The Grammar of English Grammars Part 222

"Some _drily_ plain, without invention's aid, Write dull receipts how poems may be made."--_Pope cor._

RULE XII.--FINAL Y.

"The _gayety_ of youth should be tempered by the precepts of age."--_Murray cor._ "In the storm of 1703, two thousand stacks of _chimneys_ were blown down in and about London."--_Red Book cor._ "And the vexation was not abated by the _hackneyed_ plea of haste."--_Id._ "The fourth sin of our _days_ is lukewarmness."--_Perkins cor._ "G.o.d hates the workers of iniquity, and _destroys_ them that speak lies."--_Id._ "For, when he _lays_ his hand upon us, we may not fret."--_Id._ "Care not for it; but if thou _mayst_ be free, choose it rather."--_Id._ "Alexander Severus saith, 'He that _buyeth_, must sell; I will not suffer buyers and sellers of offices.'"--_Id._ "With these measures, fell in all _moneyed_ men."--See _Johnson's Dict._ "But rattling nonsense in full _volleys_ breaks."--_Murray's Reader, q. Pope_. "_Valleys_ are the intervals betwixt mountains."--_Woodward cor._ "The Hebrews had fifty-two _journeys_ or marches."--_Wood cor._ "It was not possible to manage or steer the _galleys_ thus fastened together."--_Goldsmith cor._ "_Turkeys_ were not known to naturalists till after the discovery of America."--_Gregory cor._ "I would not have given it for a wilderness of _monkeys_."--SHAK.: _in Johnson's Dict._ "Men worked at embroidery, especially in _abbeys_."--_Constable cor._ "By which all purchasers or mortgagees may be secured of all _moneys_ they lay out."--_Temple cor._ "He would fly to the mines _or_ the _galleys_, for his recreation."--_South cor._ "Here _pulleys_ make the pond'rous oak ascend."--_Gay cor._

------"You need my help, and you say, Shylock, we would have _moneys_."--_Shak. cor._

RULE XIII.--IZE AND ISE.

"Will any able writer _authorize_ other men to _revise_ his works?"--_G.

B_. "It can be made as strong and expressive as this _Latinized_ English."--_Murray cor._ "Governed by the success or failure of an _enterprise_."--_Id._ "Who have _patronized_ the cause of justice against powerful oppressors."--_Id., et al_. "Yet custom _authorizes_ this use of it."--_Priestley cor._ "They _surprise_ myself, ****; and I even think the writers themselves will be _surprised_."--_Id._ "Let the interest _rise_ to any sum which can be obtained."--_Webster cor._ "To _determine_ what interest shall _arise_ on the use of money."--_Id._ "To direct the popular councils and check _any rising_ opposition,"--_Id._ "Five were appointed to the immediate _exercise_ of the office."--_Id._ "No man ever offers himself as a candidate by _advertising_."--_Id._ "They are honest and economical, but indolent, and dest.i.tute of _enterprise_."--_Id._ "I would, however, _advise_ you to be cautious."--_Id._ "We are accountable for what we _patronize_ in others."--_Murray cor._ "After he was _baptized_, and was solemnly admitted into the office."--_Perkins cor._ "He will find all, or most, of them, _comprised_ in the exercises."--_Brit. Gram. cor._ "A quick and ready habit of _methodizing_ and regulating their thoughts."--_Id._ "To _tyrannize_ over the time and patience of his readers."--_Kirkham cor._ "Writers of dull books, however, if _patronized_ at all, are rewarded beyond their deserts."--_Id._ "A little reflection will show the reader the reason for _emphasizing_ the words marked."--_Id._ "The English Chronicle contains an account of a _surprising_ cure."--_Red Book cor._ "_Dogmatize_, to a.s.sert positively; Dogmatizer, an _a.s.sertor_, a magisterial teacher."--_Chalmers cor._ "And their inflections might now have been easily _a.n.a.lyzed_."--_Murray cor._ "Authorize, _disauthorize_, and unauthorized; Temporize, _contemporize_, and extemporize."--_Walker cor._ "Legalize, _equalize, methodize_, sluggardize, _womanize_, humanize, _patronize_, cantonize, _gluttonize, epitomize_, anatomize, _phlebotomize, sanctuarize_, characterize, _synonymize, recognize_, detonize, _colonize_."--_Id. cor._

"This beauty sweetness always must _comprise_, Which from the subject, well express'd, will rise."--_Brightland cor._

RULE XIV.--COMPOUNDS.

