e_ common
enough in the world."--_Ibid._ "It is vain for _a people_ to expect to be
free, unless _they_ are first willing to be virtuous."--_Wayland's Moral
Science_, p. 397. "For _this people's_ heart is waxed gross, and _their_
ears are dull of hearing, and _their_ eyes _they_ have closed."--_Matt._,
xiii, 15. "_This enemy_ had now enlarged _their_ confederacy, and made
_themselves_ more formidable than before."--_Life of Antoninus_, p. 62.

"Thus from the tents the fervent _legion swarms_;
So loud _their_ clamour, and so keen _their_ arms."
--_Pope, Iliad_, B. xvi, l. 320.

OBS. 3.--Most collective nouns of the neuter gender, may take the regular
plural form, and be represented by a pronoun in the third person, plural,
neuter; as, "The _nations_ will enforce _their_ laws." This construction
comes under Rule 10th, as does also the singular, "The _nations_ will
enforce _its_ laws;" for, in either case, the agreement is entirely
literal. Half of Murray's Rule 4th is therefore needless. To Rule 11th
above, there are properly no exceptions; because the number of the pronoun
is itself the index to the sense in which the antecedent is therein taken.
It does not follow, however, but that there may be violations of the rule,
or of the notes under it, by the adoption of one number when the other
would be more correct, or in better taste. A collection of things
inanimate, as a fleet, a heap, a row, a tier, a bundle, is seldom, if ever,
taken distributively, with a plural pronoun. For a further elucidation of
the construction of collective nouns, see Rule 15th, and the observations
under it.

NOTES TO RULE XI.

NOTE I.--A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a pronoun
in the third person, singular, neuter; as, "When a legislative _body_ makes
laws, _it_ acts for _itself_ only; but when _it_ makes grants or contracts,
_it_ acts as a party."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 40. "A civilized _people_
has no right to violate _its_ solemn obligations, because the other party
is uncivilized."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 314.

NOTE II.--When a collective noun is followed by two or more words which
must each in some sense agree with it, uniformity of number is commonly
preferable to diversity, and especially to such a mixture as puts the
singular both before and after the plural; as, "_That_ ingenious nation
_who have done_ so much honour to modern literature, _possesses_, in an
eminent degree, the talen