He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by strange beings; that it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name; that his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.
VERBALS.
PARTICIPLES.
450. The following sentences illustrate a misuse of the participial phrase:—
Pleased with the "Pilgrim's Progress," my first collection was of John Bunyan's works.—B. Franklin.
My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill.—Goldsmith.
Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscente so suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy.—Id.
Having thus run through the causes of the sublime, my first observation will be found nearly true.—Burke
He therefore remained silent till he had repeated a paternoster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined.—Scott
Compare with these the following:—
Going yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected.—Addison.
The trouble is, in the sentences first quoted, that the main subject of the sentence is not the same word that would be the subject of the participle, if this were expanded into a verb.
Consequently one of two courses must be taken,—either change the participle to a verb with its appropriate subject, leaving the principal statement as it is; or change the principal proposition so it shall make logical connection with the participial phrase.
For example, the first sentence would be, either "As I was pleased, ... my first collection was," etc., or "Pleased with the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' I made my first collection John Bunyan's works."
Exercise.—Rewrite the other four sentences so as to correct the careless use of the participial phrase.
INFINITIVES.
451. There is a construction which is becoming more and more common among good writers,—the placing an adverb between to of the infinitive and the infinitive itself. The practice is condemned by many grammarians, while defended or excused by others. Standard writers often use it, and often, purposely or not, avoid it.
The following two examples show the adverb before the infinitive:—
He handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show that he fully understood the business.—Scott.
This is the more common arrangement; yet frequently the desire seems to be to get the adverb snugly against the infinitive, to modify it as closely and clearly as possible.
Exercise.
In the following citations, see if the adverbs can be placed before or after the infinitive and still modify it as clearly as they now do:—
1. There are, then, many things to be carefully considered, if a strike is to succeed.—Laughlin.
2. That the mind may not have to go backwards and forwards in order to rightly connect them.—Herbert Spencer.
3. It may be easier to bear along all the qualifications of an idea ... than to first imperfectly conceive such idea.—Id.
4. In works of art, this kind of grandeur, which consists in multitude, is to be very cautiously admitted.—Burke.
5. That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel.—Goldsmith.
6. Burke said that such "little arts and devices" were not to be wholly condemned.—The Nation, No. 1533.
7. I wish the reader to clearly understand.—Ruskin.
8. Transactions which seem to be most widely separated from one another.—Dr. Blair.
9. Would earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up.—Addison.
10. A little sketch of his, in which a cannon ball is supposed to have just carried off the head of an aide-de-camp.—Trollope.
11. The ladies seem to have been expressly created to form helps meet for such gentlemen.—Macaulay.
12. Sufficient to disgust a people whose manners were beginning to be strongly tinctured with austerity.—Id.
13. The spirits, therefore, of those opposed to them seemed to be considerably damped by their continued success.—Scott.
ADVERBS.
452.A very careful writer will so place the modifiers of a verb that the reader will not mistake the meaning.
The rigid rule in such a case would be, to put the modifier in such a position that the reader not only can understand the meaning intended, but cannot misunderstand the thought. Now, when such adverbs as only, even, etc., are used, they are usually placed in a strictly correct position, if they modify single words; but they are often removed from the exact position, if they modify phrases or clauses: for example, from Irving, "The site is only to be traced by fragments of bricks, china, and earthenware." Here only modifies the phrase by fragments of bricks, etc., but it is placed before the infinitive. This misplacement of the adverb can be detected only by analysis of the sentence.
Exercise.
Tell what the adverb modifies in each quotation, and see if it is placed in the proper position:—
1. Only the name of one obscure epigrammatist has been embalmed for us in the verses of his rival.—Palgrave.
2. Do you remember pea shooters? I think we only had them on going home for holidays.—Thackeray.
3. Irving could only live very modestly. He could only afford to keep one old horse.—Id.
4. The arrangement of this machinery could only be accounted for by supposing the motive power to have been steam.—Wendell Phillips.
