Chapter XI: Interjections

Interjections, being seldom any thing more than natural sounds or short words uttered independently, can hardly be said to have any _syntax_; but since some rule is necessary to show the learner how to dispose of them in parsing, a brief axiom for that purpose, is here added, which completes our series of rules: and, after several remarks on this canon, and on the common treatment of Interjections, this chapter is made to embrace _Exercises_ upon all the other parts of speech, that the chapters in the Key may correspond to those of the Grammar.

RULE XXIV.--INTERJECTIONS.

Interjections have no dependent construction; they are put absolute, either alone, or with other words: as, "_O!_ let not thy heart despise me."--_Dr. Johnson_. "_O_ cruel _thou_!"--_Pope, Odys._, B. xii, l. 333. "Ah wretched _we_, poets of earth!"--_Cowley_,

"_Ah Dennis! Gildon ah!_ what ill-starr'd rage
Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?"
_Pope, Dunciad_, B. iii,

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIV.

OBS. 1.--To this rule, there are properly _no exceptions_. Though interjections are sometimes uttered in close connexion with other words, yet, being mere signs of passion or of feeling, they seem not to have any strict grammatical relation, or dependence according to the sense. Being destitute alike of relation, agreement, and government, they must be used independently, if used at all. Yet an emotion signified in this manner, not being causeless, may be accompanied by some object, expressed either by a nominative absolute, or by an adjective after _for_: as, "_Alas!_ poor _Yorick!_"--_Shak_. Here the grief denoted by _alas_, is certainly _for Yorick_; as much so, as if the expression were, "Alas _for_ poor Yorick!" But, in either case, _alas_, I think, has no dependent construction; neither has _Yorick_, in the former, unless we suppose an ellipsis of some governing word.

OBS. 2.--The interjection _O_ is common to many languages, and is frequently uttered, in token of earnestness, before nouns or pronouns put absolute by direct address; as, "Arise, _O Lord; O God_, lift up thine hand."--_Psalms_, x, 12. "_O ye_ of little faith!"--_Matt._, vi, 30. The Latin and Greek grammarians, therefore, made this interjection the _sign_ of the _vocative case_; which case is the same as the nominative put absolute by address in English. But this particle is no positive index of the vocative; because an independent address may be made without that sign, and the _O_ may be used where there is no address: as, "_O_ scandalous want! _O_ shameful omission!"--"Pray, _Sir_, don't be uneasy."--_Burgh's Speaker_, p. 86.

OBS. 3.--Some grammarians ascribe to two or three of our interjections the power of governing sometimes the nominative case, and sometimes the objective. First, NIXON; in an exercise entitled, "NOMINATIVE GOVERNED BY AN INTERJECTION," thus: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! _require_ after them the nominative case of a _substantive_ in the _second_ person; as, 'O thou _persecutor!_'--'O Alexander! thou hast slain thy friend.' _O_ is an interjection, _governing_ the nominative case _Alexander_."--_English Parser_, Again, under the title, "OBJECTIVE CASE GOVERNED BY AN INTERJECTION," he says: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! _require_ after them the objective case of a _substantive_ in the _first_ or _third_ person; as, 'Oh _me!_' 'Oh the _humiliations_!' _Oh_ is an interjection, _governing_ the objective case _humiliations_."--These two rules are in fact contradictory, while each of them absurdly suggests that _O, oh_, and _ah_, are used only with nouns. So J. M. PUTNAM: "Interjections sometimes _govern_ an objective case; as, _Ah me! O_ the tender _ties! O_ the soft _enmity! O me_ miserable! _O_ wretched _prince! O_ cruel _reverse_ of fortune! When an address is made, the interjection does not perform the office of government."--_Putnam's Gram._, So KIRKHAM; who, under a rule quite different from these, extends the doctrine of government to _all_ interjections: "According to the genius of the English language, transitive verbs and prepositions _require_ the objective case of a noun or pronoun after them; and this requisition is all that is meant by _government_, when we say that these parts of speech _govern the objective_ case. THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO THE INTERJECTION. 'Interjections _require_ the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them; but the nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, Ah _me_! Oh _thou_! O my _country!_' To say, then, that interjections _require_ particular cases after them, is synonymous with saying, that they _govern_ those cases; and this office of the interjection is in _perfect accordance_ with that which it performs in the Latin, and many other languages."--_Kirkham's Gram._, According to this, every interjection has as much need of an object after it, as has a transitive verb or a preposition! The rule has, certainly, _no_ "accordance" with what occurs in Latin, or in any other language; it is wholly a fabrication, though found, in some shape or other, in well-nigh all English grammars.

OBS. 4.--L. MURRAY'S doctrine on this point is thus expressed: "The interjections _O! Oh!_ and _Ah! require_ the objective case of a pronoun in the first person after them, as, 'O me! oh me! Ah me!' But the nominative case in the second person: as, 'O thou persecutor!' 'Oh ye hypocrites!' 'O thou, who dwellest,' &c."--_Octavo Gram._, INGERSOLL copies this most faulty note literally, adding these words to its abrupt end,--i. e., to its inexplicable "&c." used by Murray; "because the first person _is governed by a preposition_ understood: as, 'Ah _for_ me!' or, '_O what will become of_ me!' &c., and the second person is in the _nominative independent_, there being a direct address."--_Conversations on E. Gram._, So we see that this grammarian and Kirkham, both modifiers of Murray, understand their master's false verb "_require_" very differently. LENNIE too, in renouncing a part of Murray's double or threefold error, "_Oh! happy us!_" for, "_O_ happy _we!_" teaches thus: "Interjections sometimes _require_ the objective case after them, but they never _govern_ it. In the first edition of this grammar," says he, "I followed Mr. Murray and others, in leaving _we_, in the exercises to be turned into _us_; but that it should be _we_, and not _us_, is obvious; because it is the nominative to _are_ understood; thus, _Oh_ happy _are we_, or, _Oh we are_ happy, (being) surrounded with so many blessings."--_Lennie's Gram., Fifth Edition, Twelfth_, Here is an other solution of the construction of this pronoun of the first person, contradictory alike to Ingersoll's, to Kirkham's, and to Murray's; while _all are wrong_, and this among the rest. The word should indeed be _we_, and not _us_; because we have both analogy and good authority for the former case, and nothing but the false conceit of sundry grammatists for the latter. But it is a _nominative absolute_, like any other nominative which we use in the same exclamatory manner. For the first person may just as well be put in the nominative absolute, by exclamation, as any other; as, "Behold _I_ and the _children_ whom God hath given me!"--_Heb._, "Ecce _ego_ et _pueri_ quos mihi dedit Deus!"--_Beza_. "O brave _we!_"--_Dr. Johnson, often_. So Horace: "O _ego_ lævus," &c.--_Ep. ad Pi._, 301.

"Ah! luckless _I!_ who purge in spring my spleen--
Else sure the first of bards had Horace been."
--_Francis's Hor._, ii, 209.

OBS. 5.--Whether Murray's remark above, on "_O! Oh!_ and _Ah!_" was originally designed for a _rule of government_ or not, it is hardly worth any one's while to inquire. It is too lame and inaccurate every way, to deserve any notice, but that which should serve to explode it forever. Yet no few, who have since made English grammars, have copied the text literally; as they have, for the public benefit, stolen a thousand other errors from the same quarter. The reader will find it, with little or no change, in Smith's New Grammar, p. 96 and 134; Alger's, 56; Allen's, 117; Russell's, 92; Blair's, 100, Guy's, 89; Abel Flint's, 59; A Teacher's, 43, Picket's, 210; Cooper's[439] Murray, 136; Wilcox's, 95; Bucke's, 87; Emmons's, 77; and probably in others. Lennie varies it _indefinitely_, thus: "RULE. The interjections _Oh!_ and _Ah!_ &c. _generally_ require the objective case of the first personal pronoun, _and_ the nominative of the second; as, Ah _me!_ O _thou_ fool! O _ye_ hypocrites!"--_Lennie's Gram._, p. 110; _Brace's_, 88. M'Culloch, after Crombie, thus: "RULE XX. Interjections are joined with the objective case of the pronoun of the first person, and with the nominative of the pronoun of the second; as, Ah me! O ye hypocrites."--_Manual of E. Gram._, p. 145; and _Crombie's Treatise_, p. 315; also _Fowler's E. Language_, p. 563. Hiley makes it a note, thus: "The interjections. O! Oh! Ah! _are followed by_ the objective case of a pronoun of the first person; as, _'Oh me!' 'Ah me!'_ but by the nominative case of the pronoun in the second person; as, '_O thou_ who dwellest.' "--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 82. This is what the same author elsewhere calls "THE GOVERNMENT OF INTERJECTIONS;" though, like some others, he had set it in the "Syntax of PRONOUNS." See _Ib._, p. 108. Murray, in forming his own little "Abridgment," omitted it altogether. In his other grammars, it is still a mere note, standing where he at first absurdly put it, under his rule for the agreement of pronouns with their antecedents. By many of his sage amenders, it has been placed in the catalogue of principal rules. But, that it is no adequate rule for interjections, is manifest; for, in its usual form, it is limited to _three_, and none of these can ever, with any propriety, be parsed by it. Murray himself has not used it in any of his forms of parsing. He conceived, (as I hinted before in Chapter 1st,) that, "The syntax of the Interjection is of _so very limited a nature_, that it _does not require_ a distinct, appropriate rule."--_Octavo Gram._, i. 224.

