tten the English beneath the Latin. Perhaps it may be
imagined that we think good English _beneath_ us.
A singular noun of multitude is sometimes joined to a plural verb; as
Pars puerorum philosophum secuti sunt,
Part of the boys followed the philosopher.
[Illustration]
And so they would now, particularly if they saw one in costume.
Verbs impersonal have no nominative case before them, as
Taedet me Grammatices, I am weary of Grammar.
Pertaesum est Syntaxeos, I am quite sick of Syntax.
Mirificum visum est Socratem in gyrum saltantem videre,
It seemed wonderful to behold Socrates jumping Jim Crow.
[Illustration]
SECOND CONCORD.
THE SUBSTANTIVE AND THE ADJECTIVE.
Adjectives, participles, and pronouns agree with the substantive in
gender, number, and case, as
Vir exiguo conventui, sobrioque idoneus:
A nice man for a small tea-party.
[Illustration: A TEA SPOON.]
The Spartans, probably, were men of this kind; their aversion to
drunkenness being well known.
Observe how close the concord is between substantive and adjective. The
ties of wedlock are nothing to it; for, besides that in that happy state
there is very often not a little discord, it is quite impossible that
man and wife should ever agree in _gender_.
Sometimes a sentence supplies the place of a substantive; the adjective
being placed in the neuter gender, as
Audito reginam leones c[oe]nantes visisse:
It being heard that Her Majesty had gone to see the lions at supper.
THIRD CONCORD.
THE RELATIVE AND THE ANTECEDENT.
The relative and antecedent hit it off very well together; they agree
one with the other in gender, number, and person, as
Qui plenos haurit cyathos, madidusque quiescit,
Ille bonam degit vitam, moriturque facetus.
"He who drinks plenty, and goes to bed mellow,
Lives as he ought to do, and dies a jolly fellow."
[Illustration]
Horace was the fellow for this kind of thing. Cato must have been a
regular wet blanket.
Sometimes a sentence is placed for an antecedent, as
Heliogabalus, spiritu contento, viginti quatuor ostrearum
demersit in alvum, quod Dandoni etiam longe antecellit.
Heliogabalus, at one breath, swallowed two dozen of oysters,
which beats even Dando out and out.
[Illustration: HELIOGABALUS.]
Many of the ancients could swallow a good deal.
A relative placed between two substantives of different genders a
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