Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/637



OBS. 11.--Of the verb MAKE. This verb, like most of the others, never immediately governs an infinitive, unless it also governs a noun or a pronoun which is the immediate subject of such infinitive; as, "You make me blush."--"This only made the youngster laugh"--Webster's Spelling-Book. "Which soon made the young chap hasten down."--Ib. But in very many instances it is quite proper to insert the preposition where this verb is transitive; as, "He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."--Mark, vii, 37. "He makes the excellency of a sentence to consist in four things."--Blair's Rhet., p. 122; Jamieson's, 124. "It is this that makes the observance of the dramatic unities to be of consequence."--Blair's Rhet., p. 464. "In making some tenses of the English verb to consist of principal and auxiliary."--Murray's Gram., p. 76. "When make is intransitive, it has some qualifying word after it, besides the sign of the infinitive; as,--I think he will make out to pay his debts." Formerly, the preposition to was almost always inserted to govern the infinitive after make or made; as, "Lest I make my brother to offend."--1 Cor., viii, 13. "He made many to fall."--Jer., xlvi, 16. Yet, in the following text, it is omitted, even where the verb is meant to be passive: "And it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man."--Dan., vii, 4. This construction is improper, and not free from ambiguity; because stand may be a noun, and made, an active verb governing it. There may also be uncertainty in the meaning, where the insertion of the preposition leaves none in the construction; for made may signify either created or compelled, and the infinitive after it, may denote either the purpose of creation, or the effect of any temporary compulsion: as, "We are made to be serviceable to others."--Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 167. "Man was made to mourn."--Burns. "Taste was never made to cater for vanity."--Blair. The primitive word make seldom, if ever, produces a construction that is thus equivocal. The infinitive following it without to, always denotes the effect of the making, and not the purpose of the maker; as, "He made his son Skjöld be received there as king."--''North. Antiq.'', p. 81. But the same meaning may be conveyed when the to is used; as, "The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace;   And makes all ills that vex us here to cease."--Waller, p. 56.

OBS. 12.--Of the verb NEED. I incline to think, that the word need, whenever it is rightly followed by the infinitive without to, is, in reality an auxiliary of the potential mood; and that, like may, can, and must, it may properly be used, in both the present and the perfect tense, without personal inflection: as, "He need not go, He need not have gone;" where, if need is a principal verb, and governs the infinitive without to, the expressions must be, "He needs not go, He needed not go, or, He has not needed go." But none of these three forms is agreeable; and the last two are never used. Wherefore, in stead of placing in my code of false syntax the numerous examples of the former kind, with which the style of our grammarians and critics has furnished me, I have exhibited many of them, in contrast with others, in the eighth and ninth observations on the Conjugation of Verbs; in which observations, the reader may see what reasons there are for supposing the word need to be sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb. Because no other author has yet intentionally recognized the propriety of this distinction, I have gone no farther than to show on what grounds, and with what authority from usage, it might be acknowledged. If we adopt this distinction, perhaps it will be found that the regular or principal verb need always requires, or, at least, always admits, the preposition to before the following infinitive; as, "They need not to be specially indicated."--Adams's Rhet., i, 302. "We need only to remark."--Ib., ii, 224. "A young man needed only to ask himself," &c.--Ib., i, 117. "Nor is it conceivable to me, that the lightning of a Demosthenes could need to be sped upon the wings of a semiquaver."--Ib., ii, 226. "But these people need to be informed."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 220. "No man needed less to be informed."--Ib., p. 175. "We need only to mention the difficulty that arises."--''Kames, El. of Crit.'', ii, 362. "Can there need to be argument to prove so plain a point?"--Graham's Lect. "Moral instruction needs to have a more prominent place."--Dr. Weeks. "Pride, ambition, and selfishness, need to be restrained."--Id. "Articles are sometimes omitted, where they need to be used."--Sanborn's Gram., p. 197. "Whose power needs not to be dreaded."--Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 93. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed."--2 Tim., ii, 15. "The small boys may have needed to be managed according to the school system."--T. D. Woolsey. "The difficulty of making variety consistent, needs not to disturb him."--Rambler, No. 122. "A more cogent proof needs not to be introduced."--Wright's Gram., p. 66. "No person needs to be informed, that you is used in addressing a single person."--Wilcox's Gram., p. 19. "I hope I need not to advise you further."--Shak., All's Well. "Nor me, nor other god, thou needst to fear,   For thou to all the heavenly host art dear."--Congreve. OBS. 13.--If need is ever an auxiliary, the essential difference between an auxiliary and a principal verb, will very well account for the otherwise puzzling fact, that good writers sometimes inflect this verb, and sometimes do not; and that they sometimes use to after it, and sometimes do not. Nor do I see in what other way a grammarian can treat it, without condemning as bad English a great number of very common phrases which he cannot change for the better. On this principle, such examples as, "He need not proceed," and "He needs not to proceed," may be perfectly right in either form; though Murray, Crombie,[416] Fisk, Ingersoll, Smith, C. Adams,