The Grammar of English Grammars Part 111

"By such a change thy _darkness_ is made _light_, Thy _chaos order_, and thy _weakness might_."--_Cowper_, Vol. i, p. 88.

OBS. 2.--In this rule, the terms _after_ and _preceding_ refer rather to the order of the sense and construction, than to the mere _placing_ of the words; for the words in fact admit of various positions. The proper subject of the verb is the nominative _to_ it, or _before_ it, by Rule 2d; and the other nominative, however placed, is understood to be that which comes _after_ it, by Rule 6th. In general, however, the proper subject _precedes_ the verb, and the other word _follows_ it, agreeably to the literal sense of the rule. But when the proper subject is placed after the verb, as in certain instances specified in the second observation under Rule 2d, the explanatory nominative is commonly introduced still later; as, "But be _thou_ an _example_ of the believers."--_1 Tim_. iv, 12. "But what! is thy _servant_ a _dog_?"--_2 Kings_, viii, 13. "And so would I, were _I Parmenio_."--_Goldsmith_. "O Conloch's daughter! is _it thou_?"--_Ossian_.

But in the following example, on the contrary, there is a transposition of the entire lines, and the verb agrees with the two nominatives in the latter:

"To thee _were_ solemn _toys_ or empty _show_, The _robes_ of pleasure and the _veils_ of wo."--_Dr. Johnson_.

OBS. 3.--In interrogative sentences, the terms are usually transposed,[359]

or both are placed after the verb; as, "Am _I_ a _Jew_?"--_John_, xviii, 35. "Art _thou_ a _king_ then?"--_Ib._, ver. 37. "_What_ is _truth_?"--_Ib._, ver. 38. "_Who_ art _thou_?"--_Ib._, i, 19. "Art _thou Elias_?"--_Ib._, i, 21. "Tell me, Alciphron, is not _distance_ a _line_ turned endwise to the eye?"--_Berkley's Dialogues_, p. 161.

"Whence, and _what_ art _thou_, execrable shape?"--_Milton_.

"Art _thou_ that traitor _angel_? art _thou he_?"--_Idem_.

OBS. 4.--In a declarative sentence also, there may be a rhetorical or poetical transposition of one or both of the terms: as, "And I _thy victim_ now remain."--_Francis's Horace_, ii, 45. "To thy own dogs a _prey_ thou shalt be made."--_Pope's Homer_, "I was eyes to the blind, and _feet_ was _I_ to the lame."--_Job_, xxix, 15. "Far other _scene_ is _Thrasymene_ now."--_Byron_. In the following sentence, the latter term is palpably misplaced: "It does not clearly appear at first _what the antecedent is_ to _they_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 218. Say rather: "It does not clearly appear at first, _what is the antecedent_ to [the p.r.o.noun] _they_." In examples transposed like the following, there is an elegant ellipsis of the verb to which the p.r.o.noun is nominative; as, _am, art_, &c.

"When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering _angel thou_."--_Scott's Marmion._

"The forum's champion, and the people's chief, Her new-born _Numa thou_--with reign, alas! too brief."--_Byron_.

"For this commission'd, I forsook the sky-- Nay, cease to kneel--thy _fellow-servant I_."--_Parnell._

OBS. 5.--In some peculiar constructions, both words naturally come _before_ the verb; as, "I know not _who she_ is."--"_Who_ did you say _it_ was?"--"I know not how to tell thee _who I_ am."--_Romeo_. "Inquire thou whose _son_ the _stripling_ is."--_1 Sam._, xvii, 56. "Man would not be the creature _which he_ now is."--_Blair_. "I could not guess _who it_ should be."--_Addison_. And they are sometimes placed in this manner by _hyberbaton_ [sic--KTH], or transposition; as, "Yet _he it_ is."--_Young_.

"No contemptible _orator he_ was."--_Dr. Blair_. "_He it_ is to whom I shall give a sop."--_John_, xiii, 26. "And a very n.o.ble _personage Cato_ is."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 457. "_Clouds they_ are without water."--_Jude_, 12.

"Of worm or serpent kind _it something_ looked, But monstrous, with a thousand snaky heads."--_Pollok_, B. i, l. 183.

