e list which I give below, prepared with great care, exhibits
the redundant verbs, as they are now generally used, or as they may be used
without grammatical impropriety.[291] Those forms which are supposed to be
preferable, and best supported by authorities, are placed first. No words
are inserted here, but such as some modern authors countenance. L. Murray
recognizes _bereaved, catched, dealed, digged, dwelled, hanged, knitted,
shined, spilled_; and, in his early editions, he approved of _bended,
builded, creeped, weaved, worked, wringed_. His two larger books now tell
us, "The Compiler _has not inserted_ such verbs as _learnt, spelt, spilt_,
&c. which are improperly terminated by _t_, instead of _ed_."--_Octavo
Gram._, p. 107; _Duodecimo_, p. 97. But if he did not, in all his grammars,
insert, "_Spill, spilt_, R. _spilt_, R.," (pp. 106, 96,) preferring the
irregular form to the regular, somebody else has done it for him. And, what
is remarkable, many of his _amenders_, as if misled by some evil genius,
have contradicted themselves in precisely the same way! Ingersoll, Fisk,
Merchant, and Hart, republish exactly the foregoing words, and severally
become "_The Compiler_" of the same erroneous catalogue! Kirkham prefers
_spilt_ to _spilled_, and then declares the word to be "_improperly_
terminated by _t_ instead of _ed_."--_Gram._, p. 151. Greenleaf, who
condemns _learnt_ and _spelt_, thinks _dwelt_ and _spilt_ are "the _only
established_ forms;" yet he will have _dwell_ and _spill_ to be "_regular_"
verbs, as well as "_irregular!_"--_Gram. Simp._, p. 29. Webber prefers
_spilled_ to _spilt_; but Picket admits only the latter. Cobbett and
Sanborn prefer _bereaved, builded, dealed, digged, dreamed, hanged_, and
_knitted_, to _bereft, built, dealt, dug, dreamt, hung_, and _knit_. The
former prefers _creeped_ to _crept_, and _freezed_ to _froze_; the latter,
_slitted_ to _slit, wringed_ to _wrung_; and both consider, "_I bended_,"
"_I bursted_" and "_I blowed_," to be good modern English. W. Allen
acknowledges _freezed_ and _slided_; and, like Webster, prefers _hove_ to
_hoven_: but the latter justly prefers _heaved_ to both. EXAMP.: "The
supple kinsman _slided_ to the helm."--_New Timon_. "The rogues _slided_ me
into the river."--_Shak_. "And the sand _slided_ from beneath my feet."--
DR. JOHNSON: _in Murray's Sequel_, p. 179. "Wherewith she _freez'd_ her
foes to congeal'd stone."--_Milton's Comus_, l. 449. "It _freezed_ hard