The Grammar of English Grammars Part 134

"_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 p.r.o.noun, 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 pa.s.sion, 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 a.s.sembly."--_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 a.s.sembly."--_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 pa.s.sive 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 pa.s.sive infinitives. Allen says, "In the following construction, the words in _italics_ are (elliptically) pa.s.sive infinitives; I saw 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 p.r.o.nounces, _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 a.n.a.logous:--"HAR est un tourment; AIMER est un besoin de l'ame."--_M. de Segur. "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 _repet.i.tion_ 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 pa.s.sive 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 pa.s.sive. 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 pa.s.sively, 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 pa.s.sive; 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 pa.s.sive 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 pa.s.sive 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 embarra.s.s, 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 pa.r.s.er.[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 p.r.o.noun _me_. For, in an other place, he avers, that the infinitive may be governed by a noun or a p.r.o.noun; as, "Let _him do_ it."--_Ib._, p. 187. Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objective noun or p.r.o.noun 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 pa.r.s.e 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 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 p.r.o.noun, 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, n.o.body 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 Pa.r.s.er_, p. 97. "In the examples, 'He is endeavouring _to persuade_ them _to learn_,'--'It is pleasant _to see_ the sun,'--the p.r.o.noun _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 p.r.o.nouns 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 pa.s.sive 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 _pa.s.sive_, 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 h.o.a.ry 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.

x.x.xiii. 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 sh.o.r.e?"

--_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.