RULES OF SYNTAX.

RULE I.—NOMinative and VERB.

204. A verb agrees with its nominative in number and person; as, I read, he learns.

This rule is of very extensive application, and if understood in its full import, it will render useless many others that are commonly set down by grammarians. It may be expressed in more general terms thus :-The number and person of the subject of a sentence determine the number and person of the verb. For example, in the sentence, "John runs," John, the subject, is singular, and, like all nouns, of the third person; we therefore use the third person singular of the verb runs. Again, in the sentence "John and James read," the subject, John and James, expresses an idea of more than one, and so the verb must be plural, read, not reads, as it would have been, had only one name been mentioned. In this sentence," John or James intends to accompany me," it is obvious, from the very nature of the conjunction or, that intention is predicated or asserted only of one of the persons, and therefore the verb is in the singular, intends.

205. The infinitive of a verb, the clause of a sentence, a phrase, or any sort of word, may be used as the nominative to a verb.

EXAMPLES.

1. History forbids despair without authorizing vanity.—Arnold. 2. The Spaniards were the newly conquered subjects of Carthage.-Idem.

3. The momentary junction of several tribes produces an army; their more lasting union constitutes a nation.-Gibbon.

4. The supply and distribution of water in a large city are well worth observing.-Arnott.

5. The origin of the city and state of Rome is involved in great uncertainty.-Tytler.

6. A man is never lost till he abandons himself.—M'Cullagh. 7. Their subtlety in logic, and great ingenuity in devising arguments, were employed in sophisms that undermined the foundations of moral integrity in the heart.-Hallam.

8. In the mean time, the almost unobserved advancement and diffusion of knowledge were paving the way for discoveries, of

which the high results will be contemplated only by unborn ages.Mackintosh.

9. Numbers destroy responsibility without conferring wisdom, while ambition weakens the sense of justice without adding to the capacity for judgment.-Alison.

10.

The mountains look on Marathon,

And Marathon looks on the sea.

11. The sports of children satisfy the child.-Goldsmith. 12. To bear is to conquer our fate.-Campbell.

Byron.

13. Forever is not a category that can establish itself in this world of time.-Carlyle.

14.

To reign is worth ambition, though in hell;
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Milton.

15. In the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and precious gift.-Gibbon.

206. As collective nouns, though singular in form, may yet suggest the idea of plurality, they are joined either to a singular or a plural verb, according as the idea suggested is that of unity or plurality. Thus, when we say, "The army is on its march," we seem to lose sight of the individuals composing the idea represented by the word army, and speak of it as one mass; but if we say, "The peasantry go barefooted," this mode of expression seems to give us an idea of a number of people existing separately, and we therefore put the verb in the plural. The truth seems to be, that the idea of unity and the idea of multiplicity may be both involved in a collective noun, and it depends upon which idea predominates whether we shall make the verb singular or plural. Sometimes the two ideas are about equally prominent, being, as it were, in equilibrium, and then either number may be adopted. But in that case it should be particularly observed, that if in one part of a sentence it is made to stand as singular, it ought not in another to be used as plural.

EXAMPLES.

1. The people of the rude tribes of America are remarkable for their artifice and duplicity.-Robertson.

2. The robust youth of the seacoast were chained to the oar.Gibbon.

3. There is a certain class of men who never look, &c.—Macaulay.

4. Every one perceives that in the letters of a mother to her daughter, the public, in a strict sense, is not thought of.-Hallam. 5. I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded not on their usefulness to the community so much as on what they are in themselves.-Channing.

While this multitude of flies

6.

Is filling all the air with melody.

Wordsworth.

7. Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen.-Byron.

207. A noun is sometimes put in the nominative, even when it is not the subject of the sentence, but merely stands connected with a participle or an adjective: thus, in these lines of Cowper,—

"Thou, as a gallant bark from Albion's coast

(The storms all weather'd and the ocean cross'd)

Shoots into port," &c.

