"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 oppressed _it_, it is made use of very often when the writer is at a _loss_ 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 essentially passive 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 the satisfaction is to arise from conviction produced by fact or reasoning--a senseless expression; and to supply its place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb, by _to do_, is as senseless. 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!"