“There all thy gifts and graces we display,
    Thee, only thee, directing all our way.”

CHAPTER IV.—­ADJECTIVES.

The syntax of the English Adjective is fully embraced in the following brief rule, together with the exceptions, observations, and notes, which are, in due order, subjoined.

RULE IX.—­ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns:  as, “Miserable comforters are ye all”—­Job, xvi, 2. “No worldly enjoyments are adequate to the high desires and powers of an immortal spirit.”—­Blair.

   “Whatever faction’s partial notions are,
    No hand is wholly innocent in war.”
        —­Rowe’s Lucan, B. vii, l. 191.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

An adjective sometimes relates to a phrase or sentence which is made the subject of an intervening verb; as, “To insult the afflicted, is impious”—­Dillwyn. “That he should refuse, is not strange”—­“To err is human.” Murray says, “Human belongs to its substantive ‘nature’ understood.”—­Gram., p. 233.  From this I dissent.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

In combined arithmetical numbers, one adjective often relates to an other, and the whole phrase, to a subsequent noun; as, “One thousand four hundred and fifty-six men.”—­“Six dollars and eighty-seven and a half cents for every five days’ service.”—­“In the one hundred and twenty-second year.”—­“One seven times more than it was wont to be heated.”—­Daniel, iii, 19.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

With an infinitive or a participle denoting being or action in the abstract, an adjective is sometimes also taken abstractly; (that is, without reference to any particular noun, pronoun, or other subject;) as, “To be sincere, is to be wise, innocent, and safe.”—­Hawkesworth. “Capacity marks the abstract quality of being able to receive or hold.”—­Crabb’s Synonymes.  “Indeed, the main secret of being sublime, is to say great things in few and plain words.”—­Hiley’s Gram., p. 215.  “Concerning being free from sin in heaven, there is no question.”—­Barclay’s Works, iii, 437.  Better:  “Concerning freedom from sin,” &c.

EXCEPTION FOURTH.