'_He_ had the honour of being a _director_ for life.'
'By being a _diligent student, he_ soon acquired eminence in his
profession.'"--_Ib._, p. 83. But "_director_" and "_student_" are here
manifestly in the _nominative_ case: each agreeing with the pronoun _he_,
which denotes the same person. In the latter sentence, there is a very
obvious transposition of the first five words.

[444] Faulty as this example is, Dr. Blair says of it: "Nothing can be more
elegant, or more finely turned, than this sentence. It is neat, _clear_,
and musical. We could hardly _alter one word_, or disarrange one member,
without _spoiling_ it. Few sentences are to be found, more finished, or
more happy."--_Lecture_ XX, p. 201. See the _six_ corrections suggested in
my Key, and judge whether or not they _spoil_ the sentence.--G. B.

[445] This Note, as well as all the others, will by-and-by be amply
illustrated by citations from authors of sufficient repute to give it some
value as a grammatical principle: but one cannot hope such language as is,
in reality, incorrigibly bad, will always appear so to the generality of
readers. Tastes, habits, principles, judgements, differ; and, where
confidence is gained, many utterances are well received, that are neither
well considered nor well understood. When a professed critic utters what is
incorrect beyond amendment, the fault is the more noteworthy, as his
professions are louder, or his standing is more eminent. In a recent
preface, deliberately composed for a very comprehensive work on "English
Grammar," and designed to allure both young and old to "a thorough and
extensive acquaintance with their mother tongue,"--in the studied preface
of a learned writer, who has aimed "to furnish not only a text-book for the
higher institutions, but also a reference-book for _teachers_, which may
give breadth and exactness to their views,"--I find a paragraph of which
the following is a part: "Unless men, at least occasionally, bestow their
attention upon the science and the laws of the language, they are in some
danger, amid the excitements of professional life, of losing the delicacy
of their taste and giving sanction to vulgarisms, or to what is worse. On
this point, listen to the recent declarations of two leading men in the
Senate of the United States, both of whom understand the use of the English
language in its power: 'In truth, I must say that, in my opinion, the
vernacular tongue of the country has becom