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reduced to one syllable, subject to very little variation, and to give still greater brevity to their employment, they commonly drop the following word to, used with other verbs, as the sign of the infinitive mood. They denote actions, depending on the contingencies of human affairs; thus, I may, can, will, must, dare go, next week, all refer to some relative condition in which the actor is placed. When, on the contrary, we speak of the actions of men, unconnected with extraneous circumstances, we adopt the same form of expression, as is used in reference to the Being who is above all change. "They are to go, tomorrow;" that is, the thing is understood and determined; and, independent of any expected intervention, or alteration of purpose, is so to be.

244. If words of constant occurrence in language were long and regular, their repetition would be irksomely monotonous. By their familiarity they are easily understood, in all their modified forms; while words seldom used, have need of being confined to the prevailing rules of speech. In some instances, parts of two or more words are taken, to make out the moods and tenses, of what comes at last to be considered as the variations of a single verb.

Of this kind are go, went, gone. The verb to wend, so common in the old books, is seldom seen in modern literature; while its past tense, went, familiarly retained, has long been represented as a part of the verb to go. This latter term, too, should seem from grammar books, never to have had any other past tense.

These remarks apply to the verb meaning to go, in nearly every known language. It is necessary, however, to understand, that the verb go has ac

quired a more definite application, in modern practice, than in its original acceptation; for it primarily included the meaning of the Latin ago, and, instead of implying only progressive motion, denoted almost every kind of activity.

245. In languages designating the relations of actions and things, by various inflexions, in single words, the modified beginnings or endings for this purpose are distinct original terms, generally in a contracted form. The prefixes and postfixes, in Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabian, Samaritan, and other eastern tongues, are too evidently of this kind, to need any time in explanation.

These observations have no reference to affixing a pronoun to a verb, and which has relation to persons, and not to tenses: neither do they apply to the appended terminations of nouns, serving the purpose of specifying adjectives, or articles, as in Persian, Greek, Latin, and other tongues.

246. The changes wrought on what is considered as a single word, to express different relations of time, are made by adding one verb to an other; and, in most languages, some form of the verbs do, have, be, or go. The same or almost any other verb may be, occasionally and separately, employed for this auxiliary" purpose.

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There is no particular set of words, distinctively and properly called "auxiliaries," in any language; because it is not consistent with the intellectual and physical condition of man, that any ever should be so formed.

"Reader, go tell at Sparta, that we died here in obedience to her laws."-Monumental Inscription at Thermopyla, as given by Dr. Goldsmith.

It happens, in practice, however, that a limited

number of verbs, by the fitness of their specific meauing, are more generally employed in this

manner.

In Latin, and perhaps other languages generally, the first form of the imperative mood appears to be the real radical verb, and not the infinitive, nor the indicative of the first person.

247. Any good Latin scholar may soon prepare for himself, a table of verbal formations, much more simple, rational, and correct, than any hitherto proposed. He may take for this purpose the helping verbs ago; eo, ire; and sum. fui, esse; amabam, ama-ibam; ama-vi, ama-ivi; ama-ibo, and so of others. Sum is compounded with itself, as well as with other verbs. Fui-eram, fu-issem, fu-ero. Fueram, literally translated, is I was been, which, though contrary to modern practice in English, is exactly the philosophic principle, in the general use of verbs. It is extensively illustrated in the practice of many languages; as, in German, Ich bin gewesen, I am been, Ich war gewesen, I was been ; I am to be, I am to be been, I am to shall, I am to can, to will, to must; and so through the other forms. These remarks apply to all the conjugations of the Latin tongue, both in the "active" and "passive" voices.

A praxis of Latin verbs, according to these principles of analysis, would greatly facilitate the whole progress, in learning that very useful language; and would enable students to think for themselves, and observe their own progress, as they advanced.

248. The following is the long standing explanation, upon the endings of verbs, if it can be called

explanation, contained in Dr. Adam's Latin Grammar, which is one of those in highest repute in colleges and schools.

“There are four principal parts of a verb, from which all the rest are formed; namely, o, of the present, i, of the perfect, um of the supine, and re of the infinitive; according to the following rhyme:

1. From o are formed am and em.

2. From i; ram, rim, ro, sse, and ssem.

3. U, us, and rus, are formed from um.

4. All other parts from re do come; as, bam, bo, rem, a, e, and i; ns, and dus; dum, do, and di; as, amo, em; &c."

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The grammar of this rule is worse than the etry. Whatever truth it contains, is entirely incidental, and not according to the plain and simple manner in which it is always becoming that truth should be told.

We might suppose that England and America were at the climax of grammatical perplexity, if the books used in the universities of Portugal and Spain did not convince us, that, in a true system of scholastic tradition, one age refining on the visionary theories of an other, may carry the mind beyond all our first conceptions of absurdity.

249. The two modern tongues with which we have most concern, next to our own, present a striking instance to show how the terminations of verbs are formed. The indicative future, both in French and Spanish, is made by regular endings, which have no exception in either. This ending in both is made by the indicative present of the verb to have; contracted, in part, in the French; and in the Spanish, he, has, ha, dropping the initial h, which is never sounded. Thus,j' ir-ai and yo ir-e, both answer, precisely, to the English constructive

future, "I have to go." But as it is not the design of this work to explain the grammar of foreign languages, this particular subject is dismissed with the few preceding hints.

250. In most known tongues, ancient and modern, there is no philosophic principle, nor consistent verbal rule, for ascribing more than three real, or at most five grammatical tenses, to verbs. Mr. Murray makes six; but the attempts to name, classify, and describe them, sufficiently manifest the impropriety of the whole scheme. Mr. Churchill's late London grammar has nine tenses in the potential mood: the "Hermes" of Mr. Harris makes twelve; Dr. Beattie has thirty-six, and thinks that a less number" would introduce confusion into the grammatical art." He might have made a hundred and thirty-six, upon the same principle; but the mind of this amiable and excellent man was much better formed for poetry than philosophy. The learned French grammarian, Mr. Bauzee, makes twenty tenses; and others, in that language, by different gradations, lessen the number down to five.

These systems are, all alike, formed on the plan of arbitrarily taking all the verbs in a proposition to make one tense. A plan so radically absurd need occasion no wonder, that hardly any two who adopt it, can understand it in the same way.

251. The names given to these tenses in Latin grammars, and thence derived into modern languages, sufficiently show the impropriety of the system. Preteritum plus quam perfectum, preter pluperfect, like other things, more than perfect, instead of really going beyond the point of perfection,

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