re of complex subjects of the kind in
question, combined with a rule concerning the position of the subject,
which will soon be laid down, I believe that, for all single propositions,
the foregoing rule is absolute.

_Rule._--In all single propositions the verb agrees in person with the noun
(whether substantive or pronoun) which comes first.

s. 477. But the expression _it is I your master, who command_ (or
_commands_) you, is not a single proposition. It is a sentence containing
two propositions.

1. _It is I._
2. _Who commands you._

Here the word _master_ is, so to say, undistributed. It may belong to
either clause of the sentence, i.e., the whole sentence may be divided into

Either--_it is I your master_--
Or--_your master who commands you_.

This is the first point to observe. The next is that the verb in the second
clause (_command_ or _commands_) is governed, not by either the personal
pronoun or the substantive, but by the relative, i.e., in the particular
case before us, not by either _I_ or _master_, but by _who_.

And this brings us to the following question--with which of the two
antecedents does the _relative_ agree? with _I_ or with _master_?

This may be answered by the two following rules;--

_Rule 1._--When the two antecedents are in the same proposition, the
relative agrees with the first. Thus--

1. It is _I_ your _master_--
2. Who _command_ you.

_Rule 2._--When the two antecedents are in different propositions, the
relative agrees with the second. Thus--

1. It is _I_--
2. Your _master_ who _commands_ you.

This, however, is not all. What determines whether the two antecedents
shall be in the same or in different propositions? I believe that the
following rules for what may be called _the distribution of the substantive
antecedent_ will bear criticism.

_Rule 1._ That when there is any natural connection between the substantive
antecedent and the verb governed by the relative, the antecedent belongs to
the second clause. Thus, in the expression just quoted, the word _master_
is logically connected with the word _command_; and this fact makes the
expression, _It is I your master who commands you_ the better of the two.

_Rule 2._ That when there is no natural connection between the substantive
antecedent and the verb governed by the relative, the antecedent belongs to
the first clause. _It is I, John, who command_ (not _commands_) _you_.

To recapitulate, the tr