sdom, which we cannot fathom."--Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. If the principle here stated is just, Murray has written the following models erroneously: "Virtue, honour, nay, even self-interest, conspire to recommend the measure."--Ib., p. 150. "Patriotism, morality, every public and private consideration, demand our submission to just and lawful government."--Ibid. In this latter instance, I should prefer the singular verb demands; and in the former, the expression ought to be otherwise altered, thus. "Virtue, honour, and interest, all conspire to recommend the measure." Or thus: "Virtue, honour--nay, even self-interest, recommends the measure." On this principle, too, Thomson was right, and this critic wrong, in the example cited at the close of the first observation above. This construction is again recurred to by Murray, in the second chapter of his Exercises; where he explicitly condemns the following sentence because the verb is singular: "Prudence, policy, nay, his own true interest, strongly recommends the line of conduct proposed to him."--Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 22.
OBS. 6.--When two or more nominatives are in apposition with a preceding one which they explain, the verb must agree with the first word only, because the others are adjuncts to this, and not joint subjects to the verb; as, "Loudd, the ancient Lydda and Diospolis, appears like a place lately ravaged by fire and sword."--Keith's Evidences, p. 93. "Beattie, James,--a philosopher and poet,--was born in Scotland, in the year 1735."--Murray's Sequel, p. 306. "For, the quantity, the length, and shortness of our syllables, is not, by any means, so fixed."--Blair's Rhet., p. 124. This principle, like the preceding one, persuades me again to dissent from Murray, who corrects or perverts the following sentence, by changing originates to originate: "All that makes a figure on the great theatre of the world; the employments of the busy, the enterprises of the ambitious, and the exploits of the warlike; the virtues which form the happiness, and the crimes which occasion the misery of mankind; originates in that silent and secret recess of thought, which is hidden from every human eye."--See Murray's Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 181; or his Duodecimo Key, p. 21. The true subject of this proposition is the noun all, which is singular; and the other nominatives are subordinate to this, and merely explanatory of it.
OBS. 7.--Dr. Webster says, "Enumeration and addition of numbers are usually expressed in the singular number; [as,] two and two is four; seven and nine is sixteen; that is, the sum of seven and nine is sixteen. But modern usage inclines to reject the use of the verb in the singular number, in these and similar phrases."--Improved Gram., p. 106. Among its many faults, this passage exhibits a virtual contradiction. For what "modern usage inclines to reject," can hardly be the fashion in which any ideas "are usually expressed." Besides, I may safely aver, that this is a kind of phraseology which all correct usage always did reject. It is not only a gross vulgarism, but a plain and palpable violation of the foregoing rule of syntax; and, as such it must be reputed, if the rule has any propriety at all. What "enumeration" has to do with it, is more than I can tell. But Dr. Webster once admired and commended this mode of speech, as one of the "wonderful proofs of ingenuity in the framers of language;" and laboured to defend it as being "correct upon principle;" that is, upon the principle that "the sum of" is understood to be the subject of the affirmation, when one says, "Two and two is four," in stead of, "Two and two are four."--See Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 153. This seems to me a "wonderful proof" of ignorance in a very learned man. OBS. 8.--In Greek and Latin, the verb frequently agrees with the nearest nominative, and is understood to the rest; and this construction is sometimes imitated in English, especially if the nouns follow the verb: as, "[Greek: Nuni do MENEI pistis, elpis agape, ta tria tanta]."--"Nunc vero manet fides, spes, charitas; tria hæc."--"Now abideth faith, hope, charity; these three."--1 Cor., xiii, 13. "And now abideth confession, prayer, and praise, these three; but the greatest of these is praise."--ATTERBURY: Blair's Rhet., p. 300. The propriety of this usage, so far as our language is concerned, I doubt. It seems to open a door for numerous deviations from the foregoing rule, and deviations of such a sort, that if they are to be considered exceptions, one can hardly tell why. The practice, however, is not uncommon, especially if there are more nouns than two, and each is emphatic; as, "Wonderful was the patience, fortitude, self-denial, and bravery of our ancestors."--Webster's Hist. of U. S., p. 118. "It is the very thing I would have you make out: for therein consists the form, and use, and nature of language."--Berkley's Alciphron, p. 161. "There is the proper noun, and the common noun. There is the singular noun, and the plural noun."--Emmons's Gram., p. 11. "From him proceeds power, sanctification, truth, grace, and every other blessing we can conceive."--Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 13. "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?"--Jer., vi, 20. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."--Matt., vi, 13. In all these instances, the plural verb might have been used; and yet perhaps the singular may be justified on the ground that there is a distinct and emphatic enumeration of the nouns. Thus, it would be proper to say, "Thine are the kingdom, the power, and the glory;" but this construction seems less emphatic than the preceding, which means, "For thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, and thine is the glory, forever;" and this repetition is still more emphatic, and perhaps more proper, than the elliptical form. The repetition of the conjunction "and," in the original text as above, adds time and emphasis to the reading, and makes the singular verb more proper than it would otherwise be; for which reason, the following form, in which the Rev. Dr. Bullions has set the sentence down for bad English, is in some sort a perversion of the Scripture: "Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory."--Bullions's E. Gram., p. 141.
OBS. 9.--When the nominatives are of different persons, the verb agrees with the first person in preference to the second, and with the second in preference to the third; for thou and I, or he,
