Regular Verbs Active are known by their forming their imperfect tense of
the indicative mood, and their perfect participle, by adding to the verb
ed, or d only when the verb ends in e: as,
PRESENT. IMPERFECT. PERF. PARTICPL.
I reckon I reckoned. Reckoned.
I realise. I realised. Realised.
Here {061}should follow the conjugation of the regular active verb,
To Love; but we have already assigned a good reason for omitting it;
besides which we have to say, that we think it a verb highly unfit for
conjugation by youth, as it tends to put ideas into their heads which
they would otherwise never have thought of; and it is moreover our
opinion, that several of our most gifted poets may, with reason, have
attributed the so unfortunate attachments which, though formed in early
youth, served to embitter their whole lives, to the poison which they
thus sucked in with the milk, so to speak, of their Mother Tongue, the
Grammar.
[Illustration: 070]
We shall therefore dismiss Cupid, and he must look for other lodgings.
PASSIVE.
Verbs {062}Passive are said to be regular, when their perfect participle
is formed by the addition of d, or ed to the verb: as, from the verb "To
bless," is formed the passive, "I am blessed, I was blessed, I shall be
blessed," &c.
The conjugation of a passive verb is nothing more than the repetition of
that of the auxiliary To Be, the perfect participle being added.
And now, having cut the regular verbs (as Alexander did the Gordian
knot) instead of conjugating them, let us proceed to consider the