A Verb Passive expresses a Passion, or a Suffering, or the Receiving of an Action; and necessarily implies an Object acted upon, and an Agent by which it is acted upon; as, to be loved; "Thomas is loved by me."

So when the Agent takes the lead in the Sentence, the Verb is Active, and is followed by the Object; when the Object takes the lead, the Verb is Passive, and is followed by the Agent.

A Verb Neuter expresses Being; or a state or condition of being; when the Agent and the Object acted upon coincide, and the event is properly Neither action nor passion, but rather something between both; as, I am, I sleep, I walk.

The Verb Active is called also Transitive; because the action passeth over to the Object, or hath an effect upon some other thing: and the Verb Neuter is called Intransitive; because the effect is confined within the Agent, and doth not pass over to any object.

In English many Verbs are used both in an Active and Neuter signification, the construction only determining of which kind they are.

To the signification of the Verb is superadded the designation of Person, by which it corresponds with the several 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 passion, as Present, Past, or Future, whether Imperfectly, or Perfectly; that is, whether passing in such time, or then finished; and lastly of Mode, or of the various Manners in which the being, action, or passion is expressed.

In a Verb, therefore, are to be considered the Person, the Number, the Time, and the Mode.

The Vecb in some parts of it varies its endings, to express, or agree with, different Persons of the same number: as, "I lore, Thou lovest, He loveth, or loves"

So

So also to express different Numbers of the same person : as, "Thou lovest, Ye love; He loveth, They love *.

So likewise to express different Times in which any thing is represented as being, acting, or acted upon: as, "I love, I loved; I bear, I boer, I have borne."

The Mode is the Manner of representing the Being, Action, or Passion. When it is simply declared, or a question asked, in order to obtain a declaration concerning it, it is called the Indicative Mode; as, "I love; lovest thou?" when it is bidden, it is called the Imperative; as, "love thou:" when it is subjoined as the end or design, or mentioned under a condition, a supposition, or the like, for the most part depending on some other Verb, and having a Conjunction before it, it is called the Subjunctive; as, "If I love; if thou love:" when it is barely expressed without any limitation of person or number, it is called the Infinitive; as, "to love:" and when it is expressed in a form in which it may be joined to a Noun as its quality or accident, partaking thereby of the nature of an Adjective, it is called the Participle; as, "loving t.

But to express the time of the Verb the English uses also the assistance of other Verbs, cailed therefore Auxiliaries,

In the Plural Number of the Verb, there is no variation of ending to express the different Persons; and the three Persons Plural are the same also with the first Person Singular: moreover in the Present Time of the Subjunctive Mode all Personal Variation is wholly dropped. Yet is this scanty provision of terminations sufficient for all the purposes of discourse, nor does any ambiguity arise from it: the Verb being always attended either with the Noun expressing the Subject acting or acted upon, or the Pronoun representing it. For which reason the Plural Termination in en, they loven, they weren, formerly in use, was laid aside as unnecessary, and hath long been obsolete.

+ A Mode is a particular form of the Verb, denoting the manner in which a thing is, does, or suffers: or expressing an intention of mind concerning such being, doing, or suffering. As far as Grammar is concerned, there are no more Modes in any language, than there are forms of the Verb appro

priated

or helpers; do, be, have, shall, will; as, "I do love, I did love; I am loved, I was loved; I have loved, I have been loved; I shall, or will, love, or be loved."

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

Time

priated to the denoting of such different manners of representation. For instance, the Greeks have a peculiar form of a Verb, by which they express the subject, or matter of a wish; which properly constitutes an Optative Mode: but the Latins have no such form; the subject of a Wish in their language is subjoined to the Wish itself either expressed or implied, as subsequent to it and depending on it: they have, therefore, no Optative Mode; but what is expressed in that Mode in Greek fails properly under the Subjunctive Mode in Latin. For the same reason, in English the several expressions of Conditional Will, Possibility, Liberty, Obligation, &e. come under the Subjunctive Mode. The mere expression of Will, Possibility, Liberty, Obligation, &c. belong to the Indicative Mode: it is their Conditionality, their being subsequent, and depending upon something preceding, that determines them to the Subjunctive Mode. And in this Grammatical Modal Form, however they may differ in other respects Logically, or Metaphysically, they all agree. That Will, Possibility, Liberty, Obligation, &c. though expressed by the same Verbs, that are occasionally used as Subjunctive Auxiliaries, may belong to the Indicative Mode, will be apparent from a few examples.