5. Such disputes can only be settled by arms.—Id.
6. I have only noted one or two topics which I thought most likely to interest an American reader.—N. P. Willis.
7. The silence of the first night at the farmhouse,—stillness broken only by two whippoorwills.—Higginson.
8. My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me.—Swift.
9. In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions.—Id.
10. The perfect loveliness of a woman's countenance can only consist in that majestic peace which is founded in the memory of happy and useful years.—Ruskin.
11. In one of those celestial days it seems a poverty that we can only spend it once.—Emerson.
12. My lord was only anxious as long as his wife's anxious face or behavior seemed to upbraid him.—Thackeray.
13. He shouted in those clear, piercing tones that could be even heard among the roaring of the cannon.—Cooper.
14. His suspicions were not even excited by the ominous face of Gérard.—Motley.
15. During the whole course of his administration, he scarcely befriended a single man of genius.—Macaulay.
16. I never remember to have felt an event more deeply than his death.—Sydney Smith.
17. His last journey to Cannes, whence he was never destined to return.—Mrs. Grote.
USE OF DOUBLE NEGATIVES.
453. In Old and Middle English, two negatives strengthened a negative idea; for example,—
In al his lyf unto no maner wight.
—Chaucer.
No sonne, were he never so old of yeares, might not marry. —Ascham.
The first of these is equivalent to "He didn't never say no villainy in all his life to no manner of man,"—four negatives.
This idiom was common in the older stages of the language, and is still kept in vulgar English; as,—
I tell you she ain' been nowhar ef she don' know we all. —Page, in Ole Virginia.
There weren't no pies to equal hers.—Mrs. Stowe.
There are sometimes found two negatives in modern English with a negative effect, when one of the negatives is a connective. This, however, is not common.
I never did see him again, nor never shall.—De Quincey.
However, I did not act so hastily, neither.—Defoe.
The prosperity of no empire, nor the grandeur of no king, can so agreeably affect, etc.—Burke.
But, under the influence of Latin syntax, the usual way of regarding the question now is, that two negatives are equivalent to an affirmative, denying each other.
Therefore, if two negatives are found together, it is a sign of ignorance or carelessness, or else a purpose to make an affirmative effect. In the latter case, one of the negatives is often a prefix; as infrequent, uncommon.
Exercise.
Tell whether the two or more negatives are properly used in each of the following sentences, and why:—
1. The red men were not so infrequent visitors of the English settlements.—Hawthorne.
2. "Huldy was so up to everything about the house, that the doctor didn't miss nothin' in a temporal way."—Mrs. Stowe.
3. Her younger sister was a wide-awake girl, who hadn't been to school for nothing.—Holmes.
4. You will find no battle which does not exhibit the most cautious circumspection.—Bayne.
5. Not only could man not acquire such information, but ought not to labor after it.—Grote.
6. There is no thoughtful man in America who would not consider a war with England the greatest of calamities.—Lowell.
7. In the execution of this task, there is no man who would not find it an arduous effort.—Hamilton.
8. "A weapon," said the King, "well worthy to confer honor, nor has it been laid on an undeserving shoulder."—Scott.
CONJUNCTIONS.
454. The sentences given in Secs. 419 and 420 on the connecting of pronouns with different expressions may again be referred to here, as the use of the conjunction, as well as of the pronoun, should be scrutinized.
455. The most frequent mistakes in using conjunctions are in handling correlatives, especially both ... and, neither ... nor, either ... or, not only ... but, not merely ... but (also).
The following examples illustrate the correct use of correlatives as to both choice of words and position:—
Whether at war or at peace, there we were, a standing menace to all earthly paradises of that kind.—Lowell.
These idols of wood can neither hear nor feel.—Prescott.
Both the common soldiery and their leaders and commanders lowered on each other as if their union had not been more essential than ever, not only to the success of their common cause, but to their own safety.—Scott.
In these examples it will be noticed that nor, not or is the proper correlative of neither; and that all correlatives in a sentence ought to have corresponding positions: that is, if the last precedes a verb, the first ought to be placed before a verb; if the second precedes a phrase, the first should also. This is necessary to make the sentence clear and symmetrical.
