Our language, like every other, has various words and phrases which express futurity along with something more, as " I intend," " I am obliged," " I am likely." We have also a phrase for expressing simple futurity in the use of the substantive verb followed by an infinitive, as " I am to go," " he is to come in my stead." We have the phrase, " to be about," which literally means to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of an action, and is by conventional ap plication appropriated to the expression of near futurity.
5. The other Tenses.
It is unnecessary to consider particularly the other mo difications of tense, such as the pluperfect, and the paulo post futurum, or to enter on an analysis of the phrases formed by the combinations of the auxiliaries " have," 64 do," 44 shall," will," " had," 44 did," 64 should," " would," " shall have," 44 will have," cc should have," 44 would have," to which grammarians add 44 can" and " could," with their combinations. All these are conducted on the same prin ciples with the combinations already explained.
Combinations of meaning, which are expressed in our language by the junction of several words, arc expressed in Greek and Latin by means of syllables added to the ra dical letters of each verb, and forming with them entire words ; as amarem, " I should love" ainaverim, " I could love," or " I would love," (translated in our grammars " I may have loved,") amavissem, " I should have loved." Dr Adam Smith, in the comparison which he makes be twixt the ancient and modern languages, considers the for mer as deriving, from the use of syllabic variations, a great simplicity, compared with those which fulfil the same pur pose by means of auxiliary verbs. He thinks it more na tural, after men possess a word for representing an event, to express the modifications of that event, in respect to per son, number, and time, by altering the word, or giving va rious terminations, than by inventing separate words for the modifications intended. He considers the formation of a separate word of this kind in the same light with the for mation of the substantive verb, that is, as a great effort of abstraction, which could only be the result of refined me taphysical speculation. His observation, however, loses all force, when we recollect that a termination is as really a sign as a word is ; and that the general employment of a termination or any other modification, on a number of ana logous occasions, is the same kind of mental exertion as the prefixing of a sign of this variation in the form of a distinct word. It is not necessary to suppose that a gene
ral word in the form of an auxiliary verb is first contrived and perfected in all its parts, and then applied to use. It may first be used in a single form suggested in a moment of need, while we are using the verb descriptive of the event. It may be afterwards readily transferred to an as sociation with a different verb; and this facility of associa tion is the same, whether it is a subjoined syllable or a se parate word. The distinction betwixt syllables and sepa rate words is probably not fully acknowledged till man kind commit language to writing. The fact however is, that verbs, which previously existed as expressions for se parate assertions, arc afterwards adopted as auxiliaries ; a circumstance which removes still farther the necessity of ascribing the invention of them to refined metaphysical speculation.
Dr Smith further considers this mode of expressing the modifications of the verb in the ancient languages as con ferring on them a great advantage over the modern lan guages, in respect of brevity and force. But this brevity is often a deception, arising from the prejudices attached to the appearance of written language. That author ad duces as an exemplification of his remark the Latin word amavissem, which expresses a modification of thought, which in English requires no fewer than four, being trans lated by the phrase, " I should have loved." The English phrase, however, is pronounced with equal facility and dispatch as the single word amavissem ; it consists of the same number of syllables, and these have no greater cha racter of perplexity or tardiness in the one case than in the other. The Latin syllables, in this instance, nearly correspond to the separate English words ; am, signifies " love ;" av, 44 have" with 44 ed;" in, 44 should ;" an em," I." Hitherto we have been occupied with those parts of the verb which serve as the copula in the composition of a sentence, and which, in technical language, are called in dicatives. This appellation, however, if it is not a name for a mere form, if it has any scientific meaning, must be extended to some forms which have usually been consi dered as belonging to the subjunctive mood, as they are not confined to the purpose of subjunction, but sometimes form the only verb in a sentence : as Illi Maus quam alteri