OBS. 9.—But when the remoter nominative is the principal word, and the nearer one is expressed parenthetically, the verb agrees literally with the former, and only by implication, with the latter; as, "One example, (or ten,) says nothing against it."—Leigh Hunt. "And we, (or future ages,) may possibly have a proof of it."—Bp. Butler. So, when the alternative is merely in the words, not in the thought, the former term is sometimes considered the principal one, and is therefore allowed to control the verb; but there is always a harshness in this mixture of different numbers, and, to render such a construction tolerable, it is necessary to read the latter term like a parenthesis, and make the former emphatic: as, "A parenthesis, or brackets, consists of two angular strokes, or hooks, enclosing one or more words."—Whiting's Reader, p. 28. "To show us that our own schemes, or prudence, have no share in our advancements."—Addison. "The Mexican figures, or picture-writing, represent things, not words; they exhibit images to the eye, not ideas to the understanding."—Murray's Gram., p. 243; English Reader, p. xiii. "At Travancore, Koprah, or dried cocoa-nut kernels, is monopolized by government."—Maunder's Gram., p. 12. "The Scriptures, or Bible, are the only authentic source."—Bp. Tomline's Evidences.

"Nor foes nor fortune take this power away; And is my Abelard less kind than they?"—Pope, p. 334.

OBS. 10.—The English adjective being indeclinable, we have no examples of some of the forms of zeugma which occur in Latin and Greek. But adjectives differing in number, are sometimes connected without a repetition of the noun; and, in the agreement of the verb, the noun which is understood, is less apt to be regarded than that which is expressed, though the latter be more remote; as, "There are one or two small irregularities to be noted."—Lowth's Gram., p. 63. "There are one or two persons, and but one or two."—Hazlitt's Lectures. "There are one or two others."—Crombie's Treatise, p. 206. "There are one or two."—Blair's Rhet., p. 319. "There are one or more seminaries in every province."—H. E. Dwight: Lit. Conv., p. 133. "Whether one or more of the clauses are to be considered the nominative case."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. "So that, I believe, there is not more than one genuine example extant."—Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 10. "There is, properly, no more than one pause or rest in the sentence."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 329; Blair's Rhet., p. 125. "Sometimes a small letter or two is added to the capital."—Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 223; Gould's, 283. Among the examples in the seventh paragraph above, there is one like this last, but with a plural verb; and if either is objectionable, is should here be are. The preceding example, too, is such as I would not imitate. To L. Murray, the following sentence seemed false syntax, because one does not agree with persons: "He saw one or more persons enter the garden."—Murray's Exercises, Rule 8th, p. 54. In his Key, he has it thus: "He saw one person, or more than one, enter the garden."—Oct. Gram., Vol. ii, p. 189. To me, this stiff correction, which many later grammarians have copied, seems worse than none. And the effect of the principle may be noticed in Murray's style elsewhere; as, "When a semicolon, or more than one, have preceded."—Octavo Gram., i, p. 277; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 288. Here a ready writer would be very apt to prefer one of the following phrases: "When a semicolon or two have preceded,"—"When one or two semicolons have preceded,"—"When one or more semicolons have preceded." It is better to write by guess, than to become systematically awkward in expression.

OBS. 11.—In Greek and Latin, the pronoun of the first person, according to our critics, is generally[398] placed first; as, "[Greek: Ego kai su ta dikaia poiæsomen]. Xen."—Milnes's Gr. Gram., p. 120. That is, "Ego et tu justa faciemus." Again: "Ego et Cicero valemus. Cic."—Buchanan's Pref., p. x; Adam's Gram., 206; Gould's, 203. "I and Cicero are well."—Ib. But, in English, a modest speaker usually gives to others the precedence, and mentions himself last; as, "He, or thou, or I, must go."—"Thou and I will do what is right."—"Cicero and I are well."—Dr. Adam.[399] Yet, in speaking of himself and his dependants, a person most commonly takes rank before them; as, "Your inestimable letters supported myself, my wife, and children, in adversity."—Lucien Bonaparte, Charlemagne, p. v. "And I shall be destroyed, I and my house."—Gen., xxxiv, 30. And in acknowledging a fault, misfortune, or censure, any speaker may assume the first place; as, "Both I and thou are in the fault."—Adam's Gram., p. 207. "Both I and you are in fault."—Buchanan's Syntax, p. ix. "Trusty did not do it; I and Robert did it."—Edgeworth's Stories.

"With critic scales, weighs out the partial wit, What I, or you, or he, or no one writ." —Lloyd's Poems, p. 162.

OBS. 12.—According to the theory of this work, verbs themselves are not unfrequently connected, one to an other, by and, or, or nor; so that two or more of them, being properly in the same construction, may be parsed as agreeing with the same nominative: as, "So that the blind and dumb [man] both spake and saw."—Matt., xii, 22. "That no one might buy or sell."—Rev., xiii, 17. "Which see not, nor hear, nor know."—Dan., v, 23. We have certainly very many examples like these, in which it is neither convenient nor necessary to suppose an ellipsis of the nominative before the latter verb, or before all but the first, as most of our grammarians do, whenever they find two or more finite verbs connected in this manner. It is true, the nominative may, in most instances, be repeated without injury to the sense; but this fact is no proof of such an ellipsis; because many a sentence which is not incomplete, may possibly take additional words without change of meaning. But these authors, (as I have already suggested under the head of conjunctions,) have not been very careful of their own consistency. If they teach, that, "Every finite verb has its own separate nominative, either expressed or implied," which idea Murray and others seem to have gathered from Lowth; or if they say, that, "Conjunctions really unite sentences, when they appear to unite only words," which notion they may have acquired from Harris; what room is there for that common assertion, that, "Conjunctions connect the same moods and tenses of verbs," which is a part of Murray's eighteenth rule, and found in most of our grammars? For no agreement is usually required between verbs that have separate nominatives; and if we supply a nominative wherever we do not find one for each verb, then in fact no two verbs will ever be connected by any conjunction.

OBS. 13.—What agreement there must be, between verbs that are in the same construction, it is not easy to determine with certainty. Some of the Latin grammarians tell us, that certain conjunctions connect "sometimes similar moods and tenses, and sometimes similar moods but different tenses." See Prat's Grammatica Latina, Octavo, Part ii, p. 95. Ruddiman, Adam, and Grant, omit the concord of tenses, and enumerate certain conjunctions which "couple like cases and moods." But all of them acknowledge some exceptions to their rules. The instructions of Lindley Murray and others, on this point, may be summed up in the following canon: "When verbs are connected by a conjunction, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or have separate nominatives expressed." This rule, (with a considerable exception to it, which other authors had not noticed.) was adopted by myself in the Institutes of English Grammar, and also retained in the Brief Abstract of that work, entitled, The First Lines of English Grammar. It there stands as the thirteenth in the series of principal rules; but, as there is no occasion to refer to it in the exercise of parsing, I now think, a less prominent place may suit it as well or better. The principle may be considered as being less certain and less important than most of the usual rules of syntax: I shall therefore both modify the expression of it, and place it among the notes of the present code. See Notes 5th and 6th below.

OBS. 14.—By the agreement of verbs with each other in form, it is meant, that the simple form and the compound, the familiar form and the solemn, the affirmative form and the negative, or the active form and the passive, are not to be connected without a repetition of the nominative. With respect to our language, this part of the rule is doubtless as important, and as true, as any other. A thorough agreement, then, in mood, tense, and form, is generally required, when verbs are connected by and, or, or nor; and, under each part of this concord, there may be cited certain errors which ought to be avoided, as will by-and-by be shown. But, at the same time, there seem to be many allowable violations of the rule, some or other of which may perhaps form exceptions to every part of it. For example, the tense may be varied, as it often is in Latin; thus, "As the general state of religion has been, is, or shall be, affected by them."—Butlers Analogy, p. 241. "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shall be, because thou hast judged thus."—Rev., xvi, 5. In the former of these examples, a repetition of the nominative would not be agreeable; in the latter, it would perhaps be an improvement: as, "who art, and who wast, and who shalt be." (I here change the pronoun, because the relative which is not now applied as above.) "This dedication may serve for almost any book, that has been, or shall be published."—Campbell's Rhet. p. 207; Murray's Gram., p. 222. "It ought to be, 'has been, is, or shall be, published.'"—Crombie's Treatise, p. 383. "Truth and good sense are firm, and will establish themselves."—Blair's Rhet. p. 286. "Whereas Milton followed a different plan, and has given a tragic conclusion to a poem otherwise epic in its form."—Ib., p. 428. "I am certain, that such are not, nor ever were, the tenets of the church of England."—West's Letters, p. 148. "They deserve, and will meet with, no regard."—Blair's Rhet., p. 109.

"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be." —Pope, on Crit.

OBS. 15.—So verbs differing in mood or form may sometimes agree with the same nominative, if the simplest verb be placed first—rarely, I think, if the words stand in any other order: as, "One may be free from affectation and not have merit"—Blair's Rhet., p. 189. "There is, and can be, no other person."—Murray's Key. 8vo. p. 224. "To see what is, and is allowed to be, the plain natural rule."—Butler's Analogy, p. 284. "This great experiment has worked, and is working, well, every way well"—BRADBURN: Liberator, ix. 162. "This edition of Mr. Murray's works on English Grammar, deserves a place in Libraries, and will not fail to obtain it."—BRITISH CRITIC: Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 299.

"What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy."—Pope.

"Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."—Id.

