OBS. 19.—­When two or more infinitives are connected in the same construction, one preposition sometimes governs them both or all; a repetition of the particle not being always necessary, unless we mean to make the terms severally emphatical.  This fact is one evidence that to is not a necessary part of each infinitive verb, as some will have it to be.  Examples:  “Lord, suffer me first TO go and bury my father.”—­Matt., viii, 21.  “To shut the door, means, TO throw or cast the door to.”—­Tooke’s D. P., ii, 105.  “Most authors expect the printer TO spell, point, and digest their copy, that it may be intelligible to the reader.”—­Printer’s Grammar.

   “I’ll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
    To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield.”—­Shak.

OBS. 20.—­An infinitive that explains an other, may sometimes be introduced without the preposition to; because, the former having it, the construction of the latter is made the same by this kind of apposition:  as, “The most accomplished way of using books at present is, TO serve them as some do lords; learn their titles, and, then brag of their acquaintance.”—­SWIFT:  Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 166.

OBS. 21.—­After than or as, the sign of the infinitive is sometimes required, and sometimes excluded; and in some instances we can either insert it or not, as we please.  The latter term of a comparison is almost always more or less elliptical; and as the nature of its ellipsis depends on the structure of the former term, so does the necessity of inserting or of omitting the sign of the infinitive.  Examples:  “No desire is more universal than [is the desire] to be exalted and honoured.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., i, 197.  “The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as [is the difficulty] to find a friend worth dying for.”—­Id., Art of Thinking, p. 42.  “It is no more in one’s power to love or not to love, than [it is in one’s power] to be in health or out of order.”—­Ib., p. 45.  “Men are more likely to be praised into virtue, than [they are likely] to be railed out of vice.”—­Ib., p. 48.  “It is more tolerable to be always alone, than [it is tolerable] never to be so.”—­Ib., p. 26.  “Nothing [is] more easy than to do mischief [is easy]:  nothing [is] more difficult than to suffer without complaining” [is difficult].—­Ib., p. 46.  Or:  “than [it is easy] to do mischief:”  &c., “than [it is difficult] to suffer,” &c.  “It is more agreeable to the nature of most men to follow than [it is agreeable to their nature] to lead.”—­Ib., p. 55.  In all these examples, the preposition to is very properly inserted; but what excludes it from the former term of a comparison, will exclude