in a preceding clause; as, “There was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words.”—­Job, xxxii, 12.  “How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor.”—­Job, xxxiv, 19.  “This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep.”—­Neh., viii, 9.  “Men’s behaviour should be like their apparel, not too straight or point-de-vise, but free for exercise.”—­Ld.  Bacon.  Again, the mere repetition of a simple negative is, on some occasions, more agreeable than the insertion of any connective; as, “There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.”—­Job, xxxiv, 22.  Better:  “There is no darkness, no shadow of death, wherein the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” “No place nor any object appears to him void of beauty.”—­Murray’s Key, 8vo, p. 255.  Better:  “No place, no object, appears to him void of beauty.”  That passage from Milton which Burn supposes to be faulty, and that expression of Addison’s which Churchill dislikes, are, in my opinion, not incorrect as they stand; though, doubtless, the latter admits of the variation proposed.  In the former, too, or may twice be changed to nor, where the following nouns are nominatives; but to change it throughout, would not be well, because the other nouns are objectives governed by of: 

“Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, nor the sweet approach of ev’n or morn, Nor sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.”

OBS. 22.—­Ever and never are directly opposite to each other in sense, and yet they are very frequently confounded and misapplied, and that by highly respectable writers; as, “Seldom, or never can we expect,” &c.—­Blair’s Lectures, p. 305.  “And seldom, or ever, did any one rise, &c.”—­Ib., p. 272.  “Seldom, or never, is[430] there more than one accented syllable in any English word.”—­Ib., p. 329.  “Which that of the present seldom or ever is understood to be.”—­Dr. Murray’s Hist. of Lang., Vol. ii, p. 120.  Here never is right, and ever is wrong.  It is time, that is here spoken of; and the affirmative ever, meaning always, or at any time, in stead of being a fit alternative for seldom, makes nonsense of the sentence, and violates the rule respecting the order and fitness of time:  unless we change or to if, and say, “seldom, if ever.”  But in sentences like the following, the adverb appears to express, not time, but degree; and for the latter sense ever is preferable to never, because the degree ought to be possible,