This Mood is commonly branched out into three Moods, viz.the Optative, the Subjunctive, more strictly taken, and the Potential 1. It is called OPTATIVE, when a Word importing a Wish, as, Utinam, Would to God, O si, O if, goes before it. 2. It is named SUBJUNCTIVE, when it is subjoined to some other Conjunction or Adverb, or to Interrogatives becoming Indefinites. (See Chap. IX.) 3. It is called POTENTIAL, when with the simple Affirmation of the Verb, is also signified some Modification or Affection of its such as a Power, Possibility, Liberty, Duty, Will, &c. The Signa whereof, in our Language, are, May, Can, Might, Could, Would, Should, and Had, (for Would have or Should have, as, They had repented, for would have.) But because the Terminations of these Moods are the same, we have comprehended them all under one, viz the Subjunctive, to which with small difficulty they may be reduced. Otherwise, if we will constitute as many Moods as there are various Modifications, wherewith a Verb or Affirmation can be affected, we must multiply them to a far greater Number, and so we shall have a Promissive, Hortative, Precative, Concessive, Mandative, Interrogative Maod; nay, a Volitive and Debitive, which is com monly included in the Potential. As for the Optative, it is plain that the Wish is not in the Verb itself, (which signify only the Matter of it, or what is wished) but in the Verb Opto, which is understood, with ut, uti, or utinam, which really signifies no more but That. Andit is very probable that in like Manner some Verb, or other Word, may also be understood to what is called the Potential Mood, such as Ita est, Res ita est, Fieri potest ut, &c. as Vossius, Sanctius, Perizonius, and others do contend; though Mr. Johnson is of another opinion.]

3. The IMPERATIVE Mood commands, exhorts, or in treats; as, Ama, love thou.

4. The INFINITIVE Mood expresses the Signification ofthe! Verb in general, and is Englished by TO; as, Amare, To love III. The TENSES are either Simpleor Compound. The Simple Tenses are the Present, the Preter-perfect, and the Future. 1. The PRESENT

2. The PRETER-PERFECT Speaks of Timenow

3. The FUTURE

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Present.
Past..
To come

The COMPOUND Tenses are the Preter-imperfect, and the > Preter-pluperfect.

4. The PRETER-IMPERFECT refers to some past Time, and mports, that the Thing was present and unfinished then ; as, Amabam, I did love [viz. then.]

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5. The PRETER-PLUPERFECT refers to some past Time, and imports that the Thing was past at, or before that Time; as, Scripseram epistolam, I had written a Letter, [i. e. before that time,]

There is also a compound Future Tense, called the FUTUREPERFECT, or EXACT, which refers to some Time yet to come, and imports that a Thing as yet future shall be past and finished at, or before that Time; as, Cum canavero, tu leges, When I shall have supped, [i.e. after Supper] you shall read. This Future is only in the Subjunctive Mood, and the Sign of it is Shall have; as the other Future, called the FUTURE-IMPERFECT, is only in the Indicative, which, when joined with another Future, imports that two Things yet future shall be contemporary, or exist at one Time; as, Cum canabo, tu leges, When I shall sup, [i. e. in Time of Supper] you shall read.

[And not only the Tenses, but even the MOODS themselves may be divided into SIMPLE and COMPOUND. I call the Indicative a simple MOOD, because it simply affirms something of its Person or Nominative. But the other three Moods I call Compound, because they have some other Ideas or Modifications of our Thoughts superadded to the simple Signification of the Verb; such as, a Command, a Desire, Prohibition, Possibility, Liberty, Will, Duty, Wish, Concession, Supposition, Condition, Purpose, &c. These Modifications are either really included in the Verb; as, a Command, &c. in the Imperative, and according to Johnson, Power, Will, Duty, &c. in the Mood called Potential; or closely interwoven with it by the help of a Conjunction, Adverb, or other Verb expressed or understood; and because these also generally denote Time, they very frequently make all the Tenses of these Moods to become Compound Tenses. For, with respect to their Execution, they are generally future; but with respect to their Modal Signification, they may fall under any of the other Distinctions of Time as well as the Future. Thus, for Instance, Lege, Read thou, with respect to its Execution, is future, but with respect to the Command, it is present. Again, in Legam, I may or can read, the Action (if done at all) must be future, but the Liberty or Possibility is present; and so of others. Now, as it seems cvident from these Modifications of the Verb, more than from the bare Execution of it, the Tenses of these Moods have at first been distinguished: so I am of Opinion, that, had Grammarians taken their Measures accordingly, they had not rendered this matter so intricate as they have done. For some of them, as Sanctius, &c. determining the Times of these Moods by the Execution only, have made the whole Imperative and Subjunctive of the Future Time,

