is not so much concerned with philosophical as with grammatical properties.5

5 Lowth notices the division of neuter verbs into neuter-intransitive, and active-intransitive, but remarks that "however they may differ in nature, the construction of them both is the same, and grammar is not so much concerned with their real as with their grammatical properties." Murray, rejecting this arrangement, observes that "if the class of active-intransitive verbs were admitted, it would rather perplex than assist the learner for the difference between verbs active, and neuter, as transitive, and intransitive, is easy and obvious; but the difference between verbs absolutely neuter, and intransitively active, is not always clear. It is, indeed, often very difficult to be ascertained," There is justice in the sentiments of both these grammarians, yet I think it not improper to notice as admissible a subdivision of verbs neuter into verbs activeintransitive and verbs neuter-intransitive, without insisting on the necessity of such subdivision. The Inglish and the German are the only modern grammarians who have ventured to suppose a passive voice: the position is an idle one. The verb be, or become, as in German, (werden,) and the participle of an other verb following, with which be has no connection, are two distinct verbs, and this self-evident truth admitted, which can not be denied, how is the verb passive admitted? but, it will be replied; be is an auxiliary sign: many Inglish tenses are formed by this and by other auxiliary signs; and thus are formed passive verbs. To answer this argument it is necessary to determine precisely what is an auxiliary sign. Auxiliary sign is not, as it has been defined, a verb employed with an other verb in conjugation, to form a tense; it is not a verb, but merely the sign of a verb, which can not stand alone: it exists only in the Inglish tongue: other tongues have auxiliary verbs, as they choose to term be, and have, but not auxiliary signs. Verbs to which is given, with little propriety, the epithet auxiliary, are supposed to form compound tenses, (which, however, are not admitted in foreign tongues as regular tenses,) in conjunction with the participle: very different are Inglish

The Inglish verbs are regular, irregular, defective, impersonal, gentile.

auxiliary signs, properly so called: they form regular tenses, regular moods also, and have no usage, no being except as they are employed in such formation: they are not used with participles, unconnected, and inconnectable words, but with the simple, radical form of the verb: such are do, shall, will, may, can, must, and their derivatives did, should, would, might, could, the whole of the Inglish auxiliary signs. It might here be objected that do is a verb: it is with somewhat different terminations: as an auxiliary sign, it is not used with a participle, like be, and have; and though it alone of all our auxiliary signs may be in other usage a verb, yet with this excep. tion it has every property of genuine auxiliary sign. After this explication of auxiliary sign I shall answer the argument in favor of passive verbs, namely, that be is an auxiliary sign, that many Inglish tenses are formed by this and by other auxiliary signs, and that thus are formed passive verbs ;—I shall answer that be is not an auxiliary sign, that no tenses in Inglish are formed by be, and have, requiring participles after them, and that thus are not formed passive verbs. Laying the foundation of the structure of an Inglish verb in auxiliary sign, and in it only, some grammarians assert that our moods are of the number, and signification of our auxiliary signs, a principle which would be just if justly confined to just limits, but which has yet to receive that duly instituted limitation; for on this system auxiliaries, tenses, and moods have been mistakingly multiplied, and the whole essence of the verb has been asserted to exist in one of its several component parts. On the same principle of taking a part for a whole, other grammarians maintain the simple, radical form of the verb to be the verb, and in their exhibition of this form are guilty of the error of admitting only one mood, the indicative, whereas the imperative properly exhibited is properly simple, and is not the indicative, as it has been absurdly called; and the infinitive without the sign to, which is no intrinsical part of it, as we

A regular verb in Inglish is a verb which forms its past tense of the indicative mood and its past participle accordantly to the received rules of regular conjugation.

