The Grammar of English Grammars Part 132

--------------------------"Though Heaven's king Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, Us'd to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels."

--_Milton, P. L._, iv, l. 973.

"Us'd to the yoke, _draw'dst_ his triumphant wheels."

--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 106.

UNDER NOTE IX.--IMPROPER ELLIPSES.

"Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has."--_Education Reporter_. "Which they neither have nor can do."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 73. "The Lord hath, and doth, and will reveal his will to his people, and hath and doth raise up members of his body,"

&c.--_Ib._, i, 484. "We see then, that the Lord hath, and doth give such."--_Ib._, i, 484. "Towards those that have or do declare themselves members."--_Ib._, i, 494. "For which we can, and have given our sufficient reasons."--_Ib._, i, 507. "When we mention the several properties of the different words in sentences, in the same manner as we have those of _William's_, above, what is the exercise called?"--_Smith's New Gram._, p.

12. "It is, however to be doubted whether this peculiarity of the Greek idiom, ever has or will obtain extensively in the English."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 47. "Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as much as we?"--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 111. "Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as they ought to be in order to move and persuade."--_Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 151.

UNDER NOTE X.--DO, USED AS A SUBSt.i.tUTE.

"And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be done."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 36. "Such a sentiment from a man expiring of his wounds, is truly heroic, and must elevate the mind to the greatest height that can be done by a single expression."--_Ib._, i, 204. "Successive images making thus deeper and deeper impressions, must elevate more than any single image can do."--_Ib._, i, 205. "Besides making a deeper impression than can be done by cool reasoning."--_Ib._, ii, 273. "Yet a poet, by the force of genius alone, can rise higher than a public speaker can do."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 338. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they have done, should have induced them to go farther."--_Priestley's Gram., Pref._, p. vii. "The pupil should commit the first section perfectly, before he does the second part of grammar."-- _Bradley's Gram._, p. 77. "The Greek _ch_ was p.r.o.nounced hard, as we now do in _chord_."--_Booth's Introd. to Dict._, p. 61. "They p.r.o.nounce the syllables in a different manner from what they do at other times."-- _Murray's Eng. Reader_, p. xi. "And give him the formal cool reception that Simon had done."--_Dr. Scott, on Luke_, vii. "I do not say, as some have done."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 271. "If he suppose the first, he may do the last."--_Barclay's Works_, ii, 406. "Who are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old did him in his outward."--_Ib._, i, 506. "That text of Revelations must not be understood, as he doth it."-- _Ib._, iii, 309. "Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him, that he can do it readily."--_Smith's New Gram._, p. 13. "Perhaps it is running the same course which Rome had done before."--_Middleton's Life of Cicero_. "It ought even on this ground to be avoided; which may easily be done by a different construction."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 312. "These two languages are now p.r.o.nounced in England as no other nation in Europe does besides."--_Creighton's Dict._, p. xi. "Germany ran the same risk that Italy had done."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 211: see _Priestley's Gram._, p.

196.

UNDER NOTE XI.--PRETERITS AND PARTICIPLES.

"The Beggars themselves will be broke in a trice."--_Swift's Poems_, p.

347. "The hoop is hoist above his nose."--_Ib._, p. 404. "My heart was lift up in the ways of the Lord. 2 CHRON."--_Joh. Dict., w. Lift_. "Who sin so oft have mourned, Yet to temptation ran."--_Burns_. "Who would not have let them appeared."--_Steele_. "He would have had you sought for ease at the hands of Mr. Legality."--_Pilgrim's Progress_, p. 31. "From me his madding mind is start, And wooes the widow's daughter of the glen."--SPENSER: _Joh.

Dict., w. Glen_. "The man has spoke, and still speaks."--_Ash's Gram._, p.

54. "For you have but mistook me all this while."--_Beauties of Shak._, p.

114. "And will you rent our ancient love asunder."--_Ib._, p. 52. "Mr.

