Part 114 (1/2)

EXCEPTION FOURTH

Adjectives are so abstract nouns; (perhaps, in most instances, _elliptically_, like Greek neuters;) as, ”The sensations of _subliuished by very distant boundaries”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 47 That is, ”of _sublimity_ and _beauty_” ”The faults opposite to _the subliid_, and _the bombast_”--_Ib_, p 44 Better: ”The faults opposite to _subliidity_ and _bo character of the nation was that of _barbarous_ and _cruel_”--_Brown's Estimate_, ii, 26 That is, ”of _barbarity_ and _cruelty_” ”In a word, _agreeable_ and _disagreeable_ are qualities of the objects we perceive,” &c--_Kames, El of Crit_, i, 99 ”_Polished_, or _refined_, was the idea which the author had in view”--_Blair's Rhet_, p

219

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE IX

OBS 1--Adjectives often relate to nouns or pronouns _understood_; as, ”A new sorrow recalls _all_ the _for_, p

31 [The place] ”_Farthest_ froave heed, froreatest_”

[person]--_Acts_, viii, 10 ”The Lord your God is God of Gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a _hty_ [God], and a _terrible_” [God]--_Deut_, x, 17 ”Every one can distinguish an _angry_ frohtful_ fro, countenance”--_Beattie's Moral Science_, p 192 Here the word _countenance_ is understood seven tiht different countenances are spoken of ”He came unto his _own_ [possessions], and his _own_ [men] received him not”--_John_, i, 11 The _Rev J G Cooper_, has it: ”He came unto his own (_creatures_,) and his own (_creatures_) received him not”--_Pl and Pract Graer of Murray, expounder of the Bible, and author of several ”new and ies,) should have understood this text, notwithstanding the obscurity of our version ”[Greek: Eis ta idia aelthe kai oi idioi auton ou parelabon]”--”In _propria_ venit, et _proprii_ eum non receperunt”--_Montanus_ ”Ad _sua_ venit, et sui eum non exceperunt”--_Beza_ ”Il est venu _chez soi_; et _les siens_ ne l'ont point recu”--_French Bible_ Sometimes the construction of the adjective involves an ellipsis of _several words_, and those perhaps the principal parts of the clause; as, ”The sea appeared to be agitated ree _which_ is] _usual_”--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p 217 ”During the course of the sentence, the scene should be changed as little as [in the least] _possible_” [degree]--_Blair's Rhet_, p 107; _Murray's Gram_, 8vo, p 312

”Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why [_thou art_] form'd so _weak_, so _little_, and so _blind_”

--_Pope_

OBS 2--Because _qualities_ belong only to _things_, ra added _to nouns only_”--_Buchanan's Syntax_, p 26 Or, as Murray expresses the doctrine: ”Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun, _belongs to a substantive_, expressed or understood”--_Octavo Gram_, p 161 ”The adjective _always_ relates to a _substantive_”--_Ib_, p 169 This teaching, which is alike repugnant to the true _definition_ of an adjective, to the true _rule_ for its construction, and to _all the exceptions_ to this rule, is but a sa to false conclusions for want of a fair comprehension of the facts in point The position would not be tenable, even if all our _pronouns_ were admitted to be _nouns_, or ”_substantives_;” and, if these two parts of speech are to be distinguished, the consequence must be, that Murray supposes a countless number of unnecessary and absurd _ellipses_ It is sufficiently evident, that in the construction of sentences, adjectives often relate ih them to the nouns which they represent

Examples: ”I should like to knoho has been carried off, except _poor dear ”--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p 204 ”It is the final pause _which alone_, on many occasions, marks the difference between prose and verse”--_Murray's Gram_, p 260 ”And sometimes after _them both_”--_Ib_, p 196 ”All men hail'd _me happy_”--_Milton_ ”To receive _unhappy me_”--_Dryden_ ”Superior to _them all_”--_Blair's Rhet_, p

419 ”_They_ returned to their own country, _full_ of the discoveries which they had made”--_Ib_, p 350 ”_All ye_ are brethren”--_Matt_, xxiii, 8 ”And _him only_ shalt thou serve”--_Matt_, iv, 10

”Go _wiser thou_, and in thy scale of sense Weigh thy opinion against Providence”--_Pope_

