Part 64 (1/2)
MAY
PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT
_Sing_ I may, thou mayst, he may; _Plur_ We may, you may, they may
IMPERFECT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL IMPERFECT
_Sing_ I ht, they ht
CAN
PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT
_Sing_ I can, thou canst, he can; _Plur_ We can, you can, they can
IMPERFECT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL IMPERFECT
_Sing_ I could, thou couldst, he could; _Plur_ We could, you could, they could
MUST
PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT
_Sing_ I must, thou must, he must; _Plur_ We must, you must, they must
If must is ever used in the sense of the Imperfect tense, or Preterit, the form is the same as that of the Present: this word is entirely invariable
OBS 11--Several of the auxiliaries are occasionally used asquite unnecessary to the sense: as, 1 DO and DID: ”And it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest _do_ creep forth”--_Psalms_, civ, 20 ”And ye, that on the sands with printless foot _do_ chase the ebbing Neptune, and _do_ fly him when he comes back”--_Shak_ ”And if a man _did_ need a poison now”--_Id_ This needless use of do and did is now avoided by good writers 2 SHALL, SHOULD, and COULD: ”'Men _shall_ deal unadvisedly soive leisure to repent of' I _should_ advise you to proceed I _should_ think it would succeed He, it _should_ seem, thinks otherwise”--_W Allen's Grao”--_Ib_, p 71 3 WILL, &c The following are nearly of the same character, but not exactly: ”The isle is full of noises; so instru sports she _would_ steal in ath at noontide _would_ he stretch”--_Gray_
OBS 12--As our old writers often formed the infinitive in _en_, so they sometimes dropped the termination of the perfect participle Hence we find, in the infancy of the language, _done_ used for _do_, and _do_ for _done_; and that by the saes in other verbs: as, ”Thou canst nothing _done_”--_Chaucer_ ”As he ont to _done_”--_Id_ ”The treson that to women hath be _do_”--_Id_ ”For to _ben_ honourable and free”--_Id_ ”I am sworn to _holden_ it secre”--_Id_ ”Our nature God hath to hient than I you saie haue I not _bee_”--_Id_ See _W Allen's E Grae is _do_, That fals God was soone _go_”--GOWER: _H Tooke_, Vol i, p 376
OBS 13--”_May_ is froe also, it is used as an auxiliary It is exhibited by Fortescue, as a principal verb; 'They shall _may_ do it:' i e they shall be able (to) do it”--_W Allen's Gram_, p 70 ”_May not_, was formerly used for _must not_; as, 'Graces for which we _may not_ cease to sue'
Hooker”--_Ib_, p 91 ”_May_ frequently expresses doubt of the fact; as, 'I _may_ have the book in my library, but I think I have not' It is used also, to express doubt, or a consequence, with a future signification; as, 'I _may_ recover the use of my limbs, but I see little probability of it'--'That they _may_ receive me into their houses' _Luke_, xvi, 4”--_Churchill's Gram_, p 247 In these latter instances, the potential present is akin to the subjunctive Hence Lowth and others improperly call ”I _may love_,” &c the subjunctive mood Others, for the same reason, and with as little propriety, deny that we have any subjunctivethat bears that name: as, ”'If it (_may_) _be_ possible, live peaceably with all men' Scriptures”--_W Allen's Gra, and consequently occurs often in prayer: as, ”_May_ it be thy good pleasure;”--”O that it _may_ please thee;”--”_Mayst_ thou be pleased” Hence the potential is akin also to the imperative: the phrases, ”Thy will be done,”--”_May_ thy will be done,”--”Be thy will done,”--”_Let_ thy will be done,”--are alike in , but not in mood or construction
OBS 14--_Can_, to be able, is etyular verbs _ken_, to see, and _con_, to learn; all of the derived from the Saxon _connan_ or _cunnan_, to knohence also the adjective cunning, which was for example _will_ and _can_ are principal verbs: ”In evil, the best condition is, not to _will_; the second, not to _can_”--_Ld Bacon_ ”That a verb which signifies knowledge, nify power, appears from these examples: _Je ne saurois, I should not kno_, (i e _could_ not) [Greek: Asphalisasthe hos oidate], Strengthen it as you _kno_, (i e as you _can_) _Nescio_ mentiri, I _know not how to_ (ie _I cannot_) lie”--_W Allen's Granified to _owe_; for which reason _should_ literallyexample froinal :
”For, by the faith I _shall_ to God, I wene, Was neuer straungir none in hir degre”--_W Allen's Gram_, p 64
OBS 15--_Do_ and _did_ are auxiliary only to the present infinitive, or the radical verb; as, _do throw, did throw_: thus the mood of _do throw_ or _to throw_ is marked by _do_ or _to_ _Be_, in all its parts, is auxiliary to either of the si, to be thrown; I aation _Have_ and _had_, in their literal use, are auxiliary to the perfect participle only; as, _have thrown, had thrown Have_ is from the Saxon _habban_, to possess; and, from the nature of the perfect participle, the tenses thus foreneral a completion of the action The French idiom is similar to this: as, _J'ai vu_, I have seen _Shall_ and _should, will_ and _would, ht, can_ and _could,verb,) are severally auxiliary to both forms of the infinitive, and to these only: as, shall throw, shall have thrown; should throw, should have thrown_; and so of all the rest
OBS 16--The form of the indicative pluperfect is sometimes used in lieu of the potential pluperfect; as, ”If all the world could have seen it, the wo _had been_ universal”--_Shakspeare_ That is,--”_would have been_ universal” ”I _had been drowned_, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow”--_Id_ That is,--”I _should have been drowned_” This e_, in which one word or one modification is used for an other Similar to this is the use of _were_ for _would be_: ”It _were_ injustice to deny the execution of the law to any individual;” that is, ”it _would_ be injustice”--_Murray's Grammar_, p 89 In some instances, _were_ and _had been_ seem to have the same import; as, ”Good _were_ it for that man if he had never been born”--_Mark_, xiv, 21 ”It _had been_ good for that man if he had not been born”--_Matt_, xxvi, 24 In prose, all these licenses are needless, if not absolutely improper In poetry, their brevity may coht to be confined: as,