1. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow.
2. But the fact is, I was napping.
3. Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the aspect of the building.
4. Except by what he could see for himself, he could know nothing.
5. Whatever he looks upon discloses a second sense.
6. It will not be pretended that a success in either of these kinds is quite coincident with what is best and inmost in his mind.
7. The reply of Socrates, to him who asked whether he should choose a wife, still remains reasonable, that, whether he should choose one or not, he would repent it.
8. What history it had, how it changed from shape to shape, no man will ever know.
9. Such a man is what we call an original man.
10. Our current hypothesis about Mohammed, that he was a scheming impostor, a falsehood incarnate, that his religion is a mere mass of quackery and fatuity, begins really to be no longer tenable to any one.
Adjective Clauses.
375. As the office of an adjective is to modify, the only use of an adjective clause is to limit or describe some noun, or equivalent of a noun: consequently the adjective may modify any noun, or equivalent of a noun, in the sentence.
The adjective clause may be introduced by the relative pronouns who, which, that, but, as; sometimes by the conjunctions when, where, whither, whence, wherein, whereby, etc.
Frequently there is no connecting word, a relative pronoun being understood.
376. Adjective clauses may modify—
(1) The subject: "The themes it offers for contemplation are too vast for their capacities;" "Those who see the Englishman only in town, are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character."
(2) The object: "From this piazza Ichabod entered the hall, which formed the center of the mansion."
(3) The complement: "The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plow-horse, that had outlived almost everything but his usefulness;" "It was such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight."
(4) Other words: "He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle;" "No whit anticipating the oblivion which awaited their names and feats, the champions advanced through the lists;" "Charity covereth a multitude of sins, in another sense than that in which it is said to do so in Scripture."
Exercise.
Pick out the adjective clauses, and tell what each one modifies; i.e., whether subject, object, etc.
1. There were passages that reminded me perhaps too much of Massillon.
2. I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the principles which I had avowed were just and noble.
3. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.
4. In one of those celestial days when heaven and earth meet and adorn each other, it seems a pity that we can only spend it once.
5. One of the maidens presented a silver cup, containing a rich mixture of wine and spice, which Rowena tasted.
6. No man is reason or illumination, or that essence we were looking for.
7. In the moment when he ceases to help us as a cause, he begins to help us more as an effect.
8. Socrates took away all ignominy from the place, which could not be a prison whilst he was there.
9. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear ghosts except in our long-established Dutch settlements.
10. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy.
11. Nature waited tranquilly for the hour to be struck when man should arrive.
Adverbial Clauses.
377. The adverb clause takes the place of an adverb in modifying a verb, a verbal, an adjective, or an adverb. The student has met with many adverb clauses in his study of the subjunctive mood and of subordinate conjunctions; but they require careful study, and will be given in detail, with examples.
378. Adverb clauses are of the following kinds:
(1) TIME: "As we go, the milestones are grave-stones;" "He had gone but a little way before he espied a foul fiend coming;" "When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance."
(2) PLACE: "Wherever the sentiment of right comes in, it takes precedence of everything else;" "He went several times to England, where he does not seem to have attracted any attention."
(3) REASON, or CAUSE: "His English editor lays no stress on his discoveries, since he was too great to care to be original;" "I give you joy that truth is altogether wholesome."
(4) MANNER: "The knowledge of the past is valuable only as it leads us to form just calculations with respect to the future;" "After leaving the whole party under the table, he goes away as if nothing had happened."
(5) DEGREE, or COMPARISON: "They all become wiser than they were;" "The right conclusion is, that we should try, so far as we can, to make up our shortcomings;" "Master Simon was in as chirping a humor as a grasshopper filled with dew [is];" "The broader their education is, the wider is the horizon of their thought." The first clause in the last sentence is dependent, expressing the degree in which the horizon, etc., is wider.
(6) PURPOSE: "Nature took us in hand, shaping our actions, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross disobedience."
(7) RESULT, or CONSEQUENCE: "He wrote on the scale of the mind itself, so that all things have symmetry in his tablet;" "The window was so far superior to every other in the church, that the vanquished artist killed himself from mortification."
(8) CONDITION: "If we tire of the saints, Shakespeare is our city of refuge;" "Who cares for that, so thou gain aught wider and nobler?" "You can die grandly, and as goddesses would die were goddesses mortal."
