Obs. 4.-A phrase, used as an attribute, may be substantive or adjective in its nature, and may be, in form,

1. Infinitive; as, "The object of punishment is to reform the guilty." "His conduct is to be admired." In the second example it is adjective, being equivalent to admirable.

2. Prepositional; as, "He is in good health."-"The train was behind time." These are adjective phrases.

Obs. 5.-An adjective phrase may have the following forms: 1. Prepositional; as, "Carelessness in the use of money is a vice." 2. Infinitive; as, "The desire to do good is praiseworthy." 3. Participial; as, "Seeing the danger, he avoided it." Obs. 6.—An adverbial phrase may have the following forms: 1. Prepositional; as, "He was industrious in study." 2. Infinitive; as, "Be swift to hear, and slow to speak."

3. Idiomatic; as, “In vain.”—“Day by day."-"By and by." Obs. 6.-An explanatory phrase is substantive in its nature, and infinitive in form; as, "It is pleasant to see the sun."

Obs. 7.-The independent phrase is various in form and character. It may be distinguished as,

1. Infinitive; as, "To be candid, I was in fault."

2. Participial; as, "Considering the circumstances, much credit

is due."

3. Vocative; as, "Boast not, my dear friend, of to-morrow." 4. Pleonastic; as, แ The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich." 5. Absolute; "The sun rising, the mists were dispersed."

Obs. 8.-The last form of this phrase is generally adverbial in meaning, being independent only in construction.

EXERCISE.-Analyze the following sentences, and point out the explanatory adjuncts and the phrases; parse each word as in the preceding exercises.

EXAMPLE.-"] -"Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, lived in a tub."

This is a simple declarative sentence; the subject is Diogenes; the predicate, lived; philosopher is an explanatory adjunct of the subject; the and Greek are adjuncts of philosopher. The adjunct of lived is the adverbial phrase, in a tub. The principal part of the phrase is tub, of which a is an adjunct.

The butterfly, child of the summer, flutters among the flowers. Mahomet was a native of Mecca, a city in Arabia. The Cabots, natives of Venice, were the first discoverers of North America. Spain was, at one time, the wealthiest country of Europe. In the path of life, no one is constantly regaled with flowers. Industry is needful in every condition of life: the price of all improvement is labor. In the fifth century, the Franks, a people of Germany, invaded France. The book which William has lost, was a present from his brother Henry. When Alfred the Great ascended the throne of England, he was greatly harassed by the Danes, a piratical people from Scandinavia. A brave man, he would not wantonly injure others.

PART III.

SYNTAX.

Syntax treats of the relation, agreement, gov ernment, and arrangement, of words in sentences. The relation of words, is their dependence, or connexion, according to the sense.

The agreement of words, is their similarity in person, number, gender, case, mood, tense, or form.

The government of words, is that power which one word has over another, to cause it to assume some particular modification.

The arrangement of words, is their collocation, or relative position, in a sentence.

The leading principles to be observed in the construction of sentences, or to be applied in their analysis by Syntactical Parsing, are embraced in the following twenty-six Rules of Syntax.

CHAPTER I.-OF RELATION AND
AGREEMENT.

RULE I.—ARTICLES.

Articles relate to the nouns which they limit: as, "At a little distance from the ruins of the abbey, stands an aged elm."

"The

Obs. 1.-Articles often relate to nouns understood; as, [river] Thames."-"Pliny the younger" [man].--"The honourable [body] the Legislature."-"The animal [world] and the vegetable world."-"The Old [Testament] and the New Testament."

Obs. 2.-Articles belong before their nouns; but the definite article and an adjective seem sometimes to be placed after the noun to which the both relate: as, "Seotion the Fourth;"

"Henry the Eighth." Such examples, however, may be supposed elliptical; and, if they are so, an article cannot be placed after its noun, nor can two articles ever relate to one and the same noun.

Obs. 3.-The definite article is often prefixed to comparatives and superlatives; and its effect is, (as Murray observes,) "to mark the degree the more strongly, and to define it the more precisely:" as, "The oftener I see him, the more I respect him.". "A constitution the most fit."-"A claim the strongest, and the most easily comprehended." In these cases, the article seems to relate only to the adjective or adverb following it; but, after the adjective, the noun may be supplied.

Obs. 4.-The article the is applied to nouns of both numbers: as, The man, the men ;- The good boy, the good boys.

Obs. 5.-—An or a implies one, and is prefixed to nouns cf the sin. gular number only; as, A man, a good boy.

Obs. 6.-An or a is sometimes prefixed to an adjective of number, when the noun following is plural: as, A few days,-a hundred sheep. Here also the article relates only to the adjective; unless few, hundred, etc., are nouns with of understood after them.

Obs. 7.-A, as prefixed to participles in ing, or used in composi tion, is a preposition; being, probably, the French d, signifying to, at, on, in, or of; as, "He is gone a hunting."-"They burst out a laughing."-"She lies a-bed all day."

Obs. 8.-An is sometimes a conjunction, signifying iƒ; as,
"Nay, an thou'lt mouthe, I'll rant as well as thou."-Shak.

RULE II.-NOMINATIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case: as, "I know thou sayst it: says thy life the same ?"

Obs. 1.-Every nominative belongs to some verb, unless it be put in apposition according to Rule 3d, after a verb according to Rule 21st, or absolute according to Rule 25th.

