The Grammar of English Grammars

by Goold Brown

UNDER NOTE VI.—OF PERFECT PARTICIPLES.

"All the words made use of to denote spiritual and intellectual things, are in their origin metaphors."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 380. "A reply to an argument commonly made use of by unbelievers."—Blair's Rhet., p. 293. "It was heretofore the only form made use of in the preter tenses."—Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 47. "Of the points, and other characters made use of in writing."—Ib., p. xv. "If thy be the personal pronoun made use of."—Walker's Dict. "The Conjunction is a word made use of to connect sentences."—Burn's Gram., p. 28. "The points made use of to answer these purposes are the four following."—Harrison's Gram., p. 67. "Incense signifies perfumes exhaled by fire, and made use of in religious ceremonies."—Murray's Key, p. 171. "In most of his orations, there is too much art; even carried the length of ostentation."—Blair's Rhet., p. 246. "To illustrate the great truth, so often lost sight of in our times."—Common School Journal, I, 88. "The principal figures, made use of to affect the heart, are Exclamation, Confession, Deprecation, Commination, and Imprecation."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 133. "Disgusted at the odious artifices made use of by the Judge."—Junius, p. 13. "The whole reasons of our being allotted a condition, out of which so much wickedness and misery would in fact arise."—Butler's Analogy p. 109. "Some characteristieal circumstance being generally invented or laid hold of."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 246.

"And by is likewise us'd with Names that shew
The Means made use of, or the Method how."—Ward's Gram., p. 105.

UNDER NOTE VII.—CONSTRUCTIONS AMBIGUOUS.

"Many adverbs admit of degrees of comparison as well as adjectives."—Priestley's Gram., p. 133. "But the author, who, by the number and reputation of his works, formed our language more than any one, into its present state, is Dryden."—Blair's Rhet., p. 180. "In some States, Courts of Admiralty have no juries, nor Courts of Chancery at all."—Webster's Essays, p, 146. "I feel myself grateful to my friend."—Murray's Key, p. 276. "This requires a writer to have, himself, a very clear apprehension of the object he means to present to us."—Blair's Rhet., p. 94. "Sense has its own harmony, as well as sound."—lb., p. 127. "The apostrophe denotes the omission of an i which was formerly inserted, and made an addition of a syllable to the word."—Priestley's Gram., p. 67. "There are few, whom I can refer to, with more advantage than Mr. Addison."—Blair's Rhet., p. 139. "DEATH, in theology, [is a] perpetual separation from God, and eternal torments."—Webster's Dict. "That could inform the traveler as well as the old man himself!"—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 345.

UNDER NOTE VIII.—YE AND YOU IN SCRIPTURE.

"Ye daughters of Rabbah, gird ye with sackcloth."—ALGER'S BIBLE: Jer., xlix, 3. "Wash ye, make you clean."—Brown's Concordance, w. Wash. "Strip ye, and make ye bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins."—ALGER'S BIBLE: Isaiah, xxxii, 11. "You are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to me."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Job, xix, 3. "You are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me."—ALGER'S BIBLE: ib. "If you knew the gift of God."—Brown's Concordance, w. Knew. "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know ye not."—Penington's Works, ii, 122.

RULE VI.—SAME CASES.

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: as, "It is I."—"These are they."—"The child was named John."—"It could not be he."—"The Lord sitteth King forever."—Psalms, xxix, 10.

"What war could ravish, commerce could bestow,
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe."
—Pope, Ep. iii, l. 206.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VI.

