" DOTH."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Yonr correspondent, Mr. Howard Candler, says "doth" is "probably plural," instancing "The Holy Church dot h acknow- ledge Thee." If this view were correct we should expect to find the same form of the verb in the line " To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry." Here the subject is un- mistakably plural and is correctly followed by the plural verb "do." In the other case both the grammar and the sense, it appears to me, require that the verb be regarded as in the singular. Grammatical consistency is not to be looked for either in the Bible or in Shakespeare ; and against the ex- pression quoted by Mr. Candler from the former may be set the passage, " Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt," the singular verb being here correct.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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