"The glory of the Lord shall be thy _rear-ward_."--SCOTT, ALGER: _Isa._, lviii, 8. "A mere _van-courier_ to announce the coming of his master."--_Tooke cor._ "The _party-coloured_ shutter appeared to come close up before him."--_Kirkham cor._ "When the day broke upon this _handful_ of forlorn but dauntless spirits."--_Id._ "If, upon a _plumtree_, peaches and apricots are engrafted, _n.o.body_ will say they are the natural growth of the _plumtree_.'--_Berkley cor._ "The channel between Newfoundland and Labrador is called the Straits of _Belleisle_."--_Worcester cor._ "There being nothing that more exposes to _the headache_:"--or, (perhaps more accurately,) "_headake_."--_Locke cor._ "And, by a sleep, to say we end the _heartache_:"--or, "_heartake_."--_Shak. cor._ "He that sleeps, feels not the _toothache_:"--or, "_toothake_."--_Id._ "That the shoe must fit him, because it fitted his father and _grandfather_."--_Phil. Museum cor._ "A single word _misspelled_ [or _misspelt_] in a letter is sufficient to show that you have received a defective education."--_C. Bucke cor._ "Which _misstatement_ the committee attributed to a failure of memory."--_Professors cor._ "Then he went through the _Banqueting-House_ to the scaffold."--_Smollet cor._ "For the purpose of maintaining a clergyman and _a schoolmaster_."--_Webster cor._ "They however knew that the lands were claimed by _Pennsylvania_."--_Id._ "But if you ask a reason, they immediately bid _farewell_ to argument."--_Barnes cor._ "Whom resist, _steadfast_ in the faith."--_Alger's Bible_. "And they continued _steadfastly_ in the apostles' doctrine."--_Id._ "Beware lest ye also fall from your own _steadfastness_."--_Ib._ "_Galiot_, or _Galliot_, a Dutch vessel carrying a main-mast and a _mizzen-mast_."--_Webster cor._ "Infinitive, to overflow; Preterit, overflowed; Participle, _overflowed_."--_Cobbett cor._ "After they have _misspent_ so much precious time."--_Brit. Gram. cor._ "Some say, 'two _handsful_;" some, 'two _handfuls_; and others, 'two _handful_.' The second expression is right."--_G. Brown_. "_Lapful_, as much as the lap can contain."--_Webster cor._ "_Dareful_, full of defiance."--_Walker cor._ "The road to the _blissful_ regions is as open to the peasant as to the king."--_Mur. cor._ "_Misspell_ is _misspelled_ [or _misspelt_] in every dictionary which I have seen."--_Barnes cor._ "_Downfall_; ruin, calamity, fall from rank or state."--_Johnson cor._ "The whole legislature _likewise_ acts _as_ a court."--_Webster cor._ "It were better a _millstone_ were hanged about his neck."--_Perkins cor._ "_Plumtree_, a tree that produces plums; _Hogplumtree_, a tree."--_Webster cor._ "_Trissyllables_ ending in _re_ or _le_, accent the first syllable."--_Murray cor._

"It happened on a summer's _holyday_, That to the greenwood shade he took his way."--_Dryden_.

RULE XV.--USAGE.

"Nor are the _moods_ of the Greek tongue more uniform."--_Murray cor._ "If we _a.n.a.lyze_ a conjunctive _preterit_, the rule will not appear to hold."--_Priestley cor._ "No landholder would have been at that _expense_."--_Id._ "I went to see the child whilst they were putting on its _clothes_."--_Id._ "This _style_ is ostentatious, and _does_ not suit grave writing."--_Id._ "The king of Israel and _Jehoshaphat_ the king of Judah, sat each on his throne."--_1 Kings_, xxii, 10; _2 Chron._, xviii, 9.

