MOODS of VERBS. 239 



fiiited ill with thofe fentiments and adions which Homer attri- 

 butes to Priam. Indeed his ad\ions, without his fpeaking at all, 

 would have been more pathetic and perfuafive than they would 

 have been with fuch imperfeft and improper expreffions of his 

 thoughts ; but by means of the moods of verbs, it is poffible 

 to unite, to a certain degree, the advantages both of natural and 

 of artificial language. 



We have many inftances in poetry, as well as in oratory, of 

 the figurative ufe of fuch moods as I have juft now been con- 

 fidering, and the effefl of it, in enlivening and enforcing the 

 expreflion of the poet's fentiments, is very ftriking. 



Can Jloried urn, or animated bujl, 

 Back to its manfion call the fleeting breath ? 

 Can honours voice provoke the filent dujl ? 

 Or flatt'ry Jooth the dull cold ear of death f 



What female heart can gold defpife f 

 What cafs averfe tofifb f Gray.- 



But while I thus point out how great a fhare the concifenefs 

 of the expreflion of many thoughts, by means of grammatical 

 moods, has in giving animation and force to language, I beg 

 it may not be thought that I impute the animation and force 

 of fuch expreflions entirely to that concifenefs. Many of the 

 thoughts to be exprefled are in therafelves highly animated and 

 interefting ; and, on this very account, concifenefs in the expref- 

 fing of them is peculiarly agreeable, and even neceffary. 



VI. The fixth and laft concliifion refpeding the import of 

 the moods of verbs, is very intimately conneded with the pre- 

 ceding. It relates not merely to the brevity and quicknefs of 

 the expreflion of thought, but to the intimate combination, 

 and fimultaneous exhibition, of the figns of thoughts, which 



thoughts 



