The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

"For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house."—Jer., xxxii, 2.

"For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife."—Matt., xiv, 3.

"And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan."—2 Chron., ii, 13.

"Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with: it is iniquity even the solemn meeting."—Isaiah, i, 13.

"For I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers."—Jer., iv, 31.

"She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity."—Ezekiel, xxiii, 15.

"And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly."—Deut., ix, 10.

"And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it."—Mark, vii, 36.

"The results which God has connected with actions, will inevitably occur, all the created power in the universe to the contrary notwithstanding."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 5.

"Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord."—1 Cor., ix, 1, 2.

"Not to insist upon this, it is evident, that formality is a term of general import. It implies, that in religious exercises of all kinds the outward and [the] inward man are at diametrical variance."—Chapman's Sermons to Presbyterians, p. 354.

   "See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow,
    Which who but feels, can taste, but thinks, can know;
    Yet, poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
    The bad must miss, the good, untaught, will find."—Pope.

    "There are, who, deaf to mad Ambition's call,
    Would shrink to hear th' obstreperous trump of fame;
    Supremely blest, if to their portion fall
    Health, competence, and peace."—Beattie.

    "High stations tumult, but not bliss, create;
    None think the great unhappy, but the great.
    Fools gaze and envy: envy darts a sting,
    Which makes a swain as wretched as a king."—Young.

    "Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
    Sink down, ye mountains; and, ye valleys, rise;
    With heads declin'd, ye cedars, homage pay;
    Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods, give way."—Pope.

    "Amid the forms which this full world presents
    Like rivals to his choice, what human breast
    E'er doubts, before the transient and minute,
    To prize the vast, the stable, and sublime?"—Akenside.

    "Now fears in dire vicissitude invade;
    The rustling brake alarms, and quiv'ring shade:
    Nor light nor darkness brings his pain relief;
    One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief."—Johnson.

    "If Merab's choice could have complied with mine,
    Merab, my elder comfort, had been thine:
    And hers, at last, should have with mine complied,
    Had I not thine and Michael's heart descried."—Cowley.

    "The people have as much a negative voice
    To hinder making war without their choice,
    As kings of making laws in parliament:
    'No money' is as good as 'No assent.'"—Butler.

    "Full many a gem of purest ray serene
    The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
    And waste its sweetness on the desert air."—Gray.

    "Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
    The lover and the love of human kind,
    Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear,
    Because he wants a thousand pounds a year."—Pope.

    "O Freedom! sovereign boon of Heav'n,
    Great charter, with our being given;
    For which the patriot and the sage
    Have plann'd, have bled thro' ev'ry age!"—Mallet.

   "Am I to set my life upon a throw,
    Because a bear is rude and surly? No."—Cowper.

    "Poor, guiltless I! and can I choose but smile,
    When every coxcomb knows me by my style?"—Pope.

    "Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,
    Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise."—Parnell.

    "These are thy blessings, Industry! rough power;
    Whom labour still attends, and sweat, and pain."—Thomson.

    "What ho! thou genius of the clime, what ho!
    Liest thou asleep beneath these hills of snow?"—Dryden.

    "What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
    Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself."—Shak.

    "Then palaces and lofty domes arose;
    These for devotion, and for pleasure those."—Blackmore.

    "'Tis very dangerous, tampering with a muse;
    The profit's small, and you have much to lose."—Roscommon.

    "Lucretius English'd! 't was a work might shake
    The power of English verse to undertake."—Otway.

    "The best may slip, and the most cautious fall;
    He's more than mortal, that ne'er err'd at all."—Pomfret.

    "Poets large souls heaven's noblest stamps do bear,
    Poets, the watchful angels' darling care."—Stepney.

    "Sorrow breaks reasons, and reposing hours;
    Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night."—Shak.

"Nor then the solemn nightingale ceas'd warbling."—Milton.

    "And O, poor hapless nightingale, thought I,
    How sweet thou singst, how near the deadly snare!"—Id.

    "He calls for famine, and the meagre fiend
    Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd lips."—Cowper.

    "If o'er their lives a refluent glance they cast,
    Theirs is the present who can praise the past."—Shenstone.

    "Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
    Is but the more a fool, the more a knave."—Pope.

    "Great eldest-born of Dullness, blind and bold!
    Tyrant! more cruel than Procrustes old;
    Who, to his iron bed, by torture, fits,
    Their nobler part, the souls of suffering wits."—Mallet.

    "Parthenia, rise.—What voice alarms my ear?
    Away. Approach not. Hah! Alexis there!"—Gay.

    "Nor is it harsh to make, nor hard to find
    A country with—ay, or without mankind."—Byron.

    "A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
    No dangers fright him, and no labours tire."—Johnson.

    "Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,
    And luxury with sighs her slave resigns."—Id.

    "Seems? madam; nay, it is: I know not seems—
    For I have that within which passes show."—Hamlet.

    "Return? said Hector, fir'd with stern disdain:
    What! coop whole armies in our walls again?"—Pope.

    "He whom the fortune of the field shall cast
    From forth his chariot, mount the next in haste."—Id.

