The Grammar of English Grammars · Part 80

[507] The opponents of capital punishment will hardly take this for a fair version of the sixth commandment.--G. B.

[508] These versicles, except the two which are Italicized, are not iambic. The others are partly trochaic; and, according to many of our prosodists, wholly so; but it is questionable whether they are not as properly amphimacric, or Cretic.

[509] See exercises in Punctuation, on page 786, of this work.--G. B.

[510] The Seventieth Psalm is the same as the last five verses of the Fortieth, except a few unimportant differences of words or points.

[511] It is obvious, that these two lines may easily be reduced to an agreeable stanza, by simply dividing each after the fourth foot--G. B.

[512] In Sanborn's Analytical Grammar, on page 279th, this couplet is ascribed to "Pope;" but I have sought in vain for this quotation, or any example of similar verse, in the works of that poet. The lines, one or both of them, appear, without reference, in L. Murray's Grammar, Second Edition, 1796, p. 176, and in subsequent editions; in W. Allen's, p. 225; Bullions's, 178; N. Butler's, 192; Chandler's New, 196; Clark's, 201; Churchill's, 187; Cooper's Practical, 185; Davis's, 137; Farnum's, 106; Felton's, 142; Frazee's, 184; Frost's, 164; S. S. Greene's, 250; Hallock's, 244; Hart's, 187; Hiley's, 127; Humphrey's Prosody, 17; Parker and Fox's Gram., Part iii, p. 60; Weld's, 211; Ditto Abridged, 138; Wells's, 200; Fowler's, 658; and doubtless in many other such books.

[513] "Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the principality of North Wales, A. D. 1120. This battle was fought near forty years afterwards. North Wales is called, in the fourth line, 'Gwyneth;' and 'Lochlin,' in the fourteenth, is Denmark."--Gray. Some say "Lochlin," in the Annals of Ulster, means Norway.--G. B.

[514] "The red dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which all his descendants bore on their banners."--Gray.

[515] This passage, or some part of it, is given as a trochaic example, in many different systems of prosody. Everett ascribes it entire to "John Chalkhill;" and Nutting, more than twenty years before, had attached the name of "Chalkhill" to a part of it. But the six lines "of three syllables," Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar, credits to "Walton's Angler;" and Bicknell, too, ascribes the same to "Walton." The readings also have become various. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Churchill, and Nutting, have "Here" for "Where" in the fifth line above; and Bicknell and Burn have "Stop" in the eighth line, where the rest read "Stops." Nutting has, for the ninth line, "Others' joys," and not, "Other joys," as have the rest.--G. B.

[516] OBS.--Of this, and of every other example which requires no amendment, let the learner simply say, after reading the passage, "This sentence is correct as it stands."--G. BROWN.

[517] OBSERVATION.--In the Bible, the word LORD, whenever it stands for the Hebrew name JEHOVAH, not only commences with a full capital, but has small or half capitals for the other letters; and I have thought proper to print both words in that manner here. In correcting the last example, I follow Dr. Scott's Bible, except in the word "God," which he writes with a small g. Several other copies have "first" and "last" with small initials, which I think not so correct; and some distinguish the word "hosts" with a capital, which seems to be needless. The sentence here has eleven capitals: in the Latin Vulgate, it has but six, and one of them is for the last word, "Deus," God.--G. B.

[518] OBS.--This construction I dislike. Without hyphens, it is improper; and with them it is not to be commended. See Syntax, Obs 24th on Rule IV.--G. B.

[519] On the page here referred to, the author of the Gazetteer has written "Charles city," &c. Analogy requires that the words be compounded, because they constitute three names which are applied to counties, and not to cities.

[520] OBS.--The following words, as names of towns, come under Rule 6th, and are commonly found correctly compounded in the books of Scotch geography and statistics; "Strathaven, Stonehaven, Strathdon, Glenluce, Greenlaw, Coldstream, Lochwinnoch, Lochcarron, Loehmaber, Prestonpans, Prestonkirk, Peterhead, Queensferry, Newmills," and many more like them.

[521] Section OBS.--This name, in both the Vulgate and the Septuagint, is Pharao Nechao, with two capitals and no hyphen. Walker gives the two words separately in his Key, and spells the latter Necho, and not Nechoh. See the same orthography in Jer., xlvi, 2. In our common Bibles, many such names are needlessly, if not improperly, compounded; sometimes with one capital, and sometimes with two. The proper manner of writing Scripture names, is too little regarded even by good men and biblical critics.

[522] "[Marcus] Terentius Varro, vir Romanorum eruditissimus."--QUINTILIAN. Lib. x, Cap. 1, p. 577.

[523] NOTE.--By this amendment, we remove a multitude of errors, but the passage is still very faulty. What Murray here calls "phrases," are properly sentences; and, in his second clause, he deserts the terms of the first to bring in "my," "our," and also "&c.," which seem to be out of place there.--G. BROWN.

