378 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



chief objects of this paper to show that no such distinction is found in 

 either Greek or Latin. 



If we look at the English translation of the Bible, which represents 

 the language when the subjunctive was in full use, we find the Greek 

 subjunctive in the New Testament invariably translated by the subjunc- 

 tive or the future (except where it is expressed by a participle), never 

 by the present indicative. But this investigation proves too much ; for 

 the same translation is equally consistent in expressing the Greek pres- 

 ent indicative by the English subjunctive. Thus, if it fall, — if any man 

 shall say unto you, — if a house he divided, — if any man say unto you, — 

 if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke Mm, and if he repent, forgive 

 him, — if another shall come, — are translated from lav efXTrecrr} , — edi> tis 

 emrj, — eav oiklo fiepicr0fj, — eai> tis e't-TT]], — tav dfxaprr] 6 d8e\(f>6s crov, .... 

 Koi fav fxeravoriar], — eav aWos eXdij. But we also find, if the light that is 

 in thee be darkness, el to (pas vkotos laTw, — if Satan cast out Satan, d 

 iK^aWfi, — if he be Christ, el ovtos ia-nv 6 XpiaTos, — if David call him 

 Lord, el Kokel, — if any man have not the spirit of Christ, e'l tis ■nveZfxa ovk 

 e'xei- It is plain that no principle as to the distinction of the subjunctive 

 and indicative can be derived from this source ; and yet here, if anywhere, 

 the Greek distinction would have been followed, if it had been recognized. 

 We find as little help in the language of Shakespeare ; thus we have in 

 Macbeth, " If such a one be fit to govern, speak " ; " If it be mine, keep 

 it not from me"; "Let me endure your wrath if't be not so"; but 

 just below the last example, " If this, which he avouches, does appear." 

 In Bacon (Maxims of the Law, IX.) we find the following ; " If I. S. 

 devise land by the statute of 32 H. VIIL, and the heir of the devisor 

 enters and makes a feoffment in fee, and feoffee dieth seized, this descent 

 bindeth." So, " If the land after descend to me, I shall never be re- 

 mitted." Again (Ibid. XII.), "If a man recovers by erroneous judg- 

 ment, and hath issue two daughters, and one of them is attainted, the 

 writ of error shall be brought, &c." In turning over the pages of the 

 Spectator, I find fifty instances of the present indicative after if, without 

 meeting any of the subjunctive ; this can hardly be accidental. The 

 following extract from Macaulay's Essay on Church and State will not 

 disclose very plainly the principle which that writer followed: "If the 

 propagation of religious ti'uth be a principal end of government, as gov- 

 ernment ; if it be the duty of a government to employ for that end its 

 constitutional power ; if the constitutional power of governments extends, 

 as it most unquestionably does, to the making of laws for the burning of 



