for imagination to conceive, but the continuance of that state, or action for some length of time. And, accordingly as we fix that action in time past, or future, or conceive the present as included in its continuance, we form the indicative mood into a past, present, or future participle.

We may also conceive an action to be so frequently repeated as to become habitual, and thus form a consuetudinal mood, or tense, out of the indicative. Or, finally, considering that habit comes to have a permanent influence on our nature, we may suppose a person to be so much in the habit of doing a certain thing that the tendency to the action becomes an inherent quality in him; and thus, what was originally expressive of a single purpose of doing is gradually changed into an epithet, or participial adjective.

This theory of teuses and participles, or moods of time, answering the same purpose with those which are generally called moods of action or existence, appears to be the only satisfactory way of accounting for the seemingly promiscuous use of what are artificially distinguished by the names of moods and tenses, in grammar.

And that the present tense is one of comparatively little use in language will appear, if we consider how very few of our expressions are limited to this time. When we cast out all narrative of the past, and anticipation of the future, we leave, at most, only one third of the subjects of speech to be expressed by the present. Let us again subtract from this third part the expression of all such things as are equally certain, or uncertain, at all times-which do not depend, for their truth, upon the circumstances of the present moment, but may be asserted, with the same precision as to their nature, as things that have been, or that will be-and we reduce our use of the present, strictly as such, to very narrow limits indeed. This observation is particularly necessary to be kept in mind, in accounting for the apparently promiscuous use of tenses, in some languages.

Having thus endeavoured to account for the origin of moods of the principles of nature, let us proceed, in the

Second place, to illustrate this theory by a few observations on the use of moods, including tenses, in some written languages.

1. Hebrew.

The Hebrew appears to be the most ancient language of which we have any correct and general knowledge. Not only are the early records of the world composed in it, but it possesses those characters of primitive simplicity, in the formation of its verbs, which we have considered as accompanying their natural origin.

In Hebrew, there are only two moods, the imperative, and indicative. For the infinitive, which is, in regular verbs, the same

with the imperative, cannot be considered as a distinct form of the verb. Now, although the custom of Hebrew grammarians, from time immemorial, has been to consider the third person singular of the preterite as the root, yet it is hardly possible to conceive any thing more improbable than that the first use of language would be to tell what another person had done, at another time. The formation of the various parts of the verb would be equally easy from the imperative, which, in general, consists of the same letters with the third person preterite; and, in some verbs, of still fewer letters. And, as we supposed the first expression of desire to be in a very short and simple form, so all the Hebrew imperatives are words of two or three letters; as, TPD visit, sit. The simple respondent to these is in the first person singular future, by prefixing &, the first letter of the pronoun "N I, to the imperative; thus identifying the speaker with the desired action or object; as, TPDN I will visit, I will sit. From the same root the other persons, of both numbers, of the preter and future tenses, may, with equal ease, be formed; as also the participles benoni, or present, and paoul, or past. It is particularly worthy of observation also that the different shades of potential, optative, and subjunctive may be expressed by the indicative, with the assistance of proper particles; and that the imperative mood, and the future tense are both used in the same signification. As in that sublime expression, God said, let there be light, it is, light shall be. In the commandments, and other prohibitory expressions, our translators have rendered the Hebrew literally-thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal.

1

And as the future tense is thus equivalent to the imperative mood, so it is used with a reference not merely to such events as certainly will come to pass, but to such as are customary, possible, lawful, desirable, reasonable; thus connecting the signification of the potential and subjunctive moods with the form of the indicative. And as the preterite is also used to express a thing as generally true, as well as to denote what happened in past time, the preterite and future appear to be often used indifferently. It was this sameness of signification that, probably, gave rise to the use of both these tenses in the same expression, and referring to the same time; when it is usually said that inserted between them converts the following verb, from the signification of the tense in which it is written, into that of the preceding verb; as, T

D verbatim, I cried unto thee and thou wilt heal me, but rendered, I cried unto thee and thou host healed me. It is true that this will not enable us to say why should be conversive in certain circumstances, and not so in others; or why it was customary to make this remarkable use of the tenses, in the Hebrew

language; but I conceive that we have sufficient reason to believe what is here stated to be the principle of the language, and, as such, to be a testimony to the justness of the theory which I propose. That the future and the preterite are sufficient, as was before mentioned, for the purposes of language in general, is evident from the Hebrew having no distinct form for the present. Things that were, and are, and will be true, are expressed as we have seen; and, when the duration of an event includes the present time, it is, very conveniently, expressed by the participle, with the verb of existence expressed, or understood.

2. Arabic.

انصر

assist,

دحرج

turn,

In the

Like its venerable mother tongue, the Arabic has only the imperative, and indicative moods, the future and preterite tenses, and the two participles. In this language also the imperative is the simplest form of the verb, consisting in general of three, and never of more than four letters; as, from which the other parts of the verb are easily formed. use of its tenses, also, we observe that the Arabic future corresponds more frequently to our present, than any other tense; which strengthens the idea that the present form has, originally, and really, a future signification: while the imperative, and future, are used in commanding, or prohibiting, precisely as they are in the Hebrew language. The same observation may be made, with regard to the use of the participles.

