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

the 13th century."—Biog. Dict. cor. "Graffio, a Jesuit of Capua in the 16th century, author of two volumes on moral subjects."—Id. "They Frenchify and Italianize words whenever they can."—Bucke's Gram., p. 86. "He who sells a Christian, sells the grace of God."—Mag. cor. "The first persecution against the Christians, under Nero, began A. D. 64."—Gregory cor. "P. Rapin, the Jesuit, uniformly decides in favour of the Roman writers."—Blair's Rhet., p. 248. "The Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher Lucretius has said," &c.—Cohen cor. Spell "Calvinistic, Atticism, Gothicism, Epicurism, Jesuitism, Sabianism, Socinianism, Anglican, Anglicism, Anglicize, Vandalism, Gallicism, and Romanize."—Webster cor. "The large Ternate bat."—Id. and Bolles cor.

   "Church-ladders are not always mounted best
    By learned clerks, and Latinists profess'd"—Cowper cor.

UNDER RULE XII.—OF I AND O.

"Fall back, fall back; I have not room:—O! methinks I see a couple whom I should know."—Lucian. "Nay, I live as I did, I think as I did, I love you as I did; but all these are to no purpose; the world will not live, think, or love, as I do."—Swift to Pope. "Whither, O! whither shall I fly? O wretched prince! O cruel reverse of fortune! O father Micipsa! is this the consequence of thy generosity?"—Tr. of Sallust. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."—1 Cor., xiii, 11. "And I heard, but I understood not; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?"—Dan., xii, 8. "Here am I; I think I am very good, and I am quite sure I am very happy, yet I never wrote a treatise in my life."—Few Days in Athens, p. 127. "Singular, Vocative, O master! Plural, Vocative, O masters!"—Bicknell cor.

   "I, I am he; O father! rise, behold
    Thy son, with twenty winters now grown old!"
        —Pope's Odyssey, B. 24, l. 375.

UNDER RULE XIII.—OF POETRY.

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words—health, peace, and competence; But health consists with temperance alone, And peace, O Virtue! peace is all thy own."—Pope.

"Observe the language well in all you write, And swerve not from it in your loftiest flight. The smoothest verse and the exactest sense Displease us, if ill English give offence: A barbarous phrase no reader can approve; Nor bombast, noise, or affectation love. In short, without pure language, what you write Can never yield us profit or delight. Take time for thinking; never work in haste; And value not yourself for writing fast."—Dryden.

UNDER RULE XIV.—OF EXAMPLES.

"The word rather is very properly used to express a small degree or excess of a quality; as, 'She is rather profuse in her expenses.'"—Murray cor. "Neither imports not either; that is, not one nor the other: as, 'Neither of my friends was there.'"—Id. "When we say, 'He is a tall man,'—'This is a fair day,' we make some reference to the ordinary size of men, and to different weather."—Id. "We more readily say, 'A million of men,' than, 'A thousand of men.'"—Id. "So in the instances, 'Two and two are four;'—'The fifth and sixth volumes will complete the set of books.'"—Id. "The adjective may frequently either precede or follow the verb: as, 'The man is happy;' or, 'Happy is the man;'—'The interview was delightful;' or, 'Delightful was the interview.'"—Id. "If we say, 'He writes a pen;'—'They ran the river;'—'The tower fell the Greeks;'—'Lambeth is Westminster Abbey;'—[we speak absurdly;] and, it is evident, there is a vacancy which must be filled up by some connecting word: as thus, 'He writes with a pen;'—'They ran towards the river;'—'The tower fell upon the Greeks;'—'Lambeth is over against Westminster Abbey.'"—Id. "Let me repeat it;—He only is great, who has the habits of greatness."—Id. "I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven."—Matt., xviii, 22.

   "The Panther smil'd at this; and, 'When,' said she,
    'Were those first councils disallow'd by me?'"—Dryd. cor.

UNDER RULE XV.—OF CHIEF WORDS.

