transitive, by placing after them an object of the same signification; thus, he ran a race.

EXERCISE.

*

Point out the transitive and intransitive Verbs, and also the intransitive verbs used transitively.

She moves majestic, like an ocean queen. He lives the life of the righteous. He moved the mighty mass. She sleeps the sleep of death. They shall die the death of the wicked. Birds sing sweetly when the summer begins. When you have begun your work they shall sing songs. Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man. They may love less and hate more. Seventy years have passed away. Swift as the eagle flies. A thousand men perished on the field of battle. Seven hundred fell on the first charge, as the woodcutter fells a tree. Give me thine heart. Hast thou any hope? Believe and thou shalt be saved. She stoops to conquer. His latter end was peace.

VOICE.t

Transitive verbs have two voices or forms, the Active, which signifies doing, and Passive, which means suffering or receiving.

* Intransitive verbs are sometimes made transitive by adding an adverb or a preposition; as, He laughs-at every body; he was laughedat by every body. Here the word at must in the second example be regarded as an adverb.

The pupil should be thoroughly drilled in the distinction between the active and passive verbs, and should the exercise on this subject not prove sufficient to give him a clear idea of the difference. the teacher would do well to supply others; but he ought by no means to be allowed to proceed further till this be understood. It will be found to occupy much less time to make him understand them by these definitions than by commiting to memory the moods and tenses of both forms.

The Active Voice takes the agent as the nominative case, and expresses what it does to the object; as, Alexander conquered Persia.

The Passive Voice takes the object as the nominative case, and expresses what it suffers or receives from the agent; as, Persia was conquered by Alexander.

The Active Voice is used when we wish to give prominence to the agent; the Passive when we wish to give prominence to the object.

The Passive Voice has properly only one part, i.e., the past participle: all other parts are formed with the aid of auxiliary verbs.

EXERCISE

Point out the Active and Passive Verbs, and turn the Active forms to Passive and the Passive to Active:

He loves music. Cæsar was slain by conspirators, of whom Brutus was chief. Augustus governed the Roman Empire. Germany was conquered by Germanicus. Tacitus wrote a history. The Gauls were ordered to be slain by this victor. Human nature cannot endure these things. St. Peter's, at Rome, was designed by Michael Angelo. Wellington vanquished Bonaparte. The horse was tamed by Rarey in an hour. Words convey ideas. Thoughts are clothed in words. The ship bears us to the home of our sires. A storm may overwhelm her. I behold the ships. The knight was thrown by his horse. Seventy foot-soldiers beat

one hundred horse. The rude boy beats the quiet dog. The ox knoweth his owner. A city was set on fire by the enemy.

CONJUGATION.

Verbs are conjugated by moods, tenses, numbers, and persons.

To conjugate a verb is to tell its various parts.

MOOD.

The different modes of expressing an action are called Moods.

There are six Moods: The Indicative, the Imperative, the Potential, the Subjunctive, the Infinitive, and the Participial.

1st. An action may be spoken of as simply occurring at any time; as, "He loves," "he has loved," "he shall love." This mood is called the Indicative, which means declaring.

2. An action may be spoken of as commanded; as, "Love your brother." This mood is called the Imperative, which means commanding.

3. An action may be spoken of as possible, obligatory, or depending on the will, as, "He can love," "he should love," "he would love." These notions are comprehended in the Potential Mood, which means having power, i.e., the possible mood.

Observe, Both the Indicative and Potential Moods are used in asking questions; as, "Does he love ?" "Can you

swim ?"

4th. An action may be spoken of as a condition or supposition; as, "If he love me, I shall love him." Though it lead to death I will follow him." This mood is called Subjunctive,*

*Many eminent grammarians, among them Webster and D'Orsay, contend that the Subjunctive is becoming obsolete, and that its place is fully supplied by the Indicative. This error has arisen from regarding it in connection with the Conjunction "if." When used with the Conjunction, "though," the Subjunctive differs widely from the Indicative. I will follow him though he leads me to death," means

C

which means joined under, or dependent, because it is always joined to another verb.

These moods are used to describe what some "subject " does, or may do.

5th. It is also possible to speak of an action without limitation to any subject, and without conveying any idea of condition or possibility, &c.; as, "To love." This mood is called Infinitive, which means unlimited.

6. An action may be described as a quality of something; as, a "living" soul. This mood is called the Participial, which means taking parts, because it is partly a verb and partly an adjective, or, more correctly, a verb in the form of an adjective.

TENSE.

Tense means the distinction of time.

There are six Tenses: the Present, Past, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future, and Future Perfect.

The English verb has in reality only the Present and Past Indefinite, the Imperative Mood, and Participles,* which are called simple forms, the other parts are expressed by the aid of auxiliaries, do, be, have, shall, will, may, and can, and are called compound,†

The Present Tense speaks of the present time; as, He writes. He is writing. Does he write?

The Past Tense speaks indefinitely of a past time; as, He wrote, or, definitely, He was writing, i.e., at some particular time.

that the speaker is perfectly aware that death will be the result; but "I will follow him though he lead me to death" only implies a possible danger which I am willing to brave. It may be urged that this can be expressd by the Potential form, "though it should lead to death;" but the invariable tendency of language is to abbreviate.

There are only six distinct forms in the verb; "Love, lovest, loves, loved, loving, loveth."

+ After "shall, will, may, can," and "let," it is the Infinitive Mood that is used; thus, "I shall love" means "I shall to love," "I shall have loved," "I shall to have loved," &c.

The Perfect Tense speaks of a past action, with a reference to the present time; as, I have written my letter, which means I have just now completed it. Perfect means finished.

The Pluperfect Tense speaks of an action past, with reference to a past time. I had written my letter when he left home; or of a past action continued to a past time; as, I had been writing two hours before he came. Pluperfect means more than finished.

The Future speaks of an action as yet to come; as, I shall write.

The Future Perfect speaks of an action that will have been completed at some future time; as, I shall have finished my letter when he comes.

NUMBER.

Verbs have two Numbers, singular and plural. PERSON.

Verbs have three Persons, first, second, and third. I is always nominative to the first person singular, we to the first person plural, thou to the second singular, ye or you to the second plural.

But some verbs have no distinction of person, and are called impersonal verbs; as, It rains.

THE VERBS TO LOVE-TO HAVE TO TEACH. ACTIVE VOICE-INDICATIVE MOOD.

1st Person. I love.

Present Tense.

SINGULAR NUMBER.
I have.

I teach.