Some over cautious minds, who are always second, if not last, in a good cause, ask us why these principles, if so true and clear, were not found out before?  Why have not the learned who have studied for many centuries, never seen and adopted them?  It is a sufficient answer to such a question, to ask why the copernican system of astronomy was not sooner adopted, why the principles of chemistry, the circulation of the blood, the power and application of steam, nay, why all improvement was not known before.  When grammar and dictionary makers, those wise expounders of the principles of speech, have so far forgotten facts as to teach that eat and drink, “express neither action nor passion,” or are “confined to the agents;” that when a man eats, he eats nothing, or when he drinks, he drinks nothing, we need not stop long to decide why these things were unknown before.  The wisest may sometimes mistake; and the proud aspirant for success, frequently passes over, unobserved, the humble means on which all true success depends.

Allow me to quote some miscellaneous examples which will serve to show more clearly the importance of supplying the elipses, in order to comprehend the meaning of the writers, or profit by their remarks.  You will supply the objects correctly from the attendant circumstances where they are not expressed.

“Ask ( ) and ye shall receive ( ); seek ( ) and ye shall find ( ); knock ( ) and it shall be opened unto you.”

Ask what?  Seek what?  Knock what?  That it may be opened?  Our “Grammars Made Easy” would teach us to ask and seek nothing! no objectives after them.  What then could we reasonably expect to receive or find?  The thing we asked for, of course, and that was nothing!  Well might the language apply to such, “Ye ask ( ) and receive not (naught) because ye ask ( ) amiss.”  False teaching is as pernicious to religion and morals as to science.

“Charge them that are rich in this world—­that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute ( ), willing to communicate ( ).”—­Paul to Timothy.

The hearer is to observe that there is no object after these words—­nothing distributed, or communicated!  There is too much such charity in the world.

“He spoke ( ), and it was done; he commanded ( ), and it stood fast.”

“Bless ( ), and curse ( ) not.”—­Bible.

“Strike ( ) while the iron is hot.”—­Proverb.

“I came ( ), I saw ( ), I conquered ( ).”—­Caesar’s Letter.

He lives ( ) contented and happy.

“The life that I now live, in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God.”—­Paul.

“Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”—­Numbers.