OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.—The present, or the verb in the present tense, is radically the same in all the moods, and is the part from which all the rest are formed. The present infinitive is commonly considered the root, or simplest form, of the English verb. We usually place the preposition TO before it; but never when with an auxiliary it forms a compound tense that is not infinitive: there are also some other exceptions, which plainly show, that the word to is neither a part of the verb, as Cobbett, R. C. Smith, S. Kirkham, and Wells, say it is; nor a part of the infinitive mood, as Hart and many others will have it to be, but a distinct preposition. (See, in the Syntax of this work, Observations on Rule 18th.) The preterit and the perfect participle are regularly formed by adding d or ed, and the imperfect participle, by adding ing, to the present.
OBS. 2.—The moods and tenses, in English, are formed partly by inflections, or changes made in the verb itself, and partly by the combination of the verb or its participle, with a few short verbs, called auxiliaries, or helping verbs. This view of the subject, though disputed by some, is sustained by such a preponderance both of authority and of reason, that I shall not trouble the reader with any refutation of those who object to it. Murray the schoolmaster observes, "In the English language, the times and modes of verbs are expressed in a perfect, easy, and beautiful manner, by the aid of a few little words called auxiliaries, or helping verbs. The possibility of a thing is expressed by can or could; the liberty to do a thing, by may or might; the inclination of the will, by will or would; the necessity of a thing, by must or ought, shall or should. The preposition to is never expressed after the helping verbs, except after ought."—Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 112. See nearly the same words in Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 36; and in the British Gram., p. 125.
OBS. 3.—These authors are wrong in calling ought a helping verb, and so is Oliver B. Peirce, in calling "ought to," and "ought to have" auxiliaries; for no auxiliary ever admits the preposition to after it or into it: and Murray of Holdgate is no less in fault, for calling let an auxiliary; because no mere auxiliary ever governs the objective case. The sentences, "He ought to help you," and, "Let him help you," severally involve two different moods: they are equivalent to, "It is his duty to help you;"—"Permit him to help you." Hence ought and let are not auxiliaries, but principal verbs.
OBS. 4.—Though most of the auxiliaries are defective, when compared with other verbs; yet these three, do, be, and have, being also principal verbs, are complete: but the participles of do and have are not used as auxiliaries; unless having, which helps to form the third or "compound perfect" participle, (as having loved,) may be considered such. The other auxiliaries have no participles.
OBS. 5.—English verbs are principally conjugated by means of auxiliaries; the only tenses which can be formed by the simple verb, being the present and the imperfect; as, I love, I loved. And even here an auxiliary is usually preferred in questions and negations; as, "Do you love?"—"You do not love." "Did he love?"—"He did not love." "Do I not yet grieve?"—"Did she not die?" All the other tenses, even in their simplest form, are compounds.
OBS. 6.—Dr. Johnson says, "Do is sometimes used superfluously, as I do love, I did love; simply for I love, or I loved; but this is considered as a vitious mode of speech."—Gram., in 4to Dict., p. 8. He also somewhere tells us, that these auxiliaries "are not proper before be and have;" as, "I do be," for I am; "I did have," for I had. The latter remark is generally true, and it ought to be remembered;[257] but, in the imperative mood, be and have will perhaps admit the emphatic word do before them, in a colloquial style: as, "Now do be careful;"—"Do have a little discretion." Sanborn repeatedly puts do before be, in this mood: as, "Do you be. Do you be guarded. Do thou be. Do thou be guarded."—Analytical Gram., p. 150. "Do thou be watchful."—Ib., p. 155. In these instances, he must have forgotten that he had elsewhere said positively, that, "Do, as an auxiliary, is never used with the verb be or am."—Ib., p. 112. In the other moods, it is seldom, if ever, proper before be; but it is sometimes used before have, especially with a negative: as, "Those modes of charity which do not have in view the cultivation of moral excellence, are essentially defective."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 428. "Surely, the law of God, whether natural or revealed, does not have respect merely to the external conduct of men."—Stuart's Commentary on Romans, p. 158. "And each day of our lives do we have occasion to see and lament it."—Dr. Bartlett's Lecture on Health, p. 5. "Verbs, in themselves considered, do not have person and number."—R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 21. [This notion of Smith's is absurd. Kirkham taught the same as regards "person.">[ In the following example, does he is used for is,—the auxiliary is,—and perhaps allowably: "It is certain from scripture, that the same person does in the course of life many times offend and be forgiven."—West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 182.
