o_ speak.
I dare go, -- I dare _to_ go.
I durst go, -- I durst _to_ go.

This, in the present English, is the rarer of the two constructions.

When a verb is followed by another, preceded by the preposition _to_, the
construction must be considered to have grown out of the so-called gerund,
i.e., the form in -nne, i.e., the dative case--_I begin to move_. This is
the case with the great majority of English verbs.

s. 485. _Imperatives_ have three peculiarities. (1.) They can only, in
English, be used in the second person--_go thou on_, _get you gone_, &c.:
(2.) They take pronouns after, instead of before them: (3.) They often omit
the pronoun altogether.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XX.

ON THE TENSES.

s. 486. Notwithstanding its name, the present tense in English does not
express a strictly _present_ action. It rather expresses an habitual one.
_He speaks well_ = _he is a good speaker_. If a man means to say that he is
in the act of speaking, he says _I am speaking_.

It has also, especially when combined with a subjunctive mood, a future
power--_I beat you_ ( = _I will beat you_) _if you don't leave off_.

s. 487. The English praeterite is the equivalent, not to the Greek perfect
but the Greek aorist. _I beat_ = [Greek: etupsa] not [Greek: tetupha]. The
true perfect is expressed, in English, by the auxiliary _have_ + the past
participle.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXI.

SYNTAX OF THE PERSONS OF VERBS.

s. 488. _The concord of persons._--A difficulty that occurs frequently in
the Latin language is rare in English. In expressions like _ego et ille_
followed by a verb, there arises a question as to the person in which that
verb should be used. Is it to be in the first person in order to agree with
_ego_, or in the _third_ in order to agree with _ille_? For the sake of
laying down a rule upon these and similar points, the classical grammarians
arrange the persons (as they do the genders) according to their _dignity_,
making the verb (or adjective if it be a question of gender) agree with the
most _worthy_. In respect to persons, the first is more worthy than the
second, and the second more worthy than the third. Hence, the Latins said--

_Ego_ et _Balbus_ _sustulimus_ manus.
_Tu_ et _Balbus_ _sustulistis_ manus.

Now, in English, the plural form is the same for all three persons. Hence
we say _I and you are friends_, _you and I are fr