Thus, if the act be located during the time which commences with the completion of another action, we have a Simple tense associated with a Perfect tense, as

I wrote [Simple], after you had gone [Perfect].

Again, if it be located during the time at which another action is progressing, we have a Simple tense associated with an Imperfect tense, as

I wrote [Simple], while you were sleeping [Imperfect].

Again, if it be located during the time which precedes the commencement of another action, we have a Simple tense associated with an Inceptive tense, as

I wrote [Simple] when you were about to leave [Inceptive]. It is from this use of the Perfect, Imperfect, and Inceptive forms, that they acquire their name of Relative tenses: and it is obvious that, in regard to any act cutting across the time scale, they are relatively past, present, or future.

The relative tenses are, through the presence of an obvious ellipsis, very often found to stand alone, e.g. 'He was suffering [at the time of which I speak]'; 'I have [even as I speak] written my letter.' Again, two relative tenses may as it were run parallel to one another, e.g. 'I was working, while you were sleeping.'

The obvious meaning of a speaker often infuses what is really a foreign meaning into a tense. Thus we sometimes find a Perfect assuming the complexion of a Severed Imperfect, e.g. 'I have written [= have been writing] for six hours, and cannot go on much longer.'

The following table serves, not only to illustrate, but also to form the best possible memorial arrangement of the above

tenses.

1 Intransitive verbs often make their Perfects with the verb 'to be,' as 'I was com 'I am come

For the sake of tabular completeness the following relative tense peculiar to the English' has been omitted :—

PAST

SEVERED-IMPERFECT.

PRESENT
SEVERED-IMPERFECT.

FUTURE SEVERED-IMPERFECT

Act. I had been Act. I have been Act. I shall have been

The student must not overlook the fact that, with the exception of the Simple Present and Simple Past, every English tense is periphrastic. It is however by means of these periphrastic analytic combinations that we have been able to fill up every portion of the above table of standard tenses; and it is indeed vain to search for any Aryan language which presents us with a separate synthetic form for each tense. Thus in Latin 'scripsi' 'I wrote' and 'I have written';-in Greek 'I shall write' and 'I shall be writing';-in Old English Ic write' = 'I write,' 'I am writing,' and 'I shall write';—and again in O.E. 'Ic wrát' = 'I wrote,' 'I have written,' and 'I had written,' although the two last are generally formed as in modern English.

γράψω

=

20. The Moods serve to indicate the ground on which a statement rests. If a statement is presented as in accordance with an objective fact, it is said to be Categorical: if it is presented as merely in accordance with the subjective view of the speaker, it is said to be Hypothetical. Two great moods answer to this distinction:-the Indicative, which deals with

1 We are able to represent a Simple act not only as cutting across, but also as cutting off so much of a progressing act; e.g. 'I had been walking for an hour, when she joined me.' Hence the suggestion of the name Severed-Imperfect.'

facts, is the categorical mood, and the Conjunctive, which deals with conceptions, is the hypothetical mood. There is another mood expressive of commands, but the Imperative is borrowed or formed from the indicative, when obedience is assumed as a fact; and from the conjunctive when obedience is recognised as more or less uncertain.1

The Conjunctive is however the only mood which calls for special notice in a work like this, and to it we now devote our attention.

It is obvious that, as a hypothetical statement deals with other matters than that of objective facts, all such statements must rest on some subjective foundation of possibility, power, choice, constraint, duty, or necessity. With a greater or less degree of consistency some at least of these ideas have ever been associated with the conjunctive, and in analytic conjugations they were certain to determine the choice of the auxiliaries. Thus in modern English we have auxiliaries and quasi-auxiliaries answering very closely to the above ideas, as we see in the following direct and oblique [§ 34] assertions.

1 Dr. Donaldson [New Cratylus, Book iv. Ch. 3] says, "It may be doubted if the Imperative is really entitled to the rank of a distinct mood."

It is often desirable to impart to a statement a much more intensely hypothetical character than arises from the bare expression of present certainty, determination, &c., &c.: and this is attained by using a past tense instead of a present.

The immensely different complexion imparted to a hypothetical statement by this use of a past [i.e. historic] tense, as if it were a present, has caused many grammarians to divide the Conjunctive into two moods, which we shall designate as the Subjunctive and Potential. In modern English these are increasingly represented by the present and past tenses of auxiliaries, and decreasingly by the present and past tenses of an older conjunctive. But except in their possession of both an historic and primary form, the so-called tenses of the conjunctive have [at all events in the direct construction] no connection with the time of the predicated action. They merely ⚫ call attention to an act or state, as simple, as completed, as progressing, or as inceptive: and in this respect they are identical with the tenses of the Infinitive [§ 25] and of the Participle [§ 24].

The following table of the Conjunctive Mood should be studied in connection with § 112, Obs. 2 and 3.

Obs. 1.-The earlier, and what we may call the O.E. type of the Conjunctive tenses, is distinguished by the entire absence of any difference in form between the three persons; and is described by Morell as the "Conditional mood,” inasmuch as its special uses are now almost confined to conditional clauses. The later type of the Conjunctive is distinguished by the presence of auxiliaries which are themselves in the indicative mood; and is described by Morell as the "Potential mood." The two considerations, which have induced a divergence from so high an authority as Dr. Morell, are (1) our plan of conforming when admissible to the principles contained in the most recent standard Greek and Latin grammars; and (2) the obvious fact that, except in certain protases, the older type of the Conjunctive has been replaced, or is almost always replaceable, by the newer periphrases, e.g. ' He were [= would be] foolish, if he were to do so'; 'I will punish thee, whosoever thou be [= mayest be].'

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