OBS. 7.—In the compound tenses, there is never any variation of ending for the different persons and numbers, except in the first auxiliary: as, "Thou wilt have finished it;" not, "Thou wilt hast finishedst it;" for this is nonsense. And even for the former, it is better to say, in the familiar style, "Thou will have finished it;" for it is characteristic of many of the auxiliaries, that, unlike other verbs, they are not varied by s or eth, in the third person singular, and never by st or est, in the second person singular, except in the solemn style. Thus all the auxiliaries of the potential mood, as well as shall and will of the indicative, are without inflection in the third person singular, though will, as a principal verb, makes wills or willeth, as well as willest, in the indicative present. Hence there appears a tendency in the language, to confine the inflection of its verbs to this tense only; and to the auxiliary have, hast, has, which is essentially present, though used with a participle to form the perfect. Do, dost, does, and am, art, is, whether used as auxiliaries or as principal verbs, are always of the indicative present.
OBS. 8.—The word need,—(though, as a principal verb and transitive, it is unquestionably both regular and complete,—having all the requisite parts, need, needed, needing, needed,—and being necessarily inflected in the indicative present, as, I need, thou needst or needest, he needs or needeth,—) is so frequently used without inflection, when placed before an other verb to express a necessity of the being, action, or passion, that one may well question whether it has not become, under these circumstances, an auxiliary of the potential mood; and therefore proper to be used, like all the other auxiliaries of this mood, without change of termination. I have not yet knowingly used it so myself, nor does it appear to have been classed with the auxiliaries, by any of our grammarians, except Webster.[258] I shall therefore not presume to say now, with positiveness, that it deserves this rank; (though I incline to think it does;) but rather quote such instances as have occurred to me in reading, and leave the student to take his choice, whether to condemn as bad English the uninflected examples, or to justify them in this manner. "He that can swim, need not despair to fly."—Johnson's Rasselas, p. 29. "One therefore needs not expect to do it."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 155. "In so doing I should only record some vain opinions of this age, which a future one need not know."—Rush, on the Voice, p. 345. "That a boy needs not be kept at school."—LISDSEY: in Kirkham's Elocution, p. 164. "No man need promise, unless he please."—Wayland's Moral Science, p. 312. "What better reason needs be given?"—Campbell's Rhet., p. 51. "He need assign no other reason for his conduct."—Wayland, ib., p. 214. "Sow there is nothing that a man needs be ashamed of in all this."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 45. "No notice need be taken of the advantages."—Walker's Rhyming Dict., Vol. ii, p. 304. "Yet it needs not be repeated."—Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 51. "He need not be anxious."—Greenleaf's Gram. Simplified, p. 38. "He needs not be afraid."—Fisk's Gram. Simplified, p. 124. "He who will not learn to spell, needs not learn to write."—Red Book, p. 22. "The heeder need be under no fear."—Greenleaf's Gram., p. 38.[259] "More need not be said about it."—Cobbett's E. Gram., ¶ 272. "The object needs not be expressed."—Booth's Introduct. to Dict., p. 37. "Indeed, there need be no such thing."—Fosdick's De Sacy, p. 71. "This needs to be illustrated."—Ib., p. 81. "And no part of the sentence need be omitted."—Parkhurst's Grammar for Beginners, p. 114. "The learner needs to know what sort of words are called verbs."—Ib., p. 6. "No one need be apprehensive of suffering by faults of this kind."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 171. "The student who has bought any of the former copies needs not repent."—Dr. Johnson, Adv. to Dict. "He need not enumerate their names."—Edward's First Lessons in Grammar, p. 38. "A quotation consisting of a word or two only need not begin with a capital."—Churchill's Gram., p. 383. "Their sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked."—Ib., p. 72; Murray's Octavo Gram., 51. "One need only open Lord Clarendon's history, to find examples every where."—Blair's Rhet., p. 108. "Their sex is commonly known, and needs not be marked."—Lowth's Gram., p. 21; Murray's Duodecimo Gram., p. 51. "Nobody need be afraid he shall not have scope enough."—LOCKE: in Sanborn's Gram., p. 168. "No part of the science of language, needs to be ever uninteresting to the pursuer."—Nutting's Gram., p. vii. "The exact amount of knowledge is not, and need not be, great."—Todd's Student's Manual, p. 44. "He needs to act under a motive which is all-pervading."—Ib., p. 375. "What need be said, will not occupy a long space."—Ib., p. 244. "The sign TO needs not always be used."—Bucke's Gram., p. 96. "Such as he need not be ashamed of."—Snelling's Gift for Scribblers, p. 23.
