200 LATIN LANGUAGE 



on Thought alone, or as Command. The same doctrine is the prevail- 

 ing one to-day in Germany. Thus Waldeck, in his Practical Guide 

 to Instruction in Latin Grammar, 1892, says, pp. 146, 147: "Hierin 

 nun liegt ein sehr wichtiger Unterschied des Lateinischen; diese 

 Sprache fasst alles, was als von irgend jemandem, also auch dem Re- 

 denden selbst gesagt, gefragt, geglaubt, empfunden, wahrgenommen, 

 also gleichsam aus seiner Seele gesprochen wird, nicht als Thatsache 

 auf , auch wenn es an sich eine solche ist, sondern nur als die Behaupt- 

 ung, Frage, Meinung, Empfindung, Wahrnehmung desselben, also 

 als Vorstellung. " And Methner's Investigation in the Theory of the 

 Latin Moods and Tenses, with especial regard to use in Instruction, 

 makes that which the Subjunctive expresses to be everywhere 

 "eine gedachte, vorgestellte Handlung" (p. 152), "ein Gedanke" 

 (p. 149), "ein vorgestelltes Geschehen" (p. 146). Hoffmann, in 

 his doctrine of absolute and relative time as determining the mood 

 of the cwm-clause, carried the doctrine to its natural conclusion by 

 making the Subjunctive the mood of the non-existent, and did not 

 even see the humor of this reductio ad absurdum. 



American Latin grammar followed German Latin grammar. The 

 Andrews and Stoddard's grammar, upon which most people of my 

 generation were brought up, taught that "the Subjunctive mood is 

 used to express an action or state simply as conceived by the mind "; 

 and again, that " relatives require the Subjunctive, when the clauses 

 connected by them express merely a conception; as, for example, a 

 consequence, an innate quality, a cause, motive, or purpose." Two 

 of our well-known grammars of the present day base the treatment 

 of the moods upon the same thing, grammars made by two men 

 who have rendered distinguished service to classical studies. One of 

 them, that of Professor Gildersleeve, says: "The Subjunctive mood 

 represents the predicate as an idea, as something merely conceived in 

 the mind (abstractions from reality)." The other, that of Professor 

 West, says, " Mood is the manner of stating the action of the verb. 

 The action may be stated: (1) As really happening. The Mood of 

 Fact (Indicative). (2) As Thought of. The Mood of Will, Desire, 

 Possibility (Subjunctive). (3) As Demanded. The Mood of Com- 

 mand (Imperative)." Here is the same scheme, Fact, Thought, 

 Command. Thus the metaphysical Matthia-Hermann-Kantian 

 scheme of 1801-1807 is being taught in America in 1904. Even the 

 extremest product of the methods of the metaphysical school, of 

 which I have just spoken, namely Hoffmann's doctrine of absolute 

 and relative time as determining the mood in the cwm-clause, was 

 imported into America in the Allen and Greenough grammar, and, 

 passing over into the Harkness grammar, stood in both until I 

 attacked it. 



French Latin grammar has largely followed the same course. 



