OBS. 3.—Cannot is not properly one word, but two: in parsing, the adverb must be taken separately, and the auxiliary be explained with its principal. When power is denied, can and not are now generally united—perhaps in order to prevent ambiguity; as, "I cannot go." But when the power is affirmed, and something else is denied, the words are written separately; as, "The Christian apologist can not merely expose the utter baseness of the infidel assertion, but he has positive ground for erecting an opposite and confronting assertion in its place."—Dr. Chalmers. The junction of these terms, however, is not of much importance to the sense; and, as it is plainly contrary to analogy, some writers,—(as Dr. Webster, in his late or "improved" works; Dr. Bullions, in his; Prof. W. C. Fowler, in his new "English Grammar," 8vo; R. C. Trench, in his "Study of Words;" T. S. Pinneo, in his "revised" grammars; J. R. Chandler, W. S. Cardell, O. B. Peirce,—) always separate them. And, indeed, why should we write, "I cannot go, Thou canst not go, He cannot go?" Apart from the custom, we have just as good reason to join not to canst as to can; and sometimes its union with the latter is a gross error: as, "He cannot only make a way to escape, but with the injunction to duty can infuse the power to perform."—Maturin's Sermons, p. 287. The fear of ambiguity never prevents us from disjoining can and not whenever we wish to put a word between them: as, "Though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it."—Jeremiah, v, 22. "Which then I can resist not."—Byron's Manfred, p. 1.

"Can I not mountain maiden spy, But she must bear the Douglas eye?"—Scott.

OBS. 4.—In negative questions, the adverb not is sometimes placed before the nominative, and sometimes after it: as, "Told not I thee?"—Numb., xxiii, 26. "Spake I not also to thy messengers?"—Ib., xxiv, 12. "Cannot I do with you as this potter?"—Jer., xviii, 6. "Art not thou a seer?"—2 Sam., xv, 27. "Did not Israel know?"—Rom., x, 19. "Have they not heard?"—Ib., 18. "Do not they blaspheme that worthy name?"—James, ii, 7. This adverb, like every other, should be placed where it will sound most agreeably, and best suit the sense. Dr. Priestley imagined that it could not properly come before the nominative. He says, "When the nominative case is put after the verb, on account of an interrogation, no other word should be interposed between them. [EXAMPLES:] 'May not we here say with Lucretius?'—Addison on Medals, p. 29. May we not say? 'Is not it he.' [?] Smollett's Voltaire, Vol 18, p. 152. Is it not he. [?]"—Priestley's Gram., p. 177.

OBS. 5.—In grave discourse, or in oratory, the adverb not is spoken as distinctly as other words; but, ordinarily, when placed before the nominative, it is rapidly slurred over in utterance and the o is not heard. In fact, it is generally (though inelegantly) contracted in familiar conversation, and joined to the auxiliary: as, IND. Don't they do it? Didn't they do it? Haven't they done it? Hadn't they done it? Shan't, or won't they do it? Won't they have done it? POT. Mayn't, can't, or mustn't they do it? Mightn't, couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't they do it? Mayn't, can't, or mustn't they have done it? Mightn't, couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't they have done it?

OBS. 6.—Well-educated people commonly utter their words with more distinctness and fullness than the vulgar, yet without adopting ordinarily the long-drawn syllables of poets and orators, or the solemn phraseology of preachers and prophets. Whatever may be thought of the grammatical propriety of such contractions as the foregoing, no one who has ever observed how the English language is usually spoken, will doubt their commonness, or their antiquity. And it may be observed, that, in the use of these forms, the distinction of persons and numbers in the verb, is almost, if not entirely, dropped. Thus don't is used for dost not or does not, as properly as for do not; and, "Thou can't do it, or shan't do it," is as good English as, "He can't do it, or shan't do it." Will, according to Webster, was anciently written woll: hence won't acquired the o, which is long in Walker's orthoepy. Haven't, which cannot be used for has not or hast not, is still further contracted by the vulgar, and spoken ha'nt, which serves for all three. These forms are sometimes found in books; as, "WONT, a contraction of woll not, that is, will not."—Webster's Dict. "HA'NT, a contraction of have not or has not."—Id. "WONT, (w=ont or w~unt,) A contraction of would not:— used for will not."—Worcester's Dict. "HAN'T, (haent or h=ant,) A vulgar contraction for has not, or have not."—Id. In the writing of such contractions, the apostrophe is not always used; though some think it necessary for distinction's sake: as, "Which is equivalent, because what can't be done won't be done."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 312.



IRREGULAR VERBS.

An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, see, saw, seeing, seen. Of this class of verbs there are about one hundred and ten, beside their several derivatives and compounds.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Regular verbs form their preterits and perfect participles, by adding d to final e, and ed to all other terminations; the final consonant of the verb being sometimes doubled, (as in dropped,) and final y sometimes changed into i, (as in cried,) agreeably to the rules for spelling in such cases. The verb hear, heard, hearing, heard, adds d to r, and is therefore irregular. Heard is pronounced h~erd by all our lexicographers, except Webster: who formerly wrote it heerd, and still pronounces it so; alleging, in despite of universal usage against him, that it is written "more correctly heared."—Octavo Dict., 1829. Such pronunciation would doubtless require this last orthography, "heared;" but both are, in fact, about as fanciful as his former mode of spelling, which ran thus: "Az I had heerd suggested by frends or indifferent reeders."—Dr. Webster's Essays, Preface, p. 10.

OBS. 2.—When a verb ends in a sharp consonant, t is sometimes improperly substituted for ed, making the preterit and the perfect participle irregular in spelling, when they are not so in sound; as, distrest for distressed, tost for tossed, mixt for mixed, cract for cracked. These contractions are now generally treated as errors in writing; and the verbs are accordingly (with a few exceptions) accounted regular. Lord Kames commends Dean Swift for having done "all in his power to restore the syllable ed;" says, he "possessed, if any man ever did, the true genius of the English tongue;" and thinks that in rejecting these ugly contractions, "he well deserves to be imitated."—Elements of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 12. The regular orthography is indeed to be preferred in all such cases; but the writing of ed restores no syllable, except in solemn discourse; and, after all, the poems of Swift have so very many of these irregular contractions in t, that one can hardly believe his lordship had ever read them. Since the days of these critics still more has been done towards the restoration of the ed, in orthography, though not in sound; but, even at this present time, our poets not unfrequently write, est for essed or ess'd, in forming the preterits or participles of verbs that end in the syllable ess. This is an ill practice, which needlessly multiplies our redundant verbs, and greatly embarrasses what it seems at first to simplify: as,

"O friend! I know not which way I must look For comfort, being, as I am, opprest, To think that now our life is only drest For show."—Wordsworth's Poetical Works, 8vo, p. 119.

OBS. 3.—When the verb ends with a smooth consonant, the substitution of t for ed produces an irregularity in sound as well as in writing. In some such irregularities, the poets are indulged for the sake of rhyme; but the best speakers and writers of prose prefer the regular form, wherever good use has sanctioned it: thus learned is better than learnt; burned, than burnt; penned, than pent; absorbed, than absorbt; spelled, than spelt; smelled, than smelt. So many of this sort of words as are allowably contracted, belong to the class of redundant verbs, among which they may be seen in a subsequent table.

OBS. 4.—Several of the irregular verbs are variously used by the best authors; redundant forms are occasionally given to some verbs, without sufficient authority; and many preterits and participles which were formerly in good use, are now obsolete, or becoming so. The simple irregular verbs in English are about one hundred and ten, and they are nearly all monosyllables. They are derived from the Saxon, in which language they are also, for the most part, irregular.

OBS. 5.—The following alphabetical list exhibits the simple irregular verbs, as they are now generally used. In this list, those preterits and participles which are supposed to be preferable, and best supported by authorities, are placed first. Nearly all compounds that follow the form of their simple verbs, or derivatives that follow their primitives, are here purposely omitted. Welcome and behave are always regular, and therefore belong not here. Some words which are obsolete, have also been omitted, that the learner might not mistake them for words in present use. Some of those which are placed last, are now little used.

LIST OF THE IRREGULAR VERBS.

