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

the bird caught, and the hare killed; we heard the letters read."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 168. Dr. Priestley observes, "There is a remarkable ambiguity in the use of the participle preterite, as the same word may express a thing either doing, or done; as, I went to see the child dressed."—Priestley's Gram., p. 125. If the Doctor's participle is ambiguous, I imagine that Allen's infinitives are just as much so. "The participle which we denominate past, often means an action whilst performing: 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 might have aided us; they ought 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 word which 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 make ourselves be heard by one."—Ibid. "Clear enough 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 forms: "To make himself heard by all."—"Clear enough to make me understood."

OBS. 32.—In those languages in which the infinitive is distinguished as such by its termination, this part of the verb may be used alone as the subject of a finite verb; but in English it is always necessary to retain the sign to before an abstract infinitive, because there is nothing else to distinguish the verb from a noun. Here we may see a difference between our language and the French, although it has been shown, that in their government of the infinitive they are in some degree analogous:—"HAÏR est un tourment; AIMER est un besoin de l'âme."—M. de Ségur. "To hate is a torment; to love is a requisite of the soul." If from this any will argue that to is not here a preposition, the same argument will be as good, 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 Gram., p. 166. I said, the sign 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 may be too much to affirm, that this is positively ungrammatical; 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 form being used in what, with respect to the noun before it, is a passive sense: as, "There's no time to waste."—W. Allen's Gram., p. 82. "You are to blame."—Ib. "The humming-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 myself, is the hardest to bear."—Home's Art of Thinking, p. 27. "Pride is worse to bear than cruelty."—Ib., p. 37. These are in fact active verbs, and not passive. We may suggest agents for them, if we please; as, "There is no time for us to waste." That the simple participle in ing may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere. It seems sometimes to have no distinction of voice; as, "What is worth doing, is worth doing well."—Com. Maxim. This is certainly much more agreeable, 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, many of our grammarians 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 improperly with a passive signification, 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 Gram., p. 64. In punctuation, orthography, and the use of capitals, here are more errors than it is worth while to particularize. With regard to such phraseology as, "The house is being built," see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Compound Form of Conjugation. 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 some sciolist in grammar, 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 almost the half of their words."—Cobbett's English 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."—Rambler, No. 122. "I have known a woman make use of a shoeing-horn."—Spect., No. 536. "Finding this experiment answer, in every respect, their wishes."—Sandford and Merton, p. 51. "In fine let him cause his argument conclude in the term of the question."—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 443.

   "That he permitted not the winds of heaven
    Visit her face too roughly."—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 mood when the particle to is not expressed before it, our grammarians are almost as much at variance, as I have shown them to be, when they find the particle employed. Concerning verbs governed by verbs, Lindley Murray, and some others, are the most clear and positive, where their doctrine is the most obviously wrong; and, where they might have affirmed with truth, that the former verb governs the latter, they only tell us that "the preposition TO is sometimes properly omitted,"—or that such and such verbs "have commonly other verbs following them without the sign TO."—Murray's Gram., p. 183; Alger's, 63; W. Allen's, 167, and others. If these authors meant, that the preposition to is omitted by ellipsis, they ought to have said so. Then the many admirers and remodellers of Murray's Grammar might at least have understood him alike. Then, too, any proper definition of ellipsis must have proved both them and him to be clearly wrong about this construction also. If the word to is really "understood," whenever it is omitted after bid, dare, feel, &c., as some authors, affirm, then is it here the governing word, if anywhere; and this nineteenth rule, however common, is useless to the parser.[414] Then, too, does no English verb ever govern the infinitive without governing also a preposition, "expressed or understood." Whatever is omitted by ellipsis, and truly "understood," really belongs to the grammatical construction; and therefore, if inserted, it cannot be actually improper, though it may be unnecessary. But all our grammarians admit, that to before the infinitive is sometimes "superfluous and improper."—Murray's Gram., p. 183. I imagine, 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.

OBS. 2.—Ingersoll, who converted Murray's Grammar into "Conversations," says, "I will just remark to you that the verbs in the infinitive mood, that follow make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, and their participles, are always GOVERNED by them."—Conv. on Eng. Gram., p. 120. Kirkham, who pretended to turn the same book into "Familiar Lectures," says, "To, the sign of the infinitive mood, is often understood before the verb; as, 'Let me proceed;' that is, Let me to proceed."—Gram. in Fam. Lect., p. 137. The lecturer, however, does not suppose the infinitive to be here governed by the preposition to, or the verb let, but rather by the pronoun me. For, in an other place, he avers, that the infinitive may be governed by a noun or a pronoun; as, "Let him do it."—Ib., p. 187. Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objective noun or pronoun that intervenes, none of those verbs that take the infinitive after them without the preposition, will usually be found to govern it, except dare and need; and if need, in such a case, is an auxiliary, no government pertains to that. R. C. Smith, an other modifier of Murray, having the same false notion of ellipsis, says, "To, the usual sign of this mood, is sometimes understood; as, 'Let me go,' instead of, 'Let me to go.'"—Smith's New Gram., p. 65. According to Murray, whom these men profess to follow, let, in all these examples, is an auxiliary, and the verb that follows it, is not in the infinitive mood, but in the imperative. So they severally contradict their oracle, and all are wrong, both he and they! The disciples pretend to correct their master, by supposing "Let me to go," and "Let me to proceed," good English!

OBS. 3.—It is often impossible to say by what the infinitive is governed, according to the instructions of Murray, or according to any author who does not parse it as I do. Nutting says, "The infinitive mode sometimes follows the comparative conjunctions, as, than, and how, WITHOUT GOVERNMENT."—Practical Gram., p. 106. Murray's uncertainty[415] may have led to some part of