The Verbalist Part 23

[15] "Thomas Fuller writes: 'At his arrival, the last stake of the Christians was _on losing_.'--'The Historie of the Holy Warre,' p. 218 (ed. 1647)."

[16] "I express myself in this manner because I distinguish between _be_ and _exist_."

[17] "Samuel Richardson writes: 'Jenny, who attends me here, has more than once hinted to me that Miss Jervis loves to sit up late, either reading or _being read to_ by Anne, who, though she reads well, is not fond of the task.'--'Sir Charles Grandison,' vol. iii, p. 46 (ed. 1754).

"The transition is very slight by which we pa.s.s from 'sits being read to' to 'is being read to.'"

[18] "I am here indebted to the last edition of Dr. Worcester's 'Dictionary,' preface, p. x.x.xix."

[19] "'Words and their Uses,' p. 353."

[20] "'_It is being_ is simply equal to _it is_. And, in the supposed corresponding Latin phrases, _ens factus est_, _ens aedificatus est_ (the obsoleteness of _ens_ as a participle being granted), the monstrosity is not in the use of _ens_ with _factus_, but in that of _ens_ with _est_.

The absurdity is, in Latin, just what it is in English, the use of _is_ with _being_, the making of the verb _to be_ a complement to itself.'--_Ibid._, pp. 354, 355.

"Apparently, Mr. White recognizes no more difference between _supplement_ and _complement_ than he recognizes between _be_ and _exist_. See the extract I have made above, from p. 353."

[21] "'But those things which, _being not now doing_, or having not yet been done, have a natural apt.i.tude to exist hereafter, may be properly said to appertain to the future.'--Harris's 'Hermes,' book I, chap. viii (p. 155, foot-note, ed. 1771). For Harris's _being not now doing_, which is to translate ? ????e?a, the modern school, if they pursued uniformity with more of fidelity than of taste, would have to put _being not now being done_. There is not much to choose between the two."

[22] "'Words and their Uses,' p. 343."

[23] The possessive construction here is, in my judgment, not imperatively demanded. There is certainly no lack of authority for putting the three substantives in the accusative. The possessive construction seems to me, however, to be preferable.

[24] "The use of the plural for the singular was established as early the beginning of the fourteenth century."--Morris, p. 118, -- 153.

[25] "Some writers omit the comma in cases where the conjunction is used. But, as the conjunction is generally employed in such cases for emphasis, commas ought to be used; although, where the words are very closely connected, or where they const.i.tute a clause in the midst of a long sentence, they may be omitted."--Bigelow's "Handbook of Punctuation."

[26] "This usage violates one of the fundamental principles of punctuation; it indicates, very improperly, that the noun _man_ is more closely connected with _learned_ than with the other adjectives. a.n.a.logy and perspicuity require a comma after _learned_."--Quackenbos.

[27] Many writers would omit the last two commas in this sentence.

[28] The commas before and after _particularly_ are hardly necessary.

[29] The only exception to this rule is the occasional use of the colon to separate two short sentences that are closely connected.

[30] "Dr. Angus on the 'English Tongue,' art. 527."

[31] "In the following pa.s.sages, the indicative mood would be more suitable than the subjunctive: 'If thou _be_ the Son of G.o.d, command that these stones be made bread'; 'if thou _be_ the Son of G.o.d, come down from the cross.' For, although the address was not sincere on the part of the speakers, they really meant to make the supposition or to grant that he was the Son of G.o.d; 'seeing that thou _art_ the Son of G.o.d.' Likewise in the following: 'Now if Christ _be_ preached, that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?' The meaning is, 'Seeing now that Christ _is_ preached.'

In the continuation, the conditional clauses are of a different character, and 'be' is appropriate: 'But if there _be_ no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ _be_ not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.' Again, 'If thou _bring_ thy gift to the altar, and there remember_est_,' etc.

Consistency and correctness require 'remember.'"--Harrison on the "English Language," p. 287.

[32] "So, in German, _ware_ for _wurde sein_. 'Hatt' ich Schwingen, hatt' ich Flugel, nach den Hugeln _zog_' ich hin,' for '_wurde_ ich _ziehen_.'"

[33] "So, in German, _hatte_ occurs for _wurde haben_. 'Ware er da gewesen, so _hatten_ wir ihn gesehen,' for 'so _wurden_ wir ihn gesehen _haben_.' _Hatten_ is still conditional, not indicative. In Latin, the pluperfect _indicative_ is occasionally used; which is explained as a more vivid form."

[34] "In _princ.i.p.al_ clauses the inflection of the second person is always retained: 'thou had_st_,' 'thou would_st_, should_st_,' etc. In the example, the subordinate clause, although subjunctive, shows, 'had_st_.' And this usage is exceedingly common."

[35] To those who are not quite clear as to what transcendentalism is, the following lucid definition will be welcome: "It is the spiritual cognoscence of psychological irrefragability connected with concutient ademption of incolumnient spirituality and etherealized contention of subsultory concretion." Translated by a New York lawyer, it stands thus: "Transcendentalism is two holes in a sand-bank: a storm washes away the sand-bank without disturbing the holes."

[36] "Cromwell--_than he_ no man was more skilled in artifice; or, Cromwell--no man was more skilled in artifice _than he_ (was)."

[37] "No devil sat higher than _he_ sat, except Satan."

[38] "Speaking of Dryden, Hallam says, 'His "Essay on Dramatic Poesy,"

published in 1668, was reprinted sixteen years afterward, and it is curious to observe the changes which Dryden made in the expression.

Malone has carefully noted all these; they show both the care the author took with his own style, and the change which was gradually working in the English language. The Anglicism of terminating the sentence with a preposition is rejected. Thus, "I can not think so contemptibly of the age I live in," is exchanged for "the age in which I live." "A deeper expression of belief than all the actor can persuade us to," is altered, "can insinuate into us." And, though the old form continued in use long after the time of Dryden, it has of late years been reckoned inelegant, and proscribed in all cases, perhaps with an unnecessary fastidiousness, to which I have not uniformly deferred, since our language is of Teutonic structure, and the rules of Latin and French grammar are not always to bind us.'

"The following examples, taken from Ma.s.singer's 'Grand Duke of Florence,' will show what was the usage of the Elizabethan writers:--

"'For I must use the freedom I _was born with_.'

"'In that dumb rhetoric _which_ you _make use of_.'

"'---- if I had been heir Of all the globes and sceptres mankind _bows to_.'

"'---- the name of friend _Which_ you are pleased to _grace me with_.'

"'---- wilfully ignorant in my opinion Of what it did _invite him to_.'

"'I look to her as on a princess _I dare not be ambitious of_.'

"'---- a duty _That I was born with_.'"