to prove them so, as some authors imagine. In the oldest specimens given by Dr. Johnson in his History of the English Language,--specimens bearing a much earlier date than the English language can claim,--even in what he calls "Saxon in its highest state of purity," both st and th are often added to verbs, without forming additional syllables, and without any sign of contraction. Nor were verbs of the second person singular always inflected of old, in those parts to which est was afterwards very commonly added. Examples: "Buton ic wat thæt thu hoefst thara wæpna."--King Alfred. "But I know that thou hast those weapons." "Thæt thu oncnawe thara worda sothfæstnesse. of tham the thu geloered eart."--Lucæ, i, 4. "That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed."--Luke, i, 4. "And thu nemst his naman Johannes."--Lucæ, i, 13. "And his name schal be clepid Jon."--Wickliffe's Version. "And thou shalt call his name John."--Luke, i, 13. "And he ne drincth win ne beor."--Lucæ, i, 15. "He schal not drinke wyn ne sydyr."--Wickliffe. "And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink."--Luke, i, 15. "And nu thu bist suwigende. and thu sprecan ne miht oth thone dæg the thas thing gewurthath. fortham thu minum wordum ne gelyfdest. tha beoth on hyra timan gefyllede."--Lucæ, i, 20. "And lo, thou schalt be doumbe, and thou schalt not mowe speke, til into the day in which these thingis schulen be don, for thou hast not beleved to my wordis, whiche schulen be fulfild in her tyme."--Wickliffe. "And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that[247] these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."--Luke, i, 20.
"In chaungyng of her course, the chaunge shewth this,
Vp startth a knaue, and downe there falth a knight."
--Sir Thomas More.
OBS. 24.--The corollary towards which the foregoing observations are directed, is this. As most of the peculiar terminations by which the second person singular is properly distinguished in the solemn style, are not only difficult of utterance, but are quaint and formal in conversation; the preterits and auxiliaries of our verbs are seldom varied in familiar discourse, and the present is generally simplified by contraction, or by the adding of st without increase of syllables. A distinction between the solemn and the familiar style has long been admitted, in the pronunciation of the termination ed, and in the ending of the verb in the third person singular; and it is evidently according to good taste and the best usage, to admit such a distinction in the second person singular. In the familiar use of the second person singular, the verb is usually varied only in the present tense of the indicative mood, and in the auxiliary hast of the perfect. This method of varying the verb renders the second person singular analogous to the third, and accords with the practice of the most intelligent of those who retain the common use of this distinctive and consistent mode of address. It disencumbers their familiar dialect of a multitude of harsh and useless terminations, which serve only, when uttered, to give an uncouth prominency to words not often emphatic; and, without impairing the strength or perspicuity of the language, increases its harmony, and reduces the form of the verb in the second person singular nearly to the same simplicity as in the other persons and numbers. It may serve also, in some instances, to justify the poets, in those abbreviations for which they have been so unreasonably censured by Lowth, Murray, and some other grammarians: as,
"And thou their natures knowst, and gave them names, Needless to thee repeated."--Milton, P. L., Book vii, line 494.
OBS. 25.--The writings of the Friends, being mostly of a grave cast, afford but few examples of their customary manner of forming the verb in connexion with the pronoun thou, in familiar discourse. The following may serve to illustrate it: "Suitable to the office thou layst claim to."--R. BARCLAY'S Works, Vol. i, p. 27. "Notwithstanding thou may have sentiments opposite to mine."--THOMAS STORY. "To devote all thou had to his service;"--"If thou should come;"--"What thou said;"--"Thou kindly contributed;"--"The epistle which thou sent me;"--"Thou would perhaps allow;"--"If thou submitted;"--"Since thou left;"--"Should thou act;"--"Thou may be ready;"--"That thou had met;"--"That thou had intimated;"--"Before thou puts" [putst];--"What thou meets" [meetst];--"If thou had made;"--"I observed thou was;"--"That thou might put thy trust;"--"Thou had been at my house."--JOHN KENDALL. "Thou may be plundered;"--"That thou may feel;"--"Though thou waited long, and sought him;"--"I hope thou will bear my style;"--"Thou also knows" [knowst];--"Thou grew up;"--"I wish thou would yet take my counsel."--STEPHEN CRISP. "Thou manifested thy tender regard, stretched forth thy delivering hand, and fed and sustained us."--SAMUEL FOTHERGILL. The writer has met with thousands that used the second person singular in conversation, but never with any one that employed, on ordinary occasions, all the regular endings of the solemn style. The simplification of the second person singular, which, to a greater or less extent, is everywhere adopted by the Friends, and which is here defined and explained, removes from each verb eighteen of these peculiar terminations; and, (if the number of English verbs be, as stated by several grammarians, 8000,) disburdens their familiar dialect of 144,000 of these awkward and useless appendages.[248] This simplification is supported by usage as extensive as the familiar use
