MOODS of VERBS. 201 



and for rejecting the potential mood, and for making the fub- 

 junclive only a branch of the indicative, would apply with equal 

 force againft admitting an optative mood, at lead in fome lan- 

 guages, as for inflance in our own. 

 In the following lines, 



T'e spectem fuprema mihi cam venerit boraj 

 Te teneam moriens deficient e manu. 



The verbs fpeclem and teneam exprefs very clearly the energy of 

 wifhing. This modification of thought is denoted in Latin by 

 inflection, and would be fo in Greek, crz foapw, <re xotTs^oi^i, and 

 will be allowed to conftitute a perfect mood. But in Englifh it 

 muft be denoted by a certain arrangement of the words, and there- 

 fore mould be no mood, any more than interrogation. " Thee 

 " may I look on when my laft hour fhall come ; thee may I 

 " grafp, when dying, in my failing hand." / may look on thee, 

 I may grafp thee, have meanings as different from thofe de- 

 noted by the fame words differently arranged, as Ccefar was 

 killed, is from was Ccefar killed f 



If I am rightly informed, the Chinefe language has no impe- 

 rative mood; and thofe who fpeak it are obliged to employ a 

 very clumfy circumlocution, by means of a verb fignifying 

 command^ to exprefs the familiar meaning of our imperative. 



It does not appear clearly to me, that the fubjunEtive mood 

 expreffes merely qualified or conditional affirmation in every 

 cafe, though undoubtedly it does fo in many cafes. In the 

 following lines of Horace, 



Vila fi juris tibi pejerati 



Poena, Barine, nocuisset unquam; 



Dente fi nigro fie res, vel nno 



'Turpior ungai, 

 Crederem. 



Vol. II. G c The 



