last night. Now, what was it that _freezed_ so hard?"--_Emmons's Gram._, p.
25. "Far hence lies, ever _freez'd_, the northern main."--_Savage's
Wanderer_, l. 57. "Has he not taught, _beseeched_, and shed abroad the
Spirit unconfined?"--_Pollok's Course of Time_, B. x, l. 275.

OBS. 6.--D. Blair supposes _catched_ to be an "erroneous" word and
unauthorized: "I _catch'd_ it," for "I _caught_ it," he sets down for a
"_vulgarism_."--_E. Gram._, p. 111. But _catched_ is used by some of the
most celebrated authors. Dearborn prefers the regular form of _creep_:
"creep, creeped _or_ crept, creeped _or_ crept."--_Columbian Gram._, p. 38.
I adopt no man's opinions implicitly; copy nothing without examination;
but, _to prove all my decisions to be right_, would be an endless task. I
shall do as much as ought to be expected, toward showing that they are so.
It is to be remembered, that the _poets_, as well as the _vulgar_, use some
forms which a _gentleman_ would be likely to avoid, unless he meant to
quote or imitate; as,

"So _clomb_ the first grand thief into God's fold;
So since into his church lewd hirelings climb."
--_Milton, P. L._, B. iv, l. 192.

"He _shore_ his sheep, and, having packed the wool,
Sent them unguarded to the hill of wolves."
--_Pollok, C. of T._, B. vi, l. 306.

------"The King of heav'n
Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky
His _writhen_ bolt, not shaking empty smoke,
Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon _strook_."
--_Dryden_.

OBS. 7.--The following are examples in proof of some of the forms
acknowledged below: "Where etiquette and precedence _abided_ far
away."--_Paulding's Westward-Ho!_ p. 6. "But there were no secrets where
Mrs. Judith Paddock _abided_."--_Ib._, p. 8. "They _abided_ by the forms of
government established by the charters."--_John Quincy Adams, Oration_,
1831. "I have _abode_ consequences often enough in the course of my
life."--_Id., Speech_, 1839. "Present, _bide_, or _abide_; Past, _bode, or
abode_."--_Coar's Gram._, p. 104. "I _awaked_ up last of all."--_Ecclus._,
xxxiii, 16. "For this are my knees _bended_ before the God of the spirits
of all flesh."--_Wm. Penn_. "There was never a prince _bereaved_ of his
dependencies," &c.--_Bacon_. "Madam, you have _bereft_ me of all
words."--_Shakspeare_. "Reave, _reaved or reft_, reaving, _reaved or reft_.
_Bereave_ is similar."--_Ward's Practical Gram._