A GRAMMAR
01'

THK

ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
IN A SERIES OF LETTERS;

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INTENDED FOR TIIE USE OF SCHOOLS AND OF YOUNG
PERSONS ! :-<" GENERAL, B UT MORE ESPECIALLY
FOR THF. USE 0}' SOLDIERS, SAILORS,
APPRENTICES AND PLOUGH-BOYS.

BY

WILLIAM

COBBETT.

TO WR ICH ARZ ADDED

SlX LESSONS, INTENDED TO PREVENT STATESMEN FROM USI NG
FALSE GRAMMAR, AND FROM WRITING IN AN
AWKWARD MANNER

WITH NOTES BY ROBERT WATERS.

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Editor's Preface.

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·'rown,

Green, White, and Black, may be thrown into the
.4fe, !illd the world will be none the worse off; for, in my
:fipinion, boys and girls ought to be taught the principles
9,f English grammar without placing any text-book whatever in their hands. Never did the Board of Education
pf New York adopt a wiser resolution than that recently
. ~opted, abolishing grammar text-books from the public
schools, in all but the two higher grades. Any person,
that requires a book in the hands of his scholars in order
to teach them the principles of English grammar, is no
teacher; he is simply a crammer-down of other people's

buildin'g up his own knowlGdge; but no book should ever
placed in the hands of his scholars. To children,
. books on the subject of grammar are generally in a dead
· language; it is all Greek to them; the living speech of
. guag-e they. c
understand.
'the teach_er is the onl;y;
Away, therefore, with all grammar text-books; for the:y
are the dead-weights of progress, fatal to all true teaching.
. Nor · tli1s ooo:K of Coo en's m enc e for oys ancr--~
girls at school; it is for those who are studying out of
· school; for those who are trying to acquire that real,
· practical, profitable knowledge which is acquired by
. self-exertion, or self-help,- for those who have no teacher,
: and are striving to teach themselves; for those who
wish to learn in order to teach,- for those who · have
. failed to make any proper progress by means of other
, grammars, and now wish to UNDERSTAND and MASTER the
subject for themselves.
I do not deny that this book, being so entirely different
from all ether grammars; so conversational, easy, and
..plain in its character; I do not deny that it mcty be ad~ be

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Editor's Preface.

Editor's Preface.

vantageously used by school-boys under a competem·
teacher; nay, even under an incompetent teacher;-in
fact, if the teacher must use a text-book, he cannot select
a better one than Cobbett's ;-but what I maintain is, that
it is the only grammar that can be profitably used with:
out a teach er; the only book that can teach grammar BY
ITSELF to those who are learning FOR THEMSELVES. AB
lon? as principles last, and as long as men learn by using ·
their reason, grammar in some shape must be taught;
!!.lld this b eing granted. I contend that there is no BETTZB
WAY of teaching it than this way of Cobbett's.
Of .
course, no child ought ever to be taught a word about
grammar until he has learned to read fluently, and even
write tolerably well, the words of his native language;
not until he has attained his twelfth or fourteenth ye&"
for grammar is a matter which cannot be rightly under:
stood and assimilated b efore that age. This is another
reason why the action of the New York Board of Education is a wise one.
Some of Mr. ·white's readers-feeling, no doubt, as I
did, that even if all ordinary grammars are worthless, .
some grammar of some sort is necessary, and being de- ·
lighted by his clear and sensible manner of writing.....:
requ~sted li~m to write a grammar; one of them declaring
that if be did so, a future generation would rise up arid
call him blessed. Whereupon Mr. White makes the fol:
lowing amusing and significant reply : "I would gladly
act on this suggestion if it were probable that any responsible and competent publisher would make it p111dent
for me to do so. It would be delightful to believe that
the next generation would rise up and call me blessed;
but I am of necessity much more interested in the ques- ·
tion whether the present generation would rise up and ·
put its hand into its pocket to pay me for my labor. .AJJ.y .
one who is acquainted with the manner in which l:lchool- ~
books are ' introduced : in this country, knows that the

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~opinions of competent persons upon the ~erits o~ a book
,have the least possible influence upon its commg suf. ficiently into vogue to make its publica~ion profitable;
: _, and publishers, like other men of busrness, work for
money. One of the trade made, I know-although D"t
to me-an answer like this to a proposition to publish a
·short series of school-books: 'l believe your books are
excellent ; but supposing that they are all that you believe them to be, I should, after stereotyping them, be
' obliged to spend $100,000 in introducing them. I am
i not prepared to do this, and ther efore _I must say ~o, _at
once. The merit of a book has nothrng to do with 1t.s
value in trade.' And the speaker was a man of expen-

ence. "*
Now I am strongly inclined to think that these admirers 'of Mr. White's, and all those disgusted with the
ordinary grammars and the ordinary methods of teac~g
ammar will if made acquainted with Cobbett's httle
gr
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grammar, which has long been out of pnnt rn
s country, find what they want, or nearly what they want'. ~or
there does not exist in our language a clearer exposition
of the nature of English grammar than this by Cobbett.
The very language of the grammar itself is a capital illustration of how one ought to write ; and if the scholar's
itnderstanding the subject is a true test of the proper
learning of it, then no other grammar can, in the attain. ment of this end, be compared with this ; for thousands,
who have failed to understand the subject by other gi~am­
mars have succeeded by this, and have, no doubt, nsen
up ~d called Cobbett blessed for writing it. Even Mr.
"'White himself, who looks upon most other grammars as
worse than useless, declares of Cobbett's grammar, that
he has "read it with great admiration, both for the
soundness of its teaching and the excellence of its sys*"Words and their Uses," p. 427.

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Editor's Preface.

tem. "* And he also declares, I think (I quote ·from'
memory), that if grammar is to be taught at all, it cannot be taught better than by this method of Cobbett's. '
At a meeting of school superintendents held recently "
in Iowa, one of the superintendents read a paper on textbooks, in which he says: "Men of letters and men of
science have sought to veil their thoughts with the obscurity of strange and foreign terms rather than to make
the road following them in their investigation easy. They
have sought the vain-glory of stultifaction in their selection of a medi= for the communication of their thoughts,
rather than the lasting praise consequent upon a simple
style. Hence the difficulty in following them in their
text-books, and the unprofitableness of being taught how
to read thought from printed characters." If there is
one writer in the whole range of English literature who ·
deserves more praise than another for avoiding this very
style, so common among ordinary writers; if there is one '
a uthor who is more conspicuous than any other for clothing his thoughts in plain, intelligible language, it is Wil- ·
liam Cobbett. In all that goes to the making up of good
English speech, he has no superior. He was the first to
show how one ought to write for young people, the first
to write in a manner that plain people could understand;
the first to instruct in a truly edifying manner. It is his
great glory that he uses simple, plain language, and he
makes every subject he touches, whether it be the definition of a verb or the explanation of the nature of the
national debt, perfectly clear and intelligible.
The Editor has endeavored to write the notes in something of the same plain and easy style as that in which ,
Cobbett has written the grammar, keeping constantly in
mind that b e is addressing a youth of fourteen or fifteen
years of age. Of course, be has never for a moment
thought of imitating Cobbett; but simply and only of
making the matter plain.
•"Every-day English," Letters to the New York Times.

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Contents of the Grammar.

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Letter

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I -Introduction .... · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
.
fi ·t·
of Grammar and of its Different
II.-De m ion
Branches or Parts .. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
III.-Etymology: the Different Parts of Speech,
or Sorts of Words. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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IV.-Etymology of Articles. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
V.- Etymology of Nouns...... . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.-Etymology of Pronouns ... ...... . ·.. . . . . .

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VII.-Etymology of Adjectives. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · .
VIII.-Etymology of Verbs. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
IX.-Etymology of Adverbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
X.-Etymology of Prepositions. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
XI.-Etymology of Conjunctions. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- XII.-Cautionary Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
XIII-Syntax Generally Considered ........ . ... .

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XIV"-Syntax: the Points and Marks made use of

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in Writing. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
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XV.-Syntax, as r elating to Articles. . . . . . . . . . . 109
XVI.-Syntax, as r elating to Nouns. . . . . . . . . . . . 115
XVII.-Syntax, as relating to Pron~uns . . . . . . . . . 139
XVIII.-Syntax, as relating to Adjectives ....... ~ . . 142
XIX.-Syntax, as r elating to Verbs ............ .

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Contents of the Grammar.

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Letter

XX.-Syntax, as relating to Adverbs, Prepositions, and Conjunctions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
XXI.-Specimens of False Grammar, taken from
the Writings of Dr. Johnson, and from
those of Dr. Watts ...................
XXII.-Errors and Nonsense in a King's Speech ..
XXIII.-On Putting Sentences together, and on
Figurative Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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DEDICATION.

187
209

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THE SIX LESSONS.
XXIV.-Six Lessons, intended to prevent Statesmen from using False Grammar, and ·
from writing in an Awkward Manner. . . 230
Lesson

I.-On the Speech of the Right Hono:q ble
Manners Sutton, Speaker of the H0\1S0
of Commons . . ................... .' ... 238
II.-On His Majesty's Speech at the Close of
the Session in 1819 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~
III.-On the Note of Lord Castlereagh relative .,1
IV.-On the Dispatch of the Duke of Wellington
relative to the Same Subject. . . . . . . . . . 252
V.-On a Note to Lord Castlereagh relative to
the French Slave Trade ...... ........ .
VI.-On Dispatches of the Marquis Wellesley
relative to the State of Ireland in 1822.
-Clharge of the Bishop of Winchester...

HER

MOST

GRACIOUS

MAJESTY,

QUEEN CAROLINE.

,A work, having for its objects, to lay the solid foundation of literary knowledge amongst the laboring classes
<?f the community; to give practical effect to the natural
,genius found in the soldier, the sailor, the apprentice, and
' the plough-boy; and to make that genius a perennial
source of wealth, strength, and safety to the kingdom ;
such a work naturally seeks the approbation of your
majesty, who, amongst all the royal personages of the
present age, is the only one that appears to have justly
estimated the value of the people . .
: . The nobles and the hierarchy have long had the arro' gance to style themselves the pillars that support the
·throne. But, as your majesty has now clearly ascertained,
. '_l'oyalty has, in the hour of need, no efficient supporters
.but the people.
:. During your majesty's long, arduous, magnanimous,
' and gallant struggle against matchless fraud and bound-

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Dedication.

less power, it must have inspired you with great co
dence to perceive the wonderful intelligence and talent
your millions of friends; while your maj esty cannot ha~e
failed to observe, that the haughty and insolent few who

ex-

h ave been your enemies, h ave, upon all occasions,
hibited an absence of knowledge, a poverty of genius,.a
feebleness of intellect, which nothing but a constant association with malevolence and perfidy could prevent from
being ascribed to dotage or idiocy.
That to ber, whose great example is so well calc~lated
to inspire us with a love of useful knowledge, and to
stimulat e us to perseverance in its pursuit; that to her;
the records of whose magnanimity and courage will make
mean spite and cowardice hide their heads to the end ~f :
time; that to her, who, while in foreign lands, did honor
to Britain's throne, and to Britain h er self, by opening the
debtor's prison, and by setting the captive Christian free;
that to h er, who has so long had to endure all the suffer·
ings that malice could invent and tyranny execute ; ~
to h er, God may grant, to know no more of sorrow, but
long to live in health, prosperity, and glory, surround0jl.
and support ed by a grateful and admiring p eople, is th~
humble prayer of
Your majesty's most dutiful
.And most devoted servant,

LoNDON1

Nov. 25th, 1820.

TO

MR.

JAMES PAUL COBBETT.
LETTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

North .Hempstead, Long I sland, D ec. 6, 1817.

lb DEAR LITTLE J AMES:
.You have now arrived at the age of fourteen years with' out ever having lieen bidden, or even advised, t o look into
a book ; and all you know of reading or of WTiting you
owe to your own unbiassed taste and choice. But, while
you have lived unpersecuted by such importunities, you
have had the very great advantage of being bred up under
a· roof beneath which no cards, no dice, n o gaming, n o
' ~enseless pastime of any description, ever found a place.
)Ji the absence of these, books naturally became your com'panions during some part of your time: you have r ead
and have written, because you saw your elders r ead and
mite, just as you have learned t o ride and hunt and
shoot, to dig the beds in the garden, t o trim the flowers
and to prune the trees. The healthful exercise, and the
. pleasures, unmixed with fear, which you have derived
from these sources, have given you "a sound mind in a
. sound body," · and this, says an English writer, whose
works you will by-and-by read, " is the greatest blessing
that God can give to man."
It is true that this is a very great blessing; but mere
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Introduction.

Introduction.

soundness of mind, without any mental acquirements;
possessed by millions; it is an ordinary possession;
it gives a man no fair pretensions to merit, because ·
owes it to accident, and not to any thing done by h '
But knowledge, in any art or science, being always .
fruit of observation, study, or practice, gives, in propo
to its extent and usefulness, the possessor a just claim.
r espect. . We do, indeed, often see all the outward mar
of respect bestowed upon persons merely because th
are rich or powerful; but these, while they are bestowed
with pain, are received ·without pleasure. They drop from.
the tongue or beam from the features, but have no co~
munication with the heart. They are not the voluntary
offerings of admiration, or of gratitude; but are extorted
from the hopes, the fears, the anxieties, of poverty,
meanness, or of guilt. Nor is respect due to honesty,
fidelity, or any such qualities; because dishonesty and
perfidy are crimes. To entitle a man to respect, there
must be something of his own doing, beyond the boun~·
of his well-known duties and obligations.
,
Therefore, being extremely desirous to see you, my
dear James, an object of respect, I now call upon you tO
apply your mind to the acquiring of that kind of knowledge which is inseparable from an acquaintance wiill
books; for, though knowledge in every art and science is,
if properly applied, worthy of praise in proportion to its
extent and usefulness, there are some kinds of knowledge ·
which are justly considered as of a superior order, not
only because the possession of them is a proof of mor'°
than ordinary industry and talent, but because the appli.'
cation of them has naturally a more powerful influence in
the affairs and on the condition of our friends, acquaint,,
ances, n eighbors, and country. Blake, the Titchfield
thatcher, who broke his leg into splinters in falling from
a wheat-rick, was, on account of the knowledge which h~
possessed, beyond that of laborers in general, an object

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~espect; but, in its degree, and in the feelings from

'ch it arose, how different was that respect from the
ect due to our excellent neighbor, Mr. Blundell, who
• tored the leg to perfect use, after six garrison and
y surgeons had declared that it was impossible to
serve it, and that, if the leg were not cut off, the man
ust die within t wenty-four hours! It is probable that
e time of Mr. Blundell was not, on this occasion, occu'.ed more, altogether, than four days and four nights;
et, the effect was a great benefit to be enjoyed by Blake
or·probably thirty or forty years to come: and, while we
ust see that this benefit would necessarily extend itself
the whole of his numerous family, we must not overlo~k those feelings of pleasure which the cure would
' turally produce amongst friends, acquaintances, and
JIBighbors.
The respect due to the profession of the surgeon or
physician is, however, of an order inferior to that which
' ·due to the profession of the law; for whether in the
character of counselloi· or of judge, here are required, nut
only uncommon industry, labor, and talent, in the acquirement of knowledge; but the application of this knowledge
in .defending the property of the feeble or incautious
against the attacks of the strong and the wiles of ~he
crafty, in affording protection to innocence and secunng
punishment to guilt, has, in the affairs of men and on
their condition in life, a much more extensive and powerlul influence than can possibly arise from the application of surgical or medical knowledge.
,To the functions of statesmen and legislators is due the
highest respect which can be shown by man to anything
uman; for, not only are the industry, labor, and talent
fequisite in the acquirement of knowledge, still greater
i.md far greater here, than in the profession of the law;
t ut, of the application of this knowledge, the effects are
so transcendent in point of mn.gnitude as to place them

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Introduction.

beyond all the bounds of comparison. Here it is not
dividual persons with their families, friends, and n ·
bors that are affected; but whole countries and comm
ties.
are peace or war, and the liberty or slavery, happinef,18.
misery, of nations. Here a single instance of negle4;
single oversight, a single error, may load with c
millions of men, and entail that calamity on a long s
of future g enerations.
This is tru e enough; but it is a remarlrnble fact that near!ythe efforts of legislators, political as well as ecclesiastical, ha
been of such a nature as to cause anything but respect for th
The historian Buckle shows that the great bulk of the enactme
of legi.slators, since the beginning of history, have been conduci
of results directly opposite to those for which they were intend
tlmt is, evil results ; and that the only beneficial legislation of Ill
crn times has co nsisted in the undoing of what previous legislato
have done. So that, of all the personages in history, none, u
pily, are deserving of more profound contempt, or, at least, of I
esteem, than precisely those very men who ought to have sec
the greatest esteem, legislators. And all this, not because t ·were bad men, but because they were lacking in knowfodge. ·. •
And if this is the case with law-makers of honest intentio '
what shall we say of those execrable wretches, those deadly
cers on the body politic, who, on becoming members of a leg·
ture, sell th emselves, body and soul, to w ealthy corporatio111
What shall we think of their influence on the progress and welt '
of the people, wh ose interests they were elected to protect and '
promote? Such creatures lose not only the esteem of all hon
men, but their own esteem, their self-esteem; they become
t emptible, not only in their own eyes, but in the eyes of those'"W'
buy them; and us to the future, the hottest, deepest gulfs hi.
h ell are yawning for them !
As a contrast to Buckle's judgment of the great crowd of ign.
rant and consequently pernicious legislators, consider this rcmar •
uble statement which the same writer makes of the power and
influence of one mun of real knowledge: "Well may it be said o
Adam Smith (author of ' The W ealth of Nations'), and said~
without fear of contrncliction, that this solitary Scotchman has, b
the publication of one single work, contributed more towards the

,pincss of man, than has been effected by the united abilities of
the statesmen .and legislators of whom history has preserved an
ntic account."-Hist. of Civilization, Vol I., p. 155.
,~ut, my dear James, you will always bear in mind that
· the degree and quality of our respect rise in proportion
;.the influence which the different branches of knowledge
turally have in the affairs and on the condition of men,
~ in the cases of an imperfection in knowledge, or of
"0g1ect in its application, or of its perversion to bad pur. ses, all the feelings which are opposite to that of respect
·' e in the same proportion. To ignorant pretenders to
gery and medicine we award our contempt and scorn;
time-serving or treacherous counsellors, and on cruel
~ · partial judges, we inflict our detestation and abhorce; while, on rapacious, corrupt, perfidious, or ty:rani~ statesmen and legislators, the voice of human nature
\s aloud for execration and vengeance.
;.The particular pat.h of knowledge to be pursued by you
,· be of your own choosing; but, as to knowledge conected
with books, there is a step to be taken before you
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fairly enter upon any path. In the immense field of
kind of knowledge, innumerable are the p9.ths, and
lWiMAR is the gate of entrance to them all.
And if
• mmar is so useful in the attaining of knowledge, it is
.solutely necessary in order to enable the possessor to
mmunicate, by writing, that knowledge to others, with!!lt which communication the possession must be com,- atively useless to himself in many cases, and, in almost
cases, to the r est of mankind.
'.The actions of men proceed from their thoughts. In
Ofder to obtain the cooperation, the concurrence, or the
consent, of others, we must communicate our thoughts to
The means of this communication are words; and
grammar teaches us how to make u se of words. Thereiore, in all the ranks, degrees, a:1cl situations of life, a
knowledge of the principles u,nd rules of gramma,r must

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· Introduction.

Introduction.

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be useful; in some situations it must be necessary ·
the avoiding of really injurious errors j and in no ; •
uation, which calls on man to place his thoughts ~ ,
paper, can the possession of it fail to be it source of .»
gratulation, or the want of it a cause of mortification
~.
son-ow.
But, to the acquiring of this branch of knowledge, .
dear son, there is one motive which, though it ought
all times, to be strongly felt, ought, at the present · ·
to be so felt in an extraordinary degree: I mean that
sire which every man, and especially every young man,
should entertain to be able to assert with effect the right.a
and liberties of his country. \Vhen you come to read thQ
history of those laws of England by which the freedoiii
of the people has been secured, and. by which the happiness and po,ver and glory of our famed and beloved COyD:>
try have been so greatly promoted; when you come ,to
read the history of the struggles of om· forefathers, :b
which those sacred laws have, from time to time, b ,
defended against despotic ambition; by which they hav
been r estored to vigor when on the eve of perishing; p
which their violators have never failed, in the end, to
made to feel the just vengeance of the people; when y.
come to read the history of these struggles in the ca
of freedom, you will find that tyrnnny has no enemy
formidable as the pen. And, while you will see with exJ4
tion the long-imprisoned, the heavily-fined, the banish
William Prynne, retmning to liberty, borne by the peop
from Southampton to London, over a road strewed wf.
flowers; then accusing, bringing to trial, and to the blq ..
the tyrants from whose hands h e and his country had
justly and cruelly suffered; while your heart and th,
heart of every young inan in the kingdom will bound wi
joy at the spectacle, you ought all to bear in mind
·
without a knowledge of grammar, Mr. Prynne could nev
have performed any of those acts by which his name ,

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' »n thus preserved, and which have caused his memory
_be held in honor.
Though I have now said what, I am sure, will be more
sufficient to make you entertain a strong desire to
' 'e this first step in the road to literary knowledge, I
r.annot conclude this introductory letter without observthat you ought to proceed in yom study, not only
'th diligence, but with patience/ that, if you meet with
difficulties, you should bear in mind that, to enjoy the
oble prospect from Port's-Down Hill, you had first to
climb slowly to the top; and t1i.at, if those difficulties
gather about you and impede yom way, you have only to
ciill to your r ecollection any one of the many clays that
ou have toiled through briers and brambles and bogs,
Cheered and mgecl on by the hope of at last finding and
killing yoUl' game.
I I have put my work into the form of Letters, in order
that I might be continually reminded that I was addressing. myself to persons who n eeded to be spoken to With
great clearness. · I have numbered the Letters themselves,
"arid also the paragraphs, in order that I might be able, in
iome parts of tho work, to refer you to, or tell you where
look at, other parts of the work. And here I will just
add, that a sentence, used as a term in Grammar, means
. ne of those portions of words which are divided from the
rest by a single dot, which is called a period, or full point;
and that a paragraph means one of those collections, or
blocks, of sentences which are divided from the rest of the
.work by b eginning a new line a littlefitrther in than the
lines in general; imcl, of com·se, all this part, which I have
just now written, beginning with "I have put my work
·into· the form," is a paragraph.
" ', In a confident reliance on yom· attentiveness, industry,
and patience, I have a hope not less confident of seeing
you a man of real learning, employing yom time and
ents in aiding the cause of truth and justice, in afford-

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ing protection to defenceless innocence, and in ~ ·
down vengeance on lawless oppression; and, in that ho.,
I am your happy, as well as affectionate, father,

LETTER I II.
DEFINITION OF GRAMMAR, AND OF ITS DIFFERENT
OR PARTS.

MY

Grarnmar and its Branches.

.Definition of

DEAR JAMES:

'
1. In the foregoing Letter I have laid before you some'
of the inducements to the study of Grammar. In this l
will define, or describe,' the thing called Grammar; and
also its different Branches, or Parts.
2. Grammar, as I observed to you before, teaches us
how to make itse of words/ that is to say, it teaches.us how
to make use of them in a proper manner, as I used to
teach you how to sow and plant the beds in the garden;
for you could have thrown about seeds and stuck in
plants of some sort or other, in some way or other, without
any teaching of mine; and so can anybody, without rules
or instructions, put masses of words upon paper; but to
be able to choose the words which ought to be employed,
and to place them where they ought to be placed, we must
become acquainted with certain principles and rules;
and these principles and rules constitute what is called
Grammar.
•
3. Nor must you suppose, by-and-by, when you come
to read about Nouns and V erbs and Pronoitns, that all
this tends to nothing but mere ornamental learning; that
it is not altogether necessary, and that people may write
to be understood very well without it. This is not the
case; for, without a good deal of knowledge relative to
these same Nouns and Verbs, those who write are nevet

9

inv.e that they put upon paper what they mean to put
pan paper. I shall, before the close of these Letters, show
1,oU. that even very learned men have frequently written,
AD;d caused to. be published, not only what they did not
mean, but the very contrary of what they meant; and if
errors, such as are here spoken of, are sometimes committed by learned men, into what endless errors must
those fall .who have no knowledge of any principles or
rules, by the observance of which the like may be avoided!
Grammar, perfectly understood, enables us not only to
express our meaning fully and clearly, but so to express
it as to enable us to defy the ingenuity of man to give to
our words any other meaning than that which we ourselves
' tend them to express. This, therefore, is a science of
.,substantial utility.
.4. As to the different Branches or Parts of Grammar,
..~ey are four/ and they are thus namod: Orthography,
Prosody, Etymology, and Syntax. ·
5. There are two of these branches on which we have
.very little to say, and the names of which have been k ept
in use from an unwillingness to give up the practice of
former times ; but, as it is usual to give them a place in
books of this kinfl., I will explain to you the nature of all
·the four branches.
·: 6. ORTHOGRAPHY is a word made up of two Greek
:words, which mean spelUng. The use of foreign words
'in this manner, was introduced at the time when th~
English language was in a very barbarous state; and,
~ough this use has been continued, it ought to be a rule
. with you, always, when you either write or speak, to avoid
· !Jie use of any foreign or uncommon word, if you ~ ex-·• press
your meaning as fully and clearly by an Enalish
word
•
0
m common use. However, Orthography means neither
more nor less than the very humble business of putting
: letters together properly, so that they shall form words.
This is so very childish a concern that I will not appear to

.

1*

10

.Definition qf

suppose it necessary for me to dwell upon it; but as y'·
will, by-and-by, meet with some directions, under the h '
of Etymology, in which V owels and Consonants wilf .
spoken of, I will here, for form's sake, just observe ..
the letters, A, E, I , 0, and U, are Vowels. Y, in certaiii.
cases, is also a Vowel. All the rest of the letters of the
.
alphabet are Consonants.

.

This "very humble business" of spelling, however; must not J>f!
passed over so lightly; for it is a subj ect of very great difficulty
many persons. It is notorious that many of ou r ablest Englisli
authors were neve r able to spell or punctuate correctly, and th!I&
the correctness of their printed books, in this respect, is entirel7
owing to the sk ill of the compositor. Some of their manuscriptp
might, indeed, be very aptly compared to the communication of
T om Hood's witty but illiterate correspondent, who, on writing
him a long letter without any points . whatever, jotted them all
down in a row at the end of his letter, and told him to "pepper
and salt" as he pleased. It is the compositor that docs the " pep.
pering and salting, " and much more, for many a writer of large
"pretensions~
·
The orthography of our English words, from their various derl..i
vation and the variety of sounds g iven to the letters of the alplii..
bet, is perhaps more difficult ·than that of the words of any other
modern tongue ; and I wish to indicate here the very best anJ1
simplest way of leaming it, together with the punctuation of the
sentences-I mean by DICTATIONS. It is not necessary to have a
teacher for this purpose; anybody who can read correctly can die;;
tate to you. All you have to do is to write down the words and .
points that are slowly read to you from a book, and when you
have wri tten about a page, take the printed book and compare
your words and points with those in the book, and correct accorjtingly. This is the cure for all spelling-reform nonsense. Write.
page after page to dictation, and you will soon find it all come very
natural-you will wonder how .anybody could eve r think of spell. t
ing the words otherwise than the way they are spelled, or how
they could l;>e spelled otherwise.
.,
The old method-still practiced in our public schools-of giving
out columns of single and separate words to be spelled, verbally
and in writing, many of them such as may never be seen twice
again in a lifetime, is of very little value; for it is disjointed, dry,.
and pointless; whereas, hy dictating sentences from a book, the

Grammar and its Branches .

11

ICholar learns: 1st, to spell the words in common use; 2d, to
11 words according to their meaning (there, their; hair, hare;
~' pair); 3d, to associate words with ideas: thus ins~inctively
and imperceptibly learning their proper m eanmg and n ght use;
and 4th he acquires a feeling or taste for correct language; words
and' se;tences are impressed forcibly on his mind by hearing,
J!leing and writing them. Besides, he learns in this way, better
than i~ any other, a knowledge of punctuation, which ~n Eng~ish
la dlfl'erent with different writers; in fact, every English wnter
has his own style of punctuating, for this is generally a matter of
taste and feeling. In writing to dictation, the work ~one by t~e
kholar is nearly the same as that done by the compositor, who 1s
'11.he best speller and punctuator in the world. Therefore, get
&omebody to dictate to you every day a page, or half a page, from
'a book, and you will, in a few months, acquire a better knowledge
of orthography and punctuation than if you had spelled your way
through a dozen spelling-books.

7. PROSODY is a word taken from the Greek language, and it means not so much as is expresse_d by the
more common word PRONUNCIATION; that is to say,
the business of using the proper soimd, and employing
· the clue length of time, in the uttering of syllables and
words. This is a matter, however, which ought not to
·occupy much of your attention, because pronunciation_ is
learned as birds lParn to chirp and sing. In some counties
:0 f England many words are pronounced in a ma~ner dif.ferent from that in which they are pronounced m other
·counties; and between the pronunciation of Scotla~d and
.' that of Hampshire the difference is very grea~ mdeed.
But, while all inquiries into the causes of these diffe~·ences
' are ,useless, and all attempts to remove them are vam, t?e·
'differences are of very little. real consequence. For ill· stance, though the Scotch say coorn, the Londoners cawn,
and the Hampshire folks earn, we know they all mean to
· say corn. Children will pronounce as their fathers
. and.
·mothers pronounce; and if, in common conversat10n, OI
:•'in speeches, the matter b e good and judiciously ar.ranged,
~the facts clearly stated, the arguments conclusive, the
r.

12

.Definitfon of

words well chosen and. properly placed, hearers wh~
approbation is worth having will pay very little attentio~
to the accent. In short, it is sense, and not sound, whicli
is the object of your pursuit; and, therefore, I have sa.ijl
enough about Prosody.
·
Here is a circumstance that suggests a by no means unfavorable
commentary on the difference l>etween the pronunciation of Eng,
lish in this country and in Engln,rnl : Mr. J ames Paul Cobbett, son
of William Col>bctt, h as nddccl to a late edition of this grammar, 'a
sixteen-page chapter on pronuncintion, pointing out the varioiis
classes of words commonly mispronounced by classes and counUa
of people in England. After carefully noting them all , I h ave come
to the conclusion that the wllole batch is utterly useless for our
people, as I do not know of a single class of people in this country
w ho make any one of the same mispronunciations. Many of the
mistakes are, it is .true, made here, too; as, bood for bud; doon
for done; aboove for abo ve; fayther for father; awch for arch;
glawss for glass; but they are not made by classes of people; they
are, in fact, made by none but a few illiterate and pretentious ,
people.
The most common mistak e made by people in this country consists in misplacing the accent of words; as, in-clns'-try for in'-dUB- ·•
try ; in-ter-est'-ing for in'-ter-est-ing. All these may be corrected
by reference to the di ctionary, in w hich the pronunciation of every ,
word is p1·operly mark ed. The stress of the voice always falls on ,
that syllab le having the acce nt-ma rk ('); thus, per'-emp-to-ry, not
per-emp'to-ry. I have r e>trl somewhere that, on one occasion,.
when Mr. Sumner's colleague in the Senate said he hoped that the
hon orable gentlemen wonld make an in'quir-y into some matter, .
Mr. Sumner whispered to him: " inqui'ry."
/.
By-the-bye, there is one other mistake in pronunciation, which
is very common among Americans, in the Eastern States at le~t, ' ·
and that is pronouncing such words as new, dew, stew, as if they
were written noo, doo, stoo. They mnst be pronounced like few '
and view. The same error is made in such words as duty, graU- ·
tude, where the u mnst be long, as in useful.
There is something _else that usually comes under this heading. .
The Greek word p1·osodia means, literally , "belonging to song •
or hymn," and is usually employed to signify that part of gram. '
mar which treats of the rules of rhythm in metrjcal compositions. Cobbett, it is well known, had very little admiration for "

,,

Grarnrnar and its Branches .

13

poetry, and no doubt considered it a waste of time to say anything
its laws; but, though p erhaps not one in a hundred of those
. who study this book will ever attempt to write poetry, every intel·llgent person ought to know something of its laws; and I shall,
. ' therefore, at the end of the book, after more necessary ~nat­
, ters have b een mastered, attempt to show what a simple matter
'',this is, as far as English is concerned.
t~bout

8. ETYMOLOGY is a very different matter; and, under
this head, you will enter on your study. This is a word
<·which h as been formed out of two Greek words; and it
.' means the pedigree or relationship of words, or, the manner in which one word grows out of, or comes from,
· another word. For instance, the word walk expresses an
. ,action, or movement, of our legs; but, in some cases we
, say walks, in others walkecl, in others walking. These
three latter words are all different from each other, ancl
they all differ from the original word, walk,- but the
.''.action or movement, expressed by each of the fom, is
precisely the same sort of action or movement, and the
three latter words grow out of, or come from, the fo:st:
The words h ere mentioned differ from each other with
regard to the letters of which they are composed. The
difference i:.i made in order to express differen ces as to the
Persons who walk, as to the Number of persons, as to the
Time of walking. You will come, by-and-by, to the principles and rules according to which the varying of the
spelling of words is made to correspond with these and
'other differences; and these principles and rules consti', tute what is called Etymology.
9. SYNTAX.is a word which comes from the Greek.
-., It means, in that language, the joining of several things
. together,- and, as used by grammarians, it means those
.• principles and rules which teach us how to put words
. together so as to form sentences. It means, in short, sen. , tence-rnaking. Having been taught by the rules of Ety~ · mology what are the relationships of words, how words
''grow out of each other, how they are varied in their

14

D efinition of Grammar, etc.

Parts of Speec/1,.

letters in order to correspond with the variation in the:
circumstances to which they apply, Syntax will teach you: ·
how to give all your words their proper situations
places, when you come to put them together into sen, 1
tences. And here you will have to do with p oints as well
as with words. The p oints are four in number,·
Comma, the Semi- Colon, the Colon, and the Period. .
Besides these points, there are certain marks, such as the :
mark of interrogation, for instance ; and to use these "
points and marks properly is, as you will by-and-by find,
a matter of very great importance.
10. I have now given you a description of Grammar,
and of its separate Branches or Parts. I have shown you ,
that the first two of these Branches inay be dismissed ·
without any further notice; but very different indeed is
the case with r egard to the latter two. Each of these
will r equire several L etters; and these L etter s will contain
matter which it will be impossible to understand without
the greatest attention. You must read soberly and slowly, ·
and you must think as you read. You must not hurry '1
on from one Letter to another, as if you were reading a
history; but you must have p atience to get, if possible, at'
a clear comprehension of one part of the subj ect before
you proceed to another part. When I was studying the
French langu age, the manner in which I proceeded was ~
this: when I h ad attentively r ead over, three times, a'
lesson, or other division of my Grammar, I wrote t,he '
lesson down upon a loose sheet of p ap er. Then I read if t
again several times in my own hand-wr~ting. Then I
copied it, in a very plain hand, and without a blot, into a :· '
book, which I had made for the purpose. But if, in writ- ·
ing my lesson down on a loose sheet of paper, I committ ed one single error, h owever trifling, I u sed to tear the
paper, and write the whole down again; and, frequently,
this occurred three or four times in the writing. down of
one lesson. I, a,t first, found thi$ Iii.ho~· very irksome;

or:

the.

15

but, having imposed it on myself as a duty, I faithfully
discharged that duty; and, long before I had proceeded
half way through my Grammar, I experienced all the
. penefits of my industry and perseverance.
This was, no doubt, how Cobbett, in his soldier days, learned to
spell and punctuate; for what he did was as good as writing so
many dii:tations. If any scholar feels like following his example,
he may lighten the labor and secure nearly equal benefit by writing the lessons down as dictations.

LETTER III.
ETYMOLOGY.

, The different .l?arts of Sp eech, or Sorts of W ords.
Jd_Y DEAR JAMES :

'·. 11. In the second L etter I have given you a description
of Etymology, and shown you that it treats of the pedigree, or relationship, of words, of the naturn of which relationship I have given you a specimen in the word walk.
The next thing is t o t each you the p rinciples and rules ,
according to which the spelling and employing of word~
are varied in order to express the various circumstances
a~tending this relationship. But, b efore I enter on this
part of my instructions, I must inform you that there are
several distinct sorts of words, or, as they are usually
call~d, P arts of Speech; and it will b e necessary for you
to be able, before you proceed further, t o distinguish the
. words belonging to each of these Parts of Speech from
those belonging tG the other parts. There are Nine
, Parts of Speech, and they are named thus:
ARTICLES,

NOUNS,

PRONOUNS,

ADJECTIVES,

VERBS,

ADVERBS,

PREPOSITIONS,

CONJUNCTIONS,
INTERJECTIONS.

16

Etymology.

P arts of Speech.

12. Before the sergeant begins to teach young soldied
their exercise of the musket, he explains to them the dif~
ferent parts of it; the butt, the stock, the barrel, ih'O
loops, the swivels, and so on; because, unless they kno_w
these by their names, they cannot know how to obey his
i11 structions in the handling of the musket. Sailors, foi:
the same r eason, are told which is the tiller, which are the
yards, which the shrouds, which the tacks, which the
sheets, which the booms, and whi ch are each and every
part of the ship. Apprentices ar e taught the names of all
the t ools used in their trade; and ploughboys the names .
of the various implements of husbandry. This species of
preliminar y knowledge is absolutely n ecessary in all these
callings of life ; but not more n ecessary than it is for you.
to learn, b efor e you go any further, ho'v to know the soru .
of words one j?·om another. To teach you this, therefore;
is the object of the present letter.
13. ARTICLES. There are but three in our language;
and these are, the, an, and a. Indeed, there are but two,
because an and a are the same word, the latter bemg
only an abbreviation, or a · sh ortening, of the former. I
shall, by-and-by, give you rules for the usmg of these
Articles; but my business in this place is only to teacll
yon h ow to know one sort of words from anothei: sort of
words.
14. NOUNS. The word ~pun means r~q,m&, an~ ·
nothing more; and ~s ar e the r!:E;_'l}!_es of p §'L§21l.I! . a'IJAl.
ttdtHJ§. As far as p er so11s and other anima~ and tlilllgil
that we can see go, it is very easy to distinguish Nouns,•
but there are many Noitns which express what we can
n either see, nor h ear, nor t qu ch. F or example: Con-·
science, Vanity, Vice, Sobriety;- s teacliness, Valour; and
a g reat number of others. Gra~--~rians, anxious to give
some easy rll!.e by which the sc'\.lQ!ar might disting~s~
N ouns from oth er words, h ave direct ed him to put the
wo;as, the good, beforeany word, and have told him th~

· ·-the three w'o rds make sense, the last W..Q!:.d is a 1Y!Jy,_n.
This is frequently the c~e ; as, the good hJ_'!i-se, the good
dog; but the good so~ty would not appear to be very
good sense. In fact there is no rule of this kind that will
answer the purpose. You must ·employ your mind in
order to arrive at the knowledge h er e desired.
· .. 15. Every word which stands for a per son or any ani.mal, or for any. thing of substance, de~d or alive, is a
Noun. So far the matter is very easy. 'rhus, man, cat,
tree, log, are Nouns. But when we come to the words
which are the names of things, and which things are not
substan<:;es, the matter is n ot so easy, and it requires a
· little sober thought. This word thought, for example, is
a Noun.
16. The only sure rule is this: that a word which stands
for any thing that h as an existence is a Noun. For ex.ample : Pride, .Folly, 'l'hoitght, llfisery, 'l.'ruth, J.·lalse)wod, Opinion, Sentiment. None of these have any suba~ance. You cannot see them, or t ouch them; but they
all have an existence.· They all exist in the world; and,
therefore, the words which represent them, or stand for
, them, are called Nouns. If you b e still a little puzzled
here, you must not be impatient. You will :find the diffi_culty disappear in a short time, if you exert your powers
of thinking. Ask yourself what existence means. You
will :find that the words, very, for, think , but, pretty, do
n9t express any thing which has an existence, or a being;
but that the words, motive, zeal; pity, kindness, do express things which have a being, or existence.
' 17. PRONOUNS. ,Words of this sort stand in the
place of Nouns. Their name is from the Latin, and it
means .For-nouns, or .For-names; that is to say, these
words, called Pronouns, are u sed/or, or instead oj; Nouns.
He, She, IIer, Him, Who, for example, are Pronouns.
· The use of them is to prevent the repetition of Nouns,
.imd to make speakmg and writing more rapid and less

-

-..

~

17

18

Etymology.

encumbered with words. An example will make this clll!ll'
to you in a minute. Thus:
18. A woman went to a man, and told him that he wa.s
in great danger of being murdered by a gang of robbers, ·
who had made preparations for attacking him. H6
thanked her for her kindness, and, as he was unable to de: ,
fend himself, he left his house and went to a neighbor's.
19. Now, if there were no Pronouns, this sentence must
be written as follows :-A woman went to a man, and told
the man, that the man was in great danger of being murdered by a gang of robbers; as a gang of robbm·s had
made preparations for attacking the man. The man
thanked the woman for the woman's kindness; and as the
man was unable to defend the man's self, the man left
the ?nan's house and went to a neighbor's.
20. There are several different classes of Pronouiis;
but of this, and of the manner of using Pronouns, you .
will be informed by-and-by. All that I aim at here is to
enable you to form a clear idea with regard to the difference in the sorts of words, or Parts of Speech.
21. ADJECTIVES. The word Acijective, in its full, .
literal sense, means something added to something else.
Therefore, this term is used in Grammar as the name of·
that Part of Speech which consists of words which are
added, or put, to Nouns, in order to express something
relating to the Nouns, which something could not be expressed without the help of Adjectives. For instan~,
there are several turkeys in the yard, some black, som~
white, some speckled; and, then, there are large ones and
small ones of all the colours. I want you to go and c.atch·
a turkey/ but I also want you to catch a white turkey, ;
and not only a white turkey, but a large turkey. Therefore, I add, or put to the Noun, the words white and large,
which, therefore, are called Adjectives.
22. Adjectives sometimes express the qualities of .the ·
Nouns, to which th ey are put; and this being very fre-

Parts of Speech.

19

: quently their use, some grammarians have thrown aside
• the word Adjectives, and have called words of this sort,
Qualities. But this name is not sufficiently comprehensive; for there are many words which are Adjectives
which have nothing to do with the quality of the Nouns
to which they are put. Good and bad express qualities,
but long and short merely express dimension, or duration,
, without giving any intimation as to the quality of the
' things expressed by the Nouns to which they are put;
• ·and yet long and short are Adjectives. You must read
. very attentively here, and consider s•berly. You must
keep in mind the above explanation of the meaning of the
' · word Adjective; and if you also bear in mind that words
' of this sort always express some quality, some property,
' some appearance, or some distinctive circumstance, belonging to the Nouns to which they are put, you will very
easily, and in a very short space of ti.me, be able to dis.. tinguish an Adjective from words belonging to any other
Part of Speech.
23: VERBS. Grammarians appear to have been at a
loss to discover a suitable appellation for this important
sort of words, or Part of Speech ; for the word Verb
means nothing more than 1V01·d. In the L atin it is
ve·rbum, in the French it is verbe/ and the French, in
their Bible, say Le Verbe, where we s11y The Word. The
truth is that there are so many properties and circumstances, so many and such different powers and functions,
belonging to this Part of Speech, that the mind of man is
unable to bring the whole of them into any short and precise description. The first grammar that I ever looked
into told me. that "a Verb is a word which signifies to do,
to be, or to suffer." What was I to understand from this
laconic account?
24. Verbs express all the different actions and movements of all creatures and of all things, whether alive or
dead. As, for instance, to speak, to bark, to grow, to

" iit ~

{

:f .

.1

20

Etymology.

moulder, to crack, to crumble, and the like.
cases there is movement clearly understood.
cases of, to tiiink, to reflect, to remember, to like, to det138tf.
and in an infinite number of cases, the movement is not so;..
easily perceived. Yet these are all V erbs, and they d()
indeed express movements which we attribute to the mind,,
or the heart. But what shall we say in the cases of to sit,, ..
to sleep, to rot, and the like ? Still these are all Verbs. u 25. Verbs are, then, a sort of words, the use of whi~
is to express the actions, the movements, and the state or . manner of being, of all creatures and things, whether ani:
mate or inanimate. In speaking with r eference to a m~· _
to fight is an action; to reflect is a movement; to sit is a state of being.
26. Of the manner of using Verbs you will hear a great
d eal by-and-by; but what I have h ere said will, if youi. ·
read attentively, and take time to consider, be sufficient •
to enable you to distinguish Verbs from the words which . belong to the other P arts of Speech.
.~
X 27. ADVERBS are so called because the words which ;i;
belong to this Part of Speech are added to verbs. But
this is an inadequate description; for, as you will pres- ;
ently see, they are sometimes otherwise employed. _You
have seen that Verbs express actions, m ovements, and:
states of beingy" and it is very frequently the use of Ad~,
verbs to express the nianner of actions, movements, and .
states of being. Thus: the man fights bravely/ he reflect~.
profoundly/ he sits quietly. In these instances the Ad;<1
verbs perform an office, and are placed in a situation,,
which fully justify the name that has b een given to t~r
sort of words. But there are many Adverbs which do not,-:express the manner of actions, movements, or states of
being, and which are not added to verbs. For instance: _
" When you sow small seeds, make the earth very fine,. _
and if it have, of late, been dry weather, take care t.Q··
press the earth ext1·emely hard upon the seeds." Here~

Parts of Speech.

21

~e four Adverbs, but only the last of the four expresses
any thing connected with a verb. This shows that the
e of this class of words does not fully convey to our
minds a description of their use.
· 28. However, with this name you must be content;
liut you must bear in mind that there are Adverbs of
lime, of place, and of degree, as well as of manner ; and
'that their business is to express, or describe, some circum·
stances in addition to all that is expressed by the Nouns,
. Adjectives, and Verbs. In the above sentence, for example, the words when, very, of late, and extremely, add
greatly to the precept, which, without them, would lose
much of its force.
29. PREPOSITIONS. The Prepositions are, in, to,
jor,from, of, by, with, into, against, at, and several others.
They are called Prepositions from two Latin words, meaniµg_before and place/ and this name is given them bemuse they are in most cases placed before Nouns and
Pronouns; as, "Indian corn is sown in May. In June,
and the three following months, it is carefully cultivated.
When ripe, in October, it is gathered in the field, by men
who go from hill to hill with baskets, into which they put
the ears. · The leaves and stalks · are then collected f or
winter use; and they not only serve as food for cattle
and sheep, but are excellent in the making of sheds to
' rotecit animals against the inclemency of the weather."
· · ~0. Prepositions are not very numerous, and, though
ou will be taught to be very careful in using them, the
:above sentence will be quite sufficient to enable you to
ow the words belonging to this Part of Speech from
e words belonging to any other Part of Speech.

-. Notice that the word is from " prae,'' before, and "positio,''
placing. Now take any article of furniture near you-the
. esk, for instance-and think of all the relations of position with
g~rd to it and something else. The book is in the desk, on the
k, ((l)er the desk, _above, under, b~neath or below the desk, near

1·

22

I

Etymology.

the d esk, against the desk, beside the desk ,
_
d esk , and so on. :.Still, other r elation s are som etimes expr
by prepositions as well as that of p osition; as, by the desk, of
desk, to the desk , f or the desk; but the majority of them shp
some relation of position b etween thin gs and actions, or betWeea
persons and actions, or between things and states. This . wo
between, for instance, is a preposition: Like other words used, '
grammar, its name, pr·eposition, does not expr·ess completely th~~
nature of it.

31. CONJUNCTIONS are so called because they con.
j oin, or j oin together, words, or p arts of sentences; as,
"Peas and beans may b e severed from the ground before.
they be quite dry; bitt they must n ot be put into sacks or
barns until perfectly dry, for, if they be, they will mould."
The word and joins together the words peas and beq
and, by the means of this j itnction, makes all the remaining part of the sentence apply to both. The word bul
connects the first with the second member of the
.
tence. The word/or, which is sometimes a Conjuncti.on,
p erforms, in this case, the same office as the word but: ii
continues the connection; and th us does every part of th~
sentence apply fo each of the two n ouns which are ~ .
subj ect of it.
What a deal of u seless learning we find in the ordinary gram.
mars about this simple matter of co njnn ct.ions! They speak ·of
conjunctions which arc m ere connectives, of co-ordinate and sub:
ordinate co nn ectives, of copulative, adversative, and alternative
conjunctions; then of subordinate connectives which join hcterow
geneous elements, an~ these subo;dinate co nnectives aga~n divt~~
into those which umte substantive clauses, those which um
adjective clau ses, and those which unite adverbial clauses I
are children to m ak e of all these h ard words? Or, supposing theJ;
are m ade to understand the words, will it enable them to use
word and, for instance, more correctly by informing them that"
is a wpulative conjunction?

32. INTERJECTIONS. This n11me comes from t~o
Latin words: inter, which means between, andjectio, whi
men,ns something thrown.. So that the full, literal m

.Pa?·ts n.f .Speech.

t

23

of the word is something thrown between. The lnter~tions are Ah I Oh I Alas I and such like, which, indeed, are not words, b ecause they have no definite meaning.·
ey are mere sounds, and they have been mentioned by
me merely because other grammarians have considered
em as being a P art of Speech. But this one notice of
tllem will be quite sufficient.
, Here Cobbett's defective knowledge of Latin crops out, for j ectio
(jacio) does not m ean something thrown, but m erely to throw. Ent
he is quite right in setting down interj ections as forming no part
of grammar. A writer in Chambers's Encyclopedhi hi ts th e mark
still more effectively when h e says that " they are, in fact, more
Jl)tln to the sounds emitted by the lower animals than to articulate
' speech." Yet most grammarians take the trouble to set them
down in classes, those that express surprise, those that express
fear, and so on; as if the veriest boor that ever hopped over a clod
:would not know how to utter an exclamation expressing fear or
Blp'Prise when he felt it! It is something very much like the
Irishman's "teachi ng ducks to swim."

33. Thus, then, you are now able to distinguish, in

JRBJlY cases at least, to what Part of Speech belongs e11ch
of the several words which may come under your observa.µon. I shall now proceed to the Etymology of each of
these Pa rts of Speech. As we have done with the I nterjections, there will r emain only eight Parts to treat of,
.!Wd this I shall do in eight Letters, allotting one Letter
to each Part of Speech.
Here it seems proper to say to the thoughtful scholar that a word
may (as remarked by Mr. White) belong to almost ANY p art of
·apeech, according to its use. We say dog is a noun; and so it is
:when it m eans an animal of the dog species; but it m ay be a verb
or an adjective; as, he will dog m e to my home; h ere is a dog cart.
Iii this very phrase, "dog species," it is ·an adjective. T ake,
&gain, the word but. I will give it to you of four different parts
of speech in four different senses. "I will go, but I will return.
He Is but five y ears old. The g oat will but his head against you.
{le always has a but in his sayings." And the word could no
aoubt be used in still other parts of speech. If you cannot make
these out now, w ait a little; you will be able t o do so by-and-hy.

I·I

I'

':j
I

I

•
Etymology

Of Articles.

Spelled with two t's, there are three different butts, with
different meanings; the butt of ridicule1 the butt of a seg.ar, 1
butt of wine. Then, again, a word may be of two different p~
of speech with a different accent, as, I re..cord' the deed; this iii~
rec'-ord. You see, therefore, every thing depends on the semi Or
the use made of a word; and you see, too, the utter uselessness
learning by heart instead of by reason. In learning any .art or
science, an ounce of understanding is worth a ton of memory. :

down. In this last
' · tance, we are not only informed that a tree is blowed
aoWn., but the sentence alr:;o informs us what particular
r~~ it is. This Article is used before nouns in the plural
IMl well as before nouns in the singular number. It is
sometimes used before words expressive of degrees of
·~mparison; as, the best, the worst, the highest, the lowest.
When we use a noun iii the sing~lar number to express a
whole species, or sort, we use the definite Article; thus,
'we say, the oak is a fine tree, when we mean that oaks are
"fine trees.
. .36. The Article A becomes AN when this Article comes
immediately before any word which begins with a vowel.
This is for the sake of the soit?id, as an adder, an elephant,
inch, an oily seed, an ugly hat. The word an is· also
lised before words which begin with an h which is mute;
that is to . say, which, though u sed in writing, is not
ncled in speaking; as, an hour. This little variation in
the article is, as I said before, for the sake of the sound;
for it would be very disagreeable to say, a adder, a elephant, a inch, a oily seed, a itgly hat, a hmir, and the
'.like. But a is u sed in the usual way before words which
gin with an h which is sounded in speaking; as, a horse,
hair, and the like. The indefinite Article can be used
before nouns in the singular number only. There is a
·eming exception to this rule in cases where the words
]ew and many come before the noun; as, a f ew horses; a
' iat many horses; but, in reality, this is not an excep·: n, because the words few and many ~ean number;
us, a small number of horses, a great nnrnber of horses ;
aJid the indefinite Article agrees with this word nitmber,
hich is understood, and which is in the singular.

24

LETTER IV.
ETYMOLOGY OF ARTICLES.
MY DEAR JAMES:

34. In Letter III., paragraph 13, you have seen w~
sort of words .ARTICLES are; that is ~o say, you have th~
learned how to distinguish the words b elonging to. tbjS
Part of Speech from words b elonging to other Parts o
Speech. You must now turn to Letter II., paragraph-8.
Having read what you find there under the head of Et117.
mology, you will see at once, that my business, in t~
present L etter, is to teach you those principles and rules
according t o which Articles are varied in order to mak~
them suit the different cii·cumstances which they are us ,
to express.
35. You h ave seen that there are
namely, A or AN, and THE. The two former are, ill f~'
the same word, but of this I shall say more present! ,
They are called indefinite Articles, because they do. IU?
de.fine, or determine, what par~icular object is spoken Q
The Nouns, to which they are prefixed, only serve to po· .,
out the sort of person or thing spoken of, without de~
ing what person or what thing; as, a tree is blowed d~
From this we learn that some tree is blowed down, bm
not what tree. But the definite Article THE determine'&
the particular object of which we speak; as, the tree whi

25

an

a

'It is remarkable that a man of Cobbett's discernment did not see
'
through
a certain inconsistency in the strict or literal application
ot· th:s rule, the more especially as he explicitly declflres that the
wnge is made for the sake of tile sound. He, like a thousand

2

I,

26

Etyrnology

..

others to the present day, followed out the letter of the rule l!oDd
violated its spirit. For a word may begin with a vowel and ye&
have a consonant sound; and in this case the article must not}ll'
changed. Does it not sound much better to say, "a useful book,11
than ''an useful book?" ''such a one," than ''such an one?" And
it will be seen that when we say a us~jul book, a one, a unU:m; "
ewe, a European, and the like, we rmilly conform to the spirit of
the rule· for in all these cases the words begin with the SOUND
of a co~sonant · as a yuseful book, a wone, a yunion, a y1J?M, a
'
'
.
yeu1·opean.
. .
And this also clearly illustrates something else that has been left ,
mysteriously indefinite in many gmmmars: "The vowels are a, e, ·
i o u and sometimes wand y." \"{hat a puzzle this used to be to
~e' i~ my grammar-studying days! There was the rule, plain ·.
enough; but when w and y were consonants, I ~new no more.
than the man in the moon! I suppose that these wnters of grammars r epeat this rule, one after another, with out knowing anything .
about it themselves. Now the reason here given why the indefinite.
article must r emain unchanged before words beginning with a
vowel and h avi ng a y or w sound, explains the whole matter;
namely, that y and w at the BEGINNING of a syllable are consonants,
but in the MIDDLE or at the END of a syllable are .. vowels. In the
word 8ympathy, for instance, bothy's are vowels, because they _.
equal to i's; in the word yesterday, the first is a consonant, and th~
second a vowel. It is precisely the same with thew; in the words'
new, f ew, pew, the w's are vowels, being equal to u's; in ·the
word window, the first is a consonant and tlle second a vowel. ;··
But there is another rule concerning words beginning with lt, ·,1;
rule of which Cobbett and many other writers of his day seem ~
have b een unaware-although I have no doubt they unconseiousl
obeyed it-which is also formed for the sake of the sound. In t4~
four words for instance history, historical, lim·o, heroic, the li is uni-·
formly sou~ded, or as~irated. Yet we say an historical fact, ··an
heroic poem, a history, a hero. How does this come? It is beca
we must say an before words beginning with h aspirate, when
accent of such words falls on the SECOJ\'D SYLT-ABLE. That is the rul, ·
Say, therefore, an hotel, an heredita1·y p?ince, and not, as many~-?;
a /wtel, a /!e1·edita1·y prince; for the former soimds better.
..
I may h ere add that the tendency now-a-days is to sound the A
in some words in which it was formerly silent: a hnmble m '
a hospital, a hostler. I suppose Dickens's Uriah Heep has milruj
most people disgusted with "an 'umble man." And it is perha •

Of Nouns.

27

remarking here that many Americans make a serious
mistake when they believe that all Englishmen drop their aitches,
.and put them in where they ought not to do so. The latter is
' never done by anybody in England but illiterate Londoners, and
the former seldom by Englishmen of any culture.
· . I notice that recent grammarians follow Noah Webster in setting
'down articles as adjectives. It is true that these words always
modify nouns in some way; but I see no advantage in setting them
·down among a class of words which generally signify the kind or
<[Uality of things, thus r endering the adjective itself all the more
.difficult to define. Besides, the articles have characteristics entirely their own, which can be r emembered the better by keeping
them apart. We shall see this more clearly by-and-by.

LETTER V.
ETYMOLOGY OF NOUNS.

37. Tms, my dear James, is a Letter of great import.a.nee,, and, therefore, it will require great attention from
."you. Before you proceed further, you will again look
. well at Letter II., paragraph 8, and Letter ill., para,.graphs 14, 15, and 16, and there read carefully everything
· under the head of Nouns.
38. Now, then, as Letter III. has taught you how to
·distinguish Nouns from the words which belong to the
·'Other Parts of Speech, the business here is to teach you
the principles and rules according to which Nouns are to
., be varied in the letters of which they are composed, ac~ cording to which they are to be used, and according to
,·which they are to be considered in their bearings upon
• other words in the sentences in which they are used.
· 39. In a Noun there are to be considered the branches,
.~ the numbers, the genders, and the cases; and all these
' must be attended to very carefully.
40. THE BRANCHES. There are two; for Nouns are

28

Etymology

some of them PROPER and some COMMON. A Noun is callecv
proper when it is used to distinguish one particular indi1
vidual from the r est of the individuals of the same speciea
or kind; as J ames, Botley, Hampshire. The Noun is
called common when it applies to all the individuals of a
kind; as, man, village, county. B otley is a proper Noun;· •
because all villages have not this name; but village is 1f .
common noun, because all villages are called by that!:.
name: the name is common to them all. Several persons.
have the name of J ames, to be sure, and there is a Hamp:
shire in America as well as in England; but, still, these•·
are proper names, because the former is not common to
all men, nor the latter to all counties. :{>roper Nouns
take no articles before them, because the extent of their
meaning is clearly pointed out in the word itself. In.fig-·'
iwative language, of which you will know more by-and-by,
we sometimes, however, u se the article; as, " Goldsmith
is a very pretty poet, but not to be compared to the Pop·es,
the Drydens, or the Otways." And again; " I wish I had~
the wit of a Swift." We also use the definite article be-:.
fore proper Nouns when a common Noun is understood •
to be left out; as, The .Delaware, meaning the R iver Del-'
aware. Also when we speak of more than one person of
the same name ; as, the rienries, the Edwards.
A very important difference in the use of proper and •
co mmon nouns is, that the form er arc written wi th a capital' .
Jetter, and the latter are not. This is the general rule, and it is ·
generally observed; but some writers begin every word they tbink:
important with a capital letter, and nobody is m ore peculiar in •
this respect than Cobbett himself. He writes noun, you see, with::
a capital, although it is a common noun. F ormerly every noun ·
used to be written with a capital letter, as is done in German till ;'
this day. Thomas Carlyle is another singular punctuator and ·
capitalizer ; but he is singular in all things.

41. THE NUMBERS. These are the Singular and
the Plural. The Singular is the original word; and, in general, the Plural is formed by adding an s to the singu- •

Of Nouns.

29

lly:, as dog, dogs. But though the greater part of our
~ouns form their plurals from the singular in this simple
. er, there are many which do not; while there are
iiomeNouns which have no plural number at all, and some
which have no singular. Therefore, considering the above
to be the FrnsT RuLE, I shall add other rules with regard
to the Nouns which do not follow that Rule.-The SECOND
RULE. Nouns, the singular number.s of which end in ch,
a,.sh, or x, require es to be added in order to form their
plural number; as, church, churches/ brush, brushes /
lass, lasses/ fox, foxes.-The THIRD RULE is that Nouns
·which end in y, when the y has a consonant coming im·m,ediately before it, change the y into ies in forming their
plurals; as, quantity, quantities. But you must mind
, that if the y be not immediately preceded by a consonant,
the words follow the First Rule, and take only an s in
addition to their singular; as, day, days. I am the more
!IDxious to guard you against error as to this matter, because it is very common to see men of high rank and profession wi'iting vallies, vollies, attornies, correspondencies,
conveniencies, and the like, and yet all these are eIToneous.
Correspondence and inconvenience should have simply an
lj -for they end in e, and not in y.-The FouRTH RuLE is,
that Nouns which end in a single j; or in fe, form their
. plurals by changing the f, or f e, into ves ,- as, loaf, loaves/
wife, wives. But this rule has exceptions, in the following
words,
which follow the First Rule: .Dwarf"
scarf"
mis.
J '
.I'
"chief, handkerchief, chief, relief, grief, and others. The
two last are seldom used in the plural number; but, as
'they sometimes are, I have included them.-The FIFTH
RuLE is, that the following Nouns have their plural in en,man, men/ woman, women,- ox, oxen/ child, children.
And brethren is sometimes used as the plural of brother.The SIX.TH RuLE is, that all which nature, or art, or habit,
,has made plural, have no singular; as, ashes, annals, bellows, bowels, thanks, breeches, entrails, lungs, scissors,

'I"

j"

'

I

'~

I
I

·,'

It
\

1

Etyrnolngy

30

Of Nouns.

