, could
possibly impose such teaching anywhere. The first, though written by Lowth,
is not a whit wiser than to say, "The preposition _to_ has _always_ an
infinitive mood after it, _unless it be_ a preposition." And this latter
absurdity is even a better rule for all infinitives, than the former for
all predicated nominatives. Nor is there much more fitness in any of the
rest. "The verb TO BE, _through all_," or even _in any_, of its parts, has
neither "_always_" nor _usually_ a case "_expressed_ or _understood_" after
it; and, even when there is a noun or a pronoun put after it, the case is,
in very many instances, not to be determined by that which "_next_" or
"_immediately_" precedes the verb. Examples: "A _sect of freethinkers_ is a
_sum_ of ciphers."--_Bentley_. "And _I_ am this _day_ weak, though anointed
_king_."--_2 Sam._, iii, 39. "_What_ made _Luther_ a great _man_, was _his_
unshaken _reliance_ on God."--_Kortz's Life of Luther_, p. 13. "The devil
offers his service; _He_ is sent with a positive _commission_ to be a lying
_spirit_ in the mouth of all the prophets."--_Calvin's Institutes_, p. 131.
It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words _sum, king,
reliance_, and _spirit_, are _nominatives_, after the verb or participle;
and not _objectives_, as they must be, if there were any truth in the
common assertion, "that the two cases, which, in the construction of the
sentence, are _the next_ before and after it, must always be
alike."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 98. Not only may the nominative before the
verb be followed by an objective, but the nominative after it may be
preceded by a possessive; as, "Amos, the herdsman of _Tekoa_, was not a
_prophet's_ son."--"It is the _king's_ chapel, and it is the _king's_
court."--_Amos_, vii, 13. How ignorant then must that person be, who cannot
see the falsity of the instructions above cited! How careless the reader
who overlooks it!

NOTES TO RULE VI.

NOTE I.--The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a
participial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid; for
the cases ought to be _clear_, even in exceptions to the common rules of
construction. Examples: (1.) "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state _of being a
widow_."--_Webster's Dict._ Say rather, "WIDOWHOOD, _n._ The state of a
widow."--_Johnson, Walker, Worcester_. (2.) "I had a suspicion of the
_fellow's_ being a _swindler_/" Say rather, "I had a suspicion _that the
fellow