An intransitive verb may be used to govern an objective."--Gram., p. 145. Some imagine that verbs of mental action, such as conceive, think, believe, &c., are not properly transitive; and, if they find an object after such a verb, they choose to supply a preposition to govern it: as, "I conceived it (of it) in that light."--Guy's Gram., p. 21. "Did you conceive (of) him to be me?"--Ib., p. 28. With this idea, few will probably concur.
OBS. 15.--We sometimes find the pronoun me needlessly thrown in after a verb that either governs some other object or is not properly transitive, at least, in respect to this word; as, "It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, dull, and crudy vapours."--Shakspeare's Falstaff. "Then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart."--Id. This is a faulty relic of our old Saxon dative case. So of the second person; "Fare you well, Falstaff."--Shak. Here you was written for the objective case, but it seems now to have become the nominative to the verb fare. "Fare thee well."--W. Scott. "Farewell to thee."--Id. These expressions were once equivalent in syntax; but they are hardly so now; and, in lieu of the former, it would seem better English to say, "Fare thou well." Again: "Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour."--2 Sam., ii, 21. If any modern author had written this, our critics would have guessed he had learned from some of the Quakers to misemploy thee for thou. The construction is an imitation of the French reciprocal or reflected verbs. It ought to be thus: "Turn thou aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay hold on one of the young men, and take to thyself his armour." So of the third person: "The king soon found reason to repent him of his provoking such dangerous enemies."--HUME: Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 180. Here both of the pronouns are worse than useless, though Murray discerned but one error.
"Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour; There thou shalt find my cousin Beatrice."--SHAK.: Much Ado.
NOTES TO RULE V.
NOTE I.--Those verbs or participles which require a regimen, or which signify action that must terminate transitively, should not be used without an object; as, "She affects [kindness,] in order to ingratiate [herself] with you."--"I must caution [you], at the same time, against a servile imitation of any author whatever."--Blair's Rhet., p. 192.
NOTE II.--Those verbs and participles which do not admit an object, or which express action that terminates in themselves, or with the doer, should not be used transitively; as, "The planters grow cotton." Say raise, produce, or cultivate. "Dare you speak lightly of the law, or move that, in a criminal trial, judges should advance one step beyond what it permits them to go?"--Blair's Rhet., p. 278. Say,--"beyond the point to which it permits them to go."
NOTE III.--No transitive verb or participle should assume a government to which its own meaning is not adapted; as, "Thou is a pronoun, a word used instead of a noun--personal, it personates 'man.'"--Kirkham's Gram., p. 131. Say, "It represents man." "Where a string of such sentences succeed each other."--Blair's Rhet., p. 168. Say, "Where many such sentences come in succession."
NOTE IV.--The passive verb should always take for its subject or nominative the direct object of the active-transitive verb from which it is derived; as, (Active,) "They denied me this privilege." (Passive,) "This privilege was denied me;" not, "I was denied this privilege:" for me may be governed by to understood, but privilege cannot, nor can any other regimen be found for it.
NOTE V.--Passive verbs should never be made to govern the objective case, because the receiving of an action supposes it to terminate on the subject or nominative.[356] Errors: "Sometimes it is made use of to give a small degree of emphasis."--L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 197. Say, "Sometimes it is used," &c. "His female characters have been found fault with as insipid."--Hazlitt's Lect., p. 111. Say,--"have been censured;" or,--"have been blamed, decried, dispraised, or condemned."
NOTE VI.--The perfect participle, as such, should never be made to govern any objective term; because, without an active auxiliary, its signification is almost always
