accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, [_it_]
_is very reasonable_ to believe."--_Ib._, p. 144. These also need the
pronoun, though Murray thought them complete without it.

OBS. 10.--When the infinitive mood is made the subject of a finite verb, it
is most commonly used to express action or state in the abstract; as, "_To
be_ contents his natural desire."--_Pope_. Here _to be_ stands for simple
_existence_; or if for the existence _of the Indian_, of whom the author
speaks, that relation is merely implied. "_To define ridicule_, has puzzled
and vexed every critic."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, i, 300. Here "_to define_"
expresses an action quite as distinct from any agent, as would the
participial noun; as, "The _defining of_ ridicule," &c. In connexion with
the infinitive, a concrete quality may also be taken as an abstract; as,
"_To be good_ is _to be happy_." Here _good_ and _happy_ express the
quality of _goodness_ and the state of _happiness_ considered abstractly;
and therefore these adjectives do not relate to any particular noun. So
also the passive infinitive, or a perfect participle taken in a passive
sense; as, "_To be satisfied with a little_, is the greatest wisdom."--"_To
appear discouraged_, is the way to become so." Here the _satisfaction_ and
the _discouragement_ are considered abstractly, and without reference to
any particular person. (See Obs. 12th and 13th on Rule 6th.) So too,
apparently, the participles _doing_ and _suffering_, as well as the
adjective _weak_, in the following example:

"Fallen Cherub, to be _weak_ is miserable,
_Doing_ or _suffering_."--_Milton's Paradise Lost_.

OBS. 11.--When the action or state is to be expressly limited to one class
of beings, or to a particular person or thing, without making the verb
finite; the noun or pronoun may be introduced before the infinitive by the
preposition _for_: as, "_For men to search_ their own glory, is not
glory."--_Prov._, xxv, 27. "_For a prince to be reduced_ by villany
[sic--KTH] to my distressful circumstances, is calamity
enough."--_Translation of Sallust_. "_For holy persons to be humble_, is as
hard, as _for a prince to submit_ himself to be guided by tutors."--TAYLOR:
_Priestley's Gram._, p. 132; _Murray's_, 184. But such a limitation is
sometimes implied, when the expression itself is general; as, "_Not to know
me_, argues thyself unknown."--_Milton_. That is, "_For thee_ not to know
me." The phras