r _do_. But Lindley Murray,
and his followers, have been more tractable. They were ready to be led
without looking. "To," say they, "comes from _Saxon and Gothic_ words,
which signify action, effect, termination, to act, &c."--_Murray's Gram._,
8vo, p. 183; _Fisk's_, 92. What an admirable explanation is this! and how
prettily the great Compiler says on the next leaf: "Etymology, when it is
guided by _judgment_, and [when] _proper limits_ are set to it, certainly
merits great attention!"--_Ib._, p. 135. According to his own express rules
for interpreting "a substantive _without any article to limit it_" and the
"relative pronoun _with a comma before it_," he must have meant, that "_to_
comes from Saxon and Gothic words" _of every sort_, and that _the words of
these two languages_ "signify action, effect, termination, to act, &c." The
latter assertion is true enough: but, concerning the former, a man of sense
may demur. Nor do I see how it is possible not to despise _such_ etymology,
be the interpretation of the words what it may. For, if _to_ means _action_
or _to act_, then our little infinitive phrase, _to be_, must mean, _action
be_, or _to act be_; and what is this, but nonsense?

[404] So, from the following language of three modern authors, one cannot
but infer, that they would parse the verb _as governed by the preposition_;
but I do not perceive that they anywhere expressly say so:

(1.) "The Infinitive is the form of the supplemental verb that always has,
or admits, the _preposition_ TO before it; as, to _move_. Its general
character is to represent the action in _prospect_, or _to do_; or in
_retrospect_, as _to have done_. As a verb, it signifies _to do_ the
action; and as _object of the preposition_ TO, it stands in the place of a
noun for _the doing_ of it. The infinitive verb and its prefix _to_ are
used much like a preposition and its noun object."--_Felch's Comprehensive
Gram._, p. 62.

(2.) "The action or other signification of a verb may be expressed in its
widest and most general sense, without any limitation by a person or agent,
but _merely as the end or purpose_ of some other action, state of being,
quality, or thing; it is, from this want of limitation, said to be in the
_Infinitive mode_; and is expressed by the verb with the _preposition_ TO
before it, to denote _this relation of end or purpose_; as, 'He came _to
see_ me;' 'The man is not fit _die_;' 'It was not right for him _to do_
thus.'"--_D