after make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, in any of their moods or tenses, or after their participles, the to must be omitted: as, "I make him study; I hear her sing; I see him run; I will let him go; I dare not speak;" &c. In these examples, you perceive, that it would be inelegant to express the to, and say, "I heard her to sing," &c.

George. All this is very plain, and easily understood; but how must we parse a verb in the infinitive mood? for we cannot apply the first rule, as we do, when we parse verbs in other moods, because a verb in this mood has no nominative

case.

Tutor. You will tell whether it is regular or irregular ; transitive or intransitive; as you do of verbs in other moods; then the mood and tense, and give this

RULE XX.

The infinitive mood may be governed by a verb, noun, participle, or an adjective.

Government, is the influence which one word has over another in directing its case or mood. A verb in the infinitive mood, has no nominative. When a verb, noun, adjective, or participle, then, prevents the following verb from having a nominative, it prevents it from being a finite verb, and, consequently, causes it to be in the infinitive mood.

Caroline. Will you illustrate this rule by a few examples? Tutor. I will. When I say, " She sings ;" you know that she is the nominative to the verb sings. But now I write, "I will let," before that phrase, and you will perceive, that the pronoun she, can no longer remain as the nominative to sings, but must be changed into her, in the objective case, because let is a transitive verb, and governs that case: and the s, which is the personal termination of the third person singular, of the indicative mood, must be taken off; then the phrase will stand thus: "I will let her sing;" and sing is now in the infinitive mood, and governed by the verb will let.

George. I see very clearly, that will let, governs sing; or causes sing to be in the infinitive mood; for we cannot say, "I will let she sings."

Tutor. This mood is generally governed by the preceding verb; but, sometimes, by a noun, adjective, or a participle; and, when these govern it, they, in some way or other, prevent the verb from having a nominative. Thus, if I say, "I go," "they work ;" go and work are finite verbs; but insert the verbs intend and expect; "I intend to go," "they expect to work;" now, intend and expect take I and they for their

own nominatives, and put the other verbs into the infinitive mood.

So, when, I say, " Endeavouring to persuade them," &c. "He is eager to learn"-" They have a desire to improve ;" you see, that a nominative could not be inserted after the participle endeavouring, the adjective eager, or the noun desire; but, that they govern the verbs that follow them, in the infinitive mood.

I will just remark to you, that the verbs in the infinitive mood, that follow make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, and their participles, are always governed by them.

And I will also observe, that there are a few verbs, besides these, which sometimes require the infinitive, that follows them, to be used without the sign to.

Caroline. I hope you have now finished your remarks on the infinitive mood; for I wish to hear something about the imperative, which is the last of the moods.

Tutor. The IMPERATIVE MOOD may be very soon disposed of.

as,

It simply expresses a command to a second person; and the person commanded, is its nominative. It is, therefore, always of the second person; and, as we cannot command in past or future time, it is always of the present tense.-The nominative to a verb in this mood, is generally understood: "Go ye. "Go;" that is, "Go thou," or, "Come to me, and recite ;" that is, "Come thou, or come ye or you," &c. The verb in the imperative mood, then, is always in the present tense, and always of the second person, either singular or plural. When one person is commanded, it is of the singular number, and agrees with thou, expressed or understood; when more than one are commanded, it is of the plural number, and agrees with ye or you, expressed or understood. Do is sometimes used as an auxiliary, in this mood, as well as in the indicative and subjunctive; as, "Do study;" "Do thou study, or do you study;" "Do do the work better," &c. "Do let that alone."

When I gave you the potential mood, I made you acquainted with some of the defective verbs.

DEFECTIVE VERBS are those which are used only in some of the moods and tenses, and have no participles. The principal of them are these:

Present.

May,

Imperfect,

might.

Perf. or Pass. Parı ticiples wanting.

All these are used as auxiliaries

ought and quoth;

these two are never used as such will observe, that ought is the same in both tenses; you will be able to determine its tense, then, only by the following infinitive; for it is always followed by a verb in the infinitive mood. When the following infinitive is in the present tense, ought is in the present tense: as, " He ought to go;" and when followed by the infinitive perfect, ought is in the imperfect: as," He ought to have gone.'

I will ask you a few questions concerning the subjects of this Conversation.

QUESTIONS.

What are the auxiliaries which form the potential mood?
How many tenses has this mood?

