LESSON IV. Tell me whether you will do it or no. After the most straitest sect, I lived a Pharisee. Doubt not, little though there be, But I'll cast a crumb to thee.-Langhorne.l This rule is the best which can be given. I have never seen no other way. 2 These are poor amends for the men and treasures which we have lost. Dost thou know them boys?!! This is a part of my uncle's father's estate. / Many people never learn to speak correct. Some people are rash, and others timid: those apprehend too much, these too little. -/ Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cæsar or no? 6 It was not worth while preserving any permanent enmity. ness of it. Every person is answerable for their own conduct. They are men that scorn a mean action, and who will exert themselves to serve you. I do not recollect ever having paid it. The stoics taught that all crimes were equal. 6 now exploded. There is no situation where he would be happy. The boy has been detected in stealing, that you thought so clever. I will meet thee there if thee please. He is not so sick, but what he can laugh. These clothes does not fit me. 77 The audience was all very attentive. Wert thou some star, which from the ruin'd roof LESSON V. Was the master, or many of the scholars, in the room 'His father's and mother's consent was asked. Whom is he supposed to be? He is an old venerable man. It was then my purpose to have visited Sicily. 13 ? It is to the learner only, and he that is in doubt, that this as sistance is recommended. There are not the least hope of his recovery. Anger and impatience is always unreasonable. In his letters, there are not only correctness, but elegance. Opportunity to do good is the highest preferment which a noble mind desires. The year when he died, is not mentioned. Had I knew it, I should not have went. The house is situated pleasantly. He did it as private as he possibly could. Subduing our passions is the noblest of conquests. Words interwove with sighs found out their way. The number of our days are with thee. Like a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.-Psalms, ciii, 13. The circumstances of this case, is different. Well for us, if some such other men should rise! A man that is young in years, may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. The chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take them by force from among them.-Acts, xxiii, 10. Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us Ourselves to end ourselves.-Shakspeare. CHAPTER IV.-GENERAL ITEMS. The following comprehensive canon for the correction of all sorts of nondescript errors in syntax, a few general observations on the foregoing code of instructions, some examples of false syntax to be corrected by the General Rule, and a series of parsing lessons, illustrative of the Exceptions and Observations previously presented, constitute the present chapter. GENERAL RULE OF SYNTAX. In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYNTAX. OBS. 1.-In proportion as the rules of Syntax are made few and general, they must be either vague or liable to exceptions. The number of the prin ciples which deserve to be placed in the rules, is not fixed by any obvious distinction; hence the diversity in the number of the rules as given by dif ferent grammarians. In this matter a middle course seems to be best. We have therefore taken the parts of speech in their order, and comprised all the general principles of relation, agreement, and government, in twenty-six leading Rules. Of these rules, eight (namely, the Ist, the 4th, the 14th, the 15th, the 16th, the 17th, the 18th, and the 19th,) are used only in parsing ; two (namely, the 13th and the 26th,) are necessary only for the correction of false syntax; the remaining sixteen answer the double purpose of parsing and correction. The Exceptions, of which there are twenty-six, belong to ten different rules. The Notes, of which there are eighty-seven, are subordinate rules of syntax, formed for the detection of errors. The Observations, of which there are about two hundred, are chiefly designed to explain the arrangement of words, and whatever is difficult or peculiar in construction. OBS. 2.-The General Rule of Syntax, being designed to meet every possible form of error in construction, necessarily includes all the particular rules and notes. It is too broad to convey very definite instruction, and ought not to be applied were a special rule or note is applicable. A few examples, not properly coming under any other head, will serve to show its use and application: such examples are given in the false syntax below. OBS. 3.-In the foregoing pages, the principles of syntax or construction, are supposed to be pretty fully developed; but there may be in composition many errors of such a nature that no rule of grammar can show what should be substituted. The greater the inaccuracy, the more difficult the correction; because the sentence may require a change throughout. Thus, the following definition, though very short, is a fourfold solecism: "Number is the consideration of an object, as one or more.”