thought themselves in the reach of them their footing failed and down they sank. . .

I here fetched a deep sigh alas said I man was made in vain how is he given away to misery and mortality tortured in life and swallowed up in death.-Addison.

7. Exhibit by two modes of punctuation, the true and false meanings of the following:

(1)

What do you think

I'll shave you for nothing

And give you some drink

(2)

Be open evermore

(3)

O thou my door

To none be shut to honest or to poor
Every lady in this land

Hath twenty nails upon each hand
Five and twenty on hands and feet
And this is true without deceit

(4) My name is Norval on the Grampian hills
My father feeds his flock a frugal swain
Whose constant care were to increase his store

(5)

We fought and conquered ere a sword was drawn
An arrow from my bow had pierced their chief
Who wore that day the arms which now I wear
Now by these presents I do you advertise
That I am minded to marry you in no wise

For your goods and substance I could be content
To take you as ye are if ye mind to be my wife
Ye shall be assured for the time of my life

I will keep ye right well from good raiment and fare

Ye shall not be kept but in sorrow and care
Ye shall in no wise live at your own liberty

But when ye are merry I will be all sad
When ye seek your heart's ease I will be unkind

At no time in me shall ye much gentleness find

8. Begin with the simplest form of sentence, and illustrate, by various enlargements, ten principles of punctuation.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SENTENCE — CONCORD.

As a man is known by his company, so a man's company may be known by his manner of expressing himself. - SWIFT.

Be as careful that neatness, grammar, and sense prevail, when you write to a blacksmith about shoeing a horse as when you write on the most important subjects, and when you expect what you write to be read by persons whose good opinion you are most anxious to obtain or secure. . . . . When you write, bear constantly in mind that some one is to read and to understand what you write. WILLIAM COBBETT.

CONCORD

ONCORD is derived from the Latin concordia, and signifies agreement. In all inflected languages, the forms of the words present outward signs which show their mutual relations. Thus the Latin adjective bonus (good) qualifies, with the ending -8, only a nominative of the singular number and masculine gender: bonus vir= a good man; bonus puer a good boy. Singular feminine and neuter nouns are connoted by the forms bona, bonum: bona puella a good girl; bonum signum=a good token. Change of number and case in the substantive compels still other changes of termination in the attribute:

=

Consequently there is no ambiguity here:

Bonus puer pulchras puellas cantantes audivit=
The good boy heard the beautiful girls singing.

Audivit must have for its subject a singular substantive, which must therefore be puer. To this term, sameness of form plainly indicates that bonus must be referred. Exactly the same inflection appears in pulchras as in puellas feminine, plural, accusative; and this fact determines the connection of the two. Nor is it possible to assign any other connection to the plural cantantes.

Hence in Latin, Greek, primitive Saxon, and other inflectional tongues, concord means the adjustment of words to one another chiefly by correspondence of form. But it has already appeared that such correspondence can exist only to a very limited extent in modern English. The verb has been practically released from all conformity to person except in the third singular. It has but one form for all the other persons, and therefore, except in the instance specified, can have no formal agreement. With the exception of a few pronouns, to which may be added the possessive case of nouns, there is scarcely any formal inflection. As the sentence is constructed with so little dependence upon verbal forms, concord, if it be not superfluous or profitless, must be held to regard the laws of reason, as well as of visible signs. Agreeably to this extended, twofold sense of the term, we proceed to enumerate its leading requirements-the chief principles regulating the proper conjunction of words.

1. The subject of a sentence is put in the nominative This rule really applicable only to pronouns is seldom transgressed except by persons altogether un

case.

taught. Mistakes like the following are of the grossest kind:

Them are good.

John and me went.

He was older than her1 [was old].

The following, as they occur in longer or somewhat involved constructions, are more easily pardoned:

This is a man whom [who] I think deserves encouragement.

The fortress commands a great bend of the river, and gives to whomever [whoever] holds it the control of the navigation.

Seated on an upright tombstone, close to him, was a strange, unearthly figure, whom Gabriel felt at once was no being of this world. -Dickens.

2. The subject of the root-infinitive is put in the objective case:2

Let him [to] rise.

Let us [to] fall.

1 An attempt has been made to justify than me' by appeal to the awkward phrase than whom':

Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom,

Satan except, none higher sat.-Milton.

It is urged, accordingly, that 'than' may govern the objective case by its own power; that in 'He is wiser than me,' it is a preposition, and the expression complete; but that in 'He is wiser than I,' it is a conjunction, and the expression elliptical.

This singular construction, however, though established by usage, is itself unnecessary as well as illogical. It contradicts, moreover, the analogy of both Latin and Greek, which require, after the comparative or quam (than), the same case as precedes. Than who' would be more consistent, more accurate, and, even to unfamiliar ears, would not be intolerable. "Than whom' is an instance of grammatical vice which, from having been endured, is now, from its long continuance, likely to be embraced.

Further, if than me' is proper, why not 'as me'? Yet who does not receive a verbal shock from D'Israeli's declaration, 'You know as well as me that he never swerves from his resolutions'? or from Trollope's question, 'What would be the feelings of such a woman as her?'

2 The subject of the infinitive may be regarded, conventionally, as the object of the principal verb. Logically, it is but a part ― the base of the complete object.

For me to draw those conclusions without knowing that I do so, seems incomprehensible.

Dicit montem ab hostibus teneri,- he affirms the hill to be held by the enemy.-Cæsar.

Sæpe enim venit ad aures meas, te idem istud nimis crebro dicere, tibi satis le vixisse: for often it has come to my ears, you to say too frequently that same thing-you to have lived long enough for yourself.-Cicero to Cæsar.1

Not:

Let he who made thee, [to] answer that.—Byron.

Let they who raise the spell, [to] beware the Fiend.—Bulwer.

3. The subject of the participial infinitive is put in the possessive case.

I was opposed to his writing the letter.

This did not prevent John's being inaugurated Duke of Normandy.

But that did him no more good than his afterward trying to pacify the Barons with lies.-Dickens.

4. The subject of a noun-attribute is put in the pos sessive case.

Than if I win a kinges londe.-Gower.

And far by Ganges' banks, at night,

Is heard the tiger's roar.-Mrs. Hemans.

This rule is modified by two principles,- clearness, and euphony. The first forbids putting the possessive sign on a word far removed from the base of the phrase: Maximilian the Emperor's palace.

The Emperor Maximilian's palace.

Her Majesty Queen Victoria's government.

The Captain of the Fulton's wife died yesterday.

1 Pro M. Marcello Oratio.