“His daring foe securely him defied.”—­Milton.

    “Much he the place admired, the person more.”—­Id.

    “The broom its yellow leaf shed.”—­Langhorne.

If the nominative be a pronoun which cannot be mistaken for an objective, the words may possibly change places; as, “Silver and gold have I none.”—­Acts, iii, 6.  “Created thing nought valued he nor shunn’d.”—­Milton, B. ii, l. 679.  But such a transposition of two nouns can scarcely fail to render the meaning doubtful or obscure; as,

   “This pow’r has praise, that virtue scarce can warm,
    Till fame supplies the universal charm.”—­Dr. Johnson.

A relative or an interrogative pronoun is commonly placed at the head of its clause, and of course it precedes the verb which governs it; as, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.”—­Acts, ix, 5. “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?”—­Ib., vii, 52.

   “Before their Clauses plac’d, by settled use,
    The Relatives these Clauses introduce.”—­Ward’s Gram., p. 86.

OBS. 3.—­Every active-transitive verb or participle has some noun or pronoun for its object, or some pronominal adjective which assumes the relation of the objective case.  Though verbs are often followed by the infinitive mood, or a dependent clause, forming a part of the logical predicate; yet these terms, being commonly introduced by a connecting particle, do not form such an object as is contemplated in our definition of a transitive verb.  Its government of the objective, is the only proper criterion of this sort of verb.  If, in the sentence, “Boys love to play,” the former verb is transitive, as several respectable grammarians affirm; why not also in a thousand others; as, “Boys like to play;”—­“Boys delight to play;”—­“Boys long to play;”—­“The boys seem to play;”—­“The boys cease to play;”—­“The boys ought to play;”—­“The boys go out to play;”—­“The boys are gone out to play;”—­“The boys are allowed to play;” and the like?  The construction in all is precisely the same, and the infinitive may follow one kind of verb just as well as an other.  How then can the mere addition of this mood make any verb transitive? or where, on such a principle, can the line of distinction for transitive verbs be drawn?  The infinitive, in fact, is governed by the preposition to; and the preceding verb, if it has no other object, is intransitive.  It must, however, be confessed that some verbs which thus take the infinitive after them, cannot otherwise be intransitive; as, “A great mind disdains to hold any thing by courtesy.”—­Johnson’s Life of Swift.  “They require to be distinguished by a comma.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 272.