OBS. 27.—­According to Lindley Murray, “The infinitive mood is often made absolute, or used independently on [say of] the rest of the sentence, supplying the place of the conjunction that with the potential mood:  as, ‘To confess the truth, I was in fault;’ ‘To begin with the first;’ ’To proceed;’ ‘To conclude;’ that is, ‘That I may confess,’ &c.”—­Murray’s Gram., 8vo, p. 184; Ingersoll’s Gram., p. 244.  Some other compilers have adopted the same doctrine.  But on what ground the substitution of one mood for the other is imagined, I see not.  The reader will observe that this potential mood is here just as much “made absolute,” as is the infinitive; for there is nothing expressed to which the conjunction that connects the one phrase, or the preposition to the other.  But possibly, in either case, there may be an ellipsis of some antecedent term; and surely, if we imagine the construction to be complete without any such term, we make the conjunction the more anomalous word of the two.  Confession of the truth, is here the aim of speaking, but not of what is spoken.  The whole sentence may be, “In order to confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault.”  Or, “In order that I may confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault.”  I do not deny, that the infinitive, or a phrase of which the infinitive is a part, is sometimes put absolute; for, if it is not so in any of the foregoing examples, it appears to be so in the following:  “For every object has several faces, so to speak, by which it may be presented to us.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 41. “To declare a thing shall be, long before it is in being, and then to bring about the accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration; this, or nothing, is the work of God.”—­Justin Martyr.

   “To be, or not to be;—­that is the question.”—­Shakspeare.

   “To die;—­to sleep;—­To sleep! perchance, to dream!”—­Id., Hamlet.

OBS. 28.—­The infinitive usually follows the word on which it depends, or to which the particle to connects it; but this order is sometimes reversed:  as, “To beg I am ashamed.”—­Luke, xvi, 3.  “To keep them no longer in suspense, [I say plainly,] Sir Roger de Coverly is dead.”—­Addison.  “To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal.”—­Milton.

   “To catch your vivid scenes, too gross her hand.”—­Thomson.

OBS. 29.—­Though, in respect to its syntax, the infinitive is oftener connected with a verb, a participle, or an adjective, than with a noun or a pronoun, it should never be so placed that the reader will be liable to mistake the person to whom, or the thing to which, the being, action, or passion, pertains.  Examples of error:  “This system will require a long time to be executed as