(9) CONCESSION, introduced by indefinite relatives, adverbs, and adverbial conjunctions,—whoever, whatever, however, etc.: "But still, however good she may be as a witness, Joanna is better;" "Whatever there may remain of illiberal in discussion, there is always something illiberal in the severer aspects of study."
These mean no matter how good, no matter what remains, etc.
Pick out the adverbial clauses in the following sentences; tell what kind each is, and what it modifies:—
1. As I was clearing away the weeds from this epitaph, the little sexton drew me on one side with a mysterious air, and informed me in a low voice that once upon a time, on a dark wintry night, when the wind was unruly, howling and whistling, banging about doors and windows, and twirling weathercocks, so that the living were frightened out of their beds, and even the dead could not sleep quietly in their graves, the ghost of honest Preston was attracted by the well-known call of "waiter," and made its sudden appearance just as the parish clerk was singing a stave from the "mirrie garland of Captain Death."
2. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas.
3. The spell of life went forth from her ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied.
ANALYZING COMPLEX SENTENCES.
379. These suggestions will be found helpful:—
(1) See that the sentence and all its parts are placed in the natural order of subject, predicate, object, and modifiers.
(2) First take the sentence as a whole; find the principal subject and principal predicate; then treat noun clauses as nouns, adjective clauses as adjectives modifying certain words, and adverb clauses as single modifying adverbs.
(3) Analyze each clause as a simple sentence. For example, in the sentence, "Cannot we conceive that Odin was a reality?" we is the principal subject; cannot conceive is the principal predicate; its object is that Odin was a reality, of which clause Odin is the subject, etc.
380. It is sometimes of great advantage to map out a sentence after analyzing it, so as to picture the parts and their relations. To take a sentence:—
"I cannot help thinking that the fault is in themselves, and that if the church and the cataract were in the habit of giving away their thoughts with that rash generosity which characterizes tourists, they might perhaps say of their visitors, 'Well, if you are those men of whom we have heard so much, we are a little disappointed, to tell the truth.'"
This may be represented as follows:—
|
_______________________|
|
| (a) THAT THE FAULT IS IN THEMSELVES, AND
|
| (b) [THAT] THEY MIGHT (PERHAPS) SAY OF THEIR VISITORS
| ___________________
| |
| _____________________________|_________________________________
| | |
| | (a) We are (a little) disappointed |
| O| ___________________________ |
O| b| ________________________| |
b| j| M| |
j| e| o| (b) If you are those men |
e| c| d| ___ |
c| t| i| _________________________| |
t| | f| M| |
| | i| o| Of whom we have heard so much. |
| | e| d. |
| \ r\ \ |
| _____________________________________________________|
| M|
| o| (a) If the church and ... that rash generosity
| d| __________
| i| |
| f| _______________________________________________|
| i| |
| e| | (b) Which characterizes tourists.
| r| |
\ \ \
OUTLINE
381. (1) Find the principal clause.
(2) Analyze it according to Sec. 364.
(3) Analyze the dependent clauses according to Sec. 364. This of course includes dependent clauses that depend on other dependent clauses, as seen in the "map" (Sec. 380).
Exercises.
(a) Analyze the following complex sentences:—
1. Take the place and attitude which belong to you.
2. That mood into which a friend brings us is his dominion over us.
3. True art is only possible on the condition that every talent has its apotheosis somewhere.
4. The deep eyes, of a light hazel, were as full of sorrow as of inspiration.
5. She is the only church that has been loyal to the heart and soul of man, that has clung to her faith in the imagination.
6. She has never lost sight of the truth that the product human nature is composed of the sum of flesh and spirit.
7. But now that she has become an establishment, she begins to perceive that she made a blunder in trusting herself to the intellect alone.
8. Before long his talk would wander into all the universe, where it was uncertain what game you would catch, or whether any.
9. The night proved unusually dark, so that the two principals had to tie white handkerchiefs round their elbows in order to descry each other.
10. Whether she would ever awake seemed to depend upon an accident.
11. Here lay two great roads, not so much for travelers that were few, as for armies that were too many by half.
12. It was haunted to that degree by fairies, that the parish priest was obliged to read mass there once a year.
13. More than one military plan was entered upon which she did not approve.
14. As surely as the wolf retires before cities, does the fairy sequester herself from the haunts of the licensed victualer.