"The supreme council of the nation is called the Divan."—Balbi cor. "The British Parliament is composed of King, Lords, and Commons."—Comly's Gram., p. 129; and Jaudon's, 127. "A popular orator in the House of Commons has a sort of patent for coining as many new terms as he pleases."—See Campbell's Rhet., p. 169; Murray's Gram., 364. "They may all be taken together, as one name; as, 'The House of Commons.'"—Merchant cor. "Intrusted to persons in whom the Parliament could confide."—Murray cor. "For 'The Lords' House,' it were certainly better to say, 'The House of Lords;' and, in stead of 'The Commons' vote,' to say. 'The vote of the Commons.'"—Id. and Priestley cor. "The House of Lords were so much influenced by these reasons."—Iidem. "Rhetoricians commonly divide them into two great classes; Figures of Words, and Figures of Thought. The former, Figures of Words, are commonly called Tropes."—Murray's Gram., p. 337. "Perhaps, Figures of Imagination, and Figures of Passion, might be a more useful distribution."—Ib. "Hitherto we have considered sentences, under the heads of Perspicuity, Unity, and Strength."—See Murray's Gram., p. 356.

   "The word is then depos'd; and, in this view,
    You rule the Scripture, not the Scripture you."—Dryd. cor.

UNDER RULE XVI.—OF NEEDLESS CAPITALS.

"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."—FRIENDS' BIBLE, AND SCOTT'S: Matt., xiv, 27. "Between passion and lying, there is not a finger's breadth."—Mur. cor. "Can our solicitude alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events?" "The last edition was carefully compared with the original manuscript."—Id. "And the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews?"—SCOTT: Matt., xxvii, 11. "Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame, that say, Aha, aha!"—SCOTT ET AL.: Ps., lxx, 3. "Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame, that say unto me, Aha, aha!"—IIDEM: Ps., xl, 15. "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?"—ALGER: Matt., xxii, 42, 43. "Among all things in the universe, direct your worship to the greatest. And which is that? It is that Being who manages and governs all the rest."—Collier's Antoninus cor. "As for modesty and good faith, truth and justice, they have left this wicked world and retired to heaven; and now what is it that can keep you here?"—Idem.

   "If pulse of verse a nation's temper shows,
    In keen iambics English metre flows."—Brightland cor.

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS RESPECTING CAPITALS. LESSON I.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come."—Thomson's Seasons, p. 29. As, "He is the Cicero of his age;"—"He is reading the Lives of the Twelve Cæsars;"—or, if no particular book is meant,—"the lives of the twelve Cæsars;" (as it is in Fisk's Grammar, p. 57;) for the sentence, as it stands in Murray, is ambiguous. "In the History of Henry the Fourth, by Father Daniel, we are surprised at not finding him the great man."—Smollett's Voltaire, Vol. v, p. 82. "Do not those same poor peasants use the lever, and the wedge, and many other instruments?"—Harris and Mur. cor. "Arithmetic is excellent for the gauging of liquors; geometry, for the measuring of estates; astronomy, for the making of almanacs; and grammar, perhaps, for the drawing of bonds and conveyances."—See Murray's Gram., p. 288. "The [History of the] Wars of Flanders, written in Latin by Famianus Strada, is a book of some note."—Blair cor. "William is a noun. Why? Was is a verb. Why? A is an article. Why? Very is an adverb. Why?" &c.—Merchant cor. "In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was with God, and God was that Word."—See Gospel of John, i, 1. "The Greeks are numerous in Thessaly, Macedonia, Romelia, and Albania."—Balbi's Geog., p. 360. "He [the Grand Seignior] is styled by the Turks, Sultan, Mighty, or Padishah, Lord."—Balbi cor. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death! I will be thy plague; O Grave! I will be thy destruction."—Bible cor. "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I [unto] thee."—See Acts, iii, 6. "Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts! look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine."—See Psalm lxxx, 14. "In the Attic commonwealth, it was the privilege of every citizen to rail in public."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 316. "They assert, that in the phrases, 'GIVE me that,'—'This is John's,' and, 'Such were some of you,'—the words in Italics are pronouns; but that, in the following phrases, they are not pronouns: 'This book is instructive;'—'Some boys are ingenious;'—'My health is declining;'—'Our hearts are deceitful.'"—Murray partly corrected.[523] "And the coast bends again to the northwest, as far as Farout Head."—Geog. cor. "Dr. Webster, and other makers of spelling-books, very improperly write Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, without capitals."—G. Brown. "The commander in chief of the Turkish navy is styled the Capitan Pacha."—Balbi cor. "Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?"—ALGER'S BIBLE: Heb., xii, 9. "He [Dr. Beattie] was more anxious to attain the character of a Christian hero."—Murray cor. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 393. "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."—ALGER, FRIENDS, ET AL.: Heb., xiii, 6. "Make haste to help me, O LORD my salvation."—IIDEM: Psalms, xxxviii, 22.

