210 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters . 
Utilizing this freedom, I note imprimis that, in spite of the 
age of the categorical trio (beginning, continuing and ending) 
and although all actions doubtless may be conceived as be¬ 
ginning or continuing or ending in the present or in the past 
or in the future, the trio is not, in languages generally, recog¬ 
nized with any regularity. Most commonly indeed it seems 
to me to be quite ignored. I say “I breakfasted at eight,” with 
no more thought of beginning, continuing or ending, than I 
give to the muzzle, barrel and butt of my rifle, when I say to 
you “Take the gun.” Special forms expressing initial, inter¬ 
mediate and terminal stages of activity are sporadic, and on 
that account extremely subject to misinterpretation, as, in the 
absence of sufficient series, their like and unlike elements fail 
to be emphasized by repetition. Their admission to the conju¬ 
gation of the verb with merely constant meaning, is accordingly 
not only indefensible ,but also a probable and indeed an actual 
source of confusion. 
Again, it is not so natural as might at first appear, to re¬ 
gard the stages of an act as variants of the act itself .The ten¬ 
dency is rather the other way about. What might be exhibited 
for instance as eating in the inceptive stage, is more commonly 
exhibited as an act of inception which inaugurates an eating, 
presumably continued and concluded. Accordingly, “I began to 
eat” and not “I accomplished the initial stage of eating” or “I 
ate initially,” or any linguistic equivalent thereof. Thus ex¬ 
hibited, “beginning to eat” is rather perhaps a variant of be¬ 
ginning, than a variant of eating. 
Indeed to conceive the part as merely a variant of the Whole 
is not the linguistic habit. Sunrise, daytime and sunset you do 
not put in a single class with day. “Bite ofi,” “chew” and 
“swallow” will not class with “eat.” It is apparently inexpedi¬ 
ent to include in the conjugation of “to eat” the forms which 
express that act as beginning, continuing or ending. 
It is in the category of mode that conjugation exhibits the 
most vexations confusion. If mode he based on the adding or 
not adding of belief to, say, the dictionary meaning of a verb,, 
