The Grammar of English Grammars Part 79

Thompson's Guatemala_, p. 467. "When I last saw him, he was grown considerably."--_Murray's Key_, p. 223; _Merchants_, 198. "I know what a rugged and dangerous path I am got into."--_Duncan's Cicero_, p. 83. "You were as good preach case to one on the rack."--_Locke's Essay_, p. 285.

"Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation."--_Psal._, cxviii, 21.

"While the Elementary Spelling-Book was being prepared for the press."--_L.

Cobb's Review_, p. vi. "Language is become, in modern times, more correct and accurate."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 16. "If the plan have been executed in any measure answerable to the author's wishes."--_Robbins's Hist._, p.

3. "The vial of wrath is still being poured out on the seat of the beast."--_Christian Experience_, p. 409. "Christianity was become the generally adopted and established religion of the whole Roman Empire."--_Gurney's Essays_, p. 35. "Who wrote before the first century was elapsed."--_Ib._, p. 13. "The original and a.n.a.logical form is grown quite obsolete."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 56. "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, are perished."--_Murray's Gram._, i, 149. "The poems were got abroad and in a great many hands."--_Pref. to Waller_. "It is more harmonious, as well as more correct, to say, 'the bubble is almost bursted.'"--_Cobbett's E. Gram._, -- 109. "I drave my suitor from his mad humour of love."--_Shak_. "Se viriliter expedivit. (_Cicero_.) He hath plaid the man."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 214. "Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday."--FRIENDS' BIBLE: _Acts_, vii, 28. "And we, methoughts, look'd up t'him from our hill."--_Cowley's Davideis_, B. iii, l. 386. "I fear thou doest not think as much of best things as thou oughtest."--_Memoir of M. C. Thomas_, p. 34. "When this work was being commenced."--_Wright's Gram._, p. 10. "Exercises and Key to this work are being prepared."--_Ib._, p. 12. "James is loved, or being loved by John."--_Ib._, p. 64. "Or that which is being exhibited."--_Ib._, p. 77.

"He was being smitten."--_Ib._, p. 78. "In the pa.s.sive state we say, 'I am being loved.'"--_Ib._, p. 80. "Subjunctive Mood: If I am being smitten, If thou art being smitten, If he is being smitten."--_Ib._, p. 100. "I will not be able to convince you how superficial the reformation is."--_Chalmers's Sermons_, p. 88. "I said to myself, I will be obliged to expose the folly."--_Chazotte's Essay_, p. 3. "When Clodius, had he meant to return that day to Rome, must have been arrived."--_Adams's Rhetoric_, i, 418. "That the fact has been done, is being done, or shall or will be done."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, pp. 347 and 356. "Am I being instructed?"--_Wright's Gram._, p. 70. "I am choosing him."--_Ib._, p. 112.

"John, who was respecting his father, was obedient to his commands."--_Barrett's Revised Gram._, p. 69. "The region echos to the clash of arms."--_Beattie's Poems_, p. 63.

"And sitt'st on high, and mak'st creation's top Thy footstool; and behold'st below thee, all."

--_Pollok_, B. vi, l. 663.

"And see if thou can'st punish sin, and let Mankind go free. Thou fail'st--be not surprised."

--_Id._, B. ii, l. 118.

LESSON III.--MIXED.

"What follows, had better been wanting altogether."--_Blair's Rhet._, p.

201.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the phrase _had better been_, is used in the sense of the potential pluperfect. But, according to Observation 17th, on the conjugations, this subst.i.tution of one form for another is of questionable propriety. Therefore, the regular form should here be preferred; thus, "What follows, _might better have been_ wanting altogether."]

"This member of the sentence had much better have been omitted altogether."--_Ib._, p. 212. "One or [the] other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted."--_Ib._, p. 212. "The whole of this last member of the sentence had better have been dropped."--_Ib._, p. 112. "In this case, they had much better be omitted."--_Ib._, p. 173. "He had better have said, 'the _productions_'"--_Ib._, p. 220. "The Greeks have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus."--_Ib._, p. 377. "It has been noticed long ago, that all these fict.i.tious names have the same number of syllables."--_Phil. Museum_, i, 471. "When I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, I have determined to send him."--_Acts_, xxv, 25.