. (~

sn'uifers, tongs, wages, and some other:::. There are
some Nouns which have no plurals, such as those whi
express the qualities, or propensities, or feelings, of the
mind or heart; as, honesty, meekness, compassion. There
are, further, several names of herbs, metals, minerals,_'
liquids, and of fleshy substances, which have no plure.11.u•
to which may be added the names of almost all sorts of
grain. There are exceptions here; for while wheat has
no plural, oats has seldom any singular. But all these
words, and others which are iITegular, in a similar way,~
are of such very common use that you will hardly ever
make a mistake in applying them; for I will not suppo~
it possible for my dear James to fall into either the com.
pany or the language of those who talk, and even write,'
about barleys, wheats, clovers, flours, grasses, and.malts.
There remain to be noticed, however, some words which are ..
too irregular in the forming of their plurals to be broughf
under any distinct head even of irregularity. I will, .
therefore, insert these as they are used in both numbers.
SINGULAR.

Die,
Mouse,
Louse,
Deer,

PLURAL.

SINGULAR.

PLURAL.

Dice,
Mice,
Lice,
Deer,

Goose,
P enny,
Tooth,
Foot,

Geese.
Pence,
Teeth,
Feet.

Die, dice. This is the little cubic implement of the _gamester;
but the more worthy implement of the die-sinker ie regular; dU,
dies. You must not confound this with the dye and dyes of the
dyer. It is customary to change penny to pence when speaking o
a sum of money; but, in speaking of penny-pieces, the word la
regular; as, I have a pocketful of pennies. By-the-bye, all su~
words as this word pocketful are also regular; three pocketfuls, fo
spoonfuls, five shovelfuls. Three pocketsful would be quite anothe_J.I
thing. Then again, we must, from the nature of the words, say
mothers-in-law, cousins-german,. courts-martial; for the words in-~~·'.
german, and martial, are adjectives or qualifyirrg words, an
adjectives, in English, never make any change to express number.
Englishman and Frenchman become Englisltmen and Frenchmen:•

31

' not all the nationalities ending in man become men,· there are
•but
the Romans, the Normans, and the Gm'11UJ,ns, brave manly races,
~o doubt, but who will say that the Mussv.lmans, Turkomans
· and Ottomans deserve to be called men?
' Most of the nouns ending in o, add es to form the plural; as,
negro, negroes. There are only a few exceptions; as, folio,
quarto, duodecimd, piano, nuncio, cameo, which follow the general
rule. I think it useless to clap down every one of the exceptions; for, in the first place, usage is gradually changing the form
~some of these words (motto, portico); and, in the second place,
the reader can always, when necessary, find the desired informa0\tion by reference to the dictionary. "I always did admire that
speech!" were the sarcastic words of Mr. Butler in reply to one
of Mr. Bingham's speeches. I may say the same thing, unsarcasti' cally, of the reply of a young' candidate for the bar, who, on being
asked some isolated, unimportan t question, said, "I could find
that out in two minutes by reference to an encyclopedia."
• There are some nouns, with a plural form but a singular mean··Uig, that are always used in the singular. "Tile 11wld.sses is
sticky. The measles is spreading. What is the neios? He has
made a serie.~ of blunders. The pains he has taken to repair them
ls remarkable. Mathematics (physics, optics, &e.) is an interesting
science." Look, therefore, to the meaning and not the forrn of the
word.
. Deer, sheep, swine, vermin, are the same in both singular and
plural; but snipe, trout, salmon, fish , and the like, become plural
when number is signified, and singular when quantity is srgnified.
"Here are two snipes; I have shot a quantity of snipe. Here nre
Uuee fishes, three salmons; I have caught a lot of fish, of salmon."
./Joun and pair are used like hundred and thousand; that is, singu.Jar with any other number, but plural without any other number.
"I saw dozens of those creatures; they wnlkeu in pafrs; I shot firn
t/Qun partridges and bought six pair of pigeons. Five hundred
men; there were hundred,s of men."
In some compound nouns, both parts are made plural: manservant, men-servants; woman-servant, women-servants; knightiemplar, knights-templars. To prevent a confusion of things, we
must add 's to figures and letters to indicate the plural: "I want
tl,U'ee 5's and four 6's. Mind your p's and q's, and dot your i's."
ere are a number of names of persons and things in war affairs
at do not make any change for the plural; as,
300 foot (meaning foot-soldiers, or infantry).

·

32

Etymology

400 horse (meaning horse-soldiers, or cavalry).
100 cannon; although we also say, many cannons;
of cannons.
·
500 head (of cattle).
40 yoke of oxen.
50 sail (meaning ships).
T his is a practice that seems to come from the German language;'
in which words of measure or quantity do not, generally, change
to indicate plurality. Drei Pfund, zehn Fuss, vier Zoll.
.q
Among proper nouns, the only peculiarity is one concerning ·
the young ladies; for in speaking of them, you may give thefr
title or their name the sign of the plural; you may say, the Mi&e.f - .
Campbell or the Miss Campbells, just as you please. The latter is,
I think, the more common usage, and the one that is likely to
prevail; for it is more natural than the former, and prevents confounding the young ladies with their mamma, Mrs. Campbell:. ..
(How is it, by-the-way, that most of the children in this country . •
say mam'ma and pap' a instead of mam-ma' and pa-pa', which is th~ ~
proper pronunciation?) In addressing people, in conversation, w:e
say sir to one person, an d gentlemen to several; miss (or Miss SO-.
and-So) to one, and laJiics to several. Good morning, sir. Good
morning, gentlemen. Good morning, miss (or Miss Jennie): •
Good morning, ladies. And here let me throw in, without any
extra charge, a bit of information for my young reader, which hll!'
something to do with politeness as well as with grammar; namely,
that when you meet two persons in the street, only one of whom:
you know, it is proper for you to address both while saluting·
them: Good morning, gentlemen.
· ':
Just as the girls get Miss, th e boys ought to get Master. This;
however, is more common in England than in this country. There:
the school-boy gets sounder floggings than he does here ; but tliey.
don't rob him of his title; he is still Master Charles or Mas~
Willie, even if he be flogged every day.

42. THE GENDERS. In the French language,
many other languages, every Noun is of the masculine ol\'·
of the feminine gender. Hanel, for instance, is of the'
feminine, and arrn of the masculine ; pen of the femininq,
and paper of the masculine. This is not the case with o~,
language, which, in this respect, has followed the order
of nature. The names of all males are of the mascu~e

Of Nouns.

33

·..gender; the names of all/einales are of the feminine gen" der; and all other Nouns are of the neuter gender. And
, you must observe that, even in speaking of living creatures, of which we do not know the gender, we consider
' them to be of the neuter. In strictness of language, we
' could not, perhaps, apply the term gender to things desti,.· tute of all sexual properties ; but, as it is applied with
perfect propriety in the case of males and females, and as
: . the application in the case of inanimate or vegetable matter can lead to no grammatical error, I have thought it
' ~ best to follow, in this respect, the example of other grammarians. It may be said that the rule which I have he1'e
'laid down as being without any exception, has many exceptions ; for that, in speaking of a ship, we say she and
her. And you know our country folks in Hampshire call
.almost everything lie or she. Sailors have, for ages, called
their vessels shes, and it has been found easier to adopt
than to eradicate the vulgarism, which is not only tolerated
but cherished by that just admiration in which our country
·_ holds the species of skill and of valor to which it owes
- 'much of its greatness and renown. It is curious to observe that country laborers give the feminine appellations
to those things only which are more closely identified
with themselves, and by the qualities and condition of
·'which their own efforts and their character as workmen
are affected. The mower calls his scythe a she; the
.-ploughman calls his plough a she; but a prong, or a
,shovel, or a harrow, which passes promiscuously from
~d to hand, and which is appropriated to no particular
;laborer, is called a lie. It was, doubtless, from this sort
'of habitual attachment that our famous maritime solecism
·arose. The deeds of laborers in the fields and of artizans
'in their shops are not of public interest sufficiently com'Aianding to enable them to break in upon the principles
9£ language; if they were, we should soon have as many lies
~d shes as the French, or any other nation in the world.

34

Etymology

Of Nouns.

43. While, however, I lay down this rule as require4
by strict grammatical correctness, I must not omit to ·
observe that the license allowed to :figurative language
enables us to give the masculine or feminine gender
inanimate objects. This has justly been r egarded as ·
great advantage in our language. We can, whenever
our subject will justify it, transform into masculine, oi:·
into feminine, nouns which are, strictly speaking, ~euter;
and thus, by giving the functions of life to inanimate. ·
objects, enliven and elevate our style, and give to our .
expressions great additional dignity and force.

to

a·

This is the figure called personification, which may be illustra.ted
by such examples as these: "Grim-visaged Wa1· hath smoothed
his wrinkled front." "Pea,ce hath her victories no less renowned .
than War." "I care not, Fortune, what you me deny; you cannot rob me of free Nature's grace; you cannot shut the win-·
dows of the sky, through which AU?·ora shows he1· brighteniri~.
face." Notice that a noun personified is always spelled with &
capital letter; and that the noun is made masculine or feminine
according to its nature.
Some grammarians speak of a fourth gender, the common
gender. Nouns that are common to both genders, they calLs.uchr
as, friend, parent, cook, slave . But there is really no necessity fo!
such a distinction. When I speak of a friend, I certai~know
whether that friend is man or woman, and it is very easy tjtlet m:t
hearer or reader know, too, if necessary. If I do not in~cate It
by the pronoun, my hearer or reader may assume that the friend.ii,
man or woman as he thinks fit· but he cannot think of him or
her as both at ~nee. Indeed th: gender is usually indicated by .
context; that is, by the parts of the discourse preceding and su!;ceeding the word in question. I can hardly speak of a perso~ .
without using lie or she. The Germans generally add in to th~
masculine noun to make it feminine, as, Freund, Freundinn; ~
French generally add e to the masculine form; as, servant,
servante; and the only form in English that is regular is
ess to the masculine, or changing its ending into ess; as, mayor,
mayoress· hunter huntress· actor, actress; count, countess}
duke, du~hess. A~ this, how~ver, can be applied to lmt compa~­
atively few words in our language, we are obliged to make use
of various expedients to indicate gender; as, dog-fox, bitch-fox.;

35

: cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow; he-goat, she-goat;· male cook, female
cpok. Generally, however, in speaking of animals, and also of
fiiants, the distinction of sex is not observed; that is to say, these
lfe usually spoken of in the neuter gender. ''What a handsome
. bird it is! Look at that dog! What a noble creature it is! Did
·you see the baby? What an interesting child it is!" When we
. speak of any bird or animal distinguished for its boldness size or
other quality peculiar to the male, we usually give it the U:ascuiine
·g.ender, even if its sex is not known. Such are, for instance, the
,porse or steed, the eagle, the condor, the mastiff, the St. Bernard
pr Newfoundland dog, and the like. Of course all animals are
. . personified in fables.
'
-· As the words male andfemale carry a rather animalish sicrnificance
with them, we sometimes say a lady-friend, a gentlema~1 ·ider, a
boy..;ti,nger. Somebody has observed that the words over the
·, public-school entrances, ''Entrance .for males," ''Entrance for
<;females," sound as if they were entrances f~r so many little he\ bears and she-bears, and therefore prefers "Entrance for boys,"
:~'Entrance for girls," It is far better to speak, for instance, of a
;country being governed by a woman than by a female.

'.' 44. THE CASES. The word case, as applied to the
·concerns of life, has a variety of meanings, or of different
shades of meaning; but its general meaning is state of
.things, or state of something. Thus we say, "In that
9fUe, I agree with you." Meaning, " that being the state
of things, or that being the state of the matter, I agree
1with you." Lawyers are said "to make out their case ·
'or not to make out their case;" meaning the state of the
matter which they have undertaken to prove. So, when
'fe say that a horse is in good case, we mean that he is in
~good state. Nouns may be in different states, or situa·tjons, as to other Nouns, or other words. For instance
Noun may be the name of a person who strikes a horse'
O! of a person who possesses a horse, or of a person who~
1lo horse kicks.
And these different situations, or states,
qre, therefore, called cases.
·.., 45. You will not fully comprehend the use of these
"· tinctions till you come to the Letter on Verbs; but it
}

a

36

Etymology

Of Nouns.

is necessary to explain here the nature of these cas~
order that you may be prepared well for the use of '
terms, when I come to speak of the Verbs. In the ·
language each Noun has several different endings, ~
order to denote the different cases in which it ma.y
In our language there is but one of the case~ of N
which is expressed or denoted by a change in the en ·
of the Noun; and of this change I will speak presently.
46. There are three Cases: the Nominative, the p,"
sessive, and the Objective. A Noun is in the Nominat'.
case when it denotes a person, or thing, which does so
thing or is something ; as, Richard strikes; Richard.
good.
47. A Noun is in the P ossessive
person or thing that possesses some other persqn ~- ·
thing, or when there is one of the persons or things·
longing to the other; as, Richard's hat; the mountain
top'; the nation's fleet. Here R ichard, mountain,
nation, are in the ;possessive case, because they den·
persons or things which possess other persons or t · ''
or have other persons or things belonging to th.
And here is that change in the ending of the Noun,
which I spoke above. You see that Richm·d, mou •
nation, has, each of them, an s added to it, and a mru.:k.
elision over ; that is to say, a comma, placed above'
line, bet~een the last letter of the word and the s.
is done for the purpose of distinguishing this case
the plural number; or, at least, it answers the purpose
all cases where the plural of the Noun would end in',·
s; though there are different opinions as to the origii\:.
its use. In Nouns which do not end their plural in .s,
mark of elision would not appear to be absolutely n '
sary. We might write rnans mind, womans heart, b~
is best to use the mark of elision. When plural N~­
end with s, you must not add an s to form the posse ·•
case, but put the elision mark only after the s which ·

'

37
I·

e Noun; as, mountains' tops; nations' fleets; lasses'
. s. Observe, however, that, in every instance, the
· ssessive case may be expressed by a turn of the words;
.' the hat of Richard; the top of the mountain_; the
et of the nation; the mind of man; and so on. The
puns, notwithstanding this turn of the words, are still
' ·the possessive case; and, as to when one mode of
expression is best, and when the other, it is a matter
:Wpich must be left to taste.
i· 48. A noun is in the Objective case when the person or
~g that it name~ or denotes is the object or end of
llOIDO act or of some movement, of some kind or other;
Richard strikes Peter; Richard gave a blow to Peter;
~chard goes after Peter; Richard hates P eter; Richard
nts amis,; Richard seeks after fame; falsehood leads
. mischief; oppression produces resistance. Here you
. . that all these Nouns in the objective case are the
.'ect, the end, or the effect, of something done or felt by
me person or thing, and which other person or thing i 3
. the nominative case.
_That_ i~ to say, a noun is a!awys the object of one of two things,
t.rans1t1ve verb or a preposition. I don't think there is anything
t enables one to understand this matter of case so well as a proper
mprehension of the difference between the transitive and the in. sitive verb. I know I never understood it until I learned what
.t#ansitive verb wis.-We have seen that verbs are words expressg action or a state -of being. Now watch. "I walk in the field .
run every day; I dream vety often; I live in Hoboken." Here tri~
erbs walk,
drea.m, live, express an action whicli does not pass
, m the actor or subject;' it is confined to him; does not p'as8
, to any thing; it is therefore intransitive. "I walk a lwrse ·
?l!ll a.gmt-mill; I dream bad dreams; I live the lie down." Her~
' ea.~tion passes from the actor to something else; it goes
to some. g; the verb is, therefore, flransitive. Now wherever this is the
' 'wherever the action passes to some object, that object or thing
~oun is _in the ~bjective case. Again: '' The boy is choking"Piil boy is chok mg the cat." In· the first instance, the verb is
transitive; in the second, it is transitive, and "cat" is conse-

run;

over

.

·

·~ :1

,,

<

'

"

.I

i~,

Of Pronouns.

Etymology

38

quently in the objective case. Besides the transitive verb,
is, as I have said, only one other thing that can put a noun m·
objective case, and that is the preposition, which always g(Jl)erm
objective case, or puts whatever thing follows it in the obj
case. You notice this in th e above examples of Cobb,e'
! /,,•. noun each time comes after a transitive verb or a preposition. :.
the examples I gave you with the desk (Letter III, par-. 29),
word is invariably in the objective case. As to the nomin&U
case (the subject), the name of the person or thing that·does, ii;
suffers something is in that case. Notice that a noun follo
the verb to be is always in the nominative case. The Germana,
their expressive langu age, call these three cases the wlw..aue:
wlwse-ease, and the whom-ease. Just try this, and you will see
the nominative answers to Who.' tlie possessive to Whose! and
objective to W7wm!

LETTER
ETYMOLOGY

MY

0~'

VI.
PRONOUNS.

DEAR J AMES:

49. You will now refer to paragraphs 17, 18, and 19, ·•
Letter' III; which paragraphs will refresh your memo
as to the general nature and use of P ronouns. Then;
proceeding to become well acquainted with this Part
Speech, you will first cbserve that there are four clas · ·
or descriptions, of Pron0uns: first, the P ersonal/ secQ ·
the Relative,- third, the Demonstrative/ and, fourth,
Indefinite.
50. In PERSONAL PRONOUNS
things to be considered: the person, the number,
gender, and the case.
51. There are three p ersons.
represents, or stands in the place of, the name of the ~
son who speaks, is called the first p erson/ that w ·
stands in the place of the name of the person whot>
spoken to, is called the second person / that which st ..

39

_ e place of the name of the person who is spoken of,
~ ed the third person. For example: "I am asking
ab.o ut him." This circumstance of person you will
-ii.nd-by find to be of great moment; because, as you
see, the verbs vary their endings sometimes to corre, .nd with the p erson of the Pronoun; and, therefore
u ought to pay strict attention to it at the outset.
52. The number is either singular or plural, and the
onouns vary their sp~\~irl :; to express a difference of
' ber; as in this table, which shows, at once, all the
sons and all the numbers.
SINGULAR.

First person
Second person
ThU:d person

PLURAL.

I,

We.

Thou,

You.
They.

He,

-53. The next thing is the gender. The Pronouns of
~first and second person have no changes to express
der; but the third person singular h as changes for
t purpose: he, she, or it/ and I need not point out
you the cases where one of these ought to be used
tead of the other.
54. The case is the last thing to be consi<hlred in per~ Pronouns. The m(-)aning of the word case, as used
the rules of Grammar, I have fully explained to you in
'tter vi paragraph 44. In paragraphs 45, 46, 47, and
in the same Letter, I have treated of the distinction
tween the cases. Read all those paragraphs again
. ore you proceed further: for now you will find their
· g more clearly explained to you; because the perPronouns, and also some of the other Pronouns
re different endings, or are composed of different let'.
_a, in order to point out the different cases in which
'ey are : as, he, his, liim.
.Po· The personal Pronouns have, like the nouns, three
s: the Nominative, the Po.~sessive, and the Objective.

...

Etymology

40

Of P ronouns.

The following table
view, with all the circumstances
gender, and case.
SINGULAR NUMBER.
Nqminative.

I,

First Person

.

Mine,
Thy,
Thine,
His,

Thou,

Second P er son

Third
Pers.

ry,

Possessive.

\ Maoo G'n

H e,

F emm.
. "

She,

Neuter "

It,

{Her,
Hers,
Its,

l}

Me. '

It.

PL URAL NUMBER.
N ominative.

First Person

We,

Second Person

You,

~

They,
They,
They,

Third
Pers.

Masc.

Gen.
Femin. "
Neuter "

5Our, t

Us.

S}

Your,
{ Yours,

~

>

Their, }
Theirs,

56. Upon this table th ere are s Orne remarks
"
attended to. In the possessive cases of I, Thou,,
·1v;e, .L-vott, an d They, there
are two different words:
.
. .
1'Iy, or Mine/ but you know that the former _is
when followed by the name of the p erson or thing._ .
hat the latter is used when not so folio
sessed; an d t
And ·t ·
as, " This is my p en/ this pen is mine."
l is.
same with regard to the possessive cu.se& of

We, You, and They.

ll'he same grammarians that wish to call every word that stands
Qrc a noun an adjective, call these words, my, thy, his, your,
·r, possessive adjectives; they call them such when coming ditly before a noun, and pronouns when standing alone. I know
change more utterly useless and confusing. Do they not always
din the place of nouns in the possessive case ? " I m et T om
nes, and gave him a message from his fath er." Does this his
t stand for Tom's, a noun in the possessive case? When Billy
utterbuck says, "This is my dog," does it not mean, This is
y Clutterbuck's dog?

.·57. Thou is here given as the second p erson singitlar/
ut common custom has set aside the rules of Grammar
this case; and though we, in particular cases, still
e use of 7'hoit and Thee, we generally make use of
ou instead of either of them. According to ancient rule
d custom this is not correct; but what a whole people
opts and universally practises must, in such cases, be
med conect, and to be a superseding of ancient rult;
custom.
'58. Instead of y oit the ancient practice was to put ye
the nominative case of the second person plurnl ; but
' practice is now laid aside, except in cases which very
dom occur; but whenever ye is made use of, it must
in the nominative, and never in the objective, case. I
:y, speaking to several persons, sny, "Ye have injured
, " but not "I have injured y e."

a

Possessive.

(Ours,

41

e:e is nothing that more strikingly displays the spirit of caste
,Germany than the fact that there are fowr different ways in
an of saying y ou, according to the rank or social position of
, 'person addressed (Sie, du, ihr, er). In English, we say y ou
e President, and you to a beggar; you to a king, and y ou to an ·
blage of kings; and this is characteristic of the sturdy love of
.'play (a word for which there is no proper equivalent in Ger) among the English race. Among German students, there.
oply two classes worthy of respect; those that are students, and
that have been students; all the rest are cattle. -Ye is never
now except in the solemn style, nominative plural: 0 ye boys
erica, beware of the cheap story-papers, and the cheap and

,,

•'

42

Of Pronouns.

Etymology

nasty story-books, for they carry the seeds of a disease that kilf '
and body, something far worse than s1nall-pox or yellow-fever!•
It is a rem>ukabl e fact that many of our obsolete expressions
retained fo r the solemn style. Thoit, thy, thee are now usedprayer, and in solemn compositions, such as Coleridge's Hymn
l\'lont Blanc, or l\'lilton's Paradise Lost.

59. The words self and selves are sometimes added
the personal Pronouns; as myself, thyselj; himself; bu
as these compounded words are liable to no variations
that can possibly lead to error, it will be useless to do an~
thing further than just to n otice them.
GO. T he Pronoun it, though a p ersonal Pronoun, d
not always stand for, or at least appear to stand for, any
noun whatever; but is used in order t o point out a s
of things, or the caiise of something produced. F
instance.: " It freezed hard last night, and i t was so col
that it was with great difficulty the travellers kept
their journey." Now, what was it that freezed so ha.rd
Not the frost; because the frost is the effect, and not tli8
cau se of freezing. vVe cannot say that it was the weat'Mr.
that freezed; because the fr eezing constituted in part
weather itself. No; the Pronoun it stands, in this p~
for state of things, or circurnstances; and this sentence
might be written thus: "The freezing was so hard
night, and the cold was so severe, that the travell '
found great difficulty in keeping on their journey."
us t ake another example or two: " It is a frost this mo
ing. It will rain to-night. .. It will b e fine t o-morro'\i
That is to say, "A state of things called frost exists ·
morning; a state of things called rain will exist to-night
and to-morrow a state of things called fine weather.
Another example: " It is delightful to see brothers ,
sisters living in uninterrupted love to the end of th -~
days." That is to say, " The state of things which
hibits brothers and sisters living in uninterrupted love '
the end of their days is delightful to see." The Prono ·

43

.is, in this its illipersonal capacity, used iu a great
'ety of instances; but I forbear to extend my r emarks
the subject h ere; because those r emarks will find a
ore suitable place when I come to another p art. of my
tructions. I h ave said enough h ere to prevent the
uzzling that might have arisen from your perceiving that
e Pro~oun it was sometimes used \: ithout your being
le to trace its connection with any noun either expressed
~ understood
. 61. In order, however, further t o illustrate this matter
in this place, I will make a r emark· or two upon the u se
pf the word there. Example: " There are many men, who
have been at L atin schools for years, and who, at last,
cannot write six sentences in English correctly," Now,
JOU know, the word there, in its u sual sense, h as reference
to place ; yet it has no such reference here. The meaning is that "Many men are in existence who have been at
Latin schools." Again: " 1'/tere never was any thing so
.beautiful as that flower." That is to say, "Any thing so
beautiful as that flower never existed, or never was in
~ing."

It ·m ay, perhaps, b e useful for you to know (especially if you
intend to pass an examination) that the word tllere in the sentences
)lere given is call ed a n e:ipletive, which m eans a word u sed m erely
.fill up a vacancy. You can always leave it out without altering
.. e sense. ' 'There is a tree in the garden" is nothing but '' a tree
·in the garden." And you will now, perhaps, be better able to
understand Pope's satirical Jines on the works of poor authors :
"While expletives their fe eble aid do join,
And ten slow words oft creep in one dull line."
I

·i62. We now come to the RELATIVE PRONOUNS, of
hi.ch class there are only three; n amely, "Who, Which,
d That. The two latter always r emain the same,
ough all numbers, genders, and cases ; but the Prooun who changes its endings in order to express the
!!Sessive and objective cases; as, who, whose, whom.

44

Etymology

Of Pronouns.

th'f

63. These Pronouns ai·e called relative, because
always relate directly to some noun or some personal
Pronoun, or to some combination of words, which ia
called the antecedent; that is to say, the person or thing
going before. Thus: "The soldier who was killed at the
siege." S oldier is the antecedent. Again: "The men, if
I am rightly informed, who came hither last night, who
went away this morning, whose money you have received,
and to whom you gave a receipt, are natives of South
America." JJtien is here the antecedent ; and in this
sentence there are all the variations to which this Pronoun is liable.
64. "fVho, whose, and whom · cannot be used correctly
as relatives to any Nouns or Pronouns which do not r&- .
present men, women, or children. It is not correct ~
say, the horse, or the dog, or the tree, who was so and S'!I
or to whom was done this or that; or whose color,.Qr.
any thing else, was such or such. But the word That, aa
a relative Pronoun, may be applied to nouns of all sortsJ
as, the boy that ran; the horse that galloped; the tr~
that was blowed down.
The real reason for this u sc of the word that, however, is be-·
cause we must sometimes find a pronoun that will stand for both
men and animals together : ''The h orses and the riders that we saw
are the favorites." And concerning the pronoun wlw, a change
has taken place since Cobbett's time: we can now use it in t¥
possessive case (whose) with reference to things as well as per.
sons. "The mountain whose top is covered with snow," is considered easier and more elegant than " T he mountain the top of
which is covered with snow." The poets b egan to use this form;
and prose-writers now use it too. By-tlic-way, you will notice thar
Cobbett is a little peculiar in u sing some irreg ul ar verbs in the
regular form; as, blowed ancl froze for blown aud froze. More of
this farther on.
·

65. "fVhich, as a relative Pronoun, is
tional creatures, and here it may b e used as a relative in·
differently with that~· as, the horse which galloped; th4

45

i tree which was blowed down.
This application of the
; relative which solely to irrational creatures is, however,
of modern date; for, in the Lord's Prayer, in the English
·. Church Service, we say, "Our Father which art in heaven."
In the American Liturgy this error has. been corrected;
and they say, "Our Father who art in h eaven. "
' . 66. I cannot, even for the present, quit these r elative
: Pronouns without observing to you that they are words
of vast importance, and that more errors, and errors of
,. ·greater consequence, arise from a misapplication of them
1
than from the misapplication of almost all the other
classes of words put together. The reason is this, they
are relatives, and they frequently stand as the r epre·. sentatives of that which has gone b efore, and which
i· stands in a distant p art of the sentence. This will be
more fully explained when I come to the Syntax of
Pronouns; but the matter is of such great moment
that I could not r efrain from giving you an intimation
. of it h er e.
· · 67. The DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS are so called
because they more particularly mark or demonstrate the
nouns b efore which they are placed, or . for which they
sometimes stand. They are, l'his, 1'/iese, 1'/iat, l'huse,
and 1¥hat. The use of them is so well known, and is
liable to so little error, that my chief object in giving
· them this separate place is t o show you the difference between Tliat, when a relative, and when not a relative.
Take an example: " 1'hat man is not the man, as far as I
· am able to discover, that came hither last night." The
; first of these 1'/iats does not relate to the man; it merely
· points him out; but the latter relates to him, carries you
back to him, and supplies the place of r epetition. This
,same word, That, is sometimes a Conjunction; as, "1'/iat
man is not the man, as far as I can discover, that came
Juther last night, and that was so ill that he could hardly
yaJk." The relative is repeated in..the third That; but

''

;s,,

I

I'

46

Etymology

the fourth 17iat is merely a conjunction serving to
nect the effect of the illness with the cause.
·"I say that that that th at that author u ses is false. " Try discover the four diffe rent p arts of speech rt!presented by the word
that in this sentence.-7'7tis, that, and the ir p lural, these, tlwse, ate,
like th e arti cles, called limiting adjectives wh en u sed directly 1!&fore nouns : this h at, these hats. When u sed with reference ~
things pointed at, these refers to things nearer at hand than tliOM.

68. Perhaps a profound examination of the matter
would lead to a proof of Tliat being always a Pronoun;
but, as such examination would b e more curious than use:
fol, I shall content myself with having clearly shown you
the difference in its offices, as a relative, as a demonstra;tive, and as a corijwict-ion.
..
69. "fVhat, together with who, whoi;e, whom, and which,
are employed in aslcing qiiestions / and are sometimes
ranged under a separate h ead, and called I nterrogati.,,,.
Pronouns. I have thought this unnecessary; but here i4.
an observation of importance to attend t o ; for wh~
though as a relative it cannot be applied to the intellectu,aJ
species, is, as an interrogative, properly applied to ~
species; as, " ·which man was it who spoke to you?" ..
70. "fVhat sometimes stands for both noun and r elative
Pronoun; as, " What I want is well known. " That is to
say, "The thing which I want is well known. " Ind
what has, in all cases, this extended signification; fa
when, in the way of inquiry as to words which we ha
not clearly understood, we say, lVhat ? our full me~
is, "Repeat to us that which you h ave said," or, "tlicj
words which you have spoken."
. In this sentence, " I gave him what (that which) he wanted;
what is a relative pronoun; but in this sentence, "I gave him w~
funds he wanted," it is an adj ective. Noti ce that we always sa
twt, never what, after every thing, any thing, n othing, sornethi'lif,
all things.

71. The INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS are so ca.ll .

Of Acijectives.

47.

because they express their objects in a general and indeterminate manner. Several of them are also adjectives.
It is only where they are employed alone, that is to say,
,without nouns, that they ought to be r egarded as Pronouns. F or instance : " One is always hearina of the unhappiness of one person or anothe1-." The fi;st of these
ones is a Pronoun; the last is an Adjective, as is also the
~~rd another/ for a noun is imderstood to follow, though
it is not expressed. These pronouns are as follows: One,
·any, each, none, som e, other, every, either, ?nany, whoever,
. whatever, neither, and some few others, but all of them
words invariable in their orthography, and all of very

LETTER

VII.

ETYMOLOGY OF ADJECTIVES.

lify DEAR

J AMES :

.' 72. In L etter III, p aragraph 21, I h a.ve described what

-.an Adjective is. You will, therefore, now r ead that para~raph carefully over, before we proceed in studying the
contents of the present L etter.
' 73. The Adjectives have no changes to express gender
9f case; but they have changes to express degrees of com11,arison. As Adjectives describe the qualities and properti.es of ~ouns, and as the~e may be possessed in a degree
illgher m one case than m another case, such words have
degrees of comparison; that is to say, changes ~ their
~~gs, to suit these varying circumstances. A tree may
)!ti high, but another may be higher, and a third may be
pie liighest. Adjectives have, then, these three degrees:
e first degree, or r ather, the primitive word, called
the Positive/ the second, the Cornparative · the third
4Jle Superlative. For the forming of these de~rees I shall

/,

I

OJ Acijectives. ,
lttymolo,qy

48
.

d . f you pay strict attention t<?
give you four ritles ). an l
ld . rttle more about
these rules, you will need to be to veiy i
this Part of Speech. . .
. o-eneral which end in a
74. First Rule. Ad)ectives l~ "'
. ' b
dding er tof
th .. comparntive deg1 ee y a
•
conson~nt:' ormd f:1~m their superlative degree by adding .
the pos1 ive, an
est to the positive; as,
OOMPARA.TlVE ·
POSITIVE.

SUPERLA.TlVE·

R'lC"
hast ·

.h
R ic
er,
,1.
d' t'
which end in e, add, lll
75. Seconcl Riile. At _lec i~~ys, an r and in forming their
their compara ive, or
,
.
..
f ormmg
superlative, st j as,
Rich,

OOMPARATIVR.

J>QSIT IV]i; .

SUPERLATIVE.

Wisest.
Wiser,
Wise,
h
't' e ends in cl, g, ore;
76 1'hircl Rule ·when t e pos1 iv
d d.
and ~hen these co~sonants are, att t~1e ~~:~l~i:~p;::~
by a single vowel, the conso~1an lS
the comparative ancl superlatwe; as,
OOMPARA.Tl\'E.

POSI'l'I\7 E.

SI.I PERLA.'rIVE.

Reddest.
Redder,
Biggest.
Bigger,
Hottest.
Hotter,
·
~·
.
. t be weceded by another consonan..,
But, if the cl, g, OI '
I l the final consonant is riot
. by more than one vowe '
OI
f th t
latter degrees; as,
l bled in the forming o
e wo
Red,
.
B ig,
Hot,

C OU

COMPARAT!YE.
POSITIVE.

Kinder,

K ind,
Neat,

SU PERLA'l'!VE.
}{' d t

m es .
Neatest.

Neater,
When the positive ends in y, pr&!
77. Fourt i u e.
h
es into ie in the other
ceded oy a consonant, the y c ang
! R l

degrees.
POSITIVE.

Lovely,
Pretty,

COMPARATIVE.

Lovelier,
Prettier,

SUPERLATIVE.

Loveliest.
Prettiest.

49

78. There are some Adjectives which can be reduced to
· no rule, and which must be considered as irregular; as,
POSITIVE.

Good,
Bad,
Little,
Much,

OOMPARATIVE.

BUPERLATI VE.

Better,
"\Vorse,
Less,
More,

Best.
Worst.
Least.
Most.

79. Some Adjectives can have no degrees of comparison,
because their signification admits of no augmentation; as,
(l,ll, each, every, any, several, some; and all the numerical
Adjectives; as, one, two, three; first, seconcl, thircl.
But there are some other adjectives that do not admit of com. panson. Consider, for a moment, such words as true, round,
, l(juare, perfect, dead. Properly speaking, nothing can be truer,
·rounder, squarer, more perfec t, or deader than another; yet, in
popular speech, these words are often used in the comparative or
· superlative degree. How often we hear people say, "I never saw
thing m ore perfect ;" ''this figure is not quite so round as
· fuat;" and the like. I do not mean to say that such expressions
.are absolutely unpermissible; only that th ey are not strictly correct. To say ''more nearly round" or ''more nearly pe1iect"
would be more nearly correct. These expressions, however, occur
In the rapid ft.ow of conversation, and perhaps express the idea
intended better than a more correct (notice these very words) or
more choice expression. Editors sometimes speak of a political
question as "the deadest of all dead issues;" which is very forcible
language; and there is a comparison implied in the familiar expressions, "dead as a door-nail, dead as Julius Caesar."- I may
here mention that the word old, in its regular form, old, older, oldest,
is used with reference to persons and things in general; while the
forms, elder, eldest, is used to distinguish kinsfolk or historical
·_ personages: my elder brother or nephew, my eldest sister or
'cousin; the elder Pliny, the elder Brutus, the elder or younger
Pitt.
- Far, farther, farthest arc used exclusively with reference to distance; but we sometimes use the form furthe1·, to indicate something more, or to point out that we have something more t.o say on
a subject. The latter form is also sometimes used as an adjective;
!mve you •any f u.1·tlwr objection?

.any

3

Of Verbs.

Etymology

50

. .
hich end in most are superlative, and
most innermost. · ,
80. Ad3ectives w
admit of no change ; as, itt1nost, upper
'. .
hick
.ll observe that all AdJectives w
81. However, you w1
ir de rees by the use'
admit of comparison may form the
g
. .
of the words more and most j as,
SUPERLATIVE.
POSITIVE.

COMPARATIVE.

Most rich.
Rich,
1\fore rich,
Most tender.
Tender,
More tender,
th
"tive contains but one syllable, the d~grees
When l~ ~~:~ed by adding to the positive according to
are usua y l
When the positive contains two syllables,
~he. four ru es..
taste which method you shall use in
it is a matter of
. . th1·s case the best
d
The ear is m
'
·
for~ing ~~: ;:::e~iie positive c~ntains more than tUXJ
gu1c e.
,
must be formed by the use of mor~
llables the necrrees
l
tersy
'
IV ~na say tender and tenderest, p easan
and most.
e
Y
· . b t ho could toland pleasantest, prettier and prettiest J u w
·';
erate delicater and clelicatest ?
C .
who uses beautifulest, wonderfulaef
Nobody but Thomas iu1Y1c,
G
·sms there is no
and the lik e. To use n~othcr ?f C<irlyle's ermam
'
.
. but this usage is unnght.
quest ion

•
LETTER VIII.
ETYMOLOGY OF VERB&

MY DEAR JAMES:
.
.
82 The first thing you have to do in begm~11ng yo
ud. as to this important Part of Sp eech, 1~ to r
st a:li.' very slowly and carefully paragraphs .23, 24,
ag
. L tt . III Having, by well attendmg to w
and 26, m e eI
·
d t di ·tinguish Ver
. aid in those p aragraphs, learne
o ..,
•
~;:m the words belonging to other P arts .of ~pe~ch, y
will now enter, with a clear head, on an mqmry mto ., -

51

variations to which the words of this P art of Speech are
liable.
83. SoRTS OF VERBS. Verbs are considered as active,
passive, or neuter. A Verb is called active when it expresses an action which is produced by _the nominative of
the sentence; as, "Pitt restrained the Bank" It is pas.. sive when it expresses an action which is received, or
endured, by the person or thing which is the nominative
of the sentence; as, "the Bank is restrained." It is
neuter when it expresses simply the state of being, or of
existence, of a person or thing; as, "Dick lies in b ed;"
or, when it expresses an action confined within the actor.
84. It is of great consequence that you clearly under.. stand these distinctions, because I shall, by-and-by, use
these terms very frequently. And in order to give you a
proof of the necessity of attending to these distinctions,
I will h ere give you a specimen of the en-ors which are
sometimes committed by those who do not under stand
Grammar. This last-mentioned Verb, to lie, becomes, in
the past time, lay. Thus: "Dick lies on a bed now, but
some time ago, he lay on the floor." This verb is often
~ . confounded with the Verb to lay, which is an active Verb,
and which becomes, in its past time, laid. Thus : "I lay
my hat on the table to-day, but, yesterday, I laid it on
the shelf." Let us take another instance, in onler the
more clearly to explain this matter. A Verb may some' times be what we call a 1wuter Verb, though it expresses
an action; but this happens when the action is coujined
with-in the actor; that is to say, when there is no object
to which the action passes. Strilce is clearly an active
Verb, because something is striclcen; a stroke is given to,
.:· or pitt upun, something. But in the case of to rise,
'"-though there is an action, it passes on to no object; as, I ·
·, rise early. Here is no object to which the action passes.
• But to raise is an active Verb, because the action passes on
, to an object; as, I raise a sticlc, I raise my hand, I raise

52

Etymology

Of Verbs.

my head, and also I raise myself; because; t~ough in this · .
last instance the action is confined to me, it is understood ..
that my mind gives the motion .t~ m~ body. These
two Verbs are, in speaking and wntmg, mcessantly c~n­
founded; though one is a n euter and the ot~er an active
Verb, though one is regular and th~ other ll'regular, or
though they are not, in any person, tune, or mode, composed of the same letters. T~is confusion. co_uld never
take place if attention were paid to the principle above
laid down.

i-

This is one of the hard passages in the gospel of grammar; a
passage which I am sure, has been a stumbling-block to many a
poor fellow who h as been unable to make head or tail of it. ~ell do I remember the difficulty I had myself, when I first studied
this grammar, in making it out. It is, I now see, no wonder.that
the matter was very cloudy to me; for even Cobbett'. the plamest
and clearest of writers, has got into a muddle .a bout it, as I shall
presently show.
Look again at my explanation of the difference between the .
transitive and the intransitive verb (note to paragraph 11). T~en ·
remember that Cobbett's "nominative" is another word for sub;ed,
and his "verb " another word for predicate. "Boys study grammar." These three words form subject, pi-edicate, and object. "M~n .
dies." Here is nothing but subject and predicate; and you will •
notice that "study" has an object, while " dies" ha~ not. .
I rise at six o'clock. I raise a wall; I raise the_pn.ce: I ra1s_e _my •
voice. you will readily see that the verb to rise IS mtr~ns1t1ve,
because it has no object; its action does not pass to anyt~mg; and · ·
that to raise is transitive, because it has an object; its act10n passes to something, even if it is my own voice, head or h~nd. Now both
these verbs, as used by Cobbett, are in the active voice, for the pa~s­
ing or not passing of the action has ~othin~ whatever to d? w1.th
the verb being in the active or passive voice, but only with its
being transitive or intransitive. It is the STATE OF. THE ~UBJEOT (or _
nominative) alone that determines whether a verb IS active o~ pas- ·
· . " I rise early. I raise my hand." Both these verbs are m the
t.
d ot' .
s1ve.
. (I) .
active voice ; for the subject or nominative
IS acing, an ~ ,
acted upon. The verb is in th e passive voice where the SUBJEOT. o~o-,
NO)!INATIVE is ACTED ON; as, I AM raised; but it ism ~he active;
voice when the SUBJECT or NOMINATIVE is ACTING; as, I nse at flv,e;

53

.!>'clock. Notice that the verb in the passive voice always consists
of some part of the verb to be and the past participle of another
verb. Cobbett is altogether wrong in saying that "to mise is an
active verb becanse it passes on to an object;" it wonld be active
whether the action passed on to an object or not· for as I have
said, it is the STATE of the SUBJECT that determines i~ ac~iveness or
~assiveness, and not the verb itself. The passing of the action
s1mply shows that it is transitive.
. Now observe that this matter of transitive and intransitive verbs
, is something by itself, and that active and passive voice is also
something by itself. It will, perhaps, help you to understand the
matter, when I tell you that no intransitive vm·b can be used in tlte
paasive voice. You can not say, I am slept, I am dreamt, I am
lived. No; only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice:
.I am hated, I am robbed, I am punished. These forms come from
the verbs to ltate, to 1·ob, to punislt, all of which take an object, and
are therefore transitive; but the forms to sleep, to dream, to live, do
not take an objec t and are thei·eforc intransitive, and cannot be
used in the passive voice.
Now, as to that other bugbear, the neuter verb, I think we shall
not have much difficulty in understanding it. I never learned the
' meaning of it from Cobbett, I must confess. And here I may
Inform you th at many grammarians discard the term neuter altogether, and set neuter verbs down simply as in transitive verb
which, indeed, they are. But you must understand what is mea st,
.b
n
ya neuter verb, any way. You have seen that when a verb is
used in the active voice, the subject or nominative of that verb
·
., Is ACTING,
. .and
. that . when
. one is used in the passive v 01ce,
the suliJect Or· nommative of that verb is AOTED ON. Now
'Where a n~t:1' verb is used, the subject is neither acting no~
acted on; It IS NEITHER, NEUTER. Take an example Of all three
cases: 'I'?~my kicks .the pony; Tommy is kicked by the pony;
TolDlI\y is ill. Now m the first case, KICKS is active, because the
·subject (Tomm~) is ~cting; in the second case, is kicked is passive,
because tlrn subJect 1s acted on; and in the third case, it is neuter
because the subject is neither acting nor acted on: it is EXISTENo~
J'ITHO~T ACTION. Just try if this is not the case with such verbs
f:' t.o sit, to s~and, t~ e:nst, ~o_Hve, to lie, to sleep. When you are
Bf_ttrng, standmg, ex1st1~g, hvmg, etc., you are neither acting nor
acted ~~; you are neither, neuter. Of course, these verbs are
~trans1t1ve,
too; for all neuter verbs are intransitive b t l'
tr
••
, U aI
, ans1tive verbs are not neuter. There's the rub; there is where
.

54

Of V erbs.

Etymology

Cobbett makes his mistake: he calls the verb to rise neuier,
while it is nothing of the sort; it is simply intransitive, aJMl
active. The most recent cla~sification of verbs is into activf;.
transitive 1 active-intmnsitive, and neuter. He kicks the pony(
he 1-ises ; h e li1•es. Cobbett, no doubt, followed the grammariw
and dictionary-makers of his time.

85. Having thus given you the means of distinguishing
the sorts of Verbs, I now proceed to matters which ar~
common to all the sorts. There are four things to be
considered in a verb; the person, the number, the time,_
and the m ode.
86. THE PERSON.-Read again L etter VI, on the Etymology of Pronouns. You will there clearly see the use of,
this distinction about Persons; and, as I h ave told you,
you will find that it is a matter of great consequence; lie.
cause it will now, at once, be evident to you that, unless
the distinction of person be attended to, almost everj
sentence must be erroneous.
~ ·
87. The Verb must agree in p erson with the Noun o
the Pronoun which is the nominative of the sentence,
L ook back at L etter V, and at paragraphs 44, 45, 46, an~.
4 7, in order to r efresh your memory as to the nominativs_
and other cases. The Verb, then, must agree with th!>
nominative; as, " I write; he write8." To say, "I writes,·
he write ; " these would be both erroneous.
~8. L ook back at the explanation about the persons in
the Etymology of Pronouns in L etter VI. There are
three persons; but our Verbs have no variation in their
spelling, except for the third p erson singular. For w~
say, " I write, you write, we write, they write;" and only
"he, she, or it writes." This, then, is a very plain matter;
89. NuMBER is a matter equally plain, seeing that oilr
Verbs do not, except i:c. one or two instances, vary theii;
endings, to express number. But when several nouns Olj_
pronouns come t ogether, care must be taken to make thtl _
Verb agree with them; as, "Knight and Johnstone resi8'

55

e

tyrants." Not resists. But this will be more fully
_elt on in the Syntax.
. ;9-0. THE T1ME.-The Vtirb has variations to express the
• e of an action ; as, "Sidmouth writes a Circular Letter;
"dmouth wrote a Circular Letter; Sidmouth will write a
· cular Letter." Again: "The Queen defies the tyrants ;
e Queen defied the tyrants ; the Queen will defy the
ants." The Times of a Verb are, therefore, called the
resent, the past, and the future.
'- 91. THE MonEs.-The Modes of Verbs are the different
nners of expressing an action or a state of being, which
ers are sometimes posi_tive, sometimes condit-iona.l,
d sometimes indeterminate; and there are changes or
·_ations, in the ·spelling~ or writing, of the Verb, or of
little words used with the Verb, in order to express
· ·difference in manner and sense. I will give you an
tance: "He walks fast." "If he walk fast, he will
tigue himself." In most other languages the Verb
ges its form very oft~n and very much to make it
· ress the different modes. In ours it does not; because
e have little words called signs, which we use with the
erbs instead of varying the form of the Verbs themlves. To make this matter clear, I will give you an
ple of the English compared with the French
· guage in this respect.

,e

I
I
I
I

E.
march,
marched,
might march,
should march;

F.
Je marche.
Je marchais.
Je marchasse.
J e marclierais.

ere are other variations in the French Verb; but we
ect the purposes of these variations by the use of the
'."lls, shall, may, might, could, would, and others.
92. The Modes are four in number; the Infinitive, the
'Ulicative, the Subjunctive, and the Imper.ative. Besides

---·---- ·- - - -- --

·Of V erbs.

Etymology

56

.

.

eak

.
. th two Participles, of which I shall sp
these, there are e
l

presently.
. . Mi de is the Verb in its primitiv.e
93. The Infinitive
od thi . •called the Infinitive beto march. An
s is
stat e; as,
. ·t It merely expresses
.
.th t bounds or 1imi .
cause it is wi ou .
"th t any constraint as to per. of marchmg, wi ou
· f t,
t h e ac t ion
.
Th r ttle word to makes, m ac .
son or number or time. . e di t . of itself a preposi-·
. 1 v; b This wor o is,
,
-.
a part oj t ie e~
d to Verbs it is merely a sign of the
tfon j but, as pie xe th . 1 'guages there is no such..
Md
Inoeran
.
h f . instance aller met1.ns to go; .
Infimt1ve
o e.
sign. In the Fre~c , T~r
then ;ou will bear in mind .
ecrire means to write.
J.U~.
, art of the verb itself,:
that in English, the to ma es a p
·t
r , ,; 't" e JJ1ode
.,
when in the .Ln~.ni .iv Mi cl .is that in which we expre81f'
94. The Indicative f : . e ct positively; that is to say,
an action, or state o. emo,
d endent circumstan~·
without any conclition, ort'. any. . esptate of being, witluYI# .
. d. t s the ac ion or
It merely in ica e
.
,h· h r enders the action .Pl'
. . l t anythinct v. ic
f
being subJoinec o
o
ther action or state S
d endent on any 0
·
state of bemg ep
· . ,, This is the Indicative. ·
.
Th s . " He writes.
h l
bemg.
u ·
.
.
cl comes into use w en
95. But the SubJunctiv~ Mot e_ nts will be ready with
say, "If he write, the g~~~ty I::his case there is somed th SUI>:
. d geons and axes.
t h ell' un . .
. nd therefore this is calle
e
.
thing s11bJ oinecl , a
. that in our language
. .,,;rd
Observe, however,
d
junctive .J.u O e.
. th' distinction of mo es
b
·
. great use m 18 '
there is no very
. i·ttle signs do the usi:
th
ost part, our i
because, for em
. the letters of which they ve
ness, and they nev~r ~art~ m ·s useful only as xegards '
The distmc 10n 1
•\.compose d ·
"th t the ·signs, and where ~
employment of Verbs w~ t oud. as in the above case,
be unders oo ,
,, , _,.:11.
signs are 1eft to
.
t ·ants will be ready. AW.I.
he (~hould) write, th: g~1lt\: signs are used, or und~
observe, further, tha ~v e~t o 'ginal or primitive fo "
Verb retams is n
.
-•
stoo d , th e
b . and times.
..,
1 the persons, num ers,
1
t
h
throug ou a

ft

"1:f

57

The Imperative Mode is mentioned here merely for
form's sake. It is that state of the Verb which com;:mands, orders, b·ids, calls to, or invokes; as, come hither;
~. be good; march away; pay me. In other languages there
are changes in the spelling of the Verbs to answer to this
mode ; but in ours there are none of these; and therefore
·the matter is hardly worth notice, except as a mere mat.. ter of form.
"· 97. The Participles, however, are different in point of
importance. They are of two sorts, the active and the
passive. The former ends always in ing, and the latter
' is generally the same as the past time of the Verb out of
which it grows. Thus: working is an active participle,
e.nd worked a passive participle. They are called participles because they partake of the qualities of other Parts
·. of Speech as well as of Verbs. For instance: "I am
working j working is laudable ; a working man is more
:worthy of honor than a titled plunderer who lives in idleness." In the first instance, working is a Verb, in the
second a Noun, in the third an Adjective. So in the case
of the passive participle: I worked yesterday; that is
}.corked mortar. The first is a Verb, the last an Adjective.
t

.After the indicative, grammarians now insert another mood,
Called the potential mood, which indicates power, permission, posiibility, necessity, determination, duty. This mood Cobbett runs
Into the subjunctive, after the manner of the French. It is that
form which necessitates one of " .t hose powerful little words," as
}/.e calls them, may, might, can, must, will, shall, should, wou/,d.
This matter of mood, which is quite a difficult subject for beginners, became much clearer to me when I saw how the Germans
' ed their moods in their expressive language. They call the
:fnlinitive mood the g1·ound-form; the indicative the reality-fo1"m;
lbe potential the possibility-form; the subjunctive, the <loubt-form;
!j!d the imperative the commanding-form. Like the wlw-case, the
se-case, and the whom-case, these words are far more expressive
· the Latin terms we use, which onght to have been left where
y belonged, in Latin.
. You will perhaps be surprised to see will and shall, would and
i

3*

Etymology

Of Verbs.

You will.
say they belong to the future and the conditional. So they doi
but they belong to the potential, too, as I sh all show you by-andby. Take these two examples of the difference between the future
and the potential: "I shall write (future) to you, if I can. I toill
write (potential) to you, come what may. You will do (future)
that to-morrow. You shall do (potential) ns I tell you. " This ii
one of the most difficult matters in English grammar ; a matter
which, Cobbett says, foreigners never learn rightly, but which na... .
tives learn to use rightly from infancy, and do so without ever
thinking of the matter. Extensive reading of good authors and
extensive intercourse with good speakers are among the best·
means of learning the correct use of these words. I have read of
an Irishman who, on falling into the river, exclaimed : " I will
drown , and nobody shall help me!" :More of this anon. (Note to

SUBJUNCTIVE MODE
If Ithou
work , ork may , m1g
· ht , co ul d, would, ·or should work.
If
"
"
wor ' or may
work.
If he, she, or it work, or may "
"
work.
If we work, or may
work.
If you work, or may
work.
"
"
If t:1ey work, or may
"
" work.
"

58

should, set down as belonging to the potential mood.

IMPERATIVE MODE.
L et me work '
Let u s work.
Worl: thou '
Work you.
L et him work '
Let them work.
PARTICIPLES.
A ctive.-Working.
P cusive.-Worked.

paragraph 258.)

98. Thus h ave I gone through all the circumstances of
change to which Verbs are liable. I will now give yo_
the complete conjugation of a Verb. To conjttgate, in its
usual acceptation, means to jo'in together; and, as us0d
by grammarians, it means to place under one view all the
variations in the form of a Verb ; beginning with the
Infinitive Mode and ending with the Participle. I will
now lay b efore you, then, the conj'ngation of the Verb t6
work, exhibiting that Verb in all its p er sons, numbel'8-'
times, and modes.
INFINITIVE :MODE.
To WoRK.
INDICATIVE :MODE.
Singul(JIT'.

Plural.

1st Person. I work,
We work.
Pr~sent 2d P erson. Thou workest,
You work.
Time. { 3d Person. He, she, or it works. They work.
Past { - I worked,
Time. - Thou workedst,
- H e worked,

We worked.
You worked.
They worked.

Future { - I shall or will work,
Time. - Thou shalt or wilt work,
- He shall or will work,

We shall or will work:·
You shall or will wo
They shall or will wor.

59

'

?9. Some e~planatory r emarks are necessar here

k::

Th

!- ·. third
of the lndi cat•ive presenty used. to b ee
'tt person
'th smO'ular
b
e~ Wl
eth; as, worketh; but this spelling has Ion
' . n disus_ecl. The past time may be formed by did .
I' did
. thworlc, mstead
. of worked ,. and d o wor1c, may .be ,used'

a:

rm_

e present time; but, in fact, these little words are a
great
s d . deal more
t ' than mere marks of th e t :irnes. They ar e
u
e
m
one
affir
'th ime to express the ne gat•ive o f another or to
m wi more. than ordinary emphasis.
'
. 100. Grammarians generally make a present ~nd
t
Subjunctive Mode; but the truth i: r::t
time under

~he

:~~:!tt:eo~ignsT7i_ay apply_ to the present, past, or future
e.
ese are little words of vast im ·t
of constant u se; and thouO'h th t
.
po~ and
to be learned .
·
b
a use is so very difficult
by forei~ners, we ourselves never make mist k
.th
. a es wi . regard to it. The Verb to be alone chan
. the Subjunctive
ges
its
form m order to make a pas t t"ime m
Mode.
· pronouns
,. tl o101. As
d to the Impei-ati ve .MiOlil e, where the
'·· t~o u and
are put after the Verb, we seldom put the
. u .atn file '!!ou. We make use of the Verb only which
'
• is qw e su cient.

r:u

I' I

. ,,: I
I,

~

'

I'
!

60

Etymology

1

102. Some grammarians put in their conjugations what
they call the compound times; as, I have worked, I had
worked, I shall have worlced, I may have worked, and so '
on. But this can only serve to fill up a book; for all.
these consist merely in the introduction and use of the.
Verb to have in its various parts. In the above conjuga-tion all the changes or variations of the Verb are exhib- 1
ited; and it is those changes and variations which, under
the present head, form the important object of
inquiry.
Well, at the risk of incurring the reproach of merely" filling up ;
a book," or, as the reviewers call it, "padding a book," I shall ,
give you this one verb entire, in its present form, with its present
names for moods and tenses. Do not be afraid; it will not confuse
you, if you will only be patient. There are about six or seven ,
thousand verbs in our language, and they are all, except in ihe ,
past tense and past participle, conjugated like this. It is in these"
last two parts that the irregular verbs vary. You cannot utter~ .
single se ntence, however short, without a verb; so, surely, you
ought to see this important part of speech from head to foot. Be-.
sides, I belie>re that our present form of laying out the verb is
simpler than it was in Cohbett's time, for the tenses are so arranged ·
that they are more easily remembered. (See n ex t page.)
You will notice that the compound form s are, as Cobbett says,
nothing but the past participle, w01·ked, and the various forms of .
the verb to have. But the sedng it will h elp you to remember it.
As to the tenses, consider for a moment how many kinds of time'.
there are in nature. What is the time called in which you now
are? What time is that you J1 ad yesterday? What time is to.
morrow? ·well, there are three kinds, present, past, and future}
and in grnmmar you may say there are really only tli?-ee tenses,
with a tail to each of them, a pe1fect tail; and this perfect tail is
the compound form of the verb. It is nothing but present, present'..
pe1'fect; past, past.perfect; future, fu ture-perfect. As to the using
of them , yon will learn that when we come to the Syntax. The~
you will notice ~hat there arc five moods, just as there are five con.
tinents, five oceans, five races of men, and five wnes. Notice tha( 1
the subjunctive bas no changes whatever in its endings. Thia
mood, of which common people and common writers know nothing,
and which, some writers think, will finally disappear altogether, ia

' Of Verbs.

61

Complet,e wnjugation of the a;:,tive verb To Work
i'ruent tense-To work.
•

8IKPLE TBNSEB .

Present tense.

INFINITIVE MOOD.
•
INDICA TI?'E:eai:f~I{ect tense-To have worked.
COMPOU?li""D TENSES.

Preaent perfect tense.
I h ave worked •
Thou hast worked.
He has worked.
We have worked.
You have worked
'fhey have worked.
Past tense.
Past perfect tense
I work,
I had worked.
·
Thou workedst,
Thou hadst worked.
Reworked,
He had worked.
(We worked,
Wehad worked.
You workedt
You had worked.
They workea,
They had worked.
l!'uture tense.
Ji'uture perfect tense
I shall work,
I shall have worked
·
Thou wilt work,
Thou wilt have worked
He will work
He will have worked. ·
We shall work,
We shall have worked
You will work,
You will have worked·
They will work,
They will have worked.
Present tense conditianal
Perfect tense conditional
lshould work,
·
I should bave worked.
·
Thou wouldst work
Thou wouldst have worked.
He would work,
'
He would have worked.
We should work,
We should have worked.
You would work
You would have worked .
.IJ'hey would work,
They would have worked.
Pr
POTENTIAL MOOD
I may can ~11{ ,~":,k
Prest1it PC?:/ect tense.
TllllU mayst canst shalt work
,t,:ay, can, wilf have worked.
e may, cal., shall' work,
'
H ou mayst, canst{ shalt have worked.
e may, can, shall work
. e may, can. sh al have worked.
You may can shall work
We may, can, shall have worked
They may, ca~, shall work
~gu ma)', ca n, sball have worked.
'
Past tense
'
ey may, can. shall have worked
might could should work
Past pe~f'ect
tense.
·
1
!'houmlghtst, c~uldst shouldst work ~'~~h~~ic~~ .t· sbofJd have worked.
..
'
'
work;d. :; ' cou st, shouldst have
He might could should work
H
· u
We might, oouldt should work
w~ ~fgh~ ~~ul1~ stoul
<l tave worked.
ou might, coula should work
Yo
. ht u Cl 8 ou 1ct avo worked.
ey might, could, should work
'l'h~yn:i,Tght cc~~ld s~oul~ ~ave worked.
.
SUBJUNCTIVE Moon'.
,s ou
aveworked.
'
Present tense.
Preaent perfect tense
I work •
I! I have worked.
·
thou work,
thou have worked.
·'he work,
he have worked.
we work,
we have worked.
fl{u work,
you have worked.
_ ey work,
they have worked .
I workef'ast tenu.
Past perfoct tense
thou worked,
It I had worked.
·
he worked
thou had worked.
.'weworkedt
he had worked.
u workea
we had worked.
·
k ·1
you had worked.
" ey wor ea,
they had worked.
Work! IMPERATIVE MOOD.
p ARTICJPLES. Work thou i
Present participle.
Past parktic!dple. Present perfect (participial form).
Working.
Wor e .
Having worked.

I work,
..Thou workest,
Reworks,
We work,
'tou work,
"1eywork,

rg

l ~I
j.

•,

I1·

~

I)

.; I
' \

..
Etymology

62

d to mark a certain uncertainty or contingency which the indic-.

