[153] J. W. Wright remarks, “Some nouns admit of no plural distinctions:  as, wine, wood, beer, sugar, tea, timber, fruit, meat, goodness, happiness, and perhaps all nouns ending in ness.”—­Philos.  Gram., p. 139.  If this learned author had been brought up in the woods, and had never read of Murray’s “richer wines,” or heard of Solomon’s “dainty meats,”—­never chaffered in the market about sugars and teas, or read in Isaiah that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” or avowed, like Timothy, “a good profession before many witnesses,”—­he might still have hewed the timbers of some rude cabin, and partaken of the wild fruits which nature affords.  If these nine plurals are right, his assertion is nine times wrong, or misapplied by himself seven times in the ten.

[154] “I will not suppose it possible for my dear James to fall into either the company or the language of those persons who talk, and even write, about barleys, wheats, clovers, flours, grasses, and malts.”—­ Cobbett’s E. Gram., p. 29.

[155] “It is a general rule, that all names of things measured or weighed, have no plural; for in them not number, but quantity, is regarded:  as, wool, wine, oil.  When we speak, however, of different kinds, we use the plural:  as, the coarser wools, the richer wines, the finer oils.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 41.

[156] So pains is the regular plural of pain, and, by Johnson, Webster, and other lexicographers, is recognized only as plural; but Worcester inserts it among his stock words, with a comment, thus:  “Pains, n. Labor; work; toil; care; trouble. [Fist] According to the best usage, the word pains, though of plural form, is used in these senses as singular, and is joined with a singular verb; as, ’The pains they had taken was very great.’ Clarendon.  ‘No pains is taken.’ Pope.  ’Great pains is taken.’ Priestley. ‘Much pains.’ Bolingbroke.”—­Univ. and Crit.  Dict. The multiplication of anomalies of this kind is so undesirable, that nothing short of a very clear decision of Custom, against the use of the regular concord, can well justify the exception.  Many such examples may be cited, but are they not examples of false syntax?  I incline to think “the best usage” would still make all these verbs plural.  Dr. Johnson cites the first example thus:  “The pains they had taken were very great. Clarendon.”—­Quarto Dict., w.  Pain.  And the following recent example is unquestionably right:  “Pains have been taken to collect the information required.”—­President Fillmore’s Message, 1852.