Imperfect Perfect Present. Preterit. Participle. Participle. Arise, arose, arising, arisen. Be, was, being, been. Bear, bore or bare, bearing, borne or born.[274] Beat, beat, beating, beaten or beat. Begin, began or begun,[275] beginning, begun. Behold, beheld, beholding, beheld. Beset, beset, besetting, beset. Bestead, bestead, besteading, bestead.[276] Bid, bid or bade, bidding, bidden or bid. Bind, bound, bing, bound. Bite, bit, biting, bitten or bit. Bleed, bled, bleeding, bled. Break, broke,[277] breaking, broken. Breed, bred, breeding, bred. Bring, brought, bringing, brought. Buy, bought, buying, bought. Cast, cast, casting, cast. Chide, chid, chiding, chidden or chid. Choose, chose, choosing, chosen. Cleave,[278] cleft or clove, cleaving, cleft or cloven. Cling, clung, clinging, clung. Come, came, coming, come. Cost, cost, costing, cost. Cut, cut, cutting, cut. Do, did, doing, done. Draw, drew, drawing, drawn. Drink, drank, drinking, drunk, or drank.[279] Drive, drove, driving, driven. Eat, ate or ~eat, eating, eaten or eat. Fall, fell, falling, fallen. Feed, fed, feeding, fed. Feel, felt, feeling, felt. Fight, fought, fighting, fought. Find, found, finding, found. Flee, fled, fleeing, fled. Fling, flung, flinging, flung. Fly, flew, flying, flown. Forbear, forbore, forbearing, forborne. Forsake, forsook, forsaking, forsaken. Get, got, getting, got or gotten. Give, gave, giving, given. Go, went, going, gone. Grow, grew, growing, grown. Have, had, having, had. Hear, heard, hearing, heard. Hide, hid, hiding, hidden or hid. Hit, hit, hitting, hit. Hold, held, holding, held or holden.[280] Hurt, hurt, hurting, hurt.[281] Keep, kept,[282] keeping, kept. Know, knew, knowing, known. Lead, led, leading, led. Leave, left, leaving, left. Lend, lent, lending, lent. Let, let, letting, let Lie,[283] lay, lying, lain. Lose, lost, losing, lost. Make, made, making, made. Meet, met, meeting, met. Outdo, outdid, outdoing, outdone. Put, put, putting, put. Read, r~ead, reading, r~ead. Rend, rent, rending, rent.[284] Rid, rid, ridding, rid. Ride, rode, riding, ridden or rode. Ring, rung or rang, ringing, rung. Rise, rose, rising, risen. Run, ran or run, running, run. Say, said, saying, said.[285] See, saw, seeing, seen. Seek, sought, seeking, sought. Sell, sold, selling, sold. Send, sent, sending, sent. Set, set, setting, set. Shed, shed, shedding, shed. Shoe, shod, shoeing, shod.[286] Shoot, shot, shooting, shot. Shut, shut, shutting, shut. Shred, shred, shredding, shred. Shrink, shrunk or shrank, shrinking, shrunk or shrunken. Sing, sung or sang,[287] singing, sung. Sink, sunk or sank, sinking, sunk. Sit, sat, sitting, sat.[288] Slay, slew, slaying, slain. Sling, slung, slinging, slung. Slink, slunk or slank, slinking, slunk. Smite, smote, smiting, smitten or smit. Speak, spoke, speaking, spoken. Spend, spent, spending, spent. Spin, spun, spinning, spun. Spit, spit or spat, spitting, spit or spitten. Spread, spread, spreading, spread. Spring, sprung or sprang, springing, sprung. Stand, stood, standing, stood. Steal, stole, stealing, stolen. Stick, stuck, sticking, stuck. Sting, stung, stinging, stung. Stink, stunk or stank, stinking, stunk. Stride, strode or strid, striding, stridden or strid.[289] Strike, struck, striking, struck or stricken. Swear, swore, swearing, sworn. Swim, swum or swam, swimming, swum. Swing, swung or swang, swinging, swung. Take, took, taking, taken. Teach, taught, teaching, taught. Tear, tore, tearing, torn. Tell, told, telling, told. Think, thought, thinking, thought. Thrust, thrust, thrusting, thrust. Tread, trod, treading, trodden or trod. Wear, wore, wearing, worn. Win, won, winning, won. Write, wrote, writing, written.[290]

REDUNDANT VERBS.

A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregular; as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. Of this class of verbs, there are about ninety-five, beside sundry derivatives and compounds.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Those irregular verbs which have more than one form for the preterit or for the perfect participle, are in some sense redundant; but, as there is no occasion to make a distinct class of such as have double forms that are never regular, these redundancies are either included in the preceding list of the simple irregular verbs, or omitted as being improper to be now recognized for good English. Several examples of the latter kind, including both innovations and archaisms, will appear among the improprieties for correction, at the end of this chapter. A few old preterits or participles may perhaps be accounted good English in the solemn style, which are not so in the familiar: as, "And none spake a word unto him."—Job, ii, 13. "When I brake the five loaves."—Mark, viii, 19. "And he drave them from the judgement-seat."—Acts, xviii, 16. "Serve me till I have eaten and drunken."—Luke, xvii, 8. "It was not possible that he should be holden of it."—Acts, ii, 24. "Thou castedst them down into destruction."—Psal., lxxiii, 18. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity."—Ib., li, 5. "A meat-offering baken in the oven."—Leviticus, ii, 4.

"With casted slough, and fresh celerity."—SHAK., Henry V.

"Thy dreadful vow, loaden with death."—ADDISON: in Joh. Dict.

OBS. 2.—The verb bet is given in Worcester's Dictionary, as being always regular: "BET, v. a. [i. BETTED; pp. BETTING, BETTED.] To wager; to lay a wager or bet. SHAK."—Octavo Dict. In Ainsworth's Grammar, it is given as being always irregular: "Present, Bet; Imperfect, Bet; Participle, Bet."—Page 36. On the authority of these, and of some others cited in OBS. 6th below, I have put it with the redundant verbs. The verb prove is redundant, if proven, which is noticed by Webster, Bolles, and Worcester, is an admissible word. "The participle proven is used in Scotland and in some parts of the United States, and sometimes, though rarely, in England.—'There is a mighty difference between not proven and disproven.' DR. TH. CHALMERS. 'Not proven.' QU. REV."—Worcester's Universal and Critical Dict. The verbs bless and dress are to be considered redundant, according to the authority of Worcester, Webster, Bolles, and others. Cobbett will have the verbs, cast, chide, cling, draw, grow, shred, sling, slink, spring, sting, stride, swim, swing, and thrust, to be always regular; but I find no sufficient authority for allowing to any of them a regular form; and therefore leave them, where they always have been, in the list of simple irregulars. These fourteen verbs are a part of the long list of seventy which this author says, "are, by some persons, erroneously deemed irregular." Of the following nine only, is his assertion true; namely, dip, help, load, overflow, slip, snow, stamp, strip, whip. These nine ought always to be formed regularly; for all their irregularities may well be reckoned obsolete. After these deductions from this most erroneous catalogue, there remain forty-five other very common verbs, to be disposed of contrary to this author's instructions. All but two of these I shall place in the list of redundant verbs; though for the use of throwed I find no written authority but his and William B. Fowle's. The two which I do not consider redundant are spit and strew, of which it may be proper to take more particular notice.

OBS. 3.—Spit, to stab, or to put upon a spit, is regular; as, "I spitted frogs, I crushed a heap of emmets."—Dryden. Spit, to throw out saliva, is irregular, and most properly formed thus: spit, spit, spitting, spit. "Spat is obsolete."—Webster's Dict. It is used in the Bible; as, "He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle."—John, ix, 6. L. Murray gives this verb thus: "Pres. Spit; Imp. spit, spat; Perf. Part. spit, spitten." NOTE: "Spitten is nearly obsolete."—Octavo Gram., p. 106. Sanborn has it thus: "Pres. Spit; Imp. spit; Pres. Part. spitting; Perf. Part. spit, spat."—Analytical Gram., p. 48. Cobbett, at first, taking it in the form, "to spit, I spat, spitten," placed it among the seventy which he so erroneously thought should be made regular; afterwards he left it only in his list of irregulars, thus: "to spit, I spit, spitten."—Cobbett's E. Gram., of 1832, p. 54. Churchill, in 1823, preferring the older forms, gave it thus: "Spit, spat or spit, spitten or spit."—New Gram., p. 111. NOTE:—"Johnson gives spat as the preterimperfect, and spit or spitted as the participle of this verb, when it means to pierce through with a pointed instrument: but in this sense, I believe, it is always regular; while, on the other hand, the regular form is now never used, when it signifies to eject from the mouth; though we find in Luke, xviii, 32, 'He shall be spitted on.'"—Churchill's New Gram., p. 264. This text ought to have been, "He shall be spit upon."

OBS. 4.—To strew is in fact nothing else than an other mode of spelling the verb to strow; as shew is an obsolete form for show; but if we pronounce the two forms differently, we make them different words. Walker, and some others, pronounce them alike, stro; Sheridan, Jones, Jameson, and Webster, distinguish them in utterance, stroo and stro. This is convenient for the sake of rhyme, and perhaps therefore preferable. But strew, I incline to think, is properly a regular verb only, though Wells and Worcester give it otherwise: if strewn has ever been proper, it seems now to be obsolete. EXAMPLES: "Others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way."—Matt., xxi, 8. "Gathering where thou hast not strewed."—Matt., xxv, 24.

"Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse, The place of fame and elegy supply; And many a holy text around she strews, That teach the rustic moralist to die."—Gray.

OBS. 5.—The list which I give below, prepared with great care, exhibits the redundant verbs, as they are now generally used, or as they may be used without grammatical impropriety.[291] Those forms which are supposed to be preferable, and best supported by authorities, are placed first. No words are inserted here, but such as some modern authors countenance. L. Murray recognizes bereaved, catched, dealed, digged, dwelled, hanged, knitted, shined, spilled; and, in his early editions, he approved of bended, builded, creeped, weaved, worked, wringed. His two larger books now tell us, "The Compiler has not inserted such verbs as learnt, spelt, spilt, &c. which are improperly terminated by t, instead of ed."—Octavo Gram., p. 107; Duodecimo, p. 97. But if he did not, in all his grammars, insert, "Spill, spilt, R. spilt, R.," (pp. 106, 96,) preferring the irregular form to the regular, somebody else has done it for him. And, what is remarkable, many of his amenders, as if misled by some evil genius, have contradicted themselves in precisely the same way! Ingersoll, Fisk, Merchant, and Hart, republish exactly the foregoing words, and severally become "The Compiler" of the same erroneous catalogue! Kirkham prefers spilt to spilled, and then declares the word to be "improperly terminated by t instead of ed."—Gram., p. 151. Greenleaf, who condemns learnt and spelt, thinks dwelt and spilt are "the only established forms;" yet he will have dwell and spill to be "regular" verbs, as well as "irregular!"—Gram. Simp., p. 29. Webber prefers spilled to spilt; but Picket admits only the latter. Cobbett and Sanborn prefer bereaved, builded, dealed, digged, dreamed, hanged, and knitted, to bereft, built, dealt, dug, dreamt, hung, and knit. The former prefers creeped to crept, and freezed to froze; the latter, slitted to slit, wringed to wrung; and both consider, "I bended," "I bursted" and "I blowed," to be good modern English. W. Allen acknowledges freezed and slided; and, like Webster, prefers hove to hoven: but the latter justly prefers heaved to both. EXAMP.: "The supple kinsman slided to the helm."—New Timon. "The rogues slided me into the river."—Shak. "And the sand slided from beneath my feet."— DR. JOHNSON: in Murray's Sequel, p. 179. "Wherewith she freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone."—Milton's Comus, l. 449. "It freezed hard last night. Now, what was it that freezed so hard?"—Emmons's Gram., p. 25. "Far hence lies, ever freez'd, the northern main."—Savage's Wanderer, l. 57. "Has he not taught, beseeched, and shed abroad the Spirit unconfined?"—Pollok's Course of Time, B. x, l. 275.

