is singular: "Prudence, policy, nay, his own true
interest, strongly _recommends_ the line of conduct proposed to
him."--_Octavo Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 22.

OBS. 6.--When two or more nominatives are in apposition with a preceding
one which they explain, the verb must agree with the first word only,
because the others are adjuncts to this, and not joint subjects to the
verb; as, "Loudd, the ancient Lydda and Diospolis, _appears_ like a place
lately ravaged by fire and sword."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 93. "Beattie,
James,--a philosopher and poet,--_was born_ in Scotland, in the year
1735."--_Murray's Sequel_, p. 306. "For, the quantity, the length, and
shortness of our syllables, _is_ not, by any means, so fixed."--_Blair's
Rhet._, p. 124. This principle, like the preceding one, persuades me again
to dissent from Murray, who corrects or _perverts_ the following sentence,
by changing _originates_ to _originate_: "All that makes a figure on the
great theatre of the world; the employments of the busy, the enterprises of
the ambitious, and the exploits of the warlike; the virtues which form the
happiness, and the crimes which occasion the misery of mankind;
_originates_ in that silent and secret recess of thought, which is hidden
from every human eye."--See _Murray's Octavo Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 181; or
his _Duodecimo Key_, p. 21. The true subject of this proposition is the
noun _all_, which is singular; and the other nominatives are subordinate to
this, and merely explanatory of it.

OBS. 7.--Dr. Webster says, "_Enumeration_ and addition of numbers are
_usually_ expressed in the singular _number_; [as,] two and two _is_ four;
seven and nine _is_ sixteen; that is, _the sum of_ seven and nine _is_
sixteen. But modern usage inclines to reject the use of the verb in the
singular number, in these and similar phrases."--_Improved Gram._, p. 106.
Among its many faults, this passage exhibits a virtual contradiction. For
what "_modern usage_ inclines to reject," can hardly be the fashion in
which any ideas "_are usually expressed_." Besides, I may safely aver, that
this is a kind of phraseology which all correct usage always did reject. It
is not only a gross vulgarism, but a plain and palpable violation of the
foregoing rule of syntax; and, as such it must be reputed, if the rule has
any propriety at all. What "_enumeration_" has to do with it, is more than
I can tell. But Dr. Webster once admired and commended this mode of speech,
as on