their numbers,
nor _was_ their destination, known."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 134. So in
clauses connected by _and_: as, "But declamation _is_ idle, and _murmurs_
fruitless."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 82. Say,--"and murmurs _are_
fruitless."

NOTE III.--In English, the speaker should always mention himself last;
unless his own superior dignity, or the confessional nature of the
expression, warrant him in taking the precedence: as, "_Thou or I_ must
go."--"He then addressed his discourse to _my father and me_."--"_Ellen and
I_ will seek, apart, the refuge of some forest cell."--_Scott_. See Obs.
11th above.

NOTE IV.--Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by _or_ or _nor_,
require a singular verb; and, if a nominative come after the verb, that
must be singular also: as, "That a drunkard should be poor, _or_ that a fop
should be ignorant, _is_ not strange."--"To give an affront, or to take one
tamely, _is_ no _mark_ of a great mind." So, when the phrases are
unconnected: as, "To spread suspicion, to invent calumnies, to propagate
scandal, _requires_ neither labour nor courage."--_Rambler_, No. 183.

NOTE V.--In general, when _verbs_ are connected by _and, or_, or _nor_,
they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or the simplest in form
must be placed first; as, "So Sennacherib king of Assyria _departed_, and
_went_ and _returned_, and _dwelt_ at Nineveh."--_Isaiah_, xxxvii, 37. "For
if I _be_ an offender, or _have committed_ any thing worthy of death, I
refuse not to die."--_Acts_, xxv, 11.

NOTE VI.--In stead of conjoining discordant verbs, it is in general better
to repeat the nominative or insert a new one; as, "He was greatly heated,
and [_he] drank_ with avidity."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 201. "A person may
be great or rich by chance; but _cannot be_ wise or good, without taking
pains for it."--_Ib._, p. 200. Say,--"but _no one can be_ wise or good,
without taking pains for it."

NOTE VII.--A mixture of the forms of the solemn style and the familiar, is
inelegant, whether the verbs refer to the same nominative or have different
ones expressed; as, "What _appears_ tottering and in hazard of tumbling,
_produceth_ in the spectator the painful emotion of fear."--_Kames, El. of
Crit._, ii, 356. "And the milkmaid _singeth_ blithe, And the mower _whets_
his sithe."--_Milton's Allegro_, l. 65 and 66.

NOTE VIII.--To use different moods under precisely the same circumstances,
is improper, even if the verbs h