An irregular verb in Inglish is a verb which forms not its past tense of the indicative mood and its past participle accordantly to the received rules of regular conjugation.

shall subsequently prove, is also a simple mood, and is not the indicative mood. The conjunctive moods, which are an other grand feature of the Inglish verb, have been worse treated than its other traits: some grammarians have wholely rejected them, and others have admitted but one conjunctive or subjunctive mood, and that one has frequently been made characteristical but in one or in two tenses. This is antilogistick, and inane. Either conjunctions have a universal influence on the moods, and tenses, or they have no influence at-all: usage, and authority, convenience, and elegance; both in our own language and in other languages, confute the latter supposition, while grammar, and consistency establish the former. A scheme of the verb adopted by many grammarians, and, indeed, by the best, is more objectionable than the two schemes already noticed, because, whereas those exhibit a part of the verb, this exhibits no part: it is little more than a tame transcript of the humdrum translation of Latin conjugations which schoolboys have drawled over for ages; yet it is more popular than any of the other indeed very bad schemes of our verb, because it is more ordinary, because it resembles the verb of the dead and that of the living languages, really σε a damning proof against it," for the Inglish verb is itself alone, and has little resemblance to that of other tongues. Some grammarians have written volumes on our verb, yet have proved at the conclusion of so much learned, geometrical, and logical ratiocination only their inability to prove any thing: with much parade, and solemnity have they rattled for a wearisome time three blue beans in one blue bladder. To institute any veritable plan of the Inglish verb it is necessary to consider, first, that it is at once of the concisest simplicity and the most ramified exten

A defective verb is a verb which has fewer moods, or tenses, or both than the regular number.

An impersonal verb is a verb with which a person can not be used.

A gentile verb is a verb formed from a gentile noun, or from a proper noun, or adjective.

To the Inglish verb belong number, personal form, auxiliary sign, tense, mood, modal form.

sion; secondly, that it must be distinctly demonstrated in what consist these properties of simplicity and of extension; thirdly, that the constituent parts of these properties must be exhibited at one view, distinctively, yet dependently. The achievement of these three desiderata is the solution of the mighty grammatical problem, the Inglish verb; a problem which has hitherto derided all the judgement, erudition, and industry which have attempted its resolution. After long labor, and correction it at-length occurred to me that the required distinctive, yet connective, and general view of the peculiar properties of the Inglish verb could not be exhibited without some greater, and more compendious divisions than those of moods, under which might be arranged the moods in their relation to this or to that property of the verb: I accordingly devised three modal forms, simple, auxiliary, conjunctive: under the first I ranged the simple moods, three in number, the infinitive, the indicative, the imperative: under the second I ranged the moods formed by auxiliary sign, eight in number, the affirmative, the precative, the volitive, the resolutive, the potential, the permissive, the obligative, the optative: under the third modal form I ranged the moods formed chiefly by conjunctions, six in number, the conjunctive-indicative, the conjunctive-affirmative, the conjunctive-volitive, the conjunctive-resolutive, the conjunctivepotential, the conjunctive-permissive. The moods of the three forms I thus made adducible to seventeen, and having reconsidered this arrangement again, and again, I am still well pleased with it, and give it to the world, confiding, not in ubiquitary perfection, but in general propriety, or at least in manifest superiority to the verbal systems hitherto exhibited.

Sect. 2.-Of Number and of Personal Form.

The Inglish verb has two numbers, corresponding to the numbers of nouns, the singular and the plural, with three personal forms in the singular, answering to the pronouns, I, thou, he, or she, or it, and with one personal form in the plural, to which are applied the pronouns we, you or ye, they. These personal forms are only two in other tenses than the present.

The termination eth of the third personal form is not used in common phraseology; it is antique, and is confined to the scriptural, legal, poetical, and burlesque style. The abbreviated form of the second personal form is used, (when thou is used,) more than the unabbreviated form; but its usage must be avoided in verbs ending in ch, sh, sht, the, ge, ck, ss, x, particularly in the past tense, in which it is not admissible even in poetry, on account of its sharp, and hissing cacophony and its difficult enunciation.

Observe: the pronouns thou, and you, ye, with their relative personal forms are frequently improperly used in reference to the same person at the same time, by the poets, and sometimes by other writers.

• There is but one terminational variation in the plural of the German verb. In the Inglish verb there being no plural terminational variation, and the verb requiring a pronoun exprest with it, except imperatively, and precatively, there ap