ure or art contribute most to form an orator, is a trifling
inquiry."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 338. "Year after year steals something from
us; till the decaying fabric totter of itself, and crumble at length into
dust."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 225. "If spiritual pride have not entirely
vanquished humility."--_West's Letters_, p. 184. "Whether he have gored a
son, or have gored a daughter."--_Exodus_, xxi, 31. "It is doubtful whether
the object introduced by way of simile, relate to what goes before, or to
what follows."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 45.

"And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answer'd have."--_Milt., Comus_, l. 887.

RULE XV.--FINITE VERBS.

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality,
the Verb must agree with it in the plural number: as, "The _council were
divided_."--"The _college_ of cardinals _are_ the electors of the
pope."--_Murray's Key_, p. 176. "Quintus Curtius relates, that a _number_
of them _were drowned_ in the river Lycus."--_Home's Art of Thinking_, p.
125.

"Yon _host come_ learn'd in academic rules."
--_Rowe's Lucan_, vii, 401.

"While heaven's high _host_ on hallelujahs _live_."
--_Young's N. Th._, iv, 378.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XV.

OBS. 1.--To this rule there are _no exceptions_; because, the collective
noun being a name which even in the singular number "signifies _many_," the
verb which agrees with it, can never properly be singular, unless the
collection be taken literally as one aggregate, and not as "conveying the
idea of plurality." Thus, the collective noun singular being in general
susceptible of two senses, and consequently admitting two modes of concord,
the form of the verb, whether singular or plural, becomes the principal
index to the particular sense in which the nominative is taken. After such
a noun, we can use either a singular verb, agreeing with it literally,
strictly, formally, according to Rule 14th; as, "The whole _number_ WAS two
thousand and six hundred;" or a plural one, agreeing with it figuratively,
virtually, ideally, according to Rule 15th; as, "The whole _number_ WERE
two thousand and six hundred."--_2 Chron._, xxvi, 12. So, when the
collective noun is an antecedent, the relative having in itself no
distinction of the numbers, its verb becomes the index to the sense of all
three; as, "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the _remnant that_ IS
_left._"--_Isaiah_, xxxvii, 4. "Wh