"Needst thou—need any one on earth—despair?"—Ib., p. 32.
"Take timely counsel; if your dire disease
Admits no cure, it needs not to displease."—Ib., p. 14.
OBS. 9.—If need is to be recognized as an auxiliary of the potential mood, it must be understood to belong to two tenses; the present and the perfect; like may, can, and must: as, "He need not go, he need not have gone; Thou need not go, Thou need not have gone;" or, in the solemn style, "Thou needst not go, Thou needst not have gone." If, on the contrary, we will have it to be always a principal verb, the distinction of time should belong to itself, and also the distinction of person and number, in the parts which require it: as, "He needs not go. He needed not go; Thou needst not go, Thou needed not go;" or, in the solemn style, "Thou needest not go, Thou neededst not go." Whether it can be right to say, "He needed not have gone," is at least questionable. From the observations of Murray, upon relative tenses, under his thirteenth rule of syntax, it seems fair to infer that he would have judged this phraseology erroneous. Again, "He needs not have gone," appears to be yet more objectionable, though for the same reason. And if, "He need not have gone," is a correct expression, need is clearly proved to be an auxiliary, and the three words taken together must form the potential perfect. And so of the plural; for the argument is from the connexion of the tenses, and not merely from the tendency of auxiliaries to reject inflection: as, "They need not have been under great concern about their public affairs."—Hutchinson's History, i, 194, From these examples, it may be seen that an auxiliary and a principal verb have some essential difference; though these who dislike the doctrine of compound tenses, pretend not to discern any. Take some further citations; a few of which are erroneous in respect to time. And observe also that the regular verb sometimes admits the preposition to after it: "' There is great dignity in being waited for,' said one who had the habit of tardiness, and who had not much else of which he need be vain."—Students Manual, p. 64. "But he needed not have gone so far for more instances."— Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 143. "He need not have said, 'perhaps the virtue.'"—Sedgwick's Economy, p. 196. "I needed not to ask how she felt."—Abbott's Young Christian, p. 84. "It need not have been so."—Ib., p. 111. "The most unaccommodating politician need not absolutely want friends."—Hunts Feast of the Poets, p. iii. "Which therefore needs not be introduced with much precaution."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 326. "When an obscurer term needs to be explained by one that is clearer."—Ib., p. 367. "Though, if she had died younger, she need not have known it."—West's Letters, p. 120. "Nothing need be said, but that they were the most perfect barbarisms."—Blair's Rhet., p. 470. "He need not go."—Goodenow's Gram., p. 36. "He needed but use the word body."—LOCKE: in Joh. Dict. "He need not be required to use them."—Parker's Eng. Composition, p. 50. "The last consonant of appear need not be doubled."—Dr. Webster. "It needs the less to be inforced."—Brown's Estimate, ii, 158. "Of these pieces of his, we shall not need to give any particular account."—Seneca's Morals, p. vi "And therefore I shall need say the less of them."—Scougal, p. 1101. "This compounding of words need occasion no surprise."—Cardell's Essay on Language, p. 87.
"Therefore stay, thou needst not to be gone."—Shakspeare.
"Thou need na start awa sae hasty."—Burns, Poems, p. 15.
"Thou need na jouk behint the hallan."—Id., ib., p. 67.
OBS. 10.—The auxiliaries, except must, which is invariable, have severally two forms in respect to tense, or time; and when inflected in the second and third persons singular, are usually varied in the following manner:—
TO DO.
PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE INDICATIVE PRESENT.
Sing. I do, thou dost, he does; Plur. We do, you do, they do.
IMPERFECT TENSE; AND SIGN of THE INDICATIVE IMPERFECT.
Sing. I did, thou didst, he did; Plur. We did, you did, they did.