2. She is the same lady that I saw yesterday. C. S. 3. The convention that assembled yesterday has been dissolved. C. S.

4. Who that hopes to succeed would venture on an expedient like this? C. S.

5. The soldiers and tents that we saw yesterday. C. S. 6. All men that are fond of pleasure. C. S. Give equivalents of the preceding examples in this section. § 504. He was the first that died. He was the wisest that Athens produced.

§ 505. RULE XXVIII.-He that wrote the Declaration of Independence, and who was the third President of the United States. F. S.

§ 506. RULE XXIX.-He saw what had been done. C. S. Note 1. Thus, what with war, and what with sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. C. S.

2. He did not say but what he did it. F. S.

If a man read little, he had need to have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. F. S.

3. What! can you lull the winged winds asleep? C. S.
4. On what side soever I turn my eyes. C. S.

5. Whither when they come, they fell at words
Whether of them should be the Lord of lords. C. S.

RULE XXX.-Who discovered America? Columbus. C. S.
RULE XXXI.—They faithfully sought each other. C. S.
RULE XXXII.-One might travel two miles in that time.
C. S.

CHAPTER V.

SYNTAX OF THE VERB.

$507. RULE XXXIII.-The VERB agrees with its SubjectNominative in Number and Person; as, "I write," "thou rulest," he obeys."

Whenever a Single subject is spoken of, the verb is put in the Singular number. Where more subjects than one are

spoken of, the verb is put in the Plural number. Where a person speaks of himself, the verb is in the First person Singular. Where a person speaks to another person, the verb is in the Second person Singular. Where a person speaks of another person, or of any other object whatever, the verb is in the Third person Singular. Where more persons than one speak of themselves, the verb is in the First person Plural. Where more persons than one are spoken to, the verb is in the Second person Plural. Where more persons (or ob jects) than one are spoken of, the verb is in the Third person Plural. In each of these cases the verb is in the same per son and number with the Substantive or Pronoun preceding, and are, therefore, said to agree, or to have concord, with it in respect to Number and Person.

Note 1. A verb in the Third Person may have as its subject a sentence, or the clause of a sentence, or a verb in the infinitive mode, or any part of speech used as a noun; as, "To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting indeed, but it is fighting with shadows;" "To show how the understanding proceeds herein, is the design of the following discourse;" "To see is desirable;" "To be blind is calamitous ;" "Red and green are different colors;" "Once is too often;" "Over is not under," "An if ruins the case ;” “Ah! is an interjection." We have here a part of a sentence, a verb in the infinitive mode, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction, and an interjection, used as substantives, and each the subject of a verb.

Note 2. In Poetry, the verb may stand without a nominative in interrogative sentences, in cases where in prose the omis sion would be improper; as, "Lives there who loves his pain?" -MILTON. That is, lives there a man who loves his pain?

Note 3. A verb in the Imperative mode is sometimes used Absolutely, having no direct reference to any particular subject addressed; as, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light."-Gen., i., 3.

Note 4. A verb following the conjunction than sometimes stands without a nominative expressed; as, "Not that any thing occurs in consequence of our late loss more afflictive than was to be expected."-Life of Cowper, Letter 62.

Forms of expression like this seem to be elliptical; "more
afflictive than that which was to be expected."
Note 5. The verb is in some cases understood; as,
combat deepens-on, ye brave!" Here rush or press is un-

derstood before on.

"The

Note 6. We have one phrase in present use in which the personal pronoun me precedes a verb in the third person, methinks, methought. Anciently, him was used in the same manner; as, Him thuhte, him thought.-ALFRED, Orosius. Him and me are here in the Anglo-Saxon dative case. thinks it seems to me mihi videtur.

=

=

Me

Note 7. The verbs NEED and WANT are sometimes employed without a nominative, either expressed or implied; as, "There is no evidence of the fact, and there needs none;""There wanted champions to espouse her cause." For the force of there, see § 495.

COLLOCATION.

§ 508. The Subject or Nominative usually precedes the verb in declaratory phrases; as, "God created the world."

Exception 1. The nominative often follows an intransitive verb, for as such a verb has no object after it, that position of the nominative creates no ambiguity: "Above it stood the Seraphim."

