The gentleman begins with saying, “There is such a thing”—­as if he meant to describe some one thing; and proceeds with saying, “as an English and a parliamentary vocabulary,” in which phrase, by repeating the article, he speaks of two “things”—­two vocabularies; then goes on, “and I have never heard a worse!” A worse what?  Does he mean “a worse vocabulary?” If so, what sense has “vocabulary?” And, again, “a worse” than what?  Where and what is this “thing” which is so bad that the leading Senator has “never heard a worse?” Is it some “vocabulary” both “English and parliamentary?” If so, whose?  If not, what else is it?  Lest the wisdom of this oraculous “declaration” be lost to the public through the defects of its syntax,—­and lest more than one rhetorical critic seem hereby “in some danger” of “giving sanction to” nonsense,—­it may be well for Professor Fowler, in his next edition, to present some elucidation of this short but remarkable passage, which he values so highly!

An other example, in several respects still more remarkable,—­a shorter one, into which an equally successful professor of grammar has condensed a much greater number and variety of faults,—­is seen in the following citation:  “The verb is so called, because it means word; and as there can be no sentence without it, it is called, emphatically, the word.”—­Pinneo’s Analytical Gram., p. 14.  This sentence, in which, perhaps, most readers will discover no error, has in fact faults of so many different kinds, that a critic must pause to determine under which of more than half a dozen different heads of false syntax it might most fitly be presented for correction or criticism. (1.) It might be set down under my Note 5th to Rule 10th; for, in one or two instances out of the three, if not in all, the pronoun “it” gives not the same idea as its antecedent.  The faults coming under this head might be obviated by three changes, made thus:  “The verb is so called, because verb means word; and, as there can be no sentence without a verb, this part of speech is called, emphatically, the word.”  Cobbett wisely says, “Never put an it upon paper without thinking well of what you are about.”—­E.  Gram., 196.  But (2.) the erroneous text, and this partial correction of it too, might be put under my Critical Note 5th, among Falsities; for, in either form, each member affirms what is manifestly untrue.  The term “word” has many meanings; but no usage ever makes it, “emphatically” or otherwise, a name for one of the classes called “parts of speech;” nor is there nowadays any current usage in which “verb means word.” (3.) This text might be put under Critical Note 6th, among Absurdities; for whoever will read it, as in fairness he should, taking the pronoun “it” in the exact sense