10.  The child had a native grace that does not invariably coexist
     with faultless beauty.

     11.  I think a mere gent (which I take to be the lowest form of
     civilization) better than a howling, whistling, clucking,
     stamping, jumping, tearing savage.

     12.  Every fowl whom Nature has taught to dip the wing in water.

     13.  They seem to be lines pretty much of a length.

     14.  Only yesterday, but what a gulf between now and then!

     15.  Not a brick was made but some man had to think of the making
     of that brick.

16.  The class of power, the working heroes, the Cortes, the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this is the festivity and permanent celebration of such as they; that fashion is funded talent.

VERBS AND VERBALS..

VERBS.

[Sidenote:  Verb,—­the word of the sentence.]

199.  The term verb is from the Latin verbum meaning word:  hence it is the word of a sentence.  A thought cannot be expressed without a verb.  When the child cries, “Apple!” it means, See the apple! or I have an apple!  In the mariner’s shout, “A sail!” the meaning is, “Yonder is a sail!”

Sentences are in the form of declarations, questions, or commands; and none of these can be put before the mind without the use of a verb.

[Sidenote:  One group or a group of words.]

200.  The verb may not always be a single word.  On account of the lack of inflections, verb phrases are very frequent.  Hence the verb may consist of: 

(1) One word; as, “The young man obeyed.”

(2) Several words of verbal nature, making one expression; as, (a) “Some day it may be considered reasonable,” (b) “Fearing lest he might have been anticipated.”

(3) One or more verbal words united with other words to compose one verb phrase:  as in the sentences, (a) “They knew well that this woman ruled over thirty millions of subjects;” (b) “If all the flummery and extravagance of an army were done away with, the money could be made to go much further;” (c) “It is idle cant to pretend anxiety for the better distribution of wealth until we can devise means by which this preying upon people of small incomes can be put a stop to.”

In (a), a verb and a preposition are used as one verb; in (b), a verb, an adverb, and a preposition unite as a verb; in (c), an article, a noun, a preposition, are united with verbs as one verb phrase.

[Sidenote:  Definition and caution.]

201.  A verb is a word used as a predicate, to say something to or about some person or thing.  In giving a definition, we consider a verb as one word.