This case excepted, the French have the keenest possible sense of everything odious and ludicrous in posing.
INFINITIVES AND INFINITIVE PHRASES.
358. The various uses of the infinitive give considerable trouble, and they will be presented here in full, or as nearly so as the student will require.
I. The verbal use. (1) Completing an incomplete verb, but having no other office than a verbal one.
- (a) With may (might),can (could),should,would,seem, ought, etc.: "My weekly bill used invariably to be about fifty shillings;" "There, my dear, he should not have known them at all;" "He would instruct her in the white man's religion, and teach her how to be happy and good."
- (b) With the forms of be, being equivalent to a future with obligation, necessity, etc.: as in the sentences, "Ingenuity and cleverness are to be rewarded by State prizes;" "'The Fair Penitent' was to be acted that evening."
- (c) With the definite forms of go, equivalent to a future: "I was going to repeat my remonstrances;" "I am not going to dissert on Hood's humor."
(2) Completing an incomplete transitive verb, but also belonging to a subject or an object (see Sec. 344 for explanation of the complements of transitive verbs): "I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events" (retained with passive); "Do they not cause the heart to beat, and the eyes to fill?"
359. II. The substantive use, already examined; but see the following examples for further illustration:—
(1) As the subject: "To have the wall there, was to have the foe's life at their mercy;" "To teach is to learn."
(2) As the object: "I like to hear them tell their old stories;" "I don't wish to detract from any gentleman's reputation."
(3) As complement: See examples under (1), above.