Explain the faults in the following sentences and correct them in several ways:—­

1.  He read the parable about the sowing the seed. 2.  Good writing depends on reading of good books. 3.  Youth is the time for the forming the character. 4.  “In building of chaises, I tell you what,
    There is always somewhere a weakest spot.”
5.  He would not aid me so much as by the lifting a hand. 6.  Groaning of prisoners and clanking of chains were heard. 7.  By the obtaining wisdom you will command esteem. 8.  By reading of good books his style was improved. 9.  The taking things by force is apt to make trouble. 10.  A more careful guarding the prisoners would have prevented
    this accident.

CHOICE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS.[53]—­Who is now used only of persons; which, of things; that, of either persons or things.  As a rule, euphony decides between who or which and that.

“Who is used chiefly of persons (though also often of the higher animals), which almost only of animals and things (in old English also of persons), and that indifferently of either, except after a preposition, where only who [whom] or which can stand.  Some recent authorities teach that only that should be used when the relative clause is limiting or defining:  as, the man that runs fastest wins the race; but who or which when it is descriptive or co-ordinating:  as, this man, who ran fastest, won the race; but, though present usage is perhaps tending in the direction of such a distinction, it neither has been nor is a rule of English speech, nor is it likely to become one, especially on account of the impossibility of setting that after a preposition; for to turn all relative clauses into the form ‘the house that Jack lived in’ (instead of ‘the house in which Jack lived’) would be intolerable.  In good punctuation the defining relative is distinguished (as in the examples above) by never taking a comma before it, whether it be who or which or that.  Wherever that could be properly used, but only there, the relative may be, and very often is, omitted altogether; thus, the house Jack built or lived in; the man he built it for."[54]

When the antecedent includes both persons and things, that is preferable to who or which.

“When the antecedent is a neuter noun not personified, a writer should prefer of which to whose, unless euphony requires the latter."[55]

What, as a relative pronoun, is equivalent to “that which.”  It is never used with an antecedent, since the antecedent is included in the meaning of the word.

The word as is a relative pronoun only after “such” or “same.”  After “such” the proper relative is “as”; after “same” it is “as” or “that.” “Same as usually expresses identity of kind, same that absolute identity, except in contracted sentences where same as is alone found:  cf. ‘he uses the same books as you do,’ ’he uses the same books that you do,’ he uses the same books as you.’"[56]