OBS. 6.--Against this remark of Murray's, a good argument may be drawn from the ridiculous use which has been made of his own suggestion in the other place. For, though that suggestion never had in it the least shadow of truth, and was never at all applicable either to the three interjections, or to pronouns, or to cases, or to the persons, or to any thing else of which it speaks, it has not only been often copied literally, and called a "RULE" of syntax, but many have, yet more absurdly, made it a _general canon_ which imposes on all interjections a syntax that belongs to none of them. For example: "_An interjection must be followed_ by the objective case of a pronoun in the first person; _and_ by a nominative of the second person; as--_Oh me! ah me! oh thou! AH hail, ye_ happy men!"--_Jaudon's Gram._, p. 116. This is as much as to say, that every interjection must have a pronoun or two after it! Again: "_Interjections must be followed_ by the objective case of the pronoun in the first person; as, O _me!_ Ah _me!_ and by the nominative case of the second person; as, O _thou_ persecutor! Oh _ye_ hypocrites!"--_Merchant's Murray_, p. 80; _Merchant's School Gram._, p. 99. I imagine there is a difference between O and _oh_,[440] and that this author, as well as Murray, in the first and the last of these examples, has misapplied them both. Again: "_Interjections require_ the objective case of a pronoun of the first person, and the nominative case of the second; as, _Ah me! O thou_"--_Frost's El. of E. Gram._, p. 48. This, too, is general, but equivocal; as if one case or both were necessary to each interjection!

OBS. 7.--Of _nouns_, or of the _third person_, the three rules last cited say nothing;[441] though it appears from other evidence, that their authors supposed them applicable at least to _some nouns_ of the _second person_. The supposition however was quite needless, because each of their grammars contains an other Rule, that, "When an address is made, the noun or pronoun is in the nominative case _independent_;" which, by the by, is far from being universally true, either of the noun or of the pronoun. Russell imagines, "The words _depending_ upon interjections, have so near a resemblance to those in a direct address, that they may very properly be classed under the same general head," and be parsed as being, "in the nominative case _independent_." See his "_Abridgment of Murray's Grammar_," p. 91. He does not perceive that _depending_ and _independent_ are words that contradict each other. Into the same inconsistency, do nearly all those gentlemen fall, who ascribe to interjections a control over cases. Even Kirkham, who so earnestly contends that what any words _require_ after them they must necessarily _govern_, forgets his whole argument, or justly disbelieves it, whenever he parses any noun that is uttered with an interjection. In short, he applies his principle to nothing but the word _me_ in the phrases, "_Ah me!_" "_Oh me!_" and "_Me miserable!_" and even these he parses falsely. The second person used in the vocative, or the nominative put absolute by direct address, whether an interjection be used or not, he rightly explains as being "in the nominative case independent;" as, "O _Jerusalem, Jerusalem!_"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 130. "O _maid_ of Inistore!"--_Ib._, p. 131. But he is wrong in saying that, "Whenever a noun is of the second person, it is in the nominative case independent;" (_Ib._, p. 130;) and still more so, in supposing that, "The principle contained in the note" [which tells what interjections _require_,] "_proves_ that every noun of the second person is in the nominative case."--_Ib._, p. 164. A falsehood proves nothing but the ignorance or the wickedness of him who utters it. He is wrong too, as well as many others, in supposing that this nominative independent is not a nominative absolute; for, "The vocative is [_generally_, if not _always_,] absolute."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 142. But that nouns of the second person are not always absolute or independent, nor always in the nominative case, or the vocative, appears, I think, by the following example: "This is the stone which was set at nought _of you builders_."--_Acts_, iv, II. See Obs. 3d on Rule 8th.

OBS. 8.--The third person, when uttered in exclamation, with an interjection before it, is parsed by Kirkham, not as being governed by the interjection, either in the nominative case, according to his own argument and own rule above cited, or in the objective, according to Nixon's notion of the construction; nor yet as being put absolute in the nominative, as I believe it generally, if not always is; but as being "the nominative to a verb understood; as, 'Lo,' _there is_ 'the poor _Indian_!' '0, the _pain_' _there is!_ 'the _bliss_' _there is_ 'IN dying!'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 129. Pope's text is, "_Oh_ the pain, the bliss _of_ dying!" and, in all that is here changed, the grammarian has perverted it, if not in all that he has added. It is an other principle of Kirkham's Grammar, though a false one, that, "Nouns have but two persons, the second and [the] third."--P. 37. So that, these two being disposed of agreeably to his own methods above, which appear to include the second and third persons of pronouns also, there remains to him nothing but the objective of the pronoun of the first person to which he can suppose his other rule to apply; and I have shown that there is no truth in it, even in regard to this. Yet, with the strongest professions of adhering to the principles, and even to "the language" of Lindley Murray, this gentleman, by copying somebody else in preference to "that eminent philologist," has made himself one of those by whom Murray's erroneous remark on _O, oh_, and _ah_, with pronouns of the first and second persons, is not only stretched into a rule for all interjections, but made to include nouns of the second person, and both nouns and pronouns of the third person: as, "Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them, but the nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, 'Ah! _me_; Oh! _thou_; O! _virtue_!'"--_Kirkham's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 134; Stereotype Ed., p. 177. See the same rule, with examples and punctuation different, in his _Stereotype Edition_, p. 164; _Comly's Gram._, 116; _Greenleaf's_, 36; and _Fisk's_, 144. All these authors, except Comly, who comes much nearest to the thing, profess to present to us "_Murray's Grammar Simplified_;" and this is a sample of their work of _simplification_!--an ignorant piling of errors on errors!

"O imitatores servum pecus! ut mihi sæpe
Bilem, sæpe jocum vestri movêre tumultus!"--_Horace_.

OBS. 9.--Since so many of our grammarians conceive that interjections require or govern cases, it may be proper to cite some who teach otherwise. "Interjections, in English, have no government."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 111. "Interjections have no government, or admit of no construction."--_Coar's Gram._, p. 189. "Interjections have no connexion with other word's."--_Fuller's Gram._, p. 71. "The interjection, in a grammatical sense, is totally unconnected with every other word in a sentence. Its arrangement, of course, is altogether arbitrary, and cannot admit of any theory."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 83. "Interjections cannot properly have either concord or government. They are only mere sounds excited by passion, and have no just connexion with any other part of a sentence. Whatever case, therefore, is joined with them, must depend on some other word understood, except the vocative, which is always placed absolutely."--_Adam's Latin Gram._, p. 196; _Gould's_, 193. If this is true of the Latin language, a slight variation will make it as true of ours. "Interjections, and phrases resembling them, are taken absolutely; as, _Oh_, world, _thy slippery turns_! But the phrases Oh _me_! and Ah _me_! frequently occur."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 188. This passage is, in several respects, wrong; yet the leading idea is true. The author entitles it, "SYNTAX OF INTERJECTIONS," yet absurdly includes in it I know not what _phrases_! In the phrase, "_thy slippery turns!_" no word is absolute, or "taken absolutely" but this noun "_turns_;" and this, without the least hint of its _case_, the learned author will have us to understand to be absolute, because the phrase _resembles an interjection!_ But the noun "_world_" which is also absolute, and which still more resembles an interjection, he will have to be so for a different reason--because it is in what he chooses to call the _vocative case_. But, according to custom, he should rather have put his interjection absolute _with_ the noun, and written it, "_O world_," and not, "_Oh, world_." What he meant to do with "_Oh me!_ and _Ah me!_" is doubtful. If any phrases come fairly under his rule, these are the very ones; and yet he seems to introduce them as exceptions! Of these, it can hardly be said, that they "_frequently_ occur." Lowth notices only the latter, which he supposes elliptical. The former I do not remember to have met with more than three or four times; except in grammars, which in this case are hardly to be called authorities: "_Oh! me_, how fared it with me then?"--_Job Scott_. "_Oh me!_ all the horse have got over the river, what shall we do?"--WALTON: _Joh. Dict._

"But when he was first seen, _oh me!_
What shrieking and what misery!"--_Wordsworth's Works_, p. 114.

