An English Grammar Part 20

2. The judge ... bought up all the pigs _that_ could be had.--LAMB

3. Nature and books belong to the eyes _that_ see them.--EMERSON.

4. For the sake of country a man is told to yield everything _that_ makes the land honorable.--H.W. BEECHER

5. Reader, _that_ do not pretend to have leisure for very much scholars.h.i.+p, you will not be angry with me for telling you.--DE QUINCEY.

6. The Tree Igdrasil, _that_ has its roots down in the kingdoms of Hela and Death, and whose boughs overspread the highest heaven!--CARLYLE.

[Sidenote: What.]

110. Examples of the use of the relative _what_:--

1. Its net to entangle the enemy seems to be _what_ it chiefly trusts to, and _what_ it takes most pains to render as complete as possible.--GOLDSMITH.

2. For _what_ he sought below is pa.s.sed above, Already done is all that he would do.--MARGARET FULLER.

3. Some of our readers may have seen in India a crowd of crows picking a sick vulture to death, no bad type of _what_ often happens in that country.--MACAULAY

[_To the Teacher._--If pupils work over the above sentences carefully, and test every remark in the following paragraphs, they will get a much better understanding of the relatives.]

REMARKS ON THE RELATIVE p.r.o.nOUNS.

[Sidenote: Who.]

111. By reading carefully the sentences in Sec. 107, the following facts will be noticed about the relative _who_:--

(1) It usually refers to persons: thus, in the first sentence, Sec.

107, _a man...who_; in the second, _that man...whose_; in the third, _son_, _whom_; and so on.

(2) It has three case forms,--_who_, _whose_, _whom_.

(3) The forms do not change for person or number of the antecedent. In sentence 4, _who_ is first person; in 5, _whose_ is second person; the others are all third person. In 1, 2, and 3, the relatives are singular; in 4, 5, and 6, they are plural.

[Sidenote: Who _referring to animals_.]

112. Though in most cases _who_ refers to persons there are instances found where it refers to animals. It has been seen (Sec. 24) that animals are referred to by personal p.r.o.nouns when their characteristics or habits are such as to render them important or interesting to man. Probably on the same principle the personal relative _who_ is used not infrequently in literature, referring to animals.

Witness the following examples:--

And you, warm little housekeeper [the cricket], _who_ cla.s.s With those who think the candles come too soon.--LEIGH HUNT.

The robins...have succeeded in driving off the bluejays _who_ used to build in our pines.--LOWELL.

The little gorilla, _whose_ wound I had dressed, flung its arms around my neck.--THACKERAY.

A lake frequented by every fowl _whom_ Nature has taught to dip the wing in water.--DR. JOHNSON.

While we had such plenty of domestic insects _who_ infinitely excelled the former, because they understood how to weave as well as to spin.--SWIFT.

My horse, _who_, under his former rider had hunted the buffalo, seemed as much excited as myself.--IRVING.

Other examples might be quoted from Burke, Kingsley, Smollett, Scott, Cooper, Gibbon, and others.

[Sidenote: Which.]

113. The sentences in Sec. 108 show that--

(1) _Which_ refers to animals, things, or ideas, not persons.

(2) It is not inflected for gender or number.

(3) It is nearly always third person, rarely second (an example of its use as second person is given in sentence 32, p. 96).

(4) It has two case forms,--_which_ for the nominative and objective, _whose_ for the possessive.

[Sidenote: _Examples of_ whose, _possessive case of_ which.]

114. Grammarians sometimes object to the statement that _whose_ is the possessive of _which_, saying that the phrase _of which_ should always be used instead; yet a search in literature shows that the possessive form _whose_ is quite common in prose as well as in poetry: for example,--

I swept the horizon, and saw at one glance the glorious elevations, on _whose_ tops the sun kindled all the melodies and harmonies of light.--BEECHER.

Men may be ready to fight to the death, and to persecute without pity, for a religion _whose_ creed they do not understand, and _whose_ precepts they habitually disobey.--MACAULAY

Beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities of the plain, _whose_ grave was dug by the thunder of the heavens.--SCOTT.

Many great and opulent cities _whose_ population now exceeds that of Virginia during the Revolution, and _whose_ names are spoken in the remotest corner of the civilized world.--MCMASTER.

Through the heavy door _whose_ bronze network closes the place of his rest, let us enter the church itself.--RUSKIN.

This moribund '61, _whose_ career of life is just coming to its terminus.--THACKERAY.

So in Matthew Arnold, Kingsley, Burke, and numerous others.

[Sidenote: Which _and its antecedents_.]

115. The last two sentences in Sec. 108 show that _which_ may have other antecedents than nouns and p.r.o.nouns. In 5 (_a_) there is a participial adjective used as the antecedent; in 5 (_b_) there is a complete clause employed as antecedent. This often occurs.

Sometimes, too, the antecedent follows _which_; thus,--

And, which is worse, _all you have done Hath been but for a wayward son_.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Primarily, which is very notable and curious, I observe that _men of business rarely know the meaning of the word "rich_."--RUSKIN.

I demurred to this honorary t.i.tle upon two grounds,--first, as being one toward which I had no natural apt.i.tudes or predisposing advantages; secondly (which made her stare), _as carrying with it no real or enviable distinction_.--DE QUINCEY.