OBS. 1.—Active-transitive verbs, and their imperfect and preperfect participles, always govern the objective case; but active-intransitive, passive, and neuter verbs, and their participles, take the same case after as before them, when both words refer to the same thing. The latter are rightly supposed not to govern[357] any case; nor are they in general followed by any noun or pronoun. But, because they are not transitive, some of them become connectives to such words as are in the same case and signify the same thing. That is, their finite tenses may be followed by a nominative, and their infinitives and participles by a nominative or an objective, agreeing with a noun or a pronoun which precedes them. The cases are the same, because the person or thing is one; as, "I am he."—"Thou art Peter."—"Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent."—Jefferson's Notes, p. 129. Identity is both the foundation and the characteristic of this construction. We chiefly use it to affirm or deny, to suggest or question, the sameness of things; but sometimes figuratively, to illustrate the relations of persons or things by comparison:[358] as, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."—John, xv, 1. "I am the vine, ye are the branches."—John, xv, 5. Even the names of direct opposites, are sometimes put in the same case, under this rule; as,

"By such a change thy darkness is made light,
Thy chaos order, and thy weakness might."—Cowper, Vol. i, p. 88.

OBS. 2.—In this rule, the terms after and preceding refer rather to the order of the sense and construction, than to the mere placing of the words; for the words in fact admit of various positions. The proper subject of the verb is the nominative to it, or before it, by Rule 2d; and the other nominative, however placed, is understood to be that which comes after it, by Rule 6th. In general, however, the proper subject precedes the verb, and the other word follows it, agreeably to the literal sense of the rule. But when the proper subject is placed after the verb, as in certain instances specified in the second observation under Rule 2d, the explanatory nominative is commonly introduced still later; as, "But be thou an example of the believers."—1 Tim. iv, 12. "But what! is thy servant a dog?"—2 Kings, viii, 13. "And so would I, were I Parmenio."—Goldsmith. "O Conloch's daughter! is it thou?"—Ossian. But in the following example, on the contrary, there is a transposition of the entire lines, and the verb agrees with the two nominatives in the latter:

"To thee were solemn toys or empty show,
The robes of pleasure and the veils of wo."—Dr. Johnson.

OBS. 3.—In interrogative sentences, the terms are usually transposed,[359] or both are placed after the verb; as, "Am I a Jew?"—John, xviii, 35. "Art thou a king then?"—Ib., ver. 37. "What is truth?"—Ib., ver. 38. "Who art thou?"—Ib., i, 19. "Art thou Elias?"—Ib., i, 21. "Tell me, Alciphron, is not distance a line turned endwise to the eye?"—Berkley's Dialogues, p. 161.

"Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape?"—Milton.

"Art thou that traitor angel? art thou he?"—Idem.

OBS. 4.—In a declarative sentence also, there may be a rhetorical or poetical transposition of one or both of the terms: as, "And I thy victim now remain."—Francis's Horace, ii, 45. "To thy own dogs a prey thou shalt be made."—Pope's Homer, "I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame."—Job, xxix, 15. "Far other scene is Thrasymenè now."—Byron. In the following sentence, the latter term is palpably misplaced: "It does not clearly appear at first what the antecedent is to they."—Blair's Rhet., p. 218. Say rather: "It does not clearly appear at first, what is the antecedent to [the pronoun] they." In examples transposed like the following, there is an elegant ellipsis of the verb to which the pronoun is nominative; as, am, art, &c.

"When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou."—Scott's Marmion.

"The forum's champion, and the people's chief,
Her new-born Numa thou—with reign, alas! too brief."—Byron.

"For this commission'd, I forsook the sky—
Nay, cease to kneel—thy fellow-servant I."—Parnell.

OBS. 5.—In some peculiar constructions, both words naturally come before the verb; as, "I know not who she is."—"Who did you say it was?"—"I know not how to tell thee who I am."—Romeo. "Inquire thou whose son the stripling is."—1 Sam., xvii, 56. "Man would not be the creature which he now is."—Blair. "I could not guess who it should be."—Addison. And they are sometimes placed in this manner by hyberbaton [sic—KTH], or transposition; as, "Yet he it is."—Young. "No contemptible orator he was."—Dr. Blair. "He it is to whom I shall give a sop."—John, xiii, 26. "And a very noble personage Cato is."—Blair's Rhet., p. 457. "Clouds they are without water."—Jude, 12.