OBS. 10.--When a declinable word not in the nominative absolute, follows an interjection, as part of an imperfect exclamation, its construction (if the phrase be good English) depends on something understood; as, "Ah _me!_"--that is, "Ah! _pity_ me;" or, "Ah! _it grieves_ me;" or, as some will have it, (because the expression in Latin is "_Hei mihi!_") "Ah _for_ me!"--_Ingersoll_. "Ah! _wo is to_ me."--_Lowth_. "Ah! _sorrow is to_ me."--_Coar_. So of "_oh me!_" for, in these expressions, if not generally, _oh_ and _ah_ are exactly equivalent the one to the other. As for "_O me_" it is now seldom met with, though Shakspeare has it a few times. From these examples, O. B. Peirce erroneously imagines the "independent case" of the pronoun _I_ to be _me_, and accordingly parses the word without supposing an ellipsis; but in the plural he makes that case to be _we_, and not _us_. So, having found an example of "Ah _Him!_" which, according to one half of our grammarians, is bad English, he conceives the independent case of _he_ to be _him_; but in the plural, and in both numbers of the words _thou_ and _she_, he makes it the nominative, or the same in form as the nominative. So builds he "the temple of Grammatical consistency!"--P. 7. Nixon and Cooper must of course approve of "_Ah him!_" because they assume that the interjection _ah_ "_requires_" or "_governs_" the objective case of the third person. Others must condemn the expression, because they teach that _ah_ requires the nominative case of this person. Thus Greenleaf sets down for false syntax, "O! happy _them_, surrounded with so many blessings!"--_Gram. Simplified_, p. 47. Here, undoubtedly, the word should be _they_; and, by analogy, (if indeed the instances are analogous,) it would seem more proper to say, "Ah _he!_" the nominative being our only case absolute. But if any will insist that "_Ah him!_" is good English, they must suppose that _him_ is governed by something understood; as, "Ah! I _lament_ him;" or, "Ah! _I mourn for_ him." And possibly, on this principle, the example referred to may be most correct as it stands, with the pronoun in the objective case: "_Ah Him!_ the first great martyr in this great cause."--D. WEBSTER: _Peirce's Gram._, p. 199.

OBS. 11.--If we turn to the Latin syntax, to determine by analogy what case is used, or ought to be used, after our English interjections, in stead of finding a "perfect accordance" between that syntax and the rule for which such accordance has been claimed, we see at once an utter repugnance, and that the pretence of their agreement is only a sample of Kirkham's unconscionable pedantry. The rule, in all its modifications, is based on the principle, that the choice of _cases_ depends on the distinction of _persons_--a principle plainly contrary to the usage of the Latin classics, and altogether untrue. In Latin, some interjections are construed with the nominative, the accusative, or the vocative; some, only with the dative; some, only with the vocative. But, in English, these four cases are all included in two, the nominative and the objective; and, the case independent or absolute being necessarily the nominative, it follows that the objective, if it occur after an interjection, must be the object of something which is capable of governing it. If any disputant, by supposing ellipses, will make objectives of what I call nominatives absolute, so be it; but I insist that interjections, in fact, never "require" or "govern" one case more than an other. So Peirce, and Kirkham, and Ingersoll, with pointed self-contradiction, may continue to make "the independent case," whether vocative or merely exclamatory, the subject of a verb, expressed or understood; but I will content myself with endeavouring to establish a syntax not liable to this sort of objection. In doing this, it is proper to look at all the facts which go to show what is right, or wrong. "_Lo, the poor Indian!_" is in Latin, "_Ecce pauper Indus!_" or, "_Ecce pauperem Indum!_" This use of either the nominative or the accusative after _ecce_, if it proves any thing concerning the case of the word _Indian_, proves it doubtful. Some, it seems, pronounce it an objective. Some, like Murray, say nothing about it. Following the analogy of our own language, I refer it to the nominative absolute, because there is nothing to determine it to be otherwise. In the examples. "_Heu me miserum!_ Ah _wretch_ that I am!"--(_Grant's Latin Gram._, p. 263.) and "_Miser ego homo!_ O wretched _man_ that I am!"--(_Rom._, vii, 24,) if the word _that_ is a relative pronoun, as I incline to think it is, the case of the nouns _wretch_ and _man_ does not depend on any other words, either expressed or implied. They are therefore nominatives absolute, according to Rule 8th, though the Latin words may be most properly explained on the principle of ellipsis.

OBS. 12.--Of some impenetrable blockhead, Horace, telling how himself was vexed, says: "_O te_, Bollane, cerebri Felicem! aiebam tacitus."--_Lib._ i, _Sat._ ix, 11. Literally: "_O thee_, Bollanus, happy of brain! said I to myself." That is, "O! _I envy_ thee," &c. This shows that _O_ does not "require the nominative case of the second person" after it, at least, in Latin. Neither does _oh_ or _ah_: for, if a governing word be suggested, the objective may be proper; as, "Whom did he injure? Ah! _thee_, my boy?"--or even the possessive; as, "Whose sobs do I hear? Oh! _thine_, my child?" Kirkham tells us truly, (Gram., p. 126,) that the exclamation "_O my_" is frequently heard in conversation. These last resemble Lucan's use of the genitive, with an ellipsis of the governing noun: "_O miseræ sortis!_" i.e., "_O_ [men] _of miserable lot!_" In short, all the Latin cases as well as all the English, may possibly occur after one or other of the interjections. I have instanced all but the ablative, and the following is literally an example of that, though the word _quanto_ is construed adverbially: "Ah, _quanto_ satius est!"--_Ter. And._, ii, 1. "Ah, _how much_ better it is!" I have also shown, by good authorities, that the nominative of the first person, both in English and in Latin, may be properly used after those interjections which have been supposed to require or govern the objective. But how far is analogy alone a justification? Is "_O thee_" good English, because "_O te_" is good Latin? No: nor is it bad for the reason which our grammarians assign, but because our best writers never use it, and because _O_ is more properly the sign of the vocative. The literal version above should therefore be changed; as, "O Bollanus, _thou_ happy numskull! said I to myself."

OBS. 13--Allen Fisk, "author of Adam's Latin Grammar Simplified," and of "Murray's English Grammar Simplified," sets down for "_False Syntax_" not only that hackneyed example, "Oh! happy we," &c., but, "O! You, who love iniquity," and, "Ah! you, who hate the light."--_Fisk's E. Gram._, p. 144. But, to imagine that either _you_ or _we_ is wrong here, is certainly no sing of a great linguist; and his punctuation is very inconsistent both with his own rule of syntax and with common practice. An interjection set off by a comma or an exclamation point, is of course put absolute _singly_, or by itself. If it is to be read as being put absolute with something else, the separation is improper. One might just as well divide a preposition from its object, as an interjection from the case which it is supposed to govern. Yet we find here not only such a division as Murray sometimes improperly adopted, but in one instance a total separation, with a capital following; as, "O! You, who love iniquity," for, "O you who love iniquity!" or "O ye," &c. If a point be here set between the two pronouns, the speaker accuses all his hearers of loving iniquity; if this point be removed, he addresses only such as do love it. But an interjection and a pronoun, each put absolute singly, one after the other, seem to me not to constitute a very natural exclamation. The last example above should therefore be, "Ah! you hate the light." The first should be written, "_O_ happy we!"

