though Webster’s American Dictionary, whether quarto or octavo, absurdly suggests that the latter word may be used as a participle.  In the Bible, we find the following text:  “Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz.”—­2 Sam., xviii, 27.  And Milton improperly makes thought an impersonal verb, apparently governing the separate objective pronoun him; as,

   “Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood.”
        —­P.  R., B. ii, l. 264.

OBS. 7.—­Some verbs from the nature of the subjects to which they refer, are chiefly confined to the third person singular; as, “It rains; it snows; it freezes; it hails; it lightens; it thunders.”  These have been called impersonal verbs; because the neuter pronoun it, which is commonly used before them, does not seem to represent any noun, but, in connexion with the verb, merely to express a state of things.  They are however, in fact, neither impersonal nor defective.  Some, or all of them, may possibly take some other nominative, if not a different person; as, “The Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire.”—­Gen., xix, 24.  “The God of glory thundereth.”—­Psalms, xxix, 3. “Canst thou thunder with a voice like him?”—­Job, xl, 9.  In short, as Harris observes, “The doctrine of Impersonal Verbs has been justly rejected by the best grammarians, both ancient and modern.”—­Hermes, p. 175.

OBS. 8.—­By some writers, words of this kind are called Monopersonal Verbs; that is, verbs of one person.  This name, though not very properly compounded, is perhaps more fit than the other; but we have little occasion to speak of these verbs as a distinct class in our language.  Dr. Murray says, “What is called an impersonal verb, is not so; for lic-et, juv-at, and oport-et, have Tha, that thing, or it, in their composition.”—­History of European Languages, Vol. ii, p. 146. Ail, irk, and behoove, are regular verbs and transitive; but they are used only in the third person singular:  as, “What ails you?”—­“It irks me.”—­“It behooves you.”  The last two are obsolescent, or at least not in very common use.  In Latin, passive verbs, or neuters of the passive form, are often used impersonally, or without an obvious nominative; and this elliptical construction is sometimes imitated in English, especially by the poets:  as,

   “Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn’d and judg’d on earth,
    Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death.”
        —­Milton, P. L., B. x, l. 230.

   “Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
    By angels many and strong, who interpos’d.”
        —­Id., B. vi, l. 335.

LIST OF THE DEFECTIVE VERBS.