SECT. 3. Of Moods and Participles.

Mood or Mode is a particular form of the verb, showing the manner in which the being, action, or passion, is represented.

The nature of a mood may be more intelligibly explained to the scholar, by observing, that it consists in the change which the verb undergoes, to signify various intentions of the mind, and various modifications and circumstances of action which explanation, if compared with the following account and uses of the different moods, will be found to agree with and illustrate them.

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There are five moods of verbs, the INDICATIVE, the IMPERATIVE, the POTENTIAL, the SUBJUNCTIVE, and the INFINITIVE.

The Indicative Mood simply indicates or declares a thing as, "He loves, he is loved;" or it asks a.question: as, "Does he love?" Is he loved?"

The Imperative Mood is used for commanding, exhorting, entreating, or permitting: as, "Depart thou; mind ye; let us stay; go in peace."

Though this mood derives its name from its intimation of command, it is used on occasions of a very opposite nature, even in the humblest supplications of an inferior being to one who is infinitely his superior: as, "Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses."

The Potential Mood implies possibility or liberty, power, will, or obligation: as, It may rain; he may go or stay; I can ride; he would walk; they should learn."

The Subjunctive Mood represents a thing under

a condition, motive, wish, supposition, &c.; and is preceded by a conjunction, expressed or understood, and attended by another verb: as, "I will respect him, though he chide me;" "Were he good, he would be happy ;" that is, "if he were good."

The Infinitive Mood expresses a thing in a general and unlimited manner, without any distinction of number or person; as, "to act, to speak, to be feared."

The participle is a certain form of the verb, and derives its name from its participating, not only of the properties of a verb, but also of those of an adjective as, "I am desirous of knowing him;" "admired and applauded, he became vain ;" Having finished his work, he submitted it, &c. There are three participles, the Present or Active, the Perfect or Passive, and the Compound Perfect as, "loving, loved, having loved."

Agreeably to the general practice of grammarians, we have represented the present participle, as active; and the past, as passive: but they are not uniformly so: the present is sometimes passive; and the past is frequently active. Thus, "The youth was consuming by a slow malady;" "The Indian was burning by the cruelty of his enemies ;" appear to be instances of the present participle being used passively. "He has instructed me;" "I have gratefully repaid his kindness ;" are examples of the past participle being applied in an active sense. We may also observe, that the present participle is sometimes associated with the past and future tenses of the verb; and the past participle connected with the present and future tenses.-The most unexceptionable distinction which grammarians make between the participles, is, that the one points to the con

tinuation of the action, passion, or state, denoted by the verb; and the other, to the completion of it. Thus, the present participle signifies imperfect action, or action begun and not ended: as, "I am writing a letter." The past participle signifies action perfected, or finished: as, " I have written a letter ;""The letter is written.”*

The participle is distinguished from the adjective, by the former's expressing the idea of time, and the latter's denoting only a quality. The phrases, "loving to give as well as to receive," "moving in haste," "heated with liquor," contain participles giving the idea of time; but the epithets contained in the expressions, " a loving child,” "a moving spectacle," "a heated imagination," mark simply the qualities referred to, without any regard to time; and may properly be called participial adjectives.

Participles not only convey the notion of time; but they also signify actions, and govern the cases of pronouns, in the same manner as verbs do; and therefore should be comprehended in the general name of verbs. That they are mere modes of the verb, is manifest, if our definition of a verb be admitted; for they signify being, doing, or suffering, with the designation of time superadded. But if the essence of the verb, be made to consist in affirmation or assertion, not only the participle will be excluded from its place in theverb, but the infinitive itself also; which certain ancient grammarians of great authority held to be alone the genuine verb.

The following phrases, even when considered in themselves, show that participles include the idea of time; "The letter being written or having been written ;" "Charles being writing, having written, or having been writing." But when arranged in an entire sentence, which they must be to make a complete sense, they show it still more evidently: as, "Charles having written the letter, sealed and despatched it."- The participle does indeed associate with different tenses of the verb: as, "I am writing," "I was

* When this participle is joined to the verb to have, it is called perfect; when it is joined to the verb to be, or understood with it, it is denominated passive.

writing," "I shall be writing:" but this forms no just objection to its denoting time. If the time of it is often relative time, this circumstance, far from disproving, supports. our position.* See observations under Rule 13 of Syntax.

Participles sometimes perform the office of substantives, and are used as such; as in the following instances: "The beginning;"" a good understanding;"" excellent writing;" "The chancellor's being attached to the king secured his crown ""The general's having failed in this enterprise occasioned his disgrace;" "John's having been writing a long time had wearied him."

That the words in italics of the three latter examples, perform the office of substantives, and may be considered as such, will be evident, if we reflect that the first of them has exactly the same meaning and construction as, " The chancellor's attachment to the king secured his crown ;" and that the other examples will bear a similar construction. The words, being attached, govern the word chancellor's in the possessive case, in the one instance, as clearly as attachment governs it in that case, in the other: and it is only substantives, or words and phrases which operate as substantives, that govern the genitive or possessive case.

The following sentence is not precisely the same as the above, either in sense or construction, though, except the genitive case, the words are the same; "The chancellor, being attached to the king, secured his crown." In the former, the words being attached, form the nominative case to the verb, and are stated as the cause of the effect; in the latter, they are not the nominative case, and make only a circumstance to chancellor, which is the proper nominative. It may not be improper to add another form of this sntence, by which the learner may better understand the peculiar nature and form of each of these modes of expression: "The chancellor being attached to the

* From the very nature of time, an action may be present now, it may have been present formerly, or it may be present at some future period-yet who ever supposed, that the present of the indicative denotes no time? Encyclopædia Britannica.

king, his crown was secured." This constitutes what is properly called, the Case Absolute.

SECT. 4. Remarks on the Potential Mood.

THAT the Potential Mood should be separated from the subjunctive, is evident, from the complexness and confusion which are produced by their being blended together, and from the distinct nature of the two modes; the former of which may be expressed without any condition, supposition, &c. as will appear from the following instances: "They might have done better;" "We may always act uprightly;" "He was generous and would not take revenge ;""We should resist the allurements of vice ;” “ I could formerly indulge myself in things, of which I cannot now think but with pain.”

Some grammarians have supposed that the Potential Mood, as distinguished above from the Subjunctive, coincides with the Indicative. But as the latter "simply indicates or declares a thing," it is manifest that the former, which modifies the declaration, and introduces an idea materially distinct from it, must be considerably different. "I can walk," "I should walk," appear to be so essentially distinct from the simplicity of, "I walk," "I walked," as to warrant a correspondent distinction of moods. The Imperative and Infinitive Moods, which are allowed to retain their rank, do not appear to contain such strong marks of discrimination from the Indicative, as are found in the Potential Mood.

There are other writers on this subject, who exclude the Potential Mood from their division, because it is formed, not by varying the principal verb, but by means of the auxiliary verbs, may, can, might, could, would, &c.: but if we recollect, that moods are used "to signify various intentions of the mind, and various modifications and circumstances of action," we shall perceive that those auxiliaries, far from interfering with this design, do, in the clearest manner, support and exemplify it. On the reason alleged by these writers, the greater part of the Indicative Mood must also be excluded; as but a small part of it is