Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/630



OBS. 24.--Though the infinitive is commonly made an adjunct to some finite verb, yet it may be connected to almost all the other parts of speech, or even to an other infinitive. The preposition to being its only and almost universal index, we seldom find any other preposition put before this; unless the word about, in such a situation, is a preposition, as I incline to think it is.[411] Anciently, the infinitive was sometimes preceded by for as well as to; as, "I went up to Jerusalem for to worship."--Acts, xxiv, 11. "What went ye out for to see?"--Luke, vii, 26. "And stood up for to read."--Luke, iv, 16. Here modern usage rejects the former preposition: the idiom is left to the uneducated. But it seems practicable to subjoin the infinitive to every one of the ten parts of speech, except the article: as,

1. To a noun; as, "If there is any precept to obtain felicity."--Hawkesworth. "It is high time to awake out of sleep."--Rom., xiii, 11. "To flee from the wrath to come."--Matt., iii, 7.

2. To an adjective; as, "He seemed desirous to speak, yet unwilling to offend."--Hawkesworth. "He who is the slowest to promise, is the quickest to perform."--Art of Thinking, p. 35.

3. To a pronoun; as, "I discovered him to be a scholar."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cæsar?"--Luke, xx, 22. "Let me desire you to reflect impartially."--BLAIR: Murray's Eng. Reader, p. 77. "Whom hast thou then or what t' accuse?"--Milton, P. L., iv, 67.

4. To a finite verb; as, "Then Peter began to rebuke him."--Matt., xvi, 22. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."--Luke, xix, 10.

5. To an other infinitive; as, "To go to enter into Egypt."--Jer., xli, 17. "We are not often willing to wait to consider."--J. Abbott. "For what had he to do to chide at me?"--Shak.

6. To a participle; as, "Still threatening to devour me."--Milton. "Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash of some rich burgher."--Id.

7. To an adverb; as, "She is old enough to go to school."--"I know not how to act."--Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "Tell me when to come, and where to meet you."--"He hath not where to lay his head."

8. To a conjunction; as, "He knows better than to trust you."--"It was so hot as to melt these ornaments."--"Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it."--Dr. Johnson.

9. To a preposition; as, "I was about to write."--Rev., x, 4. "Not for to hide it in a hedge."--Burns's Poems, p. 42. "Amatum iri, To be about to be loved."--Adam's Gram., p. 95.[412]

10. To an interjection; as, "O to forget her!"--Young's Night Thoughts.

OBS. 25.--The infinitive is the mere verb, without affirmation, without person or number, and therefore without the agreement peculiar to a finite verb. (See Obs. 8th on Rule 2d.) But, in most instances, it is not without limitation of the being, action, or passion, to some particular person or persons, thing or things, that are said, supposed, or denied, to be, to act, or to be acted upon. Whenever it is not thus limited, it is taken abstractly, and has some resemblance to a