OBS. 3.—­The number of verbs in our language, amounts unquestionably to four or five thousand; some say, (perhaps truly,) to eight thousand.  All these, whatever be the number, are confessedly regular in their formation, except about two hundred.  For, though the catalogues in our grammars give the number somewhat variously, all the irregular, redundant, and defective verbs, put together, are commonly reckoned fewer than two hundred.  I admit, in all, two hundred and nineteen.  The regular verbs, therefore, are vastly more numerous than those which deviate from the stated form.  But, since many of the latter are words of very frequent occurrence, the irregular verbs appear exceedingly numerous in practice, and consequently require a great deal of attention.  The defective verbs being very few, and most of these few being mere auxiliaries, which are never parsed separately, there is little occasion to treat them as a distinct class; though Murray and others have ranked them so, and perhaps it is best to follow their example.  The redundant verbs, which are regular in one form and irregular in an other, being of course always found written either one way or the other, as each author chooses, may be, and commonly have been, referred in parsing to the class of regular or irregular verbs accordingly.  But, as their number is considerable, and their character peculiar, there may be some advantage in making them a separate class.  Besides, the definition of an irregular verb, as given in any of our grammars, seems to exclude all such as may form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed.

OBS. 4.—­In most grammars and dictionaries, verbs are divided, with respect to their signification, into three classes only; active, passive, and neuter.  In such a division, the class of active verbs includes those only which are active-transitive, and all the active-intransitive verbs are called neuter.  But, in the division adopted above, active-intransitive verbs are made a distinct class; and those only are regarded as neuter, which imply a state of existence without action.  When, therefore, we speak of verbs without reference to their regimen, we may, if we please, apply the simple term active to all those which express action, whether transitive or intransitive.  “We act whenever we do any thing; but we may act without doing any thing.”—­Crabb’s Synonymes.

OBS. 5.—­Among the many English grammars in which verbs are divided, as above mentioned, into active, passive, and neuter, only, are those of the following writers:  Lowth, Murray, Ainsworth, Alden, Allen, Alger, Bacon, Bicknell, Blair, Bullions, (at first,) Charles Adams, Bucke, Cobbett, Cobbin, Dilworth, A. Flint, Frost, (at first,) Greenleaf, Hall, Johnson,[223] Lennie, Picket, Pond, Sanborn, R. C. Smith, Rev. T. Smith, and Wright.  These