[FORMULE—Not proper, because the infinitive verb hand is not preceded by the preposition to. But, according to Rule 18th, "The preposition to governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb." Therefore, to should be here inserted; thus, "William, please to hand me that pencil.">[
"Please insert points so as to make sense."—Davis's Gram., p. 123. "I have known Lords abbreviate almost the half of their words."—Cobbett's English Gram., ¶ 153. "We shall find the practice perfectly accord with the theory."—Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 23. "But it would tend to obscure, rather than elucidate the subject."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 95. "Please divide it for them as it should be."—Willett's Arith., p. 193. "So as neither to embarrass, nor weaken the sentence."—Blair's Rhet., p. 116; Murray's Gram., 322. "Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare,[413] and hear his heavenly discourse."—SHERLOCK: Blair's Rhet., p. 157; Murray's Gram., 347. "That we need not be surprised to find this hold in eloquence."—Blair's Rhet., p. 174. "Where he has no occasion either to divide or explain."—Ib., p. 305. "And they will find their pupils improve by hasty and pleasant steps."—Russell's Gram., Pref., p. 4. "The teacher however will please observe," &c.—Infant School Gram., p. 8. "Please attend to a few rules in what is called syntax."—Ib., p. 128. "They may dispense with the laws to favor their friends, or secure their office."—Webster's Essays, p. 39. "To take back a gift, or break a contract, is a wanton abuse."—Ib., p. 41. "The legislature has nothing to do, but let it bear its own price."—Ib., p. 315. "He is not to form, but copy characters."—Rambler, No. 122. "I have known a woman make use of a shoeing-horn."—Spect., No. 536. "Finding this experiment answer, in every respect, their wishes."—Sandford and Merton, p. 51. "In fine let him cause his argument conclude in the term of the question."—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 443.
"That he permitted not the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly."—Shakspeare, Hamlet.
RULE XIX.—INFINITIVES. The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their participles, usually take the Infinitive after them without the preposition to: as, "If he bade thee depart, how darest thou stay?"—"I dare not let my mind be idle as I walk in the streets."—Cotton Mather.
"Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep,
Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see thee weep."
—Pope's Homer.
OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIX.
OBS. 1.—Respecting the syntax of the infinitive mood when the particle to is not expressed before it, our grammarians are almost as much at variance, as I have shown them to be, when they find the particle employed. Concerning verbs governed by verbs, Lindley Murray, and some others, are the most clear and positive, where their doctrine is the most obviously wrong; and, where they might have affirmed with truth, that the former verb governs the latter, they only tell us that "the preposition TO is sometimes properly omitted,"—or that such and such verbs "have commonly other verbs following them without the sign TO."—Murray's Gram., p. 183; Alger's, 63; W. Allen's, 167, and others. If these authors meant, that the preposition to is omitted by ellipsis, they ought to have said so. Then the many admirers and remodellers of Murray's Grammar might at least have understood him alike. Then, too, any proper definition of ellipsis must have proved both them and him to be clearly wrong about this construction also. If the word to is really "understood," whenever it is omitted after bid, dare, feel, &c., as some authors, affirm, then is it here the governing word, if anywhere; and this nineteenth rule, however common, is useless to the parser.[414] Then, too, does no English verb ever govern the infinitive without governing also a preposition, "expressed or understood." Whatever is omitted by ellipsis, and truly "understood," really belongs to the grammatical construction; and therefore, if inserted, it cannot be actually improper, though it may be unnecessary. But all our grammarians admit, that to before the infinitive is sometimes "superfluous and improper."—Murray's Gram., p. 183. I imagine, there cannot be any proper ellipsis of to before the infinitive, except in some forms of comparison; because, wherever else it is necessary, either to the sense or to the construction, it ought to be inserted. And wherever the to is rightly used, it is properly the governing word; but where it cannot be inserted without impropriety, it is absurd to say, that it is "understood." The infinitive that is put after such a verb or participle as excludes the preposition to, is governed by this verb or participle, if it is governed by any thing: as,
"To make them do, undo, eat, drink, stand, move,
Talk, think, and feel, exactly as he chose."—Pollok, p. 69.
OBS. 2.—Ingersoll, who converted Murray's Grammar into "Conversations," says, "I will just remark to you that the verbs in the infinitive mood, that follow make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, and their participles, are always GOVERNED by them."—Conv. on Eng. Gram., p. 120. Kirkham, who pretended to turn the same book into "Familiar Lectures," says, "To, the sign of the infinitive mood, is often understood before the verb; as, 'Let me proceed;' that is, Let me to proceed."—Gram. in Fam. Lect., p. 137. The lecturer, however, does not suppose the infinitive to be here governed by the preposition to, or the verb let, but rather by the pronoun me. For, in an other place, he avers, that the infinitive may be governed by a noun or a pronoun; as, "Let him do it."—Ib., p. 187. Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objective noun or pronoun that intervenes, none of those verbs that take the infinitive after them without the preposition, will usually be found to govern it, except dare and need; and if need, in such a case, is an auxiliary, no government pertains to that. R. C. Smith, an other modifier of Murray, having the same false notion of ellipsis, says, "To, the usual sign of this mood, is sometimes understood; as, 'Let me go,' instead of, 'Let me to go.'"—Smith's New Gram., p. 65. According to Murray, whom these men profess to follow, let, in all these examples, is an auxiliary, and the verb that follows it, is not in the infinitive mood, but in the imperative. So they severally contradict their oracle, and all are wrong, both he and they! The disciples pretend to correct their master, by supposing "Let me to go," and "Let me to proceed," good English!
OBS. 3.—It is often impossible to say by what the infinitive is governed, according to the instructions of Murray, or according to any author who does not parse it as I do. Nutting says, "The infinitive mode sometimes follows the comparative conjunctions, as, than, and how, WITHOUT GOVERNMENT."—Practical Gram., p. 106. Murray's uncertainty[415] may have led to some part of this notion, but the idea that how is a "comparative conjunction," is a blunder entirely new. Kirkham is so puzzled by "the language of that eminent philologist," that he bolts outright from the course of his guide, and runs he knows not whither; feigning that other able writers have well contended, "that this mood IS NOT GOVERNED by any particular word." Accordingly he leaves his pupils at liberty to "reject the idea of government, as applied to the verb in this mood;" and even frames a rule which refers it always "To some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 188. Murray teaches that the object of the active verb sometimes governs the infinitive that follows it: as, "They have a desire to improve."—Octavo Gram., p. 184. To what extent, in practice, he would carry this doctrine, nobody can tell; probably to every sentence in which this object is the antecedent term to the preposition to, and perhaps further: as, "I have a house to sell"—Nutting's Gram., p. 106. "I feel a desire to excel." "I felt my heart within me die."—Merrick.