neuter-transitive and neuter-intransitive. By omitting the words active and neuter altogether, we have a practical division, and one of universal application.

8. The object or complement of the transitive verb stands as an answer to the question What? with the verb; as, "The ox eats" (What?) hay, grass, oats, corn, &c. To determine whether a verb is transitive or intransitive, we have only to use this test: ask with it the question What? or Whom? and if the sense requires that a noun or pronoun, meaning a different thing from the subject, should be added, it is transitive; otherwise it is intransitive.

9. When the noun or pronoun thus added means the same person or thing as the subject, it is not the object, but is a predicate-nominative, and the verb is either intransitive, or transitive in the passive voice. All such verbs perform the office of the copula, and are, hence, called copulative verbs. These are be (the simple copula), become, seem, appear, stand, walk, and other verbs of position, motion, and condition; the passive verbs—is called, is named, is styled, is appointed, is constituted, is elected, is chosen, is made, is esteemed, is reckoned, and others.

10. A transitive verb in a proposition necessarily implies three terms -a subject or agent, a predicate, and an object. When the verb assumes the passive form, the foregoing order is inverted, and we have an object, a predicate, and a subject or agent; as, "The locusts (agent=sub.) devoured (pred.) the grass” (obj.) = The grass (obj. — sub.) was devoured (pred.) by the locusts (agent). An intransitive verb requires but two terms, a subject and predicate, and as it cannot assume the passive form (except by the aid of a preposition) (77, 9), the terms can undergo no such change as above.

11. Many verbs are transitive in one signification, and intransitive in another. When the object is not necessarily implied, it is better to consider such verbs intransitive, and not transitive, because an object may be supplied; as, "She sings beautifully" (intransitive). "She sings soprano" (transitive).

12. Some verbs, usually intransitive, become transitive when used with a causative signification; as, "The train usually runs at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour; but they ran a train (caused it run) at the rate of forty." Some verbs become transitive when they take an object after them of a kindred signification; as, "He ran a race, played a game."

83. Exercise.

1. Tell which of the following verbs are transitive, which intransitive :Anna loves her mother. The golden gates open. The moon silvers

Object of transitive verbs.

The predicate-nominative. Subject, predicate, and object. The same verb sometimes transitive, and sometimes intransitive. Causative verbs.

The

the distant hills. Mary has found her ring. Eleanor writes poetry. The snow melts. The icy fetters break. The innocent lamb dies. child plays. The fragrant flowers bloom. She received a letter. Paul live there?

Does

2. Write an appropriate subject and object for each of the following verbs:— Rings, learn, find, hide, fears, remembers, inflicts, receives, lift, hears, renews, reviews, write.

MODEL. The sexton rings the bell.

3. Point out the transitive and intransitive verbs in the following examples;· also the subject of each verb, and the object, if it has one :—

O spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be

no more.

Awake! arise! or be for ever fallen!

Hannibal passed through Gaul, crossed the Alps, came down into Italy, and defeated several Roman generals; but he could not conquer the country, nor take the city of Rome.

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Hands of angels hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn. The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes, the east began to kindle, and soon the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light.-Everett.

The shadow of departed hours

Hangs dim upon thine early flowers,
Even in thy sunshine, seems to brood
Something too deep for solitude.-Hemans.

84. Verbs classified by their form.

1. Verbs are divided, according to their form, into regular and irregular.

2. A regular verb is one which forms its past tense, and past participle, by adding ed (25, 3) to the present tense; as, love, loved, loved; gain, gained, gained.

3. An irregular verb is one which does not form its past tense and past participle by the addition of ed to the present tense; as, see, saw, seen; write, wrote, written.

4. A defective verb is one in which some of the parts are wanting; as, may, might (participle wanting).

Regular and irregular verbs. Defective verbs.

5. An auxiliary verb is one which is employed in the conjugation of other verbs; as, have, in have loved.

6. An impersonal verb is one by which an action or state is asserted independently of any particular subject; as, “It rains.” "It snows."

85. Exercise.

1. Point out the verbs in the following examples; tell whether they are regular or irregular; transitive or intransitive. (See list of irregular verbs). Where shall a man go to avoid pain and sickness?

If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink.
All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me.

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades? or loose the bands of Orion?

I impeach him (Warren Hastings) in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied.-Burke.

Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
Survey our empire, and behold our home.-Byron.

2. Write five sentences containing regular transitive, and five containing irregular transitive verbs. Draw a line under the verb and its object.

REG. TRANSITIVE.

MODEL.

IRREG. TRANSITIVE.

Mr. Brown has incurred a great debt. The child led the blind man.

3. In the same way write five sentences containing regular intransitive— and five containing irregular intransitive verbs.

To verbs belong voice, mode, tense, number, and person.

87. Voice.

1. Voice is that form of the transitive verb which shows whe

ther the subject acts or is acted upon.

2. There are two voices-the active and the passive.

Auxiliary verbs. Impersonal verbs. Voice, mode, tense, number, and person of verbs. Active and passive voice.

3. The active voice represents the subject as acting; as, "John struck William."

Here John is the subject, and John performs the act.

4. The passive voice represents the subject as acted upon; as, "William was struck by John."

Here William is the subject, but he does not act: he only receives the act, or is acted upon; that is, is passive, which means suffering or receiving an act, the subject or receiver, meanwhile, being in an inactive state.

5. Any sentence, having for its predicate a transitive verb, may be changed or transformed by changing the active to the passive voice, or the passive to the active. The same meaning, or nearly the same, will be expressed in either case.

6. A transitive verb necessarily implies the presence of an active and a passive person or thing. The one performs the act, the other receives or suffers it. If the active one is made the subject of the sentence, the verb is said to be in the active voice; if the passive one is made the subject, the verb is said to be in the passive voice; as, "The locusts devoured (active) the grass." "The grass was devoured (passive) by the locusts." Strictly speaking, the ideas of active and passive, though manifesting themselves in the form of the verb, are not attributes of the verb, but of the persons or things connected with it, just as comparison, though exhibiting itself in the form of the adjective, is really the bringing together of two or more objects, and not qualities.

7. The following are all the possible cases which can occur:

(a.) One and the same person or thing may represent both relations, the active and the passive; as, "He struck himself." "She struck herself." "It destroyed itself." "You struck yourself." "I struck myself." See Personal Pronoun, (70, 7).

(b.) Two different persons or things may be employed to represent these relations.

(1.) One may be simply active, and the other simply passive; as, "George struck William" William was struck by George.

(2.) Each may be, at the same time, both active and passive; as, "They struck each other"— They struck, each [struck] the other. (See 208, 9).

(c.) Three different persons or things may be employed; one active, and two passive.

(1.) One may act, another suffers the act, while the third stands as that to which the act is tending; as, "He (act) gave me (tending to) a

Change of active to passive voice. Active and passive object or party. Different relations of these parties,

book" (pass.). "He told me his history"His history was told me by him I was told his history by him.

66

(2.) One acts, another is acted upon, and thereby transformed or made into the third (212, 9); as, They made him an officer" He was made an officer by them—An officer was made of him by them. In this case there are but two different persons or things. The second and third denote the same individual.

8. When the agent is unknown, or when we wish to conceal it, by drawing attention only to the act and the object affected by it, we use the passive voice; as, “Gold is found (by some one unknown, or known, but not mentioned) in California." But if we wish to make the agent prominent, we use the active voice; as, "Moses conducted the Israelites out of Egypt."

9. Some intransitive verbs, when accompanied by the preposition following, admit of a passive form; as, "They laughed at him" He was laughed at. So, when a verb takes two objects, one direct and the other indirect, the latter is sometimes made the subject of the verb in the passive voice (212, 13); as, "I told him a story" = He was told a story.

10. Certain intransitive verbs, as come, arrive, fall, rise, &c., admit of a passive form, yet with an intransitive signification, as will be seen by observing that the agent or actor, not the object, is the subject of the sentence in either form; as, " 'Babylon is fallen" (has fallen). This idiom is less common now than formerly, and may be regarded as an imitation of the French or German forms of similar verbs.

88. Exercise.

1. Tell which of the following verbs are in the active voice, which in the passive :

The moon gives a pleasant light. The book was written by my father. The song of the bird is heard in the grove. Leverrier discovered a new planet. How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour. Knowledge gives power. The heavens declare the glory of God.

2. In the above sentences, change the verbs in the active voice into the passive, and the verbs in the passive voice into the active.

3. Write five sentences containing regular, and five containing irregular verbs, in the passive voice.