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

this notion, but the idea that how is a "comparative conjunction," is a blunder entirely new. Kirkham is so puzzled by "the language of that eminent philologist," that he bolts outright from the course of his guide, and runs he knows not whither; feigning that other able writers have well contended, "that this mood IS NOT GOVERNED by any particular word." Accordingly he leaves his pupils at liberty to "reject the idea of government, as applied to the verb in this mood;" and even frames a rule which refers it always "To some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 188. Murray teaches that the object of the active verb sometimes governs the infinitive that follows it: as, "They have a desire to improve."—Octavo Gram., p. 184. To what extent, in practice, he would carry this doctrine, nobody can tell; probably to every sentence in which this object is the antecedent term to the preposition to, and perhaps further: as, "I have a house to sell"—Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "I feel a desire to excel." "I felt my heart within me die."—Merrick.

OBS. 4.—Nutting supposes that the objective case before the infinitive always governs it wherever it denotes the agent of the infinitive action; as, "He commands me to write a letter."—Practical Gram., p. 96. Nixon, on the contrary, contends, that the finite verb, in such a sentence, can govern only one object, and that this object is the infinitive. "The objective case preceding it," he says, "is the subject or agent of that infinitive, and not governed by the preceding verb." His example is, "Let them go."—English Parser, p. 97. "In the examples, 'He is endeavouring to persuade them to learn,'—'It is pleasant to see the sun,'—the pronoun them, the adjective pleasant, and the participle endeavouring, I consider as governing the following verb in the infinitive mode."—Cooper's Plain and Pract. Gram., p. 144. "Some erroneously say that pronouns govern the infinitive mode in such examples as this: 'I expected him to be present.' We will change the expression: 'He was expected to be present.' All will admit that to be is governed by was expected. The same verb that governs it in the passive voice, governs it in the active."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 144. So do our professed grammarians differ about the government of the infinitive, even in the most common constructions of it! Often, however, it makes but little difference in regard to the sense, which of the two words is considered the governing or antecedent term; but where the preposition is excluded, the construction seems to imply some immediate influence of the finite verb upon the infinitive.

OBS. 5.—The extent of this influence, or of such government, has never yet been clearly determined. "This irregularity," says Murray, "extends only to active or neuter verbs: ['active and neuter verbs,' says Fisk:] for all the verbs above mentioned, when made passive, require the preposition to before the following verb: as, 'He was seen to go;' 'He was heard to speak;' 'They were bidden to be upon their guard.'"—Murray's Gram., p. 183. Fisk adds with no great accuracy "In the past and future tenses of the active voice also, these verbs generally require the sign to, to be prefixed to the following verbs; as, 'You have dared to proceed without authority;' 'They will not dare to attack you.'"—Gram. Simplified, p. 125. What these gentlemen here call "neuter verbs," are only the two words dare and need, which are, in most cases, active, though not always transitive; unless the infinitive itself can make them so—an inconsistent doctrine of theirs which I have elsewhere refuted. (See Obs. 3rd on Rule 5th.) These two verbs take the infinitive after them without the preposition, only when they are intransitive; while all the rest seem to have this power, only when they are transitive. If there are any exceptions, they shall presently be considered. A more particular examination of the construction proper for the infinitive after each of these eight verbs, seems necessary for a right understanding of the rule.

OBS. 6.—Of the verb BID. This verb, in any of its tenses, when it commands an action, usually governs an object and also an infinitive, which come together; as, "Thou bidst the world adore."—Thomson. "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing."—2 Kings, v, 13. But when it means, to promise or offer, the infinitive that follows, must be introduced by the preposition to; as, "He bids fair to excel them all"—"Perhaps no person under heaven bids more unlikely to be saved."—Brown's Divinity, p. vii. "And each bade high to win him."—GRANVILLE: Joh. Dict. After the compound forbid, the preposition is also necessary; as, "Where honeysuckles forbid the sun to enter."—Beauties of Shak.. p. 57. In poetry, if the measure happens to require it, the word to is sometimes allowed after the simple verb bid, denoting a command; as,

"Bid me to strike my dearest brother dead, To bring my aged father's hoary head."—Rowe's Lucan, B. i, l. 677.

OBS. 7.—Of the verb DARE. This verb, when used intransitively, and its irregular preterit durst, which is never transitive, usually take the infinitive after them without to; as, "I dare do all that may become a man: Who dares do more, is none."—Shakspeare. "If he durst steal any thing adventurously."—Id. "Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms."—Milton. "Like one who durst his destiny control."—Dryden. In these examples, the former verbs have some resemblance to auxiliaries, and the insertion of the preposition to would be improper. But when we take away this resemblance, by giving dare or dared, an objective case, the preposition is requisite before the infinitive; as, "Time! I dare thee to discover Such a youth or such a lover."—Dryden. "He dares me to enter the lists."—Fisk's Gram., p. 125. So when dare itself is in the infinitive mood, or is put after an auxiliary, the preposition is not improper; as, "And let a private man dare to say that it will."—Brown's Estimate, ii, 147. "Would its compiler dare to affront the Deity?"—West's Letters, p. 151. "What power so great, to dare to disobey?"—Pope's Homer. "Some would even dare to die."—Bible. "What would dare to molest him?"—Dr. Johnson. "Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?"—Junius, Let. xxxiii. Perhaps these examples might be considered good English, either with or without the to; but the last one would be still better thus: "Dare you prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?" Dr. Priestley thinks the following sentence would have been better with the preposition inserted: "Who have dared defy the worst."—HARRIS: Priestley's Gram., p. 132. To is sometimes used after the simple verb, in the present tense; as, "Those whose words no one dares to repeat."—Opie, on Lying, p. 147.

