[as,] '_Our_ IDEAS _of
eternity_ CAN BE nothing but an infinite succession of moments of
duration.'--LOCKE. 'A _wise_ SON MAKETH a glad father; but a _foolish_ SON
IS the heaviness of his mother.' Abstract the name from its attribute, and
the proposition cannot always be true. 'HE _that gathereth in summer_ is a
wise son.' Take away the description, '_that gathereth in summer_,' and the
affirmation ceases to be true, or becomes inapplicable. These sentences or
clauses thus _constituting_ the subject of an affirmation, may be termed
_nominative sentences_."--_Improved Gram._, p. 95. This teaching reminds me
of the Doctor's own exclamation: "What strange work has been made with
Grammar!"--_Ib._, p. 94; _Philos. Gram._, 138. In Nesbit's English Parsing,
a book designed mainly for "a Key to Murray's Exercises in Parsing," the
following example is thus expounded: "The smooth stream, the serene
atmosphere, [and] the mild zephyr, are the proper emblems of a gentle
temper, and a peaceful life."--_Murray's Exercises_, p. 8. "_The smooth
stream, the serene atmosphere, the mild zephyr_, is part of a sentence,
_which_ is the _nominative case_ to the verb '_are_.' _Are_ is an irregular
verb neuter, in the indicative mood, the present tense, the third person
plural, and _agrees with the aforementioned part of a sentence_, as its
nominative case."--_Introduction to English Parsing_, p. 137. On this
principle of _analysis_, all the rules that speak of the nominatives or
antecedents connected by conjunctions, may be dispensed with, as useless;
and the doctrine, that a verb which has a phrase or sentence for its
subject, must be _singular_, is palpably contradicted, and supposed
erroneous!

[389] "No Relative can become a Nominative to a Verb."--_Joseph W. Wright's
Philosophical Grammar_, p. 162. "A _personal_ pronoun becomes a nominative,
though a _relative_ does not."--_Ib._, p. 152. This teacher is criticised
by the other as follows: "Wright says that 'Personal pronouns may be in the
nominative case,' and that 'relative pronouns _can not be_. Yet he declines
his relatives thus: 'Nominative case, _who_; possessive, _whose_;
objective, _whom!"--Oliver B. Peirce's Grammar_, p. 331. This latter author
here sees the palpable inconsistency of the former, and accordingly treats
_who, which, what, whatever_, &c., as relative pronouns of the nominative
case--or, as he calls them, "connective substitutes in the subjective
form;" but when _what_