VERBS

13. Petulant she spoke, and at herself she laughed; A rosebud set with little willful thorns,

And sweet as English air could make her.

14. The hills are dearest which our childish feet

Have climbed the earliest, and the streams most sweet
Are ever those at which our young lips drank –
Stooped to their waters o'er the grassy bank.

15. Sometimes her narrow kitchen walls

Stretched away into stately halls. - WHITTIER

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RULE XIII.A verb must agree with its subject in person and number.

When the subject is a collective noun, conveying plurality of idea, the verb should be plural; as, "In France the peasantry go barefooted,

while the middle class wear wooden shoes."

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When a subject, plural in form, represents a single thing, the verb must be singular; as, “The Pleasures of Memory' was published in 1792"; "Politics is his trade"; "The news is confirmed."

When the subject is a mere word or sign, an infinitive, or a substantive clause, the verb should be in the third person singular; as, “They is a personal pronoun"; " + is the sign of addition"; "To deceive is wrong"; "Who comes there?' was heard from within."

A verb in the imperative mode usually agrees with thou, you, or ye, expressed or understood; as, "Look [ye] to your hearths, my lord!" "Smooth [thou] thy brow"; "[Do thou] let brighter thoughts be with the virtuous dead."- HEMANS.

Analyze and parse:

1. Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went. 2. Return, O beautiful days of youth! 3. I alone was solitary and idle. 4. This well deserves meditating. 5. At an early hour, arrive the diligences. 6. He waved his arm. 7. Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate. 8. The present needs us. 9. The jury were not unani

mous. 10. Generation after generation passes away. II. The public are respectfully invited to attend.

Bequeaths the next for heritage,

No lazy luxury or delight.

13. There's not a beggar in the street Makes such a sorry sight.

14. He that attends to his interior self,

That has a heart, and keeps it — has a mind
That hungers and supplies it, and who seeks
A social, not a dissipated life,

Has business.

15. Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose. The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;

The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,

To which the said spectacles ought to belong. — COWPER.

CCXXXIII. SUBJECTS CONNECTED BY "AND"

RULE XIV. A verb, with two or more subjects in the singular, connected by and, must be plural.

When two or more subjects in the singular, connected by and, are but different names for the same person or thing, or, when taken together, they represent a single idea, the verb should be singular; as, "Descent and fall to us is adverse; " "A hue and cry was raised."

When two or more singular subjects are emphatically distinguished, or are preceded by each, every, or no, the verb should be singular; as, "The father, as well as the son, was in fault"; "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"; "Every bird and beast cowers before the wild blast."

When two or more subjects, of different numbers, are emphatically distinguished, the verb agrees with but one; as, “Diligent industry, and not mean savings, constitutes honorable competence."

SUBJECTS CONNECTED BY "OR" OR "NOR" 219

Analyze and parse:

1. Her beauty, and not her talents, attracts attention. 2. No wife and no mother was there to comfort him. 3. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. 4. You and I look alike. 5. My uncle, with his wife, is in town. 6. Charles and Emma are good scholars. 7. Charles, together with his sister Emma, is studying botany. 8. The crime, not the scaffold, makes the shame. 9. The ambition and avarice of man are the sources of his unhappiness. 10. Fire of imagination, strength of mind, and firmness of soul are gifts of nature. II. Each battle sees the other's umbered face. 12. A coach and six is, in our time, never seen, except as a part of some pageant.

MACAULAY.

13. A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,

Is worth a whole eternity of bondage. ADDISON.

CCXXXIV. SUBJECTS CONNECTED BY "OR" OR "NOR”

RULE XV. A verb, with two or more subjects in the singular, connected by or or nor, must be singular.

When the subjects are of different persons or numbers, the verb must agree with the nearest, unless another be the principal term; as, "Neither you nor I am to blame "; " Neither you nor he is in his place."

When two or more infinitives, or substantive clauses, are connected by or or nor, the verb must be singular, and a predicate nominative, following the verb, must be singular also; as, “Why we are thus detained, or why we receive no intelligence from home, is mysterious"; "To be, or not to be, that is the question."

Analyze and parse:

1. To give an affront, or to take one tamely, is no mark of a great mind. 2. Neither he nor she has spoken to him. 3. To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, is contemptible perfidy. 4. Either ability or inclination was wanting. 5. Hatred or revenge deserves censure. 6. Neither poverty nor riches is desirable. 7. The vanity,

the ambition, or the pride of some men keeps them always in trouble. 8. Emma or Jane has lost her dictionary. 9. To give advice or to bestow more substantial favors was equally his delight. 10. My husband or one of my sons will accompany me.

II. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

12.

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

From the high host

Of stars to the lulled lake, and mountain coast,

All is concentered in a life intense,

- GRAY.

Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost. —- BYRON.

13. Time, nor Eternity, hath seen

A repetition of delight

In all its phases; ne'er hath been
For men or angels that which is.

CCXXXV.

INFINITIVES

RULE XVI. —An infinitive may be used as a noun in any case except the possessive.

An infinitive represents being, action, or state abstractly. It is the mere verb, without limitation. As such, it may be used:

As the subject of a proposition; as, "To err is human."

As the predicate of a proposition; as, "To obey is to enjoy."

As the object of a transitive verb or of its participles; as, “He loves to play"; "He is trying to learn."

In apposition with a noun; as, "Delightful task, to rear the tender thought."

Abstractly, or independently; as, "To tell the truth, I was inatten

tive."

The infinitive always retains its verbal signification. Hence, as a noun, it may be limited by a predicate adjective or a predicate nomina

INFINITIVES NOT USED AS NOUNS

221

tive, and, as a verb, be followed by an object, or modified by an adverb; as, "To spend money recklessly is criminal."

The sign to should not usually be separated from the rest of the infinitive. "To correctly report a speech is difficult," should be "To report a speech correctly is difficult."`

The preposition for should not be used immediately before the infinitive. "I study for to learn," should be "I study to learn."

After the verbs bid, dare (venture), hear, feel, let, make, need, see, in the active voice, and let in the passive, and after several other verbs, the sign to is generally omitted; as, "He bade him depart"; "I saw him fall."

Verbs expressing hope, expectation, command, intention, etc., require the present infinitive after them; as, “I hoped to see you"; "I intended to call for you"; "He expected to see you yesterday."

Analyze and parse:

1. To do right, is to do that which is ordered to be done. 2. To die is to be banished from myself. 3. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. 4. It is our duty to try, and our determination to succeed. 5. He had dared to think for himself.

6. It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life,

And on the winking of authority,

To understand a law.

SHAKESPEARE.

7. Have ye brave sons? Look in the next fierce brawl
To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look
To see them live, torn from your arms, distained,
Dishonored, and if ye dare call for justice,

CCXXXVI.

INFINITIVES NOT USED AS NOUNS

RULE XVII.-An infinitive not used as a noun, depends upon the word it limits.