OBS. 16.—Since most of the tenses of an English verb are composed of two or more words, to prevent a needless or disagreeable repetition of auxiliaries, participles, and principal verbs, those parts which are common to two or more verbs in the same sentence, are generally expressed to the first, and understood to the rest; or reserved, and put last, as the common supplement of each; as, "To which they do or can extend."—Butler's Analogy, p. 77. "He may, as any one may, if he will, incur an infamous execution from the hands of civil justice."—Ib., p. 82. "All that has usurped the name of virtue, and [has] deceived us by its semblance, must be a mockery and a delusion."—Dr. Chalmers. "Human praise, and human eloquence, may acknowledge it, but the Discerner of the heart never will" [acknowledge it].—Id. "We use thee not so hardly, as prouder livers do" [use thee].—Shak. "Which they might have foreseen and [might have] avoided."—Butler. "Every sincere endeavour to amend, shall be assisted, [shall be] accepted, and [shall be] rewarded."—Carter. "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and [will] stand and [will] call on the name of the Lord his God, and [will] strike his hand over the place, and [will] recover the leper."—2 Kings, v, 11. "They mean to, and will, hear patiently."—Salem Register. That is, "They mean to hear patiently, and they will hear patiently." "He can create, and he destroy."—Bible. That is,—"and he can destroy."

"Virtue may be assail'd, but never hurt, Surpris'd by unjust force, but not inthrall'd."—Milton.

"Mortals whose pleasures are their only care, First wish to be imposed on, and then are."—Cowper.

OBS. 17.—From the foregoing examples, it may be seen, that the complex and divisible structure of the English moods and tenses, produces, when verbs are connected together, a striking peculiarity of construction in our language, as compared with the nearest corresponding construction in Latin or Greek. For we can connect different auxiliaries, participles, or principal verbs, without repeating, and apparently without connecting, the other parts of the mood or tense. And although it is commonly supposed that these parts are necessarily understood wherever they are not repeated, there are sentences, and those not a few, in which we cannot express them, without inserting also an additional nominative, and producing distinct clauses; as, "Should it not be taken up and pursued?"—Dr. Chalmers. "Where thieves do not break through nor steal."—Matt., vi, 20. "None present could either read or explain the writing-."—Wood's Dict., Vol. i, p. 159. Thus we sometimes make a single auxiliary an index to the mood and tense of more than one verb.

OBS. 18.—The verb do, which is sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb, is thought by some grammarians to be also fitly made a substitute for other verbs, as a pronoun is for nouns; but this doctrine has not been taught with accuracy, and the practice under it will in many instances be found to involve a solecism. In this kind of substitution, there must either be a true ellipsis of the principal verb, so that do is only an auxiliary; or else the verb do, with its object or adverb, if it need one, must exactly correspond to an action described before; so that to speak of doing this or thus, is merely the shortest way of repeating the idea: as, "He loves not plays, as thou dost. Antony."—Shak. That is, "as thou dost love plays." "This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; and, to do that well, craves a kind of wit."—Id. Here, "to do that," is, "to play the fool." "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."—Gen., xviii, 30. Do what? Destroy the city, as had been threatened. Where do is an auxiliary, there is no real substitution; and, in the other instances, it is not properly the verb do, that is the substitute, but rather the word that follows it—or perhaps, both. For, since every action consists in doing something or in doing somehow, this general verb do, with this, that, it, thus, or so, to identify the action, may assume the import of many a longer phrase. But care must be taken not to substitute this verb for any term to which it is not equivalent; as, "The a is certainly to be sounded as the English do."—Walker's Dict., w. A. Say, "as the English sound it;" for do is here absurd, and grossly solecistical. "The duke had not behaved with that loyalty with which he ought to have done."—Lowth's Gram., p. 111; Murray's, i, 212; Churchill's, 355; Fisk's, 137; Ingersoll's, 269. Say, "with which he ought to have behaved;" for, to have done with loyalty is not what was meant—far from it. Clarendon wrote the text thus: "The Duke had not behaved with that loyalty, as he ought to have done." This should have been corrected, not by changing "as" to "with which", but by saying—"with that loyalty which he ought to have observed;" or, "which would have become him".

OBS. 19.—It is little to the credit of our grammarians, to find so many of them thus concurring in the same obvious error, and even making bad English worse. The very examples which have hitherto been given to prove that do may be a substitute for other verbs, are none of them in point, and all of them have been constantly and shamefully misinterpreted. Thus: "They [do and did] sometimes also supply the place of another verb, and make the repetition of it, in the same or a subsequent sentence, unnecessary: as, 'You attend not to your studies as he does;' (i. e. as he attends, &c.) 'I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;' (i. e. if I come not.)"—L. Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 88; R. C. Smith's, 88; Ingersoll's, 135; Fisk's, 78; A. Flint's, 41; Hiley's, 30. This remark, but not the examples, was taken from Lowths Gram., p. 41. Churchill varies it thus, and retains Lowth's example: "It [i. e., do] is used also, to supply the place of another verb, in order to avoid the repetition of it: as, 'He loves not plays, As thou dost, Antony.' SHAKS."—New Gram., p. 96. Greenleaf says, "To prevent the repetition of one or more verbs, in the same, or [a] following sentence, we frequently make use of do AND did; as, 'Jack learns the English language as fast as Henry does;' that is, 'as fast as Henry learns.' 'I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;' that is, 'if I come not.'"—Gram. Simplified, p. 27. Sanborn says, "Do is also used instead of another verb, and not unfrequently instead of both the verb and its object; as, 'he loves work as well as you do;' that is, as well as you love work."—Analyt. Gram., p. 112. Now all these interpretations are wrong; the word do, dost, or does, being simply an auxiliary, after which the principal verb (with its object where it has one) is understood. But the first example is bad English, and its explanation is still worse. For, "As he attends, &c.," means, "As he attends to your studies!" And what good sense is there in this? The sentence ought to have been, "You do not attend to your studies, as he does to his." That is—"as he does attend to his studies." This plainly shows that there is, in the text, no real substitution of does for attends. So of all other examples exhibited in our grammars, under this head: there is nothing to the purpose, in any of them; the common principle of ellipsis resolves them all. Yet, strange to say, in the latest and most learned of this sort of text-books, we find the same sham example, fictitious and solecistical as it is, still blindly repeated, to show that "does" is not in its own place, as an auxiliary, but "supplies the place of another verb."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo. 1850. p. 265.

NOTES TO RULE XVII.

NOTE I.—When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers,[400] connected by or or nor, it must agree with the nearest, (unless an other be the principal term,) and must be understood to the rest, in the person and number required; as, "Neither you nor I am concerned."—W. Allen. "That neither they nor ye also die."—Numb., xviii, 3.

"But neither god, nor shrine, nor mystic rite, Their city, nor her walls, his soul delight." —Rowe's Lucan, B. x, l. 26.

NOTE II.—But, since all nominatives that require different forms of the verb, virtually produce separate clauses or propositions, it is better to complete the concord whenever we conveniently can, by expressing the verb or its auxiliary in connexion with each of them; as, "Either thou art to blame, or I am."—Comly's Gram., p. 78. "Neither were their numbers, nor was their destination, known."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 134. So in clauses connected by and: as, "But declamation is idle, and murmurs fruitless."—Webster's Essays, p. 82. Say,—"and murmurs are fruitless."

NOTE III.—In English, the speaker should always mention himself last; unless his own superior dignity, or the confessional nature of the expression, warrant him in taking the precedence: as, "Thou or I must go."—"He then addressed his discourse to my father and me."—"Ellen and I will seek, apart, the refuge of some forest cell."—Scott. See Obs. 11th above.

NOTE IV.—Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by or or nor, require a singular verb; and, if a nominative come after the verb, that must be singular also: as, "That a drunkard should be poor, or that a fop should be ignorant, is not strange."—"To give an affront, or to take one tamely, is no mark of a great mind." So, when the phrases are unconnected: as, "To spread suspicion, to invent calumnies, to propagate scandal, requires neither labour nor courage."—Rambler, No. 183.

NOTE V.—In general, when verbs are connected by and, or, or nor, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or the simplest in form must be placed first; as, "So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh."—Isaiah, xxxvii, 37. "For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die."—Acts, xxv, 11.

NOTE VI.—In stead of conjoining discordant verbs, it is in general better to repeat the nominative or insert a new one; as, "He was greatly heated, and [he] drank with avidity."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "A person may be great or rich by chance; but cannot be wise or good, without taking pains for it."—Ib., p. 200. Say,—"but no one can be wise or good, without taking pains for it."

NOTE VII.—A mixture of the forms of the solemn style and the familiar, is inelegant, whether the verbs refer to the same nominative or have different ones expressed; as, "What appears tottering and in hazard of tumbling, produceth in the spectator the painful emotion of fear."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 356. "And the milkmaid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his sithe."—Milton's Allegro, l. 65 and 66.

NOTE VIII.—To use different moods under precisely the same circumstances, is improper, even if the verbs have separate nominatives; as, "Bating that one speak and an other answers, it is quite the same."—Blair's Rhet., p. 368. Say,—"that one speaks;" for both the speaking and the answering are assumed as facts.

NOTE IX.—When two terms are connected, which involve different forms of the same verb, such parts of the compound tenses as are not common to both forms, should be inserted in full: except sometimes after the auxiliary do; as, "And then he falls, as I do."—Shak. That is, "as I do fall." The following sentences are therefore faulty: "I think myself highly obliged to make his fortune, as he has mine."—Spect., No. 474. Say,—"as he has made mine." "Every attempt to remove them, has, and likely will prove unsuccessful."—Gay's Prosodical Gram., p. 4. Say,—"has proved, and likely will prove, unsuccessful."

NOTE X.—The verb do must never be substituted for any term to which its own meaning is not adapted; nor is there any use in putting it for a preceding verb that is equally short: as, "When we see how confidently men rest on groundless surmises in reference to their own souls, we cannot wonder that they do it in reference to others."—Simeon. Better:—"that they so rest in reference to the souls of others;" for this repeats the idea with more exactness. NOTE XI.—The preterit should not be employed to form the compound tenses of the verb; nor should the perfect participle be used for the preterit or confounded with the present. Thus: say, "To have gone," not, "To have went;" and, "I did so," not, "I done so;" or, "He saw them," not, "He seen them." Again: say not, "It was lift or hoist up;" but, "It was lifted or hoisted up."

