The Grammar of English Grammars Part 78

_Our_ is a personal p.r.o.noun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and possessive case. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal p.r.o.noun is a p.r.o.noun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind.

6. The possessive case is that form or state of a noun or p.r.o.noun, which usually denotes the relation of property.

_Own_ is a p.r.o.nominal adjective, not compared. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A p.r.o.nominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its noun, or represent it understood. 3. Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different degrees cannot be compared.

_Which_ is a relative p.r.o.noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative p.r.o.noun is a p.r.o.noun that represents an antecedent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or p.r.o.noun which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.

_Is imposed_ is a regular pa.s.sive verb, from the active verb, _impose, imposed, imposing, imposed_,--pa.s.sive, _to be imposed_; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by a.s.suming _d_ or _ed_. 3. A pa.s.sive verb is a verb that represents the subject, or what the nominative expresses, as being acted upon. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one.

_Upon_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a p.r.o.noun.

_Us_ is a personal p.r.o.noun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used in stead of a noun.

2. A personal p.r.o.noun is a p.r.o.noun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4.

The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or p.r.o.noun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

LESSON I.--PARSING.

"He has desires after the kingdom, and mates no question but it shall be his; he wills, runs, strives, believes, hopes, prays, reads scriptures, observes duties, and regards ordinances."--_Penington_, ii, 124.

"Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."--_Luke_, xi, 52.

"Above all other liberties, give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my conscience."--_Milton_.

"Eloquence is to be looked for only in free states. Longinus ill.u.s.trates this observation with a great deal of beauty. 'Liberty,' he remarks, 'is the nurse of true genius; it animates the spirit, and invigorates the hopes, of men; it excites honourable emulation, and a desire of excelling in every art.'"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 237.

"None of the faculties common to man and the lower animals, conceive the idea of civil liberty, any more than that of religion."--_Spurzheim, on Education_, p. 259. "Whoever is not able, or does not dare, to think, or does not feel contradictions and absurdities, is unfit for a refined religion and civil liberty."--_Ib._, p. 258.

"The too great number of journals, and the extreme partiality of their authors, have much discredited them. A man must have great talents to please all sorts of readers; and it is impossible to please all authors, who, generally speaking, cannot bear with the most judicious and most decent criticisms."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 170.

"Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword."--_Ezekiel_, x.x.x, 21.

"Yet he was humble, kind, forgiving, meek, Easy to be entreated, gracious, mild; And, with all patience and affection, taught, Rebuked, persuaded, solaced, counselled, warned."--_Pollok_, B. ix.

LESSON II.--PARSING.

"What is coming, will come; what is proceeding onward, verges towards completion."--_Dr. Murray's Europ. Lang._, i, 324. "Sir, if it had not been for the art of printing, we should now have had no learning at all; for books would have perished faster than they could have been transcribed."--_Dr. Johnson's Life_, iii, 400.

"Pa.s.sionate reproofs are like medicines given scalding hot: the patient cannot take them. If we wish to do good to those whom we rebuke, we should labour for meekness of wisdom, and use soft words and hard arguments."--_Dodd_.

"My prayer for you is, that G.o.d may guide you by his counsel, and in the end bring you to glory: to this purpose, attend diligently to the dictates of his good spirit, which you may hear within you; for Christ saith, 'He that dwelleth with you, shall be in you.' And, as you hear and obey him, he will conduct you through this troublous world, in ways of truth and righteousness, and land you at last in the habitations of everlasting rest and peace with the Lord, to praise him for ever and ever."--_T. Gwin_.

"By matter, we mean, that which is tangible, extended, and divisible; by mind, that which perceives, reflects, wills, and reasons. These properties are wholly dissimilar and admit of no comparison. To pretend that mind is matter, is to propose a contradiction in terms; and is just as absurd, as to pretend that matter is mind."--_Gurney's Portable Evidence_, p. 78.

"If any one should think all this to be of little importance, I desire him to consider what he would think, if vice had, essentially, and in its nature, these advantageous tendencies, or if virtue had essentially the direct contrary ones."--_Butler_, p. 99.

"No man can write simpler and stronger English than the celebrated Boz, and this renders us the more annoyed at those manifold vulgarities and slipshod errors, which unhappily have of late years disfigured his productions."--LIVING AUTHORS OF ENGLAND: _The Examiner_, No. 119.

"Here Havard, all serene, in the same strains, Loves, hates, and rages, triumphs, and complains."--_Churchill_, p. 3.

"Let Satire, then, her proper object know, And ere she strike, be sure she strike a foe."--_John Brown_.

LESSON III.--PARSING.

"The Author of nature has as truly directed that vicious actions, considered as mischievous to society, should be punished, and has as clearly put mankind under a necessity of thus punishing them, as he has directed and necessitated us to preserve our lives by food."--_Butler's a.n.a.logy_, p. 88. "An author may injure his works by altering, and even amending, the successive editions: the first impression sinks the deepest, and with the credulous it can rarely be effaced; nay, he will be vainly employed who endeavours to eradicate it."--_Werter_, p. 82.

"It is well ordered, that even the most innocent blunder is not committed with impunity; because, were errors licensed where they do no hurt, inattention would grow into habit, and be the occasion of much hurt."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 285.

