The verbs have, be, will and do, when they are unconnected with a principal verb, expressed or understood, are not aux

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iliaries, but principal verbs; as, "We have enough;" " I am grateful," "He wills it to be so;"" They do as they please " In this view, they also have their auxiliaries: as, "I shall have enough;" "I will be grateful," &c.

The peculiar force of the several auxiliaries will appear from the following account of them.

Do and did mark the action itself, or the time of it, with greater energy and positiveness: as, "I do speak truth;"" [ did respect him;" "Here am I, for thou didst call me." They are of great use in negative sentences: as, "I do not fear," "I did not write." They are almost universally employed in asking questions: as, "Does he learn ?" "Did he not write?" They sometimes also supply the place of another verb, and make the repetition of it, in the same or a subsequent sentence, unnecessary: as, "You attend not to your studies as he does" (i. e. as he attends, &c.) "I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;" (i. e. if I come not.) Let, not only expresses permission, but entreating, exhorting, commanding as," Let us know the truth;""Let me die the death of the righteous;" "Let not your hearts be too much elated with success ;""Let your inclinations submit to your duty."

May and might express the possibility or liberty of doing a thing; can and could, the power: as, "It may rain ;"" I may write or read;" "He might have improved more than he has;" "He can write much better than he could last year."

Must is sometimes called in for a helper, and denotes necessity: as, "We must speak the truth, whenever we do speak, and we must not prevaricate."

Will, in the first person singular and plural, intimates resolution and promising; in the second and third person, only foretels: as, "I will reward the good, and will punish the wicked;" "We will remember benefits, and be grateful;" "Thou wilt, or he will, repent of that folly;" "You or they will have a pleasant walk."

Shall, on the contrary, in the first person, simply fortels; in the second and third persons, promises, commands, or threatens: as, "I shall go abroad :" "We shall dine at home;" "Thou shalt, or you shall, inherit the land;" "Ye shall do justice and love mercy;" "They shall account for their misconduct." The following passage is not translated according to the distinct and proper meaning of the words shall and will : "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." It ought to be," Will follow me," and "I shall dwell.”—The foreigner who, as it is said, fell into the Thames, and cried

out; "I will be drowned, nobody shall help me;" made a sad misapplication of these auxiliaries.

These observations respecting the import of the verbs will and shall, must be understood of explicative sentences; for when the sentence is interrogative, just the reverse, for the most part, takes place; thus, "I shall go; you will go :" express event only: but, "will you go?"" imports intention; and "shall I go?" refers to the will of another. But, “He shall go," and "shall he go?" both imply will; expressing or referring to a command.

When the verb is put in the subjunctive mood, the meaning of these auxiliaries likewise undergoes some alteration; as the learner will readily perceive by a few examples: "He shall proceed," "If he shall proceed;" "You shall consent," "If you shall consent." These auxiliaries are sometimes interchanged, in the indicative and subjunctive moods to convey the same meaning of the auxiliary: as, "He will not return," "If he shall not return;" "He shall not return," "If he will not return.'

Would, primarily denotes inclination of will; and should, obligation but they both vary their import, and are often used to express simple event.

Were is frequently used for would be, and had, for would have : as, "It were injustice to deny the execution of the law to any individual;" that is, "it would be injustice." "Many acts which had been blamable in a peaceable government, were employed to detect conspiracies;" that is, "which would have been blamable."

Sometimes that form of the auxiliary verbs shall, will, &c. which is generally conditional, is elegantly used to express a very slight assertion, with a modest diffidence. Thus we say, "I should think it would be proper to give up the point ;" that is, "I am rather inclined to think."

Some writers still use shall and will, should and would, as they were formerly used; that is, in a sense quite contrary to that in which they are generally used at present. The following expressions are instances of this incorrect practice: "We would have been wanting to ourselves, if we had complied with the demand;" "We should:" "We will therefore briefly unfold our reasons;" "We shall:" "He imagined, that, by playing one party against the other, he would easily obtain the victory over both;" "He should easily," &c.

In several familiar forms of expression, the word shall still retains its original signification, and does not mean, to promise, threaten, or engage, in the third person, but the mere VOL. I.

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futurition of an event: as, as one shall ever hear of."

"This is as extraordinary a thing

SECTION 8.

The Conjugation of regular Verbs.

ACTIVE.

VERBS Active are called Regular, when they form their imperfect tense of the indicative mood, and their perfect participle, by adding to the verb, ed, or d only when the verb ends in e: as,

Present.
I favour.
I Love.

Imperfect.

I favoured.
I loved.

Per. Particip.
Favoured.

Loved.

A Regular Active Verb is conjugated in the following manner :

In the present and imperfect tenses, we use a different form of the verb, when we mean to express energy and positiveness: as, "I do love; thou dost love; he does love; I did love; thou didst love; he did love."

+ Dr. Coote justly observes, that this termination of the third person singular in eth, is now very rarely used, es or s being substituted for it. This practice is disapproved by Addison, as multiplying a letter which was before too frequent in the English tongue; and adding to that hissing in our language, which is taken so much notice of by foreigners."Notwithstanding this reproach, it has been aptly observed, that no passage, in English prose or verse, exhibits, within an equal space, sub a repetition of the sibilant letter, as the following quotation from Horace:

Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus orner;
Legibus emendes.

Those tenses are called simple tenses, which are formed of the principal, without an auxiliary verb: as, "I love, I loved." The compound tenses are such as cannot be formed without an auxiliary verb: as, "I have loved; I had loved; I shall or will love; I may love; I may be loved; I may have been loved;" &c. Those compounds are, however, to be considered as only different forms of the same verb.