Birney has plead the inexpediency of pa.s.sing such resolutions."-- _Liberator_, Vol. xiii, p. 194. "Who have wore out their years in such most painful Labours."--_Littleton's Dict., Pref_. "And in the conclusion you were chose probationer."--_Spectator_, No. 32.

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

UNDER NOTE XII.--VERBS CONFOUNDED.

"But Moses preferred to wile away his time."--_Parker's English Composition_, p. 15. "His face shown with the rays of the sun."--_Calvin's Inst._, 4to, p. 76. "Whom they had sat at defiance so lately."-- _Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 320. "And when he was set, his disciples came unto him."--_Matt._, v, 1. "When he was set down on the judgement-seat."-- _Ib._, xxvii, 19. "And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them."--_Luke_, xxii, 55. "So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?"--_John_, xiii, 12. "Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."--_Rev._, iii, 21. "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."-- _Heb._, viii, 1. "And is set down at the right hand of the throne of G.o.d."--_Ib._, xii, 2.[402] "He sat on foot a furious persecution."-- _Payne's Geog._, ii, 418. "There layeth an obligation upon the saints, to help such."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 389. "There let him lay."--_Byron's Pilgrimage_, C. iv, st. 180. "Nothing but moss, and shrubs, and stinted trees, can grow upon it."--_Morse's Geog._, p. 43. "Who had lain out considerable sums purely to distinguish themselves."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 132. "Whereunto the righteous fly and are safe."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 146. "He raiseth from supper, and laid aside his garments."--_Ib._, i, 438.

"Whither--Oh! whither shall I fly?"--_Murray's English Reader_, p. 123.

"Flying from an adopted murderer."--_Ib._, p. 122. "To you I fly for refuge."--_Ib._, p. 124. "The sign that should warn his disciples to fly from approaching ruin."--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 62. "In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation."--_Rush, on the Voice_, p. xxiii. "In which some only bleat, bark, mew, winnow, and bray, a little better than others."--_Ib._, p. 90. "Who represented to him the unreasonableness of being effected with such unmanly fears."--_Rollin's Hist._, ii, 106. "Thou sawedst every action."--_Guy's School Gram._, p. 46. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he or she taught."--_Coar's Gram._, p. 79. "Valerian is taken by Sapor and flead alive, A. D. 260."--_Lempriere's Chron. Table, Dict._, p. xix. "What a fine vehicle is it now become for all conceptions of the mind!"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 139. "What are become of so many productions?"

--_Volney's Ruins_, p. 8. "What are become of those ages of abundance and of life?"--_Keith's Evidences_, p. 107. "The Spartan admiral was sailed to the h.e.l.lespont."--_Goldsmiths Greece_, i, 150. "As soon as he was landed, the mult.i.tude thronged about him."--_Ib._, i, 160. "Cyrus was arrived at Sardis."--_Ib._, i, 161. "Whose year was expired."--_Ib._, i, 162. "It had better have been, 'that faction which.'"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 97. "This people is become a great nation."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 153; _Ingersoll's_, 249. "And here we are got into the region of ornament."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 181. "The ungraceful parenthesis which follows, had far better have been avoided."--_Ib._, p. 215. "Who forced him under water, and there held him until drounded."--_Indian Wars_, p. 55.

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

UNDER NOTE XIII.--WORDS THAT EXPRESS TIME.

"I had finished my letter before my brother arrived."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 139. "I had written before I received his letter."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.

82. "From what has been formerly delivered."--_Ib._, p. 182. "Arts were of late introduced among them."--_Ib._, p. 245. "I am not of opinion that such rules can be of much use, unless persons saw them exemplified."--_Ib._, p.

336. "If we use the noun itself, we should say, 'This composition is John's.' "--_Murray's Gram._, p. 174. "But if the a.s.sertion referred to something, that is not always the same, or supposed to be so, the past tense must be applied."--_Ib._, p. 191. "They told him, that Jesus of Nazareth pa.s.seth by."--_Luke_, xviii, 37. "There is no particular intimation but that I continued to work, even to the present moment."--_R.

