which is logical. § 493. _I am to speak_.--Three facts explain this idiom. 1. The idea of _direction towards an object_ conveyed by the dative case, and by combinations equivalent to it. 2. The extent to which the ideas of necessity, obligation, or intention are connected with the idea of _something that has to be done_, or _something towards which some action has a tendency_. 3. The fact that expressions like the one in question historically represent an original dative case, or its equivalent; since _to speak_ grows out of the Anglo-Saxon form _to sprecanne_, which, although called a gerund, is really a dative case of the infinitive mood. When Johnson thought that, in the phrase _he is to blame_, the word _blame_ was a noun, if he meant a noun in the way that _culpa_ is a noun, his view was wrong. But if he meant a noun in the way that _culpare_, _ad culpandum_, are nouns, it was right. § 494. _I am to blame_.--This idiom is one degree more complex than the previous one; since _I am to blame_ = _I am to be blamed_. As early, however, as the Anglo-Saxon period the gerunds were liable to be used in a passive sense: _he is to lufigenne_ = not _he is to love_, but _he is to be loved_. The principle of this confusion may be discovered by considering that _an object to be blamed_, is _an object for some one to blame_, _an object to be loved_ is _an object for some one to love_. § 495. _I am beaten_.--This is a present combination, and it is present on the strength of the verb _am_, not on the strength of the participle _beaten_, which is præterite. The following table exhibits the _expedients_ on the part of the different languages of the Gothic stock, since the loss of the proper passive form of the Mœso-Gothic. _Language_ LATIN _datur_, LATIN _datus est_. _Mœso-Gothic_ gibada, ist, vas, varth gibans. _Old High German_ ist, wirdit kepan, was, warth kepan. _Notker_ wirt keben, ist keben. _Middle High German_ wirt geben, ist geben. _New High German_ wird gegeben, ist gegeben worden. _Old Saxon_ is, wirtheth gebhan, was, warth gebhan. _Middle Dutch_ es blïft ghegheven, waert, blêf ghegeven. _New Dutch_ wordt gegeven, es gegeven worden. _Old Frisian_ werth ejeven, is ejeven. _Anglo-Saxon_ weorded gifen, is gifen. _English_ is given, has been given. _Old Norse_ er gefinn, hefr verit gefinn. _Swedish_ gifves, har varit gifven. _Danish_ bliver, vorder given, har varet given. "Deutsche Grammatik, iv. 19." * * * * * CHAPTER XXIV. THE SYNTAX OF ADVERBS.