15. M. Michelet is anxious to keep us in mind that this bishop was but an agent of the English.
16. Next came a wretched Dominican, that pressed her with an objection, which, if applied to the Bible, would tax every miracle with unsoundness.
17. The reader ought to be reminded that Joanna D'Arc was subject to an unusually unfair trial.
18. Now, had she really testified this willingness on the scaffold, it would have argued nothing at all but the weakness of a genial nature.
19. And those will often pity that weakness most, who would yield to it least.
20. Whether she said the word is uncertain.
21. This is she, the shepherd girl, counselor that had none for herself, whom I choose, bishop, for yours.
22. Had they been better chemists, had we been worse, the mixed result, namely, that, dying for them, the flower should revive for us, could not have been effected.
23. I like that representation they have of the tree.
24. He was what our country people call an old one.
25. He thought not any evil happened to men of such magnitude as false opinion.
26. These things we are forced to say, if we must consider the effort of Plato to dispose of Nature,—which will not be disposed of.
27. He showed one who was afraid to go on foot to Olympia, that it was no more than his daily walk, if continuously extended, would easily reach.
28. What can we see or acquire but what we are?
29. Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened.
30. There is good reason why we should prize this liberation.
(b) First analyze, then map out as in Sec. 380, the following complex sentences:—
1. The way to speak and write what shall not go out of fashion, is to speak and write sincerely.
2. The writer who takes his subject from his ear, and not from his heart, should know that he has lost as much as he has gained.
3. "No book," said Bentley, "was ever written down by any but itself."
4. That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say, though we may repeat the words never so often.
5. We say so because we feel that what we love is not in your will, but above it.
6. It makes no difference how many friends I have, and what content I can find in conversing with each, if there be one to whom I am not equal.
7. In every troop of boys that whoop and run in each yard and square, a new-comer is as well and accurately weighed in the course of a few days, and stamped with his right number, as if he had undergone a formal trial of his strength, speed, and temper.
COMPOUND SENTENCES.
382. The compound sentence is a combination of two or more simple or complex sentences. While the complex sentence has only one main clause, the compound has two or more independent clauses making statements, questions, or commands. Hence the definition,—
383. A compound sentence is one which contains two or more independent clauses.
This leaves room for any number of subordinate clauses in a compound sentence: the requirement is simply that it have at least two independent clauses.
Examples of compound sentences:—
(1) Simple sentences united: "He is a palace of sweet sounds and sights; he dilates; he is twice a man; he walks with arms akimbo; he soliloquizes."
(2) Simple with complex: "The trees of the forest, the waving grass, and the peeping flowers have grown intelligent; and he almost fears to trust them with the secret which they seem to invite."
(3) Complex with complex: "The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
384. From this it is evident that nothing new is added to the work of analysis already done.
The same analysis of simple sentences is repeated in (1) and (2) above, and what was done in complex sentences is repeated in (2) and (3).
The division into members will be easier, for the coördinate independent statements are readily taken apart with the subordinate clauses attached, if there are any.
Thus in (1), the semicolons cut apart the independent members, which are simple statements; in (2), the semicolon separates the first, a simple member, from the second, a complex member; in (3), and connects the first and second complex members, and nor the second and third complex members.
385. The coördinate conjunctions and, nor, or but, etc., introduce independent clauses (see Sec. 297).
But the conjunction is often omitted in copulative and adversative clauses, as in Sec. 383 (1). Another example is, "Only the star dazzles; the planet has a faint, moon-like ray" (adversative).
386. The one point that will give trouble is the variable use of some connectives; as but, for, yet, while (whilst), however, whereas, etc. Some of these are now conjunctions, now adverbs or prepositions; others sometimes coördinate, sometimes subordinate conjunctions.
The student must watch the logical connection of the members of the sentence, and not the form of the connective.
Exercise.
Of the following illustrative sentences, tell which are compound, and which complex:—
1. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost.
2. I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn, for example, to find a pot of buried gold.
3. Your goodness must have some edge to it—else it is none.
4. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men.
5. A man cannot speak but he judges himself.
6. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life.
7. I thought that it was a Sunday morning in May; that it was Easter Sunday, and as yet very early in the morning.
8. We denote the primary wisdom as intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions.
9. Whilst the world is thus dual, so is every one of its parts.
10. They measure the esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.
11. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.
