“He comes—­nor want nor cold his course delay: 
    Hide, blushing Glory! hide Pultowa’s day.”—­Dr. Johnson.

    “No monstrous height, or breadth, or length, appear;
    The whole at once is bold and regular.”—­Pope, on Crit., l. 250.

OBS. 2.—­When two collective nouns of the singular form are connected by or or nor, the verb may agree with them in the plural number, because such agreement is adapted to each of them, according to Rule 15th; as, “Why mankind, or such a part of mankind, are placed in this condition.”—­Butler’s Analogy, p. 213.  “But neither the Board of Control nor the Court of Directors have any scruples about sanctioning the abuses of which I have spoken.”—­Glory and Shame of England, Vol. ii, p. 70.

OBS. 3.—­When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers, connected by or or nor, an explicit concord with each is impossible; because the verb cannot be of different persons or numbers at the same time; nor is it so, even when its form is made the same in all the persons and numbers:  thus, “I, thou, [or] he, may affirm; we, ye, or they, may affirm.”—­Beattie’s Moral Science, p. 36.  Respecting the proper management of the verb when its nominatives thus disagree, the views of our grammarians are not exactly coincident.  Few however are ignorant enough, or rash enough, to deny that there may be an implicit or implied concord in such cases,—­a zeugma of the verb in English, as well as of the verb or of the adjective in Latin or Greek.  Of this, the following is a brief example:  “But he nor I feel more.”—­Dr. Young, Night iii, p. 35.  And I shall by-and-by add others—­enough, I hope, to confute those false critics who condemn all such phraseology.

OBS. 4.—­W.  Allen’s rule is this:  “If the nominatives are of different numbers or persons, the verb agrees with the last; as, he or his brothers were there; neither you nor I am concerned.”—­English Gram., p. 133.  Lindley Murray, and others, say:  (1.) “When singular pronouns, or a noun and pronoun, of different persons, are disjunctively connected, the verb must agree with that person which is placed nearest to it:  as, ’I or thou art to blame;’ ‘Thou or I am in fault;’ ’I, or thou, or he, is the author of it;’ ‘George or I am the person.’  But it would be better to say; ‘Either I am to blame, or thou art,’ &c. (2.) When a disjunctive occurs between a singular noun, or pronoun, and a plural one, the verb is made to agree with the plural noun and pronoun:  as, ’Neither poverty nor riches were injurious to him;’ ‘I or they were offended by it.’  But in this case, the plural noun or pronoun, when it can conveniently be done, should