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

the infinitive without to, the expressions must be, "He needs not go, He needed not go, or, He has not needed go." But none of these three forms is agreeable; and the last two are never used. Wherefore, in stead of placing in my code of false syntax the numerous examples of the former kind, with which the style of our grammarians and critics has furnished me, I have exhibited many of them, in contrast with others, in the eighth and ninth observations on the Conjugation of Verbs; in which observations, the reader may see what reasons there are for supposing the word need to be sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb. Because no other author has yet intentionally recognized the propriety of this distinction, I have gone no farther than to show on what grounds, and with what authority from usage, it might be acknowledged. If we adopt this distinction, perhaps it will be found that the regular or principal verb need always requires, or, at least, always admits, the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "They need not to be specially indicated."—Adams's Rhet., i, 302. "We need only to remark."—Ib., ii, 224. "A young man needed only to ask himself," &c.—Ib., i, 117. "Nor is it conceivable to me, that the lightning of a Demosthenes could need to be sped upon the wings of a semiquaver."—Ib., ii, 226. "But these people need to be informed."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 220. "No man needed less to be informed."—Ib., p. 175. "We need only to mention the difficulty that arises."—Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 362. "Can there need to be argument to prove so plain a point?"—Graham's Lect. "Moral instruction needs to have a more prominent place."—Dr. Weeks. "Pride, ambition, and selfishness, need to be restrained."—Id. "Articles are sometimes omitted, where they need to be used."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 197. "Whose power needs not to be dreaded."—Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 93. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed."—2 Tim., ii, 15. "The small boys may have needed to be managed according to the school system."—T. D. Woolsey. "The difficulty of making variety consistent, needs not to disturb him."—Rambler, No. 122. "A more cogent proof needs not to be introduced."—Wright's Gram., p. 66. "No person needs to be informed, that you is used in addressing a single person."—Wilcox's Gram., p. 19. "I hope I need not to advise you further."—Shak., All's Well.

   "Nor me, nor other god, thou needst to fear,
    For thou to all the heavenly host art dear."—Congreve.

OBS. 13.—If need is ever an auxiliary, the essential difference between an auxiliary and a principal verb, will very well account for the otherwise puzzling fact, that good writers sometimes inflect this verb, and sometimes do not; and that they sometimes use to after it, and sometimes do not. Nor do I see in what other way a grammarian can treat it, without condemning as bad English a great number of very common phrases which he cannot change for the better. On this principle, such examples as, "He need not proceed," and "He needs not to proceed," may be perfectly right in either form; though Murray, Crombie,[416] Fisk, Ingersoll, Smith, C. Adams, and many others, pronounce both these forms to be wrong; and unanimously, (though contrary to what is perhaps the best usage,) prefer, "He needs not proceed."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 180.

OBS. 14.—On questions of grammar, the practice of authors ought to be of more weight, than the dogmatism of grammarians; but it is often difficult to decide well by either; because errors and contradictions abound in both. For example: Dr. Blair says, (in speaking of the persons represented by I and thou,) "Their sex needs not be marked."—Rhet., p. 79. Jamieson abridges the work, and says, "needs not to be marked."—Gram. of Rhet., p. 28. Dr. Lowth also says, "needs not be marked."—Gram., p. 21. Churchill enlarges the work, and says, "needs not to be marked."—New Gram., p. 72. Lindley Murray copies Lowth, and says, "needs not be marked."—Gram., 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 39; 23d Ed., p. 51; and perhaps all other editions. He afterwards enlarges his own work, and says, "needs not to be marked."—Octavo Gram., p. 51. But, according to Greenleaf they all express the idea ungrammatically; the only true form being, "Their sex need not be marked." See Gram. Simplified, p. 48. In the two places in which the etymology and the syntax of this verb are examined, I have cited from proper sources more than twenty examples in which to is used after it, and more than twenty others in which the verb is not inflected in the third person singular. In the latter, need is treated as an auxiliary; in the former, it is a principal verb, of the regular construction. If the principal verb need can also govern the infinitive without to, as all our grammarians have supposed, then there is a third form which is unobjectionable, and my pupils may take their choice of the three. But still there is a fourth form which nobody approves, though the hands of some great men have furnished us with examples of it: as, "A figure of thought need not to detort the words from their literal sense."—J. Q. Adams's Lectures, Vol. ii, p. 254. "Which a man need only to appeal to his own feelings immediately to evince."—Clarkson's Prize-Essay on Slavery, p. 106.

OBS. 15.—Webster and Greenleaf seem inclined to justify the use of dare, as well as of need, for the third person singular. Their doctrine is this: "In popular practice it is used in the third person, without the personal termination. Thus, instead of saying, 'He dares not do it;' WE generally say, 'He dare not do it.' In like manner, need, when an active verb, is regular in its inflections; as, 'A man needs more prudence.' But when intransitive, it drops the personal terminations in the present tense, and is followed by a verb without the prefix to; as, 'A man need not be uneasy.'"—Greenleaf s Grammar Simplified, p. 38; Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 178; Improved Gram., 127. Each part of this explanation appears to me erroneous. In popular practice, one shall oftener hear, "He dares n't do it," or even, "You dares n't do it," than, "He dare not do it." But it is only in the trained practice of the schools, that he shall ever hear, "He needs n't do it," or, "He needs not do it." If need is sometimes used without inflection, this peculiarity, or the disuse of to before the subsequent infinitive, is not a necessary result of its "intransitive" character. And as to their latent nominative, "whereof there is no account," or, "whereof there needs no account;" their fact, of which "there is no evidence," or of which "there needs no evidence;" I judge it a remarkable phenomenon, that authors of so high pretensions, could find, in these transpositions, a nominative to "is," but none to "needs!" See a marginal note under Rule 14th, at p. 570.

