Or,

A. My father never wore powder in his hair, and B. My mother never wore powder in her hair. 'Their ' compromises for a separate statement of the genders. Compare the examples under § 60.

EXERCISE 438.

1. She could never come near man or woman but she tried to domineer over them. 2. Neither Church nor State had in France the same grounds of quarrel with Rome as they had in other lands. 3. Neither Mr. Phelps, nor any other actor, however accomplished, can depend wholly upon the dramas of past ages to maintain their position in public favour. 4. He said that he never liked man, woman, or beast, but what she was sure to be jealous of it. 5. Either a horse or a mare has lost its shoe. 6. Not on outward charms should man or woman build their pretensions to please. 7. You or I would go if we had an invitation.

Impropriety or Error.

521. With' for 'and' with plural verb.

The general with his officers were brought to trial.' This sentence is really simple.

The idea of a plurality of individuals brought to trial is present to the mind; hence the plural verb 'were.' The form, however, shows a singular subject with an adjunct mentioning the other individuals; so that the verb ought to be singular.

If the officers are to be directly predicated about, say 'The general and his officers were brought to trial'; the higher position of the general being thus sufficiently preserved. If the general is to receive the greatly superior prominence assigned to him in the first form, then the verb must be 'was.'

522. Alternated Singular Subjects with Plural Verb.

Such cases as the following suggest still wider application of Neutral Predicate Forms (§ 518-9). Nor light nor darkness bring his pain relief."

'Brings,' the singular, is expected, seeing that the singular subjects are alternated. The plural may be due to the presence of more subjects than one before the mind: they take a conjoint predicate, although they are formally expressed in contrast.

'Death, emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives.'

The predicate requires and' in place of 'or'; the influence determining the use of 'or' being the fact that only one alterna

W

tive of the three is applicable in any given case.

But this fact is gratuitously put forward here; a mere enumeration of points is intended; hence the proper connective is 'and.'

'Parting or danger are nothing to you.'

That is: 'Parting (is nothing to you ;) and (even) danger is nothing to you'; 'neither parting nor (even) danger is anything to you.'

With an alternative conjunction, the plural verb is wrong. A cumulative conjunction is not desirable, except in the formal application, when the first subject is dropped as soon as named (the predicate being understood); and here again the plural verb would be wrong.

523. 'Both-and' with Singular Verb.

This construction is very rare. Perhaps the explanation is that the conjunctions forcibly draw attention to the subjects individually, so that the predicate is felt to be more decidedly attached to each than to both.

524. Forms of Double Conjunctions.

'Nor-nor' and 'Or-or' are poetical forms. The prose usage recognises only neither-nor,' 'either-or.' Neither-or' is very loose, and

improper.

6

Both-and' is the regular form. Yet bothas well as' is found: 'both during life as well as after death' (GROTE).

Though 'as well as may often be used as a strong 'and,' the union with both' must be regarded as improper.

525. Double Conjunctions extended to several members.

'Either' and 'neither' might be expected to confine themselves to an alternation of two subjects. Yet they very often stand before the first of three or more alternatives. Thus:

'William sent Harold a message by some monks, requiring him either to resign the kingdom, or to hold it of him in fealty, or to submit their cause to the arbitration of the pope, or to fight him in single combat.'

'They are neither friends, nor lovers, nor fathers, nor citizens of the world, nor benefactors of their country.'

Both-and' is also, but less frequently, extended beyond two members: as

'I will rule both her, () the king, and realm.’

526. Wrong contraction with Auxiliary Verbs. Will you or have you swum across the river?' 'Have' is followed by 'swum,' but 'will' requires 'swim.' Express fully thus: 'Will you swim, or have you swum ?'

To blessing or to cursing save from one.

2. Neither the king nor either of his two eldest sons are permitted to leave the island. 3. One after another were put on board in this manner. 4. To win or to lose at cards is unpleasant. 5. True taste or even common sense are out of the question. 6. Neither Kent nor Sussex were among the greatest of the kingdoms which our fathers founded in Britain. 7. We must consider both the advantages we have gained as well as the disadvantages with which we have saddled ourselves. 8. Neither Mr. Adderley nor Mr. Roebuck are by nature inaccessible to considerations of this sort. 9. Titles or promotion were not to benefit him now. 10. No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear. 11. Give me no Buts; neither But nor If pass between Monk and Abbot, Father Philip. 12. He could neither read or write. 13. Henry's antipathy to the York party no time or experience were ever able to efface. 14. There has been nothing but complaints of the violence of our predecessors to the country in all kinds, both as to the persons as well as goods. 15. Neither peace nor war, nor summer nor winter, were a period of repose. 16. The goodness or badness of the consequences depend upon the circumstances. 17. The proximity to the great body of water of the Amazon and the ocean, together with the greater extent of lowland and dense forest about the city, are probably the causes of this great difference of climate in so short à distance. 18. Nor want nor cold his course delay. 19. Disobedience, desertion, mutiny, or theft, were visited with death. 20. First, thou thyself, thy lady, and thy dwarf, Shalt ride to Arthur's court, and being there, Crave pardon for that insult done the Queen, And shalt abide her judgment on it.

