English its tenses are all compound and formed by prefixing those of the verb To Be to the past participle. Thus :

To Paint is a perfect and regular active Verb, and the Conjugation which we have given is complete in all its tenses. The termination (ed) of its preterite and past participle is the same as those of nineteen-twentieths of all the Verbs in the language. The termination (ing) of the present participle is invariable, but the preterite and past participle are irregular in numerous instances; and as these parts of the Verb are necessary, not only singly, but in the formation of the compound tenses, we subjoin a list of those anomalous Verbs, with their variations, which will save that labour in the Dictionary.

* Gotten is now seldom written except in the compounds.

+ When this Verb is applied to strangulation (hanging by the neck,) it is regular: Hang, hanged,

hanged.

The following irregular Verbs (many of which are merely contractions) may also be written in the Regular Form.

It will be observed that, in both the preceding lists, those Preterites and Participles which end in t are so formed in consequence of the ed being necessarily so pronounced after certain letters, when it does not make a separate syllable. Thus keeped has been changed into kept; sleeped into slept; creeped into crept, &c. The ed, when the e is silent, has necessarily the sound of t after ch, k, p, sh, ss, or r; and hence stretched, decked, lopped, hushed, tossed, and vered, are, occasionally, written with a terminal t in the place of the unpronounced e and the unpronounceable d. The steps by which such changes are effected are easy and natural. The e was first left out by the poets lest the word should be mistaken for a dissyllable, and the substitution of t for d became afterwards a matter of course; and it is only by the constant remonstrances of grammarians that this contracted orthography has not generally prevailed. The words last quoted, as well as others of their several classes, appear in all the three modes of spelling, according to the pleasure of the author or his printer:

The tide of opinion now runs in favour of the first spelling; but there are many words in which the latter orthography is almost legalized. When a poet, for instance, wishes for a rhyme to text, he would prefer writing perplext to perplexed, as being less incongruous to the eye. We may add that some consider them as better adapted to the participle, while others apply them equally to the participle and the preterite. The school-grammars usually add the

following in l, m, and n; although the pronunciation of these terminal letters does not necessarily change the d into t: deal, dealt; dream, dreamt; lean, leant; learn, learnt; mean, meant; and burn, burnt.

Except in two or three cases where the roots have become obsolete, the irregular verbs above written are all monosyllables: a form that peculiarly distinguishes such Verbs as are of old English usage and Teutonic origin. All of them, however, whether regular or irregular, have been (or may be) compounded by means of certain prefixes, with which they aré accustomed to coalesce; while words that are derived from the Greek or the Latin have, generally, been imported in their compound state, along with the prepositions of those tongues, modified only in their terminations. In these adoptions care has been taken that the Verbs should be regularly formed, so that our anomalous Verbs are wholly of native growth. The general rule is, that the Compounds follow the conjugation of their roots; nevertheless, to welcome and to behave are both regular, although come and have are not so. We do not recollect any other exceptions, but should they occur they will be noticed in the order of their explanations. The following are examples of irregular Verbs, compounded with the principal prefixes:

The explanation of these prefixes, and the modifying power of each, in conjunction with verbs or participles, will be given when we come to treat, more particularly, of prepositions.