ly accord with it. Every finite verb, (that is, every verb not in the infinitive mood,) must have some noun, pronoun, or phrase equivalent, known as the subject of the being, action, or passion;[386] and with this subject, whether expressed or understood, the verb must agree in person and number. The infinitive mood, as it does not unite with a nominative to form an assertion, is of course exempt from any such agreement. These may be considered principles of Universal Grammar. The Greeks, however, had a strange custom of using a plural noun of the neuter gender, with a verb of the third person singular; and in both Greek and Latin, the infinitive mood with an accusative before it was often equivalent to a finite verb with its nominative. In English we have neither of these usages; and plural nouns, even when they denote no absolute plurality, (as shears, scissors, trowsers, pantaloons, tongs,) require plural verbs or pronouns: as, "Your shears come too late, to clip the bird's wings."--SIDNEY: Churchill's Gram., p. 30.
OBS. 2.--When a book that bears a plural title, is spoken of as one thing, there is sometimes presented an apparent exception to the foregoing rule; as, "The Pleasures of Memory was published in the year 1792, and became at once popular."--Allan Cunningham. "The 'Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man' is written with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity."--Johnson's Life of Swift. "The 'Pleasures of Hope' is a splendid poem; it was written for perpetuity."--Samuel L. Knapp. In these instances, there is, I apprehend, either an
