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

2. "Thither continual pilgrims crowded still."
        —Id., Cos. of Ind., i, 8.

3. "Level at beauty, and at wit;
    The fairest mark is easiest hit."
        —Butler's Hudibras.

XI. They form new compound epithets, oftener than do prose writers; as,

1. "In world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime."
        —Thomson.

2. "The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun."
        —Idem.

3. "By brooks and groves in hollow-whispering gales."
        —Idem.

4. "The violet of sky-woven vest."
        —Langhorne.

5. "A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,
    Before the always-wind-obeying deep
    Gave any tragic instance of our harm."
        —Shakspeare.

6. "'Blue-eyed, strange-voiced, sharp-beaked, ill-omened fowl,
    What art thou?' 'What I ought to be, an owl.'"
        —Day's Punctuation, p. 139.

XII. They connect the comparative degree to the positive, before a verb; as,

1. "Near and more near the billows rise."
        —Merrick.

2. "Wide and wider spreads the vale."
        —Dyer's Grongar Hill.

3. "Wide and more wide, the overflowings of the mind
    Take every creature in, of every kind."
        —Pope.

4. "Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,
    A hundred head of Aristotle's friends."
        —Id., Dunciad.

XIII. They form many adjectives in y, which are not common in prose; as, The dimply flood,—dusky veil,—a gleamy ray,—heapy harvests,—moony shield,—paly circlet,—sheety lake,—stilly lake,—spiry temples,—steely casque,—steepy hill,—towery height,—vasty deep,—writhy snake.

XIV. They employ adjectives of an abbreviated form: as, dread, for dreadful; drear, for dreary; ebon, for ebony; hoar, for hoary; lone, for lonely; scant, for scanty; slope, for sloping: submiss, for submissive; vermil, for vermilion; yon, for yonder.

XV. They employ several adjectives that are not used in prose, or are used but seldom; as, azure, blithe, boon, dank, darkling, darksome, doughty, dun, fell, rife, rapt, rueful, sear, sylvan, twain, wan.

XVI. They employ the personal PRONOUNS, and introduce their nouns afterwards; as,

1. "It curl'd not Tweed alone, that breeze."
        —Sir W. Scott.

2. "What may it be, the heavy sound
    That moans old Branksome's turrets round?"
        —Idem, Lay, p. 21.

3. "Is it the lightning's quivering glance,
      That on the thicket streams;
    Or do they flash on spear and lance,
      The sun's retiring beams"
        —Idem, L. of L., vi, 15.

XVII. They use the forms of the second person singular oftener than do others; as,

1. "Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
    Thy service in some graver subject use,
    Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
    Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound."
        —Milton's Works, p. 133.

2. "But thou, of temples old, or altars new,
    Standest alone—with nothing like to thee."
        —Byron, Pilg., iv, 154.

3. "Thou seest not all; but piecemeal thou must break,
    To separate contemplation, the great whole."
        —Id., ib., iv, 157.

4. "Thou rightly deemst, fair youth, began the bard;
    The form then sawst was Virtue ever fair."
        —Pollok, C. of T., p. 16.

XVIII. They sometimes omit relatives that are nominatives; (see Obs. 22, at p. 555;) as,

   "For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?"
        —Thomson.

XIX. They omit the antecedent, or introduce it after the relative; as,

1. "Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys,
    Who never toils or watches, never sleeps."
        —Armstrong.

2. "Who dares think one thing and an other tell,
    My soul detests him as the gates of hell."
        —Pope's Homer.

XX. They remove relatives, or other connectives, into the body of their clauses; as,

1. "Parts the fine locks, her graceful head that deck."
        —Darwin.

2. "Not half so dreadful rises to the sight
    Orion's dog, the year when autumn weighs."
        —Pope, Iliad, B. xxii, l. 37.

XXI. They make intransitive VERBS transitive, changing their class; as,

1. ——"A while he stands,
   Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid
   To meditate the blue profound below."
        —Thomson.

2. "Still in harmonious intercourse, they liv'd
    The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart."
        —Idem.

3. ——"I saw and heard, for we sometimes
   Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth."
        —Milton, P. R., B. i, l. 330.

XXII. They make transitive verbs intransitive, giving them no regimen; as,

1. "The soldiers should have toss'd me on their pikes,
    Before I would have granted to that act."
        —Shakspeare.

2. "This minstrel-god, well-pleased, amid the quire
    Stood proud to hymn, and tune his youthful lyre."
        —Pope.

XXIII. They give to the imperative mood the first and the third person; as,

1. "Turn we a moment fancy's rapid flight."
        —Thomson.

2. "Be man's peculiar work his sole delight."
        —Beattie.

3. "And what is reason? Be she thus defin'd:
    Reason is upright stature in the soul."
        —Young.

XXIV. They employ can, could, and would, as principal verbs transitive; as,

1. "What for ourselves we can, is always ours."
        —Anon.

2. "Who does the best his circumstance allows,
    Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more."
        —Young.

3. "What would this man? Now upward will he soar,
    And, little less than angel, would be more."
        —Pope.

XXV. They place the infinitive before the word on which it depends; as,

1. "When first thy sire to send on earth
    Virtue, his darling child, design'd"
        —Gray.

2. "As oft as I, to kiss the flood, decline;
    So oft his lips ascend, to close with mine."
        —Sandys.

3. "Besides, Minerva, to secure her care,
    Diffus'd around a veil of thicken'd air."
        —Pope.

XXVI. They place the auxiliary verb after its principal, by hyperbaton; as,

1. "No longer heed the sunbeam bright
    That plays on Carron's breast he can"
        —Langhorne.

2. "Follow I must, I cannot go before."
        —Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 147.

3. "The man who suffers, loudly may complain;
    And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain."
        —Pope.

XXVII. Before verbs, they sometimes arbitrarily employ or omit prefixes: as, bide, or abide; dim, or bedim; gird, or begird; lure, or allure; move, or emove; reave, or bereave; vails, or avails; vanish, or evanish; wail, or bewail; weep, or beweep; wilder, or bewilder:—

1. "All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide
    In heav'n, or earth, or under earth in hell."
        —Milton, P. L., B. iii, l. 321.

2. "Of a horse, ware the heels; of a bull-dog, the jaws;
    Of a bear, the embrace; of a lion, the paws."
        —Churchills Cram., p. 215.

XXVIII. Some few verbs they abbreviate: as list, for listen; ope, for open; hark, for hearken; dark, for darken; threat, for threaten; sharp, for sharpen.

XXIX. They employ several verbs that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely; as, appal, astound, brook, cower, doff, ken, wend, ween, trow.

XXX. They sometimes imitate a Greek construction of the infinitive; as,

1. "Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew
    Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme."
        —Milton.

2. "For not, to have been dipp'd in Lethè lake,
    Could save the son of Thetis from to die."
        —Spenser.

XXXI. They employ the PARTICIPLES more frequently than prose writers, and in a construction somewhat peculiar; often intensive by accumulation: as,

1. "He came, and, standing in the midst, explain'd
    The peace rejected, but the truce obtain'd."
        —Pope.

2. "As a poor miserable captive thrall
    Comes to the place where he before had sat
    Among the prime in splendor, now depos'd,
    Ejected, emptied, gaz'd, unpitied, shunn'd,
    A spectacle of ruin or of scorn."
        —Milton, P. R., B. i, l. 411.

3. "Though from our birth the faculty divine
    Is chain'd and tortured—cabin'd, cribb'd, confined."
        —Byron, Pilg., C. iv, St. 127.

XXXII. In turning participles to adjectives, they sometimes ascribe actions, or active properties, to things to which they do not literally belong; as,

   "The green leaf quivering in the gale,
    The warbling hill, the lowing vale."
        —MALLET: Union Poems, p. 26.

XXXIII. They employ several ADVERBS that are not used in prose, or are used but seldom; as, oft, haply, inly, blithely, cheerily, deftly, felly, rifely, starkly.

XXXIV. They give to adverbs a peculiar location in respect to other words; as,

1. "Peeping from forth their alleys green."
        —Collins.

2. "Erect the standard there of ancient Night"
        —Milton.

3. "The silence often of pure innocence
    Persuades, when speaking fails."
        —Shakspeare.

4. "Where Universal Love not smiles around."
        —Thomson.

5. "Robs me of that which not enriches him."
        —Shakspeare.

XXXV. They sometimes omit the introductory adverb there: as,

"Was nought around but images of rest." —Thomson.

XXXVI. They briefly compare actions by a kind of compound adverbs, ending in like; as,

   "Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore
    Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?"
        —Pope.

