come, to turn, to commence, to die, to
expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear,
to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which
admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is to be observed,
that they are sometimes transitive, and govern the objective: as, "To
_commence_ a suit."--_Johnson_. "O _continue_ thy loving kindness unto
them."--_Psalms_, xxxvi, 10. "A feather will _turn_ the scale."--_Shak._
"_Return_ him a trespass offering."--_1 Samuel_. "For it _becomes_ me so to
speak."--_Dryden_. But their construction with like cases is easily
distinguished by the sense; as, "When _I_ commenced _author_, my aim was to
amuse."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 286. "_Men_ continue men's
_destroyers_."--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 56. "'Tis most just, that thou turn
rascal"--_Shak., Timon of Athens_. "He went out _mate_, but _he_ returned
_captain_."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "After this event _he_ became
_physician_ to the king."--_Ib._ That is, "When I _began to be_ an author,"
&c.

"Ev'n mean _self-love_ becomes, by force divine,
The _scale_ to measure others' wants by thine."--_Pope_.

OBS. 15.--The common instructions of our English grammars, in relation to
the subject of the preceding rule, are exceedingly erroneous and defective.
For example: "The verb TO BE, has _always_ a nominative case after it,
_unless it be_ in the infinitive mode."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 77. "The verb
TO BE _requires_ the same case after it as before it."--_Churchill's
Gram._, p. 142. "The verb TO BE, through all its variations, _has_ the same
case after it, _expressed or understood_, as _that_ which _next_ precedes
it."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 181; _Alger's_, 62; _Merchant's_, 91;
_Putnam's_, 116; _Smith's_, 97; and many others. "The verb TO BE has
_usually_ the same case after it, as that which _immediately_ precedes
it."--_Hall's Gram._, p. 31. "_Neuter verbs have_ the same case after them,
as that which _next_ precedes them."--_Folker's Gram._, p. 14. "Passive
verbs _which signify naming_, and others of a _similar nature_, have the
same case _before and after_ them."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 182. "A Noun or
Pronoun used in predication with a verb, is in the Independent Case.
EXAMPLES--'Thou art a _scholar_.' 'It is _I_.' 'God is _love_.'"--_S. W.
Clark's Pract. Gram._, p. 149. So many and monstrous are the faults of
these rules, that nothing but very learned and reverend authority