"I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my G.o.d."--_Ps._, lx.x.xiv, 10.

"As for such, I wish the Lord open their eyes."--_Barclay's Works_, iii.

263. "It would a made our pa.s.sidge over the river very difficult."-- _Walley, in_ 1692. "We should not a been able to have carried our great guns."--_Id._ "Others would a questioned our prudence, if wee had."--_Id._ See _Hutchinson's Hist. of Ma.s.s._, i, 478. "Beware thou bee'st not BECaeSAR'D; i.e. Beware that thou dost not dwindle into a mere Caesar."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 183. "Thou raisedest thy voice to record the stratagems of needy heroes."--ARBUTHNOT: _in Joh. Dict., w. Scalade_. "Life hurrys off apace: thine is almost up already."--_Collier's Antoninus_, p.

19. "'How unfortunate has this accident made me!' crys such a one."--_Ib._, p. 60. "The muse that soft and sickly wooes the ear."--_Pollok_, i, 13. "A man were better relate himself to a statue."--_Bacon._ "I heard thee say but now, thou lik'dst not that."--_Shak._ "In my whole course of wooing, thou cried'st, _Indeed!_"--_Id._ "But our ears are grown familiar with _I have wrote, I have drank_, &c., which are altogether as ungrammatical."-- _Lowth's Gram._, p. 63; _Churchill's_, 114. "The court was sat before Sir Roger came."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 122. "She need be no more with the jaundice possest."--_Swift's Poems_, p. 346. "Besides, you found fault with our victuals one day that you was here."--_Ib._, p. 333. "If spirit of other sort, So minded, have o'erleap'd these earthy bounds."--_Milton, P.

L._, B. iv, l. 582. "It should have been more rational to have forborn this."--_Barclay's Works_, Vol. iii, p. 265. "A student is not master of it till he have seen all these."--_Dr. Murray's Life_, p. 55. "The said justice shall summons the party."--_Brevard's Digest._ "Now what is become of thy former wit and humour?"--_Spect._, No. 532. "Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?"--_Burns_, p. 29. "SUBJ.: _Pres._ If I love, If thou lovest, If he love. _Imp._ If I loved, If thou lovedst, If he loved."--_Merchant's Gram._, p. 51. "SUBJ.: If I do not love, If thou dost not love, If he does not love;" &c.--_Ib._, p. 56. "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."--_James_, v, 15. "Subjunctive Mood of the verb _to call_, second person singular: If Thou callest. If Thou calledst. If Thou hast called. If Thou hadst called. If Thou call. If Thou shalt or wilt have called."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 41. "Subjunctive Mood of the verb _to love_, second person singular: If thou love. If thou do love.

If thou lovedst. If thou didst love. If thou hast loved. If thou hadst loved. If thou shalt or wilt love. If thou shalt or wilt have loved."--_Bullions's E. Gram._, p. 46. "I was; thou wast, or you was; he, she, or it was: We, you or ye, they, were."--_White, on the English Verb_, p. 51. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he taught."--_Coar's English Gram._, p.

66. "We say, _if it rains, suppose it rains_, lest _it should rain_, unless _it rains_. This manner of speaking is called the SUBJUNCTIVE mode."--_Weld's Gram._, 2d Ed., p. 72; Abridged Ed., 59. "He is arrived at what is deemed the age of manhood."--_Priestley's Gram._, 163. "He had much better have let it alone."--_Tooke's Diversions_, i, 43. "He were better be without it."--_Locke, on Education_, p. 105. "Hadest not thou been by."--_Beauties of Shak._, p. 107. "I learned geography. Thou learnedest arithmetick. He learned grammar."--_Fuller's Gram._, p. 34. "Till the sound is ceased."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 126. "Present, die; Preterit, died; Perf. Participle, dead."--_British Gram._, p. 158; _Buchanan's_, 58; _Priestley's_, 48; _Ash's_, 45; _Fisher's_, 71; _Bicknell's_, 73.

"Thou bowed'st thy glorious head to none, feared'st none."

--_Pollok_, B. viii, l. 603.

"Thou look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it."

--_N. A. Reader_, p. 320.

"As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form'd"

--_Milt., P. L._, B. xi, l. 369.

"Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, But may imagine how the bird was dead?"

--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict._

"Which might have well becom'd the best of men."

