OBS. 3.—­Cannot is not properly one word, but two:  in parsing, the adverb must be taken separately, and the auxiliary be explained with its principal.  When power is denied, can and not are now generally united—­perhaps in order to prevent ambiguity; as, “I cannot go.”  But when the power is affirmed, and something else is denied, the words are written separately; as, “The Christian apologist can not merely expose the utter baseness of the infidel assertion, but he has positive ground for erecting an opposite and confronting assertion in its place.”—­Dr. Chalmers. The junction of these terms, however, is not of much importance to the sense; and, as it is plainly contrary to analogy, some writers,—­(as Dr. Webster, in his late or “improved” works; Dr. Bullions, in his; Prof.  W. C. Fowler, in his new “English Grammar,” 8vo; R. C. Trench, in his “Study of Words;” T. S. Pinneo, in his “revised” grammars; J. R. Chandler, W. S. Cardell, O. B. Peirce,—­) always separate them.  And, indeed, why should we write, “I cannot go, Thou canst not go, He cannot go?” Apart from the custom, we have just as good reason to join not to canst as to can; and sometimes its union with the latter is a gross error:  as, “He cannot only make a way to escape, but with the injunction to duty can infuse the power to perform.”—­Maturin’s Sermons, p. 287.  The fear of ambiguity never prevents us from disjoining can and not whenever we wish to put a word between them:  as, “Though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.”—­Jeremiah, v, 22.  “Which then I can resist not.”—­Byron’s Manfred, p. 1.

   “Can I not mountain maiden spy,
    But she must bear the Douglas eye?”—­Scott.

OBS. 4.—­In negative questions, the adverb not is sometimes placed before the nominative, and sometimes after it:  as, “Told not I thee?”—­Numb., xxiii, 26.  “Spake I not also to thy messengers?”—­Ib., xxiv, 12. “Cannot I do with you as this potter?”—­Jer., xviii, 6.  “Art not thou a seer?”—­2 Sam., xv, 27.  “Did not Israel know?”—­Rom., x, 19.  “Have they not heard?”—­Ib., 18.  “Do not they blaspheme that worthy name?”—­James, ii, 7.  This adverb, like every other, should be placed where it will sound most agreeably, and best suit the sense.  Dr. Priestley imagined that it could not properly come before the nominative.  He says, “When the nominative case is put after the verb, on account of an interrogation, no other word should be interposed between them. [EXAMPLES:] ’May not we here say with Lucretius?’—­Addison on Medals, p. 29.  May we not say?  ‘Is not it he.’ [?] Smollett’s Voltaire, Vol 18, p. 152.  Is it not he. [?]”—­Priestley’s Gram., p. 177.