Ib., p. 188.  “The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.”—­Psal. xxii, 16; Lowth’s Gram., p. 75.  “Every kind of convenience and comfort are provided.”—­Com.  School Journal, i, 24.  “Amidst the great decrease of the inhabitants of Spain, the body of the clergy have suffered no diminution; but has rather been gradually increasing.”—­Payne’s Geog., ii, 418.  “Small as the number of inhabitants are, yet their poverty is extreme.”—­Ib., ii, 417.  “The number of the names were about one hundred and twenty.”—­Ware’s Gram., p. 12; see Acts, i, 15.

RULE XVI.—­FINITE VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together:  as, “True rhetoric and sound logic are very nearly allied.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 11.  “Aggression and injury in no case justify retaliation.”—­Wayland’s Moral Science, p. 406.

   “Judges and senates have been bought for gold,
    Esteem and love were never to be sold.”—­Pope.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

When two nominatives connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, they are either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural verb; as, “Immediately comes a hue and cry after a gang of thieves.”—­L’Estrange.  “The hue and cry of the country pursues him.”—­Junius, Letter xxiii.  “Flesh and blood [i. e. man, or man’s nature,] hath not revealed it unto thee.”—­Matt., xvi, 17.”  Descent and fall to us is adverse.”—­Milton, P. L., ii, 76.  “This philosopher and poet was banished from his country.”—­“Such a Saviour and Redeemer is actually provided for us.”—­Gurney’s Essays, p. 386.  “Let us then declare what great things our God and Saviour has done for us.”—­Dr. Scott, on Luke viii. “Toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them.”—­Ezra, iv, 20.

   “Whose icy current and compulsive course
    Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on.”—­Shakspeare.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

When two nominatives connected by and, are emphatically distinguished, they belong to different propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural verb; as, “Ambition, and not the safety of the state, was concerned.”—­Goldsmith. “Consanguinity, and not affinity, is the ground of the prohibition.”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 324.  “But a modification, and oftentimes a total change, takes place.”—­Maunder.  “Somewhat, and, in many circumstances, a great deal too, is put upon us.”—­Butler’s Analogy, p. 108. “Disgrace, and perhaps ruin, was the certain consequence of attempting the latter.”—­Robertson’s America, i, 434.