XXXVII. They employ the CONJUNCTIONS, or—or, and nor—nor, as correspondents; as,

1. "Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po."
        —Goldsmith.

2. "Wealth heap'd on wealth, nor truth, nor safety buys."
        —Johnson.

3. "Who by repentance is not satisfied,
    Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd."
        —Shakspeare.

4. "Toss it, or to the fowls, or to the flames."
        —Young, N. T., p. 157.

5. "Nor shall the pow'rs of hell, nor wastes of time,
    Or vanquish, or destroy."
        —Gibbon's Elegy on Davies.

XXXVIII. They oftener place PREPOSITIONS and their adjuncts, before the words on which they depend, than do prose writers; as,

   "Against your fame with fondness hate combines;
    The rival batters, and the lover mines."
        —Dr. Johnson.

XXXIX. They sometimes place a long or dissyllabic preposition after its object; as,

1. "When beauty, Eden's bowers within,
    First stretched the arm to deeds of sin,
    When passion burn'd and prudence slept,
    The pitying angels bent and wept."
        —James Hogg.

2. "The Muses fair, these peaceful shades among,
    With skillful fingers sweep the trembling strings."
        —Lloyd.

3. "Where Echo walks steep hills among,
    List'ning to the shepherd's song."
        —J. Warton, U. Poems, p. 33.

XL. They have occasionally employed certain prepositions for which, perhaps, it would not be easy to cite prosaic authority; as, adown, aloft, aloof, anear, aneath, askant, aslant, aslope, atween, atwixt, besouth, traverse, thorough, sans. (See Obs. 10th, and others, at p. 441.)

XLI. They oftener employ INTERJECTIONS than do prose writers; as,

   "O let me gaze!—Of gazing there's no end.
    O let me think!—Thought too is wilder'd here."
        —Young.

XLII. They oftener employ ANTIQUATED WORDS and modes of expression; as,

1. "Withouten that, would come an heavier bale." —Thomson.

2. "He was, to weet, a little roguish page,
    Save sleep and play, who minded nought at all."
        —Id.

3. "Not one eftsoons in view was to be found."
        —Id.

4. "To number up the thousands dwelling here,
    An useless were, and eke an endless task."
        —Id.

5. "Of clerks good plenty here you mote espy."
        —Id.

6. "But these I passen by with nameless numbers moe."
        —Id.

[Asterism] In the following Index, the page of the Grammar is directly referred to: Obs. or N. before a numeral, stands for Observation or Observations, or for Note or Notes of the text: R. after a reference, stands for RULE. The small letter n., with an asterisk or other mark affixed to it, relates to a footnote with such mark in the Grammar. Occasionally, t., m., or b., or u., or l., accompanies a reference, to indicate the top, middle, or bottom, or the upper or the lower half, of the page referred to. Few abbreviations are employed beyond those of the ordinary grammatical terms. The Index is not intended to supersede the use of the Table of Contents, which stands after the Preface. It is occupied wholly with the matter of the Grammar proper; hence there are in it no references to the Introduction Historical and Critical, which precedes the didactic portion of the work. In the Table before-mentioned must be sought the general division of English grammar, and matters pertaining to praxis, to examination, and to the writing of exercises.

A, lett., names itself
    —its plur.
    —sounds properly its own
    —numb. of sounds pertaining to, orthoëpists differ concerning
    —diphthongs beginning with,
    —triphth. do.
    —its true sound to be carefully preserved at end of words,
  A, as prep, or prefix
    —before part, in ing.
  A and an, in Gr. derivatives.
  A or an, art., see An, A

Abbreviations, frequent in writt. lang.
    —rule of punct. for.
  C, M, D, &c., as numerals, see Letters.
  Needless abbreviations, to be avoided

Able, ible, class of adjectives in, numerous in Eng.; difficulty with
  resp. to the prop. form and signif. of; to what able most properly
  belongs
    —application of able to nouns, its propriety doubtf.
    —Able or ible, prop. application of, how far determined from Lat.
      etymol.
    —Able and ible, words of the same meaning in, how formed from
      different roots,

About, with infin., as substitute for Lat. fut. part, in rus —About, with of preced., ("OF ABOUT one hundred feet") —About, derivat. of, from Sax.

Abrupt transitions in the Bible

Absolute, when, and in what case, a noun or a pron. is put —Absol.,