improperly, put for _soldiers_, as if a soldier were _a
troop_; as, "While those gallant _troops_, by _whom_ every hazardous, every
laborious service is performed, are left to perish."--_Junius_, p. 147. In
Genesis, xxvii, 29th, we read, "Let _people_ serve thee, and nations bow
down to thee." But, according to the Vulgate, it ought to be, "Let
_peoples_ serve thee, and nations bow down to thee;" according to the
Septuagint, "Let _nations_ serve thee, and _rulers_ bow down to thee."
Among Murray's "instances of false syntax," we find the text, "This people
draweth near to me with their mouth," &c.--_Octavo Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 49.
This is corrected in his Key, thus: "_These_ people _draw_ near to me with
their mouth."--_Ib._, ii, 185. The Bible has it: "This people _draw near
me_ with their mouth."--_Isaiah_, xxix, 13. And again: "This people
_draweth nigh unto_ me with their mouth.,"--_Matt._, xv, 8. Dr. Priestley
thought it ought to be, "This people _draws_ nigh unto me with their
_mouths_."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 63. The second evangelist omits some
words: "This people _honoureth_ me with their lips, but _their heart_ is
far from me."--_Mark_, vii, 6. In my opinion, the plural verb is here to be
preferred; because the pronoun _their_ is plural, and the worship spoken of
was a personal rather than a national act. Yet the adjective _this_ must be
retained, if the text specify the Jews as a people. As to the words _mouth_
and _heart_, they are to be understood figuratively of _speech_ and _love_;
and I agree not with Priestley, that the plural number must necessarily be
used. See Note 4th to Rule 4th.

OBS. 12.--In making an assertion concerning a number or quantity with some
indefinite excess or allowance, we seem sometimes to take for the subject
of the verb what is really the object of a preposition; as, "In a sermon,
there _may be_ from three to five, or six heads."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 313.
"In those of Germany, there _are_ from eight to twelve professors."--
_Dwight, Lit. Convention_, p. 138. "About a million and a half _was
subscribed_ in a few days."--_N. Y. Daily Advertiser_. "About one hundred
feet of the Muncy dam _has been swept off_."--_N. Y. Observer_. "Upwards of
one hundred thousand dollars _have been appropriated_."--_Newspaper_. "But
I fear there _are_ between twenty and thirty of them."--_Tooke's
Diversions_, ii, 441. "Besides which, there _are_ upwards of fifty smaller
islands."--_Balbi's Geog._, p.