202 THEORr of the 



The word crederem to be fare denotes merely a qualified or con- 

 ditional affirmation : I might, could, would, or fhould believe, 

 if a certain event took place. But the verbs expreffing this 

 condition and fuppofition, are alfo in the JiibjunHive ^. noaiiJ)?r\ 

 fieres, after the particle fi. With this particle, they might have 

 been put in the indicative, and the fenfe would ftill have been 

 complete, nocuerat, fiehas. The fame thought may be exprefled. 

 accurately in Englifh, without the ufe of any particle corre- 

 fponding to ft, and merely by the pecuHar arrangement of the 

 words, juft as was done with the wifti of Tibullus, " Had 

 any punifhment ever overtaken you for your broken vows ; 

 were but one of your teeth growing black, or even were but 

 " one of your nails becoming lefs beautiful, I fliould believe 

 " you." 



I CANNOT conceive that the three firfl verbs in this fentence 

 denote any aiErmation at all, conditional or unconditional, but 

 a very plain fuppofition. And this thought feems to me to be 

 as well entitled to be called an energy, as Tibullus's wifli ; and 

 when it is expreflTed (no matter in what way, whether by in- 

 fledlion, by augment, or by peculiar arrangement) by a verb, 

 it mufl be either a perfe<fl grammatical mood, or fomething 

 very near akin to one. 



The very fame kind of thought, to wit fuppofition, is ex- 

 preflTed by circumlocution, and a kind of metaphor, in the follow- 

 ing lines. 



Pone me, pigris ubi nulla campis 

 Arbor ctjliva recreatur aura : 

 Pone fub curru nimium propinqui 

 Solis, in terra domibus negata. 



In which pone, though in the imperative mood, expreflis no 

 command, but only fuppofition or condition. This Captain 

 Macbeath and Polly Peachim (or Mr Gay for them) underftood 



perfe<5Uy j 



