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Shadwell alone my perfect image bears
Mature in dulness from his earliest years :
Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he
Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.

The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.-Dryden.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know, Virtue alone is happiness below.-Pope. Shakespeare himself, divine as are his gifts, has not, of the marks of the master, this one: perfect sureness of hand in his style. Alone of English poets, alone in English art, Milton has it; he is our great artist in style, our one first-rate master in the grand style.— Matthew Arnold.

(3.) POSITION OF PREPOSITIONS.

266. Generally, a Preposition should not be the last word in a sentence; but it is not unusual to find such an arrangement in our older writers :—

The world is too well bred to shock authors with a truth, which generally their booksellers are the first to inform them of Pope.

NOTE 1.-The Relative that cannot have a Preposition before it, and hence

Is this the book that I have heard so much of?

is just as good English as

Is this the book of which I have heard so much?

And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.

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NOTE 2. To obtain emphasis a Preposition is thrown to the end of a sentence :

All this labour I was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on account of a man's foot which I had seen.-Defoe.

(4.) THE PREPOSITIONAL INFINITIVE.

267. The Prepositional Infinitive (§ 135) has some curious uses :

1. That of the Gerund (§ 140) :

What went ye out for to see?—S. Matt. xi. 9.

We are not born to sue, but to command.—R. 2.; 1, 1, 196.

:

2. To express a purpose (§ 213, Note) :

I went out into the island with my gun, to see for some food.-Defoe.

He gave the greater part of his property to a friend, to be spent by him in works of charity.

3. To express quality, like an Adjective:Even as soldiers they were not to be despised. A sight to dream of, not to tell.—Coleridge.

4. Depending upon words understood, as I am, I ought :

I know not where to hide my head.

5. It is attached to many Adjectives, such as those denoting ability, inclination, readiness, and their

contraries :

Burke had, in the highest degree, that noble faculty whereby man is able to live in the past and in the future, in the distant and in the unreal. India and its inhabitants were not to him, as to most Englishmen, mere names and abstractions, but a real country and a real people.-Macaulay.

Ah, my good lord, I grieve at what I speak,
And am right sorry to repeat what follows.
H. 8.; 5, 1, 96.

I humbly thank your highness;

And am right glad to catch this good occasion.

H. 8.; 5, I, 109.

What! were you snarling all, before I came,
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
R. 3.; 1, 3, 188.

6. It follows such expressions as too good, too wise, etc.:

Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,

To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.

Gent. 4, 2, 5.

7. It follows many Nouns expressing feelings and affec

tions and efforts :

I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.—Temp. 1, 2, 482.

M

Where he points his purple spear,
Hasty, hasty rout is there,

Marking with indignant eye

Fear to stop, and shame to fly.-Gray.

Our caution increasing as our years increase, fear becomes at last the prevailing passion of the mind; and the small remainder of life is taken up in useless efforts to keep off our end.-Goldsmith.

(5.) INDEFINITE SUBJECTS.

268. Each, every, and either are joined to singular Nouns and Verbs :

Like a school broke up,

Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.

H. 4. B.; 4, 2, 104.

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage.-Gent. 2, 7, 29.
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step.

Gent. 2, 7, 34.

The children thus disposed, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast.

Err. 1, 1, 84.

NOTE 1.-Either in Old English meant each of two. NOTE 2.-Every one may have a plural meaning :

Every one of these remedies have been successively attempted. Junius.

And every one to rest themselves betake.—Lucr. 125. Every one of these letters are in my name.

Twel. 2, 5, 153.

269. All, such, and many, when they limit a singular Noun, limited also by an Article, require the Article to be placed between them and the Noun:

All the world's a stage.—As, 2, 7, 139.

In such a night

-Merch. 5, 1, 9.

Full many a flower. . -Gray's Elegy.

270. We, you, a man, men, and one are used as Indefinite Subjects :—

In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise imaginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community.-Gibbon.

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will cling round it still.

Moore.

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
Temp. 2, 2, 42.

Men said he saw strange visions

Which none beside might see;

And that strange sounds were in his ears

Which none might hear but he.-Macaulay.

I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things.-Gent. 4, 4, 12.

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