Obs. 3.-A neuter verb between two nominatives should be made to agree with that which precedes it; as, "Words are wind:" except when the terms are rhetorically transposed, and the proper subject is put after the verb; as, "His pavilion were dark waters and thick clouds."-" Who art thou?"

Obs. 4.-When the verb has different forms, that form should be adopted which is the most consistent with present and reputable usage, in the style employed: thus, to say familiarly, "The clock hath stricken," "Thou laughedst and talkedst, when thou oughtest to have been silent," “He readeth and writeth, but he doth not cipher,"-would be no better, than to use, don't, won't, can't, shan't, and didn't, in preaching.

Obs. 5.-The nominative to a verb in the imperative mood, is generally omitted; as, "Guide [thou] my lonely way." With the verb in all the other personal tenses, the nominative must be expressed: except where two or more verbs are connected in the same construction; as, "They bud, blow, wither, fall, and die."

RULE X.-VERBS.

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The council were divided."

Obs. A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a verb in the third person, singular; and generally admits also the regular plural construction: as, "His army was defeated."-"His armies were defeated."

RULE XI.-VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them in the plural number: as,

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Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold."-Pope. Obs. 1.-The conjunction is sometimes understood; as,

"Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doomed."—Beattie. Obs. 2.-When the nouns connected are descriptive of one and the same thing, they are in apposition, and do not require a plural verb: as, "This philosopher and poet was banished from his country.' Obs. 3.-When the same nominative is repeated, the words are in apposition, and do not require a plural verb: as,

"Love, and love only, is the loan for love."- Young. Obs. 4.-When the verb separates its nominatives, it agrees with that which precedes it, and is understood to the rest; as, "Forth in the pleasing spring

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness, and love."-Thomson.

Obs. 5.-When two subjects are connected, one of which is taken affirmatively, and the other negatively, they belong to different propositions; and the verb or pronoun must agree with the affirmative subject, and be understood to the other: as, "Diligent industry, and not mean savings, produces honourable competence." So also when subjects are connected by as well as, but, or save; as, "Casar, as well as Cicero, was admired for his eloquence."-"Nothing but wailings was heard."-"None but thou can aid us."-"No mortal man, save he, had e'er survived."-Scott.

Obs. 6.-When the subjects are severally preceded by the adjective each, every, or no, they are taken separately, and require a verb and pronoun in the singular number; as,

"And every sense, and every heart, is joy."-Thomson.
"Each beast, each insect, happy in its own."-Pope.

Obs. 7.-Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by and, require a plural verb; as, "To be wise in our own eyes, to be wise in the opinion of the world, and to be wise in the sight of our Creator, are three things so very different as rarely to coincide.-Blair.

RULE XII-VERBS,

When a Verb has two or more singular nomi natives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them in the singular number: as, "Fear or jeal ousy affects him."

Obs. 1.-When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers, connected by or or nor, it must agree with that which is placed next to it, and be understood to the rest in the person and number required; as, "Neither he nor his brothers were there." "Neither you nor I am concerned."

Obs. 2. But when the nominatives require different forms of the verb, it is, in general, more elegant to express the verb, or its auxillary, in connection with each of them; as, "Either thou art to blame, or I am."- "Neither were their numbers, nor was their des tination known."

Obs. 3.-The speaker should generally mention himself last; as, "Thou or I must go. "He then addressed his discourse to my father and me." But in confessing a fault he may assume the first place; as, "I and Robert did it."-M. Edgeworth.

Obs. 4.-Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by or or nor, require a singular verb; as, "That a drunkard should be poor, or that a fop should be ignorant, is not strange."

RULE XIII-VERBS.

When verbs are connected by a conjunction, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or have separate nominatives expressed: as, "He himself held the plough, sowed the grain, and at

tended the reapers."-" She was proud, but she is now humble."

Obs. 1.-From this rule there are many exceptions. We may, without repeating the nominative, connect the present, the perfect, and the first-future tense of the indicative mood; the corresponding tenses of the indicative and potential moods; the affirmative and the negative form; or the simple and the compound form. But the simple verb must, in general, be placed first; as,

"What nothing earthly gives or can destroy."-Pope.
"Some are, and must be, greater than the rest.”—Id.

"Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart."-Id. Obs. 2.-Those parts which are common to several verbs, áre generally expressed to the first, and understood to the rest; as, "Every sincere endeavour to amend shall be assisted, [shall be] accepted, and [shall be] rewarded."" Honourably do the best you can" [do]-"He thought as I did" [think].-"You have seen it, but I have not" [seen it]." If you will go, I will" [go].

RULE XIV.-PARTICIPLES.

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions: as, "Elizabeth's tutor at one time paying her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato."-Hume.

Obs. 1.-The word to which the participle relates, is sometimes understood; as, "Granting this to be true, what is to be inferred from it?" that is, "I, granting this to be true, ask, what is to be inferred from it?" Some grammarians have erroneously taught that such participles are put absolute.

Obs. 2.-Participles have the same government as the verbs from which they are derived. The preposition of, therefore, should not be used after the participle, when the verb does not require it. Thus, in phrases like the following, of is improper: "Keeping of one day in seven ;"-" By preaching of repentance;"—" They left beating of Paul."