How is the present formed?
How is the imperfcct formed?
How is the perfect formed?
How is the pluperfect formed?
What is the meaning of tense?

When is a tense called compound?

What is a simple tense ?

Which tenses of the indicative and subjunctive moods are

simple, and which compound?

How many tenses has the infinitive mood?

How are they formed?

How does this mood differ from the others?

When must To be admitted before the verb in this mood? Why is it called infinitive?

Why is the imperative so called?

Of what person must a verb in the imperative mood always be?

How do you know the tense of the defective verb ought?

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

Study, if you wish to improve.-Behave well, if thou love t virtue or a good name.-Strive to imitate the virtues, which thou seest exhibited by the good; then thou wilt give evidence

of thy own. He may improve himself, if his industry should increase. He ought to study more. He ought to have studied his lesson better. He can go if he chooses.-The boy must not treat his superiors ill.-My neighbour may have sold his house, for aught that I know.-I told him that he might go yesterday, but he would not.-He might have acquired great wealth, if he had desired it.-The man should have returned when he found his enterprise unsuccessful.-We would not serve him then, but we will hereafter.

CONVERSATION XVIII.

OF PASSIVE AND NEUTER VERBS.

When, in the third Conversation, I explained the verb to you, I gave you this definition of it: "A verb is a word that expresses an action of some creature or thing." This definition, although it has been sufficient for our purpose, thus far, is, nevertheless, very incomplete, as you will soon perceive. VERBS are divided into three sorts, the Active, the Passive, and the Neuter verbs.

The definition of a verb, which has been given by the most respectable grammarians, is this: "A verb is a word which signifies to BE, to Do, or to SUFFER: as, I am, I rule, I am ruled."

In this example, AM is a verb neuter, RULE is a verb active, and AM RULED is a verb passive. According to this definition, then, a verb neuter signifies to BE, or to exist merely; a verb active signifies to Do, or to act; and a verb passive signifies

to SUFFER.

This definition of the active verb you understand; but, perhaps, you would hardly know a passive verb, from the definition here given. I will try to make you comprehend it.

To nominate, means to name, or to designate, or to point out by name; and NOMINATIVE, is derived from the verb to nominate, and, when used in grammar, means the creature or thing named, or pointed out; so that all nouns, when they are merely named, and not connected in sentences, are in the nominative case; that is, they denote things that exist, named merely as, Houses, trees, men, paper, &c.: these words,

used in this manner, simply denote things named; or in a state, condition, or case, named merely, without having any relation with any other things. But, when we frame a sentence, and make a complete sense, which we can never do without a VERB, the term nominative, is used to designate, or point out, the subject, concerning which the verb makes some affirmation or declaration, or some supposed affirmation or declaration, in contradistinction to the object of an action or of a relation.

Every sentence must have in it, at least one verb and one nominative, expressed or understood. We cannot form a sentence of any kind, which will make a complete sense, without a nominative and a verb. This you will easily perceive, by a few examples. If I say, "The man in the house;" "The horse in the stable;" "The books on the table;" "The labourers in the field," &c. you cannot ascertain what is meant, because there is no affirmation in any of these expressions. But insert the verbs, cats, drinks, sleeps, is, walks, remains, in the first two; and, are seen, are found, are beheld, will be observed, in the next two, and you will see, that a complete sense will be formed in each simple sentence, for you will have a nominative and verb in each.

A nominative to a verb, then, is the word which denotes the person or thing, concerning which the verb makes an affirma

tion.

The nominatives to verbs may be divided into three classes; viz. those which produce the action expressed by the verb; those which receive the action expressed by the verb; and those which neither produce any action, nor receive any, but are the subjects of the verbs, which simply express the existence of these subjects, or their state of existence.

The first class, then, are active nominatives; the second are passive nominatives; because passive is in direct opposition to active; it means unresisting, or receiving an action, or · an impression, without resistance; and the third are neuter nominatives; that is, nominatives which neither produce nor receive an action; because these are connected with verbs which do not express any action, but a mere existence, or state of existence.

To illustrate what I have said take the following examples: First, of ACTIVE NOMINATIVES: as, "The box rolls;" "The horse runs ;""The men labour;" "The man writes a letter."

Secondly, of PASSIVE NOMINATIVES: as, "The box is held ;"