[102] Second part of the Grammatical Institute. Tit. Notes.
[103] Chaucer's Works, Glossary, p. 151.
[104] The Editor of Chaucer's Works before mentioned, remarks, "that a, in composition with words of Saxon original, is an abbreviation of as or of, at, on or in; and often a corruption of the prepositive particle ge or y." According to this writer, a is any thing and every thing; it has so many derivations and uses, that it has no certain derivation or meaning at all. In the phrase a coming, a seems now to be a mere expletive; but otherwise a, one, and an have the same meaning in all cases.
[105] Lowth's Introduction. Tit. verb.
[106] Run, like many other verbs, may be used either transitively or intransitively. Simply to run, is intransitive; to run a horse, transitive.
[107] Lowth observes a distinction between the verb to will, and the auxiliary, will; the first being regularly inflected. I will, thou willest, he wills, and the latter, I will, thou will, he will. But altho this distinction actually exists in modern practice, yet the words are, in both cases, the same—derived from the same root, and still retaining nearly the same meaning.
[108] If I were, thou wert, he were, in the present hypothetical tense of the subjunctive mode, are not used in the indicative.
[109] It has been before observed, that the common people have not wholly lost this pronunciation, woll, to this day.
[110] See the second part of the Grammatical Institute. Appendix.
[111] It must be remembered that be is the old original substantive verb, and belongs to the indicative. Am and art are of later introduction into English.