"_Lysias_, speaking of his friends, promised to his father never to abandon them."--_Murray cor._ "Some, to avoid this _error_, run into _its_ opposite."--_Churchill cor._ "Hope, the balm of life _soothes_ us under every misfortune."--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 182. "Any judgement or decree might be _heard_ and reversed by the legislature."--_N. Webster cor._ "A pathetic _harangue will screen_ from punishment any knave."--_Id._ "For the same _reason_ the _women_ would be improper judges."--_Id._ "Every person _is_ indulged in worshiping _as_ he _pleases_."--_Id._ "Most or all _teachers_ are excluded from genteel company."--_Id._ "The _Christian_ religion, in its purity, _is_ the best inst.i.tution on _earth_."--_Id._ "_Neither_ clergymen nor human laws _have_ the _least_ authority over the conscience."--_Id._ "A _guild_ is a society, fraternity, or corporation."--_Barnes cor._ "Phillis was not able to _untie_ the knot, and so she cut it."--_Id._ "An _acre_ of land is the quant.i.ty of one hundred and sixty perches."--_Id._ "_Ochre_ is a fossil earth combined with the _oxyd_ of some metal."--_Id._ "_Genii_, when denoting _aerial_ spirits; _geniuses_, when signifying persons of genius."--_Murray cor._; also _Frost_; also _Nutting_. "Acrisius, king of Argos, had a beautiful daughter, whose name was _Danae_."--_Cla.s.sic Tales cor._ "_Phaeton_ was the son of Apollo and Clymene."--_Id._--"But, after all, I may not have reached the intended _goal_."--_Buchanan cor._ "'_Pittacus_ was offered a large sum.' Better: '_To Pittacus_ was offered a large sum.'"--_Kirkham cor._ "King _Micipsa_ charged his sons to respect the senate and people of Rome."--_Id._ "For example: '_Galileo_ greatly improved the telescope.'"--_Id._ "Cathmor's _warriors_ sleep in death."--_Macpherson's Ossian_. "For parsing will enable you to detect and correct _errors_ in composition."--_Kirkham cor._

"O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry plain, Extends thy _uncontrolled_ and boundless reign."--_Dryden cor._

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS OF FALSE SPELLING.

LESSON I.--MIXED EXAMPLES.

"A bad author deserves better usage than a bad _critic_."--_Pope (or Johnson) cor._ "Produce a single pa.s.sage, _superior_ to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, _governor_ of this state."--_Jefferson's Notes_, p. 94. "We have none _synonymous_ to supply its place."--_Jamieson cor._ "There is a probability that the effect will be _accelerated_."--_Id._ "Nay, a regard to sound has _controlled_ the public choice."--_Id._ "Though learnt [better, _learned_] from the uninterrupted use of _guttural_ sounds."--_Id._ "It is by carefully filing off all roughness and _all inequalities_, that languages, like metals, must be polished."--_Id._ "That I have not _misspent_ my time in the service of the community."--_Buchanan cor._ "The leaves of _maize_ are also called blades."--_Webster cor._ "Who boast that they know what is past, and can _foretell_ what is to come."--_Robertson cor._ "Its tasteless _dullness_ is interrupted by nothing but its perplexities."--_Abbott, right_. "Sentences constructed with the Johnsonian _fullness_ and swell."--_Jamieson, right_.

"The privilege of escaping from his prefatory _dullness_ and prolixity."--_Kirkham, right_. "But, in poetry, this _characteristic_ of _dullness_ attains its full growth."--_Id. corrected_. "The leading _characteristic_ consists in an increase of the force and fullness."--_Id cor._ "The character of this opening _fullness_ and feebler vanish."--_Id.

