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8. ADVERBS OF AFFIRMATION also stand before the verb, as, YES you may. CERTAINLY they were imprudent.

9. ADVERBS OF NEGATION. Of these, no has its place before, and not after the verb. No is frequently used almost as an adjective to a noun, as, No one, NO man, and thus makes, with the substantive, the nominative to a verb; and not is sometimes used in the same way, as, NOT one of them spoke, and then of course it precedes the verb. More commonly it takes its natural place, as, I thought Not. I did NOT intend to go. He will NOT come. Though Milton has sometimes used two negatives as an affirmative, yet it is a practice not to be imitated, for it produces a harsh and unpleasing phrase.

10. ADVERBS OF INTERROGATION stand before the verb, as, How can it be? WHY was it done?

Of these

11. ADVERBS OF COMPARISON. almost usually takes its place between the nominative and the verb, as, I have ALMOST done. The rest are placed after it, as, we think ALIKE. They have seen more.

There is a mistake very prevalent in common parlance at present, which may here be

noticed; namely, the making the adverbs of time, immediately and directly, do duty as conjunctions. It has been seen by quotations from good writers, that immediately cannot take its place at the beginning of a sentence, unless it stand absolutely, and be followed by a preposition, as, immediately upon, immediately after; and without some such arrangement it cannot take its place before the nominative; yet we commonly hear and even read such phrases, as, IMMEDIATELY he heard it, he departed. DiRECTLY he arrived, the horses were brought. In all such cases it stands, and stands improperly, in the room of the conjunction when or the phrase as soon as, and is particularly offensive to an ear trained to anything like grammatical accuracy.

7. Preposition.

The English preposition may be held always to govern an accusative case. In composition it is sometimes inseparably joined to the verb, as, to forget, to undertake; but it is more frequently separable, as, to get in, to answer for, to stand by, to go for, to part with, &c. The place which these separable prepositions are to take, is left very much to the taste of the au

thor; and it has, in modern writing, been generally thought proper to place the preposition with a relative before the verb, as, The friends WITH WHOM we PARTED yesterday. The cause BY WHICH we intend TO STAND to the last yet this is not the natural arrangement of the words, and much of the force of the expression is lost, by making the mind of the hearer or reader wait to see what verb is coming to decide the meaning of the sentence. The friends that we PARTED WITH yesterday; the cause that we intend to STAND BY to the last,-is both more English in arrangement, and more forcible in expression; in some cases the preposition may even be placed farther from the verb without losing force: but it must be after not before it. This arrangement of separable prepositions is a part of the Teutonic character of the language, and so far from being inelegant, is almost essential to an idiomatic style. Where the preposition forms no part of the verb, it is best placed near the word it governs. Thus, in,— it was done in a strange way,-in governs a strange way, and therefore in speaking of it we should say, the strange way in which it was done, and it would be a clearer and better expression than if we were to say, the strange way

that it was done IN, though even this is not altogether forbidden, as,

"I give them with this ring,

Which, when you part from, lose, or give away.
Let it presage the ruin of your love.” *

The only place therefore which can be assigned to the preposition, is that which shall make the sentence most clear and rapid in its expression; for, if we attentively study the habits of our nation, we shall find that it does not easily brook delay in anything, whether it be in speech or action. Even our words are shortened to the utmost in the pronunciation, and frequently abridged of a syllable or two, to save time and trouble in speaking; we may therefore be well assured that any mode of arranging the phrase which gives a slower march to the sentence, is repugnant to the genius of the language, and will never make a pleasing style.

8. Conjunction.

Some conjunctions have a government of modes, i. e. require the indicative or subjunctive

Shakespeare.

I

mode to follow them, while others such as and, but, as, &c. have no influence whatever on the mode.

Hypothetical, conditional, concessive and exceptive conjunctions, such as, if, though, except, whether, &c. seem in general to require the subjunctive mode after them, but when the sense is meant to be at all decisive, even these will have the indicative after them. The following are examples of their government of the subjunctive, taken from the translation of the bible.

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If thou be the son of God-"

Though he slay me—”

"Unless he wash his flesh-"

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"Whether it were I or they."

In each of these cases something contingent or doubtful is expressed. In the following the indicative mode is used to imply a greater degree of certainty.

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If the scripture has, as surely it has, left

this matter," &c.

*V. Lowth's Grammar.

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