Remarks.-1. The great irregularity in the conjugation of this verb results from the fact that it has been derived from more than one source, one form being derived from one Anglo-Saxon verb, and another from a different one. Thus part of it is derived from wesan and part from beon, both signifying to be. Other parts are derived from other sources.

2. Be and beest were formerly used in the present; as, "We be twelve brethren." -Gen. xlii, 32. "There be of protestants."-Milton. "Thus much we all know and confess, that they be not of the highest nature."-Bacon. "If thou beest he."-Milton. "I think it be thine, indeed."—Shakespeare.

3. This form of the present is sometimes, though seldom, used by modern authors after if, though, etc.; as, "If he be a knave, I am deceived;" that is, if he is. Ordinarily, when be is used after if, though, etc., it is in the infinitive, shall, should, etc., being understood; as, "If he be detected, he will be punished;" that is, if he should be.

4. This verb has not the emphatic forms of the present and past tenses.

5. It has been observed (p. 88) that the past tense of verbs in general is employed in suppositions referring to present time when the thing supposed does not exist; as, "If ye loved me, ye would keep my commandments;" "If I had a pen, I would write." To express suppositions of this kind this verb has were and wert instead of was and wast. If I was refers to past time and leaves it uncertain whether I was or was not; If I were refers to present time and implies that I am not; as, "If

I were you, I would do that." This conditional form is found in the singular number only, suppositions of this kind being expressed in the plural by the common form.

Were and wert, as has been stated, belonged originally to the past tense in a particular dialect of the Anglo-Saxon language. Many English writers have used wert as the second person singular of the common past tense; as, "Before the heavens thou wert."-Milton. "Whate'er thou art or wert."-Byron. "Remember what thou wert."-Dryden. "I knew thou wert not slow to hear."-Addison. “All this thou wert."-Pope.

6. Were is often used for would be, and had been for would have been.

EXERCISES.

In what mood, tense, number, and person, is each of the following verbs?

I have been. Be thou. He is. Thou art. He was. They had been. If I were. If thou wert.

We shall have been. I shall be.
Be you. We have been. Be we.

PASSIVE VOICE.

The passive voice is formed by using the passive participle with the verb to be.

Conjugation of the verb To Love in the Passive Voice.

Remarks.-1. The passive voice being nothing more than the verb to be with the passive participle, the remarks under to be apply to the passive.

2. Certain intransitive verbs have sometimes the form of the passive voice, without being passive in sense: "He is gone;" "The Lord is risen indeed." These do not admit after them the name of the agent with the preposition by, as transitive verbs in the passive voice do.

Thus, we may say, "James is loved by John;" but not "James is gone by John." "James has gone," and "James is gone," both represent James as having done something, and not as having had something done to him. Has gone refers more particularly to the action of going, and is gone to the state of being absent.

EXERCISES.

1. Conjugate the following verbs in the passive voice:

Follow, pain, admit, carry, permit, advise, examine.

2. Name the first person singular of all the tenses of the indicative in the passive voice of the following verbs, the second person of the imperative, together with the infinitive and the participles.

Attend, persuade, remove, instruct, convince, appease.

3. In what voice, mood, tense, number, and person is each of the following verbs? Darius was defeated. You have been deceived. I have been loved. They were arrested. The letter has been written. Darkness will have disappeared. Thou wilt be envied. The time has come. The grass has been cut. The mower had cut the grass. They had detected John. John had been detected. They will have completed the work. The Hallowed be thy name.

work has been completed.

Thy kingdom come.

Stand we to defend our rights. With virtue

be we armed. Fall not that curse upon us. Rise we by morning light. Be this our motto.

PROGRESSIVE FORM.

The forms which denote the action or state as imperfect, or continuing, are composed of the imperfect participle and the verb to be. Thus,

1. I have been writing,

2. Thou hast been writing,

3. He has been writing.

1. We have been writing,
2. You have been writing,
3. They have been writing.

[The pupil may go through the other tenses in the same way.]

Remarks.-1. Some verbs, especially such as denote affections or operations of the mind, in their simple forms express actions that can not be performed without being completely performed or actions that are in their nature continuous, and such verbs can not take the progressive form. "I am loving," for instance, is not good English.

