The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗

X.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"This sentence violates an established rule of grammar."—L. Murray cor. "The words thou and shall are again reduced to syllables of short quantity."—Id. "Have the greatest men always been the most popular? By no means."—Lieber cor. "St. Paul positively stated, that 'He that loveth an other, hath fulfilled the law.'"—Rom., xiii, 8. "More organs than one are concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant."—M'Culloch cor. "If the reader will pardon me for descending so low."—Campbell cor. "To adjust them in such a manner as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and the grace of the period." Or: "To adjust them so, that they shall consist equally," &c.—Dr. Blair and L. Mur. cor. "This class exhibits a lamentable inefficiency, and a great want of simplicity."—Gardiner cor. "Whose style, in all its course, flows like a limpid stream, through which we see to the very bottom."—Dr. Blair cor.; also L. Murray. "We admit various ellipses." Or thus: "An ellipsis, or omission, of some words, is frequently admitted."—Lennie's Gram., p. 116. "The ellipsis, of articles may occur thus."—L. Murray cor. "Sometimes the article a is improperly applied to nouns of different numbers; as, 'A magnificent house and gardens.'"—Id. "In some very emphatical expressions, no ellipsis should be allowed."—Id. "Ellipses of the adjective may happen in the following manner."—Id. "The following examples show that there may be an ellipsis of the pronoun."—Id. "Ellipses of the verb occur in the following instances."—Id. "Ellipses of the adverb may occur in the following manner."—Id. "The following brief expressions are all of them elliptical." [554]—Id. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only will discourse be rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning will often be left ambiguous."—Id.; also J. S. Hart and Dr. Blair cor. "He regards his word, but thou dost not regard thine."—Bullions, Murray, et al., cor. "I have learned my task, but you have not learned yours."—Iid. "When the omission of a word would obscure the sense, weaken the expression, or be attended with impropriety, no ellipsis must be indulged."—Murray and Weld cor. "And therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to them all separately and individually considered."—L. Murray cor. "He was to me the most intelligible of all who spoke on the subject."—Id. "I understood him better than I did any other who spoke on the subject."—Id. "The roughness found on the entrance into the paths of virtue and learning decreases as we advance." Or: "The roughnesses encountered in the paths of virtue and learning diminish as we advance."—Id. "There is nothing which more promotes knowledge, than do steady application and habitual observation."—Id. "Virtue confers on man the highest dignity of which he is capable; it should therefore be the chief object of his desire."—Id. and Merchant cor. "The supreme Author of our being has so formed the human soul, that nothing but himself can be its last, adequate, and proper happiness."—Addison and Blair cor. "The inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations of our Europeans: 'Because,' say they, 'any one may place trees in equal rows and uniform figures.'"—Iid. "The divine laws are not to be reversed by those of men."—L. Murray cor. "In both of these examples, the relative which and the verb was are understood."—Id. et al. cor. "The Greek and Latin languages, though for many reasons they cannot be called dialects of one and the same tongue, are nevertheless closely connected."—Dr. Murray cor. "To ascertain and settle whether a white rose or a red breathes the sweetest fragrance." Or thus: "To ascertain and settle which of the two breathes the sweeter fragrance, a white rose or a red one."—J. Q. Adams cor. "To which he can afford to devote but little of his time and labour."—Dr. Blair cor.

"Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such As still are pleased too little or too much."—Pope cor.

LESSON XI.—OF BAD PHRASES.

