1. I 3. They shall or will love FUTURE PERFECT TENSE. shall or will have loved 1. We shall or will have loved 2. Thou shalt or wilt have loved 2. You shall or will have loved 3. He shall or will have loved 3. They shall or will have loved 3. He may, can, or must love 3. They may, can, or must love 1. I PAST TENSE. might, could, would, or 1. We might, could, would, or 2. Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, 2. You might, could, would, or or shouldst love should love 3. He might, could, would, or 3. They might, could, would, or PAST PERFECT TENSE. Singular. Plural. 1. I might, could, would, or 1. We might, could, would, or should have loved should have loved 2. Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, 2. You might, could, would, or shouldst have loved 3. He might, could, would, or should have loved or should have loved 3. They might, could, would, or should have loved The tenses of this mood are like the indicative, with if, though, or some other conditional connecting word preceding. IMPERATIVE MOOD. 2. Love, or love thou, or do 2. Love, or love you, or do ye 154. In the preceding conjugation the verbs have, shall, will, may, can, might, could, would, and must, are necessarily added to the past or present time of the verb to love. All these aiders are called auxiliaries, or helping verbs. 155. You will observe, that when one of these little aiders is used, the inflections of person, except must, which has no variation, are made in the auxiliary, and not in the principal verb love or loved. 156. If you look at the present indicative and the present potential, you will see that the principal verb has three forms of spelling, while the auxiliary is always the same, except for the second person singular. This is the case with all auxiliary verbs. 157. Do, have, may, can, am, must, shall, will, are called present, while did, had, might, was, must, should, would, are denominated past. 158. None of our verbs admit of more than the present and past tenses, without the aid of auxiliaries. Mr. Wallis, one of our earliest English grammarians, in harmany with this, admits verbs to have only two tenses. Dr. Crombie 66 says, These," the present and past, are the only two tenses in our language formed by varying the termination; the only two tenses, therefore, which properly belong to it." 66 159. It must be conclusive to any reader who fully understands the nature of English verbs, that it is the least objectionable to theorise on the position that verbs have only two tenses-the present and past. 160. Of all the auxiliaries, HAVE, DO, and BE, are uppermost both in use and importance. They are often principal verbs, and, in that capacity, are of more frequent occurrence than any other principal verbs. After I have laid before you what is meant by voice, I shall give you a conjugation of each. VOICES. 161. Voice is nothing more than a term which grammarians use to signify the different kinds of verbs. All verbs are active, passive, or neuter. 162. Dr. Crombie says, that verbs are all of the active voice, while Mr. Webster admits them to be neither active, passive, nor neuter, but transitive and intransi tive. Notwithstanding all the weighty arguments for which such names too often stand as substitutes, in my opinion, to divide verbs into active, passive, and neuter, allowing that divisions are necessary, which I much question, is by far the best and most perspicuous arrangement. THE ACTIVE VERB. 163. A verb active conveys the action of an actor to some object, or receiver, upon which such action operates. "John whips," leaves us in anticipation of hearing what it is that John does whip, and we naturally inquire, "Whom, or what does he whip?" The verb whips has no object, or receiver, and, therefore, the sense is incomplete, and some name must follow in order to complete it, as, "John whips his top," or "John whips his pony." So it is with all active verbs-they must be placed between two names, the one preceding, to represent the actor, or agent, and the one succeeding, to represent the object, called the receiver, upon which the action of the agent is supposed to operate. THE PASSIVE VERB. 164. The passive form of the verb conveys precisely the same meaning as its active form, but differs greatly in spelling, as, “The top is whipped by John," for "John whips the top." Is whipped is the passive verb. It is always compounded of two words. 165. But there is another particular relative to the passive verb. The name, which is the receiver of the action conveyed by the active verb, becomes the actor of the passive, and is placed before it, as the recipient G of its energy, while that which is the subject, or actor, becomes the object, or receiver, and follows it. “He (the actor) ADORES her (the receiver)," is the same as "She (now the actor) IS ADORED by him (now the receiver)." 166. The passive verb does not always require to be followed by a name, but, when it is not, a name is understood. We can say, "The top is whipped," "his pony is whipped," " the country is governed," "books are printed," but after every one of these passsive verbs, by some person or persons is understood. THE NEUTER VERB. 167. I must now remind you, that the word neuter means neither: hence neuter verbs are neither active nor passive. Neuter verbs express the doing of something, except the verb to be, with its inflections, but they do not, like active verbs, require an object, or receiver, for the action to operate upon. The action expressed by the neuter verb is confined to the actor alone, as, "John walks." "John talks." “John whistles." "John sleeps." "John breathes." But we cannot say, "John strikes," without begetting in the mind of the person addressed the question, "Whom or what does he strike?" Strikes being active, the table or some other name must succeed, in order to effect a completion of the sense, as, " John strikes the table." THE ACTIVE AND THE NEUTER VERB. 168. The same verb may be active in one place and neuter in another. "John sleeps time away," is |