To produce the agreement and right difpofition of words in a sentence, many rules are neceffary. The following, with the annexed obfervations, comprise the chief of them.

RULE I.

A verb must agree with its nominative cafe, in number and perfon : as, "I learn ;" 66 Thou art improved." "The birds fing."

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The following are a few examples of the violation of this rule. "What fignifies good opinions, when our practice is bad?" "what fignify." "The Normans, under which general term is comprehended the Danes, Nor wegians, and Swedes, were accustomed to flaughter and rapine;""are comprehended." are comprehended." "If thou would be easy and happy in thy family, be careful to obferve difcipline:" "if thou wouldst." Gold, whence came thou? whither goes thou? when will thou come again?" "cameft, goest, wilt." "But thou, falfe promifer, never fhall obtain thy purpose:" it ought to be "fbalt." "And wherefoe'er thou turns thy view;" "turneft." There's two or three of us have feen the work :" "there are." "Great pains has been taken;" "have been." "I have confidered what have been faid on both fides in this controverfy;" 66 what has been faid." "One would think there was more fophifts than one;" "there were more." "The number of the names together were about one hundred and twenty;"" was about."

* I. The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is fometimes put as the nominative cafe to the verb: as, "To fee the fun is pleasant;" "To be good is to be happy ;"" A defire to excel others in learning and virtue is commendable;" "That warm climates fhould accelerate the growth of the human body, and fhorten its duration, is very rea

The chief practical notes under each Rule, are regularly numbered, in order to make them correfpond to the examples in the volume of Exercises.

fonable to believe;" "To be temperate in eating and drinking, to use exercise in the open air, and to preferve the mind free from tumultuous emotions, are the best fervatives of health."

pre

2. Every verb, except in the infinitive mood, or the participle, ought to have a nominative cafe, either expreffed or implied: as, "Awake; arife;" that is, "Awake ye; arife ye."

We fhall here add fome examples of inaccuracy, in the ufe of the verb without its nominative cafe. "As it hath pleafed him of his goodness to give you fafe deliverance, and hath preferved you in the great danger," &c. The verb "hath preferved," has here no nominative cafe, for it cannot be properly fupplied by the preceding word, "bim," which is in the objective cafe. It ought to be, "and as he hath preferved you;" or rather, "and to preferve you." "If the calm in which he was born, and lafted fo long, had continued ;" "and which lafted," &c. "Thefe we have extracted from an historian of undoubted credit, and are the fame that were practifed," &c;" and they are the fame.” "A man whofe inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage the bufinefs;" "and who had," &c. "A cloud gathering in the north; which we have helped to raife, and may quickly break in a storm upon our heads;" "and which may

quickly."

3. Every nominative cafe, except the cafe absolute, and when an address is made to a perfon, fhould belong to fome verb, either expreffed or implied: as, "Who wrote this book?""James;" that is, "James wrote it." "To whom thus Adam," that is, "fpoke."

One or two instances of the improper ufe of the nominative cafe, without any verb, expreffed or implied, to answer it, may be fufficient to illuftrate the usefulness of the preceding obfervation.

"Which rule, if it had been obferved, a neighbouring prince would have wanted a great deal of that incenfe

which hath been offered up to him.” The pronoun it is here the nominative cafe to the verb "obferved ;" and which rule, is left by itself, a nominative cafe without any verb following it. This form of expreffion, though improper, is very common. It ought to be, "If this rule had been obferved," &c. "Man, though he has great variety of thoughts, and fuch from which others as well as himself might receive profit and delight, yet they are all within his own breast." In this fentence, the nominative man ftands alone and unconnected with any verb, either expreffed or implied. It should be, "Though man has great variety," &c.

4. When a verb comes between two nouns, either of which may be understood as the subject of the affirmation, it may agree with either of them; but fome regard muft be had to that which is more naturally the subject of it, as alfo to that which ftands next to the verb: as, "His meat was locufts and wild honey ;" "A great cause of the low state of industry were the restraints put upon it;" "The wages of fin is death."

