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

   "This is the sword, with which he did the deed,
    And that the shield by which he was defended."—Bucke's Gram., p. 56.

"A deathlike paleness was diffused over his countenancee [sic—KTH], a chilling terror convulsed his frame; his voice burst out at intervals into broken accents."—Principles of Eloquence, p. 73.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the first pause in this sentence is not marked by a suitable point. But, according to Rule 2d for the Semicolon, "When two or more simple members, or such clauses as complete their sense without subdivision, are constructed into a period; if they require a pause greater than that of the comma, they are usually separated by the semicolon." Therefore, the comma after "countenance" should be changed to a semicolon.]

"The Lacedemonians never traded—they knew no luxury—they lived in houses built of rough materials—they lived at public tables—fed on black broth, and despised every thing effeminate or luxurious."—Whelpley's Lectures, p. 167. "Government is the agent. Society is the principal."—Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 377. "The essentials of speech were anciently supposed to be sufficiently designated by the Noun and the Verb, to which was subsequently added, the Conjunction"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191. "The first faint gleamings of thought in its mind are but the reflections from the parents' own intellect,—the first manifestations of temperament are from the contagious parental fountain,—the first aspirations of soul are but the warmings and promptings of the parental spirit."—Jocelyn's Prize Essay, p. 4. "Older and oldest refer to maturity of age, elder and eldest to priority of right by birth. Farther and farthest denote place or distance: Further and furthest, quantity or addition."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 148. "Let the divisions be natural, such as obviously suggest themselves to the mind, and as may aid your main design, and be easily remembered."—Goldsbury's Manual of Gram., p. 91.

   "Gently make haste, of labour not afraid:
    A hundred times consider what you've said."—Dryden's Art of Poetry.

UNDER RULE III.—OF APPOSITION, &c.

(1.) "Adjectives are divided into two classes: Adjectives denoting quality, and Adjectives denoting number."—Frost's Practical Gram., p. 31.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the colon after the word "classes," is not the most suitable sign of the pause required. But according to Rule 3d for the Semicolon, "Words in apposition, in disjunct pairs, or in any other construction if they require a pause greater than that of the comma, and less than that of the colon, maybe separated by the semicolon." In this case, the semicolon should have been preferred to the colon.]

(2.) "There are two classes of adjectives—qualifying adjectives, and limiting adjectives."—Butler's Practical Gram., p. 33. (3.) "There are three Genders, the Masculine, the Feminine, and the Neuter."— Frost's Pract. Gram., p. 51; Hiley's Gram., p. 12; Alger's, 16; S. Putnam's, 14: Murray's, 8vo, 37; and others. (4.) "There are three genders: the MASCULINE, the FEMININE, and the NEUTER."—Murray's Gram., 12mo. p. 39; Jaudon's, 25. (5.) "There are three genders: The Masculine, the Feminine, and the Neuter."—Hendrick's Gram., p. 15. (6.) "The Singular denotes ONE, and the Plural MORE THAN ONE."—Hart's Gram., p. 40. (7.) "There are three Cases viz., the Nominative, the Possessive, and the Objective"—Hendrick's Gram., p. 7. (8.) "Nouns have three cases, the nominative, the possessive, and the objective."— Kirkham's Gram., p. 41. (9.) "In English, nouns have three cases—the nominative, the possessive, and the objective."—R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 47. (10.) "Grammar is divided into four parts, namely, ORTHOGRAPHY, ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, PROSODY."—Ib., p. 41. (11) "It is divided into four parts, viz. ORTHOGRAPHY, ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, and PROSODY."—L. Murray's Grammars all; T. Smith's Gram., p. 5. (12.) "It is divided into four parts: viz. Orthography—Etymology—Syntax—Prosody."—Bucke's Gram., p. 3. (13.) "It is divided into four parts, namely, Orthography. Etymology, Syntax and Prosody."—Day's Gram., p. 5. (14.) "It is divided into four parts: viz. Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody."—Hendrick's Gram., p. 11. (15.) "Grammar is divided into four parts: viz. Orthography, Etymology. Syntax and Prosody."—Chandler's Gram., p, 13. (16.) "It is divided into four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody."—Cooper's Pl. and Pract. Gram., p. 1; Frost's Pract. Gram., 19. (17.) "English grammar has been usually divided into four parts, viz: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody."—Nutting's Gram., p. 13. (18.) "Temperance leads to happiness, intemperance to misery."—Hiley's Gram., p. 137 Hart's, 180. (19.) "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes."—Hiley's Gram., p. 137 (20.) "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues: an enemy his crimes."—Murray's Gram., 8vo., p. 325 (21.) "Many writers use a plural noun after the second of two numeral adjectives, thus, 'The first and second pages are torn.'"—Bullions, E. Gram., 5th Ed., p. 145 (22.) "Of these, the Latin has six, the Greek, five, the German, four, the Saxon, six, the French, three, &c."—Id., ib., p. 196.

