IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VI.
UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—OF PROPER IDENTITY.
"Who would not say, 'If it be me,' rather than, If it be I?"—Priestley's Gram., p. 105.
[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pronoun me,—which comes after the neuter verb be, is in the objective case, and does not agree with the pronoun it, the verb's nominative,[362] which refers to the same thing. But, according to Rule 6th, "A noun or a pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same thing." Therefore, me should be I; thus, "Who would not say, 'If it be I,' rather than, 'If it be me?'">[
"Who is there? It is me."—Priestley, ib., p. 104. "It is him."—Id., ib., 104. "Are these the houses you were speaking of? Yes, they are them."—Id., ib., 104. "It is not me you are in love with."—Addison's Spect., No. 290; Priestley's Gram., p. 104; and Campbell's Rhet., p. 203. "It cannot be me."—SWIFT: Priestley's Gram., p. 104. "To that which once was thee."—PRIOR: ib., 104. "There is but one man that she can have, and that is me."—CLARISSA: ib., 104. "We enter, as it were, into his body, and become, in some measure, him."—ADAM SMITH: ib., p. 105. "Art thou proud yet? Ay, that I am not thee."—Shak., Timon. "He knew not whom they were."—Milnes, Greek Gram., p. 234. "Who do you think me to be?"—Priestley's Gram., p. 108. "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?"—Matt., xvi, 13. "But whom say ye that I am?"—Ib., xvi, 15.—"Whom think ye that I am? I am not he."—Acts, xiii, 25. "No; I am mistaken; I perceive it is not the person whom I supposed it was."—Winter in London, ii, 66. "And while it is Him I serve, life is not without value."—Zenobia, i, 76. "Without ever dreaming it was him."—Life of Charles XII, p. 271. "Or he was not the illiterate personage whom he affected to be."—Montgomery's Lect. "Yet was he him, who was to be the greatest apostle of the Gentiles."—Barclay's Works, i, 540. "Sweet was the thrilling ecstacy; I know not if 'twas love, or thee."—Queen's Wake, p. 14. "Time was, when none would cry, that oaf was me."—Dryden, Prol. "No matter where the vanquish'd be, nor whom."—Rowe's Lucan, B. i, l. 676. "No, I little thought it had been him."—Life of Oration. "That reverence and godly fear, whose object is 'Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.'"—Maturin's Sermons, p. 312. "It is us that they seek to please, or rather to astonish."—West's Letters, p. 28. "Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac."—Gen., xxiv, 14. "Although I knew it to be he."—Dickens's Notes, p. 9. "Dear gentle youth, is't none but thee?"—Dorset's Poems, p. 4. "Whom do they say it is?"—Fowler's E. Gram., §493.
"These are her garb, not her; they but express
Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress."—Hannah More.
UNDER NOTE I.—THE CASE DOUBTFUL.
"I had no knowledge of there being any connexion between them."—Stone, on Freemasonry, p. 25. "To promote iniquity in others, is nearly the same as being the actors of it ourselves."—Murray's Key, p. 170. "It must arise from feeling delicately ourselves."—Blair's Rhet., p. 330; Murray's Gram., 248. "By reason of there not having been exercised a competent physical power for their enforcement."—Mass. Legislature, 1839. "PUPILAGE, n. The state of being a scholar."—Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester. "Then the other part's being the definition would make it include all verbs of every description."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 343. "John's being my friend,[363] saved me from inconvenience."—Ib., p. 201. "William's having become a judge, changed his whole demeanor."—Ib., p. 201. "William's having been a teacher, was the cause of the interest which he felt."—Ib., p. 216. "The being but one among many stifleth the chidings of conscience."—Book of Thoughts, p. 131. "As for its being esteemed a close translalation [sic—KTH], I doubt not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it."—Pope's Pref. to Homer. "All presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings, must go upon supposition that they are compounded, and so discerptible."—Butler's Analogy, p. 63. "This argues rather their being proper names."—Churchill's Gram., p. 382. "But may it not be retorted, that its being a gratification is that which excites our resentment?"—Campbell's Rhet., p. 145. "Under the common notion, of its being a system of the whole poetical art."—Blair's Rhet., p. 401. "Whose time or other circumstances forbid their becoming classical scholars."—Literary Convention, p. 113. "It would preclude the notion of his being a merely fictitious personage."—Philological Museum, i, 446. "For, or under pretence of their being heretics or infidels."—The Catholic Oath; Geo. III, 31st. "We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ's being the Object of religious Adoration."—Relig. World, Vol. ii, p. 200. "To say nothing of Dr. Priestley's being a strenuous advocate," &c.—Ib., ii, 207. "By virtue of Adam's being their public head."—Ib., ii, 233. "Objections against there being any such moral plan as this."—Butler's Analogy, p. 57. "A greater instance of a man's being a blockhead."—Spect., No. 520. "We may insure or promote its being a happy state of existence to ourselves."—Gurney's Evidences, p. 86. "By its often falling a victim to the same kind of unnatural treatment."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 41. "Their appearing foolishness is no presumption against this."—Butler's Analogy, p. 189. "But what arises from their being offences; i. e. from their being liable to be perverted."—Ib., p. 185. "And he entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God."—Acts, xviii, 7.