“How rarely does it meet with
this time’s guise,
When man was will’d
to love his enemies!”—Shakspeare.
OBS. 3. The remaining defective verbs are only five or six questionable terms, which our grammarians know not well how else to explain; some of them being now nearly obsolete, and others never having been very proper. Begone is a needless coalition of be and gone, better written separately, unless Dr. Johnson is right in calling the compound an interjection: as,
“Begone! the goddess cries
with stern disdain,
Begone! nor dare the hallow’d
stream to stain!”—Addison.
Beware also seems to be a needless compound of be and the old adjective ware, wary, aware, cautious. Both these are, of course, used only in those forms of expression in which be is proper; as, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.”—Philippians, iii, 2. “But we must beware[297] of carrying our attention to this beauty too far.”—Blair’s Rhet., p. 119. These words were formerly separated: as, “Of whom be thou ware also.”—1 Tim., iv, 15. “They were ware of it.”—FRIENDS’ BIBLE, and ALGER’S: Acts, xiii, 6. “They were aware of it.”—SCOTT’S BIBLE: ib. “And in an hour that he is not ware of him.”—Johnson’s Dict., w. Ware. “And in an hour that he is not aware of.”—COMMON BIBLES: Matt., xxiv, 50. “Bid her well be ware and still erect.”—MILTON: in Johnson’s Dict. “That even Silence was took ere she was ware.”—Id., Comus, line 558. The adjective ware is now said to be “obsolete;” but the propriety of this assertion depends upon that of forming such a defective verb. What is the use of doing so?
“This to disclose is all thy
guardian can;
Beware of all, but
most beware of man.”—Pope.
The words written separately will always have the same meaning, unless we omit the preposition of, and suppose the compound to be a transitive verb. In this case, the argument for compounding the terms appears to be valid; as,