W. Green's Gram._, p. 39. "Generally, as was observed already, it is but hinted in a single word or phrase."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 36. "The wittiness of the pa.s.sage was already ill.u.s.trated."--_Ib._, p. 36. "As was observed already."--_Ib._, p. 56. "It was said already in general."--_Ib._, p. 95. "As I hinted already."--_Ib._, p. 134. "What I believe was hinted once already."--_Ib._, p. 148. "It is obvious, as hath been hinted formerly, that this is but an artificial and arbitrary connexion."--_Ib._, p. 282. "They have done anciently a great deal of hurt."--_Bolingbroke, on Hist._, p. 109. "Then said Paul, I knew not, brethren, that he is the High Priest."--_Dr. Webster's Bible_: Acts, xxiii, 5. "Most prepositions originally denote the relation of place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 65; _Churchill's_, 116. "His gift was but a poor offering, when we consider his estate."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 194. "If he should succeed, and should obtain his end, he will not be the happier for it."--_Murray's Gram._, i, p. 207. "These are torrents that swell to-day, and have spent themselves by to-morrow."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 286. "Who have called that wheat to-day, which they have called tares to-morrow."--_Barclay's Works_, iii. 168. "He thought it had been one of his tenants."--_Ib._, i, 11. "But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."--_Luke_, xvi, 30. "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."--_Ib., verse_ 31. "But it is while men slept that the archenemy has always sown his tares."--_The Friend_, x, 351. "Crescens would not fail to have exposed him."--_Addison's Evidences_, p. 30.

"Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound; Fierce as he mov'd, his silver shafts resound."

--_Pope, Iliad_, B. i, l. 64.

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

"Had I commanded you to have done this, you would have thought hard of it."--_G. B._ "I found him better than I expected to have found him."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 126. "There are several smaller faults, which I at first intended to have enumerated."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 246.

"Ant.i.thesis, therefore, may, on many occasions, be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen the impression which we intend that any object should make."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 168. "The girl said, if her master would but have let her had money, she might have been well long ago."--See _Priestley's Gram._, p. 127. "Nor is there the least ground to fear, that we should be cramped here within too narrow limits."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 163; _Murray's Gram._, i, 360. "The Romans, flushed with success, expected to have retaken it."--_Hooke's Hist._, p. 37. "I would not have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be ent.i.tled to all the wit that ever Rabelais scattered."--STERNE: _Enfield's Speaker_, p. 54. "We expected that he would have arrived last night."--_Inst._ p. 192. "Our friends intended to have met us."--_Ib._ "We hoped to have seen you."--_Ib._ "He would not have been allowed to have entered."--_Ib._

UNDER NOTE XV.--PERMANENT PROPOSITIONS.

"Cicero maintained that whatsoever was useful was good."--"I observed that love const.i.tuted the whole moral character of G.o.d."--_Dwight_. "Thinking that one gained nothing by being a good man."--_Voltaire_. "I have already told you that I was a gentleman."--_Fontaine_. "If I should ask, whether ice and water were two distinct species of things."--_Locke_. "A stranger to the poem would not easily discover that this was verse."--_Murray's Gram._, 12mo, p. 260. "The doctor affirmed, that fever always produced thirst."--_Inst._, p. 192. "The ancients a.s.serted, that virtue was its own reward."--_Ib._ "They should not have repeated the error, of insisting that the infinitive was a mere noun."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. i, p. 288.

"It was observed in Chap. III. that the distinctive _or_ had a double use."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 154. "Two young gentlemen, who have made a discovery that there was no G.o.d."--_Swift_.

RULE XVIII.--INFINITIVES.

The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition TO, which commonly connects it to a finite verb: as, "I desire TO _learn_."--_Dr.