OBS. 6.—D. Blair supposes catched to be an "erroneous" word and unauthorized: "I catch'd it," for "I caught it," he sets down for a "vulgarism."—E. Gram., p. 111. But catched is used by some of the most celebrated authors. Dearborn prefers the regular form of creep: "creep, creeped or crept, creeped or crept."—Columbian Gram., p. 38. I adopt no man's opinions implicitly; copy nothing without examination; but, to prove all my decisions to be right, would be an endless task. I shall do as much as ought to be expected, toward showing that they are so. It is to be remembered, that the poets, as well as the vulgar, use some forms which a gentleman would be likely to avoid, unless he meant to quote or imitate; as,

"So clomb the first grand thief into God's fold; So since into his church lewd hirelings climb." —Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 192.

"He shore his sheep, and, having packed the wool, Sent them unguarded to the hill of wolves." —Pollok, C. of T., B. vi, l. 306.

———"The King of heav'n Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook." —Dryden.

OBS. 7.—The following are examples in proof of some of the forms acknowledged below: "Where etiquette and precedence abided far away."—Paulding's Westward-Ho! p. 6. "But there were no secrets where Mrs. Judith Paddock abided."—Ib., p. 8. "They abided by the forms of government established by the charters."—John Quincy Adams, Oration, 1831. "I have abode consequences often enough in the course of my life."—Id., Speech, 1839. "Present, bide, or abide; Past, bode, or abode."—Coar's Gram., p. 104. "I awaked up last of all."—Ecclus., xxxiii, 16. "For this are my knees bended before the God of the spirits of all flesh."—Wm. Penn. "There was never a prince bereaved of his dependencies," &c.—Bacon. "Madam, you have bereft me of all words."—Shakspeare. "Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft. Bereave is similar."—Ward's Practical Gram., p. 65. "And let them tell their tales of woful ages, long ago betid."—Shak. "Of every nation blent, and every age."—Pollok, C. of T., B vii, p. 153. "Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red burial blent!"—Byron, Harold, C. iii, st. 28. "I builded me houses."—Ecclesiastes, ii, 4. "For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God."—Heb. iii, 4. "What thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gained."—Milton's P. L., X, 373. "Present, bet; Past, bet; Participle, bet."— Mackintosh's Gram., p. 197; Alexander's, 38. "John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much upon his head."—SHAKSPEARE: Joh. Dict, w. Bet. "He lost every earthly thing he betted."—PRIOR: ib. "A seraph kneeled."—Pollok, C. T., p. 95.

"At first, he declared he himself would be blowed, Ere his conscience with such a foul crime he would load." —J. R. Lowell.

"They are catched without art or industry."—Robertson's Amer.,-Vol. i, p. 302. "Apt to be catched and dazzled."—Blair's Rhet., p. 26. "The lion being catched in a net."—Art of Thinking, p. 232. "In their self-will they digged down a wall."—Gen., xlix, 6. "The royal mother instantly dove to the bottom and brought up her babe unharmed."— Trumbull's America, i, 144. "The learned have diven into the secrets of nature."—CARNOT: Columbian Orator, p. 82. "They have awoke from that ignorance in which they had slept."—London Encyclopedia. "And he slept and dreamed the second time."—Gen., xli, 5. "So I awoke."—Ib., 21. "But he hanged the chief baker."—Gen., xl, 22. "Make as if you hanged yourself."—ARBUTHNOT: in Joh. Dict. "Graven by art and man's device."—Acts, xvii, 29. "Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."—Gray. "That the tooth of usury may be grinded."—Lord Bacon. "MILN-EE, The hole from which the grinded corn falls into the chest below."—Glossary of Craven, London, 1828. "UNGRUND, Not grinded."— Ibid. "And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone."—1 Kings, vi, 36. "A thing by which matter is hewed."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of Europ. Lang., Vol. i, p. 378. "SCAGD or SCAD meaned distinction, dividing."—Ib., i, 114. "He only meaned to acknowledge him to be an extraordinary person."—Lowth's Gram., p. 12. "The determines what particular thing is meaned."—Ib., p. 11. "If Hermia mean'd to say Lysander lied."—Shak. "As if I meaned not the first but the second creation."—Barclay's Works, iii, 289. "From some stones have rivers bursted forth."—Sale's Koran, Vol. i, p. 14.

"So move we on; I only meant To show the reed on which you leant."—Scott, L. L., C. v, st. 11.

OBS. 8.—Layed, payed, and stayed, are now less common than laid, paid, and staid; but perhaps not less correct, since they are the same words in a more regular and not uncommon orthography: "Thou takest up that [which] thou layedst not down."—FRIENDS' BIBLE, SMITH'S, BRUCE'S: Luke, xix, 21. Scott's Bible, in this place, has "layest," which is wrong in tense. "Thou layedst affliction upon our loins."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Psalms, lxvi, 11. "Thou laidest affliction upon our loins."—SCOTT'S BIBLE, and BRUCE'S. "Thou laidst affliction upon our loins."—SMITH'S BIBLE, Stereotyped by J. Howe. "Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder."—SINGER'S SHAKSPEARE: Richard II, Act i, Sc. 1. "But no regard was payed to his remonstrance."—Smollett's England, Vol. iii, p. 212. "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit."—Haggai, i, 10. "STAY, i. STAYED or STAID; pp. STAYING, STAYED or STAID."—Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dict. "Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel."—2 Sam., xvii, 17. "This day have I payed my vows."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Prov, vii, 14. Scott's Bible has "paid." "They not only stayed for their resort, but discharged divers."—HAYWARD: in Joh. Dict. "I stayed till the latest grapes were ripe."—Waller's Dedication. "To lay is regular, and has in the past time and participle layed or laid."—Lowth's Gram., p. 54. "To the flood, that stay'd her flight."—Milton's Comus, l. 832. "All rude, all waste, and desolate is lay'd."—Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, l. 1636. "And he smote thrice, and stayed."—2 Kings, xiii, 18.

"When Cobham, generous as the noble peer That wears his honours, pay'd the fatal price Of virtue blooming, ere the storms were laid."—Shenstone, p. 167.

OBS. 9.—By the foregoing citations, lay, pay, and stay, are clearly proved to be redundant. But, in nearly all our English grammars, lay and pay are represented as being always irregular; and stay is as often, and as improperly, supposed to be always regular. Other examples in proof of the list: "I lit my pipe with the paper."—Addison.

"While he whom learning, habits, all prevent, Is largely mulct for each impediment."—Crabbe, Bor., p. 102. "And then the chapel—night and morn to pray, Or mulct and threaten'd if he kept away."—Ib., p. 162.

"A small space is formed, in which the breath is pent up."—Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 493. "Pen, when it means to write, is always regular. Boyle has penned in the sense of confined."—Churchill's Gram., p. 261. "So far as it was now pled."—ANDERSON: Annals of the Bible, p. 25. "Rapped with admiration."—HOOKER: Joh. Dict. "And being rapt with the love of his beauty."—Id., ib. "And rapt in secret studies."—SHAK.: ib. "I'm rapt with joy."—ADDISON: ib. "Roast with fire."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Exod., xii, 8 and 9. "Roasted with fire."—SCOTT'S BIBLE: Exod., xii, 8 and 9. "Upon them hath the light shined."—Isaiah, ix, 2. "The earth shined with his glory."—Ezekiel, xliii, 2. "After that he had showed wonders."—Acts, vii, 36. "Those things which God before had showed."—Acts, iii, 18. "As shall be shewed in Syntax."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 28. "I have shown you, that the two first may be dismissed."—Cobbett's E. Gram., 10. "And in this struggle were sowed the seeds of the revolution."—Everett's Address, p. 16. "Your favour showed to the performance, has given me boldness."—Jenks's Prayers, Ded. "Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel."—Rom., xv, 20. "Art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?"—Shakspeare. "Hamstring'd behind, unhappy Gyges died."—Dryden. "In Syracusa was I born and wed."—Shakspeare. "And thou art wedded to calamity."—Id. "I saw thee first, and wedded thee."—Milton. "Sprung the rank weed, and thrived with large increase."—Pope. "Some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation."—Book of Thoughts, p. 34. "Under your care they have thriven."—Junius, p. 5. "Fixed by being rolled closely, compacted, knitted."—Dr. Murray's Hist., Vol. i, p. 374. "With kind converse and skill has weaved."—Prior. "Though I shall be wetted to the skin."—Sandford and Merton, p. 64. "I speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility."—Shakspeare. "And pure grief shore his old thread in twain."—Id. "And must I ravel out my weaved-up follies?"—Id., Rich. II. "Tells how the drudging Goblin swet."—Milton's L'Allegro. "Weave, wove or weaved, weaving, wove, weaved, or woven."—Ward's Gram., p. 67.

"Thou who beneath the frown of fate hast stood, And in thy dreadful agony sweat blood."—Young, p. 238.

