priority is given to a word embodying both predicate and copula.
In a passage contained in 'The Battle of Flodden Field,' the like
order is systematically employed with great effect:

"The Border slogan rent the sky!
_A Home! a Gordon!_ was the cry;
_Loud were _the clanging blows:
_Advanced--forced back---now low, now high,
_The pennon sunk and rose;
_As bends_ the bark's mast in the gale
When _rent are_ rigging, shrouds and sail,
It wavered 'mid the foes."

17. Pursuing the principle yet further, it is obvious that for
producing the greatest effect, not only should the main divisions
of a sentence observe this sequence, but the subdivisions of these
should be similarly arranged. In nearly all cases, the predicate is
accompanied by some limit or qualification, called its complement.
Commonly, also, the circumstances of the subject, which form its
complement, have to be specified. And as these qualifications and
circumstances must determine the mode in which the acts and things
they belong to are conceived, precedence should be given to them.
Lord Kaimes notices the fact that this order is preferable; though
without giving the reason. He says:--"When a circumstance is placed
at the beginning of the period, or near the beginning, the transition
from it to the principal subject is agreeable: it is like ascending
or going upward." A sentence arranged in illustration of this will
be desirable. Here is one:--"Whatever it may be in theory, it is
clear that in practice the French idea of liberty is--the right of