Subjunctive in Independent Clauses.

I. Expressing a Wish.

219. The following are examples of this use:—

Heaven rest her soul!—Moore.

God grant you find one face there You loved when all was young.—Kingsley.

Now tremble dimples on your cheek, Sweet be your lips to taste and speak.—Beddoes.

Long die thy happy days before thy death.—Shakespeare.

II. A Contingent Declaration or Question.

220. This really amounts to the conclusion, or principal clause, in a sentence, of which the condition is omitted.

Our chosen specimen of the hero as literary man [if we were to choose one] would be this Goethe.—Carlyle.
I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear.
—Shelley.

Most excellent stranger, as you come to the lakes simply to see their loveliness, might it not be as well to ask after the most beautiful road, rather than the shortest?—De Quincey.
Subjunctive in Dependent Clauses.
I. Condition or Supposition.

221. The most common way of representing the action or being as merely thought of, is by putting it into the form of a supposition or condition; as,—

Now, if the fire of electricity and that of lightning be the same, this pasteboard and these scales may represent electrified clouds.—Franklin.

Here no assertion is made that the two things are the same; but, if the reader merely conceives them for the moment to be the same, the writer can make the statement following. Again,—

If it be Sunday [supposing it to be Sunday], the peasants sit on the church steps and con their psalm books.—Longfellow.
STUDY OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES.

222. There are three kinds of conditional sentences:—
Real or true.

(1) Those in which an assumed or admitted fact is placed before the mind in the form of a condition (see Sec. 215, 2); for example,—

If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life.—Macaulay.
Ideal,—may or may not be true.

(2) Those in which the condition depends on something uncertain, and may or may not be regarded true, or be fulfilled; as,—

If, in our case, the representative system ultimately fail, popular government must be pronounced impossible.—D. Webster.

If this be the glory of Julius, the first great founder of the Empire, so it is also the glory of Charlemagne, the second founder.—Bryce.

If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society, he will see the need of these ethics. —Emerson.
Unreal—cannot be true.

(3) Suppositions contrary to fact, which cannot be true, or conditions that cannot be fulfilled, but are presented only in order to suggest what might be or might have been true; thus,—

If these things were true, society could not hold together. —Lowell.

Did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me.—Franklin.

Had he for once cast all such feelings aside, and striven energetically to save Ney, it would have cast such an enhancing light over all his glories, that we cannot but regret its absence.—Bayne.

NOTE.—Conditional sentences are usually introduced by if, though, except, unless, etc.; but when the verb precedes the subject, the conjunction is often omitted: for example, "Were I bidden to say how the highest genius could be most advantageously employed," etc.
Exercise.

In the following conditional clauses, tell whether each verb is indicative or subjunctive, and what kind of condition:—

1. The voice, if he speak to you, is of similar physiognomy, clear, melodious, and sonorous.—Carlyle.

2. Were you so distinguished from your neighbors, would you, do you think, be any the happier?—Thackeray.

3. Epaminondas, if he was the man I take him for, would have sat still with joy and peace, if his lot had been mine.—Emerson.

4. If a damsel had the least smattering of literature, she was regarded as a prodigy.—Macaulay.

5. I told him, although it were the custom of our learned in Europe to steal inventions from each other,... yet I would take such caution that he should have the honor entire.—Swift.

6. If he had reason to dislike him, he had better not have written, since he [Byron] was dead.—N. P. Willis.

7. If it were prostrated to the ground by a profane hand, what native of the city would not mourn over its fall?—Gayarre.

8. But in no case could it be justified, except it be for a failure of the association or union to effect the object for which it was created.—Calhoun.
II. Subjunctive of Purpose.

223. The subjunctive, especially be, may, might, and should, is used to express purpose, the clause being introduced by that or lest; as,—

It was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor.—Franklin.

I have been the more particular...that you may compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there.—Id.

He [Roderick] with sudden impulse that way rode, To tell of what had passed, lest in the strife They should engage with Julian's men.—Southey.
III. Subjunctive of Result.

224. The subjunctive may represent the result toward which an action tends:—
So many thoughts move to and fro,
That vain it were her eyes to close.
—Coleridge.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan...
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night.
—Bryant.
IV. In Temporal Clauses.

