rism, but an
assertion of two things; that a prism is a solid, and that all the sides of
a solid are parallelograms. Erase the comma, and the words will describe
the prism as a peculiar kind of solid; because _whose_ will then be taken
in the restrictive sense. This sense, however, may be conveyed even with a
comma before the relative; as, "Some fictitious histories yet remain,
_that_ were composed during the decline of the Roman empire."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 374. This does not suggest that there are no other fictitious
histories now extant, than such as were composed during the decline of the
Roman empire; but I submit it to the reader, whether the word _which_, if
here put for _that_, would not convey this idea.

OBS. 27.--Upon this point, many philologists are open to criticism; and
none more so, than the recent author above cited. By his own plain showing,
this grammarian has no conception of the difference of meaning, upon which
the foregoing distinction is founded. What marvel, then, that he falls into
errors, both of doctrine and of practice? But, if no such difference
exists, or none that is worthy of a critic's notice; then the error is
mine, and it is vain to distinguish between the restrictive and the
resumptive sense of relative pronouns. For example: "The boy that desires
to assist his companions, deserves respect."--_G. Brown._ "That boy, who
desires to assist his companions, deserves respect."--_D. H. Sanborn._
According to my notion, these two sentences clearly convey two very
different meanings; the relative, in the former, being restrictive, but, in
the latter, resumptive of the sense of the antecedent. But of the latter
example this author says, "The clause, 'who desires to assist his
companions,' with the relative who at its head, _explains or tells what boy
deserves respect_; and, like a conjunction, connects this clause to the
noun _boy_."--_Analytical Gram._, p. 69. He therefore takes it in a
restrictive sense, as if this sentence were exactly equivalent to the
former. But he adds, "A relative pronoun is resolvable into a personal
pronoun and a conjunction. The sentence would then read, 'That boy desires
to assist his companions, _and_ he deserves respect.' The relative pronoun
governs the nearer verb, and the antecedent the more distant one."--_Ib._,
p. 69. Now, concerning the restrictive relative, this doctrine of
equivalence does not hold good; and, besides, the explanation here given,
not only