He is.

This word is constructed from an old verb signifying to stand forth, to appear, to show one’s self, and may be traced, I think, to the latin eo, to go, and exist, to exeo, to go from; that is, our being or existence, came or stood forth from God.  It is certainly a contraction from the old english to exist. Ist is the spelling still retained in the german and some other languages.  It denotes self-action.  One man does not exist another, but himself.  He keeps himself in existence.

We are, thou are-est, arst, or art.

Be not surprised when I tell you this is the same word as air, for such is the fact.  It signifies to inhale air, to air ourselves, or breathe air.  “God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”  The new born infant inhales air, inflates its lungs with air, and begins to live.  We all know how essential air is to the preservation of life.  No animal can live an instant without it.  Drop a squirrel into a receiver from which all air has been extracted, and it can not live.  Even vegetables will die where there is no air. Light is also indispensable to life and health. Air is inhaled and exhaled, and from it life receives support.  The fact being common, it is not so distinctly observed by the careless, as tho it was more rare.  But did you never see the man dying of a consumption, when the pulmonary or breathing organs were nearly decayed?  How he labors for breath!  He asks to have the windows thrown open.  At length he suffocates and dies.  Most persons struggle hard for breath in the hour of dissolving nature.  The heaving bosom, the hollow gasp for air, tells us that the lamp of life is soon to be extinguished, that the hour of their departure has come.

When a person faints, we carry them into the air, or blow air upon them, that nature may be restored to its regular course.  In certain cases physicians find it necessary to force air into the lungs of infants; they can after that air, themselves, imbibe or drink in air, or inspirit themselves with air.  But I need not enlarge.  Whoever has been deprived of air and labored hard for breath in a stifled or unwholesome air, can appreciate what we mean.

We were; he was.

I have said before that these words are the same, and are used in certain cases irrespective of number.  I have good authority for this opinion, altho some etymologists give them different derivations.

Were, wert; worth, werth; word and werde, are derived from the same etymon and retain a similarity of meaning.  They signify spirit, life, energy.  “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.”  “By the word of his grace.”