Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1076



XVII. They use the forms of the second person singular oftener than do others; as,

1. "Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,   Thy service in some graver subject use,    Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,    Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound." --Milton's Works, p. 133.

2. "But thou, of temples old, or altars new,   Standest alone--with nothing like to thee." --Byron, Pilg., iv, 154.

3. "Thou seest not all; but piecemeal thou must break,   To separate contemplation, the great whole." --Id., ib., iv, 157.

4. "Thou rightly deemst, fair youth, began the bard;   The form then sawst was Virtue ever fair." --Pollok, C. of T., p. 16.

XVIII. They sometimes omit relatives that are nominatives; (see Obs. 22, at p. 555;) as,

"For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?" --Thomson.

XIX. They omit the antecedent, or introduce it after the relative; as,

1. "Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys,   Who never toils or watches, never sleeps." --Armstrong.

2. "Who dares think one thing and an other tell,   My soul detests him as the gates of hell." --Pope's Homer.

XX. They remove relatives, or other connectives, into the body of their clauses; as,

1. "Parts the fine locks, her graceful head that deck." --Darwin.

2. "Not half so dreadful rises to the sight   Orion's dog, the year when autumn weighs." --Pope, Iliad, B. xxii, l. 37.

XXI. They make intransitive VERBS transitive, changing their class; as,

1. "A while he stands,  Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid   To meditate the blue profound below." --Thomson.

2. "Still in harmonious intercourse, they liv'd   The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart." --Idem.

3. "I saw and heard, for we sometimes  Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth." --Milton, P. R., B. i, l. 330.

XXII. They make transitive verbs intransitive, giving them no regimen; as,

1. "The soldiers should have toss'd me on their pikes,   Before I would have granted to that act." --Shakspeare.

2. "This minstrel-god, well-pleased, amid the quire   Stood proud to hymn, and tune his youthful lyre." --Pope.

XXIII. They give to the imperative mood the first and the third person; as,

1. "Turn we a moment fancy's rapid flight." --Thomson.

2. "Be man's peculiar work his sole delight." --Beattie.

3. "And what is reason? Be she thus defin'd:   Reason is upright stature in the soul." --Young.

XXIV. They employ can, could, and would, as principal verbs transitive; as,

1. "What for ourselves we can, is always ours." --Anon.

2. "Who does the best his circumstance allows,   Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more." --Young.

3. "What would this man? Now upward will he soar,   And, little less than angel, would be more." --Pope.

XXV. They place the infinitive before the word on which it depends; as,

1. "When first thy sire to send on earth   Virtue, his darling child, design'd" --Gray.

2. "As oft as I, to kiss the flood, decline;   So oft his lips ascend, to close with mine." --Sandys.

3. "Besides, Minerva, to secure her care,   Diffus'd around a veil of thicken'd air." --Pope.

XXVI. They place the auxiliary verb after its principal, by hyperbaton; as,

1. "No longer heed the sunbeam bright   That plays on Carron's breast he can" --Langhorne.

2. "Follow I must, I cannot go before." --Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 147.

3. "The man who suffers, loudly may complain;   And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain." --Pope.

XXVII. Before verbs, they sometimes arbitrarily employ or omit prefixes: as, bide, or abide;