We find similar constructions in early English, as, that is, Douglas, Preface, p. 11. If love be virtue, then it is lawful thing: Id. Prol. to 4th boke. If is often followed by that: as, Ne I wol non reherse, if that I may. Chaucer, Man of Lawes Prologue. She wolde weepe, yf that she saw a mous. Id. Prologue to Canterbury Tales. 72. The form if then throw some light upon the reading or pointing of Macbeth iii. 4. 1orne Tooke quotes from the First Folio: may Approach thou like the rugged Russian beare, He then remarks: Pope here changed Inhabit to Inhibit. Upon this correction Steevens builds another, and changes then to thee. Both which insipid corrections Malone, with his usual judgment, inserts in his text. And there it stands, "If trembling I inhibit thee." 'But for these tasteless commentators, one can hardly suppose that any reader of Shakspeare could have found a difficulty; the original text is so plain, easy and clear, and so much in the author's accustomed manner. "Dare me to the desart with thy sworde," "If I inhabit then "-i.e. If then I do not meet thee there; if trembling I stay at home, or within doors, or under any roof, or within any habitation: If when you call me to the desart, I then House me, or through fear, hide myself from thee in any dwelling: "If trembling I do House me then-Protest me, &c."' The Second, Third, and Fourth Folios read :- And although the reading of the First Folio may be more energetic, the pointing of the other folios is more in accordance with grammatical form; if then, i.e., 'If trembling I keep the house (or "keep at home"), then protest me the baby of a girl.’ 73. It may be useful to point out the relation of affirmative and negative clauses in sentences of this kind: as, 1. If he comes, (then) I will go. 2. If he does not come, (then) I will not go. 4. If he does not write, (then) I will go. ... As before remarked, then is generally omitted. And observe, that if . . . not may be represented by unless, or by any word, or words, to the same effect: as, except, save that. Thus, instead of sentences marked 2 and 4, we might say, 2. Unless he comes, I will not go. 4. Unless he writes, I will go. So, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Acts xxvii. 31. 74. In these sentences involving condition and consequence, the use of the subjunctive mood demands particular attention. Theories derived from the doctrine of the Latin subjunctive have affected English composition; and in many cases, where the English subjunctive is used, it is possible that the employment of the mood has been introduced by classical scholars, who laboured under a false impression that the Latin required a subjunctive. Professor Key has shown, (Latin Grammar, § 1153,) that in suppositions, which may be the fact or not, so far as the speaker professes to know, conditional sentences have nearly always the indicative in Latin in both clauses, and not the subjunctive. 75. Dr. Webster, in the Introduction to his English Dictionary, states his opinion, that the subjunctive form of the verb if he be, if he have, if he go, if he say, if thou write, whether thou see, though he fall, which was generally used by the writers of the sixteenth century, was in a great measure discarded before the time of Addison. Whether this change resulted from the prevalence of colloquial usage over grammar rules, or because discerning men perceived the impropriety and inconsistency of the language of books, Dr. Webster does not pretend to determine. But he D observes that Locke, Watts, Addison, Pope, and other authors who adorned the close of the seventeenth, and the beginning of the eighteenth century, generally used the indicative mood to express condition, uncertainty, and hypothesis in the present and past tenses. He then quotes the following examples: If principles are innate.-Locke. If any person hath never examined this notion.—Id. If the soul doth think in sleep.-Id. If the reader has a mind to see a father of the same stamp.-Addison. If exercise throws off all superfluities.-Id. If America is not to be conquered.-Lord Chatham. If it gives blind confidence.-Id. If my bodily strength is equal to the task.-Pitt. A negro, if he works for himself, and not for a master, will do double the work.-Id. If he finds his collection too small.-Johnson. Whether it leads to truth.-Id. If he warns others against his own failings.