OBS. 14.--In other grammars, too, there are many instances of some of the errors here pointed out. R. C. Smith knows no difference between _O_ and _oh_; takes "_Oh!_ happy _us_" to be accurate English; sees no impropriety in separating interjections from the pronouns which he supposes them to "govern;" writes the same examples variously, even on the same page; inserts or omits commas or exclamation points at random; yet makes the latter the means by which interjections are to be known! See his _New Gram._, pp. 40, 96 and 134. Kirkham, who lays claim to "a new system of punctuation," and also stoutly asserts the governing power of interjections, writes, and rewrites, and finally stereotypes, in one part of his book. "Ah me! _Oh_ thou! O my country!" and in an other, "Ah! me; _Oh!_ thou; O! virtue." See Obs. 3d and Obs. 8th above. From such hands, any thing "_new_" should be received with caution: this last specimen of his scholarship has more errors than words.

OBS. 15.--Some few of our interjections seem to admit of a connexion with other words by means of a preposition or the conjunction _that_ as, "O _to_ forget her!"--_Young_. "O _for_ that warning voice!"--_Milton_. "O _that_ they were wise!"--_Deut._, xxxii, 29. "O _that_ my people had hearkened unto me!"--_Ps._, lxxxi, 13, "Alas _for_ Sicily!"--_Cowper_. "O _for_ a world in principle as chaste As this is gross and selfish!"--_Id._ "Hurrah _for_ Jackson!"--_Newspaper_. "A bawd, sir, fy _upon_ him!"--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict._ "And fy _on_ fortune, mine avowed foe!"--SPENCER: _ib._ This connexion, however, even if we parse all the words just as they stand, does not give to the interjection itself any dependent construction. It appears indeed to refute Jamieson's assertion, that, "The interjection is _totally unconnected_ with every other word in a sentence;" but I did not quote this passage, with any averment of its accuracy; and, certainly, many nouns which are put absolute themselves, have in like manner a connexion with words that are not put absolute: as, "O _Lord_ God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O _God_ of Jacob. Selah."--_Ps._, lxxxiv, 8. But if any will suppose, that in the foregoing examples something else than the interjection must be the antecedent term to the preposition or the conjunction, they may consider the expressions elliptical: though it must be confessed, that much of their vivacity will be lost, when the supposed ellipses are supplied: as, "O! _I desire_ to forget her."--"O! _how I long_ for that warning voice!"--"O! _how I wish_ that they were wise!"--"Alas! I _wail_ for Sicily."--"Hurrah! _I shout_ for Jackson."--"Fy! _cry out_ upon him." Lindley Murray has one example of this kind, and if his punctuation of it is not bad in all his editions, there must be an ellipsis in the expression: "O! _for_ better times."--_Octavo Gram._, ii, 6; _Duodecimo Exercises_, p. 10. He also writes it thus: "O. _for_ better times."--_Octavo Gram._, i, 120; _Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 47. According to common usage, it should be, "O for better times!"

OBS. 16.--The interjection may be placed at the _beginning_ or the _end_ of a simple sentence, and sometimes _between_ its less intimate parts; but this part of speech is seldom, if ever, allowed to interrupt the connexion of any words which are closely united in sense. Murray's definition of an interjection, as I have elsewhere shown, is faulty, and directly contradicted by his example: "O virtue! how amiable thou art!"--_Octavo Gram._, i, 28 and 128; ii. 2. This was a favourite sentence with Murray, and he appears to have written it uniformly in this fashion; which, undoubtedly, is altogether right, except that the word _"virtue"_ should have had a capital Vee, because the quality is here personified.

OBS. 17.--Misled by the false notion, that the term _interjection_ is appropriate only to what is "thrown in between the parts of a _sentence_," and perceiving that this is in fact but rarely the situation of this part of speech, a recent critic, (to whom I should owe some acknowledgements, if he were not wrong in every thing in which he charges me with error,) not only denounces this name as "_barbarous_," preferring Webster's loose term, "_exclamation_;" but avers, that, "The words called _interjection_ should _never_ be so used--should _always stand alone_; as, 'Oh! virtue, how amiable thou art.' 'Oh? Absalom, my son.' G. Brown," continues he, "drags one into the middle of a sentence, _where it never belonged_; thus, 'This enterprise, _alas_! will never compensate us for the trouble and expense with which it has been attended.' If G. B. meant the _enterprize_ of studying grammar, in the old theories, his sentiment is very appropriate; but his _alas_! he should have known enough to have put into the right place:--before the sentence representing the fact that excites the emotion expressed by _alas_! See on the Chart part 3, of RULE XVII. An _exclamation_ must _always precede_ the phrase or sentence describing the fact that excites the emotion to be expressed by the _exclamation_; as: Alas! I have alienated my friend! _Oh!_ Glorious hope of bliss secure!"--_Oliver B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 375. "O Glorious hope of bliss secure!"--_Ib._, p. 184. "O _glorious_ hope!"--_Ib._, p. 304.

OBS. 18.--I see no reason to believe, that the class of words which have always, and almost universally, been called _interjections_, can ever be more conveniently explained under any other name; and, as for the term _exclamation_, which is preferred also by Cutler, Felton, Spencer, and S. W. Clark, it appears to me much less suitable than the old one, because it is less specific. Any words uttered loudly in the same breath, are _an exclamation_. This name therefore is too general; it includes other parts of speech than interjections; and it was but a foolish whim in Dr. Webster, to prefer it in his dictionaries. When David "cried _with a loud voice_, O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" [442] he uttered _two_ exclamations, but they included all his words. He did not, like my critic above, set off his first word with an interrogation point, or any other point. But, says Peirce, "These words are _used in exclaiming_, and are what all know them to be, _exclamations_; as I call them. May I not _call_ them what they _are_?"--_Ibid._ Yes, truly. But to _exclaim_ is to _cry out_, and consequently every _outcry_ is an _exclamation_; though there are two chances to one, that _no interjection_ at all be used by the bawler. As good an argument, or better, may be framed against every one of this gentleman's professed improvements in grammar; and as for his punctuation and orthography, any reader may be presumed capable of seeing that they are not fit to be proposed as models.

OBS. 19.--I like my position of the word "_alas_" better than that which Peirce supposes to be its only right place; and, certainly, his rule for the location of words of this sort, as well as his notion that they must stand alone, is as false, as it is new. The obvious misstatement of Lowth, Adam, Gould, Murray, Churchill, Alger, Smith, Guy, Ingersoll, and others, that, "Interjections are words thrown in between the parts of _a sentence_," I had not only excluded from my grammars, but expressly censured in them. It was not, therefore, to prop any error of the old theorists, that I happened to set one interjection "_where_" according to this new oracle, "_it never belonged_." And if any body but he has been practically misled by their mistake, it is not I, but more probably some of the following authors, here cited for his refutation: "I fear, _alas!_ for my life."--_Fisk's Gram._, p. 89. "I have been occupied, _alas_! with trifles."--_Murray's Gr., Ex. for Parsing_, p. 5; _Guy's_, p. 56. "We eagerly pursue pleasure, but, _alas!_ we often mistake the road."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 40, "To-morrow, _alas!_ thou _mayest_ be comfortless!"--_Wright's Gram._, p. 35. "Time flies, _O!_ how swiftly."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 226. "My friend, _alas!_ is dead."--_J. Flint's Gram._, p. 21. "But _John, alas! he_ is very idle."--_Merchant's Gram._, p. 22. "For pale and wan he was, _alas_ the while!"--SPENSER: _Joh. Dict._ "But yet, _alas! O_ but yet, _alas!_ our haps be but hard haps."--SYDNEY: _ib._ "Nay, (what's incredible,) _alack!_ I _hardly_ hear a woman's clack."--SWIFT: _ib._ "Thus life is spent (_oh fie_ upon't!) In being touch'd, and crying--Don't!"--_Cowper_, i, 231. "For whom, _alas!_ dost thou prepare The sweets that I was wont to share"--_Id._, i, 203. "But here, _alas!_ the difference lies."--_Id._, i. 100. "Their names, _alas_! in vain reproach an age," &c.--_Id._, i, 88. "What nature, _alas!_ has denied," &c.--_Id._, i, 235. "A. _Hail_ Sternhold, then; and Hopkins, _hail!_ B. Amen."--_Id._, i 25.

"These Fate reserv'd to grace thy reign divine,
Foreseen by me, but _ah!_ withheld from mine!"--_Pope, Dun._, iii, 215.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX PROMISCUOUS. [Fist] [The following examples of bad grammar, being similar in their character to others already exhibited, are to be corrected, by the pupil, according to formules previously given.]

