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2. SOME POINTS IN CONNEXION WITH THE USE OF THE VERB.

§ 56. Subjunctive Mood.-The true Subjunctive Mood has no personal suffix for either the 2nd or 3rd person singular. Instead of this uninflected form, we now often use (1) in the Present Tense, either the Present Indicative, or a compound form of the Subjunctive, with may, might, shall, should (E. Gr. § 125); and (2) in the Past Tense, the inflected form of the Indicative.

But the true Subjunctive holds its ground to a great extent in the literary as distinguished from the colloquial style; and its use carries with it a certain dignity, partly perhaps from its savouring of the antique. (See E. Gr. §§ 251-258.)

§ 57. In the case of the Verb to be, the existence of distinct forms, (if) I be, (if) I were, as compared with the Indicative, I am, I was, has tended to preserve a sense of the general distinction between the two Moods; and these Subjunctive forms have accordingly stood their ground more firmly than any others. Still, even in these there is great unsteadiness of use. The forms (if) I were, (if) thou wert,* (if) he were, are now universally current, and recognized as quite distinct in meaning from (If) I was, (if) thou wast, &c. But the corresponding forms of the Present Tense are not used with nearly the same uniformity. The 1st person, (if) I be, is little used except in poetry; its place being taken by the Indicative or by the Compound forms, (if) I should be, &c. The same remark applies more or less to the 2nd person, (if) thou be. On the contrary, the 3rd person, (if) he be, (if) it be,-by inversion, be he, be it (E. Gr. § 252)—is in general use, though often confounded with the Indicative, (if) he is, (if) it is.

This confusion is to be regretted, since it involves a distinct loss of nicety in the language. The phrase "if this be so" is surely fitted to express a different sense from "if this is so." In saying "if this is so," we assume that the fact is so; either in reality, or for the purpose of

*This is a comparatively modern form. The old 2nd pers. subj. is were [were]: and the form wert, which is now used as a Subjunctive, is used in Shakspeare both as Indicative and Subjunctive: e.g.

"I grant thou wert not married to my muse" (Sonnet 82)

where it is Indicative: and,

"If thou, that bidst me be content, wert grim" (King John, iii. 1, Ex. in Morris), where it is Subjunctive,

argument in saying, "if this be so," we entertain the probability that it may prove to be so.

*

§ 58. The study of a few examples will help to bring the proper use and significance of the Subjunctive into a clearer light. And first note, that it is a worse fault to use the Subjunctive where the sense requires the Indicative, than to make the Indicative do the work of the Subjunctive.

Observe then

1. The Subjunctive is quite out of place when the statement introduced by "if," "although," &c., is understood to represent an actual fact. The following accordingly is wrong:

"After a year's experience of his pupil, he ventured to express his opinion, that if I were not endowed with any very remarkable or shining qualities, my friends might be consoled for the absence of those high powers by my being equally destitute of violent passions." (Popular Novel.)

It should have been, "if I was not"; for the meaning clearly is, that, in the opinion of the teacher, his pupil really was not so endowed :-not that in the event of his not being so endowed, there would be the consolation spoken of.

The same criticism applies to the following examples :"I have read Burns's poems, and have read them twice; and though they be written in a language that is new to me . . . I think them on the whole a very extraordinary production." (Cowper, Southey, vi. 54.)

"Though it be long since I received your last, I have not yet forgotten the impression it made upon me.” (Ib. p. 124.)

"Now, if everything were less beautiful, everything was more earnest." (Novel.)

"If the weight of her magnificence were somewhat distressing, she had the satisfaction of being supported by the arm of our hero." (Novel.)

In no one of these instances is any doubt whatever indicated as to the facts; and consequently there is no propriety in the use of the Subjunctive. It would be more correct to say

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Though the poems of Burns are written in a language,” &c.; and "Though it is long since I received your letter . . .”

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if everything was less beautiful, everything was more earnest." (Novel.)

* Compare Greek: ei raûra ovтws exec-Latin, si ita res se habent-as distinguished from jav TaÛTα OÜтws ëxp; Latin, si ita res se habeant,

On the other hand, the following examples of hypothetical sentences with the Indicative are perfectly logical and correct, and may be taken as models :

:

"If a man is so distinguished among other beings by this infirmity, what can we think of such as make themselves remarkable for it even among their own species?" (Spect. No. 162.)

"If writings are thus durable, and may pass from age to age through the whole course of time, how careful should an author be of committing anything to print, that may corrupt posterity, and poison the minds of men with vice and error!" (Ib. No. 166.)

In each of these instances an admitted fact is made the premiss of an argument, and this is correctly indicated by the use of the Indicative.

2. Again, the Subjunctive is also out of place, when the statement introduced by if, &c.,-though perhaps really doubtful-is assumed for the sake of argument to be true. The Indicative should then be used, as in the following examples:

"If to drink so many hogsheads is to be hospitable, we do not contend for the fame of that virtue." (Spect. No. 174.)

