The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-11-25

| street
| mat grammar which relieves the teacher of
| th" greatest amount of labor will always be
| Inc most popular. If the teacher s q compe
Hht oile' the grammar may be either good or
4 oad without detrimcnt to the pupil. But un-
l fortunately, many teachers have very little
I kho"ledgc OF grammar, and cannot correct
| 'hc errors or point out the crotchets of the
authors of the books they use. For compe-
| tent teachers, the grammar before Us is Il good
one. For teachers not well grounded in the
science of which il treats, il is not Il good one
| 1t is manifcstly the work of = professor who
| lectures, not of IN Instructor who teaches out
| OF the book. 1t shows too much respect Tor
| authorities. The author appears TO ,oro M
decided opinions upon disputed points. All
new grammars are IN TIE main comics of older
| ones ana so far rs they teach only what
everybody comedies to be q the art of speaking
and writing correctly" they are above criti-
cism. hcir treatment of disputed points and
khottJ questions must, however, be examined
| carefully and criticised with an unsparng
, hand. If, then, we dwell upon the faults Of
the grammar before us rather than is merits
it is not because it is destitute Of the latter
but because, like good wine, these need no
1
space to enlarge upon either its merits or de-
merits. We shall only point out a few heresies
First, rs to the suhiunctvc mopd. There is
no earthly necessity for this mood, nor for the
| potential mood nor do we believe that either
| exists except rs II fungus. Tho potcntial
mood is humbug out-and- ont The sub
iunctive is not much better Here are two of
the sentences quoted rs being in the subiunc-
| I r,1,
trust in him." eff it rain shall not &c, ~ &c
| These sentences are 50 evidently of the first
| future tense of the indicative Inood, with the
word ''shall :" omitted, that wesrc surprised
| th anybody should quote them us examples
| OF the subiunctive mood. But the subiunc-
/ tive mood is recognized, and therefore the
| author is justifablc in employing it. We can
not induce everybody to reject it, But we do
think that every body should reject such teach
ings us the following, which we quote from
PAGE ls3:
rule EXXXI-''Co onjunctions which connect
together the principal and dependent clauses
OF Il conditional sentence require the verbs
| which follow them to be i'll the indicative
| mood when Il belief i'll the occurrence OF the
condition is implied, and the subiunctive
mood when doubt or denial is intended 10 be
expressed" tAs)
''lf she is sincere (as believe her to bc), l
snail De llappy.
| "lf she be sincere (Which l dOubtl, shall be
happy"
| In other words, the correctness of Il man.
language depends upon the state of his mind
And rs the state of his mind, especially if he
| is III love, depends very much upon his natural
temperament and his ability 10 digest his food
| well, the correctness of his language depends
upon these latter. Then, too, - be " Is tn.
only suhjunclivc-mood word III the English
| language, Al others used us such are merely
the plurals of the verbs And "be" shows
clearly the origin of the English subIunctiyc
mood, which is totally unlike the Latin. 1t
shows that 'shall " belongs before it. " II
lie [shalll be there, he will meet Il crowd. y " II
he lshaliI 20, lie will return next week." etc.
We did not intend, however, To argue against
| the use of the Subiunctire mood, but merely
against III unjusti1iablc abuse Of it. The fact
is, and the theory ought to correspond with
it, that when the time or tense is past (and
| the first future couid not be Employed the IN
dicatye mood is used, rs, - If he tcIs there,
did not know H. - II she WAS pretty, she
WAS also wicked -. Now, this shows that
the "if' does not make the subluuctivc
mood What then does Time. No gram
matical question can be allowed 10 depend
upou The state of mind Of the writer or
| sneaker 1t is downright nonsense 10 contend
for such Il thing. The best proof of the na-
| ture of the subuuctiye mood Is found in the
fact that it is Il Singuinr mood. 1t loses ;tl sig
niicance if the subject is plural. SupposnG
TWO ladies To be concerned in the examples
quoted, and the time " be changed, we should
have
| " If they were sincere (lS believe them TO
bcl, should be happy
No subiunctiye form being even posi-.
bic, Us we have already proved that
the "f" is no sign of that mood. The
dictum of this grammar is wrong. The
sentence should be: "lf she is sincere, shall
be happy" whether the speaker has doubt or
not, though the use of "if'' shows doubt.
The fact is that the :" belief" expressed III the
former form is nothing but the very kind of
doubt" expressed in the latter. " BE :
! should be used only when speaking of future
eycnts-in other words, only when " shall -
could be placed before it. Let us, according
to the rule we object to, apply the other form
OF the suhiunctive mood TO these examples:
"Was she sincere (as l believe her 10 be-, |
should be happy"
;" Were she sincere (Which doubt), should
be happy"
We do not believe that Professor HOLMES or
any other grammarian, would use the first OF
the aboye sentences.
Here is another hereSy:
"There is L peculiar construction IN Eng
lish, which is expressed by the progressive
form of the verb, and has apparently pas
sive import. This idiom is eXempllfed by the
expressions, Tie house is jpihti"g, The brsad IS
Likiag These forms are correct and ldona-
tic English Notwithstanding all the obJcc-
tiuns that have been made 10 Them lhey
were condemned by MANY GrammarlanS, VINO
| nropoSed 10 use in their stead such forms rs,
! TL. houye is Jeing L,uH, which is Il solecism and
wholly Incorrect. This substitute WAS re-
iyed with much favor for about aquartrr OF
| 4 century, but WAS never adopted ScheItilS
by elegant writers, and has latterly been re-
uudi;lted by nearly all correct aulnors ana ny
the best grammarlans.
This is shat burglary" We have recently
louoted the Dean Of Canterbury and BISdnAM
IA prove that the reverse of these statements
* true. Perhaps the best way TO expose this
uncandid manner OF disposing of Il Y"sotio
,.,,,tu will be TO quote from. current litera-
tire. We shall find that Professor HOLMES
i himself ut least Il quarter Of century be
hind the times. We pick up the laal number
of The Htst,uinStsr ReUi.tc, 4 periodical cele-
brated for the purity Of its English, ana Oh
page 2225 We read
..The people are being ever more and more
jjs;,,bsri.d of their birthrlghL IN their native
soil"
Nax, in The London Times Of November
we read:
Gan purties are aware OF this, and hence
| the State as being c"ac"SS.' WIN an ei'el
which was not exceeded even antlhS 'ne y
| ,a,nnt ia win the presidential oillce Tor NC
Clellan :,