"It has been hot to-day." "This year has been very

"It has been dark this hour." "It has been wet this week." unhealthful."

"This has been a century of bloodshed." 170. Bear in mind, that the present perfect is inclusive, and the past, exclusive, of the present time.

171. The Past Perfect tense implies what was done at or before some other action or event took place, as, "I had loved." "She had learnt her lesson before the master began to exercise her."

172. The Future tense implies what is yet to come, as, "I will love." "I will go." "We shall hear from them."

173. The Future Perfect tense differs from the future in denoting the completion of some future action, while the future merely denotes what will take place, without reference to its completion. The future is, "We shall go." and the future perfect, "We shall have gone."

The latter sentence is incomplete, and, in order to its completion, it is necessary to state when it is our intention to have done the action, as "We shall have gone to-morrow," or, "We shall have gone when his lordship arrives."

MOODS OF VERBS.

174. It must now be observed, that we not only speak in reference to time, but vary our expressions, or manner of speaking, as circumstances may control; that is to say, we sometimes make a positive assertion, sometimes we give a command, and sometimes we speak conditionally, and so on. To distinguish these forms of expression, we are provided with the technical names Infinitive, Indicative, Imperative, Potential, and Subjunctive, to each of which we join the word mood, which signifies manner. We have, then, five moods, or manners, of speaking.

175. The Infinitive mood is a verb in its primitive, or original, form, as, "To love." "To talk."

176. The Present infinitive of the verb is the same as that which follows the forname I in the present tense, (except the verb to be) with to preceding, expressed or understood. It is never restricted by number or person, but always appears in one form, as, "Were I to pray.” "Wert thou to pray."

167. The word to makes a component part of the infi

nitive, for if we, in many of our verbs, divest this form of the to, it is immediately converted into a name. To sleep becomes sleep. To rest becomes rest. Hence the present infinitive is properly the name of the verb. The French infinitive includes the to, and is distinguished by a variation in spelling: Punir, in French, means to punish, and je punis means I punish. The only difference is, that in French, the spelling makes the distinction, while our infinitive is distinguished by the word to. The same may be said respecting the Latin, Greek, and other languages. The past infinitive is the present perfect tense, with to preceding, as, "To have loved."

178. The Indicative mood simply declares a thing, as, "I am." "He loves virtue." You are reading." Or it asks a question.

179. The Imperative mood commands, exhorts, entreats, or permits, as, "Get up"-that is I command you to get up. "Strive to improve"-that is I exhort you to strive to improve. 66 O Lord, enlighten our darkness"—that is we beseech Thee to enlighten our darkness. 66 Depart in peace"-that is I permit you to depart in peace.

180. The Potential mood implies possibility, liberty, power, will, or duty. Possibility: "He may be rescued." Liberty: "He may rescue his friend." Power: "He can rescue his friend." Will: "He would rescue his friend." Duty: "He should rescue his friend.

181. The Subjunctive mood implies doubt, or condition, and is generally preceded by if, though, or some other conditional connecting word, as, "If he strike not the blow, he must die." "If proper means be resorted to, he may be rescued."

182. When any verb is presented in all its varyings for person, number, time, and mode, it is called a Conjugation of such verb.

AUXILIARY VERBS.

183. If you have witnessed a conjugation of the verb to love, or any other principal verb, you have observed the verbs have, shall, will, may, can, might, could, would,

* For conjugation of to love, refer to the Index.

and must, necessarily placed before the principal verb, for the purpose of aiding, or enabling us to obtain all the tenses, except the present and past, which are the only tenses not compounded. From this circumstance of aiding in the formation of the tenses, Do, did; have, had; may, might; can, could; am, was; must; shall, should; will, would; are called auxiliaries, or helping verbs.

