the defignation of Person

by which it correlponds with the feveral Personal Pronouns; of Number, by which it corresponds with the Number of the Noun, Singular or Plural; of Time, by which it represents the being, action, or paffion, as Present, Paft, or Future; whether Imperfectly, or Perfectly; that is, whether paffing in fuch time, or then finifhed; and laftly of Mode, or of the various Manner in which the being, action, or paffion, is expreffed.

In a Verb therefore are to be confidered the Perfon, the Number, the Time, and the Mode. The Verb in some parts of it varies its endings, to express, or agree with, different Persons of the fame number: I love, Thou lovest,

He loveth, or loves. "

as,

So alfo to exprefs different Numbers of the
Thou loveft, Ye love; He

fame person: as
loveth, They love (1).

(1) In the Plural Number of the Verb, there is no variation of ending to express the different Perfons; and the three Perfons Plural are the fame alfo with the firft Perfon Singular moreover in the Prefent Time of the Subjun&ive Mode all Perfonal Variation is wholly dropped. Yet is this fcanty provifion of terminations fufficient for all the purposes

in

'So likewife to exprefs different Times, which any thing is reprefented as being, acting, “ I love, I loved; I bear,

or acted upon : as,
I bore, I have borne. "

ง

The Mode is the Manner of representing the Being, Action, or Paffion. When it is fimply declared, or a queftion is afked, in order to obtain a declaration concerning it it is called the Indicative Mode; as, I love; loveft thou?", when it is bidden, it is called the Imperative; as, love thou: " when it is fubjoined as the end or defign, or mentioned under a condition, a fuppofition, or the like, for the most part depending on fome other Verb, and having a Conjunction before it, it is called the Subjun&tive; as, If I love; if thou love: when it is barely expreffed without any limitation of perfon or number, it is called the Infinitive; as, love; and when it is expreffed in a form in

"to

of discourse, nor does any ambiguity arife from it: the Verb being always attended either with the Noun expreffing the Subje& a&ting or acted upon, or the Pronoun representing they it. For which reafon the Plural Termination in en, loven, they weren, formerly in ufe, was laid afide as unneceffary, and hath long been obfolete.

called therefore Auxiliaries, or Helpers; do, ben have, fhall, will: as, I do love, I did love; I am loved, I was loved; I have loved. I have been loved; I fhall, or will, love, or be loved. "

The two principal Auxiliaries, to have and to be, are thus varied, according to Perfon, Number, Time, and Mode.

Time is Prefent, Paft, or Future.

being, doing, or fuffering, with the defignation of Time fuperadded. But if the effence of the Verb be made to confift in Affirmation, not only the Participle will be excluded from its place in the Verb, but the Infinitive itself alfo ; which certain ancient Grammarians of Great authority held to be alone the genuine Verb, denying that title to all the other Modes. See HERMES, p. 164.

we

(1) Thou, in the Polite, and even in the Familiar Style, is difufed, and the Plural You is employed inftead of it : fay, You have; not, Thou haft. Though in this cafe we apply You to a single Person, yet the Verb too muft

agree

แ

Ad

with it in the Plural Number: it must necessarily be, You
have, not, You haft. You was, the Second Person Plural of
the Pronoun placed in agreement with the firft or Third Per-
fon Singular of the Verb, is an enormous Solecism: and yet
Authors of the first rank have inadvertently fallen into it.
Knowing that you was my old master's good friend. "
difon, Spec. No. 517. "The account you was pleased to
fend me." Bentley, Phileleuth. Lipf. Part II.
prefixed.
"Would to God you was within her reach!»,
lingbroke to Swift, Letter 46. you was here. Ditto,
"I am juft now as well, as when you was here."
Pope to Swift, P. S. to Letter 56. On the contrary the
Solemn Style admits not of You for a fingle Perfon. This
hath led Mr. Pope into a great impropriety in the beginning

Letter 47.

of his Meffiah :

If

See the Letter

«O Thou my voice inspire,

Bo

Who touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire." The Solemnity of the Style would not admit of You for Thow in the Pronoun, nor the measure of the Verfe touchedft, or didft touch, in the Verb; as it indispensably ought to be, the one, or the other, of these two forms: You, who touched; or Thou, who touchedft, or didft touch.

"What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown, While others fleep, thus range the camp alone?»

in

Pope's Iliad, x. go.

Accept these grateful tears; for thee they flow; For thee, that ever felt another's woc."

Ib. xix. 319.

1. I fhall, or will,

Future Time.

We

fhall,

They

or will, have.

2. Thou fhalt, or wilt (1), have; Ye
3. He fhall, or will,

Faultless thou dropt from his unerring skill. "
Dr. Arbuthnot, Dodfley's Poems, vol. i.

Again:

Juft of thy word, in every thought fincere;
Who knew no wifh, but what the world might hear."

Pope, Epitaph.

It ought to be your in the first line, or kneweft in the second. In order to avoid this Grammatical Inconvenience, the two diftinct forms of Thou and You are often ufed promiscuously by our modern Poets, in the fame Poem, in the fame Paragraph, and even in the fame Sentence; very inelegantly and improperly:

"Now, now, I feize, clafp thy charms;

And now you burft, ah cruel! from my arms."

Pope.

(2) Hath properly belongs to the ferious and folemn style; has, to the familiar. The fame may be obferved of doth

and does.

"Th' unwearied Sun from day to day Does his Creator's pow'r difplay."

Addifon.

The nature of the flyle, as well as the harmony of the verse, feems to require in thefe places hath and doth.

(1) The Auxiliary Verb will is always thus formed in the second and third Perfons fingular but the Verb to will, not

Imperative