c."--"Possession of the third,
_the_ fourth, and _the_ fifth, _was_ taken at half past eight."--"The Pinta
soon _disappeared_ in the darkness of the night." Here again, Wells puzzles
his pupil, with a note which half justifies and half condemns the awkward
usage in question. See _School Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 147; 3d Ed., 156; late
Ed., Sec. 215.

"REM. 8.--There are _some_ verbs which may be used either transitively or
intransitively; as, 'He _will return_ in a week,' 'He _will return_ the
book.'"--_Ib._, p. 147; 156; &c. According to Dr. Johnson, this is true of
"_most_ verbs," and Lindley Murray asserts it of "_many_." There are, I
think, but _few_ which may _not_, in some phraseology or other, be used
both ways. Hence the rule, "Transitive verbs govern the objective case,"
or, as Wells now has it, "Transitive verbs, in the active voice, govern the
objective case," (Sec. 215,) rests only upon a distinction which _itself
creates_, between transitives and intransitives; and therefore it amounts
to little.

[354] To these examples, Webster adds _two others_, of a _different sort_,
with a comment, thus: "'Ask _him_ his _opinion_?' 'You have asked _me_ the
_news_.' Will it be said that the latter phrases are elliptical, for 'ask
_of_ him his opinion?' I apprehend this to be a mistake. According to the
true idea of the government of a transitive verb, _him_ must be the
_object_ in the phrase under consideration, as much as in this, 'Ask _him_
for a guinea;' or in this, 'ask him to go.'"--_Ibid, ut supra_; _Frazee's
Gram._, p. 152; _Fowler's_, p. 480. If, for the reason here stated, it is a
"mistake" to supply _of_ in the foregoing instances, it does not follow
that they are not elliptical. On the contrary, if they are analogous to,
"Ask him _for_ a guinea;" or, "Ask him _to go_;" it is manifest that the
construction must be this: "Ask him [_for_] his opinion;" or, "Ask him [_to
tell_] his opinion." So that the question resolves itself into this: What
is the best way of _supplying the ellipsis_, when two objectives thus occur
after ask?--G. BROWN.

[355] These examples Murray borrowed from Webster, who published them, with
_references_, under his 34th Rule. With too little faith in the corrective
power of grammar, the Doctor remarks upon the constructions as follows:
"This idiom is outrageously anomalous, but perhaps incorrigible."--
_Webster's Philos. Gram._, p. 180; _Imp. G._, 128.

[356] This seems to be a reasonable pri