OBS. 11.—­A noun in the nominative case sometimes follows a finite verb, when the equivalent subject that stands before the verb, is not a noun or pronoun, but a phrase or a sentence which supplies the place of a nominative; as, “That the barons and freeholders derived their authority from kings, is wholly a mistake.”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 277.  “To speak of a slave as a member of civil society, may, by some, be regarded a solecism.”—­Stroud’s Sketch, p. 65.  Here mistake and solecism are as plainly nominatives, as if the preceding subjects had been declinable words.

OBS. 12.—­When a noun is put after an abstract infinitive that is not transitive, it appears necessarily to be in the objective case,[360] though not governed by the verb; for if we supply any noun to which such infinitive may be supposed to refer, it must be introduced before the verb by the preposition for:  as, “To be an Englishman in London, a Frenchman in Paris, a Spaniard in Madrid, is no easy matter; and yet it is necessary.”—­Home’s Art of Thinking, p. 89.  That is, “For a traveller to be an Englishman in London,” &c.  “It is certainly as easy to be a scholar, as a gamester.”—­Harris’s Hermes, p. 425.  That is, “It is as easy for a young man to be a scholar, as it is for him to be a gamester.”  “To be an eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is far from being a common or easy attainment.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 337.  Here attainment is in the nominative, after is—­or, rather after being, for it follows both; and speaker, in the objective after to be.  “It is almost as hard a thing [for a man] to be a poet in despite of fortune, as it is [for one to be a poet] in despite of nature.”—­Cowley’s Preface to his Poems, p. vii.

OBS. 13.—­Where precision is necessary, loose or abstract infinitives are improper; as, “But to be precise, signifies, that they express that idea, and no more.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 94; Murray’s Gram., 301; Jamieson’s Rhet., 64.  Say rather:  “But, for an author’s words to be precise, signifies, that they express his exact idea, and nothing more or less.”

OBS. 14.—­The principal verbs that take the same case after as before them, except those which are passive, are the following:  to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, to remain, to continue, to reign.  There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is to be observed, that they are sometimes transitive, and govern the objective:  as, “To commence a suit.”—­Johnson.  “O continue thy loving kindness unto