OBS. 4.—­Though most of the auxiliaries are defective, when compared with other verbs; yet these three, do, be, and have, being also principal verbs, are complete:  but the participles of do and have are not used as auxiliaries; unless having, which helps to form the third or “compound perfect” participle, (as having loved,) may be considered such.  The other auxiliaries have no participles.

OBS. 5.—­English verbs are principally conjugated by means of auxiliaries; the only tenses which can be formed by the simple verb, being the present and the imperfect; as, I love, I loved.  And even here an auxiliary is usually preferred in questions and negations; as, “Do you love?”—­“You do not love.” “Did he love?”—­“He did not love.” “Do I not yet grieve?”—­“Did she not die?” All the other tenses, even in their simplest form, are compounds.

OBS. 6.—­Dr. Johnson says, “Do is sometimes used superfluously, as I do love, I did love; simply for I love, or I loved; but this is considered as a vitious mode of speech.”—­Gram., in 4to Dict., p. 8.  He also somewhere tells us, that these auxiliaries “are not proper before be and have;” as, “I do be,” for I am; “I did have,” for I had.  The latter remark is generally true, and it ought to be remembered;[257] but, in the imperative mood, be and have will perhaps admit the emphatic word do before them, in a colloquial style:  as, “Now do be careful;”—­“Do have a little discretion.”  Sanborn repeatedly puts do before be, in this mood:  as, “Do you be.  Do you be guarded. Do thou be.  Do thou be guarded.”—­Analytical Gram., p. 150. “Do thou be watchful.”—­Ib., p. 155.  In these instances, he must have forgotten that he had elsewhere said positively, that, “Do, as an auxiliary, is never used with the verb be or am.”—­Ib., p. 112.  In the other moods, it is seldom, if ever, proper before be; but it is sometimes used before have, especially with a negative:  as, “Those modes of charity which do not have in view the cultivation of moral excellence, are essentially defective.”—­Wayland’s Moral Science, p. 428.  “Surely, the law of God, whether natural or revealed, does not have respect merely to the external conduct of men.”—­Stuart’s Commentary on Romans, p. 158.  “And each day of our lives do we have occasion to see and lament it.”—­Dr. Bartlett’s Lecture on Health, p. 5.  “Verbs, in themselves considered, do not have person and number.”—­R.  C. Smith’s New Gram., p. 21. [This notion of Smith’s is absurd.  Kirkham taught the same as regards “person.”] In the following example, does he is used for is,—­the auxiliary is,—­and perhaps allowably:  “It is certain from scripture, that the same person does in the course of life many times offend and be forgiven.”—­West’s Letters to a Young Lady, p. 182.