Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/558



RULE X.--PRONOUNS.

A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender:[379] as, "This is the friend of whom I spoke; he has just arrived."--"This is the book which I bought; it is an excellent work."--"Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons to love it too."--Cowper.

"Speak thou, whose thoughts at humble peace repine,   Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be thine?"--Dr. Johnson.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When a pronoun stands for some person or thing indefinite, or unknown to the speaker, this rule is not strictly applicable; because the person, number, and gender, are rather assumed in the pronoun, than regulated by an antecedent: as, "I do not care who knows it."--Steele. "Who touched me? Tell me who it was."--"We have no knowledge how, or by whom, it is inhabited."--ABBOT: ''Joh. Dict.''

EXCEPTION SECOND.

The neuter pronoun it may be applied to a young child, or to other creatures masculine or feminine by nature, when they are not obviously distinguishable with regard to sex; as, "Which is the real friend to the child, the person who gives it the sweetmeats, or the person who, considering only its health, resists its importunities?"--Opis. "He loads the animal he is showing me, with so many trappings and collars, that I cannot distinctly view it"--Murray's Gram., p. 301. "The nightingale sings most sweetly when it sings in the night."--Bucke's Gram., p. 52.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

The pronoun it is often used without a definite reference to any antecedent, and is sometimes a mere expletive, and sometimes the representative of an action expressed afterwards by a verb; as, "Whether she grapple it with the pride of philosophy."--Chalmers. "Seeking to lord it over God's heritage."--The Friend, vii, 253. "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink."--Prov., xxxi, 4. "Having no temptation to it, God cannot act unjustly without defiling his nature."--Brown's Divinity, p. 11.

"Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe."--Milton.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

A singular antecedent with the adjective many, sometimes admits a plural pronoun, but never in the same clause; as, "Hard has been the fate of many a great genius, that while they have conferred immortality on others, they have wanted themselves some friend to embalm their names to posterity."--Welwood's Pref. to Rowe's Lucan.

"In Hawick twinkled many a light,   Behind him soon they set in night."--W. Scott.

EXCEPTION FIFTH.

When a plural pronoun is put by enallagè for the singular, it does not agree with its noun in number, because it still requires a plural verb; as, "We [Lindley Murray] have followed those authors, who appear to have given them the most natural and intelligible distribution."--Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 29. "We shall close our remarks on this subject, by introducing the sentiments of Dr. Johnson respecting it."--Ib. "My lord, you know I love you"--Shakspeare.

EXCEPTION SIXTH.

The pronoun sometimes disagrees with its antecedent in one sense, because it takes it in an other; as, "I have perused Mr. Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, and find it[380] a very laborious, learned, and useful Work."--''Tho. Knipe, D. D. "Lamps is of the plural number, because it means more than one."--Smith's New Gram., p. 8. "Man is of the masculine gender, because it is the name of a male."--Ib. "The Utica Sentinel says it'' has not heard whether the wounds