That it
sustains its true character as a conjunction in all the examples under
number 1, will be shown by the following resolution of them.--"All were
well but the _stranger [was not well_."] "I saw nobody but [_I saw_] the
_stranger_." "None deserve the fair but the _brave_ [_deserve the
fair_."] "They postpone the thing which [_they ought to do, and do not]
but_ which [_thing_] they cannot avoid purposing to do." "This life, at
best, [_is not a reality,] but_ it is a dream. It [_affords not
unbounded fruition] but_ it affords a scanty measure of enjoyment." "If
he _touch_ the hills, _but exert no greater power upon them_, they will
smoke;"--"If _he exert no greater power upon the hills, but [be-out this
fact_] if he touch them, they will smoke." "Man _is not a stable being,
but_ he is a reed, floating on the current of time." This method of
analyzing sentences, however, if I mistake not, is too much on the plan
of our pretended philosophical writers, who, in their rage for ancient
constructions and combinations, often overlook the modern associated
meaning and application of this word. It appears to me to be more
consistent with the _modern_ use of the word, to consider it an _adverb_
in constructions like the following: "If he _but (only, merely)_ touch
the hills they will smoke.
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