NOTE XII.—Care should be taken, to give every verb or participle its appropriate form, and not to confound those which resemble each other; as, to flee and to fly, to lay and to lie, to sit and to set, to fall and to fell, &c. Thus: say, "He lay by the fire;" not, "He laid by the fire;"—"He has become rich;" not, "He is become rich;"—"I would rather stay;" not, "I had rather stay."

NOTE XIII.—In the syntax of words that express time, whether they be verbs, adverbs, or nouns, the order and fitness of time should be observed, that the tenses may be used according to their import. Thus: in stead of, "I have seen him last week;" say, "I saw him last week;"—and, in stead of, "I saw him this week;" say, "I have seen him this week." So, in stead of, "I told you already;" or, "I have told you before;" say, "I have told you already;"—"I told you before."

NOTE XIV.—Verbs of commanding, desiring, expecting, hoping, intending, permitting, and some others, in all their tenses, refer to actions or events, relatively present or future: one should therefore say, "I hoped you would come;" not, "I hoped you would have come;"—and, "I intended to do it;" not, "I intended to have done it;"—&c.

NOTE XV.—Propositions that are as true now as they ever were or will be, should generally be expressed in the present tense: as, "He seemed hardly to know, that two and two make four;" not, "made."—Blair's Gram., p. 65. "He will tell you, that whatever is, is right." Sometimes the present tense is improper with the conjunction that, though it would be quite proper without it; as, "Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet."—Mark, vi, 15. Here That should be omitted, or else is should be was. The capital T is also improper.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVII.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—NOMINATIVES CONNECTED BY OR.

"We do not know in what either reason or instinct consist."—Rambler, No. 41.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the verb consist is of the plural number, and does not correctly agree with its two nominatives, reason and instinct, which are connected by or, and taken disjunctively. But, according to Rule 17th, "When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together." Therefore, consist should be consists; thus, "We do not know in what either reason or instinct consists."]

"A noun or a pronoun joined with a participle, constitute a nominative case absolute."—Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 50. "The relative will be of that case, which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, use to govern."—Dr. Adam's Gram., p. 203. "Which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, usually govern."—Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 200.[401] "In the different modes of pronunciation which habit or caprice give rise to."—Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 14. "By which he, or his deputy, were authorized to cut down any trees in Whittlebury forest."—Junius, p. 251. "Wherever objects were to be named, in which sound, noise, or motion were concerned, the imitation by words was abundantly obvious."—Blair's Rhet., p. 55. "The pleasure or pain resulting from a train of perceptions in different circumstances, are a beautiful contrivance of nature for valuable purposes."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 262. "Because their foolish vanity or their criminal ambition represent the principles by which they are influenced, as absolutely perfect."—Life of Madame De Stael, p. 2. "Hence naturally arise indifference or aversion between the parties."—Brown's Estimate, ii, 37. "A penitent unbeliever, or an impenitent believer, are characters no where to be found."—Tract, No. 183. "Copying whatever is peculiar in the talk of all those whose birth or fortune entitle them to imitation."—Rambler, No. 194. "Where love, hatred, fear, or contempt, are often of decisive influence."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 119. "A lucky anecdote, or an enlivening tale relieve the folio page."—D'Israeli's Curiosities, Vol. i, p. 15. "For outward matter or event, fashion not the character within."—Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "Yet sometimes we have seen that wine, or chance, have warmed cold brains."—Dryden's Poems, p. 76. "Motion is a Genus; Flight, a Species; this Flight or that Flight are Individuals."—Harris's Hermes, p. 38. "When et, aut, vel, sine, or nec, are joined to different members of the same sentence."—Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 206; Gould's Lat. Gram., 203; Grant's, 266. "Wisdom or folly govern us."—Fisk's English Gram., 84. "A or an are styled indefinite articles."—Folker's Gram., p. 4. "A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, shoot up into prodigies."—Spectator, No. 7. "Are either the subject or the predicate in the second sentence modified?"—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 578, §589.

"Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know." —Pope, Iliad, B. x, l. 293.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—NOMINATIVES CONNECTED BY NOR.

"Neither he nor she have spoken to him."—Perrin's Gram., p. 237. "For want of a process of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preserve the reader from weariness."—JOHNSON: in Crabb's Syn., p. 511. "Neither history nor tradition furnish such information."—Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 2. "Neither the form nor power of the liquids have varied materially."—Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 16. "Where neither noise nor motion are concerned."—Blair's Rhet., p. 55. "Neither Charles nor his brother were qualified to support such a system."—Junius, p. 250. "When, therefore, neither the liveliness of representation, nor the warmth of passion, serve, as it were, to cover the trespass, it is not safe to leave the beaten track."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 381. "In many countries called Christian, neither Christianity, nor its evidence, are fairly laid before men."—Butler's Analogy, p. 269. "Neither the intellect nor the heart are capable of being driven."—Abbott's Teacher, p. 20. "Throughout this hymn, neither Apollo nor Diana are in any way connected with the Sun or Moon."—Coleridge's Introd., p. 199. "Of which, neither he, nor this Grammar, take any notice."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 346. "Neither their solicitude nor their foresight extend so far."—Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 287. "Neither Gomara, nor Oviedo, nor Herrera, consider Ojeda, or his companion Vespucci, as the first discoverers of the continent of America."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 471. "Neither the general situation of our colonies, nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms, have been thought worthy of a moment's consideration."—Junius, p. 174.

"Nor War nor Wisdom yield our Jews delight, They will not study, and they dare not fight." —Crabbe's Borough, p. 50.

"Nor time nor chance breed such confusions yet, Nor are the mean so rais'd, nor sunk the great." —Rowe's Lucan, B. iii, l. 213.

UNDER NOTE I.—NOMINATIVES THAT DISAGREE.

"The definite article the, designates what particular thing or things is meant."—Merchant's School Gram., p. 23 and p. 33. "Sometimes a word or words necessary to complete the grammatical construction of a sentence, is not expressed, but omitted by ellipsis."—Burr's Gram., p. 26. "Ellipsis, or abbreviations, is the wheels of language."—Maunder's Gram., p. 12. "The conditions or tenor of none of them appear at this day."—Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass., Vol. i, p. 16. "Neither men nor money were wanting for the service."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 279. "Either our own feelings, or the representation of those of others, require frequent emphatic distinction."—Barber's Exercises, p. 13. "Either Atoms and Chance, or Nature are uppermost: now I am for the latter part of the disjunction,"—Collier's Antoninus, p. 181. "Their riches or poverty are generally proportioned to their activity or indolence."—Ross Cox's Narrative. "Concerning the other part of him, neither you nor he seem to have entertained an idea."—Bp. Horne. "Whose earnings or income are so small."—N. E. Discipline, p. 130. "Neither riches nor fame render a man happy."—Day's Gram., p. 71. "The references to the pages, always point to the first volume, unless the Exercises or Key are mentioned."—Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 283.

UNDER NOTE II.—COMPLETE THE CONCORD.

"My lord, you wrong my father; nor he nor I are capable of harbouring a thought against your peace."—Walpole. "There was no division of acts; no pauses or interval between them; but the stage was continually full; occupied either by the actors, or the chorus."—Blair's Rhet., p. 463. "Every word ending in B, P, F, as also many in V, are of this order."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang., i, 73. "As proud as we are of human reason, nothing can be more absurd than the general system of human life and human knowledge."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 347. "By which the body of sin and death is done away, and we cleansed."—Barclay's Works, i, 165. "And those were already converted, and regeneration begun in them."—Ib., iii, 433. "For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years."—Luke, i, 18. "Who is my mother, or my brethren?"—Mark, iii, 33. "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering."—Isaiah, xl, 16. "Information has been obtained, and some trials made."—Society in America, i, 308. "It is as obvious, and its causes more easily understood."—Webster's Essays, p. 84. "All languages furnish examples of this kind, and the English as many as any other."—Priestley's Gram., p. 157. "The winters are long, and the cold intense."—Morse's Geog., p. 39. "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!"—Prov., v, 12. "The vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta extinguished."—Lempriere, w. Vestales. "Riches beget pride; pride, impatience."—Bullions's Practical Lessons, p. 89. "Grammar is not reasoning, any more than organization is thought, or letters sounds."—Enclytica, p. 90. "Words are implements, and grammar a machine."—Ib., p. 91.

UNDER NOTE III.—PLACE OF THE FIRST PERSON.

"I or thou art the person who must undertake the business proposed."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 184. "I and he were there."—Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 51. "And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he."—Gen., xli, 11. "If my views remain the same as mine and his were in 1833."—GOODELL: Liberator, ix, 148. "I and my father were riding out."—Inst., p. 158. "The premiums were given to me and George."—Ib. "I and Jane are invited."—Ib. "They ought to invite me and my sister."—Ib. "I and you intend going."—Guy's Gram., p. 55. "I and John are going to Town."—British Gram., p. 193. "I, and he are sick. I, and thou are well."—James Brown's American Gram., Boston Edition of 1841, p. 123. "I, and he is. I, and thou art. I, and he writes."—Ib., p. 126. "I, and they are well. I, thou, and she were walking."—Ib., p. 127.

UNDER NOTE IV.—DISTINCT SUBJECT PHRASES.

"To practise tale-bearing, or even to countenance it, are great injustice."—Brown's Inst., p. 159. "To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, are contemptible perfidy."—Ib. "To write all substantives with capital letters, or to exclude them from adjectives derived from proper names, may perhaps be thought offences too small for animadversion; but the evil of innovation is always something."—Dr. Barrow's Essays, p. 88. "To live in such families, or to have such servants, are blessings from God."—Family Commentary, p. 64. "How they portioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, are utterly unknown."—Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 4. "To speak or to write perspicuously and agreeably, are attainments of the utmost consequence to all who purpose, either by speech or writing, to address the public."—Blair's Rhet., p. 11.

