Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/633

 ought to" [have aided us].--Herald of Freedom. "We have tried to like it, but it's hard to."--Lynn News.

OBS. 31.--After the verb make, some writers insert the verb be, and suppress the preposition to; as, "He must make every syllable, and even every letter, in the word which he pronounces, be heard distinctly."--Blair's Rhet., p. 329; Murray's E. Reader, p. 9. "You must make yourself be heard with pleasure and attention."--Duncan's Cicero, p. 84. "To make himself be heard by all."--Blair's Rhet., p. 328. "To make ourselves be heard by one."--Ibid. "Clear enough to make me be understood."--Locke, on Ed., p. 198. In my opinion, it would be better, either to insert the to, or to use the participle only; as, "The information which he possessed, made his company to be courted."--Dr. M'Rie. "Which will both show the importance of this rule, and make the application of it to be understood."--Blair's Rhet., p. 103. Or, as in these brief forms: "To make himself heard by all."--"Clear enough to make me understood."

OBS. 32.--In those languages in which the infinitive is distinguished as such by its termination, this part of the verb may be used alone as the subject of a finite verb; but in English it is always necessary to retain the sign to before an abstract infinitive, because there is nothing else to distinguish the verb from a noun. Here we may see a difference between our language and the French, although it has been shown, that in their government of the infinitive they are in some degree analogous:--"HAÏR est un tourment; AIMER est un besoin de l'âme."--''M. de Ségur. "To hate is a torment; to love'' is a requisite of the soul." If from this any will argue that to is not here a preposition, the same argument will be as good, to prove that for is not a preposition when it governs the objective case; because that also may be used without any antecedent term of relation: as, "They are by no means points of equal importance, for me to be deprived of your affections, and for him to be defeated in his prosecution."--Anon., in W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. I said, the sign to must always be put before an abstract infinitive: but possibly a repetition of this sign may not always be necessary, when several such infinitives occur in the same construction: as, "But, to fill a heart with joy, restore content to the afflicted, or relieve the necessitous, these fall not within the reach of their five senses."--Art of Thinking, p. 66. It may be too much to affirm, that this is positively ungrammatical; yet it would be as well or better, to express it thus: "But to relieve the necessitous, to restore content to the afflicted, and to fill a heart with joy, these full not within the reach of their five senses."

OBS. 33.--In the use of the English infinitive, as well as of the participle in ing, the distinction of voice is often disregarded; the active form being used in what, with respect to the noun before it, is a passive sense: as, "There's no time to waste."--W. Allen's Gram., p. 82. "You are to blame."--Ib. "The humming-bird is delightful to look upon."--Ib. "What pain it was to drown."--Shak. "The thing's to do."--Id. "When deed of danger was to do."--Scott. "The evil I bring upon myself, is the hardest to bear."--Home's Art of Thinking, p. 27. "Pride is worse to bear than cruelty."--Ib., p. 37. These are in fact active verbs, and not passive. We may suggest agents for them, if we please; as, "There is no time for us to waste." That the simple participle in ing may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere. It seems sometimes to have no distinction of voice; as, "What is worth doing, is worth doing well."--''Com. Maxim.'' This is certainly much more agreeable, than to say, "What is worth being done, is worth being done well." In respect to the voice of the infinitive, and of this participle, many of our grammarians are obviously hypercritical. For example: "The active voice should not be used for the passive; as, I have work to do: a house to sell, to let, instead of to be done, to be sold, to be let."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 220. "Active verbs are often used improperly with a passive signification, as, 'the house is building, lodgings to let, he has a house to sell, nothing is wanting;' in stead of 'the house is being built, lodgings to be lett, he has a house to be sold, nothing is wanted.'"--Blair's Gram., p. 64. In punctuation, orthography, and the use of capitals, here are more errors than it is worth while to particularize. With regard to such phraseology as, "The house is being built," see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Compound Form of Conjugation. To say, "I have work to do,"--"He has a house to sell,"--or, "We have lodgings to let," is just as good English, as to say, "I have meat to eat."--John, iv, 32. And who, but some sciolist in grammar, would, in all such instances, prefer the passive voice?

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVIII.

INFINITIVES DEMANDING THE PARTICLE TO.

"William, please hand me that pencil."--R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 12.

[FORMULE--Not proper, because the infinitive verb hand is not preceded by the preposition to. But, according to Rule 18th, "The preposition to governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb." Therefore, to should be here inserted; thus, "William, please to hand me that pencil."]

"Please insert points so as to make sense."--Davis's Gram., p. 123. "I have known Lords abbreviate almost the half of their words."--Cobbett's English Gram., ¶ 153. "We shall find the practice perfectly accord with the theory."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 23. "But it would tend to obscure, rather than elucidate the subject."--L. Murray's Gram., p. 95. "Please divide it for them as it should be."--Willett's Arith., p. 193. "So as neither to embarrass, nor weaken the sentence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 116; Murray's Gram., 322. "Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare,[413] and hear his heavenly discourse."--SHERLOCK: Blair's Rhet., p. 157; ''Murray'