Darn it, Richard, you caught me! The real beauty of Fowler is that it has credible arguments for every side of every conceivable grammatical question. It's a great place to find arguments to support your grammatical point of view, whatever it might be. Just don't quote the parts that don't support your point of view.

Still, I stand behind my second argument. It's profound. It's poetic. And it works. People have loved that verse for years and years. Don't dare change it.
-Joe Offer-