PART II. IDIOMATIC WORDS AND PHRASES. CHAPTER I. THE ARTICLE. $1. Let the damsel abide a few days. "A" is used here before a plural noun, because "few days" is viewed as an aggregate, signifying a few of days." 66 Parse "a" in this case as the indef. art. (disting. adj.), lim. "few days" taken as a whole. Some grammarians make "few" a noun, and parse "days" in the obj. case, governed by of understood. EXAMPLES. 1. Can you lend me a few shillings?-2. The farmer sold a hundred head of cattle.-3. A thousand years are but as one day.-4. A great many persons visited the ruins.-5. He has a little money. § 2. He is gone a hunting. Here "a" is a corruption of "on," and is to be parsed as a prep. governing the verbal noun "hunting." EXAMPLES. 1. His greatness is a ripening.-2. They go a begging to a bankrupt's door.-3. He would a wooing go.-4. The spread of education set the people a thinking and reasoning. 5. He was the wretched'st thing, when he was young; 6. There is some ill a brewing towards my rest, § 3. He walks four miles an hour. "An" is here used in the sense of "each :" "Four miles an hour" four miles in each hour. EXAMPLES. 1. They cost a guinea a1 head.-2. He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by courses.-3. They cost five crowns a dozen.-4. It cost fivepence an inch.-5. The courier travelled twenty leagues a day. 1 i.e.. for each head. § 4.-Nay, an thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well "An" (if), now obsolete, is a conjunction. EXAMPLES. 1. I dance, an't please you, all the summer. -2. An't like your worship, I am in amaze at it.-3. An they were sons of mine, I'd have them whipped.-4. An he had been a dog, that should have howled thus, they would have hanged him.-5. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldest have it to buy gingerbread. 6. But how an it chance they cut thee down, § 5. (a) It becomes colder, the higher you ascend. (b) The more frequently I see him, the more I respect him. "The" is used with adjectives and adverbs of the comparative degree. With the former, the noun can = readily be supplied, and "the" is, as usual, to be parsed as the def. art. (or disting. adj.) With the latter, "the" has rather the force of an adverb; it is a corruption of "thy," used by the Saxons for "tham," the ablative case singular of the demonstrative "that." "All the more = more by all that; "all the better” better by all that. Compare the Latin phrases "eo majus," eo melius." Hence we derive a simple rule for parsing "the" before comparatives, viz., "When a noun can be supplied, 'the' is an article; when a noun cannot be supplied, 'the' is an adverb." Thus, in sentence (a), "the" is def. art. (or disting. adj.), limiting distance; while, in sentence (b), the first "the" is adverb modifying the adv. "more frequently." 99 66 EXAMPLES. 1. I choose the book the rather because my tutor recommends it.-2. The longer we continue in sin, the more difficult is reformation.--3. Wisdom is easier to attain, the longer you pursue it.-4. The works of art do not bear a nice microscopical inspection, but the more helps are used, and the more nicely you pry into natural productions, the more do you discover of the fine mechanism of nature.-5. For neither we eat not are we the worse.-6. He is the happier for our encouragement.7. The older he is, the worse he grows.-8. The farther I go, the more I rejoice.1 1 To the farther extent I go, with the more joy I rejoice. G CHAPTER II. THE NOUN.. § 1.—The weather being favourable, the ships sailed. "Weather" is the nominative absolute. The absolute case was, originally, the dative, and of this some traces are found in Milton and other writers. EXAMPLES. 1. Whose grey top shall tremble, he descending.-2. Night approaching, the traveller urged on his weary steed.-3. Those being all my study, the government I cast upon my brother.— 4. His ambition growing, he needs will be absolute Milan !— 5. There she's hid, the mariners all under hatches stowed.-6. This said, he sat. 7. Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing, For whom all this was made, all this will soon Follow. 9. Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee. § 2. There will I plead with you face to face. (1) "Face to face" may be regarded as equivalent to "face being opposite to face;" in which case the first noun "face" is nom. absolute. (2) The preposition "with" may be supplied to govern the first noun "face." (3) The participle "having" may be similarly supplied; "having face to face." (4) The whole expression has the force of an adv., modifying the verb "will plead." EXAMPLES. 1. They fought hand to hand.-2. They grew in beauty side by side.-3. Here was a doctor cheek by jowl with an attorney.4. We kept the great pace, stride by stride.-5. The horses ran neck to neck.-6. There, side by side, and hand in hand, they lay on the green ground.-7. No neighbour would have met him face to face with such evil purpose. § 3. These men, how I detest them! "Men" is the nom. case, used without a verb in an exclamation, and hence called the nom. exclamatory. EXAMPLES. 1. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?-2. But, oh! their end, their dreadful end !-3. St. Agnes' eve-ah, bitter cold it was!-4. Your land-strangers devour it ! 5. A steed! a steed of matchless speed, A sword of metal keene! All else to noble hearts is drosse, All else on earth is meane ! § 4. Children, obey your parents. "Children is the nom. case of address; ye being the subject of the verb "obey." The nom. case of address corresponds to the Latin vocative. EXAMPLES. 1. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?—2. On, then, all Frenchmen that love the sunny France.-3. "On, Stanley, on !" were the last words of Marinion.-4. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus ?-5. Peace, brother; be not over exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils.-6. Mortals that would follow me, love virtue. § 5. My cousin is named John. Verbs of "being" or "becoming," and passive verbs of "calling," "naming," &c., take the same case after |