In the sentence, "I am neither in spirits to enjoy it, or to reply to it," both of the above requirements are violated. The word neither in such a case had better be changed to not ... either,—"I am not in spirits either to enjoy it, or to reply to it."
Besides neither ... or, even neither ... nor is often changed to not—either ... or with advantage, as the negation is sometimes too far from the verb to which it belongs.
A noun may be preceded by one of the correlatives, and an equivalent pronoun by the other. The sentence, "This loose and inaccurate manner of speaking has misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals," may be changed to "This loose ... misled us both in the theory of taste and in that of morals."
Exercise.
Correct the following sentences:—
1. An ordinary man would neither have incurred the danger of succoring Essex, nor the disgrace of assailing him.—Macaulay.
2. Those ogres will stab about and kill not only strangers, but they will outrage, murder, and chop up their own kin.—Thackeray.
3. In the course of his reading (which was neither pursued with that seriousness or that devout mind which such a study requires) the youth found himself, etc.—Id.
4. I could neither bear walking nor riding in a carriage over its pebbled streets.—Franklin.
5. Some exceptions, that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous.—Gibbon.
6. They will, too, not merely interest children, but grown-up persons.—Westminster Review.
7. I had even the satisfaction to see her lavish some kind looks upon my unfortunate son, which the other could neither extort by his fortune nor assiduity.—Goldsmith.
8. This was done probably to show that he was neither ashamed of his name or family.—Addison.
456. Occasionally there is found the expression try and instead of the better authorized try to; as,—
We will try and avoid personalities altogether.—Thackeray.
Did any of you ever try and read "Blackmore's Poems"?—Id.
Try and avoid the pronoun.—Bain.
We will try and get a clearer notion of them.—Ruskin.
457. Instead of the subordinate conjunction that, but, or but that, or the negative relative but, we sometimes find the bulky and needless but what. Now, it is possible to use but what when what is a relative pronoun, as, "He never had any money but what he absolutely needed;" but in the following sentences what usurps the place of a conjunction.
Exercise.
In the following sentences, substitute that, but, or but that for the words but what:—
1. The doctor used to say 'twas her young heart, and I don't know but what he was right.—S. O. Jewett.
2. At the first stroke of the pickax it is ten to one but what you are taken up for a trespass.—Bulwer.
3. There are few persons of distinction but what can hold conversation in both languages.—Swift.
4. Who knows but what there might be English among those sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?—Kingsley.
5. No little wound of the kind ever came to him but what he disclosed it at once.—Trollope.
6. They are not so distant from the camp of Saladin but what they might be in a moment surprised.—Scott.
PREPOSITIONS.
458. As to the placing of a preposition after its object in certain cases, see Sec. 305.
459. In the primary meaning of between and among there is a sharp distinction, as already seen in Sec. 313; but in Modern English the difference is not so marked.
Between is used most often with two things only, but still it is frequently used in speaking of several objects, some relation or connection between two at a time being implied.
Among is used in the same way as amid (though not with exactly the same meaning), several objects being spoken of in the aggregate, no separation or division by twos being implied.
Examples of the distinctive use of the two words:—
The contentions that arise between the parson and the squire.—Addison.
We reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science.—Emerson.
Examples of the looser use of between:—
Natural objects affect us by the laws of that connection which Providence has established between certain motions of bodies.—Burke.
Hence the differences between men in natural endowment are insignificant in comparison with their common wealth.—Emerson.
They maintain a good correspondence between those wealthy societies of men that are divided from one another by seas and oceans.—Addison.
Looking up at its deep-pointed porches and the dark places between their pillars where there were statues once.—Ruskin
What have I, a soldier of the Cross, to do with recollections of war betwixt Christian nations?—Scott.
Also between may express relation or connection in speaking of two groups of objects, or one object and a group; as,—
A council of war is going on beside the watch fire, between the three adventurers and the faithful Yeo.—Kingsley.
The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary,—between poets like Herbert and poets like Pope,—between philosophers like Spinoza, Kant, and Coleridge, and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Mackintosh, and Stewart, etc. —Emerson.