3. Persian.

Like the Arabic, from which the Persian language is principally formed, the structure of their common parent, the Hebrew, is manifest in this dialect also. And, in imitation of the Hebrew grammarians, writers on Persian grammar take the third person of the preterite as the root, from which the other parts of the verb are formed. But they go still farther, in supposing this to be formed from the verbal noun, or infinitive, by cutting off a final syllable; and they then use other syllables, to form the different inflections. But this circuitous method might, with great ease, be avoided in this language also, by taking the imperative for the root; as it is shorter, and simpler in form, than the infinitive; thus instead of saying that he spoke, is formed from to speak, by dropping the final it would be much simpler to form both this, and the other parts of the verb from speak thou.

ن

4. Celtic.

If we turn from the Hebrew and its descendants in the east, to

the kindred tongue that spread over the north-western division of the ancient world-the Celtic-we shall find the same principles, that have been already considered, prevail, in a very remarkable degree. There is a most striking resemblance between the Hebrew and Celtic, in many particulars, but in nothing more than in the formation and inflection of verbs.

5. Irish.

;

The Irish may, perhaps, be considered as the best preserved dialect of the ancient Celtic. Its manuscripts are evidently of great antiquity; its character appears to be the original one which is said to have borne so great a resemblance to the ancient Greek and, what is most remarkable, the Irish alphabet, to this day, admits no other letters than those which Cadmus, as we are told, introduced into Greece; together with the primitive digamma, corresponding exactly in form, power, and order, with the Æolic character of that name.

In Irish, as in Hebrew, the imperative mood is the root, from which all the other parts of the verb are formed. Thus from buail, strike, comes buailim, I strike, and buailfid, I will strike. And, in general, the imperative is a monosyllable. Yet, in compliance with a very preposterous custom, some Irish grammarians adopt the infinitive as the root; and others, with equal impropriety, imitate the practice of writers on Greek and Latin, by considering the first person, present tense, as that from which the other parts of the verb are formed. I may observe that it was in the course of my reflections on the Celtic, while employed in writing a grammar of the Irish language, that the idea first occurred to me that the imperative was the radical part of the verb.

The Irish is as simple as the Hebrew, in its moods and tensesat least, it appears to have been originally so. But, after the propagators of Christianity introduced a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, several of the artificial inventions, in these tongues, were applied to the inflection of Irish verbs."

Like the Hebrew, the Irish language uses separate particles, and auxiliary verbs, to express condition, circumstance, and volition. But it is singular in having a distinct form of the verb to denote a thing as customary, or consuetudinal. Thus taim, contracted for ta me, signifies I am now, but bim, for bi me, means I am usually.

1 See Valpy's Greek Grammar, p. 44.—ED.

VOL. XIX.

Cl. JI.

NO. XXXVIII.

Z

346

DISSERTATIO LITERARIA DE OSTRACISMO ATHENIENSIUM,

Quam annuente summo numine, Præside JOANNE LUZAC, J. U. D. et in Academia Batava Lingua Graca et Hist. Putria Professore Ordinario, in Auditorio, Literario publice defendet JOANNES ANTÓNIUS PARADYS, Amstelodamo-Batavus, Auctor. Die 14 Dec. 1793..

Introductio.

PARS I.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

§. 1. Definitio OSTRACISMI. §. 2. Varia nomina OSTRACISMI. §. 3. De materiá testularum. §. 4. De PETALISMO apud SYRACUSANOS. §. 5. OSTRACISMUS apud alias GRÆCIÆ Civitates. §. 6. De OSTRACISMI Auctore.

ITA fere comparatæ sunt res humanæ, ut sæpius opinionem sequamur, quam exploratam sententiam. Id præsertim accidit, in dijudicandis gentium ac populorum institutis, de quibus plerumque sic pronunciari solet, ut, dicta a prioribus pro certissimis et non dubiis accipientes, illa pro bonis habeamus, quæ, si accuratius inspiciantur, minus laudanda; contra autem tanquam prava vituperemus, quæ, melius cognita, non omnino improbanda videantur. Infinita numero, ut a Præceptoribus accepimus, talia sunt in Antiquitate Græcâ et Romanâ, quæ, ad æquius judicium revocata, diversum a receptâ opinione jam calculum ferrent. Idcirco, quum a studiis humaniorum literarum ad severiorem Jurisprudentiæ disciplinam discedere res meæ ferant et ætas, profectuum meorum in priori genere periculum facturo Ostracismus placuit, institutum istud Atticæ Reip. celebratissimum, in quo nihil nisi injustitiam Populi Atheniensis, ingratum erga bene meritos viros animum, tyrannidem denique popularem passim. quæri et inveniri videas; quæ condemnatio an ex boni viri arbitratu pronuncianda sit, postquam singula rerum momenta allata fuerint et in lance posita, æqui discernent judices. Interea, cum ingenui sit laudare per quos profeceris, silentio mihi premere nefas est nomen Joannis Jacobi Battierii, J. U. Doctoris et sub finem seculi præteriti Eloquentiæ Professoris apud Basileenses. Hujus etenim exstat Dissertatio de Ostracismo Atheniensium, die 15 Augusti anni 1699. defensore Theodoro Burcardo, Basileæ publice proposita. Quam brevem illam quidem, sed elegantem et cum curâ scriptam, si vidisset Abbas Geinoz, supersedere potuisset operæ, vel a non uno saltem sibi cavere errore gravissimo, in Dissertatione Gallicâ de Ostracismo, quæ legitur in Monumentis Academiæ elegantiorum Literarum Parisina (Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Tom. xii. p. 135.)-Jam ipsam opellam nostram aggrediamur.

§. I. De Ostracismo igitur dicturi, primum videamus, quis fuerit, sive quid isto nomine significetur.