What and which, when joined to nouns in asking questions, are denominated interrogative pronominal adjectives; as, “What man is that? Which road did he take?”

What, whatever, and whatsoever, which, whichever, and whichsoever, in constructions like the following, are compound pronouns, but not compound relatives; as, “In what character Butler was admitted, is unknown; Give him what name you choose; Nature’s care largely endows whatever happy man will deign to use her treasures; Let him take which course, or, whichever course he will.”  These sentences may be rendered thus; “That character, or, the character in which Butler was admitted, is unknown; Give him that name, or, the name which you choose; Nature’s care endows that happy man who will deign, &c.; Let him take that course, or the course which he will.”  A compound relative necessarily includes both an antecedent and a relative.  These compounds, you will notice, do not include antecedents, the first part of each word being the article the, or the adjective pronoun, that; therefore they cannot properly be denominated compound relatives.—­With regard to the word ever annexed to these pronouns, it is a singular fact, that, as soon as we analyze the word to which it is subjoined, ever is entirely excluded from the sentence.

What is sometimes used as an interjection; as, “But what! is thy servant a dog, that he should do this? What! rob us of our right of suffrage, and then shut us up in dungeons!”

You have now come to the most formidable obstacle, or, if I may so speak, to the most rugged eminence in the path of grammatical science; but be not disheartened, for, if you can get safely over this, your future course will be interrupted with only here and there a gentle elevation.  It will require close application, and a great deal of sober thinking, to gain a clear conception of the nature of the relative pronouns, particularly the compound relatives, which are not easily comprehended by the young learner.  As this eighth lecture is a very important one, it becomes necessary for you to read it carefully four or five times over before you proceed to commit the following order.  Whenever you parse, you may spread the Compendium before you, if you please.

SYSTEMATIC ORDER OF PARSING.

The order of parsing a RELATIVE PRONOUN, is—­a pronoun, and why?—­relative, and why?—­gender, person, and number, and why?—­RULE:—­case, and why?—­RULE.—­Decline it.

    “This is the man whom we saw.”

Whom is a pronoun, a word used instead of a noun—­relative, it relates to “man” for its antecedent—­mas. gend. third pers. sing. num. because the antecedent “man” is with which it agrees, according to

RULE 14. Relative pronouns agree with their antecedents in gender, person, and number.  Whom is in the objective case, the object of the action expressed by the active-transitive verb “saw,” and governed by it, agreeably to