OBS. 10.—The verb to shake is now seldom used in any other than the irregular form, shake, shook, shaking, shaken; and, in this form only, is it recognized by our principal grammarians and lexicographers, except that Johnson improperly acknowledges shook as well as shaken for the perfect participle: as, "I've shook it off."—DRYDEN: Joh. Dict. But the regular form, shake, shaked, shaking, shaked, appears to have been used by some writers of high reputation; and, if the verb is not now properly redundant, it formerly was so. Examples regular: "The frame and huge foundation of the earth shak'd like a coward."—SHAKSPEARE: Hen. IV. "I am he that is so love-shaked."—ID.: As You Like it. "A sly and constant knave, not to be shak'd."—ID.: Cymbeline: Joh. Dict. "I thought he would have shaked it off."—TATTLER: ib. "To the very point I shaked my head at."—Spectator, No. 4. "From the ruin'd roof of shak'd Olympus."—Milton's Poems. "None hath shak'd it off."—Walker's English Particles, p. 89. "They shaked their heads."—Psalms, cix, 25. Dr. Crombie says, "Story, in his Grammar, has, most unwarrantably, asserted, that the Participle of this Verb should be shaked."—ON ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX, p. 198. Fowle, on the contrary, pronounces shaked to be right. See True English Gram., p. 46.

OBS. 11.—All former lists of our irregular and redundant verbs are, in many respects, defective and erroneous; nor is it claimed for those which are here presented, that they are absolutely perfect. I trust, however, they are much nearer to perfection, than are any earlier ones. Among the many individuals who have published schemes of these verbs, none have been more respected and followed than Lowth, Murray, and Crombie; yet are these authors' lists severally faulty in respect to as many as sixty or seventy of the words in question, though the whole number but little exceeds two hundred, and is commonly reckoned less than one hundred and eighty. By Lowth, eight verbs are made redundant, which I think are now regular only: namely, bake, climb, fold, help, load, owe, wash. By Crombie, as many: to wit, bake, climb, freight, help, lift, load, shape, writhe. By Murray, two: load and shape. With Crombie, and in general with the others too, twenty-seven verbs are always irregular, which I think are sometimes regular, and therefore redundant: abide, beseech, blow, burst, creep, freeze, grind, lade, lay, pay, rive, seethe, shake, show, sleep, slide, speed, string, strive, strow, sweat, thrive, throw, weave, weep, wind, wring. Again, there are, I think, more than twenty redundant verbs which are treated by Crombie,—and, with one or two exceptions, by Lowth and Murray also,—as if they were always regular: namely, betide, blend, bless, burn, dive, dream, dress, geld, kneel, lean, leap, learn, mean, mulct, pass, pen, plead, prove, reave, smell, spell, stave, stay, sweep, wake, whet, wont. Crombie's list contains the auxiliaries, which properly belong to a different table. Erroneous as it is, in all these things, and more, it is introduced by the author with the following praise, in bad English: "Verbs, which depart from this rule, are called Irregular, of which I believe the subsequent enumeration to be nearly complete."—TREATISE ON ETYM. AND SYNT., p. 192.

OBS. 12.—Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar of the English Tongue, recognizes two forms which would make teach and reach redundant. But teached is now "obsolete," and rought is "old," according to his own Dictionary. Of loaded and loaden, which he gives as participles of load, the regular form only appears to be now in good use. For the redundant forms of many words in the foregoing list, as of abode or abided, awaked or awoke, besought or beseeched, caught or catched, hewed or hewn, mowed or mown, laded or laden, seethed or sod, sheared or shore, sowed or sown, waked or woke, wove or weaved, his authority may be added to that of others already cited. In Dearborn's Columbian Grammar, published in Boston in 1795, the year in which Lindley Murray's Grammar first appeared in York, no fewer than thirty verbs are made redundant, which are not so represented by Murray. Of these I have retained nineteen in the following list, and left the other eleven to be now considered always regular. The thirty are these: "bake, bend, build, burn, climb, creep, dream, fold, freight, geld, heat, heave, help, lay, leap, lift, light, melt, owe, quit, rent, rot, seethe, spell, split, strive, wash, weave, wet, work." See Dearborn's Gram., p. 37-45.

LIST OF THE REDUNDANT VERBS.

Imperfect Present. Preterit. Participle. Perfect Participle.

Abide, abode or abided, abiding, abode or abided. Awake, awaked or awoke, awaking, awaked or awoke. Belay, belayed or belaid, belaying, belayed or belaid. Bend, bent or bended, bending, bent or bended. Bereave, bereft or bereaved, bereaving, bereft or bereaved. Beseech, besought or beseeched, beseeching, besought or beseeched. Bet, betted or bet, betting, betted or bet. Betide, betided or betid, betiding, betided or betid. Bide, bode or bided, biding, bode or bided. Blend, blended or blent, blending, blended or blent. Bless, blessed or blest, blessing, blessed or blest. Blow, blew or blowed, blowing, blown or blowed. Build, built or builded, building, built or builded. Burn, burned or burnt, burning, burned or burnt. Burst, burst or bursted, bursting, burst or bursted. Catch, caught or catched, catching, caught or catched. Clothe, clothed or clad, clothing, clothed or clad. Creep, crept or creeped, creeping, crept or creeped. Crow, crowed or crew, crowing, crowed. Curse, cursed or curst, cursing, cursed or curst. Dare, dared or durst, daring, dared. Deal, dealt or dealed, dealing, dealt or dealed. Dig, dug or digged, digging, dug or digged. Dive, dived or dove, diving, dived or diven. Dream, dreamed or dreamt, dreaming, dreamed or dreamt. Dress, dressed or drest, dressing, dressed or drest. Dwell, dwelt or dwelled, dwelling, dwelt or dwelled. Freeze, froze or freezed, freezing, frozen or freezed. Geld, gelded or gelt, gelding, gelded or gelt. Gild, gilded or gilt, gilding, gilded or gilt. Gird, girded or girt, girding, girded or girt. Grave, graved, graving, graved or graven. Grind, ground or grinded, grinding, ground or grinded. Hang, hung or hanged, hanging, hung or hanged. Heat, heated or het, heating, heated or het. Heave, heaved or hove, heaving, heaved or hoven. Hew, hewed, hewing, hewed or hewn. Kneel, kneeled or knelt, kneeling, kneeled or knelt. Knit, knit or knitted, knitting, knit or knitted. Lade, laded, lading, laded or laden. Lay, laid or layed, laying, laid or layed. Lean, leaned or leant, leaning, leaned or leant. Leap, leaped or leapt, leaping, leaped or leapt.[292] Learn, learned or learnt, learning, learned or learnt. Light, lighted or lit, lighting, lighted or lit. Mean, meant or meaned, meaning, meant or meaned. Mow, mowed, mowing, mowed or mown. Mulct, mulcted or mulct, mulcting, mulcted or mulct. Pass, passed or past, passing, passed or past. Pay, paid or payed, paying, paid or payed. Pen, penned or pent, penning, penned or pent. (to coop,) Plead, pleaded or pled, pleading, pleaded or pled. Prove, proved, proving, proved or proven. Quit, quitted or quit, quitting, quitted or quit.[293] Rap, rapped or rapt, rapping, rapped or rapt. Reave, reft or reaved, reaving, reft or reaved. Rive, rived, riving, riven or rived. Roast, roasted or roast, roasting, roasted or roast. Saw, sawed, sawing, sawed or sawn. Seethe, seethed or sod, seething, seethed or sodden. Shake, shook or shaked, shaking, shaken or shaked. Shape, shaped, shaping, shaped or shapen. Shave, shaved, shaving, shaved or shaven. Shear, sheared or shore, shearing, sheared or shorn. Shine, shined or shone, shining, shined or shone. Show, showed, showing, showed or shown. Sleep, slept or sleeped, sleeping, slept or sleeped. Slide, slid or slided, sliding, slidden, slid, or slided. Slit, slitted or slit, slitting, slitted or slit. Smell, smelled or smelt, smelling, smelled or smelt. Sow, sowed, sowing, sowed or sown. Speed, sped or speeded, speeding, sped or speeded. Spell, spelled or spelt, spelling, spelled or spelt. Spill, spilled or spilt, spilling, spilled or spilt. Split, split or splitted, splitting, split or splitted.[294] Spoil, spoiled or spoilt, spoiling, spoiled or spoilt. Stave, stove or staved, staving, stove or staved. Stay, staid or stayed, staying, staid or stayed. String, strung or stringed, stringing, strung or stringed. Strive, strived or strove, striving, strived or striven. Strow, strowed, strowing, strowed or strown. Sweat, sweated or sweat, sweating, sweated or sweat. Sweep, swept or sweeped, sweeping, swept or sweeped. Swell, swelled, swelling, swelled or swollen. Thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. Throw, threw or throwed, throwing, thrown or throwed. Wake, waked or woke, waking, waked or woke. Wax, waxed, waxing, waxed or waxen. Weave, wove or weaved, weaving, woven or weaved. Wed, wedded or wed, wedding, wedded or wed. Weep, wept or weeped, weeping, wept or weeped. Wet, wet or wetted, wetting, wet or wetted. Whet, whetted or whet, whetting, whetted or whet.[295] Wind, wound or winded, winding, wound or winded. Wont, wont or wonted, wonting, wont or wonted. Work, worked or wrought, working, worked or wrought. Wring, wringed or wrung, wringing, wringed or wrung.[296]

DEFECTIVE VERBS.

A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but few of the moods and tenses; as, beware, ought, quoth.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1. When any of the principal parts of a verb are wanting, the tenses usually derived from those parts are also, of course, wanting. All the auxiliaries, except do, be, and have, if we compare them with other verbs, are defective; but, as auxiliaries, they lack nothing; for no complete verb is used throughout as an auxiliary, except be. And since an auxiliary differs essentially from a principal verb, the propriety of referring may, can, must, and shall, to the class of defective verbs, is at least questionable. In parsing there is never any occasion to call them defective verbs, because they are always taken together with their principals. And though we may technically say, that their participles are "wanting," it is manifest that none are needed.