cor._ "Who, in the _fullness_ of _unequalled_ power, would not believe himself the favourite of Heaven?"--_Id. right_. "They _mar_ one _an_ other, and distract him."--_Philol. Mus. cor._ "Let a deaf _worshiper_ of antiquity and an English prosodist settle this."--_Rush cor._ "This _Philippic_ gave rise to my satirical reply in self-defence."--_Merchant cor._ "We here saw no _innuendoes_, no new sophistry, no falsehoods."--_Id._ "A witty and _humorous_ vein has often produced enemies."--_Murray cor._ "Cry _hollo_! to thy tongue, I _pray thee_:[527]

it _curvets_ unseasonably."--_Shak. cor._ "I said, in my _sliest_ manner, 'Your health, sir.'"--_Blackwood cor._ "And _attorneys_ also travel the circuit in _pursuit_ of business."--_Barnes cor._ "Some whole counties in Virginia would hardly _sell_ for the _value_ of the _debts due_ from the inhabitants."--_Webster cor._ "They were called the Court of a.s.sistants, and _exercised_ all powers, _legislative_ and judicial."--_Id._ "Arithmetic is excellent for the _gauging_ of liquors."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 295.

"Most of the inflections may be _a.n.a.lyzed_ in a way somewhat similar."--_Murray cor._

"To epithets allots emphatic state, _While_ princ.i.p.als, ungrac'd, like _lackeys_ wait."

--_T. O. Churchill's Gram._, p. 326.

LESSON II.--MIXED EXAMPLES.

"Hence _less_ is a privative _suffix_, denoting dest.i.tution; as in _fatherless, faithless, penniless_."--_Webster cor._ "_Bay_; red, or reddish, inclining to a _chestnut colour_."--_Id._ "To _mimick_, to imitate or ape for sport; a _mimic_, one who imitates or mimicks."--_Id._ "Counterroll, a counterpart or copy of the rolls; _Counterrollment_, a counter account."--_Id._ "_Millennium_, [from _mille_ and _annus_,] the thousand years during which Satan shall be bound."--See _Johnson's Dict._ "_Millennial_, [like _septennial, decennial_, &c.,] pertaining to the _millennium_, or to a thousand years."--See _Worcester's Dict._ "_Thralldom_; slavery, bondage, a state of servitude."--_Webster's Dict._ "Brier, a p.r.i.c.kly bush; Briery, rough, p.r.i.c.kly, full of briers; _Sweetbrier_, a fragrant shrub."--See _Ainsworth's Dict., Scott's, Gobb's_, and others. "_Will_, in the second and third persons, barely _foretells_."--_Brit. Gram. cor._ "And _therefore_ there is no word false, but what is distinguished by Italics."--_Id._ "What should be _repeated_, is left to their discretion."--_Id._ "Because they are abstracted or _separated_ from material substances."--_Id._ "All motion is in time, and _therefore, wherever_ it exists, implies time as its _concomitant_."-- _Harris's Hermes_, p. 95. "And illiterate grown persons are guilty of _blamable_ spelling."--_Brit. Gram. cor._ "They _will_ always be ignorant, and of _rough_, uncivil manners."--_Webster cor._ "This fact _will_ hardly be _believed_ in the northern states."--_Id._ "The province, however, _was hara.s.sed_ with disputes."--_Id._ "So little concern _has_ the legislature for the interest of _learning_."--_Id._ "The gentlemen _will_ not admit that a _schoolmaster_ can be a gentleman."--_Id._ "Such absurd _quid-pro-quoes_ cannot be too strenuously avoided."--_Churchill cor._ "When we say of a man, 'He looks _slily_;' we signify, that he takes a sly glance or peep at something."--_Id._ "_Peep_; to look through a crevice; to look narrowly, closely, or _slily_"--_Webster cor._ "Hence the confession has become a _hackneyed_ proverb."--_Wayland cor._ "Not to mention the more ornamental parts of _gilding_, varnish, &c."--_Tooke cor._ "After this system of self-interest had been _riveted_."--_Dr. Brown cor._ "Prejudice might have prevented the cordial approbation of a _bigoted_ Jew."--_Dr.

Scott cor._

"All twinkling with the _dewdrop_ sheen, The _brier-rose_ fell in streamers green."--_Sir W. Scott cor._

LESSON III.--MIXED EXAMPLES.

