Part 134 (1/2)
”_To die;--to sleep;--To sleep_! perchance, _to dream_!”--_Id, Hamlet_
OBS 28--The infinitive usually _follows_ the word on which it depends, or to which the particle _to_ connects it; but this order is so I aer in suspense, [I say plainly,] Sir Roger de Coverly is dead”--_Addison_ ”To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal”--_Milton_
”To catch your vivid scenes, too gross her hand”--_Thoh, in respect to its syntax, the infinitive is oftener connected with a verb, a participle, or an adjective, than with a noun or a pronoun, it should never be so placed that the reader will be liable to _ to which, the being, action, or passion, pertains Exa time to be executed as it should be”--_Journal of N Y Lit Convention_, 1830, p 91 It is not the _time_, that is to be executed; therefore say, ”This syste tih to be heard_ by the whole assembly”--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p 192 This ira alternative: ”Or--_He spoke distinctly enough to be heard_ by the whole asseests that the ure that pleases them, they are loth to part with it, and frequently continue it so long, as to become tedious and intricate”--_Murray's Graure_, that becomes tedious and intricate? If the latter, strike out, ”_so long, as to becoreatest consequence _to be re”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 272 The rhetorician here ument, are always those parts of it, which it is most important that the hearers should be rammarians, ”The Infinitive of the verb _to be_, is often _understood_; as, 'I considered it [_to be_] necessary to send the dispatches'”--_W Allen's Gram_, p 166 In this example, as in thousands more, of various for the sense; but I doubt the necessity of supposing an ellipsis in such sentences The adjective or participle that follows, always relates to the preceding objective; and if a noun is used, it is but an other objective in apposition with the former: as, ”I considered _it_ an _imposition_” The verb _to be_, with the perfect participle, forms the passive infinitive; and the supposition of such an ellipsis, extensively affects one'sThus, ”He considered himself _insulted_,” ”I will suppose the work _accoht be supposed to contain passive infinitives Allen says, ”In the following construction, the words in _italics_ are (elliptically) passive infinitives; I saw the bird _caught_, and the hare _killed_; we heard the letters _read_”--_W Allen's Gram_, p 168 Dr Priestley observes, ”There is a reuity in the use of the participle _preterite_, as the sa, or done; as, I went to see the child _dressed_”--_Priestley's Graine that Allen's infinitives are just as much so ”The _participle_ which we deno_: thus, I saw the _battle fought_, and the _standard lowered_”--_Wilson's Essay_, p 158 Sometimes, especially in familiar conversation, an infinitive verb is suppressed, and the sign of it retained; as, ”They ht _to_” [have aided us]--_Herald of Freedom_ ”We have tried to like it, but it's hard _to_”--_Lynn News_
OBS 31--After the verb _make_, some writers insert the verb _be_, and suppress the preposition _to_; as, ”He _must make_ every syllable, and even every letter, in the hich he pronounces, _be heard_ distinctly”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 329; _Murray's E Reader_, p 9 ”You _must make_ yourself _be heard_ with pleasure and attention”--_Duncan's Cicero_, p 84 ”To _make_ himself _be heard_ by all”--_Blair's Rhet_, p
328 ”To _h to _make_ me _be_ understood”--_Locke, on Ed_, p 198 In my opinion, it would be better, either to insert the _to_, or to use the participle only; as, ”The information which he possessed, _made_ his company _to be_ courted”--_Dr M'Rie_ ”Which will both show the importance of this rule, and _make_ the application of it _to be_ understood”--_Blair's Rhet_, p
103 Or, as in these brief forh to _es in which the infinitive is distinguished as such by its termination, this part of the verb lish it is always necessary to retain the sign _to_ before an abstract infinitive, because there is nothing else to distinguish the verb froe and the French, although it has been shown, that in their governous:--”HAR est un tourur ”To hate_ is a torment; _to love_ is a requisite of the soul” If froue that _to_ is not here a preposition, the saood, to prove that _for_ is not a preposition when it governs the objective case; because that also may be used without any antecedent term of relation: as, ”They are by no means points of equal importance, _for me to be deprived_ of your affections, and _for him to be defeated_ in his prosecution”--_Anon, in W Allen's Gran _to_ must _always_ be put before an abstract infinitive: but possibly a _repetition_ of this sign may not always be necessary, when several such infinitives occur in the same construction: as, ”But, _to fill_ a heart with joy, _restore_ content to the afflicted, or _relieve_ the necessitous, these fall not within the reach of their five senses”--_Art of Thinking_, p 66 It rammatical; yet it would be as well or better, to express it thus: ”But _to relieve_ the necessitous, _to restore_ content to the afflicted, _and to fill_ a heart with joy, these full not within the reach of their five senses”
OBS 33--In the use of the English infinitive, as well as of the participle in _ing_, the distinction of _voice_ is often disregarded; the active for used in what, with respect to the noun before it, is a passive sense: as, ”There's no time _to waste_”--_W Allen's Gra-bird is delightful _to look_ upon”--_Ib_ ”What pain it was _to drown_”--_Shak_ ”The thing's _to do_”--_Id_ ”When deed of danger was _to do_”--_Scott_ ”The evil I bring upon _, p 27
”Pride is worse _to bear_ than cruelty”--_Ib_, p 37 These are in fact active verbs, and not passive We ents for them, if we please; as, ”There is no ti_ may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere It seems someti_, is worth _doing well_”--_Coreeable, than to say, ”What is worth _being done_, is worth _being done well_” In respect to the voice of the infinitive, and of this participle, rammarians are obviously hypercritical For example: ”The active voice should not be used for the passive; as, I have work _to do_: a house _to sell, to let_, instead of _to be done, to be sold, to be let_”--_Sanborn's Gram_, p 220 ”Active verbs are often used inification, as, 'the house is _building_, lodgings to _let_, he has a house to _sell_, nothing is _wanting_;' in stead of 'the house is _being built_, lodgings to _be lett_, he has a house to _be_ sold, nothing is _wanted_'”--_Blair's Graraphy, and the use of capitals, here are ard to such phraseology as, ”The house _is being built_,” see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Coation To say, ”I have work _to do_,”--”He has a house _to sell_,”--or, ”We have lodgings _to let_,” is just as good English, as to say, ”I have meat _to eat_”--_John_, iv, 32 And who, but sorammar, would, in all such instances, prefer the passive voice?
