as, _do throw, did throw_: thus the mood of _do throw_ or
_to throw_ is marked by _do_ or _to_. _Be_, in all its parts, is auxiliary
to either of the simple participles; as, _to be throwing, to be thrown; I
am throwing, I am thrown_: and so, through the whole conjugation. _Have_
and _had_, in their literal use, are auxiliary to the perfect participle
only; as, _have thrown, had thrown. Have_ is from the Saxon _habban_, to
possess; and, from the nature of the perfect participle, the tenses thus
formed, suggest in general a completion of the action. The French idiom is
similar to this: as, _J'ai vu_, I have seen. _Shall_ and _should, will_ and
_would, may_ and _might, can_ and _could, must_, and also _need, (if we
call the last a helping verb,) are severally auxiliary to both forms of the
infinitive, and to these only: as, shall throw, shall have thrown; should
throw, should have thrown_; and so of all the rest.

OBS. 16.--The form of the indicative pluperfect is sometimes used in lieu
of the potential pluperfect; as, "If all the world could have seen it, the
wo _had been_ universal."--_Shakspeare_. That is,--"_would have been_
universal." "I _had been drowned_, but that the shore was shelvy and
shallow."--_Id._ That is,--"I _should have been drowned_." This mode of
expression may be referred to the figure _enallage_, in which one word or
one modification is used for an other. Similar to this is the use of _were_
for _would be_: "It _were_ injustice to deny the execution of the law to
any individual;" that is, "it _would_ be injustice."--_Murray's Grammar_,
p. 89. In some instances, _were_ and _had been_ seem to have the same
import; as, "Good _were_ it for that man if he had never been
born."--_Mark_, xiv, 21. "It _had been_ good for that man if he had not
been born."--_Matt._, xxvi, 24. In prose, all these licenses are needless,
if not absolutely improper. In poetry, their brevity may commend them to
preference; but to this style, I think, they ought to be confined: as,

"That _had been_ just, replied the reverend bard;
But done, fair youth, thou ne'er _hadst met_ me here."--_Pollok_.

"The keystones of the arch!--though all were o'er,
For us repeopled _were_ the solitary shore."--_Byron_.

OBS. 17.--With an adverb of comparison or preference, as _better, rather,
best, as lief_, or _as lieve_, the auxiliary _had_ seems sometimes to be
used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect or pluperfe