~:~e car} not well mark, and is used not only after if, but after ~llfuu,h,, ,
although, lest, unless, pr01Jided _that, and various other cxprcss10ns .m- "

dicatin" uncertainty. The only verb in our whole language which
"'a complete chan"e in the subjunctive is the verb to be, and
makes
o
,
f
f
ti t becomes if I be if I ioere. Cobbett follow s the conJuga !Ono
ia French verb in using
'
·
t·IVe. . " L et me
the
the verb let in t I1e 1mpera
. '
work,, is not the imperative of the verb to wO'rk, bnt the imperative
of the verb to let; as is the case with everything that follows let;
let m e eat let me drink, Jet me be. No English verb needs moll'..·
than the o'nc word in the imper ative, for the subject. or pro~o~· :
y ou is generally unexpressed, or left understood. It is sometimes
u sed for emphasis or contrast; as, '' Work y0'1t I I .shall not
work.,, As to those two great stumbling-blocks of ma~y perso'.18,
shall and will, should and w0'1tld, all you have to do h ere is to notice
that, in th<» future and conditional tenses, shall and should ~re Gilli~
miALLY u~ed in the first person singular and plun.1-tl:at is, after
I and we-and that ioill and wO'ltld are GENEHALLY used m the other
persons.

·j
I

103. The Verbs to have and to be are of great use in our
language. They are called aitxiliary verbs. To let an~ to
do are also called auxiliar'i,es, but they are of far less llll1.
portance than to luwe and to be. Before, however, I say
more on the subject of these aux.iliari'.3s, I must ~peak of
all the Verbs as regular or irregitlar, JUSt obs.ervmg here
that the word auxiliary means helper, or helping.
104. Verbs are called regular when they ?ave
changes or variations according to a certam 1·ule ;;manner. Thus .· " I walk ' I walked 1· I worlc, I worked.
But I cannot say, "I writed." I must say, "I wro~e.. ,
Now observe that we call regular Verbs all th~se whi~
end their past time of the Indicative and their pass~v4
participle in eel; and if you now l.ook back at. t~e con;u·
gation of the Verb to work, you will ~nd that it is a re~U7
lar v erb. Indeed this is the case with almost all Verbs,.
But there are some little irreg·u larities even here, and t~ey;
must be very well attended to, because a want of at.tentioA
to them leads to very great errors even as to spellmg. ·

Of Verbs.

63

' 105. These little irregularities I shall notice under five
. .separate heads ; and if you should forget, at any time,
·' what has been said on the subject, a reference to these
will in a moment set you right.-!. The Verb to work is
.perfectly regular, for it has eel added to it in order to
form the past ti:m.e, and also in order to form the passive
.participle. It is the same with the Verbs to walk, to turn,
to abandon, and many others. But if the Infhiitive, that
. is to say, the primitive or original word, end in e, then cl
ynly is added in the past time and participle, and st in.stead of est after thou; as in the case of to move, which
becomes m oved and movest. You have seen, also, in the
·case of the Verb to work, that we add only a~ s to form
· the third person singular of the present of the l:""'licative;
he works. But if the Infinitive end in h, s, x, or z, then es
· must be added ; as, to wish, lie wishes ; to toss, lie tosses;
to box, lie boxes,· to buzz, he buzzes.-II. When the Infinitive ends in y, and when that y has a consonant immediately before it, they is changed into ie, to form the third
person singular of ·the present of the Indicative ; as to
reply, he replies. But (and I beg you to mark it well) if
the ending y have a vowel immediately before it, the Verb
.:follows the general rule in the formation of the third
person singular of the present of the Indicative; as to
delay, lie delays; and not he delaies. It is the same in
~e second person singular ; as, to r eply, thou repliest, to
delay, thou delayest.-Ill. When the Infinitive ends in y
mth a consonant immediately before it, the past time of
the Indicative and the passive participle are formed by
l;lSing an i instead of ·the y ; as, to reply, he replied; to
deny, it was denied. But if the y be preceded by a
yowel, eel is added to the y in the usual manner ; as, to
delay, lie delayed.-lV. The active participle, which
always ends in ing, is in general formed by simply adding
the ing to the I nfinitive; as, to work, working; to talk,
kf!king. But if the Infinitive en<t in a single e, the e is

'.

: j

i
64

Of V erbs.

Etymology
'

dropped; as, to move, moving. The Verb to be is ·~,
ception to this; but then that is an irregular Verb. .·
7
Say silent e, and the rule will hold good thr?ugh~ut ..
e is not silent in be, and is therefore not dropped m being: •
never retained, even where one part of speech is converted
anoth er, except where the omission of it might cause a do
pronunciation; as, peace, peaceable; change, changeable.

when the Infinitive ends in a single e, mind; for if
be double, the general rule is followed; as, to fr ee, fr . •
When the infinitive ends in ie, those letters are c
into y in the forming of the active participle; as,.to
lying.-V. When the Infinitive ends in a single cons
which has a single vowel immediately before it, the ,,
consonant is doubled, not only in forming the active·.
ticiple, but also in forming the past time of the Indi , ,
and the passive participle; as, to rap, rapping; I ra
it was rapped. But, observe well, this rule holds g
only as to words of one syllable; for if the Infinitive
the Verb have more than one syllable, the consona.n
not doubled unless the accent be on the last syllable; ,
the accent means the main force, weight, or soun~
the voice in pronouncing the word. For instance, in
word to open, the accent is on the first syllable; 1
therefore we write, opening, opened. But when we
to the Verb to refer, where we find the accent on the. .
syllable, we write, referring, referred.
' It is, perhaps, worth while noticing that these an, prin
that apply not only to the verbs, but to various other p
speech; in fact, principles that run through the whole Ian .,
Just as, with nouns, the word ending in y p receded by a con .
changes the y into ie (lady, lad ies), but does not change the
preceded by a vowel (valley, valley~); ~o with verbs, I ?
carries; I obey, he obeys; so with ad3ect1ves, h appy, happier;
gayer. And as we have seen that adjectives of one syllable_, e ,,
in a consonant preceded by a single vowel double the conso .
the comparative and superlative degrees (hot, hotter, hottest)1
do not do so if preceded by a double vowel or by none at all (
ueii~er; rich, ric;her), so it is with verbs, of similar ending, lit

..'

65

participles, rap , rapped, rapping; cheat,
, d, cheating; work, worked, working. It is something that
anded by the pronunciation of the words; for if we did not
le the final consonant in words of this kind, we should have
' :y lW'ter instead of lwt'ter, ra'ping instead of 1·ap'ping. And
reminds me to say that it is of the utmost importance for you
dy and understand the marking and accentuation of words
the dictionary; for if you wish to pronounce the English
age correctly, you will find it n ecessary to consult the di cvery frequently. The most learned Englishman or Ameri·that lives, or has ever lived-not excepting Doctor Johnson or
Webster himself-is, or has been, constantly obliged to conthe dictionary for the correct pronunciation of English words.
ow different, in this respect, is the German language ! In that
ge there is but one single word. irregularly pronounced;
n'-dig, instead of le'-bcn-dig, like lc'ben. And as tO the mean1,every German word explains itself; so that no German boy or
'need ever look into a dictionary to find out the meaning or
pronunciation of a word in his language. Every word in that
age is spelled, too, as it is pronounced. But the gram"cal construction of that language is far more difficult than
Mr. White confesses that, in order to learn German, the
mar of the language must be studied. I will go so far as to
, that an Englishman or American who studies the grammar of
language thoroughly well, will never n eed much further study
ihc grammar of his mother-tongue.

06. These irregularities, though very necessary to be
nded to, do not prevent us from considering the
be which are subject to them as regular Ve?·bs. The
, k of a regular Verb is that its past time and passive
, iciple end in ed; every Verb which does not answer
~s mark is irregular.
07. There are many of these irregular Verbs, of
I shall here insert a complete list, All the irreg"ties (except the little irregularities just mentioned)
it is possible to find in an English Verb (the auxilVerbs excepted) are in the past time and the passive
iciple only. Therefore, it will be sufficient to give a
· showing, in those two instances, what are the irreg."ties of each Verb; and, in order to render this list

~Ii

l ~1

~

I
j:

i

i·

;J
(1 1

.r

..
',
convenient, and to shoden the work of referring to
shall make it alphabetical. With the past time and:
passive participle of the several Verbs I shall use the
p er son singular of the pronoun, in order to make ·
examples as clear as possible.

PAST Tll\IE.

LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS.
I NFINITIVE.

to abide,
to be,
to b ear,
to beat,
to become,
to befall,
to b eget,
to b egin,
to b ehold,
to b end,
to beseech,
to bid,
to bind,
to bite,
to bleed,
to break,
to breed,
to bring,
to buy,
to catch,
to choose,
to cleave.
to come,
to cost,
to cut,
to die,
to do,
to drink,

PA ST TIME.

I abode,
I was,
I bore,
I beat,
I became,
it befell,
I begot,
I began,
I beheld,
I bended,
I besought,
I bade,
I bound,
I bit,
I bled,
I broke,
I bred,
I brought,
I bought,
I caught,
I chose,
I clove,
I came,
I cost,
I cut,
I died,
I did,
I drank,

67

Of Verba.

.Etymology

BG

PARTICIPLES.

I have abode.
" been.

"

"

" become.
it has befallen.
I have begotte
" b egun.
" beheld.
"
"

"
"
"
"

bitten.
bled.

"
"
"
"

"
"
"

"
"
"

"
"
"

come. ·;: ,
cost.
cut.
died.
done .. ,.

flee,
filng,
fiy,
.forbear,
'forbid,
forget,
forgive,
forsake,
get,
give,
' go,
grind,
have,
hear,
hide,
' hit,
hold,
' hurt,
keep,
· know,
' lay,
lead,
·leave,
)end,
· let,
-lie,
lose,
-.make,
;

I drove,
I ate,
. I fell,
I fed,
I felt,
I fought,
I found,
I fled,
I flung,
I flew,
I forbore,
I forbade,
I forgot,
I forgave,
I forsook,
I got,
I gave,
I went,
I ground,
I had,
I heard,
I hid,
I hit,
I held,
I hurt,
I kept,
I knew,
I laid,
I led,
I left,
I lent,
I let,
I lay,
I lost,
I made,

PARTIOIPLES.

I have driven.
" eaten.
" fallen.
" fed.
" felt.
" fought.
" found.
" fled.
" :flung.
" flown.
" forborne.
" forbidden .
" forgotten .
" forgiven.
" forsaken.
" gotten.
" given.
" gone.
" ground.
" had.
" h eard.
" hidden.
" hit.
" held.
" hurt.
" kept.
" known.
" laid.
" led.
" left.
" lent.
" let.
" lain.
" lost.
" made.

..
68

Etymology

INFINI'l'IVE.

PAST 'J'IME.

to meet,
to overcome,
to overdo,
to pay,
to put,
to read,
to r end,
to ride,
to ring,
to rise,
to run,
to say,
to see,
to seek,
to sell,
to send,
to set,
to shake,
to shear,
to shed,
to show,
to shrink,
to shoe,
to shoot,
to shut,
to sing,
to sink,
to sit,
to slay,
to sleep,
to slide,
to slit,
to smite,
to speak,
to speed,

I met,
I overcame,
I overdid,
I paid,
I put,
I r ead,
I rent,
I rode,
I rang,
I r ose,
I ran,
I said,
I saw,
I sought,
I sold,
I sent,
I set,
I shook,
I sheared,
I shed,
I showed,
I shrank,
I shod,
I shot,
I shut,
I sang,
I sank,
I sat,
I slew,
I slept,
I slid,
I slit,
I smote,
I spoke,
I sped,

Of Verbs.
PAST TIME.

I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

"
"

"

"
"
"
"

"

"

"

"
"

run.
said.
tear,

"

to tell,

"

' think,

"

tread,
understand,

"
"
"
"
"
"

"
"
"

shod.
shot.
shut.

"

"
"

sat.

"
"

"

spent,
span,
spat,
spread,
stood,
stole,
stuck,
stunk,
struck,
swore,
;r took,
I taught,
I tore,
I told,
I thought,
I trod,
I understood,
I wore,
I won,
I wound,
I wrote,

69
PARTICIPLES.

I have spent.
" spun.
" spat.
" spread.
" stood.
" stolen.
" stuck.
" stunk.
" stricken.
" sworn.
" taken.
" taught.
" torn.
" told.
" thought.
" trodden.
" understood.
" worn.
" won.
" wound.
" written.

is usual with grammarians to insert several
Verbs m their List of Irregulars which I have not
serted h ere. But I have, in the above list, placed
eyery Verb 111 our language which is really irregular.
owever, I will here subjoin a list of those Verbs which
e, by some grammarians, reckoned irregular ; and then
will show you, not only that they are not irregular,
"ctly sp eaking, but that you ought by all means to use
em in a regular form.

slit.

"
"
"
I

I

, ,

'

.

..
\

70

Etymology

LIST OF VERBS WHICH, BY

SOME

Of Verbs.

PERSONS, ARE

PAST TIME.

DEEMED IRREGULARS.
I NFINITIVE.

!'A ST TIME.

to awake,
to bereave,
to blow,
to build,
to burn,
to burst,
to cast,
to chide,
to cling,
to creep,
to crow,
to curse,
to dare,
to deal,
to dig,
to dip,
to draw,
to dream,
to dwell,
to freeze,
to geld,
to gild,
to gird,
to grow,
to hang,
to help,
to hew,
to kneel,
to knit,
to lade,
to leap,
to light,

I awoke,
I bereft,
I blew,
I built,
I burnt,
I burst,
I cast,
I chid,
I clung,
I crept,
I crew,
I curst,
I dared,
I dealt,
I dug,
I dipt,
I drew,
I dreamt,
I dwelt,
I froze,
I gelt,
I gilt,
I girt,
I grew,
I hung,
I helpt,
I hewed,
I knelt,
I knit,
I laded,
I leaped,
I lit,

_\

I

"
"
"
"

blown.
built.
burnt.
burst.

"

"
"
"
"
"

"
"
"

"

"
"

"
"

"
"

"
"

curst.
dared.
dealt.
dug.
di pt.
drawn.
dreamt.
dwelt.
frozen.
gelt.
gilt.
girt.

"
"
"

"
"
"
"

"

hewn.
knelt. _
knit.
laden.
leapt .
lighted. ·

.

I loaded,
I meant,
I mowed,
I overflowed,
I sawed,
I shaved,
I shred,
I shone,
I slung,
I slunk,
I slipt,
I smelt,
it snowed,
I sowed,
I spelt,
I spilt,
I split,
I sprang,
I stampt,
I stung,
I strewed,
I strowed,
I strode,
I strung,
I stript,
I strove,
I swept,
I swelled,
I swam,
I swung,
I throve,
I threw,
I thrust,
I waxed,
I wove,

71
PARTIOIPI,ES.

I have loaden or laden.
I have meant.
" mown.
" overflown.
" sawn.
" shaven.
" shred.
" shone.
" slung.
" slunk.
" slipt.
" smelt.
it has snown.
I have sown.
" spelt.
" spilt.
" split.
" sprung.
" stampt.
" stung.
" strewn.
" strown.
" stridden.
" strung.
stript.
,," striven.
" swept.
" swollen.
" swum.
" swung.
" thriven.
" thrown.
" thrust.
" waxen.
" woven.

.,.'

72
INFINITIVE.

.to weep,
to whip,

' Etymology
PAST TIME.

I wept,
I whipt,

Of Verbs.
PARTICIPLES.

1

.::,_

I have wept. ·;.
whipt~ ~
"

109. The greater part of these verbs have
irregular by the bad practice of abbreviating or shor
ing in writing. We are always given to cut our wo
short; and, with very few exceptions, you find peo ..
writing lov'd, rnov'd, walk'd / instead of loved, mov
walked. They wish to make the pen corr espond with
tongue/ but they ought not then to write the word~
at full length, nor the word oj; nor any other little wore\
for scarcely ever are these words fitlly sounded in sp .
ing. From lov'd, mov'd, walk'd, it is very easy to sli
into lovt, movt, walkt. And this has been the case wi
regard to curst, dealt, dwelt, leapt, helpt, ~nd many oth.
in the last inserted list. It is just as proper to say jum
as it is to say leapt/ and just as proper to say walkt
either; and thus we might go on, till the orthography_
the whole language were changed. When the love
contraction came to operate on such Verbs as to burst
to light it found such a clump of consonants already at
end of ~he words that it could add none. It could not •
able the organs even of English speech to prono
bitrst'd, Ught'd. It therefore made really short work of,
and, dropping the last syllable altogether, wrote burst .
light in the past time and passive participle. But is it
more harmonious, as well as more correct, to say, "
bubble is almost bursted," than it is to say, "The bub
is almost bttrst?" And as to hang, is it not better to·
hanged than hitng? " I will be hanged if I do," is av
common phrase, and is it not better than it would b~,
say, "I will be hung if I do~" Many of these Verbs;
being very difficult to contract, have, as in the case of
hang, to swing, and the like, reduced the shorteners
the necessity of changing almost all the letters of
~

73

dare, durst/ but is it not better to say I
This habit of contracting or short, g is a very mischievous habit. It leads to the de. ction of all propriety in the use of letters ; and instead
'a saving of t'ime, it produces, by the puzzling that it
ves rise to, a great loss of time. Hoping that what I
' ve here said will be a warning to you against the cutting
i.words ·short, I have only to add, on the subject of irlar verbs, that those in the last list are to be used in
e regular form, and that the only real irregulars are
ose of the first list. Nay, I have, after all, left some
bs in the first list which -/nay be used in the regular
,; ; as, past, which may be, in the participle, passed, and
· full as much propriety.

The fact that this seco nd series of verbs, which Cobbett d eclares
·ht to be used in the regular form, are now almost all used in
form , is a pretty good proof of the soundness of his judgment.
is a strong tendency now-a-days to make irregular verlJs
, as well as to make irregularly-pronounced words regular.
. White is singular in his notions on this subject. H e dislikes all
artures from old-established pronunciations; calls them "book, not fre e, manly speech." Though the people of the town of
by, for instance, pronounce the name of their town just as it is
eel, he thinks the aristocratic pronunciation "Darby" is the
per one, because it has support in other words pronounced in the
' style, such as clark for clerk, clargyfor clergy, sarjeant for serjeant.
yet he seems to agree with Walker that vurgin and vurtue
d of virgin and virtue have "a grossness approaching to vul'ty I" Is not the one just as bad as the other? nay, worse; for
."i in these words, like that in tllirst and girl, has, in everybody's
uth, something of · the sound of the u . Ought we, in order
Satisfy a peculiarity or nicety of taste, to retain an irregular
'nunciation in particular words, which gives endless trouble to
nds of teachers and millions of children? I am all the more
~rised at this p eculiar notion of Mr. White's, as he seems willing
abolish every change in the ending of words in order to simplify
grammar : even the m in ·wlwin he is willing to discard. There is
use in talking about it; it-is quite natural that a practical, pro."ve; reading people like the Americans should pronounce
as· they are · spelled. We no longer hear housewife pro.

4

74

/

Of Ve1·bs.

Etymology

'nounced huzzif, as in England; or, haunt pronounced liant.
do I think there is any loss whatever, but a gain, in so p
nouncing. "Derby" sounds just as good as " Darby;" "clerk•
as good as "clark ;" "Berkeley" as" Barkeley."
Simplicity is, in fact, the order of the day ; it is the tendency
the age in all things; for modern progress, m odern ideas, are reno
dering all mankind more neighborly, more brotherly, more
nearly akin to each other. Mr. White is inclined to think thai
those we call irregular verbs are the real strong ones, and the
others the w eak. I notice that my little girl, fiv e years old,
quently makes irregular verbs regular (I drinked, I eated, etc.)t
although she never hears them so used. This to me is a pr
that there is a natural tendency in the language to regularity .. '
construction. And indeed there is !L reason for this change, as f
all changes, in our language-a satisfactory, a compensato'
reason; for most of the old irregular forms are needed for otheil:
and different service: they are wanted for qualificative and figura.;
tive use. L et us take some of these very verbs in the second lis '. ,
to burn, to chide, to gild, to gird, to hew, to load, to shave, t.o
spill, to weave-and we shall see that though used in the reg .
form as verbs, the IRl!EGULAlt FOllM IS USED AS ADJECTIVES. (.
burned the cork; here is burnt cork ;-he chided the children,
there they go, like a chidden train ;-she gilded the faces of
sleepers ; she wears gilt lace ;-he girded himself for the comb&t
here is a sea-girt isle ;-he h ewed the stone; here is a temple b
of hewn stone; and so on. Though we speak of having work
hard, of h aving melted the ice, and of having swelled the tide '
prosperity, yet we speak of wrought iron, of a swollen flood,
of molten lead. Though we say that '' she knitted the stockings
and "he freighted the vessel," we say that "her brows were kui~
and "the enterprise was fraught with misfortune." Thus we,
that the irregular form of the verb has been turned into an adj
tive, and the reg ular form retained as a verb.
The old form is also needed to form nouns as well as adjectiv· ·
" During the past year, he has often passed me without a glance
but, never mind; the past is forgotten." And the old form
sometimes used to show a difference of meaning as compared w,"
the regular form; for "he durst not do it" is quite a difie,
thing from ''he dared not do it;" the former indicating that
had not the permission to do it, and the latter that he had not ,
courage.-Having forgotten what Cobbett said above of the v
w pass, I struck it out of the list of irregulars, as it is never ~

75

"_ 4 irregularly.

Otherwise I sl1ould have let it stand.
wever, the only verb I did strike ont.

It ·
is,

,110.
AUXILIARY
h 103
I

VERBS
. -In th e present Letter para
opened this part of my subJ' ect Th'
·dt t.
.
e WOI
, let ~t~s i~e and the passive participle of the Verb
. .
is use as an auxiliary, however in the
~ime
· and onl · th .
'
present
· '
Ym
e imperative mode . as L t
, us go; let him go. That is to say
e me go;
kave
t
l
. ' eave me to go
us o go, eave liim to [JO. Perhaps the m
.. '
ully expressed, would b e Act .
h
eamng,
1 ft t
,
m sue a way that I ma
e o go, or suffered to go.
Y

a.pis th '

L'

The peculiarity of this vcrlJ w let is that like a doze ti .
0
d.
'
no rnr irre"'verbs it may be
,
'
use 111 a 11 the tenses without under ·
ge of form. as I let him
.
gomg any
hqve 'tet him c~ ' I
. come now; I let him come yesterday.
me.
put it away now· I
t "t
'
.have p~tt it away. So with cut Pn ot 1, ·t' pud I away yesterday;
• ~~ '
ti , an others.

; 111. J.he _auxiliary do, which, for the past time be
ic~, is p~t ~f the Verb to do, which in its ' as~
e. is. did,
and m its passive pa1·t·icip
. l e d one. In pthis
.
se~ it l~ not au auxiliary, but a principal Verb and its
!1eanmg is equal to that of to execute, or to perjbrm . as
do m.y worlc, I execitte my worlc I per+'-orm
, k'
an
xili
·
'
J'
my war
J
.au. ary or helper, it seems to denote the time of
. e pnncipal Verb; as, I do walk . I did walk
d
, y say, I do execute my worlc or· 'I do r'
;
ank
' we
• 1
'
>
cbO ?ny WOr .
fu
ast. ex~mple, the first do is an auxiliary, and the last
a pnncipal Verb. However as I said b f
cl
id u d
·1· ·
'
e ore, o and
. ' se as auxi ianes, do a great deal
. th
ress time I f
mm e au merely
. n act, they are not often u sed for that
ose only. They are used for the purpose of affu .
.
.
·mmg
denying in a
manner ~ecuharly strong; as, I do work
eans, that I work, notwithstanding all that
b
'
y have
been said, or thought to th
t ~ay e, ~r
th
'
e con iary. or it
ans, at I work now, and have not done it at
, er stated or supposed time It . th
. some
tion
·
·
is e same, with the
p
of time, as to the use of d"d
Th
i ·
ese are
. me~

76

Of Verbs.

Etymology

amongst those little words of vast import, the pr : .
force and use of which foreigners scarcely ever learn\
which we learn from our very infancy.
.
. · I think the proper place to state that the English
Thl S lS,
'
·
hf

· fact jive forms in the present tense-sometlnng w
,
1ias, in

believe, is not found in the verbs of any other modern tongue;
He works, common form.
He is working, progressive form.
He does work, emphatic form.
He worketh, solemn form.
He doth work, solemn emphatic form.
.
J•
All these forms convey a different shade of meanmg,_and
used under different eiTcumst:uices, which will be explamed ,
and-by. I will only say here that the first three are the most .
quently used. The French and the Germans have only_o~e f!
for the whole five: iJ travaillc, er arbeitet. They have, it is ,
the progressive form, too, but it is seldom used by the French .
hardly ever by the Germans.
T
l\
Now, concerning clo, yon must notice that, as an aux1 rn.ry, . . 1
used chiefly in NEGATIVE and !NTEUROGATIVE sentences:
r;
He works, he is working, affirmative.
He cloes not work, negative.
Does he work? interrogative.
It is never usecl in affirmative sentences except for . emp
Th French and the Germans, for the last two forms, sunply "
e
·k not Works he? We use this form when we speak
,
I
him
H e w01 s
emnly or earnestly : He works not; He comes not; see
.
Notice that when any other auxiliary is used (have, b_e, must,
t ) we cannot use do in either negative or interrogat1v~ senten
e c. '
.
H
t t
Am I your fn'lnd? ·
'•I have not seen him. e mus no g 0 ·
,, .
I speak?" To say, therefore, " I did not have a penny, is no
good as, "I had not a penny."

.

112. The Verbs to have and to be are the ~wo
·
These words demand an extraordinary
auxi'lianes.
tion of your attention. They are principal : ei:bs as ,
· s The Verb to have, as a prmc1pal
V.
as auxiliane.
.
signifies possession; as, I have a p en, that is to say;.
possess a pen. Then, thi_s i~ a word of very great u~
deed in its capacity of prmc1pal Verb; for we say, I '
a headache, I have a hatred of such a thing, I ha

77

'ind to go; and hundreds of similar phrases. I possess
"headache has the same meaning; but the other is more
eeable to the natural turn of om· language. As aux
iary, this Verb is absolutely, necessary in forming what
e called the compound times of other Verbs, and those
mnes are called compound because they are formed of two
more Verbs. Suppose the subject to be of my working,
and that I want to tell you that my work is ended, that I
ve closed my work, I cannot, in a short manner, tell you
\his without the help of the Verb to have. To say, I work,
I worked, or I will work; these will not answer my
_prpose. No: I must call in the help of the Verb to have,
..d tell you I have worked. So, in the case of the past
' e, I must say, I had worked; in the futme, I shall
ve worked; in the subjunctive moue, I must say, I may,
"ght, could, or should have worked. If you reflect a
' ~le, you will find a clear reason for employing the Verb
• have in this way; for when I say, " I have worked,'' my
~rds amount to this: that the act of working is now in
y possession. It is completed. It is a thing I own, and
erefore I say, I have it.
irn. The Verb to be signifies existence, when used as a
· · cipal Verb. " To be ill, to be well, to be rich, to be
r," mean to exist in illness, in health, in riches, in pov. This Verb, in its compoimcl times, requires the help
~ the Verb to have; as, I have been, I had been; I shall
ve been, and so on. As auxiliary, this Verb is used
"th the participles of other Verbs; as, to be working, he
:working, it is worked. Now you will perceive, if you
ect, that these phrases mean as follows : ex·i sting in
k, he exists in work, it exists in a worked state. Both
se Verbs are sometimes used, at one and the same
,e, as auxiliaries to other principal Verbs; as, I have
· writing; I have been imprisoned.; and so on ; and,
· .n patient attention to what has already been said, you
find that they retain upon all occasions theii' full

or

78

.Etymology

Of Verbs.

meaning, of possession in the one case, and of exis
the other.
114. Now, my dear James, if I have succeeded in
ing clear to you. the principle out of which the
these words, as auxiliaries, has arisen, I have accomp
a great deal; for, if well grounded ~ tha~ princip~
the subsequent difficulties will speedily vamsh b~fore
115. I now proceed to close this long and imp<;> ~
Letter, by presenting t,o you the conjugation o.f thes~
Verbs, both of which are irregular, and every UTe
is worthy of yom strict attention.

116. Though I have inserted hath in the third person
ar of the present of the indicative, it is hardly ever
.d. It is out of date, and ought to be wholly laid
'de.

}17. The Verb to be is still more irregular, but a little
ntion to its inegularities will prevent all errors in the

.of it.

INFINITIVE MODE.

INFINITIVE MODE.
Tu

To BE.

HAYE.

INDWATIVE MODE.
Singula1·.
ctst Person.
Present
' 2d Perso n.
Time.
(3c] Perso n.
Past
Time.
Future
Time.

I have,
Thou hast,
He, she, or it h:is
(- I had,
o r hath],
-<: - Thou hadst,
( _ He, she or it had,

( - I shall, or will have,
~ - Thon shalt, or wilt hav~,
( _ He, she, or it shall or will
have],

Plural.
W e have.
Y ou have.
They have.
IV c Imel.
You had.
They had.
We shall, or will ha ·
You shall, or will ha
They shall, or will

SUBJUNCTIVE MODE.
(If I have, or may, might, could, or should have.
I If thou have, or may "
"
"
have.
Present ~ If he, she, or it have, or may
have.
Time.
i If we have, or may
"
"
I If yo u have, or may
llf they have, or may
UIPERATIVE MODE.
Let me have,
Let us have.
H ave thou,
H ave you.
Let him, her, or it have,
Let them have. ·

79

PARTICIPLES.
..tlctive.-Having.
Pasaive.-Had.

INDICATIVE MODE.
Singulm·.
Plural.
1st Person. I am,
We are.
) 2d P erson. Thou rut,
You are.
l3d P erson. He, she, or it is,
They are.
(-I was,
We were.
-: - Thou wast,
You were.
(_He, she, or it was,
They were.
I shall, or will be,
We shall , or will be.
)-Thou shalt,O()r wilt he,
You shall, or will be.
l - He, she, or it sh all, or will be,
They shall, or will be.

f

1-

SUBJUNCTIVE MODE.

j!f

I be, or may, might, would, could, or should be.
/ If thou be, or m ay "
"
"
"
be.
be.
cnt ~ If he, she, or it De, or may
e. i If we be, or may
"
be.
if you be, or may
"
"
be.
If they be, or may
"
be.
( If I were.
If thou were.
P ast Time. ) If he, she, or it were.
I If we were.
' If you were.
If they were.

l

L

80

Of Verbs.

Etymology
IMPEHATIVE MODE.
Let me be,
Be thou,
Let him, her, or it, be,

Let us be.
Be you.
Let them be.

PARTICIPLES.

Present.-Bcing.
Past.-Been.

118. In the Subjunctive Mode I h ave made use·
the conjunction if throughout all the con~ugations •
Verbs. But a Verb may be in that mode without an
before it. The if is only one of the marks of that m
A Verb is always in that mode when the action or state
being expressed by the Verb is expressed condition
or when the action or state of being is, in some way
other, d ep endent on some other action or state of be" ~
But of this I shall speak more at large when I come
the Syn tax of Verbs.
119. There remain a few words to be
signs, the def ective V erbs, and the imv ersonal V e1·bs.
signs, may, might, can, could, will, would, shall, s
and must, have all, originally, been Verbs, though
are now become defective in almost all their parts,
serve only as signs to other Verbs. Will, indeed, is
of a regular Verb; as, to 11;ill, they willed, they are will£
they will be willin,q. The word would is certainly '
past time and passive participle of the s~me Ve~·b;
indeed it is used as a principal Verb now, m certam
.
as, "I 'would he were rich.'' That is to say, I .desirB,
am willing, or, it is my will, that he sho1tld be nch.
deep inquiries regarding the origin of these words
more cmious than useful. A mere idea of the natur~~
their origin is enough. The Verb ought is a Verb ·
fective, in most of its parts. It certainly, however, ~.
other than a part of the Verb to owe, and is become ou
by coITuption. For instance; "I ought to write to Y.

81

eans that "I owe the performance of the act of writing
, you." Ought is made use of only in the present time,
d for that reason a great deal has been lost to our Ian, ge by this conuption. As to the Verbs which some
l\Illmarians have called impersonal, there are, in fact, no
ch things in the English language. By impersonal
ferb is meant a Verb that has no noun or pronoun for its
ominative case; no person or thing that is the actor, or
' ceiver of an action, or that is in being. Thus: "it
ains," is by some called an impersonal Verb; but the
ontmn it represents the person. Look again at Letter
, and at paragraphs 60 and 61. You will there find
hat it is that this it, in such cases, represents.
i 120. Thus I have concluded my Letter on the Etyology of Verbs, which is by far the most important part
the subject. Great as have been my endeavors to
e the matter clear to you, I am aware, that, after the
.rst reading of this Letter, your mind will be greatly
nfused. You will have had a glimpse at everything in
.'e Letter, but will have seen nothing clearly. But, my
. ~ar James, lay the book aside for a day or two; then
, the whole Letter again and again. Read it early,
~e Y~lll· mind is clear:, and while sluggards are snoring.
nte it down. Lay it aside for another day or two.
py your own writing. 77iink as you proceed; and, at
e end of your copying, you will understand clearly all
e contents of the Letter. Do not attempt to study the
· tter piece by piece. In yom readings, as well as in
\ll' copyings, go clean throughout. If you follow these
tructions, the remaining part of your task will be very
y and pleasant.
,

~ to this last piece of advice, I cannot agree with Cobbett.
in~ the whole letter at once is the very way to get a confused

press10n of the whole subject ; just as going through a whole
~!Seum at once leaves a confused impression of everything and a

tinct impression of nothing.

No; go through one roomful of

Etymology

82

Of Adverbs.

cunesitics ott one visit; master the whole collection step by
and when you have got it pretty clear in your mind, _then Y.~.
go over it all at one run.
To complete this, the most important part of etymology, ·
give you a full view of a passive verb, or rather of a verb,,
passive voice. Just devote one little half-hour to it in the ..
morning, when your mind is fresh; and you will see its ,
clearly; compare it with the same verb in the active voi~
you will get a fair idea of what a verb in the passive voicp
For, to make the matter all the more plain, I see no reason
this same verb to wo1·k, which I have given you in the active y
should not be given in the passive, too; for we often say,
worked to death; the mine was well worked; the problem lUJI,
worked· out, and so on. Besides-and this is a secret which
school-boy does not know-there must, in the conjugation of°
passive verb, be displayed a complete conjugation of the verb to
so here we kill two birds with one stone.
Complete Conjugatwn of the P assive V erb To be worked::.
INFINITIVE MOOD.

Present perfect tense.
To have been worked.

Preaent tense.
To be worked.

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present tense.

I am worked,

POTENTIAL MOOD.

SUllJUNCTIVE MOOD.

'.
Present tense. •
U I be worked

., thou be worked,
• he be
"
we be
you be
they be
U I were wor:~t tense.
thou were worked
he were
"
'
we were
1ou were
th
ey were

Thou art worked,
He Is
"
Weare
You are
They are
Past te11.se.
I was worked, ·
Thou wast worked,
He was
"
We were
You were
'fheywere
Simple future tense.
I shall be worked,
Thou wilt be worked,
He will be
"
We shall be
You will be
They will be
Present conditionatform.
I •livuld be worked,
Thou wouldst be worked,
He would be
"
We should be
"
You would be
They would be

Present perfect tense.

I have been worked.

Preaent perfect tens• •
If I have been worked.
·
thou have been worked.
he have been
"
we have been
you have been
they have been
PatJt perfect tenae
If I had been worked
'
thou had been " .
he had been
v
we had been
you had been
they had been "

IMPERATIVE MOOIJ.

Be worked,

or,

Be thou worked.

PARTICIPLES.
l'rumt-Belng worked,
Pa.at-Having been worked.

'l'hou hast been worked.
He has been
"
We have been
You have been
'!'hey have been
I had

been~~o'r-r';{~t tense.

Thou hadst been worked.
He bad been
"
We had been
You had been
They bad been
Perfectfuture ten&e.
I shall have been worked.
Thou wilt have been worked. ,
He will have been
"
We shall have been
You will have been
They will have been
"
•.ll
Perfect conditWnalform. '
I should have been worked.
;(/
'l'hou wouldst have been wor
He would have been
'" I
We should have been
" ~·
You would have been
"
'l'hey would have been

...

·I

Preunt perfect Unle.
I may have been worked.
Thou mayst have been worked
He may have been
" ·
We may have been
You may have been
They may have been
Pa.at perfect tense
I might have been worked.
Thou mlghtst have been worked.
He might have been
"
We might have been
You might have been
They might have been

COMPOUND TENSES.

SIMPLE TENSE S.

83

LETTER IX.
ETYMOLOGY OF ADVERBS.

. .121. In Letter III, and in paragraphs 27 and 28

will. find a description of this Part of Speech.

R~~~

~gam those two paragraphs, in order to refresh your
memory. There is not much to be said about Adverbs
~der t~e .head of Etymology. They are words liable to
~~"'..van~t10ns. .A.~verbs are. very numerous, and may be
lliv1ded
-f • mto
· five pnncipal classes.· th a t ·.is t o say, .A.dverbs
~ time, of place of order of
·
'
'
quazi·ty, an d of nianner.

·'

84

Etymology

This last class, which is the most numerous, is composed·
those which are derived immediately from adjectives, .
which end inly,· as, especially, particularly, thankfUJJ
122. These Adverbs, ending in ly, are, for the ~
part, formed by simply adding ly to the adjective; all,
pecial becomes especially; but if the adjective end in
that y is changed into i in forming the Adverb; as, ~
happily; steady, steadily. If the adjective end in ·
the e is dropped in forming the Adverb; as, possib ·
possibly.
123." Some few Adverbs have degi:ees of comparison
as, often, oftener, oftenest; and those which are deriv
from irregular adjectives are iJ.Tegular in forming their
degrees of comparison; as, well, better, best.
·
124. Some Adverbs are simple or single; others
pound. The former consist of one word, the latter
two or more words; as, happily; at present; now-a-day~ ~
which last means at the days that now are. Another '
verb of this description is, by-and-by; which is used
express, in a short time; and literally it means near a ·
near,; because by itself, as an Adverb, means near, clo
beside. 'When Adverbs are compound, the words co
posing them ought to be connected by a hyphen,
hyphens, as in the above examples of now-a-days
by-and-by.
I must here explain to you two important things, of which Co
bctt m ak es no mention: the PHRASE and the OLAUSE. In the
tence, "I shall r eturn immediately," the word immediately.·
simply an adverb of time, modifying the verb shall return; but
when I change the adverb into several words, as, "I shall return,_
an in8tant," it becomes a PHl!ASE, an adverllial phrase. Phrases ·
used to express all that adverbs are used to express, and nearly
adverbs can be turned into adverbial phrases. The adverb '
may be changed into at this moment or at p1·esent; beautifully
b e rendered by in a beautiful manner; ltere m ay be turned foto c
this place; in a quiet way may be rendered by qitirtlJ; . :ind so, ~
And h er e I must show you that there are m any cases where ." '

Of Adverbs.

85

fer the adverbial pkraae to the adverb T 0 h
w at part of speech
. you think the words a-illy kindl fi :
e adverbs, do they not? ,But
rtendly, belong? They look
: a silly boy a kindly
tl ey are no~, as you will find by
'
,
gen eman, a friendly l d
S
en say, The boy speaks sill'! ? Tl
a Y·
hall I
lady received us friendl1'ly1 y? Tl ie gentleman acts kindlily?
.
iese express·
.
ions are not absoly Incorrect. they are better ti
. aks silly, etc'. . but they do
itan with the adjective, The boy
'
no sound a"'re bl
,.e adverbial PHRASE: The boy speaks in o . ea e; so we prefer
man acts in a kindly mannei· . th
d a llll~y manner; the gen1
. nner, or in afriendly way Ob e a y r eceived us in a friendly
put a preposition before .an ads:;v:, ~oo,I that you ought never
e. You must use apltraae andr o pace_; as, toltere,from
.
,
say to tins plau ~.
,
1/, etc., always naming the pla
f '
, J 1 om t1iat
ilwi.
ce r e erred to N
1:~·ce, from tltence ; but simply whence ti
.
ever say from
, 1ence.
Now f or tlie CLAUSE. The di:ffere
11"8 is this: the clause alwa sh nee be~ween the plti·aae and the
'tive and verb) the phras y as a subJect and predicate (nom.
'
e never h as e 'tl
"I
I please.,, Here, instead of the hras I . ier. .
shall return
a8881'tion, with subject (I) and
~- e zn an znat,ant, we have
chauged for a single word Tip.re. icate (please), which cannot
.
·
us 1s called an ad b · z
bial becau se it modifies the verb of
ver ia CLAUSE;
tence now contains two cla
d the first clause; for the
uses an is ch
df.
.
to a complex sentence E
'
ange 1 om a simple
.
·
very sentence m t I
use, while there may not be a siu
us. iave at leas t one
tences. A clause may b
gle phrase m ten consecutive
· ,.._. .
e not only adverbial b t bj' .
""'tpzal, infinitive, or 1.elative " H
k d
• u o ective,
dective clause. "He can1 c . ·
I e as e ~oltat I was doing,"
1
'
'
11 as
was going a
"
· . .
use; "He wants to see wllat will co
. ,, _way,_ . part1c1pial
The boy wlw learns .Englislt is m me o~ z~, 1~fin1t1ve clause;
on. Observe the followiiw th re: e:oan, I elat1ve clause; and
w the adve1·b m ay be t . "i .
mpl es, and you will se(,
.
m nee mto an advC'l'bial h
ter mto an adverbial clause:
P raae, and the

t:'

e

Speak distinctly.
Speak in a distinct manner
Speak so that you may be u~·atood
ls worth noticing that some adverbs h l
. . .
c P to Join clauses as well
,to express time or lau
' bs: I shall return ~!ten' l~;~e:~:n~he~efo\~ cailed conjunctive ading. Others, again, express nc ~tio w1 te I yo_u wltere we are
are called adverbs of negation ~f atfi; a~rmat10n, or cause,
· fW not never · (2)
'
matwn, or of cause; as
'
'
,
yea, yea, t?'Uly, certainly; (3) wlty, wlterefore:

~.

,,
'!·
I.

.,J.

86

Of Prepositions.

Etymology

therefore. No, coming immediately before a noun, is, of coul'!ll;
adj ective; as, No person under 25 years of age ca.n b~come a
ber of Congress. Observe that all adverbs endmg m ly are
p ared with rrwre and most, or less and least; as, handsomely,
h andsomely, most h andsomely ;-handsomely, less lrnndso
least handsomely. Do you remember the names of these

LETTER X.
i;,

125. Letter III, paragraphs 29 and 30, has taught Y.
of what description of words Prepositions are.
chief use of them is to express the different relatiom
connections which nouns have with each other, or
which nouns stand with regard to each other; as, J .
gives money to Peter; Peter r eceives .mon~y f~o.m Jo (
It is useless to attempt to go into curious mqmries as .
the origin of Prepositions. They never change
endings; they are a1ways written in t~e same
Their use is the main thing to be considered; and
will become very clear to you, when you come to ,
Syntax.
.
126. There are two abbreviations, or shortenings, ·
Prepositions, which I will notice here, be?ause they.
in constant use, and may excite doubts m your .
These are a and o'; as, I am a hunting; he is a co
it is one o'clock. The a thus added is at, without do
as I am at hunting; he is at coming. Generally thi!l:
a ~ulgar and redundant manner of s.peaking ; but it is··
use. In mercantile accounts you will frequently see .
a made use of in a very odd sort of way; as, "S'1x
marked 1 a 6." The merchant means, "Six bales mar ·
from 1 to 6." But this I take to be a relic of the N
French, which was once the law and mercantile lau
I ,

f England; for, in French, a with an accent, means to or
I wonder that merchants, who are generally men of
sound sense, do not discontinue the use of this mark of
. ectation. And, I beg you, my dear James, to bear in
.µrind, that the only use of words is to cause our meaning
to be clearly u:iderstood; and that the best words are
those which are familiar to the ears of the greatest number of persons. The o' with the mark of elision means
pf, or of the, or on, or on the; as, two o'clock, which is the
~e as to say two of the clock, or two according to the
clock, or two on the clock.
127. As to the Prepositions which are joined to verbs
or other words; as, to outlive, to imclervaltte, to b e overe, it would be to waste our time to s1)end it in any
tements about them; for these are other words than
to live, to vcilue, to be done. If we were to go, in this
way, into the subject of the composition of words, where
. ould we stop? Thankfu.l, thankless, without, within;
'ese are all compound words, but, of what use to us t~
~ ter on, and spend our time in, inquirie3 of mere curio'ty? It is for monks and for Fellows of Eno-lish colle!Tes
"' to spenJ
"' '
~o live by the sweat of other p eople's prows,
eir time in this manner, and to call the result of thei1.·
studies learning; for you, who will have to earn what
ou eat and what you drink and what you wear, it is to
yoid everything that tends not to real utility.
' ~·

degrees?

ETYMOLOGY OF PREPOSITIONS.

87

It may, however, not be quite u seless to m ention the names
~ven to the parts of derived words. Ki~d, un-kincl, kincl-ness.
e original word is called the 1·oot; the syllable placed before the
· t is called the prefix ; and the syllable added to the root is
eel the sujfix. Although any word having a prefix or a suffix
. y be called a compound word, we generally call those words
mpound which are formed by unitin"' two or more whole words·
,' workshop, schoolmaster, army-che~t. And as to which com'.
"und words take 11 hyphen , and which do not, this depend s a
d deal upon the shape of the first and the last letter of the two
·fds united. For instance, chm·chyard needs no hyphen, because

88

Etymology

the two parts are sufficiently separat.ed by the ascending hand
descending y; but church-bell or church-hymn must IJc so separa
because the parts of the word would otherwise not be suffici~
distinct.
As to the correct use of prepositions generally, there is no g ·
equal to the f eeling for propriety acquired by much reading ·
speaking, and by frequent hearing of good speakers. Well do
remember th at, among my most advanced scholars in Germ&nl•
almost th e only mistak e they finally made w as in the use of the
prepositions, showing th at this was th e last difficulty to be ~
tered. It was sometimes a matter so peculiar, so delicate, so diii1.
cult to choose the right preposition, that I was m yself obliged'to
repeat a sentence aloml sevcml times before I could hit on.the
right word.
Do not fo rge t that th e preposition govern s th e objective cas ,
send Jui· ll!M·- nor that the same w ord may som etimes belong to
an oth er part of speech: I se nd for him, f oi· I cannot do witb.oUt
him. N otice that people are said to be in any place, but that th
go in to a place. W e are in th e garden, w e are going inw tbe
house. In the Broadway stages there stands, over *he fare-boJ,
this sentence: " Put th e exact fare in th e box." It should be i~
the box ; for, though th e money may be in the box, it is put inlq_
it. -Do no t suppose that every preposition must be a little word;
for concei·ning, nspecting, nganling, notwit!tstancling are also prepo;
sitfon s. Obser ve, too, that nine phi'rt8es out of te n begin with a
preposition.
In regard to th e expressions, a-lu.,,nting, rt-coining, and the lik
Cobbe tt docs not mean that these are vulgar and redundant,
which is wh at, at first, I thought he meant,- but that at hunting;
rit corning , are so. The other expressfon is perfectly legitimate;
and used by th e best authors. You may ~ 1y, therefore, that SOIII&'
thing or any thing is a-doing, a-making , a-building, a-ripeningi
a-brewing, and so on.

Of Conjunctions.

89

LETTER XI.
ETYMOLOGY OF CONJUNCTIONS.

.

~28: In Let~er ID, paragraph 31, you have had a de~cnption of this sort of words, and also some account of

·' e .uses . of them. Some of them are called copulative
~O~Junctions, and others di sju nctive. They all , t
oin to th
d
se1 ve o
'J
ge er wor s, or parts of sentences ; but the for, mer express an union in the actions, or states of being,
e~pre~sed by the verb; as, you and I talk. The latter a
disunion/ as, you talk, bitt I act. The words of this
' Part . of Speech never vary in their endings. They are
1
always spelled in one and the same way In th
the
t
diffi
·
emse ves
culty; but, as you will see by-and-b
y presen no
:to use them properly, with other words, in the form~
_of sentences, demands a due portion of your attention
and care.
.

You see Cobbett says " an union." Can
t 11
• •
wrong? If
I
you e why tins is
not, ook at Letter IV, paragraph 36 (note).

LETTER

XII .

CAUTIONARY REMARKS.
)fy DEAR JAMES :

129.
.
you a
. Before we. enter on SYNTAX, let me give
~ution or two with regard to the contents of the f

mg LETTERS.

orego-

130. There are some words which ' un d er UJ.llerent
.J'"r
·
cucumstances belong to more than one Part f S
h
d
0
peec as •
~
ee ' you have seen in the Participles • But th'IS IS
. ' b,
··
y
:· means confined to that particular description of words.

.a

90

Cautionary Remarks.

Cautionary Remarks.

I act. Here act is a verb ; but "the act performed by
shows the very same word in the capacity of a noun. .
message was sent by him; he stood by at the time. ·1
the first of these examples by is a preposition; in the
an adverb. Mind, therefore, that it is the senslJ in '!?
the word is itsed, and not the letters of which it is
posed, that determines what is the Part of Speech'.·
which it belongs.
131. Never attempt to get by rote any part of your."
structions. Whoever falls into that practice soon be · ·
to esteem the powers of memory more than those of r
son · and the former are despicable indeed when CQ
par~d with the latter. When the fond _parents o.f ;
eighth wonder of the world call him forth mto the ml
of the parlor to repeat to their visitors some speech qf
play, how angry would they be if any one were to .
them that their son's endowments equalled those of:
parrot or a bullfinch! Yet a German ?ird-t~acher ~o .
make either of these more perfect m this species 1
oratory. It is this mode of teaching, which is. prac _·':
in the great schools, that assists very much m
dunces of lords and country squires. They "get t •
lessons ;" that is to say, they repeat the words of it; b
as to its sense and meaning, they seldom have any un
, standing. This operation is sometimes, for what re
I know not, called getting a thing by heart. It must,.
should think, mean by hear't; that is to say, by hear
Tl~at a person may get and retain fll'.'d. repeat a lesson·
this way, without any effort of the mind, is very cl.
from the fact, of which we have daily proof, that peo .
sing the words and the tune of a song with perfec~
rectness at the very time that they are most seno .
'
..
thinking and debating in their minds about matte~;
't
• great importance to them.
.
. ··
. 132. I have cautioned you before agamst studymg
foregoing instructions piecemeal; that is to say, .a

r

91

a time. Read a letter all through at once; and,
'· now that you have come to the end of my instructions on
:'Etymology, read all the Letters through at once: do this
t, repeatedly; taking care to proceed slowly and carefully;
1
and, at the end of a few days, all the matters treated of
' will form a connected whole in your mind.
': 133. Before you proceed to the Syntax, try yourself a
little, thus : Copy a short sentence from any book. Then
'"write down the words, one by one, and write against each
what Part of Speech you think it belongs to. Then look
.'" for each word in the dictionary, where you will find the
several Parts of Speech denoted by little letters after the
~- word: s. is for substantive, or noun; pro. for pronoun;
·a. for article ; v. a. for verb active; v. n. for verb neuter;
. adj. for adjective; adv. for adverb; pre. for preposition;
' con. for conjunction; int. for interjection. It will give
· you great pleasure and encouragement when you find that
~ you are right. If you be sometimes wrong, this will only
· iirge you to renewed exertion. You will be proud to see
··'that, without any one at your elbow, you have really
·acquired something which you can never lose. You will
. ·begin, and with reason, to think yourself learned; your
·."sight, though the objects will still appear a good deal
·confused, will dart into every part of. the science; and
;·you will pant to complete what you will be convinced you
. have successfully begun.
This is Mr. White's much-ridiculed and thoroughly-despised
· parmng exercise. Of course, carried on as it is at the public. schools, with little or no real understanding of the matter, and
'with a kind of rapid, mechanical, parrot-like repetition of gram.matical terms, it is worse than useless. But I am convinced
:. that, properly considered, and understandingly carried out, this
..,exercise is of positive value. To a boy or girl of proper age, it
' may be made indeed, tolerably interesting. Let us look at a
·single little sentence. "Boys love swimming."
; Boys is a common noun, third person, plur::\l number, masculine
;:.
gender. nominative case.

' .92

Syntax Generally Considered.

Love is a regular transitive verb, active voice, third pe
plural number, present tense, indicative mood. · .
1
Swimming is a common (or participial) noun, third person, '
gular number, objective case.
Now, take each one of these definitions, and ask why? and
you can answer properly, then the exercise has become of real and!
substantial benefit to you. Why a comrrwn noun ? Because it is a
general name, and not a particular one. Why third person? Be:
cause it is spoken of. Why plural number? Because it m~
more than one. Why masculine gender? Because it is the name
of males. Why nominative case ? Because it is the subject of the
sentence; and so on. If I had said, "Boys love to swim,'' the object, to swim, would be called a verbal noun.

Syntax.

93

~ther than the construction of independent sentences.
·. shall make some remarks upon the manner of putting
·~ntences together1 • and on the things necessary to be
understood, in order to enable a person to write a series
~f sentences. These remarks will show you the use of
figurative language, and will, I hope, teach you how to
avoid the very common error of making your writing confused and unintelligible.

LETTER XIV.
SYNTAX.

LETTER XIII.
SYNTAX GENERALLY CONSIDERED.

MY

DEAR JAMES:

134. In Letter II, paragraph 9, I shortly explaine~ _
*4;
you the meaning of the word SYNTAX, as that word is
in the teaching of grammar. Read that paragraph aglloi.!u
135. We are, then, now entering upon this branch .
your study; and it is my object to teach you how to giv
all the words you make use of their proper situation w~en.
you come to put them into sentences. Because, though:
every word that you make use of may be correctly spelledj
that is to say, may have all the letters in it that it oug~
to have, and no more than it oub· .t to have; and thou&
all the words may, at the same time, be the fit words
use in order to express what you wish to express; ye
for want of a due observance of the principles and rul
of Syntax, your sentences may be inconect, and, in some
cases, they may not _express what you wish them ,
express.
136. I shall, however, cany my instructions

The Points and Marks made u se of in Writing.

MY

DEAR JAMES:

137. There are, as I informed you in paragragh 9, Letter II, Poin ts made use of in the making, or writing,
~f sentences ; and, therefore, we must first notice these;
biicause, as you will soon see, the sense, or meaning, of
the words is very much dependent upon the points which
ke used along with the words. For instance: "You w'ill
be rich if you be industrious, i n a f ew years." Then
~ain: " You will be rich, if y o·u be industrious in a f e1!J
11ears." Here, though in both sentences the words and
~o the order of the words are precisely the same, the
-meaning of one of the sentences is very different from
that of the other. The first sentence means that you will,
'rt a few years' time, be rich, if you be industrious now.
' e .second sentence means that you will be rich, some
lime or other, if you be industrious in a few years from
lhis time. And all this great difference in meaning is, as
ou .must see, produced solely by the difference in the
"tuation of the comma. Put another comma after the
t word industri01.Js; and the meaning becomes dubious.

94

Syntax.

Syntax.

A memorable proof of the great importa~ce o~ atten.
to P oints was given to the English nat10n ID the ~ ·
1817. A committee of the Ho.use o~ ~ords made a rE) .
to the House, respecting certam political club~-_ A s
f those clubs presented a petit10n to
t ary o f one O
ff d
.
hich
he declared positively, and o ere ,_n;
H ouse, in w
he bar that a part of the report was to~1
prove at t
'
.
d th ·
·
+-. l
At first their Lordships blustere ;
eir.
J a se.
h Ch .
of
blood seemed to boil; but, at last, t e
~rman
Committee apologized for the report by saymg that th;
ought to have b een a full-point where there was onl!
i"t was this which made that
comma. an d th nt
~
. false whi
'
would otherwise
h ave been, and which was mtended to ' i
true!
.
f
h
138. These Points being, then, thm~s
so muc co..
. the forming of sentences, it is necessary thal;
sequence ill
d ·
I explain to you the use of them, before I proce~ a.n
farther. There are four of them: the Pull-point, ,
. d . t'·e Colon . the Semi-colon ; the Comma. •.
}'.) erio
, u
,
J d •t ••
139. The F ·nll-point is a single dot, thus [. ' an ~ ..
used at the end of every complete sentence. .That lS
t the end of every collection of words which mak'!~
say, a
·
t
ily con
full and complete meaning, and is no necessa1
.•
t d with other collections of words. But a sente11
nee e .
d then .
. ·t of several members or l wiswns,
an di · · .
may consis
.
is called a compoimd sentence. vVben it has no visio
·t. called a sirn•Jle sentence. Thus: " The people suftj
i is
"
b t "
. t mi' se1·y " This is a simple sentence; u '
·.·
.
t" ·
g1ea
·
.
people suffer great misery, and (' . .y p.er~sh for wan ' . .
a compound sentence; that is to say, it is compound. ,
or made up, of two simple sentences.
.
·1•
140. The Colon, which is written thus [), is next ·:
the full-point in r equiring a complete se~se 111 the wor ..
, . deed often used when the sense is complete~ b,
It is, m
'
.
.
.
d t
when there is something still behmd, which ten s om
the sense fuller or clearer.

?

z· . .

95

The Serni-colon is written thus [;], and it is used
set off, or divide, simple sentences, in cases when the
e<imma is not quite enough to keep the meaning of the
;' ple sentences sufficiently distinct.
' 142. The Cornma is written thus [,], and is used to
· ' k the shortest pauses in r eading, and the smallest
djvisions in writing. It has, by some grammarians, been
~ven as a rule to use a comma to set off every part of a
compound sentence, which part has in it a verb not in the
·· ·tive mode ; and, certainly, this is, in general, proper.
ut it is not always nroper; and, besides, ,commas are
used, in numerous cases, to set off parts which have no
;verbs in them; and even to set off single words which are
~ot verbs; and of this the very sentence which I am now
writing gives you ample proof. The comma marks the
~l10rtest p ause that we make in speaking ; and it is evi[9ent that, in many cases, its use must depend upon taste.
~t is sometimes used to give emphasis, or weight, to the
;Word after which it is put. Observe, now, the following
two sentences: "I was very well and cheerful last week}
~u~ . am rathe.r feeble and lo~v-spirited now." "I a~ very
Yrillmg to yield to your kind r equests ; but, I will set
' our harsh commands at defiance." Commas are made
tise of when phrases, that is to say, portions of words,
.ire throwed into a sentence, and which are not absolutely
Jiecessary to assist in its grammatical construction. For
: .stance : "There were' in the year 18171petitions from a ~ ~­
inillion and a h alf of men, who, as they distinctly alleged,
;Were suffering the greatest possible hardships." The two
'hrases, in italics, may be left out in the reading, and
still the sentence will have its full grammatical con,i;truction.
~

' Here Cobbett shows he made no distinction between a phrase
. d a clause. It is true that in a popular sense any number of
* ords may be called a phrase; as, ''How do you do? Good-bye."
ut in grammar this word h;t~ a particular sense, and these last-

96

Syntax.

Syntax.

mentioned expressions do not agree with it. "In the year 1817."
a phrase, and " as they distinctly alleged" is a clause, because .
form er has neither subject nor predicate and the latter has hp
I must say, too, that at the present day no corrector for the
(proof-reader) would allow those commas to stand after those ·
Further, throwed instead of th?·own is not yet in common use; b
I am inclined to think it will soon b e, just like sawed instead '
sawn, or crowed instead of crew.

143. Let us now take a compound sentence or two oon•.
taining all the four points. "In a land of liberty it is e~
tremely dangerous to make a distinct order of the profe(f
sion of arms. In absolute IBO!lfU'chies this is necessar1
for the safety of the prince, and arises from the m&in.
principle of their constitution, which is that of gove · ·
by fear; but in free states the profession of a soldier,
taken singly and merely as a profession, is justly an o]>:
ject of jealousy. In these states no man should take ug
arms, but with a view to defend his country and its laws
he puts off the citizen when he enters the camp: but it ia
because he is a citizen, and would continue so, that h'll
makes himself for a while a soldier. The laws theref~ze
and constitution of these kingdoms know no such state~
that of a perpetual standing soldier, bred up to no o . '
profession than that of war; and it was not till the re· "
of Henry VII. that the kings of England had so much
a guard about their persons." This passage is taken fro
Black£tone's Commentaries, Book I. Chap. 13. Here
four complete sentences. The first is a simple senten
The other three are compound sentences. Each of th ·•
latter has its members, all very judiciously set off
points. The word so, in the third sentence, ought to
such, or the words a c·itizen ought to be repeated. . B '
with this trifling exception, these are very beautiful s '
tences. Nothing affected or confused in them: all is · v .
ple, clear, and harmonious.
144. You will now see that it is quite impossibl0.
give any p1·ecise rules for the use of these several poin

97

, uch ~ust b~ left to taste: something must depend upon
~e weight which we may _wish to give to particular words,
. _phrases; and. something on the seriousness, or the
le_vity, of the subJect on which we are writing.
. l45. Besides these points, however, there are certain
f'ammatical signs, or marks, which are made use of in
~e writing of sentences : the mark of parenthesis, the
mark of inten·ogation, the mark of exclamation the
spostrophe, otherwise called the mark of elision, and the
yphen.
146. The mark of Parenthesis consists of two curved
. o~es, drawed across the line of writing, or of print. Its
t e ~s t~ enclose a phrase throwed in hastily to assist in
.ucidatmg our subject, or to add force to om; assertions
or, argum~nts. But, observe, the parenthesis ought to be
1fl'Y sp~mgly used. It is necessarily an interrupter; it
;e~s m upon the regular com·se of the mind: it tends
~divert the attention from the main object of the sentence. I will give you, from Mr. TmL, Chap. XIII, an
witance of the omission of the parenthesis, and also of
...e proper employment of it. "PALLADrus thought also,
, ,th o~ers of the ancients, that Heaven was to be fright"1ed with red cloth, with the feathers or the heart of an
Jrl~ ~nd a multitude of such ridiculous scarecrows, from
• oiling the fruits of the fields and gardens. The ancients
. ving no. rati_onal prin~iples, or theory of agriculture,
~ed their chief confidence in magical charms and en: tments, which he, who has the patience or cm1.osity
, read, may find, under the title aforementioned, in CATO,
,VARRO (an_d eve"! CoLUMELLA is as fulsome as any of
, ), all wntten m very fine language; which is most of
erudition that can be acquired as to field husbandry,
.~m the Greek and Latin WTiters, whether in verse or
.ose." For want of the mark of parenthesis in the first
these sentences, we almost think, at the close of it,
} the author is speaking of the crows and not of
5
'

:e

Syntax.
I-Ieaven, being frightened from spoiling the fruits of fields and the gardens. But with regard to the use
the parenthesis, I shall speak, perhaps, more fully b
and-by: for the employment of it is a matter of some __·,
portance.
It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that this wonl parenthesis, ·
all the words ending in i.<, changes the i into e in the plum!: pu.re
tllescs, crises, theses. So that we must speak of a word or
tence being enclosed in parentheses, not parentllcsis.

