the sentiment to the nature of things. The opposite to logical truth is error; to moral truth a lie; to grammatical truth a solecism. The only standard by which the conformity implied in grammatical truth must be ascertained in every language, is the authorised, national, and present use of that language. Grammatical errors, foreign idioms, and obsolete or new-coined words, were mentioned as inconsistent with purity of style. It will not be improper to collect a few hints concerning each of these faults. I. GRAMMATICAL ERRORS. It is not in consequence of any peculiar irregularity or difficulty inherent in the English language, that the general practice, both of speaking and writing it, is chargeable with inaccuracy. That inaccuracy proceeds rather from its simplicity and facility; circumstances which are apt to persuade us that a grammatical study of our native tongue is altogether superfluous. Were the language less easy and simple, we should find ourselves under a necessity of studying it with greater care and attention. But we commonly take for granted, that we possess a competent know "Another will say, it wanteth grammar. Nay, truly, it hath that praise, that it wants not grammar; for grammar it might have, but it needs it not, being so easy in itself, and so void of those cumbersome difference of cases, genders, moods and tenses; which, I think, was a piece of the tower of Babylon's curse, that a man should be put to school to learn his mother tongue."-Sidney's Defence of Pocsy. ledge ledge of it, and are able on any occasion to apply our knowledge to practice. A faculty, solely acquired by use, conducted by habit, and tried by the ear, carries us on without the labour of reflection: we meet with no obstacles in our progress, or we do not perceive them; we find ourselves able to proceed without rules, and we never suspect that they may be of any use. A grammatical study of our own language forms no part of the ordinary course of instruction; and we seldom apply to it of our own accord. This, however, is a deficiency which no other advantages can supply. Much practice in the polite world, and a general acquaintance with the best authors, must undoubtedly be considered as excellent helps; but even these will hardly be sufficient. A critical knowledge of ancient languages, and an intimate acquaintance with ancient authors, will be found still less adequate to the purpose. Dr. Bentley, the greatest critic and most able grammarian of the age in which he lived, was notoriously deficient in the knowledge of his native tongue. Grammatical errors are so plentifully scattered over a the pages of our eminent writers, that it will be no dif ficult task to select a sufficient number of instances. J. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Pronouns.14 We contributed a third more than the Dutch, who were obliged to the same proportion more than us.-Swift's Conduct of the Allies. King Charles, and more than him, the duke, and the Popish fac tion, were at liberty to form new schemes.-Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties. Phalaris, who was so much older than her.-Bentley's Disserta. tion on Phalaris. The . The drift of all his sermons was, to prepare the Jews for the reception of a prophet, mightier than him, and whose shoes he was not worthy to bear-Atterbury's Sermons. If the king gives ns leave, you or I may as lawfully preach, as them that do.-Hobbes's History of Civil Wars. In all these examples, the nominative cases of the pronouns ought to have been used. This will more plainly appear from the following resolution of the first illustration: "We contributed a third more than the Dutch, who were obliged to the same proportion more than we were obliged to." The Goths, the Vandals, the Gepidæ, the Burgundians, the Alemanni wasted each other's strength, and whosoever vanquished, they vanquished the enemies of Rome.-Gibbon's Hist. of the Roman Empire. Who is the poet, but lately arrived in Elysium, whom I saw Spenser lead in, and present him to Virgil ?→→Lyttleton's Dialogués the Dead. Here the pronouns they and him are redundant. In the latter example, the accusative whom is understood before the verb present: "whom I saw Spenser lead in, and whoon I saw Spenser present to Virgil.””. We are alone; here's none but thee and I.-Shakspeare. Instead of thee it should be thou. For ever in this humble cell, Let thee and I my fair one dwell.-Prior. The construction requires me instead of I. av seg 417 He, whom ye pretend reigns in heaven, is so far from protecting the miserable sons of men, that he perpetually delights to blast the sweetest flowerets in the garden of Hope.-Hawkesworth's Adventurer. It ought to be who, the nominative case to reigns, not whom, as if it were the accusative or objective case governed by pretend, Whon Whom do men say that I am ?-St. Matthew. Whom think ye that I am?-Acts of the Apostles. In both these passages it ought to be who; which is not governed by the verb, say, or think, but by the verb am. These feasts were celebrated to the honour of Osiris, whom the Grecians called Dionysius, and is the same with Bacchus.-Swift on the Mechan. Oper. of the Spirit. Here the relative pronoun of the objective case must be understood as the nominative to the verb is. The passage ought to have stood thus: "These feasts were celebrated to the honour of Osiris, whom the Grecians called Dionysus, and who is the same with Bacchus." Who should I meet at the coffee-house t'other night, but my old friend?-Steele, Spectator. Is it another pattern of this answerer's fair dealing, to give us » hints that the author is dead, and yet to lay the suspicion upon somebody, I know not who, in the country.-Swift's Tale of u Tuba Here the construction requires whom. Some writers have of the pronoun thou. rules of grammar. used ye as the accusative plural This is an infringement of the His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.-Milton. I feel the gales that from ye blow.-Gray. But tyrants dread ye, lest your just decree Transfer the power and set the people free.-Prior. This mode of expression may perhaps be allowed in the comic and burlesque style, which often imitates a vulgar and incorrect pronunciation. But in the serious and solemn style, no authority is sufficient to justify so manifest a solecism. I heard I heard it first observed by an ingenious and learned old gentleman lately deceased, that many of Mr. Hobbes his seeming new opinions are gathered from those which Sextus Empiricus exposed. -Dryden's Life of Plutarch. My paper is Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength.—Addison, Guardian. This by the calumniators of Epicurus his philosophy was objected as one of the most scandalous of all their sayings.-Cowley's Essays. The pronoun his is here employed to denote the possessive case of the noun which it accompanies. The writers have erroneously imagined that the 's which generally marks this case, is a contraction of the posBessive pronoun; whereas it is only a contraction of the ancient Saxon genitive termination es. 2. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Verbs. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her youngest son.-Genesis. The number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty. Acts of the Apostles. If the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleap, sanctifieth to the purifying of flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works.-St, Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews. I have considered what have been said on both sides of the controversy-Tillotson's Sermons. One would think there was more sophists than one had a finger in this volume of letters.-Bentley's Dissert, în Socrates's Epistles. There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.-Shakspeare. These instances require no elucidation, the reader will easily perceive where the error lies. Knowing that you was my old master's good friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death.—Addison, Spectator. I am just now as well as when you was here.-Pope's Letters. |