116. In the form Subject - Copula - Predicate, the general rule is, that the copula agrees with the subject:

The Dutch have been, from the foundation of their commonwealth, a nation of patriots and merchants.-Bolingbroke. From this instant

There's nothing serious in mortality;

All is but toys renown and grace is dead.-Shakespeare. But when the predicate stands first, the copula may agree with it:

The noblest reward of a sovereign is the love and respect of his people.-Bolingbroke.

What is six winters? they are quickly gone.-Shakespeare. 117. When two subjects in the singular number, and of the third person, are connected by or or nor, the Verb is in the singular :

John or James is coming.

Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.-Matt. vi. 20.

118. When subjects of different persons are connected by or or nor, the Verb usually agrees with the subject nearest to it: He or I am expected.

Neither I nor he is expected.

But there is no fixed usage in these cases, and the combinations are so awkward, that they should be avoided: thus

One of us, he or I, is expected.

I am not expected, nor is he.

119. When an affirmative statement is connected with a negative statement, and a Verb refers to both, it is in the singular:

My poverty, and not my will, consents.-Shakespeare.

120. Collective Nouns, such as Nation, People, Senate, Herd, Army, and many others, have a plural Verb, when the speaker has in view the units that make up the whole, and a singular Verb, when the speaker calls attention to the collection as a whole.

For example, we might say with correctness

A party was sent (from the ship) to an island.

But Southey writes

A party were sent to an island.

So, again, in the following examples, the number of the words in italics might be changed, without any grammatical error being made:

The infantry were brought up to the attack.—Macaulay.

The infantry was driven back.—Macaulay.

The cavalry were fifteen thousand.-Macaulay.

The army took up its quarters in a grove.-Macaulay.

When day broke the enemy were no more to be seen.Macaulay.

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.-Gray.

As when a mighty people rejoice.-Tennyson.

How great a part of mankind bear poverty with cheerfulness, because they have been bred in it, and are accustomed to it.-Bolingbroke.

A passage in John vii. 49 is noteworthy, because it gives, by a literal translation from the Greek, both usages:

This people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.

121. Many a is followed by a singular or plural Verb according as the speaker has in view one of the individuals that make up the collection, or a number of them:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.-Gray.

Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply;

And many a holy text around she strews,

That teach the rustic moralist to die.—Gray.

122. Here notice the use of the Definite Article to make an individual represent the class or kind to which it belongs : The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality.—Shakespeare. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.-Shakespeare.

The Gaul shall come against thee
From the land of snow and night;
Thou shalt give his fair-haired armies
To the raven and the kite.—Macaulay.

II. The Object.

123. The objective case is much used to express :

1. The object on which an action is performed, or towards which an action is directed.

Thus it follows Verbs expressing an exercise

of the appetites, as eat, drink:

of the senses, as see, hear, smell:
of the affections, as love, hate:
of the intellect, as know, think.

Also, it follows Verbs that express :

Movement of an object, as bear, carry:

Hitting, as hit, strike, beat:

Changing the form of an object, as rend, cut, tear:
Constructing, as make, build, work.

2. The result of an action or feeling, expressed by a
Verb, repeated in a Noun of like signification: as
I sing a song. I tell a tale.

The Noun is usually qualified by an Adjective:
Fight the good fight. Live a virtuous life.

Judge righteous judgment.

Thou, quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep.-Shakespeare.
He works his work, I mine.-Tennyson.

O Ratcliff! I have dream'd a fearful dream.

He smiles a smile more dreadful

Than his own dreadful frown,

Shakespeare.

When he sees the thick black cloud of smoke

Go up from the conquered town.—Macaulay. This is called the construction of the Cognate Objective.

124. When the object of a Verb is the same person or thing as the subject of the sentence, the object is generally denoted by one of the Pronouns compounded with -self or -selves:

Cato slew himself. Anger punishes itself. One pities oneself. NOTE I. In poetry the subject is sometimes repeated as the object :

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.-Shakespeare. NOTE 2.1- -Self and selves are often omitted:

I laid me down and slept.-Psalm iii. 5.

They sat them down upon the yellow sand.-Tennyson.
I met a fool,

Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun.

Shakespeare.

With whine and bound the spaniel

His master's whistle hears;

And the sheep yields her patiently

To the loud clashing shears.-Macaulay.

DOUBLE OBJECTIVE.

125. Many Transitive Verbs take a second objective case to complete their meaning: such are

MAKE.

CALL.

DEEM.

We make ourselves fools.-Shakespeare.

Call him a slanderous coward and a villain.

Shakespeare.

For standing on the Persian's grave, I could not deem myself a slave.—Byron. BANISH. I banish her my bed and company.-Shakespeare.

126. Some Verbs of asking and teaching take two objectives, one of the person, the other of the thing:

Ask me no reason why I love you.—Shakespeare.

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?—Matt. vi. 19.

One, that hath taught me more wit than ever I learned before in my life.—Shakespeare.

For thy escape would teach me tyranny.-Shakespeare.
But O! how oddly will it sound, that I
Must ask my child forgiveness.-Shakespeare.

Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
From this time forth I never will speak word.-Shakespeare.

Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;

Still questioned me the story of my life,

From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.—Shakespeare.