--_Id., Ant. and Cleop._

CHAPTER VII.--PARTICIPLES.

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, partic.i.p.ating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb: thus, from the verb _rule_, are formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, 1. _ruling_, 2.

_ruled_, 3. _having ruled_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in _motion_, or _the privation of motion_--in _acting_, or _ceasing to act_. And to all motion and rest, _time_ and _place_ are necessary concomitants; nor are the ideas of _degree_ and _manner_ often irrelevant.

Hence the use of _tenses_ and of _adverbs_. For whatsoever comes to pa.s.s, must come to pa.s.s _sometime_ and _somewhere_; and, in every event, something must be affected _somewhat_ and _somehow_. Hence it is evident that those grammarians are right, who say, that "_all participles imply time_." But it does not follow, that the _English_ participles _divide_ time, like the tenses of a verb, and _specify_ the period of action; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest, that they do not. The phrase, "_men labouring_," conveys no other idea than that of _labourers at work_; it no more suggests the _time_, than the _place, degree_, or _manner_, of their work. All these circ.u.mstances require _other words_ to express them; as, "Men _now here awkwardly_ labouring _much_ to little purpose." Again: "_Thenceforward_ will men, _there_ labouring _hard_ and _honourably_, be looked down upon by dronish lordlings."

OBS. 2.--Participles retain the _essential meaning_ of their verbs; and, _like verbs_, are either _active-transitive, active-intransitive, pa.s.sive_, or _neuter_, in their signification. For this reason, many have cla.s.sed them with the verbs. But their _formal meaning_ is obviously different.

They convey no affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or p.r.o.nouns, _like adjectives_, except when they are joined with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses of their verbs; or when they have in part the nature of substantives, like the Latin gerunds. Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the adjectives. The most discreet writers have commonly a.s.signed them a separate place among the parts of speech; because, in spite of all opposite usages, experience has shown that it is expedient to do so.

OBS. 3.--According to the doctrine of Harris, all words denoting the _attributes_ of things, are either verbs, or participles, or adjectives.

Some attributes have their essence in motion: as, _to walk, to run, to fly, to strike, to live_; or, _walking, running, flying, striking, living_.

Others have it in the privation of motion: as, _to stop, to rest, to cease, to die_; or, _stopping, resting, ceasing, dying_. And there are others which have nothing to do with either motion or its privation; but have their essence in the quant.i.ty, quality, or situation of things; as, _great_ and _small, white_ and _black, wise_ and _foolish, eastern_ and _western_.

These last terms are adjectives; and those which denote motion or its privation, are either verbs or participles, according to their formal meaning; that is, according to their manner of attribution. See _Hermes_, p. 95. Verbs commonly say or affirm something of their subjects; as, "_The babe wept_." Participles suggest the action or attribute without affirmation; as, "_A babe weeping_,"--"_An act regretted_."

OBS. 4.--A verb, then, being expressive of some attribute, which it ascribes to the thing or person named as its subject; of time, which it divides and specifies by the tenses; and also, (with the exception of the infinitive,) of an a.s.sertion or affirmation; if we take away the affirmation and the distinction of tenses, there will remain the attribute and the general notion of time; and these form the essence of an English participle. So that a participle is something less than a verb, though derived immediately from it; and something more than an adjective, or mere attribute, though its manner of attribution is commonly the same. Hence, though the participle by rejecting the idea of time may pa.s.s almost insensibly into an adjective, and become truly a participial adjective; yet the participle and the adjective are by no means one and the same part of speech, as some will have them to be. There is always an essential difference in their meaning. For instance: there is a difference between _a thinking man_ and _a man thinking_; between _a bragging fellow_ and _a fellow bragging_; between _a fast-sailing ship_ and _a ship sailing fast_.

A thinking man, a bragging fellow, or a fast-sailing ship, is contemplated as being habitually or permanently such; a man thinking, a fellow bragging, or a ship sailing fast, is contemplated as performing a particular act; and this must embrace a period of _time_, whether that time be specified or not. John Locke was a _thinking man_; but we should directly contradict his own doctrine, to suppose him _always thinking_.

