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.