OF MOODS.
Moods in verbs are like moods in man, they have each of them a peculiar expression. Here, however, the resemblance stops. Man has many moods, verbs have but five. For instance, we observe in men the merry mood, the doleful mood, (or dumps), the shy, timid, or sheepish mood, the bold, or bumptious mood, the placid mood, the angry mood, whereto may be added the vindictive mood, and the sulky mood; the sober mood, as contradistinguished from both the serious and the drunken mood; or as blended with the latter, in which case it may be called the sober-drunk mood—the contented mood, the grumbling mood; the sympathetic mood, the sarcastic mood, the idle mood, the working mood, the communicative mood, the secretive mood, and the moods of all the phrenological organs; besides the monitory or mentorial mood, and the mendacious, or lying mood, with the imaginative, poetical, or romantic mood, the compassionate, or melting mood, and many other moods too tedious to mention.
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A LONG COURTSHIP. |
We must not however omit the flirting mood, the teazing or tantalizing mood, the giggling mood, the magging or talkative mood, and the scandalizing mood, which are peculiarly observable in the fair sex.
The moods of verbs are the following:
1. The indicative mood, which either affirms a fact or asks a question, as Ego amo, I do love. Amas tu? Dost thou love?
The long and short of all courtships are contained in these two examples.
2. The imperative mood, which commandeth, or entreateth. This two-fold character of the imperative mood is often exemplified in schools, the command being on the part of the master, and the entreaty on that of the boy—as thus, Veni huc! Come hither! Parce mihi! Spare me! The imperative mood is also known by the sign let—as in the well-known verse in the song Dulce Domum—
“Eja! nunc eamus.”
“Hurrah! now let us be off”—meaning for the vacation. N.B. This mood is one much in the mouth of beadles, boatswains, bashaws, majors, magistrates, slave drivers, superintendents, serjeants, and jacks-in-office of all descriptions—monitors, especially, and præfects of public schools, are very fond of using it on all occasions.
THE IMPERATIVE MOOD.
3. The potential mood signifies power or duty. The signs by which it is known are, may, can, might, would, could, should, or ought—as, Amem, I may love (when I leave school). Amavissem, I should have loved (if I had not known better,) and the like.
4. The subjunctive differs from the potential only in being always governed by some conjunction or indefinite word, and in being subjoined to some other verb going before it in the same sentence—as Cochleare eram cum amarem, I was a spoon when I loved—Nescio qualis sim hoc ipso tempore, I don’t know what sort of a person I am at this very time.
The propriety of the above expression “cochleare,” will be explained in a Comic System of Rhetoric, which perhaps may appear hereafter.
5. The infinitive mood is like a gentleman’s cab, because it has no number.
We have not made up our minds exactly, whether to compare it to the “picture of nobody” mentioned in the Tempest, or to the “picture of ugliness,” which young ladies generally call their successful rivals. It may be like one, or the other, or both, because it has no person.
Neither has it a nominative case before it; nor, indeed, has it any more business with one than a toad has with a side pocket.
It is commonly known by the sign to. As, for example—Amare, to love; Desipere, to be a fool; Nubere, to marry; Pœnitere, to repent.