"Nouns or pronouns, following the verb to be; or the words than, but, as; or that answer the question who? have the same case after as preceded them."—Beck's Gram., p. 29. "The common gender is when the noun may be either masculine or feminine."—Frost's Gram., p. 8. "The possessive is generally pronounced the same as if the s were added."—Alden's Gram., p. 11. "For, assuredly, as soon as men had got beyond simple interjections, and began to communicate themselves by discourse, they would be under a necessity of assigning names to the objects they saw around them, which in grammatical language, is called the invention of substantive nouns."—Blair's Rhet., p. 72. "Young children will learn to form letters as soon, if not readier, than they will when older."—Taylor's District School, p. 159. "This comparing words with one another, constitutes what is called the degrees of comparison."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 29. "Whenever a noun is immediately annexed to a preceding neuter verb, it expresses either the same notion with the verb, or denotes only the circumstance of the action."—Lowth's Gram., p. 73. "Two or more nouns or pronouns joined singular together by the conjunction and, must have verbs agreeing with them in the plural number."—Infant School Gram., p. 129. "Possessive and demonstrative pronouns agree with their nouns in number and case; as, 'my brother,' 'this slate, 'these slates.'"—Ib., p. 130. "Participles which have no relation to time are used either as adjectives or as substantives."—Maunder's Gram., p. 1. "They are in use only in some of their times and modes; and in some of them are a composition of times of several defective verbs, having the same signification."—Lowth's Gram., p. 59. "When words of the possessive case that are in apposition, follow one another in quick succession, the possessive sign should be annexed to the last only, and understood to the rest; as, 'For David, my servant's sake.'"—Comly's Gram., p. 92. "By this order, the first nine rules accord with those which respect the rules of concord; and the remainder include, though they extend beyond the rules of government."—Murray's Gram., p. 143. "Own and self, in the plural selves, are joined to the possessives, my, our, thy, your, his, her, their; as, my own hand, myself, yourselves; both of them expressing emphasis or opposition, as, 'I did it my own self,' that is, and no one else; the latter also forming the reciprocal pronoun, as, 'he hurt himself.'"—Lowth's Gram., p. 25. "A flowing copious style, therefore, is required in all public speakers; guarding, at the same time, against such a degree of diffusion, as renders them languid and tiresome; which will always prove the case, when they inculcate too much, and present the same thought under too many different views."—Blair's Rhet., p. 177. "As sentences should be cleared of redundant words, so also of redundant members. As every word ought to present a new idea, so every member ought to contain a new thought. Opposed to this, stands the fault we sometimes meet with, of the last member of a period being no other than the echo of the former, or the repetition of it in somewhat a different form." [458]—Ib., p. 111.
"Which always refers grammatically to the substantive immediately preceding: [as,] 'It is folly to pretend, by heaping up treasures, to arm ourselves against the accidents of life, which nothing can protect us against, but the good providence of our heavenly Father.'"—Murray's Gram., p. 311; Maunder's, p. 18; Blair's Rhet., p. 105. "The English adjectives, having but a very limited syntax, is classed with its kindred article, the adjective pronoun, under the eighth rule."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 143. "When a substantive is put absolutely, and does not agree with the following verb, it remains independent on the participle, and is called the case absolute, or the nominative absolute."—Ib., p. 195. "It will, doubtless, sometimes happen, that, on this occasion, as well as on many other occasions, a strict adherence to grammatical rules, would render the language stiff and formal: but when cases of this sort occur, it is better to give the expression a different turn, than to violate grammar for the sake of ease, or even of elegance."—Ib., p. 208. "Number, which distinguishes objects as singly or collectively, must have been coeval with the very infancy of language"—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 25. "The article a or an agrees with nouns in the singular number only, individually or collectively."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 170; and others. "No language is perfect because it is a human invention."—Parker and Fox's Grammar, Part III, p. 112. "The participles, or as they may properly be termed, forms of the verb in the second infinitive, usually precedes another verb, and states some fact, or event, from which an inference is drawn by that verb; as, 'the sun having arisen, they departed.'"—Day's Grammar, 2nd Ed., p. 36.
"They must describe what has happened as having done so in the past or the present time, or as likely to occur in the future."—The Well-Wishers' Grammar, Introd., p. 5. "Nouns are either male, female, or neither."—Fowle's Common School Grammar, Part Second, p. 12. "Possessive Adjectives express possession, and distinguish nouns from each other by showing to what they belong; as, my hat, John's hat."—Ib., p. 31.
PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF FALSE SYNTAX.
LESSON I.—VARIOUS RULES.
"What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of Italy, Spain, or France?"—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 185. "What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of France?"—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 152. "'I believe your Lordship will agree with me, in the reason why our language is less refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France.' DEAN SWIFT. Even in this short sentence, we may discern an inaccuracy—'why our language is less refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France;' putting the pronoun those in the plural, when the antece-