"The infinitive _mood_ has, commonly, the sign _to_ before it."--_Harrison cor._ "Thus, it is _advisable_ to write _singeing_, from the verb to _singe_, by way of distinction from _singing_, the participle of the verb to _sing_."--_Id._ "Many verbs form both the _preterit_ tense and the _preterit_ participle irregularly."--_Id._ "Much must be left to every one's taste and _judgement_."--_Id._ "Verses of different lengths, intermixed, form a _Pindaric_ poem."--_Priestley cor._ "He'll _surprise_ you."--_Frost cor._ "Unequalled archer! why was this concealed?"-- _Knowles_. "So _gayly_ curl the waves before each dashing prow."--_Byron cor._ "When is a _diphthong_ called a proper _diphthong_?"--_Inf. S. Gram.

cor._ "How many _Esses_ would _the word_ then end with? Three; for it would be _goodness's_."--_Id._ "_Qu_. What is a _triphthong_? _Ans_. A _triphthong_ is a _coalition_ of three vowels _in one syllable_."--_Bacon cor._ "The verb, noun, or p.r.o.noun, is referred to the preceding terms taken _separately_."--_Murray_. "The cubic foot of matter which occupies the _centre_ of the globe."--_Cardell cor._ "The wine imbibes _oxygen_, or the acidifying principle, from the air."--_Id._ "Charcoal, sulphur, and _nitre_, make _gunpowder_."--_Id._ "It would be readily understood, that the thing so _labelled_ was a bottle of Madeira wine."--_Id._ "They went their ways, one to his farm, an other to his _merchandise_."--_Matt._, xxii, 5. "A _diphthong_ is the union of two vowels, _both in one syllable_."--_Russell cor._ "The professors of the _Mohammedan_ religion are called Mussulmans."--_Maltby cor._ "This _shows_ that _let_ is not a _mere_ sign of the imperative mood, but a real verb."--_Id._ "Those _preterits_ and participles which are first mentioned in the list, seem to be the most eligible."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 107; _Fisk's_, 81; _Ingersoll's_, 103. "Monosyllables, for the most part, are compared by _er_ and _est_, and _dissyllables_, by _more_ and _most_."--_Murray's Gram._, p.

47. "This termination, added to a noun or _an_ adjective, changes it into a verb: as, _modern_, to _modernize_; a _symbol_, to _symbolize_."-- _Churchill cor._ "An _Abridgement_ of Murray's Grammar, with additions from Webster, Ash, Tooke, and others."--_Maltby's Gram._, p. 2. "For the sake of occupying the room more _advantageously_, the subject of Orthography is merely glanced at."--_Nutting cor._ "So contended the accusers of _Galileo_."--_O. B. Peirce cor._ Murray says, "They were _travelling post_ when _he_ met them."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 69. "They _fulfill_ the only purposes for which they were designed."--_Peirce cor._--See _Webster's Dict._ "On the _fulfillment_ of the event."--_Peirce, right_. "_Fullness_ consists in expressing every idea."--_Id._ "Consistently with _fullness_ and perspicuity."--_Peirce cor._ "The word _veriest_ is a _regular adjective_; as, 'He is the _veriest_ fool on earth.'"--_Wright cor._ "The sound will _recall_ the idea of the object."--_Hiley cor._ "Formed for great _enterprises_."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 113. "The most important rules and definitions are printed in large type, _Italicized_."--_Hart cor._ "HAMLETED, _a._, accustomed to a hamlet, countrified."--_Webster_, and _Worcester_. "Singular, _spoonful, cupful, coachful, handful_; plural, _spoonfuls, cupfuls, coachfuls, handfuls_."--_Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary_.

"Between superlatives and following names, _Of_, by _grammatic_ right, a station claims."--_Brightland cor._

THE KEY.--PART II.--ETYMOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.--PARTS OF SPEECH.

