EXERCISES IN PARSING.
You may read the book which I have printed.
May, an irregular active verb, signifying "to have and to exercise might or strength," indic. mood, pres. tense, second pers. plur. agreeing with its nom. you. Read, an irregular verb active, infinitive mood, pres. tense, with the sign to understood, referring to you as its agent. Have, an active verb, signifying to possess, indic. present, and having for its object, book understood after "which." Printed, a perf. participle, referring to book understood.
Johnson, and Blair, and Lowth, would have been laughed at, had they essayed to thrust any thing like our modernized philosophical grammar down the throats of their contemporaries.
Would, an active verb, signifying "to exercise volition," in the past tense of the indicative. Have, a verb, in the infinitive, to understood. Been, a perfect part. of to be, referring to Johnson, Blair, and Lowth. Laughed at, perf. part, of to laugh at, referring to the same as been. Had, active verb, in the past tense of the indicative, agreeing with its nom. they. Essayed, perf. part, referring to they. Call this "philosophical parsing, on reasoning principles, according to the original laws of nature and of thought," and the pill will be swallowed, by pedants and their dupes, with the greatest ease imaginable.