Higher Lessons in English Part 77

3. If to-morrow _be_ fine, I will walk with you.

4. Though this _seems_ improbable, it is true.

5. If my friend _is_ in town, he will call this evening.

6. If he ever _comes_, we shall know it.

+Explanation+.--In (6) and (7) the coming is referred to as a fact to be decided in future time.

7. If he _comes_ by noon, let me know.

8. The s.h.i.+p leaps, as it _were_, from billow to billow.

9. Take heed that thou _speak_ not to Jacob.

10. If a pendulum _is drawn _to one side, it will swing to the other.

+Explanation+.--_Be_ is often employed in making scientific statements like the preceding, and may therefore be allowed, _If a pendulum is drawn = Whenever a pendulum is drawn_.

11. I wish that I _were_ a musician.

12. _Were_ I so disposed, I could not gratify you.

13. This sword shall end thee unless thou _yield_.

14. Govern well thy appet.i.te, lest sin _surprise_ thee.

15. I know not whether it _is_ so or not.

16. Would he _were_ fatter!

17. If there _were_ no light, there would be no colors.

18. Oh, that he _were_ a son of mine!

19. Though it _be_ cloudy to-night, it will be cold.

20. Though the whole _exceed_ a part, we sometimes prefer a part to the whole.

21. Whether he _go_ or not, I must be there.

22. Though an angel from heaven _command_ it, we should not steal.

23. If there _be_ an eye, it was made to see.

24. It _were_ well it _were done_ quickly.

+Direction+.--_Supply in each of the following sentences a verb in the indicative or the subjunctive mode, and give a reason for your choice_:--

1. I wish it ---- in my power to help you.

2. I tremble lest he ----.

3. If he ---- guilty, the evidence does not show it.

4. He deserves our pity, unless his tale ---- a false one.

5. Though he ---- there, I did not see him.

6. If he ---- but discreet, he will succeed.

7. If I ---- he, I would do differently.

8. If ye ---- men, fight.

LESSON 141.

CONSTRUCTION OF MODE AND TENSE FORMS--CONTINUED.

+Caution+.--Be careful to employ the tense forms of the different modes in accordance with their meaning, and in such a way as to preserve the proper order of time.

+Direction+.--_Correct the following errors, and give your reasons_:--

1. That custom has been formerly quite popular.

2. Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

3. He that was dead sat up and began to speak.

4. A man bought a horse for one hundred dollars; and, after keeping it three months, at an expense of ten dollars a month, he sells it for two hundred dollars. What per cent does he gain?

5. I should say that it was an hour's ride.

6. If I had have seen him, I should have known him.

7. I wish I was in Dixie.

8. We should be obliged if you will favor us with a song.

9. I intended to have called.

+Explanation+.--This is incorrect; it should be, _I intended to call_. The act of calling was not completed at the time indicated by _intended_.

+Remark+.--Verbs of commanding, desiring, expecting, hoping, intending, permitting, etc. are followed by verbs denoting present or future time.

[Footnote: The "Standard Dictionary" makes this restriction: "The doubling of the past tenses in connection with the use of _have_ with a past participle is proper and necessary when the completion of the future act was intended before the occurrence of something else mentioned or thought of. Attention to this qualification, which has been overlooked in the criticism of tense-formation and connection, is especially important and imperative. If one says, 'I meant _to have visited_ Paris and _to have returned_ to London before my father _arrived_ from America,' the past [present perfect] infinitive ... is necessary for the expression of the completion of the acts purposed. 'I meant _to visit_ Paris and _to return_ to London before my father _arrived_ from America,' may convey suggestively the thought intended, but does not express it."]

The present infinitive expresses an action as present or future, and the present perfect expresses it as completed, at the time indicated by the princ.i.p.al verb. I _am glad to have met you_ is correct, because the meeting took place before the time of being glad.

I _ought to have gone_ is exceptional. _Ought_ has no past tense form, and so the present perfect infinitive is used to make the expression refer to past time.

10. We hoped to have seen you often.

11. I should not have let you eaten it.

12. I should have liked to have seen it.

13. He would not have dared done that.

14. You ought to have helped me to have done it.

15. We expected that he would have arrived last night.

16. The experiment proved that air had weight.

+Remark+.--What is true or false at all times is generally expressed in the present tense, whatever tense precedes.

There seems to be danger of applying this rule too rigidly. When a speaker does not wish to vouch for the truth of the general proposition, he may use the past tense, giving it the form of an indirect quotation; as, He said that iron _was_ the most valuable of metals. The tense of the dependent verb is sometimes attracted into that of the princ.i.p.al verb; as, I _knew_ where the place _was_.

17. I had never known before how short life really was.

18. We then fell into a discussion whether there is any beauty independent of utility. The General maintained that there was not; Dr. Johnson maintained that there was.

19. I have already told you that I was a gentleman.

20. Our fathers held that all men were created equal.

+Caution+.--Use _will_ and _would_ to imply that the subject names the one whose will controls the action; use _shall_ and _should_ to imply that the one named by the subject is under the control of external influence.

+Remark+.--The original meaning of _shall_ (to _owe_, to _be obliged_) and _will_ (to _determine_) gives us the real key to their proper use.

The only case in which some trace of the original meaning of these auxiliaries cannot be found is the one in which the subject of _will_ names something incapable of volition; as, The _wind will blow_. Even this may be a kind of personification.

+Examples+.--I _shall go_; You _will go_; He _will go_. These are the proper forms to express mere futurity, but even here we can trace the original meaning of _shall_ and _will_. In the first person the speaker avoids egotism by referring to the act as an obligation or duty rather than as something under the control of his own will. In the second and third persons it is more courteous to refer to the will of others than to their duty.

I _will go_. Here the action is under the control of the speaker's will. He either promises or determines to go.

You _shall go_; He _shall go_. Here the speaker either promises the going or determines to compel these persons to go; in either case the one who goes is under some external influence.

_Shall_ I _go?_ Here the speaker puts himself under the control of some external influence--the will of another.