LESSON I.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"Such an one I believe yours will be proved to be."--PEET: _Farnum's Gram._, p. 1. "Of the distinction between the imperfect and the perfect tenses, it may be observed," &c.--_Ainsworth's Gram._, p. 122. "The subject is certainly worthy consideration."--_Ib._, p. 117. "By this means all ambiguity and controversy is avoided on this point."--_Bullions, Principles of Eng. Gram., 5th Ed., Pref._, p. vi. "The perfect participle in English has both an active and passive signification."--_Ib._, p. 58. "The old house is at length fallen down."--_Ib._, p. 78. "The king, with the lords and commons, constitute the English form of government."--_Ib._, p. 93. "The verb in the singular agrees with the person next it."--_Ib._, p. 95. "Jane found Seth's gloves in James' hat."--_Felton's Gram._, p. 15. "Charles' task is too great."--_Ibid._, 15. "The conjugation of a verb is the naming, in regular order, its several modes tenses, numbers and persons."--_Ib._, p. 24. "The long remembered beggar was his guest."--_Ib._, 1st Ed., p. 65. "Participles refer to nouns and pronouns."--_Ib._, p. 81. "F has an uniform sound in every position except in _of_."--_Hallock's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 15. "There are three genders; the masculine, the feminine and neuter."--_Ib._, p. 43. "When _so that_ occur together, sometimes the particle _so_ is taken as an adverb."--_Ib._, p. 124. "The definition of the articles show that they modify the words to which they belong."--_Ib._, p. 138. "The auxiliaries _shall, will_, or _should_ is implied."--_Ib._, p. 192. "Single rhyme trochaic omits the final short syllable."--_Ib._, p. 244. "Agreeable to this, we read of names being blotted out of God's book,"--BURDER: _ib._, p. 156; _Webster's Philos. Gram._, 155; _Improved Gram._, 107. "The first person is the person speaking."--_Goldsbury's Common School Gram._, p. 10. "Accent is the laying a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain letter or syllable in a word."--_Ib._, Ed. of 1842, p. 75. "Thomas' horse was caught."--_Felton's Gram._, p. 64. "You was loved."--_Ib._, p. 45. "The nominative and objective end the same."--_Rev. T. Smith's Gram._, p. 18. "The number of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two, the singular and the plural."--_Ib._, p. 22. "_I_ is called the pronoun of the _first_ person, which is the person speaking."--_Frost's Practical Gram._, p. 32. "The essential elements of the phrase is an intransitive gerundive and an adjective."--_Hazen's Practical Gram._, p. 141. "Being rich is no justification for such impudence."--_Ib._, p. 141. "His having been a soldier in the revolution is not doubted."--_Ib._, p. 143. "Catching fish is the chief employment of the inhabitants. The chief employment of the inhabitants is catching fish."--_Ib._, p. 144. "The cold weather did not prevent the work's being finished at the time specified."--_Ib._, p. 145. "The former viciousness of that man caused his being suspected of this crime."--_Ib._, p. 145. "But person and number applied to verbs means, certain terminations."--_Barrett's Gram._, p. 69. "Robert fell a tree."--_Ib._, p. 64. "Charles raised up."--_Ib._, p. 64. "It might not be an useless waste of time."--_Ib._, p. 42. "Neither will you have that _implicit faith_ in the writings and works of others which characterise the vulgar,"--_Ib._, p. 5. "_I_, is the first person, because it denotes the speaker."--_Ib._, p. 46. "I would refer the student to Hedges' or Watts' Logic."--_Ib._, p. 15. "Hedge's, Watt's, Kirwin's, and Collard's Logic."--_Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part III, p. 116. "Letters are called vowels which make a full and perfect sound of themselves."--_Cutler's Gram._, p. 10. "It has both a singular and plural construction."--_Ib._, p. 23. "For he beholdest thy beams no more."--_Ib._, p. 136. "To this sentiment the Committee has the candour to incline, as it will appear by their summing up."--_Macpherson's Ossian, Prelim. Disc._, p. xviii. "This is reducing the point at issue to a narrow compass."--_Ib._, p. xxv. "Since the English sat foot upon the soil."--_Exiles of Nova Scotia_, p. 12. "The arrangement of its different parts are easily retained by the memory."--_Hiley's Gram._, 3d Ed., p. 262. "The words employed are the most appropriate which could have been selected."--_Ib._, p. 182. "To prevent it launching!"--_Ib._, p. 135. "Webster has been followed in preference to others, where it differs from them."--_Frazee's Gram._, p. 8. "Exclamation and Interrogation are often mistaken for one another."--_Buchanan's E. Syntax_, p. 160. "When all nature is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor guilt keep their vigils."--_Felton's Gram._, p. 96.

"When all nature's hushed asleep,
Nor love, nor guilt, their vigils keep."--_Ib._, p. 95.

LESSON II.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A VERSIFYER and POET are two different Things."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 163. "Those Qualities will arise from the well expressing of the Subject."--_Ib._, p. 165. "Therefore the explanation of _network_, is taken no notice of here."--_Mason's Supplement_, p. vii. "When emphasis or pathos are necessary to be expressed."--_Humphrey's Punctuation_, p. 38. "Whether this mode of punctuation is correct, and whether it be proper to close the sentence with the mark of admiration, may be made a question."--_Ib._, p. 39. "But not every writer in those days were thus correct."--_Ib._, p. 59. "The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no less than four."--_Ib._, p. 69. "Our present code of rules are thought to be generally correct."-- _Ib._, p. 70. "To prevent its running into another."--_Humphrey's Prosody_, p. 7. "Shakespeare, perhaps, the greatest poetical genius which England has produced."--_Ib._, p. 93. "This I will illustrate by example; but prior to which a few preliminary remarks may be necessary."--_Ib._, p. 107. "All such are entitled to two accents each, and some of which to two accents nearly equal."--_Ib._, p. 109. "But some cases of the kind are so plain that no one need to exercise his judgment therein."--_Ib._, p. 122. "I have forbore to use the word."--_Ib._, p. 127. "The propositions, 'He may study,' 'He might study,' 'He could study,' affirms an ability or power to study."--_Hallock's Gram. of_ 1842, p. 76. "The divisions of the tenses has occasioned grammarians much trouble and perplexity."--_Ib._, p. 77. "By adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this subject, it may be rendered highly attractive to young learners."--_Wells's Sch. Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 1; 3d, 9; 113th, 11. "The definitions and rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with each other."--_Ib., Preface_, p. iii. "So as not wholly to prevent some sounds issuing."--_Sheridan's Elements of English_, p. 64. "Letters of the Alphabet not yet taken notice of."--_Ib._, p. 11. "IT _is sad_, IT _is strange_, &c., seems to express only that _the thing_ is sad, strange, &c."--_The Well-Wishers' Gram._, p. 68. "THE WINNING is easier than THE PRESERVING a conquest."--_Ib._, p. 65. "The United States finds itself the owner of a vast region of country at the West."--_Horace Mann in Congress_, 1848. "One or more letters placed before a word is a Prefix."--_S. W. Clark's Pract. Gram._, p. 42. "One or more letters added to a word is a Suffix."--_Ib._, p. 42. "Two-thirds of my hair has fallen off."--_Ib._, p. 126. "'Suspecting,' describes 'we,' by expressing, incidentally, an act of 'we.'"--_Ib._, p. 130. "Daniel's predictions are now being fulfilled."--_Ib._, p. 136. "His being a scholar, entitles him to respect."--_Ib._, p. 141. "I doubted his having been a soldier."--_Ib._, p. 142. "Taking a madman's sword to prevent his doing mischief, cannot be regarded as robbing him."--_Ib._, p. 129. "I thought it to be him; but it was not him."--_Ib._, p. 149. "It was not me that you saw."--_Ib._, p. 149. "Not to know what happened before you was born, is always to be a boy."--_Ib._, p. 149. "How long was you going? Three days."--_Ib._, 158. "The qualifying Adjective is placed next the Noun."--_Ib._, p. 165. "All went but me."--_Ib._, p. 93. "This is parsing their own language, and not the author's."--_Wells's School Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 73. "Nouns which denote males, are of the masculine gender."--_Ib._, p. 49. "Nouns which denote females, are of the feminine gender."--_Ib._, p. 49. "When a comparison is expressed between more than two objects of the same class, the superlative degree is employed."--_Ib._, p. 133. "Where _d_ or _t_ go before, the additional letter _d_ or _t_, in this contracted form, coalesce into one letter with the radical _d_ or _t_."--_Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 9. "Write words which will show what kind of a house you live in--what kind of a book you hold in your hand--what kind of a day it is."--_Weld's Gram._, p. 7. "One word or more is often joined to nouns or pronouns to modify their meaning."--_Ib., 2d Ed._, p. 30. "_Good_ is an adjective; it explains the quality or character of every person or thing to which it is applied."--_Ib._, p. 33; _Abridg._, 32. "A great public as well as private advantage arises from every one's devoting himself to that occupation which he prefers, and for which he is specially fitted."--WAYLAND: _Wells's Gram._, p. 121; _Weld's_, 180. "There was a chance of his recovering his senses. Not thus: 'There was a chance of him recovering his senses.' MACAULEY."--See _Wells's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 121; 113th, 135. "This may be known by its not having any connecting word immediately preceding it."--_Weld's Gram., 2d Edition_, p. 181. "There are _irregular_ expressions occasionally to be met with, which usage or custom rather than analogy, sanction."--_Ib._, p. 143. "He added an anecdote of Quinn's relieving Thomson from prison."--_Ib._, p. 150. "The daily labor of her hands procure for her all that is necessary."--_Ib._, p. 182. "Its being _me_, need make no change in your determination."--_Hart's Gram._, p. 128. "The classification of words into what is called the Parts of Speech."--_Weld's Gram._, p. 5. "Such licenses may be explained under what is usually termed Figures."--_Ib._, p. 212.