147. The mark of I nterrogat·ion, which is written th
[?], is used when a question is asked; as, " lV!w has m _
pen .'!'" " vVhat man is that .P" In these and numerous
other cases, the mark is not necessary to om· clearly comprehending the meaning of the writer. But this is noJ
always the case. "vVhat does he say ? Put the horse
into the stable." Again: "What does he say? Put th8
horse into the stable?" In speaking, this great difference
in the meaning, in this instance, would be fully express9'1
by the voice and manner of the speaker; but, in writingj
the mark of interrogation is, you see, absolutely necess
in order to accomplish the purpose.
148. The mark of E xclamat'ion, or Admiratfon, is wri~
ten thus [!], and, as its name denotes, is used to distin-.
guish words or sentences that are exclamatory, from such:
as are not: " What do you scty I TVhat do yoit say .'!''' The
difference in the sense is very obvious here. Again: "Hts
is going away to-night! 1Ie is going away to-night.1'The last simply state'! the fact; but the first, besid0!J
stating the fact, expresses surprise at it.
149. The Apostrophe, or mark of Elision, is a comma
placed above the line, thus [']. Elision means a striking
oitt ,· and this mark is used for that purpose; as, don'
for do not; tho' for though; lov'cl for loved. I hav
mentioned this mark, because it is used properly enoug_
in poetry; but, I beg you never to use it in prose in on
single instance during your whole life. It ought to

Points and Marks.
mark not of elision, but of laziness and vulIt is necessary as the mark of the possessive case
. no.~s, as you have seen in Letter V, paragraph 47.
tis its use, and any other employment of it is an abuse.
150. The IIyphen or Conjoiner is a little line used to
nnect words, or parts of words; as in sea-fish, water-rat.
or here are two distinct words, though they, in these instances, make but one. Sometimes the hyphen is u sed to
nnect many words together: " The never-to-be-foro-otten
b
ci;iel~y of the ?orough-tyrants." When, in writing, or in
pnntmg, the hue ends with part of a word, a hyphen is
placed. a~ter t~at part, in order to show that that part i~
to .be JOmed, m the reacling, with that which beo-ins
the
0
next line.

. 151. These are all the grammatical marks ; but there
are others used in writing for the purpose of saving time
and words. The mark of quotation or of citing. This
Jbark consists of two commas placed thus: "There were
Ymen." It is used to enclose words taken from other
writings or from other persons' discourse· and indeed it
is frequently used to enclose certain sent~nces' or words
o: t.he writer, when he wishes to mark them' as wholl;
distmct from the general course of any stateI)lent that he
is m~king, or ?f any instruction that he is giving. I have,
for mstance, m the writing of these Letters to you, set
:.off many of my examples by marks of quotation. In
Short, its use is to notify to the reader that such and such
ords, or such and such sentences, are not to be looked
upon as forming part of the regulai· course of those
oughts which are at the present time coming from the
· d of the writer.
152.. This mark
is found in the Bible. It stands
paragraph. This [§] is sometimes used instead of
,e word section. As to stars [*] and the other marks
"ch are used for the purpose of leading the eye of the
er to notes, in the same page, or at the end of the

rin

-~--

100

Syntax.

. .
You may
book they are perfectly arb"t
i rn1y.
B t use
let
'
u
1 t1 t you please.
this pmpose anyh ~artchs t :otes ought seldom to be
a
.
b ·ve to you ere,
o sei
.
theses they are interrupters, ..
sorted to. Like paren
'
they genei'much more troublesome interru1~~·s, :~;~~;~no- of theur
~usion in the mind of
ally tell a much longer stofry.
.
in almost all cases, rom con .
.
H
ans es,
tt too much for him.
e
the writer. H e finds the ma er
.
· lucid whole;
has not the talent to work it all_u~ mto one, Notes anr
.
d therefore he pu t s par·t of it mto notes.1
.
an '
'
th t is to say t re roam p
seldom read. If the t ext, a
e our', earnest attenf
ture to en aaa
of a writing, be o ~ na
to"'r e"'ad the notes: ai:id if
tion, we have not tune to stop
"' . rred b the text, we
om attention be not earnestly ~n"';"'cours~ r ead neith~
soon lay down the volume, au o
notes nor text.
. t.
the full point is used;
153. As a mark of abblrevia iof nh, n>·dly any other words
M " But I cnow o =
.·
as, " Mr. rs.
.
. and if these were not it
that ought to be abbrevia~ed, 1 may indulae themselves .
would be all the bett~r.
eop ethe come"' to write the
in this practice, until at las~ . y le letters. The fre.
t f th ir words m smg
greater par o
e
.
mark of slovenliness
quent use of abbreviation iks alwaysloar·ds abbreviate almo~
I have 'nown
1 ··t
and of vu gau Y·
.
. likely because they
the half of their words: it \hvas, vterythe end. Instead of
did not know h ow to spell ·t em o
t & For wh.al
ft n see peop1e pu
.
.
the word and, you o e
B t to this & is sometime&'
h
ld
like
to
know.
u
·
h
I
reason s ou
•
. . L tm' et and c is t .e
.
h
&
Ancl is m a
'
added a c j t us, c. .
mtera which means tM
first letter of the Latm wtho:d ~. me~ns and the like, ot.
.
. o on Therefore is aoc.
.
like, oi s
· 's abbrevia
. t·wno f a foreio-n
Th
"' word is a .mos~
and so .on.t th' ai for sueh Wll··t ers a s have too much mdo,,
convenien
in"'
f
nd clearly what they
'ttl
e to say u 11Y a
·
d the like or and8
lence or too h e sens
'
• If ou mean to say an
ought to say.
' t~ This abbreviation is very frequen~
on, why not say i ·

Points and .Marks.

101

·;made use of without the writer having any idea of its
import. A writer on grammar says, "When these
are joined to if, since, ac., they are adverbs."
1words
' But where is the like of if, or of since.'?
The best way
·:to guard yourself against the committing of similar eiTors
is never to use this abbreviation.
154. The use of CAPITALS and italics I will notice in
·this place. In the books printed before the middle of
·the last century, a capital letter was used as the first
=1etter of every noun. Capitals are now used more spar, ingly. We use them at the beginning of every para1 graph, let the word be what it may; at the beginning of
' every sentence which follows a full-point ; at the begin' ning of all proper names; at the beginning of all adjec, tives growing out of the names of countries, or nations ;
as, the English language ; the French fashion ; the
American government. We use capitals, besides, at the
beginning of any word, when we think the doing of it
,likely to assist in elucidating our meaning, but in general
we use them as above stated. The use of italic characters in print is to point out, a8 worthy of particular atten_tion, the words distinguished by those characters. In
. writing with a pen, a stroke is drawn under such words
~ we wish to be considered to be in italics. If we wish
Words to be put in SMALL CAPITALS, We draw two strokes
under them; if in FULL CAPITALS, we draw three
strokes under them.
155. The last thing I shall mention, under this head,

is the caret [A], which is used to point upwards to a part
which has been omitted, and which is inserted between
and the line above it.
Things should be called by their right names, and this
Should be called the blunder-mark. I would have you,
,~y clear· James, scorn the use of this thing. Thinlc
before you write; let it be your custom to write correctly
in a plain hand. Be as careful that neatness, gram-

the line, where the caret is placed,

and

102

mar, and sense prevail, when you write to
about shoeing a horse, as when . you write
important subjects, and when you expect what yoµ
to be read by persons whose good opinion you are m
anxious to obtain or secure. H abit is powerful in all case&
but its power in this case is truly wonderful. When you
write, bear constantly in mind that some one is to r •
and to understand what you write. This will make yoW,
handwriting, and also your meaning, plain. Never t ·
of mending what you write. Let it go. No patching;
no after pointing. As your pen moves, bear constantly
in mind that it is making strokes which are to remain
for evei·. Far, I hope, from my d ear James will be the·
ridiculous, the contemptible affectation, of writing in.,a
slovenly or illegible h and ; or that of signing his name
otherwise than in plain letters.
156. In concluding this L etter, let me caution
against the use of what, by some, is called the daa
The dash is a stroke along the line ; thus, "I am rich l
I was poor-I shall be poor again." This is wild wor
indeed! Who is to know what is intended by the use 'o
these clctshes? Those who have thought proper, like
Lindley Murray, to i)lace the dash amongst the gram-.
rnatical points, ought to give u s some rule relative to i
different longitudinal dimensions in different cases.
'
inch, the three-qitartei·-inch, the haij~irich the quart;m
inch ; these would b e something determinate ; but, "
clash," without measure, must be a most perilous t ·
for a young grammarian to handle. In short, " the dash.
is a cover for ignorance as to the use of points, and'
can answer no other purpose.-A dash is very often ' .
in crowded print, in order to save the room that wo
be lost by the breaks of distinct paragraphs. This •
another matter. Here the dash comes after a full-p~i,
It is the using of it in the body of a sentence ag _' "

yo

which l caution you.

103

Points and Marks.

Syntax.

to the
"n ~!at c h'
' those
who
drng; dno ~fter-poin ting'" this is all very well
en owe with uncomii:J.o t 1
f
i but everybody cannot be a Shak
n a ent or composiespeare or a Cobbett. It is
'known tha p
~hed his lin:s .~:a~~r:_e~i:~ an! r~c~;rected, polished and re. er and other good writer:n h~v~ : on:e ~~~ave heard. that
ulay, for instance,
You will have wn'tt en many
same athrng;
.
p
age
.ore you acqmre such sureness of hand a d
ression as never to need to h .
n peliect power of
~ing over what you have wri~e:ng~ atl':ord or add a point on
t written '' ever
. · n u s very paragraph I had
t' on loo kin"' it o ybodly cannot be Shakespeares or Cobbetts."
,'
.
o
ver, saw that eve?'!fbod ti
b.
. .
'
~ that therefore the attribute oug h t to y,agree
le su 1Ject, is srngular,
with it Th
n detects errors committed by ti 1e ear or the tongue.
· , ed eye
th
. of ten detects errors committed b th h
· ' an
e
C bb tt' d ·
Y e and or the pen
o e s a vice concerning the dash is I th' k b
.
followed. His contem t for this
' 1. rn , Y no means to
!hich he h ad quite a i!cre stock m;:k ~ o~e. of his crotchets,
by good writers and is in lt . e as is now universally
ess· it is in fa~t
't,
s proper place, conducive to
,
,
, qm e as good a point as an
are som e perso ns-especially half-educated
y other.
-;!!Choo! misses-who clap in a da h f
I
young board• th' ·
s
or a most every· p .
!' is h'is no· reaso
n why it should no t b e u sed rn
. its
. pro
ause;.
.
e, w 1ch 1s either immediately b f
pei
. to complete the thought or to e ore! some expression tend. .
'
enc ose some explanator
· d th rown m hke a parenthes1's · 'l'l ie fi rst case may b ·11 Y
by the clash on a
e I us.
.
P ge 1, 11nmech ately before the words , , I
d' · . . ,,
I
1ctat10n, and the second case b
perning half-educated you 1
'.
y tie above expression
,. •
1 g misses.
To be su
ti
s rn which another point ma
,
re, . iere are
priety · but th'.
k .
y, perhaps, be used with equal
, . , .
is mar is now generally r ecognized
.
as a proper
k Ill punctuation and
_'per.
'
you may use it whenever you think

~re

9 ;e ve~y best way of learning punctuation is as I l
I
. ~e said, by writing to. dictation · By tile requentiave
e se•
writing
' · of other eo I ,
the whole su~jc~t,c :n~o::!~ ~:: :::~:afio~d general knowledge
.. . For it is well known that in the E
~rims a style of one's
. is to a great extent, a matter of
:)'OU. must have seen by ti .
.
.
.
umse ,
this matter
H
f
us time, is qmte peculiar in hi8 taste
!ii' .
.
e uses ar more points than most other writers
' rnlly commas, and he capitalizes far more words th an most,

f

r

tast:~ i:~d a~~~~:;t ~~nctulaf­

•

•

104

Syntax.

Points and Marks.

others writers. This he does for the sake of emphasis,
prominence: as, for instance, in the names of the parts of s throughout this whole grammar. He overdoes this matter It
and he uses too many italics; for in most sentences the p
emphasis must be left to the reader.
I notice that the tendency in our modern newspapers is to
as many points as possible. Whether this is done to save sp
time, and labor, or whether it is done for the sake of impro
ment, I do not know; but I do know that the punctuating of o
New York editor of to-day presents a remarkable contrast to ·
of Cobbett; for you may see any day in the leading columns •
the H m·ald, th e Tribune, or the Times, sentences of seven
eight Jin es, with all manner of phrases and clauses, withou~
si ngle point of any description, except a period at the end.'
suppose they will leave that out too, by-and-by. I once hearcf
a painter who put a period between every word of the sign w
he was painting, but put no point at the end. On being rcproac
with ~his, h e exclaimed: "Why, every fool knows enough to s .'
when he comes to the end!" I suppose our New York
would excuse his omission of points on the same principle,
every one should know enough to stop where he ought to s
Cobbett committed, I think, the opposite error: he seems to ha
attempted to put a point after every word, or nearly every
where a pause occurs; which is_something that ought not to .
done, and indeed never is nor can be done. Those pauses occu
where there arc no points are rhetorical pauses, which the feel
or instinct of every good reader leads him to make. We o
pause, for instance, for the sake of emphasis; as after poi ' '
f eeling and instinct in the preceding sentence.
'
The matter of simple, compound, and complex sentences, w
Cobbett merely touches, is very important to those who inten!l
pass an examination in grammar; for a knowledge of it is n · s:iry in Analysis, and all those who pretend to have a'.' tcachllig
knowledge of grammar must know how to analyze. I will th
fore try to give a little full er explanation of it. "I study."
is a simple sentence, because it consists of but one simple pro "
tion or assertion, having but one subject and one_predicate. •
study an<l Charles plays." Here th ere are two di3tinct propositlo
·
or two di3tinct clauses; hence the sen tcnce is compound.
that word distinct.) "When I study, Charles plays." Here
are also two clauses, but not distinct ; they are depcnden~
rather one depends on the other; hence the sentence is'
-

wo

105

mplex. The clause that makes complete sense (Charles plays),
the chief clause, and the other is the dependent one. You per·ve that the dependent clause simply sh~ws when Charles plays;
efore the main thing is the playing of Charles, and the other
ply shows the time of his playing. When there is but one
position or statement, the sentence is simple; when there are
o or more distinct or separate propositions, the sentence is comund ; but when there are two or more propositions, one dependg on the other, the sentence is complex. "Every morning at
ye o'clock we walk into the forest beyond the river." H ere is
ut one simple statement, we walk, and the rest consists of modi_" g phrases. We walk. When? Every morning. At what
t of the morning ? At five o'clock. Where? Into the forest.
ere is the forest? Beyond the river.
, Here is a good, though somewhat mechanical rule, for deter"ning the nature of a sentence: Any sentence that you may cut
to two sentences by placing a period after any word in it, is
, mpound; any sentence, consisting of two or more clauses,
hich you can not thus cut into two sentences, is complex. A
ntence consisting of but one proposition, having but one subject
II! predicate, is simple. Of Cobbett's three sentences, at the begin, · g of this paragraph 156, the first is complex, the second comund, the third simple.
And now I see that I have to explain something else that is
essary to a knowledge of Analysis,- I mean the classification
f sentences into declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imrative. "I study" is called a simple declarative sentence;
larative, because it declares or affirms something. Nine out of
n of all the sentences we utter are declarative. "Do I study?,,
'Ji simple interrogative sentence; interrogative, because it asks a
estion. An interrogation may sometimes be merely a forcible
'-Y of declaring something; as, Should any man be deprived of
,. liberty because he is black? But this is a figure, as you will
. by-and-by. "How I love to study!" is a simple exclamat01-y
tence; exclamatory, because it contains an exclamation.
Study, and get on in the world!" is a compound imperative sence; imperative, because it contains a command or an entreaty.
us, we find that a sentence that declares or affirms anything is
larative; that one th at asks a question is interrogative; that
e that contains an exclamation is exclamatory ; and that one
t. contains a command or an entreaty is imperative. Let me
ve you three more examples, covering the whole ground:

5*

As Relating to Articles.

106
John Brown was hanged. (Simple declarative sentence.)·\,
Was John Brown hanu·ed? (Simple interrogative sentence..
What a spectacle fop :ien and angels l John Brown hange<l, ·
J effei·son Davis pardoned! (Compound exclamatory sen
}fang John Brown, and pardon Jefferson Davis. (Com
imperative sentence.)

LETTER XV.
SYNTAX, AS RELA'!'ING TO ARTICLES.

MY DEAR JAMES:
157. Before you proceed to my instructions relativ~ .
the employing of .Articles, you will do well to. read
all the paragraphs in L etter IV. Our .A~ticles
few in number, and they are subject to so little
in their orthography, that very few errors can ansemr
use of them. But, still, errors may arise; and it ·
be necessary to guard you against them.
t'
158. You will not fall into very gross errors in the .
of the Articles. You will not say, as in the e1Ton .
passage cited by DocToR LowTH, "And I persecu
this way unto the death," meaning death generally,"
you may commit errors less glari~. "~he Chan .
informed the Queen of it, and she immediately sent_
the Secretary and Treasurer." Now, it is not c~ .
here, whether the Secretary and Treasurer be not !
and the same person ; which uncertainty would have
avoided by a repetition of the Article : " the Seer .
and the Treasurer :" and you will bear in mind t~
every sentence, the very first th'i.ng to be attended 1fl.

a:e:
:az:a

clearness as to meaning.
159. Nouns which express the whole of a speciQi'
not, in general, take the definite Article ; as, " Gr_
good for horses, and wheat for men." Yet, in spe

107

e appearance of the face of the country we say " 1'he
ss looks well ; the wheat is blighted." The reason of
,"sis that we are, in this last case~ limiting our meaning
.., the grass and the wheat which are on the ground at this
time. "How do .hops sell~ ~Iops are dear; but the hops
wok promising." In this respect there is a passage in
)fr. Tull which is faulty. "Neither could weeds be of any
' ejudice to corn." It should be "the corn;" for he does
ot mean corn universally, but the standing corn, and the
corn amongst which weeds grow; and, therefore, the
efinite Article is required.
160. "Ten shillings the bushel," and like phrases, are
rfectly correct. They mean, "ten shillings by the
ushel, or for the bushel." Instead of this mode of ex. ession we sometimes use, "ten shillings a bushel:"
at is to say, ten shillings f or a bushel, or a bushel at a
Either of these modes of expression is far preferble to per bushel; for the p er is not English, and is, to
e greater part of the people, a mystical sort of word.
, 161. The indefinite Article a, or an, is used with the
~!".ii.,.\ day, month, year, and others; as, once a day;
ce a month ; a thousand pounds a year. It means in
}day, in a month, in or for a year; and though per
nnum means the same as this last, the English phrase is,
all respects, the best. The same may be said of p er
nt., that is per centum, or, in plain English, for the huned, or a hundred: by ten pi;r centum we mean ten for
hundred, or ten for a hundred; and why can we
t, then, say, in plain English, what we mean?
'162. When there are several nouns following the indef;·te Article, care ought to be taken that it accord with
m. "A dog, cat, owl, and sparrow." Owl requires an;
d, therefore, the Article must be repeated in this
hrase; as, a dog, a cat, an owl, and a spaJ.Tow.
·1.163. Nouns, signifying fixed and settled collections of
;,pividuals, as thousand, hundred, dozen, score, take the
I

:me.

'

'

108

'

Syntax,

As Relating to Nouns.

indefinite Article, though they are of plural meaning~
is a certain mass, or number, or multitude, called a s ·and so -0n; and the .Ai·ticle agrees with these unde~.
words, which are in the singular number.
J

In a recent announcement of a new novel by Robert Iluc "
the publishers quote this one line concerning it from the LOn
Spect,awr: "The work of a genius and a poet,"-which is In
self a sufficient comment on th e discriminating taste of the p
lisher and the culture of the critic. But I suppose a man may
a good publisher or a good critic, and yet not know how to
or to select good Eng1ish.
You must say either "the first and tl1c second class," or :•
first and second classes;" not "the first and second class," w
would mean one class that is both first and second. Take one or
similar examples: '' I have read the first and the second chap
or the first and second chapters; strike out the first and the seco
line, or the first and second lines." You may say, ''the north
south line," because this is one line that runs north and south;
you cannot say '' the north and west line." It will not do to
"the two first classes," because there cannot be any such thing
two first classes; but ''the first two classes, " which means sim
the two classes that come first in order. So with other similar
pressions; as, the first two pages, the first two days, &e. . li
must say, "He is a better spea·ker than writer," not "t~
writer." "He is a statesman and historian," not "a state
and an historian." "Wanted-A clerk and copyist. " How"9
such an expression is used to mean two persons,; whereas it r
means one l "There Ii ves in this town a philosopher and a
The predicate shows that one person is m eant, whiJe the subj
indicates two. Mr. White quotes the following annour.ce ·
from a street-Gar: ''Passengers are requested not to hold eonv
tion with either conductor or driver;" and then says: "Now;·
implies that there are two conductors antl two drivers, and
the passengers are asked not to talk, or, in elegant phrase, i '
conversation,' with either of them. The simple introduction of
rectifies the phrase: 'not to hold conversation with either tM
duetor or the driver.' "
,
I saw the other day in Pearl Street, N ew York, a place
this sign: "Hatters, Tailors, and Factory Stqves." This ··.
means that the owner of the place has hatters and tailors to~
well as factory stoves. It might pass with the sign of thif ·

109

sive: "Hatters', Tailors' and F t
S
.b
,.adb
, ecause hatters and ' t .1 acory toves·"
• b u t t1·
ns, too
··
.
a1 ors cannot be I d .
'
tegory with a factory It sl· Id b
P ace m the same
·
iou
e "Stove8 f H
d Manufacturers," or "Hatters' T .
, or atters, Tailors,
ailors ' and Manufacturers'
toves." But this would proba 1
IP. he preferred WrI·t1"ng no
Qy Te too long for the stove-maker·
·
nsense
h· t ·
•
. ort is the root of these errors · H r I~ rymg t? make everything
fho calls his Eating-House a ,; C e e Is .a man 111 Beekman Street
of a compound may a commerci~~;:~~~al Lunch!." What kind
ade of various articles of con1
.
be? Is It not a lunch
• .
m e1cc · beeswax
t t
•
e, p1g-1ron, and leather? Of
.'
•po a oes, turpenCommercial People or Lu11 I f coBm se he means a Lunch ~r
.
'
c l or usin 'S 8 111-I
.
usmess Men's Lunch. but th'.
c
en, or still better,
'
is, no doubt, was too long for him.

b

LETTER XVI.
SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO NOUNS.
, Y DEAR JAMES

l64. Read a~ain
Lett . v th
.
0
·
ei ' e subJect of h · h ·
)t;fbology of Nouns Noun
w IC IS the
·
·
s are governed a ·t · all
, verbs and prepositions ; that .is t
' s I is c ed,
,rts of words cause nouns to be in o say, these latter
,d there must be a concord or an s;c!i or such a case,;
e Nouns and the other wo~·ds h. greernent, bf>tween
ouns, compose a sentence.
' w ich, along with the
-165. But these matters will b b t
· t
e es explained h
me o the Syntax of Verb f .
.
w en I
.P account, we cannot go sf ~1.' un~1~ we take the verb
. g of sentences. Under:em g1vmg rules for the
shall content myself with doin"' f.~:lsent head, therefore,
;me farther account of the
o i e more than to give
e case of Nouns . that b :nannther of using the posses.
'
emg e only case t d
. ch our Nouns vary their endings
o enote
166. The p
·
.
·.
ossess1ve case was pretty full s ok
. m the Lutter just referred to. b t thy p en of by
' u
ere are certain

lj

'I

Syntax,

f

110
.
1'·
.
ke with regard to the usl.Ilg o.'
other observat10ns
Nollll ..-filch is in the poss~
in sent.ences. \Vhen
.- wnl ' ut1"on that is to say
d b> a circ
oc
'
case is expresse
•
h . of the possessive cas;e
0 f one t e sign
. 1.
r' '
many words m
ieu
d' · " rohn the old farme ~
t h l t wor ; as, u '
' is however muuu
_i:.··
is J. oined to
e as
.d
,, It
.
tl
's ev1 ence.
"0ltVer, .1e spy '
th
ld
farmer."
Th11
.fe
"
w1 . to say, "The wife of John
, e o
better
,,
.
O
. CIM?.6
'
''evidence of river, the spy.
N
· the possessive
01. more ouns 1n
167. When two
. . d by 'a conJ·unctive th
h . and are JOme
follm: each ot
of the possessive case is, when ,
junct10n, the s1g_
me ut to the last noun only'
thing possessed is the ;aRich~rd's estate." In this. e~·
as "Peter, Joseph, an db . one and the same thing,
··
'
h.
ossesse emg
ample, the t mg
. P
lly to each of the three possessive,,
the sign Bapplies equ~ J
h ' and Richard's estate,1 ;
ill dmi
t "Peters, osep s,
Nouns. h ut
t te _ or at least, it w a i
h has an es a , '
i.. __·;:
implies
t a eac bemg
. given
.
to it' while the former pill~,
of
that meaning
•

to:;::

·e~

co~;

1·

will not.
.
f th ossessive case is left
168. Sometimes the sig~ o_
et pd. as "Edwards, tlfe
· sed m its s ea , '
,
out and a hyphen is u
. t
ay " the government·a
That
is
o
s
,
iii
'
"
nove;rnment-spy.
nt " These two wor
;;
h
of the governme .
'·
spy;" or, "~ e spy . e called a compound Noun; ~
joined in this man~r, :f Nouns our language is ve~·
to this W
compoun g b floor horse-shoe, dog-collar,·,
P
" cham er'
,
11 ·
rone.
e say
b , floor horse's shoe, dogs co
"
ham
er
s
'
that is to say, c
rar to our language.
• 169. This is an advan~age pecu ~d which always gives
. ti?
, much m few w01 s,
enableshust to1 sayuage · an d , after clearness, strength is ·_e
strengt o ang . that writing or speaking can posseBS:
most valuable quahty
" If we could not com,
h.
flew to harms. t say "The men of th'e'
"The Yorks ll'emen
d we would ave o
,
"
pound our wor s,
,, When you come to le •·
shire of York flew to arms. h
much the English ~',
ill soon see ow
:
French,is you
w t h an th.e,French
in this respect.
'·
guage
better
l

ar,
· r:

I,
I

I

As Relating to N ouns.

111
; 170. You must take care, when you use the possessive
' not to use after it words which create a confusion in
,meaning. HuME has this sentence: "They flew to arms
and attacked Northumberland's house, whom they put to
death." We know what is meant, because whom can
to persons only; but if it had
an attack on
Northumberland's men, the meaning would have been
that the men were put to death. However, the sentence,
\is it stands, is sufficiently incorrect. It should have been:
'"They flew to arms, and attacked the house of Northumberland, whom they put to death."

..~se

r~late

be~n

; 171. A passage from DocToR HUGH BLAIR, the author of
Lectures on Rhetoric, will give you another instance of
kor in the use of the possessive case. I take 'it from
the 24th ·Lecture: "In comparing Demosthenes and
·Cicero, most of the French critics are disposed to give
·ihe preference to the latter. P. Rapin, the Jesuit, in the
parallels which he has drawn between some of the most
inent Greek and Roman writers, uniformly decides in
F,:sor of the Roman. For the preference which he gives
to Cicero, he assigns and lays stress on one reason, of a
.pretty extraordinary nature, viz., that Demosthenes could
ot possibly have so clear an insight as Cicero into the
manners and passions of men. Why? because he had not
the advantage of perusing Aristotle's 'Treatise on Rhetoric, wherein, says our critic, lie has fully laid open that
f{/-ystery / and to support this weighty argument, he en·ters into a controversy with A. Gellius, in order to prove
'fhat Aristotle's Rhetoric was not published till after Defuo.sthenes had spoken, at least, his most considerable
It is surprising that the Doctor should have
' ut such a passage as this upon paper, and more surprisiflg that he should leave it in this state after
perused it with that care which is usually employed 111
examining writings that are to be put into print, and
~pecially writings in which every word is expected to be

o~ations."

havi~g

.. .. ..-..,.

·~

112

As .Relating to Nouns.

Synta'JJ,

113

._ ere is an error also in the use of the active participle
.
''Demosthenes could not have so complete an
ing.
1
. · ht as Cicero, because he had not the advantage of
.• rusi~g. Th~t is to say, the advantage of being enj!oged m perusing. But this is not what is meant. The
. to~ means that he had not had the advantage of
. sing; or, rather, that he had not the advantage of
.,,ving perused. In other words, that Demosthenes could
.ot have, or possess, a certain kind of knowledge at the
,, e when he made his orations, because at that time he
, not, or did not possess, the advantage of ha:ing
_,erused, or having .finished to peruse, the treatise of Aris. tle. Towards the close of the last sentence the adverb
':'J least" is put in a wrong place. The Doctor means,
pbtless, that the adverb should apply to considerable,
,~no~ to spoken; but, from its being improperly placed,
·.applies to the latter, and not to the former. He means
say that Demosthenes had spoken the most consider' le, at least, of his orations; but as the words now stand
~y mean that he had done the speaking part to them, if
llild done nothing more. There is an error in the use
;the word "insight,'' followed, as it is, by "into." We
! have a look, or sight, into a house, but not an insight.
..·. would be to take an inside view of an inside.
We have here a pretty good proof that a knowlge of the G:r~ek and Latin is not sufficient to prevent
_en from wntmg bad English. Here is a profound
~lar, a teacher of Rhetoric, discussing the comparative
ents of <:t~eek and Latin writers, and disputing with a
/UC~ en tic; here he is writing English in a manner
.~re mcorrectly than you will, I hope, be liable to write
at the end of your reading of this little book. Lest it
,,uld be supposed that I have taken great pains to hunt
,.~ this erroneous passage of Doctor Blair, I will inform
. 11. that. I have hardly looked into his book. Your
9thers, m reading it through, marked a great number

pa.

Syntax,

114

As Relating to Pronouns.

of erroneous passages, from amongst which I hav~ se
the passage just cited. With what propriety, then,:. ,
the Greek and Latin languages called the "learned,
guages '?" .
':, ~
We take the form's from the Germans, and hence it is
the Saxon possessive; we take the form of the from the Fre
and hence it is called the Norman possessive. You will
that the Saxon possessive is used, generally, in speaking of ·
things, and the other in speaking of things witlwut life: " ,
man's hat the horse's tail1 the cow's horns; the top of the ho
the lid of the kettle, the color of the apple;" but this is bf, 1 •
means always the case, for we can speak of the mountain's top
of the roar of the lf,on. Sometimes we are obliged to use the •N
man possessive to avoid a misconstruction, as in the case of·~ .
house of Northumberland," above quoted.
"
There is another peculiar use of the possessive case, which CO
bett has not mentioped. "He spoke of John's (his) going to .
lege. There is no doubt of the bill's passing the House." We o
see the objective used in such cases, instead of the possessi
but the latter is correct. Just as we say "a friend of mine, ·
thine, of his, of hers, of yours, of theirs," so we say "a .soldier
the ' king's, a horse of my neighbor's, a book of George's." .
Cobbett ought to have said above, "this erroneous passag~
Doctor Blair's."
·
You notice that the only ca,se-change an English noun can'
dergo is the addition of 's in .the possessive. In both E?gl~ _
French the nominative and objective cases of nouns are mv
Not so in German. The following sentence will show you, ~.
glance the difference between our language and the German ~ -·
respect:
nom .

obj.

nom.

-· Iacc;d.~r '·'Customs." A dispute having arisen upon the ·point,
~d it bemg contended that the proper form was " The Commiss1~ner's (of Customs) decisions are correct,'' an officer of the
Tr~.a.sury Department submitted the ·question to me for an
Oplillon. And _Mr. White declares that the decision of the Civil Service
Boa.rd is correct. Now I am positive that, in this case, both Mr.
Whi_te a?d _the Board of Exaininers are wrong. It is when a word
~or title is m the possessive case PLUR.A.L that we put merely an
,.ap~stro~he after the s; as, the Examiners' duties; the Commission. ·ers affarrs; but the term "Commissioner of Customs" is '6£/t plural
· any more than '' Secretary of the Treasury " is plural We sa '
.
y
. "Th s
·~ . ~ ecretary of the Treasury's report ;" and if the Saxon posses·. s~ve is to be used, grammar demands that we say ''The Commis,;&oner of Custom's decisions;" for the sign of the possessive is for
, ~e whole expression, and not simply for customs. An apostrophe
,alone may b~ ~laced after Customs, because it will 11ound better, but
·
·
1.- not because it is grammatical.
· B.ut :Why use this form at all? Has it not been from a desire to
/ avoid Just_ such awkward expressions that the Norman possessive
has .c?me mto use? Does it not sound much better to say '' The
of tlle Commissioner of Customs" tl!an " Th e comm1s·
, dec1s10ns
.
s10ner of Customs's decisions ?"-By the bye, is it not somewhat
_:~~11-rkab~e, not to say absurd, tllat the Board of Examiners should
)..g1v~apph~an~ for inferior offices questions such as they them.selves are m dispute about, and concerning which even critics in
_language are at variance?
·

LETTER XVII.

obj.

The boy loves the traveler. The trnmeler loves the boy.
Der Knabe liebt den Reisenden. De1· Reisende liebt den Knak.• .
Here is a curious passage on this subject from Mr.
"Everyday English "-a passage which, to prevent a confusion
apostrophes, I give in one paragraph, with none but Mr.
points, except the dash at the beginning and at the end:
,,
-The Board of Civil Service Examiners at W ashington gav~.
a test of the knowledge of the use of the apostrophe as a sign
the possessive case, the following sentence: "The Comm· ·
of Custom's decisions are correct,'' requiring the apostrophe &o

115

SYNT.A.X, .A.S RELATING TO PRONOUNS.

MY

DEAR J.A.MES:

174. You will now read again Letter VI. It will bring
_y~u back to the subject of pronouns. You will bear in
llllnd that personal Pronouns stand f or, or in the place
of, no~ns; ~nd that the greatest care ought always to be
taken m usrng them, because, being small words, and in

1'

<'I

I
Ii.

116

Syntax,

frequent use, the proper weight of them is very often
unattended to.
175. You have seen in the passage from Doctor Blair; ·
quoted in the foregomg Letter, what confusion arise~! ,
from the want of taking care that the Pronoun relate ·
clearly to its nominative case, and that it be not left to
be understood to relate to anything else. Little wordBj ·
of great and sweeping influence, ought to be used with ·
the greatest care; because eITors in the using of them•
make such great e!Tors in point of meaning. In order to")
impress, at the outset, these precepts on your mind, 1I
will give you an instance of this kind of error from
ADDISON; and, what is well calculated to heighten the in--t
terest you ought to feel upon the occasion, is, that the sen~
tence which contains the error is, by Doctor Blair, held:
forth to students of languages, in the University of Edin- ·
burgh, as a perfect model of correctness and of eleganµ..i
The sentence is from Addison's Spectator, Number 411. 1
"There are, indeed, but very few who know how to be'J
idle and innocent, or have a. relish of any pleasures that'
are not criminal; every diversion they take is at the expense of some one virtue or other, and their very fu.:st.
step out of business is into vice or folly." Dr. Blair says:~
"Nothing can be more elegant, or more finely turne~ ·
than this sentence. It is neat, clear, and musical. We
could hardly alter one word, or displace one member, .
without spoiling it. Few sentences are to be found more •
finished, or more happy." See Blair's 20th Lecture on
Rhetoric.
176. Now, then, my dear little J arnes, let us see whether ·
we plain English scholars have not a little more judgment-<.
than this professor in a learned University, who could
not, you will observe, be a. .Doctor, until he had preach ,
a sermon in the Latin language. What does the prono~.·
they mean in this sentence of Mr. Addison ~ What noun <
does it relate to; or stand for ? What noun is the nom~

As Relating to Pronouns.
the sentence!

117

The nominative of the sentence

is the word few, meaning few p ersons. Very well, then,
<the Pronoun they relates to this nominative; and the
meaning of the sentence is this : "That but few persons
know how to be idle and innocent; that few p ersons have
a relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; that every
diversion these few persons take is at the expense of some
one virtue or other, and that the very first step of these
.few persons out of business is into vice or folly." So
1
that the sentence says precisely the contrary of what the
author meant; or, rather, the whole is perfect nonsense.
.All this arises from the misuse of the Pronoun they . If,
instead of this word, the author had put people in gen,er;al, or most people, or most men, or any word or words
"of the same meaning, all would have been right.
177. I will take another instance of the consequence of
'- being careless in the use of personal Pronouns. It is
from JuDGE BLACKSTONE, Book II, Chapter 6.. "For the
, custom of the manor has, in both cases, so far superseded
the will of the lord, that, provided the services be performed, or stipulated for by fealty, he cannot, in the first
instance;\.efuse to admit the heir of liis tenant upon his
nor, in the second, can he r emove his present
so long as he lives." Here are lord, heir, an<l
tenant, all confounded. We may guess at the Judge's
meaning ; but we cannot say that we know what it is; we
cannot say that we are certain whose life, or whose death
'
':jie is speaking of.
. 178. Never write a personal Pronoun, without duly
.considering what n oun it will, upon a reading of the
·sentence, be fo und to relate to. There must be a noun,
'fixpressed or understood, to which the Pronoun clearly
relates, or you will not write sense. " The land-holder
has been represented as a monster which must be hunted
~own, and the fund-h older as a still greater evil, and
both have been described as rapacious creatures, who

I

11.

118

Syntax.

take from the people :fifteen pence oat 0£ every CJ.
loaf. 1'hey have been told that Parliamentary Refo ~
no more than a half measure, changing only one ·s®
thieves for another ; and that they must go to the la.i;i.<t
nothing short of that would avail them." This is ...·
from the memorable report 0£ a committee of the HP.
of Lords, in 1817, on which report the cruel dungeo11.,
was passed. Now, to what nouns do these Pron9.,._
relate~ Who are the nominatives in the :first senten~
The land-holder and the fimd-holder, to be sure;
therefore, to them do the Pronouns relate. These.19 .. ,
mean, doubtless, that the people had been told that!
people must go to the land; that nothing else would~ .
the people/ but, though they mean this, they do not . .
it; and this part of their report is as false in grammar.
other parts of the report were in fact.
'
179. ·when there are two or more nouns
a copulative conjunction, and when a Personal Prono_~
made use of to relate to them, or stand for them, you m. '
take care that the personal Pronoun ar;ree w~th them." .
number. "He was fonder of nothing than of wit ,
raillery/ but he is far from being happy in. it." T, ·
Doctor Blair, in his 19th Lecture, says of Lord Sha! "
bury. Either wit and raillei·y are one and the same t · .
or they are different things; if the former, one of '·'
words is used unnecessarily; if the latter, the Pronu_
ought to have been them and not it.
" I learned from Macaulay . .
of using the same word or name over and over agaii:t, if. by.
m eans anything could be added to clearness or force. Mn.ea,
never goes on, like some writers, talking about 'the former'
. the latter,' 'he, she, it, they,' through clause after clause, w r
his reader has to look back to see which of several persons ·ir ·
that is so darkly referred to. No doubt a pmnoun, like any o ,
word, may often be repeated with advantage, if it is perfe
clear who is meant by the pronoun. And with Macaulay's .P.
nouns, it is always perfectly clear who is meant by them."-:-~

As Relating to Pronoun8.

119

· · man in the International R eview. Quoted by A. S. Hill.
have fr~quently noticed that there is a misty uncertainty as to the
. aning of sentences in which "the former" and "the latter"
ur. How often one is obliged to stop for a moment, and con;· er which is "the former" and which" the latter"! I do not
you must not use these words; Cobbett, you see, uses them
'uite clearly in this last paragraph; but it is, generally, better to
·''peat the words for which they stand.

:y

'· 180. When, however, the nouns take the disjunctive
:·njunction or, the Pronoun must be in the singular; as,
.)Vb.en he shoots a partridge, a pheasant, or a woodcock,
lie gives it away."
181. Nouns of number, or multitude, such as Mob, Par'ament, Rabble, I-Iouse of Commons, Regiment, Court of
· ing's B ench, IJen of Thieves, and the like, may have
onouns agreeing with them either in the singular or in
e plural number; for we may, for instance, say of the
ouse .:of Commons, " They refused to hear evidence
igainst Castlereagh when Mr. Maddox accused him of
' ying sold a seat;" or, "It refused to hear evidence."
ut ;,..,..c; must be uniform in our use of the Pronoun in
· ·s resp~6\. We must not, in the same sentence, and
pplicable to the same noun, use the singular in one part
f the sentence and the plural in another part. We must
ot, in speaking of the House of Commons, for instance,
y, "They one year voted unanimously that cheap corn
"as an evil, and the next year it voted unanin10usly that
ear corn was an evil. " There a.re persons who pretend
make very nice distinctions as to the cases when these
'ouns of multitude ought to take the singular, and when
.·ey ought to take the plural, Pronoun; but these dis'. ctions are too nice to be of any real use. The rule is
· "s: that nouns of multitude may take either the singu' or the plural, Pronoun; but not both in the same
utence.
;This will never do; it is far too indefinite. The pronoun stand. g for a noun of multitude is used in the singular if the idea of

.

;··

'J
I

),

Syntax,

As R elating to Pronouns.

unity is to be conveyed, and in the plural if the idea of pluralilf
to be conveyed. Let m e illustrate with some of these very no
which Cobbett so sarcastically huddles together: "The mob
began to scatter in every direction, and they set up a hideous.
as they moved off. The mob came on in one compact body,··
it did not fail to press itself through th e gates of the palace.
hated the rabbl e, because they hated him. The rabble of N
York has a lang uage and a literature of its own. The House ,
Commons could not agree on any m easure of R eform; so
were dismissed by the king. The House of Commons was
mous in .condemning the olistructing Irish m embers, and it
pended them for two weeks. When the Court of King's Be .
passed sentence on :Mr. Cobbett, it refused to reconsider
decision. I have been informed that there was some diffe
of opinion in the Court of King's Bench concerning Mr. Cobbe
case, though they refused to reco nsider their decision. Here ii·
den of thieves ; suppress it. We came upon a den of thieves, w
w ere so numerous that we did not venture to attack them." Tli111,
you see, that the singularity or plurality of the pronoun stan
for a noun of multitude depends entirely upon whether an idea
unity or of plurality is to be conveyed.

wes, and which do not of themselves distinguish the
male from the female, such as 1·abbit, hare, hog, cat, pheasant, jowl, t ake the neuter Pronoun, unless we happen to
know the g ender of the individual we are speaking about.
:If I see you with a cock pheasant in your hand, I say,
"Where did you shoot him.'P" but if you tell me you
have a phecisant, I say, "Where did you shoot it .'P" (See
. aragraphs 42 and 43.)
" 184. The personal Pronouns in their possessive case
' . ust, of course, agree in number and gender witb
~ei.r correspondent nouns or Pronouns: "J olm and
Thomas h ave been so foolish as to sell their land and to
'purchase what is called stock; but their sister, who has
~~much sense to depend on a.bubble for her daily bread,
~s kept lwi· land; theirs is gone forever; but hers is
safe." So they must, also, in their objective case : "John
and Thomas will lose the interest of their money, which
·Will soon cease to be p•tid to them. The rents of their
sister will be r egularly paid to her,- and Richard will also
enjoy his income, which is to be paid to him by his sister."
If there b e nouns of both genders used before Pronouns,
!jllofe mh'Clt be taken that no confusion or obscurity arise
from the misuse of the Pronoun. H mirn says: " They
~eclared it treason to attempt, imagine, or speak evil of
the king, queen, or his h eir s." This has, at least, a meaning, which shuts out the h eirs of the queen. In such a
{lllSe the feminine as well as the masculine pronoun should
be used: "his or lier heirs."
' 185. T ake care, in u sing the personal Pronouns, not to
mploy the objective case where you ought to employ the
nominative/ and take care also of the opposite error.
'"Him strikes I: Her loves he." These offend the ear at
once. But when a number of words come in between
the discordant pm-ts, the ear does not detect the error.
"It was some of those who came hither last night, and
ent awtty this morning, who did the mischief, and not
6

120

182. As to gender, it is hardly possible to make a
take. There are no terminations to denote gender, ex
in the third person singular, he, she, or it. We do, ho
ever, often p ersonify things. Speaking of a nation, weo
say she; of the sun, we say he ; of the moon, we say
·we may personify things at our pleasure; but we ·m .
take care to be consistent, and not call a thing he, or
in one part of a sentence, and it in another part.
occasions when you ought to personify things, and w
you ought not, cannot be stated in any precise
Your own taste and judgment will be your best gui
I shall give you my opinion about figures of speech in
future Letter.
In an article on Longfellow, in the North Am erican Ileview
July, 1882, the writer speaks of meeting " Mrs. William C
Bryant anti h er daughter, ancl others of my countrymen ;" buty
can hardly make such a l>lunuer as that.

183. Nouns which denote sorts, or kinds, of Jiving

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Syntax,

As Relating to Pronouns.

my brother and me." It ought to be '.'my brother and.[.~
For I am not, in this instance, the object but the actor, or
supposed actor. "vVho broke that glass~" "It was me."
It ought to be I,· that is to say, "It was I who broke it."
Fill up the sentence with all the words that are understood; and if there be errors, you will soon discover them.
After the words than and as, this error, of putting the
objective for the nominative, is frequently committed; as,
"John was very rich, but Peter was richer than him,·.
and, at the same time, as learned as him,, or any of his
family." It ought to be richer than he j as learned as he j .
for the full meaning h ere is, "richer than he was j . as.
learned as he was." But it does not always happen t~
the nominative case comes after than or as. "I love you
more than him j I give you more than him j I love you
as well as him J·" that is to say, I love you more than I.
love hirn · I give you more than I give to him j I love ·
J
h .
you as well as I love kim. Take away hirn and put e, m
all these cases, and the grammar is just as good, only the
meaning is qicite different. "I love y,ou as well as him,",
means that I love you as well a1; I love him j but '.' I
love you as well as he," means, that I love you as well at
he loves yuic
186. You see, then, of what importance this distinction
of cases is. But you must not look for this word, or t~
word, coming before or coming after to be your guide;
It is reason which is to be your sole guide. When th&
person or thing represented by the Pronom~ i~ the obje,dj
then it rnu::;t be in the objective case; when it is the actor,
or when it is merely the person or thing said to be this¢
that then it must be in the nominative case. Read again
p::u·;graphs 46, 4 7, and 48, of Letter V.
187. The errors committed with regard
foundin"" of cases arise most frequently when the Pro\
nouns a~·e pla0ed, in the sentences, at a great distan.
from the words which are connected with them, and whi

the case. "He and his sister, and not their
uncle and cousins, the estate was given to." Here is
' nothing that sounds harsh; but, bring the Pronoun close
to the preposition that demands the objective case; say
the estate was given to he; and, then you perceive the
grossness of the error in a moment. "The work of
· national ruin was pretty effectually carried on by the
ministers; but more effectually by the paper-money
makers than they." This does not hurt the ear; but it
· ought to be theni j "more effectually than by thern."
188. The Pronouns mine, thine, theirs, yours, hers, liis,
stand frequently by themselves; that is to say, not followed by any noun. But then the noun is understood:
·'. "That is hers." That is to say, her propm·ty j her hat, or
whatever else. No difficulty can arise in the use of these

122

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Except one. Some people erroneo usly write these words with
an apostrophe; our's, etc. A gentleman once show ed me a letter
' which h e considered perfect. So it was; all except the last two
, Wl'!"d.~. which were written thus: "Your's truely."
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189. But the use of the personal Pronoun it is a subject
· of considerable importance. Read again paragraphs 60
· and 61, Letter VI. Think well upon what you find there;
' and when you have done that, proceed with me. This
. · Pronoun with the verb to be is in constant use in our
· language. To say, "Your uncle came hither last night,"
is not the same thing as to say, ".it was your uncle who
; came hither last night," though the fact related b e the
,' same. "It is I who write" is very different from " l
' write," though in both cases, my writing is the fact very
~learly expressed, and is one and the same fact. "It is
" those men who deserve well of their country," means a
great deal more than "Those men deserve well of their
·country." The principal verbs ai:e the same; the prepositions are the same; but the real meaning is different.
·"It is the dews and showers that make the grass grow,"

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Syntax,

is very different from merely observing, ".Dews
showers make the grass grow."
190. D ocTOR LowTH has given it as his opinion, that At,
is not correct to place p lural nouns or pronouns after t e..
it, thus used; an opinion which arose from the want of a
little more reflection. The it has nothing to do, grammatically speaking , with the rest of the sentence. The~
,f' b .
.)
together with the verb to be, express states 0.1 emg, m;
some instances, and in others this phrase serves to mar~ ,
in a strong manner, the subject, in a mass, of what is abo-qt "
to be affirmed or denied. Of course, this phrase, which
is in almost incessant use, may be followed by nouns and"
pronouns in the singular, or in the plural number. I
forbear to multiply examples, or to enumerate the various
ways in which this phrase is used, ,because one grain o~­
reasoning is worth whole tons of memory. The p rincipk. ."
b eing once in your mind, it will be ready to be applied
to every class of cases, and every particular case of each ·
class.
An example, however, often sticks where the principle fails to
do so. "It is I ; it is thou; it is he; it is she; it is we; it is you;
it is they ; it is the devil ; it is the devils." These are all correct;
because it is the subject, is is the predicate, and what follows is
the attribute, which may be singular or plnral. - I c:mnot hclpremarking that the pause after "thus used" in the third line of .
the above paragraph is a capital example of the place where the
DASH ought to be used.

191. For want of reliance on principles, inst ead of ex- '
amples, h ow the latter have swelled in number, and
a rammar-books in bulk! But it is much easier to quote :
b
examples thn.n to lay clown principles. For want of a - little thought as to the matter immediately before us,
some grammarians have found out "an absolute case," as
th ey call it; and MR. LINDLEY MURRAY gives an instance
of it in these words: "Shame being lost, all virtue is lost."
The full meaning of the sentence is this: It being, or tht

As Relating to Pronoitns.

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125

atate of things being such, that "shame is lost, all virtu e
· is lost ."

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192. Owing to not seeing the u se and power of this it
in t!::.::i!- ~rue light, many persons, after long puzzling ,
think they must make the pronouns which immediately
follow conform to the cases which the verbs and prepositions of the sentence demand. "It is them, and not
the people, whom I address myself to." "It was him,
and not the other man, that I sou ght after." The p r epo.1 sitions to and after demand an objective case; and they
have it in the words whom and that. The Pronouns
which follow the it and the verb to be m u st alway s be in
the nominative case. And, t h erefore, in the above examples, it should be, "It is they, and not the other
people ; " "It was he, and not the other man."
· 193. This it with its verb to be is sometimes employed
with the p r eposition fo r, with singular force and effect.
-'"I t is f or the guilty to live in fear, to skulk and to hang

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This "shame being lost" is called by some grammarians a participial phrase ; by others, an abridged participial clause, standing
for "As shame is lost." Therefore, " all virtue is lost, as shame
Is lost;" the second clause modifying the first. "On arriving in
·London, I went to see Madame Tussaud's Exhibition." These first
four words form another such participial phrase or abridged participial clause, modifying went: '·I went, on arriving in London
(when I arrived in London), to see Madame Tussaud's Exhibition."-This absolute case is something like what other grammarians
, call the independent case : " Charles, mind what you are about.
Sir, I deny the charge. I have seen a wax figure of Cobbett,
boys, at Madame Tussaud's Exhibition." Charles, Sir, boys, are
,, .here said to be in the independent case, because they have no
t bearing on any other part of the sentence. These words may,
however, be resolved into the nominative case, thus: To you,
whose name is Charles, I have this to say : mind what you are
about. To you, who are a Sir-to you, who are boys, etc.
Remember, therefore, that any word standing alone like these, or
- in an exclamation-0 Roscoe! Roscoe ! what an ass you have
.made of yourself !-is said to be in the independen t case.

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their heads; but for the innocent it is to enjoy ease
tranquillity of mind, to scorn all disguise, and to
themselves erect." This is much more · forcible than
say, "The guilty generally live in fear," and so on,
throughout the sentence. The word for, in this case,
denotes appropriateness, or fitness; and the full exprea-'
sion would be this: "To the state of being, or state o/
things called guiltiness, to live in fear is fitting, or is
appropriate." If you pay attention to the reason on which
the use of these words is founded, you will never be at a'
'
loss to use them properly.
194. The word it is the greatest troubler that I know·
of in language. It is so small, and so convenient, that·
few are careful enough in using it. Writers seldom spare
this word. Whenever they are at a loss for either a nomin ative or an objective to their sentence, they, without anr
kind of ceremony, clap in an it. A very r emarkable instance of this pressing of poor it into actual service, contrary to the laws of grammar and of sense, occurs in a
piece of composition, where we might, with justice, insis~
on correctness. This piece is on the subject of grammar;
it is a piece written by a doctor of divinity, and read by
him to students in grammar and language in an academy,.;
and the very sentence that I am now about to quote is
selected, by the author of a grammar, as testimony ,ol
high authority in favor of the excellence of his wor.~:
Surely, if correctness be ever to be expected, it must
in a case like this. I allude to two sentences in
" Charge of the REVEREND DocToR ABERCROMBIE to the.
Senior Class of the Philadelphia Academy," published in
1806; which sentences have been selected and published
by MR. LINDLEY lYlunRAY, as a testimonial of the merits of,
his grammar; and which sentences are, by Mn. Mmmu,
given to us in the following words: "The unwearied
exertions of this gentleman have done more towards elu-;
cidating the obscurities, and embellishing the struct~

f our language, than any other writer on the subject.
h a work has long been wanted; and, from the success
with which it is executed, cannot be too highly appre-

126

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the

127

ciated."
. 195. As, in the learned Doctor's opinion, obscurities
can be elucidated, and, as, in)he same opinion, MR. Mun11.lY is an able hand at this kind of work, it would not be
amiss were the grammarian to try his skill upon this
.article from the hand of his dignified eulogist ; for here
is, if one may use the expression, a constellation of
obscurities. Our poor oppressed it, which we find forced
into the Doctor's service in the second sentence, relates
to "siich a wo1·k," though this work is nothing that has
an ~xistence, notwithstanding it is said to be "execut~cl. "
In the first sentence, the "exertions" become, all of a
sudden, a "write1· /' the exertions have done more than
"any other writer ;" for, mind you, it is not the gentleman
that has done anything; it is "the exertions " that have
·done what is said to be done. The word gentleman is in
the possessive case, and has nothing to do with the action
of the sentence. Let us give the sentence a turn, and
the Doctor and the grammarian will hear how it will
sound. "This gentleman's exertions have done more
than any other writer." This is upon a level with "This
gentle~an's de~ has killed more hares than any other
IJIOr~sman." No doubt DocTOR ABERCROMBIE meant to
iay, "the exertions of this gentleman have done more
ti<an those of any other writer. Such a work as this
'gentleman's has long been wanted: his work, seeing the
l!.UCcessful manner of its execution, cannot be too highly
commended." JIIeant! No doubt at all of that! And
~hen we hear a Hampshire ploughboy say, "Poll Cherry,cheek have giv'd I thick handkecher," we know very well
that he m eans to say, "Poll Cherrycheek has given me
:this handkerchief;" and yet, we are but too apt to laugh
at him, and to call him ignorant,- which is wrong; b e-

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Syntax,

As Relating to Pronouns.

cause he has no pretensions to a knowledge of grarrunal
and he may be very skillful as a ploughboy. However1
we will not laugh at DocToR ABERCROMBIE, whom I knew,
many years ago, for a very kind and worthy man, aµ~
who baptized your elder brother and elder sister. But if
we may, in any case, be allowed to laugh at the ignoran~
of om· fellow-creatures, that case certainly does arise when
we see a professed grammarian, the author of voluminous
precepts and examples on the subject of grammar, pro-°
ducing, in imitation of the possessors of invaluable medical secrets, testimonials vouching for the efficacy of hm"
literary panacea, and when, in those very testimonials, we;
find most flagrant instances of bad grammar.
196. However, my dear James, let this strong and ·
striking instance of the misuse of the word it serve you "
in the way of caution. Never put an it upon paper with: :
out thinking well of what you are about. When I see.
many its in a page, I always tremble for the writer.
197. "'\Ve now come to the second class of Pronouns;".
that is so say, the RELATIVE PRONOUNS, of which you have
had some account in L etter VI, paragraphs 62, 63, 64,
65, and 66; which paragraphs you should now read over
again with attention.
198. TVlw, which becomes whose in the possessive case7
and whom in the objective case, is, in its use, confined to
rational beings; for though some writers do say, "thi'
country whose fertility :ts great," and the like, it is not
conect. We must say, "the country the fertility of
which." But if we personify; if, for instance, we call ~
nation a she, or the sun a he, we must then, if we have
need of relative Pronouns, take these, or the word
which is a relative applicable to rational as well as ~
tional and even inanimate beings.
'

199. The errors which are most frequent in the use of
these relative Pronouns arise from not taking care to use
_11Jho and whom, when they are respectively demanded by
the ver?s or prepositions. "To who did you speak'?
Whom is come to-day?" These sentences are too O"lar, 1
t>
~g Y wrong to pass from our pens to the paper. But, as
m the case of personal Pronouns, when the relatives are
·placed, in the sentence, at a distance from their anteced_ents, or verbs or prepositions, the ear gives us no
assistance. " TVlw, of all the men in the world do you
ihink I saw, the other day? TVlw, for the sak~ of his
numerous services, the office was given to." In both
these cases it ought to be whom. Bring the verb in the
first, and the preposition in the second case closer to the
.
re1ative;
as, who I sow; to who the office' was given;
and you will see the error at once. But take care!
"lV!iom of all men in the world, do you think was chosen
to be sent as an ambasssador? TVlwm, for the sake of
_his numerous services, had an office of honor bestowed
upon him." Th_ese are nominative cases, and ought to
have who; that is to say, "who was chosen ; who /iad an
'office." ~ will not load you with numerous examples.
Read agam about the nominative and objective cases in
. Letter V. Apply your reason to the subject. TVho is
the nominative, and whom the objective. Think well
about the mat~er, and you will want no more examples.
· 200. Th.ere is, however, an erroneous way of employing
VJhom, which I must point out to your particular attenpon, because it is so often seen in very good writers and
because it is very deceiving. "The Duke of Ai:gyle,
than whom no man was more heal'ty in the cause. ''
~Cromwell, than whorn no man was better skilled in artice." A hundred such phrases might be collected from
1IuME, BLACKSTONE, and even from Doctors BLAIR and
_OHNSON. Yet they are bad grammar. In all such cases,
!fho should be made use of; for it is nominative and not

128

thaj,

It is now correct to say "the country whose fertility is great;.':
for it is a much more direct and easy way of speaking than th '
other. This form was begun by the poets, and is now constant1i
~
used by prose-writers.

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131

Syntax,

As Relating to Pronouns.

objective. "No man was more h earty in the cause than
he was; no man was better skilled in artifice than j,,
was." It is a very common Parliament-house phrase, and
therefore presumptively corrupt; but it is a Doctor
Johnson phrase too; " Pope, than whom few men had
more vanity." The Doctor did not say, "Myself, than
whom few men have been found more base, having, in my
Dictionary, described a pensioner as a slave of state, and
having afterwards myself become a pensioner."
201. I differ, as to this matter, from Bishop Lowth;
who says that "the relative who, having reference to n
verb or preposition understood, but only to its anteoodent, when it follow s than, is always in the objective case,•
even though the Pronoun, if substituted in its place,
would be in the nominative." And then he gives an instance from Milton. "Beelzebub, than whom, Satan
except, none higher sat." It is curious enough that t ·
sentence of the Bishop is, itself, ung rammatical! Our
poor unfortunate it is so placed as to make it a matter of
doubt whether the Bish op meant it to r elate to who, or tp
its antecedent. H owever, we know his meaning; bu~
though he says that who, when it follows than, is always.
in the objective case, h e gives us no reason for this departure from a clear general principle; unless we are to
regard as a reason the example of Milton, who has committed many hundreds, if not thousands, of grammatical'
errors, many of which the Bishop himself has pointed out;
There is a sort of side-wind attempt at a reason in the
words, " having r eference to no verb or p rep osition understood." I do not see the ?'eason, even if this could be;
for it appears to me impossible that a Noun or Pronoun
can exist in a grammatical state without having reference
to some verb or p reposition, either expressed or understood. What is meant by Milton '? "Than Beelzebub
none sat higher, except Satan." And when, in order to
avoid th e repetition of the word Beelzebub, the relative

becomes n ecessary, the full construction must be, "no
.evil sat higher than who sat, except Satan;" and not
"no devil sat higher than whom sat." The supposition
1that there can be a Noun or Pronoun which has reference
1tono verb, and no p reposition, is certainly a mistake.
Mr. Swinton quotes these two sentences about Pope and Beelzebub, and the1~ says: ''This construction must be r egarded as
ianomalou s~ but it has been used by so m any r eputable authors
1
that we can scar ce!,,- r efu se t o accept it." It seems to m e that this
,is one of those cases where lon g u sage has made a faulty expression
·appe/J/I' or sound correct; just as th ere are many people who think
"it is me" sounds much lJette r than ''it is I." I am sure '' th an
·whom" is now mu ch more rarely u sed than formerly .