   "In (ing) it ends, when doing is express'd,
    In d, t, n, when suffering's confess'd."
        —Brightland's Gram., p. 93.

"In old books i is often used for j, v for u, vv for w, and ii or ij for y."—Hart's E. Gram., p. 22. "The forming of letters into words and syllables is also called Spelling."—Ib., p. 21. "Labials are formed chiefly by the lips, dentals by the teeth, palatals by the palate, gutturals by the throat, nasals by the nose, and linguals by the tongue."—Ib., p. 25. "The labials are p, b, f, v; the dentals t, d, s, z; the palatals g soft and j; the gutturals k, q, and c and g hard; the nasals m and n; and the linguals l and r."—Ib., p. 25. "Thus, 'the man having finished his letter, will carry it to the post office.'"—Ib., p. 75. "Thus, in the sentence 'he had a dagger concealed under his cloak,' concealed is passive, signifying being concealed; but in the former combination, it goes to make up a form, the force of which is active."—Ib., p. 75. "Thus, in Latin, 'he had concealed the dagger' would be 'pugionem abdiderat;' but 'he had the dagger concealed' would be 'pugionem abditum habebat.'"— Ib., p. 75. "Here, for instance, means 'in this place,' now, 'at this time,' &c."—Ib., p. 90. "Here when both declares the time of the action, and so is an adverb, and also connects the two verbs, and so is a conjunction."—Ib., p. 91. "These words were all no doubt originally other parts of speech, viz.: verbs, nouns, and adjectives."—Ib., p. 92. "The principal parts of a sentence are the subject, the attribute, and the object, in other words the nominative, the verb, and the objective."— Ib., p. 104. "Thus, the adjective is connected with the noun, the adverb with the verb or adjective, pronouns with their antecedents, &c."—Ib., p. 104. "Between refers to two, among to more than two."—Ib., p. 120. "At is used after a verb of rest, to after a verb of motion."—Ib., p. 120. "Verbs are of three kinds, Active, Passive, and Neuter."—Lennie's Gram., p. 19; Bullions, Prin., 2d Ed., p. 29 "Verbs are divided into two classes: Transitive and Intransitive."—Hendrick's Gram., p. 28 "The Parts of Speech in the English language are nine, viz. The Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition. Interjection and Conjunction."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 7 "Of these the Noun, Pronoun, and Verb are declined, the rest are indeclinable."—Id., ib., p. 7; Practical Lessons, p. 9. "The first expression is called the 'Active form.' The second the 'Passive form.'"—Welds Gram., 2d Ed., p. 83; Abridged, p. 66.

   "O 'tis a godlike privilege to save,
    And he that scorns it is himself a slave."—Cowper, Vol. i., p. 123

The Colon is used to separate those parts of a compound sentence, which are neither so closely connected as those which are distinguished by the semicolon, nor so little dependent as those which require the period.

When the preceding clause is complete in itself, but is followed by some additional remark or illustration, especially if no conjunction is used, the colon is generally and properly inserted: as, "Avoid evil doers: in such society, an honest man may become ashamed of himself."—"See that moth fluttering incessantly round the candle: man of pleasure, behold thy image!"—Art of Thinking, p. 94. "Some things we can, and others we cannot do: we can walk, but we cannot fly."—Beanie's Moral Science, p. 112.

