cannot deny but there are perverse jades."—Spect., No. 457. Again, say, "I feared that I should be deserted;" not, "lest I should be deserted."
NOTE IV.—After else, other,[437] otherwise, rather, and all English comparatives, the latter term of an exclusive comparison should be introduced by the conjunction than—a word which is appropriated to this use solely: as, "Style is nothing else than that sort of expression which our thoughts most readily assume."—Blair's Rhet., p. 92. "What we call fables or parables are no other than allegories."—Ib., p. 151; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 243. "We judge otherwise of them than of ourselves."—R. Ainsworth. "The premeditation should be of things rather than of words."—Blair's Rhet., p. 262. "Is not the life more than meat?"—Com. Bible. "Is not life a greater gift than food?"—Campbell's Gospels.
NOTE V.—Relative pronouns, being themselves a species of connective words, necessarily exclude conjunctions; except there be two or more relative clauses to be connected together; that is, one to the other. Example of error: "The principal and distinguishing excellence of Virgil, and which, in my opinion, he possesses beyond all poets, is tenderness."—Blair's Rhet., p. 439. Better: "The principal and distinguishing excellence of Virgil, an excellence which, in my opinion, he possesses beyond all other poets, is tenderness."
NOTE VI.—The word that, (as was shown in the fifth chapter of Etymology,) is often made a pronoun in respect to what precedes it, and a conjunction in respect to what follows it—a construction which, for its anomaly, ought to be rejected. For example: "In the mean time THAT the Muscovites were complaining to St. Nicholas, Charles returned thanks to God, and prepared for new victories."—Life of Charles XII. Better thus:
"While the Muscovites were thus complaining to St. Nicholas, Charles returned thanks to God, and prepared for new victories."
NOTE VII.—The words in each of the following pairs, are the proper correspondents to each other; and care should be taken, to give them their right place in the sentence:
1. To though, corresponds yet; as, "Though he were dead, yet shall he live."—John, xi, 25. 2. To whether, corresponds or; as, "Whether it be greater or less."—Butler's Analogy, p. 77.
3. To either, corresponds or; as, "The constant indulgence of a declamatory manner, is not favourable either to good composition, or [to] good delivery."—Blair's Rhet., p. 334.
4. To neither, corresponds nor; as, "John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine."—Luke, vii, 33. "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him."—Exod., xxii, 21.
5. To both, corresponds and; as, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise."—Rom., i, 14.
6. To such, corresponds as; (the former being a pronominal adjective, and the latter a relative pronoun;) as, "An assembly such as earth saw never."—Cowper.