202. That, as a r elative, may, as we h ave seen, b e applied either to persons or things; but it has no possessi,,e
case, and no change to den ote the other two cases. W e
'say, "the man that gives, and the man that a thing is
given to." But there are some instances when it can
hardly be called proper to u se that inst ead of wlw or
whom. Thus, directly after a proper name, as in H urvrn:
. ' The Queen gave orders for taking into ~ustody the
Duke of Northumberland, who fell on his knees to the
Earl of Arundel, that arrested him. " TV!w would have
been much better, though there was a who just before in
the sentence. In the same author: "Douglas, who had
. prepared his people, and that was b ent upon t aking his
part openly. " This n ever ought to b e, though we see it
continually. Either may do; but botli never ought to be
relatives of the same antecedent, in the same sent ence.
And, indeed, it is very awkward, to say th e least of it, to
use both in the same sentence, though relating to different
~antecedents, if all these be names of rational beings. "The
Lords, who made the first false report, and the Commons,
that seemed to vie with their L ordships in falsehood, be.C8Jlle equally det ested." That, as a relative, cannot take
•.the preposition or verb immediately before it. I may say
•. "The man to whom I gave a book; " but I cannot say," the

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Syntax,

As Relating to Pronouns.

mau to that I gave a b ook; " nor "th e k nife to that I pu(a
h andle." " Having d efeated whom , h e r emained quiet;"
but we cannot, in speaking of person s, say, "Having d~
fe at ed that, h e r emained quiet."
203. Which, as a r elative Pronoun, is applied to irrational b eings only, and, as to those b eings, iJ; may be employed indifferently with that, except in the cases where
the relative comes directly after a verb pr a p1leposition,
in the manner just spoken of. \Ve say, "the town, the,
horse, th e tree, which; or to which/' and so on. And
we say, "the town, the tree, the h or se, that;" but not to·

come at last;" or, " The thing which happens to-day may
. happen n ext week; but I know not the thing which w e
shall come to at last."

or.for that.
204. We m ay, in sp eaking of nouns of multitude, when
the multitude consists of rational creatures, and when we
choose to consid er it as a singular n oun, make use of wlw
or whom, or of which, jus t as we plea se. We may say,
"the crowd which was going up the street;" or "the
crowd who was going up the street ;" but we cannot
m ak e u se of b oth in the same sentence and r elating to
the same n oun. Therefore, we cannot say, "the crowd
who was going up the street and which was making
great noise." \Ve must take the who, or the which, in
b oth places. If such noun of multitude b e used in the
pl11ral nuinbe1-, we then go on with the idea of the
rationality of the individuals in our minds; and therefore
we rrmke u se of who and whom. "The assembly, wlw
r ejected th e p etiti on, but to wlwni another was immediately presented."
205. TV!w, whose, whom, and which, ar e employed iii
asking questions; to which, in this capaci ty, we must add
what. " lV!w is in the h ouse'? Whose g un is that?
Whom do you l ove b est'? What has h appened to-day!".
What m eans, gen erally, as a rebtive, "the thing which/'
as, "Give me ,vhat I want." It may be us ed in the nominative and in the objective case: "Wlrnt h appen s to-~y
m ay happen n ext week; but I know not to what we s~

a

1 33

This little word what may, sometimes, curiously enough , be both
·subject and object in the same sentence. "Give what is proper.
Tell me what was done." In the first sentence, what is the object
·'of give and the subject of 1:8 proper; and may be set down as equal
.to that which. In the sccoml sentence, what is the object of tell
and the subject of was done; me being the indirect object, or
adverbial phrase, meaning to me. You may also say that th e whole
. clause what was done is the object of tell, and call it an objective
clause.
Notice that the relative pronoun is sometimes omitted, but only
in the objective case; as, You are the boy (whom) I mean; this is
the book (that) I want. This omission of words, which grammarians call an ellipsis, is very common in our tongue; as, Dinner
done, we walked into the garden ; that argument granted, I proceed to the next.
The place of the relative pronoun is a mighty important matter.
Somebody sent 1\'[r. White this striking instance of such misplncement: " Just now, I saw a man talking to tlie Rev. J\1r. Blank,
who was so drunk that he co uld h ardly stand." The last two
clauses were intended, of cou rse, to come after man, who was
drunk, anu not the reverend gentleman. Here are some more
examples from Greene's Gramnrnr: ''Mr. Brown needs a physician
· who is sick. The oranges came in n. basket which we ate. Found,
a gold watch by a gentleman with steel hands. A man brought
home my Newfoundland dog in his shirt-sleeves." These last two
sentences have no relative pronoun, but they arc good exampl es of
misplacement of words. " I told you to do that this morning" is
a very different thing from " I told you, this morning, to do that."
Here is an advertisement which I have just noticed in the
Tribune: "Conditioned scholars coached for fall exami nations
• during the summer months at Tarrytown." These worus, as they
stand, mean that the scholars arc to be coached (that is, prepared)
for fall examinations, taking place during the summer months at
Tarrytown; but the advertiser cliu not mean anything of the kind.
He meant to say, "Conditioned scholars coached, during the summer mouths, at Tarrytown, fo r fall examinations." Yon will say
that the fall examinations could not be during the 8Ummer months.
No ;. but the words say so.

134

Syntax,
As Relating to Pronouns.

206. TVhich, though in other cases it cannot be eni-.
ployed as a relative with nouns which are the names of .
ratio~al bein'gs, is, with such nouns, employed in asking •.
q'.iest10ns; as, "The tyrants allege that the petition was _:.
disrespectful. TVhich of the tyrants?" Again: "One of ·
the petitioners had his head cleaved by the yeomanry. ·
TVhich ?" That is to say, "Which of the petitioners ,
was it ?"
207. What, when used in asking for a repetition 0 (
what has been said-as, what ?-means, "Tell me that
which, or the thing wliich, you have said." This word is
u sed, and with great force, in the way of exclamation:
"What! rob us of our right of suffrage, and then, when
we pray to have our right restored to us, shut us up in
dungeons!" The full meaning is this: " l Vhat do they do?
They rob us of our right."
208. It is not, in general, advisable t~ crowd these relatives together; but it sometimes happens that it is clone.
" TV!w, that has any sense, can believe such p alpable falsehoods ? What, that can be invented, can disguise these
falsehoods ? By whom., that you ever heard of, was a pardon obtained from the mercy of a tyrant ? Some men's
rights have been taken from them by force and by genius,
but whose, that the world ever heard of before, were taken
away by ignorance and stupidity?"
209. lVhosoever, whosesoever, whomsoever, whatsoever,
whichsoever, follow the rnles applicable to the original
words. The so is an adverb, which, in its general acceptation, means in like manner; and ever, which is also an
adverb, means, at any thne, at all times, or always. These
two words, thus joined in whosoever, mean, who in any
case that may be; and so of the other three words. We
sometimes omit the so, and say, whoever, whomever, whatever, and even wlwsever. It is a mere abbreviation. The
so is understood; and it is best not to omit to write it. ..
Sometimes the .wever is separated from the Pronoun:

135

"What man soever he might be." But the main thing is
~ understand the reason -upon which the use of these
. words stands ; for, if you understand that, you will always
use the words properly.
. , 210. The DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS have been described
in Letter VI, paragraph 67; and I have very liti;le to add
· to what is there said upon the subject. They never
,.change their endings to denote gender or case; and the
· ~oper applic~tion of them is so obvious that it requires
little t@ be said about it. However, we shall hear more of
these Pronouns when we come to the Syntax of Verbs.
One observation I will make here, however, because it will
serve to caution you against the commission of a very
• common error. You will hardly say, "'Them that write;"
but you may say, as many do, "We ought always to have
. great regard for them who are wise and good." It
, ought to be, "for those who are wise and good;" because
· the word persons is understood: " those persons who are
_wise and good;" and it is bad grammar to say, "them persons who are wise and good." But observe, in another
· sense, t~is sentence would be conect. If I be speaking
of particular p ersons, and if my object be to make you
understand that they are wise and good, and also that I
love them; then I say, very correctly, "I love them, who
are wise and good." Thus: "The father has two children.
_he lo_ves them, who are wise and good; and they love him:
who is very indulgent." It is the meaning that must be
,• your guide, and reason must tell you what is the meaning.
' .A'/'Z!ey, "'.h o can wnte,
.
save a great deal of bodily labor,"
is very different from "'Those who can write save a great
.deail of bodily labor." The those stands for those persons ·
, ~~t is to say, any persons, persons in general, who ca:i
.wnte: whereas, the they, as here used, relates to some
. -particular persons; and the sentence means that these
particular persons are able to write, and, by that means,
tliey save a great deal of bodily labor. DocToR BLAIR, in

I
I
,.

'

1,1

<I

,.1

, . J.i

: 11 ••
f :·•I•

I

I

!;'.r:i,l
I , .

ti .'
·11.·,
'>i.

,,

' I

Syntax,

As Relating to Pronouns.

his 21st Lecture, has fallen into an enor
thus, "These two paragraphs are extremely worthy of
MR. AnmsoN, and exhibit a style, which they, who can
successfully imitate, may esteem themselves happy."
ought to be those instead of they. But this is not the
only fault in this sentence. Why say "extremely worthy!"
Worthiness is a quality which hardly admits of degreea,
and surely it does not admit of extremes I Then, again,
at the close: to esteem is to pr'ize, to set value on, to
value h ighly. How, then, can men " esteem themselvee
happy ?" How can they prize themselves happy? How
can they highly valite themselves happy ? My dear James,
let chambermaids, and members of the House of Commons,
and learned Doctors, write thus: be you content with
plain words which convey your meaning; say that a thing
is quite worthy of a man; and that m en may deem themselves happy.-It is truly curious that Lr~DLEY Mu1mu_
should even in the motto in the title-page of his Engliah
'
'
Grammar,
have selected a sentence
containing a gramr
matical ei-ror; still more curious that he should have
found this sentence in DocTOR Br,Am's Lectures on Language; and most curious of all that this sentence shoajd
be intended to inculcate the great utility of correctness ia
the composmg of sentences. Here, however, are t4'
proofs of this combination of curious circumstances:
"They who are learning to compose, and arrange theii
sentences with accmacy and order, are learning, at ~
same time, to think with accuracy and order." Pohl
Never think a man either learned or good merel~ Oll
account of his being calleLl a D ocLor.
211. The INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS have been enumerated
in Letter VI, parapraph 71. They are sometimes Adj,66'
tives, as is stated in that paragraph. ·whoever, whatever,
and whichever (that is, whosoever, whatsoever, which&oever), though relatives, are indeterminate too. But, in.
deed, it signifies little how these words are classed. 1'

is the use of them that we ought to look to. Every,

136

n

137

which I have now reckoned amongst these Pronouns, is
~ever, now.-a-~ay~, used without a noun, and is thei·efore,

-Jn fac~, an .a_cl.Jec~ive.

The error that is most frequently
committed m usmg thes\l Pronouns is the putting -of the
plural verb or J!lural Pronoun after nouns preceded by
,tvery, each, or eithe1·; especially in the case of every: as
·;every man ; every body; every house." These are un<ler~
stood to -mean, all the men, all the people, all the hoiises;
but, only one man, one body, one house, is spoken of, and
theref?re .the verb ought to be in the singular; as, "everyy is disgusted;" and not "every body are disgusted. "
.212. Before you use any of these words, you should
. k well on their true meaning; for, if you do this, you
seldom commit enors in the use of them. DocToR
DHNSON, in his Rambler, No. 177, has this passage:
'Every one of these virtuosos looked on all bis associates
.wretches of depraved taste and narrow notions. Their
n:ersation was, therefore, fretful and waspish, their be': or brutal, their merriment bluntly sarcastic, and their
ousness gloomy and suspicious." Now these theirs
.. tainly relate to every one, though the author meant
'th~ut doub~, that. they should relate to the whole bod;
vi1·tuosos, mcluding the every one. The word the1·eore adds to the confusion. The virtuosos were, thm·eore, fretful and waspish. What for f Was it because
. ry. one saw his associates in a bad light ? How can my
g meanly of others make their conversation fretful?
the Doctor had said, "These virtuosos looked on each
r" . . . tLe meaning would have been clear.
213. The. Pronoun either, which means one of two, is
often nnproperly employed. It is sometimes used
.denote one of three or m01·e, which is always incorrect.
e say, "eithe1· the clog, or the cat/' but not " ~ithei· the
, the cat, or the pig.' 8uppose some one to ask me
"ch I choose to have, mutton, veal, or woodcock; I

Syntax ,

As Relating to Ac{jectives.

answer any one of them; and not either of them.
Blair h as used any one where he ought to have u
either: " The two words are not altogether synonymo~~
yet, in the present case, any one of them would have beeD
sufficient."
214. In concluding this Letter on the Syntax of Proo
nouns, I must observe that I leave many of these inde:
terminate Pronouns unnoticed in a particular manner.
To notice every one individually could answer no purpose
except that of swelling the size of a book; a thing which
I most anxiously wish to avoid.

"Everybody h_avc their faults-Every one are dissatisfied-Let
h ~? and girl take up their pens," etc. These are all wrong
.en I the no~n with each or every be repeated, the verb or pro~
=~\~ust be Ill the singular; as, "Each day and each hour lias
Win~ ies; every man and woman has his or lwr peculiarities ; every
ov: and ev~ry house-top was crowded with spectators." Be~:· Ill these m stances, the predicate or verb is underst,ood afte
e_ rst noun: Every window was crowded and every house topr
ilfas crowded.
-

138

Sometimes one cannot help u sing EITHER .• . OR with refcreoce
to one of three things. Expressions like the following will
be found in the works of the best authors : Either the Rom11DB,
th e Greeks, or the P ersians. N either the planters, the J>OO!
whites, nor the blacks.
Nearly all th e grammars set do wn the rul e that one must
each other with rct"crence to two persons , and one another with refer~ ·
cnce to more than two. I have not, however , found a single autboc;
good or bad, that adheres to thi s rule. When you are speaking~
three persons, it is perhaps better to say, '' They love one another.:·
than '' They love each other ;" but so metimes these words have to
be repeated so frequently that it would be very disagreeable to uae
always th e same word. In Punch's Address to Brother Jonatbaii;
these word s occur almost interch angeably: "Let us quarrel, Amelf;
can kinsmen. Let us plunge into war. We have been friends~
long. W e have too highly promoted each other's wealth and I!
perity. W c ar c too plethoric; we want depletion; to which !l
let us cut one another's throats. L et us sink each otlwr's shipp' •
burn each other's arsenals, destroy each other's property at 1
Let our banks break while we smite and slay one another; Le$
maim and mutilate one anotlwr; let us mak e of each otlwr i'ruse ·
objects," etc. -Notice that each has a r estrictin g sense, and eDe1'J
extended or general one. "He examined each one ; he ex
every one. " The first m eans each single one; the second m.
them all, in a general sense. '' Here are ten lazy boys; give
one a caning. Give a caning to every lazy boy in the school." ;
That error of making verbs and pronouns agree with elJJJA
every, as if these words were plural, is as common to-day as:it
in Cobbett's time. How often we hear such

use'

.,

139

LETTER XVIII.
SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO ADJECTIVES.

B~ this time, my dear James, you will hardly want
be remmded of the nature of Adjectives. However it
Ji!!IY not be amiss for you to read again attentivel the
!hole of Letter VII.
Y
216. Adjectives,
having
no
relative
effect
t
.
.
.
, con allllng no
resen t ative quality' have not the d ange1.ous power
ses~ed by pronouns, of throwing whole sentences int~ ,
.. : fu~10n, an~ of perverting or totally destroying the
,)er s me~mng. For this reason, there is little to be
. respectmg the using of Adjectives.
~17. _When you make use of an Adjective in the way of
, .panson, take care that there be a congruity o1· fit
"th thi
,
ness,
·: e. ngs or qualities compared. Do not say that a
. is deeper than it is broad or lonn . or that a m
.
er th h · .
"Y
an is
. an e is wise or rich HUME says "Th
. . 1
th
.
·
'
e pnnc1p es
•, ~ Re~ormat10n were deeper in the prince's mind than
be easily eradicated· " This 1·s no comparison at all.
is nonsense.
if l8. When Adj ectives are used as nouns, they must, in
.respects, be treated as nouns. " The guilt th .
t th . I th
y, e mno"' . e nc l,
e poor, are mixed together." But
ot say "a ilt "
.
we
gu y, meamng to use the word guilty as
Oun.

Syntax,

As Relating to Adjectives.

219. If wo or more Adjectives b e used as applicable
the same noun, there must b e a comma, or commas,
separate them; as, "a poor, unfortunate man;" unless and
or or be made use of, for then the comma or commas ma
be omitted; as, "a lofty and large and excellent house."
220. Be rather sparing than liberal in the use of Adjeotives. One which expresses your meaning is b etter thall
two, which can, at best, do no more "than express it, w~
the additional one may possibly do harm. But the e
most common in the use of Adjectives is the endeavo ·
to strengthen the Adj ective by putting an adverb before
it, and which adverb conveys the n otion that the qruili
or property expressed by the Adj ective admits of degrees,
as, "very honest, extremely just. " A man may be iaia
than another wise man ; an act may b e more wicked t
another wicked act; but a man cannot be more ho
than another; every man who is not honest must be a·
honest; and every act which is not just must be unj
"Very right," and " very wrong," are very common e
pressions, but they are b oth incorrect. Some expressio
may be more common than oth er s ; but that which is
right is wrong; or that which is not ·wrong is rig
There are h ere no intermediat e degr ees. "\Ve should !au
to h ear a man say, "You are a little right, I am a g '
deal wrong; that p erson is h onest in a trifling degru
that act was too just. " But our ears are accustomed
the adverbs of exaggeration. Some writers deal in th
t o a degree that tires the ear and offends the unders '
ing. ·with them, everything is excessively or immena
or extremely or vastly or surp1·isingly or wonderf1tlly·
abundantly, or the like. The notion of such writers
that these words give strength to what they are sa ·
This is a great error. Strength must be found in
thought, or it will never be found in the words.
sounding words, without thoughts corresponding,. '
effort without effect.

.Care must be tak en, t oo, not to use such adJ"ectives
as are improper to be
which th
apprie d t o the nouns along with
ey are used. " Good · ·t
.
tooth-ach es ; pleasing pleasU::s ~es ~~ad VIces ; pa~nful
absurd. b t
·
ese are starrnaly
0
·
' u ' amongst a select societ 0 f
!'moderate R eform" h 1
b
Y
empty h eads,
sion; an expression ,;~icong een a fashionable expresllskin th
h has been well criticised b
.
y
g
e gentlemen who use it how th
obtain moderate j ustice in a court of law ey.
7ould hke_to
01
moderate cliastity in a Wi.fe.
'
o meet with

140

141

222. To secure your.self agarnst
.
the risk of
•tt·
such errors 0 h
commi mg
'full
. ' y u ave only to take care to ascertain the
meanmg of every word you employ.
To show you h ow easy our E11glish is .
.
' m tins part of its grammar, as compared with oth ,. 1
this one li ttle se11tence. " Tcl1 angudagbes, I shall as k you to look at
·
ie goo
oy love
d
good friend ; to good bread alld butt
~ a goo book a11d a
Here the ad j ective good occ . f
. . er h e gives not a thought."
.
Ill s our times with t
'··
. . o.u ever oncechallgIng its form; now you w 1·ll sec t11<1t
tlus little
d ·
.
wor , 111 this OllC
Ji tt1e selltence
.
' changes .five c! 1"ff erent tim
es ill G
.
ermall: Der gute
Kn abe h ebt ein gutes Bucl1 u11d cmen
g utell Fre d
und guter Butter gibt er keillen Gedanl· .
ull ; gutem Brod
of that, my lad? would
. , en. What do you think
yo u not thmk that ti
hen he speaks ' would be COllSt ant y thi 1 . ie fpoo. r Gernrn 11 '
1
pumbers, alld cases? Wotild
ll 'mg o lus genders
yo u not th" k h
'
·
t things mixed? But
be apt to
1ie d oesll't· h e mspeake would
h" 1
rrect form , as llatural ly as
..
' .
. s · is anguage in
·
' a c,mary bird
·
r he has learn ed to speak . ti
smgs m c orrect tune ;
. .
as IC canary has learned to .
This
"" Grant "\Vh"1t
smg.
. IS why som e wri ters • l"k
l e mr.
g 1sh Ia11guagc has .., 0 gr·11
e, say th at the
· 1
,.
' nmar · t1rnt is b
·
wor no declc11sio11s or ch·1nges t' ..d . .' ecause its words h ave
'
' · o m 1cate p erso
b
n, num er, gcn4er, case, m ood, and tense. It has ho
wn ; and the proof of it is this . N ' . wever,_ a grammar of its
so few dcclellsions as c . ·odtw1t~1standmg the fact that it
·
'
ompai c with Ger
· · .
d, if not h arder for an adult G
man, It IS JUSt as
• 'tc our English ln a perfect!
erman to I~a:n to speak and
it is for a11 adult Amcr1·c
YB ~orrect alld 1d10matic manller
•
an or n ton t 1 .
'
, rman ill a similar manner Of ti o earn to speak and write
live Germans who are now. . tli. ~ ~wo or three millions of
m
e mtcd States, how mally of

i

f,
I

r·

:I

142

As Refoting to V erbs.

Syntax,

do you think are able to speak our English in such a
th e m '
'
d ..
ner as to have their words taken down on the spot, an pnn
just as spoken? I do not think there are half a dozen; I'.nOJf
but one· and that is Mr. CAnL Scnui~z. When I say 1Ul.tiU
mans, I 'mean, of co urse, those who, like him, have come to
country and learned the language after attaining rna~l10od. Th
who come h ere in infancy, or in childhood, h ccome, m fact,
cans. Of the oth ers, n ot one in ten thousand ever learns to
like a native. As an offset to Mr. Schurz, we hav~ at least
American who may be said to have spoken and ~ntten Ge
as perfectly as Mr. Schurz speaks tind writes English; and th.al
our lamented BA YA.HD TAYLOI?.
It is very easy to l earn enough English to t alk about one's
wants. to ask for meat and drink ; to count money; to buy
sell; ;nd to inquire one's way; it is far e~sier for a German
learn this much in En{!;lish than for an American to learn as m
in German; but it is, I think, as hard for the German to maste
English as it is for the Englishman to 11uuiter t~e G~rm.an. The ,
m an language, in utterance and in construct10n, is, like the ~eo
who speak it, almost as r egular, formal, and la>~-conformm~
mathematics; while our English, in utterance 1md ~n construe
is like the typical Englishman, though grounded ~~law and p
ci~le, essentially a mass of peculiarities, irrcgulanties, and
trieities.

LETTER XIX.
SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO VERBS.

223. Let us, my dear James, get well through this
ter; and then we may, I think, safely say that we kn
something of grammar: a. little more, I hope, than.,
by the greater T>art of those who call themsaJ, .
r
.
.
h . ha .
k nown
L a.tin and Greek scholars, and who digmfy t err
studied these languages with the name of "Liberal

cation."
224. There can be no sentence, there can be no
in words, unless there be a Verb either expressed or
derstood. Each of the other Parts of Speech may

143

ne.tely be dispensed with; but the Verb never can. The
erb being, then, of so much importance, you will do well
~read again, before you proceed further, paragraphs 23,
24, 25, and 26, in Letter III, and the whole of Letter

vm.

· 225. Well, then, we have now to see how Verbs are
ed in sentences, and how a misuse of them affects the
eaning of the writer. There must, you will bear in
lnind, always be a Verb expressed or understood. One
· ould think that this was not the case in the direction
)Vritten on a pos~ letter. "To John Goldsmith, Esq.,
,. mbledon, Hampshire." But what do these words
ally mean? Why, they mean, " This letter is to be
liv(lred to John Goldsmith, who is an E squire who lives
'
~ Hambledon, which is in Hampshirn." Thus, there are
~'? less than five Verbs where we thought there was no
Verb at all. "Sir, I beg you to give me a bit of bread."
e sentence which follows the Sir is complete; but the
'r appears to stand wholly without connection. H ow~er, the full meaning is this: "I beg you, who are a Sir,
io give me a bit of bread. " " What, John?" That is to
say, "What is said by you, whose name is John ?" Again,
!n the date of a letter; " Long Island, March 25, 1818."
~t is: "I am now writing in L ong I sland; this is the
enty-fifth day of March, and this month is in the one
ousand eight hundred and eighteenth year of the Chrisera."
1226. Now, if you take time to reflect a little on .this
tter, you will never be puzzled for a moment by those
tached words, to suit which grammarians have :invented
tive cases and cases absol·ute, and a great many other
pellations, with which they. puzzle themselves, and
nfuse and bewilder and torment those who read their
ks. (See paragraph 191.)
•227. We almost always, whether in speaking or in writ' leave out some of the words which a.re necessary to a

· 1•

.

. . ···' 'I

'.
I' .

.:l

Syntax,

As Relating to Verbs.

full e:ipressfon of our meaning. This leaving out is '
the Ellipsis. Ellipsis is, in geometry, an oval figure; ·:
the compasses, in the tracing of the line of this · -·
do not take their full sweep all round, as in the tracing
I'
~
a circle, but they make skips and leave out part~. ofarea, or surface, which parts would be included m·'.
circle. Hence it is, that the slcippi,ng over, or leaving •
in speaking or in wi:iting, is called het ~llipsis~wi
making use of which, we, as you will presently
scarcely ever open our lips or move our pens. "He
me that he had given John the gun which the gun
brought the other night." That is: "He told to me
he had given to John the gun, which the gunsmith bro
to this place, or hit.her, on the other night." This wo
you see, be very cumbrous and disagreeable; and, th
fore, seeing th~t the meaning is quite clear without
words marked by italics, we leave these words out.
we may easily go too far in this elliptical way, and' ea
"He told me he had given John the gun the gunsmi
brought the other night." This is leaving the sen ··
too bare, and ma.king it to be, if not nonsense, h
sense.
228. Reserving some further remarks, to be made
and-by, on the Ellipsis, I have now to desire that, alwa ,.
when you are examining a sentence, you will take ·
your view the words that are left out. If you have •
doubt as to the correctness of the sentence, fill it up<
putting in the left-out words, and, if there be an error ·
will soon discover it.
:·
229. Keeping in mind these remarks on the subject~
imderstoocl words, you will now listen attentively to ··
while I endeavor to explain to you the manner in w •
Verbs ought to be used in sentences.
J
230. The first thing is to come at a clear understan ·
with regard to the cases of nouns and pronouns as
nected, in use, with Verbs and vrepositions; for on

onnection depends a great deal. Verbs govern, as it is
~ed, nouns and pronouns; that is to say, they somees cause, or make, nouns or pronouns to be in a cer~ case. Nouns do not vary their endings to denote
different cases; but pronouns do; as you have seen in
Letter VI. Therefore, to illustrate this matter, I will
•tak.e t~e pronoun personal of the third person singular,
1wh1ch m the nominative case is he, possessive case his,
iobjective case him.
!. 231. When a man (it is the same with regard to any
"?ther person or thing) is the actor, or doer, the man is in
the nominative case, and the corresponding pronoun is
he; "IIe strikes." The same case exists when the man is
the i·eceiver or endurer, of an action. "IIe is stricken. " It
is still the sa1.n~ case when the man is said to be in any
state or cond1t10n. "He is unhappy." Indeed, there is
,no diiference in these two latter instances; for "lie is
stricken" is no other than to say that "he is in a state or
condition called stricken. " Observe, too, that in these two
latter instances, the lie is followed by the Verb to be: he
,is stricken, he is unhappy; and observe, moreover, that
whenever the Verb to be is used, the receiver, or be-er (if
;I may make a word) is, and must be, in the nominative
case. But now let me stop a little to guard you against
·~ puzzle. I say, "the Verb to be;" but I do not mean
.lhose two woi~ds always. "When I say the Verb to be, I
may mean, as m the above examples, is. This is the Verb
;to be in the third person singular. "I write." I should
say that here is the pronoun I and the Verb to write ·
that is to say, it is the Verb to write in one of its form:.
The to is the sign of the infinitive mode; and the Verb in
that ~tate is the root, or the foundation, from which all
,the different parts or forms proceed. Having guarded
,ourselves against this puzzler, let us come back to our
,no~inative case. The actor, the doer, the receiver of an
.action, the be-er, must always be in the nominative case;
7

144

145

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and it is called nominative case because it is that state,
situation, or case, in which the person or thing is 1
without being pointed out as the object, or end, of ~7
foregoing action or purpose; as, "he strikes; he .ii
stricken; he is unhappy." This word nominative is~
a good word; acting and being case, would be .mu
b etter. This word nominative, like most of the terms
used in teaching grammar, has been taken from the La.tin.
It is b ad; it is in11dequate to its intended purpose; but ii
is used · and if we under st11nd its meaning, or, rather,
what it ,is designed to mean, its intrinsic insufficiency~
of no consequence. Thus, I hope, then, that we know
what the nominative is. "He writes; he sings; he is
sick; h e is well; he is smitten; he is good;" and so on,
always with a he.
232. But (and now pay attention) if the action pau
from the actor to a person or thing acted upon, and if
there be no part of the Verb to be employed, then tQe
person or thing acted upon is in the objective case; as,
"lie smites him ; he strikes him; he kills him." h
these instances we wish to show, not only an action ~
is performed 11nd the person who p erforms it, but also the
person upun whom it is performed. Here, therefore, we
state the actur, the action, and the object; and the p61'80ll:
or thing which is the object, is in the objective case. The
Verb is said, in such instances, to govern the noun <E'
pronoun; that is to say, to make it, or force it, to be Di
the objective case; and to make us use him instead of
This is siinply another way of saying that the transitive v
puts the noun or pronoun which follows it in the objective case;
and that a sentence with a transitive verb must consist of sufdd.
predicate, and object; as, Garfield defeated Hancock. (See pa~. 48.)

233. However, I remember that I was very much p~
zled on account of these cases. I saw that when "Pe
was smitten," Peter was in the nominative case; but
when any person or thing "had sm·i tten Peter," Peter w

As Relating to Verbs.

147

• in the objective case. This puzzled me much; and the
loose and imperfect definitions of my grammar-book
yielded me no clue to a disentanglement. Reflection on
the reason for this apparent inconsistency soon taught
me, however, that, in the first of these cases, Peter is
merely named, or nominated as the receiver of an action;
and that, in the latter instance, Peter is mentioned as
·the object of the action of some other person or thing,
expressed or understood. I perceived that, in the first
instance, "Peter is smitten," I had a complete sense. I
was informed as to the person who had received an action,
~ and also as to what sort of action he had received. And
I perceived that, in the second instance, "John has
smitten Peter," there was an act.or who took possession of
the use of the Verb, and made Peter the object of it; and
that this actor, J ohn, now took the nominative, and put
Peter in the objective case.
234. This puzzle was, however, hardly got over when
11
another presented itself: for I conceived the notion that
Peter was in the nominative only because no actor was
mentioned at all in the sentence,· but I soon discovered
this to be an error; for I found that " Peter is smitten by
John, " still left Peter in the nominative; and that, if I
used the pronoun, I must say, "he is smitten by John;"
and not "him is smitten by John."
235. Upon this puzzle I dwelt a long time: a whole
week, at least. For I was not content unless I could
reconcile everything to reason; and I could see no reason
for ,this. Peter, in this last instance, appeared to be the
object, and there was the actor, John. l\iy ear, indeed,
assmed me that it was right to say, "He is smitten by
John;" but my reason doubted the information and assurances of my ear.
236. At last, the little insignificant word by attracted
my attention. This word, in this place, is a preposition.
.Ah! that is it! prepositions govern nouns and pronouns;

11.

Syntax,

A11 Relating to V e1·bs.

that is to say, niake them to be in the ob}ective case ! So
that John, who had plagued me so much, I found to be in ·
the objective case; and I found that, if I put him out, and
put the pronoun in his place, I must say, "Peter is smitten by him."
237. Now, then, my dear James, do you clearly understand this? If you do not, have patience. R ead and
think, and weigh well every part of what I have here
written: for, as you will immediately see, a clear understanding with regard to the ccises is one of the main inlets
to a perfect knowledge of grammar.

person and in number with the nouns or pronouns which
are the nominatives of "the sentence; that is to say, the
Verbs must be of the same person and same number as
the nominatives are. Verbs frequently change their forms
and endings to make themselves agree with the n01ninatives. How necessary it is, then, to know what is, and
what is not, a nominative in a sentence! Let us take an
example. "John smite Peter." What are these words~
J ohn is a noun, third person, singular number, nominative case. Smite is a Verb, first p erson, singular number.
P ete1· is a noun, third person, singular number, objective
case. Therefore, the sentence is incorrect; for the nominative, J ohn, is in the third person, and the Verb is in
the first/ while both ought to be in the same person.
The sentence ought to be, "John smites Peter;" and not
"John srnite Peter."

148

As soon as a verb is changed from the active-transitive to the
passive voice, the subject becomes the cbject of the sentence; as,
"She loves him," active; "She is loved by him," passive.
Be careful to observe the difference between the object and the
att-ribute. I remember I could not, for a long time, see the difference in such sentences as these:" He is ii Jew. She loves a J ew."
I thought that "a Jew" was, in both instances, the object of the
verb; but it is not. When I came to learn German, I sa•.v the
difference at once, and the matter became clear to me. Er ist ein
Jude. Sic liebt einen Juden. You see that" loves" is a t;·ansitive
verb, whereas " is" is a neuter, or intransitive one. The objective
case foll ows a transitive verb, never a neuter or intransitive one.
·what follows the neuter verb, therefore, or any verb naming or
nominating anybody, is not the object, not anything in the objective·
case· but the att-ribute-so called because it g enerally attributa
som~thing to somebody-and; if a noun, is always in the nominative case. "He is a man; he is manly; he stands a freeman; he
remains a prince; he seems po&r; he appears wealthy; he looks
liandsom.e; he is called The Great Unknown; he is appointed judge;
h e is elected governor "-in all these cases, what follows the verb is
an attribute or quality, and, wherever it is a noun, it is in the
nominative case. R emember , therefore, that nouns following such
verbs as be, become, seem, appear, stand, walk, and the passive verbs
is mlled, is named, is ,,tyled, is appointed, is elected, is made, are
always in the nominative case, and arc· termed the attribute, or, by
some grammarians, the complement, of the se ntence.

238. Verbs, of which there must be one, at least, expressed or understood, in every sentence, must a:;ree in

149

. ~39. This is, to be sure, a very glaring error; but still
it is no more than an error, and is, in fact, as excusable
as any other grammatical error. "The men lives in the
country." Here the Verb lives is in the singular number,
and the noun men, which is the nominative, is in the
plural number. "The men live in the country," it ought
to be. These errors stare us in the face. But when the
sentences become longer, and embrace several nominatives
and Verbs, we do not so readily perceive the e1Tors that
are committed. "The intention of the act of Parliament
and not its several penalties, decide the character of th~
corrupt assembly by whom it was passed." Here the
noun p enalties comes so near to the Verb decide that the
ear dec0ives the judgment. But the noun intention is
the nominative to the Verb, which therefore ouo-ht to be
decides. Let us take a sentence still more d~ceivina
"Without the aid of a fraudulent paper-money, the tyrant~
nev.er could have performed any of those deeds by which
thell" safety have been endangered, and which have, at the
same time, made them detested." D eeds is the nomina-

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Syntax,

tive to the last have and its principal Verb; but safety is : •
the nominative to the fast have/ and therefore this first :·
have ought to have been has. You see that the elTor ~
arises from our having the plural noun deeds in our eye
and ear. Take all the rest of the sentence away, and
leave "safety have been" standing by itself, and then the
error is as flagrant as "John smite Peter." Watch me
now, in the next sentence. " It must be observed that
land fell greatly in price as soon as the cheats began .to
draw in their paper-money. In such cases the quantity 1
and quality of the land is the same as it was befor~; but
the price is reduced all of a sudden, by a change m t~e
value and power of the money, which becomes very different from what it was." H ere are two complete s.entences, which go very glibly off the tongue. . T~ere is
nothing in them that offends the ear. The first is, ~ndeed,
correct; but the last is a mass of error. Quantity and
qitality, which are the nominatives in the first member of ,
the sentence, make, t ogether, a pl'Ural, and should have
been followed, after the word land, by are and not by is,•
and the it wets , which followed, should, of course, have
been they were. In the second member of the sente~ce,
valtte and power are the nominatives of becomes, wh1~h,
therefore, should have been become ; and then, again,
7
there follows an it was, instead of they were. V\ e are
misled in such cases, by the nearness of the singular
noun ~hich comes in between the nominatives imd th~
Verb~. We should not be likely to say, " Quantity ~d
quality is; value and power becomes." ~ut _when a Slll·
o-ular noun comes in between such nommabves and the
Verbs we are very apt to be thinking of that noun, and .
'
. we k eep on;
to commit
error. ·when we once begm,
and if the sentence be long, we get together, at last, a •
fine collection of Verbs and pronouns, making as complete
nonsense as h.eart can wish. Judge Blackstone, in the
4th Book, Chapter 33, says, " The very scheme and model

As Relating to Verbs.

151

administration of common justice, between party
and party, was entirely settled by this king; and has con,tinued nearly the same to this day." Administration of
-~ommon just-ice was full upon the judge's ear; down he
clapped' was; and has naturally followed; and thus, my
' dear son, in grammar as in moral conduct, one fault
·almost necessarily produces others.
240. Look, therefore, at your nominative, before you
put a Verb upon paper; for, you see, it may be one word,
·or two or more words. But observe, if there be two or
more singular nouns or pronouns, separated by or, which,
you know, is a clisjoining conjunction; then, the Verb
must be in the singular; as, "A soldier, or a sailor, who
' has served his country faithfully, is fairly entitled to a
pension; but who will say that a prostituted peer, a pimp,
or a buffoon, merits a similar provision from the public~"
241. It sometimes happens that there are, in the nominative, two or more nouns, or pronouns, and that they
are in different numbers, or in different persons ; as, "The
rninister or the boroitgh-tyrants." These nouns cannot
have the Verb to agree with them both. Therefore if it
be the conspiring of these wretches against the liberties
' of the people, of which we have to speak, we cannot say,
"The minister or the borough-tyrants conspire;" because
the Verb would not then agree in number with the noun
·minister; nor can we say conspires/ because the Verb
would not agree with the noun borough-tyrants. Therefore, we :must not· write such sentences; we must say,
"The minister conspires, or the borough-tyrants conspire,
again~t the liberties of the people." Repetition is some'· times disagreeable to the ear; but it is better to repeat,
be it ever so often, than to write bad grammar, which is
· 9nly another t erm for nonsense.
242. When nominatives are separated by n01·, the rule
of 01· must be followed. "Neither man nor b east is safe
in such weather;" and not are safe. And if nominatives

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As Relating to Verbs.

Syntax,

~f different numbers present themselves, we l.Ilust not gi
them a Verb which clisagrees with either the one or
other. W e must not say: "Neither the halter nor the
bayonets are sufficient to prevent u s from obtaining o~
rights." We must avoid this bad grammar by using .a
different form of words; as, "\Ve are to b e preven
from obtaining our rights by neither the halter nm; the
bayonets." And why should we wish to write bad gram.mar, if we can exprei:s our meaning in good grammar! '
243. If or or nm· disjoin nouns and pronouns of different
persons, these nouns and pronouns, though they be all of
the same number, cannot be the nominative of one
the same Verb. \Ve cannot say, "They or I am in fauli;
I , or they, or he, is the author of it; George or I am the
person." Mr. Lindley Murray says that we may Ull8
these phrases; ancl that we have only to take care that
the Verb agrees :with that p erson wh ich is placed near .
to it; but he says, also, that it would be better to avoid
such phrases by giving a different turn to our worda.
I do not like to leave anything to ch ance or to discretiOll
when we have a clear principle for our g uide. Fill up tJie
sente~ces, and you will see what pretty work there is;
"They am in fault, or I am in fault; I is the author,
they is the author, or he is the author; George am
person, or I am the person." Mr. Murray gives a s· ·
latitude as to the Verbs used with a mixture of pl
and singulars, as mentioned in the foregoing paragia
The truth, I suspect, is, that Mr. Murray, observing
great wi·iters frequently committed these enors, ~hong
it prudent to give up the cau se of grammar, rather
seem to set himself against such formidable authori
But if we follow this course, it is pretty clear that . ·
shall very soon be left with no principle and no rule \
grammar.
T he grammarians declare that you may say, ''Either he or I
t he guilty one;" or, "Ile is the guilty one, or I am;" "Yo,u

153

William is to go; " or, "You are to go, or William is." The eye
,or the ear often decides which is b est. "You must not tell us
fhat you Or anybody else thinks," seems more compact than '' YOU
must not tell us w hat you think, or what anyoody else thinks. " If
one of the nominatives be negatively u sed, the verb must be in the
singular. Thus, "He, and not I, is chosen;" " I, and not th ey,
' am to go." These arc, indeed, correct; and yet I think it is better
to say, He is chose n, and not I; I am to go, and not th ey. I beg
you to notice h ow frequently and nicely Cobbett u ses the subjunctive be after 1f and tho·ugh, which is correct, and which now,
unfortunately, is falling out of use among common writers.

244. The nominative is frequently a noun of multitude;
parliament, gctng. Now, where this is the case,
the Verb is used in the sing ular or in the plural, upon
precisely the same principles that the pronouns are so
used; and as these principles, together with ample illus·trations by the way of example, have been given you in
Letter XVII, paragraph 181, I n eed say nothing more of
·the matter. I will just obser ve, however, that consistency,
·in the u se of the Verb, in su ch cases, is the main thing to
keep in view. \Ve may say, "The gang of boroughtyrants is cruel ;" or, "that the gang of borough-tyrants
·are cruel; " but if we go on to speak of their notoriou sly
-brutal ignorance, we must not say, "The gang of boroughtyrants is cruel, and are also notoriously as ignorant as
brutes." We must u se is in both places, or are in both
. places.
· 245. I n looking for the nominative of a sentence, take
care that the relative pronoun be not a stumbling-block,
•for relatives h ave no changes to denote number or person;
'11.Ild thougb they may sometimes appear to be of them·.s!>lves nominatives, they never can be such . "The men
;who are h ere, the man who is here; the cocks that crow,
'the cock that crows." Now, if the r elative be the nomi~ative, why do the Verbs cliange, seeing that h ere is no
hange in the relative.'? No: the Verb, in pursuit of its
pominative, runs through the relatives to come at their
~,mob,

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As Relating to Verbs.

antecedents, men, man, cocks, cock. Bishop Lowth says,
however, that "the relative is the nominative when
other nominative comes between it and the Verb;" and
Mr. Murray has very faithfully copied this -erroneoiia
observation. " Who is in the house? Who are in the
house ? lYho strikes the iron? lVho
lVlw was in the street? TVho were in the street?"
h ere is, in all these instances, no other nominative betw!len
the relative and the Verb; and yet the Verb is continually
varying . Why does it vary? B ecause it disregards the
relative and goes and finds the antecedent, and accomm<>dates its number to that antecedent. The antecedents
are, in these instances, understood: "'\Vhat person is ill ·
the hou se? vVhat p ersons are in the house? ·what person
strilces the iron '! \Vhat persuns strike the iron? What
person was in the street ? \Vhat persons were in the
street?" The Bishop seems to have had a misgiving in
his mind, when he gave this account of the nominative
functions of the relative ,- for he adds, ''the relative is of
the same p erson as the :mtececlent; and the Verb agreea
with it accordingly." Oh! ob! but the relative is always
the same, and is of any and of every number and person.
How then can the Verb, when it makes its changes in
number and pen;on, be saill to n.grce with the relative!
Disagree, indeed, with the relative the Verb cannot any
more than it can with a preposition; for the r elative has,
like the preposition, no changes ·to denote cases; but the
danger is that in certain instances the relative may be.
taken for ct nominative, without your looking after the
antecedent, which is the real nominative, and that thus;
not having the number and person of the antecedent
clearly in your mind, you may give to the Verb a wrong
number or person. It is very seldom that those ·whe
lay do"·n erroneous rules furnish us with examples by
the means of which we are enabled to detect the error of
these rules; yet, Mr. Murray has, in the present--caiie,

no

155

done this most amply. For in another part of his book
he has these two examples : "I am the general who give
_, the orders to-day. I am the general who gives the orders
to-clay." Here the antecedent as well as the r elative are
precisely the same ; the order of the words is the same ;
and yet the words are different. Why ? Because, in the
first example, the pronoun I is the nominative, and in the
second, the noun general. The first means, "I, who am
the g eneral here, give the orders to-clay." The second
means, "The general who gives the orders to-clay is I. "
Nothing can more clearly show that the r elative cannot
be the nominative, and that to consider it as a nominative
must lead to error and confusion. You will observe,
therefore, that when I, in the Etymology and Syntax as
relating to relative pronouns, speak of relatives as being
in the nominative case, I mean that they relate to nouns
or to personal pronouns which are in that case. The
same observation applies to the other cases.

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l am strongly in clined to think that Cobbett is in error here.
The relative pronoun must have person, number, gender, and case,
like any other pronoun; an d who is undoubtedly always of the
same p erson and number as the word to which it relates. Let us
put it directly after all the three p ersons, singular and plural: It is
It is
It is
It is
It is
It is

l who speak,
thou who speakest,
he who speaks,
we who speak,
you who speak,
they who speak,

or
"
"
"
"
"

I,

It is I who am speaking.
It is thou who art speaking.

It
It
It
It

is
is
is
is

he who is speaking.
we who are speaking.
you who are speaking.
they who are speaking.

Now h ere each who is of the same person as the pronoun or word
· to which it relates, and consequently the verl.J agrees with it.
Strangei:• enough, the relative pronoun may, as Cobbett says, be
of any person; but that dues not prevent it from agreeing with its
antecedent. I used to think that wlw was always of the t.'drd
• person, referring always to somebody spoken of; but now I see
that it may be of the first person, referring to somebody who is
1
speaking. Nevertheless, we do sometimes h ear, It is I who speaks
' German; it is you who speaks Spanish; it is you that speaks

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Syntax,

French. This may be explained by supposing that the full meaning
of the words is: It is I who am the person that speaks German;
it is you who are the person that speaks Spanish. And here again
each who is of tlie same pei·son as the antecedent.

246. We are sometimes embarrassed to :fix precisely on
the nominative, when a sort of addition is made 'to it by
words expressing persons or things that accompany it;
as, "The Tyrant, with the Spy, have brought Peter to the
block. " W e hesitate to determine whether the Tyrant
alone is in the nominative, or whether the nominative
includes the Spy; and of course we h esitate which to
employ, the singular or the plitral Verb; that is to say,
has or have. The meaning must be our guide. If we
mean that the act · has been done by the Tyrant himself,
and that the Spy has been a mere involu ntary agent, then
we ought to use the singular; but if we believe that the
Spy has been a co-operator,- an associate,- an accomplicej
then we must use the plural of the Verb. "The Tyrant
with his Proclamation has produced great oppression
and iiagrant violations of law." IIas, by all means, in
this case; because the proclamation is a mere instrument.
Give the sentence a turn: "The Tyrant has produceu
great oppression and :flagrant violations of the law with
his proclamation." This is good; but "the Tyrant has
brought Peter to the block with the Spy," is bad; iL
sounds badly; and it is bad sense. It does not say what
we mean it should say. "A leg of mutton, with turnips
and carrots, is very good. " If we mean to say that a leg
of mutton when cooked with these vegetables, is good,
we must use is j but if we be speaking of the goodness
of a leg of mutton and these vegetables taken together,
we must use are. When with means along with, together
with, in company with, and the like, it is nearly the same '
as and,- and then the phu-al Verb must be u sed. "He,, •
with his bare hand, takes up hot iron." Not, "he, with
his bare hand, take up." "He, with his brothers, are

As Relating to Verbs.

157

~ble

to do much." Not, "is able to do much." If the
pronoun be used instead of brothers, it will be in the
objective case: "He, with them, are able to do much."
But this is no impediment to the including of the noun
(represented by them) in the nominative. With, which
is a preposition, takes the objective case after it; but if
the persons or things represented by the words coming
after the preposition form part of the actors in a sentence, the understood nouns make part of the nominatives.
· "The bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, were stolen. "
For if we s::ty was stolen, it is possible for us to mean
that the bag only was stolen. "Sobriety, with great
industry and talent, enable a man to perform great
deeds." And not enables j for sobriety alone would not
enable a man to do great things. "The borough-tyranny,
with the paper-money makers, have producec\ misery and
starvation." And not lws j for we mean that the two
have co-operated. "Zeal, with Jiscretion, do much;" RilLl
not, does much; for we mean, on the contrary, that it
does nothing. It is the meaning that must determine
which of the numbers we ought, in all such cases, to
e.mploy.

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Tlie grammarians are now unanimous in declaring th11t a phrase
beginning with the preposition with, coming directly aft c>r the
subject, does not affect the verb, or predicate ; as, The vessd, with
her crew, was lost; tbe regiment, with its officers, was captured;
the house, with its contents, ltas bec•n sold ; the minister, with his
cabinet, has r esigned; the emperor, with his family, has l>een
assassinated; Cobbett, with his Grammar, has clone much good.
Therefore, it is correct to say, The tyrant, with the spy, Las
brought P eter to the block; he, with his brothers, has clone much;
the bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, wus stolen; zeal, with
discretion, does much. Because, in th ese instances, "with the
spy" and "with his brothers" indicate, like the phrase ioith his
proclamation, m erely instruments; and the sentence about the bag
of money means simply that the bag was stolen with what it
contained. The sentence about sobriety means that this virtue,
employed or combined with other qualities, enables a man to

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Syntax,

perform great tleeds ; and th at about zeal with discretion mnst be
regarded in the same way. Besides, the preposition with pnts the
spy and the brotlie1·s, the gui?!eas and the <iollars, the industry and
the talent, iu the objective case; and how can any thing in the
objective case be the subject, which is always iu the nominative case?
What Cobbett says about the sentence, "He, with his brothers,
arc able to do much," is about as good an example of sophistry as
any thing I know. For an expression of this kind, see Cobbett's
account of the sand-hill as an educator, Life, page 261.
Th e sam e is the case with sentences in which the phrase as well aa
occurs. Clay, as well as Webster, was a great orator; Charles, 11.11
well as his brother, ioas successful in business; the father, as well
as his son, is in fault; the minutest insect, as well as the largest
quadruped, dmives its life from the same Omnipotent Source.

247. The Verb to le sometimes comes between two
nouns of different numbers. "The great evil is the
borough-deyt. " In this sentence there is nothing to
embarrass us; be9ause evil and borough-debt are both in
the singular. But, "the great evil i s the taxes," is not so
clear of embarrassment. The embarrassment is the sa.me,
when there is a singular noun on one side, and two or
more singulars or plurals on the other side; as, "The
curse of the country is the profligacy, the rapacity, the
corruption of the law-makers, the base subserviency of
the administrators of the law, and the frauds of the
makers of paper-money. '' Now, we mean, here, that these
things constitute, or form, or rnalce up, a curse. We mean
that the curse consists of these things; and if we said
this, there would be no puzzling. "The evil is the taxes."
That is, the taxes constitute the evil; but we cannot say,
"the evil are the taxes;" nor can we say, that the "curse
are these things." A void, then, the use of the Verb to be
in all such cases. Say, the curse of the country consists
of, or arises frorn, or is produced by. Dr. BL..1.rn, in his
19th L ecture, says: "A feeble, a harsh, o·r au obscure ,
style, are always faults." The or r equired the singular 1
Verb is/ but faults required are. If he had put is and
faulty, there would have been no doubt of his being ·

As Relating to Verbs.

159

correct. But as the sentence now stands, there is great
room for doubt, and, that, too, as to more than one point;
for fault means defect, and a style, which is a whole,
cannot well be called a defect, which mean a want of goodness in a part. Feebleness, harshness, obscurity, are
faulty. But to call the style itself, to call the whole thing
afault, is more than the Doctor meant. The style may
be faulty, and yet it may not be a fault. The Doctor's
work is faulty; but, surely, the work is not a fault I
248. L est you should be, in certain instances, puzzled
to find your nominative case, which, as you now see, constitutes the main spring and regulator of every sentence,
I will here point out to you some instances wherein there
is used, apparently, neither Verb nor nominative. "In
general I dislike to drink wine." This in general is no
more, in fact, than one word. It means generally. But
sometimes there is a Verb comes in: "generally speaking."
Thus: "The borough-tyrants, generally speaking, are
great fools as well ~s rogues." That is to say, "when we
speak generally;" or, " if we are speaking generally;" or,
"when rnen or p eople srea.k generally." For observe that •
there never can be a sentence without a Verb, expressed
, or understood, and that there never can be a Verb without
a nominative case, expressed or understood.
249. Sometimes not only two or more nouns, or pronouns, may be the nominative of a sentence, but rnany
other words along with them may ·assist in making a
nominative; as, "Pitt, Rose, Steele, and their associates,
giving to '¥alter a sum of the p\lblic money, as a reward
for )ibelling the sons of the king, was extremely profligate
and base. " That is to say, this act of Pitt and his asso' ciates was extremely profligate and base. It is, when you
come to inquire, the act which is the nominative, and all
the other words only go to descnbe the origin and end of
.the act.

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161

Syntax,

As Relating to Verbs.

I doubt very much whether this sentence be correct. Following
Cobbett's own instructions, let us shorten the sentence, and see
how it will look then: "Pitt giving Walter a sum of money wu
extremely base." I think this neither looks nor sounds correct:
It was his act, Pitt's act, which was base; and therefore it should
be, "Pitt's giving Walter a sum of money was extremely base;"
that is to say, Pitt's acting was base; for we cannot say, Pitt act.
ing was base. We say, "Bacon's drawing up charges against
Essex was extremely base; John Chinaman's working for low
wages is the head and front of his offense ;" and not, Bacon drawing up, etc.-By-the-bye, such sentences as, "The great evil is
the taxes," are perfectly correct; for the subject is "the evil,"
which is singular, and it makes little matter what the attribute
may be, for it has nothing to do with the verb. It is precisely the .
same form of expression which we use when we say, It is we; it
is you; it is they; it is the boys; it is the rich; it is the wicked;
it is the Italians ; and so on.

.the nominative constantly in your eye. For want of doing
this, Judge BLACKSTONE has, in Book IV, Chap. 17, committed some most ludicrous errors. " Om ancient Saxon
laws nominally punished theft with death, if above the
value of twelve-pence; but the criminal was permitted to
, redeem his life by a pecuniary ransom ; as among tf!!__i~
German ancestors." ·what confusion is here? Whose
ancestors? Theirs. Who are they? Why the criminal.
Theirs, if it retate to anything, must relate to laws/ and
, then the laws have ancestors. Then, what is it that was
to be of above the value of twelve-pence? The death, or
. the theft? By, "if above the value of twelve-pence," the
, Judge, without doubt, meant, "if the thing stolen were
above the value of t'velve-pence ;" but he says no such
thing ; and the meaning of the words is, if the death were
above the value of twelve-pence. The sentence should
have stood thus: "Our ancient Saxon laws nominally
punished theft with death, if the thing stolen were above
the value of twelve-pence; but the criminals were permitted to redeem their lives by a pecunia.ry ransom; as
among their German ancestors." I could quote, from the
same author, hundreds of examples of similar errors; but
were there only this one to be found in a work which is
composed of matter which was read, in the way of Lectures, by a professor of law, to students in the University
of Oxford, even this one ought to be sufficient to convince
you of the importance of attending to the precepts which
I have given you relative to this part of ow· subject.
252. As to the objective case, it has nothing to do with
Verbs ,· because a noun which is not in the nominative
must be in the objective/ and beca"\1se Verbs do never
• vary their endings to make themselves agree with the
objectivcoi. This case has been sufficiently explained under
the head of personal pronouns, which have endings to
denote it.
253. The possessive case, likewise, has nothing to do

250. You must take care that there be a nominative,
and that it be clearly expressed or understood. " The
Attorney-General Gibbs, whose malignity induced him to
be extremely violent, and was listened to by the Judges."
The first Verb induced has a nominative, namely, the
malignity of the Attorney-General Gibbs; but the was.
has no nominative, either expressed or clearly understood;
and vrn cannot, therefore, tell what or who it was that
was listened to; whether the malignity of Gibbs, or Gibbs
himself. It should have been, and who, or, and he, was
listened to; and then we should have known that it was
Gibbs himself that was listened to. The omitting of the
nominative, five hundred instances of which I could draw
from Judge BLACKSTONE and Doctor JouNsoN, arises very
often from a desire to p.void a repetition of the noun or
pronouns; but repetition is always to be preferred before
obscurity.
·
251. Now, my dear James, I hope that I have explained
to you, sufficiently, not only what the nomincttive is, but
what are its powers in every sentence, ancl that I have
imprinted deeply on yom mind the necessity of. keeping

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Syntax,

with Verbs, only you must ta ke care that you do not, in ·
any instance, look upon it as a nominative. "The quality.
of the apples were good." No; it must b e was; for q11,al..
ity is the nominative and apples the possessive. "The.
want of learning, t alent, and sense are more visible in ·
the two houses of Parliament than in - any other part of
the nation. " Take care upon all such occasions. Such,
sentences are, as to grammatical construction, very deceiving. It should be "is more visible;" for want is the nominative; and learning, talent, and sense are in the possessive. The want of learning, and so on.
254. You now know all about the person and number
of Verbs. You know the reasons upon which are founded
their variations with regard to these two circumstances.
L ook, now, at the co11Jugation in L etter VIII, paragraph
08 ; and you will see that there remain the 'l'imes and
Modes to Le considered.
255. Of J'iines there is very little to b e said here. All
the fanciful distincti ons of p ei;fect present, more past, and
more p eijcct p ast, and numerous others, only tend to ·
bewilder, confuse, and disgust the learner. There can
be but three times, the p resent, the past, the fu titre; and,
for the expressing of these, our language provides us
with words and t erminations the most suitable that can
possiq.Jy be conceived. I n some languages, which contain
no little words such as our signs, will, shall, may, .and so
on, the Verbs themselves change their form in order to
express what we express by the help of these signs.
In French, for instance, there are two past times. I will
give y ou an example in order to explain this matter.
"The _working men, every day, gave money to the tyrants,
who, m return, gave the working men dungeons and
axes. " Now here is our word gave, which is the past
time of the Verb to give. It is the same word, you see,
in both instances; but you will see it different in the
French. "Tons les jours, les ouvriers donnaient de

As R elating to V erbs.