12. I sometimes seemed to have lived for seventy or one hundred years in one night; nay, I sometimes had feelings representative of a millennium, passed in that time, or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of experience.
13. However some may think him wanting in zeal, the most fanatical can find no taint of apostasy in any measure of his.
14. In this manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence than is seen in many lads from the schools.
OUTLINE FOR ANALYZING COMPOUND SENTENCES.
387. (i) Separate it into its main members. (2) Analyze each complex member as in Sec. 381. (3) Analyze each simple member as in Sec. 364.
Exercise.
Analyze the following compound sentences:—
1. The gain is apparent; the tax is certain.
2. If I feel overshadowed and outdone by great neighbors, I can yet love; I can still receive; and he that loveth maketh his own the grandeur that he loves.
3. Love, and thou shalt be loved.
4. All loss, all pain, is particular; the universe remains to the heart unhurt.
5. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth.
6. He teaches who gives, and he learns who receives.
7. Whatever he knows and thinks, whatever in his apprehension is worth doing, that let him communicate, or men will never know and honor him aright.
8. Stand aside; give those merits room; let them mount and expand.
9. We see the noble afar off, and they repel us; why should we intrude?
10. We go to Europe, or we pursue persons, or we read books, in the instinctive faith that these will call it out and reveal us to ourselves.
11. A gay and pleasant sound is the whetting of the scythe in the mornings of June, yet what is more lonesome and sad than the sound of a whetstone or mower's rifle when it is too late in the season to make hay?
12. "Strike," says the smith, "the iron is white;" "keep the rake," says the haymaker, "as nigh the scythe as you can, and the cart as nigh the rake."
13. Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great, though they make an exception in your favor to all their rules of trade.
14. On the most profitable lie the course of events presently lays a destructive tax; whilst frankness invites frankness, puts the parties on a convenient footing, and makes their business a friendship.
15. The sturdiest offender of your peace and of the neighborhood, if you rip up his claims, is as thin and timid as any; and the peace of society is often kept, because, as children, one is afraid, and the other dares not.
16. They will shuffle and crow, crook and hide, feign to confess here, only that they may brag and conquer there, and not a thought has enriched either party, and not an emotion of bravery, modesty, or hope.
17. The magic they used was the ideal tendencies, which always make the Actual ridiculous; but the tough world had its revenge the moment they put their horses of the sun to plow in its furrow.
18. Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.
19. When you have chosen your part, abide by it, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world.
20. Times of heroism are generally times of terror, but the day never shines in which this element may not work.
21. Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies at its focus.
22. We see young men who owe us a new world, so readily and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt; they die young, and dodge the account; or, if they live, they lose themselves in the crowd.
23. So does culture with us; it ends in headache.
24. Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere.
25. Thus journeys the mighty Ideal before us; it never was known to fall into the rear.
PART III.
SYNTAX.
INTRODUCTORY.
388. Syntax is from a Greek word meaning order or arrangement.
Syntax deals with the relation of words to each other as component parts of a sentence, and with their proper arrangement to express clearly the intended meaning.
380. Following the Latin method, writers on English grammar usually divide syntax into the two general heads,—agreement and government.
Agreement is concerned with the following relations of words: words in apposition, verb and subject, pronoun and antecedent, adjective and noun.
Government has to do with verbs and prepositions, both of which are said to govern words by having them in the objective case.
390. Considering the scarcity of inflections in English, it is clear that if we merely follow the Latin treatment, the department of syntax will be a small affair. But there is a good deal else to watch in addition to the few forms; for there is an important and marked difference between Latin and English syntax. It is this:—
Latin syntax depends upon fixed rules governing the use of inflected forms: hence the position of words in a sentence is of little grammatical importance.
English syntax follows the Latin to a limited extent; but its leading characteristic is, that English syntax is founded upon the meaning and the logical connection of words rather than upon their form: consequently it is quite as necessary to place words properly, and to think clearly of the meaning of words, as to study inflected forms.
For example, the sentence, "The savage here the settler slew," is ambiguous. Savage may be the subject, following the regular order of subject; or settler may be the subject, the order being inverted. In Latin, distinct forms would be used, and it would not matter which one stood first.
391. There is, then, a double reason for not omitting syntax as a department of grammar,—
First, To study the rules regarding the use of inflected forms, some of which conform to classical grammar, while some are idiomatic (peculiar to our own language).
