Exercise.

Correct the following sentences:—­

     1.  An ordinary man would neither have incurred the danger of
     succoring Essex, nor the disgrace of assailing him.—­MACAULAY.

     2.  Those ogres will stab about and kill not only strangers, but
     they will outrage, murder, and chop up their own kin.—­THACKERAY.

     3.  In the course of his reading (which was neither pursued with
     that seriousness or that devout mind which such a study requires)
     the youth found himself, etc.—­Id.

     4.  I could neither bear walking nor riding in a carriage over its
     pebbled streets.—­FRANKLIN.

     5.  Some exceptions, that can neither be dissembled nor eluded,
     render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is
     superfluous.—­GIBBON.

     6.  They will, too, not merely interest children, but grown-up
     persons.—­Westminster Review.

     7.  I had even the satisfaction to see her lavish some kind looks
     upon my unfortunate son, which the other could neither extort by
     his fortune nor assiduity.—­GOLDSMITH.

     8.  This was done probably to show that he was neither ashamed of
     his name or family.—­ADDISON.

[Sidenote:  Try and for try to.]

456.  Occasionally there is found the expression try and instead of the better authorized try to; as,—­

     We will try and avoid personalities altogether.—­THACKERAY.

     Did any of you ever try and read “Blackmore’s Poems"?—­Id.

     Try and avoid the pronoun.—­BAIN.

     We will try and get a clearer notion of them.—­RUSKIN.

[Sidenote:  But what.]

457.  Instead of the subordinate conjunction that, but, or but that, or the negative relative but, we sometimes find the bulky and needless but what.  Now, it is possible to use but what when what is a relative pronoun, as, “He never had any money but what he absolutely needed;” but in the following sentences what usurps the place of a conjunction.

Exercise.

In the following sentences, substitute that, but, or but that for the words but what:—­

     1.  The doctor used to say ’twas her young heart, and I don’t know
     but what he was right.—­S.O.  JEWETT.

     2.  At the first stroke of the pickax it is ten to one but what
     you are taken up for a trespass.—­BULWER.

     3.  There are few persons of distinction but what can hold
     conversation in both languages.—­SWIFT.

     4.  Who knows but what there might be English among those
     sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?—­KINGSLEY.