Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/565

 have condemned it too positively. It occurs sundry times in the Bible; as, "Know ye that the LORD he is God."--Psalms, c, 3.

NOTE II.--A change of number in the second person, or even a promiscuous use of ye and you in the same case and the same style, is inelegant, and ought to be avoided; as, "You wept, and I for thee"--"Harry, said my lord, don't cry; I'll give you something towards thy loss."--Swift's Poems, p. 267. "Ye sons of sloth, you offspring of darkness, awake from your sleep."--Brown's Metaphors, p. 96. Our poets have very often adopted the former solecism, to accommodate their measure, or to avoid the harshness of the old verb in the second person singular: as, "Thy heart is yet blameless, O fly while you may!"--Queen's Wake, p. 46.

"Oh! Peggy, Peggy, when thou goest to brew,   Consider well what you're about to do."--King's Poems, p. 594.

"As in that lov'd Athenian bower,   You learn'd an all-commanding power,    Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd!    Can well recall what then it heard."--Collins, Ode to Music.

NOTE III.--The relative who is applied only to persons, and to animals or things personified; and which, to brute animals and inanimate things spoken of literally: as, "The judge who presided;"--"The old crab who advised the young one;"--"The horse which ran away;"--"The book which was given me."

NOTE IV.--Nouns of multitude, unless they express persons directly as such, should not be represented by the relative who: to say, "The family whom I visited," would hardly be proper; that would here be better. When such nouns are strictly of the neuter gender, which may represent them; as, "The committees which were appointed." But where the idea of rationality is predominant, who or whom seems not to be improper; as, "The conclusion of the Iliad is like the exit of a great man out of company whom he has entertained magnificently."--Cowper. "A law is only the expression of the desire of a multitude who have power to punish."--Brown's Philosophy of the Mind.

NOTE V.--In general, the pronoun must so agree with its antecedent as to present the same idea, and never in such a manner as to confound the name with the thing signified, or any two things with each other. Examples: "Jane is in the nominative case, because it leads the sentence."--Infant School Gram., p. 30. Here it represents ''the word "Jane" and not the person Jane. "What mark or sign is put after master to show that he is in the possessive case? Spell it"--Ib.'', p. 32. Here the word "master" is most absurdly confounded with the man; and that to accommodate grammar to a child's comprehension!

NOTE VI.--The relative that may be applied either to persons or to things. In the following cases, it is more appropriate than who, whom, or which; and ought to be preferred, unless it be necessary to use a preposition before the relative:--(1.) After an adjective of the superlative degree, when the relative clause is restrictive;[383] as, "He was the first that came."--"He was the fittest person that could then be found."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 422. "The Greeks were the greatest reasoners that ever appeared in the world."--BEATTIE: Murray's Gram., p. 127. (2.) After the adjective same, when the relative clause is restrictive; as, "He is the same man that you saw before."-- Priestley's Gram., p. 101; Murray's, 156; Campbell's Rhet., 422. (3.) After the antecedent who; as, "Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"--Washington. (4.) After two or more antecedents that demand a relative adapted both to persons and to things; as, "He spoke largely of the men and things that he had seen."--"When some particular person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be more distinctly marked."-- Murray's Gram., p. 51. (5.) After an unlimited antecedent which the relative clause is designed to restrict; as, "Thoughts that breathe,