good writers,--the placing an adverb between _to_ of the
infinitive and the infinitive itself. The practice is condemned by
many grammarians, while defended or excused by others. Standard
writers often use it, and often, purposely or not, avoid it.

The following two examples show the adverb before the infinitive:--

[Sidenote: _The more common usage._]

He handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently _to
show_ that he fully understood the business.--SCOTT.

It is a solemn, universal assertion, deeply _to be kept_ in mind
by all sects.--RUSKIN.

This is the more common arrangement; yet frequently the desire seems
to be to get the adverb snugly against the infinitive, to modify it as
closely and clearly as possible.

Exercise.

In the following citations, see if the adverbs can be placed before or
after the infinitive and still modify it as clearly as they now do:--

1. There are, then, many things _to be_ carefully _considered_,
if a strike is to succeed.--LAUGHLIN.

2. That the mind may not have to go backwards and forwards in
order _to_ rightly _connect_ them.--HERBERT SPENCER.

3. It may be easier to bear along all the qualifications of an
idea ... than _to_ first imperfectly _conceive_ such idea.--_id._

4. In works of art, this kind of grandeur, which consists in
multitude, is _to be_ very cautiously _admitted_.--BURKE.

5. That virtue which requires _to be_ ever _guarded_ is
scarcely worth the sentinel.--GOLDSMITH.

6. Burke said that such "little arts and devices" were not _to
be_ wholly _condemned_.--_The Nation_, No. 1533.

7. I wish the reader _to_ clearly _understand_.--RUSKIN.

8. Transactions which seem _to be_ most widely _separated_ from
one another.--DR. BLAIR.

9. Would earnestly advise them for their good to order this
paper _to be_ punctually _served up_.--ADDISON.

10. A little sketch of his, in which a cannon ball is supposed
_to have_ just _carried off_ the head of an
aide-de-camp.--TROLLOPE.

11. The ladies seem _to have been_ expressly _created_ to form
helps meet for such gentlemen.--MACAULAY.

12. Sufficient to disgust a people whose manners were beginning
_to be_ strongly _tinctured_ with austerity.--_Id._

13. The spirits, therefore, of those opposed to them seemed _to
be_ considerably _damped_ by their conti