"'Twas All-Souls' Eve, and Surrey's heart beat high."

There are men who think, &c.-men' who think, &c., are; that is (the predicate), being is asserted of " men who think" so and s0. The fact that the verb to be in such instances expresses a full predicate, is somewhat disguised by the form of expression. But surely it, in the first class of examples, serves only as a substitute for the real subject which immediately follows the verb, and neither it nor any thing else serves as a complement of the predicate. In the first example, simple existence in an implied present time, is predicated of winter, and in the second, past existence is predicated of autumn. In the examples commencing with there (whatever may have been the origin of this form of expression, whether it is an imitation of the French Il-y-a, occasioned by the importation of French idioms after the Norman conquest, or an insensible extension of the use of the word there, till it came to be employed in cases where its original meaning was obscured, and finally lost), one thing is plain, that now this word adds no modification to the predicate, but serves much the same general purpose as the word it does in the preceding examples; that is, it serves to enable us to throw the subject after the verb, and thus bring the subject noun into contact with the proposition (" men who think," &c.) which modifies it. This is the form of expression which we generally adopt to predicate mere being or existence. To say, Men who think so and so are, to express the mere existence of such men, is a manner of expression unsanctioned by usage, contrary to our idiom, and which seems feeble and void of all harmony. The feebleness and want of harmony are, perhaps, the reason for rejecting it, and adopting the form commencing with there, in which the original meaning of there, namely, in that place, is wholly suppressed, and the word comes to serve a sort of pronominal function. In many other languages, simple existence in such cases is expressed by the verb'equivalent to our to be (by what in those languages is called the copula by logicians), without any accompanying word; as for example, in Latin sunt (supply homines) qui putent, &c. We subjoin a few more examples, from the authorised version of the Scriptures, of the verb TO BE, used to express a complete predicate: "That they are double to that which is." Job 11: 6. "The grass of the field, which to-day is." Matt. 6: 30. "He that cometh to God must believe that He Is." Heb. 11: 6. "From him which is and which was." Rev. 1:4. "And there are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is," &c. Rev. 17: 10. "And the beast that was, and is not."

Rev. 17: 11.

Another difficulty which presented itself whilst, in our attempts to give a satisfactory analysis of the structure of the language, we

recognised the verb to be as performing the function of a mere copula, was to ascertain the distinction between the grammatical functions performed by is, for example, in the proposition, The man is old, and the function performed by becomes in the proposition, The man becomes old, or by grows in the proposition, The man grows old, or by seems in the proposition, The man seems old. The difference of meaning of all these verbs is abundantly clear, but we could not discover or assign any grammatical distinction. Till this was done, we felt bound, if we called is the copula, to call becomes, grows, seems, &c., copulas. In this case, copulas would be numerous enough, since every verb which can take an adjective after it as a modification (and we shall find hereafter that there are many such) might claim this name. This was the difficulty which actually arrested our progress, and the attempt to solve it has led to the conclusion, already stated, that between is and the other verbs mentioned above, there is NO GRAMMATICAL, NO FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCE WHATEVER; that both it and they alike express a predicate, whilst, in common with all verbs, they indicate predication, that is, serve as copula; consequently that there is no word in our language (and question, is there one in any other?) which expresses a mere naked copula.

§ 47. THE PASSIVE VOICE.-(1) Besides the other uses of the verb to be, what is called the passive voice is formed in English, as in many other languages, by the combination of this verb with a class of verbals expressive of completed action formed from the other verbs. (2) For example, we say, using the active form, The son loves the father, and using the passive form, The father is loved by the son. Is loved, made up of the assertive form of the verb to be, with the word loved, a verbal adjective (or, as it is commonly called, participle), expressive of completed action, constitutes, as we see here, the passive form of loves.

(3) The passive voice or passive form is confined to that class of verbs which we have above named transitive or active verbs. (4) The passive form of these verbs affords us another way of expressing the same proposition, that is, expressed by the active form. (5) When we employ the passive form, we make the word which, when we use the active form of the verb, represents the passive or suffer

$47. (1) How is the passive voice in English formed? (2) Illustrate by an example. (3) To what class of verbs is the passive voice or passive form confined? (4) What does this form enable us to do? (5) What change do we make in the subject noun, when

ing object, the subject noun of the proposition. (6) Thus, using the active form, we say, The carpenter MAKES a table, and, using the passive form, A table IS MADE by the carpenter. (7) This passive form of the verb is convenient when, as often happens, we wish to express that some person or thing suffers, or undergoes an action performed by an agent unknown to us, and we cannot, therefore, supply a definite subject for the proposition expressed actively. (8) For example, we can say, The man is killed, without knowing who has killed him; The house was set on fire, without knowing the incendiary, whose name would serve as the definite subject of the proposition made with the verb in the active form. (9) We have other means, it is true, of expressing the same fact by an active form. (10) We can assume an indefinite subject, such as is expressed by the indefinite words, somebody, something, and say, Somebody killed the man, Somebody or something set the house on fire. This form of expression is preferred in some languages. (11) But the passive form is not only often the most convenient in such cases as now described, but also sometimes useful for the purpose of securing greater variety and greater smoothness of expression.

