220 THEORY of the 



fition, which, though fomewhat different, are very near akin, 

 are among the moft frequent meanings of the fubjuni^ive mood- 

 This meaning, or mood of. thought, may be refolved, to a cer- 

 tain degree, into an imperative mood (the refolution of which 

 hath already been (hewn) and the primary verb. An ingeni- 

 ous etymologifl* has fhewn, that the Greek particle \t, and 

 the Roman fi, are but contra(5lions of certain parts or in- 

 flexions of the fubftantive verbs, u^i a.nd fimj which parts 

 of thofe verbs have an imperative meaning, Be it Jo. The 

 fame author {hows, that our Englifh particle // is juft a con- 

 tradion of the imperative of the verb give, anciently written 

 and pronounced gif. Si vis me Jlere. Sit, ejlo, quod vis, or 

 velis me fere. Fac, pone, te velle me fere. The imperative fac 

 was often ufed by the ancient writers of Latin in this fenfe ; 

 pone feldom by them, but often by modern writers ; r^ki was 

 ufed in the fame fenfe by the Greeks. Indeed, different parts, 

 both of 7-<^>)p and of pono, were ufed for this purpofe ; the 

 Romans, I prefume, imitating the Greeks. It is worthy of 

 obfervation, that in French, the ufe of the conditional particle 

 ft fuperfedes completely the ufe, either of the fubjundlive or of 

 the conditional mood. Si in French always governs the indica- 

 tive mood. 5"? je peux, fi je pouvois, fi je pourrai; never Si je 

 puiffe, fi je ptijfe, in the fubjwi£iive, nor even fi je pourrois in the 

 conditional mood. 



As to the circumftance of being fubjoined to a preceding 

 member of a fentence, and commonly to a verb in the indica- 

 tive mood, from which the fubjundtive has got its name, the 

 difference of meaning between the fubjundive fo employed, 

 and that of the indicative in fome cafes, and between it and 

 the bare infinitive in others, is fo minute, that it is difficult to^ 

 afcertain it, and perhaps impoffible to exprefs it in words. Ac- 

 cordingly, we often find, that in tranllating from one lan- 

 guage into another, thofe three grammatical moods may and 



perhaps 



* Mr HoRNE TOOKE. 



