tax of this part of speech, is merely, _to omit the
gender_--this being the only difference between the two forms. But even
this difference had no other origin than the compiler's carelessness in
preparing his octavo book of exercises--the gender being inserted in the
duodecimo. And what then? Is the syntactical parsing of a noun to be
precisely the same as the etymological? Never. But Murray, and all who
admire and follow his work, are content to parse many words by
halves--making, or pretending to make, a necessary distinction, and yet
often omitting, in both parts of the exercise, every thing which
constitutes the difference. He should here have said--"_Vice_ is a common
noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative
case: and is the subject of _degrades_; according to the rule which says,
'A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a verb, must be in the
nominative case.' Because the meaning is--_vice degrades_." This is the
whole description of the word, with its construction; and to say less, is
to leave the matter unfinished.

32. Thirdly--from his "Mode of verbally correcting erroneous sentences:"
Take his first example: "The man is prudent which speaks little." (How far
silence is prudence, depends upon circumstances: I waive that question.)
The learner is here taught to say, "This sentence is incorrect; because
_which_ is a pronoun _of the neuter gender, and does not agree in gender_
with its antecedent _man_, which is masculine. But a pronoun should agree
with its antecedent in gender, &c. according to the fifth rule of syntax.
_Which_ should _therefore_ be _who_, a relative pronoun, agreeing with its
antecedent _man_; and the sentence should stand thus: 'The man is prudent
_who_ speaks little.'"--_Murray's Octavo Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 18;
_Exercises_, 12mo, p. xii. Again: "'After I visited Europe, I returned to
America.' This sentence," says Murray, "_is not correct_; because the verb
_visited_ is in the imperfect tense, and yet used here to express an
action, not only past, but prior to the time referred to by the verb
_returned_, to which it relates. By the thirteenth rule of syntax, when
verbs are used that, in point of time, relate to each other, the order of
time should be observed. The imperfect tense _visited_ should therefore
have been _had visited_, in the pluperfect tense, representing the action
of _visiting_, not only as past, but also as prior to the time of
_returning_.