Alas! the joys that fortune brings,
Are trifling, and decay;
And those who mind the paltry things,
More trifling still than they.
NOTE. In the second sentence of the foregoing exercises, which is governed by the verb to hide, according to RULE 16. He is nom. to carries; who is nom. to plans. Follows agrees with who understood, and is connected to plans by and; RULE 34. What did the king give? A reward to me. Then reward is in the obj. case, gov. by gave; RULE 20. Me is gov. by to understood; NOTE 1, RULE 32. The phrase, committing that barbarous act, is gov. by for; NOTE 2, under RULE 28. Hour is in the obj. case, gov. by to spend; RULE 20. Look is connected to set by and; RULE 34. Joys is nom. to are. That is gov. by brings; RULE 16. Those is nom. to are understood. They is nom. to are understood; RULE 35.
CASES OF NOUNS.
In a former lecture, I promised to give you a more extensive explanation of the cases of nouns; and, as they are, in many situations, a little difficult to be ascertained, I will now offer some remarks on this subject. But before you proceed, I wish you to parse all the examples in the exercises just presented, observing to pay particular attention to the remarks in the subjoined NOTE. Those remarks will assist you much in analyzing.
A noun is sometimes nominative to a verb placed many lines after the noun. You must exercise your judgment in this matter. Look at the sentence in the preceding exercises beginning with, "He who, every morning," &c. and see if you can find the verb to which he is nominative. What does he do? He carries on a thread, &c. He, then, is nominative to the verb carries. What does who do? Who plans, and who follows, &c. Then who is nom. to plans, and who understood, is nominative to follows.
"A soul without reflection, like a pile
Without inhabitant, to ruin runs."
In order to find the verb to which the noun soul, in this sentence, is the nominative, put the question; What does a soul without reflection do? Such, a soul runs to ruin, like a pile without inhabitant. Thus you discover, that soul is nominative to runs.
When the words of a sentence are arranged according to their natural order, the nominative case, you recollect, is placed before the verb, and the objective, after it; but when the words of a sentence are transposed; that is, not arranged according to their natural order, it frequently happens, that the nominative comes after, and the objective, before the verb; especially in poetry, or when a question is asked: as, "Whence arises the misery of the present world?" "What good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Put these expressions in the declarative form, and the nominative will precede, and the objective follow its verb: thus, "The misery of the present world arises whence; I shall do what good thing to inherit eternal life."
"Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had, in her sober livery, all things clad."