ble example of this
beauty from Milton."--_Ib._, p. 331. "_We_ have now given sufficient
openings into this subject."--_Ib._, p. 334. This usage has authority
enough; for it was not uncommon even among the old Latin grammarians; but
he must be a slender scholar, who thinks the pronoun _we_ thereby becomes
_singular._ What advantage or fitness there is in thus putting _we_ for
_I_, the reader may judge. Dr. Blair did not hesitate to use _I_, as often
as ho had occasion; neither did Lowth, or Johnson, or Walker, or Webster:
as, "_I_ shall produce a remarkable example of this beauty from
Milton."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 129. "_I_ have now given sufficient openings
into this subject."--_Ib._, p. 131. So in Lowth's Preface: "_I_
believe,"--"_I_ am persuaded,"--"_I_ am sure,"--"_I_ think,"--"_I_ am
afraid,"--"_I_ will not take upon _me_ to say."

OBS. 32.--Intending to be critical without hostility, and explicit without
partiality, I write not for or against any sect, or any man; but to teach
all who desire to know _the grammar_ of our tongue. The student must
distinctly understand, that it is necessary to speak and write differently,
according to the different circumstances or occasions of writing. Who is he
that will pretend that the solemn style of the Bible may be used in
familiar discourse, without a mouthing affectation? In preaching, or in
praying, the ancient terminations of _est_ for the second person singular
and _eth_ for the third, as well as _ed_ pronounced as a separate syllable
for the preterit, are admitted to be generally in better taste than the
smoother forms of the familiar style: because the latter, though now
frequently heard in religious assemblies, are not so well suited to the
dignity and gravity of a sermon or a prayer. In grave poetry also,
especially when it treats of scriptural subjects, to which _you_ put for
_thou_ is obviously unsuitable, the personal terminations of the verb,
though from the earliest times to the present day they have usually been
contracted and often omitted by the poets, ought still perhaps to be
considered grammatically necessary, whenever they can be uttered, agreeably
to the notion of our tuneless critics. The critical objection to their
elision, however, can have no very firm foundation while it is admitted by
some of the objectors themselves, that, "Writers _generally_ have recourse
to this mode of expression, that they may avoid harsh terminations."--
_Irving's Elements of