English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Part 36

5.

"Ah _me!_ nor hope nor life remains."

"_Me_ miserable! which way shall I fly?"

6.

"O _happiness!_ our being's end and aim!

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whatever thy name, That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh.

For which we bear to live, or dare to die."--

The verb _let_, in the idiomatic examples under number 1, has no nominative specified, and is left applicable to a nominative of the first, second, or third person, and of either number. Every action necessarily depends on an agent or moving cause; and hence it follows, that the verb, in such constructions, has a nominative understood; but as that nominative is not particularly _pointed out_, the constructions may be considered anomalous.

Instead of saying, "_Let_ it [_to_] be enacted;" or, "It _is_ or _shall_ be enacted;" "_Let_ him [_to_] be blessed;" or, "He _shall_ be blessed;"

"_Let us_ turn to survey," &c.; the verbs, _be enacted, be blessed, turn_, &c. according to an idiom of our language, or the poet's license, are used in the _imperative_, agreeing with a nominative of the first or third person.

The phrases, _methinks_ and _methought_, are anomalies, in which the objective p.r.o.noun _me_, in the _first_ person, is used in place of a nominative, and takes a verb after it in the _third_ person. _Him_ was anciently used in the same manner; as, "_him thute_, him thought." There was a period when these constructions were not anomalies in our language. Formerly, what we call the _objective_ cases of our p.r.o.nouns, were employed in the same manner as our present _nominatives_ are. _Ago_ is a contraction of _agone_, the past part. of to _go_. Before this participle was contracted to an adverb, the noun _years_ preceding it, was in the nominative case absolute; but now the construction amounts to an anomaly. The expressions, "generally speaking," and "considering their means," under number 4, are idiomatical and anomalous, the subjects to the participles not being specified.

According to the genius of the English language, transitive verbs and prepositions require the _objective_ case of a noun or p.r.o.noun after them; and this requisition is all that is meant by government, when we say, that these parts of speech govern the objective case. See pages 52, 57, and 94. The same principle applies to the interjection.

Interjections require the _objective_ case of a p.r.o.noun of the first person after them; but the _nominative_ of a noun or p.r.o.noun of the second or third person; as, "Ah _me!_ Oh _thou!_ O my _country!_" To say, then, that interjections _require_ particular cases after them, is synonymous with saying, that they _govern_ those cases; and this office of the interjection is in perfect accordance with that which it performs in the Latin and many other languages. In the examples under number 5, the first _me_ is in the objective after "ah," and the second _me_, after _ah_ understood; thus, "Ah miserable me!" according to NOTE 2, under Rule 5.--_Happiness_, under number 6, is nom. independent; Rule 5, or in the nom. after _O_, according to this Note. The principle contained in the note, proves that every noun of the second person is in the _nominative_ case; for, as the p.r.o.noun of the second person, in such a situation, is always nominative, which is shown by its _form_, it logically follows that the noun, under such circ.u.mstances, although it has _no form_ to show its case, must necessarily be in the same case as the p.r.o.noun. "Good, pleasure, ease, content, _that_," the antecedent part of "whatever," and _which_, the relative part, are nom. after _art_ understood; Rule 21, and _name_ is nom. to _be_ understood.

The second line may be rendered thus; Whether thou art good, or whether thou art pleasure, &c. or _be_ thy _name_ that [thing] which [ever thing] it may be: putting _be_ in the imperative, agreeing with _name_ in the third person. _Something_ is nominative after _art_ understood.

EXAMPLES.

1. "All were well _but_ the _stranger_." "I saw n.o.body but the _stranger_." "All had returned but he." "None but the _brave_ deserve the fair." "The thing they can't _but_ purpose, they postpone." "This life, at best, is _but_ a dream." "It affords _but_ a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If he _but_ touch the hills, they will smoke." "Man is _but_ a reed, floating on the current of time."

2. "Notwithstanding his poverty, he is content."

3. "Open your hand _wide_." "The apples boil _soft_." "The purest clay is that which burns _white_." "Drink _deep_, or taste not the Pierian spring."

4. "_What though_ the swelling surge thou see?" &c. "_What if_ the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread?" &c.

REMARKS.--According to the principle of a.n.a.lysis a.s.sumed by many of our most critical philologists, _but_ is _always_ a disjunctive conjunction; and agreeably to the same authorities, to construe it, in any case, as a preposition, would lead to error. See false Syntax under Rule 35. They maintain, that its legitimate and undeviating office is, to join on a member of a sentence which _expresses opposition of meaning_, and thereby forms an exception to, or takes from the universality of, the proposition contained in the preceding member of the sentence. That it sustains its true character as a conjunction in all the examples under number 1, will be shown by the following resolution of them.--"All were well but the _stranger [was not well_."] "I saw n.o.body but [_I saw_] the _stranger_." "None deserve the fair but the _brave_ [_deserve the fair_."] "They postpone the thing which [_they ought to do, and do not]

