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

sin and death is done away, and we are cleansed."—Barclay cor. "And those were already converted, and regeneration was begun in them."—Id. "For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years."—Bible cor. "Who is my mother? or who are my brethren?"—See Matt., xii, 48. "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor are the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering."— Bible cor. "Information has been obtained, and some trials have been made."—Martineau cor. "It is as obvious, and its causes are more easily understood."—Webster cor. "All languages furnish examples of this kind, and the English contains as many as any other."—Priestley cor. "The winters are long, and the cold is intense."—Morse cor. "How have I hated instruction, and how hath my heart despised reproof!"—Prov. cor. "The vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta was extinguished."—Lempriere cor. "Riches beget pride; pride begets impatience."—Bullions cor. "Grammar is not reasoning, any more than organization is thought, or letters are sounds."—Enclytica cor. "Words are implements, and grammar is a machine."—Id. UNDER NOTE III.—PLACE OF THE FIRST PERSON.

"Thou or I must undertake the business."—L. Murray cor. "He and I were there."—Ash cor. "And we dreamed a dream in one night, he and I."—Bible cor. "If my views remain the same as his and mine were in 1833."—Goodell cor. "My father and I were riding out."—Inst., Key, p. 273. "The premiums were given to George and me."—Ib. "Jane and I are invited."—Ib. "They ought to invite my sister and me."—Ib. "You and I intend to go."—Guy cor. "John and I are going to town."—Brit. Gram. cor. "He and I are sick."—James Brown cor. "Thou and I are well."—Id. "He and I are."—Id. "Thou and I are."—Id. "He, and I write."—Id. "They and I are well."—Id. "She, and thou, and I, were walking."—Id.

UNDER NOTE IV.—DISTINCT SUBJECT PHRASES.

"To practise tale-bearing, or even to countenance it, is great injustice."—Inst., Key, p. 273. "To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, is contemptible perfidy."—Id. "To write all substantives with capital letters, or to exclude capitals from adjectives derived from proper names, may perhaps be thought an offence too small for animadversion; but the evil of innovation is always something."—Dr. Barrow cor. "To live in such families, or to have such servants, is a blessing from God."—Fam. Com. cor. "How they portioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, is utterly unknown." Or: "How they portioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, and what wars they maintained, are things utterly unknown."—Goldsmith cor. "To speak or to write perspicuously and agreeably, is an attainment of the utmost consequence to all who purpose, either by speech or by writing, to address the public."—Dr. Blair cor.

UNDER NOTE V.—MAKE THE VERBS AGREE.

"Doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray?"—Bible cor. "Did he not fear the Lord, and beseech the Lord, and did not the Lord repent of the evil which he had pronounced?"—Id. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgement with thee?"—Id. "If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain."—Id. "If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one an other."—Id. "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, become poor, and be sold to thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant."—Id. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee," &c.—Id. "Anthea was content to call a coach, and so to cross the brook." Or:—"and in that she crossed the brook."—Johnson cor. "It is either totally suppressed, or manifested only in its lowest and most imperfect form."—Blair cor. "But if any man is a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." Or: "If any man be a worshiper of God, and do his will, him will he hear."—Bible cor. "Whereby his righteousness and obedience, death and sufferings without, become profitable unto us, and are made ours."—Barclay cor. "Who ought to have been here before thee, and to have objected, if they had any thing against me."—Bible cor.

   "Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land, shall see,
    That man has yet a soul, and dares be free."—Campbell cor.

UNDER NOTE VI.—USE SEPARATE NOMINATIVES.

"H is only an aspiration, or breathing; and sometimes, at the beginning of a word, it is not sounded at all."—Lowth cor. "Man was made for society, and he ought to extend his good will to all men."—Id. "There is, and must be, a Supreme Being, of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom, who created, and who supports them."—Beattie cor. "Were you not affrighted, and did you not mistake a spirit for a body?"—Bp. Watson cor. "The latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but it either agrees with the verb, or is governed by the verb or the preposition, expressed or understood."—Mur. et al. cor. "He had mistaken his true interest, and he found himself forsaken."—Murray cor. "The amputation was exceedingly well performed, and it saved the patient's life."—Id. "The intentions of some of these philosophers, nay, of many, might have been, and probably they were, good."—Id. "This may be true, and yet it will not justify the practice."—Webster cor. "From the practice of those who have had a liberal education, and who are therefore presumed to be best acquainted with men and things."—Campbell cor. "For those energies and bounties which created, and which preserve, the universe."—J. Q. Adams cor. "I shall make it once for all, and I hope it will be remembered."—Blair cor. "This consequence is drawn too abruptly. The argument needed more explanation." Or: "This consequence is drawn too abruptly, and without sufficient explanation."—Id. "They must be used with more caution, and they require more preparation."—Id. "The apostrophe denotes the omission of an i, which was formerly inserted, and which made an addition of a syllable to the word."—Priestley cor. "The succession may be rendered more various or more uniform, but, in one shape or an other, it is unavoidable."—Kames cor. "It excites neither terror nor compassion; nor is it agreeable in any respect."—Id.

   "Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords
    No flight for thoughts,—they poorly stick at words."—Denham cor.

UNDER NOTE VII.—MIXTURE OF DIFFERENT STYLES.

