good reason to join _not_ to _canst_
as to _can_; and sometimes its union with the latter is a gross error: as,
"He _cannot only_ make a way to escape, but with the injunction to duty can
infuse the power to perform."--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 287. The fear of
ambiguity never prevents us from disjoining _can_ and _not_ whenever we
wish to put a word between them: as, "Though the waves thereof toss
themselves, yet _can_ they _not_ prevail; though they roar, yet _can_ they
_not_ pass over it."--_Jeremiah_, v, 22. "Which then I _can_ resist
_not_."--_Byron's Manfred_, p. 1.

"_Can_ I _not_ mountain maiden spy,
But she must bear the Douglas eye?"--_Scott_.

OBS. 4.--In negative questions, the adverb _not_ is sometimes placed before
the nominative, and sometimes after it: as, "Told _not I_ thee?"--_Numb._,
xxiii, 26. "Spake _I not_ also to thy messengers?"--_Ib._, xxiv, 12.
"_Cannot I_ do with you as this potter?"--_Jer._, xviii, 6. "Art _not thou_
a seer?"--_2 Sam._, xv, 27. "Did _not Israel_ know?"--_Rom._, x, 19. "Have
_they not_ heard?"--_Ib._, 18. "Do _not they_ blaspheme that worthy
name?"--_James_, ii, 7. This adverb, like every other, should be placed
where it will sound most agreeably, and best suit the sense. Dr. Priestley
imagined that it could not properly come before the nominative. He says,
"When the nominative case is put after the verb, on account of _an_
interrogation, _no other word_ should be interposed between them.
[EXAMPLES:] 'May _not we_ here say with Lucretius?'--Addison on Medals, p.
29. May _we not_ say? 'Is _not it_ he.' [?] Smollett's Voltaire, Vol 18, p.
152. Is _it not_ he. [?]"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 177.

OBS. 5.--In grave discourse, or in oratory, the adverb _not_ is spoken as
distinctly as other words; but, _ordinarily_, when placed before the
nominative, it is rapidly slurred over in utterance and the _o_ is not
heard. In fact, it is _generally_ (though inelegantly) contracted in
familiar conversation, and joined to the auxiliary: as, IND. Don't they do
it? Didn't they do it? Haven't they done it? Hadn't they done it? Shan't,
_or_ won't they do it? Won't they have done it? POT. Mayn't, can't, _or_
mustn't they do it? Mightn't, couldn't, wouldn't, _or_ shouldn't they do
it? Mayn't, can't, _or_ mustn't they have done it? Mightn't, couldn't,
wouldn't, _or_ shouldn't they have done it?

OBS. 6.--Well-educated people commonly utter their words with more
distinctness and fullness than