The words storms and ocean, joined to the participles weathered and crossed, are neither the nominatives to any verb, nor are they the object affected by a transitive verb or a preposition. Still, they are in the nominative; and this construction is known among grammarians as the nominative absolute. Some grammarians, indeed, contend, and not without reason, that there is an absolute case, quite distinct from the nominative; and that to speak of the "nominative absolute" involves a contradiction of ideas. It must at once be conceded, that the noun conveys very different ideas in the two cases referred to, and we cannot well deny that they ought to have separate names, in the same manner as we give different names to the nominative and objective, although they are the same in form. But whatever name we give the absolute case, its form is certainly the same as that of the nominative. Mr Latham* is the only grammarian, so far as I know, who has defended Tillotson's expression " He made as wise and true proverbs as anybody else has done since, him only excepted who," &c. Mr Latham sees no reason for him being considered incorrect. It is a matter to be settled by usage, not argument,

* English Language, p. 368.

and as the nominative and objective are alike in nouns, we can only decide the question by quoting passages with pronouns, and these are found mostly in the poets.

4. Success being now hopeless, preparations were made for a retreat.-Alison.

208. As a concluding remark about the nominative and verb, I would say, that the form of the word expressing the idea, rather than the idea itself, represented by the subject is generally allowed to regulate the number of the verb. The idea, however, sometimes preponderates. Thus, in the sentence from M'Cullagh, "The double charge that lies against Christendom is," &c., the idea of plurality is suggested by "double charge," yet as charge, which is singular in form, is the real subject of discourse, the verb is properly made singular.

EXAMPLES.

1. The government of Ireland, as well as that of England and Scotland, was, at the accession of James, allowed to remain in the hands of Protestant Tories.-Macintosh.

2. Concession after concession was made in this way.-M'Cullagh.

209. "Pompey as well as Cæsar were great men,” and "Pompey, as well as Cæsar, was a great man," are both quite grammatical; but there is an obvious difference in the meaning. Gibbon, in one place, says, "The nurse as well as the preceptor of Caracalla were Christians;" and in another, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital." Here the same phrase, as well as, is used in both sentences; but in the first it implies combination, and is therefore followed by a verb in the

66

plural; while in the second it merely indicates comparison, and therefore takes a singular verb after it. These nice distinctions elude rules.

EXAMPLES.

1. For a laggard in love and a dastard in war

2.

Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
My poverty, but not my will, consents.

Scott.

Shakspeare.

3. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs.-Gibbon.

4. The religious solemnity of Milton's own temperament, as well as the nature of the subject, have given a sort of breadth,—an unbroken severity to the whole drama.—Hallam.

SENTENCES TO BE CORRECTED.

Rule I.-205.

1. Seriousness and zeal in religion is natural to the English.Tillotson.

2. The hardship and exposure of a savage life speedily destroys those who are not of a robust constitution.-Whately.

3. A thoughtlessness and improvidence with respect to the future, and a general imprudence in the conduct of life, has been often laid to the charge of poets.-Dugald Stewart.

4. The puritanism was an accident-civil and religious liberty were the essentials.-Robert Bell.

5. The general consternation spread by these proceedings have prevented a particular account of many of the cases from reaching us.-Mackintosh.

6. The Old World was too narrow for her ambition, and the heart's blood of Peru and Mexico were mingled in the wine-cup of her lust.-M'Cullagh.

7. His reputation was great, and somewhat more durable than that of similar poets have generally been.-Hallam.

8. The culture of the intellectual and moral faculties in their most extensive sense, the health of the body, the accomplishments which common utility or social custom have rendered valuable, enter into his (Locke's) idea of the best model of education.-Idem.

9. The diminution of his influence and restraint on his activity was an essential injury to the colony.-Robertson.

10. Meanwhile the violence and injustice of the internal administration keeps pace with our iniquities abroad.-Hall.

11. In his satires, a poignancy and spirit, it is said, frequently breaks out.-Hallam.