urdity in saying, with this learned "Professor of Languages,"
that the pronouns of the different persons _are_ those persons: as, "_I is
the first person_, and denotes the speaker. _Thou is the second_, and
denotes the person spoken to."--_Ib._, p. 22.

[386] (1.) Concerning the verb _need_, Dr. Webster has the following note:
"In the use of this verb there is another irregularity, which is peculiar,
the verb being _without a nominative_, expressed or implied. 'Whereof here
_needs_ no account.'--_Milt., P. L._, 4. 235. There is no evidence of the
fact, and there _needs_ none. This is an established use of
_need_."--_Philos. Gram._, p. 178; _Improved Gram._, 127; _Greenleaf's
Gram. Simp._, p. 38; _Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 537. "Established use?" To be
sure, it is "an established use;" but the learned Doctor's comment is a
most unconscionable blunder,--a pedantic violation of a sure principle of
Universal Grammar,--a perversion worthy only of the veriest ignoramus. Yet
Greenleaf profitably publishes it, with other plagiarisms, for "Grammar
Simplified!" Now the verb "_needs_," like the Latin _eget_, signifying _is
necessary_, is here not active, but neuter; and has the nominative set
_after it_, as any verb must, when the adverb _there_ or _here_ is before
it. The verbs _lack_ and _want_ may have the same construction, and can
have no other, when the word _there_, and not a nominative, precedes them;
as, "Peradventure _there shall lack five_ of the fifty righteous."--_Gen._,
xviii, 28. There is therefore neither "_irregularity_," nor any thing
"_peculiar_," in thus placing the verb and its nominative.

(2.) Yet have we other grammarians, who, with astonishing facility, have
allowed themselves to be misled, and whose books are now misleading the
schools, in regard to this very simple matter. Thus Wells: "The
_transitive_ verbs _need_ and _want_, are sometimes employed in a general
sense, _without a nominative_, expressed or implied. Examples:--'There
_needed_ a new dispensation.'--_Caleb Cushing_. 'There _needs_ no better
picture.'--_Irving_. 'There _wanted_ not patrons to stand up.'--_Sparks_.
'Nor did there _want_ Cornice, or frieze.'--_Milton_."--_Wells's School
Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 141: 113th Ed., p. 154. In my edition of Milton, the
text is, "Nor did _they want_ Cornice or frieze."--_P. L._, B. i, l. 715,
716. This reading makes _want_ a "transitive" verb, but the other makes it
neuter, with the nominative following it. Ag