followers, of supplying a “substantive” in all such cases, is absurd.  “When the Adjective forms the Attribute of a Proposition, it belongs to the noun [or pronoun] which serves as the Subject of the Proposition, and cannot be joined to any other noun, since it is of the Subject that we affirm the quality expressed by this Adjective.”—­De Sacy, on General Gram., p. 37.  In some peculiar phrases, however, such as, to fall short of, to make bold with, to set light by, the adjective has such a connexion with the verb, that it may seem questionable how it ought to be explained in parsing.  Examples:  (1.) “This latter mode of expression falls short of the force and vehemence of the former.”—­L.  Murray’s Gram., p. 353.  Some will suppose the word short to be here used adverbially, or to qualify falls only; but perhaps it may as well be parsed as an adjective, forming a predicate with “falls,” and relating to “mode,” the nominative. (2.) “And that I have made so bold with thy glorious Majesty.”—­Jenks’s Prayers, p. 156.  This expression is perhaps elliptical:  it may mean, “that I have made myself so bold,” &c. (3.) “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother:  and all the people shall say, Amen.”—­Deut., xxvii, 16.  This may mean, “that setteth light esteem or estimation,” &c.

OBS. 4.—­When an adjective follows an infinitive or a participle, the noun or pronoun to which it relates, is sometimes before it, and sometimes after it, and often considerably remote; as, “A real gentleman cannot but practice those virtues which, by an intimate knowledge of mankind, he has found to be useful to them.”—­“He [a melancholy enthusiast] thinks himself obliged in duty to be sad and disconsolate.”—­Addison.  “He is scandalized at youth for being lively, and at childhood for being playful.”—­Id. “But growing weary of one who almost walked him out of breath, he left him for Horace and Anacreon.”—­Steele.

OBS. 5.—­Adjectives preceded by the definite article, are often used, by ellipsis, as nouns; as, the learned, for learned men.  Such phrases usually designate those classes of persons or things, which are characterized by the qualities they express; and this, the reader must observe, is a use quite different from that substitution of adjectives for nouns, which is noticed in the fourth exception above.  In our language, the several senses in which adjectives may thus be taken, are not distinguished with that clearness which the inflections of other tongues secure.  Thus, the noble, the vile, the excellent, or the beautiful, may be put for three extra constructions:  first, for noble persons, vile persons, &c.; secondly, for the noble man, the vile man, &c.; thirdly,