[524] An other is a phrase of two words, which ought to be written separately. The transferring of the n to the latter word, is a gross vulgarism. Separate the words, and it will be avoided.

[525] Mys-ter-y, according to Scott and Cobb; mys-te-ry, according to Walker and Worcester.

[526] Kirkham borrowed this doctrine of "Tonics, Subtonics, and Atonies," from Rush: and dressed it up in his own worse bombast. See Obs. 13 and 14, on the Powers of the Letters.--GB.

[527] There is, in most English dictionaries, a contracted form of this phrase, written prithee, or I prithee; but Dr. Johnson censures it as "a familiar corruption, which some writers have injudiciously used;" and, as the abbreviation amounted to nothing but the slurring of one vowel sound into an other, it has now, I think, very deservedly become obsolete.--G. BROWN.

[528] This is the doctrine of Murray, and his hundred copyists; but it is by no means generally true. It is true of adverbs, only when they are connected by conjunctions; and seldom applies to two words, unless the conjunction which may be said to connect them, be suppressed and understood.--G. BROWN.

[529] Example: "Imperfect articulation comes not so much from bad organs, as from the abuse of good ones."--Porter's Analysis. Here ones represents organs, and prevents unpleasant repetition.--G. BROWN.

[530] From the force of habit, or to prevent the possibility of a false pronunciation, these ocular contractions are still sometimes carefully made in printing poetry; but they are not very important, and some modern authors, or their printers, disregard them altogether. In correcting short poetical examples, I shall in general take no particular pains to distinguish them from prose. All needful contractions however will be preserved, and sometimes also a capital letter, to show where the author commenced a line.

[531] The word "imperfect" is not really necessary here; for the declaration is true of any phrase, as this name is commonly applied.--G. BROWN.

[532] A part of speech is a sort of words, and not one word only. We cannot say, that every pronoun, or every verb, is a part of speech, because the parts of speech are only ten. But every pronoun, verb, or other word, is a word; and, if we will refer to this genus, there is no difficulty in defining all the parts of speech in the singular, with an or a: as, "A pronoun is a word put for a noun." Murray and others say, "An Adverb is a part of speech," &c., "A Conjunction is a part of speech," &c., which is the same as to say, "One adverb is a sort of words," &c. This is a palpable absurdity.--G. BROWN.

[533] The propriety of this conjunction, "nor," is somewhat questionable: the reading in both the Vulgate and the Septuagint is--"they, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters."

[534] All our lexicographers, and all accurate authors, spell this word with an o; but the gentleman who has furnished us with the last set of new terms for the science of grammar, writes it with an e, and applies it to the verb and the participle. With him, every verb or participle is an "asserter;" except when he forgets his creed, as he did in writing the preceding example about certain "verbs." As he changes the names of all the parts of speech, and denounces the entire technology of grammar, perhaps his innovation would have been sufficiently broad, had he for THE VERB, the most important class of all, adopted some name which he knew how to spell.--G. B.

[535] It would be better to omit the word "forth," or else to say--"whom I brought forth from the land of Egypt." The phrase, "forth out of," is neither a very common nor a very terse one.--G. BROWN.

[536] This doctrine, that participles divide and specify time, I have elsewhere shown to be erroneous.--G. BROWN.

[537] Perhaps it would be as well or better, in correcting these two examples, to say, "There are a generation." But the article a, as well as the literal form of the noun, is a sign of unity; and a complete uniformity of numbers is not here practicable.

[538] Though the pronoun thou is not much used in common discourse, it is as proper for the grammarian to consider and show, what form of the verb belongs to it when it is so used, as it is for him to determine what form is adapted to any other pronoun, when a difference of style affects the question.

[539] "Forgavest," as the reading is in our common Bible, appears to be wrong; because the relative that and its antecedent God are of the third person, and not of the second.

[540] All the corrections under this head are directly contrary to the teaching of William S. Cardell. Oliver B. Peirce, and perhaps some other such writers on grammar; and some of them are contrary also to Murray's late editions. But I am confident that these authors teach erroneously; that their use of indicative forms for mere suppositions that are contrary to the facts, is positively ungrammatical; and that the potential imperfect is less elegant, in such instances, than the simple subjunctive, which they reject or distort.

[541] This is what Smith must have meant by the inaccurate phrase, "those in the first." For his first example is, "He went to school;" which contains only the one pronoun "He."--See Smith's New Gram., p. 19.

[542] According to modern usage, has would here be better than is,--though is fallen is still allowable.--G. BROWN.

[543] From this opinion, I dissent. See Obs. 1st on the Degrees of Comparison, and Obs. 4th on Regular Comparison, in the Etymology of this work, at pp. 279 and 285.--G. BROWN.