—Murray. This sentence, though written by one grammarian, and copied by twenty others, cannot be corrected but by changing every word in it: but this will of course destroy its identity, and form an other sentence, not an amendment. It is unfortunate for youth, that a volume of these incorrigible sentences might be culled from our grammars! Examples of false syntax cannot embrace what is either utterly wrong in thought, or utterly unintelligible in language; for the writer's meaning must be preserved in the correction, and where no sense is discovered, particular improprieties can never be detected and proved. The sentence above is one which we cannot correct; but we can say of it-first, that number in grammar never can be defined, because unity and plurality have no common property-secondly, that number is not consideration, in any sense of the word—thirdly, that an object is known to be one object, by mere intuition, and not by consideration-and, fourthly, that he who considers an object as more than one, misconceives it!!!! OBS. 4.-In the first eighteen rules, we have given the syntax of all the parts of speech in regard to relation and agreement. And, by placing the rules in the order of the parts of speech, we hope to have relieved the pupil from all difficulty in recollecting the numbers by which they are distinguished; for, in the exercise of parsing, it is very important that the Rules be distinctly and accurately quoted by the pupil. Relation and agreement have been taken together, because they could not properly be separated. One word may relate to an other and not agree with it; but there is never any necessary agreement between words that have not a relation, or a dependence on each other according to the sense. OBS. 5.-The English language having few inflections, has also few concords or agreements. Articles, adjectives, and participles, which in many other languages agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, have usually in English, no modifications in which they can agree with their nouns. Lowth says, "The adjective in English, having no variation of gender and number, cannot but agree with the substantive in these respects." What then is the agreement of words? Can it be any thing else than their similarity in some common property or modification? And is it not obvious, that no two things in nature can any wise agree or be alike, except in some quality or accident which belongs to each of them? Yet how often have Murrag and others, as well as Lowth, forgotten this! To give one instance out of many: "Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it."-Murray, Pierce, Flint, Lyon, Bacon, Russell, Fisk, Maltby, Alger, Miller, Merchant, Kirkham, and other idle copyists. Yet, ac cording to these same gentlemen, "Gender is the distinction of nouns, with regard to sex;" and, "Pronouns must always agree with their antecedents, and the nouns for which they stand, in gender." Now, not one of these three careless assertions can possibly be reconciled with either of the others!!! FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE GENERAL RULE. If I can contribute to your and my country's glory.-Goldsmith. [FORMULE.-Not proper, because the pronoun your has not a clear and regular construction. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence having a double meaning, may be corrected in two ways: thus, If I can contribute to our country's glory-or, If I can contribute to your glory and that of my country.] Is there, then, more than one true religion? The laws of Lycurgus but substituted insensibility to enjoyment.-Goldsmith. Rain is seldom or ever seen at Lima. The young bird raising its open mouth for food, is a natural indication of corporeal want.-Cardell. There is much of truth in the observation of Ascham.-Id. The Coptic alphabet was one of the latest formed of any.—Id. He may be said to have saved the life of a citizen; and, consequently, entitled to the reward. The men had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood be fore the gate.-Acts, x, 17. Give no more trouble than you can possibly help. The art of printing being then unknown, was a circumstance in some respects favourable to freedom of the pen. Another passion which the present age is apt to run into, is to make children learn all things.-Goldsmith. It requires few talents to which most men are not born, or, at least, may not acquire. Nor was Philip wanting in his endeavours to corrupt Demosthenes, as he had most of the leading men in Greece.Goldsmith. The Greeks, fearing to be surrounded on all sides wheeled The first from hope, the last from vacancy.-Byron, By aught than Romans Rome should thus be laid?—Id. EXAMPLES FOR ANALYSIS AND PARSING. SENTENCES OF PECULIAR OR IRREGULAR CONSTRUCTION. The examples here given, with the subjoined references and anno tations, are designed to illustrate, and exercise the pupil in, the various Observations, Exceptions, and Notes under the Sections upon Analysis, and the Rules of Syntax. The Praxis is the same as in the preceding Syntactical Exercises. I. PROSE. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero-the wise, the good, or the great man-very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, whicha a proper education might have disinterred and brought to light.-Addison. Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite butb for a moment?—Job, xx., 4, 5. Wherefore ye needs must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience'd sake.-Rom., xiii., 5. For now I see through a glass darkly; but then, face to facee now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.-1 Cor., xiii., 12. Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'-Matt., v., 37. Every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, being a Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that a Note V., Rule V. b Obs. 8, Note VII., Rule XV.; and Obs. 2, page 112. e Adverb. Contraction of need is. d Obs. 7, Rule XIX. e Adverbial phrase, idiomatic; or independent phrase, absolute. [See page 112.] f Explanatory clause, predicate being understood. Obs. 6, Rule XXV. |