“That had been just, replied the reverend bard;
    But done, fair youth, thou ne’er hadst met me here.”—­Pollok.

    “The keystones of the arch!—­though all were o’er,
    For us repeopled were the solitary shore.”—­Byron.

OBS. 17.—­With an adverb of comparison or preference, as better, rather, best, as lief, or as lieve, the auxiliary had seems sometimes to be used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect or pluperfect:  as, “He that loses by getting, had better lose than get.”—­Penn’s Maxims.  “Other prepositions had better have been substituted.”—­ Priestley’s Gram., p. 166.  “I had as lief say.”—­LOWTH:  ib., p. 110.  “It compels me to think of that which I had rather forget.”—­ Bickersteth, on Prayer, p. 25.  “You had much better say nothing upon the subject.”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 147.  “I had much rather show thee what hopes thou hast before thee.”—­Baxter.  “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”—­1 Cor., xiv, 19.  “I knew a gentleman in America who told me how much rather he had be a woman than the man he is.”—­Martineau’s Society in America, Vol. i, p. 153.  “I had as lief go as not.”—­ Webster’s Dict., w.  Lief.  “I had as lieve the town crier spoke my lines.”—­SHAK.:  Hamlet.  “We had best leave nature to her own operations.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 310.  “What method had he best take?”—­Harris’s Hermes, p. ix.  These are equivalent to the phrases, might better lose—­might better have been substituted—­would as lief say—­would rather forget—­might much better say—­would much rather show—­would rather speak—­how much rather he would be—­would as lief go—­should best leave—­might he best take; and, for the sake of regularity, these latter forms ought to be preferred, as they sometimes are:  thus, “For my own part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy.”—­Addison, Spect., No. 414; Blair’s Rhet., p. 223.  The following construction is different:  “Augustus had like to have been slain.”—­S.  Butler.  Here had is a principal verb of the indicative imperfect.  The following examples appear to be positively erroneous:  “Much that was said, had better remained unsaid.”—­N.  Y. Observer.  Say, “might better have remained.”  “A man that is lifting a weight, if he put not sufficient strength to it, had as good put none at all.”—­Baxter.  Say, “might as well put.”  “You were better pour off the first infusion, and use the latter.”—­Bacon.  Say, “might better pour;” or, if you prefer it, “had better pour.” Shakspeare has an expression which is still worse:—­