of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 357.  “And in both the same mean is employed.”—­Ib. ii, 271.  Caleb Alexander, too, declares “this means,” “that means.” and “a means,” to be “ungrammatical.”—­Gram., p. 58.  But common usage has gone against the suggestions of these critics, and later grammarians have rather confirmed the irregularity, than attempted to reform it.

OBS. 34.—­Murray quotes sixteen good authorities to prove that means may be singular; but whether it ought to be so or not, is still a disputable point.  Principle is for the regular word mean, and good practice favours the irregularity, but is still divided.  Cobbett, to the disgrace of grammar, says, “Mean, as a noun, is never used in the singular.  It, like some other words, has broken loose from all principle and rule.  By universal consent, it is become always a plural, whether used with singular or plural pronouns and articles, or not.”—­E.  Gram., p. 144.  This is as ungrammatical, as it is untrue.  Both mean and means are sufficiently authorized in the singular:  “The prospect which by this mean is opened to you.”—­Melmoth’s Cicero.  “Faith in this doctrine never terminates in itself, but is a mean, to holiness as an end.”—­Dr. Chalmers, Sermons, p. v.  “The mean of basely affronting him.”—­Brown’s Divinity, p. 19.  “They used every mean to prevent the re-establishment of their religion.”—­Dr Jamieson’s Sacred Hist., i, p. 20.  “As a necessary mean to prepare men for the discharge of that duty.”—­ Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 153.  “Greatest is the power of a mean, when its power is least suspected.”—­Tupper’s Book of Thoughts, p. 37.  “To the deliberative orator the reputation of unsullied virtue is not only useful, as a mean of promoting his general influence, it is also among his most efficient engines of persuasion, upon every individual occasion.”—­J.  Q. Adams’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, i, 352.  “I would urge it upon you, as the most effectual mean of extending your respectability and usefulness in the world.”—­Ib., ii, 395.  “Exercise will be admitted to be a necessary mean of improvement.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 343.  “And by that means we have now an early prepossession in their favour.”—­Ib., p. 348.  “To abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better mean of reconciliation.” —­Keith’s Evidences, p. 46.  “As a mean of destroying the distinction.” —­Ib., p. 3.  “Which however is by no mean universally the case.”—­ Religious World Displayed, Vol. iii, p. 155.