The Verbalist: A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those who Would Speak and Write with Propriety |
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Common terms and phrases
adjective adverb American appear authority Bain better built called careful writers clause Cobbett comma common Composition coördinating correct diction doubt Elizabeth Proctor ellipsis England English English Language error example expression Fitzedward Hall frequently friends gentleman give grammar grammarians hear hence house is building idiom idiomatic imperfect tense improperly incorrect John kind Knights Templars lady language Latin less lish live matter means meant Metonymy mind misused mood neuter never nice noun object opinion participle passive persons phrase PLEONASM plural possessive preposition present Professor pronoun properly propriety qualify reason reference relative reply Rhetoric Richard Grant White Sally Brown sense simply singular solecism speak speech style subjunctive subjunctive mood superfluous syllable synonym taste tence term thing thou thought tion tive tongue Townsend truth unfrequently usage utter verb vulgar William Cobbett wise woman word is sometimes
Popular passages
Page 13 - Thou preparedst room before it, And didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, And the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, And her branches unto the river.
Page 13 - Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her ? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, < And the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Page 113 - Here lies our Sovereign Lord the King, Whose word no man relies on ; Who never said a foolish thing, And never did a wise one.
Page 160 - The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Page 16 - Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden.
Page 141 - Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Page 187 - Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.
Page 183 - Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Page 127 - I cannot tell, what you and other men Think of this life; but, for my single self, I had as lief not be, as live to be In awe of such a thing as I m,yself.
Page 186 - Who but must laugh if such a man there be ? Who would not weep if Atticus were he?