The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

10. To an interjection; as, "O to forget her!"—Young's Night Thoughts.

OBS. 25.—The infinitive is the mere verb, without affirmation, without person or number, and therefore without the agreement peculiar to a finite verb. (See Obs. 8th on Rule 2d.) But, in most instances, it is not without limitation of the being, action, or passion, to some particular person or persons, thing or things, that are said, supposed, or denied, to be, to act, or to be acted upon. Whenever it is not thus limited, it is taken abstractly, and has some resemblance to a noun: because it then suggests the being, action, or passion alone: though, even then, the active infinitive may still govern the objective case; and it may also be easy to imagine to whom or to what the being, action, or passion, naturally pertains. The uses of the infinitive are so many and various, that it is no easy matter to classify them accurately. The following are unquestionably the chief of the things for which it may stand:

1. For the supplement to an other verb, to complete the sense; as, "Loose him, and let him go."—John, xi, 44. "They that go to seek mixed wine."—Prov., xxiii, 30. "His hands refuse to labour."—Ib., xxi, 25. "If you choose to have those terms."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "How our old translators first struggled to express this."—Ib., ii, 456. "To any one who will please to examine our language."—Ib., ii, 444. "They are forced to give up at last."—Ib., ii, 375. "Which ought to be done."—Ib., ii, 451. "Which came to pass."—Acts, xi, 28. "I dare engage to make it out."—Swift.

2. For the purpose, or end, of that to which it is added; as, "Each has employed his time and pains to establish a criterion."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "I shall not stop now, to assist in their elucidation."—Ib., ii, 75. "Our purposes are not endowed with words to make them known."—Ib., ii, 74. [A] "TOOL is some instrument taken up to work with."—Ib., ii, 145. "Labour not to be rich."—Prov., xxiii, 4. "I flee unto thee to hide me."—Ps., cxliii, 9. "Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him."—Ib., cxl, 11.

3. For the object of an affection or passion; as, "He loves to ride."—"I desire to hear her speak again."—Shale. "If we wish to avoid important error."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 3. "Who rejoice to do evil."—Prov., ii, 14. "All agreeing in earnestness to see him."—Shak. "Our curiosity is raised to know what lies beyond."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 335.

4. For the cause of an affection or passion; as, "I rejoice to hear it."—"By which I hope to have laid a foundation," &c.—Blair's Rhet., p. 34. "For he made me mad, to see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet."—Beauties of Shak., p. 118. "Thou didst eat strange flesh, which some did die to look on."—Ib., p. 182. "They grieved to see their best allies at variance."—Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 165.

5. For the subject of a proposition, or the chief term in such subject; as, "To steal is sinful."—"To do justice and judgement, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."—Prov., xxi, 3. "To do RIGHT, is, to do that which is ordered to be done."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 7. "To go to law to plague a neighbour, has in it more of malice, than of love to justice."—Seattle's Mor. Sci., i, 177.

6. For the predicate of a proposition, or the chief term in such predicate; as, "To enjoy is to obey."—Pope. "The property of rain is to wet, and fire, to burn."—Beauties of Shak., p. 15. "To die is to be banished from myself."—Ib., p. 82. "The best way is, to slander Valentine."—Ib., p. 83. "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil."—Prov., xvi, 17.

7. For a coming event, or what will be; as, "A mutilated structure soon to fall."—Cowper. "He being dead, and I speedily to follow him."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 111. "She shall rejoice in time to come."—Prov., xxxi, 25. "Things present, or things to come."—1 Cor., iii, 22.

8. For a necessary event, or what ought to be; as, "It is to be remembered."—"It is never to be forgotten."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 2. "An oversight much to be deplored."—Ib., ii, 460. "The sign is not to be used by itself, or to stand alone; but is to be joined to some other term."—Ib., ii, 372. "The Lord's name is to be praised."—Ps., cxiii, 3.

9. For what is previously suggested by another word; as, "I have faith to believe."—"The glossarist did well here not to yield to his inclination."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 329. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."—Ps., xcii, 1. "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief."—Prov., x, 23. "They have the gift to know it."—Shak. "We have no remaining occupation but to take care of the public."—Art of Thinking, p. 52.

10. For a term of comparison or measure; as, "He was so much affected as to weep."—"Who could do no less than furnish him."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 408. "I shall venture no farther than to explain the nature and convenience of these abbreviations."—Ib., ii, 439. "I have already said enough to show what sort of operation that is."—Ib., ii, 358.