but_ which [_thing_] they cannot avoid purposing to do." "This life, at best, [_is not a reality,] but_ it is a dream. It [_affords not unbounded fruition] but_ it affords a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If he _touch_ the hills, _but exert no greater power upon them_, they will smoke;"--"If _he exert no greater power upon the hills, but [be-out this fact_] if he touch them, they will smoke." "Man _is not a stable being, but_ he is a reed, floating on the current of time." This method of a.n.a.lyzing sentences, however, if I mistake not, is too much on the plan of our pretended philosophical writers, who, in their rage for ancient constructions and combinations, often overlook the modern a.s.sociated meaning and application of this word. It appears to me to be more consistent with the _modern_ use of the word, to consider it an _adverb_ in constructions like the following: "If he _but (only, merely)_ touch the hills they will smoke."

_Except_ and _near_, in examples like the following, are generally construed as prepositions: "All went _except him_;" "She stands _near them_." But many contend, that when we employ _but_ instead of _except_, in such constructions, a _nominative_ should follow: "All went _but he [did not go_."] On this point and many others, _custom_ is _variable_; but the period will doubtless arrive, when _but, worth_, and _like_, will be considered prepositions, and, in constructions like the foregoing, invariably be followed by an objective case. This will not be the case, however, until the practice of supplying an ellipsis after these words is entirely dropped.

_Poverty_, under number 2, is governed by the preposition _notwithstanding_, Rule 31. The adjectives _wide, soft, white_, and _deep_, under number 3, not only express the quality of nouns, but also qualify verbs: Note 4, under Rule 18.--_What_, in the phrases "what though" and "what if," is an interrogative in the objective case, and governed by the verb _matters_ understood, or by some other verb; thus, "What matters it--what dost thou fear, though thou see the swelling surge?" "What would you think, if the foot, which is ordained to tread the dust, aspired to be the head?"

In the following examples, the same word is used as several parts of speech. But by exercising judgment sufficient to comprehend the meaning, and by supplying what is understood, you will be able to a.n.a.lyze them correctly.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

I like what you dislike.

Every creature loves its like.

Anger, envy, and like pa.s.sions, are sinful.

Charity, like the sun, brightens every object around it.

Thought flies swifter than light.

He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.

Hail often proves destructive to vegetation.

I was happy to hail him as my friend.

Hail! beauteous stranger of the wood.

The more I examine the work, the better I like it.

Johnson is a better writer than Sterne.

Calm was the day, and the scene delightful.

We may expect a calm after a storm.

To prevent pa.s.sion is easier than to calm it.

Damp air is unwholesome.

Guilt often casts a damp over our sprightliest hours.

Soft bodies damp the sound much more than hard ones.

Much money has been expended.

Of him to whom much is given, much will be required.

It is much better to give than to receive.

Still water runs deep. He labored to still the tumult.

Those two young profligates remain still in the wrong.

They wrong themselves as well as their friends.

I will now present to you a few examples in poetry. Parsing in poetry, as it brings into requisition a higher degree of mental exertion than parsing in prose, will be found a more delightful and profitable exercise. In this kind of a.n.a.lysis, in order to come at the meaning of the author, you will find it necessary to _transpose_ his language, and supply what is understood; and then you will have the literal meaning in prose.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

APOSTROPHE TO HOPE.--CAMPBELL.

Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime Pealed their first notes to sound the march of time, Thy joyous youth began:--but not to fade.-- When all the sister planets have decayed; When wrapt in flames the realms of ether glow, And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below; Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile, And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!

TRANSPOSED.

Eternal Hope! thy joyous youth began when yonder sublime spheres pealed their first notes to sound the march of time:--but it began not to fade.--Thou, undismayed, shalt smile over the ruins, when all the sister planets shall have decayed; and thou shalt light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile, when wrapt in flames, the realms of ether glow, and Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below.

ADDRESS TO ADVERSITY.--GRAY.

Daughter of heaven, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour, The bad affright, afflict the best!

The gen'rous spark extinct revive; Teach me to love and to forgive; Exact my own defects to scan: What others are to feel; and know myself a man.

TRANSPOSED.

Daughter of heaven, relentless power, thou tamer of the human breast, whose iron scourge and torturing hour affright the bad, and afflict the best! Revive thou in me the generous, extinct spark; and teach thou me to love others, and to forgive them; and teach thou me to scan my own defects exactly, or critically: and teach thou me that which others are to feel; and make thou me to know myself to be a man.

ADDRESS TO THE ALMIGHTY.--POPE.

What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, This teach me more than h.e.l.l to shun, That more than heav'n pursue.

TRANSPOSED.

O G.o.d, teach thou me to pursue that (_the thing_) which conscience dictates to be done, more ardently than I pursue heaven; and teach thou me to shun this (_the thing_) which conscience warns me not to do, more cautiously than I would shun h.e.l.l.

TRIALS OF VIRTUE.--MERRICK.

For see, ah! see, while yet her ways With doubtful step I tread, A hostile world its terrors raise, Its snares delusive spread.