OBS. 2. Will is sometimes used as a principal verb, and as such it is regular and complete; will, willed, willing, willed: as, "His Majesty willed that they should attend."—Clarendon. "He wills for them a happiness of a far more exalted and enduring nature."—Gurney. "Whether thou willest it to be a minister to our pleasure."—Harris. "I will; be thou clean."—Luke, v, 13. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will."—Matt., xxvi, 39. "To will is present with me."—Rom., vii, 18. But would is sometimes also a principal verb; as, "What would this man?"—Pope. "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets."—Numb., xi, 29. "And Israel would none of me."—Psalm, lxxxi, 11. If we refer this indefinite preterit to the same root, will becomes redundant; will, willed or would, willing, willed. In respect to time, would is less definite than willed, though both are called preterits. It is common, and perhaps best, to consider them distinct verbs. The latter only can be a participle: as,

"How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, When man was will'd to love his enemies!"—Shakspeare.

OBS. 3. The remaining defective verbs are only five or six questionable terms, which our grammarians know not well how else to explain; some of them being now nearly obsolete, and others never having been very proper. Begone is a needless coalition of be and gone, better written separately, unless Dr. Johnson is right in calling the compound an interjection: as,

"Begone! the goddess cries with stern disdain, Begone! nor dare the hallow'd stream to stain!"—Addison.

Beware also seems to be a needless compound of be and the old adjective ware, wary, aware, cautious. Both these are, of course, used only in those forms of expression in which be is proper; as, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision."—Philippians, iii, 2. "But we must beware[297] of carrying our attention to this beauty too far."—Blair's Rhet., p. 119. These words were formerly separated: as, "Of whom be thou ware also."—1 Tim., iv, 15. "They were ware of it."—FRIENDS' BIBLE, and ALGER'S: Acts, xiii, 6. "They were aware of it."—SCOTT'S BIBLE: ib. "And in an hour that he is not ware of him."—Johnson's Dict., w. Ware. "And in an hour that he is not aware of."—COMMON BIBLES: Matt., xxiv, 50. "Bid her well be ware and still erect."—MILTON: in Johnson's Dict. "That even Silence was took ere she was ware."—Id., Comus, line 558. The adjective ware is now said to be "obsolete;" but the propriety of this assertion depends upon that of forming such a defective verb. What is the use of doing so?

"This to disclose is all thy guardian can; Beware of all, but most beware of man."—Pope.

The words written separately will always have the same meaning, unless we omit the preposition of, and suppose the compound to be a transitive verb. In this case, the argument for compounding the terms appears to be valid; as,

"Beware the public laughter of the town; Thou springst a-leak already in thy crown."—Dryden.

OBS. 4. The words ought and own, without question, were originally parts of the redundant verb to owe; thus: owe, owed or ought, owing, owed or own. But both have long been disjoined from this connexion, and hence owe has become regular. Own, as now used, is either a pronominal adjective, as, "my own hand," or a regular verb thence derived, as, "to own a house." Ought, under the name of a defective verb, is now generally thought to be properly used, in this one form, in all the persons and numbers of the present and the imperfect tense of the indicative and subjunctive moods. Or, if it is really of one tense only, it is plainly an aorist; and hence the time must be specified by the infinitive that follows: as, "He ought to go; He ought to have gone." "If thou ought to go; If thou ought to have gone." Being originally a preterit, it never occurs in the infinitive mood, and is entirely invariable, except in the solemn style, where we find oughtest in both tenses; as, "How thou oughtest to behave thyself."—1 Tim., iii, 15. "Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers."—Matt., xxiv, 27. We never say, or have said, "He, she, or it, oughts or oughteth." Yet we manifestly use this verb in the present tense, and in the third person singular; as, "Discourse ought always to begin with a clear proposition."—Blair's Rhet., p. 217. I have already observed that some grammarians improperly call ought an auxiliary. The learned authors of Brightland's Grammar, (which is dedicated to Queen Anne,) did so; and also affirmed that must and ought "have only the present time," and are alike invariable. "It is now quite obsolete to say, thou oughtest; for ought now changes its ending no more than must."—Brightland's Gram., (approved by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.,) p. 112.

"Do, will, and shall, must, OUGHT, and may, Have, am, or be, this Doctrine will display."—Ib., p. 107.

OBS. 5.—Wis, preterit wist, to know, to think, to suppose, to imagine, appears to be now nearly or quite obsolete; but it may be proper to explain it, because it is found in the Bible: as, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest."—Acts, xxiii, 5. "He himself 'wist not that his face shone.'"—Life of Schiller, p. iv. Wit, to know, and wot, knew, are also obsolete, except in the phrase to wit; which, being taken abstractly, is equivalent to the adverb namely, or to the phrase, that is to say. The phrase, "we do you to wit," (in 2 Cor., viii, 1st,) means, "we inform you." Churchill gives the present tense of this verb three forms, weet, wit, and wot; and there seems to have been some authority for them all: as, "He was, to weet, a little roguish page."—Thomson. "But little wotteth he the might of the means his folly despiseth."—Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 35. To wit, used alone, to indicate a thing spoken of, (as the French use their infinitive, savoir, a savoir, or the phrase, c'est a savoir,) is undoubtedly an elliptical expression: probably for, "I give you to wit;" i. e., "I give you to know." Trow, to think, occurs in the Bible; as, "I trow not."—N. Test. And Coar gives it as a defective verb; and only in the first person singular of the present indicative, "I trow." Webster and Worcester mark the words as obsolete; but Sir W. Scott, in the Lady of the Lake, has this line:

"Thinkst thou he trow'd thine omen ought?"—Canto iv, stanza 10.

Quoth and quod, for say, saith, or said, are obsolete, or used only in ludicrous language. Webster supposes these words to be equivalent, and each confined to the first and third persons of the present and imperfect tenses of the indicative mood. Johnson says, that, "quoth you," as used by Sidney, is irregular; but Tooke assures us, that "The th in quoth, does not designate the third person."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 323. They are each invariable, and always placed before the nominative: as, quoth I, quoth he.

"Yea, so sayst thou, (quod Troeylus,) alas!"—Chaucer.

"I feare, quod he, it wyll not be."—Sir T. More.

"Stranger, go! Heaven be thy guide! Quod the beadsman of Nith-side."—Burns.

OBS. 6.—Methinks, (i. e., to me it thinks,) for I think, or, it seems to me, with its preterit methought, (i. e., to me it thought,) is called by Dr. Johnson an "ungrammatical word." He imagined it to be "a Norman corruption, the French being apt to confound me and I."—Joh. Dict. It is indeed a puzzling anomaly in our language, though not without some Anglo-Saxon or Latin parallels; and, like its kindred, "me seemeth," or "meseems," is little worthy to be countenanced, though often used by Dryden, Pope, Addison, and other good writers. Our lexicographers call it an impersonal verb, because, being compounded with an objective, it cannot have a nominative expressed. It is nearly equivalent to the adverb apparently; and if impersonal, it is also defective; for it has no participles, no "methinking," and no participial construction of "methought;" though Webster's American Dictionary, whether quarto or octavo, absurdly suggests that the latter word may be used as a participle. In the Bible, we find the following text: "Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz."—2 Sam., xviii, 27. And Milton improperly makes thought an impersonal verb, apparently governing the separate objective pronoun him; as,

"Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood." —P. R., B. ii, l. 264.

OBS. 7.—Some verbs from the nature of the subjects to which they refer, are chiefly confined to the third person singular; as, "It rains; it snows; it freezes; it hails; it lightens; it thunders." These have been called impersonal verbs; because the neuter pronoun it, which is commonly used before them, does not seem to represent any noun, but, in connexion with the verb, merely to express a state of things. They are however, in fact, neither impersonal nor defective. Some, or all of them, may possibly take some other nominative, if not a different person; as, "The Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire."—Gen., xix, 24. "The God of glory thundereth."—Psalms, xxix, 3. "Canst thou thunder with a voice like him?"—Job, xl, 9. In short, as Harris observes, "The doctrine of Impersonal Verbs has been justly rejected by the best grammarians, both ancient and modern."—Hermes, p. 175.

OBS. 8.—By some writers, words of this kind are called Monopersonal Verbs; that is, verbs of one person. This name, though not very properly compounded, is perhaps more fit than the other; but we have little occasion to speak of these verbs as a distinct class in our language. Dr. Murray says, "What is called an impersonal verb, is not so; for lic-et, juv-at, and oport-et, have Tha, that thing, or it, in their composition."—History of European Languages, Vol. ii, p. 146. Ail, irk, and behoove, are regular verbs and transitive; but they are used only in the third person singular: as, "What ails you?"—"It irks me."—"It behooves you." The last two are obsolescent, or at least not in very common use. In Latin, passive verbs, or neuters of the passive form, are often used impersonally, or without an obvious nominative; and this elliptical construction is sometimes imitated in English, especially by the poets: as,

"Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judg'd on earth, Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death." —Milton, P. L., B. x, l. 230.

"Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run By angels many and strong, who interpos'd." —Id., B. vi, l. 335.

LIST OF THE DEFECTIVE VERBS.

Present. Preterit. Beware, ——— Can, could. May, might. Methinks, methought. Must, must.[298] Ought, ought.[298] Shall, should, Will[299] would. Quoth, quoth. Wis, wist.[300] Wit, wot.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.

PRAXIS VI—ETYMOLOGICAL.

In the Sixth Praxis, it is required of the pupil—to distinguish and define the different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the ARTICLES, NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, PRONOUNS, and VERBS.

The definitions to be given in the Sixth Praxis, are two for an article, six for a noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an infinitive, and one for a participle, an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus:—

EXAMPLE PARSED.

"The freedom of choice seems essential to happiness; because, properly speaking, that is riot our own which is imposed upon us."—Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 109.

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their signification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things.

Freedom is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.

Of is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun.

