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circumstances and again, in some languages, these latter words, by their perpetual recurrence, have coalesced with the Verb; their separate signification has been lost sight of (except in their proper application;) and these words have been considered as mere artificial terminations of the VERB.

The proper application of these coalesced words, or terminations, to Nouns, has been called Declension and to Verbs, has been called Conjugation. And perhaps this arrangement and these denominations may have greatly contributed to withdraw us from a proper consideration of this matter: for we are all very apt to rest satisfied with a name, and to inquire no further.

And thus have I given you my opinion concerning what is called the Present Participle. Which I think improperly so called; because I take it to be merely the simple Verb adjectived, without any adsignification of Manner or Time.

F.-Now then let us proceed to the Past Participle, which you chuse to call the Past Tense Adjective.

H.-As far as relates to what is called the Indicative Mood, and consequently to its Adjective, the Participle Present; you have seen that, so far, Sanctius and I have travelled in perfect accord together. But here again I must get out at Hounslow. I cannot proceed with him to the exclusion of the other Moods and Tenses: for, in Latin, they have distinct terminations, and in English, termination and auxiliaries, signifying the circumstances of Manner and Time. Nor, consequently, can I consent to exclude the other Participles, which are indeed merely those Moods and Tenses, adjectived; and do truly therefore adsignify Manner and Time. The Manner being adjectived as well as the Time (i. e. the Mood as well as the Tense ;) and both for the same reason, and with the same convenience and advantage. In our own language these Manners and Times are usually (but not always) signified by words distinct from the Verb, which we call auxiliaries. In some other languages they are signified also by words, different indeed from the l'erb, but which have coalesced with the Verb, and are now considered merely as terminations; equally auxiliary however with our uncoalescing words, and used for the same purpose.

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I hold then that we may and do adjective the simple Verb without adsignification of Manner or Time: that we may and do adjective the Verb in conjunction with an expressed Time : and that we may and do adjective the Verb in conjunction with an expressed Manner. I hold that all these are greatly and equally convenient for the abbreviating of speech: and that the language which has more of these conveniences does so far forth excel the language which has fewer.

The Past Participle, or the Past Tense Adjective, our language has long enjoyed: and it is obtained (as we also adjective the Noun) by adding En or Ed to the Past Tense of the verb. The Latin makes an Adjective of the Past Tense (as it also makes an Adjective of the Noun) merely by adding its Article os. n. ov. to the third person of the Past Tense.

Amavit, Amavitus, Amavtus, Amatus.

Docuit, Docuitus, Docitus, Doctus.

Legit, Legitus, Legtus, Lectus.

Audivit, Audivitus, Audivtus, Auditus.

And that this Past Participle is merely the Past Tense Adjective; that it has merely the same meaning as the Past Tense, and no other; is most evident in English: because, in the same manner as we often throw one Noun substantive to another Noun substantive, without any change of termination to shew that it is so intended to be thrown; we are likewise accustomed to use the Past Tense itself without any change of termination, instead of this Past Participle: and the Past Tense so used, answers the purpose equally with the Participle, and conveys the same meaning.

Dr. Lowth, who was much better acquainted with Greek and Latin than with English, and had a perfectly elegant Greek and Latin taste, finds great fault with this our English custom; calls it confusion, absurdity, and a very gross corruption; pronounces it altogether barbarous, and wholly inexcusable; and complains that it-" is too much authorized by the example of some of our best writers." He then gives instances of this inexcusable barbarism, from Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Clarendon, Atterbury, Prior, Swift, Addison, Misson,

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["For who can shew me, since they first were WRIT,

They e'er converted one hard-hearted Wit?

Dryden, Prol. to The Rival Ladies.

Bolingbroke, Pope, and Gay. And if he had been pleased to go further back than Shakespeare, he might also have given instances of the same from every writer in the English tongue. It is the idiom of the language. He is therefore

"Had there been choice, what would I not have CHOSE?

Dryden, Rival Ladies, act 4. sc. 3.

"I made a sacred and a solemn vow
To offer up the prisoners that were TOOK."

