MOODS of VERBS. . 207 



cations of thought, for which I cannot eafily find names, all 

 admit very readily of being combined with the general import 

 of a verb, and form with it various more complicated mean- 

 ings, which are eafily diftinguifhable from one another, and 

 are not convertible, and therefore mud be different. There 

 are various degrees and kinds of refemblance or affinity among 

 them, in confequence of which they admit of being arranged, 

 and of courfe of having different more general names given 

 with propriety to the feveral divisions or clafTes of them. And 

 there is fomething common among them all, to which the name 

 of energy, without any impropriety (that I can fee), may be ap- 

 plied. If every one of them had been expreffed in all lan- 

 guages, by variations as finking as thofe of rvwra, tutttoi^i, and 

 7wre, they mujl have been acknowledged as diftinct moods of the 

 verb. They are equally moods or di/iincl energies of thought, 

 whether expreffed in language or not, if they be but under- 

 flood by thofe who ufe language ; as for inftance, in the cafe 

 of the grammatical mood called the imperative, by which we 

 exprefs occafionally prayer to God, command to a Have, requeit 

 to a fuperior, advice to an equal or to any one, order as from 

 an officer to his fubaltern, fupplication to one whom we cannot 

 renft. Thefe fpecific differences of thought were perhaps in fome 

 meafure expreffed in Greek by the tenfes of the imperative, the 

 exact ufes and import of which I muft own I underftand but 

 very imperfectly. 



If they could all be arranged under three heads, as the au- 

 thor of the Origin and Progrefs of Language conceives, affir- 

 ming, wifhing and commanding ; or if they could all be referred 

 to one head, affirmation, as many philologifts think they may, 

 this would be but a fmall addition to our knowledge conr 

 cerning them, compared to what we might expect: to obtain 

 by a more accurate examination of them ; and it muft be ac- 

 knowledged to be fomewhat rafh to attempt to arrange them, 

 without firft examining them carefully. 



The 



