, dulness or
refinements _are_ dangerous enemies."--_Brown's Estimate_, Vol. ii, p. 15.
"He hazards his own life with that of his enemy, and one or both _are_ very
_honorably_ murdered."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 235. "The consequence is,
that they frown upon everyone whose faults or negligence _interrupts_ or
_retards_ their lessons."--_W. C. Woodbridge: Lit. Conv._, p. 114. "Good
intentions, or at least sincerity of purpose, _was_ never denied
her."--_West's Letters_, p. 43. "Yet this proves not that either he or we
_judge_ them to be the rule."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 157. "First clear
yourselves of popery before you or thou _dost throw_ it upon us."--_Ib._,
i, 169. "_Is_ the gospel or glad tidings of this salvation brought nigh
unto all?"--_Ib._, i, 362. "Being persuaded, that either they, or their
cause, _is_ naught."--_Ib._, i, 504. "And the reader may judge whether he
or I _do_ most fully acknowledge man's fall."--_Ib._, iii, 332. "To do
justice to the Ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any
two, of the three Estates, _have_ power to make a new law, without the
concurrence of the third."--_Junius_, Letter xvii. "The forest, or
hunting-grounds, _are_ deemed the property of the tribe."--_Robertson's
America_, i, 313. "Birth or titles _confer_ no preeminence."--_Ib._, ii,
184. "Neither tobacco nor hides _were_ imported from Caraccas into
Spain."--_Ib._, ii, 507. "The keys or seed-vessel of the maple _has_ two
large side-wings."--_The Friend_, vii, 97. "An example or two _are_
sufficient to illustrate the general observation."--_Dr. Murray's Hist. of
Lang._, i, 58.

"Not thou, nor those thy factious arts engage,
_Shall_ reap that harvest of rebellious rage."--_Dryden_, p. 60.

OBS. 9.--But when the remoter nominative is the principal word, and the
nearer one is expressed parenthetically, the verb agrees literally with the
former, and only by implication, with the latter; as, "One example, (or
ten,) _says_ nothing against it."--_Leigh Hunt_. "And we, (or future ages,)
_may_ possibly _have_ a proof of it."--_Bp. Butler_. So, when the
alternative is merely in the _words_, not in the _thought_, the former term
is sometimes considered the principal one, and is therefore allowed to
control the verb; but there is always a harshness in this mixture of
different numbers, and, to render such a construction tolerable, it is
necessary to read the latter term like a parenthesis, and make the former
emphati