definition.  The note added by Murray to his definition of a verb, would prove the participle not to be included in this part of speech, and thus practically contradict his scheme.  It is also objectionable in respect to construction.  The phrase “by its making sense” is at least very questionable English; for “its making” supposes making to be a noun, and “making sense” supposes it to be an active participle.  But Lowth says, “Let it be either the one or the other, and abide by its own construction.”  Nay, the author himself, though he therein contradicts an other note of his own, virtually condemns the phrase, by his caution to the learner against treating words in ing, “as if they were of an amphibious species, partly nouns and partly verbs.”—­Murray’s Gram., 8vo, p. 193.

26.  SIXTH DEFINITION:—­“An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an adjective, and sometimes to another adverb, to express some quality or circumstance respecting it.”—­Murray’s Gram., pp. 28 and 114.  See Dr. Ash’s Gram., p. 47.  This definition contains many errors; some of which are gross blunders. 1.  The first word, “An,” is erroneously put for The:  an adverb is one adverb, not the whole class; and, if, “An adverb is a part of speech,” any and every adverb is a part of speech; then, how many parts of speech are there? 2.  The word “joined” is not well chosen; for, with the exception of not in cannot, the adverb is very rarely joined to the word to which it relates. 3.  The want of a comma before joined, perverts the construction; for the phrase, “speech joined to a verb,” is nonsense; and to suppose joined to relate to the noun part, is not much better. 4.  The word “and” should be or; because no adverb is ever added to three or four different terms at once. 5.  The word “sometimes” should be omitted; because it is needless, and because it is inconsistent with the only conjunction which will make the definition true. 6.  The preposition “to” should either be inserted before “an adjective,” or suppressed before the term which follows; for when several words occur in the same construction, uniformity of expression is desirable. 7.  For the same reason, (if custom may be thus far conformed to analogy,) the article “an” ought, in cases like this, if not always, to be separated from the word other; thus, “An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb.”  Were the eye not familiar with it, another would be thought as irregular as theother. 8.  The word “quality” is wrong; for no adverb ever expresses any quality, as such; qualities are expressed by adjectives, and never, in any direct manner, by adverbs. 9.  The “circumstances” which we express by adverbs never belong to the words, as this definition avers that they do, but always to the actions or qualities which the words signify. 10.  The pronoun it, according to Murray’s second rule of syntax, ought to be them, and so it stands in his own early editions; but if and be changed to or, as I have said it should be, the pronoun it will be right.