The Grammar of English Grammars Part 264

XVII. They use the forms of the second person singular oftener than do others; as,

1. "Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse, _Thy_ service in some graver subject use, Such as may make _thee_ search thy coffers round, Before _thou clothe_ my fancy in fit sound."

--_Milton's Works_, p. 133.

2. "But _thou_, of temples old, or altars new, _Standest_ alone--with nothing like to thee."

--_Byron, Pilg._, iv, 154.

3. "Thou seest not all; but piecemeal thou must break, To separate contemplation, the great whole."

--_Id., ib._, iv, 157.

4. "Thou rightly deemst, fair youth, began the bard; The form then sawst was Virtue ever fair."

--_Pollok, C. of T._, p. 16.

XVIII. They sometimes omit relatives that are nominatives; (see Obs. 22, at p. 555;) as,

"For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?"

--_Thomson_.

XIX. They omit the antecedent, or introduce it after the relative; as,

1. "_Who_ never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys, _Who_ never toils or watches, never sleeps."

--_Armstrong_.

2. "_Who_ dares think one thing and an other tell, My soul detests _him_ as the gates of h.e.l.l."

--_Pope's Homer_.

XX. They remove relatives, or other connectives, into the body of their clauses; as,

1. "Parts the fine locks, her graceful head _that_ deck."

--_Darwin_.

2. "Not half so dreadful rises to the sight Orion's dog, the year _when_ autumn weighs."

--_Pope, Iliad_, B. xxii, l. 37.

XXI. They make intransitive VERBS transitive, changing their cla.s.s; as,

1. ----"A while he stands, _Gazing_ the inverted landscape, half afraid To _meditate_ the blue profound below."

--_Thomson_.

2. "Still in harmonious intercourse, they _liv'd_ The rural day, and _talk'd_ the flowing heart."

--_Idem_.

3. ----"I saw and heard, for we sometimes Who _dwell_ this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth."

--_Milton, P. R._, B. i, l. 330.

XXII. They make transitive verbs intransitive, giving them no regimen; as,

1. "The soldiers should have _toss'd_ me on their pikes, Before I would have _granted_ to that act."

--_Shakspeare_.

2. "This minstrel-G.o.d, well-pleased, amid the quire Stood proud to _hymn_, and tune his youthful lyre."

--_Pope_.

XXIII. They give to the imperative mood the first and the third person; as,

1. "_Turn we_ a moment fancy's rapid flight."

--_Thomson_.

2. "_Be_ man's peculiar _work_ his sole delight."

--_Beattie_.

3. "And what is reason? Be _she_ thus _defin'd_: Reason is upright stature in the soul."

--_Young_.

XXIV. They employ _can, could_, and _would_, as princ.i.p.al verbs transitive; as,

1. "_What_ for ourselves we _can_, is always ours."

--_Anon_.

2. "Who does the best his circ.u.mstance allows, Does well, acts n.o.bly; angels _could_ no _more_."

--_Young_.

3. "What _would_ this man? Now upward will he soar, And, little less than angel, would be more."

--_Pope_.

XXV. They place the infinitive before the word on which it depends; as,

1. "When first thy sire _to send_ on earth Virtue, his darling child, _design'd_"

--_Gray_.

2. "As oft as I, _to kiss_ the flood, _decline_; So oft his lips ascend, to close with mine."

--_Sandys_.

3. "Besides, Minerva, _to secure_ her care, _Diffus'd_ around a veil of thicken'd air."

--_Pope_.

XXVI. They place the auxiliary verb after its princ.i.p.al, by hyperbaton; as,

1. "No longer _heed_ the sunbeam bright That plays on Carron's breast he _can_"

--_Langhorne_.

2. "_Follow_ I _must_, I cannot go before."

--_Beauties of Shakspeare_, p. 147.

3. "The man who suffers, loudly may complain; And _rage_ he _may_, but he shall rage in vain."

--_Pope_.

XXVII. Before verbs, they sometimes arbitrarily employ or omit prefixes: _as, bide_, or _abide_; _dim_, or _bedim_; _gird_, or _begird_; _lure_, or _allure_; _move_, or _emove_; _reave_, or _bereave_; _vails_, or _avails_; _vanish_, or _evanish_; _wail_, or _bewail_; _weep_, or _beweep_; _wilder_, or _bewilder_:--