If so, _is_ ought to be
_are_; unless Dr. Webster is right, who imagines _wages_ to be _singular_,
and cites this example to prove it so. See his _Improved Gram._, p. 21.

NOTE VI.--When the verb cannot well be made singular, the nominative should
be made plural, that they may agree: or, if the verb cannot be plural, let
the nominative be singular. Example of error: "For _every one_ of them
_know_ their several duties."--_Hope of Israel_, p. 72. Say, "For _all_ of
them know their several duties."

NOTE VII.--When the verb has different forms, that form should be adopted,
which is the most consistent with present and reputable usage in the style
employed: thus, to say familiarly, "The clock _hath stricken_;"--"Thou
_laughedst_ and _talkedst_, when thou _oughtest_ to have been silent;"--"He
_readeth_ and _writeth_, but he _doth_ not cipher," would be no better,
than to use _don't, won't, can't, shan't_, and _didn't_, in preaching.

NOTE VIII.--Every finite verb not in the imperative mood, should have a
separate nominative expressed; as, "_I came, I saw, I conquered_:" except
when the verb is repeated for the sake of emphasis, or connected to an
other in the same construction, or put after _but_ or _than_; as, "Not an
eminent orator has lived _but is_ an example of it."--_Ware_. "Where more
is meant _than meets_ the ear."--_Milton's Allegro_. (See Obs. 5th and Obs.
18th above.)

"They _bud, blow, wither, fall_, and _die_."--_Watts_.

"That evermore his teeth they _chatter,
Chatter, chatter, chatter_ still."--_Wordsworth_.

NOTE IX.--A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the
subjunctive present; and a mere supposition, with indefinite time, by a
verb in the subjunctive imperfect; but a conditional circumstance assumed
as a fact, requires the indicative mood:[393] as, "If thou _forsake_ him,
he will cast thee off forever."--_Bible_. "If it _were_ not so, I would
have told you."--_Ib._ "If thou _went_, nothing would be gained."--"Though
he _is_ poor, he is contented."--"Though he _was_ rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor."--_2 Cor._, viii, 9.

NOTE X.--In general, every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood,
as the reader will be likely to mistake for a discord between the verb and
its nominative, ought to be avoided as an impropriety: as, "We are not
sensible of disproportion, till the difference between the quantities
compared _become_ the most striking circumstance."--_Kames, El.