184. It may appropriately be observed, that when one of these little aiders is used, the inflections or changes for person, except in must, which, like the verb ought, has no variation, are made in the auxiliary, and not in the principal verb itself. For example, we say, I love, Thou lovest, He loves. But if we employ may, do, have, will, or any other auxiliary in connection with the verb To love, we use love after all the three persons, I, thou, and he, and change the auxiliary, as, I do love, Thou dost love, He does love.

185. Of the auxiliaries, do, have, may, can, am, must, shall, will, are called present, while did, had, might, was, must, should, would, are denominated past.

186. 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 harmony with this, admits verbs to have only two tenses, and Dr. Crombie 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." 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 the past.

187. Of all the auxiliaries, Have, Do, and Be,* are the most useful and important. They are often principal verbs, and, in that capacity, are of more frequent occurence than any other verbs in the language.

188. When a verb has only two forms of spelling, and that form which makes the past tense, and that which follows have in the present perfect, both end in ed, it is called a Regular verb. Do, having did and done, and have, having had in the past and present perfect, and all verbs varying like them, are Irregular verbs.

*For conjugation of each, refer to the Index.

189 The author is inclined to coincide with the observation of the learned Mr. Wallis, that did, hast, hath, has, had, shalt, wilt, are evidently contracted for doed, haveth, haves, haved, shallest, and willest. This opinion, which it is presumed no one is prepared to confute, admits that have was once regular, but the change wrought in it in the lapse of time, renders it now, according to the common definition, an irregular verb. Do had likewise ed in the the past, but done, unless it was originally doed, an opinion not very probable, must have always rendered it irregular.

190. Whenever do is employed in its auxiliary capacity, as in the case of "I do love" and "I did love," instead of "I love" and "I loved," it is called the emphatic form of the verb. When do is employed as an auxiliary, it of course takes the place of the principal verb in changing for time.

191. The author cannot resist the opportunity of giving an instance of learned and philosophical sagacity respecting the inflections of Do. Mr. Tooke supposes that did is correspondent to the termination ed in our regular verbs. This supposition, however, is arrested by Dr. Crombie, or the hypothesis might have had the gratuitous sanction of every pedant of the day. "Whence," says the Doctor, "arises the termination ed in doed, for which did itself is contracted?"

192. Another philosophical elucidation emanates from Mr. Gilchrist, in his "Philosophic Etymology." He considers did to be nothing more than do doubled. Repetition, the same author remarks, is a mode of expressing complete action. Now mark the test of application. When we say, "I did a thing," according to Mr. Gilchrist, it is correspondent to "I do do it." But still more to strengthen the expression, we cannot, on the same principle, be wrong in giving "I do do do it," for "I did do it."

193. Thus the anti-philosophical dogma of Gilchrist may be reduced to a most pitiable state of insignificancy. This, too, may assist us to form a pretty accurate idea of some of the anomalies which grammarians have long unhappily conjectured. It may be fearlessly avowed, that early conjectures have done more to cramp and paralize the judgment of later writers than all other things whatsoever, and hence they have contributed a large share towards filling modern grammars with erroneous and in

conclusive principles, which have proved highly detrimental to their utility.

194. If we put loving, or any other verb which ends in ing, after any of the inflections of the verb to be, we make what grammarians call the progressive form of the verb. If we use loved instead of loving, we make a passive verb. Progressive: "I am loving." Passive: "I am loved."

195. A remark scarcely need be made on the irregularities of the verb to be. They are clearly exhibited in the conjugation itself. "The variety of forms which to be assumes," says Dr. Crombie, "clearly shows that it has proceeded from different sources." The sources to which he alludes are, the Anglo-Saxon, Greek, Franco-Theatise, Gaelic, Latin, and other languages. Mr. Webb supposes are might have some relation to a Greek word signifying spring For anything apparent to the contrary, it might have as legitimate a relation to summer, autumn, or even winter.

196. As much uncertainty prevails amongst different writers on the present, the past, and the future tense of the subjunctive mood, and as the verb to be is, more particularly, a subject of difficulty, we may for a short time direct our notice to it.