sion, and palpable self-contradiction, as this!

[166] A critic's accuracy is sometimes liable to be brought into doubt, by
subsequent alterations of the texts which, he quotes. Many an error cited
in this volume of criticism, may possibly not be found in some future
edition of the book referred to; as several of those which were pointed out
by Lowth, have disappeared from the places named for them. Churchill also
cites this line as above; (_New Gram._, p. 214;) but, in my edition of the
Odyssey, by Pope, the reading is this: "By _lov'd Telemachus's_ blooming
years!"--Book xi, L 84.

[167] _Corpse_ forms the plural regularly, _corpses_; as in _2 Kings_, xix,
35: "In the morning, behold, they were all dead _corpses_."

[168] Murray says, "An _adjective_ put without a substantive, with the
definite article before it, _becomes a substantive in sense and meaning_,
and is _written as a substantive_: as, 'Providence rewards _the good_, and
punishes _the bad_.'" If I understand this, it is very erroneous, and
plainly contrary to the fact. I suppose the author to speak of _good
persons_ and _bad persons_; and, if he does, is there not an ellipsis in
his language? How can it be said, that _good_ and _bad_ are here
substantives, since they have a plural meaning and refuse the plural form?
A word "_written as a substantive_," unquestionably _is_ a substantive; but
neither of these is here entitled to that name. Yet Smith, and other
satellites of Murray, endorse his doctrine; and say, that _good_ and _bad_
in this example, and all adjectives similarly circumstanced, "may be
considered _nouns_ in parsing."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 52. "An adjective
with the definite article before it, becomes a _noun_, (of the third
person, plural number,) and _must be parsed_ as such."--_R. G. Greene's
Grammatical Text-Book_, p. 55.

[169] Here the word _English_ appears to be used substantively, not by
reason of the article, but rather because _it has no article_; for, when
the definite article is used before such a word taken in the singular
number, it seems to show that the noun _language_ is understood. And it is
remarkable, that before the names or epithets by which we distinguish the
languages, this article may, in many instances, be either used or not used,
repeated or not repeated, without any apparent impropriety: as, "This is
the case with _the_ Hebrew, French, Italian, and Spanish."--_Murray's
Gram._, i, p. 38. Better, perhaps: "This i