reader will observe that
this potential mood is here just as much "_made absolute_," as is the
infinitive; for there is nothing expressed to which the conjunction _that_
connects the one phrase, or the preposition _to_ the other. But possibly,
in either case, there may be an ellipsis of some antecedent term; and
surely, if we imagine the construction to be complete without any such
term, we make the conjunction the more anomalous word of the two.
Confession of the truth, is here the aim of speaking, but not of what is
spoken. The whole sentence may be, "_In order_ to confess the truth, _I
admit that_ I was in fault." Or, "_In order_ that I may confess the truth,
_I admit that_ I was in fault." I do not deny, that the infinitive, or a
phrase of which the infinitive is a part, is sometimes put _absolute_; for,
if it is not so in any of the foregoing examples, it appears to be so in
the following: "For every object has several faces, _so to speak_, by which
it may be presented to us."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 41. "_To declare_ a thing
shall be, long before it is in being, and then _to bring about_ the
accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration; this,
or nothing, is the work of God."--_Justin Martyr_.

"_To be_, or _not to be_;--that is the question."--_Shakspeare_.

"_To die;--to sleep;--To sleep_! perchance, _to dream_!"--_Id., Hamlet_.

OBS. 28.--The infinitive usually _follows_ the word on which it depends, or
to which the particle _to_ connects it; but this order is sometimes
reversed: as, "To beg I am ashamed."--_Luke_, xvi, 3. "To keep them no
longer in suspense, [I say plainly,] Sir Roger de Coverly is
dead."--_Addison_. "To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal."--_Milton_.

"To catch your vivid scenes, too gross her hand."--_Thomson_.

OBS. 29.--Though, in respect to its syntax, the infinitive is oftener
connected with a verb, a participle, or an adjective, than with a noun or a
pronoun, it should never be so placed that the reader will be liable to
mistake the _person_ to whom, or the _thing_ to which, the being, action,
or passion, pertains. Examples of error: "This system will require a long
time to be executed as it should be."--_Journal of N. Y. Lit. Convention_,
1830, p. 91. It is not the _time_, that is to be executed; therefore say,
"This system, to be executed as it should be, will require a long time."
"He spoke in a _manner distinct enough to be heard_ by the whole
as