ot come near me."

"Well, I thought and did just what you now tell me; that _to be_ is a
_neuter_ verb, expressing no _action_, but _being_. I had a _state_ of
_being_, and promised to keep it, and did keep it, and you punished me
for doing the very thing you told me to do!!"

The master looked down, shut up his book, and began to say that grammar
is a "_dry_, _cold_, and _useless_" study, hardly worth the trouble of
learning it.

* * * * *

"_I am_ Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
who _is_, and who _was_, and who _is_ to come, the Almighty."--_Rev. 1:
8._

If there is any action in maintaining eternal existence, by which all
things were created and are upheld, it is expressed in the verbs _am_,
_is_, and _was_.

God said, "Let there _be_ light, and there _was_ light;" or more
properly rendered, "Light =be=, and light =was=."

Was there no action in setting the sun, moon and stars in the firmament,
and in causing them to _send_ forth the rays of light to _dispel_ the
surrounding darkness? If there was, _be_ and _was_ denote that action.

"You are commanded =to be= and _appear_ before the court of common
pleas," etc. A heavy penalty is imposed upon those who fail to comply
with this citation--for neglecting to do what is expressed by the
_neuter verb_ to _be_.

Such cases might be multiplied without number, where this verb is
correctly used by all who employ language, and correctly understood by
all who are capable of knowing the meaning of words. But I think you
must all be convinced of the truth of our proposition, that all verbs
express action, either _real_ or _relative_; and in all cases have an
object, expressed or necessarily implied, which stands as the _effect_,
and an agent, as the cause of action: and hence that language, as a
means for the communication of thought, does not deviate from the
soundest principles of philosophy, but in all cases, rightly explained,
serves to illustrate them, in the plainest manner.

* * * * *

A few remarks on the "Passive Verb," and I will conclude this part of
our subject, which has already occupied much more of our attention than
I expected at the outset.

"_A verb passive_ expresses a passion or a suffering, or the receiving
of an action; and necessarily implies an object acted upon, and an agent
by which it is acted upon; as, to be loved; Penelope is loved by me."

In