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

"We shall present him with a list or specimen of them."—Ib., p. 132. "It is very common to hear of the evils of pernicious reading, of how it enervates the mind, or how it depraves the principles."—Dymond's Essays, p. 168. "In this example, the verb 'arises' is understood before 'curiosity' and 'knowledge.'"—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 274; Ingersoll's, 286; Comly's, 155; and others. "The connective is frequently omitted between several words."—Wilcox's Gram., p. 81. "He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight."—Joshua, xxiii, 5. "Who makes his sun shine and his rain to descend upon the just and the unjust."—M'Ilvaine's Lectures, p. 411. LESSON X.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"This sentence violates the rules of grammar."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, pp. 19 and 21. "The words thou and shalt are again reduced to short quantities."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 246. "Have the greater men always been the most popular? By no means."—DR. LIEBER: Lit. Conv., p. 64. "St. Paul positively stated that, 'he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.'"—Spurzheim, on Education, p. 248. "More than one organ is concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant."—M'Culloch's Gram., p. 18. "If the reader will pardon my descending so low."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 20. "To adjust them so, as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and the grace of the period."—Blair's Rhet., p. 118: Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 324. "This class exhibits a lamentable want of simplicity and inefficiency."—Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 481. "Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, where we see to the very bottom."—Blair's Rhet., p. 93. "Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, through which we see to the very bottom."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 293. "We make use of the ellipsis." [447]—Ib., p. 217. "The ellipsis of the article is thus used."—Ib., p. 217. "Sometimes the ellipsis is improperly applied to nouns of different numbers: as, 'A magnificent house and gardens.'"—Ib., p. 218. "In some very emphatic expressions, the ellipsis should not be used."—Ib., 218. "The ellipsis of the adjective is used in the following manner."—Ib., 218. "The following is the ellipsis of the pronoun."—Ib., 218. "The ellipsis of the verb is used in the following instances."—Ib., p. 219. "The ellipsis of the adverb is used in the following manner."—Ib., 219. "The following instances, though short, contain much of the ellipsis."—Ib., 220. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only will discourse be rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning often ambiguous."—Ib., 242. See Hart's Gram., p. 172. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only is discourse, rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning left often ambiguous."—Blair's Rhet., p. 330; Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xi. "He regards his word, but thou dost not regard it."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 129; his Analytical and Practical Gram., p. 196. "He regards his word, but thou dost not: i.e. dost not regard it."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 219; Parker and Fox's, p. 96; Weld's, 192. "I have learned my task, but you have not; i.e. have not learned."—Ib., Mur., 219; &c. "When the omission of words would obscure the sentence, weaken its force, or be attended with an impropriety, they must be expressed."—Ib., p. 217; Weld's Gram. 190. "And therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually considered."—Murray's Gram. 8vo, ii, 24 and 190. "I understood him the best of all who spoke on the subject."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 192. "I understood him better than any other who spoke on the subject."—Ibid., "The roughness found on our entrance into the paths of virtue and learning, grow smoother as we advance."—Ib., p. 171. "The roughnesses," &c.—Murray's Key, 12mo, p 8. "Nothing promotes knowledge more than steady application, and a habit of observation."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 265. "Virtue confers supreme dignity on man: and should be his chief desire."—Ib., p. 192; and Merchant's, 192. "The Supreme author of our being has so formed the soul of man, that nothing but himself can be its last, adequate, and proper happiness."—Addison, Spect., No. 413; Blair's Rhet., p. 213. "The inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations of our Europeans; because, they say, any one may place trees in equal rows and uniform figures."—Ad., Spect., No. 414; Blair's Rhet., p. 222. "The divine laws are not reversible by those of men."—Murray's Key, ii, 167. "In both of these examples, the relative and the verb which was, are understood."—Murray's Gram., p. 273; Comly's, 152; Ingersoll's, 285. "The Greek and Latin languages, though, for many reasons, they cannot be called dialects of one another, are nevertheless closely connected."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of European Lang., Vol. ii, p. 51. "To ascertain and settle which, of a white rose or a red rose, breathes the sweetest fragrance."—J. Q. Adams, Orat., 1831. "To which he can afford to devote much less of his time and labour."—Blair's Rhet., p. 254.

