Things used as Subject.

347.  The subject of a simple sentence may be—­

(1) Noun:  “There seems to be no interval between greatness and meanness.”  Also an expression used as a noun; as, “A cheery, ’Ay, ay, sir!’ rang out in response.”

(2) Pronoun:  “We are fortified by every heroic anecdote.”

(3) Infinitive phrase:  “To enumerate and analyze these relations is to teach the science of method.”

(4) Gerund:  “There will be sleeping enough in the grave;” “What signifies wishing and hoping for better things?”

(5) Adjective used as noun:  “The good are befriended even by weakness and defect;” “The dead are there.”

(6) Adverb:  “Then is the moment for the humming bird to secure the insects.”

348.  The subject is often found after the verb—­

(1) By simple inversion:  as, “Therein has been, and ever will be, my deficiency,—­the talent of starting the game;” “Never, from their lips, was heard one syllable to justify,” etc.

(2) In interrogative sentences, for which see Sec. 341.

(3) After “it introductory:”  “It ought not to need to print in a reading room a caution not to read aloud.”

In this sentence, it stands in the position of a grammatical subject; but the real or logical subject is to print, etc. It merely serves to throw the subject after a verb.

[Sidenote:  Disguised infinitive subject.]

There is one kind of expression that is really an infinitive, though disguised as a prepositional phrase:  “It is hard for honest men to separate their country from their party, or their religion from their sect.”

The for did not belong there originally, but obscures the real subject,—­the infinitive phrase.  Compare Chaucer:  “No wonder is a lewed man to ruste” (No wonder [it] is [for] a common man to rust).

(4) After “there introductory,” which has the same office as it in reversing the order (see Sec. 292):  “There was a description of the destructive operations of time;” “There are asking eyes, asserting eyes, prowling eyes.”

Things used as Direct Object.

349.  The words used as direct object are mainly the same as those used for subject, but they will be given in detail here, for the sake of presenting examples:—­

(1) Noun:  “Each man has his own vocation.”  Also expressions used as nouns:  for example, “‘By God, and by Saint George!’ said the King.”

(2) Pronoun:  “Memory greets them with the ghost of a smile.”

(3) Infinitive:  “We like to see everything do its office.”

(4) Gerund:  “She heard that sobbing of litanies, or the thundering of organs.”