225. The English subjunctive, like the Latin, is sometimes used in a clause to express the time when an action is to take place.

Let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming.—D. Webster.

Rise up, before it be too late!—Hawthorne.
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside.
—Wordsworth.
V. In Indirect Questions.

226. The subjunctive is often found in indirect questions, the answer being regarded as doubtful.

Ask the great man if there be none greater.—Emerson

What the best arrangement were, none of us could say.—Carlyle.

Whether it were morning or whether it were afternoon, in her confusion she had not distinctly known.—De Quincey.
VI. Expressing a Wish.

227. After a verb of wishing, the subjunctive is regularly used in the dependent clause.

The transmigiation of souls is no fable. I would it were! —Emerson.

Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art!—Keats.
I've wished that little isle had wings,
And we, within its fairy bowers,
Were wafted off to seas unknown.
—Moore.
VII. In a Noun Clause.
Subject.

228. The noun clause, in its various uses as subject, object, in apposition, etc., often contains a subjunctive.

The essence of originality is not that it be new.—Carlyle
Apposition or logical subject.

To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of those October fruits, it is necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air.—Thoreau.
Complement.

The first merit, that which admits neither substitute nor equivalent, is, that everything be in its place.—Coleridge.
Object.

As sure as Heaven shall rescue me, I have no thought what men they be.—Coleridge.

Some might lament that I were cold.—Shelley.
After verbs of commanding.

This subjunctive is very frequent after verbs of commanding.

See that there be no traitors in your camp.—Tennyson.
Come, tell me all that thou hast seen,
And look thou tell me true.
—Scott.

See that thy scepter be heavy on his head.—De Quincey.
VIII. Concessive Clauses.

229. The concession may be expressed—

(1) In the nature of the verb; for example,—

Be the matter how it may, Gabriel Grub was afflicted with rheumatism to the end of his days.—Dickens.

Be the appeal made to the understanding or the heart, the sentence is the same—that rejects it.—Brougham

(2) By an indefinite relative word, which may be

(a) Pronoun.
Whatever betide, we'll turn aside,
And see the Braes of Yarrow.
—Wordsworth.

(b) Adjective.

That hunger of applause, of cash, or whatsoever victual it may be, is the ultimate fact of man's life.—Carlyle.

(c) Adverb.
Wherever he dream under mountain or stream,
The spirit he loves remains.
—Shelley.
Prevalence of the Subjunctive Mood.

230. As shown by the wide range of literature from which these examples are selected, the subjunctive is very much used in literary English, especially by those who are artistic and exact in the expression of their thought.

At the present day, however, the subjunctive is becoming less and less used. Very many of the sentences illustrating the use of the subjunctive mood could be replaced by numerous others using the indicative to express the same thoughts.

The three uses of the subjunctive now most frequent are, to express a wish, a concession, and condition contrary to fact.

In spoken English, the subjunctive were is much used in a wish or a condition contrary to fact, but hardly any other subjunctive forms are.

It must be remembered, though, that many of the verbs in the subjunctive have the same form as the indicative. Especially is this true of unreal conditions in past time; for example,—

Were we of open sense as the Greeks were, we had found [should have found] a poem here.—Carlyle.
IMPERATIVE MOOD.
Definition.

231. The imperative mood is the form of the verb used in direct commands, entreaties, or requests.
Usually second person.

232. The imperative is naturally used mostly with the second person, since commands are directed to a person addressed.

(1) Command.

Call up the shades of Demosthenes and Cicero to vouch for your words; point to their immortal works.—J. Q. Adams.

Honor all men; love all men; fear none.—Channing.

(2) Entreaty.
Oh, from these sterner aspects of thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad unchained elements.
—Bryant.

(3) Request.

"Hush! mother," whispered Kit. "Come along with me."—Dickens

Tell me, how was it you thought of coming here?—Id.
Sometimes with first person in the plural.

But the imperative may be used with the plural of the first person. Since the first person plural person is not really I + I, but I + you, or I + they, etc., we may use the imperative with we in a command, request, etc., to you implied in it. This is scarcely ever found outside of poetry.
Part we in friendship from your land,
And, noble earl, receive my hand.
—Scott.
Then seek we not their camp—for there
The silence dwells of my despair.
—Campbell.
Break we our watch up.
—Shakespeare.

