406 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
latent power to do so, as in “Booth thissed or thatted Lincoln.” 
The indefinite has no 1 less range, and no greater ambition, fail¬ 
ing to develop the plainly possible “Booth somethinged Lin¬ 
coln.” The relative has equal freedom, but also does not assume 
the verbal function, though it might be forced to do so, as in 
“This is the carpenter who mends the stables, and also whiches 
( c ==meaads) the fences of the neighborhood.” With the even 
subtler interrogative, a verbal usage would be even less expected. 
Yet the interrogative pronoun itself may be compelled to act as 
verb, for instance in “Booth whatted Lincoln ?”. 
The question asked, however, by the words of the last illus¬ 
tration, is not by any means the sort, of question examined in this 
chapter. What these words do ask for—that is, the indefinite 
desideratum, or say the desired indefinite—is the relation be¬ 
tween a subject and an object, or say the action in which a sub¬ 
ject and an object both are implicated. The desideratum then 
is an element of essential thought, as also is the case with “Who 
killed Lincoln?” and “Whom killed Booth?”. On the other 
hand, the interrogative sentence “IS1 Blrown honest?” operates 
in a deeper mental stratum. Its desired indefinite is the sec¬ 
ondary process of believing or disbelieving, which bears upon 
the truth: of a thought complete in every essential—the thought 
expressible by “Blrown to be honest,” 
Now this indefinite, even when merely indefinite and not also 
desired, is much more difficult to symbolize, than the indefinite 
action or relation above considered. “Booth somethinged Lin¬ 
coln” seemed the merest and altogether natural extension of 
existing language means and methods. But, in saying “I some¬ 
thing (—believe-or-disbelieve) Booth to have killed Lincoln,” 
I seem to be going quite beyond all precedent. Yet, in the in¬ 
vention of my proposed imaginary symbol, a start with essen¬ 
tially such an indefinite, I seem obliged to make. Indeed, in all 
development of interrogative words, I am personally unable to 
Conceive a start from anything, but the unknown; and this can 
be mentally pictured only as indefinite. In order then to coin 
an interrogative word, which shall take the place of IS in “IS 
Brown honest?”—a word which plainly must, like “IS,” be 
operative as a verb—I must have, to start with, a verb which, 
also like the I Si, shall be indefinite, and indefinite as to belief 
or disbelief. Accordingly I begin with an is which (as described 
on p. 460) I pose as meaning, not simply “I believe to be. .,” 