Among verbs of this kind are love, hate, desire, despise, respect, revere, venerate, hope, despair, wish, know, understand. Verbs of sensation, if they denote merely impressions made on the mind through the senses, can not take the progressive form; but verbs of sensation which represent the sentient being as active may take the progressive form; as, "I see him;" "I am looking at him;" "I hear him;" "I am listening to him."

2. Expressions of the same form are sometimes used in a passive sense; as, "The house is building;" "While these arrangements were making."

3. In modern usage the same idea is often expressed in another way; as, "What lies at the bottom of the question which is now being discussed every where?”—Dr. Arnold. "He struck the Count de Harcourt a violent blow as he was being led away."-G. P. R. James. "Mr. Pickwick's face while his tale was being read would have attracted the attention of any man alive."-Dickens. Being is superfluous.

This modern form is very seldom used among writers of the highest class. The best writers say, "The house is building," not "The house is being built." "An act not less horrible was perpetrating in Eskdale."-Macaulay. "Chelsea hospital was building." - Id. "The nearest chapel where divine service was performing.” — Id. "This new tragedy was acting."-Edward Everett. "The fortress was building."— Irving. "Which have been made or are making."—Henry Clay.

"The house is being built" does not express what is intended; being built denotes existence in the state expressed by built; as, "Our house being built, we have now a home." It would be better for those who are not satisfied with the well-established classical form to say, "The house is becoming built"-coming into the state expressed by built.

4. These words in ing in such expressions as "The house is building" are really gerunds, or participial nouns, not participles, or verbal adjectives. A gerund merely

presents in the form of a noun what is denoted by the verb, and whether a gerund in any particular passage is active or passive in sense is determined by the context. In the first of the following passages from Shakespeare killing has an active, in the second a passive sense: "I promised to eat all of his killing;" "How scaped I killing when I crossed you so!" In the form under consideration the gerund has a passive sense.

The gerund, whether employed in an active or in a passive sense, had originally the preposition on expressed before it. On became o', which is so often used for on by Shakespeare, and in rapid pronunciation o' could not be distinguished from a, which became established as a preposition. "The house is on building" became "The house is o' building," "The house is a building," "The house is building;" building in this last form being the object of a preposition understood. Carlyle goes back to one of the more ancient forms when he writes, "Their gallows must even now be o' building." Shakespeare uses the form with the preposition a; as, “Even in their promise as it is a making;" "She has been too long a talking of;" "I would have him nine years a killing." The preposition in, which in Anglo-Saxon is another form of on, has been used; as, "Forty and six years was this temple in building.” English Bible. "Whilst these sentences are in reading."-Book of Common Prayer. "The preliminaries were not long in arranging."— Lever.

No ambiguity need result from the use of such expressions as "The house is building." If the subject denotes something incapable of performing the act, the form must of course be passive in sense. No one but an advocate of the form is being built would think of stopping to ask, "What is the house building?" "The men are paying" is in itself an ambiguous expression, because men are capable of performing the act. Such expressions as "The man is binding," "The criminal is punishing," are exposed to a similar objection. In such cases some other forms should be employed; as, “The men are receiving their pay;" "They are binding the man;""The criminal is undergoing punishment."

5. The modern innovation was for some time confined to the present and past tenses; but one recent grammarian dashes "without any mitigation or remorse of voice" through all the tenses-"I am being smitten, I have been being smitten, I was being smitten, I had been being smitten, I shall be being smitten, I shall have been being smitten, I should be being smitten, I should have been being smitten," etc.-English Grammar, by C. P. Mason, B. A., Fellow of University College, London. When these forms shall have been admitted, or even shall have been being admitted, into the English language there will be an urgent demand for a new language on the part of several persons who will not have been being smitten with the beauties of the new style of English.

EXERCISES.

Give the progressive form of each of the following verbs:

Learn, follow, strive, work, place, describe, beguile.

NEGATIVE FORM.

In simple negation the adverb not is placed after the verb, or after the first auxiliary; sometimes after the object of a transitive verb; as, "I love not this man;" "I do not love you;" "I love you not."