an example of the figure syllepsis:.as, "Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they all share one common nature."--Spectator, No. 287.
"Thus urg'd the chief; a generous troop appears,
Who spread their bucklers and advance their spears."
--Pope, Iliad, B. xi, l. 720.
OBS. 2.--Many of our grammarians say, "When a noun of multitude is preceded by a definitive word, which clearly limits the sense to an aggregate with an idea of unity, it requires a verb and pronoun to agree with it in the singular number."--Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249; Fisk's, 122; Fowler's, 528. But this principle, I apprehend, cannot be sustained by an appeal to general usage. The instances in practice are not few, in which both these senses are clearly indicated with regard to the same noun; as, "Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgement require secrecy."--Constitution of the United States, Art. i, Sec. 5. "I mean that part of mankind who are known by the name of women's men, or beaux."--Addison, Spect., No. 536. "A set of men who are common enough in the world."--Ibid. "It is vain for a people to expect to be free, unless they are first willing to be virtuous."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 397. "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed."--Matt., xiii, 15. "This enemy had now enlarged their confederacy, and made themselves more formidable than before."--Life of Antoninus, p. 62.
"Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms;
So loud their clamour, and so keen their arms."
--Pope, Iliad, B. xvi, l. 320.
OBS. 3.--Most collective nouns of the neuter gender, may take the regular plural form, and be represented by a pronoun in the third person, plural, neuter; as, "The nations will enforce their laws." This construction comes under Rule 10th, as does also the singular, "The nations will enforce its laws;" for, in either case, the agreement is entirely literal. Half of Murray's Rule 4th is therefore needless. To Rule 11th above, there are properly no exceptions; because the number of the pronoun is itself the index to the sense in which the antecedent is therein taken. It does not follow, however, but that there may be violations of the rule, or of the notes under it, by the adoption of one number when the other would be more correct, or in better taste. A collection of things inanimate, as a fleet, a heap, a row, a tier, a bundle, is seldom, if ever, taken distributively, with a plural pronoun. For a further elucidation of the construction of collective nouns, see Rule 15th, and the observations under it.
NOTES TO RULE XI.
NOTE I.--A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a pronoun in the third person, singular, neuter; as, "When a legislative body makes laws, it acts for itself only; but when it makes grants or contracts, it acts as a party."--Webster's Essays, p. 40. "A civilized people has no right to violate its solemn obligations, because the other party is uncivilized."--Wayland's Moral Science, p. 314.
NOTE II.--When a collective noun is followed by two or more words which must each in some sense agree with it, uniformity of number is commonly preferable to diversity, and especially to such a mixture as puts the singular both before and after the plural; as, "That ingenious nation who have done so much honour to modern literature, possesses, in an eminent degree, the talent of narration."--Blair's Rhet., p. 364. Better: "which has done."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XI.
UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--THE IDEA OF PLURALITY.
"The jury will be confined till it agrees on a verdict."--Brown's Inst., p. 145.
[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the pronoun it is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent its antecedent jury, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 11th, "When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the pronoun must agree with it in the plural number." Therefore, it should be they; thus, "The jury will be confined till they agree on a verdict."]
"And mankind directed its first cares towards the needful."--Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 114. "It is difficult to deceive a free people respecting its true interest."--Life of Charles XII, p. 67. "All the virtues of mankind are to be counted upon a few fingers, but his follies and vices are innumerable."--Swift. "Every sect saith, 'Give me liberty:' but give it him, and to his power, he will not yield it to any body else."--Oliver Cromwell. "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion."--Numbers, xxiii, 24. "For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."--Gen., vi, 12. "There happened to the army a very strange accident, which put it in great consternation."--Goldsmith.
