1.-THE FINITE MOODS.

1. THE INDICATIVE MOOD.

190. The Indicative Mood comprises those forms of a verb which are used when a statement, question, or supposition has relation to some event or state of things which is regarded by the speaker as actual, and independent of his thought about it; as, "He struck the ball;" "We shall set out to-morrow"; "If he was guilty,* his punishment was too light."

2. THE IMPERATIVE MOOD.

191. The Imperative Mood is a form of the verb by means of which we utter a command, request, or exhortation; as, "Give me

that book." "Go away." The subject of a verb in the imperative mood is usually omitted, but may be expressed, as, "Go thou and do likewise."

When we express our will in connection with the first or third person, we either employ the subjunctive mood (as " Cursed be he that first cries hold"; "Go we to the king "), or make use of the imperative let (which is of the second person, with its subject omitted), followed by an infinitive complement, as, "Let us pray"; "Let him be heard." These are not imperative forms of pray and hear.

3. THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

192. The Subjunctive Mood comprises those forms of a verb which are used when a statement, question, or supposition has relation to an event or state of things which is only thought of, and which is not treated by the speaker as matter of fact, independent of his thought about it.†

Hence the Subjunctive is employed to express a will or wish (as "Thy kingdom come"); in clauses denoting purpose (as " See that all be in readiness"; "Govern well thy appetite, lest sin surprise thee"); in clauses denoting the purport of a wish or command (as "The sentence is that the prisoner be imprisoned

*This conditional use of the Indicative Mood must not be confounded with the subjunctive or (as it is sometimes called) Conditional Mood.

+In modern English it is getting (unfortunately) more and more common to use the Indicative Mood in cases where the Subjunctive would be more correct. Thus for "See that all be in readiness," many people say "See that all is in readiness;" for "If that were to happen, they say, "If that was to happen."

for life"); to express a supposition or wish contrary to the fact, or not regarded as brought to the test of actual fact (as "If he were here he would think differently"; "Oh! that it were possible").

The nature of the Subjunctive Mood renders it impossible to use it in a simple declarative or interrogative sentence. A predication made in thought only is meaningless, except as related to some other predication. Hence the mood is rightly called the subjunctive' or 'joining-on' mood, because it is only employed in complex sentences. (Optative sentences may be regarded as virtually elliptical.)

A verb in the Subjunctive Mood is generally (but not always) preceded by one of the conjunctions if, that, lest, though, unless, &c.; but the Subjunctive Mood is not always necessary after these conjunctions, nor is the conjunction a part of the mood itself.

In modern English the simple present or past tense of the Subjunctive Mood is often replaced by phrases compounded of the verbs may, might, and should, which for that reason are called auxiliary or helping verbs. Thus for "lest sin surprise thee," we now commonly say "Lest sin should surprise thee."

193. The three finite moods of verbs may be described as the Mood of Fact (Indicative), the Mood of Conception (Subjunctive), and the Mood of Volition (Imperative).

THE VERB AS A SUBSTANTIVE.

1. THE INFINITIVE MOOD.

194. The Infinitive Mood expresses the action or state denoted by the verb without reference to person, number, or time. It may be attached to a subject in dependent phrases, as "I saw him fall," "I know him to be honest." This use justifies us in calling it a 'Mood' (see definition). It commonly has the force of a substantive, and may be used either as the subject or as the object of another verb, or after certain prepositions (namely to and but). When thus used it is not properly a mood at all.

195. The preposition to is not an essential part of the infinitive mood, nor an invariable sign of it. Many verbs (as may, can, shall, will, must, let, dare, do, bid, make, see, hear, feel, need) are followed by the simple infinitive without to, as "You may speak"; "Bid me discourse"; He made me laugh"; "I had rather not tell you."

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196. In Anglo-Saxon, the infinitive mood ended in -an, and when used as such, had no to before it. A verb in the infinitive might be the subject or object of another verb. The infinitive was, however, treated as a declinable abstract noun, and a dative form (called the gerund), ending in -anne, or -enne, and preceded by the preposition to, was used to denote purpose. Thus in" He that hath ears to hear," to hear =to gehyranne; in "The sower went forth to sow," to sow to sawenne. This gerundive infinitive passed into modern English with the loss of the dative inflection, as in "I came to tell you"; "The water is good to drink," i.e., for drinking; "This house is to let." Here the to has its full and proper force. From denoting the purpose of an action, the to came to mark the ground of an action more generally, and so may indicate the cause or condition of an action, as "I am sorry to hear this"; "I am glad to see you," i.e., "at seeing you "; " To hear him talk (i.e., on hearing him talk), one would suppose he was master here." But this gerund with to came to be used in place of the simple infinitive, as the subject or object of another verb, and so we say, "To err is human, to forgive divine"; "I hope to see you." Here the to is utterly without meaning. We even find another preposition used before it, as "This is Elias which was for to come"; "There is nothing left but to submit."