OBS 3--When an adjective follows a finite verb, and is not followed by a noun, it generally relates to the subject of the verb; as, ”_I_ alad_ that the _door_ iscontinue _agreeable_”--_Ka which is _false, vicious_, or _unworthy_, is _despicable_ to hih all the world should approve it”--_Spectator_, No 520 Here _false, vicious_, and _unworthy_, relate to _which_; and _despicable_ relates to _thing_ The practice of Murray and his followers, of supplying a ”substantive” in all such cases, is absurd ”When the Adjective fors to the noun [or pronoun] which serves as the _Subject_ of the Proposition, and cannot be joined to any other noun, since it is of the Subject that we affirm the quality expressed by this Adjective”--_De Sacy, on General Gram_, p 37 In some peculiar phrases, however, such as, _to fall short of, to ht by_, the adjective has such a connexion with the verb, that itExamples: (1) ”This latter mode of expression falls _short_ of the force and vehemence of the former”--_L Murray's Gram_, p 353 Some will suppose the word _short_ to be here used _adverbially_, or to qualify _falls_ only; but perhaps ita predicate with ”_falls_,”

and relating to ”_mode_,” the nolorious Majesty”--_Jenks's Prayers_, p 156 This expression is perhaps elliptical: it may mean, ”that I have made _ht_ by his father or his mother: and all the people shall say, Aht _esteem_ or _estimation_,” &c

OBS 4--When an adjective follows an infinitive or a participle, the noun or pronoun to which it relates, is sometimes before it, and soentleman cannot but practice those virtues _which_, by an intie of mankind, he has found to be _useful_ to theed in duty to be _sad_ and _disconsolate_”--_Addison_ ”He is scandalized at _youth_ for being _lively_, and at _childhood_ for being playful”--_Id_ ”But growing _weary_ of one who almost walked him out of breath, _he_ left him for Horace and Anacreon”--_Steele_

OBS 5--Adjectives preceded by the definite article, are often used, by _ellipsis_, as _nouns_; as, _the learned_, for _learned nate those classes of persons or things, which are characterized by the qualities they express; and this, the reader must observe, is a use quite different from that _substitution_ of adjectives for nouns, which is noticed in the fourth exception above In _our_ language, the several senses in which adjectives uished with that clearness which the inflections of other tongues secure Thus, _the noble, the vile, the excellent_, or _the beautiful_, may be put for three extra constructions: first, for _noble persons, vile persons_, &c; secondly, for _the noble man, the vile man_, &c; thirdly, for the abstract qualities, _nobility, vileness, excellence, beauty_ The last-nae forms an exception to the rule; in the other two the noun is understood, and should be supplied by the parser Such terms, if elliptical, are most commonly of the plural nus_ understood; as, ”_The careless_ and _the irateful_ and _the interested_, everywhere meet us”--_Blair_ Here the noun _persons_ is to be six times supplied ”Wherever there is taste, _the witty_ and _the humorous_ make themselves perceived”--_Campbell's Rhet_, p 21 Here the author ht to have used these words, because the others are equivocal, and arecouplet, the noun _places_ or _things_ is understood after ”_open_,” and again after ”_covert_,” which last word is soether let us beat this ample field, Try what _the open_, what _the covert_, yield”--_Pope, on Man_

OBS 6--The adjective, in English, is generally placed iiven to _gay_ attire?”--_Beattie_

Those adjectives which relate to _pronouns_, rassy turf”--_Milton_ But to both these general rules there are many exceptions; for the position of an adjectivethe mere convenience of emphasis: as, ”And Jehu said, Unto _which_ of _all us_?”--_2 Kings_, ix, 5 In the following instances the adjective is placed _after the word_ to which it relates:

1 When other words depend on the adjective, or stand before it to qualify it; as, ”A ht_,”--”A wall _three feet thick_,”--”A body of troops _fifty thousand strong_”

2 When the quality results froh a verb or participle; as, ”Virtue renders _life happy_”--”He was in Tirzah, drinking _his_, xvi, 9 ”All ar sour, honey sweet_, and _aloes bitter_”--_Burke, on Taste_, p 38 ”God made _thee perfect_, not _immutable_”--_Milton_

3 When the quality excites admiration, and the adjective would thus be more clearly distinctive; as, ”Goodness _infinite_,”--”Wisdom _unsearchable_”--_Murray_

4 When a verb comes between the adjective and the noun; as, ”Truth stands _independent_ of all external things”--_Burgh_ ”Honour is not _seemly_ for a fool”--_Solomon_

5 When the adjective is formed by means of the prefix _a_; as, _afraid, alert, alike, alive, alone, asleep, awake, aware, averse, ashamed, askew_

To these h, extant, extinct, fraught, pursuant_

6 When the adjective has the nature, but not the forent_,”--”The heir _apparent_,”--”A lion, not _rampant_, but _couchant_ or _dormant_”--”For the time then _present_”

OBS 7--In some instances, the adjective may _either precede or follow_ its noun; and the writer may take his choice, in respect to its position: as, 1 In _poetry_--provided the sense be obvious; as,