UNDER NOTE V.—MAKE THE VERBS AGREE.

"Doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?"—Matt., xviii, 12. "Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced?"—Jer., xxvi, 19. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgement with thee?"—Job, xiv, 3. "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain."—James, i, 26. "If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one an other."—Leviticus, xxv, 14. "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, shall have become poor, and be sold to thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant."—WEBSTER'S BIBLE: Lev., xxv, 39. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee," &c.—Matt., v, 23. "Anthea was content to call a coach, and crossed the brook."—Rambler, No. 34. "It is either totally suppressed, or appears in its lowest and most imperfect form."—Blair's Rhet., p. 23. "But if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth."—John, ix, 31. "Whereby his righteousness and obedience, death and sufferings without, become profitable unto us, and is made ours."—Barclay's Works, i, 164. "Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had aught against me."—Acts, xxiv, 19.

"Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land, shall see That man hath yet a soul, and dare be free."—Campbell.

UNDER NOTE VI.—USE SEPARATE NOMINATIVES.

"H is only an aspiration or breathing; and sometimes at the beginning of a word is not sounded at all."—Lowth's Gram., p. 4. "Man was made for society, and ought to extend his good will to all men."—Ib., p. 12; Murray's, i, 170. "There is, and must be, a supreme being, of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom, who created and supports them."—Beattie's Moral Science, p. 201. "Were you not affrighted, and mistook a spirit for a body?"—Watson's Apology, p. 122. "The latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but agrees with the verb, or is governed by the verb or the preposition, expressed or understood."— Murray's Gram., p. 214; Russell's, 103; Bacon's, 51; Alger's, 71; R. C. Smith's, 179. "He had mistaken his true interests, and found himself forsaken."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "The amputation was exceedingly well performed, and saved the patient's life."—Ib., p. 191. "The intentions of some of these philosophers, nay, of many [,] might have been, and probably were good."—Ib., p. 216. "This may be true, and yet will not justify the practice."—Webster's Essays, p. 33. "From the practice of those who have had a liberal education, and are therefore presumed to be best acquainted with men and things."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 161. "For those energies and bounties which created and preserve the universe."—J. Q. Adams's Rhet., i, 327. "I shall make it once for all and hope it will be afterwards remembered."—Blair's Lect., p. 45. "This consequence is drawn too abruptly, and needed more explanation."—Ib., p. 229. "They must be used with more caution, and require more preparation."— Ib., p. 153. "The apostrophe denotes the omission of an i, which was formerly inserted, and made an addition of a syllable to the word."— Priestley's Gram., p. 67. "The succession may be rendered more various or more uniform, but in one shape or an other is unavoidable."—Kames, El. of Crit., i. 253. "It excites neither terror nor compassion, nor is agreeable in any respect."—Ib., ii, 277.

"Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords No flight for thoughts, but poorly stick at words."—Denham.

UNDER NOTE VII.—MIXTURE OF DIFFERENT STYLES.

"Let us read the living page, whose every character delighteth and instructs us."—Maunder's Gram., p. 5. "For if it be in any degree obscure, it puzzles, and doth not please."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 357. "When a speaker addresseth himself to the understanding, he proposes the instruction of his hearers."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 13. "As the wine which strengthens and refresheth the heart."—H. Adams's View, p. 221. "This truth he wrappeth in an allegory, and feigns that one of the goddesses had taken up her abode with the other."—Pope's Works, iii, 46. "God searcheth and understands the heart."—Thomas à Kempis. "The grace of God, that brings salvation hath appeared to all men."—Barclays Works, i, 366. "Also we speak not in the words, which man's wisdom teaches; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."—Ib., i, 388. "But he hath an objection, which he urgeth, and by which he thinks to overturn all."—Ib., iii, 327. "In that it gives them not that comfort and joy which it giveth unto them who love it."—Ib., i, 142. "Thou here misunderstood the place and misappliedst it."—Ib., iii, 38. "Like the barren heath in the desert, which knoweth not when good comes."—Friends' Extracts, p. 128; N. E. Discip., p. 75. "It speaketh of the time past, but shews that something was then doing, but not quite finished."—E. Devis's Gram., p. 42. "It subsists in spite of them; it advanceth unobserved."—PASCAL: Addison's Evidences, p. 17.

"But where is he, the Pilgrim of my song?— Methinks he cometh late and tarries long."—Byron, Cant. iv, St. 164.

UNDER NOTE VII.—CONFUSION OF MOODS.

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone astray, &c."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 227 with 197. "As a speaker advances in his discourse, especially if it be somewhat impassioned, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and louder tone will naturally steal upon him."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 68. "If one man esteem a day above another, and another esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."—Barclay's Works, i, 439. "If there be but one body of legislators, it is no better than a tyranny; if there are only two, there will want a casting voice."—Addison, Spect., No. 287. "Should you come up this way, and I am still here, you need not be assured how glad I shall be to see you."—Ld. Byron. "If he repent and becomes holy, let him enjoy God and heaven."—Brownson's Elwood, p. 248. "If thy fellow approach thee, naked and destitute, and thou shouldst say unto him, 'Depart in peace; be you warmed and filled;' and yet shouldst give him not those things that are needful to him, what benevolence is there in thy conduct?"—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 108.

"Get on your nightgown, lost occasion calls us. And show us to be watchers." —Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 278.

"But if it climb, with your assisting hands, The Trojan walls, and in the city stands." —Dryden's Virgil, ii, 145.

—————————————"Though Heaven's king Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, Us'd to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels." —Milton, P. L., iv, l. 973.

"Us'd to the yoke, draw'dst his triumphant wheels." —Lowth's Gram., p. 106.

UNDER NOTE IX.—IMPROPER ELLIPSES.

"Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has."—Education Reporter. "Which they neither have nor can do."—Barclay's Works, iii, 73. "The Lord hath, and doth, and will reveal his will to his people, and hath and doth raise up members of his body," &c.—Ib., i, 484. "We see then, that the Lord hath, and doth give such."—Ib., i, 484. "Towards those that have or do declare themselves members."—Ib., i, 494. "For which we can, and have given our sufficient reasons."—Ib., i, 507. "When we mention the several properties of the different words in sentences, in the same manner as we have those of William's, above, what is the exercise called?"—Smith's New Gram., p. 12. "It is, however to be doubted whether this peculiarity of the Greek idiom, ever has or will obtain extensively in the English."—Nutting's Gram., p. 47. "Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as much as we?"—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 111. "Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as they ought to be in order to move and persuade."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 151.

UNDER NOTE X.—DO, USED AS A SUBSTITUTE.

"And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be done."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 36. "Such a sentiment from a man expiring of his wounds, is truly heroic, and must elevate the mind to the greatest height that can be done by a single expression."—Ib., i, 204. "Successive images making thus deeper and deeper impressions, must elevate more than any single image can do."—Ib., i, 205. "Besides making a deeper impression than can be done by cool reasoning."—Ib., ii, 273. "Yet a poet, by the force of genius alone, can rise higher than a public speaker can do."—Blair's Rhet., p. 338. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they have done, should have induced them to go farther."—Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. vii. "The pupil should commit the first section perfectly, before he does the second part of grammar."— Bradley's Gram., p. 77. "The Greek ch was pronounced hard, as we now do in chord."—Booth's Introd. to Dict., p. 61. "They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from what they do at other times."— Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xi. "And give him the formal cool reception that Simon had done."—Dr. Scott, on Luke, vii. "I do not say, as some have done."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 271. "If he suppose the first, he may do the last."—Barclay's Works, ii, 406. "Who are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old did him in his outward."—Ib., i, 506. "That text of Revelations must not be understood, as he doth it."— Ib., iii, 309. "Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him, that he can do it readily."—Smith's New Gram., p. 13. "Perhaps it is running the same course which Rome had done before."—Middleton's Life of Cicero. "It ought even on this ground to be avoided; which may easily be done by a different construction."—Churchill's Gram., p. 312. "These two languages are now pronounced in England as no other nation in Europe does besides."—Creighton's Dict., p. xi. "Germany ran the same risk that Italy had done."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 211: see Priestley's Gram., p. 196.

UNDER NOTE XI.—PRETERITS AND PARTICIPLES.

"The Beggars themselves will be broke in a trice."—Swift's Poems, p. 347. "The hoop is hoist above his nose."—Ib., p. 404. "My heart was lift up in the ways of the Lord. 2 CHRON."—Joh. Dict., w. Lift. "Who sin so oft have mourned, Yet to temptation ran."—Burns. "Who would not have let them appeared."—Steele. "He would have had you sought for ease at the hands of Mr. Legality."—Pilgrim's Progress, p. 31. "From me his madding mind is start, And wooes the widow's daughter of the glen."—SPENSER: Joh. Dict., w. Glen. "The man has spoke, and still speaks."—Ash's Gram., p. 54. "For you have but mistook me all this while."—Beauties of Shak., p. 114. "And will you rent our ancient love asunder."—Ib., p. 52. "Mr. Birney has plead the inexpediency of passing such resolutions."— Liberator, Vol. xiii, p. 194. "Who have wore out their years in such most painful Labours."—Littleton's Dict., Pref. "And in the conclusion you were chose probationer."—Spectator, No. 32.

"How she was lost, took captive, made a slave; And how against him set that should her save."—Bunyan.

UNDER NOTE XII.—VERBS CONFOUNDED.

