=

§ 231. The word the by so much, used before the Comparative Degree, is a different word from the Definite Article. It is the old Ablative or Instrumental case of the Demonstrative Adjective the, that (O. E. se, seo, thæt), and must be parsed as an Adverb: as,—

"But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." (Ex. i. 12.)

"The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat.” (Prov.)

[Compare Latin, Quo. . eo.]

...

"I love not man the less but Nature more." (Byron, Ch. Harold.)

IV. PRONOUNS.

§ 232. Thou and you. The Pronoun thou, which strictly denotes the person spoken to, is now rarely used except in the elevated style of poetry, eloquence, or devotion; its place being taken by the plural form you.

Obs. A still stranger corruption has taken place in the German language, in which a person is commonly addressed as they (Sie). Both this and the English use of you owe their origin to an anxiety to speak to superiors in tones of deference and a shrinking from straightforward familiarity.

Thou, thee, thine, are still the current forms with the labouring classes of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

§ 233. The Relative Pronouns who, which, that, have a twofold use :—

1. To limit and define the antecedent, which would otherwise express too much or too little: as

“I dare do all—that may become a man.' (Macb. i. 7.)

"The rest is labour-which is not used for you." (Ib. i. 4.)

"Is this a dagger-which I see before me?" (Ib. ii. 2.)

"Have you a flower-pot like that-[which] I bought some weeks ago?" (Bulwer, Caxtons, i. 4.)

NOTE. This is called the restrictive use of the Relative.

2. To introduce some additional statement when the principal sentence is complete already: as

"We had best begin our account of our hero with his family history —which luckily is not very long." (Thack. Newc. ii.)

"He bowed to the Colonel politely over his glass of brandy-andwater-of which he absorbed a little in his customer's honour." (Ib. i.) "My father suddenly discovered that there was to be a book-sale, twenty miles off,-which would last four days." (Caxt. i. 3.)

NOTE. This may be called the conjunctive use of the Relative.

This double use sometimes causes ambiguity, as in the following instance :

"The loftiest mountain in Britain which I have climbed (Comp. Meiklejohn, l. c.)

This ambiguity may be removed by punctuation: § 366, Obs.

§ 234. The Relative agrees with its Antecedent in Number and Person, but not necessarily in Case: as

"You may easily imagine to yourself what appearance I made who AM pretty tall. . . (Spect. No. 113.)

"I that speak in righteousness." (Isaiah lxiii. 1.)

"O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that durellest between the Cherubims." (Ps. lxxx. 1.)

"And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure "He that hath bent him o'er the dead..

"... he is gone

(P. L. i.)

(Byron.)

Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch [Obj.] who [Nom.] won." (Ch. Harold, iv. 140.)

"Scots [Voc.] whom [Obj.] Bruce hath often led . (Burns.)

Obs. For the sake of euphony the termination st of the 2nd pers. sing. of the Past Tense is sometimes omitted in poetry after a Relative Pronoun: as,

"O Thou, my voice inspire,

Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!" (Pope, Messiah.) "And Thou, who never yet of human wrong

Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis." (Ch. Harold, iv. 132.)

"O Thou who poured the patriotic tide." (Cotter's Sat. Night.)

§ 235. The Relative and Interrogative Pronouns differ from other words in preceding the Verbs which govern them instead of following them: as—

แ

whom the fables name of monstrous size." (P. L. i.)

whom no man hath seen nor can see." (1 Tim. vi. 16.)

"What went ye out for to see?" (Luke vii. 26.)

"Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled.” (P. L. i.)

Obs. 1. In familiar language who is sometimes incorrectly used for whom in asking a question: as, "Who did you meet at the party?" "I know who you mean." This should be carefully avoided, though the usage frequently occurs, even in good writers: as,

"Those who he thought true to his party." (Clarendon.)

"Who should I meet the other night but my old friend." (Spect. No. 32.) "Who should I see in the lid of it but the Doctor?"

(Spect. No. 57.) (Examples from Lowth.)

Obs. 2. Such a sentence as the following is ungrammatical:

"Whom do men say that I am?" (Mark viii. 27.)

For whom read who. The clause, do men say, is parenthetical, and who is the Nominative agreeing in case with the Pronoun I, according to § 204. If the Verb were in the Infinitive mood, whom would be correct, agreeing with the Pronoun me, "Whom think ye, or do ye think, me to be?"

§ 236. Who is sometimes used briefly for he who, or he that, especially in poetry: as

By force, hath overcome but half his foe." (P. L. i.) "So fail not thou who thee implores." (P. L. vii.)

"I dare do all that may become a man:

Who dares do more, is none." (Macbeth, i. 7.)

§ 237. That is preferred to who or which when the antecedent is incomplete, requiring to be defined by the Relative clause (see § 233, 1): as—

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." (Ps. i. 1.)

66

the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to." (Hamlet, iii. 1.)

