Essay, p. 3.  “When Clodius, had he meant to return that day to Rome, must have been arrived.”—­Adams’s Rhetoric, i, 418.  “That the fact has been done, is being done, or shall or will be done.”—­O.  B. Peirce’s Gram., pp. 347 and 356.  “Am I being instructed?”—­Wright’s Gram., p. 70.  “I am choosing him.”—­Ib., p. 112.  “John, who was respecting his father, was obedient to his commands.”—­Barrett’s Revised Gram., p. 69.  “The region echos to the clash of arms.”—­Beattie’s Poems, p. 63.

   “And sitt’st on high, and mak’st creation’s top
    Thy footstool; and behold’st below thee, all.”
        —­Pollok, B. vi, l. 663.

    “And see if thou can’st punish sin, and let
    Mankind go free.  Thou fail’st—­be not surprised.”
        —­Id., B. ii, l. 118.

LESSON III.—­MIXED.

“What follows, had better been wanting altogether.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 201.

[FORMULE.—­Not proper, because the phrase had better been, is used in the sense of the potential pluperfect.  But, according to Observation 17th, on the conjugations, this substitution of one form for another is of questionable propriety.  Therefore, the regular form should here be preferred; thus, “What follows, might better have been wanting altogether.”]

“This member of the sentence had much better have been omitted altogether.”—­Ib., p. 212.  “One or [the] other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted.”—­Ib., p. 212.  “The whole of this last member of the sentence had better have been dropped.”—­Ib., p. 112.  “In this case, they had much better be omitted.”—­Ib., p. 173.  “He had better have said, ‘the productions’”—­Ib., p. 220.  “The Greeks have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus.”—­Ib., p. 377.  “It has been noticed long ago, that all these fictitious names have the same number of syllables.”—­Phil.  Museum, i, 471.  “When I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, I have determined to send him.”—­Acts, xxv, 25.  “I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God.”—­Ps., lxxxiv, 10.  “As for such, I wish the Lord open their eyes.”—­Barclay’s Works, iii. 263.  “It would a made our passidge over the river very difficult.”—­ Walley, in 1692.  “We should not a been able to have carried our great guns.”—­Id. “Others would a questioned our prudence, if wee had.”—­Id. See Hutchinson’s Hist. of Mass., i, 478.  “Beware thou bee’st not BECAESAR’D; i.e.  Beware that thou dost not dwindle into a mere Caesar.”—­Harris’s Hermes, p. 183.  “Thou raisedest thy voice to record the stratagems of needy heroes.”—­ARBUTHNOT:  in Joh.  Dict., w.  Scalade.  “Life hurrys off apace:  thine is almost up already.”—­Collier’s Antoninus, p. 19. “‘How unfortunate