"But Moses preferred to wile away his time."—Parker's English Composition, p. 15. "His face shown with the rays of the sun."—Calvin's Inst., 4to, p. 76. "Whom they had sat at defiance so lately."— Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 320. "And when he was set, his disciples came unto him."—Matt., v, 1. "When he was set down on the judgement-seat."— Ib., xxvii, 19. "And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them."—Luke, xxii, 55. "So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?"—John, xiii, 12. "Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."—Rev., iii, 21. "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."— Heb., viii, 1. "And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."—Ib., xii, 2.[402] "He sat on foot a furious persecution."— Payne's Geog., ii, 418. "There layeth an obligation upon the saints, to help such."—Barclay's Works, i, 389. "There let him lay."—Byron's Pilgrimage, C. iv, st. 180. "Nothing but moss, and shrubs, and stinted trees, can grow upon it."—Morse's Geog., p. 43. "Who had lain out considerable sums purely to distinguish themselves."—Goldsmith's Greece, i, 132. "Whereunto the righteous fly and are safe."—Barclay's Works, i, 146. "He raiseth from supper, and laid aside his garments."—Ib., i, 438. "Whither—Oh! whither shall I fly?"—Murray's English Reader, p. 123. "Flying from an adopted murderer."—Ib., p. 122. "To you I fly for refuge."—Ib., p. 124. "The sign that should warn his disciples to fly from approaching ruin."—Keith's Evidences, p. 62. "In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation."—Rush, on the Voice, p. xxiii. "In which some only bleat, bark, mew, winnow, and bray, a little better than others."—Ib., p. 90. "Who represented to him the unreasonableness of being effected with such unmanly fears."—Rollin's Hist., ii, 106. "Thou sawedst every action."—Guy's School Gram., p. 46. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he or she taught."—Coar's Gram., p. 79. "Valerian is taken by Sapor and flead alive, A. D. 260."—Lempriere's Chron. Table, Dict., p. xix. "What a fine vehicle is it now become for all conceptions of the mind!"—Blair's Rhet., p. 139. "What are become of so many productions?" —Volney's Ruins, p. 8. "What are become of those ages of abundance and of life?"—Keith's Evidences, p. 107. "The Spartan admiral was sailed to the Hellespont."—Goldsmiths Greece, i, 150. "As soon as he was landed, the multitude thronged about him."—Ib., i, 160. "Cyrus was arrived at Sardis."—Ib., i, 161. "Whose year was expired."—Ib., i, 162. "It had better have been, 'that faction which.'"—Priestley's Gram., p. 97. "This people is become a great nation."—Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249. "And here we are got into the region of ornament."—Blair's Rhet., p. 181. "The ungraceful parenthesis which follows, had far better have been avoided."—Ib., p. 215. "Who forced him under water, and there held him until drounded."—Indian Wars, p. 55.

"I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him."—Cowper.

UNDER NOTE XIII.—WORDS THAT EXPRESS TIME.

"I had finished my letter before my brother arrived."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 139. "I had written before I received his letter."—Blair's Rhet., p. 82. "From what has been formerly delivered."—Ib., p. 182. "Arts were of late introduced among them."—Ib., p. 245. "I am not of opinion that such rules can be of much use, unless persons saw them exemplified."—Ib., p. 336. "If we use the noun itself, we should say, 'This composition is John's.' "—Murray's Gram., p. 174. "But if the assertion referred to something, that is not always the same, or supposed to be so, the past tense must be applied."—Ib., p. 191. "They told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."—Luke, xviii, 37. "There is no particular intimation but that I continued to work, even to the present moment."—R. W. Green's Gram., p. 39. "Generally, as was observed already, it is but hinted in a single word or phrase."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 36. "The wittiness of the passage was already illustrated."—Ib., p. 36. "As was observed already."—Ib., p. 56. "It was said already in general."—Ib., p. 95. "As I hinted already."—Ib., p. 134. "What I believe was hinted once already."—Ib., p. 148. "It is obvious, as hath been hinted formerly, that this is but an artificial and arbitrary connexion."—Ib., p. 282. "They have done anciently a great deal of hurt."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 109. "Then said Paul, I knew not, brethren, that he is the High Priest."—Dr. Webster's Bible: Acts, xxiii, 5. "Most prepositions originally denote the relation of place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations."—Lowth's Gram., p. 65; Churchill's, 116. "His gift was but a poor offering, when we consider his estate."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 194. "If he should succeed, and should obtain his end, he will not be the happier for it."—Murray's Gram., i, p. 207. "These are torrents that swell to-day, and have spent themselves by to-morrow."—Blair's Rhet., p. 286. "Who have called that wheat to-day, which they have called tares to-morrow."—Barclay's Works, iii. 168. "He thought it had been one of his tenants."—Ib., i, 11. "But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."—Luke, xvi, 30. "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."—Ib., verse 31. "But it is while men slept that the archenemy has always sown his tares."—The Friend, x, 351. "Crescens would not fail to have exposed him."—Addison's Evidences, p. 30.

"Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound; Fierce as he mov'd, his silver shafts resound." —Pope, Iliad, B. i, l. 64.

UNDER NOTE XIV.—VERBS OF COMMANDING, &c.

"Had I commanded you to have done this, you would have thought hard of it."—G. B. "I found him better than I expected to have found him."—Priestley's Gram., p. 126. "There are several smaller faults, which I at first intended to have enumerated."—Webster's Essays, p. 246. "Antithesis, therefore, may, on many occasions, be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen the impression which we intend that any object should make."—Blair's Rhet., p. 168. "The girl said, if her master would but have let her had money, she might have been well long ago."—See Priestley's Gram., p. 127. "Nor is there the least ground to fear, that we should be cramped here within too narrow limits."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 163; Murray's Gram., i, 360. "The Romans, flushed with success, expected to have retaken it."—Hooke's Hist., p. 37. "I would not have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais scattered."—STERNE: Enfield's Speaker, p. 54. "We expected that he would have arrived last night."—Inst. p. 192. "Our friends intended to have met us."—Ib. "We hoped to have seen you."—Ib. "He would not have been allowed to have entered."—Ib.

UNDER NOTE XV.—PERMANENT PROPOSITIONS.

"Cicero maintained that whatsoever was useful was good."—"I observed that love constituted the whole moral character of God."—Dwight. "Thinking that one gained nothing by being a good man."—Voltaire. "I have already told you that I was a gentleman."—Fontaine. "If I should ask, whether ice and water were two distinct species of things."—Locke. "A stranger to the poem would not easily discover that this was verse."—Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 260. "The doctor affirmed, that fever always produced thirst."—Inst., p. 192. "The ancients asserted, that virtue was its own reward."—Ib. "They should not have repeated the error, of insisting that the infinitive was a mere noun."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 288. "It was observed in Chap. III. that the distinctive or had a double use."—Churchill's Gram., p. 154. "Two young gentlemen, who have made a discovery that there was no God."—Swift.

RULE XVIII.—INFINITIVES.

The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition TO, which commonly connects it to a finite verb: as, "I desire TO learn."—Dr. Adam. "Of me the Roman people have many pledges, which I must strive, with my utmost endeavours, TO preserve, TO defend, TO confirm, and TO redeem."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 41.

"What if the foot, ordain'd the dust TO tread, Or hand TO toil, aspir'd TO be the head?"—Pope.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVIII.

OBS. 1.—No word is more variously explained by grammarians, than this word TO, which is put before the verb in the infinitive mood. Johnson, Walker, Scott, Todd, and some other lexicographers, call it an adverb; but, in explaining its use, they say it denotes certain relations, which it is not the office of an adverb to express. (See the word in Johnson's Quarto Dictionary.) D. St. Quentin, in his Rudiments of General Grammar, says, "To, before a verb, is an adverb;" and yet his "Adverbs are words that are joined to verbs or adjectives, and express some circumstance or quality." See pp. 33 and 39. Lowth, Priestley, Fisher, L. Murray, Webster, Wilson, S. W. Clark, Coar, Comly, Blair, Felch, Fisk, Greenleaf, Hart, Weld, Webber, and others, call it a preposition; and some of these ascribe to it the government of the verb, while others do not. Lowth says, "The preposition TO, placed before the verb, makes the infinitive mood."—Short Gram., p. 42. "Now this," says Horne Tooke, "is manifestly not so: for TO placed before the verb loveth, will not make the infinitive mood. He would have said more truly, that TO placed before some nouns, makes verbs."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 287.

OBS. 2.—Skinner, in his Canones Etymologici, calls this TO "an equivocal article,"—Tooke, ib., i, 288. Nutting, a late American grammarian, says: "The sign TO is no other than the Greek article to; as, to agapan [, to love]; or, as some say, it is the Saxon do"—Practical Gram., p. 66. Thus, by suggesting two false and inconsistent derivations, though he uses not the name equivocal article, he first makes the word an article, and then equivocal—equivocal in etymology, and of course in meaning.[403] Nixon, in his English Parser, supposes it to be, unequivocally, the Greek article [Greek: to], the. See the work, p. 83. D. Booth says, "To is, by us, applied to Verbs; but it was the neuter Article (the) among the Greeks."—Introd. to Analyt. Dict., p. 60. According to Horne Tooke, "Minshew also distinguishes between the preposition TO, and the sign of the infinitive TO. Of the former he is silent, and of the latter he says: 'To, as to make, to walk, to do, a Græco articulo [Greek: to].' But Dr. Gregory Sharpe is persuaded, that our language has taken it from the Hebrew. And Vossius derives the correspondent Latin preposition AD from the same source."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 293.

OBS. 3.—Tooke also says, "I observe, that Junius and Skinner and Johnson, have not chosen to give the slightest hint concerning the derivation of TO."—Ibid. But, certainly, of his adverb TO, Johnson gives this hint: "TO, Saxon; te, Dutch." And Webster, who calls it not an adverb, but a preposition, gives the same hint of the source from which it comes to us. This is as much as to say, it is etymologically the old Saxon preposition to—which, truly, it is—the very same word that, for a thousand years or more, has been used before nouns and pronouns to govern the objective case. Tooke himself does not deny this; but, conceiving that almost all particles, whether English or any other, can be traced back to ancient verbs or nouns, he hunts for the root of this, in a remoter region, where he pretends to find that to has the same origin as do; and though he detects the former in a Gothic noun, he scruples not to identify it with an auxiliary verb! Yet he elsewhere expressly denies, "that any words change their nature by use, so as to belong sometimes to one part of speech, and sometimes to another."—Div. of Pur., Vol. i, p. 68.

