Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii. p. 190.  To justify this phraseology, he talks thus:  “Whatever number of nouns may be connected by a conjunction with the pronoun EVERY, this pronoun is as applicable to the whole mass of them, as to any one of the nouns; and therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually considered.”—­Ib. So much, then, for “the pronoun EVERY!” But, without other exceptions, what shall be done with the following texts from Murray himself?  “The flock, and not the fleece, is, or ought to be the object of the shepherd’s care.”—­Ib., ii, 184.  “This prodigy of learning, this scholar, critic, and antiquary, was entirely destitute of breeding and civility.”—­Ib., ii, 217.  And, in the following line, what conjunction appears, or what is the difference between “horror” and “black despair.” that the verb should be made plural?

   “What black despair, what horror, fill his mind!”—­Ib., ii, 183.

    “What black despair, what horror fills his heart!”—­Thomson.[395]

OBS. 2.—­Besides the many examples which may justly come under the four exceptions above specified, there are several questionable but customary expressions, which have some appearance of being deviations from this rule, but which may perhaps be reasonably explained on the principle of ellipsis:  as, “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”—­“Slow and steady often outtravels haste.”—­Dillwyn’s Reflections, p. 23.  “Little and often fills the purse.”—­Treasury of Knowledge, Part i, p. 446.  “Fair and softly goes far.”  These maxims, by universal custom, lay claim to a singular verb; and, for my part, I know not how they can well be considered either real exceptions to the foregoing rule, or real inaccuracies under it; for, in most of them, the words connected are not nouns; and those which are so, may not be nominatives.  And it is clear, that every exception must have some specific character by which it may be distinguished; else it destroys the rule, in stead of confirming it, as known exceptions are said to do.  Murray appears to have thought the singular verb wrong; for, among his examples for parsing, he has, “Fair and softly go far,” which instance is no more entitled to a plural verb than the rest.  See his Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 5.  Why not suppose them all to be elliptical?  Their meaning may be as follows:  “To have all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”—­“What is slow and steady, often outtravels haste.”—­“To put in little and often, fills the purse.”—­“What proceeds fair and softly, goes far.”  The following line from Shakspeare appears to be still more elliptical: 

   “Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.”—­Othello.