   "Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such,
    Who still are pleas'd too little or too much."
        —Pope, on Crit., 1, 384.

LESSON XI.—BAD PHRASES.

"He had as good leave his vessel to the direction of the winds."—SOUTH: in Joh. Dict. "Without good nature and gratitude, men had as good live in a wilderness as in society."—L'ESTRANGE: ib. "And for this reason such lines almost never occur together."—Blair's Rhet., p. 385. "His being a great man did not make him a happy man."—Crombie's Treatise, p. 288. "Let that which tends to the making cold your love be judged in all."—S. Crisp. "It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and masters the fear of death."—Bacon's Essays, p. 4. "Accent dignifies the syllable on which it is laid, and makes it more distinguished by the ear than the rest."—Sheridan's Lect., p. 80; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 244. "Before he proceeds to argue either on one side or other."—Blair's Rhet., p. 313. "The change in general of manners throughout all Europe."—Ib., p. 375. "The sweetness and beauty of Virgil's numbers, throughout his whole works."—Ib., p. 440. "The French writers of sermons study neatness and elegance in laying down their heads."—Ib., p. 13. "This almost never fails to prove a refrigerant to passion."—Ib., p. 321. "At least their fathers, brothers, and uncles, cannot, as good relations and good citizens, dispense with their not standing forth to demand vengeance."—Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 191. "Alleging, that their crying down the church of Rome, was a joining hand with the Turks."—Barclay's Works, i, 239. "To which is added the Assembly of Divines Catechism."—New-England Primer, p. 1. "This treachery was always present in both their thoughts."—Dr. Robertson. "Thus far both their words agree." ("Convenient adhuo utriusqus verba. Plaut.")—Walker's Particles, p. 125. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is the branching out into several parts of what might be expressed in fewer words."—Gould's Gram, p. 241. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is when what might be expressed in a few words, is branched out into several parts."—Adam's Gram., p. 251. "Which may sit from time to time where you dwell or in the neighbouring vicinity."—Taylor's District School, 1st Ed., p. 281. "Place together a large and a small sized animal of the same species."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 235. "The weight of the swimming body is equal to that of the weight, of the quantity of fluid displaced by it."—Percival's Tales, ii, 213. "The Subjunctive mood, in all its tenses, is similar to that of the Optative."—Gwilt's Saxon Gram., p. 27. "No other feeling of obligation remains, except that of fidelity."—Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 82. "Who asked him, 'What could be the reason, that whole audiences should be moved to tears, at the representation of some story on the stage.'"—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 175. "Art not thou and you ashamed to affirm, that the best works of the Spirit of Christ in his saints are as filthy rags?"—Barclay's Works, i, 174. "A neuter verb becomes active, when followed by a noun of the same signification with its own."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 127. "But he has judged better, in omitting to repeat the article the."—Blair's Rhet., p. 194. "Many objects please us as highly beautiful, which have almost no variety at all."—Ib., p. 46. "Yet notwithstanding, they sometimes follow them."—Emmons's Gram., p. 21. "For I know of nothing more material in all the whole Subject, than this doctrine of Mood and Tense."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 292. "It is by no means impossible for an errour to be got rid of or supprest."— Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 642. "These are things of the highest importance to the growing age."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 250. "He had better have omitted the word many."—Blair's Rhet. p. 205. "Which had better have been separated."—Ib., p. 225. "Figures and metaphors, therefore, should, on no occasion be stuck on too profusely."—Ib., p. 144; Jamieson's Rhet., 150. "Metaphors, as well as other figures, should on no occasion, be stuck on too profusely."—Murray's Gram., p. 338; Russell's, 136. "Something like this has been reproached to Tacitus."—BOLINGBROKE: Priestley's Gram., p. 164.

