IRREGULARITIES. Construction changed for clearness
Construction changed for clearness. (See also 285.) Just as (285) that is sometimes omitted and then inserted to connect a distant clause with a first part of a sentence, so sometimes "to" is inserted apparently for the same reason--Here "to" might be omitted, or "should" might be inserted instead, but the omission would create ambiguity, and the insertion would be a tedious repetition.“That God forbid, that made me first your slave,
I should in thought control your times of pleasure,
Or at your hand the account of hours to crave.
”
“Keep your word, Phœbe, that you'll marry me,“Heaven would that she these gifts should have,
And I to live and die her slave.
”
Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd.” Ib. v. 4. 21-2. “But on this condition, that she should follow him, and he not
to follow her.” BACON, Adv. of L. 284. “The punishment was, that they should be put out of commons
and not to be admitted to the table of the gods.” Ib. 260. “That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and look about
us and discover what is the straight and right way, and so
to walk in it.” B. E. 100. In the following, the infinitive is used in both clauses, but the "to" only in the latter:-- “In a word, a man were better relate himself to a Statue or
Picture, than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother.” B. E. 103.