460. Certain words are followed by particular prepositions.
Some of these words show by their composition what preposition should follow. Such are absolve, involve, different.
Some of them have, by custom, come to take prepositions not in keeping with the original meaning of the words. Such are derogatory, averse.
Many words take one preposition to express one meaning, and another to convey a different meaning; as, correspond, confer.
And yet others may take several prepositions indifferently to express the same meaning.
461.
LIST I.
- Absolve from.
- Abhorrent to.
- Accord with.
- Acquit of.
- Affinity between.
- Averse to.
- Bestow on (upon).
- Conform to.
- Comply with.
- Conversant with.
- Dependent on (upon).
- Different from.
- Dissent from.
- Derogatory to.
- Deprive of.
- Independent of.
- Involve in.
"Different to" is frequently heard in spoken English in England, and sometimes creeps into standard books, but it is not good usage.
462.
LIST II.
- Agree with (a person).
- Agree to (a proposal).
- Change for (a thing).
- Change with (a person).
- Change to (become).
- Confer with (talk with).
- Confer on (upon) (give to).
- Confide in (trust in).
- Confide to (intrust to).
- Correspond with (write to).
- Correspond to (a thing).
- Differ from (note below).
- Differ with (note below).
- Disappointed in (a thing obtained).
- Disappointed of (a thing not obtained).
- Reconcile to (note below).
- Reconcile with (note below).
- A taste of (food).
- A taste for (art, etc.).
"Correspond with" is sometimes used of things, as meaning to be in keeping with.
"Differ from" is used in speaking of unlikeness between things or persons; "differ from" and "differ with" are both used in speaking of persons disagreeing as to opinions.
"Reconcile to" is used with the meaning of resigned to, as, "The exile became reconciled to his fate;" also of persons, in the sense of making friends with, as, "The king is reconciled to his minister." "Reconcile with" is used with the meaning of make to agree with, as, "The statement must be reconciled with his previous conduct."
463.
LIST III.
- Die by, die for, die from, die of, die with.
- Expect of, expect from.
- Part from, part with.
Illustrations of "die of," "die from," etc.:—
The author died of a fit of apoplexy.—Boswell.
People do not die of trifling little colds.—Austen
Fifteen officers died of fever in a day.—Macaulay.
It would take me long to die of hunger.—G. Eliot.
She died of hard work, privation, and ill treatment.—Burnett.
She saw her husband at last literally die from hunger.—Bulwer.
He died at last without disease, simply from old age. —Athenæum.
No one died from want at Longfeld.—Chambers' Journal.
She would have been ready to die with shame.—G. Eliot.
I am positively dying with hunger.—Scott.
I thought the two Miss Flamboroughs would have died with laughing.—Goldsmith.
I wish that the happiest here may not die with envy.—Pope.
Take thought and die for Cæsar.—Shakespeare.
One of them said he would die for her.—Goldsmith.
It is a man of quality who dies for her.—Addison.
Who, as Cervantes informs us, died for love of the fair Marcella.—Fielding.
Some officers had died for want of a morsel of bread.—Macaulay.
If I meet with any of 'em, they shall die by this hand. —Thackeray.
He must purge himself to the satisfaction of a vigilant tribunal or die by fire.—Macaulay.
He died by suicide before he completed his eighteenth year.—Shaw.
464. Illustrations of "expect of," "expect from:"—
What do I expect of Dublin?—Punch.
That is more than I expected of you.—Scott.
Of Doctor P. nothing better was to be expected.—Poe.
Not knowing what might be expected of men in general.—G. ELIOT.
She will expect more attention from you, as my friend.—Walpole.
There was a certain grace and decorum hardly to be expected from a man.—Macaulay.
I have long expected something remarkable from you.—G. Eliot.
465. "Part with" is used with both persons and things, but "part from" is less often found in speaking of things.
Illustrations of "part with," "part from:"—
He was fond of everybody that he was used to, and hated to part with them.—Austen.
Cleveland was sorry to part with him.—Bulwer.
I can part with my children for their good.—Dickens.
I part with all that grew so near my heart.—Waller.
