An English Grammar Part 40

Subjunctive in Independent Clauses.

I. Expressing a Wish.

219. The following are examples of this use:--

Heaven _rest_ her soul!--MOORE.

G.o.d _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 princ.i.p.al 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.--Sh.e.l.lEY.

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 a.s.sertion 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:--

[Sidenote: _Real or true._]

(1) Those in which an a.s.sumed 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 G.o.d. If their names _were not found_ in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life.--MACAULAY.

[Sidenote: _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 p.r.o.nounced 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.

[Sidenote: _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 a.s.sociation or union to effect the object for which it was created.--CALHOUN.