5. When the nominative cafe has no perfonal tense of a verb, but is put before a participle, independently on the reft of the fentence, it is called the cafe abfolute: as, "Shame being loft, all virtue is loft;"" That having been difcuffed long ago, there is no occafion to resume it."

As in the ufe of the cafe abfolute, the cafe is, in English, always the nominative, the following example is erroneous, in making it the objective. "Solomon was of this mind; and I have no doubt he made as wife and true proverbs, as any body has done fince; him only excepted, who was a much greater and wifer man than Solomon." It should be," he only excepted."

The nominative cafe is commonly placed before the verb; but fometimes it is put after the verb, if it is a fimple tenfe; and between the auxiliary, and the verb or participle, if a compound tenfe: as,

ift, When a question is afked, a command given, or a wifh expreffed as, "Confideft thou in me?" "Read thou;"" Mayft thou be happy !" "Long live the King!"

2d, When a fuppofition is made without the conjunction if: as, "Were it not for this ;" "Had I been there." 3d, When a verb neuter is used: as, "On a fudden appeared the king."

4th, When the verb is preceded by the adverbs, here, there, then, thence, hence, thus, &c. : as, "Here am I ;" "There was he flain;"" Then cometh the end;" Thence arifeth his grief;" "" Hence proceeds his anger;" "Thus was the affair fettled."

5th, When a sentence depends on neither or nor, so as to be coupled with another fentence: as, "Ye fhall not eat of it, neither fhall ye touch it, left ye die."

The phrafes, as follows, as appears, form what are called imperfonal verbs; and fhould, therefore, be confined to the fingular number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly as follows" "The pofitions were as appears incontrovertible :" that is, " as it follows," "as it appears." If we give the fentence a different turn, and inftead of as, fay fuch as, the verb is no longer termed imperfonal; but properly agrees with its nominative, in the plural number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly fuch as follow," "The positions were fuch as appear incontrovertible."*

They who are inclined to favour the opinion of Horne Tooke, "That as, however and whenever used in English,

* In our ideas on this fubject, we are fupported by general ufage, and by the authority of an eminent critic on language and compofition. "When a verb is ufed imperfonally," fays Dr. Campbell in his Philofophy of Rhetoric, "it ought undoubtedly to be in the fingular number, whether the neuter pronoun be expreffed or understood. For this reafon, analogy and ufage favour this mode of expreffion: "The conditions of the agreement were as follows;" and not, as follow. A few late writers have inconfiderately adopted this laft form, through a mistake of the conftruction. For the fame reafon, we ought to fay, "I fhall confider his cenfures fo far only as concerns my friend's conduct ;" and not fo far as concern.""

means the fame as it, or that, or which ;" and who are not fatisfied whether the verbs, in the fentences first mentioned, fhould be in the fingular or the plural number, may vary the form of expreffion. Thus, the fenfe of the preceding fentences may be conveyed in the following terms. "The arguments advanced were nearly of the following nature;" "The following are nearly the arguments which were advanced;" "The arguments advanced were nearly those which follow :" "It appears that the pofitions were incontrovertible ;" "That the pofitions were incontrovertible is apparent ;""The pofitions were apparently incontrovertible."

RULE II.

Two or more nouns, &c. in the fingular number, joined together by one or more copulative conjunctions, expreffed or understood, must have verbs, nouns, and pronouns, agreeing with them in the plural number: as, "Socrates and Plato were wife; they were the most eminent philofophers of Greece;" "The fun that rolls over our heads, the food that we receive, the reft that we enjoy, daily admonish us of a fuperior and fuperintending Power."

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power

This rule is often violated; fome inftances of which are annexed. "And fo was alfo James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon;"" and fo were alfo." "All joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and ever, doth dwell;" "dwell for ever." "By whofe all good and evil is diftributed ;" are diftributed." "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perifhed;"" are perifhed." "The thoughtlefs and intemperate enjoyment of pleasure, the criminal abufe of it, and the forgetfulness of our being accountable creatures, obliterates every ferious thought of the proper business of