Choice is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun is; the name of any person, place, or thing, that can he known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

Seems is a regular neuter verb, from seem, seemed, seeming, seemed; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one. Essential is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs; essential, more essential, most essential; or, essential, less essential, least essential. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are compared by means of adverbs.

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun.

Happiness is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

Because is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected.

Properly is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner.

Speaking is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb.

That is a pronominal adjective, not compared; standing for that thing, in the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. [See OBS. 14th, p. 290.] 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its noun, or represent it understood. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.

Is is an irregular neuter verb, from be, was, being, been; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one.

Not is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner.

Our is a personal pronoun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and possessive case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The possessive case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the relation of property.

Own is a pronominal adjective, not compared. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its noun, or represent it understood. 3. Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different degrees cannot be compared.

Which is a relative pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an antecedent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.

Is imposed is a regular passive verb, from the active verb, impose, imposed, imposing, imposed,—passive, to be imposed; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. A passive verb is a verb that represents the subject, or what the nominative expresses, as being acted upon. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one.

Upon is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun.

Us is a personal pronoun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition.

LESSON I.—PARSING.

"He has desires after the kingdom, and mates no question but it shall be his; he wills, runs, strives, believes, hopes, prays, reads scriptures, observes duties, and regards ordinances."—Penington, ii, 124.

"Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."—Luke, xi, 52.

"Above all other liberties, give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my conscience."—Milton.

"Eloquence is to be looked for only in free states. Longinus illustrates this observation with a great deal of beauty. 'Liberty,' he remarks, 'is the nurse of true genius; it animates the spirit, and invigorates the hopes, of men; it excites honourable emulation, and a desire of excelling in every art.'"—Blair's Rhet., p. 237.

"None of the faculties common to man and the lower animals, conceive the idea of civil liberty, any more than that of religion."—Spurzheim, on Education, p. 259. "Whoever is not able, or does not dare, to think, or does not feel contradictions and absurdities, is unfit for a refined religion and civil liberty."—Ib., p. 258.

"The too great number of journals, and the extreme partiality of their authors, have much discredited them. A man must have great talents to please all sorts of readers; and it is impossible to please all authors, who, generally speaking, cannot bear with the most judicious and most decent criticisms."—Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 170.

"Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword."—Ezekiel, xxx, 21.

"Yet he was humble, kind, forgiving, meek, Easy to be entreated, gracious, mild; And, with all patience and affection, taught, Rebuked, persuaded, solaced, counselled, warned."—Pollok, B. ix.

LESSON II.—PARSING.

"What is coming, will come; what is proceeding onward, verges towards completion."—Dr. Murray's Europ. Lang., i, 324. "Sir, if it had not been for the art of printing, we should now have had no learning at all; for books would have perished faster than they could have been transcribed."—Dr. Johnson's Life, iii, 400.

"Passionate reproofs are like medicines given scalding hot: the patient cannot take them. If we wish to do good to those whom we rebuke, we should labour for meekness of wisdom, and use soft words and hard arguments."—Dodd.

"My prayer for you is, that God may guide you by his counsel, and in the end bring you to glory: to this purpose, attend diligently to the dictates of his good spirit, which you may hear within you; for Christ saith, 'He that dwelleth with you, shall be in you.' And, as you hear and obey him, he will conduct you through this troublous world, in ways of truth and righteousness, and land you at last in the habitations of everlasting rest and peace with the Lord, to praise him for ever and ever."—T. Gwin.

"By matter, we mean, that which is tangible, extended, and divisible; by mind, that which perceives, reflects, wills, and reasons. These properties are wholly dissimilar and admit of no comparison. To pretend that mind is matter, is to propose a contradiction in terms; and is just as absurd, as to pretend that matter is mind."—Gurney's Portable Evidence, p. 78.

"If any one should think all this to be of little importance, I desire him to consider what he would think, if vice had, essentially, and in its nature, these advantageous tendencies, or if virtue had essentially the direct contrary ones."—Butler, p. 99.

"No man can write simpler and stronger English than the celebrated Boz, and this renders us the more annoyed at those manifold vulgarities and slipshod errors, which unhappily have of late years disfigured his productions."—LIVING AUTHORS OF ENGLAND: The Examiner, No. 119.

"Here Havard, all serene, in the same strains, Loves, hates, and rages, triumphs, and complains."—Churchill, p. 3.

"Let Satire, then, her proper object know, And ere she strike, be sure she strike a foe."—John Brown.

LESSON III.—PARSING.

"The Author of nature has as truly directed that vicious actions, considered as mischievous to society, should be punished, and has as clearly put mankind under a necessity of thus punishing them, as he has directed and necessitated us to preserve our lives by food."—Butler's Analogy, p. 88. "An author may injure his works by altering, and even amending, the successive editions: the first impression sinks the deepest, and with the credulous it can rarely be effaced; nay, he will be vainly employed who endeavours to eradicate it."—Werter, p. 82.

"It is well ordered, that even the most innocent blunder is not committed with impunity; because, were errors licensed where they do no hurt, inattention would grow into habit, and be the occasion of much hurt."—Kames, El. of Crit., i, 285.

"The force of language consists in raising complete images; which have the effect to transport the reader, as by magic, into the very place of the important action, and to convert him as it were into a spectator, beholding every thing that passes."—Id., ib., ii, 241.

"An orator should not put forth all his strength at the beginning, but should rise and grow upon us, as his discourse advances."—Blair's Rhet., p. 309.

"When a talent is given to any one, an account is open with the giver of it, who appoints a day in which he will arrive and 'redemand his own with usury.'"—West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 74.

"Go, and reclaim the sinner, instruct the ignorant, soften the obdurate, and (as occasion shall demand) cheer, depress, repel, allure, disturb, assuage, console, or terrify."—Jerningham's Essay on Eloquence, p. 97.

"If all the year were playing holydays, To sport would be as tedious as to work: But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents." —Shak., Hen. V.

"The man that once did sell the lion's skin While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him." —Id., Joh. Dict., w. Beast.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

ERRORS OF VERBS.

LESSON I.—PRETERITS.

"In speaking on a matter which toucht their hearts."—Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 441.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the verb toucht is terminated in t. But, according to Observation 2nd, on the irregular verbs, touch is regular. Therefore, this t should be changed to ed; thus, "In speaking on a matter which touched their hearts."]

"Though Horace publisht it some time after."—Ib., i, 444. "The best subjects with which the Greek models furnisht him."—Ib., i, 444. "Since he attacht no thought to it."—Ib., i, 645. "By what slow steps the Greek alphabet reacht its perfection."—Ib., i, 651. "Because Goethe wisht to erect an affectionate memorial."—Ib., i, 469. "But the Saxon forms soon dropt away."—Ib., i, 668. "It speaks of all the towns that perisht in the age of Philip."—Ib., i, 252. "This enricht the written language with new words."—Ib., i, 668. "He merely furnisht his friend with matter for laughter."—Ib., i, 479. "A cloud arose and stopt the light."—Swift's Poems, p. 313. "She slipt zpadillo in her breast."—Ib., p. 371. "I guest the hand."—Ib., p. 372. "The tyrant stript me to the skin: My skin he flay'd, my hair he cropt; At head and foot my body lopt."—Ib., On a Pen, p. 338. "I see the greatest owls in you, That ever screecht or ever flew."—Ib., p. 403. "I sate with delight, from morning till night."—Ib., p. 367. "Dick nimbly skipt the gutter."—Ib., p. 375. "In at the pantry door this morn I slipt."—Ib., p. 369. "Nobody living ever toucht me but you."—Walker's Particles, p. 92. "Present, I ship; Past, I shipped or shipt; Participle, shipped or shipt."—Murray the schoolmaster. Gram., p. 31. "Then the king arose, and tare his garments."—2 Sam., xiii, 31. "When he lift up his foot, he knew not where he should set it next."—Bunyan. "He lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time."—2 SAM.: in Joh. Dict. "Upon this chaos rid the distressed ark."—BURNET: ib. "On whose foolish honesty, my practices rid easy."—SHAK.: ib. "That form of the first or primogenial Earth, which rise immediately out of chaos."—BURNET: ib. "Sir, how come it you have holp to make this rescue?"—SHAK.: in Joh. Dict. "He sware he had rather lose all his father's images than that table."—PEACHAM: ib. "When our language dropt its ancient terminations."—Dr. Murray's Hist., ii, 5. "When themselves they vilify'd."—Milton, P. L., xi, 515. "But I choosed rather to do thus."—Barclay's Works, i, 456. "When he plead against the parsons."— School History, p. 168. "And he that saw it, bear record."—Cutler's Gram., p. 72. "An irregular verb has one more variation, as drive, drivest, drives, drivedst, drove, driving, driven."—REV. MATT. HARRISON, on the English Language, p. 260. "Beside that village Hannibal pitcht his camp."—Walker's Particles, p. 79. "He fetcht it even from Tmolus."— Ib., p. 114. "He supt with his morning gown on."—Ib., p. 285. "There stampt her sacred name."—Barlow's Columbiad, B. i, l. 233.

"Fixt on the view the great discoverer stood, And thus addrest the messenger of good."—Barlow, B, i, l. 658.

LESSON II.—MIXED.

"Three freemen were being tried at the date of our last information."—Newspaper.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the participle being is used after its own verb were. But, according to Observation 4th, on the compound form of the conjugation, this complex passive form is an absurd innovation. Therefore, the expression should be changed; thus, "Three freemen were on trial"—or, "were receiving their trial—at the date of our last information."]

