the second person, plural number, masculine gender, in the nominative case to the verb study.”—­Ingersoll’s Gram., p. 17.[339] Now the fact is, that this laconic address, of three syllables, is written wrong; being made bad English for want of a comma between the two words.  Without this mark, boys must be an objective, governed by study; and with it, a nominative, put absolute by direct address.  But, in either case, study agrees with ye or you understood, and has not the noun for its subject, or nominative.

OBS. 5.—­Some authors say, and if the first person be no exception, say truly:  “The nominative case to a verb, unless it be a pronoun, is always of the third person.”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. 141.  But W. B. Fowle will have all pronouns to be adjectives.  Consequently all his verbs, of every sort, agree with nouns “expressed or understood.”  This, and every other absurd theory of language, can easily be made out, by means of a few perversions, which may be called corrections, and a sufficient number of interpolations, made under pretence of filling up ellipses.  Thus, according to this author, “They fear,” means, “They things spoken of fear.”—­True Eng.  Gram., p, 33.  And, “John, open the door,” or, “Boys, stop your noise,” admits no comma.  And, “Be grateful, ye children,” and, “Be ye grateful children,” are, in his view, every way equivalent:  the comma in the former being, in his opinion, needless.  See ib., p. 39.

OBS. 6.—­Though the nominative and objective cases of nouns do not differ in form, it is nevertheless, in the opinion of many of our grammarians, improper to place any noun in both relations at once, because this produces a confusion in the syntax of the word.  Examples:  “He then goes on to declare that there are, and distinguish of, four manners of saying Per se.”—­Walker’s Treatise of Particles, p. xii.  Better:  “He then proceeds to show, that per se is susceptible of four different senses.”  “In just allegory and similitude there is always a propriety, or, if you choose to call it, congruity, in the literal sense, as well as a distinct meaning or sentiment suggested, which is called the figurative sense.”—­Campbell’s Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 291.  Better:  “In just allegory or similitude, there is always a propriety—­or, if you choose to call it so, a congruity—­in the literal sense,” &c.  “It must then be meant of his sins who makes, not of his who becomes, the convert.”—­Atterbury’s Sermons, i, 2.  Better:  “It must then be meant of his sins who makes the convert, not of his who becomes converted.”  “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”—­1 Cor., ii, 9.  A more regular construction would be:  “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  The following example, from Pope, may perhaps be conceded to the poet, as an allowable ellipsis of the words “a friend,” after is: