324. If we wish to make an assertion about a person, a place, or an object, we use a noun for the base word of our subject; but if we wish to make an assertion about an action, we use an infinitive or an infinitive phrase for subject; as, “Just to breathe the air and feel one’s self alive was enough,” “Going after the cows was a serious thing in my day.”

325. We have seen that a noun clause used as subject may be thrown to the end of the sentence by means of the anticipative subject it; as, “It is a good thing that somebody likes to cook.” In the same way an infinitive phrase used as subject may come after the predicate; as, “It pleased the jackal to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.” Recast this sentence, omitting it.

326. The infinitive phrase is often used as the object of a verb. Not all transitive verbs, however, can be completed by infinitives—only those which can take for an object the name of an action or a condition; as, “The cloud began to sink softly down to the earth,” “After a struggle Bess gave up using two lumps of sugar in her coffee.”

Why cannot the verbs break, bring, buy, cut, eat, and plow take infinitives for objects?

327. The infinitive is used as a subjective complement of an intransitive verb in two ways that differ slightly; as, “The hunter’s first impulse was to laugh at his own folly,” “No trees of any magnitude were to be seen.”

In the first sentence the infinitive phrase, to laugh at his own folly, completes the verb was and explains just what the impulse was, hence it denotes identity with the subject. Its use is precisely like that of the word dime in the sentence, “My ‘lucky penny’ is a silver dime,” hence we say that it is used like a noun.

In the second sentence it is clear that the infinitive to be seen completes the verb were and tells something about the subject, hence it must be a subjective complement. But instead of being used like a noun to denote identity with the subject, it is equivalent to the adjective visible, hence may be said to be used like an adjective.

Summary.—The infinitive phrase may be the subject of a verb, the object of a verb, or a subjective complement.

By means of the anticipative subject it, the real subject, an infinitive phrase, may be placed at the end of the sentence.

As subjective complement the infinitive phrase may have the use of a noun or of an adjective.

Exercise.—Tell the grammatical use of all infinitive phrases in these sentences, and classify all infinitives:—

1. Mowgli said that he never wished to see, or hear, or smell man again.

2. That which most resembles living one’s life over again is recalling all the circumstances of it and recording them in writing.

3. To fit out a fleet, and to levy and equip an army, and to continue the forces thus raised in action during a long and uncertain campaign would cost a large sum of money.

4.

When the days begin to lengthen,

Then the cold begins to strengthen.

5. It is delightful to look upon the charming country which springs up under a watering-pot sky.

6. One of the best things in farm life is gathering the chestnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, and beechnuts.

7. Speaking of Latin reminds me that I once taught my cows Latin.

8. The quaint, picturesque old town seems to bristle with forts.

9. When I wanted to hit a mark, my usual way was to aim at something else.

10. The one idea in Mowgli’s head was to get Messua and her husband out of the trap.

11. This boy was so forward in domestic arts that he undertook sewing on the machine when he was only five years old.

12. It is bad manners to find fault with your food at the table.

13. To climb a tree and shake it, to club it, to strip it of its fruit, and pass to the next, is the sport of a brief time.

14. One of Jakie’s amusements was dancing across the back of a tall chair, taking funny little steps, coming down hard, jouncing his body, and whistling as loud as he could.

15. The Englishman learned to fight from behind a tree, to follow a trail, and to cover his body with hemlock boughs for disguise.

16. It exactly suits the temperament of a real boy to be very busy about nothing.

17. Trotting on city pavements is very hard on the dray horses.

18. The reward of a good sentence is to have written it.

Tell the part of speech and use of that and which in sentence 2, sum 3, then 4, years 11. What is the object of from in sentence 15? Think of similar expressions.