Dryden, Indian Queen, act 2. sc. 1.

Ibid. act 2. sc. 1.

"Let me then share your griefs, that in your fate Wou'd have TOOK part.'

"In one moment this new guest

Has DROVE me out from this false woman's breast."

Ibid. act 3. sc. 1.

"Part of which poem was wRIT by me."-Connection of the Indian Emperor to the Indian Queen.

"For life and death are things indifferent; Each to be CHOSE, as either brings content."

Dryden, Indian Emperor, act 2. sc. 1.
Ibid. act 3. sc. 2.
Ibid. act 4. sc. 1.

"You might howe'er have TOOK a fairer way."
"His mind is SHOOK."
"High trees are SHOOK, because they dare the winds."

Ibid. act 5. sc. 1.

Dryden, The Maiden Queen, act 2. sc. 5. "Peace, peace, thou should'st for ever hold thy tongue; For it has SPOKE too much for all thy life." Courage, my friend, and rather praise we heaven, That it has CHOSE two such as you and me."

Dryden, Amboyna, act 5. sc. 1. "Guilt and distraction could not have SHOOK him more."

Dryden, Edipus, act 4. sc. 1.

Ibid. act 4. sc. 1.]

"As well thou may'st advise a tortur'd wretch, All mangled o'er from head to foot with wounds, And his bones BROKE, to wait a better day." ["All the moderns who have WROTE upon this subject.”—Dr. Taylor, Elements of Civil Law, 1755. p. 10.

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"Were WROTE originally in Latin.”—Ibid. p. 22.

Providence, which has wove us into this texture."—Ibid. p. 84. "The mistakes upon this head have AROSE from hence."-Ibid. p. 152. "Tullius, being CHOSE king by the suffrage of the people."

Ibid. p. 206. "The ancient statuary has been thought to have AROSE from this figure."-Ibid. p. 459.

"I have SPOKE to it in my Commentary upon the Sandwich Marble." -Ibid. p. 467.

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undoubtedly in an error, when he says that-" This abuse has been long growing upon us, and is continually making further incroachments." For, on the contrary, the custom has greatly decreased and as the Greek and Latin languages have become more familiar to Englishmen, and more general; our language has continually proceeded more and more to bend and incline to the rules and customs of those languages. And we have greatly benefited by those languages; and have improved our own language, by borrowing from them a more abbreviated and compact method of speech. And had our early or later authors known the nature of the benefits we were receiving; we might have benefited much more extensively.

However we shall be much to blame, if, with Dr. Lowth, we miss the advantage which our less cultivated language affords us by its defects: for by those very defects it will assist us much to discover the nature of human speech, by a comparison of our own language with more cultivated languages. And this it does eminently in the present instances of the Past Participle and the Noun Adjective. For, since we can and do use our Noun itself unaltered, and our Past Tense itself unaltered, for the same purpose and with the same meaning, as the Greek and Latin use their Adjective and their Participle; it is manifest that their Adjective and Participle are merely their Noun and Past Tense, Adjectived.

"Budæus in particular has WROTE upon it very largely.”—Dr. Taylor, Elements of Civil Law, 1755, p. 490.

"I find one Lucullus, whose life is WROTE by Plutarch."-Ibid. p. 512.

"We are assured, that the following words were not WROTE in his time."-Ibid. p. 555.]

[Our older writers, who are admirable for their rhythm and cadence, availed themselves of this latitude, in giving harmony to their language: thus, in the same chapter,

1 Kings, viii. 13.-"I have surely BUILT thee a house to dwell in."

27.-" how much less this house that I have BUILDED." 43.-"this house which I have BUILDED is called by

thy name."

44.-"
-"toward the house that I have BUILT for thy
name."-ED.]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUed.

F-WELL. Now for your four Abbreviations: which, you say, we have adopted from those other languages.

H.-That which I call the Potential Passive Adjective is that which our antient writers first adopted; and which we have since taken in the greatest abundance: not led to it by any reasoning, or by any knowledge of the nature of the words; but by their great practical convenience and usefulness. I mean such words as the following, whose common termination has one common meaning.

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