tive specified, and is left applicable to a nominative of the first, second, or third person, and of either number, Every action necessarily depends on an agent or moving cause; and hence it follows, that the verb,in such constru tions, has a nominative understood; but as that nominative is not partic arly pointed out, the constructions may be considered anomalous.

Instead of saying, "Let it [to] be enacted;" or, "It is or shall be enacted;" "Let him [to] be blessed;" or, "He shall be blessed;" "Let us turn to sur vey," &c.; the verbs, be enacted, be blessed, turn, &c. according to an idiom of our language, or the poet's license, are used in the imperative, agreeing with a nominative of the first or third person.

The phrases, methinks and methought, are anomalies, in which the objec tive pronoun me, in the first person, is used in place of a nominative, and takes a verb after it in the third person. Him was anciently used in the same manner; as, "him thute, him thought." There was a period when these constructions were not anomalies in our language. Formerly, what we call the objective cases of our pronouns, were employed in the same manner as our present nominatives are. Ago is a contraction of agone, the past part. of to go. Before this participle was contracted to an adverb, the noun years preceding it, was in the nominative case absolute; but now the construction amounts to an anomaly. The expressions, "generally speaking," and "considering their means," under number 4, are idiomatical and ano malous, the subjects to the participles not being specified.

According to the genius of the English language, transitive verbs and pre positions require the objective case of a noun or pronoun after them; and this requisition is all that is meant by government, when we say, that these parts of speech govern the objective case. See pages 52, 57, and 94. The same principle applies to the interjection. "Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them; but the nominative of a noun of pronoun of the second or third person; as, "Ah me! Oh thou! O my country!" To say, then, that interjections require particular cases after them, is synonymous with saying, that they govern those cases; and this office of the interjection is in perfect accordance with that which it performs in the Latin, and many other languages. In the examples under number 5, the first me is in the objective after "ah," and the second me, after ah understood; thus, "Ah miserable me!" according to NOTE 2, under Rule 5.--Happiness, under number 6, is nom. independent; Rule 5, or in the nom. after O, according to this Note. The principle contained in the note, proves that every noun of the second person is in the nominative case; for, as the pronoun of the second person, in such a situation, is always nominative, which is shown by its form, it logically follows that the noun, under such circumstances, al though it has no form to show its case, must necessarily be in the same case as the pronoun. "Good, pleasure, ease, content, that," the antecedent part of "whatever," and which, the relative part, are nom. after art understood: Rule 21, and name is nom, to be understood.

The second line may be rendered thus; Whether thou art good, or whether thou art pleasure, &c. or be thy name that [thing] which [ever thing] it may be putting be in the imperative, agreeing with name in the third person. Something is nominative after art understood.

EXAMPLES.

1. "All were well but the stranger." "I saw nobody but the stranger." "All had returned but he." "None but the brave deserve the fair." "The thing they can't but purpose, they postpone." "This life, at best, is but a dream." affords but a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If he but touch the hills, they will smoke.". "Man is but a reed, floating on

The current of time."

2. "Notwithstanding his poverty, he is content."

"It

3. "Open your hand wide." "The apples boil soft." "The

purest clay is that which burns white."

not the Pierian spring."

"Drink deep, or taste

4. "What though the swelling surge thou see?" &c. "What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread ?" &c.

REMARKS. According to the principle of analysis assumed by many of our most critical philologists, but is always a disjunctive conjunction; and agreeably to the same authorities, to construe it, in any case, as a preposition, would lead to errour. See false Syntax under Rule 35. They maintain, that its legitimate and undeviating office is, to join on a member of a sentence which expresses opposition of meaning, and thereby forms an exception to, or takes from the universality of, the proposition contained in the preceding member of the sentence. That it sustains its true character as a conjunc tion in all the examples under number 1, will be shown by the following resolution of them." All were well but the stranger [was not well."] "I saw nobody but [I saw] the stranger." "None deserve the fair but the brave [deserve the fair."] "They postpone the thing which [they ought to do, and do not, but which [thing] they cannot avoid purposing to do." "This life, at best, [is not a reality,] but it is a dream. It [affords not unbounded frui tion] but it affords a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If he touch the hills, but exert no greater power upon them, they will smoke;"-"If he exert no greater power upon the hills, but [be-out this fact] if he touch them, they will smoke." "Man is not a stable being, but he is a reed, floating on the current of time." This method of analyzing sentences, however, if I mistake not, is too much on the plan of our pretended philosophical writers, who, in their rage for ancient constructions and combinations, often overlook the modern associated meaning and application of this word. It appears to me to be more consistent with the modern use of the word, to consider it an adverb in constructions like the following: "If he but (only, merely) touch the hills they will smoke."

Except and near, in examples like the following, are generally construed as prepositions: "All went except him;" "She stands near them." But many contend, that when we employ but instead of except, in such constructions, a nominative should follow: "All went but he [did not go."] On this point and many others, custom is variable; but the period will doubtless ar rive, when but, worth, and like, will be considered prepositions, and, in con structions like the foregoing, invariably be followed by an objective case. This will not be the case, however, until the practice of supplying an ellipsis after these words is entirely dropped.

Poverty, under number 2, is governed by the preposition notwithstanding, Rule 31. The adjectives wide, soft, white, and deep, under number 3, not only express the quality of nouns, but also qualify verbs: Note 4, under Rule 18.-What, in the phrases" what though" and "what if," is an interrogative in the objective case, and governed by the verb matters understood, or by some other verb; thus, "What matters it-what dost thou fear, though thou see the swelling surge?" "What would you think, if the foot, which is ordained to tread the dust, aspired to be the head?"

In the following examples, the same word is used as several parts of speech. But by exercising judgment sufficient to comprehend the meaning, and by supplying what is understood, you will be able to analyze them correctly.

EXERCISES IN PARSING

I like what you dislike.

Every creature loves its like.

Anger, envy, and like passions, are sinful.