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The nominative _who_ in the above examples should be the objective `
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_whom_. `
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The plural nominative _ye_ of the pronoun _thou_ is very often `
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used for the objective _you_, as in the following: `
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"His wrath which will one day destroy _ye both_."--_Milton_. `
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"The more shame for _ye_; holy men I thought _ye_."--_Shakespeare_. `
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"I feel the gales that from _ye_ blow."--_Gray_. `
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"Tyrants dread _ye_, lest your just decree Transfer the power and `
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set the people free."--_Prior_. `
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Many of the great writers have played havoc with the adjective in the `
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indiscriminate use of the degrees of comparison. `
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"Of two forms of the same word, use the fittest."--_Morell_. `
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The author here in _trying_ to give good advice sets a bad example. `
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He should have used the comparative degree, "Fitter." `
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Adjectives which have a comparative or superlative signification do not `
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admit the addition of the words _more_, _most_, or the terminations, `
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_er_, _est_, hence the following examples break this rule: `
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"Money is the _most universal_ incitement of human misery."--Gibbon's `
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_Decline and Fall_. `
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"The _chiefest_ of which was known by the name of Archon among the `
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Grecians."--Dryden's _Life of Plutarch_. `
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"The _chiefest_ and largest are removed to certain magazines they call `
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libraries."--Swift's _Battle of the Books_. `
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The two _chiefest_ properties of air, its gravity and elastic force, `
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have been discovered by mechanical experiments.--_Arbuthno_. `
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"From these various causes, which in greater or _lesser_ degree, `
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affected every individual in the colony, the indignation of the people `
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became general."--Robertson's _History of America_. `
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"The _extremest_ parts of the earth were meditating a submission." `
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--Atterbury's _Sermons_. `
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"The last are indeed _more preferable_ because they are founded on some new `
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knowledge or improvement in the mind of man."--Addison, _Spectator_. `
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"This was in reality the _easiest_ manner of the two."--Shaftesbury's `
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_Advice to an Author_. `
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"In every well formed mind this second desire seems to be the _strongest_ `
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of the two."--Smith's _Theory of Moral Sentiments_. `
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In these examples the superlative is wrongly used for the comparative. `
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When only two objects are compared the comparative form must be used. `
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Of impossibility there are no degrees of comparison, yet we find the `
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following: `
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"As it was impossible they should know the words, thoughts and secret `
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actions of all men, so it was _more impossible_ they should pass judgment `
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on them according to these things."--Whitby's _Necessity of the Christian `
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Religion_. `
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A great number of authors employ adjectives for adverbs. Thus we find: `
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"I shall endeavor to live hereafter _suitable_ to a man in my station." `
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--_Addison_. `
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"I can never think so very _mean_ of him."--Bentley's _Dissertation on `
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Phalaris_. `
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"His expectations run high and the fund to supply them is _extreme_ `
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scanty."--_Lancaster's Essay on Delicacy_. `
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The commonest error in the use of the verb is the disregard of the `
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concord between the verb and its subject. This occurs most frequently `
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when the subject and the verb are widely separated, especially if some `
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other noun of a different number immediately precedes the verb. False `
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concords occur very often after _either_, _or_, _neither_, _nor_, and `
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_much_, _more_, _many_, _everyone_, _each_. `
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Here are a few authors' slips:-- `
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"The terms in which the sale of a patent _were_ communicated to the `
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public."--Junius's _Letters_. `
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"The richness of her arms and apparel _were_ conspicuous."--Gibbon's `
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_Decline and Fall_. `
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"Everyone of this grotesque family _were_ the creatures of national `
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genius."--D'Israeli. `
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"He knows not what spleen, languor or listlessness _are_."--Blair's `
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_Sermons_. `
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"Each of these words _imply_, some pursuit or object relinquished." `
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--_Ibid_. `
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"Magnus, with four thousand of his supposed accomplices _were_ put `
