the active verb aedificat, aedificabat. No ambiguity arises, we presume, from the use of the participle in this manner. To avoid, however, affixing a passive signification to the participle in ing, an attempt has lately been made to substitute the passive participle in its place. Thus, instead of "The house was building," "The work is printing," we sometimes hear, "The house was being built," "The work is being printed." But this mode is contrary to the English idiom, aud has not yet obtained the sanction of reputable authority.

The Perfect Participle expresses the completion of an action; as, "I have printed the book."

1. The Perfect Participle generally ends in ed, and is common both to the active and the passive voice. When it is joined to the verb have, it is called perfect and active; when joined to the verb to be, or understood with it, it is denominated passive.

2. Participles sometimes become nouns; as, "A good understanding." "William's having been attached to that party, was the cause of his death." Here, understanding and having been attached, are nouns. Also, "This coat is worth mending," here, mending is a noun.

An Explanation of the Auxiliary Verbs.

In English, a few verbs are employed chiefly in forming the moods and tenses of other verbs, and, from this use, are denominated auxiliary or helping verbs. These are followed by other verbs, without the prefix to, as, "You may go;" though they were originally principal verbs, and a few of them still retain that character, as well as that of auxiliaries. But, verbs used as auxiliaries, generally lose much of their original import, and become mere signs of a mood or tense. Thus, shall signified originally, owe; but "I shall write," does not signify, "I owe to write," but merely intimates a future act.

The verbs which are always auxiliary to others, are may, might, can, could, shall, should, would, and must; those which are sometimes auxiliaries, and sometimes principal verbs, are do, be, have, and will.-The auxiliaries depend on some other verb, expressed or understood, to render the sense or affirmation complete. Thus, when I ask whether you can lend me a sum of money, and you reply, "I can," the verb lend is understood. Not so with the verbs considered as principal. When I say, "I write," "I walk," the sense or affirmation is complete, without the use of another verb.

Auxiliaries used in the Indicative.

Do, did, denote action, and, used as auxiliaries, mark the emphatic form of the verb; as, "I do teach;" "I did teach." They are generally used in negative and interrogative sentences; as, "I do not fear;" "Did he hear?" They sometimes supply the place of another verb, and make the repetition of it, in the same or in a subsequent sentence, unnecessary; as, "You attend not to your studies, as he does," that is, "as he attends."

Am and was denote existence.

Have and had signify possession, and, used as auxiliary verbs, mark the time of a verb,-have denoting that the action is just finished, as, "I have written the letter;" and had denoting that some interval has elapsed since it was completed, as, “I had finished the business before he arrived."

Shall properly signifies duty or obligation, and hence is used to denote futurity. For, as the execution of a command must be posterior to the command itself, so, by a natural transition, this word, significant of present duty, came to be a note of future time.

Will denotes volition or intention, and is also used as a sign of futurity; as, "I

will come."

Of the proper use of SHALL and WILL.

1. In Affirmative sentences, shall, in the first person, foretells, as, "I shall go;" in the second and third persons, it promises, commands, or threatens, as, "You shall be rewarded." "Thou shalt not steal." "He shall die."

Will, in the first person, intimates a promise or determination, as, "I will go;" in the second and third persons it only foretells, as, "You will die;"" They will dine

with us to-morrow."

The appropriate application of shall and will may be thus shown:-

Singular.
Simple Futurity. 1. I shall,
2. thou wilt, 3. he will.
Determination. 1. I will. Command. 2. thou shalt. 3. he shall.

Plural.

We shall, you will, they will.
We will, you shall, they shall.

2. When the determination of the nominative is intended to be expressed, will must be employed through all the persons, as, "I will go;"" You will not study;" "He will not be obedient," that is, "he is not willing to be obedient."

3. When the second and third persons are represented as the subjects of their own expressions or their own thoughts, shall foretells, as in the first person, as, "He says he shall be a loser by this bargain;""Do you suppose you shall go?" Will, in these instances, promises, as in the first person, as, "You say you will be present;" "He says he will attend to the business."

4. In Interrogative sentences, shall and will, have, in general, a meaning the very reverse of what they have in affirmative sentences. Shall, used interrogatively, in the first, second, and third persons, refers to another's will; thus, "Shall I go?" signifies, "Will you permit me to go?" So also, "Shall you go?" "Shall he go?" But instead of "Shall you go?" it is more common to say, "Are you allowed to go?" or, "Are you to go?" Will, used interrogatively, in the second and third persons, denotes volition or determination in the nominative; as, "Will you go?" "Will he go?" Will is seldom, if ever, used interrogatively in the first person.

