MO D S of FERB S. 199 



The anfwer given to this queftion by the author of the Effay 

 on the Origin and Progrefs of Language, and which he fays is 

 plain, I muft own appears to me very obfcure and unfatisfac- 

 tory. Nor can I think that the defect is entirely in me, and 

 that I ought to underftand it ; for I can fpecify what is wanting 

 to the anfwer which he gives, in order to make it plain and fa- 

 tisfactory. His anfwer is, 



" That it (to wit a verbal noun, like curfus or tentatio) ex- 

 " preffes no energy of the mind of the fpeaker, who pronounces 

 " the words ; nor does it affirm that the thing exifts or does not 

 " exift ; nor does it command that it ihould or Ihould not exift ; 

 " nor does it wifh that it may or may not exift ; but fimply gives 

 * us the conception of the mind of the fpeaker. 1 ' Page 167. 



Before we can fully underftand this anfwer, (which feems 

 to apply to infinitives as well as to verbal nouns), or of courfe 

 judge whether it be jufl and complete, or not, we muft know 

 what the author means by energy, and what by conception, what 

 more or lefs he apprehends there is in the one than in the other, 

 or how he diftinguifhes them. Nor can this be known but by 

 finding what there is in common among all the energies, (for 

 fomething common among them, even as conceived by him, 

 it is demonftrable there muft be) and not belonging to any fim- 

 ple conceptions. We have energy expreffed, and of courfe a verb 

 eonftituted, even according to his definition of a verb, without 

 affirmation, when we wifh or command ; without command, 

 when we affirm or wifh ; without wifh, when we command or 

 affirm : Yet in all thefe cafes we have equally and indifputably 

 a verb. How fhall we know what is in common to them all ? 

 How much of the meaning of a verb is in a verbal noun ? 

 What is wanting, befides the fufceptibility of mood? Whence 

 does this fufceptibility of mood arife, or wherein does it con- 

 fift ? Does it depend on the combination of the notion of time 

 with that of the proper accident of a verb, which combination 

 takes place in the infinitive, and even remains in the partici- 

 ples of a verb, but not in a verbal noun ? 



Exijlentia 



