[535] It would be better to omit the word “forth,” or else to say—­“whom I brought forth from the land of Egypt.”  The phrase, “forth out of,” is neither a very common nor a very terse one.—­G.  BROWN.

[536] This doctrine, that participles divide and specify time, I have elsewhere shown to be erroneous.—­G.  BROWN.

[537] Perhaps it would be as well or better, in correcting these two examples, to say, “There are a generation.”  But the article a, as well as the literal form of the noun, is a sign of unity; and a complete uniformity of numbers is not here practicable.

[538] Though the pronoun thou is not much used in common discourse, it is as proper for the grammarian to consider and show, what form of the verb belongs to it when it is so used, as it is for him to determine what form is adapted to any other pronoun, when a difference of style affects the question.

[539] “Forgavest,” as the reading is in our common Bible, appears to be wrong; because the relative that and its antecedent God are of the third person, and not of the second.

[540] All the corrections under this head are directly contrary to the teaching of William S. Cardell.  Oliver B. Peirce, and perhaps some other such writers on grammar; and some of them are contrary also to Murray’s late editions.  But I am confident that these authors teach erroneously; that their use of indicative forms for mere suppositions that are contrary to the facts, is positively ungrammatical; and that the potential imperfect is less elegant, in such instances, than the simple subjunctive, which they reject or distort.

[541] This is what Smith must have meant by the inaccurate phrase, “those in the first.”  For his first example is, “He went to school;” which contains only the one pronoun “He.”—­See Smith’s New Gram., p. 19.

[542] According to modern usage, has would here be better than is,—­though is fallen is still allowable.—­G.  BROWN.

[543] From this opinion, I dissent.  See Obs. 1st on the Degrees of Comparison, and Obs. 4th on Regular Comparison, in the Etymology of this work, at pp. 279 and 285.—­G.  BROWN.

[544] “The country looks beautiful;’” that is, appears beautiful—­is beautiful.  This is right, and therefore the use which Bucke makes of it, may be fairly reversed.  But the example was ill chosen; and I incline to think, it may also be right to say, “The country looks beautifully;” for the quality expressed by beautiful, is nothing else than the manner in which the thing shows to the eye.  See Obs. 11th on Rule 9th.—­G.  BROWN.