   "The city which thou seest, no other deem
    Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth."
        —Paradise Regained, B. iv.

LESSON II.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"That range of hills, known under the general name of Mount Jura."—Account of Geneva. "He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Ps. cvi, 9. "Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives."—Bible cor. "Milton's book in reply to the Defence of the King, by Salmasius, gained him a thousand pounds from the Parliament, and killed his antagonist with vexation."—G. B. "Mandeville, Sir John, an Englishman famous for his travels, born about 1300, died in 1372."—B. Dict. cor. "Ettrick Pen, a mountain in Selkirkshire, Scotland, height 2,200 feet."—G. Geog. cor. "The coast bends from Dungsby Head, in a northwest direction, to the promontory of Dunnet Head."—Id. "General Gaines ordered a detachment of nearly 300 men, under the command of Major Twiggs, to surround and take an Indian village, called Fowltown, about fourteen miles from Fort Scott."—Cohen Cor. "And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, 'Talitha, cumi.'"—Bible Editors cor. "On religious subjects, a frequent adoption of Scripture language is attended with peculiar force."—Murray cor. "Contemplated with gratitude to their Author, the Giver of all good."—Id. "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all [the] truth,"—SCOTT, ALGER, ET AL.: John, xvi, 13. "See the Lecture on Verbs, Rule XV, Note 4th."—Fisk cor. "At the commencement of Lecture 2d, I informed you that Etymology treats, thirdly, of derivation."—Kirkham cor. "This 8th Lecture is a very important one."—Id. "Now read the 11th and 12th lectures, four or five times over."—Id. "In 1752, he [Henry Home] was advanced to the bench, under the title of Lord Kames."—Murray cor. "One of his maxims was, 'Know thyself.'"—Lempriere cor. "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Matt., xix, 16. "His best known works, however, [John Almon's] are, 'Anecdotes of the Life of the Earl of Chatham,' 2 vols. 4to, 3 vols. 8vo; and 'Biographical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes of several of the Most Eminent Persons of the Present Age; never before printed,' 3 vols. 8vo, 1797."—Biog. Dict. cor. "O gentle Sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?"—SHAK.: Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 175. "And peace, O Virtue! peace is all thy own."—Pope et al. cor.

LESSON III.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"Fenelon united the characters of a nobleman and a Christian pastor. His book entitled, 'An Explication of the Maxims of the Saints, concerning the Interior Life,' gave considerable offence to the guardians of orthodoxy."—Murray cor. "When Natural Religion, who before was only a spectator, is introduced as speaking by the Centurion's voice."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 347. "You cannot deny, that the great Mover and Author of nature constantly explaineth himself to the eyes of men, by the sensible intervention of arbitrary signs, which have no similitude to, or connexion with, the things signified."—Berkley cor. "The name of this letter is Double-u, its form, that of a double V."—Dr. Wilson cor. "Murray, in his