198 THEORY of the 



ous kinds ; and of courfe it has the proper regimen of the verb, 

 when it exprefTes action and relation, or, in grammatical lan- 

 guage, is tranfitive ; as in percurrife, tentajfe, were, mcendere, 

 in the preceding examples. 



Dico, credo, puto, Titium exijlere, valere, jacere, cccidije, pro- 

 cubuij/e, projeciffe Mcevium, projeclum fniffe a Maevio, have the very 

 fame meaning with Dico, &c. quod Titius exijlat, quod jaceat, quad 

 ceciderit, procubuerit, projecerit Mavium, projeclus fuerit a Mcevio. 



I cannot help thinking, that, in thefe cafes, the infinitives, 

 as well as the fubjunctives, are truly verbs, though flripped of 

 that circumstance which is, in drift propriety of language, 

 called mood. Nor do the infinitives as thus ufed acquire any 

 further meaning, in addition to the radical import of the verb 

 with tenfe, like the proper moods 5 but the fubjunciives after 

 quod lofe their peculiar meaning as moods, and fignify no more 

 than bare infinitives. 



I think fome more illuftration maybe given to this fub- 

 jecl, by confidering the import of participles, which partake 

 of the nature both of verbs and of adje&ives ; and that of 

 verbal nouns, which partake of the nature and meaning of 

 verbs and of fubftantive nouns. 



It is an acknowledged facl with refpect to participles, and 

 it is equally true with refpecl to verbal nouns, that, by means 

 of them, various thoughts, commonly exprefTed by the moods 

 of verbs, or by the infinitives of them, may be exprefTed with 

 great accuracy, and fometimes with advantage in compofition, 

 by enabling us to leflen the number of verbs in a fentence, or 

 to vary occafionally the flruclure of it. Net; quicquam tibi pro- 

 dejl morituro tua tent at 10 domuum aeriarum, et cursus tuns circa 

 polum, though a very crabbed inelegant fentence, has the very 

 fame meaning with Horace's beautiful lines, and with the 

 profe verfion immediately fubjoined to it. 



Why are not tentatio and cur/us reckoned verbs, as well as 

 lentafle and percurrijje P They are furely very near akin. 



The 



