OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIII.

OBS. 1.—­When two or more singular antecedents are connected by or or nor, the pronoun which represents them, ought in general to be singular, because or and nor are disjunctives; and, to form a complete concord, the nouns ought also to be of the same person and gender, that the pronoun may agree in all respects with each of them.  But when plural nouns are connected in this manner, the pronoun will of course be plural, though it still agrees with the antecedents singly; as, “Neither riches nor honours ever satisfy their pursuers.”  Sometimes, when different numbers occur together, we find the plural noun put last, and the pronoun made plural after both, especially if this noun is a mere substitute for the other; as,

   “What’s justice to a man, or laws,
    That never comes within their claws.”—­Hudibras.

OBS. 2.—­When antecedents of different persons, numbers, or genders, are connected by or or nor, they cannot very properly be represented by any pronoun that is not applicable to each of them.  The following sentences are therefore inaccurate; or at least they contradict the teachings of their own authors:  “Either thou or I am greatly mistaken, in our judgment on this subject.”—­Murray’s Key, p. 184 “Your character, which I, or any other writer, may now value ourselves by (upon) drawing.”—­SWIFT:  Lowth’s Gram., p. 96.  “Either you or I will be in our place in due time.”—­Coopers Gram., p. 127.  But different pronouns may be so connected as to refer to such antecedents taken separately; as, “By requiring greater labour from such slave or slaves, than he or she or they are able to perform.”—­Prince’s Digest.  Or, if the gender only be different, the masculine may involve the feminine by implication; as, “If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.”—­Exodus, xxi, 26.

OBS. 3.—­It is however very common to resort to the plural number in such instances as the foregoing, because our plural pronouns are alike in all the genders; as, “When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite.”—­Numbers, vi, 2.  “Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman unto thy gates, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.”—­Deut., xvii, 5.  “Not on outward charms could he or she build their pretensions to please.”—­Opie, on Lying, p. 148.  “Complimenting either man or woman on agreeable qualities which they do not possess, in hopes of imposing on their credulity.”—­Ib., p. 108. “Avidien, or his wife, (no matter which,) sell their presented partridges and fruits.”—­Pope, Sat. ii, l. 50.  “Beginning with Latin or Greek hexameter, which are the same.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., i, 79.