[227] This late writer seems to have published his doctrine on this point as a novelty; and several teachers ignorantly received and admired it as such:  I have briefly shown, in the Introduction to this work, how easily they were deceived.  “By this, that Question may be resolv’d, whether every Verb not Passive governs always an Accusative, at least understood:  ’Tis the Opinion of some very able GRAMMARIANS, but for our Parts we don’t think it.”—­Grammar published by John Brightland, 7th Ed., London, 1746, p. 115.

[228] Upon this point, Richard Johnson cites and criticises Lily’s system thus:  “’A Verb Neuter endeth in o or m, and cannot take r to make him a Passive; as, Curro, I run; Sum, I am.’—­Grammar, Eng. p. 13.  This Definition, is founded upon the Notion abovementioned, viz.  That none but Transitives are Verbs Active, which is contrary to the reason of Things, and the common sense of Mankind.  And what can shock a Child more, of any Ingenuity, than to be told, That Ambuto and Curro are Verbs Neuter; that is, to speak according to the common Apprehensions of Mankind, that they signifie neither to do, nor suffer.”—­Johnson’s Grammatical Commentaries, 8vo, London, 1706, p. 273.

[229] Murray says, “Mood or Mode is a particular form of the verb, showing the manner in which the being, action, or passion is represented.”—­Octavo Gram., p. 63.  By many grammarians, the term Mode is preferred to Mood; but the latter is, for this use, the more distinctive, and by far the more common word.  In some treatises on grammar, as well as in books of logic, certain parts of speech, as adjectives and adverbs, are called Modes, because they qualify or modify other terms.  E.g., “Thus all the parts of speech are reducible to four; viz., Names, Verbs, Modes, Connectives.”—­Enclytica, or Universal Gram., p. 8. “Modes are naturally divided, by their attribution to names or verbs, into adnames and adverbs.”—­Ibid., p. 24.  After making this application of the name modes, was it not improper for the learned author to call the moods also “modes?”

[230] “We have, in English, no genuine subjunctive mood, except the preterimperfect, if I were, if thou wert, &c. of the verb to be. [See Notes and Observations on the Third Example of Conjugation, in this chapter.] The phrase termed the subjunctive mood, is elliptical; shall, may, &c. being understood:  as, ’Though hand (shall) join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.’  ’If it (may) be possible, live peaceably with all.’  Scriptures.”—­Rev. W. Allen’s Gram., p. 61.  Such expressions as, “If thou do love, If he do love,” appear to disprove this doctrine. [See Notes and Remarks on the Subjunctive of the First Example conjugated below.]