12 
beneficent, and useful; they have the 
happy talent of discovering even— 
Tongues in the trees, books in the run- 
ning brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every 
thing.” 
Such is Abernethy; and, when death 
shall have buried in oblivion all the 
blots and shadows of his character, 
when another generation shall have 
sprung up, and known him only by the 
triumphant memorials which he will 
bequeath to them in his works,— then 
will they couple the names of Hunter 
and Abernethy together, and regard 
them as the benefactors of their race. 
Nov. 1, 1822; Henry OAKLEY. 
Charterhouse-square. 
<_< 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the “CASE ABSOLUTE” tn ENGLISH. 
HIS elliptical form of expression 
is so familiarized by inveterate 
usage, that many syntactical writers 
have mistaken it for a perfect formula, 
sui generis; and its name has been 
invented, and almost universally 
adopted, as expressive of its supposed 
peculiarity of structure. 
That there is no such case of the 
noun as the ‘case absolnte” is main- 
tained by Mr. Cobbett, in the 19ist 
section of his English Grammar. A 
position founded on this clear principle 
of logic, (of which language is but the 
vehicle,) that no proposition can be 
fully enunciated, in other words, no 
sentence can be complete, without the 
aid of a verb: predication being that 
peculiar function of the verb which no 
other element of language is capable 
of performing: so that every sentence 
not containing a verb must necessarily 
be truncated or elliptical. 
But Mr. Cobbett, though correct in 
his general position, altogether fails in 
his attempt at illustration: he cites 
“shame being lost, all virtue is lost,” 
as an instance selected by Mr. Murray 
of this imaginary case, and employs 
the following periphrasis for the pur- 
pose of elucidating its elliptical cha- 
racter:—‘‘ The full meaning of the 
sentence is, it being, or the state of 
things being, such that shame is lost, 
all virtue is lost.” Now it is obvious 
that the suppletory words, ‘‘ zt being,” 
or “ the state of things being,” involve 
in them that specific ellipsis which 
they were introduced to unfold; so 
that the sentence thus expanded exhi- 
bits not the one, the only, thing 
On the * Case absolute” in English, 
fAug. ly 
required,—a development of the par- 
tial suppression,—but a mere trans- 
plantation of the ellipsis into a new 
set of words, without any melioration 
of sense, or added perspicuity of 
phrase. 
The sole office of grammatical ana- 
lysis,as applied to elliptical sentences, 
being to bring out the parts sup- 
pressed, it is evident that neither 
change nor rejection of those expressed 
is admissible: thus, in order to com- 
plete the imperfect formula called the 
“case absolute,” (which always con- 
stitutes a conditional, and never the 
principal, proposition,) the whole pro- 
cess consists in supplying the conditi- 
onal particle, and the sign of predica- 
tion; and, e converso, the noun in any 
perfect sentence may be reduced to 
the ‘‘case absolute,” by striking out 
the latter, together with the former, 
when present. 
The verb is, throughout its inflecti- 
ons, being the pure and elementary sign 
of predication, all other verbs are of a 
compound nature, and resoluble into 
this sign, and a participial attributive. 
There can be no doubt of the direct 
convertibility of such phrases as, 
Philip comes, and Philip is coming, 
though custom and convention have 
established the shade of a distinction; 
that the latter is simple and rudi- 
mental, the former one of those com- 
plicate and artificial expedients to 
which the mind of man resorts, to faci- 
litate the commerce of thought. From 
the latter let us expunge is, the copula 
or mark of predication, and the residue 
will constitute the ‘case absolute,” 
with the participle. But this ellipsis 
is never employed but to express some 
conditional proposition; we must there- 
fore connect it with some other propo- 
sition, which will form the capitel one: 
thus—Philip coming, James departs. 
Having obtained this situation of the 
noun Philip, we may open the sentence 
in this manner—as Philip,7s coming 
(or comes), James departs. This 
example may serve as a manifestation 
of the principle of development appli- — 
cable to every variety of this species of 
ellipses, whether the participle bes 
The resolution is in some cases more 
ON 
“< _ 
ee 
active or passive, simple or compound. “4 
operose, but in principle and effect the 
same. I forbear to exemplily the pro- 
cess in a more elaborate form, lest T 
should trespass too much upon your 
valuable columns. i 
The 
cin _ 