"This is a hard saying, exceedingly difficult to understand. If it means [i.e. assuming this to be its true meaning] what it seems to mean, the outlook is very bad indeed." (Newspaper.)

...

"If the report of the extremely migratory habits of the Colorado or potato-beetle is accurate [i.e. assuming it to be accurate] there is little chance of our escaping a visit from him on this side of the Atlantic." (Ib.)

"If the excellence of virtue consists solely in its utility or tendency to promote the happiness of men, a machine, a fertile field, or a navigable river, would possess in a very high degree the element of virtue." (Leckie, Morals, i. 38.)

"Even if, as is not improbable, the lower animals are happier than man, still it is better to be a man than a brute." (Ib. p. 89.),

...

It may seem paradoxical to say so, but a strict adherence to the Indicative in such cases is needful, in order to mark the purely ex hypothesi nature of the statement. The Subjunctive calls attention to the writer's suspense of judgment: the Indicative just lays down a thesis objectively, as something on which a conclusion may be based, with equal rigour of connection, whether it be true or false.

3. But the Subjunctive is rightly used when a suspense of the judgment is implied, or in speaking of what is

future and contingent, and the issue of which is to be represented as doubtful.

Thus the following sentences are perfectly correct and may be taken as models:—

"If it be true that death is but a passage to places which they who lived before us do now inhabit, how much happier still is it to go from those who call themselves judges before those that really are such...?" (Spect. No. 146.)

“If Faith spread not the sail to the breeze, or if Reason desert the helm, we are in equal peril." (H. Rogers, Reason and Faith.)

"If he [the drunkard] pass a certain door at a certain hour, scent there the fume of his pleasant poison, hear the shouts of the old accustomed revelry; no prophet is needed to predict how it will end." (Id. Essays, iii. 431.)

"If in any respect the law be really too severe, let us endeavour by all constitutional means, to provide a prompt remedy." (Ib. p. 448.)

"... it is easy to imagine all that a religious training may do, if it combine example with precept, towards correcting the necessary barrenness of school teaching." (Contemp. Rev. Feb. 1877, p. 466.)

Let the student carefully observe each of the above and similar sentences, and note what different effect would be produced by the substitution of the Indicative for the Subjunctive:-how in some, delicacy of expression would be lost, and in others, quite a different complexion be given to the thought.

§ 59. The tendency of our language, during at least a great part of its history, has been towards the disuse of the Subjunctive Mood. Thus the translators of the Bible, and writers of the Elizabethan age, use the pure Subjunctive freely, as a thoroughly vital element of expression. In less than a century afterwards it had begun to give way. Thus Fuller uses it much less frequently than Bacon; and again the writers of Queen Anne's age use it more rarely still. In our own day, the Old-English renaissance, which has brought back so much of the Elizabethan and even Chaucerian vocabulary, has favoured the restoration of the Subjunctive Mood. It is open to the student, while adhering to the characteristic complexion of modern English, to give to it a certain flavour of the older style; and where the subject favours it, a following of the more archaic usage in the matter of the Subjunctive is often effective.

§ 60. The following collection of examples is designed to illustrate the historical tendency which has been pointed

out, and to exemplify the kind of effect which may be secured by the use of the Subjunctive on the one hand or the Indicative on the other.

I. BACON (Essays).

66 if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep." (Of Delays.)

"I have given the rule where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage." (Of Friendship.)

"Solon said well to Croesus,-Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." (Of the True Greatness, &c.)

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[Here note that it is well to avoid such a combination of Subjunctive and Indicative as this sentence shows. Since the "having" is equally hypothetical with the 'coming" it would be more logical to say, either—if any other come and have 66 or come having." Both in Latin and in German-languages possessing a highly developed Subjunctive-the dependent verb would be in the Subjunctive as well as the principal: "si quisquam veniat qui habeat-wenn Jemand käme der. habe."]

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"Let it suffice that no estate expect to be great, that is not awake upon any just occasion of arming.” (Ib.)

[This example is open to the same exception as the preceding.]

"It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation, that they have good store of salt with them." (Of Plantations.)

"If the usurer either call in or keep back his money, there will ensue presently a great stand of trade." (Of Usury.)

"A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Dürer were the more trifler." (Of Beauty.)

"I like well that four acres be assigned to the green; six to the heath; four and four to either side; and eight to the main garden." (Of Gardens.)

Costly followers are not to be liked, lest, while a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter." (Of Followers, &c.)

"If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it." (Of Suitors.)

II. FULLER (Holy State).

[Showing more frequent use of Indicatives.]

"He is a stork to his parent, and feeds him in his old age: not only if his father hath been a pelican, but though he hath been an estridge [ostrich] unto him and neglected him in his youth." (The Good Child.)

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