"Liberal, not lavish, is kind nature's hands."--_Ib._, p. 196.

"They fall successive and successive live."--_Ib._, p. 213.

LESSON III.--ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A figure of Etymology is the intentional deviation in the usual form of a word."--_Weld's Gram., 2d Edition_, p. 213. "A figure of Syntax is the intentional deviation in the usual construction of a word."--_Ib._, 213. "Synecdoche is putting the name of the whole of anything for a part or a part for the whole."--_Ib._, 215. "Apostrophe is turning off from the regular course of the subject to address some person or thing."--_Ib._, 215. "Even young pupils will perform such exercises with surprising interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a little time, more knowledge of the structure of Language than he can acquire by a drilling of several years in the usual routine of parsing."--_Ib., Preface_, p. iv. "A few Rules of construction are employed in this Part, to guide in the exercise of parsing."--_Ibidem_. "The name of every person, object, or thing, which can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun."--_Ib._, p. 18; _Abridged Ed._, 19. "A dot, resembling our period, is used between every word, as well as at the close of the verses."--_W. Day's Punctuation_, p. 16; _London_, 1847. "Casting types in matrices was invented by Peter Schoeffer, in 1452."--_Ib._, p. 23. "On perusing it, he said, that, so far from it showing the prisoner's guilt, it positively established his innocence."--_Ib._, p. 37. "By printing the _nominative_ and _verb_ in _Italic_ letters, the reader will be able to distinguish them at a glance."--_Ib._, p. 77. "It is well, no doubt, to avoid using unnecessary words."--_Ib._, p. 99. "Meeting a friend the other day, he said to me, 'Where are you going?'"--_Ib._, p. 124. "John was first denied _apples_, then he was promised _them_, then he was offered _them_."--_Lennie's Gram._, 5th Ed., p. 62. "He was denied admission."--_Wells's School Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 146. "They were offered a pardon."--_Pond's Murray_, p. 118; _Wells_, 146. "I was this day shown a new potatoe."--DARWIN: _Webster's Philos. Gram._, p. 179; _Imp. Gram._, 128; _Frazee's Gram._, 153; _Weld's_, 153. "Nouns or pronouns which denote males are of the masculine gender."--_S. S. Greene's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 211. "There are three degrees of comparison--the positive, comparative, and superlative."--_Ib._, p. 216; _First Les._, p. 49. "The first two refer to direction; the third, to locality."--_Ib., Gr._, p. 103. "The following are some of the verbs which take a direct and indirect object."--_Ib._, p. 62. "I was not aware of his being the judge of the Supreme Court."--_Ib._, p. 86. "An indirect question may refer to either of the five elements of a declarative sentence."--_Ib._, p. 123. "I am not sure _that he will be present_ = _of his being present_."--_Ib._, p. 169. "We left on Tuesday."--_Ib._, p. 103. "He left, as he told me, before the arrival of the steamer."--_Ib._, p. 143. "We told him _that he must leave_ = We told him _to leave_."--_Ib._, p. 168. "Because he was unable to persuade the multitude, he left in disgust."--_Ib._, p. 172. "He _left_, and _took_ his brother with him."--_Ib._, p. 254. "This stating, or declaring, or denying any thing, is called the indicative mode, or manner of speaking."--_Weld's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 72; _Abr. Ed._, 59. "This took place at our friend Sir Joshua Reynold's."--_Weld's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 150; _Imp. Ed._, 154. "The manner of a young lady's employing herself usefully in reading will be the subject of another paper."--_Ib._, 150; or 154. "Very little time is necessary for Johnson's concluding a treaty with the bookseller."--_Ib._, 150; or 154. "My father is not now sick, but if he _was_ your services would be welcome."--_Chandler's Grammar_, 1821, p. 54. "When we begin to write or speak, we ought previously to fix in our minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at."--_Blair's Rhetoric_, p. 193. "Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor."--_Bullions's Analytical and Practical Grammar_, 1849, p. 59. "The active and passive present express different ideas."--_Ib._, p. 235. "An _Improper Diphthong_, or Digraph, is a diphthong in which only one of the vowels are sounded."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, §115. "The real origin of the words are to be sought in the Latin."--_Ib._, §120. "What sort of an alphabet the Gothic languages possess, we know; what sort of alphabet they require, we can determine."--_Ib._, §127. "The Runic Alphabet whether borrowed or invented by the early Goths, is of greater antiquity than either the oldest Teutonic or the Moeso-Gothic Alphabets."--_Ib._, §129. "Common to the Masculine and the Neuter Genders."--_Ib._, §222. "In the Anglo-Saxon _his_ was common to both the Masculine and Neuter Genders."--_Ib._, §222. "When time, number, or dimension are specified, the adjective follows the substantive."--_Ib._, §459. "Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear Invade thy bounds."--_Ib._, §563. "To Brighton the Pavilion lends a _lath and plaster_ grace."--_Ib._, §590. "From this consideration nouns have been given but one person, the THIRD."--_D. C. Allen's Grammatic Guide_, p. 10.

"For it seems to guard and cherish
Even the wayward dreamer--I."--_Home Journal_.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.

PRAXIS XIII.--SYNTACTICAL.

_In the following Lessons, are exemplified most of the Exceptions, some of the Notes, and many of the Observations, under the preceding Rules of Syntax; to which Exceptions, Notes, or Observations, the learner may recur, for an explanation of whatsoever is difficult in the parsing, or peculiar in the construction, of these examples or others._

LESSON I.--PROSE.

"_The_ higher a bird flies, _the_ more out of danger he is; and _the_ higher a Christian soars above the world, _the_ safer are his comforts."--_Sparke_.

"_In_ this point of view, and _with_ this explanation, _it_ is supposed by some grammarians, that our language contains _a_ few Impersonal Verbs; that is, _verbs_ which declare the existence of some action or state, but _which_ do not refer to any animate being, or any determinate particluar subject."--_L. Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 109.

"Thus in England and France, a great landholder possesses _a_ hundred _times_ the property that is necessary for the subsistence of a family; and each landlord has perhaps _a_ hundred families dependent on him for subsistence."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 87.

"_It_ is as possible to become _pedantick_ by fear of pedantry, as to be _troublesome_ by ill timed civility."--_Johnson's Rambler_, No. 173.

"_To_ commence _author, is_ to claim praise; and no man can justly aspire to honour, but at the hazard of disgrace."--_Ib._, No. 93.

"_For_ ministers to be silent in the cause of Christ, _is_ to renounce it; and to fly _is_ to desert it."--SOUTH: _Crabb's Synonymes_, p. 7.

