il 



(( 



MOODS of VERBS. 247 



being frequently interrupted by the interpreter, who flopped 

 him in order to explain to the governor what he faid, at laft 

 loft patience ; and, fays he, / eon bear this no longer. My 

 difcourfe, cut thus into pieces, can have no more effe5l than the 

 water could have on that great heajl of yours, (pointing to a 

 faw-mill at fome diftance) if it were to fall upon it drop by 

 drop. Now, this orator mull have had as perfect an idea 

 of the flumen orationis y and the effects it produces, as a Ci- 

 " cero or Demosthenes." The fame author has many juft 

 and ftriking remarks on the force, the beauty, and the cojnpre- 

 henfivenefs of compofition in periods, (page 239, 240.) and of 

 inflection of words, (page 14. et paffim.) And all of thefe ob- 

 fervations may fairly be applied to the moods of verbs. What 

 proper periods are to very great and complicated maiTes of 

 thought, inflections, including moods, are to the more familiar 

 and fmaller combinations of thoughts, which we almoft every 

 moment experience, and wifh to exprefs united as we conceive 



them* 



* * # * 



As I think it of effential importance, in all fcientific investi- 

 gations, never to blend hypotbefes, or matters of opinion, 

 with evident matters of fact, and flrict inferences by induction 

 from them ; it is proper to point out, that no hypothecs what- 

 ever, with refpect to the original ftate, or the formation, or 

 the improvement, of language, is affumed in this Effay. 



It has generally been fuppofed, or taken for granted, in all 

 reafonings about the theory of language, that, in a very early 

 period of its progrefs, perhaps from its very origin, it was rude 

 and fimple, almoft deftitute of inflections, (fuch as the moods 

 of verbs) and in a great meafure or wholly monofyllabic ; and 

 that all manner of inflections and modifications, by compofi- 

 tion, by augment, or otherwife, were gradually given, in a flow 

 progrefs, to thofe monofyllabic roots, by deliberate human 

 contrivance. 



That 



