in the first person after them: as '_Ah me!_' But when the second
person is used, _it requires_ a nominative case: as, '_O thou!_'"--_Ib._,
p. 87. "Two or more Nominatives in the singular number, connected by the
Conjunction _or, nor_, EITHER, NEITHER, _govern_ a singular Verb. But
Pronouns singular, of different persons, joined by _or_, EITHER, _nor_,
NEITHER, _govern_ a plural Verb."--_Ib._, p. 94. "One Nominative frequently
_governs_ many Verbs."--_Ib._, p. 95. "Participles are sometimes _governed_
by the article."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 192. "An adverb, an adjective,
or a participle, may involve in itself the force of _a preposition, and
govern_ the objective case."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 99. "The nominative
case _governs_ the verb." [326]--_Greenleaf's Gram._, p. 32; _Kirkham's_,
176; and others. "The nominative case _comes before_ the verb."--_Bingham's
Gram._, p. 38; _Wilbur and Livingston's_, 23. "The Verb TO BE, _always
governs_ a Nominative, _unless it be_ of the Infinitive Mood."--_Buchanan's
Syntax_, p. 94. "A verb in the infinitive mood _may be governed_ by a verb,
noun, adjective, participle, or pronoun."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 187. Or,
(as a substitute for the foregoing rule,) say, according to this author: "A
verb in the infinitive mood, _refers_ to some noun or pronoun, as its
subject or actor."--_Ib._, p. 188. Now what does he know of English
grammar, who supposes any of these rules to be worthy of the place which
they hold, or have held, in the halls of instruction?

OBS. 8.--It is a very common fault with the compilers of English grammars,
to join together in the same rule the syntax of different parts of speech,
uniting laws that must ever be applied separately in parsing. For example:
"RULE XI. Articles and adjectives _relate to nouns_ expressed or
understood; and the adjectives _this, that, one, two_, must agree in number
with the nouns to which they relate."--_Comly's Gram._, p. 87. Now, in
parsing an _article_, why should the learner have to tell all this story
about _adjectives_? Such a mode of expressing the rule, is certainly in bad
taste; and, after all, the syntax of adjectives is not here comprised, for
they often relate to pronouns. "RULE III. Every adjective and participle
_belongs_ to some noun or pronoun expressed or understood."--_Frost's El.
of Gram._, p. 44. Here a compiler who in his etymology supposes participles
to be _verbs_, allows them no other construction than that of _adje