-Id. 76. This, according to Dr. Webster, is generally the language. of Johnson. Except the substantive verb [be], there is in his Rambler but a single instance of the subjunctive form in conditional sentences. In all other cases, the use of the indicative is uniform. But neither Johnson, nor other authors, are consistent in the use of moods; thus Johnson writes : If it is to be discovered only by experiment. If other indications are to be found. But in the next sentence, If to miscarry in an attempt be a proof of having mistaken the direction of genius. The following expressions occur in Pope's Preface to Homer's Iliad, in the compass of thirteen lines :— If he has given a regular catalogue of an army. If he has funeral games for Patroclus. If Ulysses visit the shades. If he be detained from his return. If Achilles be absent. If he gives his hero a suit of celestial armour. The verb be is often used in the subjunctive form by writers who never use that form in any other verb. Dr. Webster thinks the reason is, that be is primarily the indicative as well as the subjunctive mood of that verb. But as the form be is, in modern usage, restricted to the subjunctive, and as this is the only verb exhibiting a marked difference of form, writers may have been tempted to avail themselves of this difference. Our grammar presents so few varieties, that when we have one we are apt to use it too freely. As Falstaff says, 'it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing to make it too common.'-2nd Hen. IV. i. 2.) 77. The preceding remarks and quotations refer to the present and past tenses. Dr. Webster, in criticising Dr. Lowth, sets up a distinction, which appears to me untenable. Dr. Lowth remarks (English Grammar, p. 61, note) that the forms of the subjunctive mood carry with them something of a future sense. Dr. Webster says this is true; but he charges Dr. Lowth with overlooking the distinction between 'an event of uncertain existence in present time and a future contingent event.' For example : Present: If the mail that has arrived contains a letter for me, I shall soon receive it. Future: If the mail arriving to-morrow contain a letter for me, I shall be happy to receive it. 78. This distinction is fanciful; nor is it supported by good usage. Dr. Webster appeals to the Anglo-Saxon laws, many of which begin with gif followed by a subjunctive. But in other laws an indicative follows. The usage is not uniform, any more than among ourselves. We shall see that the Anglo-Saxon had no distinct form for the future, even in the indicative; or rather, that one form did double duty for the present, and for the future. Even in modern English we constantly say, 'I go to London to-morrow,' 'They come to see us next week.' No doubt, the present subjunctive has sometimes a future force; but so, sometimes, has the present indicative. And therefore Dr. Webster appears to be in error, when he insists so strongly upon the future sense of the present subjunctive. In the passage, 'If his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?' he says the words are unintelligible, unless we take ask in the sense of shall ask. I believe that to say 'If his son shall ask' is not so idiomatic as 'If his son asks.' In Cork people constantly say, 'If it will be,' for if it is'; and it is possible that this usage may have crept in from the Gaelic idiom. The following sentence appeared in a Cork newspaper : 'It appears from the Lord Lieutenant's answer to the petition in favour of Burke, that not only will he be executed, but in all probability every man who will be found guilty of high treason.' 79. Therefore, with regard to those suppositions which may or may not be the actual fact, we have authority, in English, for using the indicative in both clauses. With reference to those conditional sentences which put an imaginary case, the non-existence of which is implied in the very terms, we must distinguish between present time and past time. In sentences relating to time present, we have the pastimperfect subjunctive in the if-clause: as, If he were here, he would tell us. If he were present, I would speak to him. In sentences relating to past time we have the auxiliary had in the if-clause: as, If he had confessed his fault, I should have forgiven him. In older English we find had in both clauses: as, I had fainted, unless I had believed.-Psalm xxvii. 13. 80. Observe that, except in the second person singular, we cannot distinguish, in English, between the past perfect indicative had fainted, and the past perfect subjunctive had fainted. The Germans distinguish hatte (indicative) and hätte (subjunctive). For instance, the sentence just quoted might be rendered, in German, Ich hätte verzweifelt, wenn ich nicht geglaubt hätte. 81. In Anglo-Saxon, we sometimes find the past imperfect subjunctive in such cases: for instance, our version reads, If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.—John xi. 21, 32. but the Anglo-Saxon reads, Gif thu wære her, nære min brothor dead. 10. Concession and Declaration. 82. In the older stages of the language, there are many examples of co-ordinate forms used to express this relation. The |