Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/668

 to my sometime promise."--Zenobia, i, 176. "Thine often infirmities."--Bible. "A far country."--Ib. "No wine,"--"No new thing,"--"No greater joy."--Ib. "Nothing else."--Blair. "Tomorrow noon."--Scott. "Calamity enough."--Tr. Sallust. "For thou only art holy."--Rev., xv, 4.

OBS. 4.--It is not my design to justify any uncouth substitution of adverbs for adjectives; nor do I affirm that all the foregoing examples are indisputably good English, though most of them are so; but merely, that the words, when they are thus used, are adjectives, and not adverbs. Lindley Murray, and his copyists, strongly condemn some of these expressions, and, by implication, most or all of them; but both he and they, as well as others, have repeatedly employed at least one of the very models they censure. They are too severe on all those which they specify. Their objections stand thus; "Such expressions as the following, though not destitute of authority, are very inelegant, and do not suit the idiom of our language; 'The then ministry,' for, 'the ministry of that time;' 'The above discourse,' for, 'the preceding discourse.'"--Murray's Gram., i, p. 198; Crombie's, 294; Ingersoll's, 206. "The following phrases are also exceptionable: 'The then ministry;' 'The above argument.'"--Kirkham's Gram., p. 190. "Adverbs used as adjectives, as, 'The above statement;' 'The then administration;' should be avoided."--Barnard's Gram., p. 285. "When and then must not be used for nouns and pronouns; thus, 'Since when,' 'since then,' 'the then ministry,' ought to be, 'Since which time,' 'since that time,' 'the ministry of that period.'"--Hiley's Gram., p. 96. Dr. Priestley, from whom Murray derived many of his critical remarks, noticed these expressions; and, (as I suppose,) approvingly; thus, "Adverbs are often put for adjectives, agreeably to the idiom of the Greek tongue: [as,] 'The action was amiss.'--'The then ministry.'--'The idea is alike in both.'--Addison. 'The above discourse.'--Harris."--Priestley's Gram., p. 135. Dr. Johnson, as may be seen above, thought it not amiss to use then as Priestley here cites it; and for such a use of above, we may quote the objectors themselves: "To support the above construction."--Murray's Gram., i, p. 149; Ingersoll's, p. 238. "In all the above instances."--Mur., p. 202; Ing., 230. "To the above rule."--Mur., p. 270; Ing., 283. "The same as the above."--Mur., p. 66; Ing., 46. "In such instances as the above."--Mur., p. 24; Ing., 9; Kirkham, 23.[427]

OBS. 5.--When words of an adverbial character are used after the manner of nouns, they must be parsed as nouns, and not as adverbs; as, "The Son of God--was not yea and nay, but in him was yea."--Bible. "For a great while to come."--Ib. "On this perhaps, this peradventure infamous for lies."--Young. "From the extremest upward of thine head."--Shak. "There are upwards of fifteen millions of inhabitants."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 266. "Information has been derived from upwards of two hundred volumes."--Worcester's Hist., p. v. "An eternal now does always last"--Cowley. "Discourse requires an animated no."--Cowper. "Their hearts no proud hereafter swelled."--Sprague. An adverb after a preposition is used substantively, and governed by the preposition; though perhaps it is not necessary to call it a common noun: as, "For upwards of thirteen years."--Hiley's Gram., p. xvi. "That thou mayst curse me them from thence."--Numb., xxiii, 27. "Yet for once we'll try."--Dr. Franklin. But many take such terms together, calling them "adverbial phrases." Allen says, "Two adverbs sometimes come together; as, 'Thou hast kept the good wine until now.'"--Gram., p. 174. But until is here more properly a preposition, governing now.

OBS. 6.--It is plain, that when words of an adverbial form are used either adjectively or substantively, they cannot be parsed by the foregoing rule, or explained as having the ordinary relation of adverbs; and if the unusual relation or character which they thus assume, be not thought sufficient to fix them in the rank of adjectives or nouns, the parser may describe them as adverbs used adjectively, or substantively, and apply the rule which their assumed construction requires. But let it be remembered, that adverbs, as such, neither relate to nouns, nor assume the nature of cases: but express the time, place, degree, or manner, of actions or qualities. In some instances in which their construction may seem not to be reconcilable with the common rule, there may be supposed an ellipsis of a verb or a participle:[428] as, "From Monday to Saturday inclusively."--Webster's Dict. Here, the Doctor ought to have used a comma after Saturday; for the adverb relates, not to that noun, but to the word reckoned, understood. "It was well said by Roscommon, 'too faithfully is pedantically.'"--''Com. Sch. Journal'', i, 167. This saying I suppose to mean, "To do a thing too faithfully, is, to do it pedantically." "And, [I say] truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned."--Heb., xi, 15.

OBS 7.--To abbreviate expressions, and give them vivacity, verbs of self-motion (such as go, come, rise, get, &c.) are sometimes suppressed, being suggested to the mind by an emphatic adverb, which seems to be put for the verb, but does in fact relate to it understood; as,

"I'll hence to London, on a serious matter."--Shak. Supply "go."