OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : DECExMBER 6, 1864. 371 



in two ways, by the subjunctive or by the more vivid future indicative ; 

 iav fiovXr]Tai and el /3ow\?;(rerai both meaning if he shall wish, and being 

 commonly expressed in English by if he wishes. But the Greek, like 

 the English, can express the same supposition in a still vaguer form 

 than the subjunctive, — by the optative ei ^ov'Xoito, if he should wish, 

 to which the natural conclusion is a corresponding form in the optative 

 with av, as TovT av TToio'i-q. It is commonly assumed that there is some 

 metaphysical distinction between the subjunctive and optative in a pro- 

 tasis of this kind ; thus Kriiger defines the subjunctive as expressing 

 " objective possibility," and the optative as expressing " subjective un- 

 certainty." Baumlein, who defines the subjunctive (in all its uses) as 

 expressing " a tendency to reality," defines the optative as expressing 

 "pure subjectivity" (reine Suhjectivitiit). Now the distinction is per- 

 fectly preserved in the English if he shall go and if he should go, and 

 it is easy for any one to ask himself what distinction he makes between 

 these familiar forms. It will probably not be easy to state precisely 

 what the diiJerence is, but I think very few will decide that it agrees 

 with either of the definitions quoted above. Perhaps the most famil- 

 iar distinction is that given by Buttmann, that lav with the subjunctive 

 implies " possibility with a prospect of decision," while the optative im- 

 plies possibility without any such prospect. It is one of the most dif- 

 ficult things in the world to state in words the difference which every 

 one feels between if he shall go and if he should go ; and it is for this 

 very reason easy to imagine that it is this or any other impalpable dif- 

 ference that may be suggested. But it would be hard to convince an 

 ordinary man, who had no idea of the corresponding Greek forms, that 

 this is the distinction that he makes in his use of English. Does the 

 proverb, If the shy falls {shall fall), we shall catch lurks, imply any 

 nearer "prospect of decision" than it would in the form, If the sky 

 should fall, we should catch larks ? Did Demosthenes (Phil. I. p. 43) 

 intend to imply that there was any nearer "prospect of a decision" on 

 the question of Philip's assassination, when he referred to it in the 

 words av ovTos Tt TrdQrj, than when in the very next sentence he re- 

 peated his supposition in the form d rnrdOoi.'? On the contrary, the 

 more the subject is considered, the clearer it will become (I think), 

 that the optative in protasis is merely a vaguer form than the subjunc- 

 tive for stating the same supposition, bearing, in fact, almost the same 

 relation to the subjunctive that the subjunctive bears to the future in- 

 dicative. Thus we have three forms which may be used to express a 



