MODEL b. Here Good-nature, like a bee, is the Logical Subject of the first proposition, and collects honey from every herb is the Logical Predicate; it being understood that the verb collect is equivalent to is collecting, is being the copula. The Logical Subject of the second proposition is Ill-nature, like the spider, and the Logical Predicate is collects=is collecting poison from the sweetest flowers. The Grammatical Subject of the first is Good-nature, and the Grammatical Predicate is collects. The Grammatical Subject of the second is Ill-nature, and the Grammatical Predicate is sucks. The copula is not regarded in Syntax.

3. The intellect of the wise is like glass; it admits the light of heaven, and reflects it.

4. A speech being a matter of adaptation, and having to win opinions, should contain a little for the few, and a great deal for the many. 5. The virtue of paganism was strength; the virtue of Christianity is obedience.

Give names and definitions of the following Figures in Syntax:

1.

Who stabs my name would stab my person too,

Did not the hangman's axe lie in his way.

2. His genteel and agreeable manners have made him a universal favorite of every body.

3.

4.

The hollow sound

Sung in the leaves, the forest shook around,

Air blackened, rolled the thunder, groaned the ground.

When first thy sire, to send on earth

Virtue, his darling child, designed.

5. In descending the hill, he gave the reins to his horse and his fury. 6. Last Whitsuntide he was well and alive.

7. The skipping king-he ambled up and down.

§ 355. RULE I.-A Noun used either as the SUBJECT or the PREDICATE of a finite verb is in the Nominative Case; as, "Man reasons;" "he is the architect of his own character."

The leading rules under the noun apply also to Pronouns. What is peculiar to the pronoun is given under the rules for the Pronoun. The words Subject and Predicate, without a qualifying epithet, are, in Syntax, used in the Grammatical sense, though the Logical sense is the primary one.

Note I.-A Noun with a Participle, used Independently of the Gram

matical construction into which it logically enters, is in the nominative case absolute; as, "He being dead, we shall live;" "the king having arrived, the soldiers were drawn up in battle array."

a. Originally, in the Anglo-Saxon, nouns thus standing Independently or absolutely were in the dative; as, Up a sprungenre sunnan=the sun having arisen. Him, also, in the Anglo-Saxon, was in the dative. This would seem to justify the phraseology in Milton, "And him destroyed, or won to what may work his utter loss." In other cases, Milton conformed to the rule just given; as, "Whose gray top shall tremble, he descending."

b. A noun and a participle thus used in the nominative absolute form is an abridged sentence, and may be introduced into the general construction by a conjunction or adverb denoting time, cause, condition, or accompaniment; as, "The two armies being thus employed, Cælius began to publish several violent and odious laws" "While the two armies were thus employed, Cælius began," &c.

66

Note II.-A Noun used in Direct Address is in the nominative case independent; as, "O Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts!" "John, come hither." This last example is equivalent to the vocative case in the Latin language.

Note III.-A Nominative without its intended Verb sometimes occurs in a certain abrupt mode of writing; as, "These men-how I detest them!"

"They routed, drank, and merry made,

Till all his gold it waxed thin,

And then his friends they slunk away,

And left the unthrifty heir of Linne."

"Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever ?" "Bad men they often honor virtue at the bottom of their heart." Superfluous nominatives should be avoided in common language.

Note IV.-A Noun in the nominative without a verb is sometimes found in Exclamatory sentences; "But, oh their end, their dreadful end!"

"A steed! a steed of matchless speed,

A sword of metal keene!

All else to noble hearts is drosse,

All else on earth is meane."-MOTHERWELL.

Note V.-Nouns used as titles of Books, and names of Places and of Persons, are very often in the nominative without a verb; as, "Chambers's Cyclopædia;" "the Astor House.' These expressions are elliptical.

Note VI.-In Poetry, a Noun in the nominative without a verb may sometimes be found, chiefly in those cases where the omitted verb would express an Address or Answer; as,

"To whom thus Michael: Judge not what is best

By pleasure."-MILTON.

Note VII.-A Noun in the nominative case without a verb is very frequently found in the Answer to a Question; as, "Who invented the electro-magnetic telegraph ?" "Morse" (invented it.) Here the ellipsis is supplied. "Who first drew lightning from the clouds ?" "Franklin."

COLLOCATION.

§ 356. The Subject-nominative generally precedes, the Predicatenominative generally follows the verb, as above. To this rule there are exceptions:

1. In Interrogative, Exclamatory, and Imperative sentences, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "How many apples have (Sub.) you?" "What (Pred.) beautiful apples those are!" "Give (Sub.) thou those apples."

2. When the subjunctive mode suppresses the conjunction if or though, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Were (Sub.) it true, I should rejoice.'

3. When neither or nor is used for and not, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "The eye that saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his (Sub.) place any more behold him." "This was his fear, nor was his (Sub.) apprehension groundless."

4. When a neuter or a Passive verb is preceded by a preposition and its case, or by the adverbs here, hence, these, thence, now, then, hereafter, thus, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Here was the (Sub.) tomb," etc.

5. After such verbs as to say, to think, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Trim,' said my (Sub.) uncle Toby."

