the verb or pronoun must agree with it in the plural number.”—­Id. et al. cor. (30-34.) “A noun or a pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed.”—­ Brown’s Inst., p. 176; Greenleaf cor.; also Wilbur and Livingston; also Goldsbury; also P.  E. Day; also Kirkham, Frazee, and Miller. (35.) “Here the boy is represented as acting:  the word boy is therefore in the nominative case.”—­Kirkham cor. (36.) “Do, be, have, and will, are sometimes auxiliaries, and sometimes principal verbs.”—­Cooper cor. (37.) “Names of males are masculine. Names of females are feminine.”—­Adam’s Gram., p. 10; Beck cor. (38.) “’To-day’s lesson is longer than yesterday’s.’  Here to-day’s and yesterday’s are substantives.”—­L.  Murray et al. cor. (39.) “In this example, to-day’s and yesterday’s are nouns in the possessive case.”—­Kirkham cor. (40.) “An Indian in Britain would be much surprised to find by chance an elephant feeding at large in the open fields.”—­Kames cor. (41.) “If we were to contrive a new language, we might make any articulate sound the sign of any idea:  apart from previous usage, there would be no impropriety in calling oxen men, or rational beings oxen.”—­L.  Murray cor. (42.) “All the parts of a sentence should form a consistent whole.”—­Id et al. cor.

    (43.) “Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped,
          Along the pavement rolled the culprit’s head.”—­Pope cor.

UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VII.—­OF SELF-CONTRADICTION.

(1.) “Though ‘The king, with the lords and commons,’ must have a singular rather than a plural verb, the sentence would certainly stand better thus:  ’The king, the lords, and the commons, form an excellent constitution.’”—­Mur. and Ing. cor. (2-3.) “L has a soft liquid sound; as in love, billow, quarrel. This letter is sometimes silent; as in half, task [sic for ’talk’—­KTH], psalm.”—­Mur. and Fisk cor.; also Kirkham. (4.) “The words means and amends, though regularly derived from the singulars mean and amend, are not now, even by polite writers, restricted to the plural number.  Our most distinguished modern authors often say, ‘by this means,’ as well as, ’by these means.’”—­Wright cor. (5.) “A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues; an enemy, his crimes.”—­Mur. cor. (6.) “The auxiliary have, or any form of the perfect tense, belongs not properly to the subjunctive mood. We suppose past facts by the indicative:  as, If I have loved, If thou hast loved, &c.”—­Merchant