“There is no need for your assistance.” It should be, “of your assistance.” We say, “occasion for,” and “need of.” Need for may likewise be pronounced a Scotticism, as, I believe, this phraseology is seldom or never used by English writers.
“For, what chiefly deters the sons of science and philosophy from reading the Bible, and profiting of that lecture, but the stumbling-block of absolute inspiration?”—Geddes. “To profit of” is a Gallicism; it should be, “profiting by.”
SECTION VII.
THE CONJUNCTION.
SOLECISM.
“A system of theology, involving such absurdities, can be maintained, I think, by no rational man, much less by so learned a man as him.” Conjunctions having no government, the word as ought not to be joined with an objective case. It should be, “so learned a man as he,” the verb is being understood.
“Tell the cardinal, that I understand poetry better than him.”—Smollett. According to the grammatical construction of the latter clause, it means, “I understand poetry better than I understand him.” This, however, is not the sentiment which the writer intended to convey. The clause should proceed thus, “I understand poetry better than he;” that is, “than he understands it.” Those who contend for the use of than as a preposition, and justify the phraseology which is here censured, must at least admit, that to construe than as a preposition, creates ambiguity. Thus, when it is said, “you think him handsomer than me,” it would be impossible to determine whether the meaning is, “you think him handsomer than I think him,” or “you think him handsomer than you think me.”
“There is nothing more pleases mankind, as to have others to admire and praise their performances, though they are never so trivial.” Here there are two errors. The comparative more is followed by as, instead of than; and the adverb never is improperly used for ever. “How trivial so ever.” It should be, “There is nothing that pleases mankind more, than,” &c.
Conjunctions having no government, the scholar, desirous to avoid error, should carefully observe, whether the predicate be applicable to the two subjects, connected by the conjunction, or, to speak more generally, whether the two nouns be dependent on the same verb or preposition, expressed or understood. “The lover got a woman of greater fortune than her he had missed.”—Addison, Guardian. This sentence, if not acknowledged to be ungrammatical, is at least inelegant. The pronoun should have been introduced. If than be considered as having the power of a preposition, the charge of solecism is precluded; but if than be a conjunction, he should have said, “than she, whom he had missed.” For, as Lowth observes, there is no ellipsis of the verb got, so that the pronoun her cannot be under its government. The meaning is not, “The lover got a woman of greater fortune, than he got her, whom he missed,” for this would be a contradiction, but, “of greater fortune, than she was.” In like manner, in the following passage:
“Nor hope to be myself less miserable,