r_, has lately been creeping into the language, in the application
of these terms to a plurality of objects: as, '_Twenty_ ruffians broke into
the house, but _neither_ of them could be recognized.' 'Here are _fifty_
pens, you will find that _either_ of them will do.'"--MATT. HARRISON, _on
the English Language_, p. 199. "_Either_ and _neither_, applied to any
number more than _one_ of _two_ objects, is a mere solecism, and one of
late introduction."--_Ib._, p. 200. Say, "_Either_ OR _neither_," &c.--G.
B.

[377] Dr. Priestley censures this construction, on the ground, that the
word _whole_ is an "_attribute of unity_," and therefore improperly added
to a plural noun. But, in fact, this adjective is not _necessarily_
singular, nor is _all_ necessarily plural. Yet there is a difference
between the words: _whole_ is equivalent to _all_ only when the noun is
singular; for then only do _entireness_ and _totality_ coincide. A man may
say, "_the whole thing_," when he means, "_all the thing_;" but he must not
call _all things, whole things_. In the following example, _all_ is put for
_whole_, and taken substantively; but the expression is a quaint one,
because the article and preposition seem needless: "Which doth encompass
and embrace the _all_ of things."--_The Dial_, Vol. i, p. 59.

[378] This is not a mere repetition of the last example cited under Note
14th above; but it is Murray's interpretation of the text there quoted.
Both forms are faulty, but not in the same way.--G. BROWN.

[379] Some authors erroneously say, "A _personal_ pronoun does not always
agree in person with its antecedent; as, 'John said, _I_ will do
it.'"--_Goodenow's Gram._ "When I say, 'Go, and say to those children, you
must come in,' you perceive that the noun children is of the _third_
person, but the pronoun you is of the _second_; yet _you_ stands for
_children_,"--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 54. Here are different speakers, with
separate speeches; and these critics are manifestly deceived by the
circumstance. It is not to be supposed, that the nouns represented by one
speaker's pronouns, are to be found or sought in what an other speaker
utters. The pronoun _I_ does not here stand for the noun _John_ which is of
the third person; it is John's own word, representing himself as the
speaker. The meaning is, _"I myself, John, of the first person, will do
it."_ Nor does _you_ stand for _children_ as spoken _of_ by Ingersoll; but
for _children_ of the _se