A Grammar of the English Language, in a Series of Letters. with an Additional Chapter by J.P.Cobbett - William Cobbett, Paperback

• Release Date   6/26/2012
• ISBN-13   9781236478290 | 978-1-236-47829-0
• ISBN   1236478290 | 1-236-47829-0
• Format   Paperback
• Author(s)   William Cobbett
• This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 edition. Excerpt: ...deeds." And not enables: for, sobriety alone would not enable a man to do threat things. "The borough-tyranny, with the paper-money "makers, have produced misery and starvation." And, not has. for we mean that the two have co-operuted. "Zeal with discretion, do much." and not, does much. for we mean, on the contrary, that it does nothing. It is the meaning that must determine which of the numbers we ought, in all such cases, to employ. 247. The Verb to be sometimes comes between two nouns of different numbers. "The great evil is the "borough-debt." In this sentence there is nothing to embarrass, us. because evil and borough-debt are both in the singular. But, " the great evil is the taxes," is not so clear of embarrassment. The embarrassment is the same, when there is a singular noun on one side, and two or more singulars or plurals on the other side: as, "The curse of the country if the profligacy, the "rapacity, the corruption of the law-makers, the base " subserviency of the administrators of the law, and the "frauds of the makers of paper-money." Now, we meaD, here, that these things constitute, or form, or make up, a curse. We mean that the curse consists of these things. and if we said this, there would be no puzzling. "Tne evil is the taxes." That is, the taxes constitute the evil. but we cannot say, " the evil are the "taxes." nor can we say, that the "curse are these "things." Avoid, then, the use of the Verb to be in all such cases. Say, the curse of the country consists of, or arises from, or is produced by. Dr. Blair, in his 19th Lecture, says, "A feeble, a harsh, or an obscure "style, are always...