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to death."--_Gibbon_. `
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"No nation gives greater encouragements to learning than we do; yet at `
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the same time _none are_ so injudicious in the application." `
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--_Goldsmith_. `
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"_There's two_ or _three_ of us have seen strange sights."--_Shakespeare_. `
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The past participle should not be used for the past tense, yet the `
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learned Byron overlooked this fact. He thus writes in the _Lament of `
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Tasso_:-- `
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"And with my years my soul _begun to pant_ With feelings of strange `
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tumult and soft pain." `
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Here is another example from Savage's _Wanderer_ in which there is `
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double sinning: `
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"From liberty each nobler science _sprung_, A Bacon brighten'd and a `
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Spenser _sung_." `
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Other breaches in regard to the participles occur in the following:-- `
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"Every book ought to be read with the same spirit and in the same manner `
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as it is _writ_"--Fielding's _Tom Jones_. `
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"The Court of Augustus had not _wore_ off the manners of the republic" `
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--Hume's _Essays_. `
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Moses tells us that the fountains of the earth were _broke_ open or `
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clove asunder."--Burnet. `
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"A free constitution when it has been _shook_ by the iniquity of `
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former administrations."--_Bolingbroke_. `
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"In this respect the seeds of future divisions were _sowed_ abundantly." `
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--_Ibid_. `
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In the following example the present participle is used for the infinitive `
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mood: `
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"It is easy _distinguishing_ the rude fragment of a rock from the splinter `
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of a statue."--Gilfillan's _Literary Portraits_. `
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_Distinguishing_ here should be replaced by _to distinguish_. `
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The rules regarding _shall_ and _will_ are violated in the following: `
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"If we look within the rough and awkward outside, we _will_ be `
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richly rewarded by its perusal."--Gilfillan's _Literary Portraits_. `
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"If I _should_ declare them and speak of them, they should be more `
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than I am able to express."--_Prayer Book Revision of Psalms XI_. `
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"If I _would_ declare them and speak of them, they are more than can `
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be numbered."--_Ibid_. `
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"Without having attended to this, we _will_ be at a loss, in understanding `
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several passages in the classics."--Blair's _Lectures_. `
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"We know to what cause our past reverses have been owing and _we_ `
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will have ourselves to blame, if they are again incurred."--Alison's `
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_History of Europe_. `
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Adverbial mistakes often occur in the best writers. The adverb _rather_ is `
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a word very frequently misplaced. Archbishop Trench in his "English Past `
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and Present" writes, "It _rather_ modified the structure of our sentences `
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than the elements of our vocabulary." This should have been written,--" It `
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modified the structure of our sentences _rather than_ the elements of our `
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vocabulary." `
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"So far as his mode of teaching goes he is _rather_ a disciple of `
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Socrates than of St. Paul or Wesley." Thus writes Leslie Stephens of Dr. `
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Johnson. He should have written,--" So far as his mode of teaching goes `
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he is a disciple of Socrates _rather_ than of St. Paul or Wesley." `
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The preposition is a part of speech which is often wrongly used by some `
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of the best writers. Certain nouns, adjectives and verbs require `
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particular prepositions after them, for instance, the word _different_ `
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always takes the preposition _from_ after it; _prevail_ takes _upon_; `
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_averse_ takes _to_; _accord_ takes _with_, and so on. `
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In the following examples the prepositions in parentheses are the ones `
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that should have been used: `
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"He found the greatest difficulty _of_ (in) writing."--Hume's `
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_History of England_. `
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"If policy can prevail _upon_ (over) force."--_Addison_. `
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"He made the discovery and communicated _to_ (with) his friends." `
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--Swift's _Tale of a Tub_. `
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"Every office of command should be intrusted to persons _on_ (in) `
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whom the parliament shall confide."--_Macaulay_. `
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Several of the most celebrated writers infringe the canons of style by `
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placing prepositions at the end of sentences. For instance Carlyle, in `
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