Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/676



IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXI.

EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.—THE PLACING OF ADVERBS.

"All that is favoured by good use, is not proper to be retained."—Murray's Gram., ii, p. 296.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the adverb not is not put in the most suitable place. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 21st, "Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the sentence the most perspicuous and agreeable." The sentence will be improved by placing not before all; thus, "Not all that is favoured by good use, is proper to be retained."]

"Every thing favoured by good use, [is] not on that account worthy to be retained."—Ib., i, 369; Campbell's Rhet., p. 179. "Most men dream, but all do not."—Beattie's Moral Science, i, 72. "By hasty composition, we shall acquire certainly a very bad style."—Blair's Rhet., p. 191. "The comparisons are short, touching on one point only of resemblance."—Ib., p. 416. "Having had once some considerable object set before us."—Ib., p. 116. "The positive seems improperly to be called a degree."—Adam's Gram., p. 69; Gould's, 68. "In some phrases the genitive is only used."—Adam, 159; Gould, 161. "This blunder is said actually to have occurred."—Smith's Inductive Gram., p. 5. "But every man is not called James, nor every woman Mary."—Buchanan's Gram., p. 15. "Crotchets are employed for the same purpose nearly as the parenthesis."—Churchill's Gram., p. 167. "There is still a greater impropriety in a double comparative."—Priestley's Gram., p. 78. "We have often occasion to speak of time."—Lowth's Gram., p. 39. "The following sentence cannot be possibly understood."—Ib., p. 104. "The words must be generally separated from the context."—Comly's Gram., p. 155. "Words ending in ator have the accent generally on the penultimate."—Murray's Gram., i, 239. "The learned languages, with respect to voices, moods, and tenses, are, in general, differently constructed from the English tongue."—Ib., i, 101. "Adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express compendiously in one word, what must otherwise have required two or more."—Ib., i, 114. "But it is only so, when the expression can be converted into the regular form of the possessive case."—Ib., i, 174.

"Enter, (says he) boldly, for here too there are gods."—Harris's Hermes, p. 8. "For none work for ever so little a pittance that some cannot be found to work for less."—Sedgwick's Economy, p. 190. "For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again."—Luke, vi, 34. "They must be viewed exactly in the same light."—Murray's Gram., ii, 24. "If he does but speak to display his abilities, he is unworthy of attention."—Ib., Key, ii, 207.

UNDER NOTE II.—ADVERBS FOR ADJECTIVES.

"Motion upwards is commonly more agreeable than motion downwards."—Blair's Rhet., p. 48. "There are but two ways possibly of justification before God."—Dr. Cox, on Quakerism, p. 413. "This construction sounds rather harshly."—Murray's Gram., i, 194; Ingersoll's, 199. "A clear conception in the mind of the learner, of regularly and well-formed letters."—''Com. School Journal'', i, 66. "He was a great hearer of * * * Attalus, Sotion, Papirius, Fabianus, of whom he makes often mention."—Seneca's Morals, p. 11. "It is only the Often doing of a thing that makes it a Custom."—Divine Right of Tythes, p. 72.

"Because W. R. takes oft occasion to insinuate his jealousies of persons and things."—Barclay's Works, i, 570. "Yet often touching will wear gold."—Beauties of Shak., p. 18. "Uneducated persons frequently use an adjective, when they ought to use an adverb: as, 'The country looks beautiful;' instead of beautifully."—Bucke's Gram., p. 84. "The adjective is put absolutely, or without its substantive."—Ash's Gram., p. 57. "A noun or pronoun in the second person, may be put absolutely in the nominative case."—Harrison's Gram., p. 45. "A noun or pronoun, when put absolutely with a participle," &c.—Ib., p. 44; Jaudon's Gram., 108. "A verb in the infinitive mood absolute, stands independently of the remaining part of the sentence."—Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 24.

"At my return lately into England, I met a book intituled: 'The Iron Age.'"—Cowley's Preface, p. v. "But he can discover no better foundation for any of them, than the practice merely of Homer and Virgil."—''Kames, El. of Criticism, Introd.'', p. xxv.

UNDER NOTE III—HERE FOR HITHER, &c.

"It is reported that the governour will come here to-morrow."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 196. "It has been reported that the governour will come here to-morrow."—Ib., Key, p. 227. "To catch a prospect of that lovely land where his steps are tending."—Maturin's Sermons, p. 244. "Plautus makes one of his characters ask another where he is going with that Vulcan shut up in a horn; that is, with a lanthorn in his hand."—Adams's Rhet. ii, 331. "When we left Cambridge, we intended to return there in a few days."—Anonym. "Duncan comes here to-night."—Shak., Macbeth. "They talked of returning here last week."—J. M. Putnam's Gram., p. 116.

UNDER NOTE IV.—FROM HENCE, &c.

"From hence he concludes that no inference can be drawn from the meaning of the word, that a constitution has a higher authority than a law or statute."—Webster's Essays, p. 67. "From whence we may likewise date the period of this event."—Murray's Key, ii, p. 202. "From hence it becomes evident, that LANGUAGE, taken in the most comprehensive view, implies certain