MOODS of VERBS. 201 



and for rejecfting the potential mood, and for making the fub- 

 junBive only a branch of the indicative, would apply with equal 

 force againft admitting an optative mood, at leaft in fome lan- 

 guages, as for inftance in our own. 

 In the following lines, 



T'e SPECTEM fuprema mihi cum venerit hora; 

 Te TENEAM moriens deficient e manti. 



The verbs fpeBem and teneam exprefs very clearly the energy of 

 wifhing. This modification of thought is denoted in Latin by 

 infledlion, and would be fo in Greek, o-e hZ^nv, <rs nunyoiiJiyiy and 

 will be allowed to conftitute a perfedt mood. But in Englilh it 

 mufl be denoted by a certain arrangement of the words, and there- 

 fore Ihould be no mood, any more than interrogation. " Thee 

 " may I look on when my laft hour {hall come j thee may I 

 " grafp, when dying, in my failing hand." / may look on thee, 

 I may grafp thee, have meanings as different from thofe de- 

 noted by the fame words differently arranged, as Ccefar was 

 killed, is from was Cafar killed f 



If I am rightly informed, the Chinefe language has no i7npe~ 

 rative mood; and thofe who fpeak it are obliged to employ a 

 very clumfy circumlocution, by means of a verb fignifying 

 command, to exprefs the familiar meaning of our imperative. 



It does not appear clearly to me, that the fubju7iBive mood 

 expreffes merely qualified or conditional aiErmation in every 

 cafe, though undoubtedly it does fo in many cafes. In the 

 following lines of Horace, 



Vila Ji juris tibi pejerati 



Poena, Barine, nocuisset unquam.; 



Dente fi nigra fibres, vel uno 



Turpior ungiii, 

 Crederem. 



Vol. II. G c The 



