ly because it is
_unnecessary_, but because "_every any other piece_,"--with which a score
of our grammarians have pleased themselves,--is not good English. The
impropriety might perhaps be avoided, though less elegantly, by _repeating
the preposition_, and saying,--"or _of_ any other piece of writing."--G.
BROWN.

[554] This correction, as well as the others which relate to what Murray
says of the several forms of ellipsis, doubtless conveys the sense which he
intended to express; but, as an assertion, it is by no means true of all
the examples which he subjoins, neither indeed are the rest. But that is a
fault of his which I cannot correct.--G. BROWN.

[555] The article _may_ be repeated in examples like these, without
producing _impropriety_; but then it will alter the construction of the
adjectives, and render the expression more formal and emphatic, by
suggesting a repetition of the noun.--G. BROWN.

[556] "The whole number of verbs in the English language, regular and
irregular, simple and compounded, taken together, is about 4300."--_Lowth's
Gram._, p. 59; _Murray's_, 12mo, p. 98; 8vo, p. 109; _et al._

[557] In Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 495, this sentence is expressed
and pointed thus: "O, shame! where is thy blush?"--_Hamlet_, Act III, Sc.
4. This is as if the speaker meant, "O! it is a shame! where is thy blush?"
Such is not the sense above; for there "_Shame_" is the person addressed.

[558] If, in each of these sentences, the colon were substituted for the
latter semicolon, the curves might well be spared. Lowth has a similar
passage, which (bating a needful variation of guillemets) he pointed thus:
"_as_ ----, _as_; expressing a comparison of equality; '_as_ white _as_
snow:' _as_ ----, _so_; expressing a comparison sometimes of equality;
'_as_ the stars, _so_ shall thy seed be;' that is, equal in number: but"
&c.--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 109. Murray, who broke this passage into
paragraphs, retained at first these semicolons, but afterwards changed them
_all_ to colons. Of later grammarians, some retain the former colon in each
sentence; some, the latter; and some, neither. Hiley points thus: "_As_
requires _as_, expressing equality; as, 'He is _as_ good _as_
she.'"--_Hiley's E. Gram._, p. 107.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Grammar of English Grammars, by Goold Brown

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