Done

This past participle is often very inelegantly, if not improperly, used thus: "He did not cry out as some have done against it," which should read, "He did not cry out as some have against it"; i. e., "as some have cried out against it." "Done is frequently a very great offender against grammar," says Cobbett. " To do is the act of doing . We see people write, 'I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished to have done .' Now, what is meant by the writer? He means to say that he did not speak so well as he then wished , or was wishing, to speak . Therefore, the sentence should be, 'I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished to do .' That is to say, 'so well as I wished to do it'; that is to say, to do or to perform the act of speaking . "Take great care not to be too free in your use of the verb to do in any of its times or modes. It is a nice little handy word, and, like our oppre ed it , it is made use of very often when the writer is at a lo for what to put down. To do is to act , and therefore it never can, in any of its parts, supply the place of a neuter verb. 'How do you do?' Here do refers to the state , and is e entially pa ive or neuter. Yet, to employ it for this purpose is very common. Dr. Blair, in his 23d Lecture, says: 'It is somewhat unfortunate that this Number of the "Spectator" did not end , as it might have done , with the former beautiful period.' That is to say, done it . And then we ask, Done what? Not the act of ending , because in this case there is no action at all. The verb means to come to an end , to cease , not to go any further . This same verb to end is sometimes an active verb: 'I end my sentence'; then the verb to do may supply its place; as, 'I have not ended my sentence so well as I might have done '; that is, done it ; that is, done, or performed, the act of ending . But the Number of the 'Spectator' was no actor ; it was expected to perform nothing; it was, by the Doctor, wished to have ceased to proceed. 'Did not end as it very well might have ended....' This would have been correct; but the Doctor wished to avoid the repetition , and thus he fell into bad grammar. 'Mr. Speaker, I do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done if the Right Honorable Gentleman had explained the matter more fully.' To feel satisfied is—when or reasoning—a sensele expre ion; and to supply its place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb, by to do , is as sensele . Done what ? Done the act of feeling ! 'I do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done , or executed , or performed the act of feeling '! What incomprehensible words!"