OBS. 5.--The English participles are all derived from the _roots_ of their respective verbs, and do not, like those of some other languages, take their names from the _tenses_. On the contrary, they are reckoned among the princ.i.p.al parts in the conjugation of their verbs, and many of the tenses are formed from them. In the compound forms of conjugation, they are found alike _in all the tenses_. They do not therefore, of themselves, express any particular time; but they denote the state of the being, action, or pa.s.sion, in regard to its progress or completion. This I conceive to be their princ.i.p.al distinction. Respecting the participles in _Latin_, it has been matter of dispute, whether those which are called the _present_ and the _perfect_, are really so in respect to time or not. Sanctius denies it.

In _Greek_, the distinction of tenses in the participles is more apparent, yet even here the time to which they refer, does not always correspond to their names. See remarks on the Participles in the _Port Royal Latin and Greek Grammars_.

OBS. 6.--Horne Tooke supposes our participles in _ed_ to express time past, and those in _ing_ to have no signification of time. He says, "I did not mean to deny the adsignification of time to _all_ the participles; though I continue to withhold it from that which is called the _participle present_."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 415. Upon the same point, he afterwards adds, "I am neither new nor singular; for Sanctius both a.s.serted and proved it by numerous instances in the Latin. Such as, 'Et _abfui proficiscens_ in Graeciam.' _Cicero_. 'Sed postquam amans _accessit_ pretium _pollicens_.' _Terent_. 'Ultro ad cam _venies indicans_ te amare.'

_Terent_. 'Turnum _fugientem_ haec terra videbit.' _Virg_."--_Tooke's Div._, ii, 420. Again: "And thus I have given you my opinion concerning what is called the _present participle_. Which I think improperly so called; because I take it to be merely the simple verb _adjectived_, without any adsignification of _manner_ or _time_."--_Tooke's Div._, Vol. ii, p. 423.

OBS. 7.--I do not agree with this author, either in limiting participles in _ed_ to time past, or in denying all signification of time to those in _ing_; but I admit that what is commonly called the _present participle_, is not very properly so denominated, either in English or in Latin, or perhaps in any language. With us, however, this participle is certainly, in very many instances, something else than "merely the simple verb _adjectived_." For, in the first place, it is often of a complex character, as _being loved, being seen_, in which two verbs are "_adjectived_"

together, and that by different terminations. Yet do these words as perfectly coalesce in respect to time, as to everything else; and _being loved_ or _being seen_ is confessedly as much a "_present_" participle, as _being_, or _loving_, or _seeing_--neither form being solely confined to what now is. Again, our participle in _ing_ stands not only for the present participle of the Latin or Greek grammarians, but also for the Latin gerund, and often for the Greek infinitive used substantively; so that by this ending, the English verb is not only _adjectived_, but also _substantived_, if one may so speak. For the participle when governed by a preposition, partakes not of the qualities "of a verb and an _adjective_,"

but rather of those of a verb and a _noun_.

CLa.s.sES.

English verbs, not defective, have severally three participles;[301] which have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus: the _Imperfect_, the _Perfect_, and the _Preperfect_. Or, as their order is undisputed, they may he conveniently called the _First_, the _Second_, and the _Third_.

I. The _Imperfect participle_ is that which ends commonly in _ing_, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or pa.s.sion: as, _being, acting, ruling, loving, defending, terminating_.

II. The _Perfect participle_ is that which ends commonly in _ed_ or _en_, and implies a _completion_ of the being, action, or pa.s.sion: as, _been, acted, ruled, loved, defended, terminated_.

III. The _Preperfect participle_ is that which takes the sign _having_, and implies a _previous completion_ of the being, action, or pa.s.sion: as, _having loved, having seen, having written; having been loved, having been writing, having been written_.

The _First_ or _Imperfect_ Participle, when simple, is always formed by adding _ing_ to the radical verb; as, _look, looking_: when compound, it is formed by prefixing _being_ to some other simple participle; as, _being reading, being read, being completed_.

The _Second_ or _Perfect_ Participle is always simple, and is regularly formed by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the radical verb: those verbs from which it is formed otherwise, are either irregular or redundant.

The _Third_ or _Preperfect_ Participle is always compound, and is formed by prefixing _having_ to the perfect, when the compound is double, and _having been_ to the perfect or the imperfect, when the compound is triple: as, _having spoken, having been spoken, having been speaking_.