"Yet here, Laertes? aboard, aboard, for shame!"—Shak.

"Justice, most gracious Duke; O grant me justice!"—Id.

    "But what a vengeance makes thee fly
    From me too, as thine enemy?"—Butler.

    "Immortal Peter! first of monarchs! He
    His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
    Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons."—Thomson.

    "O arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble,
    Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
    Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket, thou:—
    Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread!
    Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
    Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard,
    As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st."
           SHAK.: Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Sc 3.

This twelfth chapter of Syntax is devoted to a series of lessons, methodically digested, wherein are reviewed and reapplied, mostly in the order of the parts of speech, all those syntactical principles heretofore given which are useful for the correction of errors.

[Fist][The following examples of false syntax are arranged for a General Review of the doctrines contained in the preceding Rules and Notes. Being nearly all of them exact quotations, they are also a sort of syllabus of verbal criticism on the various works from which they are taken. What corrections they are supposed to need, may be seen by inspection of the twelfth chapter of the Key. It is here expected, that by recurring to the instructions before given, the learner who takes them as an oral exercise, will ascertain for himself the proper form of correcting each example, according to the particular Rule or Note under which it belongs. When two or more errors occur in the same example, they ought to be corrected successively, in their order. The erroneous sentence being read aloud as it stands, the pupil should say, "first, Not proper, because, &c." And when the first error has thus been duly corrected by a brief and regular syllogism, either the same pupil or an other should immediately proceed, and say, "Secondly, Not proper again, because," &c. And so of the third error, and the fourth, if there be so many. In this manner, a class may be taught to speak in succession without any waste of time, and, after some practice, with a near approach to the PERFECT ACCURACY which is the great end of grammatical instruction. When time cannot be allowed for this regular exercise, these examples may still be profitably rehearsed by a more rapid process, one pupil reading aloud the quoted false grammar, and an other responding to each example, by reading the intended correction from the Key.]

"And they took stones, and made an heap."—Com. Bibles; Gen., xxxi, 46. "And I do know a many fools, that stand in better place."—Beauties of Shak., p. 44. "It is a strong antidote to the turbulence of passion, and violence of pursuit."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. xxiii. "The word news may admit of either a singular or plural application."—Wright's Gram., p. 39. "He has earned a fair and a honorable reputation."—Ib., p. 140. "There are two general forms, called the solemn and familiar style."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 109. "Neither the article nor preposition may be omitted."—Wright's Gram., p 190. "A close union is also observable between the Subjunctive and Potential Moods."—Ib., p. 72. "We should render service, equally, to a friend, neighbour, and an enemy."—Ib., p. 140. "Till an habit is obtained of aspirating strongly."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 49. "There is an uniform, steady use of the same signs."—Ib., p. 163. "A traveller remarks the most objects he sees."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 72. "What is the name of the river on which London stands? The Thames."—"We sometimes find the last line of a couplet or triplet stretched out to twelve syllables."—Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 282. "Nouns which follow active verbs, are not in the nominative case."—Blair's Gram., p. 14. "It is a solemn duty to speak plainly of wrongs, which good men perpetrate."—Channing's Emancip., p. 71. "Gathering of riches is a pleasant torment."—Treasury of Knowledge, Dict., p. 446. "It [the lamentation of Helen for Hector] is worth the being quoted."—Coleridge's Introd., p. 100. "Council is a noun which admits of a singular and plural form."—Wright's Gram., p. 137. "To exhibit the connexion between the Old and the New Testaments."—Keith's Evidences, p. 25. "An apostrophe discovers the omission of a letter or letters."—Guy's Gram, p. 95. "He is immediately ordained, or rather acknowledged an hero."—Pope, Preface to the Dunciad. "Which is the same in both the leading and following State."—Brightland's Gram., p. 86. "Pronouns, as will be seen hereafter, have a distinct nominative, possessive, and objective case."—Blair's Gram., p. 15. "A word of many syllables is called polysyllable."—Beck's Outline of E. Gram., p. 4. "Nouns have two numbers, singular and plural."—Ib., p. 6. "They have three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter."—Ib., p. 6. "They have three cases, nominative, possessive, and objective."—Ib., p. 6. "Personal Pronouns have, like Nouns, two numbers, singular and plural. Three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Two cases, nominative and objective."—Ib., p. 10. "He must be wise enough to know the singular from plural."—Ib., p. 20. "Though they may be able to meet the every reproach which any one of their fellows may prefer."—Chalmers, Sermons, p. 104. "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged."—Ep. to Philemon, 9. "Being such one as Paul the aged."—Dr. Webster's Bible. "A people that jeoparded their lives unto the death."—Judges, v, 18. "By preventing the too great accumulation of seed within a too narrow compass."—The Friend, Vol. vii, p. 97. "Who fills up the middle space between the animal and intellectual nature, the visible and invisible world."—Addison, Spect., No. 519. "The Psalms abound with instances of an harmonious arrangement of the words."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 339. "On another table were an ewer and vase, likewise of gold."—N. Y. Mirror, xi, 307. "Th