   "O thou, whom all mankind in vain withstand,
    Each of whose blood must one day stain thy hand!"
        —Sheffield's Temple of Death.

LESSON XII.—TWO ERRORS.[448]

"Pronouns are sometimes made to precede the things which they represent."—Murray's Gram., p. 160. "Most prepositions originally denote the relation of place."—Lowth's Gram., p. 65. "Which is applied to inferior animals and things without life."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 24; Pract. Lessons, 30. "What noun do they describe or tell the kind?"—Infant School Gram., p. 41. "Iron cannon, as well as brass, is now universally cast solid."—Jamieson's Dict. "We have philosophers, eminent and conspicuous, perhaps, beyond any nation."—Blair's Rhet., p. 251. "This is a question about words alone, and which common sense easily determines."—Ib., p. 320. "The low [pitch of the voice] is, when he approaches to a whisper."—Ib., p. 328. "Which, as to the effect, is just the same with using no such distinctions at all."—Ib., p. 33. "These two systems, therefore, differ in reality very little from one another."—Ib., p. 23. "It were needless to give many instances, as they occur so often."—Ib., p. 109. "There are many occasions when this is neither requisite nor would be proper."—Ib., p. 311. "Dramatic poetry divides itself into the two forms, of comedy or tragedy."—Ib., p. 452. "No man ever rhymed truer and evener than he."—Pref. to Waller, p. 5. "The Doctor did not reap a profit from his poetical labours equal to those of his prose."—Johnson's Life of Goldsmith. "We will follow that which we found our fathers practice."—Sale's Koran, i, 28. "And I would deeply regret having published them."—Infant School Gram., p. vii. "Figures exhibit ideas in a manner more vivid and impressive, than could be done by plain language."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 222. "The allegory is finely drawn, only the heads various."—Spect., No. 540. "I should not have thought it worthy a place here."—Crombie's Treatise, p. 219. "In this style, Tacitus excels all writers, ancient and modern."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 261. "No author, ancient or modern, possesses the art of dialogue equal to Shakspeare."—Ib., ii, 294. "The names of every thing we hear, see, smell, taste, and feel, are nouns."—Infant School Gram., p. 16. "What number are these boys? these pictures? &c."—Ib., p. 23. "This sentence is faulty, somewhat in the same manner with the last."—Blair's Rhet., p. 230. "Besides perspicuity, he pursues propriety, purity, and precision, in his language; which forms one degree, and no inconsiderable one, of beauty."—Ib., p. 181. "Many critical terms have unfortunately been employed in a sense too loose and vague; none more so, than that of the sublime."—Ib., p. 35. "Hence, no word in the language is used in a more vague signification than beauty."—Ib., p. 45. "But, still, he made use only of general terms in speech."—Ib., p. 73. "These give life, body, and colouring to the recital of facts, and enable us to behold them as present, and passing before our eyes."—Ib., p. 360. "Which carried an ideal chivalry to a still more extravagant height than it had risen in fact."—Ib., p. 374. "We write much more supinely, and at our ease, than the ancients."—Ib., p. 351. "This appears indeed to form the characteristical difference between the ancient poets, orators, and historians, compared with the modern."—Ib., p. 350. "To violate this rule, as is too often done by the English, shews great incorrectness."— Ib., p. 463. "It is impossible, by means of any study to avoid their appearing stiff and forced."—Ib., p. 335. "Besides its giving the speaker the disagreeable appearance of one who endeavours to compel assent."—Ib., p. 328. "And, on occasions where a light or ludicrous anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into a note, than to hazard becoming too familiar."—Ib., p. 359. "The great business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 373. "In some dictionaries, accordingly, it was omitted; and in others stigmatized as a barbarism."— Crombie's Treatise, p. 322. "You cannot see, or think of, a thing, unless it