"He that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing." (Prov.)

§ 238. Hence it is often used after Superlatives; after the words all, same, any, none, nothing; and after the Interrogative who as

"Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell

From heaven.. (P. L. i.)

"All is not gold that glitters." (Prov.)

"That face is thine; thine own sweet smile I see,

The same that oft in childhood solaced me." (Cowper.)

.. he will never follow anything

That other men begin." (J. Cæsar, ii. 1.)

"France had no infantry that dared to face the English bows and bills." (Mac. H. E. i. 19.)

66

who hatest nothing that Thou hast made." (Collect.) "Who is among you that feareth the Lord?" (Is. 1. 10.)

§ 239. Omission of the Relative.- -(1) When a Relative sentence serves merely to define the antecedent [Restrictive use of Relative, § 233, 1], the Relative Pronoun is often

omitted-not however when it would be either in the Nominative or the Possessive Case: as

"The labour we delight in physics pain." (Macb. ii. 3.)

"He presented his children to his sovereign as the most valuable offering he had to bestow." (Vicar of W. ch. i.)

A

"He is the most attentive man I ever saw." (Nicholas N. ch. xlix.) "The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition." (Vicar of W. ch. x.)

Obs. 1. "In the English Bible the Relative is not once omitted; in Milton, seldom; in Shakspeare, often." (Koch, ii. p. 274.)

Obs. 2. Sometimes a Preposition is omitted, as well as the Relative: as,he was then." (Addison, Spect. No. 549.)

"In the temper of mind

"In the posture I lay."

(Swift, Gulliver, Part I. ch. vii.)

It would be better to say "in the temper of mind in which he was then;" "in the posture in which I lay."

Obs. 3. In the poetry of Shakspeare, the Relative is sometimes omitted even in the Nominative: as

"I have a brother [who] is condemned to death." (Measure for M. ii. 2.) So occasionally in later prose authors, but not those of the present day: as

"Mr. Prince has a genius would prompt him to better things." (Spect. No. 466.-Steele.)

"If the calm, in which he was born, and [which] lasted so long, had continued." (Clarendon, Life, p. 43.)

"This I filled with the feathers of several birds I had taken with springes made of Yahoos' hairs, and [which] were excellent food." (Gulliver, ch. x.) (See Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 244.)

[N.B.-This usage must on no account be imitated.]

(2) But when the Relative sentence specifies some additional and independent circumstance about the antecedent, the Pronoun can never be omitted. Compare the following examples :

"My second boy Moses,-whom I designed for business,―received a sort of miscellaneous education at home." (Vicar of W. ch. i.)

"When Sunday came, it was indeed a day of finery,-which all my sumptuary edicts could not restrain." (Ib. ch. iv.)

"The earth is covered thick with other clay,

Which her own clay shall cover." (Ch. Harold, iii. 28.)

In each of these sentences the Relative is indispensable.

§ 240. When a Relative sentence defines a Noun or Pronoun connected by the Verb to be to a Pronoun of the 1st or 2nd Person, the Verb in the Relative sentence is

often made to agree in Person with the preceding Pro

noun: as

"Art not thou that Egyptian which before these days madest an uproar . . . ?" (Acts xxi. 38.)

"If thou beest he, but O how fallen, how changed

From him who.. didst outshine

Myriads though bright . . .” (P. L. i.)

"I am no orator as Brutus is,

But as you know me all, a plain blunt man
That love my friend. (J. Cæs. iii. 2.)

On the other hand

"Art thou he that troubleth [not troublest] Israel?” (1 Kin. xviii. 17.)

"Oh, a cherubim

Thou wast that did [not didst] preserve me." (Shak. Temp. i. 2.)

§ 241. "Than whom."-The Relative Pronoun who is used in the Objective Case after the Conjunction than where any other pronoun would be in the Nominative Case: as

"Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd Fell not from heaven." (P. L. i.)

"Beelzebub, than whom,

Satan except, none higher sat.” (P. L. ii.)

"Than whom a fiend more fell nowhere is found." (Castle of Ind.) "The old martial stock, than whom better men never did and never will draw sword for king and country." (Scott, Nigel, ch. xxvii.)

Cbs. In older English the Objective is found after than in the case of other Pronouns besides who: as

"A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both" (Prov. xxvii. 3)

a construction founded on the Latin [Ablative after the Comparative Degree]. [N.B.-Not to be imitated.]

§ 242. Sometimes the Antecedent to a Relative is implied in a Pronominal Adjective: as—

"This rural politeness is very troublesome to a man of my temper, who generally take the chair that is next me," &c. (Spect. No. 119.)

§ 243. Sometimes an entire sentence forms the Antecedent: as

"Ho-ti himself-which was the more remarkable-instead of chastising his son, seemed to grow more indulgent to him than ever." (Lamb, Elia.) Compare § 221, Apposition.