was a swindler_." (3.) "To prevent _its_ being a dry _detail_ of
terms."--_Buck_. Better, "To prevent it _from_ being a dry detail of
terms." [361]

NOTE II.--The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to
accord in signification, either literally or figuratively, with the
preceding term which is taken for a sign of the same thing. Errors: (1.)
"_To be convicted_ of bribery, was then a crime altogether
unpardonable."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 265. To be convicted of a crime, is not
the crime itself; say, therefore, "_Bribery_ was then a _crime_ altogether
unpardonable." (2.) "The second person is the _object_ of the
Imperative."--_Murray's Gram., Index_, ii, 292. Say rather, "The second
person is the _subject_ of the imperative;" for the _object_ of a verb is
the word governed by it, and not its nominative.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VI.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--OF PROPER IDENTITY.

"Who would not say, 'If it be _me_,' rather than, If it be
_I_?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 105.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the
pronoun _me_,--which comes after the neuter verb _be_, is in the objective
case, and does not agree with the pronoun _it_, the verb's nominative,[362]
which refers to the same thing. But, according to Rule 6th, "A noun or a
pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with
a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same thing." Therefore, _me_
should be _I_; thus, "Who would not say, 'If it be _I_,' rather than, 'If
it be _me_?'"]

"Who is there? It is me."--_Priestley, ib._, p. 104. "It is him."--_Id.,
ib._, 104. "Are these the houses you were speaking of? Yes, they are
them."--_Id., ib._, 104. "It is not me you are in love with."--_Addison's
Spect._, No. 290; _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104; and _Campbell's Rhet._, p.
203. "It cannot be me."--SWIFT: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 104. "To that which
once was thee."--PRIOR: _ib._, 104. "There is but one man that she can
have, and that is me."--CLARISSA: _ib._, 104. "We enter, as it were, into
his body, and become, in some measure, him."--ADAM SMITH: _ib._, p. 105.
"Art thou proud yet? Ay, that I am not thee."--_Shak., Timon_. "He knew not
whom they were."--_Milnes, Greek Gram._, p. 234. "Who do you think me to
be?"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 108. "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man,
am?"--_Matt._, xvi, 13. "But whom say ye that I am?"--_Ib._, xvi,
15.--"Whom think ye that I am? I am not he."--_Acts