Show me
a man that, as a boy at school, excelled in arithmetic and I will
show you a useful citizen, a boss in his own business, a leader of
men; show me the boy that preferred grammar, that read expressively,
that wrote a beautiful hand and curled his capital S's till their
tails looked like mainsprings, and I will show you a dreamer and a
sentimentalist - a man that works for other people. While I have
breath in me, I will maintain the supereminence of arithmetic.
There is no room for disputation in arithmetic, no exceptions to
the rule. Twice two is four, and that's all there is about it: but
whether there be pronunciations, they shall cease; whether there be
rules of grammar, they shall vanish away. Why, look here. It's a
rule of grammar, isn't it, that the subject of a sentence must be
put in the nominative case? Let it kick and bite, and hang on to
the desks all it wants to, in it goes and the door is slammed on it.
You think so? What is the word "you?" Second person, plural
number, objective case. Oh, no; the nominative form is "ye."
Don't you remember it says: "Woe unto you, ye lawyers"? Those who
fight against: "Him and me went down town," fight against the stars
in their courses, for the objective case in every language is bound
and determined to be The Whole Thing.
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