of the infinitive mood, is often understood before the verb; as, ‘Let me proceed;’ that is, Let me to proceed.”—­Gram. in Fam.  Lect., p. 137.  The lecturer, however, does not suppose the infinitive to be here governed by the preposition to, or the verb let, but rather by the pronoun me.  For, in an other place, he avers, that the infinitive may be governed by a noun or a pronoun; as, “Let him do it.”—­Ib., p. 187.  Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objective noun or pronoun that intervenes, none of those verbs that take the infinitive after them without the preposition, will usually be found to govern it, except dare and need; and if need, in such a case, is an auxiliary, no government pertains to that.  R. C. Smith, an other modifier of Murray, having the same false notion of ellipsis, says, “To, the usual sign of this mood, is sometimes understood; as, ‘Let me go,’ instead of, ‘Let me to go.’”—­Smith’s New Gram., p. 65.  According to Murray, whom these men profess to follow, let, in all these examples, is an auxiliary, and the verb that follows it, is not in the infinitive mood, but in the imperative.  So they severally contradict their oracle, and all are wrong, both he and they!  The disciples pretend to correct their master, by supposing “Let me to go,” and “Let me to proceed,” good English!

OBS. 3.—­It is often impossible to say by what the infinitive is governed, according to the instructions of Murray, or according to any author who does not parse it as I do.  Nutting says, “The infinitive mode sometimes follows the comparative conjunctions, as, than, and how, WITHOUT GOVERNMENT.”—­Practical Gram., p. 106.  Murray’s uncertainty[415] may have led to some part of this notion, but the idea that how is a “comparative conjunction,” is a blunder entirely new.  Kirkham is so puzzled by “the language of that eminent philologist,” that he bolts outright from the course of his guide, and runs he knows not whither; feigning that other able writers have well contended, “that this mood IS NOT GOVERNED by any particular word.”  Accordingly he leaves his pupils at liberty to “reject the idea of government, as applied to the verb in this mood;” and even frames a rule which refers it always “To some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor.”—­Kirkham’s Gram., p. 188.  Murray teaches that the object of the active verb sometimes governs the infinitive that follows it:  as, “They have a desire to improve.”—­Octavo Gram., p. 184.  To what extent, in practice, he would carry this doctrine, nobody can tell; probably to every sentence in which this object is the antecedent term to the preposition to, and perhaps further:  as, “I have a house to sell”—­Nutting’s Gram., p. 106.  “I feel a desire to excel.”  “I felt my heart within me die.”—­Merrick.