102 Additional Notes. 



also suggest only the noun, or name of the thing spoken of, and an idea 

 of its mode of existence, excluding the idea of time; which is expressed 

 by all the other moods and tenses; whence it appears, that the infini- 

 tive mood, as well as the participle, is n'ot truly a part of the verb; 

 but as the participle resembles the adjective in its construction; so 

 the infinitive mood may be said to resemble the substantive, and it is 

 often used as a nominative case to another verb. 



Thus in 'the words " a charming lady with a smiling countenance," 

 the participle acts as an adjective; and in the words " to talk well 

 commands attention," the infinitive mood acts as the nominative case 

 of a noun substantive; and their respective significations are also 

 very similar, as whipping, or to whip, mean the existence of a person 

 acting with a whip. 



In the Latin language the verb in its simplest form, except the 

 infinitive mood, and the participle, both which we mean to exclude 

 from complete verbs, suggests four primary ideas, as amo, suggests 

 the pronoun I, the noun love, its existence in its active state, and the 

 present time; which verbs in the Greek and Latin undergo an un- 

 counted variation of termination, suggesting so many different ideas 

 in addition to the four primary ones. 



We do not mean to assert, that all verbs are literally derived from 

 nouns in any language; because all languages have in process of time 

 undergone such great variation; many nouns having become obsolete 

 or have perished, and new verbs have been imported from foreign 

 languages, or transplanted from ancient ones; but that this has ori- 

 ginally been the construction of all verbs, as well as those to whip 

 and to love above mentioned, and innumerable others. 



Thus there may appear some difficulty in analyzing from what 

 noun substantive were formed the verbs to stand or to lie ; because we 

 have not properly the name of the abstract ideas from which these 

 verbs arose, except we use the same word for the participle and the 

 noun substantive, as standing, lying. But the verbs to sit, and to 

 walk, are less difficult, to trace to their origin; as we have names for 

 the nouns substantive, a seat, and a walk. 



But there is another verb of great consequence in all languages, 

 which would appear in its simplest form in our language to sug- 