"Such instances shew how much _the sublime_ depends upon a just selection of circumstances; and _with_ how great care every circumstance must be avoided, which _by_ bordering _in the least_ upon _the mean_, or even upon _the gay_ or _the trifling_, alters the tone of the emotion."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 43.

"This great poet and philosopher, _the_ more _he_ contemplated the nature of the Deity, _found_ that _he_ waded _but the_ more out of his depth, and that _he_ lost _himself_ in the thought _instead_ of finding an end to it."--_Addison_. "_Odin, which_ in Anglo-Saxon was _Woden_, was the supreme god of the Goths, answering to the Jupiter of the Greeks."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 262.

"Because confidence, that _charm_ and _cement_ of intimacy, _is_ wholly wanting in the intercourse."--_Opie, on Lying_, p. 146.

"Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also _of_ taste, _of_ smell, and _of_ touch: but the chief _fund_ of comparison _are objects_ of sight."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 136.

"The various relations of the various Objects exhibited by this (I mean relations of _near_ and _distant, present_ and _absent, same_ and _different, definite_ and _indefinite_, &c.) made it necessary that _here there_ should not be one, but many Pronouns, such as _He, This, That, Other, Any, Some_, &c."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 72.

"Mr. Pope's Ethical Epistles _deserve_ to be mentioned with signal honour, _as_ a _model_, next to _perfect, of_ this kind of poetry."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 402.

"The knowledge _of why_ they so exist, must be the last act of favour _which_ time and toil will bestow."--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. 253.

"_It_ is unbelief, and _not faith, that_ sinks the sinner into despondency.--Christianity disowns such characters."--_Fuller, on the Gospel_, p. 141.

"That God created the universe, [and] that men are accountable for their actions, _are frequently mentioned_ by logicians, as instances of the mind judging."

LESSON II.--PROSE.

"_To_ censure works, _not men, is_ the just _prerogative_ of criticism, and accordingly all personal censure is here avoided, unless _where necessary_ to illustrate some general proposition."--_Kames, El. of Crit., Introduction_, p. 27.

"_There remains_ to show by examples the manner of treating subjects, so as to give them a ridiculous appearance."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 303.

"The making of poetry, _like_ any other _handicraft_, may be learned by industry."--_Macpherson's Preface to Ossian_, p. xiv.

"Whatever is found more strange or beautiful than _was expected_, is judged to be more strange or beautiful than it is in reality."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 243.

"Thus the body of an animal, and of a plant, _are composed_ of certain great vessels; these[,] of _smaller_; and these again[,] of still _smaller_, without end, _as_ far as we can discover."--_Id., ib._, p. 270.

"This cause of beauty, is too extensive to be handled _as a branch_ of any other subject: for _to_ ascertain with accuracy even the proper meaning of words, _not to talk_ of their figurative power, _would require_ a large volume; _an_ useful _work_ indeed, but not to be attempted without a large stock of time, study, and reflection."--_Id._, Vol. ii, p. 16.

"O the hourly _dangers_ that we here walk _in_! Every sense, and member, _is_ a snare; every creature, and every duty, _is_ a snare to us."--_Baxter, Saints's Rest_.

"_For_ a man _to give_ his opinion of what he sees _but_ in part, _is_ an unjustifiable _piece_ of rashness and folly."--_Addison_.

"_That_ the sentiments thus prevalent among the early Jews _respecting_ the divine authority of the Old Testament were correct, _appears_ from the testimony of Jesus Christ and his apostles."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 69.

"So in Society we are not our _own_, but Christ's, and the church's, to good works and services, yet all in love."--_Barclay's Works_, Vol. i, p. 84.

"He [_Dr. Johnson_] sat up in his bed, _clapped_ his hands, _and cried, 'O brave we_!'--a peculiar _exclamation_ of _his_ when he rejoices."-- _Boswell's Life of Johnson_, Vol. iii, p. 56.

"Single, double, and treble emphasis _are_ nothing but examples of antithesis."--_Knowles's Elocutionist_, p. xxviii.

"The curious _thing, and what_, I would almost say, _settles_ the point, _is_, that we do _Horace_ no service, even according to our view of the matter, by rejecting the scholiast's explanation. No two eggs can be _more like each other_ than Horace's _Malthinus_ and Seneca's _Mecenas_."-- _Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 477. "_Acting, conduct, behaviour_, abstracted from all regard to what is, in fact and event, the consequence of _it, is itself_ the natural object of this moral discernment, as speculative truth _and_ [say _or_] falsehood is _of_ speculative reason."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 277.

"_To_ do what is _right_, with unperverted faculties, _is_ ten _times easier_ than to undo what is wrong."--_Porter's Analysis_, p. 37.

"Some _natures the_ more _pains_ a man takes to reclaim them, _the_ worse they are."--L'ESTRANGE: _Johnson's Dict., w. Pains_.

"Says _John Milton_, in that impassioned speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, where every word leaps with intellectual life, '_Who_ kills a man, _kills_ a reasonable creature, God's image; but _who_ destroys a good book, _kills_ reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden upon the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose for a life beyond life!'"--_Louisville Examiner_, June, 1850.

LESSON III.--PROSE.

"The philosopher, the saint, or the hero--_the_ wise, _the_ good, or the great man--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, _which_ a proper education might have disinterred and _brought_ to light."--_Addison_.

"The _year before_, he had so used the matter, that _what_ by force, _what_ by policy, he had taken from the Christians _above_ thirty small castles."--_Knolles_.

"_It_ is an important truth, that religion, vital _religion_, the _religion_ of the heart, is the most powerful auxiliary of reason, in waging war with the passions, and promoting that sweet composure which constitutes the peace of God."--_Murray's Key_, p. 181.

"_Pray, sir, be pleased_ to take the part of _us beauties_ and _fortunes_ into your consideration, and do not let us _be flattered_ out of our senses. _Tell_ people that _we_ fair _ones_ expect honest plain answers, as well as other folks."--_Spectator_, No. 534. "_Unhappy it_ would be _for_ us, _did_ not uniformity _prevail_ in morals: _that_ our actions should uniformly be directed to what is _good_ and against what is _ill_, is the greatest _blessing_ in society; and _in_ order to uniformity of action, uniformity of sentiment is indispensable."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. ii, p. 366.

"Thus the pleasure of all the senses is _the same_ in _all, high_ and _low, learned_ and _unlearned_."--_Burke, on Taste_, p. 39.

"_Upwards_ of eight millions of acres _have_, I believe, been thus disposed of."--_Society in America_, Vol. i, p. 333.

"The Latin Grammar comes _something_ nearer, but yet does not hit the mark _neither_."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 281.

"_Of_ the like nature is the following inaccuracy of _Dean Swift's_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 105. "Thus, Sir, I have given _you_ my own opinion, relating to this weighty affair, as well as _that_ of a great majority of both houses here."--_Ib._

"A foot is just _twelve_ times as long as an _inch_; and an hour is sixty _times_ the _length_ of a minute."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 48.

"What can we expect, who come _a gleaning_, not after the first reapers, but after the _very_ beggars?"--_Cowley's Pref. to Poems_, p. x.

"In our _Lord's being betrayed_ into the hands of the chief-priests and scribes, by Judas Iscariot; in _his being_ by them _delivered_ to the Gentiles; in _his being mocked, scourged, spitted on_, [say _spit upon_,] and _crucified_; and in his _rising_ from the dead after three days; there was much that was singular, complicated, and not to be easily calculated on before hand."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 40.

"To be _morose, implacable, inexorable_, and _revengeful_, is one of the greatest degeneracies of human nature."--_Dr. J. Owen_.

"Now, says _he_, if tragedy, which is in its nature _grand_ and _lofty_, will not admit of this, _who can forbear laughing_ to hear the historian Gorgias Leontinus styling Xerxes, that cowardly Persian king, _Jupiter_; and vultures, living _sepulchres_?"--_Holmes's Rhetoric?_, Part II, p. 14.

"O let thy all-seeing eye, and not the eye of the world, be the star to steer my course _by_; and let thy blessed favour, more than the liking of any sinful men, be ever my study and delight."--_Jenks's Prayers_, p. 156.

LESSON IV.--PROSE.

"O _the Hope_ of Israel, _the Saviour thereof_ in time of trouble, why _shouldest thou_ be as a _stranger_ in the land, and as a way-faring _man_, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?"--_Jeremiah_, xiv, 8.

