“Well, I thought and did just what you now tell me; that to be is a neuter verb, expressing no action, but being.  I had a state of being, and promised to keep it, and did keep it, and you punished me for doing the very thing you told me to do!!”

The master looked down, shut up his book, and began to say that grammar is a “dry, cold, and useless” study, hardly worth the trouble of learning it.

* * * * *

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”—­Rev. 1:  8.

If there is any action in maintaining eternal existence, by which all things were created and are upheld, it is expressed in the verbs am, is, and was.

God said, “Let there be light, and there was light;” or more properly rendered, “Light =be=, and light =was=.”

Was there no action in setting the sun, moon and stars in the firmament, and in causing them to send forth the rays of light to dispel the surrounding darkness?  If there was, be and was denote that action.

“You are commanded =to be= and appear before the court of common pleas,” etc.  A heavy penalty is imposed upon those who fail to comply with this citation—­for neglecting to do what is expressed by the neuter verb to be.

Such cases might be multiplied without number, where this verb is correctly used by all who employ language, and correctly understood by all who are capable of knowing the meaning of words.  But I think you must all be convinced of the truth of our proposition, that all verbs express action, either real or relative; and in all cases have an object, expressed or necessarily implied, which stands as the effect, and an agent, as the cause of action:  and hence that language, as a means for the communication of thought, does not deviate from the soundest principles of philosophy, but in all cases, rightly explained, serves to illustrate them, in the plainest manner.

* * * * *

A few remarks on the “Passive Verb,” and I will conclude this part of our subject, which has already occupied much more of our attention than I expected at the outset.

“A verb passive expresses a passion or a suffering, or the receiving of an action; and necessarily implies an object acted upon, and an agent by which it is acted upon; as, to be loved; Penelope is loved by me.”

In the explanation of this verb, grammarians further tell us that a passive verb is formed by adding the verb to be, which is thus made auxiliary, to a past participle; as, Portia was loved.  Pompey was conquered.