Desire this passionate lover to give you a character of his mistress, he will tell you that he is at a loss for words to describe her charms, and will ask you seriously, if ever you was acquainted with a goddess or an angel.-Hume's Essays.

As the word you is confessedly plural, its correspondent verb, agreeably to the analogy of all languages, ought also to be plural, whether the discourse be addressed to a single person or to more than one. Many other writers of no small reputation have, however, used the ungrammatical expression you was. But if the singular were at all admissible after you, there would still be a violation of grammar in was, which is confined to the first and third persons; the second being wast.

, Thou hangman, thou temple-robber, thou clod of earth, from what brothel did thou come up in patins, muffl'd up, with thy breath smelling of the stews.—Arbuthnot on the Scolding of the Ancients. Thou great First Cause, least understood,

1

Who all my sense confin'd

To know but this, that thou art good,

tashem And that myself am blind;

3

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And, binding Nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.-Pope.

Nor thou, ford Arthur, shalt escape;
To thee I often called in vain,

Against that assassin in crape;

Yet thou couldest tamely see me slain;

Nor, when I felt the dreadful blow,

Or chid the dean, or pinol'd his spouse.-Swift.

To correspond with the pronoun thou, all these verbs ought to have been in the second person singular; instead of which, they are in the second person plural, as if they corresponded with the pronoun you. Writers generally have recourse to this mode of expression,

that

that they may avoid harsh terminations.-The distinct forms of thou and you are often used promiscuously.

The confession is ingenuous, and I hope more from thee now, than I could if you had promised.~Arbuthnot's Notes and Memorandums. Thy own words have convinced me- -(stand a little more out of the sun if you please)-that thou hast not the least idea of true honour.-Fielding's Dialogues between Alexander and Diogenes.

Base ungrateful boy! miserable as I am, yet I cannot cease to love thee. My love even now speaks in my resentment. I am still your father, nor can your usage form my heart anew.-Goldsmith's Essays.

Though the ministers of a tyrant's wrath, to thee they are faith ful, and but too willing to execute the orders which you unjustly imposed upon them.-Walpole's Castle of Otranto.

This is not contrary to the rules of English grammar; but it is certainly inelegant and improper.

But the temper, as well as knowledge, of a modern historian, require a more sober and accurate language. Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire.

Magnus, with four thousand of lis supposed accomplices, were put to death. Ibid.

Those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summit of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower station. Johnson's Life of Savage.

He knows not what spleen, languor, or listlessness, are.—Blair's Sermons.

Neither death nor torture were sufficient to subdue the minds of Cargill, and his intrepid followers.---Fox's History of James the Second.

The above errors have apparently been committed through inattention to the proper signification of the disjunctive particles.

Each of these words imply some pursuit or object relinquished. Blair's Rhetoric.

*It is requisite that the language of an heroic poem should be both perspicuous and sublime. In proportion as either of these two qua lities are wanting, the language is imperfect.—Addison, Spectator. Neither of them are remarkable for precision.—Blair's Rhetoric. We should reckon every circumstance which enable them to divide and to maintain themselves in distinct and independent commu nities.-Ferguson's History of Civil Society.

"Tis observable, that every one of the letters bear date after his banishment.—Bentley's Dissert. on Themistocles's Epistles.

Here the distributive pronominal adjectives, each, either, neither, and every, are ungrammatically connected with verbs of the plural number.

None, which is a compound of no one, is manifestly singular: but it is sometimes improperly connected with a plural verb.

None were permitted to enter the holy precincts, without confessing, by their servile bonds and suppliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign deity.-Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire.

No nation gives greater encouragements to learning than we do yet at the same time none are so injudicious in the application. Goldsmith on Polite Learning.

3. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Participles.

Among the number of grammatical errors, may we be permitted to reckon the use of the past time active, as the participle perfect or passive, in those verbs which admit of a more complete and systematic form?

I had no sooner drank, but I found a pimple rising in my fore head. Addison, Tatler.

Notwithstanding the prophetical predictions of this critic, I do not and that any science hath throve among us of late, so much as the niaute philosophy.-Berkeley's Minute Philosopher.

Had he wrote English poetry in so unenlightened a period, the world would have lost his refined diction and harmonious versification. Warton's Observations on Spencer.

I will also allow, that you hit the manner of Horace, and the sly delicacy of his wit, more exactly than I, or than any other man who has writ since his time.-Lyttleton's Dialogues of the Dead.

In this respect, the seeds of future divisions were sow'd abundantly.-Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.

The court of Augustus had not wore off the manners of the republic.- Hume's Essays.

A free constitution, when it has been shook by the iniquity of former administrations.-Bolingbroke's Idea of a Patriot King.

He is God in his friendship, as well as his nature, and therefore we sinful creatures are not took upon advantages, nor consumed in our provocations.-South's Sermons.

Which some philosophers, not considering so well as I, have mistook to be different in their causes.-Swift's Tale of a Tub.

The greater regard was shew'd, and the expectations raised higher, as these were of a base nature, or of a more noble, thriving, or innocent quality.—Arbuthnot's Congress of Bees.

Moses tells us, that the fountains of the earth were broke open or clove asunder.-Burnet's Theory of the Earth.

I easily foresee, that, as soon as I lay down my pen, this nimble operator will have stole it.-Swift's Tale of a Tub.

By this expedient, the public peace of libraries, might certainly have been preserved, if a new species of controversial books had not arose of late years.-Swift's Battle of the Books.

The steps which lead to perfection are many; and we are at a loss on whom to bestow the greatest share of our praise; on the first or on the last who may have bore a part in the progress.-Ferguson's History of Civil Society.

In these examples, the past time active is used instead of the perfect participle. This confusion should upon every occasion be scrupulously avoided. The English language admits not of any great variety of termination; but of such as it does admit, we ought always to avail ourselves. It is certainly of advantage that

the

the different modifications of verbs should be properly distinguished from each other.

Before we conclude this branch of the subject, it will be proper to warn the reader against permitting a verb to succeed a participle in such an ungraceful manner as appears in the following passages.

The author is informed, that the bookseller has prevailed on several gentlemen to write some explanatory notes, for the goodness of which he is not to answer; having never seen any of them, nor intends it, till they appear in print.-Swift's Tale of a Tub.

Nor is it then a welcome guest, affording only an uneasy sensation, and brings always with it a mixture of concern and compassion.-Fielding's Essay on Conversation.

4. Grammatical Errors in the Use of Adjectives.

Adjectives which have a comparative or superlative signification, do not admit the addition of the words more, most, or of the comparative or superlative terminations er, est. The following passages, therefore, are liable to exception.

The last are, indeed, more preferable, because they are founded on some new knowledge or improvement in the mind of man. Addison, Spectator.

The chiefest of which was known by the name of Archon among the Grecians. Dryden's Life of Plutarch.

The two chiefest properties of air, its gravity and elastic force, have been discovered by mechanical experiments.—Arbuthnot's Essay on Mathematical Learning.

The chiefest and largest are removed to certain magazines they call libraries.-Swift's Battle of the Books.

The extremest parts of the earth were meditating a submission.Atterbury's Sermons.

When only two objects are composed together, it is, improper to use the superlative degree. It is proper