A compound sentence is a sentence which consists of two or more simple ones either expressly or tacitly connected; as, “Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.”—­Acts, xi, 13.  “The more the works of Cowper are read, the more his readers will find reason to admire the variety and the extent, the graces and the energy, of his literary talents.”—­HAYLEY:  Mur.  Seq., p. 250.

A clause, or member, is a subdivision of a compound sentence; and is itself a sentence, either simple or compound:  as, “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; if he be thirsty, give him water to drink.”—­Prov., xxv, 21.[324]

A phrase is two or more words which express some relation of different ideas, but no entire proposition; as, “By the means appointed.”—­“To be plain with you.”—­“Having loved his own.”

Words that are omitted by ellipsis, and that are necessarily understood in order to complete the construction, (and only such,) must be supplied in parsing.

The leading principles to be observed in the construction of sentences, are embraced in the following twenty-four rules, which are arranged, as nearly as possible, in the order of the parts of speech.

THE RULES OF SYNTAX.

RULE I.—­ARTICLES.

Articles relate to the nouns which they limit.

RULE II.—­NOMINATIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case.

RULE III.—­APPOSITION.  A Noun or a personal Pronoun used to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case.

RULE IV.—­POSSESSIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed.

RULE V.—­OBJECTIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of an active-transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case.

RULE VI.—­SAME CASES.

A Noun or a Pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same thing.

RULE VII.—­OBJECTIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by it in the objective case.

RULE VIII.—­NOM.  ABSOLUTE.

A Noun or a Pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case depends on no other word.

RULE IX.—­ADJECTIVES.