Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/431

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hich follow them: as, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men."--Rom., ii, 16. "In a time when thou mayest be found."--Psal., xxxii, 6. "I sought for some time what I at length found here, a place where all real wants might be easily supplied."--Dr. Johnson. "To that part of the mountain where the declivity began to grow craggy."--Id. "At Canterbury, whither some voice had run before."--Wotton. "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."--Isaiah, li, 1. "We may remark three different sources whence it arises."--Blair's Rhet., p. 163. "I'll tell you a way how you may live your time over again."--Collier's Antoninus, p. 108. "A crude account of the method how they perceive truth."--Harris's Hermes, p. 404. "The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read."--Common Prayer. "In the same reasoning we see the cause, why no substantive is susceptible of these comparative degrees."--Hermes, p. 201. "There seems no reason why it should not work prosperously."--Society in America, p. 68. "There are strong reasons why an extension of her territory would be injurious to her."--Ib. "An other reason why it deserved to be more studied."--Blair's Rhet., p. 123. "The end why God hath ordained faith, is, that his free grace might be glorified."--Goodwin.

OBS. 7.--The direct use of adverbs for pronouns, is often, if not generally, inelegant; and, except the expression may be thereby agreeably shortened, it ought to be considered ungrammatical. The following examples, and perhaps also some of the foregoing, are susceptible of improvement: "Youth is the time, when we are young."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 120. Say rather, "Youth is that part of life which succeeds to childhood." "The boy gave a satisfactory reason why he was tardy."--Ibid. Say rather, "The boy gave a satisfactory reason for his tardiness." "The several sources from whence these pleasures are derived."--Murray's Key, p. 258. Say rather--"sources from which" "In cases where it is only said, that a question has been asked."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 117. Say, "In those cases in which." "To the false rhetoric of the age when he lived."--Harris's Hermes, p. 415. Say rather--"of the age in which he lived."

OBS. 8.--When a conjunctive adverb is equivalent to both an antecedent and a relative, the construction seems to be less objectionable, and the brevity of the expression affords an additional reason for preferring it, especially in poetry: as, "But the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."--Matt., viii, 20. "There might they see whence Po and Ister came."--Hoole's Tasso. "Tell how he formed your shining frame."--Ogilvie. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth."--John, iii, 8. In this construction, the adverb is sometimes preceded by a preposition; the noun being, in fact, understood: as,

  "Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose."--Byron.
   "Here Machiavelli's earth return'd to whence it rose."--Id.

OBS. 9.--The conjunctive adverb so, very often expresses the sense of some word or phrase going before; as, "Wheresoever the speech is corrupted, so is the mind."--Seneca's Morals, p. 267. That is, the mind is also corrupted. "I consider grandeur and sublimity, as terms synonymous, or nearly so."--Blair's Rhet., p. 29. The following sentence is grossly wrong, because the import of this adverb was not well observed by the writer: "We have now come to far the most complicated part of speech; and one which is sometimes rendered still more so, than the nature of our language requires."--Nutting's Gram., p. 38. So, in some instances, repeats the import of a preceding noun, and consequently partakes the nature of a pronoun; as,

  "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow;
   Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so."--Pope, on Crit.

OBS. 10.--"Since is often improperly used for ago: as, 'When were you in France?--Twenty years since.' It ought to be, 'Twenty years ago.' Since may be admitted to supply the place of ago that: it being equally correct to say, 'It is twenty years since I was in France;' and, 'It is twenty years ago, that I was in France.'"--Churchill's Gram., p. 337. The difference between since and ago is clearly this: the former, being either a preposition or a conjunctive adverb, cannot with strict propriety be used adjectively; the latter, being in reality an old participle, naturally comes after a noun, in the sense of an adjective; as, a year ago, a month ago, a week ago. "Go, ago, ygo, gon, agon, gone, agone, are all used indiscriminately by our old English writers as the past participle of the verb to go."--Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, p. 376. "Three days agone, I fell sick."--1 Samuel, xxx,