Exc. 2. The nominative may follow the verb, when the verb is preceded by here, there, hence, thence, then, thus, yet, so, nor, neither, such, the same, herein, therein, wherein, and perhaps other words; as, "Here are five men;" "There was a man sent from God."

Exc. 3. The nominative may follow the verb in the expression of commands, requests, wishes; as, "Long live the king." Exc. 4. The nominative may follow the verb when an emphatical Adjective introduces the sentence; as, "Great is the Lord, Glorious are his works, and happy is the man who serves him."

Exc. 5. In certain phrases which are conditional or hypothetical, the sign of the condition may be omitted and the nominative placed after the auxiliary; as, "Did he but know my anxiety."

Exc. 6. The nominative may follow the verb when the words whose, his, their, her, mine, your, &c., precede the verb with a governing word; as, "Out of whose modifications have been made most complex modes."

Exc. 7. In interrogative sentences the nominative follows the verb when alone, or the first auxiliary; as, “Believest thou? will he consent?"

Exc. 8. When an infinitive mode or a sentence is the nominative case to the verb, it generally follows it, the pronoun "it" standing as its representative before the verb; as, "It is difficult to climb the hill of science."

CONCORD OF NUMBER.

§ 509. RULE XXXIV.-The Verb agrees in number with the SUBJECT, and only with the subject.

Note 1. The only way to justify such an expression as the wages of sin is death, is to consider death not as the Predicate, but as the subject; in other words, to consider the construction to be, Death is the wages of sin.-LATHAM.

Note 2. The word which comes first is always the Subject, until the contrary is proved.

Note 3. No number of connected singular nouns can gov. ern a Plural Verb, unless they be connected by a Copulative Conjunction: The sun and moon shine; the sun in conjunc tion with the moon shines.

Note 4. PLURAL SUBJECTS WITH SINGULAR PREDICATES: "The wages of sin are death." "Honest men are the salt of the earth."

Note 5. SINGULAR SUBJECTS WITH PLURAL PREDICATES. These constructions are rarer than the preceding, inasmuch as two or more persons (or things) are oftener spoken of as being equivalent to one, than one person (or thing) is spoken of as being equivalent to two or more: "Sixpence is twelve half pennies." "He is all head and shoulders." "Vulnere "Tu es deliciæ meæ."

totus erat."

Note 6. The Same Form of the verb, whether simple, progressive, or emphatic, should be preserved throughout the sentence; as, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." "That man loves his friends and hates his enemies."

"He

was writing and he is writing." "He did love and he does love."

Note 7. The pronoun you, even when used to denote an individual, inasmuch as its form is plural, should have a Plural verb: "The account you were pleased to send me," not "the account you was pleased to send me."

§ 510. RULE XXXV.-When a Verb has Two OR MORE SUBJECTS in the singular number, joined by the Copulative and, it agrees with them in the Plural number; as, "Reason and truth constitute intellectual Gold." Instead of saying reason constitutes intellectual Gold, Truth constitutes intellectual Gold, the two propositions are united in one compound sentence. The conjunction is sometimes understood; as, "Honor, justice, religion itself, were derided."

Note 1. This rule has in the practice of writers some exceptions: "Nor were the young fellows so wholly lost to a sense of right as pride and self-conceit has made them affect to be."-Rambler, No. 97. Here the verb, which is expressed after self-conceit, is considered as understood after pride. "Their safety and welfare is most concerned.". Spectator, No. 121. This was the practice of Greek and Roman writers: "Mens enim et ratio, et consilium in senibus est."-CICERO, De Sen., cap. xix. See HOMER's Iliad, i., 61. Forms of expression like these should not be encouraged in the English language, though they can be defended in some instances on the ground of their expressing only one Complex idea.

Note 2. Two or more nouns connected by the Conjunction and, expressed or understood, and modified by the distributives each, every, or either, may have a Verb in the singular number: "Either sex and every age was engaged in the pursuits of industry."-GIBBON'S Roman Empire, chap. “The judicial and every other power is accountable to the legislative.”—PALEY'S Philosophy, vi., 8.

X..

Note 3. Where comparison is expressed or implied, and not combination, the verb should be singular; thus, "Cæsar as well as Cicero was remarkable for eloquence." Even when and is used between two nouns, if a disuniting word is used with it, the verb should be in the singular number; as, "Good order, and not mean savings, produces honest profit."