As this infinitive preceded by to has come to us from the AngloSaxon gerund, it is called the gerundial infinitive.

2. THE GERUND.

197. A Gerund is a substantive formed from a verb by the suffix -ing, and which, when formed from a transitive verb, has the governing power of the verb, as, "He escaped by crossing the river."

The gerunds of the verbs have and be help to form compound gerunds, as "He went crazy through having lost his fortune"; "He is desirous of being admired."

198. Gerunds are used either as subjects or as objects of verbs, or after prepositions, as "I like reading," "He is fond of studying mathematics.'

199. Participles (being adjectives) are never used as the subjects or objects of verbs, or after prepositions.

200. The gerunds in -ing appear to have had their origin in the AngloSaxon gerund in -anne or -enne, which may be traced through such forms as to bodianne, to bodiende, to accusinge, &c. (Koch ii. § 98). But they got confused with nouns in -ing, which are simply modern forms of old abstract nouns in -ung. which we have in such phrases as

"I go a (i.e. on) fishing ”; "Forty and six years was this temple in
building";
"; "I am a doing of it" (='I am in the doing of it'). When
the verbal substantive in -ing has the article before it or is followed by
of, it must be regarded as merely an abstract noun in -ing. When it
governs an object (as in "He was hanged for killing a man "), it had
better be regarded as a gerund. (See the author's larger Grammar).
Sometimes, through confusion, the gerund governing an object has
the article placed before it.

THE VERB AS AN ADJECTIVE.

PARTICIPLES.

201. Participles are verbal adjectives. They are so called because they partake of the nature both of a verb and of an adjective (Latin participare, 'to partake').

There are two participles formed by inflexion, the Imperfect Participle and the Perfect Participle. The imperfect participle always ends in ing.† When formed from a transitive verb, it may have an object, as, "Hearing the noise, I went to the window." The perfect participle in verbs of the Strong Conjugation ends in en; in verbs of the Weak Conjugation it ends in -d, -ed, or -1.‡ The Imperfect Participle is always active, the Perfect Participle is passive, provided the verb be a transitive verb; as, "I saw a boy beating a dog." "Frightened by the noise he ran away."

Even in the perfect tenses, as "I have written a letter," the origin of the construction is, “I have a letter written,” where written is an adjective agreeing with letter; in Latin, Habeo epistolam scriptam. In French the participle agrees with the object in some constructions; as Les lettres que j'ai écrites." In Anglo-Saxon the perfect participle was inflected, and made to agree with the object.

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202. The participles are often used as mere adjectives of quality, as "A striking remark"; "The dreaded hour has come."

* Compare the Anglo-Saxon 'ge beoð on hatunge'= ye shall be a hating' = 'ye shall be

hated,'

+ The termination of this participle in Anglo-Saxon was -ende, which was subsequently changed to -inde, and finally to-inge, -ynge, and -ing. In the Northern dialect the termination was ande or -and. The essential letters of the suffix are nd. This suffix is akin to the Latin -ent or -nt and the Greek ovт or evT. We have now three totally different formations in -ing. 1. The abstract noun (as "Seeing is believing"). 2. The gerund (as "On seeing the danger he shouted to the man"). 3. The participle (as "The man, seeing the danger, stopped").

The letter y, which is found as a prefix in one or two old forms (as yclept ' called '), and is affected by some writers in others, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon prefix ge.

TENSE.

203. Tenses (Latin tempus, 'time') are varieties of form in verbs, or compound verbal phrases made with the help of auxiliary verbs, which indicate partly the time to which an action or event is referred, and partly the completeness or incompleteness of the event at the time referred to.

204. There are three divisions of time-the Present, the Past, and the Future. There are also three ways in which an action or event may be viewed :-

1. It may be spoken of as incomplete, or still going on. A tense which indicates this is called an imperfect tense.

2. It may be spoken of as complete. A tense which indicates this is called a perfect tense.

3. It may be spoken of as one whole, without describing it as complete or incomplete in relation to other actions. A tense which does this is called an indefinite tense.

205. An action may be viewed in these three ways with reference to past, to present, or to future time. We thus get

A.

B.

NINE PRIMARY TENSES.

1. The Past Imperfect (or Progressive), showing that at a certain past time an action was going on, as, I was writing; I was being taught.

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2. The Past Perfect, showing that at a certain past time an action was complete; as, I had written; I had been taught.

3. The Past Indefinite (or Preterite), speaking of the action as one whole referred to past time; as, I wrote; I was taught.

1. The Present Imperfect (or Progressive), showing that an action is going on at the present time; as, I am writing; I am being taught.

2. The Present Perfect, showing that at the present time a certain action is complete; as, I have written; I have been taught.

3. The Present Indefinite, speaking of the action as one whole, referred to present time; as, I write; I am taught.