OBS 4.—From this, the fair inference is, that he will have both to and do to be "nouns substantive" still! "Do (the auxiliary verb, as it has been called) is derived from the same root, and is indeed the same word as TO."—Ib., Vol. i, p. 290. "Since FROM means commencement or beginning, TO must mean end or termination."—Ib., i, 283. "The preposition TO (in Dutch written TOE and TOT, a little nearer to the original) is the Gothic substantive [Gothic: taui] or [Gothic: tauhts], i. e. act, effect, result, consummation. Which Gothic substantive is indeed itself no other than the past participle of the verb [Gothic: taujan], agere. And what is done, is terminated, ended, finished."—Ib., i, 285. No wonder that Johnson, Skinner, and Junius, gave no hint of this derivation: it is not worth the ink it takes, if it cannot be made more sure. But in showing its bearing on the verb, the author not unjustly complains of our grammarians, that: "Of all the points which they endeavour to shuffle over, there is none in which they do it more grossly than in this of the infinitive."—Ib., i, 287.

OBS. 5.—Many are content to call the word TO a prefix, a particle, a little word, a sign of the infinitive, a part of the infinitive, a part of the verb, and the like, without telling us whence it comes, how it differs from the preposition to, or to what part of speech it belongs. It certainly is not what we usually call a prefix, because we never join it to the verb; yet there are three instances in which it becomes such, before a noun: viz., to-day, to-night, to-morrow. If it is a "particle," so is any other preposition, as well as every small and invariable word. If it is a "little word," the whole bigness of a preposition is unquestionably found in it; and no "word" is so small but that it must belong to some one of the ten classes called parts of speech. If it is a "sign of the infinitive," because it is used before no other mood; so is it a sign of the objective case, or of what in Latin is called the dative, because it precedes no other case. If we suppose it to be a "part of the infinitive," or a "part of the verb," it is certainly no necessary part of either; because there is no verb which may not, in several different ways, be properly used in the infinitive without it. But if it be a part of the infinitive, it must be a verb, and ought to be classed with the auxiliaries. Dr. Ash accordingly placed it among the auxiliaries; but he says, (inaccurately, however,) "The auxiliary sign seems to have the nature of adverbs."—Grammatical Institutes, p. 33. "The auxiliary [signs] are, to, do, did, have, had, shall, will, may, can, must, might," &c.—Ib., p. 31.

OBS. 6.—It is clear, as I have already shown, that the word to may be a sign of the infinitive, and yet not be a part of it. Dr. Ash supposes, it may even be a part of the mood, and yet not be a part of the verb. How this can be, I see not, unless the mood consists in something else than either the form or the parts of the verb. This grammarian says, "In parsing, every word should be considered as a distinct part of speech: for though two or more words may be united to form a mode, a tense, or a comparison; yet it seems quite improper to unite two or more words to make a noun, a verb, an adjective, &c."—Gram. Inst., p. 28. All the auxiliaries, therefore, and the particle to among them, he parses separately; but he follows not his own advice, to make them distinct parts of speech; for he calls them all signs only, and signs are not one of his ten parts of speech. And the participle too, which is one of the ten, and which he declares to be "no part of the verb," he parses separately; calling it a verb, and not a participle, as often as it accompanies any of his auxiliary signs. This is certainly a greater impropriety than there can be in supposing an auxiliary and a participle to constitute a verb; for the mood and tense are the properties of the compound, and ought not to be ascribed to the principal term only. Not so with the preposition to before the infinitive, any more than with the conjunction if before the subjunctive. These may well be parsed as separate parts of speech; for these moods are sometimes formed, and are completely distinguished in each of their tenses, without the adding of these signs.

OBS. 7.—After a careful examination of what others have taught respecting this disputed point in grammar, I have given, in the preceding rule, that explanation which I consider to be the most correct and the most simple, and also as well authorized as any. Who first parsed the infinitive in this manner, I know not; probably those who first called the to a preposition; among whom were Lowth and the author of the old British Grammar. The doctrine did not originate with me, or with Comly, or with any American author. In Coar's English Grammar, published in London in 1796. the phrase to trample is parsed thus: "To—A preposition, serving for a sign of the infinitive mood to the verb Trample—A verb neuter, infinitive mood, present tense, governed by the preposition TO before it. RULE. The preposition to before a verb, is the sign of the infinitive mood." See the work, p. 263. This was written by a gentleman who speaks of his "long habit of teaching the Latin Tongue," and who was certainly partial enough to the principles of Latin grammar, since he adopts in English the whole detail of Latin cases.

OBS 8.—In Fisher's English Grammar, London, 1800, (of which there had been many earlier editions,) we find the following rule of syntax: "When two principal Verbs come together, the latter of them expresses an unlimited Sense, with the Preposition to before it; as he loved to learn; I chose to dance: and is called the infinitive Verb, which may also follow a Name or Quality; as, a Time to sing; a Book delightful to read." That this author supposed the infinitive to be governed by to, and not by the preceding verb, noun, or adjective, is plain from the following note, which he gives in his margin: "The Scholar will best understand this, by being told that infinite or invariable Verbs, having neither Number, Person, nor Nominative Word belonging to them, are known or governed by the Preposition TO coming before them. The Sign to is often understood; as, Bid Robert and his company (to) tarry."—Fisher's New Gram., p. 95.

OBS. 9.—The forms of parsing, and also the rules, which are given in the early English grammars, are so very defective, that it is often impossible to say positively, what their authors did, or did not, intend to teach. Dr. Lowth's specimen of "grammatical resolution" contains four infinitives. In his explanation of the first, the preposition and the verb are parsed separately, as above; except that he says nothing about government. In his account of the other three, the two words are taken together, and called a "verb, in the infinitive mode." But as he elsewhere calls the particle to a preposition, and nowhere speaks of any thing else as governing the infinitive, it seems fair to infer, that he conceived the verb to be the regimen of this preposition.[404] If such was his idea, we have the learned Doctor's authority in opposition to that of his professed admirers and copyists. Of these, Lindley Murray is doubtless the most famous. But Murray's twelfth rule of syntax, while it expressly calls to before the infinitive a preposition, absurdly takes away from it this regimen, and leaves us a preposition that governs nothing, and has apparently nothing to do with the relation of the terms between which it occurs.

OBS. 10.—Many later grammarians, perceiving the absurdity of calling to before the infinitive a preposition without supposing it to govern the verb, have studiously avoided this name; and have either made the "little word" a supernumerary part of speech, or treated it as no part of speech at all. Among these, if I mistake not, are Allen, Lennie, Bullions, Alger, Guy, Churchill, Hiley, Nutting, Mulligan, Spencer, and Wells. Except Comly, the numerous modifiers of Murray's Grammar are none of them more consistent, on this point, than was Murray himself. Such of them as do not follow him literally, either deny, or forbear to affirm, that to before a verb is a preposition; and consequently either tell us not what it is, or tell us falsely; some calling it "a part of the verb," while they neither join it to the verb as a prefix, nor include it among the auxiliaries. Thus Kirkham: "To is not a preposition when joined to a verb in this mood; thus, to ride, to rule; but it should be parsed with the verb, and as a part of it."—Gram. in Familiar Lect., p. 137. So R. C. Smith: "This little word to when used before verbs in this manner, is not a preposition, but forms a part of the verb, and, in parsing, should be so considered."—Productive Gram., p. 65. How can that be "a part of the verb," which is a word used before it? or how is to "joined to the verb," or made a part of it, in the phrase, "to ride?" But Smith does not abide by his own doctrine; for, in an other part of his book, he adopts the phraseology of Murray, and makes to a preposition: saying, "The preposition TO, though generally used before the latter verb, is sometimes properly omitted; as, 'I heard him say it;' instead of 'to say it.'"—Productive Gram., p. 156. See Murray's Rule 12th.

OBS. 11.—Most English grammarians have considered the word to as a part of the infinitive, a part of the verb; and, like the teachers of Latin, have referred the government of this mood to a preceding verb. But the rule which they give, is partial, and often inapplicable; and their exceptions to it, or the heterogeneous parts into which some of them divide it, are both numerous and puzzling. They teach that at least half of the ten different parts of speech "frequently govern the infinitive:" if so, there should be a distinct rule for each; for why should the government of one part of speech be made an exception to that of an other? and, if this be done, with respect to the infinitive, why not also with respect to the objective case? In all instances to which their rule is applicable, the rule which I have given, amounts to the same thing; and it obviates the necessity for their numerous exceptions, and the embarrassment arising from other constructions of the infinitive not noticed in them. Why then is the simplest solution imaginable still so frequently rejected for so much complexity and inconsistency? Or how can the more common rule in question be suitable for a child, if its applicability depends on a relation between the two verbs, which the preposition to sometimes expresses, and sometimes does not?

