RULE XII.-Pronouns, both Personal and Relative, agree in Gender, Number, and Person with their Antecedentsthat is, with the words for which they stand; as, When the boy saw the apple which lay on the ground, he stooped to pick it up.

EXERCISES FOR PARSING.

Who is there? It is I.

What do you want?

My

father sent me to say that he wants the gun, which he lent you. Whoever says the gun is his, is mistaken; I know it is mine, for I bought it with my own money. Tell your father to come here himself. Our house is so full that we have no time. Thine be the credit, for the deed is thine. Have you hurt yourself? I know what you are whispering about. Ours are as good as yours. I am sure that the soldier, whose arm was shattered, remembers the sensation that he felt, when the ball struck him. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. Embracing each other, they parted with tears. One can scarcely say what one may think on the subject to-morrow. me yourself that she gave the books to them. know the powers of our own minds.

You told We do not Thou art the man.

C

Ye may say what ye please; I shall take their part. My

Only such a penalty The man to whom I Milton is the greatest epic poet

own friend, think before you do that. as satisfied the law was inflicted. spoke made no answer.

that modern times have produced. The lady and the lapdog, that came down the street, were watched by eyes which never moved. There is one within says no.

THE VERB.

(From Latin verbum, a word, because it is the most important word in a sentence: compare organ and Bible as to derivation.)

Verbs, with one exception, express the doing of something.

Note. The word doing is used here in its widest sense, so as to include conditions as well as actions; as, What is he doing there? Answer, —Sitting or sleeping, I do not know which.

The Verb be is the one exception.

Note. This, which is called the Substantive Verb, because it means cxistence, is called in Logic the copula, being merely a link which joins together the two great parts of a sentence; as, Gold is bright.

The use of the Verb in its complete form is to tell or assert. To understand the Verb fully we must view it in three stages of formation :—

he walk-s,

Explanation. The Infinitive simply names the action and does no more. It is therefore equivalent to a Noun, for

which it is often used.

The Participle adds to the notion of action that of time, expressed chiefly by terminations ing, ed, en.

A Finite Form is a part of the Verb, which takes a Nominative. It asserts or tells the doing of an action at a certain time, and is the Verb in its complete form. It is called Finite, (from finis,) because it is limited as to Number and Person by its Nominative. The Finite Verb is the germ or essence of the Sentence.

Kinds of Verb.

I. All Verbs, except a very few, are divided, according to their meaning, into two kinds-Transitive and Intransitive, (from Latin trans, across-itum, to go.)

A Transitive Verb means an action, whose effect passes across from the doer to something else; as,

Tom shot a hare.

She broke the needle.

I like the house.

An Intransitive Verb means an action, whose effect does not pass across from the doer to something else; as,

The boys walk.
The light shines.

Note.-Transitive Verbs are sometimes derived from Intransitives. Such were more numerous in Anglo-Saxon than they are in English. They go in pairs, thus :—

The Intransitive form in such a pair is Strong; the Transitive, Weak in its inflection.

Note.- Some Transitive Verbs have a use, which seems to be Intransitive; as, melt and burn-The snow melts; the fire burns. But this is to be looked upon as a form somewhat like the Middle Voice in Greek.

II. Verbs are also divided, according to the way in which they change their form (or are inflected,) into Weak and Strong.

1. A Weak Verb adds d, ed, or t, to the Present Tense, to make the Past Tense; as, invite, invited; betray, betrayed; step, stept.

There are three subdivisions of the Weak Verb:

(1.) Those which simply add the termination; as the examples given.

(2.) Those which add d or t, and also shorten the vowel; as, flee, fled; weep, wept.

(3.) Those which change the vowel; as, tell, told; shall, should.

Note.--The Weak Conjugation is also called Regular or Modern. Under the head of Weak Verbs, we must reckon that dozen or so of Verbs already ending in d or t, which make no change at all in the Past Tense; as,

2. A Strong Verb makes its Past Tense by changing the vowel of the Present; as, sing, sang; freeze, froze; wake, woke.

All the Strong Verbs once had Past Participles in en; but many have lost the affix; as,

Present.

Sing

Past.
sang

Past Participle. sung-once sungen.

The words Regular and Irregular have been wrongly applied to the two Conjugations of the English Verb. The only really Irregular Verbs are :

The former is a cluster of different words (as will be seen afterwards); the latter, whose real Past Tense survives in the Scotch gaed, borrows a Past from the old Verb wend, which is still occasionally used.

LIST OF SOME STRONG VERBS EITHER DIFFICULT OR COMMONLY USED.

Note. If a Verb have two forms of its Past Tense, as, spake and spoke, it forms its Past Participle from the form in o; as, spoken, not spaken.