"The keystones of the arch!—though all were o'er,
For us repeopled were the solitary shore."—Byron.
OBS. 17.—With an adverb of comparison or preference, as better, rather, best, as lief, or as lieve, the auxiliary had seems sometimes to be used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect or pluperfect: as, "He that loses by getting, had better lose than get."—Penn's Maxims. "Other prepositions had better have been substituted."— Priestley's Gram., p. 166. "I had as lief say."—LOWTH: ib., p. 110. "It compels me to think of that which I had rather forget."— Bickersteth, on Prayer, p. 25. "You had much better say nothing upon the subject."—Webster's Essays, p. 147. "I had much rather show thee what hopes thou hast before thee."—Baxter. "I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."—1 Cor., xiv, 19. "I knew a gentleman in America who told me how much rather he had be a woman than the man he is."—Martineau's Society in America, Vol. i, p. 153. "I had as lief go as not."— Webster's Dict., w. Lief. "I had as lieve the town crier spoke my lines."—SHAK.: Hamlet. "We had best leave nature to her own operations."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 310. "What method had he best take?"—Harris's Hermes, p. ix. These are equivalent to the phrases, might better lose—might better have been substituted—would as lief say—would rather forget—might much better say—would much rather show—would rather speak—how much rather he would be—would as lief go—should best leave—might he best take; and, for the sake of regularity, these latter forms ought to be preferred, as they sometimes are: thus, "For my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy."—Addison, Spect., No. 414; Blair's Rhet., p. 223. The following construction is different: "Augustus had like to have been slain."—S. Butler. Here had is a principal verb of the indicative imperfect. The following examples appear to be positively erroneous: "Much that was said, had better remained unsaid."—N. Y. Observer. Say, "might better have remained." "A man that is lifting a weight, if he put not sufficient strength to it, had as good put none at all."—Baxter. Say, "might as well put." "You were better pour off the first infusion, and use the latter."—Bacon. Say, "might better pour;" or, if you prefer it, "had better pour." Shakspeare has an expression which is still worse:—
"Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog."—Beauties, p. 295.
OBS. 18.—The form of conjugating the active verb, is often called the Active Voice, and that of the passive verb, the Passive Voice. These terms are borrowed from the Latin and Greek grammars, and, except as serving to diversify expression, are of little or no use in English grammar. Some grammarians deny that there is any propriety in them, with respect to any language. De Sacy, after showing that the import of the verb does not always follow its form of voice, adds: "We must, therefore, carefully distinguish the Voice of a Verb from its signification. To facilitate the distinction, I denominate that an Active Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as performed by the Subject; and that a Passive Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as suffered by the Subject, and performed upon it by some agent. I call that voice a Subjective Voice which is generally appropriated to the Active Verb, and that an Objective Voice which is generally appropriated to the Passive Verb. As to the Neuter Verbs, if they possess a peculiar form, I call it a Neuter Voice."—Fosdick's Translation, p. 99.
OBS. 19.—A recognition of the difference between actives and passives, in our original classification of verbs with respect to their signification,— a principle of division very properly adopted in a great majority of our grammars and dictionaries, but opinionately rejected by Webster, Bolles, and sundry late grammarians,—renders it unnecessary, if not improper, to place Voices, the Active Voice and the Passive, among the modifications of our verbs, or to speak of them as such in the conjugations. So must it be in respect to "a Neuter Voice," or any other distinction which the classification involves. The significant characteristic is not overlooked; the distinction is not neglected as nonessential; but it is transferred to a different category. Hence I cannot exactly approve of the following remark, which "the Rev. W. Allen" appears to cite with approbation: "'The distinction of active or passive,' says the accurate Mr. Jones, 'is not essential to verbs. In the infancy of language, it was, in all probability, not known. In Hebrew, the difference but imperfectly exists, and, in the early periods of it, probably did not exist at all. In Arabic, the only distinction which obtains, arises from the vowel points, a late invention compared with the antiquity of that language. And in our own tongue, the names of active and passive would have remained unknown, if they had not been learnt in Latin.'"—Allen's Elements of English Gram., p. 96.
OBS. 20.—By the conjugation of a verb, some teachers choose to understand nothing more than the naming of its principal parts; giving to the arrangement of its numbers and persons, through all the moods and tenses, the name of declension. This is a misapplication of terms, and the distinction is as needless, as it is contrary to general usage. Dr. Bullions, long silent concerning principal parts, seems now to make a singular distinction between "conjugating" and "conjugation." His conjugations include the moods, tenses, and inflections of verbs; but he teaches also, with some inaccuracy, as follows: "The principal parts of the verb are the Present indicative, the Past indicative and the Past participle. The mentioning of these parts is called CONJUGATING THE VERB."—Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 80.
OBS. 21.—English verbs having but very few inflections to indicate to what part of the scheme of moods and tenses they pertain, it is found convenient to insert in our conjugations the preposition to, to mark the infinitive; personal pronouns, to distinguish the persons and numbers; the conjunction if, to denote the subjunctive mood; and the adverb not, to show the form of negation. With these additions, or indexes, a verb may be conjugated in four ways:—
1. Affirmatively; as, I write, I do write, or, I am writing; and so on.
2. Negatively; as, I write not, I do not write, or, I am not writing.
3. Interrogatively; as, Write I? Do I write? or, Am I writing?