Part 57 (2/2)

”Since the ti our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's suspension or pause”--_Murray's Key_, p 271; _Merchant's Graht in the sa shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live”--_Esther_, iv, 11--”But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all”--_Luke_, xvii, 29 ”In the next place I will explain several cases of nouns and pronouns which have not yet come under our notice”--_Kirkham's Gram_, p 129 ”Three natural distinctions of time are all which can exist”--_Rail's Gram_, p 15 ”We have exhibited such only as are obviously distinct; and which seem to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient”--_Murray's Gram_, p 68; _Hall's_, 14 ”This point encloses a part of a sentence whichthe connexion of the other members”--_Hall's Gram_, p 39 ”Consonants are letters, which cannot be sounded without the aid of a Vowel”--_Bucke's Gram_, p 9 ”Words are not si to the mind”--_Ib_, p 16 ”Nature's postures are always easy; and which isbut your oill can put you out of theht we to examine our ownselves, and prove our ownselves”--_Barclay's Works_, i, 426 ”Certainly it had been much more natural, to have divided Active Verbs into _Immanent_, or such whose Action is terminated in it self, and _Transient_, or such whose Action is ter without it self”--_Johnson's Grae which no other lexicon will afford”--DR TAYLOR: _in Pike's Lex_, p iv ”For these reasons, such liberties are taken in the Hebrew tongue with those words as are of the eneral and frequent use”--_Pike's Heb Lexicon_, p 184 ”At the same tiuage would iainst those authors, who are too fond of innovations”--_Murray's Gram_, Vol i, p

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CHAPTER VI--VERBS

A Verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon_: as, I _am_, I _rule_, I _am ruled_; I _love_, thou _lovest_, he _loves_ VERBS are so called, from the Latin _Verbum_, a _Word_; because the verb is that hich most essentially contains what is said in any clause or sentence

An English verb has four CHIEF TERMS, or PRINcipaL PARTS, ever needful to be ascertained in the first place; namely, the _Present_, the _Preterit_, the _Imperfect Participle_, and the _Perfect Participle_ The _Present_ is that form of the verb, which is the root of all the rest; the verb itself; or that simple term which we should look for in a dictionary: as, _be, act, rule, love, defend, terminate_

The _Preterit_ is that simple form of the verb, which denotes time past; and which is always connected with so the subject of the assertion: as, _I was, I acted, I ruled, I loved, I defended_

The _I_, and i, action, or passion: as, _being, acting, ruling, loving, defending, ter_

The _Perfect Participle_ is that which ends com, action, or passion: as, _been, acted, ruled, loved_

CLassES

Verbs are divided, with respect to their _forular, redundant_ and _defective_

I A _regular verb_ is a verb that for _d_ or _ed_; as, _love, loved, loving, loved_

II An _irregular verb_ is a verb that does not for _d_ or _ed_; as, _see, saw, seeing, seen_

III A _redundant verb_ is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect participle in two or ular; as, _thrive, thrived_ or _throve, thriving, thrived_ or _thriven_

IV A _defective verb_ is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but few of the ht, quoth_

Verbs are divided again, with respect to their _signification_, into four classes; _active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive_, and _neuter_

I An _active-transitive_ verb is a verb that expresses an action which has so for its object; as, ”Cain _slew Abel_”--”Cassius _loved Brutus_”

II An _active-intransitive_ verb is a verb that expresses an action which has no person or thing for its object; as, ”John _walks_”--”Jesus _wept_”

III A _passive verb_ is a verb that represents its subject, or what the no acted upon; as, ”I _am compelled_”--”Caesar _was slain_”

IV A _neuter verb_ is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but siht”--”The babe _sleeps_”

OBSERVATIONS

OBS 1--So various have been the views of our gra this complex andthat is contained in any theory or distribution of the English verbs, may be considered a matter of opinion and of dispute Nay, the essential nature of a verb, in Universal Grammar, has never yet been determined by any received definition that can be considered unobjectionable The greatest and ists confess that a faultless definition of this part of speech, is difficult, if not impossible, to be formed Horne Tooke, at the close of his Diversions of Purley, cites with contempt nearly a dozen different attelish, soust, breaks off the catalogue and the conversation together, leaving his readers to guess, if they can, what he conceived a verb to be He ht have added some scores of others, and probably would have been as little satisfied with any one of theiven above, ree the purpose of distinction; but, after all, we e what is, and what is not a verb, chiefly from our own observation of the sense and use of words[222]

OBS 2--Whether _participles_ ought to be called verbs or not, is a question that has been much disputed, and is still variously decided; nor is it possible to settle it in any way not liable to some serious objections The same may perhaps be said of all the forms called _infinitives_ If the essence of a verb be made to consist in affirrammars,) neither infinitives nor participles can be reckoned verbs, without a manifest breach of the definition Yet are the former almost universally treated as verbs, and by some as the only pure verbs; nor do all deny them this rank, who say that affirmation is _essential_ to a verb Participles, when unconnected with auxiliaries, are most commonly considered a separate part of speech; but in the formation of many of our moods and tenses, we take them as _constituent parts of the verb_ If there is absurdity in this, there isto avoid it; and the inconvenience should be sub in practice With auxiliaries, then, participles _are verbs_: without auxiliaries, they are _not verbs_, but form a separate part of speech

OBS 3--The nue, amounts unquestionably to four or five thousand; soht thousand All these, whatever be the nuular_ in their forues in our graular, redundant, and defective verbs, put together, are _commonly_ reckoned fewer than two hundred I adular verbs, therefore, are vastly more numerous than those which deviate from the stated form But, since many of the latter are words of very frequent occurrence, the irregular verbs appear exceedingly nureat deal of attention The defective verbs being very few, andmere auxiliaries, which are never parsed separately, there is little occasion to treat theh Murray and others have ranked them so, and perhaps it is best to follow their exaular in one for of course always found written either one way or the other, as each author chooses,to the class of regular or irregular verbs accordingly But, as their number is considerable, and their character peculiar, therethem a separate class

Besides, the definition of an irregular verb, as given in any of our grammars, seems to exclude all such as _may_ for _d_ or _ed_

OBS 4--In rammars and dictionaries, verbs are divided, with respect to their signification, into three classes only; _active, passive_, and _neuter_ In such a division, the class of _active_ verbs includes those only which are _active-transitive_, and all the _active-intransitive_ verbs are called _neuter_ But, in the division adopted above, _active-intransitive_ verbs are arded as neuter, which imply a state of existence without action When, therefore, we speak of verbs without reference to their regimen, we may, if we please, apply the simple term active to all those which express _action_, whether _transitive_ or _intransitive_ ”We _act_ whenever we _do_ any thing; but we _”--_Crabb's Synonymes_