The difficulties of English grammar and punctuation removed. To which is added a treatise on punctuation

aware are novel, but he feels so conscious of their propriety, that he shall retain his position until it shall be fairly proved that "I entreat, or command thee to let him to go," does not express exactly the meaning of "Let him go." This, he presumes, no one is prepared to prove, and he must, therefore, with these impressions, infer that the imperative mood has no existence in our language, the verbs in imperative sentences, when complete, being evidently infinitive, or unchangeable verbs.

229. When we say to a person, "Go," it is called the imperative mood, and of the second person. But why either? and why can we not render it, "I command or entreat thee to go," and make it an infinitive verb, and consequently of no person, instead of "Go thou?" The former is infinitely preferable, there being no agreement between go and thou. Goest is the inflection for the second person singular of to go, and goest only.

221. It is certain, however, that when the speaker, which is always the first person, gives a command, it must be directed to the person spoken to, which is always the second. But if we wish to call a command an imperative mood, it is not the verb alone but the whole sentence that must be included. And if we proceed upon this principle, we shall make an inroad for an ironical mood, and as many more moods as the most fastidious pedant of the age could wish.

222. These untoward circumstances mark out a pretty plausible apology for the introduction of

A NEW THEORY OF THE VERB.

TENSES OF VERBS.

223. Verbs have two Times or Tenses-the Present and the Past.

224. The Present tense expresses an action of the Present time.

Examples-I love him.

produces want. To love.

We learn grammar. Waste

225. The Past tense expresses an action of time past.

Examples-I loved him. We learned grammar. Το have loved.

226. Verbs are also of two kinds-Infinitive and Finite.

227. An Infinitive verb is one which undergoes no change for number or person.

Examples-To love. To have loved.

228. In speaking before on the infinitive verb, which we then called the Infinitive Mood, it was observed that the infinitive verb is a verb in its primitive, or original, form, as, To love. To talk.

229. Excepting the verb To be, the present infinitive of a verb is the same as the form it takes after I in the present tense, as, love. Love, then is the infinitive form, but

in order to make what is called the infinitive verb it requires that the word to should precede it, expressed or understood, and from this form it is never changed, whether used with or without a name or forname.

For example, we say, "I ought to love," in which the to is expressed, and "I must love," meaning to love, the to being understood. We say also indiscriminately, Were I to pray, or, Wert thou to pray, the infinitive being uncontrolled by the number or person of any name or forname. The to, as before remarked, is a component part of the infinitive; for, if we, in many of the verbs, divest this form of the word to, it is immediately converted into a name. To sleep becomes sleep. To rest becomes rest. Hence the present infinitive may not improperly be called the name of the verb.

230. Now, in contradistinction to these properties of the infinitive,

A Finite verb is one that is changed for number and person.

Examples-I love. Thou lovest. He loves. We love. You love. They love.

231. It is the case in English, that when two verbs come together, the former is a finite, or changable, verb, and the latter an infinitive, or unchangeable, verb, having

to expressed or implied, as, He wishes to go. go. Thou canst go-to go. He hopes to love. -to love.

We wish to
I dare love

232. Having now shewn you the whims and fancies of capricious writers, in impartially demonstrating how far grammar moods and tenses bear upon analogical consistency and practical utility, the author may now reduce his own opinions to something like system. And, presuming that you are already possessed of every necessary preparation relative to principal and auxiliary verbs, and that you are now fully prepared to bid a final adieu to the unhappy principles and sophistries of the old theories, we will set out by observing, that the auxiliary verbs have, shall, will, may, can, might could, would, must, were originally employed as separate verbs-not incorporated with what are called principal verbs, to make our emphatic, conditional, or other forms, and were followed by the present or past infinitive mood, as, "I do to love." "I shall to speak." "I may to go." "I can to have done."

233. Nor can this doctrine appear parodoxical, when it is considered that we not only ellipsize the to after the auxiliaries, but, to make the sound more agreeable, we often omit it after many of our principal verbs also, as, "I dare go"-to go. "He bade me sit still"—to sit still.

"He made me walk"-to walk. Whenever the to is not inserted after the principal verb, it is understood, and might be supplied. It is quite as proper to say, "I dare to go," as "I dare go," but the latter is more commonly in use, and hence, in sound, it is more agreeable.

234. That the auxiliaries were originally separate verbs, is corroborated by the fact, that whenever a sign is used in any compounded mood or tense, the inflections for person are made in the auxiliary and not in the principal verb, because the principal verb is, strictly speaking, in the infinitive mood. We never say, "Thou do lovest," but "Thou dost love."

235. If these preliminary observations are true, which, it may be remarked, are favoured by other writers in their observations on the principal and auxiliary verbs, it must, at least, be allowed that the auxiliary verbs are, in truth, as much independent, or principal, verbs, as any of the principal verbs which require the suppression of the to when followed by the infinitive mood. Thus far we are at

liberty. The question now arises, "Is the verb in the infinitive mood when the to is suppressed?" Grammarians say, "Yes, the verb is in the infinitive mood with the to expressed or understood." To this, it may be replied, that to is understood after every auxiliary!

236. And yet, although from the principles of grammarians just quoted, it cannot be denied that love, when it follows an auxiliary, is properly in the infinitive mood, and of the present tense, they tell us that "I will love" is in the indicative mood and of the future tense.

237. Hence comes the absurdity of one verb in Two moods and Two tenses at the same time!—the precise nature of all compounded verbs. The fact is, that there are no auxiliary verbs! What are so called are only verbs which require the suppression of the sign to in the succeeding infinitive verbs, like many of the principal verbs themselves, as, "I dare love," "I will love," meaning, "I dare to love," and "I will to love."

238. These views afford sufficient scope for the overthrow of everything like the common arrangement of the conditional and other verbs into a great diversity of moods and tenses, and make it more than probable, that the only tenses of our verbs are the present and past INFINITIVE, and the present and past FINITE, each of which tenses, and those only, both the principal and auxiliary verbs assume to carry out the multifarious moods and tenses exhibited in the usual conjugation of the verb to love, for which see Index.

239. On the broad principle of this theory, the author may proceed to lay before you a full conjugation of the verb to love.

240, To Conjugate a Verb is to give all its changes in form and application.

241. The following is a conjugation of the verb

242. The plural form of verbs, in the three persons, is the same as the first person singular. We, you, or they love. We, you, or they loved.

243. It may with propriety be maintained that the English verb is susceptible of no variation other than those exhibited in No. 241, and that all times and moods are formed by the simple union of two of those forms, as illustrated in the following General Conjugation:—

A GENERAL CONJUGATION.

PRESENT INFINITIVE.

TO GO.

FINITE VERBS (in the three persons singular), and the PRESENT INFINITIVE, with to implied: