or is not; and the word which carries this assertion, or affirmation, is a verb. From this sort of eminence belonging to it, this part of Speech hath received its name, verb, from the Latin, verbum, or the word, by way of distinction.

Verbs, therefore, from their importance and necessity in Speech, must have been coëval with men's first attempts towards the formation of Language: Though, indeed, it must have been the work of long time, to rear them up to that accurate and complex structure which they now possess. It seems very probable, as Dr. Smith has suggested, that the radical verb, or the first form of it, in most Languages, would be, what we now call, the Impersonal verb. "It rains; it thunders; it is light; it is agreeable;" and the like; as this is the very simplest form of the verb, and merely affirms the existence of an event, or of a state of things. By degrees, after pronouns were invented, such verbs became personal, and were branched out into all the variety of tenses and moods.

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The tenses of the verb are contrived to imply the several distinctions of time. Of these I must take some notice, in order to shew the admirable accuracy with which Language is constructed. think commonly of no more than the three great divisions of time, into the past, the present, and the future and we might imagine, that if verbs had been so contrived, as simply to express these, no more was needful. But Language proceeds with much greater subtilty. It splits time into its several moments. It considers time as never standing still, but always flowing; things past, as more or less perfectly completed; and things future, as more or less

remote, by different gradations. Hence, the great variety of tenses in most Tongues.

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The present may, indeed, be always considered as one indivisible point, susceptible of no variety. "I write, or I am writing; scribo." But it is not so with the past. There is no language so poor, but it hath two or three tenses to express the varieties of it. Ours hath no fewer than four. 1. A past action may be considered as left unfinished; which makes the imperfect tense, "I was writing; scribebam." 2. As just now finished. This makes the proper perfect tense, which, in English, is always expressed by the help of the auxiliary verb, "I have written." 3. It may be considered as finished some time ago; the particular time left indefinite. "I wrote; scripsi ;” which may either signify, "I wrote yesterday, or I "wrote a twelve-month ago." This is what grammarians call an aörist, or indefinite past. 4. It may be considered as finished before something else, which is also past. This is the plusquam-perfect. "I had written, scripseram. I had written before "I received his letter."

Here we observe, with some pleasure, that we have an advantage over the Latins, who have only three varieties upon the past time. They have no proper perfect tense, or one which distinguishes an action just now finished, from an action that was finished some time ago. In both these cases they must say "scripsi." Though there be a manifest difference in the tenses, which our Language expresses by this variation, “I have written," meaning, I have just now finished writing; and, "I wrote," meaning at some former time, since which, other things have intervened. This difference the Romans have no

tense to express; and, therefore, can only do it by a circumlocution.

The chief varieties in the future time are two; a simple or indefinite future: "I shall write; scribam ‚” and a future, relating to something else, which is also future. "I shall have written; scripsero." I shall have written before he arrives.*

Besides tenses, or the power of expressing time, verbs admit the distinction of Voices, as they are called, the active and the passive: according as the affirmation respects something that is done, or some-" thing that is suffered; "I love, or I am loved.” They admit also the distinction of moods, which are designed to express the affirmation, whether active or passive, under different forms. The indicative mood, for instance, simply declares a proposition, "I write; I have written;" the imperative requires, commands, threatens, "write thou; let "him write." The subjunctive expresses the proposition under the form of a condition, or in sub ordination to some other thing, to which a reference is made, "I might write, I could write, I should write, "if the case were so and so." This manner of expressing an affirmation, under so many different forms, together also with the distinction of the three persons, I, thou, and he, constitutes what is called the conjugation of verbs, which makes so great a part of the Grammar of all Languages.

* On the tenses of verbs, Mr. Harris's Hermes may be consulted, by such as desire to see them scrutinized with metaphysical accuracy; and also, the Treatise on the Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. p. 125.

It now clearly appears, as I before observed, that, of all the parts of Speech, verbs are, by far, the most artificial and complex. Consider only, how many things are denoted by this single Latin word,

amavissem, I would have loved." First, The person who speaks, "I." Secondly, An attribute, or action of that person, " loving." Thirdly, An affirmation concerning that action. Fourthly, The past time denoted in that affirmation, "have loved :" and, Fifthly, A condition on which the action is suspended, "would have loved." It appears curious and remarkable, that words of this complex import, and with more or less of this artificial structure, are to be found, as far as we know, in all Languages of the world.

Indeed, the form of conjugation, or the manner of expressing all these varieties in the verb, differs greatly in different Tongues. Conjugation is esteemed most perfect in those Languages which, by varying either the termination of the initial syllable of the verb, express the greatest number of important circumstances, without the help of auxiliary words. In the Oriental Tongues, the verbs are said to have few tenses, or expressions of time; but then their moods are so contrived, as to express a great variety of circumstances and relations. In the Hebrew, for instance, they say, in one word, without the help of any auxiliary, not only, "I have taught," but, "I "have taught exactly, or often; I have been com"manded to teach; I have taught myself." The Greek, which is the most perfect of all the known Tongues, is very regular and complete in all the tenses and moods. The Latin is formed on the same model, but more imperfect, especially in the passive

voice, which forms most of the tenses by the help of the auxiliary "sum.”

In all the modern European Tongues, conjugation is very defective. They admit few varieties in the termination of the verb itself; but have almost constant recourse to their auxiliary verbs, throughout all the moods and tenses, both active and passive. Language has undergone a change in conjugation, perfectly similar to that which I shewed in the last Lecture, it underwent with respect to declension. As prepositions, prefixed to the noun, superseded the use of cases; so the two great auxiliary verbs, to have, and to be, with those other auxiliaries, which we use in English, do, shall, will, may, and can, prefixed to the participle, supersede, in a great measure, the different terminations of moods and tenses, which formed the ancient conjugations.

The alteration, in both cases, was owing to the same cause, and will be easily understood, from reflecting on what was formerly observed. The auxiliary verbs are like prepositions, words of a very general and abstract nature. They imply the different modifications of simple existence, considered alone, and without reference to any particular thing. In the early state of Speech, the import of them would be incorporated with every particular verb in its tenses and moods, long before words were invented for denoting such abstract conceptions of existence, alone, and by themselves. But after those auxiliary verbs came, in the progress of Language, to be invented and known, and to have tenses and moods given to them like other verbs; it was found, that as they carried in their nature the force of that affirmation which distinguishes the verb, they might,