OBS. 6.—D. Blair supposes catched to be an "erroneous" word and unauthorized: "I catch'd it," for "I caught it," he sets down for a "vulgarism."—E. Gram., p. 111. But catched is used by some of the most celebrated authors. Dearborn prefers the regular form of creep: "creep, creeped or crept, creeped or crept."—Columbian Gram., p. 38. I adopt no man's opinions implicitly; copy nothing without examination; but, to prove all my decisions to be right, would be an endless task. I shall do as much as ought to be expected, toward showing that they are so. It is to be remembered, that the poets, as well as the vulgar, use some forms which a gentleman would be likely to avoid, unless he meant to quote or imitate; as,

"So clomb the first grand thief into God's fold;
So since into his church lewd hirelings climb."
—Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 192.

"He shore his sheep, and, having packed the wool,
Sent them unguarded to the hill of wolves."
—Pollok, C. of T., B. vi, l. 306.

———"The King of heav'n
Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky
His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke,
Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook."
—Dryden.

OBS. 7.—The following are examples in proof of some of the forms acknowledged below: "Where etiquette and precedence abided far away."—Paulding's Westward-Ho! p. 6. "But there were no secrets where Mrs. Judith Paddock abided."—Ib., p. 8. "They abided by the forms of government established by the charters."—John Quincy Adams, Oration, 1831. "I have abode consequences often enough in the course of my life."—Id., Speech, 1839. "Present, bide, or abide; Past, bode, or abode."—Coar's Gram., p. 104. "I awaked up last of all."—Ecclus., xxxiii, 16. "For this are my knees bended before the God of the spirits of all flesh."—Wm. Penn. "There was never a prince bereaved of his dependencies," &c.—Bacon. "Madam, you have bereft me of all words."—Shakspeare. "Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft. Bereave is similar."—Ward's Practical Gram., p. 65. "And let them tell their tales of woful ages, long ago betid."—Shak. "Of every nation blent, and every age."—Pollok, C. of T., B vii, p. 153. "Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red burial blent!"—Byron, Harold, C. iii, st. 28. "I builded me houses."—Ecclesiastes, ii, 4. "For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God."—Heb. iii, 4. "What thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gained."—Milton's P. L., X, 373. "Present, bet; Past, bet; Participle, bet."— Mackintosh's Gram., p. 197; Alexander's, 38. "John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much upon his head."—SHAKSPEARE: Joh. Dict, w. Bet. "He lost every earthly thing he betted."—PRIOR: ib. "A seraph kneeled."—Pollok, C. T., p. 95.

"At first, he declared he himself would be blowed,
Ere his conscience with such a foul crime he would load."
—J. R. Lowell.

"They are catched without art or industry."—Robertson's Amer.,-Vol. i, p. 302. "Apt to be catched and dazzled."—Blair's Rhet., p. 26. "The lion being catched in a net."—Art of Thinking, p. 232. "In their self-will they digged down a wall."—Gen., xlix, 6. "The royal mother instantly dove to the bottom and brought up her babe unharmed."— Trumbull's America, i, 144. "The learned have diven into the secrets of nature."—CARNOT: Columbian Orator, p. 82. "They have awoke from that ignorance in which they had slept."—London Encyclopedia. "And he slept and dreamed the second time."—Gen., xli, 5. "So I awoke."—Ib., 21. "But he hanged the chief baker."—Gen., xl, 22. "Make as if you hanged yourself."—ARBUTHNOT: in Joh. Dict. "Graven by art and man's device."—Acts, xvii, 29. "Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."—Gray. "That the tooth of usury may be grinded."—Lord Bacon. "MILN-EE, The hole from which the grinded corn falls into the chest below."—Glossary of Craven, London, 1828. "UNGRUND, Not grinded."— Ibid. "And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone."—1 Kings, vi, 36. "A thing by which matter is hewed."—Dr. Murray's Hist. of Europ. Lang., Vol. i, p. 378. "SCAGD or SCAD meaned distinction, dividing."—Ib., i, 114. "He only meaned to acknowledge him to be an extraordinary person."—Lowth's Gram., p. 12. "The determines what particular thing is meaned."—Ib., p. 11. "If Hermia mean'd to say Lysander lied."—Shak. "As if I meaned not the first but the second creation."—Barclay's Works, iii, 289. "From some stones have rivers bursted forth."—Sale's Koran, Vol. i, p. 14.

"So move we on; I only meant
To show the reed on which you leant."—Scott, L. L., C. v, st. 11.

OBS. 8.—Layed, payed, and stayed, are now less common than laid, paid, and staid; but perhaps not less correct, since they are the same words in a more regular and not uncommon orthography: "Thou takest up that [which] thou layedst not down."—FRIENDS' BIBLE, SMITH'S, BRUCE'S: Luke, xix, 21. Scott's Bible, in this place, has "layest," which is wrong in tense. "Thou layedst affliction upon our loins."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Psalms, lxvi, 11. "Thou laidest affliction upon our loins."—SCOTT'S BIBLE, and BRUCE'S. "Thou laidst affliction upon our loins."—SMITH'S BIBLE, Stereotyped by J. Howe. "Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder."—SINGER'S SHAKSPEARE: Richard II, Act i, Sc. 1. "But no regard was payed to his remonstrance."—Smollett's England, Vol. iii, p. 212. "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit."—Haggai, i, 10. "STAY, i. STAYED or STAID; pp. STAYING, STAYED or STAID."—Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dict. "Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel."—2 Sam., xvii, 17. "This day have I payed my vows."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Prov, vii, 14. Scott's Bible has "paid." "They not only stayed for their resort, but discharged divers."—HAYWARD: in Joh. Dict. "I stayed till the latest grapes were ripe."—Waller's Dedication. "To lay is regular, and has in the past time and participle layed or laid."—Lowth's Gram., p. 54. "To the flood, that stay'd her flight."—Milton's Comus, l. 832. "All rude, all waste, and desolate is lay'd."—Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, l. 1636. "And he smote thrice, and stayed."—2 Kings, xiii, 18.

"When Cobham, generous as the noble peer
That wears his honours, pay'd the fatal price
Of virtue blooming, ere the storms were laid."—Shenstone, p. 167.