stated and examined.

tion grammatically enunciated; and every affirmation or negation ought to be so enunciated, as that it might be an answer to a question. Thus by a very simple sorites it can be proved, that if the pronoun it' may be used indefinitely in one case, it may in every Nor is it possible to conceive even the shadow of a reason, why one number may not as well serve indefinitely for both numbers, as one person for all the persons, and one gender for all the genders.

case.

THAT which hath made more writers scrupulous about the first of these applications than about the other two, is, I imagine, the appearance not of the pronoun, but of the substantive verb in the singular adjoined to some term in the plural. In order to avoid this supposed incongruity, the translators of the Bible have in one place stumbled on a very uncouth expres"Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." In the other applications they have not hesitated to use the indefinite pronoun it, as in this expression: "It is I, be not afraid +.". Yet the phrase they are they, in the first quotation, adopted to prevent the incongruous adjunction of the verb in the singular, and the subsequent noun or pronoun in the plural, is, I suspect, no better English, than the phrase I am I would have been in the second, by which they might have prevented the adjunction not less incon

+ Matt. xiv. 27.

* John v. 39.

Some grammatical doubts in regard to English construction,

gruous of the third person of the verb to the first personal pronoun. If there be any difference in respect of congruity, the former is the less incongruous of the two. The latter never occurs, but in such passages as those above quoted; whereas nothing is commoner than to use the substantive verb as a copula to two nouns differing in number; in which case it generally agrees with the first. "His meat was locusts and “wild honey *," is a sentence which I believe nobody ever suspected to be ungrammatical. Now as every noun may be represented by a pronoun, what is grammatical in those, must, by parity of reason, be grammatical in these also. Had the question been put, "What was his meat?" the answer had undoubtedly been proper, "It was locusts and wild honey." And this is another argument which in my apprehension is decisive,

BUT" this comes," as Dr Lowth expresseth himself in a similar case, "of forcing the English under the "rules of a foreign language, with which it has little concern †." A convenient mode of speech which

* Matt. iii, 4.

† The English hath little or no affinity in structure either to the Latin or to the Greek. It much more resembles the modern European languages, especially the French, Accordingly we find in it an idiom very similar to that which hath been considered above. I do not mean the il ya, because the a is part of an active verb, and the words that follow in the sentence, are its regimen ; consequently no agreement in person and number is required. But

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custom hath established, and for which there is pretty frequent occasion, ought not to be hastily given up, especially when the language doth not furnish us with another equally simple and easy to supply its place. I should not have entered so minutely into the defence of a practice sufficiently authorised by use, but in order, if possible, to satisfy those critics, who, though both ingenious and acute, are apt to be rather more scrupulous on the article of language, than the nature of the subject will admit. In every tongue there are real anomalies which have obtained the sanction of custom; for this at most hath been reckoned, only dubious. There are particularly some in our own, which have never, as far as I know, been excepted against by any writer, and which, nevertheless, it is much more difficult to reconcile to the syntactic order, than that which I have been now defending. An example of this is the use of the indefinite article, which is naturally singular, before adjectives expressive of number, and joined with substantives in the plural. Such are the following phrases, a few persons, a great many men, a hundred or a thousand ships.

the idiom to which I allude is the il est, as used in the following sentence, "Il est des animaux qui semblent reduits au toucher; "il en est qui semblent participer nôtre intelligence." Contemplation de la nature par Bonnet. I am too zealous an advocate for English independency, to look on this argument as conclusive. But I think it more than a sufficient counterpoise to all that can be pleaded on the other side from the syntax of the learned lan guages.

Some grammatical doubts in regard to English construction,

THERE is another point, on which, as both the practice of writers, and the judgment of critics, seem to be divided, it may not be improper to make a few remarks. It is the way of using the infinitive after a verb in the preterit. Some will have it that the verb governed ought to be in the past, as well as the verb governing; and others that the infinitive ought to be in what is called the present, but what is in fact indefinite in regard to time. I do not think that on either side the different cases have been distinguished with sufficient accuracy. A very little attention will, I hope, enable us to unravel the difficulty entirely.

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LET us begin with the simplest case, the infinitive after the present of the indicative. When the infinitive is expressive of what is conceived to be either future in regard to the verb in the present, or contemporary, the infinitive ought to be in the present.— Thus, "I intend to write to my father to-morrow." He seems to be a man of letters. In the first example the verb to write, expresses what is future in respect of the verb intend. In the second the verb to be expresses what is equally present with the verb seems. About the propriety of such expressions there is no doubt. Again, if the infinitive after the verb in the present, be intended to express what must have been antecedent to that which is expressed by the governing verb, the infinitive must be in the preterperfect, even though the other verb be in the present. Thus, "From his conversation he appears to have stu

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"died Homer with great care and judgment." To use the present in this case, and say, "He appears to "study Homer,”—would overturn the sense.

THE same rule must be followed when the governing verb is in the preterit; for let it be observed, that it is the tense of the governing verb only that marks the absolute time; the tense of the verb governed marks solely its relative time with respect to the other. Thus, I should say, "I always intended to write to "my father, though I have not yet done it." "He "seemed to be a man of letters." "From a conver"sation I once had with him, he appeared to have "studied Homer with great care and judgment. Propriety plainly requires that in the two first instances the infinitive should be in the present tense, and in the third instance, in the preterit.

PRIESTLEY has not expressed himself on this subject with precision. I found him better than I expected to find him, is the only proper analogical expression. Expected to have found him, is irreconcileable alike to grammar and to sense. Indeed all verbs expressive of hope, desire, intention, or command, must invariably be followed by the present and not the perfect of the infinitive. Every body would perceive an error in this expression: "It is long since I commanded "him to have done it." Yet expected to have found is no better. It is as clear that the finding must be posterior to the expectation, as that the obedience must