st, layeth_, and _laid'st_, or
_laidest_; are the faded _remains of the pronouns_ which were formerly
joined to the verb itself, and placed the language, in respect of concise
expression, on a level with the Greek, Latin, and Sanscrit, its sister
dialects."--_History of European Languages_, Vol. i, p. 52. According to
this, since other signs of the persons and numbers are now employed with
the verb, it is not strange that there should appear a tendency to lay
aside such of these endings as are least agreeable and least necessary. Any
change of this kind will of course occur first in the familiar style. For
example: "Thou _wentest_ in to men uncircumcised, and _didst eat_ with
them."--_Acts_, xi, 3. "These things write I unto thee, that thou _mayst_
know how thou _oughtest_ to behave thyself in the house of God."--_1 Tim._,
iii, 15. These forms, by universal consent, are now of the solemn style;
and, consequently, are really good English in no other. For nobody, I
suppose, will yet pretend that the inflection of our preterits and
auxiliaries by _st_ or _est_, is entirely _obsolete_;[239] and surely no
person of any literary taste ever uses the foregoing forms familiarly. The
termination _est_, however, has _in some instances_ become obsolete; or has
faded into _st_ or _t_, even in the solemn style. Thus, (if indeed, such
forms ever were in good use,) _diddest_ has become _didst; havest, hast;
haddest, hadst; shallest, shalt; willest, wilt_; and _cannest, canst.
Mayest, mightest, couldest, wouldest_, and _shouldest_, are occasionally
found in books not ancient; but _mayst, mightst, couldst, wouldst_, and
_shouldst_, are abundantly more common, and all are peculiar to the solemn
style. _Must, burst, durst, thrust, blest, curst, past, lost, list, crept,
kept, girt, built, felt, dwelt, left, bereft_, and many other verbs of
similar endings, are seldom, if ever, found encumbered with an additional
_est_. For the rule which requires this ending, has always had many
exceptions that have not been noticed by grammarians.[240] Thus Shakspeare
wrote even in the present tense, "Do as thou _list_," and not "Do as thou
_listest_." Possibly, however, _list_ may here be reckoned of the
subjunctive mood; but the following example from Byron is certainly in the
indicative:--

"And thou, who never yet of human wrong
_Lost_ the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!"--_Harold_, C. iv, st. 132.

OBS. 11.--Any phraseology that is really obso