"When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was _a preparing, wherein_ few, _that_ is, eight souls, were saved."--_1 Peter_, iii, 20.

"Mercy and truth _are_ met together; righteousness and peace have kissed _each other_."--_Psalms_, lxxxv, 10.

"But _in vain_ they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."--_Matt._, xv, 9.

"Knowest thou not this _of old_, since man was placed upon the earth, that the _triumphing_ of the _wicked_ is short, and the joy of the hypocrite _but_ for a moment?"--_Job_, xx, 4, 5.

"For now we _see_ through a glass darkly; but _then, face_ to _face_: now I _know_ in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."--_1 Cor._, xiii, 12.

"For then the _king of Babylon's_ army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the _Prophet_ was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the _king of Judah's_ house."--_Jer._, xxxii, 2.

"For Herod had laid hold on John, and _bound_ him, and _put_ him in prison, for _Herodias'_ sake, his _brother_ Philip's _wife_."--_Matt._, xiv, 3.

"And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, _of Huram_ my _father's_, the _son_ of a woman of the daughters of Dan."--_2 Chron._, ii, 13.

"Bring no _more_ vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the _calling_ of assemblies, I _cannot away with: it_ is iniquity _even_ the solemn _meeting_."--_Isaiah_, i, 13.

"For I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, _saying_, Woe is _me_ now! for my soul is wearied _because_ of murderers."--_Jer._, iv, 31.

"She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the _images_ of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes _to_ look _to, after_ the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the _land_ of their nativity."--_Ezekiel_, xxiii, 15.

"And on them _was written_ according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly."--_Deut._, ix, 10.

"And he charged them that they _should tell no man_: but _the_ more he charged them, so much _the_ more a great _deal_ they published it."--_Mark_, vii, 36.

"The results which God has connected with actions, will inevitably occur, all the created _power_ in the universe to the contrary _notwithstanding_."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 5.

"Am _I_ not an _apostle_? am _I_ not _free_? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not _ye_ my _work_ in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am _to_ you; for the _seal_ of _mine_ apostleship are _ye_ in the Lord."--_1 Cor._, ix, 1, 2.

"Not _to insist_ upon this, _it_ is evident, that formality is a term of general import. It implies, that in religious exercises of all kinds _the_ outward and [the] inward man _are_ at diametrical variance."--_Chapman's Sermons to Presbyterians_, p. 354.

LESSON V.--VERSE.

"_See_ the sole bliss Heaven _could_ on all _bestow_,
Which _who but_ feels, can taste, _but_ thinks, can know;
Yet, poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
_The bad_ must miss, _the good_, untaught, will find."--_Pope_.

"There _are, who, deaf_ to mad Ambition's call,
Would shrink to hear th' obstreperous trump of fame;
Supremely _blest_, if to their portion fall
Health, competence, and peace."--_Beattie_.

"High stations _tumult_, but _not bliss_, create;
None think _the great_ unhappy, but _the great_.
Fools gaze and _envy_: envy darts a sting,
Which makes a swain as _wretched_ as a king."--_Young_.

"Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
_Sink_ down, _ye mountains_; and, _ye valleys, rise_;
With heads declin'd, _ye cedars_, homage _pay_;
_Be_ smooth, _ye rocks; ye_ rapid _floods, give_ way."--_Pope_.

"Amid the forms which this full world presents
_Like rivals to his_ choice, what human breast
E'er doubts, before the _transient and minute_,
To prize the _vast_, the _stable_, and _sublime_?"--_Akenside_.

"Now fears in dire vicissitude invade;
The rustling brake _alarms_, and quiv'ring _shade_:
_Nor_ light nor darkness brings his _pain_ relief;
One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief."--_Johnson_.

"If Merab's choice could have complied with _mine_,
Merab, my elder comfort, had been _thine_:
And _hers_, at _last_, should have with _mine_ complied,
Had I not _thine_ and Michael's heart descried."--_Cowley_.

"The people have _as much_ a negative voice
To hinder _making_ war without their choice,
As kings of making laws in parliament:
'_No money' is_ as _good_ as '_No assent_.'"--_Butler_.

"Full _many a gem_ of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full _many a flower_ is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."--_Gray_.

"_Oh fool_! to think God hates the worthy _mind_,
The lover and the love of human kind,
_Whose_ life is healthful, and _whose_ conscience clear,
Because _he_ wants _a_ thousand pounds _a_ year."--_Pope_.

"O _Freedom_! sovereign _boon_ of Heav'n,
Great _charter_, with our being given;
For _which_ the patriot and the sage
Have plann'd, have bled thro' ev'ry age!"--_Mallet_.

LESSON VI.--VERSE.

"Am I to set my life upon a throw,
Because a bear is rude and surly? _No_."--_Cowper_.

"_Poor, guiltless I_! and can I choose but _smile_,
When every coxcomb knows me by my style?"--_Pope_.

"Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,
_Prayer_ all his _business_, all his _pleasure praise_."--_Parnell_.

"These are _thy_ blessings, _Industry_! rough power;
_Whom_ labour still attends, and _sweat_, and _pain_."--_Thomson_.

"_What ho! thou genius_ of the clime, _what ho_!
Liest thou _asleep_ beneath these hills of snow?"--_Dryden_.

"_What_! canst thou not forbear me _half an hour_?
Then _get_ thee gone, and _dig_ my grave thyself."--_Shak_.

"Then palaces and lofty domes arose;
_These_ for devotion, and for pleasure _those_."--_Blackmore_.

"'Tis very dangerous, _tampering_ with a muse;
The profit's small, and you have much to lose."--_Roscommon_.

"_Lucretius English'd_! 't was a work _might shake_
The power of English verse to undertake."--_Otway_.

"_The best_ may slip, and _the_ most _cautious fall_;
He's _more_ than _mortal_, that ne'er err'd _at all_."--_Pomfret_.

"_Poets_ large _souls_ heaven's noblest stamps do bear,
_Poets_, the watchful angels' darling care."--_Stepney_.

"Sorrow breaks reasons, and reposing hours;
Makes the night _morning_, and the noon-tide _night_."--_Shak._

"Nor then the solemn nightingale _ceas'd warbling_."--_Milton_.

"And O, poor hapless _nightingale_, thought I,
How _sweet_ thou singst, how _near_ the deadly _snare_!"--_Id._

"He calls for _famine_, and the meagre fiend
Blows mildew _from between his_ shrivell'd lips."--_Cowper_.

"If o'er their lives a refluent _glance_ they cast,
Theirs is _the present_ who can praise _the past_."--_Shenstone_.

"Who wickedly is _wise_, or madly _brave,
Is but the more_ a fool, the _more_ a knave."--_Pope_.

"Great _eldest-born_ of Dullness, blind and bold!
_Tyrant!_ more cruel than Procrustes old;
Who, to his iron bed, by torture, fits,
Their nobler _part_, the _souls_ of suffering wits."--_Mallet_.

"Parthenia, _rise_.--What voice alarms my ear?
_Away_. Approach not. Hah! _Alexis_ there!"--_Gay_.

"Nor is it _harsh_ to make, nor _hard_ to find
A country _with--ay_, or without mankind."--_Byron_.

"A _frame_ of adamant, a _soul_ of fire,
_No_ dangers fright him, and _no_ labours tire."--_Johnson_.

"Now _pall_ the tasteless _meats_, and joyless _wines_,
And _luxury_ with sighs _her slave resigns_."--_Id._

"_Seems?_ madam; nay, it is: I know not _seems_--
For I have that within which passes show."--_Hamlet_.

"_Return? said_ Hector, fir'd with stern disdain:
_What! coop_ whole armies in our walls again?"--_Pope_.

"He whom the fortune of the field shall cast
_From forth_ his chariot, _mount_ the next in haste."--_Id._

"_Yet here, Laertes? aboard, aboard, for_ shame!"--_Shak_.

"_Justice_, most gracious _Duke; O grant me_ justice!"--_Id._

"But what a _vengeance_ makes thee _fly_
From me too, as thine enemy?"--_Butler_.

"Immortal _Peter_! first of monarchs! He
His stubborn _country_ tam'd, _her_ rocks, _her_ fens,
_Her_ floods, _her_ seas, _her_ ill-submitting sons."--_Thomson_.

"O arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket, thou:--
Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread!
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard,
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st."
SHAK.: _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV, Sc 3.