affronting him."--_Brown's
Divinity_, p. 19. "They used every _mean_ to prevent the re-establishment
of their religion."--_Dr Jamieson's Sacred Hist._, i, p. 20. "As a
necessary _mean_ to prepare men for the discharge of that duty."--
_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 153. "Greatest is the power of a _mean_, when
its power is least suspected."--_Tupper's Book of Thoughts_, p. 37. "To the
deliberative orator the reputation of unsullied virtue is not only useful,
as a _mean_ of promoting his general influence, it is also among his most
efficient engines of persuasion, upon every individual occasion."--_J. Q.
Adams's Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory_, i, 352. "I would urge it upon
you, as the most effectual _mean_ of extending your respectability and
usefulness in the world."--_Ib._, ii, 395. "Exercise will be admitted to be
a necessary _mean_ of improvement."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 343. "And by _that
means_ we have now an early prepossession in their favour."--_Ib._, p. 348.
"To abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better _mean_ of reconciliation."
--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 46. "As a _mean_ of destroying the distinction."
--_Ib._, p. 3. "Which however is by no _mean_ universally the case."--
_Religious World Displayed_, Vol. iii, p. 155.

OBS. 35.--Again, there are some nouns, which, though they do not lack the
regular plural form, are sometimes used in a plural sense without the
plural termination. Thus _manner_ makes the plural _manners_, which last is
now generally used in the peculiar sense of behaviour, or deportment, but
not always: it sometimes means methods, modes, or ways; as, "At sundry
times and in divers _manners_."--_Heb._, i, 1. "In the _manners_ above
mentioned."--_Butler's Analogy_, p. 100. "There be three _manners_ of
trials in England."--COWELL: _Joh. Dict., w. Jury_. "These two _manners_ of
representation."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 15. "These are the three primary
modes, or _manners_, of expression."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 83. "In
arrangement, too, various _manners_ suit various styles."--_Campbell's
Phil. of Rhet._, p. 172. "Between the two _manners_."--_Bolingbroke, on
Hist._, p. 35. "Here are three different _manners_ of asserting."--
_Barnard's Gram._, p. 59. But _manner_ has often been put for _sorts_,
without the _s_; as, "The tree of life, which bare _twelve manner_ of
fruits."--_Rev._, xxii, 2. "All _manner_ of men assembled here in
arms."--_Shak_. "_All manner_ of outward advantages."--_Atterbury_. Milton
us