In such sentences as these, wherein the verb is used reflectively,—"If I lay myself down on the grass I shall catch cold," "He laid himself down on the green sward,"—the verb "to lay" is with propriety substituted for the verb "to lie;" for the addition of the emphatic pronoun myself, or himself, constituting an objective case, and coming immediately after the verb, without the intervention of a preposition, renders it necessary that the verb employed should be active, not neuter, because "active verbs govern the objective case." But this is the only construction in which "to lay" instead of "to lie" can be sanctioned by the rules of grammar.
XI.
The same confusion often arises in the use of the verbs sit and set, rise and raise. Sit is a neuter verb, set an active one; yet how often do people most improperly say, "I have set with him for hours," "He set on the beach till the sun went down," "She set three nights by the patient's bedside." What did they set,—potatoes, traps, or what? for as an objective case is evidently implied by the use of an active verb, an object is indispensable to complete the sense. No tense whatever of the verb "to sit" is rendered "set," which has but one word throughout the whole verb, except the active participle "setting;" and "sit" has but two words, "sit" and "sat," except the active participle "sitting;" therefore it is very easy to correct this error by the help of a little attention.
XII.
Raise is the same kind of verb as set,—active-transitive, requiring an objective case after it; and it contains only two words, raise and raised, besides the active participle raising. Rise is a neuter verb, not admitting an objective case. It contains two words, rise and rose; besides the two participles, rising and risen. It is improper, therefore, to say, "He rose the books from the floor," "He rises the fruit as it falls," "After she had risen the basket on her head," &c. In all such cases use the other verb raise. It occurs to me, that if people would take the trouble to reckon how many different words a verb contains, they would be in less danger of mistaking them. "Lay" contains two words, "lay" and "laid," besides the active participle "laying." "Lie" has also two words, "lie" and "lay," besides the two participles "lying" and "lain;" and from this second word "lay" arises all the confusion I have had to lament in the foregoing pages.
XIII.
To the scholar I would remark the prevalent impropriety of adopting the subjunctive instead of the indicative mood, in sentences where doubt or uncertainty is expressed, although the former can only be used in situations in which "contingency and futurity" are combined. Thus, a gentleman, giving an order to his tailor, may say, "Make me a coat of a certain description, if it fit me well I will give you another order;" because the "fit" alluded to is a thing which the future has to determine. But when the coat is made and brought home, he cannot say, "If this cloth be good I will give you another order," for the quality of the cloth is already determined; the future will not alter it. It may be good, it may be bad, but whatever it may be it already is; therefore, as contingency only is implied, without futurity, it must be rendered in the indicative mood, "If this cloth is good," &c. We may with propriety say, "If the book be sent in time, I shall be able to read it to-night," because the sending of the book is an event which the future must produce; but we must not say, "If this book be sent for me, it is a mistake," because here the act alluded to is already performed,—the book has come. I think it very likely that people have been beguiled into this error by the prefix of the conjunction, forgetting that conjunctions may be used with the indicative as well as with the subjunctive mood.
XIV.
Some people use the imperfect tense of the verb "to go," instead of the past participle, and say, "I should have went," instead of "I should have gone." This is not a very common error, but it is a very great one; and I should not have thought it could come within the range of the class for which this book is written, but that I have heard the fault committed by people of even tolerable education. One might as well say, "I should have was at the theatre last night," instead of "I should have been at the theatre," &c., as say, "I should have went" instead of "I should have gone."