Second, To find out the logical methods which control us in the arrangement of words; and particularly when the grammatical and the logical conception of a sentence do not agree, or when they exist side by side in good usage.
As an illustration of the last remark, take the sentence, "Besides these famous books of Scott's and Johnson's, there is a copious 'Life' by Sheridan." In this there is a possessive form, and added to it the preposition of, also expressing a possessive relation. This is not logical; it is not consistent with the general rules of grammar: but none the less it is good English.
Also in the sentence, "None remained but he," grammatical rules would require him instead of he after the preposition; yet the expression is sustained by good authority.
392. In some cases, authorities—that is, standard writers—differ as to which of two constructions should be used, or the same writer will use both indifferently. Instances will be found in treating of the pronoun or noun with a gerund, pronoun and antecedent, sometimes verb and subject, etc.
When usage varies as to a given construction, both forms will be given in the following pages.
393. Our treatment of syntax will be an endeavor to record the best usage of the present time on important points; and nothing but important points will be considered, for it is easy to confuse a student with too many obtrusive don'ts.
The constructions presented as general will be justified by quotations from modern writers of English who are regarded as "standard;" that is, writers whose style is generally acknowledged as superior, and whose judgment, therefore, will be accepted by those in quest of authoritative opinion.
Reference will also be made to spoken English when its constructions differ from those of the literary language, and to vulgar English when it preserves forms which were once, but are not now, good English.
It may be suggested to the student that the only way to acquire correctness is to watch good usage everywhere, and imitate it.
NOUNS.
394. Nouns have no distinct forms for the nominative and objective cases: hence no mistake can be made in using them. But some remarks are required concerning the use of the possessive case.
395. When two or more possessives modify the same noun, or indicate joint ownership or possession, the possessive sign is added to the last noun only; for example,—
Live your king and country's best support.—Rowe.
Woman, sense and nature's easy fool.—Byron.
Oliver and Boyd's printing office.—Mcculloch.
Adam and Eve's morning hymn.—Milton.
In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Sea Voyage," Juletta tells, etc.—Emerson.
396. When two or more possessives stand before the same noun, but imply separate possession or ownership, the possessive sign is used with each noun; as,—
He lands us on a grassy stage, Safe from the storm's and prelate's rage.—Marvell
Where were the sons of Peers and Members of Parliament in Anne's and George's time?—Thackeray.
Levi's station in life was the receipt of custom; and Peter's, the shore of Galilee; and Paul's, the antechamber of the High Priest.—Ruskin.
Swift did not keep Stella's letters. He kept Bolingbroke's, and Pope's, and Harley's, and Peterborough's.—Thackeray.
An actor in one of Morton's or Kotzebue's plays.—Macaulay.
Putting Mr. Mill's and Mr. Bentham's principles together. —Id.
397. The possessive preceding the gerund will be considered under the possessive of pronouns (Sec. 408).
PRONOUNS.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
I. NOMINATIVE AND OBJECTIVE FORMS.
398. Since most of the personal pronouns, together with the relative who, have separate forms for nominative and objective use, there are two general rules that require attention.
(1) The nominative use is usually marked by the nominative form of the pronoun.
(2) The objective use is usually marked by the objective form of the pronoun.
These simple rules are sometimes violated in spoken and in literary English. Some of the violations are universally condemned; others are generally, if not universally, sanctioned.
399. The objective is sometimes found instead of the nominative in the following instances:—
(1) By a common vulgarism of ignorance or carelessness, no notice is taken of the proper form to be used as subject; as,—
He and me once went in the dead of winter in a one-hoss shay out to Boonville.—Whitcher, Bedott Papers.
It seems strange to me that them that preach up the doctrine don't admire one who carrys it out.—Josiah Allens Wife.
(2) By faulty analysis of the sentence, the true relation of the words is misunderstood; for example, "Whom think ye that I am?" (In this, whom is the complement after the verb am, and should be the nominative form, who.) "The young Harper, whom they agree was rather nice-looking" (whom is the subject of the verb was).
Especially is this fault to be noticed after an ellipsis with than or as, the real thought being forgotten; thus,—
But the consolation coming from devotion did not go far with such a one as her.—Trollope.
This should be "as she," because the full expression would be "such a one as she is."
400. Still, the last expression has the support of many good writers, as shown in the following examples:—
She was neither better bred nor wiser than you or me.—Thackeray.
