4. If a damsel had the least smattering of literature, she was regarded as a prodigy.—Macaulay.
5. I told him, although it were the custom of our learned in Europe to steal inventions from each other,... yet I would take such caution that he should have the honor entire.—Swift.
6. If he had reason to dislike him, he had better not have written, since he [Byron] was dead.—N. P. Willis.
7. If it were prostrated to the ground by a profane hand, what native of the city would not mourn over its fall?—Gayarre.
8. But in no case could it be justified, except it be for a failure of the association or union to effect the object for which it was created.—Calhoun.
II. Subjunctive of Purpose.
223. The subjunctive, especially be, may, might, and should, is used to express purpose, the clause being introduced by that or lest; as,—
It was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor.—Franklin.
I have been the more particular...that you may compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there.—Id.
He [Roderick] with sudden impulse that way rode, To tell of what had passed, lest in the strife They should engage with Julian's men.—Southey.