Usually this is expressed by let with the objective: "Let us go." And the same with the third person: "Let him be accursed."
Exercises on the Moods.

(a) Tell the mood of each verb in these sentences, and what special use it is of that mood:—

1. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart and her prayers be.

2.
Mark thou this difference, child of earth!
While each performs his part,
Not all the lip can speak is worth
The silence of the heart.

3. Oh, that I might be admitted to thy presence! that mine were the supreme delight of knowing thy will!

4.
'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,
One glance at their array!

5. Whatever inconvenience ensue, nothing is to be preferred before justice.

6.
The vigorous sun would catch it up at eve
And use it for an anvil till he had filled
The shelves of heaven with burning thunderbolts.

7.
Meet is it changes should control
Our being, lest we rust in ease.

8.
Quoth she, "The Devil take the goose,
And God forget the stranger!"

9. Think not that I speak for your sakes.

10. "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.

11. Were that a just return? Were that Roman magnanimity?

12. Well; how he may do his work, whether he do it right or wrong, or do it at all, is a point which no man in the world has taken the pains to think of.

13. He is, let him live where else he like, in what pomps and prosperities he like, no literary man.

14. Could we one day complete the immense figure which these flagrant points compose!

15. "Oh, then, my dear madam," cried he, "tell me where I may find my poor, ruined, but repentant child."

16.
That sheaf of darts, will it not fall unbound,
Except, disrobed of thy vain earthly vaunt,
Thou bring it to be blessed where saints and angels haunt?

17.
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.

18.
He, as though an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
That they might answer him.

19.
From the moss violets and jonquils peep,
And dart their arrowy odor through the brain,
Till you might faint with that delicious pain.

20. That a man parade his doubt, and get to imagine that debating and logic is the triumph and true work of what intellect he has; alas! this is as if you should overturn the tree.

21.
The fat earth feed thy branchy root
That under deeply strikes!
The northern morning o'er thee shoot,
High up in silver spikes!

22. Though abyss open under abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in the Eternal cause.

23. God send Rome one such other sight!

24. "Mr. Marshall," continued Old Morgan, "see that no one mentions the United States to the prisoner."

25. If there is only one woman in the nation who claims the right to vote, she ought to have it.

26. Though he were dumb, it would speak.

27. Meantime, whatever she did,—whether it were in display of her own matchless talents, or whether it were as one member of a general party,—nothing could exceed the amiable, kind, and unassuming deportment of Mrs. Siddons.

28. It makes a great difference to the force of any sentence whether there be a man behind it or no.

(b) Find sentences with five verbs in the indicative mood, five in the subjunctive, five in the imperative.
TENSE.
Definition.

233. Tense means time. The tense of a verb is the form or use indicating the time of an action or being.
Tenses in English.

Old English had only two tenses,—the present tense, which represented present and future time; and the past tense. We still use the present for the future in such expressions as, "I go away to-morrow;" "If he comes, tell him to wait."

But English of the present day not only has a tense for each of the natural time divisions,—present, past, and future,—but has other tenses to correspond with those of highly inflected languages, such as Latin and Greek.

The distinct inflections are found only in the present and past tenses, however: the others are compounds of verbal forms with various helping verbs, called auxiliaries; such as be, have, shall, will.
The tenses in detail.

234. Action or being may be represented as occurring in present, past, or future time, by means of the present, the past, and the future tense. It may also be represented as finished in present or past or future time by means of the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses.

Not only is this so: there are what are called definite forms of these tenses, showing more exactly the time of the action or being. These make the English speech even more exact than other languages, as will be shown later on, in the conjugations.
PERSON AND NUMBER.

235. The English verb has never had full inflections for number and person, as the classical languages have.

When the older pronoun thou was in use, there was a form of the verb to correspond to it, or agree with it, as, "Thou walkest," present; "Thou walkedst," past; also, in the third person singular, a form ending in -eth, as, "It is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps."

But in ordinary English of the present day there is practically only one ending for person and number. This is the third person, singular number; as, "He walks;" and this only in the present tense indicative. This is important in questions of agreement when we come to syntax.