THE SYNTAX OF THE RELATIVE PRONOUN AND ITS COGNATES; COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES FROM THE LATIN AND GREEK TONGUE. BY ALFRED DAY, LL.D. LONDON: FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, & WATERLOO PLACE. 1844. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Work is a reprint, greatly enlarged and corrected, of a pamphlet published some few years back by the Author, and has so far lost its original form and gained in illustration, that it may be regarded as altogether new. It is not a mere compilation of the labours of other scholars, as, indeed, will be apparent on slight inspection. It would have been easy to have rendered the volume more complete by further reference to the many grammatical authorities who have travelled partly over the same ground; but this has been avoided, it being quite needless to multiply works of mere extract, while the originals are so accessible as they are. The Author puts it forward merely as a collection of examples furnished by his own reading, and such occasional commentaries as are to be met with in modern editions of the classics, noted down at the time, and afterwards arranged. If these pages have any value at all, that value will not be diminished by their having originated in this way, or from few authorities having been consulted; neither will it be objected, by any person of sufficient judgment, that the range of quotation is too limited, and confined principally to authors read commonly in schools, since it is within this range chiefly that it is meant to be of use. With regard to many of the examples, quoted in the course of these pages, different editors have adopted different readings or conjectures, for the purpose of obviating difficulties, real or supposed, which are probably, after all, unnecessary. It is true, that if we suppose some of these emendations to be based on sufficient authority, these examples may not always bear upon the support of the views for which they are here exhibited. The Author's object has been rather to show, by a collection of corresponding instances, that the integrity of many passages, in the form in which he has quoted them, may be defended. Beyond a doubt, editors have too freely indulged in adverbial marks, hyphens, parentheses and breaks, from want of a sufficiently comprehensive Syntax, such as would explain certain apparent difficulties; and to a similar cause are to be attributed many textual alterations, adopted solely with a view to bring the cases within the scope of ordinary rules. The great success which has attended the labours of modern German editors, in the revision of the text of their authors, is, however, pretty generally admitted, and although the differences are sometimes unimportant, as respects the sense, yet, in many cases, great service has been done to classical literature, by bringing apparent anomalies under extended grammatical rules, and not unfrequently vindicating the integrity of the ordinary copies. He has not deemed it necessary, therefore, to notice different readings always wherever they occur, as he does not presume to settle these any further than by placing the examples, as selected, in juxtaposition with parallel examples noted by him in the authors referred to, leaving the reader to adopt or reject his view as the balance of evidence may incline. With these few preliminary observations, intended to protect himself against the charge of inattention or unfairness, he leaves the subject in the hands of those whom it may concern, or who are desirous of pursuing it further than he has been able to do, believing that he will, at least, be allowed the merit of having brought together a large mass of examples, well adapted to illustrate that department of syntax to which he has confined myself. |