163

}'argent aux tyrants, qui, en retom-, donnerent aux ouvriers
des cachots et des haches." You see tbat, in one place,
our give is translated by donna'ient, and in the other
place, by donncrent. One of thtise is called, in Frenc~,
the past imperfect, and the other the p ast perfect. This
distinction is necessary in the F1~ench; but similar distinctions are wholly unnecessary in English.
256. In the Latin language, the Verbs change their
ending·s so as to i nducle in the V erbs themselves what we
, express by Olli" auxiliary Verb to have. And they have
as many changes, or different endings, as are required to
express all those various circumstances of time which we
express by work, worked, shall work, may work, might
· tcork, have worlced, hacl worked, shall have worked, may
have wodcecl, might have work ed, and so on. It is, therefore, necessary for the L atins to have distinct appellations
to suit these various cir cumstances of time, or states of
an action; but such distinction of appellations can be of
no use to us, whose Verbs never vary their endings to
: express time, except the single variation from the present
to the p ast; for, even as t() the f uture, the si,qns answer
our pUl"pose. In Olli" compound times, that is to say, such
as I have 1oorked, th ere is the Verb to have, which becomes had, or shall have, and so on.
257. Why, then, should we perplex OUl"selves with a
multitude of artificial distinctions, which cannot, by any
possibi:ity, be of any use in practice ? These distinctions
have been introduced from this cause: those who have
written English Grammars have b een taught Latin; and
either unable to divest themselves of their Latin rules, or
unwiJling to treat with simplicity that which, if made
somewhat of a mystery, would make them appear more
learned than the mass of people, they have endeavored to
make our simple language turn and twist itself so as
to become as complex in its principles as the L atin lan-

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Syntax,

258. There are, however, some few remarks to be made
with regard to the times of Verbs; but b efore I make
them, I must speak of the participles.
·
again on Letter VIII, paragraphs 97
the conjugations of the Verbs to work, to liave, and to be,
in that same L etter. These pa1·ticiples, you see, with the
help of to have and to be, form our compound times. I
need not tell you that I was workin g means the same as
I w01·ked, only that the former supposes that something
else was going on at the same time, or that something
happened at the time I was working, or that, at least,
there is some circumstance of action or of existence collateral with my working; as, " I was working when he
came; I 1rns sick while I was working; it rained while ·
I was working; she scolded while I was working." I need
not tell you the use of do and dicl ; I need not say that
I do work is the same as I work, only the former expresses the action more positively, and adds some degree of force to the assertion ; and that dicl work is the
same as worked, only the former is, in the past time, of ·
the same use as do is in the present. I need not dwell
here on the uses of will, shall, may, might, should, would,
can, could, and nwst; which uses, various as they are,
are as well known to us all as the uses of our t eeth and
our noses; and to misapply which words argues not only a
deficiency in the r easoning faculties, but also a deficiency
in instinctive discrimination. I will not, my dear James,
in imitation of the learned doctors, pester you with a
philological examination into the origin anc.1 properties of
words, with r egard to the use of which, if you were to
commit an error in conversation, your brother Richard,
who is four years old, would instantly put you right. Of
all these little words I have said quite enough before;
but when the Verbs to have and to be are used as auxiliaries to principal Verbs, and, especially, when the sen-.
tences are long, errors of great consequence may be com-

165

As Relating to Verbs.

ritltted; and, therefore, against these it will b e proper to
guard you.
, And yet here in the United States, there is no m ore c~mmon
.
, l'
d wi·u. If you can stick the
than 'the confoundin<T
.
0 of sria' an
error '
d .
.
you from makmg
following rule fast in your min ' it w1 11 save
.
' .
many mistakes in the use of these words :-1 shall, you ioill, ~;~ ~:~~
are the forms of the FUTURE, and m erely FORETELL what w1
Place . I will yoit shall, he shall, arc the forms of the POTENTikA.L,
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·t >f the spea ·er.
and express WILL or DETERMINATION ~n t 1e. pa? 0
• oil
The latter are equal to the German ich will, du sollst, er s ..
Now try to r epeat this rule without looking at the book. Tur~ It
. 1 your mind and try it in sentences of your own formation.
· '
C bb tt' Farewell Address to
over n
Look at the last three p:iragraphs of 0 e s
his Countrymen, page lGD.
.
.
k
. E · w · Head ' h tts wnttcn a whole· boo
. no bl eman, 8~ ir
An English
tl
1
1
on these two mighty little word s, "Shall and Wil.1,''. fro.m w 11c \ ic
following "admirable statement of the true d1stmct10n between
these auxiliaries"* is taken:
.
"n?'."ll . the first person expresses are.wlit t"wn or a 11r01nise
.
.· ' I
.11 rri t Ill0 , _ it is my resolution not to go. 'I .wi·11 g•·vc it ,vou' -Wl
no . g -. "t
W ill in the second person foretells: 'If
I yromise to gi~~ i' yloocuk. yo1; will find me at h ome.' Will in the
you come at six o c
,
.
t·
second person in qu es tions, anticipates a wish or. an i'.itentwn:
'
. . ·ow?'
_ Is it yom· wish 01· intcntwn
o gu
Will you go to-m011
. . 1.
·row?' W ill in the third person f oretells: ge~1cn':lly I~p ~mg
w-in:nte tw· n ·it the same time, when the nommat1ve is a ?ntwnal
an in
n 'He
' will come to-morrow,' s1gn1fies
· · · w l m t is· to take ]Jla,c,e ,
t ·c·
ere~ t~'.:tt ' it is the intention of the person me~tionccl lo come. ' .I
an.c k "t ill snow to-clay,' intimates what is, proll'.ibly.' to tnkc
thm . 1=w:~l must never be u sed in questions with nom1~at1v~ .c:1scs
place
'w·n
I s it ow inten1 w e come to-morrow?'
of the first person:
·
"'
. to -~ne to mon·o10 ~ which is an absurd question. n e
. tion or.desire
~·
· ·
t . Sh·lll wc come to-morrow?
m~•sw:~rd is ~ubjcct to the snme rules as will. Would followed ll-'.
the nominative being expressed or undmthat is 1'rcqucn t lY use cl (
'
1 · d"
. , . , ·would that h e had died before t 11s is.
b ,,. ll
3tood) to express a wisri.
· z that he had died befoi·e this disg1·ace eJ e
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wis i
•
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d . w <W
grace befell him. . .
" ' ld lave followed by au infinitive, s1gm es a cs1re
him
rrou l
'
tl ·
'
I wish to
.
k . ' I would have you think of these nngs =
or to ma et; . '· ,,. these things Would is often u sed to express a
make you 1iin1c oJ
_ _ · - - -- - - -- - - -- - -

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•A . S. Hill's Rhetoric, in which l found tbe above rule and this quotation.

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As R elating to Verbs.

Syntax,

mean; what you wish to say. Examine well into
true meaning of your words, and you will never make
mistake as to the times. "I tliou,!]ht to have heard the
Noble Lord produce something like proof." No! my
dear James will never fall into the use of such senseless
gabble! You would think of hew·ing something; you
would expect to hear, not to have heard. You would be
waiting to hear, and not, like these men, be waiting to
have heard. "I should have liked to have been in:fornwl
of the amount of the Exchequer Bills." A phras~ology
like this can be becoming only in those H ouses where ii
was pr?posed to relieve the distresses of the nation by
setting the laborers to dig holes one day a,nd fill them
up the next.
262. It is erroneous to confound the past time with the
passive participle of the Verb. But now, b efore I speak
of this very common error, let us see a little more abou
the participles. You have seen, in Letter VIII, what the
participles are; you h ave seen that working is the active
participle, and worked the passive participle. We shall
speak fully of the active by-and-by. The passive parti~
ciple and the Verb to be, or some part of that Verb, mak~
what is called the passive V erb. This is not a Verb which,
in its origin, differs from an active Verb, in like manner
as a neute1· Verb differs from an active Verb. To sleep is
neuter in its origin, and must, in all its parts, be neuter;
but every active Verb 11uty become a passive Verb. Th~
passive Verb is, in fact, that state of an active Verb which
expresses, as we have seen above, the action as being
received or endured; ·a nd it is called p ass ive because th
receiver or endurer of the action is p ass ive; that is to saf,
does nothing. "John smites; John is smitten." Th1'
then, the passive Verb is no other than the passive p ·
ciple used along with some part of the Verb to be.
263. Now, then, let us see a specimen of the errors of
which I spoke at the beginning of the last paragrapli:

a

169

en the Verb is regular, there can be no error of this
fOrt; because the past time and the passive participle are
:written in the same manner ; as, "John worked; J ohn is
llJ.Orked." But, when the Verb is irregula1·, and when the
past time and the passive participle are written in a
manner different from each other, there is room for error,
and error is often committed: "John smote; J ohn is
mote." This is gross. It offends the ear; but when a
company, consisting of men who h ave been enabled, by
the favor of the late William Pitt, to plunder and insult
the people, meet under the name of a Pitt Club to cele9rate the birthday of that corrupt and .cruel ~ninister,
those who publish accounts of their festivities always tell
us, that such and such toasts were drank; insteaLl of
pntnk. I dranl.; at my dinner to-day; but the milk and
water which I drank, were drunk by me. In the lists of
Irregular Verbs, in L etter VIII, the differences between
, e past times and the passive participles are all clearly
,iiown. You often hear p eople say, and see them write,
rwe have spoke; it was spolce in my h earing; ,, but "we
fw,v e came; it was did, " are just as correct .

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H may l>e well to notice that most of these verbs, like th e German
verbs from which they arc deri veJ, change tile i to a in th e past
leusc, and to u iu the past participle. Say, th erefore, I sin g, sang,
pvc suug; I spring, sprang, have sprung; I ring, ran g, have
rung; I swim, swam, h ave swum; I sink, sank, have sunk; and
so on. But th ere arc a few exceptions; as, to fling, to cling, to
wring, to stin g, which change the i to u in both the past ten se and
lhe past participle.

264 . .Done is the passive participle of to do, and it is
ery often misused. This clone is frequ ently a very great
offender agaimt grammar. 'l.'o clo is the act of doing.
We often see p eople write, "I did n ot speak, yesterday,
so W'lll as I wished to have done." Now, what is meant
by the writer? He means to say that he did not speak
sp well as he then wished, or was wishing,. to speak.
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As Relating to V erbs.

Therefore, the sentence should be, " I did not speak Y
terday so well as I wished to do ." That is to say, "IO
well as I wished to do it ;" that is to say, to do, or to
perform,. the act of spealcing.
.
265. T ake great care not to be too free m yo~ use .of
the Verb to do in any of its times or modes. It 1s a ruce
little handy word, and, like our oppressed it, it· is made
use of very often when the writer is at a loss for what to
put down. T o do is to act, and, therefore, it never C!1Jl,
in any of its parts, supply the place of a neitter Verb.
Yet, to employ it for this purpose is very common. Dr._·
BLAIR, in his 23rd L ecture, says: "It is somewhat unfortunate that this Number of the Spectator did not end, as
it might very well have done, with the former beautiful
period." That is to say, "done it." And, then, v:e ~:
done what ? Not the act of ending ; because, m · this
case, there is no action at all. The Verb means ~o coml
to an end; to cease; not to go any furth er. This same
Verb to end, is, sometimes, an active Verb: "I end my.
sentence." and then the Verb to do may supply its place:
as, " I h~ve not ended my sentence so well as I mighi
have done;'' that is, done it; that is, done, or performed,
the act of ending. But the Number of the Spectator was
no actor.· it was expected to p erform nothing ; it was, by
the D oc;or, wished to have ceased to proceed. "Did noi
end as it very well might have ended. . . . " This _would
have been conect; but the Doctor wished to av01d the
"Mr.
1·epetitfon, and thus he fell into ~ad grammar.
Speaker, I do not f eel so well satisfied as I should ~ve
done, if the Right Honorable gentleman had expl~ed
the matter more fully. " You constantly h ear talk Ii?
this amongst those whom th e boroughs m'ake la\;-givel'll'
To f eel satisfied is, when the satisfoct_ion is to anse fro
conviction produced by fact or reasomng, a senseless eX:
pression; and to supply its place, when it
case, a neuter Verb, by to do, is as senseless.

Done the act of f eeling I "I do not .feel so well satisfieJ
as I should have done, or executed, or performed the act
· of feeling!" What incomprehensible words! Very becoming in the creatures of conuption, but ridiculous in
any other persons in the world.

170

171

266. But do not misunderstand me. Do not confound
' do and did, as parts of a pi·incipal Verb, with the same
'• words, as p arts of an auxiliary. Read again Letter VIII,
' paragraph 111. Do and did, as helpers, are used with
· neuter as well as with active Verbs; for h ere it is not
their business to supply the place of other Verbs, but
merely to add strength to affirmations and negations, or
' to mark time; as, "The sent ence does end; I do feel easy. ,.
But done, which is the passive participle of the actiYe
. Verb to do, can never be used as an auxiliary. The want
"of making this distinction has led to the very common
'e1Tor of which I spoke in the last paragraph, and against
: which I am very desirous to g uard you.

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267. In sentences which ar e negative or interrogative,
· do and did express time ; as, " You do not sleep ; did
you not j eel ?" But they do not h er e supply the place of
other Verbs; they merely help; and their assistance is
"useful only as to the <Jircumstan ce of time; for we may
'· say, "You sleep not ; j elt you not ?" And if in answer to
this question, I say," I did, " the word.feel is understood;
"I did f eel."
Yon will som etimes h ear even Wall-street million aires say, " f
lidone it; he seen him ; he is dead broke;" which is confound ing the
past participl e and the past tense. You must say, I did it, I saw
' him ; he is dead broken ; or, r a ther, completely rnined. But here
is a very important matter ; something which Cobbett docs
'not touch; something of prime im portance. What is the diffcr'. ence between " I did it" and " I h ave done it?" betwee n "I was
in irew York" and "I have been in N ew York?" between " I
~ wrote the1etter" and " I have written the letter ?" Wh en do you
use the one and when the other? Think for a moment. Give
"your own explanation before reading, mine. Th rse two forms arc

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Syntax,

termed the past tense and the prese nt. perfect ten se.
are ·•native and to the mann er born" seldom confound theae
tenses, but foreigners constantly do. The distinction l>ctween
them, however, is exceedi ngly plain. 'vVc use the past tense when
speaking of anything th at has happened in a cmnpletely pallt tin~: ·
as, I did it yesterday; 1 was in New York last week; I wrote I
letter last Thursday. 'N e use the present perfect tense when
speaking of anything that has h appened in a time not yet entirely
pa.it, or in an indefinite pallt time: 1 have done it to-day; I have
been in N ew York this week; I have written many letters; I have
been in Paris. Both the Germans and the French can, in their
languages, u se either form fo r th e same time·; so that they can
say, which we cann ot, " l h ave been in New York yesterday: I
have written a letter last week."
The past perfect, I had done, I had w1itten, I had been, is used
when sp eakin g of something h appening at. a time farther back
than or anteri or to a given p ast time. F o r in stan ce: While I am.
tellin g you of what hap pened to me in 1868 in Lond on, and of my
doing something there at that t ime, a nd of my writing a letter to
somebody in that year, 1 sud denly info rm yo u, for the better.
und erstanding of my 11:11Tntivc, that 1 had /Jcen in Loudon before
that year; that 1 had clone something th ere l> eforc that time,_ and
that I had written to somebody 1.Jcforc writing at that tim e. This,
you sec, is past perfect time; it is go ing bchinrl th e past time of
our narrative; an d it is called th e perfectly past time.

268. Well, then, I think, that as far as relates to the
active Verb, the passive Verb, and the passive participle,
enough has n ow been said. You h ave seen, too, something of the difference b etween the functions of the activ~
Verb and those of th e neuter; but ther e are a few remarks :
to be made with r egard to the latter. A neuter Verb
cannot have a noun or a pronoun in the objective case
immediately after it; for though we say, "I dream a
dream," it is understood that my mind bas b een engaged
in a dream. " I live a good life," m eans that I am living·
in a good manner. "I wallc my horse about," means that
I lead or conduct my h orse in the pace called a walk.
Nor can a neuter Verb become passive; because a passive
Verb is no other than a Verb describing an action received_

As Relatin g to Verb.:;.

173

' or .end'Ured. "The noble earl, on returning to town,
found that the noble countess was eloped with his grace."
·I Fead this very sentence in an English newspaper not
long ago. It should be had eloped; for was elo1jed means
·that somebody had eloped the coimtess; it means that she
had 1~eceivecl or encl'Urecl, from some actor, the act of eloping, whereas; she is the actress, and the act is confined to
·herself. The Verb is called n euter because the action
·does not pass over to anything. There are Verbs which
·are inactive; such as, to sit, to sleep, to exist. These are
also neuter Verbs, of course. But inactivity is not necessary to the making of a Verb n euter. It is sufficient for
this purpose that the action clo not pass from the actor to
any object.

.

These inacti·ve verbs arc the 1·eal neuter ones; for, in the use of
them, the nominative is neither acting nor acted on . But we now
set down th e whole batc h, neuter and intransitive, as intransitive
verbs ; and Cobl>ett simply shows, by this verb to elope, that we
·cannot use an · in transitive verb in the passive voice; we C[l.n no
more say I am eloped th an we can say I am sitted, I am slept, or I
.ain existed. There are a few in transitive verbs that seem an exception to this rule ; but th ey are not. I m ean the verbs to conw, to
arrive, to go, to return, to f all, to 1·ise, and so me others. Let me
·set them clown in the two ways in which they are used:
H e 11 as
H e has
Ile has
H e h as
H e has
H e has

come,
arrived,
gone,
returned ,
fallen,
risen,

H e is come.
He is arrived.
He is gone.
H e is returned.
He is fallen.
He is risen.

In the second form, IIe is come, etc., the words come, arrived, gone,
.returned, fallen, risen , are not r eally participles, but adjectives,
indicating 8tate; so this fo rm is not at all a passive form of the
.verb; it is simply neuter ; for the subject is neither acting nor
acted on. In th e first form, H e has com.e, etc., these words are
partici ples, and the sentences indicate action completed. But I
. find I am anticipating; Cobbett says the same thing in the nex t
paragraph l>ut one. Just keep in 1;1incl that what he calls neuter

' I.

I

-- --- - -

--'I

I

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174

As Relating to Verb s.

Syntax,

we now

call intransitive;
cal I tmnsitive.

~

fla:

269. In the instance just mentioned, the error is
grant: " was eloped," is what few p ersons would put
down in writing ; yet anybody might do it upon the authority of Dr. J ohnson; for h e says in his Dictionary
that to elope is an active V erb, though he says that it~
synonymous with to run away, which, in the same Die,
tionary, he says, is a neuter V erb. However, let tho~
who prefer Doctor Johnson's authority to the dictates
of reason and common sense say that " his grace eloped
the countess; and that, accordingly, the countess wa&
eloped."
.
270. The danger of error, in cases of this kind, ariseit
from the circumstance of there being many Verbs which
are active in one sense and neuter in another. The Verb,
to enditre, for instance, when it means to suppoi·t, to sustain, is active; as, "I endure pain." But when it me~
to last, to continue, it is neuter; as, "The earth endure&. •
from age to age." In the first sense we can say, the paiu,
is endured; but, in the last, we cannot say the earth is
endured from age to age. 1Ne say, indeed, I amfalleni.
the colt is grown, the trees are rotten, the stone is cru11;
bled, the post is rnoitldered, the pitcher is cracked; t.)l.ough
to grow, to rot, to crumble, to moulder, to crack, are al\
of them neuter Verbs. But it is clearly understood here
that we mean that the colt is in a grown, or augmented
stateJ· that the trees are in a rotten state; and so on;;
and it is equally clear that we could not mean that the
countess was in an eloped state. "The noble earl found •
that the countess wm gone." This is correct, though1
to go is a neuter Verb. But gone, in this sense, is not
the participle of the Verb to go; it is merely an adjective;
meaning ab sent. If we put any word after it,. which gives
it a ·v erbal signification, it becomes erroneous. "He foun~
that the countess was gone out of the house," That is to

175

say, was absent out of the house; and thi;; is nonsense.
It must, in this case be, "He found that the countess
had gone out of the house."
271. Much more might be said upon this part of my
subject; many niceties might be stated and discussed;
. but I have said quite enough on it to answer every useful
purpose. Here, as everywhere else, take time to think.
There is a reason for the right use of every word. Have
your meaning clear in your mind; know t~e meaning of
all the words you employ; and then you will seldom commit errors.
272. There remains to be noticed the use of the active
participle, and then we shall have a few, and only a few,
•words to say upon the subject of the modes of Verbs.
As to the active participle, paragraph 97, in Letter VIII,
will have told you nearly all that is necessary. We know
well that I am wor!cin g means that I worlc, and so on.
There is great nicety in distinguishing the circumstances
which call for the use of the one from those which call
for the other: but, like many other things, though very
difficult to explain by words, these circumstances are perfectly well understood, and scrupulously attended to, by
even the most illiterate p ersons. The active participle is,
you know, sometimes a n oun in its functions; as, " Work.inf! is good for our h ealth." Here it is the nominative
'case to the Verb is. Sometimes it is an adjective; as,
"the worlcing people." As a noun it may be in any of
the three cases; as, " Working is good; the ad vantage of
'working· I like working." It may be in the singular or
~
k.
in the plural: "The wor!cing of the mines ; the war ings
of corruption." Of course it requires articles and prepo,"8itions as nouns require them. More need not be said
al:iout it; and, indeed, my chief purpose in mentioning the
active participle in this place is to remind you that it may
' be a nominative case in a sentence.
273. The modes have been explained m Letter VIII,

I,

I,
I

,1· i' \

I .
·1~

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I,

\,

176

As R elating to V erb s.

Syntax,

paragraphs 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96. Read those paragraphs
again. The infinitive mode has; in almost all respects,
the p ower of a noiin. "To work is goocl for our health."
Here it is the nominative of the sentence. "To eat, to
drink, and to sleep, are n ecessary. " It cannot become a
plural; but it may b e, and frequ ently is, in the objective
cas~; as, "I want to eat." The to is, in some few cases,
omitted when the infinitive is in the objective case; aa,·
"I dare write." But, " I dare to write," is just as neat,
and more proper. The to is omitted by the u se of the
ellipsis; as, " I like to shoot, hunt, and course." But
care must b e t aken not to leave out t he to, if you thereby
make the meaning doitbtful. R ep etition is sometimes
disagreeable, and t ends to enfeeble language ; but it is .
always preferable t o obscurity.
Here is a little difficu lty. Co\J\Jctt has repeatedly said that the.
nominative always follows the verb to be; and so it does; but it is
not always so with the infinitive of this verb. Look at these two
sentences:
I supposed it to be him.
I am snpposetl to \Je he.
I~ the first instance, the grammari ans say that we must say to.be
hi m, because it follows a word in the objective case (it), and is the
complement of t_hat word; and in. the scco1H.l case we must say
'.°be he, be.cause 1t foll ows a word 10 the nominative case (1), uud
1s the complement of that word. Observe that in the second
example it i ~_as if .I said , " I am supposed .to be existing ;" and in
the first, as 1! I said, " l supposed something."
.
274. H yo u cast your eye once more on the conjugation
of the Verb to work, in L etter VIII, you will see that

i

have there set down the three other modes with all their
p erson s, numbers, and times. The imperative mode I
~espatc~ed ver~ quietly by a single short paragraph; and,
rndeed, m treatmg of the other two modes, the indicative
and the s:tb~imctiv.c, there is n o~hing t o do but to poi!!~
out the tnfhng variatwns that our Verbs undergo in orde~,
to make them suit their forms to the differences of mode.

177

mode is that manner of m;ing the Verb
which is applied when we are speaking of an action without any other action being at all connected with it, so as
to make the one a ccmcl'ition or consequence of the other,
"He work s every day; he r ides out; " and so on. But,
.there may b e a condition or a. consequence dep endent on
this working and riding; and in that case these Verbs
must b e in the subjunctive mode ; because the action they
'express dep ends on something else, going before or coming
after. "If h e wndc every day, he shall be p aid every day;
if he ride out, h e will not be at h ome by supper time."
The .s is dropped at the encl of the Verbs h ere ; and the
true cause is this, that there is a sign underst ood. If
filled up, the sentence would stand thus: " If h e sho1.dd
work; if h e should ride out." So that, after all, the Verb
has, in reality, no change of term.ination to denote what is
called m.ocle. And a:l the fuss which grammarians have
made about the potential modes, and other fanciful distinctions of the kind, only serve t o puzzle and perplex the
lear ner .
27 5. Verbs in general, and, indeed, all the Verbs, except
the Verb to be, have always the .saine f orrn in the present
time of the indicative and in that of the subjunctive, in
all the persons, save the second and third p er son singular.
Thus, we say, in the present of the indicative, I work,
we work, yO'li work, they work; and in the subjunctive the
same. But we say, in the former, thou work est, he works;
while, in the subjunctive, we say, thou work, he work;
that is to say, thou mayst work, or mightst, or shouldst
(and so on), work; and he may work, or might or should,
as the sense may r equire. Therefore, as to all Verbs,
except the Verb to be, it is only in these two persons that
any thing can happen to r ender any distinction of mode
necessary. But th e Verb to be h as more variation than
any 0thm· Verb. AU ut.':er V erbs have the same for m in
their inclicatirn present time as in their infinitive mode,

s•

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r

"

'!
: ..

1,1,

~I I ·I·
I,

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178

---""'

...........

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Syntax,

As Relating to Verbs.

with the trifling exception of the st and s added to the
second and third person singular ; as, to have to write
' But the
'·
work, to run,- I have, I write, I work, I run.
Verb to be becomes, in the present time of its indicativ'a,
I am, thou art, he is, we are, you are, they are,- whicih
~e great changes. Therefore, as the subjunctive, in all
its persons, takes the infinitive of the Verb without any
change at all, the Verb to be exhibits the use of this mode •
most clearly; for, instead of I am, thou art, he is, we are,
the subjunctive requires, I be, thou be, he be, we be,- that ·
is to say, I may be, or might be ; and so on. Look now
at the conjugation of the Verb to be, in Letter VIII,
paragraph 117; and then come back to me.
276. You see, then, that this important Verb, to be, has
a form in some of its persons appropriated to the subj unctive mode. This is a matter of consequence. Distinction~, without differences in the things distinguished,
are fanciful, and, at best, useless. H ere is a r eal difference.
a practical difference; a difference in the form of the word.
Here is a p ast time of the subjunctive ; a past time disting uishecl, in some of its persons, by a different manner of
spelling or writing the word. If I be,- if I were,- if he ·
were,- and not if I was, if he was. In the case of other ·
Verbs, the past of the indicative is the same as the past of
the subjunctive; that is to say, the Verb is written in the
same letters ; but in the case of the Verb to be it is otherwise. If I worked, if I smote, if I had. Here the Verbs
are the same as in I worked, I smote, I had; but in the
case of the Verb to be, we must say, in the past of the ·
indicative, I was, and in that of the subjunctive, if I were. 1
277. The question, then, is this: What are the cases in
which we ought to use the subjunctive form 1 Bishop
L~wth, and, on his authority, Mr. Lindley Murray, have :
said, that some conjunctions have a government of verbs·
that is to say, make them or force them to be in the
junctive mode. And then these gentlemen mention par- '

to

sui:

179

ticularly the conjunctions, if, though, unless, and some
· others. But (and these gentlemen allow it), the Verbs
which follow these conjunctions are not always in the
subjunctive mode; and the using of that mode must
depend, n ot upon the conjunction, but upon the sense of
the whole sentence. How, then; can the conjunction
govern the Verb 1 It is the sense, the meaning of the
whole sentence, which must govern; and of this you will
presently see clear proof. "If it be dark, do not come
liome. If eating is necessary to man, he ought not to be
a glutton." In the first of these sentences, the matter
expressed by the Verb may be or may not be. There
exists an uncertainty on tha subject. And if the sentence
were filled up, it would stand thus: "If it should be dark
do not come home." But m the second sentence ther;
exists no such uncertainty. We know, and all the world
knows, that eat£ng is necessary to man. We Jould uot
fill up the sentence with should,- and, therefore, we make
use of is. Thus, then, the conjunction if, which you see
is employed in both cases, has nothing at all to do with
the government of the verb. It is the sense which
governs.
It is worth while, however, to notice the conjunctions that are
said to govern the subjunctive: though, although, unleM, llJfJt, until,
till, whether, prO'Vided lhat, on condition that,- because, when used,
they generally indicate some uncertainty. When they do not do
this, then the indicative must be used. H ere is an example that
will illustrate this. If I were speaking of tlle possibilities in tlle
fu ture career of a young m an, I .5hould naturally say . "Unless
he be honest, he will never, though he be rich as Crcesus, be happy."
But if I were speaking of a real person, wllo is actually rich as
Crresus, I should naturally say, ''Though he is rich as Crresus, he is
not happy." Again: "Do not admit him, unless he has a ticket."
Here we say has, becau se we anticipate somethin g as f act. But,
where there is a doubt, w e u se the subjunctive. "Do not give him
the money, unless he r et1trn you the goods." When, therefore,
. anything is spoken of as actual fact, or as in absolute existence, the
indicative is used. Those who have studied French will remember

180

Syntax,

that the French have also a number of words that govern the sub- ..
junctive, and in many, if not most, of the cases where they use the
subjunctive, we do so too. T hough he be a giant; unless he be ' '
at ten ti ve; lest he h urt you; provided that he pay you; on condition that he reward you; wait until he come. The French use the ·
subjunctive in all these cases. They also use it after certain verbs, .
as we do too; as, '·Be sure that he lay no hand on you; mind
that he do not touch you." You have doubtless noticed this use of
the subj unctive in such senten ces as that of Cobbett himself in
paragraph 250: ''You must take care that there be a nominative,
and that it be clearly expressed or understood." Some writers
think th at the subjunctive mode is fast passing out of use, and
that it will soon be altogether ol>solete. I can only say that if it
do go out of use, we shall lose the m eans of indicating different
shades of meaning in th e words we u se. I suppose one reason
why it is going out of use is because the great army of newspaper.
writers know nothing of it; th ey are obliged to write with such
ntraordinary rapidity and in such haste that they can't take time
to consider fine shades or differences of meaning in the worcl9 they
employ.-Notice that the difference between the indicative and the
subjun ctive, in all verbs except the verb to be, is simply this, that
in the subjunctive THE ENDINGS ARE ALL OUT OFF. Cast your eye
over the conjugations of to work and to be wo1·ked.

278. There is a great necessity for care as to this
matter; for the meaning of what we write is very much
affected when we make use of the modes indiscriminately.
Let us take an instance. "Though h er chastity be right
and becoming, it gives her no claim to praise; because she
would be criminal if she were not chaste. " Now, by employing the subjunctive, in the first member of the sen- .
t ence, we leave it uncertccin whether it be rig/it or not for
h er to be chaste; and by e1hploying it in the second, we
express aYloubt as to the fact of h er chastity. vVe mean
neither of these; and, therefore, notwithstanding h ere are
a though and an if, both the Verbs ought to be in the
indicative. "Though her chastity is right and b ecoming,
it gives her no claim to praise; because she would be
criminal if she was not chast e." Fill up with the signs.
" Though her chastity may be right; if she should not be

As R elating to V erbs.

181

chaste;" and then you see, at once, what a difference there
is in the meaning.
279. The subjunctive is necessarily always used where
a sign is left out; as, " Take care that he come to-morrow,
that you be ready to receive him, that he be well received,
and that all things be duly prepared for his entertainment." Fill up with the signs, and you will see the reason
for what you write.
280. The Verb to be is sometimes used thus : " lVere he
rich, I should not like him the better. Were it n ot dark,
I would go." That is to say, if he were; if it were. "It
were a jest, indeed, t9 consider a set of seat-sellers and
seat-buyers as a lawful legislative body. It were to violate
every principle of morality to consider honesty as a virtue,
when not to be honest is a crime which the law punishes."
The it stands for a great deal here. "Ridiculous, indeed,
would the state of our minds be, if it were such .as to
exhibit a set of seat-sellers and seat-buyers as a lawful
legislative body." I mention these instances because they
appear unaccountable; and I never like to slur things
over. Those expressions for the using of which we cannot
give a reason ought not to be used at all.
There is another use of the verb to be, unnoticed by Cobbett,
, which may be spoken of h ere. It has Jong been a matter of controversy whether we should say, "the bridge is building," or "the
bridge is being built;" "preparations are making," or "preparations are being made." Mr. White maintains that the former is
the only proper form, and that the latter form is con trary to the
genius of our language. And other critics are of the same opinion.
Well, there is uo use in talking of it now ; it is too late to alter it ;
for this manner of speaking is now used by almost eve ryl>ody that
speaks or writes English. Every newspaper in the United. States
uses this form ; and the truth Is, it has become a necessity, for
there are some cases in which no other form can be used without
changing the meaning of the sentence. We can say, The house is
1builcling, the book is printing, th e play is acting, the bread is
baking, the clothes are making, and so •)n, .n many other instances;
but we cannot say, "The boy is whipping' ' or "The girl is

182

Syntax,

.As Relating to V erbs.

"Thii' ·

ruining" to signify that "The boy is being whipped" or
girl is being ruined." No; it is no use trying to change this now;.
there are certain cases where we must use "is being;" it is in tJ{e'
very life-blood of the language; it is every-day English; and there•
is no taking it out. It is like the word execute, which originallvi
meant, and still properly means, to put a sentence mto force; but,_; ·
now it is used every day, in print and in conversation, to signify ;
putting a person to death. And there is no doubt but it will con- - ·
tinue to be so used to the end of time ; for no dictum of the critics
can change it.
It is worth while remarking, that in sentences like "The house
is building," '.' the corn is thrashing," the words building and A
thraslting are not verbs, but nouns; for the original form was "in
building,'' "in thrashing." The Germans have an entirely different
verb for such expressions; for "The house is building" they say
Das Haus wfrd gebaut, and not Das Haus ist gebaut, which latter
means The house is built.

281. As to instances in which authors have violated the
principles of grammar, with respect to the use of the
modes, I could easily fill a book much larger than this
with instances of this kind from Judge BLACKSTONE and
Doctor JOHNSON. One only shall suffice. I take it from
the Judge's first Book. "Therefore, if the king purchases
lands of the nature of gavel-kind, where all the sons inherit
equaUy; yet, upon the king's demise, liis eldest son shall
succeed to these lands alone." Here is fine confusion,
not to say something inclining towards high-treason; for,
if the king's son be to inherit these lands alone, he, of
course, is not to inherit the crown. But it is the Verb
piwchases with which we have to do at present. Now, it
is notorious that the king does not purchase lands in
gavel-kind, or any other lands ; whereas, from the form of
the Verb, it is taken for granted that he does it. It should
have been, "If the king purchase lands;" that is to say,
if he were to purchase, or if he should purchase.
282. Thus, my dear James, have I gone through all
that appeared to me of importance relating to Verbs. ·
Every part of the Letter ought to be carefully read, and

183

its meaning ought to be well weighed in your mind; but
always recollect that, in the using of Verbs, that which
requires your first and most earnest care is the ascertaining of the nominative of the sentence; for, out of every
hundred grammatical errors, full fifty, I believe, are com. Iilitted for want of due attention to this matter.
Let me say a word here which will make clear to you what the
Germans mean by what they call genetic teaching; that is, unfold, ing a subject in such a way as to show how it originates and grows
, up to completion. The shortest possible seµtence must have a subject and a -predicate (nominative and verb) ; for although the one
, word, "Love!" is a sentence, the subject is understood: "Love
thou!" The next step is the object: ''Love thou me!" A sentence
' may, therefore, consist of merely subject and predicate, or of subject, predicate, and object.
The last is an imperative sentence; let us take a declarative one.
, "Men love." This is a sentence; it contains subject and predicate,
and makes complete sense. "Men love women." This has subject, predicate, and object. Now we may go on adding words,
·_._ phrases, and clauses, modifying each of these chief parts of the
sentence, until we stretch it out into a compound or complex sen, tence. For a sentence, like a house, is just built up by successive
additions. These additions are often called adjuncts; they consist
of single words, of phrases and clauses. I shall add all I can to the
separate words of this sentence; first modifying the subject by
various single words, then by a phrase, then by a clause; and then
I shall endeavor to do the same to the predicate and the object.
Now observe, and you will see how a sentence grows:
Men love ·women.
The men love women.
The woi-thy men love women.
The very worthy men love women.
The very worthy me~n this city\love women.
The very worthy men(in this city~ who are noted for their excellent char'
acter, love women.

Here we have modified the subject, first by the definite article,
' then. by an adjective, then we have modified the adjective by an
udverh; then we have modified or limited the subject by a phrase,
and finally by a clause. Now let ust try and do the same thing to
· the predicate and the object:

185

Syntax, as Relating to Adverbs,

Prepositions, and Conjunctions.

Men love women.
Men love the women.
Men love the good women.
Men love the very good women.
Men love dearly the very good women.
Men love dearly the very good women of this city.
lfen love dearly the· very good women of this city, who are respected bf
all the world .
·

Prepositions, and Conjunctions. For what 1·eason I know
not, seeing that they have not attempted to give lists of
, the words of other parts of speech. These lists must be
defective, and, therefore, worse than no lists. To find out
, the meaning of single words, the Dictionary is the place.
The business of grammar is to show the connection be' tween words, and· the manner of using words properly.
The sole cause of this dwelling upon these parts of speech
appears to me to have been a notion that they would seem
to be neglected, unless a certain number of pages of the
book were allotted to each. To be sure each of them is a
part of speech, as completely as the little finger is a part
of the body; but few persons will think that, because we
descant very frequently, and at great length, upon the
qualities of the head and heart, we ought to do the same
with regard to the qualities of the little finger.
285. I omitted, in the Letter on Verbs, to notice the
use of the word thing_; and I am not sorry that I did, because by my noticing it in this concluding paragraph, the
matter may make a deeper impression on your mincl.
Thing is, of course, a noun. A pen is a thing, and every
animal, or creature, animate or inanimate, is a thing. We
apply it to the representing of every creature in the uni. verse, except to men, women, and children; and a creature
is that which has been created, be it living, like a horse,
or dead, like dirt or stones. 'The use of the word thing,
as far as this goes, is plainly reconcilable to reason; but
· "to get drunk is a beastly thing." Here is neither human
• · being, irrational animal, nor inanimate creature. Here is
merely an action. Well, then, this action is the thing_/
for, as you have seen in L etter XIX, paragraph 273, a
verb in the infinitive mode has, in 'almost all respects, the
functions and powers of a noun. "It was a most atrocious
thing to uphold the Bank of England in refusing to give
gold for its promissory notes, and .to compel the nation t o
submit to the wrong that it sustained from that refusal."

184

The whole sentence will therefore be : " The very worthy men In
this city, who are noted for their excellent character, love dearly
the very good women of this city, who are respected by all the
world." This, therefore, has now become a complex sentence,
of which the chief clause is, "Men love women," and all the rest ·
modifies the subject, the predicate, and the ol;>ject of this clause.
Of course, it might be extended much farther : but this will do to
show you how a· sentence grows : or, if you please, how it is
built up. Should you ever be requested to give a trial lesson in
English grammar, ln a class of scholars who have learned something of the subject, you cannot do better than show them, In
this manner, how a sentence is formed.

LETTER XX.
SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, AND
JUNCTIONS.

283. After what has been said, my dear James, on the
subject of the Verb, there remains little to be added. The
Adverbs, Prepositions, and Conjunctions, are all words
which never vary thefr enllings. Their uses have been
sufficiently illustrated in the Letters on the Syntax o~
Nouns, Pronouns, and Verbs. In a Letter, which is yet to
come, and which will contain specimens o£false grammar,
the misuse of many words, belonging to these inferior
Parts of Speech, will be noticed; but it would be a waste
of your time to detain you by an. elaborate account of
that which it is, by this time, hardly possible for you n<?t.
to understand.
284. Some grammarians have given lists of

186

Syntax.

Specimens of False Grammar.

187

The meaning is, that the whole of these measures or tran&;,
actions constituted a most atrocious deed or thing.
,'
Cobbett despatches the syntax of adverbs in half-a-dozen lines;
and yet there is one little matter connected with the use of these '
words ~hat has, perhaps, caused more uncertainty, perplexing '
~ncertamty, than anything connected with grammar. We say, ·
nghtly, that he fights bravely and she sings finely; but shall I say .•
that he looks bravely and that her voice sounds finely? I may say '
that he dances smoothly and that she plays sweetly; but shall ~
I say that his coat feels smoothly and that she looks sweetly? If
not, how am I to know when to use the adverb and when the
adjective ?
This, as I have said, is a matter which has puzzled many a stu.
~ent of gra~mar, and caused anxiety to many a young writer. Here
is .a rule which I have never seen in any grammar, but which, !think, '
will cover the majority of such cases, and is easily understood
and remembered : After all the verbs referring to the FIVE SENSES
~he adjective, and not the adverb, is to be used; as, It tastes
it smells nice; it sounds hcursh; it feels smooth;· it looks handsome. ·
Expressed in a larger and more comprehensive manner the rule ·
might stand thus: Wherever manner is to be expressed, use the
adverb; wherever quality is to be expressed, use the adjective:
Cobbett repeatedly uses the expression "talks fine;" meaning, of
course, fine talk, and not the manner of speaking. In the same
way, we must say, " I arrived here safe and sound," and not aafely
and soundly; for it is not the manner of arriving, but the state in
which he arrived, that is .meant.
I t~ought that Cobbett explainrd somewhere in this grammar .
the d1ference between so and such; but I cannot find it. Mr. . '
Swinton says : ''So has sometimes a pronominal use ; as, ' Whether .
he is a genius or not, he is considered so'- (a genius)." I think
this is an error; so is used mljectively and adverbially, not pro.
nominally; such is used pronominally; as, Whether he be a geniu.s
or not, he is considered such; whether he be rich or not he is
considered so. (See paragraph 143.)
'

good; ·:

LETTER XXL
SPECIMENS OF FALSE GRAMMAR, TAKEN FROM THE WRITINGS OF
DOCTOR JOHNSON, AND FROM 'THOSE OF DOCTOR WATTS.

MY

DEAR JAMES:

The chief object of this Letter is to prove to you the
necessity of using great care and caution in the construction of your sentences. 'Vhen you see writers like Dr.
Johnson and Dr. Watts committing grammatical e1Tors,
and, in some instances, making thejr words amount to
nonsense, or at least making their meaning doubtful; when
you see this in the author of a grammar and of a dictionary
of the English language, and in the author of a work on
the subject of logic; and when you are informed that
these were two of the most learned men that England
ever produced, you cannot fail to be convinced that con- ,
stant care and caution are necessary to prevent you from
committing not only similar, but much greater, errors.
Another object, in the producing of these specimens, is
to convince you that a knowledge of the Latin and Greek
languages does not prevent men from writing bad English.
Those languages are, by impostors and their dupes, called
"the learned languages;" and those who have paid for
having studied them are said to have received "a liberal
/' education." These appellations are false, and, of course,
they lead to false conclusions. Learning, as a noun,
means knowledge, and learned means knowing, or possessed of knowledge. Learning is, then, to be acquired
by conception; and, it is shown injudgment, in reasoning,
and in the various modes of employing it. What, then,
can learning have to do with any particular tongue!
Good grammar, for instance, written in Welsh, or in the
language of the Chippewa savages, is more learned than
bad grammar written in Greek. The learning is in the

188

189

Specimens of ~b'alse Grammar.

Specimens of False Grammar.

mind and not in the tongue; learning consists of ideas {
and not of the no,ise that is made by the mouth. If, for ',
instance, the Reports drawn up by the House of Commons, ·
and which are compositions discovering in every sentence .
ignorance the most profound, were written in Latin,
should we then call them learned.'? Should we say that
the mere change of the words from one tongue into
another made that learned which was before unlearned 1, _
As well may we say that a falsehood written in English .
would have been truth if written in L atin; and as well
may we say that a certain handwriting is a learned hand~ ,
writing, or, that certain sorts of ink and paper are learned
ink and paper, as that a language, or tongue, is a learned
language or tongue.
The cause of the use of this false appellation, " learned
languages," is this, that those who teach them in England
have, in consequence of their teaching, very large estates
-in house and land, which are public property, but which
are now used for the sole benefit of those teachers, who
are, in general, the r elations or dependents of the aristocracy, In order to give a color of reasonableness to this
species of appropriation, the languages taught by the
possessors are called" the learned languages;" and which
appellation is, at the same time, intended to cause the
mass of the people to believe that the professors and
learners of these languages are, in point of wisdom, far
superior to other men; and to establish the opinion that all but themselves are unlearned persons. In short, the
appellation, like many others, is a trick which fraud has ,
furnished for the purpose of guarding the snug possessors ,.
of the proi)erty against the consequences of the people's
understanding the matter.
It is curions enough that this appellation of "learned ·,
languages " is confined to the English nation and the ·
American, which inherits it from the English. Neither '
in France, in Spain, in Italy, nor in Germany, is this false ' :.

_, and absurd appellation in use. The same motives have
' not existed in those countries. There the monks and
. other priests have inherited from the found~rs. ~~ey
' had not any occasion to resort to this species of imposition.
But in England the thing required to be glossed over.
, There was something or other required in that country
as an apology for taking many millions a year ~om the
public to keep men to do no apparent~y useful t~g.
Seeing themselves unable to maintam the posit10n that
the L atin and Greek are more "learned langu1tges " than
others, the impostors and their dupes tell us that this is
not what they mean. They mean, they say, not that those
languages are, in themselves, more learned than others:
but that, to possess a knowledge of them is a proof that
the possessor is a learned man. To b~ sure, t~ey do n_ot
offer us any argument in support of this assert10n; while
it would be easy to show that the assertion must, in every
case, be false. But let it suffice, ior this time, that we
show that the possession of the knowledge of those languages does not prevent men fro~ co~mitt~g nu.merous
grammatical errors when they wnte m their native language.
. .
I have for this purpose, fixed upon the wntmgs of
Doctor J~hnson and of Doctor ·watts; because, besides
its being well known that they were deeply skilled in
Latin and Greek, it would be difficult to find two men
with more real learning. I t ake also the two works for
which they are respectively the most celebrated; the
RAMBLER of Doctor Johnson, and the Lome of Doctor
Watts. These are works of very great learning. The
RAMBLER, though its general tendency i~ to s~read a
gloom over life, and to damp all enterprise, pnv~te as
well as public, displays a vast fund of know ledge ~.the
science of morals ; and the Lome, though the rehg10us
zeal of its pious, sincere, and benevolent author has led
him into the very great error of taking his ei:amples of

'Ii.·.
·!~: I'.;

![~I I
!·"

-

190

Specimens of False Grammar.

sel~-evident propositions from amongst those, many 0 ; :
:Vhich great num?ers of men think not to be self-evident/ ~.
is a work wherem profound learnin<Y is conveyed in a'
st~le _the most simple, and in a manne; the most pleasing. ··
It_ is impossible to believe that the Loorc was not reVised
wit~ great care; and, as to the RAMBLER, the biographer
of its ~uthor tells us that the Doctor made sia:- thousand ·
correct10ns and alterations before the work was printed
in volumes.
The RAMBLER is in Numbers_; therefore, at the end of'
each extract from it, I shall put the letter R, and the
Number. The Loorc is divided into Parts and Chapters.
At the end of each extract from it, I shall put L; and
then add the Part and Chapte1-. I shall range the ex-·
tracts under the names of the parts of speech to which
the en-oneous words respectively belong.
ARTICLES.
"I invited her to spend the day in viewing a seat and
gardens."-R. No. 34.
"For all our speculative acquaintance with thin 8
s~~uld be made subservient to our better conduct in t~e
civil and religious life."-L. Introduction.
The indefinite articlA a cannot, you kg_W>l, be put before ·
a plural noun. We cannot say a garden~_; but this is, in
fact, said in the above extract. It should have been "a
seat and its gardens." "Civil and 1·eligious life," in the
second extract are general and inde~,nite. The article,
therefore, was unn,ecessary, and is improperly used. Look
back at the use of Articles, Letter IV.
NOUNS.
"Among the innumerable historical authors who ·fill
every nation with accounts of their ancestors, ~r undertake to transmit to futurity the events of their own time, · . ,

Bpecimens of False Grammar.

- ---·--

191

·the greater part, when fashion and novelty have ceased ,t o
recommend them, are of no. other u se than chronological
memorials, which necessity may sometimes require to be
consulted."- R. No. 122.
This is all confusion. "Whose ancestors~ The nation's
ancestors are meant; but the author's are expressed. The
two theirs and the them clearly apply to the same Noun.
How easily all this confusion would have been avoided
.by considering the nation as a singular, and saying its
ancestors I In the latter part of the sentence, the authors
are called chronological memorio.ls _; and though we may,
in some cases, use the word author for author's work;
yet, in a case like this, where we are speaking of the
authors as actors, we cannot take such a liberty.
"Each of these classes of the human race has desires,
fears, and conversation peculiar to itself~· cares which
another cannot feel, and pleasures which he cannot partake. "-R. No. 160. '
The noun of multitude, classes, being preceded by each,
has the pronoun itself properly put after it; but the he
does not coITespond with these. It should have been it.
With regard to these two extracts, see paragraph 181.
"His great ambition was to shoot flying, and he, therefore, spent whole days in the woods, pm·suing gamo,
which, before he was near enough t.o see them, his approach frighted away."-R. No. 66.
Game is not a noun of i Y1ultitude, like mob, or House
of Commons. There are different games or pastimes;
but this word, as applied to the describing of wild animals, has no plural; and, therefore, cannot have a plural
pronoun to stand for it.
.
"The obvious duties of piety towards God and love
towards man, with the governments of all our inclinations
and passions."-L. Part 4.
This plural is so clearly wrong that I need not show
why it is wrong.

-

-

~

·---- - .

-

rn2

Specimens of False Grammar.

8pecirnens of .False Grammar.

"And by this niean they will better judge .;hat
choose."-L. Part 4.
.
. Mean, as a noun, is never used in the singular. ·It;'•
like some other words, has broken loose from all principle
and rule. By universal acquiescence it is become always
· a plural, whether used with -singular or plural pronouns.
. and articles or not. Doctor Wat ts, in . other instances,'
says, this means.
It is curious enough that we have several plural words like this
used m a singu lar manner. vVe not only say this means, but t,,j, new.~. tlti.~ series, and this species. We say, ''Great pains i,s taken ; '1
he has taken mnclt pains;" beca use, in this sense, pains means ·
exertion, t?·ouble; while in th e plural it m eans bodily pains. Mea 11 , '
means, are properly used in the singular and plural when ap plied ·
to ~he te~m.s used in proportion. Wh en you are speaking of
Vanous distinct tluugs or operatio ns, you ought to say, "By tliae
m eans;" but when you are speak ing of things or circumstances in
~ rnass, you mu st say, " By this means." Such sentences as, " This
is on~, m eans of gaining your end," and " The best means is by fair
play,- are perfectly correct.

"Having delayed to buy.a coach myself, till I should
have the lady's opinion, for whose use it was intended.;'
-R. No. 34.
We know that whose relates to ludy, accordina to ·the
'
.
0
D oc t ors
meamng; but, grammatically, it does not. It
relates to opinion. It should have been, "the opinion of
the lady, for whoso use. " See Syntax of Nouns Letter
XVI, paragraphs 170, 171.
'

'·'
·
•
··

PRONOUNS.
."Had the opinion of my censurers been unanimous, it
might have overset my resolutions; but, since I find them
at variance with each other, I can, without scr~ple, neglect them, and follow my own imagination. "-R. No. 23.
You see the Doctor has, in the last member of the sen- · .
tence, the censurers in his eye, and he forgets his nomina- ,.

193

tive, opinion. It is the opinion that was not ·u nanimous,
and not the censurers who were not unanimous; for they
w.ere unanimous in censuring.
"They that frequent the chambers of the sick will generally find the sharpest pains and most stubborn mala. dies among them whom confidence in the force of nature
formerly betrayed to negligence or irregularity; and that
superfluity of strength, which was at once their boast and
their snare, has often, to the end, no other effect than
that it continues them long in impotence and anguish."R. No. 38.
The they and the first them ought to be those; the to
· ought to be into. The two theirs and the last them are
not absolutely faulty, but they do not clearly enough relate to their antecedent.
"METISSA brought with h er an old maid, recommended
by her mother, who taught he1· all the arts of domestic
management, and was, on every occasion, her chief agent
and directress. J'/iey soon invented one reason or other
to quarrel with all my servants, and either prevailed on
me to turn them away, or treated them so ill that the'!,! left
me of themselves, and always supplied th eir places with
some brought from my wife's family."-R. No. 35.
Here is perfect confusion and pell-mell! ·Which of the
two, the old maid or the mother, was it that taught thA
arts of domestic management? And which of the two
was taught, Metissa or the old maid? " They soon
invented." vVho are they .' i Are there two, or all the
three? And who supplied the places of the servants ~
The meaning of the words clearly is that tlie servants
themselves supplied the places. It is very rarely that we
meet with so bad a sentence as this.
"I shall not trouble you with a history of the stratagems practised upon my judgment, or the allurements
tried upon my heart, which, if you have, in any part of
your life, been acquainted with rural politics, you will
9

~ .:·~: I

'

. I~- · 1,
.; ! ~
!i! •
'

;1:

J.·

l
.

194

Bpecimens of False G-rammai'.

easily conceive. 'l'heir arts have no great variety, tliey
th.ink nothing worth their care but money."-R. No. 3q;
" Their arts;" but whose arts? There is no antecedent,•,
except "rural politics/' and thus, all this last sentence is
perfect nonsense.
"But the fear of not being approved as just copiers of
human manners is not the most important concern that
an author of this sort ought to have before him."-R.
No. 4.
An author cannot be said to fear not to be approved ·
as just copie·rs. The word author ought to have been in .
the plural, and ltirii ought to have been them.
·
"The wit, whose vivacity condemns slower tongues to
silence; the scholar, whose knowledge allows no man to ,
think h e instructs ltint."-H. No. 188.
Which of the two is allowed? The scholar or the no
rnan ? Which of the two does he relate to? Which of
the two does the him relate to? By a little reflection we _,
may come at the Doctor's meaning; but if we may stop
to discover the grammatical meaning of an author's
words, bow are we to imbibe the science which he would
teach us?

"The state of the possessor of humble virtues, to the
affector of great excellencies, is that of a small cottage of . ·
stone, to the palace raised with ice by the Empress. of ·
Russia; it was, for a time, splendiil and luminous, but . ,
the first sunshine melted it to nothing."-R. No. 22.
lVltich, instead of it, would have made clear that which
is now dubious, for it may relate to cottage as well as to
palace; or it may relate to state.
We do not now say e',(,Cl)tlencies, but e.vcellences, for the singular is
excellence. Exr.ellen mes is the plul'al of excellency, which is uow sel.
dom used except as a title of honor. It is the same kind of error "
as Castlereagh's indulgencies, which you will see by.and.by.

" The love of retirement has, in all ages, adhered closely
to those minds which have been most enlarged by know] ..

Specimens of False Grammar.

195

edge or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed everythin; generally supposed to confer ~app~ess, have been
forced to seek it in the shades of pnvacy. -R. No. 7.
To seek what? The love of retirement, or everything .'P
The Doctor means happiness, but his words do not mean'it.
"Those who enjoyed" ought to be "Those who have enjoyed ;"
because no particular time is mentioned. (See paragraph 261.)

"Yet there is a certain race of men that make it their
duty to hinder the reception of every work of learning or
genius, who stand as sentinels in the avenues of fame,
and value themselves upon giving ignorance and envy the
first notice of a prey."-R. No. 3.
.
That, or who, may, as we have seen, be .the relati:ve of
a noun, which is the name of a rational bemg or bemg~;
but both cannot be used, applicable to the 6arne noun m
the same sentence. Nor is "a prey" proper. Prey has
no pliwal. It is like fat, meat, grease, garbage, and many
" other words of that description.
" For, among all the animals upon which nature has
·mpressed deformity and horror, there was none whom
durst not encounter rather than a beetle."-R. No. 126.
Here are wh01n and which used as the relatives to the
same noun · and besides, we know that whom can, in no
case be a :elativ~ to irrational creatures, and, in this case,
the ~uthor is speaking of such creatures only. "r1orr~1·"
is not a thing that can be impressed upon anot~er thing
so as to be seen. Horror is afeeling of the mind/ for,
though we say "horror was visible on his countenance,"
we clearly mean that the outward signs of horror were
visible. We cannot see horror as we can cleforrnity. It
should have been "deformity and hideousness."
"To cull from the mass of mankind those individuals
upon which the attention ought to be most employed."R. No. 4.
The antecedent belongs to rational beings, and, therefore, the which should have been wltom.

~e

196

Specimens of False Grammar.
Specimens of False Grammar.

" This determination led me to Metissa, the daughter ;
of Chrisophilus, whose p erson was at least without deformity. "-R. No. 35.
The person of wliicli of the two? Not of the old papa,
to 'be sure; and yet this is what the words mean.
"To persuade them w/io are entering the world, that '
all are equally vicious, is not to awaken judgment."-R.
No. 119.
7'hose p ersons who are entering the world, and not
any particular persons of whom we have already been
sp~aking. We cannot say them persons; and, therefore,
this sentence is incorrect.
" Of these pretenders, it is fit to distinguish tliose who
endeavor to deceive from them who are deceived."-R.
No. 189.
"I have, therefore, given a place to what may not be
useless to them whose chief ambition is to please."-R.
No. 34.
The thems in these two sentences should be those.
But "them who are deceived" has another sort of error
attached to it, for the who, remember, is not, of itself, a
nominative. The antecedent, as you have seen, must be
taken into view. This antecedent, must be the p ersons,
understood; and then we have them persons are deceived.
"Reason, as to the power and principles of it, is the
common gift of God to man. "-L. Introduction.
The it may relate to power as well as to 1·eason. Therefore, it would have been better to say, "Reason, as to its
power and principles;" for if clearness is always necessary, how necessary must it be in the teaching of logic!
"All the prudence that any man exerts in liis common
concerns of life. "-L. Introduction.
Any man means, here, the same as men in general, and
the concerns mean the concerns 'lOmmon to men in general; and therefore the article the should have been used
instead of the pronoun liis.

197

"It gives pain to the mind and mem~ry, and ~xpo~es
·• .the unskillful hearer to mingle the supenor and rnfer~or
·particulars together; it leads them into a ~hick woo~ rnstead of open daylight, and places them rn a labyrinth
instead of a plain path."-L. Part 4, Chap 2.
. .
The grammar is clearly bad; and the rhet~ric is n~t
quite free from fault. Labyrinth is the op~os1te of pl~in
path, but open daylight is not the opposite of a thick
wood. Open plain would have been better ~han OP_en
daylight; for open daylight may exist along with a thick
wood.
VERBS.
"There are many things which we every day s~e oth~rs
unable to perform, and, perhaps, have even m1scarned
ourselves in attempting; and yet can hardly allow to be
difficult. "-R. No. 122.
'.l;his sentence has in it one of the greatest of faults.
The nom·i native case of can allow is not clear to us.
This is a manner too elliptical. " W e can hardly allow
them '' is what was meant.
man's eagerness to do that good, to which he is not
called, will betray him into crimes."-R. No. 8.
The man is not called to the {load, but to do the good.
It is not my b1rniness, at this time, to criti~ise the o'f!inions
of Doctor Johnson; but I cannot r efram from JUSt remarking upon this sentence, that it c~ntains the sum
total of passive obedience and non·res_istance. It condemns all disinterested zeal and everything worthy of the
name of patriotism.
.
" We are not compelled to toil through half a foho to
be convinced that the author has broke his promise."-R.

"A

No. 1.
hr
f
"The Muses, when they sung before the t one o
Juplter."-R. No. 3.
.
In the first of these, the past time is used where the

199

Specimens of False Grammar.

Specimens of False Grammar.

passive participle ought to have been used; and in the
secon~, the passive participle is used in the place of the~ ·
past time. Broken and sang were the proper words.. ·
"My purpose was, after ten months more spent in commerce, to have withdrawn my wealth to a safer country."- .
-R. No. 120.
The purpose was present, and therefore it was his purpose to withdraw his wealth.
·
"A man may, by great attention, persuade others that
he really has the qualities that he presumes to boast. but
the hour will come when he should exert them, and 'then
whatever he enjoyed in praise, he must suffer in -reproach."
-R. No. 20.
Here is a complete confounding of times. Instead of
should, it should be ought to,- and instead of en:joyed, it
should be may have enjoyed. The sense is bad, too; for
how _can a man suffer in reproach what he has enjoyed in
praise?
"He had taught himself to think riches more valuable than nature designed them, and to expect from them
· . . . . "-R. No. 20.
"I could prudently adventure an inseparable u,nion."R. No. 119.
"I propose to endeavor the entertainment of my countrymen. "-R. No. l. ·
. "He may, by attending the remarks, which every paper
will produce. "-R. No. 1.
In each of these four sentences, a neuter verb has the
p_owers of an active [transitive] verb given to it.
Designed them to be,- adventure on,- endeavor to entertain.
attending to." To design a thing is to draw it. t~
attend a thing is to wait on it. No case occurs t; me
at present, wherein adventure and endeavor can be activ~
[transitive] verbs; but, at any rate, they ought not to
have assumed the active office here.
"I was not condemned in my youth to solitude, either

by indigence or deformity, nor passed the earlier part of

198

v .

· e without the flattery of courtship."-R. No. 119.
.
. The verb cannot change from a neuter to an active
1
"thout a repetition of the nominative. It should have
been, nor did I pass/ or, nor passed L
·
' "ANTHEA was content to call a. coach, and crossed the
brook."-R. No. 34.
' It should be "she crossed the brook."
. "He will be welcomed with ardor, unless he desti·oys
those recommendations by his faults."-R. No. 160.
"If he thinks his own judgment not sufficiently enllghtened, he may rectify his opinions."-R. N~. 1..
"If he 'finds, with all his industry, and all his artifices,
that he cannot deserve regard, or cannot obtain it, he may
Jet the design fall."-R. No. 1.
.
The subjunctive mode ought to be used m all these
three sentences. In the first, the meaning is, ."unless. he
should destroy.'' In the last two, the Doctor is speakm~
f his own undertaking ; and he means, "the author, if
~e sho'uld think, if he should find; may then rectify his
opinions; may then let fall ~is d~sign." ~~ therefore
should have written, "if he think/ if he find.
"Follow solid argument wh.e rever it leads you."-

. L. Part 3.

Wherever it may lead you, 8hall lead you, is meant;
and, therefore, the subjunctive mode was necessary. It
should have been, "wherever it lead you. "
"See therefore that your general definitions, or descripti~ns, are as ~ccurate as the nature of _the_ th~g will
ar. see that your general divisions and distnbut10ns be
be ,
uffi"tl
·
just and exact; see that your axioms be s cien Y evident; see. that your principles be well drawn. "-L. Part 4.
All these members are correct, except the first, where
the verb is put in the indicative mode instead of the subj'unctive. All the four have the same turn; they are all
in the same mode, or manner ; they should, therefore, all

I·

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200

Specimens of False Gramrnar.

have had the verb in the same form.
the subjunctive form.

They all required

PARTICIPLES.
"Or, it is the drawing a conclusion, which was before .
either unknown or dark."-L. Introduction.
It should be "the drawing of a conclusion;" for, in '
this case, the active participle becomes a noun. "The
act of drawing'' is meant, and clearly understood; and we
cannot say, "the act drawing a conclusion." When the
article comes before, there must be the preposition after
the participle. To omit the preposition in such 'cases is
an errnr very common, and therefore I have noticed the
error in this instance, in order to put you on your guard.

ADVERBS.
"For thoughts are only criminal when they are first
chosen, and then voluntarily continued."-R. N. 8.
The station, or place, of the adverb is a great matter.
The Doctor does not mean here that which his words
mean. He means that "thoughts are criminal, only when
they are first chosen and then voluntarily continued." As
the words stand, they mean that "thoughts are nothing
else, or nothing more, than criminal, " in the case supposed.
But here are other words not very properly used. I
;;ho uld like to be informed how a thought can be chosen;
how that is possible; and also how we can continue a
thought, or how we can discontinue a thought at our will.
The science here is so very profound that we cannot see
the bottom of it. Swift says, "whatever is dark is deep.
Stir a puddle, and it is deeper than a well. " Doctor
Johnson deals too much in this kind of profundity.
There is no word in our language more freq uently misused than
this word only. People constantly write and speak such sc ntencea

Specimens of False G-rarn,mar.

201

as these: •· I have only received ten dollars. He only sells leather.
He only speaks French;" and so on. The word only must be
placed next to the word which ·it modifies: I have received only
ten dollars; he sells only leather, or leather only; he speaks only
Freuch. As the sentences stand in the first instance, they ·do not
mean what they are intended to mean: the first means, only
received not spent or lost; the second, only sells leather, never
buys any; the third only spe,alcs French, never writes it.