"He might as well leave his vessel to the direction of the winds."—South cor. "Without good-nature and gratitude, men might as well live in a wilderness as in society."—L'Estrange cor. "And, for this reason, such lines very seldom occur together."—Dr. Blair cor. "His greatness did not make him happy."—Crombie cor. "Let that which tends to cool your love, be judged in all."—Crisp cor. "It is worth observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and masters the fear of death."—Bacon cor. "Accent dignifies the syllable on which it is laid, and makes it more audible than the rest."—Sheridan and Murray cor. "Before he proceeds to argue on either side."—Dr. Blair cor. "The general change of manners, throughout Europe."—Id. "The sweetness and beauty of Virgil's numbers, through all his works."—Id. "The French writers of sermons, study neatness and elegance in the division of their discourses."—Id. "This seldom fails to prove a refrigerant to passion."—Id. "But their fathers, brothers, and uncles, cannot, as good relations and good citizens, excuse themselves for not standing forth to demand vengeance."—Murray's Sequel, p. 114. "Alleging, that their decrial of the church of Rome, was a uniting with the Turks."—Barclay cor. "To which is added the Catechism by the Assembly of Divines."—N. E. Prim. cor. "This treachery was always present in the thoughts of both of them."— Robertson cor. "Thus far their words agree." Or: "Thus far the words of both agree."—W. Walker cor. "Aparithmesis is an enumeration of the several parts of what, as a whole, might be expressed in few words."—Gould cor. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is a figure in which what might be expressed in a few words, is branched out into several parts."—Dr. Adam cor. "Which may sit from time to time, where you dwell, or in the vicinity."—J. O. Taylor cor. "Place together a large-sized animal and a small one, of the same species." Or: "Place together a large and a small animal of the same species."—Kames cor. "The weight of the swimming body is equal to that of the quantity of fluid displaced by it."—Percival cor. "The Subjunctive mood, in all its tenses, is similar to the Optative."—Gwilt cor. "No feeling of obligation remains, except that of an obligation to fidelity."—Wayland cor. "Who asked him why whole audiences should be moved to tears at the representation of some story on the stage."—Sheridan cor. "Are you not ashamed to affirm that the best works of the Spirit of Christ in his saints are as filthy rags?"—Barclay cor. "A neuter verb becomes active, when followed by a noun of kindred signification."—Sanborn cor. "But he has judged better in forbearing to repeat the article the."—Dr. Blair cor. "Many objects please us, and are thought highly beautiful, which have scarcely any variety at all."—Id. "Yet they sometimes follow them."—Emmons cor. "For I know of nothing more important in the whole subject, than this doctrine of mood and tense."—R. Johnson cor. "It is by no means impossible for an error to be avoided or suppressed."—Philol. Museum cor. "These are things of the highest importance to children and youth."—Murray cor. "He ought to have omitted the word many." Or: "He might better have omitted the word many."—Dr. Blair cor. "Which might better have been separated." Or: "Which ought rather to have been separated."—Id. "Figures and metaphors, therefore, should never be used profusely."—Id. and Jam. cor. "Metaphors, or other figures, should never be used in too great abundance."—Murray and Russell cor. "Something like this has been alleged against Tacitus."— Bolingbroke cor.

   "O thou, whom all mankind in vain withstand,
    Who with the blood of each must one day stain thy hand!"
        —Sheffield cor.

LESSON XII.—OF TWO ERRORS.

