an help _a person_ or _thing_--and so on. Hence you know
that these verbs are transitive. But an intransitive verb will not make
sense with this sign, which fact will be shown by the following
examples: _smile, go, come, play, bark, walk, fly_. We cannot say, if we
mean to speak English, I smile a _person_ or _thing_--I go _a person_ or
_thing_:--hence you perceive that these verbs are not transitive, but
intransitive.

If you reflect upon these examples for a few moments, you will have a
clear conception of the nature of transitive and intransitive verbs.
Before I close this subject, however, it is necessary farther to remark,
that some transitive and intransitive verbs express what is called a
_mental_ or _moral_ action; and others, a _corporeal_ or _physical_
action. Verbs expressing the different affections or operations of the
mind, denote moral actions; as, Brutus _loved_ his country; James
_hates_ vice; We _believe_ the tale:--to _repent_, to _relent_, to
_think_, to _reflect_, to _mourn_, to _muse_. Those expressing the
actions produced by matter, denote physical actions; as, The _dog hears_
the bell; Virgil _wrote_ the Aenead; Columbus _discovered_ America;--to
_see_, to _feel_, to _taste_, to _smell_, to _run_, to _talk_, to _fly_,
to _strike_. In the sentence, Charles _resembles_ his father, the verb
_resembles_ does not appear to express any action at all; yet the
construction of the sentence, and the office which the verb performs,
are such, that we are obliged to parse it as an _active-transitive_
verb, governing the noun _father_ in the objective case. This you may
easily reconcile in your mind, by reflecting, that the verb has a
_direct reference_ to its object. The following verbs are of this
character: _Have, own, retain_; as, I _have_ a book.

Active _in_transitive verbs are frequently made _transitive_. When I
say, The birds _fly_, the verb _fly_ is _in_transitive; but when I say,
The boy _flies_ the kite, the verb _fly_ is _transitive_, and governs
the noun _kite_ in the objective case. Almost any active intransitive
verb, and sometimes even neuter verbs, are used as transitive. The horse
_walks_ rapidly; The boy _runs_ swiftly; My friend _lives_ well; The man
_died_ of a fever. In all these examples the verbs are _in_transitive;
in the following they are _transitive_: The man _walks_ his horse; The
boy _ran_ a race; My friend _lives_ a holy life; Let me _die_ the death
of the righteous.

The for