it from the latter, if such governing verb be understood there:  as, “You no more heard me say those words, than [you heard me] talk Greek.”  It may be equally proper to say, “We choose rather to lead than follow,” or, “We choose rather to lead than to follow.”—­Art of Thinking, p. 37.  The meaning in either case is, “We choose to lead rather than we choose to follow.”  In the following example, there is perhaps an ellipsis of to before cite:  “I need do nothing more than simply cite the explicit declarations,” &c.—­Gurney’s Peculiarities, p. 4.  So in these:  “Nature did no more than furnish the power and means.”—­Sheridan’s Elocution, p. 147.

   “To beg, than work, he better understands;
    Or we perhaps might take him off thy hands.”
        —­Pope’s Odyssey, xvii, 260.

OBS. 22.—­It has been stated, in Obs. 16th on Rule 17th, that good writers are apt to shun a repetition of any part common to two or more verbs in the same sentence; and among the examples there cited is this:  “They mean to, and will, hear patiently.”—­Salem Register.  So one might say, “Can a man arrive at excellence, who has no desire to?”—­“I do not wish to go, nor expect to.”—­“Open the door, if you are going to.”  Answer:  “We want to, and try to, but can’t.”  Such ellipses of the infinitive after to, are by no means uncommon, especially in conversation; nor do they appear to me to be always reprehensible, since they prevent repetition, and may contribute to brevity without obscurity.  But Dr. Bullions has lately thought proper to condemn them; for such is presumed to have been the design of the following note:  “To, the sign of the infinitive, should never be used for the infinitive itself.  Thus, ’I have not written, and I do not intend to,’ is a colloquial vulgarism for, ’I have not written, and I do not intend to write.’”—­Bullions’s Analyt. and Pract.  Gram., p. 179.  His “Exercises to be corrected,” here, are these:  “Be sure to write yourself and tell him to.  And live as God designed me to.”—­Ib., 1st Ed., p. 180.  It being manifest, that to cannot “be used for”—­(that is, in place of—­)what is implied after it, this is certainly a very awkward way of hinting “there should never be an ellipsis of the infinitive after to.”  But, from the false syntax furnished, this appears to have been the meaning intended.  The examples are severally faulty, but not for the reason suggested—­not because “to” is used for “write” or “live”—­not, indeed, for any one reason common to the three—­but because, in the first, “to write” and “have not written,” have nothing in common which we can omit; in the second, the mood of “tell” is doubtful, and, without a comma after “yourself,” we cannot precisely know the meaning; in the third, the mood, the person, and the number of “live,” are all unknown.  See Note 9th to Rule 17th, above; and Note 2d to the General Rule, below.