Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/373

 you know how, (i. e. as you can.) Nescio mentiri, I know not how to (i.e. I cannot) lie."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 71. Shall, Saxon sceal, originally signified to owe; for which reason should literally means ought. In the following example from Chaucer, shall is a principal verb, with its original meaning:

"For, by the faith I shall to God, I wene,   Was neuer straungir none in hir degre."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 64.

OBS. 15.--Do and did are auxiliary only to the present infinitive, or the radical verb; as, do throw, did throw: thus the mood of do throw or to throw is marked by do or to. Be, in all its parts, is auxiliary to either of the simple participles; as, to be throwing, to be thrown; I am throwing, I am thrown: and so, through the whole conjugation. Have and had, in their literal use, are auxiliary to the perfect participle only; as, ''have thrown, had thrown. Have is from the Saxon habban'', to possess; and, from the nature of the perfect participle, the tenses thus formed, suggest in general a completion of the action. The French idiom is similar to this: as, J'ai vu, I have seen. Shall and should, will and would, may and might, can and could, must, and also need, (if we call the last a helping verb,) are severally auxiliary to both forms of the infinitive, and to these only: as, shall throw, shall have thrown; should throw, should have thrown; and so of all the rest.

OBS. 16.--The form of the indicative pluperfect is sometimes used in lieu of the potential pluperfect; as, "If all the world could have seen it, the wo had been universal."--Shakspeare. That is,--"would have been universal." "I had been drowned, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow."--Id. That is,--"I should have been drowned." This mode of expression may be referred to the figure enallage, in which one word or one modification is used for an other. Similar to this is the use of were for would be: "It were injustice to deny the execution of the law to any individual;" that is, "it would be injustice."--Murray's Grammar, p. 89. In some instances, were and had been seem to have the same import; as, "Good were it for that man if he had never been born."--Mark, xiv, 21. "It had been good for that man if he had not been born."--Matt., xxvi, 24. In prose, all these licenses are needless, if not absolutely improper. In poetry, their brevity may commend them to preference; but to this style, I think, they ought to be confined: as,

"That had been just, replied the reverend bard;    But done, fair youth, thou ne'er hadst met me here."--Pollok.

"The keystones of the arch!--though all were o'er,   For us repeopled were the solitary shore."--Byron.

OBS. 17.--With an adverb of comparison or preference, as better, rather, best, as lief, or as lieve, the auxiliary had seems sometimes to be used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect or pluperfect: as, "He that loses by getting, had better lose than get."--Penn's Maxims. "Other prepositions had better have been substituted."-- Priestley's Gram., p. 166. "I had as lief say."--LOWTH: ib., p. 110. "It compels me to think of that which I had rather forget."-- Bickersteth, on Prayer, p. 25. "You had much better say nothing upon the subject."--Webster's Essays, p. 147. "I had much rather show thee what hopes thou hast before thee."--Baxter. "I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."--1 Cor., xiv, 19. "I knew a gentleman in America who told me how much rather he had be a woman than the man he is."--Martineau's Society in America, Vol. i, p. 153. "I had as lief go as not."-- Webster's Dict., w. Lief. "I had as lieve the town crier spoke my lines."--SHAK.: Hamlet. "We had best leave nature to her own operations."--''Kames, El. of Crit.'', Vol. i, p. 310. "What method had he best take?"--Harris's Hermes, p. ix. These are equivalent to the phrases, might better lose--might better have been substituted--would as lief say--would rather forget--might much better say--would much rather show--would rather speak--how much rather he would be--would as lief go--should best leave--might he best take; and, for the sake of regularity, these latter forms ought to be preferred, as they sometimes are: thus, "For my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy."--Addison, Spect., No. 414; Blair's Rhet., p. 223. The following construction is different: "Augustus had like to have been slain."--S. Butler. Here had is a principal verb of the indicative imperfect. The following examples appear to be positively erroneous: "Much that was said, had better remained unsaid."--N. Y. Observer. Say, "might better have remained." "A man that is lifting a weight, if he put not sufficient strength to it, had as good put none at all."--Baxter. Say, "might as well put." "You were better pour off the first infusion, and use the latter."--Bacon. Say, "might better pour;" or, if you prefer it, "had better pour." Shakspeare has an expression which is still worse:--

"Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul,   Thou hadst been better have been born a dog."--Beauties, p. 295.

OBS. 18.--The form of conjugating the active verb, is often called the Active Voice, and that of the passive verb, the Passive Voice. These terms are borrowed from the Latin and Greek grammars, and, except as serving to diversify expression, are of little or no use in English grammar. Some grammarians deny that there is any propriety in them, with respect to any language. De Sacy, after showing that the import of the verb does not always follow its form of voice, adds: "We must, therefore, carefully distinguish the Voice of a Verb from its signification. To facilitate the distinction, I denominate that an Active Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as performed by the Subject; and that a Passive Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as suffered by the Subject, and performed upon it