"I could have put a hundred guineas into my pocket," &c.

reduces the probability to a certainty.

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May I ask you a favour?" is equivalent to "Will you permit me to ask you a favour?" Might I ask you a favour?" would be

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"Am I able to ask you a favour?"

Proverbs are the traditions of language as well as of thoughts. Thus, the impropriety of procrastination is expressed in the adage—

"He that will not when he may, may not when he will."

And, when we say "Might creates right," we assert, whether mistakenly or not, that, in this world, "Right is wholly dependent on power."

MUST expresses necessary action; but the necessity may either be the consequence of outward compulsion, or of internal conviction. The German müssen to be obliged (bound), is an irregular verb, having all the variety of conjugation usually found in that language; and the Saxon most, although imperfect, has its different tenses; but the English must never changes its orthography. In consequence of this defect, we can only learn, from the other words in the sentence, at what time the compulsion takes place.

"I must walk” is equivalent to "I feel the

necessity of walking," or "I am compelled to walk." "I must have walked" denotes that, at some past time, I had been obliged to walk. "I must walk to-morrow" foretells a future necessity: future, in consequence of the word to-morrow.

TO DARE (Saxon dearran), is to risk the exertion of an assumed but uncertain power, and is more appropriately connected with verbs that indicate opposition or danger :

"If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surry in a wilderness."

The imperfect tense is DURST in all the three persons, both singular and plural, as "I durst," "Thou durst," "He durst," &c.

When it is not employed as an auxiliary, the verb To dare is regular in the past as well as in the present tense, as "I dared," "Thou daredst," "He dared," &c.; but the construction of the two forms of conjugation are different. In the one case we say, I durst meet him,' "" or "He durst meet him," and in the other, meet him," or "He dared To meet him."

"I dared To

Durst is not limited, like dared, to past time, but has a contingent application, similar to that of could and might, without regard to tenses."I durst as soon hang myself as contradict her,"

might be the melancholy speech of a hen-pecked husband.

It must have been already observed that the auxiliaries, which we have mentioned, coalesce more closely to the infinitives that follow them than other verbs can be made to do: it is a distinguishing characteristic of the class.

I wish to read," "I learn to read," and I love to read," show the manner of the junction of ordinary verbs; while "I may read," "I can read," and I must read," show that of the auxiliaries. In the former case, the to is prefixed to the infinitives; in the latter it is discarded. The arrangement of our language, by placing the auxiliaries before, instead of after, the principal verbs, has prevented that closer union which, in the form of contractions, would have given us moods and tenses in the shape of terminations. It is the tendency of all languages to combine monosyllables into polysyllables,-roots into compounds; and to untie the rudely-twisted knots is the fruitless never-ending labour of the etymologist.

There are a few other words which belong to an intermediate tribe between ordinary verbs and auxiliaries. They, too, dispense with the prefix to in their following infinitives; but, being transitive, they require an interjected accusative. The following are of this class: To hear, to let, to make, to feel, to see, and to bid. Thus:

I heard him say so,
I let him do it,

I made him do it,

I felt him touch me,
I saw him steal,

I bade him go away.

There are, however, occasional deviations from this practice, especially in the verb To bid. Smollet writes, "He bade them to open their bundles ;" and Goldsmith, more harmoniously,

"Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom."

To NEED, to want, or to be in want of, is akin to those above-mentioned, but is something different in its usage. The to of the succeeding infinitive is requisite in the affirmative sentence, but not in the negative. Thus we say, He needs to go, or "I need to go;" but " He needs not go" or "I need not go" when the negative intervenes. Young writers are apt to confound the third person singular of this verb with the adverb NEEDS; because they have the same orthography: "He must needs go" signifies "He must necessarily go :" a necessity, however, arising from some want, or need, of his own rather than from outward compulsion. Shakspeare seems to consider it as dependent on the will.

"He was a foole,

For he would needs be vertuous."

The extensive application of the word need (from the slightest occasional use to the most

urgent necessity,) gave frequent opportunities to our great Bard for exhibiting his punning propensities: Thus, in Timon of Athens,

"Oh you gods, what need we have any friends;

if we should nere have need of 'em?

They were the most needlesse creatures living; should we nere have use for 'em."

And again in Hamlet,

"And hitherto doth Love on Fortune tend,

For who not needs shall never lacke a Frend:
And who in want a hollow Frend doth try,
Directly seasons him his Enemie."