EXERCISES. REMARK.-In the following exercises, the learner may be allowed to modify his subject noun by a determinative such as ɑ, an, the, this, that, one, and these, those, two, three, &c., with plural nouns; or by any descriptive adjective, such as good, bad, faithful, &c. After the verb to be he may use any adjective, and after the active verb any noun necessary to complete its meaning, and after the passive form of the verb, the noun which serves as subject of the active form with the word by before it. The liberty of using these modifications will facilitate his task in forming propositions. These modifica tions will all be explained afterwards in their proper places. In the mean time, they cannot perplex the pupil who knows English. Use the word is in forming the passive when the subject noun is singular, and are when the subject noun is plural.

EXERCISE I.-Change the following propositions into propositions expressing the same meaning, and having verbs of the passive form.

we employ the passive form? (6) Illustrate by an example. (7) When is the use of this form convenient? (8) Illustrate by an example. (9) Can we effect the same purpose by an active form? (10) Describe the way of employing an active form? (11) For what other purposes is the passive voice convenient?

John writes a letter. Somebody strikes William. James sends a message. The servant kindles a fire. The soldiers plunder the coun try. the army vanquishes the enemy. He praises good men. He loves good boys. John detests dishonest practices. That man assists worthy persons. That man keeps three horses. Vice produces immense suffering.

EXERCISES II. III., &c.-Write ten propositions, each expressed both actively and passively. Model: John keeps a gardener. A gardener is kept by John. We give the perfect participles of the verbs used above. These participles are to be used in the formation of the passive. Write, written; strike, struck; send, sent; keep, kept. The rest all end in ed. See list of those which do not end in ed, § 67.

[(12) We may here observe that it is to the existence of a passive form of the verb in the Greek and Latin languages-a form constituted, to some extent, of the root of the verb modified by flexion without the aid, as in our language, of an additional word— that we owe the origin of the terms active, passive, and neuter, applied to verbs. (13) The transitive verbs were susceptible both of an active form and a passive form; that is, a form in which the subject of the proposition is the actor or agent, and a form in which the subject represents the recipient of the action, and is passive. (14) These verbs, when used in the one form, were called by the ancient grammarians active, and when used in the other form, passive. (15) Or one form of the transitive verb was called by them the active voice, the other form the passive voice of the verb. (16) All active verbs, and none but active verbs, according to this classification, are susceptible of a passive use and passive form. (17) All other verbs, not admitting of a passive object, and, consequently, not of a passive voice, they called neuter verbs; that is (for neuter means neither), neither active nor passive verbs. (18) The subject of these verbs is by them neither asserted to act on an object distinct from itself, nor to be the passive recipient of an action.]

NOTE.-The foregoing remarks are the more necessary, because some modern grammarians seem to have misunderstood the principle

[(12) To what do we owe the origin of the terms active, passive, and neuter ? (13) Of what two forms are transitive verbs susceptible? (14) How are they called when used in the one form, and how when used in the other? (15) Express this otherwise. (16) What verbs alone are susceptible of a passive form? (17) What are all other verbs called, and what does the name by which they are called mean? (18) What is said of the subject of neuter verbs?]

They have, in consequence

on which the ancient division is founded. of this misunderstanding, in some cases suggested, in some cases adopted, a classification of verbs into "active transitive, active intransitive, passive and neuter;" not observing that the term active is used by the ancient grammarians to indicate the same thing which is now indicated by transitive, and that, with the sense which the word active assumes in the old grammars, an active intransitive verb is an absurdity, and active transitive a useless repetition of equivalent terms.

The ancient classification is (properly) founded on the basis of a distinction in the grammatical susceptibilities of verbs; but the division into active transitive, active intransitive, &c., is founded on two bases--the grammatical susceptibilities of verbs, and their meaning as signs of thought. Verbs are called active from their meaning, their significance, and transitive or intransitive from the fact that they are susceptible, or, on the contrary, not susceptible of being modified by a passive object. A classification of this kind is illogical, and serves only to create confusion of thought, and difficulty and embarrassment to the learner.

Were it not that many of our dictionaries retain the old names, active and neuter, we should feel disposed to discard these names altogether, and employ exclusively the more significant and less objectionable names, transitive and intransitive, now generally used by grammarians. But, whilst, in most dictionaries, the old names active and neuter åre still used to designate this division of the verbs, and, in some more recent dictionaries, the terms transitive and intransitive are employed for the same purpose, it is necessary for the guidance of the learner in consulting dictionaries, that these two sets of terms should be familiar to him, and that he should remember that though the names are different, the classification designated by them is the

same.

§ 48. TENSES OF VERBS.-(1) The most important modification of form which verbs undergo in our language is that employed to indicate the different times, to which an assertion has reference. (2) These forms are called the TENSES of the verb. (3) The term tense is derived from the French language, in which it is the word to express time.*

*The Latin word tempus used to express this same modification of verbs

§ 48. (1) What is the most important modification of the form of verbs? (2) What name is given to this modification? (8) Tell the derivation of the term tense.