EXERCISE 440.

General examples.

1. I have and do reverence the late Lord St. Albans for the greatness that was only proper to himself. 2. From the begin

ning of the eleventh century, the history of England and of Normandy becomes more and more intermixed. 3. The relation of father and son, as was that of patron and client, were generally, in the practice of life, cherished with religious fidelity. 4. The whole island of Great Britain, as well as Ireland and the smaller islands about them, now forms only one kingdom. (Compare 12, below.) 5. A rude simplicity, combined with a gloomy and overpowering force, are its chief characteristics. 6. I have and will maintain this. 7. In our present English language the speech of the victors and the vanquished have been happily blended. 8. From the days of Earl Simon onwards, both the power of Parliament as a whole, and the special power of the House of Commons, was constantly growing. 9. The character of the two poems (the Iliad and the Odyssey) is essentially different. 10. Every one knows that the Novelist and the author of the Lay of the Minstrel is the same person. 11. The moment of finishing his plans in deliberation, and commencing them in action, was the same. 12. Now not only England, but Wales, Scotland, and Ireland too, make up altogether only one Kingdom. (Compare 4, above). 13. Man never is, but always to be blest. 14. Life or death, felicity or lasting sorrow, are in the power of marriage. 15. In the life of Luther, neither dogmatic violence nor political necessity ever serve to hide from us the genuine human heart. 16. The present system is neither a peaceable or economical one. 17. Language is not a work of human art in the same sense in which painting, or building, or writing, or printing, are. (Max Müller.) 18. Neither Latin nor mathematics are included in this curriculum.

19. No pitying heart, no eye, afford

A tear to grace his obsequies.

20. Hence all the good from opulence that springs,
With all those ills superfluous treasure brings,
Are here displayed.

527. Misplacement of Double Conjunctions. The expressions connected by double conjunctions ought, as a rule, to be stated similarly; here is a case for the Balanced Structure of sentence. To find out any impropriety in the placing, the most effective course is to resolve the sentence.

'He solicited not her tenderness, but her esteem' shows the proper arrangement.

'Her tenderness' and 'her esteem' are the contrasted objects, the subject and the predicate being common: and the words not,' 'but,' combine to act as a double-membered conjunction, one member preceding each of the contrasted parts.

'Without the aid of our wealth, they could neither furnish forth their hosts in war, nor their triumphs in peace.'

Let us now arrange the contrasted points side by side :
Without the aid of our wealth, they could

neither furnish forth their hosts in war,

nor

their triumphs in peace.

6

Thus we see that the last of the contrasted expressions is defective; it wants a verb to set off against 'furnish forth.' When neither' occurs before furnish forth,' we naturally expect that some contrasting action will follow 'nor.' We might here supply array,' 'adorn,' celebrate,' &c., or we might repeat furnish forth.' But what the contrast really requires is that furnish forth,' being common to both the expressions, should not appear in only one of these, or even in both, but should be joined to the common part. The proper arrangement therefore is:

They could furnish forth

neither their hosts in war,

nor their triumphs in peace.

'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.' 'Both' preceding 'glorified' leads one to expect another corresponding participle after 'and.' The time changes, however; while the speaker expresses the first action as now completed, he expresses the second as a present resolution with reference to the future. The verbs have' and 'will' are incompatible here; each must be confined to its own member. I have (both) glorified it,

(and) will glorify it again

shows the misplacement of 'have.' Re-arrange thus :

1. Lady Glowowrum shall neither rule my thoughts, nor my words, nor my eyes. 2. He neither understood the nature nor the extent of the spell. 3. Neither pleased with himself nor with the dwarf, Magnus asked him sharply what was his business there. 4. Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct. 5. The abbeys upon the Border neither seem to have been much respected by the English nor by the Scottish barons. 6. Thee nor carketh care nor slander. 7. We not only find remains of towns in all parts of the country, but also of villas. 8. He neither knew how to wait an opportunity, nor to use it when he had it. 9. My lord insisted upon going, not only himself, but on taking his little daughter