The first chapter of Etymology, as it exhibits only the distribution of words into the ten Parts of Speech, contains no false grammar for correction. And it may be here observed, that as mistakes concerning the forms, cla.s.ses, or modifications of words, are chiefly to be found in _sentences_, rather than in any separate exhibition of the terms; the quotations of this kind, with which I have ill.u.s.trated the principles of etymology, are many of them such as might perhaps with more propriety be denominated _false syntax_. But, having examples enough at hand to show the ignorance and carelessness of authors in every part of grammar, I have thought it most advisable, so to distribute them as to leave no part dest.i.tute of this most impressive kind of ill.u.s.tration. The examples exhibited as _false etymology_, are as distinct from those which are called _false syntax_, as the nature of the case will admit.

CHAPTER II.--ARTICLES.

CORRECTIONS RESPECTING A, AN, AND THE.

LESSON I.--ARTICLES ADAPTED.

"Honour is _a_ useful distinction in life."--_Milnes cor._ "No writer, therefore, ought to foment _a_ humour of innovation."--_Jamieson cor._ "Conjunctions [generally] require a situation between the things of which they form _a_ union."--_Id._ "Nothing is more easy than to mistake _a u_ for an _a_."--_Tooke cor._ "From making so ill _a_ use of our innocent expressions."--_Penn cor._ "To grant thee _a_ heavenly and incorruptible crown of glory."--_Sewel cor._ "It in no wise follows, that such _a_ one was able to predict."--_Id._ "With _a_ harmless patience, they have borne most heavy oppressions."--_Id._ "My attendance was to make me _a_ happier man."--_Spect. cor._ "On the wonderful nature of _a_ human mind."--_Id._ "I have got _a_ hussy of a maid, who is most craftily given to this."--_Id._ "Argus is said to have had _a_ hundred eyes, some of which were always awake."--_Stories cor._ "Centiped, having _a_ hundred feet; centennial, consisting of a hundred years."--_Town cor._ "No good man, he thought, could be _a_ heretic."--_Gilpin cor._ "As, a Christian, an infidel, _a_ heathen."--_Ash cor._ "Of two or more words, usually joined by _a_ hyphen."--_Blair cor._ "We may consider the whole s.p.a.ce of _a_ hundred years as time present."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 138. "In guarding against such _a_ use of meats and drinks."--_Ash cor._ "Worship is _a_ homage due from man to his Creator."--_Monitor cor._ "Then _a_ eulogium on the deceased was p.r.o.nounced."--_Grimshaw cor._ "But for Adam there was not found _a_ help meet for him."--_Bible cor._ "My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as _a_ hearth."--_Id._ "A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof."--_Id._ "The hill of G.o.d is as the hill of Bashan; _a_ high hill, as the hill of Bashan."--_Id._ "But I do declare it to have been _a_ holy offering, and such _a_ one too as was to be once for all."--_Penn cor._ "A hope that does not make ashamed those that have it."--_Barclay cor._ "Where there is not _a_ unity, we may exercise true charity."--_Id._ "Tell me, if in any of these such _a_ union can be found?"--_Dr. Brown cor._

"Such holy drops her tresses steeped, Though 'twas _a_ hero's eye that weeped."--_Sir W. Scott cor._

LESSON II.--ARTICLES INSERTED.

"This veil of flesh parts the visible and _the_ invisible world."--_Sherlock cor._ "The copulative and _the_ disjunctive conjunctions operate differently on the verb."--_L. Murray cor._ "Every combination of a preposition and _an_ article with the noun."--_Id._ "_Either_ signifies, 'the one or the other:' _neither_ imports, 'not either;' that is, 'not _the_ one nor the other.'"--_Id._ "A noun of mult.i.tude may have a p.r.o.noun or _a_ verb agreeing with it, either of the singular number or _of the_ plural."--_Bucke cor._ "_The princ.i.p.al_ copulative conjunctions are, _and, as, both, because, for, if, that, then, since_."--_Id._ "The two real genders are the masculine and _the_ feminine."--_Id._ "In which a mute and _a_ liquid are represented by the same character, _th_."--_Gardiner cor._ "They said, John _the_ Baptist hath sent us unto thee."--_Bible cor._ "They indeed remember the names of _an_ abundance of places."--_Spect. cor._ "Which created a great dispute between the young and _the_ old men."--_Goldsmith cor._ "Then shall be read the Apostles' or _the_ Nicene Creed."--_Com. Prayer cor._ "The rules concerning the perfect tenses and _the_ supines of verbs are Lily's."--_K. Henry's Gr. cor._ "It was read by the high and the low, the learned and _the_ illiterate."--_Dr. Johnson cor._ "Most commonly, both the p.r.o.noun and _the_ verb are understood."--_Buchanan cor._ "To signify the thick and _the_ slender enunciation of tone."--_Knight cor._ "The difference between a palatial and _a_ guttural aspirate is very small."--_Id._ "Leaving it to waver between the figurative and _the_ literal sense."--_Jamieson cor._ "Whatever verb will not admit of both an active and _a_ pa.s.sive signification."--_Alex.

