The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-10
SHALL or WILL.
A Luminous Essay ON Those Very Troub:
lesome Words.

'Distrust." said the philosopher, the
Scot who is always right with his viii
and shall" The philosopher obvious
ly meant Scot" to include both Scotch
and Irish. in accordance with the old
sense of the term. VIII l light the
fire." say both peoples; the English
don't. We cannot expect or even wish
a Scot to run over the crude m~etaphys-
les of the case before asking. viii l
bring in the whiskey?" To get right
with "Shall and WILL "a man must
be born so.' as Walton says OF poets
and anglers.
II one wishes to represent a future
event. he says Il shall; you or he will"
But the very word will introduces a
Schopenhaurian element, indicating de-
termined intention. e" will be
drowned" said the Frenchman; mo-
body shall save me" He was a French.
man. a respected teacher of youth. not
an Irishman. An Irishman does not
say shall" at all.
These peculiarities seem to arise from
a habit of translating the ~vernacular
Celtic. This, however. does not explain
the difficulty which he Lowland Scot
has with shall and WILL he being
more a Celt thar he Is a Patagonian.
The Irish press. DR.. Gerald Molloy
says. abounds in Il will be happy to
publish the letter." IF we act thus we
win certainly succeed" Do Goldsmith
and Swift ever sin In this fashion?
Hume used to wander over his own
books. correcting Scoticisms; Scott. a
patriot. lie. them defy the blast. like
the pines on Black andre. The tedious
thing is that we should say "shalr'
when we mean will" and intend to
express determination, because we re-
gard the future event as fixed and
Inevitable" though We will Il to be so.
Again. 1.-The sun will rise tomorrow"
not shall rise" because the speaker.
not being Joshua, cannot interfere with
the somewhat stereotyped movements
OF that heavenly BODY. But. suppose
you are a Zulu rain-maker, and mean
to say that IL is going to rain to.mor-
row in consequence of your spells. dc
you say: 1T will rain" or 1T shall
rain Tomorrow" Probably the latter
but the case so seldom arises in Ire
land that it does not much matter.
We cannot, provide for every conceiv-
b contingency. Once more. acts oil
parliament say Under this act provis-
ion shall he made for teaching En-
glish." yet in instruction tn voters w
read: The voter will then fold up tn,
ballot paper correctly" the idea OF th'
legislator being that the voter prob.
ably won't. The whole suppressed
premise is. not ''the voter shall do so
at his peril" u "it Is the voters owl
lookout. and IL he has a grain Of com
mon sense he will do as directed, Ne
sides. we must not agitate him by be
ing peremptory. He has quite enough
to- think ~ In choosing q representa-
tive" This explanation places the IN
junction I'm a very favorable light. an'
shows a kindly vet impersonal interes
i'm the whole Of the voters situation
We do rot nov that there is anythin;
more affecting in h whole range o
English Grammar. But while "th
voter wiz use his ballot paper proper
IN a mild Maternal a~spiration). whel
the SPEAKERS monkey. II We may sa.
SO. Is IN and members all
ON their legs. the speaker says Mem
bers will resume their seats" tsup
pressed premise. ''or IL shall be tn
worse for them').
Thus we see how metaphysics. an
the whole range OF human emotions
modify the use OF shall and Will.
Even psychical research Genes In. ov
ing TO the use of SHALL I'm prcphetica
language" when all depends on IN