in the imperative; as, "Confide we in ourselves alone"-"With virtue be we armed."-Hunt's Tasso. "And rest we here, Matilda said."-Scott.

66 Fall he that must beneath his rival's arm,

And live the rest secure from future harm."-Pope.

"Laugh those that can, weep those that may."-Scott.

471. Such expressions as "Hallowed be thy name"-" Thy kingdom come," -"Be it enacted"-"So be it," &c., may be regarded either as examples of the third person in the imperative, or as elliptical for "May," or "Let thy name be hallowed"- Let it be enacted"-" Let it be so," &c.

472. The infinitive, because it usually has no subject (872), has neither number nor person.

CONJUGATION.

473. The CONJUGATION of a verb is the regular combination and arrangement of its several voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons.

474. In the active voice, most verbs have two forms-the Common and the Progressive. See App. V., I., 1, p. 235.

1. The Common form expresses the simple existence of the fact; “He speaks”—“ She writes”—“ They talk.”

as,

2. The Progressive form represents an action as begun, and in progress, but not completed. It is formed by annexing the present participle to the verb "to be," through all its moods and tenses; as, "I am writing," &c. (506).

475. Besides these in the present and the past indicative, there is a third form, called the Emphatic, used to express a fact with emphasis or force. It is formed by prefixing to the verb the auxiliary do, in the present tense, and did, in the past; as, "I do write"-"I did write." The other tenses, and also the progressive form and passive voice, are rendered emphatic, by placing emphasis on the auxiliary; as, "I have written"-"I am writing"'-"The letter is written."

476. To these may be added, the solemn form of the third person singular, present indicative, ending in th, or eth, instead of the common, in s or es. Thussolemn form, loveth, hath loved; common, loves, has loved.

477. The tenses of the verb, inflected without an auxiliary, are called SIMPLE tenses, those inflected with an auxiliary are called COMPOUND tenses.

478. The only regular terminations added to verbs are―

1. The tense endings: ed of the past tense; and ing of the pres ent participle.

2. The personal endings: st, or est, of the second person singular, and s, es, or eth, of the third. The other changes are made by auxiliaries.

479. In the present and the past tense, when st will easily coalesce with the final consonant, it is added in the same syllable; as, saidst, lovedst. But when it will not easily coalesce, or the verb ends in a vowel sound, est is commonly added, and forms another syllable; as, wishest, teachest, lovest, goest, drawest, sayest, vexest, blessest, &c.

480. In the present indicative, the endings of the third person singular, s and es, are subject to the rules for the plural number of nouns (137-142); as, sits, reads, wishes. teaches, loves, goes, draws, carries, says, &c.

481. In the solemn style, instead of s or es, the third person singular has eth, which always adds a syllable, except in doth, hath, saith, for doeth, haveth, sayeth. 482. The verb need is often used in the third person singular of the present tense, without the personal ending; as, "The truth need not be disguised"—" It need not be added."

483. In annexing the tense and personal endings to the verb, the Rules III., IV., and VII., for spelling words (57, 60, 68), must be carefully observed.

484. In the present indicative active, the three persons in the plural, and the first in the singular, are alike. In the past tense, the three persons in the plural, and the first and third in the singular, are all alike, except in the verb "to be,” in which the form in the singular is different from that of the plural; thus, singular, was, wast, was-plural, were.

485. The principal parts of the verb are the Present indicative, the Past indicative, and the Past participle. In parsing, the mentioning of these parts is called conjugating the verb.

Thus :

CONJUGATION OF THE IRREGULAR VERB, "TO BE."

486. The irregular and intransitive verb "to be," is used as a principal verb, and also as an auxiliary in the passive voice, and in the progressive form of the active voice. It is thus inflected through all its moods and tenses :- *

*The arrangement and names of the tenses here adopted were given in the first edition of the "Principles of English Grammar," published fifteen years ago; but this was then objected to as too violent a change, and was subsequently altered. Since that time a change has taken place in the public mind on this subject, and several grammarians have adopted the change then proposed; it is, therefore, here resumed, being considered as altogether the best. The past tense in English does not correspond to the imperfect in Latin or Greek, but rather to the Greek Aorist. There is, therefore, no propriety in retaining the name imperfect. The Latin imperfect corresponds precisely to the past-progressive in English (506). So also, the present-perfect does not correspond precisely to the Latin perfect, as that is used in an indefinite sense, like the Greek Aorist, and also in a definite sense, like the English present-perfect. The past-perfect corresponds to the pluperfect in Latin. The future and the future perfect in English correspond to the tenses of the same name in Latin.-See Latin Grammar. $ 44.

* Be and beest were formerly used in the present indicative; as. "We be true men"-Bible-for, We are true men." If thou beest he."-Milton.-"There be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them."-Walton. This usage is now obsolete.

Signs, may hape, can have, * or must have.-Inflect with each.

Signs might, could, would, should.-Inflect with each.

Signs, might have, could have, would have, should have.-Inflect with each.

"Can have is not used in affirmative sentences.

The conjunctions, if, though, lest, unless, &c., do not form part of the subjunc tive mood, but are placed before it to express a condition or contingency (388). The pupil may go over the indicative, as a subjunctive. with one or other of thes conjunctions prefixed.

PRESENT, Being.

PERFECT TENSE.

To have been.

PARTICIPLES.

PAST, Been. PERFECT, Having been.

487. All the tenses of the indicative, and also of the potential mood, are used subjunctively, by placing the conjunction before them, thus: Present-"If I am," "If thou art," "If he is," &c. (386). Present-perfect-" If I have been," &c. Past "If I was," &c.

488. The verb to be, followed by an infinitive, forms a particular future tense, which often expresses duty, necessity, or purpose; as, "Government is to be supported."-"We are to pay our debts."'-"If we were to depend on others"="If we should depend," &c. (876-3).

489. This verb has no progressive form. The emphatic form is used only in the imperative; as, "Do thou be"-"Do you be."

Anomalous Usage.

490. Were is sometimes used for would be, and had been for would have been, 8, "This were excellent advice."—Cowley. "It were a folly.”—Sidney. fortune had been his," for would have been (358).—Dryden.

PARSING.

My

491. A verb is parsed by stating its class (transitive or intransitive), its form (regular or irregular), conjugating it if irregular* (485), and stating its tense, mood, voice, person, and number, and also the subject of which it affirms; thus,

"He is."-Is is a verb, intransitive, irregular-am, was, been-found in the present, indicative, active-third person, singular, and affirms of its subject, he

492. Besides stating the several properties of the verb, as above, the teacher may occasionally require the pupil, as a sort of reviewing exercise, to assign a reason for each statement; thus:

Is-a verb, because it affirms being or existence of "He."

intransitive-it has no object.

irregular-Its past tense and past participle do not end in ed―am, was, been.

* In parsing, it will save time to omit conjugating the verb when it is regular, and it is unnecessary, because its being announced to be regular sufficiently ascertams its principal parts. All irregular verbs should be conjugated as in 513 ery teacher, however, will adopt the course which he prefers.

Ev