"Let us read the living page, whose every character delights and instructs us."—Maunder cor. "For if it is in any degree obscure, it puzzles, and does not please."—Kames cor. "When a speaker addresses himself to the understanding, he proposes the instruction of his hearers."—Campbell cor. "As the wine which strengthens and refreshes the heart."—H. Adams cor. "This truth he wraps in an allegory, and feigns that one of the goddesses had taken up her abode with the other."—Pope cor. "God searcheth and understandeth the heart." Or: "God searches and understands the heart."—T. à. Kempis cor. "The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men."—Titus, ii, 11. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."—1 Cor., ii, 13. "But he has an objection, which he urges, and by which he thinks to overturn all."—Barclay cor. "In that it gives them not that comfort and joy which it gives to them who love it."—Id. "Thou here misunderstood the place and misapplied it." Or: "Thou here misunderstoodst the place and misappliedst it."—Id. Or: (as many of our grammarians will have it:) "Thou here misunderstoodest the place and misappliedst it."—Id. "Like the barren heath in the desert, which knoweth not when good cometh."—See Jer., xvii, 6. "It speaks of the time past, and shows that something was then doing, but not quite finished."—Devis cor. "It subsists in spite of them; it advances unobserved."—Pascal cor.

   "But where is he, the pilgrim of my song?—
    Methinks he lingers late and tarries long."—Byron cor.

UNDER NOTE VIII.—CONFUSION OF MOODS.

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them go (or be gone) astray," &c.—Matt., xviii, 12. Or: "If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes (or is gone) astray," &c. Or: "If a man hath a hundred sheep, and one of them goeth (or is gone) astray," &c.—Kirkham cor. "As a speaker advances in his discourse, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and a louder tone will naturally steal upon him."—Id. "If one man esteem one day above an other, and an other esteem every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."—Barclay cor. See Rom., xiv, 5. "If there be but one body of legislators, it will be no better than a tyranny; if there be only two, there will want a casting voice."—Addison cor. "Should you come up this way, and I be still here, you need not be assured how glad I should be to see you."—Byron cor. "If he repent and become holy, let him enjoy God and heaven."—Brownson cor. "If thy fellow approach thee, naked and destitute, and thou say unto him, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' and yet thou give him not those things which are needful to him, what benevolence is there in thy conduct?"—Kirkham cor.

   "Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
    And show us to be watchers."—Singer's Shakspeare.

    "But if it climb, with your assisting hand,
    The Trojan walls, and in the city stand."—Dryden cor.

    ————————"Though Heaven's King
    Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers,
    Used to the yoke, draw his triumphant wheels."—Milton cor.

UNDER NOTE IX.—IMPROPER ELLIPSES.

"Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has left them."—Reporter cor. "Which they neither have done nor can do."—Barclay cor. "The Lord hath revealed, and doth and will reveal, his will to his people; and hath raised up, and doth raise up, members of his body," &c.—Id. "We see, then, that the Lord hath given, and doth give, such."—Id. "Towards those that have declared, or do declare, themselves members."—Id. "For which we can give, and have given, our sufficient reasons."—Id. "When we mention the several properties of the different words in sentences, as we have mentioned those of the word William's above, what is the exercise called?"—R. C. Smith cor. "It is however to be doubted, whether this Greek idiom ever has obtained, or ever will obtain, extensively, in English."—Nutting cor. "Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as much as we do?"—Murray cor. "Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as they ought to be delivered in order to move and persuade."—Kirkham cor.

UNDER NOTE X.—DO, USED AS A SUBSTITUTE.

"And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be avoided." Or: "I would avoid it altogether, if to avoid it were practicable."—Kames cor. "Such a sentiment from a man expiring of his wounds, is truly heroic; and it must elevate the mind to the greatest height to which it can be raised by a single expression."—Id. "Successive images, thus making deeper and deeper impressions, must elevate the mind more than any single image can."—Id. "Besides making a deeper impression than can be made by cool reasoning."—Id. "Yet a poet, by the force of genius alone, may rise higher than a public speaker can." Or:—"than can a public speaker."—Blair cor. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they have gone, should have induced them to go farther."—Priestley cor. "The pupil should commit the first section to memory perfectly, before he attempts (or enters upon) the second part of grammar."—Bradley cor. "The Greek ch was pronounced hard, as we now pronounce it in chord."—Booth cor. "They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from what they adopt (or, in a manner different from that which they are accustomed to use) at other times."—L. Murray cor. "And give him the cool and formal reception that Simon had given."—Scott cor. "I do not say, as some have said."—Bolingbroke cor. "If he suppose the first, he may the last."—Barclay cor. "Who are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old despised him in his outward [advent]."—Id. "That text of Revelations must not be understood as he understands it."—Id. "Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him that he can parse it readily."—R. C. Smith cor. "Perhaps it is running the same course that Rome had run before."—Middleton cor. "It ought even on this ground to be avoided; and it easily may be, by a different construction."—Churchill cor. "These two languages are now pronounced in England as no other nation in Europe pronounces them."—Creighton cor. "Germany ran the same risk that Italy had run."—Bolingbroke, Murray, et al., cor.

UNDER NOTE XI.—PRETERITS AND PARTICIPLES.