OBS. 17.—­The relative that is applied indifferently to persons, to brute animals, and to inanimate things.  But the word that is not always a relative pronoun.  It is sometimes a pronoun, sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction.  I call it not a demonstrative pronoun and also a relative; because, in the sense in which Murray and others have styled it a “demonstrative adjective pronoun,” it is a pronominal adjective, and it is better to call it so. (1.) It is a relative pronoun whenever it is equivalent to who, whom, or which:  as, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not”—­Eccl., vii, 20.  “It was diverse from all the beasts that were before it.”—­Dan., vii, 7.  “And he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself.”—­Rev., xix, 12. (2.) It is a pronominal adjective whenever it relates to a noun expressed or understood after it:  as, “Thus with violence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down.”—­Rev., xviii, 21.  “Behold that [thing] which I have seen.”—­Eccl., v, 18.  “And they said, ’What is that[194] [matter] to us?  See thou to that’ [matter].”—­Matt., xxvii, 4. (3.) In its other uses, it is a conjunction, and, as such, it most commonly makes what follows it, the purpose, object, or final cause, of what precedes it:  as, “I read that I may learn.”—­Dr. Adam. “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”—­St. Paul. “Live well, that you may die well.”—­Anon. “Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob.”—­Genesis. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”—­Matthew.

OBS. 18.—­The word that, or indeed any other word, should never be so used as to leave the part of speech uncertain; as, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”—­Gen., ii, 17.  Here that seems to be a relative pronoun, representing day, in the third person, singular, neuter; yet, in other respects, it seems to be a conjunction, because there is nothing to determine its case.  Better:  “For in the day on which thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”  This mongrel construction of the word that, were its justification possible, is common enough in our language to be made good English.  But it must needs be condemned, because it renders the character of the term ambiguous, and is such a grammatical difficulty as puts the parser at a dead nonplus.  Examples:  (1.) “But at the same time THAT men are giving their orders, God on his part is likewise giving his.”—­Rollin’s Hist., ii, 106.  Here the phrase, “at the same time that,” is only equivalent to the adverb while; and yet it is incomplete, because it means, “at the same time at which,”