OF THE VERB.

THE nominative to a verb may be understood, but it should not be absent altogether; the following construction is therefore wrong:

Bonnivet was wounded so dangerously as obliged him to quit the field. Robertson.

Robertson might have said that it obliged him, or that he was obliged. Obviousness of meaning does not dispense with correctness of expression.

A verb usually neuter takes sometimes a pleonastic accusative:

Let me die the death of the righteous.

Old Testament.

To sleep the sleep of death. Old Testament.

After a passive verb, by is used to express the connection between the act and the agent; with, the connection between the act and its instrument; however, by is sometimes used for with, when the instrument is regarded as the agent:

The money I might have had to this day, but that our ship was taken by the French, and so I lost all. Goldsmith.

For some time after my retreat, I rejoiced like a tempestbeaten sailor at his entrance into the harbour, being delighted with the sudden change from the noise and hurry of war to stillness and repose.

Johnson.

Being disgusted by the preferment of a younger officer, I resolved to close my life in peace. Johnson.

The infinitive, a verbal noun, is used as a nominative in the following sentences:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

Shakspeare.

To be a good member of parliament is no easy task. Το unite circumspection with vigour is absolutely necessary, but it is exceedingly difficult. Burke.

It is used as an accusative in:

Seek to know no more.

Shakspeare.

Give your opinion modestly, and if that does not do, try to change the conversation. Chesterfield.

Could save the son of Thetis from to die. Pope.

The infinitive is often governed by a preposition understood:

After men have travelled through a few stages in vice, Shame forsakes them, and returns back (for) to wait upon the few virtues they have still remaining. Goldsmith.

The infinitive does not take its modal characteristic,

to, after the verbs can, do, may, must; it is then the accusative to those verbs:

Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? New Testament.

This just reproach their virtue does excite.

Dryden.

You may be rich, but you must shut your heart against the Mrs. Barbauld.

muses.

Remark that do is used above for the sake of emphasis.

To do, not expressing a peculiar kind of act, is used to avoid the repetition of another verb:

Give me that man

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of hearts

As I do thee. Shakspeare.

After dare and need, it is optional to drop or retain the modal characteristic:

I dare do (or to do) all that may become a man.

Shakspeare.

The infinitive is sometimes used, originally by a licence, instead of the first participle:

I have spoke

With one that saw him die (dying). Shakspeare.

Methought I heard a voice cry (crying): sleep no more.

Shakspeare.

From this construction must have sprung the following, which, also sanctioned by usage, is bolder still:

Let us suppose the earth to be (that the earth is) the center of the system. Webster.

The Genius bid me quit (that I should quit) so uncomfortable a prospect. Spectator.

The participles are verbal adjectives: a loving (affectionate) child, a loved (dear) child.

I see a bridge standing in the midst of the tide. Spectator.

I saw some with scimitars in their hands, thrusting several persons on trap-doors which did not seem to lie in their way. Spectator.

I see, among many other feathered creatures, several little winged boys.

Spectator.

We have seen the infinitive used for the first participle; the first participle is also used for the infinitive :

'Tis going, I own, like the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, in quest of melancholy adventures. Sterne.

Thinking is no less uncommon in the literary than in the civil world. Melmoth.

We have already spoken, in the chapter of the noun,

of the first participle used as a noun; it is this verbal form which is so used in english after a preposition :

A thinking man cannot help lamenting that progress of refinement which, in rendering the descendants of the great fine gentlemen, has left them something less than men through the defect of manly virtues. Knox.

The want of information which we have noticed, Napoleon supplied, as most able men do, by the assistance derived from conversing with persons possessing knowledge, and capable of communicating it. Walter Scott.

The prefix a with the first participle is an abbreviation of the anglo saxon preposition on, meaning in:

The ark was a-preparing.

She lay a-dying.

New Testament.

New Testament.

Let us remark in passing that, in the last example an active verb is used for a passive.

We find the same prefix in words like a-foot, aboard, asleep. So he fell asleep, in the old translation of the New Testament is, he fell on sleep.

The verb to be, combined with the first participle, as has been said in the Elements, expresses an act in course of fulfilment :

We have been praying for our husbands' welfare.

Shakspeare.

From what we have said of the nature of the neuter