MOODS of I'E R£ S. . 207 



cations of thought, for which I cannot eafily find names, all 

 admit very readily of being combined with the general import 

 of a verb, and form with it various more complicated mean- 

 ings, which are eafily diftinguifliable from one another, and 

 are not convertible, and therefore mufl be differenr. There 

 are various degrees and kinds of refemblance or affinity among 

 them, in confequence of which they admit of being arranged, 

 and of courfe of having different more general names given 

 with propriety to the feveral divifions or clafTes of them. And 

 there is fomething common among them all, to which the name 

 of energy, without any impropriety (that I can fee), may be ap- 

 plied. If every one of them had been exprefTed in all lan- 

 guages, by variations as flriking as thofe of tuttoi, rvTrrotf/i.t, and 

 rvTTre, they mr/Ji have been acknowledged as diftindt moods of the 

 verb. They are equally moods or diJiinB energies of thought, 

 whether expreffed in language or not, if they be but under- 

 llood by thofe who ufe language 5 as for inftance, in the cafe 

 of the grammatical mood called the wiperati've, by which we 

 exprefs occafionally prayer to GoD, command to a Have, requell 

 to a fuperior, advice to an equal or to any one, order as from 

 an oflBcer to his fubaltern, fupplication to one whom we cannot 

 refift. T\it£tfpecific differences of thought were perhaps in fome 

 meafure expreffed in Greek by the tenfes of the imperative, the 

 exa(5l ufes and import of which I muft own I underftand but 

 very imperfecflly. 



If they could all be arranged under three heads, as the au- 

 thor of the Origin and Progrefs of Language conceives, affir- 

 ming, wiffiing and commanding ; or if they could all be referred 

 to one head, affirmation, as many philologifts think they may, 

 this would be but a fmall addition to our knowledge con- 

 cerning them, compared to what we might expedt to obtain 

 by a more accurate examination of them ; and it mvift be ac- 

 knowledged to be fomewhat raffi to attempt to arrange them, 

 without firft examining them carefully. 



The 