OBS. 12.—All authors admit that in some instances, the sign to is "superfluous and improper," the construction and government appearing complete without it; and the "Rev. Peter Bullions, D. D., Professor of Languages in the Albany Academy," has recently published a grammar, in which he adopts the common rule, "One verb governs another in the infinitive mood; as, I desire to learn;" and then remarks, "The infinitive after a verb is governed by it only when the attribute expressed by the infinitive is either the subject or [the] object of the other verb. In such expressions as 'I read to learn,' the infinitive is not governed by 'I read,' but depends on the phrase 'in order to' understood."—Bullions's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 110. But, "I read 'in order to' to learn," is not English; though it might be, if either to were any thing else than a preposition: as, "Now set to to learn your lesson." This broad exception, therefore, which embraces well-nigh half the infinitives in the language, though it contains some obvious truth, is both carelessly stated, and badly resolved. The single particle to is quite sufficient, both to govern the infinitive, and to connect it to any antecedent term which can make sense with such an adjunct. But, in fact, the reverend author must have meant to use the "little word" but once; and also to deny that it is a preposition; for he elsewhere says expressly, though, beyond question, erroneously, "A preposition should never be used before the infinitive."—Ib., p. 92. And he also says, "The Infinitive mood expresses a thing in a general manner, without distinction of number, person, or time, and commonly has TO before it."—Ib., Second Edition, p. 35. Now if TO is "before" the mood, it is certainly not a part of it. And again, if this mood had no distinction of "time," our author's two tenses of it, and his own two special rules for their application, would be as absurd as is his notion of its government. See his Obs. 6 and 7, ib., p. 124.

OBS. 13.—Richard Hiley, too, a grammarian of perhaps more merit, is equally faulty in his explanation of the infinitive mood. In the first place, he absurdly says, "TO before the infinitive mood, is considered as forming part of the verb; but in every other situation it is a preposition."—Hiley's Gram., Third Edition, p. 28. To teach that a "part of the verb" stands "before the mood," is an absurdity manifestly greater, than the very opposite notion of Dr. Ash, that what is not a part of the verb, may yet be included in the mood. There is no need of either of these false suppositions; or of the suggestion, doubly false, that to "in every other situation, is a preposition." What does preposition mean? Is to a preposition when it is placed after a verb, and not a preposition when it is placed before it? For example: "I rise to shut to the door."—See Luke, xiii, 25.

OBS. 14.—In his syntax, this author further says, "When two verbs come together, the latter must be in the infinitive mood, when it denotes the object of the former; as, 'Study to improve.'" This is his Rule. Now look at his Notes. "1. When the latter verb does not express the object, but the end, or something remote, the word for, or the words in order to, are understood; as, 'I read to learn;' that is, 'I read for to learn,' or, 'in order [TO] to learn.' The word for, however, is never, in such instances, expressed in good language. 2. The infinitive is frequently governed by adjectives, substantives, and participles; but in this instance also, a preposition is understood, though never expressed; as, 'Eager to learn;' that is, 'eager for to learn;' or, 'for learning;' 'A desire to improve;' that is, 'for to improve.'"—Hiley's Gram., p. 89. Here we see the origin of some of Bullions's blunders. To is so small a word, it slips through the fingers of these gentlemen. Words utterly needless, and worse than needless, they foist into our language, in instances beyond number, to explain infinitives that occur at almost every breath. Their students must see that, "I read to learn," and, "I study to improve," with countless other examples of either sort, are very different constructions, and not to be parsed by the same rule! And here the only government of the infinitive which Hiley affirms, is immediately contradicted by the supposition of a needless for "understood."

OBS. 15.—In all such examples as, "I read to learn,"—"I strive to learn"—"Some eat to live,"—"Some live to eat,"—"She sings to cheer him,"—"I come to aid you,"—"I go to prepare a place for you,"—the action and its purpose are connected by the word to; and if, in the countless instances of this kind, the former verbs do not govern the latter, it is not because the phraseology is elliptical, or ever was elliptical,[405] but because in no case is there any such government, except in the construction of those verbs which take the infinitive after them without the preposition to. Professor Bullions will have the infinitive to be governed by a finite verb, "when the attribute expressed by the infinitive is the subject of the other verb." An infinitive may be made the subject of a finite verb; but this grammarian has mistaken the established meaning of subject, as well as of attribute, and therefore written nonsense. Dr. Johnson defines his adverb TO, "A particle coming between two verbs, and noting the second as the object of the first." But of all the words which, according to my opponents and their oracles, govern the infinitive, probably not more than a quarter are such verbs as usually have an object after them. Where then is the propriety of their notion of infinitive government? And what advantage has it, even where it is least objectionable?

OBS. 16.—Take for an example of this contrast the terms, "Strive to enter in—many will seek to enter in."—Luke, xiii, 24. Why should it be thought more eligible to say, that the verb strive or will seek governs the infinitive verb to enter; than to say, that to is a preposition, showing the relation between strive and enter, or between will seek and enter, and governing the latter verb? (See the exact and only needful form for parsing any such term, in the Twelfth Praxis of this work.) None, I presume, will deny, that in the Greek or the Latin of these phrases, the finite verbs govern the infinitive; or that, in the French, the infinitive entrer is governed first by one preposition, and then by an other. "Contendite intrare—multi quærent intrare."—Montanus. "Efforcez-vous _d'_entrer—plusieurs chercheront à y entrer."—French Bible. In my opinion, to before a verb is as fairly a preposition as the French de or à; and it is the main design of these observations, while they candidly show the reader what others teach, to prove it so. The only construction which makes it any thing else, is that which puts it after a verb or a participle, in the sense of an adverbial supplement; as, "The infernal idol is bowed down to."—Herald of Freedom. "Going to and fro."—Bible. "At length he came to."—"Tell him to heave to."—"He was ready to set to." With singular absurdness of opinion, some grammarians call to a preposition, when it thus follows a verb and governs nothing, who resolutely deny it that name, when it precedes the verb, and requires it to be in the infinitive mood, as in the last two examples. Now, if this is not government, what is? And if to, without government, is not an adverb, what is? See Obs. 2d on the List of Prepositions.

OBS. 17.—The infinitive thus admits a simpler solution in English, than in most other languages; because we less frequently use it without a preposition, and seldom, if ever, allow any variety in this connecting and governing particle. And yet in no other language has its construction given rise to a tenth part of that variety of absurd opinions, which the defender of its true syntax must refute in ours. In French, the infinitive, though frequently placed in immediate dependence on an other verb, may also be governed by several different prepositions, (as, à, de, pour, sans, après,) according to the sense.[406] In Spanish and Italian, the construction is similar. In Latin and Greek, the infinitive is, for the most part, immediately dependent on an other verb. But, according to the grammars, it may stand for a noun, in all the six cases; and many have called it an indeclinable noun. See the Port-Royal Latin and Greek grammars; in which several peculiar constructions of the infinitive are referred to the government of a preposition—constructions that occur frequently in Greek, and sometimes even in Latin.

OBS. 18.—It is from an improper extension of the principles of these "learned languages" to ours, that much of the false teaching which has so greatly and so long embarrassed this part of English grammar, has been, and continues to be, derived. A late author, who supposes every infinitive to be virtually a noun, and who thinks he finds in ours all the cases of an English noun, not excepting the possessive, gives the following account of its origin and nature: "This mood, with almost all its properties and uses, has been adopted into our language from the ancient Greek and Latin tongues. * * * The definite article [Greek: tò] [,] the, which they [the Greeks] used before the infinitive, to mark, in an especial manner, its nature of a substantive, is evidently the same word that we use before our infinitive; thus, 'to write,' signifies the writing; that is, the action of writing;—and when a verb governs an infinitive, it only governs it as in the objective case."—Nixon's English Parser, p. 83. But who will believe, that our old Saxon ancestors borrowed from Greek or Latin what is now our construction of the very root of the English verb, when, in all likelihood, they could not read a word in either of those languages, or scarcely knew the letters in their own, and while it is plain that they took not thence even the inflection of a single branch of any verb whatever?

OBS. 19.—The particle to, being a very common preposition in the Saxon tongue, has been generally used before the English infinitive, ever since the English language, or any thing like it, existed. And it has always governed the verb, not indeed "as in the objective case," for no verb is ever declined by cases, but simply as the infinitive mood. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels, which was made as early as the eleventh century, the infinitive mood is sometimes expressed in this manner, and sometimes by the termination on without the preposition. Dr. Johnson's History of the English Language, prefixed to his large Dictionary, contains, of this version, and of Wickliffe's, the whole of the first chapter of Luke; except that the latter omits the first four verses, so that the numbers for reference do not correspond. Putting, for convenience, English characters for the Saxon, I shall cite here three examples from each; and these, if he will, the reader may compare with the 19th, the 77th, and the 79th verse, in our common Bible. SAXON: "And ic eom asend with the sprecan. and the this bodian."—Lucæ, i, 19. WICKLIFFE: "And Y am sent to thee to speke and to evangelise to thee these thingis."—Luk, i, 15. SAXON: "To syllene his folce hæle gewit on hyra synna forgyfnesse."—Lucæ, i, 77. WICKLIFFE: "To geve science of heelth to his puple into remissioun of her synnes."—Luk, i, 73. SAXON: "Onlyhtan tham the on thystrum and on deathes sceade sittath. ure fet to gereccenne on sibbe weg."—Lucæ, i, 79. WICKLIFFE: "To geve light to them that sitten in derknessis, and in schadowe of deeth, to dresse oure feet into the weye of pees."—Luk, i, 75. "In Anglo-Saxon," says Dr. Latham, "the dative of the infinitive verb ended in -nne, and was preceded by the preposition to: as, To lufienne = ad amandum [= to loving, or to love]; To bærnenne = ad urendum [= to burning, or to burn]; To syllanne = ad dandum [= to giving, or to give]."—Hand-Book, p. 205.

