alike to the righteous man and to the wicked.”  In the Greek of the Septuagint, the introductory members of this passage are left at the end of the preceding chapter, and are literally thus:  “that all this I received into my heart, and my heart understood all this.”  The rest, commencing a new chapter, is as follows:  “For the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, and indeed both love and hatred man knoweth not:  all things before their face are vanity to all.”  Now, which of these several readings is the nearest to what Solomon meant by the original text, or which is the farthest from it, and therefore the most faulty, I leave it to men more learned than myself to decide; but, certainly, there is no inspired authority in any of them, but in so far as they convey the sense which he really intended.  And if his meaning had not been, by some imperfection in the oldest expression we have of it, obscured and partly lost, there could be neither cause nor excuse for these discrepancies.  I say this with no willingness to depreciate the general authority of the Holy Scriptures, which are for the most part clear in their import, and very ably translated into English, as well as into other languages.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE GENERAL RULE.

LESSON I.—­ARTICLES.

(1.) “An article is a part of speech placed before nouns.”—­Comly’s Gram., p. 11.

[FORMULE.—­Not proper, because the article an is here inconsistent with the term “part of speech;” for the text declares one thing of a kind to be the whole kind.  But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, “In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed; and a regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout.”  The sentence may be corrected in two ways, thus:  “The article is a part of speech placed before nouns;”—­or better, “An article is a word placed before nouns.” [446]]

(2.) “An article is a part of speech used to limit nouns.”—­Gilbert’s Gram., p. 19. (3.) “An article is a part of speech set before nouns to fix their vague Signification.”—­Ash’s Gram., p. 18. (4.) “An adjective is a part of speech used to describe a noun.”—­Gilbert’s Gram., p. 19. (5.) “A pronoun is a part of speech used instead of a noun.”—­Ibid.; and Weld’s Gram., pp. 30 and 50; Abridg., pp. 29 and 46. (6.) “A Pronoun is a Part of Speech which is often used instead of a Noun Substantive common, and supplies the Want of a Noun proper.”—­British Gram., p. 102; Buchanan’s Gram., p. 29. (7.) “A verb is a part of speech, which signifies to be, to do, or to be acted upon”—­Merchant’s School Gram., p. 17. (8.) “A verb is a part of speech, which signifies to be, to act, or to