"Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes, _in this lower world_."--Doctor Watts' "Logic."
"I have before showed an error," Cobbett remarks, "in the _first_ sentence of Doctor Watts' work. This is the _second_ sentence. The words _in this lower world_ are not words _misplaced_ only; they are wholly _unnecessary_, and they do great harm; for they do these two things: first, they imply _that there are brutes in the higher world_; and, second, they excite a doubt _whether we are raised above those brutes_.
"I might greatly extend the number of my extracts from these authors; but here, I trust, are enough. I had noted down about _two hundred errors_ in Dr. Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets'; but, afterward perceiving that he had revised and corrected 'The Rambler' with _extraordinary care_, I chose to make my extracts from that work rather than from the 'Lives of the Poets.'"
The position of the adverb should be as near as possible to the word it qualifies. Sometimes we place it before the auxiliary and sometimes after it, according to the thought we wish to express. The difference between "The fish should _properly_ be broiled" and "The fish should be _properly_ broiled" is apparent at a glance. "The colon may be _properly_ used in the following cases": should be, "may _properly_ be used." "This mode of expression _rather suits_ a familiar than a grave style": should be, "suits a familiar _rather than_ a grave style." "It is a frequent error _in the writings even_ of some good authors": should be, "in the writings of _even some good_ authors." "_Both_ the circumstances of contingency and futurity are necessary": should be, "The circumstances of contingency and futurity are _both_ necessary." "He has made charges ... which he has failed _utterly_ to sustain."--"New York Tribune." Here it is uncertain at first sight which verb the adverb is intended to qualify; but the nature of the case makes it probable that the writer meant "has utterly failed to sustain."
MISTAKEN. "If I am not _mistaken_, you are in the wrong": say, "If I _mistake not_." "I tell you, you are _mistaken_." Here _mistaken_ means, "You are wrong; you do not understand"; but it might be taken to mean, "I _mistake you_." For "you are _mistaken_," say, "you _mistake_." If, as Horace and Professor Davidson aver, usage in language makes right, then the grammarians ought long ago to have invented some theory upon which the locution _you are mistaken_ could be defended. Until they do invent such a theory, it will be better to say _you mistake_, _he mistakes_, and so on; or _you are_, or _he is_--as the case may be--_in error_.