——The whole entirely depends, added my father, in a low voice, upon the _auxiliary verbs_, Mr. _Yorick._ Had _Yorick_ trod upon _Virgil_ ’s snake, he could not have looked more surprised.—I am surprised too, cried my father, observing it,—and I reckon it as one of the greatest calamities which ever befel the republic of letters, That those who have been entrusted with the education of our children, and whose business it was to open their minds, and stock them early with ideas, in order to set the imagination loose upon them, have made so little use of the auxiliary verbs in doing it, as they have done——So that, except _Raymond Lullius_, and the elder _Pelegrini_, the last of which arrived to such perfection in the use of ’em, with his topics, that, in a few lessons, he could teach a young gentleman to discourse with plausibility upon any subject, _pro_ and _con_, and to say and write all that could be spoken or written concerning it, without blotting a word, to the admiration of all who beheld him.—I should be glad, said _Yorick_, interrupting my father, to be made to comprehend this matter. You shall, said my father. The highest stretch of improvement a single word is capable of, is a high metaphor,——for which, in my opinion, the idea is generally the worse, and not the better;——but be that as it may,—when the mind has done that with it—there is an end,—the mind and the idea are at rest,—until a second idea enters;—and so on. Now the use of the _Auxiliaries_ is, at once to set the soul a-going by herself upon the materials as they are brought her; and by the versability of this great engine, round which they are twisted, to open new tracts of enquiry, and make every idea engender millions. You excite my curiosity greatly, said _Yorick._ For my own part, quoth my uncle _Toby_, I have given it up.——The _Danes_, an’ please your honour, quoth the corporal, who were on the left at the siege of _Limerick_, were all auxiliaries.——And very good ones, said my uncle _Toby._—But the auxiliaries, _Trim_, my brother is talking about,—I conceive to be different things.—— ——You do? said my father, rising up. C H A P. XLIII MY father took a single turn across the room, then sat down, and finished the chapter. The verbs auxiliary we are concerned in here, continued my father, are, _am; was; have; had; do; did; make; made; suffer; shall; should; will; would; can; could; owe; ought; used;_ or _is wont._—And these varied with tenses, _present, past, future_, and _conjugated_ with the verb _see_,—or with these questions added to them;—_Is it? Was it? Will it be? Would it be? May it be? Might it be?_ And these again put negatively, _Is it not? Was it not? Ought it not?_—Or affirmatively,—_It is; It was; It ought to be._ Or chronologically,—_Has it been always? Lately? How long ago?_—Or hypothetically,—_If it was? If it was not?_ What would follow?—If the _French_ should beat the _English?_ If the _Sun_ go out of the _Zodiac?_