Adam_. "Of me the Roman people have many pledges, which I must strive, with my utmost endeavours, TO _preserve_, TO _defend_, TO _confirm_, and TO _redeem_."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 41.

"What if the foot, ordain'd the dust TO _tread_, Or hand TO _toil_, aspir'd TO _be_ the head?"--_Pope_.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVIII.

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

OBS. 2.--Skinner, in his _Canones Etymologici_, calls this TO "an _equivocal article_,"--_Tooke_, ib., i, 288. Nutting, a late American grammarian, says: "The _sign_ TO is no other than the Greek article _to_; as, _to agapan_ [, to love]; or, as some say, it is the Saxon _do_"--_Practical Gram._, p. 66. Thus, by suggesting two false and inconsistent derivations, though he uses not the name _equivocal article_, he first makes the word an _article_, and then _equivocal_--equivocal in etymology, and of course in meaning.[403] Nixon, in his English Pa.r.s.er, supposes it to be, _unequivocally_, the Greek article [Greek: to], _the_.

See the work, p. 83. D. Booth says, "_To_ is, by us, applied to Verbs; but it was the neuter Article (_the_) among the Greeks."--_Introd. to a.n.a.lyt.

Dict._, p. 60. According to Horne Tooke, "Minshew also distinguishes between the preposition TO, and the _sign_ of the infinitive TO. Of the former he is silent, and of the latter he says: 'To, as _to_ make, _to_ walk, _to_ do, a Graeco articulo [Greek: to].' But Dr. Gregory Sharpe is persuaded, that our language has taken it from the _Hebrew_. And Vossius derives the correspondent Latin preposition AD from the same source."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. i, p. 293.

OBS. 3.--Tooke also says, "I observe, that Junius and Skinner and Johnson, have not chosen to give the slightest hint concerning the derivation of TO."--_Ibid._ But, certainly, of his _adverb_ TO, Johnson gives this hint: "TO, Saxon; _te_, Dutch." And Webster, who calls it not an adverb, but a preposition, gives the same hint of the source from which it comes to us.

This is as much as to say, it is etymologically the old Saxon preposition _to_--which, truly, it is--the very same word that, for a thousand years or more, has been used before nouns and p.r.o.nouns to govern the objective case.

Tooke himself does not deny this; but, conceiving that almost all particles, whether English or any other, can be traced back to ancient verbs or nouns, he hunts for the root of this, in a remoter region, where he pretends to find that _to_ has the same origin as _do_; and though he detects the former in a _Gothic noun_, he scruples not to identify it with an _auxiliary verb_! Yet he elsewhere expressly denies, "that _any_ words change their nature by use, so as to belong sometimes to one part of speech, and sometimes to another."--_Div. of Pur._, Vol. i, p. 68.

OBS 4.--From this, the fair inference is, that he will have both _to_ and _do_ to be "_nouns substantive_" still! "Do (the _auxiliary_ verb, as it has been called) is derived from the same root, and is indeed the same word as TO."--_Ib._, Vol. i, p. 290. "Since FROM means _commencement_ or _beginning_, TO must mean _end_ or _termination_."--_Ib._, i, 283. "The preposition TO (in Dutch written TOE and TOT, a little nearer to the original) is the Gothic substantive [Gothic: taui] or [Gothic: tauhts], i.

e. _act, effect, result, consummation._ Which Gothic substantive is indeed itself no other than the past participle of the verb [Gothic: taujan], _agere_. And what is _done_, is _terminated, ended, finished_."--_Ib._, i, 285. No wonder that Johnson, Skinner, and Junius, gave no hint of _this_ derivation: it is not worth the ink it takes, if it cannot be made more sure. But in showing its bearing on the verb, the author not unjustly complains of our grammarians, that: "Of all the points which they endeavour to _shuffle over_, there is none in which they do it more grossly than in this of the infinitive."--_Ib._, i, 287.