and the Infinitive and Participles of all Times, or rather of no Time: others, viz. Vossius, Linacer, Alvarus, Verepæus, &c. though they will not go so faras Sanctius, yet, upon the same grounds, make Utinam legam the Future of the Optative; Utinam legerem the Present of it. By the same Rule, they make a Futurė of the Potential in RIM; as, Citiùs crediderim, I should, or shall sooner believe; and another of the Subjunctive in ISSEM; as, Juravit se illum statim interfecturum, nisi jusjurandum sibi, dedisset, He swore he would presently kill him, if he should not savear to him. Cic. But, with all imaginable Deference to these great Men, I humbly think that these Tenses may be more easily accounted for, if we consider them as Compound, i. e. respecting one Time as to their Execution, and another as to their various Modifica tions, superadded to, orinvolved in their Signification. Toinstance in the two last Examples, (because they seem to have the greatest Difficulty) Citiùs crediderim seems to import these two Things, 1st, That I have and continue to have a Reason why I should not believe it; which Reason is of the Imperfect or past Time. And 2dly, That I shall sooner have believed it than another Thing, with respect to which it shall be past. For there are a great many Examples where the Preterite in RIM hath the same Signification with the Future-Perfect in RO; as, Si te inde éxemerim, Terent. for exemero. See Voss. lib. v. cap. 15. and Aul.Gell.lib. xviii. cap. 2. As to the other Example, the Composition of two Times, is yet more evident; for though jusjurandum dedisset be posterior, and consequently future with respect to Juravit, yet it is prior, not only to the Time of the Relation, but to interfecturum, to prevent which it behoved it necessarily to be past; and so of others. The same Rule, in my Opinion, will likewise hold in the Infinitive and Participles, witch of themselves, have always one fixed Time; and when they seem to be of another Time, that is not in them, but in the Verb that goes before them, or comes after them. Thus, for Instance, Scribere is always present, or co-existent with the Verb before it; and Scripsisse is always prior to the same Verb in all its Tenses; as, Dicit, dixit, or dicet; juvat, juvit, or juvabit Me scribere and Me scripsisse. So also the Participles have a fixt Time, fpresent, past, or future; and when any Part of the Verb Sum is joined with them, they retain their own Times, and have those of that Verb superadded to them. But because there are innumerable Occasions of Speaking, wherein the nice Distinctions of Times are not necessary, therefore it frequently happens that they are promiscuously used: as I could evince by a great many Examples, not only in the Passive, but Active Voice, both in the Latin and other Languages, if there were Place for it. Which yet, in my Judgment, does not hinder but that every part of a Verb hath formerly, and of its own Nature, a certain Time, simple or compound, to which it is fixed and determined.]

IV. There are two NUMBERS, the SINGULAR and the PLURAL,answering to the same numbers of a Noun or Pronoun. V. There are three PERSONSin each Number: the FIRST speaks of itself, the SECOND is spoken to, and the THIRD is spoken of. The First hath only EGO and NOS, the Second only TU and VOS, and the Third any Substantive Noun, Singular and Plural, put before the respective Terminations of the Verb, answering to them through all Voices, Moods, and Tenses.

[A Verb hath the same Respect to its Nominative that an Adjec tive hath to its Substantive; and therefore, as an Adjective hath not properly either Genders or Numbers, but certain Terminations fitted for those of its Substantive, so a Verb hath properly neither Persons nor Numbers, but certain Terminations answering to the Persons and Numbers of its Nominative.]

NOTE 1. That Ego and Tu are seldom expressed, because the Terminations of the Verb immediately discover them, without any Hazard of a Mistake.

NOTE 2. That if a Substantive Noun be joined with Ego or Tu, the Verb is of the Person of these Pronouns, not of the Noun.

NOTE 3. That in the continuation of a Discourse, the third Person is also frequently understood, because easily known by what went before; and these Pronouns, Ille, Ipse, Iste, Hic, Is, Idem, Quis, and Qui, do often supply the Place of it...

Fut. Plu. Perfect. Imp. Pres.

The ENGLISH SIGNS of the TENSES are,
Act. the Theme of the Verb, and est, eth, or s; or, for the
greater Emphasis, do, dost, doth, or does, before it.
Pas. am, art, is, are, be, beest, with a Word in ed, en, t, &c.
Act.ed,edst,&c.orforthegreaterEmphasis, did,didst, before it.
Pas. was, wast, were, wert, with a Word in ed, en, &c.
Act. have, hast, hath, or has, with a Word in ed, en, &c. as

in the Imperfect.

Pas. have been, has been, hath or has been, with a Word in

ed, en, &c.

Act.had, hadst, with a Word in ed, en, &c.

Pas. had been, hadst been, with a Word in ed, en, sec.

Act. shall, will, shalt, wilt, with the Verb.

Pas.shall be, will be, shalt be, wilt be, with a Word in ed, en, &c. The Subjunctive Mood Active has frequently these Signs: Present, may or can.

Imperf. might, could, would, should.

Perfect, might have, could have, would have, should have.

Pluperf. may have or might have, could have, would have, should have. Future, shall have..

The Passive has frequently the same Signs with be, or been.

The common Characteristic or MARK by which these Conjugations are distinguished from one another, is one of these three Vowels, A, E, I, before the RE of the Infinitive Active, though they also may be known by the same Vowels in several other Parts of them; forA long is most frequently in the first, Elong in the Second, E or I short in the Third, and I long in the Fourth: only E before bam, bas, bat,&c. and before mus and tis; and mur and mini, is always long, in Whatever Conjugation it is found.

But it is to be observed, that the Preterites and Supines and all the Parts formed from them (because of the great Irregular ity of their middle Syllables, and constant Agreement in their last Vowel, and in the Terminations arising from it, in all Conjugations) cannot properly be said to be of any one Conjugation more than another; for there is nothing, for Example, in Fricui, Docui, Elicui, Amicui, or in Frictum, Doctum, Elicitum, Amictum, or in the Parts that come from them, whereby to distinguish their Conjugations.