"The force of language consists in raising complete images; which have the effect to transport the reader, as by magic, into the very place of the important action, and to convert him as it were into a spectator, beholding every thing that pa.s.ses."--_Id., ib._, ii, 241.

"An orator should not put forth all his strength at the beginning, but should rise and grow upon us, as his discourse advances."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 309.

"When a talent is given to any one, an account is open with the giver of it, who appoints a day in which he will arrive and 'redemand his own with usury.'"--_West's Letters to a Young Lady_, p. 74.

"Go, and reclaim the sinner, instruct the ignorant, soften the obdurate, and (as occasion shall demand) cheer, depress, repel, allure, disturb, a.s.suage, console, or terrify."--_Jerningham's Essay on Eloquence_, p. 97.

"If all the year were playing holydays, To sport would be as tedious as to work: But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents."

--_Shak., Hen. V_.

"The man that once did sell the lion's skin While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him."

--_Id., Joh. Dict., w. Beast_.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

ERRORS OF VERBS.

LESSON I.--PRETERITS.

"In speaking on a matter which toucht their hearts."--_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 441.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb _toucht_ is terminated in _t_. But, according to Observation 2nd, on the irregular verbs, _touch_ is regular.

Therefore, this _t_ should be changed to _ed_; thus, "In speaking on a matter which _touched_ their hearts."]

"Though Horace publisht it some time after."--_Ib._, i, 444. "The best subjects with which the Greek models furnisht him."--_Ib._, i, 444. "Since he attacht no thought to it."--_Ib._, i, 645. "By what slow steps the Greek alphabet reacht its perfection."--_Ib._, i, 651. "Because Goethe wisht to erect an affectionate memorial."--_Ib._, i, 469. "But the Saxon forms soon dropt away."--_Ib._, i, 668. "It speaks of all the towns that perisht in the age of Philip."--_Ib._, i, 252. "This enricht the written language with new words."--_Ib._, i, 668. "He merely furnisht his friend with matter for laughter."--_Ib._, i, 479. "A cloud arose and stopt the light."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 313. "She slipt _zpadillo_ in her breast."--_Ib._, p. 371. "I guest the hand."--_Ib._, p. 372. "The tyrant stript me to the skin: My skin he flay'd, my hair he cropt; At head and foot my body lopt."--_Ib., On a Pen_, p. 338. "I see the greatest owls in you, That ever screecht or ever flew."--_Ib._, p. 403. "I sate with delight, from morning till night."--_Ib._, p. 367. "d.i.c.k nimbly skipt the gutter."--_Ib._, p. 375. "In at the pantry door this morn I slipt."--_Ib._, p. 369. "n.o.body living ever toucht me but you."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 92. "_Present_, I ship; _Past_, I shipped or shipt; _Participle_, shipped or shipt."--_Murray the schoolmaster. Gram._, p. 31. "Then the king arose, and tare his garments."--_2 Sam._, xiii, 31. "When he lift up his foot, he knew not where he should set it next."--_Bunyan_. "He lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time."--2 SAM.: _in Joh. Dict._ "Upon this chaos rid the distressed ark."--BURNET: _ib._ "On whose foolish honesty, my practices rid easy."--SHAK.: _ib._ "That form of the first or primogenial Earth, which rise immediately out of chaos."--BURNET: _ib._ "Sir, how come it you have holp to make this rescue?"--SHAK.: _in Joh.

Dict._ "He sware he had rather lose all his father's images than that table."--PEACHAM: _ib._ "When our language dropt its ancient terminations."--_Dr. Murray's Hist._, ii, 5. "When themselves they vilify'd."--_Milton_, P. L., xi, 515. "But I choosed rather to do thus."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 456. "When he plead against the parsons."-- _School History_, p. 168. "And he that saw it, bear record."--_Cutler's Gram._, p. 72. "An irregular verb has one more variation, as drive, drivest, drives, drivedst, drove, driving, driven."--REV. MATT. HARRISON, _on the English Language_, p. 260. "Beside that village Hannibal pitcht his camp."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 79. "He fetcht it even from Tmolus."-- _Ib._, p. 114. "He supt with his morning gown on."--_Ib._, p. 285. "There stampt her sacred name."--_Barlow's Columbiad_, B. i, l. 233.

"Fixt on the view the great discoverer stood, And thus addrest the messenger of good."--_Barlow_, B, i, l. 658.

LESSON II.--MIXED.

"Three freemen were being tried at the date of our last information."--_Newspaper_.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the participle _being_ is used after its own verb _were_. But, according to Observation 4th, on the compound form of the conjugation, this complex pa.s.sive form is an absurd innovation. Therefore, the expression should be changed; thus, "Three freemen _were on trial_"--or, "_were receiving their trial_--at the date of our last information."]

"While the house was being built, many of the tribe arrived."--_Ross c.o.x's Travels_, p. 102. "But a foundation has been laid in Zion, and the church is being built upon it."--_The Friend_, ix, 377. "And one fourth of the people are being educated."--_East India Magazine_. "The present, or that which is now being done."--_Beck's Gram._, p. 13. "A new church, called the Pantheon, is just being completed in an expensive style."--_G. A.