"Of worm or serpent kind it something looked,
But monstrous, with a thousand snaky heads."—Pollok, B. i, l. 183.

OBS. 6.—As infinitives and participles have no nominatives of their own, such of them as are not transitive in their nature, may take different cases after them; and, in order to determine what case it is that follows them, the learner must carefully observe what preceding word denotes the same person or thing, and apply the principle of the rule accordingly. This word being often remote, and sometimes understood, the sense is the only clew to the construction. Examples: "Who then can bear the thought of being an outcast from his presence?"—Addison. Here outcast agrees with who, and not with thought. "I cannot help being so passionate an admirer as I am."—Steele. Here admirer agrees with I. "To recommend what the soberer part of mankind look upon to be a trifle."—Steele. Here trifle agrees with what as relative, the objective governed by upon. "It would be a romantic madness, for a man to be a lord in his closet."—Id. Here madness is in the nominative case, agreeing with it; and lord, in the objective, agreeing with man. "To affect to be a lord in one's closet, would be a romantic madness." In this sentence also, lord is in the objective, after to be; and madness, in the nominative, after would be.

"'My dear Tibullus!' If that will not do,
Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you."—Pope, B. ii, Ep. ii, 143.

OBS. 7.—An active-intransitive or a neuter participle in ing, when governed by a preposition, is often followed by a noun or a pronoun the case of which depends not on the preposition, but on the case which goes before. Example: "The Jews were in a particular manner ridiculed for being a credulous people."—Addison's Evidences, p. 28. Here people is in the nominative case, agreeing with Jews. Again: "The learned pagans ridiculed the Jews for being a credulous people." Here people is in the objective case, because the preceding noun Jews is so. In both instances the preposition for governs the participle being, and nothing else. "The atrocious crime of being a young man, I shall neither attempt to palliate or deny."—PITT: Bullions's E. Gram., p. 82; S. S. Greene's, 174. Sanborn has this text, with "nor" for "or."—Analytical Gram., p. 190. This example has been erroneously cited, as one in which the case of the noun after the participle is not determined by its relation to any other word. Sanborn absurdly supposes it to be "in the nominative independent." Bullions as strangely tells us, "it may correctly be called the objective indefinite"—like me in the following example: "He was not sure of its being me."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 82. This latter text I take to be bad English. It should be, "He was not sure of it as being me;" or, "He was not sure that it was I." But, in the text above, there is an evident transposition. The syntactical order is this: "I shall neither deny nor attempt to palliate the atrocious crime of being a young man." The words man and I refer to the same person, and are therefore in the same case, according to the rule which I have given above.

OBS. 8.—S. S. Greene, in his late Grammar, improperly denominates this case after the participle being, "the predicate-nominative," and imagines that it necessarily remains a nominative even when the possessive case precedes the participle. If he were right in this, there would be an important exception to Rule 6th above. But so singularly absurd is his doctrine about "abridged predicates," that in general the abridging shows an increase of syllables, and often a conversion of good English into bad. For example: "It [the predicate] remains unchanged in the nominative, when, with the participle of the copula, it becomes a verbal noun, limited by the possessive case of the subject; as, 'That he was a foreigner prevented his election,'='His being a foreigner prevented his election.'"—Greene's Analysis, p. 169. Here the number of syllables is unaltered; but foreigner is very improperly called "a verbal noun," and an example which only lacks a comma, is changed to what Wells rightly calls an "anomalous expression," and one wherein that author supposes foreigner and his to be necessarily in the same case. But Greene varies this example into other "abridged forms," thus: "I knew that he was a foreigner," = "I knew his being, or of his being a foreigner." "The fact that he was a foreigner, = of his being a foreigner, was undeniable." "When he was first called a foreigner, = on his being first called a foreigner, his anger was excited."—Ib., p. 171. All these changes enlarge, rather than abridge, the expression; and, at the same time, make it questionable English, to say the least of it.