OBS. 26.—After dismissing all the examples which may fairly be referred to one or other of the ten heads above enumerated, an observant reader may yet find other uses of the infinitive, and those so dissimilar that they can hardly be reduced to any one head or rule; except that all are governed by the preposition to, which points towards or to the verb; as, "A great altar to see to."—Joshua, xxii, 10. "[Greek: Bomon megan tou idein]."—Septuagint. That is, "An altar great to behold." "Altare infinitæ magnitudinis."—Vulgate. "Un fort grand autel."—French Bible. "Easy to be entreated."—Jos., iii, 17. "There was none to help."—Ps., cvii, 12. "He had rained down manna upon them to eat."—Ps., lxxviii, 24. "Remember his commandments to do them."—Ps., viii, 18. "Preserve thou those that are appointed to die."—Ps., lxxix, 11. "As coals to burning coals, and as wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife."—Prov., xxvi, 21. "These are far beyond the reach and power of any kings to do away."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 126. "I know not indeed what to do with those words."—Ib., ii, 441. "They will be as little able to justify their innovation."—Ib., ii, 448. "I leave you to compare them."—Ib., ii, 458. "There is no occasion to attribute it."—Ib., ii, 375. "There is no day for me to look upon."—Beauties of Shak., p. 82. "Having no external thing to lose."—Ib., p. 100. "I'll never be a gosling to obey instinct."—Ib., p. 200. "Whereto serves mercy, but to confront the visage of offence?"—Ib., p. 233. "If things do not go to suit him."—Liberator, ix, 182. "And, to be plain, I think there is not half a kiss to choose, who loves an other best."—Shak., p. 91. "But to return to R. Johnson's instance of good man."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 370. Our common Bibles have this text: "And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull."—Judges, ix, 53. Perhaps the interpretation of this may be, "and so as completely to break his skull." The octavo edition stereotyped by "the Bible Association of Friends in America," has it, "and all-to brake his skull." This, most probably, was supposed by the editors to mean, "and completely broke his skull;" but all-to is no proper compound word, and therefore the change is a perversion. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the common French version, all accord with the simple indicative construction, "and broke his skull."

OBS. 27.—According to Lindley Murray, "The infinitive mood is often made absolute, or used independently on [say of] the rest of the sentence, supplying the place of the conjunction that with the potential mood: as, 'To confess the truth, I was in fault;' 'To begin with the first;' 'To proceed;' 'To conclude;' that is, 'That I may confess,' &c."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 184; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 244. Some other compilers have adopted the same doctrine. But on what ground the substitution of one mood for the other is imagined, I see not. The reader will observe that this potential mood is here just as much "made absolute," as is the infinitive; for there is nothing expressed to which the conjunction that connects the one phrase, or the preposition to the other. But possibly, in either case, there may be an ellipsis of some antecedent term; and surely, if we imagine the construction to be complete without any such term, we make the conjunction the more anomalous word of the two. Confession of the truth, is here the aim of speaking, but not of what is spoken. The whole sentence may be, "In order to confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault." Or, "In order that I may confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault." I do not deny, that the infinitive, or a phrase of which the infinitive is a part, is sometimes put absolute; for, if it is not so in any of the foregoing examples, it appears to be so in the following: "For every object has several faces, so to speak, by which it may be presented to us."—Blair's Rhet., p. 41. "To declare a thing shall be, long before it is in being, and then to bring about the accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration; this, or nothing, is the work of God."—Justin Martyr.

"To be, or not to be;—that is the question."—Shakspeare.

"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 sometimes reversed: as, "To beg I am ashamed."—Luke, xvi, 3. "To keep them no longer 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."—Thomson.

OBS. 29.—Though, 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 mistake the person to whom, or the thing to which, the being, action, or passion, pertains. Examples of error: "This system will require a long 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 system, to be executed as it should be, will require a long time." "He spoke in a manner distinct enough to be heard by the whole assembly."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 192. This implies that the orator's manner was heard! But the grammarian interprets his own meaning, by the following alternative: "Or—He spoke distinctly enough to be heard by the whole assembly."—Ibid. This suggests that the man himself was heard. "When they hit upon a figure that pleases them, they are loth to part with it, and frequently continue it so long, as to become tedious and intricate."—Murray's Gram., p. 341. Is it the authors, or their figure, that becomes tedious and intricate? If the latter, strike out, "so long, as to become," and say, "till it becomes." "Facts are always of the greatest consequence to be remembered during the course of the pleading."—Blair's Rhet., p. 272. The rhetorician here meant: "The facts stated in an argument, are always those parts of it, which it is most important that the hearers should be made to remember."

OBS. 30.—According to some grammarians, "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 forms, the verb to be may be inserted without affecting 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's mode of parsing. Thus, "He considered himself insulted," "I will suppose the work accomplished," and many similar sentences, might be supposed to contain passive infinitives. Allen says, "In the following construction, the words in italics are (elliptically) passive infinitives; I saw