his own life with that of his enemy, and one or both are very honorably murdered.”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 235.  “The consequence is, that they frown upon everyone whose faults or negligence interrupts or retards their lessons.”—­W.  C. Woodbridge:  Lit.  Conv., p. 114.  “Good intentions, or at least sincerity of purpose, was never denied her.”—­West’s Letters, p. 43.  “Yet this proves not that either he or we judge them to be the rule.”—­Barclay’s Works, i, 157.  “First clear yourselves of popery before you or thou dost throw it upon us.”—­Ib., i, 169. “Is the gospel or glad tidings of this salvation brought nigh unto all?”—­Ib., i, 362.  “Being persuaded, that either they, or their cause, is naught.”—­Ib., i, 504.  “And the reader may judge whether he or I do most fully acknowledge man’s fall.”—­Ib., iii, 332.  “To do justice to the Ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any two, of the three Estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third.”—­Junius, Letter xvii.  “The forest, or hunting-grounds, are deemed the property of the tribe.”—­Robertson’s America, i, 313.  “Birth or titles confer no preeminence.”—­Ib., ii, 184.  “Neither tobacco nor hides were imported from Caraccas into Spain.”—­Ib., ii, 507.  “The keys or seed-vessel of the maple has two large side-wings.”—­The Friend, vii, 97.  “An example or two are sufficient to illustrate the general observation.”—­Dr. Murray’s Hist. of Lang., i, 58.

   “Not thou, nor those thy factious arts engage,
    Shall reap that harvest of rebellious rage.”—­Dryden, p. 60.

OBS. 9.—­But when the remoter nominative is the principal word, and the nearer one is expressed parenthetically, the verb agrees literally with the former, and only by implication, with the latter; as, “One example, (or ten,) says nothing against it.”—­Leigh Hunt.  “And we, (or future ages,) may possibly have a proof of it.”—­Bp.  Butler.  So, when the alternative is merely in the words, not in the thought, the former term is sometimes considered the principal one, and is therefore allowed to control the verb; but there is always a harshness in this mixture of different numbers, and, to render such a construction tolerable, it is necessary to read the latter term like a parenthesis, and make the former emphatic:  as, “A parenthesis, or brackets, consists of two angular strokes, or hooks, enclosing one or more words.”—­Whiting’s Reader, p. 28.  “To show us that our own schemes, or prudence, have no share in our advancements.”—­Addison.  “The Mexican figures, or picture-writing, represent things, not words; they exhibit images to the eye, not ideas to the understanding.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 243; English Reader, p. xiii.  “At Travancore, Koprah, or dried cocoa-nut kernels, is monopolized by government.”—­Maunder’s Gram., p. 12.  “The Scriptures, or Bible, are the only authentic source.”—­Bp.  Tomline’s Evidences.