Obs. 2. The subject, or nominative, is generally placed before the verb; as, "Peace dawned upon his mind."-Johnson.

is written in the law."-Bible.

" What

Obs. 3.-But, in the following nine cases, the subject is placed after the verb, or after the first auxiliary :

1. When a question is asked without an interrogative pronoun in the nominative case; as, “Shall mortals be implacable ?"—"What art thou doing?"-Hooke.

2. When the verb is in the imperative mood; as, "Go thou." 3. When an earnest wish, or other strong feeling, is expressed; as, May she be happy !"- "How were we struck!"-Young. 4. When a supposition is made without a conjunction; as, "Were it true, it would not injure us."

5. When neither or nor, signifying and not, precedes the verb; 88, "This was his fear; nor was his apprehension groundless."

6. When, for the sake of emphasis, some word or words are

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placed before the verb, which more naturally come after it; as, "Here am I.”—“Narrow is the way."—" Silver and gold have Í none."-Bible.

7. When the verb has no regimen, and is itself emphatical; as, "Echo the mountains round."-Thompson.

8. When the verbs say, think, reply, and the like, introduce the parts of a dialogue; as, "Son of affliction,' said Omar, who art thou?' My name,' replied the stranger, 'is Hassan.'"-Johnson. 9. When the adverb there precedes the verb; as, "There lived a man."-Montgomery. "There needs no proof of this."

RULE III-APPOSITION.

A Noun or a personal Pronoun, used to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case: as,

"But he, our gracious Master, kind as just,

"Knowing our frame, remembers we are dust.” Obs. 1.-Apposition is the using of different words or appellations to designate the same thing. Apposition also denotes the relation which exists between the words which are so employed. In parsing, the rule of apposition should be applied only to the explanatory term; for the case of the principal word depends on its relation to the rest of the sentence, and comes under some other rule.

66

Obs. 2.-This rule involves a variety of forms of expression, as may be seen by the following examples: "I, thy schoolmaster, have. made thee profit."-Shak. I, even I, am he."-Isaiah, xliii. “I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."Id. 66 They shall every man turn to his own people."-Id. "Be hold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.”—Id Righteousness and peace have kissed each other."-Psalms. "That ye love one an other."—N. Test. Be ye helpers one of an other." Id. "To make him king."-Id. "With modesty thy guide."-Pope.

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Obs. 3.-The explanatory word is sometimes placed first, espe cially among the poets; as,

"From bright'ning fields of ether fair disclos'd,

"Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes."-Thomson.

Obs. 4.-The pronouns of the first and second persons, are often prefixed to nouns merely to distinguish their person. In this case of apposition, the words are not separated by a comma; and either of them may be taken as the explanatory term: as, "I John saw these things." -"His praise, ye brooks, attune." So also, when two or more nouns form one proper name; as, John Horne Tooke.

Obs. 5.-When two or more nouns of the possessive case are put in apposition, the possessive termination added to one, denotes the case of both or all: as, "His brother Philip's wife;”—“ John

Baptist's head;"-" At my friend Johnson's, the bookseller." By a repetition of the possessive sign, a distinct governing noun is implied, and the apposition is destroyed.

Obs. 6.—When an object acquires a new name or character from the action of a verb, the new appellation is put in apposition with the object of the active verb, and in the nominative after the passive: as, 63 They named the child John ;"- "The child was named They elected him president;"-" He was elected presi

John."
Int."

RULE IV.-ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns: as, "He is a wise man, though he is young."

Obs. 1.-When an adjective follows a verb, it generally relates to the subject going before; as, "I am glad that the door is made wide."

Obs. 2.-An adjective sometimes relates to a phrase or sentence, which is substituted for a noun; as, "That he should refuse, is not strange."

Obs. 3.-Adjectives preceded by the definite article, are often used, by ellipsis, as having the force of nouns. They designate those classes of objects which are characterized by the qualities they express. They are mostly confined to the plural number, and refer to persons, places, or things, understood; as, "The good [persons] must merit God's peculiar care."-Pope.

Obs. 4.-By an ellipsis of the noun, an adjective with a preposition before it, is sometimes equivalent to an adverb; as, "In par ticular; that is, in a particular manner; equivalent to particu larly. In parsing, supply the ellipsis. [See Obs. 2d, under Rule xxii.]

Obs. 5.-Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their nouns in number; as, That sort, those sorts.

Obs. 6.-When the adjective is necessarily plural, the noun should be made so too; as, "Twenty pounds;" not, "Twenty pound." In some peculiar phrases, this rule appears to be disregarded; as, "Twenty sail of vessels;-" A hundred head of cattle;" "Two hundred pennyworth of bread."

Obs. 7.-To denote a collective number, a singular adjective may precede a plural one; as, "One hundred men," "Every six weeks." Obs. 8. To denote plurality, the adjective many may, in like manner, precede an or a, with a singular noun; as,

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen."-Gray. Obs. 9.-The reciprocal expression, one an other, should not be applied to two objects, nor each other, or one the other, to more than two: because reciprocity between two is some act or relation of each or one to the other, which is an objective definite, and not of one to an other, which is indefinite; but reciprocity among three or more is of one, each, or every one, not to one other, solely, or to the other, definitely, but to others, a plurality, or to an other, taken indefinitely and implying this plurality.