Unpleasant to expose error.—­Verbs defined.—­Every thing acts.—­ Actor and object.—­Laws.—­Man.—­Animals.—­Vegetables.—­Minerals.—­ Neutrality degrading.—­Nobody can explain a neuter verb.—­One kind of verbs.—­You must decide.—­Importance of teaching children the truth.—­Active verbs.—­Transitive verbs false.—­Samples.—­Neuter verbs examined.—­Sit.—­Sleep.—­Stand.—­Lie.—­Opinion of Mrs. W.—­Anecdote.

We now come to the consideration of that class of words which in the formation of language are called Verbs.  You will allow me to bespeak your favorable attention, and to insist most strenuously on the propriety of a free and thoro examination into the nature and use of these words.  I shall be under the necessity of performing the thankless task of exposing the errors of honest, wise, and good men, in order to remove difficulties which have long existed in works on language, and clear the way for a more easy and consistent explanation of this interesting and essential department of literature.  I regret the necessity for such labors; but no person who wishes the improvement of mankind, or is willing to aid the growth of the human intellect, in its high aspirations after truth, knowledge, and goodness, should shrink from a frank exposition of what he deems to be error, nor refuse his assistance, feeble tho it may be, in the establishment of correct principles.

In former lectures we have confined our remarks to things and a description of their characters and relations, so that every entity of which we can conceive a thought, or concerning which we can form an expression, has been defined and described in the use of nouns and adjectives.  Every thing in creation, of which we think, material or immaterial, real or imaginary, and to which we give a name, to represent the idea of it, comes under the class of words called nouns.  The words which specify or distinguish one thing from another, or describe its properties, character, or relations, are designated as adjectives.  There is only one other employment left for words, and that is the expression of the actions, changes, or inherent tendencies of things.  This important department of knowledge is, in grammar, classed under the head of =Verbs=.

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Verb is derived from the Latin verbum, which signifies a word.  By specific application it is applied to those words only which express action, correctly understood; the same as Bible, derived from the Greek “biblos” means literally the book, but, by way of eminence, is applied to the sacred scriptures only.

This interesting class of words does not deviate from the correct principles which we have hitherto observed in these lectures.  It depends on established laws, exerted in the regulation of matter and thought; and whoever would learn its sublime use must be a close observer of things, and the mode of their existence.  The important character it sustains in the production of ideas of the changes and tendencies of things and in the transmission of thought, will be found simple, and obvious to all.