[544] "The country looks beautiful;'" that is, appears beautiful--is beautiful. This is right, and therefore the use which Bucke makes of it, may be fairly reversed. But the example was ill chosen; and I incline to think, it may also be right to say, "The country looks beautifully;" for the quality expressed by beautiful, is nothing else than the manner in which the thing shows to the eye. See Obs. 11th on Rule 9th.--G. BROWN.

[545] Many examples and authorities may be cited in favour of these corrections; as, "He acted independently of foreign assistance."-- Murray's Key, Gram., Vol. ii, p. 222. "Independently of any necessary relation."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i. p. 275. "Independently of this peculiar mode of construction."--Blair's Rhet., p. 473. "Independent of the will of the people."--Webster's Essays, p. 13. "Independent one of an other."--Barclay's Works, i, 84. "The infinitive is often independent of the rest of the sentence."--Lennie's Gram., p. 85. "Some sentences are independent of each other."--Murray's Gram., i, 277. "As if it were independent of it"--Priestley's Gram., p. 186. "Independent of appearance and show."--Blair's Rhet., p. 13.

[546] The preposition of which Jefferson uses before about, appears to me to be useless. It does not govern the noun diameter, and is therefore no substitute for the in which I suppose to be wanting; and, as the preposition about seems to be sufficient between is and feet, I omit the of. So in other instances below.--G. BROWN.

[547] Murray, Jamieson, and others, have this definition with the article "a," and the comma, but without the hyphen: "APOSTROPHE is a turning off from the regular course," &c. See errors under Note 4th to Rule 20th.

[548] This sentence may be written correctly in a dozen different ways, with precisely the same meaning, and very nearly the same words. I have here made the noun gold the object of the verb took, which in the original appears to govern the noun treasure, or money, understood. The noun amount might as well be made its object, by a suppression of the preposition to. And again, for "pounds' weight," we may say, "pounds in weight." The words will also admit of many other positions.--G. BROWN.

[549] See a different reading of this example, cited as the first item of false syntax under Rule 16th above, and there corrected differently. The words "both of," which make the difference, were probably added by L. Murray in some of his revisals; and yet it does not appear that this popular critic ever got the sentence right.--G. BROWN.

[550] "If such maxims, and such practices prevail, what has become of national liberty?"--Hume's History. Vol. vi, p. 254; Priestley's Gram., p. 128.

[551] According to my notion, but is never a preposition; but there are some who think otherwise.--G. BROWN.

[552] "Cùm vestieris te coccino, cùm ornata fueris monili aureo, et pinxeris stibio oculos tuos, frustra componêris."--Vulgate. "[Greek: Eàn peribálæ[i] kókkinon, kaì kosm'æsæ[i] kósmw[i] chrys~w[i]· eàn egchrísæ[i] stíbi toùs ophthalmoús sou eìs mátaion wraïsmós sou.]"--Septuagint. "Quoique tu te revêtes de pourpre, que tu te pares d'ornemens d'or, et que tu te peignes les yeux avec du fard, tu t'embellis en vain."--French Bible.

[553] The word "any" is here omitted, not merely because it is unnecessary, but because "every any other piece,"--with which a score of our grammarians have pleased themselves,--is not good English. The impropriety might perhaps be avoided, though less elegantly, by repeating the preposition, and saying,--"or of any other piece of writing."--G. BROWN.

[554] This correction, as well as the others which relate to what Murray says of the several forms of ellipsis, doubtless conveys the sense which he intended to express; but, as an assertion, it is by no means true of all the examples which he subjoins, neither indeed are the rest. But that is a fault of his which I cannot correct.--G. BROWN.

[555] The article may be repeated in examples like these, without producing impropriety; but then it will alter the construction of the adjectives, and render the expression more formal and emphatic, by suggesting a repetition of the noun.--G. BROWN.

[556] "The whole number of verbs in the English language, regular and irregular, simple and compounded, taken together, is about 4300."--Lowth's Gram., p. 59; Murray's, 12mo, p. 98; 8vo, p. 109; et al.

[557] In Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 495, this sentence is expressed and pointed thus: "O, shame! where is thy blush?"--Hamlet, Act III, Sc. 4. This is as if the speaker meant, "O! it is a shame! where is thy blush?" Such is not the sense above; for there "Shame" is the person addressed.

[558] If, in each of these sentences, the colon were substituted for the latter semicolon, the curves might well be spared. Lowth has a similar passage, which (bating a needful variation of guillemets) he pointed thus: "as ----, as; expressing a comparison of equality; 'as white as snow:' as ----, so; expressing a comparison sometimes of equality; 'as the stars, so shall thy seed be;' that is, equal in number: but" &c.--Lowth's Gram., p. 109. Murray, who broke this passage into paragraphs, retained at first these semicolons, but afterwards changed them all to colons. Of later grammarians, some retain the former colon in each sentence; some, the latter; and some, neither. Hiley points thus: "As requires as, expressing equality; as, 'He is as good as she.'"--Hiley's E. Gram., p. 107.