212 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 
etc.). Compared, as so defined, with “me to wish, you to rise,” 
tke so-called imperative is distinctly assertive and accordingly 
indicative. What is asserted is however by no means rising, 
but obviously wishing. The fairly consistent usage of speech 
accordingly justifies the assumption that, in the expression “I 
wish you to rise,” the wishing alone is purely verbal, the rising 
being a verbal noun employed as the immediate object of the 
wishing. To rank my wishing your rising as a mode of 
(your!) rising, appears to me no more to be commended than 
to rank my wishing a mutton-chop as a mode of mutton-chop. 
If wishing a mutton-chop must at any cost be ranked as a mode, 
it would apparently be better to rank it as a mode of wishing; 
and the like may be claimed of wishing your rising. 
Again, whatever reason may be claimed for ranking my wish¬ 
ing you to rise as modal, may with rather greater force be 
urged fori ranking my causing you to rise, as in “I raise you,” 
as also modal. This indeed has been done in the grammars 
of some languages. These again, however, have committed the 
error of ranking raising as a mode of rising, which to say the 
least is rather difficult. It would be far more rational to rank 
it as a mode of causation. 
As indicated, “Rise!”, if ranked as a mode, will rationally 
be conceived as a mode of wishing. But as I am able to wish 
for anything under the sun, the variety of wishing modes 
is obviously so great, that conjugation of the single verb “to 
wish” would surely so increase the bulk and consequent price 
of grammars, as to effect a serious decrease in the number of 
their readers. Pro bono publico accordingly, if for no other 
reason, the verbal forms which stand for wishing should not 
be admitted to the conjugation (or declension) of what is 
wished. 
The optative, whenever it incorporates into its meaning the 
idea of wishing, also (being essentially imperative) has no legit¬ 
imate claim to enter the conjugation of the verb expressing 
what is wished. When the optative, no longer including de¬ 
sire, is governed by a word of desire (expressed or understood) 
or any other word, it fairly ranks as a (tense) form of the 
subjunctive. 