   "Remember Heav'n has an avenging rod:
    To smite the poor, is treason against God."—Cowper.

When the semicolon has been introduced, or when it must be used in a subsequent member, and a still greater pause is required within the period, the colon should be employed: as, "Princes have courtiers, and merchants have partners; the voluptuous have companions, and the wicked have accomplices: none but the virtuous can have friends."—"Unless the truth of our religion be granted, a Christian must be the greatest monster in nature: he must at the same time be eminently wise, and notoriously foolish; a wise man in his practice, and a fool in his belief: his reasoning powers must be deranged by a constant delirium, while his conduct never swerves from the path of propriety."—Principles of Eloquence, p. 80.

   "A decent competence we fully taste;
    It strikes our sense, and gives a constant feast:
    More we perceive by dint of thought alone;
    The rich must labour to possess their own."—Young.

A quotation introduced without a close dependence on a verb or a conjunction, is generally preceded by the colon; as, "In his last moments, he uttered these words: 'I fall a sacrifice to sloth and luxury.'"—"At this the king hastily retorted: 'No put-offs, my lord; answer me presently.'"—Churchill's Gram., p. 367. "The father addressed himself to them to this effect: 'O my sons, behold the power of unity!'"— Rippingham's Art of Speaking, p. 85.

"Of is a preposition, it expresses the relation between fear and Lord."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 133.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the additional remark in this sentence is not sufficiently separated from the main clause, by the comma after the word preposition. But, according to Rule 1st for the Colon, "When the preceding clause is complete in itself, but is followed by some additional remark or illustration, especially if no conjunction is used, the colon is generally and properly inserted." Therefore, the colon should here be substituted for the comma.]

"Wealth and poverty are both temptations to man; that tends to excite pride, this discontentment."—Id., ib., p. 93; see also Lennie's Gram., p. 81; Murray's, 56; Ingersoll's 61; Alger's, 25; Merchant's, 44; Hart's, 137; et al. "Religion raises men above themselves, irreligion sinks them beneath the brutes; this binds them down to a poor pitiable speck of perishable earth, that opens for them a prospect in the skies."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 98; Lennie's Gram., p. 81. "Love not idleness, it destroys many."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 71. "Children, obey your parents; honour thy father and mother, is the first commandment with promise."—Bullions, Pract. Lessons, p. 88. "Thou art my hiding place, and my shield, I hope in thy promises."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 56. "The sun shall not smite me by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will preserve from evil. He will save my soul.—BIBLE."—Ib., p. 57. "Here Greece is assigned the highest place in the class of objects among which she is numbered—the nations of antiquity—she is one of them."—Lennie's Gram., p. 79.

   "From short (as usual) and disturb'd repose
    I wake; how happy they who wake no more!"—Hallock's Gram., p. 216.

"A taste of a thing, implies actual enjoyment of it; but a taste for it, implies only capacity for enjoyment; as, 'When we have had a true taste of the pleasures of virtue, we can have no relish for those of vice.'"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 147.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pause after enjoyment is marked only by a semicolon. But, according to Rule 2d for the Colon, "When the semicolon has been introduced, or when it must be used in a subsequent member, and a still greater pause is required within the period, the colon should be employed." Therefore, the second semicolon here should be changed to a colon.]

"The Indicative mood simply declares a thing; as, He loves; He is loved; Or, it asks a question; as, Lovest thou me?"—Id., ib., p. 35; Pract. Lessons, p. 43; Lennie's Gr., p. 20. "The Indicative Mood simply indicates or declares a thing: as, 'He loves, he is loved:' or it asks a question: as, 'Does he love?' 'Is he loved?'"—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 63; 12mo, p. 63. "The Imperfect (or Past) tense represents an action or event indefinitely as past; as, Cæsar came, and saw, and conquered; or it represents the action definitely as unfinished and continuing at a certain