Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1028

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some writers, as being improper."--C. Adams cor. "The word WHOSE, according to some critics, should be restricted to persons; but good writers still occasionally use it with reference to things."--Priestley et al. cor. "New and surpassing wonders present themselves to our view."--Sherlock cor. "The degrees of comparison are often inaccurately applied and construed."--Alger's Murray. Or: "Passages are often found in which the degrees of comparison have not an accurate construction."--Campbell cor.; also Murray et al. "The sign of possession is placed too far from the name, to form a construction that is either perspicuous or agreeable."--L. Murray cor. "The simple tenses are those which are formed by the principal verb without an auxiliary."--Id. "The more intimate men are, the more they affect one another's happiness."--Id. "This is the machine that he invented."--Nixon cor. "To give this sentence the interrogative form, we must express it thus." Or: "This sentence, to have the interrogative form, should be expressed thus."--L. Murray cor. "Never employ words that are susceptible of a sense different from that which you intend to convey."--Hiley cor. "Sixty pages are occupied in explaining what, according to the ordinary method, would not require more than ten or twelve."--Id. "The participle in ing always expresses action, suffering, or being, as continuing, or in progress."--Bullions cor. "The first participle of all active verbs, has usually an active signification; as, 'James is building the house.' Often, however, it takes a passive meaning; as, 'The house is building.'"--Id. "Previously to parsing this sentence, the young pupil may be taught to analyze it, by such questions as the following: viz."--Id. "Since that period, however, attention has been paid to this important subject."--Id. and Hiley cor. "A definition of a word is a brief explanation of what it means."--G. BROWN: Hiley cor.


UNDER CRITICAL NOTE XIV.--OF IGNORANCE.

"What is a verb? It is a word which signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon." Or thus: "What is an assertor? Ans. 'One who affirms positively; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator.'--WEBSTER'S DICT."--Peirce cor. "Virgil wrote the Æneid."--Kirkham cor. "Which, to a supercilious or inconsiderate native of Japan, would seem very idle and impertinent."--Locke cor. "Will not a look of disdain cast upon you throw you into a ferment?"--Say cor. "Though only the conjunction if is here set before the verb, there are several others, (as that, though, lest, unless, except,) which may be used with the subjunctive mood."--L. Murray cor. "When proper names have an article before them, they are used as common names."--Id. et al. cor. "When a proper noun has an article before it, it is used as a common noun."--Merchant cor. "Seeming to rob the death-field of its terrors."--Id. "For the same reason, we might, without any detriment to the language, dispense with the terminations of our verbs in the singular."--Kirkham cor. "It removes all possibility of being misunderstood."--Abbott cor. "Approximation to perfection is all that we can expect."--Id. "I have often joined in singing with musicians at Norwich."--Gardiner cor. "When not standing in regular prosaic order." Or:--"in the regular order of prose."--O. B. Peirce cor. "Regardless of the dogmas and edicts of the philosophical umpire."--Kirkham cor. "Others begin to talk before their mouths are open, prefixing the mouth-closing M to most of their words; as, 'M-yes,' for 'Yes.'"--Gardiner cor. "That noted close of his 'esse videatur,' exposed him to censure among his contemporaries."--Dr. Blair cor. "A man's own is what he has, or possesses by right; the word own being a past participle of the verb to owe, which formerly signified to have or possess."--Kirkham cor. "As requires so; expressing a comparison of manner; as, 'As the one dieth, so dieth the other.'"--L. Mur. et al. cor. "To obey our parents, is an obvious duty."--Parker and Fox cor. "Almost all the political papers of the kingdom have touched upon these things."--H. C. Wright cor. "I shall take the liberty to make a few observations on the subject."--Hiley cor. "His loss I have endeavoured to supply, so far as by additional vigilance and industry I could."--Id. "That they should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every want."--Frazee cor. "The guillemets, or quotation points, [""] denote that one or more words are extracted from an other author."--P. E. Day cor. "Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was one of the most noted cities of ancient times."--Id. "It may, however, be rendered definite by the mention of some particular time; as, yesterday, last week, &c."--Bullions cor. "The last is called heroic measure, and is the same that is used by Milton, Young, Thomson, Pollok. &c."--Id. "Perennial ones must be sought in the delightful regions above."--Hallock cor. "Intransitive verbs are those which are inseparable from the effect produced." Or better: "Intransitive verbs are those which express action without governing an object."--Cutler cor. "The Feminine gender belongs to women, and animals of the female kind."--Id. "Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"--ALGER'S BIBLE: Luke, xi, 44. "A pyrrhic, which has both its syllables short."--Day cor. "What kind of jessamine? A jessamine in flower, or a flowery jessamine."--Barrett cor. "LANGUAGE, a word derived from LINGUA, the tongue, now signifies any series of sounds or letters formed into words, and used for the expression of thought."--Id. See this Gram. of E. Grammars, p. 145. "Say 'none,' not 'ne'er a one.'"--Staniford cor. "'E'er a one,' [is sometimes used for 'any'] or 'either.'"--Pond cor.

  "Earth loses thy pattern for ever and aye;
   O sailor-boy! sailor-boy! peace to thy soul."
       --Dymond.
   "His brow was sad; his eye beneath
   Flashed like a falchion from its sheath."         --Longfellow's Ballads, p. 129.

[The examples exhibited for exercises under Critical Notes 15th and 16th, being judged either incapable of correction, or unworthy of the endeavour, are submitted to the criticism of the reader, without any attempt to amend them, or to offer substitutes in this place.]