6. When the sentence begins with an emphatic adjective, the Subjectnominative follows the verb; as, "Wonderful are thy (Sub.) works."

7. When the adverb there precedes the verb, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "There was neither (Sub.) knocker nor (Sub.) bell-handle at the door where Oliver and his master stopped."

EXERCISES IN SYNTAX.

1. In these exercises a part of the examples have the letters C. S. affixed to them, to indicate Correct Syntax. This class of examples are intended to illustrate the corresponding rule or note, and impress it on the memory of the learner. The Teacher, after the example has been read, is expected to ask the Pupil to state the rule or note, and also its particular application to the example. Thus the rule is made to explain the syntax of the example, and the example to illustrate the meaning of the rule.

2. A part of the examples have the letters F. S. affixed to them, to indicate False Syntax. Examples of this class the learner is expected to correct, and to give the rule or note for the correction, as before.

3. A part of the examples have the sign of equality

(=) affixed to them, to indicate Grammatical Equivalents, which the pupil is expected to give. The practice of finding grammatical equivalents, if persevered in, will be of great value in giving the pupil command of language. See § 412.

4. It is also earnestly urged upon the Teacher that he should require the Pupils to select examples from other books under each rule and note. This will both test and increase their knowledge of the rule or note in its practical application.

EXERCISES UNDER RULE I.

NOMINATIVE CASE.

RULE I.-a. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. C. S. (In this example, God is the Subject of the verb tempers, and is in the nominative case.)

b. Truth is the daughter of Time. C. S. Here daughter is the Predicate of the verb is, and is in the nominative case.

c. Penn, despairing of relief in Europe, bent the whole energy of his mind to accomplish the establishment of a free government in the New World.--BANCROFT. C. S.

d. Brutus was, from his youth up, a student of philosophy, and well versed in the systems of the Greeks. C. S.

e. Them are the books imported for the Astor Library. F. S.

f.

The nations not so bless'd as thee

Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall;

While thou shalt flourish great and free,

The dread and envy of them all.-THOMSON. F. S.

Note I.-a. At length, the Russians being masters of the field of battle, our troops retired, the uproar ceased, and a mournful silence

ensued. C. S.

b. Shame being lost, all virtue is lost. C. S.

c. The atmosphere's being clear, and my sight good, I beheld the ship in the far distance approaching. F. S.

d. Him being on deck, we gave three cheers to the good ship. F. S. e. There being many other passages relative to the subject, he refuses to make a premature decision.

f.

Note II.-α.

=

Thy home is Eden, warm amid the snow.-ELLIOTT. C. S. b. O full of all subtlety and mischief, thee child of the devil. F. S. Note III.-a. My friends, do they now and then send a wish or a thought after me?-COWPER. C. S.

b. And the souls of thine enemies; them shall he sling as out of the middle of a sling. C. S.

Note IV.-A sail! a sail! How speaks the telescope? C. S.
Note V.-The Royal Exchange. The Duke of Wellington. C. S.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltering speech, and visage incomposed,
Answered.-MILTON. C. S.

• Note VI.

Note VII.-a. Who invented the safety-lamp? Sir Humphrey Davy. b. Who discovered America? Columbus.

Here let the pupils bring forward examples which they have selected to illustrate the rule and notes.

POSSESSIVE OR GENITIVE CASE.

§ 357. RULE II. A Noun used to limit another noun by denoting POSSESSION or ORIGIN is put in the Possessive Case; as, "Washington's prudence saved his country;" "Solomon's Temple was for generations the glory of Palestine."

Note I.-The limited Substantive is frequently omitted, that is, understood, when no mistake can arise; as, "Let us go to St. Paul's," that is, church. "Nor think a lover's are but fancied woes;" that is, a lover's woes. In these cases there is an ellipsis of the governing word. See figures of Syntax.

Note II.-When the thing possessed is the common property of two or more possessors, the sign of the possessive is suffixed only to the last noun; as, "John, Thomas, and James's house;" that is, a house of which the joint ownership is vested in these three persons.

Note III. But when the thing possessed is the individual and separate property of two or more possessors, the sign of the possessive is suffixed to each noun; as, "He has the surgeon's and the physician's opinion;" that is, he has the opinion of the surgeon, and the opinion of the physician, and these opinions may differ the one from the other. "For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's;

One of the few, the immortal names

That were not born to die."—HALLECK.

Note IV.-The possessive case may sometimes be resolved into the Objective with the preposition of; as, "Napoleon's army" may be changed into "the army of Napoleon." This is an instance of Grammatical equivalents. Napoleon's army the army of Napoleon.

But though the Saxon or English Genitive is often thus convertible into what has been called the Norman or the Analytic Genitive, yet in some cases it can not be. Thus, "the Lord's day" is the Christian Sabbath; "the day of the Lord" is the day of Judgment. When the general relation of simple possession is intended, either may be used. But when the one substantive denotes merely the substance or matter, or some quality or thing characteristic of the other, the Norman form is used; as, "A crown of gold;""a man of wisdom." These are not convertible into the English Genitive. "Cloth of wool" can not be converted into "wool's cloth;" nor "a cup of water” into “water's cup ;" nor the "idea of an angel" into "an angel's idea."