d; nor
is it possible to settle it in any way not liable to some serious
objections. The same may perhaps be said of all the forms called
_infinitives_. If the essence of a verb be made to consist in affirmation,
predication, or assertion, (as it is in many grammars,) neither infinitives
nor participles can be reckoned verbs, without a manifest breach of the
definition. Yet are the former almost universally treated as verbs, and by
some as the only pure verbs; nor do all deny them this rank, who say that
affirmation is _essential_ to a verb. Participles, when unconnected with
auxiliaries, are most commonly considered a separate part of speech; but in
the formation of many of our moods and tenses, we take them as _constituent
parts of the verb_. If there is absurdity in this, there is more in
undertaking to avoid it; and the inconvenience should be submitted to,
since it amounts to little or nothing in practice. With auxiliaries, then,
participles _are verbs_: without auxiliaries, they are _not verbs_, but
form a separate part of speech.

OBS. 3.--The number of verbs in our language, amounts unquestionably to
four or five thousand; some say, (perhaps truly,) to eight thousand. All
these, whatever be the number, are confessedly _regular_ in their
formation, except about two hundred. For, though the catalogues in our
grammars give the number somewhat variously, all the irregular, redundant,
and defective verbs, put together, are _commonly_ reckoned fewer than two
hundred. I admit, in all, two hundred and nineteen. The regular verbs,
therefore, are vastly more numerous than those which deviate from the
stated form. But, since many of the latter are words of very frequent
occurrence, the irregular verbs appear exceedingly numerous in practice,
and consequently require a great deal of attention. The defective verbs
being very few, and most of these few being mere auxiliaries, which are
never parsed separately, there is little occasion to treat them as a
distinct class; though Murray and others have ranked them so, and perhaps
it is best to follow their example. The redundant verbs, which are regular
in one form and irregular in an other, being of course always found written
either one way or the other, as each author chooses, may be, and commonly
have been, referred in parsing to the class of regular or irregular verbs
accordingly. But, as their number is considerable, and their character
peculiar, there may be some advantage