"I have beard how some critics have been pacified with
claret and a supper, and others laid asleep with the soft
notes of flattery."-,R. No. 1.
How means the manner in which. As, "How do you
do!" That is, "In what manner do you carry yourself
on? " But the Doctor tells us here, in other words, the
precise manner in which the critics were pacified. The
how, therefore, should have been that.
"I hope not much to tire those whom I shall not happen
to please."-R. No. 1.
He did not mean that he did not much hope, but that
he hoped not to tire much. "I hope I shall not much
·' tire those whom I may not happen to please." This was
what he meant; but he does not say it.
"And it is a good judgment alone can dictate bow far
to proceed in it and when to stop."-L. P11rt 4.
Doctor Watts is speaking here of writing. In such a
case an adverb, like bow far, expressive of longitudinal
space, introduces a rhetorical .figure; for the pla~ mea~­
ing is, that judgment will dictate how much to write on i.t.
and not how far to proceed in it. The figure, however, is
very proper, and much better than the literal words.
But when a figure is begitn it should be carried on
throughout, which is not the case here; for the D oc~or
begins with a figure of longitudinal space, and ends w1th
a figure of time. It should have been "where to stop."
Or, "how long to proceed in it and when to stop." ~o
tell a man how far he is to go into the Western countries
of America, and wlien he is to stop, is a very different

9•

202

Specimens of False G-rarnmar.

thing from telling him how far he is to go and where he
is to stop. I have dwelt thus on this distinction, for th~
purpose of putting you on the watch, and guarding you
against confounding figures. The less you use them the
l?etter, till you understand more about them.
"In searching out matters of fa ct in times past or in
distant places, in which case moral evidence is sufficient, '
and moral certainty is the utmost that can be attained,
here we derive a greater assurance of the truth of it by a·
number of persons, or multitude of circumstances, con- ·
curring to bear witness to it."-L. Part 3.
·
The adverb here is wholly unnecessary, and it does
harm. But what shall we say of the of it, and the to it?
What is the antecedent of the it? Is matters of fact the
antecedent ~ Then thern, and not it, should have been •
the pronoun. Is evidence the antecedent~ Then we have
circumstances bearing witness to evidence I Is certainty
the antecedent~ Then we have the truth of certainty!
Mind, my dear Jam es, this sentence is taken from a
treatise on logic! How necessary it is, then, for you to
be careful in the use of this powerful little word it I
PREPOSITIONS.
"And, as this practice is a commodious subject of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the serious, it has
been ridiculed . . . . ."-R. No. 123.
With the gay; for to the gay means that the millery
is addressed to the gay, which was not the author's ·
meaning.
"When I was deliberating to what new qualifications I
should aspire."-R. No. 123.
With regard to, it ought to have been ; for we eannot '
deliberate a thing nor to a thing.
"If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, ·
I may hope to be pardoned f or their brevity."-R. No. 1.

Specimens of False Grammar.

203

We may commend him f01· the beauty of his works
and we may pardon himfo1· their brevity, if we deem the
brevity a fault; but this is not what he means. He
means that, at any rate, he shall have the merit of brevity.
"If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, I
. may hope to be pardoned on account of their brevity."
· This was what the Doctor meant; but this would have
marred a little the antithesis; it would have unsettled
a little of the balance of that see-saw in which Dr. Johnson
so much delighted, and which, falling into the hands of
nov~l-writers and of Members of Parliament, has, by
movmg unencumbered with any of the Doctor 's reason or
sense, lulled so many thousands asleep! Dr. Johnson
created a race of writers and speakers. "Mr. Speaker,
that the state of the nation is very critical, all men must
allow; but that it is wholly desperate, few men will
believe." When you hear or see a sentence like this, be
sure that the person who speaks or· writes it has been
reading Dr. Johnson, or some of his imitators. But, observe, these imitators go no further than the frame of the
sentence. They, in general, take special care not to imitate the Doctor in knowledge and reasoning.
I have now lying on the table before me forty-eight
er~·~rs, by Do~tor w.atts, in the use or omission of Prepos1t10ns. I will notice but two of them; the first is an
error of commission, the second of omission.
" ·when ~e would prove the importance of any scriptural doctrme or duty, the multitude of texts wherein it
is ?'epeated and inculcated upon the reader seems naturally to instruct us that it is a matter of greater import·
ance than other things which are but slightly or singly
mentioned in the Bible."-L. Part 3.
The words repeated and incitlcated both apply to upon;but we cannot rep eat a thing upon a reader, and the
':o.rds here ~s~d mean this. When several verbs or participles are JOmed together by a copulative conjunction,

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Specimens of False Grammar.

care must be taken that the act described by each verb,
or participle, be such as can be performed by the agent,
and performed, too, in the manner, or for the purpose, or
on the object, designated by the other words of the sentence.
The other instance of error in the use of the Preposi- .
tion occurs in the very first sentence in the Treatise on
Logic.
"Logic is the art of using reason well in our inquiries
after truth, and the communication of it to others "-L.
Introduction.
The meaning of the words is this: that "Logic is the
art of using reason well in our inquiries after truth, and
is also the communication of it to others." To be sure
we do understand that it means that "Logic is the art of
using reason well in our inquiries after truth, and in the
communication of it to others;" but, surely, in a case like
this, no room for doubt, or for hesitation, ought to have
been left. Nor is "using reason well" a well-chosen ;
phrase. It may mean treating it well; not ill-treating
it. "Using reason properly or employing reason well,"
would have been better. For, observe, Doctor Watts is
here giving a definition of the thing of which he was .
about to treat; and he is speaking to persons unacquainted with that thing; for as to those acquainted with
it, no definition was wanted. Clearness, everywhere desirable, was here absolutely necessary.

f

CONJUNCTIONS.

"As, notwithstanding all that wit, or malice, or pride,
or prudence, will be able to suggest, men and women '
must, at last, pass their lives together, I have never, therefore, thought those writers friends to human happiness
who endeavor to excite in either sex a general contempt :
or suspicion of the other."-R. No. 149.

Specimens of False Grammar.

205

The as is unnecessary; or the therefore is unnecessary.
"But the happy historian has no other labor than of
gathering what tradition pours down before him."-R.
No. 122.
"Some have advanced, without due attention to the
consequences of this notion, that certain virtues have
their conespondent faults, and therefore to exhibit either
: apart is to deviate from probability."-R. No. 4.
"But if the power of example is so great as to take
possession of the memory by a kind of violence, care
ought to be taken that, when the choice is unrestrained,
the best examples only should be exhibited; and that
which is likely to operate so strongly should not be mischievous or uncertain in its effects."-R. No.' 4.
It should have been, in the first of these extracts, "than
that of gathering;" in the second, "and that therefore;"
in the third, "and that that which is likely." I£ the Doctor wished to avoid putting two thats close together, he
should have chosen another form for his sentence. The
that which is a relative, and the conjunction that was
required to go before it.
"It is, therefore, a useful thing, when we have a fundamental truth, we use the synthetic method to explain it."
-L. Part 4.
It should have been that we use, or to use.
WRONG PLACING OF WORDS.
Of all the faults to be found in writing, this is one of
the most common, and perhaps it leads to the greatest
number of misconceptions. All the words may be the
proper words to be used upon the occasion; and yet, by
a misplacing of a part of them, the meaning may be
wholly destroyed ; and even made to be the contrary of
.'1 what it ought to be.
"I asked the question with no other intention than to

206

Specimens of False Grammar.

set the gentleman free from the necessity.of silence, and
give him an opportunity of mingling on equal t erms with
a polite assembly, from which, however uneasy, he could
not then escape, by a kind introduction of the only subject on which I believed him to be able to speak with
propriety."-R. No. 126.
This is a very bad sentence altogether. "riowever uneasy," applies to assembly, and not to gentleman. Only
observe how easily this might have been avoided. "From
which he, however uneasy, could not then escape." After
this we have "he could not then escape, by a kind introduction." We know wha~ is meant; but the Doctor, with
all his commas, leaves the sentence confused. L et us see
whether we cannot make it clear. "I asked the question
with no other intention than, by a kind introduction of
the only subject on which I believed him to be able to
speak with propriety, to set the gentleman free from the
necessity of silence, and to give him an opportunity of
mingling on equal terms with a polite assembly, from
which he, however uneasy, could n ot then escape . "
"Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the
chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow.
creatures, the brutes, in this lower world."-L. Introduction.
I have before showed an error in the .first sentence of
Doctor Watt's work. This is the second sentence. The
words, "in this lower world,'' are not words misplaced
only; they are wholly unnecessary, and they do great
harm ; for they do these two things: first, they imply "
that there are brutes in the higher world; and, second,
they excite a doubt, whether we are raised above those
brutes.
I might, my dear James, greatly extend the number of
my extracts from both these authors; but, these, I trust,
are enough. I had noted down about two hundred errors
iu Doctor Johnson's Live!:l of the Poets; but aft<;lnve.i·<l&

Specimens of False Grammar.

207

perceiving that he had revised and conected the RAMBLER
with extraordinary cm·e, I chose to make my extracts
from that work rather than from the Lives of the Poets.
DOUBLE-NEGATIVE AND ELLIPSIS.
Before I dismiss the specimens of bad grammar, I will
just take, from TuLL, a sentenceiwhich contains striking
instances of the misapplication of Negatives, and of the
Ellipsis. In our language two negatives applied to the
same verb, or to the same words of any sort, amount to an
affirmative; as, ''.Do not give him none of- your money."
That is to say, "Give him some of your money," though
the contrary is meant. It should be, "Do not give him
any of your money." Errors, as to this matter, occur
most frequently when the sentence is formed in such a
manner as to lead the writer out of sight and out of
sound of the first negative before he comes to the point
where he thinks a second is required; as, "Neither Richard nor Peter, as I have b een informed, and indeed as it
has been proved to me, never gave James authority _to
write to me." You see it ought to be ever. But in this
case, as in most others, there requires nothing more than
a little thought. You see clearly that two negatives, applied to the same verb, destroy the negative effect of each
other. "I will not never write. " This is the contrary of
"I wilt never write."
The Ellipsis, of which I spoke in Letter XIX, paragraph
227, ought to be used with great care. Read that paragraph again; and then attend to the following sentence of
Mr. TULL, which I select in order to show you that very
fine thoughts may be greatly marred by a too free use of
the Ellipsis.
"It is strange that no author should never have written
fully of the fabric of ploughs! Men of greatest learning
have spent their time in contriving instruments to measure

'..!08

Specirnens of False Grarnrna1•.

.

Errors and Nonsense, etc.

209

'

t~e im~ense distance of the stars, and in finding out the •
~imension~ ~nd even we'ig!tt of _the planets. They think. ,
it_ more_ eligible to study the art of ploughing the sea.'
with ships than of tilling the land with ploughs. They
bestow the utmost of their skill, learnedly to pervert the .
natural use of" all the elements for destruction of their
ow~ species by the bloody art of war; and some waste
the1_r whole lives in studying how to arm death with new
engmes of horror, and inventing an infinite variety of
&laughter; but think it beneath men of learning (who
only are capable of doing it) to employ their learned
laho~·s in the invent.ion of new, or even irnproving the
old, mstruments .foi· increasing of bread."
You see the never ought to be ever. You see that the
the is left out before the word greatest, and again before
weight, and, in this last-mentioned instance the leavin;
of it out makes the words mean the " even ~eight;" that
is to say, not the odd weight; instead of "even the ·
weight, " as the author meant. The conjunction that is
left out before "of tilling;" before destruction the article
the is again omitted; in is left out before inv~nting, and .'
also before irnproving; and, at the close, the is left out
before increasing. To see so fine a sentence marred in
thi5 way is, I hope, quite enough to guard you against
the frequent commission of similar errors.
'Ve often see the word alone wrongly used for only; as, "To
which 1 am not alouc bound by honor, but by Jaw;" but Mr. TULL
uses only instead or alone. He should have said "who alone are
'
ca pubic of doing it."

LETTER XXII.
ERRORS AND NONSENSE IN A KING'S SPEECH.
DEAR JAMES:

In my first Letter, I observed to you that to the functions of statesmen and legislators was due the highest
!. respect which could be shown by man to anything human;
but I, at the same time, observed that, as the degree and
quality of our respect rose in proportion to the influence
which the different branches of knowledge naturally had
in the affairs and on the conditions of m~n, so, in cases of
imperfection in knowledge, or of negligence in the application of it, or of its perversion to bad purposes, all the
feelings opposite to that of respect rose in the same pro. portion; and to one of these cases I have now to direct
your attention.
The speeches of the king are read by him to the Parliament. They are composed by his ministers or select
councillors. They are documents of great importance,
treating of none but weighty matters; they are always
styled Most .Gracio1,s, and are heard and answered with
the most profound respect.
The persons who settle upon what shall be the topics
of these speeches, and who draw the speeches up, are a
Lord High Chancellor, a First Lord of the Treasury, a
Lord President of the Council, three Secretaries of State,
a First Lord of the .Admiralty, a Master General of the
Ordnance, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, and perhaps
one or two besides. These persons are called, when
spoken of in a body, the Ministry. They are all members
. of the king's constitutional council, called the Privy
Council, without whose assent the king can issue no
proclamation nor any order affecting the people. This
council, Judge Blackstone, taking the words of Coke, calls

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-- ---210

~·

"a noble, honorable, and reverend assembly." So that, in',:.
the Ministry, who are selected from the persons who com- '"
pose this a13sembly, the nation has a right to expect something very near to perfection in point of judgment and of "
practical talent.
How destitute of judgment and of practical talent these
persons have been, in the capacity of statesmen and of
legislators, the present miserable and perilous state of
England amply demonstrates; and I am now about to
show you that they are equally destitute in the capacity ,
of writers. There is some poet who says,
' '
" Of all the arts in which the Jearn'd excel,
The first iri' rank is that of writing well." *

And though a man may possess great knowledge, as a.
statesman and as a legislator, without being able to perform what this poet would call writing well; yet, surely,
we have a right to expect in a minister the capacity of
being able to write grammatically; the capacity of put.
ting his own meaning clearly down upon paper. But, in
the composing of a king's speech, it is not one man, but
nine men, whose judgment and practical talent are employed. A king's speech is, too, a very short piece of.
writing. The topics are all distinct. Very little is said
upon each. There is no reasoning. It is all plain matter
of fact, or of simple observation. The thing is done with
all the advantages of abundant time for examination and ·
re-examination. Each of the ministers has a copy of the
speech to read, to examine, and to observe upon; and
when no one has anything left to suggest in the way of.
alteration or improvement, the speech is agreed to, and
put into the mouth of the king.
Surely, therefore, if in any human effort perfection can ·
be expected, we have a right to expect it in a king's ·
those arts in which the wise excel ,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
ShejjteJd, Earl of Buckinghamshire.

211

In a King's Speech.

Errors and Nonsense

• or all

..

speech. You shall now see, then, wh~t pretty stuff is
put together, and delivered to the Parliament, under the
name of king's speeches.
The speech which I am about to examine is, indeed, a
speech of the regent; but I m~ght take.any other of these
speeches. I choose this particu.lar speech ~ecause the
subjects of it are familiar in America as well as m "England.
It was spoken on the 8th of November; 1814.
shall
take a sentence at a time, in order to avoid confus10n.
· "My Lords and Gentlemen: It is with deep regret th~t
I am a,qain obliged to announce the continuance o~ his·
majesty's lamented indisposition."
.
.
.
Even in this short sentence there is somethmg equivocal; for it may be that the prince's regrot arises fr.om
his being obliged to announce, and not from the thmg
announced. If he had said, "With deep regret I announce" or "I announce with deep regret," there would
have b~en ~othing equivocal. And, in a composition like
this, all ought to be as clear as the ~ebbl~d brook.
"It would have given me great satisfact10n to have been
enabled to communicate to you the termination of the war
between this country and the United States of America."
The double compound times of the verbs, in the first
part of the sentence, make the wo,rds mean.that i~ would,
before the prince came to the Hoitse, have given hnn great
satisfaction to be enabled to communicate; whereas he
meant, "It would noio have given me great satisfaction to
be enabled to communicate." In the ·latter part of the
sentence we have a little nonsense. What does termination mean~ It means, in this case, end or conclusion;
and thus the prince wished to communicate an end t~ the
wise men by w horn he was surrounded! To comm~mcate
is to impart to another any thing that we have m .our
possession or within our power. And so, the pnnce
wished to impart the encl to the noble lords and hono~able
gentlemen. He might wish to impart, or commumcate

!

212

Errors and Nonsense

the news, or the intelligence of the end,- but he could
not communicate the enil itself. What should we say, if
some one were to tell us, that an officer had arrived, and
brought home the termination of a battle, and carried it
to Carlton House and communicated it to the prince?
We should laugh at our informant's ignorance of grammar, though we should understand what he meant. And,
shall we, then, be so partial and so unjust as to reverence
in king's councillors that which we should laugh at in one_
of our neighbors? To act thus would be, my dear son, a
base ~bandonment of our reason, which is, to use the
words of Dr. "\Vatts, the common gift of God to man.
"Although this war originated in the niost unprovoked
aggression on the part of the Government of the United
States, and was calculated to promote the designs of the
common enemy of Europe against the rights and independence of all other nations, I never have ceased to
entertain a sincere desire to bring it to a conclusion on
just and honorable terms."
The the most would lead us to suppose that there had
been more than one aggression, and that the war originated in the most unprovoked of them,- whereas the
prince 's meaning was that the aggression was an unprovoked1 one, unprovoked in the superlative degree; and
that, therefore, it was a most unprovoked aggression.
The words all other nations may mean all nations except
England,- or, all nations out of Europe,- or, all nations
other than the United States,- or, all nations except the
enemy's own nation. Guess you which of these is the
meaning; I confess that I am wholly unable to determine
the question. But, what does the close of the sentence
mean when taken into view with the although at the
beginning? Does the prince mean that he would be
justified in wanting to make peace on 1mJust and dishonorable t erms because the enemy had been th e aggressor? He might, indeed, wish to make it on t erms

In a King's Speech.

213

dishonorable, and even disgraceful, to the enemy; but
could he possibly wish to make it on unjust terms? Does
he mean that an aggression, however wicked and unpr~­
voked, would give him a right to do .i njustice'! Yet, if
he do not mean this, what does he mean~ Perhaps (for
there is n0 certainty) he may mean that he wishes. to
briua
th e war to a conclusion as soon as he can get Jitst
0
and honorable terms from the enemy/ but, then, what is
he to do with the altlwitgh? Let us try this: " I am
ready,'' say you, "to make peace, if yo~t will give rne Just
tei·ms, although you ar·e the aggressor. To be sure you
are whethei· I be the aggressor or not I All that you can
po~sibly have the face to ask of m~ isjustice,- and? ther~­
fore, why do you connect your wish for peace .'VIth ~lus
although ? Either you mean that my ag~res ~10n gives
you a riqht to demand of me more than J UStice, or you
talk non;ense. Nor must. we overlook the word "government" which is introduced here. In the sentence before,
the ~rince wished to communicate ~he e~1d of. ,,the w:
between "this counti·y and the Umted .States, but
this sentence we are at war with "the Government of the
United States." This was a poor trick of sophistry, and
as such we will let it pass; only observing that such
low trickery is not very becoming in men selected from
"a noble, honorable, and reverend assembly."
"I am still engaged in negotiations for this purpos~.''
That is, the purpose of bringing the war to a conclus10n.
A very good purpose; but why still ? H e had not told
his nobles and his boroughmen that he .iad been engaged
in neO'otiations.
Even this short, simple sentence could
b
not be made without fault.
"The success of them must, however, depend on my
disposition being met with corresponding sentiments on.
the part of the enemy."
.
Now, suppose I were to say, "My wago~ was met with
Mr. Tredw ell's coach." vVoulcl you not thmk that some-

. I

214

.Errors and Nonsense

body had met the wagon and coach, both going together
the same way? To be sure you would. But if I were to_
say, "My wagon was met by Mr. Tredwell's coach," you .
would think that they had approached each other from
different spots. And, therefore, the prince should have '
said, "met by." This sentence, however, short as it happily is, is too long to be content with one error. .Disposition, in this sense of the word, means state, or bent, or
temper, o.f mind; and the word sentiments means thoughts,
or opinions. So, here we have a temper of mind met by
thoughts. Thoughts may correspond or agree with a tern-'
per of mind ; but how are they to meet it .rt> If the prince
had said, " My disposition being met by a conesponding
diiiiposition on the part of the enemy," he would have
uttered plain and dignified language.
"The operations of his majesty's forces by sea and
land in the Chesapeake, in the course of the present year,
have been attended with most brilliant and successful
results."
Were there only the bad placing of the different members of this sentence, the fault would be sufficient. But
we do not know whether the prince means operations by
sea and land, or forces by sea and land.
It Reems to me there is another error here. The prince speaks
of operations of '•forces by sea and land in the Chesapeake." The
Chesapeake is a bay. How can there be operations of forces by
land in the Chesapeake! Does he mean the operations of the forces
when th ey got to the bottom of the bay?

"The flotilla of the enemy in the Patuxent has been
destroyed. The signal defeat of their land forces enabled
a detachment of his majesty's army to take possession \
the city of Washington; and the spirit of enterprise, wbi
has characterized all the movements in this quarter, has
produced on the inhabitants a deep and sensible impression of the calamities of a war in wbich they have been so
wantonly involved."

'·

In a Ring's Speech .

215

.Enemy is not a noun of multitude, like gang or House
of Commons, or den of thieves; and, therefore, when used
in the singular, must have singular pronouns and verbs
to .agree with it. 1'heir, i~ the second of .the~e se~tences,
should have been his. A sensible impress10n is an impression felt; a deep impression i~ one rn~re{,elt. Th~refore
it was " a sensible and deep impression.
But, mdeed,
sensible had no business there; for an impression that is
deep must be sensible. What would you think of a man
who should say, "I have not only been stabbed, but my
skin has been cut?" Why, you would think, to be :mre,
that be must be a man selected from the noble, honorable,
and reverend assembly at Whitehall!
"The expedition directed from Halifax to the northern
coast of the United States has terminated in a manner
n ot less satisfactory."
.
Than what? The prince has told us, before this, of
nothinrr that has terminated satisfactorily. He has talked
of a b;illiant result, and of an impression made on the
inhabitants; but of no termination has be talked; nor
has he said a word about satisfaction. We must always
take care how we use, in one sentence, words which refer
to anytbinrr said in former sentences.
" The su~cessful course of this operation has been f allowed by the immediate submission of the extensive and
important district east of the Penobscot river to his majesty's arms."
. .
.
This sentence is a disgrace even to a mrmstry with a
JENKINSON at its head.
What do they mean by a course
being followed by a -submission? And then, "has been
followed by the immediate submission?" One would
think that some French emigrant priest was employed to
write this speech. He, indeed, would say, "a ete suivie
par la soumission immediate." But when we make use
of any word like immediate, which canies us back to the
time and scene of action, we must use the past time of

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216

On Putting Sentences 'f'ogether,

and on Figurative Language.

the verb, aml say, "was followed by the imrnediate sub-'
mission. " That is to say, was then followed by the then
immediate; and not has now been followed by the then · ·
immediate submission. The close of this sentence exhibits
a fine instance of want of skill in the placing of the parts
of a sentence. Could these noble and reverend persons
find no place but the end for " to Ids rnajesty's arms?"
There was, but they could n ot see it, a place made on ,
purpose, after the word subrnission.
It is unnecessary, my d ear James, for me to proceed
further with an exposure of the bad grammar and the
nonsense of this speech. There is not, in the whole
speech, one single sentence that is free from error. Nor
will you be at all surprised at this, if ever you should
hear those persons uttering their own speeches in those
places which, when you were a naughty little boy, you
used to call the "l'Meves' IIouses." If you should ever
hear them ther e, stammering and r epeating and putting
forth their nonsense, your wonder will be, not that they · .
wrote a king's speech so badly, but that they contrived to
put upon paper sentences sufficiently grammatical to enable us to guess at the meaning.

Language is· made use of for one of three pmposes;
namely, to inform, to convince, or to persuade. The
first, requiring merely the talent of telling what we know,
is a matter of little difficulty. The second demands reasoning. The third, besides reasoning, demands all the
aid that we can obtain from the u se of figures of speech,
1 or, as they are sometimes called, figures of rhetoric, which
last word means the power of persuasion.
Whatever may b e the purpose for which we use language, it seldom can happen that we do not stand in
need of more than one sentence ; and, therefore, others
must be added. Ther e is no precise rule; there can be
no precise rule, with r egard to the manner of d oing this.
When we have said one thing, we must add another; and
, so on, until we have said all that we have to say. But we
ought to take care, and great care, that if . any words in a
' sentence relate, in any way, to words that h ave gone befor e, we make these words correspond grammatically
with those foregoing words; an instance of the want of
which care you have seen in paragraph 178.
The order of the matter will b e, in almost all cases,
that of your thoughts. Sit down to write what y ou have
thought, and not to tkink what y ou shall write. Use the
first words that occur to you, and never attempt to alter
a thought; for that which h as come of itself into your
mind is likely to pass into that of another more readily
· and with more effect than anything which you can, by
reflection, invent.
Never stop to make choice of words. Put down your
thought in words just as they ccme. Follow the order
which your thought will point out; and it will push you
· on to get it upon the paper as quickly and as clearly as
possible.
Thoughts come much faster than we can put them
upon paper. They produce one another: and the order
of their coming is, in almost every case, the best possible
10

LETTER XXIII.
ON PUTTING SENTENCES TOGETHER, AND ON FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE.

MY

DEAR JAMES:

I have now done with the subj ect of grammar, which,.'
as you know, teaches us to use words in a prop,
~11er.
But though you now, I hope, understand ho~ ll()"avoid
enor in the forming of sentences, I think it right not to
conclude my instructions without saying a few words
upon the subject of adding sentence to sentence, and on
the subject of fig'u rative language.

217

218

On Putting Sentences Together,

order t~at they can have on paper; yet, if you have ·.
several m your mind, rising above each other in point of ·
force, the most forcible will naturally come the last upon
paper.
Mr. Lindley Murray gives rules about long sentences
and short sentences, and about a due m ixtitre of long and
short; and he also gives rules about the letters that sentences should_ begin with, and the syllables that they
should encl with. Such rules might be very well if we
;vere t_o sfog our writing; but when the use of writing
is to inform, to convince, or to persitade, what can it
have to do with such rules?
There are certain connecting words which it is of im·
portance to use properly; such as therefore, which means
for that cause, for that reason. We must take care
when we use such words, that there is occasion f or usin;
them. We must take care that when we use but, or for,
or any other connecting word, the sense of our sentences
requires such word to be used; for, if such words be improperly used, they throw all into confusion. You have
seen the s?ameful ~ffect of an ctlthough in the king's
speech, which I noticed in my last L etter. The adverbs
when:, then, while, now, there, and some others, are ~on­
nectrng words, and not used in their strictly literal sense.
1'.or example: "Yvell, then, I will not do it." Then, in its
hter~l sense, means, at that time, or i n that time./ as, "I
was m America then." But "Well, then," means " vVell
h b
,,
,
'
iif t at e so, or "let that be so," or " in that case." You
have only
to accustom yourself a little to reflect on th e
.
meaning of these words ; for that will soon teach you
_never to employ them improperly.
A writmg, or written discourse, is generally broken into
paragraphs. When a new paragraph should begin, the '
~at~re of yo~r thoughts must tell you. The propriety of
it will be pomted out to you by the difference between
the thoughts that are coming and those which have gone

and on Figuratfre Language.

219

before. It is impossible to frame rules for regulating
such divisions. 'When a man divides his work into Parts,
Books, Chapters, and Sections, he makes the division
according to that which the matter has taken in his mind;
and, when he comes to write, he has no other guide for
the distribution of his matter into sentences and paragraphs.
Nevei· write aboitt any matter that y ou do not well
unclei·stancl. If you clearly understand all about your
matter, you will never want thoughts, and thoughts
instantly become words.
One of the greatest of all faults in writing and in speaking is this: the using of many words to say z.ittle. In
order to guai·d yourself against this fault, inquire what is
the substance or amount of what you have said. Take a
long speech of some talking lord, and put down upon
paper what the amount of it is. You will most likely
find that the amount is very small; but, at any rate, when
you get it, you will then be able to examine it, and to tell
what it is worth. A very few examinations of this sort
wili so frighten you, that you will be forever after upon
your guard against talking a great deal and saying little.
Figurative language is very fine when properly employed; but figures of rhetoric are edge-tools, and twoedged tools, too. Take care how you touch them ! They
are called figures, because they represent other things
than the words in their literal meaning stand for. For
instance: "The tyrants oppress and starve the people.
The people would live amidst abundance, if those cormorants did not devour the fruit of their labor." I shall
only observe to you, upon this subject, that, if you use
figures of rhetoric, you ought to take care that they do
not make nonsense of what you say; nor excite the ridicule of those to whom you write. l\fr. Murray, in an
address to his students; tells them "that he is about to
offer them some advice with regard to their future walks

220

. Un Puttiu17 Sentences Togethei-,

and on Figurative L anguage.

in the paths of literatme." Now, though a man may take
a walk along a path, a walk means also the ground laid
out in a certain shape, and such a walk is wider than a
path. He, in another part of this address, tells them
that they are in the morning of life, and that that is the
season for exertion. The morning, my dear J am es, is not
a season. The yeai·, indeed, has seasons, but the day has
none. If he had said the spring of life, then he might
have added the season of exertion. I told you they were
edge-tools. B eware of them.

and especially when exerted in the cause of truth and
justice ; and, above all things, hold it in honor whe~ it
steps forward to protect defenceless innocence agamst
the attacks of powerful guilt.

I am now, my dear son, arrived at the last paragraph
of my_ treatise, and I hope that, when you arrive at it,
you ':ill u:iderstand grammar sufficiently to enable you
to wnte without committing frequent and glaring errors.
I s.hall now leave you, for about four months, to read and
wnte English; to practise what you have now been taught.
At the end of those four months I shall have prepared a
Grammar to teach you the French language, which language I hope to hear ·you speak, and to see you write
well, at the end of one year from this' time. With English
and French on your tongue and in your p en, you have a
resource not only greatly valuable in itself, but a resource
that you can be deprived of by none of those changes and
chances which deprive men of pecuniary possessions and
which, in some cases, make the pm·se-proud man o/ yesterday the crawling sycophant to-day. H ealth, without
which life is not worth having, you will hardly fail to
secure by early rising, exercise, sobriety, and abstemiousness as to food. Happiness, or misery, is in the rnind.
It is the mind that lives; and the length of life ot; -:•.. ~. to
be measured by the number and importance of om;l......das,
and not by the number of our days. Never, therefore,
esteem men merely on account of their riches or their
station. Respect goodness, find it where y~u may.
Honor talent wherever you behold it unassociated with
vice; but honor it most when accompanied with exertion,

221

It is true that figures are edge-tools; bnt even edge-tools are
perfec tly safe in the h ands of those who know how to use them.
And with a little care and attention, anybody of common understanding may learn how to u se th e ordinary fig ures of rhetoric,
which are powerful auxiliaries in rendering speech effective.
There is nothing that impresses like fi gures. They are edge-tools
in another sense; for they cut like swords and wound like daggers.
Daniel O'Connell once silenced a troublesome opponent by suddenly turning on him and exclaimi ng: "Sit down, you pestiferous
ramcat ! " Lord Chatham fin ely designates the corrupt government contractor and jobber as "that blood-sucker, that muckworm that calls himself 'the fri end of government.' " ''One
should never take a vacation till the sexton gives liim one,"·
is far more forcible than " One shonld never cease working till
death." Instead of saying that one must not express high, noble
thoughts before low, vulgar people, how much more expressive it
is to say, ''Do not cast pearls before swine." Wh en Daniel Webster
said of Alexander Hamil ton, " He smote the rock of the national
resources, and abundant streams of revenue burst forth; he
touched the dead corpse of public credit, and it sprang upon its
feet!" he uttered something far m ore impressive, far more forcible
and beaut:fnl, than if he had merely declared that Hamilton had
improved the fin ances and strengthened the public credit of the
country. Everybody, the most illiterate as well as the most
learned, uses figures. The illiterate m an uses them unconsciously;
and so does the learned man in the ardor of speech; in fact, most
people use them, and ought to use them, unconsciously; that is,
without thinking that they are using figures. When a person
exclaims, on seeing a large, fat man coming along, ''Here comes
Jumbo!" he never thinks that he is using a figure; and I have no
doubt that ~ven Cobbett himself, when he said that figures are
edge-tools, never suspected that he was using a figure Our
greatest writers, especially the poets, are full of figures. ShakPspeare bristles with them; his works have more figures, and more
happily-used figures, than perhaps those of <tny other author. ln
Macbeth alone there are figures of almost every description. Just
count the figures fa the murder scene aml in the interview between

222

On Putting Sentences Togetlw1·,

and on Figurative Language.

Macbeth and his wife after the murder, and you will be
at their number and variety.
..
Of course, I do not pretend, in these few words at th~ end of the1
book, t~ teach you all about figures of rhetoric; but I wish to give
yofu an idea of what they are, that you may not be entirely ignorant.·.
.
o the matter.
fr Though rh.etoricians g ive names to a great number of deviations
f om the ordmary mode of expression, there are just about a dozen
igures of rhetoric whose nature and use are worth studying The
others are com mon t urmngs
·
and windinrrs in language in ·~hich
nobody ever m akes a mistake ; but whi~h closely reg~rded
' kmade ou t t 0 b e fi. g u~·es, and dubbed w ith hard
'
Greek names,' the
nowledge of winch is of no possible use. Hence Butler's famous
couplet .
"For all a rh et orician's rules
Teach nothin g but to name bis tools."

Of these dozen figures, the most common arc th e METAPHOR and
th e SIMILE. Definition s are l1 anl, and so metimes very unsatisfact,ory ; but w~ e n I s.ay that the se ntence " Doctor Johnson was a
~narl e d oak contams a metaphor, and that the sentence" Doctor
Johnso n was hke a gnarled oak" contains a simile, you will see
~.t o~ce.what.both are. "He is a lion," contains a metaphor;
, he is hke a ~10n" c~nt~i n s a simile. The metaphor is sometimes
cal'.cd an abridged s.1mil c, for it is putting one thing for another ·
wluch 1~ resembles, rnstead of sayi ng it is like it. The simile is
~!ways 111 t~od uc.ed by the words like, or so, or words of similar
import. 1 ? hanty, like the su n, brightens all it shines upon. A
metaph or, .li~ c a beam of light, brightens a nd enlivens its object
whenever it is u sed ." When somebody cried out at the battle of
Quebec, "They fly! they fly!" and General Wolff asked "WI 1
fly ?" both used a figure; for men cnn only flee, not fly. 'when
li~tl e bo~,:all s out, "Look at th at frog! I will let this stone fly at
lus h ead · he uses a figure; so that, long before he knows what
m cta~hor~ are, he learn s to use them rightly enough. Look at
d
Colcn.dge
about Cobbett , on page 210 of the L.f
·11 fi s dsentences
.
I e, an
you w1 n qmte a number of m etaphors.
. Tiler? is another figure, called METONYMY, which looks, at first
sight, li ke the metaphor ; bu t which , on closer inspection will be
foun d to be essentially different. While the m etaphor i~ really a
departure from the ordinary form of speech, metonymy, which is
~~rme d a chang.e of names, is one of the most ordinary expressions.
The kettle boils ; the lamp burns ; he smokes his pipe." Now, is

~

223

it the kettle that boils, or the water in it? the lamp that burns, or
the oil? We use these expressions without ever thinking that we
are using figurative language, for it is not a departure from the
ordinary form of speech; it is everyday speech, everyday and
common language. But, when w e say, "Experience is the lamp
by which my feet are guided;" or '' W e shall never light th e pipe
of peace until our rights are restored ;" or ' ' This was the rock on
which he split ;" the language rises at once in force and impressiveness, and we feel that there is a d eviation from the common
mode of expression. The former is m etonymy, and the latter
metaphor. "He is fond of his bottle; he drank three glasses; he
keeps a good table; " these, you see, are merely a change of names.
"The gin-palace is the recruiting-shop for the penitentiary; Senator
Conkling sawed off the limb on which h e sat; the politicians are
llungry for office, for th ey h ave b een fasting for twenty years ;"
these are m etaphors, and you see they convey a picture to th e
mind which no other words can convey so well.
An ALLEGORY is a sort of continued metaphor, by which an
imaginary history with a veiled meaning may be told. Macaulay
says Bunyan's Pilgrim' s Progress is the fin est allegory whieh has
been produced in two thousand years. For another fi ne example,
see SOth Psalm.
PERSONIFIOATION is the giving of life to inanimate things, or the
giving of speech and reason to objects, insects, and animals, as in
fabl es. Cobb ett's story of th e quarrel in tile pot-shop has good
examples of this figure. To personify is to speak , for instance, of
winter and war as of a man; of spri ng and p eace as of a woman.
'' Lo! steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears!"
"How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest I
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck th eir hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod."

There is another form of personification, a low er form, in which
we give the qualities of beings to inanimate obj ects: we sometimes
speak of a raging storm, a cruel disease, a remorseless sword , a
scornful lip, a dying lamp, the smiling h arvest, the thirsty ground,
a f earless pen, the babbling brook .
SnracoocnE is takin g a part for the whole, or the whole for a
part; as, He has a keen eye; he has seen eighty winte1·s; all the
world run s after him.
lNT~RRoOATIO~ is asking a question which does 11ot n•;cd an

224

a1l(l on Fig?.t'ratfoe Language.

On Putting Se11te111.;es Togethei·,

answer; as, Can any man count the stars? Will not the Jud.,.e of ·
all the earth do right? This is a favorite figure in oratory. "'
Excr.AM,~TION ls the u.ttering of some expression of surprise, or o£
some ~motwn of the m111d; as, What a piece of work is man! how
noble In reason! how infinite in faculties! Would that some good
1
angel ha~ put ?obbett's grammar into that boy's hands!
IRONY is sayrng th e opposite of what one means . as Cobbett
was remarkable for llis meekness and humility! John Bull's Ad.
dress to Brother Jonathan (par. 214) is a good example. See also
page 193 of the Life. Here is another example:
" So goes tho world ;-if wealthy, you may call
'
T!ita, fri end : tl!at, brother :-friends and brothers all.
Though you are worthless, witless : never mind It:
You may have been a stable-boy-what. then•
'Tis weattli, good sir, makes lwnorable men." ·

ANTITHESIS is the comparing or placino- in contrast of 0
't
1· ·
"'
ppos1 e
qua lt1es; as, Though poor, yet proud; though submissive
Th e prodigal robs his heir, th e mise r robs himself Anftl ' ?a~.
closely allied to epigram, wh ich is a short pi;hy say\ 1es1s is
Wh .
I
I.
'
, ng; as,
e? yo~ iave not ung to say, say it. Wendell Philli sis noted
for !us epigrammatic style.
P

•

H:PERBO~E.is some extravagant expression, employed to heighten
the nnpress~on conveyed. Mac!Jcth says that the great ocean will

not wa~h his ha?d clean. from the blood.stains on it, but that his
hand will rather 111carnadme the great ocean - while Lady M I) th
says ~~at "all t~e sweets of Arabia wi ll n~t sweeten thi:cli:tle
hand.
Antony s declaration that if he were an orator lik
Brutus, he would "make the stones of R om .· ·
.
e
.
.
e use 111 mut111y " is
·
'
anot I ier good example. "Rivers of waters run do\
.
vn m111e eyes "
I P salm1st's
1s tie
fine figure.
'
APOSTIWPHE is a sudden turning off from the subject of dis.
c~urse to address some absent or dead person or thing as present
When the news of Lord Byron's death came to En<•land John J ·
the famous preacher, spoke of him and his works in liis pulp~~'.
then he suddenly turned and addressed him as if he were present'.
"O Byron , hadst thou listened to the words of soberness a
truth ; hadst th ou followed the counsels of the wise and goo~.
11adst tho.u rep ressed thy passions, formed nobler aims and pursued
I d
a nobl er 1cleal of life, what a different tale we would h
t 11 , 1
.
·
a vc rn to
e · w iat a different example, for all generations 1 thy life would
have afforded!" His apostroph e was somethino- 1ilrn this . it is
twenty-five years since I read it , I give it as remembe; it; I

d

I

225

only know it made a deep impression on me at the time. And
Byron himself, in his wonderful Childe Harold, gives us perhaps
the fines't apostrophe in our language. He is speaking of the
ocean, when he suddenly turns and addresses it in those noble
lines beginning :
" Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll I
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain.
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore."

CLIMAX is rising from one point to another till the highest
is reached, or descending from one point to another till the
lowest is reached. I have read somewhere this capital example,
which is said to be from a sermon on Christian progress by a
negro preacher: "If you cannot fly, run; if you cannot run, walk;
if you cannot walk, crawl; if you cannot crawl, worm it along!"
ALLITERATION is the repeating of the same letter at the beginning
of each of two or more words in the same line or sentence. One of
the characters in Shakesp.eare's Henry VIII speaks thus of Cardinal
Woolsey:
"Begot of butchers and by butchers bred,
How high his highness holds his haughty head."

Besides these, there are figures of ETYMOLOGY and figures of
SYNTAX. The former are hardly worth mentioning, being simply
such changes in words as o'er for over, tho' for tlwugh, 'gainst for
against, 'tis for it is, witlwuten for witlwut, enchain for chain, and a
few similar ones, all of which are called by the hardes t of Greek
names. These figures are simply deviations from the usual orthography of words, and are sometimes called figures of orthography.
The figures of syntax are four in number: ELLIPSIS, Pr.E_ONASM,
ENALLAGE, and HYPERBATON. The first, which has already been
explained, consists, you will remember, in leaving understood
some word or words; as, ''This is the man I mean," instead of
" whom I mean." Pleonasm is the opposite of this; that is, the
using of superfluous words; and the most common example of it
is in the use of the word got. "What have you got? I have got
a book; you have got a horse." These gots may all be left out.
The Bible is full of this figure, as indeed of all figures; as, " There
shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
down. Oh ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth!"
Enallage may be said to be the name given to the grammatical
mistakes which the poets are allowed to make, 011 account of the
shackles in which they are obliged to walk. In Leigh Hunt's
poem, "The Glove and the Lions," occur these lines:

10*

227

On Putting Setder1ces 'l'ogetlwr,

and on Figurative L anguage.

Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, Hvely dame,
With dark bright eyes, which always seemed the same."

berry found comparisons "odorous;" Cobbett foun~ them ve:y
, expensive and very injurious. Defoe's figures served 111"?1 even st~ll
worse; for his sarcastic irony in ''The Shortest Way with the Dissenters" cost him his ears, exposure in the pillory, and the loss
of his liberty for two years. The remorseless metaphor which
BrolJO'ham applied to Canning, that he was guilty of the "most
mons~rous tergiversation [shuffling, shifting, twisting, turning] for
office," caused that statesman, it is said, to take to his bc.d, and

22G
"D~

Now, according to the rules of grammar, these lines d~clare that
the k!ng was a beauteous, lively dame; but the poet was obliged
to.wnt e t~~us for the sake of the rhyme. This is called en.allage.
Milton 1 s B~el zebub than whom" may also be called enallage.
Hyperbaton 1s somewhat similar to inversion, which latter consists in placin.g the predicate or the object before the subject; . as,
In came the kmg; down fell the supplicant; him I adore. Inversion is used to give force and emphasis to a11 expression· but
hyperbaton is simply the transposition of a word or wo,rds f~r the
~ake of the measure; as, " ·while its song rolls the woods along,"
mstead of ''·while its song rolls along the woods."
There is no better example of an awkward blunder in the uee of
figmes th an that of the man who prayed that " the word which had
been preached might be like a nail driven in a sure place sendinO'
.its roots downward and its branches upward, spreading itself
' like "a
green bay-tree, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an
army with banners!" A wonderful nail, indeed, this would be.
Lord Cockburn, in his Memoirs, tells of a man who, on being asked
at a public cl inner to give a toast, exclaimed: ''Here's to the moon
shining on the calm bosom of a lake! " The man thought, n~
?oubt, that he was saying something figurative and fine. Franklin,
ma toast he gave at a diplomatic dinner at Versailles, made use of
the sun and moon in a very different manner. The British minister
began with: "George III, who,. like the sun in his meridian, spreads
a luster throughout and enlightens the world." The French minister
followed with: "Louis XVI, who, like the moon sheds his mild and
benignant rays on and influences the globe." Then our American
Franklin gave: "George Washington, commander of Urn American
army, who, like Joshua of old, commanded the sun and the moon
to stand still, and they obeyed him ! " Never were simile and metaphor more happily combined.
I cannot help thinking that, when Cobbett called figures doubleedged tools, he had in mind the mischief which some of his own
figures had played with himself on certain occasions. His likeninO'
of Doctor Rush to Doctor Sangrado cost him $5,000; his declar~
tion that the appointment of Lor<l Hardwicke to the vice-royalty of
!~eland ~as " putting the surgeon's apprentice to bleeding the hosp~ta~ p~t1cnts," c?:t him £500; and his comparison of Castlereagh's
d1sc1plme of Bnllsh troops to Napoleon's discipline of his conscripts, cost him £1,000 and an imprisonment of two years. Dog-

never to rise from it.
VERSIFICATION.
Now comes that mysterious matter, which I promised, at the
beginning of the book, to give you an account of, versification.
I said it is a simple matter; so it is; and yet many persons look
upon it as something very complicated, far too difficult for common people to learn, and never studied by anybody but poets.
Verse is of two kinds, rhyme and blank verse. Rhyme consists of measured lines, every two of which ending with words or
syllables of a similar sound; blank verse consi~ts of lines. wit~
measure but no rhyme. Shakespeare's tragedies and Milton s
Paradise Lost are in blank verse; Butler's Hudibras and Pope's
translation of the Iliad-indeed almost all Pope's poems-are in
rhyme. Blank verse gives the poet much more freedom and ease
in the expression of his thoughts than rhyme; consequently our
noblest poetry is in this form.
Although there are many kinds of measure or m eter, there are
rarely to be found in English poetry more than four kinds. These
four are: the iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic measures;
all hard names, but meaning easy things. Now, what makes these
measures easy to learn is, that they go in pairs, and each one in
each pair is the contrary or the opposite of the other.
Each line of poetry consists of a certain number of feet-and
you may have them from one foot up to ten fe et-and each foot
consists of either two or thre\) syllables. A foot in iambic measure
is called an iambus; in trochaic measure, a trochee; in anapestic
measure, an anapest; in dactylic measure, a dactyl. Now the
iambus ai1d the trochee are feet of two syllables, and the anapest
and the dactyl are feet of three syllables. The two syllables of the
iambus are short-long; as, re-call', at-tend'. The two syllables of
the trochee are long-short; as, ho'-ly, cy'-press. Therefore you
see that the one is the opposite of the other. Counting the feet in
a line of poetry, or pausing after each foot as you go aloug, is

228

On Putting Sentences Together,

called scanning. Now scan m e the foll<1wing verse, and tell me-,
whether it is in iambic or trochaic measure:
The cur I few tolls I th e knell I of part I Ing day;
The low I Ing herd I winds slow I ly o'er I the lea;
The plough I man home I ward plods I bis wea I ry way,
And leaves I the world I t o dark I ness and I to me.
Gray's E legy in a Country Churchya~rJ.

Now tell me if the following st_a nza is in the same measure ·
Once up I on a I mld-nli:bt I drea-ry,
,
While I I pon-der'd I weak and I wea-ry,
0-ver I many a I quaint and I cu-rlous I vol-ume
Of for I got-ten I lore,
While I I nod-ded I near-ly I nap-ping,
Sud-den I ly there I came a I tap-ping,
As of I some one I gent-ly I rap.ping,
Rap-nlng I at my I cham-ber I door.-l'oe's Raven.

You sec that in the first stanza the tone falls always on the second
syllable, while in the second the tone falls always on the first.
The first stanza, therefore, is in the iambic measure, and the second .
in the trochaic.
Now the other two m easures are also opposites. Mark the following verse, and tell m e whether it is made up of slwrt-slwrt-long
feet (anapestic), or long-short-sliort feet (dactylic) :
The As-syr I tan came down I like the wolf I on the fold;
And bis co I horts were gleam I Ing In pur I ple and gold;
And the eheen I or their spears I was like stars I on the sea
When the blue I wave r olls night I ly on deep I Ga-11-lee.
Byron' a Destruction of Sennacherib.

Now observe that the feet in the following verse are the opposite
or th e reverse of the preceding:
Bird of the I wll-der-ness,
Blithe-some and I cum-ber-less,
Sweet be thy I ma-tin o'er I moor-land and I lea J
Em-blem of I hap-pl-ness,
Bleat Is thy I dwell-Ing placeOb to a I bide In the I des-ert with J thee I
The Lark, by James Hogg,

The first of these last two stanzas is, therefore, in anap.estic
measure, and the second in dactylic. So th at the four verses
represent the iambic, the trochaic, th e anapestic, and the dactylic
m eas ure ; and you should learn all fo ur by heart, as a guide in
enabling you to determine the m easure of other poems. Something that will help you to remember the dactylic measure is the
derivation of the word dactyl , which is a Greek word signifyi:ig

and on Figurative Eanguage.

229

finger. Now look at your forefinger, and see if it does not consist of one long joint and two slwrt ones (cum'ber-less). So that I
may say- although it sounds like an Irish bull-that this foot is so
called because it is like a finger.
Of all the poems in the English language, nine out of ten are in
the iambic m easure, which is no doubt because that measure is
most suited to the nature of our language. l'oor Lord Surreywho seems to have been a noble, chivalric character, something
like Sidney; beheaded in the flower of his age by the brutal
Henry VIII. - was the first to write in this measure. Nearly all
our dramatic and epic poetry, in fact nearly all our great poems,
are in this m easure. All Shakespeare's blank-verse plays, Milton's
P aradise Lost, Pope's H omer, Spenser's Faery Queene, Butler's
Hudibras, and Bryant's Thanatopsis are in iambic measure. There
is only one thing more to be said, and that is, that you will sometimes find a mixture of these various measures in one and the same
poem; but some one meas ure is, however, usually so predo.minant
as to give a character to the verse. Verse means poetry m general, but one single line of poetry is also called a verse.

230

Introduction.

Six L essons .

THE SIX LESSONS.
· LETTER XXIV.
SIX LESSONS, INTENDED TO PREVENT STATESMEN FROM USING
FALSE GRAMMAR, AND FROM WRITING IN AN AWKWARD ¥ANNER.

IIarpenden, Hertfordshire, June 23, 1822.

MY

DEAR JAMES:

In my first Letter, I observed that it was of the greatest importance that statesmen, above all others, should
be able to write well. It happ{'ns, however, but tou frequently, that that which should be, in this case as well as
in others, is not; sufficient proof of which you will find
in the remarks which I am now about to make. The
L etter to Tierney-a thing which I foresaw would become
of great and lasting importance; a thing to which I knew
I should frequently have to recur with satisfaction-I
wrote on the anniversary of the day on which, in the year
1810, I was sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, to
pay a fine of a thousand pounds, and to be held in bonds
of five thousand pounds for seven years, for having publicly, and in print, expressed my indignation at the flogging of English local-militia men in the town 0£ Ely,
under a guard of German soldiers. I thought of this at
a time when I saw those events approaching which I was
certain would, by fulfilling my predictions, bring me a
compensation for the unmerited sufferings and insults
heaped upon me with so unsparing a hand. For writing
the present little work, I select the anniversary of a day
which your excellent conduct makes me regard as amongst
the most blessed in the calendar. Who, but myself, can
imagine what I felt when I left you behind me at New

'

231

York! Let this teJl my persecutors that you have made
me more than amends for all the losses, all the fatigue,
all the dangers, and all the anxieties attending that exile
of which their baseness and injustice were the cause.
The bad writing, on which ;r am about to remark, I do
not pretend to look on as the cause o.f the present public
calainities, or of any part of them; but it is a proof of a
deficiency in that svrft of talent which appears to me to
be necessary in men intrusted with great affairs. He who
writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can
proceed from nothing but confusedness in the thoughts
which give rise to them. These things may be of t~-ifling
importance when the actors move in private life; but
when the happiness of millions of men is at stake, they
are of an importance not easily to be described.
The pieces of writing that I am about to comment on I
deem bad writing; and, as you will see, the writing may ·
be bad, though there may be no grammatical error in it.
The best writing is that which is best calculated to secure
the object of the writer; and the worst, that which is the
least likely to effect that purpose. But it is not in this
extended sense of the words that I am now going to consider any writing. I am merely about to give. specimens
of badly-written papers, as a warning to the statesmen of
the present day; and as proofs, in addition to those which
you have akeady seen, that we .ought not to conclude that
a man has great abilities merely because he receives great
sums of the public money.
The specimens, that I shall give, consist of papers that
relate to measures and events of the very first importance.
The first is the speech of the Speaker of the House of
Commons to the regent, at the close of the first session
of 1819, during which Mr. Peel's, or the Cash-Payment,
Bill had been passed; the second is the answer of the
regent to that speech; the first is the work of the House;
the second that of the ministry.

·232

Six LtJssons.

In Letter XII, I gave the reasons why we had a right to
expect perfection in writings of this description. I there
d~sc~·ibed the persons to whom the business of writing
kmg s speeches belongs. The Speaker of the House of
Commons is to be taken as the man of the greatest talent
in that House. He is called the "First Commoner of
England.·· Figure to yourself, then, the king on his
thr?ne, in the House of Lords; the lords standing in
then· robes; the Commons coming to the bar with the
Speaker at their head, gorgeously attired, with' th'e mace
h~ld beside him; figure this scene to yourself, and you
:v11l al~ost think it sedition and blasphemy to suppose
it possible that the speech made to the king, or that his
majesty's answer, both prepared and written down long
beforehand, should be anything short of perfection.
. Follow me, then, my dear son, through this Letter; and
you will see that we are not to judge of men's talents by
the dresses they wear, by the offices they fill, or by the
power they possess.
After these two papers, I shall take some papers written
by Lord Castlerea,qh., by the D uke of lVellin,qton, and by
the Marquis Wellesley. These are three of those persons
who have, of late years, made the greatest figure in om·
affairs with foreign nations. The transactions which have
been committed to their management have been such as
were hardly ever exceeded ill point of magnitude, whether
we look at the transactions themselves or at their natill'al
consequences. How much more fit than other men they
were to be thus confided in; how much more fit to have
the interest and honor of a great nation committed to
their hands, you will be able to judge when you shall
have read my remarks on those of their papers to which
I have here alluded.
In the making of my comments, I shall insert the several
papers, a paragraph or two, or more, at a time; and I
shall mmibei· the paragraphs for the purpose of more
easy reference.

Speaker's Speech.

233

LESSON I.

Remarks on the Speech of the Speaker of the House of
Commons to the Prince Regent, which Speech was
made at the close of the first Session of 1819, during
which Session Peel's Bill was passed.
" May it please your Royal Highness,
1. '' We, his Majesty's faithful Commons of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, attend your
Royal Highness with our concluding Bill of Supply.
2. "The subjects which have occupied our attention have been
more numerous, more vai·ious and more important, titan are usually
submitted to the consideration of Parliament in the same Session."

It is difficult to say what is meant, in Paragraph No. 2,
by the word various. The Speaker had already said that
the subjects were more numeroits, which was quite enough; ·
for they necessarily clijfered from each other, or they were
one and the same; and, therefore, the word various can
in this place have no meaning at all, unless it mean that
the subjects were variegated in themselves, which would
be only one degree above sheer 11onsense.
Next comes the "than are," without a nominative case.
Chambermaids, indeed, write in this way, and, in such a
case, "the dear unintelligible scrawl" is, as the young rake
says in the play, "ten thousands times more charming"
than conect writing; but from a Speaker in his robes we
might have expected "than those which are usually submitted."
And what does the Speaker mean by "in the same
Session?" He may mean "in one and the same Session;"
hut what business had the word same there at all? Could
he not have said, "during one Session," or "<luring a
·
single Session?"
I
3. "Upon many of these subjects we have 1.Jeen engaged in long·
and unwearied examinations; but such ltas been the pressure of

-----------------......

...

~

234

Six Lessons.

o_ther busin~ss, _and particularly of that which ordinarily belongs _
~o ~ fast Session of Parliament-and such the magnitude and
int1~y of many of those inquiries, that the limits of the present
Sess10n have not allowed of bringing them to a close."

There is bad taste, at least, in using the word examininquiries
m the other part, especially as the pronoun those was
used ~n the latter case. The verb "has'' agrees in number with the noun "pressure;" but the Speaker, notwithstanding the aid of his wig, was not nble to perceive that
the same verb did not agree in number with the nouns
"magnitude and intricacy .., "Such has been the pressure,
and such have been the magnitude and intricacy."
~tions in one part of the sentence, and the word

4. ·"But, Sir, of those measures which we have completed the
most prominent, the most important, and, as we trust, in ~heir
con seq ucnces, the most ?eneficial to the public, arc the measures
wluch have grow1'. 0~1t of the consideration of the present .~tate of
the country-both in its cu1-rency and its financ es."

There is not here any positive error in grammar; but
t~ere is something a great deal worse; namely, unintelli-

gible words. The epithet "p1·ominent" was wholly unnecessary, and only served to inflate the sentence. It would '
have l:ieen prudent not to anticipate, in so marked a
manner, beneficial consequences from Peel's Bill; but
what are we to understand from the latter part of the
sentence~ Here are measures growing out of the con~ideration of the state of the country in its currency and
fina:ic~s. What! The state of the country in its currency!
Or is it the consideration in its currency? And what had
the word both to do there at all? The Speaker meant
that the measures had grown out of, o~·. which would have
been much more dignified, had been the result of a consid~ration of the present state of the country, with regard
to its currency as well as with regard to its finances.
. 5. "Early, Sir, in th e present Session, we instituted an inquiry
into the effects produced on the exchanges with foreign countries,

Speaker's Speech.

235

and the state of the circulating medium, by the i'cstriction on
payments in cash by the Bank. This inquiry was most anxiou~ly
and most <leliberately conducted, and in its 1·esult led to the conclusion
that it was most desirable, quickly, but with due precautions, to
return to our ancient and healthful state of currency :-That whatever might have been the expediency of the Acts for the suspension
of payments of cash at the different periods at which they were
enacted (and doubtless they were expedient), whilst the country was
involved in the most expensive contest that ever weighed down
the finances of any country-still tlmt, the necessity for the continuance of these Acts having ceased, it became us with as little
<lelay as possible (avoiding carefully the convulsion of too rapid a
t?·ansition) to return to our ancient system; and that, if at any
period, and under any circumstances, this return could be effecte_d
without national inconvemence, it was at the present, when this
mighty nation, with a proud retrospect of the past, after having
made the greatest efforts, and achieved the nobl est objects, was
now 1·eposing in a confident, and, as we f ondly hope, a well-founded
expectation of a sound and lasting peace."

Here, at the beginning of this l~ng and most confused
paragraph, are two sentences, perfect rivals in all respects;
each has 37 words in it; each has three blunders; and
the one is just as ~bscure as the other. To "institute" is
to settle, to fix, to erect, to establish; and not to set about
or undertake, which was what was done here. If I were
to tell you that I have instituted an inquiry into the qualities of the Speaker's speech, you would, though I am your
father, be almost warranted in calling me an egregious
coxcomb. But what are we to make of the "and the"
further on'? Does the Speaker mean that they instituted
(since he will have it so) an inquiry into the state of the
circulating medium, or into the effects produce<l on the
circulating medium by the cash suspension~ I defy any
man living to say which of the two is meant by his words.
And then we come to "by the Bank;" and here the only
possible meaning of the words is, that the restriction was
imposed by the Bank/ whereirn the Speaker means the
restriction on payments made at the Bank. If at, instead

236

Six L essons.

of by, had happened to drnp out of the wig, this part of ;
the sentence would have been free from error.
,
As to the second sentence i~ this Paragraph No. 5, I
may firs~ observe on the incongruity of the Speaker's two
superlative adverbs. Anxiously means with inquietude.
and deliberately means coolly, slowly, warily, and the lik:.
The first . implies a disturbed, the latter a tranquil, state
of the mmd; and a mixtme of these it was, it appears
~hat produced Peel's Bill; this mixture it was which "i1~
its results, LED to the conclusion;" that is to say, the
result led to the result; r esult b eing conclusion and conclusion
being
r esult. But tautology is, you see, ' a favon'te
.
.
with tlus s~n of the Archbishop of Canterbmy, more
proofs of which you have yet to witness. And why must
the king be compelled to hear the phrase "healtliful state
of the currency," threadbare as it had long before been
worn by HORNER and all his tribe of coxcombs of the Edinburgh Review ? .Would not "our ancient citrrency" have
answered every purpose? And would it not have better
become the lips of a p erson in the high station of Speaker
of the House of Commons?
The remaining part of this paragraph is such a mass of
confu~ion that one hardly knows where or how to be in
upon it. The "that " after the colon and the dash see~s
to conn.ect i~ with what has gone before; and yet what
connection 1s there? Immediately after this ·"that"
beg ins a parenthetical phrase, which is intenupted by a
pa~ent~.es.is, and then the parenthetical phrase goes on
agam till it comes to a clash, after which you come to the
words that join themselves to the first "that." These
words are "still that." Then, on goes the parenthetical
phrase again till you come to "it became us." Then
comes more parenthetical matter and another par·e nthesis;
and then comes "to return to our ·ancient system." Take
out all the parenthetical matter, and the paragraph will
stand thus: "That it was desirable to retmn to our

Speaker's Speech.

