rly the use of the so-called infinitive
mood in English, it is necessary to bear in mind two facts, one a matter of
_logic_, the other a matter of _history_.

In the way of _logic_, the difference between a noun and a verb is less
marked than it is in the way of _grammar_.

Grammatically, the contrast is considerable. The inflection of nouns
expresses the ideas of sex as denoted by gender, and of relation in place
as denoted by cases. That of verbs rarely expresses sex, and never
relations in place. On the other hand, however, it expresses what no noun
ever does or can express; e.g., the relation of the agency to the
individual speaking, by means of _person_; the time in which acts take
place, by means of _tense_; and the conditions of their occurrence, by
means of _mood_.

The idea of _number_ is the only one that, on a superficial view, is common
to these two important parts of speech.

s. 275. Logically, however, the contrast is inconsiderable. A noun denotes
an object of which either the senses or the intellect can take cognizance,
and a verb does no more. _To move_ = _motion_, _to rise_ = _rising_, _to
err_ = _error_, _to forgive_ = _forgiveness_. The only difference between
the two parts of speech is this, that, whereas a noun may express any
object whatever, verbs can only express those objects which consist in an
action. And it is this superadded idea of action that superadds to the verb
the phenomena of tense, mood, person, and voice; in other words, the
phenomena of conjugation.

s. 276. A noun is a word capable of _declension_ only. A verb is a word
capable of declension and _conjugation_ also. The fact of verbs being
declined as well as conjugated must be remembered. _The participle has the
declension of a noun adjective, the infinitive mood the declension of a
noun substantive. Gerunds and supines, in languages where they occur, are
only names for certain cases of the verb._

s. 277. Although in all languages the verb is equally capable of
declension, it is not equally declined. The Greeks, for instance, used
forms like

[Greek: to phthonein] = _invidia_.
[Greek: tou phthonein] = _invidiae_.
[Greek: en toi phthonein] = _in invidia_.

s. 278. Returning, however, to the illustration of the substantival
character of the so-called infinitive mood, we may easily see--

[alpha]. That the name of any action may be used without any mention of the
agent. Thus, we may speak of the simple fact of _wal