Obs. 3.-An imperfect or a compound participle, preceded by an article, an adjective, or a noun or pronoun of the possessive case, becomes a verbal noun, and, as such, it cannot govern an object after it. A word which may be the object of the participle in its proper construction requires the preposition of, to connect it with the verbal noun; as, 1. (By the participle,) "By exercising the body we promote health." 2. (By the verbal noun,) "By the exercising of the body, health is promoted.

Obs. 4.-Participles that have become nouns, may be used as such with or without the article. But we sometimes find those which retain the government and the adjuncts of participles, used as nouns before or after verbs; as, "Exciting such disturbances, is unlawful."-"Rebellion is rising against government." This mongrel construction is liable to ambiguity, and ought to be avoided.

Obs. 5.-According to the analogy of Greek and Latin, there are several intransitive verbs after which the participle in ing, relating to the nominative, may be used in stead of the infinitive connected to the verb; as, "Continue following the Lord your God."- 1 Sam., xii, 14. Greek, poreuomenoi-Latin, sequentes. Not understanding the nature of this construction, or not observing what verbs admit of it, some persons use the participle erroneously as the object of the transitive verb; and Murray has very unskillfully laid it down as a rule, that "The participle with its adjuncts, may be considered as a substantive phrase in the objective case, governed by the preposition or verb;" whereas, he himself on the preceding page, had cautioned the learner against treating words in ing, "as if they were of an amphibious species, partly nouns and partly verbs;"—that is, 66 partly nouns and partly participles;" for, according to Murray, participles are verbs.

RULE XV.-ADVERBS.

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs: as, "Any passion that habitually discomposes our temper, or unfits us for properly discharging the duties of life, has most certainly gained a very dangerous ascendency."

Obs. 1.-The adverb yes, expressing a simple affirmation, and the adverb no, expressing a simple negation, are always independent. They generally answer a question; and are equivalent to a repetition of it, in the form of an affirmative or a negative proposition.

Obs. 2.-No is sometimes an adverb of degree, and, as such, it can relate only to comparatives; as, "No greater"-"No sooner." No, when prefixed to a noun, is an adjective; as,

“No clouds, no vapours intervene.”—Dyer. Obs. 3. -A negation in English admits but one negative word; as, "I could not wait any longer,”—not, no longer." Double negatives are vulgar.

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Obs. 4.-The repetition of a negative word or clause, strengthens the negation; as, "No, no, no." But two negatives in the same clause, destroy the negation and render the meaning affirmative; as, "Nor did they not perceive their evil plight.”—Milton. That is, they did perceive it.

Obs. 5.-By the customary (but faulty) omission of the negative before but, that conjunction has acquired the adverbial sense of only; and it may, when used with that signification be called an adverb. Thus the text, "He hath not grieved me but in part," [2 Cor., ii, 5,] might drop the negative and still convey the same meaning: "He hath grieved me but in part."

Obs. 6. We sometimes find adverbs used after the manner of nouns; as, "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.”— Matt., viii, 20. "The Son of God-was not yea and nay, but in him was yea."-2 Cor., i, 19. "An eternal now does always last." -Cowley.

RULE XVI.-CONJUNCTIONS.

Conjunctions connect either words or sentences; as, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we are brethren.”—Bible.

Obs. 1.-Conjunctions that connect particular words, generally join similar parts of speech, in a common dependence on some other terin. Those which connect sentences or clauses, commonly unite one to an other, either as an additional affirmation, or as a condition, a cause, or an end.

Obs. 2.-The conjunction as, often unites words that are in apposition; as, "He offered himself as a journeyman.”

Obs. 3.-As frequently has the force of a relative pronoun; as, "Avoid such as are vicious."-"But to as many as received him, etc."-"He then read the conditions as follow."

Obs. 4.-The conjunction that, is frequently understood; as, “We hoped [that] you would come."

Obs. 5.-The conjunction that, when it introduces a sentence as the subject of a verb, does not connect it to any other term; as, "That mind is not matter, is certain."

Obs. 6. After than or as expressing a comparison, there is usually an ellipsis of some word or words. The construction of the words employed, may be known by supplying the ellipsis; as, “She is younger than I" [am].-"He does nothing, who endeavours to do more than [what] is allowed to humanity."-Johnson.

Obs. 7.-When two corresponding conjunctions occur, in their usual order, the former should be parsed as referring to the latter, which is more properly the connecting word; as, "Neither sun nor stars in many days appeared."-Acts, xxvii, 20.

Obs. 8.-Either, corresponding to or, and neither, corresponding to nor or not, are sometimes transposed, so as to repeat the disjunction or negation at the end of the sentence; as, "Where then was their capacity of standing, or his either."-Barclay. "He is very tall, but not too tall neither."-Spectator.

RULE XVII.-PREPOSITIONS.

Prepositions show the relations of things: as, "The house was founded on a rock."

Obs. 1.—In parsing any ordinary preposition, the learner should name the two terms of the relation, and apply the foregoing rule. The former term of relation is sometimes understood; as, [I say] “In a word, it would entirely defeat my purpose."—" For all shall know me, [reckoning] from the least to the greatest."-Hebrews, viii, 11.

Obs. 2.-When a preposition introduces the infinitive, a phrase, or a sentence, which is made the entire subject or predicate of a proposition, it has no antecedent term of relation; as, "To be good,