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVIII
INFINITIVES DEMANDING THE PARTICLE TO
”William, please hand me that pencil”--_R C Smith's New Gram_, p 12
[FORMULE--Not proper, because the infinitive verb _hand_ is not preceded by the preposition _to_ But, according to Rule 18th, ”The preposition _to_ governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb”
Therefore, _to_ should be here inserted; thus, ”William, please _to_ hand me that pencil”]
”Please insert points so as to make sense”--_Davis's Gram_, p 123 ”I have known Lords abbreviate allish Gram_, -- 153 ”We shall find the practice perfectly accord with the theory”--_Knight, on the Greek Alphabet_, p 23 ”But it would tend to obscure, rather than elucidate the subject”--_L Murray's Gram_, p 95
”Please divide it for them as it should be”--_Willett's Arith_, p 193
”So as neither to embarrass, nor weaken the sentence”--_Blair's Rhet_, p
116; _Murray's Gram_, 322 ”Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare,[413] and hear his heavenly discourse”--SHERLOCK: _Blair's Rhet_, p
157; _Murray's Gram_, 347 ”That we need not be surprised to find this hold in eloquence”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 174 ”Where he has no occasion either to divide or explain”--_Ib_, p 305 ”And they will find their pupils improve by hasty and pleasant steps”--_Russell's Gram_, Pref, p
4 ”The teacher however will please observe,” &c--_Infant School Gram_, p 8 ”Please attend to a few rules in what is called syntax”--_Ib_, p
128 ”They may dispense with the laws to favor their friends, or secure their office”--_Webster's Essays_, p 39 ”To take back a gift, or break a contract, is a wanton abuse”--_Ib_, p 41 ”The legislature has nothing to do, but let it bear its own price”--_Ib_, p 315 ”He is not to form, but copy characters”--_Ra-horn”--_Spect_, No 536 ”Finding this experiment answer, in every respect, their wishes”--_Sandford and Merton_, p 51 ”In fine let hiument conclude in the term of the question”--_Barclay's Works_, Vol iii, p 443
”That he perhly”--_Shakspeare, Hamlet_
RULE XIX--INFINITIVES The active verbs, _bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see_, and their participles, usually take the Infinitive after them without the preposition _to_: as, ”If he _bade_ thee _depart_, how _darest_ thou _stay_?”--”I _dare_ not _let_ my mind _be_ idle as I walk in the streets”--_Cotton Mather_
”Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep, Shall neither _hear_ thee _sigh_, nor _see_ thee _weep_”
--_Pope's Homer_
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIX
OBS 1--Respecting the syntax of the infinitive rammarians are almost as much at variance, as I have shown them to be, when they find the particle eoverned by verbs_, Lindley Murray, and some others, are the most clear and positive, where their doctrine is the ht have affiroverns the latter_, they only tell us that ”the preposition TO _is sometimes properly omitted_,”--or that such and such verbs ”_have con TO”--_Murray's Graer's_, 63; _W Allen's_, 167, and others If these authors meant, that the preposition _to_ is oht to have said so Then the ht at least have understood him alike Then, too, any proper definition of _ellipsis_about this construction also If the word _to_ is really ”understood,” whenever it is omitted after _bid, dare, feel_, &c, as so word, if anywhere; and this nineteenth rule, however colish verb ever govern the infinitive without governing also a _preposition_, ”expressed or understood” Whatever is os to the grammatical construction; and therefore, if inserted, it cannot be actually _irammarians admit, that _to_ before the infinitive is sometimes ”superfluous _and iine, there cannot be any proper ellipsis of _to_ before the infinitive, except in some forms of comparison; because, wherever else it is necessary, either to the sense or to the construction, it ought to be inserted And wherever the _to_ is rightly used, it is properly the governing word; but where it cannot be inserted without _impropriety_, it is absurd to say, that it is ”_understood_” The infinitive that is put after such a verb or participle as excludes the preposition _to_, is governed by this verb or participle, if it is governed by any thing: as,
”To make them _do, undo, eat, drink, stand, move, Talk, think_, and _feel_, exactly as he chose”--_Pollok_, p 69