237

ancient and healthful state of cUl'l"ency :-that-still that,
it became us to return to our ancient system."
But only think of saying "whatever might have been
the expediency of the acts;" and then to make a parenthesis directly afterwards for the express purpose of posi~
tively asserting that they "were expedient " I Only think
of the necessity for the continuance of the acts having
ceased, and of its being becoming in the Parliament to
return to cash payments as soon as possible, and yet that
a convulsion was to be apprehended from a too rapid
transition; that is to say, from returning to cash payments
sooner than possible I
After this comes a doubt whether the thing can be done
at all; for we are told that the Parliament, in its wisdom,
concluded that, if "at any period this return could be
effected without national inconvenience, it was at the
present." And then follows that piece of sublime no:isense about the nation's reposing in the fond (that is,
foolish) hope of, not only a lasting, but also a sound,
~ace. A lasting peace would have been enough for a
common man; but the son of an Archbishop must have it
somu:l as well as lasting, or else he would not give a farthing for it.
6. ''In considering, Sir, the state of our finances, and in minutely
companng our income with our expenditure, it appeared to us that
th e excess of our mcome was n ot fairly adequate for the pu?poses to
winch it was app.l icable-the gradual reduction of tlic national debt.
7. · It appeared to us tllat a clea?' available sU?plus of at least five
nullions ought to be set apart for that object.
8... This, Sir, has been effected by the additional imposition of
three millions of taxes."

The word "fairly," in Paragraph No. 6, is a redundancy; it is mere slang. "Adequate for" ought to be
"adequate to;" and "applicable" is inapplicable to the
case; for the money was appl·icable to any p ·urpose. It
should have been, "the pmpose (and not the purposes)

'

I,

238

Six L essons.

for which it was intended;,, or, "the purpose
it was intended to be applied."
The 7th Paragraph is a heap of redundant Treasuryslang. Here we have surplus; that is to say, an overquantity; but this is not enough for the Speaker, who '·
must have it clear also; and not only clear, but available,and then he must have it set apart into the bargain!
Leave out all the words in italics, and put purpose instead
of object at the end; and then you have something like
common sense as to the words, but still foolish enough as
to the political view of the matter.
Even the 8th Paragraph, a simple sentence of fourteen
words, could not be free from fault. What does the ,
Speaker mean by an "additional imposition "~ Did he
imagine that the king would be_ fool enough to believe
that the Parliament had imposed three millions of taxes
without making an addition to former impositions ~ How
was the imposition to be other than "additional?" Why,
therefore, cram in this word'?
. 9. "Sir, in adopting this cou rse, hi s Majesty's faithful Commons
did. n ot conceal f1·01n tltemselves that they were calling upon the
nat10n for a great exertion; but well knowing that honor, and ct.arand independence h ave at all times been the first and dearest
ObJe~ts of the hearts of Englishmen, we f elt assured that there was
no d1~cult.y that the country could not encounter, and no pressure
. to which she would not willingly and cheerfully submit, to enable
her to maintai.n , pu1·e and unimpaired, that which 11.a8 never yet been
shaken o r sullied-her public credit and lte1· national good faith."

acu:r,

This is a sentence which might challenge the world!
Here is, in a small compass, almost every fault that writing·
can have. The phrase "conceal j?·oni themselves" is an
importation from France, and from one of the worst manufactories too. What is national "honor " but national
"character .'i " In what do they differ? And what had
"independence" to do in a case where the subject was the
pieans of .Payin~ a debt ? J{ere !j,l'e ~hree thin~s named as

Speaker's Speecli.

239

the ".first H object of Englishmen's hearts. Which was the
".first" of the three? Or were they the .first three'! To
"feel assured" is another French phrase. In the f?rmer
part of the sentence, the Parliament are a they; m t~e
latter part they are a we. But it is the .figures of rhetoric
which are the great beauties here. First it is Engl-ishmen who have such a high sense of honor and character
and independence. Next it is the country. And next the
country becomes a she; and in her character of female
.
will submit to any "pressure" to enable h er t o " maintain" h er purity; though scarcely anybody but the sons
of Archbishops ever talk about maintaining purity, most
people thinking that, in such a case, preserving is better.
H ere, however, we have pure and unimpafred. Now, ? ·ure
applies to things liable to receive stains and a~ulterat~ons:·
unimpaired, to things liable to be undermined,_ dilaptdated, demolished, or worn out. So the Speaker, m order
to make sure of his mark, takes them both, and says that
the thing which he is about to name, "has never yet been
shaken or sullied"/ But what is this fine thing after all~
Gad! there are two things; namely, "public, credit and
national good faith." So that, leaving the wor~ good to
go to the long account of redundancy, here is another
instance of vulo-arly-false grammar; for the two nouns,.
joined by the c~njunction, require the verb have instead
of has.
10. "Thus, Sir, I have endeavored, slwrtly, and I am aware how
to notice the various duties which have devolved upon
us, in one ~f the longest and most arc! uous sessions in the records
of Parliament."
11. "The Bill, Sir, which it is my duty to present to your Roy.al
Highness, is entitled, •An Act for applying certain '11Wnies therem
mentioned for the Service of the year 1819, and for further appropriating tht; supplies granted in th~ s Ses~ion ,of Parliament.,: To
which, with all humility, we pray his maJesty s royal assent.
imperf~ctly

Even here, in these common-place sentences, there must
be something stupidly illiterate. The Speaker does not

l
lt.
i,

Ii

I

~40

King's Speech.

Six L essons.

~ean

that his "endeavor ,, was " shortly" made
d
m a sho?·t
, or ma e
.
manner, but that his notice was made in a.
sho~ t manner; and, therefore, it ought to h ave been "to
notice shortly," if _sh01·tly it must be; yet, surely ph~aseology• less grovellmg mio-ht
have been used on sueh an
0
d
occas10n. "In the longest session ,, and "in the
of Parliament ,, .
11
.
'
recor s
.
' are co oqUial, low and incorrect into the .
bargam; and as for "monies" in the last parao-raph the
very so~d of the word sends the mind to 'Cha~ All
and conJures up b e f ore 1·t all the noisy herd of Bulls
ge aey,d
Bears.
n
Th
·
·
·
•
~10 is, mdeed, one phrase in this whole Speech (that ,
m which the Speaker acknowledges the imperfectness

of

the manner. in which he has performed his task) which
would receive our approbation; but the tenor of th
speech,
at
flippant and pompous tone of it, th:
self-conceit
that
is
manifest
from the b egm' mng
.
t o th eend
f ·b·
.
.
OI id u.s to g1.ve him credit for sincerity when he con:
fessesf his
. is
.
th deficiencies, and tell us that the co n f ess10n
one o_
ose clumsy traps so often used with the hope of
catchmg unmerited applause.

t~e o~ce

LESSON II.

.Remarks
on. the Speech which the
·.
.Regent made to
t
• p rince
he Parliament on the occasion when th b
S
of the Speaker was made.
e a ove ;peech
"My LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:
12. ',It is with great regret that I am again obliged to a
to you th econ t•muance of his
. MaJ·esty's lamented . d.
nnounce
..
13 "I
m ispos1t10n
·
cannot close this session of Parliament with t
·.
the satisfaction that I have derived from the zeal ou dexpr~dss1.ng
•th h. I
an ass1 mty
w~. w ic '.you have applied yourselves to the several important
o Jects winch have come under your consideration
14. "Your patient and laborious investigation of .the state of the

241

circulation and currency of the kingdom demands my warmest
acknowledgment; and I entertain a confident expectation that the
measures adopted, as the result of this inquiry, will be productive
of the most beneficial consequences."

The phrase pointed out by italics in the 12th Paragraph
is ambigumis j and, as it is wholly superfluous, it has no
business there. The 13th Paragraph (for a wonder!) is
free from fault; but, in the 14th, why does the king make
two of the "circulation and currency"? He means, doubtless, to speak of the thing, or things, in use as money.
This was the durrency j and what, then, was the "circulation" ? It is not only useless to employ words in this
way; it is a grRat deal worse; for it creates a confusion
of ideas in the mind of the reader.
"Investigation and inquiry" come nearly to each other
in meaning; but when the word "this,'' which had a direct
application to what has gone before, was used, the word
investigation ought to have fJllowed it, and not the word
inquiry j it being always a mark of great affectation and
of false taste, when pains are taken to seek for synonymous
words in order to avoid a repetition of sound. The device
is seen through, and the littleness of mind exposed.
The fine word "adopted" is not nearly so good as the
plain word taken would have been. The Parliament did
not adopt the measUI·es in question; they were their owr1:j
of their own invention; and, if I were here writing remarks on the measures, instead of remarks on the language in which they were spoken of, we might have a
hearty laugh at the "confident expectation" which the
king entertained of the "most beneficial consequences" of
those measures, which were certainly the most foolish
and mischievous ever taken by any Parliament, or by any
legislative assembly, in the world.
" GENTLEMEN OF THE HoUSE OF COMMONS:

15. "1 thank you for the supplies which you have granted for
. the service of the present year.

11

.·
242

King's Speech.

Six L essons.

tracy, to defeat the machinations of those whose projects, if successful, could only aggravate the evils which it profeswl, to remedy;
and who, under the pretence of R eform, ha.ve rea,Zly no other object
but the subversion of our h appy Constitution."

16. "I sincerely regret that the necessit
. making any additions to the b ur th ens of the
y shop.Id
peo I have
. b existed
I
. of
.
pate the most important per
t d
P e, ut ant1c1- ,
which you have tb,us ma
manen .a vantages from the ejf(lT't .
difficulties of the countr .d:f:- me~tmg at one~ all the financial
\ denve muclt satUJfaction from the
belief that the means w:. ~h
calculated to press as ltghlou ia~~ ~evised for this purpose are
could be expected when so

Weak minds, feeble writers and speakers, delight in
superlatives. They have big sound in them, and give the
appearance of force; but they very often betray those
who use them into absurdities. The king, as in Paragraph
No. 17, might continue to receive st1·ong assurances; but
11
how could he receive "the strongest more than once?
In the 18th Paragraph we have "welfare and prosyerity.11 I, for my part, shall b e content with either (the
two being the same thing), and if I find, from the acts of
the government, reason t o believe that one is really sought
for, I shall care little about the other.
I am, however, I must confess, not greatly encouraged
to hope for this, when I immediately afterwards hear of a
"firm determination 11 to employ "powers," the n ature
11 of
which is but too well understrn;id. "Determination can,
in grammar, receive no additional force from having fi rm
placed before it; but, in political interpretation, the use
of this word cannot fail to be looked upon as evincing a
little more of eagerness than one could wish to see ap-

g;e~~a: e~o~:::af t~h:e ~:d:~.nity as

. Nobody,
m
" Oth I presume, but kings say an "effor t .1I'.or meetd
ers say that they make an effort to meet And
:~: Yb thtat I e~er heard of before, except b-ill-b~okers
a ou meeting money demands 0
'
admiring the satisfaction . th '"
ne cannot help
that th k
d .
' nay, e much satisfact'ion"
e mg enved from the belief that the ne t
•
would p1·ess
as lightlY1 as p ossible
.
on all classeswof axes
th
commuruty. I do not like to call this vulcrar nonsense
because,
written. by
. . t ers, it
. ".is spoken by
e,
the kin though
B
. th e mm1s

t

g.
ut, what i s it .'f The additional load must
upon
th somebody,· u pon some class or classes . and
"'. e~~' en, was the sense of expressing " much sa:isfa tion that they would fall lightly on all
The
words "as possi"bl e," which
· come after likely do · th · e
more than mak e an a ddit'ion to the confusion' of ideas.
no mg
f'.a· ll

.1 •h

classes ~

"MY LORD S AND GENTLEMEN:
17· " I con t·inue to receive from forei
assurances of their friendly d'
. .
gn powers the strongest
18 • " I h
b
ispos1t10u towards this country
·
ave o served wit!
t
·
h ave recently been made in s~::: t~oncern the a~tempts which
take advantage of circumstanc
e m~nufacturmg districts to
of disaffection to th e institutio:: ~~;cal distress, to excite a spirit
No object can be nearer m heart tha government of the country.
prosperity of all classes of ~is
. tn' to pr?mote the welfare and
. maJeS y s subJ ects; but this cannot
·be effected without tl
quillity.
ie mamteuance of public order and tran18· "You may rely, th erefore u 0
fi
. .
employ, for this purpose the p ' ~ n my rm determmatwn to
I have no doubt that o '
owe1s entrusted to me by law; and
'll
' n your return to your several counties
. co-operating with the magis, you
W 1 use your u tmost en d eavors, m

243

'

parent in such a case.
In these speeches, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
generally go, like crows and ravens, in pairs. Hence 've
have, in the 18th Paragraph, "the institutions and government 11 of the country. Now, though there may be
inst·i tutions of the country, which do not form a part of
its government; the government is, at any rate, amongst
the country's institutions. If every institution do not
form a part of the government, the government certainly
forms a part of the institutions. But as the old woman
said by h er goose and gander, these words have been a
couple for so many, many years, that it would be a sin to
part them just at the last .

-

-----------------------',

244

Six Lessons.

The gross gra1nmatical errors in the latter part of the
last paragraph, where the singular pronoun it represents
the plural noun projects, and the verb profess iJ in the
past instead of the present time, one can account for only
on the supposition that the idea of R eform had scared all
the powers of thought from the minds of the writers.
This unhappy absence of intellect seems to have continued to the end of the piece; for here we have "no
other object but," instead of no other object than,- and
the word "really" put into the mouth of a king, and on
such an occasion, is something so very low that we can
hardly credit our eyes when we behold it.
INTRODUCTION

To the .Four Lessons on the productions of Lord Castlereagh, the .Duke of Wellington, the .Marquis 1Vellesley,
and the Bishop of Winchester.
From the literary productions of Speakers and Ministers, I come to those of Ambassadors, Secretaries of State,
. Viceroys, and ~ishops. In these persons, even more fully
perhaps than rn the former, we are entitled to expect
proo_fs of great capacity , as writers. I shall give you
specimens from the writings of four persons of this description, and these four, men who have been intrustea
with ~he man~gement of affairs as· important as any that
the krng of this country ever had to commit to the hands
of his servants: I mean Lord Castlereagh, the .Duke of
W~llington, the .Marq·u is ·Wellesley, and the Bishop of
Winchester,- the first of whom has been called the greatest
statesman, the second the greatest captain, the third the
greatest viceroy, the fourth the greatest tittor, of the age.
The passages which I shall first select from the writings
of these persons are contained in state papers relating to
the .Museums at Paris.

Introduction, Etc.

245

And here in order that you may be better able to judge
of the writings themselves, I ought to explain to you t~e
·iature of the matters to which they relate, and the cn·cumstances under which they were written. The Museums
at Paris contained, in the year 1815, when the ~g of
France was escorted back to that city by the arnnes of
the Allies, a great many statues and pict~res, _which Napoleon had in his divers conquests and rnvasions, taken
from the ~ollections of other countries, and c_arried_ to
France. When, therefore, the Allies had, by their ar~ies,
possession of Paris, at the time just mentioned, they rifled
these .Museums, and took from them what had, or :What
they asserted had, belonged to the Allies respectivel~.
The French contended that this was unjust, and . that it
was an act of pillage. They said, that, in 1814, when the
Allies were also in possession of the capital of France,
they put forward no claim to the things _i~1 question,
which were to all intents and purposes, military booty,
or prize; a~d that for the Allies to make this claim now,
was not only contrary to their own precedent of_ 1814,
but that it was to assume the character of enemies of
.Frcince, directly in the teeth of their own repeat_ed ~eclar.ons in which they had called themselves fr1enus and
t
ai
'
·
fth'
even Allies of F1:ance; and in direct; violation o . eir
solemn promises to commit against the French natw_n no
act of hostility, and to treat it, in all respe~ts, as_ a fnend.
The Allies had now, however, the power m their bands;
and the result was the stripping of the Museums.
To characterize this act committed by those who ente~·ed
France under the name of the Allies of the king ~d of
the great body of his people, and "'.ho to?k possession of
Paris in virtue of a convention which stipulated for the
security of all public property j to .characterize such an
net is unnecessary; but we cannot help lamenting t~at
the Ministers of Englan&were open abettors, if not original instigators, in this memorable transaction, which, of

------ - - - - - -- - - - - -

246

Six L essons.

all the transactions of th'.Lt time, seems to have cteated
the greatest portion of rancor in the minds of the people
of France.
.
That the English Ministers were the instigators appears
pretty clearly from the seizure (which was by force of
arrn s) having been immediately preceded by a paper
(called a note) delivered by Lord Castlereagh in the name
of the Prince Regent to the Ambassadors of the Allies
which paper was dated 11th Sept., 1815, and from which
paper I am now about to give you a specimen of the
writing of this Secretary of State.

LESSON III.
R ernarlcs on Lord Castlereagll's .J.Y ote of the 11th September, 1815, on the si~bject of the Musewnrn at Paris.
This Note sets out by saying, that representations, on
the subject of the Statues and Pictures, have been laid
before the Ambassadors of the Allies, and that the writer
h ad received the commands of the Prince R eo-ent to
0
submit, for the consideration of the Allies, that which
follows. After some further matter, amongst which we
find this "greatest statesman " t.._'l<:ing of "the indulgencies " (instead of indulgences ) to which the French had a
right "to aspire" (instead of to hope for); ~fter saying
that the purity of the friendship of the Allies had been
"proved beyond a question" by their last year's conduct,
and "still rnore," that is to say, farther than beyond, by
their this year's conduct; after talking about the "substantial integrity" of France, and thereby meaning that
she was to be despoiled of only a p art of her dominions;
after talking about " combining " this "integrity with sucli
an adequate system of temporru:y precaution as may satlsfy what the Allies owe to the security of their own

Lord Castlereagh's Nute.

247

subjects;" after all this, and a great deal more of the
R<tme description, we come to the paragraphs that I am
now going to remark on. Observe, I continue the numbering of the paragraphs, as if the whole of the pape:·~ on
which I am commenting formed but one piece of wr1tmg.
20. "Upon what principle can France, at the close of such a
war, expect to sit down with the same extent of posses sion~ which
sh e h eld before the R evolution, and desire, at the same time, to
r etain the ornamental spoils of all other countries? Is it that there
can exist a doubt of the issue of the contest, or of the power of the
Allies to effectuate what justice and policy r equire? If not, upon
what principle deprive France of h er late ~erritorial acquis~tio~ s,
and preserve to h er the spoliations appe1·taining to those tei:ntories
iohich all modern conquerers have invariably 1·esp ected, as rn separable from the country t o which th ey b elonged ?
21. ''The Allied Sovereigns have perh aps something to atone for
to Europe, in consequence of the course pursued by the_m, when
at Pm·is, during the last y ear. It is true, they never did so far
mak e themselves parties in the criminality of this mass of plunder
as to sanction i t by any stipulation in their treaties; such a r e:-ognition has been on their part uniformly r efused · but they certarnly
did u se their influence to r epress at that moment any agitation of
tli cir claims, in the h ope that France, not less subdued by their
gene rosity than by . t heir arm s, migh~ be disposed to preserve
in violate a peace which had llcen stud10usly framed to serve as a
lJond of reconciliation between th e nation and the king. They
had also reason to expect that i1is Maj esty would be advi sed voluntarily to r estore a considerable p?·op01·tion, at least, of these spoils,
to their lawful owners.
22. "But the question is a very different one now, and to pursue
the same course, under circumstances so essentially altered, would
be, in the judgment of the Prince R egent, equally u":'wise ~wards
France, and unjust t.owards our Allies, who have a direct mterest
in this question.
23. "His Royal Highness, in stating this opi~ion; feels it neces.
sary to guard against the possibility of misrepresent.ation.
24. " Whilst he deems it to be the duty of the Alhed SoverE;1gns
not only not to obstruct, but facilitate, upon the present occasion,
the r eturn of these objects to the places from whence they were torn ,
it seems not less consistent with their delicacy not to suffer the
position of their armies in France, or the removal of tliese works
··

..

~~

248

from the Louvre, to become the m eans, eith er directly or indirectly,
of bringing within their own domini ons a single article which did
not of right, at the p eriod of their conquest, b elong either to their
resp ective family collections, or to the countries over which they
now actually reign.
25. "Whatever value th e Prince R egent might attach to such
exquisite specimens of the fin e arts, if otherwise acquired, he has
no wish to become possessed of them at the expense of France, or
rather of the countries to which they of a right belong, more especially by folloioing up a principle in wm· which h e considers as a
r eproach to the nation by which it has bee n adopted , and so far
from wishing to take advantage of th e occasion to pu1·chase from
the rightful owners any m ·ti:cles th ey might, from pecuniary considerations, be disposed to part with, his Royal Highness would, on
the contrary, be disposed rather to afford the means of r eplacing
them in those very temples and galleries of which t hey were so
long the ornaments.
26. "Were it possible that hi s Royal F):iglrness's sentiments
towards the p erso n an d cause of Louis XVIII. could be brouo-ht
into doubt, or that the p osition of his Most Christian Majesty :as
likely to be inju1·ed in the eyes of h is ow n people, the Prince R egent
w ould not come to this conclusion without the m ost painful rC'luctancc; but, on tl,e cont1·m-y, hi s Royal Highness believes that
his Maj esty will rise in the love and respect of his own subjects,
in proportion as he separates himself from these 1·e1nemb?·ances of
r evolutionary warfare. These spoils, which impede a moral r econciliation betwee n France and th e cou ntries she has invaded, are
not necessary to record the exploits of her armies, which, notwithstanding the cause in which they were achieved , must ever m ake
the arms of th e nation respected abroad. But whilst th ese objects
remain at Paris, constituting as it were the title-deeds of the countries which h ave been given up, th e sentirnents of nnniting these
countries again to France will never be altoge ther extinct; nor
will the genius of the French p eople ever completely assodate itself
with the m ore limited existence assig ned to the nation under the
Bourbons."

I shall say nothing of the logic of this p assag e ; and
I would fain pass over the real and poorly-disguised
motive of the proceeding; but this must strike every
.observer.
It is the mere writing, which, at present, is to be the

249

L ord Castlereagh's Note.

Six L essons.

principal object of our attention. To be sure, the se~ti­
ments, the very thoughts, in Paragraphs 24 and 25, which
speak the soul, as they are conveyed in the language, ~E
the sedentary and circumspect keeper of a huckste:· s
stand, or the more sturdy perambulating bearer of a miscellaneous pack, do, with voice almost imperious, de:U~d
a portion of our notice; while, with equal force, a sunilar
claim is urged by the suspicions in the former of th~se
paragraphs, and the protestations in the la~ter, wQich
present to the nations of Europe, and especially to ~he
French nation, such a captivating picture of English
frankness and sincerity I
But let us come to the writing; and here, iu Paragraph
20, we have spoliations appertaining to territories, though
spoliation means the act of despoiling, and never ~oes
or can mean the thing of which one has been despoiled;
and next, we h ave the word which, relating to sp oliation,
and then the subsequent part of the sentence tells us that
spoliations have invariably b een respected.
. . .
In the 21st Paragraph, does the it r elate to cnrrunahty
or to mass of plunder ? and what is meant by a sanction
given to either? Could the writer suppose it possible
that it was n ecessary to t ell the Allies, themselves, that
they had not sanctioned such things ? And here, if we
"g.reatest
may, for a moment, speak of the logic of
statesman," the Allies did sanction, not criminality, n~t
a mass of plunder, but the quiet p ossession of the specimens of art, by leaving, in 1814, that possession as they
found it. At the close of this paragraph, we have a p roportion, instead of a part, an error common enough with
count ry fellows when they begin to talk fine, but one
that surely ought to be absent from the most stately of
the productions of a Secretary of State.
"Unwise towards France, and unjust towards the
Al:i\es," and "equally" too, is as pretty a specimen of
what is called twattle as you will find; while "the return "

?m:

11*

250

Six Lessons.

of these "objects ,, the t
l . .
th
. . '
no pur ommg of a "single article ,.
e not WIShing to "take advantage" and to "p h •
any of the
t" l th
urc ase
.
ar ic es at the owners might . h t
. t
WIS
o part
with," form as fine
an ms ance of the powers of the lume
;~as~, or pen of mud, as you will be able to hU:t out
~ffi e story of a whole year's proceedings at the Police
ces.
Bt'
u ' m Paragraph 24, we have "their conquest " Th
con.quest ?f. whom or what? That of the Allies . that oe
_f
their dominions, or that of the "oMects,, 9 It . ~
ble to answer, except by guess. but
" 't ·
Is rmposs1.
1
rate th t th .
'
comes out, at any
'
a
e1e was a con1uest. and th· "
state
" · h
,
is greatest
s~an m1g t have perce~ved that this one word was
a comp ete answer to all his assertions about 1 d
d
P un er an
spoliation f th t h.
; or a w wh is conquered is held of ri ht .
:!:~e ~~li "'.~nt of right in the Allies, forcibly to fak~
as Allie:ro1c : ' I~_ose from their having entered France
if e zng of France, and not as enemies and
conquerers.

d;

An~ "'.hat, _in Paragraph 25, is meant by "following up
a principle in war ",9 The phrase "f ll
.
'
o ow up a prm
c· 1 " . l
ip e, is ow as the dirt. it is chit-chat
d
be u . d .
..
'
' an very unfit to
se m a wntmg of this sort. But, as to the sense.
. '
how could the regent, even if he had purchased th
tures b
'd t
e pie'. e sru
o follow up a principle "in war " 9 The
meamng, doubtless, was that the regent had no ~ish to
become possessed of these things at the
f
France
th
expense o
.' or, ra er, at the expense of the countries
to whwh . they . belonged, especially as he could not
thus gratify his taste for the arts with t
t·
upon
. . l
ou ac mg
a prmc1p e which the French had acted
.
war. This meruiin
. ht .
on in
.
.
g m1g ' mdeed, be supposed to be
contamed m the above phrase of Lord C tl
h
but ·
·r
as ereag .
m .a. wn mg of this kind, ought anythin<Y be left t '
supposition?
b
o
The 26th Paragraph is an assemblage of all that is

Lord Castlereagh's Note.

251

incorrect, low, and ludicrous. The "was " after Christian
Majesty ought to be could be, that is, "were it possible
that his position could be likely to be injured; " and not
"were it possible that his position was likely to be injured," which is downright nonsense. And then only
think of an injured position,- and of the king's position
being injured "in the eyes" of his people! "But, on the
contrary." On the contrary of what'! Look back, and
see if it be possible to answer this question. Next comes
the intolerable fustian of the king's "separating himself
from remembrances,-" and from this flight, down the
"greatest statesman" pitches, robs the attorney's office,
and calls the statues and pictures " title deeds, as it
were;" and this "us it were" is, perhaps, the choicest
phrase of the whole passage. But, in conclusion (for it is
time to have done with it), what do you say to "the sentiments of re-uniting the countries to France"? And
what do you say, then, to the "genius" (that is, the disposition) " of the French people associating itself with
the limited existence assigned to the nation under the
Bourbons"? What do you say of the man who could'
make use of these words, when his meaning was, " that,
as long as these ·statues and pictures remained to remind
the French people of the late extent of the dominions of
France, their minds would not be completely reconciled
to those more naiTow limits, which had now been prescribed to her"? What do you say of the man. who,
having this plain proposition to state, could talk of the
genius of the people associating itself with the more
limited existence of the nation, the nation being the
people,- and therefore his meaning, if there can be any
sense in the words, being, that the people as a nation had,
under the Bourbons, had their existence, or length of life,
abridged? What do you say, what can you say of such
a man, but that nature might have made him for a valet,
for a strolling player, and possibly for an auctioneer; but

252

253

Six Lessons.

The lJuke of Wellington.

never for a Secretary of State! Yet this man was edu..
cated at the University of Cambridge.*

and that shall consist of the first three paragraphs of his
"dispatch."

LESSON IV.

Remarks on a .Dispatch of the .Duke of Wellington
(called the greatest Captain of the age) relative to the
Musmuns at Paris.
Having, as far as relates to the Mu seums, taken a sufficient view of the writing of the greatest Statesman of the
age, I now come to that of the "greatest Captain." The
writing that I am now abont to notice relates to the same
subject. The Captain was one of the Commanders at
Paris, at the time above spoken of, and it is in that capacity that he writes. But we ought to observe, here, that
he is not only a great Captain, but a great Ambassador
also; and that he was Ambassador at the Congress of
Vienna just before the time we are speaking of; and that
· he was formerly Secretary of State for Ireland.·
The paper, from which I am about to make a quotation,
is a "dispatch" from the " greatest Captain " to Lo1·cl
Castlereagh, dated at Paris, 23rd September, 1815, soon
after the museums had been rifled.
I shall not t ake up much of your time with the performance of this gentleman ; a short specimen will suffice;
*This LESSON was written in June, 1822. On the 12th of August,
1822, this same Lord Castlereagh (being still Secretary of State)
killed himself at North Cray, in Kent, by cutting his throat. A
Coroner's Jury pronounced him to have been insane; and, which is
very curious, a letter from the Duke of Wellington was produced to
prove that the deceased had been insane for some time. Though,
mind, he h ad been for some time, and was when he cut his throat,
actually entrusted with the care and powers of the two other E'ecretaries' offices (they being absent), as well as those of the office of
Foreign Affairs!

•'1\1 y DEA.R LORD :
27. "There has been a good deal of discussion here lately respecting the measures which I have been under the necessity of adopting, in order to get for the King of the Netherlands his pictures,
etc., from the museums; and lest these reports should reach the
Prince R ege nt, I wish iJ trouble you, for his Royal Highness's information, with the following statement of what has passed.
28. "Shortly after the arrival of the sovereigns at Paris, the
minister of the King of the N etherlands claimed the pictures, etc.,
belonging to his sovereign, equally with those of other powers; and,
as far as I could learn, never could get any satisfactory reply from
the French government. After several conversations with me, he
addressed your lordship an official note, which was laid before the
ministers of the allied sover eigns, assembled in conference; and
the subject was taken into consideration repeatedly, with a view
to discover a mode of doing justice to the claimants of the specim ens of the arts in the museum s, without injuring the feelings of
the King of Frnnce. In the m eantime the Prussillns had obtained
from his m ajesty not only all the really Prussian pictures, but
those belonging to the Prussian territories on the left of the Rhine,
and the. pictures, etc., b elonging to all the allies of his Prussian
maj esty; and th e subject pressed for an early decision; and your
lor~l ship wrote your note of th e 11th instant, in which it wa~ fully
discussed.
29. "The ministers of the King of the Netherlands sti ll having
no satisfactory answer from the French government, appealed to
me, as the general-in-chief of the army of the King of the Netherlands, to know whether I had any objecti.on to employ his majesty's
troops to obtain possession of what was hi s undoubt8d prope1·ty.
I referred this application again to· the ministers of the allied
courts, and no objection having been stated, I considered it my duty
to take the necessary measures to obtain what was his right."

The great characteristic of this writing (if writing it
ought to be called) is the thorough-paced vitlgarity of it.
There is a meanness of manner as well as of expression,
and, indeed, a suitableness to the subject much too
natural in all its appeara•ces, to have been the effect
of art.

254

Six Lessons.

The writer, though addressing a minister of state,- and
writing matter to be laid before a sovereign, begins exactly in the manner of a quidnunc talking to another that
he has just met in the street. "There has been a good
deal of CZ.iscitssion," (that is to say, tallc) "he1·e;" that is
to say, at Paris, Castlereagh being, at the time, in London.
The phrase " to get f or " is so very dignified that it could
have come only from a great man, and could have been
inspired by nothing short of the consciousness of being
"the ally of all the nations of Europe," as the writer
calls himself in another part of this famous "dispatch."
But what are "these reports," of which the great Captain speaks in the latter part of this paragraph? He had
spoken of no reports b efore. He had mentioned "discitssion," and a "good de al" of it; but had said not a
word about reports; and these reports pop out upon us
like "these six men in buclu·am," in Falstaff's narrative
to the Prince.
The captain's "wishing to trouble " Lord Castlereagh,
"for the regent's information,'' closes this paragraph in
a very suitable manner, and prepares the mind for the
next, where the regent would fincl trouble enough, if he
were compelled to find out the English of it. The Dutch
minister "clctimed the pictures belonging to his sovereign,
equally with those of other powers." What! did this
Dutchman claim the whole: those belonging to the Dutch
sovereign and those belonging to all the other powers
besides? This, to be sure, would have been in the true
Dutch style; but this could hardly be the fact. If it
were, no wonder that the duke had learned that the
minister "never could get any satisfactory reply;" for
it must have been a deal indeed that would have satisfiecl
him.
The phrase "he addressed your lordship an official
note" is in the counting-house style; and then to say to
Lord Castlereagh, "your lordship wrote your note of the

The .Duke of Wellington.

255

11th of September,'' was so necessary, lest the latter
should imagine that somebody else had written the note!
Nor are the four ands in this paragraph to be overlooked;
for never was this poor conjunction so worked before,
except, perhaps, in so~e narrative of a little girl to her
mother.
The narrative is, in the last-quoted paragraph, continued
with unrelaxed spirit. The Dutch minister can still obtain no satisfactory answer; he asks the duke whether he
has any objection to use force, and asserts, at the same
time, that the goods in question are_, his master's "undoubted property." Upon this the duke applies to the
other ministers, and, "no objection having been stated,''
he considers it his duty to obtain "what was his right;"
that is to say, the Dutch king's right.
Never was there surely a parcel of words before put
together by anybody in so clumsy a manner. In a subsequent part of the "dispatch," we have this: "I added,
that I had no instructions regarding the museum, nor no
grounds on which to form a judgment." In another place
we have "the King of the N etherland 's pictures." In
another place we have " that the property should be
returned to their rightful owners."
·
But, to bestow criticism on such a shocking abuse of
letters is to disgrace it; and nothing can apologize for
what I have done but' the existence of a general knowledge of the fact that the miserable stuff that I have
quoted, and on which I ha7e been remarking, proceeded
from the pen of a man who has, on many occasions, had
some of the most important of the nation's affairs committed to his management. There is in the nonsense of
Castlereagh a frivolity and a foppery that give it a sort
of liveliness, and that now and then elicit a smile; but in
the productions of his correspondent there is nothing to
relieve; all is vulgar, all clumsy, all dull, all torpid inanity.

256

Six Lessons.

LESSON V.
Remarks on a Note presented by Lorcl Castlereagh to the
Ambassadors of the Allies, at Paris, in July, 1815,
r elative to the slave trade.
30. "V1soouNT CASTLEREAGH, his Britannic Maj esty' s principal
Secretary of State, etc., in r eference to the communication he has
m ade to the conference of the orders addressed to the admiralty to
suspend all h ostilities against the coast of France, observes, that
there is 1·eason to f oresee that French ship-owners might be induced
to r enew the slttvc trade, und er the supposition of the p eremptory
and total abolition decreed by Napoleon Bonaparte having cea:ied
with his power ; that, n evertheless, g reat and powerful considerations, ari sing from motive8 of humanity and eve n regard fo r the
king's authority, require that no time should be lost to main tain in
F ra·n ce the entire a nd immediate ab.olition of the traffic in slaves;
that if, at the time of the Treat.y of P:iris, the king's administration
could wish a final but g radual stop slwitld be pitt to this trade, in
the space of fiv e years, for the purpose of affording the ki ng the
grati fi cation of having consulted , as mu ch as possible, t he in terests
of the French proprietors in the colonies, now, th fit the absolute
p1·07iibition has been ordained, th e qu estion asswnes entirely a differen t shape, Joi· if the king were to revoke the said prollibition,
h e would give himself the disadvantage of authorizing, in the interior
of France, the reproach whi ch more than once h as bee n thrown out
again st bis former government, of co untenancing reaction s, and,
at th e same time, j ustifying, out of France, and particularly in
England, the belief of a systematic opposition to liberal ideas; that
accordingly th e time seems to have ai·rived wh en the Alli es cannot
hesitate formally to give wdght in France to the immediate and
entire prohibition of the slave trade, a prohibition, the necessity .o f
which has been ac knowledged, in principle, in the transactions of
the Congress at Vienna."

Now, I put this question to you: .Do y oit ·u nderstand
what this great statesman rnea1is '! R ead the note three
times over, and then say whether you wider8tancl what
he wants . You may guess; but you can go little further.
H ere is a whole mass of grammatical errors ; bat it is the

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257

obscurity, the unintelligibleness of the note, that I think
constitutes its greatest fault. One way of proving the
badness of this writing is to express the meaning of the
writer in a clear manner; thus:
"Lord Castlereagh observes that there is reason to
apprehend that the French ship-owners may be induced
to renew the slave trade, from a supposition that the
total abolition, recently decreed by Napoleon, has b een
nullified by the cessation of his authority; that motives
1
of humanity, as well as a desire to promote the establishment of the king's authority, suggest that no time should
be lost in taking efficient measures to maintain the decree
of abolition; that at the time of the Treaty of Paris, the
king's ministers wished to abolish this trade, but, in order
that the king might, as much as possible, consult the
interests of the colonial proprietors, those ministers
wished the object to be accomplished by degrees during
the space of five years ; that now, however, when the
abolition has been actually decreed, the matter assumes
an entirely different shape, seeing that it is not now an
abolition, but the refraining from revoking an abolition,
that is proposed to be suggested to the king; that, if the
king were to do this, he would warrant amongst his own
people the injurious imputation, more than once brought
against his former government, of countenancing the
work of undoing and overturning, and would, at the same
time, confirm foreign nations, and particularly the English,
in the belief that he had adopted a systematic opposition
to liberal principles and views; that, therefore, the interests of the king not less than those of humanity seem to
call upon the Allies to give, formally and without delay,
the weight of their influence in favor, as far as relates to
France, of an entire and immediate abolition of the slave
trade; an abolition, the necessity of which has, in principle
at least, been acknowledged in the transactions of the
Congress of Vienna."

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258

Six 'Lessons.

Lord Oastlereagh,'s Note.

Now, as to the several faulty expressions in the .note oi
Castlereagh, though I have made great use of italics, I
h ave not pointed out one-half of the faults. Whoever
before heard of a reason to for esee a thing? He meant
r eason to believe that the thing would take place, and as
it was a thing to be wished not to take place, to apprehend
was the word; because to apprehend means to think of
with some degree of fear. Wishing to-morrow to be a
fine day, what would you think of me if I were to say
that I h ad reason to .foresee that it would rain? The
might is clearly wrong. If the abolition were total, what
had peremptory to do there? Could it b e more than
total ? The nevertheless had no business there. He was
about to give reasons why the abolition decree ought to
be confirmed ; but he had stated no r easons given by anyb ody why it should not. To lose no time to maintain;
and then the in France, and then the immediate; altogether ther e is such a mass of confusion that one cannot
describe it. "To maintain in France," would lead one
to suppose that there was, or had been, a slave trade in
France. The next p art, beginning with "that if," sets
all criticism at defiance. Look at the verbs could wish,
and should be/ Look at of having. Then comes prohibition for abolition, two very different things. To assume
entirely a different shape is very different from to assume
an entirely different shape. The latter is meant and the
former is said. Then what does the.for do there? What
consequence is he coming to? How was he going t o
show that the shape was different? H e attempts to show
no su ch thing; but falls to work to foretell the evils
which will fall on the King of F rance if he revoke Napoleon 's decree. And h ere, Goddess of Grub-street, do
h ear him talking of the King of F rance giving himself
the disadvantage of autluwizing ? ep1:oaches I If the
king's conduct would j ustify p eople in believing ill of
him, why should it justify the English 'in partiC?~lar '!
0

259

They might, indeed, b e 11101·e ready to believe ill of him ;
but it could not be more j ust in them than in others.
An opposition to ideas is a pretty idea enough; and so
is the giving of weight in France to an immediate prohibition!
Never was there, surely, such a piece of writing seen
b efore ! Fifty years hence, no man who should read it
would be able to ascertain its meaning. I am able t o
pick it out, b ecause, and only because, I am acquainted
with the history of the matter treated of. And yet, most
momentous transactions, transactions involving the fate
of millions of human beings, have been committed to the
hands of this man!
It is not unnecessary for me to observe that, though I
have stated the meaning of this note in a way for it to be
underst ood, I by no means think, that even in the words
in which I have expressed it, it was a proper note for the
occasion. It was false" in professions; and it was, as
towards the King of France, insolent in a high degree.
Even if it h ad b een just t o compel the king to abolish
the slave trade, the matter might h ave b een expressed in
a less offensive manner; and, at any rate, h e might h ave
been spared the brutal t aunt that we meet with t owards
the close of this matchless specimen of diplomatic stupidity.
H oping that this book will outlive the r ecollection of
the transactions treat ed of by the papers on which I have
been r emarking, it seems no more than justice to tho
p arties to say that the abolition, which was thus extorted,
had effect but for a very short time; and the French
nation never acknowledged it as binding; that at this
moment (June, 1822), complaints are made in the House
of Commons of the breach of agreement on the part of
the French; that the French have r evived and do carry
on the traffic in African slaves; that om· ministers promise
to make remonstrance; but that they dare not t alk of

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Six L essons;.

wa.r; and that witho~t declaring their -·readiness for war,
their remonstrances can have no effect.

LES SON VI.
R emarl.;s on passages in D fop aiches from the M ARQUIS
'WELLESLEY, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to Viscount
Sidmoutli, and to Jib·. P eel, ,Secreta1·ies of State; elated
.Dublin Castle, from 3d J anum·y to 12th J une, 1822;
and also on the charge of the BrsHoP OF WINCHESTER,
delivered in J idy, 1822.
31. "Concluding that your lordship !tad been apprised, before my
arrival in Dublin, of every important c i rcum ~tance r especting the
unh appy distnr.bauces wlddi ltave prevailed in this country, I proceed to submit to you , for hi s Majesty's consideration, such information as I have received on that subj ect during tlie few days that I
h ave p assed since my succession to this government.
82. ••I propose to arrange this information ioitlt r efm·ence to each
county respectively, for th e purpose of facilitating a comparison wit!•
such statements a s may aJready be in yonr lordship's possession,
anil of enabling yo u to form a judgment of the relative state of each
p articular district at the iliJ!"erent periods, of time specified in each
document."

The marquis's style is not, in gen eral, loVJ and clumsy,it bas the opposite faults, affectation and foppishness;
and where the meaning of the writer is obscure, it is n ot
so much b ecause be has not a clear h ead as because h e
cannot condescend to talk in t he language and manner of
common mortals.
"I-Iacl been apprised before of disturbances which have
prevailed" presents great confusion as to times. \Ve
can hardly come at the precise meaning. It should have
been: "Concluding that, before my arrival, your lordship
was apprised of every important circumstance r especting
the unhappy disturbances prevailing in this country."
For the prevalence was still in existence. To submi t is

Marquis Wellesley's ·.Dispatches.

261

to place at the disposal of, to put under the power of;
and, therefore, transmit, or send, was the proper word ;
for it is the king to whom the information is submitted.
The marquis sent the information to Lord Sidmouth that
he might submit it to the king.
"Succession to this government" is a strangely pompous
phrase at b est. But it is n ot correct; for his succession
(if it were one) took place at his appo-intment; and h e is
about to speak of what h e has learned since his arrival
in Dublin; and why not say arrival?
The 32d p aragraph is, perhaps, as complete a sp ecimen of
smoothness in words and of obscurity in meaning as ever
found its way upon p aper ; and yet this was an occasion
for b eing particularly clear, seeing that the marquis was
here ea:plaining the plan of his dispatch. 'With reference
to, means in relation to, as appertaining to, having a ·v iew
towards. The :first is the best for the marquis: and th.at
is little short of n onsense; for what is a?·ranging information in relation to each county 1 \Vhat does it mean 1
Not what the marquis thought he was saying, which was
that he proposed t o speak of t:ie state of all the counties,
and that the information relating to each county he
meant to place under a separate head. This was what he
meant; but this b e does n ot say.
And then again, what does respectively do her e after
eac.h .'R Respectively means particularly or relatively;
and as he had before said, or meant to say, that be proposed to place the information r elating t o each cuwity
under the head of that county, what n eed was there of
the addition of this long and noisy adverb 7
To be sure, to place the information under separate
b eads, each h ead confining itself to the information relating to one county, was a very good ~ay of facili~ating a
comparison of this information with that which was
ah-eady in Lord Sidmoutb's possession; but it was not
enough to say "facilitating a compa1·ison with s·uch

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Six Lessons.

Marquis Wellesley's Dispatches,

263

I

statements,-'' and there appears, besides, to be no reason
to conclude that the information before possessed was
arranged according to counties; on the contrary, the
marquis's laying down of his plan would induce us
to suppose that the arrangement of his matter was .
new.
The latter part of the sentence is all confusion. The
marquis means that, by placing his information as before
described, he shall enable Lord Sidmouth to form a judgment of the state of each district, now, compared with
the state in r{hich it was at the date of the former
information. The "relative state of each particular district " may mean its state at one period compared with its
state at another period; but "at different periods of
time" by no means gives us this idea. And, even if it
did, what are we to do with the "each document" at the
close? Each means one of two, one of more than one.
So that h ere we have the relative state of a district at the
cl'ijf'erent p eriods of time specified in one documen.t ; and
the main p oint that the marquis was driving at was to
show Lord Sidmouth the manner in which h e was going
to enable him to compare the contents of the present
document with those of the documents ah·eady held in
his possession.
I have taken here the first two sentences of the dispatch. They are a fair specimen of the marquis's style,
the great characteristic of which is obscurity arising from
affectation. What he meant was this: "I propose to
place the information r elating to each county under a
distinct h ead, for the purpose of facilitating a comparison
of this information with that which your lordship may
ah·eady possess, and also for the purpose of enabling you
t o form a judgment of the present state of each county,
compared with the state in which it was at the date of
former dispatches." And would it not have been better
to write thu s thii.n, to put upon paper a parcel of words,

the meaning of which, even if you read them a hundred
times over, must still remain a matter of uncertainty "?
But there is another fault here; and that is, all the
latter part of the sentence is a mere redundancy; for of
what was Lord Sidmouth to "form a judgment l"' A
judgment of the compa1·ative state of the country at the
two periods? \Vhat could this be more than the making
of the comparison? Judgment, in this case, means
op inion; and if the marquis had said that his object
was to enable Lord Siclmouth to form a judgment as to
what ought to be done, for. instance, in consequence of the
change in the state of the country, there would have been
some sense in it; but to enable him to see the change was
all that the marquis was talking about; and the very act
of making the comparison was to discern, or judge of, the
change.
It is not my intention to swell out these remarks, or,
with this dispatch before me, I could go on to a great
extent indeed. Some few passages I cannot, however,
refrain from just pointing out to you.
33. " The commanding officer at Bantry report8 a da1·ing attack
made a few nights previously, on several very respectable houses
in the immediate vicinity of that town, by a numerous banditti, who
succeeded in obtaining arms from many; and the officer stationed
at Skibbereen states his opinion that the spirit of disaffection, whicli
had been confined to the northern baronies of the county, had spread
in an alarming measure through the whole of West Carbury; that
nightly meetings are held at various places on the coast, and that
bands of offenders assemble, consisting of not less than three hundred in each band.
34. " It further appears, from various communications, that the
greater 'part of the population of the northern part of the county of
Cork had assembled in the mountains, and that tluy have in some
places·m ade demonstrations of attack, and in others have comn:iitted
outrages by day, with increased force and boldness."

"Reports an attack" is of the slang military, and
. should not have forced its way into this dispatch. " States
·his opinion that,'' is little better. But it is to the strange

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Six Lessons.

264

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265

confusion in the times of the verbs that I here ~sh to
direct yom attention. This is a fault the marquis very
frequently commits.
I c ann ot help drnwing your attention to "a n~m~~ous handitti"

37. " On th e e:vening of the sam e day a detachment of the 11th
Regiment was attacked, on its march from Macroom to Bandon,
by a party of sixty men, who followed it for three miles, and took
advantage of the inclosures to fire , and to retard the march of the
king's troops."

"not. less than three liundred m en." Banditti is plural, and
an d
.
.
f
f
th er efore the a ought to be left out. L ess is the compara ive_o
little, u sed with refer ence to quantity ; but
ar~ not a quantity,
lJut a number, and the comparative of few, which is fewer, ought to

The meaning is that the party of sixty men followed it
(the regirfient), took advantage of the inclosures to fire on
it, and to r etard its march; but the marquis, from a desire to write fi ne, leaves us in doubt whether the regimeht
and the king's troops b e the same body of men; and this
doubt is, indeed, countenanced by the almost incredible
circumstance that a regulm· regiment should be f allowed
for three miles, and actually have its march retarded by
sixty men!

trier:

h ave b een used h ere.
35. <•The m acristrates resident at Dunmanaway repo~t that illegal
0
. oaths have for a long time been admiiiistered in th at neighbor.hood;
that nocturnal m eetings h ave frequently b ee n h eld ; _th~t m the
adjoining p arishes, notices of an inflammatory descr1pt10n have
b een posted; and in one parish, arms h ave been taken from the
peaceable inhabitants.
.
.
36. <' The Rector of - - reports, on the 10th, tha~ six ~ouses of
his p arishioners had b een attacked on the preceding mght, and
some arms obtained from them, and then an attempt h ad b een
made to assassinate Captain Bernard, an active yeoman:y officer,
'when only a short distance behind his corps, but that, ow_mg to tlle
Jlistol presented at him missing fire, he escaped, and lns brotller

38. " A countryman's h ouse is ~l so stated to h ave been attacked
by forty m en, well mounted and armed, who severely beat and
wounded him, and took his horse. - - 7·eports an attack on the
house of Mr. Sweet, near Macroom, who, having received previous
intimation of the attack, and h aving prepared for defence, succeeded in repulsing the assailants, about two hundred in number,
with a loss of two killed, who were carried off by their associates,
although their horses were secured."

:shot the assailant."

vV e do not know from the words "have for a l~n_g time
dministered " whether the oaths were adm1rustered
ue ~n a
'
d · ·
a long tirne ago, or are now, and long have been a minist ering. The that should have been repeated between the
and and the in towards the close of paragraph 35; for
the want of it takes the last fact out of the report of t~e
magistrates, and makes it an assertion of the marquis.
The same remark applies to the 36th paragraph, wher~,
for the want of the that between t}le and and the then, it
is the marquis, and not the rector, w~o asserts the fact
of an attempt to assa.ssinate the captam, ~ odd s.ort of
an attempt to assassinate, by-the-bye, seemg that it was
made by a pistol openly presented at him, and.that, too,
when his troop was just on before, and when his b~other
was so n ear at h and as to be able to shoot the assailant I
But assassinate is become a fashionable word in such cases.

H ere we have rep01·ts an attack again; but your attention is called to the latter part of the paragraph, where
it would 8.ppear that Mr. Sweet sustained a loss of two
killed; and yet these two dead men were carried off by
their assailants. If the marquis had stopped at the word
killed, it would have been impossible not to understand
him to mean that Mr. Sweet had two of his men killed.

7.

39. " A m agistrate communicates that information had been
received by him of several intended attacks upon houses in that
neighborhood, but that they had been prevented by the judicious
employment of the police, stationed at Sallans, under t!ie P eace
Preservation Act."

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By employing the police in a judicious manner, the
marquis
means; but says quite another thing.
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Marquis Wellesley's Dispatches.

to a farmer's outhouses, which, together with the cattle in them,
WAS consumed."

To confine and extend an object does not seem to be
very .c lear sense ; and, at any rate, to say that the object
of lowering rents and tithes has b een extended to the
refusal also of the priest's dues makes sad work indeed.
Without the also, the thing might pass; but that word
makes t)iis part of the sentence downright n onsense.

266

It should be "the setting of fire; " and it should be
were, and not was; for the deuce is in it if out-houses,
together with the cattle in them, do not make up_ a plural.
41 . ' ' The result of the facts stated in this dispatch, anr!its inclo~­
ures, seems to justify an opinion that, although no material change
has o ccurr~d in any other part of Ireland, the disturbances in the
vicinity of Macroorn have assumed a mor e decided aspect of general
di.;01'der, and accordingly I have resorted to additional measures of
precaution and military operation."
There should be an in between the and and the its.
But, it is not the result of the f acts that seems to justify
the opinion ; it is the facts themselves that justify the
opinion, and the opin ion is the result. M easures of
mili tary operation, t oo, is an odd sort of phrase. This
paragraph is all b ad, from b eginning to end; but I am
merely pointing out prominent and gross enors.
42. ' ' Another magistrate reports several robberies of arms in the
parishes of Skull and Kilmore, and the burning of a corn-store at
Crookhaven ; and another, in representing the alarming state of
the country, adds, that the object of the insurgents, in one district
at least, has not been confin ed to the lowering of rents and tithes,
but extended to the refusal also of the priest's dues."

To rob applies to the person or thing from whom or
which something is violently and unlawfully taken. Men
rob a man of his money, or a house of its goods ; but it
is not the money and goods that are robbed. Yet this is
a very common phrase with the marquis, who, in other
places, talks of "plundering arms from people," and who,
by saying "six hundred an d s eventy-.~ix firearms,'' and
the like, leaves us clearly to understand that he is
liberty to use this noun in the singidar, and, of course,
to say a fir e-arm whenever he may choose; a liberty,
however, which I would, my dear James, earnestly recommend to you never to think of taking.

at

267

43. " No additional military force, no improvement nor augmentation of the police, would now be effectual without the aid of the
Insurrection Act ; with that aid it appears to he rational to expect
that tranquillity may be maintained, confirmed, and exte nd ec~
throughout Ireland. It is, therefore, my duty, in every view, to
request the renewiil of the Jaw, of which the operation f o1'1ns the

811.bject of this dispatch."

Did any man, in any writing of any sort, ever b efore
meet with anything like this ~ Suppose I wer e to say,
"th e 11Jritings of which the in accuracies form the subject
of these r emarks,'' what would the world think and say of
me ? This is indeed "prose run niad."
Cobbett means, of course, that we should say, " the writings, the
inaccuracies of which" ; but we can now say, '' th e writings whose
inaccuracies,'' which sounds much more smooth and elegant.
44. '' With respect to Westmeath, the chief magistrate of police
has stated the 1·evival of those p arty feud~ and personal conflicts in
the neighborhood of Mullingar, which are considered in this country to be indications of the return of public tranquillity, and from
which the magistrate expects the detection of past offences against
the state. "
One loses sight of everything about language here, in
contemplating the shocking, the horrible fact! For, what
is so horrible as the fact here officially stated, that p arty
fe itds and person al conflicts are deemed indications.favorable to the governm ent, and that they are expected by the
magistiate to lead to the detection o.f past offences against
the state! As to the grammar: to "state the revi'val" is
just as good English as it would be to say that the magistrate has stated the .fin e weather. The "the return" ought
to be " a retu rn."

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Bishop of Winchester's Charge.

269

45. ''The early expiration of the Act would at least hazard the
nvival of that tyranny; the restraints imposed ~n violen~e have not
yet been of sufficient duration to form any solid foundation of a
better and more disciplined disposition in the minds of the people.
Even now it is believed that arms are retained in the lwpe of the
expiration of the law on the lst of August; and although a more
au spicions sentiment may exist in the hearts of some, even of the
guilty, it would be contrary to all p1·udent policy and pr<YDident wisdom, by a premature relaxation of the law, to afford facility to the
accomplishment of the worst designs, and to weaken the protections and safeguards, which now secure the lives and properties of
th e loyal and obedient, before the spirit of outrage had been effectually extinguished."

which now secure the lives and properties of the loyal
and obedient."
How clear this is! And how much more harmonious
and more elegant, too, than the sentence of the marquis;
and yet the words are all the same identical words!
Towards the close of Letter XXI, I gave you, from Dr.
JOHNSON and Dr. WATTS, some striking instances of the
wrong placing of words in sentences; and, lest these
should be insufficient to keep so great a man as the marquis in countenance, I will here show thiLt a bishop can
commit e!Tors of the same sort and greater in degree.

"To hazard the revival "is not correct. To hazard is
to expose to danger/ and certainly the marquis did not
mean that the revival of the tyrann y was a thing that
ought not to be put in clange1·. The word hazard had no
business there. Another mode of expression ought to
have been used; such as, "exposed the coimtry to the
danger of the revival of the tyranny."
The semicolon after tyranny ought to have been afullpoint. "In the hope of the expiration" is bad enough;
but it is the arrangement of this sentence, the placing
of the several parts of it, which is most worthy of your
attention, and which ought to be a warning to every one
who takes pen in hand.
"Prudent policy and provident wisdom" would seem to
say that there are such things as imprudent policy and
improvident wisdom; but, still, all the rest is inferior, in
point of importance, to the confusion which follows, and
which leaves you wholly in doubt as to the meaning of
the writer. Now, observe with what facility this mass of
confusion is reduced to order, and that, too, without adding to or taking from the marquis one single word. I
begin after the word wisdom: " to afford, by a prematme
relaxation of the law, faci:i.ity to the accomplishment of
the worst designs, and to weaken, before the spirit of
outrage had been effectually extinguished, the safeguards

Before passing to the bishop, is it not worth while to pause a
moment to notice the remarkable fact, that, in the matter of outrages
and violence, the Irish seem to have been just as bad at the beginning of the century as they are now toward the end of it ? 'What a.
familiar picture of outrage and violence these dispatches present,
and what a time the English have had in governing the people of
this '' ever faithfd" isle! The government has certainly improved
since tl1e time these dispatches were written; and yet what shall
we say of the advance made by the people? Are all these murders
and assassinations of the present day the result of English tyranny
and Injustice, or are they the result of other causes? '\¥"hat h ave
the Church, the press, and the schools done to improve the character of tlie Irish people? I fear that if tliese were weighed in the
balance, they would all be found wanting. The French under the
Napoleons and the Germans under Bismarck have suffered ten
times more oppression than tlie Irish under Victoria, without committing one tenth as many crimes; and the reason of this is, tliat
the French and the Germans are better educated than the Irish.
They have the moral sense to perceive that the commission of crime
no more leads to national liberty than to personal happiness. Not
tl1e least important part of that education in which the Irish are
lacking, is the practice of economy and foresight in the affairs of
daily life. Out of every hundred Frenchmen, at least ninety-five
save something every year; and tlie proportion of saving people
among the Germans is perhaps still greater. Now I am positive
tbat, among tl1e Irish, not ten in a hundred ever think of saving
anythmg; and this is one cause of tlie misery and starvation tliat
periodically overtakes them.

I have before me "A Charge delivered to the Clergy of

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Six Lessons.

Bishop of Winche.-ter's Charge.

the .Diocese of Winchester, at a priniary visitation of
that diocese, by GEORGE ToMLINE, .D..D., .Ji'.R.S., Lord
Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the most Noble Order
of the Garter." We will not stop here to inquire what a
prelate's office may require of him relative to an Order
which history tells us arose out of a favorite lady dropping her garter at a dance; but I must observe that, as
the titles here stand, it would appear that the last is
deemed the most honorable and of most importance to the
clergy I This bishop, whose name was PRETTYMAN, was
the tittor of that William Pitt who was called the heavenborn minister, and a history of whose life has been written
by this bishop. So that we have here, a .Doctor of .Divinity, a .Fellow of the Royal Society, a Prelate of the
most Noble Order of the Garter, and a Bishop of one of
the richest Sees in the whole u;orld, who, besides, is an
IIistorian, and was Tittor to a heaven-born minister. Let
us see then what sort of writing comes from such a
source. I could take an incorract sentence, I could even
take a specimen of downright nonsense, from almost any
page of the Charge. But I shall content myself with the
very first sentence of it.

from his own will, cannot strictly be called an opportuni<y.
But it is the double meaning, occasioned by the wrongplacing of the words, that I wish you to attend to.
Now, see how easily the sentence might, with the same
words, have been made unequivocal, clear, and elegant:
" My Reverend Brethren, being called, at a late period of
life, to preside over this distinguished diocese, I have
thought it incumbent on me not to delay, longer than
circumstances rendered absolutely necessary, the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with my clergy."
How easy it was to writt: thus! And yet this bishop
did not know how to do it. I dare say that he corrected
and re-corrected every sentence of this charge. And yet
what bungling work it is, after all! And these are your
college and university bred men! These are the men who
are called .Doctors on account of their literary acquirements, cloctits being the Latin word for learned! Thus
it is that the mass of mankind have been imposed upon
by big sounding names, which, however, have seldom
failed to insure, to those who have assumed them I)Ower
' who'
ease, luxury, and splendor, at the expense of those
have been foolish or base enough to acquiesce, or to
seem to acquiesce, in the fitness of the assumption.
Such acquiescence is not, however, so general now-adays as it formerly was; and the chagrin which the ".Doctors" feel at the change is not more evident than it is
amusing. In the very charge which I have just quoted,
the tutor of the heaven-born miuister says, "A spirit is
still manifest amongst us, producing an impatience of
control, a reluctance to acknowledge superiority, and an
eagerness to call in question the expediency of established
forms and customs." What! is it, then, a sin/ is it an
offence against God, to be reluctant to "acknowledge
superiority" in a bishop who cannot write so well as ourselves? Oh, no! We are not to be censured, because
we doubt of the expediency of those establishments, those

270

46. ''.My reverend brethren, being called to preside over this
distinguished diocese, at a late period of life, I have thought it
incumbent upon me not to delay the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with my clergy longer than circumstances rendered absolutely necessary."

There are two double meanings in this short sentence.
\Vas he called at some former time, to preside over the
diocese when he should become old? or was he, when he
had become old, called to preside over the diocese? But
what follows is still worse. Does he mean that he thought
it incumbent on him to become acquainted with his clergy
as soon as p ossible, or in as short a time as possible? To
delay an opportunity is not very good; and that which is
of a man's own appointment, and which proceeds purely

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272

Six Lessons.

college!? and universities, which cause immense revenues,
arising from public property, to be expended on the education of men, who, after all, can produce, in thi:i literary
way, nothing better than writings such as those- on which
we have now been remarking.
The nature of the faults in these extracts may, perhaps, be made
still clearef by calling your attention to the two kinds of sentences
called loflse and perio<lic. A loose sentence is one in which the
sense is complete at the end of any phrase or clause in it, whereas
a periodic sentence keeps the sense suspended till the end. The
latter is generally preferabl e to the fmmer. For instance; ''Wehave learned to speak and write English correctly, in a few months,
by means of this little book, in spite of m any obstacles." This is a
loose sentence; so loose that any m ember of it may be dropped
without injuring the sense. Now let ns put it in a periodic form ,
and you will see that you can come to a full-stop nowhere except
at the encl. "By means of this little hook, we have, in a few
months, in spite of many obstacles, learned to speak an<l write
English correctly."

'!'HK .K ND.

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