5. When the verb is in the Subjunctive Mood, the meaning of shall and will undergoes some alteration; thus, "He shall proceed," expresses a command, but, "If he shall proceed," expresses a mere future contingency. Sometimes also, these auxiliaries are interchanged in the Indicative and Subjunctive Moods, to convey the same meaning of the auxiliary; thus, "He will not return," denotes simple foretelling; "If he shall not return," denotes a mere future contingency.

Auxiliaries used in the Potential Mood.

May and might express the liberty or possibility to do a thing; as, "I may go;" "I might see him."

Can and could express the power or ability to do any thing; as, "I can write ;" "I could write."

Should primarily denotes duty or obligation, as, "I should write;" but it is frequently used to denote supposition or a future contingency; as, "If it should happen." Sometimes also, it is employed to express a diffidence in the speaker, or a slight assertion, as, "I should think it would be better to decline;" that is, "I am inclined to think," &c.

Would, in the first person, implies inclination or willingness, as, "I would study if I could;" in the second and third persons it simply foretells, as, "You would be delighted to hear his recital;" "His power would be increased."

Must denotes present necessity; as, "We must speak the truth."

Ought signifies duty or obligation, and is not an auxiliary but a principal verb, governing another verb in the infinitive mood; as, "You ought to obey your teach

ers."

Present duty is denoted by ought; past, by ought to have; as, read;" "You ought to have read."

"You ought to

Let is sometimes, but improperly, considered an auxiliary; it is always a prineipal verb, implying permission, and governing the following verb in the infinitive; as, "Let me go," that is, permit me to go.

REMARKS ON THE TENSES.

The Present.

The Present tense has three forms,-the simple, the progressive, and the emphatic. 1. The first or simple form of the present tense is used to express, 1, general truths, as, "Vice produces misery;" 2. a character, quality, or attribute, at present existing, as "He is an able man;" 3. habits or repeated actions, and also the simple existence of a fact, as, "He takes snuff;" "He stammers;"" He goes into the country every summer;" "I teach." In this sense it is frequently applied to persons long since dead; as, "Seneca reasons and moralizes well."

In animated historical narrations, it is sometimes used for the past; as, "He enters the territory of the peaceable inhabitants, he fights and conquers."

When preceded by such words as when, before, as soon as, till, after, it expresses the relative time of a future action; as, "When he comes, he will be welcome."

2. The second or progressive form denotes that the action is now going on; as, "I am teaching."

3. The third or emphatic form is used to assert a thing with peculiar energy, or to remove some doubt on the part of the person addressed; as, "I do teach.' Do is likewise employed with a negative, and in asking questions, as, "I do not teach;" "Do you teach ?"

The Past.

This tense, like the Present, has three forms,-the simple, the progressive, and the emphatic.

1. The Past tense excludes all idea of the present instant. It supposes an interval to have elapsed between the time of the action and the time of speaking of it. The action is thus considered as leaving nothing behind it which the mind conceives to have any relation to the present; as, "Demosthenes was a celebrated orator;" "I lodged three days in the Strand." In such expressions as the following; "They came home early this morning;" He was with them at three o'clock this afternoon;" a reference is made to such a division of the day as is past before the time of our speaking.

2. The progressive form of this tense denotes that an action was unfinished at a certain time past; as, "I was writing when he came."

3. Did is the sign of the emphatic form; as, "I did write.”

The Present-Perfect.

The Present-Perfect, Past-Perfect, Future, and Future-Perfect, have only two forms; the simple and the progressive.

The Present-Perfect tense expresses, 1. An action just finished; as, "I understand that a messenger has arrived from Paris;" that is, just now arrived.

2. An action done in a space of time, part of which is to elapse; as, "It has rained all the week;" "We have seen strange things this century."

3. An action perfected some time ago, but the consequences of which extend to the present time; as, "I have wasted my time, and now suffer for my folly." In the same manner, it is employed in mentioning the works of deceased persons, if any of them remain; thus, "Cicero has written orations," because the orations are still in existence; but speaking of his poems, we cannot say, "Cicero has written poems," because they do not exist; we therefore properly say, "Cicero wrote poems.'

4. When preceded by such words as when, before, as soon as, till, after, it expresses the completion of a relative future action; as, "When he has finished his work, he shall be rewarded."

5. The progressive form of this tense implies, that the action is completed only just at the present moment, or a very short time before; as, "I have been writing these two hours."

