EXCEPTION FIRST.

The adverbs yes, ay, and yea, expressing a simple affirmation, and the adverbs no and nay, expressing a simple negation, are always independent.  They generally answer a question, and are equivalent to a whole sentence.  Is it clear, that they ought to be called adverbs? No.  “Can honour set to a leg? No.  Or an arm? No.  Or take away the grief of a wound? No.  Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No.”—­SHAK.:  First Part of Hen.  IV, Act v, 1.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

The word amen, which is commonly called an adverb, is often used independently at the beginning or end of a declaration or a prayer; and is itself a prayer, meaning, So let it be:  as, “Surely, I come quickly. Amen:  Even so, come Lord Jesus.”—­Rev., xxii, 20.  When it does not stand thus alone, it seems in general to be used substantively; as, “The strangers among them stood on Gerizim, and echoed amen to the blessings.”—­Wood’s Dict. “These things saith the Amen.”—­Rev., iii, 14

EXCEPTION THIRD.

An adverb before a preposition seems sometimes to relate to the latter, rather than to the verb or participle to which the preposition connects its object; as, “This mode of pronunciation runs considerably beyond ordinary discourse.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 334.  “Yea, all along the times of the apostasy, this was the thing that preserved the witnesses.”—­Penington’s Works, Vol. iv, p. 12. [See Obs. 8th on Rule 7th.]

   “Right against the eastern gate,
    Where the great sun begins his state.”—­Milton, L’Allegro.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

The words much, little, far, and all, being originally adjectives, are sometimes preceded by the negative not, or (except the last) by such an adverb as too, how, thus, so, or as, when they are taken substantively; as, “Not all that glitters, is gold.”—­“Too much should not be offered at once.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 140. “Thus far is consistent.”—­Ib., p. 161. “Thus far is right.”—­Lowth’s Gram., p. 101.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXI.

OBS. 1.—­On this rule of syntax, Dr. Adam remarks, “Adverbs sometimes likewise qualify substantives;” and gives Latin examples of the following import:  “Homer plainly an orator:”—­“Truly Metellus;”—­“To-morrow morning.”  But this doctrine is not well proved by such imperfect phrases, nor can it ever be very consistently admitted, because it destroys the characteristic difference between an adjective and an adverb. To-morrow is here an adjective; and as for truly and plainly, they are not such words as can make sense with nouns.  I therefore imagine the phrases to be elliptical: