it may be expreffed by the Participle, or Gerund; "by obferving which:" not, "by obferving of which;" nor, " by the observing which" for either of thofe two Phrases would be a confounding of two diftin& forms.

I will add another example, and that of the best authority: "The middle station. of life feems to be the most advantageously fituated for the gaining of wisdom. Poverty turns our thoughts too much upon the fupplying of our wants, and riches upon enjoying our fuperfluities." Addifon, Spect. N° 464.

The Participle frequently becomes altogether an Adjective; when it is joined to

"

form is, by preaching concerning or on the Subject of Repentance," whereas the fenfe intended is, "by publifhing the Covenant of Repentance, and declaring Repentance to be a condition of acceptance with God." The Phrafe would have been perfectly right and determinate to this fenfe either way; by the Noun, by the preaching of repentance or by the Participle, by preaching repentance.

a Substantive merely to denote its quality; without any respect to time; expreffing, not an Action, but a Habit; and as fuch it admits of the degrees of Comparison: as, a learned, a more learned, a most learned, man; a loving, more loving, moft loving, father [4]."

Simple Sentences are 1. Explicative, or explaining: 2. Interrogative, or asking: 3. Imperative, or commanding [5].

[4] In a few inftances the Active Present Participle hath been vulgarly used in a Paffive Sense; as, beholding for beholden; owing for orved. And fome of our writers are not quite free from this mistake: "I would not be beholding to fortune for any part of the victory.' Sidney.

"I'll teach you all what's owing to your Queen."

"

Dryden. "The debt, owing from one country to the other, cannot be paid without real effects fent thither to that value." Locke.

[5] Thefe are the three Primary Modes, or manners of expreffing our thoughts concerning the being, doing, or fuffering of a thing. If it comes within our knowledge, we explain it, or make a declaration of it; if

1. An Explicative Sentence is when a thing is faid to be, or not to be; to do, or not to do; to fuffer, or not to fuffer; in a direct manner; as in the foregoing examples. If the Sentence be Negative, the Adverb not is placed after the Auxiliary: or after the Verb itself when it has no Auxiliary: as," it did not touch him;" or, "it touched him not [6]."

we are ignorant of it or doubtful, we make an inquiry about it; if it is not immediately in our power, we exprefs our defire or will concerning it. In Theory therefore the Interrogative form feems to have as good a Title to a Mode of its own, as either of the other two: but Practice has determined it otherwife; and has in all the Languages, with which we are much acquainted, fupplied the place of an Interrogative Mode, either by Particles of Interrogation, or by a peculiar order of the words in the fentence. If it be true, as I have fomewhere read, that the Modes of the Verbs are more numerous in the Lapland Tongue than in any other, poffibly the Laplanders may be provided with an Interrogative Mode.

[6] "The burning lever not deludes his pains."

Dryden, Ovid. Metam. B. xii. "I hope, my Lord, faid he, I not offend."

Dryden, Fables.

These examples make the impropriety of placing the

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2. In

2. In an Interrogative Sentence, or when a Question is asked, the Nominative Case follows the Principal Verb, or the Auxiliary: as, "was it be?" "did Alexander conquer the Perfians?" So that the Queftion depends intirely on the order of the words [7].

3. In an Imperative Sentence, when a thing is commanded to be, to do, to fuffer, or not, the Nominative Cafe follows the Adverb not before the Verb very evident. Shakespear frequently places the Negative before the Verb:

"She not denies it."

"For men

Much ado.

Can counfel, and give comfort to that grief,
Which they themselves not feel."

Ibid.

It seems therefore, as if this order of words had antiently been much in use, though now grown altogether obsolete.

[7] Did he not fear the Lord, and befought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil, which he had pronounced against them ?" Jer. xxvi. 19. Here the Interrogative and Explicative forms are confounded. It ought to be," Did he not fear the Lord, and befeech the Lord? and did not the Lord repent him of the evil,-?” "If a man have an hundred fheep, and one of them be gone aftray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone aftray?" Matt. xviii. 12. It ought to be, go, and seek;

Verb or the Auxiliary: as, "Go, thou traytor;" or, " do thou go:" or the Auxiliary let with the Objective [8] Cafe after it is used: as, "Let us be gone [9].”

that is," doth he not go, and Seek that which is gone aftray?"

[8]

"For ever in this humble cell
Let Thee and I, my fair one, dwell."

It ought to be Me.

Prior.

[9] It is not eafy to give particular rules for the management of the Modes and Times of Verbs with respect to one another, fo that they may be proper and confiftent: nor would it be of much ufe; for the best rule that can be given is this very general one, To obferve what the fenfe neceffarily requires. But it may be of use to confider one or two examples, that seem faulty in these respects, and to examine where the fault lies. "Some who the depths of eloquence have found, In that unnavigable Stream were drown'd."

Dryden, Juv. Sat. x.

The event mentioned in the first line is plainly prior in time to that mentioned in the second; this is fubfequent to that, and a confequence of it. The firft event is mentioned in the Present Perfect Time; it is present and completed; they have [now] found the depths of eloquence." The fecond event is expreffed in the Paft Indefinite Time; it is past and gone, but, when it hap pened, uncertain : "they were drown'd." We obferved, that the laft mentioned event is fubfequent to the The

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