"Here we may reign secure.

Or of th' Eternal co-eternal beam
May I express thee unblam'd?"

"Firm they might have stood,

Yet fell."

"What we would do,

We should do, when we would."

Milton.

Shakespear, Hamlet. "Is this the nature

Which passion could not shake? whose solid virtue

The shot of accident, or dart of chance,

Could neither raze, nor pierce?"

Ibid. Othello.

These sentences are all either declarative, or simply interrogative; and however expressive of Will, Liberty, Possibility, or Obligation, yet the Verbs are all of the Indicative Mode.

It seems, therefore, that whatever other Metaphysical Modes there may be in the theory of Univeral Grammar, there are in English no other Grammaneal Modes than those above described.

As

As in Latin the Subjunctive supplies the want of an Optative Mode, so does it likewise in English, with the Auxiliary may placed before the Nominative Case: as, "Long may he live!" Sometimes, chiefly when Almighty God is the Subject, the Auxiliary is omitted: as, "The LORD bless thee, and keep thee;" Numb. vi. 24. But the phrase with the Pronoun is obsolete: as, "Unto which he vouchsafe to bring us all!" Liturgy.

That the Participle is a mere Mode of the Verb, is manifest, if our Definition of a Verb be admitted: for it signifies being, doing, or suffering, with the designation of Time superadded. But if the essence of the Verb be made to consist in Affirmation, not only the Participle will be excluded from its place in the Verb, but the Infinitive itself also; which certain ancient Grammarians of great authority held to be alone the genuine Verb, denying that title to all the other Modes.

Thou, in the Polite, and even in the Familiar Style, is disused, and the Plural You is employed instead of it: we say, You have; not, Thou hast. Though in this case we apply You to a single Person, yet the Verb too must agree with it in the Plural Number: it must neeessarily be You have ; not, You hast. You was, the Second Person Plural of the Pronoun placed in agreement with the First or Third Person 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" Addison, Spect. No. 517. "The account you was pleased to send me.” Bently, Phileleuth. Lips. Part II. See the Letter prefixed. Would to God you was within her reach!" Bolingbroke to Swift, Letter 46. "If you

was here." Ditto, etter 47. "I am just 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 single Person. This hath led Mr. Pope into a great impropriety in the beginning of his Messiah :

"O Thou my voice inspire,

Who touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire."

The Solemnity of the Style would not admit of You for Thou in the Pronoun; nor the measure of the Verse touchedst, or didst touch, in the

Verb, as it indispensably ought to be, in the cne or the other of these two forms; You, who touched; or Thou, who touchedst, or didst touch.

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

Accept these grateful tears; for thee they flow For thee, that ever felt another's woe." "Faultless thou dropt from his unerring skill.

Again

Pope's Iliad, v. 90.

Ib. xix. 316.

Dr. Arburthnot, Dodsley's Poems, vol. i.

"Just of thy word, in every thought sincere;
Who knew no wish, but what the world might hear."

Pope, Epitaph.

It ought to be your in the first line, or knewest in the second.

In order to avoid this Grammatical Inconvenience, the two distinct forms of Thou and You are often used promiscuously by our modern Poets, in the same Poem, in the same Paragraph, and even in the same Sentence, very inelegantly and improperly:

"Now, now, I seize, I clasp thy charms;

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

Pope.

Hath properly belongs to the serious and solemn style; has to the familiar. The same may be observed of doth and does.

"But confounded with thy art,

Inquires her name, that has his heart."

"Th' unwearied Sun from day to day,

Does his Creator's power display."

Waller.

Addison.

The nature of the style, as well as the harmony of the verse, seems to require in these places hath and doth.

The Auxiliary Verb, will, is always thus formed in the second and third Persons singular: but the Verb to w, not being an Auxiliary, is formed regularly in those Persons: I will, Lou willest, He willeth or wills.

"Thou