OBS. 11.—­In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs is improper; but, in poetry, an adjective relating to the noun or pronoun, is sometimes elegantly used in stead of an adverb qualifying the verb or participle; as; “Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm.”—­Thomson’s Seasons, p. 34.  “To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts Continual climb.”—­Ib., p. 48.  “As on he walks Graceful, and crows defiance.”—­Ib., p. 56.  “As through the falling glooms Pensive I stray.”—­Ib., p. 80.  “They, sportive, wheel; or, sailing down the stream, Are snatch’d immediate by the quick-eyed trout.”—­Ib., p. 82. “Incessant still you flow.”—­Ib., p. 91.  “The shatter’d clouds Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky Sublimer swells.”—­Ib., p. 116.  In order to determine, in difficult cases, whether an adjective or an adverb is required, the learner should carefully attend to the definitions of these parts of speech, and consider whether, in the case in question, quality is to be expressed, or manner:  if the former, an adjective is always proper; if the latter, an adverb.  That is, in this case, the adverb, though not always required in poetry, is specially requisite in prose.  The following examples will illustrate this point:  “She looks cold;”—­“She looks coldly on him.”—­“I sat silent;”—­“I sat silently musing.”—­“Stand firm; maintain your cause firmly.”  See Etymology, Chap, viii, Obs. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, on the Modifications of Adverbs.

OBS. 12.—­In English, an adjective and its noun are often taken as a sort of compound term, to which other adjectives may be added; as, “An old man; a good old man; a very learned, judicious, good old man.”—­L.  Murray’s Gram., p. 169; Brit.  Gram., 195; Buchanan’s, 79.  “Of an other determinate positive new birth, subsequent to baptism, we know nothing.”—­West’s Letters, p. 183.  When adjectives are thus accumulated, the subsequent ones should convey such ideas as the former may consistently qualify, otherwise the expression will be objectionable.  Thus the ordinal adjectives, first, second, third, next, and last, may qualify the cardinal numbers, but they cannot very properly be qualified by them.  When, therefore, we specify any part of a series, the cardinal adjective ought, by good right, to follow the ordinal, and not, as in the following phrase, be placed before it:  “In reading the nine last chapters of John.”—­Fuller.  Properly speaking, there is but one last chapter in any book.  Say, therefore, “the last nine chapters;” for, out of the twenty-one chapters in John, a man may select several different nines. (See Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 7th, on the Degrees of Comparison.) When one of the adjectives merely qualifies the other, they should be joined together