OBS. 6.--As infinitives and participles have no nominatives of their own, such of them as are not transitive in their nature, may take _different_ cases after them; and, in order to determine what _case_ it is that follows them, the learner must carefully observe what preceding word denotes the same person or thing, and apply the principle of the rule accordingly. This word being often remote, and sometimes understood, the _sense_ is the only clew to the construction. Examples: "_Who_ then can bear the thought of being an _outcast_ from his presence?"--_Addison_. Here _outcast_ agrees with _who_, and not with _thought_. "_I_ cannot help being so pa.s.sionate an _admirer_ as I am."--_Steele_. Here _admirer_ agrees with _I_. "To recommend _what_ the soberer part of mankind look upon to be a _trifle_."--_Steele_. Here _trifle_ agrees with _what_ as relative, the objective governed by _upon_. "_It_ would be a romantic _madness_, for a _man_ to be a _lord_ in his closet."--_Id._ Here _madness_ is in the nominative case, agreeing with _it_; and _lord_, in the objective, agreeing with _man_. "To _affect_ to be a _lord_ in one's closet, would be a romantic _madness_." In this sentence also, _lord_ is in the objective, after _to be_; and _madness_, in the nominative, after _would be._

"'My dear _Tibullus!_' If that will not do, Let _me_ be _Horace_, and be _Ovid you_."--_Pope_, B. ii, Ep. ii, 143.

OBS. 7.--An active-intransitive or a neuter participle in _ing_, when governed by a preposition, is often followed by a noun or a p.r.o.noun the case of which depends not on the preposition, but on the case which goes before. Example: "The _Jews_ were in a particular manner ridiculed _for being_ a credulous _people_."--_Addison's Evidences_, p. 28. Here _people_ is in the nominative case, agreeing with _Jews_. Again: "The learned pagans ridiculed the _Jews_ for _being_ a credulous _people_." Here _people_ is in the objective case, because the preceding noun _Jews_ is so. In both instances the preposition _for_ governs the participle _being_, and nothing else. "The atrocious crime of _being_ a young _man_, I shall neither attempt to palliate _or_ deny."--PITT: _Bullions's E. Gram._, p. 82; _S. S.

Greene's_, 174. Sanborn has this text, with "_nor_" for "_or_."--_a.n.a.lytical Gram._, p. 190. This example has been erroneously cited, as one in which the case of the noun after the participle is _not determined_ by its relation to any other word. Sanborn absurdly supposes it to be "in the _nominative independent_." Bullions as strangely tells us, "it may correctly be called the _objective indefinite_"--like _me_ in the following example: "He was not sure of _its being me_."--_Bullions's E.

Gram._, p. 82. This latter text I take to be _bad English_. It should be, "He was not sure _of it as being me_;" or, "He was not sure _that it was I."_ But, in the text above, there is an evident transposition. The syntactical order is this: "_I_ shall neither deny _nor_ attempt to palliate the atrocious crime of being a young _man_." The words _man_ and _I_ refer to the same person, and are therefore in the same case, according to the rule which I have given above.

OBS. 8.--S. S. Greene, in his late Grammar, improperly denominates this case after the participle _being_, "the _predicate-nominative_," and imagines that it necessarily remains a nominative even when the possessive case precedes the participle. If he were right in this, there would be an important exception to Rule 6th above. But so singularly absurd is his doctrine about "_abridged predicates_," that in general the _abridging_ shows an _increase_ of syllables, and often a conversion of good English into bad. For example: "_It_ [the predicate] remains _unchanged in the nominative_, when, with the participle of the copula, _it_ becomes _a verbal noun_, limited by the possessive case of the subject; as, 'That he was a foreigner prevented his election,'='_His_ being a _foreigner_ prevented his election.'"--_Greene's a.n.a.lysis_, p. 169. Here the number of syllables is unaltered; but _foreigner_ is very improperly called "a verbal noun," and an example which only lacks a comma, is changed to what Wells rightly calls an "_anomalous expression_," and one wherein that author supposes _foreigner_ and _his_ to be necessarily in the same case. But Greene varies this example into other "_abridged forms_," thus: "I knew _that he was a foreigner_," = "I knew _his being_, or _of his being a foreigner_." "The fact _that he was a foreigner_, = _of his being a foreigner_, was undeniable." "_When he was first called a foreigner_, = _on his being first called a foreigner_, his anger was excited."--_Ib._, p.

171. All these changes _enlarge_, rather than abridge, the expression; and, at the same time, make it questionable English, to say the least of it.

OBS. 9.--In some examples, the adverb _there_ precedes the participle, and we evidently have nothing by which to determine the case that follows; as, "These judges were twelve in number. Was this _owing to there being_ twelve primary _deities_ among the Gothic nations?"--_Webster's Essays_, p.

263. Say rather: "Was this _because there were_ twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?" "How many are injured by Adam's fall, that know nothing of _there ever being_ such a man in the world!"--_Barclay's Apology_, p. 185. Say rather,--"_who know not that there ever was_ such a man in the world!"