"While the house was being built, many of the tribe arrived."—Ross Cox's Travels, p. 102. "But a foundation has been laid in Zion, and the church is being built upon it."—The Friend, ix, 377. "And one fourth of the people are being educated."—East India Magazine. "The present, or that which is now being done."—Beck's Gram., p. 13. "A new church, called the Pantheon, is just being completed in an expensive style."—G. A. Thompson's Guatemala, p. 467. "When I last saw him, he was grown considerably."—Murray's Key, p. 223; Merchants, 198. "I know what a rugged and dangerous path I am got into."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 83. "You were as good preach case to one on the rack."—Locke's Essay, p. 285. "Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation."—Psal., cxviii, 21. "While the Elementary Spelling-Book was being prepared for the press."—L. Cobb's Review, p. vi. "Language is become, in modern times, more correct and accurate."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 16. "If the plan have been executed in any measure answerable to the author's wishes."—Robbins's Hist., p. 3. "The vial of wrath is still being poured out on the seat of the beast."—Christian Experience, p. 409. "Christianity was become the generally adopted and established religion of the whole Roman Empire."—Gurney's Essays, p. 35. "Who wrote before the first century was elapsed."—Ib., p. 13. "The original and analogical form is grown quite obsolete."—Lowth's Gram., p. 56. "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, are perished."—Murray's Gram., i, 149. "The poems were got abroad and in a great many hands."—Pref. to Waller. "It is more harmonious, as well as more correct, to say, 'the bubble is almost bursted.'"—Cobbett's E. Gram., 109. "I drave my suitor from his mad humour of love."—Shak. "Se viriliter expedivit. (Cicero.) He hath plaid the man."—Walker's Particles, p. 214. "Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Acts, vii, 28. "And we, methoughts, look'd up t'him from our hill."—Cowley's Davideis, B. iii, l. 386. "I fear thou doest not think as much of best things as thou oughtest."—Memoir of M. C. Thomas, p. 34. "When this work was being commenced."—Wright's Gram., p. 10. "Exercises and Key to this work are being prepared."—Ib., p. 12. "James is loved, or being loved by John."—Ib., p. 64. "Or that which is being exhibited."—Ib., p. 77. "He was being smitten."—Ib., p. 78. "In the passive state we say, 'I am being loved.'"—Ib., p. 80. "Subjunctive Mood: If I am being smitten, If thou art being smitten, If he is being smitten."—Ib., p. 100. "I will not be able to convince you how superficial the reformation is."—Chalmers's Sermons, p. 88. "I said to myself, I will be obliged to expose the folly."—Chazotte's Essay, p. 3. "When Clodius, had he meant to return that day to Rome, must have been arrived."—Adams's Rhetoric, i, 418. "That the fact has been done, is being done, or shall or will be done."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., pp. 347 and 356. "Am I being instructed?"—Wright's Gram., p. 70. "I am choosing him."—Ib., p. 112. "John, who was respecting his father, was obedient to his commands."—Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 69. "The region echos to the clash of arms."—Beattie's Poems, p. 63.

"And sitt'st on high, and mak'st creation's top Thy footstool; and behold'st below thee, all." —Pollok, B. vi, l. 663.

"And see if thou can'st punish sin, and let Mankind go free. Thou fail'st—be not surprised." —Id., B. ii, l. 118.

LESSON III.—MIXED.

"What follows, had better been wanting altogether."—Blair's Rhet., p. 201.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the phrase had better been, is used in the sense of the potential pluperfect. But, according to Observation 17th, on the conjugations, this substitution of one form for another is of questionable propriety. Therefore, the regular form should here be preferred; thus, "What follows, might better have been wanting altogether."]

"This member of the sentence had much better have been omitted altogether."—Ib., p. 212. "One or [the] other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted."—Ib., p. 212. "The whole of this last member of the sentence had better have been dropped."—Ib., p. 112. "In this case, they had much better be omitted."—Ib., p. 173. "He had better have said, 'the productions'"—Ib., p. 220. "The Greeks have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus."—Ib., p. 377. "It has been noticed long ago, that all these fictitious names have the same number of syllables."—Phil. Museum, i, 471. "When I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, I have determined to send him."—Acts, xxv, 25. "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God."—Ps., lxxxiv, 10. "As for such, I wish the Lord open their eyes."—Barclay's Works, iii. 263. "It would a made our passidge over the river very difficult."— Walley, in 1692. "We should not a been able to have carried our great guns."—Id. "Others would a questioned our prudence, if wee had."—Id. See Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass., i, 478. "Beware thou bee'st not BECAESAR'D; i.e. Beware that thou dost not dwindle into a mere Caesar."—Harris's Hermes, p. 183. "Thou raisedest thy voice to record the stratagems of needy heroes."—ARBUTHNOT: in Joh. Dict., w. Scalade. "Life hurrys off apace: thine is almost up already."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 19. "'How unfortunate has this accident made me!' crys such a one."—Ib., p. 60. "The muse that soft and sickly wooes the ear."—Pollok, i, 13. "A man were better relate himself to a statue."—Bacon. "I heard thee say but now, thou lik'dst not that."—Shak. "In my whole course of wooing, thou cried'st, Indeed!"—Id. "But our ears are grown familiar with I have wrote, I have drank, &c., which are altogether as ungrammatical."— Lowth's Gram., p. 63; Churchill's, 114. "The court was sat before Sir Roger came."—Addison, Spect., No. 122. "She need be no more with the jaundice possest."—Swift's Poems, p. 346. "Besides, you found fault with our victuals one day that you was here."—Ib., p. 333. "If spirit of other sort, So minded, have o'erleap'd these earthy bounds."—Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 582. "It should have been more rational to have forborn this."—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 265. "A student is not master of it till he have seen all these."—Dr. Murray's Life, p. 55. "The said justice shall summons the party."—Brevard's Digest. "Now what is become of thy former wit and humour?"—Spect., No. 532. "Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?"—Burns, p. 29. "SUBJ.: Pres. If I love, If thou lovest, If he love. Imp. If I loved, If thou lovedst, If he loved."—Merchant's Gram., p. 51. "SUBJ.: If I do not love, If thou dost not love, If he does not love;" &c.—Ib., p. 56. "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."—James, v, 15. "Subjunctive Mood of the verb to call, second person singular: If Thou callest. If Thou calledst. If Thou hast called. If Thou hadst called. If Thou call. If Thou shalt or wilt have called."—Hiley's Gram., p. 41. "Subjunctive Mood of the verb to love, second person singular: If thou love. If thou do love. If thou lovedst. If thou didst love. If thou hast loved. If thou hadst loved. If thou shalt or wilt love. If thou shalt or wilt have loved."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 46. "I was; thou wast, or you was; he, she, or it was: We, you or ye, they, were."—White, on the English Verb, p. 51. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he taught."—Coar's English Gram., p. 66. "We say, if it rains, suppose it rains, lest it should rain, unless it rains. This manner of speaking is called the SUBJUNCTIVE mode."—Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 72; Abridged Ed., 59. "He is arrived at what is deemed the age of manhood."—Priestley's Gram., 163. "He had much better have let it alone."—Tooke's Diversions, i, 43. "He were better be without it."—Locke, on Education, p. 105. "Hadest not thou been by."—Beauties of Shak., p. 107. "I learned geography. Thou learnedest arithmetick. He learned grammar."—Fuller's Gram., p. 34. "Till the sound is ceased."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 126. "Present, die; Preterit, died; Perf. Participle, dead."—British Gram., p. 158; Buchanan's, 58; Priestley's, 48; Ash's, 45; Fisher's, 71; Bicknell's, 73.

"Thou bowed'st thy glorious head to none, feared'st none." —Pollok, B. viii, l. 603.

"Thou look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it." —N. A. Reader, p. 320.

"As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form'd" —Milt., P. L., B. xi, l. 369.

"Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, But may imagine how the bird was dead?" —SHAK.: Joh. Dict.

"Which might have well becom'd the best of men." —Id., Ant. and Cleop.



CHAPTER VII.—PARTICIPLES.

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb: thus, from the verb rule, are formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, 1. ruling, 2. ruled, 3. having ruled.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in motion, or the privation of motion—in acting, or ceasing to act. And to all motion and rest, time and place are necessary concomitants; nor are the ideas of degree and manner often irrelevant. Hence the use of tenses and of adverbs. For whatsoever comes to pass, must come to pass sometime and somewhere; and, in every event, something must be affected somewhat and somehow. Hence it is evident that those grammarians are right, who say, that "all participles imply time." But it does not follow, that the English participles divide time, like the tenses of a verb, and specify the period of action; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest, that they do not. The phrase, "men labouring," conveys no other idea than that of labourers at work; it no more suggests the time, than the place, degree, or manner, of their work. All these circumstances require other words to express them; as, "Men now here awkwardly labouring much to little purpose." Again: "Thenceforward will men, there labouring hard and honourably, be looked down upon by dronish lordlings."

OBS. 2.—Participles retain the essential meaning of their verbs; and, like verbs, are either active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, or neuter, in their signification. For this reason, many have classed them with the verbs. But their formal meaning is obviously different. They convey no affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or pronouns, like adjectives, except when they are joined with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses of their verbs; or when they have in part the nature of substantives, like the Latin gerunds. Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the adjectives. The most discreet writers have commonly assigned them a separate place among the parts of speech; because, in spite of all opposite usages, experience has shown that it is expedient to do so.

OBS. 3.—According to the doctrine of Harris, all words denoting the attributes of things, are either verbs, or participles, or adjectives. Some attributes have their essence in motion: as, to walk, to run, to fly, to strike, to live; or, walking, running, flying, striking, living. Others have it in the privation of motion: as, to stop, to rest, to cease, to die; or, stopping, resting, ceasing, dying. And there are others which have nothing to do with either motion or its privation; but have their essence in the quantity, quality, or situation of things; as, great and small, white and black, wise and foolish, eastern and western. These last terms are adjectives; and those which denote motion or its privation, are either verbs or participles, according to their formal meaning; that is, according to their manner of attribution. See Hermes, p. 95. Verbs commonly say or affirm something of their subjects; as, "The babe wept." Participles suggest the action or attribute without affirmation; as, "A babe weeping,"—"An act regretted."