To part from you would be misery.—Marryat.
I have just seen her, just parted from her.—Bulwer.
Burke parted from him with deep emotion.—Macaulay.
His precious bag, which he would by no means part from.—G. ELIOT.
466. With words implying behavior or disposition, either of or in is used indifferently, as shown in the following quotations:—
It was a little bad of you.—Trollope.
How cruel of me!—Collins.
He did not think it handsome of you.—Bulwer.
But this is idle of you.—Tennyson.
Very natural in Mr. Hampden.—Carlyle.
It will be anything but shrewd in you.—Dickens.
That is very unreasonable in a person so young.—Beaconsfield.
I am wasting your whole morning—too bad in me.—Bulwer.
Miscellaneous Examples for Correction.
1. Can you imagine Indians or a semi-civilized people engaged on a work like the canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas?
2. In the friction between an employer and workman, it is commonly said that his profits are high.
3. None of them are in any wise willing to give his life for the life of his chief.
4. That which can be done with perfect convenience and without loss, is not always the thing that most needs to be done, or which we are most imperatively required to do.
5. Art is neither to be achieved by effort of thinking, nor explained by accuracy of speaking.
6. To such as thee the fathers owe their fame.
7. We tread upon the ancient granite that first divided the waters into a northern and southern ocean.
8. Thou tread'st, with seraphims, the vast abyss.
9. Eustace had slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head, and ran up the alley.
10. This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary, may serve to explain the state of intelligence betwixt the lovers.
11. To the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the plow on which he hath laid his hand!
12. The noise of vast cataracts, raging storms, thunder, or artillery, awake a great and awful sensation in the mind.
13. The materials and ornaments ought neither to be white, nor green, nor yellow, nor blue, nor of a pale red.
14. This does not prove that an idea of use and beauty are the same thing, or that they are any way dependent on each other.
15.
I would wish me only he.
16. But every man may know, and most of us do know, what is a just and unjust act.
17. You have seen Cassio and she together.
18. We shall shortly see which is the fittest object of scorn, you or me.
19. Richard glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and from which the angry nobles shrunk appalled.
20. It comes to whomsoever will put off what is foreign and proud.
21. The difference between the just and unjust procedure does not lie in the number of men hired, but in the price paid to them.
22. The effect of proportion and fitness, so far at least as they proceed from a mere consideration of the work itself, produce approbation, the acquiescence of the understanding.
23. When the glass or liquor are transparent, the light is sometimes softened in the passage.
24. For there nor yew nor cypress spread their gloom.
25. Every one of these letters are in my name.
26. Neither of them are remarkable for precision.
27. Squares, triangles, and other angular figures, are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling.
28. There is not one in a thousand of these human souls that cares to think where this estate is, or how beautiful it is, or what kind of life they are to lead in it.
29. Dryden and Rowe's manner are quite out of fashion.
30. We were only permitted to stop for refreshment once.
31. The sight of the manner in which the meals were served were enough to turn our stomach.
32. The moody and savage state of mind of the sullen and ambitious man are admirably drawn.
33. Surely none of our readers are so unfortunate as not to know some man or woman who carry this atmosphere of peace and good-will about with them. (Sec. 411.)
34. Friday, whom he thinks would be better than a dog, and almost as good as a pony.
35. That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, were down with raging fever.
36. These kind of books fill up the long tapestry of history with little bits of detail which give human interest to it.
37. I never remember the heather so rich and abundant.
38. These are scattered along the coast for several hundred miles, in conditions of life that seem forbidding enough, but which are accepted without complaint by the inhabitants themselves.
39. Between each was an interval where lay a musket.
40. He had four children, and it was confidently expected that they would receive a fortune of at least $200,000 between them.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] More for convenience than for absolute accuracy, the stages of our language have been roughly divided into three:—
(1) Old English (with Anglo-Saxon) down to the twelfth century.
(2) Middle English, from about the twelfth century to the sixteenth century.
(3) Modern English, from about 1500 to the present time.
INDEX.
THE NUMBERS REFER TO PAGES.