6. The difference between the Present-Perfect and the Past tense may be briefly summed up thus:-The Present-Perfect tense always has a reference to present time; but the Past tense represents the action spoken of as having occurred in time considered prior to, and disjoined from, the present. Thus, when I say, "I wrote yesterday;" "I have written to-day;" by the former expression, I exclude any reference to the present instant, but by the latter I include it. Again, if we speak in the afternoon of the same day, we can say, "He arrived this morning;" meaning the morning of this day but speaking during the morning, and thus referring to the present time, we should say, "He has arrived this morning."

The Future.

1. In addition to the common modes of denoting future time, the following are also employed; "I am going to write;" "I am about to write." These have been called the inceptive future, as they note the commencement of an action, or an intention to commence an action without delay. This modification of the verb is not confined to one tense, but can be extended to all, and constitutes another form of conjugation; as, "I am about," "I was about," &c.

2. We have also another mode of expression which, though it does not strictly and positively foretell an action, yet implies a necessity of performing an act, and clearly indicates that it will take place. For example, "I have to pay a sum of money to-morrow;" that is, "I am under a present necessity or obligation to do a future act." The verb to be, followed by a verb in the Infinitive Mood, forms another idiomatic expression of future time; as, "John is to command a regiment;" "Enéas went in search of the seat of an empire which was, one day, to command the world." The latter expression contains a fact which is past to the narrator, but future as to the event at the time specified.

The Future-Perfect.

In the Future-Perfect tense, some grammarians exclude will from the first person, and shall from the second and third persons. The examples which they adduce are these:-"I will have had previous notice whenever the event happens;"Thou shalt have served thy apprenticeship before the end of the year;" "He shall have completed his business when the messenger arrives."-These phrases are, as they state, evidently incorrect, the auxiliaries being misapplied. But the same thing might have occurred in the first-future as in the present instances; yet no one would infer that they ought, therefore, to be excluded altogether from these persons of the firstfuture. That shall and will may, however, be used in all the persons, will be manifest from the following example:-"I will have completed my business before he arrives," denotes determination, and not mere foretelling; that is, "I am determined to have my business completed before his arrival." Again, the propriety of using will in the first person, will be more apparent, if the truth of the affirmation, respecting the time of finishing the business be called in question; thus, "You will not have finished your business before he arrives." "Yes, I will," implying determination. "Will what?" "Will have finished my business."

Shall may also, with equal propriety, be used in the second and third persons. Thus, if I say, "He will have paid me his bill before June," I merely foretell what will be done; but when I say, " He shall have paid me his bill before June," I express my determination to compel him to pay it before June. As nearly the same idea, however, can be expressed by the first-future, it is in general preferred in these instances; thus, instead of saying, "He shall have paid me his bill before June," we commonly say, "He shall pay me his bill before June."

The Tenses of the Potential Mood.

The Present tense in the Potential Mood implies future as well as present time; as, "I may teach now or some time hence."

The Past tense expresses present, past, and future time; as, "I might go now if I chose;" "Can you write as well as that?" "No, but once I could." "If he should or would come to-morrow, I might, could, or would speak to him.”

Conjugation.

Conjugation, in grammar, denotes the regular arrangement of a verb in all its variations of mood, tense, number, and person.

Transitive and Intransitive verbs are conjugated by means of the verb to have; Passive verbs, by means of the verb to be.

The conjugation of a transitive verb, is styled the active voice; and that of a passive verb, the passive voice.

Transitive verbs may become passive, but intransitive verbs cannot.

Conjugation of the verb to have, when used as a principal

verb.

3. Pers. He, she, or it has or hath. 3. Pers. They have.

1. The word thou is employed only in the following instances:-1st. When addressing the Deity; 2nd, In poetry, to add dignity to the style; 3rd. When speaking contemptuously of a person. It is frequently employed, in vulgar language, to express equality or great familiarity.

Ye is principally confined to the solemn style, being excluded from polite discourse. You is used in polite conversation and familiar writing, when addressing a single person, instead of its singular thou. It must always have a plural verb, whether one person or more than one are addressed.

2. From the supposition, that a king acts with the advice of counsellors, the plural we is commonly used instead of I, in the regal style, with the corresponding our. We, in like manner, is employed by editors of newspapers, magazines, &c., as well as by their correspondents.

3. The termination th, in the third person singular, as in hath, marketh, &c., is not used in conversation, but confined to the language of Scripture and poetry.

1. Those tenses are called simple_tenses which are formed of the principal verb without an auxiliary; as, I have, I had; I love, I loved.

The compound tenses are such as cannot be formed without an auxiliary; as, I have had, I have loved, I shall love, I had loved.

2. For the sake of brevity, the pronouns she and it will not be inserted in the remaining tenses, as the pupil can readily supply them.