OBS. 4.—A verb, then, being expressive of some attribute, which it ascribes to the thing or person named as its subject; of time, which it divides and specifies by the tenses; and also, (with the exception of the infinitive,) of an assertion or affirmation; if we take away the affirmation and the distinction of tenses, there will remain the attribute and the general notion of time; and these form the essence of an English participle. So that a participle is something less than a verb, though derived immediately from it; and something more than an adjective, or mere attribute, though its manner of attribution is commonly the same. Hence, though the participle by rejecting the idea of time may pass almost insensibly into an adjective, and become truly a participial adjective; yet the participle and the adjective are by no means one and the same part of speech, as some will have them to be. There is always an essential difference in their meaning. For instance: there is a difference between a thinking man and a man thinking; between a bragging fellow and a fellow bragging; between a fast-sailing ship and a ship sailing fast. A thinking man, a bragging fellow, or a fast-sailing ship, is contemplated as being habitually or permanently such; a man thinking, a fellow bragging, or a ship sailing fast, is contemplated as performing a particular act; and this must embrace a period of time, whether that time be specified or not. John Locke was a thinking man; but we should directly contradict his own doctrine, to suppose him always thinking.

OBS. 5.—The English participles are all derived from the roots of their respective verbs, and do not, like those of some other languages, take their names from the tenses. On the contrary, they are reckoned among the principal parts in the conjugation of their verbs, and many of the tenses are formed from them. In the compound forms of conjugation, they are found alike in all the tenses. They do not therefore, of themselves, express any particular time; but they denote the state of the being, action, or passion, in regard to its progress or completion. This I conceive to be their principal distinction. Respecting the participles in Latin, it has been matter of dispute, whether those which are called the present and the perfect, are really so in respect to time or not. Sanctius denies it. In Greek, the distinction of tenses in the participles is more apparent, yet even here the time to which they refer, does not always correspond to their names. See remarks on the Participles in the Port Royal Latin and Greek Grammars.

OBS. 6.—Horne Tooke supposes our participles in ed to express time past, and those in ing to have no signification of time. He says, "I did not mean to deny the adsignification of time to all the participles; though I continue to withhold it from that which is called the participle present."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 415. Upon the same point, he afterwards adds, "I am neither new nor singular; for Sanctius both asserted and proved it by numerous instances in the Latin. Such as, 'Et abfui proficiscens in Graeciam.' Cicero. 'Sed postquam amans accessit pretium pollicens.' Terent. 'Ultro ad cam venies indicans te amare.' Terent. 'Turnum fugientem haec terra videbit.' Virg."—Tooke's Div., ii, 420. Again: "And thus I have given you my opinion concerning what is called the present participle. Which I think improperly so called; because I take it to be merely the simple verb adjectived, without any adsignification of manner or time."—Tooke's Div., Vol. ii, p. 423.

OBS. 7.—I do not agree with this author, either in limiting participles in ed to time past, or in denying all signification of time to those in ing; but I admit that what is commonly called the present participle, is not very properly so denominated, either in English or in Latin, or perhaps in any language. With us, however, this participle is certainly, in very many instances, something else than "merely the simple verb adjectived." For, in the first place, it is often of a complex character, as being loved, being seen, in which two verbs are "adjectived" together, and that by different terminations. Yet do these words as perfectly coalesce in respect to time, as to everything else; and being loved or being seen is confessedly as much a "present" participle, as being, or loving, or seeing—neither form being solely confined to what now is. Again, our participle in ing stands not only for the present participle of the Latin or Greek grammarians, but also for the Latin gerund, and often for the Greek infinitive used substantively; so that by this ending, the English verb is not only adjectived, but also substantived, if one may so speak. For the participle when governed by a preposition, partakes not of the qualities "of a verb and an adjective," but rather of those of a verb and a noun.



CLASSES.

English verbs, not defective, have severally three participles;[301] which have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus: the Imperfect, the Perfect, and the Preperfect. Or, as their order is undisputed, they may he conveniently called the First, the Second, and the Third.

I. The Imperfect participle is that which ends commonly in ing, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion: as, being, acting, ruling, loving, defending, terminating.

II. The Perfect participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion: as, been, acted, ruled, loved, defended, terminated.

III. The Preperfect participle is that which takes the sign having, and implies a previous completion of the being, action, or passion: as, having loved, having seen, having written; having been loved, having been writing, having been written.

The First or Imperfect Participle, when simple, is always formed by adding ing to the radical verb; as, look, looking: when compound, it is formed by prefixing being to some other simple participle; as, being reading, being read, being completed.

The Second or Perfect Participle is always simple, and is regularly formed by adding d or ed to the radical verb: those verbs from which it is formed otherwise, are either irregular or redundant.

The Third or Preperfect Participle is always compound, and is formed by prefixing having to the perfect, when the compound is double, and having been to the perfect or the imperfect, when the compound is triple: as, having spoken, having been spoken, having been speaking.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Some have supposed that both the simple participles denote present time; some have supposed that the one denotes present, and the other, past time; some have supposed that the first denotes no time, and the second time past; some have supposed that neither has any regard to time; and some have supposed that both are of all times. In regard to the distinction of voice, or the manner of their signification, some have supposed the one to be active, and the other to be passive; some have supposed the participle in ing to be active or neuter, and the other active or passive; and some have supposed that either of them may be active, passive, or neuter. Nor is there any more unanimity among grammarians, in respect to the compounds. Hence several different names have been loosely given to each of the participles: and sometimes with manifest impropriety; as when Buchanan, in his conjugations, calls being, "Active,"—and been, having been, having had, "Passive." Learned men may differ in opinion respecting the nature of words, but grammar can never well deserve the name of science, till at least an ordinary share of reason and knowledge appears in the language of those who teach it.

OBS. 2.—The FIRST participle has been called the Present, the Progressive, the Imperfect, the Simple Imperfect, the Indefinite, the Active, the Present Active, the Present Passive, the Present Neuter, and, in the passive voice, the Preterimperfcct, the Compound Imperfect, the Compound Passive, the Passive. The SECOND, which, though it is always but one word, some authors treat as being two participles, or three, has been called the Perfect, the Preter, the Preterperfect, the Imperfect, the Simple Perfect, the Past, the Simple Past, the First Past, the Preterit, the Passive, the Present Passive, the Perfect Active, the Past Active, the Auxiliary Perfect, the Perfect Passive, the Perfect Neuter, the Simple Perfect Active, the Simple Perfect Passive. The THIRD has been called the Compound, the Compound Active, the Compound Passive, the Compound Perfect, the Compound Perfect Active, the Compound Perfect Passive, the Compound Preter, the Present, the Present Perfect, the Past, the Second Past, the Past Compound, the Compound Past, the Prior-perfect, the Prior-present, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Preterperfect, the Preperfect.[302]

In teaching others to speak and write well, it becomes us to express our doctrines in the most suitable terms; but the application of a name is of no great consequence, so that the thing itself be rightly understood by the learner. Grammar should be taught in a style at once neat and plain, clear and brief. Upon the choice of his terms, the writer of this work has bestowed much reflection; yet he finds it impossible either to please everybody, or to explain, without intolerable prolixity, all the reasons for preference.

OBS. 3.—The participle in ing represents the action or state as continuing and ever incomplete; it is therefore rightly termed the IMPERFECT participle: whereas the participle in ed always, or at least usually, has reference to the action as done and complete; and is, by proper contradistinction, called the PERFECT participle. It is hardly necessary to add, that the terms perfect and imperfect, as thus applied to the English participles, have no reference to time, or to those tenses of the verb which are usually (but not very accurately) named by these epithets. The terms present and past, which some still prefer to imperfect and perfect, do denote time, and are in a kind of oblique contradistinction; but how well they apply to the participles, may be seen by the following texts: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."—"We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."—ST. PAUL: 2 Cor., v, 19, 20. Here reconciling refers to the death of Christ, and reconciled, to the desired conversion of the Corinthians; and if we call the former a present participle, and the latter a past, (as do Bullions, Burn, Clark, Felton, S. S. Greene, Lennie, Pinneo, and perhaps others,) we nominally reverse the order of time in respect to the events, and egregiously misapply both terms.

OBS. 4.—Though the participle in ing has, by many, been called the Present participle, it is as applicable to past or future, as to present time; otherwise, such expressions as, "I had been writing,"—"I shall be writing," would be solecisms. It has also been called, almost as frequently, the Active participle. But it is not always active, even when derived from an active verb; for such expressions as, "The goods are selling,"—"The ships are now building," are in use, and not without good authority: as, "And hope to allay, by rational discourse, the pains of his joints tearing asunder."—Locke's Essay, p. 285. "Insensible of the designs now forming by Philip."—Goldsmith's Greece, ii, 48. "The improved edition now publishing."—BP. HALIFAX: Pref. to Butler. "The present tense expresses an action now doing."—Emmons's Gram., p. 40. The distinguishing characteristic of this participle is, that it denotes an unfinished and progressive state of the being, action, or passion; it is therefore properly denominated the IMPERFECT participle. If the term were applied with reference to time, it would be no more objectionable than the word present, and would be equally supported by the usage of the Greek linguists. I am no more inclined to "innovation," than are the pedants who, for the choice here made, have ignorantly brought the false charge against me. This name, authorized by Beattie and Pickbourn, is approved by Lindley Murray,[303] and adopted by several of the more recent grammarians. See the works of Dr. Crombie, J. Grant, T. O. Churchill, R. Hiley, B. H. Smart, M. Harrison, and W. G. Lewis, published in London; and J. M. M'Culloch's Grammar, published in Edinburgh; also some American grammars, as E. Hazen's, N. Butler's, D. B. Tower's, W. H. Wells's, the Sanderses'.