OTHER WORDS USED AS RELATIVES.
But and as.
124. Two words, but and as, are used with the force of relative pronouns in some expressions; for example,—
1. There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has force in it: how else could it rot?—Carlyle.
2. This, amongst such other troubles as most men meet with in this life, has been my heaviest affliction.—De Quincey.
Proof that they have the force of relatives.
Compare with these the two following sentences:—
3. There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us.—Emerson.
4. There were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never ceased to use, but which only wealth could have purchased.—Hawthorne.
Sentence 3 shows that but is equivalent to the relative that with not, and that as after such is equivalent to which.
For as after same see "Syntax" (Sec. 417).
Former use of as.
125. In early modern English, as was used just as we use that or which, not following the word such; thus,—
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have.
—Shakespeare
This still survives in vulgar English in England; for example,—
"Don't you mind Lucy Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy? "—Kingsley
This is frequently illustrated in Dickens's works.
Other substitutes.
126. Instead of the phrases in which, upon which, by which, etc., the conjunctions wherein, whereupon, whereby, etc., are used.
A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and good abide.—Emerson.
The sovereignty of this nature whereof we speak.—Id.
The dear home faces whereupon
That fitful firelight paled and shone.
—Whittier.