OBS. 10.--In some other examples, we find a possessive before the participle, and a doubtful case after it; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to make use of as the strongest argument of _his_ being the promised _Messiah_"--_Addison's Evidences_, p. 81. "But my chief affliction consisted in _my_ being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper _object_ upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper."--_Cowper's Memoir_, p. 13. "[Greek: Tou patros [ontos] onou euthus hypemnaesthae]. He had some sort of recollection of his _father's_ being an a.s.s"--_Collectanea Graeca Minora, Notae_, p. 7. This construction, though not uncommon, is anomalous in more respects than one.

Whether or not it is worthy to form an exception to the rule of _same cases_, or even to that of _possessives_, the reader may judge from the observations made on it under the latter. I should rather devise some way to avoid it, if any can be found--and I believe there can; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to _advance_ as the strongest _proof that he was_ the promised Messiah."--"But my chief affliction consisted in _this, that I was_ singled out," &c. The story of the mule is, "_He seemed to recollect on a sudden that his father was an a.s.s_." This is the proper meaning of the Greek text above; but the construction is different, the Greek nouns being genitives in apposition.

OBS. 11.--A noun in the nominative case sometimes follows a finite verb, when the equivalent subject that stands before the verb, is not a noun or p.r.o.noun, but a phrase or a sentence which supplies the place of a nominative; as, "That the barons and freeholders derived their authority from kings, is wholly a _mistake_."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 277. "To speak of a slave as a member of civil society, may, by some, be regarded a _solecism_."--_Stroud's Sketch_, p. 65. Here _mistake_ and _solecism_ are as plainly nominatives, as if the preceding subjects had been declinable words.

OBS. 12.--When a noun is put after an abstract infinitive that is not transitive, it appears necessarily to be in the objective case,[360] though not governed by the verb; for if we supply any noun to which such infinitive may be supposed to refer, it must be introduced before the verb by the preposition _for_: as, "To be an _Englishman_ in London, a _Frenchman_ in Paris, a _Spaniard_ in Madrid, is no easy matter; and yet it is necessary."--_Home's Art of Thinking_, p. 89. That is, "_For a traveller_ to be an _Englishman_ in London," &c. "It is certainly as easy to be a _scholar_, as a _gamester_."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 425. That is, "It is as easy _for a young man_ to be a _scholar, as it is for him to be a gamester_." "To be an eloquent _speaker_, in the proper sense of the _word_, is far from being a common or easy _attainment._"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 337. Here _attainment_ is in the nominative, after _is_--or, rather after _being_, for it follows both; and _speaker_, in the objective after _to be_. "It is almost as hard a thing [for a _man_] to be a poet in despite of fortune, as it is [for _one_ to be a _poet_] in despite of nature."--_Cowley's Preface to his Poems_, p. vii.

OBS. 13.--Where precision is necessary, loose or abstract infinitives are improper; as, "But _to be precise_, signifies, that _they_ express _that idea_, and _no more_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 94; _Murray's Gram._, 301; _Jamieson's Rhet._, 64. Say rather: "But, _for an author's words to be precise_, signifies, that they express _his exact_ idea, and _nothing_ more _or less_."

OBS. 14.--The princ.i.p.al verbs that take the same case after as before them, except those which are pa.s.sive, are the following: to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is to be observed, that they are sometimes transitive, and govern the objective: as, "To _commence_ a suit."--_Johnson_. "O _continue_ thy loving kindness unto them."--_Psalms_, x.x.xvi, 10. "A feather will _turn_ the scale."--_Shak._ "_Return_ him a trespa.s.s offering."--_1 Samuel_. "For it _becomes_ me so to speak."--_Dryden_. But their construction with like cases is easily distinguished by the sense; as, "When _I_ commenced _author_, my aim was to amuse."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 286. "_Men_ continue men's _destroyers_."--_Nixon's Pa.r.s.er_, p. 56. "'Tis most just, that thou turn rascal"--_Shak., Timon of Athens_. "He went out _mate_, but _he_ returned _captain_."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "After this event _he_ became _physician_ to the king."--_Ib._ That is, "When I _began to be_ an author,"

&c.

"Ev'n mean _self-love_ becomes, by force divine, The _scale_ to measure others' wants by thine."--_Pope_.

OBS. 15.--The common instructions of our English grammars, in relation to the subject of the preceding rule, are exceedingly erroneous and defective.

