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were not very successful, as the Saxons entertained a great antipathy to these haughty foreigners. In process of time, however, many Norman words and phrases were incorporated into the Saxon language: but its general form and construction still remained the same.

"From the Conquest to the Reformation, the language continued to receive occasional accessions of foreign words, till it acquired such a degree of copiousness and strength, as to render it susceptible of that polish, which it has received from writers of taste and genius, in the last and present centuries. During this period, the learned have enriched it with many significant expressions, drawn from the treasures of Greek and Roman literature; the ingenious and the fashionable have imported occasional supplies of French, Spanish, Italian, and German words, gleaned during their foreign excursions; and the connexions which we maintain, through the medium of government and commerce, with many remote nations, have made some additions to our native vocabulary.

"In this manner did the ancient language of the Anglo-Saxons proceed, through the various stages of innovation, and the several gradations of refinement, to the formation of the present English tongue."

PART III.

SYNTAX.

THE third part of grammar is SYNTAX, which treats of the agreement and construction of words in a sen

tence.

A sentence is an assemblage of words, forming a complete sense.

Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound. A simple sentence has in it but one subject, and one finite verb: as, " Life is short."

A compound sentence contains two or more simple sentences, joined together by one or more connective words: as, "Life is short, and art is long."

As sentences themselves are divided into simple and compound, so the members of sentences may be divided likewise into simple and compound members: for whole sentences, whether simple or compounded, may become members of other sentences, by means of some additional connexion; as in the following example: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider.". This sentence consists of two compounded members, each of which is subdivided into two simple members, which are properly called clauses.

There are three sorts of simple sentences; the explicative, or explaining; the interrogative, or asking; the imperative, or commanding.

An explicative sentence is when a thing is said to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer, in a direct manner: as, "I am; thou writest; Thomas is loved." If the sentence be negative, the adverb not is placed after the auxiliary, or after the verb itself when it

Finite verbs are those to which number and person appertain Verbs in the infinitive mood have no respect to number or person.

has no auxiliary: touched him not."

as,

"I did not touch him;" or, "I

In an interrogative sentence, or when a question is asked, the nominative case follows the principal verb or the auxiliary as, "Was it he?" "Did Alexander conquer the Persians?"

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In an imperative sentence when a thing is commanded to be, to do, to suffer, or not, the nominative case likewise follows the verb or the auxiliary as, “Go, thou traitor!” "Do thou go:" "Haste ye away:" unless the verb let be used; as, "Let us be gone."

A phrase is two or more words rightly put together, making sometimes part of a sentence, and sometimes a whole sentence.

The principal parts of a simple sentence are, the subject, the attribute, and the object.

The subject is the thing chiefly spoken of; the attribute is the thing or action affirmed or denied of it; and the object is the thing affected by such action.

The nominative denotes the subject, and usually goes before the verb or attribute; and the word or phrase, denoting the object, follows the verb; as, “A wise man governs his passions." Here, a wise man is the subject; governs, the attribute, or thing affirmed; and his passions the object.

Syntax principally consists of two parts, Concord and Government.

Concord is the agreement which one word has with another, in gender, number, case, or person.

Government is that power which one part of speech has over another, in directing its mood, tense, or case. To produce the agreement and right disposition of words in a sentence, the following rules and observations should be carefully studied.

RULE I.

A verb must agree with its nominative case, in number and person: as, "I learn;""Thou art improved;""The birds sing.'

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The following are a few examples of the violation of this rule. "What signifies good opinions, when our practice is bad?" "what signify." "The Normans, un

der which general term is comprehended the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, were accustomed to slaughter and rapine:"" are comprehended." "If thou would be easy and happy in thy family, be careful to observe discipline:" "if thou wouldst.' "Gold, whence came thou? whither goes thou? when will thou come again?” "camest,goest, wilt." "But thou false promiser, never shall obtain thy purpose:" it ought to be "shalt." "And wheresoever thou turns thy view;" "túrnest." "There's two or three of us have seen the work :" "there are." "Great pains has been taken;" "have been.” “I have considered what have been said on both sides in this controversy;" "what has been said." "One would think there was more sophists than one;" "there were more.' "The number of the names together were about one hundred and twenty;"" was about.”

* 1. The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put as the nominative case to the verb: as, "To see the sun is pleasant;" "To be good is to be happy;" "A desire to excel others in learning and virtue is commendable;""That warm climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, is very reasonable to believe;""To be temperate in eating and drinking, to use exercise in the open air, and to preserve the mind free from tumultuous emotions, are the best preservatives of health."

2. Every verb, except in the infinitive mood, or the participle, ought to have a nominative case, either expressed or implied: as, "Awake; arise;" that is, "Awake ye; arise ye."

*The chief practical notes under each Rule, are regularly numbered, in order to make them correspond to the examples in the volume of Exercises.

We shall here add some examples of inaccuracy, in the use of the verb without its nominative case. "As it hath pleased him of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and hath preserved you in the great danger," &c. The verb "hath preserved," has here no nominative case, for it cannot be properly supplied by the preceding word, "him," which is in the objective case. It ought to be, "and as he hath preserved you;" or rather, "and to preserve you." "If the calm in which he was born, and lasted so long, had continued;" "and which lasted," &c. "These we have extracted from an historian of undoubted credit, and are the same that were practised," &c.; "and they are the same. "A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage his business ;"" and who had," &c. "A cloud gathering in the north; which we have helped to raise and may quickly break in a storm upon our heads;"" and which may quickly."

3. Every nominative case, except the case absolute, and when an address is made to a person, should belong to some verb, either expressed or implied: as, « Who wrote this book?" "James;" that is, "James wrote it." "To whom thus Adam," that is, " spoke."

One or two instances of the improper use of the nominative case, without any verb, expressed or implied, to answer it, may be sufficient to illustrate the usefulness of the preceding observation.

"Which rule, if it had been observed, a neighbouring prince would have wanted a great deal of that incense which hath been offered up to him." The pronoun it is here the nominative case to the verb "observed;" and which rule, is left by itself, a nominative case without any verb following it. This form of expression, though improper, is very common. It ought to be, "If this rule had been observed," &c. "Man, though he has great variety of thoughts, and such from which others as well as himself might receive profit and delight, yet they are all within his own breast." In this sentence, the nominative man stands alone and unconnected with any verb, either expressed or implied. It should be," Though man has great variety," &c.

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