"Pronouns sometimes precede the terms which they represent."—L. Murray cor. "Most prepositions originally denoted relations of place."—Lowth cor. "WHICH is applied to brute animals, and to things without life."—Bullions cor. "What thing do they describe, or of what do they tell the kind?"—Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Iron cannons, as well as brass, are now universally cast solid."—Jamieson cor. "We have philosophers, more eminent perhaps than those of any other nation."—Dr. Blair cor. "This is a question about words only, and one which common sense easily determines."—Id. "The low pitch of the voice, is that which approaches to a whisper."—Id. "Which, as to the effect, is just the same as to use no such distinctions at all."—Id. "These two systems, therefore, really differ from each other but very little."—Id. "It is needless to give many instances, as examples occur so often."—Id. "There are many occasions on which this is neither requisite nor proper."—Id. "Dramatic poetry divides itself into two forms, comedy and tragedy."—Id. "No man ever rhymed with more exactness than he." [I.e., than Roscommon.]—Editor of Waller cor. "The Doctor did not reap from his poetical labours a profit equal to that of his prose."—Johnson cor. "We will follow that which we find our fathers practised." Or: "We will follow that which we find to have been our fathers' practice."—Sale cor. "And I should deeply regret that I had published them."—Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Figures exhibit ideas with more vividness and power, than could be given them by plain language."—Kirkham cor. "The allegory is finely drawn, though the heads are various."—Spect. cor. "I should not have thought it worthy of this place." Or: "I should not have thought it worthy of being placed here."—Crombie cor. "In this style, Tacitus excels all other writers, ancient or modern."—Kames cor. "No other author, ancient or modern, possesses the art of dialogue so completely as Shakspeare."— Id. "The names of all the things we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel, are nouns."—Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Of what number are the expressions, 'these boys,' 'these pictures,' &c.?"—Id. "This sentence has faults somewhat like those of the last."—Dr. Blair cor. "Besides perspicuity, he pursues propriety, purity, and precision, in his language; which qualities form one degree, and no inconsiderable one, of beauty."—Id. "Many critical terms have unfortunately been employed in a sense too loose and vague; none with less precision, than the word sublime."—Id. "Hence no word in the language is used with a more vague signification, than the word beauty."—Id. "But still, in speech, he made use of general terms only."—Id. "These give life, body, and colouring, to the facts recited; and enable us to conceive of them as present, and passing before our eyes."—Id. "Which carried an ideal chivalry to a still more extravagant height, than the adventurous spirit of knighthood had ever attained in fact."—Id. "We write much more supinely, and with far less labour, than did the ancients."—Id. "This appears indeed to form the characteristical difference between the ancient poets, orators, and historians, and the modern."—Id. "To violate this rule, as the English too often do, shows great incorrectness."—Id. "It is impossible, by means of any training, to prevent them from appearing stiff and forced."—Id. "And it also gives to the speaker the disagreeable semblance of one who endeavours to compel assent."—Id. "And whenever a light or ludicrous anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into a note, than to run the hazard of becoming too familiar."—Id. "It is the great business of this life, to prepare and qualify ourselves for the enjoyment of a better."—L. Murray cor. "From some dictionaries, accordingly, it was omitted; and in others it is stigmatized as a barbarism."—Crombie cor. "You cannot see a thing, or think of one, the name of which is not a noun."—Mack cor. "All the fleet have arrived, and are moored in safety." Or better: "The whole fleet has arrived, and is moored in safety."—L. Murray cor.

LESSON XIII.—OF TWO ERRORS.

"They have severally their distinct and exactly-limited relations to gravity."—Hasler cor. "But where the additional s would give too much of the hissing sound, the omission takes place even in prose."—L. Murray cor. "After o, it [the w] is sometimes not sounded at all; and sometimes it is sounded like a single u."—Lowth cor. "It is situation chiefly, that decides the fortunes and characters of men."—Hume cor.; also Murray. "The vice of covetousness is that [vice] which enters more deeply into the soul than any other."—Murray et al. cor. "Of all vices, covetousness enters the most deeply into the soul."—Iid. "Of all the vices, covetousness is that which enters the most deeply into the soul."—Campbell cor. "The vice of covetousness is a fault which enters more deeply into the soul than any other."—Guardian cor. "WOULD primarily denotes inclination of will; and SHOULD, obligation: but they vary their import, and are often used to express simple events." Or:—"but both of them vary their import," &c. Or:—"but both vary their import, and are used to express simple events."—Lowth, Murray, et al. cor.; also Comly and Ingersoll; likewise Abel Flint. "A double condition, in two correspondent clauses of a sentence, is sometimes made by the word HAD; as, 'Had he done this, he had escaped.'"—Murray and Ingersoll cor. "The pleasures of the understanding are preferable to those of the imagination, as well as to those of sense."—L. Murray cor. "Claudian, in a fragment upon the wars of the giants,