OBS. 9.—In some examples, the adverb there precedes the participle, and we evidently have nothing by which to determine the case that follows; as, "These judges were twelve in number. Was this owing to there being twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?"—Webster's Essays, p. 263. Say rather: "Was this because there were twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?" "How many are injured by Adam's fall, that know nothing of there ever being such a man in the world!"—Barclay's Apology, p. 185. Say rather,—"who know not that there ever was such a man in the world!"

OBS. 10.—In some other examples, we find a possessive before the participle, and a doubtful case after it; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to make use of as the strongest argument of his being the promised Messiah"—Addison's Evidences, p. 81. "But my chief affliction consisted in my being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper."—Cowper's Memoir, p. 13. "[Greek: Tou patros [ontos] onou euthus hypemnæsthæ]. He had some sort of recollection of his father's being an ass"—Collectanea Græca Minora, Notæ, p. 7. This construction, though not uncommon, is anomalous in more respects than one. Whether or not it is worthy to form an exception to the rule of same cases, or even to that of possessives, the reader may judge from the observations made on it under the latter. I should rather devise some way to avoid it, if any can be found—and I believe there can; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to advance as the strongest proof that he was the promised Messiah."—"But my chief affliction consisted in this, that I was singled out," &c. The story of the mule is, "He seemed to recollect on a sudden that his father was an ass." This is the proper meaning of the Greek text above; but the construction is different, the Greek nouns being genitives in apposition.

OBS. 11.—A noun in the nominative case sometimes follows a finite verb, when the equivalent subject that stands before the verb, is not a noun or pronoun, but a phrase or a sentence which supplies the place of a nominative; as, "That the barons and freeholders derived their authority from kings, is wholly a mistake."—Webster's Essays, p. 277. "To speak of a slave as a member of civil society, may, by some, be regarded a solecism."—Stroud's Sketch, p. 65. Here mistake and solecism are as plainly nominatives, as if the preceding subjects had been declinable words.

OBS. 12.—When a noun is put after an abstract infinitive that is not transitive, it appears necessarily to be in the objective case,[360] though not governed by the verb; for if we supply any noun to which such infinitive may be supposed to refer, it must be introduced before the verb by the preposition for: as, "To be an Englishman in London, a Frenchman in Paris, a Spaniard in Madrid, is no easy matter; and yet it is necessary."—Home's Art of Thinking, p. 89. That is, "For a traveller to be an Englishman in London," &c. "It is certainly as easy to be a scholar, as a gamester."—Harris's Hermes, p. 425. That is, "It is as easy for a young man to be a scholar, as it is for him to be a gamester." "To be an eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is far from being a common or easy attainment."—Blair's Rhet., p. 337. Here attainment is in the nominative, after is—or, rather after being, for it follows both; and speaker, in the objective after to be. "It is almost as hard a thing [for a man] to be a poet in despite of fortune, as it is [for one to be a poet] in despite of nature."—Cowley's Preface to his Poems, p. vii.

OBS. 13.—Where precision is necessary, loose or abstract infinitives are improper; as, "But to be precise, signifies, that they express that idea, and no more."—Blair's Rhet., p. 94; Murray's Gram., 301; Jamieson's Rhet., 64. Say rather: "But, for an author's words to be precise, signifies, that they express his exact idea, and nothing more or less."

OBS. 14.—The principal verbs that take the same case after as before them, except those which are passive, are the following: to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is to be observed, that they are sometimes transitive, and govern the objective: as, "To commence a suit."—Johnson. "O continue thy loving kindness unto them."—Psalms, xxxvi, 10. "A feather will turn the scale."—Shak. "Return him a trespass offering."—1 Samuel. "For it becomes me so to speak."—Dryden. But their construction with like cases is easily distinguished by the sense; as, "When I commenced author, my aim was to amuse."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 286. "Men continue men's destroyers."—Nixon's Parser, p. 56. "'Tis most just, that thou turn rascal"—Shak., Timon of Athens. "He went out mate, but he returned captain."—Murray's Gram., p. 182. "After this event he became physician to the king."—Ib. That is, "When I began to be an author," &c.

"Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine."—Pope.

OBS. 15.—The common instructions of our English grammars, in relation to the subject of the preceding rule, are exceedingly erroneous and defective. For example: "The verb TO BE, has always a nominative case after it, unless it be in the infinitive mode."—Lowth's Gram., p. 77. "The verb TO BE requires the same case after it as before it."—Churchill's Gram., p. 142. "The verb TO BE, through all its variations, has the same case after it, expressed or understood, as that which next precedes it."—Murray's Gram., p. 181; Alger's, 62; Merchant's, 91; Putnam's, 116; Smith's, 97; and many others. "The verb TO BE has usually the same case after it, as that which immediately precedes it."—Hall's Gram., p. 31. "Neuter verbs have the same case after them, as that which next precedes them."—Folker's Gram., p. 14. "Passive verbs which signify naming, and others of a similar nature, have the same case before and after them."—Murray's Gram., p. 182. "A Noun or Pronoun used in predication with a verb, is in the Independent Case. EXAMPLES—'Thou art a scholar.' 'It is I.' 'God is love.'"—S. W. Clark's Pract. Gram., p. 149. So many and monstrous are the faults of these rules, that nothing but very learned and reverend authority, could possibly impose such teaching anywhere. The first, though written by Lowth, is not a whit wiser than to say, "The preposition to has always an infinitive mood after it, unless it be a preposition." And this latter absurdity is even a better rule for all infinitives, than the former for all predicated nominatives. Nor is there much more fitness in any of the rest. "The verb TO BE, through all," or even in any, of its parts, has neither "always" nor usually a case "expressed or understood" after it; and, even when there is a noun or a pronoun put after it, the case is, in very many instances, not to be determined by that which "next" or "immediately" precedes the verb. Examples: "A sect of freethinkers is a sum of ciphers."—Bentley. "And I am this day weak, though anointed king."—2 Sam., iii, 39. "What made Luther a great man, was his unshaken reliance on God."—Kortz's Life of Luther, p. 13. "The devil offers his service; He is sent with a positive commission to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets."—Calvin's Institutes, p. 131. It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words sum, king, reliance, and spirit, are nominatives, after the verb or participle; and not objectives, as they must be, if there were any truth in the common assertion, "that the two cases, which, in the construction of the sentence, are the next before and after it, must always be alike."—Smith's New Gram., p. 98. Not only may the nominative before the verb be followed by an objective, but the nominative after it may be preceded by a possessive; as, "Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, was not a prophet's son."—"It is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court."—Amos, vii, 13. How ignorant then must that person be, who cannot see the falsity of the instructions above cited! How careless the reader who overlooks it!

NOTES TO RULE VI.

NOTE I.—The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a participial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid; for the cases ought to be clear, even in exceptions to the common rules of construction. Examples: (1.) "WIDOWHOOD, n. The state of being a widow."—Webster's Dict. Say rather, "WIDOWHOOD, n. The state of a widow."—Johnson, Walker, Worcester. (2.) "I had a suspicion of the fellow's being a swindler/" Say rather, "I had a suspicion that the fellow was a swindler." (3.) "To prevent its being a dry detail of terms."—Buck. Better, "To prevent it from being a dry detail of terms." [361]

NOTE II.—The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to accord in signification, either literally or figuratively, with the preceding term which is taken for a sign of the same thing. Errors: (1.) "To be convicted of bribery, was then a crime altogether unpardonable."—Blair's Rhet., p. 265. To be convicted of a crime, is not the crime itself; say, therefore, "Bribery was then a crime altogether unpardonable." (2.) "The second person is the object of the Imperative."—Murray's Gram., Index, ii, 292. Say rather, "The second person is the subject of the imperative;" for the object of a verb is the word governed by it, and not its nominative.