blow, he must die." may be rescued." he "If proper means be resorted to, 152. Having gone through our four first heads, person, number, time, and mode, I will give you a verb with all its varyings, to answer to these several purposes. Although you will observe, that some of the verbs in the conjugation are defective in the number of times or persons, let it be no obstacle to you, as I shall yet make all these differences clear. 153. To conjugate a verb, is to give all its varyings. The following is a conjugation of the verb * Ye may be used in the second person plural, as, " You or ye love.” 1. I 1. We shall or will love FUTURE PERFECT TNSE. 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. 1. I Plural. 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 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 |