parsing, every word should be considered as a distinct part of speech:  for though two or more words may be united to form a mode, a tense, or a comparison; yet it seems quite improper to unite two or more words to make a noun, a verb, an adjective, &c.”—­Gram.  Inst., p. 28.  All the auxiliaries, therefore, and the particle to among them, he parses separately; but he follows not his own advice, to make them distinct parts of speech; for he calls them all signs only, and signs are not one of his ten parts of speech.  And the participle too, which is one of the ten, and which he declares to be “no part of the verb,” he parses separately; calling it a verb, and not a participle, as often as it accompanies any of his auxiliary signs.  This is certainly a greater impropriety than there can be in supposing an auxiliary and a participle to constitute a verb; for the mood and tense are the properties of the compound, and ought not to be ascribed to the principal term only.  Not so with the preposition to before the infinitive, any more than with the conjunction if before the subjunctive.  These may well be parsed as separate parts of speech; for these moods are sometimes formed, and are completely distinguished in each of their tenses, without the adding of these signs.

OBS. 7.—­After a careful examination of what others have taught respecting this disputed point in grammar, I have given, in the preceding rule, that explanation which I consider to be the most correct and the most simple, and also as well authorized as any.  Who first parsed the infinitive in this manner, I know not; probably those who first called the to a preposition; among whom were Lowth and the author of the old British Grammar.  The doctrine did not originate with me, or with Comly, or with any American author.  In Coar’s English Grammar, published in London in 1796. the phrase to trample is parsed thus:  “To—­A preposition, serving for a sign of the infinitive mood to the verb Trample—­A verb neuter, infinitive mood, present tense, governed by the preposition TO before it.  RULE.  The preposition to before a verb, is the sign of the infinitive mood.”  See the work, p. 263.  This was written by a gentleman who speaks of his “long habit of teaching the Latin Tongue,” and who was certainly partial enough to the principles of Latin grammar, since he adopts in English the whole detail of Latin cases.

OBS 8.—­In Fisher’s English Grammar, London, 1800, (of which there had been many earlier editions,) we find the following rule of syntax:  “When two principal Verbs come together, the latter of them expresses an unlimited Sense, with the Preposition to before it; as he loved to learn; I chose to dance:  and is called the infinitive Verb, which may also follow a Name or Quality; as, a Time to sing; a Book delightful to read.”  That this author supposed