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vant has left already, and an opinion is asked as to the defensibility of the act of leaving.

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6. The present participle is frequently used to express a cause or a motive for an act expressed by a verb whose subject agrees with the participle; as, Knowing the general to be an inflexible disciplinarian, he submitted at once to the commands he received;" Desiring to recruit his health, he spent a few months in the country." 7. The past participle is used after the verbs to have, and to be; thus, "He has come" (not came); "The sun has arisen” (not arose). "The work was begun" (not began).[See List of Irregular Verbs, and the remarks preceding it.]

8. The past participle expresses a past act, and yet unites with the present tense of the verb to be, in order to express a present act; as, "I am beaten ;" in which expression the act of beating is represented as past, whilst the state of the party affected by such act is represented as present. Thus, "I am loved," is equivalent to-"I am in the position of a person who has been loved."

9. The same form may be sometimes used to express a present act denoting a habit, sometimes an act already passed; as, “I am prepared every night in my lessons by a teacher;" "I am prepared with my lessons, and anxious to say them."

10. Past participles obviate the necessity of a relative clause, and thus contribute to gain time by shortening language; thus, "He lost popularity by two acts characterized by great cruelty." This is equivalent to, "By two acts which were characterized," &c.; from which it appears that the relative may be suppressed, and the predicate thereof changed into the participle agreeing, as an adjective, with the antecedent.

fell" =

11. A participle may frequently be converted into a verb, the conjunction and connecting such verb with the remaining one. Thus, "The towers being undermined, now "The towers were undermined, and now fell." 12. A verb may be changed into the participle by a species of converse construction; and thus the connecting copula may be omitted, and the sentence rendered less

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complex; as, "His leg was broken, and he was consequently unable to walk" = "His leg having been broken, he was unable to walk.'

NOTE.

-The construction noticed in Observations 11, 12, prevails extensively in the Latin language.

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RULE X.

SENTENCES wherein something contingent (that is, dependent on something else) or doubtful is implied, require the verb to be expressed in the subjunctive mood; thusIf he require the letter of introduction, don't refuse it to him." Here there is an uncertainty in the mind of the speaker as to the act of requiring; that is, whether it will take place or not, and therefore the verb require (not requires) is used.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE X.

1. Some conjunctions appear to govern the mood of the verb which follows in the same clause; that is, according as certainty or uncertainty, contingency or the want thereof, is implied by such conjunctions. "He will come, because he was ordered to do so:" here is because connecting two propositions which are positive; the latter verb is therefore in the indicative mood. "Rain will fall, if clouds be gathered:" here one proposition expresses the condition of the other; that is, the falling of the rain will depend on the gathering of the clouds. The verb, therefore, of the latter clause, expressing the condition on which the act of the preceding depends, is subjunctive.

2. Of two propositions, one may be the condition of the other. "The day will be clear, if the sun shine:" here, although it is certain that if the sun shine the day will be clear, there is no certainty of the sun shining. Of the two propositions, one only embodies a certain fact; and that is

certain only conditionally. Now an action, wherein there enters any notion of uncertainty or indefinitude, and is at the same time connected with another action, is expressed, not by the indicative mood, but the subjunctive. "If the sun shine (not shines) the day will be clear." Simple uncertainty will not constitute a subjunctive construction; as, "I am perhaps in the wrong." Neither will simple connection; as, "I am wrong, because you are right." But the two combined constitute the construction in question; as, "If I be wrong, you are right." Now a conjunction that connects two certain propositions may be said to govern an indicative mood; and a conjunction that connects an uncertain proposition with a certain one, may be said to govern a subjunctive mood. [The whole of the foregoing observation is taken from Latham.]

NOTE.-There can be assigned no valid reason why a doubtful proposition should be expressed by the subjunctive mood rather than any other. "If the sun shines," and "If the sun shine," express the same idea, and are philosophically correct. The use of the subjunctive arose primarily from the consideration that sentences like, "The sun shines," and "If the sun shine," express acts in a different degree of positiveness, and the supposed necessity of distinguishing the degree thereof by using a different mode or form of the verb. Still such distinction of mode is awkward, and evidently unnecessary; the conjunction connecting the propositions, and not the difference of mode, conveying the idea of the difference in degree of positiveness. This difference of mode, however prevalent in ancient times, has been of late years much disused, and very conveniently for a writer or speaker, inasmuch as considerable confusion prevails from the fact that scarcely any two writers on grammar are found to agree even on the inflection of the so called subjunctive mood. As a matter of practical utility, "If he go," and "If he goes," are equal; and no speaker could be proved ungrammatical from using the one in preference to the other.

RULE XI.

IN the construction of sentences, the order of time must be carefully observed, and a correspondence throughout the several parts studiously maintained: thus, "I promised to have spoken to him on that subject," is erroneous, and should be, "I promised to speak," &c.; the word promised taking us back to the time at which the promise was made to speak, which promise could not have been antecedently performed.

NOTE. The foregoing rule is laid down as it is given formally in most grammars. It is impossible, however, to embody all the cases of construction as to tense, that may arise under any rule, however comprehensive. The application of care and the employment of thought, on the part of the pupil, together with a consideration of what the sense intended to be conveyed requires, will always be sufficient to enable him to avoid inaccuracies in the use of the several tenses of the verbs in complex sentences. The following examples of inaccuracies in this particular will, it is hoped, prove an additional help :

1. “I remember him these many years," should be, “I have remembered him these many years;" because the act of remembering cannot be confined to the present moment, but must extend thereto through some portion of time anterior; the tense therefore to be used in such a case is the perfect, which, as was remarked in the etymology of the Verb, represents an act occurring in the past, and extending throughout it up to the present time.

2. "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days." The remarks in Example 1, will serve to shew that the latter clause should read- "Because they have continued with me now.

3. "I expected to have received an answer last Monday, should be, "I expected to receive;" because the person represented by I, expected the letter on Monday, not prior to that day.

NOTE. The foregoing is an example of a very common error, that of using the perfect instead of the infinitive

present of a verb in a subsidiary clause. "I was inclined to have gone to town last Saturday," is another example. This error arises from want of consideration. The act of going, in the fore-mentioned clause, appears past at the time when the sentence is expressed; the speaker, therefore, jumps into the conclusion that the past time must be expressed by that form of the verb which expresses such act. Nothing can be more erroneous; and the slightest reflection would demonstrate that the act of going must be represented as present in regard of that time when the inclination to go took place, although the inclination itself must be represented as past in regard of the time when such inclination is announced.

4. "I called on him yesterday, and expressed a wish to have alluded to the matter," should be, "to allude," that is, at the time when the call was made, not previously.

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I called on him yesterday, and expressed my regret that I had not alluded to the matter.' This is different altogether in construction from the foregoing, and perfectly correct; the regret existing at the time of the call, that the allusion had not been made previously thereto.

NOTE. The word that, conveying an intention, and succeeded by a verb expressing an act which must necessarily follow an act expressed by the preceding verb, requires both verbs to be expressed in the same tense. Thus, “I am going, that I might hear the Doctor," should be, "that I may hear;" because it is impossible that an act can be performed now, that something may follow from such act previously.

RULE XII.

CONJUNCTIONS couple verbs in the same mood and tense, and nouns and pronouns in the same case: thus, " Praise the Lord, and rejoice in His name;" "He spoke to him and me." In the former example, and couples the verbs, praise, rejoice, in the imperative mood; in the latter, and connects him and me in the objective case.

NOTE. The foregoing, though generally laid down as a rule in grainmars, is manifestly unnecessary, and, as far

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