   "Dare I to leave of humble prose the shore?"
        —Young, p. 377.

   "Against heaven's endless mercies pour'd, how dar'st thou to rebel?"
        —Id., p. 380.

   "The man who dares to be a wretch, deserves still greater pain."
        —Id., p. 381.

OBS. 8.—Of the verb FEEL. This verb, in any of its tenses, may govern the infinitive without the sign to; but it does this, only when it is used transitively, and that in regard to a bodily perception: as, "I feel it move."—"I felt something sting me." If we speak of feeling any mental affection, or if we use the verb intransitively, the infinitive that follows, requires the preposition; as, "I feel it to be my duty."—"I felt ashamed to ask."—"I feel afraid to go alone."—"I felt about, to find the door." One may say of what is painful to the body, "I feel it to be severe."

OBS. 9.—Of the verb HEAR. This verb is often intransitive, but it is usually followed by an objective case when it governs the infinitive; as. "To hear a bird sing."—Webster. "You have never heard me say so." For this reason, I am inclined to think that those sentences in which it appears to govern the infinitive alone, are elliptical; as, "I have heard tell of such things."—"And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it."—Gen, xli, 15. Such examples may be the same as. "I have heard people tell,"—"I have heard men say," &c.

OBS. 10.—Of the verb LET. By many grammarians this verb has been erroneously called an auxiliary of the optative mood; or, as Dr. Johnson terms it, "a sign of the optative mood:" though none deny, that it is sometimes also a principal verb. It is, in fact, always a principal verb; because, as we now apply it, it is always transitive. It commonly governs an objective noun or pronoun, and also an infinitive without the sign to; as, "Rise up, let us go."—Mark. "Thou shalt let it rest."—Exodus. But sometimes the infinitive coalesces with it more nearly than the objective, so that the latter is placed after both verbs; as, "The solution lets go the mercury."—Newton. "One lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration."—Locke. "Back! on your lives; let be, said he, my prey."—Dryden. The phrase, let go, is sometimes spoken for, let go your hold; and let be, for let him be, let it be, &c. In such instances, therefore, the verb let is not really intransitive. This verb, even in the passive form, may have the infinitive after it without the preposition to; as, "Nothing is let slip."—Walker's English Particles, p. 165. "They were let go in peace."—Acts, xv, 33. "The stage was never empty, nor the curtain let fall."—Blair's Rhet., p. 459. "The pye's question was wisely let fall without a reply."—L'Estrange. With respect to other passives, Murray and Fisk appear to be right; and sometimes the preposition is used after this one: as, "There's a letter for you, sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is."—Shakspeare. Let, when used intransitively, required the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "He would not let [i. e. forbear] to counsel the king."—Bacon. But this use of let is now obsolete.

OBS. 11.—Of the verb MAKE. This verb, like most of the others, never immediately governs an infinitive, unless it also governs a noun or a pronoun which is the immediate subject of such infinitive; as, "You make me blush."—"This only made the youngster laugh"—Webster's Spelling-Book. "Which soon made the young chap hasten down."—Ib. But in very many instances it is quite proper to insert the preposition where this verb is transitive; as, "He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."—Mark, vii, 37. "He makes the excellency of a sentence to consist in four things."—Blair's Rhet., p. 122; Jamieson's, 124. "It is this that makes the observance of the dramatic unities to be of consequence."—Blair's Rhet., p. 464. "In making some tenses of the English verb to consist of principal and auxiliary."—Murray's Gram., p. 76. "When make is intransitive, it has some qualifying word after it, besides the sign of the infinitive; as,—I think he will make out to pay his debts." Formerly, the preposition to was almost always inserted to govern the infinitive after make or made; as, "Lest I make my brother to offend."—1 Cor., viii, 13. "He made many to fall."—Jer., xlvi, 16. Yet, in the following text, it is omitted, even where the verb is meant to be passive: "And it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man."—Dan., vii, 4. This construction is improper, and not free from ambiguity; because stand may be a noun, and made, an active verb governing it. There may also be uncertainty in the meaning, where the insertion of the preposition leaves none in the construction; for made may signify either created or compelled, and the infinitive after it, may denote either the purpose of creation, or the effect of any temporary compulsion: as, "We are made to be serviceable to others."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 167. "Man was made to mourn."—Burns. "Taste was never made to cater for vanity."—Blair. The primitive word make seldom, if ever, produces a construction that is thus equivocal. The infinitive following it without to, always denotes the effect of the making, and not the purpose of the maker; as, "He made his son Skjöld be received there as king."—North. Antiq., p. 81. But the same meaning may be conveyed when the to is used; as,

   "The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace;
    And makes all ills that vex us here to cease."—Waller, p. 56.

OBS. 12.—Of the verb NEED. I incline to think, that the word need, whenever it is rightly followed by the infinitive without to, is, in reality an auxiliary of the potential mood; and that, like may, can, and must, it may properly be used, in both the present and the perfect tense, without personal inflection: as, "He need not go, He need not have gone;" where, if need is a principal verb, and governs