Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/636

 theirs which I have elsewhere refuted. (See Obs. 3rd on Rule 5th.) These two verbs take the infinitive after them without the preposition, only when they are intransitive; while all the rest seem to have this power, only when they are transitive. If there are any exceptions, they shall presently be considered. A more particular examination of the construction proper for the infinitive after each of these eight verbs, seems necessary for a right understanding of the rule.

OBS. 6.--Of the verb BID. This verb, in any of its tenses, when it commands an action, usually governs an object and also an infinitive, which come together; as, "Thou bidst the world adore."--Thomson. "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing."--2 Kings, v, 13. But when it means, to promise or offer, the infinitive that follows, must be introduced by the preposition to; as, "He bids fair to excel them all"--"Perhaps no person under heaven bids more unlikely to be saved."--Brown's Divinity, p. vii. "And each bade high to win him."--GRANVILLE: ''Joh. Dict. After the compound forbid, the preposition is also necessary; as, "Where honeysuckles forbid the sun to enter."--Beauties of Shak.''. p. 57. In poetry, if the measure happens to require it, the word to is sometimes allowed after the simple verb bid, denoting a command; as, "Bid me to strike my dearest brother dead,   To bring my aged father's hoary head."--Rowe's Lucan, B. i, l. 677.

OBS. 7.--Of the verb DARE. This verb, when used intransitively, and its irregular preterit durst, which is never transitive, usually take the infinitive after them without to; as, "I dare do all that may become a man: Who dares do more, is none."--Shakspeare. "If he durst steal any thing adventurously."--Id. "Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms."--Milton. "Like one who durst his destiny control."--Dryden. In these examples, the former verbs have some resemblance to auxiliaries, and the insertion of the preposition to would be improper. But when we take away this resemblance, by giving dare or dared, an objective case, the preposition is requisite before the infinitive; as, "Time! I dare thee to discover Such a youth or such a lover."--Dryden. "He dares me to enter the lists."--Fisk's Gram., p. 125. So when dare itself is in the infinitive mood, or is put after an auxiliary, the preposition is not improper; as, "And let a private man dare to say that it will."--Brown's Estimate, ii, 147. "Would its compiler dare to affront the Deity?"--West's Letters, p. 151. "What power so great, to dare to disobey?"--Pope's Homer. "Some would even dare to die."--Bible. "What would dare to molest him?"--Dr. Johnson. "Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?"--Junius, Let. xxxiii. Perhaps these examples might be considered good English, either with or without the to; but the last one would be still better thus: "Dare you prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?" Dr. Priestley thinks the following sentence would have been better with the preposition inserted: "Who have dared defy the worst."--HARRIS: Priestley's Gram., p. 132. To is sometimes used after the simple verb, in the present tense; as, "Those whose words no one dares to repeat."--Opie, on Lying, p. 147.

"Dare I to leave of humble prose the shore?" --Young, p. 377.

"Against heaven's endless mercies pour'd, how dar'st thou to rebel?" --Id., p. 380.

"The man who dares to be a wretch, deserves still greater pain." --Id., p. 381.

OBS. 8.--Of the verb FEEL. This verb, in any of its tenses, may govern the infinitive without the sign to; but it does this, only when it is used transitively, and that in regard to a bodily perception: as, "I feel it move."--"I felt something sting me." If we speak of feeling any mental affection, or if we use the verb intransitively, the infinitive that follows, requires the preposition; as, "I feel it to be my duty."--"I felt ashamed to ask."--"I feel afraid to go alone."--"I felt about, to find the door." One may say of what is painful to the body, "I feel it to be severe."

OBS. 9.--Of the verb HEAR. This verb is often intransitive, but it is usually followed by an objective case when it governs the infinitive; as. "To hear a bird sing."--Webster. "You have never heard me say so." For this reason, I am inclined to think that those sentences in which it appears to govern the infinitive alone, are elliptical; as, "I have heard tell of such things."--"And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it."--Gen, xli, 15. Such examples may be the same as. "I have heard people tell,"--"I have heard men say," &c.

OBS. 10.--Of the verb LET. By many grammarians this verb has been erroneously called an auxiliary of the optative mood; or, as Dr. Johnson terms it, "a sign of the optative mood:" though none deny, that it is sometimes also a principal verb. It is, in fact, always a principal verb; because, as we now apply it, it is always transitive. It commonly governs an objective noun or pronoun, and also an infinitive without the sign to; as, "Rise up, let us go."--Mark. "Thou shalt let it rest."--Exodus. But sometimes the infinitive coalesces with it more nearly than the objective, so that the latter is placed after both verbs; as, "The solution lets go the mercury."--Newton. "One lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration."--Locke. "Back! on your lives; let be, said he, my prey."--Dryden. The phrase, let go, is sometimes spoken for, let go your hold; and let be, for let him be, let it be, &c. In such instances, therefore, the verb let is not really intransitive. This verb, even in the passive form, may have the infinitive after it without the preposition to; as, "Nothing is let slip."--Walker's English Particles, p. 165. "They were let go in peace."--Acts, xv, 33. "The stage was never empty, nor the curtain let fall."--Blair's Rhet., p. 459. "The pye's question was wisely let fall without a reply."--L'Estrange. With respect to other passives, Murray and Fisk appear to be right; and sometimes the preposition is used after this one: as, "There's a letter for you, sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is."--Shakspeare. Let, when used intransitively, required the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "He would not let [i. e. forbear] to counsel the king."--Bacon. But this use of let is now obsolete.