OBS. 5.--Many are content to call the word TO a _prefix_, a _particle_, a _little word_, a _sign of the infinitive_, a _part of the infinitive_, a _part of the verb_, and the like, without telling us whence it comes, how it differs from the preposition _to_, or to what part of speech it belongs.

It certainly is not what we usually call a _prefix_, because we never _join it to_ the verb; yet there are three instances in which it becomes such, before a noun: viz., _to-day, to-night, to-morrow_. If it is a "_particle_," so is any other preposition, as well as every small and invariable word. If it is a "_little word_," the whole bigness of a preposition is unquestionably found in it; and no "_word_" is so small but that it must belong to some one of the ten cla.s.ses called parts of speech.

If it is a "_sign of the infinitive_," because it is used before no other mood; so is it a _sign of the objective case_, or of what in Latin is called the dative, because it precedes no other case. If we suppose it to be a "_part of the infinitive_," or a "_part of the verb_," it is certainly no _necessary_ part of either; because there is no verb which may not, in several different ways, be properly used in the infinitive without it. But if it be a part of the infinitive, it must be a _verb_, and ought to be cla.s.sed with the _auxiliaries_. Dr. Ash accordingly placed it among the auxiliaries; but he says, (inaccurately, however,) "The auxiliary _sign seems_ to have the nature of _adverbs._"--_Grammatical Inst.i.tutes_, p. 33.

"The auxiliary [signs] _are, to, do, did, have, had, shall, will, may, can, must, might_," &c.--_Ib._, p. 31.

OBS. 6.--It is clear, as I have already shown, that the word _to_ may be a _sign_ of the infinitive, and yet not be a _part_ of it. Dr. Ash supposes, it may even be a part of the _mood_, and yet not be a part of the _verb_.

How this can be, I see not, unless the mood consists in something else than either the form or the parts of the verb. This grammarian says, "In parsing, every word should be considered as a _distinct part of speech_: for though two or more words may be united to form a mode, a tense, or a comparison; yet it seems quite improper to unite two or more words to make a noun, a verb, an adjective, &c."--_Gram. Inst._, p. 28. All the auxiliaries, therefore, and the particle _to_ among them, he pa.r.s.es separately; but he follows not his own advice, to make them distinct parts of speech; for he calls them all _signs_ only, and signs are not one of his ten parts of speech. And the participle too, which is one of the ten, and which he declares to be "no part of the verb," he pa.r.s.es separately; calling it a verb, and not a participle, as often as it accompanies any of his auxiliary signs. This is certainly a greater impropriety than there can be in supposing an auxiliary and a participle to const.i.tute a verb; for the mood and tense are the properties of the compound, and ought not to be ascribed to the princ.i.p.al term only. Not so with the preposition _to_ before the infinitive, any more than with the conjunction _if_ before the subjunctive. These may well be pa.r.s.ed as separate parts of speech; for these moods are sometimes formed, and are completely distinguished in each of their tenses, without the adding of these signs.

OBS. 7.--After a careful examination of what others have taught respecting this disputed point in grammar, I have given, in the preceding rule, that explanation which I consider to be the most correct and the most simple, and also as well authorized as any. Who first pa.r.s.ed the infinitive in this manner, I know not; probably those who first called the _to_ a _preposition_; among whom were Lowth and the author of the old British Grammar. The doctrine did not originate with me, or with Comly, or with any American author. In Coar's English Grammar, published in London in 1796.

the phrase _to trample_ is pa.r.s.ed thus: "_To_--A preposition, serving for a sign of the infinitive mood to the verb _Trample_--A verb neuter, infinitive mood, present tense, _governed by the preposition_ TO before it.

RULE. The preposition _to_ before a verb, is the sign of the infinitive mood." See the work, p. 263. This was written by a gentleman who speaks of his "long habit of teaching the Latin Tongue," and who was certainly partial enough to the principles of Latin grammar, since he adopts in English the whole detail of Latin cases.