OBS. 20.—Such, then, has ever been the usual construction of the English infinitive mood; and a wilder interpretation than that which supposes to an article, and says, "to write signifies the writing," cannot possibly be put upon it. On this supposition, "I am going to write a letter," is a pure Grecism; meaning, "I am going the writing a letter," which is utter nonsense. And further, the infinitive in Greek and Latin, as well as in Saxon and English, is always in fact governed as a mood, rather than as a case, notwithstanding that the Greek article in any of its four different cases may, in some instances, be put before it; for even with an article before it, the Greek infinitive usually retains its regimen as a verb, and is therefore not "a substantive," or noun. I am well aware that some learned critics, conceiving that the essence of the verb consists in predication, have plainly denied that the infinitive is a verb; and, because it may be made the subject of a finite verb, or may be governed by a verb or a preposition, have chosen to call it "a mere noun substantive." Among these is the erudite Richard Johnson, who, with so much ability and lost labour, exposed, in his Commentaries, the errors and defects of Lily's Grammar and others. This author adduces several reasons for his opinion; one of which is the following: "Thirdly, it is found to have a Preposition set before it, an other sure sign of a Substantive; as, 'Ille nihil præter loqui, et ipsum maledicè et malignè, didicit.' Liv. l. 45, p. 888. [That is, "He learned nothing but to speak, and that slanderously and maliciously."] 'At si quis sibi beneficium dat, nihil interest inter dare et accipere.' Seneca, de Ben. l. 5, c. 10." [That is, "If any one bestows a benefit on himself, there is no difference between give and take;" [407]—or, "between bestowing and receiving."]—See Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 342. But I deny that a preposition is a "sure sign of a substantive." (See Obs. 2d on the Prepositions, and also Obs. 1st on the List of Prepositions, in the tenth chapter of Etymology.) And if we appeal to philological authorities, to determine whether infinitives are nouns or verbs, there will certainly be found more for the latter name, than the former; that is, more in number, if not in weight; though it must be confessed, that many of the old Latin grammarians did, as Priscian tells us, consider the infinitive a noun, calling it Nomen Verbi, the Name of the Verb.[408] If we appeal to reasons, there are more also of these;—or at least as many, and most of them better: as, 1. That the infinitive is often transitive; 2. That it has tenses; 3. That it is qualified by adverbs, rather than by adjectives; 4. That it is never declined like a noun; 5. That the action or state expressed by it, is not commonly abstract, though it may be so sometimes; 6. That in some languages it is the root from which all other parts of the verb are derived, as it is in English.

OBS. 21.—So far as I know, it has not yet been denied, that to before a participle is a preposition, or that a preposition before a participle governs it; though there are not a few who erroneously suppose that participles, by virtue of such government, are necessarily converted into nouns. Against this latter idea, there are many sufficient reasons; but let them now pass, because they belong not here. I am only going to prove, in this place, that to before the infinitive is just such a word as it is before the participle; and this can be done, call either of them what you will. It is plain, that if the infinitive and the participle are ever equivalent to each other, the same word to before them both must needs be equivalent to itself. Now I imagine there are some examples of each equivalence; as, "When we are habituated to doing [or to do] any thing wrong, we become blinded by it."—Young Christian, p. 326. "The lyre, or harp, was best adapted to accompanying [or to accompany] their declamations."—Music of Nature, p. 336. "The new beginner should be accustomed to giving [or to give] all the reasons for each part of speech."—Nutting's Gram., p. 88. "Which, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt [say, to corrupting] our language."—SWIFT: Blair's Rhet., p. 108. Besides these instances of sameness in the particle, there are some cases of constructional ambiguity, the noun and the verb having the same form, and the to not determining which is meant: as, "He was inclined to sleep."—"It must be a bitter experience, to be more accustomed to hate than to love." Here are double doubts for the discriminators: their "sign of the infinitive" fails, or becomes uncertain; because they do not know it from a preposition. Cannot my opponents see in these examples an argument against the distinction which they attempt to draw between to and to? An other argument as good, is also afforded by the fact, that our ancestors often used the participle after to, in the very same texts in which we have since adopted the infinitive in its stead; as, "And if yee wolen resceyue, he is Elie that is to comynge."—Matt., xi, 14. "Ihesu that delyueride us fro wraththe to comynge."—1 Thes., i, 10. These, and seventeen other examples of the same kind, may be seen in Tooke's Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii. pp. 457 and 458.

OBS. 22.—Dr. James P. Wilson, speaking of the English infinitive, says:—"But if the appellation of mode be denied it, it is then a verbal noun. This is indeed its truest character, because its idea ever represents an object of approach. To supplies the defect of a termination characteristic of the infinitive, precedes it, and marks it either as that, towards which the preceding verb is directed;[409] or it signifies act, and shows the word to import an action. When the infinitive is the expression of an immediate action, which it must be, after the verbs, bid, can, dare, do, feel, hear, let, make, may, must, need, see, shall, and will, the preposition TO is omitted."—Essay on Grammar, p. 129. That the truest character of the infinitive is that of a verbal noun, is not to be conceded, in weak abandonment of all the reasons for a contrary opinion, until it can be shown that the action or being expressed by it, must needs assume a substantive character, in order to be "that towards which the preceding verb is directed." But this character is manifestly not supposable of any of those infinitives which, according to the foregoing quotation, must follow other verbs without the intervention of the preposition to: as, "Bid him come;"—"He can walk." And I see no reason to suppose it, where the relation of the infinitive to an other word is not "immediate" but marked by the preposition, as above described. For example: "And he laboured till the going-down of the sun TO deliver him."—Dan., vi, 14. Here deliver is governed by to, and connected by it to the finite verb laboured; but to tell us, it is to be understood substantively rather than actively, is an assumption as false, as it is needless.

OBS. 23.—To deny to the infinitive the appellation of mood, no more makes it a verbal noun, than does the Doctor's solecism about what "ITS IDEA ever represents." "The infinitive therefore," as Horne Tooke observes, "appears plainly to be what the Stoics called it, the very verb itself, pure and uncompounded."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 286. Not indeed as including the particle to, or as it stands in the English perfect tense, but as it occurs in the simple root. But I cited Dr. Wilson, as above, not so much with a design of animadverting again on this point, as with reference to the import of the particle to; of which he furnishes a twofold explanation, leaving the reader to take which part he will of the contradiction. He at first conceives it to convey in general the idea of "towards," and to mark the infinitive as a term "towards which" something else "is directed." If this interpretation is the true one, it is plain that to before a verb is no other than the common preposition to; and this idea is confirmed by its ancient usage, and by all that is certainly known of its derivation. But if we take the second solution, and say, "it signifies act," we make it not a preposition, but either a noun or a verb; and then the question arises, Which of these is it? Besides, what sense can there be, in supposing to go to mean act go, or to be equivalent to do go.[410]

OBS. 24.—Though the infinitive is commonly made an adjunct to some finite verb, yet it may be connected to almost all the other parts of speech, or even to an other infinitive. The preposition to being its only and almost universal index, we seldom find any other preposition put before this; unless the word about, in such a situation, is a preposition, as I incline to think it is.[411] Anciently, the infinitive was sometimes preceded by for as well as to; as, "I went up to Jerusalem for to worship."—Acts, xxiv, 11. "What went ye out for to see?"—Luke, vii, 26. "And stood up for to read."—Luke, iv, 16. Here modern usage rejects the former preposition: the idiom is left to the uneducated. But it seems practicable to subjoin the infinitive to every one of the ten parts of speech, except the article: as,

1. To a noun; as, "If there is any precept to obtain felicity."—Hawkesworth. "It is high time to awake out of sleep."—Rom., xiii, 11. "To flee from the wrath to come."—Matt., iii, 7.

2. To an adjective; as, "He seemed desirous to speak, yet unwilling to offend."—Hawkesworth. "He who is the slowest to promise, is the quickest to perform."—Art of Thinking, p. 35.

3. To a pronoun; as, "I discovered him to be a scholar."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cæsar?"—Luke, xx, 22. "Let me desire you to reflect impartially."—BLAIR: Murray's Eng. Reader, p. 77. "Whom hast thou then or what t' accuse?"—Milton, P. L., iv, 67.

4. To a finite verb; as, "Then Peter began to rebuke him."—Matt., xvi, 22. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."—Luke, xix, 10.

5. To an other infinitive; as, "To go to enter into Egypt."—Jer., xli, 17. "We are not often willing to wait to consider."—J. Abbott. "For what had he to do to chide at me?"—Shak.

6. To a participle; as, "Still threatening to devour me."—Milton. "Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash of some rich burgher."—Id.

7. To an adverb; as, "She is old enough to go to school."—"I know not how to act."—Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "Tell me when to come, and where to meet you."—"He hath not where to lay his head."

8. To a conjunction; as, "He knows better than to trust you."—"It was so hot as to melt these ornaments."—"Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it."—Dr. Johnson.

9. To a preposition; as, "I was about to write."—Rev., x, 4. "Not for to hide it in a hedge."—Burns's Poems, p. 42. "Amatum iri, To be about to be loved."—Adam's Gram., p. 95.[412]

10. To an interjection; as, "O to forget her!"—Young's Night Thoughts.

OBS. 25.—The infinitive is the mere verb, without affirmation, without person or number, and therefore without the agreement peculiar to a finite verb. (See Obs. 8th on Rule 2d.) But, in most instances, it is not without limitation of the being, action, or passion, to some particular person or persons, thing or things, that are said, supposed, or denied, to be, to act, or to be acted upon. Whenever it is not thus limited, it is taken abstractly, and has some resemblance to a noun: because it then suggests the being, action, or passion alone: though, even then, the active infinitive may still govern the objective case; and it may also be easy to imagine to whom or to what the being, action, or passion, naturally pertains. The uses of the infinitive are so many and various, that it is no easy matter to classify them accurately. The following are unquestionably the chief of the things for which it may stand:

1. For the supplement to an other verb, to complete the sense; as, "Loose him, and let him go."—John, xi, 44. "They that go to seek mixed wine."—Prov., xxiii, 30. "His hands refuse to labour."—Ib., xxi, 25. "If you choose to have those terms."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "How our old translators first struggled to express this."—Ib., ii, 456. "To any one who will please to examine our language."—Ib., ii, 444. "They are forced to give up at last."—Ib., ii, 375. "Which ought to be done."—Ib., ii, 451. "Which came to pass."—Acts, xi, 28. "I dare engage to make it out."—Swift.