But though these degrees are infinite or indefinite in fact, they cannot be so in language; nor would it be convenient, if language were to express many of them. In regard to unmeasured quantities and qualities, the degrees of more and less, (besides those marked above,) may be expressed intelligibly, at least, if not accurately, by certain adverbs, or words of like import: as, "Socrates was much wiser than Alcibiades ;" "Snow is a great deal whiter than this paper;" "Epaminondas was by far the most accomplished of the Thebans ;""The evening star is a very splendid object, but the sun is incomparably more splendid ;"" The Deity is infinitely greater than the greatest of his creatures." The inaccuracy of these, and the like expressions, is not a material inconvenience; and, though it were, it is unavoidable: for human speech can only express human thought; and where thought is necessarily inaccurate, language must be so too.

When the word very, exceedingly, or any other of similar import, is put before the positive, it is called by some writers the superlative of eminence, to distinguish it from the other superlative, which has been already mentioned, and is called the superlative of comparison. Thus very elaquent, is termed the superlative of eminence; most eloquent, the superlative of comparison. In the superlative of eminence, something of comparison is, however, remotely or indirectly intimated; for we cannot reasonably call a man very eloquent, without comparing his eloquence with the eloquence of other men.

The comparative may be so employed, as to express the same pre-eminence or inferiority as the superlative. Thus, the sentence, "Of all acquirements, virtue is the most valuable," conveys the same sentiment as the following ; « Virtue is more valuable than every other acquirement."

CHAPTER VI.

Cf VERBS.

SECT. 1 Cf the nature of Verbs in general. A VERB is a word which signifies to BE, to Do, or to SUFFER; as, "I am, I rule, I am ruled,”

Verbs are of three kinds; ACTIVE, PASSIVE, They are also divided into REGU.

and NEUTER.

LAR, IRREGULAR, and DEFECTIVE.

A Verb Active expresses an action, and necessarily implies an agent, and an object acted upon: as, to love; "I love Penelope."

A Verb Passive expresses a passion or a suffering, or the receiving of an action; and necessarily implies an object acted upon, and an agent by which it is acted upon: as, to be loved," Penelope is loved by me."

A Verb Neuter expresses neither action nor passion, but being, or a state of being as, “'I am, I sleep, I sit."*

The verb active is also called transitive, because the action passes over to the object, or has an effect upon some other thing: as, "The tutor instructs his pupils ;” « I esteem the man."

Verbs neuter may properly be denominated intransitives, because the effect is confined within the subject, and

* Verbs have been distinguished by some writers, into the following kinds.

1st. Active-transitive, or those which denote an action that passes from the agent to some object: as, Cæsar conquered Pompey.

2d. Active-intransitive, or those which express that kind of action, which has no effect upon any thing beyond the agent himself: as, Cæsar walked.

3d. Passive, or those which express, not action, but passion, whether pleasing or painful; as, Portia was loved; Pompey was conquered. 4th. Neuter, or those which express an attribute that consists neither in action nor passion: as Cæsar stood.

This appears to be an orderly arrangement. But 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.

does not pass over to any object: as, "I sit, he lives, they sleep."

Some of the verbs that are usually ranked among neuters, make a near approach to the nature of a verb active, but they may be distinguished from it by their being intransitive: as, to run, to walk, to fly, &c. The rest are more obviously neuter, and more clearly expressive af a middle state between action and passion: as, to stand, to lie, to sleep, &c.

In English, many verbs are used both in an active and a neuter signification, the construction only determining of which kind they are: as, to flatten, signifying to make even or level, is a verb active; but when it signifies to grow dull or insipid, it is a verb neuter.

A neuter verb, by the addition of a preposition, may become a compound active verb. To smile is a neuter verb it cannot, therefore, be followed by an objective case, nor be construed as a passive verb. We cannot say, she smiled him, or, he was smiled. But to smile on being a compound active verb, we properly say, she smiled on ; he was smiled on by fortune in every undertaking.

him

Auxiliary or helping Verbs, are those by the help of which the English verbs are principally conjugated. They are, do, be, have, shall, will, may, can, with their variations; and let and must, which have no variation.*

In our definition of the verb, as a part of speech which signifies to be, to do, or to suffer, &c. we have included every thing, either expressly or by necessary consequence, that is essential to its nature, and nothing that is not essential to it. This definition is warranted by the authority of Dr. Lowth, and of many other respectable writers on grammar. There are, however, some grammarians, who consider assertion as the essence of the verb. But as the

Let, as a principal verb, has letest and letteth; but as a helping verb it admits of no variation.

participle and the infinitive, if included in it, would prove insuperable objections to their scheme, they have, without hesitation, denied the former a place in the verb, and declared the latter to be merely an abstract noun. This ap pears to be going rather too far in support of an hypothesis. It seems to be incumbent on these grammarians, to reject also the imperative mood. What part of speech would they make the verbs in the following sentence? "Depart instantly improve your time forgive us our sins." Will it be said, that the verbs in these phrases are assertions?

In reply to these questions, it has been said, that "Depart instantly," is an expression equivalent to, "I desire you to depart instantly;" and that as the latter phrase implies affirmation or assertion, so does the former. But, supposing the phrases to be exactly alike in sense, the reasoning is not conclusive. 1st. In the latter phrase, the only part implying affirmation, is, "I desire." The words "to depart," are in the infinitive mood, and contain no assertion they affirm nothing. 2d. The position is not tenable, that "Equivalence in sense implies similarity in grammatical nature." It proves too much, and therefore nothing. This mode of reasoning would confound the acknowledged grammatical distinction of words. A pronoun, on this principle, may be proved to be a noun; a noun, a verb; an adverb, a noun and preposition; the superlative degree, the comparative; the imperative mood, the indicative; the future tense, the present; and so on: because they may respectively be resolved into similar meanings. Thus, in the sentence, "I desire you to depart," the words to depart, may be called a noun, because they are equivalent in sense to the noun departure, in the following sentence, "I desire your departure.” The words "Depart instantly," may be proved to be, not the imperative mood with an adverb, but the indicative and infinitive, with a noun and preposition; for they are equivalent to "I desire you to depart in an instant." The superlative degree in this sentence, "Of all acquirements virtue is the most valuable," may pass for the comparative, because it conveys the same sentiment as, "Virtue is more valuable than every other acquirement.”

We shall not pursue this subject any further, as the reader must be satisfied, that only the word desire, in the equivalent sentence, implies affirmation; and that one phrase may, in sense, be equivalent to another, though its grammatical nature is essentially different.

To verbs belong NUMBER, PERSON, MOOD and

TENSE.

SECT. 2. Of Number and Person.

Verbs have two numbers, the Singular and the Plural: as, "I run, we run," &c.

In each number there are three persons; as,

Thus the verb, in some parts of it, varies its endings, to express, or agree with, different persons of the same number: as, "I love, thou lovest; he loveth, or loves :" and also to express different numbers of the same person: as, "thou lovest, ye love; he loveth, they love." In the plural number of the verb, there is no variation of ending to express the different persons; and the verb, in the three persons plural, is the same as it is in the first person singular. Yet this scanty provision of terminations is sufficient for all the purposes of discourse, and no ambiguity arises from it: the verb being always attended, either with the noun expressing the subject acting or acted upon, or with the pronoun representing it. For this reason, the plural termination in en, they loven, they weren, formerly in use, was laid aside as unnecessary, and has long been obsolete.

G