e is put far, "_Thy ignorance of me_;" for an other's
ignorance would be no argument in regard to the individual addressed. "_I,
to bear this_, that never knew but better, _is_ some burden."--_Beauties of
Shak._, p. 327. Here the infinitive _to bear_, which is the subject of the
verb _is_, is limited in sense by the pronoun _I_, which is put absolute in
the nominative, though perhaps _improperly_; because, "_For me to bear
this_," &c., will convey the same meaning, in a form much more common, and
perhaps more grammatical. In the following couplet, there is an ellipsis of
the infinitive; for the phrase, "fool with fool," means, "_for_ fool _to
contend_ with fool," or, "for one fool to contend with an other:"

"Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor,
But _fool with fool_ is barb'rous civil war."
--_Pope, Dunciad_, B. iii, l. 175.

OBS. 12.--The objective noun or pronoun thus introduced by _for_ before the
infinitive, was erroneously called by Priestley, "_the subject of the
affirmation_;" (_Gram._, p. 132;) and Murray, Ingersoll, and others, have
blindly copied the blunder. See _Murray's Gram._, p. 184; _Ingersoll's_,
244. Again, Ingersoll says, "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is
sometimes the subject of a verb, _and is, therefore, its_
NOMINATIVE."--_Conversations on English Gram._, p. 246. To this erroneous
deduction, the phraseology used by Murray and others too plainly gives
countenance: "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put
_as the nominative case_ to the verb."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 144; _Fisk's_,
123; _Kirkham's_, 188; _Lennie's_, 99; _Bullions's_, 89; and many more. Now
the objective before the infinitive may not improperly be called _the
subject_ of this form of the verb, as the nominative is, of the finite; but
to call it "the subject _of the affirmation_," is plainly absurd; because
no infinitive, in English, ever expresses an affirmation. And again, if a
whole phrase or sentence is made the subject of a _finite_ verb, or of an
affirmation, no one word contained in it, can singly claim this title. Nor
can the whole, by virtue of this relation, be said to be "in the
_nominative case_;" because, in the nature of things, neither phrases nor
sentences are capable of being declined by cases.

OBS. 13.--Any phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a finite
verb, must be taken in the sense of _one thing_, and be spoken of as _a
whole_; so that the verb's ag