Murray cor._ "_The_ is often set before adverbs in the comparative or _the_ superlative degree."--_Id. and Kirkham cor._ "Lest any should fear the effect of such a change, upon the present or _the_ succeeding age of writers."--_Fowle cor._ "In all these measures, the accents are to be placed on _the_ even syllables; and every line is, in general, _the_ more melodious, as this rule is _the_ more strictly observed."--_L. Murray et al. cor._ "How many numbers do nouns appear to have? Two: the singular and _the_ plural."--_R. C. Smith cor._ "How many persons? Three; the first, _the_ second, and _the_ third."--_Id._ "How many cases? Three; the nominative, _the_ possessive, and _the_ objective."--_Id._

"Ah! what avails it me, the flocks to keep, Who lost my heart while I preserv'd _the_ sheep:"--or, "_my_ sheep."

LESSON III.--ARTICLES OMITTED.

"The negroes are all _descendants_ of Africans."--_Morse cor._ "_Sybarite_ was applied as a term of reproach to a man of dissolute manners."--_Id._ "The original signification of _knave_ was _boy_."--_Webster cor._ "The meaning of these will be explained, for greater clearness and precision."--_Bucke cor._ "What sort of _noun_ is _man_? A noun substantive, common."--_Buchanan cor._ "Is _what_ ever used as three kinds of _p.r.o.noun_?"_--Kirkham's Question cor._ [Answer: "No; as a p.r.o.noun, it is either relative or interrogative."--_G. Brown_.] "They delighted in _having done it_, as well as in the doing of it."--_R. Johnson cor._ "_Both parts_ of this rule are exemplified in the following sentences."--_Murray cor._ "He has taught them to hope for _an other and better_ world."--_Knapp cor._ "It was itself only preparatory to a future, _better_, and perfect revelation."--_Keith cor._ "_Es_ then makes _an other and distinct_ syllable."--_Brightland cor._ "The eternal clamours of a _selfish and factious_ people."--_Dr. Brown cor._ "To those whose taste in elocution is _but little_ cultivated."--_Kirkham cor._ "They considered they had but a _sort of gourd_ to rejoice in."--_Bennet cor._ "Now there was _but one such bough_, in a s.p.a.cious and shady grove."--_Bacon cor._ "Now the absurdity of this latter supposition will go a great way _towards making_ a man easy."--_Collier cor._ "This is true of _mathematics, with which taste_ has but little to do."--_Todd cor._ "To stand prompter to a _pausing yet ready_ comprehension."--_Rush cor._ "Such an obedience as the _yoked and tortured_ negro is compelled to yield to the whip of the overseer."--_Chalmers cor._ "For the gratification of a _momentary and unholy_ desire."--_Wayland cor._ "The body is slenderly put together; the mind, a rambling _sort of thing_."--_Collier cor._ "The only nominative to the verb, is _officer_."--_Murray cor._ "And though _in general_ it ought to be admitted, &c."--_Blair cor._ "Philosophical writing admits of a polished, _neat_, and elegant style."--_Id._ "But notwithstanding this defect, Thomson is a strong _and beautiful_ describer."--_Id._ "So should he be sure to be ransomed, _and many_ poor men's lives _should be_ saved."--_Shak. cor._

"Who felt the wrong, or feared it, _took alarm_, Appealed to law, and Justice lent her arm."--_Pope cor._

LESSON IV.--ARTICLES CHANGED.