Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/259



OBS. 33.--There are some nouns, which, though really regular in respect to possessing the two forms for the two numbers, are not free from irregularity in the manner of their application. Thus means is the regular plural of mean; and, when the word is put for mediocrity, middle point, place, or degree, it takes both forms, each in its proper sense; but when it signifies things instrumental, or that which is used to effect an object, most writers use means for the singular as well as for the plural:[156] as, "By this means"--"By those means," with reference to one mediating cause; and, "By these means,"--"By those means," with reference to more than one. Dr. Johnson says the use of means for mean is not very grammatical; and, among his examples for the true use of the word, he has the following: "Pamela's noble heart would needs gratefully make known the valiant mean of her safety."--Sidney. "Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the heathens' conversion."--Hooker. "Whether his wits should by that mean have been taken from him."--Id. "I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor out of the way."--Shak. "No place will please me so, no mean of death."--Id. "Nature is made better by no mean, but nature makes that mean."--Id. Dr. Lowth also questioned the propriety of construing means as singular, and referred to these same authors as authorities for preferring the regular form. Buchanan insists that means is right in the plural only; and that, "The singular should be used as perfectly analogous; by this mean, by that mean."--''English Syntax'', p. 103. Lord Kames, likewise, appears by his practice to have been of the same opinion: "Of this the child must be sensible intuitively, for it has no other mean of knowledge."--Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 357. "And in both the same mean is employed."--Ib. ii, 271. Caleb Alexander, too, declares "this means," "that means." and "a means," to be "ungrammatical."--Gram., p. 58. But common usage has gone against the suggestions of these critics, and later grammarians have rather confirmed the irregularity, than attempted to reform it.

OBS. 34.--Murray quotes sixteen good authorities to prove that means may be singular; but whether it ought to be so or not, is still a disputable point. Principle is for the regular word mean, and good practice favours the irregularity, but is still divided. Cobbett, to the disgrace of grammar, says, "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 consent, it is become always a plural, whether used with singular or plural pronouns and articles, or not."--E. Gram., p. 144. This is as ungrammatical, as it is untrue. Both mean and means are sufficiently authorized in the singular: "The prospect which by this mean is opened to you."--Melmoth's Cicero. "Faith in this doctrine never terminates in itself, but is a mean, to holiness as an end."--Dr. Chalmers, Sermons, p. v. "The mean of basely affronting him."--Brown's Divinity, p. 19. "They used every mean to prevent the re-establishment of their religion."--Dr Jamieson's Sacred Hist., i, p. 20. "As a necessary mean to prepare men for the discharge of that duty."-- Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 153. "Greatest is the power of a mean, when its power is least suspected."--Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "To the deliberative orator the reputation of unsullied virtue is not only useful, as a mean of promoting his general influence, it is also among his most efficient engines of persuasion, upon every individual occasion."--J. Q. Adams's Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, i, 352. "I would urge it upon you, as the most effectual mean of extending your respectability and usefulness in the world."--Ib., ii, 395. "Exercise will be admitted to be a necessary mean of improvement."--Blair's Rhet., p. 343. "And by that means we have now an early prepossession in their favour."--Ib., p. 348. "To abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better mean of reconciliation." --Keith's Evidences, p. 46. "As a mean of destroying the distinction." --Ib., p. 3. "Which however is by no mean universally the case."-- Religious World Displayed, Vol. iii, p. 155.

OBS. 35.--Again, there are some nouns, which, though they do not lack the regular plural form, are sometimes used in a plural sense without the plural termination. Thus manner makes the plural manners, which last is now generally used in the peculiar sense of behaviour, or deportment, but not always: it sometimes means methods, modes, or ways; as, "At sundry times and in divers manners."--Heb., i, 1. "In the manners above mentioned."--Butler's Analogy, p. 100. "There be three manners of trials in England."--COWELL: ''Joh. Dict., w. Jury''. "These two manners of representation."--Lowth's Gram., p. 15. "These are the three primary modes, or manners, of expression."--Lowth's Gram., p. 83. "In arrangement, too, various manners suit various styles."--''Campbell's Phil. of Rhet.'', p. 172. "Between the two manners."--Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 35. "Here are three different manners of asserting."-- Barnard's Gram., p. 59. But manner has often been put for sorts, without the s; as, "The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits."--Rev., xxii, 2. "All manner of men assembled here in arms."--Shak. "All manner of outward advantages."--Atterbury. Milton used kind in the same way, but not very properly; as, "All kind of living creatures."--P. Lost, B. iv, l. 286. This irregularity it would be well to avoid. Manners may still, perhaps, be proper for modes or ways; and all manner, if allowed,