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

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.

12. The extraordinary diminution of crime, especially of a violent kind, in all parts of the Indian peninsula, of late years, and progressive amelioration of the people, is in a great measure to be ascribed to the extensive and powerful police force, which is very generally established.-Alison.

13. The consequences flowing from the substitution of the government of functionaries for that of property, deserves the serious consideration of every reflecting mind.-Idem.

14. It is evident that signal wickedness or strenuous performance of duty seldom fail, even in this world, to work out their appropriate reward or punishment.-Idem.

15. The humidity of the atmosphere and the damp heat which is nourished amidst its intricate thickets, produces violent fevers, which often prove extremely destructive, especially to European constitutions.-Idem.

16. But the advanced civilisation and superior influence of Europe in the affairs of the world seems after all to be owing in no small degree to the superior capacity of her inhabitants.— M'Culloch's Geog. Dict.

17. Railroads seem now, however, to be likely to supersede most other methods of conveyance, in so far at least as the transit of goods and passengers are concerned.-Idem.

18. It has been contended that the increase of population, and consequently the demand for labour, has been (209) equal or nearly so to the increase of employment; that the condition of the people has not been materially improved; and that their command over the necessaries, conveniences, and enjoyments of life, have not been augmented in any thing like the degree in which their numbers have increased.-Idem.

19. The knowledge of the languages was to be acquired; the manuscripts were to be deciphered; and the skill of the grammarian and the critic were to precede, in a certain degree, that of the geometrician or the astronomer.-Playfair.

Rule I.-206.

1. A plurality of subjects require a plural verb.-Crombie. 2. Thus the whole body of the Roman people were divided into 193 centuries.-Tytler.

3. That numerous part of the human species whose lot is labour, whose principal and almost sole occupation is to secure subsistence, views the arrangement and operations of nature with little reflection, and has neither leisure nor capacity for entering upon that path of refined and intricate speculation which conducts to the knowledge of the principles of natural religion.-Robertson.

4. When a nation forms a government, it is not wisdom but power which they place in the hands of the magistrate.-Hall.

5. The Megarean sect was founded by Euclid, not the mathematician, and were the happy inventors of logical syllogism or the art of quibbling.—Tytler.

6. Can parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them?— Lord Chatham.

7. One man of genius accomplishes what a crowd of predecessors has essayed in vain.-M‘Cullagh.

8. For another century mankind was content, in respect of Greek philology, to live on the accumulations of the sixteenth.-Hallam.

Rule I.-208 and 209.

1. The moral of the Odyssey is, that prudence, joined to courage and perseverance, are sufficient to surmount the most powerful obstacles.-Tytler.

2. In reality more than one principle has been contended for at one time.-Arnold.

3. "The Annals of Florence " are a most imposing work.M'Cullagh.

4. There is a play by Haywood, "The Royal King and Loyal Subject," from which the general idea of several circumstances of this have been taken.-Hallam.

5. Such was the mingled fear and love entertained for Elizabeth that, &c.-Idem.

6. But there is in Testi, to an ordinary reader, an (?) Horatian elegance, a certain charm of grace and ease in his canzoni, which render them pleasing.-Idem.

7. Revenge or self-defence were no longer the only causes of hostility.-Robertson.

8. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance.Gibbon.

9. It is evident that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution were confined to the walls of Rome.-Idem.

10. Without entering upon this discussion, we may observe, that not one of those who question the authenticity of the account given by Herodotus, presume to doubt that the Phoenicians braved, &c.— M'Culloch.

210. After going over the Examples one by one, pointing out how they illustrate the rule, and correcting the sentences given under the head of Errors, showing not merely that they violate the rule, but endeavouring to find out how they

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