is, in very many instances, not to be determined by that which “next” or “immediately” precedes the verb.  Examples:  “A sect of freethinkers is a sum of ciphers.”—­Bentley.  “And I am this day weak, though anointed king.”—­2 Sam., iii, 39. “What made Luther a great man, was his unshaken reliance on God.”—­Kortz’s Life of Luther, p. 13.  “The devil offers his service; He is sent with a positive commission to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets.”—­Calvin’s Institutes, p. 131.  It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words sum, king, reliance, and spirit, are nominatives, after the verb or participle; and not objectives, as they must be, if there were any truth in the common assertion, “that the two cases, which, in the construction of the sentence, are the next before and after it, must always be alike.”—­Smith’s New Gram., p. 98.  Not only may the nominative before the verb be followed by an objective, but the nominative after it may be preceded by a possessive; as, “Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, was not a prophet’s son.”—­“It is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.”—­Amos, vii, 13.  How ignorant then must that person be, who cannot see the falsity of the instructions above cited!  How careless the reader who overlooks it!

NOTES TO RULE VI.

NOTE I.—­The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a participial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid; for the cases ought to be clear, even in exceptions to the common rules of construction.  Examples:  (1.) “WIDOWHOOD, n. The state of being a widow.”—­Webster’s Dict. Say rather, “WIDOWHOOD, n. The state of a widow.”—­Johnson, Walker, Worcester. (2.) “I had a suspicion of the fellow’s being a swindler/” Say rather, “I had a suspicion that the fellow was a swindler.” (3.) “To prevent its being a dry detail of terms.”—­Buck.  Better, “To prevent it from being a dry detail of terms.” [361]

NOTE II.—­The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to accord in signification, either literally or figuratively, with the preceding term which is taken for a sign of the same thing.  Errors:  (1.) “To be convicted of bribery, was then a crime altogether unpardonable.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 265.  To be convicted of a crime, is not the crime itself; say, therefore, “Bribery was then a crime altogether unpardonable.” (2.) “The second person is the object of the Imperative.”—­Murray’s Gram., Index, ii, 292.  Say rather, “The second person is the subject of the imperative;” for the object of a verb is the word governed by it, and not its nominative.