For example: "The verb TO BE, has _always_ a nominative case after it, _unless it be_ in the infinitive mode."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 77. "The verb TO BE _requires_ the same case after it as before it."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 142. "The verb TO BE, through all its variations, _has_ the same case after it, _expressed or understood_, as _that_ which _next_ precedes it."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 181; _Alger's_, 62; _Merchant's_, 91; _Putnam's_, 116; _Smith's_, 97; and many others. "The verb TO BE has _usually_ the same case after it, as that which _immediately_ precedes it."--_Hall's Gram._, p. 31. "_Neuter verbs have_ the same case after them, as that which _next_ precedes them."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 14. "Pa.s.sive verbs _which signify naming_, and others of a _similar nature_, have the same case _before and after_ them."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "A Noun or p.r.o.noun used in predication with a verb, is in the Independent Case.

EXAMPLES--'Thou art a _scholar_.' 'It is _I_.' 'G.o.d is _love_.'"--_S. W.

Clark's Pract. Gram._, p. 149. So many and monstrous are the faults of these rules, that nothing but very learned and reverend authority, could possibly impose such teaching anywhere. The first, though written by Lowth, is not a whit wiser than to say, "The preposition _to_ has _always_ an infinitive mood after it, _unless it be_ a preposition." And this latter absurdity is even a better rule for all infinitives, than the former for all predicated nominatives. Nor is there much more fitness in any of the rest. "The verb TO BE, _through all_," or even _in any_, of its parts, has neither "_always_" nor _usually_ a case "_expressed_ or _understood_" after it; and, even when there is a noun or a p.r.o.noun put after it, the case is, in very many instances, not to be determined by that which "_next_" or "_immediately_" precedes the verb. Examples: "A _sect of freethinkers_ is a _sum_ of ciphers."--_Bentley_. "And _I_ am this _day_ weak, though anointed _king_."--_2 Sam._, iii, 39. "_What_ made _Luther_ a great _man_, was _his_ unshaken _reliance_ on G.o.d."--_Kortz's Life of Luther_, p. 13. "The devil offers his service; _He_ is sent with a positive _commission_ to be a lying _spirit_ in the mouth of all the prophets."--_Calvin's Inst.i.tutes_, p. 131.

It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words _sum, king, reliance_, and _spirit_, are _nominatives_, after the verb or participle; and not _objectives_, as they must be, if there were any truth in the common a.s.sertion, "that the two cases, which, in the construction of the sentence, are _the next_ before and after it, must always be alike."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 98. Not only may the nominative before the verb be followed by an objective, but the nominative after it may be preceded by a possessive; as, "Amos, the herdsman of _Tekoa_, was not a _prophet's_ son."--"It is the _king's_ chapel, and it is the _king's_ court."--_Amos_, vii, 13. How ignorant then must that person be, who cannot see the falsity of the instructions above cited! How careless the reader who overlooks it!

NOTES TO RULE VI.

NOTE I.--The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a participial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid; for the cases ought to be _clear_, even in exceptions to the common rules of construction. Examples: (1.) "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state _of being a widow_."--_Webster's Dict._ Say rather, "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state of a widow."--_Johnson, Walker, Worcester_. (2.) "I had a suspicion of the _fellow's_ being a _swindler_/" Say rather, "I had a suspicion _that the fellow was a swindler_." (3.) "To prevent _its_ being a dry _detail_ of terms."--_Buck_. Better, "To prevent it _from_ being a dry detail of terms." [361]

NOTE II.--The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to accord in signification, either literally or figuratively, with the preceding term which is taken for a sign of the same thing. Errors: (1.) "_To be convicted_ of bribery, was then a crime altogether unpardonable."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 265. To be convicted of a crime, is not the crime itself; say, therefore, "_Bribery_ was then a _crime_ altogether unpardonable." (2.) "The second person is the _object_ of the Imperative."--_Murray's Gram., Index_, ii, 292. Say rather, "The second person is the _subject_ of the imperative;" for the _object_ of a verb is the word governed by it, and not its nominative.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VI.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--OF PROPER IDENt.i.tY.

"Who would not say, 'If it be _me_,' rather than, If it be _I_?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 105.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the p.r.o.noun _me_,--which comes after the neuter verb _be_, is in the objective case, and does not agree with the p.r.o.noun _it_, the verb's nominative,[362]

which refers to the same thing. But, according to Rule 6th, "A noun or a p.r.o.noun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding noun or p.r.o.noun referring to the same thing." Therefore, _me_ should be _I_; thus, "Who would not say, 'If it be _I_,' rather than, 'If it be _me_?'"]

"Who is there? It is me."--_Priestley, ib._, p. 104. "It is him."--_Id., ib._, 104. "Are these the houses you were speaking of? Yes, they are them."--_Id., ib._, 104. "It is not me you are in love with."--_Addison's Spect._, No. 290; _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104; and _Campbell's Rhet._, p.

203. "It cannot be me."--SWIFT: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104. "To that which once was thee."--PRIOR: _ib._, 104. "There is but one man that she can have, and that is me."--CLARISSA: _ib._, 104. "We enter, as it were, into his body, and become, in some measure, him."--ADAM SMITH: _ib._, p. 105.

"Art thou proud yet? Ay, that I am not thee."--_Shak., Timon_. "He knew not whom they were."--_Milnes, Greek Gram._, p. 234. "Who do you think me to be?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 108. "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?"--_Matt._, xvi, 13. "But whom say ye that I am?"--_Ib._, xvi, 15.--"Whom think ye that I am? I am not he."--_Acts_, xiii, 25. "No; I am mistaken; I perceive it is not the person whom I supposed it was."--_Winter in London_, ii, 66. "And while it is Him I serve, life is not without value."--_Zen.o.bia_, i, 76. "Without ever dreaming it was him."--_Life of Charles XII_, p. 271. "Or he was not the illiterate personage whom he affected to be."--_Montgomery's Lect._ "Yet was he him, who was to be the greatest apostle of the Gentiles."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 540. "Sweet was the thrilling ecstacy; I know not if 'twas love, or thee."--_Queen's Wake_, p. 14. "Time was, when none would cry, that oaf was me."--_Dryden, Prol._ "No matter where the vanquish'd be, nor whom."--_Rowe's Lucan_, B.

i, l. 676. "No, I little thought it had been him."--_Life of Oration_.

"That reverence and G.o.dly fear, whose object is 'Him who can destroy both body and soul in h.e.l.l.'"--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 312. "It is us that they seek to please, or rather to astonish."--_West's Letters_, p. 28. "Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac."--_Gen._, xxiv, 14. "Although I knew it to be he."--_d.i.c.kens's Notes_, p. 9. "Dear gentle youth, is't none but thee?"--_Dorset's Poems_, p. 4. "Whom do they say it is?"--_Fowler's E. Gram._, --493.

"These are her garb, not her; they but express Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress."--_Hannah More_.

UNDER NOTE I.--THE CASE DOUBTFUL.

"I had no knowledge of there being any connexion between them."--_Stone, on Freemasonry_, p. 25. "To promote iniquity in others, is nearly the same as being the actors of it ourselves."--_Murray's Key_, p. 170. "It must arise from feeling delicately ourselves."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 330; _Murray's Gram._, 248. "By reason of there not having been exercised a competent physical power for their enforcement."--_Ma.s.s. Legislature_, 1839.

"PUPILAGE, _n._ The state of being a scholar."--_Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester_. "Then the other part's being the definition would make it include all verbs of every description."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 343.

"John's being my friend,[363] saved me from inconvenience."--_Ib._, p. 201.

"William's having become a judge, changed his whole demeanor."--_Ib._, p.

201. "William's having been a teacher, was the cause of the interest which he felt."--_Ib._, p. 216. "The being but one among many stifleth the chidings of conscience."--_Book of Thoughts_, p. 131. "As for its being esteemed a close translalation [sic--KTH], I doubt not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it."--_Pope's Pref. to Homer_. "All presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings, must go upon supposition that they are compounded, and so discerptible."--_Butler's a.n.a.logy_, p. 63. "This argues rather their being proper names."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 382. "But may it not be retorted, that its being a gratification is that which excites our resentment?"--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 145. "Under the common notion, of its being a system of the whole poetical art."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 401. "Whose time or other circ.u.mstances forbid their becoming cla.s.sical scholars."--_Literary Convention_, p. 113. "It would preclude the notion of his being a merely fict.i.tious personage."--_Philological Museum_, i, 446. "For, or under pretence of their being heretics or infidels."--_The Catholic Oath_; Geo.

III, 31st. "We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ's being the Object of religious Adoration."--_Relig. World_, Vol. ii, p. 200. "To say nothing of Dr. Priestley's being a strenuous advocate," &c.--_Ib._, ii, 207. "By virtue of Adam's being their public head."--_Ib._, ii, 233. "Objections against there being any such moral plan as this."--_Butler's a.n.a.logy_, p.

57. "A greater instance of a man's being a blockhead."--_Spect._, No. 520.

"We may insure or promote its being a happy state of existence to ourselves."--_Gurney's Evidences_, p. 86. "By its often falling a victim to the same kind of unnatural treatment."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 41.