No mightier than thyself or me.—Shakespeare.
Lin'd with Giants deadlier than 'em all.—Pope.
But he must be a stronger than thee.—Southey.
Not to render up my soul to such as thee.—Byron.
I shall not learn my duty from such as thee.—Fielding.
It will be safer for the student to follow the general rule, as illustrated in the following sentences:—
If so, they are yet holier than we.—Ruskin.
Who would suppose it is the game of such as he?—Dickens.
The robber and the murd'rer weak as we?
—Milton.
I have no other saint than thou to pray to.—Longfellow.
401. One exception is to be noted. The expression than whom seems to be used universally instead of "than who." There is no special reason for this, but such is the fact; for example,—
One I remember especially,—one than whom I never met a bandit more gallant.—Thackeray.
The camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better how to do honor to a noble foe.—Scott.
She had a companion who had been ever agreeable, and her estate a steward than whom no one living was supposed to be more competent.—Parton.
402. And there is one question about which grammarians are not agreed, namely, whether the nominative or the objective form should be used in the predicate after was, is, are, and the other forms of the verb be.
It may be stated with assurance that the literary language prefers the nominative in this instance, as,—
For there was little doubt that it was he.—Kingsley.
But still it is not she.—Macaulay.
That made the ship to go.
—Coleridge.
In spoken English, on the other hand, both in England and America, the objective form is regularly found, unless a special, careful effort is made to adopt the standard usage. The following are examples of spoken English from conversations:—
"Rose Satterne, the mayor's daughter?"—"That's her."—Kingsley.
"Who's there?"—"Me, Patrick the Porter."—Winthrop.
"If there is any one embarrassed, it will not be me."—Wm. Black.
The usage is too common to need further examples.
Exercise.
Correct the italicized pronouns in the following sentences, giving reasons from the analysis of the sentence:—
1. Whom they were I really cannot specify.
2. Truth is mightier than us all.
3. If there ever was a rogue in the world, it is me.
4. They were the very two individuals whom we thought were far away.
5. "Seems to me as if them as writes must hev a kinder gift fur it, now."
6. The sign of the Good Samaritan is written on the face of whomsoever opens to the stranger.
7. It is not me you are in love with.
8. You know whom it is that you thus charge.
9. The same affinity will exert its influence on whomsoever is as noble as these men and women.
10. It was him that Horace Walpole called a man who never made a bad figure but as an author.
11. We shall soon see which is the fittest object of scorn, you or me.
403. It is to be remembered that the objective form is used in exclamations which turn the attention upon a person; as,—
Unhappy me! That I cannot risk my own worthless life.—Kingsley
Alas! miserable me! Alas! unhappy Señors!—Id.
Ay me! I fondly dream—had ye been there.—Milton.
404. The rule for the objective form is wrongly departed from—
(1) When the object is far removed from the verb, verbal, or preposition which governs it; as, "He that can doubt whether he be anything or no, I speak not to" (he should be him, the object of to); "I saw men very like him at each of the places mentioned, but not he" (he should be him, object of saw).
(2) In the case of certain pairs of pronouns, used after verbs, verbals, and prepositions, as this from Shakespeare, "All debts are cleared between you and I" (for you and me); or this, "Let thou and I the battle try" (for thee and me, or us).
(3) By forgetting the construction, in the case of words used in apposition with the object; as, "Ask the murderer, he who has steeped his hands in the blood of another" (instead of "him who," the word being in apposition with murderer).
405. The interrogative pronoun who may be said to have no objective form in spoken English. We regularly say, "Who did you see?" or, "Who were they talking to?" etc. The more formal "To whom were they talking?" sounds stilted in conversation, and is usually avoided.
In literary English the objective form whom is preferred for objective use; as,—
Knows he now to whom he lies under obligation?—Scott.
What doth she look on? Whom doth she behold?—Wordsworth.
Yet the nominative form is found quite frequently to divide the work of the objective use; for example,—
My son is going to be married to I don't know who.—Goldsmith.
Who have we here?—Id.
Who should I meet the other day but my old friend.—Steele.
He hath given away half his fortune to the Lord knows who.—Kingsley.
Who have we got here?—Smollett.
Who should we find there but Eustache?—Marrvat.
Who the devil is he talking to?—Sheridan.
406. It is a well-established usage to put the nominative form, as well as the objective, after the preposition but (sometimes save); as,—