MOODS of VERBS. 247 



" being frequently interrupted by the interpreter, who flopped 

 " him in order to explain to the governor what he faid, at laft 

 " loft patience ; and, fays he, I can bear this no longer. My 

 " difcourfe, cut thus into pieces, can have no more effeB: than the 

 " water could have on that great heajl of yours, (pointing to a 

 " faw-mill at fome diftance) // it zvere to fall upon it drop by 

 " drop. Now, this orator muft have had as perfedl an idea 

 " of the flumen orationis, and the effeiSls it produces, as a Ci- 

 " CERO or Demosthenes." The fame author has many juft 

 and ftriking remarks on the force, the beauty, and the cojirpre- 

 henfivenefs of compofition in periods, (page 239, 240.) and of 

 infle<5lion of words, (page 14. et pajjim.) And all of thefe ob- 

 fervations may fairly be applied to the moods of verbs. What 

 proper periods are to very great and complicated malTes of 

 thought, infledlions, including moods, are to the more familiar 

 and fmaller combinations of thoughts, which we almoft every 

 moment experience, and wifh to exprefs united as. we conceive- 



theiiu 



* * * * 



As I think it of cITential importance,, in all fcientific invefli- 

 gations, never to blend hypothefes, or matters of opinion, 

 with evident matters of fad, and ftridl inferences by indudion 

 from them ; it is proper to point out, that no hypothefis what- 

 ever, with refped to the original ftate, or the formation, or 

 the improvement, of language, is aflfumed in this EflTay. 



It has generally been fuppofed, or taken for granted, in alt 

 reafonings about the theory of language, that, in a very early 

 period of its progrcfs, perhaps from its very origin, it was rude 

 and fimple, almoft deftiture of infledions, (fuch as the moods 

 of verbs) and in a great meafure or wholly monofyllabic ; and 

 that all manner of infledions and modifications, by compofi- 

 tion, by augment, or otherwife, were gradually given, in a How 

 progrefs, to thofe monofyllabic roots, by deliberate human 

 contrivance. 



That 



