alker's
twelve "Orthographical Aphorisms," which Murray and others republish as
their "Rules for Spelling," and which in stead of amending they merely
corrupt, happened through some carelessness to contain _two_ which should
have been condensed into _one_. For "words ending with y preceded by a
consonant," he has not only the absurd rule or assertion above recited, but
an other which is better, with an exception or remark under each,
respecting "_y_ preceded by a vowel." The grammarians follow him in his
errors, and add to their number: hence the repetition, or similarity, in
the absurdities here quoted. By the term "_verbal nouns_," Walker meant
nouns denoting agents, as _carrier_ from carry; but Kirkham understood him
to mean "_participial nouns_," as _the carrying_. Or rather, he so mistook
"that able philologist" Murray; for he probably knew nothing of Walker in
the matter; and accordingly changed the word "_verbal_" to "_participial_;"
thus teaching, through all his hundred editions, except a few of the first,
that participial nouns from verbs ending in _y_ preceded by a consonant,
are formed by merely "changing the _y_ into _i_." But he seems to have
known, that this is not the way to form the participle; though he did not
know, that "_coyless_" is not a proper English word.

[456] The _idea of plurality_ is not "_plurality of idea_," any more than
the _idea of wickedness_, or the _idea of absurdity_, is absurdity or
wickedness of idea; yet, behold, how our grammarians copy the blunder,
which Lowth (perhaps) first fell into, of putting the one phrase for the
other! Even Professor Fowler, (as well as Murray, Kirkham, and others,)
talks of having regard "_to unity or plurality of idea_!"--_Fowler's E.
Gram._, 8vo. 1850, Sec.513,--G. BROWN.

[457] In the Doctor's "New Edition, Revised and Corrected," the text stands
thus: "The _Present participle_ of THE ACTIVE VOICE has an active
signification; as, James is _building_ the house. _In many of these_,
however, _it_ has," &c. Here the first sentence is but an idle truism; and
the phrase, "_In many of these_," for lack of an antecedent to _these_, is
utter nonsense. What is in "the active voice," ought of course to be
_active_ in "signification;" but, in this author's present scheme of the
verb, we find "the active voice," in direct violation of his own definition
of it, ascribed not only to verbs and participles either neuter or
intransitive, but also, as it would seem