OBS. 16.—Of the verb SEE. This verb, whenever it governs the infinitive without to, governs also an objective noun or pronoun; as, "See me do it."—"I saw him do it."—Murray. Whenever it is intransitive, the following infinitive must be governed by to; as, "I will see to have it done."—Comly's Gram., p. 98; Greenleaf's, 38. "How could he see to do them?"—Beauties of Shak., p. 43. In the following text, see is transitive, and governs the infinitive; but the two verbs are put so far apart, that it requires some skill in the reader to make their relation apparent: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place," &c.—Matt., xxiv, 15. An other scripturist uses the participle, and says—"standing where it ought not," &c.—Mark, xiii, 14. The Greek word is the same in both; it is a participle, agreeing with the noun for abomination. Sometimes the preposition to seems to be admitted on purpose to protract the expression: as,

   "Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
    And with her breath she did perfume the air."—Shak.

OBS 17.—A few other verbs, besides the eight which are mentioned in the foregoing rule and remarks, sometimes have the infinitive after them without to. W. Allen teaches, that, "The sign to is generally omitted," not only after these eight, but also after eight others; namely, "find, have, help, mark, observe, perceive, watch, and the old preterit gan, for began; and sometimes after behold and know."—Elements of Gram., p. 167. Perhaps he may have found some instances of the omission of the preposition after all these, but in my opinion his rule gives a very unwarrantable extension to this "irregularity," as Murray calls it. The usage belongs only to particular verbs, and to them not in all their applications. Other verbs of the same import do not in general admit the same idiom. But, by a license for the most part peculiar to the poets, the preposition to is occasionally omitted, especially after verbs equivalent to those which exclude it; as, "And force them sit."—Cowper's Task, p. 46. That is, "And make them sit." According to Churchill, "To use ought or cause in this manner, is a Scotticism: [as,] 'Won't you cause them remove the hares?'—'You ought not walk.' SHAK."—New Gram., p. 317. The verbs, behold, view, observe, mark, watch, and spy, are only other words for see; as, "There might you behold one joy crown an other."—Shak. "There I sat, viewing the silver stream glide silently towards the tempestuous sea."—Walton. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."—Luke, x, 18.

   "Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
    Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie."—Milton.

    ———"Nor with less dread the loud
    Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow."—Id., P. L., vi, 60.

OBS. 18.—After have, help, and find, the infinitive sometimes occurs without the preposition to, but much oftener with it; as, "When enumerating objects which we wish to have appear distinct."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 222. "Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth."—Ld. Bacon. "What wilt thou have me to do?"—Acts, ix, 6. "He will have us to acknowledge him."—Scougal, p. 102. "I had to walk all the way."—Lennie's Gram., p. 85. "Would you have them let go then? No."—Walker's Particles, p. 248. According to Allen's rule, this question is ambiguous; but the learned author explains it in Latin thus: "Placet igitur eos dimitti? Minimé." That is, "Would you have them dismissed then? No." Had he meant, "Would you have them to let go then?" he would doubtless have said so. Kirkham, by adding help to Murray's list, enumerates nine verbs which he will have to exclude the sign of the infinitive; as, "Help me do it."—Gram., p. 188. But good writers sometimes use the particle to after this verb; as, "And Danby's matchless impudence helped to support the knave."—DRYDEN: Joh. Dict., w. Help. Dr. Priestley says, "It must, I suppose, be according to the Scotch idiom that Mrs. Macaulay omits it after the verb help: 'To help carry on the new measures of the court.' History, Vol. iv, p. 150."—Priestley's Gram., p. 133. "You will find the difficulty disappear in a short time."—Cobbett's English Gram., ¶ 16. "We shall always find this distinction obtain."—Blair's Rhet., p. 245. Here the preposition to might have been inserted with propriety. Without it, a plural noun will render the construction equivocal. The sentence, "You will find the difficulties disappear in a short time," will probably be understood to mean, "You will find that the difficulties disappear in a short time." "I do not find him reject his authority."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 167. Here too the preposition might as well have been inserted. But, as this use of the infinitive is a sort of Latinism, some critics would choose to say, "I do not find that he rejects his authority." "Cyrus was extremely glad to find them have such sentiments of religion."—Rollin, ii, 117. Here the infinitive may be varied either by the participle or by the indicative; as, "to find them having," or, "to find they had." Of the three expressions, the last, I think, is rather the best.

OBS. 19.—When two or more infinitives are connected in the same construction, one preposition sometimes governs them both or all; a repetition of the particle not being always necessary, unless we mean to make the terms severally emphatical. This fact is one evidence that to is not a necessary part of each infinitive verb, as some will have it to be. Examples: "Lord, suffer me first TO go and bury my father."—Matt., viii, 21. "To shut the door, means, TO throw or cast the door to."—Tooke's D. P., ii, 105. "Most authors expect the printer TO spell, point, and digest their copy, that it may be intelligible to the reader."—Printer's Grammar.

   "I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
    To shake the head,